GUELYLAND: July 2009

ABOUT GUELYLAND

"One of the smallest , independent kingdoms in the ciberuniverse. Nothing fancy. Population? Just me, myself and my jaguars, my movies and my books (and, at this very moment, YOU). Hided and secret like Skull Island or Opar, the ancients in Guelyland use to read the scrools of a minor god called Voor-Hes.

Most of the treasures of Guelyland are made of paper, plastic and vinyl.Guelyland dreams with expanding in deep more then in surface. The music of Nik Kershaw has been heard here. There are apes, lots of apes in Guelyland. Woody Allen and Bob Hope visit it quite often. Here we love books (the Kingdoms Library is both celebrated and secret) Here we are atheists but very tolerant and think of god a bit too often and much. Guelyland is, the stuff my dreams are made of..."

Friday, July 31, 2009

TOPO GIGIO

Well, now i'm digging deep into my childhood memories (so deep it could be childish) because i gonna go for something that i use to like when i was like four years old! I think this album of stamps was out around 1969 or 1970 and it was, perhaps, my first ever. This little funny mouse was on TV, the movies, records, figures, and the usual etcetera of merchandise that this kind of characters usually sells. It was very popular in Italy(were it was created at the end of the 1950's by Maria Perego), United States (where he used to appear at the Ed Sullivan show 1964 to 1971), Latin America (where the fever started in 1968 with a show produced first in Perú and later in Mexico featuring partners like the actors Braulio Castillo, Julio Alemán and Raul Astor), Spain and Japan. The album as you can see featured the Topo Gigio in different disguises and the kingdoms of nature, obviously oriented to little kids. As the one i was "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."

The "real" Topo Gigio

Saturday, July 25, 2009

THE MAN FROM EARTH

I used to think that there was one very good movie where almost everything happens in one room. I'm talking about that masterpiece called 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet,1957).

Now, I think there are two. It's call The Man From Earth or, actually, Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth.

A science fiction drama without special effects and a very low budget. But with a very good script (what is, in my opinion, the most important element in a movie). A man is moving without so much noise but kind of fast, and a party of friends come to say bye and end up staying for the night. They start asking many questions about his rush when finally he decides to tell them the story of his life. His very long life. His very, very long life. Because he looks 35 and no way 14,000 years old. Is he joking? Crazy? What, telling the true? To our luck these friends are no ordinary blocks. They are academics in different areas. Our protagonist himself is a proffesor. So they have very precise questions but he has at least a couple of amazing revelations to answer with. It's kind of a philosophical movie without flashbacks but with plenty of big questions and even more interesting answers.

By the way the writter was a veteran not only from the original Star Trek but from The Twilight Zone as well.

I recomend this little movie very much. And, since i haven't got the DVD yet (which is always better cos i read has two commentaries and other extras) and you MUST see it I'll leave you the files from were to get it even with spanish subtitles. Tell me later how it went!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WMXGZ1HT
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7XS8SJ8K
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=42LZQWBT
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=P817DGLD
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9EKKDDA3
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4DVRBRSC
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZKEPCSPB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MTSYIAU5

Thursday, July 23, 2009

FOUR OF A KIND

I've been tagged by fellow blogger #167 Dad, from Arizona.

Instructions:

"The basic idea, that does not need you to derive from Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty, is to fill in headings(sets of four), with your own words... don't use mine again. I'll kick your ruddy ass if you do."

That means, i guess, you choose your own categories. Mine are here:

Four favorite writters:

Jorge Luis Borges

Julio Ramón Ribeyro

Franz Kafka

G.K.Chesterton

Four common things i dislike:

Hunting

Crying babies

Salsa music

Nationalism

Four living guys I dig:

James Randi

Alejandro Jodorowski

Woody Allen

Alberto Manguel

Four favorite ape movies:

Planet of the Apes(1968)

King Kong(1933)

Greystoke(1984)

Mighty Joe Young(1949)

I've tagged the follower superbloggers:

http://gigipeligro.blogspot.com/

http://tonnerredebrest.blogspot.com/

http://paso-antes.blogspot.com/

http://marilynsweetmarilyn.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

EL HUMOR DE ALBERTO MONTT

Alberto Montt es este dibujante cómico chileno que si no conocen les va a encantar. Uno de los innumerables hijos putativos de mi gran favorito Gary Larson (bueno, quíen no lo es en estos dias). Pero como Larson hace mucho que dejó su Far Side nos conformaremos y reiremos con sus descendientes. Al final del blog en un widget está el link a su página. Smile !!

Monday, July 20, 2009

THE ART OF JOE JUSKO

I like Joe Jusko (New York,1959) since i discovered in 1997 his fantastic book Joe Jusko's Art of Edgar Rice Burroughs(FPG,1996) full of jungles, wild animals, prehistoric monsters, martian creatures, muscular heroes and beautiful women, depicted in a very realistic manner from the mind of the author of Tarzan. Here i give you another magnificent examples of his art. More jungles and among others some known characters like Jeannie (from I dream of Gennie), more Tarzan, Oz meets Wonderland, and even the original crew from Star Trek!

Get ready for his new book The art of Joe Jusko (Desperado,2009).

Tiger Girl

Star Trek!

Son's of Kilimanjaro

Sheena

Oz meets Wonderland

Dream of Jeannie

Battle in the baobad

Sunday, July 19, 2009

LA OTRA LECTURA DE LOS LIBROS

Todo libro cuenta al menos dos historias. Una es la impresa en él, su texto o ilustración. La otra menos evidente, muchas veces ignorada, esotérica y casi siempre única: la historia del ejemplar. De cada ejemplar.

A menudo compro libros usados. No de librerías de primera mano, donde cada uno sale aun sin historia ya que su circulación sólo empieza. Los usados en cambio ya han vivido y, a veces, no ocultan su pasado. Algún ex-libris, una firma, la cicatriz dejada por una taza de café, el buen o mal trato que recibieron durante su existencia antes de caer en mis manos.

Algunos tienen una larga y dura pero util "vida" en una biblioteca pública. Otros, afortunados, van a parar donde algún bibliófilo que los cuidará y leerá con cariño. Luego de unos años ese padre o madre adoptivo, ese amo, morirá y el destino del ejemplar será una vez más incierto. Imagino a los libros como esclavos, pero no imagino la esclavitud en el sentido "moderno" de la palabra sino en el mas blando, idealizado y clásico autoproclamado por las sociedades esclavistas de la Grecia de los filósofos o la biblia (donde los amos no son necesaria o aparentemente unos abusivos). los imagino en una suerte de apacible cautiverio. Algunos, un ínfimo porcentaje realmente, serán famosos por su vida misma, por haber pertenecido a Borges o Hemingway. Otros, llamémoslos "Survivors", son de altísimo valor por su extrema antiguedad y rareza.

Habrán aquellos que esperanzados en encontrar su lugar, su biblioteca, pasarán empero de mano en mano y serán comprados para ser vendidos una y otra vez. Objetos de kafkiano tráfico.

La mayoria de las veces uno nunca sabe quien poseyó nuestro ejemplar (previo al librero que nos lo vendió) No sabemos quíen lo leyó ni donde lo poseyo. Pero podemos saber si fue bien tratado o no (aunque, para el ojo experto, siempre será evidente la diferencia entre ser leido con cuidado y no haberlo sido jamás).

En general, las historias privadas de cada copia serán historias jamás contadas. Perdidas por nunca buscadas y nunca se conocerán ni sabran pero que pese a todo habrán tenido lugar. En el limbo de lo impensado. Quizá el mismo lugar a donde van a parar los sueños que las personas que ya no están con nosotros jamás contaron.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

FLASH!! MAWA #1 !!!

La Charlicueva ha anunciado la próxima e inminente presentación del hasta hoy perdido e inubicable "Número 1" de mi supercomic favorito de toda la vida: Mawa de la Jungla!! Que, armada con su kris malayo, sus jaguares sagrados o seguida por sus fieles compañeros, nos llevaron en aventuras inolvidables por el Matto Grosso, Africa y el Oriente. Cómo aperitivo y celebración de que cuando algo me gusta, me gusta, voy a poner algunas de mis caratulas favoritas del mítico comic chileno. Con los creditos correspondientes de http://charlycueva.blogspot.com y http://sergiovergaraf.blogspot.com/

Las caratulas fueron hechas a tempera por el gran ilustrador (hoy dedicado y reconocido pintor y escultor) chileno Juan Francisco Jara Quiñones (Cauquenes,1942).

Friday, July 17, 2009

ALBUM "MIS FAVORITOS"

Coleccionar ha sido "my thing" desde antes de lo que la memoria me es fiel (mi madre dice que coleccionaba las tapas de las gaseosas, pero no me acuerdo). Y si había algo que un niño de clase media podía coleccionar eran figuritas o "cromos" que venían en un sobrecito de dos o tres y se pegaban en un album. La satisfacción de encontrar la "uno", de "llenar página", o llegar a tener el "álbum lleno" eran el tipo de satisfacciones que sólo un chico podía comprender ante la sonrisa "adulta" de nuestros padres. Aprendí muchas cosas que no he olvidado gracias a estos álbumes y véo que así somos casi todos. Basta ver el blog amigo de Tonnere de Bres (entre muchos otros) para darse cuenta que la nostalgia que despiertan verlos nuevamente, fuera de nuestras imágenes mentales, es común a los adultos de hoy y quizá de siempre.

Este álbum "Mis Favoritos" que hoy revisitamos fue hechura de la inefable "Editorial Navarrete" en 1978 en plena fiebre del "disco" y la película Grease con "Travolta" y Olivia Newton John y recogía el tema de personajes de televisión, el cine y la música pop.

La fiebre de "El Chavo del Ocho" fue mayor que las fotos que la editorial consiguió para el álbum porque todas fueron recortadas de la sola foto que era la caratula de un disco.

La sección de música pop, debo confesarlo, fué la que no más me interesaba (salvo por las fotos de Olivia Newton-John). Yo ni sabía quiénes eran Mick Jagger o Queen pero en cambio si quien era Belmondo o Lee Marvin

Monday, July 13, 2009

PEPE GONZALES

I was browsing my copy of "Marilyn In Art" (Salem House, 1984) looking for my favorite Marilyn illustrator, Pepe Gonzales, when i decided to check him out on the internet.

What?! He died on March, 13 this year.

He was born in Barcelona in 1939 and was especially famous (more in the States then in Spain) for his illustrations of Vampirella, but to me he was the one who depicted Norma Jean with an incredible delicacy not compared to anyone else.

The artist is gone but his art is here to stay, among many many places, in Guelyland.

So good, you don't need to see her face.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

NEW MUSIK

Why when i think of my favorite music group i think of New Musik? (Even if is not) Is it because i feel it's so mine that no one that i know never heard of it? Because it's clean synth pop style? Because the time and age i was when i heard it first? Because what i imagine the words talk about? Because it suits so well sci-fi reading?

The music is cold and almost like sang by robots or ,better, replicants but melancholic. Is nerdy. The guys have quite unpretensious looking for the time: no make-up, special hairdo or wardrobe to get our attention. They were good. Really good. Even if they were not party poppers is kind of a mistery to me why they didn't were most succesfull.

Excepting for Tony Mansfield, I cannot name any of the members by memory. They use to be three and that much I know. Actually their music is kind of faceless to me. It's not even easy to find them in You tube, but found some videos that you can watch and listen on the right "Ringadingadin" group of videos. They are in Wikipedia anyway (english , spanish and deutch only). New Musik talks to me about the future, a clean (because of his sound) "bladerunnerish" one. Cyberpunk, I guess. Anyway. They made three albums (which i have in vinyl and the first on CD too):

From A to B (1980)
Anywhere (1981)
Warp (1982)

and one compilation (Sanctuary, 1981) for the american market from the first two. My favorite songs of them would be, among others:

Sanctuary
Divisions
Churches
Living by Numbers
The World of Water
On Islands
While You Wait
All You Need Is Love (cover from The Beatles)
Straight lines

Matt Dillahunty

"Faith is a 'give up.' It's the point at which you stop seeking truth and just say 'Ya know, I can't figure out how to get any further, so I'm just going to go ahead and accept this answer because it feels right' or 'I don't want to keep looking.' It's not a path to truth; I would encourage people to actually go around and think about how you find out whether or not something is true in every other aspect... I guarantee you don't use faith for finding truth outside your religious claims."

Ayn Rand

Every argument for God and every attribute ascribed to Him rests on a false metaphysical premise. None can survive for a moment on a correct metaphysics. For instance, God is infinite. Nothing can be infinite, according to the Law of Identity. Everything is what it is, and nothing else. It is limited in its qualities and in its quantity: it is this much, and no more. “Infinite” as applied to quantity does not mean “very large”: it means “larger than any specific quantity.” That means: no specific quantity—i.e., a quantity without identity. This is prohibited by the Law of Identity. Is God the creator of the universe? There can be no creation of something out of nothing. There is no nothing. Is God omnipotent? Can he do anything? Entities can act only in accordance with their natures; nothing can make them violate their natures . . . “God” as traditionally defined is a systematic contradiction of every valid metaphysical principle. The point is wider than just the Judeo-Christian concept of God. No argument will get you from this world to a supernatural world. No reason will lead you to a world contradicting this one. No method of inference will enable you to leap from existence to a “super-existence.”

James Randi

"I am frequently approached following lectures and loudly asked if I am a Christian and/or whether I believe in God -- the assumption being that I understand what the questioner means by both terms. My answer has always been that I have found no compelling reason to adopt such beliefs. Infuriated by such a response . . . [they] usually turn away and leave ringing in the air a declaration that there is just no point in trying to reason with me and that I will be 'prayed for.' "I have no need of this patronization, nor of such a condescending attitude, and I resent it. I consider such an action to be a feeble defense for a baseless superstition and a retreat from reality." - From Randi's book The Faith Healers, page 303. Another quote: "I hereby state my opinion that the notion of a god is a basic superstition and that there is no evidence for the existence of any god(s). Further, devils, demons, angels and saints are myths; there is no life after death, no heaven or hell; the Pope is a dangerous, bigoted, medieval dinosaur, and the Holy Ghost is a comic-book character worthy of laughter and derision. I accuse the Christian god of murder by allowing the Holocaust to take place--not to mention the 'ethnic cleansing' presently being performed by Christians in our world -- and I condemn and vilify this mythical deity for encouraging racial prejudice and commanding the degradation of women." -- from Skeptic magazine (1995 Vol.3 No.4 p.11)

BERTRAND RUSSELL

"Si yo sugiriera que entre la Tierra y Marte hay una tetera de porcelana que gira alrededor del Sol en una órbita elíptica, nadie podría refutar mi aseveración, siempre que me cuidara de añadir que la tetera es demasiado pequeña como para ser vista aún por los telescopios más potentes. Pero si yo dijera que, puesto que mi aseveración no puede ser refutada, dudar de ella es de una presuntuosidad intolerable por parte de la razón humana, se pensaría con toda razón que estoy diciendo tonterías. Sin embargo, si la existencia de tal tetera se afirmara en libros antiguos, si se enseñara cada domingo como verdad sagrada, si se instalara en la mente de los niños en la escuela, la vacilación para creer en su existencia sería un signo de excentricidad, y quien dudara merecería la atención de un psiquiatra en un tiempo iluminado, o la del inquisidor en tiempos anteriores."

RICHARD DAWKINS

"La razón por la que la religión organizada merece hostilidad abierta es que, a diferencia de la creencia en la tetera de Russell, la religión es poderosa, influyente, exenta de impuestos y se la inculca sistemáticamente a niños que son demasiado pequeños como para defenderse. Nadie empuja a los niños a pasar sus años de formación memorizando libros locos sobre teteras. Las escuelas subvencionadas por el gobierno no excluyen a los niños cuyos padres prefieren teteras de forma equivocada. Los creyentes en las teteras no lapidan a los no creyentes en las teteras, a los apóstatas de las teteras y a los blasfemos de las teteras. Las madres no advierten a sus hijos en contra de casarse con infieles que creen en tres teteras en lugar de en una sola. La gente que echa primero la leche no da palos en las rodillas a los que echan primero el té."

Albert Einstein

"Era, por supuesto, una mentira lo que leíste sobre mis convicciones religiosas, una mentira que ha sido sistemáticamente repetida. No creo en un Dios personal y nunca lo he negado, por el contrario, lo he expresado claramente. Si algo hay en mi que puede ser llamado religioso es entonces la admiración sin límites a la estructura del mundo hasta donde la ciencia ha podido revelarnos por el momento". "No puedo imaginarme a un dios que premia y castiga a los objetos de su creación, cuyos propósitos han sido modelados bajo el suyo propio; un dios que no es más que el reflejo de la debilidad humana. Tampoco creo que el individuo sobreviva a la muerte de su cuerpo: esos no son más que pensamientos de miedo o egoísmo de lo mas ridículo".

The Ram

"I just want to say to you all tonight I'm very grateful to be here. A lot of people told me that I'd never wrestle again and that's all I do. You know, if you live hard and play hard and you burn the candle at both ends, you pay the price for it. You know in this life you can loose everything you love, everything that loves you. Now I don't hear as good as I used to and I forget stuff and I aint as pretty as I used to be but god damn it I'm still standing here and I'm The Ram. As times goes by, as times goes by, they say "he's washed up", "he's finished" , "he's a loser", "he's all through". You know what? The only one that's going to tell me when I'm through doing my thing is you people here. "