Robert Smith has got to be one of the ugliest persons I've ever seen

Indeed. But damn he can sing and play!

Tonight The Cure put on a 3-hour long, fantastic show, for which a had a great seat thanks to Baxter. They took an audience of what I reckon were at least 20,000 people for a ride from obscure (written under the influence of very hard drugs) music, with mind blowing guitar textures, to more upbeat and happy sounding pop music. They encored three times and finished with one of their most famous classics: Boys don't Cry.

I can't call myself a fan of The Cure, since I basically just know their greatest hits. Nonetheless I really enjoyed the show. The sound and the vibe were fantastic and I could've stayed there for three more hours.

Then there was the crowd, who made the experience even more amusing. In front of me, a chav with his girlfriend. You could tell the guy was a big fan from his euphoric singing of every one of the songs. He was really feeling the music and dancing to it, but had not an inkling of how to move his body RYHTHMICALLY to it.

Next to chav's girlfriend (who was clearly there just out of love for the bloke), a group of four friends who made me realize there might be a stage of human development just as ugly as puberty, usually denoted in Mexico by the term "contemporary adulthood". These guys were behaving like frat boys who went to get smashed at the concert, growing increasingly obnoxious for the people around them with every beer they had, and seemingly unable to understand that "no, we didn't bring any pot!!". Still, fratboy-like behavior and all, they were clearly not young college guys, or fresh out of it, but neither were they "made" adults, the kind you can address as "señor"; they were just... something, which was NOT a nice sight.
I recently went to a highschool class reunion, five years after graduation. We looked at pictures from back in the day, and damn we were ugly at the time! I just hope the transition to being a señor happens gracefully, cause I'm quite happy with the way I look now and don't want to face another phase of ugliness.

(MMG: I was ugly as a teenager, but you're not. Don't worry, you're gorgeous)

Sobre la puñeta

Me permito traerles la traducción de un extracto de una gran reflexión hecha por uno de los mayores pensadores portugueses de los últimos tiempos. Quién lee el portugués puede consultar el texto original aquí.

Realmente la puñeta es más que un pasatiempo, es cómo el yoga de los cogelones: distrae, se puede hacer sólo o en grupo y, cuando mencionamos a otras personas que lo hacemos, ellos nos miran cómo si fuésemos anormales. En el caso del yoga, lo entiendo. Ahora, ¿¡de la puñeta!?

¡Tantas cosas que podría decir de la puñeta! Cuantas veces a mis quince años (y a mis veiticuatro también, confieso) recé para que se hicieran realidad los mitos que profetizaban el crecimiento de pelos en la mano del puñetero competente. Si tal fuese verdad, tendría la derecha siempre rasurada, simulando una concha rapadita y profesional, y la izquierda peluda, simulando una pucha fodonga y descuidada. Despúes, nomás tendría que escoger... Pero sueño.

Del respeto y tolerancia a la pendejez

Yo respeto a los pendejos, tolero a los pendejos. No podría ser de otra manera una vez que yo mismo, excepto por algunos destellos de lucidez brillante cuya duración se encuentra en el orden de los microsegundos, soy un pendejo también. De hecho, es muy probable que esté escribiendo puras pendejadas; por lo que le advierto, en mi condición de pendejo humilde, que tal vez no sea conveniente seguir leyendo esto. Si fuese su voluntad continuar, me deslindo de toda responsabilidad y declaro que de ninguna manera soy uno de los tipos de pendejo descritos a continuación.

Me parecen indignos de cualquier miramiento los pendejos pretenciosos e intencionados de convertirnos a los demás en víctimas de su pendejez, y peor aún el intento de imponer la misma a alguien más. Dicha intencionalidad de victimización o imposición es un concepto cuestionable ya que la intención requiere de voluntad y ésta requiere de decisión y libre albedrío y la presencia de tales cualidades bajo la influencia de la pendejez son, una vez más, dudosas. No obstante estos temas sean interesantes y dignos de reflexión, el juicio de la acción debe considerar tanto intención como consecuencia y por lo tanto, para evitar sufrir las consecuencias de la pendejez ajena, se debe denunciar y mantener gran distancia de cualquier pendejo victimizador o impositivo.

Invito a quien quisiere reflexionar conmigo sobre el vasto mundo de la pendejez y sus múltiples manifestaciones. Eso sí, no pueden decir que los he victimizado o intentado subyugar con mi pendejez, pues yo advertí en el primer párrafo que esto era una pendejada.

“Ser pendejo no es vergonzoso, lo es el aparentar que no lo somos.”

- Pendejo anónimo-

Brief statment of my beliefs today

I don't believe there's a god. At least not in the "he's-everywhere, can-see-it-all, knows-it-all, and will-reward-or-punish-you-for-your-deeds kinda way" Yes, that singularity that exploded a long time ago and we now call universe must have had a start. One beyond our understanding. I'm OK with calling that god.

I certainly don't believe the universe's purpose is having US here. We're such a tiny new thing, immerse in an enormous old place. Makes no sense for us to be the sole objective of it all. I believe we're here because zillions of years of physics and chemistry, combined with evolution made the time and place right for us to exist, and eventually take care of our own extinction.

I don't believe we're here for any particular reason, or for any definite purpose. I believe in nothingness after death. It doesn't scare me, and there's no need or use in trying to imagine it, since nothing is just that and I will have no conscience of it.

Nevertheless, I believe in finding a purpose, a reason to live; but simply as a means of enjoying our time here and living happily.

I believe in helping those less fortunate than us achieve as much happiness as they can.

I believe the world would be a much better place if we all shared at least one value: respect. No 'love your neighbor as yourself' bull. Despise him, envy him... it will only make you unhappy; might as well try to like him and be good friends, but in any case RESPECT him. Live happily and don't get in the way of others' happiness.

As for me, it make it my goal in life to see as much of the world as possible and learn as much as my brain can take. So many great places to see, cultures, points of view, people, knowledge... I just can't feel easy being at the same place for too long.

I hope someday I'll love someone, and this someone will love me, and we'll follow each other all around the world because we share the same goal.

Finally, I wish that everywhere I go and everywhere I've been, there's at least one person that has a good memory of me. If I'm headed to nothingness, I might as well linger on for a bit in someone's mind.

Second day in Buenos Aires

Needed a good night's sleep after the last few weeks of a frantic lifestyle. So I slept. Woke up at noon and went out for a walk downtown which led me to a fantastic sandwich. Bought some skiing socks and a scarf and came back to the hostel to read and waited for my friend Bugé to arrive from Brazil. Played pool with him, met up with Leo, went out to eat meat and drink the best bottle of wine 5 dollars can buy (and it was damn good), and came back to the hostel to watch Brazil barely beat Uruguay in penalty kicks.
Went to dance to beat of crazy drum n' bass.
Night ending at 5.15 a.m.
Gonna be up at 11 to go to Casa Rosada and Boca.

Otra receta perfecta!

Beba una cerveza,

Vaya a un lugar que toque drum n' bass,

Beba otra cerveza,

un vodka con Red Bull,

otro vodka con Red Bull,

Fume un churro,

Relájese, relájese, disfrute de la música y baile hasta acabarse.

No necesita beber más, después de eso sólo agua.

Snow in Buenos Aires!

Some people say it was in 1918, some 1928, but the fact is it hadn't snowed for a long long while in Buenos Aires. Finally did today, just as my plane landed. Great luck, really, as lots of flights were canceled afterwards.

Got here, showered, and headed out to Café Tortoni (pictures later) Buenos Aires' most typical cafe. As I waited for my table I met Sebastián, and no longer had to ask for a table for one. In there we met with his friend Clara, and later Christian arrived. They turned out to be Buenos Aires' sons of rich people who devote their lifes to art and hedonism. Interesting crowd, old school "burgueses" who enjoy throwing in a lot of French words in their speech. It was really funny having them write down things I said, for them to remember, as they found me "memorable". Our afternoon ended in Christian's attelier in a beautiful building in Avenida de Mayo, drinking wine and watching the snow fall.

Back to the hostel for a nap as I barely slept on the plane after partying until sunup in Sao Paulo. Party at the hostel afterwards, and now I'm ready for bed. Off to start seeing Buenos Aires tomorrow.