Archive for January, 2007
Saturday, January 20th, 2007
Cultural Protectionist Fascism
You got to be kidding me!!! How ridiculous is it that someone is denied the right to citizenship because a country does not accept an individual’s right to have their own name? I just read this Reuters news release on how the Spanish government has rejected a Colombian woman’s citizenship application because her first name […]
4 Comments » - Posted in Essays, Living la vida española by eric
Friday, January 19th, 2007
I play all of them
Not that anyone out there cares, but last weekend I kept having this voice in my head about someone playing many notes all at once because he wasn’t quite sure which one to play. Well, no, I don’t hear voices and I ain’t crazy. I knew that it was from a song and yet it […]
No Comments » - Posted in Jazz by eric
Friday, January 19th, 2007
Samarkand and how we’re all to blame
I have just finished reading Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley and Amin Maalouf’s Samarkand, two excellent novels that help us oustiders understand the mindsets, cultures, and history of Egypt and Persia respectively. As I have mentioned on numerous occassions previously in this blog, I love learning about other cultures through reading novels by their greatest storytellers […]
18 Comments » - Posted in Digressions, literature by eric
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
No hay que mirar muy lejos para ver el peligro
Es triste pero hay que reconocer que vivimos en un mundo donde los radicales musulmanes no son los únicos fundamentalistas talibanes. También tenemos a los talibanes de la derecha cristiana en EEUU que quieren promulgar sus creencias como leyes estatales y federales prohibiendo el aborto, metiendo la enseñanza de la creación divina como alternativa científica en los […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Essays by eric
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
Nuevo episodio de Galicia Vice
En un nuevo episodio de Galicia Vice, titulado “corrupción en la calle de Palma“, nuestros heroes Berga y Cobra (la versión gallega de Sunny y Tubbs), infiltran a una banda delictiva formada por Iurgi y Teo quienes interpretan a un vasco y un sevillano respectivamente. El suspenso llega a su colmo al salir Alvaro de la Casta.
No Comments » - Posted in Friends / Family by eric
Tuesday, January 16th, 2007
Who cares about the pot when our image has melted away?
Berga and Cobra’s roomate, Edu (a bit of a leftest poser because he owns a Playstation) is a writer for the Spanish TV show El Intermedio on La Sexta. This show does something that no TV station would ever allow in the US. During each episode it runs a 20 second clip beginning with President […]
8 Comments » - Posted in Essays, Living la vida española by eric
Monday, January 15th, 2007
Quality Living
In a recent email exchange with an old friend of mine from the past, I asked her to tell me a little bit about her life in Germany. A few years ago, she moved with her husband to Germany where they have since had two sons. Many times our cultural ethnocentrism causes us to believe […]
6 Comments » - Posted in Essays, Friends / Family by eric
Thursday, January 11th, 2007
Liquids No, Scorpions Yes
I just read this story about a man who was stung twice by a scorpion on a domestic flight in the US:
2 Comments » - Posted in Digressions by eric
Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
Ellis Island in Madrid
Today I was an immigrant. At second thought, I suppose that each and every day I live in Spain, I am an immigrant. But, today more so. It was time for me to renew my Spanish residency and work permit. This is my second renewal and consists of three stages: (i) presenting a series of […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Digressions, Living la vida española by eric
Tuesday, January 9th, 2007
¡Un año fonero!
Hoy cumplo un año trabajando en FON. Cuando llegué yo a estas oficinas en Alcobendas, me encontré con Mayte, Cobra, el gijonés, Martha, Iurgi, Teo, Juantomás y quizás hasta Mundoreactivo se escondía por aquí. A los dos días llegó Berga y a la semana Guillermo (mi patrón bloguero) y después Joan. Y cuantos cambios han habido con gente […]
