Cafetarium

Sometimes, I feel the unconscious need of saying to the waiter or the waitress that I love that place. But I can't, I'm so shy. And I always leave disappointed.
These feelings always reappear when I frequent "Cafetarium" of Tallers's street of Barcelona. It's a really nice place for writing, studying, reading the newspaper or meeting people while you're having a steaming cup of coffe. I recommend it! It's an interesting coffee shop with quite reasonable prices, pleasant owners, and a funny set: different kinds of weird mirrors, long curtains, undulating chairs and a warm orange lighting. The place is liven up with a relaxed electronic music too. But, the most important thing is the bar of dark chocolate that they always put in the coffee's plate. One more point for "Cafetarium"! I consider indispensable the contrast of sweet chocolate in comparison to bitter coffee!. Definitely, it's perfect.
We usually congratulate a cooker if a meal is nice but why don't we do the same thing with a nice café? I think there are coffee shops that hide a world inside it: how many stories could contain in it? and how many have been written?

Here you have their web if you're interested:
www.cafetarium.com/.../wp_7236d7af.html

Rain in my shoes

Today it has been a raining day, so I'm going to write something about it:

The rain always sounds. It's not music but it could be a rhythm.
The rain often changes your mood: there're some people who like it and there're who hate it.
Personally, I hate cold water, wet shoes, frozen toes and fingers.
However, I love listening to rain when I'm lying in my bed as I am in this moment, with clean sheets, after having a hot shower.
Besides, I like the raining aesthetics: puddles, gumboots, raincoats,...and specially, umbrellas.

I'm fascinated by umbrellas for many reasons. They are a classic complement that it has never changed. Maybe they should, I don't know. Moreover, in general they have bright colours and patterns. That's why they are objects that don't have to follow any fashion. People usually wear muted colours, so with an umbrella, there's a nice contrast.
Umbrellas have a curious form. It's a half sphere but ¡t's empty. Nevertheless, it's a dynamic structure. One day, my Renaissance's teacher opened an umbrella to explain the Brunelleschi's cupola of Florence's cathedral. You could understand it better with a picture:

That was a funny anecdote but it was a really illustrative class too.

Umbrella also opens the door to our imagination: movies like "Singing in the rain", coreographies, and my favourite romantic scenes!!



I love the image of a couple kissing under an umbrella while it's raining. The umbrella becomes a perfect shelter. There's nobody more in it, only the two lovers. I think is once and for all a magic picture. Last year, I used to paint lots of couples. I show you one of my creations:

Black and white

Today, I don't have time for doing an essay about my view of Barcelona. So, I'm only going to do a little comment about the film that we saw yesterday in class. My teacher of "Audiovisual languages"at the university said us that Manhatan of Woody Allen it's special because it's a black and white film. This movie had been created in 1979, although the colour on the screen appeared during the thirties! That's why nowadays "black and white" is a cinematographic option but it always has a reason. In this case, at the begining of the story the narrator explains us the reason of this choice. For him, New York continues being a black and white city. He wants to reproduce a postcard of his favourite place. We can also detect it in his way of compose the image: central and balanced. Moreover, the case of the movie seems a postcard too: a couple lying in a bench in a romantic landscape near the bridge.
Maybe, he wants to recover the classic New York because he idolizes it.
Look at this sentence and you could possibly understand it better:

" This was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin".

I like this approach, I think it's really interesting and innovative. Perhaps, we could find the cause of this great idea in the genius of Woody Allen!

PD: If somebody would like listening "Rapsody in Blue" of George Gershwin I add you the song. Personally, I love it!

Not too late

The sultry vocalist, pianist Norah Jones has released in 2007 her third album called "Not too late". Jones wrote most of the songs when she was in tour around the world. With a simple acoustic guitar and some inspiration she could create her first album as a songwriter (she feels very proud of it). I like the fact that she seems so modest and at the same time, so clever and sensitive. In fact, Norah is known for her warm and her sad melodies. However, she has a film career too.

Nevertheless, reviews of the album have generally been favorable. Surprisingly, the success has been incredible. Although she doesn't play commercial music, she has sold one million copies in Europe! It's amazing!

I love her subtle and delicate music: a blend of jazz, pop, with hints of bluesy country and contemporary folk. For this reason, I want to invite you to listen and watch one of her video clips. "Sinking soon" it's my favourite song of "Not too late". I expect you enjoy it!

We’re an oyster cracker on the stew,
And the honey in the tea,
We’re the sugar cubes, one lump or two,
In the black coffee,
The golden crust on an apple pie,
That shines in the sun at noon,
We’re a wheel of cheese high in the sky,
But we’re gonna be sinkin’ soon.

In a boat that’s built of sticks and hay,
We drifted from the shore,
With a captain who’s too proud to say,
That he dropped the oar,
Now a tiny hole has sprung a leak,
In this cheap pontoon,
Now the hull has started growing weak,
And we’re gonna be sinkin’ soon.

We’re gonna be
Sinkin’ soon,
We’re gonna be
Sinkin’ soon,
Everybody hold your breath ’cause,
We’re gonna be sinkin’ soon

We’re gonna be
Sinkin’ soon,
We’re gonna be
Sinkin’ soon,
Everybody hold your breath ’cause,
Down and down we go.

Like the oyster cracker on the stew,
The honey in the tea
The sugar cubes, one lump or two?
No thank you none for me.
We’re the golden crust on an apple pie,
That shines in the sun at noon,
Like the wheel of cheese high in the sky
Well … we’re gonna be sinkin’ soon.

Carl Honore and his "Slow Movement"

Just a little comment about the video of Carl Honoré who has made me think. I completely agree with him. Time scares us, so what does we do? We rush more and more. Slowness it's a virtue in our society. He says "less can be more" like minimalists and that's true! In general, we're speedaholics, stressed and rushing towards next task every moment. I'm bored with the phrase "I don't have time". We have it!! We only have to find it.

There's a song called "Relax, take it easy" from Mika that it talks about it.



Slow down please! And explain a lot of bed-time stories to your child (I loved how he praised bed-time stories)!

My life without me

Ann is a 23-year-old mother who cleans the university at night and lives in a trailer with her husband and her two daughters.The story takes place in Vancouver (Canada). Ann has a bad relationship with her mother, she has one single workmate who's obsessed with diets, a father in prison,... The spectator may think that she's sunk with this life but she seems happy, she's used to coexist with this situation.

One day, Ann is diagnosed with a terrible cancer. However, she decides to be strong and to face death calmly. Ann is going to die but she isn't going to cry because she hasn't time. For this reason, she doesn't tell it . She keeps her secret for her. Nobody will know it until the end when she won't be able to hide it. So she makes a list of things that she wants to do before she dies; one of them, very controversial for American public, is to have an affair with another man. In spite of it, Coixet doesn't judge her act! "Why couldn't do it?".-she defends in a interview.-"She has to experiment with it"

My life without me isn't a weepy film as it could be expected. Concentrated, delicate, intensive and incredibly human, Isabel Coixet has written a deeper story about death and life too. The script is full of moments of beauty with great phrases that help us to stop our ways and think a little about our integrity.

I recommend you it if you haven't seen yet!!

Nursery Rhyme

My father used to repeat the first phrase of this Nursery Rhymeto me . He found it really funny, and I don't know why!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away
Apple in the morning - Doctor's warning.
Roast apple at night - starves the doctor outright.
Eat an apple going to bed - knock the doctor on the head.
Three each day, seven days a week - ruddy apple, ruddy cheek.

I eat an apple every day (it's my snack)! Should I worry about my health? I like this fruit because it's sweet and crunchy. Besides, it cleans my teeth. I also love Snow White's tale. When I was I child my dream was having Snow White's character in a play. I specially like the moment of the apple's bite. And this dream became true!

TATTOOS

After, I've read the article of tattoos, I've to say that one thing is very clear and nobody talks enough about it: tattos are so painful! That's a really important point of this historic fashion.
We usually follow some kind of social tendencies that are incredibly damageable: hight-heeled shoes, earrings, piercings (horror films too),...
Maybe it's mainstream because we feel special with this kind of complements but although they could help our ego, don't we think that they are detrimental for our body? The human's nature don't want to feel uncomfortable. However, our mind loves it in our society. I've earrings since I was born but I couldn't like the idea of having another one because it'll involve a needle! I don't want to see a needle if it isn't really necessary.
Finally, I would like to defend changes. I like innovation and new fashions too but sometimes we need to be sensitive and follow our nature.
Am I wrong?

Tell me please what you think!