Summer slowly hitting NY. Pretty humit but still a bit cold. School almost done and just waiting for my thesis to start working on it.
Its funny how easy it is to bitch about anything these days. Don't get me wrong, I am an eternal complainer if you give me a slight reason to do it...its just that with so many things being done wrong in front of your nose, has become way too hard to shut up and in a funny way a national sport wherever you are...
Was reading the last edition of Foregin Policy magazine (http://foreignpolicy.com). Oil once again hitting the covers of every single magazine (even Vanity Fair had become lately aware of political issues...wow...!!!). The author of the main article, Thomas Friedman, for those who do not know him a pretty spoiled self center journalist star in this country, from start to finish just complains and blames oil countries for their own "resource curse". Mr. Friedman, are you blind or just extremely narrow that you forget who is feeding those countries? Here goes a free example for you, Equatorial Guinea, tiny country with an extreme corrupted government and 10% of world oil reserves. Guess who pays for their embassy in Washington D.C? Exxon Mobil. Guess where are the revenues of their oil are deposit and by whom? Exxon Mobil once again in the Riggs Bank in D.C, the same one just in case, that kept Pinochet's secret accounts...
Mr. Friedman, I was wondering if all that ego you carry that the New York Times and the U.S media gave you, could be used more responsible. I understand you lost your objectivity a while ago, but why don't you try to imitate you co worker Nicholas Kristof doing a great advocacy job in Sudan?

I know, I know...

I know, I've been rude and too quiet for the last month or so, it's just i'm almost done with school and it wil be a really bad idea to fuck it up right at the end, right?
Two weeks, all i ask.
I was busy you know? Chile was all work and going to bed super early...yeah right....

Peace.

In Chile...

In Chile.
Will be back to my blog life when on my returm to NY

What if Marx was right?

-Half the world, three billion people, live on less than two dollars a day.
(La mitad del mundo vive con menos de dos dolares por dia)
-The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (quarter of the world) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
(El PIB de los 48 paises mas pobres sumado, es menor que la suma de las riquezas de las tres personas mas ricas)
-Less than 1% of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen.
(Menos del 1% del total mundial anualmente utilizado en armas era necesario para educar a todos los menores del mundo en el 2000, sin embargo esto no ocurrio)
-20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods.
(El 20% de la poblacion en paises desarrollados consume el 86% de los recursos mundiales)
-According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty
(30,000 ninhos mueren diaramenete por culpa de la pobreza)

These are not my statistics. They are from the United Nations, UNICEF and other serious organizations in case you think I am exagerating...

Just wondering...

"Blizzard '06"

Today, NY woke up with the biggest snowstorm ever recorded. (technically the biggest amount of snow measured in Central Park).
Last night while walking in the middle of the night wondering the streets under the snow, I thought about the beauty of spontaneity, the spontaneity of the snow, the silence of the snow, quiet streets. As a naive, newly born urban snow citizen, there is still a lot to discover about it.
Right now here in AltdotCoffee, a sort of punky-east village-cyber café with loud music on the speakers, people sitting all around filling up the second hand sofas sipping their coffees avoiding the “Blizzard ‘06” (it’s an interesting phenomenon how every event in this country is labeled with some Hollywood film title, why is that? Under the influence of the 7th Art I guess…)
Ji, a Korean-Brazilian friend from my street just walked in. Check his website. The guy is really good, no kidding. www.pleaseenjoy.com.
Sunday NYC.

Here some pics.

Coming soon...

My list of Books and Music I've been discovering and falling for in these latitudes...
Feel free to bomb me with some feedback, ideas or why not greetings from wherever you are about whatever you want...!!!
Gotta go to work now...

NY is sunny, crispy, cold and bright.
Hug.

Sunday

On my last post, I forgot to mention probably the most disturbing one I've ever seen. Darwin's Nightmare. A terrible pesimistic and realistic approach to the explotation of EU groups on the African regions surrounding Lake Victoria and the consequences of their actions. A must must see. No kidding.

Today I spoke to my great friend Cirilo from London. He sent me this link of a chilean newspaper where they were remembering a disastrous airplane accident, 10 years ago in Peru, were 40 young chilean travelers were killed, among them good friends and people I knew. Hope you guys are well wherever you are...

Probably inherited from my dad (who also has nothing to do with weather), I am the kind of people over interested in the weather, so in case you wanna know how is it looking outside in NYC on 7th Street at the moment, its rainy, cold and quiet, the usual hot girls, crazy characters and cars with their bass blowing people's heads off. One more Sunday in NYC.

Peace.

Must see Documentaries

Today I went to see Syriana. Great movie about the million fucked up consequences of oil and greed everywhere in the world.
Since in the city, documentaries and sort of political films have become a great tasty gate to see what's happening beyond this island.
Here is a list of some recommended ones for you down in places with less access to them to keep an eye on the titles.
- Born into Brothels: prostitution, hope and art in Cacutta, India.
- Super Size Me: fat & nasty Mcshit.
- The Fourth World War: riots and social movements around the world.
- The Corporation: the usual excesses of those wearing ties.
- One Giant Leap: comunication through art.
- Gunner Palace: Kind of and MTV view and criticism af the war in Iraq.
- Any Michale Moore film of course.
- S21, The Killing Machine of the Khmer Rouge: The sad Cambodian Genocide.

and here a few I have not seen yet but heard great things about it,
- Why We Fight: U.S lack of touch.
- What The Bleep Do We Know: Relation between quantum physics and day to day reality.
- I know I'm not alone: Michael Franti (leader of Spearhead) trip to war zone to feel the reality.
- Capturing the Friedmans: Upper class jewish family with some real issues.
- Spellbound: Spelling contests at its best.

Hope that's good for now. Please feel free to write comments about these or other films you recommend.
Peace.

My friend Nick from the band Men, Women and Children(www.menwomenandchildren.com) and Rigo enjoying the last sunny afternoon in the city.


Orange Nick and the Empire States Building

...

So long, after all this time, i'm back to take care of my blog life.
Sitting at my bar here on the East Village, been trying to expand my horizons away from politics and closer to art finally.
I can't deny the fact that the end of the year holidays brought some nostalgy from family and friends back in the summer down in Chile. Got some of the most beautiful unexpected phone calls from the people that matter the most from me all over. Thanks to all of you for that, you know who you are.
"Sex, media and real state is all what NY is about" my friend Christos told me when thinking and talking about some ideas and art projects for the future. So there it goes... the idea is there, the team is there, time to start making the project come true.
Winter after all has not been that raw or painful here in the city. After a rough start, it became pretty gentle and mild to all of us...
Been working in some pictures i'm gonna put up soon for you to enjoy.
Happy new beginnings to all of you.
Hugs&Love. CaNo.

Cold & Ignorant

Getting cold in the city once again. It is starting to feel that I actually "might" live here. When you realize you've been more than a year in a place, days start to repeat, weather starts to repeat, birthdays, people and places become familiar, a dog already done his mark in that space....
Since day one in the city I've been trying to decipher behaviors and reactions as if there is an enlightened moment were everything makes sense. Well...., Socrates was right, wisdom is about realizing our ignorance. For me right now that sounds like quite a satisfying conclusion for the day.

New York -1 Cº and winter is not even here yet...ayayayyy

By the way if anyone know somebody that need to rent a room for January, February and March, please let me know. Got a room available in my apartment. Appreciate.

Due to extensive partying with my brothers and sisters in law in town, and a huge delay in my school homework as a consequence, I have not been able to feed you with some NY life...
Meanwhile... halloween NYC.

NY best kept secret

After a year in the city, the best kept secret.
As a foreigner you arrive to the big apple as a complete stranger, then you start slowly realizing that what makes this city is the people (after a while you are actually sure about it). Well...any other city too, but there are certain places where people are not protagonists, they live behind fences, walls, too much fear to become public, public spaces are not developed enough, the city does not really invite you to join it and share it with others...
So then the gossip spreads and friends and family of us "the people from outside New York" think that actually the cool thing about this place is its arquitecture, museums, art scene, central park, etc. Nope, the cool thing about this city is the interaction with others that this city promotes and enjoys. Room for everyone, respect for anyone, inspiration for all.
I'm happy to have it realized it "on the field" not through a postcard, documentary or book.
Just one favor, don't tell this secret to too many people, the world might hear you and spread the wor(l)d...

Happy birthday Mama Satsko (my boss) by the way. What a legendary night last night. Old school 70's limousine to start and a personal stripper for Satsko to finished. What a night...

(Remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger)
Rock'n Roll Limo


In the limo


Pay time at Satsko's

No world cup for us...

Here I am writing from my bar. 1am, an Iranian rock band (actually the only rock band in the country, not kidding) visiting town just left, celebration after their very successful gig.
I don't know but sometimes living and working at night makes me very tired. The grass is always greener next door they say. Actually that's been a constant for me (probably for most people)...It's that sort of feeling of living a normal life for a week and having my nights off instead of my days...
Chile just finished its fucking awful game, not qualifying two times in a row for the world cup. Such a lack of attitude, mentality, concentration, profesionalism, etc... pretty pist off to tell the truth. That stupid thing of calling us the "english of LatinAmerica" as an excuse of having a mediocre mentality...AAGHGGHHHH!!!!! (sorry its just that i thought we actually had a little chance to make it to the world cup...)
Sitting in front of me Ennio, one of our carachters in this place, an italian with super strong english accent that have the hability to talk (and talk and talk) for hours with anyone about anything. Impressive to say the least. Good friend, old school bohemian...
So.... my bros, my REAL bro's are coming to town, and they are coming with my sistah's in law. Ayayayayayyyy....NY get ready...

Road to Tambacounda from Misserah. Senegal 2001.

Home at Sabi Moullesi Village, Senegal,2001.

Soccer finallyyyy!!!

Today finally back to the fields, beautiful sunny crispy day in the city. Great soccer field, Makelele (french soccer player) and me one. Best way to fight sunday hangover blues for sure. Mostly french and argentineans in the league. Pretty cool actually.
Joe Vasconcellos, chilean singer, amazing last Thursday night, back home for a couple of hours. Crazy fact: next morning woke up and already a review in the online chilean newspaper about that concert, speed news...

A dialog from a very underrated Bertolucci's film "Dreamers", iluminated my night last night around 4am probably inspired by red wine. Here it is....

Boy talking to an incredible sensual and beautiful woman late at night both laying on a bed half naked in Paris, 1968 after drinking liters of red wine.

Man: you're beautiful...
Girl: you're drunk...
Man: yeap... but tomorrrow I will sober and you'll still be beautiful...

Precision.


To finish, part of a letter from Bill Maher to Mr. Bush:

"...On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.
"So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: 'Take a hint'."

Mali 2001, my 7th Street 2005

Viva Chile Mierda...!!!

Chilean independence day celebration is over, back to our actual neo-colonialism state. Biiiig and loooong bbq to celebrate the date at the beautiful & raw Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Didn't open a book in the whole weekend, I traded it for wine, meat, choripan and pisco that no doubt fed stomach, soul and spirit. I hope sometimes teachers and schools could understand that...
My new Chilean hermano, Chicho, the "birthday boy" put the party together. Muy buena hermano!!
Thinking about colonialism for some reason makes me pretty upset these days, Britain would say they did a decent job with their railways in India, Spain with their forced imposition of religion, France with their effort to turn the world a baguette, and Belgiums well...no comments on that one....
Maybe all the liberal readings do leave a trace behind...not bad.

Uno, dos, tres...

Sunday September 11th, NY. Brand new blog, Seu Jorge (the Brazilian Bowie from "Life Aquatic" if you don't know him), 170 heads of state from around the world and the hottest models in the world are all arriving this week. The first to celebrate UN's 60th anniversary, the latter to shake their bodies on Fashion Week. A normal week in NYC I guess...
Everywhere, 9/11 documentaries, an x-ray of that day from inside, above and below, this country trying in all ways to heal their scars. My own country, Chile with its own "11 de Septiembre" already knows the time and effort it takes to heal when pride and hope bleed.
Enough for now, welcome to my space.

Peace... or Arohanui as the Pacific Islanders say. May this blog begin....