Resucitemos La Regla de Oro

"Las enseñanzas religiosas deben llevar a la acción."

Religious thinker Karen Armstrong has written more than 20 books on faith and the major religions, studying what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common, and how our faiths shaped world history and drive current events.

A former nun, Armstrong has written two books about this experience: Through the Narrow Gate, about her seven years in the convent, and The Spiral Staircase, about her subsequent spiritual awakening, when she developed her iconoclastic take on the major monotheistic religions -- and on the strains of fundamentalism common to all. She is a powerful voice for ecumenical understanding.

Armstrong's 2008 TED Prize wish asks us to help her assemble the Charter for Compassion, a document around which religious leaders can work together for peace. In late fall 2008, the first draft of the document was written by the world, via a sharing website.

In February 2009 the words of the world were collected and given to the Council of Conscience, a gathering of religious leaders and thinkers, who are now crafting the final document. The Charter will be launched in November 2009.

Submarine

Nuestra visita al festival de Cine de Sundance 2011

When you're a 15-year-old kid, your perception of yourself is rarely the same as the way the rest of the world views you. Such is the case with 15-year-old Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) in director Richard Ayoade's feature film debut "Submarine," playing at this week's Sundance Film Festival.
Based on the 2008 novel by Joe Dunthorne and produced by Ben Stiller, "Submarine" follows the aforementioned Oliver, who fancies himself a cool, well-liked literary genius but in reality is socially awkward and unpopular. With his 16th birthday on the horizon, Oliver wants to do just two things: lose his virginity to his arsonist girlfriend Jordana (Yasmin Paige) and prevent his mom (Sally Hawkins), whom he suspects of banging her New Age life/dance coach Graham (Paddy Considine), from leaving his depressed father (Noah Taylor). And so he sets out to break up his mother's affair and save his family... all while pursing the seemingly impossible dream of cashing in his V card. MTV

The Flaw

Lo que no pudimos ver en el Festival de Sundance

This film is about the roots of the financial crisis and why the world's greatest economy is so slow to recover. Sington's documentary "The Flaw" sets out to find answers to the economic questions that are still plaguing America and to ask what should be done if there's a "next time."

Music 2010

1. Josh Ritter - Rattling Locks

Influenced by classic songwriters such as Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, Idaho native Josh Ritter began writing songs while attending Oberlin College, where he changed his major from neuroscience to folk music. After relocating to Boston, Ritter started getting his name out through a self-released eponymous debut album and near-constant gigging. Since then, he's become a star around the world — known as a folk-rock singer of substance, he's received widespread acclaim in Ireland, America and beyond. Opening slots on tour with both Dylan and The Frames netted Ritter a good deal of attention, and even led to his own sold-out headlining tour of Ireland. His growth as a songwriter and a musician continued unabated, with 2003's Hello Starling and 2006's The Animal Years each displaying a different facet of Ritter's complex musical world. The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter followed in that tradition, and his sixth album, titled So Runs the World Away, came out earlier this month. WC

Rattling Locks

There was a time I had the right key
Rolled the tumbler slid the bolt on every wandering eye I caught
But something has changed this is all wrong
I'm out here in the cold with a wet face rattling your locks
There ain't nothing new about the world
That I aint' learned from just standing here in this spot

Ain't nothing new about the world
That I ain't learned from just watching you go by
I tell myself people are cold and strangers pass
Separate themselves from love by building walls a hundred thousand miles high
Frostbite and heartsickness ain't neither one of them so bad if you can understand the
Reason why

Black hole, black hole are your eyes as empty as they look?
Black hole, black hole, are your two eyes as empty as they look?
All along I thought I was giving you my love but you were just stealing it
Now I want every single thing you took

I had a dream that I was dying
But it wasn't a nightmare I was real peaceful as I fell
And if I was falling into heaven
Heaven must be hotter than the bible tells
I woke up sorry I was living
Rather than rattling your locks I'd rather spend another night in hell.

2. Cee-Lo-Green - F--- You
Great vocals, music & lyrics.

"Now I know, that I had to borrow,
Beg and steal and lie and cheat.
Trying to keep ya, trying to please ya.
'Cause being in love with you ass ain't cheap."

(No video available for this Blog.)

3.   Candy Claws - Silent Time Of Earth

The album is a delightful, gauzy trip through an aural wonderland. Ryan Hover and Kay Bertholf say they hadn't a clue how to play the synthesizers they used to create the record, so they just started making stuff up. Their willingness to embrace the unknown led them into some wonderfully rewarding territory. Each track contains parts of all the other songs on Hidden Lands(name of the album,) and the lyrics were taken from Richard Ketchum's 1970 nature book The Secret Life of the Forest. npr

4.  Seu Jorge & Almaz - Everybody Loves The Sunshine

 

Original Recording Artist: Roy Ayers

Original Release Date:  January 1, 1976

Label: Polydor

My life, my life, my life, my life in the sunshine
Everybody loves the sunshine, sunshine, sunshine
Everybody loves the sunshine,  sunshine, sunshine
Folks get down in the sunshine, they really love sunshine
Sunshine, sunshine, folks get brown in the sunshine

Just bees and things and flowers
Just bees and things and flowers...

Movie Recommendation

Dass Weisse Band



La Cinta Blanca - The White Ribbon
Movie Recommendation by Claudio.


The White Ribbon is a 2009 film, released in black and white, written and directed by Michael Haneke. The drama darkly depicts society and family in a northern German village just before World War I. According to Haneke, the film is about "the origin of every type of terrorism, be it of political or religious nature." Wikipedia

We Are Anonymous

 

Photo: Reuters | 16-01-2011

Anonymous

 Una legión de ciberactivistas se moviliza en la Red. Se hacen llamar Anonymous y dicen luchar por la transparencia, la libertad de expresión y los derechos humanos. No muestran la cara ni tienen líderes. La semana pasada tumbaron las webs oficiales de Túnez, tras la autoinmolación de un joven. Hace un mes, atacaron a las empresas que cortaron el grifo a Wikileaks. Son un movimiento germinal, fuertemente libertario y de contornos confusos. El Pais

Cayeron Muertos del Cielo

Más de 1.000 pájaros cayeron muertos del cielo justo en fin de año en un pequeño pueblo de Arkansas, EE.UU. Las autoridades investigan las causas.


Domingo 2 de Enero

Washington, 2 ene (EFE).- Las autoridades municipales de Beebe (Arkansas) investigan hoy qué pudo haber causado la muerte de más de mil pájaros negros que cayeron sobre los techos y calles de esa localidad la noche del 31 de diciembre. La Comisión de Caza y Pesca de Arkansas informó que empezó a recibir llamadas telefónicas sobre lo que le ocurría a los pájaros poco antes de la medianoche del viernes al sábado. La mayoría de los pájaros caídos, a los que se identifica como turpiales sargento de ala roja (Agelaius phoeniceus), se encuentra en un área de alrededor de un kilómetro y medio.
Robby King, de la Agencia de Vida Silvestre y quien ha recogido por lo menos 65 aves muertas, indicó que fueron enviadas a la Comisión de Ganado y Aves de Arkansas y el laboratorio del Centro Nacional de Salud de la Vida Silvestre, en Madison, Wisconsin. Las autoridades han inspeccionado el área y determinaron que no cayeron aves muertas fuera de los límites de la ciudad, ubicada unos 50 kilómetros al nordeste de Little Rock. La ornitóloga Karen Rowe dijo al diario The Arkansas Democrat Gazette que la bandada de aves podría haber sido alcanzada por un rayo o por granizo a gran altura. Según Rowe, ha habido incidentes similares en otras partes y los análisis realizados casi siempre "quedan sin una conclusión clara". EFE

Apasionada Discusión

Televisión Española dejará de transmitir las corridas de toros

MADRID.- Televisión Española, la principal televisora de España, anunció hoy que dejará de transmitir las corridas de toros como una forma de proteger a los niños de la violencia. En el capítulo titulado "Violencia con animales" de su nuevo manual de estilo, la red RTVE dijo que no transmitirá corridas de toros "por considerar, entre otras razones, que su horario generalmente coincide con el de la protección a los menores". España está envuelta en una apasionada discusión sobre el espectáculo sangriento que ha fascinado a artistas y escritores desde Goya hasta Hemingway.
El debate tomó renovada fuerza en julio, cuando Cataluña se sumó a las Islas Canarias y prohibió las corridas, que en las islas están vedadas desde 1991. La medida fue aplaudida por organizaciones de protección a los animales, pero cuestionada por los españoles más tradicionalistas.

Santiago, Chile, Is Hardly Sleepy Anymore

Tomas Munita for The New York Times
Tourists atop Cerro San Cristóbal take in the view of Santiago. 

By FINN-OLAF JONES

Published: October 25, 2009

WHAT would Pablo Neruda say? The Chilean Nobel-prize-winning poet and devoted Communist had a love-hate relationship with his hometown of Santiago, Chile, which he once described as “asleep for eternity.” A few years ago, many travelers would have agreed, stopping just long enough to change planes for more promising adventures in Patagonia, on Easter Island or in the Andes.
But now, after a decade as the powerhouse of the Chilean “economic miracle,” Santiago, wedged between the snowy Andes and the sea, has become an electrifying place of vibrant contrasts, with lush new parks, renovated Beaux-Arts neighborhoods and blocks of glamazon-thronged galleries and cafes clustered around “Sanhattan,” the soaring financial district. With Chile celebrating its bicentennial next year, Santiago, its capital, is rushing through an urban master plan of new museums, a stylishly renovated riverfront and other inducements for visitors to stick around and play for a couple of days before heading into the wild.

A visit to Santiago might, naturally enough, start off at the birthplace of the city itself: the Plaza de Armas, founded in 1541 by the conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, who still keeps watch over this square from his equestrian statue. A virtual opera of preachers, performers, pigeons, pedestrians and palm trees throngs the plaza with the neo-Renaissance government buildings and colonial-era cathedral as dramatic backdrops. Get into the rhythm of the city with a pisco sour — the house cocktail for seemingly the entire country — and a front-row seat to the action on the pleasant terrace of the Marco Polo Café.
Later, sample the city’s increasingly sophisticated culinary scene. Several outstanding restaurants have opened in Bellavista, a colorful bohemian warren of galleries, shops and bars where students, fashionistas and media types relax in the evenings (one of Neruda’s homes, La Chascona, is also there and open as a museum).

A popular dinner spot is Astrid & Gastón, across the Mapocho River. Chile continues to have border disputes with its northern rival, Peru, but well-heeled locals rave about the Peruvian chef Oscar Gómez, who has made a big splash in town by applying traditional Andean preparation techniques and ingredients to local produce like Chilean sea bass and Patagonian lamb at this restaurant. It is named after the owners, Astrid and Gastón Acurio, the latter a towering culinary figure who is known for his pioneering novo-Andino cuisine.

This airy dining palace is overseen by an enthusiastic wine steward, Manuel Valenzuela, who when asked about a carmenère — one of Chile’s signature reds — set up an impromptu wine tasting from the restaurant’s ethereal cellar.

But no matter where you have dinner, and no matter what time you finish up, the night’s still young and the party scene beckons. Santiago is bursting with boisterous bars and discos, but the city’s ubiquitous salsotecas seem to attract just about everyone. Rule of thumb: the darker and danker the dance hall, the better.

Don’t worry if you can’t salsa: many places have nightly lessons (and if not, other patrons are not shy about giving them). Besides, the Chilean version of salsa is pretty forgiving, and you can get away with just stepping in place at popular night spots like Maestra Vida (Pio Nono 380; 56-2-777-5325; www.maestravida.cl). If you’re yearning for old school moves, cross the River to the Ilé Habana (Bucarest 95; 56-2-231-5711; www.ilehabana.cl), which has a cavernous dance floor that is a riot of hot dancing and cool Cuba libres.

Not all of Santiago’s charms are found in its restaurants and dance halls, however. The city’s long boulevards, hillside lanes and leafy parks are a bicyclist’s paradise, especially during the weekends when the streets are thronged by spandexed bikers. The city is in the midst of a master plan to add 400 miles of bike lanes for them.

Go along for the ride with a rental bike from La Bicicleta Verde (Avenida Santa María 227; 56-2-570-9338; www.labicicletaverde.com; from 9,000 Chilean pesos a day, about $15.70 at 574 pesos to the dollar). Or better yet, take one of their daily three-hour biking tours (starting at 15,000 pesos) juxtaposing the chic new suburbs with the inner city while narrating the stormy history that played out on these streets during the Allende-Pinochet years.

Or head up to the park on top of Cerro San Cristóbal, the big mountain overlooking town, where families and romantic couples head to enjoy the epic view. Grab the Funicular San Cristóbal at the edge of Bellavista (Pio Nono 445; 562-737-6669; www.funicular.cl; 1,600 pesos round trip) for the 10-minute tram ride to the top, where a few last steps lead up to the 72-foot statue of the Virgin Mary who keeps an eye over the cityscape as it slams into the Andes mountains to the northeast.

Look out for one of the carts selling cups of mote con huesillo, a concoction of wheat and peaches (around 400 pesos), which makes for a delicious syrupy sunset cocktail.

A CITY OF HISTORY, GOOD DINING AND SALSA

WHERE TO STAY

Hotel del Patio (Pio Nono 61; 56-2-732-7571; www.hoteldelpatio.cl), a creaky 1920s mansion redone with stripped-down adobe walls and modernistic furniture, overlooks the newly developed Patio market square in Bellavista. Doubles with breakfast start at $120.

A former banker, Carolina Yávar, found a semiderelict stucco house on a quiet street in the heart of the Providencia district and turned it into a modern, jazzy hotel, the Meridiano Sur (Santa Beatriz 256; 56-2-235-3659; www.meridianosur.cl). Doubles with breakfast start at $100.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK

Marco Polo Café (Calle Plaza de Armas 416; 56-2-671-8484) sells a pisco sour for 1,500 pesos, about $2.60 at 574 Chilean pesos to the dollar.

At Astrid and Gastón (Antonio Bellet 201; 56-2-650-9125; www.astridygaston.com), dinner for two with wine is around 115,000 pesos.

WHAT TO DO AND SEE

The Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda might have considered himself a Stalinist firebrand, but he certainly knew how to have fun, as evidenced in his marvelously eccentric home La Chascona (Fernando Marquez de La Plata 192; 56-2-737-8712; www.fundacionneruda.org). Call in advance for an English tour (with entry, 3,500 pesos) of this panoramic compound clinging to the slope of San Cristóbal mountain, where the poet lived, loved and conspired with his fiery third wife, Matilde Urrutia. Neruda’s meandering home was built to resemble both a ship and a lighthouse incorporating a secret passageway behind his dinner table to escape dull guests, a bewildering collection of knickknacks gathered from extensive travels as a diplomat, and paintings done by his famous friends. Look for the two-faced portrait of Ms. Urrutia by Diego Rivera, with Neruda’s profile hidden in her hair.

The former Royal Customs House next to Plaza de Armas houses the small but outstanding Museum of Pre-Columbian Art (Bandera 361; 56-2-688-7348; www.precolobino.cl; entry 3,000 pesos, free on Sunday).

Touristy crafts stalls are as ubiquitous in Santiago as hot dog stands are in New York, but more substantial one-of-a-kind treasures can be found at the antiquarian mall at 2348 Providencia, on one of the city’s grandest avenues. The two dozen antiques stores lining this modern atrium sell everything from pre-Columbian art to Catholic altarpieces. Two particularly interesting stores are Silvia Obilinovic (Stall 2; 56-2-231-7006), brimming with ancient figures of Andean gods and Mesoamerican jewelry, and Bruce (Stall 17; 56-2-234-3732), a virtual pirate’s cave of antique South American silverware.