4. My favorite 101

One of the most brilliant, moving, thoughtful and meticulously executed film that I’ve ever seen, is a Japanese movie called After life by Hirokazu Koreeda

In an old Japanese residence, very much like a school with no resemblance to what we perceive as after life, the deceased individuals are provided with films, photos and slides of their lives, and they should choose one, and only one memory to eternally live that memory. In other word, the poetic concept of their after life is simply to live in the most favorite moment of their lives, forever.

And you’re dead wrong if you think since I gave up the plot, there’s no reason for you to see this movie if you haven’t seen it already cause there are so many beautiful moments, thoughts and ideas as well as sceneries, presented in after life that nobody can ruin the film just by telling you the storyline.

Now, inspired by this movie, imagine that you should pick a composer, and this composer would be the only one you are allowed to listen to, till the end of time. What would be your choice?

For me, the answer, simply and quickly, would be Johan Sebastian Bach. He has made so many breath taking pieces that one really needs an eternal life, only to fully squeeze every drop of divine pleasure out of this heavenly collection of sounds.

So it’s no wonder if I have dozens of Bach’s pieces among my favorite 101. For today, Erbarme Dich from St Mattew Passion, but instead of the original choral version, this lovely arrangement by Yo-Yo Ma, played by himself, from the album Simply Baroque.

It simultaneously satisfies my mutual passion for Bach and the magical voice of my favorite instrument, cello.

Why men are happier than women!

I recieved this today as an E-mail from a lady-friend of mine,

Men Are Just Happier People-- What do you expect from such simple
creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding
plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. You
can be President. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white
T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car
mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal. You never have
to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too
icky. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a
bolt. Same work, more pay. Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress
$5000. Tux rental -$100. People never stare at your chest when you're
talking to them. The occasional well-rendered belch is practically
expected. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood
all the time.

Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about
tanks. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open
all your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of
thoughtfulness. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still
be your friend.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are
more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You
are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. Everything on your face
stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe
decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life. Your belly usually hides your
big hips. One wallet an d one pair of shoes -- one color for all
seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can
"do" your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice
concerning growing a mustache..

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier.

My Colombian ladies!

According to Francisco Fernandez, the director of the Road safety foundation, distraction, causing around 20% of the road accidents, is the most notorious cause of the awfully higher-than-average number of car accidents in Colombia.
Now read this,

The main distracters are, cell phones with 53% and the presence of beautiful women with the ridicules share of 32%!

Basically, in Colombia, looking at the beautiful women is the main reason of almost 6.4% of the all accidents in the roads!

Absolutely no comment!

Be nice to your neighbors!

Missing!

The picture you see, belongs to a 31 years old, allegedly male! who, from the moment he’s heard I’m going to stay at his place, has left his residency and has not returned.
Since the above mentioned, has a brilliant memory, apparently he has deliberately gone missing!


Any information will be rewarded (and help me to figure out, whether I should pack or not!)


Remember…we want your information…not your name!

9/11 conspiracy

No matter you believe in conspiracy or you don’t, it’s a brilliant work of investigation, worth spending one hour of your time for. Some of the eivdence are downright undeniable even for skeptic like myself!

3. My Favorite 101

The only considerable weakness of mine in front of women is when I confront a charming elegant lady who speaks French with a cute Parisian accent and it’s so serious that if someday I want to live with someone, either she should be a cute Parisian or we should live somewhere quite far from Paris!

Now you can imagine when one of the most beautiful girls in the world, whose exquisiteness alone is a tasteful song for the eyes, whispers this lovely romantic chanson, in French and with her soft, feminine voice, I have no choice but to put her in my favorite list and feel happy, just to be alive to appreciate it.

So today’s favorite is Carla Bruni , singing Le ciel dans une chambre from the album Quelqu’un m’a dit.

Revelations of the very last remaining brain cell!

Dear players in the world cup,

Please do not bug God that much by thanking him for every tedious Goal you score or you save! I mean, do you really think he’s sitting there, controlling every spin on your stupid ball! or somehow bends the bar to prevent the ball from going in?!

Even if you’re a creationist, do you thank the programmers in EA electronics every time you score a Goal in FIFA 2006?!

Fellows, if he’s God, he should be able to perform some automation. You can call it laws of physics. I don’t mind if you want to believe in God but at least give this God of yours a bit more credit!

By the way, if he’s going to bend the rules one day, I really prefer him to spend his talent on solving the global warming rather than help Trinidad and Tobago beat Paraguay!

P.S. I’m really in favor of the ancient system of polytheism. This way, we could dedicate a God only for football and then, the rest of the world wouldn’t become a pain in the ass of the other important Gods, so they could do something about the shit which is going on in the wolrd!

Fifa's World cup rules for some women!

And no one kills the children anymore...

Today is World day against child labor. According to UN figures, some 218 million children all around the globe are forced to work instead of being send to school, as a natural right of every child.

Children as young as 8, are working in copper mines in Sub-Saharan Africa, and yet there are quite lucky compared to those being exploited in growing, profitable international sex-trade market or those who’ve been trained as soldiers, to fight and kill before they get to 14 and catastrophically, the list goes on.

And yet, these statistics do not take into consideration, millions of children, being abused by incompetent parents, mentally, physically and even sexually.

Couple of days ago, I was watching Alan Parker’s The wall again. One can hardly find any work that shows the dark side of the harsh childhood memories on the future lives of the children, better than this Pink Floyd’s masterpiece.

Yet I was thinking, since it’s absurd to even suggest comparing the childhood of Bob Geldof’s Character in The wall with what these poor kids are going through, what kind of people these children will grow up to be and what kind of the world they’re going to make!

The god of children must have been dead, quite long ago.

Today was Diane’s birthday, so we went to an Irish pub for lunch where this hilarious sign caught my eyes.

In contrary to what the sign says, the waitress was a lovely, cute and polite Irish lady who was pregnant too ( well, since I mentioned Irish before, the pregnant part was kind of unnecessary).

I don’t know if it’s the effect of the age or what, but lately, I’m finding pregnant women attractive and even sometimes sexy. That’s new for sure!

2. My favorite 101

I know It’s the least Bob Dylan-type song ever but somehow I like it the most (no offense Bob!)
Since everybody knows both the song and the signer so well, I skip the introduction part. So This week’s pick is Things have changed from the album The essential Bob Dylan

Electronic voting in Florida

That is so great

Curious George…

Don’t miss this fabulous work of Chris Cox

Bill Maher's New rule!

Bluetooth headset users have to do something that lets me know that you’re just on the phone and not a dangerous schizophrenic! Right?! We don’t know if you’re talking to you secretary or the evil leprechaun who lives in your head!
You’re not the chief communications officer of the starship Enterprise, you’re a shoe salesman asking your mom if you can bring over your laundry!
If I wanted to overhear every tedious scrap of brain static, rattling around in your head, I’d read your blog!

Episode one
We were walking in the rain and almost alone in the street. On Saturday afternoon and when it rains like that, there are few people crazy enough to wander around the city but our days was short and even if we were not as crazy, we had no choice.

After an as-always-great brunch in L’avenue, coffee in amazingly unique café esperanza, we were walking in one of those so typical-of-Plateau, super charming narrow back –yard-streets and her shoes were utterly wet so were her socks and her jeans.

Right where most of the girls would nag the hell out of the guy and would kill the day by taking a cab home, she went to a shoe store, bought a 10$ pink rubber boots and a pair of socks.

Ten minutes later, her wet shoes and socks in a bag, we were back on those narrow streets and I was thinking to myself, I could have been the happiest man on earth!


Episode two
We were in Tamtam, almost completely high…she was sitting down on the green grass, my head on her lap. I was enjoying the rhythm, coming from far away, dancing of the leaves above me, gentle breeze on my face, massaging hands of the lately-so-scarce sunshine and most of all, her indescribably-pleasing company.

Then I saw my reflection on her sunglasses, right above her mysterious smile and I saved the moment on the memory card…the moment I knew wouldn’t last but was so beautiful, I didn’t want to imagine it otherwise.


Episode Three
Three is this seat in the bus, exactly over the tires, where right in front of the seat, there is an inclined surface; you can put your feet on. That’s the most relaxing hence my favorite spot in the bus.

She’d just left and I was coming back from Berri-Uquam station and was watching her numerous photos on my camera. Right beside me, there was this polite, classy lady with his super sweet, curious no-more-than-4-years-old boy on her lap and he was dying to see what I was doing.
And I, couldn’t stand him so willing to see the pictures, put the camera on slide show and in front him. Suddenly, he became amazingly quite, deliciously focused on the pictures, passing by every three seconds.
The mother, trying to appreciate my gesture, started asking him questions and he was charmingly nodding.

"Monsieur is so nice…did you thank him for showing his pictures to you?"
"The pictures are great, aren’t they?"
"She is so beautiful, isn’t she?"

Out of the blue, she looked at me and asked in a way, she couldn’t expect anything but confirmation in return, "Is she your girlfriend?"

I paused and then….smiled…I just didn’t feel like to say no…and she smiled back…To smart people, you shouldn’t explain everything and that’s what I like about them.

I looked back at the boy. He wasn’t looking at the screen anymore cause something equally irrelevant had caught his attention and he was so drowned in the new thing, you could hardly believe that a minute ago, he was eating the pictures by his curiosity.

How I wish I was a little boy!

a very funny comercial form Sprint

I just love his analogy!

Do one brave thing today

.. then run like hell

A fantastic place called TAM-TAM

Every sunny Sunday, the eastern slope of Mont-royal, is the place where the coolest people in the world gather, playing Tam-Tam or any sort of percussion that can create a moving afro-rhythm. Then, the rest of the crowd, already big-time high, dancing to this rhythm or just lying on the green grass and enjoying their Sunday afternoon!

The mood is so relax and friendly, you can hardly recall that you’re in always busy North America, and the style of the people, gives the impression of being in 60’s. it’s truly amazing.

Another interesting stuff about Tam-Tam (that’s not the name but that’s what people call it), is a game, very much like a Medieval Paintball in which geeks, dressed in ancient armors, equipped with foam-made war fare, simulate a medieval war! It’s so funny you’ll laugh your ass off…the two groups stand in front of each other, bump on their shields and attacking each other while screaming….
I’m going to gradually update some of the photos that I took from them, in my flickr. So , Check it out