Viene!

One of my favorite scenes from Bertolucci's movie.  It is beautiful and humorous, and immitates the structure of the whole film.  More than anything, I love the gorgeous dance of Anna and Julia.

tulips on the table

The camera happened to be sitting on the table during dinner; and so did the tulips...

Me Gustas Cuando Callas

Me gustas cuando callas porque estás como ausente,
y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te toca.
Parece que los ojos se te hubieran volado
y parece que un beso te cerrara la boca.

Como todas las cosas están llenas de mi alma
emerges de las cosas, llena del alma mía.
Mariposa de sueño, te pareces a mi alma,
y te pareces a la palabra melancolía.

Me gustas cuando callas y estás como distante.
Y estás como quejándote, mariposa en arrullo.
Y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te alcanza:
déjame que me calle con el silencio tuyo.

Déjame que te hable también con tu silencio
claro como una lámpara, simple como un anillo.
Eres como la noche, callada y constelada.
Tu silencio es de estrella, tan lejano y sencillo.

Me gustas cuando callas porque estás como ausente.
Distante y dolorosa como si hubieras muerto.
Una palabra entonces, una sonrisa bastan.
Y estoy alegre, alegre de que no sea cierto.

Pablo Neruda

¿Por qué me gusta Joan Miró?

Very often we think of our lives in terms of the future: "next year I will graduate," "next week I will start my job," tonight I am going out."  And we are surprised and sad when all of a sudden we realize that a year has gone by and didn't notice.  However, it is hard to focus on the present moment even when we try.

Miró manages to catch a moment in all its splendor.  His works are not like those of Picasso, where cubism describes a few sides of a moment or the immediate past and future of that moment.  In fact, Miró's art is generally abstract enough for the viewer to be unable to guess the next action in a particular painting.  So the image is still, almost stopped.  And yet it is so vibrant and vividly described that it is not frozen.  The image is filled with life and action through the details.

In this way Miró builds a whole and complete present, without the need of basing it on any other moment in time.

Joan Miró

The Red Sun 1924

Phillips Collection

a family

I was looking at the other people in line while waiting to pay in a store and noticed a face with bright make-up. The next time I looked in that direction I saw shiny high-heeled boots. The woman was Russian, as later confirmed by her accent. She was with her American husband and son. It looked like they were out doing family shopping. I immediate remembered the movie "Birthday Girl," about mail-order brides from Russia because I had recently seen it. So I tried to guess at the relationship of the couple I was watching. I could relate to both of them. The woman was very warm and smiling. She loved this man and surrounded him with gentleness. The man looked like any other man that had just spent a couple hours in the store with his family. But he tried to smile back and get involved in a conversation. Yet there seemed to be a thin wall between them.

As they moved through the items displayed along the cash registers, something grabbed the boy's attention and he commented on it. The man asked what he said, and the boy's quick response was "Nothing." The woman asker her husband what was going on. "I asked him what he said, and he said 'Nothing,'" he answered. It felt like this wasn't his son. The woman explained, "He's talking to himself again."

I saw them again as they were walking out of the store. The woman looked strange shopping in this small town in heels and a fancy coat. I remembered when I dressed up for basic daily activities, trying to fit into the society that I came from. I wondered if this woman is happy here. If she felt like she fit in. If she felt like her life fit in here. And the man, does he understand his wife? Is he happy with a beautiful foreign wife?