David Duchovny siempre será el agente Fox Mulder. Le guste o no. Seguramente no le gusta. A ningún actor le hace gracia encasillarse. Encasillarse implica recibir siempre el mismo tipo de papeles, que te paren por la calle y te llamen por el nombre del personaje, incluso cuando ya lo has dejado… David Duchovny pasará a la Historia como el tío raro del FBI que investigaba sucesos paranormales con la cada vez menos escéptica Dana Scully como compañera. Esto es un hecho. Son gajes del oficio, la contrapartida a formar parte de una serie de culto que cambió muchas cosas en la pequeña pantalla.

A David Duchovny no le habrán resultado fáciles los cinco años que pasaron desde el final de Expediente X hasta el arranque de Californication. Cinco años plagados de proyectos menores, de buscar un sitio más allá del despacho más polvoriento y olvidado de los federales. Duchovny siempre será Mulder… pero ahora, por lo menos, puede respirar tranquilo: ha encontrado un nuevo hogar. Su nombre, ya se ha dicho, es Californication.

¿Qué nos venden? La historia de Hank Moody, un escritor con tres obras publicadas, la última adaptada al cine, que escucha los cantos de sirena de Hollywood y cambia Nueva York por Los Ángeles, ciudad que odia con todas sus fuerzas. Claro que tampoco le ayuda haberlo dejado con su compañera, con la que comparte una hija, y sufrir un bloqueo de cinco años (qué coincidencia…) que le impide sacar otro libro al mercado. Como escribir, lo que se dice escribir, no escribe demasiado, el bueno de Hank invierte su tiempo en volvar loca a su ex y, sobre todo, en liarse con todas las mujeres que se ponen a tiro, casi todas ellas, con un patrón claro: jóvenes (alguna menor), guapas y con cuerpos esculturales.

Volvamos a preguntar: ¿qué nos venden? Sexo. Desnudos. Tetas. Culos. Carne, mucha carne. Ahí no escatima Californication (de ahí el título), en la línea de pretéritos productos como Sigue soñando. David Duchovny tiene más escenas calientes en medio capítulo de esta serie que en las nueve temporadas de Expediente X. Nuestro amigo ha pasado de no tocarle un pelo a la fría Scully a llegar a donde haga falta con la mitad de la población de la Costa Oeste. Este es uno de los ganchos de Californication. El otro, supuestamente, el propio Duchovny. Con lo que todo esto conlleva. En honor a la verdad, ya no estamos ante el envarado sujeto de rasgos imperturbables cuyo mayor alarde era comer una pipa de girasol tras otra. Ahora Duchovny gesticula, ríe, hace muecas.

Los personajes poco o nada tienen que ver. En Californication compone a un escritor bloqueado y desencantado con la vida, un crápula, un adicto al sexo, un tipo inmaduro que sólo sabe correr detrás de faldas y meterse en líos, un provocador, un vividor, un mal ejemplo para su hija y un dolor de cabeza para su ex. Ese es Hank Moody. Es de sospechar que hay actores más dotados que Duchovny para interpretarlo, pero el hombre no lo hace mal. Una prueba: un Globo de Oro por la primera temporada y una nominación por la segunda (ahora mismo se emite en Estados Unidos la tercera).

Sexo y diálogos ácidos en capítulos de 25 minutos: es el cóctel que ofrece Californication. Una serie que se deja ver. Duchovny está un pelín solo, mal secundado por la sosa, sosísima, por muy mona que sea, Natasha McElhorne. Aunque no importa demasiado: Californication es Hank Moody, es decir, Duchovny. Casi todos los planos son suyos. Cuando comparte plano es, por lo general, porque comparte cama y en el encuadre hay una rubia con o sin ropa. Al menos, en la primera temporada, que no es cuestión de reventar la serie.

En definitiva: Duchovny ya tiene proyecto estable y debemos alegrarnos por ello. No es el mejor actor del mundo… pero el hombre que encarnó a Fox Mulder merece nuestro respeto.

Title: Fox Hunt
Author: TSWheaton
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 2963
Characters: The Doctor, Grace Holloway, Fox Mulder, Dana Scully

Mulder is on the trail of an alien encounter as ever. This is fun and the twist in the last line is guaranteed to raise a smile.

Optical Illusion, my ass!

une incertaine certitude, ma certitude à moi, c’est que je suis capable de faire voler awel au dessus du Nebraska, et toc!?

Well, another season down. This one had significantly more conspiracy episodes. Some of the highlights of the season were Scully’s abduction, Mulder’s ’sister’ showing up, and the revelation that Mulder’s father and the man who smokes all the time had worked together in the past. The X-Files project was reinstated(like we didn’t see that coming), one town practices devil worship, and another is full of cannibals. Good times. The season ends with Mulder finding ‘the holy grail’: a tape with proof that the government knew about the existence of extra terrestrials. He ends up finding a refrigerated box car (buried in a quarry in New Mexico) filled with dead aliens. Government people come in (via helicopter) and burn the box car…. Tune in next season for the exciting conclusion! This season snags a rating of 8.5/10.

O canal a cabo Showtime renovou a dramédia ‘Californication’ para uma quarta temporada.A estreia da terceira temporada foi o episódio mais assistido da história da série com 1.2 milhão de telespectadores, audiência 57% superior a season premiere da segunda temporada.

Desde sua volta, a série vem atraindo uma média de 821,000 telespectadores, números excelentes para o canal. A recente participação de Ed Westwick, o Chuck de ‘Gossip Girl’, também ajudou bastante a alavancar os números do segundo episódio.

‘Californication’ é protagonizada por David Duchovny, o famoso agente Mulder de ‘Arquivo X’, e acompanha o dia a dia de um escritor que troca Nova York por Los Angeles e é viciado em sexo.

I want to believe.

Not necessarily in aliens or spirits or the Loch Ness Monster (at least not specifically) – but there is an awful lot of stuff out there that defies explanation. The planet’s weirdostat is set pretty high.

This image is one of the Ica Stones – a collection of well over a thousand stones, estimated to be between 500 and 1500 years old, with a variety of indigenous carvings. This one, you might notice, depicts a person riding a triceratops.

Most people will look at something like this and shrug it off as a hoax. And perhaps it is. But what of the Phaistos Disc? the Lid of Palenque? the Baghdad Battery? the Dropa Stones? The Antikythera Mechanism? The gazillions of other oddities and phenomena which sound like Robert Ludlum book titles?

Can they really ALL be hoaxes?

Isn’t there, perhaps, some small chance that maybe we’re WRONG about some of our assertions? Maybe our ‘facts’ aren’t as solid as we think they are when it comes to radioisotope dating*, geological strata, ice core sampling, or even the timing of evolutionary phases.

I’m not suggesting that people ever rode around on triceratops. That strikes me as a very good way to find oneself impaled on horns. At the very least, though, perhaps it means that someone in South America knew about dinosaurs before Westerners began digging them up in the 1850s. Similarly, the Baghdad Battery most certainly suggests that there were people 2500 years ago with some knowledge of electricity. We have pretty much accepted at this point that our ancient forebears had a surprising fluency in mathematics and astronomy – perhaps it’s time we gave a little more and began to seriously look into what else we might have forgotten.

History may be holding onto some seriously cool shit just waiting to be re-discovered.

Also? Perhaps there’s something to the aliens, spirits and/or Nessie as well.

* ‘Radioisotope dating’… if you show me uranium, I’ll show you mine?

today I:

- won a giant panda and an obscene amount of lollies from a skilltester
- finally had my owl tattoo recoloured
- finished viewing Tokyo Gore Police, one of the most ridiculous and hilarious films I have ever seen
- watched Luke & Jesse ‘move their joints’, the latter with mild-at-best enthusiasm
- consumed a chilli prawn pizza with extra chilli flakes and a glass of cold fanta via straw for dinner
- had a prolonged perve on Fox ‘Spooky’ Mulder circa ’90s
- planned fun activities for the near future with Jesse
- settled the mystery of William’s birthday and what to buy for aforementioned 7 year old who is a) in love with me and b) legitimately plans to steal me away from my boyfriend

I think it’s fairly safe to say that today has been very productive.

I was watching the premiere of the new season of Fringe the other night, and man, that show is still… it’s just not there, you know? There’s a nice little reference to The X-Files in the episode, entitled “A New Day In An Old Town,” and while watching it, I kept thinking back to The X-Files, and The X-Files when it was at it’s height, mind you. It’s not hard to let your mind drift like that when you consider how decent the production values on a show like Fringe are, and how horrible the writing is. That, and I was still thinking about the idea of Frankenstein, and that reminded me of the episode from season five of that series, “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” otherwise known as “the black and white episode” in which Mulder and Scully go hunting for a modern day Frankenstein monster in the heartland of America…

Though highly gimmicky, it’s actually one of my favorite episodes of The X-Files, both funny and weird, but still really getting to the core of the show. In fact, looking back now, you could almost say that the show did it’s fluffy light-hearted fare than it did some of the paranormal elements? Maybe.

This is how we all started to feel towards the end of this show, but when it was good, it was damn good.

I don’t want to say too much about the episode, other than it involves a Elephant Man/Frankenstein monster that’s not all that he seems, and who has a serious love for Cher, and it was from the season right before the movie came out. The season after the movie was an interesting one if, for nothing else, you could tell that Chris Carter was seriously bored with the show and just doing whatever he could to keep himself awake (examples being the body switching two parter with Michael McKean, which was excellent, and Mulder’s time travel Nazi hunting vacation in the Bermuda triangle, also excellent).

There’s a whole fansite, called Goodnight, Dr. Frankenstein, and it’s devoted to just this episode alone. Very interesting. Good stuff. I’d suggest you check it out if you get the chance and as for Frankenstein, I’m not done talking about the monster yet, or the literary mad scientists who created it…

(Season 3, Episodes 17-20)

These episodes were almost more fun than they had any right to be. No mythology and I didn’t care a whit. Instead, I got to see a lighter side of The X-Files with an incredibly playful storytelling technique.

The Pusher is one of the best characters they’ve come up with. Even though I never watched the series, I had friends who did, and sometimes I’d be at their house when it was on, though I was usually reading, writing or otherwise occupied. And yet, somehow, segments from “Pusher” stuck with me through the years.

–>to continue reading, follow the link over to the full article on CliqueClack TV

La chanson de Bruce Springsteen You’re missing aurait-elle été écrite à propos de Fox Mulder, l’un des deux héros de la mythique série TV X-Files ?

A visionner ce mash-up très réussi, il y a de quoi se poser la question !

Un bel hommage, aussi, à une flamboyante Red Headed Woman, Dana Scully !

I think I am going to start this as a weekly trippy Sunday morning thing. I’m usual up early anyway so may as well do something semi-productive with my time.  So to start what I think may be the first of a weekly thing, two very contrasting musical styles this morning – John Denver’s Thank God I’m a Country Boy and Good Morning Starshine from Hair.

Both songs are products of the flower-power age of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but geared towards very different audiences – funnily enough. Denver’s originally released in 1974 on Back Home Again and a live version recorded at the Universal Amphitheatre in LA, included on his 1975 album, An Evening with John Denver. It was the live version which was to bring fame to the John Martin Sommers song and went to No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles & the Hot 100, topping both charts for one week only. I like it for it’s simplicity.

Good Morning Starshine , from a single from the musical (1966)/movie (1979) Hair.  Hair is the story of the “tribe”, a group of politically active, long-haired hippies of the “Age of Aquarius” living a bohemian life in New York City and fighting against conscription into the Vietnam War. The song however, is recognised the world over as one of those quintessential flower power type songs that, depending on your taste, provides permission to wear dungarees and bell bottomed trousers with tie-dyed shirts. It has appeared in lots and lots of movies over the years most recently in the Tim Burton’s remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Another useless trivia point, it has featured twice in The Simpsons – once in 1997 in The Springfield Files, where Leonard Nimoy, Chewbacca, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder all sing Good Morning Starshine (the later two being of X-Files fame); and the second in 2001, in Simpson Safari. I know it more for being in the movie Connie and Carla (2004) as part of the fight scene. So without further adieu – here goes…

John Denver – Thank God I’m a Country Boy

From the Movie “Hair” – Good Morning Starshine

Entre Pierre Larousse et Pauly il se passe quelque chose de bizarre

My Digest

Viggo

Location: St. George, Ontario, Canada Introducing “Viggo” (AKA Aragorn LOTR). This little guy won’t be slaying any Orcs; however, pretty soon he will be putting the fear of God in the local mice. This is the little brother of Mulder. Mulder escaped out the door two months ago, and never came home. With all my efforts and with no avail, I have not been able to find him. So, I saw the sign up “Kitt

The Daily Kitten • 1 hour ago

Make: Projects – Polycube puzzles from blank dice

3 A number of interesting assembly puzzles can be made from pieces consisting of simply joined cubes in various numbers and arrangements. Piet Hein’s Soma Cube is a notable example, consisting of all the simply joined non-convex polycubes having four or fewer units. Generally, a polyomino or polycube puzzle is presented as an outline or volume to be filled in with a certain set of pieces. It is

MAKE Magazine • 17 hours ago

Dads Say The Darndest Things…On Twitter

22 Twitter is used for a lot of things these days, but this has to be one of my favorites. A 28-year-old guy named Justin has set up a Twitter account simply to tweet out random things his elderly father says. The title of the feed: “Shit My Dad Says.” Apparently, I’m a bit slow stumbling upon this; even though it was only started at the beginning of August, Justin’s account for his 73-year-old fathe

TechCrunch • 17 hours ago

news

Tim Key’s Edinburgh comedy prize

Poet and performer walks away with main prize at the so-called ‘Oscars of comedy’Self-described “poet, performer and savant” Tim Key has won the main prize at this year’s Edinburgh comedy awards, it was announced this lunchtime.The award, which is generally acknowledged to be the world’s most prestigious comedy gong, rewards the funniest and most interesting set on this year’s fringe, and carries

Guardian Unlimited home | Guardian Unlimited • 1 hour ago

Click here to read more…

Siempre me han gustado las imágenes que salieron en la revista “Rolling Stone” (si no me confundo) de David Duchovny (Fox Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully) y Chris Carter (creador de la serie), en la cama. Menudo trío. Otra cosa es lo que pueda deparar el futuro de los Expedientes X. Por una parte la gran decepción que me supuso la última película me hace mirar con cara de perro cualquier otra toma de contacto con el mundillo de Mulder y Scully. Y por otra, la del fan, albergar algún atisbo de esperanza. De momento hay dos opiniones enfrentadas en cuanto al rumbo a seguir.

La primera opción es una tercera entrega. En la cual Gillian Anderson estaría dispuesta a participar. Y raro sería que no estuviese David Duchovny, ya que en la serie los cambios de protagonistas (Robert Patrick entre otros) no cuajó como para mantenerla.  Anderson dejó claras algunas cosas en el festival de Sarajevo Film Festival. En la página web croata dnevnik podéis ampliar la información (como no creo que sepáis el idioma, bastará con darle al traductor de google o similar). Que por cierto, Dana Scully está espléndida.

Sin embargo, hay otra posibilidad de que los Expedientes X sigan en el candelero. Un “Reboot”. Osea, una actualización al estilo de Star Trek. ¿Qué conlleva eso?. Pues que los actores de la mítica serie sean sustituidos por otros. Olvidaos de Duchovny y Anderson, con lo que ello conlleva para los seguidores de la serie. Puede ser que con eso se acerquen a las expectativas que la productora tenga en mente. Pero el año de estreno aún quedaría lejos, ya que hablamos del 2012.

¿Pondrán a Sam Worthington en el papel de Mulder y a Jessica Biel (por decir alguien) en el de Scully?

Fuente: Cine Actual, Tu Blog de Cine

Fdo: Snake  

One of the interesting things about a WordPress blog are the automatically generated ‘Possibly Related Posts’.  At the bottom of every post are system-generated links to other blog posts that WordPress think are related to it.  It seems to generate mixed results, sometimes the connection pretty obvious, sometimes it leaves you head scratching.  Sometimes it doesn’t appear at all, but, when it does, it’s always interesting.  So, this has inspired me to take a look at some of the possibly related posts on both my blogs, this one and The World Of Sherby57, and see what is what.  The posts I’ve chosen to look at were picked at random.

1. Blog: PSGOM

Post: Season’s Greeting

Topic:  My apathy towards the new football season, Liverpool’s pre-season, and the title contenders.

Links:

Howard Gets His Feet Wet from Sactown Original Raider Boosters – A look at NFL’s pre-season, a totally different type of football but I can see why it is linked.

Two from Word of Ashi is not here, and yet – It’s a Japanese-style poem, and is about as far removed from football-related whinging as you can get.  It contains the word ’season’ though, so WordPress has leapt to conclusions.

“Pump it up, Pump it up”…and the right of our community from Blackinformant.com – A post about how Hip-Hop artists mention only non-black brands in their music.  Interesting, but I’m baffled how it can even be possibly related.

Lions Try to Win Back Disgruntled Season Ticketholders from Fanhouse – Another NFL piece! The Detroit Lions have been trying to win back former season ticketholders by inviting 6000 of them to the team’s training camp (I don’t think all 6000 turned up!).  I wonder if any Premier League teams would do similar scheme in order to boost ticket sales? Sadly, it’s not an issue at Liverpool – 10 years on the waiting list and counting.

2. Blog: Sherby57

Post: Stunner\Dog Mystery Finally Solved

Topic: I congratulate Dr. Angel for solving a brainteaser I set a couple of years ago.  The puzzle came back on the radar as it was mentioned in The Sherby57 Project.

Links:

TS57P – Games, Puzzle and Lies from Sherby57 –  This is definitely a related post! This is the post that rekindled interest in the puzzle.

Post From The Past – July 2007 from Sherby57 – It’s another one of my posts, but not directly linked this time. Post From The Past is my shameless monthly feature in which I dredge up posts from the previous year.  Other than it being by me, I’m struggling to see the connection, but if you want to have a taste of the early days of Sherby57, take a look.

The Sherby57 Project from Sherby57 – Me again.  This is an explanation of what the Sherby57 Project is and what it sets out to achieve (it may, or may not, be serious).  It makes sense as a link because it is mentioned in the post.  I would guess that I generate so many links to my own blogs because I’m the only person that would talk about these topics on the whole of WordPress.

What the heck is this? from TV Squad – How aptly named, because what the heck is this? A link that’s not on Sherby57?? The post is a photo of a building called ‘The Wellington’, that is apparently significant to a TV show, and the reader is asked to guess which show and why it is significant.  I had no idea myself, but it’s where Fox Mulder’s apartment was in The X-Files. You learn something new every day.

3. Blog: PSGOM

Post: Bit Of A Twit

Topic: I announce that I’ve joined Twitter, and that I had reservations doing so.

Links:

RCMP’s pink slip from PinkSlipPerks’s Blog – I don’t really know what this is about.. the post is only a line long.  I believe that being ‘pink-slipped’ is the US equivalent of getting your P45, and this is a blog for people who have been pink-slipped. How it relates to my post is anybody’s guess.

A Summer Spell from ‘no longer exists’ – This post no longer exists and the link redirects to a placeholder.  I will be forever intrigued as to what A Summer Spell was about.

Don’t be jealous of my shirt! from Terri Terri Quite Contrary – “Sorry, the page you are looking for does not exist”, however the blog does still exist. Just how contrary was the tale of shirt jealousy? Inquiring minds need to know.

Facebook adds verification procedure for compromised accounts from DownloadSquad – It’s not related to my post but since I’m permanently suspicious of Facebook, then it’s good to know they are increasing their security measures.

4. Blog: Sherby57

Post: Where Is Mindy?

Topic: I wonder why my friend, Mindy Ruson, has never updated her blog on style.

Links:

Mindy Ruson’s Style Emporium from Sherby57 – In an ideal world I wouldn’t have chosen this post, as there is only one link (and that is back to one of my blogs).  The reason I did choose it is because I couldn’t find any other posts that had PRP’s, they had all mysteriously dried up. Which they sometimes do.  Incidentally, Mindy has still not updated her blog. Come on Mindy.

Well that’s it.  I had originally intended to cover the links from 10 different posts, but then this ended up being far longer than I anticipated.  So, what have I learned from the exercise? Well, sometimes the links make sense and sometimes they don’t; which is what I said at the start of the post.  Despite not learning anything new, it was still an interesting poke around the world of WordPress.

I can only imagine that I’ll be doing this again pretty soon.

Okay, I watched those last two episodes of season one of The X-Files, so I’ll review the season as a whole. Growing up with shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, I find the strangeness moderate. There were just enough political conspiracy episodes to keep me wanting more, with plenty of good monster-of-the-week episodes for filler. Many good episodes that develop Mulder and Scully’s relationship, namely Scully begins trusting Mulder more and more. And in the last episode, Mulder’s informant ‘Deep Throat’ was killed off. Didn’t see it coming, but not complaining, he was a sob anyways. But they shut down the X-files program, so it’ll be interesting to see how they bring it back next season. Overall, I’d give it a 4.0-4.5.

Title: A Federal Case
Author: JJPOR
Rating: PG
Word Count: 567
Characters: Ninth Doctor, Dana Scully

A note perfect cross for both. More, please!

*

Title: Ask A Policeman
Author: JJPOR
Rating: PG
Word Count: 670
Characters: Romana II, Dana Scully

Some Time Lord impossibility and much amusement.

*

And a drabble and a bit:

Title: First Contact
Author: Joseph Q Publique
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: Drabble (and a half)
Characters: Fourth Doctor, Fox Mulder, Dana Scully

Some alien encounters are bit more unexpected than others.

I'ma hurt you, Coop.

Diane? The ties here are retro.

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, someone decided to let David Lynch have his own television series. That’s crazy! Anyhow, the protaganist of the series was an offbeat FBI agent known as Coop. He had a full name, but no one called him that, because why would you when you can call someone Coop?

Coop stands tall as one of the best TV characters ever, in any galaxy.

But is he a better FBI agent than the X-Files’ Fox Mulder?

Let’s compare.

Physicality:

Winner? Fox Mulder. Sure, there was something a little bit sexy about our boy Coop, and he had a head of hair to die for, but I’m sure we all remember that infamous red Speedo scene in the X-files, right? Fox Mulder has a rockin’ body.

Cases solved:

Winner? Fox Mulder. Look, I’m sorry, Coop, but Mulder solved an average of one case an episode, for about 20 cases each season and with five good seasons (I know there were more than five seasons. We’re counting good seasons) under his belt, that’s one hundred cases. What did you do? Found out “who killed Laura Palmer?” Well, bully for you, Coop, but Mulder probably could’ve done it AND not ended up trapped in some horrible alternate dimension. Just sayin’.

Crime-solving style:

Winner? Coop, all the way. Mulder, despite his “I believe” mantra, really needed facts to solve his cases. Coop, on the other hand, had visions of a backwards-talking, dancing dwarf and was possibly not certifiably insane.

Partner:

Winner? Tie. Mulder had Scully, but Coop had the mysterious “Diane.” It might have just been the name of his tape recorder, but you know what? I’m calling Diane his partner anyway.

Ultimate fate:

Winner? Coop. Sure, he ended up in some horrible alternate dimension, but Mulder just starred in some crappy movie that no one wanted to see. Also, I think Coop saved some chick’s soul or something. Mulder just met some aliens.

The tie-breaker:

Fox Mulder is an awful name. Horrible, horrible, horrible. You know the poor thing was bullied as a child. His classmates couldn’t have known then he would grow up to become an alien-obssessed crime-solving hottie! But Coop’s first name is Dale. The winner? Fox Mulder.

Overall winner?

Mulder, by a very sensual nose.

Also, there’s this photo, that made everyone a little bit bi-curious:

Suddenly, I was a 'shipper.

The birthers are, at best, an entertaining collective of citizens. I could take the normal road here and call them right-wing wackos, psycho wing nuts, conspiracy geeks. No, they’re American citizens, after all. Each and every one of them can produce a legitimate birth certificate. Right? It makes no difference. The Obama birth certificate faction is hanging on by their dirty nails to the theory that the 44th President of the United States was not born in the country that he leads and has no legitimate claim to the office which he holds. The people perpetuating this idea make Fox Mulder look like the most reasonable, non-obsessed character ever. Apparently the Live Certificate of Birth from Honolulu is a fraud (a viewer e-mailed Morning Joe on Tuesday and pointed out that a “Live Certificate” is not proof of birth or citizenship). They need more. The birth announcement from the Honolulu Advertiser dated 8/13/61 is a fraud, too, supposedly. So, here we are. Talking about the President’s birth origins during the longest recession since World War II. is weird. Lets just forget 9.7% national unemployment. What the President needs to be honest about is…where he was born. Seriously? Forget affordable health care for all Americans. Nooo, some of us want him to fess up to not being the rightful president. I’ve got some suggestions as to what he can do about the situation.

1. Resign-That ought to shut  the knuckleheads on the right up. He quits, everybody is happy. Oh, and the country plunges deeper into the crisis of confidence that already plagues it. Recession continues, country plunges headlong into the night.
2. Re-birth-President Obama crawls out of giant…um…womb….gooey, dripping re-birth for a nation. He could do it at the Staples Center, which is a popular cult celebrity venue these days.
3. Detroit Lions. He could take over starting quarterback job with the Lions and never be bothered by the media again.
4. Astronaut Training-The President could pilot a new lunar lander, thereby erasing two dopey conspiracies with one fell swoop. Just our luck, the moon will look like Arizona and John McCain will cry foul.

One last thing for this post and regarding this week’s peep-hole zeitgeist. Steve Johnson in today’s Chicago Tribune wrote about the hypocrisy of the Erin Andrews media circus, and after a couple of re-readings I started to see his point. None of us could look her in the eye at this point if we walked up to her on the street, because as guys, we’ve fed the Google circus. Somehow, in some weird way, I’ve learned something about myself. Yikes.

Sui binari del mio passato.mp3

Ogni tanto, torno indietro. Sembra che la mia vita mi costringa a chiudere i files ancora aperti. Naturalmente, sono tutti X files, che fa tanto Mulder e Scully.

Ogni tanto, mi sento come se non ci fosse futuro, ma solo un inatteso, continuo, snervante ritorno al passato. Stesse facce, stesse parole, stessi sentimenti. E mi annoio: naturalmente, mi annoio.

Ogni tanto, scrivo su questo diario, illudendomi di avere tanta strada ancora da percorrere, nuove persone da conoscere e chissà quali mirabolanti avventure da terminare.

Ogni tanto, invece, mi dico che dovrei smetterla di tornare indietro.

The institution of marriage is a very old concept. It was present throughout history, long before Christianity saw the light of this planet. There were different ways of becoming ”bonded”, but the principle remained the same: partnership. The nature of this ”partnership” differed: in some cases it was merely to procreate, in other cases to establish a spiritual bond. The culture that we are living in seems to be set in between the former and the latter. Marriage in the Western world appears to be based upon ”gender role practice” where two people mutually reinforce stereotypical behavioral patterns. What is even more grotesque is the lack of awareness which accompanies the entire process. But marriage itself is neutral – it is an idea, it does not align with anyone. It can be a powerful positive experience as well as a nightmare. Unfortunately, more and more people seem to view marriage as a way of sublimating their urges. There are easier ways of doing the latter – we do not have to get seriously involved and pay the consequences later. This is why for many marriage is a failed institution with no practical application in the eyes of many.

This essay is an attempt at delving into the core of  ”the marriage problem.”

First and foremost, whether marriage reflects its purpose as stated by Jesus and others – no one can be certain. We can claim that marriage is a male idea because Jesus was a man; because priests are overwhelmingly men; and that women are clearly ignored/discriminated despite claiming to the contrary. It is puzzling as to why a woman would consider marriage to be a joyous occasion if it is one of the most significant chapters in her life, sealing her fate to be subjugated by the patriarchal system of the Church and other religions/ideologies? Many women tend to overlook that ”minute” detail or they justify it somehow to feel better about the whole process. What else can they do if entire society has been set a long time before their birth? We can only wonder why the ”fair sex” has problems with grasping their precarious position.

Secondly, most parents want to their progeny to see the sunlight. Once their child is born into this world, the perpetual cycle of despair continues. Behavioral thought patterns that govern the parents are then conferred onto an unsuspecting child before it can voice an opinion. After years of subtle – and not so subtle – conditioning of which the parents are unaware of, it is virtually impossible to think for ourselves.  The victims become perpetrators. Father tells his son to ”treat women well” and ”protect them at all cost” while the mother tells her daughter to ”look for her knight in shining armor” and ”wave her handkerchief whilst her husband marches off to fight the bad guys.” The meme ( a belief spreading akin to a virus ) takes over human lives and thrives, wreaking havoc throughout society. But society is always there to make sure proper terms exist to label people causing problems.

Thirdly, society needs the institution of marriage. Without the latter, it would not be able to sustain itself. No population, no people working for the elderly, et al; chain reaction set in motion. Homosexuality is stigmatized because it leads to societal collapse – not enough people to perform basic functions necessary to maintain the status quo. The way homosexuality is stigmatized involves various tactics, but the underlying principle remains the same: the societial edifice is a selfish creation. Akin to SkyNet, it needs categories, it needs labels. It is a virus which connects everyone under the same umbrella. To see how strong this virus is, just watch a movie depicting an embarrassing situation when others are around you. What is your reaction? Most people would feel rather awkward despite the fact that nothing is really happening to them. Why?

Fourthly, there are different styles of marriage. In some countries, polygamy is the norm but husbands need to make sure his wife is financially secure. Polygamy can also become a dreary custom when dealing with deranged individuals, such as Warren Jeffs who threatened women with eternal damnation if they did not satisfy his sexual needs.

To conclude, there is nothing wrong with the idea behind marriages. It is the execution (sic?)  that counts. Two ‘’soulmates” can form a union from which prolific riches spring.  The definition of ‘’soulmate” as well as what constitutes a ”couple” – these notions are not easy to answer and each culture is going to offer a multitude of arguments as to why they are the only ones who got it all right. The more pervasive a meme is, the more it appears that we are dealing with tacit knowledge rather than speculation set in stone by repetition.

Indeed, are we just walking automatons playing out the message programmed into us by society? If so, who has programmed the programmer?