“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority… Children are now tyrants… They contradict their parents… and tyrannize their teachers.” Socrates (469–399 B.C.) Some elders say they don’t recognize this world; …

“So, how was your date?” “I’d better keep my mouth shut.” That’s exactly how Fran usually starts a detailed disclosure about the events that took place the previous night. “Score it from one to ten.” “Am I allowed to use the decimal scale?…

I’m not sure if it was Jack Kerouac who said that the only requirement he asked of his acquaintances was an uncontrollable fascination towards life. I guess that’s too much to ask nowadays. The twentieth century has passed away and the you…

“Can’t you see how merciful and wise the Universe is? It will always give you back as much as you offer it.” If I had to pick a friend to spend the night stargazing with, I’d choose no other than her. The secrets of the starry sky are some…

The brittle flamenco verses of a drunk man slip into the room from outside, along with the full moon light. It’s Saturday; fifteen minutes to midnight; the precious moment; it’s movie time. 'The Color of God' in Iran, 1999. 'The Color of P…

A recent investigation has proven high IQ causes staying up late at night. Ok, that’s probably not the most accurate summary for such a costly research, but since today is Friday, I’m not going to get into technical slang. The juicy matter…

The most important characteristics that a person can have to be successful in life are self-confidence, perseverance and humanity. Self-confidence will be the start button to have success. Beyond whatever success means for someone, one wil…

10:00 a.m.; tomato on toast; juice made out of one and a half oranges; demitasse of dark coffee; me having breakfast at any coffee shop. Breaking news in the local newspaper: It has been proven that Averroes changed the path of trending to…

It was my second year at college, my friend Rosa and I lived in the downtown area of a cute city in Southern Spain. It was a neighborhood full of college buildings, bookstores, coffee shops and used clothing tents. The music conservatory w…

Sometimes I wonder about the nature of this peculiar phenomenon among people. At times I try to reconstruct the genesis of this sort of miracle. Every so often I want to untangle the geometry of this intangible tie, to extract the recipe o…

I posted a note on the fridge some months ago: ‘Leaving for skipping robe. I’ll be done at 3 p.m. Save some cake for me.’ This note, which was wickedly intercepted by the girlfriend of one of my roommates, generated quite a stir by the tim…

Majid Majidi; what a fun name for a director. I’m about to watch my third movie by him and I still don’t know why or how I’d never heard about any of his famous pieces before. Every now and again I get the feeling that I’m living in a smal…

Tonight I'm feeling like having sushi (and maybe needing one or two spoons of nama cheesecake) so why not have dinner with the honorable Kiyohiko Azuma. After all, I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him yet, so having dinner with him to…

I guess making a change implies a major turnaround. I think until now I’ve not spun far enough to change other people’s lives, or even my own, really. But this period of my life is like the anteroom for that spin, and I couldn’t be more ex…

My brother Manuel was taking what we call a year off from his major. It was not a gap year, like Americans would say, but an Erasmus scholarship program, which in terms of leisure is pretty much the same. This kind of option, that I never …

Whenever I meet J. Cano I know he’ll be carrying some gadgets of extremely high value. Last time, he was carrying a tiny cute drawing pad from which he instantly uploads his scrawl. I can’t forget the first time I saw an iMac computer comi…

While some people swing their entire lives on the same branch, others stay in constant flight. If I had to put myself in one of these two groups, I guess it would already be too late to get a nest nearby. That doesn’t mean I hadn’t enjoyed…

12th of September, Philosophy and Letters campus, green building, second floor, 3:50 pm. Eyes and hands moving at an incredibly high speed between the papers in my folder. I’m searching for a concept. Never figured out it was going to be l…

To have a job is a natural thing, and it is said that we humans spend around 60% of our lifetime working. It’s not something to question. We are born, we go to school, we work, and we die. However, when the natural chain of events gets dis…

That was an odd meeting: my middle sister, her childhood sweetheart, my aunt Encarnita, and I, on a windy summer afternoon, borrowing my father's rickety van and going for no reason to one of the most hostile beaches of the region. Sometim…

“So, Carmen, what do you think the movie was all about?” I somehow love this kind of question, especially when it comes from someone who already knows the film. If there is anything better than watching a movie, it is doing it with someone…

If I had to describe someone who I admire, I would probably talk about Diego. Diego lives close to the train station of a grumpy southern town. He likes waking up early, combing his unkempt eyebrows and allowing his feet to gently guide hi…

Don Gonzalo was the name of the feared Spanish teacher that we got in sixth grade. He was not exactly a Spanish teacher himself, though he was definitely Spanish; I mean, from Spain. What I am trying to say is that his professional field w…

It has a revolutionary flavor and it comes always after a long summer. The streets filled with students, the theater billboards packed with intriguing films and the smell of the newly printed ink flying out of the bookstores as though it w…

Summer breaks, those unending periods of time in my childhood days, three long months of sun and waves during which alarm clocks, teachers and rain boots were a vague memory, almost non-existent. That natural border between the fourth and …

Persian cinema series keeps on going, and I was kind of scared of not being able to find pieces in the same standards of Kiarostami’s. Once your expectations reach a certain level, it’s hard to switch the name of the filmmaker and venture …

If I had the opportunity to travel to a foreign country for two weeks, I would love to go to Cuba. I’ve always felt attracted to that little island, its landscape, its people, their nature, but especially, their music. The first time I saw…

When I think about the priceless teachings learned from the source of experience, when I think about those essential trial and error processes that I’ve gone through, when I watch proud and pleased the winding road I’ve dragged myself on… …

Good roommates are a rare species. They hide in the most unexpected flats, usually in inhospitable districts, dwelling in the smallest rooms, sharing their orange juice and living peaceful lives. For the last years I’ve had a bunch of room…

It is said that reading fiction is more enjoyable than watching movies, but actually I could share a few evidences that it is not always like that. David Cronenberg was one of those geniuses that I began to discover through his old works. …