YA NO HAY JUGADORES COMO ANTES

Con motivo de la convocatoria de la seleccion, me ha dado curiosidad por Vicente del Bosque como jugador; y me he dado cuenta que, incluso en sus epocas de futbolista, Don Vicente tenia algo especial. Algo que casi ninguno de los futbolistas de hoy en dia posee....mostacho.
Los atuendos y tendencias cambian con las epocas, pero ninguno, creo yo, ha sufrido tanto los vaivenes de la moda como el bigote. A dia de hoy es muy dificil, si no virtualmente imposible, encontrar un jugador en activo con bigote...al menos en Europa.

Antonin Panenka

 El bigote tuvo su momento en los 70 y su apogeo en los 80. Uli Stielike y y el gran capitan del mejor Liverpool de todos los tiempos, Graeme Souness, eran abanderados del mostacho. El bigote era simbolo de virilidad y potencia, pero ademas clase  y genialidad, como la del mitico Antonin Panenka, que dejo boquiabiertos a todos con el celebre lanzamiento que lleva su nombre en lo que fue la primera tanda de penalties de la historia.

Y entonces llegaron los 80...y la locura se desato en torno al bigote. Equipos como el FC Barcelona tenian en sus filas a un destacamento de orgullosos portadores de mostacho: Schuster, Migueli, Caldere, Clos, Rojo entre otros. Lo cierto es que durante ese periodo se podria haber cambiado hasta el escudo del equipo, actualizandolo a los tiempos pertinentes

El hecho que a medida que avanzaran los 80 se fuera asociando al mostacho  mas con la audiencia de un concierto de The Village People que con el prototipo de futbolista aguerrido, no parecia importar a los a los ilustres "bigotudos". Tenemos ejemplos como el gran Ian Rush, maximo anotador de la historia del Liverpool con mas de 300 dianas...un bigote que seguro pasa a la historia.

Pero donde brillaron los bigotes por todo lo alto fue en le Mundial de Italia '90. El mundo entero vio el bigote de Roger Milla bailar en el banderin de corner, despues de robarle la cartera al, tambien bigotudo, Rene Higuita, mientras el bigote de Carlos Valderrama asistia impotente a esa escena. Los bigotes volverian a ser protagonistas en una de la simagenes mas lamentables de toda la Copa del Mundo: en el partido entre Holanda vs Alemania. En un lance del juego, el holandes Frank Rijkaart y el alema Rudy Voeller se engancharon y terminaron ambos expulsados.  Mientras se dirigian a los vesturarios, Rijkaart escupio a traicion en la cabeza a su contrincante, quien al percatarse, sin hacer aspavientos, le siguio y le devolvio la descarga mucosa. Los bigotes no se andan con chiquitas.

Empezaban los 90. Lauridsen, Gullit o el mismo Rijkaart se afeitaron el bigote. El mostacho estaba en claro declive, cada vez habia menos bigotes y de menor calidad. En lugar de Schuster aparecio Sanchez Jara... ya no era lo mismo. Tan solo David Seaman mantenia viva la imagen del mostacho en partidos de alto nivel, aunque, algunas de sus actuaciones (gol de Nayim, final de la Recopa o Gol de Ronaldinho en Mundial'02), condenaron al bigote a un ostracismo del que aun no ha salido. Si bien es cierto que algunas prometedoras estrellas tontearon con el mostacho al inicio de sus carreras, en cuanto sintieron la llamada del glamour y el estrellato, se deshicieron por completo de su apendice supralabial...traidores!

Desde hace varias temposradas, que no se ven bigotes desfilar, por las arenas mas importantes del circuito mundial. Tan solo el delantero italiano Luca Toni, durante la Euro 2008, trajo atencion, al dejarse crecer un incipiente bigote hasta que lograra marcar...clrao que la gente lo veia como un simbolo de su mala racha. Al final no marco, Italia fue eliminada en cuartos y de regreso a su pais se lo afeito. Esa fue la ultima vez que se vio un bigote, y no fue ni en condiciones.

Pero en fin, hay que aceptar que las modas pasan, los tiempos cambian y los bigotes se afeitan. Si hubiera que realizar una seleccion con los mejores bigotes, yo pondria esta. No estan todos los que son, ni son todos los que estan pero, yo creo que daria el pego.

Genius at Work

There it is, one of my idols at work (being the other one Gary Larsson). Scott Adams drawing Dilbert. When I see a drawing or cartoon, in this case, I'm always curious about the techniques and procedures. Especially since I like to retouch everything by computer since my comic strip is on-line only. I found this amazing video of Adams drawing his Dilbert strip and I was stunned by the piece of wacom he is using. Only $1,999.00!!! Well, he deserves it. So, he's not using ink and paper anymore, it's cool. That would reduce the time I spend on every cartoon about...75%. I just find so curious he first makes a rough draft and then draws on top of that one, maybe that's how he used to work on paper, old habits die hard...I might give a try to the Bamboo tablet my wife bought...Since I am left handed it's kind of hard for me to work on ink, and I learned to use the mouse with my right hand, so using the tablet with my left hand prooved kind of akward on my previous experiences...but then again I wasn't using a wacom brand tablet, so maybe it is a question of hardware. I'll give it a try and I'll post the results. In the meantime, behold the master in the Process of Creation.
p.s. here's the video with a better quality.

LE CAFE

Something incredibly funny I found at the Future Shorts page. I think most of us would identify (to some extend) with the protagonist. I had to watch it over and over and over. It's French with English subtitles. Je vous le recommande!!!!

The Infinite Brain

Feeling like there's an idea within an idea within an idea of what you are. How many yous you are? and most important, how many yous you will achieve to be. I feel capable of doing so many things, that sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the impossibility of mastering them all. Maybe that's what growing up means after all...letting go. Choosing. Discriminating one YOU over the others...but what about regrets? What about the "what ifs"? Do we have to keep going forward like blinded horses through our path only to turn our heads at the end of the road and seeing all what we missed? And then...there is the futility of it all...Frivolity or cynism are just mere remedies against madness. Think out of the picture..once you're done...there's not much left of you. Therefore, there are only two things worth living for: Having fun, and leaving an imprint...so the most optimistic conclusion I can reach is :"Have fun while leaving the imprint." I warned you, frivolity is my remedy against madness.

Mise en Abîme

Citizen Kane; Orson Welles, 1941

Also known as the matrioska effect, or the chinese box effect, or the Moebius loop and many others...It is a term coined by André Guide, and basically means to put a text within a text (or image). We all have done it, at one point or another, standing between two mirrors and observing our reflection being thrown to the abyss. It has been used in literature for a long long time: a story containing another story containing another story. e.g. The One Thousand and One Nights. It gives a sense of infinite realities linked with the divine. Little realities contained by bigger ones, making us wonder if ours is the highest in jerarchy or we are just the reflection of another one. The philosophical implications of that technique are obvious: the futility of our own existence when it loses its uniqueness. Bound to repeat the same actions over and over and commiting the same mistakes without remission. Welles used it to depict the solitude and infinite fortune of Charles Foster Kane. Lost amongst his uncountable objects, unable to distinguish his self from the image he created of his life. Accompanied only by his own reflection, Kane dies in utter solitude. In other movies like Inception, mise en abîme is no longer a resource to add meaning to the plot, but the plot itself.
This repetition technique has also been used in advertising, with such fortune, it also goes by the name of a chocolate brand. However, my favourite one is La Vache qui rit.
Since it has a very powerfull aesthetical impact, mise en abîme has been used in video-clips since the very begining. Its use spans from what's considered the first video-clip (as we understand them now) Bohemian Rhapsody until today, with videos like Seven Nation Army or, my all time favourite Michel Gondry's video-clip, The Chemical Brothers' Let forever Be.

But what about real life? Has anybody experienced a mise en abîme? I guess dejà vus might count, but unless you have five in a row, the effect would wear off pretty quick. That's when the guys of Improv Everywhere come into place. They pulled a mise en abîme performance at a Starbucks Cafe. The same chain of actions were repeated over and over. People started feeling something funy was going on.

Exit through the gift shop!!!!

   Last wednesday I was comming back from work on my bike when I stumbled across this stencil painting by the 101. It obviously looks like Banksy's work, and since I knew he was in California (the Oscar's night had been 3 days before), chances were it was an actual Banksy. I looked on the internet and apparently it is. Woohooo, how cool is that!
   I was never a street art follower until a few years ago Gabriela Berti approached me to help her put together the videos and images she had recollected for her book, Pioneros del Graffiti en España in a mini-documentary that would go with the book's presentation (see). I am still a neophyte on the matter but I must confess it's a truly fascinating world. Not only for the art itself, but in regards with the artistic movement and commmnity -since it is not very legal.

   So I got curious and decided to watch the documentary for which Banksy was nominated to the Oscar: "Exit throught the gift shop". I have never seen anything like it since Orson Welles' F for Fake. It is clever, witty, deeper in message than it looks and I don't buy for a second this is an actual documentary.
  Banksy's Thierry Guetta is like Welles' Elmir de Hory, the vehicle around whom a very interesting dissertation about art -and its value- is made. We live in a consumer society and art has never ever been so available and easy to reproduce. Through repetition, art becomes meaningless but iconic, and that's what pop culture is all about: icons. Banksy is now an icon, as Thierry Guetta aka Mr.Brainwash and that's why all these art galleries want his woks and collectors pay ridiculous amounts of money for his pieces. If Guetta's persona is a Banksy's fabrication, then it is most likely that his rip-off work is actually Banksy's.  So what is the value of that piece, then? As Welles quotes in his film, Picasso claimed he was, too, capable of painting a false Picasso.
   Guetta becomes a monster, and Banksy is like Dr. Frankenstein, because he created the monster. As I read it, Guetta represents Banksy's increasingly popular persona, something he cannot control. He cannot be held responsible for people wanting to pay thousands of dollars for his paintings. Banksy says in the film: "Guetta didn't play with the rules, but then again there are no rules". That is the whole statement of the film. There are no rules in art. Once the fever passes and the hype is gone, only then, with time, we will be able to tell if it was good or not. If it will remain or it will fade like a trend. Time is the only judge of Art.

Some Industrial

A few months ago, during an informal meal, I was approached with the idea to design for the web-site of the guys at Lift Support Depot. I found the idea quite interesting and I actually had a lot of fun doing it since I prefer freehand drawings to vectorial. At the end, everybody was happy. Funny if you come to think they pay better than any of the other artistic stuff I did...