The Obama deception: bullshit or food for thinking?

Recently, a friend pointed me to this video, which looks controversial to say the least; at first I thought it was cheap propaganda made by republicans to bash Obama. But I decided to have a look by myself, and was shocked, since in fact it is quite the opposite: they suggest that Obama, like Bush, were just muppets from the big economic powers in the USA.

Whether this is just bullshit, or contains interesting information about hidden powers, it is up there for you to decide:

Pentax engineers talk about their approach to design the Pentax K-7

The website OK1000pentax.com, a well known and interesting Pentax blog, has published two articles that I consider extremely interesting, written by the heads of the Pentax teams in charge of designing the Pentax K-7 itself, and the user interface, Toshihiro Hamamura and Takeharu Shin, respectively. So I suggest to read quietly their words, as they provided an insightful glimpse in the development of this fine camera.

Pentax 7 camera design

Pentax 7 user interface design

The wonders of the digital TV world

For my whole life, I have been using analogue TV, and in the last years, where cable and digital, payed TV plattforms appeared, I always said (and keep on saying) that I absolutely refuse to pay to watch TV. So I kept using standard, analogue TV.

Then, a couple of years ago, we all started listening to loud noise about the supposed countless wonders of digital terrestrial tv, which was going to transform the world of tv for much better. As in the case of CD, I think the guys promoting that stuff were pretty successful, and everybody was convinced it was going to be a real advance.

Now, here we are, only a few months before the definitive analogue TV switch-off. In Spain, from April 2010, we will only have digital terrestrial tv or else, ADSL or cable TV plattforms. So, for a couple of years already, I have digital TV tuners at home, and recently we purchased a new TV set with digital tuner onboard. In theory, the new TV with digital TV was going to be a much better overall TV watching experience than in the past. But you know what? It was not the case.

There are a few chains that are correctly received and then, the image quality is correct. But when I mean "correct", I mean it is being shown as intended by the broadcaster. Now, if I actually compare the quality of that broadcast with the same chain on analogue TV, the sad truth, in more than a few cases, is that the resolution of the image is significantly lower than in alogue broadcasts. So much for the advantage of digital. In a few cases, the quality is the same making that comparison, but NEVER, and I know what I say, never the digital broadcast is improving on the analogue one.

But wait, there's more: thanks to a media war which is currently being made in my country, between the conglomerates Mediapro and Prisa, Mediapro just launched a new chain devoted to football (Gol TV), and it will be the first to include many parts of coded signal, requiring a special tuner to watch them AFTER PAYING the corresponding fee per month. But this is not the worst: the worst of all is that, apparently, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Mediapro intends to setup a new plattform enabling other enterprises to broadcast their chains using the same system of payment. This means that countless digital tuners already sold and working at the homes of many people, will be unable to access such payed signals.

Now, the events described in the last paragraph don't matter much to me, since I won't pay in any case. What annoys me big time is the fact that, in the domain of standard TV chains, those with broadcasts of general content, there will probably be, very soon, an amount of emmissions requiring pay per view, and I bet they will be the few shows worth to watch.

I have the feeling that we have been betrayed by the government, who is allowing the transformation of generalistic TV (payed by advertisements) into the same, specialized, payed TV that has been a plague in the last ten years or so. In other words: I'm afraid that standard generalistic TV is on the verge of dying.

What a wonderful world, is that of digital.

The Lotusflow3r.com deception

(Disclaimer: I have never been member of any Prince official website).

Just a few years ago, Prince received an award for being one of the pioneer musicians in using the internet to promote and distribute their work, and I think it was rightly awarded. He's been using the net since the late 90s, and if we look at the meaning of "pioneer", he was one of those, indeed. Now, the success of his subsequent websites has been diverse to say the least.

The initial efforts (www.thedawn.com and www.love4oneanother.com) were warmly received by fans, until the controversial story of love4oneanother.com (where Prince tried to unite all other fansites with his own one, in a move which proved to be more another hint of overcontrolling attitudes than anything else). But that was then, and I'm not going to digg into old dirt.

www.npgmusicclub.com proved to be more effective, and while it lasted, it provided a significant amount of unreleased Prince music, besides giving possibilities to fans to buy privileged tickets for live shows. I wouldn't go as far as to say that subscribers were completely happy about it, but at least it had interesting content. However, it ended in 2006 for reasons unexplained to date.

Then it was time for www.3121.com, where the big change is that music was severely lacking (with only a few exceptions). The regular releases of the NPGMC were missing, and it seemed an halfhearted effort to get online presence, after the disappearance of npgmc.com.

Then it was the time for www.lotusflow3r.com, launched early in 2009. The initial hype, and the apparently professional design of the site, convinced some fans (including yours truly) that this time, Prince was leading a serious effort to fully take profit of the many possibilities offered by internet in 2009. There were supposed to be loads of exclusive content, tickets for fans, and countless other items, with the headline of "An entirely new galaxy awaits". Amognth the icings on the cake, there was also an exclusive t-shirt for initial subscribers. All of that costed "only" $77.

Now here we are, in late September 2009. Almost nothing from the many announced contents in Lotusflow3r.com have been provided: besides the three official albums of the Lotus flow3r release, only a handful of videos/songs, pretty much no news whatsoever regarding the activity in the world of Prince, and besides, some subscribers continue reporting that they have not received their exclusive t-shirt thus far. All of this, among the wide disappointment of Lotusflow3r.com subscribers, who are seeing very little matter to compensate for their hard-earned $ 77.

Worse of all, Prince has been using an external webpage, www.drfunkenberry.com, as a semi-official outlet to provide hints, news and sometimes even songs or snippets of songs to fans, as he did yesterday with a rehearsal take of Why you wanna treat me so bad. All of this content should, obviously, be first posted at the official site, Lotusflow3r.com, even if later it could be distributed to other fansites. But consistently, Prince continued ignoring his own official, much hyped website, to keep on feeding a blog devoted in great part to celebrities gossip.

It is hardly surprising that subscribers of the official site feel disappointed: they believed the initial claims from Prince's environment about the interest of the new site. However, they have only seen a brilliant framework, developped with the last technologies but virtually devoid of anything of interest, and the holy grail (aka the old, unreleased classic recordings of Prince which make the rounds in the net in unofficial fan compilations) keep being locked in the vault.

Now, what are the reasons for this illogic behaviour (yes, I know it is foolish to look for logic in princeland)? It is really difficult to understand: in this case, there was clearly a significant effort in the deployment of lotusflow3r.com and apparently, a good team of web developpers had been signed. So, why to put such a shining envelope, and then provide nothing to fulfill fans expectations??

Maybe it is due to the classic "sudden-lack-of-interest" from Prince: he's been known to loss interest on any new project, as soon as he is done with it. Right at the time his public is waiting for promotional efforts to push it, he's already engaged in the next project. This is always a bad move in the world of music, but in the current situation, where even first level acts struggle to get media attention, it is even worse. Now, sending notes to every press/news agency to let them know about a "new galaxy awaiting" website, then letting it abandoned for months and months, it is close to stupidity, in strictly marketing terms.

Maybe it is due to receiving an underwhelming response from fans. Although I have seen no figures on the number of subscribers, maybe Prince expected much more, and when he saw the lack of interest, decided to let it go without further explanations.

Maybe it is due to the lack of a professional management & promotional team around Prince. Since his much discussed departure from WB in the mid 90s, Prince has been pretty much playing his own game with only temporal contracts with labels or enterprises to book tours. Curiously enough, the official reason for leaving WB is that he was not allowed to release as much music as he wanted; and then one wonders why did he release so little, by comparison, in his independent years. Curiously enough also, the big successes in the last years were marked by the presence of AEG and all their heavy promotional weight, first in the Musicology tour, then in the 21 nights in London. But it is becoming obvious that, when Prince is left to his own devices, the marketing & promotion drop to miserable levels, including often flops as announcements of shows in arenas which are cancelled in dates very closed to the supposed actual performance (Dublin anybody?).

Or maybe it is simply due to a lack of focus in Prince, possibly related to personal matters that I won't discuss.

Regardless of the actual reasons, the Lotusflow3r deception is being loudly heard in the community of hardcore fans of Prince music. Prince, or someone close to him, should take notice and react. Hardcore fans are not for granted, and their money is even less for granted. When you keep on disappointing them again and again, maybe a significant amount could decide to definitely stop wasting money on much hyped, new Prince websites, whatever future ones are created.

Prefab Sprout's "Let's change the world with music" was just a demo!!!

During the last days, I am enjoying a lot the new album from Prefab Sprout, "Let's change the world with music". Besides, I am trying to get as much information about it as I can, and to this purpose, I am very grateful to the fansite www.prefabsprout.net, which is pointing out to different articles, and in special to a recent, very enlightening audio interview with the genius of Paddy McAloon.

This is truly a beauty of recording, with Paddy in full shape, singing lyrics that almost nobody else could write, with a soulful voice, and with a sound that has nothing to envy from the most accomplished pop albums; but what I found most astonishing is the fact that, according to articles and the above mentioned interview, this album is nothing else than a DEMO!!! Yes, you have read it correct: this, which I consider probably the finest pop album of the year (and possibly of a few years in retrospect), is only an unpolished demo which was presented by Paddy to his label, back in 1992/93, with a bunch of songs to choose from. In other words, this had to be further produced and ellaborated with the help of allmighty Thomas Dolby and the participation of the rest of the band!!!

This fact alone would be remarkable to evidence the huge musical talent of Paddy; but wait, there's much, much more: there is the jewel called "Music is a princess", upon which I am hanging for a few days; there is "Sweet gospel music", an improbable melody that catches you forever; there is "Angel of love", one of those vaporous songs from Paddy, providing the best possible end for the album; there is the sticky "Last of the great romantics", one of those songs which get into your head immediately; and there is the esoteric sound of "Ride"... there are too many outstanding features in this album to summarize all of them. All I can say is that it is the best surprise I could expect, and that it makes me all anxious to listen to more of the past, unreleased albums from Prefab Sprout (and according to Paddy, there are many of them).

The definitive review of the Pentax K-7, just published at The Online Photographer

As a Pentax user, I have a close look on all their new products, and in the case of the current flagship Pentax model, the K-7, that attention is somehow related to a dream (as most probably I won't buy that camera). Although admittedly, my current dream equipment would be a K-7 with a full set of Pentax limited primes, and then plenty of time to shoot and enjoy pictures. But truth be told, neither my budget, nor my usual amount of free time, would allow me to take fully profit of those.

In the mean time, I read with plenty of attention the good reviews, and as I said quite a few times, there are two reference sites to me regarding photography: in Spanish, DSLRMagazine; and in English, The Online Photographer, aka TOP. TOP just published their review of the Pentax K-7, from which the two first parts are already available (here and here); the third and final part will be posted in short. As usual, this is a review for photographers and people interested in photography, not for pixel peepers, fanboys or nonsense readers. And there is more than enough material to put me in full drooling time.

"Obama is a communist"

I found this drawing in Escolar.net; apparently the author is Australian and it was published by the Herald Tribune. But regardless, is the best and most spot-on summary I have seen on the current situation in the USA.

Confusion in Spanish media: El País smashing against Zapatero, El Mundo supporting him

Further in the line of confusion in Spanish politics regarding which media is supporting whom, the last week was a funny one for people interested in the topic, although it also was somehow pathetic. El País, a newspaper which has historically supported progressive views, and specifically the Socialist Party, published a couple of a couple of editorials strongly critizicing the politics of Zapatero. And to put the icing on the cake, El Mundo, a longtime antagonist of El País, and usually very critical of socialist governments, published another editorial where they lauded Zapatero for not bending to the pressures from PRISA, the holding publishing El País. Moreover, they publish today an article reporting that Zapatero decided to fight against those pressures.

Those of us having followed politis in Spain for some time are absolutely shocked by the turn of these events, and I'm sure that subscribers and usual readers of both newspapers are these days completely confused by the situation. In fact, an article published yesterday by the El País' ombudsman is good evidence of how troubling is this being for their longtime, loyal readers. The last paragraph of that article is quite revealing on the way things are going:

When suspicion is installed in the media ecosystem, not only does it affect the credibility of the focused medium, but also that of journalism in general. And it creates disaffection. It feeds a discourse according to which, it seems normal that a Government, of whatever sign, wants to have friendly media and uses the power tricks to get it; and also, that operators respond to that game by using their influence in order to deffend their corporate interests. The result of this discourse is an idea of lethal effects: that all of them are the same, governments and media. To demonstrate the opposite, hence, is a democratic imperative.

When I was a child, I was very early interested in politics; and I remember, in the early 80s, listening to the advices of my grandmother: "My son, don't mix yourself into politics, as politics is only "you get out of here, because I want to be there""*. At the time I thought that she was quite ignorant and I was all wise. Now I realize the ignorant was me and she was very, very wise.

* The actual sentence, which in Spanish is quite meaningful, was this "Hijo mío, tú no te metas en política, que la política sólo es quítate tú que me ponga yo".

New, entry level dSLR camera from Pentax: K-x

This time without previous leaks (and contrary to what is becoming a rule in other brands), Pentax just introduced a new, entry level dSLR camera: the Pentax K-x. You can find the full information at the official Pentax page. I will only mention a few details: behind the fancy look with different colours to choose, this camera holds much more features than its price tag and target public might suggest: 12 Mpixels, stabilized senor, recording of movies in full HD, the classic compatibility with the full, huge Pentax range of lenses (legacy & current ones), and an image quality which will probably full the requirements of the usual no-frills, all serious category of Pentax. Given the price of this camera ($ 650/ € 600 including the 18-55 lenses), it seems to me the dream entry model to photography lovers who intend to jump from good compact cameras to a beginners dSLR camera enabling them to learn and move up.

But probably the big news, behind this announcement, is that Pentax (owned by Hoya) decided to use a sensor manufactured by Sony, and not Samsung (which provided the sensor used in the K20D and K-7). All signs suggest that the past partnership around dSLR photography between Pentax and Samsung is over. Whether this is good or bad news, we will see, although I particularly think it is a good idea to have an open range of providers instead of sticking to just one. Besides, the recent rumblings about Pentax thinking seriously to join the micro 4/3 system, seem to point out to a very open (and hopefully promising) future for Pentax.

Carpe diem 2009: The coast of Benalmádena at night

Well, today it's the turn of a late favourite kind of photographies of mine: night shots taken at low ISO. One evening, in August, we went to get the aerial tram in Benalmádena, mostly to show it to our kids. Up at the mountain, there was a magnificent view of the coast around, and I hope the next shots will be good evidence. All were taken with the Pentax K 10D manually set up at ISO 100 and with manual exposure, held on top of rocks.

Carpe diem 2009: pictures of family & kids

When Housequake.com existed, I had the tradition of posting pictures taken during summer vacations under the heading "Carpe diem". Since I can't do it anymore, I will continue the tradition out of Housequake; so here you have assorted shots taken at a few different places last August, with kids, family, and friends. As usual, my pictures were taken with a Fujifilm Finepix F30 compact camera and a Pentax K10D with 18-55 kit lenses; in case somebody cares, the Pentax pictures are easy to differentiate because they look skinnier (or less square, if you prefer). I start with pictures of family & kids, a favourite topic of all fathers.



And here you'll see the most important people in the world to me:










I adore the next picture: it is from the son of a cousin, who had a great time in our hometown house below a shower. This is just one of countless pictures I took from him on that day:

The obscene spectacle of the preparations for influenza A

I have said nothing here thus far on this topic, but I think it is about time: I am really ashamed of how the world health authorities, and more specifically those from my country, are reacting to the supposedly huge danger from the influenza A virus. There are already countless reports evidencing that this virus has levels of mortality similar, if not lower, to those of any standard influenza. There were previous campaings from the World Health Organization suggesting that the avian influenza virus would cause millions of deaths, which were proven boldly wrong. And in spite of that, here we are again, suffering a ridiculous media campaign to scare people about the new influenza A pandemic disease, so that they can justify huge expenses to (supposedly) protect the population.

It's time to say it loud: This is pure nonsense. The only way to understand all the noise is to have a look at the pharmaceutical companies producing the antivirals and the vaccines, and see the tremendous profit they are making these days.

The influence of large pharmaceutic companies on government and international institutions has always been big; but in this particular occasion, the spectacle is truly obscene, and the situation is absolutely pathetic: no data taken from the real world is supporting the uncountable measures being undertaken by governments to fight against influenza A; all we have is just another wave of influenza, like those suffered by humans along their whole story. But we are spending money against a supposed, inexistent menace as if there was not tomorrow. Many other diseases, both in and out the first world, are causing way more deaths every year than influenza A, and still receiving far less resources: Why?

I can only imagine an answer: because there are extremely powerful economic interests pushing to spread the fear from influenza A. ONLY because of that.

Even El Pais criticizes the disperse economic politics of the Spanish Government

El País, besides being the main newspaper in Spain, is not suspicious of being right-handed in its political ideology. Thus it's quite surprising to see articles with strong critics on the current Spanish government, a socialist one head by Zapatero. Today, El País publishes a long article describing the confusion regarding the economic politics between the components of the socialist party, many of which disagree from the distance as, apparently, Ms. Zapatero is surrounded by yes people. All in all, I wonder if this article (with whose substance I wholeheartedly agree) is based on an objective regard to the government from El País. Or, maybe the serious economic problems of PRISA, the enterprise publishing El País, are somehow linked to this surprising turn in an otherwise usually prosocialist newspaper. In this view, and for whatever reasons, another big media group in Spain, Mediapro, is being lately the favourite of the Zapatero government; this was reflected, last August, in a hurried authorization of pay-per-view in digital terrestrial television, a measure designed to allow a tv chain from Mediapro to sell football matches from the Spanish league.

It is quite ugly, besides disgusting, to see that the ideology of media groups is unashamedly driven by their economic interests, and that newspapers that were (once) an ideologial reference, have become just another tool into that general strategy.

So much about "Diario independiente de la mañana", a sentence which was changed (in all logic, it seems) after the last redesign of this newspaper.

Update: It seems the situation is getting so heated between Zapatero and El País that even The New York Times is reporting about it.

New Leica models: S2, M9 and X1

Yesterday's was one of those days with loads of electronic noise, for people like me, interested in Apple stuff (new iPod range) and in photography. And in the world of photography, there was a much expected announcement from Leica, where they introduced three new models: the S2 (high-end, full frame dSLR system), the X1 (an APS sensor, fixed lens camera) and finally the very hyped Leica M9.

There are many places with information about the new models, and particularly the new Leica M9. I would particularly recommend to have a quiet read on The Online Photographer article, adequately entitled "Leica's back". It contains the video of the announcement, made by Leica's CEO, Rudi Spiller.

Now, there is an extremely interesting and insightful article on the new Leica products in a Spanish website I have previously discussed here: DSLR Magazine, run by Valentín Sama. He's a well known and very reputed Spanish photographer, and his articles are a class act, going way beyond the usual repetition of press releases which you find often in other, supposedly informative, websites. So if you understand Spanish, I strongly suggest you have a look at his article on the M9 here and on the X1 here. And even if you don't understand Spanish, an automated translation might be well worth to make.

Steve Jobs back onstage to introduce new iPod range

Yesterday's music event from Apple introduced the 2010 range of iPods, with less new features than rumoured; namely, the lack of camera in the new iPod Touch surprised many people; according to reliable sources, it was due to late technical issues in the camera parts, which prompted the delay in their presentation.

But beyond the specific features of the new models (well documented in the web), in my opinion the big news was the reappearance of Steve Jobs onstage to present new Apple products. This has been almost discarded by many people, with some bold profile bloggers suggesting it would never happen again. So it was good to see the boss back home. His look seems to me expectable for someone who had a recent liver transplantation, and the important point is that Jobs is actually back at work, personally leading the development of the new Apple tablet, which everybody expects to be released in 2010.

So I hope those are all good signs of more exciting products to come, from someone who has pioneered the world of computers and consumer electronics in a way that nobody else ever did.

Hitler vs Prince

An anonymous fan made this video, which has been making the rounds in the net, and has also been deleted in some major Prince places. I find it hilarious and thought it would be good fun to share it here. In the line of similar Hitler videos, discussing very different topics (just make a quick search in youtube and you will see), I think this one is really brilliant and highlights some common complaints from longtime Prince fans.

Let's change the world with music, new album from Prefab Sprout

Well, this week marks a key date in the year for music lovers: Prefab Sprout, the band of Paddy McAloon, a fully fledged legend which was born in the 80s, released a brand new album, their first since 2001. Those with an eye on the finer details know that McAloon is one of the most brilliant talents in modern music, and their album Steve McQueen is of of my favourite albums ever, all eras and styles confounded.

Some time ago, Prefab Sprout fans (and I'm proudly among those) were very happy to discover that a fully remastered Steve McQueen was going to be released, together with an all new acoustic album including versions of Steve McQueen recorded in 2007 by Paddy with the help of Prefab's landmark producer, Thomas Dolby. And seemingly it marked the return to business of Paddy, as, in a comparatively short time (for the band's standards, that is), here we have Let's change the world with music. However, from what I have read, it seems this is the original album as delivered to the label (Kitchenware), and not a new recording of those old songs.

This album was planned to be the successor of Jordan: The Comeback, but for some weird reasons, it never saw the light of day, and remained unreleased until now. Fortunately enough, it is now out there, receiving rave reviews in major media, and evidencing to the world (as if any further evidence was needed) how wonderfully talented songs writer is Paddy.

I'm all impatient now to receive my CD and discover the new songs, and I think this time I will try to listen to them in a proper hifi system for the first time. I'm pretty convinced it will be worth the effort.

In the mean time, for those of you who never heard about Prefab Sprout, make yourself a favour and buy Steve McQueen, either in the original, single CD version, or in the remastered, 2-CD set with acoustic versions. Trust me: you won't be disappointed.

More hints on new Ricoh system from DSLR Magazine

Well, further on my previous post on the rumours about a new compact camera from Ricoh with interchangeable lenses, the very respected DSLR Magazine published a new report, based on three sources, which suggests something new is being prepared by Ricoh, although they do not confirm it might be such a compact camera similar to the new models of the micro 4/3s system. The full text in Spanish is available here.

Ricoh working on a compact camera based on Pentax K mount

I just found out, reading Pentaxforums, that apparently Ricoh is working on a compact camera based on Pentax K mount. It this is confirmed, then it is excellent news for us, Pentax users. I own a Pentax P30, my first SLR camera, purchased back in 1991, with which I learned photography (and made many shots of fond memories to me). In 2007, after a period using a Nikon SLR, I decided to come back to my beloved Pentax, and purchased a Pentax K10D, which is truly a pleasure to use.

But during the last months, I had seen with interest (and envy!!) the news regarding the development of the new micro 4/3 system from Olympus/Panasonic/Leica, and it was somehow disappointing to see nothing similar coming from Pentax: in fact, the equivalent system from Samsung (which was widely speculated to be done in collaboration with Pentax) was finally confirmed to have nothing to do with Pentax.

Ricoh has nothing to demonstrate in terms of know how in the field of photography. Therefore, this rumour points to potentially very exciting news, since the wonderful pancake lenses from Pentax, in combination to a small body, might be THE ultimate camera to bring with you everywhere without selling image quality for convenience.

All in all, I will be very happy if this is not vaporware but a real development, and will follow the story with close attention during the next months.

Pago de Villagarcía, a new, excellent winery near my hometown

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of discovering a new winery which is located very close to my hometown, and which for whatever reason had escaped my radar thus far. It's near a small village, Retuerta del Bullaque, in the center of Spain (province of Ciudad Real). If you have the chance to visit it, there is a beautiful national park at only a few kms, the Parque Nacional de Cabaneros.

They started their work back in 2001 by making initial attempts of good quality red wines, focused on French grape varieties; since the quality was quite good, they continued and now they are commercializing four kinds of wines, among them three red ones. I have only tasted their Syrah wine, and it is truly astonishing. We were lucky enough to visit the whole winery, being shown to us by the man in charge & oenologist, Adolfo Hornos. And truth be told, we were truly impressed by every single feature: from the care taken to grow the grapes, to the beautiful building of the winery, to the extreme cleanness of the installations, to the very state-of-the-art level of such installations. It is obvious they have done a huge inversion in this winery and I'm convinced their name will get a privileged position if they continue along these lines.

Further, complete information in English on Pago de Villagarcía, is available here.

The art & business of song: a quiet talk with Wendy & Lisa

Possibly for quite a few of you, this might be old news. But we live in fast times, where a five minutes video is considered by many people too long to watch in full. So I imagine that a video like this, 90 minutes long, has been overlooked often. So I am posting it here again, to strenghten it is an extremely interesting chat with Wendy & Lisa, in their recent wave of media interviews. This one, in particular, seems to me specially entertaining and enlightening on many aspects of the music business, and given the lenght, they speak about many, many, many different topics. I was particularly amused by their references to Trevor Horn and Grace Jones, besides some passing purple hints...

Anyway, here you have it: sit in a comfortable place, focus your attention an listen. Wendy & Lisa are not only extremely talented musicians, but besides intelligent and reaaaally fun when they want to. This is one of those MUST WATCH videos, if you are interested in music in general, and even more if you belong to what I call often "princeland".

The God delusion, by Richard Dawkins

One of the books I have read this summer is The God delusion. I started reading it sometime ago, but this summer managed to finish it. And I confess it is one of the most impressive books I have read in a long while.

I am a convinced atheist longtime ago, but I had never found such a detailed, informative, entertaining, brilliant, profound, essay on the possibilities of existence (or rather, non existence) of god. Dawkins' way of writing is never boring, and even in the most complex parts, you are not going to make any jump, because he has the same interest both in making a fine analysis and in getting your full attention. I remember quite a few times when I couldn't avoid to laugh while reading it, and at the same time it forced me to reconsider how I have seen the idea of god along my life.

So if you are barely interested in this topic, I wholeheartedly recommend you to read this book; and mind you, even if you think you have clear ideas about it (being either a believer, an agnostic, or an atheist), I bet you will find "The God delusion" more than worth to read. Very seldom a book focused on such a serious topic has become such a piece of delicious writing craft. If you want to have a look, you can read the first chapter of this book here.

Before ending, let me thank the person who sent me, once upon a time, this gift.

Back home: there we go again

Ok, here I am again: hopefully in full shape (and certainly in BIG shape, literally speaking), very relaxed after one month when I have slept a lot and read a lot and spent loads of time with family and friends. I have a few topics in mind to post about in the coming days, so I will be shooting from time to time, including some books, some films, and a certain operating system from a certain computers brand (which I'm sure you can't figure out... :P).

This course will mark -crossing fingers- a professional milestone for me, and I expect to be rather busy and sometimes a bit stressed due to commitments which are awaiting, around March/April 2010. But I hope to find time enough so that I post a few times, every week, with the same philosophy of the last months: this won't be a thematic blog, but rather a strictly personal blog where I will write on things that are interesting, for different reasons.

So welcome back, you huge amount of readers, and let's enjoy the new season!