domingo, 20 de dezembro de 2009
Bar é poesia - Ada Menéndez
Ada Menéndez
EL CRECIMIENTO
(Ada Menéndez)
Me echo de menos
Ser una mujer despreocupada
insensible
rabiosa
Odiar la humanidad
aborrecer el cosmos y sus parásitos
caminar por la calle deseando la muerte de los peatones
liarme un porro en el autobús
ser más chula que un ocho
estar por encima del bien y del mal
no necesitar de nada ni de nadie
moverme como la puta reina del universo
Me echo de menos
Cabrearme por todo
lanzar insultos a quien me toque las narices
asesinar con mis ojos fríos
no tener miedo ni del más pintas
ser una macarra
Me echo de menos
Irme sin pagar de un garito
robar cervezas en el súper
no derramar ni una puta lágrima
así me estén hinchando a hostias
esperar en el despacho del director su reprimenda
recibir amonestaciones por faltar a clase
o por fumar en los servicios
mientras colegialas uniformadas sólo piensan en sus peinados
Me echo de menos
Los años
me han traído demasiada serenidad
todo me afecta
todo me preocupa
ya no soy la mejor ni la más fuerte
lloro cuando veo las noticias
adopto gatos abandonados
milito en política
……………..Anarquista, eso sí
hasta me he vuelto una jodida vegetariana
porque me apena el hacinamiento de animales
Me echo de menos
Ser una delincuente
era mucho más fácil
Hollywood finally abandons its prejudice against older women in romantic roles - The Guardian, uk - link (aqui)
Sigourney Weaver: winning plaudits. Photograph: Matt Sayles/APAs Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver win plaudits for their roles as older women in physical relationships with younger men, one of the most enduring barriers in Hollywood's movie-making history is at last being torn down
- The Observer, Sunday 20 December 2009
When a film star seduces someone 20 or 30 years their junior on screen, the audience doesn't bat an eyelid. In fact, it is an established cinema convention. If the older star is a woman, however, public reaction is harder to predict. But now Hollywood, so long accused of sexism because of the way it treats female talent, finally seems prepared to tackle a subject once regarded as beyond the pale: sex and the sixtysomething woman.
Sigourney Weaver, who stars in this month's new sci-fi blockbuster, Avatar, has revealed that in her next film she is to play the lover of an actor little more than half her age. In Cedar Rapids, Weaver, 60, is cast opposite comic actor Ed Helms in the role of her 35-year-old former pupil. The actress, who made her name 30 years ago in Alien, said last week that she believes relationships between older women and much younger men are much more common than film producers believe. "I play his grade-school science teacher that he had a crush on," she explained last week. "Years later, we consummate our relationship and are going out, but I have to break it off because he's so serious about me."
Weaver said that Avatar's director, James Cameron, cut her sex scenes from his final version of the film, although she understood the cuts were based on his feeling about the structure of the story. All the same, Weaver has also made it clear she is pleased to be appearing in Cedar Rapids next year and to be making the point that women in their 60s can still be attractive and sexually active.
Weaver's comments follow the success of Meryl Streep's new comedy, It's Complicated, in which she plays a divorced woman unexpectedly pursued by her former husband (Alec Baldwin). Last week, the part earned Streep, who is also 60, her second Golden Globe nomination this year for best comedy performance by an actress (the other is for her portrayal of the television chef Julia Child in Julie & Julia).
In the role of Jane Adler, a woman who, although well into middle age, is eventually more appealing to her former husband than his young "trophy wife", Streep is breaking the unspoken film industry rule that audiences don't want to see older women in physical relationships with leading men. Since 1967, when Anne Bancroft vamped it up as Mrs Robinson in Mike Nichols's The Graduate, there have been few screen portrayals of sexually alluring older women. Ageing male stars suffer under no such limitations, with Larry David romancing Evan Rachel Wood earlier this year in Woody Allen's Whatever Works and Bill Murray beguiling Scarlett Johansson in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation in 2003.
It's Complicated, which reaches cinemas here in January, is written and directed by Nancy Meyers. The screenwriter now has a reputation as a crusader in this area, following her success with the 2003 romantic comedy Something's Gotta Give, starring Diane Keaton. "I think there's an audience for it. We'll see if this movie does well. I hope they'll do more movies where the lead character can be close to 58 or 60 or 62 and have a life in the movie, not just play the wacky mother," said Meyers this month.
Some critics in America have questioned the decision by Meyers to show Baldwin without his clothes on and not Streep, but the writer has defended her decision. "I thought the joke of him being naked was about him," said Meyers. "I never saw Jane [Streep's character] acting that way; she wouldn't do that, though she's nervous about being naked before him. When they broke up she was in her 40s; now she's in her late 50s."
When the musical Mamma Mia!, also starring Streep in the lead romantic role, became a huge box-office hit last year, the actress expressed her irritation with Hollywood's apparent inability to make films that take older women seriously. Now the success of her new film is celebrated by Vanity Fair, which has put her on the cover of its US January edition. Inside the magazine, Streep expresses her surprise at the parts she is playing these days: "It's incredible – I'm 60 and I'm playing the romantic lead in romantic comedies! Bette Davis is rolling over in her grave. She was 42 when she did All About Eve and she was 54 when she did What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"
Not only is Streep allowed to appear in bed with co-star Baldwin in It's Complicated, but Hollywood producers have also supported Goldie Hawn's plan to write, direct and star in an unconventional romantic comedy about a woman who is coping with the death of her former husband in late middle-age. Hawn, 64, had battled with the studios for three years in an effort to make the film, but Ashes to Ashes is finally scheduled for release next year.
A black comedy, it tells the story of a divorcee's attempt to scatter her former husband's ashes in Kathmandu, as she encounters a series of life-changing experiences. The actress remains passionate about the project, but has said it "has frustrated me more than anything I've ever done".
Hawn has added that reaching the age of 60 was a big milestone in her career and has made it harder to sell her ideas to producers. "Hollywood is fearful because most of the films that they put their heart and soul behind are heartless films that cost about $180m," she said. "But when you look at women's films and the amount of money they have generated, it would shock you. There aren't many women's films made, but the success rate of women's to men's films is much greater. Nobody is looking at that."
Until Hawn's husband, Kurt Russell, agreed to take a part in Ashes to Ashes, her script was repeatedly turned down by producers. "The studio reaction always was, 'Who's the man?' It's just the way it goes. You can't win," she said. "But I can feel incredibly frustrated at the state of the business and knowing that there's an untapped, unserved audience out there that will come out for the right movie."
There are other big-name, former leading ladies who are still registering box-office success in their seventh decade. Charlotte Rampling, 63, is also to star next year in a comedy all about sex. Rampling has previously condemned the treatment of older actresses in Hollywood, saying: "The system in Europe is nothing like in Hollywood. It is not so barbaric in terms of the ageing process." Now she has a lead role in Rio Sex Comedy alongside Bill Pullman. The film tells of the comic adventures of tourists seeking diversion on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
Glenn Close, 62, won an Emmy in September for her performance as the stylishly deadly lawyer Patty Hewes in television series Damages. In her acceptance speech she heralded a new era of three-dimensional roles for middle-aged actresses. "I think we're proving complicated, powerful, mature women are sexy, high entertainment and can carry a show. I call us the sisterhood of the TV drama divas," she said.
Also leading the pack is Helen Mirren, 64, being talked up already as an Oscar contender for her powerful performance as Leo Tolstoy's wife in The Last Station, out here in February. Mirren, who appears opposite Christopher Plummer, won the Oscar for best actress in 2006 for The Queen, and is described by Screen International as giving another "bravura performance". But her director on The Last Station, Michael Hoffman, remains gloomy about the prospects for mature stars. "Generally speaking, you probably don't think the casting of older actors is going to enhance commerciality. There is a prejudice against movies for adults, especially older adults," he told Variety last week.
The industry will have much to do if it hopes to correct the established bias in favour of "sexy" older male actors, however. A survey by the Screen Actors Guild found that women who are aged 40 and over landed only 11% of all the available film and television roles. Although this figure is creeping up gradually from a level of around 9% in the early 1990s, male actors who are aged 40 and above still regularly account for more than a quarter of all the roles cast in America.
According to Hawn, she and Diane Keaton, who starred together with Bette Midler in the 1996 hit First Wives Club, both struggled in vain to get a sequel to the film commissioned as a prestige project. Keaton, who played the lead in Meyers's earlier film Something's Gotta Give, opposite a 66-year-old Jack Nicholson, has perhaps best summed up the wishes and fears of her Hollywood peers.
"It's hopeful for everyone, and I think men included, because it doesn't carry that stupid cliche, the idea of older men just wanting younger women. It's absurd to put men into some sort of category like that."
SENIOR SIRENS
Mae West Born in 1893, she became the mistress of screen sexual innuendo, until censorship drove her back to the stage in the 1950s. Billy Wilder offered her the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950), but later said: "The idea of Mae West was idiotic because we only had to talk to her to find out that she thought she was as great, as desirable, as sexy as she had ever been."
Bette Davis Born 1908, her career took off when she joined Warner Bros in 1932, but she continued to give her stylish, clipped delivery in leading roles until the late 1940s. Her heyday, with films such as Now, Voyager and All About Eve, lasted into her 40s.
Anne Bancroft Born in 1931, she came to represent the voracious appetites of attractive older women, but she was just 36 – only six years older than Dustin Hoffman – when she took the part of his seducer Mrs Robinson in The Graduate (1967).
Anne Reid Born May 1935, she was best known as Coronation Street's Valerie Barlow in the 1960s. Reid was Bafta nominated as the middle-aged heroine of The Mother (2003), where she has a passionate affair with a young handyman (Daniel Craig).
Grand Canyon: the coolest way to go - The Guardian, uk - link (aqui)
Winter casts a different hue on the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Photograph by Peter Adams/Corbis In summer, the Grand Canyon is all crowds and traffic jams. In winter you can have one of the most awe-inspiring places in the world to yourself
- The Observer, Sunday 20 December 2009
'I have heard rumours of visitors who were disappointed," JB Priestley once said about the Grand Canyon. "The same people will be disappointed at the Day of Judgment."
I have to confess I was disappointed on my first visit to the canyon, more than a decade ago. One July, on our way to Los Angeles, my family and I swung off the highway, made the 60-mile detour to the South Rim, and found ourselves caught in a long traffic jam. When we eventually managed to park, and walked to the rim, the scale of the sight off the edge was so great it was hard to muster a response. It was so vast, and so familiar from pictures, it might just as well have been a picture. What impressed me most was the Babel of languages audible among the visitors pouring off the tour buses. It sounded like Times Square on a Saturday night, with every continent represented in the hubbub.
At this magnitude, scale is deceptive. Pedro de Castañeda, a Spaniard on the Coronado expedition of 1540, whose members were among the first Europeans ever to see the canyon, reported that a group of them scrambled some way down, and found that boulders they'd seen from the rim were not as they'd thought, the height of a man, but "taller than the great tower in Seville" (presumably the Giralda Tower, nearly 100m high).
We only stayed an hour or two. But before we left, from the rim I saw a trail, pale as chalk, winding down a huge slope beneath a cliff. There's something about a trail seen from far away. That thread snaking over the landscape – where does it go, who uses it, why does it seem so intimate with the land? And why does it arouse such an intense longing to follow it? An unknown path seems almost necessarily a metaphor. We like to conceive of life as a thread, after all, a path crossing unexpected terrain on its journey to another element. When the trail winds across empty desert, up and down huge hillsides – as in the Grand Canyon – it's all the more insistently allegorical.
There wasn't time to follow it, and I left with a nagging sense of opportunity lost, and that pale thread of a path still pulling at me.
It wasn't until last winter that I got to answer that pull. And the first thing I learned is that with the Grand Canyon, winter is the time to go. As the chief district ranger, John Evans, told me, "You'll more or less have the place to yourself." Although the canyon is a desert, it's like an oasis in winter – a place of peace, sequestered from the rest of the world. In three days of hiking I saw only two or three mule trains, each carrying baggage, not riders, and perhaps two dozen hikers.
Winter is cool, and cool is good for hiking. It's true there's snow on the trails, and long-moulded tongues of ice pounded into enamel-like smoothness by the mules that go up and down with supplies, but that's only on the highest reaches. Drop 500m from the rim and you'll probably be free of it. Sunlight becomes a blessing instead of a 50C curse when you step out of chill shade into some welcome warmth.
To experience the canyon, you have to leave the rim. The frustration aroused by the bigness, the grandness, on a rim-only visit becomes a liberation once you drop down. The modern world falls away. It's a trip not just out of the human realm, but into the deep geology of the earth. Layer upon layer of the planet's crust is revealed, stratum by stratum: the Toroweap limestone, the Coconino sandstone, the Redwall limestone, the Tonto Group; the Vishnu schist deep down, close to two billion years old, nearly half the total age of the planet – the stuff that is under our very feet as we go about our lives is laid bare here. And in the silence and stillness, in the solitude of the canyon in winter, it's all the more impressive.
Teddy Roosevelt said that all Americans should try to see it. He also declared: "We have gotten past the stage, my fellow citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we treat any part of our country as something to be skinned."
Alas, he had no idea what was coming. But the Grand Canyon has not yet been skinned. Though not for want of trying.
As I prepared to go, and talked to friends about the trip, I was amazed how many people knew the inner canyon well. One acquaintance told me he had spent 300 nights below the rim, falling just short of a lifetime's ambition of a full year. In a grocery store in Santa Fe, where I live, I got talking with a Grand Canyon-crazy runner who hikes from rim to rim in a single day several times a year. A woman in a coffee shop told me about the time a 10lb falling rock nearly knocked her off a trail. I began to get the feeling that the Grand Canyon is truly a national monument, analogous to the Lake District in its centrality to the nation's psyche. "Each man sees himself in the Grand Canyon," Carl Sandburg said. It's something all Americans share, and can take pride in.
This was all very well, but the canyon is a mile deep, and the trail itself about 10 miles long, and that translates to a very arduous walk, especially for an eight-year-old. By some arcane family algebra, it was the turn of Saul, our younger son, to come with me.
After an impossibly smooth two-hour ride in the vintage coaches of the Grand Canyon Railway from the town of Williams, Arizona, the nearest major settlement south of the canyon, we checked in at Bright Angel Lodge near the canyon rim, to reconfirm our bookings for Phantom Ranch, down in the bottom. The woman behind the desk glanced at my son and said: "I hope you're planning to leave immediately, if not sooner."
It was already 1pm, and most hikers set off in the morning.
My heart dropped. Saul is strong, fit as an Olympic athlete, indomitable as a Gaul, but still only eight. Was it crazy and cruel to ask him to walk down and then up a whole mile of elevation? What if, having got him down, he hurt himself, or his feisty spirit gave out? And what if my own legs failed me?
The fear amplified during the first spectacular mile of trail, where we had to pick our way precariously over ice. But then we were out on the spine of a ridge, the aptly nicknamed Ooh-Aah Point, that dropped precipitately to either side, and the ice was all melted away. Here, it wasn't so much about looking at a view as being in the midst of one.
As we gazed around us, two condors came gliding right over, so close we could hear the wind ruffling their feathers.
"Keep in the middle," I implored Saul, as he took to scampering along the parapet of rocks. Apparently, kids can't resist a parapet, no matter the drop beyond it.
I wouldn't want a creationist to misinterpret this, but I always find geology more or less unbelievable. Were these hundreds of square miles of limestone hundreds of feet deep truly formed by trillions of marine creatures dying? Could a river really carve out a gash this deep? But before the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, in a single day the Colorado River used to carry away 380,000 tonnes or more of silt, enough to fill a train 25 miles long. Each day. A river this size is indeed an efficient grinding tool.
Below us, sweeping brown plateaux bulged as if they were soft upholstery. There were cliffs of blue, pink, orange, mauve, and deep purple bands of rock – the banners of God, as an early explorer said. True enough, the stark minerality of the desert always seems to arouse the inner mystic.
The scientist John Strong Newberry, part of an 1857 expedition to the canyon, said: "Nowhere on the earth's surface, so far as we know, are the secrets of its structure revealed as here."
After the cliffs of pale Coconino limestone, we descend the Redwall limestone, into a deep tub of crimson stone. Finally, at Skeleton Point, we catch the first glimpse of the river, thousands of feet below, announced by a distant roar.
A vast sweep of shadow is coming off the rim above, spreading over the Tonto plateau. We plunged in and out of the shade on the switchbacks. So far, we had seen just four people. Then, just after Tipoff Point, the path brought us to another dizzying corner, overlooking an ancient rusty amphitheatre of Tonto Group rock one way, while to the other, the air drops away to another sight of the Colorado River far, far below, clay-red, rippling, bloated. One of the two suspension bridges down there was visible, too. It all looked like a telephoto shot, the unfamiliar vertical distance baffling the eye.
Around 4pm, when we'd descended around 1,200m, deep in the echoing inner canyon, amid runnels and gullies of deep shadow, beneath shoulders of shale and scree, Saul got a kind of oxygen narcosis, skipping around, singing "Blue-blue-blue-blue" from Austin Powers, while my left knee went supersonic, screeching at me to please take one pace up instead of down. Then Saul discovered the echo deep in the billion-year-old rock. "Go away, echo!" he shouted vainly, again and again.
Endless new levels, new shears, shelves and tables to descend. Then all of a sudden, there was the bridge again. This time, we could see its individual railings, and as we approached, through a tunnel hewn straight through the rock, the thick, deep air beside the rushing river was like a balm. Whether it was the late afternoon light, the fatigue, the pain in my knee, or the relief of getting down, I found myself wallowing in a wonderful endorphin bath. The world went glassy. The canyon cliffs and trapezoids and pinnacles of rock all became resonant. I watched myself walk, as if the real me were a deep witness to my life, rather than the one who apparently lives it.
Down here, with the enormous Colorado River beside us, encased in the immense walls of the inner gorge, we passed the old settlement of Anasazi Indians who lived here 1,000 years ago. They planted corn and squash, and used nothing that didn't come from their immediate surroundings. It occurred to me that today it takes a whole afternoon on vertiginous trails to accomplish the reverse: to enter an environment without human imports. This is surely the kind of immersion a hiker seeks; this is why it felt like a pilgrimage to come here. It was good to reflect that if America has a heart, this just might be it.
By the time we reached Phantom Ranch, its own side canyon, Bright Angel Creek, was deep in chilly shade. On reaching the quiet huddle of stone and timber cabins under their grove of silvery cottonwoods, the trees tattered with old dry leaves, with a bunk waiting, and hot showers in the bathhouse, and the creek plashing by – I was flooded with relief. But even though we'd descended to 700m above sea level (from over 2,000m) it was still freezing.
When the ranch bell rang for dinner, some two dozen guests trooped from their cabins through the frigid dusk to the main lodge, where we quietly feasted on stew, corn bread and salad. We were from all over, all walks of life: a student from Quebec, a trucker from Kentucky, a fisherman from Alaska, a college student from New York, a woman in insurance, from Pennsylvania. All these trappings of people's lives seemed to fade in the context of this deep retreat from the world. We were just people, making the pilgrimage from cradle to grave.
At 8pm the dining room turns into a kind of mess hall. People sit around playing cards, or Trivial Pursuit, drinking wine or beer, and the counter opens for the sale of odds and ends. On a shelf sits the box for river mail, where letters wait for rafters coming downstream.
It was 2am when a cry pierced the peace in our cabin: "I feel sick, Daddy." No sooner had I sprung from my bunk to fetch the rubbish bin than Saul was hunched over it, retching. By 6am he was hot with fever. It had happened: stuck at the apex of a mile-high inverse mountain in winter, with a sick child.
At first light Bright Angel Creek was chalky, vague. Then distant bluffs of red stone got picked out by the sun, and more and more bright geometries emerged. While I was wondering what to do, rows of Easter Island-esque monoliths along the top of a cliff turned bright, and when the early sun struck the high outcrops, I could see how they got their Egyptian and Hindi names. They did look like sphinxes and Oriental temples. At 8am I went to the lodge and asked if they had a thermometer. They radioed down to the ranger station, and 10 minutes later Eston Littleboy Jones, a ranger equipped with a holstered automatic pistol and a Taser gun, was tending to my son.
Saul's eyes lit up at the sight of the guns. A quick check-up, and he was bouncing back. By 11am he was insisting we walk the Overlook Trail mentioned by Eston, one-and-a-half miles up to an outcrop overhanging the creek, then the River Loop Trail. Apparently, it was a swift-moving stomach bug.
My legs were stiff as stilts. It was as if, never having been near a Stairmaster, I had decided to spend all of yesterday on one. But hiking seems to ease them.
From one of the two suspension bridges we stared down at the river.
"It looks like they're fighting a war," Saul said of the white waves. "Fighting to get up the river." The frothing eddies did seem to be struggling with the current. Two plumes of ripples curved into one central stream like trails of smoke sucked into a flue. The canyon walls created a constantly changing concertina effect with volume. There was a great bow of a pebble beach, except the pebbles were the size of cars. It's a landscape from The Lord of the Rings, with a perilous cliff path to match. Any minute our way would be blocked by an orc.
The next day we made the climb back up the Bright Angel Trail. Like the Kaibab Trail, this was also built for mules, having first been a Native American trail to the creek at Indian Gardens, half-way up. Mule trails are good for hikers. The beasts won't put up with anything too steep. The trail makes its way up cliffs in endless switchbacks.
Rows of flying buttresses, a soaring ship's prow throwing a huge flag of shadow across a cliff, a forbidding wall of masonry half a mile above us: the views never stopped coming. Way above, on the whitish cliffs just under the rim, something was winking. Could it be the windows of El Tovar, the old hotel where we'll be spending the night? Along the climb at Devil's Corkscrew, a chain of little waterfalls has carved out smooth dark basins in the rock. Again and again it struck me how perfect the temperature is for hiking. Through a grove of willow the stream flashed by, icy cold.
On that day we passed five hikers. Once again, it was just us and the canyon. And the circling condors overhead.
On the last two miles, stalactites of milky ice hung beside the trail. Then solid grey snow was underfoot, like lacquer, impregnated with dust, slowing us right down. As we stood still waiting to see if we could catch the sound of wind in the feathers of a condor gliding by, we heard from up above the deep gurgle of the first motorbike. After three days away from carbon culture, the modern world seemed like Thunderdome now.
Finally, we slumped into El Tovar, the oldest Grand Canyon hotel, with its fireplaces of stone blocks and masses of dark timber, a perfect hiker's rest.
The truth is, when I pulled into the Grand Canyon years before, I didn't even comprehend that it was a canyon. It was such a vast landscape it seemed it might go on in pinnacles and gulfs for hundreds of miles. But once you've been down into it, you know what it is. You understand. At least a little. And the mere thought of being disappointed by it? I'm positively looking forward to Judgment Day.
© 2009 New York Times News Service
Essentials
GETTING THERE
Virgin Holidays (0844 557 3859; virginholidays.co.uk) offers a seven-night fly-drive to Las Vegas from £499, including flights and car hire. The historic railway (00 1 303 843 8724; thetrain.com) from Williams takes two-and-a quarter hours. Returns from $70 adults, $40 children.
WHERE TO STAY
The Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams (00 1 800 843 8724; thetrain.com) is not an atmospheric old railway edifice but a comfortable, modern hotel, with doubles from $169. El Tovar (00 1 888 297 2757; grandcanyonlodges.com)has been open since 1905 and shouldn't be missed. Doubles from $174. Phantom Ranch (details as El Tovar) is a collection of cabins in the bottom of the canyon. Dorm beds from $42. Bright Angel Lodge (details as El Tovar) is a 1935 timber warren, full of charm, with doubles from $90. Availability at hotels in the canyon can be a problem, but the village of Tusayan, a mile outside the park, usually has vacancies. Doubles at Red Feather Lodge (00 1 866 561 2425; redfeatherlodge.com) cost from $73.
MORE INFORMATION
The National Park Service's website (nps.gov/grca) is helpful, as is grandcanyonlodges.com. .
Musique : la sélection 2009 du "Monde" - Le Monde, fr - link (aqui)
Chanson, jazz, rap, rock, électro, musique classique ou contemporaine : les critiques musicaux du "Monde" ont choisi leurs disques préférés.
STÉPHANE DAVET
1. The XX, de The XX (XL/Naïve)
2. Veckatimest, de Grizzly Bear (Warp/Discograph)
3. La Superbe, de Benjamin Biolay (Naïve)
4. The Turn, de Fredo Viola (Because/Warner Music)
5. A Brief History of Love, de The Big Pink (4AD/Naïve)
Et si l'album le plus impressionnant de l'année était celui du silence et de l'engourdissement ? Gamins héritiers des froidures de la cold wave, The XX murmurent des mélodies envoûtantes sur fond de synthétiseurs minimaux et de guitares aquatiques. D'autres ont rêvé de cathédrale harmonique plus que de charme monastique. En néo-Beach Boys, les Américains Grizzly Bear, avec Veckatimest, et Fredo Viola, avec The Turn, s'inventent un ailleurs en entremêlant strates de voix et trouvailles baroques. Une démesure que les Londoniens de The Big Pink trouvent dans l'électricité sombre des guitares et Benjamin Biolay dans l'excitante variété stylistique de La Superbe.
PIERRE GERVASONI
1. Franz Liszt : un portrait, par Guillaume Coppola (Calliope)
2. L'Ecrit du cri, par l'Ensemble Janequin (Harmonia Mundi)
3. Philippe Manoury, par l'Ensemble intercontemporain ("Sirènes" Kairos)
4. La Linea del sur, de Renaud Garcia-Fons (Enja)
5. Boris Vian. 100 chansons (1 coffret Jacques Canetti/Fnac)
Guillaume Coppola réussit à présenter en un seul programme toutes les facettes de Liszt, le compositeur le plus représentatif de l'éclectisme du XIXe siècle. Egalement multipolaire, le panorama anticonformiste concocté par l'ensemble Janequin sur le thème du cri permet aux polyphonies vocales de la Renaissance de côtoyer des chansons de cabaret ou des créations d'aujourd'hui. Pour vivre avec son temps, on peut se repérer avec les oeuvres monumentales mais ciselées d'un maître de la modernité (Philippe Manoury), ou se perdre avec un musicien inclassable quoique affilié au jazz (Renaud Garcia-Fons). On pourrait dire la même chose de Boris Vian, mort en 1959, mais toujours aussi mordant.
PATRICK LABESSE
1. Chamber Music, de Ballaké Sissoko et Vincent Segal (No Format/Universal)
2. The Music of Sunil Dev Shrestra, de Sunil Dev Shrestra (Heaven Sweetness/Differ-ant)
3. The Astounding Eyes of Rita, d'Anouar Brahem (ECM/Universal Music)
4. Liberté, de Khaled (AZ/Universal)
5. Seya, d'Oumou Sangaré (World Circuit/Harmonia Mundi)
Ballaké Sissoko et Vincent Segal tracent avec kora et violoncelle des chemins intimistes où il fait bon se perdre. Le jeune flûtiste népalais Sunil Dev Shrestra, d'un simple roseau percé, donne des clés pour un apprentissage de la légèreté. Le joueur de luth oriental Anouar Brahem, accompagné d'un trio parfait, dessine des mélodies mélancoliques, perlées de scintillants silences. La musique comme un pont pour traverser la Méditerranée et retrouver dans la voix sidérante de Khaled les racines du raï. La musique pour voyager jusqu'au Mali, avec Oumou Sangaré, nominée cette année aux Grammy Awards américains.
RENAUD MACHART
1. Bach : sonates et partitas pour violon seul, par Viktoria Mullova (Onyx/Abeille musique)
2. Rameau : Que les mortels servent de modèle aux dieux..., par Eugénie Warnier, Arnaud Richard, Ausonia, Frédérick Haas (direction) (Alpha/Harmonia Mundi)
3. Contemplation, oeuvres de Bach, par Anne Queffélec (Mirare/Harmonia Mundi)
4. Britten, Szymanowsky : concertos pour violon, par Frank Peter Zimmermann, Antoni Witt (direction) (Sony Classical)
5. Leighton : Symphonie n°2, Te Deum Laudamus, par Sarah Fox, Richard Hickox (direction) (Chandos/Abeille musique)
Viktoria Mullova s'est mise au violon baroque. Une version à tomber, peut-être la plus belle de ce cycle Bach. Le disque consacré à Rameau est décoiffant, sensible et poétique. Ces extraits de Zaïs et Zoroastre sont un enchantement. Retour à Bach, avec sonorité profonde, mélancolie tendre, l'un des plus doux chemins vers Rameau, grâce à la pianiste Anne Queffélec. Les Concertos pour violon de Britten et Szymanowsky sont trois chefs-d'oeuvre du répertoire concertant injustement méprisés. Pas par Frank Peter Zimmermann, qui les joue comme un dieu. Enfin, la musique de Leighton est prenante au point qu'on y revient sans jamais en percer le mystère.
FRANCIS MARMANDE
1. Crouch, Touch, Engage, du MegaOctet d'Andy Emler (Naïve)
2. Tribute to Albert Ayler - Live at the Dynamo (Futura Marge)
3. Transatlantic Visions, de Joëlle Léandre et George Lewis (Rogue Art)
4. Gipsy Trio, de Biréli Lagrène (Dreyfus/Sony)
5. Mostly Coltrane, de Steve Kuhn (ECM/Universal Music)
Parce qu'il est impossible de ne pas mentionner ECM pour les quarante ans du label de Munich, Steve Kuhn, pianiste rare, en trio ; puisqu'on ne saurait passer sous silence une grande année manouche, son meilleur représentant dans une de ses meilleures prestations (Biréli Lagrène) ; comme on se doit de rappeler que le jazz moderne, c'est la science et la fête, le MegaOctet d'Andy Emler ; étant entendu qu'on a le devoir d'alerter les peuples : le jazz aurait pu aller vers le Tribute to Albert Ayler, mais l'époque n'en a plus la force ; parce qu'il faut rester sérieux et se dire qu'un des disques de l'année, c'est aussi Joëlle Léandre en duo avec George Lewis.
VÉRONIQUE MORTAIGNE
1. The E.N.D., de Black Eyed Peas (Polydor/Universal Music)
2. Zii e Zie, de Caetano Veloso (Universal Jazz)
3. La Différence, de Salif Keita (Emarcy/Universal Music)
4. Arabology, de Yas (AZ/Universal Music)
5. Le Cours ordinaire des choses, de Jean-Louis Murat (V2/Universal Music)
C'est au groupe de rap festif Black Eyed Peas et à son charismatique leader Will.I.Am que revient l'honneur d'avoir réalisé la bande- son des premiers mois de l'ère Obama. The E.N.D (pour The Energy Never Dies) et ses tubes déstructurés et entêtants, cassent le rap, l'électronique et la soul pour créer une musique ultra-populaire. Mais ailleurs dans le monde, de plus grands génies musicaux n'ont pas été en reste en matière de bouleversements : Caetano Veloso, ou la bossa-nova en pâte brisée ; la chanteuse libanaise Yasmine associée au Français d'origine afghane Mirwais, habilleur de Madonna (Music et American Life), pour recentrer la culture arabe dans la modernité. Le Malien Salif Keita crée de drôles d'objets musicaux tel Ekolo d'amour, en français cassé. Jean-Louis Murat, l'Auvergnat d'Auvergne, rayonne de sa poésie folk.ODILE DE PLAS
1. Begone Dull Care, de Junior Boys (Domino/PIAS)
2. Rules, de Whitest Boy Alive (Bubbles/Differ-ant)
3. Dirty French Psychedelics, (DIRTY/Discograph)
4. Mayday, de Peter Von Poehl (Tôt ou tard)
5. The XX, de The XX (XL/Naïve)
Par ordre d'émerveillement : les accords électroniques cristallins des Canadiens Junior Boys, comme étouffés dans une production ouatée. The Whitest Boy Alive, projet du Norvégien Erlend Oye qui nous a fait danser tout l'été. Un retour aux folles années de la variété française, compilées par le duo Dirty. Les mélodies douces-amères, sous influence Monteverdi ou folk, de Peter Von Poehl (textes de Marie Modiano). Enfin le plus serein des disques noirs, synthèse des vagues musicales de ces dix dernières années, prises dans le tempo gelé de The XX.
MARIE-AUDE ROUX
1. Laudes et chants soufis, par Doulce Memoire (Zig-Zag Territoires/Harmonia Mundi)
2. Schubert, par David Fray (Virgin Classics)
3. Chants d'Est, par Sonia Wieder-Atherton (Naïve)
4. Beethoven : intégrale des sonates pour violon et piano, par Isabelle Faust et Alexander Melnikov (3 CD Harmonia Mundi)
5. Sacrificium, de Cecilia Bartoli (Decca/Universal)
L'exemplaire Denis Raisin-Dadre et son ensemble Doulce Mémoire offrent un disque d'amour nomade entre Orient et Occident, entre laudes chrétiens et chants soufis. Il y a quelque chose de soufi dans le piano de David Fray. Une transe lente, fascinante. Comme le violoncelle de Sonia Wieder-Atherton dans Chants d'Est, périple alla Mitteleuropa, qu'accompagne le Sinfonia Varsovia de Christophe Mangou. Lumière - s'il ne fallait qu'un mot pour désigner la remarquable intégrale Beethoven d'Isabelle Faust (violon) et Alexander Melnikov (piano). Sacrifier enfin au Sacrificium, de Cecilia Bartoli, c'est saluer une excellence qui en remontre même aux fabuleux castrats.
SYLVAIN SICLIER
1. Cheer Me, Perverts !, de Flat Earth Society (Crammed Discs/Wagram Music)
2. Truelove's Gutter, de Richard Hawley (Mute/EMI)
3. BLACK Summers' Night, de Maxwell (Columbia/Sony Music)
4. Crouch, Touch, Engage, du MegaOctet d'Andy Emler (Naïve)
5. Mostly Coltrane, de Steve Kuhn (ECM/Universal Music)
Le grand orchestre belge Flat Earth Society s'empare de tous les genres, du jazz au rock, sans s'y engloutir. Spectaculaire et intelligent. Idem pour le MegaOctet d'Andy Emler, avec une science de l'écriture plus aboutie. L'hommage du pianiste Steve Kuhn à Coltrane valorise le lyrisme du saxophoniste sans tomber dans le cliché du jeu furieux. Avec Richard Hawley, on est au royaume de la transparence sonore, dans un monument de grâce et de sophistication pop. Quant à l'année soul, elle est dominée par la voix sensuelle et soyeuse de Maxwell, avec un disque radieux et vrai.
Article paru dans l'édition du 20.12.09
Cheveux : fashion réveillon - Madame Le Figaro, fr - link (aqui)
La robe, c’est fait. Reste la coiffure. Parfums, accessoires piqués aux tops, perruques, soins miracle et trucs de pros : le plan d’action.
JE CUSTOMISE MA COIFFURE
Barrettes et bandeaux sont les «it» de la saison. Les « headbands » XXL en cuir ou velours caracolent en tête pour accessoiriser un chignon, comme dans les défilés YSL et Fendi, tandis que les pinces et les épingles métalliques se multiplient pour plaquer une mèche de côté (on en met trois au lieu d’une seule) ou, plus osé, pour habiller toute la tête (vu sur les défilés Dior et Les Copains). Des idées de coiffure à la fois graphiques et chics. Bandeaux sertis de fleurs en feutrine, Massato (dans les salons Massato) ; épingles à chignon rétro, Miss Sugar Cane (sur www.misssugarcane.fr) ; « headbands » rock, en métal noir ou or, Ficcare (au salon L’Instant 2Moss, 5, square de l’Opéra-Louis-Jouvet, 75009 Paris, et sur www.esprit-mode.com).
JE NE METS
AU PARFUM… POUR CHEVEUX
De la sensualité de la racine aux pointes : tel est le credo de Frédéric Fekkai, coiffeur chouchou des stars américaines (Charlize Theron est une fidèle), qui, devant l’envie croissante de sexyness, lance son premier parfum pour cheveux. Élaboré par des artisans parfumeurs de Grasse, cet hespéridé, teinté de jasmin, musc, ambre et miel, diffuse un sillage envoûtant… Et pour le rendre encore plus ravageur, on utilise aussi son trio de soins parfumés (shampooing, conditionneur et spray), enrichis en protéines de soie pour un shoot de brillance et de douceur.
Ligne Femme Fekkai Sensuelle, au Bon Marché Rive Gauche.
Je change de look...
SUR UN COUP DE TÊTE
Parce que l’on a toutes au moins une fois rêvé de s’inventer un nouveau look, d’arborer une autre coupe, une autre couleur, de revêtir une chevelure plus longue ou plus dense, les perruques sont devenues des accessoires ludiques. Réalisées en cheveux 100% naturels, celles-ci sont « recto verso » : elles se portent à l’envers comme à l’endroit, grâce à leur implantation multidirectionnelle, et se prêtent à tous les styles de coiffure (du chignon ultra-romantique au court ébouriffé sportif). Elles existent en une dizaine de coloris naturels, et la matière est si vivante et si soyeuse qu’il est impossible de discerner le vrai du faux!
Collection Reversible, Any d’Avray, à partir de 1 250 €. À la boutique Any d’Avray, 25, rue Danielle-Casanova, 75001 Paris. Tél. : 01.42.60.21.42. Et dans 90 centres-conseils
en France. Informations sur www.anydavray.fr.
JE M’OFFRE
UNE NOUVELLE BRILLANCE
Une heure trente pour retrouver une chevelure brillante et soyeuse jusqu’aux pointes, c’est le défi anti-grisaille proposé par Leonor Greyl. Shampooing à la carte, soins « home made » préparés devant soi… Le rituel fétiche de la maison s’associe désormais
à un massage des épaules, des bras et du dos avec des huiles essentielles ciblées selon nos envies (relaxantes, régénérantes et même préventives pour renforcer le système immunitaire). Brillance et bien-être à la clé pour la fin d’année !
Soins sur mesure aux huiles essentielles, à partir de 87 € . À l’ Institut Leonor Greyl, 15, rue Tronchet, 75008 Paris. Tél. : 01.42.65.32.26.
Berlusconi: "Vado avanti per il bene del Paese" - la Repubblica, it - link (aqui)
Fiori e auguri di pronta guarigione a Villa San Martino ad ArcoreMessaggio del premier a una manifestazione di solidarietà organizzata a Verona
"Mi date un'ulteriore spinta. L'amore vince sempre sull'invidia e sull'odio", ha ripetuto
"Sono commosso - ha aggiunto il presidente del Consiglio - e ringrazio Verona che ha per prima voluto organizzare questa manifestazione di solidarietà". "L'amore vince sempre sull'invidia e sull'odio", ha ribadito Berlusconi usando le parole pronunciate il giorno in cui è uscito dall'ospedale San Raffaele e scritte lo stesso slogan dello striscione che questa mattina campeggiava sulla scalinata del Municipio di Verona. "Questo è il messaggio - ha proseguito il premier - che stiamo portando in giro per tutta l'Italia". "Sotto l'albero di Natale - ha detto ancora, rivolgendosi ai sostenitori - regalate una tessera del Pdl".
In piazza Brà, secondo una prima stima, un migliaio di persone, tra le quali oltre a Brancher il sottosegretario Alberto Giorgetti, e vari sindaci e assessori comunali. La manifestazione si è chiusa con le note di "Meno male che Silvio c'è".
(20 dicembre 2009)
Berlusconi: «Vado avanti per il bene del Paese» - Corriere Della Sera, it - link (aqui)
Berlusconi in una foto di alcuni giorni fa (Afp)Messaggio del premier: «Le manifestazioni di solidarietà mi danno una spinta ulteriore»
MILANO - «Andrò avanti per il bene del Paese»: questo il messaggio lanciato da Silvio Berlusconi ai partecipanti alla manifestazione di solidarietà indetta in Piazza Brà a Verona, a una settimana dall'aggressione subita dal premier a Milano. «Manifestazioni di solidarietà nei miei confronti - ha detto Berlusconi, che ha chiamato al cellulare il sottosegretario Aldo Brancher - mi danno una ulteriore spinta ad andare avanti e a sostenere il nostro impegno per il bene del Paese».
COMMOSSO - «Sono commosso - ha detto ancora Berlusconi - e ringrazio Verona che ha per prima voluto organizzare questa manifestazione di solidarietà». «L'amore vince sempre sull'invidia e sull'odio», ha ribadito il presidente del Consiglio; è lo stesso slogan dello striscione che campeggia sulla scalinata del Municipio. «Questo è il messaggio - ha aggiunto il premier - che stiamo portando in giro per tutta l'Italia». «Sotto l'albero di Natale - ha detto ancora, rivolgendosi ai sostenitori - regalate una tessera del Pdl». In piazza Brà, secondo una prima stima, un migliaio di persone, tra le quali oltre a Brancher il sottosegretario Alberto Giorgetti, e vari sindaci e assessori comunali. La manifestazione si è chiusa con le note di 'meno male che Silvio c'è'.
20 dicembre 2009
Maltempo, la neve concede una tregua ma temperature giù al centro-nord - Corriere Della Sera, it - link (aqui)
(Ansa)
Nevicata record a Bologna, 30 cm in città (Ansa)
(Ansa)
Neve e acqua alta a Venezia (Ansa)Bufera sulla costa est degli usa. Sospesi collegamenti nel tunnel della manica
E da lunedì tornano le precipitazioni
TRENI - Nonostante la tregua maltempo, restano i disagi per chi si muove in treno. Molti convogli sono in ritardo e ci sono state anche alcune cancellazioni (su Viaggiatreno la situazione in tempo reale). «A seguito di formazione di ghiaccio nel centro e nord Italia, per ragioni di sicurezza e regolarità - fa sapere Trenitalia - tutti i treni AV ed Eurostar potranno subire ritardi per la riduzione di velocità. Inoltre si potranno avere alcune selezionate soppressioni di treni nonché variazioni o limitazioni di percorso e di stazioni».
VENETO - Gelo e sole sul Veneto. A Piana di Marcesina, nel vicentino, in area non abitata, la minima ha toccato i meno 29 gradi centigradi. Non tanto meglio però nelle località montane: ad Asiago -22, a Sappada e Arabba -18, a Cortina -16, ad Agordo -14. Anche il capoluogo bellunese è andato ben sotto la media stagionale con un -11. Sulla Marmolada, in quota, la minima si è fermata a -26. Freddo anche in pianura, dove sulle strade secondarie sono ancora in azione in mezzi per liberare i tracciati dalla neve, mentre la polizia stradale non segnala particolari problemi lungo le autostrade e le statali. Ritardi ancora nella circolazione ferroviaria lungo le principali direttrici. A Venezia è prevista una punta massima di marea tra i 95 e 100 centimetri sul medio mare.
EMILIA ROMAGNA - È stata una notte ghiacciata, come da previsioni, in Emilia-Romagna, ma senza particolari conseguenze per la circolazione stradale. Le stazioni locali del servizio meteo Arpa hanno registrato temperature minime decisamente sotto la media del periodo: -6,3 gradi a Bologna, -4,8 a Piacenza e un più 'mite' -2,1 a Rimini. Ma si è arrivati a -12,1 a Vignola (Modena), -14,6 ad Argenta nella Bassa ferrarese, -16 a Bedonia sull'Appennino parmense e ben -16,4 a Mezzolara, nella pianura bolognese. Per lunedì sono previste ancora minime molto basse (da -8 di Piacenza a -1 di Rimini), con precipitazioni deboli-moderate anche a carattere nevoso nella parte occidentale della regione. A Bologna, in particolare, nelle prossime ore continuerà l'ondata di gelo, per lunedì è prevista una nuova nevicata, e l'Amministrazione comunale prosegue nel suo impegno per una città «funzionale, agibile e sicura nonostante i disagi derivati dal maltempo».
TOSCANA - Prosegue l'allerta gelo in Toscana dopo le nevicate che hanno interessato tutte le province a partire da venerdì. Su tutto il territorio si sono registrate temperature sotto lo zero, arrivando a meno 20 in alcune località del Mugello (Firenze) in prossimità dei valichi appenninici mentre domenica alle 7 a Borgo San Lorenzo, comune principale del territorio, era meno 16. La protezione civile della Provincia di Firenze rinnova l'invito a mettersi in viaggio solo in caso di effettiva necessità e comunque sempre con catene a bordo.
MARCHE - La neve ha fatto la sua timida comparsa ad Ancona, dove peraltro, a causa delle temperature glaciali si sono verificate piccole rotture nelle tubazioni dell'acqua. Sul resto della regione solo rapide spruzzate, e in alcune località - come ad Ascoli - c'è il sole. Il problema, dunque, resta il ghiaccio. Da qui, l'invito alla cautela per chi si mette in viaggio.
CALABRIA - Pioggia e freddo intenso in Calabria. Nelle zone più alte della Sila è nevicato per alcune ore. Nonostante il maltempo la situazione delle strade non fa registrare disagi o problemi. L'Anas, la polizia stradale e la protezione civile stanno comunque monitorando costantemente la situazione del maltempo. Sull'autostrada Salerno-Reggio Calabria e sulle statali il traffico è normale. Anche sulle strade utilizzate per raggiungere le principali località della montagna calabrese non vengono segnalati problemi o disagi. In molti stamani hanno deciso di raggiungere le località montane per trascorrere la domenica che precede il Natale.
TUNNEL DELLA MANICA- Ma il maltempo ha colpito anche altri Paesi europei. Dopo che l'avaria a cinque treni ha bloccato centinaia di passeggeri sotto terra per ore, l'Eurostar ha cancellato tutti i servizi passeggeri attraverso il Tunnel della Manica per l'intera giornata di domenica. Il capo ufficio stampa di Eurostar, Paul Gorman, ha annunciato che la società effettuerà una serie di test attraverso i tunnel per cercare di scoprire che cosa sia accaduto. Ha aggiunto che la società spera di essere in grado di ripristinare il servizio lunedì.
STATI UNITI - Ondata di gelo sulla costa est degli Usa, dove si è abbattuta una bufera di neve: centinaia di migliaia di persone sono rimaste senza corrente elettrica, gravi disagi ai trasporti ferroviari, stradali e aerei. Un primo bilancio riporta cinque morti a causa del maltempo, che imperversa dal Nord Carolina fino al New England e si sta dirigendo verso New York e Boston. In un solo giorno 40 centimetri di neve hanno ricoperto le piste dell'aeroporto Reagan National Airport di Washington, chiuso nella notte, causando ritardi e cancellazioni di voli; 40 centimetri in 24 ore anche a Philadelphia. Gli agenti della stradale utilizzano gli Humvees per mettere in salvo gli automobilisti rimasti bloccati e almeno 500 persone sono state portate sotto le tende o in altri ricoveri d’emergenza.
20 dicembre 2009
La obra de Frida Kahlo recorrerá Europa en 2010 - Vanitatis, es - link (aqui)
Fotografía de Frida Kahlo (Efe).Veintiséis obras de la pintora Frida Kahlo reunidas en el Museo Dolores Olmedo en la capital mexicana partirán a Europa en enero próximo para ser exhibidas durante 2010 en Bruselas, Berlín y Viena, informaron fuentes del museo.
La obra de Frida "tiene gran repercusión mundial, en todos lados siempre esperan ansiosos por verla", dijo la comisaria del Museo Dolores Olmedo, Josefina García. Las 26 obras serán exhibidas en tres "magnas exposiciones" gracias a un programa de intercambio cultural celebrado por México con instituciones artísticas de Bélgica, Alemania y Austria, informó García.
Dibujos, retratos y autorretratos, reunidos en Frida Kahlo y su mundo, estarán del 16 de enero al 18 en el Palacio de Bellas Artes de Bruselas. La exposición estará acompañada de imágenes y documentos audiovisuales.
El museo Martin Gropius-Bau de Berlín albergará la obra de Frida del 30 de abril al 9 de agosto. En Viena el museo Kunstforum será el último escenario que la obra de Frida Kahlo conquistará durante el 2010, del 1 de septiembre al 5 de diciembre. El Gobierno de Bélgica en respuesta al convenio enviará a México obras del pintor belga James Enson, mientras que los Gobiernos de Alemania y Austria entregarán al Museo Dolores Olmedo un donativo económico. El monto aún está en negociación.
Los autorretratos titulados La columna rota, El autorretrato con changuito, Unos cuántos piquetitos y El hospital Henry Ford son las obras que, según Josefina García, "serán las más esperadas y aclamadas" por el público europeo.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), esposa del muralista Diego Rivera, es una de las pintoras mexicanas más representativas del siglo XX que tuvo una vida trágica y desenfrenada, amiga de intelectuales y políticos de la época, como André Breton y León Trotsky.
Penélope Cruz, la agente 883 - Vanitatis, es - link (aqui)
Es una realidad, con base sólida, que la carrera de Penélope Cruz y su personalidad cala hondo cada vez más en la coyuntura del reducto de las estrellas de Hollywood. Sea por su frescura, su interpretación intuitiva o por las últimas decisiones profesionales encaminadas a aceptar papeles realmente interesantes, Penélope va ganando adeptos entre sus compañeros y también en la crítica, que en Estados Unidos se caracteriza por su linealidad. Grandes dosis de suerte- es una mujer supersticiosa- y otras de arduo trabajo son las claves de su éxito.
La de Alcobendas domina el inglés a la perfección y de ahí se podría llegar a deducir que interpretar un papel en este idioma no sea ya un problema para ella, aunque al principio se tratara de un gran impedimento. Este podría ser el motivo que ha causado que ahora Penélope Cruz se consolide como una intérprete con activos. Y lo hace a lo grande. A la ingente cantidad de premios que recabó el año pasado por su interpretación de María Elena en la película Vicky Cristina Barcelona, se une este año una nominación a los Globos de Oro -considerados la antesala de los Oscar- y a los premios del Sindicato de Actores por su papel en el musical Nine.
Un éxito arrollador que se extrapola a la situación personal por la que en la actualidad atraviesa. Su familia habla maravillas de ella, su relación con Bardem se afianza día a día y sus amigos y compañeros de trabajo se deshacen en halagos hacía ella. La presentación mundial de Nine nos ha dejado declaraciones, piropos y situaciones que sorprenden en principio. La relación entre Penélope y Nicole Kidman, compañera de reparto, no tiene nada que ver a lo que se llegó a pensar en un principio. Son amigas y el hecho de haber compartido -aunque no en el mismo espacio de tiempo- al protagonista de Misión Imposible no es influyente. Penélope apareció públicamente de la mano con Tom Cruise cinco días más tarde que éste obtuviese el divorcio de la australiana.
La francesa Marion Cotillard, otra compañera de ‘Pe’ en Nine, que obtuvo el Oscar con La vida en rosa, también adora a la española. "Suerte que tiene que no soy hombre, porque de lo contrario me tendrían que despegar de ella con agua caliente", dijo recientemente. Unas declaraciones que fueron refrendadas por la también actriz Sandra Bullock. Actores de la talla de Sean Penn, que recientemente ha ejercido de anfitrión en las vacaciones la pareja Bardem-Cruz, o Antonio Banderas, que suele invitar a Penélope a las fiestas que organiza en casa, coinciden en las calidades humanas, amen de las profesionales, de la actriz. Tanto sus amigos anónimos como los conocidos comparten la misma impresión de ella.
En España, su amiga Goya Toledo y Luis Alegre, periodista y escritor, son sus mejores valedores. Es más; Alegre, amigo de muchos otros famosos, fue el único varón junto a Eduardo Cruz que acudió como invitado personal de la galardonada en la ceremonia de entrega de las preciadas estatuillas. Son como hermanos y a pesar de la creciente popularidad de Penélope su amistad va creciendo. Lo mismo sucede con Goya. Qué decir de Pedro Almodóvar, que considera a la mayor de los hermanos Cruz como su musa.
Penélope CruzPepsi no se anunciará en la Super Bowl por primera vez desde 1987 - El País, es - link (aqui)
La pasada edición del evento deportivo reunió a 98,7 millones de telespectadores
EFE - Nueva York - 18/12/2009
La empresa da así un cambio en su política publicitaria, centrada en dominar los anuncios emitidos durante la popular final deportiva, y deja el camino libre a su rival Coca-Cola, que, según el rotativo, ultima ya los detalles de su presencia en la Super Bowl de la mano de los personajes de la serie de animación Los Simpson.
"En 2010 cada una de nuestras marcas de bebidas contará con una estrategia y una plataforma publicitaria que se alejarán de un sólo acontecimiento", ha explicado al diario Frank Cooper, uno de los vicepresidentes de Pepsi, y ha dicho que sí que anunciará en el evento los productos de su conocida marca de aperitivos Doritos.
La Super Bowl, cuya próxima edición emitirá la cadena CBS el 7 de febrero de 2010, es la culminación de la Liga Nacional de Fútbol Americano (NFL), un acontecimiento que siguieron por televisión este año 98,7 millones de personas y que constituye uno de los días más lucrativos del año en publicidad para el canal que la retransmite.
Su nueva campaña publicitaria
"Nuestra nueva táctica no es una condena a la Super Bowl, pero es que sería muy difícil explicar nuestra nueva campaña publicitaria en un anuncio de treinta segundos", ha añadido Cooper.
Durante 23 años, Pepsi ha aprovechado ese partido para lanzar millonarias y atrevidas campañas publicitarias para promocionar sus bebidas gaseosas, muy populares en Estados Unidos, que han tenido como protagonistas a todo tipo de personajes famosos, como la cantante Britney Spears o la modelo Cindy Crawford.
La compañía, que se gastó el año pasado 74,6 millones de dólares (unos 52 millones de euros) en publicidad, fue el mayor anunciante en la última edición de la Super Bowl, mientras que Coca-Cola se había mantenido alejada del evento durante ocho años, pero volvió a anunciarse en él en 2007.
Pepsi Refresh Project, una publicidad ligada a proyectos sociales
Los responsables de Pepsi han explicado al Wall Street Journal que el cambio de estrategia encamina a la empresa hacia un modelo de publicidad ligado a proyectos sociales que iniciará en las próximas semanas con un programa llamado Pepsi Refresh Project, que cuenta con el objetivo de entregar fondos a proyectos comunitarios.
Pepsi ha asegurado que, de momento, ha destinado 20 millones de dólares (unos 13,9 millones de euros) que dedicaba a publicidad a ese proyecto, con el que pretende financiar causas sociales propuestas por sus consumidores y puso como ejemplo la publicación de libros para estudiantes de educación secundaria que los ayuden a mejorar su escritura.
"La compañía espera que esta nueva campaña le ayude a reanimar las ventas de algunas de sus marcas más potentes en Norteamérica", cuenta el diario, que subraya que el refresco de cola que da nombre a la compañía sufrió un descenso del 7,3% en sus ventas durante los primeros nueve meses de 2009.
La empresa, con sede en Nueva York, ha asegurado también que el próximo año gastará un 60% más que en 2009 en anuncios en Internet, ya que cree que es la mejor manera de llegar al público joven, el sector que mayor interés le despierta a la compañía.
Every Pepsi Refreshes the World (Cada Pepsi refresca al mundo) será además el nuevo lema que explote la compañía de bebidas en sus nuevos anuncios.
La empresa de paquetería Fedex ya ha anunciado que tampoco anunciará sus servicios en la próxima final de la Super Bowl, debido a una política de "contención de costes", según el Wall Street Journal.
ELENA ANAYA Dispuesta a ganar la partida - El País, es - link (aqui)
Para el año que viene le esperan cuatro estrenos: dos películas españolas y dos extranjeras. "Mi único pánico es no saber poner cuerpo, cara, corazón y voz al personaje de un director".- NICOserá su año. en 2010 le espera póquer de estrenos. cuatro películas que la desnudan y muestran sus más variados registros. la actriz ha cambiado su aspecto aniñado por una hechizante belleza.
Se pasó la infancia subida a un árbol oteando la llegada de imaginarios elefantes. Hoy continúa el juego: es actriz. "Mi madre no sólo no se cansaba de mi juego, sino que me llevaba la merienda".- NICO
Los directores con los que ha trabajado afirman que la cámara saca de ella cosas que no se ven a primera vista. Por un problema al nacer, tiene un ojo de cada color. "Mis párpados no funcionan igual. Es difícil explicar qué sientes cuando sólo lloras por un ojo".- NICO
"Soy fuerte porque no me queda de otra. De igual manera que aprendes a cantar sin destrozarte la voz aprendes a actuar sin destrozarte por dentro. Ahora lo separo de mi vida, ocupo una personalidad que no es la mía y sigo adelante".- NICO
Se siente contenta con el paso de los años porque la experiencia le aporta matices personales y poso a sus trabajos como actriz. "Llegué a Madrid con 19 años y desde entonces me busqué la vida. Siempre me ha gustado mucho la calle".- NICO
Confiesa que los actores, como los deportistas, necesitan entrenamiento. Por eso, cuando entra en crisis, vuelve a clase y se reconcilia con su profesión. "Es volver a poner tu cuerpo a punto, volver a lo básico, a los detalles".- NICOAgustín Díaz Yanes, que la ha dirigido en Sin noticias de Dios, Alatriste y Sólo quiero caminar, comparó una vez el idilio con la cámara de Elena Anaya con el de Victoria Abril. "La cámara saca cosas de ella que uno no alcanza a ver en la realidad", apunta el director. "Es una mujer muy interesante, con esa mirada tan especial, esos ojos tan bonitos y tan raros. Su fuerza está en ellos. Puede parecer la más bondadosa o la más turbadora y criminal".
Elena Anaya se crió en Palencia, donde nació en julio de 1975. Una malformación provocada por el fórceps que utilizaron en su parto (que hirió el sistema nervioso simpático) provocó que un ojo fuera verde y el otro marrón. "No, como David Bowie no", corrige ella. "Los míos son como los de Rossy de Palma, que me gusta más".
Se pasó la infancia con un parche en el ojo y subida a un árbol. A la pequeña de tres hermanos siempre le gustó jugar sola. "Llevaba uno de eso parches color carne muy feos, pero mi madre se las ingeniaba para que fueran los parches más bonitos del mundo, me los decoraba con telas y colores. Era increíble. Mi madre me contó que había nacido sin un ojo y que me habían puesto el de otra persona. Ella no sólo no ponía cortapisas a nuestra imaginación, sino que se las arreglaba para multiplicarla. Yo solía subirme a un cerezo que me fascinaba y no me movía de allí, decía que estaba esperando a los elefantes y mi madre no sólo no se cansaba de mi juego, sino que me llevaba la merienda y me preguntaba: ¿y qué tal los elefantes?".
Hija de un ingeniero industrial -"mi padre ponía postes de la luz en todo el mundo", dice con entusiasmo-, sus padres se separaron cuando ella tenía 12 años. "Pero mi sensación no es la de una familia rota, mis padres siempre se han querido y respetado mucho. Como nosotros les queremos y respetamos mucho a ellos. Mi padre es un hombre muy católico y yo hice la primera comunión, pero cuando llegó la confirmación le dije no y fue que no. Es verdad que le hubiera gustado que yo estudiara una carrera, pero siempre me ha apoyado y ha aceptado sin quejarse lo que yo quería".
¿Y qué quería Elena Anaya? "Seguir jugando, por eso quería ser actriz", responde en una cafetería de Madrid con un tono de melancolía que se aleja del de la eterna actriz-niña a la que nos tenía acostumbrados. Entra en el local cargada de bolsas, viaja a Nueva York a la mañana siguiente y acaba de regresar de Málaga. Todo por trabajo. Desde hace unos meses lleva el pelo muy corto y teñido de rubio como si fuera una replicante de Blade runner. "Jamás he mezclado mi vida profesional con la personal, pero tampoco me he escondido por la calle. Cuanto más te tapas, más te miran. Ponte gafas de sol y una gorra y no te dejarán de mirar".
"Me gusta este lugar", dice al referirse a la cafetería HD, en Madrid, que ha sido rehabilitada conservando todo su sabor de los años cincuenta. "Me recuerda a Nebraska, en la Gran Vía; me encantaban todas esas cafeterías maravillosas que ya han desaparecido. Yo llegué a Madrid con 19 años y desde entonces me independicé y me busqué la vida, siempre me he organizado bien. Y siempre me ha gustado mucho la calle". El lugar tiene un público variado: jóvenes trabajando en su ordenador mientras unos jubilados meriendan o un bebé llora. Pide un Bloody Mary y un sándwich, "de esos con aceite de trufa, por favor".
Testaruda. Ése es otro adjetivo que pega con esta actriz. Se deja aconsejar poco en las decisiones sobre su carrera ("tengo una relación maravillosa con mi agente, y somos un equipo, pero siempre decido yo, siempre") y todavía hoy le hierve la sangre al hablar de sus estudios y de cómo la echaron de la Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático (RESAD) por faltar a clase. "Entiendo que sean estrictos, pero yo faltaba a clase porque estaba rodando una película. No tiene sentido". "La verdad es que lo pasé mal desde la prueba de ingreso. Un profesor me descalificó diciéndome de mala manera que yo sólo era un germen de actriz. Al escuchar aquello, yo le mantuve la mirada, desafiándole. Todavía recuerdo mi enfado". De la RESAD pasó a la escuela de Juan Carlos Corazza, donde se ha formado todos estos años y donde acude cada vez que necesita entrenamiento.
"Cada vez que entro en crisis vuelvo a la escuela. Un actor es un atleta, y el entrenamiento es fundamental para nuestro músculo. Cuando acabo mal después de un rodaje, y me ha ocurrido, con ganas de tirar definitivamente la toalla y dejarlo todo, he vuelto a clase y me he recuperado. La última vez cogimos entre tres un texto de Strindberg y lo trabajamos desde todos los puntos de vista; aquello me reactivó, me hizo volver al origen de este trabajo, a los principios que te hacen actor. Me reconcilié otra vez con lo que hago. Es como un concertista o un deportista, es volver a poner tu cuerpo a punto, volver a lo básico, a los detalles. La expresión es sanadora, movilizar lo que tienes dentro te ayuda a atajar problemas, los coges de la mano y los ahuyentas".
Elena Anaya habla de actores que admira porque son "virtuosos en el laboratorio" y luego habla de la importancia de la propia experiencia. "Te da recursos expresivos, sabes mejor de lo que hablas, es más fácil entender lo que es estar destruida o apasionada por algo".
Anaya estrenará el próximo enero Hierro, la película del madrileño Gabe Ibáñez sobre una madre soltera que pierde a su hijo y que se niega a "aceptar lo inaceptable". En febrero está previsto el estreno de Habitación en Roma, su segundo filme con Julio Medem, tras Lucía y el sexo, que narra el encuentro sexual de dos mujeres en la capital de Italia. "Es la historia de una mujer en crisis, que sale a tomar una copa después de la presentación de un trabajo y acaba en la cama con una rusa. En lugar de una noche de sexo y risas, acaba enamorada". Luego seguirán Enemigo público nº 1, la película francesa en la que interpreta a la primera mujer del criminal Jacques Mesrine, interpretado por Vincent Cassel. Y finalmente, Cairo Time, filme canadiense dirigido por Ruba Nadda y protagonizado por Patricia Clarkson; "es un papel pequeño, pero todos los trabajos son importantes para mí", asegura la actriz, que en 2004 dio el salto a Hollywood con Van Helsin, un filme de vampiros protagonizado por Hugh Jackman que pasó sin pena ni gloria.
"Nunca he sentido: ésta es la mía; ni siquiera lo pensé cuando me eligieron para África o para Familia. Siempre pensaba que era la primera y la última, y de alguna manera me sigue pasando. No es miedo al fracaso, mi único pánico es no cumplir las expectativas de un director, no saber poner cuerpo, cara, corazón y voz a su personaje. Las críticas me pueden halagar o hundir, pero no me dan miedo. Mi único miedo es no estar a la altura durante el rodaje. Lo que ocurra después es otro asunto".
"Hierro' es un drama pero la disfruté mucho", dice en referencia a la ópera prima de Gabe Ibáñez que fue presentada en la Semana de la Crítica del Festival de Cannes y por la que ganó el premio a la mejor actriz en Sitges. El rodaje de Hierro prácticamente empalmó con el de Habitación en Roma: "Ha sido uno de los rodajes más difíciles de mi vida, con un enorme desgaste físico y emocional. Estar desnuda durante casi toda la película es complicado siempre, aunque el equipo te arrope y cuide. Al final, quitarse las bragas es siempre quitarse las bragas, y una actriz no posa, se entrega a lo que hace y ya está. Ha sido un viaje, uno de esos viajes que como actriz te llevan a lugares que no conocías. Al final, lo importante es cuidarte a ti misma, ser coherente contigo y con tu desnudo. A lo mejor a tu lado está una actriz más potente, pero tú eres así, con tus pelos y tu tamaño. A todas nos gusta salir guapas, pero cuando actúas no puedes pensar en eso".
"Yo soy fuerte porque no me queda otra", asegura la actriz. "Necesito ser fuerte, pero soy de esas personas que se vienen abajo y se hacen vulnerables en un segundo. Me voy de un lado a otro con mucha facilidad. Al principio me quedaba muy tocada con los trabajos. Luego te acostumbras y de igual manera que aprendes a cantar sin destrozarte la voz aprendes a actuar sin destrozarte por dentro. Pero antes era de las que llegaban a casa y se ponían a llorar sin poder parar, y me asustaba. Ahora lo separo de mi vida, ocupo una personalidad que no es la mía y sigo adelante, aunque a estas alturas sé que todo lo que he interpretado forma parte de mí, de mi pasado y de mi historia, de mi expresión como actriz y como mujer. Soy todo lo que he vivido o todo lo que he creído vivir". Elena Anaya se despide con tiempo para preparar la maleta. Es verdad que cuando mira puede parecer la chica más alegre del mundo y también la más triste. "Y si estoy cansada o he bebido algo, se me cierra un ojo y no hay manera de abrirlo. Los párpados no funcionan igual. Supongo que es difícil explicar qué sientes cuando sólo lloras por un ojo. Yo no tengo una explicación. Sólo es así".
