Reviews

Two months ago I read and later re-skimmed the David Sedaris book "Dress Your Family in Denim and Corduroy." Although the title of the book is not explained (I think the motive behind the title of a book should be apparent by the time it's finished) I thought it was a better book than his more recent "When You Are Engulfed in Flames." In "Flames" he writes stories and reflections from roughly 20 years ago to the present, but he focuses much more on his expatriate present life in France, while in "Family" he writes stories going all the way back to when he was in 6th grade. His stories are more interesting in "Family" since he covers some low points in his life and includes events to describe his family. Sedaris includes blunt references to his former craving for drugs as well as reflections about living in the basement of his parent's house after graduation, his obsessive compulsive daily schedule, encounters with a manipulative 9-year-old ghetto girl and a visit to his trash-diving family-avoidant sister. Best of all, he ends the book drowning a mouse in a bucket in front of his house in France at 3 AM. Sedaris presents people descriptively and objectively, revealing the right edetails, behaviorisms or dialogue so that we may judge and see them the way he does. He referenced a Joni Mitchell album called "Hejira" and the 1999 movie "You Can Count on Me" so I downloaded and rented them.

"Hejira" is an allright CD. I think its tone mirrors the fact that Joni was driving across the United States when she wrote the songs. It's basically repetitive melodies with stream-of-consciousness lyrics and instrumental guitars that make it sound like a collection of acoustic Led Zeppelin songs.

"You Can Count on Me" is an unintentionally funny drama starring Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo. They play siblings who were orphaned when they were young so they really like each other and tell each other everything. Mark Ruffalo is a wandering construction worker with hobo-like habits who is visiting Laura Linney, a banker and single mother. At first Laura Linney is a little pissed off because Mark Ruffalo needs to borrow money from her ("I'll pay you back, man"). Mark Ruffalo becomes friends with Laura Linney's son (played by Rory Culkin, who is poker-faced and resembles MacCaulay Culkin). The funny thing about this relationship is that Mark Ruffalo talks to Rory Culkin as if he were a grown up guy and expects him to act like one. Most of the movie consists of shots of Mark Ruffalo sitting in Laura Linney's house and watching TV while profound cello music plays in the background. This movie doesn't have much of a message except that nonconformists want to have a positive impact on the people in their lives and that they are misunderstood by society. There isn't much substance to make a conclusion about the impact of Mark Ruffalo's visit on Laura Linney's life. Still, the style, acting, characters and storytelling make up for these flaws.

Interior design, landscapes and built environments

The interior design of houses and apartments here is frankly not very good and lacking in variety. The Texan language assistant agrees and said that he would never live in a Spanish apartment building because they are sterile. A typical front door has a key hole and a very low door handles that reach just above my knees. They are supposed to look like wood but look faker than the wood trim you would find in luxury cars. For furniture and decoration they might put up a family portrait or a miniature grandfather clock but nothing that feels very welcoming, like carpets and paintings. The floors are never carpet or woodpanel, just plain white tiles or gray cold marble tiles with patterned jagged dull-colored shapes. These tiles are used all over the convent, making it uncomfortable to walk around the convent without shoes or slippers. For lighting they use fluorescent lights and overhead lights embedded in the ceiling, things I consider "hard lighting." I would rate the interior design of houses and apartments on the same level as Taiwan's, where it is very similar. These two countries also share a similar nature in economic growth, with both countries developing rapidly from an agrarian model since the 70s, and they also share a very similar GDP per capita along with Israel and South Korea. Fast economic growth = middle class societies living in uniform housing with little aesthetic value?

Perhaps the nature of interior design can be explained by cultural values and lifestyle. Bars and restaurants and cafe-bars are a major fixture of any city here, each one receiving a decent number of customers every day and hour. The Texan language assistant observed that people do not really stress out over their profession/career, that people visit bars and restaurants at all times of the day, and that many more children and old people visit these cafe-bars than in the United States (here even babies in strollers are allowed in bars). When the pedestrian nature of retail areas coincides with the cultural tendency to spent time exploring streets and places to drink and eat, less value is placed upon home decoration, home maintenance and home improvement. As a consequence of the differences in physical environment and lifestyle between the United States and Spain, this city of 25,000 surpasses Riverside, a city of 300,000, in terms of the number of entertainment venues for the public. I counted five places that were playing music at 200AM on Sunday (Saturday night for those who don't like to think technically), and there were maybe three times as many bars open. In the United States there are only a few cities (New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta) that are known for having this sort of night culture. Instead, in mid-size cities like Riverside the people actually prefer privatized house parties or get-togethers over the weekends, depicting how the American ideals of privacy and personal control of one's life reign supreme over communal entertainment venues and public spaces.

The natural environment here is not too different from what one finds in California. My autonomous community, Castilla-La Mancha, is about a fifth the size of California and has grapes, wheat, cows and cattle. The towns are linked by highways and railways. When on highways I see large white mechanical wind turbines, vineyards (bodegas) and warehouses (almacenes) with numerous booths where cargo trucks can load and unload their stuff. So the landscape of my region is a cross between Ontario, Palm Springs, and the Central Valley, except the weather is colder and windier.