New year, new banner.

~Happy New Year Everyone!~

As you can see, the blog now has a new banner. There is a line in one of my beloved songs that says "times change I change just like them". I started this blog nearly four years ago and many things have changed since then both in my life and here on Gonzo About Style as well.

I feel I have become more mature and my posts are a bit different now as well. However, I did like the old banner but I came to think that it might time to refresh it. The style and some of the artists are still the same but now I included those who were missing from the first one.

Of course after finishing it I realized how many of my sources of inspiration I had left out again - Vladimir Nabokov, William Blake, certain philosophers... But it would be a mission impossible to include each and every one of them.

I hope you like the new banner and that you'll come back time after time to read my posts... I promise there will be more of them than last year!

There is a first for everything.

Although I am a great admirer of the Coen brothers and basically have seen everything they've written/directed, it was only today that I watched True Grit. The thing is, I don't like westerns and not even the strong belief that they could make something beautiful and entertaining in this genre could convince me that it was time for me to sit it through.

However, I was pleasantly disappointed - it not only is your "typical" Coen movie (and in their case, typical means impeccable acting paired with mesmerizing photography, brilliant directing and, of course, that signature wit) but I also happened to enjoy the story. I knew the script would be well-written (after all, it always is) but I never thought I would actually find it so exciting, especially because it is an adaptation.

Film makers like them are the reason I still have faith in modern cinema - they know special effects and cliché stories might be indispensable for blockbusters but their quality ingredients are a recipe for masterpiece. And that, my friends, is priceless.

My Hero.

Finding Larry David and Seinfeld was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. Before them I had thought I stood alone as this socially awkward person who worries about and gets annoyed by things people consider "normal" and won't say anything about because that is what's expected from us.
What started with Seinfeld continued and was developed in Curb your enthusiasm. One of the taglines of the series says "Deep inside you know you're him" and frankly speaking I couldn't agree more.
There is not one day I don't encounter an irritating social situation that was analyzed in one of these series and most of the time I wish I had the guts to pull a Larry David. The man himself said that his character on the show is "[his] version of Superman. The character is really me, but I just couldn't possibly behave like that. If I had my druthers, that would be me all the time, but you can't do that."

So here he is, Larry David, my hero.

Two days in Paris.

I have always found it quite annoying and hard to understand that everyone's obsessedly in love with Paris. Frankly speaking, I have never been a francophile and my visit to the City of Light left me unimpressed. Add my infitie love of neurotic characters and sense of humor to this disinterest and you'll understand why I found 2 Days in Paris so irresistible.

Written and directed by (and starring, of course) the almost-legendary Julie Delpy, at first glance it might seem your typical multilingual indie film but the thing is it is much more than that. Aside from being witty and lifelike, it actually is a beautiful movie filled with emotions we all know very well but presenting and analyzing them so truthfully and closely that the result is something very much like an eye-opening experience.
Adam Goldberg gives his very best and you can't help thinking about Woody Allen while watching him act. I wonder how long until he discovers him and Goldberg will pull a Woody Allen, instead of a Polanski...

The life-saver.

There are certain songs that not only comfort you but give you strength and dare I say, save you when you're at your lowest. I know for many people this song is Sinatra's My Way but for me it is Neil Diamond's Solitary Man.
It reminds you that it doesn't matter how many loves you thought were right broke, you can always have the hope that the real thing will arrive one day. And until then, you can live and be happy as a solitary (wo)man...

Let there be light.

I know a lot of people are anti-Christmas when it comes to the commercial part of it, but I have to admit I kind of like it because it helps me get in the mood and somehow I was never one of those who gets stressed when seeing all the Christmas stuff in stores. Of course there are several things I can not stand either - the Christmas songs are the first ones on my hate-list and I also have difficulties with handling the crowd but my two favourite indispensable Christmas elements make up for it big time: Christmas lights and coconut turrón (which is basically a huge block of coconut with some sugar... and some dark chocolate if you're lucky!).
I really love Christmas lights in Madrid, especially when they are not that obviously for the holiday... for example the ones near my home:

The song of a generation.

Where there is a despot, a system that tries to control basically every aspect of society and the lives of the ones living in it, there are always some individuals who resist - maybe it means helping others, the way Oskar Schindler did during World War II, maybe they decide it's time to get together and start a revolution because they just have to try, just like in Hungary in 1956. Then, of course, there are the artists, who know how to touch people and how to make them realize that together we can do more.
Luis Llach's song L'estaca was translated to many languages and is the symbol of resistance, of not accepting tyranny. It was written in 1968 using metaphors to prevent the censorship from banning it and - like many other songs composed in that era - it still has a meaning and it is still very inspiring.

The lyrics in English would be something like this:

Grandpa Siset spoke with me
early in the morning, in the frontdoor
while we were wainting for the sun
and we saw the cars passing by
Siset, don't you see the stake
where we all are tied?
If we cannot undo it
we won't be able to walk!

If we all pull it, it will fall
and it can't last much time,
surely it falls, falls, falls,
it must be worm-eaten by now.
If I pull hard towards here,
and you pull it towards there,
I'm sure it falls, falls, falls,
and we'll be able to be free!

But it's been a long time, now
My hands are peeling
And when my force goes
it's wider and bigger.
Yes I know it's rotten,
but you know, Siset, it's so heavy,
sometimes force forgets me.
Sing to me again your song:

If we all pull it, it will fall
and it can't last much time,
surely it falls, falls, falls,
it must be worm-eaten by now.
If I pull hard towards here,
and you pull it towards there,
I’m sure it falls, falls, falls,
and we'll be able to be free!

Grandpa Siset doesn't speak anymore
bad wind who took him away
he, who knows where,
and me, here under the door
and when new boys pass by
I strech my neck to sing
Siset's last song,
the last thing he taught me

If we all pull it, it will fall
and it can't last much time,
surely it falls, falls, falls,
it must be worm-eaten by now.
If I pull hard towards here,
and you pull it towards there,
I’m sure it falls, falls, falls,
and we'll be able to be free!