Septe,ber 2006
THE OTHER WALL OF SHAME
Hello,
Have you read about that wall that the Israeli government has build to separate even more Israel from Palestine? Well I heard from it some time ago and I keep hearing from eat almost everyday in the great paper I buy here in Spain.
The other day I red that before the wall got build this man use to arrive to work in ten minutes. He is a doctor and he works in the hospital. Since the wall got build it takes him an hour and a half to make it to work. He has to go to the closest gate to go through the wall and then he has to be hashed every time he is going to cross. It makes sense from an Israeli point of view because with this kind of attitude the lives of the Palestinian it is never easy so they can not get involve in acts of protest. But from a humanitarian point of view is terrible to make human beings to leave like criminals. To a certain extend it is a small genocide because they cannot develop as village or country and eventually for execution they will disappear.
This man I am talking about he is a doctor, he works saving lives and in his book of conduct he is going to save the lives of everybody, no matter where do they come from. The problem is that when every he receives a call to go and save somebody's life that is in danger he most very often arrive late because he is not free to go where ever he wants in his own country. I am sure the Israeli people know lots about this. While many of them where living in Germany and Austria and Russia and the whole of the countries of Europe that is the way we made them fell. It is very difficult for me to understand that now they carry on doing things that other humans made to them to people with who they have been living all their lives.
And of course many of you will tell me that it is the history of human kind but I refused to believe that. I am human and I want to live happily with my neighbours and not to make their live miserable. Thou I have to say that my neighbour of the basement does wake up in my heart very nasty feelings. I would love to build a wall next to his apartment so I do not have to see him again. I do not do it because thou he irritates me a lot I understand that he has the same rights as I do. It is a pain in the ass but we all have to live together in this world and there is always going to be some people that you do not like but you are not allowed to kill them for that reason.
Have fun.
HISTORY
Hello;
I like History. I like to know things that happened in history. I think that everything that we are now is the result of all the things that happened in the past. I like that because then you have an explanation. Well, things that happened in the pass and where not good for humans will not happen again. Well, that is not really true because we always make the same mistakes and the possibilities of surprise that live give us are endless.
There are moments in history that are not as well known as others. I do not really know why. A very shallow explanation could be that it is not fashion to look back to certain moment in our history. We do know many moments in history that are very present now to us because they are an example of something positive or something negative. We compare with our times and we try to make conclusions. But there are others that go perhaps for one hundred years that we do not know anything at all. Perhaps there has been other moment in history where people used to look upon then but now nobody remembers.
I fell really curious about them.
This brings me to another thing that we can say about history and that is; history is always told by the winner or told in another way; history is bias. Someone told us what we need to know about what it happened in the pass and forgot or did not want to tell other things that did not do any good to the person that was writing the history for the future. Of course powerful people did not want to be remember for the bad things they did so they made sure that history got written in the right way for him.
Now we all know that there are always two faces to every piece of history and it will be great to know both. That will give to all us a more clear and human understanding of what have happened to all of us and will teach us ways of cooping with things that await for us in the future.
Have fun.
MY TABLE
Hello;
My eyes are semi-close or semi-open because it is seven fourteen in the morning and I woke up thirty minutes away. There is a blanket over my table that hides the colour of the wood that does not mach with the colour of the room. With the table cloth over the place where I work the whole thing looks prettier.
I do not think anything looks pretty this early in the morning but my lovely wife goes to the school very early and I fell more concentrated in the early hours of the day than at nights. The light on the table is on because now the days start much earlier. For the last year we have been following the summer, in Melbourne and then Brighton where it rained all the time. Now this is going to be our first winter out of Las Vegas.
There are things all over the table; in front of me there is a Las Vegas sign. It does look exactly like the one in Las Vegas but much smaller. The first day I plugged the whole thing blow of immediately but since them we have kept it there on the table. Next to the sign there is a horrible glass Russian clown that Gyula gave me for my birthday. I really think is very ugly but it was given to me by the most beautiful girl ever so I keep it there.
Miren keeps trying to have the table well arranged and every time I put my hands inn it collapses. There is a small set of draws on the right side where papers of importance are kept. On the left something very similar but it belongs to the bills and similar.
There is also a jug with pen and scissors and a calculator and rulers and blank Cds and another computer that is not mine and there is an English dictionary and there is a little skateboard where the trail for the bills rests.
On my further right there is a telephone, a bright blue telephone that we brought home from Las Vegas. It has the most annoying ring that you can imagine and that is another reason why I work so early in the morning; they do not call so early.
The chair where I sit to write my blog is a very old chair. This chair used to be in the bank where my father used to work. One day they decided to change them and they gave the option to the employees to buy them and my father bought two. This chair was at my room in my parent's house. It left with me when I moved out from my parents. Now my wife wants to change it because it does not mach with the rest of things in the room.
I do not understand.
Have fun.
AMOR HUMOR Y TIEMPO
Hello;
“Love, humour and time” those three things are used for almost anything. Whenever any one of us think about creating something. When someone thinks about building creating or making something those three ingredients have to be there necessarily.
There has to be love. Loves will be the fuel; will be the energy that moves the whole thing. The engine will be the humour because love has the danger that if you do not have sense of humour you will become a Taliban a fanatic of what ever you do, want to build etc. And nobody like fanatics, remember the Spanish inquisition and more recently the Taliban. The humour will make your passion be a little bit more “relative” and not scare the possible friends that will join you in your adventure.
Also humour in a building or creating or making process is important because you have to be bad, make mistakes take wrong directions and then once you realised that you have been making a full of yourself you have to laugh and then carry on and many time you have to go back tot he beginning.
And without humour there is nothing interesting. I do know this is a pretentious thing to say but I really believe this. When I go to the Parthenon in Athens I can see that the guys who build it laughed a lot “ lets make the pillars like that” and then a big laugh of happiness.
Of course many great things have been created and discover and done from sorrow, despair and pain but the result, the piece of art, the construction, the music the discovery etc has had a laugh of satisfaction. They had a laugh at the moment when everything finishes and another door for something else got open.
And time is all we have. We have time to do what ever we want to do. We have time to get there and to fail and to try again. We have time to use our love in the right thing and fuel it with our humour and then come up with great things. Time is the path to go through in your search for happiness.
Have fun.
LEFT OUT
Hello;
Yes, you cannot play many games with my paranoid feelings because it does not understand anything. If you all let me out, even if the reason is very reasonable I fell like a piece of shit and I think that they only reason why things are how they are is because there is a mega big plan to leave me out of the whole operation.
When I fell strong I do not care, I appeal to the Gods of Romo and I will fell better pretty soon but lately I am felling really week. I fell like shit because there is nothing for me to do and I do not find the inspiration I need to carry on doing what I have to do. So what do I do? I eat and drink like a maniac and my brain goes from place to place completely mad.
There is another meeting with the BBC. Michael and Glynis have decided that it is Toby, Petra and Cal the chosen ones to go and meet the big guys from the BBC. I want to be there. I am part of Spymonkey.
Why do I have to understand?
I do not want to understand. I want to be there, I want to play the game with the big people and be useful. I want to do what we have to do and do it all the time. And even if everybody thinks that I do not deserve to be there I do not care. Who the fucks are they? I am more important that who ever tell that I am not. I am one of the founder members of Spymonkey. I was there in those places where the whole thing got cooked. I wanted to have a company in Spain but everybody wanted me just in England. Then we become bigger by going to Edinburgh and doing the two years at Cirque du Soleil. I did that show for nine hundred and fifty-eight times. I was the only one of the whole cast who was there everyday from the opening night until the day I left. The first day I did not play in the show it was the first time I saw the show. To do the show for so many times without missing one day was for my piers a big thing. I was trying to fine a better word but I cannot. Wait I am going to get the dictionary and I will tell you know MILESTONE. Yes, milestone is the right word and it is a very fancy word that all of you that read this and are interested in literature will be able to enjoy.
And now I am not allowed to go to the meeting with the BBC??????
Ok, probably it is all for the best and I do not usually can see very clear what is good for the company.
Have fun.
BUDA SUN
Hello,
The Corte Ingles is on the left side of it or if you come from the train station then you have The Corte Ingles on the right side and a little bit further forward from the entrance of the parking of the store you find Buda Sun.
At firs it looks like a Thai restaurant but once you look at the menu it is a mixture of everything. It is Thai, it is Chinese, It is Japanese, it is Vietnamese it is a mixture of all the cuisines of Asia. At the end of the day for a culture that does not know anything about other cuisines because they think there is not point it is great restaurant to have in Bilbao.
They do a set menu for ten euros that is really nice. First course second course and the desert and each one of them could be from a different country in Asia.
The food I had it was very nice. I had vegetables tempura and that was, as I understand Japanese and they were crunchy but nice. I think tempura of vegetables if you do not have seafood or meat is stupid and boring but knowing that there was a Chop-Soy coming afterwards the vegetables did the job of a starter and played with my appetite while I was having my first glass of rioja included in the menu.
Then the Chop-suy arrived to the table. From one minute to the other we had gone from Japan to China, probably to a busy neighbourhood in Hong-Kong a city of my dreams. My friends had also eaten Japanese for the starters and I have to say the Sushi looked really good.
My second course was good, very good, with a big portion and rice on the side. I do not usually ask for rive because I have a soft spot for noodles but when I am here I avoid them because we like here the past over cooked and I have spent too much time abroad to learn that it is a big mistake. Pasta should always be cooked aldente.
Then, we finished our meals and desert came. The range was not great but we were going to pay ten euros so there is nothing to argue. I went for a lemon sorbet and I learn that lemon sorbet was an Asian desert until then I was under the understanding that it came from France. That is one of the good things about going to eat in exotic restaurants, you do learn a lot.
Have fun.
HURRICANE GORDON
Hello;
There is nothing more to do that goes to the edge of the cliff and look at the sea. It behaves like a wild lion that does not want to be tame. The hurricane is the wipe and hit the sea and every time it hurts the sea roars like a big wild animal.
The waves fight against the hurricane but from time to time the get so big and high that look as if they are trying to leave the sea and go over the cliff escaping from the power of the hurricane.
The little human being at the edge of the cliff goes forward and backwards as the sea. They have created this little dance that has a estrange rhythm but it look great. The sea, the man and the hurricane have prepared this piece of contemporary dance and they are putting it from all of us today. This is the day when Hurricane Gordon is hitting our coasts and they have decided to have a dance together.
For the surfers of the area this is almost heaven, for the good surfers because they go from one beach to the other choosing, getting the most perfect conditions to practice their sport.
All the other kind of surfers jut look and dream of the day when they will be able to rife one of those teen feet waves and go back to beach tired but satisfied. The feeling of riding a big motherfucker bomb has to be amazing but I have the felling that once you have passed certain age it is not even a very good idea because you may have taquicardia.
The wind is moving the trees. They stay in the same place but the branches are like a big duster cleaning a house that has never been clean. The high brunches try to touch the buildings and the windows and the balconies and they try to sweep everything so when Gordon comes everything will be clean and tidy.
Gordon fell like a big monster that wants to show his power so we stop doing everything because he is coming and does not want to see any body. Probably he is shy and not very self-confidant. It is a problem because I do not think there is physiatrist for hurricanes but definitely is this will help to keep them calm someone should study that. We will be able to cure them so they will go around the world just flying and not destroying.
Have fun
DEADWOOD
Hello;
Why did you have to shoot him? He was very young and… he did not deserve to die. Everybody is really dirty there, everybody is from everywhere and the ones who claim here in Deadwood that they are from here they are lying because the first ones to arrive did not come here, they went straight on to the river to dig gold, to put his hands and feet and body inside the water for twenty four hours so they could get rich fast. When they looked for some place to warm up and to play some cards and see some human beings they came here to the Joint.
Bullock, the new sheriff has come here with the arrogance of the colonist that think that where ever they go everything is to be taken but we were here first and we are the law. We will have to accept the law as soon as it come here but that will happen in the future.
They come here to get pussy and the get their cooks sucked and fucked. My girls do their job very well and clean and as many times as they want. We offer specialities; those are the ones that pay the most and the best to handle. They know they are special thou they do not want anything that one of my girls would do everyday. Look at that guy, he comes and all the girls show him their bobbies and he just pass his face stroking them and then he leaves, I mean he comes and then leaves, easy and profitable,
My name is Swaregen, I am the owner of the Joint. I spent some time in Australia, two years and I am not going back. I have problems with my pissing but that is nothing compare with the amount of troubles that taking care of Deadwood for my own benefit has given me. Now times are changing and this place is becoming a town and we will have the law and the state and the army and …everything that means civilisation and we will adjust.
Lets go now and suck my cook, would you like a whisky?
Have fun
EL MERCADILLO
Hello;
Well, when there are so many spots to get things is very difficult to decide where to go. AH, sorry, MERCADILLO is the Spanish word for flees market. There are many kinds in Spain, and there are not many where you can buy second hand things. I think that is because we spent a very long time using second hands things that still not enough time has passed so they are well appreciated here. I mean the civil war and the after civil war, when Spain was really poor. Now it is not rich but is richer. Anyway, most of the time you can buy things to eat and it is really great. Well, there is also a kind of Mercadillo where you can buy new things but very cheap and usually very bad quality.
My favourite one is the one for food, like the markets in central Europe. You go there and all the farmers have brought all the season products. They have the most amazing vegetables and the most amazing bread and cheese and wine and everything that you can imagine.
While touring with Graeme and Flo through the basc country we arrived to Bermeo and there was that day a mercadillo of typical basc products. We parked the car and we decided to stop looking for a restaurant to lunch and get things in the mercadillo and lunch on the square. It was fantastic, we drunk nice white wine and we ate a very typical Basc peasant food called “Talo” with Chorizo. I am sure you all know what chorizo is but “Talo” is like a Mexican tortilla but made with corn flour. The combination of both is great.
A completely different thing is to go to the market where all the different things, from meat to fish are. That here is to go to “La Plaza”. You go to “la plaza” to buy fresh products in everyday bases. La plaza is always full of people and there are best times to go than others. If you go late on Saturday for example you get seafood and fish very cheap because they cannot keep for after the weekend so if you are a little bit lucky you can get very nice things.
So when you go to Spain always visits the Mercadillos, they are very Mediterranean but fantastically well. Do not take too much money, first you are not going to need too much money and second some one my stole it from you.
Have fun.
NOT GOOD
Hello;
Fuck¡¡¡ what? I do not fucking care, I am going to stay in bed, yes; I like drinking in the morning and yes, my mood change all the time. I am suffering of “suddenly I stopped working” syndrome. And it does not fell well. I hated actually, does that mean now I like working? I do not think so. Fucking hell¡¡ Am I a new man? I am sure this will pass, surely. What will I do if suddenly I like working? I will have to committee suicide. Yes that is writing, I will have to end my life in the best possible way. I will go into the top of the highest building of Bilbao and then jump. No. That is really stupid the best thing I can do is… to start to drink wine all the time and smoke as much weed as possible. As soon as I start to do that I am sure I will start to be my old everything and me will fell fine.
And if it does not fell right? If I still fell like working all the time? If I still want to go to do things that are good for me and for the people that surrounded? May be I may even learn about computers, like Toby and then I can do lots of things, or I may even learn how to be a joiner so then like Stephan I can help to do the difficult things of the set or I may even be able to find things to buy for the show in cities and also be very good on the phone and have a fantastic social skill like Petra and be very helpful for everybody.
But then, who will be like I was before? We will have to hire another person and then that will be very expensive. I do not know.
Ok, no I am going to clean the house, cook lunch, go to the gym, write the blog, write ideas for the BBC series, go surfing, visit my parents, do the laundry, play the bass and then I will go to bed because tomorrow is another day and I have lots of things to do. Now, I have change, now I am someone that likes working all the time and that likes to be busy.
This blog from now on it will not be late, everyday a new entry and I am sure when that happens the amount of people following our lovely web page is going to grow to thousands.
Well, lets be honest, probably this is just a face, I will collapse in a couple of weeks and I will start to be myself once again.
Have fun.
SOMARRIBA
Hello,
If I close my eyes I see mountains of food, all kinds of food but mainly good food, very good food that has been very well cocked. The little portions and the big portions are cueing up in the table getting ready to go into my stomach. They will go through my mouth but I am going to have some problem swallowing some of these beauties because they really look nice and I do not want to chew them.
And then one of my eyes open and I realised where I am and the other eye open immediately and I get ready to have my desert.
We have come here to eat with Graeme and Flow. This restaurant is one of our favourites. I am sure I have spoken to you about it many times and it is not my intention to bore you with the details one more time. It has a small room where everybody gathers to eat. It is in the basement and sometimes for my like it, it is a little bit too dark.
The luck of space does not affect the quality of the dishes, always very well. The portions are just fine and what I think is very nice is that you eat many little portions of very different dishes.
Graeme, Flo, Miren and me arrive on time and had a small drink before being asked to go downstairs to have our lunch. We were very hungry and with the starters and the great bread they give you we almost stag our selves. That was big mistake because we were full by the time when everything was about to come.
The starters are always the same there is a peas soup in a very small cup, there is an staff pepper, there is a squid, and there is some fried vegetables. After the five or six starters we had to choose the main course, Graeme went for Fillet Mignon, Miren and Flo went for the tale of the cow and me, I got fish, monk fish. We could hardly finish it and we still had to take the desert. I have to mention that it was Graeme and I the only ones that did the desert and had a digestive after. We spent around three hours in the restaurant and I have to say I enjoyed very much. I have eaten here five or six times in my life and for forty-five euros I always eat fantastically well.
Have fun.
LA BONOLOTO
Hello;
I know the first thing I do when I get the winner I will go and I will buy a big ship, well not really big, I will get one of those for sailing, with three sales and twenty feet. With that ship I will be able to travel all over the world if I want. Then I will buy my house and then I will get another house in the countryside. I want a house in the countryside that is close to the sea. In that house I will spend most of my free time because I will be able to go surfing every time I want.
Also I will buy houses for my brother and my sister. I am talking of bonoloto ticket that will bring to my pockets something like 22 million euros. I am sure my brother will want a house in Barcelona; he lives there with his girlfriend and his daughter live there too. My sister's house I do not know where will it be because she lives all over the place thou now she is staying in Madagascar. I think or better I wish she would like the house here in Bilbao so we can all be together more often.
I think I will also buy a house in London. I want to spend more time there because I will have also money to put in Spymonkey so we can do all the shows that we always wanted to do and we will not have money problems.
I will pay a big holydays to my parents. One of those holydays that is a tour around the world and I will buy tickets to go and visit them wherever they are if I fell like it. What I mean is that I will be working and when I have some time off I can go and get a fly to where ever they are and have some time with them.
Then I will spend some money in my mother in law; probably some holydays and I will help my brother and sister in law. They had kids recently and I am sure a decent amount of money will help them.
I open the door of my house and I go upstairs to my flat and put my new lotto ticket in my wallet. Last week I did not even get a euro and I think perhaps this is the time when I am going to be the winner. The other day some one in a city close to my house won seven million. Next time it could be me.
Have fun.
GETTING BACK TO WORK
Hello;
That's it I thought I had got a part in Hyperdrive but I have not. I was told by everybody “do not worry they will call you they like you and they have seen you working and for sure you will play one little character for sure”. The worst is that I believed them. It is not their fault; I knew that when I left the room they did not look like very happy with me. They all were very serious and the whole ting should be fun so if they are serious means that they did not like it. And then I received this e-mail from Petra saying that she knows I did not get the Amorf Spets part I went for so… now it is clear I am not going to be in that TV series with the monkeys and it is not going to make me really happy. It is going to make me fell stupid and bad.
So this tragedy is going to my head while I am going to the doctors and getting checked for my possibilities of getting pregnant, and they are not very good and also I am going to surf and then the waves are very big and I fell really weak and I have to leave the water because I thought I was going to drawn for ever.
And Graeme and Flow are with us here and the weather has not been great so we have had to spend quite a long time in the house watching DVDs of “Deadwood”. We have been drinking beer and they had visited Bilbao this morning and I think they are happy.
I fell shit, why me? They were laughing, they could have told me¡¡ I want to know why, is it because I am from Spine?
Well, I am getting paranoid and that is not a very good idea in this business. I can carry on writing because I know that I am going to go deeper and deeper in my paranoia until I disappear inside my own heart and brain put together in a meaty sandwich that anyone could eat. So I am going tomorrow to the gym for the first time to try to forget the defeat.
Have fun.
SAN JUAN DE
Hello,
There are things that surround you that you do not normally pay any attention to them. You need someone that comes from outside of your world to point out that you live with something that is extremely pretty.
That is what happened yesterday. We went to visit San Juan de Gaztelugatxe and I did not know that it was so nice and pretty. I had seen it before but because Graeme and Flo are here I decided that it was a good idea to drive around and to show them some of the pretty sights of the Basc Country.
San Juan is a little church on top a big rock in front of the cliffs of the basc country. The rock was not link to the coast. Only when the tide was low you could walk all the way up. Hundred years ago someone decided that it would be a very good idea to build a small church there so the sailors will not worship heretic things like the sea, or the animals from the sea etc and they will take all their attention to the real God, GOD.
So now there is a bridge to go to the rock and then to climb to the rock there is a succession off stairs made with stone that take you all the way to the little church. I believe they built first the bridge and then after securing the path they started to build the stairs all the way up and finally the church.
There is a legend that if you make the bell of church ring you will find husband or wife, before everybody will ring the bell and now it is just shake by kids. Also there is a tradition of making a couple of mass before the season of fishing starts. When you do this the season will be very good and all the firshermen will be back from the sea.
Of course the priests invented this ceremony so the pagans will keep coming there to do the ceremonies and then the very Catholic Church will kidnap them.
The site is amazing. You are there on top of the rock and you see the sea all around you and then when you look back you see on your right side Bakio. One small beach that has amazing waves for surfing and then on the left you see the lighthouse of Matxitxako and the Izaro Island. The waves keep crushing against the shore and over the years they have sculpted and amazing wall of rocks.
Once you finish the visit go up the hill in front of San Juan and have lunch at Eneperi. A fantastic restaurant where you can have a great meal while you look at the rock of San Juan and dream about the times Francis Drake stopped there with his pirates to count their gold stolen from the Spanish ships coming from America. Well, they have stolen from the Indians in the first place.
Have fun.
THE FUTURE WILL BELONG TO THE ARTISTS
Hello;
I read in a paper the sentence I wrote up there. The future belongs to us. When I say us I mean the artists. I am sure my friend Cal will get angry because he says that he is on an artist he is an entertainer. Every body is what they want to be and the part they do not know about is what they try to find along their life.
This man Richard Florida writes that the three pillars of knowledge are Technology, talent, and tolerance. The concurs of the three Ts is necessary for the right development and progress of the world and the humans.
I know it sounds scary but I try to put it in our perspective in the things we do. You have to use Technology as new things, new ways of doing things, imaginative things that have never been use and that you make then yours, elements of future that you apply to your trade.
Then there is the talent. In our work in what we do is pretty obvious, once you are on the stage you use your talent. Talent that was raw and now after years of shaping it, is what it is.
And then is the tolerance. Tolerance sounds like something that you will have to take on account with minorities or ethnic groups but as far as I am concern is fundamental for any kind of work. Because tolerance is equal to freedom so you are free because you can be free. If you let other people to be free, if you help other people to be free you become freer and the sum of the three Ts makes possible that your work become good and that will help to the progress of humanity.
Have fun.
PS- I do not think this words up there is clear at all. I believe the three Ts are important for the development of humanity. How do we use them? It is not clear or better, I think it is so obvious for us, performers that create shows in a group. Where someone always write more than others but inspired by the rest that I do not even know how to explain it normally. Forgive me if it was too boring. I am an artist, I am an artesano.
GRAEME & FLO
Hello;
Let me tell you about Graeme and Flo. First I can say that they are couple. They live in Brighton in a very beautiful square. From their apartment you do not see the sea but never the less because it is the highest flat in the building when you look through the window you see the tops of the trees and it looks as if you are staying in the middle of a very deep forest.
Graeme has a Vespa. He has one of the classic ones in green. He got it for his fortieth birthday. And I am not going to say anything else because it is not my business.
Flo has a job cooking and also she is going to start to do youth counselling. I am sure she is going to be great. She is a great girl.
Graeme is from Glasgow and Flo comes from the North of England. I say it is Manchester or somewhere very close to there.
The reason I am talking about them now is because they are coming to stay with Miren and me for a week. Last time I went to Brighton I stayed at their house for almost two weeks and I thought I owned to them. So they arrive yesterday with Iberia and I arrived ten minutes before them with Easyjet.
Graeme is our set designer with Lucy. In our new show he is going to build some puppets and he is going to be playing with us on the stage.
They are going to stay here until the twenty-one and we are going to eat and drink non-stop. They both like eating and drinking and I like it too so we will have fun. So far we have had a great laugh with “croissants” and with “Vagitarians”(I do not know how to spell it properly en English funny). We have stretched that jock for a very long time thing morning while we were having breakfast.
He has donated the son “Getxo Heaven” to the trunk of fantastic things that we have gathered from all the fantastic guests that have passed through our lives here in Romo.
Have fun.
AUDITION
Hello;
I am here for the audition. I said.
And audition? With who? The guard at the door answer me. He was looking at me with a face that said – Do you not realise that Al-Quaeda could place a bomb in this building and I could be the one that will stop that murder artefact?
It is for a comedy, Hyperdrive. I said with my most sensible voice. He patronised me for a little while and handing me my BBC badge I was told where to go. Take the main corridor and follow the signs to the lobby C and then once you are there talk to the lady at the counter. Remember follow the signs and I remembered that but I got lost. Well, better said I doubted while inside the building and I had to go back and looked at the signs once more.
Thanks god¡¡ the Al-Quaeda guard was not looking.
A nice lady came to pick me up and took me the some hundreds room where the director and the producer will be waiting for me. As I was disappearing inside the deep end of the building Stephan arrived for his audition. He was also there when I came back but that belongs to another story.
Hello, hi, hello, nice to met you, Petra, ¡¡, Toby¡¡¡ what are you doing here? I am a little bit nervous. I said and Petra told me- do not worry everything is going to be great. And it was. I had a great time playing Amorf Spects and the other parts that they told me to play. I was funny and they laughed. We tried for three characters and then we chatted a little bit at the end of the audition. While we were talking I could fell that thou they were happy with me and that I had made them laugh there was a problem. I touched my nose to see if there was a bugger hanging or my zip. I was behind a table anyway, but I could not decide what was the problem.
We shake hands before a left and they told me – we will let you know. I thought for myself- I know, that part is for me, I was born to do that, you will call me to give me the dates.
When I arrived up there I met everybody and we chatted again I said – I think there is a problem and I am not going to get it.
I was right four days later I found out thanks to Petra that My Spanish accent was a problem. I know it is a problem but they could have written Amorfo Espectro and I could have played the part. – Next time – I said to myself.
Have fun.
EASYJET
Hello;
I am tired very tired and the problem is that I have not really done anything lately. At least for the last tow days but my head is very tired and bored.
Certainly it is not going to be Easyjet anymore the airline I will travel to England anymore, If possible. They have the reputation of being cheap but they are not really cheap at the end of the day.
When you sum all the extra expenses that you have in comparison with BA or Iberia it is sometimes more expensive. If I sum the price of the beer and the train from Stansted to London and so on everything is very expensive. I payed this time one hundred and forty eight euros, now, the return train ticket it is going to be quite a lot of money, at least 25 pounds.
Also I wanted to have a beer in the place and when I had gathered all the money the lady Maria, told me that they can not allowed small coins in Euros. It made me fell like a real twat, it had take me a good five minutes to gather all the coins from all my pockets and holes, the five euros that the bloody beer cost it.
There is a little bit of attitude in the bloody airhostess in some of the airlines. Well that is generalising and I should not do that. I like airhostess but the ones of Easyjet have the most horrible costumes and that really make me upset.
But here I am in a fucking easyjet plain flying away to England to have a meeting with the BBC to see if they are going to give us enough money to have our own TV series. I would have loved to do it in a little bit more of style. But I do deserve to have a horrible journey. I could have bought a ticket fro Iberia but I was trying to save money.
But let me tell you, it is the colours of the costumes of the airhostess what I really heat the most about easyjet. I think I said this before but I cannot help it. They are a big fantasy of mine. Airhostesses are pretty and sexy. There were times when I fell really low I used to go to Zurich airport to buy my paper and then I will stay there for sometime looking at the pretty girls in their uniforms. Wonderful. Since Easyjet and the low cost airlines things are from bad to worst and the girls working on the air are not the same as Jackie Brown.
Have fun.
BACK TO LONDON
Hello;
My flight tonight is with a low cost airline. I am not going to say which one but I am sure you will be able to guess it. I am flying “low” because it is going to be paid by Spymonkey and we are not in our best hour money speaking.
I have arrived to the airport plenty of time and I have had to wait for almost an hour before I could checked inn. There was a very long cue and there were not enough people to the job so the whole thing went really slow. After that I went in and the plane had not arrived so we were going to leave late. Then I heart my name by the megaphone system of the airport “Mr Basauri Barruetaben please go to the Guardia Civil security filter”. I panic a little bit, the airport of Bilbao is very small but I have never been called before so I thought that perhaps something was going wrong and then I thought, where is my boarding card? And I touch my trousers and it was not in my pocket so I relaxed and I walked to the Guardia Civil security filter.
The plane had not arrived when I came back with the boarding car and then I saw it landing. It was the time to leave and the plane was arriving. The called to passengers to board as the plane was taking his designated space and we were all making another big cue where we were going to wait another hour.
Finally two hours later we left (this is an exaggeration in order to create a better story) and I felt like a beer in the plane I gather all my euros, five euros and the lady told me that she could not accepted small coins so I was not going to be able to enjoy a beer in the plane.
That really pissed me off, a lot; it pissed me off a lot so I spent the rest of the fly thinking of reasons why I was never going to fly again in a low cost airline. The first one of all was that I hate the uniform. The colours of the uniform of this specific airline that I had not named are horrible and they were horrible when I was flying to London. I like the name and I like the logo but the colours of the whole thing made me vomit. I stood up and I went to the toilet as far as I could. The airhostess saw me and she run after me, I could not closed the door so I vomited and I vomited and the lady was asking in her horrible uniform how I was felling.
When I finished vomiting I went back to my sit and as soon as she asked me how do I fell I say I fell fine. Then she asked me is there anything I can do for you? And I say give me a beer that would make me fell better. She looked at me like if it was true what I was saying and I say to he before she could leave and could you take of that horrible uniform? That would also make me fell better. (This last part of the story is not true I say it so the story will be better.
Have fun.
NORMAL LIFE
Hello;
Up at seven thirty and that means I am going to spend the whole day fighting against my desire of going back to bed. I am tired but the sooner we start to have a normal life here in my normal house the better. Because then I will fell more integrated in the place where I am staying now. And this is not going to be easy because I just want to go back to bed. My bed is very nice and soft and I want to be in bed for much longer so I can carry on sleeping. The bed is made with latex and we brought it all the way from Las Vegas. It is very thick and it feels very high so every time I go out of bed or I go in bed I have to go in my toes to be able to reach where I should. It has never happened to me before that I did not go in my toes enough that I crash my hip against the side of the mattress.
The blankets are not necessary yet thou yesterday we started with the dubbed and we started to sweat and we had to wake up in the middle of the night and take it off.
Then I have slept very well with just a really ting shit that makes sleeping very pleasant. Probably it would be much better to sleep with something that makes you sleep not very well. Either very hot or very cold so when the time to wake up comes you do not want to stay in bed anymore.
For me to get out of bed is a big thing. I have to be very strong, I pull my self out while I fell as if something is pulling me back to bed. My will power very early in the morning is not very strong and in the morning is even weaker so I have to be extra strong. I fell my muscles getting hard while I pull myself out. I do not get out of bed in two times, my body do not rest in the edge of the bed before going to the standing up position I go immediately to a walk that often takes me straight on the toilet. Some times the temptation to go back to bed or to stay reading in bed get so strong that there is nothing I can do against it so I have to keep my self for a while in bed doing things that will wake up my brain before I can wake up my body. That is also what the Scientifics the brain gives orders to the muscles so the body can start to function.
I am going back to be do now, no, it is not early in the morning but after writing about sleeping has made me longing for it.
Have fun.
FRUSTRATION
Hello;
“Yes, I know that it is not easy. I have been trying to be there all the time but I have to work. Yeah, it is true I never say no to any offer. I do not get offers very often so I have to say yes and that has nothing to do with not wanting to be with you. I love being with you. I love you.
I am doing what I like and that make things for me much easier. It is true that if I will have to be here to collect grapes or strawberries I will not be happy. So, no, really I know exactly how do you fell. It is really difficult to go back home and the person that you most want to see there is not there and that makes you fell sad immediately. I know what you mean because that is what happens to me everyday.
We both try to have our lives shorted. Yes, no I know, yes, yes, yes, yes hum … listen it is not easy I know, I know it is very complicated to see yourself and how your life is going pass and suddenly you feel like you are not doing anything to make it more exciting. I try to make my life very exciting and I have worked really hard in the pass so now my life is quite nice.
It is never too late so you should not give up. Do not worry, I am going to be there later on and we will shorter out everything. Yes, I am bringing some money. Do not worry. It is very frustrating because we have been together for non-stop for the last two years and now we have not seen each other's much lately. Yes, and when you came to Edinburgh I got sick. Of course I did not do it on purpose, I got sick.
So.
How is the weather over there? Here is very nice. We are having breakfast in a garden of a palace in the first district of Vienna and it is really great. We are here Petra and Andreas with their little one Fin and Stephan and Elke with Thelonious. We are having the typical German breakfast, the one with yogurt, fruits and muesli. Yes, you will come here once and we will have that breakfast.
I miss you a lot and I love you too. Ok, I am going to go now, do not get upset, this things are always for the best. I love you. Agur.”
Have fun.
MOMENTUN
Hello;
Here we are, our last day of work and things are starting to take shape and if we were hear a bunch of people working in many different ways and not being able to work together now after eight days in the rehearsal space we are a group of clowns with a nice degree of sensitivity.
So then we have to stop because there is not more time. Everybody has to go back to work, everybody has to go back to do what they do to make possible that from time to time we can work for a little bit of time. But it upset me because we are going to stop when we have arrived to the place where we should start to work. All the clowns finally do not play but they are, all the clowns finally see the games and they go to pick them up and take them fat, very far. That is the way we like the clowns, not acting but playing the games that the play give to them and play them with lots of pleasure for a very long time.
We have work hard and it has not been easy. Some people cried and some people suffer in silence and now everybody knows that there is not other way than put you in the middle of the hurricane and surf it to the end.
But I am leaving tomorrow and we said goodbye in Stephan Platz station. Stephan came to see a little bit of the rehearsal and thanks God, eh saw clowns there and that was really nice. He is a nice man and he likes clowns and he likes actors on the stage.
George is going to Berlin to do research about Jews music from the twenties vaudeville. It sounds very interesting. George is going back to England with Ana and they are going to try to work as much as the can in order to survive. Christina will go back to teach English at the school in Vienna. He is the only non-actor and he is really good and nice. Then Yuriko goes back to Japan to do a proper play, “Hamlet Machine” of Heinrich Müller, she is really looking forward to do it but she would rather do what we were doing. There is not name for the play yet and that is something that scares me a little bit.
I want to say that I thank them a lot. I say thanks to all of you for make me fell really good and really well. I was tired but seeing you on the stage inspired me to work with all of you. I am very excited about doing the show, I do not care what the name is going to have, with all of you and tour it all over the world.
Have fun.
CHOCOLATE
Hello,
As I walk towards the rehearsal space there is a very strong smell of chocolate coming to me. Since I have arrived to Vienna I have never smelt anything like that. It is not just that the smell is very strong is also that is very powerful and I can't work out is it is normal or it is just today. As soon as I mention it everybody says that it is pretty normal and that they are surprise that I have not smell it before- The smell comes from the factory where they make the very famous wafers called Mammers.
Still over our heads floats the fact that yesterday was a little bit of flop day. Everybody is coming here in the mornings full of enthusiasm and that is great because when ever I fell a little bit wick that helps me a lot. I have to confess that the thing that irritate me the most is that I have to say lets work, where is everybody, c'mon we have to work and all those things do not come from there. I think it is unnecessary that me the one that has been brought up here to do some work for a company that it is not mine should be encouraging everybody else. That make me to think if we in Spymonkey were exactly the same and when I think I realised that yes we were like that and probably thanks to Cal we finished the shows so I thank him fro putting us in the right way. Now I do the same with the actors that I am working and I think they appreciated.
At night I thought of Petra staying in her new house and being very happy. I know how she fells because I cannot wait to be in my own house sleeping or reading my book or whatever but in my house.
Toby sends a text message asking for the keys of his mum house. I laughed and I felt for him.
Hanes, a dear friend of Stephan and a wonderful actor from Theatre of Complicite did cook dinner for all of us. He cooked some pasta and then lamb. He cooked steaks of lamb. He is a big man full of very nice energy and very interesting to talk with. He brought very nice wine and cheese for desert and I had been the whole week eating not very well and to have a proper meal did to me very well.
When I went to bed I collapsed. I was so tired that even if I was sleeping where the party was happening I fall sleep immediately and when I woke up I wanted to carry on sleeping forever.
Have fun.
THURSDAY FLOP
Hello;
Some days you should not leave your bed, I always want to stay in bed for the whole day but that is not the point, you fell that things are not going to go very well. SO you should stay in bed because you think that if you stay there then the bad vibe will pass and with the beginning of a new day everything will be ok again.
I left my bed and I took myself to the place where I rehearsed. I was scared; I thought I was not going to be able to make it. The sun was shining and the weather was good but still I had the felling it could get cold any moment or start to rain.
When we started to work everything was fine. The actors were having fun and we all wanted to carry on working and things were happening but I had this sixth sense that was telling me that not everything was right, that something could change any moment and then all the work done the last three days would fall through the big damp of Flop Hill. We fought like animals to make sure that no one was going to get hurt by Mr. Flop and his army. Not at least in this moment of the rehearsal period.
At the end of the day I looked around me and I realised that everybody was still alive and that tomorrow could be the day. The fight had been really hard but thou we were tired there were big bags with energy to allowed us to make it until our goal, the end of the week.
When I arrived to Stephan place I had e-mail from London. Some people from the BBC wanted to meet us for a chat. I could leave my imagination fly for a while and dream with all the things I will like to be asked from the BBC, “David Copperfield” for example but I am not going to do it because it would me look like a twat.
I was, in the beginning of the day, afraid that today was going to be a flop day and little by little and with the help of the people I am working with we have mad of this day a very successful day. The actors of Pocoputia have spent the whole day surrounded by Mr Flop and his army of evil and they have learned really fast that the only possible weapon is tons of optimism and it had paid off.
Have fun.
THE SUN SHINS
Hello;
The space for rehearse that we got here is very good. It belongs to the clown doctors and we have it for a special price because one of the actors works with them. That is space is better than the old one so that makes me happy, it fells as if we have achieve something already.
And it is just because there is more space where your eyes can get lost when you are watching an improvisation and there is nothing that you like but you have decided that you are going to let the improvisation to carry on for a while because perhaps they will find something at the end of the exercise. We are going slowly and the work is getting better and better all the time but still it is not easy. We have spoken and we know that they are working well but it is not good enough. They have to become clowns that work together and then they have to write the show with my help.
I have received a phone call from England; they have told me that I am going to have an audition for a small part in Hyperdrive on Thursday morning. It is very good because I was felling a little bit depressed, Toby had got the part and I had blew it because I was in Vienna and you know I am very ambitious and also envious and well now I do not have the part but at least I have the opportunity to get it.
So the sun in shining and that is nice. And it is not only the sun what it shins, everything around me is shining. Petra is very happy at her new flat and I am sure it is just amazing. Toby is in France with his son Noah, having a week of men, doing things that men do. Stephan in Vienna or better he had gone to see his mum in Munich and he is going to his family and everything is fine.
So, why not? From time to time the sunshine and everybody is happy that does shine and it may get darker tomorrow but today lets be happy.
Have fun.
ONE OF THESE DAYS
Hello;
My audition for Hyperdrive is tomorrow at 12:45 in London. I am in Vienna now and any possibility to buy a ticket for tomorrow it will be too much money for the amount of money I will get pay by the BBC for doing what they would ask me to do and more important the part is not mine yet.
My work starts at 12 or 12:30 everyday and it takes me ages to make it there. I cross the whole of Vienna and it is hot.
I thought the weather was going to be cold so all my clothes are for winter and the summer has not left yet. I fell hot and tired. I sleep in a fantastic sofa but I go too late to bed and I wake up with Thelonious. He is very charming but if I will have to stay here for more that month I will loose my sense of humour.
There are not pretty people around me. It is upsetting because the best thing of being in a foreign town is that you can look at the girls without being recognised. Here I am all the time looking to everybody in the face like looking for that piece of human body that will make my name. But it is impossible to find any one, I have discussed it with Stephan and he says that this is especially in the districts of the city where we do the work and where they live because they are where the poor people live. He also says that Elke will not agree. As an example the other day I go down in the tube and saw this girl from the back, nice ass, I told myself and I did not get really excited about her front but when I walked pass she was like an Orca from the Lord of the Rings.
The show is going well, is going difficult but well and we are working really hard but still the accumulation of work coming all the way from Edinburgh make all the tings harder.
I spoke with the great girl who runs the casting department at the BBC and she told me that she would talk to the producer of the series and she think they would be able to see me next week. That is very nice and I cannot wait to do it and forget about it.
It is one of these days and it fells like everything is more difficult than it should be.
I always thought life is to be lived but these days are difficult and you fell as if your life is having his own life, independent. I did not remember deciding to do that but is happening and the battle to recuperate control of your life starts.
Have fun.
DEMONS
Hello;
The nightmares of someone who has done something well once is that you are not able to do it again. Not only you are not able to do it better, and that would be the dream, it is just that you are not able to do it at least as good as you did it last time.
Is it something to do with the humans and their past and their future? Let me get a little beat philosophical today. Let me ask you, is it because there is an instinct felling towards the good pass that made us want to be replicated or is it because we always face the future knowing that it will never be the same as the pass and it has to be always better? I do not really have an answer, a normal and rational answer.
I have selective memory, that is the way I think is called. This means I remember the nice things of my pass but I do not remember the things that made me suffer. That physical quality of my memory makes me an optimism so when ever I face the future I think is going to be good and I think that is because I do not remember the pass full of suffering or terrible situations.
On the other hand I read in a paper today that we have a genes that make us optimistic humans. It is related to the fact that if we have suffered really terrible traumas with the combination of good care and positive feed back from the world around us we could get over really bad things like rape or sexual abuses when you are a child. I do not think this completely right. It seems like the classical argumentation of a paedophile. I believe like Russo that humans are good by nature but the things that surround them since they get born affect their personalities in a very determent way. So everybody is right but the subject is so delicate that it is impossible generalised without being unfair.
But going back to my problem is that I have many doubts if I am going to be able to make a good job with my friends in Vienna. They are making a big effort bringing me here and I do not want to disappoint them. If anything I rather they do a bad work of a good show that we have created together.
Have fun.
POCOPUTTIA
Hello;
Vienna in the autumn fells like the Caribe. Funny, don't you think? The streets are full of people that walk around as if the summer will never end. They dress in shorts, wear sandals and drink beer with their Snitzels in all the terraces of the capital.
Suddenly the building fell a little bit out of place, you cannot imagine the reggae music coming from any of their windows. The buildings are so elegant, I am not saying with this that reggae is not a very elegant music but perhaps for tradition it is the classical music what you expect to have coming from the windows of this amazing buildings that are everywhere in Vienna.
The street are full of people that I could not say they are happy. This people are not very good at smiling. They may be having the best time of their lives but they keep their happiness for the interior of their houses.
The company POCOPUTIA are very good. They are a very eclectic bunch of people that has come from all over the world belonging to very different cultures to try to put themselves in a common place so they can do a show, a new show. There is a Japanese girl, there is a Spanish girl, there is an English boy and there are two Austrian boys and that is the reason why the work is done here.
My heart fells for them because I see us when we started and I think they are already much more ahead than us. When we met the first time to work together we were rehearsing outside in the mountains. We were in Valance, in the middle of a big mountain where Toby's mum has a house. We slept in the house and we did improvisations at the ruins close by. We were much younger that it true and less experience. POCOPUTIA are already much older than we were and they are have the means to be able to do what they want.
We have the drive and the ambition to be where we are and much higher and we are learning fast and done a big journey and to see people getting ready to do the same one it makes me fell well.
I am getting older and I get emotional about things like this.
Have fun.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Hello;
With two hours of time to get my plain my suitcase was rolling along the hall in the airport and my mind was dreaming with the taste of beer in the bar while reading my paper.
My ticket was cancelled and either there was a problem with the computer or indeed there was not ticket so I should contact the Air France desk and asked them, the man at the counter told me.
I inhaled really deeply and I rolled my suitcase once again across the hall of the airport, this time towards the Air France desk. The lady behind the counter was not just very attentive and helpful she was also very pretty and I allowed me to have a dreamy moment. She was young and tan. Her hair was brown matching the colour of her eyes. I could see her legs while she was moving behind the desk and they were slim with very nice muscles. She told me I couldn't find it; it says here that the ticket has been cancelled. So what can I do to travel to Vienna? I said. She told me you will have to buy a new ticket, they are not more expensive that what it has already been paid, it is going to be three hundred and seventy eight euros.
I stopped for a while looking at the girl. I have always had a very soft spot for airhostesses and I called Cal to know Claire's number to know Ana's number. Cal gave me Claire's but she was not there and George was not there either. I called three times or more.
I had to take a decision and the lady behind the counter was asking for lunch. She was vegetarian or at least that day she fancied vegetables.
I told the girl before she ordered the meal to book me a ticket to the next plane to Vienna. I really felt like Joseph Cotton in “The third man”. She was on the phone and her male partner behind the desk helped me to buy my ticket. The boy was talking to me but my eyes could not get away from the object of my desires.
The ticket was in my hand and I was rolling my suitcase towards the cue at the check inn point. I didn't have to wait the man at the check inn point had told me so I jumped the cue and I got there at the same time that the American Rockers from the Azkena Rock festival were going back to their countries.
Once inside the area I went to get my longed paper and there were not one more. Everything had taken so long that they had run out of papers. I should have red this as a sign of the week ahead of me.
Have fun.
SWEET HOME
Hello;
I have not even had time to make arrive here. But news travel real fast and I have already have found that Toby got the part and that we are trying to organise the meeting for the next month. At the end of the month and everybody have different times to be free to do it.
I have waked up very happy in my bed but far too early for how tired I am. I have not slept a lot because I am not used to be sleeping in my own bed.
I arrived yesterday night from London after a very long day travelling from Brighton. Every time I think that I could have gone to do the audition for Hyperdrive it kills me. I should have gone to London and then after the audition leave to Heathrow and then home and then I would not have to go back to London this coming week.
Miren is happy and she has lots of plans for us to do while I am here. I supposed it is different to be by yourself here that to be with your husband. We have done our lives together for the last two years and now we miss being with each other's, at home spending time together.
But I have decided to be with her and try to make her happy because when she is happy I am happy too and also because it makes me happy to make her happy.
So I have gone out and I have seen many friends that I had not seen since the beginning of the summer and we have drunk and we have gone for walks around our city and we have behave as the very normal couple that we are not. That has made me really happy because Miren was enjoying quite a lot.
Nuria a very good friend of us has come for lunch to our house and then we have gone out. When I write is very late and I am piss. I have been drinking beer since eight and now it three o'clock in the morning, too much beer for just one day. I wander if that is what I am going to do when I grow old and I will not go anywhere to work or do things. I hope not. I have to do my suitcase because I am flying to Vienna tomorrow afternoon so I have to be ready. There is always time to do my suitcase I always think but at the end I always do it at the last minute so I travel thinking that I forgot to put something in it that I am going to need.
I am growing old, everything is becoming more difficult but still I get really excited about going to do things to other places and with lots of different people.
Have fun.
