De que estas hablando Willis, and La Bola de cristal

There are different things that make you think about something in particular (what a ridiculous sentence, sorry for my writing and expression skills). I mean that the same thought about one experience you had in the past or something that you like or dislike, is usually triggered by many things, such as a conversation related to that, something you hear, see, smell. Whatever. There is no exception for this, everyone the same I guess, but for me its funny to realize sometimes how I start to think about something by connecting things that have zero in common with that. And at least in my case the connections can be really weird sometimes (again, as everyone else). Ok, all this short introduction to explain the reason for this post, which, by the way, has been triggered by a simple and very normal chain of related thoughts that are not a good example at all of what I have written above. Anyway...

Yesterday, while reading TVU's blog post about the 80's, I started to think about different music groups from that time (the truth is that at that time I was not interested in music at all, that came later to my life and has not abbandoned me yet ;), tv series, films.etc.etc. Well, then I spent an hour with Jack Bauer and went to bed. This morning I was having breakfast and doing zapping, trying to avoid repetitive news from CNN and the XXXteletubbies again, when I saw a woman on the TV that remembered to another woman from another TV series of the 80s. The 80s again. Then I changed channel once more to BBC (more news about Lebanon and Irak), and I though about the teletubbies again, and finally I started to think about the Tv programs we had in Spain when we (people of my age) had when we were a bit older than the teletubbies watchers, and finally I arrived to the conclusion that if you were not a Spanish kid at that time, you missed a really good program for children, much better than the ones they play now on Tv for the 00s children. (That sounds really strange, imagine in 20 years: "Did you remember the 00s?". Yes, sounds weird) by far: La bola de Cristal. What a program!!!! Os acordais de "los electroduendes y la bruja averia" Hahaha, los electroduendes, with "La bruja averia" aka Alaska. Definetely superb!!!
Here another sample of good stuff from that time:

I don´t remember quite well, but I am sure she was one of my first erotic miths. The woman from above, not Arnold. Arnold!!! Hilarious. (maybe in english its not Arnold?) In Spanish the sentence when you look at the picture below is: "De que estas hablando willis?" Sorry but I am in the middle of a laughing attack right now.
Well, now to a very difefrent thing, with no mental connection with the 80s.

There is a curious new building that has started to function this summer inside Novartis. One of them, because the campus is in the middle of a construction orgasm this summer. I mean "to function" because the building in the second pic, which is close to the one that I really like, has a screen that displays all the time sentences and popular and not so popular "says".

Everyday they display sentences in alphabetical order. I am not sure of the purpose of this sentences, if there is one, but maybe the managers who decided to install the flashing screen thought that people would stop to read them. Bad thought. The garden in front of the building is full of trees and you can read anything. Second, you really look like an idiot if you stop in the middle of this "garden" to read them. Third, the letters are too big, which takes a lot of time to read them. And I am not sure how to interpret the sentences displayed in the "working environment". Examples of "non-selected" sentences: Offenders never pardon, old hunters never fall into traps, on a good bargain think twice, revolutions are not made with rose water, roses are scented but bread keep us alive, the person in a hurry does it badly twice, the rich are at home in a foregin land, the remedy for boredom is to get used to it (no no, the remedy is to think and not be bored). ok, that is enough or otherwise you may think i really stood like an idiot in the garden copying sentences.

I am not sure if i will be able to post anymore this week since Jack Baurer and one book are taking my time after work (which is not much to tell you the truth), and we still have to look for accomodation in Milan. yes, Milan, this weekend we go to Italy!!! with Ignacio, Paco and Eugenio.

Music, from the begginings of those mentioned 80s: Depeche mode - Just can´t get enough

And the sun brought....Jazz!

It last only one day, but after almost two weeks of rain, on Friday afternoon the sun showed up to bring us a bit of music. Anne, from my department, told me in the morning that in the afternoon there was going to be some music around the city, and it was worth to have a walk through the old part of Basel while hearing some music: The 23rd edition of the jazz festival in basel. I was supposed to meet Helen, Fernanda, and Cynthia later, but when I finished my haircut I came home, had a shower, and then decided to go to see some of those bands for myself before joining them. What the woman at work didn´t tell me was that there was going to be so many people around, and so many bands of jazz!! I expected some bands playing in the downtown squares, but everywhere in the city was packed. I spent around 2 hours from stage to stage (33 in total, impossible to see everything), and then meet the girls for some drinks with jazz & funky. It is as if the bad weather stopped only for an afternoon to allow people to enjoy the city and the music. Also inside each bar, restaurant and hotel, there was a band of jazz playing. I find Jazz a difficult music to listen to a long time, but it always sounds good, and a lot of jazz songs have one special thing that I like: You can hear the same jazz song, and one time makes you feel very happy while the next time you hear it sounds melancolic or even sad. But Friday everything sounded like the first part.


One of the best bands, or at least the one that made people move the most, was a group of guys that call themselves ED Elastic (in the pic below) . They were playing from 8pm until 11pm around the streets. I recorded a couple of videos in case you want to see how was the environment. Funky, ska, and of course, jazz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBdGgTWF1KY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMJqIn78H3Y

But the first prize goes to....The retired band. They are still an active band, the only difference is that their members are all retired, or at least that is how they looked like, both by their name and their age. Hot and Sweet jazz.

Quiet music, relaxing....as it says: "hot and sweet". With a very tender banjo included. The guy with the trumpet made a joke during one of the songs. He suddenly stopped playing after the moment his face was very read because of the effort of playing the trumpet, and some of us believed that was going to be the end of the "happy" gradfathers. Nothig far from reality. The happy gradfathers are still happy and playing jazz in another city.

A curious thing that I noticed was that the average age of the people around (and there was a lot of people) was quite high, which I don´t understand, because it was really a cool evening to stay out and enjoy some music and drinks in the streets. I don´t know the explanation for this. maybe the average population of basel is just like that, or maybe older people know better how to have fun in Basel than young people? (even if only for one night), because I have never seen so many people around here. For a moment it looked like a very crowded city, full of people, with hundreds of bars everywhere and people having drinks in the terraces.

After almost 4 hours, some beers and one glass of Sangria, it was time to leave. I really needed to sleep properly after this week. Yesterday I did basically nothing appart from sleeping, eating, reading, answering emails, and go for a run during the only half an hour that it was not rainig in the afternoon. And this morning I realized that I fall asleep around 10pm beacuse I had to go out and I didn´t. I guess that my last thought yesterday was something like: Marc, now you have to stand up, have a shower, shave, put some clothes, go to have more drinks again.......zzzzzzzzzzz.

And today, Sunday, while I am writing this the tree close to my window has started to move as if end of the world weather is back in town (how strange is that here!). "Oh, Zeus, king of the gods and god of the sky and thunder! Please, leave me in peace for some weeks, at least until the end of september!!" The only thing I can offer to the divinity right now is.....more street music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoGxuvKPsaM