Saturday, November 19, 2016

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Mamá Lola conoce el libro de los chaneques

Un momento histórico:
Por primera vez, Mamá Lola conoce el libro que contiene las historias de los chaneques que ella vivió en carne propia.
Comentó:
"Está muy bonito el libro, y todo eso es cierto. Yo lo sé porque yo lo viví. Pasó hace muchos años, pero yo me acuerdo. Qué bueno que existe el libro, porque ahora muchas otras personas pueden conocer estas historias también. Y no van a desaparecer."


Wednesday, October 12, 2016

"The Narrators" storytelling hour

Action shots of the storytelling hour, "The Narrators" podcast, that took place October 11 at "Tiger! Tiger!" Bar in San Diego.

Me telling my own thrilling tale of adventure, "Cyril, the Friendly Russian Skinhead."

Monday, September 12, 2016

My encounter with The Raven

My first encounter with a live raven. I feel like Odin up in here.

" But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered – not a feather then he fluttered –
Till I scarcely more than muttered "Other friends have flown before –
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said "Nevermore.""

Los gatos del cementerio - Cemetery cats

[English below]
 En un cementerio de Coyoacán, incontables gatos hacen guardia en las puertas. Como macabras sentinelas, se congregan en silencio. No se mueven, no se acercan a los transeúntes ni se van corriendo, nada de maullidos, apenas si parpadean.

Aquí se quedan. Sentados, viendo. Esperando a alguien...o algo. ¿Estarán aquí para que nadie entre a profanar el camposanto...o para evitar que alguien salga de ahí?

Lo cierto es que estos felinos se alimentan de las ratas del panteón. Ya sabemos de qué se alimentan las ratas. No cabe duda - de manera indirecta, estos gatos consumen carne humana.

* * * *
In this cemetery of Coyoacán, Mexico City, dozens of cats stand sentinel at the gates. Sitting in silence, barely moving, never crying.

They sit and they stare. Waiting for someone...or something. Are they here to keep someone from coming in...or from getting out?

One fact cannot be avoided - these cats eat the graveyard rats. The rats...well, you can imagine what they eat. Thus, these are cats that, indirectly, survive by consuming human flesh.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Festival Macabro: "Histeria"

Con Carlos Melendez y otros creadores de "Histeria", una de las mejores películas de suspenso que he visto jamás.

Ganadora del premio de Mejor Dirección en el Festival Macabro, Ciudad de México 2016.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Festival Macabro: clausura con Tyler MacIntyre

La ceremonia de clausura del Festival Macabro, en el Museo de la Ciudad de México.

Con la presencia de Tyler MacIntyre, director del largometraje horror-comedia "Patchwork".

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Macabro film festival: Stuart Gordon

Chilling with Stuart Gordon, director of "Re-Animator" and many other horror greats.
Bloody good time.

Festival Macabro: María Aura

Con la actriz mexicana María Aura, de "Y tu mamá también", "Niñas mal", "Testigo Íntimo", y muchas películas más.
Gracias, Festival Macabro!

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

El director Valentín Javier Diment

Conociendo a Valentín Javier Diment, el director argentino del largometraje "El eslabón podrido".

Es, sin lugar a dudas, una de las películas más creativas, más originales e inéditas que he visto jamás. Una verdadera joya.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Dennis Paoli in Mexico City

Just hanging out in Mexico City with Dennis Paoli, the screenwriter of "Reanimator", and giving him a copy of my book.

Friday, May 27, 2016

Nazca-like humanoid figure somewhere over Texas!

Is this humanoid figure the evidence of some ancient alien civilization that left its mark on the American Southwest?
Or was I just really bored on a plane?

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Only in the South

Only in the South...

A nice big wine display - with a sign telling you that you can't buy any of it, because it's Sunday.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The Jesus billboard

First religious advertisement spotted during this trip to Georgia.

I bet so many people convert to Christianity because of this billboard. They go, "Man, the only thing holding me back was that I just couldn't remember the guy's name!"

Saturday, May 14, 2016

How to learn a language in a day, Part 1: The 200 most important words

What if there was a simple list of the 200 most important words to learn in any language? What if by learning the words on that list, you could have a conversation about almost anything?

What if there was a really smart guy out there who created such a list?

You're in luck pal...there am such a smart guy. And that smart guy am me.

THE 200 MOST IMPORTANT WORDS TO LEARN IN ANY LANGUAGE

A few folks have attempted to compile such a list in the past. One of the most well-known lists was published by Tony Buzan in his book, "Using Your Memory." Unfortunately, Buzan's list of 100 words is very Anglocentric. It includes many words that do not exist in other languages.

As a person who speaks ten languages, I have figured out a thing or two about what words and concepts are the most important.

Of course, it's impossible to claim that this list is universal. That's the beauty of linguistic diversity--certain languages have words, concepts, and structures that don't exist anywhere else in the world. Still, if you can learn how to say these 200 words in a language, you'll be well on your way to speaking it.

It goes without saying, learning these 200 words is just the beginning. It's not enough to just translate an English sentence word-for-word. In addition to basic vocabulary, you'll need to learn:

1. Grammar
How do you conjugate verbs? Do adjectives change? Are there genders? Are there declensions and grammatical cases? (These can make one noun change, depending on where it is in a sentence.) Does the language use certain articles before or after words, to show how the word is being used?

2. Sentence structure
Word order can vastly vary from one language to the next. If you don't believe me, watch an old kung fu movie with a very literal translation.

3. Certain concepts aren't contained in just one word
I've singled one of them out in my list: the idea of possession, "to have." In many languages, there isn't a simple verb to say "to have."
EXAMPLE: In Russian, to say "I have a cat," you literally say, "By me [genitive case] there is a cat."
Many indigenous languages of the Americas are the same.

4. Tonal languages
Some languages, like Mandarin Chinese, Mixtec, Barí, are tonal. The tone (musical note) you give to a word will change its meaning. This means you don't just have to learn the words and grammar--you have to take a music lesson as well.

* * * *

Without further ado, here's the list, with words roughly arranged by category. I'm always open to suggestions for perfecting it.

THE LIST 

Greetings, courtesy 
hello
goodbye
yes
no
not (negation)
please
thank you

Question words
who
what
where
when
why
how
because


Prepositions
with
on
under
in
out
next to
here
there
up
down
before
after
for
from
now


Pronouns

I
you
you (formal)
he
she
you (plural)
we
they (male, female, both)


possessives - my, your


Verbs


use
have
see
hear / listen
be able to (do something)
say
speak
find
to be
to like
love
come
go
take
bring
make / do
to exist, be around ("there is / are" in English, "haber" in Spanish)
think
know
sleep
eat
drink
work


Adjectives
comparisons: more, less

good
bad
large
small
hot
cold
old
new
pretty
ugly
fat
thin
clean
dirty
strong
weak
alive
dead

Basic nouns
person
man
woman
friend
house
town / city
animal
tree
water
food
thing
time
sun
moon
land / earth
sky

Body parts
body
head
eye
mouth
nose
hair
arm / hand
leg / foot
stomach
back

Other random common words
if
also
but
either / or
other
different
same
this
that
all
none
always
often
sometimes
never
more
less
a little bit
much
again
and
almost
only


Basic colors
white
black
green
blue
red
yellow

Numbers, one through ten




Monday, May 9, 2016

What kind of "cutz"?

Here's a pro tip for you: if you're going to use a number in the name of your business, try to make it clear what number it's supposed to be.

I spent 15 minutes wondering why this place was called "grtwo cuts"...until I figured out that was a mutilated 8.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Calle Gabacho

Sin lugar a dudas, la calle más gringa de Gringolandia.

Bathroom reading

Some classy fellow at the public library decided to take a bunch of magazines into the restroom.

Apparently, what "does it" for this guy is:
a) Cinematography
b) Mission Impossible
c) Articles about "va jay jays"

To each his own.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Jacking pad, dump valve

Apparently, all the components of the Amtrak train were named by seventh grade boys.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Intercambio de libros con el autor Fabrizio Mejía Madrid

Tuve el gran honor de conocer al autor y periodista mexicano Fabrizio Mejía Madrid en la Feria Internacional del Libro. 


Después de recibir su autógrafo y dedicatoria en su libro "Nación TV", le regalé un ejemplar de mi colección de historias de duendes, "El grito del chaneque". 

También aproveché para decirle que sus textos son una chingonería singular, que me encantan.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Watch me learn a language in a day

That's right. I plan to learn a language in one day.

This Sunday, February 21, is "International Mother Language Day." It's a holiday established by the United Nations in 2000 to promote linguistic diversity, multilingualism, and to rescue and promote languages that are in danger of going extinct forever.

How will I be observing this holiday?

I plan on learning an entire language in one day.

"Monumento a los Mazahuas"
Image courtesy of Wiki Commons.


Why am I doing it? 

For one thing, I'm extremely vain. I already speak ten languages, and I think I'm up to the challenge. I have what it takes to learn the basics of a language in just one day.

More importantly, I'm doing this to promote the "International Mother Language Day" and to raise awareness about dying languages.

In the past few centuries, hundreds of languages have died out. Humans currently speak between 6,000 and 7,000 languages, but at least half of those languages are in danger of disappearing in the next century.

When humanity loses a language, we don't just lose a different set of words and sounds--we lose all the knowledge and wisdom that language contained. We lose a different way of thinking, of perceiving the world, of solving problems. It's like setting fire to an entire library of books that have no other copies.

At least 13 languages have died out in the past decade alone. These include:

- The Klallam native language of the northwestern United States. (Last speaker died in 2014)

- The Livonian language of Latvia (2013)

- The Pazeh tongue of Taiwan (2010)

- Nyawaygi, an aboriginal language of Australia (2009)

The UNESCO established the International Mother Language Day in 2000. The date commemorates a massacre that took place in Bangladesh in 1952, when students were killed by the police for demanding the right to speak their own language.


What language will I learn? 

I thought about doing Portuguese, since it would be an easy one. I already know Spanish and French, and Portuguese is somewhere in between these two languages.

But then, I decided to go for one of the languages that is actually endangered. I will be learning Mazahua, one of the indigenous languages spoken in Mexico.

There are currently between 150,000 and 170,000 people who speak this ancient language, but the numbers are going down at a rapid rate. Mazahua native people who are younger than 40 are switching almost exclusively to Spanish. This is the case with many indigenous languages, both here in Mexico and across the world. When the younger generation forgets how to speak a language, they are no longer able to fully communicate with the elders. Their cultural identity becomes endangered. All the traditions--legends, wisdom tales, songs, myths, folk memory--could be lost forever.

After I've learned Mazahua, I will do what I can to promote and protect it, to keep it from dying out forever.


How will I do it? 

I was going to learn Mazahua on the 21st of February, since that's the actual U.N. holiday. But then I realized I'm going to have guests in town that day, so I don't think I'll have time to learn a language. Instead, I will be doing it tomorrow, Thursday. If all goes well, by this time tomorrow I should have a basic knowledge of Mazahua.

Of course, I'm not silly enough to claim that I can become fluent in a language in just one day. However, I do plan on knowing enough Mazahua to have a basic grasp of it. I will be able to carry on conversations with native speakers. After studying ten languages, I've learned one or two tricks about how to quickly learn a new tongue.

So how will I do it?

I'll be explaining my strategy in upcoming blogs. Stay tuned for more...

Saturday, January 23, 2016

My haunted college mentioned on Prairie Home Companion!

Very honored that Garrison Keillor mentioned my haunted alma mater on the air this evening!

[image courtesy of Wiki Commons]

He said that he always visits the seaside campus of Point Loma Nazarene University when he's here in San Diego. Of course, Keillor included a few snarky remarks about how most Evangelical colleges are not nearly as beautiful, looking like unpainted warehouses.

He even wrote an entire song dedicated to Evangelical surfers! Check the program out on the Prairie Home Companion website. You should be able to listen to it from Monday, Jan. 25 until the following Monday.

I wonder if he happened to run into the ghost of Madame Tingley while he was on campus?

Tuesday, January 19, 2016