10 Things I love about London and 5 that I Hate

London is my favorite city in the whole wide world…and I just finished getting back from a small trip. Like every city there are great things but there are some that are not that wonderful. So here is a quick recap of my loves and hates of my fav city…

What I love…

1. Truly international. The one city where you really find people from EVERYWHERE…more so than New York or any other place. Take any random sample of 10 people…and you get several nationalities…I love that…
2. So much to do!!! Theater, musical concerts of every genre, clubs, pubs, restaurants, art shows, events, events, events…you never get bored!!!
3. The history and traditions. There is just a nice sense of tradition that I really like about London. People are proud of their heritage.
4. People are more educated. For the most part. It is nice to be able to converse with people that are educated. And I don’t mean just college or university. I mean they tend to be more well rounded. They know about arts, music, authors, geography, current events around the world, culture in general. More interesting conversations take place!!!
5. Random hidden little places. London is a city of discoveries as well. If you are a discoverer and stray from the popular sites and dare to take on the adventure, there is a different world out there. Full of pubs and random caves under the River Thames that are so intriguing.
6. Museums are free!!!!…I love going to museums…and in the UK they are free
7. A clean tube…I go to NYC a lot and other cities with subway systems. By far the cleanest subway system that I have ever been in was in Stockholm but London’s is pretty clean. I like that. I don’t feel like I am going to catch a disease or be killed by someone in the tube.
8. Universities have pubs…need I say more???
9. Futbol…I am not a big fan of Arsenal or Chelsea but the fact that there is Futbol…its great…
10. And the thing that I love the most about London…is that is the one place I feel really comfortable…It fits…and that is a great feeling

What I hate…

1. Is there a serious lack of napkins in the U.K. or what? I mean can you freaking serve me a napkin…I hate cleaning my hands on my clothes or my face with my hands…grrr…
2. I know there are hooligans in England…but do they really have to tackle people at a tube stop???? Come on…I’m only 120 lbs!!!!
3. Bathroom faucets??? There is one for the hot water and one for the cold water. What am I supposed to do with that??? The point is to get temperate water!!!!
4. Why are the bath tubs so high??? I need a latter just to get in and out of them…discrimination against the shortys…
5. And I really couldn’t come up with a fifth thing…

Overall, London is a great city. I highly recommend to everyone. As far as for me, I will sure go back. Many times over…

 

Lon..don…

Off to good ol’London…to go see Portis…be back on Monday…probably extremely jet lagged…I’ll try to write soon…Peace!!!

 

Discovering Lupe…Fiasco…

I discovered Lupe Fiasco about two years ago, when he originally launched his first album “Food and Liquor”. Instantaneously when I heard “Kick Push” I stopped and just listened. He was not an ordinary rapper. No. He was different. He wasn’t rapping about parties, girls or hustling. He had something new and fresh to say and rap. Plus, the beat..the beat was fresh. Captivating.

“The Cool” was released on December 18, 2007 and I purchased the album that same day. Since then I have not stopped listening to it. I mean non-stop listening to the album almost 24/7. I am in love with this man. And all he has to say. It is rare now a days to have an album that has a common theme. Not only does this album have a theme it talks about many issues which our current society has to deal with. But I waited to write about him because I wanted to see him live. I wanted to see how this talent translated in to “up front and personal”. I got the chance this past Friday. It was Brown University’s spring fling weekend and one of the main headliners was Mr. Fiasco himself.

An eclectic crowd gathered at the Hockey Stadium. But once Lupe came on, I blocked out pretty much everybody that was present with the exception of my roomie. The acoustics at the Hockey Stadium are not the best. There is an echo and well this sport complex is not made for concerts. But even with all of that, he sounded flawless. Lupe came off as a confident young 25-year old. He knew what he was doing. He knew really well. His voice was strong and you could understand everything. There was no muffle. The rhymes were flawless. He first presented songs from his first album such as “Kick Push” and then proceeded to “the Cool”. He rapped “the Coolest” a capella. Just him. No one else. He introduced some new beats and mixed all the songs a bit. He obviously played “Superstar” and he concluded with “Daydreaming”. I highly recommend everyone to check him out. As for me, Lupe will be my superstar for some more time…maybe until his next album comes out…

 

Discovering Caipirinhas…

This week the New York Times published an article adequately titled “Allure of Cachaça Spreads to U.S. From Brazil”. If you can read the article…is pretty good. I just think is funny that now is when the U.S. is supposedly catching on. I personally have been obsessed with caipirinhas since 2002. They are my favorite drink!!! But definitely like them more how they make them in Brazil. Because here in the states is all about tasting the alcohol, which is not the point of the drink. Is about tasting a chilling, smooth drink that will cool you off and make you happy. It is not about getting drunk…but about enjoyment…maybe that is the difference between the cultures…

PS. As a disclaimer…do not have more than 5 caipirinhas at a time…you will feel it the next day…

 

Discovering the power of advertising

Just do it! That phrase is phenomenal. Just do it! Whoever thought of that was truly a master of advertising. He/she just got it. Got that you just need to get into a person’s mind in 3 words or less and make them do something or purchase something even if it is just an idea.

Advertising is the ability to convince the world that they need to be or need to purchase something in order to be able subsist in this world. Some of the best ads in my fair opinion are from Nike.

The latest Nike commercial did just that for me. My gosh I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I have the song and the imagery stuck on my head. Constantly.

The commercial is genius. The theme is to “be a better athlete”. You hear “List of Demands” by Saul Williams starting and just the drums, guitar riffs, and base going and it makes you want to be in the commercial. Just high intensity interval running. Ready , set, go…give it power…come on…just do it!!!

Well, for the past two days, I have been doing just that. Some interval running, with some power hills, major ab work and some other routines. I am sitting here so soar. Everything hurts. Everything. It hurts to just turn, move, breathe. But oh it feel s so good. My list of demands is to demand myself to be better…a better athlete, a better person, a better everything…can I do it???? Per, just do it!!!

 

Discovering Karma

Last night around 11:30pm I was going to sleep. When all of a sudden my annoying door bell (imagine extremely loud buzzing noise) started ringing uncontrollably. “Who the hell was ringing the doorbell at that time and why?” “Could it be a crazy person in the street?” My roommate was in planet dreamland and she didn’t hear the doorbell, so I went downstairs and got the door. It was my next door neighbor letting us know that the red Pontiac sunfire parked in the back of the house was on fire!!!!!

Oh shiat!!! That is my neighbor’s car. The red head from the third floor. I screamed fire. Roomie finally woke up. I ran up to the third floor banged on the door until finally they opened and broke the news. Flames were coming out of the car, soon after the firefighters came and all was okay.

The thing is that about a month ago, the same girl backed into my PARKED car (without me being in it) and then left. In essence it was a hit and run. She never fessed up to it and I had to go upstairs and call her out on it. Thankfully I saw the whole thing as it happened. But geez…why not tell me…shit happens, it is understandable, but own up to it. Her roommate appropriately said last night, while we were standing on the street as it was raining, “karma is a bitch”. And I looked at him and then I looked down.

I never wanted this to happen to the girl. I truly feel bad for her. But in essence there is a lesson to be learned here. You have to be responsible for your actions. You could debate Karma, or the laws of physics or whatever…the truth is that in most cases…everything you do to others will somehow return to you…So be honest people… cause there is nothing worse than flames consuming your soul…

 

Discovering No More Games

I have been silent these past few weeks. It has been hard to write. Going through a lot emotionally and just do not want to spill my insides to the whole world. Changes happen. People change. Progress happens. And sometimes it’s hard to deal with it. But 10 years have gone by and Portishead is finally releasing a new album. I have been scattering away trying to find any leaked songs on the internet…YouTube is great…

My favorite band has definitely evolved. To places that maybe are a bit darker than before. Can you even fathom that? Confusion, desperation, sadness…this record revolves around all of those feelings and more. But it is honest. It’s a bit rawer. More guitar riffs, more drums, more of Beth’s voice mixed with an eclectic sounds of synthesizers and mixed melodies. It is smart and witty and just all out extremely deep. Hard to comprehend like always, but if you cut to the chase it is masterful. I have not listened to the whole thing yet, but as soon as the album comes out on April 28th I will make sure to run and be the first to buy it (not to mention that I am going to the concert in 2 weeks in good ol’London). And I will listen to it probably for months straight.

What I see and hear in Beth’s voice, is maybe a bit of myself. So much has changed, progressed, converged and metaphorsized in the past 10 years. It has been 10 years since I graduated high school…hmmm…so much learned. And I guess that is why I am at a point, where finally I am getting comfortable. This is it. This is me, now. There have been some good years and some really shitty ones. But here I am. Me. I’m sorry for all of my mistakes. But I have learned from them. I do not want to play games anymore. I do not want to deceive anymore. Take it. Like “Third”. You either love or hate it or learn to appreciate it. But it is just Third. And I am just me.

 

Discovering Racial Profiling

Yesterday, Governor Don Carcieri signed an executive order in Rhode Island “requiring state police and prison officials to identify immigration violators in state custody and report them to federal authorities for possible deportation.” Meaning, if I get pulled over for speeding, and with my obviously really Latin name, I will need to prove on the spot my “immigration status” if not my behind will get deported back to Colombia. First of all, how many of you out there carry your birth certificate, passport or certificate of naturalization with you at all times??? Truly honestly…how many??? Because, I will take a wild guess that most of you do not carry those documents with you.

So, I am a law abiding citizen, who is a citizen of this great country and now I could get taken in to some god awful place for interrogation until “they” feel like they could release me from “prison” or confinement or whatever else because I was able to prove my citizenship. Yeah, I don’t see Mr. John Smith having to go through that, yet his ancestors are not “American” either. This country does not have a race, does not have an “official language”, does not have any of those things. This is not Germany or France. This is the United States of America. Where Europeans fearing religious persecution fled to, I am sure if you had to prove your citizenship back then John Smith, you wouldn’t be that thrilled either.
On the other side of the coin, I understand their point of view. The US wants to tackle illegal immigration and I get that. I do not think building bigger walls on the border is going to solve the problem though. But the system that is currently in place is not working—obviously!!! First off, the US should join the ranks of most other countries in the world and issue federal IDs and not leave it up to the states. Your license should not be your identification. Point blank. Some other ID card that proves your citizenship and could only be issued at one location by the federal government. AND EVERYONE WETHER JOHN SMITH OR PEPITA PEREZ SHOULD HAVE TO CARRY IT WITH THEM AT ALL TIMES. Additionally, the US and Europe should realize that with a global society, immigration shifts occur. Europe is facing the same problem with Africans, Turks and all sorts of other nationalities. We talk about being a global society, well let’s become one for real. Because no longer is it about being German or French, but about being a person, who works hard and earns his/her keep in an honest manner. So let’s come up with a plan that works. Provisional work permits, so people could work in other countries is a start. I agree everyone has to pay taxes. There are no free lunches…but has anyone thought we could benefit from these immigrants…it might be news to people but immigrants are also human beings.

So why not have a free flowing society, where work permits are issued, everyone pays taxes and everyone works. If you do something illegal, you get deported. But truly let it be a society where competition and market driven initiatives force growth, so everyone is compelled to be working and producing and not just sitting on their hiney because they know that they can’t get fired. Maybe that will drive productivity up, worldwide…hmmm…I wonder what economic impact that will have…

People be progressive…think ahead of the times…I know control is a power issue…but maybe a little change wouldn’t be that bad of a thing…

(PS. I went to see the new Dr. Seuss movie last night and the moral of the movie was that everyone is a person no matter how small they are…see even Dr. Seuss got it…we are a human race above any nationality)

 

Discovering Time…

I have been absent from my blog for a while now and I am sorry. Truly life has taken a spin and I have been quite the busy bee.

But in these past weeks, one recurring theme that keeps coming up is the importance of time. I am Latin and by definition I generally run late all the time, especially for social events (just ask my friends). In work related matters I am pretty good about keeping deadlines, but even that lately has been slipping through the cracks. I get bombarded all the time with extra things to do and extra things to take care of. And by the end of the day I am so tired that all I want to do is just fall on my bed and forget the day ever existed.

Well that stops today!!! The problem is that I need to prioritize things a bit better and with all of this I might have to pull some really long hours at work. Which is fine, I just have to make it to the gym as well, because I noticed this past weekend I am expanding sideways again.

A while back, I had an organizational coach tell me that one way to organize your day’s activities is by creating three lists. An A-list, B-list and C-list. The A-list is for all the things that you have to do on that day. B-list things are things that are important, but if they do not get done today the world will not cease to exist. And C-list is more for projects that you have coming up or what not. I made my adaptation to this set up. My A-list is all the things that I have to do on that day, my B-list is for all my ongoing projects. And last but not least my C-list is for all my personal things. It has worked so far, I just need to keep it up everyday. What I have to figure out is the following: I need to schedule some time for daily unforeseen events, and I need to find some sort of encouragement for those days I do not feel like doing anything at all…if any of you have any suggestions…they are more than welcomed….

I am so glad to be back…miss all of you so much…have a happy Monday!!!

 

Discovering a year…

A year ago today I jumped on a plane and moved to Rhode Island. A year ago today, I left my heart in Los Angeles. A year ago today I lost the one who I loved the most.

Was this a good move? I do not know. I still have my doubts. Professionally it has been okay. Personally it has been a disaster. All say is for the best, but truly the best hasn’t happened yet. I am hoping next year is better. I hope next year is a bit fuller of hope, and a bit fuller of joy.