domingo, 26 de junio de 2011

Left Behind: I Wish I (Was) Were - Chapter 1


I’m bored. I’ve got little to do for the summer except learn, and crazy shit (crazier than usual, that is) has been happening all around us. Most of my beliefs are pretty out there, so fuck it. I’m gonna write a periodic story: Left Behind: I Wish I Was (Were).

It’s is the story about a man who is basically the antithesis for Kirk Cameron. A stout believer until irrationality jumped ship and became a non-militant atheist. Just a young man, minding his own business, living everyday life. Happy, sad, human. Not of a necessarily enviable intellect but not without his merits.  Knows he hasn’t figured out the world and still laughs at the fact that the first thing he said when he got a blowjob was “oh my God.”

He lived in our world. Going to work everyday. Exercising on occasion. Enjoying the pleasures of sex and Nutella – separately. And when 6:00 P.M. hit on May 21st of this year, 2011, he disappeared. He has some friends, and they all thought he was pulling a prank, but now they’re pretty worried and his face is plastered all over Twitter.

This is his story.

By the way, sound effects are in bold letters. THESE ARE BOLD LETTERS. Writing looks retarded when you add asterisks every two words.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Our hero(?) wakes up, in a beautiful garden, with the worst feeling of a hangover this side of watching any M. Night Shyalaman Movie. (Except The Sixth Sense. I liked that one.)

“Oh bleep.”

“Wait. What the f-bleep?”

“F-bleep!”

“F-bleep. Bleep. Mother-bleep.  C-bleep-s-bleep.”

“Bleep-faceF-bleepbleepbleep-bagbleep-headbleep-smokerbleepbleepbleepASS!”

“Oh bleep! I can say ass! Sweet.”

His sense of realization lasted only seconds, much like Dustin Diamond’s career, when he saw where he was, and his unfamiliarity with the place.

“Where am I? Why do bad words keep getting bleeped out? Why in the world do I have a voice over?”

Oh bleep. Bleep it! Me too? Sorry about that dude. That wasn’t supposed to happen. I can’t really figure out this damn headset. Wait. I got-

“Wait! Wait! Before you leave, can you tell me where the hell I – awesome! I can say Hell. Sorry. The bleeping’s getting to me. Where am I? Please.”

Do you know that I am the narrator? My function is solely to narrate. So you go do stuff and I’ll just talk about what you’re doing. It’s like Twitter, but more awesome, and I have a microphone.

“Please. I’m going crazy here. There’s nothing around for miles other than pretty little flowers, so my allergies are starting up.”

Ok ok. Firstly, here’s some Claritin. Weather here gets crazy since we’re closer to the Ozone Layer. Secondly, since I’m the narrator I can’t give you straight answers. Most I could do is talk in riddles or something. Here goes. The name of the wondrous place you are in starts with an H, and rhymes with one of Kevin Spacey’s best movies. There. Simple. Be seeing ya.

“H? H...Hax? Hoon? Hurns? Hurns! OK. Where the hell is Hurns?”

HURNS? What the Hell are you talking ab – oh, seriously? You actually LIKED Superman Returns? Are you retarded? Even my grandson hated that movie, and he’s got ADD so he didn’t even watch the whole thing. You’re in HEAVEN, you nitwit, as in SEVEN?

“Oh. I haven’t seen that one. Heard it’s ok.

OK? Just OK?

“Yeah. Never really got around to it ‘cuz it didn’t seem like much.”

Sigh. Hell’s a better place for you.

“Hey! I heard that!”

Bet you did.

“What’s got his panties in a bunch? / I think he figured out his headset. I can’t hear the hum of his amp anymore. / So yes, that makes it definite. I’m dreaming. I’m supposed to be in Heaven and an invisible narrator just gave me some allergy medicine. Right.”

The young man, also known as the retard-that-hasn’t-seen-Seven-because-he’s-too-cool-for-it, doubted the reality that befell him. So, in an unsurprising demeanor, he spent half an hour pinching and pricking his body, to see if he woke. He didn’t. He wasn’t asleep to begin with. When he started drawing blood he decided that the voice he heard might not be his own, and actually spoke true when it said that he was now in Heaven. Finally. If the voice had actually been in his own head it couldn’t have said that Kevin Spacey wins in the end. JA! Suck on that! I didn’t even get bleeped! Loser!

Well, whatever. As our everyman – if he had seen Seven. Zing! – started on his journey, he knew not which way to go.

“I don’t know where to go.”

Told you.

In a whim he decided to go north. He thought he was going north at least; he was actually heading east. But his stride was determined, to say the least.

“I guess I’ll just have to go along with this. Me. An atheist. In Heaven. Fantastic. There go 20 years of telling off religious wingnuts that they were out of their mind. My mom is gonna have a field day when she hears about this. Especially when I told her Jesus banged Mary Magdalene. Whatever. That was a fun Thanksgiving Dinner.”

As he talked to himself and walked out of the field he saw a street a few yards away. No cars passed as he neared it, and no cars passed as he sat down and waited with the sun in his face. No cars passed as he doodled chalk drawings on the street. After a while he came to a realization.

“Maybe no cars are going to pass.”

Well, that didn't take long. He followed the street for what seemed to be a few miles, but he noticed that it didn’t really seem like progress. The Allergy-Inducing Field still lay to the sides of the road, and no landmark told him otherwise. He followed the Useless Road, as he so called it – he renamed the things and places he saw, as a way to cope with the fact that he was technically dead – for another 15 minutes when a pickup truck appeared in the distance. He signaled it, by waving like a maniac, and the truck stopped next to him.

- “Maybe it’s not such a Useless Road after all.”

  “Seems like a nice man. I’ll ask him for a ride.”

  “Hello. Would you mind giving me a lift?”

- “OF COURSE”

A voice like seven thunders and as awesome as a Dream Theater concert came forth from the man as he spoke. Our protagonist - whose name I forgot to ask – flew a few feet from the pickup. As he hoisted himself from the floor, the man in the truck spoke in a gentler voice.

- “I’m sorry about that. Didn’t recognize that you were human. I could’ve killed you! Are you well? Come on in.”

The ringing in his ears hadn’t stopped, and he couldn’t make anything of what the man had said. He realized nevertheless that he could now face him, even if he spoke, so the voice had dialed down a bit. He thought he was a good lip reader in high school, so he gave it a try. He did understand that the man would offer him a ride, but wondered why he would ask if he was into croquet.

- “Where am I? Someone told me I was in Heaven earlier.”

- “Laugh. That person couldn’t have been more wrong. You think this is Heaven? A highway?”

- “That’s what I thought, but he sounded very convincing due to being a voice over.”

-  “You’re a riot. Hell’s back there, I was making a delivery, and Heaven’s where I’m going now. Hop on.”

- “Oh. See, when you said that I wasn’t in Heaven, I thought you meant I was actually somewhere on EARTH.

- “My bad. Yeah, you’re not. Though if you ever get back, there’s a strip club on 3rd street in NYC. It feels like being home.”

- “Ok. So I’m…crazy. That’s a better answer than being in a supernatural realm.”

- “No. No. You’re here all right. I’m Sariel, but you can call me Sal.”

As he rode with Sal, he finally realized it was true. He was definitely in another realm. He was in shock for around 15 minutes but Sal slapped him out of it when he started to shake.

- “Ok. I’ll roll with it I guess. How did I end up here in the first place?”

- “Don’t know. I’m basically a delivery boy/tour guide for these areas. I like to help people that look lost but I don’t really know where I’m going most of the time, so whatever.”

- “Great. You’re a guiding angel without a clue.”

- “Hey. Us angels have feelings, you know? Hmph. And I know as much as a I need to.”

- “Sorry. It’s that the whole being technically dead that’s getting to me. What were you doing in hell anyway?”

- “I take souls that are lost or wrongly archived back to where they belong. Between us, the public institutions here aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.”

- “So you’re a sort of repo man.”

- “More like a cleanup crew. 99% of repo men go to Hell, so it’s not really much of a compliment. And I’ll let you in on a secret: You wanna listen to good music, you’ll have to visit Hell. Sometimes I just go there because of that. The demons have really good taste in music, and they’re not half-bad when they’re not on duty. They showed me this one guy, Tyler, the Creator. He’s pretty sick. But as soon as I cross the border between Heaven and Hell though, I can’t listen to him anymore. Everything gets bleeped and he curses a lot, so it sounds less like a rap and more like an 8-bit rendition of All Eyes On Me. That and his name’s pretty blasphemous, but between him and J-Hova, I think his music’s better.”

  “Sorry. I get carried away when I talk about music. Only thing we got in Heaven is trumpets and some string instruments. We used to have an oboe, but after that American Pie movie came out we had to take it away because some of the younger angels started getting ideas.”

- “Wow. Yeah. Bleep happens.”

- “Tell me about it. You might want to go to sleep. It’s a while ‘til we get to the city, and you’re not used to how time passes up here yet. “

- “Thanks dude.  I’ll try to go to sleep. I could definitely use some.”

- “Good night.”

- “It’s noon, but whatever, good night.”

As he said this the day turned to night in what seemed like a second.

Los Buenos Tiempos Han Ido y Venido (y Tal Vez Nunca Fueron la Gran Cosa)


Hace un tiempo – poco, mucho, Einstein nos jodió con esa – un querido amigo y cofundador de la afamada, aclamada por la crítica, Pilas de Tertulia, Tony Raful escribió una nota interesante. Se titula “Cuida’o con volver.” Es una cruda verdad con ciertos toques de ligereza, como para engañar al lector de que no es un
boche lo que le está dando.

En su nota Tony trata el tema de cómo el tiempo y la distancia cambian aquel lugar de donde uno parte, de su hogar. Y es cierto. No es difícil ver a una persona que hable de la República Dominicana como un país casi perfecto, donde si no fuera porque la luz se va ocasionalmente fuera prácticamente el paraíso en la Tierra.

Y me puso a pensar. Pasa esto sólo con lugares? No pasaría por igual con los tiempos que se han vivido antes, que uno carga consigo no necesariamente aferrados a un lugar, a un espacio? Por eso pensé en los “buenos tiempos.“

Los buenos tiempos, los viejos tiempos, en mi tiempo, cuando yo era chiquito. Todos son nombres para las mismas memorias. Muchas veces vemos a la gente que se queja de cómo “está la cosa” o que “en mi tiempo tabamo’ mejor.” Se acuerdan de las bondades de años pasados, pero ninguna de las dificultades. Borran, como borra un álbum de fotos todos los intervalos de dolor entre cada momento de felicidad inmortalizado.

Por eso me enojo con aquellos que osan decir: “Aquí lo que hace falta es un Trujillo.” Sus memorias son cortas, y aunque hayan o no vivido el tiempo de Trujillo, olvidan que por cada mano amiga que él extendía, apuñalaba y hería a centenares con la otra. Alguna parte de mi desea que pase sólo para que la gente se de cuenta de que muchas veces hablan sin pensar, recordando solo lo que les interesa mantener vivo.

Gilles Lipovetzky trata en su obra “La Sociedad de la Decepción” el engaño que nos enfrentamos como sociedad. Entre ellos uno de sus temas es el como añoramos los tiempos pasados, como vemos siempre mejor el pasado y no con optimismo hacia el futuro. Cada tiempo viene con su mal y su bien, futuro y pasado ambos se comportan de la misma manera.

Uno mira alrededor y dice, por ejemplo, “Si, antes la música era mejor. Led Zeppelin vs Far East Movement, Tupac vs Justin Bieber, John Lennon vs todos.” Y si, definitivamente había mucha música buena en ese tiempo, pero por igual había mala. Muy, increíblemente mala.  Los Beatles no lograron ser lo que fueron desde el principio, y “I wanna hold your hand” yo creo que ni a ellos les tripeaba.  Rick Astley no es de nuestra generación y Wham! nadie lo pudo prevenir, por más que intentaron.

Los tiempos cambian. Reagan vino y se fue, y dejó Reagonomics y otros elementos de destrucción y tortura en su camino así como Pinochet es memoria de una época pasada. Las Cruzadas hacen el paralelo del terrorismo extremista de hoy en día dando evidencia que la religión, hoy y siempre, ha sido una cuna de loqueras. Y si Lady Gaga pudiera ser más como Madonna en sus malos años fuera…bueno…Madonna en sus malos años.

Ya. Eso era todo lo que les quería decir. Yo miro con optimismo al futuro, a sabiendas de que plagas como Justin Bieber y Lady Gaga no morirán y nunca podremos revivir a Jimi Hendrix. Eso lo sé. Pero siempre y cuando mantengamos la mira en alto, y nuestros estándares y nuestras prioridades bien plasmadas, el futuro, aunque incierto, nunca nos dará miedo y el pasado no nos dará poco más que nostalgia.



Los buenos tiempos de hoy son los pensamientos tristes de la mañana.

Bob Marley

Same-Sex Marriage Is (Finally) a Fucking Thing


Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

- Bob Dylan


Congrats. 

It’s been a long time coming. Common sense has taken foothold in a world that progressively becomes more insane. Those that battle against Human Rights face not ideologies, opinions, or mere thoughts. They face mankind, regardless of race, ethnic background or sexual preference. Gay rights – and get ready for this breathtaking, awe-inspiring, world-shattering revelation – are human rights.

It’s been a hell of a battle for the gay community, but it’s a war far from over. Winning New York is a big step, an affirming one for those whose faith had started to falter and whose hopes of a world that respects them as human beings had been systematically shattered. You’ve won the Big Apple, with a Congress of a Republican Majority! That’s winning against all odds. I commend you for your persistence, but now is not the time to rest. 

You can’t stop. Ride this for all it is worth. Fight harder than ever before and take advantage of this gasp of fresh air to keep on going rather than rest. Realize that now is when things are going to get tough, because slowly you’ll see that you do not fight for a city, a state or even a country. You fight for equality all over the world, and a battle won today opens up doors for battles tomorrow, in other lands.

The opposition holds ground in moral abstracts that are supposed to be unchallenged and unquestioned. “It is not normal! God hates fags! Gay marriage will pave the way for other depravations such as bestiality.” Seriously? What. The. SCREAMING. Fuck? This logic is veritably unquestionable, not because it is a worthy axiom but because it is retarded thinking.  Ignore these haters of life. Find yourselves anew in this world that is yours to belong to and not to own, and in the same way it is not theirs either.

You are here for a short time. Your life will pass, and why not live it happily, fighting for what you believe in? Fighting to make the world a better place for those generations that will come after us. So that one day they can turn back and see those people that took this fight to their home, to their hearts, to their streets, and to their authorities and FUCKING WON, and see nothing short of unsung heroes.

Congratulations again, and brace yourselves peoples of the world, for definitely the times they are a-changin’.