¡Feliz Día del Padre!

Happy Father's Day to all my readers!

I hope you all are able to enjoy this holiday with your own fathers.

My father, unfortunately, is no longer with us but while he was alive, he inspired me in so many different ways that it seems futile for me to try and list them all.

For example, I once saw him working on a painting that looked much like the above illustration. When he asked him about it, he said that he had copied it from a picture -- and I'm guessing that the above illustration -- which comes from a famous book by Mexican architect Ignacio Marquina -- is the one he copied it from. To some people, that might not seem like much but it seemed obvious to me even when I was a child that it took a lot of effort for him to duplicate a picture like the above illustration so well that it looked like an original piece of work. And of course, my father's interest in things artistic eventually helped inspired my interest in the arts -- although, unlike him, I never seriously tried to copy an actual picture, much less create one from scratch.

Anyway, I am sorry that I never had a chance to question him more about his painting when he was alive but perhaps it is just as well. After all, some things are better left to the imagination.

Anyway, please enjoy the holiday.

(A repost in honor of my late father.)

Things I've Learned from My Father

1. Think for yourself.

2. Beware of ideology.

3. Poverty is hell.

4. It's not how much you earn that matters but how much you save.

5. Education is the best shortcut out of poverty.

6. Tell me what you brag about and I'll tell you what you lack.

7. Cada cabeza es un mundo. (Every head is a world; i.e., all people are special.)

8. You can always find an excuse not to do something if you don't want to do it.

(A repost.)

¡Feliz Día del Padre!

Happy Father's Day to all my readers!

I hope you all are able to enjoy this holiday with your own fathers.

My father, unfortunately, is no longer with us but while he was alive, he inspired me in so many different ways that it seems futile for me to try and list them all.

For example, I once saw him working on a painting that looked much like the above illustration. When he asked him about it, he said that he had copied it from a picture -- and I'm guessing that the above illustration -- which comes from a famous book by Mexican architect Ignacio Marquina -- is the one he copied it from. To some people, that might not seem like much but it seemed obvious to me even when I was a child that it took a lot of effort for him to duplicate a picture like the above illustration so well that it looked like an original piece of work. And of course, my father's interest in things artistic eventually helped inspired my interest in the arts -- although, unlike him, I never seriously tried to copy an actual picture, much less create one from scratch.

Anyway, I am sorry that I never had a chance to question him more about his painting when he was alive but perhaps it is just as well. After all, some things are better left to the imagination.

Anyway, please enjoy the holiday.

(A repost in honor of my late father.)

Comic Book Image of the Week

Alan Moore's salute to Father's Day.

¡Feliz Día del Padre!

Happy Father's Day to all my readers!

I hope you all are able to enjoy this holiday with your own fathers.

My father, unfortunately, is no longer with us but while he was alive, he inspired me in so many different ways that it seems futile for me to try and list them all.

For example, I once saw him working on a painting that looked much like the above illustration. When he asked him about it, he said that he had copied it from a picture -- and I'm guessing that the above illustration -- which comes from a famous book by Mexican architect Ignacio Marquina -- is the one he copied it from. To some people, that might not seem like much but it seemed obvious to me even when I was a child that it took a lot of effort for him to duplicate a picture like the above illustration so well that it looked like an original piece of work. And of course, my father's interest in things artistic eventually helped inspired my interest in the arts -- although, unlike him, I never seriously tried to copy an actual picture, much less create one from scratch.

Anyway, I am sorry that I never had a chance to question him more about his painting when he was alive but perhaps it is just as well. After all, some things are better left to the imagination.

Anyway, please enjoy the holiday.

(A repost in honor of my late father.)

¡Feliz Día del Padre!

Happy Father's Day to all my readers!

I hope you all are able to enjoy this holiday with your own fathers.

My father, unfortunately, is no longer with us but while he was alive, he inspired me in so many different ways that it seems futile for me to try and list them all.

For example, I once saw him working on a painting that looked much like the above illustration. When he asked him about it, he said that he had copied it from a picture -- and I'm guessing that the above illustration -- which comes from a famous book by Mexican architect Ignacio Marquina -- is the one he copied it from. To some people, that might not seem like much but it seemed obvious to me even when I was a child that it took a lot of effort for him to duplicate a picture like the above illustration so well that it looked like an original piece of work. And of course, my father's interest in things artistic eventually helped inspired my interest in the arts -- although, unlike him, I never seriously tried to copy an actual picture, much less create one from scratch.

Anyway, I am sorry that I never had a chance to question him more about his painting when he was alive but perhaps it is just as well. After all, some things are better left to the imagination.

Anyway, please enjoy the holiday.

¡Feliz Día del Padre!

Happy Father's Day to all my readers.

Happy Father's Day


My late father was never much of a John Wayne fan but he did like Pedro Armendáriz. So I like to think he would have liked this movie.

If not, he'll find a way to let me know.

In the meantime, here's hoping that all my readers out there who either have fathers or are fathers have a happy Father's Day.

Ten Movies Not to Rent for Father's Day

1. A History of Violence (2005)
2. Chinatown (1974)
3. Frailty (2001)
4. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
5. The Lion in Winter (1968)
6. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
7. The Shining (1980)
8. The Stepfather (1987)
9. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
10. Trust (1990)

Movie Quote of the Week

I want my father back, you son of a bitch.
--Manny Patakin, The Princess Bride (1987)

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Heroes: “Dying of the Light”

An episode in which it is discovered that second season villain Adam is just as unpopular with the writers as he is with me.

And in which it is discovered that even veteran character actors like Robert Forster can play surprisingly boring villains. Though I suppose that his character, Arthur Petrelli (father of Nathan and Peter, natch), does earn a prize for being the one TV character this season who's most unlikely to get a Father's Day card.

Canciones de la Semana: “Paloma Negra” y “Cucurrucucu Paloma”

Lola Beltran singing two songs that my late father used to listen to quite often.

Now I'm going to have memories swirling around in my head all this weekend.

Happy Father's Day.

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Father's Day”

I always found this to be very easily one of the most problematic episodes of the first season.

On the plus side, it shows us an entirely new side of Jackie Tyler (Rose's mother) and shows us that there is a lot more to her than the silly ninny we saw in the first few episodes of this series.

It also taught us more than a few unpleasant truths about how parents aren't always as noble as they seem, how parents often lie to their children with the best of intentions, and about how such white lies often come back to haunt them when their children discover the truth.

However, it also introduced the Reapers, a rather silly group of monsters who take it upon themselves to avenge all efforts to change time. Not only does their intervention raise the inevitable question of why haven't we seen these entities before (after all, time paradoxes and changed histories aren't all that rare on this series), it inevitably evokes memories of the equally silly Gremlins who used to appear in the godawful cable TV series Dead Like Me.

However, even if the Reapers were more imaginative in nature, they wouldn't really work as a concept in this episode because no one in this episode seems to take the most obvious action against them -- despite all the death and destruction they caused -- until the very end of the episode. Indeed, at one point, their most obvious opponent, the Doctor, chooses to spend more time giving a long, long speech about how nice it is that a couple getting married first met in a particularly cute manner than he does taking the obvious actions to save the life of that same couple.

For that matter, the speech he gives at that moment raises a rather obvious point. Why does it matter to the Doctor how the couple first met anyway? Sure, they seem like nice people, but it would seem more heroic for the Doctor to try and save them merely because they're in danger than because they tell him a particularly nice story. After all, wouldn't their lives still be worth saving if they hadn't met in such a cute fashion? Or is the Doctor now practicing temporal euthanasia?

The episode begins when Rose Tyler borrows the Doctor's time machine (the Tardis) to change the past so that her father avoids getting hit by the van that originally killed him. Unfortunately, her father proves not to be the type of man she had always imagined him to be from her mother's stories. Worse yet, her father's change of fate brings on the Reapers who begin attacking everything in sight and force Rose, the Doctor and Rose's father to flee to a nearby church where a weddding is scheduled to take place.

As the ordeal drags on, it becomes more and more obvious that the only way to end the Reapers' attack is to sacrifice Rose's father to his original fate. Rose is obviously reluctant to do this, and it eventually becomes up to her father to make the needed sacrifice. But not until more than a few people have been needlessly killed by the Reapers.

Rose's father eventually does the right thing and time reverts back to something close to its original pattern. The Reapers disappear and all is saved. For now.

But the bad taste left in my mouth by some of the contrived plot developments in this episode still lingers on. Too bad there's not a thing the Doctor can do to fix that...

Things I've Learned from My Father

1. Think for yourself.

2. Beware of ideology.

3. Poverty is hell.

4. It's not how much you earn that matters but how much you save.

5. Education is the best shortcut out of poverty.

6. Tell me what you brag about and I'll tell you what you lack.

7. Cada cabeza es un mundo. (Every head is a world; i.e., all people are special.)

8. You can always find an excuse not to do something if you don't want to do it.

The Day After Father's Day

My own father passed away several years ago and I still miss him. I no longer dream of him at night nor cry unexpectedly when something reminds me of him, but I miss him just the same.

If your father is still alive, please let him know what affection you have for him while he is still alive.

And let your mother know how much you love her too.

After all, it's better to say “I love you” way too often to someone who may not be here tomorrow than to not say it at all.