Cult to the Dog, a weird story by A.J.

Coherence is order. Order is oppression.

When we can disturb the stability of social structure, we are walking to freedom.  But I’m not only talking about demonstrations or something like that; I’m referring to a radical way of opposition, an illogical opposition, a manifesto against the elementary particle of the occidental and totalitarian society of the knowledge-as-power and the power-as-knowledge: the semantics coherence.

So, I wanted to contribute to the cause by writing a story, a novel. I call him “Cult to the Dog”, “Culto al Perro” in Spanish. The story is not finished yet, I’m writing it. There are 10 chapters finalized.

Cult to the Dog talks to us about the crazy, illogical, ritualistic and psychedelic experiences of a dog and some country-men who escaped from their violent and oppressive homes and job places. Tio Piche is the oldest one, who meets the dog in the country roads, near a volcano. He proclaims himself as the messiah of a new religion, with the dog as a god. Catrilaf and Juanito Peña are younger, and they randomly meet Tio Piche. Catrilaf is a farm worker in a apple field, who is always cruelly exploited and mistreated by his employer. One day, he was seriously attacked by the bullies of his boss and abandoned in forest, near the same volcano. In the other hand, Juanito Peña is a mushroom’s fan, was expelled from his home, where he lived with the poultry. He started to walk, without an apparent reason, to the mountain, near volcano. They are going to be founded by the dog.

Photo from QuiltroProject. blogspot.com

Tío Piche, Catrilaf and Juanito Peña are the first members of that new religion, worshiping the dog, realizing very funny, inusual, crazy and incoherent rituals and starting a long walk by the roads of his land, converting people and liberating the world from the unjust logical order. But they have a strong enemy: The aristocracy and the church.

I invite you to read the first 9 chapters online. I hope you like it!

http://cultoalperro.blogspot.com

Bye!!!!!

Guernica, a sorrow scream of our specie

“This picture has not made for decorating rooms. It’s an offensive and defensive war instrument against the enemy”

Pablo Picasso, about ‘Guernica’.

I don’t have chosen a photo. I think Photography is a very cool and interesting art and activity, but I’m not identified with it. Artistic paintings are better making me feel intense emotions. So, I would talk to you about one of the greatest pictures of 20^th Century and all over Art History.

‘Guernica’ is the name of the most famous painting of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. He painted it in 1937, referring to the bombing of a Spanish town called Guernica, in 1936, during the Spanish Civil War. It is an oil painting and its dimensions are 3,50 x 7,80 m, using only black and white paint, working with grey scales. The work hasn’t direct allusions to the town and to Spanish Civil War; so, it’s a symbolic painting, full of allegories -some of these were explained by Picasso- and with many interpretations about the whole work.

The most common ideas about Guernica’s interpretation converge in a blue and dark response to the war like an option for societies and the cruel way it manifest for the common people. I really admire this painting, because it transfers to me all the anguish and death feeling of the last century (and current). When I see it or I remember it, I think art is more powerful than weapons and it could be, just like Picasso said, a better and stronger instrument for face up to an evil enemy: The hunger for power.

I wonder you like this post. Before going out, I would share to you a too interesting anecdote about Guernica. In 1940, in Paris, during the Nazi occupation, a Nazi officer interrogated Picasso about a photo of Guernica: “Did you made it?” Picasso answered: “No, you did” (In plural).

Save a tree. Make an electric Guitar.

Life without electric guitar is a planet without the piece of madness that it needs. It is noisy and soft, at the same time. It is a great tool for creating music and expressing opinions and emotion. It’s a symbol of ‘rebel sensitivity’, hated by the neighbors, maybe by your parents, but admired if you turn to a master of it. 

Electric guitar is a music instrument based in classic -’Spanish’- guitar but using capsules –little microphones- instead of echo chamber. So, capsules receive strings vibration and transduct –‘transform’- it into an electric current. Signal arrives to ‘processing’ device –amplifier or effects pedal-, and it sends processed signal to a speaker, transducting again from electricity to sound. So, we have a hard-distorted riff, or a beauty and vibrating clean arpeggio. Or a helicopter or the sound of war!


So, we have many options for creating and playing sounds! People like Jimi Hendrix left his mark in music and culture by surprising and delighting us playing electric guitar in their particular way.

I have my electric guitar since when I was 15 years old. I was very happy! It is not a ‘qualified’ guitar but, for me, it is the best guitar in world. Immediately, I started to seek people for playing rock with. I formed a band and, little by little, we are progressing. And, every day, I learn something new about guitar. ‘It`s a long way to the top if you want to rock n’ roll”.

Mario and Luigi, psychedelic heroes!

Mario Bros. are videogame heroes created and licensed by a Japanese corporation called Nintendo.

Mario Bros. are two brothers, Mario and Luigi. They are plumbers and their original mission is to rescue Princess Peach from the castle of an evil dinosaur called Bowser.

I think Mario and Luigi are very cool heroes. They aren’t like typical heroes; they haven’t a lot of muscles and they never gave moral advices. Actually, they and their world are psychedelic! They eat mushrooms and flowers for increasing their size or throwing fire-balls. They ride a dinosaur (why not?) called Yoshi and, when he eats a blue turtle shell, he can fly!  It’s about a radical opposition to a very coherent (so, a moralist and oppressive) world.

Also, they are working-men (plumbers) fighting against an unjust order, and they only survive by the interaction with the ambient. Yes, it’s true that Mario wants to rescue Peach, but he doesn’t work in a lineal way. In the game, there are very short ways for reach Bowser’s castle, but the real challenge is to complete the whole map, liberating all zones under Empire’s domination. In other words, Mario knows only rescuing Peach is not the solution!

Lev Vygotski, the 'Mozart' of Psychology

I would like to write about him because, in my view, he emphasized in the importance of a elementary thing: the Other’s support.

Lev Vygotski was a soviet psychologist. He was born in 1896, into a Jewish family. He grew up in Gomel. He studied at Moscow and then he returned to his town. He liked psychology, literature and philosophies, and he taught about it in different places. He liked to read to Marx, Freud and Hegel.

But, in 1919, when he was 23, he has contracted tuberculosis. He has known he’s going to die young, and it motivated him to work with more dedication. Finally, he died in 1934. He was 38 years old.

He understood human development like a process that includes the social interaction as an essential factor. All our abilities are possible by the support of the ‘other’ –mom, dad, sister, etc.-. So, in a determinate moment of life, I could have learnt a lot of things by myself, but there are some things I only can do with the help of that significant other. So, development is about how I’m learning to do more activities by myself, turning me on a more autonomous person.

Who is A.J? Take a look!

My name is Antonio Joaquín, alias 'A.J.', I'm 22 years old (I should prefer 'years young'), I'm from Villarrica, South Chile, and I'm in my fifth year of Psychology. I wonder I'm doing the practice next year. Meanwhile, I'm getting on with my thesis.

I want to work in education’s area. I like music and arts, specially classic hard rock and heavy metal. Actually, I have a rock band called Trueno Austral. Oh! And I love Chile and all its geography.

The objective that I follow at this blogging experience is to share points of view with teacher and classmates while we learn together a foreign language's skills.

Trainspotting, one of my favourite movies

Hi everybody! It's my first post at this blog, and it's should be nice to start writing about a great movie like Trainspotting. I like so much this film, because i think it shows a strange, special and obscure perspective about world, life and expectatives about both.

The movie was released in 1996. It's based in the homonime book of Irvine Welsh. The film was directed by Danny Boyle and its protagonist is a very thin and young Ewan Mc Gregor. Yes, the same actor from Moulin Rouge, Star Wars or The Big Fish. In fact, Trainspotting was his first sucessfull role. 

Trainspotting is set in the suburban zones of Edinburgh, Scotland. In this movie, McGregor represents Mark Renton, a Scottish heroine-maniac who decided to leave his habits and re-insert himself in the functional society. He has a very special group of "friends" or, more exactly, "habit-mates", and they put some obstacles for the Mark's life transformations. In the other hand appears Diane, a "special friend", the consciousness of Mark. She appears to be the only person who believes in Mark's change. 

Another actors and actress from the cast are: Ewen Bremner as "Spud"; Kelly McDonalds as "Diane"; Jonny Lee Miller (Hackers) as "Sick Boy"; Kevin McKidd as "Tommy"; and Robert Carlyle (Full Monty) as "Begbie". 

In my view, this movie shows us the world vision of a hidden part of the occidental society, the part that cannot find a place in the productive machine of our industrial system. I think it's very interesting to understand drug dependence from another perspective; we don't need to talk about "human degeneration", we should see  drugs like a desperate way for escape from a decadent world, a society that haven't space for all its members.

Friends, I recommend you see this movie. I think it will like you a lot. I hope it.

See you soon!