Ric O'Barry and The Cove

"A dolphin's smile is nature's greatest deception."

- Ric O'Barry/The Cove

For O'Barry, the struggle began in 1960, when he ventured to train Kathy, the dolphin, which starred in the movie Flipper. As he states it in the award winning full-length documentary, The Cove, he spent ten years creating a multimillionaire industry and the rest of his life-time trying to dismantle what he could have never imagined would've happened: dolphin slaughters. If not killed by man, a dolphin can actually commit suicide. 

This documentary was exceptional in solving my ignorance on dolphin slaughtering/baby-dolphin-pillaging. It also informed me on how organizations and governments are willing to risk for a bucket of extra-cash: both from the active and the passive parties. 

So now eating sea fish or any other fish for that matter will be quite difficult in seeing that you could be basically eating almost anything: like dolphins! Cash in exchange for a country intoxicated by Mercury: it's such a tragedy  (dolphin meat is very high in mercury); and in the middle, the dolphin suffers the constant beat of the hammer.

If you are ignorant, like I was, about what dolphins endure, then you must see this documentary. Get informed and know the truth.

The mission: I truly admire what O'Barry's team did in Japan. The mission was a success and if it were not for their effort, some hundreds of dolphin and this documentary would've been impossible to set free/create. 

Save a dolphin! There are many ways to become an activist in saving these amazing mammals; and that's another great reason why you should watch this very well-made movie: understand that other creatures are as smart as we humans are.

Check out the following pages to get to know the voice behind the struggle, the cry behind the deceptive-smile (#Tweet4Dolphins):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric_O'Barry
http://www.dolphinproject.org/
http://www.thecovemovie.com/richardobarry.htm
https://www.facebook.com/RichardOBarry
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/33603915

Recommended Tweet: 

The Cove: The voice behind the struggle, the cry behind the deceptive-smile #Tweet4Dolphins #RT http://shar.es/wVAtp

Nespresso Coffee Maker: Get up, get dressed, no time!

Get up, get dressed, no time!--dash to the kitchen and look at the watch. Shit. Only 10 minutes left before rush hour retains you withing its chunk of metallic traffic.

You have your lovely Moka on one side, your AeroPress in the drawer, your FrenchPress looking at you from a distance, and your brand new lovely looking Nespresso machine just waiting to pop that shell full of coffee. 25 seconds to warm up, you lock and load--the machine drills its way through the capsule and squeezes 25 ml of espresso on your cup, ready within a minute's time.

Yep, in this case, Nespresso wins.

I own the above mentioned coffee machines and love my freshly brewed cup of coffee. Flavorwise, Nespresso cannot beat your freshly ground cup of coffee made with your AeroPress machine or your good old FrenchPress; but it will surely beat those machines when it comes to brewing time. 

Nespresso solved my morning dashing experience, since now, within a minute, I have my coffee ready. I do love the assorted flavors. I wasn't much of a "decaffeinato" drinker. After seeing my relatives enjoy a decaf post-dinner, I have slowly warmed up to it.

In conclusion: Nespresso is a great addition to your coffee making machines since it taps into the world of brewing quickly and efficiently. I have to thank my cousin for granting me the opportunity of using this machine. He gave me it as a gift and I absolutely love it. You know who you are--thanks primo!

Double Star, by Robert Heinlein --The Great Lorenzo!--

"I regard them as prostitutes, not colleagues. Let me make myself clear. Does an author respect a ghost writer? Would you respect a painter who allowed another man to sign his work -- for money? Possible the spirit of the artist is foreign to you, sir, yet perhaps I may put it in terms germane to your own profession."

Lawrence Smith, also known as Lorenzo Smythe --The Great Lorenzo!-- is a very proud actor, and one of the best know in the Empire. He is asked to act in an interesting and well payed job, though details are lacking and gets tangled with his contractors/captors into acting on this important role. Smythe must impersonate an important politician who has been kidnapped.

Narrated in the first person, I was delighted to read the character development Smythe endured along the slender yet captivating novel. Heinlein has an avid nature to capture the essence of the moment, to elonquently describe a setting with few, precise words and make of it a master-piece. I enjoyed every page, turning them as the action developed and Lorenzo slowly changed, and changed, and became... a mature individual who never thought he could find profoundity in the "nasty" game of politics. 

"Politics isn't a dirty game. But there are dirty players."

The Great Lorenzo, as he is known, is dramatically affected by the memory of his father, something that shows as the story develops, a trait you see even in the final stages of the plot. 

"Before my revered father died he made me promise him three things: first, never to mix whisky with anything but water; second, always to ignore anonymous letters; and lastly, never to talk with a stranger who refuses to give his name."

As you arrive to the final portions of the book and you realize that it will soon finish, you can't quite picture who the book will end. But it ends with such delicacy, such intimate and well captured moments that the story is rendered from grand to epic. The way this book was finished is astonishing, with emotions that linger and reside with the long lasting tones of a great read. This is by far science fiction at its best.

Wall Street

"Create instead of buying and selling what others do." 

"When a man is staring into the abyss he finds his own character, and this prevents him from plunging into the abyss."

Great lines that took the movie to a deep philosophical level. In the end, a man might lose everything and it will all be fine, as long as he doesn't lose himself. Bud found his character in the end and fought to make things right. He paid the due price, and yes, he proved it to himself that there is justice in the world. A crook got another crook; but only one of them walked away with a clean slate and an honest smirk on the face. I only regret not watching this movie when I was younger. 

The Remaining: Aftermath.

From start to finish, this book is such a fun and action packed, well written, amazing-imagery, great descriptions book. After reading DJ Molles' first book, The Remaining, I had to continue, I could not stop reading, literally. Well, the moments when I wasn’t reading I was thinking about the character development, about Doc or Miller, Harper or Lee, just wondering what would ever become of them in such a morphed world where shit hit the fan and rubble, chaos, and FURY infected feral creatures are roaming the land, combing the woods in search of prey--or haunting a church--.

As I mentioned it on my previous review, DJ Molles does a fantastic job in describing the moment, in capturing its essence and giving it to you, the reader, in such a simple yet compelling way that you are immediately transported. Character development is one of this author's strengths and of course, the use of artillery is just fascinating. Can't wait to get to book 3.

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchel

1. General Opinion: 



Brilliant. Genius. Grand. Three words to define one of the greatest fiction works I've read this year. Amazingly narrated, the author has a distinct capacity to weave his readers with eloquence and yet, deliver messages of sufficient sustenance. The story unfolds in a crescendo-decrescendo fashion 6 stories, of which all are interlinked by at least 1 thread; each story pertaining its own lexicon and mode of narrating, which is not only a wild-most-amusing feat to conquer, but also generates within one whole-book a series of adventures that are restlessly interwoven.

2. Author's writing style:

This detail is perhaps what enthralled me the most from the novel, Cloud Atlas. Narrating 6 distinct stories is not easy, especially if you're threading them with less than 1 membranous filament; add to that feat the fact that each narrative has its own characteristic language, with it's own faults and pearls--as each story is narrated from a first-person's point of view and details are given in correspondence to each individual's capacity to see and appreciate the world. Each narrative has it's own set of exquisite words used throughout the work--splendid. This was, perhaps, what kept me turning page after page--I needed to see how the hell this author managed to weave such a novel, seamlessly. As a writer, I admire this particularity and congratulate the author on such a wonderful project. The undertaking must've been a laborious endeavor, yet very gratifying.

3. Transcending message:

The piece is marvelous at exploiting the weaknesses of man and of his will to power. As David Mitchell mentioned it in some portion of his book, there's some quoting of Nietzsche as the piece progresses. Man's egocentricity is by far the most criticized point of this book. Mitchell gloriously and skillfully portrays how egocentrism deteriorates man and ultimately, fails him as he acts against his fellow mates to attain power, love, wealth, etc. 

I will quote how Mitchell wonderfully portrays man's demise through the search for power and lust for possession:

"The will to power, the backbone of human nature. The threat of violence, the fear of violence, or actual violence, is the instrument of this dreadful will. You can see the will to power in bedrooms, kitchens, factories, unions and the borders of states. Listen to this and remember it. The nation state is merely human nature inflated to monstrous proportions."

Beautifully written. Powerfully expressed.

4. In conclusion:

I cannot say much about the plot--it's so well cross-linked that it's impossible for me to tell you a summary of what goes on in this mind-bending story. As a writer, I have been both entertained and educated by Mitchell's creation, especially from the vast amount of vocabulary I have learnt and in his mind-blasting mode of creating metaphors.

5. The Movie?

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention the movie is coming out soon and that's why I read the book so quickly. As I read it, I wasn't quite sure how this book would be put into one whole piece. It'll be a surprise to see how the directors/actors pull this one off!

The Magicians, by Lev Grossman

The Magicians by Lev Grossman. 

A book review by Paul A. Wunderlich

This book has many traits of a fantasy novel. I enjoyed every passing word, and do not mistake me, I liked it. There are a few things that sometimes took me out of context, but as a whole, the novel is very memorable. 5/5 stars.

1.) The very vivid poetic, heroic, and entrancing language used by Grossman is amazing as an experimental tone, but once you get to the real fantasy, to the fairy-tale world, the language gets you out of context once in a while. Some have argued that the realistic language makes the world a bit more believable, which is anyway unnecessary. If you buy a book of fantasy you expect to be warped to the non-tangible world of things that you've dreamed about and imagined. Crude language renders the warp robust and coarse, full of seams but definitely enjoyable. At the same time this language made me enjoy the story page after page; I had a lot of fun with its unnatural and almost unpredictable way of expressing imagery. 

2.)  Honk! Honk!: To morph and transmute into another being is quite fascinating in this book. The way sensations and senses are described entrapped me in a world were it was plausible. I could easily grasp the reality through the eyes of another animal. Grossman's descriptions of life through another animal's fur was gripping.

3.) The great quest of Quentin Coldwater is amazing. I enjoyed very much the character development and each and every one of them had a quality worth exploring.

4.) The fairy-tale world is much too similar with Narnia and Alice in Wonderland, which made me recognize it immediately and resonated well with me. 

5.) Well written and excellent use of language. Grossman really makes good use of language and in part, it's what kept me going until the end. If not entranced by the fantasy realm I was surely pulled in by the many metaphors and surprisingly and almost random language Grossman used. I found this skill fascinating. 

Follow this amazing artist:
Twitter: @leverus
Facebook: Lev Grossman