Carlos A Torres – Designer & Photographer

Bram Stoker has kept me company for a couple of weeks now and the affiliation is finally over. I picked up Dracula a few weeks back so I could finally read this literary classic of macabre storytelling and was pleasantly surprised that the Coppola film took many liberties but that both pieces of art, as book and film, are actually each worthy in their own merit. The book is told as a series of diaries from all the different characters (the same characters as seen in the film) save for an account from the Count himself. The story is very linear and written in an extremely classical style by Stoker. The book is somewhat anti-climactic, as the film had added drama for support in comparison but it was thoroughly enjoyable. The film centers around the Love Never Dies theme, which is absent from the book. This was obviously added to give the film more dimension than the linearity of the book and in my opinion it worked well to give the film a driving storyline. All in all, kudos to Bram Stoker for his classic and kudos to Francis Ford Coppola for bringing the book to life in a very stylized, modern take on the old Count. Do yourself a favor and read the book and watch the film if you haven’t done so.

Pablo Neruda fue la voz de todo un continente y de toda una generacion a traves de sus poemas y de su prosa. Fue indiscutiblemente una de las inspiraciones de otros gran escritores y sigue siendo gran inspiracion para aquellos que todavia creen en el amor, aquellos que creen que el amor es algo mas que pasajero e algo mas que un sentido fugaz. He estado leyendo mucho de Pablo y mucho de sus obras y es increible con que facilidad el podia hablar y expresar los sentimientos que todos nosotros en algun punto de la vida tenemos y a veces guardamos o perdemos. Aqui hay algo de su magia, uno de mis favoritos poemas:

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So I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately in hopes of actually putting pen to paper or hands to keyboard and penning my own book one day. I just finished New Moon from The Twilight Saga. Now I know there’s plenty to criticize when it comes to Twilight from both story and style views but the fact is that these books are very easily readable and therefore enjoyable due to their simplicity. I’ve already started Breaking Dawn and even though I’m not entirely a Twihard when it comes to Twilight I’m still getting enough out of them to make it all worthwhile. Do yourself a favor and pick these books up and read them or pick up the Harry Potter series, you’ll get some satisfaction out of finishing a book once in a while. I’m also in the process of reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Vivir Para Contarla and Donald McCaig’s Rhett Butler’s People. Thank you to all those who hand books my way, I’ll finish them all soon! I promise!

I just started reading The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. I got this book a couple of years ago, along with a few more Philip Roth titles and am barely getting around to reading it.

I can’t say there’s a “what if” plot (pardon the pun!) out there that’s more intriguing than the one written about here. Imagine this: Charles Lindbergh runs for president against FDR in 1940 and subsequently wins the presidency. In a polar reverse of history, Lindbergh signs a pact with Japan and with Hitler’s Germany and turns the United States into a total fascist society. What happens after you’ll have to read for yourself. Terrific read so far!

I finally caught Twilight in theaters last week. I must say that after reading the book, I was actually very pleasantly surprised. Twilight the book itself is a tad overly “girly-adolescent” and one must read through the gushing for Edward Cullen by the part of Bella but at least the main plot itself is adequately told to be entertaining enough to read all the way through. Twilight the movie is a very cool experience, I liked it as I was sitting there watching it and loved it after I left the movie theater.

I definitely recommend the movie if you don’t feel like reading the book. Thoroughly entertaining and absent of the stereotypical nudity or profanity of any teen movie.