The aurora is coming

Here comes the aurora, stripped of its meaninglessness,
to give us the lights that are not those of yesterday,
another saving surrender,
to tell us that we are less,
although we believe ourselves more than yesterday,
to show us the steps of walking,
first one, then another, and then another,
without stopping, following the light,
until we surrender to the night and rest.

Yes, to rest, to reconcile with us,
with our beloved monsters,
that we always carry so inside,
and calm them with our sleep.

Then the aurora will knock on our door,
one step, always one step, then another,
until the dawn.

Living to find the meaning of the dawn,
of the new that is heard in the aurora,
until we find the way and lose it again.

Image source: own

Masks

You are absent and I don't see you, I don't even feel your breath.
Maybe you died without me noticing.
Like a petrified mummy you are next to me,
who no longer hears or feels,
just worried about what the mirrors say.

Maybe it all started with the game of masks.
That game we started,
when we began to dig the grave of our love.
Three hundred and fifty-five shovels,
shovels of disagreement and contempt.
Not one more nor one less.

The masks that we bought in installments,
in the markets of dissatisfaction and indolence.
The masks that allowed us to continue breathing,
living a life with exhausted credit,
as we picked up the dead skins of our encounters from the ground,
to go on until we get fed up, throw up and try to wake up.
of this tedium-induced comma.

It's time to end the game,
to break our masks,
to give us a chance to reach the chimera of happiness.
Recognize that we are dead,
that we died a long time ago,
bury us and rest.

Then will come the time of resurrection.

Image source: Pixabay

Ventajas del ebook frente al libro en papel

Después de leer el artículo Y el libro en papel no murió en 2018 que publicó El País el pasado 14 de octubre de 2018 me vienen a la cabeza una serie de reflexiones. La primera es que el libro electrónico no ha terminado de comerse al libro en papel porque las grandes editoriales no han querido, porque el negocio sigue estando en la publicación del libro en papel. Las editoriales saben que, después de restados los gastos, el papel gana al libro electrónico porque los lectores no dudan en pagar quince o veinte euros por un ejemplar en papel y pondrían el grito en el cielo por pagar más de cinco euros por el mismo libro en formato digital. No hay que olvidar que esto es un negocio y las editoriales están para ganar dinero.
Dicho esto,

¿Cuáles son las ventajas del libro electrónico sobre el papel?

Ventajas desde el punto de vista del lector:

Lectura más cómoda. Puedes ampliar la letra y cambiar su tipografía cuando quieras.

Diccionario. La mayoría de los dispositivos electrónicos de lectura tienen un diccionario incorporado que nos facilita saber el significado, inmediato, de las palabras que desconocemos o que tenemos dudas.

Iluminación. Los lectores electrónicos de última generación traen incorporada iluminación integrada (que se puede regular) que te permite leer con poca luz o en la noche sin molestar a nadie.

Anotaciones. Puedes subrayar y hacer anotaciones que las puedes gestionar con posterioridad y compartirlas con otros lectores en las redes sociales.

Búsquedas. Tienes la opción de buscar palabras, subrayados o anotaciones y encontrarlos al instante.

Compra. La compra, al ser digital, la puedes hacer en cualquier momento, desde tu casa, sin tener que desplazarte a la librería. Ya existen eReaders, como los de Amazon o Kobo, que puedes adquirir los libros desde el mismo dispositivo de lectura.

Almacenamiento. Los libros electrónicos casi no ocupan espacio físico y puedes tener unos cuantos almacenados para leerlos cuando quieras.

Precio. El precio del ebook es más barato que el libro en papel. Incluso, después de adquirir el dispositivo electrónico para leerlos, la rentabilidad es abrumadora.

Catálogo permanente. Las ediciones en formato digital no se descatalogan. Puedes encontrar cualquier libro cuando quieras.

Transporte. El ebook te lo puedes llevar a cualquier lado sin problemas, pesa poco, los últimos modelos no pesan más de doscientos gramos.

Ventajas desde el punto de vista del editor:

Maquetación. La maquetación es menos engorrosa porque nos ahorramos muchos elementos como la numeración de las páginas, la división de palabras, los encabezados, justificado de páginas, etc. Por tanto, la maquetación digital es menos costosa.

Diseño gráfico de la portada. El diseño gráfico es también más sencillo que para la edición en papel, porque nos ahorramos el diseño del lomo, el cálculo del grosor del lomo y de la contraportada, por tanto, el diseño es más barato.

Almacenamiento. El libro electrónico solo ocupa espacio en un disco duro, por tanto, los gastos de almacenaje son casi inexistentes.

Impresión. El libro electrónico no necesita ser impreso, por lo que no genera excedentes que luego hay que destruir. Un solo original vale para ser vendido millones de veces con el mismo coste de producción, a diferencia del libro en papel que aumenta su costo con la impresión.

Distribución. Quizás este es el punto más fuerte del libro electrónico porque puede ser distribuido a nivel mundial sin mucho esfuerzo, solo habría que subirlo a los portales digitales de ventas de libros electrónicos. En cambio, la distribución es uno de los problemas más graves del libro en papel que encarece su precio final.

Difusión y marketing. La difusión el libro electrónico es más fácil que el libro en papel porque permite leer extractos de los primeros capítulos de manera gratuita desde los portales digitales y ser compartidos en las redes sociales o por correo electrónico a miles de personas.

Cobro de ganancias. Por lo general el cobro de las ganancias por ventas de los libros electrónicos se realizan al mes, a diferencia con el libro en papel que suele hacerse a noventa días e, incluso, al año.

Huella ecológica. Este es un punto que también que hay que tener en cuenta ya que el ebook deja una huella ecológica menor que el libro en papel, sobre todo en los aspectos de impresión y distribución.

Por estas razones el libro electrónico (ebook) debería sustituir al libro en papel, pero sigue sin hacerlo. La respuesta del porqué la tienen las editoriales que siguen viendo en la edición en papel el verdadero negocio.

Fuente de las imágenes: Pixabay 

Savage

(A man and a woman are sitting on a brown leather sofa, he on the left and she on the right. They are in front of the audience. He dresses in black and wears a lion mask. She wears a green shirt and a blue skirt and wears a HARE mask. The back wall is decorated with record covers of several years.)

LION: Are you finally going to confess to her?

HARE: (She crosses her feet and hands.) I don't know.

LION: You'll have to tell her.

HARE: Don't make me dizzy about it. I'm sick . Everything has its time. It's like baking a cake, it needs its baking time. You can't take it out early because it will crumble. You have to wait for the right moment, no more and no less.

LION: There are times when it is necessary to take a step forward because the situation is screaming for it.

(HARE gets up and stays silent watching the album covers.)

HARE: Do you know what Patti Smith's first album was?

(Pause.)

HARE: There's the cover of that album. It's called Horses. An album that she recorded in 1975 and that marked an era. The queen of Punk. Now Patti is Mrs. Smith. A sweet seventy-one year old woman who reads the Bible and is only interested in her family and poetry.

LION: (Uncomfortable.) I don't know what you mean by that. I don't give a shit about Patti Smith and Mrs. Smith and Punk shit. I only care about today and a little bit about tomorrow.

(She sits to his left. Under the cover of Horses.)

HARE: I mean that the life we're living today will have nothing to do with the life we're going to live forty years from now. Many times we think that we are one way and one morning we wake up being another, without recognizing ourselves in the mirror.

LION: You don't need to be very smart for that. I just want to know when you are going to take the step. It's not very complicated to answer that question.

HARE: I will do it tonight.

LION: (Surprised.) Tonight?

HARE: Yes, tonight. She will come to the party. Although she doesn't know I'll be around. I told her I couldn't come, that I had a last-minute job complicated.

LION: Why didn't you tell me anything?

(HARE stands up and looks at the cover of Patti Smith's Horses.)

HARE: It's funny how your life changes. One day you're the queen of Punk and you live a wild and dissolute life and then, with time, you take off the studs, the ridges, the greñas and you become a completely different person. The Queen of the Holy Bible.

LION: Can you answer me?

HARE: Yes, life changes you. Yesterday a caterpillar, today a chrysalis and tomorrow a butterfly.

LION: (Angry.) Fuck, leave the fucking philosophy and answer my question! Why the hell didn't you tell me anything?

(HARE sits on Leon's right and crosses his legs. She puts his hand on her knee and gives her two touches.)

HARE: Calm down. I didn't tell you anything because I thought about it this afternoon. Then I went to buy the masks and called her. You know the rest.

LION: Why did you tell her you weren't coming?

HARE: I want to observe her for the last time. See how she acts without me in front of her. Maybe I'm looking for a reason, a justification. I don't know. She will come with a Cacatua mask. We bought ourselves two similar masks for this feast. One with a red beak and the other with a blue beak.

LION: How do you think she'll take it when you tell her?

HARE: I don't know. I would take it very badly. I'd grab her by the hair and slap her a few times. If it's hard to digest being left, it's even harder to be left for a person of the opposite sex. It's an explosive cocktail wherever you take it.

LION: It's that your transformation is not normal.

HARE: I recognize it, but you know: caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly. We can't fight against internal transformations. We have to accept them because if we don't, we go crazy and we would be hypocrites. (Pause.) I don't want to go crazy, let alone be a hypocrite. I respect her a lot to continue with this farce.

LION: It's going to be a good one. You know that, don't you?

HARE: Yes, I know, but I'm ready. I've been training since I slept with you. That's when I knew my story with her was over.

Image source: Pixabay 

Viene la aurora

Ahí viene la aurora, despojada del sin sentido,
a entregarnos las luces que no son las de ayer,
otra entrega salvadora,
a decirnos que somos menos,
aunque nos creamos más que ayer,
a mostrarnos los pasos del andar,
primero uno, después otro, y luego otro,
sin detenerte, siguiendo la luz,
hasta entregarnos a la noche y descansar.

Sí, descansar, para reconciliarnos con nosotros,
con nuestros queridos monstruos,
que llevamos siempre tan dentro,
apaciguados y calmarlos con nuestro sueño.

Luego la aurora tocará a nuestra puerta,
un paso, siempre un paso, después otro,
hasta el amanecer.

Vivir para encontrar el sentido del amanecer,
de lo nuevo que se escucha en la aurora,
hasta encontrar el camino y volver a perderlo.

Fuente de las imágenes: fotografía sacada con un Acer Liquid Z63

Don't play

(Union Station Square. Six o'clock in the morning)

WOMAN: (Take out the mobile phone. Talk to yourself.) Shit, I'm out of battery! (She go through her purse. She pulls out a piece of paper that is folded in two. She unfolds it and reads it aloud.) Here it is clear: station Union Square and I am in that station. Then go out and take 14th Street to Union Square Street, then up 15th Street to Daryl Roth Theatre. It's easy. (She screams.) Easy?

(A man disguised as Batman turns when he hears the scream. They spend a few moments looking at each other. She approaches the man.)

WOMAN: Do you speak Spanish?

BATMAN: (With a hoarse voice and a lot of accent.) A little.

WOMAN: (Speak slowly.) I need to go to the Daryl Roth Theater on 15th Street.

BATMAN: It's close by. You have to go up there and get out of the station. (He point at the exit with the index finger of your right hand.) Then turn left, continue straight and then left again.

(Silence.)

WOMAN: Are you an actor?

BATMAN: No, I'm not an actor. I'm a Superhero.

WOMAN: (Unbelieving.) Superhero? (Pause.) Well, you could help me get to my destination. I'm lost and I don't want to miss my first audition in New York. I'm an actress.

BATMAN: I can't. My working day is over.

WOMAN: Don't superheroes work around the clock?

BATMAN: No, that's a myth. It's impossible to work twenty-four hours. We also have to rest.

WOMAN: Do you have a mobile phone? I just need to call my friend. Mine has a dead battery.

BATMAN: Yes, I have a last generation Batphone.

WOMAN: (Strange.) What is a Batphone?

BATMAN: A normal mobile phone, but with many features.

WOMAN: Can I borrow it?

BATMAN: No, I can't. It is only for my personal use.

WOMAN: I have an emergency and you are a Superhero.

BATMAN: Yes, I am a Superhero and you do not have an emergency. Not knowing how to get to a place is not an emergency. What you have is ignorance, but it's normal when you first arrive in a country you don't know. Many aspects of the country are ignored.

WOMAN: (Angry.) Are you really not going to lend me the phone?

BATMAN: No, I'm very sorry. (They hear the sound of the train.) Also, here comes my train. Good luck with the audition and remember to be more convincing. The actors have to be.

WOMAN: (Raising the tone of voice.) Fuck off! Do you find that convincing?

(The woman turns and leaves without waiting for Batman's answer. She leaves the scene. Batman is left alone on the verge, the stage gradually darkens to total darkness. In the background you can hear the sound of the subway arriving at the station.)

Image source: El País. Natan Dvir 

The fishermen's boat

The work of the fishermen deserves a monument.

Photograph taken with Acer Liquid Z630