Via NME

Wether he is actually dead or [hidden somewhere] laughing at all of this, Richey Edwards was [or should I say is?] aware of every cliché in it.

However, I still find appallingly enticing this undead status in which Richey is kept, as if a sort of aura would be cast upon the Manics solely by the slightest hope that he's alive.


Even "presumed" sounds as a comfortable adjective beside the unspeakable word. In the narrative traced by the Manics, Dead has not been the only unspeakable word. Richey, in an interview, once mentioned he had not thought about the "S" word that would have made him jump off a cliff few months later.

Richey left behind him a misty path, plenty of unspeakables and denials. It was the matter of urban legends what Richey was dealing with. It has been like that since plawright Cristopher Marlowe died in 1593: a young, androgynous man, who holds on his shoulder the double reputation of being both a genius and a lover of excesses meets his self-determined destiny in the darkest of ways available.

Marlowe may have not desired death. However, he didn't acknowledge he was opening new paths not only in poetic drama but also shaping paradigms of sexual identity and public persona. As Marlowe was being stabbed he established a new type of tragedy [off-stage, this time] in which fame, youth, talent, gender, scandal and mystery are the main clusters. Richey was aware that he was following a patern of, let's call it stardom, already trodden by many before him. His contribution to this rise -and-fall-type of tale is, doubtless, to not die at all, but to keep himself amidst life and death, redefining the conditions of stardom afterlife.

Every Manics' record since Everything Must Go is pervaded by a mournful ethos that is expressed through songs that show an increasingly, though restrained, desire to become open elegies. At some extent every new Manics' album should be named Everything Must Go, the kind of phrase to say during an unending farewell. A farewell to a hero whose truely great deed is making his own agony a never-ending departure that is  also the fittest vessel for his whole legend.


As Manics keep going on, the legend is enlarged and Richey becomes, each time more clearly, the distinctive icon of a band hardly recognizable if compared to that which recorded an album as clever, zeitgeistish, ironic and angst-plenty as The Holy Bible. It's impossible to say that Richey is dead without implying that the Manics are so alive, but not otherwise. If the Manics are alive as a band it turns impossible, at least dialecticly, to accept that Richey, as a public persona, is dead.

"Stay Beautiful"
[that's, at least, how you'll remain]
from Generation Terrorist (1992)

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||| 42% Stability |||||||||| 38% Orderliness |||||| 30% Accommodation |||||| 26% Interdependence |||| 16% Intellectual |||||||||||||||||| 74% Mystical |||||||||||| 50% Artistic |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Religious |||||||||||||| 56% Hedonism |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Materialism |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Narcissism |||||||||||||||| 63% Adventurousness |||||||||||||| 56% Work ethic |||||||||||||||| 63% Humanitarian |||||||||||||||| 70% Conflict seeking |||||| 30% Need to dominate |||||||||||| 43% Romantic |||||||||||||| 56% Avoidant |||||||||||||| 56% Anti-authority |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Wealth |||||||||||| 43% Dependency |||||||||||||||| 70% Change averse |||||||||| 36% Cautiousness |||||||||||| 43% Individuality |||||||||||||||||| 76% Sexuality |||||||||||||| 56% Peter pan complex |||||||||||||||| 63% Family drive || 10% Physical Fitness |||||||||| % Histrionic |||||||||||||||| 70% Paranoia |||||||||||||||||| 76% Vanity |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Honor |||||||||| 36% Thriftiness |||||| 23%

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“After two nights of having not slept it gets a little bit difficult to keep yourself under control”

Yvo de Boer,

Asuntos tan importantes como la respuesta global al cambio climático no son el motivo de mi insomnio, pero aveces, tras un par o más de noches sin poder dormir, también encuentro difícil no sentirme hipersensible a un grado tan irracional que me impide continuar con mis (insignificantes) responsabilidades.


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Si no te interesan mis confesiones, de todas maneras ve el video, pues te interesará la actitud del representante de Papúa Nueva Guinea al pedir a Estados Unidos un liderazgo internacional convincente y respetuoso, o en su defecto, dejar el camino libre para la toma de decisiones en la comunidad internacional. Es precisamente ése el liderazgo (o falta de en favor de un dialógo más plural) que los no-estadounidenses debemos exigir a B. Obama más allá de su importancia histórica (indudable, pero con todos sus matices aún por definir) y la bien manejada campaña mediática que lo ha convertido en el político de su nación más popular en todo el mundo.

image via CNN

At last, Moz has something to say to the US. At last, after centuries of fight, the African-Americans have the representation they deserve -I hope this can be extensive to other so-called minorities. Obama gave us hope both to Americans and people abroad of a new order for the world. There is no doubt about it, the recent days but especialy today represent a turn in History that might define the following years for you, whether you are American or not.

Just think about all the deaths Obama will avoid when he will retire the US Army from Iraq. I am hopful this could be the first step towards a new dialogue between Islamic nations and the Western countries. For Latinamerica it might be the time to stop seeing our neighbour as our worst predator... but let's not be too overconfident.

Mexican Intermission (aircrash included)
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Mientras en Chicago -una de las ciudades estadounidenses con mayor población "hispana", en especial de origen mexicano- se empezaba a reunir una multitud para aclamar al presidente (recién) electo Barack Obama, la Ciudad de México era sacudida por el que será el accidente aéreo más recordado en la Historia del país.

Olvidemos pues el avionazo que mató a Pedro Infante; el accidente que puso fin a la vida del político Carlos Madrazo es de menor importancia como para equipararse al de esta noche.

Al rededor de las 7 de la noche se estrella una avioneta en Prado norte, a pocos metros de Periférico y Reforma. La calle es, como todos los días, muy transitada. La aeronave deja un incendio, 40 lesionados y una calle tapizada de autos inservibles al paso de su desplome. Todos los pasajeros y tripulación mueren de forma instantánea.

Por si lo aparatoso e inusual del accidente (una burda imitación malograda del 9/11 en región 4, en una de las pocas zona plagada de rascacielos con las que cuenta Latinoamérica) hay una razón más apremiante para que las televisoras locales interrumpan su programación: la avioneta era de la Secretaria de Gobernación, en ella viajaban el secretario Juan Camilo Mouriño, su equipo de colaboradores y el secretario técnico para la aplicación de las reformas judiciales, José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos -puesto clave en la guerra que el Felipe Calderón declaró al narcotráfico.

Extrañas coincidencias rodean el estrepitoso deceso de Mourinho. El avionetazo impactó precisamente a un lado de la fuente de Pemex (paraestatal con la cual la familia del finado tenía negocios, como lo hizo saber AMLO en su momento). La mañana de hoy El Universal publicó un editorial de Salvador García Soto en el cual se planteaba la "devaluación política" del joven funcionario, además de hacer recuento de los ataques políticos que había recibido Juan Camilo. Para mayor dramatismo -según wikipedia- los ancestros maternos del hasta hoy Secretario de Gobernación provenían de un pueblo llamado Avión. Todo parece ahora un símbolo del drama en el gabinete mexicano, un drama expuesto a volverse conspiratorio.

Por hoy no hay telenovelas (lo cual es un alivio ante la pena y sabe a premio en la victoria), la victoria histórica de Obama no llenará las ocho columnas en los diarios mexicanos.

Hoy la derecha perdió la Casa Blanca en Estados Unidos, mientras en México la tragedia la desmorona.