Tejército 2010

Tejército 2010

Forever Mexican Crimson tide.

RED.

The flag of eternal visceral feelings: passion, courage, sexuality and love. Many of us ladies have worn - or secretly died to wear- red on our lips, because who on Earth can resist a pair ofluscious shiny kiss-my-pout lips? (FYI a biological fact: red lips are considered to be the sexiest everywhere because in the arousal stage of the human sexual response, the lips fill up with blood, causing it's hue to raise to a full red.)

The cosmetic and fashion industry have always

turned to red because of its strong appeal and eye-catching

-ability to human nature. 
But, have you ever wondered where the red pigment these industries use to dye lipsticks, eye-shadows, blushes and fabric comes from? Easy. From Mexico's nopal (prickly pear).

The one to blame for the hue that can even attract bulls is a little insect that nests on the nopal plant called "Cochineal". This little insect produces carminic acid that deters predation by other insects. Carminic acid, which occurs as 17%-24% of the weight of the dry insects, can be extracted from the insect's body and eggs and mixed with aluminum or calcium salts to make carmine dye (also known as cochineal). The carminic dye has been used since pre-hispanic times in Mexico and South America to color fabrics, and in Mexico's Colonial period, it became the second largest export to Spain. (Source: http://wikipedia.org here)

Cochineal became a prized commodity on the Continent

(Spain refused to trade it with the English), and it created huge profits for Spain. For this reason, the cultivation of cochineal was aggressively restricted to Spanish-controlled Mexico, although this changed when a French naturalist managed to smuggle cochineal-infested cactus pads to Haiti in 1777. From there, cochineal production eventually expanded to South America, India, Portugal, and the Canary Islands, where it became particularly successful. The long-time demand for cochineal started to decrease in the late 1800s as new synthetic dyes were developed, and soon it was no longer economically viable to continue its production. (Source: Cochineal, Interesting Fact of the day). However, insect dyes (such as the carmin dye from the cochineal) have always been used for cosmetic (shadows, blushes, lipsticks) and pharmaceutical (pills, syrups) dyeing because of its organic friendly-to-the-body nature.Nowadays, with the raise of eco-friendly fashion, organic dyes' production is increasing, directing the attention of everybody around the globe to the Cochineal Farms on Oaxaca, Mexico (like the Tlapanochestli Cochineal Farm) and to other insect-dye farms around the world. Reasons on why this organic dyes are better for the environment discussed here by Eco-friendly fashion designer Behnaz Sarafpour.

Crimson organic dye is still very popular, and the amount of Cochineal-dye exports that Mexico produces is a great sustainable method for small and indigenous families across one of its economically-challenged states: Oaxaca. But beware, buying Cochineal-dye is no cheap business: the reddish power can cost up to $1,000 the kilo (that explains the luxury of wearing such a powerful hue). 

So, whenever you feel witty, agressive and passional and plan on wearing red on your lips, pout them out for Mexico, its indigenous hard-working people and it's little nopal "cochinilas" (cochineal)./FLAII

Forever Mexican Crimson tide.

Amigurumi

As a friend of mine wrote down on my personal blog: Crochet is the new Yoga. Everybody is doing it, experiencing it and finding it really mind-inspiring and body-freeing. 

Truly. If you have recently had problems with concentration, self-esteem, depression, whatever, try and shop your hook or your needles, some colorful yarns and get to it. Youtube has some serious and trustworthy links on how-to's by professionals.

But if you truly want to do something else besides scarves, sweaters and headbands, try to crochet antropomorphic forms, cute animals or even ragged dolls the japanese way. Amigurumi (編みぐるみ^?, lit. knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed

animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. 
 .

 (Source: http://wikipedia.com)

 .

This is as further as the "modernize grandma's art" has gone. It is hip, it is new, it is cute. Amigurumi dolls can go from the cutest teddy-bear to full-sized sandwiches and tea parties for your eyes and hands delight.

Nothing screams "young & fresh" more as this japanese artistry with fans all over the world, and photographs and how-to's and patterns flooding the internet, it's about time we all joined the creative Amigurumi mayhem.

It's about time to make little pieces of "affordable art ".

Some links to get your inner Amigurumi started:

Flickr's Group of Amigurumi Dudes.

Skymagenta Amigurumi in Etsy.com (Amigurumi Patterns for sale)

Amigurumi Kingdom

Amigurumi Crochet Patterns (free)

Amigurumi

Supporting the films.

I love movies. Re-phrase: I love movies in a primitive way. I am no movie-critic and I tend not to read any movie critics because, again, I love movies in a primitive way. I studied at school the basics of movie criticism, but I’ve never been a fan of critics, because I love movies for what they make to my guts. If a movie makes me think, makes me cry, makes me want to scream instead of falling asleep on my place, then I love it (Believe me, I do sleep at the movies if something is out of place or boring).

So, last week the Academy announced its nominations for the best in films of 2009. (Note: I don’t consider the Academy to be the ultimate voice on film critic, but I do watch the awards). And my attention was quickly drawn to the “supporting role” award. That award, female and male is my favorite one. Simple la raison de cet pourquois. When I was young I adored acting classes and thought that maybe someday I’d portray some villain at a movie. Why villains? Because unlike heroes, they appear briefly but have a huge tremendous impact on the story, they have more fun with it because of their mischevious nature and because they do not carry the heroic weight of the story on their shoulders. So, supporting actors and actresses for me, are the “villains” every story needs. They are brief, they don’t even get to appear on the poster of the movie at times, and the stories are never about them in the first place. But boy, oh boy, do their ephemereal appearences changed each film.

1974 – Winner: Robert de Niro as Vito Corleone in The Godfather II.

“Mais solo recordate de che vio ho fato un piacere.” (Just remember you owe me a favor.)

1985 – Nominee: Margaret Avery as Shug Avery in The Color Purple. *

“See, Daddy? Sinners have soul too.”

1994 – Nominee: Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction.

“That’s when you know you found somebody real special…”

1996 – Nominee: Edward Norton as Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear.

“How the f*ck should I know?”

1999- Nominee: Haley Jael Osment as Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense.

“I see dead people.”

2006 – Nominee: Abigail Breslin as Olive Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine.

“In the trunk of our car.”

2007 – Winner: Javier Bardem as Anton Chirugh in No Country for Old Men.

“What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?”

2008- Nominee: Viola Davis as Mrs. Miller in Doubt. ( The only nominee on this list who only acted for 8 minutes on the actual film and got her nomination for this appearence.)

“Let him have him, then.””

2008 – Posthumous Winner: Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

“Why so serious?”

2009 – Nominee: Christopher Waltz as Col. Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds.

“Now you’re in the hands of the SS. My hands to be exact.”

Supporting the films.

Jesus is cool.

Mexican as I am, I was baptized without my permission, and for my whole life I got angry and comfortably pissed at the thought of people considering me Catholic. As I grew older and read more books, and saw more movies, and criticized my "own" religion, I realized Jesus was cool, and he was definitely not the one to blame for church and priests and confession and -well yeah-, my baptism.

Jesus is not the one they -by they I mean Catholics, the Pope and the Vatican- portray in the Bible. Jesus is not even bearded.

He really is all around us, if we dare to look. I hope I sound hippie when I confess that Jesus is LOVE, and yes, it is all we need. He broke up rules, he challenged status-quo jews back in the days, he quit his carpenter work with his dad , he decided to travel through the world with one message and one message only: "Love thy neighbor", he even forgot those who harmed him. I wonder how many people can say that about themselves.

Sadly, religion has made of Jesus its scape-goat. So whenever you go to a church and see its image on the cross, you get either scared or angry or want to scream WTF, because it is what they want. So you can carry out your life as someone that hates or fears Jesus, because he impersonates everything you hate/fear about this world. But I think we're all wrong. The only impersonators of what we hate/fear are ourselves.

So, I like to think of Jesus as a hippie with a flower in his mouth. And I try to practice his word everyday. I really try to love my neighbor without hoping he loves me back (remember how he said he loved everybody and yet, they killed him? That kind of love). No expectations, no harm taken. And everyday I try to make an effort to let myself go, because there are things none of us can control.

Come to think of it ! I like him better when he is naked and body-less, and just an "it". For me, Jesus is the image of love and acceptance. Everybody wants a friend that loves them for what they are. Let's practice love, go out and do it, really DO it. Maybe that would make this world a better and fuller one./ La Flaii

Jesus is cool.