Sunday 16 August 2009

My bedroom walls 1/2

This is the first of 2 posts where I am displaying my bedroom walls. I was originally going to display it all in one big post, but I have subdivided it into 2 posts because the photographs totalled up to a number of 25. I shall post the rest of the photographs tomorrow.

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This is what the the walls looks like from afar....


Now, peering in....

This is a photograph of me aged 8 next to my hero Themo Lobos. My father organised a special event where he came over and spoke to the students of my school. And he stayed over at our house for 3 days! Imagine that! He was my hero and I got to know him and he stayed in my room! I'm holding up a copy of Bromisnar de Bagdad, one of the adventures from the Mampato series.


This image is a compendium of Themo Lobos' characters... He gave my family this when we went to visit his house in 1999... The words in the speech bubble read: "Con mis mejores deseos y gran amistad para Richard King y su encantadora familia"... The words in the little rectangle are "Saludos para Simon y Laura!"

I cut this photograph from a newspaper article... It is a photograph of Anna Karina and Jean-Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's Un Femme Est Un Femme. Cahiers du Cinema was a publication Godard was a initially a critic for, and it was a centre for the French New Wave.

This is a photograph of one of my favourite writers, Julio Cortázar. He was an iconic writer (and this is an iconic photograph that's usually associated with him) who became one of the main participants of the Latin-American boom that emerged in the early 1960s. His novel Rayuela proved to be a book that opens up many possibilities to a number of readers. His short stories are considered to be amongst the finest in the form and to be put aside Poe and Borges. Next to him is a clown figure one of my cousins gave to me after her visit to Mexico.

Underneath Cortázar is a small wooden ornament I bought in a Cafe in Valparaíso in Chile during my last visit there. It has a small quote from Cortázar's short story La Noche Boca Arriva that reads as "A un metro del techo de roca viva que por momentos se iluminaba con un reflejo de antorcha."


Here is a photograph of Jorge Luis Borges, smiling. Next to him is an extract of his short story El Aleph. In the extract there is a description of a protagonist viewing an object that encapsulates everything on earth - infinity. I believe that Borges is my favourite writer of any sort.


Here I have VINYL of Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. I have reviewed this record previously on my blog and it is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of my favourites. It is very difficult to listen to, but once you penetrate into its topsy-turvy world it is marvelous. Yesterday, my parents had a party to celebrate their 25th anniversary and my mother's 50th birthday party, and one of their friends (who I'd never met before) is a huge Beefheart fan, and he went up to my room where I excitedly showed him my vinyl and he explained that his was worn-out and old. :) Next to Trout is a little replica of Fernandez Vial kit, the football team I supported as a boy. Unfortunately, at the moment they're down in the dumps... They're bottom of the third chilean division. :(


This is a photograph of Igor Stravisnky... I have passionately heard his compositions avidly... He is my second favourite composer (after Bartok :)). He was one of the main figures of the 20th century, and pioneers of modernism of any sort. This photograph is a great representation of his work - the piano looks large and phenomenal!

This is a card of Luis Bunuel's Phantom of Liberty. The card came with a boxset of his I own. The film is rather peculiar, bringing together a number of unrelated vignettes together... Bunuel was an excellent director, and one of the most eccentric characters of the previous century.

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Tomorrow I'll post part 2!

4 comments:

Ryan Brothwell said...

Interesting... I like how everything has its own story and is emotionally linked to you in strange ways. It's as if by looking at the wall we probe your interior world.

Anonymous said...

It's so cool that you have a painting (or several?) by Beefheart! :)

I also like the yellow colour of the walls.

douglas farrand said...

RE: "He was one of the main figures of the 20th century, and pioneers of modernism of any sort."

Stravinsky was actually pretty regressive. Big fan of Mussolini/fascism as a form of government, delved in neo-classical nonsense for a while, and he treated serialism methods later in his life with a very classical/late-romantic mindset (10 note melodies with the the two left over notes added on at the end kind of thing...)

Not exactly a champion or pioneer of modernism.

douglas farrand said...

I second Sofia's sentiment's regarding the Vliet painting though. Very cool.