Día Mundial Contra el Cáncer

Ayer, 4 de Febrero, fue el Día Mundial Contra el Cáncer y gente al rededor del mundo unió fuerzas para concientizar y ayudar a prevenir el Cáncer.

 

En el Distrito Federal, en conmemoración de la fecha, el Gobierto rompió el Récord Guinness de la "Pulsera Humana Contra el Cáncer Más Grande del Mundo", que contó con la participación de  7,363 personas a lo largo del día, según datos de la SSP. y el número de personas en la Pulsera Humana fue de 5,298, dicho evento se llevó a cabo en el Zócalo de la Ciudad.

Pulsera Humana Contra el Cáncer Más Grande del Mundo

Dicho evento fue organizado por la Secretaría de Salud del Gobierno del Distrito Federal en coordinación con la Fundación Livestrong, así como Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil y otras Instituciones Gubernamentales. Al evento asistió el Secretario de Salud del gobierno de la ciudad, Armando Ahued Ortega, quien destacó que más allá del récord impuesto lo importante es enviar el mensaje de que el cáncer es uno de los temas de salud pública más preocupantes, ya que se ha convertido en una de las principales causas de mortalidad. También de contó con la participación de Regina Altena, Ex-presidenta de la AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals).

Armando Ahued Ortega - Secretario de Salud

Voluntarios de Livestrong

Regina Altena participando con el resto de la gente.

En mi opinión, el evento dejó mucho que desear primero que nada en cuanto a organización se refiere, pues los mismo voluntarios del Staff no sabían dar las instrucciones correctas para guiar a la gente; muchos sabíamos de qué se trataba y aún así nos sentíamos un poco desubicados, imagino debió ser peor para los transeúntes que terminaron participando más por curiosidad que por otra cosa. Frente a la Catedral había un escenario montado en el cual, durante casi 2 horas hubo gente que bailaba sin sentido para entretener al público, mientras que a un costado de este había una pantalla transmitiendo imágenes de Jorge Ortiz de Pinedo que para nada venían al caso. Hubiera sido mucho más útil, y tal vez hasta conmovedor y motivador, si hubieran transmitido testimonios de enfermos de cáncer, sobrevivientes o hasta de sus familiares.

Una de las cosas que más me gustó, fueron los muros donde se colocaron todas las hojas que los organizadores del evento proporcionaban a la gente y que contenían las 2 siguientes freses: "Soy Fan de..." y "Yo Apoyo a...", donde cada quien podía escribir ya sea el nombre de un familiar/conocido que tuviera cáncer y al que apoyara y/o admirara o mencionar el por qué de esta admiración. Algunas frases eran muy conmovedoras, otras motivadoras y otras tantas, con perdón de la palabra, ridículas pues se notaba que las había llenado gente que no tiene ni idea de lo que es el Cáncer y sólo estaba ahí por una playera gratis.

 

Mi Mamá, tiene muchos fans!

                         

Hoy más que nunca!

Debo confesar que me pareció un tanto extraño que practicamente no hubiera presencia de los mismos enfermos y/o sobrevivientes de Cáncer, sí, yo sé que no todos están en condiciones de salir y participar en eventos públicos (estoy más que consciente de ello), pero hay muchísima gente que afortunadamente ha sobrevivido a la enfermedad y que se podría pensar quisieran contribuir a la concientización poblacional. Me tomé la libertad de acercarme a las pocas personas que padecen o padecieron Cáncer que logré identificar y pedirles una fotografía pues quiero compartir con ustedes los rostros de gente que luchó y sigue luchando día con día pues son gente de una fortaleza admirable.

        

En fin, espero que todo esto sirva para que la gente está más consciente y pueda prevenir el Cáncer con chequeos generales, esto es muy importante pues mucha gente cree que sólo con hacerse Matografías, Papanicolaous o chequeos de Próstata es suficiente, pero muchos no saben que hay más de 200 tipos de Cáncer y que este puede iniciar/afectar practicamente cualquier parte del cuerpo; así que en verdad no puedo hacer énfasis suficiente en lo importante que son los chequeos generales (por lo menos) anuales. De hecho, pueden aprovechar la Feria de la Salud que se instaló en el Zócalo del DF y estará ahí hasta el 10 de Febrero.

...también tu vida.

MediBus del GDF

Gente de todas edades y estratos sociales apoyando la lucha contra el Cáncer.

Muchos de ustedes lo saben, pero muchos otros probablemente se estén preguntando por qué mi interés o entusiasmo ante este tipo de eventos...la respuesta es simple, hace ya casi un año mi mamá fue diagnosticada con Cáncer Renal Etapa IV y su vida, así como la mía y la de mi hermana cambiaron por completo de la noche a la mañana y sin avisar, afectando paralelamente al resto de la familia. 5 meses después de dicho diagnóstico, mamá fue desahuciada y los doctores auguraron un aproximado de tan sólo 6 meses más de vida, hecho que -en su momento- destrozó mi vida y mi corazón por completo. En fin, en otra oportunidad les contaré la historia completa y más detallada. Por ahora puedo decirles que aunque no del todo bien, mamá se encuentra estable y luchando contra el Cáncer día con día, para lo que cuenta conmigo y con mi hermana pues con amor y apoyo, la lucha es un tanto más llevadera.

Mi Mamá. Mi Heroína. Mi Ejemplo de Vida.

Quotes to begin 2012

it's been ages since I last posted some Quotes over here, which I think it's a shame coz I usually collect really good ones. These are actually from last year as I haven't got any good ones this year, but I hope they start coming soon.

"Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies" - Diane Arbus

"Pura rision" - Margarito
 

"I'm not going to believe that Generation Y (myself included) is 'addicted to praise' until I get a trophy for doing so." - Hipster Mermaid
 

"Love you more than ice-cream (chocolate even!) on a sunny day" - Karrigan
 

"Vendes muy barato tu olvido" - A. Patrón
 

"Claudia - Manos chicas, pito chico.
Melissa - Manos de niña, pito raro." - Convo with Claudia + Melissa
 

"Most near-death survivors say they don't think there is a God. They know." - Nancy Evans
 

"posoye sesta muriendo gente qeu antes nise moria" - Margarito
 

"Oh please, after the Big C, you don't sweat the small stuff" - Samantha Jones (SATC)
 

"To Bombay; my muse, my whore, my beloved!" - Dhobi Ghat Film
 

"Bipolar.com seems to be down....Oh, no sorry, it's back up again." - Someone
 

"Necesito pelear con alguien inferior a mi!" - Claudia LMAO!!
 

"cantas bien feo ninel ansory" - Margarito
 

"Tú hasta en Paris nos tenías con el 'Jesús' en la boca!" - Gichef
 

"tu avatar me recuerda a Kevin Costner en "El guardaespaldas" - Abbie Díaz
 

"life was much easier when apple and blackberry were just fruit..." - Someone
 

"Y esos zapatitos qué? Muy fashion, no?!" - Dani, my 5 yo niece
 

"I expect nothing, so I'm pleasantly surprised when anything good happens." - Someone
 

"Okie now that u have clear eye sight.....   Chris or ss??" - Preethi B.

To review the whole Quote Collection, go Diana's Quote Collection! 

Huré: Createur de Plaisir

One of the most common pleasures in life is Pastry, particularly the world famous, mouth-watering French Pâtisserie! 

Instead of talking about the popular ones that everybody knows, I am going to introduce you to one that is not that famous but almost equally good. I'm talking about Huré, which is a  pâtisserie previously owned by Jean-Paul Mathon, it was taken over by Benedict Huré in the recent years. He is a baker, who describes himself as a "creator of pleasure"..and trust me, he is! 

Besides a pâtisserie, Huré is a boulangerie with a wide range of products which include sandwiches, pies, quiches, salads, classic and salted rolls, etc., the variety is quite good and all the products are fresh, and have very decent prices.

One of the most notable things at Huré is probably the wide range of filled buns, "heritage" of the time Mathon was the owner. They go both ways, salty and sweet (chocolate, fruit, cheese, meat, and more!).

The cakes are absolutely delicious and carefully made in different sizes; regular, for a special occasion or miniature in case you just wanna be selfish with your sweets. 

 

However, one of the best things you will find there is, definitely, the incredibly good Macarons -they are just a bit of heaven, amazing really. Many different flavors, colors and combinations as well as different choices in number, plus, they're not as expensive. A box with 5 macarons, for example, will cost you €8, or really big ones for only €2.90 a piece.

 

So, if you have a Sweet Tooth, Huré is definitely a must visit place while in Paris (France). They have two branches in the following addresses:

10 Place d'Italie - 75013 Paris (metro Place d'Italie, lines 5, 6 and 7) / Tel: 01 43 31 33 93
18 rue Rambuteau - 75003 Paris (metro Rambuteau, line 11) - tel: 01 42 72 32 18

   

Diane Arbus, Photographer

Not long ago, I had the chance to go see an exhibition at Jeu de Paume in Paris, France by the world famous Photographer Diane Arbus, a New Yorker who revolutionized the art of Photography. Her bold subject matter and photographic approach produced a body of work that is often shocking in its purity, in its constant celebration of things as they are. Many say she had a gift for rendering strange those things we consider most familiar, and for uncovering the familiar within the exotic.

Initially, she worked for her father shooting fashion as he was the owner of a famous Department Store located on 5th Avenue; so did her husband Allan Arbus. Later on, she decided to explore another side of photography as fashion didn't quite satisfy her and that's how she started shooting people, not your regular people though, Diana was attracted to different people, people who was quirky and out of the ordinary look-wise, she found them to be interesting and camera-capture worthy.

Most of Diane's subjects were in New York City, a place that she explored as both a familiar geography and as a foreign land, photographing people she discovered during the 1950s and 1960s. When talking about her work, most people think of black-and-white square photographs of awkward people.

She was committed to photography as a medium that tangles with the facts. Her contemporary anthropology -portraits of couples, children, carnival performers, nudists, middle-class families, transvestites, zealots, eccentrics, and celebrities- stands as an allegory of the human experience, an exploration of the relationship between appearance and identity, illusion and belief, theater and reality.

To understand Diane's photography, is important to read her texts as it will be easier for you to understand where she comes from, photographically speaking. She once said "I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.", referring to the type of people she used to shoot, commonly known/called "freaks" by most people, including herself. "Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still do adore some of them. I don't quite mean they're my best friends but they made me feel a mixture of shame and awe.", this explains her fascination to shoot so many of them, which is a bit contradictory as she did not want to be known as"the photographer of 'freaks'", which ended up happening.

Arbus suffered from "depressive episodes", which ended up leading her to take her own life by ingesting barbiturates and slashing her wrists with a razor when she was only 48. Two days later, a friend of hers found her on the bathtub. It was only a year after her death that she started getting International recognition for her work and they started showing it in major exhibitions.

In this first major retrospective in France, Jeu de Paume -the Paris Gallery- presents a selection of two hundred photographs that afford an opportunity to explore the origins, scope, and aspirations of a wholly original force in photography. It includes all of the artist’s iconic photographs as well as many that have never been publicly exhibited. Even the earliest examples of her work demonstrate Arbus’s distinctive sensibility through the expression on a face, someone’s posture, the character of the light, and the personal implications of objects in a room or landscape.

If you're interested in her work or knowing more about her as a photographer, a movie was made a few years ago, it's called "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus", which is precisely that and not an accurate biography, however, you can get a rough idea of what she was like and her vision and pretty much what is it she was about, it's quite interesting really and you know nobody like Nicole Kidman to play awkward personalities.

 

Belleville (Paris)

Belleville is a neighbourhood of Paris, France, you may find it's name familiar due to the French animated movie "The Triplets of Belleville" -that's why I'd heard of it!

The neighborhood is situated on and around a hill which vies with Montmartre as the highest in Paris. Belleville means "beautiful town" and, historically, was a working class neighborhood.

Today, Belleville is a colorful, multi-ethnic neighborhood and also home to one of the city's two Chinatown's. During the 1980s Parisian artists and musicians, attracted by the cheaper rents, the numerous vacant large spaces, as well as the old Paris charm of its smaller streets. Within the neighborhood there is a cemetery and park, the Parc de Belleville, which ascends the western slope of the hill and offers, in addition to a panoramic view of the Paris skyline, a strikingly modern contrast to the classical gardens of the city center and the eccentric nineteenth century romanticism of the nearby Parc des Buttes Chaumont.

The iconic French singer Édith Piaf grew up there and, according to legend, was born under a lamppost on the steps of the Rue de Belleville. A commemorative plaque can be found at number 72. A true Bellevilloise, Piaf sang and spoke the French language in a way that epitomized the accent de Belleville, which has been compared to the Cockney accent of London, England, although the Parisian dialect is nowadays rarely heard. Belleville is prominently featured in the 2007 biographical film of her life, La Vie En Rose. Belleville has been featured in many movies, books, TV Shows and even music.

Personally, I strongly believe Belleville is one of Paris' best kept secrets, especially for tourists, that is. Not only does it have nice restaurants, boutiques and bars but it is also quite a charming. And, one of the best features Belleville has is definitely the -above mentioned- Parc de Belleville, which is a little known viewpoint, yet it is the highest point in the city and a fantastic place to enjoy a panoramic view of Paris. Belleville Park is located on a natural hill which is 128 meters above sea level, it is located in an area with a lot of history and many of the roads in the surrounding are have managed to keep their traditional looks which helps create a nice authentic Parisian atmosphere. There are a lot of stairs so in Belleville you can go up and down, here and there as you please The Place to go to get the best view here is in the middle of the park. From here you can see all around Paris below you. The park itself is also a nice place to relax and enjoy a picnic, which I didn't get to experience first hand as I visited it at night.

One of the good things of visiting Parc de Belleville at night is that it can be quite a romantic spot, so you may wanna choose wisely who you go with. Another really nice thing is all the City lighting you can see from above; there are a few popular sites you can spot from the heights, the Tour Eiffel being the most obvious and impressive of them all, but you will also be able to spot the Tour Montparnasse, the Centre Pompidou and a couple others -you just gotta open your eyes real wide! All in all, a great place to pay a visit while you're in Paris.

Photo credits: As indicated on watermarks.