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Searching through the trunk of memories (that is, the hard drive), recovering some photos and recordings made with the iPhone from fairs from a few years ago (especially the typical Instagram stories… should I make one again?) I found myself It seemed interesting to publish them. At the end of the post I explain some things.

Fair of Marchena 2015

Llámame Lola fair booth:

Fair of Marchena 2016

Delia Suárez with La Bejazz at the caseta Llámame Lola:

Improvised flamenco in the “botellones” (area where young people bring bags with drinks, glasses and ice):

Fair of Marchena 2017

María “La Peke” with la Bejazz at caseta El Soniquete:

Of course, improvised flamenco in the street cannot be missed after the casetas close (6 in the morning):

Fair of Marchena 2018

Caribbean rhythms with Son de Cuba::

This is where the citrus fruit joke was born:

El Soniquete is a booth created by my friends. I am not a member, but my brother, my cousin, etc. are, so I consider it my booth even if I am not a member. Many of my friends are musicians, as you can see in the videos Mane Moraza, Pablo and Javier Carmona, Kisko Hidalgo, Amaga… (la Bejazz). I have known María “La Peke” since we were kids, because she was my classmate at school. Regarding “Son del Manchón”, the two in the middle are the sisters María and Ana Dorado, I have also known them since they were little, because their parents are very friends with my uncle and aunt. On the left was their cousin Marta Ponce (blonde), and on the right Carmen Ponce, cousin of Marta but not of María and Ana. In short, I am surrounded by many artists and everything is within family. This year the El Soniquete booth has been in charge of giving the fair opening speech. Ana Martín (Mane Moraza’s wife) was chosen as the person who gives the opening speech because she was who had the idea to create the booth. She chose her cousin Leticia Martín as the host. And her son Lorca was the one who pressed the button that turns on the lighting that officially opens the fair. The name Lorca is in honor of Federico García Lorca, famous Andalusian poet. Both the poetry recited by Ana in the opening speech, and the lyrics that Son del Manchón sang during the opening speech, are by Federico García Lorca. Ah! El Manchón is the name of another booth they belong to. At the Marchena fair, unlike others like the fair of Seville, all the booths are free access, anyone who wants can enter, except during the members’ dinner on Wednesday.

For such a small town (19,000 inhabitants) it is a town with a lot of culture and history (it already existed centuries before Christ). Monuments, artists, religious processions, flamenco…. And I want to show you everything, are you coming?

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One of the mistakes I have made during all these years is not having been more clear, direct and transparent. Knowing how to understand non-verbal language and people’s hints is very good, but after that you have to take a step, not stop at that. It’s something I’m changing lately. But there are people I want to meet and I have no way to contact them.

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Now that the second video of the Marchena 2023 fair is almost ready to publish, I would like to clarify some things.

The first thing is that I am not going to publish the photos here on the website until I have published the third video on YouTube, so as not to “spoil” any surprises ahead of time.

The second thing is that I do all of this by myself. I don’t have any team of people by my side, no assistants or anything. And I do everything with a very small budget. My camera is a Canon DSLR, yes, but a very cheap, beginner’s model. If it looks so good and so professional it is because I know how to get the most out of it due to my many years of experience taking photos. However, I only started making videos a year ago, during Easter 2022. Many problems with my videos are due to my lack of experience and others are due to using a cheap camera. Problems with focus, with sometimes everything looking TOO close, and above all, problems with STABILIZATION, or rather, the lack of it. Because my camera does not have a stabilizer, and I have to use an option in the video editor on the computer to stabilize by software, but it is super slow and makes a lot of mistakes, it makes strange movements, as you can see in the videos. To avoid having this problem I need a 4,000 euro camera (Canon R5), which would also solve the problems of blurring and everything being seen too close.

Another thing is that the videos take me forever to make. Apart from the fact that it is a laborious job in itself, the computer takes a long time processing. And between the analysis of the stabilization, the export, the reconversion to 4K, and the upload to YouTube, hours and hours are spent. I have a 2011 Mac Mini that is already asking for retirement.

Since I have to add a photo to the publication, I’m posting a preview of one of the photos from the fair. The one on the right is my cousin Teresa.

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These last few months have helped me reflect and understand what is happening with my life and what mistakes I have been making. Nobody is perfect, but the truth is that I have been the stupidest person in the world.

When I went to live alone, I became obsessed with trying to run an online business. At first, my idea was only to advertise myself as a photographer to do photo shoots here in town, but little by little the idea began to form that I could earn a living directly through the Internet. I read a lot of digital marketing books, and at that time what everyone said was that I should gain a lot of followers on social networks, and that when I had many I could sell them something or advertise other brands and get paid. They said that you just had to post every day and that sooner or later your followers would increase.

The mistake I made, and the one that almost cost me my life (I’ll tell you why later), is that I became obsessed with doing it by myself. I lived alone, I didn’t go out with friends, I didn’t see my family, I didn’t do anything, I didn’t have a life because all I wanted was to move the online business forward. I survived with help of about 400 euros a month, which obviously didn’t give me enough to do anything with. And the mistake here is that, when a person is always alone, socially isolated, they end up with severe depression, and when you have depression you can’t do anything, you have no energy, no creativity, not even to work online sitting at a computer. And that, over the years, caused me so much stress that I ended up getting sick. One day I realized that I couldn’t swallow solids or liquids. It was acid reflux esophagitis (stress gastroesophageal reflux), and it was so severe that medications to reduce stomach acid did nothing. I was like that for years. Plus we were in a pandemic, with confinements, masks and so on.

Having been so socially isolated and without financial resources made me lose my spark and my joy. I had no energy, I had no desire for anything. I was no longer the same. Before that I had high expectations, I wanted to reach very high and achieve a lot of success. I got to know very interesting people, so much so that if I told it, no one would believe me. And yet my mistake of socially isolating myself made me sink to the bottom. I stopped being myself.

If everything goes well, I will soon begin a new stage in my life. I can’t say anything more at the moment. I have many things to achieve, and many people to meet. Oh la la.

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There are things that end and leave you with an immense void, like being trapped by a black hole…

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So, with the Marchena fair over, I’m back to business. This year the reportage of the fair is going to be very special. It will consist of three parts (three separate videos). Of course, first I have to finish and publish the videos of Cristo San Pedro and Santo Entierro. I didn’t want the Holy Week videos to catch up with the fair, but I couldn’t avoid it.

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A little help wouldn’t hurt either. I have to do it all by myself and I can’t.

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Lorenzo Coullaut Valera was a Spanish sculptor and illustrator born in Marchena in 1876, the son of a French engineer. He spent his childhood in Nantes, France, and returned to Spain in 1893. His works are found throughout Spain and Latin-America and he has a museum in his hometown.

coullautvalera.com

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Mail Art consists of the exchange of postcards or works of art on paper or cardboard or any other object through postal services. Organized by the Isidro de Arcenegui and López de Arenas secondary education institutes, with the collaboration of ACUPAMAR, a cultural association for the Marchena heritage, and with the collaboration of artists from 21 different countries, it is shown on San Pedro street during this week.

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Because of technical and personal difficulties. Please, be patient.

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Today February 28 is the day of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, a region in the south of Spain. Flamenco, history, architecture, good weather, lots of festivals and culture, beautiful landscapes-sea, land and snow-, flora and fauna, exquisite cuisine, and best of all, ITS PEOPLE.

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If something characterizes the Andalusian Holy Week, it is the fragrance of orange blossom in its streets, full of orange trees -which give sour orange. The beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday, is almost synchronized with the appearance of the first orange blossoms. Azahar is a word of Arabic origin, az-zahr, which means “white flower“. In my portfolio I have a photo gallery of the Marchena orange blossom.

Will they give this year clementines?

However, just 47 days before Holy Week, all the streets are still under construction. Will the works be finished on time? We will have to ask María del Mar Romero Aguilar, mayoress of Marchena. The route of the Three Kings parade had to be changed, and it did not end well.

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Although in other places in Andalusia there is a strong carnival tradition, standing out the famous carnival in Cádiz, in Marchena nothing has ever been done. In recent years, activities have begun trying to bring about a carnival tradition here in the town.

I was not able to film the carnival parade this past Saturday, February 11, so I leave here the one made by TVMarchena about the parade and subsequent activities in the Auditorium of the Princess.

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The universe is full of signs, you just need to know how to see them.

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“The best revenge is massive success” – Frank Sinatra.

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It is the only way to have control over your life. If you don’t depend on other people, they can’t subdue you. Put your attention on what depends on you, ignore what others do, it doesn’t deserve your attention. It is the only way to avoid being made to live on your knees.

As Emiliano Zapata said: “I’d rather die on my feet than always live on my knees.”

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They look great, the quality surprised me. It looks much better in person than in the photo. There are already some available in my store, I will gradually add more. I’m also trying to fix the web speed issue.

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Born on the French island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean sea, this authentic, cheerful and charismatic girl, an art history student, was crowned Miss France 2020 and got to the TOP10 of Miss Universe 2021.

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New video in the making. Will still take one week or two as I must wait for the rain to stop as my camera is not waterproof.

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Because I have to solve some problems related to printing and it will take time, and because I still have to recover my energy (health problems) the launch of my online store is going to be postponed indefinitely for now.

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As for the bad ones I defend myself.

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Alicia Faubel, from the Valencian Community, is the Spanish representative who will participate in the next edition of Miss Universe to be held on January 14, 2023 in New Orleans, United States.

The last time Spain reached the TOP10 was with Sofía del Prado in 2017.

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If it hasn’t happened yet, or not in the right way, it’s not time yet, and other very important things have to happen first.

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Social networks are destroying society, and the worst of all is Tik Tok. It’s like a virus but much worse. It’s turning people into mental degenerates. It can’t disgust me more. It is spreading and there seems to be no end to it. If you don’t use it, don’t even think about trying it, you’re still safe. I certainly don’t want to hear from anyone who uses it. It is toxic and people who use it are deranged and perverts, they give bad ideas and confuse people leading them astray. Patetic idiots. Cringe as fuck. It does a lot of damage to the brain and mind. And this also applies to other social networks and the internet in general. They are destroying humanity, if there is anything left to save. One day I will write a more complete article on this.

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This really was a surprise. “Find Life”.

Amaranthe are on european tour right now. They will play live October 15th in Barcelona and 16th in Madrid.

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Right now I’m still creating the online shop. It’s giving me a ton of work and there’s still a lot to do.

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A website is far better than social media to the moon, back to earth, and again to the moon and back again.

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And yet you don’t do it, then my friend you have a problem.

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Fair atmosphere day and night, booths, horses, attractions…

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“Today is a very special day for Mago de Oz. A day I will never forget. Mago de Oz performing at a cloistered nunnery!” – Victor de Andrés, guitarist.

Spectacular Mago de Oz concert on the facade of the church of Santa María de la Mota and the convent of the Poor Clares, in a historic place in Marchena, the Ducal Palace.

Listening live to Fiesta Pagana has been a tremendous experience.

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Castlevania

Castlevania = Castle of Transilvania.

It is a Konami saga inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In these platform games we face varied mythological enemies (not necessarily from the world of vampires) although the final boss of the game is always Dracula.

It differs into two different types, the classic platforms in which you hit the enemies and progress through the levels. And the “metroidvania” that includes RPG and exploration elements, and that have gained much fame since they began with the work of art “Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” from Playstation 1 and Saturn. A game that everyone should play because it is a masterpiece that elevates you to the quintessence. Its soundtrack alone is already a real gem.

I have read “Dracula” by Bram Stoker 2.5 times. Twice the complete novel and once “The Powers of Darkness”, which is an alternative version discovered recently in which the first part, when the protagonist is welcomed in the castle, is much longer, narratively rich, and more things happen, but the rest of the novel is a dirty, quick and poorly done draft that makes no sense and does not match the final work. It is possible that it was one of the drafts that Bram Stoker did before finishing the entire novel. It’s a shame he removed so much from the castle part, which is so much better in draft.

Silent Hill

I take my hat off to this wonder. There is something special, I can’t get the touch on it, that totally connects with me and my style. It’s so surreal, dark, inspired by mystical cults, and psychological terror, and it makes such clever use of the artwork, the colors, the lighting, the camera angles. The story is absorbing, it keeps you in constant tension, as well as being a challenge. My favorite is the first one from Playstation 1, followed by Silent Hill 2. Pyramid Head is GOD.

DOOM

Here I have to clarify that I am referring above all to the first MS-DOS DOOM, the one that came out in the 90s (although DOOM 2 is basically an expansion of 1), but anyways I include the complete saga. It has something that makes it special to me, and it hooks me like no other. Demons of all kinds attack you mercilessly as you constantly search for secrets and the damn exit that allows you to advance. It’s insane gameplay, and if you dare, try the “Nightmare” mode. Warning: it is completely unplayable. That’s done on purpose.

If we look closely, the three have something in common, they are dark, mystical, with supernatural beings and terror. That means something, and I have to keep digging around. I’m still looking for my style.

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