Personal profile:
Open-minded, citizen of the world, concerned about the future of our planet, interested in almost everything and defender of any healthy vice.
Name: Ashurbanipal Hector
Nickname: Cornelius van Baerle
Titles of nobility: Duque de Palma, Sicilia, Carabanchel Alto y Otxarkoaga
Date of birth: Unknown
Place of birth: Spain
Place of residence: Spain
Height: 1,85 metres
Constitution: Slim
Hair colour: Brown
Languages: Spanish (native), English and French. Intermediate knowledge of Italian, Basque and Catalan.
Job: Pain in the ass
Other blogs by me: I will tell you some other time
Personal references:
Films: Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982); Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961); Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940); The invasion of the body snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956); The wild bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969); To be or not to be (Ernst Lubitsch,1942); La ardilla roja (Julio Medem, 1993); El bosque animado (José Luis Cuerda, 1987); Paths of glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957); Les quatre cents coups (François Truffaut, 1959); Au revoir les enfants (Louis Malle, 1987); The man who would be king (John Huston, 1975); The Gorgon (Terence Fisher, 1964); The band wagon (Vincente Minelli,1953); The Godfather II (F.F. Coppola, 1974); Roma città aperta (Roberto Rossellini,1945); Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen, 1993); The apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960); El mismo amor la misma lluvia (Juan José Campanella, 1999); The searchers (John Ford, 1956); Blue velvet (David Lynch, 1986); Amores perros (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000); Ladri di biciclette (Vittorio De Sica, 1948); L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997); Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979); Reservoir dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992); Dersu Uzala (Akira Kurosawa, 1975); Der müde Tod (Fritz Lang, 1921).
Actors: Peter O’Toole, Robert Mitchum, Lawrence Olivier, Cary Grant, Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood, Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, Marcello Mastroianni, Max Von Sydow, José Luis López Vázquez, Vittorio Gassman, Lee Marvin, William Holden, Alec Guiness, Harvey Keitel, Ricardo Darín, Federico Luppi, Peter Sellers, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Toshiro Mifune, Willem Dafoe.
Actresses: Catherine Deneuve, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Natalie Wood, Emma Suarez, Liv Ullmann, Frances McDormand, Silvana Mangano, Cyd Charisse, Gloria Grahame, Anna Magnani, Vanessa Redgrave, Joan Fontaine, Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, Naomi Watts, Linda Fiorentino, Monica Vitti, Madeleine Stowe, Lea Massari.
Social cinema: The age of stupid (Franny Armstrong, 2009); Inside job (Charles Ferguson, 2010); Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore, 2004); Heavy water: Chernobyl (David Bickerstaff, 2006).
Tv series: El Chavo del Ocho; Twin Peaks; My name’s Earl; Aquí no hay quien viva; Home to roost.
Tv programs: Polonia (TV3)
Spanish journal: El Jueves
Music Band: Saint Etienne
Music Album: Good Humour, Saint Eienne (1998); Electrika, Stereoskop (2003).
Songs: Rented Rooms (Tindersticks), Llantos de pasión (El Último de la Fila), I suppose (Puressence), Burnt out car (Saint Etienne), We used to be friends (The Dandy Warhols), El aire de la calle (los Delinqüentes), Havana affair (Ramones), Cómo pudiste hacerme esto a mí (Alaska y Dinarama), Châtelet Les Halles (Florent Pagny), Peace Frog (The Doors), Adora (Indochine), Le petit train (Les Rita Mitsouko), Lose your life (Stereoskop), Lazy (Deep Purple), Something Stupid (Frank Sinatra), Sanctuary (The Cult), What I am (Edie Brickell), Cara o Cruz (El Último de la Fila), Camino Soria (Gabinete Caligari), La Golondrina (habanera tradicional), Walking on the sun (Smash Mouth), Serenade (Steve Miller Band), California dreaming (The Mamas & the Papas), What difference does it make (The Smiths), Engánchate conmigo (Los Rodríguez), Heroes and Villains (Beach Boys), In dreams (Roy Orbison).
Feminine voice: Sarah Cracknell
Masculine voice: Stuart Staples, Jim Morrison.
Guitarists: Paco De Lucía, Ritchie Blackmore.
Musician on stage: Ian Astbury (The Cult), Ian Curtis (Joy Division).
Museums: Archeological Museum of Athens, Pergamon Museum (Berlin).
Indoor breathtaking sight: Ishtar Gate, at the Pergamon Museum.
Painters: Velázquez, Dalí, Sorolla.
Cinema: Cine Doré (Madrid), Forum des Images (Paris).
Beaches: Playa del Inglés-Maspalomas (Gran Canaria), Playa del Mago (Mallorca), Cala Compte (Ibiza-despite the dogs and especially their owners), Oriñón (Cantabria), Cantarriján (Granada).
Novel: The Count of Montecristo (Alexandre Dumas).
Stories: The Iliad and the Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Thousand and One Nights.
Detested enterprises: All those I am customer of. And more widely: All those that move to the third world in order to “create wealth among the community”, and –at the same time- remain in the first world providing “excellence in the customer service”.
Spanish towns: Salamanca, Toledo, Granada, León, Cuenca.
Places to go back in history: Toledo, Palatino (Rome), Roman and Greek Agoras (Athens).
Myths in ancient history: Babylon, Uruk, Nineveh, The Phoenicians, Carthage, The Argonauts, the Trojan War, Hector, Romulus and Remus, Hannibal and the Punic Wars, the Library of Alexandria, King David, crossing of the Red Sea, Minoan civilization and the eruption of Thera, Numancia, Viriatus, Delos Island, Hammurabi, Pharaons Hatshepsut and Tumotsis, the Celts, Thermopylae, Ra, Caracalla.
One beer: Grimbergen
Wine: Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Toro.
