Ganes de cultura

El 30 de desembre de 2024, el metro de Barcelona va complir 100 anys. En el moment de néixer, però, el suburbà de Londres ja en feia més de 60 que circulava. Amb el relat que segueix, ambientat al Tube victorià, vull homenatjar - in English, of course - un mitjà de transport que, a més de canviar la mobilitat a les grans ciutats de mig món, ha inspirat innombrables ficcions. THE DESCENT London 1863. The air at Paddington Station was a mix of coal, steam, and the nervous anticipation of the pioneers venturing into the recently opened underground. For most, it was the latest marvel of the Victorian era, the Metropolitan, the world's first underground railway line. For Vic McColl, it was a descent into darkness that perhaps coincided too closely with his own past, a darkness he had struggled to bury under a new sky. Vic McColl had spent a decade building a new life, brick by brick, far from the misty docks of the East End, far from those nights of thick fog and sharp knives that had l...

I have just found in a well-known Toulouse megastore a real treasure: the full episodes that Alfred Hitchcock directed for his famous TV show, Alfred Hitchcock presents . It is a collection made in France that contains three videotapes, in the original version, subtitled in French, with seventeen episodes dating from 1955 to 1961. For those not familiar with this show, it is essential to know that it was an absolute success in those years on the CBS Network. In fact, the main attraction was Hitchcock himself, very popular in the mid-1950s, who, weekly, used to introduce and close each episode in a humorous way. He only directed a few episodes but, believe me, it is worth watching. It is quite usual that some talented cinema directors start out on television, like Steven Spielberg, for instance, who signed some Columbo episodes. But it is not the case of Alfred Hitchcock: he began his career in the twenties in Great Britain and during the fifties he produced his best work. That is why ...

My least dear Eunice, I am writing to wish you the worst time of your life in prison. Have you already realized that your murder was completely useless? Never mind: life imprisonment will give you time enough to think about it. You killed the Coverdales, who were capable of loving and enjoy life in a way that you could never do, with the only purpose of hiding your own disability. Paradoxically, as a result of your awful and silly behavior, the world knows your secret illiteracy. Why was it so hard for you to confess and remedy it? Eunice, I actually dislike you not only because you are a murderer but because you are also a miserable and unpleasant character. Moreover, you lack personality, so you killed, instigated by that mad and fanatic friend of yours, Joan. You are not a brilliant killer, either, unlike a recent acquaintance of mine, Mr. Ripley, who is a real artist of immorality. If you had been as observant as he is, you would have realized the tape recorder was on and you w...