This website is a virtual proof that I'm awesome https://blog.cento.red/ N woke up early today (it’s Sunday, of course) and after cuddling for a while and talking about her dreams, she said she wants me to read to her. She went to pick up a book and came back with these: She looked for the brain in the anatomy book... Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2026-06-28-sunday-reading/ https://blog.cento.red/2026-06-28-sunday-reading/ There are two older men sitting in the row ahead of me. The one on the left is making a grand spectacle of buckling his seat-belt. He fumbles with it as if it were the most critical task in the world, displaying his struggle in a way that practically demands... Wed, 03 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2026-06-03-the-traveler/ https://blog.cento.red/2026-06-03-the-traveler/ She is looking forward to the museum visit and keeps asking which one we are going to. Is it this one?, she asks, pointing to every official-looking building we pass. Or this one? When we are just a few steps from the entrance an older lady approaches us and asks... Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0500 https://blog.cento.red/2025-11-24-family-day/ https://blog.cento.red/2025-11-24-family-day/ Almost every day after kindergarten, N and I hang around while she has a snack or plays with the other kids. The adults make small talk — the weather, the weekend, some new little discovery. People wander past, mostly tourists looking for a famous attraction nearby. A handful of locals... Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0500 https://blog.cento.red/2025-11-12-Hollow/ https://blog.cento.red/2025-11-12-Hollow/ In the game you’re the kid and I’m the kid, she tells me. And our father is dead. I was surprised. Where did this come from? But that’s very sad, I tell her. I don’t think I want to do that. It’s just in the game. I know it is... Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2025-10-23-Playing-Dead/ https://blog.cento.red/2025-10-23-Playing-Dead/ We’re standing in front of this collage of cool images hanging on the wall. We look at the people in it, and I tell her their names while she tries to repeat them. Nelson Mandela. Charlie Chaplin. Frank Zappa. Alain Delon. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec — that one gets us laughing... Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2025-10-13-The-Way-We-Go/ https://blog.cento.red/2025-10-13-The-Way-We-Go/ What a strange little movie! What a great idea: what if someone’s eyes are so dense that it takes light 7 years to pass through them? Just think about it: the light from the sun needs 8 minutes to reach the earth. Why wouldn’t it be possible for the light... Thu, 31 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2025-07-31-Slow-Light/ https://blog.cento.red/2025-07-31-Slow-Light/ There have been months without watching any movies. And then—bang—I watched a whole bunch in just a few days. I don’t care much about spoilers, so beware! (Actually, spoilers can make you enjoy stories even more.) All of Us Strangers It starts slowly but then introduces a cool idea. The... Tue, 15 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2025-07-15-It's-been-a-while!/ https://blog.cento.red/2025-07-15-It's-been-a-while!/ Some of little N’s friends can already ride a bike. Little N wanted to learn too. So last week, every day after kindergarten, we went home, took out her bike, made a loop out of a beach towel for her to slide into—so I could hold her steady—and off we... Tue, 08 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2025-07-08-Bike-Riding/ https://blog.cento.red/2025-07-08-Bike-Riding/ I like Iñárritu and saw most of his films. Babel, Birdman, The Revenant, and Biutiful, of course (what a movie that is!). The other day I tried Bardo. I tried because I haven’t managed to watch it all and I don’t know if I will. But the opening scene! Man!... Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0500 https://blog.cento.red/2024-02-23-Flying/ https://blog.cento.red/2024-02-23-Flying/ Little N has an eye for Mickey Mouse. She doesn’t really know who Mickey Mouse is. She hasn’t seen the cartoons: she doesn’t know they exist. She doesn’t even know what a cartoon is. But she can spot the character everywhere: a comics store ad sticking out from the side... Tue, 23 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500 https://blog.cento.red/2024-01-23-Mickey-Mouse/ https://blog.cento.red/2024-01-23-Mickey-Mouse/ It is Thursday night. We are in the underground. R is sitting across from me. On the other side of the car, there is a girl, teenager, perhaps, ready for a night out. Some makeup (as much as one can see around the FFP2 mask), styled hair, shiny fingernails, big... Sat, 05 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0500 https://blog.cento.red/2022-03-05-the-other-side/ https://blog.cento.red/2022-03-05-the-other-side/ For a few days, during Christmas last year, we had guests from abroad. R is getting used to hearing people speak English around him and he is trying to learn the language better. He usually gets excited and uses all sorts of words and phrases he heard in movies. Last... Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500 https://blog.cento.red/2022-02-21-the-wishing-stone/ https://blog.cento.red/2022-02-21-the-wishing-stone/ Whoosh. WHOOOOOOOooooossshhhhhhhh. What does whoosh mean? The word itself is a sound, an onomatopoeia (a word that mimics the sound it’s describing). It has some kind of sudden movement but also a flow and drive. For the founders of the WHOOSH group, it means rebellious optimism and engagement with urbanism,... Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2020-10-10-whoosh-the-rebellious-optimists/ https://blog.cento.red/2020-10-10-whoosh-the-rebellious-optimists/ WIKiPhilo is an independent institute focused on nurturing curiosity and self-discovery in children and young adults. We needed flyers advertising our events in public spaces, i.e., parks, over the summer 2020, since, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were not able to continue the dialogue in the classrooms. Bauhaus design... Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2020-09-10-wikiphilo-philosophy-and-kids/ https://blog.cento.red/2020-09-10-wikiphilo-philosophy-and-kids/ It happened at a poetry slam evening in a venue full of mostly young people who were ready to jump on the stage and declaim verses, words close to their hearts. More seasoned slamming poets were also present and, I assume, at least a few were willing to go up... Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2019-07-12-poets/ https://blog.cento.red/2019-07-12-poets/ I had an hour to spare until my next appointment and decided to spend it in the cafe of a museum nearby, a place which is usually very little frequented, at least during those afternoon hours when it’s either too late or too early to do anything. I had enough... Fri, 05 Jul 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2019-07-05-customer-support/ https://blog.cento.red/2019-07-05-customer-support/ The kid is riding another Star Wars wave these days. They come and go, these waves, feeding on the colorful books he collected, detailing the multitude of future, non-existent worlds. He tells me about what kind of beings or robots are better suited for what kind of jobs, how their... Mon, 24 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2019-06-24-darth-vader/ https://blog.cento.red/2019-06-24-darth-vader/ I left the recorder on for almost an hour last night while at the KHM, at the Rothko exhibition. With the exception of an alarm (that lasted for a few seconds after it went off when somebody got too close to a canvas) and the sound of very faint, almost... Fri, 14 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2019-06-14-sound-field/ https://blog.cento.red/2019-06-14-sound-field/ There is this picture of Grace Jones taken by Jean-Paul Goude: Except that it is not a picture, but a composite image — lots of shots molded into one in order to produce this almost impossible pose. It became popular. It went around the world. I didn’t know much about... Wed, 12 Jun 2019 00:00:00 -0400 https://blog.cento.red/2019-06-12-mixing-grace/ https://blog.cento.red/2019-06-12-mixing-grace/