Free theme - My hobbie, Magic: The Gathering

On of my first hobbies are the card board games. Since I was child, I’ve played card board games of every type: from Pokemon cards to Lucha libre cards, from local card games and póker. But, among all the card board games, one of them is the most important in the recent history: Magic, The Gathering.

I play Magic with my very best Friends, as a ritual: every week we reunite for talk about strategies and test our decks, in a festive and fraternal context. We are Magic players since we were children, and we’ve follow the game for almost 20 years! So, a central question is: why this card board game is so attractive for us?

Magic:The Gathering was released in 1993, created by a PhD in maths student, Richard Garfield. The game represent a battle between wizards. Each of them had a library with sorceries and spells, that allows invoque creatures. Each three months, Magic realeases an expansion of the game that represents the journey of the wizards for the magic planes, printing almost one thousand new cards in one year!

The principal chatarteristic that I love of Magic is the art. Magic is characterised for it illustration, with profesional artists and designers whom create visual masterpieces that make game a very attractive objetc. Indeed, colecctionism is an important activity for Magic players.

This game has most of 20 million of players around the World, with championships that rewards more of 20.000 US, and with profesional players that live playing Magic. Magic cards are translated to 20 languages, and all the important cities in the world have a big store for play Magic. For example, Tokyo has Hareruya, a Magic store for 500 players!  In Chile, stores are not too big, but are very active.

In Chile, there is an active community of Magic players. One can find tournaments every day, national and regional championships every month, and, since two years ago, Santiago receives players from all the world to play the Grand Prix of Santiago every year. Magic circuit is very competitive in Santiago, but I’ve clasified for the 2018 Grand Prix, and I hope to reach a good position in it. Meanwhile, I’m practicing with my friends and some bottles of wine, for testing my phisycal resistance as a wizard.

The best concert I've attended: Björk

One of the first aesthetic experiences that forged my taste have been Björk’s music. I knew her music in the 90’s, thanks to my brother, when she published her album Post in 1995. Björk is an icelandic musician (Iceland is a carachterised for have a 70% of musician population!), pioneer in multiple forms of artisctic productions: in her begginings, she plays punk music, leadering a band called Sugarcubes; then, she was influenced by hip-hop, techno, and trip-hop, making a rare mix between that styles; in the 90’s, she made some pop and funny music, but also some deep and dark songs that made of her music something undescriptible; in recent years, she has made some artistic interventions in importante places, like the Royal Academy of Arts in London or the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

                I really fall in love with Björk in a film directed by Lars von Trier, that Björk starred: Dancer in the dark. For that film, Björk won the Cannes award for best actress and was internationally recognized as a complete artist.

                Was 2007 when Björk came to Chile for first time. I was 17 years old, and I had no money for tickets. But occurred me a fan’s miracle: the girl I was dating, was a real fan of Björk too, and she was working in a radio station. The radio made a contest and she fixed the results (laughs)!  The concert was in a really cold stadium, San Carlos de Apoquindo, but nothing could ruin our violent happiness.

A country I’d like to visit: Japan

A kind of knowledge that I give much value is to visit places of the World. Travelling means discover a new culture, a new language, and a new World! That’s because I want go to a place where people, cosmovision, and practices are very different to mine.

              Through novels, films, and comics (that they call manga) I’ve knew some of the japanese culture. They really appreciate the formalities, rituals, and solemnity in every aspect of their daily life, respecting to elders and traditions, at a level that is unintelligeble for us. It doesn’t mean that I want to follow their culture, but to know how these practices work in a society. I think, for example, political manifestation or atypical forms of life in Japan are unthinkable, and is interesting to me understand why this is just like that.

              Japan is for me a mysterious place. For one hand, is one of the principal culture industry (with their cinema, visual arte, aesthethic, music, manga, and anime), characterised for the rare and incomprehensible; and, for the other hand, is a place that exercise the discipline, the formality, and the solemnity own of an old world.

                I want go to Japan for a life experience and, obviosuly, for the food! Did you know that Japan is the place with more awarded restaurants for square meter?