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Esteban

La Ciudad y Los Perros

One of the most useful non-sailing apps we use on City Dogs is called Plex -- we use it to watch or mirror downloaded media from our laptops and phones to our television through our wireless router when we're anchored out and don't have WiFi -- and when we do have a decent internet connection, we use Plex to stream all kinds of movies and television shows through shared servers.

Plex tries to match file names up with entries in the IMDB, leading to strange situations like when a video I made of Mischa on the bow of the boat looking at dolphins during a recent crossing with the file name City Dogs gets matched up with the poster for a 1985 film called La Ciudad y Los Perros -- based on a 1963 novel by Mario Vargas Llosa.

I really love the poster. It has energy and tells a story. I think I'm going to have to make a City Dogs version of the movie poster with Andrea and Mischa -- or one with Fozzie and I -- or maybe both -- so stay tuned for those...

Originally published in 1963 as La Ciudad y Los Perros, the novel has been reprinted in English as The Time of the Hero. I definitely prefer the original title -- the Time of the Hero just doesn't have the same gritty punch as The City and the Dogs. Set in the Leoncio Prado Military Academy in Peru, the novel is so scathing in its depiction of the institution that authorities at the academy "burned 1,000 copies and condemned the book as a plan by Ecuador to denigrate Peru."

Plex is also insisting that the seventh season of Game of Thrones is actually the seventh season of House -- a medical drama I've never had the misfortune of watching. Plex also thinks I have Breaking Bad: The Movie, Grifted, The Fly 2, The Temp Barracuda, and other films I've never, ever, even considered adding to my digital collection.

It's not perfect -- nothing on a sailboat ever is -- it's a work in progress like so many other things (like our floorboards) but the important thing is that Plex is working when we have an internet connection and when we don't. It's not just about our own television and film watching needs, though.

When we get back from our charters sailing and snorkeling, it's super easy to put the memory card in my laptop, drag the files over to the folder that automatically syncs with Plex, turn on the television, and watch GoPro hi-def videos on the big screen.

Then our guests decide which videos they want to keep. It's just one of the small things we're doing to help make our sailing experiences as special, personalized and unique as possible.

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