Tuesday, March 24, 2009

cross cultural resonance

Valencia was too many shades of incredible.

Las Fallas was my kind of festival. lots of fire, lots of pyrotechnics and music in the streets. the big firework show lasted for 30 minutes and the whole time was filled with finale grade material or better. i have video and photos but as usual i am having trouble uploading them, below is a sneak preview. just imagine the best firework display you have seem times ten. also all day long there were salutes and other smaller noise displays in the street. this wasnt eve the main night. thursday for la crema, there was a parade that may have a Christan name but was completely pagen. people dressed as devils dancing with fire. there is a video of this too. the night ended with fires that were multiple stories high and more fireworks. ¡que perfecto!

i spent the rest of my week going to all the parks (discovering slumbering dragons), wandering the maze of streets and discovering lots of awesome graffiti, climbing all the tall 1000 year old towers, spending time in bookshops and comic book shops (oh the novelty of reading my favorite books n spanish) and going to an art museum.

i climbed this tree and took a nap.
Imagen 020

i also spent a lot of time with the couple who hosted me through the program "couch surfing." They were the most serendipitous part of my trip. i knew i was in the right place when i saw a roland barthes text on their shelf. i also knew how much of a theory dork i am. ha. they are both jazz musicians and eat pescatarian. thus my ears, mouth, and nose were delighted. we shared meals eating great food, listening to instrumental music and discussing the possibilities of non-verbal language formation. i managed to talk in depth about my thesis in Spanish, with a little help from them because they are learning english. also a friend of theirs is studying fashion and is working on a project with disabled folks. i hope to open communication with her and who know maybe i will manage to find a job in the fashion field here in spain, a thing i only had vague hopes about.

it was so refreshing to really connect with someone. i have been very lonely in ronda because for what ever reason i have not met people that i resonate with. but vincent, haba and i resonated with a cross cultural harmony, especially when we realized we are both followers of walter tompson´s sound painting orchestra. they actually trained with him. oh sweet envy and respect. there is just something about sharing a living space and daily rituals that bring people together. we cooked for each other. i walked their dog. i borrowed her pants. we celebrated our common humanity with awareness and desire to connect beyond the superficial level. i hope to know these people for years to come.



here is link to a video!

1 comment:

  1. excellent.
    I patiently and eagerly await visuals.

    ReplyDelete