Music

Musica Oaxaca

Posted on by Laughingnomad

 I have never been in a place where there is such continuous dance and music…of all kinds.  This week we were treated to several candelas (in English candle)…”the power coming from a light source.” A candela is a dancing march in the street with hugely oversize  dancing “puppets” and a band with folks following behind. Most of them this week were students celebrating the end of the school year…following along behind a band and a beer truck or grocery cart with a beer keg…dancing and hooping it up.  One that followed the street in front of my apartment stopped for a few moments and turned toward the building to play for my gay apartment manager and his friends while they danced away on the sidewalk.

Then there are the band concerts in the Zócalo in the evenings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday generally starting at 6pm. Noon concerts on Wednesday and Saturday.

The Oaxacan State Band Concert plays weekly on Sunday in the Zocalo

A wonderful tradition, there is Danzón with the Marimba Band weekly on wednesdays at 6 :30pm in the Zocalo.  A tradition imported from Cuba, the danzón is a stately dance with syncopation. The citizens of Oaxaca gather weekly to dance and watch the dancers.There is a Jazz Concert weekly on Saturday from 5-7 in the Centro Arte Biulu.  Last night I went with my friend Jae to listen to her saxaphonist partner, Miguel,  play with his band after a video movie of the great Coltrane.

There is an Open Mike for Poets and Musicians weekly on Tuesdays at 8pm  at La Nueva Babel

Last Tuesday, June 30 – 8 pm – You had your choice between a free Organ Concert: Claudia Reyes Saldaña Basílica de la Soledad, or the Dance Group from Ciénega, Zimatlan at the Casa de la Cultura Oaxaquena

On Thursday, July 09 – 4 pm – A free Dance Group from the Mixteca (Huajuapan de Leon) in the Jardín el Pañuelito will perform…an event that had been previously delayed by the swine flu.

Friday, July 10 – 8 pm – Free Concert: Colegio de Oaxaca Chorus at Colegio de Oaxaca. The chorus under the direction of Christophe LaFontaine will perform works by Bach, Bruchner, Dowland, Mozart among others.
Saturday, July 11 – 4 pm – Free Dance: Music, Dance and Costumes of the Mixteca at the Jardín el Pañuelito Constitución & 5 de Mayo
Sunday, July 12 – 5 to 7pm – $50 pesos at the door Jazz in a Tropical Garden at the Casa Colonial Miguel Negrete 105 with Miguel Samperio (my friend’s partner), Charles Gray, Pablo Porras and Ornell Martinez and some of the best margueritas in town.
Monday, July 20 – 10 am & 5 pm – $400 pesos Guelaguetza 2009 at the Guelaguetza Stadium which you can see from my apartment veranda.
Friday, July 24 – 8 pm – $100 pesos Dance: Hilos de Viento at the Teatro Juárez
Av. Juárez at Llano Park

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, for the month.

“If I Should Fall From Grace With God”

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I used to play Shane McGowan and The Pogues…turn it up…and do housework. The kids, when they were little, would groan, plug their ears and beg me to turn it off.

Shane’s growl is nearly unintelligible so these are some of the lyrics from this nationalist song from Ireland:

“If I should fall from grace with god
Where no doctor can relieve me
If Im buried neath the sod
But the angels wont receive me

Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

This land was always ours
Was the proud land of our fathers
It belongs to us and them
Not to any of the others”

Zocalo At Night

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Intimidating, the Governor thought the tourists would feel safer with them there…among other political reasons.

Gone from the Zocalo are the PFP with their menacing night sticks and bullet-proof vests and their rifles and sidearms…for shooting and for tear gas. Although the night before, Steve said, a large group of State police were gathered at one corner of the Zocalo…apparently responding to a rumor.

Gone are the teachers and the banners including one huge picture of Marx, Engles, Trotsky…and STALIN! Always meant to go up and ask the kids under the banner if they knew anything about Stalin who killed 30,000 of my husband’s German compatriots in the Ukraine by forced starvation. And that was the least of it. People buried food to give them a little extra time before the expected end. I have been unable to trace any remaining relatives through genealogy channels any further back than Bob’s grandfather who immigrated into Saskachewan Canada and then North Dakota.

Last night, balmy and breezy, Steve, Oscar and Ana’s mother and boyfriend and I took a leisurely walk to the people-filled Zocalo for dinner at the Jardin. The Oaxacan cheese-stuffed chili rellenos with salsa roja was a D. Every night there is entertainment…last night, about 10pm, after a music recital, just as we were leaving, they were setting up for dancing within a large circle of chairs. The restaurant’s marimba players were hauling out their instruments for another evening in front of the sidewalk tables. A hilarious clown was readying his routine.
A bit afraid we might get pulled in to be the straight guys, we headed home. Besides Oscar was tired and that means trouble.

I shall have to venture out more at night before the teachers return for their annual strike in May. Besides, back in the States, there will be no more late night/early morning forays into the lovely lively outdoors…unless you live in New York City in the summer.

One thing I want to know, though, is why the roosters never know what time it is in Oaxaca!

A Typical Sunday in Oaxaca

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Made another trip to the Tlacalula Sunday Market last week with my next door neighbors Ana, Steve and little Oscar. Bought some carved coconut shell halves made for drinking our wonderful Mexican chocolate and then in my impending senility just walked off and left them on the table…not the first time this has happened. But with my new telescopic lens I did get some nice long shots of some of the colorful women vendors that come down out of the Sierra mountains to sell their turkeys, baskets, vegetable produce etc. They don’t like their pictures taken…not respectful. And they often feel that to have their picture taken means that their spirit is stolen…so have to be surreptitious.

Then we tried to find the little town of San Marcos high on a hill west of Tlacalula. After wending back and forth through Maguay, vegetable fields and pastures on dirt paths (could hardly call them roads) and with a little direction from a shy old campesino in a checkered shirt and white straw hot and with a wooden stick in his hand for herding a few cattle, we finally see before us a large green sign: “Servicios de Salud de Oaxaca. San Marcos Tlapazola, Tlacolula.”

As we slowly enter the tiny town we see an older guy sitting on the steps of a tienda…seemingly asleep with his head draped down his chest…but we think it was the tranquilizing effects of his afternoon mescal. Winding our way up a hill above the town for a few great pictures we come across a group of giggling women and girls standing in their Sunday best in front of a covered plaza. “Get their picture,” I urge Ana but when she pulls out the camera they all run back through the gates laughing…ignoring the exhortations of a group of men and boys on the roof above. Shyly peeking around the corner they tell Ana there is a wedding that day. On the way back through the town we see another plaza full of people. I stop to look. Two cute young girls walk up to the car and ask our names and where we are from. They were also celebrating the wedding…their primo (cousin). A couple of men drinking mescal next to them joined in on the conversation…in English. It is not uncommon to find old men speaking the English they learned during their norteno migrations. The young ones are all up north…the small villages nearly empty. It was a Sunday and all the vendors were in Tlacalula so we will have to return one week-day to buy some unglazed pottery that the women are famous for in this town of San Marcos.

On our way back to Oaxaca City we stopped by Mica and Bardo’s in Huayapam armed with beer and the makings for white russians. Mica cooked up a great cena and I gave her a cd I burned of an Italian singer that is popular in Brazil…Ornella Vanoni. I had used one of her songs, “L’Appuntamento” (also made popular in the US by the soundtrack of Oceans 11) in a video I made of our trip to Hierve el Agua and Mica had asked for more of her music. Later four men friends from Puerto Escondido stopped by…a typical Sunday at Mica and Bardo’s.

Learning Spanish Amid “False Normalcy”

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Have been taking Spanish lessons in one of the local schools…Amigos del Sol. Three hours a day sitting in a chair. Only one other student in my classes so I can’t space out. Present, past and future. I have memorized them but try recalling which verb ending you need in a conversation! Practice, practice, practice, Rojelio, the school’s director, tells me. So I am taking a couple weeks off to talk to Mexicans. One of my Spanish teachers says Miles Davis is his favorite jazz musician. He says it is very difficult finding jazz music here so I burned some CD’s of Miles and John Coltrane who he had never heard of. Will be interesting to get his reaction.

I am having the brakes checked on my car. Coming down out of the Sierra Norte a few weeks ago the brakes got hot and my foot hit the floor-board! Next, an appointment to have my teeth cleaned. Trying to get ahold of Josh and Amy in Beijing…and check up on Doug in Oregon. Greg usually returns my calls.

Finally found the right office to inquire about my car having to cross the border at six months. With Ana’s translating help I found out I don’t have to go to Guatemala by Feb 2 as I thought…as long as I have an FM3 year long visa I am ok. Still would like to drive through Chiapas to Guatemala but at least i can do it in my own time. An old friend is threatening to come visit but will believe it when I see it.

We don’t have TV, so often in the evenings when Oscar is in bed, Ana and Steve come over to watch movies with me on my 20″ flat screen that i finally got a connector for. “Does it have English subtitles,” I ask the kid on the street selling bootleg movies for $1.50 each. Oh, yes, he says with great certainty. So yesterday I slide the DVD of “Volver” into the computer and guess what…no English subtitles. Was excited to watch “Little Miss Sunshine” again and for Ana to see it. Dubbed voices! Won’t due having Robert Duvall “speaking” in Spanish! Most of these movies have been made with hand-held camcorders pointed at a movie screen and the audio is terrible. Then there is the problem of opening a case and the movie you thought you purchased is a different one altogether! I can rent legitimate movies at a rental store if I can figure out which titles go with which movies. They retitle movies in Spanish that often have little to do with the commercial title so you have to decipher the Spanish description and look at the names of actors to guess which movie you are renting. “Children of Man” has been renamed an unrecognizable “Sons Of the Men” (Hijos de los Hombres) which is a whole different connotation. “Pointe Blank” becomes “Punto de Quiebra.” Fine distinctions are difficult to translate into Spanish and the same goes for Spanish into English.

Then there is the almost daily fireworks. Yesterday, Sunday, fireworks at 5:30am. What’s the deal I ask Ana. St. Thomas Day she said. Oh.

In the meantime the daily news in the Noticias and La Jornada is not good. Since the APPO was driven out of Oaxaca City, it appears that the Governor’s battle has been moved to the pueblos around the state. It has been reported that about 250 schools are engaged in physical (and sometimes gun) battles over which teachers to allow in their classrooms, a fight involving the CCL, Section 22, Section 59, parents, PRI, etc. While the teachers were on strike, other people, often without credentials, were hired in some schools to take their places. Now there is disagreement as to which teachers should continue teaching. 59 and CCL are the anti-APPO forces.
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Mexican Cumbia Dancing

Posted on by Laughingnomad

I had forgotten how much fun it is to dance to Mexican music! I think I am a Mexican trapped in a gringo body! Last Friday, Gerardo and his mom, Socorroo, invited me, a few of her friends, Michael, a charming very long-haired young guy from LA who is staying with the family while he studies English, Chin, a young guy from San Francisco but originally from Taiwan, an Australian couple who will be moving to one of the apartments in my building and a few others to go dancing with her at El Pescador at 510 Miguel Cabrera St…only a couple blocks from my apartment. Two bands play the club…one up and one down. The one up was a kind of Mexican cumbia band with a drum pad, an incredible singer, a bass guitar and electronic keyboard. We started at 4pm and after many drinks, including the local Mescal and some finger food delicioso, we closed up the place at 10:30 when everyone drifted off to other clubs.

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Chin and one of Gerardo’s mom’s friends.

Chin was really cute. His face was red all night…blushing from all the attention he was getting from the middle-aged Mexican women in the group who were having great fun dancing in their very suggestive way…especially when we formed a circle putting each person inside by turns! Chin will never be the same after Mexico!

I was sitting next to the Australian woman who I thought was Mexican. After some time I finally turned to her to greet her in Spanish. She laughed a great laugh as she answered me in English! In past lives her husband was a heavy metal rocker and his hearing is nearly gone so he is now playing Mexican music. His wife is also in the music business where they met and married two years ago. They are a hoot as many Australians are! It will be fun to have them in the apartment building. But don’t get a TV, her husband warned me…you’ll just be tempted to listen to English!

After the club closed, Gerardo’s mom and I joined Gerardo and his classmates who were having farewell drinks for their visiting law professor from Mexico City at an upscale place called El Pichon north of the city. The group is studying to be tour guides and I had a rather interesting conversation with a twenty-something young guy sitting next to me who wanted to know all the terms for making love. Why is it that some middle aged American women want to be with young Mexican guys in Mexico, he asked. This information was new to me. Some tour guide he is going to make, I thought.

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Two of the girls in the tour guide class.

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Law professor and Socorro in earnest conversation.

Attempting a conversation in Spanish with the law professor, I learned a fine distinction between words. We were talking about the coyotes who take Mexican migrants across the border to work. I mistakenly called them ciyotes with a long “i”. Puzzled, he finally figured out I was refering to coyotes with a long “o”. He laughed and told me that, ironically, a ciyote is the sole of the foot (or shoe). A coyote is an animal…and also what the curriers are called. You never forget words that are corrected on-the-spot.

This Mexico gig is going to be alright, I thought at the end of the night. But going to have to figure out an excuse for turning down drinks in this country!

Thai Rock Band

Posted on by Laughingnomad

After dinner with Susan, Leila and I looked for some music and found a night club with a terrific Thai band playing Rod Stewart, Eagles and Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” Leila turned into a 15 year old…singing along with great passion! 11:30pm and the club closed.

Leaving the club I noticed a cute young guy in charge of parking motorbikes across the street sporting a T-Shirt with “Perfect Man” on the front. He had spent three years as a novice monk so his English was pretty good. He laughed when I explained to him that I thought the reference was to the “Perfect 10” that a model/actress made popular a few years ago in the U.S.