A Very Good Friday

People are always wanting to ask me about my family (in English and Castellano) because asking for and supplying personal information is one of the first things people tend to learn in structured lessons in another language. I have to reply using simple vocabulary, because I only have a limited repertoire of Spanish, or they may only have a limited English vocabulary. So, one class was asking me about my son (Julian 18 years) and I was explaining that he has been at home playing and composing music on the guitar, drums and computer for most of the year, that he is a ¨good¨boy and helps out at home in return for this self-indulgent interlude in his career path. However, he is now staying with his godmother in the outback of Australia, helping her in her Motel. (See one of my earlier posts for more info. Not sure how to organise direct link).

Anyway, Roxana, the English tutor of the class, told me that Julian reminded her of her son, Juan, who is in a rock band (La Posta) on the point of releasing their first CD. (Again, refer earlier post for link to You Tube).

On Friday night, (Good Friday) Roxana invited me to her home for dinner (empanadas - very Argentine) with her delightful family. We then went, with the 83 year old abuela (rock-granny!) to a ¨gig¨at the local arts venue, which had once been the train station. Great place but my camera batteries had flattened, so no images. Juan, and Roxana´s son-in-law were to be guest performers at another (Astro Bonzo)band´s gig. Apparently when they are each playing in each other´s home town, they do guest spots for each other. It was a great performance... I realised that the main act must have been a band of some success as they had their own roadie to-ing and fro-ing with equipment. All the songs seemed to be originals until the drummer did an amazingly long and exhausting drum solo which very nicely segued into Led Zep´s ¨Whole Lotta Love¨. Now that I could understand. It was brilliant and the best version I´ve heard since seeing the original at Western Springs many years ago. I would hazard a guess and say that I would have been the only one there who would have ever seen Led Zep perform live. By this stage, I had run out of battery for my camera and I wish I had taken spares. However, Julian, I tried to get the Marshall amp in the picture for you.

Roxana and her 83 year old mother-rock-granny and I were standing and had a good view. It was a reasonably small venue (about the size of the Waiuku Town Hall, for those of you playing at home) and it wasn´t too crowded. Although it was loud, it was an excellent sound... and I´m sure Mark, Laura and Julian would have enjoyed it and been able to discuss the music´s merits far better than I could. The lead singer was fascinating to watch - a brilliant front man in a Mick-Jaggeresque way with postures and strutting and some potentially dangerous moves with a microphone stand. He looked a little Jesus-like (would be an excellent choice for JC Superstar) which seemed appropriate for a Good Friday gig. In my pursuit of investigating what is Argentine culture, I noticed that people didn´t seem to dance or move around to the music, they were more inclined to sit or stand and watch - although everyone was enjoying it and cheered loudly and appropriately as required. No one seemed at all surprised to see an obviously elderly person at the concert (the abuela, not me!).

I have a ¨hot off the press¨ copy of the CD by La Posta (Juan´s band) called ¨Raices¨which means roots ... I think, and I am looking forward to playing it loudly at home. It sounds excellent on my computer and I´m sure you will like it, Mark and Julian.

Spot the Marshall amp in the far right hand corner, Julz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4AWIosJYP8 Here is a link to the band ¨Astro Bonzo¨ doing ¨Whole Lotta Love¨ somewhere else last year. It's obviously not at its best through a computer, but you´ll get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhPlg6lcpZI Here is a link to You tube with the song that Juan and Licho from La Posta did with Astro Bonzo at a previous gig. My film clip is resisting uploading.

Sleeping Dogs:

On Saturday morning, I bravely walked by myself from home to Mélisa´s shop. It is only a few blocks away, but all roads and most houses look similar to me so Daniel drew me a map and off I set. I passed a few stalls of ¨artesanos¨along the way and bought a few bits and pieces and eventually safely arrived at the destination. I did a bit of shopping, which takes surprisingly longer than expected when things may look the same superficially but require careful examination before committing to purchase. For example, I thought I had bought a CD of children´s songs in Spanish, when in actual fact, I discovered later on that day, that I had bought a CD of ambient music suitable for young children. Fortunately it was not too expensive a mistake.

I walked back home with Mélisa at 1pm (her shop closed until about 5pm) and I couldn´t help but notice dogs lying everywhere, in the shade, in blissful repose. It was as if, suddenly at one o´clock, all the dogs just drop and sleep. There were quite a few more, but I couldn´t stop and photograph them all... but you get the idea.

The following two pictures were taken of dogs along the river side walk at Paraná. One guy was taking his dog for a swim in the fountain and I caught him just as he was pulling the dog out. The river side is faintly like Mission Bay in Auckland, especially in the way people use it.

Almost literally, every man and his dog walk or jog along there. Families have picnics and groups of people meet and many people are sharing mate. Mindful of my previous observations and comments on the local dogs, I couldn´t resist this photo of a dog, exercising himself. He looked as purposeful as every other two-legged jogger. Leashes? Owners? Who needs them!

A few random observations:

- How would you try to explain the word ¨sea lion¨, understanding that a literal translation just doesn´t convey the right meaning? Yup! Some things you´ve just gotta demonstrate. Now picture trying to demonstrate the difference between sea lion and walrus. Likewise, how would you say, with few of the specific words needed to accurately describe an anatomically correct pukeko, that it has a tuft of white feathers under its tail. Then, I was trying to explain hot cross buns to someone who hadn´t seen them before ... how would you demonstrate the reason for a cross on the bun? (Shades of The Life of Brian). And, my personal favourite: Mirta (¨parent¨¨ and owner of my address in Parana) described her extended family´s Passover gathering at her mother´s house as a br.........l (avert your eyes, students) because there were about 25 people including active preschoolers and their accessories, food, dishes, chairs, two different tvs going with two different sports games, noise and general merriment. When asked if I understood what she meant, the nearest vocabulary I had to suggest a definition was translated into Spanish as ¨A house of agreeable women?¨

- Argentina has the most beautiful and varied scenery. People in Argentina have the impression that NZ is a most beautiful country ... but, there is nothing on a scenic NZ calendar than can not be equalled or bettered by somewhere in Argentina - it just takes a lot longer getting there in Argentina.

- So many people want to learn English because they feel it is vital in their job or for their future, but few of them see travel as realistically achievable. I have met so many people in Argentina who dream of travelling overseas but it seems to be such an impossible dream because of the current value of the peso.

- Every single taxi driver I have encountered in Paraná has been pleasant, helpful and some have given me cheaper rides when I didn´t have the correct small change. I use up to 5 taxis a day and they have all been quick to arrive and not a single driver has had a word of English apart from ¨All Blacks. Taxi air conditioning consists of an open window, seatbelts are impossible to find and their Castellano is inevitably a gravelly mumble not requiring lip movement. I am almost fluent in discussing the weather with taxi drivers. Fortunately for my communication skills, it has always been perishingly hot. There are several ¨safe¨taxi companies and I have been lucky that there has always been someone around who could make a telephone call for me as my Castellano over the phone to a taxi company would be pretty time-consuming.

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