Stuff

What can I say? She surpassed even my high expectations singing her little heart out and shaking it like a poloroid picture for a good 2 hours. Because of the rain, lack of infrastructure and tapatian penchant for heading to these things at the last minute it took a few hours to get there (normally a 30 minutes journey), involving a tire change among other things… so she waited for most people to arrive before taking the stage. “”Es un honor estar en la casa del gran Vicente Fernández. Gracias por su paciencia por el retraso. Espero que la pasen bien, que canten y bailen”” Gracious to the last. That means that all the reviews in today’s local papers start with this info and her first song, and that’s all they could phone in before going to press…

I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get me camera in, but there were enough mobile phones for some photos to surface soon. 20,000 people were there and it felt like it. I happily joined in with songs way out of my natural “range” and it was a fun smiley evening out with a lovely atmosphere and stellar presentation. Thanks to all the many people who got it together to make it happen, Javier, Meghan, Luisa and co 😀

For those of you interested in the set list, this is nicked from Wikipedia with a few edits “#”s denote my top 10 favourites choons:

* Estoy Aquí #2
* Te Dejo Madrid
* Don’t Bother #10
* Antología #8
* Hey You
* Día de Enero
* Inevitable #7
* Si Te Vas #9
* Obtener Un Sí
* La Tortura # (And yes she dances just like in the video in the last post but one, where does she get the stamina?)
* No #1
* Suerte
* Whenever, Wherever #6
* La Pared
* Pies Descalzos, Sueos Blancos
* Ciega, Sordomuda #4

Encore:

* Ojos Así #5
* Hips Don’t Lie #3

Morissey’s next on the list for world class concerts… We’ve got people waiting for the phone lines to open as I type…

I almost knocked myself out cold yesterday afternoon trying to throw a towel up onto the landing. I was in the act of throwing then suddenly a loud noise, bright lights and me wandering dazed around the room holding me head. So instead of Shakira photos today, have one of me with my special icepack fashioned from my headphones, two plastic bags and the contents of me freezer:

And here’s today’s wanderings around town trying to find an exhibition on “Tequila- Que haría sin él” and then some (quite a distance…)

I liked this, bloke figures out how Stonehenge might have been done. And not just because 3/4s through he used one of my favourite Americanisms: Teeter-totter (a see-saw)

Colbert on Demand
All Family Guy episodes

and, of course YouTube…

It looks like I won’t be able to take me camara to the Shakira concert, sorry Tewbewks. I wrote a comment in this bloke’s blog because he’d put up some photos he’d taken in the Arena. He kindly wrote back saying they almost certainly won’t let camaras in and since I’ll have nowhere to put me camara if they decide not to let it in, I’m not going to risk it.

Yesterday was another stocking up on DVDs day: Season 1 of Arrested Development (never seen it, but been recommended it many times), Nacho Libre (a better quality version, the last one was nigh on unwatchable), Edmond (David Mamet directed stuff with William H. Macy) and Old Boy. Javier came round and we watched Old Boy last night. T’was excellent (4.5 Lulus), it’s a Korean take on the Count of Montecristo and then some. Bloke gets locked up for 15 years for no reason then has 5 days to find out why/who/etc. Can’t really do it justice right now, but I might manage a review one of these days.

Have a butcher’s at the comments, a phonetic alphabet based on (my favourite film evah, The Big Lebowski. D is for Dude etc.

This would be well handy to have as a poster or summink. I’m forever on the phone to TelMex spelling my name. G de Gacho, W de Whiskey, Y de Yelapa y N de Nihilista…

Cold’s almost gone, btw…

From The Telegraph of all places… who manage to dumb down scientific research to a point where it makes almost no sense then fail to provide a link to the original paper… :

A second language ‘changes personality’
By Robert Matthews (Filed: 03/07/2005)

If only Basil Fawlty had learnt a little Spanish.

Psychologists have discovered that people take on the characteristics of foreign nationals when they switch into their language – and such a change in the embittered hotel owner could well have improved life for the hapless Manuel.

The personality changes, however, run deeper than a desire to gesticulate wildly when talking in Italian or to plunge into gloom when speaking Russian. According to research, using different languages alters basic characteristics traits such as extroversion and neuroticism.

Researchers at the University of Texas made the discovery while studying the personality traits of bilingual English and Spanish speakers in the United States and Mexico. They began by establishing the attributes of native speakers, using the results of personality tests on almost 170,000 people.

The results showed that English-speaking Americans are typically more conscientious, agreeable and outgoing than native Mexicans, but also less neurotic.

I always feel more extraverted and less neurotic when I’m in Spanish speaking mode, happily talking to strangers, smiling and all that. But the second bit of the article makes no sense to me. Does racial profiling via 170,000 personality tests make it OK? And how the chingada do you measure “agreeability” and “conscienciousness”? Are they including undocumented immigrants in the test, I’d feel less outgoing too if I thought I was in constant danger of being deported and the government of the county I lived in was hell bent on building a 4.5 metre wall along its border with my home country with funds left over after waging a ill-thought-out and illegal war on abstract nouns and then legalising torture round the world… And then there’s the socioeconomic aspects of the respective countries…

Meanwhile, somewhere in Torquay:

Basil Fawlty: Manuel…
[Basil thwacks him on the forehead with a spoon]
Basil Fawlty: …You’re a waste of space.

WordPress (the blog engine I use) just ate my longish post! Hate it when that happens. Anyroad, I can just about remember what I wrote. It was something heavily to do with self-pity…

I shouldn’t have skimped on the tequila yesterday because as soon as darkness fell my cold transformed into the fluidy achey horribleness that I could really do without… I spent the night awake with a headache and, worse yet, no one to complain to and look for sympathy from. So apologies for using my interweb soapbox to whinge, mis amigos, but I can’t help meself. Sita said all the right things on skype, mind, and she’s no stranger to the old insomnia… Also I found a stash of American strength cold medicines this morning in the bathroom so I’ll work my way through that and see if anything happens… Anyroad, to paraphrase Steven Colbert, that brings us to this week’s Spanish word: Constipado

In Spanish Spanish “Estoy constipado” means I’ve got a cold, thus causing 50% of the hilarity that occurs in Spanish chemists (pharmacies). Constipado means bunged up, only in the Iberian peninsular it refers to your nose and sinuses rather than other parts that your average anglophone might think. Round this way it’s ‘resfriado’ which is a more literal version of cold.

The other 50% comes from the phrase “Estoy embarazado/a” which you’d think means I’m embarassed, but actually means I’m pregnant. The time must fly by.

Just so this post has something of worth, eyes right for a picture of the Basilica in Zapopan from the days when I was a little obsessed with filters in Photoshop. Also, today is el Dia de la Raza, which is considerably less polemic here than Columbus day in the States. If I had a proper job, I’d have the day off… Anyroad, Viva la Raza and all that…

A more careful reading of the Tapatian Scrabble Association’s webpage points to them meeting in Cafe Sandys about 100m from where I went yesterday to try and get in on the scrabble action. That would explain a lot… Never mind. Javier turned up in the afternoon and gave me a lift there on the way to the cinema. I was going to go with him to watch “Nia mala” (bad girl) but luckily I googled it and it turns out that’s the Spanish name for Hard Candy which I’d seen the other week (Recommended, btw- It’s a feminist stalker/psycho thriller film with several unwatchable scenes and you’re forever trying to work out who’s occupying the moral high ground…).

Ana popped round too to share her latest academic success stories, then I went over to Providencia for a pot luck and met a lovely band of folks who have the American School of Gwod in common. I picked up some tips for places to visit in Jalisco and once we have the car here again I’m up for a mission to Mascota and San Sebastian de something or other. It’s all written on the back of a napkin somewhere…

Today finishing off a couple of sites, hopefully. I’m getting mightily sick of Flash to tell the truth. Partly because of the below par coding of the templates I’m adapting, but also because of the need to switch between half a dozen programs to import graphics and so on, which means my creaking computer struggles at times.

In other news, you’ll be happy to hear that my cold’s holding steady. Shall be repeating the same strict regime today, pozole, lime, tequila, zinc etc, today and hoping for the best.

Spanish word of the week for last week: Diapositiva A fancy, but the only, word for “slide” as in a powerpoint slide or slideshow… I was in Irvine, CA, and there’s no Spanish there except when you’re helping yer missus with her presentation on the Spanish version of Office 2003…

Personally, I like how her eyes follow you wherever you are… Or maybe I’m imagining things…

I’m experiencing the beginnings of a cold. I’m blasting it into touch with a well-thought out combination of zinc cough sweet things, chicken pozole with lots of lime juice, gargling with tequila and cutting down on the 10 mile walks…

Now I’m off to find the Tapatian Scrabble Association in Cafe Azteca and see if they’ll let rank amateurs join in.

Had the best flight yet back to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico yesterday night. Since I’d flown the week before I knew all the vaguaries of what to do to / bring / not bring at the airport. Whether to take me shoes off, take the laptop out of the bag, bring liquids etc. On the way out from MX I had a bottle of tequila in me hand luggage and though they confiscated my bottle of water, they let me take the agave juice on board with me because, hey, it’s just tequila… Flying over Northern Mexico we had to divert around some thunderstorms which I’d never seen at night from above. It was spectacular, several flashes per second lit up the clouds like so much electric candy floss. My iPaq wasn’t up to the task of filming it though due to the light conditions and being asked to film stuff after several hours of intense scrabble playing on it. Mexican immigration didn’t even ask me any questions, stamped stuff and let me go on to get me luggage. For the first time I got the “Red Light” at customs. They have a traffic light system where you press the button and it either turns red or green. Red means a hand search of your bags. After the most cursory of frisks before I knew it I was back at the house. Just the way things should be.

Had a bit of a nap and went to ‘rent’DVDs from Santa Tere. I got Almodovar’s new one, Volver (which has been conspicuous in its absence from Mexican cinemas), Thank You for Smoking (which I watched yesterday, 3.5 Lulus), The Butterfly Effect (recommended by El Cala) and, to get the bargain 4 for the price of 3, Reservoir Dogs (it’s been a while). Tacos from Tacos al Pastor on Av. Mexico just to get back in the groove and a quick visit to Starbucks because you don’t want to know what happened the coffee maker over the last 11 days…

I’m trying to find out what’s going on on next Sunday’s Shakira front. There are plenty of tickets left (due to the extortionate price) but I’m not sure who else is going any more. I’ll go on my own if it comes to that…

The easiest border crossing yet… The only question they asked was how long I’d been in Guadalajara and whether I’d got Montezuma’s Revenge. Bizarre… Still I prefer questions about my gastrointestinal health to the usual barrage of interrogation they usually give me. On the plane they didn’t have any customs forms in English so they gave me a Spanish one, which in my sleepy state I filled in in Spanish. The customs bloke read it and saw “Country where passport issued” was Inglaterra. He crossed it out with a red pen and wrote “Mexico”. I despair at the US educational system and their Spanish teachers…

There was banks of fog at LAX so we ended up landing in Ontario Airport and hanging around for half an hour then flying back to LAX, so we got in a bit late. However I managed to sleep through both take offs, both landings and even breakfast so it’s all good.

Sita’s got a lovely little apartment here 5 minutes from Trader Joe’s so I’ve been working on various websites and keeping myself to myself. Later today we’re Downey bound. Strange internet setup here that varies between blisteringly fast and zilch and my lappy won’t connect because of lingering issues with the IE7 beta thing I stupidly installed 6 months ago… But all’s well. Intermittant blogging to follow, cheers!

Practically Orange County as it happens…

What’s the duty-free limit on tequila again?

Working like a demented aichtee-emeller today, the microdosis apothecary site‘s now brimming with products and crappy pictures. Among them Hierba de Sapo (Toad Grass, or Eryngo), Essence of Umbilical Cord and Shark Cartilage (sp?). None of them will cure my lifetime affliction of sneezing when I see bright lights or eat strong mints. However, I’m happy to hear that I’m not alone! I am merely one of 25ish% of the population who suffers from (bit strong that, how’s about ‘experiences’) Photic Sneeze Reflex. Apparently it’s only really an issue if you’re a fighter pilot… All these years I’ve been overstimulating my trigeminal nerve without even knowing it. I bet Annelise is the only reader of this blog who’s heard of that particular ganglion…

I’m not at all sure about this microdosis malarky. Granted, vaccines are often small amounts of the thing you’re trying to gain resistence to. But I’m 99% sure you don’t feed anaemics blood to get them going again. Still, I’m just a humble hispanist so what do I know?

Pinguino Frog’s put up some more film recommendations, in Spanish, but he’s usually right on the money. If your Netflix queue needs livening up with some decent cinema, hie thee hence.

Alrighty, back to work. Hasta pronto…

To use a Californianism, I’m totally psyched! I’ve been a fan for quite a while. Guadalajara’s suddenly getting world class concerts. There was The Strokes the other day, and Franz Ferdinand, Slayer. And soon, Lila Downs, Julieta Venegas and er, Toto, coincidentally enough. Ooh, what to wear?

Here’s some photos from this afternoon’s wanderings round Zapopan with Victor, Jana & Megan. If you’re in the area and fancy seeing some world class photography of the low points of 2005/06 then the exhibition on now at the MAZ is highly recommended… The slideshow below uses a new fangled javascript thing, fingers crossed…

The strangest weather’s going on right now. Huge bolts of lightning arcing across the sky, no rain. And thunder that’s setting off car alarms. Feels very apocalyptic. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto…

A couple of parties last night saved me from my French accordion evening. Even met some nice Germans. I spent a lot of the night speaking Spanish with immediate English translation and learning the occasional German word. None to beat schadenfreude nor “kartopelkopff” (phonetic), my all time favourites…

When I got home I watched part one of Steven Fry on manic depression. Looks to be a very good series that, recommended. And then Mock the Week. Jo Brand is certainly looking her age, yet that milky milky bloke (Hugh Dennis/Punt?) looks the same as 10 years ago…

Today I’ve been slaving over another ecommerce site. It’s looking as good as it ever will right now as the stock catalogue pictures of flowers and suchlike are very pretty. Unfortunately I’m going to have to replace them with 114 dubious images of which this one to the right is representative. So it’s downhill from here… I reckon they should splash out on some new pix, as it looks all too amateurish with these representations. Mind you I’ve never really been in the market for diluted dandelion droplets, so who’s to tell…

“Ir viento popa” To cruise along. Popa means the stern of a boat and if the wind’s (viento) coming at you that way then you’re making good speed. I’d not heard this phrase before but it was in a review in today’s Ocio (events listings magazine). Ocio itself means leisure, hence non-social scientists’ chide to sociologists, “Ociologos“.

Another word I liked, new this week, is “Sonsacar”, primarily for the alliteration of the S. Wordreference.com has it as:

sonsacar: verbo transitivo
1 (una información) to winkle out: se lo sonsacó a María, he coaxed it out of Maria
2 (dinero, un regalo, etc) to wheedle

But the times I’ve heard it here in Mexico, it seems to mean to lead someone astray. As in when you’re dragging someone away from their studies to take them on a pub crawl… They may protest “No tengo ganas” (I’m not in the mood), then you answer “Pues, las ganas se hacen!” (You create your own mood).

Ganas is a tricky one to translate… Depending on the context it has all kinds of meanings. I find translating it over literally as “urges” delivers the meaning well albeit in a semi-comical form.

No tengo ganas: I haven’t got any urges. (I’m not up for it).
Se me quitaron las ganas de comer: My urges to eat were taken from me. (I lost my appetite)
Tengo ganas de ver esta pelicula: I have urges to see this film. (I fancy watching this film)

As you can see, the day-to-day translation you use when living in a foreign country is a completely different system to formal translation…

Plans for tonight? Well, I wanted to go to the cinema, but there’s bugger all on. Even “Serpientes Abordo!” isn’t playing in the local megaplex. A cursory glance at the paper shows that over round the Pabellon Frances there’ll be live acordeon music at 5pm then later in the evening an “Electro-French” DJ… Let’s call that Plan F. Tomorrow at 5pm there’s a free tequila tasting (Cata) but at 7 I’m off round V & J’s for a sophisticated soiree of repartee and fine foods, so maybe not… Ay, so many options. I can feel a night of scrabble coming on…

Okay, maybe I’m 8 years late with this post. But holy crap what a film! And then some… I though Crash was powerful and complex but it seems puerile and crass next to this. Damn, damnity, damn. 5 Lulus and no mistake. Nice one, Tony Kaye, Ed Norton & co.