Cultural Hijinks

I recently remembered a funny experience I had back in 2005 on Isla de Ometepe in Nicaragua with four French-Canadian travelers. Somehow I found myself in a throwing contest with them. I threw first and my rock landed about 4 feet from the target. I was not happy with this result and nervous that I would be the one climbing up the coconut tree (or something similar we established as the loser's reward). Low and behold, the French-Canadian guys all threw the stone barely 15 feet, missing the target by about 20. I was pleasantly surprised. Point here is not to suggest that you (Americans) should challenge French-Canadian's in throwing contests (I'm sure some would surprise you....although I'd say the odds are with you). To me throwing was a commonly acquired, normal skill; you just know how to throw...but we are a throwing culture (both baseball and softball are very popular). My guess would be that baseball/softball are not huge in French-Canada. I would actually like to test this out around the world, and in most places (save places like Japan, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Nicaragua, etc. where baseball is popular....why else do people throw?) I think I would laugh at some very awkward throwing techniques. However, I'm pretty sure I'd have a hard time finding many outside of this country who can't pass a soccer ball. Years back, I took one of the most gifted athletes I know (Vinny Dimaria, former U of I Baseball Player) to play indoor soccer with me and he 'passed' a ball off of my forehead from about 7 feet away. Finally, the point: normal is culturally relative and this throwing memory reminds me of that.

(I'd say normal would also be determined by other factors like gender, class, etc. within cultures....but here I'm mostly talking about generalized difference between national cultures.)

So I've been listening to Sigur Ros on my subway rides to school....and have had some near silent weeping moments. What IS it about that band!? For those of you who don't know of them, they are a group from Iceland and instead of trying to describe them, I strongly suggest you listen to some of their music (here is a cool video of Planet Earth with them playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH2Z_1-Frb8&feature=related). One thing I really like about the music is that in a good number of their songs the singer is speaking in a very melodic gibberish called 'hopelandic.' Not that I would have understood him anyway, but now I feel even more free to interpret the songs as I wish. This just seems very unselfish of the group, and it allows the listener to co-create. I love it. Mostly the music just puts me in a good, optimistic mood and nearly makes me weep. I'm either lonely or this music is that good. Pretty sure it's the latter because I've been hanging out with some great senior citizens here:

SO, I signed up for this class at the 'Centro Cultural Rojas,' a cultural center that offers hundreds of classes on anything from beginning Portuguese, photography, to a class on writing business plans. I chose '7 art exhibitions' because the classes would take place in museums/galleries around the city, I'd learn a little bit more about contemporary art and mostly because I would meet some Argentines. Turns out that the class is mostly senior citizen women, and I. Nothing wrong with that at all, just not the demographic I was expecting. Everything was going smoothly until two Thursdays ago when we went to MALBA (Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires....top notch!) to check out the work of the late Robert Mapplethorpe, an American photographer. So we start to walk the gallery of 130+ photos, and I find myself in the middle of a cloud of heavy, eye-watering musk hearing two women in the group dutifully trying to interpret a photograph which some would consider pornography were it not in a museum. I'm thinking "hmm....looks like a guy with leather on...possibly pleather...annnnnnd that looks painful" while they talked of contrasting light schemes, the geometry of the contortions of the body, it's symbolism....I mean really attempting to soak up the artistic value of the photo. Awkward as it was to look at explicit content with grandmothers, the photos challenged me to think about taboo subjects...and I think when his photos came out in the 70's/80's they probably caused a lot of controversy. To these playful 70-somethings, the photos were just not a big deal....they produced no 'shock' and instead it appeared as though they had a non-judgmental dialogue with the piece. My first reaction to some of the photos left me displeased.....and I'm thankful to this group for allowing me to consider alternative interpretations. (Which, however, doesn't mean I appreciate all of his work.)

En fin: I love these cultural exchanges. Human beings!

Que esten bien todos!