Pictures and an unwieldy, tenuous tangent

La Giralda de Sevilla

View of el Real Alcázar with people in the way

8 July, 2012, 2300 hrs., Madrid

All right, the text is going here since I am unable to move the imposing structures you see above. I'm going to offer up some more pictures. I have already established the fact that photography is not my heart's chosen medium, and I have them up here as a way to help show you some of what I have been seeing. Jimi Hendrix felt the same way about singing, supposedly. He just did it because people expect vocals in a song. You may notice that there aren't really people in the pictures- well, I am on a continent where I don't really know anyone and when I am with actual people I don't tend to pose for pictures. It's not the prom. I think that's normal. There are of a few of me to show off my impressive sunburn. I again tried to do my best to compete with the camera's design which makes it as tedious as possible to post pictures. It gives several versions so I have to sift through and find the optimal version. If you see an overly blurry version than it means I either didn't care because I was sick of doing this or I overlooked the picture's quality.

Today, after rising at the wee hour of 12PM, I went to an Irish bar in Madrid to watch the Wimbledon final between Andy Murray and Roger Federer. It wasn't easy to find since Formula One is popular here, and there is a Spanish driver named Fernando Alonso, from Asturias, who always wins. I was looking around the neighborhood of La Latina, and of course all of the bars were packed. Madrid has more bars than any other city in the world, and they are often full. All had Formula One on. There is a flea market in La Latina every Sunday which devolves into a sort of street party as it ends, since the vendors all seemed to be getting tapas and beers from places as the kiosks were packing up and hawking trinkets. All I heard them say was "baratito" over and over, which to me means "little cheap" but I suppose it just means very inexpensive. -Ito is a suffix that makes something diminutive, famously used in "burrito," which is the appetizing word for a "little donkey." I didn't buy anything, but there were lots of good records, dust, and of course tons of absolute junk like every flea market. There were two guys there playing Bob Marley songs, getting the English lyrics wrong and using a harmonica and an acoustic guitar. Interesting arrangement...the cornerstones of reggae have always been the harmonica and the acoustic guitar, as the great reggae artist Woody Guthrie taught us.

But I digress, as usual. It was especially gratifying to see Federer win (I hope that I am not ruining the result- If you're going to watch it on replay you've probably already done it by now) amidst a roomful of British people rooting for Murray. His play was masterful, especially during the second half of the third set and in the fourth. Some of the shots were so dismissively brilliant, like the Federer of five years ago- he appears almost bored with having to bother with certain caprices of Murray. Murray fought valiantly and twisted himself inside out trying to cover court and deal with Federer's timing, but it eventually proved impossible, as he grew more and more exhausted and flabbergasted. The commentators were British so it was interesting to hear their severe disappointment over Murray losing his grip after the first set, followed by extreme hyperbole/worship for Federer: "Underneath his silky veneer lurks the heart of a warrior on the court," "Gorgeous," "Absolute genius," "Imperious and majestic in his divine tennis grace, bestowed upon by the Almighty," etc. (I made up the last one). Unfortunately, they weren't serving Pimm's Cups. Linguistically, it was an odd situation, because everyone working there seemed to be from some Eastern European background, so Spanish wasn't their first language, but English certainly wasn't either. There was a lot of gesturing. It reminded me of the Julio Cortázar novel "The Winners" where the crew of a ship cannot adequately communicate with the passengers. It was nice to see some reverence for tennis in the sports bar setting though. At first, especially when Murray was doing well during the first set, it was like being in the Centre Court gallery. People spoke very quietly or not at all during points, as if doing so would break the spell.

Irreverence for tennis in the sports bar setting has been my experience in the past. Last year I stupidly thought that I could catch US Open semifinal matches (Nadal-Murray; Djokovic-Federer) at the same time as Virginia Tech football in a sports bar in Richmond. Wrong. All 800 TVs were on college football, including scintillating match-ups like Tulsa versus Bowling Green or some crap. I mean, I could understand if it were the French Open- but it's an American tournament, on our goldang soil.

(What follows is a meandering analysis of certain global attitudes including words with asterisks for letters. Rated PG-13 for references to bowel movements and Chinamen)

One of the thoughts I have had here, as I can't help but analyze American sensibilities while I'm abroad, is that there tends to be an attitude in the United States which strongly asserts that mutual exclusivity is an ironclad way to compartmentalize people and interests. "If they're like X than they must be Y." You can't possibly want to watch tennis and football at the same time, because no yahoo that likes football has the sophistication to enjoy tennis. Likewise, no tennis fan should deign to care about something as philistine as football. Now, no one I know (unless they're hiding it, in which case I will find them!) really feels this way. (Only people I know are reading this, and no one else. See how good I made you feel about yourselves?) I really think that we draw these conclusions as we are so inundated with advertising and a culture of TV, that relies on generalities and demographics. Even many highly educated people tend to have little sense of nuance or context, much less real experience relating, when it comes to understanding other groups of people. I don't care how many anthropology departments you start, but actual understanding and compassion requires arduous attention, and is very difficult, and ultimately contrary to our nature and our formative instincts, as saber toothed hunter-gatherers who enjoyed tennis matches played on venerated grass surfaces. This division can be something as meaningless as people that prefer one sport to another or much more serious, like divisions in age, gender, and race. Chinamen! (My favorite racial epithet, sorry). The reasons for this are not just because we are completely ingratiated and addicted to electronic devices at all hours of the day and in all orifices, (mainly the nostril) but because our society above all strives for efficiency and "productivity." To completely understand anything takes a lot of time, and of course we'd rather have some conclusion than a sensible conclusion most of the time. It's in the interest of feeling satisfied and "finished" with something. And in the interest of hasty bowel movements.

That would have worked a lot better with an example. Do I have one? Of course not!

Let me back up here and explain myself. This is not an Anti-American Diatribe While Overseas, surely one of the more hackneyed and embarrassing of the unpublished genres. I'm pro-bowel movement, and hence pro-America! Spaniards are very similar with the generalities gambit- They call a 7-11 type place "un chino," because they're often run by Asians, for instance. So having a superficial understanding of the world isn't uniquely American, to me. I think it is a symptom of the illusion of information. Because many people live under the illusion that they are informed to the gills, they begin to have a license to draw hasty conclusions about groups of people, or anything else for that matter. I know I do it! There is an Argentinian expression for a person who is like a dull knife and just ain't cuttin' jus talkin' loud and sayin' nothin',* which is "un/a chanta." Let's be honest, we all do this when we want to appear intelligent on a subject we don't know jack about. We live in the "age of information," but we don't necessarily understand anything any better than previous iterations as king of this particular sh*t pile. (The humans are the king of the pile, and understand bowel movements). I am reminded of the famous Oscar Wilde axiom, speaking of "those that know the price of everything but the value of nothing." It is a similar point I am making- if I am making it, scatological style- we "know" a lot about what we are told are tendencies and cultures and values, but we usually just make the mistake of not having the patience to see an individual. Every group is firstly composed of individuals, and each individual needs more compassion and understanding than any demographic. Is it any wonder that the alienation in the age of such connectivity seems to have proliferated further than it may have ever before?**

So there you have it. Some trite conclusion that could have taken a sentence- but, you got to hear about Chinamen and bowel movements! Think of it like the Lord's Prayer refrain in T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men:"

Between the magazine you've already read
And the nervousness when someone is waiting
Between divorcement of what is alien made inside
And the flush
Falls the flow

For Thine is the
Thank God for first world infrastructure and sanitation

 *Borrowing from great social critic/habitual inmate James Brown

**Completely unquantifiable statement

Love,

Flag Waving Turd King of Sh*t Mountain and Chinaman Enthusiast

P.S.- See the Funkadelic song "Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Dood Doo Chasers)" (amazingly it is a real song) for a variation on the gleeful and strange bowel movement metaphor, that I could not help but use as a refrain. It is on the album "One Nation Under a Groove," which I got in 10th grade. Parents, pay attention to what music your children listen to. Don't just look at the album cover. Blind Faith's cover looks pedophilia related, but the album is sweet and the music in unobjectionable. Actually listen to the lyrics.

Typical street in the barrio de Santa Cruz, the Jewish Quarter

La Judería. He said, "Jew eat yet. Not did you...Jew."

La calle de la muerte. Street of death where the massacre of Jews occurred in Santa Cruz.

Plaza de Santa Cruz

Another street in Santa Cruz with abánicos espanoles in the foreground

"La calle de los besos," the street of kisses. Easy to reach across the street and kiss and/or harass your neighbor.

Mythological home of Don Juan

Remains of a Roman wall

Christendom

Typical patio in Sevilla

Remains of some Roman columns, people in the way

Commemoration of Cervantes' mention of a street in one of his Novelas ejemplares

The patio of a Sevilla mosque containing Roman arches

Have some protein

Commemoration of Cervantes, "el príncipe de los ingenios espanoles," who used this house as a location in "La espanola inglesa" from his Novelas ejemplares

A church I found whilst lost and sweating

Bad example of someone's tile. But typical even in its own way.

Another view of the magnificent Torre de Giralda

One of the entrances to the Catedral de Sevilla

Murillo I believe, forget the title, Museo de Bellas Artes, Sevilla

Murillo again. Should have taken notes. Didn't.

Inside the cathedral

Christopher Colombus...has a tomb with his name on it here

BA artwork inside one of the many naves of the cathedral

Commemoration of the 800th anniversary of La Giralda, in Spanish and Arabic

View from La Giralda

Another view of Sevilla from La Giralda

View from La Giralda

Above the Cathedral of Sevilla

Another view of La Catedral de Sevilla, with Spain's most venerated Plaza de Toros in the background

View of El Real Alcázar from La Giralda

Archives of the Indies

El Real Alcázar

El Real Alcázar

Snoozing horseman

Some bird inside the alcázar

El Real Alcázar de Sevilla

El Real Alcázar

View from the courtyard of El Real Alcázar

Mudéjar style...again

Some of the gardens of the alcázar

More of the gardens of El Real Alcázar

I want this

Content in the garden of earthly delights at El Real Alcázar

 

Times are tough for Pharoah

European Cup champions advertising mediocre beer on Avenida del Cid, Sevilla

The Portuguese Consulate in Sevilla in mourning

El Cid Campeador

El Cid described by a caliphate leader as "one of the great miracles of the Creator."

Homage to Isabel of Aragón

Plaza de Espana

Plaza de Espana celebrates diversity

It was so hot I really was tempted to jump in that fountain

Cooling fountain done in typical Islamic style

Province of Madrid

Province of Sevilla

Inside La Iglesia de Santa Bárbara

Catunambú, the coffee of Andalucía

The siesta is for real. 3PM on a weekday

Commemoration of Cervantes' mention of a plaza in his Novelas ejemplares

I forget who this guy is, but he seemed important

The great painter Diego Velázquez

Juan José Murillo, beloved native son of Sevilla

Yo yo Sevilla I be upindis

Bewilderment at the marvel of a camera

Interior courtyard of the Museo de Bellas Artes

1/3 of a triptych. Should have written down the artists.

2/3

3/3

This is a famous work but the name is escaping me

Velázquez, I forget the title

Interesting Papal perspective on the Last Supper. Jus' sayin' mang

Talk about suffering for fashion

Sweet picture

Self portrait of the romantic poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

This kid looks spoiled

Memories of my old GTI

Madrid

My sweet dorm room

Walking to the celebration at the Plaza de Cibeles

Plaza de Cibeles

Plaza de Cibeles

Superman

Colombus

Spanish national flag

Royal Palace in Madrid

More Islamic architecture, this time in Madrid

Nightlife on the Plaza Oriental, Madrid

 Toledo/El Escorial

View of Toledo from a bathroom (meta-bowel movement theme)

Bathroom action

Rooftops of "el casco" de Toledo

View of the cathedral of Toledo

Entrance to the cathedral of Toledo

Typical Toledo street

Spain might be a Catholic country

Cathedral tower in Toledo

Inside El Escorial

Ayuntamiento de Toledo

El Escorial

View of the Cathedral in Toledo

Blurry mudéjar ceiling

Inside the Arab-built synagogue of Toledo

View of the Tagus River in Toledo

The Shadow knows

Redonda of an extant monastery in Toledo

Typical street design inside el casco

Geezer/El Escorial in Madrid Province

More El Escorial

View of the gardens of the palace of Felipe II

Back in Toledo, the oldest 100% original tower in Spain, with Roman, Visigoth, and Moorish characteristics

On the Calle de Samuel Levi in the Jewish Quarter of Toledo

Inside the ancient Sephardic synagogue in Toledo

 

More pictures ought to follow as they are taken. I am getting a little more scant on some of the cultural info- after a while you can't go around like Peggy Guggenheim and you just want to have a chance to do normal stuff outside of museums. But more of that will surely follow as I have yet to see any of the major Madrid museums.

Your worthy constituent,***

Nathan

***As Charlie Parker referred to Dizzy Gillespie onstage