February 22nd, 2008
As the title says, my setlist from Feb. 22nd at El Cuartito in Xela. Had a lot of fun tonight and figured I’d post the songs. If you have any questions, get at me.
Shuggie Otis / Sweet Thang / Inspiration Information
Bonobo / Walk in the Sky (f/Bajka) / Days to Come / Ninja Tune
GB / Just a Little Lovin / Atlantiquity
Etienne de Champfleury / Mon Oranger / Be a Bird in the Basement EP
Beatconductor / Marrakech / 12″ / Gamm
Rube / Another Gone Record / Another Gone Record 12″ / Jazz & Milk
Diesler / Summer Dream / Tru Thoughts
Mr. Scruff / Get a Move on / Trouser Jazz
Buari / Advice from Father / African Disco
Mark Ronson f/Phantom Planet / Just / BBE/Rapster
Ben Westbeech / Feel So Good (Acoustic Version) / Brownswood
Shuggie Otis / Strawberry Letter 23 / Inspiration Information
Kinny & Horne / Sacred Life / 12″
Handsome Boy Modeling School f/ Moloko & J. Live / The Truth / So… How’s Your Girl
Zero 7 (Hefner’s Destiny Chill RMX) / Destiny / The Remixes
Portishead / Glory Box / Live at Roseland Ballroom
Al Green / Love & Happiness (Shoes Re-Edit) / White Label / Shoes
Aloe Blacc / Ordinary People / Shine Through / Stones Throw
JST*R (Jstar) / (Still) Passing Me By / 12″ / Most Wanted
The Dynamics / 7 Nation Army / Version Excursions
The Luniz / I Got 5 on It / 12″
Darondo / Didn’t I / Let My People Go / Ubiquity
February 17th, 2008
Well, I’m sitting in my bedroom in my new apartment in Guatemala, a fact I still can’t quite wrap my head around. At this point I don’t really know long I’ll be here; whether I’ll pay a month of rent and be ready to go or whether I will settle in for a bit and continue working on the Partners in Solidarity project and DJing. I’m living on the third story of one of the taller buildings in Xela, with a view over the green mountains surrounding the city and the buildings below. It is surprisingly one of the nicest places I’ve lived in in years. My roommates are two and 1/2 Guatemalans; a good friend of mine named Sylvia, Luis, and occasionally Sylvia’s ridiculously cute baby Maya Sofia. I just today got my room setup the way I like it and am truly enjoying the space, as well as my life and routine here in Xela.
I continue to work with Partners in Solidarity, which includes some teaching, some technical supervision, some random technical tasks and traveling. Monday I will go to a school 1.5 hours outside of Xela to setup up a computer laboratory for them. Apparently its somewhat out a dirt road and pretty far out into the sticks - I’m relishing the opportunity to be able to provide them with some computers and education that they can share with their kids. These are computers that to most of the world are considered trash, that are restored first by Next Step Recycling in Oregon, then more by us and some Guatemalan technicians that we work with. You can see on the Next Step page that the founder recently won the Vovlo for Life award, and has made People Magazine and CBS, all things which could bring good publicity for us as well.
I’ve also been DJing far more than I’m used to, with a weekly lounge gig here in Xela, and almost weekly invitations to play at parties. I played an all Soul-song Valentine’s Day set on Thursday that reminded me of doing radio back in Santa Cruz - lots of fun. There’s mainly one other Gringo DJ, DJ Payne and one other Guatemalan, Kokopeli, that I DJ with, both of whom are becoming good friends. We were invited out to San Pedro la Laguna in Lake Atitlan last week to DJ a party at a hotel for some friends, including bascially all of our costs. Its great to have time to practice my two main arts, being DJing and Photography, and even making some money at it in the mean time. I can definitely say I miss having more clubs to go, musicians and DJs to hear, but the community here is quite nice and great to be a part of.
I’m finding myself really enjoying the opportunity to settle into and explore a new and foreign town. Enjoying things like walking downstais in the morning to buy two eggs and some delicious, thick, fresh corn tortillas from the tienda for $0.50. Enjoying walking by the parties pumping marimba music all afternoon with indigenous families dancing inside. Watching the school kids on their lunch break hanging out in the plaza in front of my house from my balcony. Walking to the market and buying Passion Fruit, Mangoes, Zapotes (some kind of avocado-mixed-with-sweet-potato-thing) and others all arrayed on the street around a giant indoor market, with lots of things for sale including strange things like Goat heads. As well as enjoying more traditional activities like traveling, making friends and just relaxing in my room on a Saturday night.
Two weeks ago I also spent some time in a minuscule beach town near the Mexican border called Tilapita with one hotel that hosted the one restaurant. I went alone, savoring the opportunity to do some traveling alone for a bit. Just spent a night and loved the aspect of seeing a town so far removed from the life I’m used to; basically just some small houses arranged on a grid pattern on the sand, a few tiendas and some churches. The hotel was a bit weird, with damp rooms and grumpy management, but quite cheap and an experience for sure.
These last couple shots are from a town called San Andres Xecul, just outside of Xela. The yellow church is quite a sight.
I hope all is well and look forward to being in touch and maybe seeing some of you down here.
‘nice’
February 1st, 2008
Arriving in Guatemala City, or Guate as its called, we we had an experience which struck me very strongly at our hotel. We were talking to the dueña, or owner, of our hotel, and she lacked onto the idea that we were (she had to search for this word in Spanish) “hippies.” After a protracted discussion about some “hippies”staying in a hostel of hers who were trying to cheat her out of some payment, she then said that these “hippies” had no right to come to Guatemala and fight for the rights of indigenous people, who of course have rights just like her. She compared the indigenous of Guatemala to the Indians in the US, who “have rights too!” “And I´m not in the states fighting for THEIR rights, am I?” She ended the conversation by saying to me “Yo no era racista, pero SOY racista.” Which translates to “I wasn´t racist in the past, but I AM racist now.” I understand that her perspective comes from the 35 year civil war Guatemala just went through, and probably stems from some small concessions afforded the indigenous at the end of the war. And I do appreciate her honesty in perspective, as many people just wouldn´t admit the things she said to me. However, the experience struck me strongly, mostly because I am here now working with indigenous communities and it makes me sad to hear ignorant attitudes such as hers.
Since then, I have read a book called Silence on the Mountain which details life on Guatemala´s coffee plantations before and during the civil war. Its been quite amazing slowly getting to know the culture here, and seeing the effects that that protracted war has had on the culture. Its really possible to see that the culture is recovering from a long hard period, both in the attitudes of the people and the level of infrastructural development in the country. I´ve been in a bit of a daze trying to incorporate what I´ve read into my daily thoughts and interactions. This culture can be so frustrating sometimes, in the lackadaisical attitudes about punctuality, efficiency and cleanliness for example. I´ve been trying to have a meeting all week with some phone company folks regarding DSL for schools, and everyday they say, more or less (in Spanish), “we´ll be there right now” then never show up. Its amazing to me that business gets done here sometimes.
February 1st, 2008
After the last blog post I wrote, which had me in Xela for new years, I met my friend Sara in Antigua and we traveled around Guatemala for 8 days, after which we returned to Guatemala City for her to deliver a lovely concert of her Jazz singing at the Instituto Guatemalteco Americano, or I.G.A. Our trip took us through Antigua, the ruins at Tikal, Guatemala City, and two lakeside villages called Panajachel and San Marcos La Laguna. It was a whirlwind tour, and a nice way to see some places I have not had the chance to see yet.
Though I´d already been in Antigua, it was spectacular to see snow on the peaks of the volcanoes, an apparently very rare occurrence owing to a storm which had come the day before and wiped out power in most of the country. We also saw some neat ruins and spent some time walking around the town.
Being at Tikal, the most excavated (and most visited) of Guatemala´s Mayan ruins, is most interesting to me in relation to modern times. The site is in heavy jungle, and when found each ruin was just a mound covered in dirt and trees; the jungle had taken the city back over. Its truly incredible to view the remains of such a developed civilization that, which, due to circumstances beyond their control, they were forced to abandon. Walking through the city, its hard not to think about what our own cities would look like covered in earth and then excavated.
Sara and I chose to watch the sunrise there, a beautiful if difficult proposition due to the 3 AM alarm clock required to make it there on time. After a comical mid-drive encounter consisting of a flat tire, one broken lug nut and some broken tire hardware, we made our way to Tikal where we hiked for an hour through the jungle in the dark where we climbed Tikal´s Templo IV in relative silence. Aside form the view of the sunrise, which was rather subdued due to clouds, the best part about the sunrise tour is the sounds of the jungle waking up, including the growl of howler monkeys. We spent the first half of the day walking around Tikal, then returned to Flores, a tourist town on a lake which provides services to Tikal visitors. The highlight of that afternoon was probably Sara´s lunch, which was on the menu under carnes exoticos and consisted of grilled armadillo. yuck. After lunch, we spent some time at our hotel with a funny old lady who lived next door and hung out in the lobby. We talked to her, and she had spent her honeymoon (luna de miel, or moon of honey) years ago in Xela. She sang us the traditional song about Xela “Under the moon of Xelajú” then sent us on our way to the airport, where we flew back to Guatemala City. In the next post I talk about our experiences in Guatemala City, then will go on to describe the rest of our trip.
