Fridays In Gringolandia
Fridays in a place like Gringolandia, here perched on a hillside overlooking Patzcuaro, are certainly a refreshing change from the ordinary. Back in North Carolina, I would be hurrying through the endless paperwork on my desk with the hope of squeezing in a little show prep before going on air for two hours of talk radio battle royale! If I got out of the office before 8 p.m., it was a minor miracle. I would settle into my desk at home, realizing I was sequestered for a weekend of paperwork and repeated trips back to the office for copying, collating and getting my promotions department ready for the new week. Thank God for Jackie. She managed the overwhelming number of events in the field, typically a handful of car dealership remotes and a few dozen van hits, so I could be blessed with a weekend of paperwork.
But here, in Mexico, it is different. Pen decided to at last brave driving my Land Rover into town for much needed shopping and to give me a little quiet time. I had a lot of mail to get to and seldom have time alone so it was a nice change and a chance for Pen to trust herself behind the wheel of that big Discovery on these narrow little mountain streets. We wrapped Chapter Nine last night so I'll use the afternoon to pull the tons of data I've collected for this next chapter and review it this afternoon while Abi works on her report on French Guiana.
I had a number of add requests from bands on the My Space profile so I always listen carefully (the old A&R music journalist in me just can't help himself) and was pleased to find a band out of Caracas, Venezulela called Embas. They're eclectric rock with gypsy violins (always a plus for me) and a Dave Matthews kind of feel. Check them out on my song profile http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=45845011
But as I was adding my music, I see Arturo and Jason, the Mexican Artist and the American Doctoral candidate heading to Arturo's carrying an accordian and concertina. So I turned down my recorded music and, sure enough, the two have been giving me a private concert of freeform squeeze box music with Spanish and French overtones. Arturo has been fascinated with my studies of the Acadian region of colonial America, that region now called Maine and Newfoundland, and their migration to French held Lousiana where French music fused with Spanish and African to become Cajun and Xydeco. So, I've been entranced with their improvisational fusion as Arturo plays very emotional French stylings while Jason counterposes with these lively Spanish rhythms and I must tell you, it is blissful!
So this is Friday in Gringolandia. It is cool and crisp and the sky is clear and sunny, making the mountains appear to virtually float above Lake Patzcuaro and as I write, my writer friend Dave and I (he's sixty or so with a white beard and long hair each reaching mid-torso with the Bible of Bamboo as one of his writing credits) are being treated to a private concert of these adventurous Mexican and American minstrals. What a phenomenal way to get ready for another long night of writing.
It is magnificent and awe inspring!
posted by Dave Carroll @ 10/06/2006 04:59:00 PM
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