July 5th: the Wreckage
I watched the Viña del Mar music festival last February on TV, and saw Los Tres do their stunt where everyone in the group and whoever they're jamming with at the time, even Sergio Lagos, one of the festival's hosts, lies down on the stage for one of the more reposeful interludes, followed of course by raucous drum pounding and strobe lights that no doubt mimic what's going on in each of the band members' heads upon suddenly jumping up to reinvigorate the performance.
Watching Viña on TV, the cameras focused only on each of the band members lying down and I didn't think anything of it until at the Yein Fonda last night when they all laid down, and the stage just looked really empty.
It was then that I noticed the video installation of orange and pink floral patterns expanding and contracting, and kept my eye on it as the band members jumped up and it ran a rapid sequence of archival images ranging from ooh, I didn't catch that to a Nazi swastika, followed by an audio clip of Salvadore Allende's final words including "Viva Chile" as the lights bent black.
If I were in Viña I would have seen that, I would have also seen the part of the video installation that advocated for a woman's right to choose. But I watched Viña on TV, and the Catholic channel did some pretty slick live redaction. My friend Niles Atallah, a Santiago Chile based filmmaker and visual artist, is responsible for the sinful images, but I'll let it slide because he hooked us up with a couple free tickets to the Yein Fonda.
To return the favor I'm getting off pretty easy by blogging about him and I even bought him a drink. Actually, I bought the drink for my girlfriend and then ran into Niles and handed him her drink. So all in all, a pretty good deal.
One bummer was that, while my camera made it, I had miffed my memory card so it decided to stay home, pouting. But I got to thinking about my purpose in this world and if you're looking for this blog to provide you with powerful images and slice-of-life descriptions of Santiago, Chile, that make you feel like you were here, then you're looking for something you don't have: a life.
I can't give you that, so I'm gonna stop pretending. The real reason I bring a camera with me is to show you I was there and, more to the point, you weren't. So I'm not gonna try to break off a piece of the fun I had and share it with you, no. I'm just gonna prove that you missed out:
And if you liked that photo, you're gonna love the next photo. You see, before going to the show we celebrated by painting a wall. I swear to god this is the first time I've done honest, physical labor since like high school. We painted one wall and my girlfriend said it was the hardest she's ever seen me work. In this next photo, taken soon after returning from the Yein Fonda, the early morning sun enters via the skylight and makes a bold dash through the composition in what I will call "Paint Drying":
US $1,200
Watching Viña on TV, the cameras focused only on each of the band members lying down and I didn't think anything of it until at the Yein Fonda last night when they all laid down, and the stage just looked really empty.
It was then that I noticed the video installation of orange and pink floral patterns expanding and contracting, and kept my eye on it as the band members jumped up and it ran a rapid sequence of archival images ranging from ooh, I didn't catch that to a Nazi swastika, followed by an audio clip of Salvadore Allende's final words including "Viva Chile" as the lights bent black.
If I were in Viña I would have seen that, I would have also seen the part of the video installation that advocated for a woman's right to choose. But I watched Viña on TV, and the Catholic channel did some pretty slick live redaction. My friend Niles Atallah, a Santiago Chile based filmmaker and visual artist, is responsible for the sinful images, but I'll let it slide because he hooked us up with a couple free tickets to the Yein Fonda.
To return the favor I'm getting off pretty easy by blogging about him and I even bought him a drink. Actually, I bought the drink for my girlfriend and then ran into Niles and handed him her drink. So all in all, a pretty good deal.
One bummer was that, while my camera made it, I had miffed my memory card so it decided to stay home, pouting. But I got to thinking about my purpose in this world and if you're looking for this blog to provide you with powerful images and slice-of-life descriptions of Santiago, Chile, that make you feel like you were here, then you're looking for something you don't have: a life.
I can't give you that, so I'm gonna stop pretending. The real reason I bring a camera with me is to show you I was there and, more to the point, you weren't. So I'm not gonna try to break off a piece of the fun I had and share it with you, no. I'm just gonna prove that you missed out:
And if you liked that photo, you're gonna love the next photo. You see, before going to the show we celebrated by painting a wall. I swear to god this is the first time I've done honest, physical labor since like high school. We painted one wall and my girlfriend said it was the hardest she's ever seen me work. In this next photo, taken soon after returning from the Yein Fonda, the early morning sun enters via the skylight and makes a bold dash through the composition in what I will call "Paint Drying":
US $1,200
posted by Chileno @ 5:27 AM
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10 Comments:
I get it now!, I'm such a retard for not seeing it before.
It is interesting to me that it even works; how does something that is insulting us and we hate, captivate us, making us wish and hope that something terrible happens to the offender, and we cannot let go untill our negative thoughts get satisfied, some kind of morbose side of our soul, that enjoys watching, the people acting out get what they deserve times a million...
it is risky business, specially if u belive in some sort of cosmic justice, karma or whatever people belive, enjoy the ride... i hope its worth it to you couse it sure is to me, im enjoining it in a morbose kind of way.
That wall picture actually is pretty cool!
$1200 for a print or the original?
Felipe, tbh, you do kinda sound like a retard. What you're describing is the type of reader blog marketers have wet dreams about. I picked you up unintentionally. In fact, the mere thought of you is punishment x a million itself. Excuse me while I follow the broken link to your photolog and...vomit. (Since when did fotolog capture the hearts and minds of so many Chileans, including that anorexic girl that died recently, when flickr is so much better? I guess if you're fatally anorexic...or Felipe Nieto...you have bigger problems to worry about).
Joel, Kyle, $1200 for the original but you're in luck because I have an unlimited supply of originals.
I've been out of it in a dieciochero kinda way so re-trudging through Felipe's comments (yes, you get points for being combative if only semi-literate) I'm getting the "point" a lot more clearly, and it's nothing new. I got a job here and the first thing I did was fire a Chilean because she was totally incompetent, didn't do anything, picked fights and generally made life in the workplace miserable. Her reaction was to, I kid you not, place a curse on me and my family.
:-)
Felipe, whose style mysteriously echoes that of Pato, writes:
>>>specially if u belive in some sort of cosmic justice, karma or whatever people belive, enjoy the ride
In my limited experience in Chile I'm going to say that people resorting to voodoo hexing and preternatural fear mongering is expectable, and shouldn't be surprising. Surely, other nationalities do it too but in my limited experience, I've seen it again and again here, it used to be surprising, now it's not.
Resorting to vague threats of Black Magic is obviously the result of a sense of powerlessness brought on by lack of recourse to a) the law b) the ability to argue intelligently
Chile faced a brutal military regime and a negligent follow-up government, so confidence in the ability of the law to resolve problems might be improving, but it took a hit. Rational discourse, I believe, tends to come from good education which most of the country doesn't have access to.
So barring outright violence what else are you going to do but tie hemlock around the neck of a dead cat and drop it on your enemy's doorstep?
That's just my personal assessment. I've also been told by a Chilean anthropology student that the strong strain of superstitious belief that comes from Chile's indigenous roots, just look at the mythology of Chiloe. I'm not, however, going to ascribe such noble origins to Felipe Nieto's chronic self-loathing problem, which he makes a pitiful attempt to explain away.
>>>how does something that is insulting us and we hate, captivate us, making us wish and hope that something terrible happens to the offender
No, the reason you come back for more is because you hate yourself Felipe. How do you think the Economist sells magazines? If you masturbate to the image of a piano falling on my head then be my guest, your traffic still benefits me.
Weird, I have never had a hex put on me in Chile or elsewhere. That could be, because I'm a nice person. Or it may be because it's not as common as you think Chileno, who knows. Each person's view of the country depends upon the experiences they've had. Kinda like me with Chilean monster children...you think they're great...I've never met a one that I didn't want to throw out a window. You've been cursed, I've never ever heard of that happening here in Santiago (of course I've seen t.v. specials on Chiloe but I've never actually been there).
And Chileno, seriously, how did you not know that fotolog was a HUGE phenomenon in this country?!? Even Alexis Sanchez has one. I used to have one too until I discovered Flickr. Chileans and Brazilians are overpowering on fotolog. But Flickr hasn't quite reached the masses here yet.
I knew that fotolog was big, everyone and their perrito has it, including the girl who died of anorexia and was all over the news. I only asked "since when" with limited rhetorical effect.
I'm not saying you're going to be hexed if you come to Chile, all I said is if it happens don't be surprised. I pointed to one personal experience, plus Felipe Nieto's passive-aggressive, supernatural posturing, plus an anthropological citation. I left open the possibility that it can happen in other countries, and made it clear that I was writing from my limited experience, thanks for sharing yours.
It'd be dishonest much of the time to say I'm not nice, honest on certain occasions, but the specific example - firing someone - isn't especially nice, no. And if you work without a contract as a ton of Chileans do, then what legal recourse do you have? I would leave a hex as well.
Likewise, if I were Felipe Nieto and I had extremely limited skills of comprehension and expression due to a low IQ and a bad education, and I started reading what would probably be described as an intelligently liberal blog about Chile, but because of my emotional scars and lack of ability to reason or question further, took criticisms of Chile as a personal insult, yet nevertheless enjoyed such insults in a sick way because of the emotional rush it gave me then I too would stoke the flames of my imbalanced serotonin levels, with voodoo. This blog brings happiness to many different people, in many different ways.
Felipe be aware.
Chileno, man, you have a lot of fun.
Ill buy your photo.
El Mercurio did an article about a year ago, intereviewed the Fotolog founders. and found out that Chile has some of the highest per capita Fotolog rates in the world.
Yeah their homepage has "Viva Mexico y Chile". I personally find the association of Chile with that third world nation offensive, fotolog better watch out I'm not gonna make any more accidental .02 cent adsense clicks when sifting through all the spam on peoples' pages looking for "photos"...silly me.
"In my limited experience in Chile I'm going to say that people resorting to voodoo hexing and preternatural fear mongering is expectable..."
I was in Arica 3 years ago for two days, and during my random touristic wanderings, I encountered a woman who was begging for change. When I said, "No tengo ninguno centavo." (It was true) the nice old lady became a witch and proceeded to put a hex on me. Fortunately two "Pacos" (See? I'm already appropriate diction to use when I'm in Chile from this blog!) were there to intercede before she could get out a really good hex on me.
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