Happy 4th of July Chile!

When the nation of Chile's chest swells with pride to commemorate the limited acquisition of governance by regional leaders upon the Spanish King's deposition during the Napoleanic wars on the Iberrian peninsula, marking the date a council convened in Santiago on September 18th, 1810, otherwise known as The Fourth of July, the country explodes into a month-long seizure of fun, Phil Collins is shoved aside by Violetta Parra, one of the world's most soulful and evocative singers, who is played like a Springtime Christmas Carol above the scent of laundry detergent and microwaved hot dogs in every last corner store. This year the price of Chile's culinary pride and joy empanadas shot up two-fold and major Chilean credit card companies bought up TV spots to ask their noble countrymen how, exactly, they thought they were going to pay for so much fun? As Jesus said in his famous Parable: "Look upon the birds chirping carefree in the tree. My Father provides for them, they are not in need!" So too has the Chileans' bacchant national pride been miraculously provided for and there is a palpable spirit of festivity in the air, there are more people on horseback, there are more impromptu conversations, people are friendlier. But amidst all the revelry there is one soul whose ears are dead to the jubilant chorus of the Season:



Behind bars, this political prisoner sings a sadder song.



Pensive, he tells me how years of imprisonment have only worked to strengthen his resolve in the struggle against oppression.



I am moved by his fortitude. In his honor, we shall wave the flag once more.



Sniff.

In any case, moving right along to a pretty miserable round-up of this year's festivities in the anglophonic Chile blogosphere, Kyle's Chile travel blog is by far the best, with extensive coverage of the Chilean fiestas patrias, great pictures and due regard to the Yein Fonda, "fonda" being the name of the type of party that is officiated for this holiday, Yein being the whack alien spelling of Jane, + Fonda, = Jane Fonda.

Kinduvan old joke though, like the Spanish expression Que heavy which Chileans turn into Kevin Costner

listo = Liz Taylor

igual = iguAndyWarhol

Okay, that last one doesn't really exist. Even so, it's all cute but old news. This is what's hot. Are you ready?

The iPhonda baby! Yea ha ha hea!



Seriously, guys. I'm desperate. I've been trying to pre-sell these cheap iPhones and iPods and anything else electronic and the clocks ticking!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But when’s the last time LanBox wrote a blog entry that gave structure and purpose to your day, a reason to wake up in the morning, a malfunctioning keyboard because you forgot to finish your coffee before reading the erroneous facts and lack of attention to detail in my posts! Why wouldn't you want support Chileno while stocking up on that just-in-case laptop or replacement hard drive! ThinkAboutIt.com, and Happy Fourth of July!