Correfoc, La Mercè 2007 September 23, 2007
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This 4-day weekend is La Mercè, the main festival of Barcelona since 1871, with lots of events all around the city, from exhibitions to all night concerts at various venues.
One of the highlight is Correfoc (fire running in Catalan), which is a parade of people dressed as, or riding the floats in the shape of dragon and devils. Each has a device that spitting torrents of fire sparkles, some of which spinning around to maximize the number of bystanding casualties. From time to time, they can just turn to direct the nozzle right into the crowd. If you like, you can join in walking and dancing along the float and bathing in a shower of sparkles.
Local people are normally prepared, with a long-sleeve tee, a protective eyewear, and a hat or a head scarf. Old/disposable and non-flammable clothes are highly recommended.
Today (22 Sept.) as usual, the parade started with a junior version for children, which was already scary enough. Every child was dressed as if they were bee keepers. One kid was in a parade wearing giant dragon head around his waist, spitting a load of sparkles that in other developed countries would prompt a social worker an urgent visit to the parents. The junior parade moved up Via Laietana to to the main stage in front of the beautiful Mercat de Santa Catarina where the drum performance took place. After, the main Correfoc started from there back down Via Laietana to the port. One could continue to the beach nearby to enjoy the fireworks show which started right after Correfoc.
It’s hard to find a safe public spot where I could enjoy the spectacle in full view, so I could not take a good picture nor video for you myself. But here is the video on youtube from last year’s event that should be able to give you good sense of what it’s like (and it’s not Baghdad). Enjoy
Happy Birthday :-) September 20, 2007
Posted by a2me in News.1 comment so far
Prof. Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon invented the emoticon 25 years ago this day (19th Sept.). So to celebrate, smile away when you chat with friends today.
Bestiality Restaurant September 18, 2007
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English website of Mainichi Shimbun recently reported this new restaurant in the middle of Roppongi district. As the titlte suggests, you choose the animal of your choice, you rape it, you have it killed and prepared as food, then you eat it!!! (to save space, I reduced the number of exclamation marks from infinity to only three)
To eat there, you need a membership whose qualifications include the minimum of 20 M yen of annual income (about 170 K in USD) + 100 M yen cash flow (about 850 K $). The price starts from 200 K yen for a chicken.
One comment by a certain member quoted in the article: “the appeal of the place just came about because when people have got money and done everything else, they turn toward bestiality.” I wonder whether this applies to the Forbes 100.
Normally the idea of bestiality is not prohibitively offensive to me. The concept of picking the animal to be slaughtered, though out of your sight, right before you eat it does not gross me out. But somehow this time, the whole is really way larger than the sum of its parts.
Next step if a rapist cannibal restaurant? Sounds like a Tarantino’s new movie.
link to the article http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/ 20070917p2g00m0dm002000c.html
The Sound of Music September 13, 2007
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A commentary from Tim Miller about the musical in next week (23th Sept.)’s rebroadcast of To The Best of Our Knowledge (Wisconsin Public Radio):
“it’s crucial to leave organized religion behind, have sex, and fight fascism through festive song and dance”
http://www.wpr.org/book/070107a.html
Aging September 12, 2007
Posted by a2me in Thoughts.1 comment so far
Recently on Fresh Air (NPR), there’s an interview of Charles Reynolds who teaches at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine about depression in the elderly, and it makes me wonder whether we humans have been pushing longevity too far.
Body and mind have evolved to function well up to the certain period of time, appropriate to an ecologically expected longevity. But with a rapid advance in medicine and medical technology in recent history (a mere blink, considering the history of Homo sapiens), we are now living way longer than what would have been expected by out body and mind.
The same thing happens to zoo animals. As they live longer to the old age that is impossible in the wild, many of them are experiencing symptoms we find in old people such as arthritis, back pain etc.
The depression discussed in the show could be the result of some changes in neurochemistry as other physiological changes accompanying aging, since many of the patients, as the professor mentions in the show, did not have any incidence of depression when they were younger.
Or they could just be that human’s psyche and mentality have not evolved to deal with living so long. In one interview, E.O Wilson said he did not want to go to heaven and live forever because human’s mind was not built for eternity.
