jacob's bladder: January 2007

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Viva La Musica

Summer in Santiago is the time for music, and this week was the Providencia Jazz Festival. Taking place on both sides of the river running through town (more of a open drain really) in the Parque de la Esculptura, the festival was 3 nights of latino and internacional jazz. Wednesday night was Al DiMeola playing the kind of extruciating stuff that just makes me nervous more than anything, I couldnt take it for more than 30 minutes and left, good thing I got the free seats on the law. Friday night was Tube Factory from Finland (it felt like being in an airport for an hour) followed by John Scofield, who actually knows whatsgoing on. He played a nice set with his guitar led trio, picking up the energylevels after the somnolent opening act. Its a bit funny to think I saw Scofield for the first time here in Chile, since he's played at festivals I've been to a few times in the US and comes through DC often enough. Some kinds of music are condusive to large scale concerts in the park, jazz I'm afraid, does not count among them. Perhaps it would've been a better idea to go see the Guns n Roses coverband playing way out of town instead.

Labels: al dimeola, john scofield, providencia jazz, santiago music

# posted by jacob @ 12:34 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Feliz Nuevo Año from the Pearl of the Pacific

Perhaps no city in the world has as much spite for the Panama Canal as Valparaíso, Chile´s 2nd biggest, but most important (historically, culturally) port. Before the canal was built it was a major stopping point for ships heading from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans (and the other way around) taking the southern (the only) route around the Straits of Magellen. The canal cut Valparaíso out of the loop and dealt a devestating blow to its economy, but it continues to be an important cultural and shipping center for Chile. It boasts the 2nd largest population in Chile, and is listed as a UNESCO heritage site. It also makes a big deal out of new year´s eve, throwing the 5th largest fireworks show in the world, the largest in South America, stretching along 23 miles of coast line. I watched the show from halfway up one of the city´s dozens of hills; the main show were the fireworks being set of from the port below us, but over the hills to either side we could see the sky lighting up from the continuation of the fireworks going on in Viña del Mar to the North as well as towards the south. Viña is an overbuilt beach town with thousands of skyscrapers and all the charm of an English beach resort (I suppse Viña gets a bit of sun at least). While Reston VA has a zonig code limiting house colors to 4 colors (at least 3 of which are shades of brown) Valparaíso heads in the opposite direction, with neighbor´s seemingly engaged in a contest to have the brightest house on the block (the current leader has a hot pink house, with even hotter pink trim). The city was also home (at least sometimes) to Chile´s 2nd most famous export, Pablo Neruda...He built an amazing ship themed house up on the hills and the stuffed it full of all sorts of stuff; for a commie, he certainly loved collecting luxury items.