Dancin´ 2 Banda

I had a once in a lifetime experience last night. Ives´ cousin recently graduated from Nautical school and there was a huge formal party to celebrate with his whole class and all of their extended families. The venue was in a parking lot with a huge stage and speaker system. The size of the stage and number of speakers were similar to that at a U2 concert I was at a few years ago. Music for the evening was live `banda´. Jamie did a good job of explaining banda music in that everyone (all different brass instruments) starts together (really loud) and ends together, but during the song it sounds like every instumental section is playing a different tune with a different rythum. It is also really loud. I am talking ear drum blowing, had a headache 5 minutes after the music started loud. Since there are half a dozen different rythms occuring at the same time, the music isn´t the easiest to dance to. But it is Mexico, so everyone dances. I will do my best to try to describe how couples dance to banda music. The girl hangs on (for dear life) around her partners neck and the couple stands really close together so that their legs are basically intertwined. Then while stepping around (rather quickly and aggressively), the guy kinda swings the girl all over the place in ways that I have only ever seen on `Dirty Dancing´. The funniest part is that when slow music comes on, all the couples all of a sudden turn into zombie-type, stiff dancers and hardly move. My night was complete when my life-long dream of having my picture taken with 2 Mexican sailors came true. I can´t wait to get my film developed! One of the `sexy sailors´was Ives cousin Arturo who later showed me how to banda dance. It was a good night.

On another note, I am trying to decide which piece of `art´in my house I like best. It is a toss-up between `the last supper´painting where the wine in the glasses and Jesus´robe are sparkly or the clock with a dead scorpian at each hour.