The "Crazy Cow" - Now With Sound!

Video from Diego's camera of Danny and the Vaca Loca at the pachamanca:

Looking back ...

Well, mostly what I can say is "wow, what a different kind of trip that was".  Eventful, and non-eventful the same time.

Eventful because there was the wedding, and by the end of the trip there were two engagements announced:  Mariana's and Cristy's.

Uneventful because, unlike in other instances, it was marked to a greater extent by what we didn't do this time.   For example, we didn't leave Lima.

Yes, of course, there were the trip to Caral and the overnight one to Chancay for the wedding, but both are basically in the neighborhood.   Normally, we head off to some other part of the country on a multi-day excursion -at least to Ayacucho, even if not elsewhere- but not this time, even though we did try to plan something around 28 de Julio.

Nor was there a to-do list as in other instances.  The apartment is furnished, the taxes paid up for the year, the paperwork apparently in order, so nothing to do on that front.

We did have guests who stayed with us around the wedding, and we showed them around town.  But we didn't hit any museums or ruins on those outings, and we ended up going to the same places -the Centro, Barranco, Miraflores- as each new set of visitors arrived.

The result was that at lot of time was spent as one does when one is at home: chatting, watching TV, reading, waiting one's turn to use the shower, etc.   And, partly due to people's work schedules, most of the outings involved meeting cousins, aunts, and uncles for meals at favorite restaurants or trying new ones.  I guess that's reflected in the amount of posts from this trip that deal with food and restaurants.    However, there were many more worthy restaurants and meals that were not mentioned, even though I had family members telling me "Did you bring the camera?  You've got to tell people about this place!"  Places like Vivaldino, Chala, Merlín de Cabo Blanco, etc.

Heck, I didn't even hit any museums or bookstores until my last three days in Lima!  Now that is a different sort of trip for me.

Miscellaneous Family Pics

Area 7 and Masacre

The night following the Magaly Solier concert, and my last full night in Lima, Jacho and I returned to La Noche, this time for something a bit different.   On Thursday night there were listed two acts of a more subte nature: Masacre and Area 7.

Masacre was the headline act.  I didn't remember this at the time, but Masacre is a metal band that has been around since the 1980s, and is a mainstay of Peru's metal scene along with bands such as Kranium.   Instead, I had half-expected a punkish-type concert.

Masacre is an accomplished band and is likeable enough, but truthfully I found some of their music to be pretty standard metal fare.  I was more impressed with the opening act, Area 7. 

Area 7, it turns out, is a band that was started in 1999 by lead singer Diana Foronda, as a metal cover band.  As the lineup changed, the band began to compose their own songs and evolved into an example of Peruvian "Nu Metal"  (i.e. 'new metal').  

 Area 7 stands out for being one of the few all-female Peruvian rock bands, and they're quite good at what they do, to boot.  They were a lot of fun to listen to.  I'm sure, however, -in fact I know- Jacho would disagree.

It was actually kind of an amusing scene.  We two forty-somethings posted at the end of the bar with an expensive bottle of pisco, surrounded by disheveled teens and twenty-somethings drinking beer out of 1-L plastic tumblers and whirling about the mosh pit.  Jacho's such a good sport for having gone with me!

Here's a video of Area 7 in action that I found on YouTube:

The quality on videos of them on Youtube generally is fairly poor, but good recordings can be listened to here. I specially like "Fuerte, Intenso".

From the stage Diana announced that they'll have an album coming out for download by the end of the month.  I look forward to getting it.

Magaly Solier

On Wednesday night Diego, Jacho and I went to Barranco to see Magaly Solier, who was appearing the La Noche nightclub.    We thought that she might just perform a few songs to prommote her album, Warmi, but were pleased to find that she performed basically the entire album, plus a couple of other songs, including a rendition of Ricardo Dolorier's "Flor de Retama" which was among the nicest Ive heard.

"Flor de Retama" was written about the brutal police repression of a popular strike for education in Huanta in 1969, but it regained popularity in the 1980s as an oblique protest against the police and military repression endured by the population of Ayacucho during the civil war.     Solier's own songs also reflect her experiences and those of the region's populace during the war years, expressed -in Warmi- through the voices of several female characters (warmi means "woman" in Quechua),  like those of "Citaray", who lost loved ones to political violence, and of "Maribel", the main character and a "young woman who dares to help other women who are determined to not let themselves be abused by their men".

All three of us were impressed with what a nice, simple person Solier seems.   She's famous, with a several movies out, a musical album, and her face on Nescafé adds all over the place, but she's still able to confess that she gets "very nervous" whenever she steps on stage to sing for an audience.  The audience was small, but the space was also small, which lent the event a bit of intimacy, and there were some people she knew among the audience and she seemed comforted and pleased by their presence.

Nonetheless, she didn't seem to let her nervousness affect her performance:

Magaly Solier performing 'Ripu Ripusajmi' at La Noche, August 4, 2010

All in all, we were very impressed and glad that we made the effort to go to the concert, and I made sure to buy the album the first chance I got (in fact I'm listening to it as I type).

Packing up

We're having a beautiful, sunny day.  It feels like spring here.

Jacho and I met at the Bodega de la Trattoria in San Isidro for lunch.   We ate on the patio in front of the restaurant and enjoyed the warm sunshine after so many cloudy, damp days.   Afterward I walked a few blocks over to Wong for some last-minute purchases.

I've just finished packing my suitcases for the trip back to the US and have about three hours to kill before I meet the cousins for dinner and drinks before heading to the airport tonight.

I forgot that I wanted to bring back a small amount of chicha de jora to see if I could use it as a starter to brew a batch of my own but I know the market stalls in Magdalena and Jesus Maria will likely be closed by this time of day.   Right now it doesn't seem worth the effort to go to the fair at the Campo de Marte to buy it...