pt at large

News: A Modest Withdrawal Plan

How many times a day can the news still be new? How much of it is news?  An astonishing amount of it is speculation and conjecture. How much of it helps you assimilate it with any context or data?

January 27, 2014

News? What news? For the fifteen days I was in Chile, I was on ‘radio silence’.

Yes, I had an internet connection, slow and unpredictable, so I could have tuned into Morning Edition, a staple of my day every morning. I am a news junkie.

That’s null and void when I’m on vacation a few thousand miles away and in a different hemisphere to boot.

The day after arriving home, I turned the radio on for the first time in two weeks. Apparently, the world has gotten along just fine without me monitoring it. The war in Syria rages on. The Federal government is still a dysfunctional three-ring circus, polarized congress and all. People are still being arrested or killed for doing terrible things. François Hollande is having an affair and the French are actually making a fuss about it. The NSA scandal still has legs.

Aside from a few recent natural disasters, I didn’t really miss much. And it was really cathartic. Continuous consumption of bad news has a way of shaping my worldview. It’s corrosive - it tends to overshadow the good stuff going on all around me.

News has become a giant vacuum cleaner sucking up raw information, pasteurizing it and spitting it out. CNN has become a joke. Stories about Justin Bieber?  Boy missing after crocodile attack? Where America’s Millionaires Live? Maybe it’s CNN’s idea of trying to spare us the horrid stuff but …Justin Bieber? Then later cover an attack on Aleppo?

There was a time when reading a newspaper once a day would do the trick. How many times a day to I need to hear the same stuff?

New plan: I’m going to balance my NPR by listening to Hollywood talk shows. A few Kardashian stories here, a Miley Cyrus story there, will leaven the rest of the news that is so damn gruesome.

The self-imposed news enema will lighten me right up. While I’m at it, maybe I’ll read People Magazine – that’s always good for a few cocktail party tidbits, light fare that will probably be appreciated by other guests who’ve been mainlining on NPR or CNN.

At first I was worried that I might not score too well when I listen to “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” with funny man Peter Sagal this weekend. Will I be able to answer many of the “Who’s Carl (Kasell) This Time?” limericks and smugly  answer a bunch of current events questions in the “Lightning Fill In The Blank” rounds that ends the show.

Given the fact that the news cycle is so repetitive, I'll bet I'll be in the running - even with fewer MPH (minutes per hour) of radio.

I can live with that.

Dispatches From Chile: Re-entering the Northern Hemisphere

January 26, 2014

Speak about rude awakenings...today is 69 degrees colder than my last two weeks in the dry, sunny Aconcagua Valley in Chile...  I'm trying to register 17 degrees, wind chill to 2 degrees. My uniform of t shirt and shorts now resides in memory. Today, sweat pants, a fleece, a cap, and warm socks. Inside. Ouch.

A tale of two porches: Nogales - 86 degrees, humidity less than 10%. Watertown - 17 degrees, wind chill-bone chilling 2 degrees

Arrived home Saturday afternoon January 25, reprogrammed the heating system (the mechanical one in the basement and the internal one in my nervous system), and shuddered every time I looked out the window, snow and ice most prominent through frosted windows. Was that the same sun that heated the earth a few thousand miles away in Chile, I wondered.

This morning I missed the sounds of the imperious rooster from pre dawn till dusk, the doggies barking just about anytime they got excited or talkative about something, Ricardo singing jingle bells (yes), Susaan rattling a bunch of pots and a pressure cooker to create a fabulous lunch, the gentle gurgling of the pool pump, laugher and joking around between Susaan and Ricardo, the occasional call of a swallow or quiltehue, the wind rustling through the eucalyptus or alamo trees, and the sound of 'no sound' compared to my urban environment.

I missed my daily trip down to the cool, shaded barn to see what's going on, horses being tended to by Juanito, Juan Vila hand-pumping gasoline from a barrel into the tractor or wandering into the fields to see Don Pedro or Juan Vila or Julio or Jose Pablo in their assigned roles weeding or irrigating or fertilzing or cutting harvested corn stalks or loading bales of alfalfa into the storage shed or straightening out water hoses that run under the orange trees, all 14,000 of them, and the 1126 new walnut trees Ricardo planted when he pulled up a few thousand orange trees that weren't producing well.

I spent so much time walking around the fifty acre farm that i could feel its pulse, its rhythm. The simple routines of farm life fascinate me. I learned the roles of each of the workers, who seem to regard it as a sin to stand around idly. Most of the work is not mechanized - it's old fashioned manual labor. This is life these men know, have ever known. Watching them I realize how much about the food I eat is the result of efforts like them and others in far away countries. And how much the food industry changed since I was born in the 1940s when just about everything in the market was trucked in from some near or far corner of America. Here I am now spending time in a valley that's a major source of the fruit and vegetable food chain.

Back in  the northern hemisphere, I'll get accustomed to the winter weather. I'll fall back into my own routines. But, next time I see the melons, walnuts, apricots, flowers, lemons, peaches, figs, and avocados in the market, I'll think  of the dust my feet kick up as I walk around Chilefarms... and labors of people like Don Pedro who planted and cultivated the glorious produce on display.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Dispatches From Chile: Alfalfa Days

January 22, 2014

Of all the crops grown here at Chilefarms in Nogales, alfalfa is lowest in maintenance. Prepare the soil, plant it, water it. It has been cultivated as livestock fodder as far back as the ancient Greeks and Romans.Through one growing season, October to March, it will yield six cuttings. Ricardo hires a neighboring farmer to mow it and bale it. He stores the bales in his barn as winter feed for his horses. If the market is high, he has the option of selling some during the winter.

The farmer, dressed in red coveralls, is a real pro, has a system for mowing the field so he has to make as few passes as possible. The sweet smell of cut alfalfa wafts behind the tractor, a land-based vapor trail.

VIDEO Alfalfa field being mowed

Thursday,  January 24, 2014

VIDEO Alfalfa being raked

Farmer returns,rakes alfafa into neat rows, will return soon with his baling equipment.

The farmer returns with his baling equipment attached to his tractor rig. Next step, storing the bales.

VIDEO Hay baling operation

 

Juan Vila drives the tractor, Julio and Christian load bales onto the wagon. They haul several loads to the storage barn. VIDEO Hay wagon1, one of several trips to offload hay into the storage barn.

VIDEO Storage in the barn 

The bales weigh about 50 pounds each. Christian, Ricardo's nephew who occasionally works for him, asks me if I can lift a bale. Juan Vila, who throws them around like seat cushions, tries to stifle a laugh while I try to lift one. Within a few hours, the crew loaded 168 bales into the barn. I took photos.

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Dispatches From Chile: Rodeo Practice

A morning practice for the rodeo next week...

Gato and Juanito saddle up and ride to the practice area, a "media luna" Ricardro has built behind the farmhouse.

Ricardo takes the back way, Juanito brings the cow into the practice area.

The men spend an hour practicing. Notice how the horses are trained to ride sideways and keep their chests in contact with the cow. This horsemanship actually occurs on the open range when a cowboy wants to separate a single animal from the herd.

Horses are washed down after each day of practice.

VIDEO Rodeo practice1

VIDEO Rodeo practice2

VIDEO Rodeo practice3

VIDEO Rodeo practice4

VIDEO Rodeo practice5

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Dispatches From Chile: Peace and Quiet

Peace and Quiet

For the first few days here I thought I’d gone deaf. I couldn’t ‘hear’ anything. It felt like I checked in to a soundproof room. It was almost unnerving.

At home, the radio is usually tuned into the new s or music. Outside, cars and UPS trucks pass, dog walkers chat, lawn mowers purr, leaf blowers whine, carpenters hammer away somewhere, jets from Logan Airport whoosh up to cruising altitude, a basketball thunks on my neighbor’s wooden deck as their son practices his dribbling, a radio broadcasting the news in the next room. I had no idea how much “sound” there is at home and how much energy I spend taking it in. They’re sounds that I hear but don’t register.

Here, I feel like somebody switched my intake dial from AM to some as yet unnamed station on FM. Up on the hill where the farmhouse stands, the most constant sound is the wind sighing through the alamos and eucalyptus trees. The resident rooster declares his presence on the hour. In the distance, the faint rumble of a tractor. When the wind is right (depending on how you think about it) I can hear traffic on Ruta 5, the superhighway that connects northern and southern Chile. Occasionally the neighing of a horse. And dogs barking. It’s surprising how fast the mind adjusts to a new environment. There are five pretty energetic doggies here. At home, that sound is annoying. Here, I take it in not much differently than birds chirping at home.

I haven’t heard a jet or a UPS truck in days. Rural environments are like this. I’m sure I could drive a few miles from my home and find this kind of peace and quiet VIDEO. In the Aconcagua Valley, there are miles and miles of it. It’s positively therapeutic.

 

Video Peace and Quiet1

 

 Peace and Quiet2

 

Peace and Quiet3

Peace and Quiet4

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Dispatches From Chile 2014: At Work On The Farm

The pace of work on the farm swings between long periods of maintenance and shorter intense periods of planting and harvesting. Maintenance days are filled with weeding, irrigating, repairing things that break, fertilizing, caring for Ricardo's rodeo horses, pruning trees, to name just a few.

Juan Vila, Julio harvest corn; Don Pedro and Juan the wholesaler load corn for market; Julio's wife and her mother cut down  stalks of corn harvested last month.

Jose Pablo checks the books; Juan Vila repositions the irrigation hoses under orange trees VIDEO; Don Pedro pounds in stakes for tomato plants.

Juanito washes down horses VIDEO; Ricardo gives his horse a daily vitamin.

Don  Pedro uses the water wagon to irrigate the tomato plants; pt picks spinach for lunch; Susaan shells walnuts for delicious banana bread she makes an hour later - the walnuts come from the walnut tree at the end of the driveway!

Tuesday is one of the two days Don Pedro is allowed to divert water from the canal that runs from the Aconcagua River a few miles away. He has a system to irrigate the entire field.

 
Juan Vila patches a bicycle tube then checks the brakes on the bike I use to ride around the countryside.

 
Things break. Chairs and farm tools.

Don Pedro waters flowers from the small reservoir Ricardo built behind the barn.

Juan Vila pumps diesel fuel into tractor; Jose Pablo checks a tire, adjusts spray nozzles...

mixes fertilizer into water tank, dons his protective gear and is off to spray the orange trees...VIDEO

wholesalers in will not accept oranges that haven't been treated with pesticides.

 
VIDEOS Don Pedro spends most of this day pulling weeds from the entire pasture or Clearing irrigation channels or overseeing irrigation day  and finding creative way to water tomato/watermelon patch.

then rakes alfalfa!

 

Juanito's wife Theresa keeps the stables clean and feeds the fish!; Gato tends to one of the horses after he and Ricardo practice for rodeo in the media luna practice area Ricardo built behind the farmhouse.

The fourth cutting of the alfalfa field...

Julio, Christian, Juan Vila collect 168 bales of alfalfa, store it in the barn...and the beat goes on.

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

Dispatches From Chile: The Magnificent Cerro San Cristobal

January 16, 2014

This mini-mountain in the middle of Santiago is a pretty fabulous place to visit for a bunch of reasons. The funicular ride up to the top, the breathtaking vistas, first rate people watching, and the funicular ride down that feels like a descent from a heavenly cloud.

The line to buy tickets (2000 CP) is long but moves swiftly. An attendant swipes the x bar code from my ticket as I climb a steep stairway to one of the four open-sided, covered green cars perched at 45 degree angle.

A bell clangs.You can feel the funicular vehicle’s hydraulic pulley system hum with the brute force it needs to haul four carloads of tourists up the steep little mountain. Within a minute, as the view begins to appear over the tree line, ooohs and ahhs spontaneously erupt, as does the chirping of digital cameras, iPads, iPhones. This is gonna be special, I’m thinking.

VIDEO Ascending San Cristobal1

VIDEO Ascending San Cristobal2

Thank god for photos and videos. Describing the panorama in words is challenging…let’s just settle on breathtaking.


There’s breathtaking level number one VIDEO at the lower of three levels of viewing areas that sit like tiers on a wedding cake. Cars and bikes can access this level by a Tour de France steep road from the little mountain’s base at the end of Pio Nono. No one can keep from gawking. The two universal reactions are take photos, take ‘selfies,’ and hand your camera to a fellow visitor to take your photo with the vista behind you. I do all three.

The haze today is thick. Forget being able to see the vast and mighty snow-topped peaks that are the backdrop to Santiago’s east. If  today’s vista is so overwhelming, it short-circuits my mind to imagine what a clear day from this exalted height would offer.

If you had any doubts about Santiago being a hub of commerce and industry, scores of skyscrapers in view in the business district put that to rest.

Another word that comes to mind: sprawl. Outside the downtown area, the neighborhoods of Santiago and suburbs fade into the distance. Six million of Chile’s 17 million population live here.

Once I get over the initial awe of the view, checking out my fellow travelers is almost as rewarding. This is high summer, tourism is at its peak, and tourists from foreign countries mingle with Chileans from downtown or distant provinces.

Bikers in spandex or baggy shorts and T-shirts park their bikes. College kids, families, a group of handicapped kids, couples from the love- or lust-struck to those who’ve passed their silver anniversary, take in the views. The small concession stands selling water and souvenirs aren’t too busy yet at 11:30 AM. The place will be buzzing toward 6 PM when the breeze a bit cooler and the Andes may or may not be more visible through the haze and smog.

Huffing up to breathtaking level number two VIDEO, the first thing I hear is Gregorian chants from a sound system surrounding an outdoor chapel. I know I’m getting high but the heavenly music is a little over the top. Not surprisingly, there’s a stone-walled little store selling all sorts of religious artifacts. Commerce and religion are intertwined at most holy places in the world. This one at the “Sanctuario Immaculada Concepcion” is no exception. One glance above, the reason for this is clear.

A 40 ton, 72 foot tall statue of the Virgin Mary dominates the top tier, breathtaking level number three VIDEO. Standing under her, I feel dwarfed. Maybe that’s the idea. You can see her, hands extended in welcome (grace, forgiveness, acceptance, take your pick) from everywhere in Santiago.

Several religious motifs are in the terraces leading up to it VIDEO. Pilgrims kneel in front of the glass doors to a small chapel at the base of the statue’s pedestal, others take photos.

I didn’t come here to pray but find myself on my knees in front of the chapel. Just a moment between the Virgin and me. I learn later that Pope John Paul prayed here and blessed the city of Santiago in 1987.


Maybe it’s the spirit of the statue looming over me but the panorama from here is heavenly. This is one of the reasons cameras were invented, to show in images what words fail to convey. Even the most ardent camera-wielders pause, overcome by the enormity of the scene,  to make a mental image they will tell their friends about in the years to come.
Descent from San Cristobal 1

Descent from San Cristobal 2

Correction: in videos I state the population of Santiago is 17 million. The population of Santiago is six million, the population of Chile is 17 million.

Photos, videos by  Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Dispatches From Chile 2014: Bellavista, A Happening Neighborhood

January 15, 2014
Barrio Bellavista Neighborhood
Santiago, Chile

I have no idea where they come from but by 4 PM, a young crowd is beginning to fill the tables along the sidewalk in the lower part of Pio Nono. This street, like the part in the middle of the hair, splits both sides of the historic Bellavista neighborhood in Santiago.

VIDEO 1 PIO NONO

Kids in shorts, T-shirts, jeans of every style jam together in couples or tables pulled together like boxcars. Servers from the small bars/restaurants wade in to serve beer, fries, empanadas, and pizza (yes) and try to squeeze another table into whatever space they can claim. Personal space? Forget it.  We’re talking a can of sardines here.

VIDEO 2 PIO NONO

By midnight, the sidewalks are packed. At 4 PM, the group on R is just  getting started.

The high-energy din expands by the hour. It will continue until well past midnight. By around 10 pm, another wave of hormonically charged kids fill the Patio Bellavista, the upscale two level courtyard halfway down the street. They’re dressed for nightlife, more upscale versions of jeans and shirts, more attention to “ the look,” showered, and shiny. They’re not interested in the souvenir shops or toney eateries. Hundreds of them are packed around both levels on all four sides cheering for the band on a small stage. The deep blue sky overhead, stars barely visible, is a serene canopy for the action below.

VIDEO PATIO BELLAVISTA

Bellavista is a destination for an evening on the town. Constitution Street, one street over, is where the older brothers and sisters, aunts uncles, and parents of the crowd on Pio Nono come to eat and drink. Some will even filter over to youth territory later in the night.

An older crowd sits inside the bars, ceding the sidewalks of Pio Nono to the young. I stop dead in my tracks as I pass The Crazy Bar. Where was the bandstand? Surely the gorgeous voice of the woman singing the ballad had to come from there. Nope.

Scanning the interior from the open window, I spot a middle-aged woman in a red and white knit dress holding a microphone… a moment later I see the screen on which the lyrics are crawling along. Karaoke! The place rings with applause when she finishes.

VIDEO - KARAOKE AT THE CRAZY BAR

(I was astonished when I played this video two days later for Ricardo's 20 year-old niece Marcelita - she began to sing along just like some of the crowd had done inside The Crazy Bar! "The name of the song is Piensa En Mi, it means 'think of me,'" she says in halting English, "it's very popular." Indeed.) 

This is Santiago. Social life is just getting up a head of steam by midnight. Me?  Sixteen hours on the go and I’m ready to stop. I’m heading back to my Hotel Castillo at the end of Pio Nono.If I could sing karaoke, well…that would be a different story.

Photos, videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Dispatches From Chile 2014: Tiny Bar, Big Hearted Music

Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Bar Cuatro y Diez
Calle Antonia Lopez de Bello 0175
Santiago, Chile

Every so often, by mistake or by design, I end up exactly where I need to be. Several streets away from the hustle and bustle of Calle Pio Nono in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago, I am in search of some music. As soon as I pass the Bar Cuatro y Diez on Antonia Lopez de Bello Street I know I found it.

Strains of an acoustic guitar, a haunting voice beckon. This living room-sized bar feels like a comforting waystation for a weary traveler - a perfect setting for the intimate music floating from the lone musician perched on a high stool in one corner.

The softly illuminated tangerine and ochre painted walls, candles on a handful of tables, the bar with four seats, and the soft music embrace me. "Sit down," they say, "This is where you want to be." I think that’s the idea of some of these songs, lovers saying to each other, “Stay, I’m who you’ve been searching for.”

VIDEO Gallo's original compositions

Koko Gallo, a Chilean guitarist, is singing gorgeous Argentine ballads, accompanying himself on an unplugged acoustic guitar. I’m not leaving. I have no idea what the Spanish words mean. I imagine themes of the softened edges of a heart in the first moments of love, full of promise, wistful notes of heartbreak of separation, good hearted wishes to a lover at a relationships end, and hope of another love to fill dreams and needs of someone yearning for connection. The world-weary tone of his voice tells me he's been there. (story finishes below)

An hour later as I leave, the bartender writes down the name and Internet address of the gem of an outpost. “Come back next time you visit Santiago,” he says in Spanish.

You can bet on it.

Photos and Videos by Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

Dispatches From Chile 2014: Universidad San Sebastian

Universidad San Sebastian, Bellavista,Santiago, Chile

The university is located in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago. One of the most well-known attractions in Santiago, the Cerro San Cristobal lays a few blocks away at the end of the street. 1/15/2014

This is a real show stopper…. one step inside and I was stunned with its beauty.

The Universidad San Sebastian Bellavista is a truly spectacular example of the innovative architecture being erected in Santiago. It simply was not there last time I visited Santiago five years ago. Standing at the beginning of Pio Nono, the main drag through this bohemian neighborhood, it's the most modern building within miles.  

No photography is allowed inside  (I couldn’t even find any photos of the interior on the Internet). My words are a poor substitute for the breathtaking, terraced interior design.

Just inside the entrance, the entire block-long length of the interior is in view.

Sound is beautifully muffled, floating up toward 20 translucent skylights eight stories overhead that suffuse the space with sunlight and energy. The terraced interior allows you to ascend by foot to the top level.  Doors to classrooms and offices are tiered to the top floor on three sides. The entire open space is uncluttered, bathed in more ambient light from glass panels on the upper stories at the far end of the structure.

On several tiers of the lower terraces, students with laptops sit by information desks representing the areas of study. Although the rectangular structure fills a city block, the sight line from to the far end appears to narrow to a vanishing point. What I wouldn't give for one photo!

Immediately inside the entrance, students, many of them with their parents, wait to sign up for classes.  The whole range of activity inside here appears calm and purposeful, kind of surprising given the amount of hormones in this space.

Two students representing the Faculdad de Ciencia sit at a low chrome and steel desk on the third terraced tier. They tell me in halting English that the building is six years old. Most of the people at desks in view are students, all friendly, approachable and knowledgeable.

As I reluctantly leave, two young men at a booth outside the entrance (one a student in nursing, another studying administration) tell me that there are five Universidad de San Sebastian’s. One believes the university in Valdivia is the most beautiful, the other thinks the University in Concepcion is the most beautiful.  

The campus for this university is pretty much the lively, youth-oriented main street of Bellavista, Pio Nono, a delightfully scruffy enclave loaded with sidewalk cafés and bars.  The other universities may have lovely campuses but I would bet a truckload of Chilean pesos that none of them has a building with the grace and elegance of this one.

Photos by Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.

Google translate got me this information.

++++++

Sehool has a capacity for 3,900 students. The construction of 27,000 m², has eight floors, housing the faculties of Engineering, Business & Finance, Law, Education Sciences.

 The modern building has 45 classrooms, each with a capacity for 60 students, libraries, study rooms, video libraries, sport fields, an auditorium with 450 seats, gym, casino and WiFi technology. Emphasize the Harvard graduate and rooms specially equipped classroom simulations to perform oral trials.

 The northern sector of the campus is an Extension Center, with ample space and an auditorium for 200 people, to promote the university and academic life, as well as open to the community with artistic and cultural activities, among others.

 

Dispatches From Chile: Afternoon Tea

Well, actually coffee and light snacks, the meal called "once" (pronounce 'on-say') late in the aftenoon. Breakfast is called desayuno, lunch almuerzo, light afternoon meal 'once' and light meal before bed is 'cena'. Important words for a tourist to know, right up there with 'baño', bathroom.

Ricardo's nephew Christian, who lives in a small apartment near the farms main gate, walks up to the front porch late every afternoon for coffee and conversation with Susaan and Ricardo. Every day he comes with a question: "Who is better - Caruso or Pavarotti?" "Do animals have souls?" and certainly livens up the conversations.

The porch of the farmhouse is perched atop a little hill, a "cerro", offers a view of the property and usually a gentle breeze. The dogs never miss a chance to join for some TLC. They get it from Susaan every  afternoon.

 

Photos and video by Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.

Dispatches from Chile 2014: All In A Morning's Work

Tuesday morning, January 14, 2014

Chilefarms is humming this morning... I'm sure there was activity that I missed - this is what I saw on a walkabout between 10 AM and noon.

Clearing the irrigation channel - Annual snow melt from the Andes Mountains to the east descends into the Aconcagua Valley from the Aconcagua River and is channeled into farmlands. Clearing the sides of the canal facilitates water flow when the water level in the canal rises.The Chilean Coastal Range, Cordillera de la Costa, runs parallel to the Andes to the west of Nogales. The Coastal Range affects the climate here, producing a rain shadow eastward in the Aconcagua Valley, which gets its water principally from the Aconcagua River. Chilefarms is a member of a cooperative utility that moderates canal conditions and water distribution to farms in this area. The men work for the utility and have been clearing miles of the canals in Nogales. Water distribution is a contentious issue between farmers in Nogales and San Felipe, who draw  volumes of water upriver from here. 

VIDEO http://youtu.be/Vhgxo6z_LJU

VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpOMFaR2vqQ

The export standards for oranges are stringent. Regular pruning of the trees, water management, and pest control are necessary to produce oranges of export quality. Although the farmers might like to grow organic oranges, the truth is, they will not make it to market.

Horses are excercised and trained for the rodeo then cooled down, watered, and fed. Juanito Perez has worked here since Susaan Straus and Ricardo Ceriano bought the farm, Chilefarms, in 1995.

Corn is picked and counted as it's chucked into the baskets then loaded into this truck. Corn is the second most important annual crop after wheat in Chile.

VIDEO

 

Trucks from two wholesalers harvest corn today. The men in the green truck are from Sgr. Pompino's business. Chliefarms farmhand Juan Villa supervises the counting as baskets are loaded into Pompino's truck.
VIDEO
The blue truck belongs to Juan. Chilefarms farmhand Don Pedro supervises the count into the truck. Loose corn is loaded then sacks are filled and loaded on top of the loose corn. By late this afternoon, it will be hauled to the wholesale market in Vina del Mar, on the  Pacific coast just over the Chilean Coastal Range to the west.

Trucks are loaded to the brim and the corn inside is fastened securely. Business owner Juan is a hands on businessman.

VIDEO 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMSwi3QbHjc

VIDEO 2 https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=uudJ3XkqsKg

The women, wife of a neighbor and her mother, cut and pile the dry corn stalks in a field harvested two weeks ago The stalks will be hauled away,chopped up and used by the woman's husband to feed goats, cows, and horses. Soon, the field will be burned then plowed under for the next planting. Nothing goes to waste here.

VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4yjkcGSOxI

This fellow, who's been amused watching me take photos, hands me a watermelon, also harvested today, and slices a huge piece. Language is no barrier to friendliness.

Don Pedro Biernays,who oversees the wholesaler's counting, lived on the property when Susan Straus and Ricardo Ceriani bought it in 1995. He slices watermelon for the neighbor's wife who's chopping corn stalks nearby. Don Pedro lowers his hand to knee level and points to her, signaling he's known here since she was a litle girl. "Secundo papa," he grins as she beams beside him. The two men from Sgr.Pompino's wholesale company share a laugh with me. I'm getting along with sign language and smiles.

Shortly after midday, trucks are loaded and ready to roll to Vina del Mar. Work on the farm halts around noon for dinner (almuerzo) then continues till late in the afternoon.

Merle Haggard: "Learning To Live With Myself" - PBS

There are more lines on Merle Haggard's face than in lifetime of songs he's written. That would include 38 Number One Country hits. The PBS documentary Merle Haggard: Learning To Live With Myself shows by turn a country charmer, a bad boy, each with a love me or leave me attitude. Once the man figured out what he wanted, he got it. More often than not, he's not all that comfortable about it.

The film focuses on two defining moments in the man's life. His short stay in San Quentin, "the joint," as he refers to it in song and conversation, and getting diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009. The American Masters movie that rides the rails of his life tells the story of a man who lost his rock of a father when he was a boy, broke his mother's heart when he got into scrapes with the law, rode the rails (really), lived life from boxcar to boxcar, and spent time in the penitentiary.

San Quentin woke him up but not before he tried butting heads with his jailors. The road he took to end up there damaged him in ways he's been coming to grips with since the day he walked out. He was paroled early because of his work ethic running the prison laundry. He was never more alone, or vulnerable, than he was in prison. He openly sings about the shame he felt for the messes he made and the people he hurt.

To my ears, his voice is better than it's ever  been -  a range from gravel to honey, with a sweet upper register that reveals the man inside the rough shell -  all of it from some deep place searching for the light of redemption or forgiveness.

To this day, he's most comfortable on the 10x12 foot space on his windowless tour bus. "It's the same size as my cell in San Quentin," he says. His ornery nature has softened with good fortune, a career that's made him rich, not comfortable, and allows him to live his life on his terms.

Haggard has always written his own material. He doesn't just sing the songs, he's lived them, felt them. They haunt him. You'd never find him in a therapist's office but the stage and studio are his shrink's couch, the place where he'll tell you what he's feeling. Haggard's songs aren't generic. He doesn't sing about pickup trucks, hound dogs, and the freedom of the road. He knows damn well life is more than that. He's a red state singer, thinks ‘we probably peaked in 1975’, and is uncomfortable in an America with franchises on every block.

Being diagnosed with lung cancer gave Haggard a sense of urgency. Look into his eyes as he talks and sings and you're looking into Haggard's heart of darkness The American Masters movie weaves photo montages from his childhood, clips from his early shows when he was finding his way, a concert a few years ago that is a valedictory speech and confessional and an interview to tell the story. The close ups of Haggard's face and guarded eyes speak volumes. There are more songs to write, feelings to resolve.

If you view those minutes with the sound turned off, you see a man who is still a prisoner - tormented by his own failings, his losses, and his knowledge that he's on his last boxcar. "Hell, I'm 70 years old. If they give me life without parole, I'm only going to serve two years…so…." and here he raises his middle finger. A man can only mellow so much.

Watching the clips of a youthful Haggard and today's interview is jolting. The result is not lost on him. He’s lived hard. He wants to die with a clear conscience.  Watching this film makes painfully clear this will be the hardest road he’s ever traveled.

 

 

Dispatches from Chile 2014: An Afternoon At The Rodeo

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Rodeo in Conçon, a popular destination on the coast

For a story explaining more about Chilean rodeo
http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2011/01/2011-dispatches-from-chile-chilean-rodeos-real-cowboys.html

Friend and families meet and greet; kids in Chile are as drawn to video games as kids in the U.S.

The rodeo draws a wide crowd on Sunday - entire famiies, friends of the riders, people taking an hour to watch the rodeo then hit the beach in Conçon a mile away. This is not a sport like polo exclusively for the rich. Most of Ricardo's neighbors have horses, some of them participate in rodeos - small ones that attract local horsmen, larger ones like this that attract riders from Santiago.

Can you imagine a sports event where the Minister of Defense rides with horsemen from small towns? If you ride well enough and train your horse to ride sideways you can. Today, Ricardo spent time chatting about his orange business with Chile's Minister of Defense!

Rodeo is a national sport. The rodeo replicates work on the range, where a huaso ("cowboy") picks out a cow from the herd and has his horse nudge it into an area where it can be worked on. The horse has to be able to run sideways to do this!

Three times around this inner semi-circle  (media luna) then the riders and calf ride into the larger ring. Calves await their turn. Ricardo says some rodeos are actually held in open fields that better mimick the horsemanship where it was first used. He also says that women are beginnng to enter rodeo competitions.

Choice spots to watch the action where the horses and riders try to pin the calf against the cushioned section at each end of the media luna. The horses are nimble, have strong chests, and can gallop sideways to keep a cow moving in the right direction. Chances are you've never seen anything like this.

Trophies for the winners. Two riders await their turn. Rodeo season runs from September to April.

 

 
Similar to a ballgame in the U.S., spectators come from all walks of life and social class... and enjoy being photographed.

Riders rest their horses after a round.

Ricardo and his riding partner Gato Ledezma won enough points Saturday to compete again on Sunday. Now they await their turn. A moment later, the door opens and the calf bolts out with Ricardo and Gato in pursuit.

You have to see this to believe it. This breed of horse can be trained to ride sideways so they can pin a cow against a cushioned area (to minimize injury to the calf).

Teams work in tandem. Ricardo's partner, his horse riding sideways, tries to pin the calf against the cushioned area at one end of the media luna. Ricardo and his horse will do the same thing at the other end of the media luna shaped outer arena.

 

I waited for Ricardo's next round to make a video. Thirty three seconds after his round began, my camera battery lost its juice!

Another video

 

As is the custom, the winners dance the cueca with the queens of the rodeo.

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

Dispatches from Chile 2014: Friday January 10

January 10, 2014

Ricardo's rodeo partner Gato Ledezma (bottom R), his father Don Pio (top R), and caretaker Juanito Perez practice for the upcoming rodeo in Con Con early this morning. Ricardo practiced earlier this morning. Chilean rodeo description http://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2011/01/2011-dispatches-from-chile-chilean-rodeos-real-cowboys.html

Ricardo picks spinach for lunch today - doesn't get any fresher than this! To the left of the spinach, tomatoes plants which are just beginning to ripen. An early frost this December ruined lots of fruits and vegetables usually growing in abundance on the farm: apricots, figs, lemons, limes, watermelon, honeydew melons to name a few.


Maestro of the fields Don Pedro poles he'll use to support the seeds from organically grown tomatoes Ricardo's son brought to the farm.The bamboo he's using for the poles grows on the farm.

Ricardo's sisters Uka and Veronica, with their daughters Marcelita and Nicole, pay a visit after lunch.

 
Marcelita is in a five year program studying commercial industrial design in Valparaiso. Nicole is studying early childhood education at the University of Chile in Santiago. Given the growth in population and burgeoning commercial economy, their job prospects are good.

Sun begins to set around 8:15 PM, dusk fades into evening about an hour later... another day at the farm begins to wind down.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

 

 

 

 

Dispatches from Chile 2014: Home base in Nogales

More videos to follow...slowly, as internet connection, much like the pace of life here, is slow...

 

Susaan and Ricardo are very welcoming. I feel at home. Lemonade, milk, yogurt in the my little guest refrigerator, always one of Susan's home-baked goodies on the kitchen counter. Ricardo singing jingle bells, Susaan and Ricardo joking back and forth. The sound of the rooster from dawn until dusk. The tubular wind chimes gentle lullaby. Dogs barking. No rumblings from UPS and FedEx trucks. No overhead sounds of jets taking off or landing at Logan Airport. An occasional distant shout of one of the fieldworkers hailing another... this is music to my ears.

Dispatches from Chile: First Glimpse 2014

Dispatches from Chile: First Glimpse 2014...I arrive in Santiago on January 9, 2014, my 7th excursion to Chile since 2006.

The Andes Mountain range about 50 miles north of Santiago.The Andes mountain range is about 4,500 miles and spans seven countries along the entire western coast of South America  — Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina...forbidding terrain to say the least. The highest mountain in the Andes is Mt. Aconcagua, visible from the farm of Susaan Straus and Ricardo Ceriani in Nogales, where I am staying.

Santiago is growing by leaps and bounds-I don't remember seeing these buildings in photo at left in 2011. The Gran Torre Santiago (Spanish for "Grand Santiago Tower") is a 64-story tall skyscraper. In 2011 it became the tallest building in South America and in 2012 the tallest in Latin America.The modern architecture co-exists with the traditional. Normally, the trip from the airport to Nogales is superhighway all the way. We made a wrong turn so we took the scenic route through Santiago back to Ruta 5. It got my visit off to an interesting start.

Chileans are natural entrepreneurs, this man hawking food in traffic next to the Mapocho River that flows through Santiago...

and this pair of girls at the beginning of Pio Nono in the Bellavista neighborhood dancing the cueca, the national dance of Chile. We gave her a few pesos for her imaginative spirit.

Scores of new developments like Los Manzanos sprout along  Ruta 5 north of Santiago. My host Ricardo says the roofs have solar panels that heat water. Visibility has been limited for over a week due to large persistent fires that roar through the dry grasslands dotted with espina trees. Susaan explains the 'Three Thirties" that are perfect conditions for grass fires: "temps over 30 degrees C, winds over 30 mph, and humidity under 30 %". The humidity Thursday was 4%!

Route 5  (Ruta 5) is one of the best maintained roads in the world.

Route 5 known locally as Ruta 5 is Chile's longest route, 2090 miles long. It is part of the Panamerican Highway, stretches from the Peruvian border to Patagonia. It is the commercial lifeline of the country. Thousands of tractor trailers and trucks of every conceivable size bearing produce, wholesale and retail goods, construction material rumble down it night and day. The state is in the process of widening the road in one of the rockiest stretches north of Santiago, a huge project that will take over a year to complete.

Traffic is halted for several hours a few days a week as crews dynamite rock formations at the sides of the  highway. The loudest noise around my guest quarters at Chilefarms in Nogales is usually the rooster who claims provenance to the little hillock on which the farmhouse sits. I can deal with that.

My guest quarters...lovely views and a sparkling pool a few feet from my door.

Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

New Year Jam at Deb Waldman's in Lafayette, LA

December 31, 2013

You have to be insane to have a house party on New Year's Day and invite everyone in town to come is what I'm thinking. I'm riding shotgun as my host for the weekend Bernard Ussher delivers a fold-up gazebo to set up in next to the breezeway in her driveway. Did I mention it's supposed to rain like hell tomorrow? And that the other January 1 event that usually competes for attention of Deb's party was held yesterday. I mean, how many people can a modified shotgun house hold before it blows up?

January 1, 2014

Deb has a ton of friends. And she posted an invitation on a website read by dancers who are in town from all over the country. What ensues is more on the order of the miracle of the bread and fishes except with alot more spice.

From about 2 PM to 6 PM just about every rendition of Louisiana cooking appears and is piled together on every surface the kitchen - shrimp, gumbo, red beans and rice, pasta salads, chicken casseroles, roast chickens, meat pies,wings, boudain balls, jambalaya, pizza (yes), dips of all sorts, homemade bread, you get the idea.

The living room (wisely cleared of rugs and anything fragile, just chairs and tables on the perimeter) tables are covered from corner to corner with to-die-for pecan and apple pies, banana bread and chocolate in fabulously rich creations including fudge, brownies, cookies, cream pies,chocolate covered strawberries  - enough to take care of your sugar fantasies for the whole first month of 2014 and then some.

Loads of people. At the height of the party, it was easier to get from the enclosed front porch to the entertaiment room/family room at the back of the one story home by walking out the front door to walk around the house and into the back door.

There might be house parties in south Louisiana when guests don't haul out instuments and begin to sing and make music. I've never been to one. A "jam" is just getting up a head of steam when I arrive. These jams are some kind of organically evolving event in which someone sings and everyone else strums or bows. The only rule is usually only one accordion and only one T-fer (triangular metal rod tapped on with metal rod) at a time.

Jams are astonishingly free of hierarchy. Sheryl Cormier, known as 'The Queen of Cajun Accordion," and her husband Russell are playing along with local men and women, a few of whom have been playing for less than a year. Ray Landry, organizer of the Saturday Jam Sessions at Vermilionville joins in with his guitar and singing voice.

Cajun Jam 1 VIDEO
Cajun Jam 2 VIDEO Sheryl Cormier accordion, husband Russell on vocals
Cajun Jam 3 VIDEO
Cajun Jam 4 VIDEO

The ballads and waltzes tonight are in Cajun French and date back to the times Cajuns first settled here in the late 1700s after being expelled from Nova Scotia. They got the "my way or the highway" treatment when they refused to accept the authority of the British monarch. Life was hard. Making music together kept them together. These days, having an "American Idol" singing voice is not necessary. Singing from your gut is.

Cajuns are first-rate story tellers. Chris Trahan, musician, dance teacher, folklorist, tells some funny stories between songs.

Cajun story 1 VIDEO
Cajun story 2 VIDEO

Cajun story 3 VIDEO

The musical predilections of the people of Lafayette are pretty eclectic.There's a trio playing Appalachian roots music and a woman clog dancing in the front room. "Where you from?" a musician asks the clogger. "Virginia," she says. "I can see you have the music in  your feet," says the guitar player. Her shoes pounded the floor so vigorously she stopped mid-step to straighten some bric a brack that fell from a nearby bookcase!

This was Deb Waldman's 8th New Year's Day house party. Her wood-framed house is still standing - and getting more legendary by the year.

Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.

New Year's Eve Lafayette, LA style

There is no shortage of places to dance on New Year's Eve within miles of Lafayette. Three hundred tix to dance to Geno Delafose at Vermilionville - sold out weeks before December 31. More than 100 dancers have descended upon Lafayette from Minnesota to Maine, Austin to Boston. Cajun and zydeco dance halls draw a crowd anytime, but New Year and Mardi Gras - insane. Have you ever thought about dancing in a packed street car? That would give you practice for what happens here.

Geno Delafose is one of the workhorses of the zydeco universe. He began playing the rub board in his father John's band at the tender age of eight. He switched to accordion before his father died in 1994. You know what you're gonna get with Geno. Straightahead zydeco, a good mix of waltes and two steps with a sly twist of country  and bluesy stuff.

He knows how to read an audience, varies his repertoire accordingly and is immensely popular with people who like zydeco that is modern but not urban. Don't be fooled by the prevalence of grayish hair - this audience tonight was still yelling for more when Geno left the stage after playing an extra few songs after his supposed final song at 12:30 AM.

Photos © by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.