tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35436926244395878772024-02-20T02:48:43.904+00:00¡Que Gringo!Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-54382948798187622682011-03-04T11:59:00.004+00:002011-03-04T12:27:36.266+00:00<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-family:Georgia;font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;">Hello</span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;font-size:24.0pt;color:red;"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:24.0pt;color:#FF6600;">by GringoSam</span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">They say that first impressions are all-important. If so, the etiquette of greetings could be crucial in making that early bond with a stranger. Get it right and you could have yourself a friend for life, get it wrong and expect to be thrown out with the social refuse.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The handshake is undoubtedly the most recognised gesture of goodwill in the Western world. Most historians believe that it first came about when our ancestors displayed open palms to strangers, signifying that they were holding no weapons. Though, if arms-bearing was commonplace back then, one has to wonder why our greeting never evolved into one party getting down on their knees with their hands on heads.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhItRN3xbqCE_ux7hkyXYFpLMr_n0hnCom4TXJP_iaAWPzzK7evvhpHTDhPCdZtzw0t_s6S1B_RT6cyZI9uQENqlTlGmoJnihhog-zKLHlnYsT7m7V5_j8ZtGhR8MFB_exHRvJ2BrDpjjOu/s400/68103956YkJxdM_fs.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580195476390248674" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;"></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Above: People were greeted cautiously a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.</span></i></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But even this symbolic shake is not as simple as it would seem – the French only consider the handshake to be appropriate in a business environment, in </span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Russia</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> it’s rude to shake hands with your gloves on, and in Arab cultures limp handshakes are the norm. Then in Scotland, of course, the handshake is simply a way of using another man’s right hand as a fleshy stress ball – they are so macho that, if your handshake fails to bring a tear to the eye of your ‘opponent’, you will be automatically discounted as ‘a bonnie wee lass’.</span></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And then of course we throw in the kisses, the hugs, the awkward waves and everything else that goes with saying “hello”. Today’s level of social interaction between different cultures has never previously been seen in human history, and at some stage we’re all left in limbo when introduced to a stranger, particularly of the opposite sex:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">‘Is it a faux pas to shake a woman’s hand? Probably, and anyway she’ll think I’m cold. Perhaps I could turn on some continental charm with a couple of kisses? Then again, not sure how many to give, and I wouldn’t want to come across as camp. I could even casually nod upwards, à la Jay-Z, but I’m white and almost definitely not cool enough to pull it off convincingly. Oh well…guess I’ll just play it safe with a smile and a mini-wave.’</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There’s a lot to be said for countries that have unwritten rules telling what you must and must not do when greeting a person. A handshake between two men and a single kiss on a woman’s right cheek seems sensible to me. But it’s something that is obviously a cause of anxiety worldwide – in fact, if you type ‘How do I greet’ into Google, the search engine will give you the following popular suggestions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">‘How do I greet a Muslim’</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">‘How do I greet a girl’</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">‘How do I greet my date’<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:36.0pt"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">‘How do I greet thee’</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">OK, so I’m not sure where that last one came from, but you get the point. First impressions are undoubtedly important, and we all fear that the impression we give may be one of a socially-aloof, standoffish kind of person. For many of us I suppose this may well be true but, still, let’s at least delay the truth a little longer.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><i><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">‘Why the hell did I wave at thee from half-a-metre away?! Feel like a cretin. Note to self: never again consult Google for social guidance.’</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>GringoSamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922078396687969300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-29086089071753186392010-11-08T04:21:00.014+00:002010-11-08T20:32:46.139+00:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(255, 0, 0); line-height: 19px; font-family:Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">Amazon Rainforest: A Photo Essay</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; font-family:Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">by grin</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; font-family:Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">gosam</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"The Amazon? Bu</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">t o</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">nl</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">y David At</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">te</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">nb</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">oro</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ugh </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">gets to go there." This was my friend's disbelieving reactio</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">n to the suggestion of a long-weekend in this infamous ha</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ven </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">of </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">wildlife. A rainforest which spans an entire continent, the Amazon greets visitors with an air of the vast unknown. Sure we've all seen <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_(TV_series)#8._.22Jungles.22">stunning BBC HD documentari</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_(TV_series)#8._.22Jungles.22">es</a> but that sense of raw, powerful nature just doesn't transmit through any television screen. Having said tha</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">t, it was slightly unnerving when </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">my first alligator sighting was</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">n't limited to the familia</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">r bounda</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ries of a 42" Sony LCD.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Ecuador is ho</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">me to 2% </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">of the entire jungle but, with prim</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ary rainforest accessib</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">le only by river, the </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">biodiv</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ersit</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">y </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">is unp</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">aralleled here. GringoDisclaimer: Any <i>gringo</i> with a fear of insects is best advised to let the soothing tones of Mr. Attenborough guide you through what is a frightening yet beautiful natural habitat!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:19px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD4DHTgOTxH08e2kkAsuDRxVRFauKIIszZkmkaxadUgujPP3xeUvaURcThwCOg_4HPzH64eeTXij4o7hZjTFFk4_n0jgHSDyihLk2TOdcDsw-zxdzcvGzaF6YshcPN95tAUC2M8RNfUoB_/s320/IMG_9770_gringo.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:19px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPfPbHSzLC1-Yz1g0uGTbavVzggADDyHQZfSjTtPQlFCteRS18TCQBSAzBVAcQW9bSqaQmTolRe-sify7m1l6b4t6LXvjz-8dJQrb9mG57AVLoHASHeBwcs_2pB0LCw6KLLwdoWa74DTwZ/s320/IMG_9777_gringo.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:19px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHtH6u6cwYL1FO5BAD6RrTkVDrnDFuWfP7oJESXa8GMKldnUU9G8YZBSLcikW-GOFIuuRVbuWRRHlA4oQm6gs587euGkoxKSeEkr2S1AqWfpXVJ6pxbBFFxrKWaOMzVhM_CsfMfpphQz8-/s320/IMG_9800_gringo.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:19px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq17TT0Ei4Er_akbMJzt6ZVGus5Vih1nJPqGm5LM2YCj-C94M4dqvp0elw10xqnTvwfjC6XZY_SmNK-LWzQhdyGhTVQDeGdDWPZRfcrv2vvnnVyR_I4PlOA_8ji-D78CuUO06vjAwWYpxr/s320/IMG_9813_gringo.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:19px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIKCKzBmtxJutwJPT0VXHhVzvECnc8iAz-dBGN9ZpoZKvpJWnmLXnBL51JCEKe-1Hi-teGgfJi0SKJhY4oxxHdyCRBxeYHqzYw26_UHyXg_vFlECd2rk_EezuVVBoUcmEzAkax3E6ANb1-/s320/IMG_9824_gringo.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:19px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTEh0S-8RBNyGmKEn66r5Y8b4JySVai2Jdf0ZVPJbcdSGQxiZcceD237c-bFfg18yS0lkpBYcrErjvnTUh36uBhqy7tHV8b7rsJI2bI3bA6v_4ascSzrFEVSg6rnAQswFuhyJ8O5SOHs4B/s320/IMG_9838_gringo.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:19px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiByPiC2JUe4E9p0p0AoXZRFoDg614UGCzQNERtvMuS6nWnuoWeYXOfKiBTAE_Kq_Zz2Dd4mEGXJMk3Z8ymD7tsBWsw46sa39GXk87ZoYFifhWjnrg1dtxLpu2zONm7t0ZbBntkAnEaOegw/s320/IMG_9867_gringo.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:19px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUvKTQakXcqQCrKuqzrysv2Mvrp8N4CDFfwB0bYio3JXJnR3-Ecbo1vAXhoppAXBcAHuoOlUCoT6T9umP9tI-Kk7SXwuJtwxxk68Rk0-GT-a2xw1f3Ada5Ho3M3HQMood5vFfONdK0ajhZ/s320/IMG_9932_gringo.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:19px;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKxFefV39jImylKk76rVtNNI21RDD-8NAQIM-gsMGtCsk0zjG951HMJvSZGRx2uI08P5AnwZFPBXjwKEfjCN7fZuAeVe-kXiuF1lHw8TrxXkN47xycVQX_B0AWt6OLTEjAuxb2qspJ4a93/s320/IMG_9808_gringo.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Photography: GringoSam</span></span></span></div>GringoSamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922078396687969300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-41793056292066311832010-10-28T21:24:00.003+01:002010-10-28T21:30:27.737+01:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:180%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span">Businessman 35<br /></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; color: rgb(255, 153, 0);font-size:180%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">by gringorem<br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:78%;" class="Apple-style-span" ><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">wait up for Friday</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">it buys you a drink</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">it reminds you</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">where you are</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">crumpled notes</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">lift from wallet creases</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">into your hand</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">your fun is empty</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> [give up today</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> wash out tomorrow]</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">see a pretty face</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">watch it smile / frown</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">young bucks on the dance floor</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">you old stag</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">your suit</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">parts</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the crowd</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">against <span style="font-weight: bold;">loud</span></span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">music hurts your head</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">it reminds you</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">where you are</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">years have slid</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">by without you knowing</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">like beads of sweat</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">on your receding hair line</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-53824549819185603382010-09-28T02:47:00.001+01:002010-09-28T02:50:42.580+01:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ySNb4o_qq8_acxpjwcEWYSk6c3D2U4fOAwd0KU2q3gjfP1zQKYe4jjUHJ8Jxd_rv7K9R6fV7HPY2ZD4fuNEZkvoqU5BBP5tUl40LLWQaK_kWN9lD0F31WVtjHIw3FduO6FBNo56ccOE/s1600/jackson-pollock-painting.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 313px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ySNb4o_qq8_acxpjwcEWYSk6c3D2U4fOAwd0KU2q3gjfP1zQKYe4jjUHJ8Jxd_rv7K9R6fV7HPY2ZD4fuNEZkvoqU5BBP5tUl40LLWQaK_kWN9lD0F31WVtjHIw3FduO6FBNo56ccOE/s320/jackson-pollock-painting.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521775349208335634" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><a href="http://www.jacksonpollock.org/">MAKE YOUR OWN JACKSON POLLOCK PAINTING</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Check out this website where you can play Jackson Pollock, without the mess!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(Double click for Double fun!)</span></div>GringoKevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13434161019100157554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-62213266344378608022010-09-26T14:38:00.002+01:002010-09-26T14:40:02.335+01:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHLEP2fecyeNW6yTECRdNtzEJcQOJ2JzuF-oM3lHN2Z1CFyO6E-KLlbJ-uTVjFDqYTsh4Y0Vt2jzbf9sOUPGA8ECJNsFNK9HG7D-qoo86BSHH93h8NpECiiLpe9SX5maag3EXL31Dwyrg/s1600/IMG_8794.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHLEP2fecyeNW6yTECRdNtzEJcQOJ2JzuF-oM3lHN2Z1CFyO6E-KLlbJ-uTVjFDqYTsh4Y0Vt2jzbf9sOUPGA8ECJNsFNK9HG7D-qoo86BSHH93h8NpECiiLpe9SX5maag3EXL31Dwyrg/s320/IMG_8794.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521216432258230146" /></a>
<br /><meta charset="utf-8"><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span">NEW GUIDE</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Fj8ZjHQIBZVEiL3WwWNK_9b5sNXxWbAi0Z_RZ4tpAs3EDG7nbN8UA_92gcIcFmBkZGaZG2hafyInc3Q6P_Fvpag4_Kfm2nw6fprUQKgDsi3L6DuCFYS5zwvS2AIKdO_-lxQejhJirBg/s1600/F1000018.JPG">
<br /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span">QUITO - A GUIDE FOR GRINGOS</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><b>
<br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><a href="http://quegringo.blogspot.com/p/gringo-guides.html"><b>CLICK THROUGH TO OUR NEW CITY GUIDES SECTION</b></a></span></div></div>GringoKevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13434161019100157554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-35276890843764248982010-09-21T06:42:00.002+01:002010-09-21T06:45:37.972+01:00<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >NEW GUIDE</span></b></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Fj8ZjHQIBZVEiL3WwWNK_9b5sNXxWbAi0Z_RZ4tpAs3EDG7nbN8UA_92gcIcFmBkZGaZG2hafyInc3Q6P_Fvpag4_Kfm2nw6fprUQKgDsi3L6DuCFYS5zwvS2AIKdO_-lxQejhJirBg/s1600/F1000018.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Fj8ZjHQIBZVEiL3WwWNK_9b5sNXxWbAi0Z_RZ4tpAs3EDG7nbN8UA_92gcIcFmBkZGaZG2hafyInc3Q6P_Fvpag4_Kfm2nw6fprUQKgDsi3L6DuCFYS5zwvS2AIKdO_-lxQejhJirBg/s320/F1000018.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519238655713226658" /></a><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><u><br /></u></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Fj8ZjHQIBZVEiL3WwWNK_9b5sNXxWbAi0Z_RZ4tpAs3EDG7nbN8UA_92gcIcFmBkZGaZG2hafyInc3Q6P_Fvpag4_Kfm2nw6fprUQKgDsi3L6DuCFYS5zwvS2AIKdO_-lxQejhJirBg/s1600/F1000018.JPG"></a><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >MELBOURNE - A GUIDE FOR GRINGOS</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><a href="http://quegringo.blogspot.com/p/gringo-guides.html"><b>CLICK THROUGH TO OUR NEW CITY GUIDES SECTION</b></a></span></div></div>GringoKevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13434161019100157554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-63241390697592347722010-09-20T08:20:00.002+01:002010-09-20T08:23:44.915+01:00<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:180%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The Four Seasons</span></span></span></span></span><br />(1563-1573)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Giuseppe Arcimboldo</span><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:180%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /><a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1068/770542822_412d13177a.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 302px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1068/770542822_412d13177a.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1255/769684575_bb9ddbcb7c.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 307px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1255/769684575_bb9ddbcb7c.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /></span></span></span></span></span>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-76733295003678691222010-09-16T21:38:00.008+01:002010-09-17T03:31:15.561+01:00<div style="text-align: center;"><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >NEW GUIDE</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA3BNQKbypHKqE3alN7Gxdnd4dCY8nqB3zMTg9LMAnjb3DdJwTr65Yeb33aS6CWOcGQYnksmsFkXq_pT0-ZTPujdHw_Xdhl59ICklpxJdWcPjUFkZAwBLRXzubF_j9331RcLvDPpz1Izs/s320/SAn+Diego.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517614519209767106" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>SAN DIEGO - A GUIDE FOR GRINGOS</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://quegringo.blogspot.com/p/gringo-guides.html"><b>CLICK THROUGH TO OUR NEW CITY GUIDES SECTION</b></a></span></div>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-59046250694002100352010-09-11T00:41:00.010+01:002010-09-11T09:43:59.036+01:00<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: x-large; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); line-height: 19px; ">'The Wilderness' by Arcade Fire</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 18px; font-size: 13px; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 19px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span></div></span></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >If you haven't done so already, you're going to want to check out Arcade Fire's "music video" from their latest album, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" >The Suburbs</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" >. Please note the quotation </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" >marks I've appended above: this is probably unlike any music video you've ever seen before.</span></span></div></span></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">CLICK THROUGH TO 'THE WILDERNESS' BY ARCADE FIRE</span></span></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div>You'll need to be using Google Chrome as your browser to check it out but a) it's a cinch to download, b) probably the best browser available on the internet anyway and c) totally worth it.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVoofh5P-ianGY28a7DoO8mkfcHMlNSPq_JjotSutIsCRdWap0qtmw9V7ZbEgWSOmQFQrUTWf7PnWCl6LVWM7gmd8BAENPtrHw_z4pCT98oHybBp9hJ8Sb28FSQ4FJHVS3V4wIYQJORlg/s200/Wilderness.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515437107097961634" /></div>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-20733300335787892292010-09-09T15:21:00.004+01:002010-09-09T15:24:48.934+01:00<div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>NEW REVIEW</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhretxMRwkDaTKzI7c0dKFHP1UfMNeFNW8rBrHQGJv8ok81wrF1Ig84BbLGhQaM1gkbvPwPfa79h4s1_IS1KKO0C16pyHt0uudPOWG8jbfBs6UDHDyTUXpAmXagbTOEZRArznLppuuCi0/s1600/FIRST-AID-KIT.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhretxMRwkDaTKzI7c0dKFHP1UfMNeFNW8rBrHQGJv8ok81wrF1Ig84BbLGhQaM1gkbvPwPfa79h4s1_IS1KKO0C16pyHt0uudPOWG8jbfBs6UDHDyTUXpAmXagbTOEZRArznLppuuCi0/s400/FIRST-AID-KIT.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514919281009721954" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); ">FIRST AID KIT - LIVE IN MELBOURNE</span><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; "><a href="http://quegringo.blogspot.com/p/reviews.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">CLICK THROUGH TO OUR REVIEWS SECTION</span></a></span></div>GringoKevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13434161019100157554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-75142156629631575162010-08-29T01:11:00.008+01:002010-09-05T14:57:59.788+01:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span">Wasps and Perpetual Motion</span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; ">by gringoluke</span></span></span></span></span><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">It was 9 am, it was 98 degrees, we were 4,000 feet up in the Cuyamaca Mountains in South Eastern California. A few years earlier man-made forest fires in this area had wiped the slate clean on nature's handiwork, leaving behind nothing but dry scrub and the spindly grey carcasses of burnt-out trees. The brittle vegetation<span style="font-weight: normal;"> clung to the dust and the dust</span> clung to our socks and bare shins. Everything was dry and thorny.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A narrow path had been whittled through the brush, carving its way up and round the ridges where I imagined Native Americans had been raising their head-dressed silhouettes for centuries. We were always on the lookout for cougars and hawks, for rattlesnakes and coyotes, for anything my father and I, sunburned and suburban, could find to remind us what a hostile environment we'd plunged ourselves into.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU0m9SYpwDjkPGVWrJM6iBBaXgFkRJyW-_vxq5_BSA4tUMOloowwJL3p1ycr-SzQHBXfCr4JuJG1beB3XRdKTvKHNm-hyKgA3G5dohp8I17G8Pe9HwogpW-Ohjg2WFLx5zhJVlDgQE6zc/s1600/SDC12914.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU0m9SYpwDjkPGVWrJM6iBBaXgFkRJyW-_vxq5_BSA4tUMOloowwJL3p1ycr-SzQHBXfCr4JuJG1beB3XRdKTvKHNm-hyKgA3G5dohp8I17G8Pe9HwogpW-Ohjg2WFLx5zhJVlDgQE6zc/s400/SDC12914.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5510699710307789314" border="0" /></a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;">We had a rough idea of where we were going, knew that we were northbound on a trail that would eventually take us to the 'Airplane Monument'. I imagined a massive boulder that someone had generously described as airplane-shaped, just a simple rock that was used to designate our trail. I wasn't concerned with finding the monument, I'd only set out to enjoy the adventures of the trek. The monument was only there to guide us.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The trail carried on upwards and soon the sun had dried up our conversation. The only sound now was our panting and grunts of effort, mostly drowned out by the steady drone of insects in the thick brush that shouldered either side of the path. Occasionally a creature would scramble away ahead of us, long before we had the chance to even see what it was. Birds glanced off our peripheral vision but for the most part the sun was too hot to pay them any attention. Every few minutes we would nervously scan the horizon for the Airplane Monument, aware that the sun was only rising higher and higher in the sky.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The overwhelming feeling in this part of the Cuyamaca Mountains was one of death. Not death in the morbid, frightening sense, but death as a total absence of life. The vegetation had been sucked dry of moisture, what animals existed didn't want to be seen, didn't want us to know we were stumbling through their homes. We were unwelcome in this moribund paradise and it was almost as though that was exactly what the crackling undergrowth that scrabbled for our skin and our blood was trying to tell us.<br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtMjOOI_Kxf2wvrrCF-cBwIZIbkZUOAgLqFdsEJcgdUVo0AHXB9-lxK8gIOPPMBEIrD_4zz_ngs0dF7VltaMtdQ5PNEE0VHKW-K3ktGEVswnJbzc6hLzoF_inJGYMdG3-hi94-gaI8m0A/s1600/SDC12912.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtMjOOI_Kxf2wvrrCF-cBwIZIbkZUOAgLqFdsEJcgdUVo0AHXB9-lxK8gIOPPMBEIrD_4zz_ngs0dF7VltaMtdQ5PNEE0VHKW-K3ktGEVswnJbzc6hLzoF_inJGYMdG3-hi94-gaI8m0A/s400/SDC12912.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5510699359043648498" border="0" /></a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;">We nearly missed it. A smaller, even narrower fork in the trail, corridored by rising brush either side, veered down the ridge to our right. A partially obscured sign read 'AIRPLANE MONUMENT, 0.2 MILES'. With elbows protecting our faces we set off down the new path. It wound further and further down the ridge, to a point where we both realised what an effort it would be to backtrack our way to our original path. Finally we lowered our nicked forearms from our faces and found ourselves in a tiny clearing. The Airplane Monument I had expected to find rising out of the earth before us wasn't there. The giant boulder I had been anticipated was nowhere in sight. Instead, before us, on a battered stone base sat a charred and dilapidated V12 cylinder engine.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Back in 1922 when they still built planes out of wood, US Army pilot First Lieutenant Charles F. Webber and his high-ranking passenger Colonel Francis C. Marshall set out in a DeHaviland DH4B model biplane from a nearby Californian airfield to Fort Yuma, Arizona. The plane never arrived and it was only after many months of painstaking searching that the wreckage was finally found. Due to a combination of foggy weather conditions and a malfunctioning engine, the plane clipped a tree while trying to fly over the Cuyamaca mountains, tearing off its tail and leading to a crash that killed both men. The life expectancy of pilots in those days was particularly low, though this incident was made particularly notable by the huge international effort made to locate the crash site. In the end it was a horse rancher who stumbled upon the charred remains of the airplane and its occupants, many weeks after the authorities had given up hope of ever finding out what happened to 26 year-old Webber and his 55 year-old passenger.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">I could make you cry with stories of Webber's old co-pilot who spent many months combing the dangerous flight paths searching for any sign of his friend's plane, or the “great relief” experienced by Webber's parents when they knew their son had been found, albeit long dead. Far more thought-provoking are the actions of Webber's friends back at base who, knowing that removing the wreckage from the steep ridge would be nearly impossible, simply built a concrete base around what remained of the burnt-out engine and installed a plaque in memory of the two men who had perished. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9-Fu-O8e4bUOSmMkBNhKILDNKh-xzYnCvcnDLGZs4WmdDshQVL3AgrW9ajfqDWfWmHJggWmg4ezcpJ5zVtZCJx9y-PUgh7xjuiPO4ev1S-NwFFyzIPbZ2aZb_tbCwdWOEHjrnM7vvb_4/s1600/SDC12920.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9-Fu-O8e4bUOSmMkBNhKILDNKh-xzYnCvcnDLGZs4WmdDshQVL3AgrW9ajfqDWfWmHJggWmg4ezcpJ5zVtZCJx9y-PUgh7xjuiPO4ev1S-NwFFyzIPbZ2aZb_tbCwdWOEHjrnM7vvb_4/s400/SDC12920.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5510619737889269442" border="0" /></a></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Despite what occurred there, the monument is not a sad and solemn place. The brush has been cleared away and stone steps frame a circle around the massive engine. It is hard to believe that the towering pines that sent Webber and Marshall's plane crashing to the earth once stood here. No tree grows higher than six feet or so and there is nothing to block the view of the quiet valley nearly five-thousand feet below.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">I approached the engine to take a photograph and suddenly stopped dead. As I stood near the monument, I could hear that the engine was running. A mechanical buzz churned out from its gutted innards. Despite a crash that had killed its passengers, a massive forest fire and nearly eighty years of relentless sun, it seemed this lump of steel and brass had suddenly whirred back into life. I turned to my dad whose face expressed the same look of perplexed fear that I felt, and together we approached the engine. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">It only took us a few moments to see the wasp's nest. From one of the inlet valves we noticed wasps regularly trickling in and out. The sound we had mistaken for a running engine was actually the cavernous echo of thousands of insects beating their wings inside the tubes and valves of the defunct machine. They buzzed back and forth, oblivious to our presence.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">As we silently snapped a photo and left the monument, letting the ghostly sounds of the engine fade out behind us, a funny thought struck me. Amongst all the death and frailty that the forest fire had left in its wake, one machine appeared to keep living, buzzing on constantly through the day, inattentive to the comings and goings of the hikers who stumbled across it. There was something comforting in the fact that a monument to the dead continued to beat with life, that nature had infused the silenced pistons and valves with new energy and that the engine would continue to run nearly a century after the men who controlled it perished beside it. I tried to think of a complex metaphor to assist these thoughts but the sun was too hot. I just smiled and closed my eyes to the sky.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2jyrab3YnNCtJrMVMD9jLGcwvVvS8o3nVe9Ov98DHGpabqCjgyfvTyqWtge3KBFo5MLko5SFUSegp6M9uutidHFjKLdHeLURX6yUuVojq8ybCh4fbDviYYf-LGB21GUAlWcvrAY1NKcM/s1600/SDC12923.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2jyrab3YnNCtJrMVMD9jLGcwvVvS8o3nVe9Ov98DHGpabqCjgyfvTyqWtge3KBFo5MLko5SFUSegp6M9uutidHFjKLdHeLURX6yUuVojq8ybCh4fbDviYYf-LGB21GUAlWcvrAY1NKcM/s400/SDC12923.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5510620099951735186" border="0" /></a></p></div>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-43469860062413649532010-08-22T14:23:00.012+01:002010-09-14T17:02:27.357+01:00<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i> <!--StartFragment--> </i></p><i><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">If it Int In Yorkshure It Int Wurth Visitin'</span></span></span><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">by</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;">GringoSam</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:";font-size:10.0pt;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"><br /></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">Y</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">orkshire folk have long been slated for having deep pockets and short arms. In fact, when you Google ‘Yorkshireman travelling’, the first story you’ll stumble across is one of a </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10421680"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">Mr. Howard Josephson using his free bus pass to swindle fourteen connected bus trips over three days which would take him the mere 200 miles from Leeds to London</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">. When a direct train ticket over the same distance costs £14 and would have saved 70 hours of Mr. Josephson’s time, one begins to see where Yorkshire’s undesirable reputation comes from. So, when I was born in York District Hospital in 1990, Ecuador was probably the last place the midwife would have put money on me ending up. That is, if she had the gene-defying audacity to put £5 on anything at all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"> </span></span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">As anybody who likes to travel will know, there are perhaps one or two occasions every year when you sit back and think the following:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">1. Where the heck am I?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">2. What ridiculous sequence of decisions in my life ever led me here?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">3. Pretty cool though, huh.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"> </span></span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">Well this philosophical moment hit me most recently this weekend when I was on a clapped-out ferry, crossing between the indigenous villages of San Vicente and Bahía de Caráquez on the Ecuadorian coast. The fact that Will Smith’s 1998 hit ‘Gettin Jiggy With It’ was playing over the tannoy system only served to make the picture more surreal. So it was on that rickety vessel that I sat back and wondered just how many Yorkshiremen have ever made this very journey – was I perhaps the first? If so, is that any great achievement or just the long-anticipated confirmation that I am indeed an oddball? Either way there I was amongst the jaded South American locals, the warm gusts of the Pacific Ocean leaving my hair resembling that much-coveted </span></span></span><a href="http://www.kimlovo.com/storage/gamble%20oscar.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1265320873952"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">Oscar Gamble look</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"> </span></span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">Before you get false illusions of Columbus-esque voyages, we should probably consider the sobering mathematics of travel probability. Even if any one place is a far-flung and unlikely destination, there are thousands of such places on our planet and we’re all likely to visit a few of them over the years. So effectively what I’m saying is that we’re all likely to end up somewhere unlikely. I’ll name this GringoSam’s Paradox.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"><br /></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"> </span></span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">And for those of you wondering quite how I managed to get to Ecuador on a shoestring budget typical of my home county, you can find the answer with Yorkshire Airlines who market themselves as ‘the affordable Ryanair’:</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"><br /></span></span></span></p><object width="500" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pFQxCdgSc_E?fs=1&hl=en_US&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pFQxCdgSc_E?fs=1&hl=en_US&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"></embed></object></i><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <!--StartFragment--></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">We’d love to hear about a time when our readers have ended up somewhere quite remarkable, somewhere you had never pictured yourself being. It doesn’t even need to be abroad – after all, </span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx8CZyFM4b4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">Newport</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"> is as perplexing and foreign a place as any for us to end up isn’t it?!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;"><br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:.1pt; margin-left:0cm;mso-para-margin-top:.01gd;mso-para-margin-right:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom: .01gd;mso-para-margin-left:0cm;text-align:justify"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFCC;">Being a pretty rubbish Yorkshireman myself, I can’t boast to have travelled to South America for free; although I did manage the journey in fewer than fourteen connections. The same cannot be said for Mr. Josephson however, we’re expecting him sometime in early 2011…</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-AUfont-family:";font-size:10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--><p></p>GringoSamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922078396687969300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-61752107558573962232010-08-13T04:06:00.009+01:002010-08-14T09:51:50.803+01:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">Mama This Surely Is A Dream<br /></span></span></b></span><div style="color: rgb(255, 153, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">by GringoSoos</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><br /></span></i></b></span><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"> </span><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">You either know those girls or, as in my case, you are that girl. </span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The girls who will scream ROADTRIP! every time a potential vacation is considered, the girls without licenses or car, without any sort of idea of how big the United States really is but the vague impression that driving from New York to California won't take too long (“a couple of days right?”). </span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Like my exuberant companions around me screaming ROADTRIP!, I knew in the back of my mind that no such feat could in reality be mastered. Despite the plans we made, the finances we budgeted, the bikini outfits we devised, we would never have the kind of experiences the pre-college teens seem to be living out in PG-13 movies. No drive-thrus, no hitchhikers, no road trip playlist.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Two weeks ago, on my way from Charleston, South Carolina to Daytona, Florida, I realized I was wrong.<br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><i><span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs173.snc4/38011_445430063853_673228853_6282556_4607317_n.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 485px; height: 272px;" src="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs173.snc4/38011_445430063853_673228853_6282556_4607317_n.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></span></i></b></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I have been on so many ten or fourteen hour plane rides that the six hour drive between these two states seemed like a breeze, no big deal. I thought we'd leave Charleston after breakfast and make it to Florida in time to catch some rays and get at least a </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">little</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> uncomfortably sun burnt. This was where my realization, nay, my </span><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">epiphany</span></i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> occurred.</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">We'd just left the Wendy's drive-thru, I was sitting shotgun and a very old song came on the radio. Well, when I say old, I mean mid-90s. Old enough for it to be a pleasant surprise when it came on the radio, but new enough for my big sister to have listened to the very same song on a very similar road trip over ten years ago when she was my age. It made me realize the unaging tradition of road trips and our ability to be affected in the same way as the people who took them before us. My sister and my Dad and my aunt, even Jack Kerouac, all got in a car with their friends and drove through America. Like me, I'm sure they didn't consider it a big deal either to begin with, just a means to an end, but I bet when they got out of the car at the other side, they privately savored the lack of a quick ninety minute plane ride (because come on let's admit it, all you can see on a plane is the clouds and perhaps a surprisingly sad rom-com, that, no, what, I swear I'm not crying at, I'm just tired, and this cabin is dusty). </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So for all the girls like me who nodded along with the suggestion of a road trip, while secretly rolling their eyes and doubting its</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ability to live up to the Hollywood hype, you just have to sit back and be patient and you'll eventually find yourself in a car with the right peo</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ple, at the right time, experiencing a rite of passage. Oh, and don't forget to turn on the radio.<br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br /></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs269.snc4/39804_436920799872_503779872_4601793_6789944_n.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 360px; height: 270px;" src="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs269.snc4/39804_436920799872_503779872_4601793_6789944_n.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> </p><br /></div>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-30270925408252031052010-08-12T15:16:00.010+01:002010-08-14T09:52:53.394+01:00<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">The Big Smoke </span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">by GringoKev</span></i></span></span></b></span></div><div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Caesar crossed the Rubicon for one, Dickens wrote endlessly about one, the Greeks left a giant horse outside of one, Japan has the biggest one and you are probably in or around one at this very moment.</span></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But why have </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">cities</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> so captured the human imagination?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If you look at them from an outsider’s point of view, from a rational and objective perspective, the whole thing seems pretty absurd. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span></span>Imagine trying to describe the whole </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">city situation </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">to a complete foreigner. And I mean a real foreigner – like aliens, or </span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THrpJSstWZ8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">this guy</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> - someone who is pretty much unaware of human civilisation.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; "><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“So, like, you put yourself in a small box. You might have some grass if you’re lucky but it’s pretty likely that your box will be stacked onto some other boxes. It will </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">definitely</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> be next to lots and lots of other boxes. Uh, and like some of these boxes will be labelled different names like</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">‘shops’ or ‘office’ or ‘restaurant’. And yeah, so you just like spend your life commuting between these boxes. Oh yeah and to get from box to box, you get into another box, that farts out smoke”.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Catch my drift?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This is not to say that I detest cities and wish to move into a rural hippy commune with no electricity or paved roads. Gosh no. I mean, where on earth would I get my vegetables? Peas come out of a freezer, right?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Still, there is something strangely alluring about the country and open road that appeals to us big bad city folk. I’m going to hypothesise that it has something to do with the warm feelings that come from a combination of nature, freedom and the successful splitting of a block of firewood. And besides that, non-city people are just </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">relaxed</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I went down to the Victorian coast with a few friends a couple of weeks ago and at some point on the long and undulating curves of the Great Ocean Road we were graced with a roadblock. We were also told by the cheery looking sign-holder that the delay would be around 20 minutes.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Now I want you to think now how drivers in a city would react to such an obstacle. A cacophony of angry horns, cursing and abusive questioning is what springs to my mind. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span></span>But perhaps I’m just a biased cyclist.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I think that what followed encapsulates perfectly what is wrong with our modern city life and what is right about the country. Firstly, the 20-year-old sign-boy squatted near our car and happily chatted to us for a few minutes. He also seemed genuinely interested - the presence of two pretty girls in the car notwithstanding - in my backseat guitar playing. We then got out of the car to have a look at a whale that had been spotted quite far offshore. Now cities may have cool cafés and galleries but a </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">whale</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. ‘Nuff said.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We all gathered excitedly on the side of the road – twenty or so people, including the construction workers and sign-boy – and did a bit of communal whale spotting. We had a bit of a chat, a bit of a laugh and drove off twenty minutes later. There was not a word of discontent, not an unfriendly face, nor a shimmer of impatience or anger from anyone who was forced to stop.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Perhaps it says more about human nature than cities themselves that I was genuinely surprised by this warm and spontaneous community experience.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Now I’ve ju</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">st got to get hold of a dolphin costume and we can start making Melbourne a happier place.</span></span></p></div></div></div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyRnoF2kOgugX0a-vfT2Hu6ZHBNHzm7FtLaBmO3cDnB1B9BZBUvOVZUhSn3_I3Wr0KtYJr99sisdX7J80_MozdUcedzUpB0YZeDGnEdhg0mWKIW_UgymcwfCAJm0EYvS5qtRFurzxaQM/s1600/F1010024.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyRnoF2kOgugX0a-vfT2Hu6ZHBNHzm7FtLaBmO3cDnB1B9BZBUvOVZUhSn3_I3Wr0KtYJr99sisdX7J80_MozdUcedzUpB0YZeDGnEdhg0mWKIW_UgymcwfCAJm0EYvS5qtRFurzxaQM/s400/F1010024.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504530628661747730" /></a><div><br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGKEYS9-ZFsMfzjqCkNSiqdHpPq9dtu02yOXH_q3gfMHO19TTRqA3AeXn6mU7L6jc8X2SUSJpW5sQzosPL6Zt96DOnlecW8de-IRyW9ZKtEGtvVzgg6edkPHJ3ExiS7e90SiNOJZjUvvg/s1600/F1010019.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGKEYS9-ZFsMfzjqCkNSiqdHpPq9dtu02yOXH_q3gfMHO19TTRqA3AeXn6mU7L6jc8X2SUSJpW5sQzosPL6Zt96DOnlecW8de-IRyW9ZKtEGtvVzgg6edkPHJ3ExiS7e90SiNOJZjUvvg/s400/F1010019.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504530196200581458" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT2y2ex3xmPFnsNXGtL3Uoi1FpoFnJNewiiewKqPeA0wlRiWF3ZWXIFizTx58gAYINGb-XLBbooOJ8L0naXUMIh0XffynWkE7SVnQDNgvAAwxD_qOnHyn6Lc0mC67w-aVl6QzDxgAJxkY/s400/F1010028.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504530189317021506" /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrdvm3qX2wxXsiE0bZR5_10D6UvEf2B62rUjUiw7W5t2MKV_MbpaOtUSOCIW5UrnOBw8e5cTIwhXvz2frP8UeagTDvwRDT9ZyVr84Zs6dKJjKbBKx73q3bnx8A_X0uDuafsZtyS805UiI/s1600/F1010019.JPG"><br /></a></div><br /><div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33CC00;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div></div>GringoKevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13434161019100157554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-3944485075611555392010-08-05T00:59:00.014+01:002010-08-14T09:54:33.491+01:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Play Me</span></span></span></span><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 14.25pt; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:180%;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span">by gringojenny</span></span></b></i></span></p><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span><meta equiv="CONTENT-TYPE" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><title></title><meta name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 3.2 (Win32)"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.2in;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Picture this: a casual Sunday evening game of Scattergories – you’ve got 10 seconds left to think of 'Things found in the City of London'.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.2in;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Blackberry: yes. Suit: yes.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Piano…yes!</span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.2in;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For the second year running, the City of London Festival began with an installation of 21 second-hand pianos all over London – from Hampstead Heath to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Each piano comes with a sight-specific song book including the likes of 'London Bridge is Falling Down', as well as the odd Beatles Medley thrown in for good measure.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.2in;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The project aims to encourage social interaction and connection through music, and from my experiences, it does just that.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.2in;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">My first encounter with the street pianos came last year when I decided to tickle the old ivories myself on an otherwise dull Tuesday afternoon. After stumbling my way through a few precarious renditions of 'Yellow Submarine' and 'Humpty-Dumpty' I was approached by a sheepish looking tourist who requested I play 'Happy Birthday' for his girlfriend. Soon enough, we had the whole street involved, in was what was perhaps not the most tuneful version I have ever heard, but certainly the most enjoyable. Since then, my day is always made that much better whenever I spot complete strangers squeezed onto a piano stool, arguing over who gets to play the chorus of 'Hey Jude'.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 0.2in;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Like public renditions of 'God Save the Queen' played on second-hand pianos, personal experiences are so much better shared, and I urge you to let me know about some of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">your</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> experiences of the London street pianos, or indeed any similar musical encounter.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 14.25pt; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">
<br /></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=c3ea38ef2f&view=att&th=12a3f86286a7561b&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 302px;" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=c3ea38ef2f&view=att&th=12a3f86286a7561b&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw" alt="" border="0" /></a><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: 14.25pt; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 204);">GringoJenny doing her part to improve her capital's ambience</span>
<br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: 14.25pt; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size:85%;">(London, 2010)</span></span>
<br /><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 14.25pt; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"></span></span><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">
<br /></span></span></b></i></span></p>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-87368723878605944342010-08-01T17:50:00.016+01:002010-08-02T04:39:56.558+01:00<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Se</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">ñor, be my twin?</span></span></span></span></span></div><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">by gringosam</span></span></b></i></span></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span style="color:#2A2A2A;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Buxton is a quiet spa town in middle-England. The majority of British people would not be expected to place it on a map, but this peaceful countryside community is of importance due to its more prominent relatives. Buxton is, unknown to many, the British sister town of</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Quito</span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> – the Ecuadorian capital in which I am based.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">At first glace, the two have very little in common. While the former is a tranquil haven for the British middle-class, the latter is a vibrant and crowded urban settlement tucked away in the </span></span><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Andes</span></span></st1:place><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. Nevertheless, while they may be worlds apart in terms of culture and history, the two have more in common than first meets the eye. In relation to their respective countries, both are high-altitude market towns – although</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Quito</span></span></st1:place></st1:city></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">’s impressive elevation of 2800m comfortably dwarves the 307m of Buxton!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><u1:p></u1:p><u1:p></u1:p>Despite having a population seventy times smaller than that of it’s Latin American relative, Buxton comes with an impressive business repertoire of its own. Its</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">thriving economy includes revenue derived from the commercialisation of the local spring waters, bottled and marketed by the Buxton Mineral Water Company.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It is owned by confectionary giants Nestlé</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">UK</span></span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></span></span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> and has been the official mineral water of</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><st1:place st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Wimbledon</span></span></st1:place><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></span></span></st1:place><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> since 2001.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></span></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><u1:p></u1:p>Michael Clement of the Buxton Tourist Information Centre declared that the local people of Buxton are 'very proud to be twinned with such a culturally vibrant city’. Buxton has been producing the same high-quality mineral water for over 5000 years, and Clement believes that the ‘common feature linking the two cities is one of a rich history’.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></span></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><u1:p></u1:p>Our friend Michael could well be clutching at straws here though – I’ve never met anybody who is convinced by the logic behind the twinning of towns in this way. There are some bizarre examples out there: Gaza–Barcelona, Caracas–Reykjavik, Minsk–Nottingham and Hay<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">-</span>on<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">-</span>Wye–Timbuktu to name but a few. And I certainly wouldn’t have thought that Bishek, the capital of</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Kyrgyzstan</span></span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></span></span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> (yes, Microsoft Word, I shall ‘</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Add to Dictionary’</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">), would have much to offer to</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:country-region st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Canada</span></span></st1:country-region></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">’s most populous city,</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Toronto</span></span></st1:city></st1:place></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></span></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><u1:p></u1:p>These non-relationships are quite unique in terms their subjects. Towns and cities are numb to their exotic twins, but imagine if the same concept was applied to humans. For every one of us fortunate enough to be paired with a Brazilian beach babe, there’d be three who landed themselves with a middle-aged Russian alcoholic called Sergei.<o:p></o:p><u1:p></u1:p></span></span></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><u1:p></u1:p>The twinning body, rather conveniently, is known by the acronym POINTLESS – Pick One Irrelevant Nation Then Locate Extravagant Sister Settlement. Having been critical of this set-up, I would say that my time in</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Quito</span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> has been wholly different on account of the city’s links with Buxton. Wait, no, it hasn’t. Perhaps</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">in Buxton</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">the</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Quiteño influence means you</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">can now freely consume guinea-pig or call a white chap</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">gringo</span></span></i></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">as a matter of course? Somehow I doubt it.</span></span></span><o:p></o:p></p><p></p><p></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><br /></p><p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:14.25pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYXeR8I3i6ipNPa_RG6QcvZzgqNSGj3wu9apRb4FdbcFf9h1vXpITjDC9hWtK7VawmyB59sXcgHuCRFdgW7GQioxEncL3piP2LUqPCs_9a2e_WfrsojMbUwdGhr8927cF-DgWV9Fedmkop/s400/shining_twins_1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500486999771731922" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 301px; height: 308px; " /></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><i>The Shining</i></b>: Freaky twins.</span></span></span></div>GringoSamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922078396687969300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-79035087011629024402010-07-29T23:37:00.015+01:002010-08-14T09:54:12.792+01:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">I Pledge Allegiance</span></span><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"> </span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 204);"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(102, 0, 204); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">by gringoluke</span></span><p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">America is the centre of the world.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The above sente</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">nce will immediately tell you two things about me. First of all, despite my current residence in that so called Land of the Free, I'm still stubborn enough to keep spelling like an Englishman, and secondly, and pe</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">rhaps more importantly, I'm enchanted enough by America for this to one day change.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's difficult to find a person who doesn't have a romantic, enigmatic and bemused image of the most powerful nation on Earth. Ask anyone to draw a picture of what they think the average American looks like and they are probably going to hand you a sketch of an overweight redneck in a Hummer, automatic rifle in one hand and sun-glinting crucifix in the other. I guess that's fair. I take a huge amount of pleasure in asking people from other countries to describe the archetypal English person through the eyes of their own culture, and I'm always surprised with the wide variety of answers I get back. </span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(My German godparents tell me that English people are generally understood to be polite, calm and-- bizarrely—often red-headed. I guess they've never been to Magaluf.)</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Everyone has their own general idea of what people from other nationalities will be like, but Americans appear to be in a league of their own. Granted, there are deviations within the country itself—we all know, of course, that California is full of iPad-toting yuppies and everyone in the South is a Republican—but for the most part, there is this general blanket of mystique that coats the entire country. Whether you think America is the land of opportunity or the land of broken dreams, you definitely think that it's something.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5EKEv87slxY7L-DYJkzeSz_FTg7zJAO_6AklJcWRuk7Xv-YHZebEHgC_jr7xi5l5yYwgVJn58lGRGvE3ARSB15v7ouYu1Lfkd2yoBJGnZbrIRh9EKvLHH1M5vyUP2voCkuHexEvEtNw/s1600/SDC12661-1.JPG"><img style="text-align: justify;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5EKEv87slxY7L-DYJkzeSz_FTg7zJAO_6AklJcWRuk7Xv-YHZebEHgC_jr7xi5l5yYwgVJn58lGRGvE3ARSB15v7ouYu1Lfkd2yoBJGnZbrIRh9EKvLHH1M5vyUP2voCkuHexEvEtNw/s400/SDC12661-1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499467198468577842" border="0" /></a></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I grew up in America. A few months after my sixth birthday we moved from Southern England to a small town in Connecticut that was basically the backdrop for </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Stepford Wives</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. In fact, it </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">was</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> the backdrop for </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Stepford Wives </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">as well as </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Revolutionary Road</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, which, if you've seen either of those two films that were filmed on location in my American hometown, will probably tell you a lot about the place where I grew up. My family, being English and therefore a little too round-pegged for square-hole suburbia, always teetered on the wispy edge of waspishness, never quite succumbing to the country clubs and Cape Cod summers that my classmates indulged in, but nevertheless planting ourselves into a comfortable New England lifestyle. Connecticut buried something in my DNA, a little nucleic egg that began to hatch many years after I left the states, at a time when I was looking at universities and my future. I knew that the latter lay in the US, but I was too intimidated by everything it stood for to even consider applying to an American college.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">My parents have the same magnetism for America that I have. My father burst free from the dark winters and reluctant war of 1970s Britain and dragged my mother along to Detroit, Michigan, where the winters were even darker and war even more reluctant. The American spark took hold of them then and they've been coming back ever since. When my father finally retired last year, they arrived, shipwrecked and comatose by nearly forty years of travel, on the shores of Southern California. Filial piety and suntanned American girls meant I came too.</span></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We've all been swept up in this tidal wave of American romanticism and, rationalise it as much as you like, that endless queue of curious emigrants, tourists and hopeful wannabes is not getting any shorter. Whether your mental image of this vast nation involves a white picket fence or a white hooded mask, you certainly have your own ideas about America. No matter where the currents of life drag you in the years to come, one thing is for certain: this country will cross your mind and probably your path at least once. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;margin-bottom: 0in; "><span style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the meantime, I'm going to keep spelling 'colourful' with that extra 'u' and calling London my capital. I don't think I'm ready for people to be drawing me as a fat evangelical redneck quite yet.<br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_TeBnmpMahS-zIqM06Y9kliD2S0qsECKRhk8p8v6QrXovd3LcDmopTIIbK926MzeCBYJP7zqJHcXyRQWZAg2YXf0uAU0J8to2BY-IBhfFiREYIiiKfvKNiix9CC7rqAlDQWCs24L8jng/s1600/SDC12736-1.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 336px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_TeBnmpMahS-zIqM06Y9kliD2S0qsECKRhk8p8v6QrXovd3LcDmopTIIbK926MzeCBYJP7zqJHcXyRQWZAg2YXf0uAU0J8to2BY-IBhfFiREYIiiKfvKNiix9CC7rqAlDQWCs24L8jng/s400/SDC12736-1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499468360077923698" border="0" /></a></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span> </p></div>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-5327502936645056812010-07-25T11:51:00.030+01:002010-08-02T14:23:23.477+01:00<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">Morocco: A Photo Essay</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"></span></span></span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFF00;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">by gringomeg</span></span></span></i></b></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFF00;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"></span></span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFF00;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><div style="display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; !important; "><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I feel for the Moroccans, having to put up with the downside of a booming tourism industry. But even more so, I feel for Moroccan camels that have to carry overweight German tourists across what must seem like an endless fragment of the Sahara. Don’t get me wrong; I am not one of those pretentious travelers who insists that the term ‘tourist’ and all activities associated with it is beneath them. No, no. I let a poor</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">camel carry me over Saharan</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">sand dunes, and I enjoyed every second of it. The eternal expanse of orange sand-waves was as breathtaking as good sex. But as I watched my overweight father wriggling around on his camel in front of me, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt for the poor creature that was probably suffering from extreme exhaustion.</span></span></span></p></span></div></span></span></span></span></i></b></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"></span></span></span></span></i></b></span></p><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><div style="display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; !important; "><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">That was Morocco for me. Moments of beauty and awe, interspersed with bouts of guilt and frustration. In awe of the extraordinary mosaics adorning the walls of the majestic riads at which we stayed.</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Overwhelmed by the intricately woven streets of Fez’s medina that transformed my world into Agrabah, the fictional city of Aladdin.</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFFFF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And frustrated that I was, indeed, a tourist. Like all the others, I had been convinced to buy more carpets than anyone could ever want or need.</span></span></span></p></span></div></span></span></span></i></b><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span></div></span></span></span></i></b></div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FFFF00;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;"><br /></span></span></span></i></b></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3O6c23zl7mExJLtxL7EH2AXCd4vMj4Nlslfa58SOcHYGw4iNvom5xky2PxWvL5YnDctEpOgkuTZ53oGOzdzyQqnyi4Hv5ycWQ2F9PG4MUqhuBGEn5rmdPMblZcbUU6lhcmHD2g2LfnIs/s1600/DSC_0298.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 252px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3O6c23zl7mExJLtxL7EH2AXCd4vMj4Nlslfa58SOcHYGw4iNvom5xky2PxWvL5YnDctEpOgkuTZ53oGOzdzyQqnyi4Hv5ycWQ2F9PG4MUqhuBGEn5rmdPMblZcbUU6lhcmHD2g2LfnIs/s400/DSC_0298.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500774939328836098" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8xpMWgiRKOFPGj-0aLyEskV8Q0wVSbowjYFhBZslXQuBPRuqg7dEWjCbkUgKDbls8_7hett-obrHboPsB2HpARQKvK9p71jTCyJM6lgPwyBiAAF2ct_DYjoqT7MUn1QMAe3OzKe6kBkU/s1600/DSC_0304.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8xpMWgiRKOFPGj-0aLyEskV8Q0wVSbowjYFhBZslXQuBPRuqg7dEWjCbkUgKDbls8_7hett-obrHboPsB2HpARQKvK9p71jTCyJM6lgPwyBiAAF2ct_DYjoqT7MUn1QMAe3OzKe6kBkU/s400/DSC_0304.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500774927771900850" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gV3Zlp1Y94_QBe1kwGxJbYV3fusS_bjSbkhnubQRxsjwE7BKiYexLzBoyPBZIdZ9SlswpBuLh9zEhPVjrhCpTI1rEkeQuYEujqwVr-VzPWgzUtAWIg41FpwCkOuQGRtrQUmJwI3ZMlw/s1600/DSC_0519.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gV3Zlp1Y94_QBe1kwGxJbYV3fusS_bjSbkhnubQRxsjwE7BKiYexLzBoyPBZIdZ9SlswpBuLh9zEhPVjrhCpTI1rEkeQuYEujqwVr-VzPWgzUtAWIg41FpwCkOuQGRtrQUmJwI3ZMlw/s400/DSC_0519.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500774919401046978" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4yvtTgOkBSpNGCWl0nYobvz8MBqel8sQf9_jR6SKJa1bI1pRUwsuDVF0kXIhZD7xivm8mVhYFxU1DT7oXYyrYi8r4KZ7yVXVEW_DWSrAYbNBXmlFf0juFvfHeoQMoz399ntu10iYDypI/s1600/DSC_0324.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4yvtTgOkBSpNGCWl0nYobvz8MBqel8sQf9_jR6SKJa1bI1pRUwsuDVF0kXIhZD7xivm8mVhYFxU1DT7oXYyrYi8r4KZ7yVXVEW_DWSrAYbNBXmlFf0juFvfHeoQMoz399ntu10iYDypI/s400/DSC_0324.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500774911323209474" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1aRWe6DeuN7wN28g3md80bkZcPM3oR7CqDim90H-HXWD9rXD0PGa5cODe8_anEc5YmbUxt4ZegDtf_PV7nF_3DmvVfBtotWpVoHPs2uLGjmi6j0ACGLArlRoWN_r549nzazM6-Vkay4/s1600/DSC_0785.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1aRWe6DeuN7wN28g3md80bkZcPM3oR7CqDim90H-HXWD9rXD0PGa5cODe8_anEc5YmbUxt4ZegDtf_PV7nF_3DmvVfBtotWpVoHPs2uLGjmi6j0ACGLArlRoWN_r549nzazM6-Vkay4/s400/DSC_0785.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500774904356005346" /></a><div><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div>Megan Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11234156733230571303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-42187421268030781762010-07-21T16:15:00.027+01:002010-08-01T09:41:51.567+01:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">¿Gringo…y Qué?</span><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">by gringos</span><span class="Apple-style-span">am</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></i></b></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It’s mildly ironic that I find myself contributing to a blog entitled</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">¡Que Gringo!</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">as I find myself burdened with the title on a daily basis. I am currently based in </span><st1:country-region st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Ecuador</span></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">’s capital city, </span><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Quito</span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, and will continue to be until January. As a people, Ecuadorians are famous for their woven ponchos and colourful indigenous carnivals. They are not particularly known for an imposing physical stature or fair skin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So imagine the looks as a pale 6’3” </span><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Yorkshire</span></st1:place><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> lad ducks under the doorway to take a seat at one of the city's many guinea-pig-serving restaurants. Everywhere a </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">gringo</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> goes in this country, there seems to be an eager, mobile audience. I’m a naturally shy character, so the audience of fifty when I stumble onto the bus in the morning can be discouraging. It’s part-and-parcel of life here though and a voice inside me tells me that the ego will take a hit when I return to the </span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">UK</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, where I barely stand out in a crowd of one.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Getting to the roots of the term</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">gringo</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">in </span><st1:place st="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">South America</span></st1:place><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> has been occupying me for the past couple of weeks. I still can’t decide whether I find it offensive or not. While Ecuadorians will use it as something of a harmless term to denote the Western tourists that keep their economy ticking over, it is by the same token a very clear labelling of a particular race which would most likely be termed derogatory in my politically-correct homeland.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">American Heritage Dictionary</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, for instance, classifies </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">gringo</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> as ‘offensive slang’, ‘usually disparaging’, and ‘often disparaging’.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I know what you’re thinking: how pleasant!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But, perhaps surprisingly, my conclusion here is that these things ought to be taken with a pinch of salt. After all, in certain regions, a</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">gringa</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">is a ham-and-cheese-stuffed tortilla – so it’s more than possible that there’s been a terrible mix-up at my expense! If you refer to the</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Bios</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">section of our blog, you will no doubt see in me a strong resemblance to my spicy gastronomic counterpart.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the end though, it’s nothing more than a curious cultural experience and that’s what we want</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">¡Que Gringo!</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">to be all about. I only hope that, over the months, I am able to serve up blog entries that are interesting and perhaps even entertaining. If for my part of the bargain I continue to eat defenceless domestic pets and endure weeks of unparalleled name-calling, I hope you can stick around for a while!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; line-height: 14.25pt; text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 238);"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhligLTvHZWNVgrR6h8a_H91C_zb2SGGyUpYg9eMCFrto5qD3R3KPdRST_2eXLEBljUQDRlDuxPh1OcPDsb4NPCoYN8PJijv8odMTBT3YeBxoWFpV3cQ_6pdk37XutFQBv93fW8CqfqBDTA/s400/IMG_8493+-+Copy.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496466061292476418" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" border="0" /></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(Everything I post will be punctuated with my own photography, my ability in which far outweighs my written proficiency!)</span></span>GringoSamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07922078396687969300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-23622878236146470472010-07-21T08:51:00.021+01:002010-08-01T09:41:05.655+01:00<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Generation Impatient?</span></span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33CC00;">by gringokev</span></span></span></span></span></div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Every contemporary generation seems to be quietly – and often not so quietly - reviled by their intergenerational peers. The fact that ‘intergenerational’ is really a euphemism for parent-child relationships probably explains this ph</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">enomenon.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">In the western world, the baby boomers complain about the loss of the idealised and progressive liberalism that they fought for, wasted by their lazy, sullen and materialistic kids. Similarly, Gen X – the wealthier and educated capitalists who grew up during the end of the Cold War - are now criticised for their cushy, middle-class, suburban lifestyles.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Gen Y – the generation of your beloved gringos - has a particular bone to pick with both pieces of bread in our generational sandwich. Gen X yuppies are responsible for Vanilla Ice, 80s fashion and rising rent prices in ‘grunge-chic’ student areas. Baby Boomers can take credit for the Iraq War and the Global Financial Crisis. An unfair comparison, Gen X? I will let you be the </span></span><a href="http://passionweiss.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/vanilla_ice.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">judge</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The next generation – who are likely to be labelled as the somewhat diminutive ‘noughties’ – is still in its twitter-happy infancy. Thus, in terms of sociological importance – and high-brow pub banter - Gen Y is coming of age</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> And not just in the American Pie kind of way.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">We have reached the point where our generation will soon dominate that twenty to fifty year-old age bracket that stands at the helm. For the last couple of decades we have been sitting in the passenger seat, witnessing and having our lives shaped by the actions of our generational elders.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">We will soon take the wheel.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">But in 40 years, when we lie in our catatonic space beds, watching the millenials make love through touch screens and pray to the iGod, what will be our legacy?</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I have meandered into this terrain in several recent conversations. What has resulted is not particularly pretty, or flattering. Apparently, we are lazy, self-obsessed, superficial half-wits who have lost the art of conversation and human contact. We are self-indulgent, unemotional and unwilling to work hard. We do not have an appreciation for skill, craftsmanship, learning or proper training. Most of all, we are impatient. We want everything here and now.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Before you smash the screen of your MacBook with your Gossip Girl Boxset, bear in mind that these conversations occurred mostly with other Gen Y-ites. Unlike generations before us, we seem to have recognised our faults. But in a world where we can get any information with the press of the button, could we really live any other way?</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">But will Wikipedia really be the highlight of our legacy? Wouldn’t we prefer to be known as the generation that fought climate change, that eradicated world poverty, that led peaceful governments, the generation-that-never-went-to-war?</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">An impossible task, you say? How are </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">we </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">going to begin to save the world?</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Hang on, let me finish this Modern Family episode. Then we can start a facebook group and get crackin’.</span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /></div><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7h_yiXnnpK1282xUMzaRMcvjOk5NgybL_JNUOsgNlWDxOpFAL2jv9DlQCIFiaCsBwjlcanoh7Q01giSYKM536UA_FXLAnCSJHPjT0t8-WtKZe3d8V-yD0q3VYoPcjLm0qfk5W61byHcM/s1600/F1000006.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7h_yiXnnpK1282xUMzaRMcvjOk5NgybL_JNUOsgNlWDxOpFAL2jv9DlQCIFiaCsBwjlcanoh7Q01giSYKM536UA_FXLAnCSJHPjT0t8-WtKZe3d8V-yD0q3VYoPcjLm0qfk5W61byHcM/s400/F1000006.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496264304634969698" border="0" /></a></span><br /><charset="utf-8"></charset="utf-8"><br /><charset="utf-8"></charset="utf-8"><br /><charset="utf-8"></charset="utf-8">GringoKevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13434161019100157554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-235028218425929522010-07-21T04:02:00.029+01:002010-08-01T09:40:36.457+01:00<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">The United Nations of Gaming</span></span><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC33CC;">by gringoluke</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Video games are the key to world peace.<br /><br />Sure, a lot can be said for commodity-specific sanctions, for a new era of conciliatory diplomacy, for movements toward a nuclear-free world, but when it comes down to it I'm pretty sure that everyone would be better off if Obama and Ahmadinejad just bought an Xbox and played </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Call of Duty</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> all night.<br /><br />I've had a love/hate relationship with video games ever since a young age. Like so many other boys growing up in an era when internet speed was still measured in kilobytes, I was brought up on a nutritious diet of </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mario Kart</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> and </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1080° Snowboarding</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. It was during those Nintendo 64 salad days that I learned of the powerful fraternity that video games have the power to culture between friends. While the sun beamed down outside on empty streets and sprinklers trickled unharrassed by leaping children, we sat in living rooms and grew blisters on our thumbs. Anybody who calls that a misspent youth obviously never played </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Goldeneye</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> with three of their closest friends and an endless supply of pizza bagels.<br /><br />The trick is to treat video games as a healthy, social experience. Sure, jogging is healthy and may give you clog-free arteries, but can you do it at 3 o'clock in the morning in your underwear while exchanging yo mama jokes with an 11 year-old from Amsterdam? There are some social experiences so bizarre that there's no way to experience them without a Playstation controller, wireless internet and— when playing online with those 11 year-olds—a particularly thick skin.<br /><br />What I love most about video games is their ubiquity. Like </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Family Guy</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> quotes and </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Anchorman</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> references, video games have become a universal code spoken and understood by swathes of young men throughout the Western world. I've seen perfect strangers fumbling along through awkward living room conversation one minute, then swearing enthusiastically at each other over a controversial </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Pro Evolution Soccer</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> goal the next. Honestly, I think it's magical, and this is where Obama and the Axis of Evil could learn a lesson or two.<br /><br />Alright, I'm not going to lie. Video games are not some sort of social instrument destined to pave the way to a brave new world. Addiction is a serious problem, and I think a lot of parents don't really realise it. It's become so serious that in April the South Korean government was </span><a href="http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/none/south-korea-imposes-midnight-online-game-ban-066212"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">forced to ban online gaming after midnight</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. While spotty teenagers and video game execs will enthusiastically point to tests that suggest </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Grand Theft Auto</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> will gradually grant you the hand-eye coordination of a neurosurgeon, we all know that you're more likely to end up with a headache and a guilty conscious for all the digital pedestrians you mowed down. Video games can be expensive, time-consuming and unhealthy. A little bit like heroin.<br /><br />I'm not invincible myself, and sometimes as the hours drag by and the plastic from the controller starts to fuse into my skin I force myself to watch this video to give me the strength to hit that 'off' switch.<br /><br /></span><object width="500" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KUzNcheoY6U&hl=en_GB&fs=1?rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KUzNcheoY6U&hl=en_GB&fs=1?rel=0&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" align="middle" width="500" height="400"></embed></object><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br />This is what your nine year-old is going to look like if you let him dabble too long in the nefarious art of video games. I know it looked like he smiled at the start but I'm pretty sure that was just a short-lived Xbox-induced high.<br /><br />In the end though, if you can pace yourself then video games really can be a lot of harmless fun, and with the gaming industry now considered worth a staggering USD$22 billion it's fairly likely they'll be around to stay for a lot longer.<br /><br />Whether or not President Obama plans to adopt them in his latest attempts to stop Iran from going nuclear is still undecided, but I wouldn't be surprised. Just be careful next time you take a shot at 'BIN_LADEN_SUX_44'. I don't expect the secret-service would appreciate you pwning their president.</span><br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/images/pong.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 552px;" src="http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/images/pong.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Photo credit: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/images/pong.jpg</span>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-29860562786162179652010-06-30T05:09:00.015+01:002010-08-01T09:40:06.974+01:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Gringo Cherry</span></span><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33CC00;">by gringokev</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">After the introduction below it's time for the awkward first blog post. It’s like the first day of university. You’ve cut your hair, purchased ‘slim’ jeans because you couldn’t fit the skinny ones and loaded your iPod with </span><s><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Billy Joel</span></s><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Broken Social Scene tunes that you will play just a little bit too loudly to impress your new liberal arts friends. Except in this case you’re diving into the murky interwebs - a considerably deeper pool than the Tarantino-loving, Donnie-Darko-watching, horn-rimmed-glasses-wearing ‘Introduction to Cinema Studies’ crowd.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">You foolishly think that the scathing and impatient e-hordes stumbling upon a lolcat’s facebook while taking an awkward family photo will pay any attention to your all too familiar, colourful blog site. A situation that becomes significantly more awkward when you realise that there is more than a slight chance that absolutely no one will read this post. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">No One</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Fine - no one bar your mother, your fellow blog partner/ best friend, and perhaps, just perhaps, a German tourist in Mexico wondering what this strange word the locals are hurling at him from the street corner really means.* </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Why write then? I know this is what you - the non-existent reader - must be thinking. Why? In truth, I have no idea </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">why</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> or even </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">how </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">this blog came to fruition. I was sitting at my computer two weeks ago discussing this idea with GringoLuke on Gmail chat. Fast forward and here we are with a brand spankin’ new blog, Spanish exclamation marks and no readers. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Does this scare a gringo such as I? I hear you bellowing from the empty caverns of our readers’ den. Well, it does a little. But, when the apple fell on Newton’s head? Was </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">he </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">scared? I’m sure he was too. Imagine being hit on the head with an apple and formulating gravitational theory in the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">same</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> day. In 2010, he’d probably post on fmylife.com, drop a short tweet about ‘gravity ‘n’ shit’ and like you, miss out on this blog. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So I urge you, invisible reader to take off your cloak. We don’t expect much. We don’t expect you to log off your hotmail, stop playing Farmville or delete your Flickr account. We realise that you already have your four favourite websites and that’s fine. Just bookmark us and stop by from time to time. Think of yourselves as the family-friendly, cake-baking neighbours and us as the uni students next door who sometimes babysit your kids. We’re nice like that.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">*This is a misleading statement. I googled ‘Gringo’ and we show up nowhere in the first 20 pages. In fact, we do not even show up when I google ‘Que Gringo’. Or ‘Que Gringo Blog’. Or ‘Que Gringo Blogspot’. Or even ‘quegringo DOT blogspot DOT com’.</span></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Oy vey.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyOyKhyphenhyphenwUG95ZB9pi6gTk9vQTY9dreRCqQwQRW0zXn9zVsw8GMJmeyrTDrxDrcQFax0NVTqmwtq1ebDthPyzz6Xzfe1NfLOJLuXr0SeMqAp5YCYvAN_sDM9mPhXlPuPhWxR0pUko09n-k/s1600/CIMG0364.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyOyKhyphenhyphenwUG95ZB9pi6gTk9vQTY9dreRCqQwQRW0zXn9zVsw8GMJmeyrTDrxDrcQFax0NVTqmwtq1ebDthPyzz6Xzfe1NfLOJLuXr0SeMqAp5YCYvAN_sDM9mPhXlPuPhWxR0pUko09n-k/s400/CIMG0364.JPG" border="0" width="400" height="272" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div>GringoKevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13434161019100157554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543692624439587877.post-29447292878003545112010-06-30T00:43:00.013+01:002010-08-01T09:39:23.724+01:00<div style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">¿Qué?</span></span><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC33CC;">by gringoluke</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Welcome to our peaceful little sand dune sat floating in the churning tides of the internet.<br /><br />¡Que Gringo! is pretty ambitious. We have set out to write down the thoughts, experiences and fragments of culture that are discovered and overlooked everyday by the thousands of fresh-from-high-school kids who are suddenly realising now what can so easily be forgotten.<br /><br />The premise is this: a number of permanent Gringo contributors spread out across the globe upload snapshots of their days–thoughts, realisations, music, photographs, writing, whatever–to create what will become a kaleidoscope of opinion and perspective. As they weave this pretty little tapestry of culture, the Gringos hope to present the idea that even though there are no new continents left to reveal, our millenial generation is still exploring and discovering the parts of the world that Marco Polo left overlooked.<br /><br />However, ¡Que Gringo! promises not to be pretentious, never to be One Of Those Sites. We promise never to use phrases like “global village” or “the face of humanity”. We promise not to become a recepticle for gap year photography, or poetry about how spiritual India is. Though we are linked roughly by our age, the Gringos have no political motive, adhere to no political school of thought and definitely don’t want to change your mind. All we’re here to do is draw back the curtains on a window that’s been sitting open for a while.<br /><br />Remember, too, the opinions expressed by the contributors on this site are only the opinions of a bunch of twenty-somethings who are still on the lookout for what they want to do with their lives. Whether you believe this enhances or detriments their value is up to you. Keep in mind, though, that anyone can be a Gringo (and not just a gringo). Drop yourself in a foreign place, do something and tell us about it.<br /><br />Welcome to ¡Que Gringo! We hope you'll stick around for a while.</span><br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizyTX9Z2EUkSywKjwABMZTWXzYb9xuYTA0KgbBIESU3lV1gZKDLwI0fm7qiBBKVq_ej2Fs0PV_no8I0Acr8p-3B8iiZkrvDp2_7hy-fJappQsZu1aAfLZnM1HlWoqHei6aSoHZnzs09_4/s1600/F1000017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizyTX9Z2EUkSywKjwABMZTWXzYb9xuYTA0KgbBIESU3lV1gZKDLwI0fm7qiBBKVq_ej2Fs0PV_no8I0Acr8p-3B8iiZkrvDp2_7hy-fJappQsZu1aAfLZnM1HlWoqHei6aSoHZnzs09_4/s400/F1000017.JPG" border="0" width="400" height="267" /></a></span></div>Luke Burnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15698375915209935377noreply@blogger.com