video of the performance from Bolivia

On Friday March 27, 2009, the students from Diakonia in Santa Cruz, Bolivia gave their Enneagram performance. I will post more pictures when I get the chance.

Jungle Resort Bird Cage

Last Sunday we went to a jungle resort thing just outside of town called Guembe. Birds, butterflies and shit. There is a real tall tower there called the Mirador that allows you to look really far in all directions. Its pretty cool. And so everyone knows, peacocks can fly. I had no idea.








These are more pictures of us hanging around the Trip with the people in the Bolivian version of Terrible Eagle, minus Allejo. The guy with the glasses is Julio, he plays guitar. The dude in the picture with Brandon is Sebastian, he plays synthesizers. The girl is Andee, she ran the projector when we played there Wednesday night. BTW, I will post some pics of that when the various people who took pictures bring them to me.





Also, New York and Texas, we'll be there soon...

Viva Libre

Early in the night we went to La Plaza and watched Verty's band again. Man, they are so good.



After that, the madness began...












Some got it, some didn't...

Bolivianos

This past week we have been working with the students of Diakonia, the Communications school here in Santa Cruz, on our Enneagram project. The students have already composed all 9 pieces and the visual team, comprised of about 8 students, have designed the set and have been working on the visual aspect of the performance with my guidance.
We are workin in the TV set at Diakonia which is pretty cool.






One of the drummers in the course, Ram, owns a bar in the center of town called the Trip that we have been hanging out at sometimes. Its a cool place and we have put together a version of Terrible Eagle with some of the musicians from the course, Allejo, Sebastian, y Julio and will play at the Trip on Wednesday night. Andrea, one of the visual students from the course, will run the projector for us. Fun times!







It was Gabe's, the guy on the right, birthday this past week so they celebrated by having a big party in an open area somewhere in town last night. DJ, light show, beer, B and me.

Last night we went out and played pool at a weird roadside billiard place. The tables were bigger than any pool table we have seen and the pockets were tinier than any we had seen. They curved in instead of curving out, so you had to hit the ball *perfectly* to get it in the pocket. It made for a long game. Like an hour for one game. Not to mention that B and I suck at pool...



This morning we got up and were taken to a live TV show where we gave an interview. It was strange because we didn't really get to talk because our interpreter did all the speaking for us. I think I may have said 3 words and B probably said 10. Totally surreal.



When we went out the other night with Daniel, we saw one of the students performing in the Plaza area of old Santa Cruz. His name is Verty and this is his "dinero" band. He tells us that he makes other, more experimental, music as well.

First Day in Bolivia

Yesterday was our first day in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It was a pretty good day. We got up and went to the Diakonia, which is the communications/audio/visual school that is part of the Universidad de Catolica here. There we checked out the work of the first year students, listened to some critiques in Spanish (muy dificil) and talked to the group about the project we will be doing there in order to get them motivated to join us. Surprise!




Last night we went out with Daniel, one of the professors at Diakonia, and went to some bars and had some beers. Or Translator was unable to join us and Daniel does not speak English and we do not speak Spanish. Luckily, our comprehension of Spanish is relatively high and his comprehension of English is relatively high, so we were able to communicate all night. He taught us a lot about Santa Cruz, the school, the people, etc.

After taking us out in the old town of Santa Cruz, he took us to a Mexican bar that was decorated with images of El Santo all over the place. JAMMIN!

We have a TV interview tomorrow morning and then start our classes tomorrow afternoon at 3pm. Viva El Santo!

Send Cheney to Jail, Now!

In general, I steer clear of making political commentary on my blog. But this guy needs to be sent to jail. Unbelievable that he thinks he can still make comments about anything. He is in no position of power and should never have been in the first place. He is evil and as Olberman says, is doing hte job of the terrorists for them.

Watch this-


Then read this-
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/15/cheney.interview/

Send that bastard to jail!

On Thursday March 13th, we had our inaugural performance of the Enneagram of Personality piece we are composing around the world with different groups of musicians from different walks of life. We give the basic outline of the concepts of the different archetypes and work with the performers to compose musical and visual pieces that, as a collaborative effort, the group believes encompasses the idea about each personality type. Obviously, we believe that each time the piece gets performed, it will be different due to the cultural and intellectual differences surrounding each group.

The first one was performed at the Universidade Catolica de Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil. These images are a combination of rehearsal and performance photos. Unfortunately, the entire group was not around at the end of the night to get a full group shot. Sorry to those who were not there when this picture was made.

Brandon and I want to thank every one of the performers, dancers, documenters, helpers, priests, instructors, translators, and audience members that were involved. You all made this a very magical experience. Can't wait to see you again!











The video below is a *very* quick, low quality, video of an interview with one of the performers mixed with some very low quality video from the performance. There is a lot of high quality footage that will be edited into a DVD soon enough.