United Statesian

Dear citizens of the world! Thanksgiving is almost here, but it has already been usurped by Christmas. Last week, Pittsburgh held the "Light Up" festival to kick off the holiday shopping season. The festival was a nice mixture of live music, huge Christmas trees, ice-skating, ice-carving, and a fireworks display for the grand finale. However, the festivities held five weeks in advance of the holiday on November 19th seem ... excessive, even for United Statesians. This Friday, November 26th, "Black Friday" kicks off with its' normal lunacy. Many of the stores will be open at 5:00 am! This all happens four weeks before Christmas -- a reasonable amount of time compared to the five week advance ceremony in downtown Pittsburgh. Are you ready to shop until you drop? The United Statesian

Classic vs Modern "McCulture diet " Dear Citizens of the world, In my last post on the fallas of Valencia I talked about the prettier and noisier side of the Fallas Festival. This post is about the satyr and parody that most of the Fallas sculptures do so well. Many are like seeing a 3-D newspaper caricature. Obama was one of the more popular topics. One big difference would be that there is no censorship and there is a lot more nudity and crude racial stereotypes that you would not see in a United Statesian version. Super Obama! ... watch that hand... Critique on the USA, but with a large Coca-cola advert behind it... Caricature on recycling... the first one on the left is recycling silicon ;-) Caricature of a Spanish politician.. . O ne of my favourite...gotta love his smile What's he looking for?... Ahhh... the key ;- ) One of the cruder ones...Usain Bolt? Local traditional clothes -- mothers and their dolls... Hope to see you again soon! The United Statesian

Dear citizens of the world! Fire seems to play a central role in many festivals in Spain -- noise is a given. The Fallas (pronounced FAIyas) of Valencia is a Spring celebration in late March where more than 400 pieces of art (Fallas) are created in the plazas and streets. On the last night, all are burned at midnight; all except the best one which gets a pardon and goes off to a museum. This was my first year going to the festival. We had all afternoon to walk around and look at some of the main "fallas" before watching one burn at midnight. A detail of Charlie... One of the top Fallas statues... hard to believe it is paper... While all this is going on, there is an incredible amount of noise. There are thousands of people -- mostly young children -- setting off loud firecrackers. A terrorist attack could happen just down the street and nobody would notice. I jumped out of my skin more than once. A small kid being "indoctrinated" into the world of BOOM ! The mermaid...

Dear citizens of the world, My first post about the annual San Gil fiestas in Torrico was crying out for a second part. Many people asked how the fiestas were in 2009. For the most part, things were tranquil. There is always excess, but improvements have been made -- most noteably, I bought ear plugs. There was lots of music: flamenco to warm up, traditional Spanish songs for the older crowd that turn in at 2:00 am and popular dance music for younger ones. Techno started at about 6:00 am, but I was already sleeping -- thanks to my ear plugs! This years festivities were special for the family because there was a 50th wedding anniverssary. After a short ceremony in the village church we went off to have appetizers in the garage (much nicer than it sounds). There were kilos of Spanish ham, cold cuts, chorizo, chips, olives, cheese and local sweets: Roscos (small dense donuts) and Floretas (Large flakey flower shaped sweets, dripping in honey. This was to warm up the belly. At three in ...

Citizens of the world, Today, the topic is the Spanish " Pueblo " (Village). El Pueblo is a very important part of Spanish culture - almost everyone has one, but nobody seems to actually live there. Most Spaniards live in big or medium sized cities, but that was not always the case. Urban areas have expanded greatly over the past two generations, but there is still a strong link to the pueblo. The average age of some pueblos is over 60 - a few smaller villages have died out completely. However, there are still thousands of Pueblos that survive, in most part, thanks to the strong family and cultural bonds. When we are not climbing mountains or traveling, we go to Torrico, our pueblo. The main reason is to visit family, but it is also a way to get away from the pollution and stress of the big city, relax, disconnect, and to get your hands dirty in the fields. El pueblo also survives for practical reasons. For many families the pueblo and the extended family serve as a cheap ba...