Thumbing my Way

View while running of Ciudad
Vieja from the Rambla

A few weeks ago I started running again, and the last two outings were amazing. It's different for me here, because I don't take the Ipod out. Instead I'm accompanied by the sound of the Rio de la Plata as I move along the Rambla from Ciudad Vieja, where I live, to Playa Ramirez. This allows my mind to wander, and my paper writing is improving.

I find that I am increasingly concerned with two themes here: cultural displacement and community. Obviously I analyze their meaning to candombe, but also in my own life and current situation. Post on this coming soon...

Today during the run I was intensely mulling over how I got here; not to Uruguay and studying candombe, but pursuing ethnomusicological research? It's Bob Becker's fault, and it happened in April 2001 at Clemson University (yuck!). Was excited to find this video (not from 2001):

I was blown away by that Nexus performance. I wish I'd brought an mbira to Uruguay, it would have been worth the customs/security hassle. 

Found this video the other day. Andy Cox is an art professor at Limestone College and one of the coolest men I've ever met. The first mbira I held in my hands were some that he made, and the front room of his house is a magical collection of homemade instruments and art, and quite often the two are the same.

 

Last night I saw two documentaries. The first had some serious audio issues, and I struggled to follow; the second, was amazing. The title was Tambores de agua: un encuentro ancestral. This literally means "water drums," and the film examined this tradition among several communities in Venezuela and its African heritage. This is a clip of the Baka women in Cameroon:





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