Flamenco Flash Mobs

We live in the Triana neighborhood of Sevilla. Triana is the birthplace of the flamenco tradition (encompassing voice, dance, and guitar). We are fortunate to be here during la Bienal, a month-long celebration of flamenco held every two years here. Our bridge (the best one) is closed this evening and there are musicians playing and marching on it. Down by the river is a stage and there are singers, dancers and guitarists playing in turn (still going on as I write this).

Laura and I went down to the river to watch for a bit. Turns out there was an organized flash mob of flamenco dancers. We watched as a dance number started and suddenly everyone in the crowd around us started singing and dancing and moving their arms in time with the lead dancers. Kids, adults, men, women, we even saw an impressive wheelchair flamenco dancer going at it. It's fascinating to think that these traditions are embedded in the people of our neighborhood. So deeply, in fact, that they can just walk out to the river on a moment's notice and start synchronized flamenco dancing with their neighbors. I can't really think of anything similar in the US except perhaps "the alley cat" haha.

In other news, the bodega across the street, Diego's, after a 4 week hiatus and a new paint job, re-opened. The nightly noise is back and better than ever! At least the building has been cleaned up substantially. The painters painted over the graffiti on Diego's roll up doors this morning. A vast improvement. Laura and I want to start a betting pool on how long it takes for someone to tag that sweet sweet blank paint. Here's a during and after painting sequence of great graffiti cover-up:

Speaking of graffiti, this mural popped up this week along the river path where I run. I promptly reported back to Rachel:

 In conjunction with la Bienal, this photo exhibit was set up over night on our main street here in Triana. These are just two of the dozen or so up and down the block:

 This evening, the flamenco bronze that marks the entrance to Triana had a big 'B' at its base for 'la Bienal':

 The bridge is closed to traffic:

 Lots of boats on the river:

 Plant/flower based adornments along the bridge:

I have some video, but getting them uploaded is something I'm not willing to wait for this evening. I'll try to post tomorrow.

Dog of the Day

Another Mercadona dog of the day. About half the time we go grocery shopping, there's a dog tied to the "hitching post" in the foyer of the store. I always try to take a picture:

I may have mentioned that sliced "Iberian" ham is a big deal here. Today I got some video of a butcher shaving off thin slices of cured ham:

Today is a video-heavy day. There was a crew at the foot of the Triana bridge inflating a "building":

At first I thought it was an inflatable mat and that somebody was going to jump off of the bridge, but in a couple of minutes this happened:

Still cool, but maybe not as cool as a bridge jumping stunt person. Ultimately, I never did figure out what was going on because when I passed by later in the afternoon it was gone.

The keyboard on my Surface died this afternoon. I've spent a fair amount of time trying to fix it, but no joy:

Fortunately, I have a spare keyboard that I can use, but I guess I'll get a replacement and see if that works. Note in this image of the computer, you can see the draft of this blog post. How's that for getting meta?!

That's One Way To Do It

It was a cool morning on the river. Definitely the coolest since we've been here. Also a bit cloudy, but with sun just rising to the east, Triana looked good with the dark sky backdrop:

 Bought a mango lassi at the Mercadona. Pretty tasty, nice after-exercise treat:

I've explained the trash situation in a previous post, today I watched as a neighborhood glass recycling container was emptied, significantly more dramatic (and louder) than back home in Walla Walla (although they don't do glass at all back in WW anymore):

You could never stop recycling glass here in Sevilla. The place would be buried in beer bottles in seconds, haha.

A Quiet Day in the Neighborhood

After weeks in the 100's and high 90's today it struggled to get up to 83. There are windows on both side of our flat, so when the weather permits, you can open them up and get lovely cross breezes. After weeks with the air conditioner, it was good to get some air moving through the apartment. Unfortunately, they're still working hard renovating the exterior of the building across the street. Sure, you can have the windows open, but only if you're willing to wear ear plugs:

It's definitely not Labor Day here. Everybody's back to work after the ordinary 2-day weekend.

Typical day for Laura and me too. Though, we did such a good job planning food on Saturday that we didn't need to go grocery shopping today. I had a productive day. I've been wondering if I should go to the big Joint Math Meeting back in the US in January. I looked through the list of sessions and there are a few that I think I could present in, so possibly.

We have another potential visitor. Rachel's friend Emily is teaching in Morocco. She and a friend may visit Sevilla in late-Nov and stay with us.

I've been reading a bit more than usual, though I've always tried to make room for reading. Right now I'm just about finished with the wonderful memoir Educated by Tara Westover. It's about a woman raised in a fundamentalist Mormon household and her transition to a more mainstream life as an adult. For me, as a college teacher, it represents an example (albeit extreme) of how we need to be careful about the backgrounds and social contexts that our students bring with them when they join us in the classroom. I highly recommend it.

Parque de Maria Luisa

After Laura visited yesterday, I decided to take my walk this morning through the Parque de Maria Luisa. I didn't get to hit every feature, but here's few pictures:

 This park as a lot of beautiful water features:

 These ceramic post tops are everywhere in Sevilla, parks, churches, buildings:

A statue of Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier:

 Another pic of Triana as I walked home:

I hate that skyscraper, so here's a version with it removed, thanks snapseed:

Ever since we went Malaga to see the first stage of the Vuelta a Espana bike race, we've been in the habit of watching stage highlights each morning. Laura and I were watching this morning's coverage of yesterday's stage and the commentary about Spain really cracked us up. They were cycling through some remote, empty part of Spain. The commentators noted that there weren't many folks out spectating. The noted that having a race in the afternoon here was like having it a 4am. Here's the clip. Probably not as funny to other people, but we laughed:

Supposed to cool off dramatically here tomorrow. Looking forward to it.