Krystalline Kat’s Neighborhood

My DC Trip story is special for many reasons, because it involves the rendezvous with my destiny, and the nation's destiny with the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.

For 3.5 years I have gone to Cuba to study music in the Conservatory in Havana, where I met my fiancee, Yaremys Rodriguez. I was rehearsing with the  popular trova group of  Liuba Maria Hevia in the St. Francis Monastery in Old Havana when I had first met her sister, Yarnelis. Liuba is considered by the public and critics as the highest representatives of Cuban culture.

I chatted with Yarnelis for more than hour and was smitten before I  realized she was the girlfriend of the group's bassist! How foolish I felt!

Two days later, on July 19, 2004, I was basking on the dilapidated brick rooftop, practicing the Allegro section of Augustin Barrios' 'Catedral' in the 100 degree heat of Havana when I looked before me and I saw Yarnelis' head appear around the doorway. She smiled, and immediately above her appeared her identical twin sister, Yaremys. I was awestruck, and dumbfounded. To see the identical twins appearing before me was such a surprise, it took my breath away. Yaremys had never left her small city of Santa Clara, a turning point in Che Guevara's attack against the army and railroad supply car of Batista, and was visiting Havana for the first time in her life.

We met that day, She told me that she only had one day in Havana before she had to return to Santa Clara, where she was an English teacher. I asked her to come out with us that night to Hotel National, where the bassist was playing. Cubans were not allowed to be in the hotel, and even though her sister's boyfriend was in a group performing there, we had difficulty gaining entrance.

We had a wonderful time, and I asked her to stay with me a few days, for I had only a month left in my stay.
She agreed, and she and her friend stayed that night in my ramshackle apartment, sleeping on a bed I had nicknamed, "El Camello, or The Camel" for the 2 humps situated in the middle, making it difficult for sleep.

I slept in the car, in a rusted, tin garage no bigger than the car that fit snugly into it. It was  across the street, from the apartment. There was no room in the apartment for me, and leaving a car parked on the street was not an option, as the thieves would take everything from it.

The next day, I took Yaremys to the Malecon wall and as we watched the vibrant sunset together, we began to share our stories, and fell in love.

Over the next 3 years, I traveled many times to see her, and through email, we corresponded every day.
Her father is a PhD of Bio Chemistry and lectures all over the world, and is a professor in the Santa Clara University. Due to his job, he is one of the few people in the country that has access to  email, but not internet, in his home. It is because of him, that we are able to communicate. WIthout email, the relationship between us would have failed.

Each time I visited Cuba, there were difficulties to overcome; our apartment being robbed on New Years Eve, being detained by police in the streets of Havana as they question the 'validity' of our relationship, being followed by the police, lack of transportation, lack of food, lack of electricity, lack of water, and consternation on behalf of my family as to my intentions for visiting Cuba.

I could fill pages with stories about the hardships suffered by the Cubans due to the US embargo and the repressive Castro regime, but this is a story about love, Barack Obama, and the realization of a dream.

Each time I visited, the Cubans would ask me, "Chris, what about the next President? Will the embargo end? When will Bush leave?" Under Bush the travel to Cuba for Cubans was restricted to once every 3 years, and money remittance was reduced as well. As the Presidential race began, there was hope in the hearts for a change, a softening of policy, and a change of parties.

I told my friends at the beginning of the race, that Obama would win, because the US was in a time of extreme crisis, that we had been led astray for 8 years by a president out of touch with the needs of the world and the Americans. America did not want another 8 years of the Clintons, and their campaign had such a negative style that many people were turned off by it, and began to see the calm, steady style  of Barack Obama. Obama's vitality, the emerging youth vote, and McCain's seemingly tired rhetoric and mannerisms made it clear that there would be no chance for the aged Senator.

It was young versus old; with old represented the past 8 years and youth representing a new beginning full of hope and audacity to face problems they inherited.

I assured the Cubans that Obama would win, and that the world would be a better place for it. The US would regain the lost respect it squandered away with the failed policies of the Bush administration.
America would prove itself again, that we are a country of ideas, created from our beliefs, and not a product of history like our European forefathers.

Yaremys and I have talked extensively for our admiration of Obama, his story of success that clearly showed the American dream realized. However,  we must conceal any political talk through carefully worded codes in our emails. Obama represents the change in our lives, for this generation, he stands on the shoulders of MLK, JFK, and has an enormous task in front of him. Obama has spoken on the campaign trail  of enhancing the relation between Cuba and the US, for he has been the only US president (elect) in the past 50 years to agree upon conditional talks with Cuba. That is a giant step forward in the current defunct realtionship.

Yaremys and I have waited 3 and a half years for her K 1 visa to be processed and approved, and now, January, 18th , in time for the inauguration, she will arrive. Coincidentally, my family lives in Alexandria, VA, minutes from the Capitol.

Her arrival to the USA begins in NYC at Kennedy airport where she will land, and where she will be greeted first by the Statue of Liberty, then myself and my family. It is only befitting that our nuptials on January 19th coincide with Obama's inauguration. We will attend the inauguration ceremony and hopefully find tickets to it, and an inaugural ball. I have to admit she will have a difficult time finding a wedding dress and a inaugural gown in one day, but we will do it somehow!

It fills me with tremendous pride to finally bring my fiancee to our country, in a moment of celebration and hope for our future, and the future of this great country.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

What was the last wedding you went to?  Were you in the wedding?

,Ixtapa, Mexico.

I crashed the wedding, after a day of hunting iguanas.

The iguana tasted better than the wedding cake.

An important lesson in nailcare, for the classical guitarist!

Yesterday in my lesson with my teacher, Victor Pellegrini, we talked in depth about nail care.
To the guitarist, your nails are as important as the violinist' bow.
When a guitarist changes his nail length, it must be done with extreme caution, as in the swipe of a nail file, we can lose a months growth. Once the nail is damaged, we must wait possibly a month or more to recuperate.

Just as a runner trains with a certain set of running shoes, we play and train with our nails. Whichever nail length works best for you, you must notate!  If a runner were to change shoes, with a bigger sole , for example, he would certainly lose the race. Our nails are the same.  If we change one milimeter in nail length, expect the hand position, arm position, shoulder, back and kneck position to change with it. One mm difference can affect inches on the back, and cause extreme pain, and possible injury.

It's our point of contact to the strings. Unfortunately, the more we play, the more the strings eat up our nails. Our nails do not grow as fast as we consume them, and in order to avoid having a set of nails we cant play with, we must guard them.

We must not be careless when opening doors, pushing them shut, picking up luggage, etc.
Long or short, is your choice, but be sure to know which works best for you, and maintain it.
Do not carelessly swipe away at your nails while talking to friends. It is a sure recipe for disaster!!

I hope this helped!

Christopher

What words, for the life of you, can you never spell correctly?
Submitted by Byrne.

RHYTHMN

I always spell it incorrectly!!!    Its a tricky word, because the only vowel is Y. I am a musician, and its ironic that i have trouble with a fundamental word in my vernacular.

I am excited, as I am on the verge of recording my first solo album. I have spent the past 4 days preparing all the music for the session, recording it into my computer on Digital Performer 5 software. Have I told you how much i Love DP5?  Now you know.

My friend Isaac took me to his parents house for a dinner. It was good, but after the meal, the family was just too quiet for me. I spoke in Spanish, but the conversation just didnt roll. Isaac took a cell phone call at the same time that his mother took hers, and i was left at the table, talking with dad about making carnitas, or fried pork. We didnt chew the fat for too long. It turned into a staring game, as i avoided eye contact and began counting bricks on the wall. I felt a little crazy, ready to leave to walk our friends golden retriever.GRECO. what a huge adorable dog. all the people on the street greet him, adn he loves attention.

I plan to go to an international meeting about blogging and multimedia in Veracruz. I think it is in the first week of May.

I hope to take some video of it and post it here.

4am, bedtime for Bonzo.

April 6th, 2007, Morelia Mexico

Via  Crucis, or the Way of the Cross is a common celebrated event in most Latin American countries. It is the celebration on Good Friday, of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ during the Catholic tradition of Easter.  In some rural towns there are people called self-flagellants that walk through the streets self-flagellating themselves with whips, sticking cacti unto their skins, and even undergoing crucifixion to attone for the year's sins. Personally, I wonder what these people have been up to get the crucifixion option. There were no fanatics here in Morelia. This is a calm, quiet town. The only traces of the self flagellants was the costumes. I did see however, on the television, in Mexico City there were children in the streets in the Via Crucis that were imitation the whipping of Christ by the Romans, and it was pretty realistic. They were shoving him around, whipping him on the post, and forced him to carry his cross through the streets.

At 6 i left the house, got into a combi and travelled down the route of the aqueduct, built in the 18th century. It's an impressive site, dividing the town in hapf and is one of the most prominent landmarks of Morelia. I stopped at the plaza of Morelos, and saw that there were hundreds of nuns, priests and devotees mustering there in robes of brilliant colors. Silver, white, black, purple, burgundy cloaks made of silk adorned the people as they waited for the procession to begin. There were many penitents in hoods similiar to those of the Ku Klux Klan. Now I know where the Klan gets their costume ideas. This tradition of the hooded flagellants dates back to the 13th century and earlier to ancient Egypt. Here is a quick detail of it from Wikepedia. "

History

Flagellantism was a 13 century and 14 century radical Christian movement. It began as a militant pilgrimage and was later condemned by the Catholic church as heretical. The followers were noted for including public flagellation in their rituals.

Flagellation (from Latin flagellare, to whip) was not uncommon practice amongst the more fervently religious. Various pre-Christian religions, like the cult of Isis in Egypt and the Dionysian cult of Greece, practiced their own forms of flagellation. Women were flogged during the Roman Lupercalia to ensure fertility.

At first, flagellation became a form of penance in the Christian church, especially in ascetic monastic orders. For example, the 11th century zealot Dominicus Loricatus once repeated the entire Psalter twenty times in one week, accompanying each psalm with a hundred lash-strokes to his back. The distinction of the Flagellants was to take this self-mortification into the cities and other public spaces as a demonstration of piety. As well as flagellation, the rituals were built around processions, hymns, distinct gestures, uniforms, and discipline. It was also said that when singing a hymn and upon reaching the part about the passion of the Christ, one must drop to the ground, no matter how dirty or painful the area may seem. Also one mustn't move if the ground has something on it that may cause an inconvenience.

The movement did not have a central doctrine or overall leaders, but a popular passion for the movement occurred all over Europe in separate outbreaks. The first recorded incident was in Perugia in 1259. It spread from there across northern Italy and thence into Austria. Other incidents are recorded in 1296, 1333-34 (the Doves), notably at the time of the Black Death (1349), and 1399. The nature of the movement grew from a popular interest in religion combined with dissatisfaction with the Church's control.

The prime cause of the Perugia episode is unclear, but it followed an outbreak of an epidemic and chroniclers report how the mania spread throughout almost all the people of the city. Thousands of citizens gathered in great processions, singing and with crosses and banners, they marched throughout the city whipping themselves. It is reported that surprising acts of charity and repentance accompanied the marchers. However, one chronicler noted that anyone who did not join in the flagellation was accused of being in league with the devil. They also killed Jews and priests who opposed them. Marvin Harris^[1] links them to the Messianic preaching of Gioacchino da Fiore.

The movement spread across northern Italy, up to 10,000 strong groups processing in Modena, Bologna, Reggio and Parma although certain city authorities refused the Flagellant processions entry. However enthusiasm for the movement diminished as suddenly as it arose. When they preached that mere participation in their processions cleaned sins, the Pope banned the movement in January 1261. As the movement lost momentum in Italy, it crossed into Austria and then Germany where the same pattern happened.

The peak of the activity was during the Black Death, then called the Great Death, which began around 1347. Spontaneously Flagellant groups arose across northern and central Europe in 1349, except in England. The German and Low Countries movement, the Brothers of the Cross, is particularly well documented - they wore white robes and marched across Germany in 33.5 day campaigns of penance, only stopping in any one place for no more than a day. 33½ days referred for one day for each year of Jesus' earthly life. They established their camps in fields near towns and held their rituals twice a day. The ritual began with the reading of a letter, claimed to have been delivered by an angel and justifying the Flagellants' activities. Next the followers would fall to their knees and scourge themselves, gesturing with their free hand to indicate their sin and striking themselves rhythmically to songs, known as Geisslerlieder, until blood flowed. Sometimes the blood was soaked up in rags and treated as a holy relic.

Originally members were required to receive permission to join from their spouses and to prove that they could pay for their food. However, some towns begun to notice that sometimes Flagellants brought plague to towns where it has not yet surfaced. Therefore later they were denied entry. They responded by increased physical penance.

Initially the Catholic Church tolerated the Flagellants and individual monks and priests joined in the early movements. By the 14th century the Church was less tolerant and the rapid spread of the movement was alarming. Clement VIbull of October 20, 1349 and instructed Church leaders to suppress the Flagellants. This position was reinforced in 1372 by Gregory XI who associated the Flagellants with other heretical groups, notably the Beghards. They were accused of heresies including doubting the need for the sacraments, denying ordinary ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and claiming to work miracles. In Germany they claimed they could resurrect emperor Frederick II, who would bring an age of social justice. Konrad Schmid claimed to be Frederick and baptised himself in the blood of his followers. His Thuringian rebels left their worldly occupations and prayed preparing the Judgment Day officially condemned them in a for 1369. The Inquisition burnt him before he could go on with his plans.

A similar movement arose again in 1399, again in northern Italy in the form of the "White Penitents" or Bianchilaudesi from their constant hymn singing. At its peak a group of over 15,000 adherents gathered in Modena and marched to Rome, but the movement rapidly faded when one of its leaders was burned at the stake by order of Benedict XI. movement. This rising is said to have been started by a peasant who saw a vision. The movement became known as the

The Inquisition was active against any revival of the movement in the 15th century. In 1414, two groups, one of them followers of Karl Schmidt, totaling over a hundred members, were burned in Germany. Three hundred in Thuringia were burnt in one day of 1416. Other trials where the accused were condemned as Flagellants were recorded as late as the 1480s. The practice of flagellation within the bounds of the Catholic Church continued as an accepted form of penance.

Rulers like Catherine de Medici and Henry III of France supported Flagellants but Henry IV of France banned them. Flagellant orders like Hermanos Penitentes (Spanish 'Penitential Brothers') also appeared in colonial Spanish America, even against the specific orders of church authorities.

[edit] Modern flagellants

[edit] Catholic

Flagellant in the misterie of Guardia Sanframondi

Modern processions of hooded Flagellants are still a feature of various Mediterranean Catholic countries, mainly in Spain, Portugal and Italy and some former colonies, usually every year during Lent. For example in the comune of Guardia Sanframondi in Campania, Italy, such parades are organized once every seven years.

In modern times, it has been speculated that the more extreme practices of mortification of the flesh may have been used to obtain altered states of consciousness for the goal of experiencing religious experiences or visions; medical research has shown that great pain releases endorphines which can have such effect, and even get some fetishists addicted to pain.

Some Christians in Philippines practice flagellation as a form of devout worship, sometimes in addition to self-crucifixion (during the end of Lent season).

[edit] Los hermanos penitentes

See Penitentes (New Mexico). In English, "the penitent brothers." This is a semi-secret society of flagellants among the Hispanics of Colorado and New Mexico.[1]

[edit] Gentler legacy

In most cultures, flagellation disappeared from mainstream Christian life in time. However, some former flagellant confraternities were converted towards physically more gentle forms of devotion.

Thus in Italy, the old name laudesi was maintained for the survivors of the Flagellant movement, who met together in their own chapel to sing laudi (canticles) in honor of the Blessed Virgin, which gradually assumed a dramatic form and grew into a theatrical form known as rappresentazioni sacre. A play in the Roman dialect of the fourteenth century, edited by Vattasso (Studi e Testi, no. 4, p. 53), explicitly bears the title lauda.

[edit] Other religions

Very similar practices exist in non-Christian traditions, including actual flagellation amongst certain branches of IslamShiites commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali), as well as milder traditions such as whipping women (while spanking men) in a Taoist temple on the Chinese New Year.

Allright, so that was everything you wanted to know about flagellants, but were afraid to ask, right?

I waited about an hour for the sunset, and in total darkness the procession began. It was very solemn, with a drumline beating, completely out of rythmn, and the Via Crucis participants marching, carrying candles. It was beautiful to see all the lights darkened in the town for the ceremony as the procession went from the plaza along the aqueduct, and straight up the main street of town. I saw hundreds of people carrying life sized crosses, with candles burning atop.

The image of the Virgin Mary had many brightly burning candles, and was the last feature of the procession.The whole town seemed to have been there, and the atmosphere was calm, solemn, and exciting. 

To see a whole community come together to celebrate this Holy day was something I will never forget participating in.

After 12 hours in the studio, I have turned into the crossed eyed, overcaffinated fiend. I can no longer tell a flute from a drum kick. It's time to call it a day.  A drummer named Javier came over after he turned me onto a group called Sigur Ros from Iceland. I liked their tunes. They integrate pop vocals with string sections, and layer in textures that take the edge off the classical sections in just the right way to keep it interesting.

I think he will be able to record on my album, and do some gigs with me in Morelia. He lives a block away, which really helps.