Saturday, June 14, 2008

Punk Show

Believe it or not there's a thriving punk scene here in Medellín, they call them punkeros and I checked out one of their concerts with my friend Vadir. It´s just like regular punk, complete with mosh pits and silly haircuts only everything´s in Spanish.

McTags

Somebody is tagging for McDonalds. I've seen these things all over town. Underneath the arches it says Me Enchancha, which I haven't been able to translate yet. I hope it's something cheeky and not the Spanish version of "I'm lovin' it," which would probably be something like Me Encanta.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Las Iglesias

There are a ton of churches in Medellín, to be expected of course in this deeply Catholic country, and some of them are quite impressive. This one, called Catedral Metropolitana, is supposedly the largest in South America and everyone loves to tell you it's got twelve hundred thousand bricks in it, although personally I don't know how many bricks a regular sized church has so I wasn't really impressed until I saw it. I couldn't back up far enough to get the whole church in one frame (there was another fountain in the way) but you can get an idea of the size if you notice the tiny man sitting right outside. Sadly, the doors were all closed so I didn´t try to go in. I only found out later that this is normal, you have to go in through the side doors. Perhaps I'll go back, I read they have a massive 3478 pipe organ which I'd love to check out, and although I'm sure by the time I leave South America I will be thoroughly sick of looking at incredibly large, important, or old churches, I've not had my fill just yet.

Casino Craze

Gambling is apparently quite legal in Medellín judging by the scores of casinos lining Avenida La Playa. Some of them look really flashy and are fairly large, but there are also smaller, sketchier looking places to lose your money. I peeked inside one to see what was up and was surprised to find there weren't any card tables, everything was automated.

My Spanish tutor told me people think they might be fronts used to launder money for the remnants of the drug cartel. I didn´t see anything suspicious, although it would appear only employ big breasted women, of which there are many thanks to readily available and highly fashionable surgical augmentation---also said to be a remnant of Escobar´s infamous Medellín Cartel.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Cell Payphones

In Medellín sometimes I see people with cell phones chained to their clothing and signs advertising how much they charge to let you use them. Some of them even have sandwich board signs and vests that look like burlap sacks with tons of pockets tailored to the exact dimensions of a cell phone. They walk around the city looking for people who might need to make a call. This vendedór apparently decided the best place to lend out his mobile phones was next to a bunch of stationary phones.

Jugo De Bojoro

Thanks to it's almost excessive biodiversity, Colombia has a myriad of exotic fruits available in local markets. Even better, there are kiosks in these markets selling a gajillion different types of juices made from these fruits.

I tried one made from a fruit called el bojoro (there is no English translation), and although it may not look as appetizing in this poorly focused picture as it did in real life, I was so impressed I've decided never to pass another vender without trying a new type of juice.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Fuentes

Medellín digs fountains, and hard. You could probably throw a penny into a fountain from another fountain in certain parts of the downtown area. I think it's because there are tax incentives to include public art in all new buildings, and since the city is in the middle of a massive construction boom, the effects became apparent rather rapidly.

Don't get me wrong, the law resulted in other forms of public art too, in fact there are some very inexpensive looking modern art sculptures in front of some buildings. I saw one that I at first mistook for in incomplete street lamp. But of the possible options for public art, fountains are well represented, and since the weather is permanently awesome here, they can stay on year round. This one even got pimped out with colored lights that only come on at night.

Too Cute!

The Museum of Antioquia put together this event where they got local children to draw pictures for an art exhibit and good god it is ADORABLE! They gave them prompts to draw about and let them put in descriptions. The prompt for this one was if you had one wish, what would you ask for and the five year old wrote "my very big wish is for my father to do well in his work so he can buy me rollerskates."

This one asked when you think of Antioquia, what's the first thing that comes to your head and the kid wrote La Monalisa Gorda de Botero.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Sick Pieces

Medellín's got some hot taggers. I don't know who did this but it's huge and well done and full of spanish poetry which you can't read very well in this picture. As I recall the poem that's cut off was this cryptic message about sound and time and freeing your mind. Very trippy.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Talent

There are some really talented buskers in Medellin. It's pretty crazy. I was impressed by the dude painted like a statue but today a kid on stilts doing that stick juggling thing with a double sided torch walked out in front of the car at a stoplight. Like woah. Straight out of the circus.

Still not impressed? Check out this dude with no arms drawing incredibly good portraits with his toes. I watched him go for a bit to confirm he wasn't just scribbling with his feet near some good pictures and the hombre can really sketch.