OKAY, HERE WE GO!
Rimma and I have been living in Merida, Mexico for 7 months now. Time has flown by and thank God. I have written about our experiences here in another blog entitled "What a long strange trip it's been."
Honestly, I think I'm done. I think we are both done, but I'm a little more done. I'm well done. Rimma is a little more medium rare. But don't cook it any more for her. And she is a fucking citizen and has lived in Mexico for the first 30-some-odd years of her life, and SHE'S almost done. I'm the newbie naive gringo with eyes wide open hoping something or someone will change our current feelings of this place.
I thought I could handle it. I guess I'm a pussy. This place is not for pussies. This place is really not for anyone. Except for the people who through the centuries have been beaten down and flail around on the ground like spineless jellyfish. Basically the whole population. Well, maybe jellyfish don't flail but fish do when out of water.
DO NOT LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO SAYS
"The Mexican people are the kindest most outgoing and gracious people in the world." BULLSHIT!! I have lived my own personal experiences, and have it on good authority from a citizen of Mexico that it's pure BULLSHIT!! Those words are spoken only by tourists.
People are not courteous here. They will have you believe that they are, until you don't give them money, then, watch out. So the tourists think the Mexicans are the best because they have fallen prey to the Mexican beat down. They beat you out of money. Of course they are nice. The tourists are suckers. "Hey honey, look at this sweet little child selling chicklets gum," in the hot sun of course. "Oh look, there's the mother in the shade drinking cold water while on her cell phone." She's probably calling to make sure that her business license is up to date. Everything is on the up and up here. No selling shit without a license.
In all of the grocery stores they have baggers. Not bag boys (which we used to have in the US,) but baggers and these people are older senior citizens. You have to tip them. Well you don't have to but it's proper and commonplace. Well one day apparently I didn't tip this older woman enough and she threw the money down on the counter and gave me the stink eye, or I call it the DEATH STARE!!! So I stared right back at her and she abruptly turned away. Apparently Mexicans do not like confrontation. I've learned it the hard way trying to stare down others to no avail as they do not make eye contact therefore taking the wind out of my sails. Damn, I wanted a confrontation!
If they think, or know they will get money from you they are your best friend. Otherwise "Chinga tu Madre."
It helps being married to a Mexican citizen because I get the real down-low on this severely repressed society. And she has no filters and is completely without bias. There is a saying here, "el que no tranza, no avanza.” Which means, "He who does not cheat, does not advance." And I can see this from the street all the way up the hierarchy into the government. I'm not saying that other governments don't have some form of corruption, but at least things get done and fixed in their respective countries. NOTHING GETS DONE HERE!
There was an incident here in Mexico City recently where a train overpass collapsed due to improper construction which the city has known about for years and nothing was done about it. The city hired a Norwegian risk management firm to investigate the cause of the collapse. The Mexicans can't figure this shit out for themselves. The bridge was found to have been designed and built without quality standards. Standard procedure here. 26 people were killed and 98 injured. You can see signs of this shit waiting to happen everywhere.
MEXICO AND NOISE:
This is a noisy country. The people here are desensitized to noise, bad water, garbage everywhere, electricity going out for hours at a time, and dogs barking. I have probably mentioned in my other post about the dogs. Dogs are used for security here, not for pets. They are chained up outside in front yards and allowed to bark all day and night, and the owners are happy with it because it keeps intruders away. It also creates a nuisance for others who don't need the security. And the poor dogs never get taken for a walk or let into the house. The smell comes down the block because the people never pick up the dog shit. They just don't care about it. And if they do walk their dog, do you think they pick up after it shits?
If you go to a sporting event the Mexican National Anthem is DOGS BARKING!!! It's music everyone knows and can sing along with.
On Sundays they close down a major street to cars and allow people to ride bikes without traffic for a few hours. On the sidewalks they allow vendors of all sorts. These vendors are really caring and generous people with their music. They provide music for all of the people riding their bikes. And at very high volumes. I think that is wonderful. They are the self-appointed DJs and are providing a free service to the bike riders and walkers. The problem is that the next vendor is playing his music even louder, and the next and the next. It becomes a battle of the distorted shitty sound systems. A cacophony of shit. AND AGAIN, NO ONE CARES, OR SAYS ANYTHING!!! TURN THAT SHIT DOWN!!!
What is it that makes these stupid fucks think that others want to listen to their shitty goddamn music, with distortion. We rode on one Sunday, actually last Sunday and for some reason there was no music and not many vendors, and not many people riding bikes in the same way they drive their cars. BADLY!! It was a great morning. Peaceful and quiet. A concept they know nothing of here. WHY MUSIC EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME!!! Do you know how many times I have asked that the restaurant or coffee house turn down their music? Too many times to count. These people are horribly desensitized. Their brains are fried. And they don't even listen to music of their culture. It's this shitty reggaeton or American classic rock. How about some fucking Salsa or something with live instruments.
NOW FOR THE:
"Piece de Resistance" or The Last Straw.
The state of Yucatan has a symphony. The Yucatan Symphony, oddly enough. Merida is in the state of Yucatan. The theater where they used to play had a fire and now they play in this small little theater that only holds about 450 people. It's called Palacio de la Musica.
Not a bad orchestra. The instrumentation changes depending on the composer and pieces to be played. The orchestra usually functions with about 65 musicians. Most orchestras have anywhere from 80-100 musicians. You take what you can get here in Merida.
So we went to hear Mahler's Symphony No.5 last Friday night. Not the greatest venue by any stretch, but it has to do because of the fire in the theater. All around the Palacio are neighborhood bars, cafes, restaurants. Apparently there is also a music school in the Palacio and students gather at these cafes and restaurants. We had been one other Friday night 2 weeks prior, to hear Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov.
There is a particular movement in Mahler's 5th, the 4th movement, Adagietto where the beginning is all strings and very quiet. I'm sitting there listening with my teared up eyes closed, I was in a beautiful place, and I hear something that I hadn't heard in the piece before. There was an indistinct light thumping sound. It took me out of my beautiful place, I wiped my eyes so as to see if it was coming from the orchestra. I looked at the percussion and tried to see if anyone was moving there, and no one was. I finally surmised TO MY HORROR that it was coming from the street. A DJ. A FUCKING DJ. I was beside myself amidst 450 people.
The music hall in this place was on the 3rd floor, but in true Mexican tradition, nothing was sound proofed. The sound in the room was just good enough for the spineless jellyfish, but not soundproofed enough that the street noise didn't creep in. I failed to notice it on the last Friday night we attented because there weren't any hugely quiet movements in the concert.
BUT I SURE AS FUCK NOTICED TONIGHT!!! It was true coitus interruptus.
THIS WAS THE LAST STRAW
I was envisioning jumping out of my seat and screaming at the top of my lungs "CANT' YOU MOTHERFUCKERS DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?" I knew that if I had done something like that, I would have been escorted out of the building where I then could join the bastard that took me out of my beautiful place. It was over, the moment was gone.
Then I had another problem to deal with. I could not get my focus back into the concert. I was so upset that I could no longer focus and enjoy anything, and then I heard this stupid fuck a few chairs down from us tapping or more like stomping his feet to whatever beat he heard. I was done. I didn't know what to do. I then remembered that Bill Evans used to be able to just "go in" when he was at the piano, at any time he desired. I have forgotten exactly how he referred to it but he could, and the person telling the story was in awe of it. I think it was the drummer of his last trio, Joe LaBarbera.
I CAN'T DO THAT
Never been able to tune out extraneous sounds or distractions. It is a really bad problem. When I read in a place where there are people, I can read a few words and then I look up, distracted by what is going on around me. I have recently found out that I am what they call hypersensitive. And believe me it is a real problem. and I think it gets worse as I get older. I hear every little fucking thing. You would think that for a musician that would be a great attribute. It's a fucking curse. I have to wear ear plugs when I go to bed, and like I said reading in a public place is almost impossible. I am very jumpy to the point where if someone wants my attention they should come in front of me and quietly try to get my attention or I will jump through the roof.
On a quick side note, had to deal with a guy by our house hammering something at around 11pm the other night. Nobody cares here. The police will do nothing.
The symphony concert did it for me. I'm done. I don't think I can live here anymore. How difficult could it have been for the symphony people to tell this restaurant who hired the DJ to wait until the symphony was over. How difficult is that. I'M TELLING YOU THESE PEOPLE DON'T NOTICE!!! THEY ARE ALL BRAIN DEAD!!!
Is nothing sacred anymore, not even the symphony?