Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Chapter 1: I am the Night
Without any more a due, I present to you the story of my Merce weekend. Incontrovertible proof that them thar Barcelonites be loco. I promise you that everything I say happened this weekend is true (excluding hyperboles, jokes, and lies).
Merces is a four day long holiday (beat that Birth of Christ and Birth of Christ Eve) in Barcelona celebrating a peasant revolt some four hundred years ago. Back in the day, the Barcelonian populous rose up to fight for independence. They’d had enough of the Spanish tyranny, and unjust imposition of taxes (Stamp Acts, Townsend Acts, Sugar Acts, Tea Acts). As I am led to believe, an amusing musical starring Mr. Feeney ensued. In the end the Barcelonarian Consell de Cent agreed to declare war against the parent state.
The Spanish National Army crushed their revolution. Now we celebrate with fireworks four nights in a row.
The first night we (the San Jordie dorm crowd plus Tom the Bush-lover) went down to the Ramblas to see what was going on. There were so many people and so much energy it was impossible not to have fun. I didn’t even care that there were just as many English speakers abound as native Spaniards, because that’s still 500 Spaniards.
Eventually we stumbled across a plaza in which there was a strange pagan festival going on. There were people dressed as demons (or demons dressed unconvincingly as people) dancing in a circle around a huge Man-Bat with a staff that shot fire and sometimes the top exploded. Knowing little of Catalonian native culture other than most of them are Catholic, I can only assume this Man-Bat represented Jesus. This led me to the conclusion that God must be a bat, seeing as Mary was a person and their bastard son was half and half. This revelation of course led me to the logical next step, that Batman and Jim Gordon are waging a fundamentalist crusade in Gothem. Batman, understanding that criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot uses the guise of Jesus to strike fear into the hearts of sinners. Batman uses fear to try to influence people. Ergo Batman is a religious fundamentalist terrorist. Score one for the Superman is better front.
Meanwhile as the behorned apostles danced around the leather winged Son of God there was a band all playing a traditional Catalonian Woodwind instrument. The band, I learned, only meets once a year for this bizarre festival. They were quite good, and the rhythms of their traditional music were hypnotic. It is a shame they don’t play more often. No joke. I liked the music.
Merces is a four day long holiday (beat that Birth of Christ and Birth of Christ Eve) in Barcelona celebrating a peasant revolt some four hundred years ago. Back in the day, the Barcelonian populous rose up to fight for independence. They’d had enough of the Spanish tyranny, and unjust imposition of taxes (Stamp Acts, Townsend Acts, Sugar Acts, Tea Acts). As I am led to believe, an amusing musical starring Mr. Feeney ensued. In the end the Barcelonarian Consell de Cent agreed to declare war against the parent state.
The Spanish National Army crushed their revolution. Now we celebrate with fireworks four nights in a row.
The first night we (the San Jordie dorm crowd plus Tom the Bush-lover) went down to the Ramblas to see what was going on. There were so many people and so much energy it was impossible not to have fun. I didn’t even care that there were just as many English speakers abound as native Spaniards, because that’s still 500 Spaniards.
Eventually we stumbled across a plaza in which there was a strange pagan festival going on. There were people dressed as demons (or demons dressed unconvincingly as people) dancing in a circle around a huge Man-Bat with a staff that shot fire and sometimes the top exploded. Knowing little of Catalonian native culture other than most of them are Catholic, I can only assume this Man-Bat represented Jesus. This led me to the conclusion that God must be a bat, seeing as Mary was a person and their bastard son was half and half. This revelation of course led me to the logical next step, that Batman and Jim Gordon are waging a fundamentalist crusade in Gothem. Batman, understanding that criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot uses the guise of Jesus to strike fear into the hearts of sinners. Batman uses fear to try to influence people. Ergo Batman is a religious fundamentalist terrorist. Score one for the Superman is better front.
Meanwhile as the behorned apostles danced around the leather winged Son of God there was a band all playing a traditional Catalonian Woodwind instrument. The band, I learned, only meets once a year for this bizarre festival. They were quite good, and the rhythms of their traditional music were hypnotic. It is a shame they don’t play more often. No joke. I liked the music.
# posted by Mr Tim @ 3:19 PM 
