Two nice songs

This second one I learned about from Wilson. It's a Caetano Veloso song, The Little Lion. And the words are there in Portuguese, for those people who wish to study the best, most beautiful language that's ever been uttered.

Scenes part 2

My favorites from the Prado

These are my favorites, but if you want to see more the Cervantes Institute has an online gallery of the XIX century's chiaroscuro :

http://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/museoprado/citas_claroscuro/espanoles_del_xix/galeria_espanoles_xix.htm

Fusilamiento de Torrijos y sus compañeros

by Antonio Gisbert

As famous as the Goya ''Cinco de Mayo'' portait is, this one is less known but just as gut-wrenching. I hate/love seeing the top hat discarded to the side. This one looks so cinematic, you're just expecting them to start moving.

Francisco Velasquez' Saturno devorando a un hijo 1830s

La nina Maria Figueroa

by Sorolla

Something about her reminds me of an older, brunette Mae.

This one is calle Cesta con flores, and was made in the 1600s. And, wow, I didnt know art had progressed that much compared to medieval times not that long before.

I only noticed this as I began adding pictures to this post, but most of the ones I liked were either by the same person or with the same story, or with both. He is Antonio Muñoz Degrain (1840-1924). And the story is of Los Amantes de Teruel.

Degrain - Antes de la boda

(Isabel before the wedding, in the Turuel story)

Chubasco en Granada, also by Degrain

One of the recurring figures in the art were the Lovers of Teruel. This page here tells its story very well, but to sum it up : "Marry me when I come back with enough money." " OK (not)." So she marries another one and in the marriage ceremony with another man, Guy 1 says :kiss me orI will die." No kiss, so he dies. She finally kisses his dead lips and she dies, too, right on top of his sarcophagus and feeling so guilty for his death.

Sound familiar?

http://www.unaventanadesdemadrid.com/amantes-de-teruel.html

This is a more in-depth explanation for the legend.

The other very impressive national story of Spain that I had never heard of before was that of Dona Juana and the dead King. She had him removed from his burial ground in the belief that he never really died.

Demencia de Dona Juana de Castillo

by Lorenzo Valles

This one got me because of the look on her face and that of the people around her.

This is the same story but later:

----

The day before, we'd come across a nice surprise here at the Cervantes Institute.

So we came here to see this : MÉXICO ILUSTRADO

But an even more engaging exhibition was in the same room :

One of the surprises of the trip! Cristi and I both talked about how traveling now adays, the best thing to know is next to nothing about where you are going and what you will see. Dont see photos of the famous monuments if you can help it. Dont look up the Wikipedia page of each museum. I think it even helped me that I didnt know the Prado was a ''classical museum''. If I had known that, I dont know if I would have gone, given my short schedule and the desire to see La Guernica. And this photography exposition was that very thing, total surprise, went in for a how about Mexican graphic design in revolutionary pamphlets and then this was in the adjoining room.

So this is the info: I wanted togo inside the Cervantes Institute (we have three of them in Morocco, I believe) because there was a large exposicion about Mexican graphic design in the cultural upheaval period of the early XX's. And that was good, but even better was 'Secretos sobre negro' a series of 20+ photos orchestrated and produced by Antonio Banderas. As visual people, Cristina and I spent maybe 60 minutes or more walking to each photo again and again, discussing what we liked about each one. Many of them were mainly-naked women wearing the torero outfits (like this one), but also much more.

There are two good sites talking about this here

http://fotopaco.blogspot.com/2010/11/secretos-sobre-negro-antonio-banderas_15.html

The poem says:

Anda el corazon estremecido/ y el alma anudada a la garganta./ Tras la mascara ciega del hombre/ siente el nino econdido, / la tension de una pregunta llorada. / Desde el poco brillante del miedo / observa el dolor antiguo del desamparo / Y entonces / grita adviertiendo que atrapado/ en un instante de cristal,/ solo ha quedado el inerte/ y negro vacio / reflejando en la piel blanca/ el implacable rostro/ de la perfecta muerte. Antonio Banderas

and here is the official info about it:

http://www.cervantes.es/FichasCultura/Ficha67816_00_1.htm

NOTA DE PRENSA (PRESS RELEASE)

Como idea base, Antonio reinterpreta códigos masculinos históricos bajo un punto de vista decididamente original. La serie de fotografías se compone de 23 instantáneas en las cuales el papel otorgado a la mujer se sitúa en el plano más alto. Teniendo siempre como máxima referencia la seducción innata que poseen las mujeres, Antonio juega con los códigos y las referencias históricas en su trabajo. De este modo, rompe con los cánones clásicos para ofrecer una masculinidad nueva, donde la mujer toma las riendas gracias a la reinterpretación de grandes referencias artísticas ibéricas. No hay duda de quepara Antonio Banderas la mujer es el futuro del hombre.

Carmen, Don Juan Tenorio, La Maja Desnuda o el Barbero de Sevilla son algunos ejemplos de la
redefinición de la clásica masculinidad efectuada por Antonio Banderas. Déjense seducir y déjense llevar, parece decir este fotógrafo de excepción a todos los hombres, gracias al intercambio tan logrado de roles y actitudes. Pero el estilo inconfundible de sus perfumes deja una gran huella en esta realización: una atmósfera sensual y contemporánea fl irtea con una seducción apasionada, mientras el misterioso espíritu latino se desvela gracias a la elegancia espontánea y un ambiente muy intimista.

Esta iniciativa forma parte de una exposición itinerante y está dirigida al público de numerosos países a lo largo de 2010. Después de haber visitado Nueva York a mediados de este año, Secretos sobre negro llega al Instituto Cervantes de Madrid, donde podrá visitarse del 12 al 21 de noviembre, fecha a partir de la cual viajará a Buenos Aires para continuar dando a conocer una de las facetas más desconocidas de Banderas.

Hombre solidario, Banderas subasta en cada país que visita la exposición Secretos sobre negro 7 fotos numeradas a beneficio de la Fundación Lágrimas y Favores.

Creada por Antonio Banderas en 2010, la Fundación Lágrimas y Favores tiene como misión ayudar a estudiantes universitarios y enfermos de cáncer. Los valores en los que basa su trabajo son la transparencia, la integridad, el compromiso social, la imparcialidad, la objetividad, la igualdad y la no discriminación.

Secretos sobre negro. Por Antonio Banderas

Exposición

Antonio Banderas vuelve a sorprender.
Cámara de fotos en mano, el actor español ofrece la máxima potencia de su sentido artístico con esta colección fotográfica. La atracción y la seducción descubren un nuevo camino en el cual Antonio desarrolla otra de sus grandes pasiones: la fotografía.

El placer para los ojos, como lo considera el más internacional de los actores españoles, se transmite gracias a la nueva colección “Secretos sobre negro”. Fotógrafo exclusivo y máximo responsable artístico del proyecto, Antonio Banderas entrega una visión intimista y personal del fascinante mundo femenino bajo una perspectiva masculina.

Esta iniciativa forma parte de una exposición itinerante y está ofrecida al público de numerosos países a lo largo del año 2010. En cada país donde se presentará “Secretos sobre negro”, se subastarán 7 fotos numeradas a beneficio de la ONG Lágrimas y Favores. Allí quizás resida el secreto de un hombre talentoso.

----------

Lastly, Cristina and I shared our passion for Lorca (I first heard the name because of her dog, he's named that). His name was mentioned on many of the revistas mexicanas (one of them was a series of sheet music that had taken his poems and put them to music. She had her favorite and I mine and so we compared them. And of course, being here, the poems felt more alive and real.

The one I recited and love, from my Spanish literature class:

El Amor Duerme. Federico García Lorca

Tú nunca entenderás lo que te quiero,

porque duermes en mí y estás dormido.

Yo te oculto llorando, perseguido

por una voz de penetrante acero.

Norma que agita igual carne y lucero

traspasa ya mi pecho dolorido

y las turbias palabras han mordido

las alas de tu espíritu severo.

Grupo de gente salta en los jardines

esperando tu cuerpo y mi agonía

en caballos de luz y verdes crines.

Pero sigue durmiendo, vida mía.

¡Oye mi sangre rota en los violines!

¡Mira que nos acechan todavía!

Cristina's favorite

LA COGIDA Y LA MUERTE

A las cinco de la tarde.
Eran las cinco en punto de la tarde.
Un niño trajo la blanca sábana
a las cinco de la tarde.
Una espuerta de cal ya prevenida
a las cinco de la tarde.
Lo demás era muerte y sólo muerte
a las cinco de la tarde.

El viento se llevó los algodones
a las cinco de la tarde.
Y el óxido sembró cristal y níquel
a las cinco de la tarde.
Ya luchan la paloma y el leopardo
a las cinco de la tarde.
Y un muslo con un asta desolada
a las cinco de la tarde.
Comenzaron los sones de bordón
a las cinco de la tarde.
Las campanas de arsénico y el humo
a las cinco de la tarde.
En las esquinas grupos de silencio
a las cinco de la tarde.
¡Y el toro solo corazón arriba!
a las cinco de la tarde.
Cuando el sudor de nieve fue llegando
a las cinco de la tarde
cuando la plaza se cubrió de yodo
a las cinco de la tarde,
la muerte puso huevos en la herida
a las cinco de la tarde.
A las cinco de la tarde.
A las cinco en Punto de la tarde.

Un ataúd con ruedas es la cama
a las cinco de la tarde.
Huesos y flautas suenan en su oído
a las cinco de la tarde.
El toro ya mugía por su frente
a las cinco de la tarde.
El cuarto se irisaba de agonía
a las cinco de la tarde.
A lo lejos ya viene la gangrena
a las cinco de la tarde.
Trompa de lirio por las verdes ingles
a las cinco de la tarde.
Las heridas quemaban como soles
a las cinco de la tarde,
y el gentío rompía las ventanas
a las cinco de la tarde.
A las cinco de la tarde.
¡Ay, qué terribles cinco de la tarde!
¡Eran las cinco en todos los relojes!
¡Eran las cinco en sombra de la tarde!

1935

Federico Garcia Lorca

The next five years?

I told Cristina the past day how the things that I became passionate about at 20 have now become my normal life. The last time I saw her I was 20, and now its been five years. I made a list then of my five year goals, and have since internalized that person that I wanted to become and the dreams I made then have now become either finished or out of date. I self-actualized as much as I possibly could and am proud of what I accomplished. But those five years are up and now Im on the cusp of another five year period, one that is completely blank. Im still not officially a second year until Thanksgiving, but its strange to look to the last third of 2011 and not see anything clearly beyond that.

Im also aware that I've outgrown my goals and dreams and ambitions. My interests do not include simply doing the same things but bigger and better. I dont even know what that would be, or if it would be desirable. This then is the time to allow myself to be fluid and let the unexpected take root. I did this pretty easily when I was 19: I followed Wilson around, and I decided Shakira would be my role model. Most of the distinguishing characteristics of my life spring from those two things. And, it is Cristina that is the link between those two things. Even more, she's been the bridge between the person I was before and the person I am now. But she was not visible on the horizon when I decided those two things, she's more of a consequence that later became to influence me. When I decided those two things, I didnt have a passport. Five years later, I've been to 22 countries and joined Peace Corps twice.

Well, this is not something to decide tonite. In some ways, its not so much a decision as it is finding myself somewhere, allowing myself to drift to the untapped potential that I've yet to know. Its the feeling of doing new and different exercises, and only the next morning do you discover a new muscle, one that's super sore, that you didnt know existed because it had been dormant. Im sure some of the things will build from what I did before -- its important to conserve momentum. On my arms I have the two scars from my first Ironman. They are identical, and symmetrical. Two lines on the inside of my upper arm exactly where the sleeves of my black bicycle jersey ended. The scars are there from the 15 hours of continuous friction that those places received, my arms pumping at a leisurely but endless pace. Without them, you wouldnt know that I had done any such thing. And with sports, there's a very clear limit of when it stops being important : when you no longer have that Ironman body.

I suppose one thing in my next five years would be to start repaying the things that have been given to me. TO turn my direction in a more outward direction. Produce more than I consume. It would be the first time I ever were to do that.

Scenes from the trip so far

I was like this* when RyanAir charged me 45 euros for not having printed my boarding pass ahead of time--even though I tried to do it 3 hours earlier at a cyberbar. Apparently, they lock you out of the system to do that 4 hours from departure.

*Specifically, the part in running man where they hold his face up against the barbed wire

Where am I EXACTLY...?

Its not been clear where I am and when Im going there. Some people thought I was in Italy, another thought Id already gone and come back. Right now, Im in the thick of it.

And its pretty amazing. Yeah, but Im lonely, too. But not after tonight! I´ll see my best friend, that Ive not seen in 4 years 10 months, or something like that.


Tonite, Porto Portugal Nov 17


Tomorrow Madrid Nov 18




Friday night

And as good as that is, even better will be seeing this person!

Change of plans

SOOO I'll spend some days in here (Porto, Portugal) then a bus to Madrid...

I just did the math, and it seems exactly like the same price but a lot more fun of what I was thinking about before.

And so instead of Flamenco in Andalucia (Sevilla) I'll be soaking in all of the Fado I can get. This is music documentary called The Art of Amalia, with intro by David Byrne!

Part one and two, there's another 7 or 8 that you can find there.

And this is a list of great Fado recordings

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-best-fado-recordings/lm/3V6WSE7W9EA7X

What to expect the next week :

I'll be staying in a hostal for 15 dollars a night, so I can't complain too bad -- though I'm holding off to see if I can get with any CouchSurfers that are from there.

From Lonely Planet
www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/seville


If any one place comes close to rolling together everything that’s quintessentially Andalucian, it’s Seville. Here in the region’s capital and biggest city, that special Andalucian way of life is distilled into its purest and most intense form. Seville has the most passionate and portentous Semana Santa (Holy Week), the most festive and romantic annual feria (fair), the best tapas bars, the best nightlife and the most stylish people in Andalucía. It has more narrow, winding, medieval lanes and romantic, hidden plazas soaked in the scent of orange blossom than half of Andalucía’s other cities put together. It’s the home of those two bulwarks of Andalucian tradition, flamenco and bullfighting, and its heri‑tage of art and architecture (Roman, Islamic, Gothic, Renaissance, baroque) is without rival in southern Spain.

But Seville’s most developed art form is that of enjoying oneself. To be out at night among the city’s relaxed, fun-loving crowds – in the tapas bars, on the streets, in the clubs and discos – is an experience you won’t forget.


There are a couple of catches, of course: Seville is expensive. You might pay €80 here for a room that would cost €50 elsewhere, and prices go even higher during Semana Santa and the Feria de Abril (April Fair). Also bear in mind that Seville gets very hot in July and August: locals, sensibly, leave the city then.

-----
Soon, on my way to this long-dreamed of country. But it's like, I've known so much about it, I never felt the urge to go. Since I can nearly smell it now, already, smell the tortillas cooking, I'm super pumped.


And last but not least - la razon que me empuje fuera del pais - la musica!

Youtube Playlist for me for November

Blogger makes this a lot easier for me, having all of these on the same page. But who am I to have to explain myself?? Ciao!











Can't find the real Dylan version of this song -- and the best cover version (of hundreds) is the heartbreaking Bruce Springsteen one. But this is a nice clip--my two favorite actors, but Im not really allowed to watch it here in the cyber cafe. Wish I could do a road trip in a car like that, but I'm glad to live through this in a vicarious way for now. Best part of that movie!

The Weekend of Canceled Plans

Well, originally I was going to pick up my new hammock that I bought from Marissa; then I was going to go on a three day hike in the mountains with 2 tourists and my host dad; now, I'm afraid to say that I'll clean up my room and read a couple of funny books, for fear that something will now come and try to interrupt that!

Something to share from GOODREADS.com - Daphnis and Chloe

Ravel's ballet version

La decouverte de Chloe
(All of the pictures here, I recommend clicking and
making them full-size -- they are so beautiful)

Daphnis and Chloe by Longus

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Books like this make me lament the difference in curriculum between what I studied in school in the US and what my friend studied in Italy in Lecce. At least I'm aware that I missed out, and so I have to fill in the gaps! The way I do so is through this: the Penguin Classics list I found on Wikipedia (see below for the links).

So, Daphnis and Chloe? This is exactly one of the kinds of books that make me glad to have this list to refer to when I choose the next book to read--especially since most of them are free and I can put them immediately on my Kindle.

And as an American, how would we have had exposure to this, unless some Hollywood film company decides to make a new iteration of it? Without that kind of leverage behind it, it's not something that would ever come again onto the Bestseller list even if it is better than the majority of those books there.

Le temple de Bacchus
The Temple of Bacchus

Last week I was listening to a great episode of RADIOLAB ''Words'' about how a language spontaneously grew among the deaf community in Nicaragua, and how the second generation had 10x more subtle words for the idea of ''to think''. This had the result that the 2nd generation scored many orders of magnitude better on a test that examined their ability to have strong interpersonal empathy. I.e., their ability to think from the point of view of another person was much stronger because their ''islands of information'' in their brain had more subtle bridges that could be more fully utilized, and so they functioned at a higher level (until the 2nd gen taught the 1st gen the new words, and then the scores normalized). To me, this says a lot about the influence and evolution of literature, even the use and function of it. Furthermore, larger vocabulary literally is empowering in a very concrete way, and that applies also to the way words are used and the kind of constantly evolving complexity in the spiritual field of the different worlds created by good literature. You can become more human by reading books. In the program, the man says the 27 years when he was deaf and languageless -- not even knowing until then that objects had names that people used -- were his dark years, and once he had the growing vocabulary, he was less and less able to remember what he felt then before his first teacher opened him up, and was never able to interact in the same way with his other languageless friends because he could no longer think in a way that was intelligible to his friends.

La chasse aux oiseaux
The bird chase

So with this in mind, I open a Penguin Classic and I wonder, how far removed am I from the way this writer understands his world? And its a tricky thing, especially in this instance. Longus wrote the amazing Daphnis and Chloe 1800 years ago. Which in Greek antiquity time, is the end of Greek antiquity time. Its surprising that it doesn't feel dated. It isn't overly elaborate, but neither is it extremely simplistic. It has great humor and wisdom, a false naivete that is so charming. The writer really seems to have thought about the arc of the story, when to bring or when to pull the emotional punches. Things are mentioned that have an impact dozens of pages later, there's a good economy of words, but the author also is able to elaborate when necessary rather than rushing the story. I read it in about 3 hours, and didn't once have my attention wander. I meant to read half last night and half today but I liked it enough that I kept going until 1230 AM.

L'hiver
Winter

It's worth your time! It easily rivaled any other classical text that I've come across. I've not really read a lot from this time, but have enjoyed nearly everything that I've come across. Other Antiquities classics that I love: Xenophon's Persian Journey, the Satyricon, the Heroides by Ovid, and Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Drama, I like : The Seven Against Thebes, Aristophanes and Aeschylus. People make a great to-do about Euripides, but I read a thing about him that was pretty scathing and have stayed away from him. Plus there are many good Shakespeare plays that incorporate these characters.

The illustrations are
Marc Chagall's litographs for his illustrated version of Daphnis et Chloe.

This is the intro text on GR from the Marc Chagall version :

In 1831 Goethe called Daphnis and Chloe 'a masterpiece ... in which Understanding, Art, and Taste appear at their highest point, and beside which the good Virgil retreats somewhat into the background ... One would do well to read it every year, to be instructed by it again and again, and to receive anew the impression of its great beauty. 'Touching yet humorous, naive and at the same time highly sophisticated, Daphnis and Chloe is the story of a shepherd boy and girl who fall desperately in love yet find themselves facing great obstacles, because in their passion they behave, as the author says, even more awkwardly 'than rams and ewes.'.

One last thought (me again):

With the Greeks, Romans, even all the way up to Rabelais and Cervantes, I heard my friend observe that, ''Our 'modernity', ... We're just now remembering the things that we forgot during the Middle Ages, it's taking us this long. The Judeo-Christian-Muslim tradition kicked into overdrive, the conquerors went to Egypt/Sudan and defaced all of the relics. But thankfully these great texts were saved from the fires in the giant library at Alexandria, and among the scholars of the Middle East and now we can go back and try to remember what we once had.

A defaced relief from Egypt / Nubia (Sudan)

Daphnis and Chloe I first heard about this from Kundera's Book of Laughter and Forgetting -- this was one of the few parts I liked from his book.

The mentioned segment from Radiolab's WORDS
''New Words, New World''



And a beautiful (!!), short film accompanying the episode:



Penguin Classics Complete:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Penguin_Classics

Penguin 20th Century/ Modern Classics (what they call Novecento in Italian):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Penguin_20th_Century/Modern_Classics

This is the TIME 1923-Present list that is very nice, too.
http://www.listal.com/list/times-100-greatest-novels-1923



View all my reviews


PS --
I tell people, my dream job would be as an opera singer, but I think I was made more for ballet.

And I tell young people :
''If you're interested in girls, don't join the football team; instead, sign up for classical dance! You just pick up girls for hours a day and spin them around. And get paid to do it, and you don't have to hit anyone with your face, noone's trying to hit you with their face, no stinky locker rooms (or at least, these ones are not so bad as theirs), and even better, there's only one of you and 50 of them, instead of a team full of guys that do the sport better than you...'' xD

Because I got the feet.

''Most dancers try to be able to do that for years, and never get them.'' a former pro dancer told me last spring in Ourzazate.

Just doing what comes naturally // I could have been a contender.

15 Books in 15 minutes

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books/authors (poets included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag at least fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what authors my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note.)

Poetry

John Keats' Poems

Rilke's Poems

Lat-Am Literature

100 Years of Solitude by Garcia-Marquez

Dona Flor and her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado

Rayuela (Hopscotch) by Julio Cortazar

Budapeste by Chico Buarque

Modern American Lit

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

The Time Traveler's Wife by Niffenegger

East of Eden by Steinbeck

Everything by Philip Roth so far!

Penguin Classics

War and Peace by Tolstoy

Middlemarch by George Elliot

Other

Japan : Nigerian Wood and Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Italy: If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino

England: Atonement by Ian McEwan

This photo on this webpage illustrates what I'm talking about pretty well
http://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli-e-cultura/2010/10/31/foto/street_art_baci_e_amplessi_sui_muri-8606468/1/?ref=HRESS-7

It's number 13 out of 14, with the Muslim girl walking by the mural.

Something disturbing

One girl comes to study, my best student. Before, the one major distinction with her was the fact that she would watch TV, and write her favorite stories in prose in English for me to check later. Doing this, her English has improved at an unbelievable speed. I'm able to have long conversations with her and only rarely is she unable to follow what I mean. I dont hardly need to simplify what I say at all. What made this even more special was the fact that she first started with me knowing nearly nothing (or else she wanted to start again from scratch, having studied some maybe at the lycee). She is very devout -- often telling me stories of how science is just now affirming the truth and wisdom of what the Prophet announced to the world 1400 years ago-- ''Science has said that the ideal is to fast one day for every ten normal days, which we do already, fasting 30 days in Ramadan and 6 more during the year! And science has proved this to be the right way!''. Most of her stories are moral allegories that concern parents and children, and the need to respect and obey them.

While her earnestness was unusual, none of this disturbed me until last night she said how she has stopped listening to music now, ''because I know the truth'' after watching something about it on television. So now its only drums and singing, but no instruments at all.

In my life I've gone through this same thing -- taking 40 of my heavy metal albums to sell at CD Warehouse back when I was an impressionable Freshman under the influence of an extreme-right church in Tennessee. In our service, it was acapella. The disturbing thing about this is the self-assurance much more than the self-denial, and of course the influence of television. And its disturbing in how it makes me sad, there's an even larger chasm between where I am and where this girl is.

The last thing after our lesson that night, I gave her two magazines that she could read to study in English, THE NEW YORKER and the SAUDI ARAMCO magazine. I flipped through the first one and took a pen to whatever was there that might be too risque, sometimes I took out a whole page. Did I feel ashamed about what those pages had on them? Not a bit. We can sit at a table and bond, certainly, but I feel a huge gulf between the place she is coming from and the one from where I am. If she were to occupy my inner life for some moments, it would be shocking--the books, the magazines, the values I have. But of course, those were things that would be difficult for the people from my old church as well -- they would get alone magnificently, if only they were to meet and bypass those barriers they erect between each other. Barriers that don't exist for me so much.

Faces of Morocco (updates to come shortly)

These first three are from Adriana, ''Z'', ''La Gitana'', my friend! Soon to work for National Geographic...

I'm always too shy to try and get photos of any women, so these are valuable for me.
Thanks Z!

(careful, the girl with the big smile and luscious brown skin on the left
is NOT to be considered a Face of Morocco)

But this little cutie-patootie should be.

Yassine getting his first Kamanja lesson (violin in Arabic). He loved it!