Music in the Mountains

Sunday evening saw us going down to the lovely local village of Mecina for a delightful event, one of the concerts in the Music in the Mountains festival - a season of musical events that takes place throughout the year in the Alpujarras. In the summer many of the performances take place outside in rather informal situations. Last night a group from Oxford, UK, were performing their own choice of music on an Era in the village of Mecina - an Era being an old threshing circle. I recorded a rather scratchy video of the occasion but I feel it is worth listening to just to get a feel for the music.

The group had a rather unusual name, Potato Potato, but it seemed somehow fitting given their rustic agricultural environment. I wandered down to our vegtable bed this morning to see if any of our crops could inspire me to music, but alas all I could come up with were the ideas:

It's been a chard days night
All you need is loveage
Eat me tender
Strawberry fields forever
Hey Judia (Spanish, for bean)
You're getting to be a habas (Spanish for broad bean) with me
Somewhere over the rainbow chard

Any more contributions? Please email them to us: info(at)cortijoopazo.com

One of the more significant events in the fiesta calendar in Spain is the Bull Running in Pamplona, otherwise know as the Festival of San Fermin, an event fully supported and organised by the town hall, and filmed in its entirety by national TV channels.

During the second week in July Pamplona stages many days of bull fighting. To move the fated animals to the bull ring the bulls are released, early in the morning, from the other side of town. They are then encouraged to charge along a barricaded route of a little under 1 kilometre. Soon after they start running they encounter streets that are full of mostly men dressed in white with red neck scarves, who proceed to run with them, at risk of personal injury and sometimes death. This year there has indeed been a fatal injury but the fiesta continued as planned. The poor runner was buried the day after he was gored on the horn of a bull and he has become a sort of hero of the day. If you wish to see more of this then have a look at this link, although it is upsetting to watch it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpz22RpsgpI

Much is still said about bull fighting and bull running in Spain. In 2003 a group of protesters started the idea of 'Running with the Nudes' and in protest initiated a tradition of running naked along the designated route three days before the festival starts. Apparently in the first year, when 25 people made such a protest, the locals were outraged at this moral affront. Now, just 6 year later, hundreds participate and it is regarded as another fun Spanish fiesta event that prolongs the celebrations and brings in more tourists and therefore more money. If you wish to have a look, then here's the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzZy45Yg86I

Warning, there is no actual nudity to be seen.

Yours, from behind the camera but sitting on the fence,

Fergus

PS If you would like to receive an email from my assistant at Cortijo Opazo whenever I publish my Dogblog, please send in a request to info(at)cortijoopazo.com - the (at) is a clever code for @ that few but the most intelligent can crack, but hopefully not those internet spammers.