Salvador (from Oliver Stone)

Yesterday, I watched the bilingual movie ‘Salvador’ from Oliver Stone from 1986. I had the movie on my list since I visited El Salvador in the summer 2009 (read here my visit of a museum about the civil war in San Salvador). The movie tells the true story of two Americans without money, who try to find their luck in Salvador. One of the two is Richard Boyle – a photographer. He runs into a quarrel of love, politics and moral. Since Boyle wants to earn some money with a story and pictures of the political situation in the country, he meets the important guys, tries to make arrangements and is more than once close to be killed. As the situation escalates with the assassination of Romero, Boyle tries to get visa for his girlfriend to get out of the country while still trying to capture the situation in the country with his camera.

The role of the US in Salvador was very negative (training death squads and giving financial and military support to the right-wing oppressive government) and is shown like this in the movie. Hence, the reviews of the movie in 1986 were mainly very critical and tried to interpret it as an action movie in contrast to a historical movie. I guess, the perception has changed but it seems that the movie is not very well known. Hence, I strongly recommend to watch that movie to anybody interested in Central America and the role/influence of the USA a few decades ago.

The Road

A few days ago, I watched ‘The Road’ from John Hillcoat. It is about a father and his son, who are one of the few survivors of an apocalypse. It rains ash, the trees die, there are no plants and no animals, it is cold and hardly anybody survived. Meeting other people is rare and if it happens there is high risk that the strangers are cannibals – since food is the main issue.

The movie generates a very ‘authentic’ mood and is pretty depressive. As it shows the father struggling against pessimism and trying to teach ethics to the young son, it is interesting and leads to the question how ethical can we behave in a immoral world? The same topic – in a more historical context – has been discussed by the book from Roman Frister: The Cap – The Price of Life and Prima Levi: The periodical system. Interestingly, with pretty different answers…

In general, the movie is worth watching. Just some logical inconsistencies disturb a bit. For example, in the house of cannibals who are left for hunting, the father doesn’t recognize the big stack of shoes, backpacks and so on as a very clear sign… Furthermore, it is totally unclear why the whole group of cannibals goes hunting instead of leaving one or two behind as guards… Or how can the old and blind man, who they meet, survive – didn’t he meet cannibals yet? And how does he obtain his food? It’s a little sad because this inconsistencies are not important for the overall story – why haven’t they been fixed?

Roland Emmerich’s 2012

After being in Guatemala and having this interesting conversation with the hippie at the camping site about the alignment of the stars and the new age – or end of the world – at 2012, I had to see the new movie from Roland Emmerich ’2012′ – and a very similar hippie shows up in the movie, as well

Anyways, the movie starts 2009 with a discovery of an interaction of neutrons from the sun and the earth nucleus resulting in significantly higher nucleus temperature. Since more and more neurons are supposedly radiated from the sun in 2012 (due to the star alignment), scientist predict major movement of earth plates, thus, earthquakes, tsunamis and so destroying everything. Therefore, the governments of all nations form a secret group which starts building huge ships (like Arche Noahs) to ensure survival of human – and animal – kind. Next to selected people due to their intellect and genetic variation, rich people have the possibility to buy tickets for a billion Euros (who counts in dollars, anyways The general people have no idea about anything but the governments want to inform them about the elimination of most life on earth a few months or weeks before such that they can prepare themselves. Since a few people who know, want to share their knowledge, they have deadly accidents… Eventually, the natural disasters start a few weeks to early before the population is informed.

The movie has two main streams which converge: one of the scientist organizing the retreat to the ships while pledging for more humanity and successfully falling in love with the president’s daughter – and a journalist rescuing his ex-and-later-again-family and getting on the ship (neither with tickets nor official requirement to ensure genetic variation) while making friendship with the new lover of the ex-wife before that guy is killed… Besides this blast of creative storytelling, there are a lot of really cool special effects regarding the natural disasters. Thus, it is not a bad idea to watch that movie in the cinema. However, the movie is very cheesy (like independence day but on an international scale) and has some lengthy periods… The story itself is straight without surprises – fulfilling all popular expectations – and two caveats, I think:

In the movie, officials argue that they would have needed the financial support of the very rich people, therefore they had (!) to sell tickets to them. The population is not informed – and it is intended to inform them just a few weeks before the outbreak when it is already too late to build anything to survive (government with more resources needed years for that!). First, why did nobody think about including the population from the beginning – this would have made possible to access all resources and to ensure humanity – and it didn’t seem to be too unlikely that there wouldn’t be sufficient retreat locations on earth. However, it is total disillusion that the protagonist claims at the end of the movie that population should be informed (for humanity reasons and moral and so on) at least a few weeks before the outbreak although he already knew it since years; and he knows that informing a few weeks before wouldn’t change anything since the ones without tickets would die anyways… Therefore, the final part of the movie is just a moral debate without any solid argument… This is disappointing!

Hotel Rwando from Terry George

A very touching movie about the genocide in Rwanda. Himself being a Hutu but his wife is a Tutsi – however, not only this puts him into the middle of the battle of the rebels. Beginning with helping a few Tutsis by offering free room and refuge, more and more people need and ask for help – while rebels besiege him more and more. It is based on real persons and what really happened 1994. It is one of the few movies which seems to be a very authentic view showing the cruelty without seeking sensations! However, not a movie you want to watch for having fun…

Open-Mic Session in Boston

Today, I went to a concert in ‘All Asian’ in Boston where some friends of friends were playing. After the performance, the stage was open to everybody. Everybody was allowed to give a 10-minutes performance. The first guy played his guitar and sang with too high voice. The second was trying to make a comedy. However, as we are in the liberal country of ‘be yourself’ and simply the fact of ‘making out’ seems to be laudable, he got a lot of applause although it was really bad with boring jokes and predictable conclusions. The third guy was not bad using a loop to record himself and, thus, be able to play multiple lanes above each other. The fourth guy who beforehand explained ‘open mic’ to me as this ‘show’ is called did the best performance I have seen that evening.

Nightlife in Nueva Gerona

Each day on the Isla de la Juventud, I passed the same street while walking home. On this street, every day, a girl threw flying kisses to me or made the typical Cuban psssst… I mainly ignored this or just said Hola because it happens everywhere. The third day, the girl followed me with a bicycle and, thus, started having conversation with me. She told me that she is a primary school teacher on the island, maybe therefore, I understood her Spanish very nicely making the conversation very valuable to me. So, we went to a park and talked a bit until her aunt came with her child. The aunt was pretty straight and asked why I do not invite them for a drink. So, we went to a shop and I paid 3 soft drinks and cookies for the child – however, still less than 2 US$ altogether.
Back in the park, the girl told that she also has a kid, which is 7 years old. As the girl looked so young and in fact was twenty years old, this was astonishing. The aunt and the girl explained: As the girl was 13 years old, she went out with an older boy. As she didn’t yet know too much about getting children, and the boy didn’t take care but wanted to have fun, she gained a lot of weights the next months before telling her family about it. Thus, she got the kid. The next part of the story was not so clear and I was too hesistant to ask. Since her father, mother and siblings do not live on the island but in Havanna, I guess that the situation was pretty difficult for the family and the split of the family was due to this. Since she was living on the island with her grandma who took care of the kid.

As I enjoyed conversation and didn’t know anybody else in the city, we “dated” for the next evening. I picked her up and was presented to all the aunts, cousins and other more distant family members. All of them lived in very poor conditions, mainly just a barack. They told that the house had been destroyed by the hurricane last August – about which I already read that it had a bad inmpact on the island’s infrastructure. Then, we went to a bar and I bought some soft drinks and a bottle of rum for less than 5 US$ in total. After sitting at a table, two other girls, who were friends of the girl, passed by. After the famous psssst, they joined us and I offered some rum and soft drinks – as we obviously had enough of it. However, one of the girls didn’t like rum neither the soft drink and asked me to buy a beer. I thought that this was strange and denied – as she didn’t even say hello to me as she sit with us at the table. A bit later, one of the girls asked me whether she could take one of the still closed soft drinks home to her kid. I denied, again, and tried to explain that I do not have unlimited money but they seemed (or pretended) not too understand.

Later, an older woman (around 40) approached our table – obviously being drunk – and asked for rum. I wouldn’t have offered any because she definitely was too drunk for that but one of the girls did. As we still had plenty of Rum, I let the things happen. The result: A bit later, the same woman entered the bar literally crawling… Anyways – not my fault! Later, the cousin of the girl also joined us and I mainly talked to him as he also spoke a bit of English such that he could at least translate some words I didn’t understand.

Next, the girls wanted to go to toilet but the bar had none. Thus, they went somewhere else but returned a few minutes later to ask me for 0.25 US$ per person to be allowed to use the toilet. Although it was strange, that I obivously had to pay everything (and I doubted that they would have to pay 0.25 US$ for a toilet), I was curious what else would happen and as the money I paid so far was within reasonable limits, I played the game.

The girls didn’t return at all, I didn’t mind since I had at least the cousin as company (and the still pretty full bottle of rum). At the beginning he didn’t really want to drink Rum but in the end, he cleared more than half the bottle. He proposed to go to dance club around the corner. Equipped with the bottle of rum, we went there and he obviously had lots of friends there who all were invited to drink with us. Waiting for the girls to return, he told me about his blond girlfriend from the US. Whatever. One of his friends asked him wheter she could have some more Rum. As I told her that she could also ask me, she just looked weird at me.

The cousin told me that the entrance for the club is 1 US$ each. I said that I can’t pay for all of us – already 5 persons although the girls didn’t yet show up. He completely understood and said, “no, no” and explained that I should just pay for the girls while he would pay for himself… However, we stayed outside the club as I didn’t move to the entrance (and wouldn’t have paid 4 US$ entrance for these girls). As I started to become sleepy, we made some preliminary plans for the next day, which didn’t become reality as I was already tired of such a company. The cousin naturally walked me home and we met the girls, who obviously needed a long time on toilet, again. They joined us to walk me home which I thought is not required – but there was no chance to escape. Although the girl was away for the last couple of hours, she indeed asked me on the way home to pay another soft drink for her kid… WTF!

My conclusion: In Cuba, a lot of people just see tourists as a big dollar sign, which is definitely annoying. However, I think one should also understand the situation: One earns more than 75x times of their income and the locals of course are aware of this: They know that tourists do take a taxi for half a month salary of an upper class worker. I am also not sure how to assess the way they ask for buying something. Sometimes, they ask in such a straight way and they do not seem to realize that we think it is strange. As I have heard, that men do pay a lot (or everything) if they go out with a girl, this might also be a mix of both.

Nightlife in Rio de Janeiro and its ‘Berghain’…

I arrived in Rio de Janeiro Friday morning 5.30am after a nightbus trip from Ouro Predo which provided five hours of sleep. At the hostel where I had reserved a dorm bed, the security guy opened the gate and supplied a blanket. Luckily, I didn’t go to sleep in a bed as I would had to pay for an extra night – as I discovered later. After some touristic activities, Susann and me with two Dutch guys, who we met at the hostel, went out to Lapa in the night. Lapa is a district next to the city center. It was completely crowded and remembered me to German street parties: Lots of little stalls offering beer and cocktails (mainly Caipirinha, of course). Live acts were in nearly every bar. We watched a Samba drum group at the beginning. Afterwards, we had some drinks in another outside bar where some people sitting at a table were playing drums, guitar and were singing – joined by most of the audience. In the end, we arrived at a bar/club where we had to pay 13 US$ admission each. At the door, they scanned our identification and took a digital picture from each of us. In return, we obtained a card to list our consumptions. One should take care not to lose this card as otherwise one has to pay a high fine. All payment is done when leaving the club. Dangerous without a credit card! However, the club was huge with several dance floors and a live band. The first band was playing funk while the second band played some traditional local music. Around 3am, we took a taxi back to the hostel.
In the hostel, we had to get up around 10am to have breakfast. Subsequently, I visited the sugar loaf and tried to organize a new accomodation since the dorms are too loud. I found some hotels but they were expensive. As I returned to the hostel in the evening to grab my luggage, I met the two Dutch guys, again. They rented an appartement and so I was thinking about joining them. However, as they had to stay another night in the hostel, I skipped the idea with the hotel and tried to get another dorm bed for me for this night. However, the hostel was overbooked. Therefore, the hostel offered to me to sleep on the roof in a room where the wall stops at a height of 1m such that there is a gap to the skew ceiliing offering lots of fresh air. I liked the room a lot such that I made a deal with the hostel to stay the whole week there – after long negotiations – by just paying the dorm bed fee each day. Then, it was time again to discover more of the nightlife. And here is the story:

With the two Dutch guys, I went to a juice bar to drink the very famous non-alcoholic juice drink Acizao (?). It is a red/brown, thick juice with ice and cereals. It is known to contain many proteins and, therefore, is considered to be a sports drink. This very juice is exactly the same, which is sold in Berghain in Berlin to get some more energy after too much dancing. Next, we went to the beach at Copacabana. Having some drinks at a kiosk (charging 10% servive anyways), we settled our plans for the night. Once in a while, really slim kids or other beggars asked for money. Anyhow, around 1am we walked to the first club: Help. There was a discussion about this place as Pablo, a friend from Rio, told me not to go there as it is a tourist trap or whorehouse. However, the Dutchs wanted to see it. Already in front of that place it was too obvious: Old gringos hanging around with young and beautiful girls. As admission was 17 US$ each, I offered to pay the cab (walking and buses are too dangerous in the nights) to another club. Based on this convincing argument, we rejected to pay the admission and went, again, to Lapa. This district was even more crowded as the day before – around 2am. At a club with good electronic music, we bargained the admission from 5 US$ per person down to 12 US$ for all three. The club was small but nice with many people dancing. Buying drinks was kind of fun: At the cashier, one had to pay and got a ticket for the drink. At the next window, another guy was sitting in the same room as the cashier. One had to give the ticket to this guy to obtain the drinks. Not very effective…

After some time, one of the Dutch guys talked to the DJ as he knew him from before. As I was tired of dancing without having any space, I decided to go to the backstage area as well. Thus, I went to the security and showed my (copy of my) passport pointing to my name. The very convinced security opened the door and let me enter the backstage area. Next to the DJ – on the stage – I went on dancing – with the girlfriend of the DJ and another girl while receiving free drinks from them. And I enjoyed When the club closed, one of the girls pulled us to a cab promising to go to the afterparty – in another club. So we did:

As we arrived around 5am at the other club, the security prohibted to enter because it would be too late. After some intensive discussion between the girl and the security and some help of another friend who was already in the club, the manager came to the door. Fortunately, they convinced him such that we were allowed to enter. After the standard security check, everybody obtained an electronic card (like a credit card) for the consumptions and the admission (23 US$ for men and 33 US$ for women, if I understood correctly). The bad news were that I neither had cash left nor I brought my credit card. The good news were that one had to pay everything when leaving the club…The club was amazing and a Berghain clone. Similar music, sunglasses everywhere, great possibilities to get lost and lots of sportive gay men kissing and hugging each other while dancing without shirts. This also explained the difference in the admission for males and females. Despite of the lack of many girls, we danced a lot, consumed some drinks which I didn’t pay and left the club around 8am. And, luckily, one of the Dutch guys, I guess, paid my admission

Reggae in San Salvador

I just came back from a Reggae evening in the famous ‘La Luna y Arte’. I liked the location – it is a nice mix of club, underground and art gallery… Only the personnel didn’t look to happy about everything. Anyhow, the audience was happily dancing – unfortunately somehow unsexy and artificial – to the reggae rhythms.

As I entered, the band was unfortunately playing its last song which was pretty good. Then, another band started setting up their stuff while music was played from a DJ. The notorious drummer of the new band – however – obviously didn’t recognize that and was playing, as well – unsyncronized. Exhausting! Finally, the new band started playing but a singer was missing as the music was not band but … not really thrilling. I shouldn’t have thought this because after the third song a girl entered the stage. She was singing strangely into an over-echoed microphone with way too much high pitch. Furthermore, it didn’t fit the music at all… Thus, it was a struggle to listen. Just the last song was really good: The girl stopped singing – just adding some low volume background – but two rasta-guys appeared on the stage and made it! It seems that for real reggae one indeed needs rasta men At 1am, the band stopped, the club became empty and I left as well.

Just before I arrived at home, I saw a man playing with his gun appearing from the shadow. As I couldn’t see (without glasses) whether he was security or not – I was a little scared… As running wouldn’t have helped, I decided to keep on walking – recognizing a minute later his security uniform… Paranoia?