Well, I've finally broken my duck and done something today. I must admit that there were echoes of the Duff Beer Factory from the Simpsons when I was in the coffee museum that is on the edge of town. The tour guides were pretty good and came across in a very warm manner that is difficult to fake - they did seem happy in their work which does make quite a difference. I managed to take dozens of shots of the coffee plantation which no doubt will resemble some of the shots I saw at SBPS but I guess I can at least get some form of original interpretation of them after working on them in photoshop for a while.Guatemala is the seventh biggest coffee producer in the world and according to the tour guide it produces the third best quality coffee beans of the major providers. I think he also said there are only about seven different types of beans and all variations of coffee flavour are based upon different combinations of these and degree or roasting. Somehow I prefer it when I've only got things to blog about like the multitudes of American women who seem to be in Antigua to fall in love. Not with me but with anyone else I imagine. Reporting of factual information from the coffee museum, which contained production machinery made in Aberdeen, Scotland, does not seem to hold the same degree of interest.
The coffee museum is also adjacent to a Mayan music museum. Traditional Mayan music was quite interesting but somehow I managed to resist buying any CDs. It was a kind of discordant folk, to me at least, which reminded me of up-tempo high energy house music crossed with Theolonius Monk and the Wurzels. People will think that reference to the Wurzels is just some weak low jibe at Guatemalan-Mayan culture but I think the Wurzels are underestimated for their influence. Geldof would never have come up with the idea of live aid unless it had been for that song "I've got a brand new combine harvester". Why I didn't buy any CDs I don't know. Most of the people who were on the tour made some form of attempt at playing the instruments that were in the shop at the end of the tour and they were pretty tricky to play. We sounded worse than the folk music. Maybe I'll get macharina lessons when I get back to the UK.
Finally, I made it through present tense in Spanish and have now started to cock up all things possible about the past tense. At least I'm trying. Not that it's really worth bothering with at present. Tomorrow is the final day so hopefully I'll become fluent in Spanish in the next 24 hours or so.
The image above is nonsense really - the shot of the woman in the chemists. I don't know anyone who would class the attempt at capturing the nature of contemporary chemists in Guatemala. Perhaps with almost religious conviction someone will someday. One reason I was taking the weirdest shots in Nepal of half finished buildings was because of the Urban Geography course that I taught on - it has made me consider the nature of building materials and they how vary around the world. Having said that I did find myself taking shots of Guatemalan breeze blocks which are what most buildings here seem to be constructed from at present and what quite a large proportion of the buildings in Nepal were being made from. Long gone are the days of the earthquake-proof, four-foot-thick walls that the Spanish used to construct the buildings of religious significance from. Breeze blocks are probably not a good subject for conversation and I do recall wincing when a woman who was a researcher at the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England, was proposing Ph.D. research on the subject of 'pavements' in historic cities in the UK - important though it may be, I think there is not a great deal of interest in the subject of pavements nor Guatemalan breeze blocks. After giving the issues area of pavements just a little thought over the following years I would have to agree that it is a relevant subject matter for doctoral research especially because of their impact on an area. This is something that even Prince Charles wouldn't kick up a fuss about though.
One of the main means I've had of trying to regain some equilibrium has been through the work of Paul Weller of recent and having seen The Jam Going Underground in the last few hours it is a slight dig in the ribs to the establishment while still only playing along with consumerism. I don't think Weller was out just to make money because the venom in songs like Start and Eton Rifles is really just too much. It even matches the all time greats like Tommy Cooper's Don't jump off the roof dad which is as good as Ernie the fastest milkman in the west or Right said Fred by Bernard Cribbens. Oh to be a Lennonesque rock demi-god eh? Okay, so I've had a few beers.
The shots of the coffee plantation which I took today are online should anyone from SBPS be interested at Coffee and Mayan Music Museums. It's startling but I can't find a way outside the inspiration. Why do I bother this is so much like The Rebel that I can't believe it. Maybe I do end up with a landlady like Irene Stubbs modelling for me so I can make some form of lavish sculpture that is only fit for the insides of a town house. There's probably more effort made in undermining the arts in the UK than there is input into it which is perhaps a rather sad reflection on the country. I guess I conspire that the artists that do 'make it' in terms of public awareness at least may have uncovered something about the meaning of life and have consequently been put in a position where they can comment to the well informed who may read between the lines whilst the rest of the population are completely at a loss. These words sound familiar to me - I wonder who may have said this to me in the past. Where's my beret?
It makes me so angry I'll probably end up doing Porridge though there are some grounds to think that this won't happen. Ho hum, and back to the homestay.
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