Feliz Dia de Los Reyes Magos!

There are many wonderful things about the way that spanish speaking cultures celebrate Epiphany, or "Three Kings Day," which takes precedent over Christmas day as the day when the kings, who have become Santa-like figures bring children presents. Here are a few. The kings are named Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltasar (I had a friend who was crushed to discover that they are not named in the Bible.) And most representations of these Magi that I saw in Salamanca had a striking resemblance to the Burger King king from the commercials. But I really did enjoy the unique tradition, and hope to incorporate it into my family's celebration of the Christmas season. 

And now for the strangest Christmas carol/music video you have ever encountered. A popular traditional tune, "Los Peces en el Rio." English translation below.

The Fishes in the River

The Virgin is combing her hair
between the curtains.
Her hairs are of gold
and the comb of fine silver.

CHORUS:
But look at how the fishes
in the river drink.
But look how they drink
in order to see God born.
They drink and they drink
and they return to drink,
the fishes in the river,
to see God being born.

The Virgin washes diapers
and hangs them on the rosemary,
the birdies singing
and the rosemary flowering.

CHORUS

The virgin is washing herself
with a little bit of soap.
Her hands have been irritated,
the hands of my heart.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Please, if you have any insight into the meaning of this song, go ahead. Until then, I will continue assuming that it is very, very strange--yet catchy.

A Rabbit Trail of Web Wanderings

A few noteworthy tidbits from my web wandering this week.

• A really eye-opening and incredibly well-done media presentation about urban slums called The Places We Live.
  
  

• If you liked that one, there is also a fabulous website with many more media presentations like this one called Media Storm. A recent story called Common Ground, about an elderly farmer whose land is sold to a subdivision developer and the family whose new home is built in the exact spot where the farmhouse used to stand, is especially poignant.
• Like I said before, I discovered this week that narwhals are real, thanks to the Big Picture, a blog on Boston.com that posts amazing, really big images from around the world. About 30 are published every other day in different theme.
• Speaking of narwhals, which may frequent Alaska from time to time. Don't miss the latest installation of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.

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• And speaking of Sarah Palin...what in the world is up with the $150,000 shopping spree? I'd love to hear your thoughts. By the way, I would like to consider myself an expert on this matter because I watch a fair amount of TLC's What Not To Wear, and I saw the $50,000 episode. Spending that much money on a wardrobe is quite a feat!! Then I saw this statement from a news blog, "But is $150,000 unreasonable? New York magazine's fashion blog breaks down outfit costs from Saks and Neiman Marcus and discovers that just six outfit combinations alone cost over $16,000. For $150,000, Palin could purchase approximately 34 outfits." Really... words escape me.
  

• And last but not least, A peek into the life of the Birmingham Davises' Net Flix Queue:
  

First, 3 we've already watched...

1. Persepolis (2007) - A black and white cartoon about a young girl growing up in Tehran, Iran at the time of the Iranian Revolution.
2. Outsourced (2006) - Kind of a random pick, but a delightful movie about a guy whose telemarketing job (of cheesy patriotic knick-knacks) gets outsourced to India, and the culture shock (and eventual acceptance) he goes through while working there for months to set up the new office.
3. Man from Snowy River (1982) - Keith's favorite movie from childhood. He attributes many lessons in manhood to this tale.

Right now we have...

1. Cool Hand Luke (1967) - A classic favorite for Keith that I am looking forward to seeing.

And on the Queue:

1. Young at Heart (2007)
2. The Visitor (2007)
3. Edge of Heaven (2007)

Video and Dostoevsky:

My first time posting a video, lets see if it works...
As a supplement to my post a couple days ago about missing Spain, here is a great video recap of the year so y'all can see with your own eyes what I was up to over there. (especially since so many of you that read this didn't even know me at the time!)



and, I came upon this passage in my reading today and found it incredibly poignant and timely:

"What do you mean by isolation?" I asked him.

"Why, the isolation that prevails everywhere, above all in our age - it has not fully developed, it has not reached its limit yet. For every one strives to keep his individuality as apart as possible, wishes to secure the greatest possible fullness of life for himself; but meantime all his efforts result not in attaining fullness of life but self-destruction, for instead of self-realisation he ends by arriving at complete solitude. All mankind in our age have split up into units, they all keep apart, each in his own groove; each one holds aloof, hides himself and hides what he has, from the rest, and he ends by being repelled by others and repelling them. He heaps up riches by himself and thinks, 'how strong I am now and how secure,' and in his madness he does not understand that the more he heaps up, the more he sinks into self-destructive impotence. For he is accustomed to rely upon himself alone and to cut himself off from the whole; he has trained himself not to believe in the help of others, in men and in humanity, and only trembles for fear he should lose his money and the privileges that he has won for himself. Everywhere in these days men have, in their mockery, ceased to understand that the true security is to be found in social solidarity rather than in isolated individual effort. But this terrible individualism must inevitably have an end, and all will suddenly understand how unnaturally they are separated from one another. It will be the spirit of the time, and people will marvel that they have sat so long in darkness without seeing the light. And then the sign of the Son of Man will be seen in the heavens.... But, until then, we must keep the banner flying. Sometimes even if he has to do it alone, and his conduct seems to be crazy, a man must set an example, and so draw men's souls out of their solitude, and spur them to some act of brotherly love, that the great idea may not die."