Seba Ibarra and Me

Seba Ibarra's album Collage de Rio (River Collage) is lovely like a river. Each track flows into the next, with beautiful harmonies, creative instrumentation, and fun, occasionally profound, and always image-laden lyrics.

Like the Jamaican musician Earl "Chinna" Smith,
Seba plays music that's instantly engaging and homegrown. His chamamé/rock/fusion doesn't conform to any genre.

It's a music of celebration, a celebration of local traditions, the local rivers and this part of the Earth and its buses, fish, animals and people. And like Chinna's music, and some of Bob Marley's tunes, Seba's music will never sound dated.

Playing with Seba has easily been among the best aspects of life and work in Resistencia. We played various temas (songs, in this case) at C.E. Cual (Center for Alternative Culture), an arts and crafts fair, including one called Hora de la Nada (Hour of Nothing). This song reminds me of my Mom because it is about the time traveling between work and home, and she makes a half-hour commute twice-a-day. Seba played with a great percussionist and accordionist at that show, too, and also my new friend Alejandro Acosta. He is the violinist in the picture above. He is also a great composer, and composes the music for the sculpture videos. If you remember, Resistencia is the sculpture capital of Argentina, and every two years there is a major competition here. "Ale" makes the music for each contests' video.

And on the 2nd of September Seba, Ale, and I played a radio show, which some of you folks back in the States (and perhaps elsewhere in the world) got to hear.

We rehearse every Wednesday morning and have a total blast. I'm learning a pair of chamamé songs: Kilometro 11 and La Calandria. They are fun and challenging, and rehearsing them in Ale's studio is fun. We drink mate, I learn more local Argentine slang and teach a little English, and most importantly, we play music.

Last Friday was Teacher's Day, and Seba and I celebrated by playing music for a group of teachers. This picture must be of the song
Antequedas because it is the only one I sing.
It is a fun song about a beautiful place on the Parana River. The Sunday before, the 3rd, Seba, Lorena (his wife, my friend and student), and their son Jamil all went to Antequedas for a picnic which included homemade peanut butter with apple, homemade wheat bread, guacamole, the amazing Argentine cheese queso cremoso (which although it translates literally as "cream cheese" is not cream cheese), panqueques (the Argentine version of pancakes), and mandarin oranges! It was beautiful, and I got a little toasted by the sun.

Here are a few pictures of some of what has transpired since the last blog entry.

Our first show was sooo much fun. This was August 23rd.

Seba is on the left, then there's me and Alejandro.

Here Seba and a few young people from our weekly music workshop are working with the keyboard.

We played as they kept the beat going.

We work on counting, and on recognizing the various counts.

Learning to hit on 1 and 3 instead of 1, 2, 3, and 4 is a big deal,

and learning this along with the concept of pitch is no easy task!

This activity is a voluntary one, the students gain
no grades by coming, and so those that do come are
usually excited to be there. This picture is of
part of the group from my first Saturday there,
the 22nd of August. (Thanks to my Dad
for photoshopping it.)

It has been a long time since a blog update, but the thing is, I was planning on taking the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) this month and so was intentionally avoiding the computer. Well the more I study the more comfortable I become with the concepts and so I'm going to keep studying and take the LSAT later. It's a big change of plans, but I'm getting comfortable with it.

On a related note, every Sunday I've been hanging out with the Lo family and learning about their religion, which seems to be a sort of mix of Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity. There's often a lot of fun stories involved, and I remember the first story that involved someone kicking the bucket. As the stories normally have predictably happy endings, this ending was unexpected and a little funny.

The story: once there was guy who fell off a mountain and in his falling and flailing happened to grab hold of a limb. Upon praying for help, Buddha appeared next to him and said, "I can get you of out this situation, but first you have to let go of that limb." And the guy was so stressed that he didn't let go. And Buddha was like, "Aright, see you later." And the guy actually froze to death. Unbeknownst to him the ground was just a meter or so below.

Well letting go of the idea of taking the LSAT this month has been like letting go of the limb. I can study a bit more tranquilly, and plenty of doors have been opening since then. For example, just as I began really considering delaying the exam, I went for the first time to Vilelas, a barrio outside Resistencia. Ever since I've gone every Saturday, and there I help teach the music workshop led by Seba.

I've also met my students in the plaza multiple times for Hanging Out in English, played frisbee at the high school and also frisbee and badminton in Parque 2 de Febrero. I have also played "volley" (which is just volleyball without teams and without a net) a couple of times with my high school students.

The Lo family and I went to Parque 2 de Febrero for
a picnic and badminton, soccer, and frisbee.

Here we are again, the Lo family and two other friends,
outside the Lo's home. It sure is nice having befriended
a few vegetarians.

A fairly simple and creative skull and crossbones
with President Bush's face. I can hardly think of a better
symbol for poison.

Well, that's all for today friends. Keep in touch, OK? I'll leave you with a new recipe, and a video I recorded for the folk group Still on the Hill at my school last Thursday.

Veggie Burritos
Having soaked them overnight, give your black beans an hour in the pressure cooker and then for a meal you can have brown rice and salted black beans with apple and homemade peanut butter for desert.

Or you can go ahead and make veggie burritos by adding to the beans some honey, salt, soy sauce and mustard seeds. Stir it all around and have the flame low.

While the beans are going, saute onion and garlic (and maybe some ginger) in sunflower oil on a medium flame until it gets brown and sweet, adding some purple cabbage part way through. Then comes the spinach (and/or broccoli), and then red and green and gold bell peppers. Add some salt and soy sauce. If you like how bell peppers taste raw, you can cook them for just a little while before putting it all in with the beans. Stir it all around and cut up some fresh tomato and toss it in. Then you're ready!

See you!!
--Stephen, smcoger@gmail.com

PS If you are involved in the struggle for better health care, thank you! If not, I hope you'll join in.

Here is the video I recorded for my friends Kelly and Donna of the group Still on the Hill. As their assignment for the day, my first year students filled in blanks of the song's lyrics.