Silvio, Mockus and other craziness...

> I'm at Carnegie Hall sitting in front of a column (this column wasn't on the sitting description!) waiting to see Silvio Rodriguez perform live for the first time in my life. There are protesters outside and I understand why...they are right; Cuba will keep on being a difficult subject for many years. But I'm not here for the politics...(write at this point the lights went down, everybody started screaming of excitement and I had to stop writing on my blackberry because Silvio was about to come out. So I resent this small paragraph to my own email and promised myself I would continue writing it once I got home and this is what I'm doing right now, so lets continue: where was I?)

So politics...yeah, I wasn't there for the politics, I was there for the music; the beautifully crafted arrangements, the mastering of song writing, the complex yet simple and honest sentiments described and so many more elements that make Silvio a master songwriter...its not about Silvio, its about his music. Its about his individual experience as a human being and how he, like most artists, try to reflect all of what he is in his music...and he succeeds. Its not about liking who he is, its about realizing the uniqueness and grandeur with which he brings all that he is made of in melodies, verses and harmonies. Its not about what he says,;its about how he says it...it's not about agreeing with what he says; its about realizing that the way he says it has an impact weather its positive or negative one. And I'm not arguing with anyone right now (although it may sound like it! hehe), but what I saw tonight brings many thoughts to mind and although I have no way of organizing these right now, they are there...in my head...al the time!

I'm not sure if he was playing in another city other than New York but it makes a lot of sense that he would perform here and it gives me another reason (like I need one more) to love this place...I mean, I'm sure he's not playing in DC! (who know's I should do some research...but I really don't think he is). It makes sense that he would perform here because of many obvious reasons but personally it makes sense because there shouldn't be a conflict between me loving his music and loving day to day life in New York City. It is this kind of mentality that we should strive for: objectiveness! Passion is great and beautiful and is simply part of us but it shouldn't blind us. There is wisdom in not having to care that much, in not having to choose, in not having to compromise...the world is what it is and I don't plan on falling in to the trap of always having to choose; everything has it good things and bad things or can you prove otherwise?. Do we really think it will ever be simple having billions of human beings in the world, each one with individual thoughts and sentiments? I believe in a sort of optimistic chaos and you know why? Because I see that the people who understand that chaos, that complexity, that inevitability of the world are the ones that will hurt the world the least. When you think like that there is no idea important enough that will lead you to, for example, kill someone. Because people like this understand that most things cannot be controlled and aren't as important (and I mean this in a positive, enthusiastic and optimistic way believe it or not)......at this point I have no idea where I'm going with this, so I'll just leave there...for now at least.

The other thing that has been revolving in my mind is the whole thing about the current presidential elections in Colombia. There is a great opportunity to start (finally!) to create a country of civilized, educated and OBJECTIVE people...but the sad part is how many colombians are scared of voting for that change because "we are not ready for it", "we have to solve other problems first", "Mockus is crazy" and so on...but then, will we ever be ready? I mean, aren't all the problems that we have now part of being "raised" as a country with a wrong mentality? Its a cycle: we keep postponing building a strong base because we always have to take care of some problems on the higher floors of the building...well, at some point there has to be a generation which is willing to bite the bullet and start taking care of the long term problem: the mentality! I'm no expert (pretty much in anything, for that matter) but I do believe that our problems begin with mentality and should be solved by changing that mentality.

Talking about mentality, let me go back to Silvio's concert at Carnegie Hall today. It was a very exiting moment today. Ironically (and don't make me explain why I think this is ironic) I love to go to these concerts by myself and keep completely focused (no singing, no dancing...almost no clapping...almost as if I'm trying as hard as I can to for a private channel between me and the artist so I can see them and only them). Of course the people where going crazy and the crowd was very enthusiastic. They loved him and every few seconds someone would actually scream out "Silvio TE AMO!" "Viva Cuba Silvio" etc...but to me it's puzzling how you can love him (or his music) so much and not SHUT UP so you can actually here his songs! GOD!!! What the fuck is the point of loving that particular song if you don't let him play it because your yelling out whatever you're thinking! Its not a rock concert! Would you do that if he were playing in your leaving room? What about the freaking cellphone pictures?!! That's the most stupid of all, let me see if I can understand it: so you've been looking at this guy only in pictures throughout your whole life (and maybe some youtube videos) and you can't wait for the moment when you actually see him live, when you really know that he is there, when you can almost touch him, when you can listen to his breath on the speakers and what's the first thing you do when this moment comes? TAKE A PICTURE! Wow...you're really taking advantage of the opportunity! Don't get me wrong, the beauty of these concerts its the excitement of thousands of people connected because of someone's music. The clapping when the guy comes out to the stage, when a song ends, when he says something funny, the thousands of people singing a melody when he gives the cue...those are all fabulous things. But two hours of idiots screaming out what their political views are, what song they want him to play, what country they are from and so forth really gets old and did I mention that "hey the guy is trying to introduce the song!!". Oh yeah, lets not forget my favorite imbecile that screamed out "Mockus Presidente!"...and this leads me to what I was saying before (I don't know...somewhere at some point) about objectivity: as you can imagine I'm in love with Mockus but I think that the guy who screamed it out in the middle of a song is an idiot.

Anyway, I'm glad you wasted your time reading this because you probably learned nothing and your confused. I wouldn't be surprised if someone would say something like "wait, so Mockus was performing with Silvio Rodriguez?" hahaha! You know what folks, don't even worry about it! Sweet dreams.

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