Friday, February 15, 2008     « Supermercado (Santiago de Cuba) »

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I'm not sure if this picture really captures the frenetic energy of this corner. It was the Saturday before New Year's Eve and the sidewalk lineup to get into the Super Mercado was so long we couldn't get close enough to the windows to see what was sold inside. When we went back a few days later the place was closed and this corner empty. We looked into the window and saw mostly shampoo, giant stuffed animals, and a rack of shirts. Not much by North American standards, yet this was one of the largest and fanciest stores we came across in the city.

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The documentary show I mentioned six months back is going to air Monday night. Nervous, excited, and fearful doesn't begin to describe the range of emotions I am experiencing. I haven't actually seen the episode yet so I'm extra nervous about seeing it when everyone else does. If I do manage to see it at all. We don't have cable and it turns out NONE of our friends have it either. I may have to walk into a local bar on Monday night and ask to turn the channel to a gardening show. Ha! I would have planned ahead by renting a hotel room and inviting people to watch it with me but I'm way too nervous to do that. I'd rather watch it alone... which isn't going to happen because we gave up cable years back so I could save money and stop indulging in an addiction to horrible MTV reality shows.

Song: "My Sweet Lord" George Harrison. Chris, wrote to tell me about a reissue of Nina Simone's "Emergency Ward" which includes a rousing version of "My Sweet Lord." The write-up sounds so good I have got to get a copy. In the meantime I've been listening to the George Harrison version repeatedly which is a very nice song with a lovely melody and that great slide guitar but is driving me nuts because it is such an obviously religious song. Only music can make words come out of my mouth that would never be uttered by me otherwise.

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