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Let It Snow
Dec. 16th, 2010 11:38 pmI maintain that if you are capable of sitting through an entire Mariachi performance without wanting to get up and dance, or at least clap along, I am going to start harboring serious doubts about whether you have a soul. I do not think anyone at the concert I went to tonight had that problem, though.
It's interesting. I'm neither Catholic nor Christian, and definitely not Mexican, but I've spent so much of my life steeped in this culture that the iconography of New Mexican Catholicism is deeply resonant to me. I can love them as stories and symbols, I guess, even if they aren't my stories and symbols. However I try to rationalize it, anyway, I totally started tearing up during the Las Posadas segment of the concert. What can I say? It's always been one of my favorite (conceptual, I've never actually done it) Christmas traditions, and this version was beautifully choreographed. Really wonderful.
Actually, all of the music and staging was wonderful. And the costuming. And the dancing! I am very impressed by anyone who is willing to get a machete that close to his balls while performing a complicated line dance. It was really just a great performance, and I am very glad I let my grandmother talk me into going.
But the drive home, oh my god. It has been raining here on and off all day, and by the time we (by which I mean me and my dad's girlfriend) got to the theater, it was really pouring. Which is fine, if unpleasant and miserable. But by the time we left at 9.30, the rain on the ground had started to freeze up, and the rain coming down had turned into snow. Heavy snow.
I don't think I've had a drive that bad since the time my dad and I were coming home from a hockey game in a blizzard. And at least that was a relatively short trip, on roads that were mostly deserted, in a car that could more or less handle it. NONE OF WHICH WERE TRUE THIS TIME. We were driving 10-15 miles an hour, most of the way, and the car still kept swerving every couple of minutes when we hit an uneven patch. It was snowing so hard we couldn't see more than 20 or 30 feet ahead of us, even with the beams on. We were on the freeway for literally an hour, during which we saw at least five other cars that had gone off the road. One of them was a semi.
It was exciting, to say the least.
But we're home! And at some point tonight I may even be able to feel my toes again.
It's interesting. I'm neither Catholic nor Christian, and definitely not Mexican, but I've spent so much of my life steeped in this culture that the iconography of New Mexican Catholicism is deeply resonant to me. I can love them as stories and symbols, I guess, even if they aren't my stories and symbols. However I try to rationalize it, anyway, I totally started tearing up during the Las Posadas segment of the concert. What can I say? It's always been one of my favorite (conceptual, I've never actually done it) Christmas traditions, and this version was beautifully choreographed. Really wonderful.
Actually, all of the music and staging was wonderful. And the costuming. And the dancing! I am very impressed by anyone who is willing to get a machete that close to his balls while performing a complicated line dance. It was really just a great performance, and I am very glad I let my grandmother talk me into going.
But the drive home, oh my god. It has been raining here on and off all day, and by the time we (by which I mean me and my dad's girlfriend) got to the theater, it was really pouring. Which is fine, if unpleasant and miserable. But by the time we left at 9.30, the rain on the ground had started to freeze up, and the rain coming down had turned into snow. Heavy snow.
I don't think I've had a drive that bad since the time my dad and I were coming home from a hockey game in a blizzard. And at least that was a relatively short trip, on roads that were mostly deserted, in a car that could more or less handle it. NONE OF WHICH WERE TRUE THIS TIME. We were driving 10-15 miles an hour, most of the way, and the car still kept swerving every couple of minutes when we hit an uneven patch. It was snowing so hard we couldn't see more than 20 or 30 feet ahead of us, even with the beams on. We were on the freeway for literally an hour, during which we saw at least five other cars that had gone off the road. One of them was a semi.
It was exciting, to say the least.
But we're home! And at some point tonight I may even be able to feel my toes again.