vVvA log

the rise of the spring is here. finally the blooming is being performed. it feels so good to have good weather in this town. it is delightful to have flowers in the landscape. this week the cherry trees have blossomed and they have also started to loose their petals. it is so fast. like a fastforwarding of the spring season. actually, today was like summer. i know, i always have to mention the weather. but remember, this is new england. aqui y ahora. and here, the weather is harsh and rude. maybe that is why newenglanders have such personalities and social interactions. it is understandable. in any case, the weekend that is about to end has been gorgeous. and i just experienced the hanami tradition or the japanese celebration of the spring flowers. thanks to mika and mako i joined a picnic under the groove of cherry blossom trees that is in the middle of memorial drive, just infront of the mit sailing pavillion. people started to arrive after noon, at 1pm as the invitation said. it was the first warm day in cambridge after almos 6 months of cold. it was beautiful. i came early because i knew i had to leave before 3pm in order to mix some tunes in the beast roast event that was going on in the pits of kresge auditorium and then for listening 2 talks at the mit6 media in transition conference. the groove of cherry blossom trees in the middle of memorial drive was never unnoticed for me since my first year in this town. however, i was not aware of the pleasure that it is to make a picnic, a gathering, a meeting, under those trees in a sunny day. i was also completely ignorant of the importance of finding the right moment to be under those branches full of delicate flowers that start to fall with the wind as if they were autumn leaves. i didnt know how nice is to loose your sense of scale after you spent more than 2 hours under the trees and the dawn embrace you with all those tiny softy petals. pinky white peaces of flower that seems to caress you while they fall. sakura blizzards. sakura dresses. sakura spices inside of the glasses of sangria. i left some minutes before 3pm and came back at 6pm. more friends have arrived. others had left. the light was not as bright but it was quite yellowish and warm. the sunset was coming through the dense branches of flowers. the ground was more textured since the petals have been falling during 3 hours, and as the time passed the wind seemed to get stronger and the leaves weaker. they fell even when you touched the branches with your hand, even if you suddenly stood up and hit the tree with your head. the flowers broke apart. cherry blossom are quite fragile after they have reached their blooming. and perhaps that is the most interesting thing about the hanami tradition. these flowers does not last very long. they just display they beauty for few days. maybe 5 or 7. thats it. after that they dissapear. the threas keep their leaves but wihtout flowers. i wish i knew about ohanami before. it is not enough to see, photograph the flowers. the celebration involves spending time with them. it is wonderful to feel them fall into your face, almost as tickles. flowers as lips. petals as kisses of fairies that dont hesitate in touching you with love. happyness. pleasure. love. definetely a sort of blessing. just for one day. it made it very special and refill me with energies and colors.

it took 2 seconds to hit the ground. it produced a very deep and an atonal chord that was enhanced by a dust cloud. regardless of the expectations of the audience, the piano didnt break. it was standing in the grass of barker house, just on the side of memorial drive. the organizers brought hand saws and started to break apart the piano with the tools while the audience followed them and started to cannibalize the instrument.

“what is wrong with technology?” i said after some of the guest made a comment about the people in this town. a woman had said “it is just nerds and technology.” The scene happened in an old house patio at 55 pine street. A 3 stories blueverry house, sometime past midnight, with a chilly spring weather and fresh breezes. The big dipper was right at the top of my head, pointing out the north. Flora´s farewell party before she goes to Greece had turned into an unexpected banquet. Tables plenty of foods, dozens of bottles of spirits. From wines, to fancy rums and tequilas. I loved the fruit bar with their buffet of oranges, pineaples, mangos, tangerines, limes, and grapefruits, carefully cut and sliced. There was also a juicy mix of orange and tangerine juice with tequila and rum that one could mix it with the pieces of fruit in fancy glasses. Jeff, the chef, was explaining to me that the fruit bar was designed to lift you up, to make you feel better, to make you happy. Indeed it was. Spring was definitely arriving to cambridge, and people was happier, throwing parties in their gardens, going out. It was a long and harsh winter. Perhaps the longest i experienced while leaving in this northern latitude where the bid dipper never disappear from the nocturnal sky.

spring time it is supposed to be. but the blooming has not really happened yet. and it is cold still. even if the bostonians and cambridgeans have started to wear sandals and colorful clothes. the truth is that the rise of the spring will come until may. april is the rainy month in this part of the country, of the continent. actually, april is also the rainy time in my country, in the south of the continent. abril aguas mil is an old saying. and actually, nowadays my country is being affected by floods. the precarious transportation system of colombian cities and country side regions has collapsed. it is kind of a tragedy. a disaster as many others that colombian people deal in a regular base. it is such a complex country. many countries perhaps. in any case, this post is about new england, and more exactly about the spring in cambridge-boston. the natural landscape have started to get textured. the branches of the naked trees start to get more complicated, more detailed. little buds appear in their arms. from the distance, they become very blur, like an impressionist painting. it rains more often. not very hard, but it rains constantly and the days can be very dark. i am waiting fro the blooming. it is gonna happen in a couple of weeks and is gonna be a happy situation. it will last for 2 weeks and then, the summer will be here. i cannot wait to start sailing again.

the very rectangular cubes. very long metallic boxes . they travel horizontally but if you put them vertical they become like buildings. when i used to live in mosquera, colombia, i saw containers travelling on the roads. trucks carrying them. truckers in the highway. camiones moviendo contenedores. i can even remember some of their names: sealand, hamburg, koni, evergreen, triton, and others. Moving containers. Transportation. How do you say “keep trucking” in español? i have been taken pictures of them for a while. i have many of them and would like to put them together in one space. also invite other people to publish their pictures of containers. maybe a website for that kind of submision. lets start creating a set in flickr, then create a pool. lets see how many container pictures can we collect, add. perhaps multiply.

april 9th of 2009. this is the twenty first century but it could feel as living in a science fiction situation. the twentyfirst century and the sci fi genre. the science and technology. i am writing from cambridge, massachusetts, aqui y ahora. in the institute of technology sometimes feels as the twenty first century is already gone. this sci fi. speeeded it up. technology goes faster and faster. communication, sensors. computers computing and recording. systems. as the systems of tubes for walking underground. the tunels are like ducts. like tubes. long halls connecting different buildings. very convenient for walking under the snow. for the cold weather. in the tunnels many machine rooms producing steam and air. and many wires. network cables. some of the new buildings, as the stata center, doesnt have an underground tunnel. the building of gambito also doesn have a tunnel. it was nice to be part of cms. although i came in the moment of dramatic change. just after henry published his book convergence culture.