Lunes, 25/1/2016: Sacred music of Tibet, Another leak from Julian Assange, Water fountain debate, Running club

Hola, Todos – 

Pagina cultural – 

Concierto – a concert fusing orchestral music with church bells will be Tues. at 19:30 in the Plaza de Santo Domingo.  Open to the public.

Danza – an open house at the Balleti Centro Artistico (Av. Viracochabamba N4-27) from 27-30/1 with dance demonstrations and free classes.  (Free – There’s that magic word we all love.) (See the Amenidades section.)

Teatro – the Teatro Barojo will perform “Cuenca en Cuentos” (Cuenca Stories) Thu. at 20:00 in el Teatro de Bolsillo del Sono. Cost: $5.00

Articles about –

The Polifónico Festival de Musicas del Mundo which started Mon. with talks, will last for 5 days.  If you’re interested in the lecture and concert schedule, go to Facebook: Polifónico.  All of the artistic presentations will be in the Teatro Pumapungo at 20:00 and cost $10 and $15.  Tickets at Borrero 7-47.  Groups and artists from Tibet, Perú, Venezuela, Colombia & Ecuador will perform.  The concerts start tomorrow with the Tres Marías from the Valle del Chota who will perform la Bomba, Afro-choteño music.  The choirs from the UDA and Conservatory will open the show.  Also for tomorrow is sacred music of Tibet and Ecuador along with a show of Indian sacred dances.  TOA, a Cuencana, will sing on Thu.  (I bet that one of those concerts for tomorrow is actually for Wed. but who knows which one.)

The first debate on la Ordenanza de Cultura (Ordinance on Culture) which will be in June.

“Rumores entre cuatro ríos Op. 26”, 16 compositions for piano, is based on 16 drawings of the city which will be presented today at a talk/concert at 9:00 in the conservatorio “José María Rodríguez.”  The drawings will be displayed in the Museo de la Ciudad (ex Escuela Central because locals don’t know the new name – probably including your taxista.)  On Thu the drawings will be shown at the MMAM at 1:00 with a concert following at 20:00, and Fri, the drawings will move to the Teatro Sucre with another concert following at 20:00.  (These drawings are almost as peripatetic a the Niño Viajero.)  All events free to the public.

Two books by Brazilians, one a poet and the other an avant garde artist, will be launched on Thu at 19:00 at the Fundación Municipal Bienal de Cuenca. (Not that it helps a lot of you, but the books have been translated into Spanish.)

Otras cosas –

Titular – Más seguridades para transportación escolar (More security for school buses)  A “Disco Pare” (Stop sign) that will swing out from the left side and have 2 luces titilantes (twinkling lights – your words for the day and titilante is kind of a cute word.)  (Now to train other drivers not to blow past those twinkling stop signs.)

A bill to stop tax evasion will be sent to the Assembly for the first debate tomorrow.

Julian Assange – Wikileaks published phone records that would exculpate Assange. One of the women who was supposed to have been assaulted by Assange said she didn’t want to press charges – she just wanted tests done, and it was the police who prepared the charges.

CELAC  – (la Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños) is meeting in Quito.  Pres. Macri of Argentina will not attend due to a cracked rib.  The presidency will pass from Ecuador to the Dominican Republic at the meeting.

Road closure – at av. De Las Américas y Luis Moscoso (the road to Misicata) from 26-28/1.  Bus line 27 (Huizhil-Sinincay) will be rerouted. Traffic will be detoured onto Primero de Mayo and Cornelio Crespo Vega to get around the intersection.

LlactaLAB at the U of Cuenca – is researching pedestrian movements in a project called “Pies y Pedales” (Feet and Pedals). The study uses volunteers to select routes (maybe?) based on which streets are busiest, easiest to walk as well as how pretty they are.  (The description of the methodology left me completely lost.  If you’re interested you’ll have to read it for yourself.)

Your sliver of life article today – is about the debate on public fountains and ornamental pools during Carnaval.  They’re handy places for kids to reload water balloons, buckets and chisguetes (squirt guns).  The question is how to discourage that – by turning the fountains off or by putting members of the Guardia Ciudadana on guard.  (My vote, if they really want to stop the kids is to turn the fountains off and drain the pools.)

Intercultural – 

El Raymi Ancestral – a fiesta that expresses the duality of man-woman. Complementarity, which is present in the myths of indigenous people, has a symbolic dimension represented by el Sol (Sun), the Taita Inty and la Luna (Moon), the mama Killa and other similar dualities.  (Is this something like the idea of yin-yang in Chinese traditions?)

Amenidades – 

Escuela Balleti Centro Artístico – open house schedule – Wed, 27 to Fri, 29/1 – 16-18:00 – free classes.  18-19:00 student demonstration.  Sat, 30/1 – 9-11:00 – free classes, 11-13:00 student demonstration.  The school is at Av. Viracochabamba y Paseo de los Cañaris and teaches classic techniques, contemporary dance and air dance.

Internacional –

Paraguay – is asking a US court to dismiss an $85 million debt to an Italian insurance company which was given to a nephew of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989) in 1980.  The nephew used a falsified guarantee from the Paraguayan government to secure the loan for a citrus processing plant and pharmaceutical plant.  (Sounds like the insurance company didn’t do its due diligence.)

Deportes –

Cycling – CIKLA (Remigio Tamariz y Federico Proaño) arranged a ride of 115 km on Sun. morning with 240 cyclists participating.  It will have about 9 other events this year – a 2 day mountain route in July, a Crono-escalada (something about time and climbing which makes no sense to me – is it a sports term?) in the Cajas in Sept, and a Duatlón (trekking-biking) in Feb.  So if you’re interested, go to the store.

Running with El Club A Correr – runners meet in the parque El Paraiso every Sunday for a 7km run along the rivers. There will ba a run in Ucubamba on 30-31/1 with a special Carnaval program.  (You’re going to have to do your own Facebook or Google search if you want to join the group.)

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne