Miércoles, 18/11/15: Guitar concert, arsenic and old pullet, save the rock

Hola, Todos – 

Pagina cultural – 

Concierto – on  26/11 at 19:00, Jorge Ortega will present a concert with the “Arreglos inéditos de Sanjaunitos ecuatorianos” (Unedited arrangements of Ecuadorian Sanjuanitos)  (have no idea who those Sanjuanitos are) in the Catedral Vieja (Old Cathedral).

Cómic – a workshop on “Construcción de Cómic” (Comic Construction) (Would that be pointers like don´t forget the punch line?) tomorrow from 15-18:00 in La Comuna (calle Coronel Tálbot y Presidente Córdova) with instruction by Gustavo Sanabría Galvis.

Guitarra – Today and tomorrow at 19:00 in el Sono (calle Borrero 6-83), Bolívar Avila will play his closing concert of a tour. $10.00

Articles about –

“Vengo Volviendo,” a film made in Azuay is touring the province with a showing tonight in the Plaza El Otorongo where the original DVD will be available for $4.  It´s part of the Festival La Orquídea which along with Ecocinema and its mobile movie equipment, is touring with the movie to Cuenca and neighboring towns.  (I´ve heard it’s good.)

A cultural festival earlier today at the coliseo Jefferson Pérez for 5,000 students.

A percussion workshop for young special needs children. It ends today and was taught by Eddie Tuduri using the TRAP (The Rhythmic Arts Project) method.

Rezos por paz in Francia (Prayers for peace in France) at a eucarística (mass and communion?) last Mon. night with the French consul in Cuenca, and local officials.

Today´s films at the Festival de Cine La Orquídea Cuenca
Teatro Carlo Cueva Tamariz (TCCT), Teatro Sucre TS), Multicines Millenium Plaza (MMP) are the venues, Sub. is subtitled (into Spanish of course – just in case you forgot you were in Cuenca instead of Sundance.)
10:00 – TCCT – Selkirk, El Verdadero Robinson Crusoe – Uruguay, Argentina, Chile – dubbed into Spanish.
14:45 – TCCT – El Último en Morir – Ecuador – Esp.
15:00 – TS – Quijotes Negros – Ecuador – Esp.
16:00 – MMP – Mediterranea – Italy, France, US, Bermany – in French with sub.
16:30 – TCCT – Vincent – France – Sub.
17:00 – TS – Dégradé – Palestine, France, Catar – Arabic with sub.
18:30 – MMP – La Patota/Paulina – Argentina, Brazil, France – Esp.
18:45 – TCCT – Boi Neon / Neon Bull – Brazil, Uruguay, Holland – in Portuguese with Sub.
19:00 – TS – Mátame por Favor – Argentina, Brazil – in Portuguese with sub.
19:00 – Plaza del Otorongo – Vengo Volviendo Ecuador – Esp.
20:45 – MMP – The Assassin – Taiwan, China, HK, France – Mandarin with sub.
21:30 – TCCT – Between 10 and 12 – Low countries – German w- sub.
21:30 – TS – Por Que Mueren los Castaños – Spain, Ecuador – Catalán and Spanish w/ sub.  (I learned last year that Catalán isn’t Spanish.  I was afraid that my Spanish was a lot lousier than I´d thought until a Peruvian told me she couldn´t understand it either.)

Otras cosas –

Titular – La Tricolor, demoledora (La Tricolor, the demolisher)  I’m breaking my own rule against translating sports because this is on the front page. Ecuador beat Venezuela 3-1 in the South American Elimination Rounds and is on a path to Russia in 2018. The team is one win away from a record set by Argentina which had 5 consecutive wins in the Elimination Rounds. The 5th and 6th games will be in March, 2016.  (So hooray for li’l old Ecuador. Go out and buy a jersey so you can wear it with pride in March.)

Niño Viajero – got a promotion to General Superior (the highest rank) of the National Police.  (So you can truthfully say the Chief of Police is a real doll.  The Niño Viajero is the statue who´s the grand marshall for the big parade on 24/12, and he seems to have more outfits than Imelda Marcos had shoes.)  The Mounted Band of the National Police will also be in the parade since it will be in Cuenca for another police function.  (If the riders have both hands on their instruments, l guess they´re steering with their knees and stopping or slowing down with their butts.  (No joke – to stop you “sit hard,”  and don´t even need to pull on the reins.  I feel sorry for the horse carrying the guy with the bass drum.  Boom, boom, boom in your ears all day.)

Why do chickens grow so fast? – it´s not because they use arsenic which was a technique developed in the US by an subsidiary of a multinational company.  (So who cares if the chicken causes cancer as long as it´s a fat, appealing bird on your table. And what you don´t know about it won´t bother you.) A thesis was published which determined the presence of arsenic in feed, gallinazas (excremento) (poop, maybe specifically chicken poop – your word for the day – how useful is that? Especially since the article had to clarify with “excremento”. I guess it´s not a common word in Spanish either.), and viscera. A specialist in aviculture at the U of Cuenca says chickens now grow to 6 pounds in 40 or 42 days rather than in the 120 days its previously took because of better genetics and called them a “máquina de hacer carne” (a machine to make meat).

Treelighting – at 19:00 in the plazoleta of El Vergel.  The tree is 11 meters tall with a 6 m diameter.  The kickoff of the nativity scenes contest will be at 18:00 at El Vergel. The decorations by the river will be lit gradually and the giant nativity scene will be in El Otorongo again.

Repairs to the cúpulas – of the Catedral will include reinforcing the dome bands and carbon fiber reinforcements to prevent leaks (or more leaks).

People have been caught – throwing drugs and phones into the jail.  (You´d need an arm like Tom Brady to get a package in there past two high chain link fences with coils of razor wire on top.  If I threw anything it´d bounce back off the chain link. A good throw would get it tangled up in the razor wire – on the first fence.)

Your sliver of life article – is about a sewer system coming to Pillcomarca in Cojitambo parish.  It will benefit 50 families, a high school, and a community police unit.

Your oddball news article – is about a 120 ton rock in Azogues which is being studied.  The city has put “clausura” signs on the rock (huh?  was it serving illegal alcohol or something?).  The signs are so they can avoid blowing it up with dynamite since it´s in an urban area.  The rock has a patrimonial value for some neighbors who want to investigate its origin to justify its preservation.  (If you leave it alone, that rock will probably be there after we´ve devolved back into slugs and single celled critters.  I bet there are guys down there in the cop shop and the army base just chanting, “Let´s blow it up, let´s blow it up.)

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne