An interesting book I read in the December holiday period, it details how audiences relate to different properties accross media, and what are the new behaviours we are finding as a result. Even though some of the cases and examples shown are already a couple of years old, if you are trying to understand what are the ways people are actually using, dissecting and mashing content this is definitely the book for you.
A previous review on Slashdot here.
We visited Xcaret during our trip to Cancún, and attended their evening show. In general it was very well made, and for example it is the first time I have seen the mesoamerican ball game being played live (no human sacrifice, though).
There was, however, one thing that bothered me in the show, but it wasn’t about the quality or anything like that. It was a segment where they had somebody singing “Mi México de Ayer” by Chava Flores. I actually have one of his CDs and think his music is quite good, but at the moment I was really annoyed by one very simple fact: Mexicans can’t let go of the past. This is also reflected in the way we are taught about own own history, where everything was better before than it is now and whatever comes from abroad is a threat.
We can’t start building a future if we keep on looking at the past.
No podemos construir un futuro si seguimos enfocándonos en el pasado.
Finland is a very egalitarian society, as anyone who has visited Helsinki can attest to. Given that it is also a relatively affluent society, I have somehow come to the conclusion that maybe some Finns (especially of the younger generation) cannot relate to poverty anymore, as they don't necessarily see it (if Kontula & Suvela are the worst the country can throw at you, you're not doing so bad). Or rather, some cannot see it as something that could happen to them, and "if it can't happen to me, it isn't real".
This is especially interesting since Finland was not such a well-off country until the 80's, and even in the 90's there was a terrible economic crisis. How can people so easily forget?
I wonder whether a European would ever consider adding salt, lime juice and chili sauce to a beer…
It is, however, a delicious concoction for a warm day.
Most foreign visitors to Mexico (including Latin Americans) can’t understand how Mexicans eat that much for breakfast.
Instead of just coffee and a piece of bread, in Mexico you will start with a plate of fruit with or without a yoghurt topping, then move on to the main dish (usually eggs prepared in different ways, but might also be a spicy tripe soup or even a steak with nopales) accompanied witha glass of fruit juice and finally coffee and bread.
The best way to start the day. Comparing this to the Finnish institution of “riisipuuro” it’s no wonder they are hungry again at 11.
More chronicles on the Mexican breakfast available here, here, here and here.
Tal parece que al mexicano le encanta eso del drama, hacer un teatro y montar un tango. Entre lo que uno ve en la calle y lo que se encuentra en la televisión la diferencia no es tan grande como se quisiera pensar.
As you may have noticed in other instances, the contact between different cultural groups will produce unexpected and sometimes some rather comical results. This is the case in Acapulco, which has been a port facing the Pacific for over 300 years and a mass tourism destination for at least 50.
Acapulqueños are renowned throughout Mexico for their usage of a word to refer to friends, acquantainces or whomever they are talking with at the moment: "Brody", deriving from the English "brother". A word that is used all the time, it is the trademark of their speech together with their lack of pronunciation of the letter s.
As in any country, big or small, there are plenty of cultural differences between Mexicans of different areas of the country. My sister was victim of these in a wedding she recently attended in Monterrey.
She was told that it was going to be a garden wedding, whose dress code in Mexico City is purely in light, pastel colours as they are during the day and surrounded by nature. You can imagine their surprise when they arrive at the appointed place and find out that it was not a real garden, but a hall decorated as a garden and the rest of the guests were dressed in night gowns and smokings. All the people from the capital had made the same mistake, so they stood out at the event.
I suppose this shows that you have to check and double-check your assumptions every time, even in your own country.
Euro-denominated banknotes share a common theme around different eras of artistic expression. Therefore, the 5 Euro note is classical, the 10 Euro romanesque and so on. I've always argued that the 100 Euro banknote, which depicts the baroque style, could just as well be Mexican, since Mexican art is baroque and exhuberant, and they like to decorate everything, so for example in Christmas you will see plenty of special ornamentation in houses, until in some cases it becomes too much.
Mexicans as well have a certain sense of humour. Take the picture below:
The current craze in Mexico City is to buy a specific kit so that your car would look like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. So you take a (from the Mexican perspective) American influence, twist it a little, add a little of humour and of course put it in your car, without which you cannot survive in this city (actually you very well can, but everything will take you much, much longer).
