This is the penultimate day! (I usually use that word to make fun of that word. Doesn’t it sound so much more important than it is? It almost sounds more important than “ultimate” but all it really means is second to last!)

Today I experienced flamenco dancing for the first time. And I’ve largely concluded it’s angry tap dancing. Ha. Angry tap dancing with some finger flair (i.e. finger movements are part of the dance!) and only one type of emotion: intense urgent focus, nearly aggressive. Early on in the performance I couldn’t help but think they must be dancing about catastrophes or the apocalypse. Or failed romances. Those are essentially the same to most of us, right? In fact, when I asked the sweet German lady who sat next to me (whose Spanish was better than mine), the words she was able to pick up from the lyrics were about love, failed romances, and waiting 20 years. I’m pretty certain the performance would have made more sense to me had I known the language.

Either way, I am extremely entertained that flamenco dancing is so, uhm, serious! Have you ever had anyone accuse you of taking yourself too seriously? Well, never fear! There is at least one group of people who take themselves more seriously than you do: flamenco dancers. It’s intense! Makes me wonder what has happened in a group’s history to produce an art form like this. All groups suffer. But only the Spanish have produced flamenco dancing.

The guitar was my favorite part. I love Spanish guitar. Rich and sultry. The singing plus the guitar plus the percussion which the flamenco dancer contributes through tap dancing was what surprised and delighted me. There’s more to flamenco dancing than I had known!

In reading about Franco yesterday I learned that he declared flamenco dancing and bull fighting to be Spanish things. Does that make any sense? A human can not directly create culture. More than anything culture creates us. Anyway, the Catalons (more than any other Spanish group I know of) would not necessarily be on board with all the typical Spanish things. In fact, Catalonia has banned bull fighting and the old bull fighting rings are now used for other purposes. (This is in order not to torment and kill an innocent animal.) The rest of Spain… bull fighting continues!

I also experienced Casa Battlo today and ate at a Georgian restaurant. Gaudi’s work, Casa Battlo, is hard to explain. As much as I understand him better now in that he was trying to mimic nature, elements of his work still remind me of Dr. Seuss. And elements of his work are so playful that they’re almost hard for me to take seriously. I can completely commiserate with the Catalons of his time who were disoriented and distressed by his work. And, at the same time, I was thoroughly inspired by the spirit of this house. It felt playful and playful can feel hopeful. Perhaps I can learn from Gaudi and be more childlike? The audio guide made a very similar mistake to what I think I’m seeing in myself. The Battlo’s were devout Catholics and, in their stunning living room they would either worship (using a Catholic set of symbols which were contained in a wardrobe-like piece of furniture) or enjoy leisure time. The audio guide observed that it is ironic to use the same room for worship as for rest, play. Is it? This makes me think of the counterpoint I raised early in my trip where I observed that I was going to play in Spain while simultaneously my cousin was going to work and serve a church in Egypt. To the best of my understanding, work and play are of equal value in God’s sight. Just like there is no tension between leisure and worship. And, perhaps I have taken parts of adult life too seriously and can not feel fully comfortable with playful elements in aesthetic design. I’ll ponder Gaudi more as I get time…

The Georgian restaurant was a surprise! I had to look up Georgia on a map. It is north east of Turkey. So I ate at a delightful, thoroughly sophisticated middle eastern restaurant which specializes in coriander. The restaurant’s name, Kinza, means coriander. My meal was tremendous; I remember pomegranate seeds resting on top of onion slices on top of an amazingly spiced meat with a lovely sauce. Unique and well-balanced flavors. And then a woman came out and sang! I had no idea I was getting two performances in one night. She was young, small-ish, rather perfectly beautiful, and her voice was truly unforgettable. A rich, sultry voice sang for the four of us in the restaurant. What a gift! I hope she “gets found”. She has a talent!

Below is one moment, like all the rest, in the flamenco show: intense!