identity

Etxe...a lesson in language

Etxe color

Etxe

1. house 2. home 3. place where an activity takes place

In the Basque language, said to be one of the oldest languages in Europe, nouns and adjectives are invariable for number, so etxe means both house and houses. Since the word is usually used within a noun phrase, the ending gives it a definitive number.

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When I was in Bilbao, I only learned a small amount of Basque (Euskara). I tried to take a class, but they were all full as there is this chunk of people, mostly middle-aged and older, in the Basque Country that never learned Basque or know very little since it was strictly prohibited under Franco rule (1936-1975). Since Basque is the official language of el País Vasco, one must speak it in order to work for any government related job, and so classes are always full. It's really strange because the younger generations all speak it as it is the language in which school is taught--Spanish is considered a second language now as Basque, post-Franco, is back center stage. Some use it politically, but mostly, if one was around pre- or post-Fascist Spain, they speak it effortlessly, while those that grew up during are struggling to learn in order to work.

I remember I had one adult student in my English class who told me she had moved to the Basque country for her husband, but as she wasn't Basque, and from a different part of Spain, she did not speak it. She was a librarian prior to the move, but since she couldn't speak Basque, she could no longer work as a public librarian in the Basque Country. She told me at her age she would rather learn English and speak with more people than waste time learning Basque.

In the high school I taught at, the 'minorities' were those from countries other than Spain, mostly Latin American countries, they were taught in Spanish, and had to take Basque language classes, something equivalent to our ESL classes. It was very strange, to be in Spain, or what many people consider Spain, and have Spanish being taught as a secondary language.

It's always interesting when different cultures and languages blend, evolve, how they ebb and flow in pervasiveness due to the political climate or cultural tendencies. Though my grandparents spoke Spanish, and their parents spoke Spanish, they never taught my parents Spanish since they were raising kids during a time when it wasn't as acceptable to speak anything other than English. They just wanted to fit into middle-class America and sound like everyone else, and especially have their children sound like everyone else. This is why I ended up going to Spain to learn Spanish.

In San Francisco, for the most part being bi- or multi-lingual is very common and many different languages are heard everywhere. Just this morning I realized the barista at my favorite coffee shop speaks German.

We're lucky to speak whatever language we want, with whomever we want, and be proud of it.

 

über pop + surrealism + lo que sea: Lluís Barba

Finally going through one of the magazines I picked up in Rio de Janeiro, I stumbled upon the work of Lluís Barba y lo me encanta.

Lluís Barba, based in Barcelona, recently had a show in New York featuring his Self Portrait series of famous artists in art history and just finished up a show in Istanbul. His work references art history, pop culture, surrealism, contemporary photojournalism and paparraz-ism. Barba's overt works become more and more intricate as you spot out the references and therein lies the fun. A critique on society and the problems it creates, be it the gallery world, the artists themselves, or the commodity of culture, is the root of his work. He brings well-known and little-known artists of the past back into the present, with a fresh twist on that which is contemporary. An über-pop dreamscape and a reminder that the world works in mysterious ways, with strange coincidences and outlandish happenings, that is if you are living it right.

"While the classics seek perfection from perfection, contemporaries seek perfection from imperfection. The classics define the work as artistic craftsmanship, and the contemporary mechanization and seriation socializes an important part of art." --Lluís Barba, from his 'about' page

the selfie...

stephanie.march 2013. los angeles. christina and kenneth's wedding. Los Angeles. March. 2013.

I'm still throwing up inside my mouth because I actually typed that word. If you don't know to what I am referring, you either also have not been on the internet, do not have kids, or are in denial. I am currently pondering how this photo happened, and all the things behind the idea of a self-portrait taken on a mobile device and instantly uploaded for public consumption.

The facts:

I was at wedding.

I made my dress and I had not gotten a photo of it. So this seemed necessary.

I texted this photo to a guy that I (think) I am dating. He did not immediately respond.

Mitigating circumstances:

It was an open bar. They made stellar manhattans.

There was no one else in the bathroom at the time of (multiple, I'm sure) photographs.

I stood somewhere out of site while I picked the best filter and waited for successful upload as to not be antisocial or rude.

This was the only photo (I think) that I took of myself alone.

I later saw many selfies of other wedding guests on various social networks.

Everyone, and it does not matter who you are or what you look like or how old you are, wants an awesome photo of his or her self and there is no shame in that, but it is strange how prevalent the practice seems to be. My younger sister does it. My boss does it. My grandpa is probably doing it right now. The desire to photograph oneself seems to be universal, regardless of one's self-confidence, vanity, exhibitionism, or lack thereof. Why we think that we can take it ourselves is nuts, but we try and try and our efforts, for better or worse, make it on the internet for public view due to our own actions. It's like we want to be our own paparazzi. I don't really get it, but I also totally get it. I hate it and I love it and I think that it's actually a central part of being human. We are tapping into the very root of our primal being -  our need to carry on, our dream to last forever, if only in pixel form on the interwebs (because I highly doubt anyone has ever printed out his/her own selfie).

I wonder what future generations will be like with this ability capture one's own image, edit it, and proliferate it all from a small device in seconds. Will this speed up self-awareness? Will this encourage self-love? Will this practice increase or decrease vanity? Does it make us feel better about ourselves or worse? Does it depend of how we already feel? If we only take self-portraits when we feel awesome (or drunk), shouldn't that make us feel more awesome and isn't that a good thing? Is this just the evolution of centuries of ego-centric human behavior?