Bjork
I´m in the airport waiting for my flight to Buenos Aires. I´m siked. Last night was awesome. I saw Bjork in concert at the Vertice, a permanent large tent concert venue, at El Museo de la Ncaion (the national museum). Holy crap, it was awesome. She is amazing live. Her voice was perfect, and she didn´t have to use those little earphones that many stars use when in concert. Her new stuff is pretty good–definitely going to buy it at one of those cheap CD markets in Lima. But it was her older stuff from Debut, Post, and Vesperine that lit up the crowd. I love being at a live show and feeling the excited emotional energy that rushes forth from the stage like a wave from the band all the way to the last person standing in the back, especially when everyone knows the music. I was one of those people in the back who could see Bjork better on the LCD screen right in front of me than I could see the stage. The venue was not huge, but the stage was a bit lower than the last section and, of course, all the tall people got to the concert venue first. No matter. She was fantastic, and her band was as well. She had three guys on computers and drums and an eight-piece horn section, all women and they wore red robe-like dresses and had flags attached to them with the narrow pole standing stright up above their heads. Bjork wore a similar type dress, but with more colors–yellow, red, green, purple. She´s beautiful, and I don´t know her age, but she still looks like a girl. She does a funny little thing often while pausing between verses or words: she twitches her nose and mouth a bit. Hard to explain, but you can ask for a demonstration someday.
I went to the concert alone. Saw a poster for it one day and thought it was worth the 155 soles (about $51), because her concerts would probably be $155 in the States. I stepped of the taxi and saw the general scene you see outside a concert venue: people hanging out and taking their time before hopping in line; ticket scalpers and food, beer, and cigarette vendors; and security and maintenance people. I was surprised to see people drinking cans of beer (if this was Rio, I wouldn´t be surprised), but the rules of drinking on the street are different for this venue–the cops just walked right by without saying a word. I asked two people drinking a beer how much a can costs. They said 3 soles. Great, I thought, because that´s all the coins I have in my pocket (I wanted to save the cash for inside). The beer vendor refused to charge me less than 4 soles, probably because I´m a gringa, so I didn´t buy one. I went back to the two people and asked where they bought theirs for 3 soles. The actually brought theirs and then offered me one. I kindly accepted, and with that beginning, I now have two new friends from Lima, Angela and Paul. They had general section tickets too, and we ended up hanging out the entire time. Both long time fans of Bjork as well. We had a great time singing, dancing, and drinking beers. Angela snuck in her camera and I hope will email me the pictures, so I´ll be able to add them here. Even better than seeing Bjork last night was making new friends.
And it´s as simple as that. This is how it´s been happening on my trip. I´m traveling alone, so I never know who I´m going to meet or how. I´ve generally had good luck and feel that my dad or someone is watching out for me somewhere. You can´t always be totally open, but it´s amazing to think of how many people in this world are totally closed. Perhaps it´s to feel safe and secure that people don´t open themselves up to new experiences more often. But the less you know about others, the world, and yourself, the more probable it is that you´ll stumble into danger. I have had luck, yes, yet it seems there is some cosmic vibe dancing through my journey. I think it is akin to the wave I felt while seeing Bjork last night that ran through me and out my mouth as I sang as loud as I could her words with her and back to her at the same time. “I live by the ocean. And during the night. I dive into it. Down to the bottom. Underneath all currents, and drop my anchor. And this is where I´m staying. This is my home.”
