Image via: lukelukeluke
It’s a sunny Sunday morning in Montreal… what to do, what to do? You go to Tam Tams of course. Each Sunday musicians, artists, university students, hippies, tourists, families, anglophones, and francophones fill Jean Mance Park in Mont-Royal to take part in what could be called a huge, dance, party picnic. If you have a drum feel free to join in. Everyone is encouraged to dance. Tam Tams is about participation and celebration; everyone is welcome.
While many dance around the angel, many others bring blankets and food and enjoy a day of lounging around in the sun, while listening to the drum beats. If you don’t have a drum you can buy one from the street vendors that are stationed along Avenue du Parc. There is an array of scarfs, shirts, wood-carved figurines, and much more merchandise you can’t resist from buying even though it has no purpose, such as dream catchers, a jumping frog, or a finger trap.
Some say the origins of this tradition are unknown, although trusty Wikipedia states that Tam Tams started in the late 70s after a workshop on African drumming at a jazz bar. The city of Montreal did not organize this spontaneous gathering, however they have become involved because of its extreme popularity. They provide first aid and permits for streer vendors.
Pounding on a bunch of drums all day may seem tedious to an outsider, but participants and viewers are hooked. Tam Tams really captures the spirit of Montreal, a city that prides itself on its creativity, art, and expression. Image via: Gregoire Lannoy (en vacance)
Tam Tams takes place in the summer months and will be finishing soon. The city of Montreal makes the schedule from May to September. Although the schedule doesn’t keep away everyone. You will find hard core tam tam fans still drumming well into autumn. Image via: Aschaf Probably the most peculiar and oddly enjoyable show to watch during Tam Tams is the mock medieval battle. People come out dressed up in their best medieval garb and they fight with foam swords and shields. I admit I thought it was crazy at first but who hasn’t wanted to pick up a foam sword and Brutus someone from behind? Ok maybe not everyone, but I really liked Medieval Times as a child. Image via: Jean-Baptiste Duthu
One of the reasons New York City is so unique is because of the conspicuous happenstances you come across everyday. You can see a businessman in heels chasing down a bus, a naked cowboy with a guitar in Times Square, the 6 mile expanse of green smack dab in the middle of a high rising metropolis, or a juggler performing on the side of the FDR Drive and merely chalk it up the the fact that anything, and I mean anything, can happen in New York City.
This past spring I was walking around and taking pictures with a friend of mine. I never got a chance to post them and I wanted to because I think they are so quintessential NYC. Not necessarily momentous, but rather a mundane and casual afternoon.
Washington Square Park finally is opened to the public. All the other times I visited in the past 2 years I had the misfortune to see uninviting gates and fence surrounding the area where I used to roam instead of attending classes. This spring day the park returned to what I remember most about New York City, the way people come together to use the public space, in particular the parks that are always bustling with people playing games, catching some rays, walking their dogs, or going for a stroll.
In the park you will often find a group of men throwing around a metal ball. We decided to ask them the name of the game we had seen many times before but didn’t really understand. One of the guys told us it was a French game named petanque (similar to Italian bocce or English bowls).
The purpose of petanque, played by millions of French in the summer months, is to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a wooden ball called the cochonnet. It is often played on a dirt surface which I would imagine provides an appropriate cushion for the metal balls being thrown.
You throw the ball with somewhat of an arc as you can see with the guy below. I thought the cigar in his mouth was an authentic touch, because in my mind I imagine lots of men coming together to play, smoke cigars, talk about sports, and enjoy the good weather and company. But that is my interpretation.
The origin of the games petanque, bocce, and bowls, is said to derive from Ancient Greece and Rome. For a full set of rules on how to play petanque check it out here.
Finally it was time to leave Lima and frankly I was a little sad. There is never enough time to see a whole city, however only a few days seemed like bad planning.
But alas we had to depart, so we hailed a cab and made our way to the airport, in order to catch our flight to Cusco. This taxi was the most high tech taxi we had seen in all of Lima. Whereas most cabs were old and shabby looking, this driver looked like he was trying out for MTV’s Pimp My Taxi.
This innovative driver had a television screen with a connecting dvd player in his car. Don’t overestimate however, it was nothing like the touchscreens now seen in NYC cabs, where you can play around in the back seat, although it did make for some interesting entertainment. The best part of the car was the telephone the driver pulled out from somewhere in the front seat. It wasn’t a car phone no no, (that would be too obvious), it wasn’t a cell phone (again obvious), but rather a land line telephone that he somehow got to work inside the cab. He explained it to us but I’m not one for technology chats.
He had DVDs for us to choose from, most of them music DVDs. He suggested we choose traditional Peruvian music, music he called huayno. Little did we know that this would be our first taste of the music we would soon be hearing all over. Huayno is very distinguishable and especially for those hearing it for the first time, it is most definitely an acquired taste. The vocals are extremely high pitched and accompanied by flute, harp, panpipe, guitar, charango, and mandolin. Below is a song by Stalim Manrique.
Huayno is very popular in Andean culture. You can hear it in the mountains of Peru, often transmitted by radio, since many of the people living there do not have televisions. The music may seem a little strange to travelers when they hear it, since the sound is very unique. After all the singing is high pitched and can seem a little off key, but the tradition has lasted for a very long time, since pre-Hispanic Peru. No doubt there is lots of emotion, often about love, love lost, unrequited love, you get the idea. One of the songs I heard in the cab was about a man whose lover drove him so crazy he resorted to alcohol. The lyrics were funny and although I don’t remember them exactly they were something like “I love you so much that I must drink.” I understand the sentiment but for me it usually involves Ben & Jerry’s rather than Johnnie Walker.
In huayno, often times you will hear people in the background, children speaking, or people cheering the singer on.
“Que sigue bailando” Keep dancing.
“Ay mi corazoncito” Oh my heart.
I admit I don’t listen to huayno much in the privacy of my own home, but take a look for yourself and experience the music from a very rich culture.
Image via: lukelukeluke
Image via: Gregoire Lannoy (en vacance)
Image via: Aschaf
Image via: Jean-Baptiste Duthu
