pagan new year, blood ritual

well, a few weeks cj visited me here in sabadell. we went on a mini tour of spain, mainly focusing on andalucía. we went through barcelona, tarragona, granada, sevilla, cordoba, and madrid. we saw a lot of historically important areas and monuments, as well as a unique culture in spain. we missed a bus in madrid and ended up staying there for christmas. we walked up and down the main streets and plazas, looking at the lights and people watching. we went to a vegan buffet (heaven on earth) and then relaxed in the room, drawing, etc. much to my sadness and chagrin, she left a week ago. i was pretty down, but now im back in the swing of things here in sabadell. picked up some new media to work with, sanguine, charcoal, and white chalk. so far ive done a portrait, a still life, and drawn 3 buildings here in sabadell and in torrelles de llobregat. its a lot quicker than pencil, but seems to lack a bit in details. it stands out very strongly on the paper, which i like. overall, i may prefer it as a medium for quick street drawings. a bit of history on sanguine, which i find very interesting! it is a bit like charcoal, but a rusty, red color. its name comes from the latin word for blood, sang. it was popular in europe during the renaissance (i believe) for portraits, when people believed that 4 humors determined human health. a red, "ruddy" countenance meant that someone had a hearty, healthy disposition. so, sanguine, blood red, was used as a color for portraiture. interesting! i had a bit of a blood ritual with it during my third drawing. i have a big old fat sanguine pencil which won't fit in a sharpener, so i am using a razor blade to sharpen it. it's really preferable, you have a lot more control over the pencil tip. anyhow, i woke up early to go draw a masia, a catalan country house, this morning. anyhow, i went to sharpen my sanguine pencil with my razor blade, pushing hard on one end before i realized it was double edged. ow. really bloody thumb, working with a sanguine pencil. hopefully this is at least to ironic and funny to those reading, and i'm not the only one correlating a bloody thumb with a pencil named after a latin root word!

anyways, may as well touch on my pagan new year's if we're talking about blood rituals. i went up the pyrenese mountains with celia and her friends, to a site called can pí, which means house of pines in catalan. a few mutual friends had a masia up in the hills, and we spent new years way up in the mountains, a bit far from any big city. to add to the magic, it was a full moon! anyhow, there was a big old vegetarian dinner, with lotsa vegan goodies, and alcohol, and friends! after we ate, we walked out this big rock that looks over a wooded valley in the mountains. really, nothing around, and all very well lit by the moon. we had 10 minutes of silence before midnight to think about the new year, etc. towards the end, we sang a song and someone hit a gong 10 times to bring in the new year. for the next half hour, we danced under the moon and sang folk songs from around the world. really, it was very hippy and pagan, and it felt so good and relaxing. i felt very open with everyone in the group, really a very intimate way to start the new year. we went back to the house, where juan got out 2 guitars, 2 drums, and an oud, and we continued to have an hour long jam session, rotating instruments, and improvising tunes. finally, araitz, a friend visiting from basque country, read my tarot cards, which came out very pertinent and positive. nice! went back to celia's at 4 in the morning, totally crashed into bed, and woke up the next day at noon. celia and i walked around her pueblo, where i'd been before. nice to see everything again, really a neat place. it's called torrelles de llobregat, what a name! every year on january first, their extended family comes over and basically eat, drink, and chat all day. i partook, and it was very fun! they made some vegan pizza and steamed artichokes with olive oil and pepper for me, very good. ate well, drank well, and had some great conversations, talking a lot about my upcoming trip to kyrgyzstan. celia's aunt works in a bookstore and deals with a lot of publishers and agents, and she said to look her up when i got back from kyrgyzstan if i had a manuscript of a travel journal, which is my plan. maybe i have a connection! anyhow, went out to the bar later that tonight to visit celia's friends.

today i hung out in torrelles a bit, walking around and drawing while i could. a bit about catalan christmas traditions! caga tio, which literally means "uncle crap" is a prominent christmas figure here. it is a log with little legs and a smiley face on the end. he lays under a blanket in your living room for 2 weeks, and every day you feed him so that he'll be able to poop out presents for you on christmas. when christmas comes, you hit him with a stick and sing a song, encouraging him not to poop out salty sardines but sweet cakes for the kids. after you beat him up and sing to him, you lift up the blanket, and he will have hopefully pooped out some good presents for you. where's this story going? the library in torrelles has a 10 foot long caga tio, with about a 3 foot diameter. epic.