I moved...... for the fourth time in five months. I like to think that this is some sort of spiritual experience in not getting attached to a place... but then again, I miss Ann Arbor so much that in the end it's pure nuissance. In any case, here I am in one of the more upscale negibourhoods of Santiago, called Vitacura. For those of you not familiar, Santiago is the most spatially segregated city I know. In the center (where I used to live) it was sort of a mix, but let's say on the more lower class side, where you could get a decent lunch for about five bucks. Well now, in Vitacura, on the northern side of town (think of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl") I don't even dare go into a restaurant for fear I will get out of there one month short on my allowance. And it's also poorly connected in terms of public transportation (since everyone has a car!! damn it!!) The usual scenario on my street is to see sixty-some ladies with lots of experience in cosmetic surgery (trust me, LOTS!) walking their minuscule purebreed dogs. Yuck! Also, domestic employees in neat domestic uniforms walking the rich babies in strollers on their way to the supermarket. What I feel in those moments I try to understand as a masochistic desire for experience. In any case, to counteract the daily injections of cuico-ness (cuico is translated freely as upscale, but with a strong derogatory tinge to it) I decided to opt for the visual abject. The musical group (if you can even call it that), which will serve as abject catarsis in this case is called "Los picantes" with the hit single "Falso Amor". Non-Spanish speakers, get yourself a translator, it's really worth it (even though there is a lot of--low class, I would not have it any other way--chilean slang). Another warning, this is not delicate entertainment, so not for the faint-hearted. Enjoy!


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