Nueva Vista: Cuba sí vive!

el viaje continua!

2009-03-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

For all readers of this blog:

The fun continues on davesaway.blogspot.com, my world vision wonderblog.

As soon as I get somewhere with a decent internet connection, there´ll be some videos as well.

cheers,

dave "thaelmann"

Culture Shock, the lost chapters and Amsterdam antics.

2009-02-23T06:20:00.000-08:00

Dearest readers, readerettes and readerinos,

I deeply and humbly apologise for my absence these last few days. Too much to do in Cuba, Amsterdam and Austria alike. And too much informational overflow.

Truly, Cuba is a paradise. After just a few hours in Amsterdam, this is quite obvious. Optical overcharge ensues as my eyes glaze over countless displays, billboards, windows - a cornucopia of purchases, just waiting to be made. At every corner, something or someone yells:
Buy! Consume! Buy some more! Buy me!
I was quite speechless, actually.

Somehow, the hustlers and conners that try to talk to you on the streets of Havanna are much easier to cope with. You see them personally, you get their agenda immediatly, and let them be.

Our wonderfully superfluent european promotional propaganda gets at you from every angle, not giving you a moments rest (unless you buy some), and subconciously imprinting the need for more, much more, lots more, in every mind it comes across. I, for one, prefer the Cuban Style.

Of course, being in Amsterdam, one succumbs to the occasional Koffie in a relaxed ambiente. Was good to see the Wallen again, to enjoy the aromas of this old merchant center... Couldn´t bring myself to film, though... Was too busy relaxing. = ]

And now, the lost Chapters:

Dia 18:¡Perdoname, Cuba!

In Guines at the moment. My little old mind has once again been rotated about a 165º.
Getting to know cuban life from the perspective of a non-tourist is what all those stupid rich white sex tourists really should be doing.
This is the real shit here. People enjoying their lives, having there problems, resolving them with a little help from the Santos, generally having a good time. The kids, the Tataguinitos, party like there´s a good tomorrow waiting for them, just around the next dusty corner.
This is good stuff here, really good stuff.
¡Viva la Revolución!

Dia 19: Morning in Guines
Yesterday, after the performance, the kids of Guines satisfied their (substantial) curiosity. Not at all pestering, the asked politely about Austria, snow, austrian traditions, my family, my marital status, etc..
These 8-12 year olds really managed to stage a quite amazing show (for their age group). The boys on the tambores, the girls dancing the rumba.
Leo´s father is a hijo de Ogún, master of swords, knives, guns and all things metal. The warrior. As strong as the earth, a grudge with Ogún is a very bad thing to have.
There´s a dried bird in a metal pyramid hanging in the courtyard. Probably to drive away bad energies, or to channel good ones.. something like that.

"¡Padrino, sacame esta sal de encima!"
(Popular reggaeton song at the moment. Padrino, please relieve me from this curse)

More lost chapters coming up. Me, I´m in Austria at the moment. Relaxing and preparing for the work to come: Editing and producing a promotional short for the Tataguines, moving my stuff out of my vienna appartment, producing a 3-minute trailer of all the stuff we filmed.. .
And yeah, getting ready for my world tour.

This should be fun.
continue reading and watching this spot for further ramblings, ravings and reviews.
greetings, hugs, kisses (choose as appropriate)
-thaelmann-

Day 22

2009-02-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

hi out there,
our last day here in cuba, we will miss it.
we are already looking foward to austrias snow and cold weather :-)
here some nice pictures taken in the interior.

postcard sunset

cuban propaganda, " Viva la Revolucion"

Reginas new boyfriend "Zorro" a real latin lover.

Dia 17, post 2: The team is back!

2009-02-17T19:08:00.001-08:00

hi guys,
we are back from the interior.
dont travel alone, try to learn as much spanish as you can and dont waste
your time looking for road signs. there are none. bicyles, horses, cows, sheep, goats, pedestrians, carriages, potholes and a lot of fidel propaganda. One revolutionary signpost for each villager, as a minimum.

So guys, this is an important hint:DO NOT DRIVE AT NIGHT IN CUBA!

The highways, "autopistas", consist of 6 tracks with no road markings whatsoever, and nearly no traffic. Could be beacuse of the moon-style potholes. Very postapocalyptic vistas out there.
Babalugas driving skills were up to the job, however, although he didn´t fuly master the very cuban art of honking before each turn (and at each woman, of course).

Varadero, Varadero, Varadero.
Fat, plump, ugly, disgusting and wholly stuffed with money:
Varaderos tourists are it´s prime attraction (for masochists). We therefore decided to fully enjoy the evening by drinking ourselves senseless on the beach, with a sunset as our guide.

"La Mozart" Habanilla is a wonderful, quiet lake (behind a wonderful, quiet, electricity-producing dam) where we were served "Truchas" in a very rustic ambiente. Sunset included.

The world heritage city of Trinidad is surely one of the most beautiful cities on this planet. We fully enjoyed the sights, touristy tourists that we are, and even scrubbed our behinds on a horse-riding excursion!

Don´t forget the beaches, of course. Ahhhh... turquois water, suave sand and postcard sunsets galore! (And a dead fish. Not on a plate. Different story.)

The centre of Cienfuegos is Fidel´s very own Cubaland! Hint: Don´t drink the mayabe beer. It´s more aptly named "maybe beer", and tastes a lot like excrement.

There´s a crocodile farm out there as well. It´s prime objective is to provide a basis for the reintroduction of a quite vanished species of jumping crocodile. It´s secondary purpose is to provide exclusive reptilian snacks to curious tourists.

So, back in Havanna for a day, and then onwards to Piñar del Rio!
happy holidays,

Story Mr. Haarp, aka Rude Boy. Translation Thaelmann

Dia 17: Call of the Leo, second sneaker and Cuban Cuisine

2009-02-17T07:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, we had some misunderstandings, but Leo did respond to my messages.. (after I wrote to his wife in Austria) .. well, I hope things will work out fine..

The nueva vista team is still happily on holidays, so I can´t write anything about them yet.. except that the Leo-story will be my task. No problem there, hey, going solo is what I´m planning for the next 365 days or so.

I wrote a heap of pesudophilosophical stuff yesterday which I won´t publish, you fortunate readers. I will instead post a small writeup about eating in Cuba, again.

Nota Bene:
Cuban restaurants (especially in th "Barrio Chino", Havanna´s Chinatown) that cater to locals generally serve quite huge portions. It is not excpected to share them, however, or to finish them, either. Most guests simply take about 60-80% of their meal home with them. This is not at all rude, and when asked, the personnel will gladly provide microwave-proof containers and bags. Two examples:
"Amigo Viejo" and "La Flor de Loto", the latter being famous for its obscene amounts of deep-fried shrimp.

Probably because of a certain tendency to deep-fry everything, Cubans come in two sizes only: young, slim and athletic or somewhat older and quite obese.

Another peculiarity found in cuban restaurants: The air-con is generally set to "freezing your genitals off". This is, apparently, considered to be a sign of good taste and wealth, so bring a winter jacket or at least a sweater. Otherwise, you´ll find yourself in the somewhat absurd situation to be sweating and sneezing at the same time.

And now, for all those who managed to read this far, the second sneak peek at our precious material! Pot-pourri-style.

Dia 15. Connections that won´t connect

2009-02-16T07:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, that means you, Leo. The good caribbean Samurai won´t answer my mensajitos, and that´s quite a show-stopper for lots of things.

The reggaeton-street-rapper I wanted to meet yesterday didn´t show up either. The number we have from another rap guy doesn´t exist anymore, etc...

It´s really hard not to get judgemental on their cuban behinds. Defining everything as "cultural" isn´t very helpful either. So, let´s just summarise and say that some cubans don´t care much about keeping appointments, with an especially high percentage in the group of people I´ve met so far.

Otherwise, everything´s perfect. I´m really looking forward to interviewing Ramiro Guerra, the old master of dance, in his high castle. 14 stories with a frequently broken elevator means factual isolation for a person of his age.

The Interview with Aris Garit went quite well, although I´m really a bit over-multi-tasked when interviewing, filming and supervising audio at the same time. I´ll follow Madame Helga´s advice and just f**** the interviewing in my future work.

so far, so few.
the rest of the nueva vista team will arrive tomorrow evening, allowing me to get out of Havanna for a short day or two.

Cheers from the front,
-thaelmann-
"el loco"

Dia 15: Malecón Madness, twisted end.

2009-02-15T09:26:00.000-08:00

The Malecón on a saturday is just like a festival, but without the stands, outrageous prices and the high-tech stages. Just a whole lot of people, drinking, making out, singing, playing guitar.
Statistical estimates are: about 25-35% are kissing pre-coitally, 60% chugging rum in raw quantities, and the rest are playing guitar or some drums. The better ones of these spontaneous or pre-existing groups can draw as large a crowd as one can reach without amplification.

Don´t forget the lyrics!
Category: Reggaeton from Cuba.
Artist: Chiki, the street rapper:

"No soy famoso, pero la gente me conoce
y no solo es p`arriba que me goce"

(I´m not famous, but the people know me, and it´s not only the upper parts that they enjoy)
Street style reggaeton is basically a two-line joke told in a rythmic and somewhat lyrical way. A central theme is getting away from Cuba.

"El Chikiii...
ya no vive aqui...
se colchó con una yuuumaaa
y se fue pa fueraaaa..."
(Chiki doesn´t live here anymore. He had sex with a foreign girl, and left.)

Applause, laughter, cheering, dancing.

The statistical estimate up there isn´t wholly scientific. There are also large quantities of people sitting around, chatting, smoking or shouting (Apparently, any discussion in Cuba ends in a shouting duel).

Finding a place to sit and jot down some notes is not at all easy, as the Malecón is really as stuffed as Roskilde on Metallica night. (Varying densities included)
You can walk for about half an hour through the crowd without finding a spot that´s large enough to avoid cuddling your neighbors.

There´s another difference to the common european festival: The age groups represented on the Malecón are far broader: Whole families, middle-aged people, whole droves of 12-year olds, herded by the auntie in charge, the obvious adolescents, fishermen around 85, bearded european tourists, and thankfully just a very small quantity of the usual "jinetera and big fat ugly white guy" combination.

It´s strange that nobody there has the idea to go out and buy beers for everybody (charging of course). One could probably make a fortune there with a mobile bar. Either the fines are pretty hefty, or nobody has the capital to start such a small business. The only things sold to the partying Malecón crowd are sweets and flowers for the wooed.

Unfortunately, this wonderful transcultural expedition had a quite brusque end, and a bad one, too. Neilé twisted her ankle while walking over a sidewalk. So, she´s in the hospital, and me with a connection less. (Wanted to film her practicing. Won´t work that well with a plaster foot, I fear.)

As if I hadn´t bombarded you with enough text already, here´s some more:

The colour scheme of Cubas license plates.

Yellow is for "particular" , "privately owned",
Blue is for any state-owned company
Brown is for a state-run institution
Red: the tourist plates from the local humongously expensive rental service
Black: the foreign diplomats

And finally, the highest class:
White. Someone from the extended family, or good friends, of the commandantes.

Concidentially, Neilé hurt her ankle just behind a white plate saying "HGB026".
Get it? HGB. Hagenberg. Like I said, coincidence.

thaelmann out.

Reflexions of the comrade thaelmann. (post two, Dia de los enamorados)

2009-02-15T09:20:00.000-08:00

There´s one thing one must do before considering onseself to be a certain connoiseur of all things cuban:
And it´s not hiring a jinetera, but eating greasy fried rice (with chicken!) out of a even greasier cardboard box, using only ones fingers and pieces of the box.

Fun, cheap, but not so easy to do.

In related news, one of the guys we knew from Austria has so far not yet responded to my mensajitos. For all I know, he´s still in Vienna.

Today will be fun, hopefully: I hope to see (and perhaps film) our wonderful drummerette Neilé sometime today after midnight. Yay!

Also, big thing for today: Haven´t been to a reggaeton thing yet. Need to catch up on my shaking.

Day 13. Dia de los Enamorados.

2009-02-14T11:09:00.000-08:00

Pardon my absence yesterday, the first day of my solo sojourn. As some of you might now, your current narrator will be commencing a petite tour de monde, starting on March the 15th or so. The current situation is like a warm-up training, and quite useful as such. I spent the last evening wandering along the malecón, using all my fabolous people-ignoring skills.

And during that walk, it really hit me like a train, full frontal: As long as income differences as we know them exsist, the hustlers, conners, whores and false friends (I met about a dozend of each during the three hours I spent walking), will continue to thrive and multiply. (Yeah, should have thought of that earlier, right? I really need to work on my impermeability to that stuff.)

The revolution in Cuba exists. There´s practically no advertising, except for governmental inspirational bulletins at major intersections. Otherwise, this is an ad-free zone. But this country is essentially capitalist, as it lives in a capitalist world.
Got money? No problem, do anything you want. Got none? Big problem.

Lots of people still profit to a certain degree from free education. Professors and pupils sometimes don´t even bother to show up. There´s about one good (and pseudomilitary elitist lenin-named) school in each province, the rest is.. well, imagine a "Hauptschule" in one of the outer districs in Vienna, add school uniforms, and you got it.

Free medicine! Yay! Forget it. It might be free, it might be Cubas beacon of triumph, but for Cubans, it remains a farce. Cuba exports its doctors. Which means that the demand here is often not really covered.

So far, so bad. Now back to work.

-thaelmann-

Dia 11: Professional professionals. (picpost, mostly)

2009-02-12T12:35:00.000-08:00

Welcome once again, dear readers and readerettes.

Let´s start our petite cultural study with an example of a professional musician: Austrias President Heinz Fischer. (Before becoming a DJ, he had a short carreer as a bongo player in Cuba.)

Refreshing, isn´t it? And now, for Flo, the car you asked for. These reflections look rendered, but they aren´t.

And now for our own extreme professionality: Mind the audio. Never mind the backlight.
The following piece of imagery is actually the room where the top of Cuba´s musicians rehearse. Yes, those are filing cabinets, and no, nobody heard anything except the trumpet.
Professionality Nr. 5: Abel, as seen from behind the camera. Mr. Haarp actually manages that position a whole hour through.
The following posts will be constructed de-centrally, with my own presence here, in Havanna, and the other three people scouting .. etc.. yes, I think you know that already.

So, have a nice evening,

cheers,

-thaelmann- for the nueva vista team

Dia 10. Back in Action.

2009-02-11T12:00:00.001-08:00

Today started off with a nice, small, cientific interview with the king of the "shekere", who has a wonderful relationship with his wife (von Trapp Style. Whistle. Heel. Coffee.) and a healthy self-confidence ("The person I admire most in the world: Myself.").
He also wanted to charge for the interview, which your humble thaelmann managed to avert by describing the catastrophic financial situation the university of Vienna, and it´s students, are currently in.

My credit card is working again, the inspectors have not yet arrived, and the greater part of the nueva vista team is happily planning their soujourn into the wild, untamed interiour, where food costs about 5 cents.

So, that´s enough text for today, here come the pictures.

Waiting for Abel, in front of the destitute Hotel Capri.

Graffiti. Old American Car. Hey Flo, what do you want more?

Regina, trying to reach a hardly reachable musicologist. Per bike.

Seeing her leave, we weren´t sure we picked the right riksha.

Oh Yes. Ikea service a lo cubano.

Greetings from a rocking chair. (Post 2 Dia 9)

2009-02-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

Because that´s where i am right now. Smoking the last of my Montecristos and composing the second post for today. This is about as close to the ideal workspace as one can get. Broadband is missing, but that´s starting to be a good experience for me, internet junkie that I am.

Our stressful day turns out to be a bit less intense than we thought. Neilé was finished in 45 minutes, and we spent the time listening to music and relaxing. We also had a good lunch, in my case, "Bistéc de Puerco", with congrí again, and some wonderful potatoe chips. Good value too, considering that it was an upper-class spot (20 euros for 6 people, including drinks).

Cuban cuisine profits from the fact that the european disaster of serving almost anything fresh from the freezer has not yet reached this revolutionary island in the sun. Especially handçcut potatoe chips are a blessing, as is the sweet potatoe (the boniato). And meat, in all it´s forms, is simply a must for the somewhat conscious traveler. Veggies are far too dangerous for a daily staple, really.

We´re here in the lions den, as they say, the UNEAC, the associacion of cuban writers, artists and creators. Governmental villas are generally in a very good state, as opposed to other buildings. This is not because of governmental bias, however: a large portion of the local housing remains private property, and so the tenants are responsible for the maintenance. Mercy, our host, told me that, unfortunately, quite a lot of people are "spoiled" by the government, and have no initiative to restore their houses on their own, on their own budget. They rather wait, and see if somebody else will fix it for them. A real pain, that.

so, with the cigar finished and the weather still nice,
greetz from paradise,
-thaelmann- for the nueva vista team

Dia 9. A whole load of work to do

2009-02-11T11:12:00.001-08:00

Actually, it might hapen that this post wil be posted mañana, (and it happened, too.) because today our workload is quite heavy. Two interviews and two meetings to get new contacts.

Our plans are quite fixed as well: Haarp & Babaluga & Regina will explore the interior, starting on friday, and your humble thaelmann will continue to cause trouble in Havanna. So much left to do, and so little time...

Only yesterday, we got contacts, which we will work on the next days, still more to come this evening... Neilé Sosa, Abels wonderful female drummer, will be first today, and we´re counting on a typical cuban delay of about 30 minutes.

Aaaaand there´s a comittee of inspectors searching the casas particulares, and probably getting very angry at any inconsistencies in the visitors book. They´ve yet to arrive here, and I don´t want to be here when they do.

greetz in a hurry to the people out there that support us: Thanks, everyone. Especially you. Yes, you. You know that I mean you, right?

cheers,
-thaelmann- for the nueva vista team

(better nourished this time.)

dia 8 - low rez vid for your viewing... ah.. yes, viewing.

2009-02-09T14:08:00.000-08:00

As low-rez as it gets. Use microscopes as necessary.

Monday, February 9th. Dia 8 en Cuba.

2009-02-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

Monday, February 9th.

8 Days in Cuba.

8 Days waiting for something to happen, working, phoning, writing.

Today: Another 2 hours and 30 minutes spent in the office of Martinair, trying to change babalugas flight. Finally, we manage to get a flight on the 22nd for baba & rudi, and then we spend another three quarters of an hour waiting for the credit card transaction to take place.

My recomendation: Never go to an airline with an empty stomach. "It sucks" as Abel would say. And me, hungry: not a pretty sight at all. At least there is my trusty laptop to bring me some comfort, writing these lines. Without such compensation, my lust for flesh, preferably fried, with potatoes, and some tabasco, hmmm.. and "Arroz congrí" again, yes, thats it... Ahhhhh... you get the picture.

We got the pictures as well. As the connection to the internets here is as powerful as, well, exactly one flock of pigeons flying across the atlantic, youtube bliss will only ensue when we are back in the civilised world of cheap broadband access.

But, yes, the pictures are wonderful, I assure you. I´m also reassuring myself, of course.

Did I mention I was hungry? I still am.

Well, the whole picture for next year is looking, while not bright, at least somewhat illuminated. If our wonderful host Mercy (who´s a bit annoyed by our austrian custom of drinking a Bucanerito each evening) gets the contacts, we´ll be able to pitch our concept to the "Fundación Ludwig", the organisation for the advancement of german culture in latin america. Yes, you understood correctly. It´s apparently one of the more powerful non-governmental organisations here, and is not directly dependent on charging humongous heaps of cash from the occasional tourist or artist. At least, we hope so.

I should probably ad, at this point, that we are still waiting for the frickin credit card transaction, now a whole hour, and I´m still hungry as hell. If this goes on, I´ll consider fasting religously. And then eating a heavenly heap of spaghetti.

Ahhhh! Release! Deliverance! Arrrrrrr!
Praise to the flying spaghetti Monster! It´s a miracle! We´re finished!

Yay!

- thaelmann-
(no one of the nueva vista team had anything to do with this post.)

Dia 7 - Good news, everyone!

2009-02-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

And when I say good news, I mean... well, not that many news. But we got the first moving pictures (A wonderful rumba ceremony-party-concert, with jut a few tourists, ay Changó really cleared my mind there, and the Abel Marcel Trio in the theater in the "Museo de Bellas Artes", geat guy, plays like a god, improvises like a cuban)

The guys we met on the Malecón the other day turned out not to be the racketeers we expected, but just humble cuban musicians (that still consider us to be a viable source of income, but at least they don´t want to cheat or rob us. Gooooood vibes!)

My small trusty Canon HF11 is just the right size: Nobody feels threatened by a phallic symbol that small, everywhere we are recognized as being the tourists that we are, and of course tourists take pictures. No trouble there (Yet. None to come too, I hope). Yay!

My credit card unexpectedly ceased it´s function yesterday, but that´s something I can live with as long I have these other europeans here to borrow money from. :D

Thomas is recovering, thanks to "Sal de Rehidratación Oral" and lots of sleep. His bowels are calming down, and he´s starting to think about downing another hamburger. Without salad, this time. Experience is the best teacher, right?

The posh "Hotel Parque Central", our current communication HQ, is a wonderful zoo of mostly obese tourists, smoking big fat tobacco-dicks and looking for slim and curved cubanitas to share the experience. Puagh.

so far, so good, so relaxed:
- thaelmann - for the nueva vista team

Dia 7 - picpost - Rumba, Malecón and Jazz

2009-02-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

Abel Marcel in Concert. Wooo!

Your humble thaelmann, fueled by the fires of Changó.

Malecón, by night, on the middle of the road, taken by a quite happy babaluga.

Party a lo cubano! Arrrribaaaaaa! :D

Dia 6 - turistas, turistas y la venganza de moctezuma

2009-02-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

Well..

The aforementiuoned straw turned out to be a bit rain-man-y and so didn´t bother to show up at the time we appointed, but needed to come two hours earlier (when we, of course, were somewhere else.)

Our other inquiries have also resulted, well, not fruitless, but let´s say .. not promising any fruit in the close future. So, we are now officially on holiday / excursion / expedition, and to celebrate it all we had a bottle of rum on the malecón, as is customary in these parts.

And today, our dear babaluga was hit by the full power of the vengeance of the old gods, or whatever. Microbes, more like. So, now we have one part of our team lying in bed, quite sick, and not ingesting anything for longer than three minutes.

Soooo... Rumba at three today, who knows what awaits us.. Flight change from here is nearly impossible.. (First tries at least) aaaaaand we´ll probably either go to Trinidad or get the Oscar for best Documentary produced without budget, time or camera.

cheers and greets from the nueva vista team,
- thaelmann -

Dia Cinco - another day, another straw.

2009-02-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

Hello, hola, esteemed public.

Today´s comment shall continue with the grand tradition of the more verbose, as opposed to the concise impressions of yesterday.

Currently, it´s frickin cold in Havanna, about 6° celsius. The Cubans are freezing their behinds off, and we austrians need our winter gear. The temperature is somewhat worsened by the fact that the windows here are not used to keeping warmth in, or cold out, but rather the opposite.

The Malecón is battered by the waves, with just a breeze to power them.. The destitute state of the buildings along the coast is probably caused by the hurricanes. Waves galore.

We´re currently recording atmos, and filming the usual tourist pics. The straw mentioned in the headline will materialise today at 5:30, so hopefully tomorrow will be a blog of joy for all you peeps.

In related news, Batman clearly emigrated to Cuba.

As phoning from a mobile (and also, getting calls) costs about half an euro per minute, the good old phone card and the associated machines are still very much alive and kicking in Cuba.

"Thanks, I´m the friend of everyone, take good care of me!" Yay. We will, dude. (missing because of stupid b_lögging. uargh.)

In other news: We had an excellent dinner yesterday, "congrís con pescado a la plancha y berenjenas con queso", cooked by our wonderful and essential host, Mercy. Cuban food is far better than it´s reputation! Especially "arroz con frijoles", the staple dish, is quite scrumptious.

so, cheers from the well-nourished nueva vista crew,

- thaelmann -

(last post was co-edited by rudi, by the way. my bad. )

Day 4 - Havanna in her total glory.

2009-02-05T15:14:00.000-08:00

Yes, that house has air conditioning. With whole air, that is. Garden included.

It´s the sea! And the rooftops of Cuba´s metropolis.

Chassis: Buick. Motor: Petroleum. Repairing that junkheap: A lifetime of joy.

Repairing stuff is the great cuban virtue. Today: Shoes!
The car on the left is called "Black Widow". Via Concordia, we love you.

day 4 - Pirate Beer and Beautiful ruins..

2009-02-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

Pirate Beer. Bucanero. No eyepatch & parrot though.. Bah.

The nicest tiles you ever saw on a run-down house.

Just a street impression...

Vista del Capitolio.

A whole people of revolutionary mechanics.

¡Dia tres! ¡Avanzamos! ¡Hasta la Victoria - ¡SIEMPRE!

2009-02-04T11:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, a new day , new oportunities. We are still trying to get a permission for our documentary. It seems that Cuba is like a huge analog "facebook". Networking is everything and eveybody knows someone who knows someone who could maybe help us to achieve our goal. Yesterday we were invited by the austrian embassador to his residence, a big villa in miramar. Also, a big culture shock , far away from the cuban reality we experience in Habana Vieja. The austrian government rents a colonial palace in the district generally known for it´s posh residences, english garden included.
Dont make apointments with cuban people and expect them to be on time. The term "waiting" gains a wholly new significance when waiting in Cuba. We are writing concepts, changing them, refining them again, elaborating and trying to express ourselves the best we can. "No somos contra Cuba, no somos contra Cuba". Remember that.
That´s not enough, unfortunately. To get tot he right people you need cleverness, patience and time. And a CubaBook full of contacts, just waiting for a message on their wall.

- thaelmann & babaluga -

for the nueva vista team

Malecon. As seen from a Lada. Please note the waves.

Our Elevator. Isn´t it a dear?

Re-writing our concept.

Embassy fun.

Re-writing our concept again.

dia dos! Viva Cuba! Viva la esperanza! Viva el esperar!

2009-02-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are in Cuba. For the second day now. Eating is cheap, but the basic food we all crave, information, our beloved internet, is about the most expensive thing to have here.
It’s slow (imagine an old 56k modem, split for a whole room of tourists. You get the picture), expensive (12 euros an hour right now) and about as common as brand merchandise. (not at all.)

Yesterday we spent three hours in the classic cuban art of waiting in line, for our phone SIM. When we finally got to the booth we were informed that, tourists that we are, we couldn’t buy the cheaper pay-once variety, but had to settle for a completely unsettling three euros per f”””ing day. Halleluja!

And yeah, we took some pictures, and refined our concept, and heard some wonderful latin free jazz in the Jazz Cafe (Cuban Elite Hotspot. Be there or be .. lower class.)

Cheers from paradise,

- thaelmann - for the nueva vista team.

¡Ya estamos aquí! y Cuba esta hermosa...

2009-02-02T10:21:00.000-08:00

Hidyho, friends and relatives, esteemed public.

We have arrived, after the ususal 26 hour flight marathon, on the worlds last smoker airport. You´re going to need those cigarrettes, too, because the baggage claim is comparable to a ... well, baggage claim, as seen in any south american bus station. One guy handing out luggage, placing it on the floor, stacking more luggage on top of that...
Also a good feature: Three security cameras at the immigration control desk, two of them co-angular...
But well, all´s well, we arrived in Havana vieja, and we currently live in the most beautiful house this city ever had. www.renthavanahome.com
Mercy, our host, is very nice and likes to chat, a wonderful situation for your humble thaelmann.

Currently we´re trying to get some cuban SIMs so we can phone around the clock... not sure how long this will take, as there´s a block-wide cue, and we´re in the middle of it. Met a argentino-bolivian guy who´s a bit flabbergasted by cuba, just as much as we are..

By the way, our trusty HF11 works like a charm, and no one cares what we do with it. Yay for commercial toy products that actually produce well-enough-for-youtube pictures!

cheers from havana,
-thaelmann- (for the whole nueva vista team)

50 years of Revolution

2009-01-30T01:03:00.000-08:00

There´s one thing about Cuba and Cubans that will be true forever:
They managed to overthrow the corrupt dictator Batista, and have since proven to be more resilent than anyone ever imagined.
Anyone saying that Cuba is a dictatorship now doesn´t know the facts and just repeats the right-wing slurs, so frequently published all around the world.
Discussion is the way to get something done in Cuba, something rarely seen in other countries.

The event in the AK was wonderful: unfortunately, many of the seats were empty, but the lively spirit of those present far made up for that. We experienced the beauty of Cuban music, the different influences, the impact free education has on a people of many talents: Cuban culture flourishes, not inspite the Revolution, or against the Revolution, but because of the Revolution.

"De pie o muerto, pero nunca de rodillas!"
( El Comandante Che Guevara)

- thaelmann -

first post!

2009-01-29T10:06:00.000-08:00

Hidyho World,

here we are, still in Austria, still without a clue whether we will be able to film or not. But we´re going to Cuba, so here´s the production blog.
We´ll be posting regular updates everytime we get internet access, funny stories from the island in the sun, nice pictures of beautiful people and generally spending our time usefully.

First off:

Going to Cuba is easy.

Getting to do anything there is not.

Viva la Revolución!
- thaelmann-