“What he has demonstrated very clearly is that you have a choice. He took all that torment, all that agony, all that confusion and pain, and he transformed it, into something beautiful. He’s like the silkworm, you know, you know, you take this raw material, and you transform it, and you come out with something that wasn’t there before, something beautiful, something perhaps Transcendent, something perhaps eternal.  Insofar as he does that, I think he is representative of human spirit, of what is possible, that you have a choice, and this has been my choice, to give you sugarman.  No, have you done that? Ask yourself…” excerpt from Oscar-winning documentary – Searching for Sugar Man.

I just received the most amazing birthday gift, weeks ahead of my actual birthday.  Yes, I love birthdays.  No I do not like to make big deals of mine, but others.  It’s that whole, “Look, I am no here trying to be vain, but celebrate what others bring to my table.”

I watched this documentary, Searching for Sugar Man, given to me by Tulio Lugo to watch, and am struck by this being the most amazing documentary I have seen in – well, I can’t recall ever seeing something some REAL.  Yet, it serves as a lesson on how easy going and open you need to be to appreciate just that, the real things in life, avoiding what others feel it is to be successful and rich, and finding the aspects that are what real success is about – friends, family, events that can’t be measured by today’s standards.  This documentary has it all wrapped into one, a gift I have not seen or watched until today, am I the better to seeing it, my gosh yes.

Now, I need to get my hands on the record, the cd, and any albums I can by Sixto Rodriguez, without a doubt.  It is amazing to see how this man, so humble, represents so much of what people fail to see, great success in being humble and quietly going about fulfilling he need to see others succeed as well.  The last quote in the article above, “At the end of Bendjelloul’s film, we learn that Rodriguez is touring the world and playing to sold-out crowds, and is giving most of his money away to family and friends. Oscar or no Oscar, Sixto Rodriguez acts and sounds like a man who is very much at peace with the world.” says all you need to know.

In the past few days I have been lucky enough to experience so many new adventures, from learning who Yolanda Vargas Dulche was, after hearing about her, as Contadora De Historias and grandmother of my amazingly admired Editor in Chief for Repentino., Camila de la Parra, and attended a 100% Espanol roundtable discussion about her life at the Mueso De Arte Popular.  As if that wasn’t enough, I attended, in the same night!, the opening and premiere of colleague Jason Schell’s art at the hostel on Juan Escutia, (I loved seeing he actually studied at Grove City, I KNOW THAT PLACE!!),

and with the advent of Kinah having puppies, seeing the movie Oz, El Poderso Friday, eating an amazing meal Friday Night, and preparing for an amazing venture intro New York with an amazing Repentino. staff, yeah, life is complicated at times, yet, the good things, if you look close enough, will overwhelm the supposedly bad thing we think are there the whole time, an really are not.  Life is good and I even came up with a piece to read at Open Mic – not a bad weekend…:)