Talagante, Región Metropolitana, Chile

There is no reason ever to go to Talagante, Chile, unless you live there or know someone who does.



I've been racking my brains trying to think of somewhere in the UK to compare it to, and I just can't.  It's got less cultural importance than Milton Keynes or King's Lynn.  Other than the main plaza there were no parks, no museum, no pretty church on a corner (listen to me, I'm complaining about a lack of a church!), no architecture of note, it's flatter than Norwich so there's no place to get a view, and no shopping (not that I'd go there for that anyway, and I suppose it's close enough to Santiago/Maipú that it doesn't need good shopping, so I can forgive it that).

Seriously, of all the places I've been to in the UK, I'd say it's as culturally important as Hamilton or Motherwell, Scotland, but a bit bigger.  Smaller than East Kilbride.  But with less crime and fewer heroin addicts.

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Music!!

Last night I had a class with a student who likes similar music to me.  So after talking to him about various cultures (he seems to love German efficiency, wants to send his 11-month-old son to an German-speaking school when he's old enough.  That's fine.  He's the parent.  I just reminded him that in the future his kid will be better off learning English [what's the lingua franca of China, India, eastern Europe, western Europe outside the major language countries right now?] or Mandarin.  Little Clemente's better off speaking Spanish than German!  Portuguese has no importance outside Brazil [which will be a world player] and Portugal, Italian's no good, French owes most of its popularity to Africa [and Quebec], and German's only Germany, Austria, and a bit of Switzerland!  I bit my tongue to stop from saying 'German efficiency?  Hitler trumpeted that.  Best off sending your kid to an English school, go British rather than American if that's what you want.  I love the UK, but with all the 'how do you do?' crap they teach in the British schools, la docencia's going to be a generation behind anyway.

So, anyway, we started listening to music on his laptop.  He couldn't remember what exactly what music was played in the film The Full Monty, and I consider my work done in that I successfully convinced him that The Stereophonics' version of 'I Believe in Miracles' wasn't as good as that of Hot Chocolate (and I LOVE indie, not mid-'70s funk or whatever that was!).  From there we moved on to Arctic Monkeys, of whom I said 'loved the first album, second album good, after that....'  So a bit of Fluorescent Adolescent, then Arcade Fire....  By then class was over, and I felt good!  So in his car, with him giving me a lift to my bus stop, he asked me to choose a song on his ipod.  I chose a song I love, one of the least commercial he had... 'Australia' by The Shins.  I left that car wanting to go out dancing!!

Every memory counts as I try to rebuild my music collection, just downloaded some Tilly and the Wall earalier today!