EPISODE XXIII
“¿Can you play it again for me, please? -The Loser Titan pleaded him by joining the palm of his hands as if praying. This song is going to make my head explode, if this has not already happened. “
Practice: The art of becoming proficient in any art, ability or skill.
Girona, Catalunya, Spain, October 1st 2017
Isis and The Loser Titan arrived in Girona (the last destination of their journey) in the midst of an upheaval during which the conflict between the Spanish central government and the autonomous community of Catalonia -over the independence of the latter- re-emerged, following a non-binding referendum held on the first of October 2017, whose verdict provoked incidents widely covered in the national media. Each part had been firing poisonous attacks to each other via inflamed speeches, in a climate where mutual distrust and treachery abounded, being the to-ing and fro-ing diatribes’ ultimate goal to apportion blame to the other flank as to the current situation: from one side were those who objected the referendum, the centralists attached to the monarchy and staunch defenders of what the constitution proclaims with regards to splitting Spain into minor parts; on the other side were the independentists, wrapped themselves up in cultural common traits, in speaking a language of their own; this folks, in fact, regarded their claims as an exercise of the principle of people´s right to self-determination.
They had just left Sitges, where the Chilean victim of a swindler had given them lodging. Isis and The Loser Titan looked baffled by how dangerous it is to be in the hands of a furtive provider of hallucinogenic substances, capable to cause mental disruptions and psychic derangements on seekers of true psychedelic experiences.
The stone-made sloped city of Girona, alongside the Oñar River, outlines the traces of history, in which it plays a pioneer role, while the Patron Saint Narcissus soothes the spirits of rowdy street activists. With a warm climate, Girona is as friendly as its fame tells, and is renowned by its medieval architecture coupled with the layout of magnificent ornamental gardens. The Romans left there a major imprint by the erection of the stronghold Força Vella; even though many other invaders tore across Girona leaving architectonic prodigies behind, they were far lesser important than the referred famous fortress.
Isis is not really keen on visiting towns on foot because she quickly gets tired and cranky; even so, she and him would be constraint to walk along Girona in view of the typical shortage of money that always comes up to low-budget travellers. Of course, steep alleys were to be traversed at snail’s pace. Catalan was almost exclusively spoken out there in the streets, the locals expressed themselves in Spanish if and when Latin American tourists or people from other regions of Spain asked them to. It was a pro independent sunny day, the afternoon flourished after lunchtime at the Ibis Hotel, their accommodation in Girona since the night before. Committed to postpone the nap, they started walking towards the old quarter of Girona, the Barri Vell, until they reached the Cathedral, which harbours the widest gothic nave in the world.
At a bend of the road on the way up, one block before walking into Barri Vell a young Catalan, Marc Pou, was stationed. He looked half-shaved, had fleshy lips and was big-headed, from the head-crown several interwoven strands rolled down along his back with a pony tail in the end, shaping up an artificial marron glacé-coloured dreadlock hairstyle with which white men try to imitate Rastafarists. Marc Pou was skilfully playing a song by then, so moving as to cause admiration among pedestrians passing by. Lying on the floor was the classic fundraiser little helper, the cap, fastened by some small stones so to prevent it from flying away; a set of CD´s titled Dreams was piled up beside. Marc Pou would later pass the cap round looking for contributors to his performance.
The Loser Titan stopped walking and asked the musician, as in a greeting:
- Sorry to interrupt you, man ¿What instrument are you playing? I am a musician too, but I had never seen so a strange drum before.
The Catalan flashed a smile in the Loser Titan´s direction and, as if he had been waiting for the question from time immemorial, he jumped in with both feet into a thorough explanation, showing off a lecturer stand:
“What I play is a percussion melodic musical instrument that comes from Trinidad y Tobago, which is a byproduct of the Steel Drum. It was also influenced by the bottle-shaped Gatham, a percussion musical instrument made of ceramic, of Indian origin. Look bloke, I don´t know how to put it in words but, there have arisen so many different theories on how this apparently clumsy collection of stuff should be named. Etno-musicologist and organ ologists differ on the subject, they refuse to categorize them and are prone to say instead, that it makes part of a broader group of instruments world-known as Hang. Can you see those metal shells? good, whenever those shells are hit a peculiar acoustic vibration is produced out of them, that´s why they are often called -correctly in my opinion- acoustic shells. In a secondary level, they resound like a Helmoltz resonator. Some would say it´s a metallic drum; they are wrong, they have no idea what they are talking about. The Hang is midway between a membranophone (where the drum belongs) and the idiophone (where the Gong is listed). Technically speaking, it´s close to the aerophone. Depending on where do you touch, a different note sounds. The flat area available in the middle of the shell is the central note: The Ding. Because I am nonpolitical -in terms of music issues obviously- I walk away from controversies, I prefer to enjoy the meat of other lions that die in the pride; what it matters to me is that I play the Handpan and that´s all. What makes the sound of the Handpan overwhelmingly original -you may perceive it- is due to the Helmholtz resonators, which gives it a subtle, celestial touch. Many of us, Handpan´s lovers, tend to attribute a sacred character to every melody coming out of it, a sound likely to be labelled as sublime without being religious; in any case, the audience proved me right: Handpan´s songs penetrate the souls of the listeners with their resonance. Damn it! Those who won’t feel the resonance are said to be soulless or deaf.
Nose to nose with the precarious stage where Marc was imparting the Handpan lessons, there was a leather goods shop-boutique. At the entrance a quarrelsome Catalan shopkeeper, as much over-aged as over-weighed, reproached to a tourist from Madrid the insolence of the central government at how the Putsch was suppressed, the shopkeeper held against the tourist about the violence unfolded by the government to express its disagreement with regards to the result of the independentist referendum. The time is ripe, the fed-up Catalan woman went on, for Madrid to summon a Constitutional Assembly so that to proceed with an urgent aggiornamento of the Magna Carta, in order to allow Catalunya to separate from Spain. “I don´t give a damn for the king´s empty words. He is not entitled to make a pronouncement on our sovereignty only because he is an unemployed nonchalant sovereign in suits and ties, a rascal that takes recourse to public funds to sustain a high standard of living. Every time he lands in Barcelona, he is more convinced that he doesn´t visit Spain, but a foreign country which, unfortunately, is still part of the monarchy he represents. I can foretell that in the days to come Puidgemont, the leader of our uprising, will be banned.
Faced the Madrilenian woman to those arguments and standing in the belief that the Catalan shopkeeper was a well-studied lawyer, she lacked of courage to object and so remained silent.
With Isis grumbling next to him, the Argentine raised his voice, to show his interest in the Handpan and what emanated therefrom:
- Oh man! -the Loser Titan exclaimed in shock-, that song is absolutely terrific. It blew me away. ¿How did you call it?
- “Happy Way” -Marc Pou replied proudly- It´s song number 8 of the album “Dreams” that you see over there.
- Can you play it again for me, please? -The Loser Titan pleaded him by joining the palms of his hands together as if praying-. This song is going to make my head explode, if this has not already happened.
Marc Pau cast off his face the client-attracting begging smile, and thus gave rise to a burst of laughter.
- You know what? Happy Way is one of my favorites too -the troubadour from Catalunya admitted-. I play it with the Handpan out here in the street, whereas in the studio I mix it with a xylophone, transverse flutes, clarinets, hang drums, hang bells and maybe something else.
- Do you make concerts from time to time?
- Yes, I do, quite often indeed. We have a band with my girlfriend, called Maytzo, I get kind of stoned when we play together, like if to be having a symphonic copulation.
- Do you foresee any concert soon?
- There won´t be any in the near future. Like you Argentines say: what a fucking bad luck!
Later on, he bought the CD for ten euros, and once in the train journey Girona-Madrid the Loser Titan -entranced by its resonance- went over the melody and harmonies of Happy Way by heart. He was looking forward to getting to Cali so to learn to play the song with his guitar.
Cali, Colombia, October 10th 2017
Upon returning back to routine, The Loser Titan´s highest priority was to buy a tape recorder with a Cd Rom drive, so that he could listen to the Cd Dreams at home. Presently, computers are no longer equipped with Cd drives, as in the modern times of Streaming, Spotify and Led lamps they were declared obsolete. To find one would, therefore, be no easy task for the Loser Titan and may probably take him to the flea Market of street Number 15. The hunger for sales shown by shop assistants in street Number 15 eventually inspired some hopes in the Loser Titan, about the availability of tape recorders with CD drive, but further search through shelves, stores and warehouses ended in nothing. Shop assistants actually concealed him that tape recorders with CD drives were not ordered to manufacturers any longer, as they had been phased out because little market existed for them nowadays. Still, The Loser Titan didn´t quit the search, he kept on visiting stores until a single mother with five months of pregnancy -who seemed to be hired as shop assistant by her caritative parents- brought to the counter a sort of orange OVNI which had a CD drive at the top, plus radio and a pen-drive connection. Even if it was a bargain for the Loser Titan, he thought he could have taken it for free, as it was evident the relief the pregnant young woman felt at getting rid of that junk.
After a week spent listening to Dreams, The Loser Titan learnt every instrumental song of the Album. Yet Happy Way remained in the top one among them: as its melody, the sonority of the Handpan carried him away to an unexplored land, a gathering point -only conceivable by his imagination- for beautifulness, crystal-clearness and musical aesthetics.
Cali, Colombia, November 29th 2015
The Loser Titan had found in Facebook a library of spirituality created by an esoteric virtual community, of which he became an active member. He went in that direction guided by his interest in personal-growth books that you could freely download from the virtual platform, whether it be in PDF or Word formats. One of the first books he had chosen was one called “The ancient secret of the fountain of youth”, a short work where the issue of rejuvenation is addressed. A retired British colonel with a mysterious halo -who had been living during two years in Hindustan with a large group of Tibetan lamas- plumbed therein the depths of the process to slow down aging. He learnt from the Tibetan lamas how to give to the body, likewise to the soul, their former youth back, by performing a set of five rites or postures. The Loser Titan also read that in order to move forward on the path of self-realization, each of us must develop three qualities: deed, wisdom and devotion. The British colonel pointed out that there are studies which confirm that the chemistry of our body might change depending on the role we play out, and that the recasting of our roles -that is to say, a new world perception owing to a mind switch- is a choice that can be made. Within this frame appears the concept of the fountain of youth, which stays dormant inside us. The Loser Titan agreed on the Lama´s best phrase: “everyone wishes a long life but no one wishes to be old”. Suddenly, the hanker for longevity overwhelmed the Loser Titan, it ceased to be just a concept as he began to see himself performing the rites, which some people call Tibetan Yoga. Although it is true that Yoga was born in India, it is also true that Yogic practices have been spread out over many other countries such as, Burma, Thailand, Tibet and China. It was then naturally no wonder that Tibetans, well-known as millenary mystics, could manage to craft their own yoga not disrespecting the original one, especially if you think that in ancient times they were assisted -for the sake of the stimulation of their consciousness- by an advanced race, inhabitants of a cluster of stars named the Pleiades. Additionally, he learnt that there are seven centers of energy in the human body, vortexes or chakras, invisible to the human eye yet very real. These vortexes rule the endocrine system, which accounts for the acceleration or retardation of the aging process. When the person is healthy, these vortex spin around at high speed, enabling the Prana or vital energy to flow upwards through the endocrine system. However, the flux of energy is inhibited whenever one of these vortexes reduces its speed. Youth can be recovered so long as these centers of energies win their former speed back. The energy can be reinstated by the practices of five postures called “the Tibetan rites for eternal youth”.
The Loser Titan started his daily practice of the rites in November 29th 2015, exactly two years before his encounter with Valentina.
The deck on the back of the house was perfect for outdoors activities, it was the Loser Titan´s place of yoga practices before going to sleep. The Tibetan rites for eternal youth too, were performed under the deck´s picture window. Who was standing around the deck bearing witness to his routine? The guadua bamboo forest and the scrupulous opossum, the latter being an ugly marsupial which often broke the Loser Titan´s concentration with its quick movements, rolling the underbrush flat with its flaws; taking into account its omnivorous type of diet, the Loser Titan should be alert not to be the opossum’s night banquet. There was now another witness apart from the toing and froing of opossums nearby: the tape recorder. As background music flowed in every outdoors session, no matter what, the song Happy Way could be heard enlivening the postures in the middle of the asanas in progress. Tibetan rite number one, a revolving movement of the arms stretched out parallel to the floor, was introduced to westerners by George Gurdjieff at the beginning of the twentieth century, but it was of oriental origin. Whirling dervishes from many Sufi Orders mastered the art of these revolving movements, they were entranced by the slow turns until the only thing left was the dance, the naked eye couldn´t see the absence of the dancer. It is said that the Tibetans cheated this posture from the Sufis and modified it slightly to stamp its mark, before making of it the rite number one of eternal youth. What the Loser Titan enjoyed most about turning endlessly was to forget the external world as the number of repetitions increased, he suddenly found himself settled down in his inner´s void immensity, savoring an inexplicable ecstasy.
- What do you do every day early in the morning? -Isis asked the Loser Titan on November twelfth 2017. When I hear the tape recorder, I lean through the window bars and watch you in the deck doing God´s knows what.
- I do some exercises aimed at slowing down the aging process.
- Don´t tell me you are feeling old! How come? You are only fifty -Isis cried out half amused half intrigued. Why do you stick your nose into this business? You look yourself fit; nobody would guess you are fifty.
- I do it, that´s the way it is. I enjoy them.
Knowing fully well that Isis put a lot of effort into hiding her concern about standing the test of time, the invasion of wrinkles on the skin and so on, the Loser Titan decided to be stingy with her as per the Tibetan rites. Even if she was an excellent coach of Yoga and strived for the conquest of her inner world, the outer appearance is the Achille´s heel of Isis ´evolving path. Considering his scientific-oriented type of mind, the rationality of the Loser Titan will request profound experimentation of the Tibetan rites, thoroughly, backwards and forward, no matter how long it´ll take, once first-hand knowledge has been obtained, he may openly speak out of them. There was hence no possibility to share anything with her by November twelve, nor the spiritual features implicit within the Tibetan rites practice, since it was not yet his personal experience. The Loser Titan still took it as a respiratory therapy technique focused on calming down distressed western people´s minds, at least that was the goal of the enlightened master responsible for introducing these oriental rites in the west. Whatever inner change the Tibetan rites might cause, it was a pending issue for the by the time of his arrival from Europe.
