Festival Internacional de Arte y Musica Subterranea

While I realize that Festival Internacional de Arte y Music Subterranea took place at the end of January, I can only claim that I've been overwhelmingly busy. Well, that and it took me a good three days to master the technology of embedding songs in my blogpost. Technology: 0, Katherine: 1.

As many of you know back in January, I made a trip to Puerto Rico to attend this festival, as well as to begin making contacts for my summer research on the island. The festival was a tremendous success, thanks to my good friend, Jorell who organized the event. It was absolutely lovely to see artists, filmmakers, bands, and good people all come together to watch films, listen to music, and well, play some kickball, eat starfruit, and drink some delicious drinks (of which I still don't know what exactly was mixed).

Festival Internacional de Arte y Musica Subterranea

Here are some pictures from the trip of the various events. I chose not to take pictures at Noche Acustica, but rather documented the event with an audio recorder, of which clips are available below.

The first night of the event was Noche de Cortometrajes, which took place at Executive Manolo-- an interesting collaborative where you can get your haircut, buy clothing, screenprint in the back room, and view the current art hanging on the walls. We had the pleasure of watching films produced by two separate independent collaboratives. One was The Gadabout Traveling Film Fest. And the second one was Guerrilla Films. While I enjoyed them both, I urge you to check out the work of La Guerrilla, as I think these are some of the most enjoyable and innovative short films I've seen recently.

And of my favorites from the night was the work of Carlos Irizarry, who has become a good friend and a tremendous help to me as I begin to plan my work for the summer. Here is the link to one of his films.

Evening One of the event was followed up with c-c-c-c-combobreakers at Cafe 103 and a night spent on Jorell and Magaly's couch surrounded by their lovely cats.

The following day I attended Circa 2010 at the convention center and met up with Jason Mena, an artist in town of which I had a lovely time conversating and attempting to finish too much sangria.

The second evening of the festival was Noche Electrica at Taller Ce, of which I had the opportunity to hear/see Campio Formio, Imperial Can, Un Final Fatal, and Anti Sociales. Absolutely fantastic, given the night began with our car almost being trampled by several men on horseback. I also had the pleasure of meeting Eggie, one of Jorell's bandmates from Anti Sociales. Most of the pictures are from this night, though in retrospect, I wish I had been able to tape some of the show.

The third day involved a field day at the fort, El Morro. Loads of fun was had as kites were flown, sack races were semi-successful, and a mean game of kick ball ensued.

The evening was followed up with Noche Acustica at El Local. Performing this evening was Jan from Anti Sociales, Chris Clavin of Imperial Can/Captain Chaos, and Roberto Muerto. I have included all the audio clips from this evening below. The order of the clips is respective of the order listed above. While I should have labeled these, I found it an incredible feat to put them online, so you'll just have to scan through and listen. Magaly and Jorell even joined Jan on some of the first few songs, so give it a listen. Everytime I hear Track 7 by Chris Clavin, I'll always remember this trip.

Festival Internacional de Arte y Musica Subterranea by user829182

All in all, I had a blast at the festival and in my other investigations. I found out recently that I will be spending 6 weeks of my summer on the island. I cannot explain how thrilled I am to return to visit all of my old and new friends on the island and to spend more time with them, drinking, singing, and conversating about the things that keep me awake at night.

Addition:

You should also check out the work of Santos

and thanks to Carlos for reminding me of this video of Anti Sociales at Taller Ce that night.