"Flower power, but very well organized." -- the bandleader Vittorio, describing Festival Med, in Loule, Portugal

the madrid airport has the best pillars. In pantone hues, they stretch across the terminal like the ribs of an abstract dinosaur.

i don't know what this says about portugal, but this is the best thing I've seen so far on our trip! loule, a town an hour from lisbon, where mauro played his first show, was a little resort town. It has a Moorish influence and seemed interesting, but we stayed at a hilton resort that might as well have been in vegas. then, we went straight to festival med, the five day festival where just four nights before, buena vista social club had played.

The festival featured cobbled streets, winding alleys covered with flowered fabric, and hippie artisans selling handcrafts.

The music is as follows. Take an indigenous Italian musical tradition with origins in shamanic ritual. Then add two drum kits, a soprano sax, and an electric violin. Top it off with a bandleader who happens to be the drummer from The Police. Yup, that's it.


(M's watch blending, chameleon-like, into the Madrid Airport)