Landfill Harmonic

Because this film is important, I showed the trailer to students in The Planet Sings seminar. 

Before two minutes had passed, I realized that I need to share the entire film. Because it exceeds the length of a single class session, we are now spending much of this week with this film. As of this writing, we have watched the first half of this remarkable story. 

I have managed not to divulge the spoiler that comes in the second half, when the kids from Cateura (on the outskirts of Asunción) make a surprising connection with musicians in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, we have seen the unfolding of a tale that is remarkable -- and relevant -- in several ways. The first protagonist is an environmental educator who pivots to a music education, illustrating the value of humanities education, even in extremely limited circumstances. Just as many middle-income communities in the United States were busy gutting music education in the pursuit of lower taxes, he was working with industrious and ingenious neighbors to build an orchestra with literal garbage. 

Connections 

The "Planet Sings" course and broader project have led me to involve music in my teaching in much the same way I have involved coffee over the past two decades. That is, I am now using geography to learn about music and music as a way to learn about geography.

This means that watching this film with students caused me to pursue a lot of geographic tangents. For example, we discussed the antipodal example of nearby Formosa, Argentina (the exact opposite of Taiwan's home island of Formosa) and the distinctive linguistic situation of Paraguay.

Another example is chimarrão. Because Landfill Harmonic is set in the Paraguay, many people are seen drinking the tea known as yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis). This tradition is shared with neighbors in Argentina and southernmost Brazil. It is sometimes described as a gaucho tradition. Between the two halves of the film, a friend posted this online -- the sign reads "Entry Prohibited without Chimarrão." 

Image: Bruna Silva Mendes

In Brazil, it is known as Chimarrão and because of internal migration, I first learned about it in 1996 many hundreds of miles to the north, in Porto Velho. I have enjoyed it during most of my visits to Brazil, north and south, including my 2019 return to PVH.

Photo: Dr. Miguel Nenevé

Bigger Picture

In addition to some interesting details of cultural geography, the story brings to mind some important ideas about geography writ large. Specifically, the teacher Favio Chávez impresses me as a MOBAL in the parlance of geographer Harm de Blij. Our department was fortunate to host Dr. de Blij (du-BLAY) for visits in 2006 and 2009. During the second visit, he was the distinguished Class of 1942 lecturer, and his comments emerged from his book The Power of Place. My brief review explains how I think of this term,  in the context of the book itself.

During his second visit, Dr. de Blij was among the first to visit EarthView. 
He is the rather professorial chap in the back-left, wearing a red tie.

Lagniappe

See the 2022 post Musica: Paraguay on my main blog for further thoughts.

Comida y Música

In our house, we appreciate good food as much as we do good music. We were delighted to hear Cuban-American restaurateur Patricia Estorino connect the two during her recent interview on the GBH radio program The Culture Show. As she says, the older she gets, the more she realizes that EVERYTHING is connected. (It was the last segment on the October 9 program; jump to 42:00 for a bit of music and then her conversation with journalist Jared Bowen.)

We are looking forward to visiting Gustazo Cuban Kitchen and Bar -- either in Cambridge or in Waltham. Hearing this interview reminds me of another excellent Cuban eatery in our region -- Café Reyes in Worcester. Unlike Gustazo, I have already been to Café Reyes (though not recently) and can report first-hand that it has both wonderful food and beautiful visual arts. 

Note: Gustazo is for dinner; Reyes for breakfast and lunch. Both offer catering. I was contemplating all of this while making breakfast this morning and listening to Havana Meets Kingston, which was recently recommended by a student in this class. I was not paying close attention until I heard the tune Chan Chan in Dub -- a reggae take on one of my very favorite songs. 

Bunny

The image above -- although AI art is not something I usually like to use -- is as good a place as any to start this discussion. It is, of course, a reference to the last time the current POTUS interacted with Puerto Rico. More recently, he and his ilk are reacting with shock that a Puerto Rican will be performing at the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show. They are treating it as a foreign invasion, in part because the artist known as Bad Bunny has otherwise avoided performing in the United States this year, even though he is a citizen. Like many of us, he is concerned about the unlawful abduction of people of color by masked government agents.

For some basic PR geography, see "Yo Soy Boricua, Pa Que Tu Lo Sepas" (Movie Trailer)

Of course, this is not Mr. Bunny's first rodeo. He appeared twice during the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show with headliners Shakira and J. Lo. That game was held in Miami and featured a vibrant Puerto Rican flag, with plenty of U.S. flags as well. As of this writing, the YouTube video of this show has had 330 million views. The nation and the NFL seem to have done just fine.

Bad Bunny established Good Bunny Foundation in 2018 to broaden access to the arts and sports among Puerto Rican children and youth. Those who discredit him either do not know this or they do not care. 

 

Putumayo Finds 2025

Because this Honors course is a speaking-intensive seminar, I not only bring music to the course -- I invite (require) students to do the same. In the Fall 2025 semester, the first assignment of this kind had students exploring the Putumayo catalog (see my May 2025 Dan Storper memoriam post for some of the story of this important label). 

La Coya: From Ecuador by way of France

The students rose to the occasion -- each sharing a different song, most of which are available on YouTube. Two dozen students brought music from almost as many countries and share stories about the artists and the geography of their origins. All of the music is so enjoyable that I have collected the videos in this playlist.

Enjoy -- and if you want to learn more, seek these artists on the Putumayo web site. 

Bonus: while looking for the YouTube link for Haflína by Marína Ósk of Iceland, I found Coffee Song by the same artist and had to add it! 

Batuka - Madonna

Polyrhythmic batuku (or batuka) is both a form of music and dance and a form of resistance and memory. I was fortunate to visit a gathering of women in Cidade Velha as they practiced batuka drumming/singing/dancing during my January 2024 travel course. 

Notice I did not use the word "performance" because this was a private moment in a community of women, and some visitors were fortunate to gather around the edges of the space in which they were gathered. 

It had been a couple of years earlier that I learned of Madonna's performance with members of that same community. As much as I enjoy Madonna's work generally, I must admit I was skeptical about this video. But I learned about it from a Cape Verdean -- my kriolu language professor -- and so I accept it for what it appears to be: a visitor from outside being welcomed by Cape Verdeans, as I have been. That's morabeza. 

There is much more to be said about this music in general and this video in particular. For now, I am posting it in a way to facilitate sharing it with students in at least three different courses I am teaching in the fall: Detroit, Africa, and world music. It is relevant to all three! 

Batuku session in Cidade Velha, 2024
Photo by JH-B / Context in Cabo Verde Photos

Lagniappe

Read the Batuku-Finason article by my friend Gláucia for a rich description of this oldest of Cabo Verdean musical forms, several local videos, and Charles Darwin's experience with this music. Yes, that Charles Darwin!

Feliz Cumpli, Chepito

From the Facebook group Nicaragua y Su Historia, I learned that one of Santana's long-time percussionists was born in the city of León, a place full of visual art and historic lessons that I have enjoyed visiting close to a dozen times.  

The group posted this brief biography of Chepito -- with terrific photos --  on the occasion of his 79th birthday. From the post, I not only learned about his contribution to the music of Santana. I also learned that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland -- which I have visited three times so far -- has a much more poetic name in Spanish: Salón de Fama del Rock.

Chepito, from Nicaragua y Su Historia

He was with Santana in its early decades -- very early in fact. Among the several percussionists who were part of the Soul Sacrifice performance at Woodstock, he is the one in the red shirt. Mesmerizing.

All of this was before Santana the person pivoted toward predominantly Latin music -- as opposed to mainly English or acoustic rock. This Nicaraguan-born musician was not on Supernatural or many of the other albums that were produced primarily in Spanish. As of this 2025 writing, I am realizing that I have written several posts about Santana's Latin American music on my Environmental Geography blog, though not here on The Planet Sings.

Start the Day

Shamelessly lifted from social media, this cartoon reads (in Spanish):

HOW TO START THE DAY IN PEACE / ENOUGH COFFEE / GOOD MUSIC

It is fitting for both of the Geography Second-Year Seminars I offer at BSU (mainly as Honors courses). The nature of our SYS requirement is that if you take The Planet Sings you cannot take The Secret Life of Coffee. 

And vice-versa. Every student takes one FYS and one SYS course (unless waived by prior credits), but nobody can take more than one. Even a dean's "magic wand"cannot make that happen -- we've tried.

But fear not, SYS students! If you take my coffee class (or any of my classes) there will be some music. And if you take my music class (or any of my classes) there will be some coffee. Bastante coffee, in fact, and quite good coffee.

Lagniappe

 Colleagues and former students are always welcome to stop by class for a cuppa. It is always served with the music at the beginning of class.