Miel de Maple

Something funny happened today: GPS data and location protocols of iPhone’s framework made me revive a love story that worths sharing.

All started today, while I was handling GPS positions and tying them with my new iPhone app. During one of the tests, I started Google Maps application and remembered it’s also capable of displaying 360º photographs of the streets. It’s a Google’s project called Street View.

Procrastination then took me to latitude 43.604363, longitude 1.442951 which happens to be the location of a southern-France city where I made a residence with my first photography teacher.

I spend a virtual tour across some of the streets I remembered, because it’s a city that keeps a lot of valuable experiences for me. I then landed on Avenue Tolosane, the very same place where one of my favorite songs, “Coke, Cigarettes and You” was inspired.

The story happened during summer. I was on that street because I had a date with a girl I really loved. I was going to meet her at a bus stop, but arrived a little earlier. In fact, I didn’t arrived by bus, I actually arrived after walking about 5 or 6 kilometers because my camera’s watch failed and started the journey extra-early (it was 2 or 3 hours forward).

Even after the long walk I was still early, so I went to a bar in the same street to kill some time. I ordered a Coca-Cola (you know how much I love it) and took seat at the bar’s terrace. My cigarettes just were over when I saw her walking down the street (like in that 1964 Orbison’s hit).

We spent a wonderful day and near the end got slept, then waked up at twilight. Just in time for me to catch the bus to the train station, I was leaving the city that same night. We walked to the bus stop (you guessed, over Avenue Tolosane) and waited for the last bus. It was starting to get dark and cold. We hug, I hold her tight and said goodbye. We knew there were good chances we would not see each other again.

After my arrival to Mexico City, I recorded a song during the following weeks, a love song about that day. It has no lyrics but it says something like:

In a place that is new and strange to me, I’ve found someone who makes it familiar.
Someone who doesn’t speak my language but I know how to make smile.
Someone that can tell me with her eyes she really liked that kiss.
Someone I would say: when I’m with you I don’t need anything else…
No wait, we both know that’s a lie, better say:
When I’m with you, I just need Coke, cigarettes, and you…

You can listen the track directly here, in last.fm

weee!

Have you ever met someone who is afraid of flying? Me neither.

Through my short life, I have known people who is afraid of roaches, dwarfs, the nuclear holocaust but no one who is afraid of flying. Eno’s Music For Airports, pretty flight attendants serving peanuts and airplane’s instructional videos, in which air catastrophes are represented as quiet and relaxed experiences, had helped us forget the already improbable risks of flying. However, during my last trip, I couldn’t stop thinking a little bit about the plane crash occurred in Mexico City a few weeks ago.

Fortunately, the conception of “improbable” was capable of providing me some calm. But, what does “improbable” means? In a general and non-numerical sense it means that in a long series of specific events, a particular one has very small chances of happening.  That leads us to the next question: are plane crashes something unlikely to happen? It looks like. Your chances are one to millions (depending on the airline and varying from 1 to 11 million).  

So if you didn’t have a car accident while driving to the airport and defeated the risk of choking with that tasteless croissant at the airport, feel safe, you have already overcome the highest risks of traveling by plane. Now you just need to worry about a potentially deep-vein thrombosis caused by the lack of movement.