Mexico:

Death in the Afternoon

Ernest Hemingway, in his 1932 book about Spanish bullfighting, "Death in the Afternoon,"
writes "The theory, practice and spectacle of bullfighting have all been built on the
assumption of the presence of the sun and when it does not shine over a third of the bullfight is missing."
It was a hot august mexican sun that heated up the ring in Tijuana. I went south with Bruce, Dave Wiesehan,
Chuck Hasley and his other son, Chris Hasley, for the spectacle that started at four o'clock.

the Bull looks about

Ernesto writes of the spanish vino, calling the vin ordinaire "consistently superior to that
of France since it is never tricked or adulterated, and is only about a third as expensive I believe it
to be the best in Europe by far." We, however, were drinking the mexican beers. Now, I am not a connoisseur
of fine beers, but I have tasted the Stout Malt in a Welsh bar frequented by Dick Burton.
I did the tour of the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam, stumbling out the doors drunk, draped over two fine women.
And I've marched through the beer halls of Munchen where I downed the deep mugs of die Mutterland mit die schone
Madchen bei mir, but for my taste, the mexican beer Pacifico is at the apex of the beer drinking experience.
Ernesto does say that "the Madrid breweries were founded by Germans and the beer is the best anywhere on the continent
outside of Germany and Czecho-Slovakia," but we will discuss that a different time.

as good as the beer drinking experience gets

I drink maybe a six pack a month, but that six pack consists of Cerveza Pacifico Clara.
Course now, I'm an old man, but when I was younger, it was still the mexican beer. In the sixties,
for some reason still unknown to me, the beer of choice in the Lot was Schlitz. What a pisser
that was! Bad taste in your mouth, bad smell when you pissed it. Yet, that was the beer of
choice for Steve or Frank or Mickey and others. Not I. Cervezas for me. Dos Equis, but never Tecate
or the deep molasses Negro Model. The only thing the latter beer did for me was to associate
the name with the Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani [died 1/24/20]. And that sent me off on another
tangent in my quest for knowledge. Fitting that an Italian artist, an acquaintance of opium
and parisian whores, would have a name similar to a mexican beer drunk heavily in Zona Norte.

Modigilani's Nude Sdraiato

But I digress. Ernesto calls the bullfight "a tragedy: the death of the bull, which is played more
or less well, by the bull and the man involved and in which there is danger for the man but certain
death for the animal. This danger to the man can be increased by the bullfighter at will in the
measure in which he works close to the bull's horns."

This is what we came to see, the measure of the man as he moves close to the bull's horns. To watch the
matador control his feet and his cape and his body so that the bull charges the cape and not him. And to
do it with style. To look good while acting in the tragedy of the bull, which could easily switch to the tragedy of the man.

the Matador with blood on his suit

It was before my time as a board surfer, probably before my time for this incarnation, but sometime back the riders of the waves
discerned a parallel with the handlers of the muleta, and they were drawn to the spectacle of the bullfight to observe, to study
these artists. The board rider as matador, the wave as bull, and the danger inherent in the mixture of the two, and the performance
accomplished with style. The bull has knocked down many people to their death, so has the sea.

the Bull revels in his pyrrhic victory

Watching a good bullfighter plant his feet and set his body before the onrushing bull, directing the bull with his wrists
positioning the cape close to his body--this is what we came to watch. Like sitting on the beach or paddling on the inside
and seeing Edwards or Dora moving along and with and under the wave and wall and tube and whitewater. And done with style!
Not some disjointed spastic waving his arms about, jumping around like a monkey on a rope, but flowing like the sea herself.
Screaming along the face of the wave and going into an arch of the back to deftly shift your weight and dig the rail deeper
into the face of the wave as you go higher up the wall to execute your next maneuver. Like Chris did and Brew still does.

----Barry K

----Tyler

----Hamilton, the father

----Hynson

Stylists

Chuck speaks ------- Bruce listens.

Many people are sickened by the killing of the bull. I am not one of those. The meat and organs of the bull are used to
feed people. I remember going to a bullfight in Lisboa, Portugal in 1971, where there was no killing of the bulls. My memory
of the event is rather hazy, as I went with a group of people who had been drinking the local wine all day before the evening
festivities. The matador used the cape to make the bull pass as close to him as he desired. But at the end, the bull was not killed.
It was more of a wrestling match between six or seven men and the bull. It was like a rugby game, only the bull was tackled and
brought to the ground by these group of men. I enjoyed it immensely.

I order another Pacifico with my private beerhall Mug.

smooth as an evening glass-off

When the bull first enters the ring, the assistants spend several minutes running the bull around the ring to determine what type
of bull he is. It is important to see if he is a brave bull or a coward, if he favors his left or his right, if his vision is clear,
that he has no knowledge of the bullfight. If a bull knew what was happening in the fight, he could kill all the matadors.
But this is all new to the bull. An experienced bull might charge the cape once, or twice, but then he would stand still until he was
certain of getting the man. Prior to the middle of the 1500's, bulls were allowed to fight more than once.
They learned about the man and the cape, and they killed many men. Then the Pope, in his infinite wisdom, excommunicated those
who condoned bullfighting until it was agreed that the bull could only make one appearance at a fight
---his fifteen minutes of fame.

the Bull is studied as he moves about the ring

Then the matador executes several long sweeping passes called Veronica to observe the bull closely, to see how the bull
reacts to the cape and to quiet him down from his initial entrance into the arena. The bull is studied to see if he moves in
the ideal straight line. The ideal bull runs as straight as railroad tracks.

the Matador introduces himself to the Bull

After the quick look-see, the Matador goes to the side and the mounted picador rides in with his long spike.
The bull charges the horse. The spike, in theory, is used to stop the bull's charge before he annihilates his horse.
To weaken the bull, not destroy it, the spike should be dug into the high center nape of the neck.
When done properly, the bull will carry his head and horns lower, making him less susceptible to unexpected movements and easier
for the matador to control with the cape. When done improperly, the bull and the subsequent fight can be destroyed. If the
spike is not centered, then the bull will subsequently fight from his strong side, creating a dangerous hooking movement. It
is after this first act that the bull thinks he has won, for he has driven the horse from the ring in the modern fight.

the Picador waits with his horse and spike

In early bullfights the horse had no padding to protect himself from the horns of the bull. Invariably, the horses were always
gored and died shortly after they left the ring. Nowadays, they wear strong padding, which protects them from death, but not from
-----a severe body bruising.

the Spike draws Blood----------------------------the Horse, taken down by the Bull

Next, either a subordinate or the Matador will place banderillas next to one another along the nape to the middle of the
bull's back. The action of the Banderillo is to excite the bull with the human target after the encounter with the
picador. With the man and bull moving toward one another, the strong and weak points of the bull can be observed by the
matador as the fight progresses toward its culmination. In his encounter with the bull, the Banderillo will push his arms
straight out in front of him with the banderillas, stick them into the bull's back and leap away. The bull is to be weakened,
not destroyed, for a lively bull is necessary to play out the tragedy.

the Banderillo dances in

the Banderillo: pissing off the Bull

The third act of the tragedy involves the muleta and the sword. The muleta is the scarlet cloth that the
matador uses to control the bull. He performs a series of passes with the bull, tiring him out and and preparing him for the
kill with the sword. Using the scarlet cloth, the matador commands the bull to move and to stop. He commands the bull to
execute tight turns or drawn out passes. He coaxes the bull into a rhythm by his manipulation of the muleta. The matador
imposes his will upon the bull and in effect, becomes one with the bull as they move in unison. This is the beautiful part.
A oneness with a force of nature, an animal that is trying to kill you. But above all, this is done with style, a smoothness
of all the movements linked together: a fluidity. Each pass, each movement, sets the bull in position for the next movement
to follow. Like a surfer reacting to the contours of the wave. If there is a steep drop, you make it with the idea of a sweeping
bottom turn, then a wall forms and you race up it to the top, cranking back down the face, or if the lip is starting to curl
over, you position yourself under it and break through to the other side, the subsequent maneuvers already known to your
unconscious and being naturally set up by your coordination and balance and knowledge.
And this is done with style. Not some fucking clown looking like an awkward skier bouncing off moguls at Sun Valley,
but a surfer secure in his ability and knowledge of the wave.

Andy Tyler, stylist extraordinaire

Dancing with the bull, knowing it wants to impale you on its horns, yet controlling your feet and movement and letting the
bull come to you. Feeling the fear, the apprehension, the excitement and allowing this to rest peacefully in your body
because you know that you are specifically trained to perform in this situation. You command the situation and move freely
to execute your maneuvers. Exact same thing that an excellent surfer does on a wave.

the Matador passes the Bull

again, a pass

the Matador plays with the Bull

Ernesto says, ". . . the matador, if he knows his profession, can increase the amount of the danger of death that he runs
exactly as much as he wishes. He should, however, increase this danger, within the rules provided for his protection."

Ernesto: "The matador must dominate the bulls by knowledge and science. In the measure
in which this domination is accomplished with grace will it be beautiful to watch."

Steve Galloway, WindanSea local now kite-surfing Margaret River
Coolness and composure in situations where others shit in their pants.

It is a Strange Feeling to have an animal trying to kill you.

Again, Ernesto: ". . . only two proper ways to kill bulls with the sword and muleta and as both of them deliberately invoke
a moment in which there is unavoidable goring for the man if the bull does not follow the cloth properly, matadors have steadily
tricked this finest part of the fight until ninety of one hundred bulls that you will see killed will be put to death in a
manner that is only a parody of the true way to kill." He goes on to say that a great killer must love to kill and be conscious
of its dignity, that a man who is artistically great with the cape is usually too complex of a man to take pleasure in killing.
". . . when a man is still in rebellion against death he has pleasure in taking to himself one of the Godlike attributes: that
of giving it." Ernesto wrote this about thirty years before he took his own life in Idaho.

The perfect sword thrust goes through the bull's back, missing the bone, and cutting the aorta. This is why it is so important
to weaken the neck muscles of the bull so that he will carry his head low, to condition the bull to follow the movements of the muleta.
Whether the matador goes to the bull, or the bull comes to him, he must use the muleta to guide the bull away from him as he
fixes the sword into the bull's back. As the sword is fixed, the moving bull should go past the man. If the bull is stationary,
and the man goes to him, then the man must pass the pull. If the bull fails to follow the muleta, then the matador should get air
------tossed by the bull's horns.

this is the End

We stayed through the six fights, talking, drinking, observing the matadors, the bulls, the crowd, the senoritas.

Death in the late Afternoon for the backsider: Nature wins again

After the final bull was killed, the ears distributed, the meat cut for the orphans, we headed to a local cantina to discuss
our reactions. If I remember correctly, Dave and I were the only ones that wanted to return for another bull fight.

the continuing discussions--NOT my Tecate can