A Celebration

By Johnny Nghiem

June 5^th, 2017

"If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh or my mother, depending on who you ask.

And damn right we will and damn right I did.

For once in my life and where I wasn't in Japan, my eyes were so fascinated by my surroundings. After learning about the Roman history via the game Age of Empires, I've always had a burning desire to visit one of the cities one day and thankfully due to my work, I had a chance to visit Barcelona.

My imagination ran with it like I was 10 again with every stone paved street as narrow as only a body length and as wide as a Manhattan intersection, I could feel and almost smell Roman war horses blitzing around.

I was really taken away.

I was also taken away by the plethora of the paella.

I went to Primavera Sound and re-lived my early heroes of indie rock as Arcade Fire decided to grace us with a surprise performance under the blanket of endless sunrays of the Spanish sun which surprisingly doesn't set until very deep into the evening.

"We are water people." - Mother Nghiem

It's been about 9 months since my last relationship ended that evidently left me a sliver of myself. I've been trying to find the courage to confront the closure and as much as I've grown into my own again and that sometimes it's best to let conclusions be conclusions, just not this time.

Travelling to Reus meant a couple of things; 1) seeing the birthplace of Antoni Gaudí and 2) to find peace with past demons.

Above is beginning of Ball de diables which is a theatrical representation of the struggle between good and evil where various groups dress up as demons, shoot a bunch of fireworks, and then meet up with other demons in a plaza where a gang of fireworks entertains the city.