Monstermoon Dispatch #3: Ostrich Video and Election Edition

by Matt

Hopefully these seconds-long videos give a window into our ~20 mile days pilgriming through the Spanish countryside on the Camino de Santiago.

If you aren't interested in rural Spain, but are sad about recent election results, this will remind you that ostriches are ridiculous birds, which will distract you, which is good. 

After 6 or 7 hours of walking on the Camino in a day, we usually start up an audiobook. Last week's book was The Omnivore's Dilemma. In a ridiculous moment in our 9th hour of walking last Friday, we were listening to the book and just as Michael Pollen agonizes over the morality of meat eating, we rounded a corner and walked right through a herd of animals likely to become someone's dinner. Mooooo. This won't be interesting without the audio. 

Should you seek to escape the more partisan atmosphere and big money serving/climate change denying nonsense of the new congress, you could do this for a living in rural Spain:

Finally, crosswalk signals in Galicia, Spain are pretty funny. Instead of showing a flashing red hand when it's time time speed your slow self up and get across the street, the green human walking figuring starts running/forward moonwalking to let you know you are dragging *ss. 

Sorry for the wrong orientation of this video. If anyone knows of an easy/small video editing program that works on an Ipad (or a Mac) let us know!

For us, short videos from home (like this only-in-SF video of a woman whining about her Uber as police try to create order during the Giants victory celebration) (link) help us feel connected, so please share all the youtube meme's you are willing to share!

Thanks for watching.

Minor political aside to peg this post to its politico click-bait title:

As we sit in a Portuguese cafe, reviewing election results, it's a little sad to reflect on how influential money has become in politics. It now seems necessary for ordinary people (like us) to donate to political causes that favor almost everyone, just to balance out spending by a few rich people.  European reporting on the money in our political system highlights how ridiculous a lack of strong political donation controls makes US democracy look. Hopefully this is something that can change in future elections. For now, an ostrich video, and a few glasses of port in Porto, Portugal should cheer us right up.