pirates and kissing

I went to Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest today. Only R20 = US$3 for the 6:15 showing. That's what, a liter of gas or so? I don't actually know the price because none of the stations list the price of fuel. I imagine it's visible on the machines but every place is full service so I've never looked. I could check my receipt but that would mean rooting around for it and the last time I may have just paid, said "keep the change" and left without getting a receipt.

I met James&Amanda there and two of their friends. I thought it was an amusing diversion. I enjoyed the Davy Jones character. The movie had the feel of 1950s B movie filtered through the memories that make the things of youth so much better than the present. "The 3D graphics in Zaxxon were so realistic." The movie had elements from Zorro, 20000 Leagues under the Sea, and even a bit of Apocalypse Now. J&A didn't like it. It did make me feel like watching a movie by Salieri, technically well done but without the something extra Mozart would do. Assuming Amadeus had any reflection of reality. Amanda especially didn't like the sound quality in the theater.

Afterwards I went to tango. PotC2, btw, is a long film. If this is Tuesday then I must have gone to Rouge. It was a decent night but nothing really grabbed me about the music or dancing as it can on the best nights. At the end I said goodbye to one of the women and got a kiss.

I need to explain that. This is a kissing culture. Often on hellos and goodbyes there's a single kiss on the right cheek. Sometimes also on the left but that's rare. I still haven't figured out the full dynamics of it: is it a direct kiss (lips flat on surface) or an angled one? (More the latter. The one guy I know who does the full flat kiss does it in such a way that it's obvious he's doing it in part for show.) Does a "oops I forgot about the kiss and ended up with an air-kiss" count as a faux pas? Probably not.

Kissing on the cheek is not unusual. There's even a FAQ somewhere on how to do it, with comments about the different styles in different places. (left and right cheeks, or L&R&L for some cases). What I've not seen elsewhere is kissing on the lips. Chastely, just like kissing on the cheek is a friendly gesture and no more. It happened once with salsa and tonight it happened with tango. The contexts were different though: in salsa it was someone I danced with several times before, we dance well together in general, and we had just finished off a great set. While here it was someone I've danced with on two nights and that's it.

Niven in his Known Space stories postulated that the STL-spread human colonies would diverge enough that unrealized non-verbal communication could accidentally break a relationship. That's no great stretch of a prediction. There was an ad years back for some international business consulting company. It showed a western backpacker in southeast asia. He relaxes and puts his feet up on a chair. Various people laugh and look at him funny. Showing the bottoms of the feet was considered rude there, explained the voiceover. That's why when you enter the world market you should hire them and their international experience.

After my last visit here I brought some of the cheek kissing tradition back to Santa Fe. It's a different context, different milleau and I would only do it with a few people I knew well from dance. It didn't catch on. I wasn't surprised.