The Improbable Charm of Carmina Vacaloura
An animated jazz riff on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus — and I’m not making this up
My most recent obsession has been figuring out Carmiña Vacaloura.
To decide if this makes any sense, just go to YouTube and spend a few minutes with this mesmerizing animation. Basically, it’s a fable about a wise beetle and a noisy cricket, but don’t worry yet about what’s going on — just enjoy.
At that point you will either love it so much you can’t wait to find out more,
or you’ll hate it so much you don’t want to hear another word about it. If the latter, thanks for trying. And if the former — read on.
Personally, I feel like watching it whenever I’m at wit’s end with the real world. At first I thought it was just because the whole thing is so eccentric, and therefore diverting. I love the stylized animation, and the charmingly discordant, slightly frenetic music.
The fact that I had no idea what it was about, or where it came from, only added to the appeal.
Eventually, though, I just had to find out more . . .
Since I don’t know a syllable of Galician (or didn’t beforehand), it was a bit uphill — but with the help of Google Translate and a little sleuthing, I…