Almost exactly 100 years ago, Toribio Mejía Xesspe came across the Nazca Lines and was the first to provide a scholarly description after the first published mention in 1553. Not quite sure why they were made, but by gum are they cool and mighty big too. From the air you can see about 70 that depict birds, monkeys, lizards, cats and other animals, then there are ones of trees and flowers plus hundreds more that are lines and geometric shapes. Right around when Mejía Xesspe stumbled upon those crazy shapes, Elena Izcue was publishing Peruvian Art in the School, classroom materials where, as the preface states, “an effort has been made to extract from the buried traditions of the past — literally buried in cemeteries — the elements of a renaissance of popular art." The image accompanying tonight's show is a montage of some of my favorite art from that book - wide-eyed mice, dancing llamas and grinning jaguars. Tonight's show is all about South American music.
