MEXICO

We just got back from a wonderful week in Mexico. If there's anything that Mexican people love it's food and music. Indeed, you cannot walk a half-block without experiencing the sounds of Mexican music or the smell of fantastic Mexican food.

The food speaks for itself but the music is an aquired taste. In Mexican music, the singers pour their hearts into the songs they are singing. (Imagine "The Voice" without the screaming or vocal gymnastics.)

One night last week we listened to an excellent Mariachi band. Every Mariachi band that I've ever seen has been of the "strolling" variety. I think that I finally solved the mystery as to why they stroll. It gives them the opportunity to play for different micro-audiences and thereby generate more opportunities for "propinas" (tips).

At the end of one of our favorite Mexican melodies ("Des Colores") I cornered the lead trumpet player and asked if he knew a popular American-Mexican song entitiled "A little bit is better than nada". For those of you who are not familiar with it, it was recorded by "The Texas Tornadoes" and was the opening song for the movie "Tin Cup" starring Kevin Costner. With credentials as strong as these I figured that any respectable Mariachi band would (at very least) be able to bluff their way through a few bars of the song, if, for nothing else, to generate a little more propina revenue.

Alas, they were not familiar with the song. In utter desperation, I sang the chorus for them (all of the band members leaning in to hear the off-tune gringo). And so it went:

A little bit is better than nada
Sometimes you want the whole enchilada
A little bit is better than nada
A little bit or nothing at all.

If the mariachis thought I was loco at the outset of this exercise, they were certainly convinced of it by now.

So, it was with great disappointment that I was not to hear my requested song played by this excellent Mariachi band. I mean, really. How hard would it have been to play a few lines of the song? It's not as if I was asking for Beethoven's Fifth symphony. All I was asking for was a token small portion of the song.

Because, as we all know, a little bit is better than nada.


Readers, enjoy your day.