Over the last month, the US Dollar fell 10% against the Chilean Peso.
US Dollar Versus Chilean Peso (May 15 - Aug 15)
I didn’t even notice until I went to change a lot of dollars today. In addition, the buses changed the fare from 340 to 350 pesos. Damn the man.
Yeah, I feel your pain. During one of the periods that I had a fixed income in Russia, I watched my buying power decline daily as my allocated 300 rubles/day fell from $11 or so to $9… still a relatively princely sum, but it forced me to forego either “cultural activity” or “too many beers” most nights, which is a tough choice. And the KICKER was that I watched those jerks from countries with the Euro get richer. Damn lousy Finnish kids…
In more important matters- have you ever listened to Os Mutantes, Marcos Valle, or the Brazilian style of music known as “Baile Funk?” While Gilberto et al were collaborating with Getz and Miles Davis, there were these SWEET SWEET SWEET psych-funk-pop bands all over Brazil in the late 1960s and early 1970s. If you send me your mailing address in Chile, I can send you some CDs of it. Alternately, if you hit whatever discount music market there is in Santiago, I’m sure you can find tons of good stuff. As lame as it sounds, the two best albums that my fairly intensive research has yielded are just called “Baile Funk Volume 1″ and “Baile Funk Volume 2,” compilation albums that fade between tracks. There are so many good aspects of baile funk though! It’s some the funkiest, swingest, dancinest shit on the globe, the songs are never more than two minutes long so it works for even the most ADD listener, and it can be enjoyed either actively or as catchy, funky background music for cleaning house or tipping back brews with the boys. Anyway, lemme know if you’d like some CDs; now that I’m employed and living at home, I have plenty of disposable income and time to mail stuff. Hope all remains well.
Best,
TJM