Inability to be surprised?

Today we were once again discussing at home about how things don’t seem to surprise us lately. Or at least in the same way that they did before… I mean, having Woody Allen shoot in the tiny little beach town were we spend our summers should be considered a pretty exceptional thing.

For one, we are die hard fans of Mr. Allen’s work. Not so long ago –before the advent of Google and the likes…–, I could easily engage in a conversation on whether Nora Ephron did or didn’t publicly recognize at some point that ‘When Harry Met Sally’ –as brilliant as it is–, is in fact a remake of ‘Annie Hall’…

So having Woody Allen, among any other writer/filmmaker in the world, come here… would normally be considered pretty remarkable in our household.

But I’ll try to explain some other reasons that I think should make this event be considered even more extraordinary:

.- Woody Allen isn’t known for being a compulsive traveler. In fact, rumor has it that he is not very comfortable in rural environments and/or away from his beloved NY.

Exceptions to this would be his recent movies in London, Paris, Venice, etc., his ‘Wild Man Blues’ honeymoon documentary and other musical performances abroad (We had the privilege of attending one in Madrid -anniversary present from my wife-), but still… all those high profile locations outside NY appear to be exceptions.

.- Asturias has never ranked among the most popular destinations in Spain. This isn’t really the place where you would expect to cross paths with lots of foreigners. Most Americans and foreigners in general I know have of course heard about Madrid, Barcelona, Ibiza, Mallorca… and lately about Marbella for the summer time…

As much as I love the region this has always been considered a pretty deprived one when compared to the rest among Spain. It has a strong industrial and mining past… and that has been showing both in the economy and landscape for quite a long time.

In addition, within Asturias, Avilés and its surroundings were never considered to be among the ‘hot’ destinations available. I always liked this and hoped that it would remain this way for some time…

The region has devoted huge amounts of resources and efforts towards cleaning much of the mess left by that industrial past… there are quite some pretty beautiful places to discover… the local gastronomy is gorgeous… and there isn’t better seafood anywhere… but, once again, still…

Obviously, the region has worked hard in the recent years towards building a relationship with Mr. Allen. And this could be his way (one of them), to express his gratitude for that.

Anyway, back to our discussion at home, this is just one in a series of events that I think not so long ago would have kept us chatting about over and over and that in this particular case would probably have triggered some impromptu visits to the surroundings of the shooting sets in the hopes of shaking his hand or taking a bunch of photos of everything going on there…

But this morning we looked in the short distance to the lighthouse where they were shooting today… and just decided to remain at the beach watching my son have a blast with the waves… and Mr. Allen and his crew work with a bunch less of strangers lurking around…

BTW: If you saw the pictures and video that every TV station is showing you would be really surprised by the apparent infinite patience that Mr. Allen shows with the hordes of people and paparazzi that seem to spend every minute of the day following him, asking for autographs and constantly trying to get his attention.

So these are some among my questions: Is it that we’re growing older?… Is it that children suck up every tiny bit of energy available?… Is it that these last times, while extremely exciting and rewarding, have been particularly tiring?… Or is it something else?… Do we have to worry about it?