What fallows are some old posts from my trip to Mexico in 2006 that were on Buzznet. You can't back date posts on Blogger so here they are.

Modern Art Museum, Oax. or Maya takes on Duchamp

Museum of Modern Art-or Maya takes on Duchamp July 15, 2006

lazy days help me through....oh i am a little bit sloshed and very relaxed right now. spent the majority of the day curled up in a large chair at a trendy cafe los quellies. i only roused myself for a bit to pop into the modern art museum....not really woth it unless vulvas, pizza cutters (at least i assume that's what they were) and tape worms are your thing. maybe they are you never can tell with some people......the best moment came after looking through most of the museum. we had wondered away from the exhibit space. i followed maya towards the women's restroom assuming she needed to use it. it was not until we were walking around the little arty partition that i could tell from her peering inquisitive posture as she crained her neck into it that she had no idea where she was going! it took her until she was completly inside to realize that it was not an art exhibit! we both collapsed laughing onto a bench. i am sure we confirmed every stario type about insaine american's....the two men standing in the court yard i sure were quite puzzled as to what could possibly be so funny in the bathroom. maya says that even after she saw the first bathroom stall she was looking into the next to see if there was a statue or something in it! i still crack up thinking about it as i write this....imagine if it had happened after instead of before we topped off a picture of sangria! i am sure i never would have made it home. i kept thinking of the french and saunders episode with the two dotty women who go to the tate modern and walk by everything but go nuts in the tea shop! if you have seen it you will understand.....the entire experience should have been part of an exesential film. the empty museum, the bad art, the open clear court yards we only the clouds visable above the walls. us wondering from room to room......come to think of it maya is always a good laugh when traveling. at the tikal museum all i had to do was point to a efigy pot with a jaguar on top and say crouching tiger hidden gibnut (large tropical roden with a "buble bum") to have her in a fit a laughter so bad i had to take her outside the museum. ah, those were good times......

Giant Heads

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Giant Festival Heads! Fantastic!!!!

I have been obsessed with yellow lately I don't know why!

Comming back from Tule we were able to catch a bus going to the city, to get there we were obliged to get a taxi as the teachers had blocked off the main road and the buses could not pass. We were let off in a part of town we had not been in before and while walking around trying orient ourselves we stubled on the best thing.

In front of a tire shop I noticed a bamboo armature...when I looked inside the shop, there were several huge heads stacked above the tires. I called Maya back and we talked to the owners Jose and Maria. He makes giant people each year to use in the Galagestza, a big dance celebration. He took out a transvestite and modled it for us, complete with the gigantic skirt. He says the traditon for them came from Saville in Spain. I can see that, it reminded me so much of the museum of gigantic heads in Bad Education! I still can't belive our luck comming accross them like that. It made being left of the buss so far out of our way well worth it. I have some great pictures, I will try and post them soon, but as you can see I have yet to post any pictures yet : ( Not for lack of trying I assure you!

Tule Latin America's Largest Tree

July, 2006

Finaly broke the pattern of lethagry that has settled in the past couple days and wento the town of Santa Maria de Tule, a tiny place, just outside Oaxaca City. The only reason to visit is its gigantic cyprus tree. The tree is estemated to be around 2,000 years old and has to be the bigest living thing I have ever seen. It is fater than it is tall and its branches have grown fat and twisted around eachother, some draping all the way to the ground. I wish I could capture the immense cacophony of bird song that seemed to emenate from the tree it's self. The little brown finch's blend in so well with the bark of the tree.

A brightly painted little chuch is situated next to the tree and the surounding area is adorned with tropical flowers and odd little topearies. Several ducks, a squral peaking up over the side of an immense nut, turtle doves, and what could be a bear all line the little pathway. It has an almost fake feeling, as if it were too picturesque and odd to the real. Especially as there were so few people around.

I bought a pair of sandals tooled with agave and a toltec temple and a bright red skirt from a near by street vendor. We ate what can best be described as upscale shaved ice, not creamy enough for ice cream, and sat like toads in the sun. Walking down one of the side streets we stoped to look in a shop when a burro loaded down with wood trailing a frail looking old man passed by. It gave a laud brah and sent Maya into a fit of excitement after it with the camera. I bought a charming little yellow bull mask made out of half a coconut.

Ate a late lunch of squash blossom quesidellas and corona's at a shady little outdoor resturant for only $4.00 US. Only we could not enjoy it as it deserved as we were set upon by every mosqito in the area as soon as we sat down.

Bring on the Extras

Bring on the extras-the search for tortas in Mexico City

Maya and I always seem to be eating at odd hours...always too busy for lunch we end up hungry unfashionably early for dinner. Yesterday we went looking for this good torata place (Jugo Canada) on Calle de 5 de Mayo. When we got there part of the street was blocked off and police men were standing around with semi automatics, or fully automatic for all I know, machine guns. Maya thought something had happened and we should leave. But everyone seemed so calm and relaxed, milling about on the sidewalrks and jokeing with eachother. So we went to check it out.

Inside the resturant the first thing I saw was a guy sitting down with all thses gashes accross his face. It took me aback for a moment, something had really happened and everyone was so calm! A second later the women sitting next to him turned my way and it clicked. They were wearing makeup! Oh yes were extras she said and the resturant is closed. We found some good tacos and tortas close by but we never did figure out what they were filming. Was Gael Garcia Bernal around, if so could we have stalked him??? Questions that might never be answered. But it is a good story. I can't help but think of the French and Saunders extras skits. Bring on the dead baby! : )

Villa de Guadalupe, Mex. City

Friday, June 23, 2006

One of the main attrections for Meixcan pilgrams in the Villa de Guadalupe (in Mexico City) the stadium sized church which houses the origional paintaing from the church built on the site of her apperance. It seemed a sight not to be missed and as we could get there by metro Maya and I set off for there early in evening.

It was raining and the streets were cold and wet. People the few people about walking briskly past covered in seets of plastic which can be bought of 50 pesos (.50 cents)or huddled under the eves of the buildings. The metro was steemy and packed. People were cramed into cars and the only way to get in your self was to push forward and pack your self in. As we got away form the city center the crowds began to thin, until the cars were almost empty by the time we came to our last stop.

The rain had stoped but it was almost dark. The church was easily visable towering above everything else, but to get there we had to wind though a warren of street stalls. Mostly closed they gave the area an abandoned feeling. In one almost deserted area a guy walking past pinched my ass. It was too shcoking for me to be imedately furious and by the time in sunk in he was away.

The church itself is a mondern monstrosity purched on the feet of the old church, now to old and decrepid to be used. A sparsly attended sermon was talking place inside. Only a hand full of people in such as large church. The image of the Virgine of Guadalupe hangs above the alter and is quite delecte and lovely, quite out place in such a vast space.There is a moving side walk behind the alter that takes you back and forth underneath her image, adding to the bazarness of the stetting.

Outside it had finnaly grown dark. I bought a litttle image of Guadalupe and a St.'s charm bracelet from the last open street vendor to comemerate the trip. On our way back through the stalls a cop came up and warned us off, saying the area was dangerous , although we hardly need to be told. The dark and the rain giave the streets a tense and ominous feeling. We were both quite relieved to be back on the metro.

a visit to monte alban & a walk back into the city

Tuesday, June 27, 2006
this seems like a very oaxaca color so lets go with it.... visited Monte Alban, the Zapotec archaeologcial site purched on the top of one of the hills surounding Oaxaca city. we looked quite like your typical american tourists...it is quite a style unto itself and can be instantly spotted anywhere. Nalgene water bottle, chaco sandals, basball caps, and oversized cargo shorts. i kept getting looks ascants from women on our way to get the bus....the site was really realitivaly quite, which can be a rarity at popular sites. it was not as divinely relxaing as Machu Pichu and not as interesting in my eye as a Mayan site, but it affords fantastic view in all dirctions. the large squat temples looked grand against the monsoon sky. flowers and the ramdom agave growing out of there side.

there is always a tingle of pleasure for me still when i visit archaeological sites. Maya would wonder off while i would stand in one place eye on the gound picking up sherds, shells, pieces of obsidian blades. once all the surounding hill tops would have been cleared and built upon, all the hill sides under cultivation, and every building brightly painted. the entire place bustling and alive. such a stark contrast to the dozen or so people poking about the ruins, speaking in hused tones. only one little boy ran exhuberantly through the great plaza.

we walked back into town, deciding not to take the bus. things always seem so much shorter traveling by car, but it was a fantastic walk...well worth it. we traveled from the peace and quiet of the hill top with its rich plant smells, past fields of agave. we wound our way down through the little neighborhood of San Juanito, the rich smells of late afternoon cooking fires taking over. every little house, even thouse made of coragated iron, had a profusion of interesing plants. i saw a million shades of bougainvilia alone.

we stopped in at a little cemetary, my origional idea for walking back. it smelled of decaying flowers, and fresh dug earth, one newly dug grave had yet to be filled. some graves were quite simple, cement slabs votive candels upturned or filled with water. others were were immacuatly tended and decorated with flowers, and papel picados, statues of agels and various saints garding them. a few had little churches erected over them.

finnaly we were back into the noise and bustle of the city. a cat fight between me and maya, entirely my fault, later we were in the centro. the strking teachers who have been occupying the centro for the bast month were getting ready for a march the next day. people were silk screening t-shirts, and sings were being made everywhere. everyone seemed in high spirits. and the street vendors added to the almost carnival atmosphere.

in the plaza of a church they were projecting footage of the police attack on them a couple weeks earlier. it was quite horrible...not having a tv i had not seen it before. it is impossible to immagine anyone in their right mind would order such an attack on school teachers! think of your dotty algebra teacher, your sophisticated english teacher, that's who those people were! this is getting into stuff for another blog, and i am off for tacos! lets just say it was a long and pleasant day!