Thursday, August 10, 2006
Los Angeles and Mexico City
Arrived in Los Angeles exactly the same day and minute I left Brisbane. Went by bus to Venice Beach, 8 or 10kms south of the airport and the site of a short film Life Not Death in Venice, by one of the cultural anthropologists who strongly influenced narrative practices. I could not recognise the building from the film but the beach and the paths were familiar. The ocean was beautiful and the light golden as I watched the setting sun and the buildings began to shine and their colours brighten. It is such a friendly place, a cool looking black hip hop dude with scarf and cap, smooth black skin and dark almond shaped eyes tried to sell me a CD, when I said I did not want to buy any music today he looked me in the eyes and paused for a while and then said 'thank you for talking to me'. It was a soft moment.
Sat around and chatted with a few different people, Andreas, a Mexican away from his homeland running a little cantina was pleased with my attempt to speak spanish and would not let me pay for my coffee.
Met up with a couple from the US and we went for drinks and back to the airport. A short flight to Mexico City arriving before dawn, plenty of practice with espanol. Caught a train and was robbed of my wallet with all the cards, a tired and silly early morning, not thinking, dreamy state and a huge crush of people on the metro, not a good experience but a good learning one. Everything now OK and had other secure money elsewhere, the person had a good spending spree in the hour or two before I got through to report it lost.
Mexico City is interesting and today I went to Frida Kahlo and Diego Riveras' studios in San Angel. I could hardly bear the mixture of excitement, emotion and calm from being in such an exquisite building, the space, openess, proportions, light, the curves and straight lines, it was something else. It was not a place which held their works but their collections, pre hispanic ceramic figures and other sculptures by Carlos Bracho. The garden was a mass of cacti, the tall cereus peruvianus types forming a fence like structure outside,and a lovely backdrop for the fleshier, fatter rounder types. Even the gate is beautiful.
Tomorrow I go toTeotihuacan pyramids, to take a candle from FDB's Ocean Shores to the shrine of the Virgen de Guadalupe, and a few other city sights before leaving for Oaxaca on Saturday.
I will post more photos when I can access the computers with the program for loading photos. Tomorrow more adventures. Hasta lluego amigos Deidre
Sat around and chatted with a few different people, Andreas, a Mexican away from his homeland running a little cantina was pleased with my attempt to speak spanish and would not let me pay for my coffee.
Met up with a couple from the US and we went for drinks and back to the airport. A short flight to Mexico City arriving before dawn, plenty of practice with espanol. Caught a train and was robbed of my wallet with all the cards, a tired and silly early morning, not thinking, dreamy state and a huge crush of people on the metro, not a good experience but a good learning one. Everything now OK and had other secure money elsewhere, the person had a good spending spree in the hour or two before I got through to report it lost.
Mexico City is interesting and today I went to Frida Kahlo and Diego Riveras' studios in San Angel. I could hardly bear the mixture of excitement, emotion and calm from being in such an exquisite building, the space, openess, proportions, light, the curves and straight lines, it was something else. It was not a place which held their works but their collections, pre hispanic ceramic figures and other sculptures by Carlos Bracho. The garden was a mass of cacti, the tall cereus peruvianus types forming a fence like structure outside,and a lovely backdrop for the fleshier, fatter rounder types. Even the gate is beautiful.
Tomorrow I go toTeotihuacan pyramids, to take a candle from FDB's Ocean Shores to the shrine of the Virgen de Guadalupe, and a few other city sights before leaving for Oaxaca on Saturday.
I will post more photos when I can access the computers with the program for loading photos. Tomorrow more adventures. Hasta lluego amigos Deidre
# posted by Deidre @ 8:50 PM 
