A Rant About Movies and Kids

This story doesn't relate to this picture except they both happened in Austin, Texas. In the old part of Austin you see a lot of murals on the side of buildings. I liked the combination of painted flowers with the real vegetation. But on with the story. Actually, as the title says, it is a rant!

We don't go to a movie theatre in the States very often but while we were in Texas, we invited the Austin grandsons to pick out a movie and we would take them. Their parents usually get them Netflixs to watch so they were excited to be going to a movie and getting to buy popcorn and a drink. The cost of popcorn and a drink could be another rant but I'll stick to the original plan. They choose the latest Shrek movie because they had seen all the previous Shrek movies. Fine. We load them up and off we go. We get the popcorn and drink and we are pleased that we are getting into the movie just a few minutes before the movie is to begin.

We find theatre #10 or whatever number and right then we should have picked up on what might happen. There was a Dad and two kids outside. The girl, who was the oldest, had peeked into the theatre and told the Dad, "The previews are still on." The little boy was hanging on to his Dad's hand looking very hesitant.

When we go through the doors the movie is pitch black. You can barely see the seats much less the stairs but we stumble along trying to help the 5 year old so he doesn't spill his popcorn or drink. That would be a disaster of major proportions. The noise/sound from whatever they are advertising on the screen is deafening and coming at you from all sides.

We manage to get into the seats. Just as we are settling into the seats there is an animation on the screen that looks like real people sitting in a theatre eating their popcorn but suddenly with lots of weird noises the floor below them starts to crack open and roots start to go up around the seats and legs of the people and the front of the theatre starts to drop into an abyss. All of this is accompanied with the appropriate and terrible sound effects.

Dexter, our five year old grandson, isn't crying but he is scared and he wants his Mom and Dad. Ned takes him out of the theatre. It takes sweet, gentle, pawpaw about 15 minutes to convince him to come back into the theatre. Once he is back, he settles into his seat and enjoys the Shrek movie.

I was so concerned about Dexter that I didn't see the rest of the stupid advertisement so I don't know what the purpose of it was but it was frightening to little children and Shrek was suppose to be a kid friendly movie.  I've always thought that this pre-movie stuff was aggravating but now I think we should get a group together and go picket the theatres to stop this assault on our senses and to protect our little children from psychological damage. The parents of frightened children should be interviewed on The Morning Show. We should write our congressmen to request a congressional hearing about the damage it is doing.  Something needs to be done. Cut out all the crap and just show the movie that we paid to see.

A Difference in Cultures

Are you shocked at this picture? Yes, for just 15 pesos you can throw three balls at the Negro. This picture was taken at the Feria just a few weeks ago. None of the Mexicans walking by even gave it a second glance. Mexicans laugh at the Americans attitude about race because they think that they aren't racists. But Felipe Zapata who writes The Bierce Account blog says that not only are they color-conscious but they are class-concious as well. I had written about the color issue some time ago here and be sure to read the comments with this blog post. Very thoughtful responses.

It is just one of the differences in our cultures.....there are more.

Rain

Although we are supposedly at the end of the rainy season, we have had some rain in the last few days.....less than two inches. This is good for filling the Presa but it is too late for the farmers. This is a field of corn that didn't make corn due to the lack of rain but the wild flowers seem perfectly happy. For those of us who didn't grow up on a farm, it is hard to imagine the devastation a drought causes to the poor campesinos who are not able to irrigate their fields. They were barely scraping by to begin with but to lose your main food crop is truly a disaster.

In pre-hispanic Mexico, there were ceremonies and festivals around the seeds and planting of corn because corn made the difference in starving or not starving. Great sacrifices were made to the gods, including virgins, to beg for the rain to grow a good crop. These days, the virgins are safe, but the seeds are taken to the church in early February to be blessed.

Tres Pechos

The Fair still has the side shows. This poor woman has three breasts. We didn't go see them.

But that isn't what I'm writing about today. While we were at the fair, we talked with a young man for quite a while. His story is still going around in my head. I'll call him Juan. He was a good looking, cleancut man. The kind of guy you would like to have in your neighborhood.

When Juan was a boy his mother took him to the USA. He said that when they crossed the border they just walked across and went to stay with some relatives. He graduated from high school in the USA. His English was perfect. After high school he went to work and as young men do, he fell in love, got married. She was a US citizen. As the government began cracking down on businesses for hiring undocumented aliens, his boss told him he needed papers. He wanted Juan to get them because he was a good worker and the boss wanted to promote him.

By this time a baby was on the way. Juan knew he needed to get his immigration status settled so he could take care of his family. Moving to Mexico to live wasn't an option with his wife. So Juan returned to Mexico alone to try to get permission to live in the USA. The baby has gotten very sick when the wife has visited him in Mexico so she doesn't want to visit here either and besides it is very expensive for her and the baby to come back and forth. Juan told us how much he misses his family and how he is especially missing seeing his baby doing all the "firsts" that babies do.

Juan decided that while he was here working on the paperwork and waiting, and waiting, he would go to college and that would help him when he got back to the USA. He went to the University in Guanajuanto to enroll. When he showed them his high school diploma, the University said that since he didn't graduate in Mexico, he would have to pay three times the tuition even though he was a Mexican citizen. The only jobs he has been able to find are jobs that pay $10 a day.

Juan is a sad man with a foot on both sides of the border. He was such a nice young man. My heart goes out to him and his family. I hope that the attorney who is helping him try to get his papers through the US Consulate is really "helping him" and not just taking his money. I have a feeling that there are a lot of other Juans.

Blessing of the Taxis

We are headed into a busy weekend with the San Miguel Festival. Last night was the blessing of the taxis. Every taxi in town was decorated and lined up and came into the Jardin. Then they were parked in front of the Parroquia. I have never seen the priest actually come out and bless the taxis but this year I did notice that a number of the taxi drivers who had bouquets on their taxis, took them and went into the church so maybe the blessing happens there.
One of the things that made me smile was the taxis lined up with their hoods up like they were waiting for holy water to be sprinkled on each one. If any holy water was sprinkled, I missed it. Still I'm glad to know that when I get into a taxi this year that it has been blessed.


And off of the subject of taxis, some of you may be glad to know that we had garbage pick up again today. Two days this week. Maybe by next week we'll be back to three times a week.

The Garbage Problem

Since we returned to San Miguel, we have been in a garbage problem. Normally the garbage trucks come through our Colonia three times a week. You know they are approaching your house because they beat a iron rod on an thick piece of metal. So you gather your garbage and take it out to the truck. There isn't any setting your garbage can out in front of your house and leaving it for the guys to pickup except in a few higher-end neighborhoods and somehow they have managed to arrange to leave the garbage on hooks and the guys will pick it up. Most pick-up days they will come about the same time but you can never be sure of that.

Sometimes we fussed about not knowing when they would come down our street because we needed to be home to hand the garbage up to the guys in the bed of the truck. Silly us. Now the situation is worse. There has been a city election and the guys in power lost. They are now lame ducks so it seems like there isn't enough money in the treasury to repair and fuel and keep all the trucks running. This week when we went to the tianguis there were about 7 trucks parked behind the tianguis, loaded with garbage but just sitting there looking very dilapidated.....probably waiting to be fixed. We are only seeing about one garbage pickup a week but you never know if it will be Monday, Wednesday or Friday or what time of day it might happen.

So what is a citizen of San Miguel do when they have garbage and no pickup? We load it in the car and go out looking for a garbage truck. Sometimes at night they have some places that they park them so you can off-load there or sometimes we just go driving up and down the streets looking for a garbage truck in the Colonia where we think they might be. We are hopeful that the new administration that will take over in October will get some money from the State. If not we will have a garbage problem until January or February when the city starts to collect property taxes.

If not knowing if or when your garbage might be picked up would drive you crazy, it is another reason not to move to San Miguel.

Down Mexico Way

Frank Sinatra sang it, "South of the border, Down Mexico way." His song was about a short love affair South of the border, but I'm writing about differences in the way things are done Down Mexico Way.

Our house is kind of two towers connected by a portico. The portico is covered with roof tiles. Roof tiles on their own are never fully water proof under heavy or prolonged days of rain. They get kind of water soaked and can be a bit drippy. Most of the time they are fine. After eight years and several construction projects we had some broken tiles and some of the places where they butt up to the wall were not sealed as well as they had been at the beginning. Earlier this year during the dry season we had our albanil take a look at the tiles. We told him what the problems were and we wanted them repaired or even totally replaced if that is what we needed to do to have less water leak through on the portico. We pointed out another rooftop in the neighborhood that had new tiles and they looked much better than the ones we had. He studied the situation and said that he thought they just needed to be taken down cleaned and replaced and it might take a few more tiles but the old ones would be okay.

For three days he and his assistant worked on the portico and when he finished it looked good except I wondered how they had managed to not need extra tiles. I also thought that the overlap spaces between the tiles looked a little big but then what do I know about laying Mexican roof tiles.

We missed a lot of the rainy season this year while we were in Texas but one good rain after we returned showed us that now the problem was still the same if not worse. We called him back. Now he said that the ends of the tiles didn't overlap enough so he brought his assistant and they again worked on realigning tiles. Still not quite right. Today he came again and he said that these were old tiles and that they were not shaped like the new ones which are better....and he pointed out the new roof in our neighborhood that we had pointed out to him earlier in the year. He thinks we might have to get new tiles.

Those of you who haven't lived in Mexico are probably wondering why we don't just get rid of him and hire someone else. Well this albanil has done a lot of work for us over the last four or five years and all of it has been excellent. Most good work gets done in Mexico based on good relationships. You may be thinking that he is just dragging this out to make more money. We don't think that. Mexicans make do with what is on hand. He probably feels he is doing his best to save us money.

If stuff like this would drive you crazy, don't come to live in Mexico. Things are different South of the border, Down Mexico way.

Folk Art Recipes y Mas

This is the second book of recipes from my friend Dianne Kushner and her staff at Casa Luna here in San Miguel. I didn't get a copy of the first Tortilla Papers but this second cookbook is truly a handmade, folk art treasure trove of recipes from the staff of Casa Luna and the guest chefs who have taught cooking classes at Rancho Luna. I was even able to sneak a recipe into this cookbook and I'm honored to be there with those who really know Mexican cooking.
There are great recipes and they are presented in such creative pages. Like this one for Agua Frescas. There are lots of versions of agua frescas so the variations are tucked into a little pocket. The Casa Luna staff made each and every page of the book and every page is a delight of whimsy. Even if you aren't a cook, you will want your own copy. You can find out more about the cookbook and order one here.

Independence Day - Viva Mexico

There was some question about whether or not the San Miguel treasury had enough pesos to pay for the Independence Day Celebrations but everything seems to be going on schedule. Many events during the last week and last night was the Grito and fireworks. This morning was the parade although the endless groups of school children was much shorter than I remember in the past. This year I don't think that the parade included children from the campos. Maybe there wasn't enough money for the buses to bring them into town.

We did have the military in the streets with tanks and armored personnel carriers. This year I heard a few flutters of applause as they passed by and it just reminded me that I don't think I've ever heard the Mexicans cheer or clap when the military has been in a parade. Strange now that I think about it as compared to the way we Americans usually cheer on our troops.

And of course no Mexican parade would be complete without beauty queens and beautiful girls on horseback.

The Right to Bear Arms

Just because the constitution give us the right to bear arms, is it "right" to do it anywhere?

This week seeing a man in a crowd outside the building where the President of the United States was making a speech walking around with an assault rife was chilling. But let's take the politics out of it. What if someone was walking around the crowded Houston International Festival with an assault rifle, how would I know if this was someone just "exercising" their constitutional right or a deranged man about to start shooting in a crowd of men, women and children?

Homemade II

Dinner last night was in-house. Scallops, broccoli and salad.

I seared the scallops in the skillet with just a bit of olive oil and butter. About 5 or 6 minutes. It is really easy to overcook them. I actually like them cooked less but Ned likes his seafood done. He is definitely not a sushi man. After I removed the scallops I threw in a couple of tablespoons of chopped shallots and a bit of garlic, sauteed that for about a minute and added some white wine and deglazed the pan. Then I reduced the liquid until it was syrupy and put about a tablespoon on each scallop.

I've been changing the proportions of my salads. More veggies than greens. One of the reasons that I've done that is I'm buying a Italian baby green mix of lettuces and there are enough peppery leaves in it that it becomes a different element in the salad. Also have been buying a cherry tomato called a cherub that is just so sweet and delicious that I set them on the bar and pop one in my mouth when I walk by during the day. Last night the salad was orange bell pepper, cherub tomatoes, cucumber, greens and....blueberries. I had some blueberries left over and wanted to use them up. They looked beautiful in the salad and tasted good too.

As you can tell from my last couple of menus, I using ingredients that are hard to come by in San Miguel. Scallops? I can't remember seeing them in the seafood markets or if I have seen them they were not memorable. The cornish hen from a night or two ago? Sometimes I do find them in San Miguel but not on a regular basis. Sweet corn? We do have some in San Miguel but it is a short growing season and I don't ever seem to get enough fresh corn even in Houston. Great salad mixes? You can get some but they don't have the variety that I'm getting here. Costco in Mexico does have a pretty good Italian salad mix from time to time but the package is so big I can only buy it when we are giving a dinner party and there is some chance that I will be able to use it up before it goes bad.

All this cooking talk brings me back to my Homemade post from Sunday. Michael Pollan's article stirred up a comment in the Houston Press, No One Cooks In Houston Anymore...Or Do They?

Homemade

One of the best things about our little apartment is the kitchen. No, it isn't a great kitchen but it is a kitchen so we can cook in-house. Tonight dinner just hit the spot since we have been eating out for a few days in a row. I roasted a couple of tiny cornish hens, boiled Olathe corn on the cob and made a salad tossed with feta cheese. While I was shucking the corn the smell of the first cut of spring grass sprang up. That was followed by the smell of the roasting hen that was filling the apartment. It is a joy to watch the hens transform from raw to a deep golden crispy skin that when pricked let the juices run clear. I even like cutting up a salad and gaging how much orange bell pepper and red cherub tomatoes to cut up to add color, taste and texture to the greens. Yes, I do like cooking.

While the cooking was happening I kept thinking about Michael Pollan's article in the New York Times Magazine today, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. He starts the article by talking about Julia Child, her delight in ingredients and preparation and the impact she had on cooking in America. And of course, he mentioned the movie that will be out in a few days, Julie & Julia. I'm looking forward to seeing it. But I digress. The article is kind of a history of what has been happening in the kitchen since the 1950s and he ends up connecting that back to what is happening with the growing girth of the country. "The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. "

The article talked about how until recently we didn't eat things like french fries everyday because to prepare them took effort and time in the kitchen so they were a "special" food that we ate sometime. Now we can drive-thru and get them day or night. It also talked about the work and calories that cooking food from scratch requires. Subtle changes but very significant in our eating patterns.

Michael Pollan's article isn't just about food. It is about Julia Childs, the movie Julie and Julia, our history, our culture, and the food industry. He is really quite an amazing writer to pull all these things together. If you find time to read it, I think you'll find it thought provoking.

Mall Report

From the mall walk today:

Here it is still in the triple digit temperatures and the Fall clothing is starting to show up on the racks. Dusty eggplant, smokey indigo blue, long sleeves and jackets. I'm still in the white, lime and yellow mood. And let me tell you there is no let up in PRINTS, big prints in purple, beige and black, or red, black and white. Michelle Obama is a big woman and she can wear some of them but I think they are a fashion mistake for shorter people. And I've noticed that even Michelle has cut back on the prints. Maybe she has seen what the camera does to them. I know the print thing is a kind of retro look but I didn't like them the first time around.

I passed three Tibetan monks in their golden colored robes and sandals. They were looking at diamonds at a jewelry store. I kind of smiled but walked on. Then when I made the turn and headed back, I passed them again. This time they had wallets in their hands and were using credit cards at an ATM machine. Now I laughed out loud.

I passed Victoria's Secret and two men were sitting on a bench outside. When I came back around there were three women with assorted children with the men. The women were wearing the head scarves and robes of the Middle East and in their hands were bulging shopping bags labeled...., yeah, you guessed it, Victoria's Secret. Ya never know what is going on under those robes.

One restaurant was closed and a sign was posted by the Simon Management Group who owns the mall. It said the restaurant was closed for failure to pay $27,000 in rent.

The mall was busy with lots of mall walkers. It looked like a lot of them were families on vacation checking out another wonder of Houston the upscale Galleria Mall. Other than the Middle Eastern groups, I didn't see many shopping bags.

I got in a good mall walk.

Crotch Grabbing

I know that the title is unseemly but it is what this post is about.....Michael Jackson's crotch grabbing. First of all, I was not a Michael Jackson music fan but I wasn't against his music either. Over the years I had seen snippets of his videos and knew that he liked his hand/crotch dance move but since he has died and the videos have been on non-stop, I've had enough. Not only did he like that dance move but his costumes all seemed to point to the crotch. Okay, I'm an old fogey but what is that crotch thing all about?

Parking

Houston is a car culture. For years any political moves to reduce traffic and encourage mass transportation were voted down. It seemed that everyone who had a driver's license had a car and some who didn't have a driver's license also had cars. So all commercial and business establishments had to accommodate all those cars. Probably more land is paved as parking lots than there are buildings. And things are spread out so it isn't as if you could walk from one place to another in the 100 degree temperatures we are having this summer without being fried.

When we come back to Houston we fall right back into the culture. And part of that culture is finding the closest parking place possible to the business you are going to. It is a game....driving up and down aisles looking for a spot or watching to see where someone who is leaving the business might be going to get in their car so you can be ready to pounce on the spot they leave. God forbid that the person might get into their car and not back out immediately. What? How dare they sit there in their car and have a cell phone conversation while you are waiting to slip in when they pull out. But what is even more seriously dangerous is when someone else is able to get into the parking space before you do. I wouldn't be surprised to hear of a shoot out over that.

Sometimes I have to laugh as I'm grumbling to myself about having to park at the end of the parking lot and walk to the store. In San Miguel we never get the car out for errands in town. I'll walk to Mega or to the Centro without giving it a thought but in Houston walking from the edge of the parking lot means I lost the competition for a good space. Texans don't like to lose that game.

A Little Culture is Expensive

I have been reading about the Museum of Natural Science's exhibition of the Terra Cotta Warriors. It is named a top 5 "must see" exhibition by Time Magazine and it is right here in Houston. I am in Houston. Therefore I should go see it. I went on line to see if I could get a ticket. I know that basically I have been gone from Houston's museum scene for 8 years but I wasn't prepared for what I saw. Talk about culture shock.......
Tickets for just the exhibition of the Terra Cotta Warriors are:
Members - $15
non-members - $30
Seniors - $24

But wait there is more. There are two other special exhibitions at the Museum of Natural Science that I'd like to see; Genghis Khan and Diamonds The cost for each of them is...
For Genghis Members - $12 For Diamonds $10
Non-members - $22 $22
Seniors - $18 $18

If I wanted to see the IMAX theatre or the Butterfly house it would cost me another $11 and $7 respectively.

And if I wanted to see the regular exhibition halls the general admission is $15 or $10 for seniors.

Can you believe this in today's economy? Who can afford to take the family?

I'd also like to go to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. It is near the Oncologist's office and while Ned is taking chemo I could go there and wander around to my heart's content. Houston's MFA is looking like a bargain. I could get in there for $3.50 since I definitely qualify as a senior.

Up, Up and Away

Here is the reason I was out early, early--A hot-air balloon out in the campo by the school in Los Ricos de Abajo where some of us helped with teaching English to the children again this year. The balloon was provided by The Oz Project, a non-profit organization founded by Dianna Aston that gives disadvantaged children, and young adults, experiences that ignite the imagination and inspire dreams. I think it is hard to imagine what this event meant to these children who live in very humble circumstances out in the campo. The balloon was tethered and didn't go drifting away with them but for the first time in their lives they saw the world from a different perspective. I hope that the balloon ride did inspire them to dream dreams that can take them to new heights.

Holy Thursday

Thursday evening we went into the centro to visit the churches. The town is packed with Mexican tourist. There are lots of families with small children and lots of cars. It is a good indication that there is a growing middle class in Mexico.This Thursday is known as Holy Thursday and it commemorates when Jesus had the Last Supper with his disciples, when he washed the feet of his disciples, when Judas betrayed him, and when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. All of the churches were open except the Parroquia. Ned and I, along with the Mexicans were out visiting each of the beautifully decorated churches. Some of the churches had removed benches to make room for the throngs of visitors. The church along the side of the Parroquia had cleared almost everything out so that all of the lanterns and saints, readied for the Good Friday procession, could be staged. Many people were in that church stopping at each saint to pray. However, all of the churches had a steady stream of people going through them. Many stopped to buy the tiny rolls of bread as a symbol of the Last Supper.

After visiting the churches we went to the Sunset bar to watch the sunset and then we lingered long enough to watch the full moon come up. When we came back on the street there were even more people in the streets. Traffic around the centro was almost in gridlock although the Transito Police were doing their best. Overall though, it was a religious event, a family time, a quiet evening.

Palm Sunday

We haven't been in San Miguel for Palm Sunday for a couple of years so of course I wanted to see the processions. After a great breakfast at the Parroquia Cafe, I headed up San Francisco to the El Calvario chapel at the top of the street. The procession assembled very quickly with Jesus on a donkey in the lead. It only travels a couple of blocks to the San Francisco church. It is a tough procession to photograph because the light is behind the procession and traffic is barely stopped for the procession. If you move out into the street you can get mowed down by a bus.

Today I tried to take advantage of the difficult light and I was hoping that when I photographed into the light I would get a string of light reflections across the image. No string of reflections but I did get this light blub leaking light. And somehow having Jesus and the donkey squeezed in by the bus and the car just seems appropriate for San Miguel.

The next procession starts in Parque Juarez and comes down Sollano which is a fairly narrow street. The sun is still a strong side light which reflects off of the painted buildings and back on the procession. I decided to use narrow depth of field and try to isolate some faces in the procession.

There were lots of photographers out today. All kinds of equipment from a simple point and shoot to some very impressive big long lenses on high end DSLRs. I think that everyone with a big camera was impersonating a National Geographic photographer. Get in, get close and get the shot no matter what. I hear there is a photography workshop or two here in town from now until Easter Sunday. I don't think I can stand to watch. It is like they paid their money and the religious processions have been arranged for them to photograph. I really don't think I want to see what they do at the solemn and silent procession on Friday night.

Viernes de Dolores

Last night was a Semana Santa celebration that is not very well known in other parts of Mexico but in Guanajuato it is known as Friday of Our Lady of Sorrows. While most of Easter is celebrated with great public pagents, Viernes de Dolores is much more personal. Altars are built in homes and stores and the fountains around the city are decorated.

The altars are very personal in each home as the home owner uses their own religious objects. Pre-hispanic symbols are incorporated in the altars such as grains and beans. All of the altars will have the tearful virgin and some will include Jesus on the cross. The creators of the altar will usual offer those who visit a fruit drink to symbolize the Virgin's tears. But more and more we are seeing small sorbets on a stick like a popsicle. In the Centro the altars are more elaborate and the crowds and lines are long. You may also see some very unique and antique santos. We like to stay in our Colonia to commemorate Viernes de Dolores.

The first altar was just across the street from us. The second was about two blocks away. This last one is just a few doors up from us, next door to the barbershop.