These days, for some tourists, it seems that physical history, a sense of history, a sublimity of walking in the footsteps of the ancients by the light of nature itself, is not enough – one’s senses, incapable of an exercise of pure imagination, need to be kick-started into an appreciation of one’s surroundings. Flashing laser […]
Continue ReadingUntil the day breaks and the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. -Song of Solomon Summer day of bougainvillea, wild poinsettia and swaying jacarandas – carefree, carefree – a dry wind carried the restless spirit of the future on its back, fanned by strange […]
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“Slightly to the right and below them, below the gigantic red evening, whose reflection bled away in the deserted swimming pools scattered everywhere like so many mirages, lay the peace and sweetness of the town. It seemed peaceful enough from where they were sitting.” -Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano In the purest sense of things, not […]
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People are still going about their business as usual, only we’re all wearing surgical facemasks. I can’t decide if this whole fear campaign is a massive media beat-up or if it has some credence. Greetings from Mexico City… On the subject of the city – and schools, and cinemas, and restaurants, and bars, and churches, […]
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Mention the name “Sean Flynn” to any savvy tween and the recognition is instant: “He stars in Zoey 101.” Indeed, the teenage actor, grandson of Australian-born screen legend Errol Flynn, is more than recognizable to legions of young Nickelodeon viewers. However history buffs, especially those cognizant with the Vietnam War, might associate the name with […]
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Has anyone heard of a Rio Flying Cloud? A Whippet? A Phaeton? They sound like the monikers of mysterious yet amusingly kitsch vessels that move through the air in old time superhero comic books. They conjure a weird parallel universe where history is a malleable substance and citizens go about their lives with no sense […]
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Art and sport seem rarely intertwined. There is the American cliché of the muscle-bound football jock bursting with idiotic energy, indulging his time off the field to torment the nerdy, isolated artist (who invariably exacts his revenge by growing up to become a Hollywood screenwriter and perpetuating the cliché in teen flicks — wherein the […]
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Most modern art aficionados know that if mysterious British artist Banksy didn’t create the urban world’s love affair with quirky riddles in stencil art on public walls, then he certainly spearheaded its emergence into light — at least from a broader (if somewhat bemused and undecided) public’s point of view. Those in the know will […]
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The wave of media excitement generated in 2009 by the Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño was on a par with the announcement of a new Britney Spears release, even if up until that moment little was really known about him. Bolaño, who succumbed to liver failure in 2003 at the age of 50 while residing in […]
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In Mexico City, graffiti is a bit like prostitution. Nominally, it’s illegal — carrying a $1,000 peso (100 dollar) fine or a day in jail. But like the hookers plying their trade in mini skirt collectives along infamous thoroughfares such as Sullivan and Tlalpan, the rule of law doesn’t seem to stand in the way […]
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