Perpetual Novembers; Spring Eternal in my Mind; Late-Summer Labyrinths: A note on Alt-J and Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosi Mexico

Saturday, May 20, 2017

A note on Alt-J and Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosi Mexico

We were in the kitchen, breaking fast, 10am... Margarita was listening to the radio... had just prepared me a Moka... hot... what was I doing? Probably considering what we would eat... that would tide me over for 8 hours and a run in the park... another hot day...

I don't know what the commentators were saying... Then suddenly a song came on the radio... and I said to Margarita... "This sounds like Alt-J... No one has their style and his voice... They must have come out with a third album..."

4 years ago Margarita suggested that she wanted a new radio for the kitchen... I had my computer connected to Bose speakers above... that I used for painting... her radio was the same we used late into our times in Xalapa... it died... And why should she have to listen to what I blasted while painting above?

So, one day, we were selling real well, so I went to the Bose store and bought her the best Bose stereo here in Guadalajara... it has a CD player... Since we didn't have a smart phone for another 4 years and the wifi equipped radios actually were of lesser quality, the only option Margarita had for music was the radio, which can become incredibly old here in Guadalajara or CDs... and we began buying CDs... Latinos, "American" and British... I fell "in-love" with Alt-J and miraculously found their first two CDs here in Guadalajara... When painting in the kitchen, I paint to them, Radiohead (British), Zoë (Mexican), Bebé (Spanish), Los Caifanes (Mexican), Heroes de Silencio (Spanish-Argentinan), Natalia Laforcade (Mexican), Café Tacuba (Mexican), Pharell Williams ("American")...

I came up to the computer and was inspired to write on my blog, in Spanish...

"Es que..." "¿... crees que nada te mueve... eres la maestra de tú destino... todo empieza y termina contigo... nada y nadie te mueve...?"

And in the middle of writing the posting,

"It's that..." "... you believe that nothing moves you... you are the master of your destiny... everything begins and ends with you... nothing and no one moves you...?"

... I decided to look up Alt-J on Google and low and behold, they come out with their third album the day after the aniversary of my father's birth, June 2nd... I checked YouTube and there were their official videos... which I shared with you below... I imagine that the video with the wood rat is connected with a movie that came out in 2017 or will come out... Margarita didn't like the wood mouse... nor the snake... I, on the other hand love mice... Snakes? Well, we've gotta accept them for their cultural symbolic meaning... the symbolism of when they appear in our dreams... telling us that someone is scheming against us... only to find out weeks later that that was exactly what was occuring at the time... We've made some pretty incredible decisions based on 3 dreams with snakes, two by Margarita, one was mine... I don't know if you've heard my story about stumbling across 3 rattlers at the Delaware Water Gap one summer, separate occasions... and how that influenced my perspective on the myth of "the Garden of Eden" and the true history of human language-communication and the true fall from grace... the destruction of the world... I don't like snakes, but I have great respect for them... Truthfully, what organism on the Earth should we NOT respect? Donald Trump? Well you've gotta respect his ability to dig a grave faster than any grave digger in the history of the world... however, this grave may not be his alone...

Towards the end of the first video, Margarita mentioned the things she wished I would do this morning... having to do with a accounts and paper mess... And then the second video began... and we return to "Es que..." and "who" moves what and how...

At 10am the Alt-J song on the radio... Alt-J, alternative rock from England, so far from the Mexican musical reality... And I came up here thinking about spiritual connections or soul paths and writing about it in Spanish, not English... And looked up Alt-J...

The second video froze Margarita... Group from England, video in Spanish with English subtitles... But what transfixed her more than hearing her own language and seeing her face in the faces of the women, but that we walked those same footfalls, same stone streets, same steps... looked back down into town at the same church... We admired the same view below and the rocky desert hills above... we were there 9 thousand feet above sea level too watching the clouds sweep towards us... We were in that church above... probably had some of the same worries... concerns... And there we were, transported back 9 years, wonderful experience, wonderful photographs, one of my best drawings, José Montaña had asked me to paint that drawing big on his staircase... But, there's an incredible difference between drawing the doors "passageways" and painting it... impossible for me to repeat in paint... with such incredible detail and shadings, tones...

So, this is why I posted the "second" video you see right below this post... more that greatly important that you look at the video... where photos can't take you that videos can...

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Unfinished "Self-Portrait at 33"

Something I've dreamed of painting since just after my ultimate surgery in 2001. I post this now since I don't know if I will have the chance to work on it before going back on the road on Sunday... The problem is I've been sick for the past 5 days, painting this for the past week, a few hours per day. Whatever the sickness is, it isn't anything I've known and seemingly changes every day. In order to guarrantee my being well anough for the intense work for the following month, I may have to leave this hanging until I return at the end of August...

"La Sonrisa de Amarillo" (Amarillo's smile).

"La Sonrisa de Amarillo" (Amarillo's smile). José and Nicolas were commenting that I should sell the shirt I use for painting, since it is covered with paint. And then José said, "better yet, I'll give you one of my shirts to paint..." It was a joke. But I took it seriously. He has shirt he bought 4 years ago in Zacatecas with a copy of a painting of a bull in a bull fight. However, the print was erased from the shirt years ago. So, I decided to use the space that had the bull. "Amarillo" (Yellow) was the dog at my in-laws ranch when Margarita and I met. Due to a bad fight, he was left with one side of his mouth and one of his ears mangled, which gave him a permanent half snarl with one fang sticking out. He died years ago. But we often mention him...

New House/Studio Guadalajara

Over 20 years ago our friend José "Montaña" bought a parcel of land in the center of Guadalajara. His uncle who was a constructor/mason helped José build the brick house that has 6 bedrooms. Not long afterward, José entered into his older brother's Indian crafts importation business and decided to sell the crafts in fairs around Mexico. His brothers were one of the first people in Mexico City to enter into the Krishna movement that gave them certain perks. While José became vegetarian 4 years ago, sells the Indian furniture and crafts etc, has a giant shrine to Ganesh in his house and hosts the Mahareshi at least two times a year, José doesn't consider himself a Krishna. For at least 15 years José experienced extreme success in the fairs and was able to send his children to private English Language schools (his oldest son went to University in Texas and Married there),was able to visit with his children the U.S. and India and even bought the "castillo" (castle---an insider joke) next door. For years he used it as a store house and for a shop where Mary had workers fabricating crafts and Mexican/asian Indian style clothing. Then, about 4 years ago, Mexico entered into the international economic crises and José began losing money in the fairs. (I, on the other hand, have managed the situation and the coffee business well enough to be able to improve our economy over the past 2+ years, although this year we lost half our fairs (my decision not to enter into suddenly horribly violent zones where the people are fleeing and have fair to go out to the streets.) Out of desperation, José put the house he built on the market and moved his family into the "castillo"; his children were not happy. The "castillo" was built in the 19th century and has very high ceilings and wonderful giant windows and a terrace surrounding the second story kitchen. After a year on the market, One of José's Asian Indian suppliers bought the house and decided to put it on the market. A year ago, dreaming of having an artist studio/house in the center of Guadalajara with it's majestic tree-lined streets, I asked José to contact the Indian suppliers to see if they would sell the "guest house". José replied that he couldn't locate the Indians' representative in Guadalajara. And that ended that fantasy. However, a year later, upon returning to Guadalajara, Margarita called Mary who asked Margarita if we were in need of a house. We had just rented a house for 3 months (a house infested with cockaroaches). However, I had to see the house. The moment we set foot in the empty guest house without kitchen, bathroom, closets, I was hit with the return of the dream I left behind when we left Guadalajara last November. This time I could see all the projects we would begin over the next 10 years. So, we decided to rent the house and hoped that the 32 day fair in Guadalajara would be good for us; and it was. So, now we are "building" the kitchen, we bought a new refrigerator, are having a stainless steel restaurant sink fabricated for us, are looking for good furniture, looking into nice tiling and thinking about the future one more time.

"Hummingbird Goddess of the Mountain"/"Diosa Colibrí de la Montaña"

Crucified Pregnant Woman

(Unfinished Painting November/December 2010). This was the last painting I worked on before putting aside the painting and drawing for 6 months. I don't have any artist training. I haven't ever taken a painting or a drawing class. I don't know anything about anatomy and I have NEVER seen naked pregnant woman, let alone a naked pregnant woman on a cross. That created a hell of a headache working on perspective and shadowing... How does a head hang with the arms spread outwards to the side? My dilemma. After the fair of Tepic, I asked my friend José "Montaña" to take it with him to Guadalajara. Truthfully, it created so much stress that I really didn't want to see it. The problem is that we don't have a house of our own. I don't have a studio for storing my work and supplies...

Stream of Consciousness Drawing "Your Turned Back/The Cold Shoulder" July 11, 2011

In La Isla de Mexcaltitan, Nayarit

The story goes that the group of Mexica indians had a dream one night of the great city of Tenochtitlan they would construct 200 years later in the Valley of Mexico, now known as Mexico City that later on became known as the Aztec Empire. The dream was had on the Island of Mexcaltitan, Nayarit. Upon leaving his "home" on the edge of the river Antigua in Veracruz, Cortez journeyed to the center of what is now known as the Republic of Mexico and conquered the Aztecs, with the help of the Totonoco indians of the region known as Veracruz. Cortez destroy the Grand Tenochtitlan, probably the largest pre-hispanic city in the Americas and constructed churches and cathedrals where the ancient temples and pyramids had been...

Pico de Orizaba in the Morning

I took this photo during our Sunday morning walk. We found a wonderful route that circles Margarita's parents' house; great for a jogging route. When I've run in Mexico, Margarita was my running partner. Back in 2005, when we were running in the Lakes, there were many times when Margarita ran faster than I ran. But, I always passed her on the hills... The wonderful thing about this route is that it passes through the woods, coffee plantations and sugar cane fields; a lot of hills as you can see... So, we've decided that, if we have a strong finish of 2011, we'll buy land here and build a house.