think my paternal grandfather might've been one of the italian prisoners of world war one discussed here.
would like to thank the insanity of the 24hr news cycle for scaring away tourism, lowering the nonstop dc-mexico city flight prices to the point you can't afford not to go.
would like to thank the insanity of the 24hr news cycle for scaring away tourism, lowering the nonstop dc-mexico city flight prices to the point you can't afford not to go.
aside from the infrared body heat-sensing cameras at immigration..
..and a few hand sanitizer shrines, you would never have known cnn/fox/msnbc were in apeshit mode a few short weeks ago....thanks again..
..and viva mexico.
didn't plan at all, ended up in a hotel with a mirror on the ceiling. too kinky, switched after the first night.
visited trotsky in exile (a.k.a. col. sanders, a.k.a. goldstein, my favorite from 1984).
they made new york yankees monopoly, where's my leon trotsky clue?reconsidered donating my body to science. at least need a no museum-display clause.
had to look again. mexican street vendors aren't shy about displaying pornography. first time i saw these damn tous bears, definitely thought they were obscene.
overdosed on tacos. in the spring of 2007, i stopped eating meat in the united states. now i live on fish and respond to meat cravings by booking international travel.
endured monumental doses of pda.
attended a wrestling match.
apologize..
..good ideas apparently need to cross our border in the other direction.
stumbled upon my favorite einstein quote..
..but more fitting for the trip would be indiana jones' "it belongs in a museum."
received offers to purchase every conceivable genre of music. cd hawkers board your metro car at one stop, yell their merchandise, blast their backpack-stereos (pictured), then walk up and down the train hoping to make a sale..
..a few others sold gum, sweets, or salvation. the most memorable carried a rag filled with broken beer bottles, hollered something, laid the cloth down with the glass exposed, whacked his head against it and shattered some of the glass, then walked up and down the metro car begging for change. i will never complain about my job as long as i live.watched billy mays reincarnate.
need more green screens in my life. zoom in and scroll up to see who they're about to be superimpose-eaten by.
dropped by the home of frida kahlo and diego rivera..
..note to self: last will & testament needs to specify museums in my honor not have horrendous middle school cafeteria aesthetic.
understood the feline place in pyramids..
..less so wtf starbucks is thinking.
can't forget..
the original megachurches
nafta
personally prefer my koala ukulele
a nation of hipsters,
and forlorn spidermen.
probably an just another evil plot. prozac to the rescue.
when i want to join the x-men, i will paperclip this picture to my application.
she loves me
she loves me notbeauty in everything, even overflowing sewers
except, maybe, the leashed children
dedicated photographers
old art
new art
washington crossing the delaware: nile crocodile styletechnoclowns
a noticeable difference between the current old and new worlds: only the old has the presence of ancient structures next to modern ones, with mexico city the exception.
taxis sans passenger-side seatshere's fifty pesos, now slap me with some cabbage
diabetes peddlers
memo to korean pagoda enthusiasts, no more excuses not to visitindigenous drum & dance troupes always satisfy
and babies. notice the baby.
you may be adorable, kid, but get back in line
now here's a knee-slapper:q: where did the cat keep all his mice?
a: in his moustache.
toured the mexican museum of torture & punishment..
..also read this article on british torture & complicity - 'even in the mid-1990's, [britain] obstinately maintained the extraordinary fiction that mi6 did not exist.'"the language used is itself a critical contributing factor. after the second world war the us was the first nation to transform traditional terminology, moving from ‘defence’ to ‘national security’ as the guiding ethos of its foreign policy, a conscious choice of words intended to reflect the expansion of the us’s desired role in world affairs, conflating a myriad different political, economic and military factors so that developments halfway round the world could automatically be construed as having a direct impact on the us’s core interests. effectively, every development the world over came to be perceived as potentially crucial, so that an adverse turn of events anywhere endangered the united states. american foreign policy goals came to be translated into issues of national survival, and the range of threats became limitless."
caught up on other old, worthwhile lrb articles..
(1) order and governance in modern china
(2) america's surge strategy in iraq
(3) guantanamo
(4) 'live long enough to live forever' - 'our chance of dying doubles every eight years we live'
(5) the history of hamas - 'paul volcker, chuck hagel, nancy kassebaum, james wolfensohn, and thomas pickering urged obama to talk to hamas.'
(6) moldova - "gdp per capita is lower than india's" "human development index...ranked just below mongolia and bolivia"
(7) wikipedia - "people who believe in truth and objectivity are at least as numerous as all the crazies, pranksters and time-wasters, and they are often considerably more tenacious, ruthless and monomaniacal." "one notorious failure came in 2005, when the editorial page of the los angeles times decided to experiment with a 'wikitorial', which would allow anyone to contribute to the writing of an editorial column using the same techniques as a wikipedia entry." "type in 'boiling a frog' and you go straight to a page that tells you everything you need to know."
(8) cuban-american relations - "the cubans saw their war of independence from spain - americans christened 'the spanish-american war'."
(9) amazon exploration - "of cannibalism, 'at least it provides a reasonable motive for killing a man, which is more than you can say for civilized warfare'."
7/9/09