Category Archives: San Miguel de Allende

Memoirs -- fact and fiction, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Take a gander at these birds

PENNSYLVANIA — A gaggle of geese threads its way slowly up the Clarion River, paddling against a lazy and shallow, but persistent, mid-summer current. There are 10 geese, all mature. Long, elegant black necks, white wings. No fuzzy goslings.

They zig and zag, snatching bugs from the air and small fish from the river. Between the feasting and the faffing and the current, their progress is slow.

One by one, they follow the leader into the leeward side of a small rock outcropping. In the calm, they gather strength for the arduous upstream paddle ahead. Deeper, faster water awaits the geese.

Continue reading →
Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende

A parade breaks out in San Miguel … on a Monday

Yes, those were definitely drums. Not the assertive, muscular, rhythmic pounding that fuels many a procession and parade here in San Miguel de Allende.

These were tentative little thumps, like someone was trying them out for the first time. A test ride. Coming from somewhere near the intersection of Correo and Recreo. Hortus restaurant, on the corner, blocked my view from the Jardin. But you could feel a sort of energy building as the drums grew louder, bolder, more assured, more assertive, rhythmic.

Yes, definitely.

Continue reading →
Standard
San Miguel de Allende

Festival of the Arts San Miguel de Allende starts Friday — let the feast begin!

Eduardo Adame’s gigantic sprawling, eclectic, cultural “potluck party” is about to begin. 

A “potluck” is how Adame described the third edition of the two-week-long Festival of the Arts San Miguel de Allende (FASMA) in May, when he was pulling together global and homegrown artists, musicians, singers, actors, poets, photographers, craftsmen, and the like for the showcase.

“Everyone is invited to bring the best that they can do – and invite their friends,” he said back then, expanding on the analogy

Continue reading →
Standard
Memoirs -- fact and fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

It is Liberation Day in my head

I’m done with “push” content from newspapers, substacks, pods and podcasters, bloggers, social media platforms, conspiracy boosters, angry MAGAs, fundraisers, revolutionists, ah-has and ma-ha’s, political shamans, alarmists, talking heads, Chicken Littles, grim reapers, Beltway pundits, scribblers, cartoonists, and diatribe specialists.

Or as another noted crank once put it, I’ve had it up to here with “Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism, This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m.”

All I am saying is don’t give push a chance. 

Continue reading →
Standard
San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

UPDATE: It was pouring raincoats!

In less time than it takes an evening downpour to pass through San Miguel de Allende, we had nearly 120 raincoats in the hands of the senior citizens who visit So Others May Eat for a hot lunch every Wednesday.

Sometimes good intentions and charitable hearts move that quickly.

Continue reading →
Standard
fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Blogger Joe Grappa has some questions and Jesus sits down for a Q&A

Sometimes you are handed a gift, in this case, a funny and talented writer named Papa Joe Grappa. A mutual friend sent me Joe’s Substack column titled “Questions for Jesus When He Comes Back.” It is really funny, as it should be for a guy who was Jay Leno’s head writer for 20 years.

Here’s the thing, as I was reading Joe’s questions, I was hearing Jesus’s answers.

Continue reading →
Standard
San Miguel de Allende

So Others May Stay Dry

Dr. Grace Lim made a startling discovery on Wednesday as she delivered her weekly health talk to the 120 elderly guests at the So Others May Eat hot lunch program.

The day was gray, and the waterlogged clouds promised yet another badly needed downpour. In one of the wettest rainy seasons in memory, the doctor’s topic was staying dry, staying warm, staying healthy.

“How many of you own an umbrella?” asked Dr. Lim.

Continue reading →
Standard
Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

Our Locos dance to a different beat … lots of different beats

Well, all those umbrellas did not go to waste. The ones people carried to the Locos parade and the ones sold by vendors under threatening skies.

The rains stayed away and thousands of gaily costumed — and bizarrely, quaintly, curiously, delightfully, enchantingly, dreamily, whimsically, scarily, creepily, amusingly and shockingly costumed — paraders strutted, danced, boogied, jumped and jived their way down the Ancha, en route to the Jardin Allende in the civic square.

Continue reading →
Standard
Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

A time for tacos, Locos, and nightly rain in San Miguel de Allende

Such a relief.

It now rains most evenings in San Miguel de Allende, somewhere between 5 and 7 p.m. I could almost set my watch by it, if I had a watch.

We got caught in a downpour last night in Colonia San Antonio as we were leaving a nearby Italian restaurant, Denver’s Los Olivos, with some friends. Juan Miguel (Denver) always delights — a very old-school chef with traditional recipes and a dining-in-the-kitchen feel.

Continue reading →
Standard
Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

A Flamboyant tree grows in Colonia San Antonio

More than five years ago, we lived in a “penthouse” apartment that overlooked this tree from nearly a block away. You could not miss it. You could not turn away. Its color is otherworldly among the beige and brown stucco buildings.

After the splendid jacaranda trees drop their lavender flowers, this one, and more like it in hidden courtyards behind drab walls, spring to life.

Continue reading →
Standard