Uncategorized

SMA events, May 12-19: A maiz-ing grace, aka Festival of Santa Cruz del Valle del Maíz, begins; Zen goes sacred; Coldplay tribute pulls some strings; more, so much more

Welcome to the artfully curated exhibition of “stuff to do in the week ahead.” Our entertainment gnomes have scoured the Internet with their clipboards and legal pads — all enhanced with Artificial Intelligence — so that you’ll never again be able to say “There’s nothing to do here.”

You have said that before, right? Chances are, you meant to say, “I can’t find anything to do here.” Big difference. That’s why we are here — at least until certain people get it together and launch another newspaper in San Miguel de Allende. (Anyone? )

Don’t miss this wonderful multi-media exhibit on weaving and a tribute to weaving maestro Felix Perez Juarez at Bellas Artes, Hernandez Macias #75:

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

The perfume of sweaty youth and stale beer that was Hussong’s Cantina

Hussong’s Cantina on Ruiz Street in Ensenada, Baja, is one of those checklist places that anyone from San Diego had to visit at least once.

An original Caesar salad in Tijuana (or one of the more unsavory attractions), a margarita at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, a stop for lobster and a pitcher of margaritas in Puerto Nuevo, and a night at Hussong’s, ebbing and flowing with the tide of drunken masses.

Now that was a pretty good weekend.

Hussong’s was unique among cantinas. It wasn’t artificially constructed as some faux Mexican fantasy to pull in the tourists with campy decor and T-shirts. Hussong’s holds liquor license No. 2 in Ensenada and is in the same building John Hussong bought and gussied up in 1892.

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San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA, Uncategorized

SMA events, May 5-11: Everything’s coming up music (but also, happy Cinco de Mayo)

Celebrations are breaking out all over San Miguel this week. Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, the Red Cross anniversary, the religious Celebration of the Cross, and even the Locos/Crazies begin to honor their patron saint.

Or, you could just go bird-watching. There is that.

I’m guessing the performance of the week will be pianist Théo Fouchenneret and the deal of the week will be The Rondalla Señorial of the University of Guanajuato (free). The most poignant performances will be by the many wonderful musicians coming together to remember their comrade Tony Duncan.

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fiction, Memoirs -- fact and fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

Mind doodles: Flights of Fantasy

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

– Leonardo da Vinci

Flying like Superman no longer appeals to me the way it did in my youth. You remember, “faster than a speeding bullet,” – and all that leaping tall buildings with a single bound.

It may be an age thing. 

These days, I could use “stronger than a locomotive.” But I’d settle for just a stronger cup of coffee.

The apex of my yearning to fly like Superman came as he streaked around the world counterclockwise until he created enough counterforce to slow its rotation.  He did do that, right? I could be conflating my own imagination with some comic book or movie scenario.

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San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized, Writings

Lessons learned: Thriller author Chris Pavone finds that everything is material for his next novel

For a writer of well-received international mystery thrillers, Chris Pavone can sound hilariously parochial. As a dutiful househusband in Luxembourg — the exact location of which he had to look up on a map — Pavone struggled with the oven dials because they were written in German. (He’d studied French in preparation for the move.)

A day trip to Germany to buy a clothes dryer for their apartment was a bust. (“We were unprepared for how much German there’d be in Germany …”).

No matter. After a month of working with a clothesline in the guest bedroom, Pavone discovered that the washing machine was also a dryer. He found out as he was translating the two-dozen settings on the machine. One of them said “Dry.” (What? Not “trocken”?)

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized, Writings

Only in San Miguel de Allende could your massage help feed hungry abuelos: 35 years of So Others May Eat

Near the entrance to The Spa Wellness Center is a framed photograph lightly faded of around 80 abuelas in shawls, aprons and long dresses and a handful of bewiskered abuelos grouped on the steps of a Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel courtyard. Some hold canes and walking sticks. Many have woven shopping bags.

At the bottom of the picture is the bold caption:

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San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

Send in the clowns

Clowns were dancing up the street again today.

I didn’t make the same mistake twice.

Just because clowns are dancing, it doesn’t mean there is a party going on.

I learned this lesson the hard way on a recent weekend.

The recent procession that passed in front of my house from Parroquia San Antonio de Padua was a funeral. Not a celebration.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

TOSMA Saturday market finds a temporary home as a garden of earthly delights

Wow. Talk about landing on your feet, if only for one Saturday.

Last week, the popular Mercado Sano took a hit when an outside electrical fire forced its closing, through this weekend apparently.

What to do with the hugely popular TOSMA market that occupied the back parking and cavernous storage buildings?

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

Candelaria! Candelaria! Candelaria!

The 67th feast of flowers, new seeds, fertility, fertilizers, plants, and pots — La Feria de la Candelaria — has begun in Parque Juarez. The event continues through February 15.

A walk through the park this morning was truly transformative — for the park, and for me. How can you not be moved by the sheer enormity of gorgeous vegetation on display throughout every pathway, corner, and roundabout in the park?

While some of the 40-plus nursery exhibitors were still populating their corrals this morning, this is clearly the biggest Feria De La Candelaria to date.

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