Tag Archives: blogging

Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

March 24-31: An Easter parade of things happening in San Miguel de Allende this week

What better way to kick off Holy Week than the sacred rivalry U.S.A vs. Mexico in the finals of the Concacaf Cup — again? Ok, there are better ways if soccer isn’t your religion. We’ve got them here! (Photo: Concacaf)

You can attend two magnificent classical performances on the same day, a spooky play reading, a night of expert storytelling, and learn how to read “Ulysses” for pleasure. Watch as the greatest soccer rivalry in the Western Hemisphere fires up again Sunday night. Take to the stage for a Live Mic night, watch an Oscar-winning documentary, or see one of the greatest movies of all time.

The toughest seat in town will be for the re-birth of the guitar-fueled Media Luna’s trio of concerts.

Probably most important of all is that all week long the Catholic faithful will be reliving the Passion of Christ in ceremony, pageantry, prayer, liturgy, and in the end pyrotechnics.

Continue reading →
Standard
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.

Continue reading →
Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

If a tree falls in the Chorro … the sound of one hand clapping?

“Tree down’s just another word for nothing left to lose …” — singer unknown.

Well, not much of a tree. More like a very dense collection of termite tunnels encased in a very mulchy tree-like substance.

The tree had been topped long ago. Which is good, because the abbreviated trunk barely grazed the exterior wall of Casa Liza hotel on Bjd. de Chorro # 7 in ZonaCentro. Imagine one of those towering trees in the park doing the same.

There is just enough room by the Casa Liza wall to squeeze by. The very agile can scoot beneath the trunk, as did Moppit the Philosopher dog on this otherwise serene Sunday morning.

Continue reading →
Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Lord, what a conquest

All day today, since sunrise roughly, colorfully costumed dancers, drummers, and musicians have been filing into the central jardin of San Miguel de Allende. They fill the four corners of the park in front of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel with trancelike dances to the steady beat dozens of drums.

For visitors and expats, the pageantry has been extraordinarily colorful and thrilling but there is a deeply religious foundation to it all that goes back 450 years. Centuries ago the statue called the Lord of the Conquest arrived in the region. Señor de la Conquista is a life-sized Christ and one of the most revered images in this World Heritage City, and not only because of its antiquity.

Many of these dancers began their journey on Thursday evening with an all-night vigil of music, ceremony, chanting in preparation for the grueling performances today. I will leave you with these images but if you want to know more, please visit the Facebook page of my good friend Efrain Gonzalez.

He has written extensively on this and the many other cultural events with which San Miguel is blessed.

Be sure to click on any image to expand it.

Continue reading →
Standard
San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

Just some of the stuff going on this week in San Miguel

What the heck is going on?

We hear that a lot now that there is no longer a weekly newspaper in San Miguel de Allende. (Not that the newspaper was all that informative. But it was better than nothing.)

The other thing we hear is “I didn’t know that was happening? How did I miss it?”

Easy. Stuff to do is all over the place. Sometimes in your Facebook feed. Sometimes in your e-mail. Sometimes on websites dedicated to local stuff. Sometimes by word of mouth. Sometimes by a poster pegged to a local bulletin board.

Continue reading →
Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

How to look at flowers: A bird’s eye view of Candelaria

Today, I realized that I’ve been looking at the flowers all wrong.

The ones that have filled the wood aisles of Parque Juarez for the annual Candelaria Festival. Nearly every pathway is filled with flowers, succulents, cacti, saplings, herbs, seeds, soils, exotics, and verdant things indescribable by a casual traveler like me.

This isn’t my first Candelaria, bucko.

Continue reading →
Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende

About a dozen reasons why I like Tuesdays in San Miguel de Allende

Of all the days of the week, I find Tuesdays to be the best. For many reasons.

Number one, of course, they are not Mondays. This isn’t nearly as important as it was when I actually worked for a living. Just the same, Tuesdays give you a chance to accomplish all the things that never got done on Mondays.

Even in so-called retirement, a lot doesn’t get done on Mondays. Some sort of psychological hangover from the days of full and meaningful employment, I imagine.

Tuesdays also seem to be the day on which the most stuff happens to you when you are least expecting it.

Continue reading →
Standard
San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel’s fledgling Operisima Mexico finds a glamorous new home in a garden of earthly delights

Rogelio Riojas-Nolasco, founder and music director of Operisima Mexico, reflects on the opera studio’s first year in front of Villa Puccini on the morning of their premiere performance here of “La Bohème.” The owners of Villa Puccini, John and Joy Bitner have opened their doors and hearts to the opera troupe.

The modest wooden door in the high garden wall opens into El Rio y La Paloma No. 2 in the distant and dusty San Miguel outpost of Los Frailes. Stepping through the portal feels a bit like Dorothy stepping out of Auntie Em’s farmhouse into Oz.

Behind this wall is indeed another world so unexpected and beautiful as to momentarily throw you off balance.

The path before you leads to a distinguished columned building in the Greek Revival style — now to become an opera house. To the left is a fountain with a sculpture of Hercules riding the back of a dolphin. In the distance, another fountain celebrates Dionysius. To the right is an Italian villa and beside it is a weighty and somber stone Medieval tower.

Continue reading →
Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel sunset

The photo was taken on December 12, 2023, from the balcony of the home of friends. If you look closely, you can see the tall Christmas tree and decorations in the public square.

Standard
photography, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende

Christmas Market (updated): Like sifting through holiday boxes in Grandma’s attic

Strolling through the Christmas Market at Mercado de San Juan de Dios in San Miguel de Allende is a lot like rooting through the boxes of holiday decorations in your grandmother’s attic.

Amid all the tinsel and strings of lights and shiny garlands and Manger figurines there is a lot of cool stuff that would look great on your tree or mantle or coffee table. Some of the designs look unchanged over the decades.

I’ll bet you could process the whole history of Christmas ornamentation in a walk around the Mercado.

Continue reading →
Standard