Tag Archives: blogging

photography, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Thinking about Jimmy Buffett and Paradise: ‘I am still me, it’s the island that got small’

In counseling the British writer Robert Graves on a possible move to Majorca, Gertrude Stein called it “a paradise – if you can stand it.”

And that is as good an explanation as any of the complicated relationship many people have with Jimmy Buffett. The man sold a brand of paradise. Millions bought at least some version of it – be it a beachy lifestyle, the music, a devotion to margaritas, Hawaiian shirts and sandals, sportfishing, sailing, and all the Margaritaville bars, retirement communities, casinos, resorts …

Buffett wasn’t the first to turn a lifestyle into a commodity but few seem to do it better. Maybe Donald Trump. These days you can be a cradle-to-grave Parrothead with apologies toward none. More than anything, we worship success and if a guy sells a million records or makes a million dollars, he will find no shortage of admirers.

Continue reading →
Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende

Colorful cascade

This is the San Miguel de Allende version of “Surf’s Up!”

Bougainvillea soars skyward on spindly legs during the rainy season and bursts outward like technicolor mushroom clouds, surging over walls as their own weight and gravity pulls the blooms toward the ground.

This one is one of San Miguel’s best displays of a bougainvillea canopy.

As it is every year. (Mostly bougainvillea. The blue flowers are something else.)

Only this year, the bloom seems more vivacious than ever.

It is between the Villa Santa Monica property on Jose Guadalupe Mojica (Calle Baeza?) and Calle Santa Elena — right across from Parque Juarez and close to the Lavaderos del Chorro.

_____________________________________________________________________

Put more magiIf you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing and passing on e (in the red circle). Feel free to share this post!

Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

The evolving physics of the Parroquia

Every time I think that I’ve photographed the Parroquia San Miguel de Arcangel from every conceivable angle during the past five years, something new comes along.

It’s like in physics. Scientists were pretty sure that the Standard Model that addresses all “of nature’s known particles and forces” was The Overall Encompassing Answer to Everything.

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

Early morning Samaritans

She was standing in the middle of Callejon San Antonio around 6:30 this morning as I left the house, a dazed look on her face. And tears. On a closer look, she was crying.

“Are you all right?” I asked. A dumb thing to ask, I know. “Can I help you?”

“No, I’m not. I don’t know.”

She removed her hand from the top of her baseball cap. A large dark smear of blood was seeping through the hat and dripping down the side of her face. In her other hand, she held the leash to the dog she had been walking.

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

Maybe they’re not so loco after all … what a parade!

They did it. The Loco marched, danced, walked, twirled, teased, sweated, tossed candy and rubber balls, waved, smiled, and consumed copious amounts of water and electrolyte drinks on Sunday morning.

And the thousands lining both sides of many downtown San Miguel de Allende streets loved every hot and sticky, broiling, joyous moment of the Contvite de Locos.

What an incredible day.

The city estimates that 130,000 people were in San Miguel for the parade, of whom 5,300 were Locos marching in the parade. Only 43 people required medical attention for heat, falling, tripping, or other maladies. Four individuals were arrested during this very family-oriented festivity.

It is worth noting that the city staffed a number of “hydration stations” along the parade route for marchers and watchers.

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

A rock concert in the park

You know that feeling? Like you are being watched by somebody in the park? Somebody you can’t see. But those eyes …

This morning while walking the gentle philosophy dog, Moppit, in Parque Guadiana I couldn’t shake the feeling there there were eyes upon me.

Well, I wasn’t completely wrong.

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

Surprise encore: For the Queen of the Night, beauty shall not be denied

And the Creator said, “epiphyllum oxypetalum, you shall be a cactus, though you do not look like one. Once a year and only at night, you shall bear forth beautiful flowers while the world sleeps. Before dawn your flowers shall wither away, but only before being ravaged by bats.”

The epiphyllum oxypetalum did not understand this curious fate but it knew better than to argue with the Creator.

Perhaps the Creator felt a little guilty because later, the epiphyllum oxypetalum was given a lovely and pronounceable name: Queen of the Night.

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

Dress rehearsal for Sunday’s Convite de Locos was crazy, man

Well, this explains so many things: Anthony de Padua is the patron saint of the insane.

Now the Dia de Locos — or Convite de Locos — isn’t so crazy after all.

Well, yes, it is. Crazy, I mean. Very very crazy. In so many delightful ways.

What better way to honor the patron saint of people who have lost their minds than to assemble thousands of people in costumes that suggest they, too, have indeed lost their minds?

Continue reading →
Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende

Off to work

Guitarists walk down Callejon de los Suspiros on a warm San Miguel de Allende morning.

_____________________________________________________________________

Put more magiIf you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing and passing on e (in the red circle). Feel free to share this post!

Standard
photography, San Miguel de Allende

Happy birthday, Ignacio Allende!

Happy 254th birthday, Don Ignacio de Allende y Unzaga, Lieutenant Colonel of the Insurgent Army and hero of the revolution.

San Miguel de Allende, named in part after its favorite son, has been celebrating all week with music, cultural dances, and more — and today, the annual parade which is a most interesting merger of military might and marching school children. The parade also celebrates first responders, marching bands, the conservation corps, civic leaders, beauty queens, and equestrians.

Continue reading →
Standard