Frida on the Street

Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City's iconic boulevard, has seen many displays of public art.  Usually these displays involve identical fiberglass figures with each one painted by a different artist.  There have been giant skulls for Day of the Dead, enormous soccer balls one year in honor of the World Cup, prickly pear cactuses for the 700th anniversary of the founding of the city, and even an army of cows.  The latest display consists of figures of the artist Frida Kahlo.  Here are some of the Fridas along Paseo de la Reforma...

Summer Blockbuster

Alejandro and I went to the movie theater at the nearby World Trade Center to see this summer's blockbuster, "The Odyssey".

Long before the movie ever premiered, it generated an enormous amount of controversy over the casting of black actress Lupita Nyong'o in the role of Helen of Troy.  Even though Nyong'o's acting in the movie was excellent, and I get so sick and tired of the right wing's constant shouting of "Woke!", I will admit that her appearance was a bit jarring.  But at the end of the day, the characters are mythological, NOT historical people!  Furthermore, I doubt if ANY of the actors in the movie are of Greek ancestry.

Putting the controversy aside, it is certainly a superb piece of filmmaking.  The cinematography was top-notch (it probably would have been even more impressive if we had seen it at an IMAX theater).  The acting was consistently excellent.   (My favorite performance was that of Anne Hathaway as Odysseus's wife Penelope.)  In spite of the movie's run-time of around three hours, I was never bored or restless.

Obviously, it is impossible to condense the epic poem into a film, even if it does run three hours.  I have never read "The Odyssey", but in school we read in prose form many of its stories.  Without even doing any research, I knew that the director, Christopher Nolan, had taken liberties with the tale.  The witch Circe is not portrayed, as she usually is, as a seductress.  In the movie Odysseus does not spend a year with her, nor does she bear him a son.  In the movie the stories of the Lotus Eaters and of the nymph Calypso, with whom the hero spent seven years, are conflated into one episode.  Eating the lotus flower causes blissful forgetfulness, so the movie viewer can forgive the hero for tarrying so long before returning to Penelope.  In ancient Greece, the concept of marital fidelity did not exist for men, but I suspect that the director made these changes so that Odysseus would not appear to be an unfaithful cad to his modern audience.

The movie is highly recommended.  However, it seems that some are praising this movie as one of the greatest achievements in the history of filmmaking.  Yes, it's great movie entertainment that will probably receive a ton of well deserved Oscar nominations.  But was I profoundly emotionally moved by it?  Did I leave the theatre in raptures?  No.

   

Fine Dining - Yucatan style

 Saturday night Alejandro and I took the Metrobus down Insurgentes Avenue to a restaurant where we have dined before... "Los Almendros".  "Los Almendros" (The Almond Trees) serves the cuisine of the Yucatan Peninsula, which is quite distinct from the food in the rest of Mexico.  It is part of a chain; I have eaten several times at "Los Almendros" in Mérida, the capital of the state of Yucatán.  From my experience, I actually like the one in Mexico City more than the one in Mérida.

We arrived at 8:00 PM (the restaurant closes at 10), and we were the only ones there.  I suspect that most of their business is in the afternoon, which is the time for the main meal of the day in Mexico.  Since there was no one else there, our waitress was exceptionally attentive.

To begin we both ordered "crema de Xcatic", a cream soup with cheese and "xcatic", a type of pepper typical of the Yucatan.  It was excellent, although some mind find it a bit too spicy.

Alejandro's main course was "poc chuc", a grilled pork cutlet flavored with the juice of bitter oranges, tomatoes, onions and various spices.

My main dish was "pollo ticuleño" (chicken in the style of the town of Ticul).  The breaded chicken cutlet was served with a home-made sauce, peas, ham, cheese and plantain.

For dessert, Alejandro had lime-flavored cheese cake, and I had flan.

Everything was excellent... the elegant atmosphere, the wonderful service, and the delicious food!

An Instrumental Exhibit

The other special exhibit at the National Museum of Anthropology is called "Musical Instruments from Mexico and the World".  It contains 358 instruments from the collection of Mexican ethnomusicologist Juan Guillermo Contreras Arias.

Here are a few of the instruments in the exhibit...

From Mexico, a "tlalpanhuéhuetl", an Aztec style drum carved from the trunk of a tree

A native American drum from Canada

An intricately carved drum from China

This Mexican drum bears the national emblem of the eagle and the serpent.

A drum from West Africa

A drum from Colombia

A military cornet from Mexico

Not all bagpipes are from Scotland.  This one is from Cataluña in Spain.

A dragon horn from Tibet

This horn from Ecuador is made from a plastic hose covered with yarn.

Mexican horns made from the stalks of agave plants.

A "zampoña", a pan pipe from the Andean regions of South America

Zithers from Austria

A 17th century lyre from Arabia

A "kayagum", a type of zither from Korea

A Mexican marimba

An 18th or 19th century piano from Germany

Banjos from France

A German mandolin

A 19th century balalaika from Russia

A collection of different kinds of guitars from Mexico and Spain

From Mexico, a turtle shell and deer antlers used as a drum

These rattle-like instruments are worn by the Yaqui tribe of northern Mexico on their ankles when they perform their traditional deer dance.  They are made from dried butterfly cocoons and filled with small stones.

Two 19th century wooden rain sticks from Mexico

They are filled with small stones, and thorns are hammered into the wood.

When the sticks are turned, it simulates the sound of rain.

Ruins from Above

I visited the National Museum of Anthropology a while ago to see two special exhibits that are currently on display.  One of them was a series of aerial photographs of Mexican archaeological site taken by noted photographer, Santiago Arau.  In keeping with the theme of this summer's World Cup, the emphasis was on the ballcourts of those sites.  A ceremonial ball game was played by almost all of the pre-Hispanic civilizations of Mexico.

The ballcourt at Tula, the capital of the Toltec civilization from 900 to 1200.  It exhibits a shape typical of many ball courts... like an elongated letter "H".

Monte Albán, the capital of the Zapotecs (200 B.C. to A.D. 850) sits atop a mountain high above the city of Oaxaca.

The ballcourt of Monte Albán

The slanted walls on either side of the court were not spectator stands.

They were covered with smooth plaster, and the ball would be bounced off of them.

The ballcourt at Coatetelco

Here's one I had never hear of.  Coatetelco is a small town in the state of Morelos.

In the middle of the community is a small archaeological site dating from the Aztec period (1350 - 1521).  The main remaining structure is the ballcourt.

La Quemada is a site in the state of Zacatecas, farther north than most of the major archaeological sites.  Archaeologists are unsure as to which civilization built it.  Some think it might have been a northern outpost of the Toltecs.  You can see the ballcourt in the center of the site.

Tajín, in the state of Veracruz, was the capital of the Totonac culture (900 - 1200).

A closer view with the ballcourt in the center

I had never heard of Chalcatzingo in the state of Morelos either.  It dates back to 400 B.C., and shows influence of the Olmecs, the oldest civilization in Mexico.

The Mayan city of Uxmal, in the state of Yucatán, flourished from 700 to 1000 A.D.  The ballcourt is visible at the bottom of the photo.

Also in the state of Yucatán, the Mayan city of Chichén Itzá has the largest and best preserved ballcourt in Mesoamerica.