Strange but Interesting

Last weekend Alejandro and I saw a strange but interesting movie. But, then again, the subject matter of the film was quite unusual.  The movie was "The Testament of Ann Lee", and it deals with the founder of the religious group commonly known as the Shakers.

(image taken from the internet)

The Shakers were an offshoot of the Quaker church.  The group began in England under the leadership of Ann Lee in the late 18th century.  She and her followers moved to Massachusetts, and established numerous communities throughout New England and beyond.  They came to be called Shakers because their worship services were characterized by ecstatic shaking and dancing.  At their peak in the mid-19th century there may have been as many as 4000 followers.  The Shakers were rather progressive in that they believed in gender and racial equality. However, their faith also believed in absolute celibacy, so they depended on converts to maintain their numbers.  As of today, there are only three members of the sect remaining.  The subject was of special interest to me, since there was once a Shaker colony in Ohio at the location of the present-day Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.

At times the movie was a bit slow, but the acting and direction were quite good.  The Shaker services included a lot of singing, and the movie included numerous songs, some of them genuine Shaker hymns as well as music written for the film.  Alejandro joked that the title should have been "Shakers - the Musical".

Teachers' Protest

When I told Alejandro that I was planning on going downtown yesterday, he advised that I shouldn't.  The CNTE, a militant teachers' union with a Marxist bent, was staging protests on Thursday and Friday.  Their demands are a 100% increase in salary and the abolition of the 2013 educational reform act which requires the testing of teachers.  They are opposed to the government expenditures for the World Cup games this summer at the expense of public sector salaries.  This union is known for its disruptive protests, and last May they occupied the main plaza of Mexico City and blocked major thoroughfares for days.

I took a look at the "Webcams de México" website to see what was going on downtown.   The teachers had set up tents in the Zócalo, although there were not as many during last year's protest.  There was no traffic along the Paseo de la Reforma, so the union had obviously blockaded that boulevard.  

However, looking at the other webcams, everything seemed normal.  I decided to go ahead and go downtown.  Because of the blockade on Reforma, the Metrobus along Insurgentes Avenue only went so far.  I got off and then took the subway.   I got off a couple of stops later and walked the rest of the way.  Granted, I didn't go anywhere near the Zócalo, but everything seemed perfectly normal.  I had planned to visit a special exhibit at one of the museums, and I had no problem.  If it were not for the disruption to public transportation, I would have never known that anything out of the ordinary was going on.

This afternoon, I took another look at the webcams.  There were still tents on the Zócalo, but fewer than yesterday.

 It would appear that traffic is once again flowing along the Paseo de la Reforma.

Even though I was a teacher (and even participated in a lengthy teachers' strike), their disruptive tactics and their Marxist ideology turn me off.  I can't muster much sympathy for these protesters.

New to the Neighborhood

Recently a number of new businesses have appeared in the neighborhood.

"De Costa a Costa" has long been a regular breakfast spot for us.  It's a seafood restaurant, but they serve very good breakfasts.  A month or so ago, they started doing construction work at the entrance to the restaurant.  We thought that perhaps they were doing an expansion, but a couple weekends ago they had the grand opening of a small bakery called "Le  Croton". 

 It would seem that the bakery is operated by "De Costa a Costa".  Last weekend when we were having breakfast, we were given a coupon for 50% off at the bakery.  The baked goods are rather expensive, so Alejandro took advantage of the discount and bought some pastries to take to the house.  The name of "De Costa a Costa" appeared on the receipt.

Just down the street we discovered another new place.  A "Hard Rock Cafe" has just opened in a nearby Wyndham Hotel.

I have never been to a Hard Rock Cafe.  In fact, I didn't know that they still existed.  The early reviews are very mixed, from excellent to terrible.  It is open until 1 AM, so sometime when Alejandro arrives late at the apartment on a Friday night, we will have to give it a try.

Still farther down the street was a restaurant that we used to like called "El Boludo".  Then, quite suddenly, the quality of the food and service went dramatically downhill.  It wasn't a surprise when the restaurant closed a few months ago.  In its place a new "taquería" called "Taco 'n Ganas" opened.

It bills itself as a "taquería regia".  The adjective "regia", which means royal, it used to describe people from the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.  We tried the place once, and we really liked their "tacos de gaonera" made with beef tenderloin.

Across the street, the sign for another new "taquería" appeared about the same time.

                        However, "Tacos El Siete" has yet to open its door for business.

Guacamole

Frequently I make a very simple version of guacamole by simply mashing an avocado with some salt and pepper, the juice of half a lime, and some salsa or ground chipotle pepper.  However, my salsa cookbook has an entire chapter of guacamole recipes.  (Technically, guacamole is a salsa... "mole" comes from the Aztec word "molli", meaning sauce.)

I decided to make a recipe for guacamole with cooked "tomatillos", the Mexican fruit which looks like a green tomato covered with a husk.  They are used to make "salsa verde" (green sauce).

The recipe calls for 2 ripe Hass avocados, one serrano pepper, 6 husked "tomatillos", 1/4 cup of chopped onion, and salt.  I did not put in chopped cilantro leaves, not because I dislike cilantro, but because it seems a waste to buy a bunch of cilantro when the recipe only calls for 2 tablespoons.

The flesh of the avocados is coarsely mashed with some salt.

The "tomatillos" and the Serrano pepper (which has been stemmed, seeded and deveined) are cooked in water.

The "tomatillos", pepper and chopped onion are ground into a paste in a "molcajete" (a volcanic stone mortar).

The mashed avocados are then combined with the "tomatillo" paste.

If I were ever to make this recipe again, I would use half the "tomatillos" and perhaps more avocado.  The tartness of the "tomatillos" overwhelmed the avocados, and it tasted more like green sauce than guacamole.  I will just stick to my quick and simple version of guacamole.

Auf Wiedersehen

Sunday was Christoph and Sabrina's last day in Mexico City.  After breakfast, Alejandro and I took them to see some of the sights in the "Historic Center".

We went in the Metropolitan Cathedral, but unfortunately the most impressive of the church's altarpieces, the Altar of the Kings, was covered with scaffolding.  As with many places in the city, it would appear that it too is being spruced up in anticipation of the crowds of tourists that will arrive for the World Cup this summer.

Next to the Cathedral is the archaeological site where the foundations of the main Aztec temple were uncovered.  Christoph was keen to see that, so we wandered through the excavations and visited the adjoining museum that contains the thousands of artifacts discovered on the site.

That evening we invited them to a farewell dinner at Bellini, the revolving restaurant on the 45th floor of the World Trade Center.  It is the largest revolving restaurant in the world, and in the course of 1 hour, 45 minutes, makes a complete revolution, offering a 360 degree view of the city.

We were joined by our friend Andrés who was visiting the city for the weekend.  We arrived  around 6 PM hoping to get a good view of the sunset.  Unfortunately, the sky was overcast, and we only had a brief glimpse of the setting sun.  However, we were able to see the vast city below us by day and by night.

Early the next morning, our visitors left on the next leg of their journey through Mexico, a bus ride to Oaxaca.  It was a pleasure to host our Swiss guests and to show them some of the sights.  In three days they only scratched the surface of what there is to see here.  We hope that they enjoyed their stay as much as we enjoyed hosting them and that they will return in the future to see more of this great city.

Auf wiedersehen!

 

A Night at the Ballet

Last Saturday, our guests from Switzerland had a day on their own.  They had booked a sunrise flight in a hot air balloon over the pyramids of Teotihuacan.  They had to leave the apartment in the wee hours of the morning to be taken to the archaeological site located 25 miles to the north of Mexico City.  They booked with the same company that Alejandro and I used last year, except that they booked an entire package.  After the balloon ride, they had breakfast, and then time to explore the ruins.  They returned in the afternoon and said that it was a wonderful experience.

Alejandro and I had our own plans on Saturday.  Long before we knew that Christoph and Sabrina were going to visit, I had bought tickets for a performance of Swan Lake at the historic  Metropolitan Theater in downtown Mexico City.  The building opened in 1943 as a movie theater, and is one of the few opulent movie houses from the era to survive.  It was abandoned in the 1990s, but in 1996 it was bought by a production company and refurbished.  It is now the venue for all sorts of musical performances, usually concerts by Mexican and international pop stars.

(image taken from the internet)

When we saw that Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" was going to be performed at the theater, I went ahead and purchased tickets.  I must say that I am not really a fan of classical ballet... prima ballerinas in tutus dancing on tiptoes.   The only ballet that I have ever seen is "The Nutcracker".  However, I do love the music of Tchaikovsky, and I figured that the Kiev Ballet must be a top-notch troupe.

(image taken from the internet)

As it turned out, the music was recorded and not performed by a live orchestra.  The volume of the recording was a bit to loud.  Furthermore, the "Kiev Ballet" is a touring group that was founded in 2017... not a dance company of long-standing tradition.  Since I am not a ballet buff, I really cannot fairly judge the quality of the performance.  However, it seemed to me that the dancers did a competent, but not spectacular job.  Both Alejandro and I nodded of a couple of times.  All in all, the evening did not inspire us to rush out and see more ballet (except, of course, for the Ballet Folklórico de México, which is an entirely different kind of experience).

(photo taken by Alejandro)

 

Playing Tour Guide

On Friday, I spent the day with my Swiss visitors, Christoph and Sabrina.  They are vegans, so I thought that they would have a difficult time in carnivorous Mexico to find places to eat.  Surprisingly, Sabrina found a number of vegan restaurants online.  So we headed by Metrobus to the Condesa neighborhood for breakfast at a place called "Mora Mora". 

Both Christoph and I ordered vegan chilaquiles.  They were not like traditional chilaquiles, but I must say they were quite tasty.  And the salsa that they used was excellent.

We then walked through the leafy Condesa neighborhood, including the lovely "Parque México".  We got back on the Metrobus to go to our destination for the day... the National Museum of Anthropology.

We arrived just in time to see the "Voladores" (Flyers) performing a ceremony which dates back to pre-Hispanic times.

As I had written in an earlier post, I had prepared a highlights tour of the enormous museum that I hoped would take about two hours.  They both seemed to enjoy their tour and were impressed with the museum.

The impressive fountain in the museum courtyard

We had to laugh at the policeman who was frequently blowing his whistle when people would stand under the cascading water.

The famous Aztec Sun Stone, perhaps the most famous piece in the museum.

Our tour ended up lasting more than two hours, and by the time we were done our jet-lagged travelers were growing weary.  I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before, so I also was also tired.  We agreed to return to the apartment rather than seeing the special exhibit at the nearby Museum of Modern Art.

After resting awhile, Sabrina found a "taquería" nearby that had a number of vegan taco options.  So they were able to stick to their vegan diet, while I had regular tacos with meat.

It was a great but tiring day!

Get Me to the Airport

Yesterday I wanted to go to the airport to meet my Swiss cousin's son and his girlfriend upon their arrival in Mexico City.  I was coming from the apartment.  Alejandro was at the family house and was going to drive to the airport, which is not too far away.  Then Alejandro would be able to drive us all back to the apartment.

It was going to be rush hour, and I really didn't want to take a taxi or Uber in the traffic.  I decided to use public transportation.  There used to be a Metrobus that went directly from the old Buenavista Train Station to the terminals.  However, the powers that be decided to change that route, and now you have to transfer buses at the San Lázaro stop.  It is no longer a convenient option.  I studied the Metrobus and Metro maps and discovered that I could take Line 1 of the Metrobus (the route that passes close to the apartment) and travel north along Insurgentes Avenue to La Raza stop.  There I could transfer to a subway line that would take me to the airport.

I was a little hesitant since I have never done this route before.  Also, being rush hour, I was afraid that the bus and subway would be uncomfortably crowded.  Nevertheless, I left the apartment and allowed plenty of time to arrive.

Surprisingly the Metrobus was not too crowded, and after a couple of stops I actually had a seat.  I got off at La Raza, a busy, chaotic transport hub in a neighborhood that is not the greatest. Nevertheless, I found the entrance to the subway without any trouble.  I did have to walk some distance through a tunnel to reach Line 5 of the subway.  It's an interesting walk because it is lined with astronomical photos dealing with the universe, the solar system, the moon and the formation of planet Earth.  

Line 5 is quite short, so there were not many people on the subway.  In spite of the hour, I had a seat for my brief journey.  I got off at the "Terminal Aérea" station.  From a review I had read on Google Maps, I thought that it was going to be a rather complicated walk to get to the airport, including a pedestrian bridge to cross a highway.  I don't know if changes have been made, or if the reviewer had left the station through the wrong exit.  It was a piece of cake.  After leaving the station, the sidewalk went directly to airport Terminal 1, which is where the Lufthansa flight was arriving.  I was there with plenty of time to spare and no problems at all.  It is definitely a route that I will use again if I need to meet someone at the airport.

The airport right now is a mess.  Both terminals are undergoing renovations in time for the World Cup this summer.  

     

As I got nearer to the international arrivals area, the terminal appeared to be closer to completion.  It looked fresh and brightly illuminated.

I sat down at in a seat at the arrivals area.  (Previously, there had been no seats there for people to wait.)  I watched the sliding doors from which people were passing after clearing customs.  However, Christoph and Sabrina must have come through a different set of doors, and I did not see them.  Fortunately Alejandro arrived at the moment that they were coming out, and he recognized them from a photo I had shown him.  He called me.  "Where are you?" he asked.  I looked around and saw the three of them perhaps thirty feet away.

They were very tired after their long journey, but happy to see us and know that we would take them under their wing.

Flying the Circle

In between getting ready for the arrival of my cousin and his girlfriend, I have been checking the progress of their flight on a website called "FlightAware".  Earlier when I took this photo of my laptop screen, their flight was approaching the coast of Greenland.

When looking at a flat map, it would seem that the shortest route between two points would be a straight line.  This circular route looks as if it would be going far out of the way.  But in fact, when dealing with a three dimensional globe, the shortest distance is an arc.  Most trans-Atlantic flights circle far to the north into Arctic regions.  On several flights home from Europe I have looked out the window and viewed Greenland with its glaciers and coastline indented with fjords.

The Tour Guide Returns

If you have read my blog over a period of time, you know that I enjoy playing "tour guide" to friends and relatives that visit Mexico.  At the end of last month, I received a message that Christoph, the son of one of my Swiss cousins*, and his girlfriend are coming to Mexico City.  Since they had not yet made hotel reservations, I invited them to stay here at the apartment, and I offered to show them around.  They will arrive this evening after flying on Swiss International Airlines from Zurich to Frankfurt and then taking the direct Lufthansa flight to Mexico City.

Obviously, I am very excited and thrilled to show them the kind of hospitality that my Swiss family has shown me on my visits there.  I have been busy preparing the guest bedroom and preparing a light supper for them after their long flight.

Yesterday, I read that the Lufthansa pilots were going on strike for two days over a breakdown of negotiations on pensions.  I feared that their arrival would be delayed by two days.  Then I read that, in spite of the strike, the airline planned to run 50% of their flights, 60% of their long-haul flights.  I had hope that they might arrive today as scheduled.  Christoph said yesterday afternoon that he had not received any notification that the flight had been cancelled.  This morning I woke up at 5:00 AM (noon, Frankfurt time).  I sent a message to Christoph and asked if the flight was on schedule.  He immediately replied that everything looked good.  As I write this, according to the Lufthansa website, the cabin doors were closed, and the plane was leaving the runway.  They are on their way to Mexico!

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One of the places that they have said that they want to visit is the National Museum of Anthropology, one of the great museums of the world.  It is impossible to see everything in this vast museum, so I will give them a highlights tour of about two hours.  Although I have guided other visitors through the museum in the past, I wanted to refresh my memory.  So last week I went to the museum, reviewed the items I want to show them, and even took some notes.

Out of the enormous museum collection, I am going to concentrate on just four galleries...

The Olmecs... Mexico's oldest civilization

Colossal stone head carved by the Olmecs

The Mayas... one of the most advanced of Mexico's pre-Hispanic civilizations

Jade funerary mask of Pakal, king of the Mayan city of Palenque

Teotihuacan... the mysterious civilization that built the largest city in pre-Hispanic America

Reproduction of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacan

The Aztecs... the great empire which fell to the Spanish conquerors

The monolithic Aztec Sun Stone

**********

* In genealogical terms, the child of a cousin is a cousin once-removed.  However, according to Alejandro, in Mexico the son or daughter of a cousin is considered a nephew or a niece.

    

Two Movies

 Over the past couple of weeks, we have seen two movies.  One of them I liked, the other I detested.

First, the film that I liked... "Nuremberg"

Ever since the movie premiered in the U.S. last December, I had wanted to see it.  At that time, the talk was that Russell Crowe was a shoe-in for an Academy Award.  (As it turned out, he did not even get a nomination, although I think that he was worthy of one.)  I have no idea why it did not appear in the movie theaters here until a couple weeks ago.  Usually films from the U.S. premiere in Mexico at about the same time.

The movie is a sold historical film, although not as good as the award-winning "Judgement at Nuremberg" from 1961.  The plot centers around an army psychiatrist (Rami Malek) who is assigned to ascertain whether or not the Nazi war criminals, including Hermann Goering (Russell Crowe), are mentally fit to stand trial.  The performances were excellent, especially Crowe, who learned to speak what to my ear seemed to be flawless German.

Now the movie which we both hated... "If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You"

The film centers around a therapist, wife and mother whose life is falling apart.  Her husband is away at work, and she must deal with a myriad of problems on her own.  Her daughter has an unspecified disorder that requires that she be fed through a tube in her stomach.  The ceiling of their apartment collapses, and she and her daughter must move into a shabby motel.  She turns to alcohol and drugs as an escape.  The character does not earn the viewers' sympathy.  She is simply too shrill, angry and argumentative.

For some reason the critics raved about this movie, but we just wanted it to be over.  One movie goer, however, wrote a review on the internet which encapsulated our feelings perfectly... "too much strife, too much stress, too much shouting, too much whining..."

Sitting through the nearly two hours of the film was torture.  We thought that it was the worst movie that we had seen in a long time!

 

Hummingbird Door

I had been thinking about buying some sort of decoration to have on the door of the apartment when it's not the Day of the Dead or Christmas season.  On Monday I was at Alejandro's family's house.  I had a dentist appointment that evening, and I was walking the few blocks to her office.  I passed a store which sells decorative items, and at the entrance was a beautiful metal wreath decorated with flowers and hummingbirds.  It looked as if it would be too big for my door.  On my way back, I went into the shop to see if that had any similar items in a smaller size.  They did indeed.  They had a number of decorations, all by the same Mexican artisan, all with a hummingbird motive.

I decided upon this one which is now hanging on my door.

The metal framework is shaped like a hummingbird, and it has hand-painted figures of flowers and smaller hummingbirds made of resin.

It will be on the door until October when I start to decorate for Day of the Dead.

Late Bloomer, Repeat Bloomer

Easter is on its way, but my poinsettia plant is now in full bloom.

Back when I lived in Ohio, I tried several times to keep my Christmas poinsettias and get them to bloom the following winter.  They tell you that the plant needs absolute darkness for 12 hours starting in the autumn.  I would faithfully put my poinsettia in a closet for the allotted hours, but my efforts were rewarded with only a few small red leaves.

My first Christmas after the move to Mexico, I bought a poinsettia.  After it was done blooming, I cut it back and let it sprout new foliage.  In the fall I put it in the guest bedroom, but I was not good about closing the blinds or shutting the door each night.  Even though it did not get total darkness, by February it had some nice blooms.

This past fall, I did not even bother to give it total darkness.  Christmas is long past, but I think that the late blossoms are the best I have ever had!

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I have also written frequently about my attempts to get my orchid to bloom.  I bought the plant at Home Depot, and the flowers were beautiful.  But then, for over a year, I could not get it to rebloom.  July of last year, I took the plant to a nursery, and had a professional repot it.  He said that I had been over-watering it.  He cut away some rotten roots, and planted it in bark with a time-release fertilizer.  He told me to give it no more than one cup of water per week.

In August, just a month after repotting, a flower stalk had sprouted, and by October my orchid was in full-bloom  The flowers lasted until January.

A few days ago, I was looking at my orchid.  I wondered whether the time-released fertilizer was spent, and if, now that winter has passed, I should begin fertilizing it.  I noticed that at its core, a new leaf was emerging.  And then, much to my surprise, I saw that a new flower stalk had sprouted.

 Only a couple of months have passed since the previous blossoms had fallen, and my orchid is preparing to bloom once again!

  

TV Watching

When I learned that Alejandro has a subscription to HBO, I found a series that I had wanted to watch... "The Gilded Age".  It's already on its third season, but back in Ohio I never had HBO.

(image taken from the internet)

The series takes place in New York City in the late 19th century... an era of rapid industrial growth in the United States when the "robber barons" amassed enormous fortunes.  The focus is on two fictitious families... the van Rhijn family, "old money" that traced their ancestry back to the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam, and the Russells, a "new money" family loosely based on the Vanderbilts.  There was great rivalry between the "old money" and the "new", and much of the story revolves around Mrs. Russell's attempts to be accepted in New York society.  There are also story lines dealing with the "downstairs" servants of both households, as well as Peggy, a young African-American women trying to establish a career as a journalist and novelist.  Numerous historical characters pop in and out, such as Clara Barton and President Chester Arthur.  Mrs. Astor, who was the arbiter of whom was accepted into the top level of New York society, is a frequent character.

The series was created and written by Julian Fellowes, the producer who brought us the popular "Downton Abbey" series and movies, and it bears many resemblances to the British series.  Both of them are "soap operas" disguised as costume dramas.  However, they are very high quality "soap operas".  I do think that "Downton" is the better of the two.  What attracts me to "The Gilded Age" are the performances of two actresses that I like very much... Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon.  Baranski plays the widowed Agnes von Rhijn, and Nixon is her meek, spinster sister Ada.  Barnaski's role could be compared to Maggie Smith's role as the Dowager Countess.  She is a snob who looks down her nose at those flashy "nouveau riche", especially her neighbors, the Russells.  But just like the Dowager Countess, Agnes has a good-hearted side as well.

I am hooked on "The Gilded Age", and I am already well into the third season.  I look forward to the fourth season which is expected to premiere in August of this year.

More from the Museum of Modern Art

There are many paintings in the museum by artists who are not as well known outside of Mexico.  However, I have been to so many art exhibits down here that many of the names have become familiar to me.  And perhaps, if you have been reading my blog long enough, they might be familiar to you too.

"The Butcher Shop"

by Alfredo Zalce

1943

"The Little Mule"

by Abraham Angel

1923

"Birds in Dialogue"

by Carlos Mérida

1981

"In the School" 

by Agustín Lazo

1943

"Skull Rack"

by José Chávez Morado

1961

"Seated Girl"

by Manuel Rodríguez Lozano

1929

"Green Fire in Paricutín"

by Gerardo Murillo

undated

Murillo is better known by his pseudonym, Dr. Atl, and he was obsessed with painting volcanoes.

A number of women painters are represented.  I think it is a shame that all the international attention is on Frida Kahlo, and other talented painters have remained in her shadow, largely unknown outside of Mexico.

"Landscape with Pineapple"

by María Izquierdo

1953

"Reflection of the Oracle"

by Leonora Carrington

1959

Surrealist Carrington was born in England, but spent most of her life in Mexico.

Remedios Varo was also a noted Mexican surrealist.

"Roulette"

by Remedios Varo

1955

"The Flautist"

by Remedios Varo

1955

"Masks and Dolls"

by Angelina Beloff

1955

Russian-born Beloff was Diego Rivera's first wife.  Although they divorced after ten years of marriage, she spent most of her life, until her death at the age of 90, in Mexico.

"Woman from Tehuantepec"

by Lola Cueto

1924

There is only one painting on display by Frida Kahlo, although it is one of her most famous works.

"The Two Fridas"

by Frida Kahlo

1939

The double self-portrait represents her dual identities.  The Frida in European-style attire represents her German heritage from her father, while the Frida in traditional Mexican dress represents her indigenous Mexican ancestry from her mother's side of the family.