Sunday, January 20, 2008
Coyoacán
I was going to tell you all about my cute little house in Coyoacán, right! - but since my sofa hasn't arrived yet - Ah, the sofa! - I think I'll wait until I can describe a more civilized, respectable household ... with a sofa! Meanwhile, something more pressing has come up anyway.
A relationship with a place is a wonderful thing, no? Just like any relationship. Don't you find that when you come to a new place, it can take some time before...something clicks, and that's when you get it, you begin to feel the place, and embark on a deeper relationship with it. Not that there isn't often a sort of love-at-first-sight thing, too. But I find that - usually a few days later - a special moment suddenly arises, and that's when I can begin to say "Wow, I love this place!"
Well, for me that moment here in Mexico City was yesterday - my first proper weekend day off. Mind you, that's not such a surprise considering that my whole first week was driven by a pretty serious routine - coffee - class - home - yoga - eat - internet etc. So, yesterday I determined to take a whole day off and, after welcoming Amalia in to clean up the house and do my laundry (Wow! - what a treat!) I set off to meet Walter for the first time - for lunch as it turned out, of a delicious cóctel de ostiones followed by an empanada de calamari and jugo de goyaba y limón - yum! Walter and Valéria - both Argentinians - are good friends of Alejandro's and - ojalá (I hope) will become so for me, too. Great to connect with someone outside the realm of CEPE and the foreign student scene.
Later in the afternoon, Walter dropped me off at the Museo Tamayo http://www.museotamayo.org/ since Tobias had reminded me that the current Tamayo exhibition was finishing this weekend and I should definitely see it. So, I was on my own for the rest of the day - but very pleased to finally off exploring Mexico City further afield than my local neighborhood. Anyway, what with photo stops, enjoying sculptures in the park, and playing with squirrels, by the time I was at the museum's door...it was closed! Oh, well, never mind. I'll come back tomorrow.
Ah, but the incomparable Museo Nacional de Anthropologia http://www.mna.inah.gob.mx is right next door, so...why not! Just for a quick little mini-tour before it closes (an hour later than Tamayo). It's been over 10 years since I was last here in February, 1997. Now, you have to understand that this is not only one of the great museums of the world - along with the Louvre, the Met, etc. but, more than that a a place that is truly magic to me. The museum is itself a temple, a repository that not only honors but perpetuates the cultural and spiritual heritage of Mexico's pre-columbian peoples.
By now, the sun had set and, amazingly, the museum even on this Saturday night, was virtually empty - what a treat! Though I thought I would just do a sort of ritual circumambulation as a tribute to the place, (because you know I'll be back here many many times - and, hey, my UNAM student ID gets me into most of the country's museums for free!) things didn't quite turn out that way. Slowly walking around the courtyard, peeping into the different halls, I only got as far as the Olmec gallery where the huge awsome head at the back just drew me right up to it. There I stood transfixed in communion and unmoving for the next 30 minutes of meditation that took me completely by surprise. Small clutches of people came and went, but I couldn't take my eyes off this penetrating stone gaze reaching out to me from the very origins of Mexican culture. It spoke to me of duality (a visual trick, no doubt) and of the union of opposites, (a theme reiterated later on the up-down flowing escalator of the Tácubaya subway station - a Koyaanisqatsi moment!) And that's pretty much as far as I got at the Museo Nacional de Anthropología! Not bad to kick off my hopefully lengthy love-affair, (actually begun 10 years ago) with this inspiring place that so eloquently articulates this country's tribute to its amazing heritage.
Now I had less than an hour to get all the way down to the Centro Cultural de la UNAM hoping to make it to this evening's concert by the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM http://www.musicaunam.net/ Several subway and taxi rides later, yes, I made it though not in time for the first short piece "En Memoria de lídice" by Bohuslav Martinů (Oops! - never heard of 'im). A US$6:50 ticket got me to a seat I could not have wished to improve upon in this vast and wonderful Sala Nezahualcóyotl which looks sort of like the main opera hall of the Sydney Opera House - and is probably from about the same era. I'd love to wax all poetic about the divine concert that followed, but I'm afraid I'll have to leave that for later because right now, the afternoon is moving along and I want to get back to the Museo Tamayo before I really miss out on that exhibit altogether. So, more about the concert later...
Coyoacán
I was going to tell you all about my cute little house in Coyoacán, right! - but since my sofa hasn't arrived yet - Ah, the sofa! - I think I'll wait until I can describe a more civilized, respectable household ... with a sofa! Meanwhile, something more pressing has come up anyway.
A relationship with a place is a wonderful thing, no? Just like any relationship. Don't you find that when you come to a new place, it can take some time before...something clicks, and that's when you get it, you begin to feel the place, and embark on a deeper relationship with it. Not that there isn't often a sort of love-at-first-sight thing, too. But I find that - usually a few days later - a special moment suddenly arises, and that's when I can begin to say "Wow, I love this place!"
Well, for me that moment here in Mexico City was yesterday - my first proper weekend day off. Mind you, that's not such a surprise considering that my whole first week was driven by a pretty serious routine - coffee - class - home - yoga - eat - internet etc. So, yesterday I determined to take a whole day off and, after welcoming Amalia in to clean up the house and do my laundry (Wow! - what a treat!) I set off to meet Walter for the first time - for lunch as it turned out, of a delicious cóctel de ostiones followed by an empanada de calamari and jugo de goyaba y limón - yum! Walter and Valéria - both Argentinians - are good friends of Alejandro's and - ojalá (I hope) will become so for me, too. Great to connect with someone outside the realm of CEPE and the foreign student scene.
Later in the afternoon, Walter dropped me off at the Museo Tamayo http://www.museotamayo.org/ since Tobias had reminded me that the current Tamayo exhibition was finishing this weekend and I should definitely see it. So, I was on my own for the rest of the day - but very pleased to finally off exploring Mexico City further afield than my local neighborhood. Anyway, what with photo stops, enjoying sculptures in the park, and playing with squirrels, by the time I was at the museum's door...it was closed! Oh, well, never mind. I'll come back tomorrow.
Ah, but the incomparable Museo Nacional de Anthropologia http://www.mna.inah.gob.mx is right next door, so...why not! Just for a quick little mini-tour before it closes (an hour later than Tamayo). It's been over 10 years since I was last here in February, 1997. Now, you have to understand that this is not only one of the great museums of the world - along with the Louvre, the Met, etc. but, more than that a a place that is truly magic to me. The museum is itself a temple, a repository that not only honors but perpetuates the cultural and spiritual heritage of Mexico's pre-columbian peoples.
By now, the sun had set and, amazingly, the museum even on this Saturday night, was virtually empty - what a treat! Though I thought I would just do a sort of ritual circumambulation as a tribute to the place, (because you know I'll be back here many many times - and, hey, my UNAM student ID gets me into most of the country's museums for free!) things didn't quite turn out that way. Slowly walking around the courtyard, peeping into the different halls, I only got as far as the Olmec gallery where the huge awsome head at the back just drew me right up to it. There I stood transfixed in communion and unmoving for the next 30 minutes of meditation that took me completely by surprise. Small clutches of people came and went, but I couldn't take my eyes off this penetrating stone gaze reaching out to me from the very origins of Mexican culture. It spoke to me of duality (a visual trick, no doubt) and of the union of opposites, (a theme reiterated later on the up-down flowing escalator of the Tácubaya subway station - a Koyaanisqatsi moment!) And that's pretty much as far as I got at the Museo Nacional de Anthropología! Not bad to kick off my hopefully lengthy love-affair, (actually begun 10 years ago) with this inspiring place that so eloquently articulates this country's tribute to its amazing heritage.
Now I had less than an hour to get all the way down to the Centro Cultural de la UNAM hoping to make it to this evening's concert by the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM http://www.musicaunam.net/ Several subway and taxi rides later, yes, I made it though not in time for the first short piece "En Memoria de lídice" by Bohuslav Martinů (Oops! - never heard of 'im). A US$6:50 ticket got me to a seat I could not have wished to improve upon in this vast and wonderful Sala Nezahualcóyotl which looks sort of like the main opera hall of the Sydney Opera House - and is probably from about the same era. I'd love to wax all poetic about the divine concert that followed, but I'm afraid I'll have to leave that for later because right now, the afternoon is moving along and I want to get back to the Museo Tamayo before I really miss out on that exhibit altogether. So, more about the concert later...
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