¿QUE PASA EN LA PLAZA?

The whole center section of the Plaza de Armas is blocked off with plywood, eliciting the amazement of el sr J, who knows how much plywood costs.  See the dust blowing up?  

We had to find out what was going on.  We walked around to a low section and el sr J stood on a low wall to get this shot.  We hadn't noticed anything wrong with the area.  There were raised flower beds surrounded by stone seating much favored by the local hipsters.  We'll keep you posted on what replaces them (not the hipsters, who are irreplaceable).  And when.

It rained last night!  It's odd living in a place where it hardly ever rains and when it does it only lasts a little while.  More people carry umbrellas for the midday sun than for expected rain.  There they are standing under overhangs waiting for the shower to pass.

FUSAKO SHIGENOBU

 #2 in the filet crochet Revolutionary Women of My G-G-Generation series:

                           THEN AND NOW                          

Born in 1945 in Tokyo.  Sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2006.

Her daughter Mei carries on the work.

OTRA CASA QUE NO VAMOS A COMPRAR

Another house we're not going to buy.  It's on a nice tree-lined block, it's beside a school, it's one storey, and it looks pretty good, ¿no?

Well, you enter and the right-hand side is trees and patio all the way back (el sr J says the patio tiles would have to be replaced).  Most of the trees bear some kind of edible fruit.

The rooms are on the left-hand side and they get dicier as you go.  In one room, the ceiling/roof was mostly gone.

The owners are living like campesinos in the middle of the city.

I asked about the hot water heater, since I didn't notice one.  There it was, tiny, in a dark corner.  They heat water with leña (firewood)!  Wonder where they get that.  Firewood is in short supply around here.  Maybe they use trimmings from the trees in the patio.  I'm guessing they don't bathe too often, at least not in hot water.  There were about 6 little yapping dogs inside and maybe 50 birds in cages.

Look at that floor though.  Just the kind I want, and it's in good shape.

Trees and floors are good, but not enough.  Onward and upward.

HAYDEE TAMARA BUNKE BIDER

After crocheting the Emma Goldman chair back cover, I decided to do the rest of my revolutionary women series as wall hangings.

Here's the first one in filet crochet:

Born in Buenos Aires in 1937.  Killed in Bolivia in 1967.

Diez puntos if you can guess who the next one will be.  Hint: she's Japanese and she's still alive, albeit in prison.

UNA CASA QUE NO VAMOS A COMPRAR

A house we're NOT going to buy.  It's funny how your mind works when you really want to find a house to buy.  I hated this one at first, partly because the owner (the woman below) never stopped talking and gave me a headache.  Partly because I couldn't see how we would fix it up for ourselves.  Then, after leaving, I started thinking about the positive points.  It has the beautiful original tile floors from the 19th century.  It has the high wood-beamed ceilings.  It's near a beautiful plaza and concert venue.  

It needs a new kitchen, but that wouldn't stop us from buying it.

But it has serious leakage problems, both from the roof and from the upstairs bathroom. The upstairs bedrooms and bath were added on, or Mexicanified.  The steps to get up there would be impossible if you were old.  The owner never goes up.

We did like the bar in the living room, however.  When el sr J commented on it, the owner said she didn't drink.  Right.

We went back again with a contractor and he advised against buying it because of all the damage from the leaks.  The search continues.

EL EX CONVENTO DE SANTA ROSA DE VITERBO. . .

and the Richie Cole Sextet.

Last night's concert was in a space we hadn't seen before.  It was in the ex-convent behind this beautiful cathedral, Santa Rosa de Viterbo, completed in the 18th century.

The ex-convent now houses the office of the local cultural institute, the sponsor of the jazz festival.  The grounds are being restored:

And the Richie Cole Sextet played here. You can see the nuns' cells in the background.

Born in New Jersey in 1948, here is what he looked like early in his career:

This is what he looks like now:

With special guest trumpeter and Mexican legend, Luis Gasca.  They both attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

Richie Cole is one amazing alto sax player.  He channeled Charlie Parker for much of the evening, and be-bop was in the ex-convent's air.  Wonder what the nuns' ghosts thought of that. 

MAS JAZZ. . .Y FUE MEJOR

From Montreal, speaking English with a French accent, Pierre Labbé.  An exciting event.  When it started to rain, we all had to squeeze our chairs together under the cover.

Here's a representative sample.

Only the guitarist is different.

Which is too bad, because the guitarist last night was superb.

UNA SEMANA DE JAZZ INTERNACIONAL

Along with the week of dance from Spain, we have the first ever International Jazz week in the Plaza de Armas de Querétaro.  This is the tail end of the rainy season, so you can see what the city does to protect the musicians and the audience.  This fabric cover was huge.  It's also a little windy here and so things were blowing around a bit, but we weren't nervous at all.  Although lots of people were looking up instead of at the stage.

Note the podium, always a bad sign.  It means there will be speeches.

This was the inaugural event, and in the reserved seats in front were all the Panista muckity mucks and their spouses.  Three of them, including the Governor of the state, gave self-congratulatory speeches.  Very boring, but at least they were relatively brief.  And then came the music:

Here on keyboard is Steve Amirault from Montréal with side men Remi-Jean Leblanc and Gregory Ritchie:

Here's the trio (different side men) in a club setting.

Interesting to note that this festival, which is sponsored by government arts and tourism agencies, received not a mention in the monthly tourist publication, Asomarte, which is sponsored by the same agencies.  There were lots of puff pieces about local bars and after-dark activities, and major play given to the dance festival, which is happening concurrently.  We've noticed before that there is some divergence between the wide range of events provided here, many of them free of charge, and the ability of the sponsors to get the word out.

EL CLARINETE, EL OBOE Y EL FAGOT

The last concert of the segunda temporada.  Back in September.  And a great one it was.  The fagotista was originally from Moscow, and for some reason we can only imagine went from there to Baja California and from there to here, which is more alta.  We're glad to have him here since he was excellent, as were the other two.  It's just that one doesn't hear many fagot solos.

We'll now have to wait until September for the concerts to resume.  In the meantime, we'll have to satisfy ourselves with other cultural/musical offerings.  For the next two weeks, it's contemporary Iberian dance and art.

AJONJOLI

Sesame seeds.  The characters in Khoury's novel ate a lot of arnabeet mekli ma tarator or fried cauliflower with tahini sauce.

So I blended sesame seeds with sesame and olive oil to make tahini.

El sr J added lime juice, white wine, and some more sesame oil to the tahini to make the sauce, then he did the cauliflower to which he added potatoes and parsley.

We ate it with pork shoulder he had dry-rubbed and slow roasted and then shredded and sauced in the central North Carolina barbeque style (vinegar and onions, mostly).  Another multi-cultural extravaganza.  

CULTURA ARABE

I've been under the spell of Arabic culture, having read The Cambridge Introduction to Edward Said and Elias Khoury's Gate of the Sun.

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to find what everybody in the novel was drinking:  Arak.

                                              

But when we went to market the other day and I saw what looked like lemons (below, right), I thought I could make preserved lemons.  The "limón" question in Mexico is very tricky.  There are big green ones, little green ones (below, left), and, not here, but in other parts of Mexico, yellow ones, and they're all called "limones."  So I asked the market guy what this new product was and he told me, "limas."  He went into a long, confusing explanation of the difference between limas and limones.  I bought some, and lo and behold, they taste like oranges.  Not very good for preserved lemons, I'm thinking.

Yes, I tried researching the issue online, but that was even more confusing than the market guy.

Stay tuned.  More Arabic dishes coming up.

A BICI

Every Sunday from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. the city closes this multi-lane avenue, Constituyentes, for several kilometers for bikers, bikers with dogs, walkers (with or without dogs), joggers, in-line skaters, etc.

There are several exercise programs on the side of the highway.

On the cross streets there are police to regulate stop and go for traffic.

You can get a free bike to ride at either end of the route.

A great program.

CASA VENDIDA O. . .

se vendió la casa, o vendimos la casa.  However you want to say it, we sold the house!  We're rejoicing in Querétaro.

Kind of missing the garden, though.  The transparent apples are falling, unused, except for the few Mimi harvested.  Missing the raspberries, asparagus, blueberries, strawberries, etc.  Wondering how the grapes and plums are doing.  Bet the dill and cilantro are popping up everywhere. Oh well, gotta go look for another house.

SPAM O ESPAM

Here's the gourmet section at Soriana:

And what's in there with the paté, pickles, wine, balsamic vinegar, asparagus, and other canned and bottled goodies ready to grace the table at your next fiesta?

I've never eaten it, only made fun of it, but let's see what the ingredients are:

chopped pork shoulder meat, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder (think glue), and sodium nitrite as a preservative.  It can be made with other kinds of meat, too.  Doesn't sound so bad (except for the potato starch and sodium nitrite), but eating just one serving of it (100 grams) will provide the lucky consumer with 57% of the recommended daily intake of sodium and 49% of his/her Daily Value of saturated fat.

Why is it in the gourmet section?  It could be that its manager is a member of a Cargo Cult.  Or maybe SPAM is thought of as the paté of the US midwest.