The Magic of the Cities.

Zen promotes the rediscovery of the obvious, which is so often lost in its familiarity and simplicity. It sees the miraculous in the common and magic in our everyday surroundings. When we are not rushed, and our minds are unclouded by conceptualizations, a veil will sometimes drop, introducing the viewer to a world unseen since childhood. ~ John Greer

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Palacio de Bellas Artes / Fine Arts Palace







Palacio de Bellas Artes (Spanish for Palace of Fine Arts) is the premier opera house of Mexico City. The building well known for both its Beaux Arts exterior in imported Italian Carrara white marble and its murals by Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco.
The Palacio has two museums: the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Museo de la Arquitectura.
The theatre is used for classical music, opera and dance, notably the "Baile Folklórico". A distinctive feature of the theatre is its stained glass Tifany's curtain depicting a volcano and the valley of Mexico. It is the home of Mexico's National Symphony Orchestra, the Bellas Artes Orchestra, the Bellas Artes Chamber Orchestra, the National Dance Company, and the Bellas Artes Opera.
Rivera's "Man at the Crossroads" mural was originally painted for the Rockefeller Center in New York City. Rivera had finished ⅔ of the mural when the Rockefellers objected to an image of Vladimir Lenin in the mural. When Rivera refused to remove Lenin, his commission was cancelled and the mural was destroyed. Rivera repainted it a smaller scale at the Palacio in 1934 and renamed it "Man, Controller of the Universe"

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.
G. K. Chesterton

Bonne Annee
Prosit Neujahr
Felice Anno Nuovo
Feliz Ano Novo
Szczesliwego Nowego Roku
Happy New Year
Feliz Año Nuevo

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.

Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all. Stay tune.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Winter Scenes

The Dreams of the Bird Seller

Zocalo / Main Square

Waste collector at Historic Center

Main Square

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.

Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all. Stay tune.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Fire Engine


Learning to be a Firemen.
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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.

Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all. Stay tune.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Piñata Time



I guess everybody know what a Piñata is, if you don't:
A piñata is a brightly-colored papier-mâché covering either a clay container or cardboard shape. It may have originated in China. Marco Polo discovered the Chinese fashioning figures of cows, oxen or buffaloes, covered with colored paper and adorned with harnesses and trappings. Special colors traditionally greeted the New Year. When the mandarins knocked the figure hard with sticks of various colors, seeds spilled forth. After burning the remains, people gathered the ashes for good luck throughout the year.
Nowadays, piñatas have been adopted in many parts of the world and have become a more common sight at parties and celebrations, especially in Central America and the Southern United States, mostly due to the close influence from Mexican culture.
Piñatas have also been introduced to Europe over the last several decades, although at a much slower pace. India is one of few countries outside of the Americas to have adopted the Mexican tradition of the piñata for cultural celebrations. [Wiki]

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.

Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all. Stay tune.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Cloud Washers


Happy Weekend!
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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.

Gracias por su visita. / Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments and I appreciate them all. Stay tune.