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

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Janitzio



(Cross of a shrine in Janitzio Island. Mexico)

“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.” 
~Jesus Christ


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Monday, November 28, 2011

NYC Streets





The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street. - Robert Doisneau - "The Encyclopedia of Photography" (1984)

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Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Night Before




Chelsea. New York City

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Flying Raindrops



Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
~Seneca

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Top of The Rock



"I shut my eyes in order to see"
~Paul Gauguin
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Monday, November 21, 2011

Blues Étude






(Unknown Artist. Abandoned Art House.)

“Imagine a city where graffiti wasn't illegal,
a city where everybody draw whatever they liked.
Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases.
Where standing at a bus stop was never boring.
A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited,
not just the estate agents and barons of big business.
Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall - it's wet. ”
― Banksy, Wall and Piece


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Friday, November 18, 2011

Noon


Mexico City (View from Chapultepec Hill)

Noon - Fri Nov 18, 2011
This week's challenge:
'Noon'.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

The San Ildefonso College





The San Ildefonso College currently is a museum and cultural center in Mexico City, considered to be the birthplace of the Mexican muralism movement. San Ildefonso began as a prestigious Jesuit boarding school, and after the Reform War, it gained educational prestige again as National Preparatory School. This school and the building closed completely in 1978, then reopened as a museum and cultural center in 1994. The museum has permanent and temporary art and archeological exhibitions in addition to the many murals painted on its walls by José Clemente OrozcoFernando LealDiego Rivera and others. The complex is located between San Ildefonso Street and Justo Sierra Street in the historic center of Mexico City[Wiki]

Take the Virtual Tour!


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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Just Moments



Click to Full Screen

“Time is an illusion perpetrated by the manufacturers of space.”

“I used to be indecisive; now I'm not sure.”

“Only the truth is revolutionary.”

~Graffiti quotes


Music: Love Remembered by Wojciech Kilar


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Sunday, November 13, 2011

The Portal Keeper / El Guardian del Portal



The Portal Keeper / El Guardian del Portal by Israel Alcala

 Alebrijes (Spanish pronunciation: [aleˈβɾixes]) are brightly colored Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures. The first alebrijes, along with use of the term, originated with Pedro Linares. After dreaming the creatures while sick in the 1930s, he began to create what he saw in cardboard and papier mache. His work caught the attention of a gallery owner in Cuernavaca and later, the artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Linares was originally from México City (DF), he was born June 29, 1906 in México City and never moved out of México City, he died January 25, 1992. Then in the 1980s, British Filmmaker, Judith Bronowski, arranged an itinerant demonstration workshop in U.S.A. participating Pedro LinaresManuel Jiménez and a textil artisan Maria Sabina from Oaxaca. Although the Oaxaca valley area already had a history of carving animal and other types of figures from wood, it was at this time, when Bronowski's workshop took place when artisans from Oaxaca knew the alebrijes paper mache sculptures. [Wiki]


“You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul”
~George Bernard Shaw 


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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Who Are You?


The Heroic Cadets Memorial in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City.  Monument designed by architect Enrique Aragón and sculpted by Ernesto Tamaríz at the entrance to Chapultepec Park in 1952. 
Esculturas del Monumento a los Niños Heroes. Chapultepec



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Thursday, November 10, 2011

The One Percent








Music: Sleepers Awake! - Johann Sebastian Bach

Greed is a bottomless pit, which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
Erich Fromm




“The old get older
And the young get stronger

May take a week
And it may take longer

They got the guns
But we got the numbers

Gonna win, yeah
We're takin' over”

Come on!

Jim Morrison / The Doors
  "Five to One" on the album Waiting for the Sun (1968)




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Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Despair


“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”
~Mahatma Gandhi

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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Thirsty for Light




Most people die before they are fully born. Creativeness means to be born before one dies.
~Erich Fromm
- La mayoria de la gente muere antes de nacer plenamente. La creatividad significa nacer, antes de morir. -



Chapultepec Castle fountain.
More Images Here.

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Saturday, November 5, 2011

Mexico City


(View from Chapultepec Castle)
As an "alpha" global city Mexico City is one of the most important financial centers in North America. It is located in the Valley of Mexico, a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 metres (7,350 ft). The city consists of sixteen boroughs.

The 2009 estimated population for the city proper was around 8.84 million people, and has a land area of 1,485 square kilometres (573 sq mi). According to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments, the Mexico City metropolitan area population is 21.2 million people, making it the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and the fifth largest agglomeration in the world.
Mexico City has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $390 billion US$ in 2008, making Mexico City the eighth richest city in the world. The city was responsible for generating 21% of Mexico's Gross Domestic Product and the metropolitan area accounted for 34% of total national GDP.

The city was originally built on an island of Lake Texcoco by the Aztecs in 1325 as Tenochtitlan, which was almost completely destroyed in the 1521 siege of Tenochtitlan, and subsequently redesigned and rebuilt in accordance with the Spanish urban standards. In 1524, the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenochtitlán, and as of 1585 it was officially known as La Ciudad de México (Mexico City). Mexico City served as the political, administrative and financial center of a major part of the Spanish colonial empire. After independence from Spain was achieved, the Federal District was created in 1824.  [Wiki]

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Friday, November 4, 2011

The Box


Music: Invisible Lady by Charles Mingus

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

The Day of The Dead II






Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday, and all banks are closed. The celebration takes place on November 1–2, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts.
Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl. The holiday has spread throughout the world: In Brazil, Dia de Finados is a public holiday that many Brazilians celebrate by visiting cemeteries and churches. In Spain, there are festivals and parades, and, at the end of the day, people gather at cemeteries and pray for their dead loved ones. Similar observances occur elsewhere in Europe, and similarly themed celebrations appear in many Asian and African cultures.


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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Day of The Dead I



 La Petite Mort


The Day of The Dead
Her face is unforgettable and she goes by many names: La Catrina, la Flaca, la Huesuda, la Pelona--Fancy Lady, Skinny, Bony, Baldy. A fixture in Mexican society, she's not some trendy fashion model, but La Muerte--Death.

Renowned writer Octavio Paz observes that, undaunted by death, the Mexican has no qualms about getting up close and personal with death, noting that he "...chases after it, mocks it, courts it, hugs it, sleeps with it; it is his favorite plaything and his most lasting love."

November 1, All Saints Day, and November 2, All Souls Day are marked throughout Mexico by a plethora of intriguing customs that vary widely according to the ethnic roots of each region. Common to all, however, are colorful adornments and lively reunions at family burial plots, the preparation of special foods, offerings laid out for the departed on commemorative altars and religious rites that are likely to include noisy fireworks.

In most localities November 1 is set aside for remembrance of deceased infants and children, often referred to as angelitos (little angels). Those who have died as adults are honored November 2.

From mid-October through the first week of November, markets and shops all over Mexico are replete with the special accouterments for the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead). These include all manner of skeletons and other macabre toys; intricate tissue paper cut-outs called papel picado; elaborate wreaths and crosses decorated with paper or silk flowers; candles and votive lights; and fresh seasonal flowers, particularly cempazuchiles (marigolds) and barro de obispo (cockscomb). Among the edible goodies offered are skulls, coffins and the like made from sugar, chocolate or amaranth seeds and special baked goods, notably sugary sweet rolls called pan de muerto that come in various sizes invariably topped with bits of dough shaped like bones and, in some regions, unadorned dark breads molded into humanoid figures called animas (souls). All of these goods are destined for the buyer's ofrenda de muertos (offering to the dead).  Copyright 1995 by Dale Palfrey.



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