View From a Window

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Stairway

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Edificio Princesa / Princess Building

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Theme Day: What My City is Known For...

Tlatelolco is an area in Mexico City, centered on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a square surrounded on three sides by an excavated Aztec pyramid, the 17th century church Templo de Santiago, and the modern ex office complex of the Mexican foreign ministry.
Originally it was an independent Aztec city, but it was absorbed by Tenochtitlán. During the Aztec rule, it was the market district of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán, probably one of the largest in the Americas.
According to Conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo, it was larger than the city of Sevilla and larger than any market any of the Spaniards had seen, even those of Venice and Constantinople, with about 20,000 to 40,000 people trading.
When the conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés lay siege to Tenochtitlán, they conquered and razed it district by district. The surrounding Aztec cities surrendered to Cortés, but the Tlatelolcas remained with the Aztec (Tenochcas). The Aztecs, led by Cuauhtemoc, were finally confined to Tlaltelolco, where they made their last stand, and were defeated beside the Tlatelolcas and slaughtered by the conquistadors.
Over 40,000 Aztec men, women, and children perished at Tlatelolco on August 13, 1521.

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Please don't forget to check out other participating cities:

Portland (OR), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Memphis (Tennessee), USA - Manila, Philippines - San Diego (CA), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - New York City (NY), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - San Francisco (CA), USA - Mumbai (Maharashtra), India - Mainz, Germany - Weston (FL), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Turin, Italy - Las Vegas (NV), USA - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Bicheno, Australia - Durban, South Africa - Joplin (MO), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Stockholm, Sweden - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Brussels, Belgium - Chicago (IL), USA - Montpellier, France - Seattle (WA), USA - Mazatlan, Mexico - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Sesimbra, Portugal - Toulouse, France - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Susanville (CA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - Helsinki, Finland - Pilisvörösvár, Hungary - Lisbon, Portugal - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Trujillo, Peru - Dunedin (FL), USA - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - London, UK - Baziège, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Greenville (SC), USA - Selma (AL), USA - Mumbai, India - Naples (FL), USA - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Setúbal, Portugal - Stayton (OR), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Sofia, Bulgaria - Arradon, France - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Athens, Greece - Austin (TX), USA - Singapore, Singapore - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Jackson (MS), USA - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Budapest, Hungary - Rotterdam, Netherlands - St Malo, France - Chandler (AZ), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Cleveland (OH), USA - Nottingham, UK - Kansas City (MO), USA - The Hague, Netherlands - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Wrocław, Poland - Chateaubriant, France - Cheltenham, UK - Moscow, Russia - Monrovia (CA), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - Toruń, Poland - Grenoble, France - Lisbon, Portugal - New Orleans (LA), USA - Sydney, Australia - Boston (MA), USA - American Fork (UT), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Wichita (KS), USA - Radonvilliers, France - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Christchurch, New Zealand - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Wailea (HI), USA - Aliso Viejo (CA), USA - St Francis, South Africa - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Seattle (WA), USA - Pasadena (CA), USA - Vienna, Austria - Orlando (FL), USA - Torun, Poland - Delta (CO), USA - Santa Fe (NM), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Paris, France - Stavanger, Norway - Niamey, Niger - Le Guilvinec, France - Bogor, Indonesia - Saarbrücken, Germany - Auckland, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Budapest, Hungary - Juneau (AK), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Glasgow, Scotland - Chicago (IL), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Sydney, Australia - Riga, Latvia - Subang Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Terrell (TX), USA - Terrell (TX), USA - Inverness (IL), USA

Av. Juarez / Juarez Ave

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Shop Window

At the Colonia Roma [ At Roma District ].

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The Corner

At the old part of the city.

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Museo Tamayo

Museo Tamayo.

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The Guardian

An sculpture found in Chapultepec Park to keep the trees safe. Save Forests.

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The Ship

Haus Santa Fe Building at West side of the city.

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Voladores de Papantla / The Papantla Flyers

The Danza de los Voladores de Papantla (Dance of Papantla's flyers) is a ritualistic dance in Veracruz performed by the Totonac Indians. Five men, each representing the five elements of the indigenous world climb atop a pole, one of them stays on the pole playing a flute and dancing while the remaining four descend the pole with a rope tied by one of their feet. The rope unwraps itself 13 times for each of the four flyers, symbolizing the 52 weeks of the year.
According to legend, a long drought covered the Earth so five men decided to send Xipe Totec, the God of fertility a message, asking them for the rain to return. They went to the forest and looked for the straightest tree, cut it, and took it back to their town. They removed all branches and placed it on the ground, then dressed themselves as feet/birds and descended flying attempting to grab their God's attention. It is believed that this ritual began over 1,500 years ago, and later on was disguised as a sort of game to protect their customs from the Spanish Priests.

El Juego del Volador es una tradición mexicana que, para algunos antiguos pueblos indígenas como los olmecas y totonacas, era un ritual sagrado con un gran significado astronómico y religioso. También se práctica en el occidente de Guatemala.
Consiste en que cuatro personas (simbolizando los cuatro puntos cardinales) se atan a un tronco alto y giran colgados alrededor de él 13 veces cada quien, sumando en total 52 vueltas, que eran los años que duraba un siglo astronómico para los indígenas.
Aunque se suele conocer como Danza de los Voladores de Papantla, la evidencia arqueológica ha demostrado que se trata de un ritual muy antiguo y no circunscrito a la cultura totonaca. Se conocen representaciones de cerámica procedentes de Nayarit que parecen probar que el ritual existía por lo menos desde el Período Preclásico de Mesoamérica. En la actualidad sigue siendo celebrado por los grupos nahuas y totonacos de la Sierra Norte de Puebla y el Totonacapan veracruzano. Algunos grupos de indígenas de esas regiones se han trasladado a diversos puntos de la República Mexicana, como el Museo Nacional de Antropología en la Ciudad de México, donde hacen una breve representación del ritual indígena.
En la celebración acompañada de danzas y música se utiliza un tronco o "palo volador" donde se ajustan varias piezas: una pequeña base, una cruz, un pivote que unirá y posibilitará el giro, y una escalera. En los extremos de la cruz se colocan cuerdas que sujetan a los danzantes voladores simbolizando los puntos cardinales, norte, sur, este y oeste. A más de 12 metros en lo alto de la estructura, se sitúa el caporal, personaje que toca un tambor y una flauta, y coordina el ritual. Cada señal que el caporal hace es un tipo de acrobacia, en una de ellas cada danzante volador disfrazado de ave saltan al vacío y giran 13 veces cada uno de ellos, con un total de 52, que representa los años que representaba un ciclo indígena. Finaliza cuando los participantes empiezan a abrir el circulo hasta tocar el suelo.

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Acapulco III

Pie de la Cuesta Beach

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Acapulco II

Pie de la Cuesta Beach

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Acapulco I

Acapulco Bay

Pie de la Cuesta Beach


Fishermen Family

Acapulco as a Holiday Resort
Since the 20th century, Acapulco has been a popular resort for tourists taking long holiday weekends and cruises from the United States, the Mexican interior and countries in South America. Eventually, it began competing directly with the Cancún on the East Coast as a super-tourist destination. In the past three decades, air fares have become increasingly affordable as international airlines added flights and infrastructure to support the increasing air travel. The two beach resorts are located on opposite coasts oriented due East and West from the other. The city has had its star-spangled times, leading Sammy Cahn to reference it in his lyrics for "Come Fly With Me". Modern Acapulco is a featured destination for many Pacific cruise ship packages and international air carriers. Most tourists are Mexican, but its balmy subtropical climate and pleasant year round temperatures draws in many other foreign nationals year round, providing the volume to support the numerous bars and clubs dotted around the bay.
In recent years, within the younger crowd, Acapulco has made up some ground on Cancún as a popular spring break destination. This growing popularity may be because Acapulco offers a different unknown experience and a larger, international student crowd than Cancún due to its prominence as an international tourist resort with many available international transatlantic and transpacific flights. As in Cancún, water sports such as water skiing, para-sailing, scuba diving, deep sea fishing, sailing and snorkeling excursions are available in many price ranges amongst the picturesque coastal waters.

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Ritual Dancers

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Theme Day: Best Photo of The Year

"Billboard" from August 14, 2007.

I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Please visit other participants:

Paris, France - London, England - Hyde, UK - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Grenoble, France - Stockholm, Sweden - Riga, Latvia - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Manila, Philippines - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Weston (FL), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - New Orleans (LA), USA - Wichita (KS), USA - Cleveland (OH), USA - San Francisco (CA), USA - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Greenville (SC), USA - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Mainz, Germany - Melbourne, Australia - Portland (OR), USA - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Toulouse, France - Naples (FL), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Brussels, Belgium - Stayton (OR), USA - Selma (AL), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - Ocean Township (NJ), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Toruń, Poland - Fort Lauderdale (FL), USA - Budapest, Hungary - Baziège, France - Nashville (TN), USA - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Chicago (IL), USA - Prescott (AZ), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Nottingham, UK - Moscow, Russia - Philadelphia (PA), USA - Evry, France - Trujillo, Peru - Arlington (VA), USA - Denpasar, Indonesia - American Fork (UT), USA - Seattle (WA), USA - Chandler (AZ), USA - Coral Gables (FL), USA - Montpellier, France - Joplin (MO), USA - Pilisvörösvár, Hungary - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Boston (MA), USA - Torun, Poland - New York City (NY), USA - Dunedin (FL), USA - Quincy (MA), USA - Stavanger, Norway - Chateaubriant, France - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Jackson (MS), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Budapest, Hungary - Austin (TX), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Cypress (TX), USA - Bicheno, Australia - Wrocław, Poland - Brookville (OH), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Nelson, New Zealand - Cheltenham, UK - Wellington, New Zealand - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Mumbai (Maharashtra), India - London, UK - Haninge, Sweden - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Arradon, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Orlando (FL), USA - Mumbai, India - Terrell (TX), USA - Bogor, Indonesia - Delta (CO), USA - Radonvilliers, France - Saigon, Vietnam - San Diego (CA), USA - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Belgrade, Serbia - Auckland, New Zealand - Seguin (TX), USA - Inverness (IL), USA - Oslo, Norway - Singapore, Singapore - Las Vegas (NV), USA - New York City (NY), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - Torino, Italy - Susanville (CA), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Memphis (Tennessee), USA

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Calle Madero / Madero Street

Pasaje America / America Passage.


Iglesia de San Felipe de Jesus en la calle de Madero. / St. Philip of Jesus church on Madero Street.

Wishing you a wonderful New Year!

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Nativity Scenes

Nativity Scenes.

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Shadows

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Karlheinz Stockhausen
Sad News
Dec 13th 2007
From The Economist print edition.
Karlheinz Stockhausen, seeker of new sounds, died on December 5th, aged 79.

Lebrecht Collection
Other children had teddy bears and dolls; but Karlheinz Stockhausen had a little wooden hammer. As he toddled round the run-down family farm in the hills near Cologne, he would hit things with it to see what sound they made. Each note, he established young, sent him a different message. No plink or plunk was quite the same as any other.
Most folk at his premières in the 1950s and 1960s might have wished he had never discovered that. Each Stockhausen piece was a shock to the system. It was not just that he had decided tonality was dead; Schoenberg's 12-note serialism had already made dissonance routine. It was not just that he thought “intensive measuring and counting” the key to music's future; Stravinsky had got there long before him. It was that Stockhausen kept on looking for, and finding, sounds never heard before. He made a formula out of the individuality of notes—their particular pitch, timbre and duration, and whether they were soft as a leaf or knocked your hat off—and revelled in it in the most alarming way.
“Mikrophonie I” (1964), for example, was inspired by hitting the tam-tam that hung in his garden with spoons, tumblers and an egg-timer. “Kurzwellen” (1968) was based on the “foreign sounds” of short-wave radio. His most famous piece, and possibly his most popular—though he was never popular—was “Stimmung”, or “Tuning” (1968), a sextet for unaccompanied voices on a six-note chord of B-flat that sounded sometimes like a digeridoo and sometimes like blowing across the top of the bottle, and in which the most beautiful harmonics would be interrupted by this:

Pee peri pee pee: right over my tree
Let it gently run down
God is that warm

Small wonder that Sir Thomas Beecham, asked if he had conducted any Stockhausen, said no, but he thought he might once have trodden in some.
Stockhausen's great passion was electronic music, which in the 1950s seemed suddenly to give a pure, bright sound, like “raindrops in the sun”, to all the processes of the universe. He was studying then in Paris with Messiaen and Milhaud, but preferred to hole up in studios playing with tapes and sine waves. The result of his labours might be mere background noise, but he liked even that, especially if it could be run through big loudspeakers to a baffled audience. He was delighted to find that metallic sounds could become human voices, and that human voices could be made to quack like a duck. He could conceive and make the cosmos over again.
Electronics also made him funky. In the late 1960s he found jazzmen and rock bands—Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, the Grateful Dead—quoting him and even sitting at his feet when he lectured at the University of California. He appeared on the cover of the Beatles' “Sergeant Pepper”. And there was probably no one else who could make electronic sounds so lusciously melodic (as in “Kontakte”, of 1959-60), by sheer contrast with all the rattling and plicking that had gone on before.
String quartet for helicopters
Stockhausen's music was constructed on mathematical principles; but, as the years passed, he liked to throw in more elements of motion, freedom and chance. You could play his “Zyklus”, for percussion, upside down or back to front or in any order you liked. In “Gruppen” (1955-57) he used three orchestras, playing different notes at different tempi from different directions. But even this was not enough for the man who often dreamed he was a bird flying; and in his last, huge opera project, “Licht” (Light), he included a string quartet in which the players were in four separate helicopters whirling above the concert hall.
Was this music at all? He thought it was. He whistled his own melodies, he said, as readily as he had once whistled Mozart's. And he was looking for “a new beauty” all the time. There was a deep, obsessive seriousness in him, underlined by a disarming stare, which, he hoped, would “yet reduce even the howling wolves to silence”.
Sheer ego-tripping, countered his detractors. “Licht”, which proposed an opera for every day of the week, needed five orchestras, nine choirs and seven concert halls. Other pieces required purple lighting or Star Trek costumes. And he was ruthlessly protective of the brand, using his own paramours and children to play his compositions, acting as his own soundman and marketing his recordings only through Stockhausen Verlag, at sky-high prices. But he had reason, in his view, to be weird and exclusive. He was special.
Just how special was not readily apparent to those who saw him, in his old Beethoven frock-coat or his shapeless orange cardigan. After the 1970s, Stockhausen seemed to disappear up his own cul-de-sac of experimental noise. But this was his mission. He often dreamt that he had been born and trained on Sirius, and was on Earth “to bring celestial music to humans, and human music to the celestial beings”. To ensure that contact, some of his pieces had to be performed under the stars. By making new sounds, he was preparing the way for a higher kind of life.
Yet again, the general public did not get the message. But when he died, his small band of devoted followers was blissfully sure that he had.

Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.

Calle Uruguay

Ex St. Agustin Temple on Uruguay Street at Historic Center / Ex Templo de San Agustin y ex Biblioteca Nacional de Mexico en Calle de Uruguay en el Centro Historico.

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Feliz Navidad / Merry Christmas

Residents of Mexico City will be able to skate for free for a month in an unprecedented giant open-air ice rink built on the central Zocalo Square, Mexican media reported Tuesday.
The ice rink, 3,000-square-metres large, will be open between December 7 and January 7 as part of the city government's plans to offer free entertainment options.
The ice rink will be the winter offer. Several artificial beaches were set up in summer, complete with sand and temporary plastic swimming-pools, across the city. The city has also closed central streets off to motor-vehicle traffic to allow bicycle rides.
The Zocalo is the most famous square in Mexico City, surrounded by the cathedral, the seat of the national government and the city hall. Special equipment to generate power and ice has already been set up in the square.
Authorities said 1,200 people will be able to skate at any one time. There will be skates on loan and instructors will be available to teach inexperienced skaters, who are likely to be in the majority.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Dance to The Moon

The Tower, The Moon and Mars.

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Flor de Jamaica

( Roselle ) Jamaica
(Anglicized as IPA: /həˈmaɪkə/) is a drink, popular in Mexico and Central America, which is made from calyces of the roselle. In Malaysia, roselle calyces are harvested fresh to produce pro-health drink due to high contents of vitamin C and anthocyanins. In Mexico, 'agua de Jamaica' (water of roselle) is most often homemade. It is prepared by boiling the dried flowers of the Jamaica plant in water for 8 to 10 minutes (or until the water turns red), then adding sugar. It is often served chilled. The drink is one of several inexpensive beverages (aguas frescas) commonly consumed in Mexico and Central America, and they are typically made from fresh fruits, juices or extracts. In Mali and Senegal, calyces are used to prepare cold, sweet drinks popular in social events, often mixed with mint leaves, dissolved menthol candy, and/or various fruit flavors.

With the advent in the U.S. of interest in south-of-the-border cuisine, the calyces are sold in bags usually labeled "Flor de Jamaica" and have long been available in health food stores in the U.S. for making a tea that is high in vitamin C. This drink is particularly good for people who have a tendency, temporary or otherwise, toward water retention: it is a mild diuretic.

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Winter Moon and The Hidden Bird

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Tempus Fugit

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