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, May 6, 2010

The Call


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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.  (Today: St Patrick's Cathedral)

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, May 5, 2010

Flor



Invisible Lady
"When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky." – Buddha
 
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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.   (Today: Musicians in Central Park)

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.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Rainy Day

MiniBiker in Red
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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)

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, May 3, 2010

Lost

Mikrokosmos
Carl Sagan: Up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perception awaits us. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical, ethnic, religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.
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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)

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, May 2, 2010

The Light of The Streets

Fisherman
Chainsaw Man Pruning
In the heat of the afternoon

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)

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, May 1, 2010

May 1st, Theme Day: Statues


Nezahualcoyotl  King of Texcoco
Sculpture by Luis Ortiz Monasterio (1956)
Nezahualcoyotl


(April 28, 1402 – June 4, 1472) was a philosopher, warrior, architect, poet and ruler (Tlatoani) of the city-state of Texcoco in Pre-Columbian Mexico. Unlike other high-profile Mexican figures from the century preceding Spanish Conquest,  Nezahualcoyotl was not an Aztec; his people were the “Acolhua", another Nahualtl people settled in the eastern part of the Valley of Mexico, the eastern side of Lake Texcoco. He is best remembered for his beautiful poetry.

Songs by Nezahualcoyotl

The destruction of the Mexican state was foreshadowed by a series of omens and prodigies which took place during the ten years preceding the arrival of Cortes. 
By the "smoking stars" is meant a comet that was visible for about a year.
The sweet-voiced quetzal there, ruling the earth, has intoxicated my soul.
I am like the quetzal bird, I am created in the one and only God; I sing sweet songs among the flowers; I chant songs and rejoice in my heart.

The fuming dewdrops from the flowers in the fields intoxicate my soul.
I grieve to myself that ever this dwelling on earth should end.
I foresaw, being a Mexican, that our rule began to be destroyed, I went forth weeping that it was to bow down and to be destroyed.
Let me not be angry that the grandeur of Mexico is to be destroyed.
The smoking stars gather against it: the one who cares for flowers is about to be destroyed.
He who cared for books wept, he wept for the beginning of the destruction.
___

Amo el canto del zenzontle
Pájaro de cuatrocientas voces,
Amo el color del jade
Y el enervante perfume de las flores,
Pero más amo a mi hermano: el hombre.

I love the song of the mockingbird,
Bird of four hundred voices,
I love the color of the jadestone
And the enrapturing scent of flowers,
But more than all I love my brother: man.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)

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.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Zoo



Mexico City Zoo

Happy Weekend!

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)

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.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Don't Run - Don't Push - Don't Scream

Arizona by Fisgon


Indignation by Magu
The little president: This is inadmissible... they want that I give employment to Mexicans.
La Jornada


Immigration Advocates Rise Up in Anger Over Arizona Law

AMY GOODMAN: Juan, your column in The New York Daily News today is about the immigration bill in Arizona.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes, well obviously there has been a furor throughout the country over this bill and one of the things occurring now is, most people were not aware that May Day was a scheduled day for immigration rights protests around the country and a lot of immigration advocates are now saying in the last week they had a huge surge of interest by people in their communities to turn out at these May Day rallies. So the Arizona, the new “show your papers or you go to jail” bill has already spurred enormous outrage in the Latino community, the immigrant community, the civil-rights community. Obviously Attorney General Holder now is saying he is considering intervening. Even Lindsay Graham, the Republican senator said yesterday he believes the law is unconstitutional. Some lawmakers are now actually calling – because you know, Major League Baseball is scheduled to have its All-Star Game in Phoenix next year. They’re already calling on Major League Baseball, which depends so much on Latino ballplayers and continues to recruit more, to pull the game, to pull the All-Star game out of Phoenix as a demonstration of what Arizona could be facing if it continues to persist in this legislation. (Fragment) 

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities. 
 (At Least Once A Week)
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, April 28, 2010

Spring Tones

Ver. 0


King Crimson – Cadence and Cascade  (Lyrics)

Cadence and cascade
Kept a man named jade;
Cool in the shade
While his audience played.
Purred, whispered, spend us too:
We only serve for you.

Sliding mystified
On the wine of the tide
Stared pale-eyed
As his veil fell aside.
Sad paper courtesan
They found him just a man.

Caravan hotel
Where the sequin spell fell
Custom of the game.
Cadence oiled in love
Licked his velvet gloved hand
Cascade kissed his name.

Sad paper courtesan
They knew him just a man.


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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities. 
(At Least Once A Week)

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.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Tlaloc

Tlaloc, God of rain, fertility and water.


Tlaloc was an important deity in Aztec religion. He was a beneficent god who gave life and sustenance, but he was also feared for his ability to send hail, thunder and lightning, and for being the lord of the powerful element of water. In Aztec iconography he is normally depicted with goggle eyes and fangs. He was associated with caves, springs and mountains.
  
In Aztec cosmology, the four corners of the universe are marked by "The Four Tlalocs" which both hold up the sky and functions as the frame for the passing of time. Tlaloc was the patron of the Calendar day Mazatl and of the trecena of Ce Quiyahuitl (1 Rain). In Aztec mythology, Tlaloc was the lord of the third sun, which was destroyed by fire.
  
In the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, one of the two shrines on top of the Great Temple was dedicated to Tlaloc. The High Priest who was in charge of the Tlaloc shrine was called "Quetzalcoatl Tlaloc Tlamacazqui". However the most important site of worship to Tlaloc was on the peak of Mount Tlaloc, a 4100 metres high mountain on the eastern rim of the Valley of Mexico. Here the Aztec ruler came and conducted important ceremonies once a year, and throughout the year pilgrims offered precious stones and figures at the shrine.
  

In Coatlinchan a colossal statue weighing 168 tons was found that was thought to represent Tlaloc. Some scholars believe that the statue may not have been Tlaloc at all but his sister or some other female deity. This statue was relocated to the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City in 1964. [Wiki]


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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities. 
(At Least Once A Week)
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, April 26, 2010

Park in The Rock or Rock in The Park




Rock at Luis Cabrera Square
(Rock en La Roma)



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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities. 
(At Least Once A Week)
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, April 24, 2010

Flashback

The Flatiron Building

The Flatiron Building, or Fuller Building as it was originally called, is located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, and is considered to be one of the first skyscrapers ever built. Upon completion in 1902 it was one of the tallest buildings in New York City. The building sits on a triangular island block at 23rd street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway anchoring the south (downtown) end of Madison Square.

The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham as a vertical Renaissance palazzo with Beaux-Arts styling. Unlike New York's early skyscrapers, which took the form of towers arising from a lower, blockier mass, such as the contemporary Singer Building (1902–1908), the Flatiron Building epitomizes the Chicago school conception: like a classical Greek column, its limestone and glazed terra-cotta façade is divided into a base, shaft and capital. [Wiki]
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Friday, April 23, 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Vanished


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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)


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.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

People at The Park



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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)



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, April 19, 2010

Sunday Afternoon


"In the hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet"  
~Albert Schweitzer

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)

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, April 18, 2010

Guanajuato Hills

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)


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, April 17, 2010

Trees and Clouds


Detail

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)


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.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Pixels

Happy Weekend!

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)


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.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Road Signs


Road to Toluca

-- Welcome Michelle --

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)
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, April 14, 2010

Dialogue With A Deaf Govern


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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)


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.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Graffiti Man



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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)

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, April 12, 2010

Stone Man


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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)


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, April 11, 2010

Enclosed Skies




Arcos Tower (phone camera shot)




Enclosed


Sirius

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
(Under construction)


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.