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

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Riviera Maya



Tulum is the site of a Pre-Columbian Maya walled city serving as a major port for Cobá. The ruins are located on 12-meter (39 ft) cliffs, along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Tulum was at its height between the 13th-15th centuries and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. Old World diseases brought by the Spanish settlers appear to have been the cause of its demise. One of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites.

The Maya site may have been formerly also known by the name Zama, meaning city of Dawn. Tulum stands on a bluff facing east and the Caribbean Sea. Tulúm is also the Yucatan Mayan word for fence or wall (or trench), and the walls surrounding the site allowed the Tulum fort to serve as a defense against invasion. Tulum had access to both land and sea trade routes and which made it an extremely important trade hub, especially for the obsidian trade. From the numerous depictions in murals and other works around the site, Tulum appears to have been an important site for the worship of the Diving or Descending god. Tulum also has some underwater caves where you can go snorkeling and many other attractions. Almost directly east of Tulum are the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and Jamaica. [Wiki]



Tulum beaches

Playa del Carmen

Cancun


(Previously posted)

music+image



Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.






Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Sunny Cuernavaca


Dignity

Joy!

The Balloon Man

Poinsettias Window

Albariño (Wine Bar)

music+image


Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.




Sunday, December 19, 2010

Street Kids



“Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” ~ Albert Einstein

Happy Sunday!

music+image


Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.




Friday, December 17, 2010

Horizon


Cancun (from Women Island) Mx.


Caribbean Sea (from one of Cancun beaches)

Horizon

To cross the horizon grown old
And watch at the bottom of dreams
The fluttering star

You were so lovely
you could not speak
I moved away
But carry in my hand
That native sky
And its wasted sun

This afternoon
in a café
I have drunk
A liquor trembling
Like a red fish

And once again in the glass hidden
That filial dream

You were so lovely
you could not speak

Something was dying in your chest
Your eyes were green
but I was moving away

You were so lovely
I learnt how to sing.


Horizonte

Pasar el horizonte envejecido
Y mirar en el fondo de los sueños
La estrella que palpita



Eras tan hermosa
que no pudiste hablar

Y me alejé
Pero llevo en la mano
Aquel cielo nativo
Con un sol gastado



Esta tarde
en un café
he bebido

un licor tembloroso
Como un pescado rojo



Y otra vez en el vaso escondido
Ese sueño filial

Eras tan hermosa
que no pudiste hablar

En tu pecho algo agonizaba
Eran verdes tus ojos
pero yo me alejaba



Eras tan hermosa
que aprendí a cantar.


~Vicente Huidobro


music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Roman Wheels












Desire

A lover knows only humility, he has no choice.
He steals into your alley at night, he has no choice.
He longs to kiss every lock of your hair, don't fret,
he has no choice.
In his frenzied love for you, he longs to break the chains of his imprisonment,
he has no choice.

A lover asked his beloved:
- Do you love yourself more than you love me?
Beloved replied: I have died to myself and I live for you.
I've disappeared from myself and my attributes,
I am present only for you.
I've forgotten all my learnings,
but from knowing you I've become a scholar.
I've lost all my strength, but from your power I am able.

I love myself...I love you.
I love you...I love myself.

I am your lover, come to my side,
I will open the gate to your love.
Come settle with me, let us be neighbours to the stars.
You have been hiding so long, endlessly drifting in the sea of my love.
Even so, you have always been connected to me.
Concealed, revealed, in the unknown, in the un-manifest.
I am life itself.

You have been a prisoner of a little pond,
I am the ocean and its turbulent flood.
Come merge with me,
leave this world of ignorance.
Be with me, I will open the gate to your love.

I desire you more than food or drink
My body my senses my mind hunger for your taste
I can sense your presence in my heart
although you belong to all the world
I wait with silent passion for one gesture one glance
from you.

By Deepak Chopra Feat. Demi Moore


music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Rome Sketches




Via Magnanapoli


Vatican

Mercati di Traiano
(Via 4 Novembre / Via delle tre Cannalle)

Via Magnanapoli


To Fiumicino Airport

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Stolen Moments




79th Street Boat Basin




(All)  Riverside, NYC June 2010

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.

Friday, December 10, 2010

And suddenly its morning!


Los Colorines Restaurant. Cuernavaca, Mx.

El Chalchi (El Tesoro/The Treasure) Mountain. Tepoztlan, Mx.

Flowers / Chanel
Riverside, NYC



Happy Weekend!

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

The Return



Turtles
The nesting season usually begins in May and lasts for several months. The turtles come to the beach in large numbers during the nighttime hours for 2-3 evenings after a full moon. They scoop out holes in the sand 2-feet deep, deposit their eggs and cover them up. At the peak of this activity, turtles number in the thousands. The eggs look like slimy Ping-Pong balls.

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.



Tuesday, December 7, 2010

City Mayors


The Crane

Marcelo Ebrard, Mayor of Mexico City
awarded the 2010 World Mayor Prize

(Marcelo Ebrard, el mejor alcalde del mundo: City Mayors)


7 December 2010: Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, Head of the Federal District Government of Mexico City, has been awarded the 2010 World Mayor Prize. The mayor is a liberal reformer and pragmatist who has never shied away from challenging Mexico’s orthodoxy. He has championed women’s and minorities rights and has become an outspoken and internationally respected advocate on environmental issues.

City Mayors: What is the most recent satisfaction you have derived from the City?
Marcelo Ebrard: The greatness of the people of Mexico City recently manifested itself during the swine flu crisis, which, as the world knows, began on a large scale in our city in 2009. This was such an enormous crisis - a vast and terrible problem with an unknown virus. It was lethal. I basically asked all citizens to stop all activities for almost two weeks. We shut down everything, from schools to theatres. And they did so. We didn’t have to use force, which shows the civic awareness and responsibility of the people of Mexico City.

City Mayors: What can other cities in the world learn from Mexico City’s experience?
Marcelo Ebrard: We all learn from one another. I prefer to use the term “exchange”. I would say that out biggest advantage is Crisis Management, the high degree of vulnerability that we have has given us a certain culture, or way of confronting these crises, in an unusual and remarkable way. This is something rare in cities of this size. On the climate change action plan, some cities have asked me for a copy. On how we are preparing for the green economy, well, some mayors seem to look to our social policy, as well as to the initiatives we have taken on urban mobility and public spaces. These are the topics that other mayors ask me questions and seek information about. Mayors must act in concert. Together, we can take a more active role on global issues. Our cities are the sources of wealth, but also of pollution. Environmental matters are common areas of exchange, since we are all linked in the same dire destiny unless we soon enhance our cooperation and our actions.  (You can see his interview here)


music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.

Monday, December 6, 2010

The Lake


Chapultepec Park


music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Cuernavaca







Cuernavaca is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. Established at the archeological site of Gualupita I by the Olmecs, "the mother culture" of Mesoamerica, approximately 3200 years ago. It is also a municipality located about 85 km (53 mi) south of Mexico City on the D-95 freeway.

The city was nicknamed the "City of Eternal Spring" by Alexander von Humboldt in the 19th century. It has long been a favorite escape for Mexico City and foreign visitors because of this warm, stable climate and abundant vegetation. Aztec emperors had summer residences there, and even today many famous people as well as Mexico City residents maintain homes there. Cuernavaca is also host to a large foreign resident population, including large numbers of students who come to study the Spanish language.

The name "Cuernavaca" is derived from the Nahuatl phrase Cuauhnahuac, and means "surrounded by or close to trees." The name was eventually Hispanicized to Cuernavaca because the Spanish could not pronounce the Nahuatl name. The coat-of-arms of the municipality consists of a tree trunk with three branches with foliage, and four roots colored red. There is a cut in the trunk in the form of a mouth, from which emerges a grey swirl.

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all and I'll respond when the inexorable time permits.