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

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Towers

World Trade Center Mexico (1994)

Latin American Tower (1956)

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
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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, February 26, 2010

Organ Grinder


Organilllero playing old and nostalgic tunes at Historic Center.
The organ grinder was a musical novelty street performer of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century, and refers to the operator of a street organ.
Period literature often represents the grinder as a gentleman of ill repute or as an unfortunate representative of the lower classes. Newspaper reporters would sometimes describe them cynically or jocularly as minor extortionists who were paid to keep silent, given the repetitious nature of the music. Later depictions would stress the romantic or picturesque aspects of the activity. Whereas some organ grinders were itinerants or vagabonds, many were recent immigrants who chose to be street performers in order to support their families. Those who actually owned their barrel organs were more likely to take care of them and pursue the "profession" more seriously. A few organ grinders still remain, perhaps most famously Joe Bush in the United States.
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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, February 25, 2010

Menus



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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, February 22, 2010

Break


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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, February 21, 2010

Saturday Shadows



Manuel Tolsa Square. In the background Los Girasoles Restaurant.

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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, February 16, 2010

Near The City


If I want to do anything, I want to speak a more universal language.
Seventy Thousand Assyrians 1934. William Saroyan.

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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, February 15, 2010

Balloons



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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, February 14, 2010

Bird Vendor


“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”
Mahatma Gandhi
"La pobreza es la peor forma de violencia"

“The mother of revolution and crime is poverty”
Aristotle
"La Madre de la revolucion y el crimen es la pobreza"
Aristoteles

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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, February 13, 2010

Yesternow


To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been.
Rene Magritte

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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, February 12, 2010

Trio


Whippet puppies.

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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, February 11, 2010

Hands Talk


The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.
Voltaire

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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, February 10, 2010

The Fountain




The light is the daily bread of the eyes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Silent Shout


Questions From a Worker Who Reads

Who built Thebes of the seven gates?
In the books you will find the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?
And Babylon, many times demolished
Who raised it up so many times? In what houses
of gold-glittering Lima did the builders live?
Where, the evening that the Wall of China was finished
Did the masons go? Great Rome
Is full of triumphal arches. Who erected them? Over whom
Did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song
Only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis
The night the ocean engulfed it
The drowning still bawled for their slaves.

The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls.
Did he not have even a cook with him?

Philip of Spain wept when his armada
Went down. Was he the only one to weep?
Frederick the Second won the Seven Year's War. Who
Else won it?

Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors?
Every ten years a great man?
Who paid the bill?

So many reports.
So many questions.

Bertolt Brecht

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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, February 8, 2010

The Balmori building


The heart of the Roma district is found where the Alvaro Obregon and Orizaba avenues meet; located in this corner is the Lamm House, an outstanding eclectic mansion in which the family García Collantes once resided and is considered one of the most beautiful houses in the area. Today, this space is occupied by an important cultural centre that has interesting temporary exhibitions, a library and a restaurant. The Balmori building is located in front of this mansion, was constructed in 1922, it’s an elegant stone building that possesses a beautiful patio with a slender fountain. The ground floor contains several shops specializing in luxury items.

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New York City and Washington series continue in Sketches of Cities.
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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, February 7, 2010

Guanajuato Sketch




Guanajuato is the capital of the state of the same name. It is located 370 km (230 miles) northwest of Mexico City. The Spanish name "Guanajuato" comes from Quanaxhuato (or Kuanasiutu in a different orthography), meaning "Hill of Frogs" in the local indigenous language (a large rock formation outside of the city of Guanajuato looks remarkably like a frog, and frogs are common in the region). In the native religion, the frog represented the god of wisdom.

The city was originally built over the Guanajuato River, which flowed through tunnels underneath the city. However, after years of raising buildings to accommodate repeated flooding, in the mid-twentieth century, engineers built a dam and redirected the river into underground caverns. The tunnels were lit and paved with cobblestones for automobile traffic, and this underground road network carries the majority of cars driving through the city today. It is one of the most notable features of the city.

The city played a major role in the Mexican War of Independence since it is the capital of the state of Guanajuato in which Miguel Hidalgo started the independence movement. [Wiki]

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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, February 5, 2010

The Still of the City


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Thursday, February 4, 2010

Moment of Light


In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better.
Ellen DeGeneres

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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, February 3, 2010

Metrobus




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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, February 2, 2010

The Wooden Peacock


Ver.2

Carved door on Roma borough.

We are living a million lives in the space of a generation.
Henry Miller. Tropic of Cancer

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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, February 1, 2010

February Theme Day: WooD



Tulum, a beautiful beach and archaeological ruins near Cancun.

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?
Albert Einstein

Click Here To View Thumbnails For All Participants.

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