I am leaving in the morning

…and will be in Houston by the time you read this. And I got a lot done, but not as much as I wanted to, and I have really only started. I am up for a month’s stay, or so, in the United States. I have two rides home from the airport, three phone calls to make when I get there, an appointment and a class Monday morning, and a social event Tuesday night. Wednesday is a holiday, and on the weekend I expect to go to New Orleans. It is a whole life set up I have there. But I will be in the foreign land longer than a month. I would feel a lot better if I had a return ticket for August.

Here is an interesting apartment to rent short term, although I am sure one can do still better. Here is an interesting one to buy. The listings will go away but I want to remember the websites.

«Cuando mires que me voy / rogarás por mí al Creador / y me mandas un suspiro de amor / Porque sabes que yo soy / ángeles que manda Dios / a que cuiden a tu amor que se fue.»

Axé.

Stolen from the UNAM

This is the map they post of how to get from the Centro Cultural Universitario to the Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas. They also provide detailed directions for three modes of transportation. See how organized and user friendly they are.

Axé.

Semites of Mexico City

Of course I knew I was renting from an Arab-Mexican, but now I have noticed that my laundry shop is not only Arab-Mexican, but outright Islamic. Then I strongly suspect my tailor, Abraham Pérez, of Judaism, and now, near his shop, I bought a glass of carrot juice from a very Mexican style, if light skinned (for this far south) man whose name turned out to be Leo Schwartzman Katz. I am beginning to have the impression that there are certain streets, or perhaps even just blocks, that correspond heavily to nationalities and religions. Do you know anything about this?

Axé.

Names like Stellan

I liked this film for the reasons the reviewer does, and I liked looking at the credits, with all the Viking-style names.

The subtitles were faint and hard to read, so I listened closely to the words; it was amazing how much Oslo Norwegian I could understand.

Axé.

México, D.F., Zócalo tonight

This was the scene late this afternoon / early this evening on the Plaza de la Constitución, Mexico City, as PRD candidate AMLO closed his campaign. (Look how you can see the mountains that ring the city.) I did not go because I wanted to do work, but it was a major event and it was recorded.

According to one account, there were 1.4 million people in attendance. Other figures I have seen are 200,000 and 2,000,000.

Axé.

From the Daily Kos

Axé.

No he terminado de estar aquí

IN JULY I MUST
Work on computer files
Call my T.A.
Follow up on my denied grant
Finish site for that Cultural Studies course
Make plans for New Orleans and Austin
Work on fiction Started, keep going
I must also work on paper correspondence
Update membership in professional societies
Do academic work
Teach
Continue acquiring films for course (see this book) Films with subtitles are as expensive as at home so I will buy from there. I must remember to do this, start doing it as soon as I get home.
Work out
Do home repair and garden work

IN AUGUST I MUST
Set up Fall courses
Do academic work
Go to Austin and read their library
Entertain those Cypriots
Finally get to the mending

WHEN NEXT IN MEXICO I MUST
Investigate Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas.
Investigate Casa Citaltéptl Stellar, must return constantly.
Try to find those two writers half done, and I am leaving the other to chance or next year, when I will also seriously go to readings … and I got hold of some different people, but I want more, more, I am still not satisfied.
Do more academic work and go to more galleries generally.
Go to the experimental ceramics workshop and apply to join as a student.
Wander around more in Sta. María La Ribera.
Participate in Sunday’s municipal bicycle ride (assuming I can get hold of a bicycle to use).
Go to the current gallery shows downtown, including at Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso. 
Visit Tlaxcala, perhaps on a weekend, and Taxco, perhaps on a weekday.
Visit some of the fancier branches of the Librería Porrúa – the matriz on Rep. Argentina, for instance, and the branch by the Colegio Nacional.
Seriously browse the FCE bookstores.
Go to the Casa del Poeta and all the theatres.

Axé.

Tlacotalpan lodging

The best lodging in Tlacotalpan, Ver., is the Posada Doña Soco and it does not have a website. I am therefore giving directions here.

Socorro Flores Sandoval
Francisco Javier Mina, No. 7
Colonia Centro
95461 Tlacotalpan, Veracruz

Tel.: (288) 884 23 19
Cel.: (288) 110 39 35

The location is between the Plaza Santa Marta and the church of the Miguelitos. You are near a good internet café and a good fonda («Mary») for comida corrida and more, just off the Plaza Santa Marta.

All of this information was revealed to me by the Giraffe. Then I lost the web page, or forgot it had contact information for this posada on it, and as a result did not stay there as I had hoped to do when I first went to Tlacotalpan. Now, on this more recent voyage, I was walking along and came across it — and yes, I can tell it is the very best place to stay.

Axé.

On NOT (always) writing every day

In the case of this particular text, my theory of writing a small amount every day is not working. It is just making me worry the thing too much, which exhausts me and prevents advancement. I know the theory is, just free write then; however I have already explained that and furthermore, I already have a full draft I am working from (although it needs heavy revision, which in practice means using it as raw material for recomposition). I need breaks from it for distance, and I need to limit and not increase the amount of time I spend looking at it.

This is precisely the kind of circumstance that is conducive to taking too long a break. For this particular manuscript I would almost say it needs an all day session once a week, without fail … and to be thought about in the meantime while walking, to be at the back of one’s mind always. Then later that can change to two half-day sessions a week, then four two-hour sessions, and eventually 18 25 minute sessions, which will be the easiest to fit in and cause the best flow … but only once the manuscript is going well.

Notice that in my general plan a day is about 7.5 hours, and that it is broken into 3 sessions of 2.5 hours each; actual work (not supporting work or related work but actual work) may occupy 3 sessions (all of the 7.5 hours) but must only occupy 2, and only 1 session must be spent on composition although all 3 may be. This is why in fact, when the 18 25 minute sessions are attained things will be the most efficient.

Axé.

Amanecer en el Zócalo

I was never a fan of these all night Latin American bus rides, that is to say these all night bus rides that are so popular in Latin America and sometimes inevitable, and every time I take one I say it will be my last. But if you arrive at 6 AM in Mexico City, and you do not have a lot of baggage so you can take the metro instead of wait for a cab, and your metro stop is on the same line as your bus terminal so it is an easy ride, and the coffee stand is open at the bus terminal so you can set out fortified, then…

Coming out of the metro station into your neighborhood you will see the sky glow pink behind the old buildings and then the signs of the actual sun in a red splash, and walk home along near empty streets in fresh air carrying the faint smell of mondongo, cilantro, and atole wafting from the stands.

Axé.