2011/2012

2011 was indeed a great year!

it had many downs, but mostly ups

is the year that i got a new home

and the year that i stopped working with my best friend

is the year that i became a bit more adult

and a bit more thankful for being alive...

i receive 2012 full of hope

in my new home

accompanied by my beautiful mom

and many-times blogged

Herr Gato and Frau Kitty

we already had some delicious swordfish cooked

with olive oil, rice and bell peppers

and we wait for midnight to celebrate

the arrival of 2012

i haven't blogged much lately

the moving, the new home

the holidays, but i hope for 2012

to have more time to photograph

to blog, and to keep in touch

with the wonderful friends i have met

even if only electronically through this blog...

you know who you are!

Happy New Year

Glückliches neues Jahr

Feliz Año Nuevo

Merry Christmas-Feliz Navidad, hugs. Bere

new and old

new home
older life

finally moved into the new home
still lingers the smell and the keys from the older home
a hint of sadness of leaving the old home in my heart
yet the warmness of the new one dissolves it every new night
a new hope, a new beginning, but without appreciating
the old days...

the only regret, the plants left behind
those that i planted from small pots into the ground
that so widely spread and i cannot bring with me
the big old palm tree, that saw me so many times smile
and a couple cry too
i will miss you my friend, most of all, and the little purple flowers
of the bush around who i planted too



if i could bring you with me and water you again
i apologize for leaving you back, i will miss you my leafy friends...

moving

moving is just crazy!

i never thought that emptying such a small place

would be such a hassle

but looking forward to start 2012 on a new home...

and in the meantime, my mom & i move

boxes, books, clean plants, and clear the karma

of years of collecting useless stuff...

Herr Gato takes refugee on my neighbor's deck

what a week! and i still cannot move

but before this year ends...

Herr Gato at Jessica's deck hiding from the moving mess

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

this year, as always, more things to be thankful for

just the fact of being alive is the biggest gift i got

and then a new home

and my mom's company

and the clouds, and the moon, and the stars

and the sun... i sound like a John Lennon song

Friends and Enemies: I bought a Fridge today

today I bought a refrigerator for the 1st time in my life

i always rented houses that had a fridge
or in the case of my Mexico City apartment
i used one my ex-boyfriend had

i feel a little more 'adult' today...
yaaay!



the Friends and Enemies is not only the intro to the post
but also a pretty good song from the
Everything But The Girl compilation, Back to Mine

11-11-11

a magical number

a magical date

and for me, today at noon

a door to a new life will open

endlessly, to life, i thank...

today has started as a cloudy day
but by now, it's sunny, coldish and
a beautiful day to live in San Diego, California!

a rainbow and a song

der Regenbogen
the rainbow
el arcoiris



- funny how, both German and English refer to the rain and the shape, in Spanish is about the shape too, but instead of the rain, the iris is mentioned, light

sights and sounds!

what else? if there's none!

und
das Lied
the song
la canción

mogwai fears satan, and i do too!

i think i have posted this song before
but now there's this version live in youtube
one of my favorite Mogwai songs ever!

the very first live concert i saw in San Diego
was Mogwai's... that night, after moving to a foreigner country
where i knew anybody, where i have been away from home
from friends, and live music
i saw this LIVE! this exact song opening the concert
and then i met one of my best friends ever
the so-called Perro

it was a bit over 10 years ago
but i still get goosebumps listening to it

Mogwai fears Satan, and i do too!
enjoy this beautiful video!

abandoned Halloween

35th Street, Normal Heights - San Diego, California

my poor blog has been abandoned for long
that is spooky!
between the plans of getting a new home
busyness at work, allergies and maladies
but today i stopped and took some bad photos
of a 'bad' Halloween home
hope you have a spooky one!


35th Street - I am glad I am not helping with the laundry...

Chloe Dewe Mathews photography

i've never heard before of this wonderful photographer
today i saw an article on The Guardian about her
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/oct/19/oil-chloe-dewe-mathews-caspian

visited her website
http://www.chloedewemathews.com/



i am amazed by this british photographer, images worth watching!

Steve Jobs dies

and i am sad...

and yes, my first computer was a Mac

a Macintosh II

and even though i don't have a Mac anymore

nor an iPhone, i think the world has missed a genius

RIP Steve Jobs

if you had an old Mac, you'll recognize this icon

it was the 'bluescreen' for the Mac...

if you got one of these when you turned your computer

it was dead!

the classics

this little post
i started so many days ago
life taking over the blog again
but today, i need this little classic break
'modern' people seem to forget
the beauty of 'classics'
for me, any 'old classic' art
brings a breath of timeless breath
i think of Dickens, when i read this little
ghost story, walking around London so long ago
and Mendelssohn writing his music
and i like to think
that so many lives has past between them and me
that i feel little, but in a good way
and my maladies seem small, not big
so here here sharing today this
"Song" Lieder, Op. Posth Pagenlied, Felix Mendelssohn
singer: Maria Mohrmann-Messing



the Charles Dickens Ghost Story
To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt
or The Trial for Murder as it's called here
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/3ghst10h.htm#3

from this wonderful little collection
The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories
Selected and Introduced by Michael Cox and R. A. Gilbert

secundaria femenil

junior high
Mittelstufe 
secundaria

one of the good things about Facebook
is that you can connect with old friends
really really old friends!
from age 12 to age 15 i attended an all-girl Catholic school
in Guadalajara, Mexico
today some of my girlfriends posted a picture of us
i wonder if you can recognize me... great memories!

9/11/11

remembering after 10 years
you can visit the memorial online
http://www.911memorial.org/

find the names
visit the site via photos & animations
back in 2001 in 9/11

near Ground Zero, Sept. 9, 2001

i was working at the San Diego Blood Bank
the reaction of blood donors and help from Sandiegans
was impressive, people formed such a long line
that went all around the Blood Bank, it was like that
for many days, demonstrating the strength and unity
of the American people

9/11 Memorial, Sept. 9, 2011

the San Diego blackout of 2011

i am sure this is how yesterday will be remembered
yesterday around 3:30pm the lights just went off
i was in the office, doing some Photoshop
when the screen went black, i am a compulsive 'saver'
so i didn't loose any changes...

around 4:10pm we decided to leave the office and go home
when we realized we were not the only ones without power
and good thing i left then 'cause about 2 hrs into the blackout
the freeways started getting jammed, with no street lights
and tons of police officers deployed to more 'serious' emergencies

thanks to my little battery operated radio and to the AM radio transmitting
from KOGO 600 AM, i knew that the outages spread to all of San Diego county,
western Arizona and even northern Mexico! wow, now that was massive

right away all the big stores closed, so the San Diego airport
hundreds of people were trapped on elevators in buildings downtown
but unless there was a health issue, the police just won't have
the force to unlock them all...


my little triple A battery radio, great help!

around my home, on Adams Ave. while daylight still reigned
a lot of people were hanging out on the streets, two liquors stores
were still open, using calculators to charge for water, beer, ice
these were the items most people were buying

there was a certain mix of feelings on Adams Ave. some people seemed
cheerful but other seemed confused, buying gallons of water
fearing the worse, i guess...

by the time dark settled, the silence reigned in my neighborhood
all the kids went to bed and the crickets were much louder
there was a beautiful very bright sky! we were able to see
the stars and the moon was so bright that i wondered why we
ever invented electricity (heh heh)

a recount of news gathered by the L.A. Times

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/blackout/

around 11pm power came back home, but still a couple of areas
have no electricity, San Diego is pretty much back to normal today
ah! except for schools, all schools canceled classes today
and thankfully the heat wave is over too! so no more sweating
all it's in its right place now, and i just worry
about my food in the fridge and to buy more triple A batteries
for my little radio, it was great company!

i forgot to mention, right after the blackout, ALL the radio stations
were gone! including Tijuana Mexican radio stations, only KOGO
kept on transmitting...

a little adventure indeed, and it reminded me my days of
childhood in my Grandma's town, Autlan, when i was 10 years old
and visited during the summer, the blackouts were sort of common
after the usual electric storms of the summer, time to read and play
shadow games with candles with my cousins

for more info on other areas of San Diego, read mister Smorg's post!
http://smorgzone.blogspot.com/2011/09/eventful-thursday.html

and here some interesting photos
http://framework.latimes.com/2011/09/08/massive-blackout-san-diego/#/0

mixed teas and a little piece

it's been so long since i wrote here

life took over

the summer, my mom's visit

the search for a new home, Monday organ concerts,

cats, work, walks

but one thing in common had my summer nights

trying new mixed teas, herbal loose teas

or technically correct, infusions

my mom found this Rose tea (made of little rose buds)

at 99 Ranch, the all-Asian store

and i started mixing it with chamomile, lavender,

even green sencha tea

the results, marvelous!

the rose buds tea has many properties, throat soother

mood enhancer, etc. and with a bit of honey is great

green sencha tea with rose buds and tea bag

fluffy tea bag with fragrant tea

pretty and tasty tea, the discovery of the summer

chamomile, the good old remedy

chamomile, the good old remedy, a perfect mix for rose buds

chamomile and lavender, another fragrant elixir for quiet nights

lavender tea is another long-time remedy with many benefits

one of my favorite cups to brew tea

ah! and here 'A Little Piece' literally

from a lovely compilation of classical music

for the piano designed to soothing your pets

(Herr Gato and Frau Kitty sure seem to like it!)

Music My Pet

this piece is called Stückchen,

Album For The Young in C Major, Op. 6: V. Stückchen

that means in German, Small Piece

written by Robert Schumman

enjoy! if your dog or cat is not relaxed already

i hope you are!

mesmerizing Liszt, masterful Romero

yesterday i saw one of the best piano concerts
i've seen in my life!
a selection of Franz Liszt works by pianist Gustavo Romero

[i have a life-long love relationship with classical piano playing
i started studying classical piano, fortuitously, almost not by choice
at age 8... one day i was very sick and my mom thought
i needed something to cheer me up
3 houses from mine in Mexico City, there was a small piano study,
Ludwig Van Beethoven, was called and Dolores Solís Amezcua
was my teacher for many years to come...
but back to Liszt and Gustavo Romero]

so yesterday my mom and I, along with our friends
M & J Conner, we were able to attend to one of the
4 concerts series organized by
La Jolla Athenaeum commemorating the bicentenary
of the birth of Franz Liszt



the selection of Liszt pieces varied from the romanticism
and beautifully spaced pieces that Liszt composed
to the incredibly hard and complicated compositions
that made of Liszt so well know for his technically advanced
almost impossible to play pieces, such as the Hungarian Rhapsodies

the complete program for Sunday, July 24, 4 PM

Cantique d'amour (S.173/10)
Andante lagrimoso (S.173/9)
Invocation (S.173/1)
Funérailles (S.173/7)
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6
----
Sonetto 47 del Petrarca (S.161/4)
Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (S.161/5)
Sonetto 123 del Petrarca (S.161/6)
Harmonies du soir (S.139/11)
Spozalizio (S.161/1)
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 "Rákóczi March"

more than ever, now I know why Liszt is considered one
of the greatest pianist of all times, and why Gustavo Romero
is considered one of the best piano interpreters alive
his interpretation is just stellar! technically superb
while soulful and introspective
I am lucky to have seen him play!

the opening piece, Cantique d’amour, brought back such emotions
and memories of piano playing to my heart that literally
brought me to tears... thank you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoqJ46ljjVI

you can read yesterday's notes here
http://www.ljathenaeum.org/musicfest.html#three


Gustavo Romero photographed outside The Neurosciences Institute


my mom, yesterday outside the Neurosciences Institute too


another view

Liszt and Romero, what a pair!

I had tickets for only 1 of the 4 concerts
but I think I am repeating next week...
last week Romero played a selection of obscure Liszt piece
that sadly i missed, but next week's closing series
sounds rather promising, includes the famous Liebesträume No. 3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebestr%C3%A4ume

it's that amazing
if you live in San Diego, you must attend to at least one
of this concerts of the summer series, last year was Chopin
and before Beethoven, Mozart, Hayden and Mendelssohn
i think i just found out what to do every summer around here

a list of past Athenaeum Summer Festivals by year

1999 Chopin
2000 Bach
2001 Beethoven
2002 Beethoven
2003 Mozart
2004 Mozart
2005 Schubert
2006 Schumann
2007 Brahms
2008 Ten Years, Seven Composers, One Pianist
2009 Haydn and Mendelssohn
2010 Frédéric François Chopin
2011 Franz Liszt

I wonder who will be interpreted next year?

by the way, these were our seats
apart from being able to see exquisite Romero's hands playing
we could hear him breath...

Monday nights with an outdoor organ

Balboa park is hosting this lovely summer organ festival
http://sosorgan.org/festival2011sked.htm
Twilight in the Park



it is free with many international guests
on July 11 we saw Scott Dettra
the Organist Of The National Cathedral, Washington, DC


he was delightful to listen to, and he introduced every piece he played



these free concerts are a wonderful way to end a Monday night
they are still through the end of August

[click on the panoramic to see full size]

La la la (etc.)

i haven't posted any tea-tags advices in a while
maybe because i haven't been drinking bagged tea
and the few i drink, don't have a tag

but today on this Detox tea
there is one, and yes, i usually follow my heart myself
that's why i come across as emotional,
a bit hysteric, and a lot sensitive, or so i feel like
do you follow your heart? your stomach? or your head?



a little song by Low to go with the tea, and the post



As a child I hid between the pages
Cutting secret phrases overhead
But things we turn our back on when we're older
Only drag us back into our bed

Something's turning over
You'd better get out while you can
Something's turning over

Angels setting fire to the ocean
Pirates making liars out of men
No, I don't think we'll ever see their faces
I don't think we'll ever see the end

Something's turning over
You'd better get out while you can
Something's turning over

Get out while you're young

Every now and then I feel them breathing
Moving through the rooms so quietly
And just because you never hear their voices
Don't mean they won't kill you in your sleep

La la la, [etc]

infection

i am not happy
i have a kidneys infection
apart from the back pain and other maladies
i have a bad case of the blues

blues blues blues

ah [sigh]

after a long day

i've so busy!!
conference at work all of last week
took over 800 photos of it
made galleries, website
etc. etc. etc.

and tonight
so tired
and these two
look like they've been having a long day
too


Herr Gato, too much mouse playing


Frau Kitty, ready for bed

overcast Sunday at Ocean Beach

another kind of silence

there's a certain sadness to finishing a book
a little hole in the heart left
after many afternoons shared
like when an old friend moves away
or when a summer romance ends

i finished Let It Come Down
a couple of days ago
i've been flirting with other new books
fresh projects, of alligators and mysteries
and challenges of over 1,000 pages

but now & then, i wish i hadn't finished
my old book, it was comforting to know
i would read a little of it every day
i knew the characters
but i never knew how the plot
would end...
it's a great book but also it's not the best book
i've read, i just know i miss it

and then i realized
that almost every time i finish a book
i feel the same little sweet pain
the little déjà vu
a subtle melancholy's there

yes, like another short love story
that has come to an end

another kind of silence
Paul Bowles would've said



now to start another romance
to engage page by page

me and death

i try to forget about her
but she keeps on appearing, everywhere

there's a small young possum dead
trapped under my back door
half body in, half body out
but completely dead

and my neighbor's cat...
and this mysterious pain in my breast

when i breath
when i care
when, for the cats, i search

i keep on being reminded
of how fragile life is
and of the constant menace
she is, always

'cause where there's life
and there's hope
she likes to lurk
to ensnare!

i wish i could
about her, forget
but as soon as i misrecollect her
she comes forth again!

she's a constant threat

please please
oh death!
do go away
i'd like to breath
i'd like to forget

the city and the sea

on a coldish Sunday of June
i took my friend to the Coronado island
this is the view of San Diego from Coronado



and a smooth electronic song, Deep Blue Sea
written by my best friend (d.j.ix aka perro)
under his musical-pen name Looprication


to go with the imagery

[click on the panorama to see full size]

before and after, the sprawl

back in 2005 i moved my now-a-days home
it had a little palm up front...
one day, it looked dry, so i watered it
then the next day i watered again...

another day, she looked a little sad
so i put a little plant food
and watered it again

i kept on watering her, at least every other day
&
now the little palm is bigger than the house!



only 5 years have passed
but when i see her magnificent leaves
and seat and read under her shade
i cannot stop from smiling and being thankful
to her, she has grown so tall and big
we take care of each other
that is our plant-human deal



i dedicate to her one of my favorite
Arcade Fire songs, The Sprawl II
the palm does know about sprawling, huh?



They heard me singing and they told me to stop,
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock,
These days, my life, I feel it has no purpose,
But late at night the feelings swim to the surface.
Cause on the surface the city lights shine,
They're calling at me, "come and find your kind."

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small,
That we can never get away from the sprawl,
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there's no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.

We rode our bikes to the nearest park,
Sat under the swings, we kissed in the dark,
We shield our eyes from the police lights,
We run away, but we don't know why,
And like a mirror these city lights shine,
They're screaming at us, "we don't need your kind."

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small,
That we can never get away from the sprawl,
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there's no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.

They heard me singing and they told me to stop,
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock.

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small,
Can we ever get away from the sprawl?
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there's no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.

old dark photo

last night my neighbor's cat Penny
got sting by a bee
she got into Anaphylactic shock
and almost died

she's still fighting for her
little meowing life

so today is a dark day

but, even if veterinary bills are
over expensive, we hope that she
can see the little at the end of a
very dark tunnel

which reminded me of this very old photo
i took through my dirty window



please say a prayer for little Penny

fluffy cloud and song

all morning mild rain fell from the sky,
– today
the snails came out to play,
they walked the sidewalks,
bathed again

a little song started to play:
Some songs feel like butter
Some songs sound like cake





later, the sun came out,
scared the snails
and the rain away

but a big fluffy cloud blew
on its yellow face!

and the sun sadly said:
Cry me a river
So I can float over to you
The bearer to deliver the news
I'm over the moon
And underfoot
All these elixirs would be moot



now it is the night
the snails are gone
the sun, and the cloud, también
the little song has finished, oh!

now, is all, again, the same

'Cause if we knew where we belong.
There'd be no doubt where we're from.
But as it stands, we don't have a clue.
Especially me and probably you.

art of photography show

thinking of submitting two or three old photos
to the Art of Photography Show in San Diego
i don't think i'll win, or maybe?
but it would be great fun to see one of my photos hanging
on an exhibition wall instead of just on a website for a change
exciting!

thinking of these 2
one from this golden Ocean Beach sunset



and the San Diego Bay view from the Cabrillo Monument



and maybe some from Autlán







wish me luck! i have until May 17 to decide...
what do you think? do i have a chance?

3 albums + 1 lovely cat

i haven't bought music in a while
today i went to M-Theory to pick up
Low's new album C'Mon,
and then i saw Kurt Vile's Childish Prodigy
(i have a tix to see him in July w/Thurston Moore
and been hearing rave reviews...)
and well i didn't have the new Mogwai album either
Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
it's so dangerous to go to record stores



i have plenty of music to listen to
& Frau Kitty seems comfortable with
having 3 cds by her...

here i share with you a couple of songs from
Kurt Vile Blackberry Song



and Heart Attack



and from Low
Try To Sleep



i am going to do that now...

Es gibt manchmal...

"Es gibt manchmal so viel Schönheit auf der Welt, dass ich sie fast nicht ertragen kann. Und mein Herz droht dann daran zu zerbrechen."

i found this quote from American Beauty (one of my favorite films) written in German, translation:

"Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in."

und... i found this picture from back when it was cool here in San Diego


3/21/2011 at 8:35am

i like taking photos early in the morning, even when it takes me months to post them
beauty on an early morning dirty water pool shows that there is beauty almost anywhere if you look the 'right' way...

Easter

yesterday was Easter Sunday
my friends m&m shared a wonderful
American Easter Sunday feast
it was a lovely day, thank you!


our dinner of: Ham with pineapples, Macaroni and Cheese,
Mashed potatoes, Green collards, fresh baked rolls,
and pumpkin pie (not photo here)


the ham was so sweet, hope the pork forgives me



Mione's macaroni and cheese were the tastiest surprise
stronger cheese flavor without all the melted cheese
perfectly crunchy!


the nice hosts


Gibby, the 16 year-old nephew-cat



Indio, the lustrous cool cat