No Parades

Sometimes people get the wrong location for the parade.

Sometimes there is no parade in San Miguel.

Imagine sitting in the Parque Juarez and expecting something to happen – some local fiesta or some gang activity.

You wait and wait and nothing happens.

No one provides you with amusement.

The Dream begins to fade again.

It is not quite as much fun when you have to create your own amusement.  San Miguel Disney is not supposed to be like this.

Santa Fe – Dress Codes for Artists

They are everywhere.

It is impossible to answer the question Which Came First the Art or the Loco.

The Weirdness I have been documenting in San Miguel is everywhere. Here are two Locos  in Santa Fe.

Where there is Art there are Locos.

Where there are Locos there is Art.

Note:
This is my 146th day in San Miguel and it is feeling a bit like the TV show LOST.

I am having a bit of a problem understanding why can’t Art and Three Piece Suits go together or a single strand of Pearls and Art.

Why does there have to be Berets, Capes, ripped stockings, multicoloured articles of clothing?

Why do artists have to go over the top?

I am beginning to understand why Catholic and Private Schools have dress codes.

But then I wouldn’t have a blog if Artists didn’t go over the top, would I?
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As Emily Litella said “Never Mind”.

Another post to fill the hours.

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Post Number Two – Same Picture.

There is a reason for Signs

As a previous post commented, Signs in Santa Fe are there for a reason.

These woman should have read the sign and Stopped Dressing like that.

Santa Fe – The Wrong Way

Santa Fe is far more helpful to residents than San Miguel.

I found these signs all over Santa Fe. Below the sign is a little box containing a pamphlet containing an explanation of what is the Wrong Way in Santa Fe.

Suggestions are offered to residents and would be residents of what is considered the Wrong Way in Santa Fe.

My favorite was the Wrong Way stop that talked about Sarah Palin and how she was the Wrong Way.
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The idea must have come from those Exercise Stations you see in Parks.

Each stop, has a sign either telling you or showing what you should do at this part of the Exercise Trail.
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Now stop and think how helpful these would be in San Miguel sort of like Stations of the Art Walk.

New arrived residents go out the Art Walk area and learn how to be better citizens of San Miguel.

Such as

Exercise 1 – Learning to Say Good Morning in Spanish (also called Say Si all the time)
Exercise 2 – Where not to Live in San Miguel – (also called the Say No to Olimpo)
Exercise 3 – How much Plastic Surgery to Have (also called Say No to Big Lips)

The list is endless.

Santa Fe – Realty

Turning the Corner.

Once I turned the corner I had my Ah Ah Moment and understood the connection between Santa Fe and San Miguel.

The common link is not the Mexican/Spanish connection but the love of Real Estate.

That is what people see when they say San Miguel is like Santa Fe – houses to buy and sell.

Santa Fe – Too Clean to Be Fun

A lot of films are made in Toronto with Toronto substituting for New York City. There is a story that to make Toronto look more like New York, the film crew scattered paper and rubbish around a film site and went to lunch. When they came back the city maintenance crews had cleaned up the mess.

Toronto looks clean but Santa Fe is too clean to be real. It has been antiseptized to death.

How can it say it has Mexican Heritage and look like that?
Martha Stewart must have something to do with this.

Look how neat and tidy everything looks.

It is disgusting.

No dogs, no unlicensed vendors, no clothes being sold in a door way, no tortilla vendors cooking over an oil drum.
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Santa Fe is too clean to be fun.

How can you shop like this?

What bargain are you going to find?

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This is a market

I don’t believe anyone in Santa Fe can have any fun.

How can you have fun if you don’t get dirty or have to dig through things.?

Felíz cumpleaños

Chris came into my room today and gave me this card with the following

On May 14, 2010 something amazing happened in SMA.  It is not unusual for ‘strange’ thing to happen in SMA , we all know.  However this event was very different.  This is the day that Richard Lander succumbed to his blog.

He rode into town wearing a flag, a table-cloth and a waste paper basket.  He looked tired and weathered from his long journey but he made it.  Long Live SMA.  Long live Richard.  Happy 65th.

Love Chris

What a parade it was!

Yes it was quite a parade but now that I am a senior citizen, I can’t remember much of it – well none of it but I am sure it happened – the Magic you know.

Santa Fe – Not Feeling the Burro Love

In San Miguel de Allende, burros are our friends.

We take them everywhere with us.

Woman have found that men are very useful as burro holders.

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Some people have even adopted burros as pets.

They tend to be a bit cumbersome at times but are useful in carrying wood and dirt and purchases.

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Santa Fe has it appears banned burros from the city.

I have no idea how wood and dirt get to houses.

The only burro I found was an iron burro.

Could it be that Artists have taken the story of Lot’s wife and turned all the burros to Iron?

Isn’t this taking Art a bit far?

Santa Fe – The I Word

It all started with Christopher Columbus and where he thought he was going.

He thought he was going to India so he met Indians, although there appears to be controversy about what he actually wrote – Indios or In Dios and what India was actually called in 1492.

I thought this a silly little dispute because I didn’t think anyone used the I word anymore. It is not politically correct.

Imagine my shock when I arrived in Santa Fe and saw the I word on a Museum.

I went to one of favourite sites on Ethnic Slurs and couldn’t find it there although I did find Injun.

The term Native American is more politically corrected or referring to the Native American by their tribe name is acceptable. In Canada we use the term First Nations or aboriginal.

Here I thought Santa Fe was politically correct and I see the I word.

.Then I saw I word people selling Jewelry.

In fact the whole town is full of I Word Art and the I Word is used all over town.

At least San Miguel doesn’t use the I Word. We refer to the local people as maids and gardeners or as our friends.

The Promised Land

I have been to the Promised Land.

There are tales told in San Miguel of a Magical City in the US of A called Santa Fe.

It is spoken of in revered terms. Many people believe that the Mother Ship from Santa Fe came to San Miguel bringing art and incense and a little Myrrh or was it Mirth

I was there April 25, 2010 and over the next few posts I will tell you of that magical city in New Mexico that is full of liberals, artists, art and attitude and explore the Santa Fe Full and of San Miguel Lite – a reduced version of  Santa Fe Full

Dating Ignacio Allende

Ignacio and Gladys

To the standard joke about single men in San Miguel

Gay, married or going home on Tuesday

We can now add been dead for 200 years. Gladys Tolbert was so excited when she spied Ignacio Allende in the Jardin. She had heard about Allende and was eager to have a date with the most famous son of San Miguel.

The fact that he was simply a local man in costume escaped her. The Magic of San Miguel for some, dislodges logic and creates beliefs that have little in common with reality.

Whether or not Gladys has her date with Ignacio matters little. In her mind she had a date with Ignacio Allende.