Confessions of a Border Crosser

Vivir para beberla

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 23:25:01 -0600

In January 2009, I was invited to a conference in Mérida, Mexico. It was dedicated to drinks. My talk was titled, "Vivir para beberla." The subtitle: "What we talk about when we talk about drinking." Interspersed throughout the discussion on alcoholic narratives in border works, were autobiographical vignettes. Though this wasn't one of them, it could've been.

A brief list of names of bars/cantinas that I’ve seen, been in, or heard of:

• Luke Soy tu Padre ("Luke, I'm Your Father"). My favorite bar in Madrid. In Chueca. Now closed. The last time I was in there, in 2006, after about a four month absence from Madrid, the bartender/owner looked at me and said: Hey, a friend of yours was in here last week.
• The Foxhead. Bar in Iowa City. Favorite of Kurt Vonnegut when he used to teach at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.
• BBOBT. Heard the name of this one from Rolando Hinojosa. Somewhere in northern México.
• Susan. Ed’s favorite in Madrid. Chueca.
• La Recta Final ("The Finish Line"). A cantina in Tepic, near a cemetery.
• Aquí Te Espero ("I"ll Wait For You Here"). A cantina in southern México.
• Aquí Se Está Mejor Que Enfrente ("It's Better Here Than Over There"). A cantina in Tijuana across from a cemetery.
• Cock. Good for martinis past midnight in Madrid. Chueca.
• The Continental. A bar/lounge in Philadelphia. Look for the giant martini olive.
• Zacazonapan. Tijuana. A cantina with the best jukebox in the world.

2008, in Photos

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 23:10:49 -0600

Since I already posted a gallery of images from 2009, I figured I should get my act together and post photos from 2008.

The year began with a visit to my sister's place in New York. From there I flew back to California to see my brother and sister. A few months later, I was in Peru. A few days in Lima, and a week in Cusco, with a quick trip over to Macchu Pichu and Ollantaytambo.

A month later, I was in Mexico City. A month after that, my summer tour began. Two days in Oslo, complete with an evening boat tour, and a visit to a Viking museum. Then off to Spain for lectures in Salamanca, Alicante, and Barcelona. In Barcelona I also went to Primavera Sound where I caught some incredible sets by Portishead, Devo, Vampire weekend, and Shellac. After that, a couple of weeks in Madrid before returning to US for a month. In August, back to Spain for some lectures at El Escorial, with a quick trip to the beach to visit a friend. Flew back to New York to visit my sister and then drove back to Iowa for classes. In October, Istanbul. On Halloween, a wedding in Baltimore. In December, back to Calfiornia to spend time with my brother and his family in San Carlos, and my sister and her family in Watsonville.
Whew!

I Turn My Camera On

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:12:57 -0600

Every year (except for 2008 for some reason) I go through my photos from the previous year and make a selection of those that I like best or that strike me the most.
While last year I did not fly as much —save for flights to Mexico City in January, Spain in September, and a couple of trips to San Diego— I took a lot of photos. In particular a road trip that L and I took to California yielded many fun shots.

I've posted a selection from 2009 on Facebook, and on my MobileMe account I've posted a gallery of 186 photos. The link is here.

Or, you can click on the widget.

For those who are interested: the gear is a Leica D-Lux 3 (my point and shoot), an Epson R-D1 with a Leica 40 mm lens, and a couple of shots were taken with my iPhone. The post-processing was done in Adobe Lightroom 2.6.

20 Albums from 2009

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 14:04:18 -0600

The making of year end lists is always difficult, especially if the list are in order. My top 10 shifts over the course of the year, and even into the following, the list changes.
Anyway. Here are my top 20 albums from 2009. The top 10 are pretty fixed in order.
1. El Perro del Mar. Love is Not Pop.
2. Andrew Bird. Noble Beast.
18. St. Vincent. Actor.
17. Arctic Monkeys. Humbug.
16. Au Revoir Simone. Still Night, Still Light.
15. Camera Obscura. My Maudlin Career.
14. Röyksopp. Junior.
13. Other Lives. Other Lives.
12. Juan Son. Mermaid Sashimi.
11. Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It's Blitz!
10. We Were Promised Jetpacks. These Four Walls.
9. Delorean. Ayrton Senna.
8. The Big Pink. A Brief History of Love.
1. Flaming Lips. Embryonic.
6. Phoenix. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
5. Antlers. Hospice.
4. Animal Collective. Merriweather Post Pavilion.
3. Grizzly Bear. Veckatimest.
2. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
1. XX. XX.

A few others:
Fever Ray. Fever Ray.
The Twilight Sad. Forget the Night Ahead.
Girls. Album.

Later I'll post a listing of songs that stood out for me from 2009.

2009

Sat, 2 Jan 2010 00:16:39 -0600

A listing of moments from my 2009 (in no particular order):

• Lucha libre in Mexico City at the Arena Mexico in January with Edmundo and Lily.
• Going through my grandmother's photo albums in Mexicali.
• The uses of "Chale!"
• The click as the Skype connection begins and her face appears on the monitor.
• Driving through Monument Valley on a clear night, the rocks silhouetted against the starry sky.
• The first morning Nana greeted me at my bedroom door.
• Driving past downtown Des Moines while a gigantic blue moon hung over the buildings on new year's eve.
• The sadness of leaving her at the taxi stand and the taxi driver stating that she would love to have a sendoff like that.
• Morning café and pastry at Café Deluxe.
• Watching Ari's film in the backyard, the image projected onto the side of the house.
• Shaun of the Dead.
• Taking photos by the side of the highway in New Mexico.

Happy new year! Feliz año nuevo!

Confessions

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:05:53 -0600

Anyone who has been subjected to a reading of mine in the last couple of years knows that I often begin with a series of confessions. More than confessions, the transgressions that I often list are simply this: a list. This is one of my transgressions: the listing of things, the creation of dictionaries, the collection of random images of the day. As a kid one of my favorite books was The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky. At a conference last year in Mexico I confessed that my need for making lists comes as the result of being an unrepentant border crosser: as a constant border crosser I find the making of lists a necessity for keeping order out of disorder.

In a recent interview Umberto Eco spoke of the making of lists as a part of the origin of culture. Only he goes further than my own ironic confessions by stating, "we like lists because we don't like to die."

"The list is the origin of culture. It's part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order -- not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries."

Gawker offers a good summary of the interview here. For the whole thing, and for Eco pointing out why he likes lists ("I like lists for the same reason other people like football or pedophilia.") go here.