Then I Was Back Home

Oh man. Before I knew it I was home in Chicago.

Actually, I wasn't home because I don't have my own place, but I came home to Miki and Kate's which is just about as good as it can get. The Greenbergs had dinner ready for me when I got there and it was great to see Sidione and Gisselle. I slept on the Greenberg couch for 2 weeks.

Culturally, I jumped right back into the scene, too. Most significantly, Jazz Fest took place on my first weekend back. I got to hear concerts by Sonny Rollins, Dave Douglas and Ornette Coleman, all free, in one weekend. Those are three of my very favorite jazz acts.

Plus two Cubs games in the first week of being back in town. Pretty good.

So there you have it. Now I'm living with Brad and Julie and saving up some money to get my own place. I hope I'll be able to have an apartment in November.

I'm back teaching at the Old Town School and Rogers Park Montessori. Everything is going great. I learned so much during my travels, about people and about life, and I've been able to bring a whole new energy to my classes.

It's hard to imagine that this is only my 3rd year teaching full-time. Can you imagine that I ever did anything different? I can't.

Well, thanks for reading! Drop me a line when you get a chance.

Buena suerte,
Jason

Fin de Mi Viaje

Yeah, so this is it. The last couple days.

For my second trip into México D.F. I stayed with Stephan and his friend Florian. Stephan is in México D.F. studying business administration until Christmas.
The night I arrived we went to see the National Fútbol Team in Estadio Azteca, which is the fifth largest stadium in the world.

We had a great time at the game. México beat Honduras 2-1. Without all the commercial breaks and everything that you get in the states, it seemed like the game was over before we knew it. It was awesome to hear 112,000 people sing Cielito Lindo for the last five minutes or so of the game.
The next day Florian and I went to the National Museum of Anthropology, which tells the pre-Columbian history of México. The museum was huge and very impressive. We were there for about 3 hours and only saw about half of it.

That evening we found some dinner and headed off to the Torre Latinoamericana; one of the tallest buildings in the city. We spent some time up on the observatory. That is México D.F. in the background. See the bright lights on the right side, near my elbow? That's el zocalo de México D.F. - the center of the whole place. Wow.
It's strange. This is basically my last moment in México. I don't really know what to say about it. I didn't then either.

The very next morning I got up and headed out to the airport. It was time to get back home.

Barbacoa with Don Beto

This was my favorite place to eat in Cuernavaca. It's called Barbacoa de Don Beto. Barbacoa is slow-cocked sheep. One of the cool things about eating in México is that a place like this only has one thing on the menu: barbacoa tacos. That's it. And they were great!

Don Beto was out there Monday through Saturday. I'm not sure what time he opened, but he was always closed by 2:00 in the afternoon. Many times I wasn't paying attention to the time and missed my chance for the day.
This is me and Don Beto right after my last meal in Cuernavaca. Just before this I played a few tunes on the banjo for everyone and they gave me my lunch gratis. It was really fun. Everyone was clapping and having a grand time. I'm sure a couple jokes were made at my expense, but Don Beto wasn't going to have any of it.

From here I got on the bus to México D.F. Adios Cuernavaca. Estuve muy triste.

The Restaurant with the Peacocks

When my dad was in his late teens he lived near Mexico City with my grandparents and my aunt and uncle. My grandpa was working for Ford and he was there to help them open a factory.

When the family was there, they visited a restaurant that had a courtyard with live peacocks walking around near the dining tables.

I had heard about this restaurant many times growing up, and it turns out the restaurant is called Las Manañitas; the swankiest restaurant in Cuernavaca.

I met up with Merecedes, Karla and Pete for some drinks there. It was pretty dark by the time we got there, so the peacocks weren't really out too much. I did see one real quickly though.

It was a nice time. Very expensive, but worth it.

Algunas Personas in Cuernavaca

I met so many people in Cuernavaca! The last few days I spent a lot of time trying to catch up with as many of them as possible. Here's a few pictures.

Toño

Eric ("El Gobernador")

Paola (mi maestra de lingua de jovenes)

Alejandro the building manager of the Starbucks shopping center.

EmilianoSocoro and her son Alejandro

Socoro and Alejandro lived next door to my house in Cuernavaca. Socoro runs a small bazaar out of the front of her house. You can buy DVDs, luggage, bedding, cloths, jewelry and many other things. Her and Alejandro where you there every day.

She was a very nice lady and helped me quite a bit with my español. She always said, "Cuidado, Jason. Cuidado." That means "be careful." She was always looking out for me. I miss seeing her in the mornings.

Mi Famalia en México

Here's a picture of the family I lived with in Cuernavaca. I wish the picture wasn't so blurry!
That's Jorge on the left. He's the father and that's who I rented the room from. Jorge Jr. is next to him. He lives in the house, too. That's Margarita next. Margarita is Jorge's daughter (Jorge Jr.'s sister). Next is Nesi, Margarita's husband. And then last Margarita and Nesi's son, little Roberto! He is a very cool kid. We did A LOT of laughing together.

Margarita and Nesi have their own place closer to el centro, but Margarita and Roberto stayed at the house for about a month while Nesi was out of town on business. He's an archeoligist and was out on a dig. Isn't that awesome?

As a side note, I took this photo just hours before my big "sickness". I was so sick that I truly thought that if it was going to keep going, I'd rather be dead. Luckily I survived. The first meal I had when I was feeling better was KFC. That was the only time during the trip that I specifically set out to find "home cooking".

Volví

Yeah, so I'm back. I hope you weren't worried.

Someone I have very little to do today, so it's time to finish up the postings about my adventures en México.

Meanwhile, it's good to be home and not teaching on Saturdays.

Here it goes. The dramatic conclusion of Jason Goes to Mexico 2008.

Música and The Grand México City

“The heart of México beats en this space. The mariachis of the Garibaldi plaza welcome your visit. Here, all the towns of the world are part of the grand México City.”

I got up really early on the last Saturday of my trip and took the bus to México D.F. The DF stands for Federal District (districto federal en español). It’s the capital of México and one of the largest cities in the world.

Like I said, I took the bus into the city and then took the subway (which is very clean and only costs 2 pesos - that’s $.20!) into El Zocalo. I exited the subway at about 10:30 and it looked like this. Impressive, huh? But not as many people as I had been lead to believe. “That’s not so many people,” I thought.

Here’s a picture of that same spot about 3 hours later. It doesn’t do justice to just ho many people there were. It was like the crush walking through the corridors after a Cubs game. But instead of just one hallway, it was a whole huge city center. I can’t believe there were that many people!

I had a great time. Here’s a short video of all the music I caught when I was there. I didn’t get to go to the Ballet Folkloricó which was too bad, this is the Palacio de Belle Arts (Fine Arts Building) where they perform.

I also got to see a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Fresco, another beautiful and historical mural by Diego Rivera. The mural is a “typical day” in El Zocalo of Mexico City with very untypical characters - politicians, activists, Hernado Cortez, Frida Kahlo, Rivera himself and others.

I spent most of the day walking back and forth around the Centro neighborhood. Here’s another shot of the people in the street. It was street after street of this!





At about 5:00 I finally headed for the famed Plaza Garibaldi! An experience I’ll never forget. SO MANY MARIACHI’S. Plaza Garibaldi is the plaza where all the mariachi groups hang out, waiting to get hired. At first it was really similar to El Zocalo in Cuarenavaca. Everyone was just kind of standing around and once and and while a group would play.

But then, as night fell, the place began to burst with excitement and music. It got to the point where there where so many groups playing that you couldn’t even hear them any more.

Here’s a video compilation that of my experience in Plaza Garibaldi. It’s very shaky, I know. I just couldn’t hold still! I was just having too much fun. Amazing. There where mariachis everywhere!

My camera battery died at the end of that last clip to that’s all I could record. It’s too bad because I think that was the hottest group that I heard that night.

I walked back to El Zocalo at about 11:00 that night and sat under that flag pole right there (This is a picture of El Zocalo from earlier in the day). The people had dispersed again, but there was still a lot of bustling going on. It’s was a great feeling to sit there and contemplate my trip. I took the midnight bus back to Cuernavaca that night.

I woke up on Sunday morning knowing that I only had 3 days left in Cuernavaca and it was time to start collecting myself and saying my goodbyes. Estuve muy triste.

Malagueña - Jesús "Chucho" Peredo

The very next night Chucho played a concert downtown at the univeristy. It was great. Here is a recording of him playing Magueña.

Here's the text from the program. While I understand that basic "concept" of what he was talking about, I wish I understood more of the specifics.

Mi Amiga Maria Estuvo Aquí.

** Only a couple days left in México (and no more in Cuernavaca) and I must admit I'm feeling a little burnt out. I don't have quite the energy for this entry that I wish I had, but I want to get it down. So here I go. **

I had the sincere pleasure of hosting one of my closest friend, Maria McCullough for a few days this week! How about that?

Maria and her boyfriend, Yahvi, had been traveling all over México this sumer; playing music and visiting Yahvi's family. Last Lunes, Martes y Miercoles Maria came to visit me in Cuernavaca. Unfortunately, Yahvi wasn't feeling well so he stayed in México City with his mom (lucky!)

It was great to be in Cuernavaca with someone who knows what my life is like back in Chicago. Having her here changed my perspective a little bit regarding how different, or how similar, my life here is to my life in Chicago.

Maria had a friend in Cuernvaca, Chucho Peredo Flores, who is an incredible musician and scholar of Mexican music. Oddly enough, he worked on a CD called Dos Tradicíones, which I own and listen to all the time! Again, it's a very small world.

We played a ton of music when Maria was here. The first night was just hanging around at Chucho's beautiful music space. Maria and Chucho had a lot of catching up to do and Chucho and I got to know each other. I had some recordings of this evening, but I accidentally erased them! But here is a short video of Maria and Chucho playing.


The next day Maria and I went to the Zocalo and walked all around. We found the market where they sell the food and went to El Palacio de Cortes and saw the Diego Rivera mural. It was the second time I so it and I'm glad I did because the time before I was a little sick and I had a hard time appreciating the museum.







Then we went to Chucho's to play some music. His wife, Estela, runs a factory making tiles for mosaics and she is quite an accomplished artist. Chucho showed us all around their new house (which they designed) and the tile factory/workshop that is right next door. This tour was an unexpected treat. That's no rug. That's mosaic!

















Then we had a gig at Starbucks! ¿Qué padre, no? Yeah, it was billed as Maria and I, but Chucho joined us on a couple tunes and Maria and Chucho played some stuff. It was great fun. Not too many of my friends and neighbors were able to make it on short notice, but some did which was awesome. I felt so proud to be able to share a bit more of my life in Chicago. Again, I had recorded the show, but I erased it. Dang!

The next day we went back to Chucho's to chat and play. We met up with a bunch more of their family and ate dinner and played a ton of music. I do have some recordings of that luckily. They all had pizza and they were very accomidating to my wheat intolerance. Also, I ate a steamed artichoke for the first time. At first I wasn't so sure, but the . . . sambroso.

I have a couple recordings of this that I'll post later.

Maria had to go the next day and it was a strange moment. She's been to México a bunch of times and has traveled all over. This is all still kind of new to me. It felt great that we were able to find each other here. It's strange to have part of my "real life" enter my life here. I guess . . . well, I don't know what I'm trying to say. It was strange. It was wonderful.

Friends - we're really making it happen, huh? ¡Qué chido!

Tocamos Cielito Lindo, Y'all

One thing that I didn’t realize until I got here is that, while there are a ton of mariachis and singers hanging around in El Zocalo (the city center) they don’t really play much. Or I guess I should say, they don’t give it away for free. They wait for someone to hire them. (How they can sit there, with their instruments in their hands for that long and not play is beyond me.)

I was always so disappointed when I’d go downtown. There was musicians everywhere but no music! How strange.

Now, you know me and you know that I like to play. But I hardly ever play for money. But, I went down to el zocalo on Friday afternoon to try my hand at some busking. I’d never “busked” before, even in Chicago, but I decided that I need to give it a try. So I did it. I sat right down in the center of the whole scene, put my Tigers hat out, and started to play. I got a pretty good crowd for Oh Susanna and made my first 7 pesos (the most money I’d made in 7 weeks). I was on my way!

Then, of coarse, a gringo hired a group of mariachis to play about 100 ft from me! I had been in Cuernavaca for seven weeks and not once did I hear a mariachi group actually play. And I they day I try to break out . . . “Guadalajara, Guadalajara . . . “

The banjo is loud, but it’s not that loud. So me my friend Ryan, who had come to lend his moral support, packed up and we moved to a different part of el zocalo. I was feeling fairly defeated.

We were standing by a fountain, just chatting when a trumpet playing mariachi, Mario, came up to me and asked me about the banjo. We started talking and a couple others came over. Then a few more.

Before long I had a pretty good crowd around me; all mariachis.

Now, like I said, the mariachis don’t play until they’re hired. And here I am showing up, banjo in hand, ready to play for nothing. So I played a little bit. I think I played Fish on a Hook and Angeline the Baker.

Ryan noticed the mariachies give each other a hard time if they play without being hired, so the whole situation was a little weird. I could tell they were dying to play, but they were trying not to.

Finally, Santiago, who plays the vihuela, started to sing; just a little bit, kind of under his breath. But we sang and played Cielito Lindo and by the end a bunch of others had joined. It was hilarious because they where all singing so quietly and kind of looking around like they didn’t want to be noticed.

Eventually a few of them warmed up. Manuel, who I was told plays everything and is considered the best musician in the group, didn’t seem to mind and played for real. We played Oh Susanna (of coarse), Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and This Land is Your Land. They helped me sing Volver, Volver (which I’m working pretty hard on) and they showed me a couple other songs.

My favorite moment was when one of the singers busted into Guantanamera. Everyone sang and they really sang it, too! Oh man. I just kept thinking about Pete Seeger and wishing I could have recorded it and sent it to him. I think he would be so proud.

P.S.
My friend Ryan (who took the photos that I'm in) has a blog posting about this event, too. Ryan became a very good friend during this trip. Check out his blog. It's hilarious and very interesting.

African Drumming at Ludovica

My friend Toño, from Starbucks, took me to an African drumming class. It was really interesting.

You know, I teach drumming at Rogers Park and really, I haven’t studied drumming, only teaching. So a lot of times I’m just king of winging it as I figure out how to teach drumming as I’m learning myself.

But after seeing this class, I was pretty happy that my class is fairly similar. It’s not nearly as complex, but the structure is about the same.

There where seven drummers; four playing djembe (including the teacher) and three playing dun-duns.

Here’s a recording of the class. This is the rhythm that they spent the most time on. I wish I knew what it was called. They worked really hard on it. The solo part is the teacher but at roughly 2:10 Toño takes the solo part.

After I had a dinner of al pastor, cervezas and good conversation with Toño and his wife.AA

Gorditas en Bernal

Saturday was devoted to Peña de Bernal, the second largest monolith in THE WORLD. Check this out! Pretty impressive rock, huh?

We kind of screwed up our schedule. Well, we didn’t screw it up, we just could have paid better attention.

The day started with a Trumpet Showcase at space where the band rehearses. Eight trumpets blasting away. It was pretty cool.

Then we made our way back to Sandy’s to pick up Friend (Nicole) and headed to Bernal, which is a town with a beautiful rock formation, I quess you would call it.

We got to the bus station a little late so we had to wait around, and then the bus took longer than we though so we only got to spend 90 minutes or so in Bernal. That was too bad because it took over an hour to get there.

The center of the town is a little tourist village at the base of the rock. She streets curve all around and you never know what's around the next corner. Probably another winding road.

Earlier that day I had asked one of Sandy’s students “What do you do when you go to Bernal?”

She said, “Eat.”

I asked, “Eat what?”

She said, “Gorditas.”

So that’s what we did. Gorditas are my new favorite food. They’re pockets of maza, stuffed with cheese, beans or meat and then fried.

Anyway, we ate some great Gorditas and then had to head back to Querétaro. ¡Sambroso!

----

Someday I’m going to go back and climb all the way to the top of that rock. Then I’ll play, “My Home’s Across the Smokey Mountains”.

On the Town in the Land of Mexican Independence

Querétaro is a beautiful, charming city. This is a statue of Josefa Ortiz de Domíngo, who is one of the heros of the Mexican War for Independence. The initial planning for the war happened in Querétaro. Querétaro is the capital of the state of Querétaro. I arrived in on Thursday and checked out the band and caught up with Sandy’s family.

Thursday was “tourist day”. Sandy and her daughter, Nicole, took me on quite a tour. I was kind of tired of taking pictures so I gave my camera to Nicole and she took over for me. All these pictures are by Nicole, unless she’s in them. Then I took it.

We went everywhere. Went to a huge church and saw some statues of important people from the Mexican Revolution.








We saw the aqueduct (in the background) and checked out the beautiful view from the top of the city.








We walked up an down a lot of streets, eating tacos and checking everything out.







Eventually we had to sit down for a little bit.








We went to a great candy shop and bought a ton of dulces. Yum.








We went through the downtown section with all the artists selling jewelry. They had a cool “Frog Walk” which I think is the same idea as the Chicago Cows. The green one was my favorite.






We had to stop by Sandy’s office. While Sandy was taking care of some business we took we took portraits on the terrace. Nicole likes Americas Next Top Model, too!









Check out this flame statue. I’m guessing it’s my the same artist as the one in Chicago.










The afternoon ended with . . . more sweets! This is at an chain of coffee shops called “Italian Coffee”. It’s pretty good coffee.







I don’t have any pictures of it, but the day ended with some and a couple cervezas (for Sandy, her Mom and I only) and we played a couple games of Dora the Explorer themed Memory.

That’s when Nicole told me that I was her best friend. I was really touched by that. She is one sweet kid.

Boy, by the end of the day I was REALLY wore out. Nicole is a great walker. I was very impressed.

Festivo: Visiting Sandy Kessler

First a little background on Sandy Kessler.

This is Sandy. I hadn’t seen her in, at least, 10 years before I visited with her and her family in Querétaro. We went to high school together. She was a year ahead of me. She was First Chair Trombone and Drum Major of marching band for 2 years. Then she went on to great success as Drum Major at Western Michigan University. That’s where we lost touch.

Now, on with the story. You may know that it took me a while to sign up on Facebook, but I did it, finally, in preparation for this trip. Within an hour of signing up Sandy found me!

I said, “Guess what! I’m heading to México for two months.”

She said, “Guess what! I live in México.”

I couldn’t believe it.

She’s been here for 8 years. She’s the director of a juvinal orchestra in Querétaro, which is the capital of the state of Querétaro. Here’s a picture and here’s a short video of Sandy conducting the intermediate ensemble.

If you were in middle school band with Sandy or I you might recognize that piece. It’s Festivo! Hearing it was just one of may great moments of this trip. I'm sorry I missed recording those trumpets blast it out at the beginning! Memories of Novi Middle School flew past in a flurry of eighth notes.

It was so awesome to see and hear Sandy in action. I can tell by the stories she tells, the success she’s had, and the way the parents and students talk to her that she has a great amount of respect. That couldn’t have been easy to come by. I was quite honored to be her guest at these rehearsals and to be able to say, en español, “I knew her when . . .”

More on my trip to Querétaro and my new amiga Nicole in the following posts.

P.S.
Sandy is on Facebook. I highly suggest you look her up.