XIUHTECUHTLI
It is the weekend, and the title of this post is the name of a new and famous monolith. I sing that I have changed the name of this blog to Xiuhtecuhtli, and mine to 1 Tochtli. It is difficult to become accustomed to and I reserve the right to change back. The narrator, am still Professor Zero, and the author of the ancient text is still a skull on a Mayan stela. We have merely added another layer of names.
You cannot register a WordPress blog in any form of Mayan, so this one has always been registered in Nahuatl. Now the blog title and my name are also in Nahuatl. The Professor Zero name was wearing thin, and it has also been found in search engines through my own name and through the name of my nahual. So, I while I am keeping the old name just below the surface, I have taken these new names. 1 Tochtli is my day sign, and Xiuhtecuhtli is the lord of the trecena in which I was born.
TODAY IN TENOCHTITLAN
The Moctezuma II exhibit really is spectacular and we should all attend it a second time. In it I saw Tlaltecuhtli, who was unearthed in 2006 and is very important.
Vignettes around the exhibit: on the Zócalo, there was a bus full of police on hand to assist or repress, selon le cas, should anything happen with the World Cup crowds, the protestors, or the tourists. A man dressed as a Native American was blowing a conch shell at them, while passing intellectuals gave secret smiles.
In the exhibit, there was a sign explaining the 1790 revival of things indigenous. A young man was trying to suppress laughter as he read it, so I went up to read it too. It said Fray Servando Teresa de Mier had argued that the Spanish efforts to convert the native peoples were pointless, as they had already been converted by St. Thomas Aquinas in the form of Quetzalcoatl. I laughed too, and the young man said, “It’s amazing, isn’t it? Only a Franciscan would come up with that!”
THIS WEEK IN MEXICO CITY
There is a café-bookshop-design store on Madero just off the Zócalo, associated with the Mexican Museum of Design. It is a cool refuge downtown and it makes a nice contrast with the old fashionedness, the coloniality, the formality, and the touristiness (take your pick, most places downtown participate in at least one of these). The other downtown place I like is the terrace of the Cultural Center of Spain (which has good modern art exhibits and has many inviting spaces in which to hang out). Of course I want to take continuing education courses in art at the Academia San Carlos, but you have to interview for a space and I am not sure I would get in.
A succulent spot I have discovered is the Pendulum bookstore-record store-video store-café, although I haven’t gone to the main one in Polanco, but only the one in Condesa. There is one in the Zona Rosa as well, and it seems to have concerts and plays at night. Also in Condesa, near the lovely Parque México there is an interesting yoga studio, and also an intriguing home for exiled writers which appears to have a restaurant and also readings on Thursday evenings. And if I were richer, I would buy clothes in the same neighborhood from Carmen Rion.
I continue to fail to get in to the Pierre Soulages exhibit because the building has had technical problems both times I have arrived. There are many additional pilgrimages I have neglected to make, including but not limited to La Villa, Teotihuacan, the Anthropology Museum, the Rufino Tamayo Museum, Tlatelolco, Coyoacán, and the Cinemateca Nacional; I have been to many films but no concerts and only one play. These lacunae are due to the large distances one must travel, as well as the fact that I tend to get distracted by other things I discover on the way.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
One of the reasons I do not like 13 Tochtli is that it conflates author and narrator. I may have no option but to return to Professor Zero, with Iansan as my speaking voice. Or I can just be Iansan — there is an idea.
No, it doesn’t fit, doesn’t fit. HMMM I am stumped.
OK, so this is it. I am doing a lot better than Cortazar’s antihero Horacio Oliveira in the search for liberation.
I’ve gone very urban and very Spanish speaking, and I’m now backed by more pre-Hispanic gods. I will grow into this.
P.S. There is of course a heavy metal band named Xiuhtecuhtli, and it is bad. Lots of heavy metal bands take the names of Aztec and Mayan gods, and the skinheads and Nazi types of Mexico (these exist) seem to like them too. They must be taken back by respectable individuals (and not of the type that gravitate about San Angel Inn and so on).
(On that last reference — I still may go back to Professor Zero, it is more in character with lots of things and doesn’t align me with those upper middle class types who take Aztec god names for fun and profit. As I say, the PZ name is just wearing on me a little, I have had it for more than four years.)
P.P.S. The Aztecs said grace, it seems, to Xiuhtecuhtli – http://tlacochcalli.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/mealtime-offering-to-xiuhtecuhtli/
And this is an Aztec herbal: http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=Dy0OUcmmEhYC&pg=PR27&lpg=PR27&dq=Xiuh+meaning&source=bl&ots=nlxQerTmup&sig=PDq7B_72pS_37BetD8eeZS69pGw&hl=es&ei=i2UcTMWzPIOpnQfnnsyCDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Xiuh%20meaning&f=false
And to get back to the main point, Mexico City is fantastic but every time I go to one of those exhibits in the Templo Mayor, or in a similar place, I so envy those who saw Tenochtitlan as it was!