coldhearted scientist وداد

21 December, winter solstice.

Morning: Rappi came! I think I will go to the Anthropology museum today and Coyoacán Saturday, there’s some kind of live crèche with villancicos in addition to the other things I want to do (Cineteca Nacional, Xoco). Sunday is also good for Coyoacán, although the cineteca will be closed.

Evening: Actually made it out of the house by 1:30, interesting stroll by Casa González and environs, then up to the park but in the end went to the MAM instead of the Anthropology museum and it’s great – and the sculpture garden is great, and the tropical park is great. I got in free due to being a professor. So I can go again a few times, and I need to since I did not absorb everything. Their bookstore is great, too, well curated, and I learned about Oswaldo Vigas.

Nice stroll back. I had discovered a public market near here and now I have discovered a delicatessen and wine store, so maybe I don’t have to do grocery delivery after all. I knew I could find these things, but it is still exciting. Now I am reading the Antelo book I bought about Marcel Duchamp and streaming Radio UNAM. I need to read Eisenstein, The Film Sense and it is true, I am so interested in film, film theory, and image, and those avant-gardes, and I think poetry rules. To take a sabbatical here and just work on courses on the avant-garde and film.

Spent: 498 groceries and delivery, 10 newspaper, 60 coffee, 230 book, total 798.
Walked: 7 km.

20 December.

Much of the day spent writing a letter of recommendation while trying to make Rappi work. Finally out in mid-afternoon and got an ATM to work. Then a lovely walk down Orizaba into Roma; found the Casa Bosques which is now totally agringado in ways I think would make Gilberto Bosques turn his grave; to Péndulo Roma, then all the way down to Hipódromo; amazing sunset walk in tropical Parque México; literary reading and concert by this guy at Bella Epoca and I learned about the Barcelonnettes, about whom he has now written a novel. He said that they had originally gone to Louisiana at the end of the 18th century, but then decided to move to Mexico because Spain was going to be thrown out and there would be a lot of business opportunities for them. It is because of them that we have stores like Liverpool and the Palacio de Hierro. Then met N. and R. for dinner, and a walk, and drinks, and it was jolly and relaxing, and when I got home I was not even tired.

Spent: 725, dinner and drinks in rather good places. (That’s like 45 USD.)
Walked: 10 km.

19 December, evening. Got nail appointment and made arrangements with D., then out to seek groceries. Difficult and I didn’t get everything, but thanks to the expedition I did have an egg sandwich and tea this evening like a true Latin American, so it was worth it. Now I know how to order grocery delivery and I think it’s the answer, except for whatever lucky thing one finds at a nice market and can carry. Then strolled to Parque España, ate a bad menú del día in a popular restaurant but working class restaurants in posh neighborhoods never dare to be good, as they do when they feel at home, I note. Met D. at Péndulo Condesa, had coffee, then moved to the stellar Brujas bar in the Casa de las Brujas, had wine and olives, then strolled home.

Spent: Groceries 245, newspaper 10, lunch 125, coffee 65, wine/olives 300, total 745.
Walked: About 9 km, the same as yesterday.

19 December, Tuesday morning. Getting acclimated, albeit slowly. Slept poorly due to the acclimation (planning grocery shopping, transportation, judging this neighborhood’s nighttime safety), but realized I can stream music from the phone. If I knew how to operate any of the machines in this apartment I think I could have music streaming in every room, but they are opaque to me and I am thinking about getting travel speakers for my own devices at the technology bazaar, which is quite a place … I once got a laptop there for $400, Samsung, Spanish keyboard, excellent, lasted for years.

D. is offline. However I think I know what her nail salon must be. The only question is which of their two locations to choose: Hegel or Champs Elysées? I favor the former. Everything here has a cultured name like that, and my cab driver Sunday was listening to some intellectual radio show, and a waiter yesterday, at this café Paz, Bolaño, etc. hung out at, congratulated me on having bought the most intellectual newspaper. 

18 December, first full day. Slept until 10 and drank coffee and woke up until 1. Sunny. Up into Colonia San Rafael (my metro station is San Cosme), found a kiosk with the paper, found a fonda for lunch, good. Stroll to the Revolution monument, then the Alameda, then the Zócalo; protest on feminicidio outside Bellas Artes/Sears; Christmas market on the Zócalo, still no foreigners in evidence. Stroll back on Morelos to Café La Habana; waiter likes that I’m reading La Jornada; stroll to Cinemex CineArte, more coffee at Pasión. Film (Fallen Leaves) is from Finland 2023 and is very Finnish, stroll home.

Spent: $10 paper, $80 lunch, $100 coffee (two of them), $135 groceries, $100 cinema, total $425 (Mex.).
Walked: About 9 km.

17 December, flight. Auspicious UL encounters at the airport in LFT. Passengers IAH-CDMX were almost all Mexican working-class men traveling alone. The one I sat next to lives in Kansas and comes to Mexico almost every month, but this was his first time flying to CDMX. It was clear and we flew across some of the Gulf, azure-colored water, and along the coast for most of the way, looking at beaches. Then turned inland at the last possible moment, flying to CDMX across volcanoes; I think I recognized La Malinche. CDMX seems more 3d world than before, run-down, and the airport did not seem international as it always did before. Waiting for suitcases I noticed mine (not expensive, but French and bought at a Finnish department store last summer in Riga) was the newest. At passport control they took me for Mexican and assumed I was here to visit family. not thrilled about being at an Air BnB or with the location of this one; located the hotel María Cristina where I might like to stay; did not see a news kiosk. Walking down Reforma, seeing all the stands of vendors, finding the old restaurant street, seeing the Lumière Reforma, now a Cinemex. Who was my taxi driver listening to? Joaquín López-Doriga. But who was the documentary filmmaker, almost 90 years old, JLD was interviewing? Seeing the Palestine march, the sign advertising mariachis, the posted flyers VIVO LO LLEVARON – VIVO LO QUEREMOS. Finding the market at Sullivan, buying fruit. Do you want a papaya that is ripe now, or that will be at a perfect point later in the week?, asked the man. Their vegetables look amazing. Thinking about filmmakers and film. I don’t know how safe this neighborhood is at night, and I wish I did. AND I should have brought a radio because I do NOT know how to make the machines in here play music and I do NOT like to play music from the computers I am working on.

Spent: $310 (Mex.) taxi from airport; $120 groceries … $430

Axé.