IN WHICH A YANKEE IMPERIALIST IS UNABLE TO RESIST THE CHARMS OF BARACK OBAMA. This post, which had taken a certain amount of work and thought, got too baroque. I was trying therefore to break it into three posts. In the process of that I destroyed it, and it is the weekend, and there are … More Go Tell Mama, I’m for Obama
Hurricane Ike is coming to Louisiana after all, and we are waiting for it. Everything is hot and still, tense and vivid, as in earthquake weather, and I am displeased. I am told that the wind which will pick up Friday morning at five will be the hurricane’s first band. There is sudden fear but … More Upon First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer
For this ominous date we have a video of Vallejo’s hometown, his church, his house, and more. It has an appropriately nervous soundtrack. It was made in the depths of the driest season – everything is as brown as can be. When you get to part about the house, be sure not to miss the … More Santiago de Chuco
PROBLEM: HOW TO CONVERT THIS INTO LUXURY, CALM, AND VOLUPTUOUSNESS: HURRICANE IKE IS A CATEGORY 4 STORM NOW AND IS EXPECTED TO BE A MAJOR HURRICANE WHEN HE REACHES THE CENTRAL GULF THURSDAY EVENING. HE COULD MAKE LANDFALL ANYWHERE ALONG THE LOUISIANA OR EASTERN TEXAS COAST, TO EXTRAPOLATE FROM CURRENT PROJECTIONS. PEOPLE NEED TO START … More Luxury, Calm, and Voluptuousness
I Today´s poem, from Los heraldos negros, is a very good description of the Santiago de Chuco area. It is especially interesting now that we know May is the best time to be there – just after the rains end, when everything is in flower. If you do not read Spanish, skip to the next … More Mayo
Is there really something sinister about Santiago de Chuco, or am I merely too bourgeois to easily handle so many close encounters with the fourth world as I have been having lately? I could write a long narration about this expedition. Details would include: * riding slowly through Quiruvilca, where Vallejo worked for a while … More Ciliado arrecife
I like the mototaxi concept and the fact that motataxis look rather like 1920’s cars, but my favorite mode of transportation is still the combi or collective van. Those who criticize combis are not wrong in anything they say, but I love combis nonetheless. They are extremely folkloric, they are more comfortable than buses, when … More Collective Van II
It would be hard to dislike Barranco and I went there to the Museo Pedro de Osma, in a lovely art nouveau mansion, to see paintings and sculpture by Fernando de Szyszlo. To get to the paintings one had to walk through a great deal of colonial art, so that when I got to the … More Museo Pedro de Osma
On Memorial Day I did not have a special post, but I drove around the Rincón and up to Lake Cachuma while listening to Winter Soldier testimony on KPFK. Here it all is in full text, for Flag Day. * The loveliest way to enter Santa Barbara from the south is U.S. Highway 101, which … More Winter Soldier
I wrote this a few weeks ago, dreaming of city smells, high peaks and sharp Pacific water. I waited a few days and bought a ticket. Now I am almost gone. When you fly from Lima to Houston, you can save $500 if you agree to touch down in Panama. I have agreed to do … More Sweet Waist of America
