Practice Practice Practice

In the summer of 1996 I was in San Francisco with $2100 and I was very bored. NoCal, San Fran and me, it's a really important city, if I was going to get busted for half an ounce of pot I would think about moving there permanently, but I am not about to get busted and when I was there I felt I was getting in people's way, people who needed, loved and built that city that is so important, et cetera, et cetera.

I missed downtown LA where I used to work and I decided I needed to live in Mexico City for a time. The bus ticket round trip was under $200, so off I went. I picked up a copy of the just-released Stone Temple Pilots' Tiny Songs from the Vatican Giftshop, I bought a Walkman for $29 and I got on the bus - and "Pushed Play". Tiny Songs is really good, and I got a nice feeling as we were approaching and passing through the San Diego area, I listened to it very many times over the next two months.

In Tijuana I walked to the bus station and presented my Greyhound ticket and received a computer-assigned bus seat on the Mexico City bus. The bus ride is very cool, if one has never really driven a car out west, like I hadn't, one might not know that driving in the mountains is as easy as driving on regular roads; it's the same as when one is driving to Dayton or Burlington or Queens anyway. It's the same task with a nice view. This ride was more or less extreme in that regard, in the north of Mexico after one passes through the maquiladora area and before one gets to the long straight stretch throuth saguaro country. If one doesn't like it, the trip from California to Laredo, Texas to Mexico takes about as much time, considering.

Driving through two or three hours of saguaro country, passing what must be a million giant cacti, the big bonus is the view of the transponster tower on the top of a flat mountain half way between Mexico DF and Los Angeles, it's got to be as tall as the Transamerica Building, the designers created a very pleasing look, that of some kind of Moctezuma warrior is the sense of it, it is very impressive as seen from miles away, and it is in view for a half an hour.

I stayed in the hotel next to the bus station for 6 weeks eating the nice room service food and walking and taking the subway around. Besides the rubber tires on the subway cars, which apparently is the same as Paris, the signs in the subway system there are very good. It is a little difficult to learn on the fly, it pays to bring them home, as it were, and think about it over time.

I spent so much time at the bus station itself, at the subway station "Autobuses del Norte". It is roomy, spacious and cool, the very opposite of New York's or Los Angeles' bus station, more like Boston, which is very vast, modern and has a dozen restaurants and hundreds of tables. Autobuses del Norte has a fast food restaurant, and lots of space, and I was amazed at the very many little cartoon books of gladiators and harems, they are very helpful for understanding how things worked in ancient times.

Mexico City is very nice to see, I almost tried another hotel that was in the Lonely Planet book, at Salto de Agua. This is a good concept; if we as people decide to turn the oceans into fresh water through desalination, because we would save a lot of money on the food budget, what would we exactly do with all the sodium metal and chlorine gas that would result from this process?

La Zona Rosa of course is every expat's favorite, all the streets have names of cities like Londres, Madrid, etc. There was a Burger King there, and I think the Zona Rosa is near the financial district. There are record stores and it is a walking distance area, in and of itself and in relation to the rest of the city. I got the impression while I was there that the financial planners of Mexico know what they are doing in regards to creating what seems to be some kind of socialist economy for people to live in. That's just the feeling I get, it seems like a very sound place. From the many Pemex trucks on the highways, to the people sitting outside at dusk selling little pyramids of chiclets, which reminded me of people selling small amounts of garlic in Korea, money is there, and the livelihood of the people has a permanent-type feeling. I haven't been to Madrid, but it feels like Madrid.

Eating Mexican food every day is good for one. I got a bottle of tequila at the liquor store in the bus station the day before I left. The big hotel had so many American movies on their cable system, I watched and watched for 6 weeks when I was tired from seeing the city. I mainly just followed the Lonely Planet guide and was real careful all the time, no sense in worrying about something dumb happening, just because my eyes were wide open and I had never been there before. I am sure my hosts appreciated that.

For some reason, to me, all photos of Mexico City look really good.



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How does one learn Spanish? Or Mexican? Practice. One isn't sure how accurate these translational efforts are; all one knows is that one is getting some time in working with the material. The basis of this exercise is NBC's ensemble show 30 Rock.


1 + 2 Tina Fey



3 + 4 Jane Krakowski




5 + 6 Tracy Morgan




7 + 8 Alec Baldwin



9 + 10 + 11 Lorne Michaels




12 + 13 the Michael Moore looking writer




14 + 15 + 16 African American writer



17 + 17A 30 Rock itself



It's not quite the way to say your goodbyes,
it's not quite the way to behave.
I suppose that's the disadvantage
Of speaking a second language.

"French Film Blurred" - Chairs Missing - Wire