Mexico City

Hi, it's been awhile.

I just got back from Mexico City. It was so amazing and I felt so lucky and grateful to be there.

 I was there to speak at a conference with the Creative Director of Adbusters, Pedro. And I stayed a bit longer, because it's Mexico and who wouldn't?

It was funny, I knew that the conference would be putting us up in a hotel for the nights of the event and that it would be really nice and everything would be taken care of, and the nights that I stayed after, I'd have to figure out for myself. I knew I'd be going from that to something that could be the total opposite. And in a way it was, and in a way it wasn't because everything I did and got to experience was equally nice in different ways. But this was the place that I stayed at after the conference. It was really beautiful.

And so these are the things I saw:

So many beautiful, massive, great structures.

This was creepy and fascinating at the same time. All those circles are cds hand drawn with markers and they each have a mix where you play it on this cd player from the early 2000's in the middle of the room.

This was here. I rode in this boat with old couples from Ecuador and Colombia. The one man who could speak a bit of English had a lot of sunscreen on his face, so much that his skin didn't absorb it that well and there was this layer of white over his already very pale face. I kept wondering how long the sunscreen would take to absorb into his face.

They gave everyone a flower as a gift before you got on the boat.

The colors.  So vibrant and warm.

 We were walking along and all of the sudden Pedro stopped me and we watched this bird peck at all these little toys and do these tricks, including this one where he out a mini sombrero on this baby doll and then he picks out your fortune. I love fortunes!

Said fortune. Basically it said that I shouldn't spend any money and thank god I got this fortune because after I do everything it says in it (which includes praying to all these gods every day for 3 months and some other things), I will be immune to all consumerism. Ha, thank you, bird fortune.

Animals everywhere. Stray ones.

Sleeping ones.

 Beautiful plants and trees. Lush ones.

Dry ones.

Manicured ones.

This was one of the nicest moments for me in Mexico City. I had already been walking around for hours in the sun and had so much more to see, but I couldn't will my legs anymore and they felt like they were going to collapse under me. So I just slumped down in this park to rest for a second and I saw this tall pole with what looked like a man on top of it (but I wasn't quite sure because he was so still and almost looked like a statue) and there were these men in these costumes at the bottom of it just milling about. I wondered what they were doing and couldn't make sense of it. One by one they started going up the pole and sitting on the square at the top and doing something with the ropes, and then a song started playing and they were wheeling round and round and then all of the sudden they released and came twirling slowly down. Their faces were sleepy and serene, and I thought of when you're a kid on a tire swing or being flung around by someone bigger than you and the sensation, of air passing your face, of everything blurring around you, and how nice that is. And I was also kind of in awe that things like this exist in a chaotic city, something that is traditional, from a time past, and is still performed as a way to make a living. It was a sight for tired eyes.

I met so many nice people here as well. All so kind and strong. They deal with so much shit here and it makes living in Canada seem like biggest piece of cake in the world.

I loved you Mexico City and I hope you'll have me back sometime soon.