Canada gets the last laugh

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Not only did the national team avenge themselves to win the gold medal in hockey but they won the whole damn Winter Olympics. Oh those crafty Canucks!! Who knew?

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Mexican gunmen kill 13 people (Oaxaca)

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Hot damn! maybe I shant travel to Oaxaca after all.

I know this much: people who deal in drug cartels are barbaric, evil, corrupt sonsofbitches

Was planning to go there after next month but now I read that gun slinging bad guys just massacred thirteen people in the picturesque state, which lies in southern Mexico. Unlike northern states along the border Oaxaca is not known to be a hotbed of violence but, unbeknownst to me before today, it is a drug trafficking route. And I know this much already: people who deal in drug cartels are barbaric, evil, corrupt sonsofbitches. The lust for body counts is there, not that anyone would admit it. The natives are restless for bloodshed.

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But it does make the black people in this country [America] who are jobless and unemployed and standing in the welfare line very much discouraged to see a government that can't solve our problem, can't provide job opportunities for us, and at the some time not only Cubans but Hungarians and every other type of white refugee imaginable can come to this country and get everything this government has to offer

Malcolm X 

 

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US defeats Canada...in hockey?!

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What, what eh? The American hockey team of  relative unknown athletes beat the Canadian dream team 5-3 for the first time in half a century! In Canada before a pro-Canada crowd (naturally) and being watched by the world community...on the Olympic stage.

Oh but it gets better.


This upset comes one day shy of Canada's most glorious monumental victory over then-powerhouse Russia thirty years ago. Reversal of fortune is a bitch.


So much for all those suckers who placed their bets on the no-brainer Canada. Oh well if these American govt bailouts has taught me one thing it's easy come, easy go. Although the host country isn't out of the running and still has opportunity to win Olympic gold, which I find confusing, but, honestly I don't get most of winter sports, tonight all of Canuckistan will be drinking aplenty to drown out the unbelievably victorious chants of USA! USA! USA!

click for retail and designer info

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Coconut water...not just for Robinson Crusoe

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Coconut water is pretty damn good. 

Drank it for the first time yesterday. I love coconut (shredded coconut, toasted coconut!, dark chocolate covered coconut, coconut cake, German chocolate cake, coconut gelato, coconut cooking oil, coconut body oil, even coconut incense) but always avoided the water for fear that it would taste like coconut. I am a complicated man of simple tastes: I like my socks white, sky blue, and my water to taste like water and nothing else. The thought of actually drinking coconut makes me wince.


But it does taste like water! Aside from a subtle trace of flavor which is more olfactory than taste the liquid is plain and, to my wonderment, refreshingly cool almost cold straight from the nut. 

I am a complicated man of simple tastes: I like my water to taste like water and nothing else

I was finally intrigued to give it a try after reading a blip in, of all places, the latest issue of Details magazine (a pity the publication has evolved into such a fag rag), which I pilfered from the book exchange last week. Here is the tip in its entirety:

"Coconut water is what Gatorade wishes it was," says Oz Garcia, New York nutritionist. It has the potassium and the sugar you need to feel restored after a workout but none of the artificial ingredients or the food coloring

Hmmm. Cheaper and just as beneficial a sports drink as what's on the market? Okay.... It just so happens the gym owner's father sits outside with his makeshift coconut water stand. So I paid him $15pesos and gave it a shot. The old man calmly sat aside his book, pulled out the machete (these fruits are hard ass nuts to crack), and bore a whole in the top. Then he popped a straw into it and handed me the green, slightly pointed bowling ball. It takes two hands to hold it. Inside was more water than I

imagined. Afterwards, if you like, he'll hack up the green outer shell to get to the more familiar looking brown nut and then cut out the white meat for one to nibble on later. I tried the coconut but it wasn't sweet to the taste so I passed on it. Maybe next time.  


You might be able to find the following products in a market near your neck of the woods.

Zico Pure Premium Coconut Water

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A big homemade Sunday breakfast

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The morning looks gorgeous. Am eager to get out and down to the beach before two today. But first things, first: food.

I just made myself a big breakfast befitting a hotel's bill of fare:
pancakes with maple syrup and butter, bacon----I loves me some bacon!----whole milk (is there really any other kind?), Chai black tea, orange juice and sliced fresh grapefruit. As the Nazi in Inglourious Basterds squeals, Oooooh! I smiled the whole while. What a beautiful start to what I hope remains a beautiful Sunday.

Oh, I loooooove my life.

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Striking a pose III (Judith Ewing Morlan opening)

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Friday night's opening at Galeria Uno was just as swell as the art preview two weeks ago. I didn't get the chance to see more than one of Mrs Morlan's new works during the preview so it was extra nice seeing them at last. And, to my wonderful surprise, wine was served! 

Judith Ewing Morlan studio

jemcontempart@prodigy.net.mx

Galeria Uno 561 Morelos (Downtown centro)
Phone: +52 222-0908

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Homemade vegetable soup

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I like to cook. I often eat in. I had a limp carrot around so I decided to make a vegetable soup with chicken stock. Big manly chunks of carrot, celery, and tomatoes, slices of yellow onion, dices of baby potatoes and for zesty oomph I added cilantro and bacon left over from the BLT I made for lunch. (I loves me some bacon. Thank you Jesus.) Mm-mmm good!


I reached for the towel paper and as I sat it back the roll tipped over my bowl. I wanted to flip over the kitchen but the antidote was too glaring not to appreciate: no use crying over spilt soup. So I reached for the towel paper again---and then flung the damn thing across the room---fixed myself another bowl and resumed eating my delicious vegetable soup in peace.

no use crying over spilt soup

One of the things I really like about living in Mexico is that I eat so very well when here. Food is so cheap and fresh and plentiful. And I have money left over for Happy Hour(s)-----which are cheap and plentiful, too! Yes, I eat better here than in most other places where I've laid my hat; coupled with lots of walking, sunshine, and cheap gym rates I'm just a healthy so-and-so.


I loooooove my life!

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Twix trick (downsizing)

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 Aha! My eyes immediately detected something off with the new candy bars. They looked smaller but, maybe, I thought, it was just the new image of the wrapper; but, no, I was right. After my Twix craze of buying two to three bars at a time nearly every other day for the past few weeks I knew something was amiss.


Underneath the new stock were some old ones----I bought all four of them before they went off sale!----and I compared them. Twix has gone from 56.7g to 50.7g. Of course the retail cost hasn't shrunk.

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Freaky cold weather in America

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It's official (and surreal): forty-nine of the fifty states of America have snow right now. Only Hawaii remains free of the freaky weather. How's that song go?

Oh the weather outside is frightful;

 Pto Vallarta, it's delightful

so if you've no place to go

c'mon down and get out of the snow

Booyah!

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I missed vermouth on the rocks

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It's been months since I've sipped vermouth bianco. Hadn't had the elixir since my first taste of it in Austria. Today I finally went down and bought a bottle of Cinzano! I drink it on the rocks like most Italians.


Speaking of Italians, there is much of my travels in Europe which I've yet to include here. The new entries will be among my Memories of Europe series. There are oodles of back entries to post! I blame it on writer's block and plain old procrastination...and northern Italy. What a sour experience that place was! But more on that soon. Now, it's time to sweep the floor and have a glass of vermouth. Booyah!

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Striking a pose II (Judith Ewing Morlan preview)

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Last Friday I attended the preview for artist Judith Ewing Morlan's latest works entitled Paintings just for the fun of it. Simple. Sublime. The preview was held at the rather posh fine dining TRIO in downtown Vallarta. Mrs Morlan organizes one of the art groups for which I model and seeing each other on Friday was a bit of a shock: her, all dolled up and me, with my clothes on!  I swear I walked by the lady twice without recognizing her.

The paintings, waterfall and exotic landscapes in vibrant colors and texture, were not only on preview at our rooftop soiree but, what I thought was a nice touch, on display throughout the restaurant which remained open for regular business.  

The lot of people who go to these things always make for worthwhile people-watching; like caffeine for the imagination. And what anyone may have lacked in interesting-ness the free cocktails obfuscated. I enjoyed two glasses of red and a gin martini on the rocks (stirred, not shaken) and found everyone interesting. But this was just the preview. The opening will take place next week, February 19th, at Galeria Uno. The gallery often has live music but, for some reason or another, tends to limit refreshments to lemonade.

Galeria Uno561 Morelos Downtown
Phone: 222-0908

Judith Ewing Morlan studio
jemcontempart@prodigy.net.mx

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Freaky wet weather in Pto Vallarta

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A mighty fierce rain storm blew through town some three nights ago. The gusts pushed open my window before I thought to latch them shut. Nevertheless, water seeped through the metal window frames and nearly flooded my whole apartment. And I had just swept and mopped the place on Sunday morning! Took me two days to mop it all dry----again.


From Tuesday night until today----Friday----the Internet was down in my building.

Rain, let alone a storm, is very atypical for this time of year. But, of course, there's no such thing as global warming. The Republican Party is so full of shit.

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Chinese activist leaves airport after 3 months

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And I thought I have trouble crossing borders!


Chinese activist Feng Zhenghu lived inside of Tokyo's International  some three months. Read the full story here.

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Heard the one about the racist war?

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A Spanish traveller I met last year in Germany sent me the following video today (Spanish subtitles) of a war veteran speaking about the ongoing Iraq War. I believe in war but I no longer believe in this war; I believe in peace and I believe this war will not bring it. I lost faith after "Mission accomplished".


 

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The job is never done. So long as we live, we must work on ourselves.

Jack Lalanne

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