Author: gringopotpourri

Gringo - aka Scott - was born outside of Chicago and has lived most of his life in or around big cities. He spent two years of his adult life in Mexico City (talk about big cities!) and fell in love with Mexican food and culture all while weathering the challenges of life in a city with over 20 million people. Life's unpredictable journey has since brought him to Tennessee, where he is close to family and to the natural beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains. Scott also enjoys movies, hiking, top ten lists, and travel in general.

Oscar 2015-16 – predicting the winners

Well, Loyal Reader, it’s that time again. I managed to see every nominated film in the acting and writing categories, as well as all eight nominated films competing for Best Picture. There are some good films here, few on par with, say, anything from 1999, 2002, 2003, 2012, or 2014 (banner years all), but still a strong selection of nominees.

We have a movie about a group of generally despicable human beings who profited off the 2008 housing market collapse. We have a movie about a Cold War battle of wills. We have a movie about the immigrant experience, circa the 1950’s. We have a movie about survival in a dystopian, water-scarce, post-apocalyptic future. We have a movie about how science can save us all. We have a movie about the harsh post-Civil War northern frontier. We have a movie about a terrified mother and a sheltered child. We have a movie about print journalists fighting the good fight. And on Oscar night, we will have host Chris Rock likely bruising as many sensitive Hollywood egos as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences seeks to honor.

Those honorees? Read below for my predictions.

Continue reading “Oscar 2015-16 – predicting the winners”

Photo Locale of the Month – February 2016

News footage this past week has been rife with images of destruction following the 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck the Taiwanese port city of Tainan. At time of writing, 59 people have perished. Over 500 people have been injured, and another 76 are still reported missing.

Such natural disasters, tragic though they may be, are all too commonplace in “Ring of Fire” countries such as Taiwan. I visited the small island nation with a friend in 2010, and was floored by the spectacular topography. We spent several days in earthquake-carved Taroko National Park, and I am sharing of my park pictures with you today.

Continue reading “Photo Locale of the Month – February 2016”

Top Ten Screen Biopics

I recently watched the film “Mr. Turner,” a biopic from director Mike Leigh about the last 25 years in the life of British seascape painter HMW Turner. Although I love art, I must confess that I wasn’t too familiar with Turner’s work, as the majority of his collection is housed inside the Tate Britain, a museum that I have yet to visit. The movie suggested that Mr. Turner (played by Timothy Spall) was always composing art in his mind, and that he failed at most other aspects of life, including relationships, until he finally settled down with a widowed innkeeper late in life. The “script” for the film was conceived by Leigh yet was comprised largely of dialogue improvised by the cast during rehearsals prior to shooting. The result is a long movie of vignettes, some of them funny, linked by some of the most painterly cinematography I’ve seen in a film in a long time.

Naturally, I started thinking. What are the best screen biographies to come out of Hollywood, or out of cinema in general? The aforementioned, at times aimless “Mr. Turner” wouldn’t quite make the cut, but the “artist” category no doubt produced at least one-half dozen contenders in a single sub-genre. Ditto for the categories of actor/actress, singer/musician, athlete, politician/war hero, physically/mentally challenged, etc.

Continue reading “Top Ten Screen Biopics”

The Three-Ring (Electoral) Circus of 2016

It is the last day of January as I write this, and in just over nine months, Americans will be able to breathe a collective sigh of relief. I am referring, of course, to the fact that the three-ring electoral circus of 2016 will finally be over.

The race kicked off almost a year ago with just one candidate for each party: Ted Cruz for the Republicans and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats. The early bird gets the worm, as the saying goes, and both Cruz and Clinton have remained at or near the top of the polls ever since announcing their respective candidacies. Soon afterwards, however, the doors to the clown car opened up and ever more campaign rivals emerged. Some had more political experience than others, a few even managed to not come across as batshit crazy (at least not for a little while), but in general, the who’s who of candidates is a veritable potpourri of cray.

The 2016 Iowa Caucus is tomorrow, so let’s review, tongue firmly in cheek:

Continue reading “The Three-Ring (Electoral) Circus of 2016”

Top Ten Films of 2015

Although there are good movies every year, it seems that we have a banner year for cinema roughly once every two or three years. 2014 was one of those years, with “Birdman,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Whiplash,” and “The Imitation Game” being just a few of the year’s stellar releases. 2012 was another; “Lincoln,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Amour,” “Skyfall,” “Django Unchained,” “The Avengers, “Wreck-It Ralph” and one of my personal all-time favorites, “Cloud Atlas,” were among that year’s better releases.

2015 cinema, as a whole, wasn’t nearly as memorable. We had another Bond movie, another Tarantino film, and the first true sequel to “The Avengers”…yet none of these films were quite on par with their predecessors. Sure, a small film called “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” continues to slay box office records like Kylo Ren’s lightsaber as it plunges through _____’s stomach, but I wasn’t as taken by its unoriginal story as some fans were.

Still, I’ve been on a major movie-watching kick of late. I have finally seen most of the 2015 releases that interest me, and I’m fairly certain that I’ve caught up on the majority of Oscar contenders. (I will find out for certain once the nominees are announced next week.) There certainly are enough good films to compile a top ten list, something I am wont to do. Here goes…without spoilers!

GringoPotpourri’s Top Ten Films of 2015:

Continue reading “Top Ten Films of 2015”

Photo Locale of the Month – January 2016

Happy New Year! It definitely feels like January – 30-degree temps (and falling) and a good coating of snow on the ground. Although the snow is pretty, I can’t help but dream of being someplace warmer…

…and so my first photo feature of 2016 flashes back to sunny Mexico! It was exactly five years ago that I traveled to Cabo San Lucas for a few relaxing days. The resort city at the tip of Baja California, seemingly within spitting distance of the Tropic of Cancer, attracts more Americans than Mexicans. Some of them are snowbirds, others are anglers, others are aging 80’s rockers, and others, still, are explorers that simply want to see what the peninsular fishing village-turned-beach destination has to offer. The natural formations at Land’s End are the focus of this month’s entry.

Continue reading “Photo Locale of the Month – January 2016”

Ten More Holiday Songs (11-20)

It is Christmas Eve. The wine has been uncorked to breathe, the oven is preheating, and Molly the Dog is sleeping by my side as I proof-read this entry, my last post for 2015.

The weather is humid and uncharacteristically warm, so I don’t foresee any snow falling between tonight and tomorrow morning. Either despite that or because of that, I have been in a real “sounds of the seasons” mood. Yesterday, I got home from work and gave a listen to each of the songs in last year’s blog post, The Top Ten Holiday Songs. I might jostle a few of those rankings around, but I still find it to be a good, diverse list. And of course, with so many seasonal songs to choose from, I couldn’t stop at just ten.

Ten More Holiday Songs (with YouTube links):

Continue reading “Ten More Holiday Songs (11-20)”

Photo Locale of the Month – December 2015

December is one of my favorite months for being in Mexico City. Although the nights and early mornings can be quite chilly, the sun shines gloriously most days, and the Christmas decorations and noche buenas (poinsettias) are displayed in abundance. Additionally, it seems that each Chilango you meet (and there are many – roughly 21 million) has a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face as he sips an atole (a warm corn beverage, vaguely similar to hot chocolate) or ponche (fruit punch, flavored with whole chunks of fruit) in between rounds of holiday shopping at any of the city’s mercados or galerias.

As regards public gathering spaces in Mexico City, the city’s Plaza de la Constitución – or Zócalo – is ground zero. This is the unofficial geographic center of the city, and the third-largest square in the world, after Tiananmen Square in Beijing and Red Square in Moscow. Mexico City’s Zócalo is home to the location of the country’s presidential palace, its largest cathedral, one of its most important Aztec sites, and the capital’s city hall.

Continue reading “Photo Locale of the Month – December 2015”

Celebrating Feast Day in Mexico City

The Basilica of Guadalupe, in northern Mexico City, is the world’s third-most-visited religious pilgrimage destination. It is here that the Aztecs worshipped at a pre-Colombian temple atop Tepeyac Hill. It is here that indigenous monk Juan Diego saw several visions of the Virgin Mary. And it is here that a series of churches exist today in honor of the Virgin’s first appearance.

Today is Feast Day, a spiritual celebration of the Virgin’s first appearance in Mexico, and a day when thousands – millions – arrive in reverence. Each December 12^th, the street leading up to the basilica is closed to vehicular traffic and overtaken by pilgrims, many crawling the last several hundred meters on their knees. Mass is conducted around-the-clock, volunteers feed the homeless at a food station behind the basilica, and Aztec drummers keep the rhythm in the adjacent plaza while others dance in a haze of incense. The energy is infectious at any time of year, but doubly so on Feast Day and during the days leading up to it.

Continue reading “Celebrating Feast Day in Mexico City”

Holiday Travels – Part Seven

My recent post, about 2003 Holiday Travels to Puebla, Mexico, received higher than normal readership. The sentimental nature of the blog entry makes it one of my personal favorites in this series, and I thank everyone who commented online and offline about the enjoyment they experienced while reading it. The next several Thanksgivings were spent even farther from my (at the time) home of Los Angeles than Turkey Day 2003, and – if you’ll humor me – I thought I’d comment on one particular late November-early December trip from that era.

Singapore and Malaysia (2006)

Do you still keep in touch with friends from university? I do. A few friendships forged during those formative years have withstood the test of time, and I have even been fortunate enough to travel with some of these college friends. In 2006, my friends Miles, Chuck, and myself took advantage of an Asia fare sale on United Airlines and booked round-trip tickets to Singapore!

Continue reading “Holiday Travels – Part Seven”