As promised, I’m following up my “Fall Colors – Part One” photo gallery from three weeks ago with a set of pics taken exclusively in Tennessee. Most of these pics were taken in and around Great Smoky Mountains National Park, although a few were taken along various country roads.
I used a Nikon D-90 with 18-200 lens for each picture in the series. Enjoy!
Above pic: These are orange trees, I think, each one awash in fall color.
September is Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States. Two weeks ago I attend “HoLa Festival,” Knoxville’s annual celebration of the food, music, and culture of Latin America. For two days each fall, Market Square and adjacent Krutch Park are transformed into pedestrian malls with kiosks and booths selling food, drinks, arts, and crafts from various Latin nations, including Spain and the Caribbean.
My mom joined me for the day. She was most interested in seeing the costumes and watching the “Parade of Nations;” I was most interested in tasting the food. Krutch Park is a small green space in downtown Knoxville dotted with modernist sculptures and park benches. Market Street, which runs along the west side of the park, was closed to vehicles and turned into an open-air food carnival, similar to the Taste of Chicago and other venues that I am familiar with. Two drinks tents operated on a ticket system – one sold bottled water and soft drinks, while the other sold cervezas y margaritas!
Halloween is just around the corner and cinemas are filled with scary movies of varying degrees of quality. (My local cineplex is showing the “Conjuring” sequel “Annabelle.”) I started thinking about some of my favorite scary movies. Of course, there are sub-genres within the greater “horror” category. The last 15 years have been especially kind in this regard, with new categories emerging such as “found footage” (“The Blair Witch Project,” “Paranormal Activity”), “torture porn” (“Hostel,” “Saw”), even “horror comedy” (“Zombieland,” “This is the End”).
I tried to come up with a list that encompasses several sub-genres. Slasher, zombie, vampire, haunted house, serial killer…I covered most of the bases. You will see that after each film on my list, I’ve also recommended similar movies that you might want to check out – they could be by the same director, of the same genre, or with a similar narrative/visual style.
Enough babbling. Here are my top ten favorite horror movies:
October has arrived, and the fall colors are just starting to peak in much of the United States. Over the next two weeks, I’ll be taking in some of what Tennessee has to offer in this regard. Meanwhile, I thought I’d share some of my fall color photo captures from a few other corners of the world.
If you’re curious, these were shot using three different cameras, a Nikon DSLR and two not-quite-pocket-sized Canon Powershot cameras. I typically use “P” mode if the light is cooperating, but will switch to “Manual” for trickier shots, or if I’m using a tripod.
Santa Monica Mountains
Fall colors arrive late in LA, usually around Thanksgiving, and usually peak just before Christmas. You won’t see a lot of orange leaves, but we do have yellows and reds. They don’t overwhelm like I imagine New England’s fall foliage might, but they add nice shadings to a oft-parched landscape.
If you spend any significant amount of time in Mexico City – or even just a single day, for that matter – you’ll almost certainly hear the phrase “ahorita” being uttered. It doesn’t exist in most Spanish-language dictionaries, so what does it mean exactly?
A Brief Spanish Lesson
Roughly translated, ahorita means “in just a moment from now.” The root word, ahora, means “now.” The “-ita” suffix is a diminutive, which “lessens” the meaning. Mexican Spanish is filled with these diminutivo nouns, adverbs, and adjectives. For example, beso is a noun meaning, “the kiss” or “a kiss,” depending on the article preceding it. Besito is a diminutive noun meaning, “the small kiss” or “a small kiss.” Similarly, momento means “moment,” as in Un momento, por favor, which means “One moment, please.” Mexicans prefer to say “Un momentito, por favor,” which means “One small moment, please.”
The augmentative – opposite – of diminutives are also common in Spanish, usually in an “-ote” (masculine) or “-ota” (feminine) form. If beso is “kiss” and besito is “small kiss,” then besote is “big kiss.”
It was five years ago today that I was in the location pictured below. Alas, the white socks unmask me for the gringo that I am, but what can I say? Sandal blisters are the worst!
Where am I?
For this hiking-related entry, I decided to write about an epic, multi-day hike across the spine – or “backbone” – of the mountain range in which I have spent the most time. During the twelve years I lived in Los Angeles, I spent many a weekend day exploring LA and Ventura Counties’ literally hundreds of hiking trails. Three transverse mountain ranges pass through LA, and my favorite trails to hike are in the Santa Monica Mountains. These mountains follow the coast (more east-west than north-south in SoCal), cross the 405 Freeway to comprise the Hollywood Hills, and end at Griffith Park, one of the world’s largest urban green spaces.
The Backbone Trail is a 65-mile hike that takes you from the highlands of star-studded Pacific Palisades, into the hills above Malibu and the canyons beyond, ending at Point Mugu State Park in Ventura County. Along the way, the trail ascends and descends over 11,000 vertical feet, passing through five Mediterranean ecosystems and past geological and cultural treasures. The trail passes two Inspiration Points, at least two split rocks, and is a short scramble from the highest point in the range. Best of all? The highest point is just 3,111 feet above sea level, so cold weather is seldom much of a factor. This is one trail that is actually better when hiking during the fall-winter-spring off-season than during the scorching summer months. Are you ready to give it a try?
Continue reading “The Backbone Trail of Southern California”
It has been three months since my first post about Mexico City’s “barrios bravos” (“tough” or “brave” neighborhoods). In that entry, I listed the “rules” that one should follow for a safe visit, and then blogged about my experiences in Tepito, the most notorious barrio bravo in the Mexican capital. During my time as an honorary Chilango, I also had the opportunity to explore – and fall in love with – another much-maligned neighborhood, this one a proper delegación (borough): Iztapalapa.
Iztapalapa is more than just a collection of barrios bravos – it is the most-populous borough in Mexico City. It is also the poorest, hence its reputation. My first visit to Iztapalapa occurred when I was assigned English classes in the district. I learned that my students worked for a laboratory in the industrial Canal de San Juan/Periférico Oriente section of Iztapalapa. I was nervous – doubly so, since my arrival would be at the pre-dawn time of 7 a.m. But Google Earth showed me the way, and, after three bus transfers, I arrived without incident. This section of Iztapalapa is on the east side of the city, directly across the road from the Federal Police headquarters. The area is a manufacturing hub for numerous firms, so it’s low on charm but high on security. I felt safe, and by my third week I was walking back from class and stopping off for tacos campechanos at the city’s best street taquería.
This is my 100th post on GringoPotpourri. Over the past two years, I have tried my best to blog about a variety of topics. Mexico – where I lived for much of that time; California – where I lived before that; and Tennessee – where I live today. Movies – one of my greatest pastimes, particularly during the cold weather months; hiking – another great hobby, and something I hope to write about with increasing frequency in the future; photography – with me in front of the lens as well as behind it; even politics – though politics-lite is perhaps a better way to describe my occasional rants about issues like U.S. intervention in Syria and Sochi as a venue for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
And I’ve written about travel. I have many passions in life, several of which are mentioned in the paragraph above. Travel, however, is at the top of the list. Many of my Loyal Readers are like-minded travelers. I thank them for continuing to follow my own adventures; several of these readers lead adventure-filled lives themselves. Although not every post I make is about travel, today’s entry is. The post can be enjoyed by anyone – my fellow journeymen to be sure, but also the dreamers and armchair travelers. I beg your pardon for continually plugging my blog across social media, and I thank you all for sticking with me these past two years and 100 posts! Let us raise our imaginary glasses to another two years and 100 more posts!
September is here, and it is my favorite month for hiking. (Runner-up month: April.) Sure, it is still a bit hot for long hikes across the Santa Monica Mountains – my old SoCal stomping ground and home to the 65-mile Backbone Trail – but many higher-elevation peaks are at their most-accessible in this “shoulder season” month. I completed the four-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in September of 2005. I scaled Lembert Dome and Mount Hoffman – two prominent peaks in Yosemite National Park – in September of 2003. Just one year prior, I bagged the highest peak in the contiguous United States, 14,497-foot Mount Whitney. I have also climbed (hiked) Mount Baldy, the 10,064-foot SoCal landmark, three times, and two of those were in September (2004 and 2011).
But it is my successful climb to the summit marker atop Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro in September, 2010 that I am most proud of. Hiking is one of my great passions, you see, and if I haven’t been able to do as much of it over these past few years as I would have liked, I at least know that I have many years of great hiking memories to choose from. Kilimanjaro is my fondest, and the one I want to tell you more about in the paragraphs below.
Three Countries in Three Weeks
I took my second trip to sub-Saharan African in 2010. The trip was the brainchild of my friend Miles, just one year after our Great Southern African Adventure of 2009. This time we were joined by my friend Mark. Miles and Mark have expensive tastes, and make more money in a week than I make in a year, so they yearned for a pre-planned trip with guide/driver and first rate accommodations. They immediately declined when I suggested a Kilimanjaro add-on, but we compromised on four days in Zanzibar before they returned to the U.S. and I moved on to Moshi, Tanzania.
GringoPotpourri 