Category: Everything (Potpourri)

Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman: His Top Ten Movies (Better Late Than Never)

The Grim Reaper has been especially cruel this year in his dispatching of Hollywood legends. Less than two weeks ago, we lost the beloved Robin Williams to the ravages of depression. Only one week prior to Williams’s passing, TV and film legend James Garner died of natural causes. And just one day after the media reported on the unfortunate death of Williams, it was revealed that another legend had died – the beautiful Lauren Bacall, also of natural causes.

But as regards acting titans, this past February we lost someone whose screen legacy may have towered over all of theirs. Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46, passed away in his New York home. Depression-related accidental drug overdose was the cause of death. I mention the cause of Hoffman’s death merely as a reminder that genius – as was also the case with Williams – is so often tortured.

As I wrote about Williams’s passing (read about it here), I said to myself, “I should have written something similar after Philip Hoffman died.” I mentioned this to a few friends who commented on my Williams blog post, and they encouraged me to write about Hoffman anyway, even if several months had passed. And here we are. I hope, Loyal Reader, that you’ll find this a good piece of nostalgia.

Continue reading “Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman: His Top Ten Movies (Better Late Than Never)”

Remembering Robin Williams: His Top Ten Movies

Robin Williams, the much-loved comedian and Oscar-winning movie star, has died, following a long battle with depression. He was 63.

I was surprised to learn of Williams’ passing as I sat down in front of the television to watch the evening news with my parents. Each year we post on social media about Hollywood’s “death watch.” The tweets are always in jest, as are the names of many of the celebrities tweeted about.  Charlie Sheen…Joan Rivers…Lindsay Lohan…Andy Dick…Zsa Zsa Gabor…Abe Vigoda. This year we lost two Oscar-winning giants of stage and screen. The first, Philip Seymour Hoffman, died in February of a depression-induced drug overdose that few people saw coming, or even knew was a risk factor for the gifted actor. When he passed, social media commentary was universally consistent in its praise of Hoffman as a wunderkind of stage acting and film drama. Almost nothing was said of Hoffman in jest.

The second, Robin Williams, was found dead yesterday in his northern California home. Suicide-by-asphyxiation is believed to be the cause. Celebrity tweets are still pouring in as I write this, but if it’s possible to find an even higher-profile star than Hoffman for Hollywood to lose to depression, then Williams might be that star. Let us hope that he’s the last one for a long while to lose his life to such a devastating disease.

Continue reading “Remembering Robin Williams: His Top Ten Movies”

Mexico City Parks: Chapultepec and Bosque de Aragón

Mexico City is filled with a variety of lovely green spaces. Internationally, they are not as renowned as, say, New York City’s Central Park, Munich’s English Gardens, or Beijing’s Summer Palace Grounds. But they are glorious places in and of themselves – green lungs for a city that needs as many as it can get.

Nearly every neighborhood has a park of some kind.  Usually the park has a fountain or two, a statue to some local or national hero, park benches, jacaranda or pine trees, and a playground. Some, like Parque Hundido along Avenida Insurgentes, feature tourist trains on a fixed circuit. Others, like Parque de los Venados in Colonia Del Valle, feature small ferias (amusement parks). The best of the best of Mexico City’s public parks – Chapultepec and Bosque de Aragón – feature trains, ferias, and much, much more.

Chapultepec

The grand daddy of Mexico City parks is Chapultepec Park. “Chapultepec” means “hill of the grasshoppers” in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. This park, located due west of the Centro Histórico, is divided into three sections across 686 hectares (1,695 acres). The first two sections are especially lovely, and Sección 1a is a veritable treasure trove.

Continue reading “Mexico City Parks: Chapultepec and Bosque de Aragón”

The (Long Awaited) Mexican Food Blog – Part Two

Although I have returned to the U.S., I am still committed to writing insightful content about my experience living in Mexico. A few months ago I blogged about Mexican food – breaking down that country’s diverse culinary options in several categories – tacos, tamales, etc. You can read about it here. Part Two – today’s entry – picks up where the first one left off.

Menu del Día

Fine dining takes many forms in Mexico. Muy comun in Mexico City – and particularly for lunch – are fondas – restaurants with “Menu of the Day” offerings at affordable fixed prices. The quality varies but the order is almost always the same: your choice of soup or consommé, then your choice of rice or pasta, then a main dish (typically three to choose from, accompanied by frijoles and a small salad), then a postre (dessert), often Jell-O. Bread or tortillas are usually served, and the beverage is “flavored water” such as flor de Jamaica (hibiscus flower). If you are willing to pay extra you can get soda or beer, but the agua de fruta is delicious and the whole meal will seldom set you back more than 70 pesos (about $5 USD). Usually the price is closer to 50 pesos ($3.50 USD).

Interestingly enough, the main dish is usually the least appetizing of the entire meal’s offerings.

Continue reading “The (Long Awaited) Mexican Food Blog – Part Two”

My (Not Quite) Coast-to-Coast Trip Report

I have been living in Gringolandia for a month now, and the Mexico City chapter of my life is over. This reality only fully set in a few days ago, and I’m filled with mixed emotions. Alas, it is what it is.

My return to the U.S. began in Los Angeles, where I spent a few days running errands – monetary and such – and catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in almost two years. I even made it to the beach! From LA, I cleaned out my storage space, loaded everything onto a U-Haul, and drove cross-country to my new home in eastern Tennessee.

The journey went without incident, but it had some logistical challenges and cost more than I expected. As such, I thought you’d appreciate a brief write-up, Loyal Reader. Hopefully it’ll provide some insight should you ever have to make a similar move yourself.

Continue reading “My (Not Quite) Coast-to-Coast Trip Report”

My (World) Cup Runneth Over

 Corcovado 23

This is Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The picture was taken by yours truly in March 2011, on a rather hazy day from atop Corcovado Mountain. At that time, the stadium was closed for a three-year renovation in preparation for the mother lode of summertime sporting events: the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Those of you who know me well will agree that I’m not a big sports fan. About soccer – “football” or “fútbol” as it’s called everywhere else around the world except in the U.S. – I am particularly uninformed.  I have attended just four professional soccer games in my life, and two of those were played when I was barely ten by the no-longer-in-existence Chicago Sting – one at the no-longer-in-existence Old Comiskey Park and the other at the no-longer-in-existence Chicago Stadium – and they hardly qualify as a result.

Continue reading “My (World) Cup Runneth Over”

A Sunday in Tepotzotlán

As a teacher I was always discouraged from forming friendships with my students, and for all the right reasons. I see no reason, however, why I cannot pursue friendships, Facebook connections, and the like once I am no longer a teacher – and certainly once I no longer work for the language school that provides lessons to said student(s). So when Yolanda, a former student of mine, suggested that she would like for me to spend one weekend day to meet her family and spend some time speaking English with her children, I felt obliged to say “yes.”

We choose last Sunday as the date and Tepotzotlán as the place. Tepotzotlán is just north of Mexico City – a proper small town and another “Pueblo Mágico” in Mexico’s tourism crown. The “magical town” of roughly 39,000 people is famous for two things: barbacoa (barbecued lamb) and el Museo Nacional del Virreinato (the National Vice-Regal Museum).

Continue reading “A Sunday in Tepotzotlán”

Interview with a Venezuelan

I have never been to Venezuela, but it is #1 on my travel wish list of places to visit. Azure-blue Caribbean waters. Majestic sand dunes. Soaring Andean peaks. Stilt villages in the middle of South America’s largest lake. Mile-after-endless-mile of dense Amazonian jungle. The world’s tallest waterfall. A seething urban megalopolis that is the final resting place of revolutionary hero Simón Bolívar. All of those places exist in Venezuela. Have you seen the Pixar movie “Up?” Do you remember the bizarre, alien landscape upon which elderly Carl’s house landed on? That rocky landscape – a tepui – is there, too.

The problem is, Venezuela is unsafe. It almost certainly is the most dangerous country in the Americas. Around the time I became interesting in visiting the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the country was several years into its initial presidency with Hugo Chávez, a far-left populist with the United Socialist Party. Venezuela’s security situation went from “fair” to “bad.” In 2007 Chávez attempted to change the constitution so that he, essentially, could be president for life. This referendum was defeated by the narrowest of margins, but in the years that followed, the country’s economic and security situation deteriorated even more, from “bad” to “worse.”

Continue reading “Interview with a Venezuelan”