October 17th, 2008
I’m just finishing up my week up in Monterey, California, helping radio station KAZU-FM with their Fall Pledge Drive. The radio station is located on the Cal State University Monterey Bay Campus, which is itself located on abandoned Fort Ord, a military base the size of San Francisco.
While I have been to the fort before, spending this week working and sleeping on the grounds has furthered my appreciation of its austere beauty and inspired a photography session of my own as well as hours of flickr exploration. I wanted to post a photo from flickr user Wizmo, as well as a link to hisher Fort Ord Favorites.
Wizmo, on why he she photographs the spaces he she chooses to shoot “I’ve had a thing for old buildings since I first started photographing at the age of 16, which would have been 1968. I used to go to Venice, California, and photograph all the run down places there when I was still in high school. There’s something vaguely romantic and mysterious about places that were once new and in the midst of human activity, now that they have been used up. They start to lose the scent of humans, their garish colors become more subtle as they fade, their textures more interesting. Nature once again makes her imprint and they begin to break down into their base elements. I like the sense of dignity and silence I find in them.
Old places often retain a reminder of their former selves, and all the people who once occupied them and used them, and they serve as a momento mori. We shall become them all too soon. “
February 17th, 2008
Well, I’m sitting in my bedroom in my new apartment in Guatemala, a fact I still can’t quite wrap my head around. At this point I don’t really know long I’ll be here; whether I’ll pay a month of rent and be ready to go or whether I will settle in for a bit and continue working on the Partners in Solidarity project and DJing. I’m living on the third story of one of the taller buildings in Xela, with a view over the green mountains surrounding the city and the buildings below. It is surprisingly one of the nicest places I’ve lived in in years. My roommates are two and 1/2 Guatemalans; a good friend of mine named Sylvia, Luis, and occasionally Sylvia’s ridiculously cute baby Maya Sofia. I just today got my room setup the way I like it and am truly enjoying the space, as well as my life and routine here in Xela.
I continue to work with Partners in Solidarity, which includes some teaching, some technical supervision, some random technical tasks and traveling. Monday I will go to a school 1.5 hours outside of Xela to setup up a computer laboratory for them. Apparently its somewhat out a dirt road and pretty far out into the sticks – I’m relishing the opportunity to be able to provide them with some computers and education that they can share with their kids. These are computers that to most of the world are considered trash, that are restored first by Next Step Recycling in Oregon, then more by us and some Guatemalan technicians that we work with. You can see on the Next Step page that the founder recently won the Vovlo for Life award, and has made People Magazine and CBS, all things which could bring good publicity for us as well.
I’ve also been DJing far more than I’m used to, with a weekly lounge gig here in Xela, and almost weekly invitations to play at parties. I played an all Soul-song Valentine’s Day set on Thursday that reminded me of doing radio back in Santa Cruz – lots of fun. There’s mainly one other Gringo DJ, DJ Payne and one other Guatemalan, Kokopeli, that I DJ with, both of whom are becoming good friends. We were invited out to San Pedro la Laguna in Lake Atitlan last week to DJ a party at a hotel for some friends, including bascially all of our costs. Its great to have time to practice my two main arts, being DJing and Photography, and even making some money at it in the mean time. I can definitely say I miss having more clubs to go, musicians and DJs to hear, but the community here is quite nice and great to be a part of.
I’m finding myself really enjoying the opportunity to settle into and explore a new and foreign town. Enjoying things like walking downstais in the morning to buy two eggs and some delicious, thick, fresh corn tortillas from the tienda for $0.50. Enjoying walking by the parties pumping marimba music all afternoon with indigenous families dancing inside. Watching the school kids on their lunch break hanging out in the plaza in front of my house from my balcony. Walking to the market and buying Passion Fruit, Mangoes, Zapotes (some kind of avocado-mixed-with-sweet-potato-thing) and others all arrayed on the street around a giant indoor market, with lots of things for sale including strange things like Goat heads. As well as enjoying more traditional activities like traveling, making friends and just relaxing in my room on a Saturday night.
Two weeks ago I also spent some time in a minuscule beach town near the Mexican border called Tilapita with one hotel that hosted the one restaurant. I went alone, savoring the opportunity to do some traveling alone for a bit. Just spent a night and loved the aspect of seeing a town so far removed from the life I’m used to; basically just some small houses arranged on a grid pattern on the sand, a few tiendas and some churches. The hotel was a bit weird, with damp rooms and grumpy management, but quite cheap and an experience for sure.
These last couple shots are from a town called San Andres Xecul, just outside of Xela. The yellow church is quite a sight.
I hope all is well and look forward to being in touch and maybe seeing some of you down here.
‘nice’
