Tacos and Trotsky

[sabotabby]

Very exciting day today doing tourist stuff. We accomplished no filming whatsoever, but quite a bit of editing brainstorming, and hit the major museums that I was dying to see.




Our day started at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, which looks like it belongs in a Batman movie.


You see what I mean.


If you've seen Cradle Will Rock, you'll know why I got all excited over this mural. ("Lenin STAYS.")


The thing I love about Diego Rivera is his subtlety.


This is José Clemente Orozco, the least assholish of Mexican's three most famous mural artists.


It says "Labour Law."






Teaching the young.


Paul is also assisting in the ideological reproduction of the labour force.

From there, we headed to the Casa Trotsky.


Street names in Mexico are so much better than street names here.

Unfortunately, this is nowhere near the Casa Trotsky.

We ended up walking for quite some time, realizing we were lost, and grabbing a microbus. Microbuses are weird, cute little buses driven for the most part by utter lunatics. The first of the two microbuses we rode today was run by two guys with Jesus paraphernalia all over the dashboard. I was glad that Jesus was watching out for them because their driving was terrifying. At one point, the cops pulled them over. Also, they took us to the wrong place, so we caught a cab.


At long last, Paul spots the Trotsky House.






The famous glasses themselves!


I didn't know this before, but apparently Trotsky was an avid cactus collector.


Yeah I went there.






I really hope he didn't have that bust there when he lived there.


The third of Mexico's great mural artists, David Alfaro Siqueiros (also the most assholish of the three), organized an assassination attempt on Trotsky. You can still see the bullet holes in the walls.


Possibly the funniest historical plaque I've seen.


Trotskyloo.



After that, we walked a few blocks away to Frida Kahlo's house, where she and Rivera lived until 1954. You can't take photographs inside, so here are some of the outside.








All the good things in life.


This is Coyoacan, a more middle class area of the city.


If I come back from Mexico weighing 200 pounds, you'll know why. I had a mushroom quesadilla and some cactus tacos.


All of those spots on the tree are gum.


It's a city of contrasts: Goth/metal, Zen, and Scientology all sharing a block.


This is the second of the two microbuses we took, dubbed the ravebus. You can't see it well but there were flashing lights at the doors, a Union Jack on the ceiling, and pounding techno music.

Comments

[marrythebed.livejournal.com]

!!!!!!!

[sabotabby]

I thought of you and Sol and dobrovolets.

[loolica.livejournal.com]

Was your quesadilla filled with mushrooms or huitlacoche?

[sabotabby]

Hongo. Which is one of the few words I knew in Spanish before coming here, as it roughly translates to "full of yum."

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

OMG! ART! Mexican ART! FRIDA!

My jealousy knows no bounds!

Looks like a wonderful time :)

[sabotabby]

Frida is one of my favourite artist, so seeing her paints and brace and bed (she had one of those Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao profile prints above her bed--I bet Trotsky felt very uncomfortable when they were getting it on) was just this total thrill.

[misslynx.livejournal.com]

Mine too - if I ever get back to Mexico City (my family lived there for a little while when I was a baby), seeing her house is pretty much my #1 priority. Although mushroom quesadillas and cactus tacos sound pretty good too. :-)

[sabotabby]

Eh, everyone at work seemed to think I was going to go lie on a beach or something. I might end up on a beach at some point, but I've always preferred cities for vacationing.

[snarkitysnarks.livejournal.com]

The Californian idea of a Mexican vacation also seems to be "go down to Baja California, drink beer on the beach" which you can do here, so I always thought that sounded kinda meh.

But art museums and graves sounds like something worth going to.

[jackspryte.livejournal.com]

I'm am so infinitely, gawdsdamned jealous of you right now. I gotta make that trip.

[sabotabby]

You so do. I am utterly in love with this city.

[rantipole6.livejournal.com]

Great photos and commentary. Thanks for letting me live vicariously through part of your Mexico trip.

[sabotabby]

This is why I post them. Well, that and to keep track of everything I see.

[ironed_orchid]

Oh wow. That looks like the perfect touristy day for Sabotabbys on holiday.

[sabotabby]

Anya and I had this joke that whenever we travelled, all I wanted to see were art museums and graves of revolutionaries. Actually, this is not so much a joke as what I do when I travel.

[lienne.livejournal.com]

You are an excellent person. <3

[sabotabby]

As are you.

[lienne.livejournal.com]

:D

PS: August pie. Think you'll have a spare weekend?

[sabotabby]

It looks likely. I'm back on the 18th.

[lienne.livejournal.com]

/salutes

/includes you

Never Forget, Never Forgive!

[retinal-strain.livejournal.com]

Re: Never Forget, Never Forgive!

[sabotabby]

I thought you would enjoy this post.

Re: Never Forget, Never Forgive!

[retinal-strain.livejournal.com]

Indeed, my anarchist LARPing music video was the best reply I could muster to your photos at the big T's grave

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I am sooooooo jealous!

[sabotabby]

Come down here! Have you been? I think you would love it.

[hopita.livejournal.com]

Oh how I want to visit Casa Azul.

[sabotabby]

It is everything I hoped it would be.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

God I love that architecture and the Rivera murals!!!! So jealous of you right now.

I would have been tempted to lay an pick axe at Trotsky's grave in an attempt in IRL trolling.

[sabotabby]

We didn't have one, alas. I spared everyone taking pictures of the really gory Death of Trotsky display.

[cannibal-x.livejournal.com]

Excellent roundup.
loving the murals and the trotsky museum :)
By the way, not that we know each other too well, but I thought you might get a kick out of this..my wife has been visiting her family abroad and recently found out a family secret that her grandfather was actually a high ranking communist in the asian country she comes from and died in prison the year before she was born ;(

[sabotabby]

Wow. This is a good story. Well, a sad story, but you know what I mean.

[cannibal-x.livejournal.com]

For sure! I'm waiting for her to come home in a week so I can pester her about the details..

[snarkitysnarks.livejournal.com]

Oh god the art ajkfnja woop time to go study Mexican art. No art history class I've had so far has gone much farther into it than Frida Kahlo.

Jeez, everything seems five kinds of fun and amazing. And I might possibly be a creeper and save the picture of you saluting Trotsky's grave because secretly I wish I could do this.

I spared everyone taking pictures of the really gory Death of Trotsky display.

>:
Spared, or denied?

[sabotabby]

Paul wants to use the picture of me saluting at Trotsky's grave in the end credits of the documentary. I think you two would get along. Also, he was making fun of tourists for taking pictures of pictures, and the Death of Trotsky display was all pictures.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

Looks like you're having an awesome vacation!

[sabotabby]

So far so good.

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

Let's all move there.

[sabotabby]

If I spoke Spanish, I'd be seriously considering it right about now.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

I <3 Mexico!!!

Did the cactus tacos also have a huge slab of avocado and a huge slab of queso fresco plus really spicy salsa verde? If so, you had the best taco I had in Mexico. I had mine near Xochimilco. I also lost 15 lbs in Mexico eating that food as much as and whenever I wanted. YMMV, though. :)

How did you get to take pictures inside Palacio de Bellas Artes? I saw a museum guard yell at a patron for *writing down* the name of a painting there.

Will you get to go to Oaxaca? If so, go to Chocolate Mayordomo. OM NOM NOM.

In general try paletas (ice pops). I like the guanábana one (see icon for the fruit). The fruit ice pops are basically the fruit frozen on a stick, seeds and all.

[sabotabby]

No avocado, but I'm allergic so probably a good thing. We had to pay to take pictures inside the Palacio; they kept asking for ID and such.

Alas, will not make Oaxaca this time. I did get a paletas yesterday and it was wonderful.