[observe punny headline]
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Aug. 31, 2009
More than 50,000 fans have made one message undeniably clear: Mexico City loves Michael Jackson.
Decked out in sparkly gloves, aviator sunglasses, long curly wigs and creepy zombie getups, the virtual mob of people swarmed the historical center's Monument of the Revolution on Saturday in an effort to break the world record for most people dancing to "Thriller" at the same time in one place.
Javier Hidalgo, a city official and event organizer, told The News that around 15,000 people in three dance sessions emulated choreography from the legendary 1983 video, although he estimated over 12,000 participants in earlier reports.
Hidalgo said around 50,000 people in total came out to see the Aug. 29 spectacle, which would have been the King of Pop's 51st birthday.
"This city, despite its problems, is alive," he said. "It is full of life."
"We undoubtedly broke this record," he added, noting that the enormous crowd would make it difficult to determine an official count.
The Guinness Book of World Records this week will decide if Mexico City did indeed shatter the previous count.
The current record is held by a group of 242 College of William & Mary students who in May simultaneously danced the "Thriller" routine in Williamsburg, Va., according to Associated Press reports.
Hidalgo said the idea in Mexico City surged about six weeks following Michael Jackson's June 25 death, when a group of friends created a Facebook event page and spread the word. The "Thriller" concept took on a snowball effect, amassing around 3,000 participants before the group asked the city for organizational help. A week before the show, more than 10,000 people had signed up to participate in the dance routine.
"Thriller" fan Orlando Bautista Ramirz said he had practiced Michael Jackson's choreography for a month before last weekend's dance-off. Donning a sweat-stained pink oxford shirt, a thin black tie and a black fedora, he added that he had been learning steps like the "moonwalk" for the past three years.
"His dancing, his music and his singing, all of that to me makes him the King of Pop," he said after the massive show.
Local actor Poncho Borbolla said he had been instructing choreography classes all throughout August, an idea that came about following an "in memoriam" party he threw with his friends.
"I've been a huge fan of Michael Jackson for many years, and as a fan, I'm very excited to see that people still like him" despite the singer's highly publicized problems, he said.
The Saturday routine, however, was complicated by the sheer number of Mexico City residents out see the show.
Hidalgo said that the event was initially scheduled to start at 7 p.m., with practice sessions beginning at 4 p.m. But with 20,000 people already present by the early afternoon, organizers were forced to start the dance - led by local impersonator "Héctor Jackson" - sooner than planned to disperse the growing crowd.
Tania López Pérez, covered in green face paint, fake blood and wearing a shredded T-shirt, said she was unable to pass through security gates when she arrived at the monument just before 7 p.m.
But the unexpected time change didn't put out the "Thriller" flame.
After the event, four-year-olds in tuxedo pants and glittering shirts spun carefully executed circles in a nearby parking lot. And crossing the Insurgentes thoroughfare on the way out of the crowd, a group of zombies crept their way across the street and onto the Metrobus platform.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Night of psychobilly to 'wreck' Mexico City
BY MARIA GALLUCCIThe News
Aug. 28, 2009
It starts with a peppy upright bass, fast-paced drums and a twangy electric guitar, evoking images of twirling poodle skirts and slicked back pompadours. The guitar soon takes on a harder, punk-like sound as the vocals chime in with hoarse, husky shouts.
This weekend in Mexico City, five bands filed under this part-rockabilly, part-punk category will help play tribute to one of the latest music subcultures to spread across Mexico - a genre known as "psychobilly."
The Tabaltix, based in the San Francisco area, will headline the "Noches de Wrecking" ("Nights of Wrecking") show held tonight at Multiforo Alicia in the city's Colonia Roma. "Wrecking" refers to the thrashing free-for-all dance style popular at psychobilly concerts that takes a step beyond punk dancing and actually involves punching one another - in good spirit, of course.
Also set to perform at the show are Los Mumblers, from Coachella, Calif.; Romeo and the Frankensteins, from QuerActaro; and Wicked and Los Ultratumbatz, both from the Federal District.
"Psychobilly has just barely started in Mexico, but it is growing," said Ignacio Pineda, who runs the Alicia concert club.
"It's not at a massive level, but the scene is still very alive,"
The music subculture got its start in the 1980s when punk and rockabilly (or "rock n' roll" plus "hillbilly") musicians started fusing together the sounds. New York-based The Cramps led the way with lyrics inspired by drive-in horror movies and science fiction films. When the band took its style to England, the psychobilly scene exploded in Western Europe before taking over Southern California.
The psychobilly movement has seen a resurgence in the past decade, with some bands reflecting earlier groups while others have placed a stronger emphasis on blood-and-gore costumes and heavier metal guitar, although the category is hardly easy to define.
"I love playing psychobilly because everything is crazy and everyone is different," said Hiena, who sings in Wicked and helped organize the Friday event.
She said the subculture started to grow in Mexico City around 2003, when she and a group of friends stumbled across older records and discovered the music. They soon realized pockets of psychobilly fanatics had popped up throughout the country, and now around 30 bands with varied sounds and styles have claimed their stake on the Mexican scene.
Pineda said Mexico's first psychobilly pioneers include Los Pardos, a group that nearly a decade ago started playing shows on the local rockabilly scene because its harder cousin didn't really exist at the time.
The Tabaltix vocalist and upright bass player Johnny said his three-member band was looking forward to playing the Mexico psychobilly circuit. The group played a show in Guadalajara earlier this week and will travel to Puebla on Saturday.
"It seems like the whole psychobilly crowd is growing and growing in Mexico City, so we thought we'd try it out," he said.
Johnny said his first introduction to the scene began as a 3-year-old listening to the original rockabilly star Elvis Presley. As a teenager, he and his brother Jeff, who sings and plays guitar in the band, would mail-order records by groups like The Cramps, Holland-based Batmobile and Scottish rockers The Shakin Pyramids.
His band, which includes drummer Miles, favors a style geared more towards their 1980s predecessors rather than the darker, gorier sounds of today's tendency.
The 26-year-old bassist said that while many European psychobilly fans are in their fifties, as followers of the original music movement, most fans in the United States are in their teens. He noted as a complication that the band's prominent fan base falls between 13 and 18 years old - a group too young to enter the 21-and-over clubs where the group mostly plays.
Hiena said that while most of the Mexican psychobilly band members are between ages 25 and 30, the majority of fans are under 22 and have been swayed from the punk music scene. Age, however, is less of an issue in Mexico, where the legal drinking age is 18 and where restrictions aren't as heavily enforced.
Pineda said that Friday's psychobilly show is only the fourth of its kind for the Alicia forum and that there could potentially be more in the distant future.
"This city is changing, the sounds are changing, and this is part of that flight," he said.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
'Sweet sugar' exhibit celebrates modernist architecture
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Aug. 27, 2009
In Katya Gardea Browne's latest Mexico City project, the museum no longer remains just a place to house artwork - it is a space to build the art around. The walls, the floors and the ceilings become incorporated into the pieces, building fluid installations for the one-month show.
Her "Sweet Sugar" exhibition opens tonight at the El Eco Experimental Museum in the city's central San Rafael neighborhood.
The four-piece project will run through Sept. 27 before ultimately being disassembled.
"My intention is that the pieces make you aware of the building itself," Gardea said in an interview earlier this month, at the start of the project's construction. "It is not like the pieces could be in any gallery, space or art fair. This is site specific."
The artistic endeavor includes architectural structures, moving installations, a video played on loop and puzzle-like wood pieces assembled on the floor. The exhibit title, inspired by the 1970s-era Rolling Stones song "Brown Sugar," is a poetic evocation hinting at the connection between the human body and nature and their material impositions, she said.
The Mexican-American artist, who splits her time between Berlin and Mexico City, said the exhibit culminates a year and a half of artistic investigation into the relations between body and architecture, space, modernist painting and abstraction. She began drafting ideas seven months ago in Berlin and started mounting the pieces after returning to Mexico.
Gardea's architectural exploit was developed in part as a celebration of El Eco's modernist designs, built in 1953 by German architect Mathias Goertiz. The Eco museum was renovated and eventually reopened in 2005 to bring the public together with experimental artists and their work.
"I'm fascinated with the architecture of this museum space because it's called 'emotional architecture,'" Gardea said, adding that the disproportionate walls and abnormally high and slanted ceilings "create some kind of tension when you walk it. It's quite majestic."
'SWEET' STRUCTURES
As visitors walk past the museum's black stucco exterior walls and through a narrow passageway, the first piece that comes into view is a grouping of small geometric pieces scattered on the floor. The untitled work features various wooden planks painted bright primary colors and fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Large canvas recreations of Gardea's sketches hang on the surrounding walls, detailing her artistic process on projects developed in Berlin and Mexico.
In a small dark room tucked off to the side, her audio-visual installation "Berlin Water Light" projects deep blue waves onto the rectangular screen. The video captures ripples of the river running through the former territorial boundaries in East Berlin established by France, Britain and the United States following World War II.
Gardea's interactive piece "Auto-Colapsable con una sola cuerdO ("Self-collapsible with a single rope") incorporates two motors and an overhead camera, constantly changing viewers' horizontal and vertical perspectives of the woodwork.
The camera will also record the piece for about a week, and the video will eventually become part of the piece itself.
"A lot of my work is references, documenting time," she said. "You could call it a register, the document that becomes the final artwork."
Her principal piece, however, is outside in El Eco's brick patio. The crisscrossed, multi-layered scaffolding leans against the stucco walls and features large block letters and pyrotechnics that spell out "Sweet Sugar," the structure's individual title.
In designing and constructing the exhibition, Gardea said, she was concerned with "perception of how you move through these spaces. It's a physical relationship that you have to objects or your surrounding."
GLOBAL INSPIRATION
Gardea's fascination with proportions, space and physical structures began when, as a child, she observed the architectural contrasts between pre-Hispanic, colonial-era and modern day structures throughout Mexico City.
She initially developed her artistic career in New York City, where she studied fine arts and focused mostly on conceptual and modernist painting. When she starting to split her time between Berlin and Mexico City, she began translating her work on canvas into physical structures.
For her 2007 project "Tree Intervention on Lake Texcoco," for example, she moved a large tree from Xochimilco to the dried salt beds of the Ecatepec-area lake, part of a group show called Platform for Urban Investigation. Her 2006 installation "Trees From my Childwood" included images of trees projected with green light onto staggered screens. She has also exhibited various pieces in Berlin, though the bulk of her installations have been in Mexico.
"My video and sculpture are very much related to the work I was doing in New York," she said. "This is a progression of what I was doing, but with different media."
Her "Sweet Sugar" project will be taken down at the end of September and will possibly be reconstructed in Berlin, where Gardea will return to following the exhibition.
"I'm making sure that this exposition can be put together in a way that it can be dismantled and reset, but in a totally different configuration," she said.
"It's not a pile of wood that is thrown out, the idea is for it to have some kind of permanence. It's not an ephemeral installation. It will not be the same version - this is Version One."
"I find a lot of my pieces have different readings in different places, and this has been an important time of exploration and culmination of a body of work. I'd like to see it presented and recontextualized in other cities, in other places."
The News
Aug. 27, 2009
In Katya Gardea Browne's latest Mexico City project, the museum no longer remains just a place to house artwork - it is a space to build the art around. The walls, the floors and the ceilings become incorporated into the pieces, building fluid installations for the one-month show.
Her "Sweet Sugar" exhibition opens tonight at the El Eco Experimental Museum in the city's central San Rafael neighborhood.
The four-piece project will run through Sept. 27 before ultimately being disassembled.
"My intention is that the pieces make you aware of the building itself," Gardea said in an interview earlier this month, at the start of the project's construction. "It is not like the pieces could be in any gallery, space or art fair. This is site specific."
The artistic endeavor includes architectural structures, moving installations, a video played on loop and puzzle-like wood pieces assembled on the floor. The exhibit title, inspired by the 1970s-era Rolling Stones song "Brown Sugar," is a poetic evocation hinting at the connection between the human body and nature and their material impositions, she said.
The Mexican-American artist, who splits her time between Berlin and Mexico City, said the exhibit culminates a year and a half of artistic investigation into the relations between body and architecture, space, modernist painting and abstraction. She began drafting ideas seven months ago in Berlin and started mounting the pieces after returning to Mexico.
Gardea's architectural exploit was developed in part as a celebration of El Eco's modernist designs, built in 1953 by German architect Mathias Goertiz. The Eco museum was renovated and eventually reopened in 2005 to bring the public together with experimental artists and their work.
"I'm fascinated with the architecture of this museum space because it's called 'emotional architecture,'" Gardea said, adding that the disproportionate walls and abnormally high and slanted ceilings "create some kind of tension when you walk it. It's quite majestic."
'SWEET' STRUCTURES
As visitors walk past the museum's black stucco exterior walls and through a narrow passageway, the first piece that comes into view is a grouping of small geometric pieces scattered on the floor. The untitled work features various wooden planks painted bright primary colors and fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Large canvas recreations of Gardea's sketches hang on the surrounding walls, detailing her artistic process on projects developed in Berlin and Mexico.
In a small dark room tucked off to the side, her audio-visual installation "Berlin Water Light" projects deep blue waves onto the rectangular screen. The video captures ripples of the river running through the former territorial boundaries in East Berlin established by France, Britain and the United States following World War II.
Gardea's interactive piece "Auto-Colapsable con una sola cuerdO ("Self-collapsible with a single rope") incorporates two motors and an overhead camera, constantly changing viewers' horizontal and vertical perspectives of the woodwork.
The camera will also record the piece for about a week, and the video will eventually become part of the piece itself.
"A lot of my work is references, documenting time," she said. "You could call it a register, the document that becomes the final artwork."
Her principal piece, however, is outside in El Eco's brick patio. The crisscrossed, multi-layered scaffolding leans against the stucco walls and features large block letters and pyrotechnics that spell out "Sweet Sugar," the structure's individual title.
In designing and constructing the exhibition, Gardea said, she was concerned with "perception of how you move through these spaces. It's a physical relationship that you have to objects or your surrounding."
GLOBAL INSPIRATION
Gardea's fascination with proportions, space and physical structures began when, as a child, she observed the architectural contrasts between pre-Hispanic, colonial-era and modern day structures throughout Mexico City.
She initially developed her artistic career in New York City, where she studied fine arts and focused mostly on conceptual and modernist painting. When she starting to split her time between Berlin and Mexico City, she began translating her work on canvas into physical structures.
For her 2007 project "Tree Intervention on Lake Texcoco," for example, she moved a large tree from Xochimilco to the dried salt beds of the Ecatepec-area lake, part of a group show called Platform for Urban Investigation. Her 2006 installation "Trees From my Childwood" included images of trees projected with green light onto staggered screens. She has also exhibited various pieces in Berlin, though the bulk of her installations have been in Mexico.
"My video and sculpture are very much related to the work I was doing in New York," she said. "This is a progression of what I was doing, but with different media."
Her "Sweet Sugar" project will be taken down at the end of September and will possibly be reconstructed in Berlin, where Gardea will return to following the exhibition.
"I'm making sure that this exposition can be put together in a way that it can be dismantled and reset, but in a totally different configuration," she said.
"It's not a pile of wood that is thrown out, the idea is for it to have some kind of permanence. It's not an ephemeral installation. It will not be the same version - this is Version One."
"I find a lot of my pieces have different readings in different places, and this has been an important time of exploration and culmination of a body of work. I'd like to see it presented and recontextualized in other cities, in other places."
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Ortiz-Rubio paints the human identity in her Mexio premiere
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Aug. 26, 2009
Ghoulish figures haunt the square canvas, the emaciated bodies searching across a desolated earth. A sandy-blonde beauty peers over a rock, her long wispy hair swirling past the edge. A man and woman sit face-to-face, breathing curls of smoke into a bleak, blue sky.
The oil-on-cloth images are part of Mexican artist Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio's introspective look into self-identity, self-discovery and the human consciousness. Her paintings are on display now through Sept. 30 as part of her "Individuación: Reflexiones" ("Individuation: Reflections") exhibition at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana in Mexico City's historical center.
The 12-piece collection forms the 23-year-old artist's premiere exhibit in Mexico and follows her first-ever formal show held earlier this summer at the Visual Arts Gallery in San Diego.
She created most of the artwork as part of her undergraduate thesis at the University of San Diego, from which she graduated this spring.
Ortiz-Rubio said her hometown debut was even more nerve-wracking than her California show.
"This matters so much more to be because it's my city, my country, and I care more about what the people here think - my family is here, my friends, my peers.the artists that I admire the most are from Mexico," she said last week in an interview before the exhibit's Aug. 19 inauguration.
EXPRESSIONS OF REFLECTION
The somber, symbolic and expressive paintings represent reflections of the intellectual, spiritual and emotional human experiences that form our individual and collective identities, according to a Sor Juana press release. The exhibit's goal is to encourage visitors to reflect on their own individuality.
The artist said that as a child, she began to discuss such abstract themes with her mother, Paulina López Portillo, the daughter of former President JosAc López Portillo.
"We always talked about those essential questions: 'Who am I?' 'Why am I?' and therefore, 'Who are you?'" said Ortiz-Rubio, who grew up in Mexico, Italy and the United States.
"That's always been at the core of everything I've decided to study. I've always had that in me," she added.
"What fascinates me is that we are so incredibly unique and different, but, at the same time, we are able to experience the world through these same emotions and reactions. There is nothing foreign to us because we are all humans."
Tucked away in Sor Juana's Sotocoro, the former shrine of San Jerónimo, the large-scale paintings hang above ornate gold altars and between spiraling pillars. Ortiz-Rubio's images range from haunting, unsettling and uncomfortable to peaceful, beautiful and perfectly placid.
Her 2009 piece "Maya," for example, shows a group of naked men and women wandering desperately through the desert, their eye sockets purple and their ribcages nearly exposed. A woman in the background falls to her knees and cries out to the sky as a man in the foreground gasps for air.
An untitled 2008 painting, on the other hand, reveals a more tranquil approach. A longhaired woman dutifully knits herself together from bits of thread, a pale pink sky highlighting the endless tangled heaps of strings surrounding her.
"Vertigo y vacío" ("Vertigo and Emptiness"), a 2008 piece, illustrates a naked woman standing atop an isolated rock. She nervously peeks down over the edge, her preoccupied expression framed by billowing hair that falls past her feet.
"I use the human figure, and I try to make the images seem timeless, because it is an exploration of the human being as a whole, not in a specific moment in time or place," the artist said.
She added that the men are always bald, the woman always with long hair and the figures are mostly nude to erase any cultural references from the image.
The landscapes are typically desolate and isolated to create a "moment of transition or conflict, of new consciousness, of understanding who we are," she said.
Several paintings hint at a self-portrait construction, the illustrated woman mirroring Ortiz-Rubio's sandy blonde waves and finer facial features.
A 2008 piece "Saudade" ("Longing") shows a similarly featured woman in a rumpled white dress clutching the remnants of a shattered ceramic plate, the broken shards scattered across an empty field.
In the 2007 piece "Encuentro" ("Encounter"), a fair-haired woman emerges from a large clay pot, her body and neck craning upward to look into the eyes of her pale reflection.
"The images come from my process of exploring as part of defining myself and trying to understand what is the human being without all these restrictions that society puts on us," she said.
"It's therapeutic, but it has also been very intense, because through this exploration, I have definitely realized all those aspects of who I am that I didn't put there, that society, family or all these institutions have put there."
"So, it has also not only been a reconstruction of the self, but a deconstruction as well," she added.
The young artist counts among her most prominent influences artists like Mexican muralists David Alfaro Siqueiros and JosAc Clemente Orozco, as well as Spanish-Mexican surrealist Remedios Varo, whose simple images are filled with symbols and meanings, and Norwegian figurative painter Odd Nerdrum for his use of light and alternative images.
Ortiz-Rubio resides in San Diego and plans to stay in the city or move around the United States. She is also the founder and co-president of Basement Society, a community arts group in the city.
She previously worked with the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and has volunteered with the local organization A.R.T.S (A Reason to Survive).
Thursday, August 20, 2009
DJ Schell releases latest promo
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Aug. 19, 2009
Just over a year since moving to Mexico City from Seattle, Jason Schell has found his place in the capital city’s deejay scene. Now, the full-time art teacher is now promoting his latest high-energy album, “DF Vibraciones” (“DF Vibrations”).
“I tend to throw down more mixes over the summer because I have the time,” Schell said from a café near his Colonia Roma apartment. “Recording a promo is a lot harder than playing live, because every little mistake will drive you crazy.”
DJ Schell, as he’s known on stage, said he spent several months sampling his records and about a week recording on his two laptops to produce the two-mix album, which he released earlier this month.
“Both make great soundtracks for speeding in your car, exercising at the gym, curing a hangover, dancing while you’re putting on your going-out clothes, etc.,” he wrote in a message announcing the promo’s release.
Mix One is a 23-minute fusion of scratching, hip-hop, funk and rock, the embellished product of a DJ battle last May.
“Battles are interesting, because there’s a time limit decided and you have to throw down the craziest thing you can think of,” he said at the café. “I didn’t record that night, but I threw down the mix again in my room and let the last song play out so it’s longer.”
The first mix puts a quick, energetic spin on songs by artists like Snoop Dogg, Beastie Boys, Digital Underground, Jurassic 5, Beck and crooner Barry White.
Mix Two pumps nearly an hour’s worth of electronic and house music through the speakers, blending digital jams with smooth transitions and offering a mere sampling of what DJ Schell might typically play when livening up a crowded club.
TURNTABLE TALES
Schell’s first deejay days began in 1994, when the 17-year-old raver bought his first pair of turntables.
“[Raves] then were so much more grassroots,” he said. “I wanted to be a deejay, so I figured the only way was to get my own turntables and start working at it.”
The draw of raves, which usually lasted from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., was being part of a bigger music team, he explained.
“Part of the fun was having a place, an hour of this time span to put your music down, get that reaction from the crowd and be part of the team that would play throughout the night,” he said.
By the time Schell graduated high school, he was already landing gigs around his U.S. hometown of Pittsburgh, Penn., playing at house parties and passing out mix tapes. On weekends, he and his friends would gather under highway bridges, stuff turntables and amplifiers into car trunks and play for around 300 partiers until dawn.
While studying art at a Philadelphia university, one of his mix tapes serendipitously fell into the right hands, and he started traveling to cities like New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Toronto to scratch and spin his vinyl records.
When he finished college and landed a teaching position at a Seattle arts high school, Schell began to leave behind raves in favor of 21-and-over clubs.
“I was changing stylistically as a deejay anyway, and I was playing more hip-hop and house and less of the harder techno stuff,” he said.
After eight years on the West Coast, he took a new teaching post in Mexico City late last summer. Now, Schell plays once a month at clubs like the open-air terrace at the Centro Cultural de España (Spanish Cultural Center) in the city’s historical district and in bars like the Black Horse in the Condesa neighborhood.
“I didn’t know I’d be deejaying this long, but it seems like…your peers keep growing up and you and are still wanting that experience,” he said. “You change a lot in 15 years: the music you like, the sound you want to present. It’s still something I really love to do and plan to keep doing.”
Schell also exhibits his paintings and drawings about once a year. His art includes peripheral studies of his observations in Mexico City, whether on the metro line or around the metropolis, he said, and it aims to capture human experiences and conditions.
He is set to display his work at the University of Guadalajara next month, and will also deejay in the city at a location still yet to be determined. He’s also set to deejay at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29 at the Black Horse.
MORE INFO:
Click on the Web page www.jasonschell.net/dj.htm to download DF Vibraciones, find contact info or to check out his gig schedule for shows at the Black Horse and the University of Gualadajara.
The News
Aug. 19, 2009
Just over a year since moving to Mexico City from Seattle, Jason Schell has found his place in the capital city’s deejay scene. Now, the full-time art teacher is now promoting his latest high-energy album, “DF Vibraciones” (“DF Vibrations”).
“I tend to throw down more mixes over the summer because I have the time,” Schell said from a café near his Colonia Roma apartment. “Recording a promo is a lot harder than playing live, because every little mistake will drive you crazy.”
DJ Schell, as he’s known on stage, said he spent several months sampling his records and about a week recording on his two laptops to produce the two-mix album, which he released earlier this month.
“Both make great soundtracks for speeding in your car, exercising at the gym, curing a hangover, dancing while you’re putting on your going-out clothes, etc.,” he wrote in a message announcing the promo’s release.
Mix One is a 23-minute fusion of scratching, hip-hop, funk and rock, the embellished product of a DJ battle last May.
“Battles are interesting, because there’s a time limit decided and you have to throw down the craziest thing you can think of,” he said at the café. “I didn’t record that night, but I threw down the mix again in my room and let the last song play out so it’s longer.”
The first mix puts a quick, energetic spin on songs by artists like Snoop Dogg, Beastie Boys, Digital Underground, Jurassic 5, Beck and crooner Barry White.
Mix Two pumps nearly an hour’s worth of electronic and house music through the speakers, blending digital jams with smooth transitions and offering a mere sampling of what DJ Schell might typically play when livening up a crowded club.
TURNTABLE TALES
Schell’s first deejay days began in 1994, when the 17-year-old raver bought his first pair of turntables.
“[Raves] then were so much more grassroots,” he said. “I wanted to be a deejay, so I figured the only way was to get my own turntables and start working at it.”
The draw of raves, which usually lasted from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., was being part of a bigger music team, he explained.
“Part of the fun was having a place, an hour of this time span to put your music down, get that reaction from the crowd and be part of the team that would play throughout the night,” he said.
By the time Schell graduated high school, he was already landing gigs around his U.S. hometown of Pittsburgh, Penn., playing at house parties and passing out mix tapes. On weekends, he and his friends would gather under highway bridges, stuff turntables and amplifiers into car trunks and play for around 300 partiers until dawn.
While studying art at a Philadelphia university, one of his mix tapes serendipitously fell into the right hands, and he started traveling to cities like New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Toronto to scratch and spin his vinyl records.
When he finished college and landed a teaching position at a Seattle arts high school, Schell began to leave behind raves in favor of 21-and-over clubs.
“I was changing stylistically as a deejay anyway, and I was playing more hip-hop and house and less of the harder techno stuff,” he said.
After eight years on the West Coast, he took a new teaching post in Mexico City late last summer. Now, Schell plays once a month at clubs like the open-air terrace at the Centro Cultural de España (Spanish Cultural Center) in the city’s historical district and in bars like the Black Horse in the Condesa neighborhood.
“I didn’t know I’d be deejaying this long, but it seems like…your peers keep growing up and you and are still wanting that experience,” he said. “You change a lot in 15 years: the music you like, the sound you want to present. It’s still something I really love to do and plan to keep doing.”
Schell also exhibits his paintings and drawings about once a year. His art includes peripheral studies of his observations in Mexico City, whether on the metro line or around the metropolis, he said, and it aims to capture human experiences and conditions.
He is set to display his work at the University of Guadalajara next month, and will also deejay in the city at a location still yet to be determined. He’s also set to deejay at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29 at the Black Horse.
MORE INFO:
Click on the Web page www.jasonschell.net/dj.htm to download DF Vibraciones, find contact info or to check out his gig schedule for shows at the Black Horse and the University of Gualadajara.
Time travels to reach Mexico's theaters
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Aug. 20, 2009
When the romantic drama "The Time Traveler's Wife" hits Mexico's theaters this weekend, viewers should carry in more than just popcorn. A healthy suspension of disbelief, it seems, will go a long way.
The film, called "Te Amaré Por Siempre" in its Spanish title, is based on the 2004 bestselling novel by U.S. author Audrey Niffenegger. The PG-13 movie will premiere in Mexico on Friday, just a week behind its U.S. release.
"Time Traveler," directed by Robert Schwentke and set in Chicago, can be a heart-wrenching love story or a far-too-bizarre flick, depending on the viewer's disposition. Although some film critics have labeled the movie creepy and awkward, if viewers accept the film's unlikely circumstances from the outset, they might find it charming, bittersweet and well worth its 107-minute time span.
Eric Bana, of "Star Trek" and "Munich" fame, plays the part of Henry, a man burdened with a genetic anomaly that distorts his life's trajectory. Spontaneously thrusting forwards and backwards throughout time, Henry lives his life in a series of disjointed events separated by a few days or by many years.
In each transition, his skin fades until his body completely melts away, his pile of cloths sagging into a lump on the floor - which means plenty of discreet cheek shots as he scavenges for clothes in whichever place he's landed.
Henry, in fact, is hiding naked in the bushes when he first meets Clare, who is six years old at the time. He returns to visit her throughout her young life, and they eventually meet in the present when the girl is twenty-two; they marry several years later.
Rachel McAdams, best known for her roles in "The Notebook" and "Wedding Crashers," plays an adult Clare, a strong-willed but often melancholy character who has loved Henry since their first encounter in the meadow. Although Henry's time travels promise to separate the lovers without warning, she is determined to build a life and family with him. She desperately strives for their togetherness despite his extended absences and tragic circumstances.
The suspension of disbelief comes into play when examining the characters' dynamics over time. Shouldn't the childhood Clare feel haunted by this mysterious 36-year-old man who keeps appearing in her backyard? Why do Henry's family and friends so wholeheartedly accept his condition? How is this film too weird to be believable, but not weird enough to be science fiction?
However, discarding any conflictive pondering, "Time Traveler" still manages to be a charming love story that at times is light-hearted and at times is a tearjerker.
The News
Aug. 20, 2009
When the romantic drama "The Time Traveler's Wife" hits Mexico's theaters this weekend, viewers should carry in more than just popcorn. A healthy suspension of disbelief, it seems, will go a long way.
The film, called "Te Amaré Por Siempre" in its Spanish title, is based on the 2004 bestselling novel by U.S. author Audrey Niffenegger. The PG-13 movie will premiere in Mexico on Friday, just a week behind its U.S. release.
"Time Traveler," directed by Robert Schwentke and set in Chicago, can be a heart-wrenching love story or a far-too-bizarre flick, depending on the viewer's disposition. Although some film critics have labeled the movie creepy and awkward, if viewers accept the film's unlikely circumstances from the outset, they might find it charming, bittersweet and well worth its 107-minute time span.
Eric Bana, of "Star Trek" and "Munich" fame, plays the part of Henry, a man burdened with a genetic anomaly that distorts his life's trajectory. Spontaneously thrusting forwards and backwards throughout time, Henry lives his life in a series of disjointed events separated by a few days or by many years.
In each transition, his skin fades until his body completely melts away, his pile of cloths sagging into a lump on the floor - which means plenty of discreet cheek shots as he scavenges for clothes in whichever place he's landed.
Henry, in fact, is hiding naked in the bushes when he first meets Clare, who is six years old at the time. He returns to visit her throughout her young life, and they eventually meet in the present when the girl is twenty-two; they marry several years later.
Rachel McAdams, best known for her roles in "The Notebook" and "Wedding Crashers," plays an adult Clare, a strong-willed but often melancholy character who has loved Henry since their first encounter in the meadow. Although Henry's time travels promise to separate the lovers without warning, she is determined to build a life and family with him. She desperately strives for their togetherness despite his extended absences and tragic circumstances.
The suspension of disbelief comes into play when examining the characters' dynamics over time. Shouldn't the childhood Clare feel haunted by this mysterious 36-year-old man who keeps appearing in her backyard? Why do Henry's family and friends so wholeheartedly accept his condition? How is this film too weird to be believable, but not weird enough to be science fiction?
However, discarding any conflictive pondering, "Time Traveler" still manages to be a charming love story that at times is light-hearted and at times is a tearjerker.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Beach and books round off film series at Tamayo museum
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Aug. 18, 2009
Sun-crisped women lay down at the beach, their skin reddening as if roasting on a rotisserie. Thickly creased paperbacks shield the burning beauties' eyes while children splash in the pool and ocean tides lap in the background.
The sunbathers are the featured stars in Mexican artist Miguel Calderón's "Bestseller 2009" video installation, the last episode in the eight-year Panorámica (Panoramic) series hosted at the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City.
The exhibition, which opened earlier this summer, will screen for one more month before the series is restructured following new programming at the museum.
BEACH, BABES AND BOOKS
"Bestseller" is a critical yet subtle take on upper-middle-class social patterns as well as the overwhelming tourist boom in éapulco that has soared since the 1950s, said exhibit curator Daniela PAcrez.
The exhibit's title is in part derived from a quotation by Mexican author Ricardo Garibay that reflects such themes.
"éapulco, world famous; the flower of the Pacific; the only bestseller showing how Mexico is unique; the yearned-for destination of every traveler who dreams of living, if only for a week, in the lap of luxury, without any expenses charged to his conscience," the quotation reads.
The half-hour installation combines nearly 35 video clips and runs on loop in a small screening room off the museum's main entrance. Each clip runs between 45 and 60 seconds long and features anonymous women passed out poolside or on the sand. Their chests steadily rise and fall as they lay virtually motionless, conjuring up the phrase "beached whale" in some viewers' minds.
"éapulco is a place that [Calderón] has visited since he was very young, and there are elements that he knows well and that have intrigued him very much," PAcrez said.
"His work is full of humor, and it's very attractive for different generations because he talks of things that we can all relate to," she added.
The installation, she said, represents the decadence of éapulco's countless international tourists that stream in each season to take advantage of the thriving nightlife and towering beachfront hotels.
As the local government has implemented ambitious infrastructure projects, the constant growth of tourism has practically rendered these insufficient, she added.
The "Bestseller" title also refers to the much-used paperback novels that the women have opted to use as sunshields rather than to actually read. The texts evoke Calderón's childhood memories of hotel lobby book exchanges, where mostly U.S. tourists would trade off battered copies of English-language bestsellers.
For the project, Calderón combed éapulco's beaches searching for random subjects, or "anti-heroines," to use in his film. When the startled but willing participants agreed, he handed them copies of previously selected novels.
In the video installation, sound clips from corresponding audiobooks play overhead, the narrators dictating strange and quirky passages in animated voices. Spanish subtitles translate the passages on the screen.
The tranquil images paired with the smooth, steady sound bites create an almost hypnotic experience, drawing viewers in and evoking the trancelike sensations of sunbathing on a hot beach.
"He takes a critical approach, but he is mostly opening up the situation for everyone to see," explained the curator.
CALDERON, CLOSE UP
Miguel Calderón developed "Bestseller" especially for the Panorámica series, in part to seize the opportunity to exhibit a new project and also revisit a recurring theme in his body of work - éapulco.
The artist, born in Mexico City in 1971, studied at the San Francisco Art Institute in the mid-1990s. Shortly after he returned to Mexico, he helped found the internationally well-known art gallery La Panadería, a hub for local and foreign artists and curators that has since closed its doors.
Calderón has since exhibited throughout Mexico and in museums worldwide, including the Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York; MusAce d'Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; and in biennial art exhibitions in Sao Paolo; Busan, South Korea; and Sarjah, United Arab Emirates.
His "Bestseller" installation is presented courtesy of the Mexico City gallery Kurimanzutto, with whom Calderón has previously presented solo exhibitions.
Monday, August 17, 2009
IBM launches its 'smart' campaign
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Aug. 17, 2009
(featured on the technology special in the biz section)
Heavy congestion on the highways. Cumbersome legal forms. Inefficient municipal electric and water systems. All of the problems that plague governments worldwide are issues that U.S.-based technology giant IBM hopes to address through its Smarter Planet campaign.
IBM hosted its "smarter cities" summit in Mexico City last week, sponsoring a series of seminars to encourage Mexico's public sector to talk about solutions for municipal and national transport, energy, water, telecommunications and other systems. The summit, first held in Berlin earlier this summer, will travel to New York City next month.
The Smarter Planet campaign essentially strives to spark progress in the public sector by consulting governments and cities on a problem-by-problem basis.
In the southwest U.S. city Albuquerque, for example, IBM provided a business intelligence solution that improved the city's ability to generate informative reports by 2,000 percent, according to IBM. Belgium's Crossroads social security bank automated 42 services for employers in 2008; as a result, 23 million declarations were made electronically last year, a switch that saved Belgian businesses an estimated 1.7 billion euros per year. In Stockholm, Sweden, improved public transit systems reduced traffic by 20 percent and lowered fuel emissions by 12 percent.
At the Tuesday conference last week, IBM's Jonathan Breul sat down with The News to discuss the campaign and the opportunities it presents to the global public sector. Breul is the executive director for the company's Washington-based Center for The Business of Government and a U.S. partner in IBM's Global Business Services.
How is IBM working with the public sector to build a 'smarter' society?
The whole Smart campaign is a worldwide one. We're turning up the volume, the attention and speaking out across the world about challenges and opportunities. It particularly works and fits in the public sector, because the public service is the one that's got to pick up the ball on so many of these problems and meet challenges before they arrive, not afterwards.
What has kept the world's governments from being more efficient? What is holding them back?
There are two things: one is leadership, and the other is a preoccupation with the problems that are right in front of them. The immediate always drives out the important.and crowds out the longer-term and more urgent things.
The move towards `smarter' is a big change, and it is strategic and requires thinking in large and longer terms. That is difficult, and that requires leadership and focus.
In which areas can the public sector increase efficiency?
There are six areas: the people, all the relationships with business, transportation, communications, water and energy. Those are six of the big core systems that cities have to deal with. In a sense, you could start with any one of those, but they are all interconnected. Cities need to start thinking in those terms.
If global governments fail to revamp their systems, what could be the consequences?
It's crime; it's dirty water or lack of water; it's congestion. It's people who aren't getting the health and human services they need. It's all the things that matter that the public service is doing. Public service.has got to provide for the health, safety and welfare of its citizens. It's everything that matters for the citizen.
IBM points out citizens' demand for private sector services in the public sector. What elements do citizens want?
With the ability to pick up a smart phone or another device and instantly communicate with anyone and draw [information] off the Internet.when you have citizens who are comfortable and now expecting that kind of behavior from the private sector, they're going to expect the same from their police, water, electric; they expect everything else to operate in the same way.
And it can. We've got the tools to make that happen, now it's a matter of taking that capability to the public sector and figuring out how to apply it to all the important thing a government does. It's been a wakeup call.
What are some of the campaign's long-term goals?
It goes back to whatever the citizen demands are. This is not just an exercise in technology. Technology is presented as opportunities to deal with citizens and problems. I think the most exciting thing is we can start thinking about, dreaming about and tackling the kinds of problems that were beyond us before.
Lots of things that weren't possible before we can deal with now. It allows national and state governments to start thinking about health care, energy and social services reforms.
The News
Aug. 17, 2009
(featured on the technology special in the biz section)
Heavy congestion on the highways. Cumbersome legal forms. Inefficient municipal electric and water systems. All of the problems that plague governments worldwide are issues that U.S.-based technology giant IBM hopes to address through its Smarter Planet campaign.
IBM hosted its "smarter cities" summit in Mexico City last week, sponsoring a series of seminars to encourage Mexico's public sector to talk about solutions for municipal and national transport, energy, water, telecommunications and other systems. The summit, first held in Berlin earlier this summer, will travel to New York City next month.
The Smarter Planet campaign essentially strives to spark progress in the public sector by consulting governments and cities on a problem-by-problem basis.
In the southwest U.S. city Albuquerque, for example, IBM provided a business intelligence solution that improved the city's ability to generate informative reports by 2,000 percent, according to IBM. Belgium's Crossroads social security bank automated 42 services for employers in 2008; as a result, 23 million declarations were made electronically last year, a switch that saved Belgian businesses an estimated 1.7 billion euros per year. In Stockholm, Sweden, improved public transit systems reduced traffic by 20 percent and lowered fuel emissions by 12 percent.
At the Tuesday conference last week, IBM's Jonathan Breul sat down with The News to discuss the campaign and the opportunities it presents to the global public sector. Breul is the executive director for the company's Washington-based Center for The Business of Government and a U.S. partner in IBM's Global Business Services.
How is IBM working with the public sector to build a 'smarter' society?
The whole Smart campaign is a worldwide one. We're turning up the volume, the attention and speaking out across the world about challenges and opportunities. It particularly works and fits in the public sector, because the public service is the one that's got to pick up the ball on so many of these problems and meet challenges before they arrive, not afterwards.
What has kept the world's governments from being more efficient? What is holding them back?
There are two things: one is leadership, and the other is a preoccupation with the problems that are right in front of them. The immediate always drives out the important.and crowds out the longer-term and more urgent things.
The move towards `smarter' is a big change, and it is strategic and requires thinking in large and longer terms. That is difficult, and that requires leadership and focus.
In which areas can the public sector increase efficiency?
There are six areas: the people, all the relationships with business, transportation, communications, water and energy. Those are six of the big core systems that cities have to deal with. In a sense, you could start with any one of those, but they are all interconnected. Cities need to start thinking in those terms.
If global governments fail to revamp their systems, what could be the consequences?
It's crime; it's dirty water or lack of water; it's congestion. It's people who aren't getting the health and human services they need. It's all the things that matter that the public service is doing. Public service.has got to provide for the health, safety and welfare of its citizens. It's everything that matters for the citizen.
IBM points out citizens' demand for private sector services in the public sector. What elements do citizens want?
With the ability to pick up a smart phone or another device and instantly communicate with anyone and draw [information] off the Internet.when you have citizens who are comfortable and now expecting that kind of behavior from the private sector, they're going to expect the same from their police, water, electric; they expect everything else to operate in the same way.
And it can. We've got the tools to make that happen, now it's a matter of taking that capability to the public sector and figuring out how to apply it to all the important thing a government does. It's been a wakeup call.
What are some of the campaign's long-term goals?
It goes back to whatever the citizen demands are. This is not just an exercise in technology. Technology is presented as opportunities to deal with citizens and problems. I think the most exciting thing is we can start thinking about, dreaming about and tackling the kinds of problems that were beyond us before.
Lots of things that weren't possible before we can deal with now. It allows national and state governments to start thinking about health care, energy and social services reforms.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Tulum funk & soul band makes its D.F. debut
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Aug. 15, 2009
The vibraphone's mellow chime, the saxophones' funky notes and smooth, powerful vocals fill the stage as La Femi's thumping rhythms pulse through the audience at the band's first concert in Mexico City.
The Tulum-based funk, soul, jazz and hip-hop group on Wednesday played for the first time outside its Yucatan Peninsula hometown, blasting its fusion of Latin and West African rhythms into the Foro Shakespeare concert hall in Colonia Condesa.
La Femi is set to play again this Saturday at the Black Horse bar in Condesa, rounding off its debut in the Federal District and kicking off plans to play all throughout Mexico's biggest cities.
The six-member band will also record its first album, "Children of the World," in Cuernavaca at the end of the month. Release dates and places to buy the disc will be posted on its MySpace page in September.
FORMING LA FEMI
La Femi first formed in late 2008, although the members had all met each other the year before.
Ale, the lead vocalist who is originally from Seattle, explained that Tulum is such a small, connected community that it is easy for musicians and artists to gravitate towards each other.
"All the musicians get together and have jams. It's like a family of musicians," she said before the Wednesday concert, bouncing her 10-month-old daughter Femi, the band's namesake, on her lap.
"Femi" is Swahili for "love me," she said, adding that she and her husband Angel, the band's Cuernavacíborn drummer, picked an African name because of his training in West African drumming and traditional rhythms.
The band first started playing together after Ale and Gabo, the bass guitarist from Mexico City, met up with Angel in the Tulum group Guadaloop. Soon after, the trio was joined by three French jazz musicians: Jacques, who plays the vibraphone and keyboards, and Adrian and Sebastien, who both play saxophones.
"We want to create a new fusion and a completely original product," Jacques said. "We all come from different places and have different styles of music, so we want to make something brand new."
And La Femi does achieve a unique style, one that borrows from various genres but offers a fresh sound that is both captivating and entertaining.
Back at the mid-week show, the band's performance of "Use It" blends catchy saxophone solos with Ale's smooth voice, her melody forming a harmony by tapping a loop pedal on the ground. She then bursts into a dynamic rap accompanied only by the drums and bass until the keyboards and saxophones join in again.
The next song, "Legs," is slower, more seductive number, opening with Ale's cabaret-style voice as the vibraphone steadily chimes in and subtle drumming sets a sexier vibe; suddenly the vocals erupt into a throaty, forceful chorus.
In each song Ale channels the beat of the drums and bass into expressive dancing, moving easily with the rhythms and inspiring those in the audience to do the same. And in every song, the mostly English-language lyrics have an upbeat vibe, reflecting the group's creed of looking at life with a positive attitude.
OUT OF TULUM
For the band, this week will have marked the beginning steps in their journey to spread their funk, jazz and hip-hop sounds across Mexico. The band left Tulum in May to escape the oppressive heat and low tourist season and intends to return at the end of the year.
While La Femi has become a well-known group in Tulum and getting gigs has been easy for the sextet, their competition outside the coastal artist community is much larger and far more intense.
"We've ventured outside Tulum to get a better name for ourselves and to get better work," Ale said, adding that the group has their sights set on cities like Guadalajara, QuerActaro, San Luis Potosí and San Miguel de Allende.
She said La Femi has also found success playing concerts and jam sessions in the streets, shows she called gratifying exhibitions that in the past has attracted outdoor crowds of around 200 people.
"All I want is for us to get invited to festivals worldwide, and if La Femi can play year-round, then we've reached our goals," she added.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Jam sessions push for peace
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
August 12, 2009
(oops! skipped a few stories)
Long after sunset, they slink into the empty Mexico City park. It's quiet at first when the beat of a bongo cuts through the silence. The heavy bellow of a long wooden horn soon follows, joined in by a strumming guitar, clapping hands and a chorus of voices.
They've all come out for a Wednesday night jam session in Colonia Condesa's Parque México as part of a movement against violence led by the grassroots group In Lak'Ech, whose name is a Mayan phrase which loosely translates to "you are my other self."
"The basic idea of In Lak'Ech is that the only way to stop violence is through non-violence," said Jens Gould, who helps lead the impromptu mid-week concerts.
"The movement proposes to create a stronger community, because 99 percent of [Mexico] isn't violent, but the problem is that those people aren't organized."
Gould added that robbery, kidnapping and other destructive activities affect so many communities because most people are afraid to get to know one another. Neighbors remain strangers, and unknown faces stay a mystery.
By hosting events like the Wednesday jam, In Lak'Ech aims to turn dark, sketchy places - like a public park at night, for example - into safe, friendly spaces where anyone can come out and chime in.
The civil group last fall began hosting community activities in cities like León and Monterrey and by organizing weekend singing sessions with around 200 participants in Mexico City's Polanco neighborhood, and several local musicians composed songs specifically for the event.
Now, the singing sessions take place each Sunday afternoon near the Fuente de los Cantaros (Fountain of Pitchers) inside Parque México. In Lak'Ech that day also hosts painting activities for children, provides chess sets for matches and organizes dance classes for any curious resident or visitor passing through the park.
Bright and early on Wednesday mornings, the movement also organizes jogging groups to huff and puff around the park. At 10 p.m., a spontaneous hodgepodge of instruments finds its way around the fountain, which in recent weeks has included flamenco guitar and dance, African drumming, saxophones and a complete percussion kit. Everyone is welcome to bring their own instruments, sing along or clap quietly from the sidelines.
"It's been a really grassroots thing; people invite other people who invite other people," Gould said. "Before, there was no one out there on Wednesday at night, and now there's fifty, sixty people."
"People are saying now, 'I feel safer now about crossing the park than I used to.'"
More info on In Lak'Ech, visit www.inlakech.org.mx
The News
August 12, 2009
(oops! skipped a few stories)
Long after sunset, they slink into the empty Mexico City park. It's quiet at first when the beat of a bongo cuts through the silence. The heavy bellow of a long wooden horn soon follows, joined in by a strumming guitar, clapping hands and a chorus of voices.
They've all come out for a Wednesday night jam session in Colonia Condesa's Parque México as part of a movement against violence led by the grassroots group In Lak'Ech, whose name is a Mayan phrase which loosely translates to "you are my other self."
"The basic idea of In Lak'Ech is that the only way to stop violence is through non-violence," said Jens Gould, who helps lead the impromptu mid-week concerts.
"The movement proposes to create a stronger community, because 99 percent of [Mexico] isn't violent, but the problem is that those people aren't organized."
Gould added that robbery, kidnapping and other destructive activities affect so many communities because most people are afraid to get to know one another. Neighbors remain strangers, and unknown faces stay a mystery.
By hosting events like the Wednesday jam, In Lak'Ech aims to turn dark, sketchy places - like a public park at night, for example - into safe, friendly spaces where anyone can come out and chime in.
The civil group last fall began hosting community activities in cities like León and Monterrey and by organizing weekend singing sessions with around 200 participants in Mexico City's Polanco neighborhood, and several local musicians composed songs specifically for the event.
Now, the singing sessions take place each Sunday afternoon near the Fuente de los Cantaros (Fountain of Pitchers) inside Parque México. In Lak'Ech that day also hosts painting activities for children, provides chess sets for matches and organizes dance classes for any curious resident or visitor passing through the park.
Bright and early on Wednesday mornings, the movement also organizes jogging groups to huff and puff around the park. At 10 p.m., a spontaneous hodgepodge of instruments finds its way around the fountain, which in recent weeks has included flamenco guitar and dance, African drumming, saxophones and a complete percussion kit. Everyone is welcome to bring their own instruments, sing along or clap quietly from the sidelines.
"It's been a really grassroots thing; people invite other people who invite other people," Gould said. "Before, there was no one out there on Wednesday at night, and now there's fifty, sixty people."
"People are saying now, 'I feel safer now about crossing the park than I used to.'"
More info on In Lak'Ech, visit www.inlakech.org.mx
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Salsa classes welcome experts, novices alike
BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Aug. 5, 2009
"Cubana!" the instructor calls out as claves clack and trombones sound. "Turn to the left! Turn to the right!" he shouts to the beat, his footsteps keeping rhythm with the music.
The group before him copies the steps, moving on the dance floor with either flustered faces or with practiced ease. They have all come out on a recent Wednesday night to hone their salsa skills at Mojito Room's weeknight classes.
For many newcomers to Mexico City or to Latin America, dancing can become one of the first culture clashes they face. Foreigners accustomed to dance-less house parties and crowded bars might find themselves bashful when a Mexican friend drags them by the hand to the dance floor.
Those hoping to look a little less clueless when that fateful moment comes have found a near-perfect solution in virtually free salsa lessons.
At Mojito Room, with bases in the city's Condesa neighborhood and SatAclite in the State of Mexico, novices and skilled dancers alike can come out every Wednesday, Thursday or Friday night to move their hips and practice the steps.
Rows of glasses filled with mint, sugar and ice line the bar, already prepared for the swarm of sweaty dancers seeking mojitos between sets. Bartenders expertly add rum and mineral water on cue, serving up a delicious cocktail that is neither too sweet nor too strong.
Rodrigo Irra, floor manager at the Condesa spot, said the salsa classes have always been a part of the Cubíthemed bars, whose parent company is based in Miami.
While Mexico City staples like the Mama Rumba dance clubs have long since offered classes to the public for a 100 peso cover charge, the Mojito Room provides a fresh alternative to the scene; the Condesa branch will celebrate its one-year anniversary in October, and the SatAclite bar has been around for two years.
The classes, which kick off at 9:30 p.m., are open to anyone who can fit on the dance floor. Cuban and Mexican instructors guide students against the backdrop of prerecorded salsa and bachata music, teaching individual steps first and then transitioning into partnered movements.
"Básico!" the instructor calls out again, challenging dancers to place the left foot forward and the right foot back. "Susie Q!" he says into the microphone, taking exaggerated steps and swiveling his hips. Some of the students shuffle awkwardly and giggle to their friends while others move sensually, making the steps look simple and effortless.
Classes on Wednesday and Thursday teach "salsa en línea," a variation of the dance with movements circling toward the left and involving a quick pace and lots of turns. Friday classes teach "salsa cubana," a slightly distinct form with movements toward the right and more incorporation of the arms and the whole body.
Until last Wednesday, the classes were offered free of charge. Now, Mojito Room charges a 70-peso cover from Wednesday to Saturday in exchange for a ticket worth one free classic mojito (also worth 70 pesos), part of a pilot program the bar is testing out, Irra said.
By 11 p.m., the dance floor clears and a live Cuban salsa band takes to the stage, pumping rhythmic stylings like son, cumbia, huahuanco and, of course, salsa. Mojito Room regularly invites bands Son Cubano or Valentini y los del Caribe to play, and the bands alternate nights and locations depending on the week.
With horns blaring, maracas shaking and smooth voices singing in the front, dancers reclaim the floor in a salsa free-for-all, experts and amateurs alike swiveling and stepping to the beat.
The News
Aug. 5, 2009
"Cubana!" the instructor calls out as claves clack and trombones sound. "Turn to the left! Turn to the right!" he shouts to the beat, his footsteps keeping rhythm with the music.
The group before him copies the steps, moving on the dance floor with either flustered faces or with practiced ease. They have all come out on a recent Wednesday night to hone their salsa skills at Mojito Room's weeknight classes.
For many newcomers to Mexico City or to Latin America, dancing can become one of the first culture clashes they face. Foreigners accustomed to dance-less house parties and crowded bars might find themselves bashful when a Mexican friend drags them by the hand to the dance floor.
Those hoping to look a little less clueless when that fateful moment comes have found a near-perfect solution in virtually free salsa lessons.
At Mojito Room, with bases in the city's Condesa neighborhood and SatAclite in the State of Mexico, novices and skilled dancers alike can come out every Wednesday, Thursday or Friday night to move their hips and practice the steps.
Rows of glasses filled with mint, sugar and ice line the bar, already prepared for the swarm of sweaty dancers seeking mojitos between sets. Bartenders expertly add rum and mineral water on cue, serving up a delicious cocktail that is neither too sweet nor too strong.
Rodrigo Irra, floor manager at the Condesa spot, said the salsa classes have always been a part of the Cubíthemed bars, whose parent company is based in Miami.
While Mexico City staples like the Mama Rumba dance clubs have long since offered classes to the public for a 100 peso cover charge, the Mojito Room provides a fresh alternative to the scene; the Condesa branch will celebrate its one-year anniversary in October, and the SatAclite bar has been around for two years.
The classes, which kick off at 9:30 p.m., are open to anyone who can fit on the dance floor. Cuban and Mexican instructors guide students against the backdrop of prerecorded salsa and bachata music, teaching individual steps first and then transitioning into partnered movements.
"Básico!" the instructor calls out again, challenging dancers to place the left foot forward and the right foot back. "Susie Q!" he says into the microphone, taking exaggerated steps and swiveling his hips. Some of the students shuffle awkwardly and giggle to their friends while others move sensually, making the steps look simple and effortless.
Classes on Wednesday and Thursday teach "salsa en línea," a variation of the dance with movements circling toward the left and involving a quick pace and lots of turns. Friday classes teach "salsa cubana," a slightly distinct form with movements toward the right and more incorporation of the arms and the whole body.
Until last Wednesday, the classes were offered free of charge. Now, Mojito Room charges a 70-peso cover from Wednesday to Saturday in exchange for a ticket worth one free classic mojito (also worth 70 pesos), part of a pilot program the bar is testing out, Irra said.
By 11 p.m., the dance floor clears and a live Cuban salsa band takes to the stage, pumping rhythmic stylings like son, cumbia, huahuanco and, of course, salsa. Mojito Room regularly invites bands Son Cubano or Valentini y los del Caribe to play, and the bands alternate nights and locations depending on the week.
With horns blaring, maracas shaking and smooth voices singing in the front, dancers reclaim the floor in a salsa free-for-all, experts and amateurs alike swiveling and stepping to the beat.
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