Oaxaca-The Year After: Modern traditions

The here and now... and what and why

Complacency is a trap. At least that’s what I was thinking when I up and left the comfort of a Yankee prep school gig, where I taught music, amongst other things, for 28 years. There was also that life long career as a composer, musician and artist.

First, it was a year in St. Thomas, USVI, working as a reporter and shooting photography and then, a year in San Agustin Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Time passed.
More time passed and a year back in the Athens of America followed by a hasty return to Oaxaca where it is all happening.
A couple of years in San Sebastian Etla and now, just down the road in San Pablo Etla. Life is good.

Click on an image to see it larger.
For additional photography please visit my flickr page.
You can find my music on Jango (World & latin - Worldbeat) and at iTunes and most online stores.
¡Soy consciente de todas las tradiciones del Internet!
If you are coming to Oaxaca, please contact me for tours or advice.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Modern traditions

Let's face it smart phones, ipads, ect. are ubiquitous in this world. They are everywhere. In Reyes.

In Etla.

Watching the reporters with their ipads in Etla last week was illuminating. They would take a picture, write a short paragraph and hit send.

I guess you could see right away if you made the news.

I used to be Mr. Cutting Edge when it came to tech, but here.... I still don't have a cell. However, maybe an ipad or itouch will find its way into my bag of tricks soon.

PS - While getting fruit and vegetables from Doña Rosa, my produce abuela in Etla, this morning, I somehow managed to drop my everyday camera. Not to worry. It did not hit the concrete floor. No, it landed dead center in a 5 gallon bucket filled with water, a perfect shot. So I am trying to dry the sucker out by covering it with rice as per suggestions on the intertubes. I am not hopeful, but remain optimistic.

Update: Well, the rice worked and the camera seems OK. However, getting there was the normal comedy. First, I had a couple of bags of rice, but the first was full of those bugs that always manage to get in there. The second was a little bit better, but still buggy, however, a different kind of bug. After a few trial and error attempts, here's what I did. Nuked the rice to kill the bugs. The rice got pretty warm/hot. Then I wrapped the camera in paper towels so no rice dust/bugs would get in. Put an inch of hot rice in a container and then the wrapped camera, which I then completely covered with more rice. I repeated nuking the rice after a few hours to reheat it. As I say, the camera seems fine. I'll run some tests, but for now, what do ya know? It actually worked.