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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2011 14:39:57 GMT
I took this photo on the day of the Po-Boy Fest this past Sunday and somehow she got lost in the posting of the thread. Anyway,here's Mrs. C.,former proprietress of one of the old seafood shops that was on Oak Street years ago and shut it's doors some 10 years ago. She still lives atop of the old store and was gazing out at the crowds at the festival when she caught my eye,recognized me and gave me a big wave hello.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 1, 2011 16:30:50 GMT
Hellooooo, Mrs. C!
I guess this is local color -- my doorbell rang just now. It was a man with a clipboard & a uniform bearing the initials IFE (Instituto Federal Electoral). He was searching for someone who must have had this address in the past in order to remind her to go renew her voter registration card!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2011 17:17:29 GMT
Jeez,I'm impressed!!!! I somehow did not think that would occur there,assuming you are still in a fairly rural area of Oaxaca Bixa. Uniform and all.... I would have been startled me....
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 5, 2011 7:26:34 GMT
Well, we're only technically rural -- I could literally walk to Oaxaca from my house. It seems a little Big Brotherish, doesn't it?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 14, 2011 19:48:37 GMT
A follow-up, as I finally remembered to look at whatever was pasted to my gate: This says that IFE visited this house. I have no idea what the chalked numbers are for. Maybe FEMA dropped by?
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Post by komsomol on Dec 14, 2011 20:21:59 GMT
I think voting should be obligatory, as it is in a number of countries.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2011 13:01:24 GMT
To quote a recently dearly departed friend, "I tried voting once,it didn't work."
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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2011 13:06:03 GMT
Meet Mr. Okra,the NOLA roving fresh produce man. He travels throughout the different neighborhoods selling all manner of fresh produce,advertising them on his loud speaker. There was a time when this was the norm here,he is surely one of the last of a dying breed.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2011 20:19:24 GMT
That looks wonderful. Urban produce trucks are a things of the past in France, but there are thousands of produce vans still serving the small villages (also bakery vans, butcher vans, deli vans, etc.).
The French word for okra is "gombo" -- it is a Bantu word from Angola. Oddly enough, the name okra is used in Algeria and Tunisia, apparently coming from Nigeria.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2011 18:49:03 GMT
We still have a fair representation of roadside produce stands but Mr. Okra is the only roving one that I'm aware of.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 9, 2012 10:13:58 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 9, 2012 16:21:14 GMT
Ohhhh -- too lovely and interesting, Tod! Really, this is worthy of its own thread, with all the great pictures you took and the super commentary.
Questions: I'm assuming the groom was Hindu before his conversion. Would the fact that his family's background was the same as the bride's make her marriage to him more palatable to her family?
Is the color red significant in some way, or just the color scheme chosen? The red and white is certainly striking and effective. And the table in the center, with the gold -- ooo!
You are so right about the women's clothes being stunning! Some of the women wear their saris beautifully. The bride's mother is the very picture of feminine grace and beauty. The woman you point out as more westernized really achieved an elegant nod to the fluidity of the sari in her lovely dress. I notice the men are dressed similar to the way many men here dress up -- with a practical consideration for the heat. And yes, that little girl is beyond cute!
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Post by tod2 on Jan 9, 2012 17:36:03 GMT
Thank you Bixa for the lovely comments. We never got 'out & about' as intended for my other project so thought there may be an interest here. I have never attended a 'mixed' marriage before so I was eyeing everyone and everything. Nothing fazed anyone as it would have at a conventional wedding which is mostly planned down to the last word At this ceremony a LOT of negotiating between the clergyman and the sound/music people/groom & bride went on during the whole ceremony. On the pamphlet there were 5 hymns or should I rather say 'songs' but only one was sung. The minister kept on and on about "tough times will come" until I nearly shouted from the back "Enough already with the tough times" ! The groom I think must have been Hindu but his name was anything but. Ralph Ricardo B......e. The brides maiden name was more in keeping with Indian names. She of course has also now switched to his religion. I don't know about the 'red' being significant - I think it was chosen . Her side of the family all wore something red like her uncle's tie in the photo with his sister, the brides mother. The bridal party wore jackets and I must say I had great admiration for them in the 32C heat! My husband dressed like most of the other men - very casual but NOT jeans.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2012 17:54:27 GMT
Now I know why you recommended biryani on the dinner thread! This looks like great fun. I have only attended one big (Chinese) wedding in my life, and it was great fun precisely because I knew only the bride and groom and maybe two other people (colleagues of the groom). It made it much easier for me to appreciate the festivities without having pointless conversations with vague acquaintances -- I met new people with fascinating stories, because we "outsiders" from around the world (Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, France, UK) were all placed at our own table and all had interesting stories to tell each other about our unusual presence in Singapore. (Damn, I wish my friends had stayed in Singapore instead of immigrating to Vancouver!) My brother has been married three times and I have never attended one of his weddings, that's how awful I am.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2012 21:26:43 GMT
Very lovely Tod!! Thank you for sharing this.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2012 22:12:28 GMT
I have been trying to catch this lady for a long time. She is a real local character,usually has a dog in her bike basket. She is about 80 plus years old,lives up on the river.(don't know where the dog is...). Miss Jeanne,R.I.P. died this past weekend. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her,even those who didn't didn't know her but only saw her riding through the streets. I wonder what will happen to her house up on the batture where she lived.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 30, 2012 22:18:45 GMT
Oh, she must be free-wheeling in heaven now! When I read your earlier post, I didn't realize that she lived in a batture house, something that requires a special sensibility and adaptability. What a wonderful free spirit she must have been. Linking to your photos here.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2012 2:53:37 GMT
I was in her house a couple of times. Serious hoarder. She got hit by a truck this past summer on Oak Street,got banged up pretty good. I saw her back on her bike a couple of times but not much after that. I would look for her when up there on my bike and no sign of her for awhile.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2012 13:26:53 GMT
That reminds me that I have not seen the Vietnamese woman decorated like a Christmas tree for ages. Perhaps she is now decorating a nursing home somewhere.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2012 17:12:30 GMT
Today at the local shopping mall, some drummers reminded me that the carnival is upon us.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 18, 2012 18:30:38 GMT
Super pictures! The little girl in the third photo is totally taken by them. What are they supposed to be? That had to have been LOUD inside the mall.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2012 19:22:21 GMT
It was very loud.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 20, 2012 9:46:23 GMT
One cannot help but to admire the wonderful perfection of the custumes! The faces are so perfectly matched to their individual colours - I just wish I knew what they were dressed as........golf tees (those little peg things that you rest the ball on)??
That looks a pretty smart mall Kerouac - where abouts?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2012 17:27:03 GMT
It is a new mall that opened last April in the (formerly?) ultra sleazy suburb of Aubervillers, just across the Paris city limits. I think the town is going to change really fast with two upcoming metro stations and also the T3 tramway line passing by, but it will probably remain the new Chinese garment district until further notice. I made this report about it in January 2011 and there are a few photos of the mall under construction. There are also a few photos of Aubervilliers during Chinese New Year at the end of the Chinese New Year report last month (Aubervilliers being the second largest Chinese city in France after Paris).
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2012 15:38:52 GMT
At our annual neighborhood Carnival parade last Friday night, the Krewe of O.A.K.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2012 16:57:18 GMT
That time of year again!
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Post by imec on Feb 25, 2012 21:31:57 GMT
Do you know these people casimira? Or are they just passersby?
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Post by Kimby on Feb 26, 2012 8:15:45 GMT
I wondered if this one belonged on this thread, then saw kerouac's similar photos at top of page 4. (same city, different guy?) Looking forward to lots more mardi gras photos on here, as I've never been, and probably won't be in NO for the big event. (I have an aversion to large crowds.)
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 26, 2012 17:03:00 GMT
Nice pic of the happy revelers, Casimira. I don't have a pic of today's grim local color. Neighborhoods here have "tequios", where everyone pitches in to get a job done. The problem is that generally not everyone finds out about them, so households get fined. This morning at eight my neighbor rang the bell & asked if I knew about the tequio. No, I didn't, & she'd just found out. The way things are announced is that a car with a loudspeaker on top goes around, theoretically in every street, to tell people. <-- more local color. This of course is utter bullshit, as they don't hit every street, are not skilled announcers, plus people who aren't home at the time miss out on the news. Anyway, I got my rake & a gunny sack & headed over to the recently fenced & very crummy playground, with 35+ other people to clean. Then we had a stupid meeting out in the playground, all trying to yell over the noise of a chainsaw. This despite the fact that the neighborhood office is less than a block from where we were. People were angry that there are so few meetings. The president: "We haven't called a meeting because we have nothing to announce." The wrong thing to say. Upshot -- meeting Saturday night & yet another cleaning tequio Sunday morning.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2012 18:13:41 GMT
Do you know these people casimira? Or are they just passersby? Yes!! From left to right,yours truly,my good friend Susan,and my neighbor/friend Homer. My husband took the pic with a cell phone therefore the poor quality.... I didn't take nary a Mardi Gras photo this year for a variety of reasons. We rode our bikes on Shrove Tuesday down to the French Quarter and the weather was very iffy with a high probability of rain in the forecast being the major reason. Bixa,I think I much prefer your neighborhood meeting to ours where everyone is all about their egos and wants to be heard....I rarely even go anymore unless there is a major issue on the agenda.
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