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Post by rikita on Dec 24, 2010 10:48:13 GMT
wow, i must admit i find that quite scary... so the hunters can shoot something in someone's yard - and if it turns out to be a person they don't even get in trouble for it... that seems bizarre to me. in ohter words, i have to think constantly about what i do or wear in my own garden, just because someone who likes killing animals might be around?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 24, 2010 14:36:39 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Dec 24, 2010 15:37:16 GMT
Well, you only have to worry about it during the hunting season (in theory, though poaching does occur). In some states the season is very short, 10 days to 2 weeks. So the rest of the time you can wear your white mittens with impunity. In Montana, the gun season is 6 weeks long, and the population is so thinly dispersed that hunters often don't think about the possibility of there being houses or people within range of their firearms.
A rifle bullet will travel 1 - 2 MILES if it doesn't hit something first. That means you have to worry about shooting something you can't even see. I have neighbors who took a bullet in their home's wooden siding some years back...
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Post by rikita on Dec 29, 2010 13:30:49 GMT
k, i guess if i ever travel to the states again, i will always first check if it is hunting season anywhere, so i can avoid those places... it is kind of scary...
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2011 18:50:22 GMT
We're gearing up for some Twelfth Night revelry here Thursday night!!!! It's a really long, long Carnival season this year,Mardi Gras is on March 8th,about as late as it can be.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2011 21:54:32 GMT
I am hoping for some major Mardi Gras photos this year, Casimira, even if you normally avoid tourist hell! We need to see that stuff.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2011 23:44:09 GMT
Will do!! It's going to be a long season!! I'm pretty psyched for it actually. Ready to shed off some of the past year.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 5, 2011 1:24:55 GMT
he is saying:¡Me gustaría ir al carnaval en Nueva Orleáns! As it happens, though, he won't be going anywhere ever again. This was up on a neighbor's roof in the last days of December. I found it set up on the end of my block on New Year's eve. The next day, there was nothing but ash and an unburnt shoe. Well, also the chunks of concrete supporting it, which to date have not been moved.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2011 12:36:37 GMT
I was pondering at lunch time how odd it is to work where I do, inside the 'Golden Triangle' -- perhaps the highest concentration of haute couture and other high end boutiques in the world, all trying to outdo each other. One of my personal favourites is Beretta, which is not at all flashy, even though it always displays a gun in the window along with its discreet alpha male clothes and accessories. What I like, though, is the little indication "since 1526" on the sign -- definitely something that not many other shops can claim.
Besides all of the shops for people who don't have to look at the price, the triangle also contains the various offices of the agents of just about all of the movie and media stars in France. So every day, I see people like Catherine Deneuve, Audrey Tautou or Monica Bellucci going in and out of the buildings and often stopping to window shop (or sometimes to shop for real).
And yet one of the roles of us other people in the area is to let them feel like (not quite) ordinary people, unrecognized, with no requests for autographs or gushes of admiration. Tourists, however, often stop dead in their tracks like a deer in the headlights. Often, they are a bit perplexed because they feel as though they recognize the person, but they aren't sure. The stars don't quite look like themselves, because they are not made up for a photo session, they're often wearing jeans, and of course they are often taller or shorter (and older) than you thought they were, the men are unshaven and have bags under their eyes. It takes a while to learn to process all of this and put the pieces together. Besides being used to what they look like, I also have the advantage of knowing in which buildings are the artistic agencies, so anybody going in or out of those has a much better chance of being famous than the ones walking out of an insurance company.
Surrounded by glamour, but totally blind to it...
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Post by Kimby on Jan 8, 2011 0:37:42 GMT
One of my personal favourites is Beretta, which is not at all flashy, even though it always displays a gun in the window along with its discreet alpha male clothes and accessories. What I like, though, is the little indication "since 1526" on the sign -- definitely something that not many other shops can claim. I'm guessing they may have opened under a different name 485 years ago?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 18, 2011 16:13:44 GMT
I think this comes under the category of local color, as it is something that never occurs back home (the US).
Yesterday I was invited to a birthday party ................. for a three-year-old.
It is common here for kids' parties to include adults. This one is going to be held in the playing field in front of my house, rather than in the street or in the large patio of the hosts. How big is this thing going to be?
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Post by bjd on Jan 18, 2011 17:36:19 GMT
Bixa, have you ever been to one of those quinceañera parties?
I understand that those are really over the top.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 18, 2011 18:10:31 GMT
And have you seen the (American) film Quinceañera (also known as Echo Park, L.A.)? Really excellent film about the whole subject.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 18, 2011 18:12:29 GMT
Bjd, they easily rival weddings in pageantry and money spent. I've written about them before on here, but don't remember where. There is quite an industry catering to them. For instance, bridal shops are also quinceañera shops, featuring truly gorgeous gowns. I once attended two quinceañeras within the space of a week. One was "modern", for a granddaughter of this family. That one began with a great deal of long drawn-out ritual and presentations. Many, many uncles were presented, along with various "godparents" (people who sponsor various aspects of the party -- dress, cake, etc.). After that was the waltz. This is a very big deal, with schools specializing in teaching it. Since the celebrant has male attendants, often the waltz incorporates them. Such was the case at this party, with the waltz being an production number. There was also a sort of dance where a little girl came out with a doll and presented it to the birthday girl. This symbolized the end of her childhood. Her nascent adulthood was represented by a bouquet that was danced out to her by one of the men. After that she danced with a succession of male relatives. We were given a catered meal after that. This was the occasion where every single foodstuff was pink. This kind of catered meal is common at quinceañeras and never very good, being the blandest kind of "continental" food. There is always a big, fancy cake, similar to a wedding cake. There was very loud dj music, with lights and a large screen with video during the meal and for the dancing afterward. This was one of those two-day parties, where you return the next day to find that everything is really subdued and no one is actually in the mood. You get fed again and favors are distributed. The other party was touted to me as more traditional. It was on a street that had been blocked off for the occasion. The family was rather poor, but I had been invited by the padrinos -- the girl's godparents who were actually footing the bill for much of it. I went to the Mass first. There was a long sermon and the priest really spoke sternly to the kids about accepting the responsibilities of adulthood and how Mass was not an adjunct to a 15th birthday celebration, but a spiritual occasion. (I've been told repeatedly that many unreligious families turn up at church wanting the Mass that traditionally goes with these parties.) After that, there were zillions of photos made on the steps of the church. The girl was truly beautiful, petite and feminine in the way Oaxacan women do so well. Her dress was a black bouffant skirt with an orange satin "princess" bodice ornamented with green vines. It sounds awful, but was really a lovely confection. Her galáns (teen male attendants) had matching orange satin vests and an amazing variety of gelled hair styles. Her mother was in a worn house dress and her dad in a faded polo shirt, jeans, and sneakers. We all went back to their house, which was dirt-floored and had no plumbing. There we were served prodigious amounts of chicken and mole by scurrying female relatives, with beer and pop flowing freely. There was much sitting around and talking, but I was very curious about the stage set up at one end of the street. There was a huge flower bud sort of thing on it. I think the birthday girl was going to emerge from it for her waltz, but I left before any of that happened.
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Post by rikita on Jan 19, 2011 13:34:25 GMT
the mention of hte birthday party reminds me of a birthday i was invited to here - the first birthday of a little girl (i was told only the first birthday is always celebrated by inviting people, else it is usually just a small family occasion, only sometimes people get invited to other birthdays).
the birthday mainly consisted of a one-hour prayer session, during which the birthday girl got bored pretty quickly so the mother left the room with her. after that we were served appam and chicken curry and payasam for dessert, which was quite nice, then people stayed for a little while longer to chat (while the second half of people sat down to eat, as there were too many to sit all at once - for the prayer most women and some men sit on the floor, though i always get offered a seat).
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 22, 2011 19:40:23 GMT
That sounds pleasant, Rikita, and is certainly local color. At the moment I'm steeped in local color. I just came back from the Mass for the Presentación of the three-year-old girl whose grandparents live next door to me. As I sat there zoning out during the sermon, I heard the word "sexualidad". Eh?? Then I started paying more attention and heard "matrimonio". That's when I leaned over to ask the woman next to me if this was a wedding. She said it was a wedding, a first communion, and the presentation. Oh. The church was almost empty, so I'm glad I went out of politeness. There were two bands outside the church. One struck up as the birthday girl came out. Then, as I went around outside the wall of the churchyard, the other one played for the bride and groom -- cacophony! So I'm home now, waiting for everything to crank up. I took pictures of the canopy and tables set up in the playing field in front of my house. This is gonna be big. The band arrived and struck up, whereupon Ginger (shown in the first pic below) scampered inside. He knows that oom-pah-pah presages fireworks. I was thrilled to see the Indio truck out there. My neighbor just came over & asked me to store big containers of Jello/gelatina/jelly in my fridge. I'm starving! I just want all of you to know that, as I sit here typing to you, I look very nice.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 23, 2011 0:18:53 GMT
Kill me now. They've got a clown. I stood it as long as I could, then broke for the house. The woman sitting next to me, a person about my age, said "Where are you going?" in that tone of voice indicating that I was going to miss the best part. She was totally into it -- the clapping, the yelling, the little songs, the games. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaggggghhhhhhhhhh. I told her I had to check on my dog. So far I've emptied the bathroom and kitchen garbage cans, taken some compost out the bin, gone to the john, and as you see, am now hiding here with a cup of coffee. I'll go back when it sounds as though the clown is winding down.
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Post by bjd on Jan 23, 2011 7:25:55 GMT
Bixa, I hope you were sitting right close to the loudspeaker. I thought you would make us a little video of the clown's performance, but it looks as though we are out of luck.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2011 11:19:07 GMT
I bet it all went all until dawn and Bixa won't be back for another 6 or 7 hours.
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Post by rikita on Jan 23, 2011 14:39:23 GMT
we went to tamil nadu yesterday, and i was really surprised: after the border, for about two or three kilometers it looks still similar (that is in the more or less uninhabited area - the monkeys look the same, so do the trees) - and then it completely changes. like getting into a different country. the landscape is different (flat, mountains only as background), the villages seem different (a lot poorer), the whole atmosphere is different...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 23, 2011 15:58:23 GMT
That's pretty cool, Rikita. You seldom see such radical difference in places tbat are close together.
Well, I went back when I could hear that the lengthy clown segment was over. Only two of my seatmates were still in place, so I wasn't the only escapee. "What happened with you?", they asked. I admitted that I hated clowns, and asked them, "Where's Malena?" (another woman who'd been sitting with us). They laughed and said she'd left, too -- "Maybe she couldn't handle the clown, either!"
It really was a nice party, but dragged out the way parties are here. By the time the clown showed up, everyone had eaten and time had passed. The little birthday girl's eyes were drooping, and she seemed more interested in having a nap than in clown entertainment. She's really an even-tempered kid, who kept going enthusiastically even after the boredom of the Mass, then all the excitement and presents.
The food was good -- a soup of offal in a chile broth with vegetables, followed by pit-cooked beef with refried black beans and tortillas. Centuries later, there was cake and Jello.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2011 23:27:09 GMT
Ah, then you have more places to discover, Rikita. I would imagine that just like in Europe, the different provinces in a country are due to the fact that the lifestyle or facts of everyday life are not the same.
Bixa, I don't like parties generally, exactly because people (either guests or hosts, or both) don't know when to quit.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2011 3:46:04 GMT
I so envy your experience over there Rikita. I do hope you are keeping a journal and taking lots of fabulous photos. Speaking of photos,I don't see any clowns pics Bixa!! You ran off without taking any pics? (I personally,could not have run fast enough!!!!)
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Post by rikita on Jan 24, 2011 14:36:31 GMT
well i am writing a blog, but no personal journal - no time... loads of photos though. i might force my family to sit through hours and hours of dia shows when i get home...
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Post by Kimby on Feb 10, 2011 8:45:48 GMT
One of many panhandlers in my fair city. The cold weather lately has them laying low, though.
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Post by imec on Feb 10, 2011 17:59:40 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2011 18:32:04 GMT
One of many panhandlers in my fair city. The cold weather lately has them laying low, though. Even though I've driven on I-90, I am more of an I-10 sort of person.
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Post by gertie on Feb 17, 2011 15:17:05 GMT
Ah quinceañeras! We acted as honorary relatives to a neighbor girl for her quinceañeras - my daughter's best friend. Over the years her family and ours had gone back and forth. I always loved how their birthdays were always big celebrations with all the family and neighbors invited over to share a table groaning with good things to eat. We quite enjoyed the celebration, but then again it is the only one we've attended. Like a lot of things, I imagine they get less enjoyable when you have to attend many.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2011 15:31:23 GMT
Even though I've driven on I-90, I am more of an I-10 sort of person.
This surprises me Kerouac, for several reasons....Hwy. 90 is much more colorful,and of much more interest. I-10 bypasses so many of the strips of local color,and indeed was responsible for the demise of many of the commercial strips and main streets in many towns and cities across the U.S., including your home town. We drove East yesterday to Pensacola, Florida and I was disappointed at not being able to see more. The only reason we did go on I-10 was because we were in a bit of a rush to get to a memorial service for a friend on Pensacola Bay near the naval station there.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 26, 2011 11:41:03 GMT
With Mardi Gras only 10 days away,Carnival season here in NOLA is in almost full swing with small parades,parties,gatherings of all sorts in the neighborhoods in and around the city. This weekend more and more parades will march throughout various sections of the city. As the big day approaches,March 8th this year,rather late actually,more and more frivolity and a true essence of local color comes into evidence. Yesterday,midday,I was summoned by a trumpet horn away from my otherwise mundane gardening chores to a small sidewalk parade of young children and parents,teachers,accompanied by a small brass band. They were parading up a small commercial corridor than runs through a swath of an old residential section in uptown New Orleans.All the merchants,customers,passersby,and anyone within earshot came to watch this colorful,joyous spectacle of local color a la New Orleans. By no means representative of the massive night time spectacles that will roll through the streets in the upcoming week. Just an ordinary weekday,fun and silliness, to break up the day during Carnival. Then,back to work and school we all went.
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