Tag Archives: Travel
February 18, 2011 anxiety (or why some pictures turn out bad)
[ from a. addair who is listening to Tom Waits (Closing Time) ]
when i think
i’m okay or that i’d like a distraction
thosemolesonmybackusetobesmallerdidtheynot
but it scrapes in my stomach
and drags at my face
ineedtodoasisaidiwoulddoandsendthosephotostojosh
and i try
to smile at the camera but
thedamnfloorsinourhouseletinsuchadraft
it is ugly
when i sit here unsure of how to proceed
Tags: anxiety, backpacking, closing time, home, hostel, moles, poetry, san cristobal, tired, tom waits, Travel, ugly pictures, worry
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February 10, 2011 all i’m trying to say is i don’t know, but it’s okay
[ from a. addair who is listening to Bill Evans (The best of Bill Evans Live) ]
It is different this year in Mexico. As I was last year, I am glad for warmth in the winter months and grateful for our friends here. I still relish the brightly painted walls; I admire the practical construction of houses and the scaled-down methods of lifestyle. I feel very lucky to be here.
But I am different than last year. A year full of every-days have rendered me changed. The moments from last February to this one are expressing themselves as a creature who loves to work and misses, with near hysterical pangs, waking up in the morning to paint. A creature who feels a heaving need to be near and available to a small community of family and friends. A creature who has learned that she needs a nest and a small portion of everyday in uninterrupted solitude. A creature who is learning to be open and generous with her resources. And a creature who is shedding frantic busyness for quiet and carefully prioritized commitments.
This creature is me, but I hadn’t known of her evolution until I returned here and measured her against the same winter Mexican sun, the Conejo bus that goes to el centro, and the soft but strong, irregular mountains of Chiapas.
I’m here, acutely aware of my recent and strange pelt, without the comforts and familiarity of home and every twilight brings a stab of melancholy nostalgia.
But I know that I don’t want to be yesteryear’s me or even go home as the me of a few weeks ago. I want my time in Mexico to be accounted for in the expression of this creature who I may not know, once again, in another year’s time.
And so…
well, I’m not certain.
And so, I suppose, I will engage with my days while I am here. I think that probably my time in Mexico will be a collection of moments for warmth, for easing into the acknowledgment of my new skin, and resolving to appropriately prioritize when we return. And I imagine the discomfort will find its place in this sketch that has yet to be revealed to me.
Tags: beach, bill evans, frida kahlo, homesick, learning, nest, pacifica ocean, painting, puerto arista, regularity, san cristobal, sol, sol beer, space, tonala, Travel, tuxtla gutierrez
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June 4, 2010 as if wanderlust can be beaten out of you
[ from a. addair who is listening to Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor, and Edgar Meyer (Appalachian Journey) ]
Now that we’ve decided to make our home back in good ol’ East Tennessee we’ve often been asked “Well, have you learned your lesson?” We get this mostly from fearful grandmothers but there are a few bona-fide haters in there too.
home-grown collage
Don’t get me wrong, one of my favorite things about coming home is encountering the fine Southern tradition of knocking high-falutin city kids off their high horses but I can’t help but to want to string the bacon on the table around the person-asking-this-question’s neck.
No, we didn’t learn our lesson. But yes, we did learn many lessons.
Tantrums aside, it is a real pleasure being back in Old North Knoxville.
Tags: appalachian journey, bacon, collage, color, edgar meyer, fabric, family, home, home-grown, lessons, mark o'connor, old north knoxville, olive oil green, plywood, southern tradition, Travel, wanderlust, work-worn color, yo-yo ma
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- Posted under Ashley, etsy, home, Life, simple living, things i'm reading/learning, travel and adventure
May 7, 2010 propagate snail mail
[ from a. addair who is listening to Arctic Monkeys (Humbug) ]
Now that the first issue of Good Packaging has been delivered to our subscribers, we’re going to let the rest of you in on what they got. Hopefully enticing you to 1. order a subscription and/or at least 2. help us spread the word. But I guess even if you refuse these requests you can (I hope) enjoy the pictures and get inspired to “make shit yourself”. Ordinarily, I don’t use such banal language but it’s advice we should all follow (or at least make an effort to buy from people “making shit themselves”).
Anyway, back to the point at hand(icraft). Here’s what you missed (or what those lovely subscribers of ours are now owners of):
Copy of Good Packaging spring 2010 letter-
“El Caracol significa fortalecer la resistencia de los pueblos para la construccion de su auctonomia, es un intento del EZLN para mostrar nuestras palabras. Espocible construr un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos.”
“The snail symbolizes the strengthening of the resistance of the people for the construction of one’s autonomy, it is an attempt of The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) to construct a world where many worlds can fit.”
Thank you for your subscription to Good Packaging. The theme of this issue is Mexico, because that is where we got the gumption to begin the undertaking. We have talked about it for some time.
The aim for Good Packaging is never to be a scrap book, but a systematic rendering of artistic endeavors. And because getting real mail is fun, we’ve chosen to spend time on box opening exhilaration.
Most importantly, we value you who enable us to do this. The motto for this issue is taken from a Zapatista saying: “It is possible to construct a world where there can exist many worlds.” The more people promote creative innovation and inspiration, well the more of that I guess there will be.
In your box you will find colorful materials backpacked by bus all the way from South Mexico to East Tennessee and then given over to the good ol US postal service to be lovingly carried to you. We’d like to explain why we included what we did.
Flags, fiestas, and sharing. Mexico is a country that celebrates; draping flags of paper or plastic is a way to signal in the sky that there are enjoyable activities taking place below. Your banner features traditional Mexican fabrics, paint chips from a paint store in Tuxtla, a vintage English textbook, and a found cookbook from a community in Virginia. Each banner is a one of a kind and original work by Ashley Addair celebrating the redefinition of cultural interactions and a nudge toward hosting our own times of “listening and learning” (a Zapatista objective) through the simple gathering of people. These fiesta flags aim to incorporate the dishes we know well here, like black walnut pound cake and corn pudding; hopefully reminding us that what we share is greater than our cultural differences.
Hecho en Mexico is the demo of Levon’s songwriting and recording at Don Pepe and Donna Escarlet’s. See the liner notes included for the full story on that. There’s also a generous yard of popular Mexican fabric with a book of DIY ideas and Spanish flashcards of some useful phrases. Finally we present our collaboration of the issue from the students of the American School of Tuxtla Gutierrez who created vegetable jungle creature post cards especially for the Good Packaging subscribers. Propogate your own snail mail.
We hope this package finds you well today. Put in the CD, hang the flags, cover the table with the fabric and have a fiesta.
Que les vaya bien,
levon walker and ashley addair
We are making some of the individual components of Good Packaging issues available for purchase at ashleyaddair.etsy.com. The subscription is also available for purchase, its the better deal.
Tags: arctic monkeys, art and music subscription service, colorful, fiesta, flags, good packaging, hecho en mexico, humbug, make shit yourself, mexico, snail mail, the american school of chiapas, Travel, vegetable creatures
April 10, 2010 pictures i like : painting between road markers
[ from addair who is listening to Radiohead (In Rainbows) ]
Tags: art, in rainbows, nude, olive green, on the go, painting, portrait, processing through art, radiohead, spanish, Travel, woodblock
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- Posted under Ashley, audacity, etsy, mexico, painting, pictures i like, travel and adventure, Work
March 6, 2010 “to ask and to walk together”
[ from addair who is listening to Beck (Odelay) ]
street art in San Cristobal
A few weeks ago, in San Cristobal de las Casas, we wondered into a shop filled with Zapatista artwork. Levon found an embroidered square that he thought we needed. I thought the work was beautiful but I confess that I cringed at the thought of actually purchasing it. I couldn’t make out the entirety of the embroidered message and hadn’t a clue to the significance of the embroidered snails. I’m all about art for art’s sake but I felt like a doughy devourer of “novel” indigenous struggle buying the thing.
We brought the tapestry to our bilingual friends to help us translate. It reads, “El Caracol significa fortalecer la resistencia de los pueblos para la construccion de su auctonomia, es un intento del EZLN para mostrar nuestras palabras. Espocible construr un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos.” Or, roughly translated (I have no bilingual friend to help me at the moment), “The snail symbolizes the strengthening of the resistance of the people for the construction of one’s autonomy, it is an attempt of The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) to construct a world where many worlds can fit.”
in San Cristobal
Over dinner, with the tapestry as our conversation starter, our more informed friends had a bit of an argument over the use of arms in the Zapatista movement. Hastily, I put the embroidery away, admitting my ignorance and vowing to look into the matter before I hung the work.
The investigation has me reading The Fire and The Word, A History of the Zapatista Movement by Gloria Munoz Ramirez and feeling less silly about our purchase. I’m still no expert and can’t pretend to grasp the entirety of the events leading up to and working in the movement but I feel welcomed by the movement to participate; to weave my story and culture into the struggle and celebration for justice and autonomy.
These are some of my favorite parts of the book:
“finding reflections of your own resistance, threads of connection with other struggles, and even a glimmer of hope”
“without belonging to the EZLN, share, live, and struggle with us for an idea: to build a world in which many worlds fit. To have a birthday that celebrates many birthdays”
“with or without a law we’re going to build our government the way we wanted”
“doing practice first and then developing the theory”
“we are showing the country and the world that to be able to develop a better life, you can do it without the participation of bad government”
“we simply say that the people can plan and decide how their economy and their government should be”
“we create measures without permission from them”
“it takes awareness and courage”
“the people said no to violence and we listened”
“It doesn’t worry us that the government does not listen to the people. It doesn’t worry us because we’ve seen the strength of the people”
de San Cristobal
“The beginning of the construction of a movement that would be characterized by knowing (and learning) how to listen, to have its say, to ask and to walk together”
Tags: beck, bush. nazi, chiapas, ezln, fire and the word, gloria munez ramirez, hope, justice, mexico, odelay, san cristobal, street art, struggle, Travel, zapatistas
February 15, 2010 “consider the advantages of this rare human existence”
[ from addair who is listening to The White Stripes (Elephant) ]
One of my favorite things about being in Mexico is discovering other ways of doing things. It makes me feel like being an idealist is really the most logical of ways to be, because to think that we know all possibilities in any given moment well enough to rule out all but a few options is ridiculous and quite ignorant. Why shouldn’t we dream of opportunity and alternatives?
one of the more "stretching" (but fun) experiences. carnival celebration in Coita
Here in Tuxtla, I’m learning of a different way to build a sidewalk. To sell water. To greet a friend. To advertise a business. To bathe. To build a house. To celebrate. To pray. To eat. To dress. To move your body. To make music. To make art. To get an education. To decorate a home. To say goodbye. To exercise. To plan a city. To commute. To drink tea. To sleep. To buy groceries. To spend the day at the pool. To keep up a road. To construct a roof. To run a dance class.
To wear a costume. To earn some extra money. To make a flower hat.
Seeing these things makes me feel hopeful because it reminds me that we aren’t as stuck in our problems as we think. There are lots of options for living and for solving. The biggest threat to our joy and peace is our unwillingness to become aware of possibility and potential. It is hard work and often uncomfortable but we can (continually) re-condition our minds.
To throw a street party. To use flour. To hang out with your friends.
Lots of the world operates on an entirely different set of norms and perceptions from our own and we don’t have to limited to our particular set of neuronal connections. We can share and we can grow. There is infinite potential in our minds (thus our experience in the world) if only we are willing to open them.
Tags: alternatives, Buddhism, Carnival celebration, Coita, colorful, costumes, dance, elephant, growth, humanity, idealism, jamgon kongtrul, learning, mexico, opportunity, parachicos, party, possibility, potential, road, shaving cream, the white stripes, Travel
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February 8, 2010 a good human is, i think, an uncertain human
[ from addair who is listening to Antony and the Johnsons (I am a bird now) ]
Being the foreigner, I’ve been withholding my opinions. My particular set of American sensibilities inevitably colors my view but, as much as I can, I’m trying to keep my lenses clear. Or at least on the rosier side of clear, I can’t find any harm in reveling in beauty, even when it is out of my zone of familiarity and culture.
The task is difficult, not because I find it hard to abstain from judgement but because it is hard to separate my identity from my platforms. It’s a good lesson for me. I know it must have something to do with values and humanity, self-worth and priorities, but I’m still in the lesson so I can’t comment with much accuracy.
This lesson has me asking questions like: Are we still good humans if we have no platforms? Or choose to mostly observe? Without opinions, which part of me is left? Being clearly out of my element has me wondering if I actually own any element. It is bringing me closer to the understanding that I am, and always will be, limited to my very personal and specific perspective. If this is the case, when do I have the right to assert my opinion? My sense of justice?
I don’t pretend to understand very much about life here in Mexico and I wonder if I’m closer to understanding the reality I face in the United States.
I don’t understand most things. And a complete understanding of any thing is, I think, impossible.
It seems that I spent the first part of my life acquiring ideas and beliefs. With each new experience embellishing my densely adorned sense of self and the world in which I lived. And somewhere along the way it has shifted. Now, every new experience requires me to take a layer off, to simplify and make room. Its beginning to seem that the most stripped down interpretation of justice, of love, of happiness, of ethics is the truest; the one that leads to the greatest satisfaction, liberty, and peace.
Tags: a good human, antony and the johhsons, church, color, culture, ethics, experience, familiarity, flags, foreigner, i am a bird now, justice, mexico, observations, perspective, photography, questions, san cristobal, sol, tint, Travel, Uncertainty
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- Posted under Ashley, Life, mexico, simple living, social justice, things i'm reading/learning, travel and adventure, Uncertainty
February 7, 2010 pictures i like: street art in san cristobal
[ from addair who is listening to Andrew Bird (The Mysterious Production of Eggs) ]
Tags: andrew bird, bubble gum pink, chiapas, foreigners, frida kahlo, hippies, mexico, octubre 2, protest, revolution, san cristobal, spanish, spray paint, stencil, street art, the mysterious production of eggs, Travel, zapatistas
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- Posted under mexico, pictures i like, social justice, street art, travel and adventure
June 1, 2009 the weekend
(from ashley)
I allot each of the seasons a focus, aiming to concentrate growth in areas that are important to me. For the summer, I’m zooming in on adventure and travel. My newest habitat is perfect for this endeavor and having my Mom and Frankie come to visit this weekend was a great kick off. Sometimes I get stuck in the difficulties of living in New York City and miss out on enjoying the extraordinary sights and sounds. Having visitors and herding the city’s pleasantries into a fun-filled weekend was a healthy reminder.
On Saturday we walked through our neighborhood and visited the lobby of the Apollo http://www.apollotheater.org/.
featuring Let at the Apollo
Then we headed to the Upper West Side and saw the building where John Lennon was shot and Strawberry Fields in Central Park http://www.centralpark.com/pages/attractions/strawberry-fields.html.
Let loves Lennon
Next, we visited the Chelsea Hotel where there is a delightful art gallery in the lobby and a kicky music shop next door http://www.chelseaguitars.com/.
me and mom waiting on levon (he wouldn't leave)
Afterwards we headed to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Regular reader may remember my first impressions of the area, but on this sunny day I loved it. We found an art market and my mom bought me a birthday outfit by JoAnn Berman http://boiykrazi.com/indexSite.html.
by JoAnn Berman. constructed from a Wrangler's western shirt
She was there and it was neat to get to talk to her a little about her work.
Finally we headed toward the East Village and ended up at tre restaurant (www.trenewyork.com). I got the gnocchi and I definitely recommend it. The atmosphere is cozy, it made for good conversation and a wonderful place to rest tired feet.
Warm weather always gets me jazzed about exploring; I’m looking forward to an adventurous summer.
Tags: adventure, apollo theater, brooklyn, central park, chelsea guitars, chelsea hotel, joann berman, john lennon, Let, new york city, strawberry fields, summer, Travel, tre restaurant, visitors, weekend, western shirt, williamsburg, wranglers
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- Posted under Let, new york city, travel and adventure
