Random Descriptions of My Travel Adventures

This weekend at the Lath House in Heritage and Science Park in downtown Phoenix is the Tequilaaz tequila and mezcal celebration! I am attending of course and I'm thrilled to see they are honoring mezcal alongside tequila. I am a big fan of mezcal (as you might have guessed from previous blog posts), another product of the agave plant, but I will say it took me numerous attempts at drinking mezcal before I became an avid supporter. Mezcal originates from Oaxaca, or so I have been told, and many regard it as a cheaper, harsher version of tequila. It is definitely true that crappy mezcal can often taste a lot like gasoline but once you have experienced a good mezcal it is a bit of a revelation. I was told that many Oaxacans think that mezcal holds medicinal powers and use it ceremonially and I have to say I believe it; mezcal has made me feel like no other alcohol has, in good and bad ways (avoid the cheap stuff). I'm particularly fond of the drink because it is so important to O...

In my last post I indicated that I would not be taking any trips in the near future. This is not accurate! I'm headed to Tampa, Florida this weekend for the Gasparilla Pirate Fest ! Aaarrrggghhh(said like a pirate), how could I forget my upcoming attendance at this event! Photos of drunken pirates and more Argentina in the near future matey!

Unfortunately, due to dissertation writing and lack of funds, I do not have any fun travel experiences to blog about (though stay tuned for Las Vegas in March) so I thought I would post some photos from an Argentina trip in 2005. I went to visit my friend Shayne who had just finished his second (yes second) stint in Antarctica. I flew down to Buenos Aires and we decided to visit the southern portion of the country. Buenos Aires is a fantastic city, the most European I have encountered thus far in South America. In the photo below I'm standing in front of the obelisk which divides the massive, 9 de Julio, claimed as the worlds largest avenue. A better picture (lifted from the internet) to give a sense of scale. After a few days in BA, we flew to Ushuaia which is at the southernmost edge of the South American continent in the region known as Tierra del Fuego . Not a terribly attractive town, made that much uglier by the giant date stamp in the corner of the photo below. I borrowed m...

A video of my favorite song by my favorite band from Oaxaca. The song, Son de la Barricada, is about the resistance movement of 2006. I lifted this from a blog called Angry White Kid which details the ongoing struggles occurring in Oaxaca. He includes the English translation on his website. The video is shot in a bar called Nueva Babel, one I attended frequently with friends. We saw Raices perform there twice and both times I was blown away by their music.

As a teacher, and a former slacker undergraduate student, I have seen, heard, and offered some pretty creative excuses for missing class. Most excuses are pretty run of the mill, got sick, car broke down, witnessed a shooting (yup, got that one this semester) but a few weeks ago one of my students furnished me with one of the most hilarious bits of "proof" for their absence I have encountered. Said student missed a class in which we had a quiz. He claimed to have had very bad food poisoning and I told him that if he could bring me a doctor's note I would let him take the quiz. He shows up to my office, not with a doctor's note, but with a note from his roommate . Not only was it a note from his roommate but it was on half a sheet of ripped paper. Despite the fact that I knew this guy was lying through his teeth, I let him take the quiz because he made me laugh so hard. See for yourself....click on the note below.

I should have posted these images a long time ago but never got around to it. Now that I'm procrastinating when I should be writing my dissertation this seems like a great time. The competition and the events surrounding it deserve much more explanation than I'm going to offer here but I will let the art speak for itself. A flyer announcing the competition. At the top it says "The color of the resistance" and at the bottom it reads "For the respect and freedom of expression of urban and street art" or something like that anyway. In really fine print at the bottom it says "Stop facism in Mexico, Free the political prisoners, Stop the privatization of PEMEX." This might give you an idea as to the tone of the event and the art being created. The line up of blank canvasses. Art taking shape. The evolution of a picture. An interpretation of the Oaxaca state government. At one point a skirmish broke out and the state police arrived, guns drawn. We were ...

Darren and I drove up to Salt Lake City in August, just after I returned home from Mexico, to pick up my little Mexican street dog Gretel. On the way to SLC we drove through Zion Canyon and spent the night in Springdale, the small town at the entrance to the canyon. Some photos below. The drive there. Buffalo! Inside the park. If you look closely at the bottom of photo is the traffic tunnel. Traffic tunnel. Zion Canyon lodge.