Intersections

'Thriller' in Mexico City breaks world record

Go here, here, and here for coverage of the "Thriller" spectacle that happened at the Monumento de la Revolucion on Saturday. The video above is by AFP, which says 12,937 dancers heeded the call of "Todos somos zombies" and followed the lead of Hector Jackson, Mexico's premier MJ impersonator.

Almost 13,000 danced but the city said as many as 50,000 people crowded the plaza and surrounding streets for the event. As for me, after watching two sing-along, swaying renditions of "Heal the World" as more and more people poured into the space, I decided I had MJ overload, and left.

But in case you missed it, I profiled Hector last week for The Faster Times, as he prepared for his biggest show yet. He's a true-blue hustling chilango. "I started liking his songs, I started investigating more, and it started as a game. Dancing like him," Hector said. "And what started out as a game is now a matter of work. A lot, a lot of work."

* Previously, "Getting ready for 'Thriller' in Mexico City."

Rockabilly nights

Here is a leg and a nice-lookin' stand-up bass belonging to Hiena, member of the Mexico City psychobilly band Wicked, both in live action, on stage. Wicked played at Foro Alicia on Friday night on a bill including Tabaltix from California. More on all that later; for now, it was a fun night in a scene that reminds me a lot of "home."

Ted Kennedy, one of us

Click here to see the above photo and more of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who died Tuesday at the age of 77, with Cesar E. Chavez of the United Farm Workers.

They are remarkable images.

What moves me so much about this man's history, looking past the failures and errors, is how deeply he and his brothers John and Bobby were committed to the civil rights struggles of their times. Without hesitation, without equivocation, they advocated for minorities and marginalized groups so far and distant from their own wealthy New England heritage, until the very end. It is as though these siblings saw it as an American imperative to do the work of social justice far and wide.

And Teddy, by his sheer longevity, did so the most.

Latinos and Mexican Americans have always had a way of saying that the Kennedys are "one of us." I am reaffirming that idea today with the help of Cindy Casares, who has detailed "Ten Things Ted Kennedy Did For Latinos." Among other things, Ted was a true champion of humane immigration reform, speaking to a multitude of marchers on the Mall in Washington at the height of the immigrant rights movement in 2006. Simply put, he believed that immigrants to the United States deserve a dignified doorway into the fabric of the nation, first and foremost, as a matter of principle -- which is more than we can say at the moment for our current president and his cabinet.

Listen to the crowd roar at the beginning of that clip; it's electrifying.

Day of the Dead 2009 is thus dedicated. ¡Viva Kennedy!

El Clandestino

El Clandestino is a punk alternative space in Ecatepec in suburban Mexico City. We checked it out, had some beers, a torta, and made some friends. Above, the crowd moshing to a set by Sindrome, one of the oldest and longest-playing punk bands in Mexico. The lead singer, Amaya, is 47 years old.

* Previously, "Meet Diego, 20, a Mexico City psychobilly."

A million faces ...

Standing in the middle of the transfer corridor at metro Garibaldi, between Line 8 and Line B, letting the endless, frenetic parade of human traffic zoom past you. Non-stop. A million faces, a million glances, while listening to this. Or this. Or this. Or this ... Or this.

Eating bunny rabbit

This is me smooching with the last bit of my lunch last Saturday, a crispy bunny head, enchilada. Don't worry, I didn't ingest the tiny toasted brain, eyes or head meat. I did have plenty of meat from its other parts, though. It was succulent, tasty, and tender. Delicioso.

That day we piled into a little hatchback and headed to the far southeast of the Estado de México, in the verdant chilly hills under the volcanoes. There, farms produce the base livestock for the local speciality, guisados de conejo. We shared two whole rabbits enchilado and al pastor, and accompanied them with carnitas and beef marrow soup. Washed it all down with fresh pulque. Mmmmm.

An un-heralded delicacy in the pantheon of Mexican cuisine, rabbit is still big enough to get its own Feria de Conejo, in Xochimilco. Outside the road-side restaurant in San Andres Metla last weekend, vendors sold bunny feet, hides, and scarves. And hopping furry little live ones, too, if that's your thing or whatever.

Getting ready for 'Thriller' in Mexico City

Hundreds, maybe thousands of people in Mexico City are expected to dance Michael Jackson's "Thriller" on August 29, the King of Pop's birthday and also the day he is finally laid to rest. They're hoping to set a world record with the Facebook-organized event, to be held on the sloping plaza before the Monumento de la Revolución. But ... can they beat the Filipino prison inmates?

That guy in front in the shot above is Héctor Jackson, one of several Mexican MJ impersonators, during a rehearsal on Sunday. Check out more photos here, here, here, and here. And here is raw video that I shot.

Today, MJ fanatics got together again at Bellas Artes to further promote the happening.

* More later.

Control your magic

* Above, one of the Seven Muses of Mexico City, and ONDA FUZOO, on a casual mid-week afternoon in downtown D.F.

There is no better way to put this than in the most abstract terms: It is another season of change, challenges, growth, development, the tearing down of walls and the breaking through of membranes. Everywhere I look, stuff is crumbling apart then coming back together in another form. This is not often pretty, very often difficult, but most certainly necessary. Love provokes and provides.

That's life in upside-down Mexico City in the unusually dry mid-late summer of 2009. The city heaves. So we must be brave.

Just like, you might say, the stance of the two worthy football rivals who took to the field at the grand Estadio Azteca on Wednesday. Mexico emerged triumphant in the end, restoring "order to its universe." But greater battles loom on the horizon.

The same day, a measure of justice is achieved for the ghosts of Acteal. But again, it's only the beginning. Today August 13 is the 488th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlan. The neo-indigenistas are gathering at the Zócalo as dusk falls, drumming and howling to the moon, in honor of our mangled roots. Imbalances, as a friend said wisely on Sunday, create new balances.

NOTE: This blog stays dark for at least another quincena. I'm writing, fighting with writing, starting new projects, closing others. My only advice to you is: Control your magic. Hunt and gather. And, as I said before ...