Ciudad de Mexico and the long Fiesta

With the wedding on Saturday in Cuernavaca, we only spent one night in Mexico City and stayed at the very modern Habita Hotel, which inside looked more Japanese and new wave than Mexican. Until now my experience of Mexico has been limited to only border towns and spring break destinations.

During the day we woke up early after the rooftop bar outing at night so that we could explore the city on one of those double-decker tour busses, toribus. It was a great way to see the entire city in 3 hours before leaving for the countryside. Although it is one of the largest cities in the world, I was surprised to see that it wasn't compact or as crowded as New York. Granted there's a lot more space but traffic seemed manageable. Apparently their metro is the best subway in the world too. We only saw the stops for it, but didn't have a chance to ride it. 

The city itself is beautiful, fairly clean for a metropolis and had a European feel mixed with of course Latin America, plus Spanish and ancient Aztec influences. I was surprised to see so many modern buildings as well, but none were run of the mill or simply skyscrapers, each had a unique style and I found myself commenting on the architecture of these buildings throughout the bus ride. Most had the shiny windows like Vegas hotels and varied in shapes and angles, while sitting right next to ancient haciendas and old fashion mansions.  Most of the houses were made of stone and had painted and detailed tiles along the surface, as well as interesting arches, doorways and copulas. As you can see, I was very impressed and kept pointing at a new building each block. Fact--the tallest building in Latin America resides in Mexico City. 

We actually arrived on Nov. 2, which is Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead). So many of the popular tourist areas had alters set up or remnants from the holiday. In Zocalo the main center of the city where the grand cathedral can be found, there were large sculptures of skeletons in neon yellow and pink.  

Mexico City is known to be a bit dangerous but luckily we didn't encounter any problems, but we took precautions just in case and we weren't really out at night other than at our hotel's rooftop bar, which was fortunately popular and chic.

Cuernavaca:

I unfortunately can't write about the town itself, since we didn't leave the oasis of our hotel and adjacent wedding site, except to visit a Mercado across the street. But then again, we didn't have to. The hotel, Hacienda de Cortes, a former sugar plantation was so absolutely gorgeous, that we didn't really have the desire to leave it. On the grounds there were ruins, waterfalls, rustic buildings, a nice staff, exotic flowers, exquisite grounds and secret passage ways.  I felt like I was in the secret garden and on the set of Zorro or in some Spaniard Don's castle. It was amazing. Our room had a 30ft high brick ceiling with a copula at the top, and at night I could out it to the full moon through the opening. On the grounds was also this enormous tree, whose roots quite literally have taken over one of the stone buildings and entrance ways.

The wedding itself was equally as elegant and cultural.  The ceremony started at 1:00 in the afternoon and had ended by 2:00 p.m. as the guests were given cocktails including tequila housed inside cucumber carved cups. 

So what time do you think the party ended? Come on guess? Midnight? Wrong! The party went from two in the afternoon to six o' clock in the morning. I only lasted to 3:10 a.m., but mind you that was 14 hours at the wedding and 13 hours of drinking and dancing. I was never more than buzzed though since we all worked it off by dancing and eating the three sets of meals that came out during the long evening/day. The DJ, which played everything from salsa, cumbia, techno to REM and ABBA. He also provided flip flops for all the ladies as the night wore on and kept giving out weird props like a little clown hat and nose, devil horns and tails, balloon guitars and luchodor wrestling masks like from Nacho Libre. I guess it would have made more sense if we knew the songs that were being played at the time. Yet, we still had fun improvising just the same. Easily one of the best weddings I've ever been to.

PS: Four more days and I'll be in Vegas baby. Yes, I do work too, lol. It's just all at once now.  

In other blogging gigs

I just wrote a review of the new film, Babel, for Film School Rejects (I know, it's been awhile): " "I went into the theaters to see Babel not knowing anything about the indie film. I only knew that it starred Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal, but knew nothing of the plot. So that you have a better idea about this amazing and emotional film, I’ll do my best to give you some insight before going to see it.  In some ways Babel reminded me of last year’s Best Picture winner, Crash, mainly because it has one of those interlocking plots where seemingly unrelated people become intertwined as the narrative unfolds. Babel focuses on three stories, set in Morocco, Japan and Mexico. The story begins with a tragedy striking a grieving married couple (Pitt and Blanchett) on vacation in Morocco" (read more).

I also did a post for my office's blog, Fusion PR Forum, about the future of TV and commercials in the wake of online video players and networks now streaming full episodes of popular shows like Lost, Sudio 60, Heroes and Grey's Anatomy for free online. Did you know that most broadband video streaming takes place during office hours and that noon is considered online prime-time for episode watching? It's the new coffee break. Not that I have any first hand experience with that ;) (read more). 

 

Update: I leave today for Mexico City to attend a wedding in Cuernavaca. Be back Sunday night! 

The trick, not treat

Last night I had a horror movie scenario happen to me.

So I get home around 6:30 and am in the bedroom puttering around. My boyfriend works late on Mondays, so I wasn't expecting him home til later, when I heard my front door open quickly. Being the jumpy person that I am, I screamed at the intrusion. I was expecting my boyfriend to say "sorry it's just me," but instead I was met with silence. I look out my bedroom door and see the front door closing and someone leaving. I couldn't see the person, just a presense retreating. I grab the closing door and look out in the hallway to see that the hallway door, which is always propped open, is also closed. I immediately slam my door, chain and lock it and put my back against it. All I could think of was that someone had just entered my home, but was desperately hoping it was my boyfriend playing a mean trick on me, after all it was the day before Halloween. Then I thought maybe someone had the wrong apartment and was afraid to admit that they entered the wrong unit.  

I make several calls to my boyfriend, but can't get a hold of him. He finally calls me after seeing my TXT message, which read "Please call me." He was at work, I could here his colleagues in the background. My terror increased since I knew it wasn't him joking with me. I told him what happened and he said he would leave right now, but also said it was probably a mistake and that someone tried the wrong apartment or something. Yet, I started to wonder if the person actually left my apartment or if there was another person who entered my place. So now I very slowly with a steel pot in my hand, start to open closet doors and creep around my place. 

10 mins later, the front door knob slowly turned again as I stared at it in horror. Seriously this happened. I felt like I was in a Halloween film and was the babysitter or someone trapped in their house and being toyed with. 

I try to call my boyfriend again, but I get cut off since I have no bars in the apartment. You believe this shit? I've always had dodgy reception at home but of all times and we don't have a landline since we both just use our cell phones instead. It's was all starting to feel like a real horror movie, but I kept brushing that thought off. 

I finally get though to Raphael, who's now in his car and he tells me to call the police. I argue with him at first saying it could be a prank or a mistake. Angry he tells me to call 911, so I do. Explaining to the operator what happened help make me calm down a bit too, since it was very methodical. They were sending police shortly. 

Everyone arrives at the same time. The police said they checked out the area, but didn't see anyone suspicious and told us to call if anything happened again. 

Raphael does his own search later on and notices that our welcome mat is missing and that in this other section of the apartment building, on the other side of the propped door there is a person with a handkerchief around their head curled up on the floor sleeping in front of someone's door.  It seemed too much of a coincidence that this person wasn't the same person as before. So we call the police again, but not their emergency number. Again they said they'll have someone come by and take a look. 

We eat dinner and are on the couch watching TV when the door rattles again. I grab his knee in reaction and he jumps up for the door, with a golf club in hand. He barges into the hall shouting "are you looking for someone?" The person he saw on the floor earlier, is a woman and she and a couple of the neighbors are outside. Apparently the woman had just tried their doors too. She was obviously homeless and strung out. These guys next door got her to leave the building. She left saying that she was a woman and needed a place to stay and why didn't they understand? 

I get that she might have wanted to sleep inside our building in the hallway instead of outside or in our parking garage like the rest of the Venice Beach bums, but why try all of our doors repeatedly to get in? She was obviously crazy or high, but at least the mystery was solved and I wasn't being targeted specifically. It also helps knowing it was a woman, which doesn't mean she isn't still dangerous, I know. 

Crazy, huh?  For now on, I'll always lock my door as soon as I get in.
--- 

PS: I'm the only one wearing a costume in my office today :( That's OK though, it's my favorite holiday and it is fun to dress up. I even saw two homeless guys dressed up as demons asking for "change for the strange."  

 

Bonfire of the Vanities

I went to my first beach bonfire last weekend. I guess it was my first bonfire in general though. It's activities like these that I imagined doing when thinking about California over on the East coast. Very Gidget and Beach Boys-ish. And not only was it a beach bonfire but it was a Halloween beach bonfire too, so mostly everyone in our group was in costume. Raphael and I went as Spartan Cheerleaders from the SNL sketch, which works Perfect since I happen to be Cheri Oteri height. 

 You don't have to build a pit or use a metal trash bin for the fire, since the beach has several stone pits already placed in the sand for loading of wood and paper into the hallows for burning. We had arrived when it was light out and played some beach volleyball (I'm getting better) and ended with grilling meat and roasting marshmallows by the fire. Add in some contraband jello shots, punch, candy and beer and it was a festive night. If it wasn't for the warmth from the bonfire I would have been freezing, but my bare feet were still numb from the cold sand. The Pacific water felt warm in comparison.

I went home smelling of firewood and smoke as if I spent an evening at a cabin and not a night on the beach in Los Angeles, my sandy feet though proved otherwise.

Oh and my blog headline reflects the Tom Wolfe novel and was not used to infer that any of us at the bonfire are vain :p

Interview: I just did a Q&A over at Associated Content, check it out in their Blog Spotlight

The rooftop bar

Two Friday's ago my friend Caroline, who I've known since the 8th grade, was in town over the weekend for business. She does video production for the WWE and they were having a Pay Per View wrestling event at the Staples Center in downtown LA. We wanted to meet up at a shi shi bar after work over there, so we went to the Standard Downtown Hotel rooftop bar with a bunch of other friends. It reminded me of the Ganesvort Hotel and 230 5th in New York minus the views of New Jersey and the Empire State though.

The buildings were lower but so were the prices of the cocktails (barely) but this lounge also has a little pool, dance floor, more seating areas and pods. What are pods? They are three partially enclosed spade looking huts with a water bed inside. 

 

At 9:00 I had climbed down the ladder of the heated pool and entered to my knees. I was wearing a skirt and was the only one going near the pool. The editors at CitySearch.com named Standard Downtown the best outdoor bar for 2006. In their review they also write: "A small pool lined with chaise

 

lounges offers stacks of towels for anyone brave (or drunk) enough to take a dip." Oops wish I knew there were towels, I had to settle for drying myself off with cocktail napkins.

By 10:00, we were bouncing around in one of the pods.

From 11 to 12:30 we moved over to the crowded little dance floor. Oh and I also got a free cocktail for finding a guy's Georgio Armani sun glasses.