Oh Mexico. I'm brown like you but thats about it.
So earlier in the spring I was in Austin for the "For Forms" art festival performing with my main duo pard-ner Chris Cogburn:
That's us performing an AMAZING quintet with Jen Bervin (my HERO), Joshua Beckman and a dancer named Scott, his last name has left me at this moment but he's amazing. Seriously amazing.
Anyho, so we performed this quintet and spent a few days together and Chris and I started talking about doing a summer tour in Mexico. He knew a few folks in Monterey and in Merida (Gerardo!! holla!!!) that were interested in bringing him down to play and since we have an amazing duo together (THIS TIGHT ROPE) we decided to go together. It was definately a memorable experience.
Shortly after my FANTASTIC birthday in NYC I flew to
Juan is seriously one of the most prolific improvisors around, I don't care what anyone says. He is a legend in the making. For reals.
NOTE: remember that rooster. He comes up later in the story......
I was so excited to go to Mexico, it was my first time and I was mostly excited about being in a country where EVERYONE was brown. Alas that excitment would disappear pretty quickly. Just because your brown doesn't mean the men won't harrass you. Especially when you're wearing a bright yellow safari jumpsuit that looks amazing on you.
But I digress....so we got to Mexico and first thing we did when we crossed the border was get beer at the gas station. Or the "Estation del gasolina".....or not, I don't speak spanish....
chris drinkin a beer in the car...and it's totally LEGAL...hoodoo!So then we got to Monterey and went walking around the "Barrio Antigua" where Sharon lived. She really lives an amazing life. She lives one block from her "art bar" called "Casa Amarillo" which seemed like one of the most popular bars in the neighborhood. Here's her bar from the roof which had a great veiw of the city:
This is my impression of Mexicans....wait is that racist? I really don't mean it to be honest....it's a compliment, those Mexicans know how to chill oooouuuutttt or how we like to say in Texas, CHILLLAAAXXXXX.....
One thing that I noticed about Mexico is how slowly the time passes there. I took a nap one day and it felt like I was asleep for a WHOLE DAY, but it was in reality just ONE HOUR. Which made me realize that New York City makes you old as hell because if you take a nap here it feels like you've only been napping for an hour when it's been the whole day.
So we had a day to kill before our show at Casa Amarillo so we hung out with Sharon who had just hurt her knee in Austin a couple days before so she was trying to take it easy, it looked really painful, her knee was all swollen and pink. Poor Sharon she goes through so much and still remains the coolest chica in the planet.
So we hung out at her amazing townhouse which had a backyard and I got to make my first bon fire. I felt like a woman with nature. Like Billy Joel says: I started the fire:
I had this vision of me stuck on a deserted island and I needed to start a fire to stay warm and cook my coconuts or something, so I really got into it. I even ruined my beautiful french chocolate suede boots. All in the name of nature....in the middle of the richest city in Mexico.....yeah....
So the next day we had a radio interview scheduled with RADIO BEEP:
This was the DJ for the cultural hour or something like that. He gave me a clammy, cold, wet kiss on the cheek. Like an old man thats attracted to you kind of gross kiss. Ick. My skin still feels weird when I think about it. But it was very nice of him to have us on his show, even if they played the wrong track on the compilation record I was on. "Numero quatro....no no 4.....no QUATRO. QUATRO..."
Me trying to speak enspanol. I'm really no good at it. I even have an english accent when I speak it. It's a real shame. But can I help it if I was born deaf???? Hmmmm??? Am I????
So later we performed Sharons bar and thats when I noticed that something just wasn't right.....
My mixer....she dies....she dies a slow and uncontrollable death of lost low, mids and highs with an uncontrollable buzz that will only get louder and more uncontrollable as the tour drags on.....
we also had a very strong shot of Tequila which was NOT a good idea....So the performance was tedious because my mixer was doing those terrible things that make me so sad and I got huffy and puffy (mad). So Chris thought it would be a good idea to go dancing to forget about the performance. Because really it wasn't that we were bad it was my mixers fault.
OK, so this dude was Sharons assistant for like 7 years:
We hung out with him a lot while we were in Monterey. Then when we left for Merida we heard this awful story about how someone stole about $700 American dollars from Sharons emergency account while we were gone. When we got back to the states we found out that it was her assistant, who had disappeared and has yet to be found...SCANDALOUS!!!!Back to Monterey. So we had a great time dancing and went to the art museum the next day:
And now my story about the ROOSTER...DA DA DUUUUMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
So this rooster is the pet of Sharons daughter. Apparently in Mexico when kids go to birthday parties they recieved little baby chicks as gifts for coming to their friends party. The chicks normally die after about 3 days but Sharons daughter refused to let her chick die, and so it grew to be a fairly large rooster. I can't remember his name, but I remember his crow. When you see me next time have me make the crow noise, i'll do it, it's FREAKY....So for my trip I packed my favorite Lanvin flats from Spring of 2005 (the best version of the flats by the way...they don't make them like this anymore...) these flats are fairly expensive but have some wear and tear in them, and this rooster took one look at them and fell in love with them. Seriously....he MOUNTED my shoes and did the horizontal mambo on them like ALL the TIME. So whenever I would put them on (after washing them of course) and the rooster would see me wearing them he would chase after me and try to attack me for wearing his girlfriend. One would never think that being chased by a young and mean rooster would be scary, maybe slightly amusing, but let me be the one to assure you, when a rooster is chasing you it is NOT FUN. Normally the rooster is not allowed in the townhouse, but he has his little roost or whatever on the top of one of the doors to the townhouse and so one day I was taking my "hour long" nap/siesta and I woke up to the sound of this awful rooster crow. 
And this face staring at me from the foot of my bed. Naturally I flipped out, because I thought he was going to kill me and I somehow managed to jump over him even though he had wings and got away from him. I would never be the same.....
So the next day we went to the airport to go to Merida in the Yucatan to perform and
were greeted with Locusts flying all over the airport:
We almost missed or flight because on this airline you MUST board the plane 45 minutes before the take off time or you miss your flight and will not recieve a refund. So me being the daughter of my Mother who gets whatever she wants all the time, I would not allow this to happen. We had interviews scheduled as soon as we landed with 2 newspapers and we were not going to miss it. So I raised a big stink and we got on the plane. Then I got to sit next to the sweetest little girl who was shy but really liked me for some reason. They were going to Acapulco which is near Merida, and she was excited about going to the beach. Such a sweety!!
A PREVIEW OF MERIDA:
I'm getting tired, so here's a preview of my next post, which will hopefully be in the next few days and not the next few months. Ah, Mexico.....
