Short and spectacular

Expresion en Corto, a fantastic international short film festival, descended on San Miguel this past weekend. Multiple theaters across town have been showing over 400 short documentaries, fiction, animation and award winners from around the world. And the best part, aside from the world-class content... I can walk to all of this and it's FREE!

On Sunday night, a giant outdoor screen in the Jardin featured the silent film, Tartuffe, accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of Compeche. The short video composite above doesn't do the event justice, but you get the idea - lights, moon, beautiful architecture, fun film, and the inevitable fireworks.

In addition to this smorgasbord of cinematography, I had dinner a wonderful new restaurant, Mivida and sampled one of the best tasting menus I've ever had (and coming from San Francisco, that's saying a lot). Living on an extremely tight budget here, I don't eat out very often, and certainly not at higher end places, so this was a treat (and I admit, a shameless plug - if you're in town you've go to try it).

This weekend was truly about grazing the great things San Miguel has to offer. I'm continually reminded how lucky I am.

So Mexico

Almost every weekend there is at least one wedding in the Parroquia. And without fail, there will be a freshly waxed car parked out front, bedecked in flowers, waiting to whisk away the newly joined couple. I love this truck (note custom flame grill) and the fact that the wedding floral color scheme compliments the paint job. Que bonito!

Dirty Dancing

Even though this video was taken on the 4th of July, I figured that I hadn't posted in so long I was entitled to pull something from the past, and it's still July afterall.

This is what happens when you mix a tentful of Texans; a day of tequila, beer and BBQ; and a central Mexican rainy season deluge.

Salsa Rueda

In my quest to learn something new everyday (no matter how small) last night I went to my first Salsa Rueda class. I'd never seen nor heard of Salsa Rueda, and to be honest my salsa sucks, but I've gotten past my fear of making a fool of myself.

Oh my god, did I have fun.

The best way to describe Rueda is "square dance salsa" where multiple couples (from 2 to dozens) dance in a circle and exchange partners according to prescribed moves called out by a caller. It originated in Cuba is also called Cuban salsa - more info on Wikipedia of course.

We only learned 5 simple moves last night, but we were exuberant when we got through a whole song. You can imagine what might happen when just one person misses a call or screws up, but in our case it was hilarious. There are hundreds of calls. For a giggle, take a look at this list. One of my favorites is "muerdela! - enchufla (turn) then bite her hand as you leave!" Sort of a kinky Simon Says for adults.

Here's a fun video (image above is from the video, not my class!) for those of you who've never seen Salsa Rueda. While this is competition level and looks tightly choreographed, somewhere in there is a caller signaling what comes next. I didn't catch any biting though.

Dame otra!