Selling cactus fruit and pumpkin seeds on Relox in San Miguel
A regular sight on the streets of San Miguel, in this case on Relox, are the little old ladies who come in from the Campesinos to sell whatever they can harvest – from pumpkin seeds to cactus fruit, which the woman on the right piles up into little constructions on a doorstep. We are always impressed at how impeccably dressed they always are, clean and trim in a wonderful variety of colors.
The open air crypt of the Templo de Santa Ana in San Miguel
The Templo de Santa Ana, built in 1847, is unique in that of all San MIguel’s many magnificent churches, they managed to complete a wonderful and rich interior, but never got round to the outside. It sits next to the Biblioteca, and consists of a large yellow warehouse-like structure of massive painted stuccoed masonry. Its equally unusual open air crypt which is rarely open to see, is adorned with flowers, and in this case a packet of the favorite candy of Hugo Ramirez Quintero who passed away at the age of just 14.
Chevy billboards in Detroit put up for the Woodward Dream Cruise
Each year General Motors puts up a series of billboards along Woodward Avenue in Detroit for the Woodward Dream Cruise, a parade of vintage and custom vehicles that has been an annual event since 1995. These are but three of a great many witty images. While these are targeted at auto enthusiasts, it is a pity they don’t have the chutzpah to put these up all over the country. They would begin to let us believe that GM is getting back on the ball again.
Chiseling out road blocks in the Jardin, San Miguel de Allende
Compared to the din of mechanical equipment tearing into the asphalt in New York, the clink-clink of a road gang in San Miguel is a delight. This is the standard method for repairing any of the streets here, and is usually done by a gang of about four to six workers whose combined percussions are actually quite musical.
Hermilo Tovar Sparkplug Sign, Salida a Celaya, San Miguel de Allende
More adaptive re-use. This time for a gate sign for Hermilo Tovar’s tiny junkyard on the Salida a Celaya. This is just a detail of a whole universe of imaginations he has welded and painted around the entry to his establishment.
Handcrafted Retreads in San Miguel
At the corner of Calzada de la Luz and Calzada de la Aurora in San Miguel, this hole-in-the-wall tire emporium displays its latest inventory, most of them with laboriously hand-carved treads on previously bald blowouts and finished off with a nice shiny coat of ArmorAll. Like many things in Mexico, little finds its way to the dump unless every last possibility of useful employment has been squeezed out of it.
The New Yorker Cover, Oct 17, 2011
Rotting Pumpkins, Hurley, New York
That’s what it sounded like, just outside Hurley, New York, where thousands of beached pumpkins rot on the ground. The farmer was clearly still mad about the whole thing as he let off with his shotgun in our direction, unaware that I just wanted to photograph the corpses. This a consequence of last month’s storm which lashed the area, and flooded these fields with several feet of water as the Esopus Creek overflowed its banks with runoff from the Catskills. The last time something like this happened to us was in the Seventies as I photographed a vineyard in Austria, right on the Hungarian border, when the bored occupants of a Communist guard tower let off a few rounds close over my head. I should learn to avoid vegetables and fruit in the vicinity of armed malcontents.
The Apple Website, 5 October 2011
Sad news that came to us on our flight from SMA to NY. We bought our first Mac over 25 years ago, and since then have owned dozens. As designers, this product of his brilliant mind has enabled us to expand our abilities, and in that way, he became a member of our design team on all of our many projects over those years. This website would not have been possible without him. His greatest gift however, will hopefully be to show future generations that it is creativity and inspired vision that creates all the great things of this world. It is not the cool gizmos, although they are a delight, but that they have put creativity into the hands of everyone that we are indebted to him for.
Blessing of the Vaqueros in San Miguel de Allende
So far this week, we have seen the parades and blessings of the bicycles, the taxis, and in this case the horses. And those are just the ones we happened across. An impressive sight, over two hundred vaqueros (cowboys), and genuine ones at that, ride in from the Campos, parade through San Miguel with their banners, and assemble in front of the Paroquia for the ceremony.
