Viva Frida!
Current mood: content
Yolanda and I took the subway and the bus all by ourselves to Frida Kahlo's house. It really is as blue as it looks in the movie. I recommend to all of you who haven't seen it, watch "Frida".
There's a beautiful garden inside the walls and the house itself. I spent a long time in Frida's studio, just gazing at her work table, paints, easel, wheelchair...
Then I went into her room. It was a little alcove that only fit a single bed, but she liked it because she could look out on the garden. She died in that room, in the bed that's there. It has the mirror above it that she looked into to do her self-portraits, and also her makeup! On the bed with a rebozo surrounding it, is Frida's death mask. Finally, Frida without pain! One of her torso casts was on the bed and next to it were her crutches and her prosthetic leg, still wearing a very cool red, wedge, knee-high, lace-up, painted boot. She loved her colors!
Beyond the alcove was the bedroom that she and Diego shared. There was an urn with a fresh calla lily in front of it; the urn contained her ashes. Ahh, to be in the presence remains of someone who I admire so much, so see the rooms where she lived and created and loved, and yes, suffered...I just wanted to hug her, or the urn, but the guards frown at that sort of thing.
When we got back to the Zocalo, there was a huge group of dancers dressed in all kinds of feathers, beads and facepaint. Very cool. They practice just down the street every night, I can hear them right now as I'm typing.
From the dancing, we went into the Palacio Nacional to check out Diego Rivera's famous murals. I'm not that into Diego, but they were definitely worth seeing, especially the huge one that is a pictoral of the history of Mexico from the indigenous to the conquistadores to the 20th century.
We also saw a beautiful church, Nuestra Senora del Pilar, Ensenanza. It any of you want to do a little google search and tell me about the church, I'd love to know. It was the most ornate church I've ever seen. A huge gold I don't even know the word for it covered the wall behind the alter. There were nichos with the Virgen, Jesus, and probably some other angels and things. The entire side walls were also covered with statues, huge glass cases holding more statues, angels, saints, paintings. It was absolutely unbelievable.
Yolanda is terrified of dogs, and they are everywhere. At the pyramids, on the way to Frida's house, everywhere.
That reminds me of the part where Yolanda tried to push me out of the bus. We had run to catch a bus back to the metro station from Frida's house and it was really crowded. I was the last one on, and was on the lowest step with the door open and not much to hold onto. Yolanda shoved my hand off of the pole I was clutching- SO I WOULDN'T FALL OUT OF THE BUS-because she didn't want to hit some random woman in the face with her backpack. I'm thinking that between hitting the random woman in the face with her backpack and SHOVING ME OUT OF THE BUS, she would have chosen the latter, but oh well. It's a big city kids, and we all need to look out for ourselves.
There are people waiting for the computer, so I'll say good night.
I'm still hot and sweaty, by the way.
Aloha nui,
Alisa
Yolanda and I took the subway and the bus all by ourselves to Frida Kahlo's house. It really is as blue as it looks in the movie. I recommend to all of you who haven't seen it, watch "Frida".
There's a beautiful garden inside the walls and the house itself. I spent a long time in Frida's studio, just gazing at her work table, paints, easel, wheelchair...
Then I went into her room. It was a little alcove that only fit a single bed, but she liked it because she could look out on the garden. She died in that room, in the bed that's there. It has the mirror above it that she looked into to do her self-portraits, and also her makeup! On the bed with a rebozo surrounding it, is Frida's death mask. Finally, Frida without pain! One of her torso casts was on the bed and next to it were her crutches and her prosthetic leg, still wearing a very cool red, wedge, knee-high, lace-up, painted boot. She loved her colors!
Beyond the alcove was the bedroom that she and Diego shared. There was an urn with a fresh calla lily in front of it; the urn contained her ashes. Ahh, to be in the presence remains of someone who I admire so much, so see the rooms where she lived and created and loved, and yes, suffered...I just wanted to hug her, or the urn, but the guards frown at that sort of thing.
When we got back to the Zocalo, there was a huge group of dancers dressed in all kinds of feathers, beads and facepaint. Very cool. They practice just down the street every night, I can hear them right now as I'm typing.
From the dancing, we went into the Palacio Nacional to check out Diego Rivera's famous murals. I'm not that into Diego, but they were definitely worth seeing, especially the huge one that is a pictoral of the history of Mexico from the indigenous to the conquistadores to the 20th century.
We also saw a beautiful church, Nuestra Senora del Pilar, Ensenanza. It any of you want to do a little google search and tell me about the church, I'd love to know. It was the most ornate church I've ever seen. A huge gold I don't even know the word for it covered the wall behind the alter. There were nichos with the Virgen, Jesus, and probably some other angels and things. The entire side walls were also covered with statues, huge glass cases holding more statues, angels, saints, paintings. It was absolutely unbelievable.
Yolanda is terrified of dogs, and they are everywhere. At the pyramids, on the way to Frida's house, everywhere.
That reminds me of the part where Yolanda tried to push me out of the bus. We had run to catch a bus back to the metro station from Frida's house and it was really crowded. I was the last one on, and was on the lowest step with the door open and not much to hold onto. Yolanda shoved my hand off of the pole I was clutching- SO I WOULDN'T FALL OUT OF THE BUS-because she didn't want to hit some random woman in the face with her backpack. I'm thinking that between hitting the random woman in the face with her backpack and SHOVING ME OUT OF THE BUS, she would have chosen the latter, but oh well. It's a big city kids, and we all need to look out for ourselves.
There are people waiting for the computer, so I'll say good night.
I'm still hot and sweaty, by the way.
Aloha nui,
Alisa
Comments
Post a Comment