She Said...

Charles Kingsley, the famous 19th Century novelist, once wrote: «There is something very wonderful about music. Words are wonderful enough; but music is even more wonderful. It speaks not to our thoughts as words do; it speaks through our hearts and spirits, to the very core and root of our souls. Music soothes us, stirs us up, it puts noble feelings in us, it can make us cringe; and it can melt us to tears; and yet we have no idea how. It is a language by itself, just as perfect in its ways as speech, as words, just as divine, just as blessed.» And Pablo Casals, the famous Catalan cellist, wrote: «Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.» I am sharing these two quotes with you because I cannot find my own words to describe my experience the night I attended Dana and Mark Zeller’s concert for the benefit of the Clinica de Rehabilitacion Santa Barbara ...nor do I want to plagiarize any of Polly Vicars’ superlatives.



In a community of expats as relatively small as ours is in Puerto Vallarta, we are truly blessed to have the caliber of talent we have here, and the kind of artists who are willing to share it. I use the word as all-encompassing, i.e.: painters, musicians, actors, sculptors, etc. We are lucky to have live theater of the quality offered at the Santa Barbara Theater, and their shows have brought us what was missing for so many years – culture, entertainment, quality. And boy, am I grateful for its existence! Many years ago, a very well-known Vallartan, very active on the local «cultural» scene, attended one of the performances there. At the end of it, he told me something that has stayed with me all this time. He said, «I never knew the foreign community could put on such shows. What a pity that we cannot do the same…» True, that was then, before the construction of the fabulous hall at the Coastal University Center, a.k.a. CUC, of the University of Guadalajara. They’ve hosted some fabulous events there, but unfortunately, unless that same gentleman informs us of them, we never know about them …until after they’ve taken place. Perhaps the disease that afflicts the municipal Department of Culture is contagious…



But I digress. What I wanted to say was that, and this is a confession, I have never been moved to laughter –and tears- like I was, listening to the music presented by this incredible couple, Dana and Mark Zeller. I don’t want to repeat what Maria wrote in her review of the show (see separate article), I just want to add to it.


The repartee between the two is just delightful, and the relationship they appear to have cultivated over decades of marriage is the kind we all dream of, but it’s their voices! Oh my! And with all the respect in the world for Dana’s multiple talents, both as a singer and an actor, it is Mark’s powerful baritone that got to me. Topol, move over! I don’t recall the last time I cried, just listening to a song. I could go on and on, but I won’t. All I want you to know is that if you haven’t attended one of their performances yet, you can still do so this week, especially if you’re an amateur of «classic» Broadway shows, the old stand-bys. I should also mention that aside from the ability these two professionals have to «project» (so that every seat in the house is a good seat), the acoustics in Cathy Von Rohr’s gallery are amazingly good. Please don’t miss it.

And bring some tissues – for the tears of laughter, and the other ones too. Besides, the money you’ll pay for your ticket goes to such a worthy cause! Check out Maria’s review for information regarding tickets, times, etc.

There is a rumor going around that Rosie O’Donnell will be visiting our fair city on March 19th. Purportedly, she will be coming with the «All Gay Family Spring Break» on Holland America’s beautiful Oosterdam. The cruise promoters write: «Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) will be on board to spend time with you. R Family is calling it PFLAG @ Sea, and it will give you the opportunity to relax and meet new people.» I think that’s a super idea!
I went back to the Beach House, the place I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, the one next to El Dorado. I was with a different group this time, so we got to try more of the super dishes on their menu. I also noticed a whole bunch of our regular readers there this time. I’m glad they took my advice, or maybe they knew about the place before I did. Regardless, it’s always nice to see someone succeed simply based on excellent food and excellent service. Just goes to prove: size ain’t all… Except when it comes to potholes.

There’s one on Aguacate Street that just keeps on getting bigger and deeper with every day that passes. It’s a high traffic block, traveled by many trucks, ATVs, and the wood supply place is there too, just to make it more interesting. The men who were filling the holes on Jacarandas, the street next and parallel to Aguacate, told me that they would fix it. That was months ago…

And on the topic of those ubiquitous ATVs, I read that the folks in the Paso Ancho area blocked access to their part of town for two hours, in protest against the damage the daily passage of those hundreds of vehicles cause to their environment …and their health. Turns out that the companies that operate the ATVs, a.k.a. dune buggies, actually pay transit rights to those communities. Problem is that those payments do not trickle down to the inhabitants. The roads in their part of town are not paved, so the vehicles stir up lots of dust, which is then inhaled by the residents. This has already caused much respiratory diseases there. A while back, I remember reading something about them getting reimbursed for the water they would need to wet the roads, but then, nothing. They have a justifiable beef. The ATV drivers are provided with face bandanas to cover their noses and mouths, but the residents aren’t about to spend their days wearing those things. I can’t blame them. I sure hope the matter will be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, soon.

I received some very sad news just as I was about to send in this column. Beverly Rose, yet another talented artist, a wonderful, gentle director and human being, has left us. Rest in peace, dear friend. You will be sorely missed.

And may you, dear readers, spend a wonderful, peaceful week in our little not-so-perfect paradise. Take care of yourselves and of each other. Hasta luego. pvmom04@yahoo.com

I haven’t mentioned much regarding one of my favorite Mexican companies, Telefonos de Mexico, lately. I’ve gotten used to the fact that I will get the messages that callers leave for me when I’m not home …just a few days later, sometimes as many as ten. I always check to see if I have messages every time I’ve gone out. And every time, I hear «You have no new messages,» spoken in a most pleasant, polite female voice, not like that horrific one who yells out «LINEA OCUPADA!» if the number you’re dialing is busy… Then, every once in a while, I’ll pick up the receiver to make a call, only to hear (in Spanish of course) «Please dial asterisk eighty-six to pick up your messages.» That’s when I can usually hear messages left any time between a few minutes ago …and last week. Well, today, I heard something new, even for me. I dialed asterisk eighty-six, but all I got was another nice voice saying «We’re sorry, this service is unavailable at the moment. Kindly try again later.» So there you have it. Vivan los Telefonos de Mexico!

In this land of extremes and surrealistic realities, where there are people living in cardboard shacks just a couple of kilometers away from million-dollar condos and department stores selling blouses for $200 dollars, where the public hospitals are constantly running out of the most common medicines, there is a huge billboard on the highway leading north which advertises … cryogenics!

I’m including the photo so you won’t think I’m making this up, but that’s what it is. In fact, the billboard shows a pretty pregnant lady and the text reads: «Protect that which you love the most. Preserve your stem cells.» Don’t get me wrong. I think the concept is fabulous. I wish I had had the opportunity to preserve mine, for my children’s sake, but the technology didn’t exist yet, back then. (Neither did disposable diapers…) I just found it so incongruous and somehow out of place…

Talking about things out of place, the other night my menagerie suddenly went wild for no apparent reason. Dogs and cats jumping around, all focused on the same point. The point turned out to be the biggest, greenest grasshopper I have ever seen anywhere. I have no idea where it came from …nor do I want to know what became of it in the end. Maybe it’s just another one of those mutations.

I know that I’ve mentioned it many times before, but we have truly messed up this little planet of ours, folks. In more ways than one, and it’s not just the changes in the fauna.

This year, the breathtakingly beautiful primavera trees whose huge bright yellow bloom usually dot our surroundings in the month of April, are already losing their flowers. They bloomed a full two months early. And the potted poinsettias I planted in my garden last January, after their «season», are just blooming now, in March! This is not a good thing. I read that similar things are happening all over the world, wreaking havoc with the entire pollination processes and subsequently, with the harvests. The fruit trees flower early, the insects arrive too late, the fruit don’t happen, etc. etc. Although I scored well in my botany classes decades ago, I couldn’t explain all this if you paid me. I just know it doesn’t augur well for our future. And I still haven’t been able to go out in the evenings without a long-sleeved sweater and long pants; it’s been nearly three months already. Thank goodness for the heat in the daytime.

An article written by Paty Aguilar for NoticiasPV states that the City is looking to purchase one of those humungous machines that compresses car wrecks. The intention is to clear the city streets of all the abandoned cars and pick-up trucks and set up a dump where such a «compressor» would be installed to squash these old vehicles - all in order to obtain the coveted «clean city» certification. All that sounds just fine. The point I do not understand is where the article goes on to state that the owners of these wrecks will be compensated. Huh? For what? For having abandoned these eyesores in public streets for months, if not years? For causing additional expense to the city? The logic escapes me.

I am also amazed at how the folks who represent the three competing bus companies in this town have the gall to ask for a raise in the fares they charge. I got a glimpse of the letter that reader sent in to our paper this week; can you imagine watching a bus falling apart as it’s driving? Ohmygoodness. That’s scary stuff! Nacho Cadena wrote a hilarious article last year which he entitled «All for 5 Pesos!» In it, he described riding the buses in our town as an «extreme sport». If I can, I’ll see if the Trib would reprint it one day.

Before I forget, I have good news for all our readers who enjoy real hallah (or challah) bread, you know, the one that’s made with eggs and looks like a braid. Well, the folks at The Deli, located at 311-B Venustiano Carranza in the Romantic Zone on the south side of town, have discovered the secret to making the real thing. I shared a loaf with a half-dozen picky Jewish friends of mine, just to get their opinion. It was unanimous: this was REAL hallah! The loaf I got had raisins in it, and I was thinking… it was also very close to the raisin bread I’ve been missing so much lately. Hmmm… And boy, is it great for making French toast!

While I’m still on the food theme, I had another one of those serendipitous discoveries last week. The half & half cream that Fruit Forest hasn’t been able to get for the last couple of months …was stacked three deep at Rizo’s! Which -of course- doesn’t mean that I will ever find it there again. Sort of like the canned salmon they’ve all been promising to stock for the last six months… Just another similarity with the former Soviet Union. Over there, when a highly sought after item appeared on a store shelf, folks would have to stock up on it –if they had the money- ‘cause they never knew if they would ever find it again. This is a common occurrence here. Every once in a while, unexpected items show up, especially at Wal-Mart, sometimes exhibited at the end of an aisle. Items like mixed nuts in beautifully painted canisters, shortbread cookies from Scotland … or salmon.

Still on things unexpected, I got a good laugh when I noticed what the computer grinches did with the final Tribune of a couple of weeks ago, the one with the lady charro on the cover. Words, and in a couple of cases, entire titles, were missing. I wonder how many readers noticed it… Instead of reading "R.I.S.E. Fundraiser Breaks All Records", the title read "R.I.S.E. Fundraiser Breaks". Instead of reading "PV Needs More High Rises", Gil’s article was entitled «PV Needs More High». Now, that was really funny! As if there weren’t enough marijuana around… Oh, well, what can I say?

I hope you all have a wonderful, surreal week - but in every good sense of the word. Take care of yourselves and of each other. Hasta luego. pvmom04@yahoo.com

By the way, to the reader who asked me why there were no comments posted in my "wonderful blog", I only have one answer: I don’t know. But thank you for the compliment.