Journal 27.02.04 Hey Sibs, I'm back down here in San Francisco
(San Pancho) MX. Been here two weeks. Bobbie may know of this quiet lil fishing
village cause there are daily excursions here from boats & hotels up in
Puerto Vallarta. I'm doing pretty well. The lack of cold wet rain weather is
good for my body. I am doing Yoga every morning and trying to begin an
afternoon practice as well. Not too strenuous, (yeah, well, "fuck you, it
does hurt!") but I feel the difference & don't know why I haven't Was
doing this for thirty years! I wouldn't be having these back hassels. . . <br>
<br>
I am "boondocking" according to some RV'ers staying up the coast
3 k in Sayulito trailer/camp grounds. Boondocking is RV'ing out near the middle
of nowhere for free! I'm the only one presently camped on the beach, although
through mid Jan there was an Argentinean circus here as well and each Friday,
campers arrive for the weekend. Once in a while a Mexican happy to be free of
la Cuidad (The Capitol or Guadalajara) or a gringo looking for surf, pulls up
some sand. <br> <br>
This is a wealthy town. Owned by 17 families whose mythology is that each
of them sell a piece of land every five years or so. Or at least, that's the
way a bunch of gringo implants understand the local situation. My friends
bought here ten years ago and I came down after that to visit them. At the
time, Estaban talked my ears off (he talks a lot anyway, usually shit but who
cares) about property values here. I listened, I liked the place & remember
asking mom something like if I was to take my insurance settlement (in 1994,
which wound up financing the money losing bakery/festival experience) and
bought property here would she help. She said she couldn't at the time. There's
this fat Alabama dude who's been here fifteen years, bought 4 properties at
between $5 & $10K twelve, thirteen years ago, sold the last one of the
three (he lives on the fourth) for over $100,000 this week. <br> <br>
Well, there's hardly big money making opportunities left in property *here*
but every day, scores and scores of North Americans & Canadians are
"relocating" to this (new gold) coast for their winters early Nov -
end April or May. June - Aug it rains every day when humidity tops 100% most
return north. (Except it seems those who lived w/in 250 miles of the
Mississippi or Missouri Rivers.) Many recent arrivals here seem to be -50,
prolly .com early outs & cash outs and your regular 65+. An
"intellectual" & somewhat "liberal" crowd (Dems they
seem for the most part) they are rather mellow and not in accordance with the
mythology of drunk American retirees littering the streets of Mexican coast
towns and other trailerparktrash such trash. There are of course a few drunken
noteworthy exceptions. <br> <br>
Well, I've got this mobile home and some work here & there in Hawaii
& east coast now & then mostly between Jan & Aug, so I been thinking.
. . You guys would not fuckin believe the houses I've seen here that have been
built in the last six years by N. Amer's winter ex-pats.. Beautiful cement
work, incredible interior brick vaulted & domed ceilings and incredible
tile and fountains and landscaping, tile everywhere) and the most neat part is
of course in that it's Tropical, thirty feet from a house, it's difficult to
see the sucker! <br> <br>
So, I been thinking of offing Middletown if'n I can't rent it cause I'd
rather have steady income, then if that's happening and I own the sucker
(eventually) you guys can help me 2nd mortgage it and I'll put the money within
a mile of the beach on a hill w/ ocean views & sunset colors. BTW, this area
is almost a "certified no-catastrophe area," with no earthquakes,
tornados, draught or hurricanes. Well, there was one several years ago, but it
was the only one for the last fifty+ years say the locals. They usually begin
way south of here and sweep east across the Mexican Isthmus. Bad weather to the
n. amer w. coast begins off Baja, 200 miles + Sea of Cortes way north west of
here. 'Cept for three months of solid fuckin rain, this is paradise! And,
always an indicator of decent human occupation is number of good restaurants.
While there are thirty three (yup, 33) eating establishments in this lil town
of less then a thousand Mexicans, at least two are worthy of this gourmet
snob's 3+ Stars, & up in Sayulito, there's a couple more but that town's a
destination for surfers and gots TWO RV/campgrounds. I'll be there Monday &
am gonna be taking Spanish classes in the a.m.'s! <br> <br>
My art is going great & I hope to have some new stuff on a web page
after next week when I can use a friends dial up. The local internet cafe says
"huh?" when I ask about uploading to my website from their system.
Going back to the patches after the smokes run out. Learning an animation
program (got both computers down here in the RV + an inverter so I don't have
to run engine all day) that requires a MIDI keyboard, so I got a small cheap
one on way south. It's rather involved and there are quite a number of really
cool effects. Five years ago, this s/w was not that accessible and machines
that did this kind of post production video special effects costs tens of
thousands of dollares amigo. This is like the early "video toasters"
but one hundred times more interesting and fun and much more psychedelic. The
real beauty w/ be when I figure out WHAT kind of video I want to shoot that w/ make
the effects most effectual. Man, was I stoked to read (yeah, in the manual for
a change) that I can use more then three effects at a time. Dozens of them in
fact and EACH one has their own parameter settings. It's really freaky! And,
like I can import my own graphics and do all sorts of sick things with and to
them. . .Make em move, cube, plane out, etc. This creates sort of like screen
savers on acid is one way to understand it, or screensaver grad school where
what most of us have seen on our computers (if we use screen savers) up to this
point is grade school level. But, it's not a screensaver program at all and has
real time manipulation of stuff pre-recorded (for a show) earlier). <br>
<br>
I feel great to be learning something new that pushes my art forward
dramatically without drugs! Well, I do smoke two before cracking the manual
each morning. . . Ah, there go some of the local fisher guys who walk at least
a half a mile with a 7' long double door cooler, (Charlie knows them well) with
rope handles on both ends through which is put a six foot pole so they carry it
up the beach on their shoulders. I've never seen these dudes switch shoulders
and the walk from the boats in their lil harbor is AT LEAST a half mile along
the beach to me before they turn to their house a couple hundred meters more.
So, cost me one U.S. dollar (5 pesos) for a borito, some local, sweet juicy
delicious fish (when I cook it over an outdoor fire of dried coconut husks in a
special sort of little camping rig you can score at your local right-wing survivalist
gear shop, for bbqing fish or meats or shit, anything larger then one sq inch.
Two stainless screen jobbies on hinges and a long handle with a nifty slip lock
device). Some couscous and broccoli, a glass of wine on my lil picnic table w/
my ass in those cute WallMart beach chairs, MC the Real Dog wallowing at my
feet in the sand, facing another magnificent sunset and I feel grateful for
another day.
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