Tag Archives: art

Día de la Música 2013

Day of the Music is among our favorite annual events here in Mazatlán. The city sets up stages at various locations downtown, all within a few blocks of each other. The twenty performers rotate on the hour most of the night, beginning at 7:00 pm, and each stage has a theme. There is also always a visual and street arts corner, which was in a new location this year but just as much fun. In 2011 we made our first video about Day of the Music, and below is a video of this year. I hope you’ll enjoy it! Please let me know what you think.


Saturday was a gorgeous evening, as usual. Starting in daylight and quickly moving into and past sunset, the moon hung hugely over this year’s festivities. Weather was warm and comfy with a wonderful ocean breeze. There was a huge variety of music, and we met at least 30 friends as we walked and danced around. It’s such a joy to be able to see people from all walks of life, coming out with their families to enjoy this community event each year. Mouse over any photo to view the caption, click on it to enlarge or view a slideshow.

The moon kept watch all night long
Dixieland jazz
Casa Machado
Moon over the Casa Machado
Better to walk than to try and drive
Current favorites and retro favorites: Enrique Aguilar from the 60s-era Stukas joins la Falsa Orquesta Cubana
Love the portable stage-in-a-trailer they always set up
Large happy crowds at each stage
Not the music we imagined when we read “strings”
Selling aguas frescas and snacks in the plaza facing the art museum
Gotta get popcorn…
Just chillin’ in Olas Altas
Banda
Looking out to the ocean
Love walking around Centro Histórico at night
Great turnout
Gorgeous venues
Our beloved venadito
Street artists were invited from around the country
Lots of live painting
Live painting
Visual arts space at A La Vuelta de Venus
Plazuela vendors set up along the street

This year the themes and performers on the five stages were:

Escenario Machado (in the Plazuela)

  • Guillermo Sarabia Chorus
  • B. Smith’s Hot Jazz (Dixieland, from Culiacán)
  • Camerata Mazatlán and the Folkloric Ballet
  • Ikloo (60s classic rock)
  • Continentalísimo Mariachi Show

Escenario Fusión (Calle Venus between Sixto Osuna and Constitución)

  • Jazz Plasma
  • Honest Jon and the Truth
  • Daniel San Project
  • Lori Davidson and Rob Lamonica

Banda y Tropical (on the malecón at the end of Calle Constitución)

  • Percussion Ensemble
  • Banda La Mazatleca (played for two hours; we are the birthplace of banda, after all!)
  • La Falsa Orquesta Cubana (my personal favorite)

Escenario del Recuerdo (in front of the Art Museum)

  • Trova Cardio
  • Malamecha, Boleros and Cantantes (Municipal School of the Arts group)
  • Grupo con Cuerdas (strings playing popular music)
  • Angela Peralta Chorus (non-professional community chorus)

Rock y Tendencias (Calle Niños Heroes and Constitución)

  • Haiku (from Escuinapa)
  • Los Insane
  • Lady Munster (from Los Mochis)
  • The Oaths

LIVE VISUAL ART: A La Vuelta de Venus

  • Dhear
  • Beo Hake (from Monterrey)
  • Yurex Omazkin (from Mexico City)
  • Watchavato (from Culiacán)
  • Smithe (from Mexico City)
  • Bacse
  • Tony Delfino
  • Buque
  • Wank
  • AskoAbsurdo
  • Cusehr

Thank you, Mazatlán and CULTURA! This is a terrific event, so very pleasurable, a true gift for all Mazatlecos and those who are visiting!

A couple of things we noticed this year, that might make a difference going forward. The first is to ensure that the stages themselves don’t block the walking access between venues. If they must, please put up signage that directs people to the correct walking route. Many elderly attend this event, and to see them having to retrace their steps or go around, some in wheel chairs and scooters, was sad. Secondly, this year it seemed the theme of a couple of the stages changed more than in years past. Perhaps this was purposeful, to help ensure that people would move around? If so it definitely accomplished that purpose, creating more movement than is customary, as people who love classical would hightail it out of the vicinity as jazz came on, or people who love popular music became disappointed as a chorus took the stage. A bit more consistency of style on each stage seems to us to make for a cozier and more enjoyable evening. But, these are both incredibly minor, considering the overall quality and pleasure of this terrific event.

Art Education Exposition of Southern Sinaloa on the Malecón Today

18.P1000922As we were eating lunch today we were thoroughly enjoying the sailboat regatta that is taking place in the bay. A beautiful day for a regatta! (Click any photo below to see it larger.)

Then, looking down more directly, we noticed lots of people putting up children’s artwork along the malecón. Once we went down to check it out, we learned that between 3500 and 4000 original pieces of art are being displayed on the malecón this afternoon.

1.P1000896Student artists from all over the southern part of the state are exhibiting. It seemed each teacher was taping up his/her own students’ work. We talked to one teacher who had come from Teacapán, and another from Escuinapa. They were so proud, and the students were just glowing! What a terrific use of our beautiful seaside promenade.

At the northern end of the exhibit they have the chairs, podium and sound system set up for the opening ceremony at 5:00 today. In that area they have displayed the work of several invited special artists. That slide show is below. You can click on any photo to see it larger.

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The display reaches from just south of Fiesta Land, where the inaugural ceremony with all the dignitaries and families in attendance will be held at 5:00, all the way down to Monos Bichis/Monumento al Pescador. We got in the car to videotape the length of the exhibit, and the video is over ten minutes long! It’s a whole lot of artwork! (Once it’s uploaded I will post that video below.)

The exhibition is only this afternoon/evening, so I urge you to go out and take a look! Congratulations, students!

Travelogue Spring Break 2011, Day 7, Good Friday: Zacatecas

I guess we had a busy day, because I’m having a really hard time choosing the photos to use. It felt like a very relaxed and wonderful day as we wandered around the city.

Danny was unfortunately sick with a fever and stayed behind today, sleeping nearly all day. Mara, Greg and I headed out to the Rafael Coronel (mask) museum. On the way, however, we happened by the Casa de Cultura. What a find! It’s very near our hotel, but somehow we hadn’t seen it before today.

In addition to incredible handmade stuff inside (which we bought our share of), they have TWO WEEKS of FREE art classes during Semana Santa! People can study wood or rock carving, chair caning, piñata/Judas making, huichól wax beadwork and yarn work, embroidery, weaving… you name it. It was wonderful! We had such a good time looking around and talking to people, and we signed up for classes on Monday.

From there we wandered across town to the mask museum. I am going to have to do a special “architecture of Zacatecas” blog or photo page, as there is just too much to cover here, such a wealth of beauty. On the way we passed the Templo de Santo Domingo which had been closed yesterday, so we peeked inside. They have gold altars down both side walls, plus a gorgeous main altar and organ.

The mask museum itself is housed in the former Convent of San Francisco. The building is incredible—ruins and gardens, nearly jungle-like, plus a lawn out front and very modern installations in the museum itself. So happy we went.

Rafael, like his brother Pedro, was an artist and collector. While Pedro seemed to collect paintings, Pedro collected masks. They are from all over Mexico, and it is astounding how many of them, and how wonderful, they are! They say it’s the largest collection of masks in the world.  We had such a good time looking through the collection, and we thoroughly enjoyed the site, too.

There were also quite a few musical instruments that were pretty remarkable. I do love folk art.

And they had masks that weren’t for the face, but rather to step into and dance with. They seemed a lot of fun.

Outside the main mask museum they had what may be a temporary exhibit, I’m not sure, but it was of incredibly real marionettes in various scenes.

From the museum we walked downhill around the corner to eat at a place Greg had found online: Los Dorados de Villa. Inside the place was chock-full of Mexican curio and history. Several of the walls are papered with old money/bills.

It was the cutest little house, and it had quite the “soup Nazi” at the door! She was actually wonderful, but I don’t envy her job! Very pushy people try to cut the line or pay her off to get ahead, but she held her ground. She took people to be seated in the order they arrived, or some had reservations.

 



The food was INCREDIBLE. The three of us had pozole, enchiladas doradas con lomo en crema de poblano, and encacahuatadas. OMG! TO DIE FOR! The encacahuatadas were a light chipotle cream sauce with peanut, very Thai, yet very Mexican. I could only eat two of the five in the bowl.

From there we headed back to the hotel to check on poor Danny, who honest to goodness had slept most of the day. On the way we were able to get into the cathedral (very modern compared to other churches in the city), and had the joy of strolling through this gorgeous city that is wall-to-wall party/festival this week. Everywhere you look is joy.

Danny was feeling better, so joined us for the Procession of Silence. That was also most incredible, held on Good Friday evening. I will devote a separate blog post to that.