return of the medio pollo

well, i made it safe and sound to merida, in the state of yucatan, mexico. pretty uneventful flights down, well, that is until i found myself gently nestled into a faux leather lounge chair of the houston presidential continental club. first of all, THIS CLUB WON LOUNGE OF THE YEAR LAST YEAR. bullshit. texas obv. cheats at everything. virgin airlines would own those hosers any day of the week. back in the day, i took a nice hot shower, got a massage and then got my haircut all at the virgin club lounge.

what DID i get at the houston continental club lounge? (no, not vd, minds out of the gutter please)

free beer.

and well, people, free beer was gonna have to do.

so where was i?

oh yes, there i was, snuggled into the lounge chair. my legs, gently sticking to the rawhide pleather, as i downed free budweiser (¿draft¿ no less) as fast as i could. i mean, my connecting flight wasnt for another, what, 2 hours. midway through my 5th or 6th beer, i remembered 2 things.

1. the flight to merida is only an hour and a half.
2. i am supposed to be driving our rental car once we arrive.

here i am, on the verge of being totally inebriated, empty glasses and empty packets of cheese litter my table like a college dorm room floor. for situations like this, i usually turn to my wise OLDER friend´s advice, mark taylor. i started drinking coffee. lots of it. then i added water, and crackers to the cheese! it was working.

by the time we landed in merida i was totally sober. honest!
¿¿¿¿¿¿

anyways, our first day of shooting here was full! we shot all day at the power plant. i kept trying to practice my spanish, and everyone kept trying to practice their engligh, right back to me. what the hell did i even take those spanish classes for! i could have just come down here and spoke american. damn.

the hotel we are styaing at is v. nice. not fancy, but like a little modest villa. there is a pool outside my room and tonight i plan on skinny dipping after i have attacked some margaritas.


i am enjoying mexico, but it is nothing like i remember from when i was a little kid...


all the best ¡¡
i will keep ya posted
dirty cookie

que lo pase bien, no?

well, it is that time again. i am off for more exciting adventures. this time my travels will take to mexico, specifically the yucatan. and then to colombia. apparantly we will be met and escorted by armed gaurds (i am thinking uzi's) with mirrored glasses and bulletproof cars.

who am i working for again?

stay tuned!

like an oragami crane, i fold into my bathroom

i mean, the bathroom in my current hotel room is so small, but that is the LAST thing you want to read about, so i will leave it at that!

i am currently in the netherlands amongst the dutch. this language is obsurd. i feel like i am watching the muppets on repeat, all day long. smorgasboordenkardstyle. yeh. its all good though. so, the power plant we are photographing is located in this small town called terneuzen. everytime i see the name, or hear the name, i automatically think of terezin.

even accoring to the dutch, teurnezen is the end of the world. the internet has not yet reached its county lines. its still messenger pigeons and fax machines over here. we are as far as you can get from amsterdam, and still be in the nethers. they just recently built a tunnel which connects the rest of nethers to this forgotten little island that the allies bomed at the end of the war, to drive out the nazis. allies bombed all the dikes and flooded the area in order to drive them out.

teurnezen is below sea level, just like the rest of netherlands. reclaimed land, they say.

but back to the end of the world. there happens to be western europes largest "coffee shop" right next to my hotel. they sell "green alchohol". they service over 4ooo people daily! its amazing. (hence the new tunnel?) mainly the clientel is comprised of dissillusioned young french kids making the hour drive over the border to load up on some NL type kind shit which has a 13% level of thc or whatever. most weed, skunk, whathave you, has about 5%. it is simply amazing. its like the mall of america for weed, next door.
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we flew into brussles actually, as the drive was shorter than flying into the amstydamsty. the 2 hour drive to teurnezen was littered with graffiti, so you know i was happy to sit in the back seat, headphones blazing, checking all the pieces out. the graf is this funny mix of euro style meeting la adventure. crazy euro names with flaming colors on overpasses with no ledges, 25 meters up in the air. damn! my favorite tag so far is "animal farm". you go boy. you go.

sorry about the fragmented story line of this entry. basically, the area we are in, isnt that interesting, so i have just been jotting down notes on my production schedule, so i remememeber some things to share with you all.

11/3 - the HIGHLIGHT of this day was going to the automated cow milking facility. the machine had the most awesome name. "the astronaut". hell yes! basically, when the cows feel like it, they saunter their swollen undersides into what looks like a huge vending machine. then this little arm comes out and cleans their "udders". click click, the arms dissapears, and this, and i can only describe it as such, nipple suction contraption out and searches out all 4 of their nipples and the suction turns on and with a gentle MOOOOOOO, gallons of milk begin to pour in to a jug. simply amazing. the sound of the nipple suction alone would make a grown man cry. haha.

of course, the visit to the auto milking facility was quicikly followed by lunch! and what was i served? a close relative to something i had just photographed. my first raw meat sandwich ever. whoa. apparently its the area's specialty and the chef was insulted (and the dutch are good at that face) when i pointed pointed to the salmon when the words "raw meat?" came out of his mouth. needless to say, it was good. pate like. tasty.

the power plant we are photographing, was required by the farming community to put this huge wall up around it, for the sound pollution. basically this makes photography IMPOSSIBLE. all sunlight is cut out, and there is no room for perspecitve. it makes me giggle everytime dave asks for the wide angle. "again?" i let out in a southern drawl. the wall is strange.

it looks like a buckminster fuller creation that met the berlin wall in some back way dark alley. it did not go well.

we also got to photographthe local cycling team sponsored by robobank and my client. it was dope. we cruised on these back country roads with the team chasing us as we flicked them from the open bed of a pickup. dope.

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well, i have been crossing out the days until i return like a kid punching out days on an advent calendar. i will be back in nyc in a couple days and i am really looking forward to it, to being home. wishing you all well

this heineken and amstel is for you














--amadeo