Saturday

After several quasi-grueling weeks sorting and stacking our possessions, we have found ourselves in a relocation lull. Because of a minor red tape snag that postponed the arrival of our movers until Wednesday, the three-day process now straddles a long weekend (yesterday's inauguration, over before noon, was a national holiday). So we have empty rooms, mostly-boxed rooms, and rooms which remain very much unchanged from the norm; we're spending this weekend tiptoeing around the house trying to keep these distinctions from aggregating. Also we are trying to get any last minute shopping out of the way on the off-chance that we buy something we decide to pack off to Vietnam or store for the future. Speaking of the future--as well as the recent, and more distant, past--Frida Kahlo's one hundredth birthday will be celebrated next year with the presentation of a trunk full of personal possessions discovered two years ago while renovating her México City home (also her México City museum). These were obviously packed as-is during the last days of her life (she died in '54), and the contents of the box still smell like her: oil paints, perfume, cigarettes.* If you’re in town, go to that show. The news from the relatively present: toward the end of November, players in the Oaxacan situation began lighting fires to historical buildings. Since then, the federal police have tightened the grip a little, kicking the APPO out of their final refuge--a university radio station that they've occupied and used for broadcast communications over several months now.* Also, the two police officers arrested in connection with the shooting death of US journalist Bradley Will on October 27th were released yesterday due to insufficient evidence to indict. Not to worry, they say in Spanish, the investigation is ongoing.* [Cavin]