Oyster Card and Annie Lennox

Now that I'm a commuter in London, I am using an Oyster card. I ride bus #19 from Clerkenwell to Soho and it's quite pleasant. A little more crowded in the mornings than in the evenings, but very convenient. Very refreshing to live/work in a city with great public transport. I was going to use the tube, but it is MUCH more crowded (and a lot dirtier) than the bus. The tube is more fun when you are a tourist and not traveling at peak hours. I read about the Oyster card on the Metroblogging London website.

Yesterday, my first full day in London, I had a celebrity sighting -- Annie Lennox.
A great start to my stay here.

Mexico City as a State of Mind = London

Clearly by being home and not in Mexico City it would be strange to keep writing about Mexico City. But I can't let it go. I can't let the experience of living/working in that place go. I don't want to stop observing, taking photos, commenting on life around me, within me. So I won't. Mexico City is now a state of mind so I will continue this blog.

Conveniently, I'm living/working in another foreign city. I'm in London for a few weeks doing some follow up work on the Mexico project. So there is plenty of other "differentness" for me to see and photograph and write about.

Let's start with the flight in:

A bit different from Mexico City and LA. If you click on the picture to enlarge, you'll notice a large manor house or castle. Totally England, dude.

I'm staying at a fab modern hip cool hotel in Clerkenwell. It is refreshing not to be at a Camino Real, however there are some bright colors here too. Here is the view looking up from the bar:

And here is my room. Very nice.

But when you take a photo without flash, it looks more like it does when you first walk in:

A bit shocking after a very long flight.

Me at Work

A friend from the shoot in Mexico sent me this.

On that day we had 15 cameras and I had to make sure I got information on all of them, including their exact positions so we could recreate them at a later time. Orange tape is a visual effects producer's best friend. This was a slightly more dramatic but not un-typical look for me. Pockets stuffed with tools, radio and tape measure hanging off my pockets. And yes, it was chilly in Mexico in the mornings at work.

Happy days.

Good-bye Mexico, Hello LA

As of Tuesday (9/19) I will have been home for three weeks. It feels more like I've been home for three months. I don't understand how time zooms backward and forward.

Here are pictures from my last day in Mexico.

As we drove to the airport, I appreciated that the city was easing me back into an LA frame of mind. Here is a picture on our way to the airport. Look familiar?

Then this which just made me laugh.

From the air as we took off. Adios, amiga mia.

Then this as we were about to land. Nothing says "I'm Home!" more than the sight of the 405/105 interchange.

Poquito Mas -- Cuernavaca

I'm blogging via dial up -- talk about frustrating. I might need to start a blog about how much earthlink annoys the (insert whatever word you want here) out of me. I've only been on hold for 50 minutes and hung-up on twice. Grrr.

But let's get back to the fun of Mexico and Cuernavaca. We were working right outside a huge cathedral there. Built in 1550-something, as are many of the cathedrals we worked near.

This was the small church. The bigger one was behind it in a large courtyard.

Here is the entrance to the bigger church.

Check out the detail on this thing! (click for bigger image)

Here are the cloisters in back. I like the old stuff.

That and the Robert Brady Museum were about all I saw of the town.

During the whole shoot I had a twin. She was the unit publicist and often people would come up to me with questions for her and vice versa. Here we are in Cuernavaca. Now, why would anyone mistake me for her?

Catching up in Cuernavaca

Okay, I know I'm back in Los Angeles, but there are still a few things from Mexico to catch up on.

Cast your minds back to Cuernavaca, where I ate mango chile frozen treats (palleta or paleta in spanish.) We were there for one night and I experienced 3 square blocks of the place. Within those three blocks was the Robert Brady Museum. It was amazing, like a vacation from the hot work day (we went at lunch). The house, while a bit over the top, was an inspiration for how to live, and reminded me of Frida's house on some levels. And oh, the bathrooms. I'm a sucker for a cool bathroom. They get me every time.

If you have seen our house, you know we love color. So this house made me go, "Yeah! That's what I love to see!" And the kitchen with that giant window and sink. Nice. Time for some mexican tiles...