merry chrimi

hotel parisian, havana vieja

in other news, if you want to have a decent hustle down here got two words for you: christmas lights.  140 bootleg lights will cost you about $10 US. you can grab some better quality ones the week after christmas for pennies on the dollar, or about $0.60. so what you do is buy a bunch, then you hold em for a bit, then take em uptown and flip em, whatever whatever, and make your monies. yea.

life is a movie

cine la rampa

The 31st international havana film festival was on earlier this month, 20 cuban pesos (roughly under $1 US) got you 15 entrances.  Over 100 movies and shorts were shown, a great event that goes on every December, highly recommend it if you're around during that time. I was only able to catch 5 this year, kind of sad, of those 1 was good, Mapa de sonidos de Tokyo (Sound map of Tokyo), the other 4 were ranged from horrible, to confusing to so-so. 

too cool for you

kool and the gang, of "celebrate" and "hollywood swinger" fame, came down to cuba to rock out in the Antimperialist Tribunal, which happens to be in front of the US Interest Section. It was good. Kool says whats up.

no toilet paper, ha!

we got toilet paper for days.

busy busy

been busy with things out here. christmas break is coming up soon. photographs will be made, adventures will be had, things will be posted.

stay tuned.

i live in a free country

the writing on the wall.

insect bites, ninja fights

i was bit the other night by either a scorpion, a hornet, or bee.
the result was my hand swelling up to that of an inflated rubber glove.
i´m not exactly sure what bit me, but it was bad and i´m going to assume i´m allergic to things.
i forgot to take a photo, but it was pretty funny, if i get bit again it will be documented.

havana graffiti pics coming soon.

The Fuster Gallery

Being one of a number of US Students (not a large number but 100+)  studying medicine in Cuba, not study abroad through a US university but actually living here and studying for long term (6 years minimum), gives us the opportunity to meet people we would most likely not have met back home (last year I met the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa) as well as the opportunity to see a lot of new and interesting things. Today we were invited by some visitors to Cuba to an art Gallery right down the highway from where we live to have lunch and talk at the Fuster Gallery. The meal was great, the conversation better, and the art work of Fuster was amazing. He does ceramic and mosaic work and has grown his work out of his house and into his neighborhood. Amazing stuff. I asked if I could come back to photograph, he said "any time" so look for more photos from this amazing place in the future. If you make it to Cuba you need to check out the Fuster Gallery in Jaimanitas.

paz sin fronteras

Colombian singer Juanes came to Cuba and put forth a big old concert with number of other international stars in the Plaza de la Revolución, well over a million people were in attendance, school even hooked up free buses out there. Good times.

the stage from where i was sitting (standing for 4 hours? pass)

shout out to my chilean friends. flags of all nations were flying

a room with a view

every day when i wake up and lift my head this is what i see: 

other side of the hallway is the ocean view kind of blocked by another dorm.

currently living with uruguayans and brazilians. estou falando muito portugues.

a ton of new delegations have arrived at the school as well, some 20+ new countries are now being represented from as close as the Caribbean, to as far as the South Pacific, countries I've never even heard of. It's going to be a good year.

cancun

gate B1 and i'm out. 

updates from the field coming soon.

back to the grind

Back to school/Cuba next week, catch me before I'm out.

calle. santos suarez, la habana, cuba.

It's hard to do color balance on photographs with ridiculous color hues, thus is Cuba.

and the gorilla turned to the zoo keeper and signed, "please, kill me..."

This weekend I journeyed 12 hours west to the Grand Rapids area (Michigan for those not in the geographical know) with my brother (formerly of Brooklyn, now of Jersey) and his family to go see my other brother and his family out there. Good times overall even got to kick it with my SSWE/ELAM buddy on some small world coincidence. On Saturday we all hit up the John Ball Zoo  (not too shabby for a smallish zoo) which was in a totally random location.

gorilla. grand rapids, michigan, usa.

Is it just me or do the grand majority of animals in zoos look depressed? I can barely recall my weekly childhood visits to the Bronx Zoo but I'm sure they looked just as sad. I'll be visiting the Zoológico de La Habana later this year, so we'll see if the same theory stands abroad.

a fresh start

A lot has been going on recently. Some trips here and there, photographs made (both digital and film), tons of new people met, lots of thoughts on the mind. I changed up LazyLatino.com, removed the old blog with all of its content (thus the fresh start) and linked to a temporary portfolio site while I get something more official together (both portfolio-wise and hosting it). Some older entries may get republished here but for now we're going for fresh content, more photography, and keeping the masses informed of what's what wherever I happen to find myself and other things worth mentioning. So lets just jump right in.

air. outside tuba city, arizona, usa.

I lent the kid in the above photo a digital SLR I was hauling around with me while photographing the Salud SW Exchange, he's got potential. With some practice, some reading, and work he could be something else. When I head back out that way I'm going to try to have a camera for him, be it something official (which means a film SLR) or a point-and-shoot (film or digital), so he can keep shooting.