Incredible eye

Maybe I am partial, because he is a good friend, but I believe that Federico Gama is the best photojournalist working in Mexico City today. He has an incredible eye for Mexico City street life (and an admirable trigger finger, to catch the appropriate moment that goes by in a second when he is shooting on the sidewalk). Moreover, we have worked together frequently enough that I know he has an engaging and sympathetic manner. Only the most hard-hearted or mistrustful person would say no to him when he approaches and asks if he can take a portrait.

Check out his website, or better yet, go to the Casa Rafael Galván Gallery, on calle Zacatecas 94 in the Colonia Roma, where his exhibition Identidades en el espejo (Identities in the Mirror) opens this Thursday, June 12, at 7 pm. The gallery is open from Monday through Friday from 10 am to 6 pm, and on Saturdays from 10 am to 3 pm. Federico's show will be up until the 20th of September, although the gallery is closed from July 28 to August 25.

For those of you who cannot get enough of me

Now I know that there are millions out there who find me completely and utterly resistible. But if you are among the brave and happy few that do not, on Tuesday the 27th at 7:30 pm I will be speaking with my friend J.M. Servín about writing from street level in Mexico City at the Rosario Castellanos Bookstore, on the corner of Tamaulipas and Benjamin Hill, Colonia Condesa, as part of the Independent Book Fair.

On Saturday, May 31, at 12 noon, I will be speaking with several others about the late artist Phil Kelly, at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Paseo de la Reforma y Gandhi, s/n, Chapultepec Park. The occasion is the publication of a book called La pintura es ... las manos, el corazón, los ojos, la vida (Painting is ... the hands, the heart, the eyes, life), which is a marvelous retrospective of his work.

Both events are in Spanish.

The Brass Street Boys

They are hand's down the best brass band I have heard outside of New Orleans. And while they are hugely inspired by the music of that city, the Brass Street Boys are also influenced by Balkan sounds and Spanish-language rock of the 1980s. But what they do is unique. I am still trying to figure out how a group of Mexican kids this young (one of the sax players is 18, and the oldest in the band can't be more than 25) have come up with a sound this original. They are playing this coming Tuesday the 27th at the Pata Negra (Tamaulipas 30, corner Juan Escutia, Colonia Condesa) at 9 pm. If you can't make it, follow them on Facebook, where they announce all their gigs.

Whoops

My friend Cristina Potters, of the Mexico Cooks web site, kindly pointed out that on my earlier post today about Mesámerica and me, I managed to screw up two of the three mentioned dates. I have cleared both of them up, so anyone thinking about coming should take a look at the corrected post.

Mesamérica and me

On Tuesday, the third annual Mesamérica festival begins at the Blackberry Auditorium in the Colonia Condesa. It's a three-day international foodie event, where speakers from Mexico and around the world will talk about such diverse topics as cannibalism, cocktails and -- this one intrigues me -- "meat as a verb". The theme this year is "street food, urban expressions, what we eat in big cities and why."

Among the better-known speakers will be Alice Waters and Mario Batali from the U.S., David Thompson from Thailand, and Renzo Garibaldi, Peru's most accomplished butcher. Opening up the event on Tuesday morning, one of Mexico's best living writers, Juan Villoro, will talk about Moctezuma's Revenge. I will be talking about Mexico City cantinas on Wednesday at 12:30 pm. Information about the event, and how to aquire tickets, is on the Mesamérica website.