i really should recount the occurrences of these past couple of months (for some reason i just wasn't in the writing mood--i'd start posts and never finish them), but for now, here are the
pics from my winter holiday in the centre of the country.
we ran into the ny couple we met in puebla again in the df. coincidentally, we were walking down the same street in the condesa--great minds think alike, no? maybe we'll meet up when i move to ny sometime in the next few years...

to get back into the swing of things, i'll just write about my last two weekends.

last week, i went to guadalajara w/ some radio dj boys to attend the mx beat music festival, which took place on the saturday. it was a pretty eventful weekend in general; on the friday, we drove out to the gdl from the university radio station at around 7 p.m. and arrived in the city a little before midnight. we met up w/ some friends who'd just come from seeing sonic youth live, and about an hour later, we found ourselves grooving out to a female dj spinning techno at la santa, the hip lounge/bar/house tj and i visited on our last trip (except this time it was still open, and it was packed w/ ppl).
however, promptly at 3 a.m., the staff proceeded to herd us out of there, and the night continued with an after-party at an abandoned building not too far away. i think i finally went to sleep at about 6 or 7 in the morning.

the fest the next day started at 3 p.m., but we didn't get there 'til around 6 in the evening. this whole mx beat deal was pretty insane: 12 hours of quality music, a pair of tickets cost 150 pesos (approx. $15 USD), beer was 15 pesos ($1.50), whiskey/tequila/rum drinks were something like 25 pesos, and for smokers, it was practically christmas--the whole thing was sponsored and run by marlboro, so they were literally giving away "limited edition soundfest series" packs of cigarettes.

getting into the fest was an incredibly eyeopening experience: there was seriously an endless row of computer registers, and before you could enter, you had to surrender your i.d. for the ppl behind the registers to scan, and then you had to give them all your contact info and answer a few survey questions. it was pretty brilliant; lure the masses w/ good music, cheap alcohol and free ciggies, and get a shitload of precious marketing info in exchange! everyone was ready and willing.

the venue was basically a huge open field, w/ one large main stage on one end, a big covered lounge area in the middle, and a huge, very deep rectangular tent for the hip-hop/electronic dj acts at the other end.

the musical lineup was pretty awesome: girl talk, spank rock, the pipettes and the whitest boy alive, as well as some mexican bands (that we missed since we arrived late) and a band from argentina called babasonicos (translation: sonic saliva...?!).

i'd have to say my fave acts were the whitest boy alive (they were the first act we caught, and i was in such a good space at the time, i could've just expired in bliss right then and there; they were tight) and girl talk. the pipettes were fun to watch and entertaining, but nothing really substantial, and spank rock kicked ass and got me to the front of the stage (the affiliated baltimore bass connection remixed peter bjorn and john's "young folks" and we all went wild), but girl talk actually got me on stage. yes--i, christina, actually danced--no, make that shook my wildly and uncharacteristically overly-enthusiastic booty--on stage with about five or six other girls to gregg gillis's ingenious mix of ass-shaking goodness which included, but was definitely not limited to, samples of no less than three different j. timberlake songs, some hot chip, and kanye's "goldigger" for good measure.

i've gotta say, i had not danced so happily to such a good selection of music (remixed version of the yeah yeah yeah's "cheated hearts"! "let's make love and listen to death from above" by CSS!) in waaaay too looong a time.
while i was doing the giddydance, some dude in a blazer came up to me and asked if i was from ny. i am loving this whole vibe i am apparently giving off; do i have a flashing sign on my forehead that says, "please ask me if i'm from ny"?!? i happily lied and said i was, and then proceeded to flippantly insult guadalajara, this guy's beloved city. i regret doing this now and feel badly about it (although i do still stand by my criticisms of the gdl). i'm sorry, gdl boy. you were nice and i was mean.

we went to an after-party at a "minimalist mansion" in some sort of gated community after the fest, and the female dj from friday's la santa turned up again, but the whole thing was pretty lowkey and we packed it in pretty early (well, i guess it was around 4 or 5 a.m., but still).

on sunday, we vegged out in front of the tv, watched tom tykwer's perfume: the story of a murderer at the cineplex (apparently, one of the guys i saw the film w/ was invited to be in the orgy scene while they were shooting in spain...i thought the movie was pretty mediocre--it was a cool story, but i don't understand why it was shot in english or why dustin hoffmann had to be in it), and watched the academy awards. (were they kind of early this year? was anybody else as bored as i was?)

monday was spent getting a chest x-ray for my australian working holiday visa (i took the day off school) and riding a bus for what felt like 6553350 hours to get back to vallarta.

this post is officially too close to getting too long (i doubt anything will ever rival that one i wrote about my finger in punta mita though). i'll continue w/ my account of this past weekend tomorrow.

p.s. i'm going to mx beat df this weekend. yes, i'm addicted.