Our Man in Antigua

Saturday morning…thanks to the intervention of someone, in speaking with two PNC brass and the guy in the suit yesterday in the park, the decision to ban the three newspaper vendors is cancelled and in writing…nope, wuzn’t me..I was there but…

Lili, the ‘newspaper lady’ on the corner of 5th/4th? getting the bounce…outa there in a week, after 16 years in the same location..all the vendors around the park are getting the axe..are the shoeshine kids gonna be next? how about the taxis,  parked by the church? was told, by a 2nd hand source, that that ‘mayan’ vendors wil be allowed back in four months…altho judging/observing from a large gathering of same by La Merced this morning(and dispersed by PNC) that four months might not be long enough to put this fire out.

I’ve said and I’ll say it again…pick 5-10 of the top vendors with the best goods and license them to sell in/around the park. The ice cream vendors with their little carts don’t harm anyone…Sarita has a lock on the business..and what’s a few newspapers and how are people gonna find ’em anymore? I don’t get it but that’s true of a lot of things. Lets put people out of work? people with mouths to feed? the idea of only using “Antigua artists’ is absurd(to me)…who/where are they? the three cartoonists and Andy the Mime have a ‘show’?…dunno…it’s all too wierd…maybe have the latest perps caught raping/snatching/stealing brought into the park once a week for public floggings?..the park had color/vibrancy…

ok..off the box.. http://www.examiner.com/article/the-no-name-bomb-factory

Part One of an amazing discovery(to me)in the hills above town..’was told that the soccer stadium(near where I live)used to be the site for a gunpowder factory in the early days…El Polvero…again, unsubstantiated rumors so take it with a grain of #20 (the coarse grain)..

Ron Fortin, our wandering sax player, is back in town…look for him at Ocelot, early Friday night…no word from Nelson, up inna the States…somewhere…the music scene in town is at an all time low altho there’s some kinda happening at San Jose El Viejo Saturday night..8ish..60q per M Tallon..and I’m still blown away by the concept of a Reilly’s in Granada…next? San Jose, Costa Rica? perfecto…around the corner from the Del Rey?