Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey, Brendan, this is Christie from Topic I'm Missing.
Speaker 1: You're on your flight to Mexico City right now. We
Speaker 1: just wanted to make sure you receive my email because
Speaker 1: they haven't hear back from you. So there just is
Speaker 1: We really want to proper dinner party from you this episode.
Speaker 1: Not like an art loss or a pizza party, but
Speaker 1: like an actual dinner party at the home of a
Speaker 1: local person. It's like you promise when you pitch just
Speaker 1: a podcast. Remember, Okay, let me know if you have
Speaker 1: any questions. Oh. Also, I was looking over your receipts
Speaker 1: and you can't expense cocktails on non travel base and
Speaker 1: I'm going to assume that was a mistake. Okay, assimi, Ago,
Speaker 1: this is not lost. Each episode, a friend and I
Speaker 1: go somewhere to find ourselves and yeah, try to get
Speaker 1: invited to a dinner party. Um, Brendan, friends is this week?
Speaker 1: My friend is my frequent co conspirator, the writer Daniel Henderson,
Speaker 1: and the somewhere Mexico City. Driving through a neighborhood, you
Speaker 1: see people kind of just going about their Friday morning
Speaker 1: routine and then you kind of turn on an avenue
Speaker 1: and it's very open and the city lake. Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 1: After dropping our things off at our renter department, Danielle
Speaker 1: and I cruised the streets of Mexico City in the
Speaker 1: back of maneuver. We passed clusters of people gathered near
Speaker 1: food carts and coolers filled with twenty five cents Tomali's.
Speaker 1: The streetscape shifts from neo colonial buildings and big trees
Speaker 1: to low slung auto repair shops baking in the sun.
Speaker 1: So where we go, we're taking this uperwear. I thought
Speaker 1: we started the Zokolo, the main square, which is the
Speaker 1: center of Mexico City, of the city of twenty million
Speaker 1: and growing. And so we're meeting Professor Pavel Maldonado and
Speaker 1: he's a professor of culture at the University of Mexico.
Speaker 1: So I thought he could kind of get us our bearings.
Speaker 1: Because I get to do this all day, I could
Speaker 1: just be in the super Well. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: color here. It's like red grid white. Also, a woman
Speaker 1: wearing an aren't like he has a uniform with CDMX.
Speaker 1: It looks like she works for the city cleaning the
Speaker 1: sweeping the street. I like uniform culture. I feel like,
Speaker 1: don't don't expand on that that it's such a privilege
Speaker 1: in New York. No, it doesn't, or why I've warned
Speaker 1: them like I don't. Danielle might not share my appreciation
Speaker 1: for chic workwear, but it was important she and I
Speaker 1: were on the same page about our mission in Mexico,
Speaker 1: because yes, we were going to learn about the secrets
Speaker 1: of masks, wrestling, eat great food, and get private dance lessons. Well.
Speaker 1: He also had a very specific objective. She was really
Speaker 1: adamant that we have to have a dinner party this trip.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's on you. It's just not realistic for
Speaker 1: a travel show. I think it's if we were here
Speaker 1: for a week, sure, for two days. I mean, like, honestly,
Speaker 1: I feel like at the beginning of the show, I
Speaker 1: did think it was a good idea, But as you've
Speaker 1: pointed out to me, in other places, like we do
Speaker 1: get good conversations with people while we're meeting them, so
Speaker 1: it does seem a little superfluous maybe to go to
Speaker 1: their home, but I don't know that's the show they bought.
Speaker 1: In a moment, the light shifts in the back of
Speaker 1: our uber are dense surroundings, cars, peddlers, pedestrians give way
Speaker 1: to sky and space. Yeah, it is legitimately the biggest
Speaker 1: flag I've ever seen in my life, Mexican flag. We've
Speaker 1: entered the Zokolo, one of the largest city squares in
Speaker 1: the world. Casually dressed in a Bart Simpson T shirt,
Speaker 1: Professor Pavel Maldonado fits right in with the other locals,
Speaker 1: just doing their thing in the Zokolo's vast, shadeless expanse.
Speaker 1: You know, guys work here at the Socolo, the santric area,
Speaker 1: and this plast is supposed to hold one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: people if you want to be you know heard nowadays
Speaker 1: saying whatever this the play were used to come even
Speaker 1: from Mexicans that are now from Mexico City. Did he
Speaker 1: of coming to Socco? It's like wow, you know, like
Speaker 1: the big deal. You know, you may think that it's
Speaker 1: kind of touristic, like I get a picture of selfie,
Speaker 1: you know, with a flat but actually I would say
Speaker 1: that probably nine out of ten Mexicans you know, have
Speaker 1: this picture as a Facebook profile, you know, at least
Speaker 1: once in their lives. What is it like to live
Speaker 1: in the middle of all these millions and millions of people?
Speaker 1: Is the city where everything can happen? You know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: Salvador da Lee came here once only watching his life
Speaker 1: and he was like, um, I don't know, like kind
Speaker 1: of jealous because he was like, you know, the city
Speaker 1: like so surreal, you know, even more than my art.
Speaker 1: Do you guys know? By the way, what's the definition
Speaker 1: of the word Mexico do you guys know it? No? Well,
Speaker 1: the word Chico, like from Mexico, means center, So the
Speaker 1: word Mexico mins the belly, bottom of the universe, the
Speaker 1: center of the universe. What's going on? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: this plas is like so popular. You know, people who
Speaker 1: you know have here or said some protests or some
Speaker 1: meetings and like, you know, people trying to get some
Speaker 1: more riots. You know, in general, get right, but also
Speaker 1: like the place where you have all these massive concerts,
Speaker 1: free concerts. I also think it's it's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: that there's such a rich history of heavy metal music here. Yeahs,
Speaker 1: who are your bands? Guns and Roses and yes, you
Speaker 1: know kids like or Ozzie Osbourne, y alltise like heavy
Speaker 1: metal bands were like like you know, it's this white
Speaker 1: guy with his long hair. You know here in Mexico
Speaker 1: we carried to ideas a stigma like that brown skin
Speaker 1: people are not attractive. So yes, when the Spanish came here,
Speaker 1: of course, the idea of being indigenous, you know it
Speaker 1: would be brown skin was like, you know, that's not cool,
Speaker 1: you know, But the slash was like, yeah, this guy's bronsky.
Speaker 1: I love that slash was the gateway. Yeah, we're literally,
Speaker 1: I mean so we're literally on top of a Naztec ruin, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, you can see it. Actually, what does it
Speaker 1: feel like to live in a city where the past
Speaker 1: is underneath you and the future is rapidly being built
Speaker 1: around you? Many people they will say like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: people here we have no memory. I think that's why
Speaker 1: we're not so aware of who we are. And if
Speaker 1: you're not aware of that, you're you're not aware of
Speaker 1: who you can bet. We hear drums and follow their
Speaker 1: sound to a far corner of the Zokolo, we find
Speaker 1: a roped off area of dark stones and partial stairs
Speaker 1: remnants of a temple built in the fourteenth century for
Speaker 1: worshiping the God of Rain and the God of war. Nearby,
Speaker 1: a group of men and women dressed in n Aztec
Speaker 1: clothing with painted faces feathers and skull masks, bang on
Speaker 1: drums and dance. This place was so important before the
Speaker 1: Aztec civilization. It was a place where you can get
Speaker 1: in contact to the you know, the gods, the gods
Speaker 1: you know paid reviews are do you are these people
Speaker 1: actual Aztecs? No? Uh, they are. They went to Nyu,
Speaker 1: most of these people are. They're really like shamans or
Speaker 1: you know, educated people you know in these fields. Which, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's such of the culture. This place is so important
Speaker 1: and so popular, not only among visitors but also among
Speaker 1: locals because it's the place. Would you get the olympias?
Speaker 1: You know you have olympia, you know, to clean like
Speaker 1: negative vibes that you received from the order from your enemies.
Speaker 1: Olympia is an Aztec healing ritual meant to cleanse the spirit.
Speaker 1: It evolves being immersed in a percussive sound bath, rubbed
Speaker 1: with fresh herbs and the fog of insects. That's also
Speaker 1: a good preparation for chicken. You're heartbroken, you know, your
Speaker 1: job play as well. Come canna get olympia, man, Maybe
Speaker 1: I need to get one. Yeah, you know, I think
Speaker 1: I need some bad vibe removal. How do you do.
Speaker 1: Pavel approaches the shaman and lets him know him in
Speaker 1: the market for Olympia, You're leaving everything behind. You know,
Speaker 1: this is the new Brands and you know, yes, I'm
Speaker 1: wishing for this show to succeed because i want this
Speaker 1: to be my new future. And then also I'm wishing
Speaker 1: for a dinner party to happen by the end of
Speaker 1: this weekend. Raid close your right, please. The sound of
Speaker 1: the shell is gonna made out the spirits. This bad vibes,
Speaker 1: his bad souls escape from Brandon's body. But this rituals
Speaker 1: before and after the combats. It's the way that you
Speaker 1: can be protected. This is a new beginning for Brandson,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's a new beginning for all of us.
Speaker 1: Right now. I emerge ears ringing, smelling a bit like
Speaker 1: a hippie dorm room and invigorated. You're you're a new
Speaker 1: person now. That was smoky but interesting. I smelled a
Speaker 1: lot of sense. He made me close my eyes. I
Speaker 1: feel ready to roll. Not wanting the effect to wear off,
Speaker 1: I decided to put some of my newly cleansed vibes
Speaker 1: to work. Part of the thing we're doing is we're
Speaker 1: trying to get invited to someone's house for dinner. The
Speaker 1: idea thinking that getting in someone's home will really understand
Speaker 1: the culture. So I wonder, Daniel and I maybe induced
Speaker 1: a dinner party. You can invite your friends over, and
Speaker 1: I would really like to have you on my blaze.
Speaker 1: But uh, I get it, it's a big ask. Well
Speaker 1: how about this. I have faith that I'm going to
Speaker 1: find someone will be game if I do. Would you
Speaker 1: maybe be willing to join us? Yeah? You know, you
Speaker 1: can kind of meet with a a scalt man. Oh nice,
Speaker 1: I could do with a shot of mescal to Washtown
Speaker 1: Pavel's rejection for here in the belly button of Mexico,
Speaker 1: a huge space dedicated to social gatherings. You think people
Speaker 1: would jump at the idea of hosting a dinner party,
Speaker 1: but alas, it seems like good vibes alone aren't enough.
Speaker 1: We need to up our game. So that's what we do,
Speaker 1: all right, So our next job is dance lessons. Wait,
Speaker 1: you're you're having dance lessons and I'm going to hang out.
Speaker 1: We are We are going to have dance lessons, hopefully,
Speaker 1: because we are in a city where apparently everyone dances
Speaker 1: all the time, all ages old, young, For formal occasions
Speaker 1: and NYM formal occasions. I'm so excited to watch you
Speaker 1: do that. I personally know dance because I cannot dance.
Speaker 1: I have no moves. I've got great rhythm, I don't
Speaker 1: enjoy I don't know how to say it, but like,
Speaker 1: I'm at odds with my body and I don't want
Speaker 1: to do anything that I know will make me look
Speaker 1: and feel foolish. Dancing is for like beautiful people who
Speaker 1: like to be seen, and I don't like that. M
Speaker 1: I'm an old person with a sword back, and I
Speaker 1: like that. It's also a way to get lost. Let's
Speaker 1: let's think of it as a window into the culture,
Speaker 1: and we'll see. We'll take it from there. We'll go inside,
Speaker 1: we'll meet Rosa. We'll definitely gonna good meet and check
Speaker 1: it out and and watch thank you, goodbye, goodbye. Let
Speaker 1: me take it advil just in case I feel the
Speaker 1: spirit hit me. I should also take my hand I
Speaker 1: depressed them in case I feel spirit happy Rosa, Hi,
Speaker 1: hi Thaniel. For the reason we wanted to come here,
Speaker 1: or I wanted to come here, is because it seems
Speaker 1: like dancing is a very big part of the culture here.
Speaker 1: You usually like people come here to Mexico City. I
Speaker 1: don't know, like to know the city or the museums
Speaker 1: or the historic part, but not that like social aspect
Speaker 1: of life like in Mexico City. What are the most
Speaker 1: kind of common dances of this form? It would be
Speaker 1: salsa of course, dance on. I think it's one of
Speaker 1: the we're gonna learn how to do dance on here
Speaker 1: in Mexico. You've seen maybe you've seen it since you
Speaker 1: were a kid, so maybe even if you don't dance, well,
Speaker 1: you kind of know how to do it, like you
Speaker 1: know how it feels, it moves more like in a
Speaker 1: natural organic way. Americans. It's really funny because they look
Speaker 1: really Americans, so it's really easy to see that you're
Speaker 1: not like made to dance. Now you're on her side.
Speaker 1: Hold on a second, but actually it's I know you're
Speaker 1: saying Americans are just a little whatever stiffer. I would
Speaker 1: say trunk, like like you see that part of the
Speaker 1: tree trunk or like trunk. So you just moved like
Speaker 1: like a trunk. You know, you just walked like Frankenstein.
Speaker 1: Not to put you on the spot here, but what
Speaker 1: did you think about me when you saw me coming
Speaker 1: in I thought, okay, Brandon's American. God, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: you're right, And yet somehow I'm offended. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
Speaker 1: I do walk like I came off a horse. You
Speaker 1: can be as great as you want, like because you're
Speaker 1: you can have fun and you can learn. And that's
Speaker 1: what this is all about, like having fun. No, I'm
Speaker 1: resistant to death. I didn't tell her we were coming
Speaker 1: until we were on your way, and then she said,
Speaker 1: already knew. And then she said that I will watch
Speaker 1: you dance because I'm not gonna dance, but I feel
Speaker 1: like Danielle will be an excellent dancer. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you're gonna be great. I'm so tall, I'm too big.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's only like stereotypes. This is not ballet.
Speaker 1: We're not in Russia. You just have one right foot
Speaker 1: and one foot. You just have to like know how
Speaker 1: to use them. So I think everybody can have that
Speaker 1: kind of like redemption. All right, well, let's do it.
Speaker 1: You need to be a little bit closer than that.
Speaker 1: I know you hate this, but okay, at this point,
Speaker 1: Danielle and I are standing nose to nose. We look
Speaker 1: like wax figures on a wedding cake, one arm around
Speaker 1: each other's back and the other stretched out in a
Speaker 1: right angle, poised to dance. So the basic step of
Speaker 1: dancer's a box. Okay, dan you know you're gonna start
Speaker 1: with your right foot backwards one two, three, four? Okay.
Speaker 1: So they are turning right now. They are doing it
Speaker 1: pretty much well. I would say they're dancing dance on
Speaker 1: for almost five years, Danielle. She seems like like this
Speaker 1: gorgeous European girl with the ballroom tenderness in your body
Speaker 1: and Brendan postures. He really really needs to have more
Speaker 1: confidence while leading. They seem they're having fun. Also, are
Speaker 1: you are you sure you've never done this? You're sure? Okay? Okay?
Speaker 1: Who said in the car that you are going to
Speaker 1: get good at this? And I wasn't. Wow, it's so cool, like,
Speaker 1: see you can do this. Well, this has been amazing.
Speaker 1: And I believe you when you say it's social therapy. Um.
Speaker 1: One of my forms of social therapy is entertaining at home.
Speaker 1: And so I'm wondering, yeah, are you interested in dinner parties? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I love dinner parties, So could like it could Danielle
Speaker 1: and I and if we found some other people who
Speaker 1: like come to your place like tomorrow and we could
Speaker 1: prepare dinner. A lot of people here in Mexico say, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well but Mikasa. It's only Mikasa, okay, So, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I can't believe Mikasa's Tukasa is not a real thing.
Speaker 1: And I can't believe you're laughing. You know, I need
Speaker 1: to have a dinner party. That was hilarious though, because
Speaker 1: I told you that would happen. That was awesome. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you overcame your anst about it, but honestly,
Speaker 1: like it's Friday night and we have zero attraction on
Speaker 1: the dinner party front, I'm a little concerned. Well let's
Speaker 1: say we don't get a dinner party tomorrow, mors, what
Speaker 1: should we do? I mean, are they going to cancel
Speaker 1: the show? I'm going to owe them all the money
Speaker 1: for all the shows? And then it's like, oh, two
Speaker 1: people just went on vacation and recorded a bunch of junk,
Speaker 1: Like that's crazy, Like have you ever seen that show?
Speaker 1: Like what's the log line on that show? Back at
Speaker 1: our lodgings for a much needed siesta. I think back
Speaker 1: when something roads that told me, you need to lead
Speaker 1: with more confidence. If I really want to get people's
Speaker 1: troncos around a table for a dinner party, I'm going
Speaker 1: to need to assert myself. Fortunately for me, our next
Speaker 1: stop is a masterclass in power and grit. This is
Speaker 1: definitely the most hectic street life I've encountered since I've
Speaker 1: been here. Well, Friday night Friday night fights, all right,
Speaker 1: So we're approaching the thing. So we're in Roma, and
Speaker 1: once we get on the other side of this drag
Speaker 1: woking in Doctores and Doctores is the home of Rana
Speaker 1: Amico where we're going to watch Luja. We're on our
Speaker 1: way to Luca Libre with Asa Merit, an American journalist
Speaker 1: who lives in Mexico City and spend a year working
Speaker 1: on a documentary about its infamous mask wrestlers. What does
Speaker 1: Lucca libre mean? Literally translated? So, Luca libre means free fighting. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so much to be said about to
Speaker 1: what extent its scripted. It's not scripted, but in its
Speaker 1: early days, much of Luca Libre wasn't as scripted as
Speaker 1: narrative based as it is as it is today, and
Speaker 1: so that's why it was called free fighting, and so
Speaker 1: what's up with the masks like that? To me? When
Speaker 1: I think of lucha libre, that's the thing that pops
Speaker 1: in my mind. Okay, So the masks are key to
Speaker 1: each of the wrestler's identities, all right. So in the
Speaker 1: old tradition of luca libre in the golden era, was
Speaker 1: these luchadors who went their whole life without revealing their identity.
Speaker 1: So they would even wear their mask in public. They
Speaker 1: would wear their mask on the plane and the security
Speaker 1: they had passports they had their mask on and no
Speaker 1: one really knew. And Alsanto, the most famous luch store
Speaker 1: of all time, he had like a closet in his
Speaker 1: house and his children thought he was a traveling businessman
Speaker 1: until he was like they were like eight, and he
Speaker 1: finally spilled the beans. So the mass traditionally is this symbol,
Speaker 1: and it's a way for the wrestlers to keep their anonymity.
Speaker 1: But it's also integral to the storytelling of lucha libre.
Speaker 1: So Luca lira is all about good and evil. You
Speaker 1: have the rudos kind of like rude if you think
Speaker 1: of it that way, the bad guys, and then the
Speaker 1: technicos like technical and the technicos are the good guys,
Speaker 1: and so essentially what you're seeing in a Lucha Libre
Speaker 1: match is a very sort of mythic, archetypal, iconic battle
Speaker 1: between like the very good and the very evil. I
Speaker 1: think the theater element is really important to understand that
Speaker 1: there's a certain catharsis that's happening for some audience members
Speaker 1: that's really different than the thrills of watching Game seven
Speaker 1: of the NBA Playoff. Do you have any theories in
Speaker 1: your studies of this, like why these mass characters resonate
Speaker 1: so powerfully with people in Mexico and in Mexico City,
Speaker 1: specifically of the dozens of wrestlers and Luca Libre filmmakers
Speaker 1: and everyone I spoke to, Like, though, there's one anecdote
Speaker 1: that I will never forget, and it's this woman who
Speaker 1: described to me how she liked Luca Libre and the
Speaker 1: masks to Diodos Martos and so Diodo Swartzi's Day of
Speaker 1: the Dead is this annual holiday here in Mexico where
Speaker 1: families get together and remember those who have passed away.
Speaker 1: So she was explaining that to me, and she said, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: like Day of the dead. It's it's not just like
Speaker 1: we're getting around thinking about her relatives. We really believe
Speaker 1: that they are there with us in the room. It's
Speaker 1: the same with Luca Libre, like we believe. And she
Speaker 1: described Mesco as this nation with imagination, and there were
Speaker 1: there were hints of that from so many of the
Speaker 1: people I talked to, that the mask was this incredible
Speaker 1: tool for someone's imagination. We merge into a mass of
Speaker 1: humans squeezing their way into the arena and finally surface
Speaker 1: among thousands of hands surrounding an illuminated wrestling right. The
Speaker 1: air smells of booze and fried food. The energy is crackling.
Speaker 1: All eyes are focused on the center of the ring,
Speaker 1: where two topless, masked men repeatedly crashed into each other.
Speaker 1: So what you got going on right now is this
Speaker 1: is like you got the same thing as the w W,
Speaker 1: where you got like tag team type situation. So the
Speaker 1: guy of the gold mask just stepped out and his partner,
Speaker 1: which I think is the dude with the blue bandana
Speaker 1: around his head, went in and he is getting double teamed,
Speaker 1: unsurprisingly by the poor sported. He's about the really hurt,
Speaker 1: he's about double job. Here comes the gold guy gold
Speaker 1: Mask is back. Oh that sounded like a hurt Oh
Speaker 1: I it, but I want the gold mask guy to win.
Speaker 1: That's because since we've been here, he's been getting hurt
Speaker 1: the most, so I kind of want him to overcome that.
Speaker 1: You said earlier that you have a problem with the
Speaker 1: word xpat. You think of x pats and you kind
Speaker 1: of think of like people living around the world, and
Speaker 1: they're kind of like rich neighborhoods going to their American schools.
Speaker 1: If you come to Mexico to live in Mexico and
Speaker 1: are earning in a currency either in the United States
Speaker 1: or in Western Europe, the quality of life available to
Speaker 1: you is like an entire social class hire. I mean,
Speaker 1: something also comes to mind, how many Mexicans are called
Speaker 1: expats in the news in America. They're called immigrants and
Speaker 1: there's a threat they're like invading us or they're immigrants.
Speaker 1: But there's never like, oh, there's a big XPACT community
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn, or there's a big XPACT community in Los Angeles. Yeah, no, exactly.
Speaker 1: You know, I prioritize being of this place, not of
Speaker 1: somewhere else who happens to be here. Yeah, Well, two
Speaker 1: body slamming. I mean, look, they're made to be as
Speaker 1: dramatic as possible, right, so they're always really dramatic. Mucha libre,
Speaker 1: a made up social occasion that inspires camaraderie and provides
Speaker 1: an outlet for emotions and the imagination. Kind of like
Speaker 1: my idea of a good dinner party. Except at dinner
Speaker 1: parties the stakes are nothing less than body slammy are
Speaker 1: collective on we un till it begs the reff for mercy.
Speaker 1: I asked, as if he's ready to enter the arena
Speaker 1: with me. Sorry, man, I just had a kid. No way, really, yeah,
Speaker 1: seven days ago, right, okay, Well, thanks for taking us
Speaker 1: on this stour. This wasn't good. We had only one
Speaker 1: more day left in Mexico City and still no plans
Speaker 1: for a grande dinner fiesta. During my flight down here,
Speaker 1: I read a book about screenplays. Apparently in every movie,
Speaker 1: from Harry Potter to Parasite, there comes in all is
Speaker 1: lost moment. This is the part of the story where
Speaker 1: our hero has no hope, his dreams have shattered, and
Speaker 1: his chance of success is practically zero. Asa shutting us
Speaker 1: down for a dinner party wasn't that moment? No are
Speaker 1: all is lost moment would come the next morning when
Speaker 1: Danielle wakes up with a crippling stomach helmet. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: stomach helmet. The stomach helmet not uncommon to tourists in Mexico. This,
Speaker 1: this is the moment all is lost. After loud sobbing
Speaker 1: in the shower like an out of tune Mariachi band,
Speaker 1: I get dressed and drag mysel helf over to what
Speaker 1: was supposed to be our final meetup, but for our
Speaker 1: triumphant dinner party. Omar. Yeah, yeah, hey, Brendan, nice to
Speaker 1: meet you. Thanks so much for meeting us. Now our pleasure.
Speaker 1: Tell me what our planets. Omar Rodriguez Graham is a
Speaker 1: successful local painter with very cool glasses frames. I thought
Speaker 1: it'd be good to meet up here because this is
Speaker 1: like the iconic spots see murals in Mexico, you know which,
Speaker 1: It has murals by the Dria Sicos and a couple
Speaker 1: of other guys. You know, it's a pretty beautiful building already. Yeah, stop,
Speaker 1: and we haven't even looked at Meurle yet. Well, let's
Speaker 1: go take a look, all right. Cool? We pause in
Speaker 1: front of a huge abstract mural the size of a billboard.
Speaker 1: There's magenta feel, purple, lavender, gray, red color. I thought
Speaker 1: you were only a sound guy. So yeah, we're in
Speaker 1: like this big four story hall with a lot of
Speaker 1: like Art Deco motifs that have in Mexican and eyes
Speaker 1: that's like art Deco meets as tech. Yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: I grew up here. I was born in Mexico. My
Speaker 1: father was a painter, but he also did a set design.
Speaker 1: So when I was a child that come to Baya
Speaker 1: to see his opera as he did, or to see
Speaker 1: the other plays that he worked on, and so like,
Speaker 1: there was always like a very special place in my
Speaker 1: heart for the murals, and I do think it's it's
Speaker 1: something very particular to Mexican art, if I remember or
Speaker 1: the history correctly. The first mural was done by Diabo Rivera,
Speaker 1: so is a Rivera and it basically shows like the
Speaker 1: power of man, of science, of technology. The mural we're
Speaker 1: looking at is called Man Controller of the Universe. In
Speaker 1: the center is a worker wearing overalls and holding a lever,
Speaker 1: crowding him on all sides, or people, soldiers, workers, and
Speaker 1: scenes a laboratory, a battlefield, all meant to depict the
Speaker 1: modern condition. It's clearly political. In one corner, kids of
Speaker 1: different races hold hands one on the other, a group
Speaker 1: of oblivion rich people sip cocktails. The murals seems to
Speaker 1: be saying, now that man can control the universe through technology,
Speaker 1: what is he going to do with it? A lot
Speaker 1: of the murals in this building really have a lot
Speaker 1: of social criticism there, really are trying to portray the
Speaker 1: fight of the common man, the upheavals of society, nationalism, globalization, war,
Speaker 1: and in a way it's also very relevant today, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Social criticism in art in the
Speaker 1: commercial sphere is really complicated because, like I know a
Speaker 1: lot of artists that they're like, no, let's fight for
Speaker 1: the common man, like very socialist ideas at anti capitalist
Speaker 1: art works, but then they're like selling their works for
Speaker 1: like hundreds of thousand dollars, you know, like where's that
Speaker 1: money going. Listening to Omar, I thought about how traveling
Speaker 1: the world via dinner party wasn't exactly curing cancer or
Speaker 1: moving the needle politically. And after taking in more murals,
Speaker 1: some depicting the hearts of colonization, others documenting social decay,
Speaker 1: I share some of my misgivings with Omar. Well, it's
Speaker 1: it's I think that's something that is always like hanging
Speaker 1: on my shoulders as well. You know, it's tricky because,
Speaker 1: you know, like our privilege, like for me to be
Speaker 1: making paintings or for you to just be traveling around
Speaker 1: recording a podcast, is really due to the fact that
Speaker 1: we're kind of working on the shoulders of like masses
Speaker 1: of humanity. It's a problem to deal with. I don't
Speaker 1: know how to respond to it. You know, there is
Speaker 1: an equality, and I think the first step is to
Speaker 1: acknowledge it, you know, to understand that your privilege comes
Speaker 1: from someone else's suffering in the end. You know, but
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that you should waste your opportunities, you know.
Speaker 1: That's rather how do you take advantage of them responsibly?
Speaker 1: And how do you give back however you can? You know,
Speaker 1: this was good food for thought, just the type of
Speaker 1: conversation I'd hope to achieve if I'd successfully pulled off
Speaker 1: a dinner party. In fact, Omar was exactly the sort
Speaker 1: of guess I'd want there, and come to think of it,
Speaker 1: it was also so exactly the sort of person I'd
Speaker 1: want to host it. What's your budget. I mean I think,
Speaker 1: I think I would. I I can make it work.
Speaker 1: The company specifically told me, like had of a dinner party,
Speaker 1: so it's budget for it. But yeah no, no, I
Speaker 1: could favor the food and like that, could you absorb us? Yes? Yes,
Speaker 1: why don't we do like a potluck type of thing? Okay,
Speaker 1: like everybody pinching a little bit, I need to call
Speaker 1: in a backup. With a possible pot luck pending and
Speaker 1: a co host unable to leave sight of a latrine.
Speaker 1: It was time. I led with confidence. I put a
Speaker 1: call into a friend of a friend a food and
Speaker 1: wine with it, and I told him I needed dinner
Speaker 1: party fixings for a group that evening, and I do
Speaker 1: whatever it took. I'm Niels Bernstein. I split my time
Speaker 1: between Mexico City and New York. He told me to
Speaker 1: meet him at Mercado de Medagine one hour. Okay, here
Speaker 1: we are. This is my favorite carnita stand that it's
Speaker 1: looking good. There's a piggy bank here. Oh it's our
Speaker 1: humor right here. Oh there we go. Yeah, you need
Speaker 1: lines and salsas. Just you gotta, you know, rig everything
Speaker 1: to taste. Brain case is whoa I've never eaten a
Speaker 1: brain brain eye uterus. Not my favorite. Here, I like
Speaker 1: a lot. There's these spicy pickled onions, which I think
Speaker 1: we might just make our own. Okay, okay, some haban
Speaker 1: arrows here which we can use for the marinated onions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're like little jewels, deathly spicy jewels. My Irish stomach
Speaker 1: is quaking. If you want to get some mail, larva
Speaker 1: is over. You're chaing that out. Okay, so let's go
Speaker 1: get some salad fixings. Here we're looking at some star fruit,
Speaker 1: some pomegranate, various plums and cherries, a lot of different citrus.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you, Mercado. What is it again, Mercado
Speaker 1: medine gassias, Adios Mercado Medeline. And then showtime along with Omar,
Speaker 1: his wife Morgan, and their dog Nioki, a local friend,
Speaker 1: and a roommates, as well as Omar's downstairs neighbor who
Speaker 1: brought us guitar in a bottle of mescow old. Look
Speaker 1: these guys, they're excited you're here. Oh this way soon
Speaker 1: dinner was served, So karamitas and mills brock. What else
Speaker 1: do you have for dinner? This is the solid of
Speaker 1: laga and cherry Tomato. We talked about the city. This
Speaker 1: is a friendly city. Are happening, everybody can feel that
Speaker 1: you are income. We talked politics. Party in Power now
Speaker 1: was trying to cut financing for political parties, and I
Speaker 1: was happy and relieved, not only because I could return
Speaker 1: to New York and let my bosses know I'd pulled
Speaker 1: off an actual dinner party dinner party, but because I
Speaker 1: was reminded that my pensiont to break bread with strangers
Speaker 1: wasn't frivolous after all. Dinner parties a recess for grown ups,
Speaker 1: a rare space where people can gather and not be
Speaker 1: under the watchful eye of a ball us, a needy child,
Speaker 1: or an impatient waiter. There are gatherings that are intimate
Speaker 1: and have the power to transcend cultural barriers. There are
Speaker 1: places where we get to play, entertain argue, and feed ourselves,
Speaker 1: not just their bodies, but our souls, newly cleansed or not.
Speaker 1: And dinner parties are a lot harder to manifest than
Speaker 1: you'd think, even at home. So when we are able
Speaker 1: to make them happen, we should relish it. Welcome to
Speaker 1: all of our expats. Whatever I was sad, d wasn't
Speaker 1: with us can't you just picture her showing off her
Speaker 1: dans On moves in the corner. But I still feel triumphant,
Speaker 1: like a masked Luca Libre wrestler, topless and gold shorts,
Speaker 1: waving my clasped arms over one shoulder and then the
Speaker 1: other like a champion. The lead producer on this episode
Speaker 1: of Not Law was the unflappable Tally Abacasas. The show
Speaker 1: was also produced and written by me Brendan Francis Nunham.
Speaker 1: Our associate producer was Jackson Musker. Our story editor for
Speaker 1: this episode was Mira bert Win Tonik. The show was
Speaker 1: mixed by Hannis Brown and a big thanks to my
Speaker 1: friend and this episode's travel partner, Daniel Henderson. Not Lost
Speaker 1: as a co production of Pushkin Industries, Topic Studios and iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: It was developed at Topic Studios. The show's executive producers
Speaker 1: are me Christi Gressman, Maria Zuckerman, Lisa Langang, and La
Speaker 1: Tom Mullad. Production assistance on this episode also came from
Speaker 1: Jacob Smith, Amy Gaines and Julia Barton at Pushkin. Our
Speaker 1: theme song was created by Alexis Georgiopolis rhymes with Metropolis
Speaker 1: and muchos gracias to Professor Pavel Maldonado, Rosa maracarman, Asa Merritt,
Speaker 1: the Great Nils Bernstein, and I am forever indebted to
Speaker 1: Omar Rodriguez Graham, his wife Morgan, and their dog Joki
Speaker 1: for their hospitality. If you want to see some pictures
Speaker 1: of where we went or learn more about our guests,
Speaker 1: you can head to not Lawshow dot com. And if
Speaker 1: you could just take a moment right now you're not traveling,
Speaker 1: or maybe you are, if you just head on over
Speaker 1: to Apple Podcasts, rate and review us. Oh man, you
Speaker 1: are going to feel so great and we will too.
Speaker 1: It's an easy win win. You can learn more about
Speaker 1: Topic Studios at Topic studios dot com and to find
Speaker 1: more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Brendan Francis, Newnham.
Speaker 1: Until next time, bonvoyage