Back to beautiful Morelia today to pick up supplies and see "Mujer" (Woman) at Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Alfredo Zalce (MACAZ)—a 19th century building located in the Cuauhtemoc Woods Park on Acueducto Avenue. Powerful lithographs by Fanny Rabel of the Taller Grafica Popular stole the show in my opinion, but upon leaving the museum a "gum" tree won the day. Between the museo and the aqueduct, near the entrance, there's a crooked tree leaning over the sidewalk COVERED with bubble gum. Crazy, nasty fun. I don't know the trees of Mexico very well but I'm guessin' it was a Sweet Gum. Reminds me of a canoe trip Becky and I took several years ago with friends, David and Kathy Wariner (parents of one of Those Darlins), down the Blue River in Crawford County, Indiana. We gathered (saved from certain death) a garbage bag full of trilliums, short-crested iris, wild ginger, indian pinks and jack-in-the-pulpits, and we had lunch afterwards at a riverside cafe. We ordered hamburgers and french fries, and before we finished, the cook invited us back into his kitchen to watch the Kentucky Derby. Seems like he won some money so he plied us with liquor in a dry county (it's not illegal to give it away). As we left the cafe I saw a funky little handpainted sign nailed to a telephone pole that read: Shoe Tree. I asked David about it and he said: "It's a big ol' tree that people have thrown shoes up into for years." I said: "I want to see that!" So we drove south of Milltown to the intersection of Devil's Hollow and Pilot Knob Road, the intersection of nowhere and there. There we saw an enormous tree full of shoes and other shoes hanging on telephone wires and nestled in the weeds. So of course we hopped out and flung the grounded shoes back up into the tree. I don't remember what we did after visiting the Shoe Tree, but I do remember having a great time and wishing our friends still lived in Nashville.
