The Marcos Kirsch Experience®

Bar-Mitzvah-aged Marcos with his Bubi Florinda, at Bobe Leike’s house (~1991)

Two weeks ago I did a quick trip for Mrs. Florinda Kirsch’s (a.k.a bubi Florinda) 80th birthday party in Monterrey. It was a big one, just like we like them: almost 200 people. I got to say a speech in front of everyone, holding a microphone and all. Since speeches make me nervous, I figured that the best I could do is distract the audience. An open zipper will accomplish just that (feel free to use my advice).

All of the family made it, which is very nice. As an experiment I decided to leave all my electronic devices behind (camera, iPod, Gameboy, laptop, electric shaver) and instead bring only my iPhone as a replacement on this trip. The experiment was a huge success, except for the camera part. I took only a handful of photos and they came out… good for a cell phone cam, nothing more.

So I’m still trying to collect photos taken by everyone else in order to set up a website or something. Not very successful so far. In the meantime, I leave you with the few photos I’ve been able to collect.

Happy birthday and until 120!

I will keep this post brief and to the point or I’ll begin to cry. My cousin Lenny (formerly Leny), with whom I shared all of my childhood and saw just about every day of my life since kindergarden up until after we came back from Israel, got married last Sunday to the beautiful Sonia Melamed. Of course the party was a blast, and there’s lots of photos at The MKX® Photo Central. I love you and I wish you both all the happiness in the world and many many

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The Chupah

He can fly! Best wedding photo ever, by Jacobito.

Betito, Ricky, Leny, Annat,
Jonathán, Marcos: Generación CIMAC 1978

Lots of smoking hot women from Venezuela at the wedding

Click for full album

I was in Monterrey last weekend for the first (and so far only) Zack family reunion. The Zacks are my maternal grandmother’s family. We’re spread across three countries (which is not a lot, come to think of it).

Most of us made it, starting from my great grandmother Bobe Sonia (who just turned 95) all the way down to 2 great-great grandchildren (the third one was born last week and could not make it). I think a total of 74 out of 83 Zacks came.

The whole weekend was great. Lots of eating, stories, eating, laughing, and eating. I made my debut as a game show host. I did ok. People laughed whenever I danced, I could make fun of them on a microphone and I got to wear a tuxedo.

While I’ve seen most of the family in the last years, there were a few I hadn’t in a long time (almost ten years!) and four of the newest members of the familyI hadn’t even met before.

Moi collected all the digital photos from all the cameras. 1400+ total. I copied them to my computer and I’m supposed to sort them out and delete the duplicates (which is a vast majority of the pictures) so we can upload them to an event website we’re setting up. Unfortunately, my own memory card got corrupted and I lost most of my photos (I recovered only about five using a $20 utility called CardRaider - which is not great at all).

I started to look at them last night and learned a few hard facts about people and the way they use digital cameras:

• Most people never erase photos from their cameras.
• Most people never set the date and time on their cameras.
• This make my life harder.
• Everyone takes the same photo from slightly different angles at the same time, which leads to 10 identical terrible photos in which everyone is looking at a different camera lens.

I’ll post a link here whenever it’s ready. But I doubt it will be this week.

It was great seeing everyone! (except you-know-who).

Update 12/18/2007: The website is up and has all the photos.

Jaramillo can’t help himself with that new fancy camera of his. On our last trip to Monterrey he took hundreds of photos, which are now online.

If you want to see the Parque Fundidora, the Forum Universal de Las Culturas, Paseo Santa Lucía, the beautiful MARCO museum, and many more, then this is the link you want to click on.

Yesterday they finally approved low cost airline Vivaaerobus to fly out of a new  no-frills terminal in the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

This means direct flights from Austin to Cancún, Guadalajara, León, Monterrey, Puebla, and Queretaro. And they will be cheap too: supposedly starting at $9.99 before taxes.

Since a quick trip to Monterrey includes:

• Car permit: about $40
• Car insurance in Mexico: about $80 for 4 days
• Three or four tanks of gas: $90
• Tolls for the border, Colombia road and Monterrey-Laredo highway: $40
• Sitting on your ass six to eight hours each way: Priceless.

you can see how I intend to take advantage of the new flights. Let’s hope that the prices do actually remain low and the schedules are good. Sadly flights start in March of 2008. More info here.

Update 1/30/2008: Rejoice my friends. After two false promises, Vivaaerobus started selling tickets for their Austin-Monterrey and Austin-Cancun flights yesterday. They begin in May 1st, 2008 and go for $9.99 one-way (yes, 10 bucks). After taxes, it’s around $120-$140. Still a good deal!.

Jacobo, Joelle, Liat and myself headed down (East? North?) to Orlando last weekend to visit old pal Mickey and some of the others.

While it’s tough to travel in a group in which only 75% of the people are potty trained, it was a lot of fun. Of all the Disney characters, Pocahontas and Cinderella were the hottest - although I suspect Pluto felt a lot hotter inside that costume.

Cute photos of the many adventures can be seen in The MKX® Photo Central.

Well, only if it catches on. See here.

I was forwarded these breathtaking photos of the famous Cerro de la Silla, symbol of my hometown Monterrey. They were taken by my friend JW. from an airplane as he was flying back into town. Amazing. If you’ve seen this mountain before, you will be able to recognize its characteristic shape very clearly in this picture.

For another, more classical view, check out the QTVR panorama of Monterrey that Moi and I shot last year. Look around and you’ll find the Cerro de La Silla.

Or see many other cool photos of the mountain in flickr, like this one or this one.

Just received this image of Ziv Erlich, drinking a Tecate. It’s his first Tecate in eleven years. He bought it in Barcelona and carried it to Tel-Aviv. Look how happy he looks. Ziv is a fine man.

This is the today’s cover of the Edición Cumbres weekly supplement of the largest newspaper in Monterrey:

The article inside is about the Monologues 2007 contest run by CONARTE (Consejo para la Cultura y las Artes de Nuevo León), which my mom (a.k.a. Thelma Sandler) won. The play will be presented at the Teatro de La Ciudad (only fits 1,417 spectators: get your ticket soon!) sometime during the giant and now ongoing Fórum Universal de las Culturas.
You can read see a PDF of the original cover and article here: Cover, Page 1, Page 2.
You can see read my mom’s poetry blog (Spanish) here.

I spent the last weekend in California (pronounced: Kahliforrniah by the Governator himself), more specifically in Orange County (and the surrounding areas).

I did not go to Disneyland or to the Chinese Theater, because I saw that already, you know… twenty two years ago, back when KITT was the big attraction in Universal Studios and the Fax machine was a technological marvel.
Instead, I went to 7 or 8 different beaches, as seen on Baywatch (before you ask: yes, I saw Pamela Anderson in a red swimsuit).

Some other visited attractions:

• The Getty: amazing!
  
• The BonaVista Lounge: The bar is spinning before you even have a drink!
• Catalina Island: Kayaking and snorkeling fun until you can no longer feel your arms.
• Grifith Observatory: The Omnimax movie is so realistic it’s almost like you are  seeing the real stars… but with A/C.
• A real California earthquake: I kid you not. My first earthquake! How exciting!

The trip was an absolute blast, thanks to my amazing hostess and tour guide Yeni (and Ramiro and Bombon). I hope to see them again soon. Thanks for everything!

I got early to the Austin Airport, ready to take my flight to Miami (connecting in Houston).

To my surprise, the first flight got cancelled because of some alleged malfunction in the airplane. In my opinion, they should let us fly anyway. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen!?

I was able to change my flight, but all of a sudden I find myself with three free hours at the airport.

Thankfully, I brought my new iPhone with me, so I can entertain myself browsing the net (I joke - I brought my 12″ Powerbook). I can also entertain myself asking strangers to take photos of me looking bored. Or eat at The Salt Lick. Could be worse.

Just like last weekend, I flew again to Mexico City for another wedding. Those frequent flyier miles are accumulating like the dirt under my bed (or something, that wasn’t a very good analogy). This time it was the turn for my cousin Galia and Ari. It was all very precious.

See the photos, then stop wasting any time and sign up for La Polla América, which is what you came here for anyway.

Now, here’s some free advice for parents-to-be: You don’t need to get too creative when it comes to picking names, as my family learned a long time ago. Just go for the sure thing and pick a name that reflects confidence, success, beauty, and intelligence.

Or just call your kid Marcos.

Marcos Sandler Kriger, Marcos Sandler Maya,
Marcos Kirsch Sandler, Marcos Flegmann Sandler.

PS: You can’t tell from the picture, but I’m the one known as “Marcos Grande“.

I flew back yesterday (on that new and wonderful direct Aeromexico flight) from Mexico City. You spend two hours on the plane and another two hours in the car trying to get anywhere from the airport.

Alberto Tawil and Yael Shifman got married on Saturday, and of course it was a blast. See the photos at The MKX® Photo Central (or not, it’s totally up to you).

My cousin Miriam finally decided to settle and married Isaac. About freaking time. You can see photos of the trip (and mostly of the wedding) at The MKX® Photo Central.

I also had a chance to spend some quality time with Liat and Joelle. See video below.

Finally I want to point out that Aeromexico opened a direct flight from Austin to Mexico City. Hope it stays around and it stays around cheap. Their food is usually better than Continental’s and the beer is still free. Gotta love them.

[Update Jan 16, 2007]: Fixed photo caption (David is Robert). I thought I had fixed it before I posted. Weird. Maybe I’m not qualified to write a blog.