By Michael See days 1 through 3 here. The cover photo is of a mural at Organic Love restaurant in La Cruz. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7 After an early morning walk of nearly an hour around the Marina in La Cruz, I showered and went to Jardín del Pulpo again, working until late afternoon, then spent a quiet night at home. I am working on a book of photo-essays based on my
Reimagining Politics
February 13, 2018
A Week in a Mexican Fishing Village – Days 1 thru 3
By Michael The incessant and corrosive din of the daily news cycle in the US, now driven as much by the distracting imperatives of social media as by news itself, often leaves people feeling as fragile as eggshells. Personally invasive social and political disruption have become daily norms. I am not advocating a move to a fishing village of 1,600 people as a cure, but perhaps simply recounting the events
December 25, 2017
My Troubled Relationship with Christmas
By Michael (La versión en Español está debajo.) For many years, Christmas has been a difficult and sometimes very lonely holiday for me, both politically and emotionally. My dad was a lapsed Catholic who still pined for the church of his sainted mother, while my mother was a non-denominational but always anti-Catholic Protestant, even opposing John F. Kennedy as a presidential candidate because of his Catholicism. During my years away
June 16, 2017
Travelling worldwide with 1 carry-on bag
By Michael – Once I decided to begin traveling in May 2016, my itinerary started to take shape almost immediately, mainly going where I had friends. By August, after a trip to Montana to visit family, I was on the road. I started in Paris then London, Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Milan, Lugano and Copenhagen in Europe. I flew back to LA from Copenhagen and had dinner with a friend during
June 14, 2017
Saying goodbye to Mom
By Michael – Before flying to Europe last August, I had a goodbye dinner with a small group of friends in Los Angeles and also made a trip to my hometown of Billings, Montana to say goodbye to my 90 year old mother and my favourite cousin Terry Anne. Terry Anne and I had a wonderful time just chatting, getting caught up and sampling craft beers in the new brew
June 14, 2017
Michael’s Travel Series on Medium
By Michael – When it became clear to me in May, 2016, that the US election was going to be a disaster, I began sharing with friends in Los Angeles my idea of traveling to Europe and Latin America. I wrote an article about what I believed were the underlying causes of a new kind of political disorder not just in the US, but worldwide, which published in July. By
March 18, 2017
Six Month Update / Noticias de seis meses
By Michael – Knowing that the US election of 2016 could not end well, I began traveling in late August last year after months of planning, first to Europe and then to Latin America. I wanted to reconnect with friends around the world, but I have also been in search of new kinds of civic and political initiatives that are breaking the mold to reimagine politics and expand the range of
November 26, 2016
Living in a googled world
As of November 1, 2016, the three most popular global websites by rank are: 1) Google, 1.6 billion unique monthly visits 2) Facebook, 1.1 billion ” ” 3) YouTube, 1.1 billion ” ” When Google’s website and their entire suite of Web services went down for a few minutes between 23:52 and 23:57 hours BST on August 16, 2013, total global Web pageviews per minute dropped by 40% according to traffic analytics
November 24, 2016
Baños 2
These artfully presented bathroom signs were encountered in La PachaMama Restaurante in Guadalajara, México. Estos letreros de baños se encontraron en La PachaMama Restaurante en Guadalajara, México. Post your Baños photos on our Twitter feed @MeurerCommunity. Pon tus fotos de Baños en nuestro sitio de Twitter @MeurerCommunity. YOU CAN HELP Thank you for reading my online Journal. If you like what I am doing with Reimagining Politics, please consider donating today. Our
November 22, 2016
Seeds of Change
Sunday morning, Nov. 21, I traveled to Juanacatlán again with Miyuki and her wonderful family, husband Chaco and daughter Kei, to participate in a Greenpeace action designed to bring attention to the horrific health threats that are directly linked to the massive toxic pollution in the Río Santiago. Dozens of local residents and students turned out for the unfurling of a protest banner from the bridge above the falls at the junction of El
November 18, 2016
Baños
This is the first set of images in an ongoing series from bathroom signs that I have seen round the world. These first two photos were taken at a roadside restaurant in rural Northern Argentina when I was filming there several years ago. These signs are a kind of folk art that often offer a unique cultural perspective on the differences between the sexes. The Baños images will also be
November 15, 2016
A Tiny Garden of Hope in México
Yesterday I had the privilege of participating in the gardening and classroom sessions of the Jardín de Vida project (Garden of Life) in Juanacatlán, a very poor and dangerously polluted pueblo about an hour’s drive from Guadalajara. Juanacatlán is situated on the banks of the sulfurously toxic, 433 km (269 mile) long Santiago River (Río Santiago), which is considered one of the most polluted waterways in the Americas. Although the dramatic falls of the