Friday, April 23, 2010
The Castle
Several weeks ago, our amazingly talented musician friends Jack & Frances invited us to a living room concert at a home just up the road from us. It's known locally as The Castle. We'd walked by it numerous times over the years, but had never been inside. Holy shit! We'd never seen anything like it. Apparently, it was originally built by a man Jack referred to as a "high-ranking politico." His objective? Create an out-of-the-way Love Shack for himself and his mistress. She must've been really hot stuff 'cause it looked like no expense was spared – elaborate stonework, high ceilings, a lap pool and outdoor shower off the master bedroom, a backyard pool you can enter by way of the living room, huge fireplaces in every room… Taxpayer pesos run amok. However, before it was completed, real life intervened in the form of an inquisitive and jealous wife, and both mistress and Love Shack were abandoned. Seven or eight years ago, an American stone mason from Connecticut bought the place, now considered a ruin, and has been working on it in his "spare time" ever since. He's added walls, windows, ponds, fountains and a guest house at the bottom of the property. One thing he hasn't added yet is furniture. So about twenty of us gathered in the huge living room space seated on a ragtag collection of ratty old sofas and card table chairs, drinking wine out of plastic cups, but still… enjoyed two non-stop hours of exquisite classical guitar duets, the most magical of which was a medley of pieces from Anna Magdalena Bach's Notebooks. Four years into our Mexican adventure, the surprises keep on keepin' on.# posted by goots @ 12:18 PM 
