Old Gold

Well, the inspiration for the new page layout is Ancient Mexico; it's the topic of my upcoming Spanish class presentation at Loyola because I've been fascinated by the Aztec and Mayan cultures since childhood.

At Princeton University (we lived near there until I was about 14), there was an art museum on campus with a delightful collection of pre-Columbian artifacts that I absolutely loved; I'll have to try to find some Mesoamerican antiquities on display here in Chicago.

The golden skull mask on the left sidebar comes from a site at Oaxaca, Mexico, and the interesting part is that I once had a nightmare where I saw a mask exactly like this one, glowing darkly in a dim basement repository of ancient art. It frightened me but I felt drawn to it just the same, and I never forgot the image: I must have seen it at a museum once, or in a book. What an amazing display of contrasts - how terrifying rituals of sacrifice co-existed with one of the ancient world's most advanced cultures.

It still haunts me to this day, but then I think skulls are pretty cool.

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