Jean Denis Blanc

I first met Jean Denis when he was living in Buenos Aires. Like myself, he's a world-traveler, originally from Marseilles. Jean Denis has a real electric personality and is a riot to be with.

I took this photo in November of 1999 in his department which, since his depature from Buenos Aires, has become mine.

Brunch in Buenos Aires

A group of friends of mine in Buenos Aires on the roof of my apartment building where I hosted a Brunch. While I drink mate and eat dulce de leche, I also try to introduce the best of American culture. Naturally this includes Sunday brunches and champagne and grapefruit juice mimosas.

Photo taken in June of 2000.

Hugh Dubberly

Hugh is a friend of mine who lives out in California. I often hit him up for design and typography advice.

I took this photo in June of 1999 on the Netscape office campus in Mountain View. I worked in his group there the previous summer.

Lauren Geetter

Lauren is a fellow American expat I met in Buenos Aires. She's back in the States now, but I we would often chatter endlessly on the phone while I cleaned my apartment, sharing totally unnecessary personal details and racking up local toll charges.

Helen Hobbs (my grandmother)

My grandmother. Photo taken in July of 1999 when I went to visit my grandparents in Salem, Indiana, where they live.

My Father at Bar Dorrego in Buenos Aires

My dad came down to Buenos Aires in June of 2000. I took this as we grabbed a cafe con leche in Bar Dorrego in the historic neighborhood of San Telmo.

German Isaurralde

German is a friend of mine who lives in Rosario. We work at the same company, altho we know eachother through mutual friends.

I took this photo as part of a series involving the very cheap pizzeria Ugi's. This was sometime around March of 2000.

Marcos

Marcos is one of my best friends in Buenos Aires. I took this picture with his Mom on a trip down to Mar del Plata in October of 1999, where he's originally from.

Justin Miller

I first met Justin when I was a freshman at Harvard and he was studying CS just down Mass Ave. at MIT. He's extremely thoughtful and bright and I often seek out his opinion on many things. And he's gracious enough to respond.

I took this photo in spring of 1999 on the banks of the Charles in Cambridge.

Update: Justin passed away in 2008.

Chris Tilgman

I shared a suite with Chris my junior year at Harvard in Mather House. I snapped this as we lined up to march up to the Yard for our Commencement in June of 1999.

Eric Westby

Eric is a good friend who lives in Cambridge. I appreciate his incisive wit and sense of humor. He's one of the rare people I can talk to for hours and never get bored or run out of topics.

Matt Winters

I've known Matt since high school when we were both in the fall production of "God's Country". Fortunately we both went East for college; him to Brown and me to Harvard, and have managed to remain good friends all this time.

Matt early on gave me lots of photo advice. Here, I had just gotten my Pentax K1000 and Matt is expounding on shutter speeds, f-stops, contrast, composition, etc. This photo is from April of 1999.

Jean Denis & Javier

Taken on a street in San Telmo, just outside of a Parrilla. February, 2000.

Javier Zapiola

Javier is one of my best friends in Buenos Aires. He's an actor and very lively and funny. He has been very gracious teaching me the worst and most vulgar lunfardo words.

Photo is from September 1999.

More Vanity on Flickr

I have a Flickr set of photos of me covering 1993 to 2006. It's here.

If you want to track my further aging, I please add me on facebook.

As a brooding freshman, January 1995

My friend Alena Williams took this picture during our freshman year at Harvard. This was taken in the middle of winter, sometime around finals.

At a picnic in San Francisco, July 1996

Back when I was young and cute.

Wearing Silly Hats in Trinidad, Cuba. December 1996

While in Cuba with my parents, we took a three day trip from Havana to this charming colonia-style village called Trinidad about halfway across the island. Here I am with my dad sporting some of the latest tourist-wear.

Sipping Cuba Libres in Havana

During my bus trip from California to Tierra del Fuego, I made a side trip to Cuba. My parents, jealous of my getting to a new country first, flew down to meet me (going thru Cancun since you can't fly direct from the US). Here we are celebrating.

Mather House Dining Hall, March 1999

Taken April 1999 in Salem, MA

Taken by my dad on a daytrip out to Salem, MA in April 1999.

Me on a Bad Hair Day

Taken by my friend Jean Denis in his apartment in Buenos Aires, January 2000.

Self portrait taken in Punta Arenas

Taken on a cold day in Punta Arenas, Chile in February 2000. It was very windy, hence the tear streaming out of my right eye.

Books I have read

You can tell a lot about someone by what books they have read. I present you my list, in chronological order, with very little comentary. "***" means I really liked the book, and I've linked it to Amazon. "~~~" means I really hated it. The rest I'll leave up to you.

Gladwell, Malcom

1992
Foundation	Asimov, Isaac ***
Foundation and Empire	Asimov, Isaac ***
Emprise	Kube-McDowell, Micheal
Enigma	Kube-McDowell, Micheal
Empery	Kube-McDowell, Micheal
Second Foundation	Asimov, Isaac ***
Foundation's Edge	Asimov, Isaac
Foundation and Earth	Asimov, Isaac
Nemisis	Asimov, Isaac
The Puritan Dilema	Morgan
Prelude to Foundation	Asimov, Isaac
Nightfall	Asimov, Isaac and Silverberg, Robert
The Quiet Pools	Kube-McDowell, Micheal
Imperial Earth	Clarke, Arthur
Rendezvous With Rama	Clarke, Arthur ***
Rama II	Clarke, Arthur and Lee, Gentry
The Garden of Rama	Clarke, Arthur and Lee, Gentry
I, Robot	Asimov, Isaac ***
Songs of Distant Earth	Clarke, Arthur
The Naked Sun	Asimov, Isaac
The Currents of Space	Asimov, Isaac
The Stars Like Dust	Asimov, Isaac
The Agony and the Ecstasy	Stone, Irving
The Turner Thesis	Turner, Frederick Jackson
Beyond the Fall of Night	Clarke, Arthur and Benford, Gregory
The Robots of Dawn	Asimov, Isaac
The Fountains of Paradise	Clarke, Arthur
Robots and Empire	Asimov, Isaac
Childhood's End	Clarke, Arthur ***
Cradle	Clarke, Arthur and Lee, Gentry
1993
The Sum of All Fears	Clancy, Tom
The End of Eternity	Asimov, Isaac
Homage to Catalonia	Orwell, George
All I Really Needed to Know	Fulghum, Robert
It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It	Fulghum, Robert
A Brief History of Time	Hawking, Steven
American Pageant	Textbook
The Catacomb Years	Bishop, Micheal
Fatherland	Harris, Robert
2061	Clarke, Arthur
Becoming A Man	Monette, Paul
Animal Farm	Orwell, George
An Alien Light	Kress, Nancy
Chemistry	Textbook
Sex, Art, and American Culture	Paglia, Camille
The Once and Future King	White, T. H.
Applied Calculus	Textbook
More Than One Universe	Clarke, Arthur
Forward the Foundation	Asimov, Isaac
The Pelican Brief	Grisham, John
The Firm	Grisham, John
Sphere	Critchton, Micheal
The Fountainhead	Rand, Ayn ***
In Patagonia	Chatwin, Bruce ***
Atlas Shrugged	Rand, Ayn ***
A Time to Kill	Grisham, John
The Hammer of God	Clarke, Arthur
The Secret Sharer	Conrad, Joseph
And The Band Played On	Shilts, Randy ***
We The Living	Rand, Ayn
Anthem	Rand, Ayn
The Glass Menagerie	Williams, Tennesee
The Night of January 16th	Rand, Ayn ~~~
Crime and Punishment	Dostoevsky, Fyodor
God's Country	Dietz, Steven
The Man Who Used The Universe	Foster, Alan Dean
Dragon's Egg	Forward, Robert
Time Master	Forward, Robert ~~~
Siddhartha	Hesse, Herman
Ayn Rand	Baker, James
Martian Rainbow	Forward, Robert ~~~
Mars	Bova, Ben
1994
The City Not Long After	Murphy, Par
Rama Revealed	Clarke, Arthur and Lee, Gentry ~~~
The Mayor of Castro Street	Shilts, Randy ***
A Streetcar Named Desire	Williams, Tennnesee
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead	Stoppard, Tom
Waiting for Godot	Beckett, Samuel
Peacekeepers	Bova, Ben
Privateers	Bova, Ben
Empire Builders	Bova, Ben
Red Mars	Robinson, Kim Stanley ***
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress	Heinlein, Robert ***
Night	Weilsel, Elie
Green Mars	Robinson, Kim Stanley ***
More Tales of the City	Maupin, Armistead
Earthlight	Clarke, Arthur
Postman	Brin, David
The Dark Beyond the Stars	Robinson, Frank
Ender's Game	Card, Orson Scott ***
Speaker for the Dead	Card, Orson Scott ***
The Forever War	Haldeman, Joe ***
The Man in the High Castle	Dick, Phillip ***
Xenocide	Card, Orson Scott
Gateway	Pohl, Frederick
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch	Dick, Phillip K.
Solar Lottery	Dick, Phillip K.
The Dispossessed	LeGuin, Ursula K. ***
The Left Hand of Darkness	LeGuin, Ursula K. ***
The Peron Novel	Martinez, Tomas Eloy
The Old World and The New: 1492	Elliot, John H
Neuromancer	Gibson, William ~~~
1995
Moving Mars	Bear, Gregory
The Hot Zone	Preston, Richard
Hyperion	Simmons, Dan
A Place at the Table	Bawer, Bruce
Fall of Hyperion	Simmons, Dan
A Wizard of Earthsea	LeGuin, Ursula K. ***
A Canticle for Leibowitz	Miller, Walter ***
The Demolished Man	Bester, Alfred
The Stars My Destination	Bester, Alfred
The Character of Physical Law	Feynman
Dune	Herbert, Frank ***
The Bridge of San Luis Rey	Wilder, Thorton ***
The Clocks	Christie, Agatha
A Fire Upon the Deep	Vinge, Vernor
Dawn	Weisel, Elie
The Green Hills of Earth	Heinlein, Robert ~~~
Lovelock	Card, Orson Scott
One Hundred Years of Solitude	Garcia-Marquez, Gabriel ***
Remembering Denny	Trillin, Calvin
The Art of the Long View	Schwartz, Peter
Peddling Properity	Krugman, Paul ***
Peace War	Vinge, Vernor
Marooned in Realtime	Vinge, Vernor
True Names	Vinge, Vernor
Permutation City	Egan, Greg
Dancer From The Dance	Holleran, Andrew ***
1996
Magic's Pawn	Lackey, Mercedes ~~~
Armchair Economist	Landsburg, Steven
Queer in America	Signorile, Michelangelo ~~~
Blue Mars	Robinson, Kim Stanley
Quarantine	Egan, Greg
The Swimming Pool Library	Hollinghurst, Alan
River Out of Eden	Dawkins, Richard
The Folding Star	Hollinghurst, Alan ***
Queer	William S. Bourroughs
Snow Queen	Vinge, Joan D.
Bastard Out of Carolina	Allison, Dorothy
The Remains of the Day	Ishiguro, Kazuo
The Kitchen God's Wife	Tan, Amy
The Lost World	Crichton, Michael
Beloved	Morrison, Toni
Stones for Ibarra	Doerr, Harriet ***
1997
Snow Falling on Cedars	Guterson, David
Days of Obligation	Rodriguez, Richard
The Bean Trees	Kingsolver, Barbarh
The Blind Watchmaker	Dawkins, Richard
The Hobbit	Tolkien, J.R.R
A Place I'Ve Never Been	Leavitt, David ***
The Fellowship of the Ring	Tolkein, J.R.R.
The Two Towers	Tolkein, J.R.R.
The Return of the King	Tolkein, J.R.R.
Our Man in Havana	Greene, Graham ***
The Mote in God's Eye	NIven, Larry & J. Pournelle
High Fidelity	Hornby, Nick
Lonesome Dove	McMurtry, Larry
The Diamond Age	Stephenson, Neal
Invisible Man	Ellison, Ralph
The Rapture of Canaan	Reynolds, Sheri
And Then There Were None	Christie, Agatha
The Name of the Rose	Eco, Umberto
The House of the Spirits	Allende, Isabel ***
The Picture of Dorian Gray	Wilde, Oscar
A Civil Action	Harr, Jonathan
Ship Fever	Barret, Andrea
Family Dancing	Leavitt, David
Arkansas	Leavitt, David
Barrel Fever	Sedaris, David
O Pioneers!	Cather, Willa
A Thousand Acres	Smiley, Jane ***
Ceremony	Silko, Leslie Marmon
Refuge	Williams, Terry Tempest
1998
Into the Wild	Krakauer, John
Distress	Egan, Greg
Snow Crash	Stephenson, Neal
Guns, Germs, and Steel	Diamond, Jared ***
1999
Native Son	Wright, Richard
Sweet Soul Music	Guralnick, Peter
Gay New York	Chauncey, George
On Heroes and Tombs	Sabato, Ernesto
The Honorary Consul	Greene, Graham
Antarctica	Robinson, Kim Stanley
Common Ground	Lukas, Anthony ***
Kiss of the Spider Woman	Puig, Manuel
A State of Fear	Graham-Yooll, Andrew
The Wedding of Zein	Salih, Tayyib
After the Despots	Graham-Yooll, Andrew
Into Thin Air	Krakauer, Jon
Visual Display of Quantitative Information	Tufte, Edward
Investment Biker	Rogers, Jim
Where I'm Calling From	Carver, Raymond
2000
Permission Marketing	Godin, Seth
Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion	Caldini, Robert
Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing	Greenspun, Philip
The Design of Everyday Things	Norman, Donald
The Orchid Theif	Orlean, Susan
Understanding Comics	Scott McCloud
Maus, I & II	Spiegelman, Art
On Photography	Sontag, Susan ***
Designing Web Usability	Nielsen, Jakob
Yanomamo: The Fierce People	Chagnon, Napoleon
The War of the End of the World	LLosa, Mario Vargas
The Death of Artemio Cruz	Fuentes, Carlos
Seven Dials Mystery	Christie, Agatha
Murder at the Vicarage	Christie, Agatha
2001
Mrs. Dalloway	Woolf, Virginia
The Hours	Cunningham, Michael ***
A Universal History of Imfamy	Borges, Jorge Luis
Foucault's Pendulum	Eco, Umberto
A Map of the World	Hamilton, Jane
Gabriella, Clove and Cinnamon	Amado, Jorge
Inside the Sky	Langewiesche, William ***
Kitchen Confidential	Bourdain, Anthony
Disgrace	Coetzee, J.M.
Sunnyvale	Goodell, Jeff
The Tipping Point	Gladwell, Malcom
Demonic Males	Wrangham, Richard
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder	Wenschler, Lawrence
The Art of Innovation	Kelly, Tom
The Spell	Hollinghurst, Alan
A Home at the End of the World	Cunningham, Michael
Flesh and Blood	Cunningham, Michael
The Intuitionist	Whitehead, Colson
From Bauhaus to Our House	Wolfe, Tom
Buildings That Learn	Brand, Stewart
Confessions of an Advertising Man	Ogilvy, David
The Beach	Garland, Alex
The Secret History	Tartt, Donna
Independence Day	Ford, Richard ***
Class	Fussel, Paul
City of Quartz	Davis, Mike
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil	Brendt, John
The Heart that Bleeds	Guillermoprieto, Alma
Looking for History	Guillermoprieto, Alma
The Naked Civil Servant	Crisp, Quentin
Memory of Fire: Genesis	Galeano, Eduardo
Peopleware	DeMarco, Tom & Lister, Timothy
2002
Delirious New York	Koolhaus, Rem
Sahara Unveiled	Langewiesche, William
The Other Path	De Soto, Hernando
The Corrections	Franzen, Jonathan
The Story of Art	Gombrich, Ernst
The Sportswriter	Ford, Richard
Invisible Cities	Calvino, Italo
Rivertown: Two Years on the Yangtze	Hessler, Peter
American Ground	Langewiesche, William
2003
Ragtime	Doctorow, E.L.
Symposium	Spark, Muriel
What am I doing here?	Chatwin, Bruce
Anthropologist on Mars	Sacks, Oliver
Island of the Colorblind	Sacks, Oliver
Moneyball	Lewis, Michael
Slouching Towards Bethlemhem	Didion, Joan
Before Night Falls	Arenas, Reinaldo
2004
Farewell Symphony	White, Edmund
Plagues & Peoples	McNeill, William
Oaxaca Journal	Sacks, Oliver
The Years of Rice and Salt	Robinson, Kim Stanley
The Beautiful Room is Empty	White, Edmund
Cleopatra's Wedding Present	Moss, Robert Tewdwr
Songlines	Chatwin, Bruce
Sheltering Sky	Bowles, Paul
The Outlaw Sea	Langweische, William
Paris to the Moon	Gopnik, Adam
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas	Stein, Gertrude
The Shipping News	Proulx, Annie
Amsterdam	McEwan, Ian
2005
A Death in Brazil	Robb, Peter
Reading Lolita in Tehran	Nafisi, Azar
The Happy Isles of Oceania	Theroux, Paul
Midnight's Children	Rushdie, Salman
The Line of Beauty	Hollinghurst, Alan ***
The Death and Life of Great American Cities	Jacobs, Jane
Blue Highways	Least Heat Moon, William
Blink
Atonement	McEwan, Ian
2006
Maximum City	Suketu, Mehta
Saturday	McEwan, Ian
City of Bones	Connolly, Michael
Reversible Errors	Turow, Scott
The Narrows	Connelly, Michael
Devil in a Blue Dress	Mosley, Walter
The Black Ice	Connelly, Michael
The White Album	Didion, Joan
The Search	Battelle, John
Oracle Bones	Hessler, Peter ***
1491	Mann, Charles
Prep	Sittenfeld, Curtis
2007
The Closesrs	Connelly, Michael
The Ghost Map	Johnson, Steven
The Blind Side	Lewis, Michael
The Places in Between	Stewart, Rory
The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue	Mu�oz, Manuel
The Last Coyote	Connelly, Michael
2008
Daughter of Fortune	Allende, Isabel
You Can Run	Archer, Jesse
2009
Brief Encounters with Che Guevara	Fountain, Ben
Wyoming Stories	Proulx, Annie
A Darkness More Than Night	Connelly, Michael
Knifeboy	Williams, Tod Harrison

Some Comentary In 1992 I visited my grandparents in Indiana for a week. Fearing boredom I brought along a few Isaac Asimov books. I knew he wrote science fiction and altho I had never really read any books for pleasure before this, I thought it might be interesting. In the stack at the library I noticed a lot of his titles had the word "Foundation" in it. I figured this would be a good place to start. Little did I know this would set off a years-long love affair with science fiction. When I started college stopped reading so much, altho looking at my list you wouldn't necessarily see it. The year I took off to travel across Latin America (96-97), I read a lot. I don't read too much science fiction anymore, which is too bad. I miss the sense of wonderment and the dreaming it inspired within me.

CDs I own

Kind of pointless now with mp3s and all, but here it is.

My Favorites are marked with an '*'

Abagail

Constant Craving (single)

Abba

Gold

ABBAcadabra

ABBA Songs In Disco

S.O.S (single)

Los Abuelos de la Nada

Oro

Ace of Base

Lucky Love (single)

Afro Medusa

Pasilda (single)

Air

Moon Safari

Sexy Boy (single)

Allman Brothers

A Decade of Hits 69-79

Amber

One More Night (single)

Sexual * (single)

America

History (Greatest Hits)

Tori Amos

Silent All These Years (single)

Professional Widow (single)

The Animals

Best of the Animals

Anastacia

I'm Outta Love (single)

Marc Anthony

Desde Un Principio

Marc Anthony

Aterciopelados

Caribe Atomico

Gozo Poderozo

Backstreet Boys

Everybody (single)

Greatest Hits, Chaper One

Bad Company

10 From 6

Bad Finger

Straight Up

Erykah Badu

Baduzim

Bananarama

Greatest Hits

The Band

The Band *

Barenaked Ladies

Gordon

Brian Wilson (single)

The Old Apartment * (single)

One Week (single)

Beach Boys

Today

Pet Sounds *

Good Vibrations (Box Set)

Beatles

Please Please Me

Hard Day's Night *

Beatles For Sale

Revolver *

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band *

Magical Mystery Tour

Yellow Submarine

The Beatles (White Album) *

Abbey Road *

Let it Be

Past Masters vol. 1

Past Masters vol. 2

Beck

Odelay

Midnight Vultures

Maria Bethania

Millenium Series

Big Star

#1 Record/Radio City

Third/Sister Lovers

Black Uhuru

Red

Ruben Blades

Buscando America

Blind Faith

Blind Faith

Blondie

Atomic/Atomix (The Best Remixed)

Bloomfield, Kooper, Stills

Super Session

Blue Boy

Remember Me (single)

Blur

Parklife

Migue Bose

Lo Mejor de...

Girados en Conciento (w/ Ana Torroja)

Boston

Boston

Box Tops

Ultimate Box Tops

Brandy & Monica

The Boy is Mine (single)

Toni Braxton

You're Makin' Me High (single)

Unbreak My Heart (single)

Meredith Brooks

Bitch (single)

What Would Happen (single)

James Brown

Star Time

Chico Buarque

Millenium Series

Buffalo Springfield

Last Time Around

The Best of

Jerry Butler

The Very Best of

Byrds

The Notorious Byrd Brothers

Greatest Hits Vol. 2

The Byrds (box set) *

Cafe Tacuba

Re:

Avalanche de Exitos

Mariah Carey

Dreamlover * (single)

Fantasy (single)

Honey (single)

My All (single)

I Still Believe (single)

Kim Carnes

Mistaken Identity

The Carpenters

Singles 1969-1973

The Cars

Just What I Needed, The Anthology

Johnny Cash

The Sun Years

Chairmen of the Board

Greatest

Harry Chapin

Greatest Stories Live

Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman

Give me One Reason (single)

Charlotte

Skin (single)

Cheap Trick

Authorized Greatest Hits

Cher

One By One (single)

Believe * (single)

Strong Enough (single)

Greatest Hits

Chic

Dance, Dance, Dance

Chumbawamba

Tubthumping (single)

Eric Clapton

Timepieces, The Best of

Unplugged

Change the World (single)

The Clash

London Calling *

Johnny Clegg

A Collection...

Patsy Cline

12 Greatest Hits *

Club 69

Drama (single)

Alright (single)

Muscles (single)

Bruce Cockburn

Stealing Fire

Coldplay

Parachutes

Phil Collins

Hits

John Coltrane

A Love Supreme

Sam Cooke

Man and His Music *

Cornershop

When I was Born For the 7th Time

Gal Costa

Millenium Series

Counting Crows

August and Everything After

Recovering the Satellites

Cowboy Junkies

Miles from Our Home

The Trinity Session

Lay it Down

Deborah Cox

Who Do U Love (single)

Things Just Ain't the Same (single)

Nobody's Supposed to be Here (single)

Sentimental (single)

The Cranberries

The Hits

Cream

The Very Best of

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Chronicle *

Chronicle, Vol. 2

Crosby & Nash

Wind On the Water

David Crosby

If Only I Could Remember My Name

Oh Yes I Can

Crosby, Stills & Nash

4 Way Street

CSN

Crosby, Stills, & Nash (box Set)

Lia Crucett

Disco De Oro

Celia Cruz

Grandes Exitos

Mi Vida es Cantar

Cubanismo!

Malembe

The Cure

Staring at the Sea *

Galore

Daft Punk

One More Time (single)

Dario G

Sunchyme (single)

Dark Latin Groove

Greatest Hits

Miles Davis

Kind of Blue

Dead Can Dance

Within the Realm of a Dying Sun

The Serpent's Egg

Aion

Into the Labyrinth

Toward the Within

Deep Dish

Stay Gold (single)

Delaney & Bonnie

The Best of

Sandy Denny

The Best of

Depeche Mode

It's no Good (single)

Derek and the Dominos

Layla *

Jackie DeShannon

The Best of

Neil Diamond

The Classics

His 12 Greatest Hits

Celine Dion

It's all Coming Back to Me (single)

My Heart Will Go On (remixes) (single)

DJ Miko

What's Up (single)

Donovan

Greatest Hits

Doobie Brothers

Best of the Doobies

Doors

The Doors

Waiting for the Sun

The Soft Parade

Morrison Hotel *

LA Woman

The Best of

In Concert

Nick Drake

An Introduction to Nick Drake *

Duran Duran

Decade

Duran Duran

Bob Dylan

Blonde on Blonde *

Greatest Hits, Vol. 1

Greatest Hits Vol. 2

Blood on the Tracks *

Time Out of Mind

Love and Theft

Eagles

Their Greatest Hits 71-75 *

Greatest Hits, Vol. 2

Earth, Wind & Fire

The Best of, Vol. 1

Electic Light Orchestra

Greatest Hits

Electronic

Disappointed (single)

Missy Elliott

Sock It 2 Me (single)

Enigma

MCMXC a.D.

Cross of Changes

Enya

Enya

Watermark

Shepherd Moons

A Day Without Rain

Erasure

Pop!

Breathe of Life (single)

Always (single)

Don't Say Your Love is Killing Me (single)

Rain * (single)

Gloria Estefan

Party Time (single)

Don't Let This Moment End (single)

Eurythmics

Greatest Hits

Everything But The Girl

Amplified Heart

Walking Wounded

Wrong (single)

Fabulosos Cadillacs

Vasos Vacios, Los Exitos 1985-1993

20 Exitos

Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention

Unhalfbricking *

What We Did On Our Holidays

Liege and Lief

Faithless

Insomnia (single)

Vicente Fernandez

Historia de un Idolo

Bryan Ferry

Street Life

Fifth Dimension

Greatest Hits on Earth

Find Young Cannibals

The Finest

Ella Fitzgerald

The Best of the Songbooks *

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

Rumours *

Flying Burrito Brothers

Farther Along, The Best of *

Fool's Garden

Lemon Tree (single)

Fountains of Wayne

Fountains of Wayne

Four Tops

Anthology

Aretha Franklin

30 Greatest Hits

Funkadelic

One Nation Under a Groove

Garbage

Some Pirated Greatest Hits

Stupid Girl (single)

Charly Garcia

Obras Cumbres

Judy Garland

Judy At Carnegie Hall

Marvin Gaye

What's Going On *

Midnight Love

Anthology

Gloria Gaynor

Greatest Hits

Genesis

Turn it on Again (Hits)

Leon Gieco

Coleccion Aniversario

Gilberto Gil

Millenium Series

Joao Gilberto

Millenium Series

Gilda

Disco de Oro *

Gipsy Kings

Gipsy Kings Live

Gladys Knight & The Pips

Imagination

Anthology

Go-Go's

Best Of

Grateful Dead

Live/Dead

Europe '72

Skeletons From the Closet

Macy Gray

On How Life Is

The Id

Al Green

Let's Stay Together

I'm Still In Love With You

Al Green Explores Your Mind

Call Me *

Guess Who

Best Of

Guns 'n Roses

Appetite for Destruction

Haddaway

Haddaway

Hanson

mmmbop (single)

Harajuku

Phanthom Remixes '94 (single)

On My Own (single)

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

The Best of

Emmylou Harris

Greatest Hits

George Harrison

All Things Must Pass

Sophie B. Hawkins

Damn, I wish I was Your Lover (single)

Heart

Dreamboat Annie

Jimi Hendrix

Axis: Bold As Love

Electric Ladyland

The Ultimate Experience

Don Henley

Building the Perfect Beast

Heroes del Silencio

Canciones 84-96

Lauryn Hill

The Miseducation of

Billie Holiday

The Quintessential, vol. IV

Hollies

Greatest Hits

Buddy Holly

Greatest Hits

Whitney Houston

Step by Step (single)

It's Not Right but It's Okay (single)

I Learned From the Best (single)

My Love is Your Love (single)

Julio Iglesias

Agua Dulce, Agua Sala (single)

Enrique Iglesias

Enrique

Ilya Kuraki

Leche

The Impressions

Anthology *

Incredible String Band

Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

La India

Lo Nuevo y Sus Exitos

Indigo Girls

Indigo Girls

Isley Brothers

Isley Brothers Story vol 2

Jackson 5

18 Greatest Hits

Janet Jackson

Together Again (single)

I Get Lonley (single)

Michael Jackson

Thriller

Your Are Not Alone (single)

Nicole Jackson

The First Time Ever... * (single)

Rick James

The Ultimate Collection

Jamiroquai

Space Cowboy (single)

Jamiroquai

Cosmic Girl (single)

Virtual Insanity (single)

Jefferson Airplane

Volunteers

Jewel

Pieces of You

Tom Jobim

Millenium Series

Billy Joel

Greatest Hits vol. 1 & 2

Elton John

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Love Songs

Greatest Hits

Greatest Hits, Vol. 2

George Jones

Super Hits

Grace Jones

Island Life

Tom Jones

Reload

Janis Joplin

Greatest Hits

18 Essential Songs

Joy Division

Substance

King Crimson

Larks' Toungues In Aspic

Kinks

Greatest Hits 64-66

Something Else By

Kink Kronikles *

Come Dancing, Best of 77-86

Patti LaBelle

When You Talk About Love (single)

k. d. lang

Ingenue *

Drag

Live by Request

Latin All Stars

I Like it like that (single)

Cyndi Lauper

She's so Unusual

Led Zepplin

Led Zepplin (box set)

Laura Lee

Greatest Hits

Legiao Urbana

Mais do Mesmo

John Lennon

Shaved Fish

Annie Lenox

Diva

Medusa

Little Feat

Dixie Chicken

Little Richard

The Essential...

Livin' Joy

Dreamer (single)

Follow the Rules (single)

Don't Stop Movin' (single)

Louvin Brothers

Tragic Songs of Life

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Their Greatest Hits

Madonna

Immaculate Collection *

Ray of Light

Music

Secrets (single)

You Must Love Me (single)

Frozen (single)

Mamas & The Papas

16 Greatest Hits

Mana

Unplugged *

Todos sus Exitos

Aimee Mann

Magnolia Soundtrack

Ultimate Collection

Manfred Mann

Greatest Hits 64-66

Chapter Two

Marcy Playground

Sex and Candy (single)

Bob Marley

Legend

Natural Mystic

Natty Dread

Billy Ray Martin

Your Loving Arms (single)

Ricky Martin

Maria (single)

Dave Mason

Alone Together

The Best Of

Fortuna Mazal

Fortuna Mazal

Paul McCartney

McCartney

Unplugged

Roger McGuinn

Born to Rock n Roll

Loreena McKennitt

Mummer's Dance (single)

Don McLean

Best Of

Men at Work

Business as Usual

Natalie Merchant

Tigerlily

Wonder (single)

Live in New York City

Metallica

Metallica (Black Album)

George Michael

Fastlove (single)

Robert Miles

Children (single)

Steve Miller

Best of 68-73

Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

Rev Up: The Best of

Joni Mitchell

Blue *

For the Roses

Court & Spark *

Hits

Moby

James Bond Theme (single)

Modern Talking

Greatest Hits

Moody Blues

To Our Childrens Childrens Children

Seventh Sojourn

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

Van Morrison

Into the Music

The Best of

Mousse T vs. Hot 'n Juicy

Horny (single)

The Move

Greatest Hits

Billie Myers

Kiss the Rian (single)

Milton Nascimento

Geraes

Millenium Series

Graham Nash

Song For Beginners

Willie Nelson

Red Headed Stranger

Stardust

New Order

Best of

Substance

Randy Newman

12 Songs

Nirvana

Nevermind

Unplugged

Los Nocheros

Signos

Nuyorican Soul

Nuyorican Soul

Oasis

What's the Story (Morning Glory)?

Billy Ocean

Greatest Hits

O'Jays

Back Stabbers

Olive

You're Not Alone (single)

OMC

How Bizarre

100 Proof (Aged in Soul)

Greatest

Os Mutantes

Millenium Series

Outkast

Aquemini

Fito Paez

El Amor Despues del Amor

Gram Parsons

GP/Grievous Angel *

Dolly Parton

The RCA Years 67-86

Parton, Ronstadt, Harris

Trio

Paquita La del Barrio

Exitos

Chichi Peralta

Pa' Otro La'o *

De Vuelta al Barrio

Luciano Pereyra

Amaneciendo

Recordandote

Pet Shop Boys

Discography

Very

Bilingual

Nightlife

Absolutely Fabulous (single)

Se a Vida E (single)

A Red Letter Day * (single)

Somewhere (single)

Tom Petty

Into The Great Wide Open

Greatest Hits

Walls (single)

Wilson Pickett

The Best of

Pimpinella

Las Mejores 30 Canciones

Pink Floyd

Soundtrack from the Film More

Ummagumma

Obscured By Clouds

Dark Side of the Moon *

Wish You Were Here

The Wall

Pizzicato Five

Happy Sad (single)

The Platters

Enchanted

Police

Message In a Box

Porno for Pyros

Pets (single)

Portishead

Sour Times (single)

Portishead

All Mine (single)

Elvis Presley

Elvis' Gold Records, Vol. 5

The Pretenders

Greatest Hits

Prince Music from Purple Rain

The Hits 1

The Hits 2

John Prine

John Prine *

Queen

Greatest Hits

Radiohead

OK Computer

The Rascals

Greatest Hits

Elis Regina

Millenium Series

R.E.M

Murmur *

Reckoning

Life's Rich Pageant

Out of Time

Automatic for the People *

E-Bow the Letter (single)

Electrolite (single)

Up

Reveal

Bonnie Raitt

Longing In Their Hearts

Real McCoy

Another Night

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Some pirated collection of all their ballads

Los Redondos

Los Grandes Exitos

Otis Redding

The Very Best of, vol. 1 *

The Very Best of, vol. 2

Lou Reed

Tranformer

Reina

Find Another Woman (single)

Leann Rimes

How Do I live (single)

Jerry Rivera

Grandes Exitos

Robin S

Show Me Love

Rodrigo

Los Mejores Temas

Rolling Stones

Through The Past Darkly *

Exile on Main St.

Diana Ross

All The Great Hits

Paulina Rubio

Paulina Rubio

Sandro

Los 20 Exitos *

Santana

Greatest Hits

Alejandro Sanz

El Alma al Aire

Sash!

Encore une Fois (single)

Stay (single)

Savage Garden

To the Moon and Back (single)

Bob Seger

Greatest Hits

Seru Giran

Oro

Shakira

Pies Descalzos

Donde Estan Los Ladrones *

Duncan Sheik

Barely Breathing (single)

Duncan Sheik

Wishful Thinking (single)

Simon & Garfunkle

Sounds of Silence

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme

Bookends

Bridge Over Troubled Water *

Paul Simon

Paul Simon

There Goes Rhymin' Simon

Still Crazy After All These Years

Graceland *

Negotiations and Love Songs

The Rhythm of the Saints *

Songs From the Capeman

Frank Sinatra

Songs for Swingin' Lovers *

Only the Lonely *

Classic Sinatra (Capitol Years)

September of My Years

Sly & Robbie

Rhythym Killers

Sly & The Family Stone

Anthology *

The Small Faces

Anthology

Patti Smith

Horses

The Smiths

The Singles

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Anthology

Soda Stereo

Los 20 Exitos

Soledad

Yo si Quiero a mi Pais

Sonny & Cher

I Got You Babe (single)

Mercedes Sosa

30 Años

Alta Fidelidad

Space Monkeys

Sugar Cane (single)

Phil Spector

A Christmas Gift For You

Back To Mono (1958-1969)

Spice Girls

Spice

Say You'll Be There (single)

Spice Up Your Life (single)

Spin Doctors

Pocketful of Kryptonite

Spinetta

Elija y Gana

The Spinners

A One of a kind Love Affair

Dusty Springfield

The Very Best

Bruce Springsteen

Tracks (Box Set)

Greatest Hits

St. Etiene

Only Love Can Break Your Heart (single)

He's on the Phone (single)

Lisa Stansfied

#1 Dance Hits (EP)

Never Gonna Give You Up (single)

Staple Singers

Best of the Staple Singers

Stardust

Music Sounds Better With You (single)

Ringo Starr

Ringo

Stars on 54

If You Could Read My Mind (single)

Steely Dan

A Decade of Steely Dan

Steppenwolf

16 Greatest Hits

Rod Steward

Mercury Anthology

Ooh La La (single)

Stephen Stills

Stephen Stills

Stephen Stills, Neil Young

Long May You Run

Sting

Greatest Hits

I'm so Happy... (single)

Sublime

Sublime

Sugar Hill Gang

Best of

Sui Generis

Los 20 Exitos *

Donna Summer

On the Radio

Carry On * (single)

The Supremes

Antholgoy

Talking Heads

More Songs About Buildings And Food

Sand In The Vaseline

James Taylor

Sweet Baby James

The Temptations

Anthology

10,000 Maniacs

In My Tribe *

Our Time in Eden

You Happy Puppet (single)

More Than This (single)

Candy Everybody Wants (single)

Few and Far Between (single)

Thalia

Amor a la Mexicana

Arrasando

Third Eye Blind

Semi-Charmed Life (single)

Richard and/or Linda Thompson

Dreams Fly Away

(Guitar, Vocal)

I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

Shoot Out the Lights *

TLC

Waterfalls (single)

No Scrubs (single)

Toots and the Maytals

Funky Kingston

Tower of Power

Tower of Power

Traffic

Mr. Fantasy

Smiling Phases

Ike & Tina Turner

Greatest Hits

U2

Boy

War

Unforgettable Fire

Joshua Tree *

Best of 1980-1990

Achtung Baby *

Zooropa

All That You Can't Leave Behind

Where the Streets Have No Name (single)

Staring at the Sun (single)

Ultra Nate

Free (single)

Found a Cure (single)

Suzanne Vega

Solitude Standing

Caetano Veloso

Millenium Series

Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground & Nico

White LIght/White Heat

Velvet Underground

VU

The Verve

Bitter Sweet Symphony (single)

Rufus Wainwright

Poses

Scott Walker

No Regrets

It's Raining Today

Dionne Warwick

Dionne Warwick Collection *

Hidden Gems

The Waterboys

Fisherman's Blues

White Town

Women In Technology

Barry White

All-Time Greatest Hits

The Who

Live At Leeds (reissue) *

Who's Next (reissue) *

Who's Next *

Thirty Years of Maximum R&B

Wilco

Being There

Hank Williams

40 Greatest Hits

Lucinda Williams

Cars Wheels on a Gravel Road

Brian Wilson

I Wasn't Made For These Times

Your Imagination (single)

Jackie Wilson

The Best of

Wings

Wing's Greatest

Stevie Wonder

Talking Book

Music of My Mind

Innervisions *

Fulfillingnesss' First Finale

Songs In the Key of Life

Tammy Wynette

Greatest Hits

Yanni

Dare To Dream(can you believe I own this?)

Neil Young

Neil Young

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Harvest

Live Rust

The Legacy of... (bootleg)

Sleeps With Angels

Mirror Ball

Change Your Mind (single)

FrankZappa

We're Ony In it for the Money

The Zombies

Singles, A's & B's

Compilations and Box Sets

Beg, Scream, & Shout *

Best of the Girl Groups

Disco Years, Vol. 1 *

Disco Years, Vol. 2

Disco Years, Vol. 3

Hot Soul Hits, 1974

The Philly Soul Box Set

Soul Hits of the 70s, Vol. 2

Soul Hits of the 70s, Vol. 5

Soul Hits of the 70s, Vol. 8

Soul Hits of the 70s, Vol. 9

Soul Hits of the 70s, Vol. 14

Soul Hits of the 70s, Vol. 18

Cassablanca Records Story

Best Hits of the 60s

#1 Hits of the 60s

Billboard R'n R Hits 1966

British Invasion vol. 7-9

Born to Choose

The Burt Bacharach Collection *

Rock 'n Roll Instrumental Hits

Fizz Pop Modern Rock

Living in Oblivion, vol. 1-5

New Wave Hits of the 80s, vol. 14

New Wave Hits of the 80s, vol. 15

VH-1 Big 80s

Q 1998: The Best

Dance Mix Classics

Dance Mix USA, Vol. 3

Mega Dance Mix '96

JP Radio Hits (Brazil) *

Radio Party (Arg.)

Los 20 del Siglo XX (Rock Argentino)

Soundtracks

Songs from Almodovar

Basquiat

Batman & Robin

The Full Monty

Grace of My Heart

O Brother, Where Art Thou

Trainspotting

Saturday Night Fever *

When Pigs Fly

Terminator 2

New Jack City

The Civil War

CLASSICAL

Anonymous 4

On Yoolis Night

Anonymous 4

Love's Illusion

Hector Berlioz

Symphonie Fantastique

J.S. Bach

Brandenburg Concertos

Goldberg Variations (Glenn Gould)

Cello Suits (Pablo Casals)

Chopin

Nocturs

Claude Debussy

Trois Images/La Mer

Antonin Dvorak

Symphony #9

Philip Glass

Koyaanisqatsi

Philip Glass

Itaipu *

Osvaldo Golijov

The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (Kronos Quartet)

Edvard Grieg

Peer Gynt Suites

Henryk Groecki

Symphony #3

Howard Hanson

Symphonies

Gustav Holst

The Planets

Lassus

Masses For Five Voices

Mozart

Symphonies 40, 41

Mozart

Piano Concertos 23, 24

Carl Orff

Carmina Burana

Astor Piazzola

Soul of the Tango (Yo-Yo Ma)

Best Tangos

Stravinsky

Rite of Spring

Vaughan Williams

Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis *

Symphonies 3 & 6

Symphonies 7 & 8

Various

Random Early Music

Various

100 Masterpieces

[Postscript 2009: after my mom passed away and I moved down to Argentina to live with my boyfriend I sold all 1000-ish of my CDs on Craigslist. I got $250 or about a quarter per CD. I'd already ripped everything to MP3]

More Adventures in Bolivia

October 1996 to August 1997 I spent traveling from California to Tierra del Fuego overland, by bus. Bolivia was probably the most interesting country and, at the very least, made for the best stories. Here is a letter I sent from an internet cafe once I arrived in Santiago Chile. While not as amazing as the Freddy Tour, my silver mine tour and really bad bus ride are interesting as well.
The Potosi Mine Tour
After La Paz and that infamous prison tour I wrote about in my last letter I headed south to Potosi. the city sits at the foot of a hill at over 13,000 feet, making it the highest city in the world. The chief attraction to Potosi, however is the hill behind it and the some 5,000 mines (mostly abandoned) bored into it. The hill has been mined since Incan times but it was the Spanish who turned it into a big time operation. The silver from the mines financed the Spanish crown for over two centuries and turned Potosi into the second largest city in the world during the 17th century.

While most of the silver is now gone, mining continues albeit on a small scale. it is possible to tour one of these small, cooperative mines and observe the working conditions which are straight out of Dickens.

Tour companies arrange for tourists to go inside the mines and have a look around.Our guide was a former miner who had studied Englished and switched over to the more lucrative (and safer) profession of tour-guide. Before going up the hill we stopped off at the miners market to buy gifts for the miners, things such as bottled water, cigarettes, coca leaves, and dynamite (the miners typically have to buy their own so it makes a very useful gift). We were also with a coat, hardhat, and a gas lamp. We also began chewing coca leaves as this is supposed to help with, among other things, claustrophobia. The mines are at nearly 14,000 feet so it is hard to breathe even when you are not in a shaft barely the diameter of your body.

The entrance to the mine was a simple hole in the side of the mountain about four feet in height and hidden behind a pile of junk ore. At the entrance sat several miners calmly chewing coca and looking in no hurry to begin their work. The miners chew prodigious amounts of coca leaf for the dual effects of warding off fatigue and hunger. It allows the miners to work monstrously long shifts.

Geronimo and I entered the mine and descended several levels, crawling thru passages about four to five feet high. After a few minutes of descent we met yet more miners resting and chewing coca. It was morning and Geronimo informed us that they had been working since the night before. There was a manager (an equity holder in the mine) and two hired assistants. they had dynamited a passage and were now extracting the ore, carrying it up four levels in 90 pound sacks on their backs. this was a good find. When a passageway is mediocre a manger will work it by himself with a pick ax, not wasting expensive dynamite.

Next in the tour I was lowered by Geronimo down a 90 foot shaft with nothing more than a rope tied around my waist. Geronimo followed me sliding down the rope (an old miners trick, no doubt). I was a little surprised by my courage but by this point in the tour I had been chewing coca for quite a while and my judgment was, to say the least, suspect. At the bottom of the shaft we encountered two miners, brothers aged 19 and 15 working in the place of their father, who had recently died. Most miners, I learned, retire by the age of 35 so strenuous is the work. Even so, miners typically do not live past the age of 50, dying from one of the many miners diseases. Still, for the poor, indigenous residents of Potosi it is one of the few ways to make a living.

As bad as the conditions are in the mines today they are a vast improvement over the past when the Spanish sent thousands of Indian slaves to their deaths in the mines. Today, at least, the miners have a stake in the profits of the mine (there are some 200 mines in operations, mostly very small scale) and can take rudimentary steps to insure their safety. Last year (only) 48 miners died in accidents.

On the day of my tour there was a special ceremony going on involving the slaughter of llamas to give thanks for a prosperous year. After our emergence from the stifling mine we witnessed the slaughter of several llamas, all slit by the throat. Later the miners cooked up the meat on a large grill and buried the entrails in a offering to mother earth.

Geronimo and I descended to a lower mine where they were already cooking up the meat and helped ourselves to some. A miner came to us and bragged that llama meat has the lowest fat and cholesterol of any red meat. It struck me as a little odd that miner who will probably die before sixty would know anything about fat and cholesterol.

The meat was not bad, I should add, altho nothing compared to alpaca, which is delicious.
The Worst Bus Ride
It goes without saying that by this point in my trip I have become quite accustomed to bus rides. If ever I had an aversion to long rides I have long since gotten over it. Up until Bolivia my worst ride was a night bus from Arequipa to Cuzco, in Peru. For 13 hours I was subjected to the coldest, bumpiest, and dustiest bus ride of my trip, all while sitting next to a very large man with precious little respect for my personal space.

All this was mere preparation a ride I took in Bolivia. Since Colombia I had been hearing stories about the horrid condition of buses and roads in Bolivia but for the most part I had been quite lucky. My luck, however, ran out when I had to take a bus from Tupiza to Uyuni on a road connecting two of the most isolated corners of the Andean highlands.

The bus left at noon and the nice woman in the ticket office told me the ride would last six hours. Despite what notions you may have of how Latin Americans keep time, estimates of this sort were usually pretty good. This time it was an utter lie. The bus never arrives in under 8 hours, I later learned. Even so, an 8 pm arrival would have been a blessing.

My first inkling that all would not go smoothly came about four hours into the trip, after two hours of crawling up a not so steep road at barely 10 mph. At 6pm we pulled into the small town that marked the halfway point on this otherwise desolate journey. That is halfway, distance-wise. I assured myself that surely the road would get better if we were to make it even close to our schedule. In fact the road got worse.

Within 10 miles of this town we had two flat tires, the second of which took well over an hour to change. When I heard the clanging of a swift hammer on metal, I knew it was not an ordinary flat. From then on every time we slowed down to navigate a rut, which was quite often, I feared we were stopping for yet another flat. My body tensed up in the fear that we would not even arrive that night. The road was deeply rutted with a washboard grating and the bus (whose shocks were long gone) vibrated with such intensity that items in the overhead bins shook loose and it seemed the entire bus would come flying apart at the bolts.

To avoid the washboard sections the driver often choose alternate routes along the side of the road. This got us into our next bit of trouble. An hour outside of our final destination the bus got bogged down in sand and we all had to get out and push. At first I just had to laugh at the turn of events but the laughs soon turned in shivers. It was a cold, cold night in the desert. We were at 13,000 feet and the sun had set long ago. The temperature must have been in the teens. Thanks to that nice woman in the ticket office, who led me to believe we would arrive by sunset, I had left all my warm clothes in my pack, now totally inaccessible on top of the bus.

It took us an hour to get out of the sand, going 2 meters at a time. The driver and his assitant would dig out the area just in front of the back wheels and place a couple of boards there. The driver would rev the engine and the bus would lurch forward, rolling over the boards and then immediately bogging down in the sand again. It was while watching this farse that I decided that this was my worst bus ride, by far. Still, I mused to myself, it was not nearly at bad as some of the horror stories I had heard about buses in Bolivia, which included having the wheel fall off and being stranded by a flooded river and waiting 12 hours for the water to go down.

By the time we arrived it was just past one in the morning. it had taken us over 13 hours to go just under 100 miles. I got my stuff and quickly found a hotel room. I undressed and, filthy, went to bed, trying and failing to get warm under the thin sheets.

Adventures in Bolivia

October 1996 to August 1997 I spent traveling from California to Tierra del Fuego overland, by bus. Bolivia was probably the most interesting country and, at the very least, made for the best stories. Here is a letter I sent from an internet cafe in La Paz on May 16, 1997.

The best of these vingettes is the first, my tour of a Bolivian prison. It's followed by my ride on the Death Road and Skiing at 17,000 feet.

The Freddy Tour
Or my first acquaintance with the Bolivian penal system

I first heard about this tour from two American girls I met on last weekend's ski trip (which see). It is a tour of Bolivia's national prison given by the infamous (at least amongst travelers) Freddy, an inmate in the jail.

The National Penitentiary, as it is called, occupies one city block in the heart of La Paz. The main entrance faces a quiet tree lined square where children play and women sell gum and candies from kiosks. I walked up to the entrance with three other travelers. It was all hustle and bustle; guards searching visitors and checking their identification and prisoners on the other side of the gate waiting to see if anyone had arrived for them. Before we had much time to assess the situation a long-haired man standing on the prisonerÍs side of the gates called out, "I'm Freddy, it's OK, come with me." The guards briefly searched us, more concerned that we were not carrying any cameras than they were about drugs or weapons, took our passports (so they would know we weren't prisoners when we tried to leave) and let us in.

Once inside the man who had called out to us explained that his name was Ruben and that he was Freddy's assistant. It was his job to wait at the entrance and usher tourists into the jail. Freddy was busy with another tour but would be with us shortly, Ruben explained, so we could just sit and relax for a few moments. Ruben took our money, the price of the tour was 20 Bolivianos, or about four dollars. Freddy got to keep about half of this, the rest went to pay off the gaurds and his assistants.

Now that I had a few seconds to breathe I looked around the prison yard to gather some first impressions. First of all the place didn't look like a prison at all. The area where we sat looked more like the interior courtyard of a standard budget hotel (a little nicer, in fact). There were three floors with doors leading out onto a balcony. Each doorway was attractively painted white with a pine green trim. In the courtyard, where we sat, trees and shrubs were planted giving the place an almost park-like feel. Along the sides were kiosks selling candies and gum, just like one sees everywhere in Latin America. On the ground floor was a pool hall and a restaurant. The prisoners were all dressed in plainclothes and moved about with freedom. The only people in uniform were the guards who, aside from the entrance, were almost entirely nonexistent.

Freddy arrived and introduced himself. He was dressed in a red T-shirt, bluejeans, and a baseball cap emblazoned with the Nike logo. He started off telling us a little about the tour. He explained that we had nothing to worry about in terms of our safety. Freddy knew everyone at the prison and they all knew not to mess with him. He added that in the year he's been doing these tours nothing bad has happened, "until today" he said and smiled.

He began the tour with some explanation about life in the prison. The bottom line, he said, was money. With money a prisoner can have and do anything within the walls of the prison. For a price a prisoner can buy a nicer cell, have any kind of drug that exists, even bring his wife and kids into the prison to live with him (probably the oddest sight in the whole place was toddlers playing in the prison yard). And of course money can buy your freedom. "Your money is your justice," was a phrase oft repeated by Freddy during the tour.

The courtyard we were standing in was, what Freddy called, the five star section of the jail. It was here that the big drug dealers and traffickers lived. A cell in this section starts at $5000 and goes up from there. For this price a prisoner can get several bedrooms, satellite TV, even a Jacuzzi. When a prisoner enters the jail he is either assigned a cell in the bad section or giving an option to buy a nicer cell from an outgoing prisoner. At various points along the tour I saw 'for sale' signs tacked up outside of cells.

We left the courtyard and continued our tour. On the gate of the section we had just left was a sign with five stars on it and the name of the section, Los Pinos (The Pines).

Next up was the four star section. This section's yard had no trees and shrubs but was still nicer than some of the hotels I've stayed in on this trip. It was here that the assistants to the drugs lords; the chemists, and pilots lived. A cell here went for a minimum of $1000. In the corner was a restaurant serving rotisserie chicken.

The tour continued down thru the stars and into the prison's slums where, as Freddy put it, the dangerous motherfuckers lived. He told us that every year at least 20 people died in fights, mainly in the bad sections. The weapon of choice is a spear made from a sharpened steel rebar. Freddy recounted a couple of fights he had been in while a prisoner. He said it was not like the movies. It was best to kill your opponent with the first blow, no drama.

Presently we came upon a young and rather unkempt young man slouching in a doorway. Freddy walked up and kicked him a couple of times, hard, in the face and slung a long list of obscenities at him as he stumbled away. As he left away Freddy added a couple more kicks for good measure. Freddy turned to us and said, "That man is a junkie and he owes me money. If he does not pay me I will break his arm." During the tour Freddy's demeanor was friendly and courteous but I had no trouble believing that he could turn the bad motherfucker if need be.

Next we passed by the section where the prostitutes live. They, for the most part, are not prisoners, but they live in the prison because, presumably, business is so good. "Those bitches over there," Freddy said, "they are the ugly bitches. They cost 30 pesos. Over there, those are the good looking bitches. They cost 80." He seemed to like to use the word bitch. His surprisingly good English was peppered with obscenities, including the ubiquitous, "motherfucker. "

Next he led us into his cell, a cramped two floor cell in the three star section. Freddy paid $600 for where he lives. Here he talked a little about the crimes he had committed and what he was in for. A couple of years ago he was caught robbing a jewelry store and has been in jail since, altho, like most criminals in Bolivia, he's been involved in the cocaine trade. In fact, while we sat in his cell he offered us each some cocaine "98% pure" and only $3 a gram...almost as cheap as Colombia.

Freddy lives with his girlfriend, a Yugoslav woman he met on a tour about a year ago. She liked the drugs so much that she decided to stay, altho she is not a prisoner. Apparently the drugs inside the prison are the best and cheapest available in Bolivia. The girl works at night as a stripper, collecting tips and occasionally lifting the wallets out of her drunk customer's pockets. Freddy does quite well, all things considered. Through word of mouth this tour has become quite popular and he sometimes leads up to six tours a day of ten people each. Due to this income, and the money he gets from his girlfriend, Freddy saved up enough money to paid off the judge on his case. In less than a month Freddy will be released. $2000 was the price that bought his freedom. "Your money is your justice," he kept saying.

Our last stop on the tour was the section where they keep political prisoners (mostly terrorists and guerrillas rather than dissidents and activists). These were the only prisoners who could not pay off a judge to have their sentence shortened. The government turns a blind eye to most corruption but not any that actually might endanger their power.

And finally the tour was over. Already another group of tourists was waiting for Freddy. We stood at the gate while the guard looked for our passports (a tense moment) and we were free. Of course, the outside didn't seem all that different.
The Death Road
Later that same day I took a bus to Coroico, a small town about half way down to the Amazon basin from the highlands. The road from La Paz drops over 10,000 feet in less that 50 miles on its way down. The road is far from safe, in fact, in 1994 the World Bank declared it 'the world's most dangerous road.' Amongst tourists that route is known, affectionately, as the Death Road.

Last year there were 26 accidents on this road, all fatal. What makes the road so dangerous is that it is a single lane flanked on one side by cliffs that are almost sheer and drop down sometimes as much as 500 hundred feet. Guard rails are in a universe far, far away. The day I went I made sure I got to the bus station early so as to guarantee a seat on the driver's side. If I was going down the Death Road it wouldn't be with my eyes closed.

On this road, as opposed to all others on the continent, cars pass each other on the left side. There is some sense to this. The cliffs are on the left side (going down) and the driver is better able to see how close the wheels are to plunging off the edge. This can make for some tense moments when the bus has to pass oncoming traffic and the wheels are literally less than a foot from the edge. There were points on the journey when I would look out my window and see nothing but air for 500 feet below me.

When the dangerous section started an Argentine traveler in front of me turned around and said, "do you believe in God?" I was not scared, altho there were some tense moments. I tried to treat the ride as a roller coaster. Of course, I think that any country would shut down a roller coaster that caused over 100 fatalities a year. At several points on the road the track was literally cut into the cliff, sheer face above and below us. We passed *behind* several waterfalls.

At the road's more dangerous curves little crosses and shrines are sprinkled about, memorials to less fortunate souls who did not make it. I've heard these referred to as Bolivian caution signs. As we paused at the edge of the precipice I had plenty of time to read the names of those who did not make it. There was this one plaque with a star of David on it and written entirely in Hebrew, memorializing some Israeli travelers who had gone over the cliff. Nationals aren't the only ones who fall victim to the road. The plaque was dated February, '97.

I arrived in Coroico safely having enjoyed the ride but relieved that it was over. But as I stepped off the bus I realized there was only one way back to La Paz.
Skiing at 17,000 feet
The weekend before all of this I took a one day excursion out to Chacaltaya, a downhill ski resort about 20 miles outside of La Paz. Among the resorts many distinctions are being the only ski resort in the tropics and the highest downhill run in the world. Base elevation is at 17,000 feet.

At 8 am that morning I met a gathering group of travelers outside the offices of Club Andino Boliviano, where we met the bus that would take us up. After a few requisite stops for food purchasing and gas we were on our way up the steep and narrow 4wd track that led up to the ski lodge. At such an altitude I half expected to pass out upon standing up, but surprisingly, I felt fine.

After a few minutes standing around the lodge we began to rent our equipment. It was as bad as I had heard. My boots were from the early 80's, my skis from even before that. And they were in horrible condition. They ran out of equipment before everyone had a pair of skis and several people had to share. Finally, tho, most of us were all suited up and we skied down to the base of the lift.

The lift is a story in and of itself. Dating back to the resort's inception in 1939 the list is but a plain, unadorned cable run by a small diesel motor that can barely cope with the altitude. The method of going up is that of a poma tow, whereby we are dragged up the slope by the lift while leaning back on a disc or T-bar stuck between our legs. The trick with this lift, tho, is that the skier has to hook his or her own T-bar onto the cable which has no hooks and precious little friction. In the disclaimer they had us sign (This was the first and last disclaimer I ever had to sign in South America!) there was a sentence concerning the lift that I particularly like. It said, "Based on our experience it should not take you more than 12 times to learn how to use the lift."

I myself never managed to hook onto the cable even once. The first time I was helped by the staff and it was all I could do to keep the hook from slipping off as I rode up. I got to the top, happy that I had made it but sorry that I left my camera back down in the lodge. I skied down to get it. When I went back out I found that one of my bindings had slipped and my boot no longer fit. By now that altitude was really starting to get to me and I just couldn't muster the effort to get it fixed. I decided I had accomplished what I had came for--skiing a single run --and retired to the ski lodge.