Clubs and Cafes thus far

Here´s a few places I´ve been to thus far. This is not in order of when I visited them. More to come! And I've added a few that I'd already visited when I wrote this but had no time to write about.
Los Arcos:
Restaurant/bar/live music. The prices of drinks are generally cheap. They sell small coronas in sets of eight, which can make ordering beer a bit confusing (I´ve experienced this). Food is generally overpriced (for Mexico) and my friends who have eaten there don't like it very much.
Music varies. I used to think it was always Salsa, but apparently only on Tuesdays and sometimes on weekends. Goose has told me that the entertainment when he was there Thurs. night it was just a man on a keyboard. On nights when there is Salsa, it´s a great place in my opinion. The spaces between tables are crowded at times, but you can go outside the fenced in area and dance (no one will stop you). It´s also right in the middle of town.
Guantanamera:
Club, Salsa and Cumbia music. They alternate between a live band and recorded music, all of it Salsa or Cumbia. It´s fairly expensive, but if you want an actual dance floor it beats Los Arcos. A good variety of drinks, both alchoholic and non-alchoholic. Probably the weirdest feature is the televisions that are always set to MTV, on mute, when not dancing you can watch Bevis and Butthead.
La Comuna:
¨To Eat is a Human Right, at La Communa it is a pleasure¨ bar, and restaurant, nice omlets. It´s run by an independant human rights observer. When I was there it was a night for Mexican political/protest music, which, like its U.S. equivalent is an acoustic style emphasizing lyrics.
La Maga
Restaurant/Cafe with an all-you-can eat buffet for lunch. Excellent food and atmosphere. Also great for live music on some nights including the local ecclectic band Ampersan. Personally I like it if you couldn't tell.
Barcenal
American-pop dance club, with some Reggaton thrown in. As this is Mexico, and given the current music-style's emphasis on grinding, guys outnumber girls (who presumably worry more about modesty). The club is considerably more popular with the girls of our group than with the guys. I'm often fine dancing alone though.
Harry's
Saved this one for last, and worst, but this blog is not just about good things. A group of Mexicans led us here, possibly because Americans seem to like it, despite it being listed in our book under "not recommended." Exclusively American pop and hip-hop music. The decorations look copied from American Eagle T-shirts that happened to relate to bullfighting and Lucha Libre. Nearly all the people there are Gringos. It has a reputation for being racist, sexist, and possibly drugging girls' drinks. I feel guilty that I actually enjoyed myself there, as one Mexican girl there actually seemed to want me to dance with her (in typical Mexican fashion her brother was the one who actually came over to ask). Given the club's reputation though, perhaps the brother forced her into it. Other than dancing with her (which I now also feel guilty about) I can't think of too much to recommend that would counterbalance the club's terrible reputation.

Evening in Mexico City: Dancing at the World Trade Center

Well I was among the people who stayed in Mexico City after the embassy talk.

I'd have to say that the section of Mexico City we were in reminded me of New York City, only with more palm trees. The neo-classical park statues, the tall buildings, the buisinessmen and political officials in their formal suits. True less of them were wearing coats than I remember in NYC (I've only seen NYC in the winter). Oh, and yes, there were beggars on the streets, but there are in NYC as well.

It could be just my limited range of personal reference. Both Mexico D.F. and New York City were modeled after European cities. In Mexico City's case, the French Invaders based the Paseo de la Reforma directly on the Champs Elysees (This is a blog. I don't have to wory about accents for French).

Mexico D.F. is more strictly zoned it seems than Cuernavaca. I did not see the kind of contrast between houses that I saw in Cuernavaca. And to make my time there even more New-York-ish, I saw a production of the Vagina Monologues which was translated into Spanish pretty directly, except for a few cultural references. It was intended to raise money for a women's group in Ciudad Juarez. I ate out at a restaurant with a karioke bar, although I did not sing, as it seemed (from what I heard) their selections were mostly songs I did not know.

Later that evening I found out that some of the girls had met up with a group of guys with parents who worked for the government. We all went out to a dance club with a view of the city. The music was a mix of Spanish and English language songs, and like many dance clubs here in Mexico they showed music videos for some of the songs. This was the first time that people have ever tried to check my card for a club here in Mexico. Somehow the Mexican guys got us in. No clue how that happened.

Some of us wanted to do sightseeing the next day, so we had to take a taxi back. I had a feeling that the guys felt slightly insulted that we left. From all I've heard of Mexican culture, they are less adhearent to strict scheduals at least as far as pleasure is concerned.

Oh, and one more thing: The building where the club was located conviniently had names in both Spanish and English written in several places. I missed the Spanish name, but in English it was the World Trade Center. I wonder if it was coincedental, or whether New York's WTC built in the 1970s served as an inspiration. Vinnie told me Boston also has a (still standing) one, and Wikipedia (which if you didn't guess by now I really love) lists several buildings by that name.