Many believe the Mayans were wrong because the world didn't end on December 21st, 2012. I say Columbus landed on October 12th 1492 and the world of the Arawak ended within the next few months. The world and city of Mexico Tenochitlan didn't end until August 13, 1521. Many Mayas and other groups knew their "world" was ending before 10/12/1492 and thus "left" (see the Anasazi and various Mayas, particularly in Tikal) and in some cases had mass suicides. A passing glance of the world we live in, where chasing zeros to collect in banks is the highest goal of most, our world has been doomed for a long time. We as humans need to evolve beyond this present state of material collecting and self exploitation/destruction.
I'm putting the finishing touches on new syllabi at Starbuck's, Monterey Park. Little Tokyo only gives me an hour of parking so here I am wired, working and procrastinating in the deep Eastside. Just a few pages of rules and expected standards to go.
I got new classes this semester that have me reading and gathering materials for tweaking minds into new levels of consciousness, hopefully. History of the Americas and US History from Reconstruction to the Present. Looking at the Mestizo Nation that stretches from Alaska to Patagonia and connecting economics, myths, counter narratives and cosmology to make sense of how we are where we are.
I got a great essay dissecting Speilberg's usual caramel covered Hollywood slop of "Lincoln" to Tarantino's visionary and revolutionary "Django." NO Chicano or Black director/writer could ever have written and directed "Django." Sorry homies, but that white boy did/does what we can't do, yes cuz of his skin, but also cuz he can imagine a film where every white person is decrepit, cruel, stupid and gets killed. Big ups to Tarantino for breaking all the rules and hiring more black people than anyone else; helping others come up in the game and still maintain and advance his style, with a bad ass soundtrack as always.
Lots of articles of praise and piss were generated cuz of DJANGO. Poor old Spike Lee said he was boycotting it. Mr. Lee is bad ass, but we all forgot, and thus he hasn't been pushing more than the usual Hollywood slop (done well) "Inside Man" puleez part 2 is being worked on as I write. Film students need to rediscover him and do like a retrospective and give him his props and then he can hopefully step up and write us something visionary and revolutionary, again.
All the talk about banning, regulating and collecting guns was the best PR the gun manufactures could ever have paid for. Gun sales are through the roof. Yes, other countries have less deaths due to their strict gun laws despite viewing the same violent films and playing the same video games, so? Most didn't build their countries on stolen Indian land, Black slavery and creating "races"to hate each other that fight over crumbs from the master's tables. We wouldn't be a country without guns and violence, it is our heritage and most likely our end if we don't evolve.
The conversation about why white men get so pissed off and go on killing sprees has still not reached, or is still too scary, for mainstream media, but there is a lot going on in academic circles that have been dissecting White Privilege for a while now. White men make up 30% of the population but are 70% of mass murderers. Needless to say if it were brown or black men killing at double their population numbers, I would probably have a tracking device in my skin and could NEVER buy a gun. The NRA only asked to tighten gun carrying laws when the Black Panthers started walking around with shot guns. When White men kill children and innocents, they scurry to make sure they can keep them.
Chose to take an FB break. I'm on day 18. I check in to see about private messages, but that is about it. I don't feel I am missing out as much as I thought I would. Got fed up with people's posts about "this is me before... during.. and after a night of drinking...", "come to my party it is going to be special...", and only getting an occasional good article or piece of information from a dwindling number of smart connected friends. I am so glad I missed the bowl game updates, the award shows updates, and the scores I don't care for at all. Yes, I need to get smarter friends who floss their brains in social media and not just their pics. Working on it.
R.I.P to Huell Howser. True story, I met him at The Aztlan Cultural Arts Foundation at the old Lincoln Heights City Jail back in like '94. We were hosting an Illegal Interns events with all the usual Chicana/o artists performing in the parking lot on the back of a flat bed truck. My boy Manglor spotted him and we chatted him up. He knew Aztlan! He was down!!!
Manglor and I invited him to follow us to The Dome, later that night, which was at Florentine Gardens in Hollywood, where we were doing weekly live broadcasts of Power Tools and rocking the place. He came along! After getting a few drinks in him, we took him to the stage. We were having a performance that night. He brought his drink with him which is a no - no cuz the place was 18 +, except in the bar area. Security stopped him and he just looked at him and pulled out his honorary Sheriff's badge and security stepped back. We had a great time introducing him to our dancers and various characters that made the night pop that night. He was fun.
Two days after Q was born in '96 we were coming back from a doctor visit and we stopped at Texas Original Bar B Que King on Figueroa and Sunset. It is now gone, replaced by gaudy apartments. Howser was there doing his "On The Bench" series interviewing people as we came up and waited for our food. He turned the camera on me and I of course pulled my little baby Q out of the car and showed her off. Too cool. Toast to you Huell Howser I know you had a helluva lot of more stories in you that you couldn't put on TV, so glad to have shared some space and time with him.
Recently I'm inspired by the work of the Idle No More Movement that is making necessary noise and by artist Guillermo Gomez Pe~a's struggle back to health. He is well on his way. Of course Harry Gamboa Jr. my friend and mentor inspires me weekly and he is set to go back to Europe as the expansion of Aztlan consciousness continues to evolve and make shards of the current state.
I have been able to spend great quality time with my daughters and I am so grateful to all involved in helping this be so. For this I feel ahead in life, love and the world. No matter what is happening, the smiles of my two daughters when they see each other, or that they each share with me cannot do anything but fill me with hope and love and the will to continue to strive for a better planet. I will give it my all to instill in my students care for each other and all our relations, to see beyond mainstream myths that support poison filled systems and to create new value systems that are concerned with the wealth and growth of the soul and our smiles.
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