It has begun. Besides the heat it's party time in the city.
Today Sean Kuti at Grand Performances and opening night at Hollywood Bowl.
Saturday 'World Music Something or Another Day...' (you didn't come here for accuracy did you?) has music bumpin on Olvera Street with Mex-reggae, rock and ska; Sun Ra (?) at the La Culebra Park; Pasadena has my homegirl doing jazz, and in hot ass San Fer's El Cariso Park we got a Tia Chucha's showcase with my favorites Very Be Careful and Chusma.
Sunday at 2pm the CheeChon Talk, I mean Cheech Marin and Chon Noriega talk at LACMA, should be fun and then Thievery Corp. with my other favorites Los Amigos Invisibles will have me dancing at Hollywood Bowl.
Cinespia has their cemetery movies, although none really are got to see, it's still cool to watch a movie on top of corpses.
Next Saturday the first mega Rave of the summer Electric Daisy Carnival takes over the L.A. Memorial Coliseum & Exposition Park. Many of the usual DJs, but headlining is the soon to be L.A. resident, former poster boy for NYC vegan Ravers: MOBY. Should be tons of fun in the sun.
Stay tuned, it has just begun...
Showing posts with label cultura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cultura. Show all posts
5/12/08
To be or thought they'd be...
Lately I've been running across a similar question. It started with the LACMA "Phantom Sightings" discussions and today popped on my screen here.
It has to do with calling people Chicano or Latino or Raza whether or not they self identify with any of those terms.
For example:
-Artist 'A' is in an art show percieved to be a Chicano art show, yet artist 'A' doesnt' identify himself as a Chicano.
-Actor 'A' has a last name that is Latino, and they look Latino, despite the constant hair dye to look blonde. Some folks want her to call herself Latino. She doesn't.
-Artist 'B' looks Chicano, grew up in a Chicano neighborhood, talks like a Chicano, does art that reflects Chicano icons and roots, but he doesn't want his art to be called Chicano art.
-Actor 'B' was born in Spain or France, has a 'typical' Latino last name and wants to be called Latino to make himself more marketable to the US Latino movie-going hoardes. Some agree he is Latino, others say he's European.
The questions are:
Why do we need to call people out to claim Chicano or Latino if they don't want to? Do we need them on our side so badly?
Is it because they are 'successful' or in the spotlight that we want them to represent us? Even though they don't want to represent us?
Isn't claiming who you are and what you want to be identified as a basic right? Is this the basis of Self Determination?
hmmmm......
It has to do with calling people Chicano or Latino or Raza whether or not they self identify with any of those terms.
For example:
-Artist 'A' is in an art show percieved to be a Chicano art show, yet artist 'A' doesnt' identify himself as a Chicano.
-Actor 'A' has a last name that is Latino, and they look Latino, despite the constant hair dye to look blonde. Some folks want her to call herself Latino. She doesn't.
-Artist 'B' looks Chicano, grew up in a Chicano neighborhood, talks like a Chicano, does art that reflects Chicano icons and roots, but he doesn't want his art to be called Chicano art.
-Actor 'B' was born in Spain or France, has a 'typical' Latino last name and wants to be called Latino to make himself more marketable to the US Latino movie-going hoardes. Some agree he is Latino, others say he's European.
The questions are:
Why do we need to call people out to claim Chicano or Latino if they don't want to? Do we need them on our side so badly?
Is it because they are 'successful' or in the spotlight that we want them to represent us? Even though they don't want to represent us?
Isn't claiming who you are and what you want to be identified as a basic right? Is this the basis of Self Determination?
hmmmm......
11/28/07
Eastside essentials
Eastside has:
-botanicas
-bionicos
-bu~elos, tamales and champurrado on street corners
-elotes, tacos, hot dogs w bacon, everyday, at anytime
-verduleros
-98cent stores, not just 99cents
-the majority of people are Mexican, Chicana/os or some generation of Raza immigrant
-banda music, techno, explicit rap, and KROQ 80's music blasting out of homes and cars
-we know what KROQ music is newbies
-backyard parties with DJs that play every type of music without being ironic or thinking it's kitsch
-segundas
-strolling mariachis
-Virgen murals on most street corners, most with accompanying flowers and candles from the devout
What the Eastside DOES NOT HAVE, or need:
-gellato
-fixed gear riders
-Pabst Blue Ribbon
-know how to spell kitsch
-overpriced Mexican food
-vintage stores
-chain smoking, depressed looking gringos
-juice bars
-translation
-botanicas
-bionicos
-bu~elos, tamales and champurrado on street corners
-elotes, tacos, hot dogs w bacon, everyday, at anytime
-verduleros
-98cent stores, not just 99cents
-the majority of people are Mexican, Chicana/os or some generation of Raza immigrant
-banda music, techno, explicit rap, and KROQ 80's music blasting out of homes and cars
-we know what KROQ music is newbies
-backyard parties with DJs that play every type of music without being ironic or thinking it's kitsch
-segundas
-strolling mariachis
-Virgen murals on most street corners, most with accompanying flowers and candles from the devout
What the Eastside DOES NOT HAVE, or need:
-gellato
-fixed gear riders
-Pabst Blue Ribbon
-know how to spell kitsch
-overpriced Mexican food
-vintage stores
-chain smoking, depressed looking gringos
-juice bars
-translation
4/29/07
Space the final frontier...
The California Science Center had the exhibit 'The Science of Star Wars.'
Sorry, today was the last day.
I think I've mentioned my love for Sci-fi in other posts. I'm not a big big fan, no full on costumes in my closet. I have just one TNG Federation shirt and a pair of Vulcan ears.
Sadly I didn't understand Star Trek until I was in community college. As a young adult at LACC seeing and speaking with Africans from Africa, multilingual Europeans, Asians from countries I had never heard of, and people of the Middle East (none of whom thought the same on any issue) I felt like everyday at school I was going where few Chicanos had boldly gone before. I would record Star Trek repeats on Ch. 13 at 11pm for as long as they aired them, and I finally could follow along the issues of race, peace, tolerance, hope, honor, determination, sacrifice, the prime directive, warp drive, light years, and how green alien women can be hot. Star Trek, even though the Raza characters were few and far between, was filled with a promise that we could all get along and could one day live without money, greed, need or racism, at least on Earth.
A few years ago there were a few docs on Star Trek fandom and how most of the peeps are super intelligent and have kick ass science jobs or creative jobs or are the nicest peeps and they credit Star Trek for giving them the dream. It made me proud to be a Trekkie and a sci-fi fan. I could never laugh at anyone for their following the concepts of Star Trek or of the Jedi, like I would never laugh at someone following Shaolin kung fu. Both are seeking to reach into the human and bring out the exceptional, the best within.
I hope my Q gets the sci-fi bug. I have her watch the videos and films from the Sci fi cannon with me and we talk about how the future might look with flying cars, transporters, space travel, new beings and how we need to be open and ready for this always. So today we went to see the connects between what Lucas dreamt of in the mid 1970's and how we have been trying to match it with hard science. We still have a long way to go on the science end, but what was still awesome was seeing young and old living in the openess of possibility and remembering old friends and heroes. Many had a sparkle in their eyes as they viewed a costume, a prop, a model of a spaceship, or a robot. I got choked up watching a 6ft tall goth boy with spiked purple hair stand between a Jedi, and a Stormtrooper for a pic. His cold, pale demeanor dissolved as he stood there nervously chuckling and he became that kid with big dreams of acceptance of difference who probably got picked on until he got to be 6ft tall. I overheard an Asian family looking at the interrogator droid from Episode IV. The young son said "I don't remember this." His mom quickly replied, "When they had Princess Lea captive, before Han Solo and Luke rescued her." The boy jumped slighty "I remember!" His mom was very cool at that moment for him and me.
Granted scientifically we probably do have all the nasty things that kill ready. We still need to work on the good stuff. But what Star Wars and Star Trek have done to many of us is more valuable than any gadget, it is the hope of a better future filled with infinite diversity, in infinite combinations, it is the love to explore further outward (while honoring the prime directive) and inward to find the Jedi in all of us.
May The Force Be With You!!!!
Live Long and Prosper.
Sorry, today was the last day.
I think I've mentioned my love for Sci-fi in other posts. I'm not a big big fan, no full on costumes in my closet. I have just one TNG Federation shirt and a pair of Vulcan ears.
Sadly I didn't understand Star Trek until I was in community college. As a young adult at LACC seeing and speaking with Africans from Africa, multilingual Europeans, Asians from countries I had never heard of, and people of the Middle East (none of whom thought the same on any issue) I felt like everyday at school I was going where few Chicanos had boldly gone before. I would record Star Trek repeats on Ch. 13 at 11pm for as long as they aired them, and I finally could follow along the issues of race, peace, tolerance, hope, honor, determination, sacrifice, the prime directive, warp drive, light years, and how green alien women can be hot. Star Trek, even though the Raza characters were few and far between, was filled with a promise that we could all get along and could one day live without money, greed, need or racism, at least on Earth.
A few years ago there were a few docs on Star Trek fandom and how most of the peeps are super intelligent and have kick ass science jobs or creative jobs or are the nicest peeps and they credit Star Trek for giving them the dream. It made me proud to be a Trekkie and a sci-fi fan. I could never laugh at anyone for their following the concepts of Star Trek or of the Jedi, like I would never laugh at someone following Shaolin kung fu. Both are seeking to reach into the human and bring out the exceptional, the best within.
I hope my Q gets the sci-fi bug. I have her watch the videos and films from the Sci fi cannon with me and we talk about how the future might look with flying cars, transporters, space travel, new beings and how we need to be open and ready for this always. So today we went to see the connects between what Lucas dreamt of in the mid 1970's and how we have been trying to match it with hard science. We still have a long way to go on the science end, but what was still awesome was seeing young and old living in the openess of possibility and remembering old friends and heroes. Many had a sparkle in their eyes as they viewed a costume, a prop, a model of a spaceship, or a robot. I got choked up watching a 6ft tall goth boy with spiked purple hair stand between a Jedi, and a Stormtrooper for a pic. His cold, pale demeanor dissolved as he stood there nervously chuckling and he became that kid with big dreams of acceptance of difference who probably got picked on until he got to be 6ft tall. I overheard an Asian family looking at the interrogator droid from Episode IV. The young son said "I don't remember this." His mom quickly replied, "When they had Princess Lea captive, before Han Solo and Luke rescued her." The boy jumped slighty "I remember!" His mom was very cool at that moment for him and me.
Granted scientifically we probably do have all the nasty things that kill ready. We still need to work on the good stuff. But what Star Wars and Star Trek have done to many of us is more valuable than any gadget, it is the hope of a better future filled with infinite diversity, in infinite combinations, it is the love to explore further outward (while honoring the prime directive) and inward to find the Jedi in all of us.
May The Force Be With You!!!!
Live Long and Prosper.
2/18/07
Tia Chucha's, What the Fuck RAZA!
Yesterday was the closing party for Tia Chucha's Cafe/Community Center. The Sylmar based spot founded by author Luis Rodriguez lasted 5 years at its Glenoaks Blvd. location.
I went only a handful of times, but each time was very memorable. I went to hear people discuss issues and poetry. Heard gente from the neighborhood break off knowledge and skills seldom seen with so much innocent, passionate, powerful flavor. I also rolled there with Harry Gamboa Jr. to take Rodriguez's picture for Gamboa's ongoing project Chicano Male Unbounded. That was very cool. Rodriguez is a GIANT, a man to be honored and heard. His writing is just an inkling of the depths he goes to, and if you know, you know he is one bad ass writer. His work for Tia Chucha's has given that dry part of the SFValley so much. He is committed. And if he was able to be pushed out of his location then DANG we are in some shitty times.
I had Rodriguez come and promote this event on Power Tools and heard him several times on KPFK breaking it down about what was happening. He was always positive and upbeat stating that the owner of the space tried to work with him, but in the end it is about money. Rodriguez was never bitter. He always said Tia Chucha's was not going to die, only move. They already have a new location on Foothill Blvd. just down the 210 from where the O.G. Chucha's is/was. He said that this location was only temporary, and in about three - four years he would have a new spot where he could really get down to making all his visions come true. The man was unstoppable, positive, focused. I believe he knows the law of attraction and was living/manifesting everything he said at every moment. Like I said, we gotta listen to this hombre noble.
Today at the party Rodriguez invited Rueben Martinez of Martinez Books to come and speak and he put some stuff into focus about this whole pedo. He began by saying that if only .5% of 1% of the Latino population supported Tia Chucha's, it would not be closing. He pointed out how WE as Raza are responsible to never give up our dreams/spaces. As he scolded us, I went into my head and remembered other spaces we have lost: The Peace and Justice Center, Midnight Special Books, Arroyo Books, The Centro Regeneracion/Popular Resource Center, Cafe Luna Sol, The Aztlan Cultural Arts Foundation, The South Central Farm, and so many others I may not have even heard about. I remembered how some were taken, some we walked away from, some imploded, some exploded and some are barely hanging on like Self Help Graphics is. What the fuck RAZA! I took Martinez's scolding because we deserve it. We have let so much go. We have not established much to leave for the next generations. We are not working like a WE.
Martinez pointed out how in Santa Ana, where he is based out of, it is 80% Latino!!!! Out of that 80%, 57% can vote, but in the last election Santa Ana ended up with a Vietnamese leader because only 12% of Latinos came out to vote for the Latino candidate!!! What the fuck RAZA!
When Martinez was done, (and I must note that he didn't just scold, he taught, inspired and educated us at the same time) my homeboy Alberto Ibarra of Chusma fame, spoke a little about our next pedo: the fight to keep the charter school in El Sereno, Academia Semillas del Pueblo (ASP) open in the face of LAUSD charter renewal proceedings. ASP has been in the spotlight because racist pendejos on some Disney owned radio station began attacking them for actually giving Chicanito/as a real education. There were bomb threats, Minutemen threats, and just plain media pendejadas being hurled at OUR SCHOOL. Ok my kid don't go there (long story, baby momma drama etc.), but the peeps working there, the education being given there is what all schools in the LAUSD should be doing. Due to the drama on the racist radio and because of stupid State test scores ASP may lose its charter.
It's hard to stay positive.
It's becoming easy to accept loss.
Esta gaucho.
We need to hear Rodriguez and Martinez more often. We need to re-member how to fight, but with new weapons and tactics because what we have done in the past has obviously not worked. We have lost so much.
"you're a lost soul you're a lost soul, you don't know where to run, you roll out of control." - Aztlan Underground, Lost Soul
Tuesday February 27th the LAUSD will vote on ASP's charter re-newal. ASP needs our bodies there to show support. If you plan on coming wear your best business attire. Showing up in feathers, war paint, dread locks and your most radical Xicano t-shirt has not worked fighting this machine and its minions. We need to scare them by showing them we can talk their game, play their game, dress their game, and beat their game on their terms, because we didn't write the rules, face it. We are playing their game. We need to beat them on their turf without losing sight of why we came to fight in the first place.
Yes we need to take their spaces, their seats, their positions, just like they have taken ours. But we must not forget and begin to value what they value. Take their shit and re-make, re-structure it to something that serves humans not money accumulators who pose as humans. In order to take it, we need to go really underground to the point where they elect us, they sit us next to them, they let us in to help design the laws, plans and policies. BUT NEVER FORGET what we came for.
"We will never be free unless we realize prophecy. This prophecy is Aztlan. Aztlan is the key for the world to see, Aztlan is the key for the world to be free. And Aztlan will free the world eventually. Yes Aztlan will save the world eventually."
- Aztlan Underground, Sacred Cirlce
We got a lot of work to do, we got a lot to get back, we got a lot to take back.
Preparete Raza.
I went only a handful of times, but each time was very memorable. I went to hear people discuss issues and poetry. Heard gente from the neighborhood break off knowledge and skills seldom seen with so much innocent, passionate, powerful flavor. I also rolled there with Harry Gamboa Jr. to take Rodriguez's picture for Gamboa's ongoing project Chicano Male Unbounded. That was very cool. Rodriguez is a GIANT, a man to be honored and heard. His writing is just an inkling of the depths he goes to, and if you know, you know he is one bad ass writer. His work for Tia Chucha's has given that dry part of the SFValley so much. He is committed. And if he was able to be pushed out of his location then DANG we are in some shitty times.
I had Rodriguez come and promote this event on Power Tools and heard him several times on KPFK breaking it down about what was happening. He was always positive and upbeat stating that the owner of the space tried to work with him, but in the end it is about money. Rodriguez was never bitter. He always said Tia Chucha's was not going to die, only move. They already have a new location on Foothill Blvd. just down the 210 from where the O.G. Chucha's is/was. He said that this location was only temporary, and in about three - four years he would have a new spot where he could really get down to making all his visions come true. The man was unstoppable, positive, focused. I believe he knows the law of attraction and was living/manifesting everything he said at every moment. Like I said, we gotta listen to this hombre noble.
Today at the party Rodriguez invited Rueben Martinez of Martinez Books to come and speak and he put some stuff into focus about this whole pedo. He began by saying that if only .5% of 1% of the Latino population supported Tia Chucha's, it would not be closing. He pointed out how WE as Raza are responsible to never give up our dreams/spaces. As he scolded us, I went into my head and remembered other spaces we have lost: The Peace and Justice Center, Midnight Special Books, Arroyo Books, The Centro Regeneracion/Popular Resource Center, Cafe Luna Sol, The Aztlan Cultural Arts Foundation, The South Central Farm, and so many others I may not have even heard about. I remembered how some were taken, some we walked away from, some imploded, some exploded and some are barely hanging on like Self Help Graphics is. What the fuck RAZA! I took Martinez's scolding because we deserve it. We have let so much go. We have not established much to leave for the next generations. We are not working like a WE.
Martinez pointed out how in Santa Ana, where he is based out of, it is 80% Latino!!!! Out of that 80%, 57% can vote, but in the last election Santa Ana ended up with a Vietnamese leader because only 12% of Latinos came out to vote for the Latino candidate!!! What the fuck RAZA!
When Martinez was done, (and I must note that he didn't just scold, he taught, inspired and educated us at the same time) my homeboy Alberto Ibarra of Chusma fame, spoke a little about our next pedo: the fight to keep the charter school in El Sereno, Academia Semillas del Pueblo (ASP) open in the face of LAUSD charter renewal proceedings. ASP has been in the spotlight because racist pendejos on some Disney owned radio station began attacking them for actually giving Chicanito/as a real education. There were bomb threats, Minutemen threats, and just plain media pendejadas being hurled at OUR SCHOOL. Ok my kid don't go there (long story, baby momma drama etc.), but the peeps working there, the education being given there is what all schools in the LAUSD should be doing. Due to the drama on the racist radio and because of stupid State test scores ASP may lose its charter.
It's hard to stay positive.
It's becoming easy to accept loss.
Esta gaucho.
We need to hear Rodriguez and Martinez more often. We need to re-member how to fight, but with new weapons and tactics because what we have done in the past has obviously not worked. We have lost so much.
"you're a lost soul you're a lost soul, you don't know where to run, you roll out of control." - Aztlan Underground, Lost Soul
Tuesday February 27th the LAUSD will vote on ASP's charter re-newal. ASP needs our bodies there to show support. If you plan on coming wear your best business attire. Showing up in feathers, war paint, dread locks and your most radical Xicano t-shirt has not worked fighting this machine and its minions. We need to scare them by showing them we can talk their game, play their game, dress their game, and beat their game on their terms, because we didn't write the rules, face it. We are playing their game. We need to beat them on their turf without losing sight of why we came to fight in the first place.
Yes we need to take their spaces, their seats, their positions, just like they have taken ours. But we must not forget and begin to value what they value. Take their shit and re-make, re-structure it to something that serves humans not money accumulators who pose as humans. In order to take it, we need to go really underground to the point where they elect us, they sit us next to them, they let us in to help design the laws, plans and policies. BUT NEVER FORGET what we came for.
"We will never be free unless we realize prophecy. This prophecy is Aztlan. Aztlan is the key for the world to see, Aztlan is the key for the world to be free. And Aztlan will free the world eventually. Yes Aztlan will save the world eventually."
- Aztlan Underground, Sacred Cirlce
We got a lot of work to do, we got a lot to get back, we got a lot to take back.
Preparete Raza.
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