Friday rides

Riding my bike with a group of people I do not know adds to my practice of animosity.
In South Central we ride pass a large parking lot filled with cars despite none of the stores being open.
Next to the cars were groups of people hanging out, listening to their car radios, talking, and checking each other out.
One of the riders hears me yelling at the people near their cars "Come on grab your bike!"
He then says to me, or to anyone within earshot, "How sad is that? Just standing around their cars in a parking lot."
I reply, "They are just like us, a bunch of people riding to nowhere."

Feliz Nu Decade

I'm back from a mental and physical break. Skipped December cuz it was just too much to spew here and didn't want to shoot out the energy I was holding at the time.

Now, what are we going to do this new year and decade?
Well I might slow down some on posting cuz I'm writing other stuff I want to make some feria on so I won't give so much free reads, sabes?
I'm also exploring the invisible world more with meditation using various techniques that just keep finding me.
I'm still going to post at LA Eastside.com as well, I know I need to do more there too. That blog is blowing up!!!
One blog that I recently read over there was about a Thai restaurant and it got me thinking about my experience with Thai food.

Growing up the only Asian food I had was Chinese and my folks weren't very experimental at that. It was always the dinner specials with the basics: egg flower soup, fried shrimp, sweet pork, fried rice, some veggies and noodles. Never did I hear of Thai or Vietnamese for that matter.

The first time I thought of even trying Thai was driving through K-Town on Vermont and seeing a line of people for a place with a red awning that said Thai Bar B Que in big bold letters. Later I would learn it was called Ocha. I remember driving by there all the time coming from Hollywood heading home in South Central at the time. One day rolling with mom, we were hungry but didn't know what to eat so I said let's stop there, "they always have a line so it must be good."

We parked right in front and got in line. It was a trip they had so many people working. One person sat you, another brought water, another took your order, others stood in between tables ready for you to ask for anything, the food came out quick and the customers were mostly Raza. WOW. Never seen anything like this. All the people working had headsets and they would rattle off your order or request for more water or tea and boom someone was there with what you asked. Efficient and fast. I learned about their 'caldo de siete mares,' pad thai, and garlic chicken. It was the only place I would go to for minute.

One day while attending CSUN my homie Hugo came to the apt. and was telling Oscar, Ernie, Manny and Me about this amazing soup in this cool restaurant that had Coronas for $2.50. So we piled into Oscar's ride and went to Aruni on Western. It was a lighter siete mares soup than what they had at Ocha, but very good. This place was also packed with Raza who were pounding beers with their soup. Everyone only came for the soup! Later I would try something else on their menu and realized I should stick with the soup there. That was my second Thai restaurant.

My next experience with Thai food came from Michelle D. who brought me some Bar-b-que chicken from Chao Praya (sp?). It was a much nicer Thai restaurant than Ocha and Aruni. They had table cloths! All their servers were super model looking Thai women that spoke in soft tones. Muy cool. I learned about coconut milk soup, and other dishes here. I would sometime just ask the super models what was good that day and trust them. It was that good all around. They were on Yucca near Vine, no longer there, but will always be remembered.

Since then I have gotten bolder and braver and now have a variety of Thai spots for the variety of peeps and tastes I or my peeps need.

My favorites these days are:

Palms in Hollywood for Thai Elvis and basic Thai.

Daisy Mint, thanks to Yanini, this is very special, very tasty, its French fusion brings squashes into dishes like I never knew could be done. They are for those ready for flavor bombs to go off.

Saladang is also muy flavorful and consistent with their quality. Its also in a very modern nice locale with a sweet patio.

Vics is in the Valley (omg) thanks to Fabi for this one too. This is Thai fast food style but very good. Its like the many burger joints in the Eastside but with Thai. They make everything by the order.

Now I also have Korean spots, Japanese houses and Vietnamese joints that I love.

The other day I was driving with my father going to eat in Chinatown and he took a phone call. His friend on the other end asked where are you? and pops said (in spanish) "We are in the barrio Chino for lunch." The friend probably asked "Oh you like THAT food?" and pops answered "Oh yes, I'm international like that."
I love that.


Happy Nu Year and Decade, eat well, treat yourself and yours well...

Happy Halloween

Growing up my family used to decorate our old Victorian with cob webs, fake spiders, rats, ghosts, and make of dummies with old clothes stuffed with older clothes. Everyone would get into it. Dad would be at the door which led to the walkway to our house. He would let only small groups of kids in at a time. Some kids would be too scared to come in. I would be on the roof with a speaker next to me blasting screams and moans from a special effects record and dropping a basketball wrapped in a sheet on top of people who came to the porch where the candy was. My mom and cousin would be there dressed up giving out candy to the brave one who made it. Sometimes one of them would pretend to be one of the mannequins and lay still until a group of kids would get close then just move an arm or make a noise. Grandma would be on the sides in a white dress waving her arms 'ghost' like.
We made a kid pee in his pants once!
When the numbers would die down I would get to play my music loud from the roof top and do a little dance in south central.

Puerto Rico trip

We got a hook up on tickets between the end of Summer Bridge and the beginning of the semester to go to Puerto Rico and Miami. Did some research with friends who had been to Puerto Rico since both R and I had never been there. I know Miami fairly well, so we didn't worry much about that.

Everything went very smoothly overall. Had a couple of moments of not knowing exactly what might happen, but luck and love always saved the day.

-First the taxi to the Flyaway didn't pick us up, despite making reservations 4 hours in advance. Went to the corner, called a number to Taxi Latino on a phone booth and two minutes later were on our way to Union Station. Que viva La Raza!
-Flights were smooth, hopped off in Miami and connected immediately instead of the scheduled 3 hour layover.
-Got to San Juan, Puerto Rico, went to our apartment, dinner, and checked out the Condado district. It is basically the West Hollywood and Bevery Hills of PR.
-Next day, R's B-day, we picked up our luggage at the airport and hit the beach. Great warm water, so fun.
-We had dinner in Old San Juan which looks like Cuba, or so I am told. Partied at El Batey and was introduced to Ron del Barrilitos, great local rum! We also got my Panama hat in local shoppe and sneaked into a tango lesson for a couple of spins around the patio/dancefloor before running off into the night.









-Next day we hit the Bacardi factory. Fact: 70% of all Bacardi is made in Puerto Rico
-Made plans to meet a friend of a friend to hit the town. Waiting for her, we popped into the Marriott and got some $$$ from roulette!
-She took us to her friend's gallery opening. The artsy crowds are the same where ever you go, just less tattoos and piercings than in L.A.
-Then we hit La Plaza, where the locals party it up in the streets and bars that reminded me of TJ and Rosarito smooshed together. Salsa-funk-tastic FUN!
(due to an error on R's behalf all the pics up to this point were erased. We are looking at software that might help us recover them)
-Next day we worried about if we would be flying to Culebra or driving around the main island all because of a storm front that delayed flights. Needless to say we ended up going to Culebra. Everyone we talked to said "You gotta see Culebra." It didn't dissapoint.

- As soon as we landed we rented a scooter and checked out Flamenco beach, then Shelbourne Beach on the opposite side of the island. You can get from one side to the other in 35 minutes. It is totally empty this time of year. These pics are at Shelbourne. It is a great place to snorkel!





- This is the view from our room at Mamacitas




-The next day it was all about the beach. This is at Flamenco Beach, the 'big beach ' on Culebra.















-The tank, courtesy of our US tax dollars rests or reminds or just rusts?









-We kicked it on Flamenco for about 1/2 an hour then rode the scooter to Zoni Beach, 45 min away. When we got there it was only us and about 4 other couples on a long stretch of white sand beach. Everyone stayed in their 200 yards of beach and didn't bother each other.



- This was a little rock cove we hung out at for a while























- We stayed almost 3 days in Culebra. Was definitely the highlight of the trip. Riding that tiny plane was an experience, I've never felt a plane fishtail until then.


- We stayed one more night in San Juan before leaving for 2 days in Miami. We got there just in time for 'Tropical Storm Fay.'

- This little fishy got beached


- We made the best of the wind, sporadic and heavy downpours.








Best of all we ate at my favorite Cuban Restaurant in South Beach, Miami, Puerto Sagua



It was a great trip overall.

Summer, summer, summer time, time, time...

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...

Rosado-rito Bike Ride

The 29th annual Rosarito to Ensenda Bike Ride was everything we had hoped for.

We left Friday morning around 11:30 to avoid the morning traffic. It was perfect weather and no traffic. The only thing that sucked was that the night before my homeboy 'The Noodle" got one of his CDs stuck in my player so we had to listen to the radio, after we both made CDs just for this trip.

We crossed the border without any problems and made it to our rented house in Brisas Del Mar, 5 min north of Rosarito around 3ish. The place was very nice and clean, with an awesome top floor open patio with a bar-b-que. We unloaded and hopped back in the G-Enterprise and went for lobster at Puerto Nuevo.

After a great meal we walked around a lil bit and headed back.
We stopped at a Calimax market to load up on supplies. Havana Club Rum, Mexican Coke, limones (for Cuba Libres), some wine coolers, ice, salsa, tortillas, charcoal (I brought some carne asada and chicken from home that was marinating), and other necessities. We settled in, watched the "Good Shepard," and went to sleep early.

Got up at 7am and started getting the bikes ready. Checking tire pressures, putting the appropriate stickers on bikes and helmets. Put on sunscreen and headed out. We needed to meet up with her friend and boyfriend near the start of the race, but we also needed to find parking and find breakfast.

We found a parking spot two blocks from the starting point in front of a bank. Being that it was Saturday, no one could complain about taking the bank's parking spots all day. Right next to the bank was restaurant with great scents of fresh food wafting into the street. After a hearty breakfast of gorditas, chile verde, chile rojo with rice and beans, great coffee and homemade tortillas we unloaded the bikes and poof there was her friend with her boyfriend. All was falling into place, effortlessly.

The ride started right at 10 am. Immediately the girls fell behind. We had agreed to gather up at all the checkpoints if we separated. The weather was cool and overcast. This first half of the ride stayed along the coast. We rode to the 'Half-Way House' which really isn't the half way point. We all met up there. I had a beer and R had a margarita. They really helped.

The rest of the ride was beautiful and hard at times going up long hills. It was definately fun and inspiring to see all types of people riding. The views were beautiful. We would split up and ride together, finding each other at the various water stations. We finished in almost 4 hours.



At the end we ate everything in sight! Tacos de pescado, asada, a hot dog, empanadas, corn in a cup, churros and fresh orange juice. We hopped on the shuttle and made it to home base by 6pm because we had a flat on the shuttle. That night we just chilled with Cuba Libres and "V" and crashed.

The next morn I got up and began the bar-b-que. Mmmm it was so good.

I highly recommend this ride to anyone of any skill level on a bike. You can do it and being down south by the beach just adds to a great experience.

Bike Riding...

I've mentioned my journeys and adventures on my bike throughout the life of this blog, but I have never written about just bike riding.


As a kid I lived on my bike. Met the girl who would give me my first kiss while riding around my block, over and over again. My bike was a bmx, with heavy duty web rims, it was sweet but heavy. I raced others on ten speeds and would beat them somehow. I got jumped three times by older kids who wanted my bike. The fourth time they got it. Didn't have another bike til college.



I DJed a gig and in lieu of cash they gave me a Nishiki. I rode that all over LA and for school. It didn't last long. One of the cranks got messed up and I just didn't want to bother fixing it as work, school and life got crazy.


In the later end of summer '06, I was leaving Grand Performances with my Q. When we got to Grand Av. and Sunset some guys on bikes rode up from Sunset and stopped in front of the cars. Behind them were hundreds of people on bikes. They were blowing whistles, ringing bells, honking bike horns, screaming- making noises of fun. Some were on tall custom made bikes and I saw a few in pajamas and a rabbit costume. I said "I need to find out who these people are and get me a bike."

I began looking for a bike in September. I ended up on Craigslist. I found some decent ones for $50-$100. I emailed my friend who knew a little about bikes for his opinion on which to get. He replied saying he had a bike in storage that he wanted to get rid of. We met and got LA Red-y. She is LA, red, and always ready to roll.

I took her around Boyle Heights and realized how much I needed to get in shape to be able to take on the rolling hills of BH. So we began. I took her up and down the bridges over the LA river. We went into downtown to tackle the hills that separate the haves from the have-nots in the city. It was great.

I got online an searched group rides, and there they were The Midnight Ridazz. They were having a ride called "The Warriors Ride" where they asked people to dress like their favorite gang from the 1979 film "The Warriors." It was cosmic, I had just rented that film the week before!

The instructions were to pick a meeting spot: Highland and Santa Monica or Highland and Wilshire on the Northeast and Southeast boundaries, OR Fairfax and Santa Monica or Fairfax and Wilshire on the Northwest and Southwest boundaries. We were to meet at our chosen starting point and then ride into the designated area searching for bikers dressed like the Warrior gang. If we found them, we were to take them to Pan Pacific Park for the big meet up. If we didn't find any, we were to go to Pan Pacific Park at 1 a.m.

I went alone. As I parked on Highland, just north of Santa Monica I could already see other bikers pulling bikes out of cars and riding towards Santa Monica. As I was rolling south I ran into a high school friend who was unloading his bike along with several of his friends. I stopped. They had done these rides before and told me how much fun I was in for. They let my fill my tires to proper psi and told me that they would keep an eye out for me and to ask for help if I get a flat or anything. "We leave no rida behind."

When we got to the gas station at Highland and Santa Monica there were about 250 ridaz waiting around in costumes, drinking, tuning their bikes, playing music from portable systems. It was something I had never seen. Soon someone got on a bullhorn and said we were going to start, he repeated the boundaries, the goals and the meet up time and place. He then began chanting "Warriors, come out and playayay." That got us all fired up and we rolled out. I was hooked.

Other rides that I found on Bike Boom took me through Hollywood Blvd., Sunset, Melrose and other crowd filled trendy streets where people in restaurants would run out to wave to us and cheer us on. We seem to make more people smile than not. Of course we have had problems with drivers who don't want to wait for our rolling party to pass by and get mad. We've had stuff and curses thrown at us. Recently three ridaz were hit by a truck driven by guys who has just robbed a liquor store. The ridaz had seen them run out of the store, so the robbers went around the block and intentionally mowed them down. They all lived, but one had to be taken to the hospital. She is doing better.

There are rides practically every night of the week for every level of rider. Some train for Century rides which are 100 mile rides. Most of the rides are fun rides. Many of them roll at an easy pace, avoiding hills, with stops at stores to re-fuel, and stops at parks and plazas to dance and use restrooms. There is a ride for everyone. Most of them have themes.

The ridaz are great. On a recent ride I got a flat and immediately 5-7 people were around me offering inner tubes, tools, air pumps etc. to get me back up and riding. I have seen this many times. After hills we often wait for the slower riders or peeps who had to walk their bikes up. We leave no rida behind.

It is a political statement and it is not a political statement to get on your bike in Los Angeles. I see lots of raza on bikes here in BH. Maybe because I ride, I notice riders more. It makes me a more patient and cautious driver. I hope to see more riders and ridaz. Then we might have even more patient and cautious drivers. Biking helps get you in shape, cuts down traffic, cuts emissions, makes roads safer and if you go to any of the websites I have in this post, you will have a lot of fun with great people.

Next up is the Midnight Ridazz 4 year anniversary "The Mother of All Rides," and getting ready for the Rosarito to Ensenda ride in April.

Ride On!!!

what a week...(trippin' good)

I found out I am a Nommo.
my dreams have been intense
energy getting me up early
sitting me up in the middle of intense dreams

shared with students a view of their future.
many seem more awake in class now
they care and want to be ready
studying abroad and new language lessons are in the plans of many.

rode 21 miles, getting ready for 26
saw a bloody fall, from too much fun










fun has been redefined
pushing harder, going farther

DJed 5 hours
felt like 2.5
made an elder feel like a teen with "wild is the wind"
made up for not having her radiohead request

hearts are open to new sounds
love as a theme
approval of the undeniable
respect and gratitude for allowing growth

viewed a life's amount of art
causes, personal, poignant, critical













a fearless artist
inspiring, humbling

the travel and adventure show
opened up more dreams
to be realized
soon...

Another Awesome L.A. Weekend

It was my last weeekend before the semester starts and correcting papers becomes part of my weekends, so luckily I had a great partner to partake in the fun...

Friday: Started out with breakfast at House of Pies in Los Feliz since we were going to climb up Griffith Park. I grew up going up and down the hills behind the Observatory, I hadn't been there since last year's fires. It was sad to see up close how much had been burned. The view from the top was great as always. Made our way down and out to Venice beach. The parking gods gave us a free spot right near the non-existent boardwalk. Took a nice long walk taking in the sights and smells that only Venice can provide, through the crowd and then along the sand. Drove back in traffic eating oranges, listening to good music and making up our own lyrics to familiar standards. Home to change and go back out to Studio City for dinner with her long time friend for a 'get to know this guy' evening of dinner and drinks. We met at Mexicali which is a good loud party place. We sat outside where it was easier to hear each other. I think I made a good impression.

Saturday: The morning began with tamales at La Mascota, and a car wash at the super East Los 'Bob's Hand Car Wash,' with fresh squeezed orange juice for her and carrot juice with apple juice for me. Bob's is total Mexican kitsch with paintings of sombrero wearing car washers, pictures of old Mexico, various artifacts like old wagon wheels and rusted horse bridles. It's like if Knott's Berry Farm had a Mexican themed car wash. Along with the parrots and Koi fish, fresh squeezed juices and CD and DVD sales, Bob's offers the best place to get your car washed. Time flies with so much to look at.

Later that night we met up to make a stop at her cousin's b-day party at Element. I was supposed to be on the VIP list, but when we got to the door, bypassing the long lines, I wasn't. Fortunately, I think we looked too good to say 'No' too, so they let us in anyway. That's love in L.A. Bought her cuz a drink, hung out for about 45 min. then we had to get out to hear some good house by DJs that don't sound like they are playing the top hits from the history of Power 106. We walked two blocks east to King King for Balance. Balance is promoter Sue Dread's club that features the best deep house DJs on a Saturday night in the heart of Hollywood. This night our boy Raul Campos would be the guest after resident DJ Kemal warmed up the place. We danced the whole time we were there, which is typical since the music and energy is always so good at Balance.

Sunday: I entered the Midnight Ridazz into the Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena, so I got there around 10:15 am. In talking with Doo Dah organizers I had told them we should have between 100 and 300 ridazz, but unfortunately for a variety of reasons, we only had 25 peeps. Que sad. Because of my so off the mark prediction they gave us the lead position. We made the most of it, riding in circles, having pillow fights with our child participants, handing out Ridazz info flyers, blasting music on portable sound systems, dancing in the streets, and basically being Midnight Ridazz at midday. We had a blast. Some pics and stories.

Met up with my partner in crime/love/fun and her good friend and watched the whole parade. She noticed how the majority of participants were older folks. I think it maybe that having whimsical fun and not taking yourself so seriously was lost on the more recent generations. After the parade we got some food at CPK and then saw the scariest movie I've seen in long time, "El Orfanato" (The Orphange). I felt chills and I never feel chills at movies!
Later, to cap off another awesome L.A. weekend, we had to dance it up, give praise and thanks at my church DEEP. Guest DJ from N.Y.C. the legendary Timmy Regisford rocked it, like he usually does keeping the international crowd in a frenzy throughout his 6 hour set.

Thanks to all that crossed my path and joined me in another awesome L.A. weekend. I feel blessed. I hope you all have awesome weekends and great memories wherever you may be.

fee, fi, fo, fum, how are U beating boredom...sleep?

Several friends have mentioned to me that they have no idea what to do with themselves this holiday break. I'm kind of in the same boat. I do got things to do it's just not what I really want to do or what I think I should be doing on a break like this.
My students are excited about not having to come to school, so am I, but when I ask them what are they going to do, many just say: SLEEP.
Isn't excessive sleep a sign of depression? I like sleeping. I also read that sleeping makes you live longer. Maybe if you are depressed and you sleep a lot, you work it out in your dreams, which equals less stress on the body which leads to longer life?
I had some crazy dreams lately. In two very different situations I would get pissed off and then blew up. I don't blow up in waking life like I did in my dreams/nightmares. In these dreams I threw chairs and table at windows, not to get out, but to destroy. I threw other objects at cars, buildings and an airplane in an anger that I have only felt in that dream.
The cause of the anger wasn't even that important, I missed a flight time, a bus left me, someone told me 'No.' There I was in dream landia blowing up. I scared myself and was tired when I woke up. Today a fellow commuter told me she had similarly angry dreams. In hers there were kitties with steel rods sticking out of their chest, so they couldn't runaway, so hey that should piss anyone off. I hope if I sleep alot this break I don't have those kinds of dreams.

I feel the need to pack up and get out of town after fulfilling familial obligations. I'm tired of hearing about this or that store opening at 4am and the sales I just NEED to be at. I also need to correct two virtual stacks of papers that are coming in tonight. Sure I can blow them off, head to Vegas, be in a stupor all weekend and then correct the papers hungover, but then I'd be more tired afterwards. I can be responsible, stay in town, correct papers during the day, go out at night. We'll see...