Category: random

Favorite Song of the Day: Our Darkness

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Anne Clark – Our Darkness (Original Version)

Many folks consider this song to be an early precursor to house, the thumping steady beat in the background was unusual for the early 80s. Unlike other songs of the dark wave genre, there is a lot of anger in this song – a relentless release of feelings that struck me the first time I heard it. It’s very manifesto-like.

A remixed house version can be found on the Felix Da Housecat album A Bugged Out Mix by Felix da Housecat.

Anne Clark website.

These days I only have time for music, my only interest seems to be music. The times feel rather dark. Most of my posts for the near future will be music related. Come back in a month for other topics.

Una Palabra Muy Fuerte

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Another oldie from the myspace files:

hlp04

We were eating in Chico’s and this “Hispanic Businessman” type was sitting alone trying to pick up on the waitress. He was putting on airs and trying to teach her English vocabulary. Surprisingly, she seemed kinda interested in his bullshit. He then told her with great authority and seriousness: “La palabra ‘keen’ es una palabra muy fuerte!” I guess he was “keen” on her and attempting to impress her with his colloquial English. It seemed such a ridiculous thing to say but to this day, whenever I hear or say the word “keen” it has to be followed by “es una palabra muy fuerte.” Does this mean I have a mild form of Tourette’s?

Coincidence, part one

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Love and Rockets, #13 by Jaime and Beto Hernandez

By coincidence, the creator of the above publication came up to me when I was 14 years old and told me I reminded him of a character named Maggie from a comic book called Love and Rockets. Interestingly, the story of said character eerily mirrored my life for the next six years, love life and all. I related very closely to this fictional world of SoCal Chican@ punks, cholos and weird, spooky unexplained happenings – it brought me a bit of solace during the dark days of my teen years.


Mr. Freeze-Dr. Know

Not knowing there were any connections between the above story and incident, I saw this band one and half years later after reading my first Love and Rockets comic book (which was bought at a store called Y-Que.)

Latina singers

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This past week I found out some interesting facts regarding Mexicana/Latina singers I was previously unaware of:

1. The ever popular Mexicana singer Ana Gabriel is of Mexican, Chinese and Japanese descent. I didn’t always appreciate her gritty style of singing but compared to the current crop of pop singers, her vocals are most welcome.

2. Selena would have lived if she had a blood transfusion, a practice banned by her Jehovah’s Witness faith. I had never heard this story before but thanks to Cindylu, I am now acquainted with this most important bit of music history/trivia!

3. Homegirl Sara re-introduced me to a fine bit of music this weekend. According to her and others, Amanda Miguel was considered a feminist for singing this angry song which translates into: He Lied to Me. Damn, she has a fierce style too!


El Me Mintio by Amanda Miguel She’s Argentinean! I’m so wrong these days.

Maybe all of these facts are common knowledge but I never paid much attention. Much of this music was in the background of my life, familiar but unrecognized. I feel like it’s time I gave it some respect.

Birds on trees

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I picked this blog theme from a free WordPress sharing site. I had no idea that Twitter was using the bird on a branch graphic for it’s website too or perhaps they started it using it recently? According to the designer of this blog, the graphic comes from a freeshare site. Well, it’s all fine that we’re sharing but I don’t want to be associated with Twitter so you’ll be seeing some graphic changes around here soon. Perhaps my joke nickname of “aesthetic tyrant” is more appropriate than I care to admit?

Fixed it, tried to keep with the bird on the tree theme but not sure why? Maybe I’ll change it all again soon.

B-boy Bugs and Def Daffy

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bboy_trash

Sometimes you hang on to objects and you’re not sure why. I bought this back in the late 80s thinking it was funny to see cartoon characters as B-Boys. Now something like this wouldn’t even draw a second glance. Spongebob as an emo? Hardly worth a second thought and to be expected. The lines between popular culture and underground culture barely exist, if they exist at all. The process of recuperation has been so thorough there is nothing left for pop culture to devour. Perhaps it appropriate this image is on a trash can. I still think it’s kinda cute.

Transit Dream

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Photo courtesy of The Figurehead

It was sometime in the future, I had recently returned to Los Angeles after a long absence. I was pleased to discover not only had the Gold Line been finished but I was told the subway to the sea was also completed. I entered the Gold Line station at Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights hoping to get to the ocean. Around me the station teemed with thousands of Brown folks. I followed the masses down escalators, assuming they were headed to the platform where I could catch the train to the beach. The escalators kept going down, down, down and then I ended up wandering through a complicated Escher-esque maze of escalators and tunnels. Finally I could see this intense bright, light coming from the floor I was heading to. As the view became clearer, I see the ocean, so brilliant blue, the sand, the palm trees swaying and I can feel the ocean breeze. At a railing, Latino families stand admiring the vista and smiling. As I get closer, I make a shocking discovery. It’s not the ocean at all but a giant hologram, an extremely realistic simulation of the beach. No one around me seems to notice and I feel like that character in the Twilight Zone episode where a woman is yelling to the humans boarding a spaceship to another planet that the alien book titled “To Serve Man” is a cookbook not a manual for the betterment of humankind. I feel incredibly disappointed and let down. Worse yet, I look over and notice in between the teeming tunnels and escalators are stands for every fast food chain and long lines of people waiting to order.
Keep dreaming Los Angeles.

I know it’s totally self-indulgent to share dreams but I was reminded of this one after reading a subway to the sea discussion on LA Eastside.

Stupid things I think about at work

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“Pinecone” Cheeseball I made a couple of weeks ago, recipe from Amy Sedaris.

1.
Why hasn’t anyone come up with a common nickname for the computer? There’s the “net” for internet and “blog” for web-log but none for the ubiquitous piece of technology I am currently using. In Spanish, it’s worse. I always feel like I’m gonna say an offensive word. “Com-PUTA-dora, ” I carefully draw out the word, hesitant about where to put my emphasis. It was easier in Spain, where computers are called ordenadores. Another mouthful sure, but not one to get you in trouble. Wait, maybe there is a Spanish nickname for computer? I can’t recall.

2.
Why do folks still care about what Nostradamus had to say? Was the dude ever right? How is it that his prophecies still hold some sway in our time? Is this how the bible started?

More stupid things to come…

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What’s in your book?

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Thanks to Soledad en Masa!

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST

From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl:
“I shuddered to think of being the mother of children that should be owned by my own tyrant.”