Food and Music

Cooking with friends...
Monday: I got together with Serene and Oskar for dinner. On the menu: oxtail soup (prepared by Serene), mixed green salad (RV3 & Serene) and sangria (RV3). It was a yummy night.
Tuesday: At Serene's, we had rib-eyed steaks, grilled onions, sauteed colliflower. And we drank a bottle of Tempranillo wine, courtesy of the Silverlake Wine Shop. This was a spontaneous, but fun and delicious effort for us.
Wednesday: Guests: Papio, Yolanda, Robin. Pot luck menu: barbecue chicken, red cabbage salad, empanadas, wine and beer. For dessert: arroz con leche. Great company, good food.
I still don't know what I am doing for dinner tonight...

More music news...
I got the new Fischerspooner c.d., Odyssey, and have to say that I really dig this new recording of theirs. Many of the tracks grew on me after three listenings, but the track I truly love is their first single, "Never Win." I caught the video for the song the other night on an LATV show the other night, and immediately knew I had to go out and buy the c.d.
I have been enjoying the couple of songs by Kanye West that I've heard on the radio. His new disc is due in late August...and I can't wait!
I also love singing along to "Baby I'm Back," by Baby Bash with Akon...

Summer Lingo

Four of my favorite catchy words and expressions I have been using this summer:

1. "(You've) had too much free chicken in this town!"
(def.) you say this about someone who is overexposed; talentless and has been unjustly lucky with his/her career; passee.
(sent.) I hate Andy Garcia, he's had too much free chicken in this town!

2. "Mangina" (def.) a goatee, moustache combo surrounding a man's mouth.
(sent.) His mangina is bushier than my hippy girlfriend's vagina.

3. "Lady Ass" (def.) a pronounced bubble butt on a man.
(sent.) Damn! Check out that dude's lady ass!

4. "Po-pom" (verb) (def.) multi-purpose verb, meaning to perform, to do something well; pronounced the way a Thai masseuse would.
(sent. 1) I po-pomed all night with this hot dude I met at Little Joy's.
(sent. 2) After two cups of coffee, I had to go to the bathroom to po-pom.

Oh Yeah...

I forgot to mention how much I enjoyed going to the Basquiat opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art two weekends ago with Wendy. I have never seen such an enthusiastic, huge crowd for an opening at MOCA before. Although large crowds like this sometimes make it difficult to view the art, Wendy and I had no trouble appreciating and seeing all the pieces. Wendy and I truly enjoyed Basquiat's work. I have to admit, before watching the 1996 bio-pic on his life, Basquiat, directed by Julian Schnabel, I knew very little about his life. I also wasn't too thrilled about his art before. However, experiencing his art and standing right before it was truly moving and exciting to me. His work is not as simple as it may appear to someone seeing it in a book. He seemed to be channeling Matisse and Picasso through his work, and Wendy saw influences from children's art, comic books/graphic novels and encyclopedias. Much of his work also seemed to be speaking about injustices, poverty, racism and globalization (this was in the '80s, when he was working!)
The opening party was d.j.-ed by legendary rapper Grandmaster Flash, who put on an amazing set and had the entire crowd dancing. It was also great running into so many people I know at the show and participating in people-watching. It was quite the fun fashion show, of course...

Birth School Work Death

Birth
I've been thinking about life and our purpose on Earth lately. Since becoming an uncle almost two years ago, I've been reminded that the world does not revolve around me. While I consider myself, for the most part, to being genuinely caring, giving and thoughtful, I must admit to myself that most of my life I have been a pretty self-centered person. Perhaps this is a result from belonging to a specific generation, or it is just something we all go through when we are young, figuring out our lives and pursuing happiness, status and dreams. Now I have my other sister expecting a child soon (she is due in late October) and I realize that the family tree continues, another branch is blossoming. Wow!
School/Work
I've been on summer break from work for the last three weeks. I continue to go out to the beach about twice a week. I read a lot. I have been visiting my mom, sisters and niece more often. I've been taking long walks in the park. Continue to get together around twice a week with different friends to cook together (hi Serene)! And I have been working at my friend's store in Echo Park, since he's been busy with unexpected business. Once the school season starts I may or may not be going back to school at night. I think I am in the right frame of mind at the moment to hit the academic books once again. We'll see.
Death
In the last nine months I have had four different dear friends lose a parent. I love my mother and although my relationship with my dad is a bit strained, I can not imagine losing my parents at this moment in time. My father has kinda reentered my life since my niece's birth... But the loss of my friends' parents reminds me again of life and our place in the world and about the fact that we are all living on borrowed time. I also have a good friend (just a year younger than me) in the hospital, who was recently diagnosed with HIV. And know of two other people, both under 40, battling cancer. This seems a bit overwhelming but it is happening around me.
Over lunch with my friends Senisa and Iris, we talked about this. Both only have one parent living. One is a mother of two. What do we want to accomplish in our lifetimes? What examples do we set for our children and/or the next generation? What legacies do we wish to leave behind? When did we realized the world did not revolve around us? These were our questions and I am still evaluating my possible answers...

Running With Creeps

I don't want to come off as someone who watches t.v. around-the-clock, but you know it must be Summer hiatus time, if I suddenly find myself reading a lot. I did enjoy watching ABC's Dancing With The Stars, but now that it is over, I have not found myself turning the t.v. on at night, if I happen to be home. The only exception being if I am watching one of my dvds from Netflix that I recieve regularly. Of course, I must remind folks that I do not have cable!

Among the books that I have recently completed reading are Amanda Filipacchi's Love Creeps, and Augusten Burrough's Running With Scissors, A Memoir. Both books, though completely different, were wonderful, fun reading and contained the craziest, most outrageous protagonists you will ever find in any pages. What is incredible about the books' similarities is that one is a novel, the other a memoir; yet they both are about complex, fucked-up people who experience the most unbelievable situations, and persevere them.
Briefly, Love Creeps follows a successful Manhattan gallerist, who suddenly loses her passion for everything in life, including her work. She then finds herself being stalked by this man and sees that this man loves stalking her...with a passion. So she decides that she will too stalk someone as well, to see if this reawakens her passions. It sounds simple and crazy but what follows are the most hysterical and ridiculous situations and role-playing I have ever read in any pages. Filipacchi treats the delicate subject of stalking with wit, light-heartedness, and irony.
Those who have known me for along time, should know that I have loved this woman's work since 1993, when she came out with the novel, Nude Men. She has one other novel called Vapor. All of these titles can be found in my library at home.
Running With Scissors is the true life account experienced by the author, whom at age 12, found his mother sending him to live with her therapist and his crazy family so she can work on her traumas and write poetry. At the doctor's home, young Augusten is freaked out by the chaos and utter mess he sees everywhere. But he quickly adjusts, by befriending the doctor's teenage, free-thinking, dope-smoking daughters and a pedophile patient who lives in the back. This is one of the most tragic and humorous memoirs I have ever read. That the author lived to tell the story is simply fascinating to me.

I am now reading Jose Saramago's The Double. I will tell you all what I think of it once I complete it.

The Neighborhood

I have not posted anything recently as I have been busy working, going out, watching movies, cleaning, babysitting and visiting a good friend in the hospital. I found myself sitting in front of the computer a few times, trying to jot something down but felt uninspired, I want to say: not passionate about anything, but that would be a complete lie. Anyway, here's what's up in my head...

The Lotus Festival was much fun last weekend. As usual, I got together with several friends to enjoy the festival, eat good food, buy plants, people-watch and enjoy the fireworks display. I then headed to a friend's house near the park for drinks and wound up at a bar in the neighborhood I don't really enjoy but where friends were going.
It is interesting to see how Echo Park has changed so much. I have been calling this lovely neighborhood my home for the almost 10 years and it is clearly evident that there have been several changes happening. Some good, some not so good.
First, I must say, that I enjoy seeing people walking around the neighborhood all the time, and at various hours of the day. I enjoy seeing cyclists everywhere. I love going to Sea Level Records, which is walking distance from my house. I love that I have my options of coffee shops, walking distance. I love most of the new shops popping all over the place. I love that I have so many different friends, within walking/cycling distance in all directions from my house. Back in 1996, when I first moved to my house above the intersection of Glendale/Berkeley/Alvarado, almost everyone I knew lived in Silverlake, Highland Park or Hollywood.
What I do not like about the changes in the neighborhood is all the elitist, classist insensitivity I see everywhere.
I hate all the SUVs I see everywhere. There are people driving Hummers and Mercedes, BMW SUVs in our narrow streets. I hate all the fast, impatient drivers everywhere.
I am also not fond of new residents of the neighborhood who "love" the area so much, but are constantly complaining of how "ghetto" it is. As an immigrant and "person of color" who grew up in the city and not some suburb or hippy commune I am offended by such talk. These people seem to forget the real reason they moved to these neck of the woods in the first place: cheap rent! (Although rent here is no longer as cheap as it used to be). I am saddened that many of the neighborhood's newer residents are not able to appreciate its diversity, funkiness and its eccentricity. I love having a panaderia, next to a thrift store, next to a botanica, next to an indie rock record store! If everything were clean-cut and homogenous around here, this would not be the vivrant neighborhood that Echo Park is today. And I must say, I do feel afraid of some of the changes I see. Everytime I see an old mom & pop shop close down, I fear for what will eventually oppen there. "Not another over-priced boutique, not another hipster bar." But I admit that I enjoy the new restaurants and cafes.
There is no real resolution to what I make of all these changes. I simply want people to be more tolerant and sensitive. People to care more about the neighborhood and its history, not just its romanticized early Hollywood history, but its recent history. For the last 40 years or so this has been a lower-income neighborhood. We can't just sweep or push people aside. I don't know what else to say. Love thy neighbor, maybe???

Adventures in Babysitting

I am over at my mother's today to look after my niece Victoria for a couple of hours while my mom goes to a doctor's appointment. As always I am enjoying the experience. Vic took a nice long nap and awoke after an hour in the jolliest, most affectionate mood. She gestured me toward her glasses and shoes and I put them on her, after checking her diaper. Thank goodness she did not need any changing, though I was prepared to do the job. After giving her her juice, which she requested by saying, "joosh," she had me follow her to my mom's living room and handed me the remote control which she found on the coffee table. I said to her: "T.V.? Do you want the t.v. on?" I turned it on and like clockwork, the Teletubbies was about to start. Watching this show was like a religious experience for us both. I have never enjoyed it so much. And I am pretty sure this was my first time ever watching it with a child. Vic was enthralled! I was too! But I'm not sure if I was more enthralled by the show or my niece...

Rambling

Something else I am currently blasting and grooving to whenever I hear it on the radio is that song that goes: "Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me..." I looked it up and the artist performing it is either the Pussycat Dolls or some girl named Tori Alamaze. The song's extended version features a fun rap by Busta Rhymes. Everytime I hear the song on the radio, I turn it up, up, up. The song sounds kinda trashy and dumb, but that's what makes a great dance track. I hope next time I go out dancing (which is rare) I hear it...