Dry State

As a native Californian, I've been hearing all of life that LA and the rest of Southern Cal was built from a desert and eventually this desert would take it back again. Of course, everyone thought this desert reconquista would happen in some distant, apocalyptic future, certainly not in our lifetimes. That's why I'm surprised to read that the state is blocking new development projects until the developers find their own water sources that will last 20 years.

If you don't live in California, you might think this is a rather obvious move -- no building until you know where the water for the project is going to come from. But in California, where development is KING, it's mostly been done the other way around: build, then find the water. (See the movie Chinatown, about the California Water Wars, as one obvious example.)

So is this just another one of California's infamous droughts, or is California's natural ecosystem finally starting to take the land back?

It doesn't look good: “We have bad hydrology, compromised infrastructure and our management tools are broken,” said Timothy Quinn, the executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. “All that paints a fairly grim picture for Californians trying to manage water in the 21st century.”

This isn't great news for the California economy...especially for those like my brother who has a business in the housing industry. But I'm thinking if it wasn't a water shortage, then the gas prices would be slowing down development anyway. Can anyone still afford to commute to work in the city from some new house on the desert edge of suburbia? Time to be creative and think of some new ways of living. As long as it involves lots of new cabinetry made by my brother!

Amado at the Doctor's

Amado had a short visit (but a long wait) at the doctor's this afternoon. It wasn't a full check-up, but we did manage to weigh him: 34.5 lbs. / 15.6 kgs. Then we went home and had tofu dogs for dinner.

Top 5 Stylish Cholas

Top 5 Stylish Cholas, from Guanabee, via Tex(t)Mex, one of my favourite blogs I don't have time to read. Here's #5, just to tempt you to check out the other four: "Laura Esquivel -Famous for: Writing books, like Como Agua Para Chocolate, that make us kind of think about stepping into a kitchen, if only to have sex on the counter."

GONZO

Just in case you wondered what I was doing in high school...this was shot at my first concert, Cal Jam II in 1978. George, Calvin and I squeezed up front for Ted Nugent, Heart, and Santana. Look for us in the crowd! And CRANK IT!

Here's the link if the one above doesn't work:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=egNUJzdWK6Q

Look! New Glasses!

(Sorry, forgot to smile.)

Gone Surfing

I'm submerged with work these days, so I might as well grab a board and make an adventure out of it. See you back at the beach!

Luis Omar Salinas

Pioneering Chicano poet Luis Omar Salinas has died. "His talent was profound," poet Peter Everwine said. "What I have most admired in his work is his profound humility and courage, his ability to identify with the marginal, the lonely and the wounded, and to do so without self-pity or loss of hope." See his obituary in the Fresno Bee.

I Salute the Dead

In this drunken town
bitten by the whores
of Texas, I pause with
a beer to salute the dead.

Someone's in my house--
the dead child of Texas
haunts the woodwork
and the child is everywhere
tonight waiting for the dawn,
tomorrow maybe playing
in the mud.

My nephew asks if the black
children he sees on TV
are the poor, and I reply,
"We are the poor."
He cannot understand,
and I know this house
is as poor as this drunken
town
and I drink my beer
and hiccup into song.

- Luis Omar Salinas

Here's a link where more of his poems can be found.

Secret Pleasure

Ray Manzaruk's left-hand groove leaves me feeling stoned like nothing else...

From One Scarface to Another

A couple of weeks ago, a kid at daycare slashed Amado with his fingernails. The cut is healing up and looks a lot better now, but I took a picture just in case. (He's also had a haircut since this picture was taken!) For Gramma Coop! Get well soon!

Postmodern Living

I don't know how it does it, but that Google satellite creates some wacky perspectives. Check out these apartment buildings, which happen to be where we live. I can assure you they don't look that bent out of shape from the ground. Not usually anyway.

It's that Two-Year-Old Smile

A lot of people remark how much Amado looks like Wendy his mom. And it's true, he's got a lot of Smith McCarroll in him. But I stumbled upon this picture today and I think the kid also has some resembalance to my dad's side.

Maybe it's just that mouth-wide-open laugh common to all happy babies, but doesn't Amado look a lot like my Aunt Diana in this picture?

The date at the bottom says "April 23, 1944," which was my aunt's second birthday. That's her on the left, my dad on the right, with their father Benjamin Gallegos, who I never knew.

Looks like love, sounds like love, must be...

A bootleg cellphone pic of Tim Butler and Michelle Balcers' fantastically wild marriage celebration last night at a Sourean Street art studio. Above the newlyweds perform a tribute to Meischa the Hot Dog with sons Ben (electric guitar) and Caleb (keys). Congratulations you guys! You are really beautiful. (And thank you kind Heryka for making it possible for us to attend this party by spending the night with Amado!)

Do You Know the Way...?

I wouldn't mind being finding myself here at this moment...

"Che"

Though it probably wouldn't have added much excitement to the movie, it still feels like a lost opportunity to reconsider the myth of Che Guevara:

There is a lot, however, that the audience will not learn from this big movie, which has some big problems as well as major virtues. In between the two periods covered in “Che,” Guevara was an important player in the Castro government, but his brutal role in turning a revolutionary movement into a dictatorship goes virtually unmentioned. This, along with Benicio Del Toro’s soulful and charismatic performance, allows Mr. Soderbergh to preserve the romantic notion of Guevara as a martyr and an iconic figure, an idealistic champion of the poor and oppressed. By now, though, this image seems at best naïve and incomplete, at worst sentimental and dishonest. More to the point, perhaps, it is not very interesting.

From "Soderbergh and Che, Provocateurs"

Good Morning Toronto XXIII

So where's the warm weather, anyway?

Viva California!

Although the reaffirmation of gay marriage by California's Supreme Court gives my Mom and her partner Irene one less reason to move to Canada where we live, it's still something to be celebrated. :-) I really believe this is the direction all of Western society is eventually headed legally, if only because equality is the bedrock of our culture. Those churches which are still debating this issue (thankfully, not the one I am part of) will have to accept this fact one way or another at some point down the road.

Go Speed Racer!

Kind of reminds me of myself back in my car racing days. (And, of course, speed runs in the family.)

Strawberry Boy

I love the gasp of excitement Amado makes when we give him a Watsonville strawberry. But obviously the boy would like a little privacy while he enjoys his treat.

10 Years!

Today Wendy and I celebrate our 10-year anniversary. It doesn't feel like 10 years to me. I guess you know what they say about how time flies when you're having fun. In any case, I certainly feel like a much richer person for having married Wendy. (And I'm not talking about money!) Thank you Wendy for being the sweet one! I love you.

Above: Us, May 16, 1998, Malcolm X Park, Washington D.C. (check out my braid, ese!)

Que Pasa?

Perhaps a country shouldn't be judged by its Internet comments, but I have to say lately I've noticed a sharp increase in anti-Mexican / Chicano / Latino comments in many of the articles I've read on-line lately. This one, applauding the work of Marciano Cruz in Santa Cruz (above, who I met in my work with Barrios Unidos), is just one example. (You can access the link to the comment section here.)

I could point out several other examples where rather innocuous articles about Latinos doing good or about Latino immigration receive dozens of racist, belligerent comments from across the U.S. I've only been gone 10 years, but have I missed something? What the heck is going on down there?

Asia

I just can't believe the calamity which has struck Asia in the past weeks.

100,000 deaths in Burma is incomprehensible. This is made worse by the political crisis the Burmese continue to suffer.

And now, nearly 10,000 dead in western China.

While the T.V. news is filled with pundits going on and on about the Democratic primaries, the situation in Asia is sad beyond what words can express.

The United Church of Canada, where I work, has an emergency appeal for Burma.

My friend Nicole, who has lived and worked in Southeast Asia, also sent around this list of good organizations you can make donations to toward aid in Burma:

PACT http://www.pactworld.org/cs/help_myanmar -- seems very well equipped to provide immediate aid in the hardest hit area

Mercy Corp http://www.mercycorps.org/myanmarcyclone/

Save The Children http://www.savethechildren.org/emergencies/asia/cyclone-nargis-myanmar-response.html - large NGO

Now Reading...

...Guillermo Gomez-Pena's Dangerous Border Crossers.

I have to say, this guy really turns me on.

Though his progressive (even radical) politics can't be challenged, I love the way he doesn't hesitate to take on the "ethno-fundamentalists" of his own people (the Chicano movement) and challenge them in the same way he challenges those on the right. That's what art does.

Here's the site of his performance art troupe, La Pocha Nostra.

Do I Have the World's Best Mom, or What?

...see for yourself at LiarLiarPantsOnFire.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!! Thank you for giving us those border hopping genes!

Amado at Grenadier Pond

He would have gone right in the water if I had let him.

Spring Thing

It was a beautiful day yesterday and Amado and I went for our usual Sunday afternoon walk in High Park. There we happened upon some kind of flash mob neo-hippie gathering. At least that's what it appeared to be. Pretty cool. Amado loved the electronica they were playing too. He stood right in front of the speaker and did a little groove.

27 Months!

Amado, last night after his bath. The months are flying by (sorry, we missed the actual date of "month anniversary" again) and the kid is growing like a weed. But where he's really growing is in his head -- his vocabulary is exploding and we're surprised daily with some new word he's learned.

The next thing you know he'll be describing to us with Miley Cyrus-tears how it feels to have a naked picture of oneself posted on the Internet.

Now Listening

This is some very funky stuff....

Nigeria Rock Special shines a light on the flipside to the well-documented sounds of Highlife and Afrobeat coming out of Nigeria in the 1970s - young bands caught up in the wave of Psychedelic & Progressive Rock that was sweeping Europe and the States in the late 60s and early 70s.

In the early 1970s the sound of Jimi Hendrix & bands like Santana had started to seep into the mainly soul -based sets of a handful of young bands playing western influenced pop.

Spurred on by Cream drummer Ginger Baker’s visits to Lagos and his band Airforce (featuring many Nigerian musicians), the sound of fuzzed out Rock reverberated around the Universities and nightspots of Lagos and Ibadan. The craze that followed hit the youth & student population of Nigeria hard - mixing fuzz-guitar & heavy African rhythms with elements of Led Zeppelin, Traffic & the Chambers Brothers.

Featuring tracks from cult bands like Mono Mono, Ofege, The Action 13, The Elcados and Tunji Oyelana amongst many others, this album contains 15 of the best cuts from the scene, available for the first time in 30 years.

The CD is accompanied by a 20-page booklet with rare photos, cover art and historical information on the musicians, giving an in-depth look at the scene and its influences.

Surf's Up!

I just felt like posting this beautiful picture, reminding me of home. (Mavericks, Northern California.)

Obama Forcefully Breaks with Ex-Pastor

Obama forcefully breaks with ex-pastor over fiery remarks.

These men are certainly not politically naive. This looks like a pre-arranged Sister Souljah moment if you ask me. (But then again, I am conspiracy minded.)

Who would have thought this primary would turn into a plebiscite on black liberation theology?

Play Ball!

...spring has arrived in Toronto and the critters are on the loose!

Amado's fans can see more pictures from this shoot here (Gramma Coop, this means you!)

St. John Coltrane Church: A Love Supreme

In a lunchtime discussion of "multisensory worship" yesterday, I was telling people about my visit to St. John Coltrane's African Orthodox Church. This clip from the church offers a beautiful picture of the worship there. Here's my Utne Reader article about our visit. A Love Supreme!

Ruben Salazar

The U.S. Post Office has issued a new stamp commemorating Ruben Salazar, the prominent Chicano journalist who was killed--many say murdered--during the Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War in 1970.

If you want to find out more about the Chicano Moratorium, you can read this powerful analysis of the repression of the Chicano community by the LAPD in 1968-1971 and the corresponding increase in Chicano militancy. Poet activist Luis Rodriguez writes in his blog that it's nice there is a new stamp honouring a Chicano hero, but it's also hypocritical coming at a time when there is such an upswing in anti-Latino racism, attacks, and rhetoric in the United States--in some cases officially sanctioned by local governments.

I'm not a stamp collector, but if any of you Americans out there want to help me start with this one, I'd be very thankful.

UPDATE: By the way, here is a link to Ruben Salazar's writings on-line.

Uplifting

I'm the type who can stay spiritually high for weeks after a Santana concert.

Spinning Out of Control

From Philippe Gohier's blog in Maclean's:

Here's an interesting piece about the Queen's University computing science professor and the program he developed to detect the amount of political spin in a candidate's message. (An electronic bullshit detector, in other words.) Skillicorn looked at the ongoing presidential campaign and posted his findings at his website.

I'm not sure any of this is all that surprising, but here's a quick rundown anyway:

John McCain comes across as the straightest-shooter of them all. Only McCain's speech to the Americans For Prosperity Michigan Summit last January was heavy on the rhetoric. Otherwise, McCain has been remarkably adept at avoiding spin.

Hillary Clinton ranks second on Skillicorn's straight-talk meter, with only a handful of speeches garnering a negative score. (Higher scores mean less spin.)

Barack Obama is dead last, with the vast majority of his speeches sounding all kinds of alarms. Although Skillicorn writes Obama has recently "changed his word usage in a major way" (read: less spin-ful), the professor also notes it's "unlikely that he has done this consciously." Instead, Obama may have simply become convinced he can't lose - and has perhaps started believing his own spin as a result.

Skillicorn says about his study:

McCain tends to score well because he uses the pronoun "I" heavily. In contrast, Obama tends to use "we", and this pronoun plays a much more complicated role in communication. For example, in two-person interactions, the lower-status person tends to use more first-person singular pronouns, so using "I" creates an impression of humility (which is not what people intuitively think). In contrast, while female use of "we" does seem to signal inclusiveness, male use of "we" is often used to soften an imperative, and so tends not to come across as inclusive.

What a Deal!

In the T Magazine column, "Sandra's Sources," Senior Editor Sandra Ballentine opens up her little black book of tips on where to go, what to buy and whom to know. This week Sandra looks at Hazel, a new specialty boutique in the tony Bloor-Yorkville neighborhood of Toronto:

Hazel is the only store in Canada that carries the London-based label Erdem and its incredible, printed cocktail dresses and gowns. I have my eye on a spectacular, tile-print scarf dress for $4,695 (Canadian dollars). I’m also kind of crazy about Courtney Crawford’s skyscraper-high stilettos.

I'm so thankful for tips like these, since Mother's Day is coming up and I know Wendy and my Mom would absolutely die for something practical from a "luxe label."

Fear of a Black Planet

I believe Obama will eventually end up with the Democratic nomination, though his prospects in November are being damaged by the increasingly toxic primaries. The "Rev. Wright issue" has hurt Obama, though I think it's a lot of huff about nothing. All it's done is show that Obama belongs to a type of activist black church which is not that uncommon in the U.S. (See Brett Grainger's insightful article on "'Damning' America a U.S. Tradition.") In fact, churches like Obama's Trinity United are prevalent enough in the black community that the controversy has revealed something else in my opinion: Perhaps the United States isn't as ready for a black president as it claims to be.

Still Obama has to step up and respond with something that compels us again. The New York Times Bob Herbert has it right in today's opinion piece:

Senator Obama, for his part, seems to have lost sight of the unifying message that proved so compelling early in his campaign and has stumbled into weird cultural predicaments that have caused some people to rethink his candidacy.

While some of those predicaments raise legitimate concerns (his former pastor, his comments in San Francisco) and some do not (stupid questions about wearing a flag pin), he has allowed them to fester unnecessarily. The way for a candidate to eventually change the subject is to offer policy prescriptions so creative and compelling that they generate excitement among the electorate and can’t be ignored by the press.

Voters want more from Senator Obama. He’s given a series of wonderful speeches, but he has to add more meat to those rhetorical bones. He needs to be clear about where he wants to lead this country and how he plans to do it. That’s how a candidate defines himself or herself.

Aztlan - Stolen at Gunpoint

A lot of people I meet in Canada know more about the Chaldeans than they do about the Chicanos. This primer on Chicano Power may help folks understand a little more about where I'm coming from. Your Friday night music.

So Popular!

Amado, at a recent birthday party for our friend Heryka. Looks like he's having a good time, though a bit thrown off to discover paparazzi at the event.

Springin' Swingin'

Snow's gone, it's getting warmer, and it's time to hit the playground! But after the winter we've had, Amado's still not giving up his hat and big jacket.