Musical/Aural Cultural Syncretism: The Lyric Genius of and XicanOsmosis in Lila Downs.

... a great short xicanosmotic take on Lila Downs here; the diva herself here:

A Striking Visual Sensibility: Another Eyegienic Photographer

"Mr. Toledano" has talents and a eyegieinic sensibility that are both compelling and provocative--go here for the Hope and Fear series referenced above, and here for an extensive portfolio.

The Streets of Laredo and the Lazy Mex Lounge

I had to leave Laredo, move to California, and go online to "see" for the first time something I probably drove by over a thousand times in my beloved hometown--the Lazy Mex Lounge on the corner of Pierce and San Bernardo. My thanks to the Streets of Laredo Blog, and La Sanbe for the view. The first shot above is a riff-off of a Flickr posting.

This Barthesian rumination (think flaneur but with a laptop in lieu of a sidewalk, cane, etc.) is inspired by the incipient bloggings of the Borderlore diva, Profe Maribel Alvarez de Tucson. I think I will upload some of my unpublished photo-essay of Laredo soon--a taste appears below this google map.


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Viva Hollywood on VH1

Ace North Hollywood Mextective Josie Nericcio writes in with a flash

To: Bill Nericcio
From: Josie Nericcio
Subject: Viva Hollywood
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:58:21 -0700

Have you seen this? I watched the first episode last night! It's every latino stereotype plus the tranny mexican astrologer, rolled into one big cultural stink bomb. Latinos against Latinos. They vote each other out by using the loteria card, "muerte"! Ridiculous, but I'm watching it. These people have to do novela scenes every week!

Here's a taste! Yikes!


video.vh1.com

Africans in American Mass Culture

Ok, I am speechless. More on this in the future!

Danny Federici, Rest in Peace!

More here. And, here.

Borderlore: Maribel Alvarez on the Net

Renaissance-woman/scholar/curator/anthropologist/folklorist Maribel Alvarez is blogging her findings, new and old, here--check it out. Her takes on the curious curios mexicana are to die for....

Phantom Sightings: A Whole Gallery of Xicanosmotic Deliciousness at LACMA in the City of Angels....

Get your backside and eyes over to LACMA asap to take in the Phantom Sightings show--you will be glad you did.

Cinco de Mayo 2008 at Mesa College!

A new poster has emerged from the good gente at Calaca Press, run by the one and only Brent Beltran here in San Diego, Califas! My only gripe? Me and Tomás look like we fell out of a Charles Schwab ad.*




*Gracias to my wise-cracking son Lorenzo for the Schwab joke!

On April 16, 2008, Tex[t]-Mex and its Speedy Gonzales Caravan Invade the University of Arizona! Be there!

Arizona, here I come! Batten down the hatches! órale...

Lupe Vélez: Palooka

Both the chapter on Lupe Vélez that appears in Tex[t]-Mex as well as the slightly different (less cool pictures!) essay version that appears in From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture do a close reading of the "Mexican Spitfire" in a forgettable farce called Palooka, co-starring Jimmy Durante and Stuart Erwin--Jimmy Cagney's brother also is featured. Watch Velez's expression as she moves in for the femme fatale "kill" at the 7:22 point of the video! The tragedy of Velez's life, its trajectory from superstardom to the toilet (shades of Elvis) is always already worthy of careful review.

Recent Surge in Sales

For some reason Tex[t]-Mex has been enjoying a recent bump in sales at Amazon.com--rising to the rank of 3rd in the category "Hispanic" (don't get me started on that one!).

Usually, this would be time for my head to swell and the champagne to flow like the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo, for my readers en Mexico.)

Unfortunately, since I am sandwiched between Cormac "famous Chicano writer, not" McCarthy tomes, I just can't seem to get into the mood to celebrate!

Oh, at number 1, Coulter's not "Hispanic" either!

Nothing About Stereotypes (Save for the Notion of Imprinting) / Everything About Design

I am crazy about design as I am about books, comic books, film, and literature. I just have to pass along this blog entry on the United Kingdom's new coins. Color me numismatic! The juxtaposition of our new fiver with the Brit-coins is cruel and dead-on.

Friz Freleng's Clean Pastures

The "Autopsy of a Rat" chapter of Tex[t]-Mex on the fastest mouse in all Mexico, Speedy Gonzales, is more than a hatchet job on Warner Brothers and their animators--if anything, it was written as a meditation on the matrix of race and entertainment in the U.S. mass culture.

Freleng was a talented artist and an avid artisan of racialized subject-effects--some of this is on display below in a YouTube broadcast version of Clean Pastures from 1936:

Homophobia, Mexico, Lucha Libre and the Cultural Evolution of the Americas

Mi hermana en North Hollywood, Josie Nericcio, writes in to tip my eyes to an Associated Press story on the rise of effeminate wrestlers or "exoticos" in Mexico--it provides a nice counterpoint to the homophobia-laced trend of emo-bashing simultaneously weaving its way through tierra mexicana. More on the phenomena of homorific lucheros is here.