Ron English, the Border, and the Skin-color Litmus Test | via Boingboing.net

A Visual Chaser of Pleasantness

To scare away all the bad going on the world these days. Here's a cool advertising gimmick in Mexico, from the Ogilvy & Mather Agency.

Who doesn't love Hotwheels? Via The LatinAmericanist.

Chepo's Peña's cool new Star Wars-laced Loteria Set...

Lloyd Dangle: Arizona Brownness Scale

Just seeing this--thanks to Lalo Alcaraz!

source

How long before Paris Hilton gets herself some?

Sky-blue Chuntaritos's boots.

Now that the Chihuahua-loving heiress is up in Mexico's face selling a new line of shoes, it might be a matter of time.




A while back ViceStyle covered the pointiest boots to date and traveled to Matehuala, Mexico to get the scoop.


Succumbing to incredulity, the fashion world has not validated the botas exóticas, which some call Moda Tribal. Check out ViceStyle's photo gallery here. (by Edith Valle)


Guanabee alerted us that there are more outings and sightings going on.


Read the whole post with links here

I bet cash that Salvador Dali would own a pair-he seemed the type.

Santa Madre! El Santo did what? Dalliances with Vampiros & Nudity

According to Guanabee there's a Santo movie which you will not be seeing any time soon and apparently both Gillermo and Benicio del Toro will be bummed. Read more here:

via La Jornada

Wild Letty, Girl of the Swamp and Bayou or Eet ees jaws ah comeek book, Stereotypes in Comics Edition

Source

Golden Age Comic Book Stories

a REMARKABLE graphic narrative resource!

cover

original credits

Manhunt #13 {A-1 #63} from 1952
Art by Ogden Whitney, Paul Parker, 
L.B. Cole & Fritz

my soul is broken... | Leon Lanzbom, RIP

He was born October 28, 1954 and left the planet Friday, March 25, 2011.  He was my best friend and almost-brother, would-be brother, now gone brother.

I will never be the same.

Leon Lanzbom played the guitar better than Clapton and was the closest friend I ever had in San Diego, California--a beautiful city, to be sure, but not always filled with the friendliest folks.

We spent a lot of time together the last decade hanging out at Monty's/Louie's at SDSU, at Ponce's on Adams Avenue, at his apartment by the shore in La Jolla, and his condo on Torrey Pines of late. I was his friend and his chef, his friend and his gardener, his friend and his nemesis--we fought almost all the time and all the time loved each other deeply.  He was my neo-"Mexican" friend to me; I was the would-be "Jewish" friend from Jersey that just happened to grow up in South Texas.

I learned so much about music and writing and friendship from him.

My heart hurts so much now that I think I cannot stand it.

In the end, it was his big heart that let him down--a damned piece of salvaged plumbing that could not take it any more.  His physical heart.

But know this: his real heart was huge, his soul enormous.

He saved my life one day--did I tell him?  Did he know?

Some will say "he's in a better place" and other such nonsense (the words we use to cope with unspeakable, irretrievable loss).  But he is not. And we are not.

Back in the day, Leon and I collaborated a lot--here's the class he designed that I webmastered; here is the class we taught together.


Here's some of his writing from his Word Rogues site:

Who Are We?

Words -- so innocent and powerless as they are, 

as standing in a dictionary, 

how potent for good and evil they become 

in the hands 

of one who knows how to combine them.

                              --Nathaniel Hawthorne

My favorite Jersey Shore memory was playing in the shore break with my friends.  We'd cautiously slide as close to the edge of the continent as possible and play a game called "Let Go."  The idea: relax and let the water take us wherever it flowed, staying, and here's the key, as flexible as possible.  By the time the shore-break was done with us, we might have landed thirty feet down the beach or have been stranded like seals in a pile of shells.

Years later, I would play a different form of "Let Go."  I would test my flexibility in real life. 

I ran a fairly large chiropractic practice on Cape Cod, seeing anyone who needed care.  The "discipline": to give for the sake of giving, my doors were open to anyone who needed care, regardless of financial condition.  Patients came from as far as Providence, Rhode Island.  Some would even fly in from Nantucket.  But, after fifteen years, and thousands of treatments, I began to break down.  After a severe bought of bronchitis, I decided to play "Let Go" of my chiropractic life.  Against the advice of my accountant, I sold my practice and moved to San Diego.  I dug out my old surfboard and got back into the ocean.  Just sitting there with no schedule set for tomorrow--feeling the kelp brush my legs, watching the tide lift and lower all things, hearing the drum-beat of water on the bottom of my board--was like meditation.  My big question: should I play it safe and open another office or start my life over, studying a great passion, writing and literature.

Always one to choose pathos over ethos, I "Let Go."  I went back to school, starting from the beginning--San Diego Mesa College--and moved on to a BA in American literature, an MA in children's literature, and an MFA in poetry at SDSU.  Along the way, I  observed and absorbed the techniques of my most dedicated professors. What made them different?  I noticed that the best were able to take even the most boring subjects and offer them in a way that was uniquely theirs--same subject, same words, different retelling.

So here I am, welcoming you, attempting to bring grammar, writing, poetry, and literature into your life.  I'm trying to retell the same story--giving for the sake of giving--trying to make every class myfirst class.  And you, whether you're a student, an aspiring writer, or a published poet, I hope you feel that unquenchable thirst for the music of words--spoken, written, and visualized,--and I hope this site helps you find your way through the common problems of writing. 

Look around.  You'll find several researched resources on writing, grammar, and critical thinking. Feel free to check on some of my live English classes.  But most of all, if words are your love, I hope this inspires you to "Let Go."  --Leon Lanzbom

Goodnight, Leon; I look forward to hanging with you again on the other side--you can have the shrimp burrito and I'll have the carne asada torta.  Old times. Glory days.

Me and Leon Lanzbom, performing at GALOKA
near Bird Rock, California (La Jolla) in the Fall of 2004.....

Leon Lanzbom, Ponce's Restaurant, 2008

 

I just posted a collection of Lanzbom-laced snapshots here.

Beaming malfunction turns Captain Kirk into a Faux-ican

Once more the tragedy of the Mexican cliché gets outfitted with ruffled sleeves and maracas. Here's the entire commercial for Priceline.



Will someone please set the world straight? Mariachis and Charros are a gorgeous sight.




Wide towering hats, metal-encrusted tight jackets, and pants are an eyeful of real Mexico. Even the Colombians got it right when producing this famous telenovela.



So here's a hint: Don't add the ruffly sleeves . Don't add maracas. That's more Sonora Matancera at one of their more Hollywood gigs.

New Lupe Velez Autographed Print Auction at Heritage

source/auction

Click to Enlarge...

Random Gallery of Accidental Mexicans

To the younger ones: There used to be a groovy band called The Monkees. They had a super tv show. This is Mickey and he was dreamy. By Henry Diltz

From Venezuela with love: Hugo Chavez via sabinabecker.com

La Snooki via adailyolive.blogspot.com

Pity el Fool via hownottowearahat.com
Pope John Paul II via Flickr


El Uncle Samuel via anunews.net


Katy Perry selling her perfume wares in Mexico
via english.alrroya.com
Ronald Regan by Bettmann/CORBIS

RFK via charrousa.com (warning: website suffers from too much flash-induced neurasthenia)



Venus Williams via MarieClaire.com

Back in print.... “iNobel Paz?: A Pre- and Post-Nobel Survey of a Mexican Writer’s Evolving Views of Mexico, the United States and Other Na[rra]tions” Siglo X/ 20th Century,Vol. 10,Nos. 1-2(1992), 165-94 | W. Nericcio

The second essay I ever published, for the defunct international journal Siglo XX, is back in print through the magic of pdf-files.  Hit the image for the link.

Las Teclas de Negro

Akron blues-rock duo, The Black Keys, or Las Teclas de Negro as they are billed in this fake trailer, tip their sombreros to Robert Rodriguez in their latest music video.