Getting Politically Corrected....and further more.

June 21, 2009

Today...er umm..yesterday (It's late/early in the morning) I posted a blog about the "green avatar" Twitter phenom about the Iranian elections. I wrote about how they won't help the Iranian people and that they just are attempts to show others publicly that we care. Just like wearing a flag pin on our jackets. Is someone more American if they do? Or is that what the empty inference hopes to achieve in public perception? Anyway, I've deleted my earlier post, because it just wasn't written well. It was too emotional. Emotions are great except when trying to make logical points about a highly political subject. *laughing*

To better sum up what I tried to say earlier, I think that this country and this world needs people to care and do something about the injustices that happen millions times a day, just don't expect much change from a couple of clicks on photoshop to turn a JPEG green. We can and need to do a lot more than that.

Sweet dreams everyone...it's nighty-night-beddy-bo-time for me.

Schizophrenic Encyclopediac...

June 18, 2009

I am a Schizophrenic Encyclopediac. That's right, you heard me. Most everyday I feel like I'm Odysseus with the Gods thwarting my every move and other Gods helping me out of a jam. I feel like I'm Arturo Bandini walking the streets and asking the dust. I feel I'm lost in a Borges labyrinth only to find myself at the beginning. I feel I'm Raskolnikov who just bashed in someone's brains and trying to get back home. I feel like I'm Keith Talent and I just blew the dart tournament. I feel I'm Ishmael and Ahab is about to take us all down to the jowls of the white whale. I feel like I'm Felix Krull and I just got found out. I feel like I'm Tomas and I'm just trying to get across the border. I feel like Musashi after the great learning period about to strike out on his own. I feel like Chinaski who just lost another horse race but is content to just listen to Wagner on the radio. I feel like Herodotus observing the world and writing stories and points of interest down on electronic papyrus. I feel like Van Gogh miserable in his room but life-ravenous in the fields. I....I feel like Christopher...not knowing what to feel, but feeling it just the same. It's like a swimming pool. You can stare at it all day but you don't really know a thing until you jump in.

Jump.

In a bad fake German accent: "Ya...zee vater's fine!"

Cholita...

June 17, 2009

Well...I finished my "Cholita" song for the Los Feliz EP. I'm posting the lyrics here for fun if anyone is interested. *grin*

Cholita

Standing on the corner of Sunset

Where the street meets the heat and the beat hits the one

You can listen to what I'm telling and move to what I'm selling

'bout a girl, a woman, a goddess of the sun.

Wearing brown leather boots that were calf high

And a tattooed dagger on her inner thigh

She's throwing signs "La Raza" will beat ya!

She's my funky hot mamma Cholita.

That's what I'm sayin'.

She's ambivalent. A stimulant. Emanating, penetrating,

undulating-hip-shaking, black mascara wearing,

Hair styled, Farrah swearing, laser beam eyes that got a bead

on me, even if her eyebrows are drawn with a Sharpie,

you know...you're good for me because you can destroy me

like an earthquake could sink California.

Oh...Cholita, Cholita be mine.

Won't you give me all your love?

And I will give it back to you.

Say you will. Say you will be mine.

When it comes to push and shovin',

You know there's only one kind of lovin'

for my Miss "Master of Faster than a Natural Disaster".

Yea...she's superstitious, mmm...bubblicious, diggin' those

frazy nails quite vicious, she's got more color than a rainbow,

She drops lines like Summer..."No Class".

Oh...Cholita, Cholita be mine.

Won't you give me all your love?

And I will give it back to you.

Say you will. Say you will be mine.

That's all I'm sayin'.

If you wanna listen to it...here's the link to my Reverbnation page.

Exotic Moods...

June 14, 2009

I'm sitting here listening to Les Baxter. I close my eyes and feel transported to an alien-space jungle with dancing green women, blue mojitos, purple oceans roaring, warmed by the dual suns in sky and my rocket ship still cooling down from the flight.

Still working on my next song for the Los Feliz EP, the music is done. It's the lyrics that are left. AS ALWAYS. Damn lyrics. They are the last to show. I'm doing a little research on "Cholitas"...since my song is called "Cholita", this pinche huero better learn all he can. *laughing*

The trees are swaying a little and all the leaves are like fingers and hands waving hello. "Hello Trees! What's shakin'? What's bakin'?....Hopefully not you! Ha!" Wisely the Trees aren't talking. They know what happens if they talk. It's the hatchet, ax and saw for them. Unless you're in the H.R. Pufnstuff television show, then they'll try to take your golden flute from you. "Watch out Jimmy!!!!"

Yes...I was a child raised on 70's television and old movies. Like having my brain soaked in absinthe too long, I am scarred but proud to show it off. "See? Here on my left knee is my scar from arthroscopic surgery, my right hand a knife wound and a glass cut, my chest...a cigarette burn....and deep in my grey matter are thousands of movies and T.V. shows swimming and feeding on my synapses. I'm very proud of those ones."

Gone are the days of having to get up and flip sides of my records...except for those rare rainy Sundays when I spread out my pillows on the floor and have a vinyl marathon. My iPod keeps the music flowing...my mouth is humming...my foot is tapping, and my mind is turned to channel 13 watching "Attack of the Mushroom People"....

Yes. I'm sober. It's all Les Baxter's fault.

Strange Territory...

June 12, 2009

I've entered into a strange territory this week. I'm writing/recording (I typically write and record as I go, then learn the song when it's mixed. *laughing* ) a song that is totally not what I do. These last few weeks I've been writing and recording songs for a little funky EP "Los Feliz", based on the Los Feliz neighborhood in Los Angeles. Spending time up there visiting my friends Frank, Cindy, Annissa, Erika, and Glen I really got attached to the area. A combination of 1930's Hollywood, with restaurants that have been around since the 50's, bars from the 70's, taqueria stands, mostly L.A. hipsters, but with a real strong Latino presence.

What the hell does that sound like? Well...the first 3 songs ( "Goth Coke Dealer", "So Alive" , "Los Feliz" ) have been pretty close to it. The one I'm working on now has sounds of Ennio Morricone, disco, rap, and Latin dance music. Anyone familiar with the music I usually write, this is a stretch! But it's good to stretch! I've grown a little from this Los Feliz experiment and I like it. I only hope that during my stretching I don't pop an ear-string and hurt myself with a song that sucks! *really laughing*

(Notice I *laugh* a lot? Yea...well, if you saw my bank account you would too!)