Friday Night

have become boring. Maybe not boring: relaxing. Can I relax and do work at the same time? So far it hasn't worked. I still have time during the weekend but at the moment I just want to sit down and flip through the channels. But there's nothing good, and I turn to the Internet to watch random movies.
It feels to slow today. Slow day at work, slow time here. I thought Fridays were meant to be better...not spectacular, just better. So anything before these lines are like the first couple of lines of a poem...usually meaningless.
But watching over some old clips on Wrestling...I loved watching Andre the Giant, Hulk, Randy Savage, and the Ultimate Warrior. Simpler times? Naive also. Memories aren't always the truth either, and history continues to discover new angles. I try not to be too nostalgic in my poems. I believe most people don't...so there is always the good and bad.
Read a blog, person appeared unsatisfied with their job before. I don't think I have become dissatisfied, just bored with the unproductive time. Will be getting busy soon.


*waiting is boring*

Awakening in San Antonio

Just returned from my trip to SA. It was fun, mostly walking the "arts" area. I don't know much about art but I was moved by a watermelon painting, which I will post up a bit later. The artist also produced "Generations", this great painting of a "cholo" and his private school dressed son, standing in front a wall painting of la virgen de guadalupe. I summed up the painting with "awesome". I wanted it. Unfortunately the cost was $1,170. But I was willing to pay that much for the inspiration it brought me, and the realization it gave me on the time and effort artist place into their work. Buying it would have been a bad fiscal decision. I will wait, but I know I will regret it even more if it is sold. It happens all the time with me. I wait, and wait, and wait and I miss out on the perfect camera, book, vacation, etc. The question is, should I look at it as an investment, and if I do, what am I investing in? Oh, by the way, the watermelon painting was by the same artist (I did not know this until I asked about the "Generations" painting).




*Unfortunately, after looking at some of her other works, they aren't up to par to my expectations. After viewing her second painting in the "generation' series, I don't feel right about buying the first in the series.

The store owner told me about prints they had, but I want the painting. I don't understand why it moved me so much, perhaps because of the inspiration it shows. The way it depicts a specific location in San Antonio, but I imagine it to be anywhere. Anyways, let's see what happens.
This store owner gave me some good conversation. He talked a bit about the poet Raul Salinas, his own experience with the Chicano movement, etc. He even told me about Rick Casas, an artist from Donna, Tx (RGV) who sold his work at the art store. This is probably the most at home I have felt in San Antonio, but I would have enjoyed this moment so much more if it happened in the RGV.


Is it that I am not looking hard enough here. Where is Rick Casas hidden in the valley? Where is everybody hiding?

Loteria Familiar

el prieto
   se va al norte

la Yvonne
   tiene el pelo chino
   como papa

la Vero
   ojos que desesparecen
   con su sonria

el flaco
   con su carabina
   y las huracas

la quieta
   le corta el cabello
   al payasito

el bebe
   sigue creciendo
   hasta cuando se valla.

No le pares hablando a la familia.
Quien tiene estos dos?
A quien le falta el prieto?
Agregamos a la ninis?
Vamos a quitar ese.
Cada año unos cambios
de cuadros para la
loteria familiar.

San Antonio Museums

Went on a mini-trip this weekend to check out some museums in San Antonio. Good walking and some worthy paintings. Was inspired to write a family poem, not necessarily meant for publication, but good to express non-professional words. Following are some of the more memorable sights. Also saw The Wrestler: hope it wins an award tonight.





Drinking Devil, ca. 1930
Diablo
Artist Unknown





Jose Clemente Orozco
Martirio de San Esteban I, 1943



Arnaldo Roche-Rabel
Tentaciones, 1992

Amor por un dia

today, as for everybody else, is Valentine's Day. I don't really hate this day even though it's commercial as any other holiday. Reading another blog on commercialization, I wonder if there is any benefit for towards the holidays. If it is existence, then maybe commercializing the holiday works. What if we could commercialize Dia de los Muertos? Wal-Mart would carry skull candies, next to build your own altar kits, and department stores are unable to resist a clothing line. Then we would find upscale hierberias selling hard to find items like hummingbirds wrapped in red string. If you need one I can tell you where you can find one, a bit overpriced, but you don't find these just anywhere. Sure, there will be hacks, but is there an ultimate benefit to the culture?
If you laugh, it is too late. People have already started. Do we embrace a commercialization because of the exposure, or do we despise it for its shortcomings?



See the future...
Art, Apparel and Accessories available at juncopartner.etsy.com


Maybe I can get these few lines on a Valentine's shirt:

Duele
que mis palabras
ni labios
no te consumen

pero en mis sueños
estamos juntos
y en silencio


Happy Valentine's Day

Kill, Kill, Kill

I couldn't resist and I went to see the remake of Friday the 13th (1980): midnight show with Noe and his girlfriend. What did I expect? Definitely some murder, perhaps dismemberment, and mandatory sex & drugs. Yet, it was the curiosity of how 29 years would change the character that drove me to see this movie on opening day. I always enjoyed watching the Friday the 13th movies because of the helpless "protagonist". I wouldn't say these people deserved to die, but usually Jason wasn't killing research scientist or poets. There was a certainty that Jason's awakening would result in multiple deaths. That made it worth watching.
With the 2009 version I received what I anticipated although the sex was a bit too much and at one point comical. The deaths were so-so...no new forms of death, they were the same ones as before. Death by machete, bow & arrow, strangulation, etc. Even some of the scenes were reminiscent of the originals, but I think that's mostly why I would give it a 6 out of 10. There was a sense of comfort in knowing what was coming. You can't beat nostalgia.
Otherwise, the acting was bad, plot predictable, entertainment value minimal. But do you really want Oscar winning performances, top-notch actors and special effects? Or do you want Jason to kill, kill, kill? I know what I want.

Rigo Tovar

The quality bites, but I'm more interested in the song, and the way he immortilizes Matamoros, perhaps the last place I expected. I'm happy to know it's not all about New York - New York.



A work in progress inspired by this video. Hoping to do the same with others, possibly.


Querida Valle
after Rigo Tovar

en este lado de la frontera
brincamos para la cumbia,
banda, internacional, techno

en la pulga de San Juan
con las señoras maduras
vigilando las jóvenes

y no nos vamos
hasta que ahogamos
las penas

querida amor
siempre regresare
te bailare un guapango
querida valle

Talent

I have been helping out with the Gallery class at UTPA as a student assistant, and I have to say these students have talent. I didn't imagine they were capable of so much, the flier above as proof, in a short period. It's a bit difficult getting everyone to work on different tasks, but the class is working well so far. I wish i had people with this motivation to work with in other endeavours..but then again they didn't pay for it or working for a grade. lol. Regardless, they put a lot of effort into their work, and i'm looking forward to the rest of the semester. But I want to keep on with helping other's publish. I think after this semester I will have a better idea on setting reachable goals. And of course everything takes money, so I'll see how that goes. Continous thoughts, always another goal to reach.

February Travel

Planning some trips to San Antonio this month. One for a basketball game, the other to check out the arts scene. Hoping to learn more about art since I don't know much to begin with. Just taking a trip will do me some well though, regardless of reason.
I'm trying to get past a novel, Lying on the Couch, which is so-so at the beginning. Just finding it difficult to see a point or some type of uniqueness that I can cling onto. Will be posting more in the next few days, and definitely will have pictures from any trip I take. I have come to not hate S.A so much, but only for the arts. I'm still not crazy about the riverwalk or the way the buildings feel as if they will topple over me.


querida

las rosas
se caen
a mis pies
mientras
el ceilo
oscurece

otra vida
ha pasado.

classic

Finished reading Y no se lo tragó la Tierraby Tomas Rivera, and without attempting to sound articulate, I think I have found one of my favorite novels. I'm sure it's many other's favorite, but the language is beautiful, and the pieces are skimp glimpses of migrants. By the time I was born my family stopped migrating. But once in a while, and often in short warnings, I heard about my parents past as migrants. My sister being born in Des Moines, the long hauls in trucks with aunts and uncles. These stories relived something I had not known before, but felt in tune with. So now i'll be keeping my eye out for more of his work.
Every time I talk to friends I realize how behind my reading is, but I try to make up for it by having other experiences (traveling, editing,etc). Must write a poem for class soon. Two weeks passes by quickly. I think I should sleep on it and perhaps I will dream Villanelles. The other assignment, a pastoral, is already forming in me, but I don't know what I am trying to say. Initial thoughts:

If you cut
south texas
huisache,
a tar
covered stump
eliminates
buried,cut
and chopped ancestors
from coming back
to life as
hungry offshoots.