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.

Update

I want to see if there are any fountains in Mercedes. I imagine myself
secretly going through the city looking for the perfect one. Next to it
I can find some measure of peace, turbulent waters shifting besides me.
I can close my eyes and find myself living in a house on the hill. I can
drink from it, and think, there is no secret.