It’s Not News to Us
 |
 |
UPDATE: Ramiro Gomez on NPR: 6/29/2012: Click here.
West Hollywood artist Ramiro “Jay” Gomez Jr. – the guy who inserts cardboard paintings of immigrant laborers into the real landscape of Los Angeles – also paints them onto glossy magazine photos. Meet fresh uploads Nemesio at the end of his workday and Ofelia taking a break. Gomez’s Happy Hills blog is here.
New York band Outernational rocks the message in Spanglish with We Are All Illegals featuring Tom Morello, Chad Smith and Residente Calle 13.
VH Juan takes an up close and personal look at superstar Tejano band Los Mojados Guapos in this short segment from Behind La Musica.
School’s out, summer’s in. Where you going for vacation? Huh? We asked you a question!
OK then. Be that way. Two can play that game. Here’s our list of the Pocho Ocho worst possible vacation destinations:
8. Community service. Were you volunteered? Court-ordered? Did your mom rope you into it? Whether it’s babysitting bratty kids at church or painting over graffiti-ed walls that will be covered in new graffiti by the next morning, there’s nothing quite like serving your community.
7. The public pool. Why such a drag? Probably because it’s about 60% chlorine and 40% other peoples’ urine. Swim away!
6. Your family’s rancho in the old country. No running water, no AC, no TP, you may not speak the language, no TV, no Internet, your relatives laugh at you behind your back — or to your face — and you have no escape until your parents come back for you.
5. Sleeping under a cactus with your tío. What? Do Mexicans not do that anymore?
Gustavo Aguilar and Juan Cabrera, Mexican day laborers alone in a Twilight Zone desert, are confronted by a screaming protest against illegal immigration. Ours is a world of mirage and illusion, they remind us, and you have to believe it to see it.
POCHO Jefe-in-Chief Lalo Alcaraz won the Los Angeles Press Club’s top award yesterday (once again) for best editorial cartoon. Lalo, who photographed himself and his award with President Bartlet, tells the story and shares the cartoon on LaloAlcaraz.com. This is his sixth award from the journalism society.
The folks at Mun2.tv are back with the second part of their Curse Like A Mexican series. This time it’s how to properly deliver the comeback. The video is NSFW if people overhear it, know Spanish, and dislike cuss words. The English translations/subtitles are bleeped. The first episode is here.
If you’re black, you don’t know. If you’re brown, you remain in the dark. Red or yellow? Ditto — the Secret World of White People is hidden from your view. Reporter Ed Murphy goes under cover as a white guy to find out what’s behind the white door. The moral of the story? Be kind to your web-footed friends.
UPDATED JUNE 25: Now that the Supreme Court says it’s OK for Arizona’s cops to continue their demands for “papers,” this advice video for folks contemplating a drive through the Hate State of Arizona is even more critical. From Familia del Barrio. Watch and learn!
—
(MARCH 24) The U.S. Supreme Court today hears the appeal from proponents of the racist Arizona SB1070 law, which legalized racial profiling in the Hate State. Long before this vile measure was challenged by legal experts, it was spoofed by in the Mexican cartoon series Familia del Barrio.
Their animated episode Arizona-me details how the cartoon family wanted to cope with this foul attack on immigrants. Click the [CC] button for English closed captions. (NSFW language Spanish and English.)
And look below to see how their fans coped.
Mas…Driving While Brown? Try ‘Arizona-me’ (SB1070 NSFW video) *UPDATED
Previously on POCHO:But is that the end of the fascinating food factorama? No guey! Check out these eight other hidden powers of Comida Latina:
8. You can use beans to power a moped
7. Vegetarianism is a gateway to loose American values
6. Eating a boiled duck egg fetus cures impotence
5. You can help end world hunger by eating more, mijo
 |
 |
A bicycle is just basic transportation, really. Wheels, metal tubes, chains, gears, rubber, grease, paint if you’re lucky, a basket and maybe a bell. Yet sometimes it’s a vehicle that binds fathers and daughters together.
Brasil sends us the multi-award-winning O Plantador de Quiabos (the okra planter) in Portuguese with English subtitles and from San Francisco’s Mission District comes a documentary that introduces us to the family behind La Bicicleta Vieja (the old bicycle), Spanish with English subtitles.
Enjoy these two shorts – our Sabado Pochonte Double Feature!
Mas…Video Double Feature: Sometimes a bicycle is more than a bicycle
Check out The Coconut Tree, the new reggae-toned psychedelic video from Los Angeles band Fitter, shot in El Salvador. Fitter is James Ramirez, drums; Wilfredo Mendez, vocals, guitar and congas; and Edgardo Velasquez, bass and timbales. One question for the band: How can you shoot a vid in El Salvador and not feature a single pupusa? 😉
Day-to-day life in Canadia, our northern neighbor, looks perfectly normal (i.e., like Los United Estates) until something distinctly Canadian happens. ¿And Quebec? Vive la difference! Students in the Creative Arts program at Champlain College Saint-Lambert find inspiration in cheesy Mexican horror flicks as they re-imagine El Santo Contra El Chupacabra.
Invasion, “Asia graffiti & lifestyle magazine,” writes:
Two parts of Chicano hip-hop culture in particular have become popular in Japan:
the music, and the cars. When the Japanese do Chicano rap, they still rap in Japanese
instead of English, Spanish, or some mixture of the two. But the beat, the clothes
and the look are quite matched.
Peep this short video of Japanese lowrider hydraulics:
Mas…Konichi-wa, homie, from Japan’s cholos, lowriders y Chicano rappers
(PNS reporting from SILICON VALLEY) Social networking giant Facebook rolled out a new feature to its nearly one billion users today: Enhanced Liking, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg says gives users the option to waste even more time on the site.
The current Like version allows users to give a thumb’s up on their friends’ status updates, photos, and just about anything else they do on the Web. Enhanced Liking means a user can Like a Like, and so on, in endless iterations.
Zuckerberg said the concept of Enhanced Liking came to him years ago when he was got lost driving to see his friend and mentor Steve Jobs at Apple headquarters. “The address, dude, the address,” he said.
Zuckerberg finally made it to Apple, located at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino.
Mas…Facebook rolls out new ‘Enhanced Liking’ feature to all users
Alex Koll pulls back the curtain on his dad’s tormented history, his violent career and his tragic end: The life and death of a Piñatador.
(PNS reporting from the NUTMEG STATE) Connecticut became the 17th state to approve Medical Menudo yesterday when the state’s Senate gave overwhelming approval to a bill passed earlier by the Assembly.
“This is a new dawn for all Connecticutitians,” Sen. Juan Gopher (D-Bridgeport) told supporters. “The days of twitching, throbbing and sobbing alcohol victims waiting on sketchy corners for their menudo are over.”
The legislation, which awaits the expected approval of Gov. Nancy Wyman, allows non-profit collectives to dispense Medical Menudo (MM) to patients with a mariachi’s recommendation.
Prospective MM patient Rocio Balboa appeared excited by the news. “Gaaaaaaaah! My head. Ooook. It’s so bright. And stop shouting!” she told PNS.
But the policy does not enjoy universal support.
Yamil (“I’m Hispanic”) Piedra doesn’t like the shows, doesn’t think the comedies are funny, hates the dubbing and thinks everyone who does the Spanish voices sounds like they were recorded while sitting on the porcelain convenience. YMMV.
La Chilindrina has officially retired.
The lovable freckled child star and a main character of El Chavo del Ocho is saying adios to her 40-year entertainment career.
La Chilindrina gave POCHO an exclusive interview after the recent Univision television upfronts and said the main reason for ending her long run as La Chilindrina is that she “finally hit puberty:”
I think I’m ready to go out and see the world, maybe explore some of these weird feelings I’m having.
Confiding that it was getting awkward working with her male co-workers, half of whom she had a crush on — causing her to flub her lines — she confessed she can no longer fit into her costumes since she now needs a real brassiere instead of a training bra.
Mas…La Chilindrina announces her retirement — she finally ‘hit puberty’
Famous 1950s cover girl Bettie Page gets a shoutout from Medellin, Colombia’s Dorados Rockabilly Trio in this new music video. Hat tip to Josh Norek and The Latin Alternative for the link.
Adidas and fashion designer Jeremy Scott honored the nation’s Juneteenth holiday today by releasing the new JS Shackles sneakers, which feature orange plastic cuffs, evoking the très à la mode suffering of black slaves in 19th Century America.
Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, honors African-American heritage by commemorating the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas in 1865.
Adidas’ celebratory post on Facebook went up with the question: “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?” Many FB users commented that the shoes as “slave wear” and asking why anyone would want to voluntarily wear shackles.
Mas…Adidas honors Juneteenth by releasing ‘Shackle’ sneakers
They tried to discredit the calendars that clearly show the Mayan Doomsday Apocalypse is set for December. They laughed at the evidence of Ancient Astronauts who worked with indigenous people to build the pyramids of Aztlan. But now their own lasers — lasers controlled by a university named after the man who ripped Tejas away from La Raza — now their lasers have found Ciudad Blanca, the legendary lost “White City” of gold in Honduras. Who is laughing now?
The University of Houston reports:
A field team from the University of Houston and the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) has mapped a remote region of Honduras that may contain the legendary lost city of Ciudad Blanca.
Mas…Lasers in the Honduran jungle pinpoint lost White City of Gold
The premise is totally stale (has it really been five years since the Mac vs PC ad campaign?) but the laughs are still fresh! Check out Mex vs BC (born citizen.)
Not all pochos love hot chile, but the ones that do understand that there is more than one way to respond to that too-hot picante sauce in your mouth. Here’s a list of our Top Eight:
8. Denial – It’s not that hot. Maybe you are trying to impress your old country relatives, or a date, or anyone. But you know better. It’s hot and it stings.
7. Exaggerated mouth breathing – No one has ever confirmed that breathing heavily in and out of your mouth, as though you were doing lamaze, makes the chile any less hot, but you try it anyway.
6. Drinking water – Predictable. This doesn’t help of course. Drink milk* which does.
Have a laugh on Dad with stand-ups Alfred Robles, Nathan Timmel, Theo Von, Willis Turner, Beny Mena, and Mary Mack. (NSFW language.)
Are you a father? If so, your big day is here.
Dinner plans are in motion. The finger paints are out. You can hear the ugly ties and BBQ equipment being poorly wrapped by tiny hands with still-developing fine motor skills. Glitter is strewn about the kitchen like the aftermath of a grisly triple Twilight-vampire murder scene.
Now, let me cast a doubt on your most precious day, “Dad,” if that’s what the little sticky-fingered heathens are calling you.
Take a really good look at that kid. The one – who like some Pavlovian dog – wants ice cream every time he/she hears bells. The one who seems to outgrow shoes every 18 hours and who loses his/her retainer every other week. The one who bit you when you were trying to leave the park the other day and vomited all over your car’s interior like some twisted Dr. Moreau sprinkler system gone awry.
It is estimated that 4-10% of men are unwittingly raising someone else’s kid.
Mas…Happy Father’s Day: Are these the niños you were looking for?
The Hawaii homies of the Hope Chapel West Crew in Oahu rap about the day-to-day realities of The Dad Life. Because that’s how they roll.
It’s not too late to get a cool present for Dad. But another necktie for Father’s Day? Seriously? Does he even WEAR neckties except for funerals or court? But he eats, am I right? So make him a napkin necktie — the spork of dining fashion. This video shows you how.
Every vote counts, pochos! And Mexican rockers Molotov’s Voto Latino remind voters what’s important. We’ve got the lyrics here:
Mas…Molotov: ‘Voto Latino (para la igualdad de razas)’ (music video, lyrics)
Father and Son Chile-Eating Contest: Quién es más macho? The East Pocho Optimists Club once again sets up shop at Fernando Valenzuela Field for their annual chile-eating contest, which pits father-son teams against each other to see who can ascend the Picante Podium of Pain. The winning team wins even more chile! Sunday, noon.
Bronche: Angry Bull cocktails (Red Bull, tequila, orange juice) are just $3 and Dads get all the Mexican Meatloaf Sliders they want for free on Father’s Day at TGI Viernes in the Rancho Pocho Mall. Sunday 10 AM – 2 PM. Mention my name, Chale Knickerbocker, for a blank stare.
Mas…Around Our Town: Where to go, what to do on Father’s Day
The two posses walk the walk, stare the stare and meet up in neutral territory. What comes next?
PBS says it’s a true story:
In January 2007, Rachel P. Salazar and Ruben P. Salazar were living 9,000 miles apart and completely unaware of each other’s existence. But when an email meant for Rachel accidentally went to Ruben, it wasn’t long before an ordinary mistake began to look like an extraordinary stroke of luck
.