war

WAR (the OG band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

by

warcincoThis 1981 single from WAR was the first time many non-Latinos heard of Cinco de Mayo. This photo shows the original guys at the Sunset Grill (7439 Sunset, next to their offices (Far Out Productions) at 7417 Sunset. The Guitar Center swallowed up 7417 a while back.

L-R: Charles Miller (sax, RIP), Lonnie Jordan (keyboards, the only original member in the new so-called WAR), Howard Scott (guitar, Lowrider Band), Harold Brown (drums, Lowrider Band), BB Dickerson (bass, Lowrider Band), Lee Oskar (harmonica, Lowrider Band). Not pictured, Papa Dee (RIP, percussion).

[DISCLOSURE: I was WAR’s National Director of Album Promotion for a while and ate so often at the Sunset Grill (like in the Eagles song) I could run a tab.]

Mas…WAR (the OG band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

WAR (the original band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

by

warcincoThis 1981 single from WAR was the first time many non-Latinos heard of Cinco de Mayo. This photo shows the original guys at the Sunset Grill (7439 Sunset, next to their offices (Far Out Productions) at 7417 Sunset. The Guitar Center swallowed up 7417 a while back.

L-R: Charles Miller (sax, RIP), Lonnie Jordan (keyboards, the only original member in the new so-called WAR), Howard Scott (guitar, Lowrider Band), Harold Brown (drums, Lowrider Band), BB Dickerson (bass, Lowrider Band), Lee Oskar (harmonica, Lowrider Band). Not pictured, Papa Dee (RIP, percussion).

[DISCLOSURE: I was WAR’s National Director of Album Promotion for a while and ate so often at the Sunset Grill (like in the Eagles song) I had credit.]

Mas…WAR (the original band): ‘Cinco de Mayo’ (1981 complete)

For the Vets: Anti-war poetry from WWI: ‘Dulce et decorum est’

by

Today we observe Veterans Day, AKA Armistice Day, which marks the end of the first World War.

Dulce et Decorum est was written by poet Wilfred Owen in 1917, and published posthumously in 1920. Owen served as a lieutenant in the conflict. The poem is known for its horrific imagery and condemnation of war.

They don’t use poison gas too much any more (attention ISIS and Bashar Al-Assad) but phosphorous flares and drone strikes aren’t much fun either.

POCHO dedicates this poem to all our veterans in gratitude for their service and sacrifice and with the hope no child will ever be sent into war again.

Mas…For the Vets: Anti-war poetry from WWI: ‘Dulce et decorum est’

‘Tokyo: Living La Vida Lowrider’ by Luis J. Rodríguez

by

luisnewA row of bald-headed, broad-shouldered young men stand together in the middle of a small smoky dance club called Sound Base. They wear well pressed Dickies pants, Locs (wrap-around shades), extra-long flannel shirts or long cotton athletic shirts in black and gray. A few had T-shirts with images of lowrider cars as well as cholas and cholos. In the club’s parking lot, adjacent to a lumberyard, several lowered 1950s and 1960s Detroit-built cars display airbrushed murals and shiny chrome, the one exception being a caramel brown 1941 Chevy truck.

Click here for POCHO’s review of Lowriting, from which this special sneak preview is excerpted.

On the stage are two members of Quetzal, one of East Los Angeles’ most popular bands: Quetzal Flores and his long-time companion, Martha Gonzalez. Flores strums a jarana, a traditional stringed instrument from the Mexican Gulf port state of Veracruz. Gonzalez is seated astride a cajon, also used extensively in the Son Jarocho tradition of that state, and thumps with her hands and fingers a driving cadenced beat as she sings in Spanish and English, words heavily tinged with Mexican/Xicano cultural and political significance.

Mas…‘Tokyo: Living La Vida Lowrider’ by Luis J. Rodríguez

Advanced Mexican leaf blower powers new Pentagon/Google robot

by


(PNS reporting from GUANAJUATO, MX) State-of-the-art leaf blower technology developed in Mexico’s Silicon Barrio is at the heart the Pentagon’s latest robot warrior, PNS has learned.

The PopoPotencia leaf blower engine powers the WildCat, a Boston Dynamics combat robot (video) built for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Mas…Advanced Mexican leaf blower powers new Pentagon/Google robot

For the Vets: Anti-war poem from WWI: ‘Dulce et decorum est’

by

Today we observe Veterans Day, AKA Armistice Day, which marks the end of World War I.

Dulce et Decorum est is a poem written by poet Wilfred Owen in 1917, during the War, and published posthumously in 1920. Owen’s poem is known for its horrific description of chemical warfare and condemnation of war.

The Masters of War are not supposed to use poison gas any more but drone strikes aren’t much fun either.

POCHO dedicates this poem to all our veterans in gratitude for their service and sacrifice and with the hope no child will see war again.

Mas…For the Vets: Anti-war poem from WWI: ‘Dulce et decorum est’

Venezuela’s Maduro Tweets to Obama: ‘Don’t bomb Syria’

by

basharmadurobffs


Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro knows what to do about Syria, based on careful study of the works of Jesus of Nazareth, Susan Sontag, Brother Malcolm X, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon, Robert Fisk, Hugo Chavez, Howard Zinn and Simon Bolivar.

The commie commandante, still BFFs with murderous Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, publicly shared his foreign policy expertise with His Excellency Barack Obama Monday afternoon:

Mas…Venezuela’s Maduro Tweets to Obama: ‘Don’t bomb Syria’