New Aspirations

Yesterday I decided that my two latest aspirations are to bring back the fanny pack and to become a student of Zach De La Rocha from RATM. These may sound mundane to you but are of the utmost imortance to me. BUON DI!

Are You Saying I Need Church?

So I was passing by a church the other day with my friend and he tells me that I need church. I need church??? No, no, no. I don't need church. I was baptized catholic when I was 14 under the assumption that it was good. FYI: my grandmother made me do it. She called my mom one day and told her I was getting baptized the following day. As I grew older I stopped going to church. I'm not a religious person. Spiritual, yes. I do believe that there is a higher power, but which one im not so sure. Anywho, I went on into me not believing in the church's ways. He asked me what I meant. Well, birth control for one. If I get pregnant the church isn't the one whose going to help me take care of my child. They aren't the ones who are going to be give me free childcare. Everything you do according to the catholic church is a sin. So right off the bat you have to feel guilty about everything. I'm not one to feel guilty if I don't feel I need to be. Then the whole confession thing. Who is this priest that he can absolve my sins with a couple of hail mary's and heavenly fathers? If i've committed a sin then there are only a couple of people I have to confess to. That higher being I was talking about,and the person who I committed the sin against. The person whom I committed the sin against can absolve the sin i've committed toward him. If I steal his watch, I confess to him that i've stolen his watch. He asks why I did it, I tell him and then it's up to him to decide if he wants to forgive me or not. Not some damn priest who has nothing to do with the situation. Then the fact that most of these churches are in urban areas that aren't doing so well, economically and socially. What is the church's main focus? It's parishoners. Well if it's parish isn't doing so well, then why the hell are they so damn ornately decorated with gold this and bejeweled that? Huh? So why am I tithing you 10% of my income or what I can barely spare, if you're not going to be able to help me? Bunch of hypocrites I say. Then he tells me, "well, Jesus loves you." Like I have to go to some damn church and listen to this slapdick talk for an hour to know that Jesus loves me. Please. All he's waiting for is for the lot of us to leave so he can "school" his altar boys. I need church.........

realization

Today while on the metro. (I can proudly say that I take public transportation) I saw a hispanic man get off the train and walk down the platform with a bucket full of roses for sale. Being from Long Beach, the chances of him being of mexican descent was high. I thought to myself. Why? Why do we leave our homeland for another country that has raped us of our culture, tries to strip us of our language, pried our hands of territory that was once rightfully ours? And yet so faithfully, there we stand. As if nothing has happened to our people? As if these atrocities had never occured and are fables in the backs of peoples minds. "For a better future for me and my family". Is this what you call a better future? Is selling roses, grapes, cherries, oranges and other varieties of produce on the side of the 405, in any way better than the job previously held?

I find myself getting more and more into latino culture. And what spawned it all was a book called 'the tattooed soldier'. It made me begin to change my outlook on the meseros in hamburger joints, the guys who work at the carwashes, the day laborers that stand outside of home depots, the migrant workers in delano. Someone educated with a degree in engineering, wiping down tables at omega burgers. A university professor picking strawberries. Because we will do jobs that nobody else will do and still find integrity, honesty, and respect in what they do.
We are the children of the sun and we deserve our place.

Not One For Drama

So in a recent checking of my myspace page i get a message from someone that i used to kind of hang out with, that went along the lines of how come i didn't tell him that i was expecting. I told him that I wasn't and to gently, without hurting himself too much, remove his foot from his mouth. Then I kindly proceeded to delete him from my friends list. I'm not one for drama and if that's what you intend on causing me, I can easily do without you. Thank you kindly.

I've been tinkering with an old hat that i got from wal-mart. I plan on painting it but i can't seem to come up with a good lettering style. I already know what i want it to say though. I'll take pictures of the process.

I also found a book at the public library on Jose Guadalupe Posada. He's known for his skeleton drawings for the mexican holiday, Dia De Los Muertos. I plan on making a stencil out of one of his drawings and fixing it upon my triple5soul bag that i've had since forever. Probable pictures on that as well.

Speaking of pictures, I intend to start adding some once i can remember to get my USB into my bag. Hopefully that'll be soon.

Aztlan

A few passages from an anthology book that I'm reading titled 'aztlan' edited by Luis Valdez and Stan Steiner.

"Who is this person whose immediate ancestors were so incapable of living with indigenous america that they tried to annihilate it?" (xxxii)

"We left no teeming shore in Europe, hungry and eager to reach the New World. We crossed no ocean in an overcrowded boat, impatient and eager to arrive at Ellis Island in New York. No statue of liberty ever greeted our arrival in this country, and left us with he notion that the land was free even though Mexicans and Indians already lived on it. We did not kill, rape, and steal under the pretext of Manifest Destiny and Western Expansion. We did not, in fact, come to the United States at all. The United States came to us." (xxxiii)

The Academy

So something new that I stumbled upon alittle over a week ago was a show on the fox reality channel called 'the academy'. It's main focus is following a class of cadets while they go through training to become Los Angeles County Sheriffs. Hilarious little show. A friend of mine has a girlfriend who is currently an LA County Sheriff and she's been watching the show as well. About a week ago there was a cadet whose name is gallardo. He has his socks mixed up. While in his business attire he has on white gym socks on and during PT he has his business socks on. I asked her about it and she said that they give you 10 minutes to run from one side of the yard to the other,take a shower, change and return to formation. She also explained that sometimes people try and cheat, don't take a shower just change and either they're in such a hurry that they forget to change socks or don't completely realize that they haven't changed their socks. It's a good show. Thursday nights at 9pm PST on the fox reality channel. It never fails to give me a laugh.

Where Do We Go From Here???

So alittle introduction is what's needed, i suppose. Well, i'm an artist but i'm not getting paid for it yet, so in order to pay the bills i'm in retail. I'm 21 and my ipod is constantly plugged in my ears. I've got songs on there that i haven't even heard yet, and i still add to it. I'm originally from Long Beach, California but my new roaming grounds is the city of lost angels. I'm trying to take myself on a tour of los angeles graf art but it going slow for the time being. Right now i find myself dabbling in two different areas. One of them being construction. Never in my life would i have thought that i would be stamping and staining walkways. The other is an artistic endeavor that i always wanted to try but actually had the galls to do becos of a good friend that we'll call cowboy. Screenprinting. I'm finding that it's actually easier than previously thought. That's always good. Right now, im joust working on my art journal which is also going slow for some reason. i'm just in a rut i suppose. I can't find any ideas to inspire me. I'll be going to school in the fall for sign graphics. if you don't know what that is, here's a link. http://www.signcraft.com when i'm finished with that i'll be going into graphic design. whoop for me right? Well, not really cos I don't know what i want to do with it but i guess i'll find out along the way. So i guess that's it for the time being.

FIRST ENTRY

SO THIS IS MY FIRST ENTRY TO THE ADVENTURES OF BCoS. MORE TO COME LATER ON.......PEACE