A Much Needed Update

I meant to post the following back in the beginning of the month, but I got busy.

It's been quite some time since I updated here, but there have been many developments. When I last wrote I was feeling a little uninspired. My program, while it sounds like a good idea, lacks a few things, including help during the job search. They provided us with some training for 6 weeks, and 5 weeks of student teaching. Then they said there would be hiring events and an online application where we could schedule interviews. No hiring events occurred and the online application remained empty and still does to this day. It was left up to the individuals to set-up interviews. I sent out my resume to a total of about 75 schools and heard back from maybe 6 or 7. More then half of them said there were no vacancies and I got a couple of interviews and all of them said they would contact me soon, but never did. The last interview I had was at a school I really liked in the Bronx for a bilingual 1st grade position back on November 8th and 9th. My mom and sister visited NYC for the first time on the 9th and fast forward to the Friday before Thanksgiving I realized that the shortened week would make it difficult to set-up more interviews, I hadn't heard back from anyone, so I looked up some flights. I found a flight home for a good price and was at home for the holiday, 90 proof, 2 Margarita Mondays and plenty of time for fun spread over 10 days. I even set out to get some things accomplished. I entered myself into the substitute system for the NYC school district and I meant to send out more resumes, but I didn't.
The day of my 2nd Margarita Monday, the day before I was due to head back to NYC , I got a call from the school in the Bronx I last interviewed with back on the 8th/9th (who said they would get back to me within a week) and the principal said some things had changed, but she would like to speak with me, and if I'm still interested they would like to offer me the position. I agreed of course (the school seemed really well organized, with well-behaved children during my sample lesson, a clinic on-site with a dentist, and a good use of available resources) I couldn't make it until Wednesday morning so as I got off of the red-eye I hopped on the subway, went to my place, changed into a tie, and headed to the school. I spoke with the principal and the change was that the position they now had in mind for me was a Cooperative Team Teaching (2 bilingual teachers, 1 SPED, 1 Gen. Ed.) Kindergarten Teacher position. I agreed, which means....I'M EMPLOYED and I TEACH KINDERGARTEN. I went in Thursday the 29th and Friday the 30th of November to observe the current teachers, and then took over for the Gen. Ed. teacher Monday December 3rd.
It's been a handful thus far. The other teacher and I try to plan but our classes have not really gone according to our plans. It's a really good situation for me to start out in with another teacher and only 25 students. Kindergarten is a lot harder then I remember it being. My kids know what a Trapezoid, Rhombus, and Hexagon and there is quite a bit of a literacy block for them as well. I mostly remember playing with blocks and puzzles. My school has a "mini-building" for the kindergarten classes, of which there are 8. Of course I'm the only male kindergarten teacher, and most of the others seem to be married and have kids. The school is HUGE. There are over 1000 kids and its incredibly diverse, which I love, but it also has shown me a bit of racism just in my first few days. There is a significant Latino population of mostly Mexicans and Dominicans, a large population of Albanians, as well as Asian and White populations. My co-teacher is Dominican and she has trouble telling some of the kids apart and told me that "all the mexican kids look the same." Another day one of the other K classes was lining up to go in their room and one of the janitors say one of the asian students in the class and yelled "AAYYY It's my man The Golden Child." I couldn't believe it. I guess its better to have the diversity with a little bit of ignorance rather than none, or blatant racism. I don't know.

Well I'm stuck in the airport currently on my way back home for the holidays. I still have about an hour here, but I want to do some school stuff. I want to re-vamp the seating chart. The kids are way to chatty now. Anyway hope everyone is doing well.

Memorium

I've been bad about the blog again. I need to update about my new job and things but I haven't had much time yet. As a place holder let's all remember the great Ike Turner. McSweeney's ran a great piece at the onset of the war in Iraq about how Ike Turner would handle Restoring American's Honor. Check it out.

He may have been a dick, but he was a great musician:

PONOMA!!!

Yes, you read correctly "PONOMA" as in "PONOMA, CA."

As much as people tell me how horrific, brutal, and primitive the sport of Boxing, I must admit I have a fascination in it. There's something about the fact that it is 1 person vs. 1 person, a couple of gloves for "protection," and 1 will against the other's. I'm not going to justify the sport, heck, I know that I wouldn't be able to do it. I prefer team sports where I do not have to depend on only myself and blame only myself. I prefer the ability to blame others and myself (mostly others).

The point of this is while my mom and sister were in town this weekend there was a big Welterweight Championship fight: Cotto vs. Mosely . I had no idea about it until the day of and after walking around all day suggested to my sister we just see if they even had tickets at Madison Square Garden. They had tickets and even though they were a little more expensive then I had hoped I did not have any other plans and the thought of watching championship boxing in the Garden where Ali-Frazier took place was compelling enough. We got there at about 7:30pm. I thought for sure the main event go on by 9pm (6pm PST for PPV), but I was wrong the main event started at 11pm. The undercards were good, a few went all 12 rounds, there were two 1st round knockouts, grand entrances with mariachi music, and "Sugar" Shane Moseley was a hometown boy of sorts hailing from Pomona, and now living in Claremont. The crowd was fiercely Puerto Rican in support of Miguel Cotto so decided I would not dare to openly cheer for Moseley, but just planned on enjoyed the fights.

As the entrances began Moseley came out first and up on the jumbotron of Madison Square Garden his hometown of "PONOMA, CA" (the announcer was correct, however, in his pronunciation). I noticed immediately and just the sight of this made me feel like I was in some bizzaro David Lynch world (mostly because I could not stop thinking of Michael Michael's recap of a scene from Inland Empire, which I still have not seen, where one character repeatedly says "POMONA....POMONA...," but in my mind it was replaced with "PONOMA"). Immediately the fear of rooting for the underdog disappeared and I yelled "PONOMA" throughout the rest of the fight. This word has infected my brain now. Each time I think of Pomona, whether its the school, the city, Pomona, KS, or even typing the word "Pomona," I have an urge to switch the nasals. Moseley, ended up losing, but PONOMA wins.

The Armani Exchange

Those of you who know me that this is and accurate representation of my lifestyle. I hang out in well lit playgrounds with my skinny friends who look hungry, tired, and strung out.

Many of you may be well aware of what happened to me on November 1st. I did phone (I dislike the term drunk-dial. It implies a certain amount of regret and I do not regret calling any of you who did get calls. It was more calling people who I normally might not call) many of you and tell you the wonderful thing that happened to me at the Armani Exchange. I was looking for a gift for my Cooperating Teacher with whom I had been student teaching for the past month. I wasn't sure what to get but I was walking around Lincoln Center. I did not want to get a gift certificate from Barnes & Noble. I was thinking of getting some candles or lotions or something. I went to Columbus Circle and was surprised by the amount of swankiness I encountered. For some reason I decided to go to the top floor where ran into a variety of velvet ropes and bouncers for restaurants I most definitely will never eat at in my life. I decided to make a full circle and go back down and I walked in front of the Armani Exhchange. A gentleman in front of the store dressed in gym gear said "come to our Men's Health event" and handed me a card.

"When is it?" I inquired.

"Right now.... Get a free cocktail," He responded.

"Really?!?" Clearly I was intrigued by the prospect of free booze.

"Yeah," he confirmed.

I walked in up to the beefy looking bartenders and got some sort of Skky vodka and energy drink concoction. Pleased with myself I began to browse the store as if I belonged. I could probably be picked out a mile away. I hadn't showered that day, spent most of the day in my boxers and a t-shirt and decided to throw on some jeans and a hoody before I left. A woman asked me to enter some sort of drawing, but I declined and browsed the back of the store, where I thought I might find cheaper bargains. I was mistaken. The cheapest thing I could find was a belt for $58. I began to feel a little uncomfortable and I was planning on leaving soon, but I wanted another drink. I thought they might turn me away since I was ordering my first drink only minutes prior, but pleased, I received my second drink, this time a concoction of Skky vodka and Vitamin Water which I just learned 50 Cent endorses (this was a Men's Health event, I think the brilliant minds at this fact-driven magazine recently uncovered a study that showed by mixing harmful alcohol with a "healthy drink" the harm of alcohol is magically erased).




So I stayed in the store a little longer to finish my second and continued to "browse," which at this point had become quite redundant and most of the other, more properly dressed patrons were beginning to, or had already seen through me. Suddenly, a very fit young woman stepped onto a table in the middle of the store and began to perform a contortion/yoga routine. This was supposed to represent "health" I imagine, but it made me extremely uncomfortable. There was an official photographer looking gentleman there who was taking photos, but there were a number of 30-50 year old men who took out their camera phones and proceeded to take photos for their own private use. Disgusted I downed the remainder of my 2nd drink and went for my 3rd which held me over for the rest of her routine and into the next session.

Two gym rat looking men with shoulders that appeared to swallow their heads began to hold a demonstration and the best exercises to do in the home (push-ups and squats apparently) which was followed by a fitness Q&A session. Another attendee received a free week pass to the Reebok Sports Club for answering a question. In order to bide my time during the session I went for my 4th. I was not drunk and of course I was going for the healthy side effects of the vitamin water. After the Q&A session the vodka finally started to get to me. I went up to one of the gym rats and pried a bit.
"What's so great about the Reebok Sports Club if the best exercises you can do can be done for free at home?" I asked.

"Have you been there?" he responded.

"Nooope" I declared.

"Here take one of these" he said as he handed me a week pass to the club. Just as my drunken mind had plotted.

I finished off my fourth and feigned further browsing. At this point I had spent a good hour and a half in the store, much longer than I planned. With the confidence of a King I went up for my 5th drink and as the bartender handed me my final drink the manager informed him to "close it up!" I hope it was because of me. I finished off my 5th quicker than the rest and drunkenly wandered back to Barnes & Noble and settled on the gift card that I had previously decided not to buy.

What a painfully awkward, fun, and free night.

I realized just how drunk I was at about 2:30 am when I woke up sprawled across my bed fully clothed with the light still on in my room.

I hope I find more shallow, alcohol serving, free events.

The Go! Team

I thought I wanted to go to The Go! Team concert, but I couldn't find anyone to go with and the tickets were sold out. I thought to myself "you know what this is going to big a big dance party, you love that stuff," so I tried to see what I could find on craigslist, which most of the tickets were double face value, but one guy said he would sell me a ticket or face value so I figured I'd go. "dancedancedancefunfun" was the was the way the concert was described to me by Kevin. For a better review that I can probably write see The Go! Team. I got there early and went around the corner to Whole Foods to get some eats, and I did, but I got ripped off, another reason why I hate Whole Foods. Great show, good opening acts including the Beatards, which from the looks of them I thought I might want to shoot myself, but their DJ threw down so good old school beats. When The Go! Team finally went on at 11:30, even though doors opened at 8, it was a kick ass show. The only mistake Kevin made was it was more like DANCEDANCEDANCEFUNFUN. I was front and center for the whole show and danced my pants off right in front of and along with Ninja. It was also great venue. The Bowery Ballroom which is owned by the same people from Terminal 5 really knows what their doing. I think this is the smallest of their venues and it is like a very old ballroom with a small balcony over the bar in the back and the stage up front. I'm not sure what my next show will be, but so far I'm 2 for 2 here, so it better be another good one

Sorry for the delay

So I had every intention of blogging during the past 12 days or so, but I didn't. I have plenty to talk about and couldn't decide exactly what I wanted to write to I might just save some, especially the part about me being disappointed in Bilingual Ed. I'm sure that will continue after I get a job an everything.

Last week I headed to the M.I.A. show at Terminal 5. According to the bartender it had only been open 8 days or so. It's really a great venue. Three levels, a large, reasonably, priced bar on each level, a pit/floor on the bottom, lounge-type seating and standing room on the top two. I asked for a Tanqueray on the rocks before the show and the bartender started to pour me Bombay Sapphire, she caught herself halfway through the difficult order, but I didn't mind. Sayjal and i were on the top so we could sit down. The opening act, who I don't know was ok. The DJ had some great mixes/beats, but he shouldn't have sung, the girl was an amazing dancer, the second MC was garbage. Then M.I.A. came on, first of all she's beautiful and her outfit was great. The show was amazing! High energy, played all the songs the crowd wanted to hear, filled the stage with fans dancing with her, and kept the show going into the wee hours of the night. I had a great time and am definitely heading back to the venue, it was great!

I had a bunch of homework last weekend too, so I didn't do much exploring, but I hung out with Phoebe which was nice. I miss home a bit, but only because its familiar, but I know I would get as bored as I do hear sometimes, and I would probably just stay in rather then go for a walk or explore around like I do here.

Tonight I went to the Schoenberg Center this evening for a screening of James Brown: The Man, The Music & The Message which was great to see, especially just up the street from The Apollo, it made me wish I had made it out to the memorial early this year, but I'm glad I saw him last year. The best parts of the doc were the scenes about James' dancing, which was throughout the film, when Little Richard whipped his mullet back, and when James offered an explanation of the chase and his arrest in the late 80s. He said he was scared and took off, a bunch of cops came up to his truck and one emptied his gun on his tires and then reloaded, he took off because he knew that "if someone shoots at you that many times and doesn't kill you and then reloads you got to get out."

I'm heading to The Go! Team show tomorrow, and I'm excited, I imagine it as a larger dance party.

My last week of student teaching is this week and I have to buckle down and look for a job.

I'm getting a little sick, the 1 kiddo started coughing tuesday, by the afternoon there were 3, and by thursday it was like half the class, I avoided it pretty well until friday, but I'm trying to tackle it before it really gets me. Good news, I don't have TB, I don't know what but for some reason I got super paranoid that I had it, not that the test got bad or anything, I just got paranoid. Ok well I'm out.

Happenings

I went to Atlantic City, my hopes were high, my losses minimal, in comparison to the past, and I left unsatisfied. Not enough free drinks, minimums that are far too high ($25!!!!). Luckily I found an $11 dollar table ($10 plus a mandatory $1 side bet), but when the pit boss said next boot was going to $15 I booked it.

I was yelled at on the train on the way back. I was waiting for the restroom and an elderly couple drinking budweiser and cuddling was nearby. The guy got up to go to the restroom and I told him someone was in there (a mistake I already made) and the woman yelled "excuse me!" from her seat, I looked at her, confused, and she yelled louder "I SAID EXCUSE ME!" I looked to another nearby passenger and shrugged, they went back to cuddling and drinking.

My Cooperating Teacher says "libary."

Someone peed in the hall last week, thankfully I didn't have to deal with it.

Today someone threw up, in the class, gross. I think she made herself the little brat, one girl spit into the trash, the other girl looked in the the trash can and then spewed, and missed the trash can.

I'm going to M.I.A. on Friday, should be fun.

I can't believe I missed this show:

If not for me, do it for Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and Johnson

Or at least do it for you! I just read about this and all of you folks in LA need to go see this seriously:

Point Break Live!

Grapes, the Important Things in Life, and School

In the interest of food, let me say this. I seem to have lost touch with grapes the past year or so, and today I rekindled a romance with them today, they are delicious. Do yourself a favor and have some delicious grapes.

I've found the important things in life now (in no particular order): a liquor store that carries Bushmills, a fine grocery store, a laundromat steps from my apt, a coffee place steps from my apt, a place with a decent burrito (though very little meat) around the corner, a place with pozole, and the fire escape to sip cocktails on. The view is quite nice:

School went well for my 1st week. I hate tattle-tails, but it reminded me of a good way my 2nd grade teacher dealt with them, the gripe box. There were no tattles, you had to write them down (good practice for writing), which discouraged some because most kids don't think their tattles are important enough to write down, and you don't have to deal with it till the end of the day. That's definitely going to be implemented in my class if I teach kids that young.

Some of the best things that happened were 1. helping the kid who is the farthest behind read a book and then seeing him run to the teacher and exclaim that he read me a book. And 2. Getting this note from a little girl about halfway through the week, you may notice there is even a little ponytail/bun on the stick figure, how cute is that?

















This week I'm getting evaluated on a reading in front of the class. I had to come up with 2 Goals for the class I will have once I officially started. Our Fellow Adviser told us about it for a week, but of course I gave myself 2 hrs (oh time management skills), but she was quite happy with what I came up with. I just want to get my kids writing, it'll help them out in everything they do, so I said I would create a Hollywood Board (to incorporate where I'm from, CA) into the class and have the kids write reviews of movies, tv, and music. It was a little more in depth than that, of course, but thats the basic gist of it. Well this week is shortened with tomorrow off, which is nice, but I'm already 1/3 of the way through training which is kind of scary, 2/3 more and I should be a teacher in a classroom.

1st Day in School

So today was my first day student teaching. This week, technically, I'm only supposed to be "observing" and that is mostly what I did today. I slacked in jumping right in and getting the 4th grade class, since I do want to do a little more writing, so I ended up with Sra. Alvarado and her Dual Language classes. Bilingual Ed. works a couple of different ways here; Dual Language the program I'm observing is taught with two classes switching between two teachers. 1 class is more proficient in English the other more in Spanish, one teacher does all English, the other all Spanish. Sra. Alvarado does all Spanish. I think, for myself at least, I'd rather do Transitional Bilingual Ed. where kids start out younger with like 75% Spanish and continue on through school with less Spanish and more English across all their subjects, but we'll see what's available when I actually begin my job search. The main critique I have of the Dual Language Program I observed was I think that its a bit too much movement for 2nd graders, they are moving every hour to hour and a half, and I think they need to just sit down and settle for a couple of hours, maybe the teachers could rotate, or alternate days, these kids definitely need to settle.
I've been reading a bit about "classroom management" in the books the program provided for us, but Sra. Alvarado needs a little bit of that. Kids need to know that they don't talk when she talks, or during a test. They were all chatting away all through they're math test, I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but that just won't fly when I get my class. I think there needs to be a little more consistency too, at times she just let them talk away, others she called them out. I think coming in mid-year I'm going to have to establish some rules and stick to them, and then maybe ease up and start to smile and laugh a little later on. I do have to admit that it was one of the cutest things when I heard "yay!"s when the students heard I would be around for a whole month, but I'm not gonna let that phase me. I have to do a reading lesson next Tuesday, and they are going to listen; I'm not going to be reading for no reason. I have some ideas to engage them and ask questions though, but we'll see how well it works.
I was a little disappointed by the recess situation they only get recess with their lunch, nothing else. I was hoping for some Red Rover action, but I'll live. The scary part about lunch was when they were released out into the yard a large contingency of students headed for the fence where street vendors sold them icees, snow cones, popsicles, hot dogs, etc. I realize this is an urban city, but I can only imagine what would have happened if some creep was selling stuff to kids through the fence in my elementary school yard. It's going to be a lot different from my experience though.
Well I'm exhausted and have to wake up early again tomorrow to do it all again.

A Place to Sleep

I found a place to live! I moved left Sayjal's room yesterday with my three bags and moved to 568 W 149th St New York, NY 10031. Then I headed up to Target to get an air-mattress so I could finally have something to sleep on. The room I moved into had two of it's walls painted a ghastly pink/magenta, and although I thought about going to the final Mets game (good thing I didn't, sorry Michael) I helped out my new housemates (Chad and Thaddeus) paint the room. The pink/magenta didn't really bother me, it wasn't pretty, but they had insisted they intended to paint it before I even came, they even had paint and brushes ready when I got here yesterday.
Last night I couldn't help but think my room looked like a crack den. There was an air matress on the floor, poorly painted walls and not much else in the room. I should have gotten a picture of it, but I just got my internets going today, sorry folks.





The neighborhood is nice, its mostly Dominican/Puerto Rican families with very few sprinkles of younger white people that are beginning to move into the area. I'm right on Broadway and 149th, my stop is at 145 on the 1 train, or I can go down 145th to St. Nicholas for the A train. It's not the part of Broadway you may think of first, but I like it. I'm happy with the room, and the people. The room is about the size of my room at home, maybe a little smaller since the closet protrudes out into the room, but its a decent amount of space I can work with. My housemates are both in Education as well, Chad is an Educational Consultant, teaching teachers, and Thaddeus is a Teacher, working with kids trying to earn their GED in order to go to college, and they were both English majors, so there's 3 English majors and teachers of different sorts all under one roof, should be fun. I only signed a 6 month lease, just to try it out first, I was a little wary at first being unfamiliar with the area and hearing from all different types of people that they didn't want to live above a certain street, but the area is fine, I walked around the other night at like 11 without a problem and one of my housemates came back late last night with no problems. I was going to go ahead and sign for a year, but I figured 6 months was good for now since I'm new in this town. The best part about this place is the price! It's about 4-5 hundred dollars cheaper than the other places I was looking at, which is great as someone who's going to have to start paying back some loans in November, and also as someone who is cheap.
Well I think we're going to get back to work with another coat of paint soon, but I wanted to share the good news with all of you readers (I'm not sure if there are many). I'll see about getting some pictures of my place up soon as well, it may still resemble a crack-den a little, but I also bought some curtains today, so maybe things will start to look up.

Bobby Womack - Broadway Walk

It Was So Soft

As most of you should know, I'm alive and I made it to NYC. After getting t JFK I headed over to Penn Station to meet Sayjal. We both lugged my stuff (and got pretty sweaty) over to Columbia and then I went to the Port Authority to take a bus to CT. On my way to the Port Authority somoneone commented on how "crazy" I was with a "mad blood red" backpack, so I either have some street cred, or I'm a target now. I mostly slept on the bus, which most likely made my neighbor uncomfortable because I kept leaning towards her. Oops. I actually got on the wrong bus, my friend told me specifically to get on an express bus. I grabbed a bus to New Haven pleased that it arrived in two hours, as my friend had told me it should take two hours. The driver kept yelling about a different "express bus," but I thought I was fine. As the bus was leaving I realized I was supposed to go to Hartford, not New Haven, but the driver let me stay on and I didn't even have to pay extra, it just took an extra hour and a half longer than it should have.
Connecticut was nice. Very forest-y. I stayed at my friend's house in Storrs which is where UConn lies. I saw some wild turkeys on Saturday morning. Then we headed toward Boston for a 16 year old girl's birthday. We had to go pick her up at the Perkins School for the Blind, which apparently, back in the day, is where Helen Keller went, and its one of the most famous Schools for the Blind in the country, that's what they told me, but I never heard of it. This girl was a friend of my friend's family, she had some brain swelling a couple of years back and lost her vision and had some neurological problems, it was sad. I met this other kid who was listening to sports scores on the internet, which was fascinating, and we talked about sports for awhile. Then we went to eat at a Mexican Restaurant called Margaritas.
Margaritas sucks. I could have gone for a burrito, but instead I went for something safe, Chile Verde. I got like 2 chunks of pork in the plate and 3/4 of a plate of rice and beans. I also ordered a Mojito, they were "new" and it wasn't Monday so I restrained from the namesake of the restaurant. It also sucked, too much sugar, and the mint was wilting. The hardest part of the meal was this little 16 year old girl wanted to talk to me in Spanish, which I could use the practice with, so I spoke to her in Spanish, but she was hitting on me saying things like "eres perfecto" followed up with things like "do you know what I mean by that?" and giggling. She also asked about how to know if a boy is flirting with you, it was all very awkward and made me very uncomfortable. The meal took like 3 hours, it was agonizing to have to go through that the entire time, but we were in the area for like 4 and a half hours, at the school and all.
We headed back to Storrs, and went to my friend's mom's friend's (its a doozy I know) birthday party. The hosts were Puerto Rican and they had some of the most delicious pork I've had in my life. I was so full, but I couldn't stop eating it, it was so good. The strangest part about this party was it was a kind of Great Gatsby-esque 40s themed party, everyone wore hats and dresses, except for me and my friend and family. There was also kind of a Spanish/Latino Fetish going on with some people. People there heard about "Raul from California" being there and really wanted to meet me. This one guy said he had always wished his name was Raul, but it wouldn't go with his last name, Blakbad, or something. He had spent 13 years in Spain and even looked like he was Spanish with slicked back silver hair a fine mustache and beard, a long fingernails to play Spanish guitar. I had heard of "yellow fever," but I never met people that were so into Spanish culture, it was kind of strange.
The next day I got me a sleeping bag to sleep in back in the city and headed back, made it to Columbia and have been looking for a place to live ever since. I'm looking at a few places today, I already saw a couple of places, some good some bad. I really just want a place where I can finally unpack some things. I've never wanted to unpack as badly as I do now. The welcoming event was pointless, although I did get a free 30 day unlimited metro pass, sweet. Last night was my first training session. I've been sleeping on the hardwood floor here, which isn't terrible, but Sayjal was gone for the night and said I could sleep in her bed last night, it was so soft.

Never Could Say Goodbye

Peace Homies.

Love, respect, and the nothing but the best to all of you.

Arrested Development- People Everyday (Reprise)

Junior Walker and the All-Stars- (I'm a) Roadrunner

I Can't Stand It

Ann Peebles- I Can't Stand the Rain

Altyrone Deno Brown- If You Love Me

2 Burritos 1 Incident

I set out to talk about burritos here, in addition to other things, but I guess that mean I need to pick up the slack and talk burritos. I've had two burritos since I've started this blog. Unfortunately when I enjoy a delicious burrito it usually is at an ill-prepared moment. I am hungry, I want a burrito, I eat a burrito. I do not prepare myself with cameras to document the experience. Hopefully I can be better prepared in the future, but until then my words will have to suffice.

Last Thursday, with the original plan of going to The Cave that night, I headed over to Allison and Stacy's new place in Highland Park. I came with an arrived with an appetite, and although Allison's freshly baked cookies were exquisite, they could not stave off the beast that was Hunger in my belly. We took a walk to buy some beers at 7 Eleven and I was almost tempted to get horrible Mini-Mart food. Luckily we had passed enough proper establishments on the way that I fought off the beast of my belly. When I alerted Allison to the beast she mentioned there were some stands she had been to before that were good, I tried to be adventurous and suggested Tacos Ricos across the street from us. We went over, there was no line so I quickly ordered a safe selection: Chile Verde. About 5 mins later the man behind the counter brought some food out and thinking this establishment had food already prepared and merely wrapped it in a tortilla, I mistakenly thought that this was my order. I was pleased when he said it was not, the beast was forced to tear at the walls of my stomach a little longer. It took about 15 mins to prepare, fairly long in my experience, but this means that it was fresh, and oh yes, delicious. Under $4.50 and of a proper mass, I managed to silence the beast. All in a a great burrito that I would suggest to Allison and Stacy any day, but by no means the best, however, hands down it could beat one of those West Side burritos any day.


Yesterday I had plans to meet my friend Josephine from Walnut for a burrito. We worked out a day early in the weekend and Sunday was the day. Yesterday when we spoke about where she says "Chiptole," and a shudder fell down my spine. Chipotle is big, I'll give them that (I've seen bigger) and it will fill you up, but its overpriced and I feel like I'm in the Ikea of burrito joints when I walk in there. So I suggested and old friend Alberto's, I had just found a new location in Pomona that was actually very close to both Josephine's and my house on Holt and Union (Just opened, its not even on the website! http://www.albertosmexicanfoods.com/). I went with an old favorite the Machaca Burrito.



Here's a good idea of what Machaca looks like in dish form, though meat is not a garnish, its definitely a staple of the dish. Most people I run into are unfamiliar; its basically shredded beef with scrambled eggs, with red and green pepper, and onion. It's almost like an omlette, but more of a scramble, and its delicious at anytime of the day. It was about 5:30pm when we went. I loved this burrito, unfortunately I think its the only thing I've had at Alberto's. Places that say Chicken burrito, or Beef burrito, freak me out a little, I like to go with something that sounds a little authentic. But the Machaca burrito is extremely fairly priced at $2.90+tax, you can get it for $1.99+ if you go between 5am and 10am, but I've never made it that early. Its super cheap, and as good as any other Machaca I've had (except for Tepeyac, oh my! I hope I will have a post about one of those before I leave). All in all, it was a great burrito that I would recommend to anyone, especially for the price, come on people, its just as big and just as filling as any other burrito on that menu.

Now for the incident. When we ordered our respective burritos there were two women who had just arrived before us ordering middle aged, they arrived on bicycles and they were carrying grocery bag with items they looked like they had salvaged from dumpster diving. They also had one of the cutest little dogs I had seen with a black spots around his eyes, he was like a little bandit. They ordered ahead of us and sat across the patio from us while we ate. Josephine and I have only seen each other like 3 times since high school graduation, while working together for our english teacher, and then like 4 months ago when I found myself at UCSB for a diversity forum. We spent time catching up and didn't really pay attention to the other party until we heard a huge voice yell at the two women "Gimme my money." It was a large 6' 3" 300lb guy and he seemed angry. He wasn't their pimp, but he easily could have been a dissatisfied customer, and they all seemed a little drunk. There was another guy who showed up and he seemed like he was trying to calm everyone down. Josephine was freaking out, but I watched calmly and mapped out an escape if the situation called for it. We tried to keep talking but Josephine was clearly startled mentioning "I'm sweating R.J." The conversation seemed to just keep escalating with more "Gimme my money" and adding "Bitch," which one woman wisely cracked "I ain't a bitch, I'm THE BITCH." They left the patio area and headed back for their bikes. The guy who wanted his money was trying to take one of the woman's bikes and she was fighting him off then he cocked his fist back and Josephine really freaked and said we had to go. Our chairs dropped to the floor, which may have saved the woman from a punch because I think it startled all of them, but then the guy kicked their dog a couple of time, then he just took off mumbling. We took off, I felt bad so I took Jo to Claremont to Starbucks, somewhere where nothing like that would happen. Jo just said "That was intense, I can't believe we just witnessed a bum fight." Nothing too bad happened, but it made me love the reality that Pomona brings to life outside of the bubble of Claremont. You get to see the realities of this world that you hardly ever see in Claremont or Walnut, as ugly as they maybe, it always nice to be reminded of them.

Brown & Pavarotti

I did not plan on updating this everyday or anything, but I just found out that Pavarotti died and again I am reminded of the wonderful opportunities I was afforded by working for the LA Phil this summer. I did not meet Pavarotti, or James Brown, but both have played at the Bowl before. I was lucky enough to see James Brown here last September, in one of his final performances, which I know Andrew, Dan, and Wes will all agree was absolutely spectacular. The energy he had was immeasurable, and the fact that he had it well into his 70s is amazing. I never saw Pavarotti, and to be honest was never a huge fan of opera, but I did meet/see Placido Domingo, one of the other 3 tenors early on this summer. His mere presence was daunting, imposing, and powerful. A large man really by measures of height, mass, and voice, but his personality and his overall energy that he exuded is hard to describe. I can't imagine what it would have been like to meet all 3 of the 3 tenors, let alone James and Pavarotti. I can only imagine that this particular performance was as amazing as it is to see replayed, and probably 100 times more amazing live.

My job here at the Bowl this summer has really made me appreciate the use of strings in all music, from classical to modern pop. They really are quite exquisite if used properly and James Brown "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" easily displays the power of the string instruments (I mean really, they're used in everything from Folklorico and Mariachi music to Soul, Rock, and Movie Scores). Coupled with Pavarotti providing echoing and equally powerful (though of obviously quite different) vocals. I mentioned this video to both of my bosses late last week and they both seemed to grimace at the idea that there was a recording of Pavarotti and Brown performing together and the thought of them even attempting to collaborate. I could not argue more against this sentiment. Brown's track "It's a Man's Man's Man's World, and his album "Soul on Top" prove to me that an exclusively R&B and Soul/Funk artist can easily incorporate and benefit from the use of string arrangements in their music (just look at the majority of Soul up through today with Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators), but there is also room for the "crossing-over" of other artists including operatic and classically trained vocalists and artists to combine forces with some of the most influential pop and rock artists of the past and today.

I'm sad I never had the opportunity to see Pavarotti live, but I'm so happy I managed to see/meet Placido. Although they are by no means the same, the work they created together was amazing, and I did see James, which the work he made with Pavarotti was equally amazing. I'm just sad the world had to lose two fantastic vocalists in James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti in the same year.

Begin:

So this is it, my new blog. I actually have a previous blog from 2003 when I took a community college Intro to Philosophy class during my senior year of high school. Instead of turning in paper assignments we had to post our mid-term and finals on the blog, which the professor would read and grade us on. I'm slightly embarrassed by the essays I wrote back then; they seem to be fairly good for my age, but I can't remember how much I just bullshitted. I don't want to share it, but for some reason I can't seem to just delete it. It's the only record of that work I have. Either way, it seems better to just begin anew.

There's about to be a lot of changes in my life and I'm not quite sure what this blog is going to morph into. I know I'd like to include music at some point, possibly photos. Content will include updates about teaching in New York. I was recently inspired to create a "Burrito Blog," by a blog I encountered a short time ago when trying my damnedest to find somewhere in New York I could continue Margarita Mondays. The good thing about the Burrito Blog I found was it did help me find a place, Blockhead Burritos, which Heather and I scoped out on my last trip to New York. The food was not the best, but let's be honest here, the food at Casa de Salsa is not the best either, and is food really the most important thing at Margarita Mondays? The bad news about this Burrito Blog was I was saddened to see what this gentleman, who was taking on an important mission (rating burritos from across the U.S.), had managed to accomplish. Granted, he has a major database and ratings going of various burrito joints from across the U.S., but the places he had rated in Southern California were by and large from the West Side. I'm not saying that there cannot be a good burrito to be found on the West Side, although I didn't find any when I lived in Hollywood, but it seems to me that anyone that knows anything about California knows that there is a large Chicano/Latino population in Los Angeles and with a little investigation its easy to find out that East and South LA are where a large portion of this population lives, where I would think someone would at least attempt to go if they were going to rate burritos in Southern California. Upon further investigation, I came to further understand what kind of places this guy was rating, including this Blockhead Burritos (we didn't have much food there, but it definitely was no better than Casa de Salsa) and establishments like, and including Chipotle. I just feel like this guy should have gone out 20 mins down the 10 or the 60 to any Mexican Restaurant if he truly wanted undertake rating a Southern California burrito.

But I digress. Burritos and ratings may be a portion of my updates, after all when in Ecuador I did manage a 1/2 hour presentation in Spanish on the topic of Burritos. It seems to me that my updates will include job, living, music, etc. What won't be included in this blog is what Dan would refer to as "A-bloo-bloo-bloo, I'm so sad, I'm going to go listen to The Cure now because I'm a big baby." (Not that I suddenly changed my mind about The Cure, but come on that kind of post really just annoys all of us) I'm not going to become some teenager writing poety on livejournal, and please don't allow me to become this. (See below where Ong Back totally kicks The Cure in the face while Ong Bak's feet are on fire and The Cure cries. Thank you to Wes and Dan)



I'd like to begin speaking of music by a wonderful thought that I realized this weekend. I was driving with Kat through Hollywood trying to find a notary during her final days before she left for Ecuador/Argentina. We plugged in my ipod shuffle and Isaac Hayes "Walk on By"(a fitting song really since the next morning as I walked away from Kat after we said goodbye, we both seemed to just have some dust in our eyes). I've listened to this song quite a bit during the past year; the lyrics and the guitar that seems to splice into the song and reflect the heartbreak are both never cease to amaze me. I realized when listening to this with her that I had the wonderful opportunity to see not only Isaac Hayes perform this song live almost to a T of the recording, but I also saw the original writer of the song, Mr. Burt Bacharach perform the song. Amazing 2 legendary performers, 1 fantastic song, which I was able to see twice within a span of 6 weeks. I may have hated this job, but just that makes this experience worth it. Unfortunately I can't post the song just yet, but I'm not worried, most of y'all know the song, and don't need to hear it to understand how amazing the song, and each performer is.

On a final note, I should mention that the title of this Blog comes from none other than Ntongela Masilela, I'll never forget the day he said these words, and won't ever forget them.