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.