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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.