song for the viejitos

i used to work with (immigrant & working-class) viejitos in sf. and loved it! ancianos + political protest is a great mix actually. but sometimes issues do come up...i got this note from my former co-worker the other day, with subject line i channeled your spirit, regarding a demonstration he helped to organize against the ihss budget cuts.

[diabólica]:

At our rally the other day, it was very big and hectic a rather enthusiastic Russian senior kept rushing up on me (while I was a the podium) wanting to know if he could sing “God Bless America” because “ameerika is best county in world” and he wouldn’t leave me alone. I was getting really irritated and I thought “How would [diabólica] handle this?” so I held up my palm and said very directly and russianly “You are not allowed to sing that song here!” and I didn’t hear anything more from him.

thanks.

aw, thanks to you, james, for the compliment! and may i suggest the following song as an alternate hymn ;) very recognizable, lyrics available in multiple versions & languages...

the internationale : billy bragg



i wanted to post a really cool swing version of this song which plays during the ending credits of michael moore's capitalism : a love story but couldn't find it anywhere. so you can have billy bragg's anti-racist version instead, and catch the other one en el cine!



foto : grandmothers of the plaza de mayo. buenos aires, argentina. aside from the ones i used to work with in san francisco, some of my favorite viejitas militantes in the world.

best drag ever

shit! this is terrible news. grrrrr. heard via lil miss hot mess that charlie horse at the cinch is ending. this makes me very upset, not just because of all the good times, cheap strong drinks, and glamorous company that i won't get to enjoy there. but also because this is another nail in the coffin of a sf neighborhood that was not so very long ago proudly working-class & queer, and is now in the clutches of the devil known as gentrification. here's what lil miss hot mess has to say about it:

Today Anna Conda announced that Charlie Horse is over, effectively immediately. I can’t get all the facts straight but it has to do with the gentrification of the Polk — hell, the gentrification of the whole city — specifically yuppies who want to have their cake and eat it too, and developers who want to sell it to them. Anna thinks that it’s a combination of people complaining about noisy queens and the Polk St. Merchants Association wanting to get rid of the gay bars. The Gangway (nearby on Larkin) already shut down all DJed parties months ago due to complaints. It’s ridiculous!

Like I said, I don’t know the full story, so I don’t want to start the blame game or get too much into the specifics of it. But hello, San Francisco: this is what you get when you invite your city to become a dot-com yuppie playground. This is exactly how neighborhoods gentrify. It’s easy to point fingers at artists and gays as gentrifiers — and not to say that we aren’t part of the system — but the bigger picture is about government colluding with the wealthy using tactics like selective law enforcement and policies that favor development.

**



foto: the lovely anna conda (sf weekly)

i've been meaning to post about anna conda & charlie horse for so long and of course now i'm sorry i didn't sooner. basically it's the best drag ever.

i have a soft spot in my heart for drag performance, especially the working-class kind in tiny over-filled dive bars and especially latin@ drag like the kind at b&b or norma jeans, a very soft spot. but... admittedly, i don't find most of it all that entertaining, and i don't usually last very long until i get bored. we were talking about this one time and ms. anna conda was like, i know! it's like how many times can you listen to whitney houston greatest love of all before you want to kill yourself, you know? true.

but anna conda & co. on friday nights at midnight, now that's some drag!!! their weekly show charlie horse was this magical combination of messy punk rock, bizarre vintage glamour, and biting social critique. the hair was piled high, the girls wore (and sometimes took off) amazing outfits. the music was always good, or self-consciously awful, either way a delight. and the performers worked their asses off, a new show every week! soooo entertaining, so irreverent, sometimes made me hurt from laughing so hard. the other thing i really appreciated about charlie horse & anna conda was that they saw themselves as holding down polk street for the working-class queers against the forces of displacement & assimilation. polk street for the gays! marina girls go home! as she used to like to chant. plus, at this year's september 11th show anna conda punctuated her mistress of ceremonies routine with a rant about colin powell being a war criminal. not really your average drag show banter. oh, i really wish it wasn't over ;(

**

for a little tribute to the beautiful & noisy event that was, here are a few fotos from charlie horse, and song dedications to anna, who is roquera de corazón. thank you so much, ms. anna conda, it was wonderful. here's a little volumen cero & jesus and mary chain especialmente para ti...

eres la queen... eres la queen... eres la queen...

la queen : volumen cero




i come around catching sparks off you...



head on : the jesus & mary chain



**

makes you wanna feel
makes you wanna try
makes you wanna blow
the stars from the sky

iranian cielito lindo

de la sierra morena
cielito lindo, vienen bajando
un par de ojitos negros
cielito lindo, de contrabando

**

cielito lindo must be like the most mexican of all mexican songs, no? a favorite of our people, it's often performed mariachi-style and even contains the very mexican expression: ay ay ay ay and very mexican advice: canta y no llores / sing and don't cry.

and look! other people like it too. here is our anthem sung by persian folk roquero mohsen namjoo. delightful.


cielito lindo : mohsen namjoo





image : cielito lindo by jesús helguera

**

leili joon! thank you, buen viaje, & sí, para la próxima yo voy contigo!!

no hay nadie como calle 13

at the mtv latin america awards last month calle 13 cleaned up! and not just music awards. residente (vocalist rené pérez) hosted the televised show and threw insults left and right, wiping the floor with various traitorous vendido latin american politicians: uribe (colombia), calderón (méxico), micheletti (honduras) & fortuño (pr) among others. he has a sharp tongue, that residente, and he uses it well! really, i can't think of another pop culture icon who has put such immense popularity to such good use. in addition to insulting the reactionary heads of state he also used the stage to advertise the massive general strike against unemployment happening that same day in puerto rico, and to honor the dead from the '68 massacre of students in mexico city and the south american disappeared.



the new york daily news has a good summary of some of the highlights:

Mixing foul language and stinging political commentary, Pérez said, “Latin America is incomplete without a free Puerto Rico” and called the governor of the island a “son of a b” for the controversial layoff of 25,000 public employees.

“I made him famous,” Pérez, 31, said of Luis Fortuño, the embattled governor whose belt-tightening measures have led to large protests, the likes of which have not been seen on the island in decades.

The five-time Latin Grammy winner also said the president of Argentina should “stop using Botox” and wore a series of T-shirts emblazoned with a variety of messages.

Among the highlights: President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia belongs to illegal paramilitary groups, Honduras’ interim President Roberto Micheletti “rhymes with Pinochetti,” as in the former Chilean Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and one shirt saying Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez has been “nominated for Best Pop Artist.”

The reaction was swift. In Colombia, Calle 13 was disinvited to a January festival in the pro-Uribe city of Manizales, and in Puerto Rico, the governor charged that Pérez’s words had “disrespected all Puerto Rican women and mothers.”

The mayor of San Juan, Jorge Santini, labeled Pérez a “tecato,” a drug user, and pulled the plug on a show Calle 13 was supposed to have in Puerto Rico last Saturday. In response, Pérez, who says he’s never used drugs, challenged the mayor to a drug test.

**

for tomorrow's latin grammy awards ceremony, calle 13 has received the most nominations and are likely to win at least a couple of them. they're also scheduled to perform la perla with rubén blades. that's potentially a lot of stage time! pérez said he'll be more tranquilo this time around. i hope not. you can see the awards, and any potential antics, on univisión. other performers include alicia keyes and the illustrious omara portuondo.

but hey ¡¡residente!! come on! some more left-wing travesuras tomorrow night? por favorciiiito?! atreve-te-te-te-te ;)

**

this song is from calle 13's first album. it was written and posted to the internet the day following the fbi's assassination of puerto rican independentista filiberto ojeda ríos in 2005.

here's the original version...

querido fbi : calle 13



and here is the tribute to the mothers of the plaza de mayo version. residente + visitante (brother) + pg-13 (sister) ...

querido fbi : calle 13

Muertos

It's Nov 2 again. Time to remember the grandparents, light some candles, and enjoy a piece of dead bread (pan de muertos). All of this is done best, of course, with some musical accompaniment...


__
la dibaólica:

a few months ago, se murió mario benedetti. he was a beloved uruguayan poet & leftist militant, whose work is still recited from memory all over the americas. here he is with his camarada, musician daniel viglietti, performing "refranivocos" as viglietti plays "the devil in paradise" by violeta parra. ¡viva benedetti!


refranivocos / el diablo en el paraíso: mario benedetti / daniel viglietti

___
La Cumbiambera:

The original plan for this post was to honor people who have in the last year gone on to the spirit world. Blame it on the baby, but La Cumbiambera just couldn’t get focused. So I went back to an old favorite – Quetzal – and this song “Limones Agrios,” which was composed after the passing of two of the band members’ grandfather. The song is dear to my heart because the old man lived in Oxnard, CA, which is just down the road from where my grandparents live, and because the song's central metaphor is the lemon tree. The area surrounding Oxnard is home to a huge agricultural industry, and in particular citrus orchards, so the metaphor is not random. Neither is my attachment to it as my family, beginning with my great-grandparents, has worked for many generations as laborers in the very orchards referred to in this song. Today I remember those who work the land. La tierra pertenece a quien la trabaja.


Limones Agrios: Quetzal

Más Allá

This post has been plagued by technical difficulties, so by now it might be old news that last Wednesday evening a man threatened to jump from the Crown Hotel on Valencia Street in S.F. In response, the police halted all foot and vehicular traffic along block between 16th & 17th Street on Valencia, thereby causing people to pool at the street corners to see if there was anything to see.

I was one of the passersby who stared up at the haunting skyline as the man sat at the edge, hunched over, legs dangling, with the October breeze as the only buffer between himself and the sidewalk that lay five stories below. Meanwhile, people stared. And took pictures. And called their friends. And said horrible things. As someone who has stood on that edge before, I was overcome with immense sadness and was reminded of a time when I was comforted by this song:


"Más Allá", La Ley

"Tengo ganas de brillar / I want to shine

y mi luz esta apagada / but my light has gone out

no tenía a nadie a quien culpar / I didn’t haven anyone to blame

y nadie culpabilizaba / and nobody blamed me

Hay algo más o algo menos / There is something more or something less

me da igual si mas o menos / I don’t care whether it’s more or less

dejé morir, dejé vivir / I’ve stopped living, I’ve stopped dying

Estoy hundiéndome en la oscuridad del mar / I am drowning in the darkness of the sea

aquí no hay aire pero al fin podré llegar / There’s no air here but I will finally arrive

Más allá …/ Beyond…"

"Más Allá" was written after La Ley's lead singer Beto Cuevas was informed of a young fan who took her life supposedly because she was obsessed with Cuevas and could not get close to him. I say “supposedly” because the purported reason a person chooses to end her life is never the real reason. The decision to commit suicide cannot be explained by the severity of a person’s particular set of challenges, but rather how that person’s brain reacts to the stresses in her life. This is why some people see their entire families get murdered during war and some of these people choose to keep on living. And why a person living a comparatively privileged life might go through a bad break-up and choose to kill herself then. I have done a lot of reading on this subject, have tried vairous types of therapies, have spoken intimately about this subject to many depressed and non-depressed people, and as far as I can tell, the bottom line is this: some of us are blessed with brains that have stable chemical balances. Others of us are not so lucky.

P.S. For insight on this topic, I recommend “The Mood Cure” by Julia Ross. Whether you are struggling with your own depression or have been impacted by the inexplicable behavior of someone you love, Julia Ross' easy to understand explanations of brain chemistry and its effects on mood shifts is enlightening.