Goodbye, Hello!

On the road to Texas. Photo by Yaya.

My goodness, has it been that long since my last blog? I've since chopped off my dreads, got a humungous tattoo and moved to Texas! I admit that I suffered from a case of pillow-on-head writer's block. I was going through so much turmoil in my life that I couldn't find the time, energy, or inspiration to sit and write. When you are in the mix of the chaos, all you can do is survive. Can I get an AMEN?!

So, sadly, I've said goodbye to my beloved LA. My bad lover, LA. My heart and soul, LA. I miss you. I love you. I hate you. Goodbye.  . . . but I hope to be back! Nineteen years. Nineteen years I spent there. My entire adult life was spent in that metropolis. It taught me, it inspired me, moved me beyond belief. The world at my fingertips. Dark backgrounds with glittering lights. Streaks of lights across waves of freeways. I always picture LA in the dark, at night, when something special happens to the city. People unwind and morph into their happier selves, ready to laugh, dance, find romance, make memories.

As I sit here writing, Quetzal just won their first Grammy! The soundtrack to my LA life is Quetzal music and what a way to close that chapter with their win today. Now I'm on a quest to discover Texas music. I haven't had much luck yet but it's only been a month. I have to give Texas a chance and not compare it to LA. The vibe is different here. It feels like home. The energy is smooth and relaxing. The pace is slower but still contains a gentle energy that stretches into infinity. There's no rush to get there. Just enjoy ride. Yet, I'm still on LA time and pace. I move too quickly. My mind is three steps ahead of my body, the car, and just about everyone else. Driving is driving me loca. I'm always behind someone with their head in the clouds. I just have to breathe and tell myself to slow down.

The hardest part is missing my friends. I've disrupted the fluid formula of social soul fulfillment. I've crumbled it into a big paper ball and tossed it into the black hole of trash bins. I just want to dive in and fish it out, unwrap it and iron it back to normal . . . but I can't. It was so perfect. Lunch dates, early dinners, weekend concerts, bar cocktails, morning coffee, nature hiking, bargain shopping, kid play dates. Where are the SA versions of Home Restaurant, the Good Luck Bar, Zona Rosa Caffe, Lilianas, the Ford, Griffith Park or my beloved beach?

The truth is you can't replicate a location much less the vibe. I just have to create a new reality and find new vibes that mesh with mine. I just have no patience. It's only been a month. I have a great job that I moved here for, working with great people on an exciting new venture. I am in desperate need of finding my stride which I'm sure I will hit very soon. Shedding my chaotic LA essence for a new peaceful SA existence is what I need, what I want. I have to remind myself of all of this every day. I'm on the River Walk. I greet Yanaguana every day and I feel blessed.

Inspired

If I die tomorrow. Photo by Yaya.

This post is about nothing concrete. I often balk at people writing about their thoughts and observations. I want to hear real-life stories not fluffy ethereal concepts that no one actually practices in real life aside from that one moment of inspiration but alas I find myself bursting with inspiration at the moment. It may all go away by tonight, but I felt I should at least start writing just in case I decide to hit the publish button and embarrass myself.
 After a rough year, I've learned to cherish every compliment, smile, and hug I receive. Life is too short for the negative so embrace the positive. I'm also preoccupied by death. Ever since I was a kid and historian, I seek to preserve our past as I have watched elders in my family pass on. It was always a natural process, not scary at all. I never feared it until my paternal grandmother passed away. I recall not being able to sleep. I must have been around 6 or 7 years old and I can remember picturing her buried in her coffin, a dark, motionless, and uninspired place and I couldn't shake the thought or image in my head. Mom told me to pray to the angels so I did and must have finally fallen asleep mid sentence. Ever since, I've searched for answers about the other side. I never bought the concept of hell. It just made no sense to me. After my Women in Religion course at USC, that's when I decided I had to break from my Catholic mentality and feel free to explore other doctrines and so I have. I love hearing about other beliefs and real encounters with spirits. I've come to a few conclusions: one, I know the other side exists; secondly, I know our ancestors are watching us; and third, there is good in everyone.
With that in mind, my philosophy is not so much to live each day as if it were my last. If it was then I'd be too exhausted trying to cram too much stuff into the day. Instead, it's if I die tomorrow, what would I do differently today?. How would I react to the situation in front of me? Would I care what people thought? What would I make sure to tell my friends and family? Instead, I love living for the moment. I don't want to have any regrets. So often I find myself pouring my heart out to people at the risk of sounding insincere. You know those people. They say "oh honey you look great" and pretend to care about you but you know it's all fluff. Well, I hope I don't come across that way.
This leads me back to my initial reason for writing this. Just today, I was inspired. I was stopped dead in my tracks and felt that feeling, the kind that make you stop breathing. The kind that makes you think, this can't be for me. Then you realize, yes, it's for you. Enjoy it. Feel it! I know (and I don't mean to sound like a pompous ass) that I have the gift of finding the right words to say how I really feel and make people feel good, but when it happens to me, I'm surprised. I'm so busy being mama cheerleader that I forget how nice it is to get it in return.
My point is, people are always projecting their energy out into the universe. I firmly believe in the concept of The Secret. It makes perfect sense that what you put out into the universe is what you get back. That is probably why I love my artist, writer, and musician friends. Always creating. Always thinking and searching for inspiration. Then they find it and manifest it in their work. It's often phenomenal. Granted, it's not easy being happy and positive all the time but when you're able to acknowledge your negative moments, it's good to stop and reevaluate the situation. It has made a change in me. Along the same lines, there's a belief that what you wear affects you. Black absorbs and white reflects. I'm sure this has been scientifically tested somewhere. Some religions believe strongly in this and don't wear black to funerals, for instance. That's probably the worst thing you could wear, absorbing all that sorrowful energy. I believe it's the Navajo that wear protection beads when they come to the big cities with all those crazy people around them. So now we get to this out-dated, ridiculous rule of not wearing white after labor day. No one knows who or why this is a rule but yet they still follow it. Ok let's not be sheep and instead reflect other people's energies off of our bodies. So lately I've changed my wardrobe quite a bit. It's time for a new look anyway, some changes. I'm considering chopping off my long hair and get rid of any lingering negative history trapped in it. All I want is to be inspired and stretch those rare moments of inspiration for as long as possible.

NALACeando in San Anto

Torch of Friendship. A gift from Mexico to SA.

Summer is coming to a close and the need for sun basking has finally dispersed out of my veins. I can now concentrate on more indoor activities such as blogging. What else to write about but my summer vacation in Texas. My home state has always received a bad rap among cool LA hipsters, blue state Chicanos and east coast PIBs (people in black or JCrew). While there are some truths to the stereotypes (which I do not care to list) Texas is actually a fun, down-to-earth, relaxing, and friendly state. Shall I also mention AFFORDABLE?! No need to brag.

Initially, I wasn't planning a trip home this summer with LA sucking the last pigment of green from my bank account but then a well-designed postcard landed on my desk from an organization called NALAC, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture. They were calling for submissions to their annual Leadership Institute. You have to be a member for only $35 and submit an application about the work you are doing to advance Latino arts and culture. Easy! (Join now!) I sent my application and was accepted! I was so excited that I could actually pull off this visit since it was in my hometown of San Antonio and grandma could spend hours of quality time with her granddaughter while I went off to long days at Our Lady of the Lake University. We never knew who the real Lady of the Lake was until Carmen Tafolla, San Antonio's first poet laureate, told us it was La Llorona! Ahhh, yes, that makes sense. We were also treated to a special appearance by the current Texas State Representative and future Congressman Joaquin Castro. Six days of lectures by prominent leaders from across the country and not only networking but also building a true bond with the 21 other participants was an all encompassing experience. It opened up my eyes to the forward-thinking ideas people are working on in the Bay area, Denver, el Valle de Texas, New York City, even Oklahoma. We are elevating Latino arts to a new level and it's happening everywhere!

Special thanks to our amazing mentors and NALAC staff! Maria De Leon, Rosalba Rolon, Maribel Alvarez, Abel Lopez, Dr. Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, Ernest Bromley, Adriana, Claudio, Eddie, Beto, Chachis, and anyone I missed! Please click on the hyperlinks connected to the names above.

Nalaceros in Action! Love these people! Left center is the group picture of our mentors. Top right is me with NALAC leader Maria De Leon. If you don't know Maria, you should get to know her amazing work on behalf of Latino arts and culture! Just below that is Joaquin Castro giving us a motivational speech. Que inspiración!

Here are some of the websites and link to my fellow Nalacero's work:
Alejandra, New York, NY: alejandraregalado.com
Amalia, El Valle de TX: amaliaortiz.net
Ara, Denver, CO: facebook.com/cafecultura
Giselle, Chicago, IL: prosarts.org
Jason, Tucson, AZ: panleft.net
Javi, Bay Area, CA: facebook.com/PerraPumps
Jennifer, San Jose, CA: maclaarte.org
Jesus, Bay Area, CA: dignidadrebelde.com
Joel, Los Angeles, CA: rageoneart.com
Lisa, San Antonio, TX:jump-start.org 

Liselotte, Philadelphia, PA: casadevenezuela.net 

Maya, Bay Area, CA: mayachapina.tumblr.comRio, Bay Area, CA: rioyanez.com
Sheyla, Providence, RI: as220.org



And to showcase some of these amazing people, check out Amalia on Def Jam Poetry:

Jason's Pan Left Productions works to document the struggles facing Latinos in Arizona:

Maya Chinchilla presents feminist poetry:


An homage to pan dulce from performance artist Javi, aka Perra Pumps!

Meet the Bay Area artists as they rallied to raise funds to attend NALAC!

And now for a word from Dr. Tomas Ybarra-Frausto:


LATINOPIA ART TOMÁS YBARRA-FRAUSTO "RASQUACHISMO" from Latinopia.com on Vimeo.

Then please visit Ernest Bromley's website at bromley.biz to view an array of amazing commercials expertly targeted at a Latino audience without the pandering or literal translations that make all of us Latinos cringe. Look under "Best of Bromley" on the home page. The Western Union ad put a knot in my throat. Ernest invented Latino advertising back when companies didn't know they needed it! I truly learned a lot from his presentation. It's all about our common values, not our common language. Family, friends, support, love! Those are the ideas that catch our attention. You can't simply translate an ad and think you're advertising and connecting with Latinos. Instead, hire Bromley and let him work his magic! Guey!(Check the Coors Light ad)

This ad has me rollin'. I'd get down to this cumbia any day!

Te vas a chupar los dedos mi gordito!

Inspired yet?

You Gonna Eat That?

Denise and Margaret

Sometimes it pays to have connections, be an insider, rub elbows with the elite especially here in LA/Hollywood. It's all about who you know and naturally, I know a lot of people who are very well connected. Well all that networking finally paid off this week! My dear friend Laura from Beverly Hill . . . I mean, San Antonio is promoting a new product. We met back in college at USC, and by that I mean high school in Texas. Ok so we were on the flag team and lost touch after high school but we DID find each other again in LA! That part is true. Turns out we are both in PR and were promoting an event that her client was participating in. Small world huh? Lucky for me, we kept in touch and many, many, years later, she sends me a box full of free sandwiches courtesy of Raybern Foods! SCORE! Aside from being a fatty, I'm also a foodie so consider this my first official food blog.

The loot

When she first pitched me the idea of sandwiches I wasn't very enthused until she mentioned the care that went into selecting the bread and the natural ingredients. This is LA after all, no processed glucosamazoids in my food please! Like really, gag me with a biodegradable spork! I gathered a few of my coworkers, Denise, Loni, Margaret, and Tessie, aka, the lunch ladies, and told them lunch was on me. The day was sunny and warm as I lugged the dry-ice infused box over to the lunch table, pulled out the neatly wrapped subs, admired the bright label graphics, read the instructions. Oh, we have to microwave these things? Hmm, that doesn't sound appetizing. So off we go back indoors with cold sandwiches in hand. Nuked them for 1.5 to 3 minutes. As each second of microzapping passed, my heart sank. It's going to taste like cardboard and slime, I thought.

I proceeded to divide the generous subs into quarters so we could each try several varieties including what is touted as the bestselling Philly Cheesesteak sandwich in America, Ham & Cheddar, Pastrami & Cheese, Chicken Philly, and Chicken Bacon Ranch. If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I'm completely obliterating my diet here with all this bread, cheese, and beef, but in the interest of market research, I'll make the sacrifice.

According to Raybern, the company was started in 1978 by two guys named Ray and Bernie. It took one year for the company to develop their patented bread recipe that cooks 'bakery soft' in the microwave. In the company’s quest to perfect their recipes, Bernie taste-tested sauces, meats and breads on his family – including son Chad who continues with the company today. Raybern’s makes a million sandwiches a week by hand in California. The rest of the country has been enjoying these bites for years and now they're hitting the SoCal market!

Me and Loni, first bites.

So let the tasting begin! First impressions, not bad. It's very cheesy, the bread is soft. Hey, what is that I taste? Could it be? Is it . . . flavor?? What happened to the cardboard? Nothing nuked could possibly be this soft and delicious. I was so ready not to like it that it took a moment to realize that these sandwiches are actually pretty good. I tried the Chicken Bacon Ranch and as Denise said, "Cheese and bacon make everything good." I agree! The consensus was a resounding thumbs up! Everyone had a favorite but what impressed us the most was how well they held up in the microwave. The idea of these heat and go meals appealed to all of us. Margaret said she'd take them along on a road trip. Although the cheese was very melted, they weren't as messy as they first appeared. I suggested buying up a few for small gatherings or as additions to a BBQ and slicing them up to put on party platters. Loni said they'd be perfect for Super Bowl. We agreed that even guys would like them and would fill their manly appetites, well almost. At 320 calories per serving (two servings per sandwich) we also thought it wouldn't break your diet. 640 calories for lunch, plus my cup of fruit and ice tea, not bad. The only thing missing from these tasty delights are the veggies. I was craving some jalapeño slices in my Philly and Loni thought grilled veggies would be a nice addition.

Margaret's top picks were the Chicken Philly and the Ham & Cheese. She thought the Chicken Bacon Ranch was just ok although she has this weird aversion to packaged meat so if she were to buy it in the store, she'd choose chicken.

Denise liked the Pastrami & Cheese the best. It had a good flavor particularly with the dijon mustard. She loves stronger spices. I have to give it up to Denise though. If I thought I was sacrificing my diet, she's actually 99% vegetarian. So thanks for allotting your 1% of meat-eating to me and my blog! Now I'm really glad the sandwiches were good!

 Loni's favorite was also the Pastrami & Cheese as well as the Philly Cheesesteak. She liked that you could see the spices in the sandwich with specks of black pepper throughout. The cheese was not overly processed. "You could tell it was cheese!"













Tessie (on the right) also favored the Pastrami & Cheese as well as the Ham & Cheddar and the Chicken Bacon Ranch. She felt that the stronger flavors like pastrami work better in a frozen sandwich. We all agreed!

As for me, I like it all! If I had to choose my favorite would be the Ham & Cheese and the Chicken Bacon Ranch. What can I say, I love pork!













So now you heard what we had to say. Now go try it for yourself. Raybern's frozen sandwiches are now available at your local SoCal Target stores. Plus, like Raybern on Facebook and get your $1.00-off coupon! Retail is a pack of 2 for $3.99, yes two!!. Not a bad price considering lunch can cost well into and past the ten dollar range anywhere now-a-days. Thank you Laura for sending us such a yummy lunch! Ahh, the glamorous life! Gotta love it!

Rocio Launches Solo Album

RocioMarron. Photo by Berkeley Gray Photography.

It is with great enthusiasm and a motherly pride that I write about my dear friend Rocio Marron who recently launched her first solo album! Veteran of the Latin and pop music scene, she's played with major recording acts Marc Anthony, Josh Groban, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cuban bass legend Cachao, Los Lobos, and others. You may have also seen her on this year's season of American Idol and The Voice performing with the finalists.

We met in college where she was studying music. I would follow her to her gigs and met her wonderful family and friends. As an original member of my favorite group, Quetzal, she introduced me into this great world of LA Chicano music.

Rocio spent a year writing and recording the album inspired by her family and personal experiences. “For years, I’ve enjoyed playing and interpreting other people’s music,” said Rocio. “Now I had the chance to write the music that had been inside me waiting to be recorded. I had to look no further than my own experiences and love of family to find the inspiration and words to create this album.”

Pic off of my tv. Rocio playing with The Voice's
Season 2 winner Jermaine Paul

Another tv pic. Rocio playing on American Idol
Season 11 with Top 3 finalist Joshua Ledet

 Rocio Marron, released in November 2011, represents the kind of poetic musical stylings and poignant lyrics she hopes will linger in people’s minds. The songs in this debut album draw from her own life, and are designed to touch the listener with relatable lyrics and soothing melodies.  With songs like Heartaches Will Mend, Promise You, and Should Have Waited, Rocio’s lyrics deal with the loss, discovery, and overwhelming feelings of love. “The deepest feeling of unconditional love I ever felt was when my daughter was born,” said Rocio. “Motherhood has brought a whole different perspective on life and priorities. It amazes me that it has made me feel so much, to the point of wanting to share it with everyone.”

Rocio put her multiple talents both in front of and behind the microphone composing, singing, and playing instruments including the violin, viola, and guitar on this album. She also arranged and engineered the tracks along with longtime collaborator Dante Pascuzzo.

Her first video from this album, Leaving Dreams was produced and directed by Eddie Arguelles of Tochtli Films. “The song deals with the loss of love and realization that one must move on. It’s that moment when you realize that it’s the best thing to do for yourself,” said Rocio. The video is set in an abandoned Victorian home signifying the end of a relationship and an vibrant outdoor dried creek signifying a rebirth. “Where once you felt safe at home with a partner, now there is an empty feeling surrounded by darkness. It’s not until you search for a way out that you find the light and are able to move forward,” she said.




Her next solo album is set to be released in November 2012.

Listen to the entire album on her website: www.rociomarron.com/Music
Download the album on itunes: itunes.apple.com/us/artist/rocio-marron
Website: rociomarron.com
Twitter: twitter.com/roxymae
YouTube: youtube.com/rociomarron
Facebook: facebook.com/rociomarronmusic

More About Rocio Marron

RocioMarron. Photo by Berkeley Gray Photography.

Rocio Marron is an accomplished violinist whose passion also includes singing and songwriting.  After falling in love with music as a young girl and attending a high school for the performing arts, Marron studied performance violin at USC’s Thornton School of Music. She has toured, performed and recorded with Marc Anthony, Josh Groban, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cuban bass legend Cachao, Los Lobos, and Grammy-nominated Caravana Cubana, among others.  Rocio has also arranged and recorded as musical director for the Grammy-winning Mariachi Divas, and she’s been a featured soloist with Ozomatli at the Hollywood Bowl. In film and television, Marron has recorded for major motion pictures including “Blow” starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, “Dance with Me” starring Vanessa Williams and “The Rugrats Movie”. She has also appeared on television programs such as The Young and the Restless, Saturday Night Live, Mad TV, The Rosie O’Donnel Show,  and The Tonight Show.  She performed on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards, American Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, and the Grammy's. Most recently, she appeared on both the 2012 season of The Voice and American Idol. She teaches violin and guitar as a faculty member of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music.