Say no to CAFTA - Central America Free Trade Agreement

If passed, CAFTA would advance the passing of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas).

Can we stop U.S. domination of Latin America? Do we want blood on our hands, the blood of exploited labor, in our consumer products of convenience?

"Parents Magazine" apparently cool w/ kids ingesting toxins

The following is excerpted from the newsletter "ORGANIC BYTES" (#62, published by Organic Consumers Association):

"PARENTING ADVICE: EAT YOUR PESTICIDES
"Parents Magazine", one of the most influential parenting publications in the U.S., advised parents not to worry about pesticide residues in children's food in its recent August 2005 issue. In an article titled "Food Under Fire," the magazine belittles the benefits of organic foods as a myth, and endorses pesticides in foods as safe, stating: "there's no evidence that these chemicals, used at the low levels found in our food supply, are harmful to children." The author of the piece based his research on the opinion of a single "expert," never mentioning three decades of scientific evidence from academic, government and industry sources that states otherwise. The magazine serves as a "parenting guide" to more than 14 million subscribers....write a quick letter to their editor here: mailbag@parentsmagazine.com."
____________________________________

What follows is my quick letter to the PARENTS MAGAZINE editor:

"Any parent knows that infants and children are generally more vulnerable to toxic substances. For PARENTS MAGAZINE to disregard years of research findings and to conclude ("Food Under Fire", August 2005) that toxins such as pesticides are somehow to be tolerated in our children's early life diet is blatant irresponsibility. At first meal, at second ingestion, perhaps a child appears to have experienced no harm. But reared on a consistent diet of foods heavily-laden with known toxic ingredients, some level of cumulative harm is inevitable for even the most robust of children. It concerns me that PARENTS MAGAZINE has chosen to relax its standards of acceptability of toxins in our world.

Sincerely,
Tammy Gomez
Fort Worth, Texas"

******************************** Subscribe to "Organice Bytes" here:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/organicbytes.htm

My Multicultural Moment for Today

I had just dropped my niece off at her Summer Theater Camp session, and I was turning the corner onto Magnolia St.

I blinked to make sure I was seeing right: a rather large group of Asians (Japanese tourists? a family out for a cholesterol-heavy homestylee lunch?) were streaming out of the legendary Paris Coffee Shop--which is nothing to do with Paris, Parisian cuisine, French style and has everything to do with sustaining the downhome Texas cafe tradition of fresh fruit pies (by the slice!), chicken fried steak, and Whites at the tables/Blacks in the kitchen. Haven't eaten there in years, though I pass it daily, scorning its cheesy, misdirected (unfortunately) exterior mural and seeing people of color only when it's staff (kitchen crew) hanging out by the back door having a smoke.

ANYway--I imagined what those Asian folks might have thought of the place.

Fort Worth wants to break out of a too-tight Bible belt chokehold on ethnic diversity and inclusivity in all public realms.
Let's see it happen.

I said it before and it'll be on a t-shirt before long: Fort Worthwhile: Let's Make It!

Hectic pace makes perfect - convening a convention

Been doing email non-stop for days, trying to put finishing touches on a National Convention program and programme. The big annual gathering of VETERANS FOR PEACE is happening in less than two weeks, and we got bucketloads of work yet to do, things to arrange.

I've been telling folks to spread the word and to download the entire contents of the 2005 CONVENTION PROGRAMME from the VETERANS FOR PEACE website, in order to ascertain what events, workshops, concerts they might like to attend.

The convention's offering words, music, inspiring truth-talk from the likes of these folks: Jim Hightower, Dahr Jamail, conscientious objector Camilo Mejia, singer James McMurtry, whistleblower Coleen Rowley (who's now running for Congress), and David Rovics (activist singer-songwriter).

Film screenings will happen Thursday through Saturday (August 4th-6th) in the evenings at 10pm in the Big Tent (air-conditioned, by the way). The TEXAS PREMIERE of "Sir! No Sir!", a 90-minute film
that just received its WORLD premiere in Los Angeles last month, is described herewith:

"In the 1960s an anti-war movement emerged that altered the course of history. It emerged in army stockades, navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases. It penetrated elite military colleges like West Point and spread throughout the battlefields of Vietnam. Hundreds went to prison and thousands into exile. "Sir! No Sir!" by David Zeiger tells the little known story of this GI movement against the war in Vietnam."

LATE NIGHT VIDEO SERIES - 10pm - in the Big Tent on-campus at the University of Dallas at Irving - Donations accepted

Thursday: The Cost of War (57 mins.)
Friday: Sir! No Sir! (90 mins.)
Saturday: Voices in Wartime (90 mins.)

Veterans For Peace: Waging Peace for 20 Years!

The official Veterans For Peace 2005 Convention Programme Booklet

You can download it (it's a pdf) to your desktop and peruse its thoroughly-detailed contents (about convention workshops, keynote speakers, performance schedules, and more). Just go to the Veterans For Peace website and scroll down a bit to the DOWNLOADS section. Click on "Download Program Booklet PDF" and it's all yours.

Feel free to print/distribute copies (or sections thereof) to anyone who you think might be interested in attending the Convention. I also have PRE-SALE Saturday, August 6th Banquet Program (Jim Hightower is the keynote speaker) tickets for sale.

Thanks for your help in getting the word out!

Emma Tenayuca in convention booklet

I am so excited! Yesterday, while proofreading the final draft of the 2005 National Convention Veterans For Peace programme booklet--all 60 pages of it--I noticed that the editor had put in a few pages of information under the heading "Texas Women in History" or something similar to that. In this section, there were brief bios, along with notable quotes, on such Texas famous femmes as Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards, and Molly Ivins. Hmmm, I thought, that's cool to have a section devoted to this kind of thing. But second thought: wait, how 'bout a Chicana notable? How 'bout Emma Tenayuca? You cannot leave out somebody like Emma Tenayuca? So, I sent a suggestion to the editor, along with a url for info on Tenayuca, right away. A print deadline loomed.

And so, today, when I went to check my email, I found a message from the editor. She wrote that she'd booted Molly Ivins from the programme booklet and put in some historical info about Emma Tenayuca instead. Yay, victory! I helped make a tiny difference...I am letting folks have a chance to learn about the pecan shellers' strike of 1938 and about the beloved San Antonio labor leader, Tenayuca, who helped bring about movement towards labor justice. Awesome!

Every little bit helps, every tiniest act can make a ripple in someone's consciousness, and growth can happen from even a tiny effort at watering a seed....

Yes!

Look who's listed...

I happened to be looking up something in google and decided to check on new results for my own name. (Why not? It's one efficient way to find press reviews and blog notices about my work, which i can then include on updates of my bio, etc.) So, what do i find? Apparently, on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website, my name is listed as "cast member" for Rick Linklater's first (pre-Slacker) full-length feature film. What?!! I was not believing that i would ever actually be listed as an actor in this film, even though--once i'd read the premise of the film, which is titled "It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books"--i'd had my suspicions about some of my ideas possibly being included in Rick's first long project. You see,
back in the day (being actually the mid-to-late 1980s), i'd hung around with Rick and some of his go-see-films-during-the-day-at-the-Texas-Union-and-go-to-hear-bands-at-night vintage slacker buddies. These folks were, at the time, wanna-be filmmakers, who were doing experimental shorts (super 8, 16mm) around town in unlikely unconstructed scenarios and locations. I had alot of interest in these guys, cuz their reading/film/music tastes pretty closely aligned with mine. For instance, we were similarly drawn to writers J.G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick and punk-industrial sounds like SPK, Throbbing Gristle, Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid and others.

Rick and his housemates also launched the Austin Film Society the year after I graduated from college, so I was an early film series fan--going to the Dobie Theater for midnight screenings, sometimes offering a flower freshly-picked from the UT-Austin campus flowerbeds as admission payment. Who knows what the guys thought of me: resident film groupie? literary somnambulist? wanna-be scenester? I just remember that the films they screened were so amazing and diverse, and their following grew quickly over the years. (The Austin Film Society is now a mainstay, a veritable institution, known not only to Austinites but to cineastes nationwide.)

Anyway, on to my point, to the present: I remember hanging out with Rick at the house ('round the corner from Les Amis, which is also now-defunct), and being a little wound-up cuz i'd just left my modern dance class across the street. I started dancing around, full of crazy energy, and talking jibberish about my day. Typical 22-year old, I guess. Rick, always a good listener, seemed amused and drawn to my stories. At one point, after i'd detailed a particularly emotional concern of the moment, an outpouring that had moved me to tears, Rick perked up, as if with sudden concern. He merely asked, "Is it okay if i set up my camera--a beta video camera on a low tripod)--and shoot you saying again what you just said. Over there, by the window...just like before....." Happy to go along with this distraction from my own verbalized musings, I shifted into performer mode. It kinda pleased me that Rick had taken an interest in what i had to say. After all, i was only talking about boyfriends and an audio cassette recording that i'd recorded and mailed to an ex-boyfriend, only to get it mailed back to me at a time when i was experiencing a new heartache. The recycle value of my own recorded spoken encouragements was what i was so intrigued by. The concept of comforting yourself with a tape you recorded being mailed back to you was almost poignant, a little pathetic. I guess Rick recognized the pathos in this and wanted to document it for further study, for consideration later. Or perhaps i just looked a little visually interesting standing at the window. Whatever. I agreed to pose and reiterate for the camera what i'd just casually shared with Rick.

And now, years and years later, I'm seeing that my name is on the credits list for his 1988 film "It's Impossible....." Okay, i think i have to check this out further. More soon.

Bridge Center search bridges me to David Nakabayashi

I had written down the words "Bridge Center - El Paso" on a tiny scrap of paper, and had forgotten why, so I decided to google the term to see what popped up. Of course, when you google, you add your own oomph to the search, knowing that you approach such a moment with your own built-in filters and preferences. I knew that I didn't want to see results about bridge construction, the game of bridge, or some civic center administration webpage. I wanted "Bridge Center - El Paso" to be about a Center for art, a Center for literature, a Bridge for people, a cultural relevance for Latinos on the border....

The best result I found had to do with a guy named David Nakabayashi who'd had a show at the Bridge Center for Contemporary Arts in El Paso. Reading some of David's writing compelled me to check out some of his art from the series of retablos he made last year--the series was on "Consumption." You've got to see this work online. It made me so happy, elated, contenta. His colors are brilliant, his subject matter well-considered, and the evocation of themes very personal. I love the Prayer to the Cow and the Prayer to his Alcoholic Friend(?).

When mass media wants me to be fascinated by Tom Cruise & Paris Hilton romances, I am so relieved to be reminded of the beauty that can be accessed--ever so non-viscerally, of course, if it's on the web--at my fingertips, as I wind down from a long day, cold Tecate at my side.

Makes me wanna say a prayer.

BlogHer Conference on July 30th, 2005

It's a SINGLE DAY DEAL--starting at 8:30am (take an espresso, depth charge!) and ending by 6pm--but this first-of-its-kind blogger meet for girls (and boys, as 20% of the pre-registered are of the XY chromosome) promises to be a frenetically-paced conference.

Taking place at a joint called TechMart in Santa Clara, California, the programming for the day includes a friendly debate ("Does Today's Link-based Power Structure Hurt Women Bloggers? Should We Care?") and plenty of sessions which are thematically all over the map: Mommyblogging, feminist hip-hop bloggers, podcasting/vlogs, and the bidness side of blogging.

Don't miss the catchy-titled LUNCH SPECIAL: "Flame, Blame, and Shame: What happens when women write for an audience of men and women who can write—and bite—back? Moderator Liza Sabater leads a panel including online security expert Ellen Spertus and Debi Jones." There's even a Blogher Global Panel, featuring blogging women from India and Portugal. They're thorough with this confab, que no?

I can't be there, but maybe we'll get a Blogher t-shirt for the Cowtown girls sweating out their August thoughts for online viewing. Here's where to go for more Blogher Conference INFO.

Lorenzo Thomas leaves us to our own soundtrack

This in yesterday's HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Lorenzo Thomas, a much-respected fixture on Houston's literary scene and a poet who married bluesy lyricism with a social conscience, died Monday. He was 60.

I hate getting word of my friends' passing via email; it really sucks. My friend Amanda in Austin has trumpeted at least two different announcements such-like via her mass email network. And then today, casual like an invitation to a workshop, I get a notice from the Writer's Garret's Thea Temple: Lorenzo Thomas has passed away.

Why didn't I hear this w/ music, a clash of radio station soliloquies hitting it hard on the funk or soul at the intersection of dayjob and evening happy hour? Or couldn't this news have breathed into my heart via a nighttime dream, replete with horn section and poetry? I don't want nobody else to tell me that another of my goddamn kindred friend and awesome contemporary Texas poet chums has died--not this year, and definitely not on email.

Anyway, Lorenzo, thanks for the words and the kind brown eyes of "getting it"--connecting with a sister who respected you como si fueras mi papa. Un maestro for our times, the guy who played Robert Johnson records during a class on the Poetics of Blues at Naropa Institute that summer I met you. Boulder, Colorado, maybe it was 1988.

Here's a bit of info, the kind people like to read so they learn what they missed in a man they never got to meet: Lorenzo Thomas, assistant professor of English at the University of Houston-Downtown, was a member of the legendary Umbra workshop in the 1960's. This workshop drew young writers to the Lower East Side of New York City in search of their artistic voices. Reflecting on those years in a 1978 Callaloo essay, Thomas observes, "cultural black nationalism of our moment did not spring forth from inspiration of the New York Times or the Late News," but was the result of cultural transmissions from the griots of the folk tradition to these young writers.

If you want to read more, check HERE.

Lorenzo, in 1967, wrote his poem "Onion Bucket." One line from this one reads: "All silence says music will follow." In the silence of his departure, there is bound to be music. Just be still and hear it.

Good thoughts, Lorenzo, all good thoughts.

Who's Getting O'Conner's Vacated Seat on the Supreme Court?

This is from the MOVE ON website: Sandra Day O’Connor, a widely respected and moderate justice, has resigned from the Supreme Court. Now, in anywhere from a few hours to a few days President Bush will nominate a replacement—and what happens next will either destroy or protect our most basic rights for decades to come. This is an absolutely critical moment for our senators to hear directly from the people—and our message is clear: PROTECT OUR RIGHTS!

Take a moment to sign the online petition at the website indicated above.

And now, precisely now, a CHRIS CHANDLER quote comes to mind: "Until then, if you pray, I ask for your prayers. If not, I ask for your kind wishes. If you don't pray or wish, I ask for your caring thoughts. If you don't pray or wish or think, don't bother anybody." 

I save the detritus...

...of all my meanderings. I used to be worse at this. In Austin, I would pick up every free weekly, handmade zine, printed template for madness, and cultural event hand-out (y'know, the flyers that MOTORBLADE--the rollerblading late 20th century version of Mercury, thrusting his body through central Austin environs, armed with a power stapler and a backpack of 8 and a half by 11 announcements for punk shows, underground theater cabarets, and stencil art revues--posted up on every community-friendly public bulletin board. (I used to stand and stare at the overwhelmingly thumbtacked bulletin boards outside Wheatsville Coop on Guadalupe for minutes and minutes, eventually forgetting what I had come to buy at the store. But I love information, what can I say?)

Anyway, freebie lit is such a cool thing, so I have come to be an unoffical collector of underground press product--in other words, a packrat with discriminating taste.

I'm only writing this today, because I happened to take notice of my cluttered worktable with newly-rested non-deadline-blurred eyes, and see that I have some stacks of stuff to attend to--sorted by city or recent destination. I have the Chicago-Urbana-Champaign tour STACK (museum passes, indie zines, Chicano/a art opening postcards, and the like); I have the TeatroFest-visit-to-SanAnto detritus STACK (handbills, gallery brochures, etc.).

But right now, it seems quite urgent to find somebody who can use my leftover CTA TRANSIT CARD, which expires on July 1st. Do I have time to send it, via 1st class mail, to my performance art/videographer colleague Sheelah Murthy in Chicago? How can I throw away this card when it still has some credit on it?

Such things as this transit card and tiny stickers with webzine URLs on them hold promise. The promise of conveyance: a sidetrip to a new musuem show via inner city bus line or a mindtrip through a cool new zine website, featuring artwork by artpeople I have never met. I guess what I'm saying is that the detritus on my desk holds promise of potential, and if I just relegate it all to the dustbin without a pause to consider...well, it's like hanging up on a friend, mistaking him for an electronic telemarketer.

My friend, Ginger, might just tell me I have "scarcity" issues.

One broken promise: I picked up a little scrap of a promo announcing a "TCU Student Journal of the Arts" called "eleven40seven" which apparently only resides in memory cuz the URL didn't take me anywhere this morning when I tried to connect to it. Promises, promises. At least I can feel alright throwing away the little 1 inch by 4 inch promo scrap now.

Hmmm. I just noticed that the CTA TRANSIT CARD doesn't expire 'til July 1st, ***2006***!! That means I have more time to get this card to somebody who can use it. That means one more thing to stockpile and hoard for future use. That means one less thing that gets thrown away.

Now on to other piles and scraps. And promises of promise.

Call for Proposals/Call for Poems to Commemorate Ken Saro-Wiwa

Deadline is June 30th to submit ideas for a LIVING MEMORIAL, which will, according to the REMEMBER KEN SARO-WIWA website, be Britain's first deliberately mobile memorial. It will have the ability to be toured to as many as six locations in London during 2006-07. The competition is open to everyone, people from the arts, design, and architecture, as well as those from non-arts backgrounds. Go to the website for the guidelines and more info.

Deadline is also June 30th for submitting original tribute poems to be included in the anthology to be titled DANCE THE GUNS TO SILENCE: 100 POEMS INSPIRED BY KEN SARO-WIWA (forthcoming, November 10, 2005).

Send poetry submissions to: kensarowiwa@flippedeye.net. More information at this link from the main website.

For those who do not know of Saro-Wiwa, his execution in Nigeria which left "blood" on the hands of Shell Oil, and Saro-Wiwa's lasting legacy of struggle for self-determination and resistance against devastation of his people, the Ogoni, this is the year to catch up and know. This coming November (2005) will mark the 10th anniversary of Saro-Wiwa's execution (by hanging) for crimes he did not commit.

Scholar Anthony Guneratne, Professor at the National University of Singapore has offered a well-written essay about Saro-Wiwa's legacy titled "The Death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and The Persistence of Colonialisms."

Guneratne begins his essay by re-stating a question posed by an impatient colleague: "When does the state of postcoloniality end?...I answered my progressive friend as succinctly as I could: 'When we stop putting ropes around the necks of our writers so that their oil pipelines are kept clear.' This was shortly after the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was put to death for having led the protests of the Ogoni people against the exploitation of their lands by Western petroleum companies."

Read this essay in its entirety here. And don't forget to submit your ideas for the LIVING MEMORIAL and poems for the anthology publication as soon as possible.

!Saro-Wiwa! !Presente!

Lingering thoughts of TEATROFest

Things went well in San Anto. TEATROFEST was pretty cool. I am so glad (and the tech crew at GCAC was as well) that i chose to perform a short-n-sweet performance work (Sueno Despierta), which has a running time of about 17 minutes. No one got burnt out on my work. No one walked out during it either, to my knowledge.

Folks, however, did get tested by some of the other works presented during the FEST--in terms of content, aesthetics, "stage-readiness", and length of certain pieces. Oh well, at least I tried to be patient and did see all of the works presented during my time in San Anto. (Which is more than i can say for certain teatristas who might be of the "came to perform, didn't come to be an audience" camp.....que lastima.)

The platica on Saturday could have been facilitated a little (okay, a LOT) better than it was in order to steer us to more focused conversation about future of Chicano/a theater and performance. Instead, we seemed to digress into topics like lack of funding (without letting people speak about REAL POTENTIAL that is out there) and politics in art (wherein the younger vatos--mostly from Brownsville--eagerly weighed in despite their relative LACK OF EXPERIENCE from which to speak). Alas, the platica left me more hungry than the lonche (which was down to offerings of tostadas and one flauta, by the time i got to the food line).....

All in all, I made the time and the weekend and the FEST work for me, as I engaged young and old, newbies and veteranos, men and women. Writers, performers, media makers, tech staff---I had awesome conversations (over beer, tequila, popcorn, and bbq) with all of these and more in locales from GCAC, the Holiday Inn lobby, the Jump-Start, to Lisa Suarez' driveway. By the way, I also had a pleasant first-time interaction with Paul Bonin-Rodriguez--unexpected surprise.

I got to talk about loteria cards (interpretation, symbolic meaning, color-coordination, etc.) with Linus Streckfus, who lived in Austin when I was living there, and was running sound for the TEATROFEST showcases. I got to see other artistas who I hadn't crossed paths with in ages: David Zamora Casas (who was disarmingly sweet in Saturday night's "Cara Mia Carpa"); Rupert Reyes (director of Austin's Teatro Vivo); Trino Sanchez (whose partner and wife, Regina, regaled us with amazing stories of her movimiento family history--somebody pair her up with a scriptwriter!); and many others.

Hopefully, I'll be back in San Antonio soon. There is a plan to get me to San Anto for a one-night reading event at an art show opening at the MEDUSA LOUNGE in mid-July (at the invitation of Rosie Gonzalez and Robert Tatum). Am still awaiting confirmation of travel arrangments. I think it'll be on July 21-22 that I'll be there. A quickie. Can't wait.

Elia Arce: "I am trying to present work that has a little deeper dialogue about war"

I had heard of Elia Arce and know several artist-friends who have worked alongside her, in collaborative efforts. My good buddy, Robert Karimi, shared a stage with Arce at La Pena in Berkeley. And my friends Paul Flores (of Los Delicados) and Jime Salcedo-Malo worked with Arce on a community-based performance work titled "The Fruitvale Project". So, when I heard that Elia was going to be performing a new work at the Jump-Start Theater in San Anto--while I also happened to be in town--I was pretty excited. Beyond that, I had also just been given her cell number by a Veterans for Peace coordinator, who told me to call Elia, make contact, and find out more about this new work, THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT.

Here's a media/promo blurb about her piece/her chronology of performance:

"THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT is a timely multi-media piece exploring the many complicated issues including defense, fear, patriotism, sacrifice and survival that face the U.S. military community. Through a collage of images, sound scapes, text, movement and interviews with former and current soldiers, Arce brings us into the hearts and minds of military personnel who are dealing with their ethics and spiritual beliefs about the act of killing, amongst other thorny subjects.

Elia Arce, a dual citizen of Costa Rica and the United States, is an artist working in multi-disciplinary theatre. She is the recipient of the J. Paul Getty Individual Artist Award, grants from The Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been presented internationally and most recently at the International Theatre Festival (Los Angeles) and Teatral International Latino Theatre Festival (Cuba)."

And that's the short version of her history of work.

I really enjoyed THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT, if you can say that you enjoy feeling deeply moved, a little uncomfortably challenged, and definitely a bit saddened. You don't know how much ELIA ARCE's work THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT would fit into the VETERANS FOR PEACE national conference setting, as Elia so strongly suggested we try to arrange. (I'm working as a co-coordinator to organize and promote this national meeting, which is scheduled to happen in Irving, Texas, this coming August.) Of course, being a performer myself and having heard such glowing reports of Elia's integrity and reputation, I was honored to be in her audience at the final matinee presentation on Sunday at Jump-Start.

The show: It was incredibly poignant, respectful, yet challenging. Two military soldiers (not sure if they were on leave, discharged, or what) participated in the performance with a recitation of the list of fallen U.S. soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq. A woman at the opposite side of the stage, also read a list, presumably of the Iraqis who have also lost their lives in this current war. My friend, Gertrude Baker, a Vietnam vet (nurse), participated in the flag-folding ceremony during the performance. One of the most jarring moments of the work was at the beginning of the show, as a toy soldier made its way around the platform where Elia stood, with a staccato rhythmic thumping on the stage that was very haunting. It was with small, almost nondescript props, that Elia was able to suggest myth, emotion, and history. This eloquence was highly appropriate given that so much of the war experience (and attitudes about war) are so difficult to convey with spoken language.

To hear an interview with Elia Arce speaking about THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT, which she plans to develop and expand, visit this site.

U.S. military fatalities through June 23, 2005: 1728
Iraqi civilian fatalities through June 23, 2005: 22,434 – 25,426 (est.)

Source: http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

Ginger tries to save my adrenals

My herbalist amiga in Austin, Ginger, just suggested a little tonic for a multi-tasking, overcommitted summer 05 lifestyle--like mine. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm eager to give it a go. Lately, I've been down on eating--it's just too hot and digesting is such a draining bodily activity. I'm in the mood to fast and actually tried to fast in preparation for my "Sueno Despierta" performance at TEATROFest; I guess I wanted to put myself in a little bit of an altered state so my performance mindset would be similar to the hypnopompic state (immediately post-sleep) of consciousness which I love so much.

I didn't eat on Monday at all--except for an organic juice blend--but I did nibble on Tuesday and Wednesday. Through TEATROFEST, I think I drank more than I ate. I'd say my daily caloric intake averaged between 800-1500 calories, which gave me the satisfaction of feeling lighter and less exhausted.

Okay, here's Ginger's recommendation for stressed-out American bodies:

"licorice is great for adrenal exhaustion, in combo with milky oat tops tincture. Some company besides my own, available in fort worth, is bound to have such a tincture combo. Take the whole bottle, start to finish, for a week or two, however long it takes."

Just fyi, Ginger's company is Texas Medicinals.

Full day of Teatro in San Anto

Teatrista/videomaker Haldun referred to it as SAN ANTONTO, but there were plenty of brilliant creative minds sharing the Cesar Chavez building salon for the morning "lonche y platica" on Saturday, June 25th. By the time I arrived, only half an hour late thanks to Adrian Villegas (Adrian, thanks for the ride, but sorry you kept driving in the wrong direction), the comida offerings were pretty much reduced to veggie frijole tostadas and bargain brand sodas. No worry, cuz the conversacion is what held the greater attraction for me anyway. The salon was full, presumably with performers here for TEATROFEST, but also with a few mentors/veteranos from the Chicano/a theater community. Marisela Barrera, theater director of the Guadalupe Theater, opened things up with a welcome and brief intro and backhistory to this first annual TEATROFEST. She then intro'ed maestro Jorge Pina, currently the artistic director for TALENTO BILINGUE DE HOUSTON (and a former director for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center). He gave a brief, though passionate, talk about the Chicano/a theater movement and about the purpose of our work. "We have to be a machete of intelligence, with our humor AND our tragedy...we can solve our problems with our art...our prisons are full, the drop-out rate is high, and we have to deal with these idiots in Goliad with the Minutemen..." He got so emotional at one point, that he had to slow his speech in order to compose himself. I could feel that most every person in that salon in that moment--even if they had never met Jorge or had chance to know his work--were impacted by his "call to teatro".

After Jorge addressed us, the floor was opened up for discussion and many different people spoke--folks from Cara Mia Theater (Dallas), the Royal Mexican Players (Houston), a nurse from Brownsville, and even me. I had to respond to an ill-conceived recommendation that a young man from Brownsville made, exhorting Chicano/a teatristas to "leave the political out" and just do "cultural" theater so that more mainstream "politicians" wouldn't be alienated by our work to the point of defunding or refusing to fund said work. This young person spoke with such a matter-of-face, take-it-or-leave-it sense of authority--without even, apparently, recognizing to whom he spoke (folks with a vast range of experiential knowledge and years of navigating bureaucratic channels of the arts world)--that many of us veteranos exchanged quick glances of "quien es este chavo?" and rolled our eyes como "chihuahua, porque tenemos que sufrir este mierda....?"

When i took the floor, I was pretty wrought with passion and fire, and the words pretty much shot out of me. I must've made my points (defending the right and duty of the artista to share her work without overriding concern for who might be displeased by its message; discussing privilege and "affirmative action"; etc.) pretty well, cuz I got a few hugs and exclamations of "Thank you, Tammy."

Okay.

Should you find yourself thirsty and alone...

...in San Anto, my friend, you must thrust yourselves into the empty booth at the crazy-popular bar BAR AMERICA, face the door and watch the local luminaries drizzle in as you swoon over the conversant artistes to your left and right. and if you're lucky, you'll be across the table from RUBYNELDA PEREZ--Chicana actress extraordinaire--AND a few people over from slam poet ANTHONY FLORES, and then you'll spot HALDUN (videomaker, educator, Youth Liberation Network organzier) hustling in to roust a spot at a booth, as the CARA MIA DALLAS crewe rolls in, post-rehearsal, for a round of chicharrones and Lone Star longnecks. if you're really lucky, Michael of the San Anto band COYOTE DREAMS will recognize you and give you the biggest hug since bears. and you'll feel that if CHEERS had been filmed in a Chicano/a bar in the heart of San Anto, you would have been a permanent extra, happy to earn less than union wage. if only for the firme company, conversation, and endless liquor-lubricated tejano onda spirit of familia.

that's my place. and that's where i found myself.
again, tonight.

Arriving in San Anto last night...

...was a little bit of a fritz, cuz we knew we were headed into a chaotic churn-spew. after all, the NBA championship finals game was headlong into the fourth quarter as the Amtrak I was on was surging towards the 210. the conductor or some subordinate on the p.a. kept periodically announcing the score, so we could adjust ourselves emotionally. knowing that our train, if on time, would arrive in San Anto minutes after the pivotal game, i resigned myself to a long wait at the station and to a hyper-exuberant city-mood of victory--should the Spurs win, as indeed they did.

and yes, it was crazy. screaming hordes of curfew-exempt teens and adults streamed through the intersections--some on foot, some on the hoods of cars, expecting to defy gravity as they yelped shirtless and crescendo.

i was happy to witness such citywide late-night excitement, but not so thrilled with the stupidity of people fender-bending and defying traffic laws. my friends Elaine and Michael braved the traffic snarls to pick me up and take me to their cool loft apartment in the downtown area, after we'd successfully circumnavigated the worst of the traffic congestion.

this morning, though, Elaine had something unpleasant to share. she as arts editor of the weekly publication--the San Antonio Current--was grappling with deadline pressure and worse, the unfortunate overnight loss of a major local luminary, Ram Ayala, the rock-n-roll club purveyor, tequila shot sharer, and all-time big hero of upstart young punkers trying to get a gig in the town of San Antonio. Ram's infamous lounge-cum-legendary rock joint, TACOLAND, has been host to many a snarly punk band and up-and-coming original music outfit. Ram is gone, dead in a bloody robbery heist. tonight, we heard, there was a tribute memorial service at Tacoland, with bands and San Anto dedicated joining together for a final send-off to the man.

what a pity. what a loss. my friend, painter and alterna-gallery owner Robt. Tatum told me that even CNN covered the story of Ram's death. and Tacoland, what will become of Tacoland? said Tatum: it is no more. it will be no more. the end of an era. no more of this beloved venue. all on the night of the Spurs victory.

consider that, my friend.

What to do if you find yourself in San Antonio this weekend

San Anto's the place to be this weekend. First, for the first-ever TEATROFEST at the GCAC, and secondly, for ELIA ARCE's newest performance piece, "The Fifth Commandment."

I'll be performing a spoken word soliloquy on dreams titled "Sueno Despierta" on Friday night. Other awesome groups, including MADMEDIA and CARA MIA, will perform showcases throughout the weekend. And I'm really looking forward to the lonche/platica on Saturday wherein all assembled will discuss the state and art of Chicana/o theater in Texas and beyond.

For more info, go here.

AND--if that wasn't enough, there's also the new one-woman show by L.A.-based Elia Arce, which opens at the Jump-Start Theater (also in San Antonio) on Friday night, June 24th.

*********************
from the San Antonio Express-News:

"Performance artist Elia Arce brings her solo show "The Fifth Commandment" to Jump-Start Theater Friday through June 26. The show, which she based on interviews with military personnel, explores the personal ethics of soldiers during wartime. Arce will perform at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. June 26 at the theater, Building B of the Blue Star Arts Complex, 1400 S. Alamo St. Tickets cost $12 general admission. Call (210) 227-5867 for reservations."

Teatristas reign in the city of the Alamo this weekend, boi.