Music Music is my life! Hip-hop, samba, reggaeton, ranchera, ska, reggae, afrobeats, latino bomba-plena-cumbia-salsa-etc, calypso, dub, hard bop, cool bop, and my latest musical obsession: Delta-inspired folk music from the US and Britain! which replaces my OCD for Laotian and Cambodian music
Culture I am an internationalist. I'm Mexican, I'm Palestinian, I'm Thai, I'm Filipino, I'm Nigerian, I'm Trinidadian, I'm Moroccan, I'm Cambodian, I'm Pakistani, I'm Cuban, I'm Peruvian, I'm Brazilian, I'm Fijian, I'm aboriginee, I'm Arabian, I'm Persian, I guess it's obvious that I'm Jamaican. I love all cultures of the world but I'm especially drawn to African and East Indian culture. I remember going into the Indian bazaar shops in the hood and marvelling at the incense boxes and how colorful and brilliant the designs were. The different varieties of lentils, seeds, beans, vegetables, etc. I also love Mexican culture, of course.
Changing jobs (I go through phases. I've had-without exaggerating-15 jobs in the past 5 or 6 years. I get a kick out of new challenges... or is it the challenge to leave an exploitive work situation. I dunno.)
Food Don't go there, holmes.
Relaxation Sitting back listening to records, sippin' some tea, thinking about who the vanguard is going to take out first when the revolution starts...
Technology & Nature No contradiction here. I think the two go hand in hand. I bought a new dual G5 that I like playing with. But when it's time to be at peace, I can still go out for a walk up in the green North Hollywood Hills with the KPFK crew. Shout out to Max, Sue and the rest of the lean, mean 1pm walking team!
I'd like to meet:
all nice and decent youth, man!
Music:
Music? Serious? ok, here goes...
[in no particular order...]
Jazz immortal Clifford Brown- trumpeter and one of the world's most gifted people.
The Skatalites, more than just a Jamaican houseband equivalent to Booker T & the MGs- they set the foundation for everything that resulted from post-colony island sound lab: rocksteady, lovers rock, roots, dub, dancehall- and even if you don't care about all that historical shit- they created one supa dupa wicked beat, a groundation, pure, raw, high-energy black ghetto soul.
Ruben Blades, social activist, actor, producer and salsero of the highest caliber whether with Willie Colon (remember plastico or pedro navaja or tiburon?), Fania all-star group or solo he's never recorded a bad album (20+ and counting, I think).
Would be blasphemy to forget Earth, Wind & Fire.
Yes, Mama Africa... Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Orchestra Baobab, Ghanian afrobeat, the Lion of Soweto (sounds just like a goat!), Lady Smith Black Mambazo.
Los Pleneros de la 21. El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico. Eddie Palmieri. Os Originais do Samba. Joao Gilberto. Astrud Gilberto. Luis Bonfa. Antonio Carlos Jobim. Martinho da Vila.
London reggae group Matumbi with Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Peter, Bunny and Bob.
The Jacob Miller Inner Circle, Al Campbell, Black Uhuru with M. Rose and Puma.
Sarah Vaughn. Max Roach. Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Clark Terry. Gil Scott-Heron. Donny Hathaway.
Mongo Santamaria (check out 'La Bamba' mid-60s album and afro-cuban 'Yambu').
KRS-ONE & Boogie Down Productions. Dead Prez. Immortal Technique. Masta Ace. De la Soul. A Tribe Called Quest.
Early UB40.
Nearly all of the so-called neo-soul (Anthony Hamilton, Musiq, Donelle Jones, Raphael Saadiq, Jill Scott, etc, etc) artists has at least one PHAT track on they albums [see WHAT I'M LISTENING TO NOW] just like the new crop of Jamaican sing-jays and dancehall artists like Glen Washington, Sanchez, Capleton, Sizzla, etc).
2-tone ska- after 12 years past the prime of my rude boy days I've rediscovered The Selecter's 'Too Much Pressure' album- tight beats even by today's standards!
I'm swimming with the current in this whole Reggaeton craze- but honestly Vico C and Tego Calderon are the only worthwhile commercial artists I've heard.
The Revolutionary Calypso Kings like Black Stalin, King Short Shirt and Black Wizard all inspired me to take a 10 hour miserable bus trip from Caracas in my attempt to get to Port of Spain, Trinidad. I like the Mighty Sparrow, too.
The Folkloristas is a legendary Mexican group that combine political protest songs with indigenous music and play over 100 instruments- they're the greatest!
On the subject of vernacular Mexican music I can't forget accordeon norteno superstar Ramon Ayala.
The great Javier Solis. Jose Alfredo Jimenez. And the rancheras (not sappy pop ballads) of Alejandro Fernandez who has one of the best voices in the Latin pop music world regardless of what you haters think. Remember, no one can like a Mexi-can.
... I'm certain that I'm missing some, maybe many artists, so this list will be a work in progress...
Movies:
Ask anyone who knows me fairly well- I DON'T go to the movies. I'm usually left out in conversations about the latest Hollywood blockbuster 'cause I couldn't care less. It's difficult for me to sit down for 2 or 3 hours unless it's a great movie.
That said, I dug: original STAR WARS trilogy, LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, GODS MUST BE CRAZY part II, MAGIC JOURNEYS 3D Disney film from the mid-80s (before Captain EO), a great, little-known Mexican film also from the 80s EL ANGEL DEL BARRIO, good political documentaries, all IMAX 35-minute nature films in those 15-story theatres at the museums, Mexican "epoca de oro" film ENAMORADA, Cantinflas' AHÃ ESTÃ EL DETALLE and Brazilian classic from the 50s BLACK ORPHEUS.
Television:
The Simpsons, PBS wildlife animal shows, Yan Can Cook and other cooking shows, Sesame Street (actually introduced to great musical acts through them- and who can forget Gordon, Maria and Luis)
Books:
I remember thinking I was all cool telling people I was into intense, heavy shit like James Joyce' ULYSSES and stuff. Truth is I prefer funny stuff like Kurt Vonnegut! I recommend ANYTHING he has written. MOTHER NIGHT and CATS CRADLE are his best work. If you haven't read 'em yet, then you're living an unfulfilled life.
In order to understand this screwed up world of ours I've read lots of political essays and works from Hegel to Ho Chi Minh.
QUOTATIONS FROM CHAIRMAN MAO also known as the little red book, I liked George Jackson's writings from prison SOLEDAD BROTHER, Sam Marcy, Richard Becker, Brian Becker, Ramsey Clark, Raymond Lotta's work on the truth of U.S. domination over Mexico, the Zapatista uprising question, IN DEFENSE OF STALIN, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X, and two childhood favorites: WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS and (kindergarten) THE LITTLE HOUSE.
Heroes:
My mother and father (had to put that, huh?), Chairman Mao (at least they're mentioned before Mao), all ordinary, everyday people who work hard just to make it through another day, Kurt Vonnegut, Lucio Cabanas, Quincy Jones, Marx & Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Kwame Toure aka Stokely Carmichael, Nina Simone, Diego Rivera- Jose Clemente Orozco- David Alfaro Siqueiros, Lumumba, Sandino, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel, Che, Clifford Brown, Gil Scott-Heron, George Jackson, Lynn Stewart, Mumia Abu Jamal, Ramona Africa, Benito Juarez, Zapata, Pancho Villa, Cantinflas & others
