Reminiscing Over You: 1993 and Thanksgiving Dreams

WTFB! (What the Fudge Brownies!) I had me a good Thanksgiving Day weekend. Ate some bird, had some 8 dollar wine and saw some relatives I had not had the displeasure of talking to in over a decade.

Wearing a TUX for some silly prom BS

 One of them was a cousin of mine from Nvo. Laredo that I had not seen since 1998. The holidays are always a good time to catch up with some of the relatives that get lost along the way. Well, back in the day, this primo (not the one pictured above) and me would have some crazy fun all over the streets of Nvo Laredo. We were both fourteen yrs old and we thought we were the shit. In reality we were just two stupid teenagers wearing Georgetown Hoyas jerseys and UNLV caps. Fashion was not our strong suit.


In music, we would make the noise to the latest rap single, but our favorites were Pete Rock and CL Smooth. For some reason, we would trump their music out of his boombox like nobody's business. I bought that CD sometime in 1993 and for a whole 3 months I played it out so much, the thing quickly became scratched and unplayable. My cousin asked me to lend it to him and I did, knowing full well I would not see it again. It had cost me something like $15 dollars over at Talamas Music Store on Guerrero St  en el otro lado.  That was in 1993. I thought the CD was lost forever. Whenever I would see him I would ask him for my CD back, but, he always had an excuse as to why he couldn't hand it over. Well, we had a falling out in the late 90s and I had not spoken to him in a over 10 years, until yesterday. I ran into him at my aunt's house, and he saw me and gave me a huge grin using his plaqued, crooked teeth.

"Guess what I've got in my truck!" he blurted out to me before even greeting my hand. We walked out to his truck and he produced the CD of Pete Rock and CL Smooth that we both had enjoyed and the CD I had not seen since 1993! It was the same one too, because it had my signature I had put on the CD sleeve. He slammed into this CD player of his automobile and the speakers produced my most favorite rap song eeever, "They Reminisce Over You"

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Thanksgiving is MosDef a time to bring family together. It's more than just turkey and overblown, hyped-up Best Buy Sales. It's more than tired Charlie Brown specials, and gravy and corn galore. The holidays are about family, about being together and seeing the loved ones from years gone by. Its about having cheap eight dollar wine with a loved one. It's about reminiscing passed,cherished memories and looking forward to the good days ahead. It is about forgiving a cousin for sins of the past. Turkey or no turkey, Thanksgiving is a sweet time. Here is to the holidays and reminiscing over the good times.

(Editors Note: You can download this CD at this great blog, along with other classic hiphop.)

For Sale

  Driving down the street I spotted this gem of a scene. A woman was seated on a table with a 'for sale' sign right next to her. It was unclear whether it was her for sale or the air conditioner unit that was right beside her. I can almost picture this woman's husband sitting her on this table and trying to get some chump change for the perceived old hag.
     BTW, I should've bought the AC unit. My place is like an oven.

My Thanksgiving: by Maria C

My Thanksgiving

by Maria Cisneros

When I was in elementary school, I remember every Thanksgiving my teacher would assign us the task of making a turkey out of our handprints and we’d make a list of the things we were most thankful for. I wish I would’ve kept one of those assignments so that I could see exactly what I was thankful for back then. My list probably included my new Jem doll and my She-ra action figure. Nowadays, my list would include a couple of items way more significant than that. Materials possessions don’t carry much meaning; they’re necessary to make living easier and possible but the objects most precious in my life are the people in it. My most important people are as follows: my daughter, my family, and my friends.

Drag me to Hal's

It's been a long, sad week for me. I think the loss is finally sinking in quietly. I'm coming to grips with it. In the meantime, I'm being dragged out of the house over to Hal's. Grief can be harsh.

Bleeding Ranger Red

I'm still hurting inside. I'm not  ready to talk about the loss. Don't look for new posts for a couple of more days. I can't blog right now, I have to lay down and not think about it.

Furniture in Life

My protege, Maria, has left me and started her own blog. Figures. So typical. You make someone famous, then they get a taste of the good life, and they leave you in the dust in the vain hope of being the next Jenny Jones. In any case, spin by her new blog and tell her I said hi.

La Sopa que me Como

La Sopa TentaDora

by GB 

La sopa se enfria

sentada en la mesa.

Con moscas bailando por encima

y mi cuchara bailando entre el fideo.

 El apetito me engrandece

mientras la sopa se me aburre,

  pero yo sigo igual de ardiente.

Selling Out

  As I kid, I loved watching the made-for-TV movie, The Deadly Tower, based on the Charles Whitman shootings at UT back in the 60s.



 When I first watched this movie in the 80s, I missed this particular scene found above. In this scene, the hero, Ramiro Martinez, is struggling with being a Mexican-American police officer while at the same time, being true to his roots and feels inferior to his white colleagues. In the scene, he meets "Mano", a kid from the neighborhood and the scene then plays out rather strangely, something I did not pick up when I was a kid.

 Listen to the dialogue of Officer Martinez. He starts talking about 'changes' and 'working hard' instead of just complaining. Is the movie referring to the Chicano Civil Rights Movement? Is "Mano" supposed to represent the old guard, and Martinez is the new breed of Mexican-American that is committed to changes via-hard work (middle-class?) instead of just complaining (protesting)? Maybe I'm reading too much into this, or is there some sort of social commentary? You decide. Still, I enjoy this movie, and this particular scene.

BTW, "Mano" needs to have his ass kicked!

Random movie quote of the week

“im 36 years old, I have a wife, a child and a mortgage and im scared to death im turning into my father”.

Quote from my favorite movie ever. The only film that makes me cry. Talk about daddy issues. Free cookie to the person that tells us what movie its from.

The Hand does Super S Foods

I was driving down Clark St. and was passing by Super S Foods when I realized that I had never been inside that particular location since like 1988. I stopped by just to check it out (and I was having a private HEB boycott) and I realized that pretty much nothing had changed since my last visit during the Reagan era. I think they even still had the same produce on display.

 One more thing I can cross off on my list of things to do before the year ends. Yeay for me.

El Mil Usos (parte final)

One of my favorite Mexican movies is a Hector Suarez gem titled, "El Mil Usos". The acting in that movie is just superb and the storyline is fascinating and easy to follow.

The plot of the movie deals with a Mexican man from the countryside that moves to the big city (DF) in search of a job and money. After a series of misadventures and terrible luck, he hears of the opportunities to have success in the USA over with the 'gringos'. The following is the next to the final scene of this excellent movie. Special note of the great acting by the old man in the final scene. His pain just seems so real.



Also, does anyone know the name of the game that the men in the background are playing? What's it called? Also, what is it that they are drinking at the bar? It's some white, milk like substance. Just wondering.