As someone who crosses the border between San Diego and Tijuana regularly, it’s a geeky delight to win back the mayorship of the U.S.-Mexico Border Crossing at San Ysidro Port of Entry on Foursquare. Of course, there will be no discounts or special rewards offered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But it’s still useful to share with friends, and if anything, it’s a fun novelty. (Update: A day after posting this, @dr_chuy regained the mayorship.)
La Orquesta de Baja California joined forces with Nortec Collective artists Bostich and Fussible on Sunday for a free concert in the plaza outside Tijuana’s cultural center. It was the final day of Entijuanarte, a three-day contemporary art festival featuring work ranging from painting and photography to digital and performance arts.
Whatever lingering cultural history may have once enshrined piñatas, I don’t think these kids are learning about its pre-Columbian heritage:
Principal Svadean: Look, Pedro, I don’t know how they do things down in Juarez, but here in Idaho we have a little something called pride. Understand? Smashing in the face of a piñata that resembles Summer Wheatley is a disgrace to you, me, and the entire Gem State. (Napoleon Dynamite, 2004)
You can’t help chuckle at the iron of a child bashing their favorite cartoon character with a stick only to be rewarded with candy. While I agree with Cindylu that piñatas are problematic, I can’t help smiling when everyone dive-bombs the ground, scrapping over Blowpops and Smartees.
| Dale, dale, dale No pierdes el tino Porque si lo pierdes Pierdes el camino Ya le diste una Ya le diste dos Ya le diste tres Y tu tiempo se acabó! |
Hit it, hit it, hit it Don’t miss Because if you miss You lose your way You hit it once You hit it twice You hit it three times And your turn is over! |
I’ll be shooting at Comic-Con this weekend. Look for photos in the KPBS Flickr account along with contributions from other staff, including Beth Accomando and Angela Carone who will be blogging.
In the meantime, take a listen to Beth’s Comic-Con preview for KPBS or her NPR feature on Comic-Con’s Eisner Awards.
From Convenience Store News:
GreenCard Energy Drink, made by Z CORP, markets its energy beverage to illegal immigrants on their way to the U.S. It claims that it will give energy to those looking to cross the border and potentially outrun U.S. Border Patrol.
“It’s a fact,” that people illegally cross the border, president and CEO of Z CORP, Jeff Weiss, told CSNews Online. “If they are going to come to the U.S., I don’t want them dying in the desert, I’d rather have them hydrated.”
This would have been a perfect art project. Unfortunately, they beat me to it, and it’s real to boot (as far as I can tell). It is a pretty amazing commentary on the industry’s lack of social consciousness. It also has the “help them cross” irony like Judi Werthein’s Brinco shoes. I’m still sort of in awe that they actually think this is a reasonable idea…
[ via cindylu ]
I heard this story on NPR today about Latin Alternative music having a tough time making a real market impact:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5251735
I met Josh Norek (one of the voices in the story) about 4 years ago at a Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York. He’s done a lot of work to promote the genre, including his own band the Hip Hop Hoodios. Check out their music in iTunes.
Here’s a photo of Ely Guerra I took at LAMC in 2002:
For those who don’t know, I hosted a latin alternative music show on WRPI in Troy, NY called Border Pop Radio. I could post playlists if anyone is interested. The show was started by el Vampiro Fronterizo (aka Marco Loera) who spins in the deserts of Arizona.