Today is Mariela and I's 8th Anniversary! We've been slangin' love for eight years now and come a long way together. Even after all that time we still cake it like a pair of teenagers. I love her more than anything in this world. We're actually postponing our celebration until Friday in order to dedicate today to being there for her cousin Memo's high school graduation. Come this Friday though we're gonna be away on a three-day laid up episode on the romantic tip.

I'm terrible at expressing myself with greeting cards. I can only think of one possible occasion where I've given one to Mariela to express my love for her. Instead, I usually end up creating a zine or art book just for her. The following two comics are from the zine I just finished putting together celebrating our 8 years. I hope you can dig 'em.



The question of what we might impart to our future spawn about knockin' boots and scammin' ass is a frequent topic of conversation between Mariela and I. This strip sums up the essentials of what we've agreed on. Mama said knock you out!



I just realized that Lisa Loeb and Vin Diesel are both 40. Damn, we likes 'em on the older side I guess.

All is full of love,

Rio

I created these two images as concept sketches for a project my Dad is working on. He's producing recreations of Frida paintings using sets and models in conjunction with the Frida show opening at the SFMOMA. He asked me to create a visual reference for his team and so I whipped these up. They're pretty rough but I was happy with the results.

It took about a half-hour to produce each image from the original paintings. I learned the technique from a Photoshop magazine tutorial (cheesy, I know) and I'm thinking about experimenting with more 3D recreations. Hmmmm, we shall see…

I also wanted to spotlight my crush of the moment, the amazing Maya Jupiter. Homegirl is Mexican but was raised in Australia and she can cold get ill on the mic. I came across Maya Jupiter on emusic through a bunch of random tacks I downloaded. After first hearing her flow I've tried to find out as much as I can about her. According to Wikipedia:

"Jupiter was born in La Paz, Mexico of mixed Mexican and Turkish origin. Her family moved to Melbourne when she was one, then relocated to Sydney when she was four, where she grew up in Busby, a suburb in south-western Syndney."

Check out this video featuring Maya Jupiter, it's a little slow to start but once the beat starts it jumps off. The best part is that homegirl is totally chola'd out in this video. She's representin' on the other side of the world and I love it; kinda like our international Chola ambassador. I wonder what image she'll have for herself if she ever tries to conquer the states (she just moved from Sydney to Los Angeles).



As some of you know my partner in art crime, Marie Hernandez, is a Chicana currently living in Australia so I have a soft spot for Raza down under. If anyone out there has Maya Jupiter's solo album or knows where I can buy it in the states let me know. I'm hella crushin'.

Peace,

Rio

Okay, so it's like 4am and I just got back from watching Sex and the City with Mariela and our crew. For what it was, I had a good time EXCEPT...

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!





As much as it pains me, I'm going to be straight up! It was racist as fuck up in that mugg! I mean, just to have a gag where Charlotte shits in her drawers, did they really have to go to such a great length making Mexico look so DIRTY? I could have dealt with the character of Charlotte thinking everything in Mexico was unsanitary; it almost stays true to her character. I would have been okay with that. Yet the makers of this movie actually VALIDATED her racist fears. Who the fuck gets the runs after ingesting a couple seconds of water in Mexico? I was digging this movie until it basically gave a big Fuck You to every Brown person out in the audience.

There's a lot that can be written about the complex relationship this movie has to race and racism but at 4:30am I'm just pissed they made my people look unsanitary so they could have a cheap joke about Charlotte getting Hershey squirts. I expect those kind of gags from Larry the Cable Guy not Sarah Jessica Parker. I thought the label of love was supposed to be in, not racism. Big is still The Man though, I've got his back.

Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours,

Rio

Ps. Despite my profanity and such, I had a great time. Maybe I'll write a second blog about the rest of movie. Like something about the buckwild makeup sex between Miranda and Steve. Shit was greasy and amazing!

As Latinos our tastes are sometimes governed by an unspoken synergy. Some are well documented like our passion for Morrissey, which is both logical and unexplainable, some are undocumented like our love for Patrick Nagel art. Tonight, while watching the Hottest Hotties of the 90's on VH1, I had a revelation.

A question: Who is the single greatest living icon for Latinas in the United States?

The answer: LL Cool J.



As a straight dude, I'm at a loss to explain the appeal of LL Cool J beyond the catchiness of Mama Said Knock You Out (and the mandated law of the schoolyard that every 80's kid had to know the words to Dear Yvette). However I came to realize tonight that every Latina I know over the age of 25 is, like, totally crazy for LL. According to Mariela it's the way he does this licking his lips thing. As a scholar I know there must be something else to it than supposed cunnilingus skills but there's no denying that Latinas have an unrecognized common love for LL Cool J.

So the question, for all ladies out there, is what is the special thing about LL Cool J?
Is he to Latinas what Morrissey is to Chicanos? Inquiring minds want to know!

I Need Love,

Rio

Okay, I'm druuuuuunk! Actually Mariela and I are Druuuuuuunk!

We're watching Viva Hollywood on VH1 right now! Our drunk poll is: Do you think Walter Mercado is a top or a bottom? Peace to my LGBT peoples! We love you!

Hella Drunk,

Rio and Mariela

Ps. Poll question 2 is Viva Hollywood some racist shit or what? I mean if there going to have all those stereotypes where's the cholo rockin' his khakies with a cuff and a crease? Where's the homegirl in her oversized Raiders shirt? Where's the Chicana that looks like a bootleg Lila Downs? Where's the jornalero callin' eveyone Guey? Okay, Mariela says get off the myspace already. I love her! Hella bigtime! Alright it's cakin' time!

Hey everyone,

It's been a frantic and emotional week for me that's got me grateful for the people in my life that I call family. For all the struggle there has been a light at the end of the tunnel for me today. The Great Tortilla Conspiracy won its very first award and I was notified of it last night when I got home.

Check this out: We've won a Captain Hook Award for opposing Biopiracy. We won for being Most Creative with our work talking about genetically modified corn, corn ethanoyl fuels, and the gloablization of the tortilla. The awards page can be found at: http://www.captainhookawards.org/winners/cog_2008.

You can also download a pdf poster of the award winners by saving here (4.2MB).

HOOORAY!

Rio

What up to everyone sweatin' in the heat!

So at midnight, Friday night, I was hanging out with my mom and we were suffering in the heat. My family is hella San Franciscan which means we boogie in the fog but the heat can be some ill shit to us. We decide to take a walk down Valencia street to buy some ice cream and hit the streets.

The silver lining of these hot days is how the Mission District comes alive once the sun goes down. Walking down the street I could hear the sounds of a house party coming out of every third apartment. All my peoples were out in the street and having a good time. Peering down an alleyway there was a fire dancer performing for an appreciative audience. It felt like a beautiful throwback to the Mission District of my youth.

My mom and I bought a bag fulla It's-its, Choco Tacos, and Drumsticks at the corner store on 24th and Valencia and walked home. We decide to have a seat in front of our apartment and have our ice cream. By this time it was going on 1am and we were just sitting there basking in the cool night breeze. Out of nowhere we see my Dad coming home, from a night of art partyin', and suddenly we're all hanging out eating ice cream together. My parents have been separated for more than two decades but it felt really good to be a family again, if only briefly, in this amazing night. So there we were, three people eating ice cream, talking about art, and enjoying the night air together. Damn, I love San Francisco.

Peace and Air Conditioning,

Rio



Ps. I think I figured out the over exposure problem with Photo Booth. Maya was right, if I turn the brightness down it helps a lot. I think the angle of the screen was also making things funky.

I can't tell you how happy I am to see this image. I'm used to designing posters and postcards for exhibits that I've curated or produced but I've never seen someone else use one of my artworks in a design I haven't created. This postcard (front on the left and back on the right) uses a portrait I did of Manny Martinez, band leader of Benito Cereno. The portrait has been getting some good circulation on all the promotional materials for the band and I'm happy about the way it's turned out.

The show promoted in the above image isn't until June but Benito Cereno is playing at Berkeley's La Peña Culture Center this Wednesday May 21st at 8pm. I'll be there to shake my ass and hopefully some of you can come dance with me.

For more information check out http://www.lapena.org/event/774.

Peace,

Rio

It's 5AM and to make a long story short I just got a new Mac (my first in 4 years!) and I can't figure out how to reduce the flash in Photo Booth. I know it's supposed to be flattering but I just want a to take a straight-up picture. Does anyone know how to turn off the flash or tone it down?

Peace y'all,

Rio

Ahhhhhh! I've been away from bloggin' for too long. For some reason technology seems to be failing me all around. My PS3 died last week and my Mac officially kicked the bucket yesterday. I'm taking it in to the Apple Store Wednesday to get it checked out; at this point I'm trying to figure out if I should pay to get it fixed or just go into debt and buy a new one (it was 4 years old). Hmmmmm…

I thought I'd at least get some computer time today at work but there was a neighborhood wide blackout that lasted over three hours. I have about fifteen minutes before my 10 hour workday ends and I head home so I though I'd break everyone off something proper on the music tip…
 

Having found the love of my life I take comfort in knowing that I'll never have to write a want ad. If I did, however, I would list Cultural Hybridity as my 1 turn-on (girls who wear glasses being my 2). Anyone who could embody or appreciate combining elements from disparate cultures would be a perfect match for me. That's why I'm all about Şevval Sam and Up, Bustle, & Out right now. Up, Bustle, & Out is a group from Bristol, UK who have been making culturally hybrid music for more than a decade now. Their last joint, Mexican Sessions, is one of my all time favorite albums and I recommend that everyone pick it up.

Their latest album is called Istanbul's Secrets and it's a team-up with Turkish singer Şevval Sam. Instead of focusing entirely on Turkish music there are hella throwbacks to Latinos and Latin American music. The culturally hybrid madness of the sounds created by Şevval Sam and Up, Bustle, & Out are best represented by Blue Night / Mavi Gece. The song features Blanquito Man flowing on a reggae beat in Spanglish, Candice Cannabis rapping in English, and most incredibly Şevval Sam singing in Spanish and English then rapping in Turkish. The song (as well as the album) is available on itunes, emusic, and at stores like Amoeba. To hear the song check out this youtube video of the it below.

 

I also recommend the song Orthodox Gold off the album; I don't know what the fuck Şevval Sam is singing and rapping about but it sounds rad. If I had a poster of Şevval Sam I'd hella hang it over my bed.

 

Peace,

Rio