I discovered this book quite accidentally as I was searching for Chuck Palahniuk's books at the library. What a serendipitous find! "No Man's Land" is a collection of translated short stories written by Mexican author, Eduardo Antonio Parra and published by City Lights Publishing right here in San Francisco.

These gritty short stories take place in the cities and deserts of Northern Mexico where humanity is often stretched to its unbearable limits. Poverty, corruption, sex and cold-hearted violence paint a background canvas for portraits of characters who struggle and suffer immeasurably for the chance of a better life.

Parra's hardcore writing style is brutally yet beautifully descriptive, like a car crash in slow motion(in fact, one story is indeed about an auto wreck). No human act of depravity is too taboo for Para to explore in this world where horror and hope are perpetually intertwined. I highly recommend this book if you can find it. It doesn't seem like there is much fanfare but I hope that more of Parra's work is translated soon!!

I realise that its been awhile, however, I never really left; I just haven't been doing much posting. Some friends, for lack of better word,  suggested that I discontinue this blog until I get  job and get settled in; but I came to the conclusion, rather quickly, that things will never be settled....that life NEVER really settles until you stop breathing.  Once that point is reached, the task of blogging becomes rather difficult, if not pointless.  So that said, I shall carry on with my earnest endeavor to pollute the internet with my worthless thoughts, sorry tales and shallow opinions.  After all, no one reads this shite anyway ( my deepest apologies to those who do)  and its just more or less therapy for me.  It's cheaper than seeing a shrink and its at least possible that it could be mildly interesting.

No, that title is not just an exercise in shameless alliteration, it's just another small dose of wretched reality aboard the 48 Quintara yesterday afternoon.

So the Güero is on Mission St, on his home way from running an errand when he(I)decide to get a library card at the Mission Branch Library. I try to glom a copy of Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke", but shit-on-a-stick...it's already been checked out and is already on hold. I check nextmuni.com on my beat-up Blackberry and it looks like I've got about two minutes before the 48 arrives. Cool!

I get to the bus and hop .. a latina mom and her young hijos with Happy-Meal Kung Fu pandas. The bus driver is a perky young black woman and greets everyone. But no sooner after I leave her presence, there are two passengers going at it...just verbally abusing each other from across the aisles. First the Old Pink Lady, she's white and as stated, old. She's wearing big glasses, faded pink cap and equally faded pink track suit. A big-ass tote bag sits on her lap and she's got one of those metal walking canes with the four prongs on the end. She's says to the other passenger,"...you should watch out for my cane!"

Now, the other passenger..he's quite a sight...and his companion? Where do I even begin?...Joel and Ethan Cohen could not have created such exaggerated characters. He's a big white guy in his his 50's wearing a 49er cap, wrap-around sunglasses and sporting a thick Mike Ditka mustache. He's got to be a tourist. His companion...she's the same age, maybe older. She looks like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman...if Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman were dragged by a Ford pick-up truck for six blocks. Anyway, she's wearing this blood-red Strawberry Shortcake type hat, a patch skirt and these funky striped socks with open toe sandals. OK...you've got the picture. So he hollers back," I guess that's just typical of you FUCKING CITY PEOPLE!!!!" Oh no he DITN'T! Oh yes...he did.

The perky black bus driver chimes in politely, "Now. now. You two...that's enough...settle down!"

But it's too late, the old pink broad is REALLY pissed off, " So that's how it is, is it? Then why don't you just go the FUCK back to wherever the hell you came from. FUCKING Asshole!"

The driver pleads with them again. There are kids everywhere on the bus. Some people are laughing, including the neo-hippies, surprisingly, in the front who have kids. One of them, the infant, is sucking happily on his hippy mother's teet. Hey the Güero's got no problem with that, he's liberal minded.

So the man relents and mutters something to Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. The old pink lady quietly pulls out and opens up a pulp romance novel that she probably bought at the Salvation Army for a quarter. Now, I have no idea what precipitated that vitriolic exchange but all seemed to be well again... until we got to South Van Ness.

Through the window, I see two SFPD beat cops talking to some punky latin teenager. The bus stops, the kid gets on board and says rather loudly, regarding one of officers,"FUCKING FAGGOT"!

The neo-hippies start laughing hysterically again. I'm thinking to myself...do people not have any qualms about cursing like a sailor in the presence of others, who you don't know. One thing the Güero has always said is, "know your audience!" Call me old school, but what happened to the days when people looked over their shoulder or whispered before offering up an offensive or racist comment. Now don't get me wrong I'm not condoning racism, or sexual orientation-ism. If you are offended however, that means I failed in trying to be cleverly ironic and satirical. For that, I apologize. If you understood and are still perturbed, then you are a humorless half-wit who should lighten up or go read someone else's posts. The question I ask, however, is why do people just talk out loud and say anything they feel like as if they are in their living room or mom's house? Has freedom of speech become an excuse for people to showcase their ignorance and hostility for ALL to experience?

My fellow neo-hippies passengers seemed to take it in stride but I didn't. Thankfully, the Güero was goin' solo and didn't have his son with him on this particular occasion but I would hate for him to have experience the careless and unrepentant ugliness on display. I'm not naive, I was born and raised in the Mission after all and I have witnessed more crude and horrendous acts committed by frightening youths aboard the 9 San Bruno. But why has that become ok?
Perhaps, I just expect too much as I have been living far too comfortably the quiet suburbs of San Diego.

These days, I'm not in the Mission by choice. It's more like the lesser of choices but I'm beginning think I may have, yet again, chosen the wrong path. I mean how I can raise my son in this place? All the wi-fi cafes, hip restaurants, and culture can't hide the all the litter that blows freely though the streets like tumbleweeds, nor do they belie the fact that the Mission is still a dangerous place where too many folks have no respect for themselves or one another.

But I'm tryin' hard Ringo, I'm trying real hard to come to terms with my environment, to find and focus on the things that make me feel hopeful about the human condition, my own personal situation and about my son growing up in the midst of urban cruelty and sidewalks that reek of urine. Until then, the Güero just has to suck it up and watch his back in here in Tom Ammiano's Mission district...maybe I'll just go get a quesadilla suiza at El Farolito. Now that makes me happy!

-the Güero, 7/29/2008 (from the Nuño Meat Market)

As blogging is on myspace is quite limited and I don't seem to have much friends anyway (myspace or otherwise)to read it here, I maintain at a blog at Blogger.
I don't reckon many people give a damn about what goes through my warped-ass mind, but if you're curious or just bored shitless then please, by all means, check out my blog at http://nunomeatmarket.blogspot.com/.

Warmest Regards
JOHN

On Religion

Some people, like my family for instance don't understand my point or view when it comes to religion so I have decided to write about about some of my thoughts from time to time about my beliefs and I guess…disbeliefs. I never gave these things so much thought but I find that so many friends and relatives and even just acquaintances are being drawn to the into the Christian Evangelical movement. I must admit, that it is very alienating for me. Obviously it fulfills some need for people including many Americans. It's sort of frighteningly ironic that at this point in our history, the most religious places in the world are the United States and Muslim countries in the Middle East. In other words: those who use the most oil and those who provide it.

My issue with the Abrahamic Religions, that is - being the religions that are derivative of the One God of the Middle East (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), is that their views seem as harsh and unforgiving as the desert from where they came. I'm not comfortable with any unyielding faith that tosses logic, science, and reason into a bonfire. To willingly chose ignorance in order to uphold one's religious beliefs is incomprehensible to me. To them, there is but One God, One Way, and One Belief. Based on that, one has to ask - where does that leave everyone else? It seems to be very much a black and white world for them. There are no complex and inconvenient shades of gray to be considered. You're either right or you're wrong- saved or unsaved.


"The people of Samaria must bear the consequences of their guilt because they rebelled against their God. They will be killed by an invading army, their little ones dashed to death against the ground, their pregnant women ripped open by swords." (Hosea 13:16 NLT)

I still don't know if I am an atheist or not, I mean I did consider myself one for a long time but now, I have to say that I am an Agnostic because I don't know if there is a Supreme Being or not. I can't honestly say that I know or don't know but neither can any one else. Oh sure some one can BELIEVE there is a God or gods or Goddess or whatever but who can say they truly KNOW with absolute certainty? There is difference between KNOWING and BELIEVING, at least in the English language. The only things that are certain, that everyone can agree on, are that we are all born, we all get old, get sick and eventually die. Even Jesus Christ himself could not seem to escape this universal predicament. Now of course I am not talking about his resurrection into the kingdom of Heaven and all that because that's where Faith comes in.

Ok…that's enough for now. I'm sure I will have more thoughts later as I take sips of my Nicaraguan Free Trade coffee and reflect on the universe…