RIP Dave Cockrum... and F*CK MARVEL

This makes me not want to support Marvel due to their treatment of past artists, writers and not giveing the creators what they properly deserve. It's almost a catch 22. You want to support the artist.... but unless corporate practices don't change, as my wise friend Len said to me in an email

"It is one of those things that make me wish more artists have the power and not the idiots in suits. But, in a world where C.R.E.A.M, and the idiots in suits know how to sell and distribute a product, artists, no matter how talented they are, are still just grunt workers at the bottom of the pipeline."

How true. Sad, but true.

When I was growing up as a kid, my favorite comics were X-men. My favorite teams, where Claremont and Cockrum. Nightcrawler was one of my favorite characters who was a character he created. He's responsible for the creation of the modern day X-men... a la Storm, Colossus, Wolverine and so on... but that fact that he never got any royalties makes my blood boil.

About Dave Cockrum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Cockrum

Article on his recent passing: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/28/comic.death.ap/index.html

Tribute Site:
http://www.davecockrum.net/

RIP, Sir.

burnout, fountain, massive spendings and xmas

No more shows... man I'm burnt. I'm going to fill in my obligations then just lay low. I have 2 shows in Dec, both are short bills and haven't even been advertised yet. Unfortunately, the last show takes place in Feb. ::sigh:: Caving in to pressure, being victim of politics, or being caught in a bind... it just takes the fun out of it for me. Maybe I should just go back to being a spectator... Trying to put on shows is a lot of fun. And in the end, its always satisfying. But it always takes a part of me, as if I'm shortening my life everytime. I guess I just tend to worry too much and over react. My times cut short, my money's being blown... Plus all the added stress. I KNOW for a fact that I can't do it alone. But without the resources, support and much needed manpower, it just isn't possible. It makes me think sometimes that it not worth it. I do it for the love of the music. But I'm starting to think that love can only take you so far, at least in this capacity. They say if you love something, set it free... (I think this is a Sting song??) And I feel I'm really close to doing that...

I don't even know if BR Project is going to take off.... I'm not getting any support for that either. I just want to make some damn '45s!!!

Other than that... I plan on going crabbing this weekend in Crescent City... yes the place that just had a tsunami. The crabbing is excellent there. The best pier crabbing that is. Going with Kristi and possibly her parentals. This should be fun! Last time we went we caught A LOT of crab within the 3 days we were there. I can't wait. I'm gonna try to catch some lingcod too.

Also on the plus side, I've paid off all my cc bills. On the down, I still got 5+ yrs on the car and I'm a long way from buying a home. One of my self imposed goals. I still think at most I'm a year away to achieving that goal.

To end my Thanksgiving weekend vacation I did not want to end, I went to go see The Fountain with my buds Chris and Len. It was a nice story with a good ending. A little confusing with 3 inter related stories. Very visual, as all Darren Aronofsky's films are.

I've also gone on a shopping spree. And I haven't even finished my xmas shopping. I picked up the Riverdales 1st album re-issue on Asian Man Records. I love the Ramones and Ramones-style music. Also picked up a used El Dopa CD at Amoeba's. They're playing one of the Gilman 20th Anniversary Shows and I wanted to listen. East Bay Hardcore at its finest. At Rasputins in the V, while posting some gilman flyers i picked up the new Evens and 2G's album. In the span of 3 days over the break, at Best Buy I picked up Arrested Development 1-3, Scrubs Season 4, Simpsons Season 8 (1st app. of Duffman... oh yeah!!!!), Rome Season 1, Guitar Hero 2, 2 2g flash drives, FF3-5 for my 'new' DS. PS2 games Bully, Okami and FFXII... and also King Dork by Dr. Frank... yikes!

next up... XMAS shopping and XMAS stuff

Giving Thanks, Black Friday

No Turducken this year. Last year it sucked so did without it this time around. As always, around this time of year there was a lot of good food. I stayed at my grandma's to help take care of her and got to spend time with my Aunt and cousin, whom I don't get to see often, but live right across the bridge in DC.

I spent the most time playing video games. I don't know why it's just around the holidays, I binge on the games. I guess its the one time I'm free from everything. Work, friends, the "scene"... And man was it relaxing. Just family, food, all the games I haven't played yet but own... It was pure bliss. On top of this, I just bought Guitar Hero 2 and it is really addicting. Fun as hell!

The kick off for holiday shopping was crazy too. I tried to go to Best Buy and there were 100's of people lined up, on top of 100's of people running around looking for stuff to buy. I only managed to find a couple flash drives on sale. But I wasn't about to stay in line for those two items.... so I decided to come back later in the day and pick them up. Luckily they were still where I put them.

ZZZ

deep thoughts...

I just wanted to blog briefly on the past shows this weekend. I had a blast...

Thanks to everyone who came out to the shows...

Thanks to the bands: Chestfull of Arrows, Echo of Bullets, Sahn Maru, Sin Remedio, Flattbush, Eskapo, Masacre, La Grita and Resistant Culture.

Thanks to the venues and volunteers and the co-presenter U.G.Z.

Happy Halloween!

Life has been good lately. Although I've been lacking a lot of sleep and been really busy! Banyan Loan Rangers finished 3-2-1 and we're heading to the playoffs! PLAYOFFS!!!! Last friday spent the night at Gilman to study how the operation works. I've been asked to help book at Gilman at least 1 show a month. And what an honor it is. This place has so much punk history. To have a shot at working here, I'm really excited about it. More on this later...

Saturday was a busy day as we went to Santa Clara for my friend Mike's christening for his baby boy, Mattheo Joaquin. I talked to an old friend of mine, Chris C. who I haven't seen in a couple years. He's doing well.
Later that night, Calvin Chris and I treked to the city as we celebrated as 4 of our members celebrated birthdays. We went to Azul's in the city. We also celebrated James' bday and it was my first time going out with the guys in a while. Everyone was rolling deep and the place had to be packed with half of the place full of Vallejo folks.

Later we went to Mels. Everyone was tired or "swoasted". I tried to get caffeinated as much as possible so I could make the drive back...

Sunday was football day. Stopped by Carl's house with Rob and Chris to celebrate his bday. The rest of the day was spent at home to celebrate my grandpa's bday. The family came over for lunch. Afterwards, I went to Kristi's and we prepared for our fishing trip to Pacifica.

I caught a couple smelt and Kristi caught some smelt and mackerel. Crab season is starting and we can't wait for that. Crescent City here we come!!!

Nouvelle Vague

Really busy these past couple weeks. In respect of Steve Irwin, I decided to go dark for a couple days. I can't say how much Crocodile Hunter had a impact on me. I always enjoyed his shows and enthusiasm for animals and nature. I have the utmost respect for this man, a man who died doing what he loved. It's tragic that he had to go so soon, and leave his family behind. Condolences to the Irwin family. Please visit their website, www.crocodilehunter.com for information and links to donate funds to their non profit organizations.

On a lighter note, it's been two weeks into our second softball season. After a winless first season, we won our first game against the the second place team of last and on our second game, tied. Better a tie than a loss I say. But who knows, maybe we can go all the way. Go BANYAN LOAN RANGERS!!!!

Tonight, I went to see Nouvelle Vague at The Fillmore in SF. It was awesome. They are a New Wave/Bossa Nova 80's cover band. Their renditions are some of the best I've ever heard. They come from France and so far they've released 2 albums. Check out this website for info and music samples.

http://www.nouvellesvagues.com

http://www.myspace.com/nouvellevague

RIP Steve Irwin

Rest in Peace, Crocodile Hunter

Minority Threat and my FAST

August was a helluva a month. Raised about $280 in Bruce's name for the National Brain Tumor Foundation. The show success and a lot of fun. In the end, it makes it all worthwhile. Here's some pictures my friend Steve Flores took.

http://flickr.com/photos/punkcichlid

But man, I was so stressed, getting little sleep and all I ended up catching a cold. I'm just recovering now but it's been chaotic this month. After all this I'm planning a series of breaks and vacations. On the 21st, I bought a new car! Initially, I was planning to get a SUV, to take place of my Pathfinder. I had my eyes on the FJ Cruiser. It looks like a humongous, giant toy truck. Although it's a very capable and useful vehicle, i opted to go for more gas efficiency. And I was looking at the Subaru Impreza. It was the car I fell in love with when I first bought Gran Turismo. And as soon as it came out, everyone and their mom got one. But for me originality is important. I started to look at the Volvo S40 wagon, because I wanted more trunk space, if I got a car. But then I saw the Volkswagon Golf. My aunt had one, and it proved reliable for years, and her previous car was also a VW. Fine German engineering, and then I laid eyes on the GTI, which is a sportier version of the Golf. I looked it up and it has a impressive history.

Here's a pic of my car (not mine, but identical):



Specs for 2007 VW GTI MkV w/ DSG Automatic Transmission, United Grey, 3 Door

Package 1: Moon roof, 6 CD changer w/ mp3 readability + Sirius/AM/FM Radio

Interlagos (plaid interior)

Price Range (GTI MSRP): $21,990
Body Type: 3-door hatchback
Layout: front engine, FWD
Engine: 200-hp, 207 lb-ft of torque, 2.0L, 16-valve DOHC I-4 direct injection turbo
Transmission: 6-spd DSG twin-clutch
Brakes (front/rear): disc/disc, ABS, BA, EBD
Dimensions (L/W/H/WB): 165.7 / 69.3 / 58.2 / 101.5 in
Curb Weight: 3,306 lbs
Tires: 225/45R17
Cargo Volume (trunk): 15.1 cu-ft
Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 24 / 34 mpg
Observed Fuel Economy: 27 mpg

Summer update

congrats to dave and ilene who is due very soon.

happy birthday to tony, my life long compadre.

-Last weekend myself, and the guys from eskapo went to the ABS-CBN office to witness a anti war panel debate against pro-war republicans on a fil-am youth show talk show to be broadcasted at a later date. Little did i know, that i'd become part of debate. It was amazing how shallow and distorted in thought the people of the pro war panel were. Some of the things they said just made my blood boil. And it was just funny how they avoided issues and diverted from questions asked by the debaters, the audience and the hosts. It was just typical. On the pro war panel was a young boy about 12 years old, IMO, too young to know the horrors of war, it amazed me to see the conditioning and brainwashing he went through to make the statements he did. He felt that being attacked (911) justified defense of our own. Ok, fair enough. But why the hell are we in Iraq and not Afghanistan at least. That's where your war is. But they say that we're there to instill "Democracy" and secure our interests (OIL & government contracts) in a crippled nation at headed towards a civil war. I asked the boy and addressed the rest of the panel, If these are the reasons why you fight, and say 6 years from now the war is still going on (which will probably be true if we are still there)and you are of legal age, will you come to arms for what we say is an "unjust war" or for your reasons "as defending your country (even though they aren't on US soil), instilling democracy and securing your interests"? To the older man, I asked would you risk the lives of your children, and the eldest, his grandchildren? I know I crossed a sensitive issue. The boy hesitantly agreed that he would. And I commended his bravery and told him I hope that he wouldn't have to resort to that. The two adults gave me B.S. answers saying they have obligations to their families and the such. At the end of the day, I made the boy think twice. So a minor battle was won. They claimed him to be a genius. Maybe he'll use his genius to do the right thing.

-I missed out on the baby shower but i picked up Dave and Ilene's gift which I have to drop off still.

-I also missed out on Tony's b-day dinner. Happy birthday man.

I was out in battle.... ha ha...

-I got to spend time with the guys and Anna Sophie before she leaves for China again. She's running a production company with a friend over there and I wish them the best of luck. Now I have a reason to visit China!

-Minority Threat is in 2 weeks and it's the point of no return. At this point I just want to get it over with. I think I'm burned out already... But I think about Bruce and it makes me go on... Bruce's birthday is coming up and I wanted to celebrate it with a bang... and that's what it's all about. (Early) happy birthday boss. You are missed.

it's hot

triple digits this weekend = hell in vallejo.... it's too hot man. i think global warming is taking effect... must... keep... hydrated...

AIDS Walk and other...

I did AIDS walk with Kristi the past Sunday and it was so freakin hot! I managed to raise enough money to get a shirt! Afterwards we went home, caught a movie and saw Pirates of the Caribean 2. I liked it a lot. Good effects, decent story... and Johnny Depp! Keira and Orlando were so-so, but the most believable character is Cap. Jack. The ending was pretty good with a cliffhanger ending leaving my mouth watering for part 3. The squid guy is awesome... 'nuff said. Afterwards we had some sushi!!!!

Special note: Congrats to my buddy Mike and his wife who gave birth to their baby boy, Matteo. Matteo Avila... The chicks will dig him.

MT06 Note: Flattbush has cancelled. No worries... They will be back later in the month at Slims to open for DEATH ANGEL!!!! \m/. To take their place, I got another Vallejo band, Danny's House.

More info TBA

MINORITY THREAT IS COMING... AUGUST 12, 2006

Artwork by Chris Mendoza

new words of the day...

Congratulations! To my friends Len and Elaine on their engagement. I found out from Len's little nephew who sent me a message on Myspace. Good for them. I'm happy for the both of you.

Last weekend I chilled out mostly. Everyone was either busy or out so I didn't really see anyone. Saturday afternoon I had batting practice with Carl and Ralph. Ralph worked with me on my batting stance. It's a lot better now. I'm getting alot more better quality hits.

Afterwards, I went to Kristi's and we had dinner. It was a lazy night so we watched a couple episodes of Scrubs then went to bed. The next morning we played catch and then went to breakfast. We then watched Nacho Libre and that was the day.

Nacho was mediocre at best. A couple good one liners though. The end was the best part. Over-all, a so-so movie. I did like the musical soundtrack though.

Tonight I'm supposed to watch J-church at the Hemlock Tavern. If I go I'll post a review.
Check out their page here:

http://www.j-church.com
http://www.myspace.com/jchurch

enjoying the summer

It's been a while since I last posted. A couple things...

-Went to Crescent City again for a weekend w/ Kristi. With 3 nets and one pot, we had lots of success. Over a two day period of crabbing we nearly caught our limit. about 30-something. Since it was near the end of the season we caught many females that had to be thrown back. Also, average size was about 6 inches. Last time, the largest we caught were around 10". No luck fishing. I tried to fish for salmon and lingcod. No luck =(

-Softball has been lots of fun. I haven't been putting a lot of effort though. I have the lowest Batting Average I'm sad to say after two scrimmages. But it's only two games. I've been working on technique on my swing and I've been throwing the ball a lot to strengthen my arm. The League starts in July and I'll be 100% by then.

-Minority Threat is less than 3 months away and there's alot of work to be done. I'm a little frustrated with the lack of help. But thanks to Jesse and Len for helping out with the badges. I have to admit, this is the least of my worries. I'm going to pick it up at the end of June and work harder on it in July. Also, I'm kind of freaking out some of the bands won't even show up. But if they don't... oh well. Depending on how this goes, this might be the last time I tackle on a project this big. I love doing this, and my main motivation is for the love. And most of all, in memory of Bruce. I'm just getting tired of thinking about the logistics and worrying and hoping everything will turn out.

-I'm tackling a number of other projects. I'm "attempting" to write for UGZ. Nothing official yet, but I'm going to writing an article on Bruce about him and his music, the band Eskapo and their recent return. I'm also going to write a little article on Eskapo and also do a Filipino Punk Report. I'm not sure about the third project because it's a topic I know very little of. I only know what I know. and I'm sure there's other scenes, past and present.

- 06/06/06 passed and guess what... nothing happened! Did watch Omen later that week. It sucked... The OG one still rules. They did use rotties still as the official "hell hounds"!

-Sports Updates: NBA Finals, Mavs up 2-0 againt the Heat. NHL Stanley Cup, Carolina Hurricanes are on the verge of winning. The Giants are sucking. The A's swept the Yankees. '06 World Cup is going on and USA lost to the Czech Republic 3-0. I can't wait for Football season...

San Pablo Fishing Report - I went last Saturday w/ Kristi and she caught all the fish. I did set up the poles though and did most of the driving! "we" caught our first fish trolling! I little keeper rainbow trout using a rapala countdown lure. I just read about it the night before studying lure set ups and it worked! she also caught a bluegill with a nightcrawler. we were fishing midday till closing (7:30 pm) and the water conditions were alright. too warm for the fish to come out... (yeah that's my excuse)

I'm going to watch Cars sometime this week and will post a review!

Back from camping...

Went to American River for the fourth year in a row. This time with Jesse, Dawn, Lex, Mia, Pio, Angelica, Max and Kuya Phil. Even England and Susanne joined us. It was lots of fun. Too much food though... A lot of jamming going on. I'll post some pics when I get them.

This weekend is Crescent City! Woot woot! I'm gonna catch a whole lotta crab!!!!

Bay to Breakers 2006

Oh man... so much to see.

Stats:
7.5 mile Race, 65,000 people in attendance!


Highlights of this year's race:

- A lot of cute dogs
- People dressed up as Transformers - Optimus Prime, Jazz, Starscream
- The Smurfs
- The Ghostbusters with Slimer, Stay Puft Marshmellow Man and Ecto-1 Beer Keg
- Catholic School girls with kneepads and bandaids
- Duffman
- Roman Legions
- Village People
- The Surf Rock Band, the Shuggs
- A good number of naked people.
- A 10 ft. tall Trojan Horse disguised as a Beer Keg
- Salmon swimming upstream being chased by a bear
- Elvis impersonators
- Superman and various superheroes.
- Superman/Elvis costumes
- 1986 Boston Celtics, with a portable basketball (Larry Bird, Kevin McHale...)

keep on keepin' on...

My uncle is ok. He had a incident with his heart rate going up. But his blood tests are all negative. It's probably his consumption of energy drinks and his tendency to over react at a lot of thing. He just needs to relax, work out and eat healthy foods... which is exactly what I need to be doing. Except for the relax part, because it seems I'm always on the go lately... But I do feel a lot more energetic lately. All this activity is paying off though. I seem to be dropping weight at a faster rate and old clothes are starting to feel loose again. I just need to keep it up.

I finally got my ticket... $150 dollars! Damn... oh wells, I'm not goin to to traffic school though. Forget that!

Ogie's show was really good. I wish Milo was there to see his dad. Ogie would be a really happy and I'm sure Milo would be proud. Before and after the show, was an added bonus. Whoever was there got to see a Bobby Banduria reunion. It was great. Brought back a lot of memories, and reminded me of the first time I went to Bindlestiff. I saw them play and I instantly fell in love with the place. The art. The music. The people. This past weekend was a Bindlestiff packed event for me. It's the most I've spent there the past couple months. Even though there's alot of new faces, I felt at home. Especially with Max, Rup, Angelica, Lian, Ogie, Julius and Marcius there. Even Charlie was there...

Friday was music day. everyone was great. Nomi of Power Struggle rocked it... even though he was sick, he still pulled off a great set. He has a lot of stage presence, which is good to have especially when you're an MC. It's something I really respect about MC's who can spit a good game. Quick witted-ness and being able to free flow along with presence and ability to rock the crowd is must. He has all these things.

Next was Pedro Gil. First it was Chris from the C-hills, now its Czara of Pedro Gil... My rock 'n roll crush. tee hee. I feel like a little girl. ok back to the review. Pedro Gil keeps on sounding tighter and tighter every time I see them. Czara's voice is beautiful and their sound... It's hard to pin them down. They have well crafted brit-pop style songs and even hints of some punk. Definitely some ska. Which is surprising, this time around they had a trumpet player! A nice addition. More depth and fun for whoever's listening. At least it was for me. I felt like skankin' across the floor like I would be at a La Plebe show.

Tsubibo. Part Charmin, Part Rey Valera, Part Pinoy Folk, Part Angry Punk. What brought me to Bindlestiff in the first place. It was good hearing all the old hits. The new songs, were great too. They also did a nice rendition of Mankind, in memory of Bruce. A song that he wrote for Eskapo back in the days. You wouldn't recognize the songs unless you knew the lyrics to the song. But its funny, this is the first time I could fully make out the words. I missed Alex' vocals the whole time while Charmin was gone, and with Tsubibo arising from the ashes, all is good in the world once again. Marcius is coming along well as the new bassist. He is also a very cool guy and great artist. He's also very popular with the ladies... And lastly, the Gonzales bros. What more can be said? 'nuff said. these guys are my heroes. And I'm happy to call them friends.

Eskapo. Fast. Hard. They will kill you. I was sore the day after. It was because of the mosh pit. It was everything you expect after watching Eskapo play. V-town represent! It's great for them to be back...

Day 3 at Bindlestiff

Since I was so sore for the beating yesterday, I hitched a ride from Angelica and Max. They brought their nephew Angelo along for the day. When we got to the 'stiff, there wasn't alot of people there. So this was the day I could really pay attention to the art. England and Mel's paintings really are shocking, thought-provoking and explicit and all in a rebellious and political manner. What I found interesting was one of Mel's pieces with the religious icons and the phalluses. What I saw was the statement of the Spanish colonialization of a tribal, polytheistic society using religion as a means of control. Also, you can draw conclusions from a sexual perspective, whereas the church is/was a male dominated machine with many egocentric men strutting like "cocks". I'm sure some bad decisions were made due to men in high positioned ranks competing in pissing contests of some sorts. Most wars are fought over religious matters. 'Nuff said... Bottom line, their art is insured to illicit a response. More negative I would think... But in my opinion, only open minded people should be able to form opinions... good ones at least. But stupid people have the right to form their own as well... But this is what art is. This it what it does. No matter how contraversial. Either to make a statement, or for the person who is viewing to interpret it however they may see it. But Marcius' paintings... they are very detailed. And very cryptic. I still haven't figured it out. One has objects having me wondering what they are or whether they are even real objects. A real puzzle. Another painting had cryptics written all over it. Numbers: 555, 666, 777, objects, a blank sign... a belt of bullets. Something that looks like cactus? A upside down basket with eye wholes. With a backdrop of clouds. Three paintings forming a arrow facing up. I have to ask Marcius about this one...

Julius had some prints and photos up. He had a black shadowy figure that appears smoky on a white background. There were lit candles emitting a black smoke. I didn't realize something until Marcius brought up a point. The smoke from the candles make the illusion that the figure is formed from the smoke. Like a miracle. Or a apparition appearing in front of your eyes. Maybe it's the reaper... (I saw Silent Hill a day earlier... by self... I refuse to speak any more on that since it highly disturbed me and I want to sleep tonight...) He also had some photos of the manang dancing. He gave me a copy to keep. Thanks Julius for your most gracious gift.

Angelica had a exhibit with chairs with pictures of the P.I. with travel guides, digital photos and little props, displaying the exploitation of our home through tourism. At least this is what I got from what I saw. Well done Angelica.

Lastly, there was the films. The first one, made by Boondok Arts and Lian, was very good and funny. I want to get a copy of it... And it featured little Angelo! He's now a movie star!

The last film is a rare treat. A independent film made by a Filipino countryman named Kidlat Tahimik. Made in 1977, the writer was very concious of his country being exploited for its resources and questioning whether modernization is beneficial. One of those films that asks the question, "Is bigger always better?" At the same time, is different, ahead of its time, funny and definitely experimental. I need to find a copy of this...

To celebrate Charlie's departure, it was time 16:20 pm.

The night ended on a bad note though. Max and Angelica's car got broken into and all that was taken was a cd player... freakin crack heads. Well, that's 6th st. for ya...

Sunday was rest day and later, I had softball practice with my team, the Loan Rangers... hehe... We got sponsored. Maybe they'll buy us cups to protect the assets. haha. Afterwards, I was sore even more. I had dinner with Rob, Jos, Carl and Rich at Napoli's. Had the half spag and ravioli. sarap... garlic bread was good. time to work out again.

This weekend:

LA Clippers advanced (Warriors So-cal)
LA LAKERS eliminated... YEAH!
Bonds hit 713,I hope he hits 715 at the game I go to against the LA DODGERS! Beat LA!
Giants still lost...
I'm still last place the pay fantasy league =(
I'm first place in the free league! =)
Sharks won game 1 of the second rd. of the NHL playoffs Go Sharks!

busy...

I've been busy playing ball and watching baseball, NHL playoffs, particularly the Sharks and the NBA playoffs. The NFL draft was last week too. A lot of furor over Bush dropping to the 2nd spot. The Niners got a good TE at the sixth spot and a defensive back at 22. I'm excited about the upcoming football season. A lot of sports lately. But last Monday my dad and I brought my uncle to the ER because his heartrate was at 186 bpm, which is irregular. Luckily, the gave him stuff to slow it down and he was kept under observation over night. Blood tests were negative and everything is ok. Obviously something set him off. It could have led to a heart attack, and in turn made me concerned for my own health. So I've been exercising a lot more and I've been on a vegetarian/falafel rampage. and so far I feel great...

Tonight, Kristi Anne's parents are in town, so that means more free time to myself. Not gonna see her till Monday. Luckily, I've got things to do. Tonight is Ogie's CD release, Homebody. If you read this, pick it up! It's the sh*t! Then Cinco de Mayo, I'm gonna have a vegetarian burritto and see Eskapo, Pedro Gil and Tsubibo! Next week is Giants vs. Dodgers and I'm goin! BEAT L.A.! EAT MORE FALAFELS!

Softball!

I joined a slow pitch softball league with my friends Rob and Carl. We're getting Calvin and Rich to play too... It should be fun. Too bad its not co-ed! Hehe...
What should we call ourselves? I suggested V-town Barrelmen... I want to play first base, third, center and rightfield. Maybe catcher and pitcher too. We'll see. I need to strengthen my throwing arm hampered by an old wrestling injury too. But I have been going to the batting cages a lot and it's been really fun. Now, time to play some ball!

Fuck Alameda P.D.

Those pigs don't have anything to do. I was victim of a trap on a "quota" day. Instead of doing more important things they've set up this elaborate scheme to raise money for the city by setting traps up at busy intersections of downtown. As for me, I got issued a failure to let a pedestrian cross ticket. Mind you, the only person I saw near a crosswalk was a mile away from the sidewalk/crossing and even if they were there at the corner, did not give any indication to cross... for all I know he could have been working his "corner". The cop went as far a following me to the front gate of my work. I swear I must have been profiled due to my darker skinned appearance because he gave me som attitude. But he must not have noticed that I was entering a federal building. I normally don't have beef with cops, but this one is an idiot. I'm contesting this one fore sure. Details to come up.

On a lighter note, I'm pleased to announce that Minority Threat '06 Punk and Hardcore Festival is coming soon. August 12th, which is a Saturday, in Vallejo at the Fetterly Theater of the Arts. So far, bands Tsubibo, Delubyo, Wounds, Static Thought, Vtown Have-nots, La Plebe, Sputterdoll and Eskapo have been booked to play. The purpose of this festival is to remember and celebrate the birthday of my friend, Bruce Webb who recently passed away. Percentage of the door will go to the National Brain Tumor Foundation in his memory. More information to come.

Last Saturday, Loi and I went to Balazo to see our friend, Anna Sophie's last show with her band Down The Ship before she leaves for China. It was a good time. I wasn't sad at all because I know she's coming back. It was good times. After the show, Rupert, Anna Sophie, Kuya Phil, Max, Angelica and Loi went to King of Thai for dinner. Afterwards I was tired as hell and made my way to Vallejo to drop Loi off and then I headed over to Vacaville.