MJ saves a Country Boy

I know this entry is long over due. I should have entered this on June 25, 2009. When the world heard the news:

On June 25, 2009 at 2:26pm the King of Pop has died.

It was definitley a sad day in music around the world. His music will live on forever and in our hearts.

I did write this the day after his death when I was telling my children how Michael Jackson has influence the way music videos are done now. If it weren't for Michael, there would be no dancing, he had taken music video to levels that no musician had ever dared to go.

How he affected the lives of many people; some known and some that no one ever notices.

I went on to tell them the story of a transfer student when I was in high school.

Its been over 20 years and I can still remember when the transfer kid came to our school. He was this blond hair, blue eyed Iowa boy who was very shy, quiet and kept to himself. He was definitely the type of kid that would be a target for the school bullies. His attire was that of a straight up country boy; plaid shirt, denim jeans and work boots. We could all picture him working the fields on a farm, chasing pigs, milking cows and stacking hay. He even spoke with a country "twang" and used "Ya'll" alot. He walked around is new environment as if he'd just stepped out onto another planet. From the eyes of a country boy and seeing a beach city school like ours for the first time, i could understand why. Our school was like a scene from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". But that all changed when Michael Jackson gave him confidence to walk around school with his held up high. It was the day he showed up to school with his red leather zippered out jacket, you know the one...the one from "Beat It". Not very much kids had the jacket and I can recall when the toughest break dancin' crew on campus went up to him, everyone thought, 'this poor kid is about to get thrown in a trash can', but instead, one of the breakers extended his to him and said, 'Great jacket man". Michael changed this kid's life in way he'd never know, had it not been for that jacket that poor Iowa boy probably would have had a horrible time in our typical Southern California high school.

You Jumped Too Far!

Years ago there was a Lifetime-ish type of movie I saw. Something about it, after all these years, always has me reference back to it when I talk to my friends or family. I'm going to try to remember as much as I can and what I can't...I'll make up along the way.

It was about a couple whose 20 year wedding anniversay was coming up. The wife was elated and couldn't believe that 20 years had already gone by.

However, she started to notice her husband wasn't being his normal self; he had been very distant and didnt talk much after work. She would notice that he would disappear after receiving phone calls and was very short when asked where he was going. This of course had her very curious; he's never been secretive about his actions.


One day she decides to follow him to see where he'd disappeared to. Trying to play her best spy role, she tries to stay few cars behind him so he wouldn't notice her. She sees him pull up to their frequented restaurant (she smiles, it was there that he had asked her to marry him a lil over 20 years ago), he valets the car and then a stunning brunette greets him at the door and she sees him; kisses her on the cheek and they proceed inside the restaurant. The wife stunned leaves the area and heads home. She believe there is a logical explanation; maybe a client? She decides to wait til her husband comes home as ask him.


About two hours later she hears the door open and she puts on a front as if she had been in the kitchen. "Honey, you're home?" she says acting surprised.


He doesnt make much eye contact, "Uh yeah...I'm beat" he says.

"Oh , I wondered what happened, the phone rang and then you left without saying anything, who was it, everything okay?" She asked trying to make eye contact with him.


"Oh yeah, that, it was Phil from the office, he had a question about a proposal that is due on Monday. So instead of going through it on the phone with him, I went into the office, everythings fine." He said while he was flipping through the mail.


She couldnt believe he just straight out lied to her. She was so shocked at the thought of her husband lying to her.

A few days go by and she gets a call from her husband letting her know that he'll be home late from work and if she could keep his dinner warm.

She decides to follow him again, She drives to his office and waits for him to leave the building. Looking at her watch; she sees her husband's car leave the garage and proceeds to follow him, this time she was more stunned than the first time. He drives to one of the most elite hotels in the city and waiting for him out front was the same woman from the restaurant.

Distraught, the wife decides to get off the car and confront the husband and the mysterious woman. She walks in the lobby looks around and sees them at the front desk and sees the clerk hand them what looks like a key and point to the elevator. The wife just froze she couldnt move. All she kep thinking was "Our 20 year wedding anniversay is this weekend and he decides to start an affair...now.... after 20 years!!"


She heads back to her home contemplating how to handle the situation. Her emotions start to overcome her and the only that came to her mind was.. revenge. That's how she'll handle this...she remembers a saying ..."revenge is best served cold". So, cold it shall be served...he wont know what hit him.

The day of her anniversary, still upset, she decides to go have "me time" and re-evaluate her 20 year old marriage. She stops at a local pub and decides to go in have a drink. She orders her drink and starts the re-evaluation..."How did we get here?" she tells herself. " I thought we were happy, yeah, we had some rough times along the way, but i thought we made it through them fine..why would he do this?" She looks at her reflection in the mirror behind the bar and sees her 45 year old self looking back and she reminds herself of the mysterious woman her husband is having the affair with. She was very beautiful. Late 20's early 30's, brunette with long waving hair, an amazing figure...(probably doesnt have any kids with a body like that)...as she is getting herself all worked up with anger again, a gentleman, very distinguished with a British accent approaches her at the bar.


"Hello, may I buy you a drink" he asks with that Remington Steele accent of his.


She gives a coy smile and accepts. The cold dish has arrived.

An hour of talking had passed and they leave together; she ends up having sex with him and regrets it immediately. She grabs her items and runs out the room.

She gets to her car and begins to break down..."What have I done!?" she yells to herself.


She gets home and wants to change right away, but as soon as she opens the door, she is startled by her husband who is there, waiting.


"Where have you been? I've been here waiting for you. Did you forget we had reservations at the restaurant?" he asks sounding annoyed.


Then she remembered he made reservations for their anniversary at an exclusive restaurant that has a year long waiting list.

On their previous anniversary she told him how she would love to eat at that restaurant one day. She remembers how excited she was when he told her that he was taking her there for their 20th wedding anniversary. Wow! how the dynamics of a relationship can change.


She decides to pretend for the night and then she'll talk to him about a divorce tomorrow.

She tries to go upstairs to change and then he stops her, "Where are you going?" he says sounding irritated.



In a calm voice, she replies, "Upstairs to change" she looks down at herself and looks at what she is wearing, "I feel under dressed for that place" but the real reason was she still had the smell of her mistake on her and wanted to wash it off immediatley.

"There's no time, you look fine" he says, "We've been on this list for a year and if we're late they're going to give our table away, grab your stuff" he sounding more annoyed with every word.


She gives up and gets in the car; she doesn't say much on the way to the restaurant. On route to it they pass the restaurant where she first sees her husband and the mysterious woman and she gets queezy.


Then her husband breaks the silence. "Damn!" he yells.

"What?" she questions.

He replies, "I forgot i needed to see a client to give him the projections for his company, i was caught up waiting for you, that i completely forgot and he has an early AM flight. Damn!"


Not really in the mood to have this anniversary dinner, she tells him, "You have the projections with you?"

He nods and points to the back seat. She looks back and sees the envelope.

"Well, looks like we still have some time, is it on our way?" she asks.

Again he nods and says "Yeah, he staying at the Grand Marquis, do you mind?"


Her stomach is beginning to get real upset when she hears "The Grand Marquis"...that was the hotel she followed her husband and his mistress to. She wanted to say "Hell no"..but she wasnt ready to say anything to him just yet, so she agrees.

They park in the garage, she tells her husband she'll wait in the car.


He looks at her puzzled, "Dont be silly, first of all, its hot down here and secondly, I dont know what room he is in so it may take a while, come on". He grabs the projections and goes to her side of the car to open the door for her.


Feeling against her will; she gets out of the car and follows him to the hotel.

They arrive in the lobby and she looks around the hotel, this is a truly magnificant hotel. In the lobby is a huge opera like chandelier, crimson red carpet, chaise lounges positioned strategically throughout the lobby; you feel like royalty when you step through the doors. Although, thats not how she felt the first time she entered through those doors.

She and her husband walk up the counter, he asks, "Yes, Im here to see Mr. Walker. He's expecting me."


The young lady smiles at both of them, and replies, "Yes Sir, he called down and informed us of your arrival, please take the elevator on the left to the 2nd floor, once the doors open; his suite is directly in front; the one with double doors."


He smiles back and says "Thank you".

She and her husband do as the clerk instruct. As they are in the elevator she feels as if she wants to throw up, visons of her husband making love to this woman is driving her crazy. The elevator doors open and as the young clerk stated the suite with the double doors were in front.



Her husband knocks on the door and they hear a faint, "Come in". He opens the door and its extremely dark and then all of a sudden all the lights flash on and a loud "Surprise!" roars through the room.



She looks around the room and its a ball room that is decorated for a celebration, on one of the walls there is a sign that says, "Happy 20th Wedding Anniversary". She looks into the crowd and sees all her family members, his co-workers, and then she sees HER.

The husband gives her a kiss and hug. keeping her in his embrace.

He looks down at her overjoyed he asks, "Honey, are you surprised? You have no idea how hard it was to keep this from you. Let me introduce to the coordinator, she did an amazing job..." He looks towards the myterious woman, " Sheila," He motions for her to come over.

"Hello, its so nice to finally meet you." Sheila extends her hand to her and she is introduced.



Sheila goes on to tell her, "Your husband wanted everything to be perfect for you, he even had the restaurant, that he proposed to you at, cater the event. Let me tell you that was a feat in itself. When i called to request that they cater, the owner said they do not cater any events. I had to call your husband and have him meet me there and explain to the owner how important this was. You truly have a devoted husband."

She feels her walls coming crashing in and in a low voice to her husband she, says, "you should have told me."

Her husband smiling, says, "what? tell you? I wanted it to be a surprise".

She looks into the crowd and sees her best friends, and she tells them "you should have told me"
One of them answers, "don't look at us, we were just as surprised as you when we were told to meet at this address"

Her husband interjects and says, "are you kiddin? if i told any of them it wouldnt have been a surprise. You're surprised! I could see it" smiling, knowing that he just conquered what seemed impossible to do.

He then shouts into the crowd, "You see everyone I told you she'd be surprised, this has to the first time in 20 years that she is speechless, i did real good!!"

Everyone cheered him on and she is trying to stop him from his excitement.
"Stop...please stop.. you should have told me," she continues in a low voice so no one can hear her.

"What are you talking about?" he says.

Then she proceeds to tell him what she percieved.

"I..I ..thought...you were distant, not saying much, when i asked questions you were short" she begins to explain.

" well, yeah...it was all part of the surprise, i had to keep it from you; just didn't think i did that great of a job." he says has he hugs her tighter.

"Then I...followed you to the restaurant...i saw Sheila..but didnt think a whole lot about it...but then i followed you again and I saw you meet her in the lobby.. here, at this hotel...and .." She's feeling so overwhelmed as the words are leaving her mouth; she slowly tries to loosen his clasp.

Her husband now goes from a look of excitement to one of being concerned.

"Go on..." he says as he pulls away from the embrace.

"And...i thought...i thought you were having an affair...you should have told me!" She cries.

The husband with a look of disgust says, "what did you do?"

She kept saying, "you should have told me!"

The husband then grabs her by both arms, and begins to shout, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!!!!"

"I cheated on you today" she cries.

He lets her go and she drops to her knees.

He starts to walk away from her but before he leaves, he turns back to her and says,

"For 20 twenty years I have done nothing but try to make you happy. I have given you everything your hearts content. I thought we were happy. Every morning i would wake up and thank God that He made YOU for ME. This morning I especially thanked Him, that He had blessed us to make it to 20 years and that I was more in love with you today than when i proposed to you at that restaurant 20 years ago; something i didnt think would be possible. You were my best friend, I thought you wanted to grow old with me. I thought we would retire in Venice; like we always talked about. I never decieved you. All you had to do was come talk to me. All you had to do was tell me what was going through your mind. I would have told you about the surprise; i would rather you know about the party than you thinking I betrayed you. For 20 years i gave you my all, why would you automatically believe that I would do something so reprehensible as cheat on you?"

Then he dropped the envelope,that had what she though was the projections, on her lap. She opened it and saw that it was a deed to a villa in Venice in both their names with a note that said,

"20 years and still going strong...ready to retire with me in Venice? Happy Anniversary, I love you"


****I hope this reminds alot of you to ask questions before assuming the worse. You'll be able to save yourself a lot of heartache if you know exactly what you need answered before you've jumped too far!

Chicana Artist-Margaret Garcia

"Comida de Verano"

The Insight to my Childhood

On August 29th, 2009, my friend Roberto invited me to go to a gallery showing of one of his Artist at his gallery in Los Angeles. I hadnt been to a gallery opening in years and thought I needed to get out more and open my self to new things.



When I turned 40, I told myself I would try new adventures and then write about what I had experienced. So luckily, Roberto invited me while I made this new pact to myself.



The name of the artist was Margaret Garcia and her showing was called, "Second Sight". I was in awe when I saw the paintings. The use of color was so amazing; it took me back to my childhood.

"Sergio"

Walking throughout the gallery I saw several pictures that surfaced so many memories and emotions. The picture above, I knew I was meant to see, especially when I saw that the name of the painting was "Sergio". It reminded me of my own brother, Sergio. I look at the painting of this young boy who has so much promise and potential, unfortunately, he doesn't believe it.

I look into his dark black eyes and I see the same look that my own brother gives me. Instead of seeing hope and faith; I see despair and pain. As a big sister, the last thing I'd ever want for any of my brothers to feel is...pain; I didn't know how to relieve it.

If this painting had me feeling like this straight out the box, what were the other going to do to me? Looking around the gallery; I was about to find out.

"Preciosa"

The painting above reminded me when we were kids and we would go to Baja to visit family. The local restraunts had hostess' dress in long red dresses with a rose in their hair. Seeing this picture took me right back to that time. Seeing the "nopales"..the cactus... in the picture reminded me when my Mom and I would talk about certain people and I'd say, "they say their not Mexican" and she'd reply, "Psh...por favor ("Pa-lease"), not Mexican, you can see the pinchi nopal on their forehead"...which was a saying she and my Tias would use when someone tried to deny their Mexican heritage. She said the nopal (cactus) was a symbol of our Mexican heritage. Seeing those cactus' just made me laugh to myself as I remembered those several conversations; and how much I missed her.

"Melissa con Almohada"

This one made me feel secured. I thought back to being a child and feeling bad or hurt and finding comfort in my pillow. The pillow was my friend...it held my tears when i would cry, my teeth marks when I was angry and couldn't release it any other way. The pillow would listen to me when i needed to speak or yell and the pillow would never talk back. And if it did, I would have been checked into a hospital for not being in my right mind...(*giggle). The other day I was watching Jennifer Garner in "13 going on 30", you know the one, where she plays a 13 year old who wishes she was 30 and wakes up to her wish coming true, but freaks out when she finds out her male best friend and she are no longer friends...she asks for water and a big fluffy pillow. The feeling she felt holding the pillow was that of "Melissa and her almohada"...comfort and security.



"Unknown"

This one above didnt have a name, this is why I named it "unknown". She was so beautiful; she reminded me of the murals that the neighborhood homeboys would have painted on their Monte Carlos and Cadillacs. Looking at her, I thought this is what a "Latin Queen" looked like; what my Mother looked like in heaven.

SoulHipJaFunk captures my Soul; The music of BTS

Balance and the Traveling Sounds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLvPsVpyriA&feature=related

Im still figuring out how to put videos on this blog, but click on this link, this has to be my favorite song on the cd, "Music ft Angelica", the way KIRB decribes his dedication to Music is how I feel when I write.

Hello My readers,

I need to tell you a new group I have been turned onto: Balance and The Traveling Sounds also known as BTS. Their music style is a fusion of Soul, Hip Hop, Jazz and Funk. Yes, you read right, they have fused all four genres into a new genre of music called SoulHipJaFunk...one word..SICK!!

The group consists of: KIRB, the MC, EBO-the producer (does all the Beats) Alvin- the vocals, Ryan Kern on guitar, Jell Kolhede on sax, Julian Hogan on drums and Blake Estrada on the bass.

I've known KIRB's Godmother for years and the first time I heard him "spit" was at birthday party about two years ago. I remember hearing him freestyle thinking, "Wow, he can really flow" not knowing that he had been doing his music for years.

When I was first told that KIRB and a group of his friends did a CD, my thought was "I'm not that much into Chicano Rap", but I would support because he was, after all like family, and get a CD.

I hadn't listened to the CD when I first recieved it, my daughter had gone on vacation to New York and when she came back she asked me, "Ma' did you listen to Adrian's (KIRB) CD" "No, not yet, I need to be in the mood to listen to it" I replied, remember..I thought I'd be listening to Chicano Rap.

"Its real good, when i was in New York, I listened to it everynight to sleep to" she said.

Sleep to? Who sleeps to Chicano Rap?

"You slept to it?" I replied rather shocked.

"Listen to it" she insisted. She grabbed my iPod and downloaded the CD and handed me the head phones.

Then I heard the intro of someone putting in a tape deck asking if it was the beginning..then the music started and then the beats..KIRB started with "BTS...BTS...BTS...the sunrises at the crack of dawn..." then the sultry voice of Alvin jumps in "..another life is lost where do we pick where we left off.."

WHAT? This sounded nothing like Chicano Rap...how did I sleep on this CD?

Listening to a few more bars...I was HOOKED...my favorite line in this song is when Alvin sings..."like moments captured in your mind, just press play, fast forward and rewind." "...Let Balance and Traveling Sounds move you..." you definitely hear all the genres when listening to this song... they demonstrate what that new sound is..and it's called SoulHipJafunk!!!!

I listen to the rest of the CD..and I have to say...it do not have one song that I did not like.

The song that really "moved" me, if you will, was Music ft Angelica. Listening to KIRB's dedication to Music, reminded me why I love writing so much. If there was theme song to when my paper and pen meet or when I begin to hit the keys on my laptop to express my emotions....this would be the song.

Most artist when creating their CD's and selecting which songs would be hits, usually out of 15 tracks...maybe you'll get 4 or maybe even 5 tracks that'll be hits (that's if they are lucky). But this CD...I liked ALL 15 tracks. Yes, I have my favorites...Intro (SoulHipJaFunk), Sounds Travel, Fell Down, Rain, Don't Stop, and Music.

This was why Michael Jackson's, Thriller did so well...nearly every song on that CD was a smash

I cannot wait to see the success of this group flourish...and they will.

To BTS..... much success!

*Note: If you want a more technical review of the CD check out BaLAance & the Traveling Sounds blog at : http://www.soundstravel.blogspot.com/

You can listen to more of their music at: http://www.myspace.com/balance123

I'd like to read your thoughts on them, please comment.