Hacen birria de mis Chivas

Con un global de 0-2, las Chivas de Guadalajara fueron eliminados de la liguilla del Torneo de Verano de la Liga Mexicana 2007 en una semifinal. Para hecharle sal en la herida, la derrota fue ante el enemigo #1, Aguilas del America. Con la derrota, Chivas no pudieron defender su campeonato de hace 6 meses. En un partido que prometia ser peleado garra por garra, empezo muy balanceado. Pero en el minuto 26, Gonzalo Pineda cometio la pena maxima y le mostraron carton rojo para la expulsion. Pineda perdio la cabeza porque empezaban el partido perdiendo 0-1 despues del partido de ida en la capital de la republica. Fue un partidazo con bastante oportunidades para el Chiverio pero no pudieron definir. El portero Americanista, Memo Ochoa, demostro de nuevo porque es el mejor guardameta en todo Mexico.

Cabezas en el aire despues de una gran temporada Tapatia. Ahora, hay que darle porras al Pachuca porque aparte de Ochoa, America no mostro nada especial.

Best Concert EVER!

It's been a few weeks now & I've been able to digest what I (& my little brother @ his 1st concert) was able to witness the night of 3/3/07 @ the LA Center Studios. I can't even begin to explain the beauty & positivity that flowed throughout the evening. The evening began @ 4pm & ended just after midnight & was filled with great music, lyrics & a positive scene (as Fidel said @ the end of the night, not even 1 fight ensued). Just great people, enjoying great music on a wondrous night. I met several cool peeps including the Native Guns, which really dropped it- fusing mind-churning lyrics, phat beats & even blending a little tagalog to spice it up. Pix of the evening aren't up yet (darn camera's acting up something bad) but they will be soon so check back. The event was hosted by Fidel & DJ'ed by the DFR DJ's which were dope as ever!

My brother & I had a blast! Great event fusing hip hop, spoken word specialists (even one of the modern day innovators in this genre- Saul Williams) & thought-provoking speakers. It was really a treat for me as I'd never seen X-Clan nor KRS-1 live (especially since 1 of my 1st music purchases was an X-Clan tape- along w/Digital Underground & MC Hammer). But everyone really brought great energy. Medusa was super fly. Anomolies was an all-female group that really got down. Visionaries, Living Legends & Dilated Peoples always rock the house & did so again. KRS-1 freestyled for a good 10-13 minutes. The icing on the cake was Wil.I.Am showing up @ the end & freestyling for almost 7 minutes. Now that's hip hop! Below is a list of the event participants in chronological order:

1- Olmeca (Olmecamusic.com)
2- Native Guns (myspace/nativeguns)
3- Anomolies
4- Aztlan Underground
5- Quetzal
6- Visionaries
7- Medusa
8- Suher Hammad (spoken word)
9- Sabac Red
10- Funkdoobiest
11- x-clan
12- saul williams (spoken word)
13- Luis Rodriguez (speaker, author)
14- Cynthia McKenna (speaker, congresswoman)
15- Psycho Realm
16- Soul Elevation
17- Living Legends
18- Chief ChasingHorse (speaker)
19- Dilated Peoples
20- KRS-1
21- Wil.I.Am (special, surprise guest)

Thank you for having me, it was my pleasure to partake in the positivity & bathe in conscious lyrics fused with body-bumpin' beats.

ps. The link is now showing the next concert on tap on 4/7/07 & has removed the flyer for the concert I attended on 3/3/07 which is the topic of this blurb...but it's still relevant here.

USC robbed by UNC!

Just finished watching the USC vs. North Carolina game. One helluva game but I can't help but feel like USC got robbed...many, many bogus calls against the Trojans (fouls, turnovers, missed calls, etc.).

Regardless, it was a heck of a game & North Carolina pulled it out with their depth by outlasting the feisty Trojans. Props to the Trojans for setting a USC record for wins in a season (25) & also to the Tar Heels for not giving up while on the comeback trail. Here's hoping Nick Young, Gabe Pruitt & Taj Gibson decide to stay in school even though they all had terrific performances.

...1 (project) out of many...

I've got tons of projects on my plate. I've realized that when I was super duper busy, in the past, is when I was most successful. Here's but a few things on the list (& where I'm at in the process):

My side-business >Secured the domain, putting finishing touches on it before it goes live.

My house music site >Don't have a place to host it (properly) yet but it was quick & you can download songs I've created/remixed.

Gather >Social networking site, need to get more of my friends to "see the light."

Linux Group on Gather >Group I created aimed at users of Linux, need to add more content.

My pix >Stay tuned for lots of updates (well, once I get access to a scanner).

MySpace >Pretty empty & like zero priority, at the moment.

I'm currently building 2 websites, a webserver/mp3 server & trying to wrap my brain around coding an ezboard forum so that I can have the fully-functional, lush site I've been striving for. Finishing my book is high on the priority list & joined a couple contests where the prize is a publishing contract so stay tuned.

As if there was any such thing as "free time," I've also been volunteering, what little I can, for a couple of projects, one of which is something that exemplifies something I truly believe in- FOSS (free open-source software).

...1 concert to rule them all...

A few years back, I was going to concerts like they were going out of style. I was fortunate enough to see Talib Kweli, Floetry, Common, Blackalicious, Dilated Peoples, Norah Jones & Aterciopelados (just to name a few). Time constraints have slowed that way down but I'm VERY excited about one that's coming up next month down in Long Beach, Cali.

A close college buddy of mine has been hosting Divine Forces Radio (formerly known as Seditious Beats) for quite some time now. The show is a conscious, thought-provoking fusion of hip hop beats & cultural awareness through self. Fidel's been at this for a while, hosting & producing (DFR airs Friday nights from 10pm-1am on KPFK 90.7FM here in Los Angeles & 98.7FM in Santa Barbara). The concert will be held on March 3, 2007 and is actually a celebration of the show's 9th anniversary. A portion of the proceeds will go to the K.R.Y.L.O.N. 13 Educational Initiative and doors are open to ALL AGES (& it's going to be an all-day/evening affair).

I know this might read like a commercial but it's an event based in absolute positivity (& if you're up on current events, you know the world could use as much as of this as possible). I've always wanted to hear KRS-One and X-Clan in person (& I just missed X-Clan's album release party earlier this month) so I'm excited about that, not to mention the rest of this very solid musical lineup. However, I'm MOST excited about taking my little brother to his first concert (shh, it's a surprise!) and, honestly, couldn't think of a better event for such a sacred ritual to occur at.

ps. The only other concert I was interested in for this year was Coachella (because Rage Against the Machine is getting back together just to play there) but they're sold out already. My problem- every year, it seems- with Coachella is that I love artists on all 3 days & this year's no different (Felix da Housecat, Julieta Venegas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Gotan Project, Ozomatli, Rage, Manu Chao & the Roots) but, dang, those 3-day passes are pricey! Because of that, you best believe I'm going to make the best of this ONE, though. :)

Happy Winter Solstice!!!

Today was the official beginning of Winter, as we entered the Winter Solstice. Now I know everyone celebrates x-mas, hannukah & kwanzaa but if we look deep into our history books, the Winter Solstice was the original holiday during this time of year. Sure, some think that the overzealous religions of our world stole this holiday from the "pagans" (read: indigenous people who were here long before Christianity demonized them) & put it to their own use but it's deeper than that. If you look up "the true meaning of xmas" in the dictionary, you'd see 2 things: 1) a picture of Jimmy Stewart from It's a Wonderful Life & 2) an excerpt from any early civilization's Winter Solstice celebrations.

It's no secret that many early civilizations were very advanced in the area of astronomy; just as it's no coincidence that these civilization's calendars, if still in use today, would be FAR more accurate than our, current Gregorian calendar (can you say Leap Year, 2hr. offsets every yr, etc?). Why? Simply because they were one with the stars, sun & moon. Their lives were intimately tied to the seasons & the cycle of harvest. Countless civilizations built their greatest landmarks to align with the solstices: everyone knows about Stonehenge, the Pyramids in Egypt, etc. but there are so many more I can't even begin to list them all (there's even one here in the U.S.- in New Mexico). The solstices were a time to celebrate fertility, family & the benevolence/generosity of the Sun in their daily lives, as well as to pray for a blessed harvest in the following cycle. Sure sounds a lot like what xmas, kwanzaa & hannukah are "supposed" to stand for these days.

Like Levar Burton used to say on Reading Rainbow, "but you don't have to take my word for it." "Take a look, it's in a book..."