4-26-10

Admittedly, I've gone through a coloring bender these last couple of days. You know when you're in that mood where you just don't care to see people? Maybe it's just a creepy only-child thing but I was definitely feeling it. I spent hours upon hours listening to music or watching shitty television, just diligently coloring in pictures. This weekend I inhaled an ungodly amount of sharpie fumes and I couldn't be more proud of how I spent my weekend!
This is just one of my hobbies that I haven't revisited in years. It gives results - however trivial they might be - and is incredibly relaxing. In these coming weeks I won't feel as relaxed and un-bothered as I did this weekend, because I have finals and killer papers due and all that jazz. So you know what? I'm going to cherish the shit out of this.

OH! And to whom it may concern: There's an ancient Aquabats coloring book, and you can print out pages online! I was wayyyy too excited about this discovery.

4-24-10

THE PHENOMENAUTS

I've seen The Phenomenauts a few times and they never fail to put on an energetic set. I'm so glad that the crowd wasn't wrecking - mostly because it totally doesn't go with the music, and partly because it looks down-right idiotic. I'm so glad they played 'older' songs like "Galactic Pioneers" and "Tiny Robots". The band has really changed within the past couple years, line-up wise. But they still managed to replace JoeBot 2.0 really nicely. With a much nicer helmet too, I must say. haha.

THE SLACKERS

I had listened to them a little bit a couple years ago. They put on a decent set - my only qualm is that most of their set was comprised of love songs, most of which that were like "ohhh I'll be strong even though you broke my heart". Still a good band, and chill as hell!

4-21-10

You know those people who get butt-hurt over people that don't even exist? I'm within the ranks of those people. One that's at the top of my list is Jenny from Forest Gump. You know, the girl next door that pretty much uses him all through out his life?

I know, I know - Forrest Gump doesn't know any better because he's slow and is deeply in love with her. Jenny pretty much uses him as the back-up guy. The one that you use for attention when you're not getting anything elsewhere. Then when she's done with him she leaves!
Her last stand was going back to him because she has a kid and is dying of AIDS. I bet that if she didn't even have AIDS Forrest would have never known about the kid! I sound like a terrible person, saying this - and believe me I'm fully aware of this. I just hate when people take advantage of others! Especially when they're autistic...that's just low. It's right up there with selling a dead bird to a blind kid! (I'll love you forever if you get that reference)
But I guess the fact that Jenny even fessed up to him that they had a kid together is kind of big of her - because as shown throughout the movie she runs away from anything that could be even slightly permanent in her life.
I don't understand why I loathe a fictional person so much. It's probably because I've seen Forrest Gump way too many times. Like a really really really unhealthy amount of times. I know, I know - get a life Erin - loathe real people and quit sounding like a nut.

4-18-10

Circa 2008, during a Narcoleptic Youth show. I'm the apprehensive looking brown girl to the right.

Today it dawned on me that in a matter of weeks I have to return to good ol' Riverside. Knowing that I'll have little to do for months on end, I decided to browse potential zines and publications that would let in a fledgling journalism major like me. I found one to be exact - one that has old pictures of me from a couple years ago on their website.

Needless to say I spent the rest of the afternoon doing some hardcore reminiscing. It occurred to me that most of the kids in the pictures with me, in the height of their uber-punk stage, have nothing to do with that genre anymore. They've since dropped off the face of the earth, or on the latter - become bro's (or bro-ho's) or just straight-up E-tards.

I could never say that I was an uber-punk, because that just takes too much effort. I can't even say that I was a punk at all. I was and still am a dorky kid that just liked the music. I give a shit and I want to shower, make money, and be as happy as a clam.

4-17-10

Taqueria Cancun on Mission makes a damn good burrito. With a reasonable price too! I've had my fair share of shitty $7 burritos in San Francisco, so I was more than pleased with this discovery. I have an intense love for burritos and I'm not gonna lie - I kind of get offended when somebody says that Chipotle makes the best burrito. I'm sure their close second is a microwaveable burrito. pssssh. There - snarkiness quota has been filled for the day.

4-16-10

The fundamentally racist Senate Bill 1070, was passed by the house in Arizona. This bill would allow police to pull over any brown folk on suspicion of being in this country illegally, amongst other things. In addition to being "pulled over while brown" the said person would have to whip out documents that prove that they're from this country or an "alien registration document" such as a green card. And if they're here illegally they have to muster up $2,500, face 6 months in jail and...well everyone knows what happens to them. On top of that it would prohibit day-labor solicitations by making it illegal to seek work from a road or sidewalk. So essentially, this makes the racial profiling of Hispanic people legal.
I know, I know - this is a hard-lining republicans wet dream. I personally think this bill, for the lack of a better phrase - is mother-fucking bullshit. Being a person of color, this is just offensive in so many ways.
And you know what? I fully support the endeavors of an illegal immigrant. I think that if a person from Mexico or any South American country could easily get a green card or legal document to get into the US, they would (I'm a humanist that way). But in this day and age when we're pointing fingers every which way to who might have caused the economic down fall, they can't get those documents unless they're loaded. And let's face it - people only leave their homelands in the pursuit of prosperity or for refuge. So they come to this country in hopes of finding grunt work to support their families back home or hopefully making a life for themselves here.
The last time I checked - there isn't anything wrong with that. They're not hurting anybody, they aren't decreasing anybody's quality of life (despite what the tea-baggers and fat-cat W.A.S.P.'s tell you). I'm down for paying taxes in benefit of their health, because in this country, there is a caste-like system for illegals. They need all the help they can get, because it's very hard for them to advance in any way, shape, or form.
But back to Senate Bill 1070 - I hope that for all it is good it doesn't pass in senate on Monday. I'm pretty sure that the ACLU HAS to be on this like stink on shit. Hopefully it doesn't pass. Hopefully.

4-14-10

Ever since I was little I've loved art. I can't really say I can make it, but I sure as hell can appreciate it. When I was little I was obsessed with impressionism - Van Gogh, Monet, the whole lot. Making cheesy little impression-style drawings of dogs (don't make fun of me!) and making a point to see the "big" paintings of that style. Thinking about it, I obsessed on a lot of different things such as WWII, John Quincy Adams, Rasputin, conjoined twins (along with a handful of physical disfigurements) , dogs, cats, and rabbits. Until this day I can call back random facts for those subjects. Ask me a breed of rabbit or if John Quincy Adams was gay, I dare you!

But on to the matter at hand. I really like the work of Francisco De Goya, a Spanish painter prominent in the 18th and 19th century. After becoming deaf in his 50's, he kind of lost it because he was isolated by the people around him. Because he spent most of his time by his own lonesome, he became more occupied with the fantasies of his imagination and with critical and satirical observations of society. So those two factors met to make his art seem almost caricature-like and intriguing as hell. He was exiled to France when he was 80 after a failed attempt to restore liberal government in Spain. He died relatively soon after of old age.

May 3 1808

The Colossus

Saturn Devouring His Sons

Witches Sabbath

Out Hunting for Teeth

4-12-10

Something that peeves me to no end is when people on MUNI or any type of public transportation don't give elderly people the easily accessible seats. I know you're comfortable where you're at but I'm sure the shaking little old lady practically doubled over from carrying a mass quantity of groceries would appreciate that seat even more.
So today I'm in transit heading homeward bound, and an elderly lady walks in. I know I have a seat that she would probably like very much, so I stand up and offer it to her. She accepts, but before she could even get there 1/2 of two star-crossed lovers decides to snatch that seat. Seriously? The person that took that seat away from the elderly woman was eating a popsicle. She starts staring straight into the eyes of her boyfriend, and proceeds to deep throat it. She goes on to be disturbingly erotic with said popsicle (keeping it in her mouth, you pervs), and not in an attractive way. All in front of everyone and their mother, with that poor elderly woman just standing there, staring at that classy young lady.
I'm not going to lie, I wish I could have not stared at them. But this girl trying to arouse her boyfriend was like a train wreck - and I couldn't bear to look away. I'm no prude, but there is a time and place for all things sexually related; and it sure as hell isn't on MUNI.

So yeah...

I've definitely haven't been posting as frequently as I did at the beginning of the year. I'm totally indifferent towards that. I don't want to post just to post (quite similar to what I'm doing now), because that just sucks the fun out of it. This shouldn't be a solid commitment but something to do just for shits and grins.
On another note - I really need to ween myself off of using parentheses and brackets. It's just as terrible as my affliction to ridiculously long run-on sentences. In fact, using parentheses is pretty much the same thing as writing a run-on sentence. And for some odd reason that puts me up in the leagues of women who drink diet coke. Women that know they're still going to get fat from diet coke, but still drink it anyway because the word "diet" gives assurance to them that it's healthy. Bullshit. I need to proverbially drink water instead of diet coke when it comes to sentence structure. If that makes any sense? It does to me at least.

4-5-10

The Guilty Parties are one of Riverside's most quintessential ska bands (yeah, such a big title haha) - and sadly, they're throwing in the towel. Their last show is on Friday at the Glasshouse and because of money and time constraints, I'm going to have to miss it. Such a sob-story, I know.
For the most part they're goofy and sophomoric, but they put on a damn good show. If any of you kids from Riverside or Southern California lurk this, I urge you to go! I've seen them a countless amount of times and they never disappoint!


Man why couldn't some of Riverside's notoriously shitty "ska" bands like Buddha Bomb and Inhale quit? They're the ones that should seriously just quit while they're ahead.

If you want to give them a listen you can download their one and only full-length album, "You're Out of the Band" HERE - but bear with me - you have to download one file at a time.

4-3-10 : WIRE - PINK FLAG

This is another one of my favorite post-punk albums. What I love about this album is that it doesn't have any fluff. There isn't any unnecessary showboating, so all the songs are really tight and short for the most part - I mean, they managed to cram 21 songs in a 35 minute time period. And it works. Instrumentally, just about all the songs are the same, but not when it comes to the lyrics. Which at times are kinda borderline genius. It's best that this album be played in full because you really won't get that much out of this album if you just pick and choose songs (but doesn't that go for most albums? [excluding the heinously shitty ones]). I really do love this album and that's all I can say.

Click for the album