LaVar Burton Taught Me How to Read

Today I dropped off my lovely lady at the airport as her school starts again on Monday. We ate a hearty Mexican breakfast at an Italian themed restaurant, then my dad wandered off into the airport to look for a book, and I led Meg to the security station. Mexican security is pretty lax, they don't make you remove your shoes or anything...

I then read SPIN magazine for an hour because my dad apparently got lost in the airport, and the cashier was definitely not happy that I didn't buy the magazine after reading it from cover to cover. Best album of the year voted by SPIN: Dear Science. 2nd best: Tha Carter III. I said to myself "Wow, they really chose two very different albums? Are they beginning to stop trying to look cool in front of their art school girlfriends?" Except I said that in spanish... or thought it in spanish... so it started with one of these ¿ ¿ ¿

For long-time readers of my blog (yeah right) you'll remember my segment on spending nights in alleys with strangers, which kind of sounds like a prostitution ring but really was about my homeboy Xavier Nuez. He emailed me recently to let me know he finished developing the prints of the first spot I showed him and it is in the mail and on its way to my house. Also, my good friend Dan called me today to tell me that a St. Paul photography studio stole an image of a painting of mine for their business cards, so I had to track them down and give them a piece of my mind... via email.

I feel weird sitting up at this computer because I lived here in Mexico with my dad for a while about 5 years ago and this is the place where I would spend my time emailing friends and musing on life. And today I mused about those musings and realized no matter how old you are you feel like you know everything because you don't have any perspective. I remember feeling like I figured it all out several times during my life and then six months later looking back and realizing the error of my ways. Now I don't know anything about anything but feel comfort in that. Also I got my grades back, and feel comfortable in the fact that I think I will in fact be able to transfer schools again.

Also to keep in line with thinking about the past and the random nature of this post I was thinking about the movies I used to watch as a child. My grandpa Gerard (the crazy one) used to tape PBS and send us the tapes in Mexico. I played those tapes to death, including the movie "The Point" ......and about the 10 best episodes of "Reading Rainbow" ever. If you know me well you already know that one of my most prized posessions on this planet is my tape of the music video episode of "Reading Rainbow" where Run-DMC break it down about how reading is good. Jam Master Jay raps! Anyway, I found it on Youtube to share it with everyone.



Thanks LaVar, you held it down. (This episode also had Pete Seeger reading and singing and playing the Banjo to his famous retelling of Abiyoyo).

Also I got to catch up on some internet trolling today, so I have to shout out Mike Davis of Burlesque North America for hooking up this fine jam... Boner Jams '09.


As promised, I'll wrap up with some photos of my trip, all stolen from my sister, since my phone does not take pictures and I don't own a camera.

Here's a picture of some of my family eating at a restaurant. I'm the one with the hat.

"I think you're swell Jesus!" Securing my spot in Hell at the wax museum.

It's either Charlie Chaplin or Hitler with a hat.

That's me trying to navigate around a water buffalo in a car. This photo does not grasp how close we came to acting as its toilet paper.

The pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. I really enjoyed the whole city, it was cool to think my ancestors weren't as lazy as I am.
From left to right: Arturo, myself, Luis, Mariana and my dad. This was Christmas Eve, I put on the creep face really well for this one.
Oh, and hey, Happy New Year! I really mean that, I hope that anyone reading this has a great New Year. When I get back home I hope to see a lot of you that I've missed the last couple of weeks and say what's up and maybe sip a beer and tell tales of old.