Maya VaVoom

Bryce Digdug was kind enough to treat Junk Thief to see the Lucha VaVoom show at San Francisco's historic Fillmore Auditorium where a shrine to Janis Joplin watches over the coat check stand. The show featured sex, violence and brown matter. We enjoyed it and felt it was worth the price. (Bryce won the tickets at a bingo game on the campus of Jesuit USF.)

When Junk Thief got back home, he told Mr. Sullivan all about it. At first he tought Junk Thief had seen his old friend Vivian Valvoom from San Diego. Mr. Sullivan was more intrigued that they have been playing several years at Los Angeles' fabulous Mayan Theater. It is a wonder that equals Copan which Junk Thief has visited three times. Junk Thief was probably the only Spanish speaker in the audience. The wrestlers were actually Mexican but probably not Mayan though a bit of the Mayan empire and Mesoamerica includes southern Mexico. Mexico and at least two Vancouvers are in North America. There is also a Mayan Theater in Denver that Junk Thief plans to check out in April.

Replaying Favorites

Cinco de Mayo, the day the World Health Organization liberated Mexico from the swine flu. Thought I'd share last year's video tribute.

Happy Zapata, Happier Zapata

Banjos and Oaxaca

This evening I dropped by the Million Fishes Art Collective around the block where they are featuring an exhibit dedicated to Oaxaca. In addition to the art, I had a chance to catch the One Man Banjo. I'd wanted to see Luz Gaxiola of Circus Finelli but had to dash. Oaxaca has always held a special spot in my heart, having visited there many times. One of the groups I worked with for years, CEDICAM, won the Goldman Environmental Prize this year's, an example of the triumph of the ingenuity of the indigenous spirit there.

Advice from Walter

Since Tugboat Dave no longer posts his random Spanish language channel images, I felt compelled to share this one of Walter Mercado. Last night while I was at El Patio pupuseria on Mission enjoying excellent $2.50 fish tacos before the Pope of Yes show, I heard Bryce Digdug scream out "It's Walter of el Show de Walter." On the wall next to a rifle and glittering sombrero was this creature, Walter Mercado who at age 76 looks little different than he did at 56 or 36 or...

Say what you will, but Walter holds a doctorate in Divinity from the International Philo-Byzantine Academy & University. Although he holds it, I'm not sure if he earned it or if it has his name on it.

Frida with Regained Potency

When I told friends a few weeks ago that I had no intention of going to see the Frida Kahlo show at SFMOMA, they either were shocked or told me I was missing a once in a lifetime opportunity. Living a decade in the Mission -- where we even had a Frida's Pizza for Chrissakes -- I had been so oversaturated by her images that they'd lost the potency they first held for me in the 1980s when I became fascinated by her. Sure, you could buy Frida refrigerator magnets, Post its, umbrellas, mugs or t-shirts at the kiosk. And the cliched trademarks -- the mustache, the unibrow, the chihuahua, the monkeys, the parrots -- are all there. But Frida was never a cuddly Latin American folk artist that her over exposure has turned her into. The show reminded me of this twisted, angry and defiant Hungarian Jew who happened to live in the Republic of Mexico much of her life. It is remarkable in scope and size, and this is the final in its three city tour.

The most remarkable image, and new to me, was a relatively small painting called "Moses" inspired by her reading of Freud that packs in almost the entire history of humanity since the day of that famed floating baby in a basket. Though I bought no refrigerator magnets or other trinkets, I came home with a revived sense of defiance but also plucked a few pesky strands in between my eyebrows.

JTTV - Season 2, Episode 15 - Cinco de Meow

Bunter and Junk Thief herald the Fifth of May with a musical extravaganza that simultaneously celebrates and debunks the consequences of globalization. If you prefer to see it full screen, click the YouTube link for that version.

JTTV - Season 2, Episode 6 - Ladron de Basura

For those that don't watch Univision regularly, here is the promo for my Spanish language version of this channel.

By the Time I Get to Phoenix...

...I will probably have forgotten I took these on my little Autumn Equinox tour.Glad someone finally locked up that damned kid, it was always nothin' but trouble.
Actually not my mixing table but in the window of Triple Base Gallery.
We definitely need more iconic representations of him and less of Rigoberta and Frida. But any mention or photo of him gets the same ecstatic, one word response: "Cantinflas!"

This one was just painted this weekend.
Smart ass signs deserved their smart ass responses.
Wha? Huh? And my history teacher said it was John Wilkes Booth!
Is it just me, or could these two places pass as Pacific cousins to this house in New Orleans from Tugboat Dave's tour of his 'hood?

Someday, I just hope, I'll look up and see a pair of stilettos instead.

1980s Fun Band of the Week - Alaska y Dinarama

What is there not to love about Alaska? She's made a comeback of sorts this year thanks to a duet with Miguel Bosé . She was in Almodovar's first film in 1980. And in this video for "Ni tú ni nadie" she and the boys look like the house band at the coolest gay bar in the world circa 1985. This tune has it all -- punk and goth attitude, a gorgeous string interlude midway (sounding like a Trevor Horn production circa 1982's The Lexicon of Love by ABC), Abbey Road era horns, an oohing and ahhing chorus, and Ms. Alaska doing her best Theda Bara at the heart of it. It's the perfect wake up and seize the day anthem in my book.

And who can top Alaska for all around coolness? A girl that longed to be a gay man, her father fled Spain to escape Fascism, her mother fled Cuba to escape Communism. Out of the romance of two exiles came genius.

Alaska













Theda

Baking with Alaska (y Dinarama)

My recent revisiting of Miguel Bosé has led me to also return to the great Alaska y Dinarama. She is definitely a one of a kind, and often mistaken for a drag queen, which is a great thing to say about any female singer. It tells you something about the superiority of Mexican culture to learn that she once hosted a kids show. In a perfect world.... Her disco-punk style can most closely be compared to that of Nina Hagen, but only a comparison. I refuse to call her "the Latin Nina Hagen." Actually she always made me think that this is what Theda Bara would have sounded like if she ever started a band.

You have to love a gal that was once in a band called Kaka De Luxe which sort of reminds me of the great Shirley Pimple and the Pus Cats, the top psychobilly lesbian punk band of the Great Plains in the early 1980s. They also suffered from being called the Okie version of the Bush Tetras.

It really pisses me off when people try to use U.S. or western European references to vastly superior artists in other culture. Calling Caetano Veloso the "Brazilian Bob Dylan" is a great example. Dylan could only dream of having Veloso's diversity, poetry and voice. On that tangent, I recently followed Friendatella's suggestion of watching (somewhat against my will, but Friendatella commanded: JunkThief, you must watch it!)Paperdolls It featured a wonderful version of Que Sera Sera by Veloso. If you've never heard Alaska's Ni Tu Ni Nadie, I suggest it as the perfect, get out of bed and be motivated rock anthem. Listen to it closely , and see if you agree that it sounds like something out of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Released around 1984, it actually makes you think that not everything from that era was horrid.