C. Hannibal cinema culture, cultural history, music, Racially Speaking

Google Video pick of the week #015

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Depending on where you grew up —- say, from the middle school years through high school years — you probably didn´t know a lot of Black kids who were into punk rock.  Not to get all Bill Cosby on you or anything, but when you grow up in certain neighborhoods, falling outside the ¨norm¨ just isn´t tolerated. There´s a whole sect of brothers who think Hendrix is some really exotic stuff, not socially accepted on some corners.

Whatever, homie.

It´s all connected to the same vibe, the same origins and the same angst and rebellion, según yo. That´s why I like this week´s pick, James Spooner´s documentary, Afro-Punk (2003 ). While it´s a bit obvious in places,  I felt it suffered from poor pacing. There were a lot of voices involved in the doc, and some great punk rock artists. It´s most astute on issues related to being Black in a punk environment, tackling some important topics such as the question of Blackness. How can Black kids in Southern California, New York City, Cleveland and Detroit, who are into punk somehow be considered ¨less Black¨? Like in my N.J. town, why do they get beat up and picked on, as they walk from school to their homes, wearing a Bad Brains, Slayer or Metallica shirt, in predominantly Black neighborhoods? Not sure if that still counts with today´s version of those same bullying kids, wearing colorful skinny jeans. Kind of balances things out.

Via the Google Video link:

Afro-Punk features performances by Bad Brains, Tamar Kali, Cipher, and Ten Grand. It also contains exclusive interviews by members of Fishbone, 24-7 Spyz, Dead Kennedys, Candiria, Orange 9mm and TV on the Radio, among others.

Spooner continues his involvement in the Afro-Punk space with a festival in Brooklyn. Check out coverage from last week´s Afro-Punk Festival in the NYT, SPIN, and NY Press.

For a more lighthearted take on what it means to be a punk outsider, watch SLC Punk! (1998).

C. Hannibal cultural history, mexican culture, Racially Speaking

Post-race in the Americas III.5

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Blackface is dated. Bamboozled (2000) showed us that.  Images of blackness — from what I´ve seen in Mexico City media during the World Cup — are stuck on some tired stereotypes. As many people of African descent who speak Spanish, the makers of this ad could´ve done a lot better than this.

Above, a SKY broadcast of an Infinitum commercial pegged to the World Cup. In it, a man in blackface acts as an African school teacher, giving a language lesson about one of Carlos Slim´s Internet offerings. After the lesson, little African children come out and dance around the teacher´s desk; happy about their new broadband connection, or something like that.

Infinitum is the broadband arm of Slim´s multi-billion dollar Mexican communications empire.

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Continue reading “Post-race in the Americas III.5” →

C. Hannibal mexican culture, sports

World Cup player hating

Let´s go Ghana!!!

GHANA Vs USA (The Evil Empire)

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Just a reminder to all the adventurous gringos who come to D.F., thinking it´s all love.

It´s difficult to be a U.S. National Team fan during the World Cup. They just never seem as good as the rest of the world. If Pelé came from Pittsburgh, then it would be a different story. I don´t even know any of the players on the U.S. team, well….except for one guy, and that´s because I used to kick it with his sister in college. Still, I feel like it´s my obligation to root for them, because 1) It´s my home team, and 2) My Newark high school produced 3 Cup players, a couple of those guys I knew. They played during the days when the U.S. team was just beginning to surprise the world with their level of improved competition.

From the looks of the sign outside the Insurgentes pulqueria, where I watched the recent U.S. defeat to Ghana, above, most people still can´t stand us.  And you may know why.

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I can´t hold it against the pulqueria  Los Insurgentes, which is a new Roma drinking spot that opened in March. Note the upside-down flag. The place has a good sound system and quality jukebox ($5 pesos gives you 3 picks) . It serves a nice selection of pulque, beer, liquor and mezcal. Visit on a weekend night, because it´s becoming quite the venue for live shows.

Los Insurgentes, Insurgentes Sur 226, Colonia Roma, D.F. Map.

C. Hannibal mexican culture, music

My 5 Greatest D.F. Rap Moments: #5 Bocafloja Show at Alicia (When the Lights Went Out)

bocafloja2009_07_18

I found the following piece in my blog drafts, dated July 20, 2009. Why am I waiting almost a year to publish it? Because this is a blog, and sometimes I have to let things marinate.  Besides, I knew I would do some kind of bloggery count down, so I needed some ¨new¨ material.

Being in the crowd at this concert, above, at the Foro Alicia in Colonia Roma, was one of my greatest Mexico City hip-hop moments. Not in my life have I been to a rap show where the lights and power went out (typical reaction to a violent thunder storm in this part of Mexico City), yet most of the crowd stuck around to hear rappers perform over a drum kit, or accapella. The image, if you were there would have been of a dark performing space and people busting out notebooks to participate in impromptu poetry recitals and top-of-the-dome freestyles. Those kids got to shine, in the dark, but kept things moving so the show could go on. The Foro Alicia was brimming with teenagers in that summer heat, while the D.F. rainy season was in full effect.

My good German geologist friends, Maria and Moritz, came out to the show. And they stood around just like everyone else when the lights went out. Check out some of their excellent photos of life in Querétaro, taking rocks very seriously for UNAM.

Continue reading “My 5 Greatest D.F. Rap Moments: #5 Bocafloja Show at Alicia (When the Lights Went Out)” →

C. Hannibal buildings, cultural history, mexican culture

G.I. Joe beard and rap in Doctores

You may know someone with a beard like this.

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If you look at the success of Kaws, plastic toys are cool, right ? But what´s the allure of movable fighting men? Basically, a doll, created in the mid-60s … for boys.

I´m not a toy collector, but I used to play with 80´s G.I. Joe toys. It´s wild to think that I used to get lost in play for hours with a bunch of little men with plastic weapons, unleashing tactical assaults with a hover craft, and borrowing from images of Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Bruce Lee type destruction.

Toys meant a lot to me back then. When I kept seeing flyers around my local coffee shops for  MUJAM, a self-styled toy museum featuring a visiting G.I. Joe exhibit, I knew I wanted to be there.

I noticed the flyer´s map put the museum in Doctores. It´s a colonia, or neighborhood, with a reputation for being one of the more dangerous D.F. hoods. Part of this legacy has to do with high rates of muggings and auto parts thefts. La Jornada breaks down the criminal roots of the colonia. Doctores also has its own public Malverde shrine.

The area is important as an active hospital zone, providing local  health care, government and judicial buildings are located there, and every Sunday you can find great deals on produce at the tianguis along Dr Erazo.  Lucha libre matches at Arena Mexico feel safe and under control, especially when crowds of foreigners spill out onto the streets at 11pm every Friday night. The museum Estación Indianilla should be on your list if museum hopping in Doctores.

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It´s odd that there´s this sanctuary of toys in a hood that´s typically avoided by visitors. The collection belongs to Doctores resident Roberto Shimizu, who in this Vice magazine interview, seems like a hoarder.

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C. Hannibal mexican culture, visually speaking

Google Video pick of the week #014

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I wouldn´t mind doing a little in-depth research on late 1960s Mexican schlock, wrestling, horror cinema. Some of the films resulting from this crazy mix of genres are interesting.

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The thing that really grabbed me about Night of the Bloody Apes, the 1972 English-dubbed version of the movie in the poster above, was the opening scene of female masked wrestling (or lucha libre femenil).  This isn´t any of that G.L.O.W stuff.

All Movie Guide sums up the plot with an accurate description of the antagonist:

…A hairy gorilla-man with a wrestler’s physique who loves nothing more than to rape women and rip men’s faces off. The only one who can put a stop to this horrific rampage is — naturally — a masked female wrestler.

One version of this film was called Horror y sexo.


Movie poster from lamansiondelterror.blogspot.com

C. Hannibal music

Newark´s rap inroadz

William Leon Rhodes a.k.a Billy Roadz

Since I´ll be blogging from the N.Y./N.J. area in a few months time, I thought I would take it back to Jerz for a moment. Living on the West Coast non-stop, you lose touch with ¨home¨, especially if you don´t return often. You miss out on picking up new slang.

¨U all ready know!!!!!!!¨  ¨You aalllreadddyy!¨

I started hearing those phrases a couple years back when I would go back home for Thanksgiving, or to cover CMJ. I think I´m hearing West Coast cats use ¨Already¨ now.  It´s sort of an updated, ¨You better believe it,¨ or as my cornier friends´moms would say, ¨You bet your buns.¨

Along with some of the slang, I feel like I´m missing out on New Jersey´s rap movement. Is it really a ¨movement¨? I don´t think so. You´ll always have inner city hip-hop heads who are good (or not) at rhyming and flowing over beats.  There is really a much larger post I could do on N.J. hip-hop talent. Jay-Z knows who they are. Iovine probably does, too.

It´s cool to see Naughty by Nature get up and do some dad rap. But we Jerzy folks know there hasn´t been a true rap superstar for us since Redman.  Still, people keep trying to get there. Case in point, the rapper in the pic above: Billy Roadz.

Viewing the rap scene in Newark (I have a lot of work ahead of me, since Youtube — and a chance meeting with Roadz — is the main reference right now) is like looking into the hip-hop scene in Mexico City, D.F.  For one, as in D.F., Newark has hundreds of MCs and producers trying to get a piece of the musical pie. Making rap $tar money is a distant reality for  all of the rappers in D.F., and most in Newark. Second, it´s a hip-hop scene in the shadows of a larger, more successful one: NYC´s; and in Mexico´s case, the West and Southwest rap scenes.  Am I stretching that? Hope not.

The one ingredient in Newark hip-hop is grittiness. All the greats had it, or still do. In the naughts nothing´s shaped Newark more than lackluster Redman albums. And in a city going through enormous changes, with new stadiums, young mayors and a possible visit from Lebron James, one ingredient remains the same:  Brick City grit underneath the finger nails and in the flows.

Billy Roadz is only one talent in a pool of rappers who are proving themselves efficient at producing quality material. There´s just no product push at this point. Long gone are the days of selling CDs out of a trunk. But it´s good to see these rappers are intelligent enough to at least have a decent online presence, and pay the right DJs to help get material out. Ever heard of the Kash Addictz? Check Mike Mula´s blog (and on Twitter).

| Stream and Download Bill Roadz 2009 Mixtape |

Check his bio, here. Find out when his next mixtape drops, here.

C. Hannibal cultural history, los angeles, music

Fresno raps

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This is a bit of independent NorCal raps for you. Straight out of Fresno. It´s not the only song dedicated to the phrase ¨¿I Know Huh?¨ For sitcom fans, this blog´s title has little to do with Tonantzin Esparza´s TV character. I did work on a movie with her, though.

It has more to do with a street colloquialism specific to much of California urban culture (though–according to my ears—Latinos say it the best, and most often). I can´t define it better than the UD, it´s definitely a saying of ¨understanding and agreement.¨ Very flexible and adaptable, like street slanguage should be.

**The toys used in this video are from the popular Homies line.

C. Hannibal cultural history, music, visually speaking

Post-race in the Americas III

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This is the first time the World Cup has been staged in Africa.  Historically, there´ve been so many raw and degrading images of Africa and people of African-descent.  What are some images of Africa that have been popping up in media during the mundial?

I know, not as many people trip off skin color as we in the United States, or so I´m told. But I´m always happy we´re uptight enough to mostly dismiss these kinds of images. I think that if those types of graphics didn´t signify such dislike for dark skin color, that I would be cool with it.  Laugh along with the joke. But normally, I can´t. Too much going on underneath.

I flipped on the program halfway through and didn´t catch this guy´s name, but I heard the cast members refer to him as ¨Negro¨. Of course.  This is normal programming for the Televisa Saturday morning gab fest,  Hoy Sábado.  It´s the type of morning show that´s so bad, it makes Jillian Barberie´s work look excellent and useful.

I figured the character, who handed out yellow cards to certain announcers during the telecast, was making fun of World Cup referee Koman Coulibaly from Mali.  He made a series of iffy calls during the recent U.S. game. Here´s the Telegraph´s story on calls I think cost the squad a goal.

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Continue reading “Post-race in the Americas III” →

C. Hannibal mexican culture

FIFA Fan Fest in Zocalo

Walking to the angel after a big soccer match is a tradition in D.F.

I was a terrible  soccer player in junior high. Our team sucked, despite the Italians, Eastern Europeans and Haitians on our squad. Bad coaching I blame. Never scored a goal, maybe had one assist.  With that disgraceful past, I´ll tell you straight up: I´m not a huge  soccer fan.

But you can´t run around saying that kind of stuff during the World Cup. Kill joy.  And besides, I live in Latin America, so as they say, when in Rome…

I went to the Zocalo to participate in the FIFA Fan Fest, an international program put on by the governing body of the World Cup and supported by a bevy of big-ticket sponsors.  That´s Cuauhtémoc Blanco on the screen.  He´s the elder statesman on the Mexican national team, and one of the heroes of the 2-0 win against France this day.  He´s from one of the roughest hoods in D.F. Maybe he´ll retire after this year.

Police presence was welcome. Not too much, not too little.

The disbanded electrical worker´s union used the gathering to continue getting their voices heard.

There were plenty of people taking a day off work or school to witness their national team play. With all the soccer fanaticism running around a place like Mexico, these sorts of mass displays really make a gringo wonder about nationalism and sports.

Of course every Mexican soccer fan has his own team hero. Maybe it´s  Giovani dos Santos?

Every country, I assume, has its own sporting rituals. The finger wave is a popular one here.

There´s a generational soccer fandom here that I don´t think exists in the United States. Maybe in the next few decades we´ll get there. The Zocalo was sectioned off into different viewing spaces, one for each jumbo screen.

Of course once Mexico started scoring in the second half, the celebrating began, and didn´t stop until sometime early this morning (around 3 a.m.?)

Now you know the nickname of the player who scored that important second-half  first goal against France in the 2010 World Cup.

Once that second goal was scored, sealing the fate of the French, the day turned into a national celebration for Mexico. Dudes were risking their lives waving a flag at soccer fans down on Paseo de la Reforma. Thousands were making their way to the Glorieta del Ángel, the city´s official symbol, which I´m pretty sure was a gift from France. You hear mostly five syllables in a crowd like this (and all day long): Vi-va Me-hi-co