C. Hannibal visually speaking

Google Video pick of the week #013

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After I saw Daughter´s of Darkness (1971), I had to put it in my top5 favorite vampire flicks list. It´s easily one of the sexiest out there, filled with that never-really gone away early 70s Euro fashion. Sunglasses. Kinky Shakespeare.

New York Times, May 29, 1971:

Want to see a fascinating vampire movie? Then catch the Belgian-made, English-language “Daughters of Darkness,” which arrived yesterday. Subtle, stately, stunningly colored and exquisitely directed by Belgium’s young Harry Kumel…

Chicago Sun-Times, April 6, 1972

The countess excites the young man with tales of vampire feast, sadistic orgies and invocations to the devil. The young man then beats his wife, who falls sobbing into the clutches of the countess while the young man is seduced by the red-lipped Ilona. Everyone slinks mysteriously up and down the stairs. Bodies drained of blood are found in a nearby town.

C. Hannibal cultural history, mexican culture, music

Internationally Screwed & Chopped

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In about a month, certain parts of Houston and the world will remember the birthday of DJ Screw, and November marks the 10th Anniversary of his death.

Austin Surreal properly informed me recently about the latest DJ Screw spin-off, “Screwed Anthologies“. Think Nortec, but improvising over plodding bass lines and drooping renditions of popular rap songs. Go here, for an audio sample. The Houston-based musicians should be stopping in Ithica and Boston this week

In Mexico, there´s a reminder of Screw. It´s not in the super slow-paced way you handle bank transactions here, or the syrupy slow wait in the line at Wal-Mart Mexico. I´m talking about the wound down accordian-jamming sound of  cumbias rebajadas. Rebajada,  means to bring it down, as in the pitch.

The realm of digital cumbia isn´t complete without a walk in this slow dimension. There´s a certain gangster quality to listening to cumbia this way. Not unlike those guys in Texas who have Screw blasting out of their cars.

I´m interested in getting a good story together on the subject.  People on both sides of the border are discovering the music again, and again. But no clear answers as to what connects Screw to rebajadas, or if there´s a definitive creator for pitched down cumbia.

According to  Dr. Auratheft:

Story tells …. early low-key/ghetto cumbia gigs in Mexico would use really shitty/dysfunctional turntables, not only slowing down but also fluctuating. This launched a genre somehow and kids in Mexico are just all about rebajadas”.

Or are the origins of cumbia rebajadas as Toy Selectah told me in Austin a few months ago? He suggests that boomboxes at Monterrey block parties would slowly run out of batteries, leaving people to bailar to slowed cumbia.

Whatever´s true, most of what´s written about Screw dates chopped and screwed music to the early 90s, and rebajadas mixtapes are said to have been available since the 80s, coming directly from Monterrey DJs and making their way throughout Mexico y el mundo.  Let´s see if we can get this all on the record. Until then check out this rebajadas mix by Dr. Auratheft:

Rebajadas_El_Maldito Acordeón

And this 1998  chopped and screwed mixtape by Houston rap landmark Swishahouse:

Barre

Look here for normal cumbia.

Track listing for both mixes after the jump.

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C. Hannibal buildings, cultural history, mexican culture, music

I Know Huh X Wayneandwax X Postopolis!

Above, Rapper 2Phase on the mic (center), at a January 2010, rap event near Centro.  It was a 7 hour rap show in a hall connected to Cría Cuervos, a punk/goth space. Pictured is the entire concert stage, the bar was off to the right.

For my presentation today, I invited 2Phase and Yoez. More about them during our chat, but I wanted to give a little background on why I chose these two, of the literally hundreds of rappers trying to get their voices heard in D.F.

2Phase was one of the first rappers I saw perform when I got here in the winter of 2008  (Listen to some tracks from his 1st album, here and here.). He was performing in another punk space, El Under, in Colonia Roma. The reason why I picked him is because, first, he speaks English. And, two, he´s not only a rapper, but a producer for Revolver Productions. I felt that he could talk about, not only the rap scene, but also the technical aspects of production and getting product and merch out to the masses.

Yoez is a rapper I heard a lot about, because she was a member of D.F.´s  first all-girl rap group Rimas Femininas. I researched this group for a story that appeared in Latina magazine, but I never got a chance to talk to Yoez. Her work is personal and she´s got a stage presence that can´t be ignored. I´ve seen her destroy crowds at Foro Alicia, usually over some heavy West Coast beat.

*Super shouts to Wayne Marshall for inviting me as a guest.

C. Hannibal cultural history, music

Beat conductors Postopolis!

Sometime ago, Harvard stopped producing Simpson´s  writers and started producing DJs. Above, the byproducts of the late 90s.  To the right, the Pitchfork-approved, globetrotting soundboy intellectual, DJ/Rupture. To the left, the M.I.T. professor and ethnomusicologist whose curiosity about Mexican rap gave this blog a humongous boost. Thanks for including us, Wayne (Friday at 5:30 pm, CDT), live streaming.  Party on.

For upcoming Mexico City gigs featuring this Postopolis! duo,  check here.

C. Hannibal mexican culture, visually speaking

Shine in D.F.

¨Elitism is just a fear-based concept. Art belongs to everyone¨

–Wendell McShine (via)

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McShine, who goes by the artistic name “Shine” will be talking about his work at 4p.m. (cdt),  at Postopolis! Check the live feed, here.

As with so many artists, Mexico City is the muse he´ll talk about.  Look at what he said to London Black arts magazine catchavibe.com:

“I love it here – the colours, textures and most definitely the diversity of different indigenous tribes. They all bring that special uniqueness that makes Mexico. My inspiration really is universal, but Mexico is where I feel alive. Everything here is on a higher vibration. It’s as if there’s another dimension unfolding right before our eyes and my work reflects that.”


Wendell McShine is one of the coolest guys I´ve met during my time in Mexico.   It´s rare to make these types of connections in the heart of the capital.

He´s from a part of the world known as the Anglophone Caribbean.

Things are developing fast for the Trini artist. A recent art prize and inclusion into the Upper Playground family, have been small pieces in an artistic rise that he hopes takes him to the Tate gallery.

His Mexico City show closes in 2 days, at the Fifty24Mex gallery in Condesa.

¨A watcher, and a seeker¨, titles one of his main cut-out works in his “Behind the Blue Door” series. You can buy some of his stuff  for around $4,000 to $5,000 pesos.  His works will culminate with a show in San Jose, followed by a final chapter in the trilogy in England. He wants to retire when he´s 45. Or was it 40? Get him while you can folks.

If you´re in D.F. , go see Wendell´s show at the Upper Playground gallery, Fifty24MX.

Amatlan 105, Colonia Condesa, 1pm to 9pm, Friday and Saturday, 52561444

C. Hannibal mexican culture

Along San Pablo, the oldest profession

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I went to San Pablo Avenue near Centro to buy a bike. I didn´t know it was one of four zones in Mexico City where an open air sex market is allowed to thrive. Just so happens it´s also a street lined with dozens of bike repair/sales shops.

Families walk the street looking straight ahead most of the time, ignoring the girls propped up against the walls, or mingling near bus stops—always in site of a bike shop. Many of these women are brought (or forced) from pueblos throughout Mexico to come work the streets of D.F. Cops drive by, maintaining a presence, but doing very little. This isn´t lawlessness, it´s how it works out here.  Nothing on Sunset Boulevard can compare.

On Sundays, it´s an odd site, since the nearby La Merced market gets heavy post-church traffic. I can just imagine how some of the parents explain to curious little ones why those women are dressed like that.  They´re hustlin, man.

My bike, with annoying decals reading ¨Samurai¨along the frame, was only $900 pesos. Best bike I ever bought.  Just the bike.

Cyclo Partes (bicicletas), San Pablo No. 24-B, Col. Merced Balbuena, 55-22-17-47

C. Hannibal cinema culture

Google Video pick of the week #012

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I´ve never been an extreme dog lover, but last night I gave Beba (feminine form of ¨baby¨) a bath. Beba is one of Mexico  City´s street dogs. She lives in Colonia Roma, on a busy calle dotted with hotels, taco stands and upscale restaurants. She´s not a comedienne, but she can be wildly entertaining, especially when she´s hungry. She´s finicky, though: ham, cheese, sausages or chicken for this perra.

If you´ve traveled around South America, maybe you´ve seen roving packs of dogs. I know I did on trips to Chile and Colombia in the past. Dog populations seem out of control in some places, and I´m always curious about things local governments do to control them.

In Mexico City, I don´t see that problem, maybe in the ¨Establo¨.  There are groups here that look out for these animals. The only reason Beba, whose only consistent home is the patch of sidewalk in front of the garage where she ¨works¨, hasn´t been scooped up by canine enforcement is because she has an i.d. tag on her collar. It reads ¨RAMBO  Beba¨. Either ¨Rambo¨ was her former name, or someone wanted to save a few pesos on a dog tag and reused RAMBO´s.

Continue reading “Google Video pick of the week #012” →

C. Hannibal buildings, mexican culture, visually speaking

Corrupt edifice

There´s an abandoned 2-story building on the Roma Sur side of Viaducto Miguel Alemán. Too bad I couldn´t climb in, it´s all gated up. Didn´t stop some painters from getting down. The walls were covered with portraits.

This was the front of the building.

This was an athletic facility on the edge of a field in Bosques del Valle. Spent a Saturday afternoon at a band practice across the street.

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C. Hannibal cultural history, mexican culture

Tepito Owl

Around this time last year on a Sunday, late summer, I made a trip to Tepito with the homie Mazaki from Japon. Strolling through this legendary, chaotic, historical, and powerful black market, one thing ( in the mountains of sneakers, clothes, DVDs and .99 Store  musthaves) grabbed my eye . The Tepito owl.

There was a young street kid, hustler, with a bird cage strapped around his neck. I disregarded the other exotic birds sitting in the cage as regular parrots, which they probably weren’t. The thing that seemed unreal to me for the first minute, was the miniaturized owl perched on the edge of the cage. No way. I snapped a quick flick with my BlackBerry , slick as can be.

Or so I thought. Photos are prohibited in this (black) market area. About an hour later the same kid walks up to me. Was he tracking me down? I thought he might try to get his Education of Sonny Carson (1974) on, really step on my line. But he basically told me off for taking his picture while he was illegally pushing exotic animals. It was cool to see the baby owl again, though.

I just told him that was a dope owl and it needed its picture taken. He understood, I think. And no one was cut.

Makes me marvel at the market savvy of these Tepito hustlers. I’m thinking they were building off the popularity of Harry Potter. How serious would that be for a kid if her dad brings her home a pet owl, just like the characters in the book?

Well, now you know where to go America.

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