C. Hannibal cultural history, mexican culture

Navidad Retro I

This is special Christmas beer that’s available in Mexico from around November until about February. It’s called Noche Buena, good stuff.

Unlike here in Gringolandia, most people in Latina America celebrated the traditional Christmas last night. Any NYCers hit up a posada?You can get a nice breakdown right here. With that in mind gimme a late pass for this post, it’s for those Americanized Latinos who are putting more into their Dec. 25th celebrations. This post over at NPR had the same thing in mind.

Continue reading “Navidad Retro I” →

C. Hannibal cultural history, radio

Old School Radio Christmas

Back in the day, I’m told people didn’t watch cable TV or search the Web for their media consumption. All they had was that thing you listen to in your car, a radio. One time I remember my mom trying to sit me down to get into a radio program when I was like 5. It was NPR?! I remember buying into it, only because it was the Star Wars radio drama that ran from around 1981 to about 1986.

That’s Lionel Barrymore, Drew’s granduncle, up top. On Christmas Eve of 1939 he played Scrooge for Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre of the Air.  If you’re hanging with your grandparents or some other really old relatives, ask them if they want to listen to the ’39 radio recording of “A Christmas Carol” on this new fandangled thing they call the Internets. They might trip.

And if you do get their attention, ask them what they think about this classic Christmas radio special from 1948 featuring Abbott and Costello

Here’s another one, a suspenseful-type Twas the Night Before Christmas from 1951:

And an undated episode of The Shadow called “Joey’s Christmas

All tracks merrily jacked from Elsmar Cove Web Site.

P.S. I’m really cool on the Amos and Andy radio show X-mas episodes they have on their site.

C. Hannibal cultural history

Christmas and Guns

 

As we all know, it’s gritty in the City. And although we’re getting ready to rejoice for the holiday and eat our figgy pudding and watch our Christmas tree start to dry up, let’s not forget that there are a lot of Bad Santas out there.

Rev. Al Sharpton and ’em held a gun drive in Harlem World a little while ago and this is what they exchanged for a couple hundred bucks and a dubb here and there.

Three Tec-9 semi-automatic guns and an AK-47 style assault rifle were

among the 185 revolvers, 122 semi-automatics, eight shotguns, eight

rifles, and 31 other firearms turned in by the public. From 10 a.m.

until 4 p.m., working guns could be exchanged for $200 bank cards, and

rifles and shot guns for $20, no questions asked.

Says the NYPD.

This blog post brought to you by street crime, violence, a $200 bank card and The Scottsdale Gun Club

jk

Happy Holidays.

 

Photos: Top, from DCPI,

Bottom, from SGL

 

C. Hannibal cultural history

Grab the Bull…


…..by the horns, ¨nut sac¨, testicals…whatever your pleasure.

The ¨Charging Bull,¨ a.k.a The Bowling Green Bull or the Wall Street was sculpted from bronze by Arturo Di Modica and delivered in 1989. It was a Christmas gift to the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash, which stressed out a lot of suits, even killing a few. Read more about it, here.

Continue reading “Grab the Bull…” →

C. Hannibal buildings, cultural history

Newark Brewery: Eagle in the ¨A¨

I grew up on the outskirts of where the King of Beers is made. I´m from an industrial town nearby, so this was never that special of a place, except for the smells and the sign.

As a kid I remember passing by this Anheuser-Busch plant and smelling the oddest smell: malted oats, or something like that. At night the sign lights up and you see an eagle fly and then transform into an ¨A¨, it´s really impressive along that loan stretch of the 1&9 just before you reach Newark Airport, ecscuse me, Liberty International Airport (see how long I´ve been gone?).

Some details:

Anheuser-Busch Newark Brewery
General Manager: Kristopher Scholl

Brewmaster: George Weston

Location: 200 U.S. Highway 1 & 9, Newark, N.J.,  07114

Opened:1951

Brands Produced: Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob ULTRA, Busch, Busch Light, Natural Light, Natural Ice, King Cobra, Rolling Rock and Rock Light

States  Served: New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, export military shipments

Site: 88 acres

Total Floor Area: 3,223,440 square feet

Shipments: Approximately 200 trucks per day

Annual Payroll:$84 million

Annual Utility Expenditures: $41 million

(Info. via.)


There used to be other breweries in the vicinity, but they´ve since shut-down. Their cool signs gone as well.

C. Hannibal cultural history, los angeles, music

Return of Curtis (Mclemore)

 

Curtis Mclemore, whose professional name is “Curtis Young (Dr. Dre’s son)” is back (at least I expect him to be). I’ve told you about him before, in this post.

What better time than now to re-extend the 15 minutes he got some 3 years ago. It looks like he want trying to put something out in April.  Maybe his sources kept telling him Detox was soon to come out. He even put on his grownfolks clothes for an album cover.

__You can’t deny that he looks like Andre Young. You have to give him some props       though, because how many people can ride the coat tails of Detox, without ever having cut a track for Doc Dre?

__According to one blog post written at the time, “There had never been any real _association between father and son until recently in 2007 when Dr. Dre agreed to _produce tracks for his opening act. Aside from this, Curtis had previously met Dre _at the age of 21.”

*update*

I came across this Vibe.com piece (Next Generation: Stepping Off the Bandwagon) about the gang of famous rapper kids who came on the block a minute ago:

Hood Surgeon:
To fill in the shoes of one of the most influential producers and artists in Hip Hop may seem like an impossible task at feet, but Hood Surgeon is far from falling short of the challenge. From his introduction into the game at 12 as part of a group called Lyrical Assassins, to starting productions just three years ago, it is quite evident that Hood Surgeon is following in the same footsteps as his father but leaving his own footprints while at it.

Continue reading “Return of Curtis (Mclemore)” →

C. Hannibal cinema culture, cultural history, music

Feeling the Pagan Spirit

 

There was a time back when I was in college and learning about being a 5% (this from listening to too much Wu-Tang) that I thought of Christmas as a pagan holiday and not worth my time. The joys of Christmastime only felt with a marathon movie screening on TNT. Afterall, if you grew up in a household that gave presents every year, reality starts to set in as you leave your teens and you’re more likely to get socks or a tie, instead of something electronic, expensive and fun.

 

Continue reading “Feeling the Pagan Spirit” →

C. Hannibal cultural history, mexican culture

Brooklyn Tamales

I was strolling along 4th Ave. in Sunset Park, in unforgivable cold weather, and saw this sign in the storefront of a tiendita that had a straight-up Arabic name above the awning. The sign says:

“Tamales Oxaqueños…$2.00 Calientitos”

Though it’s probably spelled “Oaxaqueños”, it reminded me of the recording you always hear in D.F. The tamale guys and girls that all the expats think is so cute. They come out at night on makeshift bikes with a small soundsystem attached that plays the same looped announcement calling people to come out of their homes and grab a bite.

Take a listen:

You can probably read about this in a ton of travel guides and gringo expat experience novels and blogs.

What I didn’t know was that it was a sort of meme. You can find renditions of the gastronomic chant all over the web.

Continue reading “Brooklyn Tamales” →

C. Hannibal cinema culture, cultural history, Racially Speaking

Nothing to Do With the A-Team

 

The homie Sandro Panza just asked me if I’m named after Hannibal from the A-Team or if that’s just a coincidence.

I was a super sick fan of the 80’s show, but I was born a bit before it, so that’s a dumb question. Sorry, Panza. George Peppard (R.I.P) was no doubt my favorite TV character at the time, next to Cliff Huxtable, B.A. Baracus and Alex P. Keaton. But I’m not named after him.

I’d like to think I’m named after a guy I first saw in a malt liquor ad:

My folks were on some Brown Pride, Black Power trip and thankfully gave me a name that represented. So, I was named after Hannibal Barca, defeater of the Romans.

Continue reading “Nothing to Do With the A-Team” →