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

Narco Corridos Uptown

Larry Hernandez at Club Luna in the Bronx last month.

This guy brought his narco corrido flavor to East Coast in late November. I heard this one, from a different group, on Saturday night filming some video footage in Washington Heights with Manny Wheels. It was for our updated digital media piece that I mentioned in a previous post.
We’re looking at narco corridos and their increased presence on the local Mexican off-the-radar dance circuit here in N.Y.

Not to give too much away right now, but the party ended before its expected 3:30 a.m. time, because some knuckleheads sprayed the front of the party location with bullets, hitting one kid in the leg. Someone got jumped and the response was to spray half a block with lead. No one else was hurt.
While a sonidero was playing (they rocked everything at that party from bachatta to ranchera to groupero to tropical), I saw a kid walk up to him and send some shouts to Sureño 13. I don’t know if it was him or his click who participated in the shooting. It really messed up a good night, though. I’m not trying to draw any real parallels between narco corridos and the shooting, although it’s possible gang bangers were at the party to hear some. The fact is that part of Uptown is really hot right now, hot in the sense of crime and gangs and drugs…the stuff of poor not-yet-fully-gentrified areas.

**UPDATE: I just got a call back from one of the security guards who works these types of events (allegedly, the Ecuadorian and Mexican public and private party circuit in N.Y. has a high demand for security).  He confirmed that a young guy was shot in the leg Saturday night, and said it stemmed from a beef between local Mexican gangs whose turf is divided along 155th St.

Los Traviesos were set tripping on a guy who rolls with Los Cholos. Neither had anything to do with the party (they like to wait outside for family, friends, rivals or girls I’m told. But maybe they were causing trouble because they couldn’t afford the $6 Modelos, or $5 waters that were being sold. Oops, I forgot to mention the ridiculous markup at this and many local events like this. I have to say I’m a little critical. Just because there’s a monopoly on these “authentic” spaces for Mexican regional music culture in N.Y., promoters don’t have to engañar la gente.

We were all set to check out the Grupo Illegales, which is an outfit that was supposed to play a song called “500 balazos”. Instead we got a hyper-authentic Norteño group called Conjunto Dinamico. Some cats from Chihuahua.
They opened their set with speedy Norteño jams before moving into the narco corridos, which really started to get the dance floor (gym floor!) packed.
Their youtube presence gives you an idea of how they get down:

Though they play a variety of music, they say the narco corridos are a must to please the crowd. Even though this is mostly music that tells stories of drug cartel life, it’s been a boon to the career of newer singers such as Larry Hernandez from Culiacan. One of his earliest albums was explicitly called “16 Narco Corridos”. He was recently in Neuva York. He played club Luna in the Bronx (check out a snippet, here). He puts some pretty revealing things on his Twitter feed:

While doing research for the piece I came across the always pretty grisly Blog del Narco.
If you look in the top, right corner of the site you’ll see a link to youtube video. It’s not a video of chopped-off heads like you’ll find in the blog’s forum, but a group music video. What I know is the future of narco corrido as envisioned in this track “C A R T E L E S U N I D O S”

It’s gangster music, but with accordions and the smell of a promoter who knows violence sells. (Download a mixtape, here)

Larry Hernandez photos via: http://twitpic.com/photos/larryhernandez1

C. Hannibal cultural history

L.A. O.G. J.C.

Even though he drops “Internet” and “new media” like they were these ill loaded words, J.C., or John Carroll as I called him to his face and to others around the office, is one of the last great newspaper editors. Sure, David Simon, the creator of The Wire says nothing nice about the man. So why do I think he was so great?

Mainly because he chatted me up on one of those days I was having. He invited me to sit down at the table with him in his big ass glass office there on Spring Street, and chopped it up with me. What surprised me was the care he took in reading my entire resume.

“Star-Ledger, huh?” he asked me. “Good paper.” I didn’t tell him that that story about the dead strawberry made me kick the reporting habit even before I was out of college.

“TV? Is that really what you want to do?” He asked that with a bit of disgust when he caught I did that little Channel 5 internship. I shook my head. I’m not into broadcast like that.

If you take a long look at the video above, this is J.C. in his late hey-day just several years ago. When I just got out to L.A. and he was running tings! He talks BIG-business in this piece. I think he knew the downward spiral was in effizect at this point. God bless him for believing in this trade. Just a couple of highlights from the vid: He goes in on Arnold around 23:05. He straight quotes Malcolm X around 36:49, but in the context of renewed interest in reporting after 911. Cold piece of work.

C. Hannibal cultural history

This Is How We Duy: Keep It Story, Fam

I’d like to tell you a little story about trying to find stories for your J School beat.

Coming to Brooklyn, from Mexico City, one of the coolest topics I thought I could cover had to do with the Mexican population. Since I was in L.A. for so long, the idea of gangs and Mexican-American gang warfare was about as sexy a topic as I could muster as a young reporter. Of course, I wasn’t thinking about how utterly difficult it is to penetrate gangs (pause) and to get info that’s publishable.

While looking into gang activity in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where I lay my reporting claim to fame (I have yet to publish an SP-specific story!) I came upon a guy who runs a gang Website. Above, is an audio slide show I made. Three months after I made contact with dude, he sends me a text, inviting me to this event. An event that was basically a reunion party for potbelly, old school gangsters from NYC. Many of them walked with canes and others looked like grandpop’s who just didn’t want to give up the tough guy persona. Really reminded me of my late grandfather who walked around Newark, NJ dressed like a full-fledged cowboy. No chaps, but a cowboy hat, boots and a leather vest. He never shook that image, even when he had cancer.

So, I presents this video in class and it bombed! This is not how we Duy, said the instructor. Where’s your story? What’s the nut graph?

All my explanations were met with the Cheshire Cat eyes.

Cool topic, but no story. What is story? Everyone has their own explanation. It’s like rocket science. I’ll let you know when I find out, until then, look up Story + journalism + “how to tell” in google. Stick to the .edu sites.

One major component of my critique had to do with the fact that I wasn’t reporting anything new. Wait, what? I never heard of any biker gang reunion in BK. I googled the hell out of it. But my source did mention a guy named Bilal.

Was it Bilal from Pakistan who I worked with on my Business of Journalism presentation? Nah, prolly not.

Who is this mysterious Bilal?

Oh, THIS BILAL. The guy, like me, was scouring the web for cool stories about Sunset Park and found one. Here’s his video:

Is his video better than mine? A little bit. The lower-third info is good. He focuses on characters more. I learned a lot watching this guys video, after the fact.

I’m taking my original vid up top back to the drawing board. The suggestion: Focus on this as a STORY about how over the hill gangsters are using the online world and social media to reconnect, as opposed to sending out hits on each other.

Hmm. Something to think about. Stay tuned…..

C. Hannibal cultural history

Election Day Hustle-Mode

I go to one of the greatest journalism schools on the planet, son. The best I could muster was a few flicks on election day. It was a great experience. Midterms are the boring side of elections in most cases. Too bad I didn’t get into school two years ago. Would’ve loved to do some Obama stories. This photo I took is mad yellow. Blame it on the gym floor. Or blame it on my novice skills. One day I’ll look at it and laugh. Actually, I was laughing when my professor saw it and was like: “Why is it so yellow?”

Actually, mediocrity isn’t that funny.

There goes my travel fellowship. Wait, I think I nixed those chances way back in September. Still, we keeps pushing.

Below is a bit of raw reporting I handed in to a colleague who was putting in extra-fly work on the election coverage tip. **Shouts to Beth Mo!

When I look over these notes, I see 1,000,000 things missing. Sloppy! Just gotta learn. The original idea was for me to do some type exit poll interview. These are the results:

11/02/2010

Snapshots of Voters in Park Slope.

Camp Friendship 8th Ave and 6th Street.

Voter  1, Black Male, mid to late 30s.

Party Affiliation: Independent, but raised Democrat

Voted for: Cuomo and Gillibrand. Chose one Republican (didn´t catch who)

Why:  ¨People shouldn´t ride the partisan lines.¨

Voter 2, Black Woman, early 30s

Affiliation: Democrat

Voted for: Charles Barron, stuck with Dems in other races.

Why: ¨I knew more about [Charles Barron] from reading about him in the Amsterdam News¨ Didn´t vote for Cuomo, ¨because it was more about his father.¨

Voter 3, young  white male, 23

Affiliation: Libertarian

Voted: Libertarian candidate for governor and Working Families in other races

Why: It would be nice to have a Libertarian governor to go along with all the Democrats

(voter was raised in a democratic family)

Voter 4, male, 23, latino

Affilation: Dem.

Voted: Cuomo for governor

Why: Because that was the best choice.

Voter 5, female, white, with kid

Affiliation: Democrat

Voted: ¨Working families all the way¨

Why: ¨I don´t vote republican¨

Voter 6, female, black

Affiliation: Democrat

Voted: ¨Democrat all the way.¨

Why: ¨Do we have a choice?¨

Voter 7, female, black

Affiliation: Democrat

Voted: ¨Cuomo, no doubt.¨

Why: ¨You have to have some sympathy for him, because in his case, his wife cheated on him¨

Voter 7, woman, Black

Affiliation: Dem

Voted: Democrat down the line

Why: I could never vote for Carl Paladino. The Republican Agenda does not fall in line with mine.

¨There will be Republican sweeps in other states, so I thought  about that in part.

Voter 8, male, white

Affiliation: Democrat

Voted: Cuomo.

Why: Best option I felt comfortable with. At this time they need to have some resistance to what everyone thinks is going to happen.

Voter 9, woman, Asian? White? (she looked biracial)

Affiliation: Democrat

Voted: Cuomo. Voted all Democrat

Why: ¨They´ve been my reps for years and years. The kneejerk reaction is to take them out to affect change.

Voter 10, male , Latino

Affiliation: For voting purposes, I say Democrat (he seemed like a reluctant Dem)

Voted: Cuomo, voted Democrat in all the major races.

Why: I don´t like the way Paladino talks.  For all intents and purposes I vote Democrat.  I vote for the people who are going to give the people the most power, and that´s usually not the republicans.

C. Hannibal cultural history

Billy Clint In BK

 

Man, Bill Clinton is just a live dude. Everyone wanted to shake his hand after the Cuomo rally I attended for an RW1 assignment early last week. It’s obvious he’s popular with the ladies, but man…dudes young and old, black, white, Asian, Latino?

Everyone wanted to say they touched this man’s hand. I of course just needed a clean shot, which I didn’t really get. He grabbed a few hands that reached out above my head. I ducked.

I don’t wanna touch you, Billy Clint. He is something like a stone cold pimp, however. For that I will always give you respect.

 

C. Hannibal cultural history, mexican culture

Muy Macho

 

 

This will all make more sense in a like 8 months, when I finish my Master’s project. Trust me, I’m not going freak-show on you for no reason. This type of stuff is fairly standard in the world of lucha libre. You can’t really have an authentic Mexican wrestling show without crossing this line. What does it really mean anyway? Muy macho?

C. Hannibal cultural history, mexican culture

Amazon Woman In the Murder Capital

 

Judith Torrea cuts a striking and elegant figure. She’s at around 6 feet tall, model-like beauty. She’s got a nervous, thick Spanish accent when she speaks English. And she’s not really scared of any narcos. Tough lady.

She’s a former entertainment writer who says that she saw too many people putting the Bolivian Marching Powder up their noses at ritzy NYC events, and decided to spend some time reporting about the consequences of supporting the drug trade from the great passageway to U.S. drug decadence: la frontera.

She’s been in Ciudad Juarez writing about crime and the life and death interplay between the people, the p0lice, the government and the drug game.

 

 

C. Hannibal cultural history, music

R.I.P Squeeze Radio

 

89.9 Rap Show Thursday Night 2010 Final Broadcast

Believe it or not, hip-hop’s Golden Age happened right next to Lerner Hall, at Columbia’s radio station WKCR. When I walked by the entrance this past Thursday, on a rainy night, I saw a sign that read “R.I.P Squeeze Radio.” There was a bouquet of flowers and several candles. I thought it was a joke, but the security guard at the door definitely had me thinking otherwise. Overwhelmed with deadlines and a bunch of reading to do for my law class, I paid little attention to it and kept it pushing to the late night pizza shop.

On Friday, I checked the Webs. Damn. It was true. I should’ve taken a pic. WKCR wasn’t going to have a rap show on Thursdays night any more.

As I told Bobitto in an email a couple years ago, I lost lots of sleep listening to WKCR when I was in high school. It was my rap food and my first musical infatuation. I stayed up until 4 am to call in many times. I got through twice. Gotta find that tape.

All those slick rap blogs couldn’t save KCRW or Fat Beats. Underground hip-hop, like the rest of the media business is getting pushed out of the analog world and into the digital. I wonder if that’s a good thing.

Photo via B.A.P Blog.

C. Hannibal cultural history

How’d You Find That?

(Click on photo to read the story)

You know you did a good job in your RW1 class when classmates ask you “How’d you find that” story?

Why, Google. Of course.

Here’s what went down:

I was assigned day reporter. Professor say to me “find some Chileans watching the mining rescue on tv. Maybe a bar somewhere in Brooklyn.”

See, we write for a site called The Brooklyn Ink, so we needs that angle to make sense. Normally, just a request from the editor gets the job done. But, he had to add “Show me your stuff,” at the end of the email. A challenge? What? To me that meant it had to be done. Didn’t matter that a majority of the Chileans in NY live and work in Manhattan or Queens. I Googled:

“Chile  Brooklyn ” without the quotes and got this:

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Not what I needed. But my Google senses were telling me I just needed to dig a little deeper.

——-At this point I was really smelling myself. Now if you look closely, you see some patterns start to emerge.  Name, locations, “lives in”. I continued this until I got to the nice young Chilena in the picture that ran with my story.

I’m learning more and more, journalism couldn’t exist without Google. It couldn’t. But that’s another debate and another post. I’m just glad I could contribute a little local connection for a story that caught the world attention, if only for a couple dozen hours.

C. Hannibal cultural history

Google power

I was impressed when I saw that super-Google engineer Krishna Bharat was tapped to be on staff, via the J School website. My only beef is with the typo. I know, small pickens, but still, this IS thee top J School where craft is king. Hear that CUNY?

In addition to that very minor typo, I couldn’t stop looking at this bleary-eyed pic of Bharat that they put up on the site. I mean, there’s only so many ways to get your eyes that red. And of course, staring at Google code all day is exactly what I’m thinking about.

The illest part of this guy’s job is that he doesn’t even have to be here to teach.

Photos via Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism