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Blogcation

Concho River will be on vacation, so probably the blog will not be updated frequently. Come back in a couple of weeks.

Ashley in the news

Our reader Ashley made it to the local news. Too bad it was because she was a victim of vandalism :-(

La Botana in Winston-Salem (unsolicited restaurant review by Guest Blogger Concho River)

Many a Twitter and Facebook update from my friends regularly report that they are "having Mexican" for lunch or dinner. Unless they are of the cannibalistic nature and want to have yours truly au poivre, we can assume that the well intentioned but grammatically and culturally incorrect friends mean that they are going to have Mexican food for lunch or dinner. Well, they are going to have most likely what many places here in the US sell as Mexican food, probably a combination of ground meat (they even call it "taco meat" here, a term I never ever heard in the 30 years I lived in Mexico) with lots of sour cream, yellow cheese, and crunchy stuff (with a red "salsa" that is so mild I could use it instead of Visine). Since I moved to the BBurg in 2004, I frequently go to the Mexican restaurants in the area, but I do it mostly because the waiters are really Mexican and they tend to be nice and friendly when they see a paisano. I have never, ever been crazy about the food they sell. Probably the best of the bunch was El Guadalupe's (now dead and soon to be yet another Chinese buffet place), where you could get things like a caldo tlalpeño and a few things that went beyond the standard taco meat with sour cream and crunchy crap. However, even El Guad's was occasionally guilty of making gringo-friendly things that were named after Mexican dishes that had nothing in common with them. I still remember when la Papa Majáa ordered a chile relleno and instead she got a cheesy broth with a floating pepper slice. The many incarnations of El Rodeo specialize in that kind of toned-down, weird adaptation of Mexican dishes, and the waiters tell us that they do it because the clientele doesn't really care about the food and go there for the drinks. That is visibly true in the El Rod's by the VT campus. As soon as you walk into the place you see an impressive bar with lots of tequila bottles and many versions of margaritas and types of beer. At one point the cook used to be a construction maistro who decided to become a cook (nothing wrong with being a maistro... you know I love maistros and my career is all about them, but you get the point).

Every now and then we hear of a new Mexican restaurant opening in the area and we plan a visit to it, just to frequently find más de lo mismo. Same chit with mostly good and friendly staff, lots of alcohol, and crunchy tacos with taco meat and sour cream. A couple of years ago we went to a place in Roanoke called El Palenque, based on recommendations that it was "authentic Mexican food." Not only was the food cold and the staff unfriendly to real Mexicans like us, but we got chorro asesino and we promised never to go back. Now, this past weekend we were in Winston-Salem, NC and we had the goal of visiting a restaurant called La Botana, which was also connected to statements like "authentic Mexican food" and "best Mexican restaurant in the area." On Hanes Mall Blvd., Samantha got lost and sent us to a little shopping center claiming that it was the address we specified. We didn't try the Verizon GPS and instead called La Botana and they told us to drive a little more. We got there and the place didn't look like much... it is a small, not so fancy restaurant, but some things were evident. The staff was Mexican and friendly (at one point our waiter, with a huge Benito Juarez tat in the arm, said "If the food wasn't good, I would be working construction instead of being here"), and the bar only had a few bottles of tequila. Sure, you can have a drink at La Botana, but it is clear that their main focus is the food, and not the alcohol.

The menu made us all smile. They really had the kind of stuff you find in Mexican restaurants. Lots of tortas and tacos, caldos, and horchata and jamaica to drink. Here, a taco is a soft tortilla (then again, all tortillas are soft; crunchy chit are called tostadas and you never make real tacos with them), the cheese is white and not yellow, and tacos have lots of different types of meat. I ordered the mole and I was happy to see that the meat was not a chicken breast fillet, but actual pulled breast meat, which is rarely seen in most "Mexican" restaurants in the East coast. It was very good, and the maiz tortillas were pretty decent too. Marcela ordered the sopes and she really liked them. Araceli had something with lots of black beans and longaniza and chorizo (where's the HH when she needs him?). We liked it. Too bad it is 2:30 hours away from the Burg. We need more places like La Botana in the East Coast. Say no to the crunchy "taco" and the cheese-soaked sour-cream infested crapola.

La Botana is inexpensive, small, friendly, clean and with good food that really looks like something people would eat in Mexico. If you are ever in Winston-Salem, go visit them.

My $7 nap

So I went to see the Harry Potty movie. I have seen all the movies and even read a couple of the books, and I honestly can't understand the fascination/obsession that many of my grown up friends have for this thing. However, I respect their preferences and tastes, since I know 99% of the world doesn't go crazy about the kinda chit that makes me go wow. As you probably know, Araceli (also known as my slightly annoying but occasionally entertaining tiny Mexican friend) is in town this month and she was bugging me that she wanted to go see the Harry Potty movie. We made it to the movie and Alexandra Marie was there (with a dude). As soon as it started and it was more of the same thing: a hero who is the "chosen one" but doesn't really do any cool things (it took Luke Skywalker only two movies to become cooler than Superman, and Harry Ponti has been a wanker for 6 movies and still doesn't walk on water... some kind of chosen one!), and old dudes with weird names, plus Hans Gruber from Die Hard with a bad haircut and a tendency... to... pause... between... words. Of course, that did it, and in less than 10 minutes I was gone to a happier place, probably dreaming about the combination of Moblin and Ubuntu and girls in bikinis. I was gone for some solid 10 minutes. I woke up and then the cute girl whose name sounds like Hemorrhoid suddenly had a crush on the redhead dude with the bulldog face. And Bridget Jones's dad was throwing a weird party. I got up and went to get a diet coke and candy to stay awake. Walked back to my seat and.... zzzzz.... bad guy is very bad and no one can tell... Draco Malaver... zzzz... stupid names for stupid characters.... zzzzzz.... Salma Hayek having chocolate ice cream with me while listening to Maxwell's new CD. Yep... I was gone again. Sound asleep for another good 10-15 mins. More weird things and then the dude who looks like Santa Claus and was in "The cook, the thief, his wife and his monkey" ("waaash me... waaash me") and replaced a nice old dude from the first movie (I think the character's name is Aldus Freehand) was killed by Hans and Harry Ponti didn't have five grams of los cojones de Bruce Willis to do anything about it.

The end, movie over. We go home. I update FB status to talk about my naps during the movie, and a dear friend replies "You need to read the books!" I've read them. If I say "I fell asleep during the Harry Ponti movie" and someone tells me I need to read the books is the same as if I said "I fell from a bicycle and it hurts" and they say "You need to fall from a motorcycle! That hurts even worse!" I don't want to enhance or augment the painful experience. I want to run away and go to a comfy place and watch reruns of "It's always sunny" instead.

Geeky post

After testing Ubuntu Netbook Remix (Jaunty Jackalope) in the 1005HA, I've decided I will stay with sucky XP for a few months until Karmic Koala comes out as stable. In the next weeks I will need reliable wireless and wired connections, and the patches on UNR would probably make me go crazy. So... it's Windows on the netbook for a couple of months. Hope I don't go crazy.

Freestyle news

Today we have some news from the world of freestyle music. No, you didn't go back in time to the mid 80s... there are actually some happenings here, although the genre died some 20 years ago with the TR-808 beats. First we have Stevie B, of the "Spring Love/Because of Love You" fame, releasing a new album this year. Titled "The Terminator," the album combines a couple of new versions of Stevie's old hits, including the "new millennium" remix of "Spring Love" featuring Pitbull, who updates the song for the 2000s and dedicates to spring breakers in "Cancun, Cabo, Rosarito Beach, Daytona Beach, Panama City" and in the process completely destroys the innocent fun of the original song, and a new "I Wanna be the One" in which Gabriel Antonio (never heard from him/about him before) raps about taking the audience back to the 80s. Actually, Gabriel Antonio's rap is not bad. The really bad thing in this version is Stevie's vocals, drowned in an annoying and unnecessary autotune effect. This problem affects most of the new songs in the album: Stevie B sounds like T-Pain. Why??? We already have a T-Pain and 99.9% of the civilized world can't take his autotune after 3 minutes. Why do we need Stevie B as T-Pain?? Actually, in the title track he hints at the fact that he is not using the autotune. Then why does he sound like this and why is he imitating the autotune??
And what about calling this album "The Terminator"? After the recent Christian Bale sucky movie and Arnold's political career, calling your album "The Terminator" is as cool as calling it "The English Professor."
Then we have news from the "Let the Music Play" world. Jordin Spaks, from the "American Idol/No Air/Tattoo" fame, has a new album and it includes a remake/cover of Shannon's "Let the Music Play" (1983), which many recognize as the starting point of the Barbosa-related Freestyle movement.  Jordin's version is not bad. Not at all. Sure, it gets rid of the original's electronic beat, but the chorus is still there and most of the melody survives. Nice, respectful update. For a more faithful, slightly recent cover of this song, don't forget the blink-and-you-miss-it guilty pleasure of RBD's bonus track in some versions of "Rebels" (2006).

Vade retro, Barrabas

Barrabas was here. Or maybe it was Morgan. Or maybe a combination of both. The thing is that a few weeks ago one of my more-frequent-than-I-want-to-admit shaving mishaps took place and my goatee was gone and dead. After being face naked for a few days I decided that I needed a beard again, and it started growing. For a few days I considered keeping the full beard... and it ended up looking something like this

After a couple days I was hating it... so I grabbed my awesome Merkur razor and killed it, coming back to my standard look, and this is me now

That's more like it... have a good weekend!

Anna si fueras hombre (que feo seria tu nombre)

1993. The heart of my geek, obsessive (both for personal and professional reasons) daily addiction to all things entertainment and Hollywood. Not that it doesn't obsess me anymore, but back then I was getting paid to write about movies and music. It's 1993 and the Oscars ceremony will take place soon. I am excited about the nominees and potential winners in many categories, but I am really pinning all my hopes on the Supporting Actress category. Rosie Perez, ladies and gentlemen, gave the performance of her life in "Fearless." There are many reasons why I want Rosie to win an Academy Award, but two big ones stand out. No, not those two. Well, yes... those two (who am I kidding... we are talking about Rosie Perez). Anyway, there two other big reasons that really make me want to see her walk away with the little golden dude: 1) Rosie is a Latina, and in the 1990s there are not many positive Latino characters on movies (things have not improved in the 2000s...), and 2) she was really amazing in "Fearless," in a kind of role that probably she won't ever obtain again.
The big surprise is that Rosie didn't win. The Oscar for best supporting actress went to a little girl named Anna Paquin, who played the annoying daughter of an annoying mute woman in "The Piano," a movie mostly (in)famous because it featured Harvey Keitel's wee wee. I cry. What "acting" can a little girl really do? Probably she memorized her lines like a parrot. So sad. Rosie didn't get it. Anna Paquin soon will be another big celeb child star and do Home Alone-kinda movies.
Time went by and Anna Paquin didn't make Home Alone-kinda movies. Rosie continued her career and gave many good performances ("Perdita Durango" and "The Take" showed most of her good acting skills), but never received critical recognition like she did for "Fearless." Anna Paquin had big and small roles in many movies I never really cared about, and then she was in the "X-Men" things, and I was never interested in those. Life is too short to waste it with second-hand superheroes.
Oh what a little TV show about vampires can do to a Mexican moron. It's 2009 and now I can't live without my weekly Anna Paquin. As the star of HBO's "True Blood," Anna leads a powerful cast and rides on risky and kinky plot lines like an expert. Sure, she is only 26, but the woman has been doing this for a long time and it shows. No one seeing her today would dare compare her to a parrot learning her lines without craft or talent. Maybe the Academy dudes saw something back in 93 I totally missed, or maybe Rosie's performance blinded me to other possibilities. I apologize with all my heart to Anna Paquin for not being a fan before and not really supporting the work she did between "The Piano" and "True blood" (she was good in "Finding Forrester," now that I remember, and did very decent voiceover work in the English versions of "天空の城ラピュタ" and "スチームボーイ").
And did I say she is beautiful? I don't know if I am in love with Anna or with Sookie. She is that good in getting into her character. I can't determine where and when one ends. I think I love them both, but I feel guilty because I am older than them. Wait, they both had the same boyfriend Stephen Moyer/Vampire Bill, who is actually older than me!!! (Vampire Bill is waaay older, but Stephen Moyer is 39). So I should not feel guilty.

It's Ashley's birthday

And we will eat cake (I hope). Kinda sad because we are gonna have to reschedule AngiePalooza 09. I don't think I can make it this Sunday. Worried about my brother Pedrito, who needs to get well soon. This post is nothing but little one liners. Patoncito se puso nervioso contra los Twins. Araceli is in town and probably now she can start planning her wedding with el HH. My new microwave oven rocks. GEC is a constant source of headaches. Oh, and Delaney is leaving the Burg forever next week!

Twin-ky wonder

A very nice dude decided to create a roster for MLB The Show 09 featuring all-time all-star players for the teams. I downloaded the roster and have enjoyed it a lot. I mean, sure it is hard and I suck at videogames, but when I win it's lots of fun. And I get to be/play with Ruth, Maris, Mantle, Winfield, Berra, etc. The other day my Puff Nettles was named Player of the Game with two homers and 4 RBIs, and we all know he is an awesome third base player. Anywho... I love seeing some old time enemies like Dodgers from the 80s or Red Sox from... whenever. Nevertheless, yesterday my all-time all-star Yankees played the all-time all-star Twins. Oh lordy lord. My Mel Stottlemyre was ready to face the Twins but  something bad happened. Chuck Knoblauch and Kirby Puckett were playing for the Twins. Suddenly, I wanted to hug them instead of playing against them. I couldn't do it. I had to intentionally walk Knobby whenever he was at the plate, and Puckett got nothing but easy-to-hit fastballs. Sure, I lost the game, but love was really needed.