Farewell to Mothers

My mothers birthday coming
I miss her.
She is happy and free.

Goodbye to Brunilda Bravo
who raised the straightest arrow

Rachel Piña
passed her special gifts to the future

Adelaida Marie
who rhythm and humor
resonate here and now.

Stay immortal you jewels
We honor you as you honor us.
with deeds , memories, genetic code.

Thank you for teaching us how to love.

Drawing of my Mother and I
by my dear friend Juniper
She SO rocks!
View her artwork!

Phil Weighs In

248 lbs.
Don't get smug
and F up!

Music I Drive People Crazy With

These are songs I listen to a lot in loops that drive my friends crazy with:


The Hanslick Rebellion
"You are Boring the S Out Of Me!"
This local group made goods video is mentioned in SPIN! It's adult angst at it's best!



Here they are performing on my show, Checkerboard Kids!


Lisa Peters aka the big Dub
Song: "Beautiful Girl" (Cover)
Top Irish Youtube entertainer, Lisa Peters star of the wildly popular 2am Show covers the song "Beautiful Girl". I've never heard the original.



Here is Lisa in NYC on my show with Rachel Trachtenburg! Link


Deerhoof
Song: "Plus 81"
This vid is okay but for the real fun download this song off their myspace page! It's totally fresh!
I listened to this song like 20 times yesterday! (conservative guess)



Note theres a lot of tunes that I run into the ground but I cant find their videos yet! My latest favorite video is Indian Mtv VJ Lola Kutty in a cool Boney M Medley!



She is super cool!

"...Like a f- fool in a swimming p- P- Pool!"
~ Jimmy from South Park

The MNN Street Festival

Saturday Sept 15th from 1-6pm was the Manhattan Neighborhood Network Street Festival; It was a great way for MNN to celebrate the groundbreaking of their new uptown facility as well as excite the community and destigmatize the mystique of creating television.

Photo: Look! It's Pretty Princess sleeping atop my cool MNN swag!

Everything was being filmed as is usual with us Public Access TV types.. The crowd was a veritable who’s who of cable TV producers and MNN staff old and new! Even my Sister and her family dropped by after the Mets/ Phillies game! (Phillies took it but at this point NY is still in first place.)

It was a great meet and greet with the community, producers from many boroughs and producers to be. Vex from Chess Now and I held down a chess area where I proceeded to get my butt kicked by everyone I faced including little kids (embarrassing!) Bah! Puny Humans I was distracted by the going ons! Luckily Vex was on hand to Challenge the Public and even beat Corey who is mad nice at chess! Let’s see him face Eddie! "Little Man, What Now?"

There were lots to do raffles, NoriVision had an Art section, There were lots of performer including Brazillian busker Don Juarez. who sang one of my Favorite songs "No More Procrastination",

Chuck did a rousing rendition of the "I love MNN" song. I joined the revels as one of his backup dancers with Harold Channer and others. It seemed pretty free form with no choreography so I fell back on the standard Robot/ Running man combo A little bit of River dance fast stepping to prove my versatility It seemed like an extended version of the song so I embodied the spirit of Isadora Duncan and did a little interpretive dance. I exited the stage completely spent... In any case I'm sure the footage of that performance is pure video gold. ~;^)

Roberto’s Band… Fetal Syndrome… OMG! Although their name eludes me, their performance will haunt me for days to come! I totally dug their version of "Stand By Me" It's not for the faint of heart!

But seriously folks I really do love MNN! The path of my life has been forever altered in a positive way thanks to them! To MNN go the mad props and kudos one and all!

Tired! must sleep!

...And Now You're Burning!

This is a exclaimation I hear a lot in my school. The closest translation for "An Now You Burnin'!" is it is the 'hood vernacular for "..And now you feel stupid" Usually used to punctuate a point by adding a stinging insult to the injury of the protagonist (you) attempting to prove somebody wrong but alas, failing miserably. (The culpability of the antagonist withstanding.)

Despite the grandiose buildup, I regret to tell you dear reader that this blog entry actually isn't about that. This is about a really yummy dinner I made. I arrived home especially famished! I was especially excited about this meal because not only did I have Romaine Lettuce and Crispy Redleaf but I had the good fortune of finding some leftover Baby Spinach Salad to add to add to my repast! (I know, Woo-wee I'm living on the edge, right?) From there I added diced plum tomatoes, a goodly sum of flaxseed meal (omega 3's, What?!) then I added Organic Cut Leaf Spinach and Garbanzo beans with Bragg's Amino's and Trappey's Tobasco Sauce (just a touch to y'know, spice it up!) then I chopped up a Jalapeno Pepper and added that. I got a good sized Spoon and fork and tossed that salad right! I hearkened back to the Sidney Poitier educational drama "To Sir with Love" (based the 1959 book by E.R. Braithwaite) Sir teaches the students some real hands on life skills like making themselves a healthy meal. The kids were kinda stunned but eventually appriecative. I wiped away a tear thinking back to myself as a young kid in the '70s watching this on the late, late. late show on Channel 7 (WABC) on a Late Saturday night/ Sunday Morning after watching the old school "Not ready for prime time players" on SNL and Don Kirschner's Rock Concert.

Ow! My frigging eye is burning! No, seriously! Did I scratch my nose? Because now my nose is burning! swiftly I realilized I hadn't washed my hands after handling that Jalapeno! Hey, it could've been worse! I could have been unfortunate enough to have had the urge to a take a leak! Now that would have been an absolute scream!

I Took The A Train (no, really!)

On the occasion of my Godchild Xavier's birthday his grandmother and I got him tickets to this!:

IND ANNIVERSARY SEPTEMBER SPECIAL: A DAY ON THE A

Highlighting the 75th Anniversary of the IND, vintage R 1/9 trains will travel on the A line from midtown Manhattan to the New York Transit Museum, in Brooklyn Heights, for a one hour layover for passengers to enjoy the various museum exhibits and vintage car collection. From the Museum we’ll head out to Lefferts Boulevard and back track to Manhattan where we’ll change to the D line to go to Coney Island. After a stopover in Coney Island so that passengers can partake of all that this famed destination has to offer, we’ll travel to 207th Street in Manhattan and back to Midtown where we’ll end our special “Day on the A

Travel Journal: The trip was long and ardurous. Trees falling on tracks rerouting the action, exited folks getting too excited and almost getting decapitated by sticking their heads out of windows. I must admit seeing a lot of this all before my main interest was watching and interacting with the people. Everyone had a different story and love of trains to varying degrees (even people that were there to support their relatives obession.) Everyone seemed affable, approachable and well mannered, Although some individuals love the F-word more than my students love the N- Word!

The higest kudos have to go to Mikey (Left) who rocked a super exclusive NYC subway map prosthetic leg. (click on pic for detail) It was like a convention with everyone sporting rare T-shirts, pins, hats or adorned with cool train tattoos.

Big question: Was Jerimiah from Xaviers favorite site "the Subway Nut" there? I couldn't tell! There were a lot of Sub Chat folks! A cool site I lurk on the low.

It's my blog and I'll plug if I want to! This cool cat named Junior from the LIRR is down with the Central Operating Lines LTD. a model train club operating out of Ronkonkoma. You can attend their free open houses and see some cool train layouts! www.trainweb.org/centoplines

So what have I learned from all this? I learned in the 1950's 81 out of 100 women prefered men with hats! if you believe the advert on the left!

End result: Xavier had a great time and so did I!

Morrissey News:
I only got one Mozz ticket for the Monday!
No I dont wanna talk about it!
You know I'm truly dissapointed.
Truly truly truly,,,

"Vex Now!" Among The Wisteria Pergola

Friday at last! I finished work without incident pehaps it'd because there's no students at school yet. This is the calm before the storm.

I went to MNN to assist my homeboy Vex on a outdoor "Chess Now" episode. He has big ideas about 3D on TV "Go for it!" says I! The Wisteria Pergola (added in 1985) in the Central Park Chess and Checkerhouse was beautiful but players avoided us (my theory was that they were chess hustlers that thought we were Americas Most Wanted trying to bust them but people spoke to us once we finished shooting!.

Yes we had a permit!

Since we couldn't get any players I played Vex and won one and drew the second. (Time constraints) I wish to get my Chess game up this year! In the Photo is Vex setting up with is a new producer from Budapest, She is seems eager to learn and will under Vex's wing. When I left Cinefiles this Thursday I saw Vex giving some of the up and comers a little on Picture in picture and Chromakey stuff! He's improving by leaps and by bounds!

Chess Now on Youtube