Weeping Woman

Things have been tough these past few weeks. Last week the tragedy at Virginia was unbelievable. I tried to break away from the media saturation of the killings but I couldn’t help myself, I read every article I came across on the Internet. I’m not sure why I felt as if I needed to know more than the fact that thirty-three people died unnecessarily.

Then a few days ago, I received an email about how America has always had a history of tragic killings. The email described the killing of 350 Native Americans by the U.S. Cavalry. After giving a brief explanation of the slaughter at Wounded Knee Creek, the author of the original email then stated, “My intention is not to downplay the horror of what has happened this week in any way. But we have a 500-year history of mass shootings on American soil, and let's not forget it.” It’s a somber thought to think of how many people have died by evil motivations.

In addition to these readings, my grandmother has become ill and is not expected to live much longer. Needless to say I feel as if a dark cloud has drifted over my head. Death is a sad part of life, probably more so for the living. I know I’m going to miss my grandmother when she passes but I take comfort knowing that she has lived a long life and given me some wonderful memories. My best memory is of Christmas celebrations when our whole family would gather at my grandparent’s house. There were presents, laughter, food and toys from wall to wall. When I was a child, my Grandfather used to wink and hesitate to prolong my anticipation, before handing me a big, shiny Christmas present. I’ve forgotten what the presents were but I’ll never forget those times. I’m grateful for these memories, but it is a shame that the families of the slain students will not be able to experience these types of special moments. Everyone should have these memories in their heart; it gives life meaning!

I have to admit that I struggled to write this entry. At first I wanted to ask questions and respond with respect to these events, but I realized I don’t have the insight or wisdom to understand the meaning of these deaths. The only thing I can do is refer to what inspires me and expresses my emotions – and that is art! Above is a painting by Pablo Picasso and the painting says it all for me.

With gratitude,
pablo

Back on Track… again!

Yes, the Locamotion is back on track! It’s been a stressful experience but we are happy that “LocaMotion Derailed” is rolling online for Loca fans to enjoy. As you may have noticed from my previous post or the first day we launched the LocaMotion, the show didn’t go on as planned, which almost put Angel and myself in a padded room! After weeks of testing and retesting it was extremely disappointing to see the launch of the movie crash on the first day. I’ll spare you the details of what went wrong; actually I just can’t bear to relive that day. However, I do want to do a little cleanup after the wreckage and let you know that all was not lost in the experience.

After walking around in a daze the last couple of days, things don’t look so bad now. Now that we’ve been able to get the film online for free we don’t feel as if we’ve lost any ground on the project. Our goal has always been to grow the café into a full multimedia experience and I believe our first project with Stevie is a step in the right direction to make this happen. We learned from this project and we look forward to many crashes in the future, after all that’s how we roll, or try to roll!

Another thing I want clear up is on one of my previous entries, I said that we were going to have a feature on Valsartdiary, but you may have notice there’s no feature on Val. Well, as best as we try, we send out interview requests, most come through and a few don’t. We understand that artists are busy so we don’t hold any grudges; we can only promise that as soon as Val sends us her article we’ll post it. However, to replace Val’s article, I hope you read the article from El Fatom, the artist that created the cover art for Rage Against the Machine’s, “Battle of Los Angeles”. He also art directed the band’s video Bulls on Parade video, that’s in the screening room. We have been talking to El Fatom extensively and there may be collaboration between us in the future. For now I just want to thank El Fatom for coming through for us at the last moment.

Until next time, please watch and enjoy LocaMotion Derailed. God knows we paid for this one with blood, sweat and tears, …and we’d do all over again in a heartbeat!

With gratitude,
pablo

LocaMotion Derailed Again!

Well, as some of you may know we attempted to bring the LocaMotion film short to the café, but it didn’t happen. On behalf of Angel and myself we apologize to those who came to the café, and paid for a ticket, anticipating seeing the film short. Believe me, we are as disappointed as you that we couldn’t get the show on track. We do want to let you that we are making other attempts to bring the film back online as soon as possible.

Once we find another solution we’ll be sure to let you know or I’ll post more on our progress in this blog. I’ll also let you know what went wrong in the first place. I don’t want to say anything now because our service provider has some explaining to do. Until then thanks for all your support and patience!

With gratitude,
Pablo