as a former coordinator (basically, i just opened up the place at 4am) of a day labor site, i got a special laugh out of this one. especially the “gotta speak java” part…

i first discovered alejandro via his thirteen years and with these hands albums that i stumbled upon at a used cd shop in minneapolis.

i bought both and was hooked.

when i arrived in houston, i quickly purchased the more miles than money anthology. my grandmother had just passed away and i needed music that sounded as real as possible. written in blood as my good friend nietzsche would say.

although i did miss bruce cockburn at the duck when i first arrived to houston (that chance will never come again again said the owner—one can’t live in regret), i did get to see alejandro live there about five times.

i celebrated my birthday there on the bourbonitis blues tour with my friend sue croak. i had a really cool conversation with the cello player in the dart room after the concert. he wasn’t too crazy about the cold treatment they received in minneapolis from the jayhawks, who seemed to be ignorant of alejandro’s place in music history.

it was always a beautiful acoustic set when they played at the duck.

and now, i’m living in alejandro’s hometown of austin and he’s on his “real animal” tour in where according to some critic he sounds, “…joyously saved, if a little cursed…”

don’t we all.

hope we get there in time.

is so funny how blu blu isn’t about technology.

like me is not about technology. yet i am not blu blu.

and so rightly so.

but blu blu is so damn cool. and me, well, im just me. not damn. not cool. just me.

and this is blu blu.

and now, me voy a austin. with my newly christened “austin terrier” — “el bukzy”

y claro tambien con mi novia lina…and her cat frida…

but on other not so unrelated notes…

i think about many of the kids we “teach” and wonder how many will turn out to be some kind of a blu blu, if they’re lucky. and how many won’t. due to, of course, the system they were succumbed to for so many years.

tonight mayra is graduating from high school.

mayra was my student in fifth grade. a sign i’m getting somewhat old.

i hope mayra gets through the system and does good. does real good.

but i also hope that she ends up having a little bit of blu blu left in her after the process.

i guess that’s what make a good student. going through the system and doing real good, if you can, and then having some blu blu in you left after going through the process.

that’s not easy to do. and i guess, that’s the point.

a while back i created a simple website with my friend peter about the writer jean sulivan. i happened to look back on it the other day and found this piece i wrote in what seems too long ago. yet so appropriate for this moment.

abrupt ends and brief spaces

if sulivan would have been american, i presume he’d be a southerner. a bluesman, of sorts.

he visited america once, i think. but like his trip to india, however, it seemed to have had an abrupt end. it seemed also to have only been for a brief space of time. i may be wrong.

abrupt ends and brief spaces. like his words and sentences. like the life lived.i don’t know sulivan’s words well. i won’t ever presume to. but i know his words hurt and i know his words heal.

as i left the parking lot of work today, i lit a cigarrette and i listened to townes van zandt. the song reminded me of the same kind of abrupt ends and brief spaces sulivan wrote of so well.

We all got holes to fill
Them holes are all that’s real
Some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own

But choice is yours to make
And time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone

To live is to fly
both low and high,

So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eyes

and now as i leave houston i thought again of this song from the rear view mirror album. unlike 2005 this time’s for good and despite my love of houston it doesn’t feel too bad at all. not sure what i’ll find in austin if anything. not sure im looking for much these days anyway. just some good spaces to try to sit and breathe somewhat mindfully.

It’s goodbye to all my friends
It’s time to leave again
Here’s to all the poetry
And the pickin’ down the line

I’ll miss the system here
The bottom’s low and the trebble’s clear
But it don’t pay to think too much
On things you leave behind

Well, I may be gone, awe, I won’t be long
I’ll be bringing back the melody
And the rhythm that I find

We all got holes to fill
And them holes are all that’s real
Some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own

The choice is yours to make
Time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone

Well, to live’s to fly awe low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eye
Awe, shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eye

this was taken with my iphone. a shot outside our current abode on fairbanks in lindale park in houston. these new flowers have been blooming like crazy lately. beatiful.

i sent it to my blog while sitting at sro enjoying some crawfish and waiting for the rockets to beat the lakers for #22!

galveston was good yesterday. but i think bukz prefers his buddies at the dog park. a short trip to austin and then to the rgv to spend easter with jada.

spring (break) 08.



Spring 08

Originally uploaded by una luna

Originally uploaded by una luna

Over 18,000 people, at least.

Lina and I waited for hours, but it was worth it. Obama is no messiah, by far.

But, he is an organizer. Trained in the craft in the streets of Chicago.

A harvard educated saul alinsky gone global.

And that’s enough to have my vote.

took a great trip to austin, once again. i think at one time in my life i preferred houston to austin. i think at that time, houston was right for me. however, now, i’m not so sure. i seem more drawn to austin these days. and so does lina. lina’s family is there and it is obvious that she would rather be there than here.

not sure i’ll leave my present job just yet, pack up and move there but i may consider it in the years to come. or sooner maybe.

austin has it’s share of problems. but the landscape, the smaller size, the coffee houses, bookstores, bars and the particular style and personality are easily far more beautiful than houston’s. there were other things about houston that drew me then. about austin, it’s definitely not the hippy, granola style that draws me…that’s more a weakness, to me, than a strength. there seems to be something else.

that something else seems to be more right for me now as much as that same something else made houston right for me then.