Bar-rio Window

the book by caroline glick, shackled warrior, is one great extensive instruction (reader friendly) on the israeli and palestinian struggle. my understanding of the conflict is anorexic but my interest in knowing as much as i can, is what prompted me to buy the book. although im reading it at a snail's pace, it is a must read.

I find myself reading the same sections over and over just to keep up with the pregnant timeline that Glick, with such ease, presents and lays out for the reader. there are so many facts to keep track of and so many present day twists and turns in the current fight, that all of it can only be adequately understood with reference to its long history.

glick is a rare and unfortunately faint cheerleader for israel. her steadfast call for unlimited use of idf military strength renders glick a rare bird. other more prominent analysts support a weak idf and call for israel to use restraint but it does not appear to be working towards any long term solution.

what i've learned:

the idf has been coralled by isreali political figures and warnings eminating from washington that press for israel to engage in negotiations and hold back its use of blunt force. israel's compliance has in fact weakened its ability to fight back. Glick is no fan of a weak idf. she is convinced that israel is being used, to its own detriment, as a canary in the fight against global islamic jihad.

she argues that the u.s. sits on the sidelines and observes what happens to israel, on israeli soil, as a metric to assess what can happen on u.s. soil. And,since islamic jihad has israel as its first target, the u.s. can afford to wait and see if this destructive movement will come after it, as it is second on its list.

israel, glick presses, cannot be a canary and must defend itself using its full capabilities before it is ever checked off the list.

to be continued...

looking through my email the other day, i noticed Laura Sanchez and the offices of Gloria Molina had sent me an invitation. I was being invited to attend a workshop today, saturday, on foreclosures as well as on the consolidation of debt. In a hurry this morning, I grabbed my cup of coffee and headed out the door expecting to learn a thing or two about current real estate trends and maybe take a photo with gloria or laura.

I drove myself an entire two blocks (just to conserve gas) and pulled into an already packed parking lot with traffic personnel and everything. the line to register for the foreclosure workshop was long; it moved rather quickly and i found myself sitting in a packed auditorium (at a middle school),alongside many people who were on the brink of losing their homes. It was clear to me that I was not going to benefit much from the two hour session, since i am,thankfully, not losing my home.

But the sheer number of people who are, is frightning. And as anyone who owns a home knows, it doesn't take much to lose it. one or two late payments, and the banks call non-stop. And even if you make up for late payments, your credit takes hard hits.

when will all these folks see the light at the end of the tunnel? who knows. all we can do is hold on cuz the bumpy ride is far from over.

My cousin xochitl is blessed to have not only a wonderful, close circle of friends, but possesses quite a creative and funny mind. She invited me to a theme party in highland park, for a friend of hers, and it turned out to be a blast. the theme: an obama party. every guest was asked to dress up as a character affliated with obama, whether closely or only tangentially tied to him. for instance, rev. wright could be both closely linked with obama, or maybe not(obama did throw him under the bus afterall); the list of characters is endless: rev. wright, father phleger, rezko, obama's granny; sister; father; a muslim, a christian, pacifist, etc.

I chose to be his sister. i purchased a hawaiin straw skirt and lei and held up a cute hawaiin umbrella.

this party was so much fun. the entertainment--to die for. first off, a mock debate, oh wait, every principle character had an introduction and a theme song that was played as they entered the room. afterward, a serving of kenyan food was shared.

this was unforgettable...much like the presidential race thus far...

can't wait for the next theme party!! oh, by the way, im voting for Mccain!!!

two arts are the subject of this post. One art is the kind i do not understand nor have much appreciation for. when i was in New York City four years ago, i paid 15.00 bucks to enter the Museum of Contemporary Art, or was it the Guggenheim? Anyway, the point is that I wanted my money back at the end of my visit.

Every gallery was incredibly boring to me and Im glad i did not pay the extra fifteen bucks for the audio tour. there were some folks who did pay for the headphones and cassette player, and they would stop in front of an art piece and listen to god knows what, as they were convinced that a red circle on canvass, for instance, is art. I saw a red circle, and they saw much, much more. the red circle, for all i know, might very well not be a red circle but a visual representation of something complex and which is elusive to most people. It might illustrate the inner soul, or a mad mind--something that only astute, artistic minds can grasp.

Only a handful of art connoiseurs have privy knowledge of what a red circle might mean. the japanese have it on their flag, but it's the sun!..all i know is that i left the place thinking: red circle? deep meaning? red circle? deep meaning?

The other art is a ghost of a figure that posts on the website--Laeastside.com--and he and I have had our differences for two or three days over, you guessed it--art. he seems to appreciate wall paintings in the general area of east los angeles, created by chumps that buy expensive paint and paint, well, just about anything. art seems the familiar type, and i feel like i know him, even though we've never met, but i've met many "arts" like him; the young and angry types, who rage against the establishment and who are quick to challenge the status quo, and who will not submit to the "white man"...they are creative and "artsy" while they label the rest of us as boring and old world. they have a worldview that can never fully be understood by the rest of us (so he thinks).

enough already. I can appreciate the latter art, though. I am willing to try and learn from his ways of thinking, whereas the art involving paint and brushes, i cannot give a hoot about.

well, then again, if the wall paintings in east los angeles were as good as the graffiti above (from ireland), i just might change course...

This is the far, far away place where jennifer presently lives: indonesia.





That's Jennifer in the above photo in red, a friend I've had since 1997/98. We met as first year teachers and i clearly remember our first meeting. As we sat together around a couple of joined work tables listening to an orientation by our soon to be principal, Jennifer was all smiles.

She happened to be assigned a classroom bungalow across from mine and our nerves and excitement caused us both to chat with, and meet each other quite frequently.

Fast forward to today, and this is Jennifer still teaching but in Indonesia. Still all smiles from what I can pick up from this photo. the way things should always be.

Something fun to do in LA with the kids and for free! On Aug 15, 16, and 17 tall ships from around the country will arrive and parade around the port of los angeles. You get to board the ships once they dock and for most of my family members who might show up, this will be a great adventure! Alas, for other members of my ethnic clan, these photos and the ships themselves, will strike a bad historical chord.

As a teacher, I sometimes have to be the lone contrarian voice in a tough crowd of students indoctrinated with the new "revisionist history" that someone(somewhere) figured kids need to be taught so they might grow up and sign up for organizations and political parties that hold a certain liberal agenda.

These beautiful and imposing ships can, and will, represent to many young hispanics a past to be forgotten or at least rewritten. The souls of the likes of Christopher Colombus, Cortez, Ponce de Leon, the vikings, Francis Drake and all their bloody past will haunt the bowels of each ship parked at the port and scare away the modern day "victims" of their historical transgressions. The past becomes the present. the injustices of long ago remain fresh, at least this seems to be more the attitude and ideas held by the more angry and radical minds of a lot of traumatized hispanics, but I don't get it.

To me these ships represent the human spirit of adventure and curiosity as well as progress and, yes, bloodshed. In August, when I take my nephews to see them, I will not revise history and will not dabble in the present quibble advanced by educational knuckleheads that Colombus, for instance, did NOT discover America, when, if viewed from the european experience, that is exactly what he did.

I will not try and deflate colombus's accomplishments nor minimize the sufferings of the natives at the hands of the explorers. the truth is that the good and bad events in history are often braided. The good and bad stuff are rarely divorced from each other. this is basically how and what i teach whenever this fascinating subject arises in the classroom. Enough with the all the propaganda!!

And thank God colombus discovered or ran into; raided; encountered; tripped over; bumped into; took a wrong turn; uncovered or located the "new world". Without this unique and and important affair we would still be frozen in the ice age.


for more info: Lafestivalofsail.info

the fourth of july is about family, freedom, opportunity...all the benefits of a great nation, which is imperfect but as winston churchill one said and im paraphrasing

...Democracy is the worst political system there is, except for all the others that have been tried...










Irma, the Great Hostess

palm tree in garden



a frequent visitor in my garden

Waiting for Saturn...

I just bought her book and let her know. She wrote me back! She may be
Prime Minister of Israel one day.

Get to know Caroline Glick!!

How can the Sun be covered entirely from anywhere in the barrio?

Answer: close one eye as you extend your arm and hand toward the sun and position your taco so that it covers it..

Looking through the eyepiece of a $4,500 refractor telescope just before dusk at the local barrio observatory(in monterey park,ca), my eyes locked onto a most gorgeous sight--Saturn. I've seen the planet countless times in books, magazines and on TV, but never through a telescope. This summer would be my only chance to view it low in the western sky and visible to the naked eye before the sun gradually obstructs its view for another 15 years.

My nephew and I tried for many days, with our new telescope, to locate Saturn in the unwholesome skies of our city, only to be disappointed time and time again. (The instructions and guidelines on the telescope box, we think, should include a disclaimer for fledgling astronomers which warns of the continual failures that accompany night sky viewing). When we could no longer do it ourselves, we humbly looked to the experts and met them on their turf. We journeyed only a few miles from my home in Downey, Ca to a fairly unknown community gem, a functioning and very accessible astronomical spot, an observatory.

For the second time this summer we visited the observatory and am still surprised as it stands on the simple, grassy grounds of a small park on the east side of LA. On this particular day in july, we toured the facility and had a chance to use a very expensive refractor telescope provided by the city and JPL and made very available to the public every wednesday night. Sadly, word of Saturn's fading visibility, after this summer, has been slow to reach the residents of the eastside and if they know about it, the novelas have much more appeal and influence.

There were only a handful of folk from the neighborhood gathered around the telescope waiting their turn to view the sexy planet. the experts waved to us to get closer and we were lured by their excitment.

As I waited my turn to look through the eye piece, I wondered what Saturn would look like. I envisioned a blurry figure at best and thought I would have my imagination fill in the rest of the image, but there would be no need to do so. Saturn is truly a wonder. It takes a second or two for the mind and eyes to balance the cosmic idea that saturn is one billion miles away and can accomodate one hundred earths...and that my eyes were seeing only its light traveling forever through space and time. Oh. My. God. No wonder many astronomers admit becoming interested in their field after viewing Saturn through a telescope. It is so out of this world.

It is a very pretty thing.

It's summertime and my nephews are spending a lot of time at my place, which I welcome until I hear the mantra they chant many times on most days: I'm bored, bored, bored!

The challenge to keep them occupied and entertained is a great one and just the other day as i made a mental list of activities that might make their summer more meaningful, I thought of the telescope. There is no better way to keep their minds and hands busy than to own and have them learn to use a telescope, and with great excitement--as much from myself as for my nephews-- I could not wait to buy one.

There are two kinds of telescopes it turns out. A refractor telescope uses a lens and a reflector uses a mirror(s). Since I have some experience handling a mirror in the mornings before heading out to work and a lens when it comes to my eyeglasses, I did not place much importance on lenses vs. glass, although Im sure that these basic parts contribute hugely to the workings of the telescope. I went ahead with my purchase based on price rather than telescope anatomy. My own advice paid off and I am now the proud owner of a reflector telescope and what a bargain: original price 200.00 dollars, but I bought it for 80.00 bucks! Just as a sidenote...the salesperson, a guy, told us it was really "cool" to buy a telescope. I agree.

Arriving home from the sporting goods store, my nephew began with impressive patience to assemble the parts(which took him away from my hands for about 2 hours), only to find out that the entire instrument cannot be hooked up to a computer and so we would be on our own, basically, to try and locate anything worthwhile in the skies.

And on our first attempt to zoom in and focus on the first bright object in the hazy and dirty skies of los angeles just after sunset, we succeeded and located something very peculiar. I could not tell if the object was the moon or a planet but it was in the eastern sky, right above a tree, and whatever it was/is, it seemed to move rather quicky as the image in the telescope appeared clear and round. the object moved away from our view and left us with pregnant curiosity. What a thrill it was to have no knowledge of this heavenly body before looking through the eye piece and end up with no gained knowledge of it afterward. We were left puzzled.

the first night at celestial observation was both exhilirating and frustrating. We could not tell which objects were stars, planets, wayward asteroids; we needed answers. We were in luck. the help we needed was just a short drive from our home.

I grew up in the area and never heard of the observatory located only a few minutes away from my home and built long ago. My childhood hometown known as east los angeles continues to reveal amazing facts; it's a land of many wonders.

to provide a bit more background-- a few weeks ago, i drove my nephew to Monterey Park to find the stargazing facility and as we drove up a steep street, we pulled into what looked like just another ordinary community park. a little further into the parking lot, it comes out of nowhere. perched on a hill and a bit secluded in the center of a residential area, is the sight of a midget observatory, dome and everything...seriously, to see an observatory situated in a local park where gangsters tag its walls with logos and rants like the following: "paco got f@#$%$# by mars"..."saturn never dun nothin for me, culo..."..."i'm earthbound cept when I smoke the grass"...is one of this planet's unexplained mysteries.

My nephew-who had complained all the way to the location- was quietly surprised as we pulled up and parked. We entered the place to find a lot of old retired JPL workers and strange space junkies working on hand-made telescopes and basically running the place. A stairway leading up to the telescope got our hearts beating with anticipation as two little old men followed behind us and began operating the dome and setting up the telescope. They were as excited to see us as we were to find them. Our encounter seemed to close huge galactic distances between strangers of the earthly kind.

They smiled and we smiled back. They spoke of the skies as we politely indulged them. One man showed us a few lensed as the other had a hard time opening the dome.

to be continued...