Listed

By the numbers

A year ago, Sean and I went on our first date. While singing along to the Bird and the Bee, I asked him to be my boyfriend. He agreed.

It’s been a fun 12 months. Some more numbers:

1 surprise visit; missed flight (that was me); cancelled flight thanks to a snowstorm (that was Sean, obviously)

2 races Sean attended to cheer me (and Lori) on

3 members of Sean’s immediate family I’ve met; baseball games we’ve attended together; museums we’ve visited; trips to the beach

4 animated movies we’ve seen together; we only watched one live-action movie (Inception)

5 ZogSports football games I attended to cheer on Sean and friends; comic books and graphic novels I’ve read per Sean’s recommendations

6 concerts attended together

7 photo sets of me spinning

8 trips we each to took to visit each other

9 years we’ve known each other

10 weeks since Sean moved to LA

40 number of Sean’s friends I met give or take a few

100 of my immediate and extended family members Sean thinks he’s met. It’s probably closer to 50.

227 days apart from March through December

586 songs on the Bicoastal Mixtape

53,270 JetBlue points earned between the two of us

Standard
Blog/tech

Blog writer’s block

Happy TENTH blog birthday to Sean!

I’ve been dealing with blog-writer’s block. I go through this once in a while. It’s inevitable, after all I’ve been doing this 9+ years. Sometimes I feel like I’m out of stories to tell or don’t feel like sharing about new experiences. When I sit down to write a new post, it’s much more difficult than it used to be. I start posts and leave them in a draft folder for months. I talked about this with Sean, a fellow blogging veterano:

Me: did writing blog posts always feel like so much work?
Sean: No. It used to be easy
Me: I know! What happened? I think now I want to be more polished.
Sean: Too many other outlets for expression

I’m on those other outlets. So is he. They have their drawbacks, of course. It’s almost impossible to find an old Tweet and you’re limited to a few characters. Tumblr is frequently down, the search option is trash, archives are unwieldy and the comment function is lacking. I just realized that there’s no way to link to the beginning of a blog. There are all sorts of privacy issues with Facebook, and of course there is no functional archive for the user.

On the other hand, it’s much easier to post a link and say: “Hey read this! Fulanito has a really interesting take on Issue X. What do you think?” If I blogged something similar, I’d probably spend some time taking a chunk of Fulanito’s argument, and sandwiching it between some of my own commentary. I might even look for posts by fellow blogueros who have discussed Issue X and link to their posts. I can’t blog from my phone, but I can send and receive text message updates to Twitter and Facebook, quite useful for when I want to live-Tweet an event.

Still, It all comes back to function and interaction. You don’t need to be my friend or follow me to read my blog. You can just show up, read, poke around in the archives, comment if you like and move on. If you wanted, you could actually go back and see what I was talking about in March 2008 (who remembers la blogonovela?).

I miss my blog and the great things that come with it (feedback and interaction with new and long time readers). I’ve focused on running lately, but that’s mainly for me. I don’t know if anyone cares about my long runs. I don’t intend for this to become a “healthy living” blog where I document every workout, snack and meal. I do want to bring back old features, like “Mil Palabras” photos each Wednesday and the weekly question-centered posts. And of course, I need to get back to what I enjoy most and think I’m okay at, telling stories.

The Persian and Mexica new year is coming up. I can still make some resolutions.

Standard
Fotos

Mil palabras: In conversation

I didn’t spend much time in the galleries on my most recent trip to the Getty Museum with Sean. Instead, we spent most of the warm January afternoon exploring the impressive gardens, finding the best views of the city and people watching.

I love watching people from afar, especially couples deep in conversation. I make up my own discussion based on facial expressions and body language. This guy seems distant as he looks off in to the horizon. She’s making an effort to get closer. Maybe she’s trying to convince him or reassure him of something. Perhaps she just told him that she was admitted to grad school up north, but their relationship will be okay. She’ll visit often. Or maybe she just asked him where he wants to have dinner or which exhibit they should visit next.

What do you think they’re talking about? Do you make up your own stories when you people watch (if you do so)?

Standard
Cultura

From Hoppers to Fullerton

While you read this, you should listen to Lucero’s The Devil and Maggie Chascarillo

Last Thursday night, Sean and I attended the second lecture in Gustavo’s Awesome Lecture Series at the Fullerton Public Library. Gustavo Arellano is currently teaching a course in the Cal State Fullerton Chicano Studies department. The lecture series is an effort to take Chicano Studies in to the surrounding community and make it more accessible (read: free parking at an easy to find location).

Thursday’s talk featured Jaime Hernandez co-creator of the seminal Love & Rockets series. Even though I had to bail on a work event and go all the way to Fullerton in rush hour traffic, I didn’t want to miss this talk.

I’m a newbie to the world of L&R. I tried to get in to the series summer ‘09, but I was a little lost. It wasn’t until I read the collections as suggested by L&R publisher Fantagraphics Books that I really started to enjoy the series. Sean gave the first three collections of Jaime’s work for Christmas that year. I read them while home sick and on vacation. Even though I never lived a life like Chimatli who saw her life, friends and experiences in the characters, I was hooked. By February, I’d gone through the larger collection Locas II, featuring the later adventures of Maggie, Hopey and a wide array of characters.

On Thursday afternoon, Sean and I left work early to battle rush hour traffic on four freeways. Thanks to Gustavo’s tips, we made it to Fullerton with a few minutes to spare and took seats in the front row of an almost full room.

Gustavo introduced Jaime and started an informal discussion. Rather than delve into the “fictional world of SoCal Chican@ punks, cholos and weird, spooky unexplained happenings” (Coincidence pt 1 by Chimatli) contained in a few decades worth of L&R, Gustavo mainly focused on Jaime’s upbringing in Oxnard and the inspiration for the fictional Hoppers. Jaime talked about which comics he enjoyed as a kid and how his mother actively encouraged him and his brothers to read and collect comics.

He also gave a lot of credit to his older brother and partner in L&R, Gilbert. I was a little surprised and amused by this. As a kid and teen, Jaime looked up to Gilbert and admired his drawing and writing skills. “Gilbert always knew what he was doing,” he said. The way Jaime spoke of his brother made me think of how Danny had influenced me or how I may have influenced Lori or Adrian. When Gustavo opened up the questions to the audience, I asked Jaime how he and Gilbert continue to influence or collaborate now that they’re both well established artists. Jaime admitted that they don’t really talk about work when they get together as he is in Pasadena and Gilbert lives in Las Vegas but they do still check in and ask “What stories are you including in the next issue?”

After questions, we lined up to by books and get our books signed. Sean bought The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets of Life and Death by Todd Hignite (2010). I tried not to be as much of geeked out fangirl as when I met Sherman Alexie. Jaime signed my copy of Locas II and L&R #31 (of course!). I told him I was a new fan and really enjoyed New Stories Vol. 3, especially “Love Bunglers” an intense and heartbreaking story. I told Jaime I was impressed with the storytelling and found myself reading it a few times to really appreciate the story. I’m sure I still sounded like a dork, but he graciously accepted the compliments and admitted that “Love Bunglers” was intense (to say the least).

Sean and I left feeling geeked to meet one of our favorite writers in a low-key setting.

Thanks to Gustavo, CSUF Chicano Studies and Fullerton Public Library for planning and hosting the talk. Oh yeah, and thanks to Gustavo for suggesting El Camino Real for a delicious and cheap dinner nearby.

Heads up:
If you’re near San Jose, you should check out Novelas, Love and Other Adventures at MACLA. The original panels for the “Death of Speedy” by Jaime Hernandez are up alongside some work from my friend and talented artist Rio Yañez.

Standard