Im gonna post this as a post-post-post modernist article so you can understand a little better the whole (POST)modernism thing!

So let me tell you that I've been swimming in the waters of postMODERNISM lately, but really deep waters. After swimming a lot, I came with the conclusion that this blog is POST-modernist. Seriously, just the fact that you are reading this right now, or attempting to read it to understand my ridiculous and absurd language, mixed up with Guatemalan, Mexican and Illinoian thoughts is the perfect and most concrete example anybody can give you about (post)modernism. Im not kidding, this is so anarchic and chaotic right now that I am pretty sure is not going to make any sense to you. But that's ok, because if you had a post-structuralist or deconstructive reading eye, you will probably try to find my center in all of my simple texts in Sparkplug, i can't find a center in me to grasp on , it is ok not to have a center. If you find a center for me, then try to substitute the marginalized term (meaning) in order to be my center and then this text will probably make a lot more sense to you. But you know what, words are just words after words and the only way you can distinguish them right now is because in your mind you have installed a system of differences that conventionally everybody has given a "meaning" to, and then call it a "language". (Pero el lenguaje no importa cual sea, puede ser ingles, frances, danes, aleman, ruso o hasta mandarin. Solamente son otros sistemas distintos en los cuales se han establecido de alguna manera los diferentes significados que le damos a lo que vemos y sentimos y tocamos y escuchamos y saboreamos tambien) . LANGUAGE, according to the mapmakers of our times, is just an anthropological condition that has been in us for way too long, and is something we practice day by day in order to satisfy our "human" needs. What if history can repeat itself again, going back to that animalistic behavior in our nature? I seriously can't wait for that theory about eternal recurrence to be proved by some crazy relativist scientist, maybe i should start formulating the mathematical basis for it (yeah right, i barely can solve a 2nd degree differential equation) . And this text is just another pseudo essay, that doesn't have a start or an end or a body at all; it is just infinitely extended and suspended in time, just like any other complex text you will ever read in your life. It might seem like I am been delirious, but try to think about it! What if it can prove some of the great mysteries in life? (there aren't any mysteries! Once you are dead, your frickin' dead! Ya'll hear me?) Well at least you know what postmodernism is all about, right on baby!

... AND THUS THE SUMMER OF 2007 IS OVER!

... And thus all the great memories are swept underneath my brain of an unforgettable summer. This is the first year of my life that I have been able to attend an incredible amount of live shows by local and touring bands...

I remember I was about 13 years old(this was back in Guatemala City circa 1993) when my older brother Andres Diaz first introduced me to early 80's punk bands such as Black Flag, Dead Kennedy's and Descendents. By this time, Andres was already familiar with the whole early 90's Seattle "grunge" movement: Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Mudhoney ; and with some old school rap like Run DMC, Public Enemy, N.W.A. and Beastie Boys. But to have known these bands wasn't enough for us to digest punk/hardcore at first. Honestly we both couldn't handle Jello Biafra's (NAZI PUNKS FUCK OFF!) nor Henry Rollins's (GIMME GIMME GIMME) deranged singing , and the highly distorted guitars with the fast drum beats were highly shocking. Although with time we both started assimilating punk/hardcore very well. A few years later Andres and I started skateboarding out in the streets of Guatemala City and that's how we met other local skaters that introduced to us bands like Minor Threat, D.R.I. and Sick Of It All; which were a lot faster and heavier. This was it for the Guatemala hardcore/punk scene of the mid 90's: no bands, no shows, no fanzines, nothing but a small group of skater dudes listening to old punk/hardcore bands. It was not until late 1996 I believe when Andres and I met these two aliens from outer space: Cathy Bennett and Rudy Penando (actually Cathy is from California and Rudy is from France but they were so exotic to the Guatemalan youth of that time that they can be considered aliens from outer space). These two had been living in France for a while and were each running and sharing a punk/hardcore fanzine/distro project. This same year of 1996 Cathy was visiting her parents in Guatemala City for the end of the year holidays (I am talking about the Christian year of course) . Cathy and Rudy approached my brother Andres and me at a local shopping center because we seemed like "skater dudes" and started asking us if we knew of any local punk/hardcore shows going on in Guatemala City and of course our response was only laughter. After a few laughs the only thing i could answer was: "there aren't any punk/hardcore bands in this city". This must have been the moment when Cathy and Rudy realized they were in an alien country. Cathy and Rudy must have felt really sorry for us, so they decided to hand me a plastic garbage bag full of fanzines and this moment marked a very important event in my life: I first got in touch with the d.i.y. world, fell in love with vinyl records and started to know about the real underground network. By the year 1997 there was a small group of friends in Guatemala City that knew about the whole "straight-edge/veganism" branches that exploded within the punk/hardcore scene in the United States,Europe and Japan during the late 80's/early 90's. Bands like Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Wide Awake, Uniform Choice, Rise Above, Nations on Fire started to be on our top lists. Cathy had toured with Youth of Today back in 1989 when she was living in Cleveland, Ohio with her stepfather. After we heard all her stories with the tour we started thinking that it must have been great times in the punk/hardcore scene when Youth of Today was around. Throughout 1997 we also started to get in touch with new subgenres that evolved from punk/hardcore like power-violence, grindcore, crust, sludge and screamo. Bands like Charles Bronson, Spazz, Dropdead, Hellnation, Los Crudos, Palatka, Indian Summer, Asshole Parade, Assuck (U.S.A.) ; Fingerprint, Undone, Vanilla (France) ; Acme, Systral, Morser (Germany) Seein' Red (Holland) . It was just a multiplying series of events what gave birth to a small punk/hardcore community in Guatemala City by the end of 1997.
... And thus I gave a brief introduction to the Guatemala punk/hardcore scene of the late 90's. But it has been around ten years since this happened and all I can think of now is that I am living what I once dreamed of: to support the d.i.y. punk/hardcore community by going to shows and actually try to catch the message that this community is trying to give us. This summer I've been able to keep a record of my experience with live shows and I am hoping they will serve good in the history of punk/hardcore for future generations. This past Saturday 09/22/07 once again @ the Subterranean (Wicker Park) was the closing show of the summer with Total Fury from Japan. This was the very first time I had the chance to watch a Japanese band live and they certainly confirmed all the stereotypes and myths of the Asian punk/hardcore: short, fast and LOUD! But this isn't a myth anymore, is the truth! These guys from Total Fury were going crazy on stage up until the very end when they finished with a cover from SSD "Gotta Stick Together". It had been a while since I jumped in a tall "pile-along" pointing my finger and shouting the chorus. It was a great time in my opinion. Here's the best shots taken:

VIVA "LA GUATE" CEROTES!

It's September 15th of 2007, today Guatemala and all of her Central American fellow countries are celebrating exactly 186 years of independence from the Spanish imperial colony that started with the conquest leaded by the infamous Pedro De Alvarado back in 1523 AC. Back in that time of history, Spaniards literally took control of all the region known as "Mesoamerica" where the Mayans had dominated for about 2000 years (... but as a very enigmatic and mystical current historical fact, the Mayans had literally disappeared from the earth when the Spanish conquerors arrived because to these days there's is no fossil remains in the great cities that they once inhabited) before Christopher Columbus officially discovered "the new continent". Unfortunately the Guatemalan history is not very different from any other country in America. The Spanish conquerors brutally killed and exterminated thousands of flourishing post-Mayan cultures including: Quiche's, Iximche's, Tzutuhils, Poqomam, Mams and Keck'chi's just to name the most notorious ones that had bloodshed battles. Tecun Uman ,who is now considered a national hero, was a true warrior but was the first one to be defeated since the Spaniards had cavalry and heavier artillery. The legend of Tecun Uman tells that during his battle against the Spaniards, the "nahual" (a quetzal bird) accompanied him. When Tecun Uman was slain by De Alvarado, the "nahual" died of sadness and stained his breast with the hero's blood. Ever since, the quetzal bears a scarlet chest and now is the national bird represented in the coat of arms that's in our flag.

I am anti-nationalist. I personally think there shouldn't be any flags or frontiers because it is only a freedom mirage. Nationalism only creates the differences amongst communities and cultures. The present and modern society dominated by the bourgeois imposes this nationalist standards on everyone, a great example is how governments try to recruit their population to join their own national armies, to fight for what? For your country? Do you actually feel like you own your country good enough to get out there and die for it? I am the kind of person that believes in the world as a whole unified diverse community (...but that is only an ideal created in my mind, and it probably has zero value since it comes from me!). However, like the most radical philosophers have said: it is important to know your historical background and commemorate all the people that have fought for true humanitarian causes. So I want to make clear that I am writing this not with nationalist intentions but as means to identify myself with my cultural background. It is a basic human condition to feel nostalgic every once in a while for the land you were born in and nobody can deny this...

THE MEATLESS BATTLE!

The meatless battle is a very controversial topic that at this time I am a little scared to talk about because I was out of it for a while; call it financial crisis or not having enough resources or friendships to stimulate this endless struggle. But at this point in my life I think I have enough resources to go back to this battle. Maybe this was strongly triggered by the fact that I went to see Dropdead @ the Subterranean right on the mystical intersection of North, Damen and Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park in Chicago this past Wednesday 08/15/07. Oh my God, Dropdead is known worldwide for their harsh criticism on animal exploitation. They played some of those classic songs and of course each one of them was a fast as hell grinding assault. Dropdead's frontman gave a few little interesting speeches on why we should not support or buy from the tobacco corporations, the whole anti-bush/antiwar movement, how animal experimentation and vivisection is practiced by assholes that don't get that animals are suffering greatly in the name of science. Enjoy some of the live pics shown...
































Meatless person ( for those of you who are not sure of what exactly that term means) is somebody that doesn't eat any type of animal tissue. But this is exactly where the controversy starts, people sometimes misunderstand the term "vegetarian" for example. Some people call themselves "vegetarians" when they claim that eating fish is "o.k." . Pardon my French but to me this is straight bullshit, fish or whatever type of seafood that exists is an animal tissue, or somebody can prove this wrong scientifically? I don't think so. There's also the controversy of being a very strict organic "vegetarian" or "vegan" because this leads to a great philosophical dilemma in which sometimes, as hard as we might try to exclude any animal byproduct from our lives , we are always going to be linked somehow to an animal byproduct. I work for a restaurant that's all about meat, even though they have a few items on the menu that are meatless. Even bicycle wheels have animal tissue on them. It is like the difference between real and ideal. Ideal is something that we do not have a knowledge of yet, so i think as far as we do not consume any kind of meat (remember that even Calamari is from the animalia kingdom), buy any exotic furs and try to find cosmetics that are not tested on animals we are putting a heavy burden on resisting the massive animal slaughter/exploitation that people demand everyday because of their selfishness.
I remember that the greatest impact of becoming a "meatless person" was the multiple inter-human discussions i had about the topic, and especially when you talk about it with your family and close relatives because it is almost like a son telling her Catholic mom that he is an atheist or gay. And the biggest attacks against my stand were the typical "squared-shaped" mentality that reigns in this world, arguments like: "animals were meant to be killed for humans" or "you are not going to get enough protein in your diet". To a certain extent this is true, a poorly planned "meatless" diet can be dangerous but if you always substitute the right things everything should work out fine. Like I personally couldn't stop eating cheese because it's one of the greatest things ever. But I am going to try to get it organic so at least you know I am not supporting hormone shots in cows. You can also look at it this way, would you let your pet be slaughtered to become a human commodity? Probably not, but there is also the fact that you can´t have a fascist attitude towards what people have done as part of their "Culture" for years and also represents a source of income for certain people, including myself. If is an animal that was ready to die because of its own conditions is also another point of view about the situation.

CELEBRATING TWO YEARS OF PROFESSIONALISM!

At the beginning of August in 2005 I started my career as a professional server when I graduated Olive Garden's severe training. Even though is a huge corporation that Olive Garden belongs to, their server training for their restaurants is pretty intense and it covers all the important aspects of being a professional server in one week. After the training you are supposed to be knowledgeable with setting the time pace with the guests to ensure they have a delightful experience at the restaruant (their so-called "HOSPITALIANO"), wine/beer and Italian food of course. As simple as being a server might seem, there is a lot of stress to be handled. I think the restaurant business is very vulnerable when it comes to customer service since dining is apparently a very delicate activity for human beings. Basically you have to understand what are you doing otherwise both the customer and yourself will suffer a bad experience.

In the month of July of 2006 I was hired at Billy Berk's in Skokie, Illinois. This is a restaurant that belongs to a small San Francisco, Ca. based chain. It is hard to classify their style but they call themselves "American comfort food with style" . They have a little bit of everything and their desserts are pretty massive. This restaurant is a little more family style in which there's at least one head chef in charge of each shift in order to make sure every single aspect of the kitchen is working right to ensure the customers are having a "fine" dining experience if you like to call it that way. Here's actually a picture I decided to take so you can understand what is it like when they get ready for a busy night shift:

It is important to recognize and give credit to ourselves every once in a while because it is hard work honestly. Nobody else is going to give us credit but ourselves, so I dedicate this article to give sincere congratulations to the team i work with and myself. Keep up the great work!
Even though being a professional server is something I will rather not do for a long time, especially because holding a meat plate for somebody is one of the most ironic things that I could be doing with the ideologies i try to keep in my life, I think I've learned lots from it and I hope it will help me in my future projects in life.

CHICAGO=BUMMERTOWN!

The other day I was riding my bike through Wicker Park in Chicago and I was heading north on Milwaukee Ave. when I bumped with:

My old friend "the bum" as we'll have to call him. Unfortunately, I don't know his real name, but he sure seems to be resting very well for his next day right underneath the CTA bus stop. It made me reflect and I was asking to myself? Why aren't the Coalitions or Organizations that can help people like this get out of their miserable and vulnerable situation helping all these people?. There's several Catholic charities, the CCH (Chicago Coalition for the Homeless) and a few other entities that give some sort of aid but the problem isn't resolved completely as you can see.
There's the alternative of "squatting" abandoned buildings, but that doesn't seem to be approachable in the state of Illinois. Amidst the large amount of abandoned buildings in the city, is really hard to find one that's well- hidden but easy for people to get to. And also the fact that certain adverse possession laws don't exist like in cities such as New York where "squatting" seems to happen in a more natural way.
Trying to be part of a Hardcore/Punk community, it seems to me that this type of topics are usually avoided. The theory behind the activism is undeveloped and not exposed to us when we have certain commodities that we never value until we lose them. It is important to know the theory underneath our beliefs if we are going to stand for something. I also think it is important to help people that need it. What if someday for an unexpected reason we have to confront our lives under this circumstances? We never know what might happen tomorrow...

DUDEFEST 2007!

So "DUDEFEST" was held this last weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana. I think it was a success, congrats to the people behind it because they did a great job organizing it. Congrats to all the bands touring for making it to the fest, it's a lot of dedication especially those who traveled overseas. It is the first time i had the great opportunity to meet people from all over, let's see if i can pull up a list, i met people from: England, Germany, France, Canada, California, Texas, Kentucky, Florida, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio and even Indiana and Illinois. It was international and multicultural a lot more diverse than i remember "DUDEFEST" back in 2004. There are tons of pictures that i would like to share with everybody but I am in the process of labeling everything so it's going to take a little bit, i will keep everyone posted though.

I think "DUDEFEST" is a great name for a festival since " dude" is a universal word that transcends all the social implications of gender, you can actually compare it to the word "guey" commonly used in Mexico with the same kind of connotation as "dude". It was also a great place for vinyl lovers and artsy fartsy t-shirts ,and of course, to meet new "dudes". The best part is that with a few pictures you can give a global recapitulation of the most important parts of dude fest. So this is what "DUDEFEST" was all about:
1) Thrashing yourself in the moshpit:






















2) This dude screaming in a really high-pitched voice "yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" after every single song:























3)Partying hard and being punk:

Meet my new friend: THE BIKE.

About a year ago I decided to buy a car because it would help me get to work faster, go grocery shopping or leave on a trip out of town. It did help me with all that but i was estimating napkin numbers , as they call it in Mexico, and the cost of owning a car in one year was about 18.6% of my annual income. Personally I think that is a high percentage considering that at least 80% of the annual income goes down to pay rent, bills , etc, etc, etc.
Recently my car started having transmission problems and the situation worsened when it was obvious that i needed a new transmission, which i couldn't really afford to pay so i decided to get rid of my car and forget about it. I took out my old huffy bike from the basement and went down to "Easy Ride" Bike Shop @ 4119 N. Lincoln Ave. (chi-town baby!) and see if i could make some sort of trade and pay the difference for a bike that could be in a better condition than mine. Lucky enough they had a nice Japanese Miyata road bike. They gave me a great deal for it so i couldn't miss the opportunity of getting a nice bike. I've been riding it for a while now and it seems like i can go to many places because Chicago is a bicycle friendly city. It is a whole new world for me, and within this short time that I've been riding I've learned so many new things and even better opportunities to make new friendships.
Bicycles seem to be a world with the D.I.Y. ethic to the maximum. I am interested in volunteering for bike collectives because it seems that the aid they provide is great locally and internationally. So yeah, I dedicated this space to my new friend the bike, thanks for opening myself to this.

A Recent Approach to the Chicago scene...

Well last week I discovered a new independent venue in the city of Chicago called "People Projects" located @ 2129 N. Milwaukee Ave. I was really excited to realize they are booking the show on Tuesday July 31st for the upcoming and awaited AMPERE-DAITRO summer tour '07. I love these bands. It seems to be a pretty busy season for the venue since they seem to have at least 5 shows every month. We all know it's summer and every band takes the opportunity to hit the road in their vans since the weather is optimistic for their purposes. This is a new face of the local scene that I am hoping it will prevail and flourish throughout time. Please do come out for this show, great bands with generous messages and good intentions. If you like to find out more information you can go to the venue webpage @ www.myspace.com/people_projects .

Last weekend I went down there to a show. Four bands played, i think the two main touring bands were theDeathset and Ponytail, I think the first one is from Baltimore and the other one I am not quite sure. Sorry, I should've got more accurate details but I wasn't paying enough attention. Anyways I enjoyed the first two bands more than anything. The first band that played was a local band called Parsley Flakes. I think their style is very unique and is convincing the fact that they sound like a mix between Devo and Crass. It was a great performance that got me dancing for the most part. I hope to see a vinyl record soon. And the second band that played was from Milwaukee, WI called Terrior Bute. Double Keyboard and drums it's all they got but sure is enough to make you dance through their tunes. I couldn't get any of their recorded stuff because I am not a big cd fan. But I got some nice pictures for everyone to look at the fun we had:
1)Parsley Flakes:











































2)Terrior Bute:

Remembering the band Phobia for a little bit...

I took the time to write this article in this specific day for no concrete reason but I just wanted to express a feeling that brought me when I realized I attended this event and because it is a good laugh for me to realize that what I am about to describe are real facts that happened in my life. I think I am also writing it in dedication of my honorable friend nick-named "Inodoro" from Monterrey, N.L., in Mexico, because he was a real fan and would've always wanted to see a live set of the band Extreme Noise Terror from Ipswich, England, UK . Well I feel privileged that I had the chance to listen to a live set of Extreme Noise Terror at the Note (a music-bar venue located in the popular Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, Il.) a few weeks ago this month of June, 2007. Seriously, this live show of Extreme Noise Terror took me back to an era back in late 1980's , somewhere in the music scene of London, UK, where some of the most obscure "hardcore-punk" bands existed at the time. These bands from this era of the history of this musical genre defined what the term known as "crust punk" is all about, and also derived some of the most radical concepts that are used on today's real life application on how to live a "radical life". If you pay attention to what these bands write in their lyrics you can see that their message is emphasized on giving a harsh criticism of everything that has a negative aspect and belongs to any of the following systems or areas of study such as capitalism, politics, animal cruelty, religion, wars, etc. This is considered "the roots" of radicalism and also the basis of a common way to transmit the message of how the politics of anarchism are applied in the "hardcore-punk" way of life. Well, also the band Phobia from Los Angeles,California toured with them this year of 2007 and just by listening to their live set you can see they are always keeping up that fast paced aggression (typical in "grindcore") that has characterized their sound since the band was formed back in the late 1980's. Well unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures of the Extreme Noise Terror show this year 0f 2007 (because my "goofy ass" for an unexpected reason wasn't carrying the camera), but i found some pictures on my secret archives from the Phobia show in 2006, when they played at some bar on Irving Park Rd. and Kostner Ave. ( in Chicago, Il. of course...) . Every song was just a "grinding-headbanging moshing until death" assault as I expected it to be, I was really brutalizing myself hard from the euphoria that the sound brought me over imagining a true battle of revolution and change in this life-struggle against these fucked up system; or I guess that was just an excuse for me to try to enjoy myself and have a good time at the show. Enjoy the pictures and try to capture the moments, it is a good laugh:

PANTHERS! PANTHERS! PANTHERS!

Well last night was the first Panthers show @ the Empty Bottle in their mini-tour that they are doing this month of June. It was awesome to watch them in Chicago again, they rocked the house like they usually do. I got a chance to talk for a little bit to their frontman Jason David Green and the big news with them is that their drummer Jeff Salane and his wife just saw their newborn come into this world. Good for him we can all wish him a happy father's day tomorrow. Unfortunately that was the reason why the Panthers had to play with a substitute drummer and that is also why they only played songs from their new album on Vice Records called "The Trick". We certainly all missed Salane's excellent drumming and consistency. They are coming back in September so probably I'll have enough time to figure out a cool interview with them. Enough gossiping about the Panthers, i just thought adding a little bit of dramatic literary value would be a good way to start writing an article about the Panthers. I think is also a great way to describe a band that transfers real literary value in the message they try to portray in their lyrics (although I've heard some hard criticism on them, according to someone [that I am actually omitting his identity for fucks sake] the Panthers "have no base in who they are"; I am assuming this means that they have no real influence on their audience or any kind of "political message" value as musicians. I wish this person could give a better definition of what is a musician and what is his function as an artist that he is supposed to be or better yet to tell me how can he create a band with a real base that could actually provoke the change that is supposed to create) . Panthers "musical value", if you like to call it that way, comes from their message in my own personal opinion. This, perhaps, proves one theory I have about musicians progressing in different ways throughout their careers according to their surrounding influences (I mean, don't get me wrong, if we go back to the year 1998 -2000 whereabouts when Orchid [which three members are now playing in the Panthers] came out as a band it was a new concept of music, very well structured but probably never heard before in the history of music, or in this case in the history of rock n' roll which could be considered the core/pivot base of what is now known as the musical genre of "hardcore")and I certainly concur with the fact that this band is influenced by a great amount of literary and philosophical value. By reading their lyrics you can actually understand the fact that the current intellectual point of view of this "new generation" is based on up to date systems of thought that might be able to spark a little fire in changing the conservative ways of thinking that prevail in our society. Ok here are the pictures, enjoy:

WORKING FOR CORPORATE AMERICA (CHAPTER NO. 2) "multi-task and work faster or die trying"

Lately I've learned a few important lessons in life. Number one that for every dollar earned with hard work it becomes the dollar that's going to have much more value than any other dollar. Because that dollar from hard work is going to be spent in a wiser way. It literally transcends to be the dollar that has confrontated sweat, rush, and sometimes even a bit of humiliation. It is a matter of survival in a rough uptight atmosphere when we mention corporate america. All the rules are based on phantasmic and idealistic standards that in order to accomplish them fully it seems like one has to pass through a fastpaced, spazztic and overwhelming situation. Number two that if you never try hard to succeed and improvise it is for sure that you will be stuck in a dark hole for the rest of your life. As I told you before I work for the restaurant industry and when I think about it it's like being in the jungle dealing with wild animals. There is no respect of any sort, the so called "table manners" seem to have never existed because neither older generations are trying to pass it on to younger generations because they actually don't know the manners themselves. Where is this superior race that they claim to be when this kind of inferior behavior is seen most of the time. It's pathetic sometimes but this is a sad reality on how corporate america works. I just wish people could understand a little more what goes on in a restaurant business because the majority of customers blames everything on the servers when it's obvious that certain attitudes can mess up the whole process. This is a very personal opinion but perhaps people that also work for this industry can certainly agree with me. Corporations don't care what the employee has to go through as long as the profit is made. It is seriously a matter of working faster, inventing our own tools and trying our best to do the right thing, and also don't forget to learn how to do your coworkers job because sometimes you'll have to know how to do it in order to make it through the day. But here we are, still kissing people's butt in order to make them the type of customers that learn how to abuse. Work faster, work harder, work faster and work harder.

A Few Band Reviews...

I had a section in STRAIGHT OUTTA GUATEMALA that had a few record reviews. When I wrote the first issue of this fanzine back in 2000, I could only review a few of the records and tapes that I was listening to at the time. There wasn't any reviews of band playing local shows because I didn't occur to me , I was just going to shows to live the moment. Well, since I'm really excited of owning a camera and taking some pictures at shows I decided to make a few local live band reviews. Here they are:

1.The One A.M. Radio at Ronny's Bar on California Ave.(between Palmer St. and Lyndale St.) : Well this was an interesting show, this band has a peculiar variety of instruments as you can see in the picture. They even have a laptop that has most of the drumming and background beats. It was amazing the fact that their sound live is pretty much just how they sound in a recording. I was not disappointed at all, one of the best shows i've ever been in my whole life. They played songs from all their records which I think adds a good balance for the audience. That also showed how professional and consistent they are in their music playing. It may seem like I am worshiping them but it's just the fact that this band deserves an excellent review.

2.The Ex-Models at the Empty Bottle on Western Ave. and Cortez St. (near Augusta St.): This was a double drumming riot with double robotic motion sounding guitars and highly pitched vocals that got me dancing for a small portion of the set. At times this combination can have some melody, rythm and harmony but also it can get very distorted. Lots of electronic-like sounding danceable beats. Very good job with the lightshow on stage. Their concept of subliminal erotic messages in their lyrics makes me want to get laid with this music. Just kidding! Here you can enjoy a picture of the band with a tiny crowd watching them.

3. La Quiete in a room right next to the Red Line Tap on Glenwood St. and Lunt Ave. : This quartet from Italy play a mix of chaotic screamy hardcore with moody slow paced melodic rock. They toured the U.S. in the summer of 2006 with Phoenix Bodies from Indianapolis, In. I was really excited to watch this band, unfortunately I arrived at the show right in the middle of their third or fourth song, but I truly enjoyed the rest of their set. It's funny to mention that some people referred to them as the "handsome italians". Don't ask me why because i don't know the answer to that but you judge yourself.

what happened to the good ol' chicago music scene?

Before I moved to Chicago, Illinois about 3 and half years ago I had the idea that a few of my personal favorite and greatest bands of all time were from this state. Bands like MK-Ultra, Charles Bronson and of course Los Crudos top the list. It was an era for the punk/HC scene were aggresiveness, high speed and hard political content in the lyrics were a crucial part of it. This key ingredients create a perfect blend if you ask me and it still prevails in many bands; but not the local bands I've seen in the city except for a few like Sin Orden, The Repos or The Coughs. I guess bands, music styles and people progress in many different ways.

I think Los Crudos had one of the greatest impacts in my life, not only because they were fast and furious but also because their lyrics were in Spanish. I remember being about 16 or 17 years old and living in Guatemala City when i first got over the mail a recorded tape with five songs from Los Crudos. I played it to some of my friends that I used to hang out with at that time and we were all blowned away. We couldn't believe that the singer was shouting out words in Spanish.This has to be one of the reasons why Los Crudos became one of the most famous punk bands from Chicago, because there has never been any band in the history of punk/HC with the same energy that Los Crudos had.

I consider myself lucky that in the summer of 2006 surprisingly they decided to make a reunion show in the latino neighborhood of La Villita, on 26th street in southside Chicago. I was impressed by the large crowd that gathered together to watch this classic band. In the picture you can see the famous Los Crudos frontman Martin Sorrondeguy.

I have been to other local shows but none of the bands I've seen have left me quite an impact like Los Crudos did, except for a few like Sin Orden, The Repos or The Coughs. Im not sure if I am being too critical about the music scene or maybe not involved enough to figure out what happened to those days, but don't get me wrong i think there are some people out there that could agree with me somehow. I just wish that this city had more energetic bands like there used to be last decade when it comes to punk/HC bands. (Or maybe I need to shut up and start my own!)

Immigration March in Chicago.

On a sunny and warm day of spring in Chicago it was held the worldwide known May Day parade. As many folks may know, this holiday which is a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labour movement is characterized by having thousands of people organized in different ways to protest about topics that generally concern a great part of the city's population. It's been quite a few years since the main focus of this march is regarding the Immigration laws in the United States.
Various ethnic groups gathered together in three vital points of the city to end an estimated 150.000 people march today in Grant Park. It was a very educational experience for myself to be part of this massive march and here is an illustrated chronology of this event:

Gathering at union park around 12:00 pm, distribution of flyers.

Protesters prepare a few drums before the march.














Beginning the march with colorful banners.
































Some of the other banners during the march.























One of the four 20 meter mini-runs by the anrachist and socialist protesters. You can actually see the black and red flags coming forward.



























Sideview of one of the various rising waves that were held during the march, it was nice to see all that solidarity from everybody.





















And the march ended at Grant Park around 4:00 pm, anarchist member tries to settle a black flag on Abraham's Lincoln monument, i believe to symbolize and conmemorate the martyrs of the Haymarket Riot and to remember lincoln as an emancipator on the abolition of slavery in the United States. Unfortunately this ended up with an intervention of the police for disturbing public ordinance.

Now the big question is: How is this going to make an effect on a possible immigration reform accepted by the Congress of the United States? Is something that we are uncertain like usual, but hopefully reforms like the Dream Act will be passed soon.

About Guatemala and it's political tragedies...

Well I recently finished reading a book by Rius (Mexican leftist cartoonist that has an excellent grasp on political history and explains it in the most simple ways) called "Osama Tio Sam" in which he tries to explain how the U.S. is the country with the best and most advanced communication systems but yet it's population is the worst informed in the world. "Media is controlled by the goverment serving the only purpose to entertain" he claims , adding that it "only complements the passionate world of sports and spectacle, which is the essence of life in North America" . Basically the U.S. population ignores what their governors do and it was a major surprise for everyone to watch the twin towers in the World Trade Center fall apart on the now long remembered 9/11 . And then everyone asks horrorized, why are they doing this to us? The American society also ignores what happens outside its borders and some still believe, just like the sons of Israel, that it's people are the ones chosen by God to guide the world. The book is also a great chronology on how the United States has committed "terrorism of state" , in its pure concept of the term , since the European immigrants founded the country about 4 centuries ago.

There is a small section of the book , which talks about Guatemala in the 1900's and it explains how back in the 1930's Jorge Ubico was literally elected to be president by the CIA (the most sinister agency that the U.S. could ever make) . My grandpa Mario Vargas(on my mom's side, R.I.P.) who used to work for the government owned railroad in Guatemala (shown in the picture) that went from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios (Atlantic port to the Caribbean) was used by the United Fruit Co. (a North American company that owned great portions of peasant and indigenous population lands in Guatemala for about 70 or 80 something years) and was used to carry their main product, the banana. The United Fruit Co. was at its best profitable time during Ubico's era. When this dictator was in power, it was a horrific era for Guatemala, he shot hundreds of sindicate leaders including politicians and college students. The classified indigenous population of that time were forced to keep small booklets in which they had to count how many days they were working for the United Fruit Co., if the days weren't enough they had to work for free for 6 months. My grandpa who witnessed the way that society functioned back in the day used to tell me all these stories with a sad look on his face.

I wrote an article on "Straight Outta Guatemala" that I named "Another Victim of Imperialism" which tries to explain the political difficulties that Guatemala has confronted with the imperialistic intentions of the U.S.A. and it was inspired by the stories that my grandpa used to tell me about the United Fruit Co. and a little investigation over the internet. I find it very interesting that an author like Rius developed this topic in his book 2 years later. I would've never thought that somebody would talk about it in the same kind of criticism I did, well I guess it was just a mere coincidence.

WORKING FOR CORPORATE AMERICA (CHAPTER NO. 1)

My work experience with different U.S. corporations for the last 4 years has given me a deeper insight on how the monopolization of the economy and globalization is expanding its devastating horizons for humanity. Does this sound familiar to you? Capitalist economy reigning in the world. It's so cynical the way major corporations exploit millions of workers within and outside the country. A high percentage of the workforce for this corporations are immigrants from Latin America living in the United States (and the outside people would be the ones that actually live in Mexico, Central and South America) . That's nothing new nowadays, but I wonder what would happen if this workforce disappeared all of a sudden. To put in other words, isn't that the whole purpose of not allowing "illegal aliens" to have equal rights as every other "citizen" of the United States. I know is something very idealistic to envision and it could only be possible through the actual fact that unless there is a real revolutionary mindset in every single person that belongs to this workforce, there would be hundreds of thousands of available positions waiting to be filled up because the labor that is performed by this workforce is supposed to be an infraction to the immigration law of the country . I know a great amount of people that have the impression that living in the United States of America is all about earning lots of dollars, full of benefits and so on. But let me tell you, that the so called "American Dream" turns out to be a true nightmare. You come to realize that underneath all the actual citizens of the United States there is a working class , that even though it doesn't have the same rights as the rest of the population, are a key ingredient of the economic production of wealth for the country. The "American Dream" is translated in hard and heavy work, low wages and discrimination. Discrimination in the sense that immigrants don't have all the rights and benefits of U.S. citizens, but they take all the jobs that "Americans" don't want to take. Immigrants just want to be part of the system to make it work the way it should be. But obviously is not convenient for the government, because all the taxes that they can't keep if immigrants were part of the system is non profitable each year. This is were we see the focal point of the injustice that year after year I witnessed as being part of this working class that I mentioned earlier.

This is the sad reality of the "illegal aliens" that live in the U.S.A. There is not such a thing as an illegal human being. Illegal are all the violations of human rights, all the oppression and terrorizing activities that the governments exert on human beings worldwide. The abuse of power over people is more illegal than if we tried to be harmonious with each other in this alienating society.

I just basically want to share what my eyes perceive around me, and that there's got to be a solution or immigration reform that will help have a more balanced and stable lifestyle for millions of people that belong to this subsequently assumed inferior "working class" that runs across American society in current times.

STRAIGHT OUTTA GUATEMALA ONLINE!

After 7 years I finally decided to come back with my original fanzine project called STRAIGHT OUTTA GUATEMALA. I can't believe how time flies, and how could I just not follow up with it. I have to mention there were many things that kept me busy like completing my bachelor's , trying to find a job that could sustain me, moving to the united states looking for better opportunities, etc. Now that i discovered this wonderful e-blogger i think i am going to post all the article ideas here. Maybe this can help me file enough articles to make a good collection worth to put on paper for a possible issue number 2.
Just to give a little background on STRAIGHT OUTTA GUATEMALA to whoever might take the time to read this, it was a project i started back in 2000 influenced by major fanzine publications like Heartattack (Goleta, California) , Maximun Rock n' Roll (San Francisco, California) Slug and Lettuce (somewhere in Virginia) and Simba (somewhere in England) in which their contents basically consist on articles that deal with topics such as the scene of underground d.i.y. music, politics, sex, enviroment and extreme sports just to mention a few of them.
This project i started was to spread out some information on my little country Guatemala. Who could ever imagine that finally in the 1990's there was a time when the youth in Guatemala would start to know about hardcore music and all its sub-branches that have influenced it and/or derived from it. It took about 20 years for that. It's funny to think that currents and let's say artistic or rebellious movements that start in a country like the United States are heard of in Guatemala about two decades later. It seems like Guatemala is far behind when it comes to "civilized culture"latest trends; I remember watching people wearing 70's clothes in the early 90's as if it was the latest fashion. It's almost like traveling in time.
Back then in 2000, there were a lot of topics that I felt had the need to be discussed or at least criticized in order to make a difference. After 7 years there's a lot more experience that can be added to these topics. It's viewing things with a whole new perspective. There's lots of ideas and beliefs that have changed as well, but the main focus of being critical about situations that disrupt this world is still standing strong.