Upcoming New Mexico Hiatus

Well, on Sunday evening I'll be off to Albuquerque to attend my cousin's funeral, and also to visit my aunt.

In addition, Breaking Bad will be filming at the Grove on Monday, which means that I'll be hanging around trying to insert my face into the camera's view. If I'm lucky, I'll get shot, or blown up, and memorialized forever on film, to the delight of BrBa fans worldwide.

"Nunsense" - Winters Community Theater

On Thursday night, Jan, Dannette, Stacy and I went to Winters to see Mary Young, Christine Deamer, and four other ladies perform their final dress rehearsal for "Nunsense" (which will play the next two weekends).

It was a very sweet show, and we all had an excellent time!

Flintstone's Obituary

And here it is:

ARAGON, JOHN "FLINTSTONE" Age 56, passed away Sunday, March 3, 2013. A loving husband, father, grandfather and resident of Bernalillo, NM. Flintstone was very involved in the Matachines and the Fiestas de San Lorenzo, coached Little League, started the Bernalillo Boxing Club, coached the girls High School Soft Ball League, and started a Gang and Drug Prevention for the High School. He was preceded in death by his son, Josiah Robertson III; father, Flicito Aragon; father-in -law, Agapito Valencio. John is survived by wife, Mary Aragon; mother, Sadie Aragon; son, Phillip Aragon; daughter, Yvonne Aragon; two granddaughters, Destiny and Serenity Aragon; god-daughter Mia Aragon; three brothers, Max and wife Lucia Aragon, Fred and wife Gloria Aragon, Olie Aragon and Yolanda Aragon; sisters-in-law, Arlene Sisneros and husband Justin, Pat Moncada and husband Tony, Gloria Tapia and husband Fernandiez, Becky Valencia, Delfina Lujan and husband Johnny; brother-in-law Junior Valencia. He will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him. Rosary will be recited Monday, March 11, 2013 at 8:00 pm at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, 301 Camino Del Pueblo, Bernalillo. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 11:00 am, at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, 301 Camino Del Pueblo, Bernalillo. Interment to follow at a later date. To view information or leave a condolence please visit www.danielsfuneral.com Daniels Family Funeral Services Alameda Mortuary 9420 Fourth St. NW Albuquerque, NM 87114 505-898-3160

It May Be Raining In Albuquerque

That's what the radar suggests. But that can't be right, since it never rains there.

[UPDATE: Woo-hoo! 0.15" of rain!]

Creepoid O'Keefe Gets Spanked

Kick him when he's down:

Conservative provocateur James O’Keefe has agreed to pay $100,000 and apologize to a former ACORN employee who was fired after being portrayed in one of O’Keefe’s undercover video stings.

The ACORN sting was one of O’Keefe’s first and most successful operations, leading to a congressional prohibition on federal funding for ACORN that caused the group to collapse. But Juan Carlos Vera, a former employee whom O’Keefe and accomplice Hannah Giles secretly filmed in a California ACORN office, said the tape violated a state law against recording someone without their permission, so he sued the two conservative sting artists.

...Now, according to documents obtained by Wonkette, Vera has agreed to drop the case against O’Keefe in exchange for $100,000 and acknowledgment from O’Keefe that the video did not include the fact that Vera had called the police during the sting.

Albuquerque Propaganda

Via Heisenberg Chronicles. Image by Tim Topping in Newport, UK.

Strange Cravings

Last Friday, it was steak, at any cost.

Yesterday and today, it's hot dogs (I just got back from Der Wienerschnitzel).

Crazy for the nitrates, I guess....

Futility

Late last Saturday night, driving back to Sacramento from Davis on the Interstate-80 Yolo Bypass Causeway, at least a mile from the West Sacramento side (and thus at least a mile from any parked car), but near an emergency telephone box, there was a man - a pedestrian - kicking the concrete barrier that bounds the roadway.

Dunno what that was all about.

Kelsey B's "See Dis" Makes It On MTV!

Can't wait to see for myself! Which reminds me of when I was watching Kelsey B perform at the Freak Music Festival, in Phoenix, last October. There was a guy in the crowd there about 70 years old - a bit out of place for a rave. So, I pointed towards the stage and asked: "What do you think?" He thought for a second, and replied: "It's like Sinatra."

So, it's like Sinatra!

"Cow House"

A very funny moment from the first episode of "Breaking Bad".

The Sprinkler Dance Is Live!

I'm in this PSA, dancing in the back! (I posted on the making of this video last November.)

I suspect they'll flog this thing to death on Sacramento Valley TV channels for the next six months! Bewatersmart.info! Videos here.




Here's a video of choreographer Krystle Morales explaining how to do the Sprinkler Dance.

These days, Krystle is Pepper Von's right hand in helping run the Step One Dance and Fitness studio.




Krystle's had a number of dance and hip hop projects in Sacramento and the Bay Area over the last several years, but these days, she is active in a San Francisco burlesque troupe known as "La Femme Panache" (she's center-right in much of this video).




Here's a practice video for "La Femme Panache". I don't see Krystle in this particular video, but I do like the energy.....

Finding "Flintstone"

My popular (but deceased) cousin Ernie Aragon was apparently known in Bernalillo by the nickname "Flintstone". I did not know that.

He died either Saturday or Sunday. His body may have been cremated already.

I understood that his obituary was supposed to be in today's paper. Nevertheless, my sister writes:

There's no information about Ernie's services in the newspaper today. Will have to check Friday's paper. Max thought services could either be Friday and Saturday or Sunday and Monday, or something in between.

Given the vagaries, it may be better to wait regarding a trip to NM. Given my aunt's uncertain health, I may be going there soon, in any event.

Look What Kelsey B's Presenting At WMC In Miami This Year!

She's looking and sounding hot!

Weird Deaths

I wonder how this happened? Helium is inert, but it doesn't sustain life either:

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A man and woman who threw a party for teens featuring booze and marijuana will spend time behind bars for their roles in the death of an Oregon girl who died after inhaling helium.

The two adults dropped their not guilty pleas Tuesday in Jackson County Circuit Court in Medford on criminal charges stemming from the 2012 death of 14-year-old Ashley Long.

...Ashley’s mother, Lori Earp, showed the courtroom a lock of hair she said was all she had left of her daughter. Stepfather Justin Earp described Ashley as a bright and compassionate girl who wanted to be a marine biologist.

This sounds like a Joe the Plumber kind of death:

WHIPPOORWILL, Ariz. (AP) _ Authorities say a woman killed her boyfriend on the Navajo Nation after he told her to shoot him.

Carmelita Williams faces a second-degree murder charge.

She told authorities that her boyfriend had physically and verbally assaulted her last week in Whippoorwill. According to court documents, the boyfriend blocked the door of a hogan, gave Williams a pistol and told her she couldn't leave unless she shot him.

Williams says her boyfriend pointed the pistol at himself while she held it in her left hand. She then fired a round into his chest, holding her son in the other arm.

Williams told authorities she tried to call 911 but did not have cellphone service, and her relatives' phones didn't work either.

Hugo Chavez Is Dead; Long Live Hugo Chavez!

I don't think people in this country give anything like the proper respect to Hugo Chavez. A great man! It was an amazing and impressive job he did fighting back against the 2002 coup attempt, and putting his opposition - a whole gang of insolent Dick Cheneys - into their proper place. The country is better off now, and ready to move forwards - if the Dick Cheneys of Venezuela can be restrained.

Viva Hugo Chavez!:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the charismatic socialist whose Bolivarian Revolution reduced poverty and galvanized anti-American sentiment across Latin America but left his nation deeply polarized and ever more dependent on oil dollars, died Tuesday in Caracas after a nearly two-year battle with cancer. He was 58.

...Chavez won the lower classes' support by redistributing the nation's vast oil wealth through welfare programs called missions, which set up medical clinics and schools, operated a chain of cut-rate grocery stores, and divvied up nationalized farms and ranches among cooperatives of the impoverished.

Daniel Hellinger, a political science professor at Webster University in St. Louis, said the welfare programs reduced Venezuela's poverty rate from close to 80% in the 1990s to about 20%, and wiped out illiteracy.

"To millions of poor Venezuelans excluded from meaningful participation in politics, Chavez offered hope for a new kind of democracy that would open doors of government to them," Hellinger said. "However much the system fell short of that aspiration, it was Chavez who gave voice to it."

...Chavez nationalized scores of energy, banking and telecommunications companies in addition to more than 1 million acres of farmland. That caused a steep decline in Venezuelan investment and productivity and made the nation ever more dependent on oil sales.

Despite the vast sums Venezuela collected over the last decade from its energy reserves, Chavez was forced to borrow more than $38 billion from the Chinese in the final years of his presidency to finance his domestic welfare and foreign aid programs. The loans are secured by future commitments to sell oil to Beijing.

"The poor have had more money to spend, but it's come at a great price," said Jeffrey Davidow, a former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela. "The money should have been put to productive use in industry, housing or education. So, in the long run, it hasn't been of much help to Venezuelans."

...In April 2002, rebel military elements led by businessman Pedro Carmona launched a coup attempt against Chavez, who was held prisoner for two days. But loyal officers and legions of poor supporters outside the presidential palace turned the tide. Chavez later blamed the coup on support from President Bush, who seemed to tacitly welcome the uprising.

Within a year, the country was paralyzed by a series of strikes, including one by the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela after Chavez fired the top management.

Since then, Chavez had led an increasingly polarized nation, using his oratorical skills to outmaneuver his often fragmented, sometimes hapless opposition. In 2004, he easily survived a recall referendum. Two years later he won a landslide reelection, with 63% of the vote.

The Sordid Menendez Fairy Tale Is Falling Apart

No one wants to take possession of this story now. I'd LOVE to see the money trail! It's your modern, reptilian GOP at work!:

Martosko pointed to those quotes in the Miami Herald Monday as proof that the Daily Caller's story stands and said they verified their story when they initially ran it. Asked about the possibility that Figueroa, who is implicated in the affidavit, is lying, Martosko retorted, "Look, it's possible the sky is orange, that doesn't mean it's so."

A woman, Nexis de los Santos Santana, and a Dominican lawyer, Miguel Galván, said in an affidavit cited by the Washington Post that Figueroa had approached them about filming the video incriminating Menendez as part of a divorce proceeding and offered to pay them.

Jeb Bush, Florida's Fantastic Flip-Flopping Fish

Jeb Bush reflipped today! We didn't have to wait months. An amazing, 48-hour journey!:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Tuesday took a swipe at Jeb Bush after he came out against a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants in his new book.

"Let's wait for a few months to see how Jeb Bush changes his mind again," Reid told reporters. He said Bush is "not evolving, he's devolving" on immigration. "He keeps going backwards."

The Democratic leader said the former Florida governor has made "a fool of himself."

"Frankly, on this issue, I don't think Jeb Bush is the Florida leader," Reid said. "I think Marco Rubio is."

No Solid News Yet Regarding My Cousin And Aunt

I got a call from my sister last night indicating my first cousin Ernie (aka Johnny) Aragon had passed away at the U.S. Veteran's Hospital in Albuquerque. In addition, when my cousins went to his mother's house (my father's elder sister, Senaida Aragon, who just turned 93 years of age), they found her unconscious. She is apparently now at Rust Presbyterian Hospital in Rio Rancho, and still uninformed about her son's death.

I've known Johnny virtually my entire life. It's weird - we are exactly the same age (56).

Ernie Aragon was popular in Bernalillo, and an occasional participant in Bernalillo, NM politics. The last reference I see is that he ran for a Town Council seat in March, 2004.

So, it looks like a New Mexico trip is imminent, but I have as yet no real details, so can't plan yet.

Buried Treasure In New Mexico?

When I get tired of looking for "Breaking Bad" filming locations, there is Forrest Fenn's buried treasure:

Last summer, I profiled Forrest Fenn, the quixotic author of The Thrill of the Chase, who walked me through his decision to secret a chest of gold, jewels, and precious artifacts into the mountains “north of Santa Fe.” He peppered his memoir with clues to the location—including coded directions in a 24-line poem that ends: “So hear me all and listen good,/Your effort will be worth the cold./If you are brave and in the wood/I give you title to the gold.”

...This week Fenn appeared on The Today Show, and NBC Nightly News touting the treasure hunt, and reigniting the search for his gold. The appearance set off a Fenn frenzy, crashing his personal website and creating a run on his book, which until now had been a marginalized curiosity, sold through a single independent book store in Santa Fe. As of this writing, Amazon listed one copy left for sale, $45, and other sites advertised “used” volumes for three times as much. Fenn himself has gone back for a new printing.

...His memoir is a drifty, disorganized thing. One imagines him dropping the pages on the way to the printer, losing a few in the wind, and binding the rest in whatever order he picked them up. But it doesn’t matter. What makes this treasure scheme so exciting—and so unnerving for some—is the figure of Fenn himself: a man who may be America’s last great collector, an amateur digger and self-taught everything, smarter than the average archeologist, savvier than a rude tomb-raider, and more aggressive than both.

...Those two points combined—the rebelliousness, the love of antiquities—point toward a hiding place on public land, where the ground is lumpy with centuries of human debris. The Thrill of the Chase is about giving a hands-on experience to the public-at-large. You could say Fenn’s whole life is about that ethos. He built the thrill into his gallery—housing 19th-century landscape paintings priced higher than some state lotto jackpots—and his home, where I ran my finger over the lip of six perfect pre-Columbian pots and felt the point of an 800-year-old needle and a mescal knife for eating cactus. “Please touch,” he said emphatically. “I am responsible.”

"Urinetown" Pictures

Inner Life - Ain't No Mountain High Enough (WhiteNoize Remix)