21 Choices at Night

I love the frozen yogurt at 21 Choices in Claremont. Its good stuff. This is 21 Choices at Night. The store sign is almost as big as the store. Love the S curves on the sign, too.

21 Choices at Night

Photo Series: Camarillo Library

The Camarillo Library is brand new, as in it just had its 1st birthday in March 2008. The old Camarillo library was old, dark and tiny. The new library is beautiful, huge, airy, well-lit, full of architectural details, and full of public art. Thats the way a good public building should be, but very few are.

The new library became an instant hit and community gathering place for many members of the community, inlcuding many children and families. The library also has a huge selection of books in Spanish, and a huge audio/visual section with tons of titles.  Taco Tip: the library is the cheapest and easiest way to expose yourself to new music or books, without purchasing the cd or book.

Mom2be and I went over to the new library on one of the very hot evenings last week. There is nothing better than enjoying good air-conditioning on hot day, especially when somebody else pays for it. Here is a short photo series of the new Camarillo Library.

Little Girl running outside the library

Blue Vase and fountain at the entrance to the Camarillo Library. I love the Azulejos in the fountain and througout the library. I believe the Mexicans “borrowed” the tiles from the Spanish, who borrowed them from the Moors (Arabs). The blending of cultures, and the “borrowing” of ideas, has been going on for thousands of years.

Detail of the door to the Children’s Area. I love the hand-carved wood detail of the navigational compass–signifying the literary journey to come by entering through the door, and the iron work–the arrow hinge and the circle door handle.

 

The Children’s Area of the library, framed by columns of Giant books, and the centerpiece storytelling area is a sunken pirate ship. Captain Hook and Neptune grace the walls (more pictures to come later). The wood barrels on the floor remind me of those old cartoons where the cartoon character is carrying a barrel away and the barrel leaks gunpowder through a hole in the barrel on the floor leaving a gunpowder trail. You know what happens next. At that instance, Bugs Bunny or Yosemite Sam comes and takes a match to the trail of gunpowder and Boom! Here, the wood barrels are put to better use as children’s seats.

That’s it for now.

1984: Eighth Grade Musical Journey

I love music because it creates an emotional landscape in your mind. You hear a certain song and you are instantly transported back to a certain time and place, or a period of your life. Most of the time they are sweet memories of good times gone by.

For me, the year was 1984. From September 1983 through June 1984, I was in the Eighth Grade. Damn, 1984 was a great year for music! MTV was only a couple of years old, although it didn’t matter much to us because we couldn’t afford Cable TV. However, we had regular tv and Richard Blade hosted an afternoon video show. I remember hearing these songs on the radio, or playing them over and over on a small record player that I had in the room that I shared with my older brother.

How Soon Is Now by The Smiths

This song was in heavy rotation on KROQ for many years, beginning in 1984. In fact, this song and the Smiths would serve me well during my high school years, too. I never owned this song on record or cd until much later. We were so short on money that my dad would have killed me if he found out that I spent my money on buying a music record. I love the sound that Johnny Marr produces with his guitar on this song, its very unique and “elasticy”. Morrissey wailing “I am human and I need to be loved!” is unforgettable. It was a perfect chorus for a young Chicano boy whose mind and body was in transition from boy to man, discovering love and girls for the first time, and trying to find his place in the world.

You shut your mouth
how can you say
I go about things the wrong way
I am human and I need to be loved
just like everybody else does

Will the Wolf Survive? by Los Lobos

Surprisingly, the only station that played this song on the radio in Los Angeles was KROQ. It was not in heavy rotation, but they were kind of progressive in their programming and it used to get played every now and then. Of course, when this song would come on the radio, I would blast it in my room. Straight up Rock N Roll by Chicanos. I always thought that David Hidalgo’s voice sounded very similar to Steve Winwood with that high pitch. I liked Los Lobos even more when I saw a poster of them in the music store and I found out that they looked like me! Chicano.

Standing in the pouring rain
All alone in a world that’s changed
Running scared, now forced to hide
In a land where he once stood with pride
But he’ll find his way by the morning light

Hot for Teacher by Van Halen

At the risk of sounding sexist, this was a great, great song and even greater video, especially for 13 year old boy with raging hormones. Mind you, this was a time before the internet, where Catholic School boys had to sneak a peek at dirty magazines to see and learn about the female form. Thank God for Hughes Markets and their magazine rack (that’s a whole other story)! Anyway, this song has a great drum solo and the video speaks for itself, even after all these years.

I think of all the education that I missed.
But then my homework was never quite like this.
Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad,
Im hot for teacher.
I got it bad, so bad,
Im hot for teacher.

Hold Me Now by the Thompson Twins

This was a great song, with a really great simple and unforgettable chorus. This is one of those songs that every time it came on the radio, I sang along with it. Its easy for the listener to understand all the lyrics and the song has an easy, slowish pace. Best of all, the song has a great chorus. Can you tell I needed to be held during these years?

Hold me now, warm my heart
stay with me, let loving start (let loving start)