Wes Temby's posterous http://blog.westemby.com This is Wes Temby's posterous site. Prepare to be underwhelmed. posterous.com Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:56:45 -0700 Truth http://blog.westemby.com/truth http://blog.westemby.com/truth http://i.imgur.com/FN47R.jpg

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:20:26 -0700 Someone Didn't Get The Memo ... http://blog.westemby.com/someone-didnt-get-the-memo http://blog.westemby.com/someone-didnt-get-the-memo

via Tree Lobsters! by noreply@blogger.com (treelobsters) on 8/26/10

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:23:03 -0700 Spiderman Captured! http://blog.westemby.com/spiderman-captured http://blog.westemby.com/spiderman-captured

via B3ta on 8/12/10

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:36:28 -0700 The Last Picture Show, and My Family http://blog.westemby.com/the-last-picture-show-and-my-family http://blog.westemby.com/the-last-picture-show-and-my-family http://filmjournal.net/clydefro/files/2006/08/last_picture_show_ver31.jpg

Last night I decided to watch The Last Picture Show. I've never seen it before, but I think I've found my new favorite film of all time.

There's a couple of reasons that this film speaks to me. Firstly, the setting. I grew up in Eastern New Mexico, near the Texas border, and I frequently traveled into West Texas as a kid. My mother's family is from West Texas, ranchers all, so that particular area filled with mesquite, oil derricks and cold wind is nothing new to me. I will say that the film being shot in black and white also adds to the effect the landscape has. To that end, I'd be curious to see No Country For Old Men in a b&w cut.

Secondly, there's the music. Grow up in rural New Mexico with a ranch family and you hear a lot of old country music. We didn't have Garth Brooks, but we sure had Marty Robbins and Hank Williams. This is kind of ironic since I never lived on a ranch. We just had the music around, and whenever we did go to a relative's spread nothing changed. This old, sad country music is very prominent throughout the film, and really captures the essence of what's going on in Anarene.

Lastly, there's the people. I know each and every one of these characters. I grew up in the 1980s, but, as the tag line says, nothing much has changed. Rotting and dying towns are all too plentiful on the New Mexico/Texas border. The football jocks, the wayward strumpet, the down-and-out waitress ... cliche as they may be, I know them. Heck, we owned a cafe and probably employed someone that was coming or going on that route.

What really made this film resonate for me was that I could see some of my mother's family's history in it. Set in 1951, The Last Picture Show is about a change in America. It was made in 1971, and was one of the first films to remind people of "the forgotten 50s." The Korean War is big part of the plot. There was a pivotal shift taking place in rural America after World War II. The farm boys were coming home, America was on top of the world, and prosperity was the name of the day. But not everywhere. After the war, cars became ubiquitous and this spelled death to many little towns located on lonely highways and backwater train spurs. Small town ranch life fell apart as people moved to bigger population centers and industrialization continued to ramp up. "The death of the prairie" was already established, and this was just another blow to a lifestyle that was already teetering.

In my family's experience, Daddy Jim and his wife Mama Sybil (my maternal great grandparents) retired from ranching in the late 50s and relocated to Roswell, New Mexico. They had previously lived in Sonora, Texas, as well as the San Angelo area. Raised a lot of kids that way (9), all on ranches. My great aunt actually put together a really fascinating family history on it a few years ago. So watching this film, I kind of understand the circumstances that changed Jim's life. The world he grew up in, the world he raised his kids in, gradually faded away. There were big socio-economic changes underway all across America, and he was ultimately powerless to resist them. As a child, I couldn't comprehend the great shifts that had taken place, what had brought them to where they were today. Seeing this film, even though it is stylized, gives me some insight into the lives of old cowboys and the seeds they planted (in this case, my mother's family) in that era. Listening to 1950s cowboy music gives you some clue, and this film is like a supplemental resource.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:18:20 -0700 On The Similarities Between American Gangsta Rap and Mexican Narcocorridos http://blog.westemby.com/on-the-similarities-between-american-gangsta http://blog.westemby.com/on-the-similarities-between-american-gangsta This dude knows his stuff. Well laid out, too. Kudos, sir.

via STREET BONERS and TV CARNAGE by SBTVC on 8/13/10


In the second season of Breaking Bad an episode is introduced by a mariachi band singing about the exploits of Walter White and his chemically perfect meth. I had originally thought that the song was simply written for the show but in fact there is an entire genre of music based around lyrics

In the second season of Breaking Bad an episode is introduced by a mariachi band singing about the exploits of Walter White and his chemically perfect meth. I had originally thought that the song was simply written for the show but in fact there is an entire genre of music based around lyrics depicting drug traffickers and cartel hit men as folk heroes in Mexico. These songs are the most accurate depiction of what is happening along the U.S./Mexico border and reflect upon these issues with firsthand experience. The singers of these Mexican drug ballads (or narcocorridos) try to emulate the same image as the traffickers themselves, wearing cowboy attire and often taking pictures with a gun on their hip.


Chalino Sanchez
The Tupac Shakur of this strange mariachi gangster polka scene was Chalino Sanchez. But if you compare the two, Sanchez makes Tupac look like a bitch. Both had multiple murder attempts in their life, but when Sanchez was attacked by a cartel death squad on stage in Coachella California, he pulled out a gun of his own in self-defense, killing two and injuring five. I mean sure, Tupac got shot, East coast West coast, whatever. But he didn’t even manage to shoot anyone back. In my opinion, white suburban kids should be walking around with Chalino Sanchez airbrushed on their XXL black t-shirts instead of Tupac or Biggie. Just like Tupac and Biggie, Sanchez was eventually killed and the murder was never solved. The most recent killing within this musical community was of Sergio Vega, one of the few singers in this genre to experience any success in the United States. Apparently, there were rumors that he had been killed before hand and as a result of announcing these rumors as falsehood in a radio interview; cartels northern Mexico hunted him down and killed him after a dramatic car chase through a small village in Sinaloa.
There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between gangster rap and narcocorridos. Their creation allowed for more artists preaching a similar message to get noticed. Artists like N.W.A. and Ice-T became bigger within mainstream culture in the late eighties, allowing artists like Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre to thrive in the early nineties. Songs about gang life and drug dealing were simply a reflection of the world around them at the time. After the eighties, the drug trafficking routes through the Caribbean had been cut off by the United States government; as a result the focus was put on the Mexican border as a means of shipping their product into the U.S. This caused a massive wave of violence and turmoil in Mexico that goes on to this day. This has caused for Mexican narcocorridos to have a new relevance near the border. In fact, once these songs made it into the U.S. it didn’t take long for them to get banned from the airwaves like they were singing “Fuck the Police” or some shit. The other side of this is the influence the music has had on youth within the area. Old white people in Washington blamed the crack epidemic on rap groups that were apparently promoting a criminal lifestyle and a similar judgment has been made towards their Mexican counter parts. Narcocorridos have been banned from the airwaves throughout the Southwest for the same reasons. It’s pretty obvious that although there is some influence from the music, poverty is the biggest motivator.
-

Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman
Head of the Sinaloa Cartel, was ranked 41st on the list of most powerful people in the world by Forbes and was counted as the 701st richest person in the world, listed among people like the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the heir to the Campbell Soup empire. With numbers like this it is obvious that drug culture is what‘s causing the creation of mariachi music, instead of vice versa. Music is simply a reflection of what is happening around the people producing it and to say that they are the cause of it is illogical. It’s not as if these musicians (be it gangster rappers or the singers of narcocorridos) are creating these issues, because if these problems in society didn’t already exist there would be nothing for them to write about and N.W.A. would have never caused the Focus on the Family organization to piss themselves. To think that a rap group was put on the FBI watch list is absurd in hindsight, but it adds mythology to the genre and they definitely sold a couple million records as a result. Ultimately, the government and different religious organizations will always use music as a scapegoat for problems they are often the cause of. By blaming N.W.A. for the rise in gang activity and banning narcocorridos from the airwaves to quell the influx of drugs into the U.S. the government takes the responsibility of solving these problems off their shoulders. It’s a pretty weak tactic that rarely fools anyone other than the same demographic that voted for Bush, twice.

-ALEX ROIBAS

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:34:49 -0700 Permaculture, a Different Shade of Green http://blog.westemby.com/permaculture-a-different-shade-of-green http://blog.westemby.com/permaculture-a-different-shade-of-green So, I am getting really excited for my upcoming Permaculture Design Certification course. It is being offered through the Regenerative Design Institute based out of Bolinas, CA, but we will actually be working and learning on the campus of D-Q University in Davis, CA. This is actually double-awesome for me, because having grown up so near the rez in New Mex, I am really looking forward to getting the grounds up to snuff and working with some tribal elders in the process.

As I have really begun to think about how permaculture works, and more importantly, how I can put it to work, I have found myself increasingly inspired. For several years I've wanted to have "a job that matters" beyond just a paycheck. To be frank, the 9-5 of office work is mundane and seems almost trite compared to the things that are going on in the world at any given moment. Recognizing this, I've sought out a way to transform my energies and desire into concrete action that goes beyond some corporate bottom line and my own bank account. I believe permaculture is that vehicle.

I saw a fascinating exhibit in downtown San Rafael this morning, while I was out and gathering supplies for my upcoming PDC. A photographer was having an exhibit that dealt with farm workers in California over a span of 8 years. The pictures were haunting, real, and dug through the stereotypes many people hold about these workers. You see the results of bar fights, the old braceros who are going home for the last time, the children that are sometimes stranded in the work camps. There weren't any pictures of cheery seasonal workers gladly picking strawberries for gabuchos and kicking back with Coronas at night. This was real, the reality of exploited people that make up the bulk of the labor force that feeds this country. It was impossible not to walk out of that gallery and not feel the need to put myself to work to affect change. How many people in California pay any mind to where their food comes from, much less the conditions under which it was planted, tended and harvested?

I see my involvement with permaculture as just the beginning of a great change. I am but one agent, but there are more of us every day, and the consciousness expands with each individual. We can have a just and verdant world, it will just take time and dedication. For one, I am making the commitment.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:31:35 -0700 The Great Seal of the City of San Francisco http://blog.westemby.com/the-great-seal-of-the-city-of-san-francisco http://blog.westemby.com/the-great-seal-of-the-city-of-san-francisco http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_l79m1ydSQd1qbpy03o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1282327305&Signature=yiHDe1PyQdbIfNvD063t9GXXjHc%3D

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:24:22 -0700 San Rafael Canal http://blog.westemby.com/san-rafael-canal http://blog.westemby.com/san-rafael-canal

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:08:40 -0700 Choice Words http://blog.westemby.com/choice-words http://blog.westemby.com/choice-words http://nsidc.org/about/images/inuit.jpg

"Good judgement comes from experience.  Experience comes from bad judgement." -- Inuit elders

Hat tip to Michael Kelley Harris

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:18:42 -0700 KC Masterpiece BBQ Print Ad (1999) http://blog.westemby.com/kc-masterpiece-bbq-print-ad-1999 http://blog.westemby.com/kc-masterpiece-bbq-print-ad-1999

An old ad my uncle was in, about a decade ago. I never use the stuff!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:40:26 -0700 Tight With Jesus http://blog.westemby.com/tight-with-jesus http://blog.westemby.com/tight-with-jesus

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:43:29 -0700 YES! http://blog.westemby.com/yes http://blog.westemby.com/yes

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:55:48 -0700 Summertime Blues http://blog.westemby.com/summertime-blues http://blog.westemby.com/summertime-blues "It's not what you've been through that defines you, it is how you live your life now."

I've been dealing with some sort of summer flu/stomach bug the past 4 days. Not fun.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:50:36 -0700 Aging and Priorities http://blog.westemby.com/aging-and-priorities http://blog.westemby.com/aging-and-priorities Was listening to Cornell West on NPR today. Wow. That man is a powerful speaker. I've read a lot of his works over the years, so I'm pretty familiar with his positions. With all the events taking place on Wall Street and with regards to where we are headed as a nation, he presents a pretty cogent position. We've become so superficial and overstimulated, misled by the government, etc. It really resonated with me, and feeds into a lot of what I've been feeling as of late.

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/04/1206/m/3a.jpg

On the other hand, I also stumbled across Gavin McIness' recent post about turning 40. It is classic Gavin McInnes, rife with refences to sex, booze, punk rock and poo. The gist of the post is that Gavin is now two score years on the planet, and the article discusses his revelations on aging. It's pretty funny, and seems sincere. Gavin has a wife and a kid now, so blowing lines of coke in a punk club bathroom is just not the same. Fair enough.

http://www.popandpolitics.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/libertarian2.jpg

Now, these two gentlemen are on very different levels and come from very different places. The fact that I draw form both of them, well, that's just Wes. One of the larger themes from this summer is self-discovery. I am taking a conscious step towards being the change that I want to see in the world (thanks, Gandhi!). I refuse to be an office drone licking the boot just so I can afford IKEA furniture and take my lady friend to a nice restaurant (wow, that was a little Fight Club-by, eh?). But beyond the basic sense of "fighting the system" there is the real work of figuring out how I fit into the system I want to see. Actually working through nihilism and the existential malaise is a lot more work than sitting in the mire or just saying "eff it" to everything.

I'm not yet 30. I have a lot of life (theoretically and statistically) in front of me. Even so, I am weirdly conscious of aging. Maybe that's partly societal obsession with youth, and maybe it is partly my "framework" at work. I grew up surrounded by people that were 60+, so I've always had a close connection to what being a senior citizen looks like. I think this kept me out of some trouble when I was young, as I was well aware of my mortality (most of the time). This experience makes me look at my next few moves with a little more reservation. I want to be productive and healthy when I hit 60. I don't want to start down a path that will peter out in 20 years because I am no longer capable of carrying on. I know guys that have jobs like that, and it sucks. Your body gets worn down, and after so many years doing what you do, when you finally realize the end is nigh it breaks your soul a little.

So here I am, and here we go. I just got back from Chico, California and it was a fun trip. Only there for about 24 hours, but California is a beautiful state and any chance to traverse through it I will take. Seeing the golden hills was good for the soul. I feel like I'm moving in the right direction, even if a bit slowly. Taking it in, one step at a time.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:50:23 -0700 Raw Milk is Real Food! http://blog.westemby.com/raw-milk-is-real-food http://blog.westemby.com/raw-milk-is-real-food A while back a friend of mine turned me on to raw milk. What is "raw" milk, you ask, and how does it differ from regular milk? Well, in a nutshell, raw milk is just unpasteurized milk. What does that mean? That means that before I drank my milk, it wasn't heated to just below boiling temperature. In other words, my milk is still alive.

its_alive-fstn-721852.jpg (247×210)

Why do I want live milk? Because live milk has live cultures, and live cultures help the digestion. There's also a whole host of enzymes and proteins that are good for you (me), not to mention the taste. Raw milk cows invariably live on an all-grass diet from organic fields, so the milk has a different taste to it. Try some, you'll like it!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:09:43 -0700 Rappin' About a Welsh Town http://blog.westemby.com/rappin-about-a-welsh-town http://blog.westemby.com/rappin-about-a-welsh-town

via A Welsh View by Robert Gale on 7/21/10

A well-made video about my hometown Newport (with subtitles incase you can't understand a Newport accent)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:32:01 -0700 Call Me ... http://blog.westemby.com/call-me-0 http://blog.westemby.com/call-me-0


I am a Paul Simon fan in my mid thirties. As my name is Al, for the past 20 years I've been searching for a friend named Betty with whom I could sing the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al." Imagine how much fun we could have singing along with the lyrics and pointing at each other when our names are mentioned! We could sing it together on road trips with the windows down, at home with our stereos cracked loud, we can smile at each other knowingly when it's played in gas stations and grocery stores and text each other when we're apart and it comes on the radio. I'm especially looking forward to acting out our own version of the classic Paul Simon Chevy Chase music video. We can post it on Youtube!

Just to be clear, I'm not really looking for a bodyguard (that's a lyric from the song haha!) just a friend named Betty.

If you want we could maybe sing other Paul Simon songs at some point but I'd really rather we stick with our namesakes You Can Call Me Al. Of course I want proof your name is really Betty so when we meet I'll need to see a state issued photo ID with that name. I'll also accept Elizabeth, Roberta or Beatrix.

Please write back soon I can't wait to hang out
Sincerely
-Your long lost pal!!!

  • it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:08:59 -0700 Sit Vis Tecum http://blog.westemby.com/sit-vis-tecum http://blog.westemby.com/sit-vis-tecum

via A Welsh View by Robert Gale on 6/28/10

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:37:43 -0700 Boards of Canada Video http://blog.westemby.com/boards-of-canada-video http://blog.westemby.com/boards-of-canada-video Fan-made video that matches the song pretty dang well.

via A Welsh View by Robert Gale on 6/30/10

Love this fan-made Boards of Canada video featuring their track ROYGBIV and some classic 80's UK TV adverts.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:02:58 -0700 SEO, SERM, Reputation Management, PR firms: take note http://blog.westemby.com/seo-serm-reputation-management-pr-firms-take http://blog.westemby.com/seo-serm-reputation-management-pr-firms-take

via The Snitch by Alexia Tsotsis on 6/29/10

A source very close to the matter told SF Weekly that Google Me does in fact exist, and that Google already has many engineers on the project, a potential rival to Facebook. The search engine is "...

Continue reading "'Google Me' is Real, Will Launch in 2010" >

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/315699/0aadontaski.jpg http://posterous.com/people/37lrpT2i96St Wes Temby westemby Wes Temby