I’ll be back…

Maybe.

Find me HERE.

ROCK [Reclaiming Our Community through Knowledge] presents the next documentary screening and discussion on December 1st @ 5:30pm.  It will be held @ Bookmans Phoenix on 19th Ave + Northern in the Community Room.

We will be viewing “Romantico”.  I believe the synopsis gives a better description of the film than the trailer, so both are below for your perusal.

Synopsis:
As melancholic and bittersweet as a soulful ballad, Romantico tells the tale of Carmelo and his friend, Arturo, two Mexican mariachi singers who roam bars, restaurants, and streets of San Francisco, playing for tips from people who think nothing about them in return. A warm, insightful, and moving film, Romantico is tangentially about illegal immigration, United States/Mexican economics, the romantico music of the title, and the subterranean American alien community. But at the heart of Mark Becker’s beautifully shot, poetic film are the fundamental love and devotion of a father to his family; his desire above all is to provide them a descent living and a better future.

~James Matthew Barrie

We’d only been in the pediatric ICU for a couple of days, but already I was becoming jaded with apathy.  These kids were going to die.  Not all of them, of course.  But a lot.  Perhaps my best friend’s baby would be one of them and I’d have to help Yvette select an eerily small coffin with pink-ruffled insides for the body of her first born.

I didn’t want to be there.  It wasn’t a way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  All that tumor talk had the fangs of reality chewing at my carefree agenda and I simply wasn’t in the mood.  I wanted to make this about me.  About how Yvette getting knocked up at 16 and having a premature daughter ruined my weekend.  But we weren’t 16 anymore.  We were in our mid-20s and Yvette’s baby was a miracle of biology.

“Do you know  how hard it is to conceive a child?” she asked me one day during her second trimester.

I recalled seeing something on Discovery channel about it.  Seemed pretty complex, but I didn’t much care.  I’d never really been the maternal type and was only watching the end of that so I wouldn’t miss the beginning of my favorite forensics show.

Time ticked away slowly on that hard, plastic-chaired Sunday.  My mind grudgingly accepted the responsibilities of adulthood, realizing I couldn’t just walk away this time.  No more excuses or invalid reasons to use discomfort and avoidance techniques to skirt what was happening.  My regressed teenage mind was always at the steering wheel in times like these.   A valiant effort it took to remind myself of the social cues I’d need to master in order to save my friend who was standing, sure-footed in a pair of house shoes, on the brink of devastation.  She needed me.

I grabbed her hand and looked at her, guilt coursing through my veins.  She turned her head, cocked it to the side and mustered a teary smile.  It was at that moment that I truly understood.  I felt the power of setting aside appointment books and Outlook email schedulers.  The gravity of sacrificing my nightly routine of cable and buttered popcorn.  The affect of a blip of time in the history of the universe spent consoling a weeping mother.  I learned that it wasn’t always about me.  I learned what it was to be a friend.

Prop 107 is of big concern to me.  I’m voting no on this so-called “Civil Rights Initiative”.

Don’t be fooled by a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  This Prop 107 business is bad news for women, ethnic minorities, the LGBT community and other marginalized communities in this state and country.  It is cleverly called the “Civil Rights Initiative” to trick those who do not do their research, but effectively eliminates affirmative action of any kind.

Resources to help women and minorities compete for state contracts, start their own businesses, etc. would cease in the name of  “Civil Rights” for white males.  Funds to encourage women to enter science and engineering programs, two fields where we are underrepresented at both U of A and ASU, would also disappear.  Our Native populations would also be victims of resource cuts.  This is just the beginning of the consequences of Prop 107.

Learn more HERE.  Read CAREFULLY.

Just dropping a line about the next screening.  It will be November 3rd @ Bookmans Phoenix on 19th Avenue and Northern.  The film is called “Off and Running”.

Synopsis:
With white Jewish lesbians for parents and two adopted brothers — one mixed-race and one Korean—Brooklyn teen Avery grew up in a unique and loving household. But when her curiosity about her African-American roots grows, she decides to contact her birth mother. This choice propels Avery into her own complicated exploration of race, identity, and family that threatens to distance her from the parents she’s always known. She begins staying away from home, starts skipping school, and risks losing her shot at the college track career she had always dreamed of. But when Avery decides to pick up the pieces of her life and make sense of her identity, the results are inspiring. OFF AND RUNNING follows Avery to the brink of adulthood, exploring the strength of family bonds and the lengths people must go to become themselves. 

What a discussion this one will be!  It covers everything from race, religion, sexuality, adoption, and more.

ALSO:
The December 1st screening (film unknown at this point) will be a holiday potluck, screening and discussion.  All are invited and I will organize how we will bring food items to share in upcoming emails.  We can eat, watch a film, eat some more and then discuss the film while eating even more.  Dude.  It’s the holidays.  We’re eating.

Hope to see you all on November 3rd!  Mark your calendars!

There’s nothing better than witnessing amazing, talented and HUMBLE human beings reach levels of success they’d once only dreamed of.

One love, my peoples.  I’m so #freewired right now!

Buy your copy HERE.