10. Rediscovering Purikura
9. Getting to know April Flores
8. Starting the Bloody Swans with Mariela and Carina
7. Seeing Girl in a Coma at SomArts
6. Collaborating with Maya Escobar
5. Starting my own comic strip with Mission Loc@l
4. Having my first solo-curated exhibit
3. Having a Mural at Galeria de la Raza
2. All the kisses I’ve enjoyed. What are friends if you can’t get a little tipsy and make out with them?
1. Seeing Mariela graduate with her Masters in Social Work
Couldn’t let Christmas slip past me without sharing this bit of holiday purikura posted by the notorious Maria Ozawa on her blog. Hella cute!
Speaking of purikura, my work in the medium is expanding. Here’s a few pics from a recent trip to Japantown’s Pikapika with the one and only Maya Chinchilla.
Peace,
Rio
Things have been so crazy and hectic, yet wonderfully productive the last two weeks. My new collective the Bloody Swans recently launched our website at Bloodyswans.com. It’s a collaborative photo/make up art project with Mariela and our best homegirl Carina. We’re in the process of editing and preparing our photos but you can see a few raw photos on the site. I also put together this video of Carina with my vast sunglasses collection using warm-up photos we shot during our first session.
Speaking of Carina, she and I made this video Christmas card secretly behind Mariela’s back on Wednesday. Like a lot of my recent work it takes inspiration for Jim Mendiola’s video for Girl in a Coma’s Static Mind. Merry Christmas!
Lastly, I’ve been doing some work with Mission Loc@l. Here’s this rcent video featuring myself and the lovely Amanda Martinez reporting on the Mexican Museum’s Christmas Traditions of Mexico exhibit.
Merry Christmas and Peace,
Rio
As my birthday quickly approaches in January I am more determined than ever to have the greatest Scott Pilgrim themed birthday party OF ALL TIME. I was talking to Mariela and our homegirl Carina about it this weekend and got stuck trying to explain the aesthetics of Ramona Flowers, Scott Pilgrim’s Girlfriend. Originally I was going to send them a few of the following pictures but since I’m trying to get as many people dressed as Scott Pilgrim characters for the party I thought I’d post this as a handy inspirational guide to Scott Pilgrim costuming. First up: The one and only Ramona Flowers!
And here are some photos taken by Edgar Wright from the set of the Scott Pilgrim movie with Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers.
Sadly there are not a whole lot of Kim Pine looks out there on the web. Since Mariela has cute-ass freckles I always thought she’d make an awesome Kim Pine.
And now some Kim Pine photos from the Scott Pilgrim movie with Alison Pill as Kim Pine.
And last but not least we have Knives Chau, the most dangerous tenderoni to ever walk the Earth. Sadly, there is also a lack of Knives looks out there was well. Here is what I could find.
Without further ado here is Ellen Wong as Knives Chau in the Scott Pilgrim Movie.
Peace,
Rio
Damn, it feels good to be a Chicano nerd today. After William Nericcio at Tex[t]-Mex pointed out a recent article discussing the depictions of non-White video game characters I got really depressed thinking about how underrepresented Raza are in nerd-related genres. Let’s face it, the only Latino actor with any real sci-fi or fantasy cache is ol’ crater-face Edward James Olmos (Blade Runner, Battlestar Galactica). That’s why it was such a big deal for me to see Culture Clash’s Herbert Siguenza in the recently released Ben 10 Alien Swarm. Herbert plays Validus, the movie’s main villain.
What’s so revolutionary about it is that he plays a contemporary Latino character. That may sound basic but it’s actually incredibly rare. If a Latino actor is given a role in a sci-fi or fantasy genre movie they usually play non-Latinos (see Christian Serratos as Angela in the Twilight films) or they play Latinos in a context where race has a different meaning or is irrelevant (see futuristic franchises like Star Trek). In Ben 10 Alien Swarm, Validus is a contemporary Latino character that is not deprived of the context of being just that. To be clear, Validus makes no profound statements about being Latino. He’s just a character with a Latino name and a Latina daughter, who happens to be a powerful super-villain.
I’m no expert in the Ben 10 mythos but here is a basic recap of the events of the movie. Spoilers ahoy!
In the film, Victor Validus is a former scientist gone rogue. In trying to prove to everyone that sentient alien microchips are a threat to the Earth he becomes taken over and possessed by them. His body gains the ability to reproduce the chips and he controls them like a giant swarm of insects (hence the Alien Swarm in the title). Validus plots to take over Earth by spreading his swarm far and wide using a shipping company to literally send them across the planet.
The bulk of the film has the main character Ben and his sidekicks trailing Validus and battling swarms of micorchips and possessed humans along the way. There’s a subplot about Validus’ daughter Elena (Alyssa Diaz) reaching out to Ben for help to save her father and Ben’s friends not trusting her. The final battle of the movie has Ben and company discovering Validus in a warehouse hooked up to a machine that helps him reproduce the alien microchips (see photo above). Ben uses his watch-like alien device called the Omnitrix to shrink down in size and battle the Queen of the aliens inside Validus’ body.
Ben 10 Alien Swarm is out on DVD and Blu-Ray, but that’s not all. Behold, there is a Validus action figure. It’s a part of the Alien Swarm Movie Set 1 figure pack and can also be ordered through amazon. Can you think of the last time you saw an action figure of a Latino character?
Orale Herbert!
Rio
A lifelong dream came true today. If you’re in the Mission, please pick up the latest El Tecolote to see the first installment of my weekly comic strip Hella Mission. As soon as it goes online I’ll post the link. Hella thanks goes out to Mission Local editors Amanda Martinez and Kate Kilpatrick for making this all happen.
And just for kicks, here’s a video of me goofing around to Freezepop’s Plastic Stars.
Peace,
Rio
Mariela just before we left for the concert
My hand is the top one on the right and Mariela's is the bottom. Photo by Amber Says What
Moments after Peaches landed on me. That's the back of my head smack dab in the center. Photo by Amber Says What
Taken on the night of…
Peace,
Rio
First and foremost, I just want to say that I’m not a Twilight-hater. Mariela and I spent hours huddled under an Edward & Bella blanked waiting in line to see a midnight premiere of New Moon. As I get older though it’s getting harder and harder to turn off my critical lens when I watch a film like New Moon. And to be clear: this is a critique of the film New Moon and not the book.
-Representin’: Christian Serratos as Angela Weber. While the character of Angela isn’t Latina, Serratos is Mexican-American. Sadly she gets less screen time in New Moon than she does in Twilight.
-Disputed: Taylor Lautner’s ethnic makeup. I have found nothing but contradicting reports and fierce debate on the internet about how (if at all) indigenous he is. Is Taylor Lautner Latino? Partially something that could justify his casting? Good luck on trying to find a definitive answer.
-Gone: Honduran actor Jose Zuniga as Mr. Molina. I was actually relieved not to see this character return. It irritated me that the one Latino character in the first Twilight film was so cheesy and corny. Instead we are left with, uh, no Latino characters.
-Gone: Gregory Tyree Boyce as Tyler Crowley. Tyler was mainly used as comic relief in the first Twilight film and sets up the plot device of Edward rescuing Bella from being hit by a car. All of Bella’s other school friends are back but they decide to dump the one friend that happens to be Black?
-Speaking of which: Let me get this straight, there’s only one Black character in the entire film AND HE GETS KILLED?…For threatening a White woman no less. That shit is ridiculous.
-Face Punch the fake movie-within-a-movie features its characters engaged in a Mexican standoff. Does that count for anything?
-What the fuck is up with Gil Birmingham as Billy Black? In the first Twilight film he broke the stereotype of older indigenous men being stoic and sage and turned the character of Billy Black into a wise-cracking dirty old man. In New Moon he loses all his charm and is back to being stonefaced and stoic for the 30-seconds he is on screen. A damn shame.
-There’s a lot to be said about the different relationship models presented in New Moon. Of all the questionable shit that goes down in New Moon I was most disturbed that the various acts of patriarchal relationship violence were explained away as being motivated by supernatural urges. Edward being compelled to kill Bella, Sam disfiguring Emily, and Jacob menacing Mike and Bella were all justified as things that come with being a vampire or werewolf. I hella call bullshit; an abusive boyfriend is an abusive boyfriend even if he can turn into a wolf or suck blood. Don’t get it twisted.
-Conclusion: New Moon was a more competently made film than Twilight but a definite step back for Black and Brown peoples alike. I am stunned that Director Chris Weitz violently cleaned house of the only two Black characters without adding anyone to fill the void. I’m not saying it was racist…of fuck it, that shit was super-racist. I said it.
No amount of blatant social injustice will keep people from seeing New Moon or its inevitable sequels. I know I’ll probably be back for Eclipse, if only I didn’t have to look the other way on so many things. Christian Serratos, you’re my beacon of hope, don’t let me down.
"Keep ya head up"
Rio
The artwork above is by the fascinating and amazing Denise Silva Cortes. I came across it while dropping artwork off for Rachel-Anne Palacios’ Ofrendas Para los Muertos-from Oakland, with love exhibit. I love that as playful as her portrait of Frida is, there’s still a hint of mortality with the skull forming in the smoke of her cigarette. I’ve been following Denise’s work and writing for a while and I’m really looking forward to meeting her at the opening of the exhibit. I’ll be showing four pieces of my own in the show, portraits of my homegirl Rachel.
The reception is next Thursday and I’ll be all up on the scene dipped in Vaseline just like Mickey Avalon. The details are below (and peep the work by Lupe Flores). Hope to see you all there!
After dropping off my artwork I met up with Mariela and we wandered the nearby Oakland City Center in search of some lunch. After eating some corporate Mexican food we took some photos before parting ways to go to work.
Now that my own Day of the Dead exhibit is down there are a lot of exciting projects that I can resume working on. Just tonight I’m making new plans with Maya Escobar to continue our Acctiones Plasticas Purikura series. Stay tuned!
Peace,
Rio
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The Bloody Swans
