Happy Birthday Dad!

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Today is my Dad’s birthday. True to form he’s working a full shift at SOMArts and then going to an event for a exhibit he’s curated at the Mission Cultural Center…and then finally going to his joint birthday party with Guillermo Gomez-Peña and Carolina Ponce De Leon. Never a dull moment, and that’s what’s kept him so young.

I recently did a search on Flickr for “Rene Yañez” and came across a lot of images of my Dad that I didn’t know even existed. My favorite was by Ricardo Vinos; a photo of my Dad shaking hands with the legendary Robert Crumb as I look on in the foreground. The photo was from Project X: The Artists Talk Show, a theater based talk show that my Dad produced and starred in where he would interview artists and have live performances. His most memorable interview subject was R. Crumb and I’ll never forget seeing the two of them together on stage. We’ve both come a long way since that night in 1990, and I can’t wait to see where this adventure together will take us next.

Happy Birthday Dad,

Rio

Calacas & Chucks

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I’ve been sitting in front of my computer editing down the hundreds of photos that I shot the other day with model/artist/curator Rachel-Anne Palacios. She was our model for this year’s Day of the Dead show announcement and graphics. There will be more to come from the shoot but I’m really excited about it so I thought I’d share at least one image.

Our photoshoot started at SOMArts and after a couple of hours we piled into a car and traveled to 16th and Mission to take some more shots. I shot this video of Rachel as were on our way. Check it out:

One of the potential things to wear that Rachel brought to the shoot were an amazing pair of limited edition Frida Kahlo Converse Chuck Taylors. These rare Chucks in her collection are the real deal, part of a series of Frida Converse shoes that she purchased in Mexico City. As soon as I saw them I knew I had to take some photos, I don’t think I’ve ever been so envious of another person’s shoes before. More info on the Converse HERE.

Peace,

Rio

My Life, My Swag

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All day I’ve been pondering turning 30 in January. I wanted to take some sort of proactive action to put my mind at ease and today I finally locked in a date for my 30th birthday party at SOMArts. There are so many streams of thought still flowing through my mind but I am excited and inspired to celebrate 30 years of my life on this planet.

One of my inspirations and reasons that I am looking forward to turning 30 is my favorite Chicana artist Zulma Aguiar (AKA Chicana Feliz). Homegirl has brought Chican@ thought and art to Hawaii and is making headway for those of us still struggling to find our voice in the mainland. Yesterday was her 34th birthday and she’s shown me that my 30’s can be a time of travel, adventure, positive change, and making challenging art all the while feeling good and looking good. My utmost gratitude to her for showing me how it’s done right. Happy Birthday Zulma.

These days I’ve been steady rocking Swedish music makers jj and their song My Life, My Swag. It’s helped me, in my head, lay out the adventure that lies before me. The title makes it sounds like some sort of grimy hip-hop joint but it’s really a dreamy pop song in the vein of The Tough Alliance. I hope you can dig it.

My Life, My Swag by jj

Peace,

Rio

Crash Answered My Question! *Swoon*

yanez

After posing a question to Crash on mun2 as part of their Ask so and so a Question series I was shocked to see that it was actually selected to be answered! I am a huge fan of Crash and the Chica’s Project and seeing this video made my year. In the original video my question comes up at the 3:43 mark but I’ve edited it down to my moment in the spotlight below.


Visit page on mun2

My question came from a comment Crash made on The Mun2 Shift Late Night. After airing Los Abandoned’s video for Van Nuys (es Very Nice) Crash said something to effect of “I can’t stand that band and I’m so glad they broke up!”

At the time I thought “Damn, that’s kinda fucked up.” As Crash reveals in her answer, her real beef is with Los Abandoned’s lead singer Lady P (AKA Pilar Diaz). Her answer is filled with all sorts of juicy chisme and I can’t blame Crash for shitlisting Los Abandoned if she was treated rudely. I was torn between my loyalty to Crash’s awesomeness and the fact that Lady P is a fellow Calarts alumni.

In this clash of the titans I’m going to have to get Crash’s back. Mostly because we have the same passion for Rogue of the X-Men.

If you know me then you know that Rogue is my all time favorite super hero/comic book character. The only tattoo I’ve ever contemplated getting is a Rogue tattoo.  Anyways, If you watch the original video it shows that Crash knows her shit about Rogue so I’m down for homegirl.

¡Orale Crash!

Rio

I Wanna be Down with the Scene

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My latest work is a portrait of artist/curator Rachel-Anne Palacios. Rachel has introduced me to all sorts of great people and the Oakland arts scene as a whole. I wanna be down with Rachel & her peoples and I’m looking forward to exhibiting in her upcoming Day of the Dead show in Oakland.

I created this portrait to thank Rachel for including me in the recent Frida exhibit that she curated and to join the many artists who are on display along the walls of her apartment. For kicks I threw Zitlalix and I in the piece as angels that roll with Rachel. Below are details of our portraits that went into the main piece.

Peace,

Rio

Automaton love, your caress is pneumatic

yanez

extremis05

Alright, time to score some nerd points on this throwback!

After writing recently about Emerald Transmission’s Witness I began to think about other obscure 90’s songs that I adore. One of my guiltiest pleasures was Extremis by Hal featuring Gillian Anderson. That’s right, Agent Scully cut a breathy electronica track in the mid-90’s. I was totally oblivious to this song when it first came out in ’96 because no local radio stations played it and I didn’t have cable (and thusly couldn’t watch when the video played for about a week on MTV). Word quickly spread through my high school’s nerd population about the Erotic-era Madonna inspired video that featured Gillian Anderson voyeuristically watching two gold-plated robots put the mack hand down.  Being totally obsessed with the X-Files and its minutiae, not to mention totally enamored of Scully, I had to see it.

I went to the now extinct Tower Records in the Castro and bought the “limited edition” package that included the CD single and a VHS tape of the music video. Even after purging my VHS collection a couple of years ago I still couldn’t bring myself to toss my Extremis tape. It’s an old sentimental favorite that I keep on my shelf of remaining VHS cassettes.

Without further ado here is the dated, sexy, and occasionally ridiculous video of Extremis.

The Truth is Out There,

Rio

Reporting from the front lines of the Mission District

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This is Rio Yañez reporting from the front lines of the Mission District with some photos and chisme straight from the street!

There’s a new comic shop/gallery in the Mission and it just opened last week! Mission Comics and Art is located at 3520 20th street off Mission. The owner Leef was really friendly and we quickly struck up a conversation. It’s inventory is mostly graphic novels as opposed to individual issues, this is a smart business model to me and seems to be the way of the future for comics.

The gallery of Mission Comics and art featured about four different artists. I would love to show some work on these walls.

Somebody is appropriating Annie Sprinkle’s image for street art around the Mission. I found this one on 24th street near Bartlett. Sprinkle is a Bay Area icon and fucking with her is playing with fire if you ask me. I’m curious to see how this story develops. Can anyone confirm if the text says pobresita or pobresito?

Fuck that grizzly bear! The real state icon that deserves to be on the California flag is a pair of Chuck Taylors! I spotted this shirt hung outside one of the many Asian export shops that line 20th and Mission. Whoever designed it is a genius in my opinion. As Cindy Mosqueda mused about Chicanos: We love Chuck Taylor’s. Oh, simple, canvas tenís. Such a timeless sole. The element I identified with the most is the fact that the Chucks are hanging from the heart as if they were flung over a phone wire. Back in the day the phone lines on my block (and blocks throughout the Mission) had dozens of old pairs of shoes hanging from them at any given time. One of the surest signs of gentrification in the Mission during the late 90’s was that there were no more neighborhood kids flinging their old shoes for shits and giggles anymore.

After watching the San Francisco episode of No Reservations I have been very tempted to eat an infamous Cuban Torta from That’s It Market on 23rd and Mission. I used to buy lucha libre magazines from this place and had never thought of actually eating here but now my curiosity has been piqued. Has anyone out there actually eaten a Cuban from That’s It?

I spotted this shirt on 25th and Mission. There are a lot of Nicaraguan festivals coming up all around the Bay Area and the Mission District seems to have caught the fever. For those of you that don’t know, Nacatamales are Nicaraguan tamales with slightly different ingredients. Don’t tell anyone but I like them better than Mexican tamales, shhhhhhh!

And finally, I want to share this video of one of my favorite Mission-based artists Mona Caron. In a moment of hybridity Mona was featured on a recent newscast of VOAchina. I’m excited to see that her work is getting the recognition it deserves. You can see the mural she painted of 24th street that I appear in at 3:36.

That’s it for now. Tune in next time for more news and chisme from around the Mission District!

Peace,

Rio

Feel Good Inc.

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Things are going right all around me. I feel that my job at SOMArts is starting to take shape once again. For the first time in a long time our team is lean, mean, and exciting.

This past week we welcomed our newest employee Ed Varga. Ed is the primary producer of the Homo A Go Go festival and I have him to thank for bringing Girl in a Coma to my place of employment (and for namechecking SOMArts in Butt Magazine, holla!). Ed and his co-producer/partner Corrie put on the most well organized and ass kicking event I’ve ever experienced at SOMArts. The funny thing is that before he was hired, there was a lot of internal discussion at work about what went so right with Homo A Go Go and how we could replicate that with other large-scale events.

I’m really looking forward to working with Ed and hope this all means that Homo A Go Go (and its great crew) will be coming back to SOMArts next year. Welcome to the fam Ed!

Elsewhere, another SOMArts co-worker of mine Dion Decibels was recently photographed by the brilliant Amanda Lopez. Dion is a DJ and audio producer extraordinaire and Lopez is one of my favorite photographers out there. It was great to see the two intersect.

Lastly, I want to give a shout to Jiz Lee. She is a former employee of one of SOMArts’ resident virtual cultural centers and is currently blowing up in the independent porn scene. The following links are for the grown and sexy only, so be warned. I just discovered her blog and news that she’s collaborating with my homegirl (and art subject) April Flores.

I still run into Jiz at SOMArts and events around the city and I’m thrilled at her success. Big ups Ms. Lee!

Peace,

Rio

Emerald Transmission – Witness

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Photo 35Have you ever loved a song that was so obscure that you though you were the only one who has ever heard it and appreciated it?

The hidden gem that I’ve been passionate about since I first listened to it is Witness by Emerald Transmission. For more than a decade I thought I was the only person on the planet to have an appreciation for this song. That illusion was thankfully shattered when I came across this posting on The Color Awesome about Witness.

Emerald Transmission was a Berkeley group that consisted of producer Derek Gee and singer Dora Nicopoulos. They put out two albums although only the second one has Nicopoulos (who sang Witness). Their CDs are pretty rare, it took years of used music store and ebay scouring to get both albums.

I first heard Witness as a track on Live 105’s second Noisy Neighbors Compilation of local bands (this was 1995, circa pre-Clear Channel Live 105 and they were a lot more locally oriented). I instantly loved it. I was 15 at the time and it just seemed so epic and perfectly tuned to my sentimental state of mind. I had a nightly ritual before sleep where I would listen to albums on my Discman (remember those?) as I lied in bed & read comics and the song was often placed on infinite loop.

I put the song on every high school mixtape I made and carried the Noisy Neighbors CD with me anytime I went out with my Discman. It wasn’t until my first year of college that I actually found a used copy of Emerald Transmission’s 1994 album Neptune (used at the now vanished Warehouse on Van Ness). I really liked the whole album but Witness was still my favorite. When Mariela and I first started dating I bought another copy of Neptune and gave it to her as a gift. Even though it wasn’t her musical taste she always humored me whenever I wanted to put it on. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I scored their first album on ebay. I was disappointed with the production and the fact that it featured another singer that wasn’t as good.

Photo 37

I’m in disbelief that this song is over 15 years old. Was 1994 really that long ago? Fuuuuuuuck! I still love Witness with every bone in my body to this very day. If I could ever attribute its influence on another song I would definitely say Swimming Pool by Freezepop. I have no idea where Emerald Transmission, Derek Gee, and Dora Nicopoulos or what they are up to these days but they’ll always have a kid in the Mission District keeping the flame alive.

Here is the song, courtesy of The Color Awesome.

Witness by Emerald Tranmission

Peace,

Rio