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I did it.

I said I didn't see the use -- I already feel 100% natural on the regular Wacom tablet, but watching the demo videos and realizing I could pivot the Cintiq around like an animation board was something I hadn't thought about. I've got a new picture book in the works with old NYC in perspective and I don't use straight edges so I've got to be able to tilt the tablet to draw accurate lines.

Here's how I'm set up, L-shaped desks (actually cheap Ikea dining tables) and my chair with arms removed and set at maximum height. I have a stool under my desk for my feet. I had thought to put the Cintiq straddling both desks (diagonally) and keep the keyboard on the left for typing software shortcuts in Painter/Photoshop -- but decided to go cold turkey and get used to using the Cintiq tabs for the shortcuts I use most often.

My other two concerns in investing in the Cintiq were messing up the screen with my palm (I'm the type to yell "DON'T TOUCH THE SCREEN" if anyone so much as points in the direction of one of my monitors) and secondly, it seems to me that perching bent-necked over a table again is a step backwards in terms of ergonomics. Time will tell. Stay tuned.

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Manuel Ramos

EL CENTRO SU TEATRO
El Centro Su Teatro celebrates 35 years as a Chicano theater company in 2007. The acclaimed and award-winning artistic center and theater troupe has enriched and portrayed Chicano culture and life for more than three decades with highly original plays, poetry slams, music festivals, outdoor movies, a youth art institute, and an ongoing commitment to community involvement and awareness. Here are two upcoming events at this very busy intersection of theater, politics, and creativity.

Bowl of Beings
July 20 -28, Su Teatro presents its adaptation of A Bowl of Beings, written by Culture Class and directed by Hugo Carbajal. Here's what the Cal State Northridge Oviatt Library Culture Class website says about this play:

"The creation of A Bowl of Beings represented another turning point for Culture Clash. On September 7, 1989, Ric Salinas was shot and another actor, George Galvan, was injured in front of Ric's apartment while trying to break up a fight. Salinas sustained near-fatal injuries to his neck, chest, and abdomen, and remained in intensive care for five days. Family, friends, and fans held several benefits to raise money to help pay for Ric's medical expenses. Out of this experience came Culture Clash's A Bowl of Beings, based around themes of Chicano identity, wit, and wisdom. A Bowl of Beings ran for six months at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, and Culture Clash adapted it for television for a 1992 episode of PBS's Great Performances series."

11th Annual Chicano Music Festival and Auction
El Centro Su Teatro presenta the 11th Annual Chicano Music Festival and Auction, August 2 – 5 at El Centro’s North playground, 4725 High Street, Denver. This year’s festival promises to be the most exciting yet, featuring a spread of diverse sounds that have defined the Chicano experience in the American Southwest. It will also mark the Denver return of television and screen star Jesse Borrego (Fame, Con Air, Blood In Blood Out, 24), who will sing alongside his father and their blazing San Antonio band, Conjunto Borrego.

Thursday’s Noche Alternativa will be a late night kickoff event celebrating the new and innovative work of rising stars such as Yuzo Nieto, Joaquin Liebert, and Valarie Castillo.

Friday night’s Noche Tradicional is a commemoration of 19th Century music and a salute to the fifth class of the Musica de Colorado Hall of Fame. Featured performers are San Antonio five-button accordion master Nicolas Valdez presenting his unique style of traditional music and spoken word, from Fort Collins the legendary Grupo Aztlán, with a special acoustic set by Conjunto Borrego.

Saturday’s Pachanga will feature local Colorado roquirolas Jon Romero y Amanecer and headliners Conjunto Borrego. These guys are serving up a spicy South Texas sound straight out of San Antonio’s Westside. And what better way to wrap up the weekend than with a Mariachi celebration featuring the finest mariachis this side of the border? And that’s just the music.

The festival is also home to one of the biggest and best auctions in the Rocky Mountain region. New items are arriving daily, including Broncos (vs. Raiders) tickets, hotel getaways, spa treatments, free dinners, museum passes and more—all in addition to the handpicked selection of stunning visual art by some of the finest artists in the Southwest. Come dance under the stars at the 11th Annual Chicano Music Festival and Auction.

Please call El Centro Su Teatro at (303) 296-0219, or email [email protected] for tickets and schedule information. Also visit www.suteatro.org and www.myspace.com/elcentrosuteatro.

LA AVON LADY READING
Lorraine López will read from Soy la Avon Lady and Other Stories (Curbstone, 2002) at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee, on Tuesday July 17th from 7pm-8pm. Author and Professor Lorraine López will speak at APSU during the Tennesee Young Writers’ Workshop. The reading will be held in the Morgan University Center in room 303. This event is co-sponsored by Humanities Tennessee and the Center for Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University. Lopez also is the author of Call Me Henri, an award-winning young adult novel released by Curbstone in 2006.

CON CONFECTION
Museo de las Américas presents
its summer exhibition, Con Confection, featuring three contemporary artists who have drawn from the traditional art of embroidery to create innovative results.

Artists: Lia Menna Barreto (Brazil), Ana Maria Hernando (Colorado), Carlos Arturo Arias Vicuna (Mexico) and traditional artists from throughout Latin America. Also included in the exhibition is a special documentary video about Brazilian artist Arthur Bispo de Rosario.

Confection, usually defined as an elaborate creation or a sweet combination of materials, is the key to this grouping of artists who use embellishment and decoration in their work. Mixing minimalist values with post-colonial visualizations, the artists of Con Confection thread the memories of tradition with fresh materials and layered meanings.

ARTIST TALK MONDAY JULY 16, 7PM
Lia Menna Barreto, visiting artist from Brazil, presents her past work and new projects.

The Museo is located at 861 Santa Fe Drive, Denver 303.571.4401 Members Free, General $5

¡ASK A MEXICAN!

Gustavo Arellano brought his unique brand of humor and satire to Denver's Tattered Cover on July 11 -- he won over the crowd and sold plenty of books. I liked that he confirmed that all of his facts really are facts based on actual studies, government reports, etc. He also explained that he gets more than thirty questions a week and has more than 180 pages of unused questions, enough to keep his column going for six more years, and that not all of his questions come from racists. Buy his book (¡Ask A Mexican!, Scribner 2007) or read his nationally syndicated column, and learn why Mexicans are known as greasers (page 19); whether menudo really cures hangovers (page 148); and why Mexican cholos call white girls güeras (page 183).

Later.

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Manuel Ramos



AGUA SANTA/HOLY WATER
PAT MORA
University of Arizona Press, September 2007

The University of Arizona Press has announced that it will make available again Pat Mora's celebration of the spirit of women, Agua Santa/Holy Water. As the New York Times noted when the book was first released (1995), "[These] poems are proudly bilingual, an eloquent answer to purists who refuse to see language as something that lives and changes." Texas Books in Review said that these poems "celebrate women, women who are immediate and eternal, serious and humorous, sacred and profane. But always sensual."




Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Arte Público Press, August 2007

Meanwhile, Arte Público announces that the acclaimed mystery novel about the series of murders of young girls around Ciudad Juárez will be released in paperback later this year. This novel won the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery and the 2006 International Latino Book Award for Best Mystery Novel. "Gaspar de Alba not only crafts a suspenseful plot but tackles prejudice in many of its ugly forms: against gays, against Hispanics, against the poor. An in-your-face, no-holds barred story full of brutality, graphic violence, and ultimately, redemption." Booklist




PONIATOWSKA TAKES SPANISH-LANGUAGE PRIZE
My bloga comrade Gina Ruiz recently passed on this announcement:
Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska won the biennial Romulo Gallegos literature prize for a Spanish-language novel for El Tren Pasa Primero (The Train Passes First) (Alfaguara, 2005), which the AP says "tells the story of a railroad worker who becomes immersed in the struggle for labor rights in Mexico." The prize honors the best Spanish-language novel. (Among recent winners, Roberto Bolaño took the prize in 1999.)

ALCALÁ AND ARELLANO AT THE TATTERED COVER

Esteemed Chicana writer and gifted storyteller Kathleen Alcalá will discuss and sign her new book The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing (University of Arizona Press) at the Colfax Avenue Tattered Cover Book Store. "This book is a gem. I am blown away by it. Its essays are original - incredibly, refreshingly original. It is not only a personal journey, it is also a historically significant journey for writers, for Chicanas/os, women, men, and all people interested in the power of what connects us all as humans." -Emmy Pérez, author of Solstice.

"Alcalá displays an intellectual curiosity that has led her to think and write creatively about less personal matters. Her essay on the Opata peoples of Mexico is fascinating, and in another essay, she masterfully blends the harrowing experience of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five young children, with the mythic stories of Mexican folklore." - Publishers Weekly
July 10, 2007 7:30 PM

Gustavo Arellano's ¡Ask a Mexican! column won the 2006 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies award for the best column in a large circulation weekly. Arellano will read from and sign his new book ¡Ask a Mexican! (Scribner). Arellano explores the clichés of lowriders, busboys, and housekeepers; drunks and scoundrels; heroes and celebrities; and most important, millions upon millions of law-abiding, patriotic American citizens and their undocumented cousins who represent some $600 billion in economic power. July 11, 2007 7:30 PM- Historic LoDo


Believe it or not, that's all I got this week. The blogueros and blogueras have been writing and posting at a hot and heavy pace, all excellent, so you don't want to miss any of the great stuff coming up in the next several days.

Later.

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