A.JO.STO

23.1.09

For those who were concerned....

yes me and lew exclusively record using "christian guitars" for that 'heavenly' sound.

why do christians do such weird stuff?

New Recordings

my old timer friend Lewis & I have begun recording music every Thursday. To me, it has become maybe quite possibly the most lovely time of the workweek. I take that back, it is.

After 40-50hrs of laboriousness a week for us both, we've come to crave it. And I think a lot of good has come out, though as a disclaimer (though Lewis says I need to stop doing disclaimers), we are learning and getting better each time.

They are rough drafts but hopefully you like the sketch.

Go to myspace.com/poorfriends to take a listen. The new songs are "Barry" , "Through the Walls" and "I Taught Him That". We'll have one more in a week too which is turning out to be real delicious called "Around The Block"

I just thought of something, if you never listened before then they are all new to you. I guess that's good too.

19.1.09

A Tale of Dreams & Immigration & Gang Violence

In the spirit of MLK, I thought I would write a smidge about dreams. Not to worry, we will somehow cover immigration rights & gang violence as well. I am the queen of transition.

With so many networks streaming headlines like "Obama Achieving 'The Dream' Tomorrow", I think it's legit to mention that Dr. King's message was not one just of political equality. In fact, some would argue it was economic injustice that really fueled his fire.

With 40 million Americans living below the poverty line, I think we might be celebrating a little too soon. Read here to see what a life under the line actually looks like.

The facts and figures speak for themselves. After roughly 50 years we have made little to no progress. According the US Census Bureau, the poverty breakdown is as follows:

2007 - 12.5% of all people, ^[34]including

- 10.5% white people ^[35]
- 24.5% black people ^[36]
- 21.5% all Hispanic people of any race, ^[37] lived in poverty.

Obama's inauguration and future presidency is a huge step for America, but I don't believe Dr. King's dream has come. Nevertheless, we are marching in the right direction.

Speaking of marching.....(see that transition?). Two important American issues are immigration and gang violence. I bring these up because 1) they're inextricably linked to economic injustice and 2) I have the best picture of me with some mexican ninos and a burro. See figure 1. and 3) I have a funny story about both...how you ask...

It was the summer of 2008. The hotest it had been in days. Bern & I had a double date in Venice with some hipster roomates. But there was a conflict of interest.

Our community in solidarity, Boyle Heights, was marching from the Dolores Mission to CIty Hall in Los Angeles protesting the ever-present gang violence that threatens the neighborhood on the same day.

So, we did what any self respecting socially aware women would do...we lied to the boys and said we were sick. Both of us getting sick at the same time you ask? Yes, friends can often get each other sick because of the close proximity to one another. And so we were free. Free to march with our bothers and sisters of LA. Free to tell the city government that we would stand for this violence no more. Free to look fear straight in the eye and say "You have no hold on me".

And as we arrived after a 12 mile march to city hall, we were prepared to do just that. But lo and behold it was much more of an immigration rights march to be sure. Not exactly what we had intended...but I consider myself pretty go with the flow.

So, as a child of a staunch republican family who prays for a wall to be built around our country, I felt invigorated. Sure it wasn't exactly what I had intended to march on...and sure if I hadn't had some elementary spanish knowledge I might have never known we were ill-informed...but something in me was moved that day (bern...I think you know what movement I'm talking about...bahahaa).

And that's how I was tricked into marching in an immigration rights protest on hot day in LA.

Figure 1

5 things

1) These are Huntington Beach cops. They came to chase away our homeless friend sitting with us at coffee. Unless he was, unbeknownst to us, dangerous or threatening, I think that is kind of offensive to assume we wanted them to take him away.

2) I just found this at my parents. It's a Christmas card from Jerome, a guy from our church who is in jail. My stepdad flys to Reno to visit him every two weeks. He says it's his Matt. 25:36. Impressed to say the least.