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Viewing 1 - 5 out of 5 Blogs.
For those of you who had the pleasure of seeing The Orange House at Buddy's. Lizard Joe's Party Weekend or at the Guerra de Bandas in Merida, I thought I would share the following:
Late last night we received a call from The Orange House who informed us that René S. Franco López (singer for The Orange House) had passed away of cancer which he has been battling since childhood. For some reason one of our first thoughs upon hearing the sad news was "Only The Good Die Young" As we thought about it more we knew why those words came to mind.
René S. Franco López was
A good son - we were privileged to view childhood photos of René that recorded some of his earliest accomplishments and adventures which were many including trips to Canada where he was inspired to learn and play Americana style music.
A good man, who cared about others more than himself
A good friends, who always had a ready smile and compassionate hug
A good talent, who put his heart and soul into the music he sang
A good eater, who cold choke down my BBQ tamales and rum cakes
Although we only knew René a short timem we feel blessed to have known him at all and honored to have called him our amigo. Our hearts are joyful knowing that our and the Yolisto community's foundness of his music and screams of "Orange House" during the Guerra de Banda put a smile on his face and a warmth in his heart just as our memories of René puts a smile on our face and a warmth in our heart.
Over the past months as René got sicker, we prayed for him. We will miss René but we are happy that his pain and suffering has ended and we have fait that his spirit is full of joy we will never know ntil we join him.
We now turn our thoughts and prayers towards his family and friends who are left to face the pain and suffering in their hearts. We pray that when they remember René, it will bring a smile to their face. Maybe some sadness will be part of the smile but his memory should bring a smile all the same. We pray the emptiness in their souls wil be filled with joyful memories and override the anger over the suffering René had to endure since childhood.
René S. Franco López Resto en Paz mi amigo Gracias por la alegría que usted trajo a nuestras vidas Cuando le recordamos tendremos siempre una canción en nuestros corazones
The Christmas tamale tradition, was alive and well back in our home in Texas for as long as I have known my wife. Tamales themselves have always been a holiday tradition in our myown family with tamales being sold by the dozen every December with no shortage of customers.
Why you ask?
I am not sure what the linkage is between tamales and the Christmas/New Year HolidaySeason, but one theory is tamales take so much work that people can only handle making them once a year:)
Another theory is that given Tamales date back to Aztec days (15th century maybe earlier?) and have always been served at large festivals and celebrations given the labor intensive effort required to make them the tradition has over time become associated with the Christmas/New Year Holiday season when family and friends are gathered together.
Of course there is also speculation that the timing is due to the holidays coinciding with the traditional hog-slaughtering season, meaning there was plenty of lard available to make masa.
This was our first Christmas away from family and old friends where we usually cranked out about 40 dozen tamales but thanks to some new good friends, we were able to keep the tradition alive here in the Yucatan. Christmas eve 4 of our new friends joined us for a tamale making party. We used Grandma Marie's recipe just like every other year making 5 dozen tamales, a dozen for each couple and two dozen to eat.
Inspired by our continuing tradition, we continued to make tamales, makeing 35 dozen in total. We offered the extras for sale and sold the first 10 dozen. We still have about 15 dozen we are offering for sale at $80 pesos per dozen or 2 dozen for $150 pesos
For the uninitiated, the tamale-making process is as follows:
It is worth it, though, there is pretty much nothing better to cure middle of the night munchies. Not to mention the fact that there is something awesome about making your own tamales.
Anyone else wonder about the sea foam that is all along our beaches today?
The large accumulation of foam on the beach is simply the remnants of waves after they have broken during a storm. Sea foam is basically made of air bubbles eparated by a film of liquid. Foam is produced when air is mixed into liquid. Most of the foam washed up on our beches is produced by breking waves that forces ir into the sea water. The air is not stable in the sea water and rushes out in the form or many tiny air bubble or foam.
Even though the foam may look dirty and may have an oily looking sheen, sea foam is usually harmless. There are chemical compounds in sea water, known as organic compounds, that cause the foam to be long lasting and durable. Additionally, even some of the salts in seawater may help to trap the air into bubbles, and eventually foam. Fine particles of sediment may attach themselves to the foam bubbles, giving it a dirty appearance.
Maybe you saw it yesterday, the big white boat with PEACE on the side?
The Peacboat Peace Boat's 67th Global Voyage departed from Japan on August 26 2009, to visit 21 ports on a 108 day route including travelling through both the Suez and Panama Canals. The education and advocacy programmes during the voyage focus on the roots of poverty and efforts currently being undertaken to create a society that is sustainable, both environmentally and economically. Participants learn, witness and take action on issues of poverty both in the ports they visit along the way as well as in their home countries.
Read more at http://www.peaceboat.org/english/index.html
Tickets for Chelem's first annual PARTY WEEKEND with Joe King Carrasco Labor Day weekend (Sept 4-6) at Hotel Las Garzas in Chelem Yucatan Mexico are ON SALE NOW!!!
Your ticket price includes food, beer, Budaritas (tequila and pina juego) and the high energy music of Joe King Carrasco where dancing is numero uno priority.
You can purchase 1 or 3 day event tickets at lizardjoes.com
Since the early 1980's Joe King Carrasco has been the toast of Texas as the crown regent of the "nuevo wavo" crowd. In 1978 he released an LP titled Tex-Mex Rock & Roll with his band El Molino was re-released by Big Beat Records. Elvis Costello remarked in the press that it was "better than the Police".
In 1980 Joe and his new band, The Crowns, released their first single, Party Weekend, The band became one of the first American groups signed to England's legendary Stiff Records and toured extensively throughout Europe, Central America, Bolivia and Columbia as well as across the USA and Canada, consistently delivering high energy performances.
Rounding out his assault on the International music scene with an in-depth interview in Rolling Stone Magazine and an appearance performing his music on Saturday Night Live. His song Party Weekend which is still known as the quintessential party anthem, was re-released by MTV as Party Christmas, making Joe King Carrasco a household name to MTV viewers across the country.
It was on the Stiff Records, Sons of Stiff Tour, while traveling with a British-born Jamaican band called The Equators, that Joe picked up much of his reggae influence. After returning from a very successfull year on the road, he put this experience to work and recorded the reggae flavored song "Don't Let a Woman (Make a Fool Out of You)" on his album Synapse Gap for MCA Records where he had the late King of pop, Michael Jackson, singing background harmonies.
Joe's music is enhanced with an even greater Latin influence after living and studying in Nicaragua in the mid 1980's. His songs dealt with the unjust political situation of that period in Central America, and the resulting albums were; "Bordertown", "Bandido Rock" (off of which the song "Pachucco Hop" was recorded by the French group Mano Negra on thier first platinum selling CD), and "Royal Loyal & Live" (with the only live recording of the hit song Party Weekend).
Several years ago, His Majesty took a few left turns at Nogales and wound up playing with his band at a bar called Pancho y Lefty's in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. There, the Tex-Mex fell into a slow cool cumbia/reggae groove. This style seemed to be the musical answer to what Joe had been searching for from the Mayan pyramids to the shores of Lake Titicaca. This mystical conbination of Latino and Caribbean, with a little bit of Sam The Sham thrown in for a spicy flavor, has evolved into a style Joe has termed "tequila reggae". This influence can be felt
In early 1996 Joes' song Tell Me was recorded by The Texas Tornados, and sung by Freddy Fender, on their latest CD. His music has been placed on numerous movie soundtracks including Tin Cup starring Kevin Costner, Breathless with Richard Gere, James Gardners' Rockford Files, and more. In August of 2008 Joe recorded with Auggie Meyers and Flaco Jimenez, of The Texas Tornados, on a soon to be released tribute cd to Doug Sahm
These last few years he has acted in countless independent films and has become an up and coming filmmaker, with his first directed feature, ??Rancho No Tengo? to be released this year. The soundtrack, with its ??West Texas Style,? and all original songs, written by Joe, is being released at the same time.
With thousands of live performances under his belt, a dozen albums to his credit, and fans circling the globe, it's little wonder Joe King Carrasco is still the #1 party act on the planet.
Given this seasoned songwriter's catalogue, the each performance of this 3 day event will be unique. Based on the success of this event, we hope to make this an annual event and potentially engage other "Austin" talent periodically in an effort to bring a little NOB tourism to our area in the off season and quality entertainment for both the expat and local community. Tags: Concert |
