Sad Truths

This past Super Bowl taught Jefe one of two things:

1) The Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl since Spy Gate.  Coincidence?  Jefe thinks not.

2) Lip syncing (and good choreography) is a lost art form.  Watching the train wreck that was Madonna’s halftime show left Jefe longing for the days of Mili Vanili.

*Editor’s Note: Jefe was a huge Madonna fan back in the day but she hasn’t had a great album (or song) since the Clinton Administration.  So this is what it was like to see Willie Mays at the end of his career playing with the Mets!

Mid-Day Music Break: Mariachi Winter Wonderland

Steve Taylor was a favorite artist/musician of Jefe’s back in the day.  His cynical and often comical views on Christianity was the soundtrack for little Jefe’s life at the time.  Here is one of Jefe’s favorite renditions of Winter Wonderland by one of his idols, Steve Taylor.  Feliz Navidad, hones!

The Little Things

They say, It’s the little things in life that count.  That’s why I always have people from Oaxaca or midgets do my taxes.  -L. Jefe

Mid-Day Music Break: Hungry Like The Wolf

Before Jefe saw Duran Duran, he actually thought they were a Mexican Rock band.  Hell, he even thought Roberto Duran was Mexican.  Jefe’s maternal abuelita was a Duran…but she was Spanish.  Go figure.  Anywados, Duran Duran was one of Jefe’s favorite groups growing up.  Here’s one of his favorite songs.

 

You Are Now Free To Move About The Internet

Just Wondering wrote:

Last week, when I flew, the flight crew guy caught my attention and I think maybe I did a little. I found him on Facebook when I looked up his employer (airline) and I wanted to know if it would come across as weird (stalker) if I add him on Facebook.

J-Dub, let me answer your question with a few questions.  Would you think it weird if somebody looked you up through social media (like Facebook) and then added you on said site?  Would you consider that person to be a stalker or weirdo?  Would you ever consider streaking at the Super Bowl on a dare?  OK, that last one was just testing to see if you were still reading.

With technology being the way it is, everything (and I do mean everything) is just a short click away.  It doesn’t help that TV shows like CSI, NCSI, & Magnum PI, have everybody thinking they can be super sleuths.  I applaud your enthusiasm but you might want to slow your roll.

Does it seem weird or creepy?  Yeah, a little bit but that’s the age in which we live in.  Here’s the biggest problem I see.  By “friending” him on Facebook, you opened yourself to a total stranger.  Let’s just say he accepts you on FB – then what?  What if he is a total creep?  What if he starts stalking you?  Then again, he might just be a total gentleman.  He might just be a really sweet guy.  It’s a double-edged sword.

Seems you already set the wheels in motion so I suggest you proceed with caution.  It’s a crazy world out there and even crazier on the internet.  If I might so suggest – next time you actually see somebody (en vivo) you’re attracted to, try saying “hello”.  I know it’s a foreign concept in today’s world but it might just make things easier.

Submit your questions to: ask_jefe@yahoo.com

Mid-Day Music Break: Fight The Power

Back when Hip Hop was great, Chuck D and Public Enemy ruled the airwaves with a social consciousness that is rarely seen today.  Far and above the rhetoric and politics that many try to use as a path to “stardom”, Public Enemy had great music that got you to move besides think.  Here’s to Chuck D and Public Enemy…#1!

Check Skinny: Remembering Che Still

Funny how finding a picture can unleash all kinds of emotions.  Jefe found the picture above a few weeks ago while cleaning out an old filing cabinet.  In it are two former football players (Brian Head and Che Still) he had coached at their high school graduation. Sadly, Che is no longer with us.

It has been three years to the day since Che was taken away from us in a plane crash.  Below were some thoughts Jefe had about him a few days after he passed.

The look on his face said it all – disbelief, joy, and relief.  Che had just caught a laser of a pass from Lamar Broadway and scored the decisive touchdown of Corona Centennial’s first football CIF championship.  There’s a picture of that moment in Coach Logan’s office.  It was an up and down year for Che because he had so many catches…and so many dropped passes.  Guys on the team would mess with Che and call him “stone hands”.  But that one catch, that one moment, said it all.

I ran into Che at the gym during the summer. He was yoked out!  Not the same skinny kid I remembered coaching.  We talked more than we worked out.  The hour and a half I was supposed to be getting my swole on, I spent talking with Che.  It was great catching up.  He asked if I had seen or talked to any of the guys from the team.  We then talked about the recent Centennial team that just went to the state championship game.  I told him that as good as they were, there was nothing like the first championship team from which he played.

Of course, we talked about that season and the championship game against Elsinore.   Then, Che told me something I never knew about the play where he caught the winning  pass.  Terry Richardson, our All-World wide out, had told Che that the pass would go to him because Terry was going to be double covered.  To me, that spoke volumes because 1)Terry was just a freak of nature – a great athlete who would and could catch everything; 2)Lamar had enough confidence to throw to Che even though he had dropped some passes; and 3)Che knowing that the ball would come his way, had the courage and the confidence to forget past failures and focus on the moment and the goal that was ahead.  That is what heart is about.   That is what Che was about.

I’m going to miss him. His easy smile and soft mannered way. I’m feeling the tears well up even now as I remember giving him a hug and telling him, “I’ll see you soon.”   Soon never came and almost two months later, I’m making plans to go to his funeral.

Life is but a vapor and tomorrow holds no guarantee.  Hold close those who are dear.  Call somebody you haven’t talked to in a while.  Reconcile what needs to be.  Never be afraid to love. 

Dedicated to Che and all former players I have coached.

Meet Chata

Flaunting your ignorance and foolishly excusing it as being opinionated only means you have yet to learn the value of silence and thinking things through.  -L. Jefe

Mid-Day Music Break: Tapatio

You can’t go wrong with this song and video.  En serio, a song that jams and a video with Ranflas and a Cholabilly sighting.  Red Cloud is one of the baddest MC’s Jefe knows.  He’s also one of the funniest vatos around.  Jefe highly suggests catching a Red Cloud gig.  He’s engaging and when he freestyles, he spits hot fiya…or should I say he spits Tapatio!  Pigeon John lends his ecclectic and humorous vibe to this classic cut.

The Güey Back Machine: Fun Fountain & Chunti Slip N Slide

Like any kid in the summer time, Jefe liked to play in the water. Unfortunately for Jefe, he didn’t have a pool.  Up until he was about 5, all Jefe and his siblings had for water sports/recreation was the oscillating sprinkler that was used for both the front and back yards.  It was simple and provided lots of fun but Jefe was a very hyper active child and grew restless with said sprinkler.

One day, Jefe’s jefe brought home “The Fun Fountain”.  You hook up the mangera to the clown chingadera (rhyme intended) and then, voila – water fun and good times!  We would make up games like try to catch the hat while running through the water.  Also, we would try to see how high we could get the hat by blasting the water all the way on.  A funny (and painful) thing a young Jefe learned; you have to be careful running and jumping through a powerful stream of water because your crotch is susceptible to getting nailed.

After a good 4-5 years of summer time abuse, the Fun Fountain was retired.  It was puro plastico and the sun would wear so much on it that it began to crack.   To make matters worse, Jefe’s sister was often invited to her friend’s house to play on her new Slip N Slide and no boys were allowed.  Discouraged but not defeated, Jefe’s mente was devising a plan like Hannibal Smith on the A-Team.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention so Jefe took it upon himself to make his own Slip N Slide.  Jefe became McGyver before that vato was even on TV.  Armed with trash can liners, duct tape and drafting the help of neighbor pal and chum, Kristen,  Jefe made his own chunti slip y slide. 

Laid out on the lush lawn of Kristen’s front yard, the chunti slip y slide was a site to marvel for 10-year-old Jefe and Kristen.  Proud of their accomplishment, they turned on her sprinklers.  Yes, sprinklers plural.  Kristen’s family was white and they had a sprinkler system and not an oscillating sprinkler like Jefe and his familia.  At that time, to have a system was mas chingon because it was like high technology to Mexicans but that’s neither here nor there so I digress.

Hour after hour, Jefe and Kristen played on the chunti slip y slide.  They didn’t care that other kids had the real one.  It was the same thing to them - only difference was that theirs was black and gray compared to yellow.  Unfortunately for Jefe and Kristen, after playing so long on the chunti slip y slide it left a huge matted and muddy mess underneath that Kristen’s mom didn’t appreciate.  We were told we couldn’t play on the chunti slip y slide there. 

Don’t feel bad for Jefe, though.  No need for Sana Sanas.  Jefe’s dad, who was the OG Mexican McGyver, was proud of him and his (albeit chunti) ingenuity and would later get the real Slip N Slide for Jefe and his sister.  Ah, summer time memories in the Güey Back Machine.

Sade & John Legend – Sensations At Staples

Ever since Jefe was a little vato, he has maintained a huge crush on Sade and her music.  What’s not to like about Sade?  She has a natural beauty that is genuine inside and out.  She is extremely sessy without trying.  Her smooth and silky voice hides an incredible range and the way she moves/dances…make you wanna say, Sha-Damn!

Before Jefe continues with his Sade tangent, he must first give his utmost respects to John Legend.  Jefe can admit that he really wasn’t a fan of John Legend.  That all changed after his performance on Saturday.   With an incredible band that featured a terrific horn section and back up singers that would have made Motown session singers proud, John Legend brought forth a soulful and energetic vibe.  It was a performance that beckons veterano’s memories of Marvin Gaye in that is was top-tier musicianship.

Introducing  a new song, Dreams, Jefe was captivated by the pure emotion that poured from Legend’s fingertips onto his piano and the conviction of which he sang.  Lyrically, it is one of the most beautiful songs Jefe has heard.  (Jefe knows love songs, believe that!)  Musically, its beauty is in its simplicity; absolutely gorgeous.  Jefe was a full-blown convert from there on out.

After Legend’s set, Jefe couldn’t stand the anticipation of seeing Sade.  Besides his affection for Sade, Jefe is a huge fan of bassist, Paul Spencer Denman.  Denman has such great feel and his fantastic driving rhythms are staples of Sade’s most famous songs. 

Sade took to the stage and at 52, she puts most 22 year olds to shame.  Sha-Damn, she fine!  She floats around the stage with a sessy ease and grace.  There’s nothing pretentious about this amazing woman.  She pours her heart and soul into each song and teases the crowd with her amazing vocal range.  The sheer humility of which she operates is so refreshing to see that you can’t help but fall deeper in love with her.

Sade and John Legend had tremendous sets that left people not only longing for more, but realizing we witnessed what is missing in most of today’s music: pure musicianship done with class, style and grace.  True beauty still exists in artists and their music.

 

 

 

Love Them Curves, Ladies!

Women, embrace your sessy curves because there’s plenty of vatos out there who want to do the same!  Learn to love yourself first and then you can give the best of your love to others.  -L. Jefe

The NCAA: Need Cash Always Association

Jefe has had it with the monopoly that is the NCAA.  Let’s be real here.  The only reason the NCAA exists is to make sure major colleges and universities keep making money and they don’t ever want to kill that cash cow.  Here’s where the biggest problem lies: The two biggest sports under the NCAA are football and basketball and the powers that be are in collusion with those two sports professional leagues, the evil four letter station (ESPN) and money hungry universities.

The reason there is no NCAA football championship is money.  Why do you think there are so many crappy bowl games at the end of the year?  Every major sport represented by the NCAA has a playoff.  Hell, every football division save division 1 has a playoff. 

The reason why the NCAA basketball tournament is expanding is money.  Outside of football, college basketball (especially during March Madness) garners so much money that every network wants a piece of the action.

Don’t get Jefe started on how the NCAA “polices” their student-athletes.  That in itself is a joke.  You hear of all kinds of scandals involving pay for play athletes in football and basketball but hardly any in say, lacrosse or tennis.  Why is that?  Because football and basketball are big business and they rake in dollars for universities in the millions.

The mess that is going on in places like USC, Ohio State and Miami is really nothing new.  Terrell Pryor jerseys have brought in over 20 million dollars to Ohio State.  Does Pryor see a cut of that money?  “Oh but he gets a free  education”…ok, does that add up to the amount of money he brought to the university?  CHALE!  Jefe is not saying education isn’t important but when you got all of these athletes getting paid or looking to get paid, which is an NCAA violation (mind-boggling I know), you have to wonder who is policing the police.

You know what sport pays its players the most?  It’s not football nor is it basketball.  Baseball falls second to soccer.  Yes soccer.  European clubs pay kids as early as seven years old to join their training academies.  Golfers can go pro as early as 16; tennis players turn pro as early as 15; baseball players as early as 17.  So why do football and basketball players have to wait?  Football and basketball don’t have developmental leagues and most important, universities would lose out on the millions (if not billions) of dollars college football and basketball generate.

Jefe doesn’t have all the answers for fixing college football or basketball but why not let kids choose their own path.  If they want to play in the NFL or NBA, let them.  Set a hard rookie cap and after four years (in which would have been spent in college) you pay them according to their progress and growth.  I guarantee you that you will see kids discouraged from making the jump to pros when they see how hard it is.  Yes, there is the occasional Kobe, Garnett and Lebron that actually make it but you gotta kill the monopoly that the NCAA has and the hypocrisy of their “virtue through academics and athletics.”  Somebody is getting paid and often than not, it’s the NCAA.  Jefe calls BS on those pendejos, boosters, corporations, networks (especially the evil 4-ESPN), and greedy universities.

Sofia Love: Teacher Taking Calls

If you mix Dr. Ruth, Dr. Drew,  and sprinkle in a little bit of Anne Hathaway along with some latina spice to give an extra kick, you’d have Miss Sofia Love.  More than looks, this brainy and sessy latina is poised to make her radio debut, live, this Friday (August 19) on Sirius/XM Channel 102.  She will be taking your calls on Playboy Radio’s newest segment: Ask Sofia Love-Your Favorite Sex Ed Teacher.

To kick off this new segment, Sofia Love will be having breakfast at The Orange County Mining Co. (shameless plug) in Orange, Califas.  Jefe recommends you take a trip to the OCM Co. and get some breakfast grub and enjoy the live show. 

If you have any questions about life, love or especially le sex, be sure to drop a line to Sofia Love at 877-205-9796.  She will be on the morning show at 8am.  Be sure to listen in and tell your amigos!  L. Jefe has spoken.

Mid-Day Music Break: All Apologies

You ‘member when Nirvana came on the scene?  ‘Member?  You ‘member!  They were like nothing we had ever heard before.  Too bad Kurt Kobain was cuckoo for Coco Puffs.  Still, they were pretty bad ass and their music lives on.

Ain’t No Party Like Angela Aderholt’s Party

If you are looking for an event coordinator, specifically – a wedding coordinator, you need look no further than Events by Angela Aderholt.  This is not just a shameless plug that Jefe is doing.  It is a recommendation of the highest order that you check out Events by Angela Aderholt because you will not be disappointed.If you or any friends are getting married or thinking about getting married, you know that there are a lot of details that go into planning a wedding.  Why not let somebody else worry about all the particulars that go into your special day?  That’s what Events by Angela Aderholt provide.  So much goes into preparing for a wedding that it can prove to be mentally draining.  Why put yourself and your spouse-to be through such stress when you can have Events by Angela Aderholt take care of your special day.

With pre-set packages available, Events by Angela Aderholt can also create custom packages as well.  As owner Angela Aderholt says, With every wedding being unique, I want to ensure the bride & groom get everything necessary for their special day! 

In a world that is driven by the bottom line, it is refreshing to see somebody that actually cares about their clients.  Check them out today and be sure to tell your family and friends!   Tell them Jefe sent you.

http://www.facebook.com/eventsbyangelaaderholt  angela.aderholt@ymail.com

 

Mid-Day Music Break: Twistin’ The Night Away

This little diddy from the legendary Sam Cooke is sure to get your toes tappin’.  What better way to start a new week, que no?  Enjoy and have a great week!

Comic Con – Halloween’s Dress Rehearsal

Believe it or not, Jefe always looks forward to Comic Con.  The annual nerd convention draws thousands from around the world; most often in exquisite costume.  Women have seemingly taken their love for dressing slutty…er, uh – dressing up to a whole new level.  Comic Con has become the dress rehearsal for Halloween. 

Not that Jefe is complaining but this years crop of nerdy hynas haven’t lived up to some of the ones in the past.  Below, you will find some of this years Comic Con Hynas mixed in with some from the past.  Honestly, Jefe has no clue about some of the characters that are being represented.  Jefe has taken a cue from his comic-loving readers and decides that fantasy world is pretty cool…even if it’s only for a weekend in San Diego.

You can never really go wrong with Princess Leia from Return Of The Jedi.  When Jefe was eight and saw Leia in Jabba The Hut’s lair - space bikini and in chains, he hit puberty. 

I really have no idea what comic or movie these two are representing and much like the nerds that flock to comic con, Jefe doesn’t really care.  Just another proof that women look for any kind of excuse to dress slutty and have guys gawk at them.  Thank God for low self-esteem!

America, F’ Yeah!  There will always be a special place in Jefe’s heart for Wonder Woman; most notably, Linda Carter.  Ay mamacita!  You couldn’t pry little Jefe from the TV when Wonder Woman was on.  These two pay homage but the one in the background looks a little upset.  Some wear the costume a little better, I guess.  No need to hate.

This joker (actually Riddler) has his hands full with these hynas.  Looks like a newer version of Wonder Woman is next to him.  Next to WW, appears to be Poison Ivy.  Rounding out the group is some kind of  hooker who obviously went to the wrong convention.

This is what happens when Disney meets Trailer Trash.  Life lesson: Stay away from cheap booze and carga; your body and our eyes thank you.

 

 

Here are a few of the best from past Comic Cons.  As you will see, they are a few notches above this years crop.  Jefe is not complaining so don’t get it twisted.  Enjoy yo’self, it’s a celebration! 

The description for this hyna was Hot Patch.  To be honest, Jefe didn’t even know she was wearing a patch to begin with.

Rikku is a character from some video game, I think.  Not that Jefe cares for that matter.

Jefe would definitely read this character’s comic.  She is a comic character, right?

 

 

The Ballad of Amy Winehouse

Jefe has had two friends tell him straight out, “I’m an addict.”  Those very frank and sincere admissions and the talks that ensued changed Jefe and the way he thought about people who struggle with addiction.  You see, Jefe thought people with addictions were weak-minded and had no self-control.  It may sound cliché but it is true, addiction is a disease. 

When the news of Amy Winehouse reached Jefe, he wasn’t surprised in the sense of being judgemental or condescending.  No, he just knew that her time was finally up.  Addicts live on borrowed time.  We all do, really.  It’s just that their time is slightly accelerated. 

My heart breaks for the family and friends of Miss Winehouse because I know that it could have been my friends or even family.  Beyond the talent that was ravaged, there was a song that was re-written.  It is a song that has so many verses it will probably never be finished.  They are different verses but yet they share a truth of life and death.  It’s up to the person who writes their verse to change the tune and lyrics in order to give themselves a chance at living.  All we can do is hope and pray and maybe just like Jefe learned, listen.  It might not change the addict but it will at least show them that somebody cares.  Maybe that will be the strength they need to give them the impetus to change and heal.  Rest in peace, Amy.

Mid-day Music Break: Tony! Toni! Tone! Double Play

Watching Raphael Saadiq on the ESPYS got Jefe thinking about some of his favorite songs from his time with Tony! Toni! Tone!  There were so many favorites that Jefe couldn’t settle on just one.

Leavin

The Blues