Jun15

leon loft.

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what a lovely experience – attending a taping of singer-songwriter Devon Gilfillian performing at *The Leon Loft, featuring soulful songs from his new album Love You Anyway , a bit of Marvin Gaye, and some of his other favorite originals, all while chatting with  local radio’s Rob Reinhart in between songs. a portion of the session aired live on ann arbor’s 107one and will air later, in its entirety, on Rob’s Acoustic Café show. this was an intimate setting, 75 seats, perfect acoustics, all close to the stage, tickets won on-air or by invite only, an eclectic mix of music lovers. meeting up outside, then moving in to share this space and time on a weekday afternoon.

—

“art is how we decorate space; music is how we decorate time.”

-jean-michel basquiat

—

*At Leon, we mix art with audio, design with technology, and business with bohemia. We’re a group of artists, designers, engineers, and craftsmen who are dedicated to producing the finest quality bench made American audio. For over 20 years, we’ve been meticulously handcrafting a full palette of custom speakers and technology concealment solutions that bring sound + style to any space. Leon products are available world-wide, exclusively at high-end audio/video retailers. And because music is our first love, we have a dedicated performance space, the Leon Loft, at our headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In this intimate, live performance venue, we’ve had the privilege of welcoming some of today’s biggest recording artists for a live recording of Acoustic Cafe with Rob Reinhart. For more information about the Leon Loft, visit leonloft.com

Jun14

“i’m spicy and i’ve got skills.” – pascal siakam.

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( those of you who know me or read me,

know that flamin’ hot cheetos are my fav snack.)

Eva Longoria makes her film directorial debut with “Flamin’ Hot” — a feel-good story of how a Mexican American janitor rose through the ranks at Frito-Lay and was the brains behind the wildly popular and spicy Flamin’ Hot Cheetos corn snack.

“People think it’s about the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto but it’s about the life of Richard Montañez,” Longoria told the Australian television show “Today.”  “He came up with this brilliant idea to put chili on chips for the Hispanic market and today Flamin’ Hot is the No. 1 snack in the world and it’s a multibillion-dollar industry that transcends snacks.”

The comedy-drama biopic distributed by Searchlight Pictures is based on Montañez’s first memoir, “A Boy, a Burrito, and a Cookie: From Janitor to Executive,” that details his humble beginnings from growing up in a migrant labor camp in Southern California and living in a one-bedroom apartment with his parents and 10 siblings to selling drugs on the streets of East Los Angeles, mopping the floors at Frito-Lay’s Rancho Cucamonga plant and building a career that spanned more than 40 years at PepsiCo.

Longoria admitted she was ashamed of not knowing Montañez’s story until she read the script. “I was like, ‘How do I not know this? He’s Mexican American like me. I love Flamin’ Hot.’ So it was like the flavor you knew, but the story you didn’t, and so I was immediately inspired and I thought, ‘Everybody should know this story. There are so many lessons we can learn from his life.”

Jesse Garcia as Richard Montañez in the movie Flamin' Hot.
Jesse Garcia as Richard Montañez in the movie “Flamin’ Hot.”

While Montañez’s story has become an inspirational tale of Latino entrepreneurial success, Frito-Lay disputed the claims that he created the spicy line of Cheetos, calling his version of the story an “urban legend,” and stating that he “was not involved,” according to an investigation by The Los Angeles Times in 2021.

That same year, Montañez reaffirmed his story with his second memoir “Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive.”

The film’s producers were informed by Frito-Lay of these allegations in 2019 before production but moved forward with the project. Longoria’s film does include nods to the possibility of the Flamin’ Hot flavor being developed in the Midwest at the same time. Frito-Lay credits Montañez with playing a “key role in accelerating the growth of our Flamin’ Hot Brand,” according to its website

“Flamin’ Hot” is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+.

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“a good spicy challenge strikes a balance between flavour and fear.”

-adam richman

 

—

source credit: edwin flores, NBC Latino. Searchlight Pictures

Jun13

youth.

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a sure sign –

a bike hurriedly tossed on its side

no doubt someone excited to play

if i had to guess

i’d say there is a child on summer vacation

somewhere nearby.

 

—

“youth comes but once in a lifetime.”

-henry wadsworth longfellow

Jun12

’tis time for festivals and celebrations.

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a lot to celebrate

in recent days

 kicking off the city’s summer festival season with a funk band

elementary school moving up ceremonies

 baseball game for a birthday

 wedding shower lunch

 high school graduation party

 happy to be a part of it all.

“the greatness of a culture can be found in its festivals.”

-siddharth katragadda

Jun11

where does the rainbow end?

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After their LGBTQ pride flag was stolen twice in recent weeks, a pair of Ann Arbor churches are responding the only way they know how — giving away more flags.

St Aidan’s Episcopal Church and Northside Presbyterian Church, which share a building in Ann Arbor, are launching a “Need A Flag, Take A Flag” event today. The event will feature 300 LGBTQ pride flags and allow anyone in need of a flag  to take home their own handheld versions.

Although the event is in part a Pride Month celebration, the inspiration for it comes from the theft of the churches’ own flags. On April 3, church leadership received an email saying someone had removed the flag and thrown it into the bushes. On June 1, the churches reported the replaced flag had been stolen completely.

“I still haven’t found it,” said the Rev. Thomas Ferguson, vicar at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church. The Rev. Jenny Saperstein, pastor at Northside Presbyterian Church, told Ferguson, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that whoever took it must have needed a flag. “She said, let’s answer this with something positive,” Ferguson said.

The churches, which often partner on social justice issues, will have 300 flags available and plan to order more if they run out. Launching the event on a Sunday allows the entire congregation to get involved with the advocacy, Saperstein said. “It’s really this church community that stands for that,” Saperstein said. “Not just the pastors.”

Hearing affirming messaging from churches is especially important for marginalized communities. “We’ll hope to change hearts and minds with love,” Ferguson said. “We’re not going away, and we’re not changing our stance here with the oppressed.”

—

Donde termina el arco iris,
en tu alma o en el horizonte?

Where does the rainbow end,
in your soul or on the horizon?

― Pablo Neruda, The Book of Questions

 

—

source credit: jordyn pair, mlive, ann arbor news

Jun10

prints.

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when i went to have my fingerprints redone

as part of a routine teacher employment screening

that happens every few years

i wasn’t really prepared

for the fingerprint tech

with her no-nonsense voice

barking out my name from a backroom

where i was waiting with a random group of people,

“BETH!”

walking in

she began talking at me

through her plastic protection shield

telling me to relax

big, scary nails

shaking out my hands

i tried to connect with a bit of small talk

telling me not to tell her anything

not printed on my paperwork

or i’d have to start the process all over again

beginning with making a new appointment

telling me not to ask her to repeat anything

just do what i was told

“are you hearing what i’m telling you?”

“kind of..”

from that point on

she spoke at me using an even louder voice

former military/law enforcement/bad prison experience?

was i going to have to drop and do 100 push-ups?

i feel like she has a story..

almost felt like it was a hazing

or a police sting operation

did they know about my parking ticket from way back in grad school

that may have gone unpaid

when i was hoping for amnesty?

—

“values are like fingerprints. nobody’s are the same, but you leave ’em all over everything you do.”

-elvis presley

Jun9

greenhorn.

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one of my favorite teacher gifts ever

a big, colorful, ceramic unicorn

chosen and painted by a student

body painted green, my favorite color

eyes painted yellow, her favorite color

accents painted black, because they look cool

and a unicorn

because it was a gift straight from the heart.

—

p.s. i named it ‘greenhorn’ because it looks like it has magical powers

 

—

“be a unicorn in a field full of horses.”

-author unknown

Jun8

forever.

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school’s out. 

 

—

“today is the first and last day of forever.”

-stephanie meyer

 

Jun7

bye, george.

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one of my all-time favorite musicians, george winston, has passed away
—
i first ‘discovered’ george many years ago when on a road trip to toronto and heard one of his beautiful songs on the radio. i had no idea what the song was, or who the musician was, but i wanted to find out. when i arrived in toronto, i asked my friend who worked for a record company to help me figure it out. i tried to describe what i had heard, but i’m sure it didn’t translate, and we never figured it out. before i left. she gave me a pile of cd’s  to listen to on the way home, that different record company reps had given her. imagine my surprise, when his song was featured on a windham hill compilation cd she had given me, and i found that it was george winston playing ‘thanksgiving,’ the very music i had heard and loved. from then on i was hooked, and listened to everything i could get my hands on.
years later, i finally had the opportunity to see him play in person and it was the most amazing thing. the stage was silent, he walked out quietly in his socks, made a gentle bow to the audience, sat at his piano and played incredibly beautiful music for the next two hours. a shy and humble man, a natural talent, and a very generous and giving soul, even when quietly fighting his own battles. he will be greatly missed by many, but his music will live on.
—
Notes from his site:
*We are deeply saddened to share the news that George Winston has passed away after a 10-year battle with cancer. George quietly and painlessly left this world while asleep on Sunday, June 4, 2023. George courageously managed serious cancers, including having a successful bone marrow transplant for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) in 2013 at City of Hope, in Duarte, California, that gratefully extended his life by 10 years. Throughout his cancer treatments, George continued to write and record new music, and he stayed true to his greatest passion: performing for live audiences while raising funds for Feeding America to help fight the national hunger crisis along with donating proceeds from each of his concerts to local food banks. Across an illustrious career spanning more than 50 years, George’s music first became known and loved by his fans with the release of his two most iconic albums, Autumn (1980) and December (1982). George’s recordings evolved with the times while garnering a GRAMMY Award for Forest (plus five GRAMMY nominations) and selling over 15 million albums. George touched the hearts of generations with his acclaimed solo acoustic piano compositions. From his early days in Montana, Mississippi and Florida, to his later life living in the San Francisco Bay Area and touring to cities worldwide, America’s beautiful landscapes and natural seasons shaped his singular instrumental folk piano. With 16 solo piano albums to his name, George recorded brilliant piano music, which includes tribute recordings for Vince Guaraldi, The Doors, a Hurricane Katrina relief benefit, Gulf Coast and Louisiana Wetlands benefits, September 11 benefit, a cancer research benefit for City of Hope, the Peanuts episode “This Is America Charlie Brown: The Birth Of The Constitution,” among others. George’s legacy includes his beloved catalog as well as an archive of his own acoustic guitar and harmonica recordings, and albums by an array of Hawaiian slack key artists on his own record label, Dancing Cat Records. George is pre-deceased by his parents, George and Mary Winston, and is survived by his sister, niece and nephew.
The family of George Winston will hold a private memorial service. For donations in memory of George Winston, please visit:
Feeding America:
City Of Hope Cancer Center:
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center:
Jun6

our part.

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“love football – hate racism”

well done.

 

—

“ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year.

ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term.

ours is the struggle of a lifetime,

or maybe even many lifetimes,

and each of us in every generation must do our part.”

-*john lewis

 

*John Lewis was an American politician, civil rights leader, and Medal of Freedom awardee who served in the House of Representatives from 1987 until his death in 2020.