cheers to the birthday boy and 32 years of living!!!

Happy birthday to Pa Ulyos!!! This will be the first birthday in a long long time that his mama and papa get to celebrate with and prepare mucho comidas para el.

This moment is definitely worth celebrating. Gracias a Dios!

happy thanksgiving

to our grandparents (ancestors) and parents, thank you for teaching us well… your guidance made us who we are…i had pulled these photos of Obama with his grandfolks from both sides a while back and wasn’t sure what to do with them. then it hit me that they would be perfect as part of our Thanksgiving homage. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all! MwAhs!!!

Papa’s Intrepid Journey

Last Saturday, despite a nasty hangover from a night out in JC, Julius and I took Papa to see the Intrepid warship museum in Manhattan. Papa, like tatay and many male elders who were born during or right after WWII, love their piece of war history. Papa mentioned how the USS Intrepid voyaged through Leyte Gulf. A few years back, I wrote an article about U.S. militarization and colonization and how warships were memorials to their power and the loss of power to those they “conquered”.

For papa’s own long journey to the States—waiting for visa clearance due to many years of work in Libya, a Middle Eastern country—welcome to a less intrepid journey here in America.

love not h8te

Photos of our own mini-protest here in chilltown JC to follow. Enjoy these other pix from saturday’s nationwide protest for glbt equality (Hawaii and NYC below; Cali above). With the Obama victory, sexual minorities find that their time has come. 

 

Halloween 2008 + a letter from Lady Bunny to Red States

“DEAR RED STATES,

We intend to form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren’t aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all of the Northeast.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss. We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families, including same-sex ones.  We will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals.

 With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country’s fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95 percent of America’s quality wines, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy people believe you have higher morals then we lefties.

 

Peace out,

Blue States

First Hawaiian-born + Black President of the U.S.!!!

Waiting for the election returns was excruciatingly stressful for me. After eight years of failed Bush policies, so much was at stake in this election!!! So Julius and I decided to attend, with Camille, the Storefront for Art + Architecture’s pro-Obama event on election night. That was one magical experience—seeing the young progressive arts community celebrate the Obama victory!!!

 

First Black and Hawaiian-born president of the U.S. Obama represents the multicultural heritage of America. 

To those of you who refused to be open to the possibilities of change that Obama and his young supporters represent, may you be humbled. As per CNN poll, 18% of this election’s voters were ages 18-29 an and overwhelming 66% of them supported Obama! Moreover, almost 30% of this election’s voters were ages 30-44 and at least 53% of us voted for Obama. Much to the fear that young voters will NOT deliver, WE PROVED THEM WRONG!!! WE DELIVERED!!!

America, red or blue, has spoken. Obama’s inroads into traditionally red states like Virginia and North Carolina speaks millions to the demographic change that has transformed the electoral map—this includes the ever-rising Latino (including Filipinos) and Asian vote. Below was the “snaking” line when I voted on election day. There was also an Asian American voter survey.

 

The above photo was taken on Halloween, a few days before the election, in front of a poster of Obama superimposed on an image of the other Illinois-based U.S. president and slave-emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. 

PARTIES + CELEBRATIONS

This was like having one of our sports team win. This was a night of drinking and celebration!!! The partying continues…despite the hateful ballot measures in many states, including California’s Proposition 8, banning same-sex couple’s right to love which may pass. Booo!!! 

Lucky Number 8

Julius and I have the number 8 and symbol of infinity tattooed on our backs. This has always been our lucky number. So what further affirmation than Obama winning in 2008! More interestingly, he took away and turned blue a total of 8 states that were previously red (Republican or voted for Bush in 2004): 3 Southern states—Virginia, North Carolina and Florida!!!; neighboring Indiana and Ohio; and heavily Latino states:Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico!!!