Memories: March 30th, 2012

It begins on a Friday, Friday the 30^th of March 2012, with a relatively big tribute to Dio and Ozzy Osbourne, comparing it with El Foro which is one of the biggest structures for such an event. This bar, the TJ Art & Rock Café, I visit the most now after my confrontation with a dog at the other bar I swore to help in any way possible… sadly betrayed but not angry, why would anyone be angry because of that when you can always walk away. That went well, a bit mashed up, a bit wet, never one to miss on a nice mosh pit, always ready and I was about ready to go speak to someone but then I examined my surroundings. “Got too much meat around that fridge, fuck it I’m out”

I also got the tickets for that Transmetal gig we’re having on April the 20^th that Gustavo wants to go see so badly but apparently they don’t have some sort of seal or mark which they’ll put in next week when the guy in charge of the tickets returns with more of them.

Got home at 3 in the morning, had to check some stuff, found some of the guys still up and doing some play testing on someone’s house, Napo I believe it was, for the games we were to setup at 8 AM for a convention called Com Com… we had approximately 3 hours of sleep, when I speak of ‘we’ I mean most of the crew because apparently we all coordinated in a subconscious level and decided to get drunk and deprive ourselves of much needed sleep that not even a shower, hot coffee and some Taquitos de Birria could fix, yeah not even the salsceado ones and don’t look at me weird because of that. Stomach and throat are burning up… I hate gastric acid.

This place is relatively big, the biggest convention probably ever made for this kinda deal, and I dare compare it to Comic-Con International only because I see the possibility of it outgrowing the facility and bringing in more cash and people that ever before which, for this city, is good as we have always lived from the tourism. Getting there was a bit of an adventure and I found it funny at first that there was only another person, Springa, from our Role-playing Group, Tijuana RPG, present. Nevertheless we did our setup but found that we had no chairs or tables for that matter, apparently there was a lack of them everywhere but the staff was clever enough to get us some round tables and chairs plus water, because you can never have enough water for such a thing as being a Game Master.

9 AM and Zilvan arrives telling us that Napo and Rudy are outside waiting to do check in, Rosales and his brother, Luis, came later on with the rest of the stuff and the Dragon head. Alex and Toño, Emmet, who arrived considerably late, and Badilla, who was just playing and chatting around, it was a long day but it was fun as hell to get everything assembled and see people interested in Role-Playing games.

The fifteen tables in front of us have the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card game, should have brought my old deck but I’m sure they would have told me to “Fuck off and die in a fire with my legacy cheap one shot kill deck”.

1 PM and I’m exhausted of pulling people onto the tables, which to our surprise were actually full, brimming with people, we never expected these many, for once I am glad our theory of no one being interested in this wasn’t right at all. Napo, Springa and Emmet saw the most traffic, playing seven tables during the entire duration of the event, then Zilvan saw two or three, Alex saw two tables but they lasted somewhere around two hours, then Toño had two tables, Rosales had one early in the morning and I had two tables by the late part of the day, finally Rudy had no tables because he could never get the idea of Sailor Moon rolling there… no questions asked there. We covered all our bases and by the end of the day everything was said and done, we were tired, hung over, we hadn’t really eaten that much, there wasn’t any water left, we were pumped on sugar, nicotine and adrenaline, our voices boomed for ten hours, some were sweating, we got enough attention for people to interview the group, we were on the map now, no seriously we were on the map of the convention area, but most importantly we were now on the main radar and people now more than ever know that there is a group of Table Top Role-players who gather every Sunday from 1 to 6 PM on an abandoned plaza for our favorite games for no charge, memberships or fees.

Of interest, and for those who may want to know, the running tables were Star Wars D20 by Alex, Generic Dungeons and Dragons 4^th Edition by Zilvan and that other guy who I can’t remember his name, I have no clue what Rosales was doing but I can imagine something like “…And you find an elite mind flayer riding a beholder…”, Napo was running a homebrew of Diablo II on Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, Emmet was running a homebrew version of Final Fantasy Tactics, which was absolutely awesome and he had to make from scratch since the system was no existent for a table top, Toño was running Metal Gear Solid on an unknown system but the setting he had was awesome, which makes me sad because he only had the two tables with two players, Springa was running Slayers D20 with an awesome setup he took half an hour to make, which in no way takes credit away from Emmet or Napo who also took their respective amount of time to build their environments, I was running a homebrew version of X-COM: Enemy Unknown/Ufo Defenses using the D&D 3.5 system which turned out to be way better than expected and showed me, personally, that people are willing to sacrifice themselves for their team mates, and that is how the term Vazquez came to be and has become continuously used for said selfless sacrifice which the reader may remember or watch on the Aliens movie when Vazquez and Gorman blow up with a grenade thus giving the rest some time to escape.

Curiously, later on, I noticed there was a couple watching some of the books setup on the Star Wars table and it turns out that the lady was completely excited as she noticed the Vampire: The Masquerade Core Rule Book laying around in our table, she mentioned her fond memories of it, how she played it some 15 years ago and how much she would like to return to it. Funny thing is that I brought that book because I wanted to read it but I never managed since I was always busy chatting with someone, convincing them that we weren’t charging jack or simply inviting them to play with us.

This gig was done, we have pictures to prove we managed it, we have video, we have fond memories, Com Com 2012 left a good impression on us and so we did onto it, we laughed, enjoyed and everyone parted their own way but not before that happened… that question, which sparked us to sing along and that the reader may find on the bottom of this lecture, diary, story, whatever you want to call it. In any given case I was late for a party and I had to run, had to find something quick to eat but there was nothing nearby the taxi lane, called Bola, told him I would be there in 10, I was starving, had to get a damn hot dog on an Oxxo, a small convenience store just like 7-11 but you’ll find one of these every three or four blocks and that is no joke, and the thing fell off before I could finish preparing it, cleaned it off, ate it, ran, no cabs coming, called Bola to tell him I’m running late, had to go three blocks into the next boulevard and get a red cab, drop on El Mercado de Todos, keep walking down, called back, “Almost there, gimme 5”, got there, Doc was there, Mota is his last name but I have decided to start calling him Doc since 10 years of studying are well damn worth it for someone to be called a Doctor or Doc, then Bola who is Ozzy brother, Ozzy being a friend from high school and a mutual friend of me and Doc, and Choppa, or Chopper, Shoppa, Compulsive Shoppa who we also, at some point, knew as Torres and is a friend we met through Ozzy.

We finally go out to that house, located between lunar craters of all sorts, but not before passing through another Oxxo a couple of blocks away from Bolas’ house to get some beer, a couple of Bohemias and Heineken, and a sandwich because I’m still starving, no change as usual, paid with my credit card and got the money from each one of them, 200 pesos, funny number for a funny night, off we go.

“Man, fuck Edgar and his map” Was the general opinion as we ran through this horrendously Paint drawn map that made no sense at all, apparently Bola, Shoppa and Doc had a not so pleasant time trying to translate this with the help of Google Maps and even then we got lost a couple of times, fell into a couple of craters and finally managed to get to the house. Finally a well deserved party for the success of today.

The crew was there, same crew we saw when Edgar graduated on Wednesday, after five and a half years, from the Industrial Engineering career, which reminds me that, from what they said, they are not real Engineers but rather Licenciados which is the lowest step on the college branch… heh, makes me laugh even now. We had a couple of beers, then a couple more, people kept bringing Indio, I hate fucking Indio, but when you have no choice you go for what you get, even Light beer. We saw them playing some games, me from the back because I wasn’t up for any alcohol challenges as I had enough for that day with all that had been going on at the convention and the gig on Friday which had left me pretty roughed up, but I did enjoy a couple of vodka soaked gummy bears and worms, Doc had his full share of ‘em and he wasn’t enjoying them the next day, then I managed to get a smoke from some random dude that apparently was part of the Rebel Alliance group down here in Tijuana, damn the world is small, who I had never seen before although I was aware we had people from the official club down here and even members of the 501^st Legion that belongs to the Empire. Bro. A. came by, guy was drunk as hell when we were leaving and talking to his girlfriend on the Netherlands for like two hours but that’s OK as the party he is working for is paying for everything, I think, and hell making a two hour call to the Neatherlands, to your girlfriend, is quite something and I approve of this as I’ve done equal or worse, like an hour to the United Kingdom just to talk with a mate in Ipswich. There was also the weed incident which I will say nothing about except that you should NOT smoke weed in a kitchen where everyone is watching you do it before asking the owner if it’s cool or not, I personally don’t mind what you do with your stupid ass as long as you don’t hurt or kill someone.

Once gone we were looking for something to eat, we ended up going for some tacos that were 18 pesos, 18 fucking pesos each because they were using New York cut but hell they couldn’t spare any Guacamole, cebollitas, Salsa Verde o Roja, nothing extra aside from the meat, the tortilla and a damn slice of avocado, you, cheap, bastards.

We went to Bolas’ home to sleep. We managed. Doc was continuously visiting the bathroom. Shoppa was up since around 10 AM, same as me, we started chatting and sharing crazy stories, like that time I ended up asleep at Edgars’ bathroom in a party while taking a dump, when asked who was inside I replied with “¡El Papa!” or the Pope, which to clarify was something that started because of El Verguillas, a web series found on YouTube, in which a fighter says that he dedicates his victory to the Pope, or that time Shoppa ended up naked, along with some other thirty people, in a crazy party involving watermelon and date liquor that degenerated pretty fast with strip poker, no one could find their clothing or cell phones, there were five guys sleeping together, one next to each other. Good times.

Edgar had called in early in the morning, apparently someone had taken his keys with that bottle opener, La Llave del Chez as he calls it since it looks like those ancient keys, but that’s a mistake, a stupid rookie mistake, he had to learn from as you never tie a damn bottle opener to your key chain. Couldn’t find them, went back to sleep, but turns out they were on the leather jacket I had taken, Docs jacket as a matter of fact, who was doing the honor of opening the bottles… had to be a Doctor.

Edgar came for his keys, he had Domingo with him who apparently had a rough night, and we decided to go for something for breakfast, I proposed the Andobas but no one knew what it was and they didn’t trust me as it was in the downtown area, yeah you just don’t eat the three tacos for one dollar at first street and Revolucion or you’ll probably get some horrible third world disease you have never heard about, but to hell with it as we were already starving. Lend him a tener each, 10 pesos that is, to Edgar just as I had done to Bola for some gas, fucking 10 pesos a liter, and continued our path, the six of us in that small car but nothing compared to that horrible fucking Cube thing whatever the hell it is that looked like shit… whatever happened to aesthetics. Finally at the Andobas, located in 5^th street just below Revolucion Street and not too far away from Le Drug Store, where La Cupula is located in which all the Goths gather every weekend or so, on 4^th Street and Revolucion or Cesar’s, located over Revolucion between 5^th and 4^th street, where, yeah wait for it, Caesar Salad was invented, not the Roman Empire people. Everyone ordered a small torta de carne asada with a side of small fries, let me be clear that the size is relative in this place, with a coke, in my case a coffee, and we waited while they brought in the food by reading the newspaper or talking about random facts, like the Yakuza in the city, fact the government has never accepted, and that only recently they have taken into consideration as a real threat after accusations from certain people or the fact that EPN, the candidate from the PRI Party, looked like a clown, and continued to be the same stupid air-head who should keep his mouth shut unless he was in front of a teleprompter, as he was trying to create empathy with some indigenous tribes on the south of the country by dressing as them.

Finally our food arrived; my credibility rose as everyone gulped down their food and asked me how the hell I had found this place. It all goes back to when I used to go to El Divan de Alicia and Andy had proposed we go for a torta at El Andobitas which is somehow, maybe not, related to El Andobas who came as a reference from El Perro, the manager of El Divan de Alicia, and Alex, the same one that was running the Star Wars D20 table at Com Com. Funny how everything goes round and round.

We get off and I get dropped at the taxi site, fortunately there was a driver waiting to go out, El Tostiloco, and after so much going around, doing this and that, I finally get to take a bath, sit down, relax and enjoy some good hours of sleep on my bed. I know that I am missing details here but my mind is too strained and I cannot begin to figure out anything else except for this message that I leave to you, avid reader, which you may understand now that we have gotten to this point of the story.

And history speaks of a great moment during the convention but it is shrouded in mystery and myth. Only a small logical string remains in all of this… “Is this real life?”

Memories: April 26th, 2012

I’ve always wondered what exactly happened to my generation. It wasn’t until a year or two ago that I managed to catch up with all of them, and I have to thank Facebook for that since I never did the MySpace thing which I considered absurd especially since I had my own website back then. From all the stories I managed to get together I discerned that half the class from Junior High is married, this baffles me since most of us have 25 right now, and the majority have a kid, again this baffles me even more, which in turn means they could not finish their College education, gee I wonder why. I fall inside the other half of people that are not married but I can honestly say we ain’t better than the rest as this half contains people that became involved with the Narcs, either directly or indirectly, prostitution, became addicted to some substance, dropped out of High School or College to do nothing or find themselves comfortably six feet under for different reasons.

We graduated ten years ago… I still can’t believe that…

In High School, at the Preparatoria Federal Lazaro Cardenas which is the only Federal High School that I know of in the Country, I dropped out in 4th Semester and was the first of the gang to get a job, some 600 to 800 pesos a week which was miserable and wasn’t even worth it no matter in which way you try to explain this to me. Regardless, I was the one who made his own path… though I had no path, no future, I didn’t want to look at the past, I was suicidal and depressive, darkness surrounded me and I lived inside a bubble for some five or six years until the bubble cracked and darkness infused me and made me faster, deadlier, smarter, even more cynical than before, it permanently changed me for bad or good.

Ricardo is moving to Las Huertas soon, somewhere near where I used to work in an Industrial Park for a company called Flex Medical Disposables, formerly Availmed, which was a good training ground for my IT skills and where I participated with Alex, with whom I had worked in Telvista for the Verizon DSL Campaign, Bruno, who I met there and is one of the best Nortel PBX handyman you can find this side of the country, and Spencer, who was a Supervisor at Telvista inside Verizon DSL, under the Desktop Team for direct support to the plants. Back when I used to work there I remember they killed a lot of people, going from 2008 to 2010, and even saw once, me and Alex, a police truck that have been gunned down by Narcs, we even heard the automatic gunshots from distance loud and clear, and there was nothing left of them when we managed to get through the whole commotion.

Edgar and Ricardo also told me a story, which I have yet to confirm, about a man that went Grand Theft Auto somewhere in Las Huertas. By Grand Theft Auto I mean the video game and the term was being used because the man was captive, naked and hand-cuffed yet he managed to kill two Narcs, two bodyguards, unarmed, got out of the house, confronted the police and died. The confrontation, we thought, was most probably because the man was related somehow to crime but as I mentioned before, reader, I have yet to confirm this information for proper verification.

I once meet el Arpas at El Divan de Alicia, apparently Xavier knows him well and he tells me that "El Arpas is everyone’s friend", he was with a woman, that time, they called La Profe, who apparently is a real teacher, whom I forgot to ask exactly in which institution she gave classes as I never want to take my children to that school, ever. El Arpas is an interesting figure, he sells newspapers even at high hours of the night for 1 peso or either he'll ask for a cigarette and start telling you some REALLY dirty things while he does his infamous "Arpas" or "Shazam puro power!" quotes. He is always wearing this exotic masquerade ball mask that only covers his eyes and starts to dance to electronic music, mind you this man is above 40 years old, and he can dance good, he even once got into a bar in skates and danced with the skates, like that time I got drunk at that triple birthday, which Sergio took me to, in which we bought a bottle of Tequila 1800, then some cucarachas for the birthday people, beer, more booze, rum, vodka, you name it and then I was dancing Industrial at El Circo third floor like a mad man and playing with a guy that was doing some dancing with Kevlar balls in flames held by long chains. Fun times.

I remember that many years ago there used to be a placed called la Milla de los Perros where the exit for the Galerias Plaza underground parking is which leads to boulevard las Americas. You could buy all kind of dogs and animals there during the weekend, all of them were being sold by random people but I do recall seeing a couple or two that would come back every so often to sell the same breed of dog every so often which leads me to believe that they lived from that.

Eating an empanada of grounded meat out of a piece of paper that contains poetry from the ICBC, the Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, which was given to me after doing some Social Service, where I meet some really beautiful girls, and getting the food across with an apple Peñafiel bought by Badilla after he bought two of my Warhammer books which I sold for the cheap, cheap quantity of 20 pesos each. Which reminds me I have been selling several of my books at cheap prices with some really good responses, fortunately they will be the last thing I sell since I’ve got a job at another bar, La Naranja Mecanica or the Clockwork Orange, like the movie, with a general theme based off from the movie, and that should REALLY help me out. I was selling books with that dude over at 2nd street, before I sold my books to Luis and Badilla; that red beret bearded long-haired man was cool but a bit paranoid though.

Speaking to a man mounted in an avalancha who has no legs and only a part of his torso, we spoke while watching a concert of Christian Reggae in a small park just a few feet away from the International Border of San Ysidro, before them there was a band of what I believe was Bachata, and talked about the quality of the sound, which to say the least was very good, and how much would a Saxophone cost. He was a good and honest man.

Memories: April 14th, 2012

It is April the 14th, 2012, and I’ve stopped shaking. It is 3:09 AM PST and its 44 F outside, almost 6 Celsius for us living on the metric system, it has been raining odd for the last couple of hours, at some point it looked like a tropical storm with winds and all that but that is not the reason why I’m shaking right now.

April the 13^th, Friday the 13^th which some superstitious people may consider as a bad day to do anything at all which I assume includes breathing, turned out to be an interesting day to say the least.

First our classes were a bit tad boring but nonetheless I found appreciation on the first four hours as we saw an old Mexican movie called El Bulto which is about a man that got hit in the head by a club during a Communist meeting and woke up some twenty odd years later to find the world has changed, the next class was also interesting as I got a call from the Art Man who told me there are some positions available at the Axxa Building in front of Plaza Rio and that I may have a chance of getting a decent job over there for some decent money, finally the last class had us seeing a movie about the fall of the Berlin Wall and due to technical difficulties we could not finish watching Bowling for Columbine, not that it mattered to us. On a side note I could not get to the Axxa building since the rain was a complete pain in the butt and was too late when I got there to fill up an application form.

Some quick food and time for Vampire: The Masquerade with the Tijuana RPG – UABC Chapter, five members total, with four playing and me as a story teller, although there are more but most of them were unable to play since they had classes or were simply out of time due to other more important matters at hand, which turned out to be quite interesting. Turns out the group of players are now considered as the “Red Barons Flying Circus” as per our friendly Tzimisce NPC, Andrei, which is a tad bit crazy but probably not as sadistic or cynical as the rest of the player base. Ironically the setting for the story is January 7^th 1993 in the city of Tijuana, one day after the flooding began, and it goes hand by hand with the fact that during the time we played rain wouldn’t stop and only got worst. Abril actually lost the truck that takes her to Tecate, which is passing La Rumorosa, and got her mom to give her a lift.

Before leaving I noticed two interesting things, first there was this girl upstairs, on the second floor of the Cafeteria which is the place in which we play, that was playing in the X-COM setting I used back at Com Com but I never managed to get her attention to ask her what her name was; second, we also noticed that there is another table playing Dungeons and Dragons, 3.5 from what we understand, in a big table almost at the same time that we play and they do not belong to our group which makes us really happy about it, finally they manifest themselves without being scared of reprisals.

After leaving somewhere after 5:30 I took a bus and it took me around an hour or so to get back home which ended up being an ordeal but gave me enough time to enjoy a bit more time with that book I’m researching, All is Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

At Downtown I bought a pack of Delicados 20 with the last 30 pesos I had left on my credit card, no more money there and almost all my resources have been drained from my wallet which leaves me in a seriously dire situation for a job. I then decided to stop by TJ Art & Rock Café to check and see what was the show, never actually got the name or the bands, and to say hi to a couple of people then, for some reason, instinctively moved to El Divan and greeted everyone then had a Victoria before going outside for a smoke where I found Danny, a friend of Ozzy and Caguas who I meet when they invited me a week after the second anniversary of El Divan, who was waiting for Itzel, another mutual friend of Ozzy, Caguas and Danny. Apparently today is Caguas brother, Constantino or Constantine, birthday and he turns 21 so he’ll be celebrating at a small bar just a couple of feet away called Viehos which is spelt incorrectly on purpose. We enjoyed a couple of beers, got a free round from the birthday man, and while chatting and getting up to date on things we meet up with Caguas and Pablo who joined us for a couple more rounds and some more getting up to date and geek stories of pride, like managing to get Arch Linux to compile and run on a computer. While enjoying our time there our friend, El Arpas, dropped by with his Navy Captain hat, a trench coat and his flagrant masquerade mask, he started dancing in some very provocative manner that makes you want to pull your eyes out, since, well, you don’t want to see a man like that pull some Michael Jackson moves on the floor, and eventually got kicked out of the place and in the process, somehow, managed to break a bottle without caring a single bit about it.

An hour or so later I decided to make a quick run to the TJ Art & Rock Café to try and meet up with the moon but she wasn’t there or if she was I couldn’t find her so I went back to Viehos, had another round, went for some food at the 7-11, back to the bar, another round, went to El Divan then back into the other bar since Caguas didn’t want to leave his brother alone, although he had friends that came to have a couple of drinks with him but nonetheless we decided to stay at Viehos. Danny went for some food, came back after a couple of minutes and called the Horde for retreat on his Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.

First we dropped Pablo off, while avoiding all the Police checkpoints, and got an interesting conversation going on with him on the road about him not being able to feel any sort of pain, or rather minimal pain, and having a high resistance to alcohol levels, which I’ve seen in the past although I’ve also seen the opposite of that and rightfully earned the title “Puke Buddy”. Which reminds me of that girl we were talking with outside of Viehos, because when you want to have a smoke it has to be outside the bars now since the Federal Law came in full effect, after 3 years, around 2 months ago which is becoming an absolute pain in the ass specially with the cold wind trying to kill you, who’s apparently is a friend of Constantine whom looked a bit drunk.

Then we went to drop Itzel somewhere at la Gloria, which is a bit far away, and while speaking with her she was asking me what exactly my career is about, History, and told her that the field is actually quite big and that I should be able to find something that pays decently once I’m off with my title. She also mentioned that she needed some assistance with a book her Faculty is producing as no one is going up for the challenge and I volunteered for the job as long as I can get paid or credit for making it.

Then we see a pickup truck pulling in fast, bright lights, codigos, the blue and red lights of justice, a police truck had just parked next to us and asked us to get our asses of the car and while doing so Itzel got to her house as fast as possible.

Who am I, what do I do, where are you from, what are you doing here, do you have any drugs with you, are you drunk, is this your car, where is your license… something popped there, Danny doesn’t have a license and neither do I, “Get in the back of the truck” is what I hear one of the officers tell Danny and they let me go, in the middle of La Gloria with no way of getting the hell out of this hole at 2:30 in the morning and they are towing the car away. A mordida was in order and 200 pesos paid his liberty, which included my ride back home, I was shaking, I was shaking badly, I wasn’t sure if it was because of the cold or because I stressed the fuck out after we were free, I managed to keep my cool but once they were gone the façade dropped instantly, I only had two cigarettes, one for each, Danny was fully awake now, I was fully awake now, hell that was really weird and we really dodged a huge bullet since specially since Danny had asked me to call his Dad but he never picked up, which ultimately we were grateful about.

I got home and offered Danny to stay, even if my parents were reluctant, but he said he needed to be at work at 6 so he was going home, se la iba a rifar, he was gonna go for it, I asked him to call me as soon as he was at his place and I went inside, that annoying dog is there barking like a little bitch, picked up something to eat, started to write this and at 3:20 I got a call from Danny saying everything was OK.

Memories: April 6th, 2012

April 6th, 2012, the last Friday of Semana Santa and only three days away to go back to school which I’m really looking forward to just so we can finish with this horrendously bad semester. Time to roll out and I decided to go to El Divan de Alicia and see what’s up over there as there seems to be an event of a group called Tijuana Roller Derby Girls, which as the name implies is a group of chicks that enjoys roller skating the hell out of wherever they can skate freely and make a deadly business out of it. Found Keke, one of the guys serving El Divan de Alicia as a waiter, while getting off the cab and spoke with him about some events that transpired a couple of months back that could or may affect the performance of the bar. Once at El Divan I found Gil, this Rastafarian like Death Metal lover, no love for reggae here just the dreadlocks, and a heavy substance abuser when he feels like it, sweeping and we talked a little about this and that, politics, philosophy, war, current events and a book I lend him a couple of months ago, maybe a year actually, called Doctor Farabeuf o la Cronica de un Instante which is a pretty bizarre, no heads or tails, non-logical, non-lineal story about a small event that seems more and more disturbing as you turn into a new page. While chatting one of the Tijuana Roller Derby Girls got there, I think the one in charge of everything, and started doing setup while other girls dropped by and all I can say is that there was some really delicious fine looking women going in and out of that door. Went for some cash at an HSBC ATM located in 5^th street, just in front of the old porn movie theater, next to the taxi site I use to go home, and got some money at the ATM inside the Calimax, a big player down here just like Wal-Mart but obviously with far more places open than them. While walking back I had some really patriotic thoughts about a lot of things in regards to this country and the hope I have that in 30 years this will be a 1^st World Power where my children could eventually live “decently”, not that they wouldn’t be able to live decently though. Once back at the bar I looked at the outside for a split second and went in, not before patting the logo outside the bar, this beautifully metal carved logo of El Divan de Alicia that has a terrifying story. From what I understand the logo was done by a man named Alex, a smith that knew El Perro from when El Divan de Alicia was at La Plaza, said Plaza being in front of Plaza Rio, next to a river that has since then dried up but back then, for example in 1993, it flooded and caused the President in turn, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, to declare Tijuana a Disaster Zone and send in the military to assist us, which is one of the major points of the city, who I met once and I personally thought he was an absolutely cool guy, who found his death under some really confusing circumstances back in 2010, a few days before Christmas actually, and I will not talk about them since there are different stories from different sources and the only way of confirming this is with a newspaper but I would leave to you, reader, that task as I like to respect the dead in their final place and I believe I have heard enough to know what the real answer is but I will not reveal anything from this incident except the fact that we have that Sombrero de Charro behind the bar with pictures of him, that were never framed…

Went inside, saw Moya, gave him a cigarette and went to smoke outside to get up to date with the events at the bar and the surroundings. Apparently they were not aware that Transmetal is not playing at El Foro and laughed when I told them they would be playing at the TJ Art & Rock Café, although they did retract a little bit when I told them they were expanding it to at least double their size. Then the DJ, who I keep forgetting his name, said he played at El Foro, apparently he opened for 2 Minutos, and he had a blast doing it with such a huge place and expensive equipment at hand he was like a junkie having his cocktail served to him with extra power. Of interest we confirmed that with the new Metal Zone thing that is going to happen on Saturdays there should be more people coming in, especially with that Iron Maiden tribute that sounds exactly like Maiden does which is great since you only end up paying some 40 to 50 pesos, 3 to 4 American dollars.

Once that was said and done I went back upstairs to the bar, had a couple of Caguamas, a Caguama generally being a one liter bottle or one third of a gallon for those of you who don’t use the metric system, of Corona, I would have had a Vicky or Victoria but those are 40 pesos, an equivalent to almost 3.50 in American currency, which was a bit out of my league at the moment and I wanted to enjoy some extra beer if possible. Found Xavier, a friend who is also in the Humanities Faculty, in the Communications branch, back at the University, who was taking pictures of the event while enjoying some Pacificos. We started talking about visiting La Cupula, eventually I hope I can do that next week, and of taking the Vampire: The Masquerade deal to them to see if we can use their café, Café Batcraft, as our playing ground. Funny thing is that Xavier was already aware of VTM, as it’s usually abbreviated, since he had read something called The Book of Nod which contains most of the mythology and story behind the game. Went outside for another cigarette, found Mr. Nacho, an almost clone of Herman Goering which makes sense since he descends from pure breed Aryans, his Grandpa actually serving as a Colonel in the Nazi Army down in France but escaping to Mexico once he saw things were going down the drain, and then Germain, Mr. Vampire himself who, from what I recall and understand, used to have several rings on his back so he could hang himself from the ceiling using them and relax, apparently it is a very relaxing thing for a lot of people as I have looked around and everyone concurs on that fact so maybe I’ll have to ask Doc about this and see what is the exact reason behind it, probably some chemical release. Saw Moya and Andy later on, then Pantera came in, the rest of the girls from the Tijuana Roller Derby Girls, with whom I discussed a possible sponsoring from some important people but that will be left pending until I can get an answer back from the correct people which may take quite some time, more people, Vodka Jell-O Shots, more beer, bad combination, rockabilly music, yeehawing all the way, more people, chit chat, the works. A miracle that I made it back home, after tricking a cab driver to get me there for free but not because I didn’t want to pay but rather because I had no money left at all but I don’t feel bad at all, even though I do understand the fact that they have, listen to this, to pay to actually work the cab, it works like this. To work a Taxi down here in Tijuana you need to have the unit, the car itself, and the license plates, which are quite expensive, but you can actually rent the plates as it is totally legal as long as the correct paperwork is done and in the end the plates are yours and nothing less. So, the person driving the unit has to pay a daily or weekly fee, which is up to el Patron to decide, they have to pay their own gas and in some circumstances, not all of them, they have to fix the unit in any possible way or face the wrath of their boss. Not a pretty thing to drive a taxi down here in this city.

Saturday, wake up, have breakfast, take a quick bath, check some things, go to Bolas’ house to play some Texas Hold ‘Em with the old gang, Bola, Ozzy, Doc, Shoppa, Mora, Edgar, Ricardo and me, got there a bit late but almost everyone was there except for Edgar who had things to do before coming in. We started a discussion on what to eat, we settled for Chinese and even though I had some adobada tacos I thought that some extra food wouldn’t hurt me that much, I was starving and the vodka had left me in limbo, so we went for some Chinese at Las Palmas, just a couple of blocks away from there and almost in front of El Harinero el Rosal. We started eating and watched as Mora enjoyed some God of War 3, geez the graphics are incredible and even though it’s a button masher I could not stop and awe at the titanic battles between Kratos and the Olympian Gods.

We start our war on the field, 70 pesos each, first place takes 400, second 140, the initial bet is 2 pesos and it doubles every 30 minutes, minimum bet is whatever the current bet is at the moment, the laptop is available for songs and everyone takes a turn unless that person is not in game anymore. The game starts OK and escalates slowly to the point where I’m kicking everyone out until it’s only me, Mora and Doc, the bet is 64 pesos, 10 minutes left on the clock to go for 128, it is here where fate is decided and a winner takes all, either Mora or Me as Doc is left with only 20 pesos, I call him for an all in, he goes for it, cards on the table, I got a 2 and a Jack, he’s got a 10 and a Queen, cards on the table show a 2 and other cards that aren’t helping, Mora goes out of the battle as he doesn’t want to risk it, next card, nothing for either one of us, final card, nothing more, there is silence, I’ve won, again, for the longest time ever in the history of this table. It is drinking time to celebrate. It’s 7 something when we end up the game and the Xolos, our primera division team for soccer, are still playing on the Stadium, so we hit the road fifteen minutes before the game is over but lose Mora on the track as he has to do other things and Ozzy is not coming since he had to finish fixing a PC.

We get to downtown, down at 3^rd Street and a block above Revolucion, and go looking for a bathroom since apparently everyone is now feeling the post-effects of the Chinese food, we go to an Oxxo first, I buy a pack of Delicados 14, which is a Mexican brand of fine tobacco, so says the box, with only 14 cigarettes at the modest price of 20 pesos, then move over to the Sanborns, a chain of Restaurant, Pharmacy, Candy, Toys, everything that started in Mexico City with Sanborns Azulejos where the infamous Francisco “Pancho” Villa and Emiliano Zapata, heroes of the Revolution, took a picture some 100 years ago and that place is still standing, even though it was renewed it continues to be that magnificent and awe-inspiring building, on 8^th Street. After everything is said and done on that end we walk towards El Divan but find that just outside El Tillys they are doing an enquiry on sexual relationships and giving away a box of condoms, with more than one hundred condoms inside, lubricant, etc. which Edgar took the time to fill. Our first stop then was El Divan de Alicia where we buy a cubeta, which is a metal bucket with ten beers, Victorias and Pacificos, five and five, as per our request, as we had agreed that whoever won the game would buy one to celebrate and I am a man of my word. We finish one, we get another one, greet a lot of people coming in and out, makes me think that all the people that I have in facebook, those 800 something, I actually know and see, the majority of them rather, at least once a month. I see Moya, Andy, one of the many Christians I know, the one that used to be the bouncer actually, Chano, El Perro, Gil, Pinky, Keke, the DJ, Xochitl, Gaby, Emmy, Mayra, la Flaka or Madre, our Metal Mother, this guy, that guy, we go out and visit El Zebras Mexican Pub, and yes there is a little Zebra in the logo because of the Zebras all over Revolucion, which is a bar, pub, thing where you can get beers from different parts of the world; I greet Mr. Baldy Metalhead, a Professor at the Faculty, then I find Bruno, Xavier again, Everardos’ Cousin, whom I can’t remember by his name only recall him because he is Ever cousin, who said that if I needed a job he could get me one at El Porkys or at Rosarito but I don’t really want to go to Rosarito, then outside I had found the Contrafuego crew going to El Divan and smoking outside El Zebras I found a dude with whom I’m making the Mexican version of Epic Meal Time.

We leave because there are no tables, apparently people think you can’t drink while standing up, and start looking around for another bar, which I fucking hate because I don’t feel like moving to another bar if I’m comfortable at one bar; Niño managed to catch up with us back at El Divan, he was with Ricardo down at Mexico City for a student exchange that lasted six months, which was pretty much was triggered us to move onwards. Since we couldn’t find anything I told them I needed to go to the TJ Art & Rock Café to pick up the tickets; greeted Ale, her brother and Jose Luis, Panchito was outside cleaning or doing something, he is the right hand of Jose Luis who is the owner of the bar, and got confirmation from Jose Luis that the tickets still hadn’t arrived and he returned me my money. Off we went again to El Zebras.

We decided to sit down, order a couple of rounds, 15 pesos glasses of dark beer, I got an Arrogant Bastard which was 65 pesos, quite expensive actually, but when I asked for a Fin du Mond I decided not to complain anymore about prices here; Guinness was down for 40 pesos and Newcastle for 30, really decent prices. While chatting we noticed that the futbolito table was empty and decided to give it a try and we had a blast with it even though we weren’t playing fair it was fun; I was sweating heavily and noticed I wasn’t tipsy anymore, not that I ever was, so I decided to finish my beer and went to the bar with Shoppa for another beer, this time something home made from around here, and went for a Cucapah Chupacabras, yes the bottle had a Chupacabras like entity that was a mixture of the mythical creature and El Santo, the wrestler, and Shoppa had a Cucapah Honey, which was also a great flavor and with a price of 40 pesos it was alright, more than alright now that I think about it.

Once we finished all of this we went outside and decided to go to El Porkys, which previously was La Sexta House of Music in which they played a mixture of different types of electronic music but never quite got to the point where it could apparently return some revenue so they ended up changing owners and image. This place, which by the way has a huge pig head outside with some 80’s shades, used to originally be at La Plaza and apparently they were going to soon celebrate 13 years since its inception. The combination of music was decent enough for me to enjoy it and with a balcony where you could smoke and drink and clean bathrooms with working toilers I was more than glad to accept whatever else they tried to bring at me, even Indio, so we were going round and round, looking at this, looking at that, wiggling with that party rock, the girls with the bunny ears, which were not as good as Ricardo made them look but again that’s alcohol speaking… well except for one of them which I wished she became the progenitor of my children, several times. Shoppa had to leave early because he had homework to do, I have homework to do too and I finished it in about half an hour today, Sunday.

Somewhere around 2 we left, time to hit the sack, but first we went for some New York styled pizza from a placed called Al Volo, I think that’s the name but honestly I’m not sure, which is just half a block away on the other side of the road. Destiny did call in, as per usual, and we had an encounter with a man that wanted money or food, he sang to us the same old story about being deported and not having anything on his pockets, we didn’t have any money, not for him and what I had wasn’t even mine since I have to return it to the people who paid for the tickets; then he gets aggressive at us and starts yelling and cursing, his friends pull him back and ask us to forgive him, he’s been drinking, you don’t go asking for money when you’re drunk, not looking like that, people aren’t going to trust you, they don’t trust you already, and Doc wasn’t happy at the fact that the guy was drinking because, and I quote him “The most I see down at el General are old men, 40’s, 50’s, who have been drinking themselves to death, they are alone, they live alone, they drink heavily, most come in advanced stages of cirrhosis, they all die or we let them go, there’s nothing we can do, we even had a guy come in, yellow like a mother fucker, who had been drinking twenty liters of alcohol every, single, day, since he was twelve, he is currently twenty eight, he shouldn’t be alive and I know that he is going to eventually die”

Is it some sort of divine wrath, some sort of unholy punishment, I wonder?

Not that I believe in the conception of God as they put it in the Western Hemisphere, I’d rather believe that I myself am part of God and that it is action and reaction that provokes all the changes around us but… I do wonder from time to time about this… makes me feel not a prisoner of my own liberty.

We finish up then move to our next destination with is the main site for the red taxis, the blood cells of this city that work 24/7; we part ways with Niño who is going to his place and then with Doc, we can’t find Bola who told me he was going down to 3^rd Street with a friend of his but we could never get a hold of him but fortunately for us since Ozzy was back at his house we could get him to open for us. We get to 4^th Street and a block above Revolucion and find our taxi, we get in, start talking about that condom box Edgar got for free, apparently he had left most of the condoms at el Zebras bathroom; clever boy. Then all of a sudden, Snoop Dogg, smoke weed every day. Damn.

Sleeping on a couch for three or four hours isn’t fun at all, especially when you don’t fit and have to put both feet on a chair just so they won’t hang around in random angles. We went to eat tacos de birria close to the place I used to work in, the factory, just in front of Siglo XXI, and had some four tacos together with a little consome, a consome just being the soup in which the meat rests that will usually be served with red sauce, cilantro and onions. Ricardo gave me a ride back home and the adventure ended there, at that point, with a refreshing bath, a coffee and me doing some homework.

These days are interesting and I wish to save the memory of my friends, places, this city, groups, bands, everything, in this text together with my feelings… like Doc… after listening to what happened to him I feel really bad for him, like isn’t fair, sometimes we get little tests to see if our actions were right, maybe it’s out of our control but it’s not like you need that additional mental strain to prove a point least you want to end up on a mad house.