Nite Jewel ili Ramona Gonzalez je singer / songwriter iz Los Angelesa. Sa prošlogodišnje ploče One Second Of Love single Memory, Man ovih dana je dobio novi video. Kad se sve preračuna – Memory, Man – traje točno 214 sekundi.

Nite Jewel‘s sophomore LP, One Second of Love contains a brighter production that differs from her more lo-fi 8-track origins on her debut. This helps expands on her songs, seen most prominently on the stand-out title track. Check out the mind-bendingly awesome choreographed video for it, along with the stream for the dreamy slow-jammer In the Dark below.

Nite Jewel – One Second of Love comes out 3/6 via Secretly Canadian (order here)

In the Dark

Ramona Gonzales

Santa Chata and her Fantastic Failures, written by Ramona Pilar Gonzales and directed by Selene Santiago de Nasseri with puppet design by Michelle Zamora – all longtime Casa 0101 collaborators. Featuring live music and inspired by elements of Mexican-American vaudeville and carpa theater, Santa Chata marks the first production of new work at the newly renovated Casa 0101 – 2102 E. First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033. (323) 263-7684 Runs November 11 – November 27, 2011, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, Sundays at 5:00pm. Tickets: $20 General, $17 groups of 6 or more, $15 Boyle Heights residents. Purchase at BrownPaperTickets.com. Ramona, Selene and Michelle are an amazing team! Bravo Chicas!

The new CASA 0101 is a great space and a HUGE upgrade from the old CASA 0101 located on the same street.  It was my first time at the new facility since lately I have spent most of my time in Italy and had not had the chance to visit CASA 0101. “Santa Chata and Her Fantastic Failures” premiered November 10^th, 2011 and when I heard the very artistic and talented Gonzales had written another play, I was intrigued and fascinated by the idea to witness what kind of play she could conceive; so as soon as I got back to Los Angeles, CA Santa Chata was a date for me!

Santa Chata and Her Fantastic Failures is a Tongue in chic*ana Production. Ramona Gonzales is one of the founding members of tongue in chíc*ana ~ 3 chicas creating original, old-timey infused theatrics ~ The other 2 chicas are Santa Chata’s director Selene Santiago and puppet designer Michelle Zamora.

As I entered the spacey theater, I spotted the stage and its design, it made me feel excited and curious about what I was about to watch. I had decided to not read any description of the play to avoid expectations, I wanted to be surprised and the stage design was just the start, specially knowing that this production is a 99 seat plan production and the budged for such is limited.

The stage made you feel you were about to see an “epoca” play, made you feel like a child about to see a show full of imagination; all of these made me even more interested to learn what the play was about.

Nathan Inzerillo (Puglicci), Mathew Bohrer (El Misterio), Minerva Garcia (Santa Chata) & Alexis De La Rocha (La Celestina)

Cell phones OFF, lights ON! I laughed within 5 minutes of the start of the play.  The cast started dancing and singing a very catchy and creative song. They even had a particular choreography that was hilarious as they sang “ay ay ay no hay que tenerle miedo a la muerte”! It was crazy to laugh at death, to be delighted to be entertained about not having to fear death. The music is original by Las Flores and Ramona Pilar Gonzales.
Mathew Bohrer (El Misterio)  & Alexis De La Rocha (La Celestina)

The voice of La Celestina (Played by Alexis de la Rocha) during the death song was very noticeable. Her execution of the role was sharp, flawless and with a comedic timing that you only see in high caliber comedians; her performance is impressive. She plays a girl that can talk to spirits and shares an act with El Misterio (played by Matthew Bohrer).

Santa Chata (played by Minerva Garcia) is a theatrical alchemist who lives big, loves big and has a mystical talent for transforming leaden life mistakes into theatrical gold.  She returns to her hometown after a long absence to present her newest revue: Fantastic Failures. Her homecoming stirs up ghosts from the past and she finds that merely ignoring them does not bury them. The talented Minerva “Santa Chata” is haunted by the memories of a man named Horacio (Art Parga) who constantly reminds her of “a secret” she made years ago and to this day keeps haunting her. Parga‘s acting unfortunately is forced, not credible and distracts from the rest of the great performances “Santa Chata and Her Fantastic Failures” has to offer to the audience.

Nathan Inzerillo (Puglicci) & Minerva Garcia (Santa Chata)

Santa Chata has a dog named Pugliacci (played by Nathan Inzerillo), don’t think Mr. Inzerillo plays an actual dog; he is the puppeteer that gives Pugliacci live and gives us the best and fun puppet show ever! Pugliacci will steal your heart and you will remember this character for life.
DARLINGS! BABIES! LOVELIES!

Octavio (played by Suzanne Santos) is a theater aficionado who joins the theater company, uniting the cast with his/her love and joy for The Dia de Los Muertos Act, that Santa Chata does not wish to perform again for reasons that she keeps a secret. Santos gives an unforgettable performance, not only because she is a female portraying a very credible man but for his choices on stage and the ingenuity which she plays Octavio.

   Suzanne Santos (Octavio), Mathew Bohrer (El Misterio), Nathan Inzerillo (Puglicci), Alexis De La Rocha (La Celestina),
Art Parga (Horacio), Minerva Garcia (Santa Chata) & Las Flores.

Audition Dates: September
24 – 25, 2011 (10a – 5p)

Rehearsals: 9/30 – 11/4 (time and date
TBD)

Shows: 11/9 & 11/10 (previews), 11/11 – 11/27 (Th/Fri/Sat at 8p,
Sun 5p—except 11/24)

Audition Locations:
9/24 Little CASA, 2009 E
First St., Los Angeles, CA 90033 (street parking)
9/25 CASA 0101, 2102 E
First St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 (street parking)

Performance Location:
CASA 0101 2102 E First St, Los Angeles, CA 90033

Casting Directors:
Tongue in Chíc*ana (Ramona Gonzales, Selene Santiago, Michelle
Zamora)

Director: Selene Santiago

Submission Instructions: please
submit headshot, resume and three audition time preferences to tongueinchicana@gmail.com by 9/23
at 8p.

Audition Instructions: please come with one comedic monologue and
prepare to read sides as well as do some light puppeteer work (experience not
necessary for all roles).

SYNOPSIS
Santa Chata returns home after ten
years abroad and is surprisingly off her game. She and her cronies have a show
to perform but she has neglected to finalize the last act – her once famous Dia
de los Muertos bit – which she long ago gave up performing when her partner,
Josue, left the show abruptly. Claiming to focus on other aspects of the show,
she puts off the number as long as she can.

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
*
Santa Chata *
Late 30s to early 50s. She is the creator of the traveling
variety show, her Fallas Fantasticas. When asked what she is like, responded "a
strawberry cherry flavored rasapdo on a tropical, humid day." She lives in bold
colors and works on bringing that energy to each show she produces. She created
the Fallas Fantasticas as a way to publicly exorcise her demons and, in so
doing, help other people learn to forgive themselves. With her cast and crew -
her "babies," – she brings a potpourri of acts – magic, dance, drama, and
singing – to communities across the country.

* Pugliacci *
A
three-year old pug puppet with an ever-present ruff around his neck. A broad,
serious fellow. The soul of a great performer, a powerful singer, a stupendous
emotive presence, who has had the great misfortune, as he would put it, to be
born a pug-shaped puppet, created for comedy. He dreams to perform great works
of theater or opera, but is often patronized by Santa Chata and the rest of the
cast because he is such a cute puppet. Eventually his prowess shines through
when he is asked by another cast member to emote their feelings of love to
another cast member because they cannot. Puppeteer experience
necessary.

* El Misterio *
20s – 30s, dashing, with a strong comedic
side, he is the resident magician with a knack for making things disappear. He
has a talent for terrible, obvious jokes, of which he is very proud. He is
handsome, but unaware of how this affects other people.

* La Celestina
*
20s – 30s, often forgets to smile when she works, as she takes her various
roles in the company very seriously. She has the air of being "one of the guys"
with the cast and crew. She came to Santa Chata's troupe after a long stint in a
job she detested but never speaks of. She is grateful to Santa Chata for the
opportunity to work as an artist, something she never thought she was. Her
primary job with this show is to be assistant to El Misterio, with whom she is
secretly in love, very much against her better judgment.

* Horacio
*
20s, He's primarily a stagehand for the show. He secretly aspires to be a
part of the main show, but never shows his talents because he is unaware of what
they are. He is envious of Pugliacci because he has a role in the show. As he
strikes sets he tends to talk about what he could do better.

* Osvaldo
*
Another stagehand. Gets along with everyone well, but particularly El
Misterio. They are constantly making each other laugh and improv-ing bits
together. He is very happy to be a stagehand and is excited to be a part of the
show. He is effortlessly funny. Horacio is envious of his effortless talent and
his lack of interest in using it on the stage.

Diana Mera ROCKED the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood

The Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood, California witnessed with awe the amazing performance of recording artist Diana Mera who came to the stage with only a piano played by Dany Tomas and background vocals by Ramona Gonzales. A true acoustic show that included the participation of Ivan Castro (Producer of her first album) playing his guitar.

book by Alice Walker

Annotation by Ramona Gonzales

Language is what stands out the most to me. Coming from CNF(Creative Non-fiction), all these different techniques that create voices, characters, images stand out so much more. I think there’s a press to focus on that which can be related as “real” or Truth with a capital T. Fiction isn’t so much worried about that, so an author uses different kinds of devices. This project period, I’ve been fortunate enough to read books with different American dialects, which the specific writers have been able to do with dignity and respect for their characters and the culture they come from.

Strong female characters and exploration of “homosocial” relationships between women: Someone brought this term – homosocial – up in a book conference, and I really liked the simplicity and inclusiveness of the term (strangely enough). To put a socio-scientific term to the experience of having a matriarchal society was both validating and absurdly amusing. But that is exactly what Walker creates in this book – a matriarchal society that springs out of, and in response to, a domineering and abusive patriarchal society.

Faith, hope and destiny – the idea of a divine presence (or lack thereof) : As a writer, one of the aspects that appealed to me about TCP was that Walker states from the beginning that this book was an exercise/exploration of faith. That Walker, who underwent a crisis of faith herself, could create a character who finds faith after having been through wretched circumstances is inspiring at the very least and energizing at best. It could have been easy (and is) to eschew a “happy ending” in favor of “reality”, but “reality” is not always dour and depressing. That Walker found a happy ending in herself to give to the masses was miraculous and divine.

Shug Avery as a protagonist who appeared to suffer the least: she was the one who least adhered to society’s expectations of what she should be, or was able to manage/ move within the threads of society without incurring the same kind of fallout that Sofia did.

Male characters as villains or products/victims of society and upbringing as much as their female counterparts.

As a writer I am continually fascinated with dialogue and how it appears in fiction. Language – “alternative” modes of English, if you will – in written form is so subversive and magical to me. Phonetic speech, incorporated with colloquial words encased in a literary format is completely validating and has encouraged a belief that writing is truly a creative enterprise, much like painting or drawing.

Nite Jewel, amidst balls

We’re getting caught up on two weeks of intense blogging for West Coast Sound, and we now present to you some tasty MP3 and/or streaming works. This is Groove Edition (think “fun-kay”).

1. FEATURED: Nite Jewel with Teen Inc. for EP, ‘Am I Real?’*
2. ‘Timber,’ Lush Electronics from Asura and Ana Caravelle
3. Chamber-Funk Ensemble Fol Chen Drops ‘The Holograms’
4. James Poyser, Karriem Riggins, Madlib  on ‘Funky Butt’
5. Arabian Prince and CX Kidtronik in ‘Let’s Hit the Beach’
6. Freddie Gibbs with ’Str8 Killa’ EP, Says ‘F*ck the World’

(all stories via West Coast Sound, via LA Weekly)

* “Nite Jewel, keyboard queen Ramona Gonzales, is a quintessential artist of the L.A. underground and has now produced a collaboration with a young group that’s starting to catch buzz, Teen Inc.”

annotation by Ramona Gonzales

This book was rich with layers. There was a narrative with 3rd person omniscient analysis woven in. In this way, the book in its very construction fell into the motif of light (narrative) and heavy (analysis). The division of the chapters was set up like a palindrome or cycle with misunderstanding stuck right in the middle. There were so many beautiful abstract observations – metaphors are dangerous, readers are “special” for lack of a better word – and so on. As a nonfiction writer who finds it difficult to get “personal” and often gets caught up in concept, I particularly enjoyed this book almost solely on the basis of craft. It didn’t bother me that the narrator sat in a higher place and occasionally judged his creations as they were created solely for the purpose of literally fleshing out Kundera’s theories.

Alternately, the concepts of lightness and heaviness were a little difficult to grasp at times which I assume may have to do with a difference in experience, culture, and sociology. However, I did not get hung up on trying to reconcile the theorizing and the narrative on a first read. Both the right and left brain threads of the novel – the light and the heavy/dark, the yin and yang – were written with a great deal of passion and dedication and truth that each were easy to follow individually. Both pieces were connected and well matched because of that passion as well.

As a writer, what I take away from this novel is the confidence to speak in one’s own voice. Kundera was able to access both parts of his brain, to tap into his masculine and feminine natures in creating his characters, all of which he very much respected. It takes a great deal of time to mine both aspects of one’s psyche. It takes time, focus and dedication, not to mention assurance and faith that someone or a bunch of someones will understand it.

Who's your daddy?

My friend and colleague Ramona Gonzales gave a lecture at Antioch University Los Angeles this morning on this very subject (so I’m stealing all these ideas from her): “Darth Vader is My Father: Using Elements of Modern Myth in Personal Narrative.”

The premise of her lecture (which loses something without the Darth Vader mask as a visual aid) was this:

Myth and folklore were storytelling methods used by tribal elders to impart life lessons to their tribes. In modern times pop culture has taken the place of tribal elders in continuing our biological imperative of narrative.

She had us examine our favorite films and deconstruct them to see in what ways they paralleled the stories we create of our own life events. Since I’ve probably watched Legally Blonde about three dozen times — more than any other movie, which I can only partially blame on Ted Turner’s cable stations which play it regularly — I had come to class ready with it deconstructed.

Although Elle Woods and I are leagues apart in many ways — she’s a tan, rich, spa-loving, mani-pedicured, tirelessly positive dog lover from the West Coast and I am a pale, modest-incomed, self-cleansing, unadorned and rigorously pragmatic cat person from the East Coast — her story still speaks to me.

Whoever said movies are not the new tribal elders was seriously deranged

All specifics aside, when you look at the story, you realize it’s the story of a girl who follows her heart and is better for it in the end, not because she gets the guy she wants, but because in her commitment to doing so, she learns and changes.

As in the mythic structure (departure, initiation, return), she leaves the West Coast, is initiated into her law school experience (her lesson about self) on the East Coast, and uses what she learns to help her tribe (other girlie-girl, spa creatures).

Ramona’s lecture got me thinking about how this applied to my own narrative of self: I’m definitely a girl who follows her heart and brings its lessons back to share with others in my writing.

The lecture drew on Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers and Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth. Also, it referenced The New York Times essay “This is Your Life (and How you Tell It)” which includes fascinating research on how the life stories we tell ourselves shape our personalities and vice-versa.

So what about you? What are your favorite films? What do they reflect about the story you tell yourself about your own life?

Until recently, Brian Blanchard ran his campaign claiming to be the only candidate who would not accept special interest money.  Ramona Gonzalez, having only very recently became aware of Blanchard’s claim (despite a Capital Times editorial in early January and because even the candidates in spring judicial primaries don’t really pay attention to the election) issued a press release Tuesday, stating Blanchard;

“Misinformed the public…that he is the only judicial candidate who has refused to accept special interest money.”

Blanchard acknowledges Gonzalez’s refusal of special interest money begrudgingly (emphasis mine);

“The Blanchard campaign welcomes the Gonzalez Campaign’s first time announcement, made at the Portage County Bar Association (Feb. 5), that it is adopting one-half of the Blanchard campaign’s position limiting money in the Court of Appeals race.”

Gonzalez’s half being “limiting-special-interest-and-PAC-money.” Blanchard still claims superiority with the other half of his stipulations for contribution, accepting none over $1,000. Ignoring the cheap “first time” and “adopting” shots from Blanchard, which are absurd as had Gonzalez ever not had a no-PAC-money policy it would be apparent through campaign finance disclosures, Gonzalez declares a victory;

“The Blanchard campaign, has only now recently agreed to remove from their campaign literature any future references that the Blanchard campaign is the only campaign not accepting special interest money.”

But Blanchard barely makes good on his commitment. Hinging on the conjunction “and” Blanchard allows the donation section of his website to maintain the statement (emphasis mine);

“Citizens for Brian Blanchard is the only campaign in the Court of Appeals race to voluntarily limit individual contributions and refuse special interest money.”

Which is the same statement Blanchard has featured on his site all along.

The really ridiculous part is, only the kind of people that read political blogs care about Court of Appeals primaries. I hate judicial campaigns. “I will adhere to the rule of the law,” “no I will adhere to the rule of the law more,” and so on. Is it undemocratic to wish all judges were appointed?