Month: November 2019

Happy Thanksgiving

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / By / December 21, 2019

Happy Thanksgiving

It’s that time of feasting and family again. Eating too much and watching football is the good time we associate with Thanksgiving. But it has not always been that way. Not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving has not always started the Christmas shopping season. What is this holiday called Thanksgiving?

The American holiday is a day set aside for giving thanks for our blessings. We learned in elementary school that the holiday was about the first winter for the Pilgrims and how the Indians helped them out. That is an alright description for little kids, but let’s take an adult look at Thanksgiving.

Not all countries celebrate Thanksgiving. The United States and Canada have the biggest holidays for Thanksgiving. Germany, China, Japan, Korea, Grenada, Liberia, and Norfolk Island also celebrate Thanksgiving. All of these celebrations generally take place around the same time of the year. Essentially they are harvest festivals.

The American holiday traces its roots to the to a 3 day harvest festival in 1621. The pilgrims had arrived in the “New” World, in what would later become Plymouth, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1620 after a 66 day boat ride from England. The winter of that year had been really tough (78% of the women died), and the growing season of the next year was good so a party was in order. It was a young crowd of about 50 pilgrims. There were only four married women and over 25 kids and teenagers. About 90 of the local Wampanoag natives showed up with food to help celebrate. While the celebration wasn’t really a religious thing, the U.S. government changed that 168 years later.

Our first president, George Washington, issued a proclamation in 1789 at the request of Congress for “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer”.

George Washington

It was a kind of thank you to God for the success of the revolution against England. But the event didn’t take hold in a big way until much later.

 

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, the third president, thought that public prayers and religious stuff was not right for a country partially based on separation of church and state. Apparently a lot of people thought that way until 1863.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln started the national holiday for Thanksgiving right in the middle of the Civil War. Until that time, a lot of states had been having their own harvest festivals at various times in the fall. A lady named Sarah Josepha Hale thought we should have a “day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival”.

Sarah Josepha Hale

 She had been trying for fifteen years to get the holiday recognized. She was a 74 year-old magazine editor and had written the “Mary had a Little Lamb” nursery rhyme. She was popular and persistent. The Civil War had started to turn for the North and Lincoln thought it would be a good idea to “thank the Union Army and God for the shift in the country’s fortunes”. Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Seward (the guy who organized the purchase of Alaska) wrote a great speech for the adoption of the holiday.

William Seward

His hand- written copy of the speech was later auctioned to benefit the union army. Lincoln proclaimed a day of  “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens,” in 1863. That’s seems very religious. The holiday was set for the last Thursday in November.

Franklin Roosevelt messed around with the date in 1939 until 1941. He was trying to get extra shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

In 1942 the date was put back to the last Thursday in November.

Now is the time for the other side of the story. The indigenous people of the Mesoamerica didn’t have such a good time with the arrival of the Europeans. It’s hard to see them being thankful for what was happening to their culture and lives with the colonization by the Europeans. One hundred years (1523) before the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth the Spanish began the conquest of the Mayans.

Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado

 The Spanish waged war on the Mayans for 200 years. They took the land, forcefully converted the natives to Catholicism, and killed millions. The Spanish brought small pox and measles. The European soldiers were volunteers whose only pay was what they could loot and steal. The natives at the first Thanksgiving in Massachusetts were only just beginning to know the Europeans.

Patricia Ann Talley wrote in “Decolonize” History-Teach the True Meaning of Thanksgiving this story. This was written by a concierge at a hotel in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Mexico as part of a handout for foreign guests to explain the meaning of Thanksgiving.“Thanksgiving is a religious holiday for Americans in the north to celebrate when the conquistadors first came to our lands. The conquistadors knew nothing about our land and did not know how to even grow food. Our people accepted them, taught them, and helped them to survive. They had a big festival to celebrate. This was before the conquistadors took their land.”

Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving

Whatever you think of Thanksgiving remember it is a time to pause and be thankful for what you have and remember the less fortunate.

Love, love

Caspin Interview Beverly Hills, California

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized / By / December 18, 2019

Caspin Interview Beverly Hills, California

This is a reprint of an interview I did last summer. Enjoy.

Caspin is a talented and successful musician, lyricist, and painter. Today we are going to focus on his work as a painter.  Caspin’s visual art straddles the genres of Graffiti Art and abstract Modern Mexican Art while fusing urban themes and sensibilities.

Twin Warriors

The bold and bright colors are reminiscent of early Mexican Folk Art of the post-colonial period, but the subject matter is truly drawn from ancient Mayan deity hieroglyphs dated to the 1st century during the Classic Period. Caspin amazingly juxtaposes these hieroglyphs and the need to address current social issues.  He celebrates his indigenous heritage and calls for awareness and responsibility.  

 Caspin has used a number of mediums to express his talent including stainless steel, wood, and canvas paintings, tattoos, and in various opportunities incorporating the urban landscape.,

Blue God East

Caspin’s paintings tend to be very large making a definite dramatic statement, but he has incorporated his oversized personality and evokes humor and playfulness in the art. Many of his original paintings are held in private collections focusing on contemporary ethnic art.

Caspin believes that his art is for the people. “Art in a museum is great, but art in the street is perfect”, he recently told me over coffee. To that end, he is “putting my art in the street” in various forms and mediums. In a nod to his urban street culture roots, he is presenting some of his paintings in wearable forms such as t-shirts, caps, leggings, shoes, and other ordinary everyday items. He believes that putting art in the middle of urban culture is a way to preserve that art and the culture it represents. Visit his website, CaspinComa.com, and check out some unique amazing art.

I called Caspin to setup a time and place for us to meet to discuss his work and to explore his feelings as an artist. He suggested we meet at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills. I thought it was a little odd that a “street artist” would pick this venue, but I had wanted to go there since it had opened so I was stoked. I gave the valet my Prius and smiled at the doorman as I went inside. Before the door closed I heard an incredible rumble approaching. As I turned, I saw a beautiful white M5 BMW arrive at the door. 

The Beast

I recognized the E60 classic and thought to myself: I should live in this neighborhood. While I was drooling over this automotive unicorn I saw the driver pop out. I realized it was Caspin. The white tank top exposed massive arms covered in a beautiful mosaic collage of ancient Mayan hieroglyphs.

Caspin on Wendy’s terrace

 The tight white jeans, held up by white leather suspenders, lead down to an incredible pair of crystal studded Christian Louboutin high tops. Wow, this was going to be interesting. After hellos, we settled into a comfortable sofa just off the main lobby, and an apparition, in the form of a server, appeared. He knowingly asked Caspin if he wanted a Stella; I ordered iced coffee. I was very aware of his boundless energy and humor and I was eager to begin.

Me:  I love your car. How did you find one?

Caspin: Thanks man. It just sorta dropped in my lap. I saw it driving by a lot in the Valley. I stopped and bought it. I was driving a 545 at the time, but this beast had me at first sight and have you heard it. It’s really a love-hate thing though. Driving it is phenomenal, but the insurance and maintenance is a bear.

Me: Tell me about your name.

Caspin: It is a nick name I picked up by in my early days rapping.

Me: Rapping?

Caspin: Yea, I was in a group from the Valley, “Overkill Outfit”. We were pretty good. We had some cool songs and videos. We played all the hot spots: West End, Gabba Lounge, Shoestring Factory, and Key Club. It was fun, but the group broke up. I did a solo album. I still write and I’m working on a new album,

Studio work station

 I’m doing a show with my brother in a few weeks.

Me: So you work with your brother?

Caspin: Yea. Temper, my brother, and I do music and rap together. We were both in “Overkill Outfit” together. He also had other projects he works on too.

Me: Is your whole family artist?

Caspin: I guess so. Not everyone is into visual or performing arts, but they are all artist in their own way.

Me: I understand you youngest child is an award winning artist, tell me about it.

Caspin: I love my kids and they are all talented, and Zion got the artist gene. He won this big award and got to introduce Octavia Spencer at the award show in Hollywood.  I was there yelling and cheering; totally embarrassing him. I am really proud of him. 

Me: I really interested in this new project your working on. Tell me about it.

Caspin: Thanks man, I glad you’re interested. I’ve been fascinated by my heritage and culture all my life. I grew up in a very large and close extended family. My immediate family has been in the United States for generations, but I grew up with the stories, art, and history of my Mayan ancestors.

Mayan Calendar

 I was this little kid in the Valley going to Catholic school dreaming of being a Mayan chief. Early Caspin I guess, (laughing). I’m trying to bridge the ancient with current urban sensibilities. I wear my tattoos as an expression of that connection. My tatts are mainly hieroglyphs from the 1st century blended and shaded with skulls and icons of current Latin culture.

Caspin’s shoulder

 I want to publish and promote this artistic expression as beauty, honor, knowledge, and pride. I mean those Mayans were pretty cool. Their civilization rivaled any in the ancient world. They invented the concept of zero. They invented the process to create the color turquoise. With the current political climate, I think it’s very important for little Mexican kids to know and share who they are. They are all Chiefs and Gods.

Me: Wow, your passion shows. How are you doing that?

Caspin: My paintings are hieroglyphs expressed as graffiti art. They are bold in-your-face visuals. I put them on canvas, wood, stainless steels, buildings, anything really.

White and Gold

  I mostly live in the same neighborhood I grew up in. That is my choice. It is not a place of great financial wealth, but it has an enormous wealth of culture. I use my art to share my vision of that culture with my community. I want to celebrate and acknowledge our heritage and culture. That’s my version of family values, (smiling).

Me: Tell me about the t-shirts.

Caspin: Ah, the t-shirts. My originals are large and thankfully expensive. Most of ones I have sold are in private collections.

War God

That makes them hard to share with my community. So I have hooked up with some people to put my art on t-shirts, bags, shoes and other common everyday stuff. The idea is to make the art so accessible that it becomes part of the landscape. Art in a museum is great, but art in the street is perfect.

Me: That’s very impressive, but you got to tell me about those shoes.

Caspin: (laughing) Pretty sparkly huh. I have a good friend that introduced me to Christian Louboutin years ago. They have a great store on Robertson and great people too. We would go to brunch and have some drinks and go to Louboutin’s for dessert. Champagne and shoes are a very cool combination. That is part of the same story about why I invited you here. That same friend brought Temper and me here for our birthdays. This place is great. The restaurant here is Jean Georges. The logo is that giant JG in the lobby. Those are my real initials.

As I read my notes to put this together, I kept finding myself smiling. Caspin, in addition to being passionate about art and extremely talented, is a very warm and funny person. You can’t help but to want to be on his team. Whether rapping, painting, or having fun, his oversized personality is genuinely engaging and friendly. I will be looking for him with every passing super car and every super cool t-shirt.

That was quite an interview. Thanks.

Love, love