___excitement in the air

___there was a lot of excitement at our school when they kids realized that the cover picture on the LMT art of living featured not only one but two of their teachers, most whom we thought had never read a paper told us that they had indeed seen the picture and article in Sunday's newspaper, everyone seem to have a copy, some worn and tattered from much handling but still a piece of news everyone wanted to see and read, now, it it on to next month and the laredos' news story, never to forget that the VMT news journalism students are also putting together a story on US, Hot Town !

___three in one

___Soundtown video was edited by me today and i think it will make three shows, the material is great in sound and audio, lots of great music and singing in the old style of the fifties, the big band era. Director Robert Lopez and the kids did a great of in recreating the days of old, still to be edited is over five hours of Mariachi music, from the MHS Fiesta de Mariachi, held yesterday at the United Sac, don't forget, Tricia Cortez as Selena on Wednesday

___latest Newa tidbits

___our friend and first artist to be featured on Hot Town is now headlining with his acoustic guitar at a local sports bar, radio ads are inviting Laredoans to drop by and hear his music on Thursday evenings . . . , Judi Krew will be the featured artist on Hot Town TV this week, MW and Friday, six thirty on the cable, channel 3 . . ., looking forward to watching Tricia Cortez portray the dynamic Selena on Wednesday evening at the LCC, both are (were) very talented Latina Ladies . . ., this week is also the week when the Ladrillera "Matachines" carry their colorful cross to the local church, it will be interesting to see if we can record this event as well as Dr. Norma Cantu did on her award winning documentary several years ago, and then there are the upcoming Mother Day's Serenatas and specials to view and record

___five hours of Mariachi's

___Martin High School' s Festival de Mariachi was quite a treat as the Hot Town cameras recorded over five hours of quality Mmexican traditional music, Tigeres de Sur, of course de Martin were there, alongside groups from the valley, upper hill country and also from San Antonio. The sound was as rich as it could be as every musician had a microphone to play their instrument and sing into. The musical mood ranged from fast-paced sons and huapangos to soulful lamenting baladas. The performers pranced and danced to their own sound, quite a treat for the ears and eyes of a full house of appreciative fans.

___News on the Folkloric scene

___the spectacle was colorful, lively and full of sound at the TAMIU Paradise Fiesta as the students of this lively art put on their best performance to a full house, otra vez. The costumes and the dances of Colima, Queretaro, and Jalisco amongst others showed us a little view of their Culture and daily life. The Ballet Folklorico has come a long way since the days when they used to rehearse on the sidewalks of the Esplanade and performed in makeshift costumes. Kudos are certainly in order for Ms. Gabby Mendoza-Garcia and her Group. Equally impressive was the University's Mariachi Internacional, we recorded them last week at the Art Show, and their singers especially the one who did all the old standards, Guadalajara y mas, and showcased a big talented Voice. This afternoon we head to tha United SAC to view and film the Martin High School's Fiesta de Mariachi's, an effort being put on by Mr. Francisco Sosa, he of the Tiger band and el Barrio Guadalupe, to reunite and present all the local high school Mariachi Groups.

___days of Nostalgia and Old

___Apr 27, 07 - 4:38 AM
___Yes, it was a packed House ___the old walls of the erstwhile Laredo Public City Library rocked with the sweet music of the twenty-five or so students who made up Soundtown at their nostalgic Gala Dance last night to a full house, You could see on the faces of the mainly matured audience the delight as they heard that music of days of old, how could these young faces recreate the music that maybe not their parents but their Grandparents danced and fell in love with. Song after song invigorated the crowd as most of them managed to get out on the wooden dance floor where a lot of us read our first books so many years ago, Ballads, boleros, Mambo's and other rhythms (sic) emanated from the shiny brass instrumments and from their on-stage persona as they stepped up and stood up to do their solo or sing their piece. Julie Vera was there alongside her daughter and so was Carlos Valle escorting his sister. Hot Town made their presence known,, all in all, a very memorable evening for the young at heart and those not so young.

___media print

___Monday evening, Hot Town staff reunited at the PAC studios with Mr. Mike Mcilvain of Laredos News, a journal of the Borderlands, for a question and answer session, an interview if you may,, concerning a story to be published in the next issue, which should be,, maybe, is already out, and what i hope will be a very nice pic and then on Tuesday, we were notified via e-mail that the long ago promised story in the Laredo Morning Times will also be published this weekend on Sunday, keep your fingers crossed

___a little confused by it all

___we went to the Laredo Sound Art studio at the invitation of Artist Gil Rocha, a friend, to view experimental theater and it was a real strange experience, Melissa and I greeted and met Jason and Leslie and their GIANT friendly dogs, Melissa conducted a very proficient questioning session with each of them and then the people started arriving and participating. Each guest was asked to write a sample dialogue card which was to be incorporated into the new "movie", while the artists worked on developing their project, we saw a strange 20 minute movie which i will describe later, then the movie started and that is when the strangeness began.

___Laredo's Master Showman

___Rene Ornelas, now legally using the monicker Rene Rene put on quite a show last night to a medium-sized audiende at the Laredo Civic Center. Quite an effort for a seventy year old man to expand so much energy in doing a 90 minute show as he sang, joked, and even danced tohis music all the time sharing his love and committment for the Lord. He started by remeiniscing about the days of "gravy fries and cherry Pepsi's" all for twenty cents at the City Drug downtown". ___He sang all his old songs now reworded to sing his Praise of the Man above, he spoke of the old days at Martin High and even had some graphis of the 1954 Yearbook on the big screen. I spoke to him afterwards about appearing on Hot Town and we will have to see how that developes. Anyhow, he has another performance scheduled this weekend in Laredo and those of you who missed him would do well to make an effort to catch his act.

___big, big plans

___we are in the process of recording several Mother's Day Shows, all in honor of those women who bore us and carried us for so long, first and foremost, our own Special which we will record next Tuesday, we hope to get some special Mothers, maybe the Gold Star Mothers from Laredo and serenate them on the air with a special Trio de Musicos, second and foremost,, we hope to record Tricia Cortez and some friends as they all serenate the "madrecitas" de Retama Manor, South i believe,, i hope Rolando and Fernando join us in this endeavor which is being planned by Norma, thirdly, there is a man named Blanquez who with his son and a friend make it a tour and perform at four old folks' homes, this bears recording and we will make every effort to feature them on Hot Town, finally, we have become aware that a friend and former classmate of Norma will host a mother day's serenate by several trio and this concert will be on the actual Mother's Day at the American Legion on Zaragoza Street

___Lucky Day, Lucky Man

___Finally, today, we got to see the second part of the Luciano "Lucky" Duarte interviews, i don't like to mention my own accolades but Norma tells me that is is our best show so far, we are at number 14, and it was filmed in her own living room, also in the paper, a short notice that we can go see and hear the Laredo mastershowman of the past century tomorrow night at the Laredo Civic Center, he is now singing christian music but i feel it will be a good show anyway and it is Free, he has rewritten and reworded most of his love songs to now praises the lord, he goes by the name of Rene Rene but i feel and know he is one

___they forgot ???????

___last night's show was not shown because they forgot to put it on the schedule, instead they ran a mini video on the landfill, i was livid last night but when i went to seek an explanation, i found it a little funny cause no one would take the blame, was it the secretary who typed the schedule or the chief who ordered, also they had some confusion as to what tape is to be shown next, just because we have three shows on the shelf ready to run, is no reason for them to get jumpy and make another mistake, will they ever get it right ?

___guitars and flamenco

___four o'clock today at the TAMIU Performing Center, a guitar concert by university and high school students which will undoubtly feature Dr. Gilbert Soto and will include some flamenco dancers from the University troup, on the second floor exhibition halls there will be a show of artworks from the University, CAREFUL !, some of the artworks are rated RRRRRRRRRRR

___getting ready

___went down to the VMT recital hall to witness the "Soundtown" band getting ready for their big "Gala - Dance scheduled for the 26th at the Laredo Arts Center in the upstairs room which was formerly the City Library. The evening promises to have an "old school" feel to it as they are forming a reportoire of songs from days past. Sinatra's "I've got you under my skin" to Perez Prado's "Cherry Pink and Appler Blossom White" are on the playlist along with Ronstadt's "Perfidia" and even the melodic "Moonlight Serenade", a song sure to evoke some memories in young hearts. You can be there in person to witness it if you get your tickets in advance. It is a fundtaiser for the Music Department and the attire is semi-formal.

___Oh ! What a Night !

___the full crew was down at the Laredo Center for the Arts for three solid hours recording all three exhibits, first and foremost, there was Mr. Mark Webber and his photo-journalist kid and their display of fotos and the paper they put out, and then there was the delightful Judy Krew from Ohio with her paradoxical view of the american lifestyle, lots and lots of painting adorned the main hall of the center and Debbie and her had a long meaningful discussion on her works, in another hall, a painter from the capital of Mexico, el Df showed his viiewpoints of the Mexican Revolution and all it's heroes, wow, what a night

___what a lonnnnnnng day

___after a hard, long day in the classroom, Melissa and Myrah and myself went out and finished a wonderful recording of masterkeyboardist Jose Luis Pena, he played all the old romantic classics for us like "Solamente una vez", "La Mentira" and the most modern, "Tu de Que Vas" along with some instrumentals and Melissa did a very creditable job as an interviewer, then we headed home for some rest cause tomorrow we record another Art Show at the Laredo Art Center, this time, Norma and Debbie will come along, having fun now

___ready, set, . . .go

___all set, equipment has been reserved for Thursday as we tape Jose Luis Pena, master keyboardist and singer and his romantic music, Melissa will be the exclusive interviewer and hostess on this video but i know we will use Debbie and Norma as well on Friday when we take our cameras to the Laredo Art Center to cover the VMT photo journalist student's exhibition, our goal to interview whoever interesting shows up as well as some of the photos and paintings on the exhibit walls, should be fun as we do two shows this week and move further ahead of our weekly schedule

___immediate future plans

___today's transmission of the "Luciano Duarte" video show was without problems, it is a very accurate, historical piece that deserves to be seen and studied by all serious laredo historians, this man had a story to tell and i am glad we got to hear a little bit of it, it is not over, the first part will be repeated wednesday and friday, and part 2 is next week, M-W-and F, channel three on the cable, six thirty pm,, meantime we will try to record master keyboardist Jose Luis Pena on thursday and we will be at the Art show with the photo-journalist kids on Friday, still keeping Carlos Landin in mind for next week, as soon as the construction work on his house is done

___"a little bit of expla........"

___Soundtown, a VMT band formerly known as the VMT Combo is pictured on the laredomio spotblog as they will soon be having their Dance/Gala, a fundraiser for the VMT music program, musica de Sinatra, Perez Prado and a bit of "Piel Canela", wow, Hot Town will be there and so will our cameras, and my son and his trumpet are on the top row, extreme right

___"Lucky" is done

___the Luciano Duarte tapes are done and ready for transmission next week, two tapes almost an hour's worth of material on the "gran Senor de la radio de Laredo del pasado", it has to be said, Debbie Leija did a great job on the interview conducted mainly in Spanish, my wish is now that we could spread the word to get more people to see this shows which are really educational and so much a part of Laredo

___perfect . . .

____today's transmission of the Cigarroa Middle School "Honors" String Orchestra went amazingly well if not perfect, it was a short program not more than 22 minutes long but i feel it was my best edit job yet, Debbie and Melissa were "incredible" as usual and the kids, well, they just provided all the Talent, kudos to their Mentor, Ms. Alma Nayelli Garcia

___april is here and nobody's fool

___started editing the Luciano Duarte Video program and it is a labor of love, i really admire my buddy Luciano so i want this tape to be especially good and worthwhile,, it is a diffiicult task as there are so many facets to his life and the sequence of events are interwined but i will take my time and perservere, i can see the effort that Debbie puts into her part of the program and it is especially entertaining since it is almost totally exclusively in Spanish, but we need to get backk and do some more taping of Luciano, i am not sure who we are recording this week but we will get someone, maybe Carlos Landin is ready for a follow-up, hay que ver !!!!