Last Saturday, the Ted Williams Show, a Blues/Rock/Funk band I belong to, had a gig called “Voz en Off” at the Beaux Arts theater in the Convex Center of Monterrey. The theater is a top-notch venue, with excellent acoustics, very comfortable seats, and an enormously deep stage area.

Unfortunately, although we were able to fill more than half the seats, we weren’t able to recover even half of the production expenses. Still, we enjoyed the gig immensely, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

The video above is very amateur, and unfortunately, the friend of mine who recorded it, failed to record a single song from beginning to end, or to steady the camera. He still did a decent job, though; I’m glad to have this recording.

I was proud to sport my Honduran soccer jersey for the event!

My parents celebrated 50 years of marriage on Saturday, in a mass at the local Catholic parish, in the presence of family and friends. Father Porfirio, the priest who officiated the mass, is an old friend of our family, and knew my brothers and sisters as they grew up. He didn’t recognize me, as I was a very small boy when he last saw me before.

Now however, almost all of my parents’ descendants and I have left the Catholic church for the Baptist church and an evangelical church called Gran Comisión. Nevertheless, in a touching sign of love and solidarity, my uncle, a Baptist preacher, my brother-in-law, a pastor, all embraced my parents during the traditional moment of peace.

The Mass was followed by a reception at the local Golf club. My sister Eveline had worked all day, together with my nephews Oscar and Joshua, to decorate the room, which looked resplendent in gold and white. About 100 guests, many of them lifetime friends of the family filled the place, together with my nephews and nieces, brothers and sisters, and an extra friend or two.

After a prayer, a toast to my parents, and a feast, we watched a fascinating video with pictures of our family, some of which dated to the turn of the 20th century, with my great-grandparents.

Then there was a brief dance, which only a few of the family felt like joining. One of my sisters, who has a fracture in her foot, was the soul of the party, dancing with a cast, her crutches abandoned nearby.

But the party was cut off much too soon, because of the curfew at twelve. We rushed to clean up and pack everything before leaving back to the hotels and my parent’s house, and in my case, saying goodbye to most of them, as many of us would be leaving early the next day.

Back in the house we enjoyed late night conversations, and eventually retired to bed, tired but extremely happy. A few hours later we were on our way back home, some by car, others by bus, and some by air. A beautiful weekend, and a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Warning, this video is very disrespectful, but hilarious! The song, Sopa de Caracol (Conch Soup), is not merengue, but punta, a musical style copied from the Garifuna people, an ethnic group formed by the mixture of Africans escaping slavery in Cuba with Carib natives.

In case you don’t recognize them, these are the presidents of the ALBA nations, and allies of Cuba and Venezuela. There is Rafael Correa, of Ecuador, Manuel Zelaya, of Honduras, Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

A billion thanks to Babalú for posting it on their blog!

This video was the result of a contest Doritos held. The winner would have their ad aired during the superbowl, sparking thousands of participating entries. What’s most interesting about this is that, acording to USA Today, this low budget commercial was better rated than all the splashier, costlier, “professional” videos that debuted that night.

Another victory for the masses! Don’t you love the democracy of the internet?

Would Rick Warren be vindicated if Jesus were around? This hilarious musical sketch uses humor to hint at the deeper truths of this contentious issue. But does it reach the right conclusion?

One of the signature moments in Jesus’s life was when a religious mob brought a woman to him surprised in the act of adultery. Theocratic law prescribed death by stoning for this fault, provided there were at least two witnesses.

But, the whole thing was obviously staged. Why isn’t the man who also commited adultery accused, if there were witnesses? The fanatics, who hated Jesus for mingling with drunkards, thieves, prostitutes, the poor and uncultured, were trying to discredit him by daring him to have mercy on this “sinner”.

But all Jesus did was to start writing in the sand. When the rioters demanded an answer from him he said, simply: “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.” He then continued to write in the sand. One by one, the entire crowd dispersed, starting with the older men.

When they were all gone, he asked the woman “has no one condemned you?”, to which she replied , “no one.” He said, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.”

It seems much of the Christian religious world is behaving like this mob. I don’t believe Jesus condemns or hates gays; at least, not any more than thieves, the greedy, or drunkards (1 Co 6.9).

Religious people are just as sinful as the irreligious. It is just that for many of them, their sins are socially acceptable, or hidden by a thick wall of self-righteousness. Jesus called them “whitewashed tombs”. None of them are keeping the commandments, especially the first, but they maintain an aura of sanctity. They are blind to their own failure, and have the arrogance to condemn gays. The irony is thick enough to bury us all.

But of course, although Jesus had a merciful attitude toward sin and sinners, he nevertheless called it sin. Somehow he managed to do it without offending anyone, except the religious.

But believing homosexuality is sinful is an act of hate for many gays. Greed is evil. Is it hateful for me to think people are greedy? Lying is wrong. Is it hateful to think someone a liar?

The key here is not whether I believe homosexuality or gay marriage to be evil or not. For the record, I believe neither to be God’s idea, and thus they are sin. The issue isn’t even whether I sanctimoniously condemn, or warmly offer grace to my fellow sinners, the gays. The key to proposition 8 is to remember the separation of church and state; the law is not religious.

As a believer I should not force my faith down the throats of non-believers. Just as non-believers shouldn’t force me to be agnostic or atheist against my will. Churches should not be forced to marry gays or face prosecution. Religious beliefs shouldn’t be classified as hate crimes any more than irreligious beliefs.

I think both Warren will be vindicated for calling sin sin, and that the conclusions made in the video are flawed. But not as flawed as the attitudes of the religious crowd. As an alleged follower of Jesus, I should offer unconditional grace, but salted with truth. This in the end will attract more people to Jesus than fiery diatribes about gays roasting in hell. But I should be free to believe as I will, and even to publicly say so, as long as I respect the rights and beliefs of others.

But anyway, I thought the video was hysterical. Thanks to Matthew Hogg for posting it!

Stop motion version of the classic game, complete with human sound effects.

Wodka, Whisky or Wum?, originally uploaded by aaronernestoortizlopez.

Mangled spanglish is everywhere in Latin America. This is a shot of a restaurant menu in García, Nuevo León. The sign outside boasted of a regional “bufeet”.

I was a bit surprised to see the poll results from Saturday’s “Happiness is Contagious” article. 24% of participants were very unhappy, scoring low in all 4 questions. The rest averaged 50%.

So please stop moping about and get out there. Enjoy yourself this week with whomever you like. Watch a comedy; get some belly laughs. Practice faith; it produces hope. Take some time to work on your self image: exercise, or dress better or simply smile a lot!

Image by CARF, used with a Creative Commons license

Just when we thought Bush comedic moments were over, we hit the jackpot! Nikita Krushchev once removed a shoe and banged it on his desk at the United Nations general assembly to protest a Philippine delegate’s speech. But this, I think will be more memorable: Bush ducking to avoid an enraged reporter’s shoes, who shouted: “Consider this a goodbye kiss from the Iraqui people, you Dog!”

As you probably have read elsewhere today, this is the ultimate worst insult in Muslim culture. If Bush had continued in office, I bet his security detail would ask reporters to remove their shoes next time he spoke at a press conference. I doubt Obama would need that.

Those shoes are now worth thousands on Ebay.

According to a recent study at the University of California, happiness is contagious, even more than moroseness.

The four questions asked in the survey are:

In the last week, how often have you…

• …enjoyed life
• …been happy
• …felt hopeful about the future
• …felt that you are just as good as other people

The article examines the influence happy and unhappy people have in others’ lives. Being the friend of a happy person increases the probability of someone’s happiness by 15%. Another study quoted in the article found that having five grand only increased the probability of happiness by 2%. Thus, by gross oversimplification, being the friend of a happy person is like having 37 grand in your pocket. (Although the article said 20…why?)

For fun, I’m setting up a survey of Penseive readers to see what a happy lot we are, or is it a miserable bunch?

Image by Daniel Andrew, used with a Creative Commons license