Hey friends! Thanks for joining me for the latest edition of Momo Mail! We’re reaching the end of winter, and if you live in LA, you know that we’ve been receiving lots of rain! This month is Black History Month and Valentine’s month! I will be spending lots of time with my girlfriend for Valentines! ❤️ This winter, I’ve been hard at work studying for my 5-week chemistry course. I managed to eke out with an A in the class, which I’m more than pleased with! ^_^ I’m hoping you are having equal success in your day to day too! Next week, I will be starting my last cc semester! I always appreciate your support. Unfortunately this class took up almost all of my time this past month, but without further ado, let’s get on with the February newsletter!

A Day in the Life

This weekend I went to Riverside, CA with Julia and got to walk around and explore! We got to check out The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture! The museum houses comedian Cheech Marin’s brilliant Chicano art collection. We were only able to explore the ground floor as the second floor is being redone, set to open up sometime in March. The collections discuss important topics such as the feeling of alienation and how the term ‘alien’ dehumanizes Latino immigrants, discrimination brought by police, discrimination of the queer community, and the experiences of both immigrants and those who were born here. Overall, I would definitely recommend going! (I didn’t plan to write anything so I didn’t take as many pictures as I would like but these were some of my favorite pieces there.)

Evan’s Picks:

Window by Nana Grizol, is the last song on the band’s 2017 album Ursa Minor. This is a quiet, introspective song filled with mellow guitars, brushed drums, and soft-spoken vocals from frontman Theodore Hilton (previously the /singer in folk punk band Defiance, Ohio). Hilton alludes to thinking of memories of a person and how they watched them with inaction even though they had lots to say.

“So we can lift them
And focus on the moments that we live in
Leave apprehensions and the headaches that they've given
My heart beats, it has better things to say”

If ever existed a song that was light, cozy, and touching, it would probably be written by Kimya Dawson (previously in anti-folk group The Moldy Peaches). Tire Swing is the first song on her fifth album, Remember That I Love You, and features a modest acoustic guitar and Dawson’s speak-singing. Throughout the song you get to hear peculiar and endearing anecdotes, like meeting with friend and musician/artist Paul Baribeau in a dream.

“If I'm a spinster for the rest of my life
My yarns will keep me warm on cold and lonely nights”

As I was studying at the small divided desks that line the adult fiction section in the library for hours, I couldn’t avoid looking at the white spine of a book with a small portion of the T-Rex vertebra peeking around. I assume that you have seen the 90s hit classic film adaptation so I won’t get into the plot or anything. The book itself is a wonderful adventure, that gives great detail on the scientific and computer portions. The writing is so witty and fast-paced, and keeps your attention as much as the movie would. While the plot is pretty much spot on, there are many character changes and more dinosaur interactions (the book goes into a lot of gorey detail) that the film omits. Overall a really excellent and thrilling read for any fans of the movie! And yeah ummm… I saw the trailer for the new Jurassic World movie and I’m not very excited…

If you don’t know what Marvel’s Ultimate Universe is, you may need some reading up to do. In short, the original Ultimate universe’s supervillain, The Maker, tampers with the timeline and alters the events that lead to many current day superheroes existence, like stopping the radioactive spider that bites Peter Parker (thanks Ryan for helping me catch up). Ultimate Spider-Man (2024), written by Jonathan Hickman, depicts a Peter Parker whose life seems to be pretty great- he’s married to Mary Jane, he has two kids, and works with his uncle at the Daily Bugle. However, he is greeted by a package from Iron Lad that gives him the choice to gain his powers at his current age. Pretty fun and exciting comic with a lot of unique twists!

Well that wraps it up for this one folks! Hope that you all have a great rest of the month and a Happy Valentine’s Day!

With Love,
Evan (Momo) <3