My birthday was great. It continued for days, basically until yesterday (a whole week later). Tony Tee got me tickets to go see Toros. He said it was my birthday present. He would have done it regardless of my birthday or not. Going to Toros with Tony is a blast. This time, Joe and Mayda joined us.
I’ve been trying to TikTok. You can follow my TikTok shenanigans here. The last video was terrible. The music got cut 30 seconds in and the video is longer than 2 minutes. That’s too long for TikTok. I guess it depends. I’ve seen comedy TikToks for longer than a minute. That’s what I’ve been trying to do. Some sort of comedy while I promote my books and other shit.
Now that I think about it, that’s what I should do. I’m funny. But I have a panic about doing stand-up for real. It’s not the stage. I can manage the stage well enough. I just can’t do stand-up. Or I can’t picture myself doing it.
This Monday starts with anxiety and panic. Reality hitting me. The reality that I’ve been trying to avoid. I need to fix my car ASAP. My mechanic doesn’t want to work on it. He doesn’t tell me why. He just says he can’t. I’m looking for a new mechanic. My car needs to pass smog in a week and it definitely doesn’t pass smog.
I’m going to try and call a new mechanic after I’m done with this silly blog. Tomorrow I have one photo gig and I will also try to visit a mechanic in San Diego that told me he can check it out. My car is doing alright. It just has an emission issue. And that means it won’t pass smog.
Let’s see what happens. Wish me luck. I might be without a car for a while. But it’s fixable. I hate paperwork and shit like that. And I need a new car. But I am still a broke motherfucker trying to make it with my “art.”
More tours.
More photoshoots.
More book sales.
More print sales.
All of that needs to increase.
I have a tour this Thursday. Photoshoot tomorrow, tour two days after. And with that. I make a good paid week. But I need WAY MORE. I need more than just two days of work. Though that makes me plenty in Tijuana to live, it doesn’t make plenty to save money and keep growing.
I need more patrons. People steal my shit all the time. They could contribute. I have so much content I want to retire on it. Great pictures of Tijuana that people love. Great pictures of other places and other things and tacos. So much fucking content. I’m swimming in my pile of useless unorganized content. Even naked content. I have patrons that pay to see me naked. So much content.
The world is content.
Gigantic void of content. And somehow that generates income. Income is disposable. And we all die.
Before going to Toros, I was a part of Las Cantinas de Cornelio. This is what the show looks like:
The director/producer of the show hit me up through WhatsApp. He has heard of me. I had no idea who he was. Turns out, I photographed him outside my balcony many years before. He was filming Tijuana with my friend Tamara Vallarta.
And now, I was a part of this show. Las Cantinas de Cornelio season 2.
I always say I could be a good actor. This was my chance. Alas, I am not a good actor (perhaps an okay one).
Don Cornelio García is a fantastic old man who plays traditional mariachi with a guitarra de quinta (now I want one). We first met at Tucumano on Thursday just to chat. There I learn about his travels through Chile, his many women, him meeting Victor Jara (and so many great musicians of the time).
On the show, we meet at Callejón el Travieso. He asks for the Bar Mamut (in Spanish). To which I reply, “I think you mean the brewery. It’s actually just over there.”
From there I tell him he is in luck. I am a tour guide and I can show him around. We filmed several scenes several times. I thought I was going to be there for like an hour or perhaps two. I joined them the whole night. And during breaks, I hung out with Don Cornelio. Y que tipazo. I’ll say it again and again. We talked a lot and he taught me so many life lessons. One that particularly lines up with what I believe. He knows Cornelio is a character and he is a different person. Just like Matingas is a character and I’m just a shy little kid inside. “But that character has to be honest,” he said something along those lines. Live your life honestly, and it will reward you.
I have no idea when season 2 will come out (they said perhaps later this year). It will air on Mexicanal. I have no idea how much time I’ll be on the show. Perhaps 3 seconds. Perhaps 1 minute. Perhaps not at all. I’m not a great actor.
I will forever be grateful in meeting Don Cornelio though. I gave him the last copy of my Tijuana Adventure book.
Here’s the Instagram post:
So many social media. It consumes my life. And it should give me more money. I’m a massive content creator. I know I’m sort of close.
The new cover came out. It’s about TikTokers.
That’s Dax on the cover. He is such a chill dude. Hard to believe he has almost 6 million followers on TikTok for simply making clay pots shirtless. The future is going to get very weird.
That’s Mrs. Miller. I liked her for the cover. She does what I thought TikTok was all about. Silly dances and stuff. But she does more than that. Her sticker videos get a lot of views and she used to do more math teaching content. TikTok is more diverse than people think. Reddit specially loves to hate on it. But lately, it’s the app I use the most.
And finally, Lauren San Diego. She has the least followers with 71k but that’s still a lot. I’m getting to my first 1k on TikTok and that’s nothing for that social media. I have that one viral video of rats in downtown Tijuana and my paparazzi videos seem to be doing well. I’m sure those will get more controversial and do even better.
You can read the story here. It talks about micro-influencers and how they make money. I need to get an agent perhaps or something. I still need more following.
Then generate more passive income online.
Move to Ensenada.
Work over there in a brewery or something. I also have my ideas.
Oh yeah.
Definitely moving to Ensenada.
Though now that I type it, it’s like saying it out loud. And it’s scary. I’ve been in the same fucking apartment for almost a decade now. Change is scary. I have roots in this fucking apartment.
That’s what I did for my birthday. I went to Ensenada and hung out with my friend Szavio, which might be a possible roommate. He rents a nice house in El Sauzal and a room is available. I’m not ready to move just yet. And he is not even sure if he wants to stay in Ensenada.
But I am.
I want to live in Ensenada. I imagine my life there and I like it. I just need to make more money online and be more expensive in my photoshoots. It is now $200 to work with me for a photo shoot in San Diego. Still cheap as fuck. And Ensenada ain’t that far. I’ll easily do the drive once a week to San Diego for photoshoots. And I could also do Ensenada tours!
That’s the plan. That’s the dream.
Passive income online. Photoshoots in San Diego every once in a while. Ensenada brewery tours once a month. But ideally, not crossing the border anymore.
Ooo. Email from the magazine. Oh yeah. They ended up finally paying me right. Now they owe me for another cover. And they will be giving me more gigs like always. I need way more. I plan to go to Rosarito to write a cover about that.
If you like me or my blog or my videos or pictures or whatever and want to support me… Please do so on Patreon. My drunk ass heavily appreciates it as I still don’t have a real income. Making it as an “artist” is not easy. Every $ is appreciated. And if you want to see me naked, now you can.
Once I make it. The rewards will be grand. Like my friend SoyCaifan. He gets a reward. He has been supporting me for a while. I’m giving one of my $100 photos for free. Melanie also gets free shit whenever I see her in Seattle, I owe her much. I paid some to Fernando, but I still want to give more. And my other patrons also get more, though they already get to see me naked and that’s wild.
Matingas 