Replacing my blog at http://pablosmoglives.wordpress.com
18 Oct 2021 3 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
In September 2014, students from a small, socialist farming school in the state of Guerrero were traveling in a caravan of 5 buses to Iguala, Mexico. When they arrived in town, they were followed by police. The police stopped them, blocked them in,...
17 Oct 2021 4 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
Apparently, one of my old lyrics is trending as a hashtag on Twitter. Something similar happened to me in Hollywood: I heard a line from a song I used to play regularly at a well-attended open mic in a movie that came out the next year. The song w...
10 Oct 2021 3 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
Ever feel like you're clinging to a piece of driftwood, tossing to and fro in a sea of artless, myopic sanctimony? Ever feel like you're the only person in the room, regardless of how many people are there? Not in a solipsistic, "other people are m...
8 Oct 2021 12 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
*Spoiler Alert - You have been warned! Quentin Tarantino lost me a long time ago. The first scene of his I ever saw was the scene in which the names are assigned in Reservoir Dogs, and Mr. Pink is trying to talk his way out of his alias. Based on t...
6 Oct 2021 1 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
From now until Oct. 12th there will be a 50% off the entire discography sale. Normally, the deal is $20 for 3 albums and $100 for the whole discography of 21 albums (20, actually, since my first album Angels on Fire is already available for free on...
3 Oct 2021 11 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
Last week, I was kidnapped by members of the faculty of the Escuela de Cantautoristas de Pablo Smog in Veracruz, Mexico. Some weird, dirty, unemployed-looking guys pointed their guitars in my face and shoved me in the back of a van and drove me into...
28 Sep 2021 8 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
Mexico is big on Whatsapp. I've heard it a few times, "not having Whatsapp down here is almost like not having a phone." I can see the uses of a cellphone, especially if it's the cheapest one on the shelf at Oxxo, which is the Mexican 7-11. I'm on...
26 Sep 2021 2 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
Hello, My name is Amoobi. I am a Nigerian songwriting student, currently studying at the Escuela de Cantautoristas de Pablo Smog in the dangerous port city of Veracruz, Mexico. I arrived several months ago on a songwriting visa supposedly issued by...
16 Sep 2021 4 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
Mexico is celebrating its Independence Day today. I'm watching it on YouTube, the livestream of an empty Zócalo in Mexico City, where the president spoke and said "Viva México" several times from the balcony, and rang a bell. He's wearing a purple...
12 Sep 2021 4 minute read 0 comments Nathan Payne
In a recent article, I said one of the reasons I came to Mexico is burn-out. I mentioned how I left before the election, not thinking it would matter who won or lost. I'd like to clarify why it never mattered who won or lost, and why Trump was neve...
