Epmediagroup’s Weblog

Today El Paso Media Group started yet another media venture in El Paso, a bilingual talk radio show on an all-Spanish language station, KAMA 750 AM, called Charlando con La Gringa and I’m the gringa you are supposed to charlando with. And the totally fun part is I know about 17 words in Spanish (comer, dinero, adios, gracias, queso, malo, etc.). The bilingual part of the show comes when a caller only speaks Spanish to me and I say, “what?” Actually, today was a total success as I had Jessica Valdez and Christine Aguilar in the studio with me and they both speak lovely Spanish and Pete the board operator speaks Spanish too; The three of them handled the Spanish callers beautifully.

Mayor John Cook joined us during the second hour of the show and several callers had the chance to chat it up - once caller was a pro-recall and that added a little grit to the show. I prefer the callers add grit and I stay behind the scenes as a “moderator” - I think it’s better that way,sometimes…

Melina Castro was supposed to open the show but she had a family emergency and will reschedule. I plan to talk to her about fashion and how cute she is.

My college roommate that is spending the summer in upstate New York called the show to wish me well and several other fans. That was fun. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes. If you listen in and have comments, send them to lisad@epmediagroup.com or call the show between 4-6 p.m. weekdays at 880-5262, I would love to hear from you.

Lisa Degliantoni, Host of Charlando con La Gringa, KAMA 750 AM

Dear Jessica, 

I am going to be quite frank. I am dating my friend’s ex. They dated about two years ago for about a year and mutually decided that it was not working (or that is what was told to me by my friend). I recently ran into him (her ex) downtown about a month ago. At first it did feel very awkward but after a long night of cocktails and catching up, sparks ignited and we have been inseparable ever since. Though I feel like I am betraying my friend, I don’t want to miss out on someone that could be the love of my life. She is dear to my heart and I feel that we are serious enough for me to tell her that we are dating. Though it may break the unspoken code that comes with friendship and respect, is it really that bad if I feel this strongly for this person? Please help! 

Her EX. My Boyfriend.

Dear Her EX. My Boyfriend,

The only thing to do at this point is to sit down with your friend and confess your secret. Only then will you know what to do. If her reaction is positive and states she feels nothing towards him anymore and that she does not mind, then you can move on with him. If her reaction is negative and says she cannot believe you have done this to her, you can decide if you will choose your friend or your new man, her ex.

Personally, I could not date any of my friend’s exes. For one, none of us has the same taste in men (thank goodness!), and secondly, there are just way too many fortune cookies in the bowl for me to choose from, instead of taking the one she already unwrapped, cracked open, read the fortune and left as waste on the table. Plus, she already read me the fortune out loud and we already agreed it wasn’t that great!

To each his own! One woman’s scrap is another’s fortune.

Jessica, 

After 11 years of marriage and two kids, I recently found out that my husband has been cheating on me for the past five months. I didn’t “discover” it, he confessed to me, and claims that he is over his affair and that he only ever started seeing another woman because we hadn’t been intimate in way too long. About a year ago, I got laid off and have since been working two jobs. I am often on my way to work before he wakes up, or coming home way too tired to cook, let alone exert myself in the bedroom. I still love my husband and he claims he still feels the same way about me. We’d like to try and make things work between us, and I feel that I might be able to trust him since he did confess. But I don’t know if it’ll ever be the same. I’m constantly blaming myself for neglecting that area in our lives but I’d hate to break our family apart. Our children, just 4 and 9, need us both…and so do I. 

–Is there hope?

Dear Is There Hope,

My first reaction to your story was, “Why is she the one working two jobs?”

And my next reaction was, “If he had the two jobs and she weren’t getting enough sex, would it have been okay for her to sleep around FOR FIVE MONTHS???” Absolutely not!

I am not going to pretend to know what it is like to be married for 11 years and have two children, but I will say I can only imagine that if this happened to me, I would definitely be out the door (well, actually, he would have to leave the house). There is no excuse for cheating. He should have come to you the moment he felt the need to go with someone else. If this “no sex” really bothered him so much, why is the first time you are hearing about it five months too late? Your husband is selfish. He gives up too quickly on what a lifetime commitment is supposed to define.

You are going to do what you want, but my advice (since you are asking for it) is to leave him. The reality of cheating is that you may forgive him and tell yourself you can forget about it, but you won’t. I took a poll with five of my girlfriends (who are all married) and asked them about their husbands and cheating. Out of the five, three admitted their husbands had cheated. I asked them about the aftermath and the obvious forgiveness that took place and all three said they struggle with the thought of the affair every day of their lives. Two of them suppress it so much, they suffer from headaches and stress and the other brings it up constantly and can’t get it out of her head. There is no way I could live like this.

You must first think about the children and what they will be exposed to if you stay. If you feel you can carry on with him knowing he betrayed you, your children, your unity and your commitment, then go for it. If you do forgive him, though, he must be punished. He must prove to you this will never happen again. Or there is an alternative. He must allow you to cheat for five months. When five months is done with, you can start all over again. I cannot guarantee this will make the situation better, but it can certainly serve as your reset button. It’s up to you.

Jay Koester at the Best of Times (http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/best/) or whatever the heck his blog is called gave NPT a little shot Wednesday — May 28, 2008 — for posting this image (http://newspapertree.com/culture/2497-juarez-mexico-it-ain-t-kansas ) in the form of an article. He calls it a “lame story.” Whoever said every single item we post has to be a story? His postings sure aren’t always (maybe even ever) stories. Then he goes and says we usually have “ok” stuff. That disappointed me a little, until I realized two things: 1) We have our own blog and 2) Jay’s just a blogger (albeit on a relatively large — El Paso speaking, that is — platform) and about the only significant thing he’s ever done is to call Theresa Caballero crazy. But other than that, Jay’s a good guy, and he usually has ok stuff.

My Monday and Friday radio show from 10-11 a.m. on 1650 KHRO radio allows me to meet some of the most interesting people in the region - locals and people traveling through. Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Matula Kiladi, a very young, ambitious artist who wants to put El Paso on the map, in a hip hop kind of way.

Kiladi’s first song “My Rims Keep Spinnin” has a slick beat, that is hard to resist. Written and produced with Kappa of CDG Productions, this first track shows promise of big things to come from this new talent.

You can read more about Kiladi on his myspace page and you can see him perform live at the Best of El Paso Magazine party on June 26 at Grace Gardens.

We’re going to try and do our best to get Kiladi the recognition he deserves for his talent and drive, and if you can help spread the word, great.

-Lisa Degliantoni

After many hours working tirelessy to figure out what our readers want most out the website for El Paso Magazine, we finally launched our new website! www.epmediagroup.com is going to keep you “in the know” about El Paso and all the amazing things that make our city unique. From gorgeous homes, to recipes to party pictures, we intend to create an online conversation amongst lovers of all things El Paso.

The website was programmed and designed by Brandon Silverstein at Impulse Development as was our online newspaper www.newspapertree.com. You’ll see similarities in the layout and the navigation bars, which is intentional, as we want to brand our online properties.

There are rumors that The El Pasoan is next in line to get a new website and if that happens, you’ll be the first to know!

Of course if you visit www.epmediagroup.com, we’d love to hear your feedback. Click around, read some articles, view some slideshows and let us know what you think. You can call 915.351.0605 or email us at info@epmediagroup.com.

Apparently the waiting list to attend the Masters Tournament closed ten years ago and the only chance fans have to getting remotely close the event is the practice rounds. Lucky for us, El Pasoans Arthur Flores, Clint Lee and Bryan Lee, just returned from the pratice rounds and shared their images with us.

Click here to view the slideshow.

Although I missed the speech on television, I read the transcript to Barack Obama’s “We Have a Choice” speech on race which we recently published on Newspaper Tree. If you haven’t taken the time to read it, make the time so that you can join the national conversation that so few of us are brave enough to have.

In response to all things Obama, we published another great column on Newspaper Tree, “El Paso Won’t Vote for a Black Man” by Marc Williams. Williams begs the question of NPT readers why does “the notion of an African American president of the United States elicit such antipathy from the Mexican community?”

Join the discussion either on newspapertree.com in the form of a Readers Response or here on our blog.

Read on!

“El Paso is a city that believes in its soul that it has been cheated of its destiny.” -Paul Burka, Texas Monthly

I am always flattered when out-of-town media outlets cover El Paso news and events, but when it comes to our current county corruption scandal, I feel “turfy” and want to read locally-produced coverage. Paul Burka’s recent take on the county corruption scandal, albeit totally smart and well-written, is not locally produced and seems clinical at times. Luckily, I can rely on Newspaper Tree for smart, well-written, local coverage of El Paso news. For example, Joe Olvera’s recent column in response to Raymond Telles’ guilty plea, has all the qualities I need in a column; cultural sensitivity, insight and a deep sense of El Paso history. What did you think?

Lisa Degliantoni

Sito Negron, the editor of Newspaper Tree, has a daily radio show on KHRO 1650 AM from 11 a.m. - noon. Sito focuses on music and politics and has a great rapport with callers and guests alike, given his energetic and smart delivery and timely topics and guests. Today Sito was talking to a frequent caller named Gilberto about creating a strong Isreal and they were disagreeing about something. Sito responded to Gilberto “I will bet you a hamburger right now…”, thus creating this new section of our blog, “Sito Negron’s Quote of the Week.”

If you hear something come out of Sito’s mouth worthy of mention, send us an email at info@epmediagroup.com.

After months of our publisher Keith Mahar requesting that we launch a video section on Newspaper Tree, we finally got our act together. Click here to visit the video page. You can view all kinds of interesting stuff from our staff riding around on a Downtube folding bike to eating Chico’s Tacos to hosting Paddy Jones and the San Patricios on our KHRO radio show.

As the video page grows (and our talent for shooting video) we will be sure to update you on new and exciting posts to watch. Want us to shoot something? Send your suggestions to info@epmediagroup.com.