Carmen Sevilla - Telecupon

A young Carmen Sevilla

This is another classic Morancos clip. Here, they parody bullfighter-copla bolero flamenco chanteuse Rocio Jurado, known as La Mas Grande (another frequent personality in this blog) (minute 3:10). She calls her torero Hortera, a playful pun on the pronunciation of his surname, Ortega Cano. Hortera means someone with no taste, tacky and overdone. There are other puns on the plaza as the place where the bullfight takes place, she says her body is his plaza, and on the word corrida, but that is going to a place not apt for the faint of heart!

If you go to minute 6:45, a priceless imitation of Carmen Sevilla's appearances in the Telecupon lottery prize winner announcements. The faded andalusian singer/dancer/movie star (bit part in "Anthony & Cleopatra" and in 1950s films about Andalusian themes) and singer of Lola Flores' generation, is beloved for her mental wanderings - wrong words, names, places, and dates, appearances in her bedroom slippers, andalusian diction, and general ignorance. Of course, Sevilla has adopted this lovable persona in her old age. She knew that her days as star of andalusian-themed films were over, she actually was really beautiful, and had a lovely voice. But once Franco died, the taste for orientalist films featuring sexy (within the limits set by censorship) supine, and ignorant southerners entertaining "señoritos" (upper class men) was more or less over.

The Telecupon is riveting. Everyone seems to play the lotto, buying tickets from blind persons who sell them as a means of having a job, then the money goes to the organization called ONCE which helps the blind. (this is why you see people with sunglasses sitting outside hawking lotto tickets in Spain.) The lovely azafatas (stewardesses) have a particular style for picking up the ball with the numbers, as they turn them over in their fingers to make sure you got the figure. Sevilla acts as a burlesque foil to the young beauties, with her doddering monologues and her parody of an uneducated andalusian maruja (housewife).

An actual Telecupon prize announcement is below.

Here are Ortega Cano and the late Rocio Jurado:

Their televised wedding spectacle featured a Goyesque wedding gown and veil, worn by the imposing and much older diva and the skinny bachelor bullfighting promise.

Obama Cult of Personality Part ?????

This was posted by a CNN reporter on his Twitter feed and is the shirt that Anderson Cooper gave to Pres. Obama (who laughed) during their interview in Ghana a couple of nights ago. It matches a dress I had made from fabric I purchased on 125th Street. In fact, I rocked the dress last night, drawing friendly looks and even smiles from normally hardened New Yorkers on the G and L train! The dress was also a big hit at the Venice Biennial, when passing Eurotrash, wealthy biennialistas, and other artworld luminaries stopped to chat in several languages and took my picture. LoL

You got some esplainin to do......

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Brilliant Rachel Maddow summation of GOP white male panic pushback that leads them to overt racism. Priceless is Pat Buchanan's comments regarding the threat to traditional affirmative action for White males through her activist efforts on behalf of affirmative action for so-called minorities. Of course, Buchanan doesn't refer to the traditional old-boy network as affirmative action for white males!

Ironically, Maddow does not call out her colleague at MSNBC Chris Matthews, for his overtly racist (and sexist) comments regarding Sotomayor. I cannot find the video, but during yesterday's hearings, I saw him asking rhetorically about the possible success of Sotomayor's strategy to behave in a cooly neutral manner to disguise her "passionate, hot blooded temper." He was mentioning this alleged effort to tamp down the accusations regarding her fiery temperament in the context of a general discussion about the boring nature of the discussion and Sotomayor's refusal to be drawn into any controversial statements. He said this "did not make for good TV" and that she sat there taking notes and replying in a measured manner.

I did find a clip of Matthews' own show last night, where apparently he did not go there with the hot blooded, angry out of control stereotypes but he did discuss the nominee's cool demeanor, jokingly asking if she'd been well-trained and given quaaludes. Even Robinson, the token African American, made a reference to the coaching needed to make Sotomayor behave in such as boring manner, as if she had taken downers.

Maybe it's me, but would they ask if a white man had been given quaaludes when he behaved in a professional manner during Senate questioning? Why is he not discussing the out of control emotions of hysterical philanderer Mark Sandford, Vicodin addict Rush Limbaugh, screaming sociopaths such as Glenn Beck? And then Buchanan calls her a "militant Latina" and says she would not quality for Princeton because she is a Puerto Rican, the only way she could get in is via affirmative action, asking for her LSAT scores to be released. Why is Buchanan not asking for Dubya's report cards to be released? As is well-known, 43 only got into an Ivy because of the affirmative action for white men common in those schools, where there are quotas for family members of alums.

Miss Puerto Rico

Here is more information on the fabulous range of pageants open to young ladies in Puerto Rico. Besides Miss Puerto Rico Petite, open to women 5'5" and under (ie. 90% of Island females), my new favorite pageant Miss Puerto Rico Sepia, which calls for women with tez trigueña, an ambiguous term that hints at darker skin, but not too dark. Of course "sepia" means something quite different to cafe, chocolate, or any other euphemism.

Puerto Rican Dada Poetry -- Para L.

Pana (breadfruit)

Tostones de pana

I have just returned from a brief holiday in la Isla del Encanto, where I indulged in tostones de pana, turron de coco, jugo de parcha, pastelillos de chapin, asopao de langosta, bolitas de mofongo, arroz con habichuelas blancas, queso blanco con pasta de guayaba, and many other delicacies. During my stay, I took part in a Boricua BootcampTM, deep in the Island, with a charming host family that taught me to cook typical dishes, use traditional vocabulary (example: Ese arbol esta choreto de pana. That tree is chock full of breadfruit), and catch up on pop culture. While there, I caught up on my tan and on the Dada Poetry that is Island nomenclature.

Here are just some examples:

Coraly

Naylomi

Yobriani

Abrianys

Abiliz

Raphet

Agne Marie (accent on the "e" in Agne)

Nalany

Jomar (note: Naylomi through Jomar are all part of one family!)

Adriel

Belmary

D'Mary

Nesyali

Yetzenia (not a Russian name, believe it or not)

Luangeli

Jhosmayra

Griselis

Yariel

Yandel

Pitonisa Lola

Rappel

Spain's Walter Mercado might well be the androgynous Rappel, but la Pitonisa Lola, a phenomenon that emerged from cable-access pay-per-call Tarot readings, gives both a run for their money. Some of her greatest hits are here. Enjoy.

Awilda Carbia

Puerto Rican comedian Awilda Carbia died recently. Here she is imitating vedette extraordinaire Iris Chacon and former Puerto Rican first lady Kate Barcelo.