Friday, October 3, 2008

La Lloroncita

Quetcy Alma Martinez De Jesus, artistic name "La Lloroncita," somehow was unknown to me until about a half hour ago when one of my genius friends, whose expertise straddles Siglo de Oro literature, recondite areas of Spanish philology, HOLA! magazine semiotics, and, apparently, teen-aged Puerto Rican songstresses of the 1960s and early 1970s, shared the video below. La Lloroncita earned her name according to the bio I read (URL is below) for her ability to cry on cue, and the "cita" because she is about 4 feet tall. Damn, if those were the qualifications, I could have a hit career in my future. Apparently, she was a protege of the fabulous Myrta Silva.

She decided to leave her success behind for a discreet private life, much like Marisol, now Pepa Flores, did in Spain. I am glad she did because to see this video, as she entered puberty, no one thought to advise her to wax that mustache. On a serious note, she was singing an affecting song about her father's tour of duty in Viet Nam, in a sentimental fashion that indirectly points to the colonial aspects of having men fight in the war who in many cases could not vote in US elections. 



http://www.prpop.org/biografias/l_bios/la_lloroncita.shtml

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Palin's Pageantry Strategery

As I have been chatting with friends about the latest Palin interviewing debacle, it occurred to me that Palin's answering strategy is right out of PAGEANTRY training. Note the famous Miss South Carolina meltdown, below, and compare to my favorite section from the Katie Couric interview on CBS. Because in fact Palin has that deer trapped in the headlights faux concentration expression that Delegates have as they watch the host or the reigning Queen pull the paper from the fishbowl. Miss Alaska, we have a question from the Delegate from Iowa, Katie Couric. And she has the catch-phrase that she has memorized and must insert into her answer no matter what, even if it has nothing to do with the question. The platitudes, the hesitation, the halting phrases that are never concluded. She has it all!





I don't know what I love most: 
-the incoherent phrases
-the repetitive phrases that are clearly the talking points she has been given (such as her blurb at Ground Zero today "bring the war to their soil") 
-her inability to articulate the word "caricature" at which point Couric helps her with the simpler, monosyllabic "mock" - a meta-moment if there ever was one since this interview itself seemed like something out of the ONION, The Colbert Report or Jon Stewart!
-seeing uber light-weight Couric appear to be as tough of a questioner as Tim Russert or Dan Rather (I would pay to see what Gerald Rivers does with her, ugh, no, maybe not - and speaking of, the term one would use -assuming one thought this which DISGUSTS me -not a MILF, a colleague pointed out, technically it would be a GILF - grandmother) 


Saturday, September 20, 2008

You better go to the gym: Or you'll burn in HELL


These "divine sightings" are starting to become a little leitmotiv here, the vision of Jesus in the moth's wing, the cheeto shaped like a crucified Christ, hell, I might have to create a whole new label for these posts!!!!!! There is just so much to love in this video: the nature of these "exercises," the looks the women are rocking (note the applique cotton top), the dingy drop ceiling transformed into a vision of the Redeemer. I believe that the woman was just suffering from Beef Jerky and Chips Ahoy withdrawal. 


Friday, September 19, 2008

Rachel Maddow Back in the Day



Fabulous photo of a very young Rachel Maddow (of Air America and MSNBC) from a site called Ohnotheydidn't. She's my new favorite news personality (sorry, Anderson), who is intelligent, funny, an acute questioner (within the narrow parameters offered by talking head cable hot air) and an out lesbian. Now they have made her substantially more "soft butch." LoL. Love love love her!!!!!!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/27987463.html#cutid1

The End is Near Part 2




Evidence # 1: 
Billionaires' greed and criminal actions drive their companies into bankruptcy in part thanks to their exploitative lending practices that have driven millions into foreclosure. The Bush Administration does nothing. The lenders and Wall St. investors that capitalized on middle class taxpayers' (and, admittedly wealthier real estate speculators flipping properties) are now bailed out by us, the taxpayers. Most of us will then see cuts in social services, education, and Social Security (assuming it even exists in the future), as well as watch as our paltry retirement accounts wither. And a working class person in Bed Sty who foreclosed on their home is in part paying for Dick Fuld's mistakes. As one reader's comment cleverly described this plan: "No Banker Left Behind." No politician (including Obama) dares to ask: Why can't these FORBES Billionaires give back some of their hundreds of millions to pay down the debt that they created? 

Evidence # 2: 
Sarah Palin instituted a policy to charge rape survivors for the cost of the swab tests police take to gather evidence. Sarah Palin cut funds for disabled people. Sarah Palin had huge ties to lobbyists now under investigation and arranged through them to gain tens of millions in Congressional earmarks. She is describing herself as a maverick, paragon of ethics, mother who defends the disabled, and model of political opposition to lobbyists and pork. 

Evidence # 3:
Women who were supporters of HRC are willing to vote for a woman who is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape or incest.

Evidence # 4:
McCain is showing in the best case scenario, signs of striking foreign policy ignorance in not knowing who Zapatero is - the PM of Spain- and confusing him with a Latin American leader in an interview. Worst case scenario, this is one of several gaffes that is an early sign of senility / Alzheimer's. 

Evidence # 5:
As an email a friend forwarded to me read: "Sarah Palin's email is hacked and this is an appalling invasion of privacy, criminal in nature. Our emails may be read by the Federal Government, and this is OK: it's called the Patriot Act." 

Thursday, September 18, 2008

New York (Oficina y Denuncia)

NEW YORK (OFICINA Y DENUNCIA)


A Fernando Vela



Debajo de las multiplicaciones
hay una gota de sangre de pato.
Debajo de las divisiones
hay una gota de sangre de marinero.
Debajo de las sumas, un río de sangre tierna;
un río que viene cantando
por los dormitorios de los arrabales,
y es plata, cemento o brisa
en el alba mentida de New York.
Existen las montañas, lo sé.
Y los anteojos para la sabiduría,
lo sé. Pero yo no he venido a ver el cielo.
He venido para ver la turbia sangre,
la sangre que lleva las máquinas a las cataratas
y el espíritu a la lengua de la cobra.
Todos los días se matan en New York
cuatro millones de patos,
cinco millones de cerdos,
dos mil palomas para el gusto de los agonizantes,
un millón de vacas,
un millón de corderos
y dos millones de gallos
que dejan los cielos hechos añicos.
Más vale sollozar afilando la navaja
o asesinar a los perros en las alucinantes cacerías
que resistir en la madrugada
los interminables trenes de leche,
los interminables trenes de sangre,
y los trenes de rosas maniatadas
por los comerciantes de perfumes.
Los patos y las palomas
y los cerdos y los corderos
ponen sus gotas de sangre
debajo de las multiplicaciones;
y los terribles alaridos de las vacas estrujadas
llenan de dolor el valle
donde el Hudson se emborracha con aceite.
Yo denuncio a toda la gente
que ignora la otra mitad,
la mitad irredimible
que levanta sus montes de cemento
donde laten los corazones
de los animalitos que se olvidan
y donde caeremos todos
en la última fiesta de los taladros.
Os escupo en la cara.
La otra mitad me escucha
devorando, cantando, volando en su pureza
como los niños en las porterías
que llevan frágiles palitos
a los huecos donde se oxidan
las antenas de los insectos.
No es el infierno, es la calle.
No es la muerte, es la tienda de frutas.
Hay un mundo de ríos quebrados y distancias inasibles
en la patita de ese gato quebrada por el automóvil,
y yo oigo el canto de la lombriz
en el corazón de muchas niñas.
óxido, fermento, tierra estremecida.
Tierra tú mismo que nadas por los números de la oficina.
¿Qué voy a hacer, ordenar los paisajes?
¿Ordenar los amores que luego son fotografías,
que luego son pedazos de madera y bocanadas de sangre?
No, no; yo denuncio,
yo denuncio la conjura
de estas desiertas oficinas
que no radian las agonías,
que borran los programas de la selva,
y me ofrezco a ser comido por las vacas estrujadas
cuando sus gritos llenan el valle
donde el Hudson se emborracha con aceite.


Federico García Lorca, 1929-1930

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Make the Best of Things

I haven't had the time nor energy to write since it seems that in the past few days we've careened further into the oncoming Apocalypse: Obama down in the polls (I am volunteering, and so should everyone else!!!!!), the new Great Depression, and various chaotic incidents in my daily life (and those of various people I know) involving technology, transport and other issues. Of course, I read the horoscopes and saw Mercury is in retrograde, so the cliche is true. Below you'll see two guys making the best of the situation. Let's hope we can all emulate them in doing so.