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A Few Thoughts

I caught part of American Idol last night, and saw Jennifer Lopez perform. In a way, it was a proud moment, seeing one of the biggest shows on television feature a huge star singing in Spanish on national television. Regardless of anyone's personal opinion of Lopez' musical career, the fact that this milestone was achieved is pretty important. It's a good demonstration of how Latinos are ever more out there, and how pieces of our culture are shown to be completely at home among all the other diversity America has to offer. At the same time, nobody made a big deal out of it being a sort of milestone. It was just a seamless blend with the rest of the show. That's important, because it normalizes such a performance and the occasional Spanglish and Spanish-language advertising I see on a regular basis.

 I bet most of the audience didn't understand the song and yet they seemed to get into it anyway, simply enjoying the music and the performance for all it was worth. That's where the pride comes in, knowing that enjoyment and music are things that cross cultural and language barriers.

On a related note, I saw this headline via E! News the other day: "Salma's Spicy Studio Deal" which was referring to the recent production deal signed between Salma Hayek and MGM,  to form Ventanazul, a company to develop and distrubute Latino themed film projects. "Spicy"? Way to stereotype. Now, I know most of us are very proud of being a passionate people, but these terms only serve to marginalize and give people a certain impression of us, especially of us Latinas. We're "spicy", "spitfires", "feisty", "hot tamales", etc. But wait – I'm geeky, nerdy, calm, passionate, yes, but whatever happened to celebrating the whole of a person instead of attempting to water them down to an adjective or two? Ventanazul is actually trying to do just that, says Salma, saying that the projects will be involved in "telling uniquely Latin stories like that of Frida Kahlo, to creating unforgettable characters—who just happen to be Latin—like Ugly Betty." Then why such a ridiculously stereotypical headline from the E! writer?

Not that I necessarily disagree that "spicy" may truly describe some people, but it's a tired adjective when attached to stories involving Latinos, and it's about time someone gave these writers a new thesaurus. In the end, I'm happy to hear of the Ventanazul production company and look forward to what kinds of projects will come out of it.

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Vox Hunt: This One Goes Out To…

Audio: It's dedication time.  What song are you sending out, and who is it dedicated to?

Several years ago, when Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head came out, I gradually started listening to it a lot. What strikes me as funny now was that on the album, as with most, there were two or three songs that I liked least and would remove from the rotation much of the time. After I met my boyfriend, before we were together and were first getting to know one another, I realized that I started listening to one of these least-liked tracks more and more often. It became a sort of shy little secret, since it reminded me of him in certain ways (before I even knew what he looked like aside from black hair and green eyes). At the time he had not yet quite come to embody the lyrics in the song, he most certainly does now.

So Michael, this is for you:

07 - Coldplay - Green Eyes
07 – Coldplay – Green Eyes
Coldplay

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Vox Hunt: Go Team!

Show us your team! 
Submitted by Juniebird.

It's baseball season again. That means one thing –

Yankees
Yankees

The roster changes are shaping up to make this an interesting season. It's very sad that Bernie Williams isn't wearing his 51 out on the field anymore, even if only subbing in or DHing. Of course, there are new faces as well.

And who knew Carl Pavano would not only actually be with the team this year, healthy, and the opening day starter? Honestly, if someone had made that prediction a year ago, I guarantee most baseball fans would have laughed in the person's face. Last, but not least of this week's baseball-related tidbits, Alex Rodriguez and his very sweet clutch grand slam has to be one really important step in regaining the support from a lot of fans during the chilly and rumor-filled offseason. I never booed the guy or stopped supporting him as a member of this team, but he did get some really harsh treatment from a number of Yankees fans last year, and of course, plenty of ridicule and bile from those that love to hate the team.

It's been chilly here in NY the last several days, feeling more like November than April. But the fact that baseball is back always makes me excited.

Hopefully, all the way through October for these guys.

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A Few Critter-related Bits

I saw a few of these links recently and thought I'd share.

Easter is coming up, and some people are going to be giving their kids real chicks and bunnies for the holiday. When I was a kid, one of our neighbors gave her daughter a chick for Easter. Of course it was an adorable ball of yellow fluff, but the girl was about five or six at the time and most definitely could not care for a chicken in an apartment. I have no idea what happened to the chick, but it probably wasn't anything good.

So, in comes the Make Mine Chocolate campaign. It's only in its second year, but this messages deserves to be heard far and wide. Helping animals like cute bunnies and chicks avoid situations in which they're unwanted or people who are unsuited to care for them are put in charge is a lesson more people need to learn.

April 10th is Go Orange for Animals Day!

The ASPCA is celebrating its anniversary on 4/10, and has declared it Go Orange for Animals day. Sporting something orange is the way to go next Tuesday. There's merchandise to support the event available, but anything orange that sparks conversation about its significance works. The ASPCA is a great organization that has been around for 140 years, and any bit of support helps.

And finally, last, but not least:

Cookies
Cookies

image credit

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Drawing the line

On Friday, some kids here pulled an early April Fools' prank on their classmates, lacing some donuts with laxatives, just like on an MTV show they'd watched. Now, while I think it was an awful thing to do, considering the potential effects on anyone who may have eaten one, it was still a childish act. The children are now facing criminal charges.

Of course, there's a difference between right and wrong, and these 13 and 14 year old boys were known as jokers. However, the severity of the action is just one example of how adults are rushing children to grow up so fast these days. I'm not ignoring that the prank was shown, apparently with instructions, on TV, merely analyzing the reaction by officials.

We're living in a world that makes thongs for pre-teens and overreacts by sending in the bomb squad over a harmless ad campaign. What, years ago, would have simply been written off as a harmless teenage prank punishable by perhaps a week or two in detention is now being handled by the police. Think about that.

I wouldn't have wanted to be one of those people who ate the tainted donuts, but the effects of a laxative last a day at best. There would almost certainly be no permanent damage. When it comes to more severe incidents, such as when kids deliberately attempt to poison their teachers, then perhaps police involvement might be more suitable. However, perhaps they should try to give kids a warning first instead of arresting them. Work with their parents. Heck, even scare them a little bit. When I was in kindergarten, we took a field trip to the local police station, where they locked us up in a holding cell for a few minutes. Even when you're five, that can have an impact.

There are just so many aspects of today's society that are making childhood shorter and shorter. Arresting children can leave them with a very negative self-image, and it can make them feel hopeless. If it happens more than once, and I've met some people who'd been through the juvenile system, it really does damage their sense of hope.

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A Call for Free Artistic Expression

One artist's chocolate Jesus sculpture won't be going on display here as planned. It still amazes me how closed people are in today's society. How organizations would rather call for a boycott or a cancellation of an art exhibit rather than simply having an open dialogue and a respectful disagreement with the work as is. Sure, they may not like the artist's representation, but that doesn't mean they should seek to censor it.

I felt the same way in regards to that controversy over the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of Mohammed. The American press mostly shied away from reprinting the images, while many outlets in the world ran them uncensored. And we're the "land of the free"?

For there ever to be honest discourse with regard to controversial topics, the first step is to be able to have free, open expression. Do I agree with all work done in the name of art? Of course not. The man who set up blenders with live goldfish inside certainly earned my disdain. However, expression shouldn't be stifled.

I understand how some people might find these things personally offensive, but those of us on the outside of such things should still be able to make our own choices as to what we see or not, not have them made for us. This reminds me of the absolutely ridiculous overreaction by Rudolph Giuliani where he attempted to withdraw public funding for the Brooklyn Museum over a reverent painting by artist Chris Ofili, a Christian. The painting in question featured a black Virgin Mary with one breast crafted from elephant dung (which is a material he uses often), and vaginas cut from porn magazines around the painting.

People claim Ofili's painting was "splattered" with dung and thus somehow irreverent. This rumor persists today, and I just saw the term "splattered" used in an article about this chocolate Jesus incident. However, the Ofili painting was not splattered with anything. The breast was a round lump attached to the painting. The lesson I'm trying to get at was Giuliani attempted to shut down a local institution, one that has been serving Brooklyn and the city for a century, over one painting. A painting that he was ignorant about and hated based on misinformation.

Giuliani is an extremely stubborn politician, but perhaps, just perhaps, if instead of a big buzz of controversy there was discussion. Open discussion instead of attempts at censoring others' expression. Maybe peopple would have learned something.

A chocolate Jesus–a naked chocolate Jesus– isn't going to make or break Catholicism. There's no real reason to be personally offended by this sculpture. The main reason the Church seems to be upset is because this nudity humanizes the Jesus figure.

In any case, I hope another institution steps up and agrees to host this sculpture. Our freedom of expression does not  halt for religious groups, and indeed, it shouldn't. No pun intended, but they're not sacred cows, and they shouldn't be treated as off limits.

On a different, yet still religious and sweet note: boy these look good, and I'm not even Jewish.

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Tidbits

I haven't written anything here in a while, and that's basically due to life happening. At the time of my last entry, I was amidst the graduate school application process and saw the opportunity to wax nostalgic about my favorite movie as a method of release. I'm disappointed that the application process did not go as planned, due to one of the professors whose recommendation I required being on sabbatical this year. I tried to contact professors back at the end of November, hoping to get their letters by the February 1st deadline. One of them was out of the country and didn't get to my email until the third week in January. By that time, I'd sent an email, written and delivered a note, and set up an appointment immediately at the start of the spring semester.

However, the other professor never responded. In spite of her autoresponse claiming that she will check in and respond eventually, months (and a second email later), she hasn't. I sent the second email due to one program having a due date for application of April 1st and the hope that if two months wasn't enough time to respond, perhaps four months would be. Unfortunately, she hasn't written back, and I won't be able to get anything submitted. I'm trying to take it positively, though the graduate school process took up a big chunk of time starting last fall, and drove me absolutely nuts with stress. I'm disappointed, but all I can do is just take the next year to strengthen my candidacy and hopefully I will have more success.

Last month, my grandfather passed away after almost five years fighting lung cancer. It's still really weird not having him downstairs, not joking with my mom about the television he left blaring so loudly we could hear it up here because his hearing aid had slipped behind his bed, not seeing him smile and crack a joke. It was pretty obvious that my grandfather felt that he wouldn't make it long, and he was in a lot of pain. He gathered everyone in his room one by one last Christmas. Over the last year, he told all sorts of stories, especially when I'd come see him. And we got to have dinner together one night, just the two of us – something that I can't even remember if ever happened before. We've eaten lunch together before, but this was dinner and a good conversation. There is a project I may be taking on soon that involves electronics
and soldering –and he would have been able to advise me,
having done electrician work for a time, and later around the house.

I miss him.

Yesterday, I colored my hair. I only used a temporary color, so my hair isn't dramatic or lighter, it's just slightly redder, which softens the darkness of my deep brown hair and makes my natural red highlights stand out more. I don't like using anything too harsh on my hair, but experimenting is fun sometimes.

I've also been doing a lot of work on my website. It's nowhere near done, and the template restrictions are a bit annoying, but I'm going to work with OfficeLive for now, until I can host and design it myself. I'll post more about my site when it's more than a mere framework. I'm just hoping that building this online profile and homebase for myself will help me in my career pursuits. Getting a publishing job in NY is so competitive. Many internships are unpaid and I need money. The other internships are generally only for students. As if someone can't decide to change career goals at some point after school! I keep applying to various positions and attempting freelance in the meantime.

I just hope someone will bite soon. I don't have any contacts in publishing, and was never a big networker in school, so it's really difficult. Still, I'll persevere. The website is merely one link in how I'm attempting to establish myself.

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Vox Hunt: I Love This Part

Video: Show us your favorite movie scene.
Submitted by Caroline.

Little Mermaid- Part of Your world (Reprise)
Little Mermaid- Part of Your world (Reprise)

     It may be funny that my favorite movie scene of all time is from a film I have loved since the age of nine. The Little Mermaid is my favorite movie. Many of the elements that appealed to my nine year old self still appeal to me now: great music, a well-written, well acted heroine, absolutely beautiful animation, and more. So what is it about this one scene that gets me?

    It is in this scene that we get our glimpse of just how determined Ariel is. This is a stranger she has rescued, fascinated that he's a human, but feeling the spark of potential for more. Still mostly just curious, she makes a promise that she'll return and at the same time, that is a promise to explore that potential she sees in Prince Eric.

     This is no longer the sad "wish I could be part of that world"; the curiosity that is the human world with which she has never interacted. It is "that" world in the previous song. This is where it's sealed that it's become very personal. This is a genuine promise, made partly out of naiveté, but partly out of genuine determination on Ariel's part. "Someday, I'll be part of your world." Her curiosities have taken root, not just because she's finally interacted with the human world, but because she's found someone that intrigues and attracts her at the same time. And all these factors taken together have sealed her fate.

    The part near the very end of the scene is my absolute favorite movie shot of all time. We see Ariel watching, pondering, and then  Ariel is singing upon that rock, wind blowing through her hair, and at the moment she brings herself forth, the wave crashes up behind her. It still gives me a bit of a chill, both for its beauty and for the meaning in that moment. For that is the moment when Ariel truly makes that promise and shows us what she's made of.

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A Romantic Song – What does that mean to you?

Recently, I was on a message board that I frequent, and someone asked about a few songs and whether we found them romantic, and what other suggestions we might have for such songs. I didn't contribute any new ones to the thread at the time, but the following day, I heard a song that I'd liked for years and whose lyrics I loved. The song was "Desnuda", by Ricardo Arjona.

Desnuda

No es ninguna aberración sexual

Pero me gusta verte andar en cueros

El compás de tus pechos aventureros

Victimas de la gravedad

Será porque no me gusta la tapicería

Que creo que tu desnudez

Es tu mejor lenceria

Por eso es que me gustas tal y como eres

Incluso ese par de libras de mas

Si te viese tu jefe desnuda y detras

No dudaria en promover tu cintura

Deja llenarme de tu desnudez

Para afrontar los dizfraces de afuera

De una mejor manera

Desnuda

Que no habra diseño que te quede mejor

Que el de tu piel ajustada a tu figura

Desnuda

Que no hay un ingenuo que vista una flor

Seria como taparle la hermosura

Desnuda

Que la naturaleza no se equivoca

Y si te hubiese querido con ropa

Con ropa hubieses nacido

Deja llenarme de tu desnudez

Para vestirme por dentro

Aunque sea un momento

Now the message here is clear – 'I love you, and you're so beautiful as you are that I love watching you naked as you were born. Even though I've noticed your little flaws, I don't care, and they only enhance your beauty to me'.

To me, these lyrics are incredibly romantic and beautiful, even though they're not describing typical romance or the general goings on of a relationship. Face it, there are many of those songs, with many more veering toward the saccharine than not. Granted, I love sweet and sometimes cheesy love songs too (Your Body is a Wonderland, anyone?), but there's something about songs whose writers and performers rise to a certain poetic level.

Here's the video:

Desnuda-Ricardo Arjona

Lyrics courtesy of Ricardo Arjona Online

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Vox Hunt: By My Favorite Artist

Show us something by your favorite artist.
Submitted by Miss Parker. 

My favorite artist, Marc Chagall, was unique in his style. He came after the impressionists, and his work almost seems to contain some surrealist elements at times, but he's pretty much in a league of his own. The reason why I love his work so much is that it's so inspired by deep personal passions, yet at the same time, is accessible to almost anyone.

Throughout his work (and there was much of it, including paintings, drawings, and even designs for buildings like the ceiling of the Paris Opera), certain themes and figures remain constant. The depiction of love is constant, with the male lover always Chagall himself, and the female lover always a likeness of his love of the time. Until her death in 1944, it was his wife and longtime love Bella, and it's from this period that my favorite of his works come. Though I love his work overall.

Another important theme is his rural beginnings in the village of Vitebsk, in what is now Belarus. Linked with this was his religion and heritage as a Jew. His family lived in the ghetto of Vitebsk, and his Jewish identity, which sometimes restricted his opportunities, was a lifelong theme.

Something else that permeated his later paintings is exile and loss. While his earliest work was done in Vitebsk and St. Petersburg, it was after coming to France that he ultimately began getting real notice and training. France became his home, and sadly, one that he had to leave when Hitler invaded.

He and Bella went to New York for several years, but he longed for France and for freedom.

There's much more to his story. He lived for nearly 98 years. But onto a few examples:

"Love", "Bonjour Paris", "Lovers' Dream"

Chagall-LoveBonjour-parisChagall-marc-loversdream