keep the links
- i'm not surprised that scientists are using jamaican dancers to study links between dancing ability and mate quality, though i think the researchers would do well to read up on the history of dance inna the dancehall first. how else to know which dances are supposed to be symmetrical?
- my main man marvin has not only garnered recognition--and sponsorship!--for his plans to take a team of jamaican kids to a robotics competition in LA (observer | gleaner), he's also started a blog, so we can cheer him on as he continues with his innovative educational initiatives back a yard.
- the jamaica-born prof i've been teaching for this past semester just wrote a contentious, provocative review of two new books on (american) black (cultural) identity. [read it while
it's freeonly registration is required.] - also in the times this past sunday, an article on reggaeton that gives a pretty good sense of the scene in san juan, interviewing artists and audience members and recommending a bunch of clubs to boot. [
read it whilejust go to the library or something.] - in other reggaetony news, apparently the genre has found favor in uganda.
- but whatchu know about africa? (maybe you should read more blogs.)
posted by wayne&wax @ 11:47 AM
6 Comments:
You've been teaching Orlando Patterson?
Now how many people will ever get to say they did that?
Pray tell, what have you been teaching teaching him?
ooops--i see how that wording was misleading. i meant to say that i've been "teaching for" orlando, not "teaching" him. hopefully the link will clear that up.
that NYTimes article unspools a litany of cliches & deftly manages to avoid any discussion of any possible cultural ramifications -- or content for that matter! -- of reggaeton. ..es que me enfado con la falta de prensa decente...
yeah, i hear you jace. despite the cliches, i guess i thought it at least offered some information about the scene in san juan that a lot of other recent press-coverage of reggaeton has overlooked in its regurgitation of the same ol', same ol'. but you're right: it doesn't go very deep at all into the ramifications. thanks for reminding me not to go too easy on the paper of record.
i hope to rectify some of the "falta de prensa decente" in my piece on reggaeton in next week's phoenix. (i'll link it here when it appears.) lots of analysis, and--i hope--very few cliches. we'll see.
Me gustan los cliches! ITS LIKE GANGSTA RAP! OR GRUNGE, IN SEATTLE, DURING THE "early days"! THEY DANCE AN X-RATED, ASSFOCUSED DANCE! AND WHEN THEY GO HOME, THEY DONT DO IT MISSIONARY STYLE WITH THE THE TV ON (tuned to cnn) LIKE ME!
THE CULTURE IS SOOO "CALIENTE"! THE GIRLS WEAR SKIMPY CLOTHES! THE MEN WEAR OSTENTATIOUS JEWELERY AND READ BOOKS ON BECOMING MILLIONAIRES! BUT THEY ARE F*CKING POOR AND DONT KNOW SH*T ABOUT HEDGE FUNDS.
sorry to shout! looking fwd to the Phoenix piece.
& i guess it could be worse. aren't there white americans in texas with shotguns at the border? dont even mention the party-friendly cultural national ur-themes in reggaeton to the mainstream press...
NYT always seems fine, until i read them talking on something i actually know about. :)
mr grieves
now that you shout it...it's pretty funny how i was able to read through that crap and still find it worth recommending. (though, when i look back at it, i realize i'm rolling my eyes for a second-time, as when she describes the music's "sped-up party tempo and bold Spanish rhymes"--and on other odd, glib observations.) but the few, true points of interest seemed to counterbalance the cliches.
kinda like a tupac song.
and it still beats the hell out of david brooks anyday.
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