The sky is still luminous. In these weeks since the Shadow lifted, life has felt easy-easy. Easy, as it once did long ago. One of my friends who reads this blog says I am sitting here grieving, and this is true, but life still feels easy-easy, because I am here again. And I know many … More Mais um para Oxalá
A SIDE It is Friday, Oxalá‘s day, and it was luminous as befits Oxalá. Oxalá is known to be reserved and I say that if reserve adorns him well, it well adorns anyone who chooses it, especially on his day. I was interviewed live on television this afternoon for town-and-gown reasons. I was asked a … More Eurydice
“Sampa” is São Paulo, another city I love. This is really a Veloso / Gil song, but I like Gilberto’s version, and the video is great. São Paulo is a large and problematic industrial city with a great energy. The phrase “novos baianos” or New Bahians at the end refers to Veloso and Gil themselves, … More João Gilberto – Sampa
Now that we are not just on a rock steady/reggae/dancehall jag, but on a serious The Harder They Come riff, we might as well play the title cut. I first saw The Harder They Come when it was still somewhat new, in Wheeler Auditorium at UC Berkeley. This video is excellent. Recommended reading to accompany … More Jimmy Cliff
And now, thanks to Momo, here are Toots and the Maytals on “Sweet and Dandy.” Personal notes on this song are: 1. I was turned on to Toots and the Maytals by my entertainingly rakish Jamaican housemate, who had exactly seven girlfriends, one for each day of the week. He also turned me on to … More Rock Steady
El suertero que grita “La de a mil”, contiene no sé qué fondo de Dios. Pasan todos los labios. El hastío despunta en una arruga su yanó. Pasa el suertero que atesora, acaso nominal, como Dios, entre panes tantálicos, humana impotencia de amor. Yo le miro al andrajo, y él pudiera darnos el corazón; pero … More La de a mil
A friend in business writes: I learned a new acronym yesterday during training. It is BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China), and it points to the hottest emerging markets, just waiting to be tapped. Did someone not already tag these markets as hot and emerging, and tap them as best they could from the sixteenth through … More BRIC
For Valentine’s Day I recommend Nick Cave, The Secret Life of the Love Song and The Flesh Made Word. Key words are duende and saudade. If that is too dark, we can sing Brown Eyed Girl, which is sunlit. I have not yet found a performance of this song great enough to post, but we … More Nick Cave
People say that the penchant for “political correctness” is getting worse, but I have just discovered the most blatant case of heteronormativity I have seen in quite some time, and in a school textbook, no less. It is combined with poor pedagogy as well. Normally I do not teach foreign language courses, but this semester … More Sobre la llamada corrección política
Today we were discussing images of the body in García Lorca. We stared in astonishment for several minutes at the Romance del emplazado or ballad of a man who has been given the precise date of his death. I believe this poem has been translated by Langston Hughes, but I found it translated by a … More Romance del emplazado
coldhearted scientist وداد 