A Little Bit of Nostalgia

It's always fun to go back home and see family and create new memories in the same places where you had some of your first. Although it's been years since I lived at home there are still traces of my youth in my old bedroom and in the garage. One of things I found this time around were a collection of basketball posters that I had inherited from my brother in the late 80s, early 90s; Posters of Jordan, 'Nique, and the occasional Phoenix Sun (Larry Nance). My favorite poster out all them was from the Jordan/Mars Blackmon (aka Spike Lee) advertising campaign. In it, Jordan is palming Lee's head with the caption "The Best on Earth, The Best on Mars". Jordan was the best and always will be. The commercials were always fun as well. Below are a couple of my favorites.

Favorite Music of 2010 (Part 2)

Like I said in my previous post, this year I haven't been as dilligent as years past in exploring new music. So, while on break in AZ, I decided to try to get caught up as much as I could in a few weeks. I looked at several end-of-year lists and listened to a lot of music. What I discovered during this short time was that great music was more abundant in 2010 than I first realized. Here are a few of the artists I really enjoyed over the past few weeks and that I am excited to listen to more.

Wild Nothing - Live in Dreams (album: Gemini)



Emeralds - Candy Shoppe (album: Does it Look Like I'm Here?)



Zola Jesus - Night (Stridilum EP)



Tamaryn - Love Fade (album: The Waves)



Warpaint - Undertow (album: The Fool)



Lower Dens - I Get Nervous (album: Twin Hand Movement)



The Fresh & Onlys - Waterfall (album: Play it Strange)

Favorite Music of 2010 (Part 1)

Since 2010 is now over I thought I would try to share some of my favorite music from the past year. Honestly, this year has been different from past ones in that I have not dedicated myself as much to exploring new music. Yes, I have been finding things here and there but I haven't been as consistent as previous years. Nevertheless, 2010 has proved to be a great year in music. New stuff from familiar names, an array of good hip hop, and an abundance of new artists to enjoy. Here is some of what I listened to this year.

The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio (album: High Violet) - Possibly my favorite band right now. Everything they put out is amazing and this is no exception.

Yeasayer - Madder Red (album: Odd Blood) - This wasn't high on a lot of lists this year. It was dismissed as being contrived and overproduced. Yes, a couple of the songs bordered on cheesy but the rest was great. I couldn't stop listening to it.

Big Boi - Aint no Dj (album: Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty) - First of all, this gets my vote for album title of the year. Second of all, it's a great album. Enough said.

Kanye - Runaway(part) - album (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) - On the top of a lot of end-of-year lists, Kanye proved that he is still at the top of his game. I thought this was a great album but I found myself enjoying peoples reactions to it almost as much as the music itself. Hailed as brilliante and genius by some and shallow and beyond arrogant by others, for me it was somewhere in the middle. I loved a lot of it, but not all of it. Maybe not even the best hip hop album of the year.

Neguin

The Red Bull BC One was in Tokyo on Saturday and a new winner was crowned. Neguin beat out Just Do It to become the first Brazilian and Latin American to win the event. He came back from a loss in last year's semi-finals to Cloud (my personal favorite) and showed great improvement. If you're not really into breaking maybe this will change your mind.

Final Battle: Neguin vs. Just Do It (Netherlands)

Semi-Final: Neguin vs. Lil G (Venezuela)

Cloud vs. Neguin (Semi-Final 2009)

A poem by Nicanor Parra

I was in class several weeks ago when Nicanor Parra's came up in our digital poetry course (obviously unrelated to dp). I thought I would give him a try and so I picked up Poemas y Antipoemas. My professor had hyped him up a little bit so I think I was expecting more. Overall, it was still quite good. Here is one of my favorite poems (and one that was short enough for a blog post).

"Madrigal"

Yo me haré millonario una noche
gracias a un truco que me permitirá fijar las imágenes
en un espejo cóncavo. O convexo.

Me parece que el éxito será completo
cuando logre inventar un ataúd de doble fondo
que permita al cadáver asomarse a otro mundo.

Ya me he quemado bastante las pestañas
en esta absurda carrera de caballos
en que los jinetes son arrojados de sus cabalgaduras
y van a caer entre los espectadores.

Justo es, entonces, que trate de crear algo
que me permita vivir holgadamente
o que por lo menos me permita morir.

Estoy seguro de que mis piernas tiemblan,
sueño que se me caen los dientes
y que llego tarde a unos funerales.

Arcade Fire on SNL (11/13/2010)

Arcade Fire played SNL last night and showed why they are one of the best groups still playing today. The second video is of my favorite song from their latest album The Suburbs.

Eugenio Tisselli

Tomorrow I will be presenting the work of Eugenio Tisselli. A programmer, digital poet, and visual artist. Here is an example of some of his work.

More to come later.

50% off at Barnes and Noble

We are the happy new owners of this gem that we picked it up from Barnes and Noble's 50% off criterion sale. This for me was the clear choice. Considered by some as one of the best-ever releases on criterion. Unavailable anywhere else and an important part of cinematic history. Read the review here.

Biutiful

Alejandro González Iñárritu and Javier Bardem have teamed up for Biutiful. Iñárritu has been one of my favorite Latin American directors ever since I saw Amores Perros (2000) about 5 years ago. It's exciting to see that he has teamed up with Bardem, one of cinema's great talents. Yeah for Spanish cinema!

New Music Videos

A few of my favorite videos from the past couple of weeks. I especially like the Foals and Darkstar videos.

Foals - Blue Blood

Sleigh Bells "Infinity Guitars" from Phil Pinto on Vimeo.

Among the Thugs

Because I have to read a seemingly infinite amount of texts for graduate school I've concluded that in order to keep sane I need to always read something unrelated to my studies. I've wanted to read Bill Buford's first-hand account of british holliganism for quite awhile now. After finding a copy here at UGA I quickly became enthraled in this tale of violence and football (soccer). He willingly thrust himself into the culture of hooliganism and of football in general in order to find answers about violence. Did he find the answers he was looking for? No, but he did come to an important conclusion.

This synopsis gives an excellent description of the book and of Buford's conclusions upon writing it:

"Buford, a native of the United States, is the editor of the London-based literary magazine Granta . In 1982 he witnessed the takeover of a train, a football special, by English soccer thugs. He reveals how fascination for this distinctly English phenomenon of "soccer hooliganism" led him to follow a group of violent supporters of the Manchester United Red Devils. Buford is accepted into the group and in time seems to develop a sixth sense about impending violence or when things, in English parlance, are "going to go off." Particularly riveting is his account of the aftermath of a match in Turin, Italy, where 200 or so Manchester supporters marched through the ancient streets leaving fire and destruction in their wake. Buford's original theories on football violence, fraught with notions about disenfranchised youth and the frustration of the working class, are forever dashed. He concludes that the English working class is dead, and what remains is a culture so vapid that " . . . it pricks itself so that it has feeling, burns its flesh so that is has smell." Public and academic libraries should have this."

I could write pages and pages about this topic but rather I share a few articles relating to violence and football.

1. An interesting take on violent gangs in the Argentine league: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/jun/26/huracan-violence-argentina-barra-brava

2. Another article on violence in the Argentine league: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1856553.stm

2. Over the past several years the violence in England has seemed to die down a bit. But, is it something that will always exist? http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/22/football-violence-hooligans

4. A funny clip from the Daily Show: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-30-2010/world-cup-2010--into-africa---vuvuzealots

So, if you are interested in the relationship between football and violence and the culture of hooliganism I would definitely take time to read this book.

Miss Buggs

Click here for more.

New Eelus

Notorious XX

If you enjoy mashups, click here before it's too late. Mixing Biggie with the new "it" band is always popular and this is no exception. Here it is with the 2010 Mercury Award winners, the xx. Also, if you like this then you'll enjoy his newest offering, "This is Real Life". It reminds me a little of Girl Talk but a little toned down. Instead of mashing up a dozen songs in one, here we just have two or three at most.

Latin American Street Art

Triangulo Dorado (Argentina)

Latin America is quietly producing some of the best street art in the world. Artists from Colombia, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina are making themselves known worldwide. Naturally, street art is political in nature and even more so in Latin America. But, what differentiates new street art as opposed to older graffiti is the level of artistic ability. Street art that was defined by the ramblings of estranged youth or the scribblings of amateurs has been converted into beautiful art and thoughtful political commentary by these same estranged, marginalized figures.

Stinkfish (Colombia)
Os Gemeos (Brazil)
Stinkfish (Colombia)
Faber (Peru)
M. Sueno (Peru)
Stinkfish (Colombia)
XOMATOK (Peru)
XOMATOK (Peru)

Os Gemeos (Brazil)

M. Sueno (Peru)

Cyberculture and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Beckie and I were able to have our first date in months and went to the theater to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. We would have saw Inception but none of the times fit our schedule. Earlier that day Claire Taylor had given a lecture on campus entitled Approaches to Latin American Cyberculture: Resistant Reterritorializations and The Reworking of Place and her words ended up fitting perfectly with the film.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is an example of cyberculture and its mixing of physical and digital space. By mixing different types of media it creates its own specific place that doesn't differentiate between the two. The films use of real life situations combined with videogame graphics and storytelling make it a cybermovie we can all enjoy. Plus, Michael Cera is really funny.



I threw this in for fun. Edgar Wright also directed both Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. Below is the trailer to the latter.

David Walker

Click Here

Guy Denning

Click Here

Music of Athens

It's not a secret that Athens has produced some of the great pop, rock, and indie performers of the past few decades. But, I didn't realize how extensive and diverse the scene is here. So, I thought I would give you all a taste of the music of Athens, the old and the new, the known and the less-known.

The two most prominent figures in Athens music are R.E.M. and the B-52's.





Athens has also produced some of the more prominent indie bands of the last decade, including Deerhunter, Of Montreal and The Drive-By Truckers.







The last two artists on this list are my favorites. Neutral Milk Hotel and DJ Danger Mouse.

Neutral Milk Hotel released, in my opinion one of the best albums of the last 10-15 years In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Although not currently performing together their music continues to inspire.





DJ Danger Mouse is most famous for the album that put his name on the map, The Grey Album, a cross between Jay-Z's black album and the Beatles' White Album. He later gained success for his collaborations with Cee-Lo (Gnarls Barkley) and James Mercer of the Shins (Broken Bells). Along the way he has produced albums by Beck, Gorillaz and the Black Keys.

First Week at UGA

It's been difficult trying to write a blog post after a three month absence. I lost the habit. This week is better than any other to start over. I finished my first week as a doctoral candidate in Latin American Literature at UGA. Being in a new place, at a new school, and among new friends pushes me to write.

This week went well. I teach two classes three times a week and then take three graduate seminars each once a week. These include a teaching methodology course, Latin American Modernism, and Latin American cyberpoetry. The latter is the one I am most excited about for the fact that it seems to be sort of a continuation on Dr. Andrew Brown's Cyborgs and Latin America mini-course at BYU. Below are a couple of texts we read excerpts from for the first day of class. Interesting stuff. Not only are we going to learn about cyberculture and poetry but we will be given the opportunity to put it into action as we write our research paper and convert it into a hyper-paper either as a website, blog, or other form. Also, we will need to create an original work of cyberpoetry.

So, school is good. Athens is a fun town. The south is great. Everybody is so nice. We felt welcome since the first day we came. It goes without saying that it is very different from Utah but that's a good thing. At first I thought I would miss it a lot but now I think I will really like this place.