Bad Texas: enero 2008

Keny Arkana - La Victoria (¡Con subtitulos!)

Gracias a Amaranta. Keny Arkana - nacida en Francia, hija de inmigrantes argentinos. Puedes visitar su sitio web y ver todos sus videos.

Arkana - linking les banlieues with Latin America. And you can go to her website and see more videos (I think they have them there with English subtitles).

More More More Siempre Más

More posts at the Catalogue of Feeling.

Más posts en el Catálogo de Sentimiento.

Singing the Arabic Alphabet

Love the strange dancing and one of the kids even goes flying. Psychedelic graphics. What more could we want.

If you want to see the letters go here for more of the Malaysian Muslim kid school (with karaoke like subtitles) or go here for a kind of spooky version of the alphabet.

Tell me if this seems wrong crazy, but:

Why are thousands of Palestinians, cut off from the world, hungry and without basic necessities, streaming into Egypt to stock their homes referred to by the NY Times as being on a "shopping spree?" Sorry, but it's not Christmas at a mall in Dallas. That would be a shopping spree. Reminds me of the days after Katrina when the media referred to hungry people in New Orleans taking food and basic necessities as "looters."

And also, why are Fatah and Hamas referred to as "factions?" Are the Democrats and the Republicans also "factions?" No, these are all political parties. But when Palestinians have legitimate political differences, they are breaking into "factions." Sort of like ethnic groups in Africa are "tribes." Makes everything so much more exotic and strange and scary and irrational.

My NY Times corrections for the day.

A Maze of Days

These were days when falling down was impossible. When we stumbled through patches of oil and salt, searching for ports where our dimes would be accepted. An epoch of Viagra and other distasteful aides. A future imagined which would change all preconceived notions of wood and of benches. No longer for small towns and ranches and farms from Korea to Mexico to Texas. These were not the presents we had all around us. We tripped pleasantly professionally together around barriers and skipped the portions we could not rearrange to meet their expectations. Somehow there was a unity in remaining standing. Somehow as we waved goodbye through steaming glass and barbecue shacks, a way forward had already been found.

Learn to Count in Arabic! ¡Aprenda a contar en arabe!

Más o menos es: wahid, ithnen, theletha, arbaaya, khamsa, sitaa, sebaa, themeniya, tisaa, ashara.

Me encantan los números que bailan. Y los números que usamos en el Occidente proceden de los árabes. SIn embargo, los que usamos nosotros vienen de la parte del oeste del mundo arabe y los que ven en el video vienen de la parte este. Ya.

Nuevos posts en el catálogo de sentimiento. New posts.

Hay nuevos posts en El catálogo de sentimiento. New posts in the Catalogue of Feeling.

Run run run check it check it check it. Corre corre corre chéquelo chéquelo chéquelo.

Ahora tiene traducciones homofónicas y otros juegos. Now with homophonic translations and other games.

Fun fun fun a day in Jiuston. Fun fun fun a day worldwide from Art Clash.

And you can't miss Dish a Day for a new Thai snack every day. Tienen que ver Dish a Day donde tiene un nuevo bocadillo tailandés todos los días.

El rancho y mi barrio tejano

A veces pienso que vivo en un rancho remoto del Norte de México, trasladado a la ciudad de Jiusten.

Hoy en la mañana, como casi todos los días, en la casa haciendo tacos de huevo con papa. En la banqueta frente a mi casa, cuatro hombres gritando, riéndose, chupando cerveza Busch de lata a las nueve de la mañana. Cuando salí de la casa para ir a trabajar, pasa una patrulla de la policia local, baja su velocidad frente a los borrachos pero no se para, ni siquiera les dice algo. La patrulla sigue en su camino y yo también. En la esquina, hay una mujer saliendo de la lavandería, pues es una Washateria más bien. La mujer agarra la mano de su niño pequeño y mantiene en equilibrio una canastota de ropa recién lavada y doblada sobre la cabeza. Sus caderas balancean mientras camina y el viento casi tira la ropa al suelo, pero ella corre para que no se le caiga todo, levanta al niño a su pecho y sigue caminando. En la esquina, dos gallinas residentes del barrio buscan granos en las grietas de la banqueta.

Si no fuera por la cerveza Busch y la Washateria dándole el toque bien tejano a la historia, bien podría estar en cualquier rancho de Nuevo León o de Tamaulipas. Y las mañanas como ésta, me hacen querer más a mi humilde barrio.

Coetzee Woos Me Finally

One line about the main character of Disgrace, Professor David Lurie:

He has always been a man of the city, at home amid a flux of bodies where eros stalks and glances flash like arrows.

And then one of his thoughts:

To me certain animal-welfare people are a bit like Christians of a certain kind. Everyone is so cheerful and well-intentioned that after a while you itch to go off and do some raping and pillaging.

He is a complicated man, probably more evil than good. And totally unlike any of us and totally the same.

Iraqi Arabic Novelistic Language Play

Laila Lalami reviews a new book from Sinan Antoon, I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody, in The Nation.

I`jaam is presented to us as a manuscript found in 1989 in a file cabinet of the directorate of general security in Baghdad. An introductory page informs us that the manuscript was handwritten with no diacritical marks anywhere on it, which made the task of reading it very difficult. Nevertheless, a state employee named Talal Ahmad is charged with typing the text, and adding diacritical marks and punctuation, but Ahmad chooses to preserve the ambiguities suggested by the absence of dots. For instance, when we encounter the expression "Ministry of Rupture and Inflammation," a footnote alerts us that the words can also be dotted to mean "Ministry of Culture and Information."

Read the whole review here.

FYI & PS - I'd love a copy.

Catalogue of Feeling

For the month of January, a new blog has been started for Fun A Day. Called Catalogue of Feeling. Decided to do a daily drawing or photo with words attached to it. And I'll post the combopiece on the blog. Keeps me moving and honest and motivated. Sometimes might take me a few days to post it, but it'll be done on that day, just maybe not posted each day. So check it out.

Lots of thoughts about what to draw & photo & write & how all of these are to be connected or unconnected. And many ideas about what the Catalogue of Feeling means. Pero mejor lo empiezo este mes y después lo analizo y así el proyecto seguirá creciendo. More interesting así. Ok?