Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Perils of Internet

Twenty years ago I was a college student looking for anything to distract me from having to reading 5 books and 10 scholarly articles by next Tuesday. Back then, the internet was so new. Everything was so interesting. Every page linked to easily to the next.

Since then not much has changed. At this very moment I am supposed to be archiving some blogs posts for work, which means I am fishing around in the blog world, which means, as you can see, I am only half working.

Here are a three of my favorite time-killers. The first two are oldies but goodies, and, sadly, still timely. The third is just plain silly.

muslimswearingthings.tumblr.com

peppersprayingcop.tumblr.com

animalstalkinginallcaps.tumblr.com
(mostly stupidly obscene, but there are some real gems)

Dance parties, ducks and Michael Jackson

I took Nayáhuari to a dance party this weekend. Not a post-church mariachi, sonidero and packs of kids running between the tablecloths kind of party, but a good old urban house party with 1 child (mine), 90 adults, chips, alcohol, and a DJ in the living room. Considering that my toddler’s bedtime is midnight anyway, she fared rather well, athough she was more interested in the snacks and less enthused by the unfamiliar 80’s and 90’s hip-hop/R&B soundtrack that had the crowd of thirty-somethings strutting all over the dance floor.

Not surprisingly, Nayáhuari has also shown indifference to my favorite Pocoyó episode. Now for all you out there with pequeñitas y pequeñitos, if you haven’t already found Pocoyó, you should check him out. He’s a little blue cartoon character who—along with the help of a pink elephant (surely a nod to Dumbo’s drunken dream), a duck, a blue bird, and a neurotically happy yellow worm—helps small children explore real-life challenges, such as saying good-bye to someone you love and fessing up when you’ve broken someone else’s toy. Each episode comes with it’s life lesson, but in an effort to reach out to the parent set, they are also just plain funny.

Here is one of my favorite Pocoyó episodes, with Pato and Pocoyó battling on the dance floor, and Ely, the pink elephant, as DJ.



Pato’s performance of Michael Jackson and Pocoyó’s arena rock number (with an octopus on his head!) has me clicking the replay icon over and over. But after one viewing, Nayáhauri was ready to move on to a different episode. Reminds me of how at the party last Friday, she was not moved to dance to Prince or the Jackson Five but instead shouted to me, “¡No tanto fuerte la música, que los árboles están dormidos!”

P.S You can also find Pocoyó on YouTube in English, and in a Latin American edition, but on this rare occasion I assert that the Spaniards are doing it better.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Loving Lupe (Fiasco)

Spending the holidays with my nephews meant I also got to spend some qt with Lupe.






Here’s a great fan video for “And He Gets the Girl”