no hay nadie como calle 13

at the mtv latin america awards last month calle 13 cleaned up! and not just music awards. residente (vocalist rené pérez) hosted the televised show and threw insults left and right, wiping the floor with various traitorous vendido latin american politicians: uribe (colombia), calderón (méxico), micheletti (honduras) & fortuño (pr) among others. he has a sharp tongue, that residente, and he uses it well! really, i can't think of another pop culture icon who has put such immense popularity to such good use. in addition to insulting the reactionary heads of state he also used the stage to advertise the massive general strike against unemployment happening that same day in puerto rico, and to honor the dead from the '68 massacre of students in mexico city and the south american disappeared.



the new york daily news has a good summary of some of the highlights:

Mixing foul language and stinging political commentary, Pérez said, “Latin America is incomplete without a free Puerto Rico” and called the governor of the island a “son of a b” for the controversial layoff of 25,000 public employees.

“I made him famous,” Pérez, 31, said of Luis Fortuño, the embattled governor whose belt-tightening measures have led to large protests, the likes of which have not been seen on the island in decades.

The five-time Latin Grammy winner also said the president of Argentina should “stop using Botox” and wore a series of T-shirts emblazoned with a variety of messages.

Among the highlights: President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia belongs to illegal paramilitary groups, Honduras’ interim President Roberto Micheletti “rhymes with Pinochetti,” as in the former Chilean Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and one shirt saying Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez has been “nominated for Best Pop Artist.”

The reaction was swift. In Colombia, Calle 13 was disinvited to a January festival in the pro-Uribe city of Manizales, and in Puerto Rico, the governor charged that Pérez’s words had “disrespected all Puerto Rican women and mothers.”

The mayor of San Juan, Jorge Santini, labeled Pérez a “tecato,” a drug user, and pulled the plug on a show Calle 13 was supposed to have in Puerto Rico last Saturday. In response, Pérez, who says he’s never used drugs, challenged the mayor to a drug test.

**

for tomorrow's latin grammy awards ceremony, calle 13 has received the most nominations and are likely to win at least a couple of them. they're also scheduled to perform la perla with rubén blades. that's potentially a lot of stage time! pérez said he'll be more tranquilo this time around. i hope not. you can see the awards, and any potential antics, on univisión. other performers include alicia keyes and the illustrious omara portuondo.

but hey ¡¡residente!! come on! some more left-wing travesuras tomorrow night? por favorciiiito?! atreve-te-te-te-te ;)

**

this song is from calle 13's first album. it was written and posted to the internet the day following the fbi's assassination of puerto rican independentista filiberto ojeda ríos in 2005.

here's the original version...

querido fbi : calle 13



and here is the tribute to the mothers of the plaza de mayo version. residente + visitante (brother) + pg-13 (sister) ...

querido fbi : calle 13

tango love

hay milonga de amor
...este tango es para vos



foto : salon tango finals, world championship in buenos aires, august 2009. by natacha pisarenko (ap)

apparently tango made it onto unesco's "representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity". whatever. the compiling of such a finite list of deserving cultural "elements" and allocating protected status & funding on that basis is ummm, problematic. and ridiculously far away from such realities as war & imperialism. and of course unesco, like all un-related entities, is sketchy to say the least.

but dios! tango is sooooo beautiful, isn't it? originating in the poor immigrant neighborhoods of buenos aires & montevideo, it was most likely first danced by (& between) young men who worked in the río de la plata ports in the early 1900s. that's a bit of distance from the glammed-up ballroom version that people tend to imagine as tango today, but you know how it goes...



foto : buenos aires. young men dancing (among men) and listening to tango, circa 1900. (from the museum of tango, buenos aires)

tango music & dance have experienced in recent years a sort of resurgence owing to modern pop cultural reinterpretations. those arguably do more to rescue them from declining into obscurity than the unesco designation will. and maybe are also bringing back a bit of the more street-level consumption, no?

**

siento un dolor / i feel pain
muy dentro de mi corazon / so deep in my heart
si amarte es un pecado / if to love you is a sin
yo me quemo pues / i'll burn then
en el infierno junto a vos / next to you in hell

: tango del pecado (calle 13)


tango + electronica =
pa' bailar : bajofondo



tango + reggaeton =
tango del pecado : calle 13



tango + mas electronica =
mente fragil : tanghetto



tango + mas electronica + argentine hiphop =
mi confesión : gotan project w/ koxmoz



tango + rock en español =
mareo : bajofondo w/ gustavo cerati



tango + popular revolt =
queremos paz : gotan project

the police

...the “power” which is called the state ... arose from society but places itself above it and alienates itself more and more from it. what does this power mainly consist of? it consists of special bodies of armed men having prisons, etc., at their command.

: the state and revolution (lenin)


when they kick at your front door
how you gonna come?
with your hands on your head
or on the trigger of your gun...

: guns of brixton (the clash)




24th street, san francisco

**


ok, a disclaimer: as with the songs about public transportation, this list of songs about against the police will not be exhaustive or i would be here all day...

alta magia : la vela puerca



solamente por pensar : ska-p



tributo a la policia : calle 13



brigada anti disturbios (b-a-d) : attaque 77



fuck tha police : bone thugs-n-harmony (original by nwa)



clampdown : the clash




take the word "overseer," like a sample
repeat it very quickly in a crew for example
overseer overseer overseer overseer...
officer officer officer officer!
yeah, officer from overseer
you need a little clarity?
check the similarity!
the overseer rode around the plantation
the officer is off patroling all the nation...

: sound of da police (krs-one)

**


the oakland police department wants to push a youth curfew law through the public safety committee of the oakland city council tomorrow. the curfew would apply to all young people under 18 years of age on the public streets between the hours of 10pm and 5am sunday through thursday, and 11pm to 5am fridays & saturdays. young people who violate the curfew would be questioned and detained. what?! really it's the police who should be put under curfew. they're the ones that go around shooting unarmed people in the back in the middle of the night.

show up for public comment!

public safety committee
5:30pm : tuesday, february 10th
oakland city hall : hearing room 1




19th street station, oakland

this guy is my hero!

finally someone threw their shoe at a sitting u.s. president! how cool is that? and not just once but twice! hurray for a journalist putting his close proximity to george bush to good use! of course in the world of u.s. imperialism, no good deed goes unpunished, so he's been beaten & is currently detained. sign a petition for the immediate release of muntather al-zeidi here.

this is a translation of the reporter's words as he aimed for bush's head, just narrowly missing it:

this is a farewell kiss, you dog...this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in iraq.

and here is a tribute that found it's way to youtube about an hour ago. you will notice that the 2nd half is appropriately set to calle 13's los de atrás vienen conmigo (the ones left behind are coming with me)* ...




conmigo vienen, vienen los de atrás (duro!!)...
sin mirar pa´tras vienen los de atrás
mirando pal´frente vienen los de atrás...
los de atrás vienen conmigo
vienen los de atrás, hey!

**

they're coming with me, the ones left behind...
without looking back they're coming
looking straight ahead they're coming...
they're coming with me
the ones from behind are coming, hey!

: calle 13

* more about this song another time for sure (includes shout-outs to argentina's villa 31 + venezuela's barrio 23 de enero, among others!)...

So many albums, so little wireless access

Yes, folks, I am currently in a limited wireless access situation, which means that I have totally L-A-G-G-G-E-D on downloading the slew of new albums by some of my favorite artists. Some of these albums I know I need to have (Julieta’s Unplugged) and others I am curious about (Beto Cuevas) and others are yet to be released (Aterciopelados). But the bottom line is, if you can get to them before me, you should. Here they are, my wishlist:

Julieta Venegas - MTV Unplugged (released in June)
Jaguares - 45 (released Sept 2)
Enrique Bunbury - Hellville De Luxe (released Sept 30 in Spain)
Beto Cuevas - Miedo Escénico (released Sept 30)
Volumen Cero - I Can See the Brite spot (released Oct 7)
Aterciopelados - Río (release date Oct 21)

In the meantime, check out Café Tacvba’s collaboration with Calle 13 on “No Hay Nadie Como Tú.” Like the song, enjoy the video, LOVE the Tacubos plunking and strumming away on their acoustic instruments as they groove!