I learned from my daughter (who has spent time in school in Spain) and also from colleaguesm, that Spanish schoolkids are required to memorize the poem "Canción del pirata" by José de Espronceda. I was treated to impromptu recitations, and told that a heavy metal band called Tierra Nueva had turned the poem into a song.
Of course, the mash-up with Pirates of the Caribbean was absolutely necessary.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
"Didn't it rain?"
Sister Rosetta Tharpe sings "Didn't it Rain." I'm thinking today of all the folks who have lived through hurricanes and floods and high water.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Relief printmaking, or, "Blood Vengeance!"
UMN Art students in a printmaking class bust out of two dimensions with their project "Blood Vengeance 2011."
How did they make these masks? Check out the illustrated step-by-step photo explanation of "relief printmaking" here.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Victoria de los Angeles sings Lorca arrangements.
The death of Federico García Lorca was 75 years ago, on August 19. I met him first not as poet but as a musician.
Federico García Lorca did the musical arrangements to a series of popular songs. There is a recording in which he plays the piano with a singer called La Argentinita. But my earliest contact with Lorca, before I read his poetry and plays in high school, was through a record my mother had, of Victoria de los Angeles singing Spanish songs. Among them were these four:
-Anda jaleo.
-Los cuatro muleros.
-Las tres hojas.
Los mozos de moleón.
Victoria de los Angeles, soprano. Miguel Zanetti, piano. Many others have sung these songs, some of them arguably with better technique, but Victoria de los Angeles will always be the voice of the first words in Spanish I think of the first Spanish words I ever heard.
Estrella Morente sings "Los cuatro muleros"
Federico García Lorca did the musical arrangements to a series of popular songs. There is a recording in which he plays the piano with a singer called La Argentinita. But my earliest contact with Lorca, before I read his poetry and plays in high school, was through a record my mother had, of Victoria de los Angeles singing Spanish songs. Among them were these four:
-Anda jaleo.
-Los cuatro muleros.
-Las tres hojas.
Los mozos de moleón.
Victoria de los Angeles, soprano. Miguel Zanetti, piano. Many others have sung these songs, some of them arguably with better technique, but Victoria de los Angeles will always be the voice of the first words in Spanish I think of the first Spanish words I ever heard.
Estrella Morente sings "Los cuatro muleros"
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Brown bear, brown bear
These are a couple of clips I took at the Minnesota Zoo, watching two of the three Brown bears (also called grizzly bears) playing in the water. Earlier, we had seen the three of them napping.
All three were rescued as orphaned cubs in 2006. The two males are named Haines and Kenai, and the female is called Sadie. They all just turned five years old this year. They will reach their full growth in another year, perhaps. Haines, the largest, will probably reach a weight of 1200 lbs and stand 9 feet tall when upright. Because of human encroachment on their habitat, the impact of global warming, and other threats, conservation efforts in zoos are important for increasing knowledge about endangered animals as well as reproduction programs. These bears at the MN Zoo are given lots of new things to react to in their habitat. To see them just hanging out from so close is incredible. Having seen the Herzog documentary film Grizzly Man, based on the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, I don't see the bears as just "cute," but they are fascinatingly attractive.
They have lots more great videos at MN Zoo YouTube Channel. I have lots of questions about what will happen when the bears are old enough to mate (very soon). Will they have to separate them? Will the males compete for Sadie? Of course, they will have a plan for this, but I'd love to learn more.
In a video on the zoo's website, the Zoo's Director and keepers explain some of the "enrichment and training" activities that they use to keep the animals from getting bored, help them engage in their natural behaviors, and also provide opportunities for research. There's a great segment on the bears.
All three were rescued as orphaned cubs in 2006. The two males are named Haines and Kenai, and the female is called Sadie. They all just turned five years old this year. They will reach their full growth in another year, perhaps. Haines, the largest, will probably reach a weight of 1200 lbs and stand 9 feet tall when upright. Because of human encroachment on their habitat, the impact of global warming, and other threats, conservation efforts in zoos are important for increasing knowledge about endangered animals as well as reproduction programs. These bears at the MN Zoo are given lots of new things to react to in their habitat. To see them just hanging out from so close is incredible. Having seen the Herzog documentary film Grizzly Man, based on the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, I don't see the bears as just "cute," but they are fascinatingly attractive.
They have lots more great videos at MN Zoo YouTube Channel. I have lots of questions about what will happen when the bears are old enough to mate (very soon). Will they have to separate them? Will the males compete for Sadie? Of course, they will have a plan for this, but I'd love to learn more.
In a video on the zoo's website, the Zoo's Director and keepers explain some of the "enrichment and training" activities that they use to keep the animals from getting bored, help them engage in their natural behaviors, and also provide opportunities for research. There's a great segment on the bears.
Declutter campaign: photos!
I have way too many photos on the hard drives of my computers, and even though they are backed up to an external hard drive (most of them), I'm reluctant to delete them. This is a holdover from the days when we paid to print every lousy shot--I am a photo hoarder. This lack of organization also means it's hard to find specific images when I want them without spending lots of time since they are mostly unlabeled. I'm going to try to get a handle on this, and especially work on sharing batches with friends and family online.
Question: can I purge my photo files AND my shoe collection this weekend? or is that too much discipline at once? Maybe I should try one or the other first!
Friday, August 12, 2011
Moving back into Folwell Hall!
Eighteen months ago we packed up our department offices and moved into temporary space while Folwell Hall was being gutted and reconfigured. My department has moved from the grotty, filthy, vermin-infested basement to a clean, quiet second floor. My new office faces south and for the first time in 22 years, I will have an office with natural light, decent climate control, no noise from crowds students sitting on the floor in the halls waiting for class, no noise from chairs being rearranged overhead, no grit and dirt tracked in all winter, a bathroom that is not used by hundreds of other people during that day. It's sinking in that I'll have an office I actually will be able to enjoy working in! What a concept. It feels as if I have received a promotion or a raise. The foundation and exterior had already been redone some years ago. Check out this cool slideshow to see the exterior of the building with some fun architectural details that were preserved or restored.
The quality of my work life has been incredibly improved. The moving process itself, the packing and unpacking, is time-consuming, but stimulating. Once again I am confronted by the sheer volume of STUFF I am dragging around and that is cluttering up my space, and my brain.This time, the purge must be complete and merciless!
One unexpected consequence has hit me this week. I feel, for the first time in ages, excited about writing again. I feel as if I can contemplate making a commitment to writing without dread and panic. Writing on this blog is one step. Writing in my work life, which I have avoided in unhealthy ways for too long, is the next.
There's nothing like moving 22 years worth of papers and books twice in 18 months to make one confront the gap between intentions and action. As I shelved my books, I got excited about the projects some of them represent. More to the point, there is no room in my new, lovely office for more than four drawers of paper files, and no files are allowed to live at home. My goal in the next few weeks is to sort through the contents of all these boxes (15! 15!!!) and recycle what I will never use again or SCAN those I want to keep.
Which pile will include papers I wrote in graduate school? those articles I painstakingly tracked down using the enormous card catalogue, running up and down nine flights of stairs in the UC Berkeley library, paying to photocopy them and carefully placing each page so nothing was cut off? the sheer amount of labor devoted to collecting this material over the years is an obstacle to blithely tossing it in the recycle bin. And I HAVE used a lot of this material, for writing or classes. So now, in this brief interlude before classes begin, it's a good time to open each box, sort things into piles, and work up a righteous buzz of recycling anything that I have not touched in ten years, and will not read or use for a writing project. That will force me to decide which of the many abandoned writing projects are still viable, and which ones need to be released into the wild.
The quality of my work life has been incredibly improved. The moving process itself, the packing and unpacking, is time-consuming, but stimulating. Once again I am confronted by the sheer volume of STUFF I am dragging around and that is cluttering up my space, and my brain.This time, the purge must be complete and merciless!
One unexpected consequence has hit me this week. I feel, for the first time in ages, excited about writing again. I feel as if I can contemplate making a commitment to writing without dread and panic. Writing on this blog is one step. Writing in my work life, which I have avoided in unhealthy ways for too long, is the next.
There's nothing like moving 22 years worth of papers and books twice in 18 months to make one confront the gap between intentions and action. As I shelved my books, I got excited about the projects some of them represent. More to the point, there is no room in my new, lovely office for more than four drawers of paper files, and no files are allowed to live at home. My goal in the next few weeks is to sort through the contents of all these boxes (15! 15!!!) and recycle what I will never use again or SCAN those I want to keep.
Which pile will include papers I wrote in graduate school? those articles I painstakingly tracked down using the enormous card catalogue, running up and down nine flights of stairs in the UC Berkeley library, paying to photocopy them and carefully placing each page so nothing was cut off? the sheer amount of labor devoted to collecting this material over the years is an obstacle to blithely tossing it in the recycle bin. And I HAVE used a lot of this material, for writing or classes. So now, in this brief interlude before classes begin, it's a good time to open each box, sort things into piles, and work up a righteous buzz of recycling anything that I have not touched in ten years, and will not read or use for a writing project. That will force me to decide which of the many abandoned writing projects are still viable, and which ones need to be released into the wild.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Some SYTYCD season 8 favorites
from the last performance episode of So You Think You Can Dance (season 8), my favorite dancer from this year, Sasha, with my favorite dancer of the show, Mark.
Choreography: Sonyah Tayeh
Dancers: Mark Kanemura and Sasha
Music: Deadmaus, "Raise Your Weapon"
Here's Sasha dancing with Twitch to a classic song, "Misty Blue"--gives me goosebumps! Choreography by LXD's Christopher Scott.
I also liked Travis Wall's "vulture stalks boy" piece for Tadd and Jordan. Tadd may be primarily a b-boy, but he brings incredible charisma and musicality to his dances, and this was a number that got him to the finale.
Not as technically challenging, but there are only so many angry angtsy dances one can take. This was Broadway Jazz fun, with Melanie and Tadd. She probably will win tonight, but you never know!
Finally, I also liked Melanie and Sasha together in a Stacey Tookie piece that was billed as "Mad Men"-era frustrated housewives, but that I read as two women who don't realize they should run away together.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
