Teenage angst and lust! forbidden love! hit songs!

Bella Swann may have Edward Cullen duking it with all and sundry to protect her, but in the 1984 teenagers-in-doomed-love movie Reckless, Daryl Hannah was being fought over by Adam Baldwin and the gorgeous Aidan Quinn! Deliberately citing The Wild One and Rebel Without a Cause, the film featured a great soundtrack, and the first movie appearance of Aidan Quinn, who was charismatic enough to break through the stereotypes, and who would go on to become a star in his second movie, Desperately Seeking Susan with Madonna, a year later.

This clip features a song I absolutely adored when it came out in 1981,"Never Say Never" by Bay Area band Romeo Void. Vocalist Debora Iyall, like Exene Cervenka in X, was one of my heroines for seeming so fearless to my gawky shy teenage self. There were the early days of MTV, when we still played records.And yes, we really did dance like that, although not in prom clothes...it was because we were all mad about ska music (The Selecter! The English Beat! Madness! The Specials!)


Look closely: that very tall angry guy who tries to drag Daryl Hannah off the dance floor? is Adam Baldwin, who had already been in a couple of hit movies himself--he was the bodyguard in My Bodyguard, his first role, and---skipping way ahead--- played Jayne Cobb in Firefly!

Debora Iyall and members of the band have been gigging around this year, and she still has it!. Amanda Blank is a Philadelphia rapper who has taken a line from the Romeo Void song and remixed it as an in-your-face expression of lust

If time itself was his demeanor
There'd be no sunlight or a glimmer
Of sunlight landing on the street
Sunsuit girls must be discreet
Sunsuit girls must be discreet
Nursing their fathers locked inside
They masqueraded as his bride

I might like you better
If we slept together
But there's somethin
In your eyes that says
Maybe that's never
Never say never

The slump by the courthouse
With windburn skin
That man could give a fuck
About the grin on your face
As you walk by, randy as a goat
He's sleepin on papers
When he'd be warm in your coat

I might like you better
If we slept together
But there's somethin
In your eyes that says
Maybe that's never
Never say never

There's no easy way to lose your sight
On the street, on the stairs
Who's on your flight
Old couple walks by, as ugly as sin
But he's got her and she's got him

Never say never

Dec 2 Planned Parenthood Blogger Bee: Stop Stupak, Pass Health Care Reform!

(via bourgie, via a Twitter retweet)

(Sharing this so that interested bloggers may participate.)

Dear blogger friends,

You’re invited to take part in a Planned Parenthood Blogger Bee!

On Wednesday, Dec. 2, Planned Parenthood will be holding a National Day of Action to lobby the Senate for health care reform that ensures women’s access to reproductive health care. In order to get the word out as quickly and widely as possible, Planned Parenthood is asking bloggers to write about the National Day of Action and the negative impact that the Stupak amendment would have on health care reform if it is included in the final legislation.

Under the Stupak amendment, millions of women would lose benefits that they currently have and millions more would be prohibited from getting the kind of private sector health care coverage that most women have today. It is imperative that women and their allies make their voices heard, so that they do not become second-class citizens in a newly reformed health care system in the United States. The first step will be to make sure everyone has the tools they need to inform themselves and others about the new health care system under the House-passed bill and the Stupak amendment.

We ask that on Wednesday, Dec. 2, you use the key points below to inform your readers and spread the message that we will not accept health care reform that leaves women worse off than before. To participate, send the name and url of your blog and your Twitter name if you have one, to Constance DeCherney at constance.decherney@ppfa.org by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1. If you sign up, your blog will be listed and linked on Planned Parenthood’s Action Center and included in a special Planned Parenthood (@PPact) Twitter List.

For more information on health care reform and the Stupak amendment, visit us at http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/healthreform.

We need to hear from you! Help us protect women’s access to reproductive health care!

Best,

Christie Petrone
Senior Press Officer – Health Care
Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Key Points for Bloggers:

Check out (and post on your blogs) the Pass Health Care Reform, Stop Stupak video and include these key points in your post.

The Bottom Line

* Essentially the amendment violates the underlying principle of health care reform, as articulated by President Obama, that no one will lose the benefits the currently have.
* Under the Stupak amendment, millions of women would lose benefits that they currently have and millions more would be prohibited from getting the kind of private sector health care coverage that most women have today.
* Millions of women would lose private coverage for abortion services and millions more would be prohibited from buying it even with their own money.
* Women’s access to private coverage for abortion would be severely restricted by health care reform.

The New Health Insurance Exchange

* The new health insurance exchange is intended to provide a new source of affordable, quality coverage for the roughly 46 million uninsured Americans and the millions more whose current coverage is unaffordable or inadequate.
* The House bill is expected to cover 96 percent of all uninsured Americans by offering subsidies for private coverage or the choice of a public plan. Depending on their income level and the final package approved by Congress, individuals would receive subsidies on a sliding scale to purchase private insurance through the exchange.
* Not everyone in the exchange would have subsidized coverage — a significant portion of people (for instance, those currently purchasing in the individual market and those working for small businesses) who would buy insurance in the exchange would not receive any subsidies, also known as affordability credits.

The Stupak Amendment

* The Stupak amendment prohibits any coverage of abortion in the public option and prohibits anyone receiving a federal subsidy from purchasing a health insurance plan that includes abortion. It also prohibits private health insurance plans from offering through the exchange a plan that includes abortion coverage to both subsidized and unsubsidized individuals.
* The Stupak amendment purports to allow women to purchase a separate, single-service “abortion rider,” but abortion riders don’t exist.
* Women are unlikely to think ahead to choose a plan that includes abortion coverage, since they do not plan for unplanned pregnancy.
* Realistically, the actual effect of the Stupak amendment is to ban abortion coverage across the entire exchange, for women with both subsidized and unsubsidized coverage.

Who Would Be Covered in the Exchange?

* Most immediately, the exchange would offer coverage to many of the 17 million women, 18–64, who are uninsured. It would also be a source of coverage for the 5.7 million women who are now purchasing coverage in the individual market.
* In most of these cases, women will lose abortion coverage that they currently have — in the current private insurance market, the majority of health insurance plans include abortion.
* Example: Currently, a self-employed graphic designer or writer, buying coverage from Kaiser Permanente in the individual market, likely has abortion coverage. Under the health reform plan amended by Stupak, she would purchase that same plan from Kaiser Permanente in the exchange, but it would not include abortion coverage because it would be barred. This ban would be in effect even if she were paying the full premium. Similarly, a woman working for a small graphic design firm, who currently has abortion coverage through her company’s plan, would lose it under reform if the company decides to seek more affordable coverage in the exchange.
* Roughly 60 million women, 18–64, get their coverage through their employer or through their spouse’s employer. For some of these women, nothing will change immediately. But if current trends continue in the erosion of employer-sponsored health care, more and more women will be getting their health care through the exchange where abortion coverage is prohibited.

Sunday morning Lady Gaga earworm

Major earworm alert!
When I first saw Lady Gaga perform on SYTYCD, I thought she was creative, albeit a little sharp through the first half, a little awkward with the props, a little "who expected to see her out in daylight?" very underground club. But she sang live, unlike many of the musical guests on STYCYD and I liked her creativity.

Now she has perfected her live performances to the point where she is in complete control of her persona, the sets, lighting, costumes, dancing, and the catchy disco/dance-pop sound she's going for.

After seeing her perform "Bad Romance" and "Speechless" (piano's on fire! yaahhh!) "Ra Ra oo la la, ga ga oo la la!" has been STUCK IN MY HEAD all week long, during class, over Thanksgiving, and this morning. As she starts out on her North American tour for "Fame Monsters" with Mark Kanemura as one of her dancers (yay, Mark!), I need to hand off this earworm to someone else, so looky here and listen up!


Every time she has performed the song on TV in the last few weeks, the costumes and sets are a little different: on Gossip Girl, on the Ellen show, on Leno (clip taken down).

Of course, the Gaga parodies are popping up like mushrooms! We have our Saturday night lip-syncing in homemade costumes in your living room version (awesome!), the rewrite as Rad Bromance version. And Barely Political adds Lord Gaga to the mix:


Earlier songs given the remake treatment for laughs include the clever Pokeman parody "Pokéface" of "Poker Face"; "Just Dance" is transformed into "No Pants" in homage to Lady Gaga's costume preferences, and we go to the level of meta-parody with the fan-stalker song "Paparazzi" turned into a Lady Gaga-inspired hymn to Michael Buckley, YouTube star of "What the Buck?"

She does not have the musical or emotional range of my beloved Annie Lennox, who also played with disco-synth and gender-bending in her performance and videos for many years, but Lady Gaga has a healthy sense of humor, and is so much more interesting to watch than most of the other big pop stars right now, as she proved on the AMAs where she was far more interesting than J-Lo, Shakira, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, and even Adam Lambert, who, sadly, did not entertain me.

Here is the awesome DJ Earworm's mashup tribute to Annie Lennox, made with her collaboration:

'And I Thank You"

Sam and Dave sing "And I Thank You" (1969), a great gospel-influenced soul song from my childhood.

Some more Thank you songs:
Led Zeppelin,"Thank You" from Led Zeppelin II.

Sly and the Family Stone "Thank You Falletin Me Be Mice Elf" and an amazing live version here.

More here.

Request: Do you have a good crock pot recipe to share?

I just got my very first crockpot! I come from a non-crockpot family, and have never used one before, yet I am surrounded by Midwestern crockpot fanatics. The other day I got one at Target, and I am in love! Why did it take me so long to try this out? After all, I love my rice cooker, my toaster oven, and my Coleman grill. Maybe it's because I have such strong memories of slow cooking in a Dutch oven or stockpot from home and in my own experience that it didn't seem right to do it another way.

The two dishes I have prepared so far are:
black beans: soaked the dry beans overnight, then cooked them with carrots, onion, garlic, herbs, ham hock, water.
garbanzos: Ditto.

Notice a trend here? both times, the results were delicious, but I wanted to try something different, and I am all out of ham hocks, so right now I am cooking a pork roast I rubbed with garlic, herbs, salt and pepper, to which I added some tomato paste, a little water, carrots, half a bottle of dark beer and some tangy Asian condiment I had lying around in the fridge. It smells delicious and looks good, but I was wondering if you, oh gentle readers, would be so kind as to share a crock pot idea or favorite in the comments? Please?

Yes, I know there are a gazillion web sites out there with crock pot recipes, including this intriguing blog by Stephanie O'Dea with a 365-day challenge to use the crockpot every day (and then write the book Make It Fast, Cook it Slow) but I don't want just ANY recipes, I want those that have pleased you!

3 years old!

Fresca posted a collage of the first lines of her blog posts, and invites us to do the same. A variation on the cadavre exquis
I am surprised that I have almost reached a thousand posts! And I did not realize that I have been bloggin since August 2006. It doesn’t seem that long.
(Too lazy to repost with the links in the original posts)

8/1/06 Watch out, or I'll use the eye-beams!

9/1/06 MMMM. Chocolate.

10/1/06 Some are so disappointed and angry about politics today that they confuse the media images of poltics with what politics is really about: it is about power, and about finding ways to make alliances so that your goals and interests are accomplished by those in power.

11/1/06 There is a lot I want to write about Oaxaca, but work is relentless this week.

12/1/06 Rob Bresny (Free Will Astrology) offers these words to Scorpios this week:
"Earth Island Journal says scientists have discovered natural ways to clean up old munitions sites.

1/1/07 On New Year's Eve, we ate our twelve grapes in time with the bongs of the clock.

2/1/07 Woo-hoo!

3/1/07 Hey, our second blizzard in a week, and this one is even bigger than the one on the weekend.

4/1/07
Here's a picture from a stroll by the Mississippi last weekend.

5/1/07 I'm going to perform in a talent show on Thursday.

6/1/07 Shriek.

7/1/07 The little stretch of the Mississippi River that runs through downtown Minneapolis has such a fascinating history.

8/1/07 This one is for my favorite pug-lover, from her momo.

9/1/07 On the sidewalk by Dolores Park.

10/1/07 Check out the cool photos of family and friends over at our neighbors' blog!

11/2/07 I had the pleasure of attending a talk by journalist Jeremy Iggers yesterday.

12/1/07 I've been on a kick with trying to remember those "sea change" moments of the pre-digital era.

1/1/08 I am not so good at recognizing the finer details of regional accents, but I find it fascinating.

2/2/08
I browse fimoculous* because Rex Sorgat collects all the year's end lists, and let's me know what latest pop culture trends are a-happenin'.

3/1/08 I took these photos last year in the Tubo, the oldest part of Zaragoza.

4/1/08 Another season of Dancing With the Stars, my guilty pleasure.

5/1/08 I feel like the human jukebox; a word, a phrase, a line can trigger the memory of a song, and it is as if someone hit "play", and the music is there.

6/1/08 A very lucky young lady is on an 8th grade field trip with about 40-50 of her classmates, (and their intrepid principal and teacher chaperones) to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

7/1/08 A while back I poked around on the topic of "the phonological loop" and earworms, those songs you get stuck in your head.

8/1/08 This summer, the show time open thread over at Blogging So You Think You Can Dance (or BSYTYCD) was a place where I felt comfortable joking, expressing my feelings, sharing my pleasure (or displeasure) about the show and my crazy fixation on it, since many of my friends and family just aren't that into it.

9/1/08 I'm very grateful to Krista at Thinkery for collecting links to stories on today's events in Saint Paul around the truncated RNC.
10/1/08 Takin' it Back With Barack, Jack! (for Swing voters!)

11/1/08 Pour mes amis francophones: Un des Justiciers Masqués, un duo comique québécois, a réussi a parler avec Sarah Palin pendant presque six minutes avant de lui dire qu'il n'était pas vraiment Nicolas Sarkozy,"Sarah Palin se fait avoir!"
and
Following the trail of serendipity leads to amazing things!
and
We joined our friends with whom we've spent Halloween ever since our kids were very little.

12/1/8 Thanks to the power of Twitter, (conjunction!) I learned about a rare astronomy event, the "Celestial Frownie Face" explained here at National Geographic: "Planets, Crescent Moon to "Frown" on Skywatchers Dec. 1"

1/1/09 We were both so sad to leave San Francisco and ten wonderful days!

2/1/09 There is so much love and respect for these two great competitors [Nadal and Federer] who are both gentleman and generous souls.

3/1/09 Rachel Maddow interviews Left Behind authors Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, about their enormously successful books, socialism, the rapture, and how best-selling novels (tens of millions sold!) influence the worldview of millions of Americans.

4/1/09 I rousted myself out of bed early this morning, washed my hair and skipped the all-important coffee ritual (also known as skritch-the-kitty-while-the water-boils time), trying to make it by 8:30 to a talk I was eager to see.

5/1/09 Yesterday was the birthday of a very dear friend, Maria.

6/2/09
Governor Pawlenty, "Governor of Brigadoon"--a portrait by Michael Tortorello, posted on The Uptake, courtesy of Noah Kunin.

7/1/09 I am absolutely fascinated by this video: it's a sampler of rap in 30 languages from all around the world.

8/1/09 How are those beer summits going?

9/1/09 Today I went to the ATM, then went to the cafe to work on class prep.

10/1/09 The Wikepedia entry on pain says,"This article is about physical pain. For pain in a broader sense, see Suffering."

11/01/09
Christopher Walken recites Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" as only he can.

What's it all about, Foxtrot?

(crossposted at SYTYCD Social)
In week 1's competition, the charismatic Russell was rather unjustly placed in the bottom 3 and forced to "dance for his life" on the show after performing a foxtrot with choreographer/pro dancer Melanie LePatin due to Noelle's injury. I thought he did a good job and that another dancer should have been sent to the B3, BUT in exchange, we did get to see Russell perform his fantastic solo. So for Top 14, he and Noelle were asked to do the foxtrot together that they couldn't do because of her injury. I thought they did quite a good job for non-ballroom dancers.



But what are the judges looking for in a foxtrot? Why is it, as Adam said, the second most dreaded dance after quickstep?

Here's what a foxtrot looked like in the '20s with some vintage footage.

Ramp up the energy and break out of the closed hold, and you'll get the later popular dances like the Charleston, the Balboa, and all the variants of swing dancing, and a very fast foxtrot became the quickstep!). The foxtrot was a hit popular dance that burst on the scene at the beginning of the 20th century, (probably when vaudeville met higher class showdance by pros like Vernon and Irene Castle) People danced the foxtrot to American popular music-ragtime, and later swing. They played the songs on the cutting edge technology of the "talking machines" --Gramaphones or Victrolas.

Dance studios such as the Arthur Murray or Fred Astaire franchises codifed the steps to teach these popular dances to the public. With the emergence of competitive dance ballroom dance, the social dances were morphed into versions that aren't casual and spontaneous, but emphasize skill, technique, recognizable steps and patterns, and are aimed at an audience rather than at the couple's pleasure. You can still learn to dance the foxtrot as a social dance at dance studios, and if you are bitten by the bug, you can go on to learn the competitive styles, which require years of practice to dance well.

The novice starts off with these basic steps done to the "slow slow quick quick" pattern that introduces a gentle jazzy syncopation into music with 4/4 time. (Click to see quick basic lesson in basic steps at the beginning/social"Bronze level"). It's a great social dance because it's adaptable to any mid-tempo 4/4 music--country, big band, pop-- and you can talk to your partner while moving around the floor because you don't have to get out of breath!

There are two main types of competitive ballroom dance (aka International Dancesport): American and International. What we see on DWTS or SYTYCD is choreography derived from one or both of these competition styles of foxtrot, but the shows do not hold the choreographers or the dancers to the competition rules. To hide the lack of technical expertise on the part of the newbies, ballroom choreographers will throw in all kinds of flashy moves and tricks, exciting lifts, spins, and elements that would not normally allowed in the "strictly ballroom" world. Where the lack of technique shows is in the basics. You can't fake it if you don't know how to do it right. What makes a foxtrot box step different from a rumba box step or a waltz box step? The character of the dance is just as important as the steps. I thought Russell gave a sense of the character of the foxtrot in his performance even if some of his technical elements were rough.

If social foxtrot is kind of like walking around to music, doing DanceSport style foxtrot means you must at once take long and powerful, driving steps and glide across the floor. Your feet are barely raised off off the floor (no hopping!) and your topline--your torso, chest, shoulders, arms, neck, head, must look effortlessly relaxed. In competition you are moving fast, but you can't crash into the other dancers.

Here's a nice example of a show dance foxtrot in which a dance teacher and amateur perform a choreographed routine at a studio where I've danced: he's probably 18 now, but I danced with him when he was 15 and still taking lessons. Such a wonderful dance partner! Here you can see how the foxtrot can be jazzy, sexy, fun, without having a bunch of showy lifts; we can just enjoy the character of the dance itself.


When the pros compete at the championship level, they can display their flexibility, athleticism, precision, and technique (while wearing the flashy stuff they need to get the judges attention on the crowded dance floor). Here's an American Smooth version:


The International Standard foxtrot or "slowfox" is always danced in closed hold in competition and has a somewhat different timing (hellishly difficult to do well). The commentary tells you what the judges are looking for as they evaluate the couples. To the untrained eye, the differences are invisible, but as with any sport or dance, the trained observer can tell the difference between good and great.

If you watch Russell and Noelle's foxtrot from last night, I hope you'll notice that they were doing a very good job of trying to balance the control you need to look effortless when dancing so slowly (all about control, posture and technique, folks) with the flowing, easy-breezy character of the dance. No, they don't look like the pros, but for two non-ballroom dancers? Wow. Great job. But will it save them from the B3? We'll find out tonight.

With liberty and justice FOR ALL

Oh, this kid is amazing. In fact, he is a genius. And his dad is so proud of him. I love how the dad explains how he talks to his kid and doesn't condescend to him. And the CNN anchor asked Will a hard question and he answered it well.
Will, thank you for taking a stand and for being so cool.


Here's an article from The Huffington Post (picking up on the story from Queerty)
If you are on Facebook (I am not) and want to join the Will-Phillips-you-are-awesome group, you can do that here!

National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week--one month late!

I found this meme over at the Chronic Babe forum, and even though I'm a month late, I wanted to do my own version.

30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know

1. The illness I live with is: fibromyalgia
2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 1992 (age 33)
3. But I had symptoms since: 1976 (age 17).
4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: accepting that it won't go away.
5. Most people assume: I'm healthy.
6. The hardest part about mornings are: all-over aches, stiffness, pain in joints and trigger points, brain fog. It takes about an hour of excercises and stretches in bed to be able to get up and get moving.
7. My favorite medical TV show is: House.
8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: my laptop.
9. The hardest part about nights are: waking up at 4AM every day. I average about 5 hours of sleep, with medication. Sleep disturbance is a huge part of this syndrome. Yes, I've had a sleep study done.
10. Each day I take 4 pills & vitamins. (No comments, please)
11. Regarding alternative treatments I: wish I could afford to have shiatsu more often. It provide the most immediate relief.
12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: I refuse these "would you rather" questions!
13. Regarding working and career: I could be successful with a chronic illness, I could be a good mother with a chronic illness, but I have found that I cannot do it all, so career comes last.
14. People would be surprised to know: I'm in pain every day.
15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been: in spite of my success in managing my symptoms, sometimes I will just hurt all over.
16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: dance.
17. The commercials about my illness: at least mention the name in public.
18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: I haven't stopped doing anything, but I have had to accept my limits.
19. It was really hard to have to give up: the idea of being a hot shot at my job.
20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: ballroom dance.
21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: no trade-offs. I am what I am.
22. My illness has taught me: to have compassion for myself.
23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: "you look tired!" Do I tell you you look like crap?
24. But I love it when people: acknowledge that I might need help without me having to ask for it.
25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: "all will be well."
26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: "you CAN feel better."
27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: how many people do so without letting on.
28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: drive my daughter to school when I broke my foot.
29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: well, I found out about it too late, but I want to connect with folks.
30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: OK!

Better late than never: Find out more about National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week and the 5-day free virtual conference with 20 speakers Sept 14-18, 2009 at www.invisibleillness.com

Visual humor

Venn diagram humor.
An explanation of Venn diagrams, Euler diagrams and some funny stuff at Mental Floss.
Here is some more humor with diagrams: Jessica Hagy's brilliant blog Indexed

"Nothin' but the dog in meeeee"

Why must I feel like that?
Why must I chase the cat?
Nothin' but the dog in meee....
(Bow wow wow yippie yo yippie yea)

The company that now owns the rights to this George Clinton/P'Funk song Atomic Dog has successfully won its lawsuit affirming copyright protection for

"Clinton’s “Atomic Dog” based on the use of the phrase “Bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea” (the “Bow Wow refrain”), as well as use repetition of the word “dog” in a low tone of voice at regular intervals and the sound of rhythmic panting in “D.O.G. in Me.”

Here's the song as a track for a Pokemon video.


P.S. The announcement that there is "water on the moon" made me remember this Gil Scott Heron song "Whitey on the moon"

My favorite performances on SYTYCD so far

week 1: Dave Scott hip hop choreo performed by Jonathan "Legacy" Perez and Kathryn McCormick:



week 2: A Stacey Tookey contemporary routine:



week 3: And a Broadway routine by Andy Blankenbuehler (choreographer of In the Heights)

videos generously shared by rickey.org
Second favorite dancer is Jakob Karr. He'll get his own post.

One reason why I like my job

When I work with students on their Senior Projects for their last class in our department's major, my role is primarily that of guide and facilitator for the students' efforts. Yes, there are many things I teach them about doing research, writing, editing an academic paper in Spanish, both in groups and in one-on-one session. Sometimes I even get to work with students whose interests coincide with my areas of expertise. But quite often I am helping connect them with other experts, and I learn a great deal from their projects. In most cases, students choose topics that fit with their double majors, their career plans, their experience studying abroad, and their personal relationships (sometimes via marriage). Many of the topics are ones that come up almost every semester, so I've now learned quite a bit about them!

Topics this semester include:

• Myths and facts about Mexican immigration to Minnesota, using the case of Lake Street as an immigrant neighborhood, historically and today;
  
• Américo Paredes and the relationship between his fiction, poetry and research as a founding figure of Chicano studies;
  
• the exhumation of mass graves in Spain today, comparing the case of García Lorca to that of someone not famous, but whose burial on the church threshold was a symbol of repression in the village;
• Sarmiento's novel Facundo, its ideological contradictions, and their relationship to present-day Argentine social tensions;
  
• The situation of Spanish-speaking people seeking health care in the Twin Cities: insurance access, language, and cultural difference as issues in inequality for basic medical care, and another study centered on physical therapy:inventory of resources, identification of problems, possible solutions;
  
• current discourses on discrimination against Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica, comparing academic sources and popular discourse in blogs, press, and other online sites;
• the use of "language brokering" or informal translation by children in K-8 classroom at a school in Minneapolis: what research has to say and what the teachers see;
• examining how relationship between traditional ideas about motherhood and polticial activism for Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina through the films "The Official Story" and "Cautiva";
• Issues of literacy in Spanish for adult learners of English;
• how the maquiladora system on the U.S. Mexican border affects the women who work there, and the documentary film Maquilapolis's representation of that situation;
• What we are able to know about Aztec society before the arrival of the Spanish expeditions, and how we have to evaluate various sources in light of colonialism;
• what we should know about the different paths of Cuba and Puerto Rico after the Spanish-American War 1898 as roots of present-day situations;
• the uses of the iconic image of the Virgin of Guadalupe by Mexicans and others in the U.S., in art and popular culture, and how it works to signify different kinds of relationships in different contexts.
• Portuguese-language poetry in Angola, and the use of the trope of mother Africa in the emergence of discourses about identity during and after Independence struggles.
  

Fantasy SYTYCD S6 entry

My entry for Fantasy SYTYCD S6, in the order I think they will finish (or that I want them to finish, not necessarily the same!). Last year, I actually did pretty well in the predictions, which surprised me.

Women
1. Kathryn
2. Ellenore
3. Mollee
4. Karen
5. Ashleigh
6. Pauline
7. Noelle
8. Channing


Men
1. Legacy
2. Jakob
3. Russell
4. Nathan
5. Ryan
6. Kevin
7. Peter
8. Victor

Top 4
1.Legacy
2.Ellenore
3.Jakob
4.Kathryn

Walken, toujours actuel

Christopher Walken recites Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" as only he can.