This picture is from my new favorite site: www.engrish.com
And for more funny times and pretty Japanese pictures, here's a link to my friend Andres's pictures on flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/andreszd
Friday, November 25, 2005
Ay, Kate Moss
Since I'm writing this blog as if isn't read by anyone, which it probably isn't, I have to put this link up even though it is in poor taste and in all reality sad as hell. But for a girl who was singing the research paper blues there's nothing like a video clip of a topless Kate Moss simulating punk dancing alone, falling, and hitting her head on a fan to make the sun shine again.
http://s38.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2P9C3QYCXNJ9E3E56BGQENWSF3
http://s38.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2P9C3QYCXNJ9E3E56BGQENWSF3
eskul estatus: NYC Latin Alternative music paper
A few days ago I gave a sweet schpiel about learning and procrastinating and while I still agree with it, as I sit here working on a year-old paper I feel like I rather be cutting off my left pinky. This Latin alternative music paper me tiene una teta hinchada, as Mami would say. It was due at the end of the fall 2004 semester but after months of anxiety-filled days and nights, and two computer crashes (one a night before the paper was due) here I am. I really truly do care about submitting something worthwhile that does more than just fulfull the minimum page length but sometimes I get so frustrated and stuck.
My old shrink would say that during these times I should "pedal faster and harder," beyond the frustration and try to concentrate on something else. But it isn't that easy. Right now I feel like I'm in a locked revolving door and schoolwork stuff, friend stuff, and my own stuff are surrounding me and I can't seem to access any of it. And any definitive action is inevitably the wrong one kinda like a faulty Jenga that'll always fall.
My old shrink would say that during these times I should "pedal faster and harder," beyond the frustration and try to concentrate on something else. But it isn't that easy. Right now I feel like I'm in a locked revolving door and schoolwork stuff, friend stuff, and my own stuff are surrounding me and I can't seem to access any of it. And any definitive action is inevitably the wrong one kinda like a faulty Jenga that'll always fall.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Time to give thanks
I'm thankful for my self: for enduring all of my self-abuse and still allowing me to be well and continue to realize my worth. I'm thankful for of my beautiful friends, family, and city. For Sunnyside and PS 150. For the 15th Street Meeting House. For silence. For Bustelo coffee and oven toasted toast. For Howard Stern and Big-Foot, the dog I walk last night (pictured right with Fox 5's Penny Crone). For my hands and my feet. For water. For Professor Serrin, Patty, and Maritza and every other dedicated person that makes NYU actually be home. For music. For public libraries and give-away piles. I'm thankful for my Dominican niece and my Harlem nephew. I'm thankful for that moment right after I think things could never be better and something happens that proves me wrong. For all of the amazing NY Cares volunteers. For honesty and truth. For my parents, teachers, mentors, and fellow humans. For amazing conversation. And all-night dancing. For nice people. And new friends, old friends, new old friends, and old new friends. For watching infomercials and Univision at 5:00 a.m. with Mexican rockstars. For the Bulgarian bar. For the awareness of how rich I am. For ugly beauty and beautiful ugliness. For Jupiter's OCD. And Dannyboy's huge feet. For the sun setting on the Seine. For Evelyn's attention. Frank's stories and his listening. For Mami.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
'Black tax' -- the tithe that binds (LA Times 11/20/05)
I'm probably not the first person to say so but Hurricane Katrina's most valuable impact was removing the discussion about racism in the United States from the periphery into a mainstream topic of concern.
Last night's Independent Lens (PBS) on race was well-done. The views and analyses presented in the program were by poets, visual and performing artists, our true cultural mirrors. There were no talking heads in suits like in every other news program.
The following article was forwarded to me on the NYU graduate student of color listserv:
'Black tax' -- the tithe that binds
By Jody Armour
JODY ARMOUR is a professor at USC School of Law.
November 20, 2005
THE TAX MAN recently paid me a nighttime visit on a public street in South L.A. His levy came as I sat in my parked car on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Crenshaw. King runs between where I live in View Park and where I work at the USC School of Law. I had legally curbed my German car to search my navigation system for a point of interest when a police cruiser pulled alongside and flooded my passenger compartment with a searchlight.
What followed was a scenario common nearly to the point of banality in this aggressively policed community: brusque questions, testy answers, brinkmanship. Because my tags, insurance and license passed muster, I avoided eating any fines but nevertheless had to swallow the indignities that come with once again being called on to pay the "black tax."
The black tax is the price blacks (and other minorities) pay in our daily lives because of racial stereotypes. Like a tax, racial discrimination is persistent, pervasive and seemingly inevitable as in "Nothing in life is certain save death and taxes." And just as the state collects general taxes, blacks often regard state representatives such as police and judges as IRS agents for the black tax.
But while tax regimes are typically either regressive (falling mainly on the poor) or progressive (falling mainly on the privileged), the black tax falls on both as indifferently as rain.
It falls on poor minorities in the redlining charging higher prices in their neighborhoods by services ranging from banking to pizza delivery; in the greater exposure to environmental toxins, and in the greater concentration of crumbling schools and hospitals.
The black tax also falls on privileged minorities those who parlay diplomas, athletic ability or big box office into impressive portfolios, "desirable" ZIP Codes and pricey schools in the profiling that their pedigrees won't ward off. Neither my Harvard and Berkeley degrees nor chaired law school professorship gained me a tax exemption. The face of crime for most Americans is black.
The reservoir of resentment and distrust that has accumulated in the black community because of police practices such as racial profiling can be seen in the fate of Measure A, the 2004 ballot initiative that would have provided funding for an additional 1,260 officers by boosting local sales taxes. According to analyses by The Times, Measure A failed because precincts with a high concentration of black voters (along with the anti-tax votes of the west San Fernando Valley) didn't support it. Largely Latino neighborhoods on the Eastside with crime problems similar to those of the heavily black precincts, however, did overwhelmingly back the additional tax.
Paradoxically, then, one of the communities that most desperately needed more effective policing helped sink it. But many blacks did not do not want to trade more public safety for less personal dignity. We hesitate to apply the black tax to ourselves.
Even though inherently unjust, the black tax has one silver lining it keeps the fate of black "haves" indissolubly wedded to that of black "have-nots." In "Rage of a Privileged Class," Ellis Cose chronicles the frustration, resentment and anger that being racially profiled stirs in privileged blacks.
In this view, the indignities that respectable blacks suffer because of profiling can be blamed on black criminals, most of whom are poor. If only poor blacks would stop behaving badly, they would stop fueling the stereotypes that keep the black bourgeoisie from enjoying its full measure of respectability.
This logic lies behind much of the vitriol Bill Cosby a black Brahmin icon levels at low-income blacks; it lies also behind the call of neoconservative blacks for the black community to pursue politics of respectability whereby we distinguish between "good Negroes" (law-abiding blacks) and "bad Negroes" (those who commit crimes), then clearly condemn and distance ourselves from the bad ones. Some will protest that they are not damning all poor people when they condemn criminals; they are merely blaming people who make bad choices. But this account fails to recognize that when people have only bad choices, they tend to make bad choices.
Until the conditions that breed bad choices are changed, the statistical justifications for the black tax will persist. We in the black middle class must focus our energies on improving those conditions rather than on vainly trying to distinguish ourselves from them.
Last night's Independent Lens (PBS) on race was well-done. The views and analyses presented in the program were by poets, visual and performing artists, our true cultural mirrors. There were no talking heads in suits like in every other news program.
The following article was forwarded to me on the NYU graduate student of color listserv:
'Black tax' -- the tithe that binds
By Jody Armour
JODY ARMOUR is a professor at USC School of Law.
November 20, 2005
THE TAX MAN recently paid me a nighttime visit on a public street in South L.A. His levy came as I sat in my parked car on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Crenshaw. King runs between where I live in View Park and where I work at the USC School of Law. I had legally curbed my German car to search my navigation system for a point of interest when a police cruiser pulled alongside and flooded my passenger compartment with a searchlight.
What followed was a scenario common nearly to the point of banality in this aggressively policed community: brusque questions, testy answers, brinkmanship. Because my tags, insurance and license passed muster, I avoided eating any fines but nevertheless had to swallow the indignities that come with once again being called on to pay the "black tax."
The black tax is the price blacks (and other minorities) pay in our daily lives because of racial stereotypes. Like a tax, racial discrimination is persistent, pervasive and seemingly inevitable as in "Nothing in life is certain save death and taxes." And just as the state collects general taxes, blacks often regard state representatives such as police and judges as IRS agents for the black tax.
But while tax regimes are typically either regressive (falling mainly on the poor) or progressive (falling mainly on the privileged), the black tax falls on both as indifferently as rain.
It falls on poor minorities in the redlining charging higher prices in their neighborhoods by services ranging from banking to pizza delivery; in the greater exposure to environmental toxins, and in the greater concentration of crumbling schools and hospitals.
The black tax also falls on privileged minorities those who parlay diplomas, athletic ability or big box office into impressive portfolios, "desirable" ZIP Codes and pricey schools in the profiling that their pedigrees won't ward off. Neither my Harvard and Berkeley degrees nor chaired law school professorship gained me a tax exemption. The face of crime for most Americans is black.
The reservoir of resentment and distrust that has accumulated in the black community because of police practices such as racial profiling can be seen in the fate of Measure A, the 2004 ballot initiative that would have provided funding for an additional 1,260 officers by boosting local sales taxes. According to analyses by The Times, Measure A failed because precincts with a high concentration of black voters (along with the anti-tax votes of the west San Fernando Valley) didn't support it. Largely Latino neighborhoods on the Eastside with crime problems similar to those of the heavily black precincts, however, did overwhelmingly back the additional tax.
Paradoxically, then, one of the communities that most desperately needed more effective policing helped sink it. But many blacks did not do not want to trade more public safety for less personal dignity. We hesitate to apply the black tax to ourselves.
Even though inherently unjust, the black tax has one silver lining it keeps the fate of black "haves" indissolubly wedded to that of black "have-nots." In "Rage of a Privileged Class," Ellis Cose chronicles the frustration, resentment and anger that being racially profiled stirs in privileged blacks.
In this view, the indignities that respectable blacks suffer because of profiling can be blamed on black criminals, most of whom are poor. If only poor blacks would stop behaving badly, they would stop fueling the stereotypes that keep the black bourgeoisie from enjoying its full measure of respectability.
This logic lies behind much of the vitriol Bill Cosby a black Brahmin icon levels at low-income blacks; it lies also behind the call of neoconservative blacks for the black community to pursue politics of respectability whereby we distinguish between "good Negroes" (law-abiding blacks) and "bad Negroes" (those who commit crimes), then clearly condemn and distance ourselves from the bad ones. Some will protest that they are not damning all poor people when they condemn criminals; they are merely blaming people who make bad choices. But this account fails to recognize that when people have only bad choices, they tend to make bad choices.
Until the conditions that breed bad choices are changed, the statistical justifications for the black tax will persist. We in the black middle class must focus our energies on improving those conditions rather than on vainly trying to distinguish ourselves from them.
Evento interesante: 12/10 @ 12-3p
Please Join Us For a Roundtable Discussion:
Coming Home
job placement ▪ housing issues ▪ reuniting with families ▪ parole ▪ employment policies
Addressing the Issues Faced by Prisoners as
They Re-enter the Community
With Special Guest Speaker
Peter Wagner, Prison Policy Initiative
Hosted by The Community Service Society of New York
December 10, 2005 12 ˜ 3 p.m.
105 East 22nd Street at the corner of Park Avenue South, Conference Room 4A
Take the 6 or W/R trains to 23rd Street
Admission is Free. Lunch will be provided.
Kindly RSVP to Gabriel Torres-Rivera at grivera@cssny.org or 212.614.5306 by November 30th
The Community Service Society of New York is an independent, nonprofit organization that for more than 150 years has helped New Yorkers in need to defeat the problems of poverty and strengthen community life for all.
Coming Home
job placement ▪ housing issues ▪ reuniting with families ▪ parole ▪ employment policies
Addressing the Issues Faced by Prisoners as
They Re-enter the Community
With Special Guest Speaker
Peter Wagner, Prison Policy Initiative
Hosted by The Community Service Society of New York
December 10, 2005 12 ˜ 3 p.m.
105 East 22nd Street at the corner of Park Avenue South, Conference Room 4A
Take the 6 or W/R trains to 23rd Street
Admission is Free. Lunch will be provided.
Kindly RSVP to Gabriel Torres-Rivera at grivera@cssny.org or 212.614.5306 by November 30th
The Community Service Society of New York is an independent, nonprofit organization that for more than 150 years has helped New Yorkers in need to defeat the problems of poverty and strengthen community life for all.
Evento interesante: 11/28 @ 6-8pm
The King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center of New York University Cordially invites you to attend the sixth of eight seminars: Transatlantic Dialogues
Panel: Education in a Globalized Society
Given the formative role public education has with citizens of modern societies, the panelists will explore the implications and consequences of increased globalization and migration on the very definition of public education in Spain, the United States and Latin America. Participants: Carmen Fariña, Deputy Chancellor, Board of Education, City of New York; Lorenzo Gómez Morin, Sub secretary of Education, Mxico; Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Profesor de Globalización y Educacin, Universidad de Nueva York; Dr. Félix Gonzlez Jiménez, Chair of the Department of Didactics and Educational Organization, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Director: Judge Baltasar Garzón
MONDAY, 28 NOVEMBER 2005
6 to 8 pm
Hemmerdinger Hall
100 Washington Square East
RSVP for this event For further information, contact:John J. Healeyemail: kjc.spain.today@nyu.eduphone: 212-998-3657
Panel: Education in a Globalized Society
Given the formative role public education has with citizens of modern societies, the panelists will explore the implications and consequences of increased globalization and migration on the very definition of public education in Spain, the United States and Latin America. Participants: Carmen Fariña, Deputy Chancellor, Board of Education, City of New York; Lorenzo Gómez Morin, Sub secretary of Education, Mxico; Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Profesor de Globalización y Educacin, Universidad de Nueva York; Dr. Félix Gonzlez Jiménez, Chair of the Department of Didactics and Educational Organization, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Director: Judge Baltasar Garzón
MONDAY, 28 NOVEMBER 2005
6 to 8 pm
Hemmerdinger Hall
100 Washington Square East
RSVP for this event For further information, contact:John J. Healeyemail: kjc.spain.today@nyu.eduphone: 212-998-3657
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
thoughts on procrastination
Sometimes it shocks me just how much time procrastinating takes up (ironically as I stop working to write this entry). It just took me ten minutes to complete a course evaluation for a seminar from LAST fall! What is it that I was waiting for?
I think procrastination is my way of prolonging school. I think there's some buried part of me that believes: "if I can't get the work in, then I'll be in school forever." I mean there's no social promotion in grad school. Well, then again there is Resident Bush...
I think my love of school is like the omnipotent UNO game Pick-4/Choose a Color card--it'll always trump my better judgement. School's sustained my interest for as long as I can remember. It's been the thing I've been good at. At home, I should clarify, just in case some current or former professors happen to read this. =)
Beginning this final year of graduate school with the prospect of never returning to an institution as an enrolled student is strange. It's like your passport expiring for good. Although this time it doesn't feel as sudden or unexpected as graduating from college. That sort of felt like skydiving without a parachute or doggy-paddling down the Niagara Falls. Okay, maybe a little too much. But it was bad.
I think procrastination is my way of prolonging school. I think there's some buried part of me that believes: "if I can't get the work in, then I'll be in school forever." I mean there's no social promotion in grad school. Well, then again there is Resident Bush...
I think my love of school is like the omnipotent UNO game Pick-4/Choose a Color card--it'll always trump my better judgement. School's sustained my interest for as long as I can remember. It's been the thing I've been good at. At home, I should clarify, just in case some current or former professors happen to read this. =)
Beginning this final year of graduate school with the prospect of never returning to an institution as an enrolled student is strange. It's like your passport expiring for good. Although this time it doesn't feel as sudden or unexpected as graduating from college. That sort of felt like skydiving without a parachute or doggy-paddling down the Niagara Falls. Okay, maybe a little too much. But it was bad.
I'm movin' on up... to the b-side!
Yep, I've staked a piece of cyberland, planted my flag into a turf made of zeros and ones... I don't know why I've been so resistent on joining this part of the internet world. It's not like I write letters and hand them off to Mister McFeeley.
So here I am. Slightly sleep-deprived and very, very optimistic.
So here I am. Slightly sleep-deprived and very, very optimistic.
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