Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference

I will be unplugging from the blogosphere for the next week as I attend the PRSA Conference in San Juan. I'll be back next week with news from the conference and more.

Peace.

Head of Skate: The Sarah Palin Movie

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Matt Damon and my worst nightmare come to life...

*tip of the fitted to Guanabee

Move Over Daddy Yankee, Make Way for the Obamistas

Podemos con Obama, is a will.i.am inspired musical video directed by Yerba Buena's Andres Levin urging Latinos from all walks of life to vote for Obama this coming November.

The video features reggaetoneros Don Omar and Julio Voltio along side a cast of Latino/a heavy hitters including: Alejandro Sanz, Paulina Rubio, John Leguizamo, Jessica Alba, Kate del Castillo, Cucu Diamantes (Yerba Buena), Pedro Martinez (Yerba Buena), Andres Levin (Yerba Buena), George Lopez, Luis Guzman, Lila Downs, Lin Manuel Miranda, Frankie Needles, Huey Dunbar, Nydia Caro, Ivonne Caro Caro, Brazilian Girls, Carlos Marín and family, Carola Gonzalez, Viva Nativa, Jose Alberti.

Lets see McCain pull that off...

*tip of the fitted to Lossip

The Kumbia Queers @ Nacotheque this Saturday!

My favorite queers will be performing live at Nacotheque this weekend. If you don't know the Kumbia Queers they are an amazing all female tropipunk band formed in Argentina in 2006.

From the Nacotheque site:

While fooling with their instruments and lyrics, they began playing covers of songs they knew by heart, adding the cumbia punch and twisting the lyrics into divine lesbian poetry filled with irony, love clichés and a lot of humour. La isla con chicas (from La isla bonita by Madonna), Kumbia dark (from Love Song by The Cure), and other classics started being reborn into a tropipunk queer latin sound. Six covers and three original tropipunk songs became Kumbia Nena!, which has been released in Argentina and Mexico under their independent label Horario Invertido. The girls are becoming a hit in Argentina and are planning their second tour across Mexico after Montreal. Their live shows have generated expectation for the love and passion they share with the audience from the stage. Their music is highly critical through an ironic melody, building the perfect scene for an eternal and memorable night of freedom, laughter, dance, and most probably love. The girls, punk-rockers by heart and nature, continue their personal projects and present them the night before and previously to their main appearance. Their variety enriches the outcast and wonderful experience that they represent.

For more information about the Kumbia Queers check out: myspace.com/laskumbiaqueers
For more information on Nacotheque events check out: nacotheque.com


Here's some videos...see you @ Fontanas...

Kat DeLuna Poses for KING

The Bronx native isn't letting that whole national anthem debacle hold her down. Check her out in this month's King Magazine.

Lindsay Lohan & Sam Ronson Sitting in a Tree

Lindsay Lohan finally said what everybody knew. Last night on Loveline, she said that her and DJ Samantha Ronson are a couple and have been going out "A very long time." I'm sure keeping that ridiculously obvious relationship a secret must have been hard for LiLo.

Source: Defamer

Pavlov's Racist Dogs

A new blog Stop Dog Whistle Racism! is tracking coded racism in the election. Check out their statement and definition of Dog Whistle Racism:

Dog-Whistle Racism is political campaigning or policy-making that uses coded words and themes to appeal to conscious or subconscious racist concepts and frames. For example, the concepts ‘welfare queen,’ ’states’ rights,’ ‘Islamic terrorist,’ ‘uppity,’ 'thug,' 'tough on crime,' and ‘illegal alien’ all activate racist concepts that that have already been planted in the public consciousness and now are being activated by purposeful or accidental campaign activities, media coverage, public policy and cultural traditions. So, what’s dog whistle racism? It’s pure political theater to push buttons to win elections and policies. We’re here to identify, expose and respond to it. Join us.

The site does an excellent job reporting on lefty and right politics, overall its pretty balanced coverage of racial discourse about the election. Please Check out the site Stop Dog Whistle Racisim!

Poncea Pokemones, Poncea!

Last week The New York Times reported on the Chilean youth parties known as Poncea Parties (a.k.a. lets make out and dry hump on the dance floor parties). The New York Times is surprisingly late uncovering the Poncea Parties. Even the less cool Newsweek covered the Poncea phenomenon in March! Come on NY Times, step up your journalistic game!

There has been a lot of recent American media coverage about the about this Chilean youth subculture and their (often public) sexual exploration (despite the NY Times' late discovery). Drawing inspiration from anime, the young Chileans refer to themselves as "Pokemones" and don piercings and flat ironed asymmetrical haircuts. Mostly the American coverage is scandalized to the point of careless reporting.

While the sexual repression of the Pinnochet dictatorship is mentioned in passing as a cause for this sexual awakening and experimentation, the focus seems to be on the perceived sexual deviance of the youth. They are not monogamous, same-sex hook-ups are commonplace, and they are actively breaking down the boundaries between public and private that dictate sexual normativity. I think the American media coverage through coded language is pointing the finger at stereotypical beliefs about Latin American licentiousness and queerness (and please believe they threw in the fact that the kids were grinding to reggaeton) as reasons for the youth's "bad behavior." Cast into a national phenomenon, the media has ignored important issues of race and class in participation in the poncea parties. For instance, who has the ability, economically and otherwise, to actually partake in these activities? Whose bodies aren't policed and survailed? Even if its deemed naughty by the mainstream, it is still dictated by issues of access so not acknowledging that is careless journalism.

Also, by isolating this particular issue of "deviant" youth sex to a Chilean context the American media doesn't have to face the fact that similar sexual activity happens regularly in schools and suburbs across the U.S. (remember the whole oral sex bracelets a few years ago?). By focusing on youth sexuality and the need for effective sexual education "over there," we excuse ourselves from doing the work around youth sexuality and education that needs to happen here.

I'm not condoning 14 year-olds giving each other blowjobs on bus benches in Santiago (because that just seems unsanitary), but I am advocating for a more complex analysis of the issues behind these parties. I'm looking for more than "Chile's disaffected 'Pokemones' don't care much about politics. They're too busy having sex." It's just not that simple so stop the simplistic journalism.

*tip of the fitted cap to Guanabee

Party Like a BaRock Star

Check out Mims new video featuring Jr. Reid "BaRock Star." Hip hop is heavy hitting for Obama, hopeful folks will actually go out and vote.

The Cool Kids - Delivery Man

The Cool Kids Do the Right Thing in their new video.