Sunday, December 27, 2009

Tigeraso



Maluca was described to me by one of my friends as a Dominicana M.I.A., which definitely has to do with this awesome Diplo produced track.  I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing more!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Navidad El Remix





Because your holidays don't have to be Jose Feliciano on repeat anymore...
Happy holidays mi gente

Friday, December 11, 2009

La Musica del Futuro?



Friends and followers of this blog might remember that I have written about Deevani (Ines Rooney) and how she upsets a linear narrative about reggaeton's development by highlighting a number of often neglected circuits.

Here is her latest collaboration with Fuego (from Chosen Few) called "Que Buena Tu Ta."  While I have qualms about some of the imagery in the video, I do think sonically it's interesting to consider the fact that these two Dominican artists, one singing in Hindi, are able to skillfully blend Bhragra-pop, mambo urbano, and reggaeton thus highlighting the various movements of  what we recognize today as "Caribbean rhythms."

Pretty dope if you ask me.  Thoughts?

Loo$e Change


Loo$e Change from Mykwain Gainey on Vimeo.

I know I'm late since Frank Roberts and Wayne Marshall have already posted Loo$e Change to their blogs but this short is so fly I had to put it up.  "Who says loose change can't go along way?"

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Major Lazer is Pretty Much a Genius


Major Lazer "Keep it Going Louder" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

This is what dancehall videos look like in The Twilight Zone.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Sincerely.the lost bois



Queer Hip-pop tribute to being confident, to being silly, and to crushing hard.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Call for Dancers/Movers!

Jiggly Boo Dance Crew (founded by Alice Fu and Kantara Souffrant, MA candidates in Performance Studies @ NYU)

Is Seeking: Dancers who identify as having a “non-traditional” dancer’s body, specifically a “fat”* body. Dancers need not have “formal” training, and may come from any kind of dance background.

For : Participation in a spring semester series of workshops, discussions, movement, exercises, which will culminate in a final collaborative performance in April 2010.

When: Tentatively Sundays, January 24 – April 18, 2010, 4-6pm

Location: On NYU Campus, details TBA.

Additional information
: Please see included information below. For any additional questions or if interested, please email JigglyBooDanceCrew@gmail.com


About Jiggly Boo Dance Crew
Jiggly Boo Dance Crew is a much needed project for exploring the intellectual and creative potential of the fat dancing body. Within the Western performance context, fat bodies are systematically excluded or typecast into demeaning or ancillary roles.

Within this framework, Jiggly Boo Dance Crew will run a series of workshops which will culminate in a performance. These workshops will create a space in which other self-identified female “fat” dancers, movers, and performers, can dialogue about the following questions: What is a "fat dancing body"? How are fat bodies read, understood, felt (emotively and viscerally) and represented? What does it mean to identify oneself as a “fat dancing body” and what are the political implications of identifying oneself as such? How can (re)presentations of fat dancing bodies be understood alongside critical discussions of race, gender, sexuality, and the political movement of bodies that have been traditionally marginalized and invisibilized within Western stage dance?

Through these workshops, which will build towards a final performance, we hope to personalize and politicize the fat dancing body and the fat dancer. Jiggly Boo Dance Crew hopes to re-write and re-imagine these scripts of the fat dancing body. We are neither invisible, nor hyper-visible objects of ridicule.

Workshops will be based on movement, academics, as well as the participants' personal experiences as dancers. By marrying readings from fields such as fat studies; critical race theory; gender, sex, and sexuality studies; (dis)ability studies; and dance and performance studies with sessions that emphasize movement, gesture, and performance, we will create a space that views theory and praxis as mutually informative and necessary for achieving our goals.

*On the usage of “fat”
: Jiggly Boo Dance Crew intentionally reclaims and uses the word "fat" as opposed to other euphemisms (i.e. '"plus-sized" or "big-boned") to explore the politics of size-deviant bodies. Our reclamatory gesture also pays homage to area studies, such as queer studies, that have viewed the reappropriation of words as part of a larger political process of creating visibility and challenging hegemonic discourses and systems of oppression.

Monday, November 30, 2009

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube



This is one of the most interesting and smart approaches to web 2.0 and YouTube culture I have seen thus far.  Fantastic primer to digital ethnography! Enjoy!

*Thanks to Daniel Nieves (CUNY) for sharing this video with me.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Message from Myriam Mercado, mother of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado



Thanks to Blabbeando's Andrés Duque for posting and translating this video.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Gay Puerto Rican Teen's Body Found Brutalized in Hate Crime



The body of Jorge Steven López Mercado, age 19, was found decapitated, dismembered, and partially burned on Friday, November 13, 2009 in Cayey, Puerto Rico.  López, a resident of Caguas, was reportedly a well known member of Puerto Rico's gay community.

LGBT activists are calling for López's murder to be classified as a hate crime.  This would be the first crime of its kind to be designated as such, if authorities reclassify the case.  Pedro Julio Serrano, executive director of Puerto Rico Para Tod@s notes that although the Puerto Rican government added sexual orientation to its hate crimes laws in 2002, local authorities have not used it to prosecute those accused of anti-gay violence. The FBI has announced it will take jurisdiction over the case if local investigators conclude López’s killer or killers murdered him because of his sexual orientation

LGBT activists are also speaking out against homophobic remarks made by Investigator Angel Rodriguez’s that implied that López deserved what he got because of his “lifestyle.”  During a televised press conference Rodriguez said, “este tipo de personas, cuando se meten a esto y salen a la calle, saben que esto les puede pasar” [When these type of people get into this and go out into the streets like this, they know this can happen to them].  These comments sparked outrage and activist are calling for the Puerto Rico Police Department to take disciplinary action against Rodriguez.  Rodriguez has been removed from the case, but is yet to be sanctioned for his remarks.  A vigil will be held later this week for López, in addition to a protest calling for disciplinary action to be taken against Rodriguez.

López’s killer or killers remain at large.


For more info: