Power of Words

So I found a book that I've been looking for without ever really looking for it: http://amzn.com/1582973296

It feels very good to finally have words to talk about poetry in more depth. That feeling that I wouldn't survive in a PhD in English program? This book kind of eases those anxieties that don't actually bother me any longer. Of course it would be nice to have the same book in Spanish but at least I have a place to look up "objective correlative"* and use it in an analysis. I suppose I can find all of this on some website but I like books and I like books in my hands. The question remains, however, if I need this language in the first place. So far I have been limping along nicely enough to get within spitting distance (I can spit pretty far) of my PhD in Spanish Literature without having a commanding knowledge of poetry forms, terms, etc. In truth, I'm not looking for poetry RAM but I do believe in the power of vocabulary. Perhaps that is why I hesitate and fumble through my sentences so frequently (in writing and speaking). In any case, what do you fair blog reader think? How necessary is a comprehensive vocabulary in regards to knowledge and its transference? Is there a balancing point or is it 'bigger is better!' 'more is mightier!'?

*T.S. Eliot's term for a set of specific objects (images and actions) that will evoke a specific, correlated emotion in the reader.

What the Mountains Whisper

There's a band called Faded Paper Figures that a friend here at UCI told me about (they're lyrics are full of allusions that should be familiar to most humanities grad students). I guess one of the band members was in the ward here before he got a job at Yale (English major). On their website there is a free download for a song that one of the band members, Kael Alden, did for a Lexus commercial. The blog entry about the song led me to the website for a music house, named Robot Repair, that I'm assuming Alden works for. On their site I found something that might interest both of you, Taragui and Xpoferens. Check out the first video:

http://robotrepair.wiredrive.com/l/p/?presentation=7bae8393a0c157c6f6424f4174172f62

This looks tasty!

We should go to a conference together so we can try this out.

Llovizna

A ver si los comentaristas virales paran de infectar la Pavada de una vez.

Farmacia - Nada de nada y Te puedo abrazar

Here's a couple videos from a rather one dimensional Argentine pop band called Farmacia. For better or for worse, the songs will probably get stuck in your head. I think when I wanted to be a rock star, though I never envisioned something like this, I was a goof ball and probably would have ended up looking a lot like this guy on stage. I was always into the more pensive front man thing but I had enough energy to power a small city for a day in my 120lb lanky body and music was (still is) like a drug for me. Even if you don't end up digging these videos, remember one thing. At least they are having fun making music, I'm writing term papers.

FARMACIA Nada de Nada (video) from FARMACIA on Vimeo.

Like we said: "Cats"

This just goes to prove that we were right all along: Cats are subversive slaves of modernity.

To be fair, this video is obviously edited. I really don't think it needed to be edited though.

Highlights:

- "Petting is so paseé"

- "That says a lot about life, and about cat massage"

- "You don't need a swimming pool for this breast-stroking"

Thanks for the link, Xpoferens

Borges and Birds

At the Jorge Luis Borges Conference that I just attended and where I read a paper on "El sur," there was a presentation referencing Borges's great story(?) "Argumentum ornithologicum" which traced Borges's logic very closely. I kind of wandered in and out of listening to the ponencia and so I don't think I could come close to giving itjustice. "Argumentum," however, has not completely left my thoughts and so I reproduce it here below along with its Andrew Hurley translation:

"Cierro los ojos y veo una bandada de pájaros. La visión dura un segundo o acaso menos; no sé cuántos pájaros vi. ¿Era definido o indefinido su número? El problema involucra el de la existencia de Dios. Si Dios existe, el número es definido, porque Dios sabe cuántos pájaros vi. Si Dios no existe, el número es indefinido, porque nadie pudo llevar la cuenta. En tal caso, vi menos de diez pájaros (digamos) y más de uno, pero no vi nueve, ocho, siete, seis, cinco, cuatro, tres o dos pájaros. Vi un número entre diez y uno, que no es nueve, ocho, siete, seis, cinco, etcétera. Ese número entero es inconcebible, ergo, Dios existe."

"I close my eyes and see a flock of birds. The vision lasts a second, or perhaps less; I am not sure how many birds I saw. Was the number of birds definite or indefinite? The problem involves the existence of God. If God exists, the number is definite, because God knows how many birds I saw. If God does not exist, the number is indefinite, because no one can have counted. In this case, I saw fewer than ten birds (let us say) and more than one, but did not see nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, or two birds. I saw a number between ten and one, which was not nine, eight, seven, six, five, etc. That integer--not-nine, not-eight, not-seven, not-six, etc.--is inconceivable. Ergo, God exists. (trans. Andrew Hurley)"

There is too much here for me to go into because I am a very impatient thinker and writer. I think that this is still stuck in my craw because of what I am studying at the moment. I’ve been trying to link visual culture to ecocriticism and I think that the doubt that comes through Borges’s argument is related to what we would call our “wonder” before nature. We stand at the top of a cliff at the edge of the Grand Canyon and we try in vain to absorb a whole image/idea of what we see before us. Later, when we try to share what we saw/experienced we often fall silent and we reduce our experience to the ineffable. Of course this won’t do so we use hyperbole or better yet we go prepared and we take a picture as if an image communicates better than words when it really is just another filter, perhaps.

Just like with our consciousness’s before the Grand Canyon, I think any encounter with the ‘other’ of nature, whatever the scale or location, is constructed in several spatiotemporal instances and that we constantly return to and playback. A poem or a photograph gives us something akin to what Benjamin calls “unconscious optics” with regard to our wonder before nature. Then again, it’s late and I should be working on something else.

"Borges's ruiseñor"

Ekphrasis

Margins of New York

The storyboard of a Saturday, our view over Calvary

of a flickering, modern skyline haunts our attachment

to fleeting time, even if we know that we will never

really catch the slow, plodding car ahead of us that

can’t seem to pick a lane and stay in it.

45 miles per hour in a winter rain obliges us to use the

passenger side door window as a self-evident filter that

keeps the rain out, even as each drop slides up the glass

and tries to get in after floating like a pearl over the dead.

I ask her to lean back so that I can twist my neck and

gaze at the faded height of New York and the darkening

breadth of the cemetery through the speckled afternoon.

“I’ll take a picture” she says. “Keep your eyes on the road.

We don’t want to get in a wreck."

"I’ll take a picture so you can to see the same view as me.

You'll be able to relive the experience through the photo.”

How do I tell her what I know? The moment is gone,

there is nothing but the present and her photograph

captures only ghosts, only a view of a city both dead and

alive. We cross the bridge and “We should make time to

visit the city when it's not raining” is all I can say.

This is just a little poem that I'm working on. Any constructive criticism is appreciated.

*Picture taken by my wife with some focused "editing" on my part.

The Great God Bird: Nature: Art/Science/Culture

Two videos with Sufjan Stevens ethereal song "The Great God Bird" about the elusive Ivory-billed Woodpecker - otherwise known as the Ghost Bird (see documentary "Ghost Bird"). I am writing about the interactions of Art, Culture, and Science in humanity's idea and relationship with what we have been calling "Nature." I certainly view these two videos quite differently. The official music video (the pretty girl and the flowers) made me want to discard it right away as somehow missing the point or as over-romanticizing the the song's message about the loss and sense of a need to recover a species of non-human life. The second one which was made by a Youtuber out of Discovery Channel footage of the behind-the-scenes video of the documentary about the woodpecker seems a great contrast to the mystical, even spiritual, aura of Steven's tribute to the "Great God Bird."

What do you guys think? Is there a metaphor in the official video that I'm missing out on? Do we think of our experience IN "nature" as a beautiful walk in a field of flowers while we photograph everything is sight? Or is it this observation-as-a-way-to-know experience that drives us out into the wilderness to be sure that we haven't indeed eliminated another non-human? Perhaps it is more like singing, and listening to, the song: both a in- and out-of-body experience, a subliminal and sublime event?

Here are the lyrics to the song:

In the delta sun, down in Arkansas
It's the great god bird with its altar call
And the sewing machine, the industrial god
On the great bayou were they saw it fall
It's the great god bird down in Arkansas
And the hunters beware, or the fishers fall
And paradise might close from its safe flight flawed
It's the great god bird through it all

And the watchers beware, lest they see it fall
And paradise might laugh when at last it falls
And the sewing machine, the industrial god
It's the great god bird with it's altar call
Yes, it's the great god bird with its altar call
Yes, it's the great god bird through it all

There's a lot more to say but...

Traces

Firekites - AUTUMN STORY - chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

I like the idea that we leave part of ourselves behind as traces. I want to say that the idea of the 'trace' is Derridean. Who can lend me a hand in this matter?

What is your first thought when you see this mate brand?

I thought it was one of those brands that market's mate as a health supplement. COLON CLEANSING MIRACLE IMPORTED FROM SOUTH AMERICA!!! GENTLY CLEANSES THE TOXINS FROM YOUR DIGESTIVE SYSTEM AS YOU DRINK THIS SOOTHING TEA FROM PARAGUAY!!!!! THE SANITARY CONFIDENCE THAT COMES FROM DRINKING COLON BRAND MATE WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Vuelta a Atahualpa

I just had to share this great little song by the Argentine-American artist Kevin Johansen.  Those who are familiar with my thesis subject might like this more but Atahualpa Yupanqui is a folklorist legend in Argentina and there have only been a few new takes on him and his music outside of folklore circles that have been any good (i.e. Divididos with "El arriero va" (excellent cover by the way)) and while "Atahaulpa You Funky" (get it: Atahualpa Yu panqui) is not a cover, I really love that it plays with the idea of Atahualpa and his music as somehow untouchable.  Anyway:

Atahualpa, You Funky! - KEVIN JOHANSEN

Ok one more good Kevin Johansen song (check out that charango!):

En mi cabeza - Kevin Johansen

Oh and I changed the Lunfardo.

To Gather or to Enframe

Heidegger uses the symbol of the bridge as an example of how technology can "gather" nature without "challenging" it:

"The bridge swings over the stream 'with ease and power.' It does not just connect banks that are already there. The banks emerge as banks only as the bridge crosses the stream. The bridge expressly causes them to lie across from each other. One side is set off against the other by the bridge. Nor do the banks stretch along the stream as indifferent border strips of the dry land. With the banks, the bridge brings to the stream the one and the other expanse of the landscape lying behind them. It brings stream and bank and land into each other's neighborhood. The bridge gathers the earth as landscape around the stream. Thus it guides and attends the stream through the meadows [...]. The bridge lets the stream run its course and at the same time grants mortals their way, so that they may come and go from shore to shore."

- "Building Dwelling Thinking"

"The hydroelectric plant is not built into the Rhine River as was the old wooden bridge that joined bank with bank for hundreds of years. Rather, the river is dammed up into the power plant. What the river is now, namely, a water supplier, derives from the essence of the power station [...]. The Rhine is still a river in the landscape, is it not? Perhaps. But how? In no other way than as an object on call for inspection by a tour group ordered there by the vacation industry."

- "The Question Regarding Technology"

Now, my photo and my poem below: "Enmarcar."

Enmarcar

Rio Blanco writes itself with the seasons.

Invierno: a slender silence se encoge

de las orillas.

Primavera: confident, it rushes white to green,

it carries casas y cardones en una ola agridulce.

Verano: it finds its backbone again beneath

the barro satisfecho y saturado.

Otoño: "¡viento, viento, traéme aguacero!"

another letter, another year, another bridge

to pass under.

A few changes in blog

I've added two new Gadgets to the blog.  The first is what I call "Lunfardo del momento" and I will change the Lunfardo term every once in awhile.  The second is a "Random Cat picture" preprepared gadget that I've renamed "Gatos: Esclavos subversivos de la Modernidad" [not sure what I mean but it sounds great].

'La migra' and Mormons

Ok, so at the end of this post I've reprinted an article from the SLTribune about immigration.  To see the article in its context go to: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12185556

It's not like the story below hasn't happened before in a similar fashion (I write this because I swear it sounds like familiar trope in the immigration debate: man and family want better life - man brings family after significant sacrifice to country not his own to seek this better life - man and family achieve moderate success (steady or at least available employment for man etc.) - man or someone in family is suspected of everything but nothing - police and la migra find excuse to ask for documents - man does not have documents (in this case not even false documents) - police under authority of la migra (not for long: "deputize that man and get him an interpreter") - police and la migra demonstrate discriminatory behavior ("file that reel under "attn: Final Judgement") - family is broken up under threat of 'real' break up (I'll come to this later) - red-state-necks hoop and holler in triumph - blue-state-bloods point crooked fingers - future uncertain for everyone.

Ok, so I actually know this family.  Does this change my opinion about this story? Of course it does.  My history with him and his family illustrates a particular Mormon line withing the immigration debate.  

I know them from my mission.  To be frank, they come from a part of the Greater Buenos Aires area that is generally and specifically avoided by all non-residents of that area (they live in a county that's named 'La Matanza' for goodness sake (I pretty sure it refers to the large scale butchering of prime, pampa-grass-fed Argentine cattle)).  When I lived in that area this family was between jobs and so they would sell cheap otterpop-like ice cream from their home.  They weren't by any means the poorest family around (that tells you something), but they did have frustrations with the lack of consistent opportunity in their country.  Like many if not most Argentines, they are dedicated to their family, which means they are dedicated to anyone remotely related to them (cousins, cousins of cousins, etc).  Despite these important familial considerations, this family of five (at that time) placed their hopes in a better life in the USA (USA! USA! USA! (ok, stop chanting)).  As Mormons, they felt that their hopes would rest on surer ground in Utah.  And to Utah they went. 

I don't think I've read anything that has sufficiently addressed this phenomenon. Many illegal immigrants are in Utah because they are connected to people through the LDS church.  These former missionaries seek to help these people, either directly or indirectly, to make their lives economically better.  My family has helped many of our friends find a place to live, look for a job, secure finances (not co-signed but basically said "try this place and maybe this place"), move their belongings, and do many other little things to make their lives more comfortable.  All of these families have helped us also.  I admit that at first the thought that these families were clearly breaking the law perturbed me but my personal knowledge of their living conditions in their native country quickly ruled-out my reservations.  "How can I say to these people 'no, you can't have a better life'" I would think to myself.  Sure, there is a legal way to immigration but it is stuffed with stumbling blocks so that only those who already have money can overcome and achieve the 'American dream'.  

Because of the unique immigrant situation within Utah society that either unites or divides members along certain ideological lines, I think the story of my friend is only the most visible of many similar cases.  What can church members do?  What should we do? Are we tied more closely to Cesar than to God? 

The details this article doesn't mention may not shock anyone but I'll put them down here anyway:

- Though Brian had questionable friends, he was not in a gang.  His girlfriend (who supposedly wanted to marry him to prevent his deportation) is the daughter of a cop.  The most dedicated help to this family is 'their' missionary.  He is a doctor (or dentist) in the Armed Services.  Orlando owned his own bakery and paid his taxes.  Many, many people helped Alejandra (the spouse) out when this happened and in an ironic twist, has strengthened her love for this country and its people.  The police had Orlando and Brian sign a 'voluntary' deportation document.  They made Brian sign first (he's 18 yrs. old) when his father wasn't around. They told Orlando that if he didn't sign that they would deport his wife and put his children in an orphanage (I'm not kidding).  Immigration must have felt pretty stupid for their actions because they paid for all deportation expenses: the airplane tickets, the baggage fees, etc.  And they haven't pursued Alejandra any more.  Alejandra and her three children that stayed behind are flying back to Argentina soon.   

Oh one more thing.  I left the ad that was with the article for two reasons: the first is that I had a public speaking class at BYU with the guy in the ad and I can attest to his sliminess; second because the terrible juxtaposition of these messages causes me to more than reflect upon how I contribute to it.

Walsh: The other side of Utah's stab at immigration reform

By Rebecca Walsh

The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 04/21/2009 08:13:13 AM MDT

Brian Pereyra was eating with some friends at the Betos restaurant in Provo last Friday.

Now, he's sitting in the Utah County jail.

How he got there is a murky tale of racial profiling and overzealous policing.

Police got a complaint the 18-year-old might have a gun. After they searched his body and car and found nothing, they followed him home. When his parents refused to let officers search their apartment for guns and declined to produce immigration documents, officers cuffed Brian and his dad, Orlando, and hauled them off to jail.

"We taught our children to respect and trust the police. But after this, they can't," says Alejandra Pereyra, through tears and an interpreter. "Instead of respecting them, they're afraid."

Pereyra's arrest seems like the final, degrading act to years of anti-immigrant Capitol Hill theatrics.

But state Rep. Mike Noel should be happy. After a week when urban police chiefs from Park City to West Valley questioned the wisdom of the Kanab Republican's legislative crackdown on undocumented immigrants, Provo put Noel's policing theories into practice. Officers jumped in with gusto to do lawmakers' bidding. Apparently, they even had an immigration agent along for the ride.

Orlando Pereyra works as a cook at a group home for disabled adults. Immigrants from Argentina, he and his wife came to the United States on a tourist visa and stayed when it expired in 2002. Now, she is trying

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to scrape together enough money to bail out her son and husband and pay an attorney.

Point made. Criminal apprehended. The whole family is terrified.

But that seems to be the point for lawmakers intent on thumping their chests and tacking together too-easy fixes.

"This bill is about bringing the rule of law to thestate of Utah," Noel said when lawmakers debated the bill a year ago, "to not give people false hopes, to not, in any way, induce people to commit crimes. It sends a clear message that we intend to obey all our laws."

Sounds good. But life outside is always more complicated than it seems on the House floor.

"It was one of those feel-good laws. They wanted to do something," says Tony Yapias, an activist in Utah's Latino community. "They don't realize the harm they're doing. All of the sudden, all of us are being perceived as illegal immigrants."

While Ogden Police Chief John Greiner (not coincidentally, a state senator) worries about his city becoming a "sanctuary city," Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank has rejected his invitation to join Noel's immigration posse.

It's not a matter of turning a blind eye to criminal immigrants. In narcotics sweeps at Pioneer Park the past two months, Salt Lake City police, working in partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, detained 150 undocumented immigrants now facing deportation. But Burbank says harassing and intimidating law-abiding undocumented workers seems counterproductive.

"Traditionally, law enforcement has been horrible at this. We have fought so long and hard against racial profiling and everything that goes along with that," he says. "To now take a step back and treat people differently isn't going to expedite the process. All it will do is create a rift in our community and interject bias in what we do on a regular basis."

That's real world experience talking, not political hot air.

The Pew Hispanic Center just released a report debunking the lone wolf/day-laborer stereotype of America's wave of modern immigrants: They are more likely to be married and living in nuclear families than the U.S.-born population. They do 6 percent of the jobs in the country -- cleaning bathrooms and chopping tomatoes. And last year, illegal immigrants gave birth to 4 million American citizens.

Even Noel has to know: They can't all be deported.

walsh@sltrib.com

 

The Irvine Solution and a hint of Benjamin (The German One)

Here at the "Be Why You?" we enjoy a nice office space where I can keep my yerba mate and all the equipo without it being molested by someone else. At Irvine the situation won't be as convenient so I've been trying to figure out a way to have my mate and drink it too while I'm in class and the library at Irvine. I think this is it, I think it's rather ingenious but I'm worried about what it means to drink mate from this contraption. I though a little bit about Walter Benjamin and the notion of authenticity. Does using this to drink mate change the experience so much that it is no longer a mate experience? At this point is it simply something to help me stay awake and focus? 

The truth is I'm more pragmatic then that. I really don't like the idea of using this to drink my mate in class but it's a very practical solution to my conundrum. Any thoughts? Mac, what have you done at Rutgers when you have mate during the day? Sorry for the not so philosophical first post and lack of video but this is important...man.

It seems like an interesting juxtaposition of a history of violence and myth with the basic human desire for a house and home.  There's definitely a difference in how their stories come out in the music.  

I really like this song and video by Fleet Foxes about Mykonos.  Maybe there's something that binds it to the others (or, meh, maybe not).

Mykonos from Grandchildren on Vimeo.

That last one was the original my girls video. This next one is from a group called Dirty Projectors. I love em. So if, as Jacques Attali says, you can foresee the what society will look like 20 or 30 years ahead of time by looking at the shape of today's music, what are these songs telling us?

My Girls

This is my first offering for the Matertulia.

Animal Collective - My Girls from Rob Chesnutt on Vimeo.