Month: September 2013

Música! What I’m listening to this week.

On By scenebyginaIn music, New York, People, places, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Haven’t updated music news in a while, so here goes…

The Brooklyn-based psychedelic salsa band, La Mecanica Popular, have released a new video for their single, “La Paz del Freak.” Great song and I’m pleased I have a CD for my dad. The man loves his salsa. Always has. Check out the video, and read about the meaning of the song, on Sounds and Colours! And if you’re in NYC, check them out at Lit Lounge on the 21st.

La Mecanica Popular. Photo by Gina Vergel
La Mecanica Popular. Photo by Gina Vergel

My homeslice Christian Vera from Chicago’s SOULPHONETICS crew sent me a beautiful mix. It’s got some sultry Brazilian tunes in it and, to me, that equals love. Close your eyes, pretend you’re on a beach in Rio, and listen here. (Free download, too!)

Photo via Soulphonetics on Facebook.
Photo via Soulphonetics on Facebook.

In the wake of Isabela Raygoza’s great “20 Spanish-Language MCs Everyone Should Hear” article in MTVIggy this week, Christian Vera turned me onto a Puerto Rican-by-way-of-Chicago rapper, the Color Brown. I always appreciate an emcee who can rap clearly the whole song through, so lyrics are truly heard, so I’m a fan upon first listen. I plan to explore more, though. There’s a lot on his Soundcloud.

Start off with this track, “Exilio,” since it opens with the sound of the coquí, and that made me miss Puerto Rico.

Elvis Costello has released a new album with The Roots. I repeat: Elvis Costello and The Roots. Listen to this wonderful collaboration via WFUV.

Screen shot 2013-09-12 at 5.56.56 PM

Throwback Thursday. This remix by Uproot Andy shuffled onto my earbuds last night when I was walking my dog. “El Botellon” was released on Bersa Discos in 2008? Is that right? All I know is I always requested it the year I first met him, which I believe was 2011. (And he obliged. What a guy!) The track ever gets old.

Finally, I’m on a real soul kick. Charles Bradley! Lee Fields! Take me to a Daptones party! (Or the next best thing. Charles Bradley and more at Williamsburg Park on the 2oth.) Watch this 2011 performance of “Why Is It So Hard?” from a live session (backed by The Menahan Street Band) on KEXP in Seattle. Phew! Deep lyrics.

Citizenship, Immigration and National Security After 9/11

On By scenebyginaIn Education, New York, UncategorizedLeave a comment
Screen shot 2013-09-11 at 5.05.50 PMFordham University’s Center on National Security will host a a symposium on the complex and shifting nature of citizenship rights in a post 9/11 world on Friday, Sept. 20. The event is free. Register here. Among topics for discussion:
How have the post 9/11 legal and policy battles affected the legal rights of citizens and non-citizens? How can we best understand the tensions between the state’s duty to protect its citizens and the desire to protect individual rights and liberties?
Agenda and speakers:

9:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. – Panel 1: Enemy Citizens: Rethinking Rights in Times of War
Baher Azmy, Center for Constitutional Rights
David Cole, Georgetown University Law Center
Thomas Lee, Fordham Law School
Peter Margulies, Roger Williams University School of Law
Michael Paulsen, University of St. Thomas School of Law
Moderator: Karen Greenberg, Center on National Security atFordham Law School

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. – Panel 2: US Citizenship and the Right to Have Rights
Linda Bosniak, Rutgers-Camden School of Law
Jennifer Elsea, Congressional Research Service
Andrew Kent, Fordham Law School
Neomi Rao, George Mason University School of Law
Moderator: Martin Flaherty, Fordham Law School

1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. – Lunch
Speaker: Benjamin Wittes, Brookings Institution2:15 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. – Panel 3: Gaining and Losing Citizenship in the National Security Context
Muneer Ahmad, Yale Law School
Ramzi Kassem, City University of New York Law School
Peter Spiro, Beasley School of Law, Temple University
Stephen Vladeck, Washington College of Law, American University
Leti Volpp, UC Berkeley Law School
Moderator: Joseph Landau, Fordham Law School

National Suicide Prevention Week

On By scenebyginaIn Education, Loneliness, PeopleLeave a comment

Suicide_preventionIt’s National Suicide Prevention Week and National Suicide Awareness Day was on Sept. 10, 2013. This Saturday, Sept. 14, the radio show, Fordham Conversations, will feature a discussion about males and suicide.

Fordham University Professor Daniel Coleman discusses his research, which examines gender stereotypes and the link between masculinity and mental health.

“It’s not a very widely known fact that 80 percent of suicide deaths in the United States are men,” Coleman told Inside Fordham in February. “So the cutting edge in suicide research now is to understand why there is this gender discrepancy.”

Read the full story about his research here.

Jarrod Hindman, director of the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention, talks about the “Man Therapy” mental health and suicide prevention campaign.

You can hear Fordham Conversation’s every Saturday at 7am on 90.7 WFUV or at www.wfuv.org.

You can listen to the show on WFUV’s News Page on Saturday beginning at 7am http://www.wfuv.org/fordhamconversations

A word about demographics and missed opportunities

On By scenebyginaIn Colombia, Education, family, People, places, senior citizens, workLeave a comment
Screen shot by me.
Screen shot of the sad and lonely Spanish-language option by me.

I don’t purport to know very much about running a business. Aside from deciding whether I want to take on public relations work on a by-project basis, I’ve never run my own shop.

But I can safely say that Great American Opportunities, a fundraising corporation, has dropped the ball on an additional “opportunity” for their constituents to make more money.

Back in my day, for grammar schools to raise funds, students had to sell chocolates or Christmas wrapping paper. Today, with the power of the Internet, you can imagine those opportunities have become more diverse.

My cousin’s son’s school in Florida is raising funds by using Great American Opportunities to sell magazine subscriptions. It’s much simpler now. Parents forward a link and we help raise funds by shopping.

Or so I thought.

I’m in media relations. I don’t want for many magazine or newspaper subscriptions. I have plenty and they are all digital. So I figure, I’ll shop for my parents.

My folks are Colombian immigrants and American citizens who have been living in this country for more than 40 years. Yet Spanish is still their first and preferred [reading] language. They’re senior citizens, why wouldn’t they enjoy a subscription?

Sadly, the only Spanish-language magazine Great American Opportunities offers is People en Español. No offense to the celebrity magazine industry, but my parents have no interest in who J-Lo is dating. (Well, maybe if she finally moves UP in age of the person she’s dating. Just kidding!)

Has Great American Opportunities not looked into changing demographics of this country, especially in Florida? There are a TON of Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and they are a huge buying power. The more Latino-friendly products a business offers to the Latino community, the more they will buy. (Take a hint from the many corporations that advertise and offer circulars in Spanish.)

And that, mi amigos, in my opinion, is a missed opportunity for Great American Opportunities.

In case you’re wondering, I *did* buy a subscription to help my cousin’s son’s grammar school. I bought an interesting-looking health/neuroscience magazine, but certainly would have purchased much more had there been more than one entertainment-based, Spanish-language option.

Perhaps this is something Great American Opportunities can consider in the future. After all, many of Spanish-language readers and speakers are shopping in America!