My friends from El Freaky Colectivo are no strangers to playing big concerts. Last October, they served as the only Colombian performers to open for Justin Bieber at the Nemesio Camacho stadium in Bogotá.
Tonight, they are set to play their signature blend of Colombia-centric global bass (cumbia, champeta, EDM, and more) for more screaming teens at El Campín stadium for the big One Direction concert. Check out the picture below, where the Engilsh/Irish boy band sport Colombia National Futbol Team jerseys. Aww. Aren’t they cute?
Will One Direction root for Colombia in World Cup 2014? Ha.
And click here to see footage of them soundchecking in Bogotá. Who knew this kind of thing was documented on the Internet? 🙂
My new city is kind of a large one. Here are some shots I took walking the dog around Jersey City Heights.
Carnival on Central Avenue.Strange graffiti name, but ok.Pretty trees!Fencing in the Heights!Yoga in the HeightsIs that a water buffalo on the left?My kind of a lawn care. Fake lawn rug. Needs some ironing, too!View of the World Trade Center
Great music mix by DJ Cal Jader, but this isn’t just any Colombian music mix. It’s NUEVA musica de Colombia. So get your “modern Colombian” (global bass and more) on by listening below via Mixcloud. Also, check out everything Cal Jader has to offer on his radio show/record label/website, Movimientos out of the U.K.
Seriously! How cute is Eric LeGrand’s service dog, Willie?
As some of you who follow college football may know, LeGrand, who used to play football for Rutgers University, suffered a career-ending injury in 2010 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. He is still unable to walk on his power, but he has regained movement in his shoulders and sensation throughout his body.
Well, Willie, a black labrador retriever, helps LeGrand on a daily basis in an effort to get him back on his feet. Read about it in the New York Daily News.
Words by me here —> I don’t do SXSW. It comes at a bad time of year for me (it’s the time of year I break down from awful winter and go island hopping.) But my friend Natalia Linares, who works in the business of music, does. Check out her latest post on this ever-growing conference:
Salute to Chief Boima and Dutty Artz for this post that laid out a lot of things I’ve been thinking about the last 5 years I’ve been to Austin for SXSW. I urge you all to mediate on this and figure out how we can continue to build space with each other both in our communities and at gargantuan event$ happening nationally.
Dontadrian Bruce (pictured above), age 15, is a student at Olive Branch High School in Olive Branch, Miss.
On Feb. 3, assistant principal Todd Nichols summoned him out of class. Nichols showed Dontadrian a photo he had posed for during a recent biology project, in which the boy had his hand up displaying three raised fingers – his thumb, forefinger and middle finger. “You’re suspended,” said Nichols, “because you’re holding up gang signs in this picture.”
Three days later, a disciplinary committee confirmed Dontadrian’s punishment: “Indefinite suspension with a recommendation of expulsion.”
Wait, what? The above photo was taken by the boy’s mother, Janet Hightower. It recreates the “incriminating” image: “He’s a good child,” she insists. “I know what he does 24 hours a day.”
Dontadrian also says he had no clue that this gesture was affiliated with the Vice Lords, a Chicago-based street gang with active Deep South chapters. He claims he was holding up three fingers to represent the number on his football jersey, like the other players did during practice.
Read more about Dontadrian’s hand gesture and how, per U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, “[exclusionary] discipline is applied disproportionately to children of color and students with disabilities,” here via PolicyMic.
Carlos McCray, a professor in Fordham’s Graduate School of Education, is familiar with cases like Dontadrian’s. His research links discipline with achievement in urban schools and, most recently, he commented on a case (also in Mississippi) in which a 5-year-old who was nabbed by police for wearing the ‘wrong color’ shoes.
McCray co-authored this book on hip-hop culture, values, and school: http://amzn.to/1ixvIRd
McCray’s research found educators are subscribing to the utilitarian principle, thinking, “If I can get a few of these problem students out of the classroom, then I’ll be able to teach everyone else,” it’s effectively ushering a number of students out of school.
That line of thinking is flawed, McCray said, again pointing to the numbers. The New York Times looked at Baltimore public schools and found that in 2004 alone, there were 26,000 school suspensions and expulsions.
“That’s very problematic,” he said. “Research shows the more students are suspended or expelled, the more they’ll end up dropping out. Thirty percent of sophomores who drop out have been suspended three times more than their peers who remain in class. While we talk about the achievement gap, we also have to talk about the discipline gap. How can students learn when they are not in class?”
So… I grew up in New Jersey, the land of a million 24-hour diners. In fact, the first time I left the state and noticed a dearth of them, I was surprised in a bad way. What do you mean we just got off the plane and we can’t find hot food because it’s 11 p.m. and everything is closed? What? One can’t order breakfast past 11 a.m. here?
New Jersey is the diner capital of the world, according to Clifton, N.J.’s Michael Gabriele, the author of “The History of Diners in New Jersey.”
He calls the Garden State “the diner capital of the world” with good reason. According to the state website, New Jersey currently operates 570 diners, more than any other state. (Read more about diners and Gabrielle’s book here.)
So what’s so great about them?
Diners are comfort food or late night food epitomized. There are what seems like a 1000 things on the menu, breakfast is always available, and they’re fairly cheap (and very fast!) Nine times out of 10, they’re owned by Greek families (and passed on for generations). They have a certain type of waitress (the type to call you honey or darling) and, usually, a Hispanic bus boy who works quick, quick, quick!
The intersection of these diverse folks and the diner world are cleverly documented by one of my favorite news photojournalists, Oresti Tsonopoulos, in an audio and photo slideshow for “Borough Buzz.” It features a New York diner ( Cozy Soup ‘n’ Burger in Greenwich Village) , but being a neighboring state, it reminded me of New Jersey.
When I was a newspaper journalist in the early to late-aughts, I always preferred photo slideshows to videos (even though I shot and produced videos myself) because there is something poignant about observing the detail in a striking still photo portrait of a person and their voice telling you a story.
The slideshow contains audio in English, Spanish and Greek, obviously, but you can read English subtitles by selecting the closed caption feature on the video. (link to Borough Buzz)
periMENTAL 