Inadequate Blackmail

McCain’s Daddy Yankee Endorsement – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com 'Daddy Yankee called Mr. McCain “a fighter for the Hispanic community” and “a fighter for the immigration issue.’’ Mr. McCain, who noted that his wife, Cindy, had gone to Central High School, said, “I just want to say thank you, Daddy Yankee.’’ ' :: (thx, […]

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Doblando pa la Izquierda

I’ve been trying to get around to posting about Miti Miti, and since Geko Jones (notably, while making reference to the duo) and others have been wondering aloud again about the practice of global gobbledicrunk, while Kevin’s translating salsa songs & whatnot, today seems as good a day as any. Primero, I need to thank […]

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Rearguard Opinion? (Slackness b/w Sexism & Sexuality)

I’ve been meaning to share my reflections on the smut/slackness symposium I participated in @ Penn for some time now, but, well, you know how the end of the semester can go. Many of the themes that emerged in the panel have been ‘verberating in my head, however — ideas which seem to resonate with […]

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linkthink #5184: Mariachi Bhangra

A Backlash? – New York Times race-based feelings about the dem candidates, post-race-card BS :: this chart speaks volumes (tags: race election08 chart obama clinton nyt) El Nuevo Día – Todo sobre la leche felix jimenez on lipstick, leche, and the war in iraq (tags: spanish op-ed cultcrit war iraq puertorico) YouTube – An Interview […]

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Outsourced Bloggery #53539: Reggaeton Contemporáneo

From my Trinidadian spy bredrin inna PR — Marshall to the Wayne, Que hay, brother? (said in a boricua accent…loved how these chaps drop the ‘brother’ in spanglish) I don’t know if it’s just me, but reggaeton game is jus getting jiggier, and a lot of today’s hits have influences from southern bounce (tamo a […]

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linkthink #95363: Color Guard

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) PALAOA – Livestream streaming sound from the antarctic ocean (via bldblg) (tags: audio science sound soundscape nature antarctica) Canyon Cody el canyonazo, studying music in grenada via fulbright, promises to live-blog the making of an al-andulus inspired album, w/ such collaborators as gnotes, over the month […]

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linkthink #3935tt50: Oxfam Biscuits & Mosquito Nets

Oxfamming the whole black world : Binyavanga Wainaina : Mail & Guardian Online “Hello kitty kitty kitty … Would you like an Oxfam biscuit?” (tags: africa development racism humor critique colonialism) BDubs Volume 2 | stainage.com straight outta brussels :: continental dubstep, grime, & bassline, w/ a touch of acid (tags: europe brussels dubstep grime […]

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linkthink #853889: LOLdier Boy Tellem

Spannered | Globalistas Pt. 1 | Wayne Marshall | music | features | artist interview props to spannered for (re)publishing the full interview transcripts from camilo rocha’s piece on “globalista” DJs :: part 1 = me! (tags: interview global ghettotech worldmusic DJ internet) Spannered | Globalistas Pt. 2 | DJ /rupture | music | features […]

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Refried Pasteles

in the xmas diggin spirit, /jace offers up some fine aguinaldos y villancicos // including a couple MIDI files ! // & so i couldn’t resist spending part of my xmas tuesday morning doing this — w&w, “refried pasteles” [audio:http://wayneandwax.com/music/refried-pasteles.mp3] i can imagine a number of other ways to make mashed pasteles, and it’s begging […]

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Tons o’ Tons, or Distributed Reading #5382

I tagged a “raï-ggaeton” video over at my linkythinky a while back. A bit o’ chutney-ton, too. Both seemed interesting to me as rather explicit examples of the localization of global pop (and rton in partic), if not terribly compelling as specific things &, yeah, rather steeped in the odor of novelty. That’s not the […]

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& It Don’t Stop…

Even in the middle (or, at this point, toward the end) of some well-needed Beach Research, I’m happy to note that several dear interlocutors have been continuing the conversations here — and taking them in interesting directions. E.g., Raquel Rivera weighs in on “No Te Veo” herself, making reference to the vivrant discussion about it […]

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The Webnography of Reggaeton Faultlines

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve gleaned lots of what I know ’bout the narratives swirling ’round reggaeton via the web, especially via the messageboard debates that flare up into all sorts of contested, conflicting accounts and claims. In that sense, I’ve maybe learned less about reggaeton’s history this way, per se, than about how people […]

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Reggaeton’s Contempo Indexical Lexica

As I’ve argued before — and will be arguing next week in Mexico City — one can hear reggaeton’s embrace of tecno synths and “Latin” loops as an audible shift from (explicitly, sonically marking itself as) “música negra” to “reggaeton latino.” Such a change, I contend, corresponds to an attendant shift in the cultural politics […]

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Follow Me Now: The Zigzagging Zunguzung Meme

The text below was written in spring 2007 and delivered at EMP and IASPM. Since its initial publication, I have learned of many additional instances of the “zunguzung” meme, often thanks to readers. I will continue to update the tally at the end of the post, and searching “zunguzung” on this site will lead to […]

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Teorí­as de la Dependencia

Sandra Garcia Rivera riffea re: William Carlos Williams y Miguel Luciano — The White Nike Sneaker so much depends upon a white Nike sneaker dyed in patriot blood sported by young Ricans

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El Arte de Blin-Blin Politricks

Pictured above is a shot of Filiberto Ojeda Uptowns / Machetero Air Force Ones by visual artist Miguel Luciano, as featured in a show opening this Sunday, April 15, at Bard College. I’ve been an admirer of Luciano’s arresting approach since Raquel Rivera (who brought this latest project to my attn) sent me a digital […]

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Lament on the Death of Diplo

“It would seem evident that these two singers were friends of Diplo. The performance begins with a prayer for the repose of his soul and then the two singers exchange improvised decimas, ten paired couplets of eight syllables each. A powerful and moving eulogy and a wonderful example of the Puerto Rican Jibaro or mountain […]

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La Musica Negra (Hispana?)

Having read no small # of reggaeton messageboard debates (esp over ?s of nat’l origin), I’ve developed a decent sense, I’d like to think, of when someone hits a good # of signposts. The following gem is quite solid in that respect — myths, misspellings, elisions and omissions, grammatical and historical slippage notwithstanding. Econowhimsical prose, […]

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Linkthink #4083: AfroCaribEdition

Solo Plena: a frequently updated Panamanian “plena” blog (that means reggae there, y’know), showing that Panama’s reggae scene, as reinvigorated and reshaped as it may have been by the reggaeton explosion, continues apace. &nuff Pma plena pon YouTube too, classic a nuevo here’s El General doing his best Don Dada — and Aldo Ranks puttin […]

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