Congatronix

For any readers whose curiosity was piqued by the conga videos in last night’s del.icio.us dump, allow me to provide a little more context via Lani Milstein, a NY-based ethnomusicubanist, who brought them to my attention — Just a shout out to say thanks for being such an eloquent writer on reggaetón. I’m working on […]

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linkthink #492356: Semper Fideles

Message from the Commander in Chief :: Castro Resigns “My only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas. I shall continue to write under the heading of ‘Reflections by comrade Fidel.’ It will be just another weapon you can count on. Perhaps my voice will be heard. I shall be […]

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linkthink #18t3965: Ninjabread Man Edition

Just to make things a little extra personalized in the age of linkthink, ‘low me to add, Sasha-style, a (generally) random photo for your imaginative conneckees — Sucker Free » Dr. Dre Drops A Mixtape vintage mid-80s dr.dre mixtape :: i could listen to these for days (tags: 80s hip-hop mixtape mp3s dre LA) Earplug […]

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linkthink #2578578

[::. TECNO RUMBA .::] – Descargas MP3 gratis, Videos variados, Imágenes para Hi5, Juegos, Programas, y más! media-rich spanish-lang social networking site: mucha merengue, reggaeton, remixes, etc. (via unfashionably late) (tags: p2p spanish media mp3s music merengue reggaeton remix) Slavoj Zizek – “Welcome to the Desert of the Real” Zizek’s classic Matrix(/Baudrillard)-quoting post-9/11 essay :: […]

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linkthink #4354626

Sound Taste: Friday Omega Carolina Gonzalez on merengue de la calle, aka mambo (tags: merengue DR blogpost mambo) Merengue de Calle AKA Mambo: The Sound of the Dominican Underground « GAY SOVIET TRON Y’ALL on merengue de calle, aka street merengue, aka mambo: “The tracks are stripped-down merengue rhythms (most sound right off a Casio’s […]

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What Chew Know About Down in the Hole?

I’m not really a TV watcher. Really. I mean, sure, I’ve watched something like 2000 videos on YouTube over the last couple years (and I don’t think that even counts videos embedded in blogs, etc.). But I probably watch OldTube only a couple hours a week at best — like if, say, a big Bawstin […]

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Globalistas e Baptistas

Not long ago, w/r/t global gobbledecrunk, I referred to an interview I gave recently to a Brazilian journalist. The journo in question is Camilo Rocha, who doubles as a DJ (& has a fab disco mix over @ Spannered). The piece was just published in Folha de Sao Paolo, apparently Brazil’s biggest newspaper. I don’t […]

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Illadelph Dispatch: More w/r/t “Whiteness”

Been enjoying the ASA conference in Philly for the last few days. Our panel on Thursday went pretty well, I think. We actually seemed to have some coherence across our papers and although we had a rather compromised a/v situation (holding a Shure 58 to laptop speakers don’t really cut it in a ballroom), I […]

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iReggaeton?

Next week (Thursday, Oct 11, from 12:00pm – 1:45pm to be exact) I’ll be presenting at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, being held this year in Philadelphia (at the Marriott, natch, which is offering a lovely “conference rate” of $200/night). I’m not so excited about the hotel deal, but I’m excited about […]

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Hallelujah Holla Black

Some readers might remember that I participated in a panel about ego trip’s White Rapper Show earlier this year at the annual meeting of IASPM-US. I’ve been wanting to share my thoughts / comments from that session here for a while, but haven’t had a moment to collect (or transcribe) them. Well, I just spent […]

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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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No Te Veo, Pero Te Oigo

I’m rly enjoying (and learning from) all the reggaeton conversation happening here these days (e.g.). Thanks to all for contributing! And keeping it going… Toward further linkthink, here’s a quick analysis I put together in response to a question from Raquel (who’s got a great post up re: Mala Rodriguez and Calle 13), who thinks […]

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Poses, Panpipes, and Forbidden Dances

Thanks to Troels (who’s got some nice digi-reggae mixes up over here), who pointed out in a comment that the melody from Red Fox and Screechy Dan’s Drum Song-driven dancehall perennial, “Pose Off” — [audio:http://wayneandwax.com/wp/audio/PoseOff.mp3] — as heard as a background synthline in Wisin y Yandel’s “Pam Pam” (discussed by me here), can be connected […]

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Sgt. Sailor Moon Singin’ Sola on the Senny-Three

The other day I was taking the 73 from La Belle Mont to Harvard Square. When I got on, I couldn’t help noticing the chap flickrd above, what with his makeshift Sailor Moon police outfit, complete with blue fabric glued to shoulders and breast, metal plate thing on head, and badges to boot (not to […]

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“Jamaica Nice To Raatid!”

said my fren Marvy Marv as we cruised down a dark Kingston slope, post Port Royal escoveitch fishfry (what a welcome!), him commenting on a ‘Chinese’ couple who stunned onlookers recently by getting down onstage at Bembeh only to stun right again by showing up later that night at Asylum, in new outfits. I’m assuming […]

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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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Whirl-a-whirls

Two other entities in the (other)worldly spirit I was speakin of — and I mean that in a good way — would seem to merit some shine on em, ‘specially since one’s got a new mix up & out :: London’s Heatwave crew bring the picante to the blogaparty, lacing together Spanish rap y reggae […]

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