Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Speedy Follow-Up

After getting a glance at the Speedy Gonzales Wiki entry, I've decided there is nothing to be absolutely ashamed of.  So what if certain people out there think he's a derogatory figure, he can also be viewed as a figure of empowerment.  Where else can you see a clever Mexican character outwit the oppressive figure? Zorro maybe? 
 
I loved his cartoons and there aren't that many animated shows that feature Hispanic/Latino main characters.  Can you think of any others besides Mucha Lucha?  There's a few comic strips out there and plenty more comic book characters, and I find it awful sad that within 20 years, there has been only one other Hispanic lead in a television show since Chico and the Man.  Granted, the demographic itself is small, but it's growing larger everyday, especially in California.
 
Myself, I'm not much of an activist.  I realize there are many other minority groups underrepresented in media, but one is always going to be somewhat partial to their own.  I always like to say that I never identified with my own culture as much until after I took a Chicano Literature class my sophomore year of college.  It's the culture my girlfriend says comes from us being "Third Generation" kids.  We're not of the originating country, nor are we able to be accepted into America completely as we are.  Is it weird for me being completely Hispanic yet never being recognized as such?  Seeing as I have a questionably unidentifiable physical appearance, it can be.
 
This is where the Literature comes in, I can identify with being misplaced, being different, and being happy that my family and myself can be completely comfortable in that sense.  I once had someone tell me I had no culture at all, and was completely offended because what in the heck lack of culture did I grow up with if my parents and grandparents never grew up with their own experiences and passed them on to me?  Is that not culture?  Is it my Orange County upbringing and lack of barrio birth that strip me of my heritage? 
 
It's just someone else's opinion.
 
My opinion is that, what the heck, Speedy Gonzales was my hero when I was nothing but a short stack of silver dollar pancakes.  I have new ones now, of course, but is there anything that I can do?
 
I think so... but I'll keep it under wraps until my lazy butt gets in gear.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Animatypical

General question I was wondering about on the way home: is Speedy Gonzales a bad stereotype? Should I be ashamed that I enjoyed all of the cartoons starring him without feeling guilty?

There are much worse, less well-known characters out there, but why does Speedy get singled out? Is it his costume, is it his accent? I honestly don't know what to think. Since it is Hispanic Heritage month, I thought this may be relevant.

I'll ponder this for a little while longer and see if I can form a more complete thought.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Random Bits

Do blogs make everyone feel like they're Larry David or Jerry Seinfeld?

Is it weird when your dental hygienist starts humming along to "You Make Me Fee (Like a Natural Woman)" while cleaning your teeth?

Lost won the Emmy for Best Drama last night and JJ won for best writing. This means that I will forever be Mr. Abrams' slave for time immemorial.

You know crickets can throw their "voice?"

Don't random lists like this bug you?

More to come...

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Bill Evans Snapped


Bill Evans Snapped
Originally uploaded by kardinalsin.

What a weekend! Here's a picture of one of the highlights, a trip to the Jazz Bakery for a gallery showing by a friend of a friend, Scott Laumann. Having been published in various periodicals, including Rolling Stone and GQ, his latest project are a series of vast oil portraits of famous Jazz musicians. It was impressive to see them in person and even more impressive was the appropriate mood each painting captured. I was in awe.

Jazz is something that although I'm not as into it as I used to be, it still holds a special place in my heart. The passion, the creativity, and the sheer madness of brass, winds, and rhythm splayed out in musical freedom captured my heart when I first picked up the saxophone and it never stopped until I got out of college. Unfortunate that there has been no opportunity for me to grow as a musician at all, I'm reminded of a time when I would listen to Jazz while studying, while writing papers, and while throwing down graphite to paper.

Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, and Dave Brubeck were all favorites of mine and it will always be something I love and maybe something I'll rediscover soon.

Eyes closed, horn wailing, that's how it was, how it is, and how it should always be. Straight, no chaser...

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Mainstream "Graphic Novels"

Please bear with the extra large paragraph breaks these days, the format by which I'm posting isn't conducive to aesthetic page design...
 
What I really want to say is that the New York Times is finally making the full-fledged leap into comic-land with a new push for humor in it's published edition.  I find it most interesting because the Times notoriously has kept out of funnybook-land for decades.  Does this mean graphic novels and the like are more mainstream than ever?  Well, let's ponder that question for a bit.
 
I argue that there are comics that are mainstream and obviously a lot more that are not.  There's nary a person who doesn't know who Superman is, that his alter-ego is Clark Kent, or that the love of his life is Lois Lane.  For every person who knows these facts, there are many, many more who are clueless to the fact that Superman is indeed powered by the Earth's yellow sun, that Lex Luthor used to have shocking red hair, and what the actual properties of gold kryptonite are (anyone who can answer this question immediately earns honor points in my book).  The distinction must be made though that although knowing what Superman is all about is decidedly mainstream, the reading of the comic itself is not.  Who would be caught dead reading a current issue riding the subway nowadays, who around here openly carries them to work and reads them during break at the cafeteria?
 
Yea, no one that I know at least...
 
This is where the Times draws the line, there won't be any classical format comic strips or men-in-tights charades published in four colors every Sunday.  Instead, the golden boy of the intellectual graphic novel era, Chris Ware, will contribute a weekly serial for six months.  Seeing that Mr. Ware is a favorite of mine, I see no problem with this at all.  The term "graphic novel" itself is something of a euphemism these days and no doubt this is why it's used so liberally in the mainstream media.  The term itself has even been thrown around madly on The OC with such vigor that even the suburbanites in letterman jackets and mini skirts know the term.  It's what separates the geek nerds from the reputable nerds, the dumbed-down explosive action of the average superhero comic from the self-loathing miasma of a panel auteur, and the Times itself from the USA Today
 
Should the average reader of Superman be offended then that he is likened to a child reading Dennis the Menace on a Sunday morning?  Personally, I'm not.  Even though I don't religiously read Superman at all, the foray into this realm for the NYT is good for the art form, which I really respect.  It's inspiring to see them take this step, and also to see many other publishers taking the precipitous plunge into new territory.  It gives me hope for achieving something new and maybe will supply more motivation for others as well. 
 
Here's the entirety of the press release, check it out: 

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES “THE FUNNY PAGES” AND MAKES FIRST FORAY INTO FICTION
 
A comic strip, a humor column and a Sunday serial of fiction will appear each week in “The Funny Pages,” a new 10-page section making its debut September 18 in The New York Times Magazine. The section will offer The Magazine's audience a new reading experience that complements “The Way We Live Now,” the style section and the signature reportage for which The Magazine is known.
 
“The Funny Pages is our own take on the traditional Sunday paper funny pages,” says Gerald Marzorati, editor, The New York Times Magazine. “We wanted a place in our pages for genre fiction - mysteries, detective stories, and the like - which is having a particularly vibrant moment in popular culture just now. And we wanted to make a place for the work of those creating narrative comics and graphic novels, a great new art form. We wanted to publish humor - narrative, memoirish humor. And most of all we wanted to give our readers some new things that would bring a smile to their faces each Sunday morning, and our youngest readers a go-to destination when the paper arrives.”
 
“The Funny Pages” include:
 
-- “The Sunday Serial” - In the most ambitious feature of the new section, “The Sunday Serial” marks the first foray by The Times Magazine into fiction with approximately 14 weekly installments of an original, commissioned work. Best-selling author Elmore Leonard, whose highly acclaimed novels include “Get Shorty,” “Freaky Deaky” and “Tishomingo Blues,” launches the first serial.
 
-- “The Strip” - Stars of the graphic novel create serialized comic strips exclusively for Times Magazine readers. Each week's full-page color-strip features one self-contained story, and each strip will run for approximately six months. Chris Ware, whose best-selling graphic novel, “Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth,” has won numerous literary prizes, will create the first strip. It tells the story of a young girl and her adventures in her apartment house.
 
-- “True-Life Tales” - A new column showcasing the best young humor writers who tell hilariously true stories about everyday family life and societal trends. The Magazine will draw on top writers from the world of late-night television, public radio's “This American Life” and elsewhere.
 
If readers miss an installment of “The Sunday Serial” or want to catch up on “The Strip,” or the humor column, “The Funny Pages” will be available on NYTimes.com.
 
The New York Times Magazine ranked second in 2004 among all PIB (Publishers Information Bureau) measured magazines for total ad pages. Its regular contributors include Lynn Hirschberg, Michael Lewis, Jeffrey Rosen, Matt Bai, James Traub, Michael Ignatieff, James Bennet, Lisa Belkin, Peter Maass and Susan Dominus.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Under More Than Water

The more I see what's going on in New Orleans, the more it disturbs me.  Questions I hear asked, "Where was the government?", "Where was FEMA?", and probably the most disturbing, "If this were Los Angeles or New York, would the response have been different?"  No one will know the full impact to the region until all the water has been removed, until all the bodies have been recovered, and until someone has been made accountable for all the mistakes that were made.  I'm very sure a scapegoat is being chosen at this very moment and that's very sad.  Again, if you find it in your heart to contribute at all to the relief effort, please give.
 
I promise more lighthearted posts in the future, and something new once I've somewhat recovered from the newscasts, podcasts, blogs, and newspapers.