El guapo loco

Police report

2011-08-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

Living in Riverside, we often get disturbing police reports about robbings and shootings.
This one is a little different though. While nothing will beat BYU's police beat, this one is amusing in it's own California way.

To: UCR Community
Fr: UCPD
Re: Coyote Sighting

On 08/06/11 at 5:33pm UCPD officers were dispatched to 3400 block of Avocado St. in the UCR Canyon Crest Family Housing area regarding a coyote that growled at an 8-year old boy. The boy's father reported that the coyote was still on the patio and was not leaving.

When the officers arrived, the coyote ran away southbound towards Linden St. Officers followed the coyote until it ran out of Family Housing.

There have been several other coyote sightings in the area in the past few weeks. UCR Housing has contracted with an animal control service to attempt to humanely trap coyotes in the area. If you are encountered by a coyote that appears to be aggressive please call UCPD at 951-827-5222.

Below are some safety tips to keep in mind:

Do not feed any wild animals such as raccoons or deer, which encourages coyotes as well.

Keep cats indoors at all times.

Keep your dog on a leash.

Do not leave cat or dog food outside.

Keep all garbage containers closed and inaccessible. Adding ammonia or pepper spray to trash can discourage rummaging by coyotes and other wildlife.

Do not let pets out at night unless accompanied by a person.

Do not feed coyotes! Avoid overflowing bird feeders and open compost bins.

Obey leash laws. Small dogs on the loose are attractive prey for coyotes, especially at night.

Cats? Keep them inside, along with pet food bowls.

In dry climates, even a water bowl can draw coyotes.

Do not invite coyotes to build dens next to (or under) your home: Seal crawl spaces, close sheds and thin brushy areas.

Even if you love seeing coyotes, do not let them know it. If a coyote visits your yard, wave your arms, shout, spray it with a hose. Be a threat!

Description of coyotes

They have grayish, yellowish, brownish fur on the top and whitish fur underneath. They have large ears that look like triangles and a long narrow muzzle. They look a bit like a wolf, but the most important difference is when they run; a dog runs with the tail up, a wolf runs with it's tail straight out but the coyote runs with its tail down. That is one way you can tell it's a coyote

A (brief) Review of the New York Times article "Why Criticism Matters"

2011-02-03T00:39:00.000-08:00

Why Criticism Matters

The thing I found most interesting about this article, is that in takes into account ways that the internet is changing our profession. The times they are a changin'! While I don't necessarily agree with all of what it says, I think we need to be mindful of the paradigm shifts that happen with changes in society and technology. I think it's worth considering what we are doing when we say we are literary critics or doing literary criticism.

I haven't done any serious study of "mass communication" or mass like phenomenons, but they are part of our profession with or without the internet. Personally, I feel simply clicking like on a literary work, isn't a valid measure of how good or important a work is.
One of our most important jobs is to read not just the canon, but the works that are neglected, forgotten. To read contemporary fiction, to see where it's going. We may or may not convince people of their importance, but we can do our part to hear the voices that are marginalized, forgotten by the world, and even by our colleagues in ivory towers.

Update

2011-02-02T22:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged for awhile so here's a quick update. I'm taking a film and feminism class (the movies are...well...interesting....), a Mario Vargas LLosa class, and a Spanish Vanguard class. I was supposed to be in a contemporay Andean Literature class, but with the nobel prize and my professor's somewhat healthy obsession with MVL as he likes to call him, we are reading contemporary novels by Llosa. I have to say, I really enjoyed (I hate you Zizek for ruining that word..but alas) the book, though as any of you that have read one of his books know, there are parts that are very difficult to read. It's about Roger Casement, an Irishman, who investigates the actions of the rubber companies in Congo and later Peru. It's hard to read about what happened, knowing it's based on history. It really broke apart some of the stereotypes I had formed about Vargas Llosa.

Recent Ph. D Readings

2010-11-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

Cool graphic, pending.
So I'm getting distracted. But I wanted to let my fellow hispanists know about an amazing book, La muerte de Alec. It's a Columbian novel by Jaramillo and it's got some cool pseudo-Borgesian detective things going on. If you get a chance, it's a quick read.
In other news, I just read El lugar sin límites. After overcoming my initial shock, I really enjoyed the novel.
And now I need to stop getting distracted and finish reading El falso cuaderno de Narciso Espejo. Ciao for now.

Ultimate Frisbee

2010-10-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't see this on my wife's facebook page, I thought I'd share the laughs (It's by the lead singer of Nerf Herder, Parry Gripp).

The uncanny valley

2010-03-08T19:39:00.000-08:00

So yes, I freely admit I listen to NPR. My wife thinks it's boring, but even she may admit that this is fascinating. I was listening to a discussion of the uncanny valley and thought it would interest my fellow post-human scholars. It talks about the uncanny valley and the problems of animating people who are too realistic (or who have creepy eyes). You can read or listen to it here.

And for those of you who enjoy the story from a slightly different angle, enjoy this cool bonus link!

The Sound of Silence

2009-10-12T23:29:00.000-07:00

I was listening to this song before Cluff's class today. I've heard it many times. Those of you who have had Dr. Stallings will probably see why this caught my ear.

"Sound of Silence"

Hello darkness, my old friend,
Ive come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
A neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

The line "My eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light" jumped out at me. Notice before the other words about eyes and visions "the vision softly creeping"

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.

Fools said I, you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said, the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whispered in the sounds of silence

We then move from eyes to ears. The message doesn't arrive at it's destination, even with the flashing neon sign "stabbing" our eyes. I love Simon and Garfunkel. What poets!

Check out the song here if you need a refresher

Can we trust the experts?

2009-09-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

After watching F for Fake I thought this article about Frida Kahlo was fascinating. A "trove" of Frida Kahlo's art was supposedly discovered. Some experts say it's absolutely authentic and others can "tell" from reproduced images that it's fake. I noticed that neither those who authenticated the art or those that called it a fake had very good grounds. It feels a lot like the Welles' movie....

Kahlo Trove: Fact or Fakery

Vampires in the news: A dream come true

2009-07-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

I think I could not have asked Guillermo del Toro to write a better op ed piece. It's Frankenstein meets Dracula meets Tom Cohen writing about technology in literature (or film). It's fantastic (bad pun intended)! Enjoy.

"Despite our obsessive harnessing of information, we are still ultimately vulnerable to our fates and our nightmares. We enthrone the deadly virus in the very same way that “Dracula” allowed the British public to believe in monsters: through science. Science becomes the modern man’s superstition. It allows him to experience fear and awe again, and to believe in the things he cannot see.

And through awe, we once again regain spiritual humility. The current vampire pandemic serves to remind us that we have no true jurisdiction over our bodies, our climate or our very souls. Monsters will always provide the possibility of mystery in our mundane “reality show” lives, hinting at a larger spiritual world; for if there are demons in our midst, there surely must be angels lurking nearby as well. In the vampire we find Eros and Thanatos fused together in archetypal embrace, spiraling through the ages, undying.

Forever."

You can read the full text here:

Why Vampires Never Die

2009-07-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

I finally finished Cien años de soledad. Many thoughts to come but for now, I need to read Paul's paper again now that I know what it's about. Hopefully I'll get a copy of La Marca sometime soon....

Music and more

2009-03-26T17:05:00.000-07:00

I've given some blog space to my Borges class as you can see with the ugly minotaur on the page. Now it's time for some Cinema and Theory love. Today in class, we talked about Orson Welles F for Fake(just clips) and this song popped through my head. Enjoy.

Postal Service- Clark Gable

"Clark Gable"

I was waiting for a cross-town train in the London underground when it struck me
That I've been waiting since birth to find a love that would look and sound like a movie
So I changed my plans and rented a camera and a van and then I called you
"I need you to pretend that we are in love again" and you agreed to

I want so badly to believe that "there is truth, that love is real"
And I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd

I greased the lens and framed the shot using a friend as my stand-in
The script it called for rain but it was clear that day so we faked it
The marker snapped and I yelled "quiet on the set" and then called "action!"
And I kissed you in a style that Clark Gable would have admired (I thought it classic)

I want so badly to believe that "there is truth, that love is real"
And I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd

I know you're wise beyond your years, but do you ever get the fear
That your perfect verse is just a lie you tell yourself to help you get by?

Labyrinths

2009-03-10T15:56:00.001-07:00

Today in Borges:
-Story from the point of view of Asterion (the minotaur)La casa de Asterion

-A dead man without a face in a labyrinth (or a few dead men really)

-And two kings, two labyrinths, one dead man in a desert.

This got me and Paul talking about labyrinths. Borges' literature is a labyrinth. But it's not simply a labyrinth, it is a web, a group of meanings and texts, that gets us lost, gets us "thinking."
Then we left our communal labyrinth of discussion (or our bifurcating garden) and all retreated into our private labyrinths.
I really hope I don't find David Bowie there.

More bifurcation

2009-02-09T16:35:00.001-08:00

Well I'm procrastinating my reading on Lyotard (no, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce that). But I thought I'd report on the forked road story by Borges. Last Thursday I taught my 2:30 class with Christian and Paul. We set up our powerpoint (which included a picture of the 1980's something Bowie from laberinth....the jardín (garden) in the story is after all a giant laberinth. ). Well, just as I hoped, someone related the short story to Star Trek. And a million other things. It became the discussion of "los senderos que se bifurcan". What we got out of it was that alternate universes, choose your own adventure stories, multiple dimensions and class discussions are all related. The interesting thing in the story is...well read the story El Jardin de los senderos que se bifurcan (The garden of the forking path's or something like that) to make more sense, there's some pretty good translations out there. It's found in a work called Ficciones maybe translated as Fictions in English.
So I came home feeling pretty good about our presentation. I even got an e-mail from my profe telling us we'd done a good job. But the story doesn't end there. As random as a thought it is that an Argentine Writer from the 1920's has a lot to do with Star Trek and Science Fiction, I was validated on Friday. Mike Wilson, former BYU Spanish Grad Student gave us a presentation on Science fiction in the Southern Cone. Lo and behold, the thesis of his presentation was that Science Fiction was not created as a seperate genre in Argentina, but was part of the national tradition of literature starting with none other than basically the god of argentine literature, Jorge Luis Borges.
So maybe not such a crazy thought after all.
Who knows. Maybe I can even get a paper/article out of it.
Studying Science Fiction as a Spanish Lit major? Isn't life great?

Oh boy, it's a blog!

2009-01-27T22:53:00.001-08:00

Well I'm doing it. I'm writing a blog.
(Hmmm...now what do I write? Books? We'll start with books.)
Well today I was reading a short story called "El jardin de senderos que se bifurcan" by Jorge Luis Borges. For those of you who don't speak Spanish, that roughly translates to The Garden of Roads that Bifurcate (I'm sure there's a better translation of that title somewhere, but we'll stick with mine for now. And to give you a rough idea, think two forks in a road but in Spanish, and with a maze with a German Spy who's Chinese).
Amazingly, of all the things this story about a Chinese german spy, it made me think of science fiction. There's this part where it talks about the infinite possibilities of time, and it reminded me of first Star trek (other dimensions and what not), then an Episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and finally
For those who have not read Ender's Game do it now! Or read (at the same time) Ender's Shadow. My students in my Spanish class today asked me what books I like and I of course mentioned Twilight (how could I be in this family and not like it), Don Quijote, and Ender's Game. I really do enjoy Card's writing. His books present amazing stories and give you some good things to think about. (Good things to think about is pretty vague I know..but hey it's late and I've been writing/thinking about lit all day..give me a break!).
I suppose this concludes my first ever official blog post. Sometime I'll have to finish some thoughts on Card's writing. And maybe blog about all the movies I've watched recently including a French Film Noir called Riffifi. I get to go to the International Cinema 2-3 times a week and watch films for my class so stay tuned!