He's back. And I'm thrilled. My beloved Alejandro released a new single today, "A la primera persona," and it is gorgeous. None of this reggaeton crap, no rapping, just the original good stuff, back in the style of Más and El Alma al Aire. (Click on the link below the photo to hear the new single, and to see the video.)

And the best part is, he's looking gorgeous again. There was a time when he went blonde, and I questioned his sanity. But now he's back to normal, as evidenced in the photo on the left.

I'll never forget the times I saw him in concert, at Radio City Music Hall in 2001 and 2002. He is one of the rare artists who is as good live as he is recorded. And in 2002 I got to meet him. In fact, he asked to meet me. A long and complicated story for another time, but here is some photographic evidence for you in the meantime:

I can't wait for his new album, El tren de los momentos, to be released in November. I wasn't a huge fan of No es lo mismo, so it feels like it's been a while since I've been really excited about his music.

Mark, my obsession for Alejandro rivals my obsession for a certain Japanese cartoon feline, so you will be pleased to hear that I will be distracted from the latter for a while.

It is fun to be a sanzera again.

technorati tags:latin, music, sanz

Blogged with Flock

Thursday is the big day: I pack my bags and head back to Oxfordland to start the doctorate.

I've done this before. Twice, in fact.

I know the routine. How to pack Space Bags so they seal correctly. How to mark my bags so I can find them. Weight limits. The right shoes, the right way to carry my laptop.

I know my way through Newark security, and through Heathrow security. I know how to get to the bus at Heathrow, and where to get the taxi once I get to Oxford.

I'm at an advantage compared to this point last year. I know the place. I know the people. I know where to go, what to expect.

So, then, why the hell am I so nervous?

technorati tags:nerves, anxiety, travel, Oxford, Heathrow, London, Newark

Blogged with Flock

This is a just a random thought I had while I was in the shower today.

I noticed that in academic settings, my research interests get tagged on as a sort of suffix to my name. That is, at conferences and faculty meetings and such, I get introduced as "This is Kaitlinwhodoesmysticism," or "This is KaitlinwhodoesHispanicadvertising." Does anyone else experience this, and does anyone else find it weird? (I'm not talking about being identified by one's general subject area - like history, philosophy, etc. - but specific research interests like "Bakhtin and postcolonialism" or "authorship and Cervantes.") I mean, it is one of my primary identifying characteristics, but I find it strange to have that tacked on as part of my identity. Maybe that just comes with the territory in academia.

I noticed that my friends and I also use this at parties when we talk about our coursemates. (This was more the case at Hartford, but then again there are always dozens of M.A. students in Communication and only three M.St. students in Spanish this year.) If there was more than one Melissa, for example, we wouldn't define them as "blonde Melissa" or "brunette Melissa" - instead, they would be "Gender-in-Sports-Media-Melissa" and "Student-Teacher-Interaction-Melissa."

Does this happen in the faculty sphere or in other grad programs as well, or are my friends and I just dorks?

Oh man, I was channel surfing last night quite late, when I came across this new show called Midnight Money Madness. It was loud, and tacky, and confusing, and strangely familiar.

And then it hit me: it was the American version of Quiz Call.

Great. Wonderful. Splendid. Like we really need another tacky call-in show where viewers pay to call in and name "things that go down" or count the number of triangles in the picture for a chance to win $100. The American version even has a British host, which makes it even more similar to the Quiz Call show.

Anyway, this all reminded me that I have roughly two weeks to go before I am back in el Reino Unido to dive into the madness that is being a doctoral student. Hurrah! Greg, you'll have another three years to ask me how the dissertation is going... ;)

Hope all is well with everyone - xxx

I've had this meme (stolen from Nels) in the hopper for a while, but never got around to finishing it. But now that I've been tagged by Mark, I guess I should get around to giving my answers.

(Sorry, I’m not linking to any of the books. Too much effort, and besides, I’m not getting paid to advertise them...)

1.) One book you have read more than once
I read most books more than once, so it’s hard to choose. One book that I read regularly is Gracie: A Love Story, by George Burns. I love biographies of vaudeville comedians (I know – how random can you get), and this is one of the best.

If I want to improve my academic street cred, I guess I should answer this question by saying that I’ve re-read the Quixote fairly regularly over the past eight years. It’s a beautiful book, and I get something new out of it every time I read it.

2.) One book you would want on a desert island
Probably Rayuela, by Julio Cortázar, since you can’t read it the same way twice; or Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez, so I could use that free time to figure out what the hell the book is all about.

A close runner-up would be How to save yourself if you’re stranded on a desert island, should such a book exist. ;)

3.) One book that made you laugh
As someone who likes to read (auto)biographies of vaudeville comedians, I’ve read quite a few that have made me laugh out loud. Other than vaudeville, Erma Bombeck and Dave Barry always make me laugh, although I can't really name specific books from them because I always buy them in anthology form.

4.) One book that made you cry
Sorry, it keeps asking for one, but I have four that come to mind here:

• Gracie, when George talks about Gracie’s death.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when Dumbledore is dying.
• If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things (Jon McGregor), after the car crash.
• The Quixote, when Don Quixote dies in the end.

5.) One book you wish you had written
This may be a weird answer, but I would say the Harry Potter series. I think it’s brilliant that this woman has written a series so compelling that both children and adults read it. It’s sensational and real at the same time. I find it fascinating that it just seemed to rocket to success by way of word of mouth, and that it got kids to like reading again in a world of video games and TV soundbytes.

6.) One book you wish had never been written
Any book written by a ditzy blonde teenybopper starlet. Britney Spears should not have a book out. Neither should Paris Hilton.

7.) One book you are currently reading
I’m trying to re-read El casamiento engañoso and El coloquio de los perros, two of the Novelas ejemplares by Cervantes. I’m also in the middle of Harry Potter y el Cáliz de Fuego, the fourth Harry Potter book in Spanish.

8.) One book you have been meaning to read
I’ve always wanted to read Dante’s Divina Commedia, in the original Italian. I actually learned a decent amount of Italian as an undergrad and was one course away from the Divina Commedia class, but as a double major in Spanish and advertising, there were far too many conflicts in my schedule for a course that was basically an elective.

9. One book that changed your life
One would have to be Why Was I Adopted?, which my parents read to me when I was little. I’ve known that I was adopted for as long as I can remember – my parents never kept it a secret. Because of that, I think I grew up to be a well-adjusted person and very appreciative of the adoption process. Adoption is a normal and beautiful thing – it should not be considered a stigma.

Again, for the academic street cred, I would have to say the Quixote. After I finished Book I for the first time, I knew that I wanted to major in Spanish. And now, I’m getting ready to do my doctoral dissertation, and I will be reading it again as a part of it.

10. Now tag five people:
I tag any five people who haven’t been tagged yet.

OK, read this story carefully, and tell me what's wrong here.

So our power went out today. Even the phone lines were out, so I got on my cell phone to call the electric company and report it. While I was on hold, listening to the standard "Your call is important to us, and will be answered in the next 25 minutes" routine, the automated voice suggested helpfully that I could try logging on to their website to answer my electricity queries.

I repeat: I was on the phone to report that the power was out in our neighborhood.

Thank you, Connecticut Light and Power.

Oh, I want this. A steal at 3 million yen (do the math - I don't know the conversion rate).

Today, while accompanying my brother to the doctor for a brief checkup before he left for college (I'll post about that later), I sat in the waiting room and read that bastion of journalistic integrity, Nick Magazine. One of the articles was a collection of "strange but true" stories in honor of the back to school season. A lot of the stories sounded like urban legends, but one story in particular stood out to me:

A Miami artist was paid $40,000 to design a mural for a new library. This mural contained pictures and names of 175 famous artists, writers, and scholars. Well, when the mural was unveiled, it turns out that ELEVEN OF THE NAMES WERE SPELLED INCORRECTLY. And we're talking about names that everyone knows, like Shakespeare, Einstein, and Van Gogh.

Obviously, the library asked the artist to fix it. Citizens wrote to complain. And here's where it gets fun: the artist was not embarassed by her mistakes, nor did she apologize for making them. Quite the contrary: she was OFFENDED that people would actually complain about such a thing. She couldn't understand what all the fuss was about, and thought they were just complaining because she was Mexican. She actually charged the library a $6000 fee to make the corrections.

I Googled the story this evening, and found out that it is indeed true. There's just something so ironic about the whole thing, and rather sad.

See, this is why I hate hate hate it when schools place more emphasis on self-esteem than on learning skills. I've noticed this shift in the time from when I was in elementary and middle school to now, with my sister in middle school. Why should we praise someone who does not do a satisfactory job? Is an award really an honor if every child in the grade gets one? The library and the town had every right to be upset with this woman. Who cares about her ethnicity? She made an idiotic mistake.

Oh my God, it's September already...