Saturday, April 19, 2008
Immigrants as Frankenstein
Monday, April 14, 2008
Sir Elton: “Vote for Hillary Clinton!”
A few days ago, Elton John played, in New York, a fundraiser concert for Clinton’s campaign. The article I stumbled onto it is funny and true. The author is a clever writer too. It is a great article first because it points up that even non-citizens can comment on American politic (especially if they raise money for political campaigns!), and give advices on who should be the next president; second, even though Sir Elton spends most time in America, he still sees America with a stranger’s eyes. Now, Elton John is not much the matter here, but he may be an example of how foreigners, who don’t actually live in the US, can have a wrong pick on American society, culture, and thus on its politic.
John stated that Americans are misogynist. (Of course, Hillary didn't comment on the statement, and this is what she said). They are not! It is not that Hillary Clinton shouldn’t govern America because she is a woman, but rather she shouldn’t be the next president because she seems able to transform politic in soap opera. Then again, assuming that she will be the new president, the US will may have three leaders in one because her husband and her daughter seems to play an important role in her political life.
Americans should vote Clinton if they want to live a “fairy tale”.
YOU DO NOT VOTE FOR CLINTON SAGA!
Update: I just found out on The New York Times that "Mr. John, a foreign national, cannot under federal law make any contribution to a federal, state or local election campaign." Check on the blog post. Does Hillary know any federal law at all? Where the 2.5 million dollar raised will go now?
This is another article from The Huffington Post
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Stay Teen: an Innocent Video for a Big Idea
Online Pregnancy Test
At the time, I enjoyed seeing those kids around. They signified, I believed, that America was a young nation, and that it would always been a young nation due to its human force’s recycling. I didn’t know anything about “teen pregnancy” until I realized that many of those children were born from children. Until then, I never knew anyone who actually had a baby when he or she was still a teen. Then I heard about twelve-year-old women who got pregnant… what? Twelve years old? I thought my narrator was kidding, I didn’t believe her. I thought she wanted only to shock me. With the time, I understood she wasn’t kidding at all and that teen pregnancy is a real thing.
Browsing the Net, I found this web site. It seems to help potential pregnant girls understanding if they are expectant or not. It is called “on-line pregnancy test”, and, of course, it is not a real test, but it may help with counting the days, etc. “If you are 13 year old or younger, click here,” the main page says. I hit it. A new screen asked for a name and an email address, so that someone could stay in touch with the person who clicked the link.
Women don’t get pregnant only thinking about sex/love, they actually do need to have sex/love – well, it is not always the case because of the scientific progress in matter of fecundity but, authentically, women need to have sex in order to get pregnant. Now, what sex may be for a 12 or 13 years old woman (I consider her a woman, at least physically, if she longs for sex)? Why do kids need to have sex? Why do need to rush their first time? They should wait for the right time – in this case “right time” is not a fallacy –not only because it is important to find the right person (at least for the first time!), but because one need a certain maturity to practice sex.
Sex may be OK (it is OK! and always take precaution), but wait a few more years. For god’s sake, teens, you have all the time in the world!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Cell Phones/Seclusion
One may discourage a face-to-face conversation trying to stay in touch with the external world through cell phones. This may be how: many times I tried to talk to people I knew, but, what a coincidence!, they took their phones right at the moment I was opening my mouth. I never tried to speak to them again!
Look what happen to a student who answered the phone while a professor was lecturing!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
My Experience at McDonald: when "Fast" Became Clear in my Mind
McDonald's wanted another drive-thru line to increase the production, make more hamburgers in a certain time range. Only then I understood how important Time was for McDonald’s. Only then I understood why its food is “fast food.” If customers had to wait more than one and a half minute, the food wasn’t “fast food” anymore!
Dead End: a Redundancy
DEAD END seems a redundancy because “end” implies some death. Of course, it doesn’t imply “death” all the time, because, for instance, the end of a movie doesn’t infer the death of that movie. However, in the road’s case, the pick may be different: a road that ends is also dead because it doesn’t meet any other roads. DEAD ROAD would be enough to give the sense of the road that is not going to connect to anything.
In Italy, they use only a sign to indicate a DEAD END. To miss that may be a trouble, or perhaps one may find this (check it out!)! Lo, I found only palmetto trees and fire ants!
Nonna Pizza: a Story of Immigration
Nonna Pizza is a 1,000-square-feet restaurant located off Pine Island Road in Cape Coral. Its kitchen, oven, and refrigerators take up most of the space leaving a dining area of five tables. Here, diners may enjoy the view of the Italian gulf that a local artist painted on the wall. The entire enterprise took more than a couple months to complete. Pictures from Italy decorate the other wall of the restaurant. Some are photos of Rome but most of them were shot in Cerisano, a tiny place of 3,000 people located in the heart of southern Italy, where Nonna Pizza’s owners comes from. For these people, Nonna Pizza proved that the America dream still exists and that everybody can achieve it if only he or she will to work hard. As many other families, also Nonna Pizza’s owners come from a poor background. Money was always a problem for them. They didn’t have enough to get by while they were in Italy.
These are the immigrants to whom I am trying to give a face in this blog. These are my people and their struggle is my struggle. I found their faces everywhere, among my books, among my words, language, poems. These are the immigrants Dufresne, I believe, was talking about in his interview. These people may learn a word of two just to be able to survive in America. These people never pretend to go to school and to become doctors; they look only for food, a job.
A JOB can be a “big word,” the most important word for them. It can be the ticket that releases them from their misery. To drive a $2,000 car may be enough for them because in their country they did not have any car. To buy two t-shirts at Wal-Mart may be enough for them because in their country they didn’t have money to buy new clothes; to own a house built in the 70s, infested here and there with some “roches”, may be ok because in their country they couldn’t buy a house…
They don’t pretend much. They only need a chance.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Watch This with Open Eyes, Please...
It doesn't need commentary. You just OPEN YOUR EYES.
PS: Whoever made this video did a TERRIFIC job!
Brokeback Mountain
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Quantitative English
A few weeks ago, I spoke with a couple, friends of my husband. They lived in Chicago for thirty of forty years, they made (literally) a ton of money (but they worked very hard especially the husband). They were born in the little town where I was born. They came in the US when were very young, but after all these American years, not only their “accent” is still very strong, but when I spoke to them, I could read in their eyes, they were surprised to hear how I talk. Generally, immigrants, or at least the immigrants I know, those who came to the US to live and realize the American dream, those who, when arrived, believed could find money on the street: all they had to do was just scoop the money up, and instead ended up working 18 hours a day, don’t talk about literature. They talk even less about writing. To become a fiction writer (say it again…“Fiction writer”? What is it? A new dish? But is it served with mashed potato or with asparagus?) may be something awkward for them.
Defresne pinned down what English language may have been for most immigrants: a practical aid in their everyday life. Immigrants usually were people who filled their stomachs with hope, people who more than acting needed to react to their misery; people who traveled for weeks on a ship, who were packed like cotton balls in a two-ounce container, infested with fleas, forgotten in their countries; people who carried all they owned in a suitcase made of a cheap cardboard.
For these people, “English” may remain a mystery they will never discover.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Invitation for a Music Party: Playhouse Disney Show
Second invitation delivered. 3:50 p.m. The audience gets excited when it saw Winnie the Pooh. He is the friend everybody wants to have. My daughter says she would like to have a friends like him. "It OK if he cannot stop eating honey!" she says. It is OK if he is a little overweight; eventually he will lose some pounds... Winnie the Pooh talks and the crowd... listens to him...
Sweet honey pot. 3:55 p.m. Pooh starts eating his honey!
This is what music can do. 4:05 p.m. Mr. Lopart is dancing and singing like crazy! Music can soften also the heart of the most stubborn individual.
End of the first act. 4:05 p.m.
The clubhouse appears. 4:35 p.m. And with it all the friends living in the house... They now need to find the right music for the party. They need to find the right harmony...
The light goes off. 4:40 p.m. No problem, Manny will repair it!
The big finale. 4:47 p.m. All the characters are on stage. All are happy. Mickey ends the show with a big message. Music is everywhere and it brings together all of us. If people can develop their ability to listen to music, they will be able to listen to each other too. It is a simple and direct note. A message that may craft one's soul, make the kids smile, and the adults think.
"Bye, bye, see you later." 4:50 p.m. Curtain down.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
“You Break It, We Fix it”: Handy Manny
Handy Manny is a male character whom, as his name suggests, is a handy guy. He owns a workshop and animated tools that occasionally are lazy. Sometimes they ask Manny if it is the case for them to stay home, because “maybe Manny doesn’t really need them.” Manny, though, never leaves them behind.
Manny helps anyone and, according to Wikipedia, he was awarded the “Good Citizen Award.” He speaks Spanish and English, but he is an immigrant because, although he speaks good English, he has an “accent.”
Maybe he comes from Cuba, my daughter just guess.
Maybe, I say, it really doesn’t matter.
Manny knows personally the people living in Sheetrock Hills, the town where every story takes place. He knows how to do his job, but he is not presumptuous, not even when he speaks with Mr. Lopart who owns a candy store near Manny’s workshop. Mr. Lopart, a bald man, is a stubborn character who doesn’t want anyone to help him, and constantly refuses Manny’s hand (is it a “cute” pun or an involuntary alliteration?).
My daughter cannot give sense of Mr. Lopart’s behavior. Sometimes, she says, he seems jealous of Manny; sometimes, he seems just an obstinate old man. Maybe both of these apply to the character.
Handy Manny is a show that may teach tolerance and solidarity. In general, American cartoons aiming at understanding tolerance and acceptance of the “Other” (Spivak’s Other). In simple words and images, they teach how to behave in case they meet a person with an “accent” or a black kid, or an individual on a wheel chair. American cartoons, Disney and Nickelodeon animated series particular, somehow are like movies: they teach something. These cartoons are not only amusement, but they may lesson to modern society. How, for instance, people should take Mr. Lopart? He often gets in troubles because he refuses Manny’s assistance. Mr. Lopart is an anti-hero, is he not? He may resemble our elder neighbor who leaves unaided and becomes sully because of his loneliness and aging and he refuses any help from anyone in the neighborhood, does he not?
What do you thing Manny will repair on Saturday? my daughter asks.
It can be anything. Maybe a house in Iraq that has been destroyed by the American militia, I say.
Let’s go have breakfast now, I say.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Playhouse Disney Live is Coming to Town
Disney is an American hallmark that always fascinated me. When you go to the theme parks, don’t you feel you are the luckiest person in the world? Don’t you feel that Cinderella and pals are waiting for you (and only for you) to take you in a magical realm in spite of the horror that surrounds human life? When they parade, smiling and waving, don’t you feel they are smiling and waving at you? Don’t you want to burst into tears because of that joy? Don’t you want to live that magical world, and wear Cinderella’s shoes, and buy tons of other shoes – at least virtually – for all the kids in the world who don’t even know what Disney is? Don’t you think of those kids also? Don’t you feel guilty because you have what some children cannot even dream about? Don’t you wish your dreams – sooner or later – would come true?
“Come on, mommy, I don’t want to be late,” my daughter says. I follow her. I armed with my cameras. My daugheter stops. She takes my hand. She throws beams of life. I tune my heart. I am ready to go…
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Italian Food vs. Real Italian Food
2. Primo (usually pasta)
3. Secondo (usually meat – beef or pork, rarely chicken – or fish) + contorno (salad, potatoes, rarely it is mashed potatoes)
4. Frutta (frutta)
6. Caffe (espresso only)
Antipasto and secondo are usually eaten with bread. Sometimes pasta is eaten with bread too(soccer players do it all the time because they need many carbohydrates).
The Italian food I know in Florida is americanizzato. My family is “starved” because it cannot find good Italian food not even if it exchanges pure gold for Italian groceries! Vegetables and fruits, especially in southern Florida, have a different taste because of the climate. Sometimes, it has not taste at all.
Trust me, there’s not such a thing like Italian food around here!
Tell Me How You Eat, I Tell You Who You Are
I could not read the menu because I didn’t know any English, and I was too tired to let my hosts translate the list for me. I ordered something I would enjoyed for sure: fish. Here I had my second shock: the food arrived on our table in ten or fifteen minutes. Uhmm, how in the kitchen did the chefs know I was starving? Was that a special care for a brand new immigrant?
With time, I understood that it was not a special treatment. The way American people eat at restaurants was another “American style”. Even when they are not in a hurry, Americans are always in run: they want to seat quickly, to be served carefully and fast, and to leave the restaurant as rapidly as possible. In Italy, the servers are neither quick nor full of care for their clients (perhaps because their customers do not leave them any tip). Consumers may spend an entire evening eating at a restaurant, enjoying their tasty food and their company, drinking a casareccio glass of wine.
Americans do not have time. At morning they bring their children to the day care, then they run to work. At night they come home exhausted. Their children are tired too. The entire family is hungry. Let’s go eat outside then… lo a glance at their checking account does not allow any extra expense! No all is lost: a handy credit card will solve the problem, but when a new bank statement nocks at their door, they realize they spent too much. Now they activate the machine: they will seek another job or a double shift to pay for their invoices. At night, they will be more exhausted, they will not have time to cook, they again will eat outside, and their credit cards will soar, again. It is an unchangeable spin. Working may be one of the main reasons Americans do not have enough time.
It took me almost five years to realize that my first dinner in America wasn’t a special welcome and that it wasn’t a special welcome at any other restaurant where I ate throughout these years. My first dinner was only another picture of the American style.
Americans try to get rid of everything as promptly as they can. This is true when they go to a restaurant, a concert, a circus show, a grocery store, a pizza shop and a bagel place, a wedding and a birthday. This is true for their holiday dinners and for their daily suppers.
The word “quick” became a synonym for discontent.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Women’s Day or Festa della Donna (in Italy)
I never went to watch a stripper, and I never got drunk that night, but I saved the mimosa my grandfather every year bought for me. I saved here, in my heart, the memories… I can still see my grandpa, my man, carrying a bunch of mimosa under his arm. He used to tell me, “one day you will be a good woman!” Then he handed me the bunch of flowers.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Life Experience Shapes One’s Critical Thinking
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Poetry Under the Rain: William Blake
It's raining tonight.
Light, fine rain that apparently does not wet the earth, though it soaks the soil after a few minutes.
It's raining.
It is almost invisible; I can scarcely feel it on my bare skin.
Under the rain, William Blake takes my heart. “I have something I want you to read,” he says.
I read Auguries of Innocence.
Sweet like wine are a few lines before I fall asleep.
Sometimes I seek poetry, and
sometimes poetry seeks me.
It is an exchange of human fluids, and
human needs.
Now
I am in peace and I can rest…