Las ocho cosas que quiero hacer antes de morirme



The eight things that I want to do before I die.

Por pedida de Sylvia.

1) Ingeniar un plan para deshacerme de los peores vecinos en el mundo. Borrachos, feos, descuidados con el costumbre desagradable de emborracharse y gritarnos a nosotros, "Pinches putos" en los momentos menos oportunos.

1) Come up with a plan to get rid of the worst neighbors in the world. Drunkards, nasty and careless people with the unpleasant habit of getting drunk and shouting at us "Pinches putos" at the most unfortunate moments.

2) Tener un carro al que no se le mete el agua cuando llueve, uno que no me deja cien millas de Houston sin transporte porque ya no quiere jalar y uno que tiene aire condicionado y calefacción para no tener que manejar como loco cuando llueve con los vidrios todos empañados y yo con una mano en el volante y otro limpiando el agua del parabrisas con una servilleta de taquería.

2) Have a car that the water doesn't get into when it rains, one that doesn't leave me stranded 100 miles from Houston with no transportation because it doesn't want go anymore and one that has air and heat so as not to have to drive live a loco when it rains with the windows all steamed up, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other cleaning the mist from the windshield with a taquería napkin.

3) Vivir al lado de la casa de mi hermano y su familia por un tiempo, trabajar en su granja orgánica todo un verano.

3) Live next to my bro's house for a while, work on their organic farm for a whole summer.

4) Ser todo musculoso y sin panza pero con hombros bien definidos (por lo menos ese verano cuando estoy trabajando en la granja).

4) Be all muscular and with no panza but with really well-defined shoulders (at least for that summer when I'm working on the farm.)

5) Ser locamente promiscuo y completamente fiel a la vez, sin ninguna complicación de celos o confusión general o enfermedades.

5) Be wildly promiscuous and completely faithful at the same time, with no complications of jealousy or general confusion or diseases.

6) Me dio verguenza lo que escribí aquí y lo tuve que quitar.

6) I felt ashamed abotu what I wrote here and I had to delete it.

7) Hablar español, francés y arabe súper bien. Y perder el inglés por completo. Y vivir en paises donde se hablan esos idiomas temporadas largas.

7) Speak Spanish, French and Arabic really well. And lose inglés completely. And live in countries where those languages are spoken for long periods.

8) Escribir un libro que me guste sin condiciones, que se publique en una casa editorial que usa fonts bonitos y diseños actuales y hip, y que el texto les inspire a mis bisnietos desconocidos. Entonces claro, tener hijos (prefiero tener nietos, pero bueno, hay que tener hijos).

8) Write a book that I like unconditionally, get it published in a publishing house that uses pretty fonts and hip, contemporary designs, and that the text inspires my unknown great-grandchildren. So obviously, have kids (I prefer to have grandchildren, but well, gotta have kids first).

Gracias por haberme incluido, Syl. A pesar de estar lejos físicamente, me siento más cerca hoy.

Y ahora les pido a Emmy, Sehba, Amira, Román, Chuck, Anita, Echo, Linda, John y Pepe si no han sido señalados hasta ahora. Y después pedirle a ocho personas más.

And now I ask all the people above to write their own lists on on their blogs and then ask eight more people if you wanna.

Yes We Can / Sí Se Puede

The fierce urgency of now.

An end to scapegoating the members of my house - as he said "immigrants and gay people."

OK. I am officially moved. Without a doubt there is a momentum. Yes, if he is elected, we will have to work hard, social movements will still have to organize, Obama will not be perfect. He does not claim to be. He claims to need us to help, to need us to be inspired, to have hope, to push for change, to push him to keep creating change until the election and when he is (please) President. I believe in our ability to see beyond old divisions and make something new. I know it is a moment full of a crazy, charismatic energy. I know I am swept away. There is always a first time.

If you haven't seen the will.i.am produced video for Obama, you should click here. If you want to see an interview of will.i.am on the NYTimes about how the video came about, click here.


* Oh, yeah, Houston represent!

** Yes We Can is a back translation of Sí Se Puede. Estoy seguro que alguien lo tradujo al inglés. Me encanta que la lema de la campaña es una traducción del español.

When language is so flexible.

Can be so long or short flowing or staccato provoking or expansive.

Why would correctness be the ultimate arbiter.

Them Like Us Too


For truly scary news from the People of European Descent, click here.
(A translation of the anti-immigrant poster from Spain:
Act right or get out! Against the high levels of foreign crime.)

Picnic



Pues salió un relato mío, "La promesa de la fruta", en esta revista. Y no pudo haberse publicado en un momento mejor. Porque me anima a seguir a pesar de. Bueno, ojala que puedan conseguir una copia. Si no, supongo que van a poner algo de la revista en el sitio web de Picnic.

O, muchísimas gracias a Sylvia y a mis correctores del texto (ya saben quiénes son).

Languages Controls Thought

Tell me if this seems wrong crazy, but:


Why are thousands of Palestinians, cut off from the world, hungry and without basic necessities, streaming into Egypt to stock their homes referred to by the NY Times as being on a "shopping spree?" Sorry, but it's not Christmas at a mall in Dallas. That would be a shopping spree. Reminds me of the days after Katrina when the media referred to hungry people in New Orleans taking food and basic necessities as "looters."


And also, why are Fatah and Hamas referred to as "factions?" Are the Democrats and the Republicans also "factions?" No, these are all political parties. But when Palestinians have legitimate political differences, they are breaking into "factions." Sort of like ethnic groups in Africa are "tribes." Makes everything so much more exotic and strange and scary and irrational.


My NY Times corrections for the day.

A Maze of Days


These were days when falling down was impossible. When we stumbled through patches of oil and salt, searching for ports where our dimes would be accepted. An epoch of Viagra and other distasteful aides. A future imagined which would change all preconceived notions of wood and of benches. No longer for small towns and ranches and farms from Korea to Mexico to Texas. These were not the presents we had all around us. We tripped pleasantly professionally together around barriers and skipped the portions we could not rearrange to meet their expectations. Somehow there was a unity in remaining standing. Somehow as we waved goodbye through steaming glass and barbecue shacks, a way forward had already been found.


Learn to Count in Arabic! ¡Aprenda a contar en arabe!

Más o menos es: wahid, ithnen, theletha, arbaaya, khamsa, sitaa, sebaa, themeniya, tisaa, ashara.

Me encantan los números que bailan. Y los números que usamos en el Occidente proceden de los árabes. SIn embargo, los que usamos nosotros vienen de la parte del oeste del mundo arabe y los que ven en el video vienen de la parte este. Ya.

Nuevos posts en el catálogo de sentimiento. New posts.

Hay nuevos posts en El catálogo de sentimiento. New posts in the Catalogue of Feeling.


Run run run check it check it check it. Corre corre corre chéquelo chéquelo chéquelo.


Ahora tiene traducciones homofónicas y otros juegos. Now with homophonic translations and other games.


Fun fun fun a day in Jiuston. Fun fun fun a day worldwide from Art Clash.


And you can't miss Dish a Day for a new Thai snack every day. Tienen que ver Dish a Day donde tiene un nuevo bocadillo tailandés todos los días.

El rancho y mi barrio tejano

A veces pienso que vivo en un rancho remoto del Norte de México, trasladado a la ciudad de Jiusten.

Hoy en la mañana, como casi todos los días, en la casa haciendo tacos de huevo con papa. En la banqueta frente a mi casa, cuatro hombres gritando, riéndose, chupando cerveza Busch de lata a las nueve de la mañana. Cuando salí de la casa para ir a trabajar, pasa una patrulla de la policia local, baja su velocidad frente a los borrachos pero no se para, ni siquiera les dice algo. La patrulla sigue en su camino y yo también. En la esquina, hay una mujer saliendo de la lavandería, pues es una Washateria más bien. La mujer agarra la mano de su niño pequeño y mantiene en equilibrio una canastota de ropa recién lavada y doblada sobre la cabeza. Sus caderas balancean mientras camina y el viento casi tira la ropa al suelo, pero ella corre para que no se le caiga todo, levanta al niño a su pecho y sigue caminando. En la esquina, dos gallinas residentes del barrio buscan granos en las grietas de la banqueta.




Si no fuera por la cerveza Busch y la Washateria dándole el toque bien tejano a la historia, bien podría estar en cualquier rancho de Nuevo León o de Tamaulipas. Y las mañanas como ésta, me hacen querer más a mi humilde barrio.

Coetzee Woos Me Finally

One line about the main character of Disgrace, Professor David Lurie:

He has always been a man of the city, at home amid a flux of bodies where eros stalks and glances flash like arrows.

And then one of his thoughts:

To me certain animal-welfare people are a bit like Christians of a certain kind. Everyone is so cheerful and well-intentioned that after a while you itch to go off and do some raping and pillaging.

He is a complicated man, probably more evil than good. And totally unlike any of us and totally the same.

Iraqi Arabic Novelistic Language Play

Laila Lalami reviews a new book from Sinan Antoon, I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody, in The Nation.

I`jaam is presented to us as a manuscript found in 1989 in a file cabinet of the directorate of general security in Baghdad. An introductory page informs us that the manuscript was handwritten with no diacritical marks anywhere on it, which made the task of reading it very difficult. Nevertheless, a state employee named Talal Ahmad is charged with typing the text, and adding diacritical marks and punctuation, but Ahmad chooses to preserve the ambiguities suggested by the absence of dots. For instance, when we encounter the expression "Ministry of Rupture and Inflammation," a footnote alerts us that the words can also be dotted to mean "Ministry of Culture and Information."

Read the whole review here.

FYI & PS - I'd love a copy.

Catalogue of Feeling

For the month of January, a new blog has been started for Fun A Day. Called Catalogue of Feeling. Decided to do a daily drawing or photo with words attached to it. And I'll post the combopiece on the blog. Keeps me moving and honest and motivated. Sometimes might take me a few days to post it, but it'll be done on that day, just maybe not posted each day. So check it out.

Lots of thoughts about what to draw & photo & write & how all of these are to be connected or unconnected. And many ideas about what the Catalogue of Feeling means. Pero mejor lo empiezo este mes y después lo analizo y así el proyecto seguirá creciendo. More interesting así. Ok?

On the Ground in Pakistan

My good friend Sehba Sarwar is posting and has posted a lot of her on the ground thoughts, experiencies and observations on the ground in Karachi, Pakistan on her blog, Daily Noise.

Of course, right now the main writing subject is life post-Bhutto. A good place to find some pictures and info that is often hard to find. And to understand how the images we do see are discovered, taken, packaged, repackaged, produced and distributed for us to see. Right to the source.