Sabato and philosophy for teenagers

Thanks to Jonathan Mayhew's blog, I just discovered that Ernesto Sabato died today. He was an Argentine writer who also had a high profile as a member of a Commission (CONADEP) to investigate the crimes of the 1976-1983 dictatorship in Argentina. As a result, he was revered by certain sectors in Argentina, both as a writer and as a public intellectual. Besides his work at the CONADEP, I always thought that what he had to say as a public intellectual was nefarious. It was of the "science is bad because it oppresses humanity, we need to return to nature" variety. And it wasn't more sophisticated than my statement.

Furthermore, I never liked his books, although they were mandatory reading if you wanted to be considered an "intellectual" teenager by your peers (and yes, there is such a thing in Argentina). I always thought that they could be considered "deep" and "philosophical" only by those who are still not of legal age. However, if you read them after the age of 18, they are just dated. They haven't aged very well (in Sabato's case, it might be the influence of existentialism). The only other author that comes to mind in regards to this, of being "philosophical" and "intellectual" only if you are a teenager (not because their topics or writing style are alike) is Herman Hesse. My question is: what other writers (from any region of the world) do you know that could share these characteristics?

Practical tips for sabbaticals...

OK. I just finished my last class. If I can survive grading my students' final papers, I won't be teaching until January!!! Yes, sir/madam, I have a sabbatical. I will very much appreciate tips from my readers about how to organize and structure myself during the sabbatical semester. On a daily basis, I'm a pretty organized person (I have a routine and it drives me nuts if I can't follow it). Can you give me good tips as to how to create a routine when there is none?
Thanks in advanced,
An elated and brain-dead Spanish Prof

Random thought

It amazes me how many people will go to great lengths to perpetuate and reproduce the myth of the clueless scholar in the Ivory Tower.

Did you know...

...that when Hugo Chavez became president of Venezuela, he privatized utilities companies? I didn't know either... A student just wrote it on a paper. This is going to be a long grading marathon.

Cultural differences and language...

This is a follow up to the interesting exchange of comments in this post. As a good Argentinean, I'm a big soccer fan. Yesterday, Barcelona beat Real Madrid with two goals by the Argentine Leo Messi. The title of the most important sports newspaper about the game was: "Messi es el 'puto amo'". For those who do not speak Spanish, "puto" can be the derogatory way to refer to male homosexuals (it can be used in other ways, too). Nobody has said anything about the title or the post. Can you imagine if ESPN had titled something similarly?

A few additions to the post, because I realize it might not make a lot of sense to non-Spanish speakers:
a) The newspaper I linked to is from Spain
b) "Puto" can also be used as something roughly equivalent to 'motherf***r", in the sense that Comrade PhysioProf uses the term

Eco-feminism

I'm sure there are different school of thoughts regarding it, but can somebody explain me why eco-feminism is considered progressive? It sounds idealistic at best, eurocentric and patriarchal at worst.

Fear...

The students from my civilization course are turning in their final paper in an hour. Fear is invading my soul...

Student evaluations

Last week were my students' evaluations for my courses. I am one of those rare breed who actually takes her evaluations very seriously. I've found out that 95% the time, the criticism I receive have something to teach me, and that the students are right on the mark (then there is the other 5% that is just mean or clueless). Of course, I won't receive those evaluations until the semester is over, but I wanted to share some of the best and worst things students have written about me.

As a TA in grad school, teaching Intermediate Spanish II, I think the best comment I ever got (from a very conservative Republican student) was: "She is kind of a communist, but I love her". I have to admit that I kept that one for myself and did not include it in my teaching portfolio during job applications.

In my current job, this are the best:
- In a Latin American Civilization class: "This was not like all the other Spanish classes I've had here. This was a critical thinking class" (and yes, it was a positive comment)

-In a language class: "She doesn't care about your grade only, she cares about you as a whole, as an individual" Great comment to include in my tenure application, specially since I work at a religious school

And this are the worst:

-In an Intermediate Spanish II class, somebody wrote: "I don't know why [insert name of my institution] hires native Spanish speakers to teach Spanish. They should hire somebody who knows what it means to learn a language" (because everybody knows that I magically develop my English skills)

-In an Advanced Spanish class: "Spanish Prof scares me. I think she wanted me to fail on purpose. She would break us into groups to do activities, and kept walking around the classroom checking up on everybody. That was really creepy. I wish she would have let us alone" (No comments)

And this is the meanest comment I've heard. It didn't happen to me but to a colleague in another department. A student gave good marks on the numerical part of the evaluation. In the comments section the student wrote: "Professor X is a very good professor. S/he knows the subject very well, and is able to convey it to the students. Her/his classes are entertaining too. However, Professor X clothing and hairstyle were not very pleasant, and they disturbed me from the learning process". Now, I know Professor X. S/he is not going to land in the cover of Vogue as a fashion model. But s/he doesn't dress any different than 90% of professors in the humanities you will find.

Books for the University library

When I first started in my current job, I was told that the department had X amount of dollars every year to buy books we wanted for the library, so my share of the budget was around 500 dollars. I respected the sum very carefully, because I didn't want to upset any colleague if I requested more than my share. At the end of the fiscal year, I realized that many of my colleagues do not use the money, so the Chair was ordering pretty much anything he saw in order to spend the budget (if you let it unused, it would be reduced the next year). So I asked him if I could order more stuff next year, and he had no problem with it. The process is: you fill out a form, send it to your chair, who signs it and then forwards it to the Library Acquisitions division. I've been very happy with the opportunity. Books do not have to be class-related, it's pretty much anything I need for my research or that I want to get my hands on and not depend on Interlibrary Loan.

A while ago, though, I discovered something pretty annoying. When the library asks the book you request, they let you know. But if they can't find the book after a certain time, they cancel the request without notifying you. The annoying part, however, is that many of the canceled books are very easy to find. For example, if you order a book from Duke University Press, the library will buy it very quickly. If you want a book by Beatriz Viterbo (an Argentine publishing house), it's not a problem either. Beatriz Viterbo seems to have good distribution channels in the United States. But if it isn't distributed in the United States through an official channel, you seem to be out of luck. Some months ago, I ordered a book published by Anthropos, a very well-known Spanish publishing house. A month ago, I discovered that the order had been canceled. I really wanted the book, so I went online to try to buy it. I found a Spanish online bookstore that had it. The book cost $27, and the shipping (from Spain) was $14. I ordered it, and I received it last week. Overall, it cost me $41. So it is not a matter of price. I've ordered much more expensive books that they have bought. I don't understand why can't they buy the book overseas and get it.

Does any of you have the same problem and/or any suggestion?

Travel tips for Los Angeles

One of the things I work on is representation of urban space in literature and film. I haven't find many films where the director is smart enough to give you a feel for a city without resorting to cliche images (for example, in a movie about Buenos Aires, shots of El Obelisco, San Telmo and other touristic spots). On a related note, Los Angeles is a city that I have started to love in its own weird way. My husband grew up there, and his parents are still there, so we visit every Christmas. He had always had a love-hate relationship with LA, and one of the most beautiful things he ever told me was that I had taught him how to love his native city. The reason why I bring this up is because Los Angeles is another difficult city to translate into cinematographic images. You have all the cliches in the world (Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice, etc), but that doesn't capture everything the city has to offer. Last night, hubby and I watched a movie that somehow managed to capture a sense of LA that I recognize. The movie is To Live And Die In L.A, directed by William Friedkin in 1985. It's a thriller about a U.S secret agent trying to catch a counterfeit artist (William Dafoe stealing every scene he is in). It's not perfect by any means, and it is a little dated (the music, the color scheme of the cinematography, all scream 80s). But strangely, it uses repeatedly one of my favorite drives in LA: the 710 from Long Beach to San Pedro. It goes through the industrial port, and if you do it at night, it has an almost dreamlike quality to it. If you watch the movie in the newly released version, make sure to watch in the Special Features section the alternative ending and the 30 minutes documentary on the making of the movie. They are worth it. In honor of Los Angeles, and the movie I just saw, I will like to name a few of my favorite activities to do while in LA and its vicinity. Granted, you need a car. But they are worth it.

1- Walk through the Mexican shops of downtown Santa Ana (I do this every year).

2- Hike in Griffith Park (also do this every year)

3- Drive the 710 from Long Beach to San Pedro. Both during the day and at night it is wonderful sightseeing

4-Go to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It has the graves of old stars like Rodolfo Valentino, the tombstones of the Chandler Family (owners of the L.A Times), and, my favorite, of Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone.

Here is Johnny's grave:


On one side,it has quotes from some of his famous friend: Eddie Vedder, Lisa Marie Presley, Vincent Gallo, and others.

Here is Dee Dee's grave:



Note the only quote on the bottom: "Ok...I gotta go now". Comparing the two graves you realize who was the Republican, rigid, Sargent wannabe, and who died from an overdose.

5- Visit the Dollar Bookstore in Carson City (near Torrance). Every book is one dollar, and the organization of the books is non-existent. So it is really a treasure hunt. You have to go through every aisle, just to make sure you are not missing anything. Even if you don't find an obscure gem, it's your opportunity to buy all those bestsellers you felt too guilty to pay 7 bucks for.

6- Drive and stop through the beach communities: Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, etc. They still have some remainders of what they were in the 60s (before they became gentrified).

7- Take the Metrorail line between Long Beach and Downtown LA. The trajectory in itself is interesting. Then get off at downtown LA and go to the Grand Central Market.


And before going, get a copy of Mike Davis'City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (New Edition). Even though it is uneven, it's the best accessible history of Los Angeles I've ever read.

How to chose a PhD program in Spanish or Latin American literature.

My fellow blogger Clarissa has mentioned many times the hard time she had at her graduate institution. I ended up doing my PhD where I did for a variety of reasons, most of them non-academic ones. I actually liked my program and my professors, but I still wished I had had more guidance as to how to choose a program that was the best for me. I was clueless when I applied, and I think I was lucky to have had a good experience. A while ago, a senior student came to me saying that she was thinking about applying to a PhD program in Spanish in a year, and if I could give her some advice as to where to apply, because she felt lost. I felt really happy. First, because I think it will be a good fit for her, doing a PhD in Spanish. And second, because I could give somebody the advice I never had. At the same time, I realized that it's not only foreign students the ones that have no clue about how graduate education works. So here are a few tips as to how to chose a PhD program that is compatible with you.

1- First, even if it sounds obvious, have a general idea as to what you would like to study.

2- Don't think that the Ivys are necessary better than other universities. Usually, they are not. And sometimes, it might be easier for a graduate from University of Michigan to find a job than it is for somebody with a PhD from Yale.

3-As Clarissa has said it, disregard the NRC rankings. They mean very little.

4- After you've figured out what is the general field you would like to study, do some research and see what departments have specialists you would like to work with. Read a few of their articles. See if you like their approach. You do not need to be so well versed in theory at this point. But let's say you want to work in contemporary Argentine literature, and there is a professor who works that. At the same time, he has a Lacanian approach to writing about literature. If you can't go pass page 1 of Lacan, that professor is probably not a good fit for you.

5- Look at the rest of the professors in the department. Is everybody a Full professor and the last person hired was 15 years ago? That's probably a bad sign. You want to see departments that are not stale, and that have had the resources for hiring somebody in the past 5 years.

6-Never go to a program that doesn't offer less than full tuition and a stipend. YOU DO NOT PAY TO DO A PHD in SPANISH.

7-If you are an international student, take into consideration that you will not be able to work outside campus. The financial aspect of whatever package you get offer is important, even though it should not be your deciding factor.

8-Living in New York as a grad student sounds more exciting than, say, Iowa. However, remember that you will be a poor, broke grad student, and maybe you won't be able to afford all the wonderful things that New York has to offer. And who wants to graduate and move to a less exciting city than New York?

9-Besides the annual stipend, other things to be considered are: do they offer financial support during the summer? Do they have travel funds? Will they pay for you to attend at least one conference a year? These are also important things.

These are some of the things I told my student. After some research, she will be applying to mostly flagship state universities, with a few private ones in the mix. I think that she chose very well where to apply.

This is advice mostly to potential PhD students in Spanish. It probably doesn't translate well to other programs, but feel free to add to or question anything I've said.

Grocery shopping, couponing and splurges

Nicoleandmaggie's Saturday post has its usual collection of links to posts of the week. I made it into the list! Yeah!!! However, this is not the topic of the post. There is also a link to a post by First Gen American about the connection between "couponing" and obesity.

I clip coupons almost as a sport, and love using them when I go grocery shopping. I search all around: not only Sunday's newspapers, but also online, subscribing to certain manufacturers emails, etc. However, I am also a very discerning shopper. There are things where I will buy whatever is on sale, whatever brand it is, or I will buy a specific brand only because I have a coupon; but with other products, I have to splurge. What are your considerations when you go shopping? These are mine:

-Coffee: it has to be brand name and good. A coupon or a sale might make me decide between Seattle's Best, Peet's, Newman's Own or similar brands, but I will never buy Folgers. Coffee is what sustains me all day long, so it has to be good!!!

-Cereal: it has to have less than 10 grams of sugar per portion, and at least 4 g of fiber. After that, I don't care about brands. Whatever is on sale or I have a coupon for is fine with me.

-Toilet Paper: it has to be brand name. And that is my husband's only request about grocery shopping. I am happy to comply.

-Shampoos and conditioners: Check CVS, they always have a year-round sales for almost whatever brand you want. You just have to time it correctly.

-Produce: here, they usually do not have coupons. I try to guide myself by buying what's in season and also the usual recommendations about when to buy organic and when to buy regular. Also, I try local when possible. And to be honest, a "Fair Trade" label does more to me than organic.

-Meat: I am the biggest carnivore on Earth. But I am also an Argentinean, so I know what red meat tastes like. And it doesn't taste like anything I've found on a US grocery store shelf. So I barely eat read meat. I buy ground beef that it's at least 90% lean sometimes, but that's it.

-Dairy Products. When I met my husband, he used to buy only Soy Milk instead of regular milk because he was a single guy and regular milk would go bad quicker. So I adopted the habit. Lately, I've been hooked on Almond Milk. But if I get good coupons (and there have been some around lately, by Smart Choice for example) I will buy regular milk.

So, what do you do?

On cultural differences in the classroom and the workplace.

A lot has been said about Antonio Calvo's suicide after being fired by Princeton University and escorted out of campus. Today, I read an article on the NYT regarding his death that made me think of an additional angle to the case.

According to the NYT article:

"Dr. Calvo supervised graduate students, most of whom teach undergraduates; the graduate students, his friends said, criticized his management style and singled out comments that they felt were inappropriately harsh.

In one episode earlier this academic year, Dr. Calvo told a graduate student that she deserved a slap on the face, and slapped his own hands together. In another, he jokingly referred to a male student’s genitalia in an e-mail, using a common Spanish expression that implores someone to get to work".

I am guessing that Calvo's expression was something to the point of DEJA DE TOCARTE LOS COJONES Y TRABAJA. The literal translation would be: "Stop touching your balls and work", while the real meaning of the phrase is "Get you ass out the chair and work" (or something like that). Leaving aside for a moment the fact that some people could take this phrase and maliciously construct it as an inappropriate sexual remark (which it is not), such an episode reminds me of how I am constantly censoring myself or going to extreme lengths to explain comments I make to my students, because I am afraid they will take it the wrong way.

I am an Argentine Jew with a lot of close relatives who suffered under the dictatorship, and I have the darkest sense of humor you can imagine. One year, after being accidentally exposed to two gas leaks within six months, I started making jokes with my friends about my genetic inheritance. I feel I could never make that kind of joke in the United States.

I remember in grad school, a fellow classmate got called by our supervisor and told that students had complained that he cussed too much (in Spanish), in the classroom. He did cuss a lot, but it was just natural for him. The students had every right to feel uncomfortable, but he was really depressed that none of them had first approached him and just explained that what he was doing was inappropriate in a classroom setting for American standards. I knew him quite well, and knew he was one of the most laid-back and approachable TAs around. That left an imprint on me, and even today I over-censor myself with words. If I make a joke about how we, the Jews, learn how to deal with guilt trips since we are born because that's how Jewish mothers are, and therefore no student guilt trip will affect us; I repeat 5 times that I am a Jew. Years ago, I was teaching SPAN 101. I thought that the best way to practice vocabulary was to play hangman. After class, a student approach me and told me that I probably didn't know, but such a game had really bad connotations for African-Americans. I was lucky that he felt comfortable enough to approach me and not just complain to a supervisor. But I never played the game again.

My question then is: I believe that I do have to make an effort to adapt to certain cultural standards that might not be my own. But what kind of effort should students/co-workers make to understand where I come from? Wouldn't it be a learning moment for them too? I know this is not an easy topic. There are obviously things that shouldn't be done, and that are wrong no matter what the culture is. But what about the grey area? I know that I am very careful and sometimes censor myself, and that I occasionally resent it.

Film recommendations, Argentine edition

I was debating whether to change my screen name to Rosa Luxemburg, decided it was a little too extreme, because, you know, I don't want to exaggerate that much. So I had settled on Chantal Mouffe, and then ABD Mama goes and post a comment on my Buenos Aires in 1932 post. So, if I am going to be truthful to my previous post, I can't continue trying to stir up controversies. Thanks, pal. Therefore, it's time to go back to my last promise, film recommendations.

I have a hard time recommending Latin American or Spanish movies, because my knowledge is spotty. I know quite a lot about Argentina, less about Mexico and Spain, and almost nothing about the rest of the countries. So here I go:

As I said in a previous post, my favorite Argentine director is Adrian Caetano. That would be likely to generate controversy among Argentine film scholars, because of his love of genres and his willingness to adapt them to local contexts. His first film, Pizza, Birra, Faso (1998), which he co-directed with Bruno Stagnaro, is considered to have inaugurated a new era in Argentine filmmaking. It is difficult to explain, 12 years later, what a breakthrough it was with the stalled state of Argentine film production. He followed up with Bolivia, a small, beautiful film about an illegal Bolivian immigrant in Buenos Aires. My favorite film from him, though, is Un Oso Rojo (A Red Bear), an urban western that manages to be highly entertaining and highly political at the same time.

Another famous Argentine director is Pablo Trapero. I think he is more uneven than Caetano. His first film, Mundo Grua (1999) (Crane World) is another small masterpiece. Shot in black and white, it describes the effects of a middle age man who lost his blue-collar job and his attempt to find a new one. It's understated and touching at the same time. His next film, El bonaerense, tackles police corruption and effectively manages not to be obvious in its message (nobody saying out loud how bad and corrupt the police is). Besides, as a friend of mine once said, it has one of the best sex scenes in Argentine cinema, where for all it's renovations and changes, it is incredibly mild when it comes to sex. I haven't seen his latest films, but I've heard really good things about Leonera (Lion's Den (Leonera)), about a woman raising her son in while she is in prison.

Another important name is Lucrecia Martel. La Cienaga describes the decaying state of provincial upper-classes, where everything is rotting but where time has stopped at the same time.

Two more "mainstream" recommendation: Tiempo de Valientes (Tiempo De Valientes (On Probation)). It's a buddy cop kind of movie, but with an Argentine twist. Instead of being two diametrically different cops who form an unlikely couple (think Lethal Weapon), it's about a depressed cop and his shrink who is forced to accompany him wherever he goes. It's absolutely hilarious. The second more "mainstream" recommendation is Nueve Reinas, (Nine Queens), a movie about con artists and the city of Buenos Aires.

Finally, if you want to see Buenos Aires through the lens of a foreign director, don't miss Wong-Kar-Wai's Happy Together (Special Edition). When it was released in Buenos Aires, most Argentine critics said that it was the best articulation of the city urban space done in film. But it's done not through shooting in recognizable locations, but through "moods". Exhilaration, hope, melancholy and depression, four words that describe porteños very well.

Spanish Prof Unleashed!!!

Ok, since I've been politely asked at another blog to stop the conversation regarding the most controversial post of the past two days, I decided to start multiple controversies at my own blog. I'm on Eastern Break, I was dumb enough not to ask my students to turn in their final paper until next Wednesday, so I will have plenty of time to be around:

1- Clarissa: Hollywood rocks!!! Drop your Ukranian-Russian Jewish prejudices and start watching Hollywood movies!! Viva Spielberg!!!

2- Nicole and Maggie: You might be able to save more money than I do, but....but... I know what feminism is! Yeah!

3- To Hillary Clinton's lovers (not literally, of course): she rocks, but stop saying that if she had been elected her government would have been much more progressive than Obama's. You have no way of proving it. Get over it!

4- To my students: Taylor Swift and Justin Beiber is not music! And Green Day is not punk rock!

5- Recent Phd and Anastasia:....eh... I better don't say anything, or I'll get in trouble


See, if anybody had just commented on my post about Buenos Aires in 1932, I wouldn't have been forced to write all of this.

To all of you who I haven't named, it's not personal. I'm just getting old. But feel free to contribute.

SNARK, SNARK, SNARK

Film comedies

I was going to name the post "I love Hollywood!!!!", or something controversial like that, in honor of all the controversy that is going on the academic blogosphere. But then I just found that the issue to be really sad. I am one of the lucky ones, one who not only landed a TT position on her first year on the market, but a position in a city I like and in an institution that is a good fit for me. What I find extremely sad is that somebody who by all accounts has a good position at a prestigious college, and call herself a "radical", can't even concede to the fact that "adjuncting" might mean something different for most people than what it means to her. So when I get sad, I try to think/do things that make me happy. And since my husband was out drinking with a buddy, the second thing that makes me happy are film comedies.

As I've said before, I'm a big film buff. And I know a lot about it. I love genres, Hollywood genres. Not all of them, but comedies, thrillers and westerns are something I adore (when done right, of course). In fact, my favorite Argentine filmmaker is Adrian Caetano, whose films are highly political and many times framed within the conventions of a certain genre. For example, in his movie Cronica de una Fuga (Chronicle of an Escape), he uses the real life story of the only case where a group of people was able to escape from the clandestine detention camps during the last Argentine dictatorship, and shoots it as an "escape from prison" genre movie. It is brilliant.

So what I did last night was to turn into the things that made me happy. Film comedies. I watch again (I've probably seen the movie 10 times) His Girl Friday, my favorite comedy of all times. If you are watching it for the first time, make sure to put the captions in English, even if it is your first language. You do not want to loose a single line of dialogue. I don't like all type of comedies: I don't care for slapstick, for example. What I like are "dialogue-based" comedies. The screwball comedies from the 40s are a great example of them, with the additional value that they feature some of the most progressive female characters that you will find in an American movie until the 70s. After His Girl Friday, try Bringing Up Baby. And "baby" is a leopard lost in Connecticut, not a real baby.

So last night I watched His Girl Friday. And today, the whole controversy still makes me sad, but at least I didn't wake up moody. Try it, it really works wonders.

Now I have to run to class. I will write soon with more recommendations for film comedies.

Homeless

That's how I feel. On Friday, my office computer started acting up and locking me out. I don't know what it is, but I fear a virus. So I made the report with the IT people (well, it actually took me over half an hour to get a disinterested student worker to write the report), and they promised me they would send somebody as soon as possible to repair it. Comes Tuesday, and nobody has show up. I go to their desk, and in a half charming, half sarcastic way, I asked politely if they had any news of when somebody was going to come to fix my computer. Another student worker looks at the computer and mumbles something, and then leaves. He comes back and says that he will come with me to my office to take the CPU so a technician can look into it. And he does. He says he can't promise me when it will be ready. "Sometime soon". I've been bringing my own laptop to work, but I feel homeless. I can't print on it, I don't know how to put accents when I write in Spanish on it, so I spend half the day in a computer at the lab trying to get some work done. It's a real pain in the ass...

Movies

One of my big passions in life are movies. I have worked and written about Contemporary Latin American cinema, but I'm a big film buff. I can talk for hours about directors as diverse as Francois Truffaut, Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, Wong-Kar-Wai and Takeshi Kitano. I have a curiosity for films that I do not always have for literature. So, on a lazy Sunday, surfing the internet, here are a few tidbits.

I've never liked Alberto Fuguet very much. I met him personally at a conference, and he seemed pretty arrogant. I liked some of his novels more than others, but I can't get pass his personality. However, his last film, Musica Campesina, was just released at the Buenos Aires Film Festival to great reviews. I did some research on it, and it picked my curiosity. I doubt it will make it to my neck of the wood, but I hope it gets some distribution in the United States.

On the other hand, I love Sean Penn. However, his last project, playing an aging Robert Smith-type musician looking for the Nazi officer that tortured his father in Auschwitz, looks like an unintentional parody.

I know what I want for my birthday. Olivier Assayas is one of my favorite directors. Even when he is not at the top of his game, his movies have more substance than 90% of what's around nowadays. A while ago I read in the New Yorker a review about his last film/mini-series, about Carlos, The Jackal. Of course, it never made it to my city, but it's now available on a 3 Disc set on Amazon.

Students and taxes...

...or a different example of how some students seem to be loosing critical thinking skills.

Last night, I was on Facebook, when I saw a post from the former student whose wedding I attended. As you may remember from the post, she is very right wing, married an ROTC graduate, and moved out of state to where he is stationed. Currently, he is at an undisclosed location while on training, and she can't contact him for a month. So she ended up in charge of filing his tax return.

Her Facebook post was something to the effect of: "I can't believe that the government offered my husband a scholarship and now is taxing him on that, so he owes a lot of money. It's so unfair that the government does that while hubby is sacrificing for the good of this nation..." It went on, and on and on. As anybody who went to grad school through scholarships and fellowships know, whatever part of them you apply for tuition and fees is not taxable. So I let her know that, plus I did a 10 minutes research and came up with: a) the IRS publication that deals with taxes and higher education (970), and b) the fact that ROTC stipends are specially excluded from taxes during school year. It just took me 10 minutes, and I am not a tax expert.

So I posted on her wall all the information, and where to look at it. She was really thankful, and said that TurboTax was considering the tuition money as extra income and trying to tax it. I told her to either take everything to a tax advisor or ditch the software, print the IRS manuals and do the taxes herself. She said: "Why would I do that, if I have software?". I bit my tongue. So here is an anecdote of a student relying so much on technology that she can't do basic research by herself. This, of course, is not an anti-technological rant, but a rant about the fact that students seem to be lacking basic critical thinking skills.

Buenos Aires viewed through the eyes of a Hollywood studio... in 1932

Don't miss this wonderful gem: a touristic clip, in English, about Buenos Aires, done by the Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer in 1932. The title: "Romantic Argentina"

Shared cultural experiences ... growing up

There is a wonderful Argentine documentary by Andres Di Tella, called La televisión y yo. In this film, the director comments that one of the things he regrets the most about not growing up in Argentina (his parents went to exile with the 1976 dictatorship)is that he doesn't have shared memories with people of his generation about TV programs everybody used to watch while growing up. I've never felt that, although my parents were really strict on what I could watch or not, because TV has never been a big attraction for me. However, I've started thinking about this idea lately because of a few reasons. The first one is the idea of having a "sense of belonging" to a place or not, and my own personal situation adjusting to the United States. The other one was the post I did on Mexican crime fiction and Paco Ignacio Taibo II in particular.

As I wrote in that post, Taibo not only does crime fiction. He is also very politically involved, and he took part on the student movement of 1968, which ended in the Tlatelolco massacre. In relation to that, he wrote a very strange novel in 1982, Heroes convocados: Manual para la toma del poder (or Calling All Heroes: A Manual for Taking Power). In this novel, Nestor, the protagonist, has participated and suffered the defeat of 1968. A few years later, he lays feverish in a hospital recovering from an infection, and in his hallucinations he calls the heroes of his youth to help him launch a new reform grassroots movement that will continue the efforts and dreams that were destroyed in the massacre.

The most interesting thing is who Nestor calls: Sandokan, The Three Musketeers, Sherlock Holmes and others. He calls the protagonist of the popular, adventure novels of his youth, the ones Paco Ignacio Taibo II grew up reading. And it's exactly the type of novels I grew up reading. I read every Emilio Salgari book I could find. I became interested in history (and got used to reading very long novels) with Alejandro Dumas. At that time (mid 80s), it could be hard to find copies of certain books, if they hadn't been re-released. So one thing my grandmother and I would do regularly would be to go to used books stores, trying to find something I was interested in. I still remember the joy of finding a used copy of Alejandro Dumas's Veinte Años Después (the sequel to The Three Musketeers), after looking for it for a few months. When I came to the United States, I realized that that's one of the things I do not share, even with people of my generation that one might called "intellectuals". I was trying to show my husband who Emilio Salgari was and what he wrote, and I realized he has only been translated into English 10 years ago. He had never read Alexandre Dumas, and I still haven't found anybody who has.

We are talking about my readings from ages 8 to 13. When I see what they read (or what they used to read), it's completely different. Not better, not worse, just different. And although it may sound as something small, it's a memory I do not share with people in this country. And sometimes, it means more than I would think.

Elections in Peru

This is a post for those of you who can read Spanish.

As an Argentine, I know what it feels to vote for "the lesser of (many) evils". Sometimes, the candidates are appalling, but you also have the common sense to know that some would be worse than others. Since I've been living in the US for so long, I haven't voted in an election since 1999. If I could, I would have voted for Nestor Kirchner in 2003 and for Cristina Kirchner in 2007. In 2011, I'm really happy I don't have to make the choice.

Although I obviously have nothing invested in it, I feel that a similar situation must be going through the minds of many Peruvians today. The three main candidates are less than thrilling. Ollanta Humala, who tries to present himself as the left-wing option, is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Peruvian army. He has also presented himself as a "nationalist". To me, as an Argentine, the sum of high ranked Army official + nationalism equals right wing, not left wing. He also collaborated in the fight against the Shining Path. Notwithstanding the atrocities of the Shining Path, something tells me that a little research into his human rights record would come up with less than stellar results. It would be nice if the Latin American (and U.S) left wing remembered this every so often. The other to candidates are Alejandro Toledo and Keiko Fujimori.

Alejandro Toledo is a former president and a clear-cut, center-right wing, "I like neoliberalism but we need to have a few more social welfare plans", kind of candidate. Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, the corrupt dictator of Peru in the 90s, seems to be running only to have the opportunity to free his father from jail (where he is serving a sentence in relation to the corruption of his government).

Today, in the Argentine newspaper Perfil, I saw opinion pieces by two of the best known Peruvian writers: Mario Vargas Llosa and Jaime Bayly. Vargas Llosa explains why he will vote for Toledo. Basically, he is voting for the lesser of three evils. He has nothing positive to say about Toledo, but a lot negative to say about the other two. I don't know what I would do if I was Peruvian, but I respect his opinion. Jaime Bayly is a writer that in the mid-90s managed to position himself as the enfant terrible of Peruvian literature. I never liked his books, but I liked the fact that he introduced issues of homosexuality and drugs in an otherwise very conservative society. Here, Bayly explains why he will vote for Keiko Fujimori. It's the biggest piece of sexist crap I've read in long time. He is voting for Keiko because she is a good wife, a good mother and good daughter who is devoted to his father, and he wishes his own daughters will be as devoted to him in the future. I am not kidding. Unbelievable

Mexican crime fiction

...going back to the topic I had been posting previously, here are some suggestions of Mexican crime fiction.

Although there are some previous classics like Vicente Leñero's Los albañiles (Spanish Edition), the figure that dominates Mexican crime fiction is Paco Ignacio Taibo II. Writer, journalist, historian, public intellectual, he is a larger than life figure. And as such, he can overwhelm and produce fatigue.

Paco Ignacio Taibo II is the creator of a series of novels starring Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, a private socialist detective in contemporary Mexico City. At its best, the novels are funny, clever, and manage to depict perfectly the absurdity and contradictions of every day life for chilangos. But he has written too many of them, so they become repetitive and formulaic. From the Belascoarán Shayne series, my favorites are Cosa Facil, (or, for those who do not read Spanish An Easy Thing) and No habra final feliz (No Happy Ending for those who would like to read it in English). If you can read in Spanish, they have just released the complete Belascoaran Shayne series in one volume, No habrá final feliz: La serie completa de Héctor Belascoarán Shayne (Spanish Edition). It only costs $17, so it's really worth it. Another Taibo detective novel I really enjoyed (without Belascoarán Shayne) is Sombra de la sombra / Shadow of Shadow (Spanish Edition). In 2005, Taibo co-wrote Muertos Incomodos (Spanish Edition)with el Subcomandante Marcos. I find it embarrassingly bad, but some people might want to read it out of curiosity.

Other contemporary crime writers that I like are Rolo Diez and Juan Hernandez Luna. From Rolo Diez, my favorite is Luna de Escarlata. You'll have to find it in a library, because it's hard to buy it online. Another good one is Papel Picado. Juan Hernandez Luna has a vast collection of writings. A few suggestions are: Las mentiras de la luz , Quiza otros labios and Tabaco para el puma.

I'll keep posting suggestions soon.

Random thoughts

- Dear student: don't stand me up twice in a row. It's bad for my blood pressure and my mood. My husband had to run to buy a six pack last night, because I was really grumpy.

-Why do I need to sign the form when a student decides to drop from one of my classes? What if I decide not to sign it, just because? What a dumb bureaucratic step...

- Why can K-12 educators take a $250 deduction in their taxes for out-of-pocket expenses, and college educators cannot? K-12 certainly deserve it, but doesn't the IRS know that college prof also spend a lot of their own money to make their classes better?

The New York Dolls... and a moral dilemma

I was a teenager and young adult in Argentina in the 1990s (15 to 25 years old). At that time, neoliberal economic policies were crudely being implemented there. It ended up devastating the economy and what was up to then the country with the largest middle class in Latin America (up to the early 1980s, 70% of the Argentine population were middle class). On a very selfish side, these policies did have one good thing: the flood of imports allowed very obscure music groups and CDs to play in the country or to buy the CDs at any music store. So that's how I developed my music taste. I also got to watch some of my still favorite bands live: Nirvana, REM, The Ramones (x7 times), Beasty Boys, Iggy Pop, Living Colors, Nick Cave, etc...

When I was 14, I started listening to punk rock. A friend of mine had a pirated VHS version of The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, and I was hooked. Of course, a researcher in the making, I started exploring more and more. After The Sex Pistols came The Clash. To these days, I believe their album London Calling is the best thing ever recorded.

Then, I started listening to its predecessors: Iggy Pop and The Stooges, MC5, David Bowie, and all the glam rock of the early 70s: The New York Dolls, Richard Hell & Voidoids; and to American punk rock: The Ramones, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers and The Dead Boys. I still listen to that music very often, although I've expanded my horizons.

This brings me to my current dilemma. A few weeks ago, I read somewhere that The New York Dolls were touring this summer with Motley Crue and Poison. I jokingly said to my husband: "Would you go to see them if they come to [our town]?". I never thought that would be more than a rhetorical question, and neither did he, since our city never gets anything (as an example, Bob Dylan played 60 miles away, Radiohead played 120 miles away, etc). Husband just answer: "Whoa... that's a tough one, but I doubt we'll ever have to decide about it". Well, yesterday I saw that they are actually playing in our city. I would love to see The New York Dolls. Despite their misogyny and sexism, I think I could enjoy Motley Crue. They were somehow different from other hair bands from the 80s, they had an energy that made me dance to them whenever one of their song came up. I recently checked out from the library Nikki Sixx's The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star and had a really entertaining afternoon reading the book. In the 90s, I also went to see Guns N Roses twice, and they kicked ass. But Poison?... Ewww... I hated them even when I was 15. I can't see myself paying to go and see them.

So what do I do? Cheapest tickets are $37, all fees included. I would love to see The New York Dolls, even if Johnny Thunders is dead. I've heard they are still very strong on stage. I could tolerate Motley Crue as a guilty pleasure. But Poison is in between them, and they can make me puke. What would you do? (assume money is not the issue)

E-mail address

I've just updated my profile, so that now readers can e-mail me if they want. It's under "View my complete profile"

Dear student...

...the clear explanation of what I expect in your final project proposal can be found on pages 3-4 in the syllabus. If you are emailing me now to find out, you will not do it correctly since you will not have enough time. Thanks.

Grumpy...