Archives For Spanish

I was unsure on what to talk about before going to bed (I’m trying to post once a day, have you noticed? hahaha) – And I was between discussing this topic, and the news of Peru deciding to use the Japanese system of Digital TV [Eng Google Translate] (does that mean I could… somehow get WOWOW??), instead of the European one~~~

Anyway!!! I decided to rant~

[Original Spanish Article] Sorry, any English media DON’T CARE so you’ll have to do with a Google Translate.

I think it’s amazing that an illiterate person who is over 25 years old and Peruvian is legible to work in congress. Baffles me! And I’m sure it baffles many others…

I am in no way calling the congresswoman illiterate, because she reads and writes. Not AT the level that someone who supposedly legislates and works on writing and reviewing law should be, but writes nonetheless.

As congresswoman Martha Hildebrant (a linguist, who could probably insult me and I wouldn’t understand) – Actually, I think I would feel honored to be insulted by her… kinda like Lainey dreaming of Gwyneth being a bitch towards her hahaha – Anyway, as Hildebrant points out~~ people (regular, other congressmen and the media) have completely distorted the article written by the newspaper. They did not mock Supa’s quechua ancestry (that’d be more like mocking us Chinese descendants saying things like “lico alo” when we speak perfectly well. thankyouverymuch. Assholes!) But they did point out that Supa’s Spanish is of the level of someone in primary school, hence the reference to the Coquito books (popular ABC books for children).

And as Hildrebrant also points out in the pseudo-video (because it’s just an audio) is that all congressmen, as public figures, are exposed to being criticized in the labor they do.

As one user states in a comment,

I am a Peruvian from Puno, Quechua-speaker and southern, and I don’t feel remotely humiliated [referencing how the congresswoman feels], au contraire I feel pity for our representative being almost illiterate.

I say this because she’s a congresswoman representing the state, and should be in the position of being criticized or interviewed, but when you’re illiterate – you can’t even do that. She’s fragile and helpless, she doesn’t waste time to play victim and that’s the nature of ignorance. There isn’t the capacity to reflect, they think that everyone is against them or discriminating against them.

All talk on corruption, being honest, pure and holy – that’s simply poppycock.

Why don’t we put virgins in congress already! Geez~~~

Now, if you really wanna support literacy through all economic-social barriers, check out some about The Big Read project… maybe someday Peruvian’s will have a non-illiterate-congress.

The Big Read - 2009

Nelson Mandela, Queen Rania, Paulo Coelho, Luis Jaime Cisneros V. have come together with others around the world like Natalie Portman, and Dakota Blue Richards (The Golden Compass) on this global project for education.

You can head over here to read some of the stories (in English, Francais, y Español~~ some even in Arabic… but why not in Chinese, Japanese and Korean? I could do some Japanese easy to read stuff~~), and add your name to the list~

Record Store Day…

April 18, 2009 — Leave a comment

was today~~~


recordstoreday.com

Damn. I must admit I haven’t stepped on a record store since… since… maybe perhaps 2006? I do most my shopping online now, mainly because Peru overprices too much, and takes to long to get stuff. For example, I wanted to buy the Surrounded Bjork collection, and the store here decided to split the collection per album and wanted around $30USD per album because they were all dual discs – so considering it had 7 discs at $30 each… they wanted me to pay $210 bucks instead of the $130 price tag it has on Amazon. And it’s not only the music… I have the same issue with books and dvds.

Also… there weren’t any events in Peru anyway. There were, however, events in Canada, Sweden, Japan, and even Hong Kong. And I am still looking for the Asian-version of Pitchfork… any suggestions??

I bought my own server and domain, and opened by first ‘proper’ blog. sighs~

And damn it! I lost that domain because the stupid company I was using, didn’t automatically renewed my account, and they never sent me an email notification. Dumbasses!!!

So I spent 1 month without knowing why my domain wasn’t working, and when they finally confirmed my thoughts it was too late~~~ someone had taken my domain and was trying to sell it to me at a higher price. Assholes!

April 18th is siutou-amy.com remembrance day~~~ LOL

siutou-amy.com website - April 18th 2004

Emo-est website ever? True. But that site had pretty nifty content like faux-interviews~~~ I should do those again! LOL’ Had some phunny lists like “You know you’re Peruvian when…” or “I hate it when…” – there was music, a lot of fanart icons and wallpapers, and my favorite of all~~ there was a movie faux-database. It was actually all .html and nothing fancy, but I did take the time back then to write as many reviews as films I got to watch each week. Sometimes once or twice a week, sometimes I wrote more than four reviews~~

Now I watch and listen to too much stuff to write individually… sighs.

too the long-gone siutou-amy.com!!! *raises glass* Cheers!

Despite whatever views I may have on Obama’s policy, decisions… or the lack of a firm position (and how much his ideas reminded me of the traditional Latin American candidates during their campaigns) – I do agree with many designers who point out how good his campaign is. The most throughly article I ever read (mind you, I read this a long time ago~~~ perhaps almost a year ago) was Expertinent: Why the Obama “Brand” Is Working – not only the thoughts and critic people involved in graphic design did, but also the comments on the article. Yes, there are a few bad-mouthing the article pointing out how they are not voting for Obama for his marketing, but there are a few others that are quite insightful too. Doing a quick search, you end up with articles such as The Hardest Working Presidential Candidate Logo, which show the pretty awesome use of the Obama-branding… crazy I tell you. As well as NOTCOT’s Obama design post, Ten marketing lessons from the Barack Obama Presidential campaign, and How Better Marketing Elected Barack Obama.

So we all agree. Now, moving on…

So I’ve been Mood: Political for the past week, and I’ve been watching a lot of political shows (which I’m tired off, because I always end up grumpy and cursing interviewers to hell and back), but I’m S&M like that sometimes~

Anyway!!! I got curious, went online and looked up websites of the main political parties here in Peru. APRA, Unidad Nacional, Partido Nacionalista Peruano and… is Peru Possible still relevant? Anyway, I did search for them. I’ll just let you look at my captures instead…

Very 90’s… compared to Obama’s right? Lack of sophistication, graphical quality… but let’s even forget about apperances and focus on the content and its organization. These political Peruvian websites lack ANY information architecture, perhaps interface design needs… a lot of work?, and a total lack of interactive design. But my main problem with all of them is the amount of information, which obviously hasn’t been edited. So in short~~~ They lack structure, and they lack strong content. And don’t even mention the Unidad Nacional website which is just a placeholder saying it’s the website, it has a few links linking to .htm pages with NOTHING on them!

SHAMEFUL.

So now that we are in the Obama Era… the times of globalization, will the political parties take notice of this, and begin minding their design and content? Will good marketing finally matter here?

I may have to agree with something I remember Simon Cowell said~~ that politics in America were great because they were very engaging. Something to that extent… I remember, but can’t find the quote. LOL’  But I remember! That was the reason I watch a lot of CNN, and the voting results with their graphics. There was so much design to be seen there! And I had wished that Peruvian politics took their job that serious and stepped it up with their marketing. *sighs* If only!

MixTape – Oldies-a-Mix

April 15, 2009 — 2 Comments

Wow, my iPod has some old music~~ haha. I decided to do a list by year, and foudn that picking a song a year is tough!! And it was a long list, so I thought I could split this up in a few other mixtapes. This one it’s a more varied one starting from 1940 with Carmen Miranda, and ending in 1969 with the Jackson 5. xD After that, I have enough music to do a 10-track mix per decade (one per year). You think?

  1. Carmen Miranda – Mamãe Eu Quero – 1940
  2. Carmen Miranda – Chica Chic Boom Chic – 1941
  3. Carmen Miranda – Não Te Dou a Chupeta – 1942
  4. Edith Piaf – La Vie en Rose – 1946
  5. Edith Piaf – Padam Padam – 1951
  6. Edith Piaf – Bravo pour le Clown! – 1953
  7. Yma Sumac – Indian Carnival – 1954
  8. Edith Piaf – Non Je Ne Regrette Rien – 1960
  9. West Side Story Cast – America – 1961
  10. The Beatles – Hold me Tight – 1963
  11. The Beatles – Can’t Buy me Love – 1964
  12. The Beatles – Help! – 1965
  13. The Mamas and the Papas – California Dreamin’ – 1966
  14. The Beatles – With a Little Help from my Friends – 1967
  15. Simon & Garfunkel – Mrs. Robinson – 1968
  16. The Jackson 5 – I Want Your Bacl – 1969

If MJ Came to Peru,

April 13, 2009 — Leave a comment

Will You Be There?

Sorry, couldn’t resist that one~~

Despite all the crazy, I would go. I would pay to see Michael Jackson – just like there’s people saying they’d pay to see Britney Spears in Lima. Really? After the shennanigans in Vancouver? ~~~ but oh those possibilities of rock with your cock out. LOL’

ANYWAY, I don’t know how much I’d be willing to pay to see MJ on stage… perhaps it will have a broad price range like many of the more ‘popular’ concerts. I’d be wiling to pay $50 for some okay ticket… I’m not crazy enough as some MJ fans. Plus, it’ll be tough to compete with them~~

By the by, have you heard? Jonas Brothers sold like 20K tickets in 4hrs in Peru. Prices raging from 1300-ish Soles ($430ish USD) to 50-ish soles ($15ish USD). I’m so glad I’m not a parent, and so glad my younger cousin doesn’t find boys an interesting subject… yet. LOL

Also Disney flat out denied that they are building a park in Peru. LOL’ Just thought I’d put this out there just in case…

Esta es la traducción de inglés -> español del artículo que escribí para YAM 003 titulado “Too Foreign for your Own Good. Please Sing in English” en el que hablo de los más recientes lanzamientos de artistas de no habla inglesa estrenando material en el idioma para entrar en el mercado.

Como el artículo es un poco largo, pueden leerlo después del break.

Continue Reading…

I just posted YAM 003 over at my portfolio~~

There’s a lot of international flavor in it… all by chance actually. It really wasn’t planned, it all just came together like that. There’s a couple of rant articles on movies and music, loads of reviews including complete non-fanatical reviews of Ao Akua, Utada Hikaru, DBSK, Hathaways, U2, Madeleine Peyroux, and Michel Gondry/Bong Joon-ho’s Yu Aoi’s Tokyo!

ALSO! A special on the Peruvian film winning the Berlinale’s Golden Bear top prize~~ The Milk of Sorrow, and some of the discussion regarding the original name “La Teta Asustada”.

YAM - Issue 3

Head over there now!

Picture this…

The terrorist threat is such a nightmare, that we get toque de queda (curfew) up to 10pm – there might be bombs anywhere you might go. You are at home, it’s the middle of the night and your kid is in bed for the night. It’s about midnight when you decide going to bed, you think everything is fine until it strikes. It shakes your window, and cracks the window in your kid’s bedroom.

Continue Reading…