On Saturday night, the masses descended on the corner of Cortland Avenue and 151st Street, because in the end, all of the Nuyorican nation (and honorary Nuyorican isleños) eventually comes home, this time to the Bronx, others to El Barrio or Loisaida or Los Sures, to spend some time with familia. There was lots of […]
Read moreA New Deal for Puerto Rico?
Eduardo Bhatia, René Pérez, and Carmen Yulín Cruz backstage at Calle 13?s December 15th concert. (Eduardo Bhatia) Jan. 18, 2013 On Monday night’s inauguration in San Juan’s Parque Luis Muñoz Marín, new mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz rattled off slogans timed to her Twitter feed: “The University Will Be RESPECTED” she intoned, ensuring she will not […]
Read more“On the Road” Burns the Candle on Both Ends
Sam Riley (left), Kristen Stewart (center), and Garrett Hedlund (right) in Walter Salles’ film version of Jack Kerouac’s classic novel, ‘On the Road.’ (Gregory Smith/Courtesy of IFC Films) Early on in Walter Salles and José Rivera’s adaptation of the classic 1957 Jack Kerouac novel On the Road, the film’s narrator, Sal Paradise, makes clear what drives him […]
Read moreHow a Puerto Rican Jew Jump-started Hip-Hop
The Ghetto Brothers in the studio, recording their only album, Power Fuerza, originally released in 1971. (Courtesy of Truth & Soul Records) It happened a little over 41 years ago, in the middle of a South Bronx park—a moment that would change Benjy Meléndez, his street gang and rock band the Ghetto Brothers, and music history forever. […]
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JR Smith’s Latin Flava
Apparently New York Knicks shooting guard J.R. Smith learned some salsa moves from his high school AAU basketball teammate, NY Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz. After hitting the game-winning shot vs. Charlotte Hornets Wednesday night, J.R. busted this move, seemingly approved by backup point guard Pablo Prigioni, who gets all Buenos Aires on him as […]
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The Boricua They Wanted Me To Be
This is the face of a 14-year-old boy in a police station in Manhattan, confessing to a crime he never committed. His name is Raymond Santana. In the new documentary Central Park Five, directed by Ken Burns, his daughter Laura, and her husband David McMahon, claims that the police coerced Santana into confessing that he was […]
Read moreSpanish Harlem Going to the Dogs?
I’m a little late on this but the cheery Times “Living In” section appears to have glommed off Whose Barrio doc I co-created as well as channeling Times story I wrote referring to James De La Vega’s painting about the shifting borderline between El Barrio and Upper East through Obama autobiography. Times story: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/realestate/east-harlem-living-in-more-small-dogs-and-big-home-prices.html?hpw Whose Barrio […]
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The Peak of Postmodernism?
Good news! This video, posted eight months ago, may represent the peak of postmodernism. It’s a full hour of repetition of a few seconds of a cars.com commercial that is a pastiche, or parody of ’70s funk falsetto. Do you dare listen to the entire hour? It might be necessary to get the whole postmodern […]
Read moreCaetano Veloso: Rebel, Rebel
By ED MORALES Nov. 13, 2012 When imagined by American critics, the most frequent cliché used about the legendary 70-year-old singer Caetano Veloso is that he is the Bob Dylan of Brazil. In that case, the best Dylan song to associate with Veloso would be “Forever Young,” because Veloso is one of the most restlessly […]
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Le Scandal!
What is the real scandal here? Read this excellent account by Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian, and check out above video featuring Michael Hastings (also linked to in Greenwald’s column). The jaw-dropping quote from Broadwell: Petraeus is a man “who spoke truth to power.” That is, repackaged Vietnam War counterinsurgency for a 21st century postmodern […]
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ED MORALES 