Birthers, Chupacabra Hunters, and Elaine Ayala's Blog from San Antonio!

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrested AGAIN!

Texas, My Texas: Another Chapter in Motivated Stupidity

...The conservative reviewers are not happy that Texas students are learning about Cesar Chavez, a Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist. Marshall's report states that Chavez “is hardly the kind of role model that ought to be held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation,"....

Another Chapter in the Bruno, "Mexicans" as Chairs, Saga

Yahoo Answers! en Español: The Land of Homophobic Drivel

KPFK's crack squad of sound engineers have already streamed and podcast this afternoon's show!

extra update, July 30th, 2009 @ 9:03pm--click the beer for the story



original posting, July 28, 2009; updated July 30, 2009.


It's me and Gustavo Arellano going toe to toe chatting/charlando on the untimely demise of Taco Bell spokesdog, Gidget, and, first up, the Henry Louis Gates debacle.

Go here to stream! here, to download. here, to podcast.

Here's a look at one of Gidget's more popular commercials:



update

here's an interesting email exchange between Gustavo Arellano, myself, and a well-researched listener! The beauty of radio: there is always someone out there listening that knows a little more than you do (that said, the Egyptian origin of Chihuahuas is a debate for another day!)

Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009
Subject: Re: Success of the Taco Bell Chihuahua
From: "P. Sergio Serrato"
To: Bill Nericcio

The Taco Bell Chihuahua was not a terribly effective ad and is not ranked in the Ad Age 100 best Ad Campaigns of the 20th Century. The Taco Bell Chihuahua became a cultural icon but it did not increase Taco Bell's sales. In fact, it lead Taco Bell to fire its marketing head and the ad agency that produced the Chihuahua ads: TWBA/Chiat/Day. I work in market research and this is a constantly referenced case study. Ads should do more than raise awareness of what they are advertising, they MUST motivate action (purchase) of the product being advertised.

His earlier note to Arellano on the Gates arrest is also salient and cogent:

From: P. Sergio Serrato
Sent: Tue 7/28/2009 4:23 PM
To: memo@sdsu.edu; Gustavo Arellano
Subject: Libertarian quote on the Gates/cop issue

Gentlemen,

I am listening to your conversation on KPFK.org and Gustavo mentioned a Libertarian point of view on the Gates/cop issue. One of my libertarian associates posted an interesting perspective on the issue:

Race is irrelevant. A cop has no right to arrest people for being rude. The cop was an intruder. The urge to defend police for their criminality will always render the rightwing completely unable to understand and defend liberty. best,

P.

William Vollman on the Verge: Imperial Valley Photographic Album in the NY Times

Classic Comedy from the Daily Show: The Timothy Geithner Edition

Melinda Gates is Down With La Raza! Latino/a Education as a Civil Rights Initiative

Somebody should send this video to our Governator!

Colbert on Birthers!

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Womb Raiders - The Fight for the Truth Behind Obama's Birth
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Tasers

Even Fox News Knows that Henry Louis Gates Arrest Was Out of Line

New Rant from the One and Only Frederick Luis Aldama!

here's a taste from Aldama's posting:

....we are still haunted by a rather slim portfolio of iconographic imagery in the cultural mainstream: the nagged-to-the-bone, ESL stuttering Ricky Ricardo's (Mike Alonzo), lascivious, comical arriba-arriba Speedy's (Jack Black in Frito-Bandito Brown face), blood thirsty savage, irrational man-child (Ernesto), the hypersexualized dark and dangerous (Soderbergh's casting of Benjamin Bratt as cartel kingpin, Juan Obregon, in Traffic), and the effeminate and/or psychopathic queer (the assassin, Francisco Flores, in Traffic); media conglomerates still get a lot of play out of those age-old stereotypes of Latinas as either child-bearing hipped virgins (America Ferrara as Betty Suarez), money-grubbing whores (Eva Longoria as Gabrielle Solis), or too-well fed mammy-types (De La Garza and Barraza as Amelia)....

Test Drive TEX[T]-MEX @ Tower.com

Not sure you want to buy Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucination of the "Mexican" in America? No problem--you can now test-drive much of the book at Tower.com; click the image for instant teleportation:


A direct link Google Books preview is here.

Priceless Shatner as Palin Bit on Conan's Tonight Show

The West Coast Theatre Show of the Fall: Culture Clash in PEACE at the Getty!

Contrapuntal Moves: Eyegienic Musings on the Unphotographable

A quick thank you to regular contributor and all-around malcontent Michael Wyatt Harper for the link to the site below; hit the image for the link!