¿Se acuerdan de “El Toro”? 30 años después de la “Fernandomania”

Fernando Valenzuela, 30 años después. Se reinventó como sportscaster para los juegos de beisbol. La gente todavía lo quiere mucho! (Photo by Al Seib, from LA Times.)

Para recordar los 30 años desde que llegó Fernando Valenzuela al beisbol de las Major Leagues y a Los Dodgers, el Los Angeles Times publicó una excelente fotogalería con imágenes de El Toro. Para muchos, el pitcher zurdo, oriundo de Navojoa, Sonora es el máximo representante mexicano en la historia del beisbol en los Estados Unidos. (Sonora querida, tierra consentida!)

Check the link here: 30 years of Fernandomania. I think you’ll really like the photos if you remember being a fan when growing up.

He was a leftie! El Toro y Tommy LaSorda, 1983. Those were the days! (Photo by Joe Kennedy, LA Times collection.)

Yo me acuerdo cuando veía los juegos en la tele con mi abuelo y mi papá y la primera vez que lo vimos en Dodger Stadium. Cool memories!

Pero ahorita no les está yendo bien para nada a Los Dodgers. What a mess! I wish the Dodgers could re-write their history right now. As we know, it’s not the best of times for the team. Ya hasta pena me dan los McCourts.

Todos los fans queremos que se resuelva todo el drama, pero pronto! And nobody wants it more than the ultimate Dodger Fan, mi amiga, Robin Robb.

Today you can get a Fernando Valenzuela bobble head at Best Buy.

El Día E.

A nuestros amiguitos del Instituto Cervantes en España se les ocurrió una gran idea, “El Día E” que celebrarmos el sábado 18 de Junio.

En celebración del Día E les dejo el video que nos invita a pensar en lo valioso de nuestro idioma. También nos han puesto a reflexionar cuál es nuestra palabra favorita. La mía no está en la lista pero propongo “Infinito” o una que no es común, pero es el nombre un platillo que me gusta mucho (y que se sirve sólo en Pachuca, Hidalgo): Ximbó.

(Amo el español aunque me pase la vida hablando en Spanglish. Pero de verdad de verdad amo el español.)

¿Cuál es tu palabra favorita en español? Deja un comentario, me gustaría saber.

Mi Palabra Favorita ES:

Popcorn movies y cine snob

It’s that time of year again, time to enjoy summer weather and mindless entertainment. Póngale mantequilla a las palomitas please!

Here we go. Summer's here with all the popcorn movies.

I have yet to see Bridesmides and the other fun stuff that’s out there right now. But I’m more excited about other non commercial nor maintream movies which look much more interesting.

Beginners:

"Beginners" stars 2 of my favorite actors: Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor. Looks very interesting.

(Synopsis from website:) From writer/director Mike Mills comes a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments. -Beginners- imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Melanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who – following 44 years of marriage – came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him.

Buck: (Documentary)

Buck looks like an amazing documentary and was a hit at Sundance this year.

(Synopsis:) “Buck” follows Brannaman from his abusive childhood to his phenomenally successful approach to horses. A real-life “horse-whisperer”, he eschews the violence of his upbringing and teaches people to communicate with their horses through leadership and sensitivity, not punishment. Buck possesses near magical abilities as he dramatically transforms horses – and people – with his understanding, compassion and respect. In this film, the animal-human relationship becomes a metaphor for facing the daily challenges of life.

And now to my favorite movie I’ve seen this year, so far,  “Midnight in Paris” from Woody Allen. If you love intelligent movies with dialogue (remember those?) and love to read the literary American classics, or if you just plain love Paris, then this is the movie for you. I won’t give it away but I sincerely hope you get a chance to see it. It’s so original, I can’t describe it without giving out too much information. Just go see it! (Plus the poster is really nice.)

Great movie, one of the best from the recent work of Woody Allen, "Midnight in Paris."

Frivolous Friday Fun, puro chisme.

Es viernes, por fin. Yay!

Después de una semanita medio heavy, allow me to indulge in a little pop culture fix. Me puse a revisar mis online guilty pleasures y me encontré con varias cosas/happenings de esta semana:

1. Ricky Martin is back to his brunette ways, thank God! Remember his wild Guero phase? He was just messing with his God given beauty but somebody must’ve made him come to his senses.

This photo was taken on a trip to Buenos Aires, where he met with La Presidenta, Cristina Fernández. From People.com StarTracks today:

OK now Ricky, looking better. Don't go get all loco on us again with the blonde mullet. (Photo: People.com)

2. From Quien.com this week: Shakira wants us to know she’s all hot and heavy these days and just premiered her Rabiosa video/song which is very racy, to say the least. She’s a brunette flapper in a club and a pole dancer, with an emphasis on the pole dancer part….

I’m not gonna get all preachy y santurrona on you, but I don’t think I’m alone when I say I’ve lost all respect for her as an artist.  (Just saying!) Como puso alguien en el youtube “¿En donde quedó aquella artista que cantaba con la guitarra y componía buena música?” and “Congratulations on all your new fans that like your empty music.” Ouch! Some even wrote unflattering descriptions of her, the least of which is “es una vulgar,” pero eso sí, ya tiene more than 13 million hits su video! (And by the way, the song says “Featuring Pitbull” which is nowhere to be found on the video.)

Shakira and the pole. Really Shakira? There have to be other ways of feeling empowered as a woman...Super TACHA. (Foto from Quien.com)

3. Según People en Español.com, ahora resulta que Jenni Rivera está disculpándose por las últimas faltas de respeto a sus fans, tanto ella como las de su hermano. Yeah right…Cuéntenme una de vaqueros. A esta familia les encanta el escándalo. Finísimas personas, ellos.

From Peoplenespanol.com "Estoy apenada por lo que el público ve en estos videos."

¡Coldplay está copiando a Los Sacados!! No lo puedo creer.

Hoy salió el nuevo single de Coldplay y casi me desmayo del “coincidence” y las similitudes con otra canción (hey, there are NO coincidences!). The new song is “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” and it sounds EXACTLY like “Ritmo de la Noche” from back int he early 90′s. Nooo puede ser.

Either this is a blatant copy or a very respectful “homage” from Coldplay to los argentinos.

Of course it wouldn’t be the first time Coldplay sounds similar to someone else, remember the controversy over Viva la Vida back when it came out? There was a copyright issue, which was settled, but still.

Anyway, you be the judge:

Coldplay’s song: “Every Tear is a Waterfall”:

And now: The Sacados “Ritmo de la Noche”:

Spanglish from La Madre Patria: Introducing Facto y los Amigos del Norte.

It’s new music Thursday and I’ve just been introduced to my newest pop music indulgence.

My friend April told me about to Facto y los Amigos del Norte, a new band from Spain who is making ears turn for their interesting pop meets kitschy rock meets electrónica meets hip hop culture, mixing up “el castellano” con frases en inglés. I’m assuming our Spanglish tendencies have reached the Mother Land and some purists will be non too pleased. (Oh the horror!)

The first song is “El Burrito Catalán” and I liked it. I also liked the video with it’s 80′s flashback feel and video game graphics. Very cool! The new album debuts June 14 in Spain and hopefully we’ll see them soon stateside. Check out the video for ‘El Burrito Catalán” here:

Otra paranoia más: the correlation between cell phones & brain cancer

Add cell phone radiation to the ever growing paranoias on our list.

Yesterday the Word Health Organization issued a warning heard around the world,  saying “Heavy use of cell phones MIGHT cause brain cancer.”

Uuuuuuuts… de veras que cuando no es Juana, es Chana.

Do we need another reason to get freaked out by everyday life? To think that 30 minutes a day on the cell phone could potentially expose us to harmful radiation is not something we want to consider as we’re chatting away on our mobiles.

Heard an interesting conversation on “To The Point” with Warren Olney on kcrw.com today.  It was interesting to hear the skeptics versus the doctors versus the middle of the road scientists. Basically the middle of the road people say nothing is proven yet, but we’ve only had cell phone technology for less than 20 years, and it’s too soon to come to any conclusions. But imagine 5 billion people use cell phones every day and if any of these warning were true, we’d have to change our phone habits, which at this point is very unlikely.

I wonder if they’re doing more research on the subject? In the meantime I think I’m going to use my speakerphone much more often and think about getting a landline, again. El miedo no anda en burro señores.

To hear the debate on “To The Point,” click here to go to kcrw.com And check out if your phone is on the list of top radiation emissions: from CNN en Español.

Cell phone headlines on the front page: "Comunican y Enferman" on La Opinion today.

It’s June already. ¿Cómo vamos?

Pues ya vamos a la mitad del año…

How’s 2011 working out for you so far? I’ve made it a point of starting the second half of the year on the right foot. (Can you believe it’s June already? My God, where does the time go?)

I had a great Memorial Day Weekend, with a Prince concert (yes, I went!); a soccer game viewing party at La Guelaguetza, Barcelona vs Manchester United (thanks to the hostess with the mostess, Bricia López)  y qué lástima que perdió el Chicharito, pero bueno, there’s more to come from him. And of course, el final de La Reina del Sur on Monday night.

As for Prince, may I just say his royal sexiness in concert on Friday night was one of the best musical experiences I’ve had in my life. It was his last weekend at the Forum and it was jam packed. And we all loved him! He sings, he dances, he makes you want to KISS…Don’t let his purple eyeshadow fool you, this is one of the sexiest and most talented men in the planet.

Friday night: His Royal Purpleness opened the concert with "When Doves Cry."

Inicio del partido el sábado: El Chicharito sólo tuvo unos minutos de airtime al empezar el partido. Pero le echamos muchas porras. Better luck next time!

At La Guelaguetza, on Saturday, watching the game, Barcelona vs Manchester United. Unas le echamos porras al Chicharito y otros a Messi, y todos nos divertimos mucho. Gracias Bricia por invitarnos al viewing party.

Al medio tiempo del partido. La Guelaguetza es el mejor restaurante de comida oaxaqueña en LA.