spotlight is on

I really dig this song. The guitar riff is catchy and will be in your head for days. The video is a lot of fun and the performance in it seems to capture the forward-moving energy of the music. Also, there is clapping. Every good song has clapping.

I don't know much about this band, but this song is pretty great. It makes me want to learn more about Mute Math...

MUTEMATH - Spotlight

MUTEMATH | MySpace Video

The End.

poets out loud

On Thursday, November 12, I went to a Poets Out Loud event at Fordham University. It was coordinated by my awesome friend and fellow writer, Li Yun Alvarado, who read some of her own work at the event. There were folks there from Acentos, the Fordham creative writing program, and the city at large.

In addition to Alvarado, three other poets read: Tara Betts, Rachel McKibbens, and Willie Perdomo. I was not familiar with their work before the event, but I am now a bonafide fan of each poet: I own books, I follow blogs, I quote favorite lines...

Tara Betts is a native of Chicago and a Cave Canem fellow. Her poems explore issues of urban life, race, and gender. Rachel McKibbens is the founder of the Right Coast Writers Brigade and her narrative poems are about coming of age, motherhood, and violence against women and children. Willie Perdomo has been described as the unofficial poet laureate of the Puerto Rican Diaspora by Junto Diaz, who also proclaimed that what Perdomo " knows about being of color, being between languages, being poor, being a man, being in trouble, could save your life."

There is nothing like listening to a poet read her own work, so I am including links to audio and video of each poet reading. I was not able to find a recording of Li Yun reading, so you will find a link to the text of one of her poems below. I hope you enjoy the pieces.

"Poet in Harlem" - Willie Perdomo

"What It's Like to Be a Mixed Girl (For Those of You Who Aren't)" - Tara Betts

"Central Park, Mother's Day" - Rachel McKibbens

"Your Back" - Li Yun Alvarado

Discover these great poets and support their work!

a song, a tetralogy, a franchise

There is a recent addition to my immense obsession with the Twilight saga. It is a song from the upcoming New Moon soundtrack. The soundtrack is getting quite a bit of buzz for being an interesting, albeit moody, companion to the film and novel. The song is called "Meet Me On The Equinox" and is by Death Cab for Cutie. I am not particularly fond of the video, but the song is pretty fantastic with emotive lyrics and a haunting refrain: "Everything ends."

Death Cab For Cutie |MTV Music

In case you were curious about the other things I love about the Twilight saga, here is a short list:

1) Kristen Stewart because she is fierce

2) The theological questions the books raise regarding right and wrong, heaven and hell, souls, humanity, monsters, commitment, the erotics of abstinence, and choice

3) Stephanie Meyer's stay-at-home-mom-turned-novelist success story

4) How fricking big and pretty the books are

5) The mania over the novels!

For me, it is very exciting to have so many people, particularly young people, excited about a book. People cannot get enough of these books - they cannot get enough of reading! This sort of fever for books is something I relate to and cherish.

Certainly, most writers do not write novels so that there is someday a lunchbox or a clothing line inspired by their characters. However, there is something terribly exciting about people being so obsessed with a story. People are crazy about a world that someone dreamed up and brought to life.

While a multi-million dollar franchise is not necessarily a part of my ambitions as a writer, I would love to make readers feel as much as Stephanie Meyer does. I cry, I laugh, I blush, I worry, I gasp each time I read one of her books. If I could do that to a reader, I would feel like I accomplished something - like I got through, like I communicated, like I said something.

Don't you worry about the haters, Stephanie! Twilight and all the subsequent novels are wonderful.

With the opening of New Moon just a few weeks away, I am relishing all the Twilight mania while it lasts. After all, pop culture phenomenon or not, this craze will pass. As Death Cab says:

Everything, everything ends.

The above picture is my own. I crushed and preserved rose petals in a copy of Eclipse. It is a custom I learned from my mother.