MONTHLY REVIEW: November

MUSIC

Portuguese-speaking Canadian Nelly Furtado flexes her Spanish muscles with Mi Plan.

Country singer Miranda Lambert has a Revolution with her third studio album (I know that was lame, deal with it.)

Need a sure-fire CD to put on repeat? Check out Canadian Ainsley McNeaney!

The music video for Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" rocks! Have you seen it yet?

So does Jay-Z's newest studio album, The Blueprint 3. HOVA!

We pimped out Anjulie last month but her single "Heat" is still rockin' our socks off!

Brit Ronan Keating's cover of Sugarland's "Stay" is worth checking out!

MOVIE

Pay tribute to the King Of Pop by seeing This Is It and realize why he deserved the title.

Laugh it up with Babs in this oldie but goodie, What's Up Doc?

BOOK

Need a little non-fiction in your life? Check out any of Mary Roach's fantastically entertaining and interesting books, including "Stiff," "Bonk," and "Spook."

Hooray! Cakewrecks is now a book!

Pop-culture best-seller Go Ask Alice is new again, 40 years later.

WEB

Need something of substance to go with all your web-fluff? Check out the postings from the intelligent Racialicious.

Then head on over to highIDEAS and soak up some humorous sugary trash.

Advanced NFL Stats might give you an edge in your football pool this weekend. I mean, you couldn't do worse, could you?

Make Your Own Ringtone of yourself winning that pool and use it when your losing friends call.

Be a smartie pants with the English language with the Etymology Dictionary.

Find topical humor pictures at Pundit Kitchen to send to your friends instead of the standard fart jokes and bad luck forwards they're always sending you.

RECIPE

For breakfast, start out with this delicious Indian Potato Salad with Cilantro Omelete. Head over to Hell's Kitchen for lunch and finish the day off with a scruptious Pumpkin Pudding.

ON HOLIDAY

ZONINO! is on holiday being thankful and such until Monday. Happy Turkey Day!

YOUTUBE: Turkey Lady

ZONINO! will be on vacation for the next couple days to give thanks to the things in life that are ZONINO! So, in the meantime, enjoy this Gloria Gaynor-inspired Thanksgiving Day tribute brought to you by the Turkey Lady herself.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Sergio del Limonar

BOOK: Go Ask Alice

The diary-book, Go Ask Alice, is by no means a literary masterpiece. It is really no more than the rambling thought of an average teenage girl in the late 1960's. The only difference is this girl got messed up in the drugs of the era and wrote about it in detail.

The extraordinary thing about this piece of work, published in 1971, is not only the candor and emotion the anonymous author exhibits, but the remorse she feels toward her family, friends, and herself. It's difficult to read at times, especially as she relapses. Sometimes this seems to occur suddenly as we are only privy to her diary entries which are often times sporadic and even lacking dates at times.

Although the authenticity of the book - whether it was an actual diary or really a work of fiction - is still up for debate. Regardless, the ideas in the various entries and the roller coaster of emotions the girl goes through are enough to influence another generation to stay off drugs.

Sergio del Limonar

EAT OUT: Hell's Kitchen

As their website says, "We just crank out damn good food." Truer words have never been spoken. This is not a restaurant for fluffy pretentious food. This is place to eat food you can recognize on your plate but be blown away by its flavor.

Hell's Kitchen, found in Minneapolis (80 South 9th St.) and Duluth (310 Lake Ave S.), Minnesota, is a foodie's dream. The food is traditional and plentiful, free of frills and trends, but exploding with taste, probably because everything is made from scratch. Each restaurant has its own menu, which you can check out online before visiting so your salivary glands can start getting ready early.

My favorites so far are the Portobello Mushroom "Burger" and the Mac & Cheese. The Sweet Potato Fries on the appetizer menu are incredible as is the "Breakfast All Day" menu.

As an added incentive, come on Sundays for Brunch (10am - 1pm) and hear live Gospel Music performed while you each. (In Duluth the music is recorded.) This is a popular event, however, so be sure to make reservations.

Sergio del Limonar

WEB: Pundit Kitchen

You know those LOLcatz with the sickenly adorable pictures of felines in compromising positions with horribly misspelled captions attempting to be cute?

Well, how about doing it with people? How about doing it with people who have voluntarily put themselves in the spotlight, like our elected officials? I can't tell you the number of times I've wondered what some story editors at my local city's newspaper would like to put under the picture of world leader so-and-so shaking hands with his majesty this-and-that.

Wonder no more! Pundit Kitchen takes nationally run photographs from various news services and attaches (mostly) humorous captions to them. Like this one of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.



Buzzy

CALENDAR: Cats Let Nothing Darken Their Roar

Mrs. Fitzsimmons 2, who is also still on maternity leave, sent me a link to a sight hawking calendars with weird phrases on them, such as the title of this post. Well, it turns out that each of the titles on this attractively, and slightly retro, designed calendar, spell out the name of the month within the phrase itself.

Even the name of the calendar, spells out "calendar." Go to Cats Let Nothing Darken Their Roar and click the link for "The Calendar" on the left side to see the rest of the months with their bizarre and poetic phrasings.

If you like what you see, each calendar runs between $32 to $60 depending on the size. A time keeper and a conversation piece all in one? What more could you ask for?!?


Sergio del Limonar

MUSIC: "Stay" cover

One of my all-time favorite country songs of all time is the beautifully tragic and powerful "Stay" written by Jennifer Nettles and performed by her band Sugarland. The song is sung from the point of view of "the other woman" in a cheating relationship, begging the man to stay with her instead of going back to his wife. It is sad and heartbreaking and, in the end, the mistress gets up the strength to get back on her feet and walk away, effectively telling her lover to stay where he is.

I heard recently that a cover of the song was being released by British ex-boybander Ronan Keating. Keating clearly is a fan of country music as he has recorded the bluegrass staple "When You Say Nothing At All" as well as dueted with LeAnn Rimes on the moving "Last Thing On My Mind."

Keating's version of "Stay," off his recently released Winter Songs, while not quite capturing the angst and quivering sadness that only Nettles could muster, is still a decent effort. The song is ambiguous enough that, with a few noun changes, easily suits a male's perspective just as well as the original does a female's. ZONINO! to covering a great song well!

WEB: Etymology Dictionary

Did you know that the word "knuckle" comes from the late 14 century and is derived from the Germanic word "knokel" meaning "finger joint"?

Or how about that the word "pimp" most likely came from from the modern French word "pimper" meaning "to dress elegantly" and was first used in its current context in 1607?

The website, Online Etymology Dictionary is a treasure trove* of information for both the know it all, the Trivial Pursuit junky, and those of us who are just curious from time to time. The next time someone asks, "I wonder where that word comes from?" you can tell them!

Sergio del Limonar

*The word "treasure" is derived from the the old French word "tresor" of the same meaning and was first used in the mid-12th century. The expression "treasure trove" was first used in 1888.

MUSIC: "Heat"

I know I already labeled her self-titled debut album a ZONINO! worthy record but I just have to throw another Anjulie song on your must-download list. It really is criminal that it was left off the last post entirely; I must have been so overwhelmed by the fantasticness of the Anjulie experience that I passed out while this track was playing. That is the only explanation.

"The Heat" is potentially my all-time favorite song on the entire album. The funky chorus is infectious and I wouldn't mind if it repeated a few more times. Singing of the feeling you get during that infatuation stage of new-love, Anjulie confesses:

I got the heat, see the red in my cheeks,
It's suffocating me, got the hot hot heat
She got the heat from her head to her feet,
She tried to shake it, shake it, shake it
She just can't beat the
Here comes the heat like a fire in me,
Burning up through my blood, got the hot hot heat
He got the heat and he put it on me,
Like a spell from the devil, now I just can't beat the heat

In the opening verse she kicks off with "I got a loss of appetite, I'm so tired, I can't sleep, can't dream, wake up every night." Now who hasn't been there before?

Sergio del Limonar

RECIPE: Pumpkin Pudding

I love pumpkin-flavored anything and I think it a crime that the deliciousness is really only freshly available only two tiny months out of the year, if that. So, take the pumpkin off your front stoop (take your neighbor's too) and fix yourself a nice fall treat!

ingredients:

• 2 cups milk
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup pureed pumpkin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice

what to do:

1) Combine the milk, sugar, and cornstarch in a large saucepan.
2) Bring them to a boil, stirring constantly for 3 minutes.
3) Beat the eggs with a whisk in a large bowl.
4) Add half the hot milk mixture (from #1) to the beaten egg bowl.
5) Pour the milk-egg mixture back into the saucepan.
6) Cook it over medium heat for another 3 minutes, or until its thick, stirring constantly.
7) Turn off the heat and stir in pumpkin, salt, and pumpkin-pie spice.
8) Let it cool and the chill in the refrigerator until it's time to eat.

The best thing about this is that its pretty low in fat and it's healthy too!

Buzzy

WEB: Make Your Own Ringtone

This is amazing and I'm surprised no one thought of it sooner. Or maybe they did and I haven't learned about it yet. Either way, now you can basically annoy everyone at the restaurant, library, bus stop, and office with a tune they can't even get!

Make Your Own Ringtone, allows you to do just that. Think you're an amazing singer and want everyone to know with out even opening your mouth? Record your voice to your computer using almost any format (mp3, wma, or ogg) and then follow the steps on the main page. Record your mom screaming up the stairs for you to "get your ass outta bed or God help you..." and assign it to her number; she;s special enough for her own ring, right?

The best part, aside from the fact that it's easy to use, is that the service is free! So what are you waiting for? Sneak a recording of your boyfriend/girlfriend snoring a way tonight and get to work!

Buzzy

MUSIC: The Blueprint 3

A couple months ago I Zonino!-ed the single "We Run This Town" from Jay-Z's newest album, The Blueprint 3. I finally got around to purchasing it (because I love me some H.O.V.) and it is definitely one of his best to date.

The aforementioned single is fabulous but I'm hoping to hear his collaboration with Alicia Keys, "Empire State Of Mind," on the radio soon. Keys belts out the chorus with abandon, "Now you're in New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do!" while Jay-Z raps about Gotham itself.

Other highlights that you should download now are "On To The Next One" with Swizz Beatz, "Already Home" with Kid Cudi, and the retro-sampled "Forever Young" featuring British R&B singer, Mr. Hudson.

Most of the tracks are produced by Kanye West, who, despite probably being a huge jack-ass in real life, is a genius in the studio. Timbaland steps in twice as well, as do The Neptunes in a song featuring Pharrell.

If you're a Jay-Z fan, you will definitely appreciate his rhymes and classic flow style on this album. If you're new to the scene, this is a great introduction to why Jay-Z is the best.

Buzzy

MUSIC: "Bad Romance" video

Lady Gaga pretty much owns the world right now. At the dance-pop world. I think Madonna gave it to her. And after seeing the amazing video for her newest single, "Bad Romance", I completely and totally fall to my knees at her bedazzled throne.

In this hyper-stylized video, Gaga is awash in a bath house of white (Bath Haus of Gaga to be specific) after being kidnapped by supermodels and sold to some sort of mafia to work as a sex-slave. Bad romance, indeed. While I realize the concept sounds pretty brutal and cruel towards womens' rights, I was strangely empowered by the interpretation.

My favorite images are of Gaga in her gold dress with her pet great dane and when she completely incinerates a John, leaving only a skeleton on a ash-covered and charred bed.

While the song is not my favorite single from the Lady herself, coupled with the video it definitely becomes greater!

Buzzy

WEB: Advanced NFL Stats

It's about that time of the NFL season where the armchair quarterbacks are starting to re-evaluate their participation in their current pools or make voodoo dolls of their now-dismal fantasy league picks. Is it too late to salvage the season? Should you just concede defeat, save some face, and flip to whatever Sunday afternoon movie from the '80's is playing on the other channels?

No! Check out Advanced NFL Stats, a non-NFL affiliated website, run by football enthusiasts, just like you!

The most useful aspect of the site is self-selected win-probability graphs which you can generate by choosing the year - all the way back to 2000 - and team. Weekly rankings and round-ups are published with humor and possibly just a twinge of bias on occasion. Regardless, they are helpful to those who are suffering in their current office pools.

The site also contains occasional articles which, while not always helpful for your gaming, can provide you with interesting insight into little known aspects of the sport (the Buccaneer's "Raheem Morris is an Optimistic Guy") or different perspectives (the run - pass balance study or irrational play calling).

Definitely bookmark this site, at least until January.

Sergio del Limonar

WORD: Pogrom

I'm reading a fantastic book by Michael Chabon at the moment that will no doubt become a ZONINO! one day. Chabon is a genius with words and wordplay so I expect to find several gems of the etymologic sort whilst enjoying this novel.

Today I came across the noun "pogrom" which I had never encountered before. It means, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, "an organized, often officially encouraged, massacre or persecution of a minority group." The entry goes on to state that it most often refers to the persecution of Jewish peoples.

Unlike most of the other WORD entries, this is not one I would try to insert into my daily ramblings, but I feel its a word one should have shoved in the back drawer of one's brain for when smarty-pants writers like Chabon throw it out, you can keep pace.

Sergio del Limonar

BOOK: Cake Wrecks

Hooray! or should I say...ZONINO! We put website Cake Wrecks on our blog back in July and now it's a best selling book!

Congrats to author and creator Jen Yates!

Sergio del Limonar

MUSIC: Ainsley McNeaney

The last time I bought an album that worked for most any occasion (singalong, work, play, cleaning) was Sarah McLaughlan's Surfacing. In 1997. So, I'm a little picky. The next time was when I bought Ainsley McNeaney's True Story Orchestra (2008). McNeaney is a singing, songwriting, arranging, producing, phenomenon. True Story Orchestra is her first album as artist and first release as producer. However, the sophisticated orchestration (think butterscotch light mixed with just a little bit of peeling white paint from a seaside house and brassy silver buttons) belies her classical background. A classical percussionist - she graduated from the University of Toronto's Music program in sticks and mallets - the twelve songs on this album feature banjos, marimba, tambourine, trombones and a string section. This strong instrumental variety successfully teases strands of jazz, cabaret, swing and circus through the pop pieces.

For anyone who has always played nice, done their best, and found they can't recognize themselves for the role they've played, McNeaney asks, "Who did you kill to secure all that moon in your eyes?" in her song, "This Girl". It is a liberating call for the removal of restrictive masks and authentic soul-searching. The anthemic "Closer" opens with solo banjo and develops into a full-fledged, open-throated, windows-down car belting song about the fears behind, and acceptance of, taking risks in life. When you're done, you've already whirled yourself around the dancefloor and you can wait until tomorrow: you've "got the next day to find [your] way home." Finally, another highlight, reminiscent of Sarah McLaughlan's "Adia" and Rufus Wainwright's "Natasha", the glowing "Marianne" falls solidly in the songwriting tradition of song as witness. All three posit the song as the songwriter's best way to support a friend on a self-destructive track.

McNeaney is clearly a musician and not your everyday singer-songwriter. I hope for more refinement in her lyrics in the future, but ultimately McNeaney's voice, its roars, cries and calls in the dark elevate the album to a must-have.

Listen here and if you like it, it is $9.99 on iTunes, or available on ainsleymcneaney.com .

Bee

RECIPE: Indian Potato Salad with Cilantro Omelet

Back when all our forests were enchanted and the hippies had just arrived in Ithaca, the Moosewood collective was formed. I come from good hippie stock, despite my father having missed the bus to the march on Washington, and my best friend Julia went through several hippie incarnations in high school. Through that time the Moosewood collective's cookbooks followed them all because of their emphasis on yummy vegetarian cooking.

In my case, the hippie gene and the social environment did not a good hippie make. Until Moosewood's Simple Suppers cookbook. This is hippie vegetarian cooking that is good for the planet but also, actually, delicious. My favourite recipe is truly a simple supper, and the potato salad makes delicious leftovers. Better yet, it's ready in 30 minutes. If you like the recipe, buy their book. It was worth every penny.

Indian Potato Salad

4 c. cubed potatoes
3 T. olive oil
2 t. whole cumin seeds
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. garam masala Indian spice
2 or 3 scallions, sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Cilantro Omelet

4 eggs
1 T. olive oil
1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
salt

plain yogurt (optional)


Directions:

To cook the potatoes, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Lower the potatoes into the hot water and cook until tender but not falling apart, about 5 minutes after the water returns to a boil. While the potatoes cook, warm the oil in a saucepan on medium heat. Sizzle the cumin seeds for a few seconds and then stir in the salt, garam masala and a dash of cayenne if desired. Remove from the heat. Drain the cooked potatoes and place them in a bowl. Pour the hot seasoned oil over the potatoes and add the scallions, bell pepper and cilantro. Stir gently and set aside.

To make the omelet, whisk the eggs in a small bowl until frothy. Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Pour the eggs into the skillet. When the bottom is set, sprinkle on the cilantro and a little salt and fold the omelet in half. Cook covered until the eggs are set and the bottom is browned. Slice into wedges.

Bee

BOOK: Mary Roach

I would love to hang out with author Mary Roach. Reason numero uno? She is the queen of inside jokes. I feel that, if she is in conversation, anything like her writing style, we would be the obnoxious people at a dinner party who keep laughing and, when someone inquires as to the joke and we tell them, they don't get it because they weren't there twenty minutes ago. Or last week. Or the last dinner gathering.

That's the way I feel when I reading a Mary Roach book. Sly, insanely clever, and perfectly timed, as a reader you often feel you are right along side Roach, as she investigates various bizarre and seldom researched topics, when she leans over and whispers something inappropriate in your ear.

I recently finished Roach's second book, Spook, about scientific investigations into the supernatural. I was introduced to her through her spectacular first piece, Stiff, about what happens to human cadavers after family members bid their farewells, and Bonk, about the science of sex.

Each of these books takes Roach on a tour of studies near and far, to fully funded by legitimate organizations and not-so-much experiments, meeting all types of investigators - scientific to just curious, all in the goal of getting to the bottom of often ignored or misunderstood corners of science. Writing intelligently, but also for the layman, Roach does a phenomenal job of making the method of science accessible and interesting to everyone. Have a I mentioned she's funny?

Sergio del Limonar

WEB: highIDEAS

When I was in middle school, somewhere in between my indoctrination of D.A.R.E. and my strong desire to have Lifetime movie-like rite of passage teenage rebellion, I remember my older college-aged sister coming home from a night out with friends high as a kite. The girl was walking on clouds giving off giggling gas. Had we weighed her, I often imagined a couple houseflies could have alighted on the scale and caused it to double.

The game for my younger brother and I was to ask her as many ridiculous questions in the presence of our (quite naive) parents just to see what she'd say. Her reasoning for why her peas were more wrinkly than ours (they weren't actually) at the dinner table was a hilarious tale of placement in the pot they had been cooking in and how peas fight with each other - grow little pea arms and fists and everything - to maneuver and swim to the top of the bubbling mass.

The forum website highIDEAS brings back so many of those memories for me. In it, contributors add their thoughts about any number of topics that they came up while hanging out with Mary Jane. One writer noticed that the word OK "looks like a sideways person" while another wants Morgan Freeman as the voice for his GPS.

One of my favorites is from a guy who wants for his Grand Theft Auto video game to include "side stories" for all his victims in the game. "Did they lose their job because they were late?" seems like a legitimate question to me!

Buzzy

MOVIE: What's Up Doc?

Time for an unlikely blast from the past. Now, I feel that in the spirit of honesty I need to state that right off the bat that Barbra Streisand is in the movie. Pleasedon'trunawaysheonlysingsonceandthesceneisnotthatimportantsoyoucanskipitifyouwant!

Still there? Good.

The 1972 film, What's Up, Doc?, is slapstick comedy at it's most intelligent. The genre is pretty much dead, and for good reason, but with this movie, we see why it had its charm.

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich and also starring Ryan O'Neal as a nervous and awkward "musicologist," Dr. Howard Bannister, with a bag full of his precious igneous rocks, the story becomes a who knows what, has what, heard who say what to whom, switcheroo. Streisand's Judy, who looks surprisingly like a young Jennifer Aniston, plays a woman who has been in and out of many colleges for short attempts at many degrees.

One mishap turns in to another which rolls into a third until the entire cast is wrapped up in one messy ball of wax. A scene at musicologist's banquet in which Judy, against Howard's wishes, posses as his fiance in an attempt to win him a $20,000 grant is especially humorous. A turn of events that results in a fire in a hotel room will also cause you to laugh out loud.

With all it's got going against it - Streisand, slap-stick, 70's chic styling - this movie is bound to become a favorite...if you can find it.

Sergio del Limonar

MUSIC: Revolution

Miranda Lambert has created a brand for herself. She's like one of those tiny lap dogs; cute from a distance but when you walk by the front yard it'll tear your ankles apart. Packaged inside this tiny blond body with a forearm tattoo of two crossed pistols with dove wings is a feisty powerhouse you get a feeling you don't want to upset.

Lambert's newest release, Revolution, continues on her crusade to live life on her terms and take no prisoners. Like a later-day Tanya Tucker, Lambert sings of heartbreak and revenge like go together as naturally as peanut butter and jelly. On the tracks "White Liar" and "Sin for a Sin" she confronts a lover what he did or did not do, respectively, with canine-like severity. "Only Prettier" is another tune with biting lyrics, only this time they're aimed squarely at the floozy girl at the bar and her friends.

Lambert is a little softer on this album than on her last and even some of her harsher songs come with a sly wink, as if to say, "I'll slap you around a bit, but it's only because I love you" like an older sister would. Some of the more tender moments come from standout songs, "Love Song" and "The House That Built Me." In the later, Lambert revisits her childhood home and asks the current owner if she can come in and look around. In it she pleads, "if I could just come in I swear I'll leave, won't take nothing but a memory."

Packed with 15 songs, not a one of them filler, this is a great album for fans of Lambert's previous efforts as well as anyone who wants to jump on the Miranda bandwagon.

Sergio del Limonar

MOVIE: This Is It

Fact: Michael Jackson is the King of Pop.

Say what you want about his personal life, financial or legal problems, and anything related to "Wacko Jacko," but the man's music is untouchable and no one can do it like he can.

Need proof? Head to the nearest theater immediately and see the behind-the-scenes documentary of Jackson's not-to-be final concert extravaganza, This Is It. Composed of rough shots from several rehearsal performances in London, the film documents the spectacle of the show and reveals the Michael Jackson few people got to see.

Soft-spoken but dogmatic, Jackson is clearly a perfectionist. Stopping numbers to tell the keyboardist to pause possibly a nanosecond more on a certain beat or changing the spacing of certain dancers all for the sake of his "vision." Most artists don't (or can't) put this much authenticity and effort into their final performances as Michael Jackson puts into his rehearsals.

Directed by Kenny Ortega, the man behind the High School Musical franchise as well as the film Newsies, the film allows the viewer to be a silent observer to something that came so close but never was. Ortega, a friend of Jackson's was the director of the actual concert, by the same name, that the film is based upon. It only seems fitting that he allow the word a chance to see that magic that only a handful got to experience firsthand.

Even at 50 years old, Jackson is dancing like his 20-something year old back-up dancers, and singing like he did on his first album in 1979, "Off the Wall." Ortega does a masterful job, with little narration, of bringing the performer in Jackson to life from behind the scenes and stage fog and flashing lights.

To fully appreciate Michael Jackson - the artist, the King of Pop - one needs to see This Is It.

Sergio del Limonar

MUSIC: Mi Plan

Since Canadian singer songwriter, Nelly Furtado, burst on to the international music scene in 2000 with her infectious single "I'm Like A Bird," she has been a force in the industry. Constantly changing and refreshing her style, Furtado never seems to stay in one musical moment too long.

Occasionally singing in the language of her Portuguese-born parents, Furtado has a also dabbled with some Spanish songs on her past albums. She has also collaborated on several records with Colombian rocker Juanes on his singles "Fotografía" and "Te Busqué." After this introduction to the Spanish-speaking market, the timing seems only right that Furtado puts out her first completely non-English album, Mi Plan.

The first single off the album, "Manos al Aire," finds Furtado listing the reasons she is giving up on a toxic relationship. Other highlights of the album include a beautiful duet with Mexican singer, Alejandro Fernández, "Sueños," and the upbeat titular track with Cuban-Canadian singer Alex Cuba.

Whether you understand the Spanish language or not, this is an incredible album to add to your collection. Great songs, rhythms, and melodies have no language requirements.

Sergio del Limónar

WEB: Racialicious

Diversity.

The word is thrown around a lot. What it means to one might mean something completely different to someone else. The fact is though, that we, the people of this planet, are diverse. We are diverse in appearance, language, beliefs, heritage, culture, music, dance, food, dress, everything! And this diversity is becoming increasingly more, excuse the overuse of the word in this post, diverse as the world becomes a smaller place.

The blog Racialicious is a sort of watchdog group that both celebrates victories for us a human race and calls foul on people, organizations, and events that run aground on these same issues. Intelligently written and researched, each post gives a fascinating and insightful look at different perspectives on the idea of "race."

A recent analysis of the CNN series "Latino in America" was widely criticized by the site for promoting stereotypes and not following through with many promises the program made in it's outset. Another interesting recurring feature on the blog in the discussion of race, racial archetypes, and importance of certain characters on television and in movies.

Whether one agrees with the points of views of the various bloggers, it is a freshing taste of different opinions on topics that I know I often don't think about; I do now. Bookmark this site immediately!

Sergio del Limonar