"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler
What kind of bigoted hatemonger would dare to promote the stereotype that African-Americans enjoy dressing up in colorful clothing and engaging in outrageous dancing to simplistic songs with pulsating rhythms? That man’s name would be the late, great Don Cornelius:
Pamela Geller pays tribute to the entertainment impressario whose weekly TV program was the Fabulous Funkadelic School of Super-Smooth Moves where all the kids learned to dance back in the day.
R.I.P., Brother Don.
Los lectores disculpen la torpe español. Esto se traduce del Inglés con Google. Recuerdo la mañana del viernes, cuando he publicado sobre los 10 años de edad, la cantante Angie Vásquez y sus hermanos? Su video musical les ha hecho la mayor sensación en Internet. El video ha recibido casi 6 millones de visitas, y el grupo familiar “Vasquez Sounds” ha aparecido en las noticias de televisión en México y los Estados Unidos.
Esta es una noticia de Reuters en español:
Abelardo Vázquez, padre de los tres niños de Mexicali mejor conocidos como “Los Vázquez Sounds”, comentó que por el momento lo más importante es que sus hijos se sigan desarrollando, aunque, dio a conocer que los hermanos grabarán un cover por mes, para subirlo a internet y venderlo en iTunes.
Abelardo Vázquez, padre de los tres niños de Mexicali mejor conocidos como “Los Vázquez Sounds”, afirmó que no hará ningún lanzamiento de esta agrupación ya que lo más importante en estos momentos es que ellos se sigan desarrollando y preparando, aunque sí adelantó que los hermanos grabarán un cover por mes, para subirlo a internet y venderlo en iTunes.
En entrevista con Javier Poza, el padre de Abelardo Vázquez, Gustavo Vázquez y Angie Vázquez, señaló que será el tiempo el que decida el camino de sus hijos en el ámbito musical.
Y es que de acuerdo con el también productor, tanto él como su esposa, creen que los tres niños que se han convertido en todo un fenómeno en las redes sociales, aún no tienen la edad para enfrentar este tipo de situaciones, ni ser expuestos a los medios de comunicación, sobre todo dijo, porque tiene la creencia de que los niños no deben trabajar, ni tener ese tipo de responsabilidades.
Asimismo, aclaró que si cuentan con una visión sobre ellos, pero a largo plazo, “yo creo que a cierta edad, están haciendo lo que pueden hacer, queremos darles más herramientas para que cuando ellos tengan la edad de decidir qué hacer con sus vidas, lo hagan con menos riesgo y acertadamente”, agregó.
A pregunta expresa sobre si es cierto que ya grabaron algunos covers en un estudio de San Diego y estarán a la venta de manera digital, Abelardo Vázquez, respondió que sí, pues aunque no tienen planes de ningún tipo comercial, tampoco piensan darle la espalda al negocio.
Es decir, esto lo llevarán a cabo siempre y cuando los niños no tengan que trabajar.
De acuerdo con el padre de “Los Vázquez Sounds”, esta idea surgió porque la gente comenzó a preguntar cómo podía descargar el cover, sin embargo, la única manera de que ellos tengan acceso a él de manera legal, es vendiéndolo, ya que así se garantizan los derechos de autor.
De manera que se pusieron en contacto con iTunes y de ahora en adelante grabarán un cover por mes, para subirlo a internet y ponerlo a la venta.
Por otra parte, destacó que desde hace 5 años sus hijos Abelardo y Gustavo tocan juntos y sacan covers, sin embargo, fue hace un mes cuando los tres comenzaron a ensayar durante una semana y quedaron sorprendidos con el resultado.
De manera que a la siguiente semana a su hijo Abelardo se le ocurrió pedirle que los grabara, para hacer el video y subirlo a Youtube, a lo cual accedió con una cámara normal, “de las que se consiguen en cualquier tienda departamental”, dijo.
Agregó, “yo grabé las escenas en donde mi hijo Abelardo que toca varios instrumentos, no podía grabarlas porque él está tocando. Él grabó lo demás, cuando terminamos de hacer las tomas que el sintió que eran las necesarias yo le dejé la cámara y en tres días cuando regresaba de la escuela y todo eso, se puso a editarlo y un viernes me dijo ya lo voy a subir, la verdad no le presté mucha atención porque para mí esto era una cosa de ellos, de chamacos y a los tres días ya era un fenómeno”.
Finalmente, comentó que Angie, su hija, no ha tomado clases de canto, argumentando que posiblemente heredó esto de su madre quien si canta muy bien, a pesar de que no se dedica a ello.
Aunque, sin quitarle el mérito a su hija de 10 años, también señaló que es más fácil que un niño logre alcanzar notas altas, que un adulto.
Switching back to English, I’ll translate to say that their father, Abelardo, doesn’t want them to work professionally yet, because he’s worried about “risk,” and they’re not yet able to face this kind of situation. However, he’s reached an agreement with iTunes for them to upload their versions of some more songs, to be released once a month. The kids began rehearsing their cover of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” about a month ago. His son, also named Abelardo, who plays guitar and piano, asked the father to help with the video, because the son couldn’t play and run the camera at the same time. The video was done with a camera you can buy at any department store. The son edited the video and uploaded it. The father “did not pay much attention” until three days later it became a phenomenon.
Now, back to Spanish:
Mis hijos Jefferson, 12, y Emerson, 10, tienen una canción favorita. De hecho, creo que Emerson podría estar enamorado. ¿Y adivinen a quién más le gusta?
Si le gusta a Alyssa, ¡ya sabes que es impresionante!
UPDATE: Linked by Fausta Wertz, who also provided some free advice on improving the Spanish translation. My oldest daughter Kennedy, now 22, is extraordinarily fluent in Spanish. Her husband’s family is from Argentina and, when Kennedy was 18, she spent a year in a full-immersion program at a college in Argentina.
At family gatherings, I like to tweak my son-in-law by making references to Margaret Thatcher and the Falkland Islands, occasionally breaking into a hearty chorus of “Rule Britannia!”
Somebody sent me the video, which already has more than 5 million views, and I frankly couldn’t believe a 10-year-old could sing like this, but evidently it’s legit:
Angie Vazquez and her band, Los Vazquez Sounds, have people all over buzzing about their cover of Adele‘s ‘Rolling in the Deep’ — 1.16 million to be exact.
The Mexican trio posted their rendition of the hit song, and it has since become a viral sensation, boasting over 1 million views in less than a week. Ten-year-old Angie is joined by 15-year-old Abelardo on guitar, bass and piano, as well as 13-year-old Gustavo Vazquez on drums. Watch out, Jonas Brothers!
That was 1.16 million views as of three days ago, so apparently this has gone seriously viral since then. Ready for it? Watch:
UPDATE: Linked by Marfdrat, The Crawdad Hole and by Kathy Shaidle, who is worried about young Angie’s future. Welcome, Hot Air readers!
UPDATE II: El Otro McCain: Ahora disponible en español!
This was a jammin’ little funky tune by one-hit wonder Roger Voudouris, but I’d never seen this video before and . . . well, close your eyes and it’s still a jammin’ little funky tune:
Just checked Wikipedia and Voudouris, who died in 2003, was not gay, no matter what that video might make you think. Anyway . . .
Same year, different genre — pure pop from Nick Lowe:
There was some awesome music in 1979. Just sayin’ . . .
by Smitty via AoSHQ
Last night’s General Assembly meeting in Zuccotti Park was “one of most contentious ever,” in large part due to a heated debate over whether the drummers at Occupy Wall Street should be given $8,000 from the movement’s coffers to buy more drums and equipment. It seems some of the drums were stolen or vandalized, and the drummers asked the General Assembly to help them regroup. “We have worked for you! Appreciate us,” one drummer told the crowd, but the appeal was denied, and the Huff Post’s Craig Kanalley tweeted, “Drummer who didn’t get money from GA tonight now yelling, cursing at members of GA.” Meanwhile, another member of the drum corps was lashing out at the Community Board meeting.
This is not a video of the drummers in question:
The confetti guns at the end that the Blue Men fire into the crowd could be a metaphor for infinite public largesse that the #OWS twerps seem to want to vote themselves out of the public treasury.
Getting punked by an ungrateful crowd may be the best possible learning experience for these guys.
Meanwhile, the fruits of the “drummers working group” are unintentionally hilarious:
Notice, too, the blatant injustice on display at some #Occupy locations.
At the very least, the Capitol Police in Atlanta have definitely been treating these two groups unequally. These officers of the law have turned a blind eye to law breaking by the Occupy folks, allowing them to do anything they want, but did not extend that courtesy to those Tea Party groups that also protested at the Georgia Capitol House.
And why would the police treat everyone equally before the law? The #Occupy movement is an Administration-sanctioned outfit, and the police are an accessory to carrying out Administration wishes. Twisting the knife of un-equal treatment adds to the destabilization value.
I would like to be completely wrong in that previous assertion, and it would be extremely helpful if the Administration would start acting like one, and support legal protests only.
by Smitty
Chatting with @ExJon on Twitter brought this gem to mind:
Soundgarden took the music from “Into the Void” by Black Sabbath and substituted verbiage attributed to Chief Seattle, but not really.
Somehow the heavy equipment grinding of the music, the Noble Savage lyrical sentiments, and the apparently ‘fake but accurate’ status of the lyrics themselves just come together with the #OWS weenies somewhere around infinity. Magic.
Update: Russell Simmons offers to pay to clean up Zuccotti Park in NYC.
Sissypuss the Blog Kitty, our able field agent, was unable to confirm whether Simmons was trying to hire the #OWS protesters to pick up after themselves. Hiring talks may have broken down at the point that the wages reminded the protesters too much of their allowance from mum and dad, or, the protesters were simply too incompetent to perform basic janitorial tasks. Expect updates.
by Smitty
I may not be the biggest Country fan in the country, but you have to call it like you see it, and this is good:
Via AmericanLady49
We picked up a new advertiser yesterday, a rock band called Madison Rising that was recently written up at Big Hollywood and in the New York Post. Their first single is “Soldiers of America”:
They come from the bright light cities.
They come from a one-horse town.
But if they’re coming for you, boy,
You better know they ain’t messin’ around.
Pretty cool, if you think of it this way: They’re singing about Smitty!
Madison Rising an album coming out at the end of the month, but you can buy an MP3 download of their first single for 99 cents at Amazon.