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Two Tune Tuesday: Cuban Tunes

One of the things I like best about where I work is that there’s a ton of music around, because Lawrence has its own Conservatory. I go to stuff all the time; a few weeks ago I caught a lecture/performance of Cuban music and since then have been poking around, asking people like my parents (who cha cha cha’d their way into marriage, as it were, & are Xavier Cugat fans).

A tiny detail: Tito Puente wasn’t himself Cuban but Puerto Rican, but the music he popularized (but didn’t invent) was Afro-Cuban. Benny More was known as the “Sinatra of Cuba” and there’s a cool book about him called Wildman of Rhythm: The Life and Music of Benny Moré.

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Tomboy Sues Former Employer

The St. Louis Court of Appeals reversed a previous decision that stated Brenna Lewis could not sue her employer for firing her – for being too masculine.

Citing court records, the AP reports that Cullinan prefers to wear loose-fitting clothes such as men’s button-down shirts and slacks. She has been mistaken for a man and referred to as “tomboyish,” the story says. Cullinan, meanwhile, said Lewis lacked the “Midwestern girl look” and was heard saying that Heartland staff should be pretty, especially for women working at the front desk, the AP story says, citing court records.

I hope she wins. & Honestly, I hope Cullinan loses her job for making such a dumb-ass decision.

(h/t to Courtney)

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Joel in Alaska; Helen in Wisconsin

Some thoughts on living in Wisconsin:

  • I’m starting to wonder if my years watching Northern Exposure was actually a prep course.
  • I try not to be an asshole NYer who is always trying to find the NYC cognate for everything I experience. Also, I try to keep discussions of said cognates to conversations with other people who have also lived in NYC.
  • I am regularly amazed at how self-deprecating WI people are about living in WI.
  • I am surprised when I am homesick and surprised when I am not.
  • It doesn’t take long before you find yourself looking at a 19 degree temp and thinking, “it’s only 19” instead of “that’s fucking cold.” Because “only 19” means no long johns; you reserve those for the temps that hover just over or just under 0.
  • I regularly feed wild rabbits that live in the lawn next to my house. We buy carrots for them. We probably shouldn’t.
  • I read an essay by Daniel Nester about leaving NYC and wonder exactly why I stayed in NY for so long except for the obvious reason that I couldn’t conceive of living anywhere else.
  • Every once in a while, we realize that all of our new friends are incredibly smart, mostly geeky, & definitely bookish, and we are very happy about that.
  • I’m not sure you’ve ever really been drunk until you’re drunk in a blizzard at a friend’s wedding in an Irish bar in Wisconsin. (Though I’m not sure you’ve ever really been drunk until you’re drunk in a ladies’ room full of drag queens and burlesque stars, either.)
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Paul Scott: Wasting Your Time

There’s a guy named Paul Scott who’s running for Secretary of State in Michigan. You know, that state that gets TB when the rest of the country has a cough.

I haven’t been flabbergasted for some time, but this hatefulness blew me away. In his opening bid to become Secretary of State, he lists four things he aims to do:

There are also policies that I will work to change:

  • I will stand strong against illegal immigration by verifying a valid social security number before issuing anyone a driver’s license, an issue Representative Dave Agema has been pushing for 3 years.
  • I will actively push to encrypt the traceable RFID chip in the enhanced driver’s license.
  • I will make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance.
  • I will work tirelessly to repeal the over $100 million dollar tax increase on drivers in the form of driver responsibility fees.

The third one, which I’ve put in bold, completely surprised me. I thought for a minute I was reading a parody & checked the page to make sure it wasn’t The Onion. On the one hand, I’m kind of blown away that the need for gender marker changes on ID is even being recognized as something transgender people need to do. On the other: really? Is blocking a transgender person’s right to change their gender marker a key issue?

Wow. Maybe his tag line should be “Vote for Paul Scott: He’ll Waste Everyone’s Time with Big Brother Bullshit.”

(h/t to Adrien and Paula, via FB)