Author Archives: PorterEspino

We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for December 26, 2013

by PorterEspino Posted on December 26, 2013

Mother Jones

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A paratroopers jumps from a CASA 212, Dec. 13, 2013 during Operation Toy Drop. The number of toys for the 16th Annual Randy Oler Operation Toy Drop continues to grow as special operations forces donate throughout this week at Luzon Drop Zone, Camp Mackall, N.C. Jumping from CASA 212s and a German C-160, paratroopers earned foreign jump wings from one of nine countries’ jumpmasters participating in this year’s Toy Drop after donating a new, unwrapped toy and successfully completing a jump. Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland, Chile, Sweden, Latvia, Brazil and Netherlands jumpmasters participated this year. Hosted by the U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), Operation Toy Drop is the largest combined airborne operation in the world. The donated toys will be distributed to children’s homes and social service agencies in the local community. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Amanda Smolinski/USACAPOC(A) PAO)

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for December 26, 2013

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Hindu Lore to Racial Politics, MIA’s "Matangi" Delivers

by PorterEspino Posted on November 18, 2013

Mother Jones

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Maya Arulpragasm (best known as MIA), predicted the NSA spying scandal. She is pop’s most rebellious musician. And after a delay of several years, her new album, which she has described as sounding like “Paul Simon on acid,” was finally released earlier this month. Whether or not it lives up to her characterization, Matangi—titled after MIA’s namesake, the Hindu goddess of music and the spoken word—is decidedly eclectic, ranging from reggae rhythms to club beats, hip-hop vocals to slower love songs, and Eastern instrumentation to a mainstream pop style.

An MIA album would be nothing without a complex, varied message, and Matangi delivers. It’s replete with allusions to Hindu stories and spirituality, alongside more current (if slightly outdated) pop-culture references: “YALA” (you always live again) plays off the cultural meme YOLO (you only live once) popularized by Drake’s “The Motto.” MIA’s response explores the Hindu concepts of reincarnation and karma. “YOLO?” she sings. “I don’t even know anymore…back home where I come from we keep being born again and again and again.” “Come Walk With Me,” ostensibly a song about modern love and romance, is accompanied by a an animated video of Hindu imagery.

Matangi also offers a strong (if ambiguous) political message. “Brown girl, brown girl, turn your shit down. You know America don’t want to hear your sound,” she raps on the short track “Boom.” Meanwhile, “aTENTion” was “written with all the words that have ‘tent’ in them,” she told NPR. “It’s sort of to describe the refugee philosophy—people who live in tents—because I feel like they are the modern-day untouchables…they’re faceless and placeless.” The song, weirdly enough, was written with the help of Wikileaks’ Julian Assange, who came by her London studio while she was working on his TV series. Mixed messages aside, Matangi, is everything you’d thought it would be, and gets better with every listen.

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Hindu Lore to Racial Politics, MIA’s "Matangi" Delivers

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How Women are Healing the World in ‘FEMME’

by PorterEspino Posted on October 30, 2013

Excerpt from – 

How Women are Healing the World in ‘FEMME’

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