World Book Night 2012: reaching out to light- and non-readers

Posted on April 24, 2012 | 6 Comments

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On the night of Monday, April 23, 2012, I participated in World Book Night 2012, an initiative with an ambitious goal: handing out 1 million books across the United States, in one night. I did it in Penn Station, and live-tweeted about it. Here’s a chronological account of the experience, which includes photos of the future readers. Having shared the joy of reading, and twenty books lighter, I invite you to keep an eye out for World Book Night 2013. If you love books (and if you are reading this, you probably do), you’ll be happy you joined the book-giving ranks.

WORLD BOOK NIGHT 2012 (#wbnamerica)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: give away 20 books. Your target: light- and non-readers. #wbnamerica. http://t.co/jc1ITaRO

I’m giving out books at Penn Station, NYC. Here’s the first future reader! http://lockerz.com/s/203649579 #wbnamerica

Second book recipient of the night: the flower vendor. #wbnamerica http://pic.twitter.com/sBAn4hg0

Third book recipient of the night: woman with red coat. #wbnamerica http://pic.twitter.com/ovMtyQmw

Fourth book recipient of the night: looking for her train, she still found time to be part of #wbnamerica. http://pic.twitter.com/OOvYfq6D

Fifth book recipient of the night: even the dog will read this novel. #wbnamerica. http://pic.twitter.com/7k5uz2Qr

The sixth book recipient of the night was shy (no paparazzi); this is the seventh, making books hip. #wbnamerica. http://pic.twitter.com/MTJaj3Pm

The eight book recipient of the night was also shy, but we found a solution for the photo. #wbnamerica. http://pic.twitter.com/rrc6geR8

The ninth and tenth book recipients of the night already have two people for their future book club. #wbnamerica http://pic.twitter.com/nMwjgGSh

The 11th and 12th book recipients of the night could not wait to dive into the novel. #wbnamerica http://pic.twitter.com/duvwpQbx

The 13th book recipient of the night was wearing a uniform. Thus, the hand. #wbnamerica http://pic.twitter.com/geRzDCOO

The 14th book recipient of the night told me he had never owned a book. Until today, that is! #wbnamerica http://pic.twitter.com/0iMxoFym

The 15th book recipient of the night wanted no photos. But she’ll start reading tonight during her trip. #wbnamerica http://pic.twitter.com/HBl7vGkr

The 16th book recipient of the night: close up of a redhead. #wbnamerica. http://pic.twitter.com/t9dLozKZ

It took effort to convince my 17th book recipient for #wbnamerica. When she said “no photos,” I settled for this one. http://pic.twitter.com/pUpu3C4S

My 18th book recipient for #wbnamerica was wearing a uniform as well. Here’s the hand of a future reader. http://pic.twitter.com/N2ZEv49o

My 19th book recipient for #wbnamerica holds his gift with the bookmark that marks the date when he decided to read. http://pic.twitter.com/PPSttcVl

“I haven’t read since November. I left school to have my baby.” “Welcome back to reading!” She was the 20th. #wbnamerica http://pic.twitter.com/FWR6mqfy

Highlight of #wbnamerica: “Where am I going to put the book?” he asked. “In your head!” I said. He laughed… But didn’t take the book!

#wbnamerica’s goal was to reach light- and non-readers. When I was approached by readers, I told them: “You already have the gift. Enjoy it!”

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

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NJTransit and Spanish, the upside-down language

Posted on March 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

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Posted in Miscellany

Just a Minute, by Paquito D’Rivera

Posted on February 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

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Just a Minute!

When the organizers of the Transient Glory Symposium asked me to write a one-minute long piece for the wonderful Young People’s Chorus of New York City, I thought they were pulling my leg. But then I remembered Chopin’s famous “One Minute Waltz” (that very few players finish on time), called my poet friend Alexis Romay for some help with the lyrics, and got down to work.

First thing I did was to set a page with 30 bars and the metronome mark of 120 quarter notes a minute on it. Then I accommodated a simple rhythmic melody to the Spanish and English words I’d written already with the ones Alexis sent me; so starting with the phrase: Un minuto, tengo solo un minuto para cantar esta canción. All I’ve got is a minute to sing this song, I little by little built a bilingual, sort of humoristic song that lasted exactly that. Just a minute!

Paquito D’Rivera
February 2012

***

Un minuto

Music: Paquito D’Rivera
Lyrics: P. D’Rivera & Alexis Romay

Un minuto, un minuto.
No preguntes cómo o cuándo,
el tiempo pasa volando.
Tengo solo un minuto
para cantar esta canción.

All I’ve got is a minute
To sing this song.

Just a minute?
Do you mean it?

Hurry up, please it’s time!
Don’t you see, time is gold?

Un minuto diminuto,
¡y no tengo sustituto!

Just one minute,
Only a minute, got a minute.
Solo tengo un minuto.
Un minuto diminuto.
Solo un minuto.
Un minuto.
Hurry up, time flies!
All I’ve got is one minute.
Y el tiempo pasa volando.
Se acabó el minuto.
Ssshhhh!!!

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On (Cuban) dissidents and other pests

Posted on November 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

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The first thing tyrants (and those who support them) do is to dehumanize their enemies. In doing so, they give their allies and followers carte blanche to deal with the dissidents as if they were vermin. The logic of this action is as simple as it is macabre: it is not the same to beat up women on any given street, in broad daylight (what Castro’s thugs did over and over to the the late Laura Pollán, depicted in the photo above) than to just crush a pest who has already been conveniently stripped off her humanity.

Qaddafi had a name for those who opposed him: “rats.” Fidel Castro calls them “worms.” His niece, Mariela Castro Espín, calls them “despicable parasites.”

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Twelve years

Posted on September 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

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Today I am celebrating twelve years of living in the United States: twelve years of not having to look over my shoulder when I speak, twelve years of not going to bed hungry, twelve years of not waking up in fear.

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The Battle for Content

Posted on August 25, 2011 | 1 Comment

If you are reading this is only because thanks to blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google + (and fill in the blank with your favorite social networks), everybody and his aunt has gone from consumer to generator of content. Not only do we choose, based on our preferences and prejudices, where we get the news that inform our opinions and keep our moral compass pointing North. We have also become providers of content, and we put it out there for the world to be improved by our enlightened thoughts. And still, when the world wide web is not enough, people take their message(s) to the streets, and walk around with Japanese, Chinese and Korean characters, quotes from The Book or their favorite writers and every conceivable half-formed thought tattooed on their midriffs, necks, ankles, shoulders, forearms…

We are bombarded with information due to the endless need to stay in our minds and be relevant so innate to humans and corporations alike.

We have “Snapple real facts” in the inside lid of the ubiquitous iced tea bottles, and there we can learn the speed of the fastest serve in tennis, how many times one can fold paper until it is no longer possible to keep folding it, or the amount of hours vultures can fly without flapping their wings. The list goes on.

The day I accepted a job offer from my current employer, we celebrated with Chinese food. As the ritual demands it, at the end of the meal I opened my fortune cookie. It read: “Your income will increase.” We had a good laugh.

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We (and this includes you) have gotten used to reading platitudes in fortune cookies, that is of course until we get the ultimate and most accurate of all: “Now you are reading a fortune cookie.” But there’s a new kid on the block to keep us on our toes: Halls, the maker of cough drops whose sales probably go through the roof in the winter, now has raised the bar. It has included a “pep talk” in each and every one of its lozenges.

It annoyed me at first. But I know I will learn to live with it. After all, this is not a bad way to kickstart the day:

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Posted in Miscellany, Social Networks

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July 26th, a significant day

Posted on July 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

By Mariano Vidal

20110727-110448.jpgToday, July 26th is a significant day for me.

For instance, Hoyt Wilhelm was born on this day. Not too many people know that the arm of this knuckleballing pitcher was actually deformed from throwing the weird pitch that relies on no spin and no wind.

Two favorite poets were born on this day. Although not that far away from each other, their native languages could not have been more different. This is where being bi-lingual is a joy. One was the Irish George Bernard Shaw, and the other was Antonio Machado, who although born in Andalusia, did most of his work in Soria, one of my favorite Spanish cities, where black truffles grow. He wrote:

¡Chopos del camino blanco, álamos de la ribera,
espuma de la montaña
ante la azul lejanía;
sol del día, claro día!
¡Hermosa tierra de España!

(Poplars upon the white path, riverbank elms
Mountain haze
Before the blue beyond;
Sun of the day, clear day!
Beautiful Spanish land!)

Jean Shepherd, the American writer, was born on July 26th. His radio show in the early 70s, kept me both amused and awake while I was doing my architectural school homework. I learned how to play the kazoo by listening to his rendition of “The bear missed the train” (a variation of “Bei mir bist du shoen”). You may be familiar with “A Christmas Story,” a movie based on one of his books. It’s about the kid who wants a Red Ryder BB gun and the mom who worries that he is “going to shoot his eye out.” I had a BB gun just like that when I turned nine years old. The movie narrator is Jean Shepherd himself.

Vivian Vance was born on this day. She played Ethel in the “I love Lucy” TV program. She came from a wealthy family and didn’t have to do the show and battle Fred, who was an ornery alcoholic. They hated each other passionately, but managed to make me laugh, perhaps even more than Lucy and Ricky.

Sandra Bullock was also born on this day. If she alone does not make you forget Castro’s 26th of July Movement, nothing will.

*****
Photo: Vivian Vance and William Frawley as Fred and Ethel Mertz in “I Love Lucy.”

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