Tuesday, November 21, 2006

We're live!

Break out the champagne and celebrate a new birth ... Chispa Productions has a new website!!!

I am so excited with how it all came out!



The wonderful creative genius behind this exciting new site is none other than the Web Muse herself, Anita Larson. Boy, did she and her amazing team of designers have to be patient with me. We went back and forth on the logo, the borders, the colors ... everything! (Those little green dots in the border? That was an entire day's worth of discussion with my husband and just about everyone else I knew...)

And then there was the moment of panic today when I accidentally erased my entire home page ... But Anita saved the day, and we were back online within the hour.

So click right on over to Chispa to check out what all the excitement is about ... and find some great tips for teaching Spanish with sabor latino!

Now, about that champagne ...

Thursday, November 09, 2006

What happened to salsa?

I miss salsa.

Sure, there are now more salsa clubs and salsa classes and even salsa conferences than ever before.

But it's not the same salsa that I first knew. Somehow, salsa has lost its soul.

Back in the late 70s, when I was a college senior and Gloria Estefan was just one of the singers in a new band called "Miami Sound Machine", I learned how to dance salsa in the apartment of my Venezuelan friends. It was simple, and it was fun. Grab your partner, feel the beat, and move.

If you wanted to get fancy, maybe occasionally you and your partner would throw a turn in there. Or you could add that little extra beat with your foot ("la patita") before stepping into the next step.

But mostly, you wanted to feel the music and enjoy dancing with your partner. You could even chat while dancing. Either way – verbally or nonverbally – salsa was about communicating with your dance partner and enjoying the music.

Not so anymore.

Salsa has somehow become a competitive sport. How many turns can you do in one beat?? What's your signature flash move? Don't forget to throw your arm up in the air with a flourish every time you turn or step away from your partner! And do you dance on 1 or on 2?

Communicate with your partner? Enjoy the music? Not a chance. And converse? ¿Estás loco?

Give me old-style salsa any day ... and give salsa back its soul!

Friday, November 03, 2006

¡Atrévete!

I just love this song ... it is so much fun!



The beat is infectious (just like the lyrics say) and the lyrics are just a riot – a pure celebration of Spanglish with a Puerto Rican accent. I love how they unhesitatingly rhyme "esmalte" with "taparte" and "retratarte!"

Take out the reference to nalgas and tapa rabo (not sure I want to explain the origin of that one to a class...) ... and I guess gloss over some of the other suggestive phrases if you have a young or sensitive class... and this would be a great song to teach informal commands, especially commands with reflexive pronouns. I've highlighted the commands below .... and hey, you've even got a matching negative reflexive command (Ponte and No te pongas), a command with both a reflexive and an object pronoun (súbetela), and some subjunctive to boot!

So what do you say, Spanish teachers? If this song is too risqué, then find another one ... but use popular music to make Spanish popular! ¡Salganse del closet, y atrévanse!



Atrévete, te, te, te
Salte del closet,
Destápate, quítate el esmalte
Deja de taparte que nadie va a retratarte
Levántate, ponte hyper
Préndete, sácale chispas al estárter
Préndete en fuego como un lighter
Sacúdete el sudor como si fueras un wiper
Que tú eres callejera, “Street Fighter”

Cambia esa cara de seria
Esa cara de intelectual, de enciclopedia
Que te voy a inyectar con la bacteria
Pa’ que des vuelta como machina de feria
Señorita intelectual, ya se que tienes
El área abdominal que va a explotar
Como fiesta patronal, que va a explotar
Como palestino…
Yo sé que a ti te gusta el pop-rock latino
Pero es que el reggaeton se te mete por los intestinos
Por debajo de la falda como un submarino
Y te saca lo de indio taino
Ya tú sabes, en tapa-rabo, mama
En el nombre de Agüeybana
No hay mas na’, para na’ que yo te vo’a mentir
Yo sé que yo también quiero consumir de tu perejil
Y tú viniste amazónica como Brasil
Tú viniste a matarla como “Kill Bill”
Tú viniste a beber cerveza de barril
Tú sabes que tú conmigo tienes refill

Atrévete, te, te, te
Salte del closet,
Destápate, quítate el esmalte
Deja de taparte que nadie va a retratarte
Levántate, ponte hyper
Préndete, sácale chispas al estárter
Préndete en fuego como un lighter
Sacúdete el sudor como si fueras un wiper
Que tú eres callejera, “Street Fighter”

Hello, deja el show
Súbete la mini-falda
Hasta la espalda
Súbetela, deja el show, más alta
Que ahora vamo’a bailar por to’a la jarda
Mira, nena, ¿quieres un sipi?
No importa si eres rapera o eres hippie
Si eres de Bayamón o de Guaynabo City
Conmigo no te pongas picky
Esto es hasta abajo, cógele el tricky
Esto es fácil, estoy es un mamey
¿Que importa si te gusta Green Day?
¿Que importa si te gusta Coldplay?
Esto es directo, sin parar, one-way
Yo te lo juro de que por ley
Aquí to’a las boricuas saben karate
Ellas cocinan con salsa de tomate
Mojan el arroz con un poco de aguacate
Pa’ cosechar nalgas de 14 quilates

Atrévete, te, te, te
Salte del closet,
Destápate, quítate el esmalte
Deja de taparte que nadie va a retratarte
Levántate, ponte hyper
Préndete, sácale chispas al estárter
Préndete en fuego como un lighter
Sacúdete el sudor como si fueras un wiper
Que tú eres callejera, “Street Fighter”