Experimenting by posting some Spanish video materials

 I've been finding a lot of materials and creating Google Websites and Slides and all sorts of things, and I should come back and post them here. I see that Blogger has changed and updated, so I am experimenting just to see what it looks like now. 

I'll organize better later (I hope) but a few cool things I have found are videos from https://www.spanishplayground.net/ Por ejemplo:

Of course, the UT LAITS Spanish interview videos are still fantastic, for example:

Sobre un trabajo en el pasado

Interesante. Pues, no me deja poner el video directamente si no es de YouTube y tampoco puedo conectar el imágen con el enlace directamente (al contrario de Google Sites). 

In any case, here are a few cool resources. I'll try to link to more or create a Google Site that updates and replaces some of these posts.

Six Years Later... The responsibilities of Social Media Companies

I have had multiple blogs over the years, but I have decided to resuscitate this one and try to write at least one post every week.

I am going to attempt to address one of the prompts for the timed writing that I assigned Writing 7 this past Friday. I asked whether social media companies are responsible for the truthfulness of what is posted on their platforms. Here is my attempt, which I will spend 20 minutes or less writing:

The ethical complexities of social media are nuanced, and they overlap with legal obligations. I do think social media companies have a duty to monitor the content on their platforms, and I think they need to outline clear policies regarding what is permissible and what is not. As private companies they do not have the same standard of Freedom of Speech that many governments ensure, and even the freedom of speech has limits (threat of violence, libel, slander, yelling fire in a crowded theater). In spite of the difficulties of policing information on social media, social media should vet the posts on their sites due to their own business interests and public welfare of the larger community.

First of all, social media sites will find that to keep their users happy, they need to prevent certain types of abuses. All of the social media companies that I know of have methods of preventing images and videos of violence and cruelty from being broadcast on their platforms. In the same way, they should keep some standard of truthfulness and accuracy for their users to trust the platform. If their site becomes associated with conspiracy theories and trolls, they will lose users and thus lose revenue.

The benefit to the public is an even stronger argument for the sites to maintain a standard of accuracy on the posts on their site. As social media have become more ubiquitous, more and more people have started using them as their main source of news and information. Social media companies must take that responsibility seriously and do their best to support an educated, informed public. While opinions should be allowed to be shared freely, the sites should have a way for users to flag posts that contain demonstrable falsehoods. The greater the damage that will result from the falsehood, the greater the importance of a response of the social media company. Twitter's approach to put a warning tag on posts that glorify violence or endanger public health are a great example. They recognize that removing the tweets may amplify those falsehoods when the user reacts to being censored; however, by putting a warning, they communicate the problem with the tweet, and allow users to see the original message. Thus, Twitter is encouraging critical thinking and education instead of ignoring or removing the tweet completely.

I do not claim that vetting millions of posts is an easy task. However, with the incredible wealth and power that these companies have amassed, they also have a responsibility to the communities that use them. By benefiting those communities, they will promote their own self-interest as well.

Denton, a hip city votes to ban fracking!

I need to write a more substantial interview article to match what I assigned to everyone in Writing 7A, but I am running a little behind schedule on it.  In the mean time, I wanted to share some articles that were written recently about my home town, Denton!  I wrote an article on it below, but these are much more descriptive.

Here is one published in the Guardian celebrating its quirkiness and small-town vibe.

Here is one in the New York Times on its recent vote to prohibit Fracking, a very lucrative but environmentally questionable practice for extracting natural gas.

And here is an article about the likely upcoming litigation over the ban.

J. Houston Elementary

Houston!  Eagles!  Houston!  Eagles!  A crowd of 800 children aged four through eleven shout back to Elia Camarillo, a smiling principal in jeans and a blue Houston Eagles t-shirt, holding a microphone. 

“All right Houston Eagles! It’s Friday!  Now I want all of you to show your Houston pride and respect as we list off the birthdays this week!  Ready?” The kids sit cross-legged in rows, grouped by grade level.  Some kids are fidgeting or leaning over to whisper to a friend; others are quietly looking up.  A few walk on tiptoe between their classmates, trying to find a spot to sit on the cafeteria floor. The names are announced with each birthday celebrator standing up and getting a colorful birthday pencil.  Everybody sings “Happy Birthday Cha Cha Cha!” to raucous joyful applause.

I worked for two years at J. Houston Elementary in the Dove Springs neighborhood in southeast Austin. The orderly chaos of morning assembly in the cafeteria was just one of the many ways that the space filled with life and energy.  Later in the morning, while the students were divided up in their classrooms, a group of mothers spent an hour dancing and exercising with Zumba, swinging arms and legs rhythmically with Cumbias, Reggaeton, and Bachatas.  On some days, guest speakers would come; the front half of the cafeteria could be the solar system, and kids would revolve around each other, rotating to demonstrate the gravitational interactions of the heavenly bodies.  On another day, pre-teen musicians would perform, having come from Medez Middle School a few blocks away to demonstrate their instruments.  

At the end of the year, the fifth graders would dress up in their finest dresses, dress shirts, and slacks, proudly marching across the stage as a symbol of their graduation, their progress from elementary school to middle school.  Parents would sit at tables behind them, cheering and taking photos as the fifth graders shook hands with the administrators and took their diplomas.  They, then, ceremoniously served cake and punch to their parents.

Leaving the cafeteria, and walking outside, there are sidewalks; one goes straight toward the Fifth Grade Building and the portables, and another goes left towards the Fourth Grade Buliding and the gymnasium.  Next to the gym is a basketball court with a tall blue tarp spread out above it like a monochromatic circus tent.  This space too was a center of activities and action.

Fall Carnival would appear in October with dozens of games, hundreds of prizes.  Soda bottles set up like bowling pins: if you could throw a ring around one, you could take it home.  Plastic fish in a kiddie pool full of water: if you hooked one with a plastic fishing lure, you would get a real live goldfish in a clear plastic bag full of water.  You would be very lucky if it was alive the next day.  Haunted houses in the small portable classrooms, a train that circled the concrete in between the portables.  Wrappers, plastic bottles, and other assorted food trash littered the grass and dust in between the concrete surfaces.  Teachers, custodians, and perhaps a few kids picked some of it up, and would take care of the rest on Monday.

These memories adjoin with many experiences for me, and I was only there for two years.  My colleagues who have spent 20 or 30 years must have so many more.  The kids, who spend their childhoods there, perhaps even more.  It is a special place, with a core of pride and at times a community spirit that would amaze anyone.

Improv Comedy

Improv Comedy

This is happening in the moment. There’s no plan, and it’s so spontaneous it even the people creating it are thrown off their guard at times! Improvisational comedy, or Improv, as its fans call it, is a form of theater in which everyone on stage is inventing their lines as they say them.  There is no script; there is no memorization.  Quick-witted performers have to stay on their toes to deliver hilarious (and sometimes heartbreaking) lines and time them so that an audience stays on board.  

Over the years, I’ve seen some great shows. One group that I have enjoyed consistently over the years goes by the unwieldy name of Parallelogramaphonograph (P-Graph for short).  They consist in four members – three of whom are co-owners of the Hideout Theater – and they perform long-form shows that last around one-and-a-half hours.  The setting and genre are often determined from the beginning; I’ve seen shows ranging from family photos from the 1950s to Victorian comedies of manners to a Sci-Fi space movie parody.  They study and plan for the character types, time period, location, and other broad-brush genre characteristics, but the action and dialogue of the play are completely improvised.

Another popular style involves a host who introduces actors to short challenges or scenarios.  Maestro is the Hideout Theater’s incarnation of this, but many people have seen this style of performance on the television show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”  These short pieces often involve audience suggestions, and the actors have to incorporate the audience’s idea while playing a two-headed monsters or pretending to speak and/or interpret non-sense gibberish.  Often there is some method for scoring these short performances; the judge may gauge audience applause or may use his or her own preferences to rate the performers.  At the end of this style of show, one performer emerges as the winner, although I don’t think there are any real prizes; the competition aspect seems more of a gimmick for the audience.

So, how does improv work?  What allows a scene to continue and flourish rather than slump and die?  The principles known as “Yes, and…” has a lot to do with keeping the momentum of a scene. This guideline encourages actors to always affirm what the other actors have stated; improvisers never shoot down ideas, but rather build on what their collaborators have created.  If one actor says, “Look at this amazing guitar – Jimmi Hendrix played this guitar at Woodstock!” Don’t kill her mojo by saying, “No it’s not.  That’s stupid.”  Welcome her suggestion, and add to it.  “That’s right – Mr. Hendrix gave it to my grandmother that very day, and she has had it in our attic ever since!  Would you like to play it?” In this way, the actor moves the action forward and gives the others something to work with to make the story continue in a creative way.

Voice seems to be a really tricky piece of Improv, and acting in general.  None of us has a perfectly consistent voice; we change our approach and our patterns depending on our situation and whom we’re talking to.  However, for a character in a play, the audience needs to believe that you are one person.  The voice needs to be consistent enough to be convincing.  That’s a good reason to be very cautious when trying to do an accent that is not your own.  If you start it but can’t keep it up, the failure will be very noticeable.

However, improvisers say that failure is opportunity.  They welcome failure as a lesson in humility and in resilience.  Everyone flops on stage sometimes, but the ones who are able to resurrect the performance are the ones who really amaze an audience.

Improv comedy can be found at the Hideout Theater, Cold Towne Theater, Salvage Vanguard Theater, and many other locations.  I highly recommend checking out a show and trying a class.  You will meet very creative people of all personality types, and you’ll get a chance to exercise your own creative muscles.  It’s also a great way to get over stage fright or insecurities about speaking with strangers.  I hope you’ll give Improv a try!

My home town: Denton, TX

Will Slade

My Home Town

Denton, Texas has been my hometown since I moved there with my family in 1991.  It is situated nearly equidistant from three key landmarks: 40 miles south of the Red River, which marks the Oklahoma-Texas border, 40 miles northwest of Dallas, and 40 miles northeast of Fort Worth. Its population is growing rapidly, with currently over 121,000 people, which is twice what it was when my family first moved there 23 years ago. 

The culture and identity of Denton is not simple to nail down.  Local residents often call it Little D, in relation to Dallas, and we assert that it is the northern point of the “Golden Triangle” with Dallas and Fort Worth even if residents of those bigger cities may not think of us as true members of their club.  Many Dentonites, when traveling, will not even say they are from Denton.  They collapse our fair city into what is known as the DFW Metroplex, or simply Dallas. 

In that way, we resemble a suburb. That identity that is both real and imagined; we have a sprawling area towards Dallas with cookie cutter houses, few trees, and many cars with which families commute into Dallas. My family’s house is on the border of this area, in a more unique and treed neighborhood with spiraling streets, but my dad does the hour-long commute to his office with IBM in northern Dallas every day.

However, the sector that many Dentonites claim with pride is its “mini-Austin” identity. Its universities and the people who surround them promote a vibrant intellectual and cultural life. The University of North Texas is a bastion of jazz and classical music, with a diverse student population from all over the world and a cutting edge environmental science program.  Texas Women’s University used to be all women, but is now co-ed; it has a beautiful campus and really strong programs in theater, occupational therapy, and education.  Both of these campuses border a charming downtown with an old-fashioned courthouse and lots of quaint shops.

Denton also extends into the countryside, with ranchers and cowboy types who have a strong drawl and fit a Texas stereotype from movies and TV.  I went to school with kids from this background, but did not identify much with them and do not have a very nuanced understanding of their lives.

As most cities in the United States, Denton has a history of racial segregation. Black Dentonites have a sad history of being re-located from one part of town to another due to racism and unfair power structures.  In response to that, much of Southeast Denton has grown strong and connected through African American churches, sports, and clubs, which have grown in influence and prominence in institutions throughout the city. However, racism persists and many of the inequalities in terms of educational attainment, incarceration rates, and joblessness rates continue to plague our communities of color.  In turn, such injustices are toxic for all of us who participate in them.

Also, in the past 30 years, a large Mexican and Central American populations have moved to and grown in Denton.  According to the census data, Hispanics now make up 21.2 % of the total population and 22.4 % of Dentonites speak a language other than English at home.  Much of this community is diverse and transforming.  Schools are attempting to implement Dual Language programs to serve families and help children maintain their home language as well as gain access to the job benefits and local prestige of English.  The music, food, and cultural celebrations of Latinos are becoming more ubiquitous in Denton, as the population integrates and grows.

My Denton straddles all of these cultures. I feel a lot of affection for my town.  Would I move back?  Sometimes I think I’d love to.  But the majority of my next few blog posts will attempt to explore the unique elements of Austin that have kept me here so far.  Dentonite?  Austinite?  I will claim both for now.

As the semester ends

I personally regret not writing more in my blog.  I wonder what I can do in future semesters to keep everyone and myself more accountable to this easy, weekly practice, which I think is very valuable.  Are pen-and-paper journals better?  I prefer typing, but I need it to be more immediate and in my attention when so many other things are going on. 

I should thank Nijla for inspiring me to write today (I got an update in my e-mail that she had posted about the hardest job in the world).  Young also inspired me the other day when she told me about her plan to blog about the horrible tragedy in South Korea two weeks ago, when a ship sank with many high school students and other innocent victims. 

These sorts of topics are perfect for writing in a journal.  They are in our consciousness and they affect us personally.  Writing can be a really productive way to process them. 

One issue of blogging is that it makes us vulnerable.  It puts our stories out in the world.  I've been reading a lot about the power of vulnerability in a book called The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown, a researcher who is also a really great storyteller.  I just found a YouTube video that Brené Brown did, and I think you may like it a lot!

https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability

I want to write more.  I am going to re-commit to writing more!  I hope you will too.  I'm writing this on my blog, think I'll send this in an e-mail as well.