The Repeating Island

Longest absence to date. No entries since November, but I did post a review of James L. Brooks’s Spanglish. I was hoping for the movie to get some attention; positive or negative didn’t matter to me, but it seems to be dying at the box office and will probably not get any of those Academy Award nominations usually associated with Brooks. Which leads me to wonder, was the movie that bad or mediocre, or was it up against too much competition, or was it actually the title that put people off. Spanglish as a commercial bonanza is an absurd idea, especially with Adam Sandler as the protagonist for multicultural mutation.

Anibal inaugurated—Chucho lip-synchs the flag song. Thousands wave white flags with Paz y Armonía emblazoned on them. Acevedo-Vila’s speech is described as “scolding” by ex-PIP Senator Fernando Martín in the post-tomar-posesión analysis at the WAPA studios. Later they showed footage of an graying, somewhat addled-looking man being beaten with the white Paz y Armonía flags because he was holding an anti-Acevedo-Vila placard. Still not sure how to spin the Nation story, especially because of the exceptionally quiet holiday season—hardly any shootings, most likely due to an intense TV PSA campaign against discharging weapons on New Year’s Eve.

On Ashford Avenue, La Laura walks me through Isleno 101, coaxing memories of Boca de Cangrejos and Jose Luis Monero. At Pinones, the bomba sica grows faster and faster. Urbanizacion Floral Park and the latent coquis flow through me. Then there was the guy snooping up at us from his terraza at the clunky extention of Condado Plaza. The whispers and murmurs of the intensely connected. Something Selena sang about way back when.

To be continued...