I TRY TO EXPLAIN THE ANALOGY OF IPHONES TO STELLAS USING KUBRICK'S "2001"

At a recent snack pow wow I tried to explain to my wife and her friends that the iphone is highly similar to a stella and reference Kubrick's 2001 to no avail. So in the words of Aretha, they served me and made me feel like a luna because I was acting like a luna.

APPLICATION LETTER FOR ACAD LIB JOB AT LEHMAN

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to apply for the Electronic Resources and Web Services Librarian position at Lehman College that was recently posted on the Queens College G.S.L.I.S. listserv. I am a recent graduate of the Queens College Library and Information Science program and a 2007-2008 A.L.A. Spectrum Scholar, but have been working in academic libraries and museums since 2007. This position seems ideal for my experience, education, and skills. I am eager to bring my knowledge-base and camaraderie to the position, especially since I am a proud graduate of Lehman College (Advanced Certificate in Secondary English Ed, 2007).
At the current moment, I am a college assistant with the Learning Resource Center at Bronx Community College and a member of L.A.C.U.N.Y.; I have been employed by B.C.C. since February of 2008, and plan on returning in the Fall as a Librarian Adjunct. I help students navigate over one hundred online indexes, and assist them to construct research strategies for their queries. In addition, I support librarians conducting bibliographic instruction sessions, and have been known to cover a session for an instructor that has an emergency and must be absent.
I have also created web-based tutorials for popular research websites like www.citationmachine.net using Adobe's Captivate. Likewise, I have created a webpage for the Learning Resource Center at Bronx Community College using Dreamweaver. During the fall and spring, the Learning Resource Center services approximately 75 students a day, and the college itself services a little over 9,000 students a year. While it may be difficult to estimate how many students I help on a daily basis, it is the interaction with students that I find most satisfying and productive.
I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss your employment needs and my qualifications in greater detail. I may be reached at the number listed above. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Yago Cura

enclosure

BRAZIL BEATS USA, 3-2

LOWERING TEXTBOOK COSTS & SENATOR DURBIN'S THREE SCENARIOS

I work at Bronx Community College so I always hear students complaining about textbooks costs; moreover, what I hear them saying is that they understand textbooks have to be expensive, but why do they shaft you when you sell them back.

I am definitely in favor of lowering the costs of textbooks, but am not sure if federal monies should be used to entice the textbook industry to lower their costs. Specifically though, I believe in greater access but want to respect an author's right to own their work.

As a writer, I also want to ensure certain rights are guaranteed to me and that I may wield them commercially. Last, I feel that authors need to retain inviolable control as arrangers and artisans of a specific textual iteration, but that others have rights to manipulate and comment through what has been written, and possibly even make some money themselves off that writing.

Maybe giving an author too rigid a control over something they write stifles the micro economy that could be created by various writers using a single piece of writing and making money off it. Let's not forget that regardless, people will pay for writing that is engaging and sophisticated; if what you write does not captivate, no one will pay to read it.

Yes, an author could write something and make a nominal amount of money and then an advertising agency could make millions of a snippet or portion of that writing. That is the gamble; but with that gamble comes the possibility of penning something that gets bought through the ages, like Ginsberg's "Howl and Other Poems" (1956). People have been buying the little fucking black and white City Lights pocket edition of "Howl and Other Poems" (1956) since Norma Jean was filling out Change-of-Name papers.

I mean, you want the author who has labored the hardest, who originally conceived an idea and gestated it through possibly several years of writing, to be the most handsomely compensated. But, you can not always expect that that will be the case. More importantly, should we ensure that this is the case. Should a cap be placed on the commercial priveleges that accompany a piece of writing. For example, should we say that a novel can make 8 million dollars; if your novel makes 8 million dollars, you lose commercial rights to this piece of writing, although legally you don't stop being recognized as author, creator, midwife of a specific iteration.

Even though I admire many works that have been illegally spliced together (right now the only thing that comes to mind is Dangermouse's "Grey Album" or any of Girl Talk's songs; I think these are what are referred to as "mashups"). And then there is the argument made famous by Willa Cather that "there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before"

Senator Richard Durbin (Democrat of Illinois) is preparing legislation that would dramatically lower the cost of college textbooks by providing federal grants to faculty whose textbooks are published and marketed over the internet.

There are three types of licensing currently under consideration by Senator Durbin and his staff:

1. BY license—Under this license the author is credited for the work, but does not retain control over changes or future use (either commercial or non-commercial use) once the text is marketed on-line. The material in the textbook would be treated as open information, and anyone would be free to change or use it in any other form. This is the policy strongly favored by “open access” advocates.

2. BYNCSA license—The abbreviation stands for “by attribution, non-commercial, share-alike.” Under this license the author retains the right to prevent future use of the work for profit, but has no control over updates and revisions as long as they are for non-commercial use. This approach has the support of some of the major student advocacy groups.

3. “No Derivative” license—Under this license the text cannot be changed, updated or used for any purpose—commercial or non-commercial—without the author’s express approval. This is the option least favored by “open access” advocates, but preferred by many faculty. The AFT’s legal staff is exploring proposals to solve one of the problems the approach presents: efficient administration of permission for derivatives.

El Spicaro would love to hear some of your thoughts on this phenemenon...

SPAIN GETS BESTED BY EEUU, 2-0

ARABIC BODEGA MAN WANTS ME TO WRITE HIM SCRIPT ABOUT BEING YEMENI IN HARLEM

If I were to write you a script, it would probably start at JFK.
You would play yourself, a Yemeni-American gaffer who owns oodles of kioskos.

You are there to pick up your cousin, an emigree cowpoke from Sana'a.
He is truly an arabic protagonist--surgically sliced side burns, feral eyebrows.

Your job is to hide the cables, stay out of the picture, and rig lighting.

His job is to embarrass his prosperous father, drag race his coupe into slow drifts, and slobber through bushels of khat.

I sense the tension already, so I start flattering the vantage,
an acute angle to frame your entrance. Because when you come to this country,

you have to distinguish yourself from a thousand other
yous willing to dirt for sport, to embarrass the balast.

Your cousin and you find a roadside diner in Far Rockaway: an old-school place
that has rice in the salt jars and translucent red cups with ice slivers for soda.

Your cousin asks why you are not married; he knows you are successful but not what a gaffer actually does; your reputation has been flung across the Atlantic; the mothers of Sana'a gush with the prospects of handing you their daughters.

ODE by YAGO CURA

This is the cover of a zine I created called, Ode. The piece of paper that I folded to create Ode had an ode to Ronaldo on it that I was working on. Even though it's just a rough draft, folded into a zine, the different panes act like little portraits of the process of writing a poem.





This is the piece of paper that I folded and made into a zine. I would like to start selling these little zines. How much do you think they should go for? Please don't forget to subtract the postage that I would use to actually send this piece out...

ODE TO CRISTIANO RONALDO

Imagine flair an ingredient of gwow!
Highlights in the hair of streaked peacock.
Ronaldo, Cristiano, Correcaminos Soberano.
He dizzies the balon, combing it back and forth:
as if he were spinning diaphanous Kevlar hair
or spiderweb streakers with jewels of dew.
Imagine an Atomic Squid with bounty of tentalegticles.
On each foot, a sneaker signed by speed certificates.
Ronaldo, Cristiano, Correcaminos Lujáno.
He is rather unstoppable. Like jet black garden snakes
that stitch through scrub until they flash the eyes.
When he fakes, a wake of whatif precludes intent.
Imagine yellow or hazard orange cleats--bandaged to hilt.
Techno jeans stores and Maserati loafers, dope cologne
and power point presentations with flaming swooshes.
His rubberband move is the bane of D's existence because
as D-man you must commit to a lunge; you can't half-lunge, can you?
You can't flux capacitor back once you lunge.
You lunge, but he just keeps blowing past your whole life:
a stop-motion parable.

I TIP MY HAT TO ECUADOR FOR THEIR SPECTACULAR GOALS AGAINST ARGENTINA

Whenever Argentina loses my father turns into a furious mime. Doesn't want to talk about it. It's not that he will turn physically into a mime, it's just that there is no mention of the loss. It is stricken from the menu of conversation like conjecture in the courtroom.

But I think it needs to be mentioned that the first goal against Argentina is an amazing feat of athleticism. I mean the forward, Walter Ayovi, really does a superb job. He boots it into the fucking wee corner of the goalpost from well outside the goalie's box. And the second goal by Pablo Palacios was just as glorious;some might even say that Pablo's goal was freakish. Palacios scoops it into the goal as he is spinning round. So that's it. That's all I am going to say about that. Argentina played like shit and the goals were solid.

The real conversation is about Maradona as a coach. Let me be very clear about this: I wholeheartedly disagree with AFA appointing Maradona as the coach of the Argentina National Team. My pops said they did it mostly to shut him up; regardless, being one who makes pretty goals does not translate well into coaching a team on how to make pretty goals. The fact of the matter is that Maradona seems more motivated by the spotlight and pity party he gets to have in front of Argentine national television explaining how his team of colts withered into a cabal of sea horses.

Bielsa was the last coach that Argentina had and even though they didn't win the World Cup in 2002, the Argentines booted him because they thought he was winning enough. Now, he coaches the Chilean national team and Chile is right behind Brazil and are almost guaranteed a spot in 2010. Why o why did Argentina give Bielsa the boot? I think it has to do with the Argentine mind in some ways. The Argentine mind is a little insecure about it's gait. It wants to always run, even at times when it is more wise to jog. And it loves to gloat; it revels in schadenfreude. Maybe if the Argentine mind was a little less preoccupied with rubbing it in people's faces then they could unleash the skills and prowess that the world expects of them.

The shitshow match versus Ecuador could be blamed on Messi being tired and missing a goal that was evidently a gift from the soccer gods. Please let us not bring up the altitude argument; and, I hereby deputize you to stop short any fucking Argentine that blames Argentina's loss on altitude. Most of Ecuador's players actually play in Europe, so the altitude argument is really like sore loser manna. Don't accept this argument from any Argentine. Besides when reporters asked Maradona what he thought about playing against the altitude that is naturally going to favor the Bolivians, Maradona was quoted as saying, "I am playing against the Bolivians, not the altitude." This bravado cost Argentina 6-2 against a team that hasn't beat them since the 50's or some shit.

THE PIXIES' VIDEO FOR "ALEC EIFFEL"

CITATION MACHINE TUTORIAL USING ADOBE'S CAPTIVATE

FROM OLD SKETCH BOOKS

THE AWARD FOR BEST SOUVENIR GOES TO ILYANA DURAN-CONTRERAS

Panda's cousin-sister just got back from BA and brought me the most amazing gift. She brought me an Eloisa Cartonera edition of a short story/novella written by Washington Cucurto titled, El Amor es Mucho Mas Que una Novela de 500 Paginas that is off the fucking hook!

Panda and I are fighting over who gets to take the book with them in the morning, and last night I got all wankerish over her taking it out if we were going to have dinner with friends. De verdad que soy un pinche wanker a veces!

I am thinking of sending my manuscript over there to get published by Eloisa Cartonera or of doing anything with them because what they do seems like its being done for the pure joy and nothing more.

PANDA'S BEST FRIEND

Panda's best friend has her own lexicon.
Like a budgie is a purse.
A, Ho Ah!, is a hello.
Ganders are skinny legs.
And to sail someone is to serve them.
To serve them is to promote order.
And your cause is lost if your ship has sailed.
Except you say it, saaaaghiiiiiillllll!
And she has this cat that we call Josefiend.
That cat is touched-by-an-angel-curious.
Just always up in the bidness at hand--
Yellow construction hat and string of pearls.
On the train, one is to get takers.
Those takers are the voyeurs we clench.
And we clench whenever, however,
we clench when it suits pursuits.
For example, the Fratellis of the world,
the Ms. Ola's, they think they can clench
our sugars from our mouths, our joyous peals.
We put them in our budgies and flush.
We sail them with extreme prejudice!

HONEYMOON IN BERLIN

From the 10th of July to the 23rd we are honeymooning in Berlin. Neither Panda nor I speak German or ever have expressed a specific fetish for Teutonic things, however, Berlin's reputation as one of the capitals of Europe and one of the least expensive cities to visit swayed us immensely. Friends have been emailing and writing to advise us on things to do in Berlin. And I have signed up with www.livemcocha.com to learn German.

If you have any suggestions or advice on seeing the city please let them be known. We are mapping this thing out one sine loco moment at a time and would love to visit a friend that's about five hours from Berlin by train. We plan on seeing museums of the standard variety, but are not averse to seeing kooky, zany, zeitgeist kind of museums, halls, scriptoriums, torture chambers, and donnerkabob shacks that are out of the way. And we are definitely going to hit up the east side of Berlin to check out all the abandoned concrete confectionnary.

MAKING ZINES THE OLD FASHIONED WAY

Today, I learned how to make a 6 page zine with a 2 page cover on the internet. The guy's video how-to was good, although I did have to keep rewinding the youtube tracking when he glossed over consequential steps. Especially tricky is cutting the fold that frees up the pages. I am also putting this on my blog so that I know where it is at all times because I would like to start production on a line of zines for Hinchas de Poesia, a new magazine I am trying to start with David Gonzalez, a writer in the FIU/MFA program.

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

On May 28, 2009 I was presented with the David Cohen Multicultural Award by the faculty at Queens College. I was honored and elated after having shown off for two years, I finally got some recognition and esteem. On the way to school that day, I brought along Frank O'Hara's Selected Poems by Donald Hall and a piece of paper with which to write a thank you. The image alongside this post is that piece of paper, and my speech was pretty much straight from that piece of paper. I was going to read the Frank O'Hara poem "Naptha" but decided against it. But getting up there and wagging my little finger at my peers was something that I just could not miss.