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Okay - as I mentioned the other day I have just received my first iPod. Yes, I have a lot of music to put on it and it will be a nice accent in my car, (though I do have XM.) But I've been thinking in terms of how to use it to help me keep connected to my writing life when I am at the day job. 

I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that I could sync my contacts and calendar on it. That makes looking for a new cell phone much easier. I don't have to look for a smart phone - yeah! And there's the notes functions which I don't know if I will use but it could nice to have.

I've explored iTunes and found several Poem-a-Day projects as well as NPR and some other freebies. But it's a big wide Internet out there. What, if anything, have you found as far as podcasts, etc, that I might want to add to my iPod?

Happy Solstice everyone!

Last time I hosted, I made a fun poem of all your links - am I up for the challenge again? We'll see...I will round it up in a separate post late tonight so be sure to check back for the round up.

Wow, it's only 7:30ish in the morning here and there are already 27 poems up! That's fantastic. I'm headed off to work, but will be trying to look through and read each of your poems throughout the day. Sounds like we have quite the diverse and interesting batch as usual! I'm so grateful to Poetry Friday. I'd never get a chance to find all these great poems, discover new poets and read original works without you all. I'm so looking forward to a new year of poetry with you all!

It's Solstice, the Lakota Nation has announced that they will secede from the U.S. and become their own country (!), I turned 46 and I just launched a cooking website. It's been a crazy, wild, wonderful December. What a way to end the year.

Happy Holidays everyone! Here's Mr. Linky and please do leave a comment.

My Poetry Friday offering is Claribel Alegria (her name just makes me smile), with an interesting little poem in Spanish called Tamalitos de Cambray. I'll do my best to translate it for you. I've also attached two Youtube videos, one in English, one in Spanish so you all can get to know the lovely Ms. Alegria a little better. I love when she talks about how how important reading is.

TAMALITOS DE CAMBRAY

(5,000,000 de tamalitos)

A Eduardo y Helena que me
pidieron una receta salvadoreña.

Dos libras de masa de mestizo
media libra de lomo gachupín
cocido y bien picado
una cajita de pasas beata
dos cucharadas de leche de Malinche
una taza de agua bien rabiosa
un sofrito con cascos de conquistadores
tres cebollas jesuitas
una bolsita de oro multinacional
dos dientes de dragón
una zanahoria presidencial
dos cucharadas de alcahuetes
manteca de indios de Panchimalco
dos tomates ministeriales
media taza de azúcar televisora
dos gotas de lava de volcán
siete hojas de pito
(no seas mal pensado es somnífero)
lo pones todo a cocer
a fuego lento
por quinientos años
y verás qué sabor.

Claribel Alegria

Little Cambray Tamales

(makes 5,000,000 little tamales)
- for Eduardo and Helena who asked me
for a Salvadoran recipe


Two pounds of mestizo cornmeal
half a pound of loin of gachupin
cooked and finely chopped
a box of pious raisins
two tablespoons of Malinche's milk
one cup of enraged water
a fry of conquistador helmets
three Jesuit onions
a small bag of multinational gold
two dragon's teeth
one presidential carrot
two tablespoons of pimps
lard of Panchimalco Indians
two ministerial tomatoes
a half cup of television sugar
two drops of volcanic lava
seven leaves of pito*
(don't be dirty-minded, it's a soporific)
put everything to boil
over a slow fire
for five hundred years
and you'll see how tasty it is.

*pito means to whistle, it's also an sleep-inducing herb; but there's another translation. It's slang for penis (which is why she is saying don't be dirty minded).

Okay, so I'm waiting for a friend of mine to finish her work out. Out comes the ol' video ipod and my newly purchased movie, Dumbo--one of my all time favorites. I know that Snow White and Bambi etc.. are considered the classics. But I find myself watching the more quirky offerings from Disney such as Robin Hood and The Jungle Book--the shorts always catch my interest as well. Anyone remember Small One?

So, I'm in public with my little ipod leaning against my knee, and I get to the scene where Dumbo goes to visit his mother in the 'mad elephant' cage she's been cruelly locked up in. Then it starts....I'm completely lost in the movie and the story, and I begin to tear up! Oh no! Not here....should I stop watching the movie? People are going to think I'm nuts looking at my ipod and crying. Luckily I was sitting in a quieter area of the gym and it was sort of late, so no one called security. :0)

The above image is someone else's photo, but I rode that exact ride when I was around 4 or 5. I still have a clear memory of it, and really felt like I was flying. My very patient parents waited in line for over an hour so I could ride Dumbo. On the control panel you could push a button that made you rise up while it spun around. Really neat!

By Evan Schnittman

You have heard rumors of it for nearly a year now – Amazon has an ebook reader that will run on a new ebook platform powered by Mobipocket. Well, after many stops and starts, today Amazon released Kindle, or, what I call the “readers’ iPod.” This device, coupled with the awesome power of the Amazon web sales machine, represents perhaps the most significant moment in the history of eBooks.

I have always maintained that the iPod coupled with iTunes model is the key to a compelling ebook business. The iPod, perhaps the most fantastic device any of us own, would have been just another cool device sitting in our junk drawer if Apple hadn’t been prescient about the duality in digital content; Device + Network = Adoption. (more…)

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Kate OUP-US

Before the iPod, the discman, or even the walkman there was the LP, the “Long Playing Disc”. On this day in 1948 Dr. Peter Goldmark of CBS unvelied the LP, and by doing so, revolutionized the music industry. Below is an excerpt from the American National Biography Online, by Charles W. Carey, Jr., about Dr. Goldmark.

Goldmark, Peter Carl (2 Dec. 1906-7 Dec. 1977), inventor, was born in Budapest, Hungary, the son of Alexander Goldmark, a hatmaker, and Emmy (maiden name unknown). (more…)

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