A Kinky Atlas & A Cool Comic Strip

I have listened to Kinky’s second album Atlas a couple of times and ultimately I think it’s very good. The sound is a bit different from their last self-titled album. Their music is a basically a fusion of rock and electronic with some funky latin sounds thrown in for good measure. The rock and electronic influences are much stronger on the new album. Also, they actually sing in English on a couple of the songs. They don’t necessarily sound all that bad, but they sound better in Spanish. Unfortunately, they didn’t translate the Spanish lyrics this time around in the booklet, but I could type them at a translation website if I really wanted to know what they say so bad...or I could rely on my slowly diminishing Spanish “skills”. All in all, I really enjoy this album and I definitely recommend it to those who want some cool-sounding music in Spanish. Oh yeah, since it’s retail price is only $9.99, it’s a great deal too.

Keeping the Latin vibe going, I want to spotlight what has become one of my favorite comic strips, La Cucaracha. This strip, currently running in the Chicago Sun-Times among other papers is like the Latin equivalent of The Boondocks. Just like The Boondocks, it makes some very pointed political and social commentary, except while The Boondocks focuses on issues surrounding African-Americans, La Cucaracha focuses on issues surrounding Latinos. The creator, Lalo Alcaraz, is brave enough say things like this, from Sunday’s strip:

“Dude, I just saw the greatest pro-immigrant film of the year...A group of brave illegal aliens rises up and takes a stand with guns to defend against an overwhelming force opposed to the foundation of a new country!”
“You swore you wouldn’t go see The Alamo!”

I’m not sure if Aaron McGruder (creator of The Boondocks) is a fan, but given the type of content in both strips, it makes sense that La Cucaracha’s April Fool’s strip was basically a Boondocks strip in Spanish.