Weekly Photo Challenge: Two Subjects

Day 254 – April 1, 2012

This week, the theme from WordPress in their Photo Challenge was “Two Subjects“.

On April Fools’ Day – which is not a large holiday here in Peru, although I was able to enjoy Google’s prank courtesy of the Internet – the family and I enjoyed a sunny day down at the beach of Barranco.

While my middle child tested out his bodyboard, while my daughter frolicked in the waves, and while my oldest child (a teenager) tried his best to not have a good time, I looked around and saw the clouds rolling into the cliffs that make up the Miraflores district of Lima.

Miraflores, along with the boardwalk area known as the Malecon and the mall known as Larcomar, is home to a launching pad where paragliders, for a fee, will take willing (and, in my opinion, slightly deranged) tourists for a ride surfing the air currents.

Anybody can fly - it's only a matter of will

A quick snap of the Nikon and I’m back watching my middle child become tossed in the waves like a bad penny.

Photo Friday: Soft Light

Day 266 – April 13, 2012

For this week, the theme from the people over at Photo Friday was “soft light“.

For this challenge, I decided to try something new and I purposefully set out, camera in hand, to create an image based on this week’s theme.

Blinded by the (soft) light

Enjoy.

Phineas and Ferb Dubbed

Continuing my train of thought concerning the animated summer adventures of the step brothers, Phineas and Ferb, comes this thought from when our daughter had to spend a week in the hospital (pneumonia). As I stayed with her, I watched a great deal of cartoons with her…when she wasn’t cleaning my clock at Mille Bornes.

Day 067 – September 27, 2011

I’m watching a great deal of Phineas and Ferb, which is fine with me because I love this show.

The show airing here in Peru is dubbed in Spanish, which is not that problematic for me because I have seen nearly all of the shows so I already know the plot and the dialogue.

For the new shows that I haven’t seen, I do feel bad that I am not able to catch all of the quick in-jokes that the writers put it into each show.

However, this posting is not so much about the language being used or how many lyrics of each episode’s song I miss, but is instead about the voices being used.

In a previous life, I worked in radio so I have a great affinity for people who can work magic solely with the power of their voice. Quintessential examples of these master vocal mages include Mel Blanc, Maurice LaMarche, and Gary Owens.

Voices are just as much (maybe even more) an important aspect of a cartoon as the animation and the writing. With that in mind, I feel that something in Phineas and Ferb was lost to me because the dubbed Spanish voices are not the same as the characters I heard in the States.

It is understandable that the vocal talent would not be the same as I’m sure the actors who voice Phineas, Ferb, Isabella, and Dr. Doofensmirtz don’t know Spanish. However, it is the flavor and timbre of the voices that also give the characters such depth. Save two examples, that depth is lost in the translation here.

Phineas Flynn, the brother with the triangle head, has a voice in Spanish that is more nasally and nerdy than his State-side counterpart, Vincent Martella. This is too bad because Phineas, down here, comes off as nerdy and asocial, which I am sure is not what the creators were going for.

Ferb Fletcher, the one with the green hair, is a boy of few words. However, when he does speak, it is with an English accent. Part of the joke of the show is that Ferb’s father is British. While the mother never seems to see Phineas and Ferb’s outlandish inventions, the father has and is unfazed by them. Not sure if that’s part of being British, but it is a fun bit of business in the show. In Peru, Ferb’s accent is lost. Sigh!

Another character whose accent is lost is Baljeet. He is an Indian boy who is considered to be the nerd of the neighborhood. Voiced by Maulik Pancholy, Baljeet does indeed have a slight Indian accent and has a good singing voice also as a few episodes have included Bollywood-esque musical numbers. However, as with Ferb, Baljeet’s accent – and his uniquness to the show – is gone when the show is dubbed in Spanish.

I could go on and on with Candace, Isabella, and Buford, but let’s move on.

The lone standout in the vocal category is Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, a villain intent on taking over the Tri-State Area where the stories take place. Voiced by co-creator of the series, Dan Povenmire, Dr. Doofenshmirtz has a voice akin to an Eastern European Cold War-era spy with a sore throat. Povenmire gives his creation the right amount of menace, villany, and lunacy to a character who must do battle with a secret agent platypus every episode. In Peru, the Spanish vocal talent of Doofenshmirtz is a spot-on duplicate of Povenmire’s voice. I had to watch the credits at the end of the show here in the hospital to see if it actually was Povenmire doing the dubbed voice. This set of pipes belongs to German Fabregat.

Excellent job, Senor Fabregat!

Perry the Platypus (aka Agent P) is also a standout, but only because its voice is not dubbed. All Perry ever does is growl and the Spanish version simply keeps the same soundtrack.

Wow! 685 words all about my thoughts on the vocal renditions of Phineas and Ferb.

That may seem excessive, but don’t even get me started on what they do to SpongeBob SquarePants down here.

Oh, There You Are, Perry!

Day 258 – April 5, 2012

One of the reasons we moved our family down here to Peru was to help our children (ahem…and me also) learn the Spanish language.

Our trio of kids attend Spanish classes at their School so that is helping improve their bi-linguistic skills.

Another tactic that my lovely wife has started is to buy books in Spanish for our threesome, which she did today.

For our two boys, she bought a collection of detective stories featuring tales by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

For our daughter she purchased a collection of books from the “Yo Leo Inicial” (I Can Read Beginner) series.

One of these titles from that series caught my eye because it showed me how far and wide a swath the cultural impact of Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh has become.

If the names of Messrs. Povenmire and Marsh do not ring a bell for you, then perhaps you might be aware of their creation, the animated television series Phineas and Ferb.

Even to this day and at my age, I am a big fan of cartoons so I have no issue with saying that I encountered Phineas and Ferb before my children and was the one who introduced my kids to this wonderful show.

I’ll put aside for other folks to describe why this show is excellent (such as here and here and here) or maybe you flip your television set over to The Disney Channel or Disney XD and find out for yourself.

Although, it goes without saying that any show contained a musical number about a Mexican-Jewish cultural festival, is fifteen types of fantastic.

Bringing this post back to the children’s books, one of the titles is Y Justo A Mi (And Just to Me) by Magdalena Helguera with illustrations by Christian Ayuni. This is a tale about a hapless boy who is always the target of pigeons and their…ahem…droppings. No matter where he goes, what he is dressed in, who he is with, or what he is eating, when he goes outside, he feels as if has a giant bullseye on him that only pigeons can see.

The second-to-last page contains this illustration that made me think of Povenmire and Marsh:

Hey, where's Perry?

The boy on the left is the main character but it is the lad on right that drew my attention. The illustrator has this tyke wearing a shirt with the likeness of Perry the Platypus, a character from the minds of Povenmire and Marsh. Perry is a secret agent who is also the semi-aquatic pet of Phineas and Ferb.

I love the fact that a reference from a show I think is fantastic has made its way into a children’s book down here in Peru in just under five years.

As I saw that illustration, I instantly said out loud, “Oh, there you are, Perry!”

Fans of the show know of what I speak.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Journey

Day 214 – February 21, 2012

The theme this week is “Journey” from WordPress’s Weekly Photo Challenge.

Any journey is always better when you have someone to share it with. -Xavier Humes

Or, courtesy of someone much older than I, comes this quote from Izaak Walton from The Compleat Angler:

As the Italians say, Good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter.

Either quote you like takes us to today’s picture:

Could everyone move a shade to the left?

This was our family’s last day in the jungle of the Peruvian section of the Amazon jungle. We had packed up our belongings, said farewell to Senor Toby, and had boarded our steed for the ride back to Iquitos.

Our mode of transport for this 2-hour journey upstream was the Amazon Queen.

Joining us as they wended their back to Lima to enjoy the rest of their adventure in Peru were a gaggle of friends on holiday who were next off to see Cusco and Machu Picchu.

Before the Queen departed from our rickety wharf, they posed for a picture (seen above) with an edition of their local newspaper so they could send it to the Herald (or Gazette or Bugle or Planet or whatever the upstate New York periodical was called) to show where they had been on their vacation.

My lovely wife and I had a great time chatting with these folk as stories were exchanged, emails were given out, recommendations for fine dining in the City of Kings were recommended, and…

…because of their good company, the journey to Iquitos seemed much shorter than 120 minutes.

Photo Friday: From My Window

Day 213 – February 20, 2012

This week, the theme from the folks over at Photo Friday was “From My Window“.

While enjoying an exciting jungle adventure in the Peruvian Amazon, we saw this sight outside of our cabin.

We nicknamed him Senor Toby.

From the family Tapiridae

He’s a tapir. Definitely not something you see every day.

The Good, The Odd, and The Holy

Day 259 – April 6, 2012

Here’s a case of where I think (IMHO) the Spanish language hit the mark better than English did.

Today is the Friday before Easter and here in Peru (and I’m guessing all over the Spanish-speaking world) this day is known as Viernes Santo, or Holy Friday.

Where English is the primary language, today is celebrated as Good Friday.

To my ear and eye, calling today “Holy” makes more sense that calling it “Good”.

I always found it odd to call the day when three people up on the hill of Golgotha were crucified as a “good” day.

Just my perspective from 12 degrees south of the Equator.

I’m sure there’s a reason for this linguistic curiosity, but even the Internet can’t help me here.

The April Music Scene

Day 255 – April 2, 2012

I have written before about how Lima, Peru, is a go-to destination for musical acts and how the 1980s are alive and well on the radio airwaves.

Today’s post, in a way, combines those two elements as I provide for you a list of some of the performers coming to the City of Kings in April, which is a mix of local flavor and the 80s.

Tenor Juan Diego Florez – April 10
Roger Hodgson, former member of the band Supertramp – April 12
Star of Camp Rock and the Disney Channel show Sonny With a Cause, Demi Lovato – April 17
Swedish pop duo Roxette – April 21
Roberto Carlos, Brazilian singer and composer – April 26
Lead singer and founding member of UB40, Ali Campbell – April 28

But wait, there’s more…

Coming April 27 to Lima is the Rock & Roll All-Stars show consisting of (in part)…
Gene Simmons (KISS),
Duff McKagan (Guns N Roses),
Sebastian Bach (Skid Row),
Joe Elliot (Def Leppard),
Vince Neil (Motley Crue),
Billy Duffy (The Cult), and
Ed Roland (Collective Soul)

To give you an idea of ticket prices, I have the list of prices for the Roxette concert.

The lowest level of tickets goes for S/. 84, which is equivalent of $31.50 (using an exchange rate of $1 = S/. 2.664). The VIP level of tickets sell for S/. 218 ($82). The penultimate level, Platinum B, will set you back S/. 360 ($135) and the highest level, Platinum A, charge S/. 465 ($174).

I obtained this list when I had lunch one day at Bembos, the Peruvian hamburger franchise. They’re one of the sponsors of the tour.

School Daze

Stories that confirm for me that my children are no longer in the educational system of the United States.

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Day 024 – August 15, 2011
My daughter came from school today and told us about the wonderful time she had at her educational setting.

Now, she wasn’t excited about her reading lessons, her studies in math, or any new activity she learned in P.E.

No, she was all a-flutter because one of her classmates had a birthday and the class had a party. That’s exciting enough, but what really threw her over the moon was the fact that the birthday child brought in cupcakes to share with the entire class.

CUPCAKES!?! IN A SCHOOL!?!

The reason for her giddiness was because, for all of last year, when our children attended school in Loudoun County in Virginia, sweets for birthdays were banned.

Instead, to honor a child’s birthday, parents could make a donation to the school’s library in the kid’s name or they could pass out school supplies (i.e., erasers, rules, pencils) to the other members of the class.

All well and good, but it doesn’t beat the sweet taste of frosting.

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Day 248 – March 26, 2012
At our dinner table, my lovely wife and I like to hear what our children did that day at school.

Our middle child regaled us with his adventures in his P.E. class. So, what made him so happy about this particular edition of today’s physical education class?

He was able to play dodgeball.

Now, I’m not talking about the watered-down version of this ball-throwing game that has made its way to various State-side schools, including Loudoun County. In our kids’ school in Virginia, they had rules such as a) the ball had to hit the ground before it could hit another player and b) a shot to the head was an immediate disqualification.

Our middle child was able to play the type of dodgeball that I grew up with, which meant there were no rules meant to minimize injuries. He recalled for us the glee he had in throwing the ball, catching the ball, and dodging the ball all with the new element of danger of possibly being hit by the maroon orb on the head with a direct throw.

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Cupcakes and real dodgeball. Yes, children, we’re not in the States anymore.