A little photo-blogging for the ladies, above. That’s Juanes, a Colombian pop star I saw in concert in Costa Rica during my break between jobs. Nice, huh? I dig him. He sings sort of standard Latin-pop sounding songs, which would probably border on cheesy except for the fact that they’re in a foreign language, which automatically makes them exponentially more exotic and sophisticated than Ricky Martin songs. He also actually plays the guitar, writes songs, sings live, and doesn’t shake his bon-bon much, which puts him several steps above the average pop star.
All that to explain how I came to be in Costa Rica, which requires that I also explain how I came to be in a new job this week. A couple weeks ago, I took a job working for Salem Communications, a radio company that carries Hugh Hewitt, Bill Bennett, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, and Mike Gallagher. Look at all those links; I’m such a company gal already. Salem also carries a bunch of Christian talkers and does those contemporary Christian music stations (if you’re ever listening to “The Fish,” that’s them). They have had a good Internet presence to reflect their Christian talk radio for some time and now they’re trying to beef up their Internet complement to their conservative talkers. That’s where I come in.
I’ll be working with Hugh Hewitt and one of the guys who helped build GeorgeWBush.com to build up a similar news and activism site for Salem. I’ll get to work with Hewitt and the other hosts and/or their producers on a daily basis to make sure I’m reflecting what they’re talking about on their shows, and I get to blog a lot. So, pretty sweet gig with lots of smart people to learn from. Right now, BeyondtheNews.com is in an interim state, but will be relaunched in January.
Now, because I’m of a tender age and have only a cat to take care of, I was able to take a little trip in between jobs. In true thrifty fashion, I only ever travel to places where I have friends who can put me up (or down on the floor, as the case was this time), so I visited my old roomie Joy in Costa Rica. She and a couple other girls are down there doing missions work, attending language school, and working. It was like a vacation, but with more Bible study and slightly less adequate plumbing than usual. Three of the four girls I was with spoke Spanish, which is good because the only thing I know is how to sing “Hey, Mickey,” which I learned thanks to the fact that my best childhood friend’s mom is Mexican and her family listened to Mexican pop in the car. One of the tapes featured a lively Spanish-language version of Toni Basil’s classic.
While the lyrics to “Mickey” are versatile, they didn’t cover all my needs and could likely have gotten me in trouble in shadier parts of San Jose, so I relied on the gals to help me out.
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MKH, that was refreshing. Thank you. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
Yes, he’s a beautifully looking man, no doubt about it.
About Central America, otherwise, it is in many areas also quite beautiful. But I still have problems with their water.
But, I prefer American Jim Caviezel. And he says the Rosary faithfully, so that’s even better: what a man.
How did they get my picture?!
Damn paffarazzi!
Ah yes, Costa Rica. Puts a smile on my face to hear your stories–reminds me of a great vacation myself!
This is one reason why the ‘byline’ should be under the title. I was starting to wonder which of Kevin, Jay, or Paul had decided to come out of the closet in an unabashed way.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
That’s funny that you put that picture of Juan Esteban up.
About a week ago me and my partner on the Midnight shift got a call that a flight came in to the airport illegally. The law says that when you come flying out of Mexico you must land at the first airport. Unless of course you have overflight permission from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Anyway, so we went to find out what the deal was with this flight and charge them the $5000.00 penalty. We got a little suspcious when we found out that the two passengers were from Columbia.
The female passenger claimed that they were in route to the Grammy’s in Los Angeles. I asked what they planned to do at the Grammy’s. She said that Juanes was the other passenger and he was going to perform.
First, I had never heard of Juanes and
Second, I was pretty sure we had already had the Grammy’s.
To make a really long story a little bit shorter, we did some internet searches, discovered that they now have a Latin Grammy’s and that this guy Juan Esteban (That’s not his last name by the way, that’s his other first name, he’s got 4 names, like most latin american’s seem to) also known as Juanes was going to perform.
He was pretty nice about all the trouble we gave him and he didn’t complain like you would expect of other celebrities who are held up. Maybe they are more humble down south?
Anyway, strange coincidence. Ive never heard of this guy before last week. Now ive heard of him twice in a very short time.
I would love the chance to go to Costa Rica someday. I fell for a Costa Rican girl here some years back. She was fantastic and I just adored her. Even after she married to that other guy I did not know about. I still have a thing for those lovely latin girls.
Rich
Baggi, I’m soooo jealous. Yours really was a close encounter, and Juanes cleaned up at the Latin Grammies (or Grammys?), so I’m glad you let him go. Was he short? Just curious; he looks like he might be. And, jpm100, that’s happened a couple of times on this site and others I’ve guest-blogged on.
I was wondering why you disappeared off the face of Townhall.com, MKH. Was it a big secret or what?
Nah, Falze, no big secret. It was more that I just didn’t get myself in gear and inform all my blogging friends as fast as I should have. Got caught up in the transition and the life change in the real world and put off informing the blog world. That’s all.
MKH, glad to see you landing a good job. Your absence from Townhall was obvious. Now you need to get that Beyondthenews website working right. No offense, but it’s kind of lame right now, but I’m sure you’ll fix that. 😉
We’ll get it spruced up for ya, Ed. WE’re relaunching in the new year.
wooow yes Juanes is very talented and well im glad he could make it to the Grammys..lol
Juanes is amazing!
Love him, love him, love him!