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Thursday, February 3, 2022

About musicians becoming repressors..

This article by Winston Marshall for Bari Weiss on Substack is spot on 👏👏👏 

Hard to find an artist these days who isn't either  a) preaching the official line with the utmost intransigence an bigotry, calling for "dissidents" to be cancelled or b) just self censoring, silent.
No true rebels, no brave free spontaneous artists. 
What an ugly face so many people have shown lately. Not Marshall, thankfully, and those few like him almost make it all worth it. They have a heart and a light that might even make up for the millions of sheepish idiots and their corrupt leaders.



PS April 5, 2023. Another brave face: Susanne Sundfor. Daring to offer opinions and views different from the mainstream cult one can only show these days. Defending free speech and fighting the "misinformation" labeling squad. 
What a relief! 
🌸🌸🌸

PS Later.. Finding more true independent individuals daring to express non mainstream mob-approved views: 

Joseph Artur


And had forgotten mentioning M.I.A, who even dared to speak to someone with different views, Candace no less (oh the sacrilege)


Wonderful people who at least have the capacity to think on their own and defend their truth. It's not that I agree with them (and on this I do), it's that they have the ability and courage to face the masses of fake mainstream "rebels" out there who follow every rule, the millions of wannabe"defenders of freedom and dialogue" who root for censorship and practice intransigence as a religion. Inspiring 💙💚💜
Can't find many more, unfortunately.  


28/04/23 Susanne is on fire!. Loving the very deserved roasting. As I said: this is being brave, this is being corageous, this is the way to progress, this is..AWESOME.






Saturday, November 6, 2021

Do not comply


Voices of reason, yet unbelievably ignored and critizised by so many people.. 

The "dosed" spread the virus as much as the "undosed", studies and data seem to confer. And the % of survival is 99 point whatever. Add the horrible side effects (including death) so many people are experiencing and the obvious result is that the way governments, the media and a big part of the society are behaving is utter madness if not downright criminal and psychotic.
I will not take it unless they strap me to a chair. And I'm fine, the fear I've felt this past year is for those who are taking this experiment, specially young people and children. Breaks my heart.
And then there's the tyranny and the loss of freedom. Australia, neighbour Kim Jong Jacinda ... 
Wake up: this madness needs to stop
#holdtheline #donotcomply

Monday, March 22, 2021

Music trickles on

One of the few new non mainstream releases. This guy will go places.
Roosevelt - Echoes 


This is the guitar acoustic version. The record version is much more recommended for the morning.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Love music





So helpful..first quarantine video, it even has cats!.. all the winning cards.
The Vaccines - I Never Go Out On Fridays - Or saturdays, or sundays....
Love this band.

Justin recently released another video with new duo The Halloweens. Again, funny and uplifting with the usual touch of poignancy, as above:



Tuesday, March 24, 2020

#Madrid #covid19 #forcedisolation

Madrid this afternoon. View from my window, forced isolation. Looking at twitter and newspapers like am watching a movie. Surreal for most of us.
Not going to say disappointed at the management of the crisis by national authorities and international organizations because who's expecting any efficiency from them. Yet excited to see those bravely pushing for better ways, new possibly effective approaches like stratified lockdown, rational scientific ideas not based on irrational fear or partisan interests or primitive hasty answers or least controversial  safest actions or that which the dumbest masses will approve like we see now.
Same response as in the middle ages? Wait until it's upon us and then shut down?. We should do better. At least here in Spain some private citizens and companies are pulling for all of us as the government fails miserably in every department and day by day falls to new lows. But I don't want to talk politics. These crisis always show the best and the worst in mankind.
We are at the worst of it now, a little more steepness before we start to walk our way back, I think. Then the economic crisis with this government at the helm, a far left chavist vicepresident who even now is trying to maneuver to push nationalization of companies and comunist measures (same guy who's broken quarantine twice to preach about safety) and our comunist minister of Labour (anyone curious, look at pictures of her these days, how worried she is. Seems she spends most of her time at the stylists, pathetic) ... Ah, I'm talking politics...sorry
Glad my parents are abroad at the moment, in a safer place though that's not saving them from worry and anguish. Keeping in touch with my older family, some have caught it but so far are well..
In the moments of worry and fear most will have, of facing our own mortality much more vividly than usual.. I had a pretty bad experience a few years ago. Kept the circle extremely small, if I had little time I didn't want to spend it on whatsapp and phone calls. But still parents made it larger than I wanted, and people telling me to be positive gutted me most. Why be positive? Be realistic and be you, please. You are going through enough to have to force yourself to be anything or pretend for the sake of others. Process things your way, within limits. A guy writing on google saying he was very pesimistic and yet survived really helped, lol. But everyone's different and need to hear different things. I am practical and therefore what helped me and what I try to convey now is don't lose perspective. It's a time to catch up with acceptance and what life is. And to be proactive and help best we can, there are a million small ways. We may feel sorry for ourselves but pls think of parents of children with cancer, for instance, you'll see what I mean by perspective.
- and I'm fine now btw, turned out to be just another pathology diagnostics mistake.
My cousin works in a hospital, as of yesterday in hers there are respirators for everyone but that is not the case in every hospital. In others those over 65 are sedated and deprived of a few more years of life. The biggest ice rink in Madrid is the new morgue. Many of our nurses and doctors wear trash bags for protection, our pharmacists are out of masks too as are the police.. the government is too useless to buy the proper equipment fast. Tough times, injustice and useless people in charge harder to bear than ever. Almost 10.000 health workers have caught it (data coming from the government, so expect it to be even higher).
Numbers in Spain are not to be trusted as the overwhelming majority of people with symptoms remain untested. Only those with acute cases in hospital are tested (those and the politicians, our president's brother though he didn't have symptoms, his wife, father in law..they have plenty of respirators unused waiting just in case too. O socialism, all the ministers who have fallen ill have gone to private hospitals...). Our health minister is a philosopher who doesn't even know the name of the main drug used against COVID19... And the main reason we have so many cases is our government had a big concentration planned for the 8th (feminism, only socialists and communists, all the other parties were yelled at and forced to leave. Basically the left's best publicity stunt), and they weren't willing to cancel and therefore couldn't take any measures against concentrations until after.
Let's point out that in Spain when the women's right to vote was proposed and passed in 1931 it was done by liberal Clara Campoamor, who defended it against main opponent Victoria Kent (SOCIALIST) who not only opposed it fervently but who once it was passed tried to thwart it with different maneuvers. But now socialists are the ones who decide who can fight for equality and who can not. Pathetic.
With this imposed quarantine the government has taken measures restricting citizens freedom like free access to people's cell phone locations or press conferences hardly ever taking any questions -and when they do questions are selected by the president's censor (he calls himself something else, but that's what he is). In the middle of this massive crisis, with our country already having big trouble because of our deficit (and thank god for EU's supervision, otherwise it would be even worse), our government decides to give away  15 million euros to private televisions. Televisions that have big PROFITS! with celebs getting huge paychecks- I don't want to pay taxes for that, it's pathetic. It is of course a fact now that the mainstream media are their servants. Very worrisome, comes from having the far left deep in the government despite only having less than 13% of votes. First thing they go for, always..
No tax reductions, btw. And making clear their intention to nationalize, appropriate private earnings with the excuse of this emergency...all for the greater good 'course (that coming from our Communist vp, who just moved to a massive house with big swimming pool, guest house and tons of service). Great way to ruin a fantastic country (only with a lot of stupid envious lazy sheep in it).
Ended up talking politics,...

Misc isolation comfort for the lows:
 *All these musicians ... 💗💙💚💛💙
This made me smile, authentically chaotic well intended, fresh, from Chris Martin:
https://www.facebook.com/coldplay/videos/756682838150117/
Nerina, never chaotic, always fun. Streams live show every thursday from her youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=647&v=Pck6G7baXvc&feature=emb_logo
Rufus and his Robe recitals:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B92LtRuFwcH/
Sondre:
https://www.facebook.com/sondrelerche/videos/516237105704418/ 
Laura Marling is doing tutorials of her songs on her insta (guitar lessons).
Andrew Bird was live on his Facebook


* Cats! (@Bored panda)
* Curiosities/good actions: (via scarymommy)

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Spain this Sunday. Nightmare or not.

General elections this Sunday in Spain. Decisive. Wishing soo hard.. so important to get rid of the the new low that is our president right now, not by the Spanish people's choice but by dirty tricks and a total lack of scruples.
For that he plotted with every pro independence party in Spain (including Bildu, the new name for Batasuna, former ETA terrorists' advocates) and the far-left Venezuela style party, all in small minority, leaving outside all the moderate (and most voted) parties.
His excuse: the party in power (PP, most voted) was guilty of too many corruption scandals (not the actual people governing at the moment, but other individuals belonging to that party in the past, the last case for illegal financing). This ultra cynical individual forgets that his own party has had far more corruption cases and is in fact currently being tried for the biggest corruption scandal in our history: the "EREs case". I wanted to add a link but the first results in English are all conveniently from El Pais - waay biased, won't bother-, or others pretty unkwnown which would be dismissed. So, basically in Andalucia, where socialists governed for almost 40 years -sistematically achieving the worst employment and education numbers in all of Spain- millions and millions (around 700 of them) disappeared from the money destined to the unemployed: it was spent by socialist administrators on friends' companies, ilegal pre retirements, nights out with plenty of drugs and hookers... I'd say that beats illegal financing). Should he resign for it then, applying his own rule?. Spoiler alert: apparently not.
A few days after his coup, this guy was already hard at work. In the main issues?. No: redecorating the Moncloa (where the president lives), using the official airplane to fly to an in law's wedding an hour away by car, then to go to see the Killers at a music festival with his wife. An airplane that costs a ton per flight, and had up to that point been very scarcely used (we're getting out of a crisis here). A weeek later, his wife got a fantastic position (created from scratch just for her) in a company that receives grants from the government. WOW.  In a few months he's managed the worst employment numbers in the last 6 years, turning the tide from sistematically being reduced to a fast rise in the negative. All that having brought taxes to a new high and public expenditure way beyond budget. Crime, insecurity, are worse than ever. He's also risen the social tension in Spain to red levels, allowing the most virulent independentists their every whim and leaving the rest (the vast majority) defenceless (and we don't only have independentists in Catalonia, oh no). Meanwhile he's been practically absent, travelling around the world with his wife for free, avoiding facing the congress or the press to the point of ridicule. After all, it's been scandal after scandal with his government ministers.
He's been proven a pathological liar who's done all he said he wouldn't do.There's youtube to prove it.
Read, for instance, about how he tormented a former politician for irregularities in a master's degree in her cv, obviously asking for her resignation, and then read about his own doctorate, the strange tribunal, his plagiarized thesis (more than half of it!). Since his case was eon light years worse, should he have resigned?. You guessed right. Cynism beyond belief.
But he has tv and most of the press on his side...

We're all supposed to vote for him because otherwise the "republican"/conservatives/right wing parties may pact with the terrible far right  -new party in town (VOX)- and all sorts of nightmares will happen.
How easy it is to trick some... To me HE is the worst nightmare.
He goes hand in hand with the far left, but apparently those are swell.
What can I say, I hate far anything. Wouldn't want to choose between far right and far left, and I refuse to agree to the far left suddenly being cool and fine and normal. Not to me. At all. Specially after Venezuela. Terrible pictures posted today on twitter. Who wants that for their country?.

To clarify: those parties Sanchez &co refer to as "right wing" are:
1. Ciudadanos: nothing right wing about them ever. If anything they're more left leaning than right, their intention is to be the middle ground. Center. But since they have publicly said they wouldn't agree to a pact with him anymore, given his not defending our Constitution, he just conveniently relocated them to that category.
2. PP: Moderate right wing.
3. VOX: actually, hate to disappoint but nothing "far" about them. Right wing period. But they erupted with such force that putting that label on them was super handy. Suddenly with that word they were the pest and nobody messes with the definition or they may get infected. Nobody say they're not radical because you may then be accused of being one of them yourself. Well, I call things by their name. Their biggest crime is displaying the Spanish flag a lot, which here because of our past (Franco) is not seen with simpathy by many who associate it with him. Their mistake, because this is our flag, no ideology attached, and about time we stop giving it the wrong connotations. I don't agree with certain things, but not xenophobes or homophobes or "facha". So beat them with fair play, oppose them on things they say, don't just be lazy demagogues. Too many of those already.

We do have "far" parties. Bu the only ones that get a considerable amount of votes are far left (though they're never called that in the press): Podemos, whose leader Iglesias rose to stardom fighting for the workers rights against the "casta". Casta is the idea of the stablished political parties full of people who have always been politicians, who've lost contact with reality and use politics to enrich themselves. Fantastic idea, I fully support it.
BUT the only thing this guy has done, aside from being a paid adviser to Maduro (hello, they were justifying him until a couple of months ago!), is very undemocratic "escraches"  (public targeted harassing to democratic parties, like Rosa Díez who used to be a socialist and is now in UPD, again, center, not even right wing, and who by the way is a most corageous woman who spent a long time being a target for terrorists ETA. She put her life on the line for democracy. Shameful), saying publically he would beat a certain famous female journalist until she bled (but he's king of feminists) and switching a modest flat in Madrid for a most expensive huge house with a pool and maids in the outskirts. Yeah.. He doesn't wear suits though and he's kinda hippy, so it does the trick for many. His right hand man, one more who now lives in the poshest, most expensive neighbourhood in Madrid, recently lost a lawsuit: his aide (who cleaned for him etc and who he directly hired) had no employment contract and was being paid less than the minimum wage they angrily demand....How there can still be a single idiot out there who votes or believes these fakes beats me. They're even worse than the casta.

And we have the separatists. And you can want idependence and fight for it. But you can't behave like a bully to all those who don't think like you. Or fill the streets with violence and antidemocratic behaviour denying even freedom of speech to those who don't think like them. But that's another story for another day.

Anyway. I'm tired of manipulation and I fear what's coming if the scruple-less useless Sanchez continues in power, specially needing the far left and independentists support as it seems will be the case.

Many people fool themselves that this guy is going to be some Robin Hood taking the rich guys' money through prohibitive taxes and giving it to them through benefits while they loiter around the house. And they will put on blinders 'cos that's convenient. To start with, that is not my idea of a good way to earn a living (I'd rather have a government that protects the conditions for me to have a proper job), but regardless: the ones bearing the taxes are not the rich. And the ones receiving the money are not the ones that need it most. It just doesn't work that way, just read some History or look at our situation after Sanchez's few months destroying. This only leads to a massive crisis. Again.

I hate when celebs and the like get political and tell me who to vote. I wouldn't want to do that. I just hope people choose between one of the parties (any of them) that will not treat us like we're dumb, will have some dignity, and will govern for all of us. And in the process won't make our country break and hurt.

Don't believe me, check my facts.

Tags: Pedro Sanchez, Pablo Iglesias, Pablo Casado, Albert Rivera, Santiago Abascal, PSOE, PP, Podemos, VOX, Ciudadanos, UPyD, Spanish elections, EREs, casta. Elecciones España. Google, index me dammit!

PS Uggghhh. At least I had hope for a few days. Now it's back to grim reality, where radios play yuck, people travel just to take selfies no one cares about, being informed is waching the news headlines  on tv and entitlement without foundation is the norm. I felt bad for some party leaders I did not vote for but I respect, went to their twitter accounts to give some words of support and found all these lowlives hideously displaying all their hatred and aggression in the most vulgar terms. Who does that. Had Sanchez lost I would have never gone to his twitter to berate him. A lot of humanity sucks.
In the end Spain voted divided in 2 blocks practically equal in numbers ("center/right" and "left"), but because of our election law (D'hondt Method) and the fragmentation of votes in one of the blocks, not all votes are equal. Hence this arrangement. At least Iglesias has lost almost half his votes. Which is little solace: half of Spain is to me deeply stupid and quite mean. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, really. And there's no question: hello unemployment, hello crisis.
For some reason made me want to listen to Billie Eilish's Xanny.. a great song very on point. I've never taken one. Even though this is mighty depressing.




Sunday, August 20, 2017

Spain is the same

On a Sunday morning, the nr one most crowded popular thing to do in Madrid is going to El Rastro flea market.  Glad to see that this morning people refused to be afraid. It was just as busy as usual.

And we have the fittest police!!
There´s always going to be threats, mean people, sick people. Everywhere. Being cautious is wise, but let´s not let them win. 

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

At last: acknowledging food allergies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/magazine/can-a-radical-new-treatment-save-children-with-severe-allergies.html?ref=magazine&_r=0
Thanks so much to the New York Times Magazine for choosing food allergies for its next Sunday's edition cover. A most important issue yet most incomprehensibly ignored by Health and Education institutions in most places,  the media... and society.  So people in general are clueless, or worse: full of mistaken ideas thinking they know when they don't.
This is specially sad here because that ignorance is these children's biggest danger. If people were aware of a few simple facts they would be so much safer. And they deserve to be.
Thankfully there are parents, doctors like Nadeau and organizations (FARE  is one of the most active, its youtube channel here) fighting hard to raise awareness and make big advances. Pls get informed, chances are that sooner or later you'll interact with these parents and their children (after all it now affects 1 in 13 children, in different degrees from mild to severe). Pls take them seriously, and please bear in mind that unfortunately -and contrary to general judgement-, when talking precautions they (we) are not exaggerating.
While the NYTM piece mainly talks about a new trial, it still provides a very good insight into the world of children with severe food allergies.
Read the whole article, The allergy buster, here.
Regarding how serious it is, you can read this.
Update 2014:
This other article, "What parents of kids with food allergies want you to know", is also very informative. And for parents of children with allergies, this will ring a bell. Ugg.
If putting one more face to it helps, this is my (of course) music loving son years ago. At one and a half yrs old it had already been a year since he had suffered his first anaphilactic shock.
 
We've been very lucky and he's recently outgrown some of his allergies, this is him now at one of his now favourite places. He wasn't able to try a proper doughnut until he was 10 (I tried, but they're so hard to make at home and without some of the basic ingredients!!). We still need to be very careful every day though.  
Everytime there's a food allergy story on the news, the comments section is atrocious. It's taken over by pettiness, selfishness, the most arrogant  ignorance. I haven't seen this ruthlesness with any other illness (see an example here or here). No wonder the world is such a brutal place.
My son has no problems if someone eats nuts close to him, thank heavens (and still flying is such a daunting scary experience). I know that some children aren't that lucky, their parents are sadly not overreacting or exagerating (despite what total ignorants who have never read a single serious article about allergies or talked to a single allergist in their lives decide to judge so irresponsibly and hurtfully). Yet if I was asked to give up eating nuts, it's a no brainer, and I'd smile at that child and her mother, he needs to be so brave at such an early age, she's goine through so much. I want to think that if my son wasn't allergic I'd do exactly the same. I refuse to think that I could be such a monster.
Just for the record, if they are allowed to wipe their seats and no one eats peanuts/treenuts or whatever it is, they are safe. That is the only thing they ask for. Is that such a ridiculous demand?. The joke is, anyone can suddenly become severely allergic anytime. I have friends who never had food allergies suddenly in their 30s, their 40s become sensitized to apples, to shellfish, to treenuts...one bite sends them to the hospital. Anyone can be next, so if only out of selfishness, which is the only language some people speak, they might want to think twice.
This was recently on CBS here
Please remember, one single person can make a huge difference either way. 
*This post was first published on 03/09/13 but bumping it to raise awareness.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

#Onelovemanchester

    ♡ One love Manchester

Monday, December 26, 2016

George

Oh no.
He had been a shadow of himself for a long time now. No, not even a shadow.
I stopped following what he did long ago, it was sad to see.
But he was the main soundtrack to my teens. And I had the hugest crush on him then. Just yesterday  Last Christmas came up on the radio for the umpteenth time and I took the chance to explain to my sons what platonic love is. It's serendipitous (as usual with me), had not come up in years. I almost lost my sanity back then trying to figure out what the hell he was saying in certain parts of that song, listening over and over and then over again!. I still remember how  my English teacher feared me, trying to get her to translate Careless whisper and then every song after that. I didn't understand, and couldn't bear it.
I saw that video, heard  that song, and it stayed with me like nothing before (for me it wasn't the Wham dancey type with the shorts at all. I liked him despite that. It was that guy in the suit who could look at you like he did there -and the music). I was lucky I had taped it, saw it a million times literally. Where I lived nobody knew him, and wouldn't for a long time. Afraid to say, he was my main motivation for learning English.. silly me. He was something else.
Still it felt like this amazing musician was just too gentle for life, or flawed, or ill-equipped. So at one point he went and did a 180, hit self-destruct with such intent there was barely a trace of grace left. I'm sure he was generous and kind but...
They're saying all sorts of nonsense now as they always do, from conceited vacuous Elton John to the tabloids (like CNN, nr 1 tabloid, how disgracefully they're covering this).
Anyway, very sad.
Pic: my closet a million years ago, somebody took this photo of me there.

Friday, November 25, 2016

Thanksgiving

Is Regina Spektor at the Macy's Thanksgiving parade in an Ocean Spray float something I'd expected to come up on my TV when I turned it on as background "noise" for my wrestling match with my turkey? (first time ever cooking one) No. Did it happen?... yep!!. There she is on my TV (and somebody really needs to work on their spelling).
Probably one thing I can give thanks for this bad, bad year: life's unexpected good blips. If scarce.
Though she didn't even choose one of the few new songs I like.





Friday, November 4, 2016

Elections... or the state of acceptance.

Days away from these unthinkable elections, and  most of us are thinking the same thing... well, just be aware that the only reason these are the candidates is people put them there with their choices.
Also impressed @ how incredibly biased the media is, they don't even bother to pretend anymore. Not a good thing no matter what. Yuck.
So I thought I'd post this beautiful soothing song on acceptance and dealing with bad hands. Which we will have to do regardless.
And I thought House of Cards was too extreme...
PS Nov 8:  sick of receiving prerecorded calls and messages on my phone asking for democrat vote. I got them from a "Hey it's Tess..." (703 3729398), "Hi, it's Charlotte..." (703 9918928) "Hey it's Sarah..." (703 9918928) and so on. Not helping, guys.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Oy to the world


























This grandma prop with the serious Halloweenish/creepy streak was at a Christmas shop the other day. Seems someone had knocked the J out of the Joy.
Kinda sums up the year!
So, oi to the world. Surely humanity can do better than this?


Thankfully in music we had these:

* The Vaccines' English Graffiti (unexpected!). I adjusted a bit my summer holidays so I could catch them in Chicago (posted video on youtube). Luckily even had a lively chat with Freddie at the meet &greet. They knew a big chunk of their fans would not agree with the change of direction and still went ahead. "Couldn't keep doing 3 chord songs forever", "had been listening to new music we really liked"). Way to go.
* Tim Wheeler's Lost Domain. Takes a lot of courage to put out an album like this one and a lot of skill to balance it and come up with something this good.
* Quite good too Ryan Adams's take on Taylor Swift's 1989 (isn't it impressive what he's done with Blank Space?). Daring move.
* Marina & the diamonds' Froot, as bold as usual.
But also listened a lot to some tracks from end of last year's Adrien Gallo's Gemini and this year's Laura Marling, Lisa Ekdahl, Soko, Emika, Sara Lov, Natalia Lafourcade..


Personally it's been the best year ever, "only" because I'll just say that milk and eggs are no longer handled like cyanide in my kitchen and that a 10 yr old someone had his first donut, his first fried egg, his first proper pizza. After very tough years of not only not advancing but adding new allergies to the list (some remain), this is a reminder that there's always hope, even when. How cheesy is that!! (←double meaning!)






Friday, February 15, 2013

Marshmallow pops

Jeez, how difficult is it to post after so long? Most, so I will this once. It's Valentine's and for those in the US who still have time, anyone want an idea for a quick easy treat? I've done these today and they've turned out quite ok, thought I'd share (well,  I've had to make them egg and dairy free - always harder). Recipe here, much nicer ones than my sloppy version in the pic. Otherwise these pancakes are amazing. There's so many terrible recipes out there, you can't tell, but these are great.
It's the day for sharing and stuff so..music: my favourite cd of 2012: Julia Stone, "By the horns", wouldn't have predicted it but she's really taken a huge leap with this one (a grower, takes a lot of listens to get to the bottom and the first few times most of it may not even seem any appealing, but it's fantastic -half the songs). Video I liked best probably Knots, by Dan Michaelson, most simple and yet...
2013 now, it has started with enjoying a few perfect pop songs off the new Tegan and Sara (with the help of mighty omnipresent Kurstin, now busy with Sia  -btw so happy to see a sheet music shop in their website, finally someone doing that!-), the cosy if this time too diluted Dido (she's giving away a reallly good acoustic of an oldie today, check out her facebook. Not one of my favourites though), the This is 40 soundtrack (Fiona's ace back in 2012 but Norah's now, bravo-h) and this and that like Blackbird Blackbird's It's a war -last year's though. And old The Kills (Sour cherry, a natural reaction today to so many hearts and marshmallows I suppose! -and to other things other days). Oh, and Solange!!, Losing you is fantastic (Rice-Oxley recommended, really surprised to love it  and later found out someone familiar is behind it: Dev Hynes!: that explained it, long time no see, a music genious). Lots of my favourites preparing releases these days, may be a good year.
The other day I set out to discover new blogs, thought I'd do so with a search of  my two favourite songs of 2012 "with quotation marks", see which blogs/websites were in the same "niche". Got only one hit: me!!! (the lastfm I use now, that is). Unexpected, gets you thinking...

Back to my cave now :P To the people like me out there may patience, temperance, resignation be with you in the most unreasonably huge amounts.

February 21st: Went to Madrid fashion week today, managed to attend one of the fashion shows, Sita Murt. One of the three songs they used was Solange's "Losing you", serendipity!. Took the bad camera so bad pic:

The experience of going to the Cibelespacio was somehow bitter, seeing too many people around trying too hard and failing miserably, not a nice sight. But there certainly are bigger issues out there.
27th: And on second thought I need to mention Kathleen Edward's Voyager as another one of my favourites from last year if it took me quite a while, but again half the songs are just gorgeous, and inevitably she always ends up being my most played. She's just released a new video. So brilliant-.

Not pretending to be what she's not, thankfully. But again, some absolutely don't need to.

March...here, again...saw this Solange (+ Dev) performance, flawless, wanted to include it. Another fabulous song. I should finish this post at some point though. Because otherwise I'd also want to talk about Brooke Waggoner's Originator (with last lines like Be wise, you fool..), and Solange's page of vibes on Soundcloud -very original!-and then about this free download of SXSW artists that includes the fantastic Haley Bonar... -listened to her wonderful ditty Raggedy Man yet?-  And I'd never end. So I'm going to try now, seriously. With crisis of every colour and shape out there inspiring music is so necessary.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Crumbs

Am I really doing this?. Because I've always hated Christmas stuff around when it's not even December but, well, whatever.. again, why are they releasing this so soon?
"Home for the Holidays" - Tim Wheeler & Emmy the Great

Melody sounds most familiar (in fact, combine the gorgeous L'anamour -version Françoise Hardy- and Abba's great One of us to a faster beat = mighty close to the verses) but all is forgiven because it's pretty, unpretentious just for the season cheesy kinda thing -and cheesy is good, good cheesy that is. Bad cheesy is terrible. But this is good cheesy-. And these two's talent for music is proven (Tim as for instance in Ash's fantastic Free all angels, Emmy as f.i. in collaborations with Lightspeed Champion), and foremost: hearing it is like Christmas: same warm fuzzy feeling. So different from what stems from the world and in particular my beautiful country these days, I'm making this exception. Also no need to blog until after Christmas!. But then, it makes one have to blog in January not to be so outdated (nah, can always delete, yay!).
Music these days is in general pretty incredibly boring to me, a lot of work just to find one or two songs worth it. Crumbs. That so even though some of my favourites have released albums lately...sadly boring albums (with luck one song, two can be salvaged). So practically Camera Obscura is kinda my last hope (according to their facebook they were already working on new cd in june... C'mon Tracyanne!! a last push!!!). Well, Jakob Dylan released a really great bitterest song months ago (he's so ahead he's already left his respective boring period behind). And Amy sounded so good on that bit of Like Smoke- sad. Very. Well, also hopes on La casa azul's latest out on the 28th, label mate of Camera Obscura's for a while, but not sure non Spanish listeners can get it the same way. Actually this blogs quite shares his philosophy, as explained in the video, specially at the end. It's stupid to write about music etc with the things that are going on, but then not totally.
So, uh, don't know what else to say. Well, this is pretty too.
As always, post will probably be heavily edited, no reason in particular.
PS I know some will snort at some of my crumbs (one christmas song and one Coldplay and Rihanna song? oh, jeezz). Well, I like both and other, considered more "serious" crumbs I've been listening to I haven't blogged about. Though they'd look much cooler, I'm well aware.
On a positive note, there's still more than a month left of 2011. Maybe time enough for me to get my cool back!!

Christmas notes: for christmas letters , love the typography of the warm december here. For christmas ornaments the super Fishinkblog has pretty ideas including recycled jumpers (funn, involves shrinking them, which some of us are accidental experts at). Like in music blogs, some posts I love, some not. Definitely dazzled by incredible artists featured in it, like Jon Klassen -WOW- or Jared Andrew Schorr, no lack of inspiration there. Some pretty stuff in Laura Veirs' happy Tumble bee too, like Prairie Lullabye.
Or for those who for some reason are still feeling un-christmassy like me this is also December and mighty catchy (and still good natured, ahem).
And of all the goodies artists have given away this Christmas, I'll choose Tina Dico's -she released the very crisply produced True North a month ago-: an old unreleased song, quiet and simple but full of flavour and meaning, Don't belong here. Too few available downloads though, they were gone faster than fast.
And Goldfrapp's little greeting, too many swear words for me, but singing's fantastic.
Christmas is not synonim of amnesia, though.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Princess of China

Everybody listened to it already?. Coldplay + Rihanna?!??! Leaked to the internet yesterday apparently:
Coldplay - Princess Of China (feat. Rihanna) by DJ ERM
Unexpected. But kinda good. Made me think of a comment Nerina Pallot made on her twitter about R.'s songs theme the other day (lol), an exception indeed for the girl with possibly the worst taste in clothes (ugg) and the most thigh exposure (double ugg). But voice too.
Anyway, halfway between a fun freestyle version of Ruben Darío's Sonatina and a catchy eurovision tune: Chris Martin, douze points!
This post may disappear in a few days. Some parts have already have .. must be amanaemonesia.
PS To get into the Halloween mood, this Spike Jonze thing is pretty.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

traschcan


Lots of it!. Watch in full screen if you can, quality's pretty good.
Quite the experiment for Lisa Hannigan.
Premiered yesterday but I was in no mood for blogging.
If you haven't already, you can read about this video and Lisa on NPR.
Not really sure what the song's about, but you definitely get the feeling of release!!!
It reminded me of this great children's book:

PS Making of the video Knots here. Surprisingly simple.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Remembering 9/11


Remembering the victims of 9/11. What was to happen was inconceivable 3 years before, when I took this picture. There are no words.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

St vincent - Cruel

Just watched this. Wow

Her article for the Huffington Post here.
"Casually cruel", brilliant term!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Alice Gold, The Pierces and Delta Maid at Bush Hall


Back from London now. First, a pic of Alice Gold and her setlist.

Alice's album is out at the beginning of July and can be preordered here, first copies will be signed.
Nothing new to add to what's already been said about her lately, it's clear that she's got the extra ingredient and that if she doesn't make it big it won't be for lack of ability. Got presence onstage too, reminded me of The Duke Spirit's Liela.
A bit too much going on in the album though, at points too psychedelic for me, at points too poppy but she told me she hopes when one listens to it from beginning to end it will make sense as a whole.
And she's getting a lot of positive attention: I discovered her when checking out the Pierces' supporting acts, listened to her music, and she became the main reason to go to the show, but little after that I was listening to one of Jo Whiley's Radio2 shows (first I've ever listened to, she was playing one of Ane Brun's new songs that I'd already listened to on Spotify but was curious) and she went and played Alice too, so her music is really getting out there, congrats to her.
And lucky her she's not only most talented, she's also got one of the coolest bass players (Saul) with her onstage!. She did not introduce her band, guess she forgot -Well, it was great, the drummer added beautiful backing vocals (see it here), he and the guitar player were previously in a band, Fields, that broke up. Music is so rough, well, life is so rough.
Beautiful minidocumentary on her first album here.
The Pierces setlist:

The Pierces pics:(click to enlargen, don't know what's the deal with blogger today but in these small views pictures are pale and have very bad definition...)



Better than anticipated. All's been said too, not any challenging or very special but by all means some really good songs. Highlights live: "Sticks and stones" and set ending "Boring" (which I didn't like much on the cd but that absolutely rocked live, really fun too). They sold out the first date at Bush Hall , so they added this extra one, which also sold out soon after I bought tickets. Incredibly mixed audience, almost like a perfect population sampling: all ages, all types, no one could feel out of place!
Objection: they didn't play "Piece of you", which is probably my favourite by them.
Delta Maid pic:

Funny it looks like a painting.
Uploaded some snippets of each of their sets on my youtube, but it was too loud for my old camera so the sound's far from good.
More soon. Lovely weather in London btw..

(Southbank centre, 14/06)
Way too lengthy posts also way over edited but.. air conditioning only in the computer room so....today 27/06 11.30 and its already over 30 degrees out, will go way higher. Yersterday night it only was under 29 from 1.30 am. So you can hardly open your house and it only gets hotter and hotter. Ahhhhhh and it's only the beginning. Thank god for swimming poolz- and no, I can't blog from there ;)
Wow, about that just found a graphic example in the kitchen cupboard:

Forgot I'd bought these, "fondant" wobbly dome tea cakes!
PS And if you really want to read a good post on Alice Gold, ignore mine and read this The independent bit. Among other things, gives the name of the album one of those images you don't forget .
This post has been being written for about 2 weeks now, so chronologically -or otherwise I'm afraid- it may not make much sense.