Saturday, December 24, 2005

Merry Xmas/Hannukan or other



Whatever you may call this night, whatever may be your traditions, remember it's a night of happiness, to be with those you love most and see the happiness upon children's faces, specially on those that have never received gifts and due to the fantastic work done by many ONGs are able to experience the joy of opening a gift and find a car, a doll, a book, a game for the first time.

Enjoy the night and I hope you behaved, otherwise Santa Claus...

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Devendra, Sigur Rós & Wraygunn

Well, last month I managed to go to 3 concerts, one by chance... They were all so different, brought out different feelings, with a mingle of personal feelings and experiencing something I absolutely love: live concerts, even if sometimes it’s hard to only live music, live the moment, as if nothing existed besides living the concert…

The first one was Devendra Banhart, an ex-homeless with a god’s voice and a poet! Great songs, great lyrics and a person who just seems amazing, free… But his music can really touch a person, not only the uplifting ones, but also the ones that actually carry great truths within them, dreams that are a mere utopia, but make you want to dream, to think that maybe dreams can become true!

The concert was preceded by Caveira, raw instrumental music that frightened nearly half of the audience, I kind of think they couldn’t quite understand how two different musical styles could exist in the same room ;) As I love electric guitars and I love them also loud, electric, hypnotic in full raw power, I must say I enjoyed the concert… However, when Devendra and his pals got in magic began! Its was an amazing concert, better than the one in Sudoeste, mainly because at least most of the people at least knew his single, I didn’t loose the first 3 songs and the concert was much longer (I keep on not understanding why the 2nd stage in Sudoeste only allowed bands to play 45 minutes if the concerts where being done at the same time as the ones in the main stage)… Anyway the room required a more intimate environment and that was what we got, a very warm Devendra playing wonderfully, a magical night with fantastic music only ruined by the fact I had to sit during the whole concert! How can anybody sit all through a concert like that? I couldn’t believe that I was forced to sit all time just because there were people being so polite as I was so we would block the view of the little lords and princesses that could not see a concert standing… I now they paid as much as I did, that they had all the right to sit during the concert, but I had to sacrifice my right to see the concert standing and finding it rather difficult to sit not to mention I kind of offense to a band, as if their music had been so bad that people didn’t even stand to enjoy it, when it was quite the contrary! Anyway getting out of a concert singing the last music of that concert and a feeling of joy passing through your soul, makes everything worth it, and just to imagine I had considered not going…

My second concert was Sigur Rós, but unfortunately it didn’t hit me the same way it hit me 2 years ago, when I got out of the Coliseu dos Recreios absolutely enchanted, as I had experienced an absolutely magical concert, an heavenly night… I can’t pin point why, perhaps the fact that I wasn’t able to see the stage or the band, perhaps because () was more obscure, the band was living a more intense and obscure moment in their lifes, but 2 years ago they seemed so much more intense, so much more involving or perhaps 2 years ago I saw the best concert the band ever gave and now all the other will seem inferior because expectations where raised to high!

About one week ago I saw Wraygunn in Santiago Alquimista (by the way a perfect room to see The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The White Stripes, Beck,… and huge list of other, but as we don’t have all day ;) Being just inches from the band in the front row was absolutely amazing, Paulo Furtado as always a show off but in a good sense, as he isn’t arrogant, just with an extreme attitude of rockstar, that some how never gets to too exaggerated although close, but he is one of the most important elements of the band, it’s leader and icon… It was a concert by chance, but a great concert with it’s mix of blues and rock and roll, totally electrifying, making it impossible for one to not plunge into the rhythm of the guitar and the drums or the bass… It’s just a pity most people don’t appreciate what we have got here that is good, while most kids (and they are really kids, teens) are mad about Da Weasel (when Sam the Kid has much more quality), and all the commercial hip-hop crap that appears in our national market, bands like Wraygunn, D3io, The Legendary Tiger Man, among others and even Clã are looked dismissed as not so cool, when they are the soul of Portuguese music (fado, Madredeus and others belong to a different style/segment so I’m not including that type of Portuguese music, as they cannot be compared)…

ESADE Business School > MBA, Executive Education, Undergraduate and Master in Management and Law> Barcelona, Madrid, Buenos Aires > Spain, Argentina

A new dream, cause we need dreams to keep on living ;) Unfortunately I also need about 65.000 euros in about 2 years and a great deal of hard work and luck, especially if I don't find another job...

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Sorry

It seems I've reached my MBs limit of downloads of pics for blogger for the day, so maybe during the week I can post more... Basically they are all the same, its just so you can have an idea.

And my Daddy didn't have the chance to take as many photos as he wished ;)

Some more pics, this time some my Daddy took



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Saturday, December 03, 2005

Angola



My father arrived this week from Angola, for most of those who remember Luanda from 30 years ago it must be a shock... Poverty, degradation, children wondering through the streets selling garbage or stuff they have stolen, little girls prostituting themselves, going to shacks under drooling disgusting old men, children famine who are just trying to survive… Old builds in ruins, corruption everywhere, “business people” living in containers (not mansions has they claim), Chinese working for salaries lower than the own native population…

No idyllic, beautiful Africa, except when you go to the quietness of the savanna, untouched… Everywhere else only pain and suffering, HIV and a strong will of survival, of some hope in the future as present is lacking so much a little window of hope and opportunity… For the greedy, the abusers, in some years there will only be punishment, because unlike what some white and Chinese assume, Angolans are everything but stupid, they know they need help to rise, but they will not forget the price some are paying… Unfortunately, the scenery of this city will remain the same for the next years and most probably the AIDS toll will make the waiting even longer, more painfull…

It is just so revolting to know how much the children have suffered, how much they suffer and how much they will still suffer, to know that men without any scruples will abuse little girls, who subject themselves to eat, even if that means dying of AIDS in some years time, I just hope the bastards who abuse them will die also, because abusing a hungry child is one of the most horrible crimes one can commit…