"Lay it down slow"

Another rainy day w/ some sun afterwards

2009-12-19T10:41:00.000Z

I wonder why during weekdays it’s hot and sunny but as soon as the weekend comes I wake up with the sound of rain falling on the roofs… Hopefully January & February will be less rainy, so I can get somebody to take me to the beach ;)

I’m moving to my next apartment next month for I don’t know how long with two seemingly great kids, with an amazing view (17th floor in Maputo, means being able to see Maputo as few get to see).

As I doubt I will get the chance to get internet before the 24th I hope you have a nice Xmas with does you love most & don’t ever take those precious moments as granted….

Merry Xmas to you all, I will see if at least my lunch will have some prawns, so enjoy your turkey or codfish ;)

Maputo, Mozambique – My new adventure

2009-12-12T18:35:00.000Z

Maputo has been a surprise, as all countries, as all cities full of contrasts…

For an African city it has been quite pleasant to get to know, although I hardly know it still. The not so pleasant part is having people chasing you to buy this or that (hopefully they will end up seeing that I’m not a tourist). The even less pleasant part is seeing the poverty, although until now I’ve only had to witness a small little girl caring a 5 liters bottle of water on her head and another one on her hand. Most of the children in Maputo have flip-flops and although playing at rather dirty backyards or streets they seem to be happy. My neighbors at least were laughing while playing football by our street (strangely only girls) and this cute little girl with a white flowing dress was hopping around playing in whatever imaginary world she was in… Until now I still haven’t have to look to the eyes of a child without any hope, so I suppose that even though the hard financial situations of all these people, if children are allowed to be children then there is still some hope…

Unlike the idea that the “civilized world” has, you can live extremely well in Africa if Africa is like Maputo, relatively safe (much safer then South Africa, for example), fantastic houses with “discrete” electrified fences (at least compared to iron fences you hardly notice them). Swimming pools, beautiful gardens with peacocks, where you can have a quite and relaxing stroll at you lunch hour. Drinkable water at the tap (at least that is what I’ve been told), very safe food at still quite a big number of restaurants affordable to at least the middle class of the country (which already have lovely houses just at the skirts of the city).

The locals who I’ve met and who I’ve worked closely with have been, with very little exceptions, very, very friendly so I can understand easily that it’s not only the famed beaches that give touristic potential to the country.

The company I’m working at is also unique, I’m one of the oldest and I’m only 29 (the average is 27). Hardly any “Doctors” at the work, at least between us, which I absolutely love as one earns respect, imposing it is many times just artificial.

Of course the locals have vices, all countries have them and it’s funny to see that some of their vices are the vices of the Portuguese.

Even though passing Xmas and New Year away from my family & my friends will be hard…

Uma luso portuguesa em Hollywood (pelo menos na cidade das estrelas) e na TV nacional americana

2009-10-04T22:54:00.003+01:00

Sempre achei que era das poucas actrizes das novelas portuguesas que era realmente uma actriz e bem bonita por sinal!

I'm sorry but Cibelle lacks this passion while singing this song...

2009-10-04T19:21:00.002+01:00

Original vs Cover II

2009-10-04T19:11:00.004+01:00

And the first time I heard it and fell in love...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKnxmkOAj88

Original vs Cover

2009-10-04T19:04:00.002+01:00

Ignore the idiot in the middle (it had good quality).

Which one would you choose while walking to the love of your life?

2009-10-04T18:51:00.003+01:00

Dylan or White?

Live...

Recorded...

Live...

The guy still looks like a wee teen but she is adorable...

2009-10-03T15:03:00.000+01:00

2009-09-12T18:34:00.002+01:00

If it were me I would have run and kissed him, at least who can resist such a man...

Speaking of Creep this guy gives me the creeps with a song called Townes... However I was n't able to find the actual song so here goes a taste (not at the best quality)

How to get into trouble or how USA got into trouble...

2009-05-16T22:21:00.001+01:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17foreclosure-t.html

A long article but well worth it for those who would like to understand the actual world crisis. Pure madness...

Original

2009-04-30T00:01:00.000+01:00

Cover

2009-04-29T23:57:00.002+01:00

Link:
NPR

Why going to an American Uni pays of...

2009-03-31T23:56:00.003+01:00

Can you just imagine actually being there? Pity my Uni wasn't like this ;) Thursday I will bring you this ;)

The other night this was showing...

2009-03-31T23:44:00.001+01:00

One of the most beautiful movies

Some of the many reasons I love Tim Burton & Johnny Depp

2009-03-31T23:39:00.003+01:00

I listen to this today...

2009-03-12T23:47:00.004Z

... and realized it would have been a great soundtrack for the past year and a few months, sometimes it keeps on being a great soundtrack... A pity I haven't played this song for a while and I didn't recall it for so many months.

Francoiz Breut + Calexico Si tu disais
Uploaded by ivaxavi

No comments

2009-02-27T00:32:00.001Z

The Black Keys - Hold me in your arms

One of my favourites from all time...

2009-02-07T00:09:00.000Z

It gives you the chills...

Old Shit / New Shit - The Eels

2009-02-06T23:57:00.002Z

Everyone loves you
Nobody cares
An awful collection
Of enemies and friends
Congratulations to you
With sad regrets
I'm tired of the old shit
Let the new shit begin

The psychic pain
Of living in this world
Is overwhelming me
Again and again
A beautiful afternoon
Inside you in your bed
I'm tired of the old shit
Let the new shit begin

Nobody loves you
Everyone cares
None of them know what's
Coming 'round the bend
Congratulations to me
Many happy returns
I'm tired of the old shit
Let the new shit begin

Some oldies for the road...

2009-02-06T23:47:00.003Z

2009-02-06T23:47:00.001Z

2009-02-06T23:45:00.000Z

I suppose so am I...

2009-01-20T23:52:00.002Z

Soundtrack so one isn't driven mad...

2009-01-20T23:51:00.001Z

Paulo vê se pelo menos lembraste de me gravar algumas coisas para que eu não desligue completamente da civilização and to have something to dream about during the long lonely nights ahead ;)

2009-01-20T23:50:00.000Z

2009-01-20T23:49:00.000Z

2009-01-20T23:48:00.000Z

Or why I would love to be Jack White's wife...

2008-12-28T17:45:00.002Z

It gives you goosebumps!

Much better then the original! Ya, you can say as much as you want that you are into the money, but the truth is that if you couldn't play you would certainly die, because it runs in you veins and with such passion! Impossible not to fall in love with a guy playing like you...

Why I should have gone even if alone...

2008-12-05T20:08:00.000Z

True Love Will Find You In The End...

2008-12-05T19:31:00.000Z

Coffee and Cigarettes ;)

2008-12-01T21:48:00.001Z

Hitler's fault

2008-11-19T00:09:00.001Z

I wonder whose fault it is now...

Black humour by Disney

2008-11-19T00:02:00.000Z

Death

2008-11-17T23:48:00.000Z

When will somebody let me make this my Xmas tradition?

2008-11-17T23:45:00.002Z

One of the greatest love stories ever...

Christmas on Mars

2008-11-17T23:42:00.001Z

Watch the marketing lesson below ;)

Televendas para o Natal ;)

2008-11-17T23:38:00.001Z

Let's make love listening to...

2008-11-16T17:12:00.000Z

Arizona Dream (1993)

2008-11-16T16:44:00.002Z

Finally a deleted scene: What would happen if he had became a car's salesman... I would love to get my hands on the uncut film!

A song that has haunted me ever since I was 13...

2008-11-16T16:39:00.003Z

Mr. Depp has been a good influence ;) I know it's a weird movie, unfinished, but ever since I saw it, I have never lost the impression it left written on my soul...

Acabadinha de mudar há 4/2 semanitas....

2008-09-13T17:27:00.002+01:00

Novo job há 4 semanitas, novo flat há 2 semanitas e bendito do nerd que inventou o CIF Lixívia podia era ter juntado um pouco de creme hidradante para as minhas mãos não andarem na desgraça que andam...

Ah! E um spazito no fim das limpezas também dava jeito, com umas massagens às costas...

Daqui a umas semanitas depois das limpezas e assentar, será feito o jantar de estreia ;)

My Vice For So Many Years

2008-07-21T11:25:00.002+01:00

Makes you wish buying the collector's box and watch all the 9 seasons as a countdown for the movie. Many questions were left unanswered; I know many will keep unanswered and satisfaction will never be attained. True to the show life will be always a search for the truth and with new findings new questions are raised, quite philosophical as no human being can ever comprehend or attain all the knowledge and all the truth, starting with the simple fact that each human being understands truth in their own unique way…

Neil Young @Alive2008

2008-07-15T17:09:00.002+01:00

The night's sublime point:

Also :

Or:

Bob Dylan @Alive2008 - Lisbon, Portugal

2008-07-15T16:21:00.005+01:00

This song never stops to make sense, everyday more:

I ain't lookin' to compete with you,
Beat or cheat or mistreat you,
Simplify you, classify you,
Deny, defy or crucify you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you,
Frighten you or uptighten you,
Drag you down or drain you down,
Chain you down or bring you down.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to straight-face you,
Race or chase you, track or trace you,
Or disgrace you or displace you,
Or define you or confine you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

But he never sang it, but he sang this one with an amazing smile during the song to the public, a smile I won't forget that easily, the great Bob Dylan smiling to us simple mortals ;):

It was a concert to remember and tell about to your grandchildren, it may not be Bob Dylan of the 60's (quite impossible as we are in 2008) but still amazing at the keybords and harmonic, with such lyrics and songs!

The Ugly Truth

2008-07-09T14:29:00.005+01:00

Let’s stop subsidising the production and use of bio-fuels

Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis

I know fuel prices are the main indirect driving force (if they weren't so sky high there wouldn't be many people investing in biofuels as they are not cheap to produce) and don't misunderstand me I'm a Greeny but starving people so we can drive our cars and still think we are doing wonders to the world is being a hypocrite. Yes let's save the environment but not at the cost of human lives.

The devilish side of biofuels is that even if they are from non feeding products (that is their are not consumed by human beings) they still land from the products that actually feed and with raising cost of petrol and therefore transportation, as well as a mad frenzy for energy has driven prices of energy in all it's forms. This made biofuels' production actually worthwhile and I can assure you that the vast majority of its investors aren’t investing only on the kindness of their heart; they are doing it for the profit with the bonus of a status quo that they actually care about the planet not their pockets. Another small detail biofuel defenders forget is how much land is necessary to produce the energy needed to produce biofuel for us to drive our cars, let’s just say there isn’t enough land for that.

In my opinion, we should be investing in other renewable energies and invest in a solution using those for our cars, be it solar or eolic, hydrogen, etc. That’s were the future lays, not in short term solutions as biofuels that may reduce a little bit of our dependence of petrol, but at the cost of human lives? That is unacceptable.

Camané no Sudoeste, bem que podia ser no Paredes de Coura...

2008-06-20T10:32:00.003+01:00

No dia 8 de Agosto, também não se percebe porque não os Franz Ferdinand no Alive ou em Paredes, mas o cumúlo da estupidez é mesmo Beck no SBSR juntamente com o Mika (que tem muita sorte que quero ver Spiritualized e por isso não meto os pés no SBSR senão acho que estava muito tentada a despistar a segurança para entrar com uns ovos para atirar durante Grace Kelly e se ainda sobrassem durante a do Relax, até 8 doses diárias durante meses fazem disto)...

Sobre a desgraça de ontem: The White Stripes 3 - 2 Roberto Carlos

2008-06-20T10:28:00.003+01:00

Pelo menos os adeptos alemães bem que entoavam o refrão, não há nada como a guitarra do Jack White para dar pica e alento a uma selecção, agora Roberto Carlos (supostamento o que o seleccionador faz a selecção ouvir)...

No comments...

2008-06-19T16:16:00.002+01:00

"In Alabama the laws take the ban one step further. All stores, including specialty stores, are barred from selling vibrators because of a 1998 law prohibiting distribution of devices that provide genital stimulation. Breaking the law is an offense that can bring up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine. It's a penalty that rivals that for illegal gun ownership in some states."

IN: http://www.newsweek.com/id/110965/page/1

I'm starting to think my hometown is really the end of the world...

2008-06-16T16:48:00.003+01:00

The rest of the rather interesting interview is at this site:
http://www.21stcenturypinups.net/fla2/issue2.html

By the way a magazine I highly recommend (with Bernie Dexter in the first issue, an interview you can't miss)!

It's confirmed, she will be back!!!

2008-06-13T18:29:00.003+01:00

WENTWORTH MILLER SWC DOMINIC PURCELL TOURNAGE S4
by pb-redemption

After basically killing the series and dreaming about getting Michael another love interest… A few days, by the way, after he learnt she was killed, supposing they had been mad enough to do it in last season's episode. I really doubt that would stick: “I lost the love of my life a few days ago, but as soon as I saw you I fell in love”! Especially after betraying all the shows fans, because chemistry like this that the viewers can just sense is hard to get! If it wasn’t for Wentworth Miller (who’s absolutely divine) and being stupidly faithful (I also saw all 9 seasons of X-Files, to be disappointed by the really bad and sloppy wrap up in the end)…

So she will be back, as I desired after seeing the box, it had to be a hoax, something just to fool Michael’s brother, but after checking the internet and finding out that the actress had really left the show, I had last all hope… But the producers gained their senses and as this is not the real world they will just resurrect her! So prepare yourselves for more of this:

Interview with Jason Pierce - Spiritualized

2008-06-13T15:23:00.003+01:00

Interview by Grayson Currin

"I must confess nervousness in advance of a phone call to Jason Pierce, the co-founder of Spaceman 3 and, later, Spiritualized. From afar, Pierce has always seemed slightly manic with the media, embracing its platform to talk about his process of making a record but quickly turned off by its questions about his personality, his drug use, and the personnel problems of his bands.
Up close, though, his music-- especially its obsessions, like its overwhelming volume and scope and its pervasive tension between getting high with Jesus, getting high with drugs, and possibly dying in the process-- means a great deal to me. When I listen to a Spiritualized record, I listen to it on repeat for days on end, committing fully to Pierce's own full commitments. When he makes a record, he does so completely. Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space exited via a 17-minute closing groove, and Let It Come Down featured 100 musicians, including Dr. John. At his best, Pierce sounds like an all-or-nothing sort, one not prone for small talk or half measures. So why would this self-involved titan want to waste time talking about a new record that, for him, is already old?
To my surprise, Pierce had a lot to say after awaking near noon in a New York hotel. Our conversation spilled outside of the time slot set by his publicist, and, throughout, he seemed genuine, thoughtful, well-considered. If he was ever going to respond that way, now seems like the time. The past few years have been difficult for Pierce: In 2005, he nearly died, weighing just 112 pounds and entering type-one respiratory failure in Royal London Hospital. He was diagnosed with "advanced periorbital cellulitis with bilateral pneumonia."
When he came to, Pierce was left with an album he knew he needed to finish but comprised of songs with which he could no longer connect. He found his muse in a filmmaker and, once again, in American soul and folk music. Songs in A&E, Pierce's sixth studio album as Spiritualized, is a full-volume, ultra-dynamic return to glory. And the Spaceman likes to talk about it.

Pitchfork: Jason?

Jason Pierce: Is it that time already? [laughs]

Pitchfork: Rise and shine. Should I call back?

JP: No, it's fine. You're probably the first of many for today. How are you doing? I didn't realize it was so late already. I've just woken up. I've got to hit the ground and start talking about myself immediately.

Pitchfork: Today is the last day of three days of press-- interviews and photo shoots in New York. What's the difference between this press trip and others? The 2001 trip seemed busy and stressful.

JP: What was it like in 2001? I can't remember. I can't compare the two because I can't remember what 2001 was like. But it's good. It feels good. I feel quite a lot of relief just to have finished that record, so it's gotten a lot easier now.

Pitchfork: After your stay in the hospital, how frightening was it to think you might need to give up on the songs you'd written? That's a lot of work simply to scrap.

JP: Sometimes it seemed like it was just as hard to try and finish it as it was to throw it away. Yet, those songs were all written before my illness. The whole album was written with kind of fictitious characters in mind. The whole idea was to write an album that was outside of myself and, hopefully because of that starting point, I would write an album that was considerably different than anything I'd written before. But then when I came back to it after my illness, all the songs sounded deeply personal, almost like they were more related to me than if I started with me as a central character. It was really harrowing and really kind of impossible to find a way back into it until Harmony [Korine, the filmmaker] became involved.

Pitchfork: How long have you known Harmony?

JP: Only since I met him when he came to see me at the Daniel Johnston show. He came to see me and asked me if I'd get involved with some music for his film, Mister Lonely. He's not like an old friend. He became a friend, but he put me-- I think it was kind of a dumb move-- in a studio to make some music. And it was hugely liberating because I didn't have to front the music I was making. It was literally incidental music. It was incidental to his film, so I didn't have to stand by it and say, "Look, this is my new project. This is where I am today. This is what I'm doing." By being in the studio just working with sound like that, it just became...I was producing a lot of music, and-- somewhere during that process-- I decided to work on my own album in parallel to the film music. So the two kind of bled into each other. There are bits of my album in the film. There are bits of the film in my album. And the film gave the album an atmosphere, a sense of space that it was in, which it didn't have before. Before I became involved with Harmony, the album just sounded like 11 old songs that came after each other. The film kind of gave it this space that it sits in now, that makes it work.
Also, Harmony is like the craziest person I've ever met. He really is out there. And the enormity of his thing, his film, put my album in perspective for me. He's this crazy motherfucker who's taking on that, and all I've got to do is piece these last bits of the jigsaw together. It was fortuitous and kind of the best thing artistically for me, but also on a friendship thing, you know?
Pitchfork: Had you seen any of the film when you started recording?

JP: I don't think he'd started shooting, so there wasn't a lot to look at, you know? I'd read the script. A friend of mine was in the film, so I'd seen the script. I knew what he was talking about. I wasn't completely in the dark. I started the music immediately because it seemed like it didn't matter. If I was making music, I was making music. Whether it was in the film or not, it was still making music.

Pitchfork: What was your goal for the music for the film, in terms of sound, idea and even technique? Or did you not have one in mind?

JP: The music for the film? [pause] There's a question. I don't know. I can't remember. I think I was just in the studio on my own, so it wasn't like trying to construct anything. It wasn't like being with people and saying, "This is what we're trying to achieve here." I just sat with a piano or a drum or whatever and just made music. That's why it's hugely liberating to do that kind of stuff-- I'm trying to achieve this kind of thing.
Making a record's a real fight for me. I'm constantly fighting with this thing inside of me that says I should be sitting in a room with Matthew Shipp or I should have Han Bennink on drums or this song should be playing for the next 20 minutes in my head, not a silly little pop song. It's constant.
Things like "Soul on Fire"-- I didn't want that on the album. When it's a pop song, I don't really want to do pop songs, but they exist and sort of come out by accident. I couldn't find anybody to back me up on that. I couldn't find anybody to say, "Yeah, that's a good idea. Take ‘Soul on Fire' off the record." With Harmony's thing, I was kind of free to do that, to say I'm going to make some music now that doesn't have to fit into anybody's criteria. They didn't really even have to fit the film.
The beautiful thing about Harmony is that he's constantly challenging what works in a film and what doesn't. Whether you love it or hate it or whatever, it's constantly in this place where it's not a comfortable place to be. It's not like "Ahh, yeah, I understand that on the simplest of forms, or on the simplest of terms." So it didn't matter, you know? If he took it, he could have it. If he didn't, it didn't matter. I was still making these pieces of music because it made sense. And maybe, in an odd way, they were more about what I'd been through than these old songs that sounded like they were about what I'd been through.

Pitchfork: I imagine it felt really good just to be creating again.

JP: Yeah, and having somebody value that as well, which I felt was also really important, too. I'm not the most confident person, anyway, and to have somebody who really valued and was excited about these things... I don't work on my own records in a kind of public way. I don't play stuff for people and go, "Is that all right?" I don't do sort of jokes and say, "How was that for you guys?" It's a deeply sort of personal thing, and it has to be good for me to justify everything else that goes on, even calling up a band and saying, "C'mon, let's get together." People have to put effort into that, so-- until it's great in my mind-- it's like, "What the fuck's the point of that effort?" With Harmony's thing, I was working with someone who was deeply enthusiastic about what he was doing, and it was absolutely the best time in my life to be working with someone who was like that.

Pitchfork: When you played the Mainlines shows last year, you were playing some of the songs that became Songs in A&E. How close were they to finished?

JP: They kind of existed as songs, but I don't think they were finished. They hadn't found that kind of...I'd mixed 'em a few times. I'd tried everything. I'd tried to mix 'em like I was mixing an old Spiritualized album-- mixing up the sounds and applying reverbs and stuff. And I'd just gone through everything to try and get this down and finished, and it just sounded like the application of an idea to something. It sounded wrong. I think the mixes were finished maybe a year after we'd played them live.
For a while, I tried to make them sound like the acoustic thing, like, "This is how they're supposed to be. Let's do it like the acoustic shows would do it." But it sounded wrong. It seemed like I couldn't find a space for them to sit in that worked. And then it all kind of happened, having gone through all of that. Sometimes it's easier to make decisions when you know that you've tried things that are so wrong, you know, "OK, I don't go that way with it. I don't go this way with it." The way I work, I kind of have to go down all those wrong paths to know that the one I'm doing really is the one that is going to work.

Pitchfork: Did those shows help you see how the songs should work, or how they should fit together?

JP: Kind of, and also that they were to good not to finish. We had to find a way to put this album together, and, also, I had to make them contemporary again. I don't mean contemporary like contemporary to modern music. I mean contemporary to me, contemporary to my life, like I wasn't just working on a set of old songs. At times, it felt like someone had asked me to remix my last album or the album before that. "What is that? It's been finished forever. It's been a long time since it's been finished. What's the point of carrying on with it?" That's what this record felt like when I was working with it. So [the shows] kind of made the songs contemporary again.

Pitchfork: Mixing has always been so important to Spiritualized records. You're infamous for struggling through that process over a long period of time. What were the particular challenges of mixing this one?

JP: A lot of those challenges are the same as every record: You have to find that space. My records don't mix in a conventional sense, like, "Oh, here you go." I don't mean they're unconventional records, but they just have to find a space. It's almost accidental. I tried everything with this one, and I don't mind going down paths that I kind of know aren't going to be the one that will work. But I might get a tiny little gem that I can carry into the next process. It's weird because, what I ended up with this record, I ended up mixing it with no studio effects. I ended where I was with Amazing Grace, where anything that was added to it in the mix stage just sounded like I'd applied some reverb to it or whatever. So all the reverbs in the sounds are the rooms that the tracks were recorded in.
That was the energy in it, and I was quite happy because that's what I'd been trying to talk about when I was working on those albums with William Parker and Evan Parker and Matthew Shipp [2003's Spring Heel Jack Live]. Those records are all about performance and just sticking a microphone into the performance and capturing it, not about trying to produce a record, you know? I kept saying I got sick of listening to people's productions, like people who had no ideas, no songs, nothing to say but could still con people's ears into thinking those songs were there by the application of production. I kind of wanted my record a little more honest than that: "Well, this is us. We put a microphone on it. Here it is."

Pitchfork: Care to name any names?

JP: [laughs] No, you can fill in your own. You can fill in where you feel like they apply. A ton of stuff, you know? I'm not talking about the tiny little specific thing. I'm talking about a lot of music. It's that kind of thing where people still talk about making songs for radio or doing a radio mix or something. The idea of making a record for the medium with which you're going to try and sell that record is just kind of weird. I make records. I don't make records...[breathes in]
People are now telling me, "Albums are dead. You've got to make your records in tiny, bite-size pieces people can download." Well, I don't want to fucking do that. I make albums. I make these things that have their own space and time, and they fit. There's a link and a relationship between certain songs and certain ideas and certain themes. I'm kind of going, "What next? If you want me to do little bite-sized things, I'll just do the chorus for you. Or I'll just have them download the notes A and E." You can read an excerpt from a novel or a book in a magazine, but you can't deny that it's from a book, you know?
I don't make records for this medium with which we're going to sell it. The selling of it can never be more important than what you're actually making. There's too much of that in the world-- in everybody's world, not just in music. There's too much, "Are you hip to this kind of stuff?" "Hey, this is cool." "Are you hip to it, because this is what we're selling today?" I think it's bullshit. I'm rambling now.

Pitchfork: You mentioned selling the notes A and E instead of the record itself. Tell me about the titular pun.

JP: I don't think it translates in America very well. "A and E" in England only means "Accident and Emergency." I did suggest that maybe we call it Songs in Accident and Emergency and spell it out in America, like subtitle it. If I say "The record's called Songs in A & E," to someone in England, they'll go "Accident and Emergency." They'll know what that means. It's written everywhere. It's written on every single hospital.

Pitchfork: Did that medical reference become apparent from your time in the studio, or reflecting about that time?

JP: I've got a feeling that it was there before again, before I went in there. But my memory's lost that one I'm afraid. It was always a good pun. It wasn't meant to allude particularly to a stay in a hospital. The idea that-- I don't have to explain it-- that the keys of A and E musically and the idea that these songs are...it kind of fits in with all my songs. I think they're all Accidents and Emergencies. I don't know why I do this. It's not any easy process. I don't even think I'm gifted in a way that someone can just stick a microphone and say, "Hey, this guy can play the guitar." Because I can't! I don't even play the guitar. The only time I play the guitar is when I walk on the stage, and that's it. It sort of seemed like it fit with the way my songs kind of came together, anyway.

Pitchfork: Particularly with Let It Come Down, you talked about the songs not necessarily being autobiographical, so it seems that writing outside of yourself has always been of interest. You mentioned before finally making this record about characters. Why haven't you tried that before?

JP: I think that you've just got to be honest, and sort of the greatest music is almost recorded by accident, coming out of people that are not doing it to make...There's always this talk of the industry of music and about selling records and whatever, but that ignores probably the majority of music that isn't about trying to sell itself, that isn't about being connected to any industry. There's a huge amount of music where someone just happened to have a tape recorder and turned it on or hit the red button while they were in the back of church or recording something in their front room. There's a huge amount of that music from America.
I've just got this thing that music has to be honest. So I never really wrote about characters, but this album was definitely about a group of people that were going to populate these songs, which I'd never done. "The Waves Crash In" was called "The Old Man Says Goodbye to His Daughter at the Gate", and it was about exactly that. It was about an old man filled with pride and sadness that his daughter was old enough to leave home and go out into the world. His whole future was embedded in this person, like this lineage of time. "Borrowed Your Gun" was that kind of sentiment as well, that the future is with children. The lines at the end of "The Waves Crash In" were the girl's lines back to the father. He's like, "Look, I'm really sad to see you go, but I'll try and be with you forever." And the girl's throwing these lines back that are saying "I know you think I'm staggering but lately I've been staggering," with both senses of the word.
But, like I say, that may have been where I started with it, and I can still relate that story about that's what it's about. But it kind of isn't about that anymore. It became deeply about me and where I was. Now that it's finished and it's out there, even that's irrelevant. Maybe it's relevant for a couple of weeks while I talk about the album, but eventually the songs become about and for whoever's listening to them. I've said the line about Ray Charles a million times, but nobody listens to him singing "I Can't Stop Loving You" and wonders who Ray can't stop loving. They apply that to their own lives. That will happen with this.

Pitchfork: Did the lyrics change at all when the titles changed?

JP: No, they were the same lyrics, the same words.

Pitchfork: So only the titles changed?

JP: Yeah, and a different sense of what the song meant to me. "Death Take this Fiddle" was written from a place with pride, almost like life isn't worth living unless death is around. As soon as you understand that and as soon as you can go really close to death, everything can make more sense. That's a place where people will always want to go. Obviously, after my illness, it could no longer really sound like that anymore, but that's where it started. To write a song like that with any form of pride after an illness sounds like the actions of a fool. The whole sense of where it was at changed.

Pitchfork:You keep mentioning the sort of American music where there just happened to be a microphone, where a recorder happened to preserve an authentic musical moment. People always talk about you buying the Stooges record as a teenager, but when did you first hear this sort of soul or folk or gospel music from America?

JP: A little later than that. The blues thing was slightly more mainstream. There were a lot of kids who were into rockabilly when I was a kid, when I was 16 or so, and listening to John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters and that kind of stuff.
The Staple Singers was probably the first gospel stuff I heard. I used to listen with Natty [Brooker, original drummer of Spaceman 3]. He taped a lot of radio shows, like Alexis Korner radio shows. The Staple Singers was somewhere in the middle of all that. The main reason was they just sounded alien. I think the track was "Tell Heaven," and it's just this long, extremely slow vocal thing. A lot of what people were playing as blues then was more like white blues bands. So [The Staples] immediately sounded alien, like it just dropped from the sky or something. Once you get an in, it's like anything. You want to hear more. "Where did this come from?"
It still seems like it's endless. I found those Mississippi Records from Portland, and they've got whole catalogues and more of that stuff. You listen to like the Rev. Charlie Jackson, and you think "Wow, where's this from?" It's some guy in Kentucky with an electric guitar playing this amazing stuff...and then there's a whole ton more of this kind of stuff. All of the George Mitchell stuff that Fat Possum just put out...It's this kind of thing that, but for the sort of luck of that person being there at that time and putting something down, this music almost wouldn't be here. But for that kind of accident, they're there, and there's more of it. It's beautiful stuff."

You can find the interview here:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/50952-interview-spiritualized

By the way a very interesting site to RSS and keep updated.

I can't wait to see Spiritualized live for the first time I just hope Alive's sound will be much better than last year's...

Case-se no Maxime com o Padre Vieira

2008-06-13T15:14:00.004+01:00

Hoje (13-6-2008) às 23h no Maxime, Lisboa.

Ora ai está uma brilhante ideia para acabar com as bocas do "tia solteirona" ou "já tens namorado" e de certeza que o Sr. Padre Vieira também concede divórcios na hora sem justificações ;)

Será que o Wentworth Miller consegue alugar um jacto que ande para aí à velocidade do som pelo menos para chegar a tempo (já que o Johnny Depp, Beck e Jack White já não estão no mercado)? Só espero que ele saiba tocar guitarra eléctrica senão quero logo divórcio e não lhe perdoo os vídeos com a Mariah Carey (tirando o som e a dita, continuam a ser de cortar a respiração, o que se tem que fazer para ficar com um papel e cumprir um contrato)!

Beck - Modern Guilt to be released on July 7

2008-06-13T14:50:00.004+01:00

About 30 minutes long (in contrast with Guero and The Information, not and Ipod album in this case) with Danger Mouse production and The Great Cat Power’s collaboration on Walls, so I’m quite curious to hear this one and add it to my Beck collection ;)

Modern Guilt:

01 Orphans

02 Gamma Ray

03 Chemtrails (single above)

04 Modern Guilt

05 Youthless

06 Walls (ft. Cat Power)

07 Replica

08 Soul of a Man

09 Profanity Prayers

10 Volcano

The world is sick...

2008-06-12T16:31:00.003+01:00

On one they are making fun of those who are considered too thin...

http://movies.msn.com/movies/galleryfeature/celebrity-thin/?GT1=BUZZSUB4

And on another that they are too fat...
http://www.tmz.com/2007/12/01/to-all-the-haters-jennifer-loves-her-body/

Just because they don't starve, they don't do plastic surgeries or they don't do enough of those. Women cannot fight a few simple things in life without resorting to plastic surgeries: cellulite (every month due to our menstrual cycle we accumulate liquids and therefore cellulite, some have worse genes but eventually all of us get it and pregnancy doesn’t help), breasts that start to become less firm and eventually just hang down (this occurs faster if you breast feed your children and it’s a crime not to do so if you can as it’s the best defence system you can offer to any baby) and birth stretch marks once again due to pregnancy. This not to speak about wrinkles through all your face and eventually your body…

So women are left with two options:
- Starve, don’t have babies and in case that happens never breast feed and please no C-sections, and do intensive plastic surgeries until you are 60+ and look like Joan Collins or Michael Jackson
- Have babies, eat in a healthy manner with some moments of sin, do exercise (but forget about being maniac about it as you don’t have time or a personal trainer) and live with the fact that everybody ages and that unless you have the dope (and it’s not a once a time investment, breast implants have to be changed every 8 years or so for example) and “no plastic surgeries” is not a principle for you, you will never have you body in the same state as the body of Madonna, Demi Moore, Angelina Jolie, etc.

Let’s just put it like this stop making life a hell for people who are thin but not anorectic (they are lucky enough to have great waists, so what? Lucky them! And don’t worry it must be hell to live everyday looking at the mirror and wondering if you are too fat to use a certain dress to the Oscars as people will be so cruel about it) and please stop making fun of women who are normal for their bloody age, not all can afford to do plastic surgeries or are against them or are simply reluctant to succumb to that kind of pressure and not all have the will power to pass 40+ years starving and refusing everyday some of the biggest pleasures of the world. By the way the same goes for those that are morbid obese, it may be entirely their fault, in most of the cases, but making fun of them or being cruel will only make them eat more to fill the void…

Ah! And let’s not forget about those that brag that they eat steaks, sweets, chocolates, chips and whatsoever and they never get fat (yeah, if you only it one meal of that the whole week and you skip all others) or those who say that they are 1,70 but only weight 48 kgs (so why do you look so healthy and are not in hospital in your death bed and were is the weight of your breasts or of your hips) it gives the idea of impossible healthy measures to normal human beings… And then they wonder why so many women cannot get into grips with their bodies and men mock about diets but they are always bragging that their dream is to marry some model or other with those impossible measures (they are of course lying...). After all what are a few inches more or a few pounds less? Or some close up photos with a few computerized touches?

Then when they see they with their true colours it’s a sock “too fat”, “too slim”, “hideous makeup” or “no makeup: too normal/ugly”… Hey, they are not perfect, all of us have some defects, some much less then the normal ones yes, but still with some shortcomings...

My Dream Wedding Dress...

2008-05-30T12:10:00.002+01:00

As I will never marry I don't have to worry about this old English rhyme ;)

Married in White, you have chosen right,
Married in Blue, your love will always be true,
Married in Pearl, you will live in a whirl,
Married in Brown, you will live in town,
Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead,
Married in Yellow, ashamed of your fellow,
Married in Green, ashamed to be seen,
Married in Pink, your spirit will sink,
Married in Grey, you will go far away,
Married in Black, you will wish yourself back.

But you must agree with me it's an absolutely gorgeous gown!

Why I fell in Love...

2008-05-28T16:41:00.001+01:00

Today, not tomorrow @ Coliseu dos Recreios, Lisboa

2008-05-26T10:17:00.004+01:00

Crying, Waiting, Hoping...

Interview

Lost someone...

Satisfaction...

I'm not going to make the same mistake twice, this time I'm going to see "the greatest" Cat Power ;)

Teatro amador com uma grande autor: Lorca

2008-05-26T10:09:00.003+01:00

Tem que se apoiar iniciativas destas, a ver se o pessoal se cultiva e evolui como ser humano!

My favourite pin-up model: Bernie Dexter

2008-05-19T17:27:00.002+01:00

In my opinion the one who better impersonates what Bettie Page was... I would love to have this gal's glamour and everything else (including most of the times her excellent taste) ;)

Anti-Immigrant Violence Continues in South Africa

2008-05-19T17:03:00.002+01:00

A country which fought so much for human rights and respect for all no matter race or religion commits this atrocity. Once again I must be ashamed of my country’s history and people… I know hunger, unemployment, poverty and AIDS-toll takes all hope, but killing those who are as bad or worse can never be justified…

Never less, the country is been leaded by an incompetent and will be followed not only by an incompetent but also a rapist, hope is slimming in such a great country, with so much potential…

Camané - Sei de Um Rio (Let's make love listening to...)

2008-05-18T20:35:00.007+01:00

Who signs with this passion... Boys take the hint ;)

"I know of a river...

I know of a river

In which the only stars,

Always leaning over,

Are the lights of the city

I know of a river...

I know of a river

A river where falsehood itself

Has the flavour of truth

I know of a river

My love, give me your lips!

Give me the lips of that river

Which was born of my thirst!

But the dream continues...

And my mouth (for how long?)

Parting from yours

Repeats and remembers

"I know of a river...

I know of a river..."

My love, give me you lips!

Give me the lips of that river

Which was born of my thirst!

But the dream continues...

And my mouth (for how long?)

Parting from yours

Repeats and remembers

"I know of a river...

I know of a river..."

I know of a river...

Ah!

For how long?"

This was how he began last Friday's concert and I can say it was one of the most sensual things I've heard, with that voice, that passion, that intensity, just absolutely chilling...

You can buy it here:

http://www.fnac.pt/pt/Catalog/Detail.aspx?cIndex=1&catalog=discos&categoryN=M%C3%BAsica&category=fado&product=5099921480720

Para aqueles que não entendem como mal posso esperar por 17/09 ;)

2007-09-06T18:53:00.000+01:00

The soul of those eyes, the breathless breathing, the passion and just the whole character... Totally addicting! ;)

Conquest by The White Stripes

2007-08-29T00:26:00.000+01:00

Conquest-
He was out to make a conquest
Didn't care what harm was done
Just as long as he won
The prize

Conquest-
She was just another conquest
Didn't care whose heart was broke
Love to him was a joke
'til he looked into her eyes

And then in the strange way things happen
The roles were reversed from that day
The hunted became the huntress
The hunter became the prey

Conquest-
Now you know who made the conquest
She, with all her female guile
Led him helpless down the aisle
She had finally made a conquest

Ahh ahh ahh ahhhhh (x4)
Oooh oooooohh oohhhh

And then in the strange way things happen
The roles were reversed from that day
The hunted became the huntress
The hunter became the prey

Conquest-
Now you know who made the conquest
She, with all her female guile
Led him helpless down the aisle
She had finally made a conquest

Ahhhhh

Conquest

I absolutely love this song, the lyrics are great (I've met many such hunters, unfortunately they haven't become the prey yet) and the music... well it's Jack & Meg at their best (as there is no official video you may just listen)...

What I've been up to this year

2007-08-28T19:47:00.000+01:00

For the first time since I’ve got my new mobile phone it’s quite empty, only with the message “No more entries today” which at the same time means no more entries for the whole week… This doesn’t mean I’m on holidays (as usually those are marked as an entry), as I keep on having loads of work and some trouble in organising it all.

So surprise of surprises, I’m actually updating my blog, as at the moment I’m doing a backup of a database on which I need to work, as it’s taking a while here I’m!!!

Although since I’ve started working with my father, I haven’t taken much of any kind of holidays, I’ve been able to take some days to go and watch some concerts or actually enjoy some summer festivals.

I must say that if it hadn’t been Paulo and the Maiorais, my musical life would have been quite poor in terms of concerts for the first 5/6 months of 2007, but as they had the guts and perseverance to keep on organizing concerts of some of the best Portuguese bands that are around I can say I’ve been quite blessed ;)

The first concert, you may have seen in the blog: d3o, will be a story to tell my grandchildren, as well as some other amazing nights in Rio Maior. Even if fate won’t allow Maiorais to keep on dreaming and even if Paulo can’t organize the so dreamt about Musical Festival at our local theatre, the concerts I saw in a little bar will be treasured moments, as to everybody who knows me more a less, knows I would love to have my own club, but a club as the famous ones in London and USA, where we and about less then a thousand lucky ones are able to see bands such as The White Stripes, The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Guided By Voice, Beck, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and so on at their beginning, with excellent conditions (which isn’t always what happens at some of few clubs we have in Portugal and unfortunately they are in Lisbon, I still live about one-hour drive from them and the concerts are fatally at eleven or even midnight and a girl must work so)!!!

So the concerts I was lucky enough to watch in my home town we basically my salvation at a quite little town but unfortunately also quite dull in activities for the mind, soul, heart and thrill music gives me…

When I first heard The White Stripes were coming to Portugal I was in heaven (2 hours later in a nightmare as it wasn’t truth), then some weeks later Jesus & The Mary Chain, then LCD Soundsytem and finally Sonic Youth, unfortunately not all on the same day, so I ended up in going to 3 different Summer Festivals plus one (as Manu Chao also came to Portugal)…

The White Stripes concert suffered for being in the middle instead at the front with many idiotic Smashing Pumpkins fans who clearly don’t know how to respect others and the low sound whose soul responsibility was of who ever organized the concert… So sadly I saw the whole concert in Black & White through screens, never actually saw not even what colours Meg or Jack were wearing (although I knew it had to be black and red), while passing most of the concert hearing Spanish spoken quite loud, as well as Portuguese… So if The White Stripes ever return I will this time be at the front row if possible (although I hope somebody will bring them to the Coliseum de Lisboa)…

From the other big expectations I can say I loved Jesus & The Mary Chain (even if their guitars didn’t play as Psychocandy), LCD once again fantastic, Sonic Youth was magical and Manu Chao is Manu Chao: amazing (thought but not with out non concert related pain)…
Now I can’t wait for Patti Smith this autumn! Perhaps, one of these days I actually win the lottery and I will finally watch Bob Dylan and of course do my around the world trip ;)

I really can’t tell much more of what I’ve been up to lately as work as consumed much of my time and energy, but hopefully I will be able to make ends meet still this year and actually do some travelling even if only through Portugal ;)

Figuras Tristes na Fnac do Colombo ;) 07-07-2007

2007-07-21T16:14:00.000+01:00

Can't wait for 9th June!!! Icky Thump - The White Stripes

2007-05-04T00:16:00.000+01:00

This one just listen, the video is some kind of medley somebody made with the song...

IIIIIIIIEEEEEEE
Icky thump
Who'da thunk?
Sittin drunk on a wagon to Mexico?

Ahh well
What a chump
Well my head got a bump
When I hit it on the radio

Redhead senorita
Looking dead
Came and said
"Need a bed?"
En Espanol

I said
"Gimme a drink a water,
I'm gonna 'sing around the collar'
And I don't need a microphone."

Icky Thump
With a lump in my throat
Grabbed my coat
And I was freaking
I was ready to go!

And I swear
Besides the hair
She had: one white eye,
One black (nk) stare
Lookin' up
Lyin' there.

On the stand
Near her hand
Was a candy cane
Black rum, sugar cane
Dry ice (and) something strange

La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la

White Americans, what?
Nothing better to do?
Why don't you kick yourself out
You're an immigrant too?

Who's using who?
What should we do?
Well, you can't be a pimp
And a prostitue too.

Icky thump
Handcuffed to a bunk
Robbed blind
Looked around
And there was nobody else

Left alone
I hit myself with a stone
Went home and learned how
To clean up after myself.

North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem

2007-05-03T23:35:00.000+01:00

For those that only hear North American Scum here goes the lyrics, for me it's criticizing not only some things about America but also this stupid hatred people are feeding on... It's becoming stronger and stronger; everybody throws the first stone but forgets whether they shouldn't also throw stones to themselves...
I'm scared of another Holocaust, one of hatred against innocents just because they are American or Arab, because, yes anti-Americanism is becoming absolutely unreasonable, just as unreasonable as anti-Semitism is/was or just as unreasonable anti-Immigrants and anti-Arabs is… I have a weakness I never expect the worst from people and sometimes I’ve paid the price for being so, but I still have faith that for some not all must pay!!!
So let’s quit looking to North Americans as if they were all the enemy and unite strengths against the atrocities committed everyday by monsters who laugh in our face because we let them get away unpunished or we get them too late (and yes that includes some North Americans but not all, just as well as it includes Russians, French, Sudanese, Israeli, Palestinian, Arabs, Coloured, Whites… there will always be evil everywhere and focusing on only one will let other commit unspoken atrocities with no consequences and sometimes with our silent consent).

In the end it’s a great song no matter the political message, so enjoy!!!

Oh oh oh
oh i don't know, i don't know, oh, where to begin
we are north americans
and for those of you who still think we're from england
we're not, no.
we build our planes and our trains till we think we might die,
far from North America,
where the buildings are old and you might have lots of mimes.
aha, oh, oh.
i hate the feelin' when you're looking at me that way
cause we're north americans
but if we act all shy, it’ll make it ok
makes it go away.

oh I don't know, I don't know, oh, where to begin
when we're north american
but in the end we make the same mistakes all over again
come on north americans

we are north american scum
we’re from north america

and all the kids all the kids that want to make the scene
here in north america
when our young kids get to read it in your magazines
we don't have those
so where's the love where's the love where's the love where's the love where's the love tonight?

but there's no love man there's no love and the kids are uptight
so throw a party till the cops come in and bust it up
let's go north americans
oh you were planning it i didn't mean to interrupt
sorry
i did it once and my parents got pretty upset
freaked out in north america
but then i said the more i do it the better it gets

let's rock north america

we are north american scum
we're from north america
we are north american scum
we are north american

new york's the greatest if you get someone to pay the rent
wahoo north america
and it's the furthest you can live from the government un huh huh
some proud american christians might disagree
here in north america
but new york's the only place we're keepin them off the street
boo boo now we can't have parties like in spain where they go all night
shut down in north america
or like berlin where they go another night, alright, un huh un huh

you see i love this place that i have grown to know
alright, north america.
and yeah, I know you wouldn’t touch us with a ten-foot pole
‘cause we’re north americans.

we are north american scum
we are north americans
we are north american scum
we love north america

take me back to the states man
north american scum
where we can be
north american
where the dj
here in north american scum
don't blame the canadians
let go north america

Maybe My Big Sister

2007-04-04T18:20:00.000+01:00

Como irmã mais velha...

Mais uma excelente canção de uma das melhores bandas nacionais

All I Really Want to Do - Bob Dylan

2007-03-11T23:39:00.000Z

Dedicated to all the lies, maybe they will understand...

I ain't lookin' to compete with you,
Beat or cheat or mistreat you,
Simplify you, classify you,
Deny, defy or crucify you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you,
Frighten you or uptighten you,
Drag you down or drain you down,
Chain you down or bring you down.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I ain't lookin' to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up,
Analyze you, categorize you,
Finalize you or advertise you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to straight-face you,
Race or chase you, track or trace you,
Or disgrace you or displace you,
Or define you or confine you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to meet your kin,
Make you spin or do you in,
Or select you or dissect you,
Or inspect you or reject you.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to fake you out,
Take or shake or forsake you out,
I ain't lookin' for you to feel like me,
See like me or be like me.
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

Now that explains all...

2007-02-12T17:02:00.000Z

Miller's father is of African, Jamaican, English, German, Jewish, and Cherokee descent, and his mother is of Russian, French, Dutch, Syrian, and Lebanese descent.

Man in Black by Cash

2007-02-08T18:18:00.000Z

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,

Why you never see bright colors on my back,

And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.

Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,

Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,

I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,

But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,

Or listened to the words that Jesus said,

About the road to happiness through love and charity,

Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,

Why you never see bright colors on my back,

And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.

Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,

Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,

I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,

But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,

Or listened to the words that Jesus said,

About the road to happiness through love and charity,

Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

2007-01-27T16:07:00.000Z

2007-01-27T15:40:00.000Z

2007-01-23T11:13:00.001Z

Free counter

Mais uma organização Maiorais!!!

2007-01-20T10:12:00.000Z

Born a Lion playing John Captain in my hometown - Rio Maior, once again organized by my best friend and some friends - The Maiorais

Once again a really bad image but OK sound...

A Portuguese in the Best Albums of 2006

2007-01-14T17:12:00.000Z

Mozart: The Piano Sonatas - Maria João Pires
The same year she had to end a dream in Portugal due to lack of funding, something I can bet would have not happened in some other countries, where not only the government supports arts but the private sector is the biggest supporter. Unfortunately our companies say that they practise social responsability but not even the arts they help, nevermind the poor and most needy!

Was a again so proud: Born a Lion & Nicotine Orchestra - In a Bar - Rio Maior - 20/01/2007 - 5=2 bebidas

2007-01-13T17:36:00.000Z

Mais uma organização os Maiorais! A não perder, pelo que já tive o prazer de ouvir podem bem ser, ou já são em certos circuitos, the next big thing no panorama musical nacional! Mal posso esperar para os ver ao vivo, tenho mesmo muita curiosidade de ver como é que eles se portam ao vivo!

Today for my breakfast (not a good idea when watching the Tree of the Dead)...

2007-01-13T17:28:00.000Z

I can't get sick of this movie, for me it's Tim Burton's masterpiece, that is if you enjoy his dark side as much as I do, altough I suppose all the Tim Burton movies are masterpieces, specially those that have Johnny Depp, because everytime you hear that a new Tim Burton movie with Johnny Depp is releasing you may be certain that it won't be good but Grand!!!

Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut U Down

2007-01-13T16:56:00.001Z

I know everybody just loves this song, Johnny Cash's voice is too powerfull and if Gods were sang like this there would be much more believers... And of course Johnny Depp is just one of the most good looking guitar players in the world (the second in my ranking tyed with a few others that I can recall), if only God had made enough men as him ;p

d30 Dez 16 Inabar Rio Maior

2006-12-19T17:04:00.000Z

A imagem está muito escura tenho que a editar mas acho que de som está bom, por isso oiçam o que perderam num dos melhores concertos que a nossa aldeola já alguma vez viu (sendo que a banda fez bis nesse feito)!!!

d3ö - É já amanhã!!!

2006-12-15T16:36:00.000Z

A não perder no Inabar em Rio Maior pelas 23h, vai ser uma noite sempre a abrir e fica desde já umas fotos como promessa!!!

Even dead he still manages to make victims...

2006-12-13T13:55:00.000Z

If you click the title you will be able to read an article about Pinochet and Chile.

As much as I wanted sometimes it's impossible not to speak, my blood boiled when I heard that this monster was buried with military honours! If I was the victims and their heirs I would also be outraged, he was buried as a hero when he was responsible for the death of hundreds, the torture and destruction of thousands of lives!

Then seeing I don’t know how many bishops making the funeral to a man who deserves to rot in hell, who never regretted the crimes he committed! How can a church defend a burial of a monster and refuse to accept gay marriages, the use of contraceptives, baptize children from divorced couples, marry divorced couples and so much other nonsense but accept that who has committed hideous crimes may be buried as a good catholic… How can they possibly try to convince to lay a foot at mass with so much hypocrisy?

Yet Justice Wasn't Made!!!

2006-12-11T11:41:00.000Z

I'M SOOOOOOO STUPID!!!!!!

2006-12-04T14:29:00.000Z

Today I did for the first time something I've never done before: I didn't buy a ticket for a concert and waited until the last day to do so, so sure I was it wouldn't sell out. Unfortunately it has and that may mean I've lost one of the best concerts of the year.

But when about one year and some weeks ago I went and see Devendra and he didn't sell out, how in earth was I to guess that a nearly as perfect stanger to Portuguese was going to sell out...

Never again, I suppose that I soon as Nine Inch Nails startes to sell I'll have to run to buy a ticket...

Perhaps one of the best concerts of the year and I'm going to miss it and on top of all I may be forcing someone to go alone...

Think I'm In Love - Beck

2006-11-23T16:24:00.000Z

One of my favourite songs of Beck's new album and it's really one of the best albums of the year!!!

"I really think I better get a hold of myself
Don't wanna let the night get ahead of myself
Whisperin' her love through a smoke ring smile
She doesn't know what happens when she's around

I think I'm in love
But it makes me kinda nervous to say so
I think I'm in love
But it makes me kinda nervous to say so

Doodododododooodoo

Probably lay my head on a wooden floor
Tell her I was tired from working the store
Counting all the cash from an old shoebox
Saving up to buy her something she wants

I think I'm in love
But it makes me kinda nervous to say so
I think I'm in love
But it makes me kinda nervous to say so

What if it's wrong?
What if it's wrong
To pray in vain?
What does it mean
To fake your death?
To wake up tainted?

Take a little picture in a photobooth
Keep it in a locket and I think of you
Both of our pictures, face to face
Take off your necklace and throw it away

I think I'm in love
But it makes me kinda nervous to say so
I think I'm in love
But it makes me kinda nervous to say so

Really think I better get a hold of myself
Don't wanna let the night get ahead of myself
Whisperin' her love through a smoke ring smile
She doesn't know what happens when she's around

I think I'm in love
Think I'm in love
Think I'm in love
Think I'm in love
Think I'm in love
Think I'm in love
Think I'm in love
Think I'm in love"

Teddy Bears + Iggy Pop - Punkrocker

2006-10-27T17:22:00.000+01:00

Sounds much better than another punkrocker playing out there although that one also has some good lyrics...

Mr. Iggy Pop, when he is going to gather with his old band, it seems that he cannot stop ;) I haven't heard the rest of the album, so I don't know if it's so interesting as this song...

See me drivin down the street,
I'm bored with looking good.
I got both hands off the wheel,
The cops are coming.
I'm listening to the music with no fear,
You can hear it too if your sincere...

Coz I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Well I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Coz I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Well I'm a punk rocker yes I am.

I see you stagger in the street,
And you cant stay on your feet.
And your faking in your sleep,
You wish that you were deep.
You can't hear me laughing to myself,
If you could you would be someone else.

Coz I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Well I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Coz I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Well I'm a punk rocker yes I am.

See me die on bleaker street,
I'm bored with being god,
See me sneering in my car,
I'm driving to my star.
I'm listening to the music with no fear,
You can hear it too if your sincere...

Coz I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Well I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Coz I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Well I'm a punk rocker yes I am.

Coz I'm a punk rocker yes I am.
Well I'm a punk rocker yes I am.

If you click the title you can go to their myspace page and hear the song

One tiny quote that explains Portugal's situation and society ;)

2006-10-27T15:33:00.000+01:00

"Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up."
Thomas Nagel

In Angola 2

2006-10-20T10:52:00.000+01:00

In Angola

2006-10-20T10:51:00.000+01:00

Rock Puro e Duro

2006-10-17T19:06:00.000+01:00

Desisisti de tentar colocar o video por isso cliquem no título e vejam o que se chama de rock n' roll a sério ;)

Depois de quase 7 anos depois da primeira vez que olhei pelo vidro do Zé dos Bois finalmente passei para o outro lado e foi fabuloso, apesar do calor!

Por um ambiente intimista daqueles, mesmo em frente da banda a ouvir aquela bateria e guitarras ;) Venha daí mais e espero ficar surda só depois de morrer ;)

2006-10-06T16:10:00.000+01:00

Early Halloween ;)

2006-10-06T16:08:00.000+01:00

"A excisão, como o cinto de castidade, é o medo que o homem tem da mulher" (Entrevista a Khady Koita, activista)

2006-09-28T18:34:00.000+01:00

"Três milhões de meninas são excisadas a cada ano. Na chamada África Negra, mas também na Indonésia, no Egipto e até na Europa. Há entre 130 e 150 milhões de mulheres no mundo a quem o clitóris foi cortado e esta senegalesa muçulmana a viver na Bélgica é uma delas. Em Lisboa para promover o seu livro e participar num seminário, fala deste crime e de como combatê-lo.Conta no seu livro como foi excisada, aos sete anos, "de surpresa": o clitóris "serrado" a sangue frio com uma lâmina velha enquanto três mulheres a seguravam, a dor, o sangue, o silêncio dos adultos.

Quando é que alguém lhe explicou o que tinha acontecido e porquê?

Nunca. Ninguém me explicou porque, suponho, quem faz isso também não sabe porque o faz. E eu também não fiz perguntas. Mas quando começamos a investigar, quando se lê sobre isso e se fala com os "velhos", temos várias respostas: faz-se para que a rapariga possa chegar virgem ao casamento, para que a mulher seja fiel ao marido; outros dizem que é preciso tirar "aquilo" porque se o marido lhe tocar morre, ou então é o bebé ao nascer que pode morrer... A maioria dir-lhe-á que é feito para agradar ao marido. Em nome da honra e dignidade do homem. Para que a mulher não seja demasiado gulosa por sexo...

A origem da prática está identificada? É costume associá-la ao islamismo e a África.

Sabe-se que já no tempo dos faraós se fazia a infibulação, que é a forma de excisão mais brutal, em que se corta tudo e se cose a vagina à mulher - foram encontradas múmias assim. Aliás no Egipto, ainda hoje, 97% das mulheres são excisadas. Em África faz-se no Iémen, no Djbuti, na Eritreia, na Somália. Mas faz-se também na Indonésia e no Curdistão iraquiano - não é uma prática só africana. E não é feita só pelos muçulmanos. Também os cristãos e os animistas a praticam. Não há uma religião específica dos que a fazem nem textos religiosos - não está no Corão nem na Bíblia - a preconizá-la. Mas como as mulheres de um modo geral não sabiam ler, disseram- -lhes que era um preceito religioso, e elas acreditaram que tinha de ser feito. Sobretudo porque foram educadas na ideia de que se não fossem excisadas não casavam, e se não casassem, não existiam. Por isso, a luta contra a excisão passa também por alfabetizar as mulheres. Desde que possam ler e escrever, começam a reflectir.

Mas se alguém acredita num deus que teria feito tudo o que existe, e portanto as mulheres tal como nascem, como defender que teria criado todas as mulheres "com defeito"?

Claro: se Deus fez as mulheres com clitóris, é porque acha que faz falta. É por isso que digo aos homens: "São vocês que instigam isto; é uma ideia vossa". É como o cinto de castidade que foi inventado na Europa, como quando os médicos europeus queimavam o clitóris das raparigas para, supostamente, lhes curar a histeria. O propósito é o mesmo: controlar a sexualidade da mulher. Vem do medo que os homens têm das mulheres .

Quando é que começou a questionar-se sobre isso?

Já adulta. Bastante tempo depois de ir viver para França.

Escreve que as relações sexuais eram penosas e dolorosas com o seu primeiro marido. É possível ter prazer sendo excisada?

Em todo o lado - talvez à excepção da Europa actual - espera-se que o homem tenha prazer no sexo, mas a mulher não, e menos ainda quando casada contra vontade, como no meu caso. Eu nem sequer participava no acto. Quanto à dor, depende da forma como se foi excisada. Umas mulheres têm-na, outras não. Mas mesmo sem clitóris é possível ter prazer sexual - depende do parceiro. E hoje em dia há médicos que reconstroem o clitóris. Resulta em alguns casos.

Fala também de problemas no parto devido à mutilação.

Aquela zona está cicatrizada, perdeu a elasticidade, o que implica que as mulheres fiquem todas rasgadas e tenham dores horríveis. Mas nos primeiros partos eu não sabia que isso se devia à excisão, ninguém me disse "você foi mutilada e vai ter este e aquele problema". Nenhum dos médicos que me seguiu mencionou sequer o assunto. Isto em França! Tinha 15 anos quando dei à luz pela primeira vez e a médica que me viu não me fez uma única observação sobre a cicatriz que viu no lugar do clitóris. Só depois da morte de três meninas, em França, nos anos 80, é que isso começou a mudar. A mais mediatizada foi a de uma bebé do Mali, de três meses, em 1982. Na sequência disso começou a haver formação nessa área entre os médicos e o pessoal da assistência social.

Três das suas filhas foram excisadas em França, nos anos setenta, por uma amiga sua, que nem sequer lhe pediu permissão. Mas escreve que se ela tivesse perguntado, teria assentido...

Nessa época, o meu espírito não estava preparado para criticar, ou mesmo para questionar a prática. Nunca me tinha perguntado se estava bem ou mal. Era normal e era preciso fazê-lo. Foi muito mais tarde, quando comecei a envolver-me, como intérprete, na luta contra a violência sobre as mulheres que conheci, nos hospitais, uma associação que combate a excisão e da qual fazem parte muitas médicas, que me explicaram as consequências nefastas da excisão. Como vê, hoje, a atitude dos médicos que se calaram?É o relativismo cultural, aquela ideia "É a cultura deles, não temos nada a ver com isso". Mas há cultura e cultura! A mutilação sexual feminina tem de ser vista no contexto dos direitos humanos. E aí não há cores nem culturas. Não se pode fazer discriminação em termos de direitos humanos, dizer que são só para alguns. Mas são também as comunidades imigrantes que dizem: "vivemos aqui mas não queremos ser como vocês, não queremos adoptar os vossos valores". E aí há um conflito, como no caso da interdição do véu muçulmano nas escolas públicas francesas. Eu sou muçulmana e não uso véu. No meu país não se usa. E acho que se deve respeitar o direito da escola. Se são essas as regras da escola laica, se eu a frequento devo respeitá-las. Tal como, se estou num país, tenho de respeitar os seus valores, adaptar-me. Claro que há conflitos. Mas penso que nos países em que os imigrantes não vivem todos ao molho, em gueto, as coisas funcionam melhor.

Que devem os países europeus fazer?

Não é essencial fazer leis específicas contra a excisão: creio que em nenhum lugar da Europa é permitido mutilar qualquer parte do corpo. O que é preciso é ter atenção a essa realidade. Por exemplo, em França, todas as crianças dos zero aos seis anos são examinadas, incluindo o sexo, nas consultas pediátricas, e tudo é anotado na ficha respectiva. E explica-se à família tudo o que há a explicar sobre a excisão em termos de saúde, sublinhando que é uma prática interdita, ilegal, e que se a criança aparecer excisada o médico será obrigado a comunicar o facto ao ministério público. Em França há mais de 30 processos por esse motivo. E na Suécia houve um processo contra um pai que fez excisar a filha de 13 anos na Somália. "

Send a Blue Helmet to Darfur

2006-09-15T17:13:00.000+01:00

Just click on the post's title!!! Make our generation worthwhile to remember, act now!!! As an African I cannot just sit down and watch innocent people being killed nor allow Sudan's government to finish it's hedious job!!!

17 of September - Use a Blue Hat for Darfur

2006-09-15T17:06:00.000+01:00

Just click the post's title to put your own blue helmet!

Gideon - My Morning Jacket

2006-09-13T15:03:00.000+01:00

Gideon.

What have you told us at all?

Make a sound, come down off the wall.

Religion, should appeal to the hearts of the young.

Who are you? what have you become?

You animal.

Come on.

What does this remind you of?

Truly.

Truly we have become.

Hated and feared for something we don't want.

Listen.

Most of us believe that this is wrong.

You animal.

Come on.

What does this remind you of?

Animal.

Come on.

What does this remind you of?

Animal.

Come on

From Cabo Verde ;)

2006-09-12T17:08:00.000+01:00

2006-09-01T09:42:00.000+01:00

"Para que não restem quaisquer dúvidas e perante algumas críticas que recebemos, a responsabilidade do título de capa "Abominável Universidade Nova" (que remete para o artigo no interior com o título "Admirável Universidade Nova", este sim assinado por Maria de Fátima Bonifácio) é inteiramente minha, como director da Atlântico.Como me parecia óbvio, o adjectivo "abominável" deveria ser lido com ironia, não pretendendo pôr de modo algum em causa a importância da Universidade enquanto instituição e dos professores universitários em geral, não se referindo também a qualquer universidade em especial. Muito obrigado."

in
http://revista-atlantico.blogspot.com/

Depois de um título destes e depois de ler este post do editor de tão prezada revista (também sei ser irónica meu senhor), decidi dispender 4 euros para a comprar, ler o dito artigo e poder criticar este senhor pela escolha do título. Pois se o senhor editor afirma que o título não se refere a nenhuma Universidade em especial, então É O EDITOR MAIS IGNORANTE a nível nacional!!! Eu sou a primeira a criticar o ensino nacional, a primeira a criticar as universidades em geral, não só as nacionais, mas também as internacionais que na maioria dos casos estão alienadas do mundo de trabalho, estão obcecadas com a teoria e esquecem-se de que a realidade é demasiado complexa para encaixar na perfeição nos pressupostos teóricos. Em consequência os alunos que completam estudos universitários entram no mercado de trabalho sem conhecimentos práticos, sem capacidade de trabalharem imediatamente nas funções para que supostamente foram formados e no país, infelizmente, muitos dos empregadores acham que o facto de se ter formação superior significa que já sabem fazer tudo, na minha área, por exemplo, gerir uma empresa ou elaborar um projecto de investimento para uma candidatura a quaisquer fundos comunitários ou um empréstimo bancário. Muitas das vezes os universitários são puramente lançados aos "tubarões", sem a adequada formação prática que, uma vez que não foi administrada pelas universidades, a empresa deveria fornecer.

Sim o sistema está incorrecto e merece estas e muitas outras críticas. Mas se o artigo não se refere a nenhuma universidade em particular, então este SENHOR EDITOR É DO MAIS IGNORANTE POSSÍVEL E DO MAIS INCOMPETENTE OU TEM UMA AGENDA POR DETRÁS, pois para sua informação existe uma universidade em Portugal que por acaso se chama Universidade Nova de Lisboa, universidade que tive o prazer de frequentar e que pelo menos no curso de Gestão que frequentei é a melhor do país, é certo com as limitações nacionais, mas a Faculdade de Economia da Universidade Nova tem feito esforços contínuos de investimento em investigação na área (tendo alguns dos seus paper vencido prémios internacionais), de recrutamento de professores competentes nas suas áreas de especialização e muitos com experiência profissional a nível empresarial, ou seja não são apenas académicos. É certo que nem todos primam pela excelência mas a concorrência internacional por professores é extrema e o país em si um pouco limitado. Apesar disso tive alguns professores excelentes e penso que extremamente competentes, alguns que me marcaram para a vida, em termos profissionais.

O certo é que quem vir esta revista nas bancas e devido ao seu preço, 4 euros, simplesmente ficara pelo título da capa e pensará imediatamente na Universidade Nova de Lisboa (muitas vezes apenas chamada de Universidade Nova) e pensará que a Universidade Nova de Lisboa está a formar ignorantes, ficando de fora todas as outras universidades nacionais. Ora isto é difamação pura e simples, é uma ofensa aos meus pais que fizeram imensos sacrifícios para que eu e a minhas irmãs pudessem tirar cursos superiores (sendo que a minha irmã mais nova frequenta igualmente a Universidade Nova) e é uma ofensa aos estudantes da Nova e aos que se formaram na Nova. Como em tudo esta Universidade formou alguns ignorantes, mas talvez não tenha formado um tão ignorante como universidade que formou o editor desta revista, que não compreendeu algo do mais básico em termos de marketing, que um título daqueles não remete às universidades em geral, mas a uma universidade em especial, que poderá ter ficado com a sua imagem prejudicada pela irresponsabilidade e incompetência dum pseudo intelectual. A Universidade Nova, não é uma Católica que pode dispender as quantidades que quiser em marketing para atrair os melhores alunos do país, é uma universidade pública, que apesar de o ser tem tentado oferecer as melhores condições aos seus alunos e pelo menos nas faculdades de Economia, Direito, ISEGI e FCT tem o conseguido, que não vai poder gastar rios de dinheiro para limpar a sua imagem devido à incompetência de um editor de uma revista para poder salvaguardar não só os alunos que agora a frequentam como os que se formaram na instituição e para não perder a capacidade de atrair os melhores alunos do país.

A questão será, será que o senhor editor é apenas ignorante e incompetente ou que tem uma agenda dissimulada, porque isto é um assunto que move vários interesses e muito dinheiro sobretudo para certas instituições privadas.

Late hours in the office so I can go to Paredes de Coura's Festival

2006-08-09T18:39:00.000+01:00

So here I'm listening to this on my Ipod and it's just absolutely contagious, in the good sense ;)

Apple Blossom

hey little apple blossom
what seems to be the problem
all the ones you tell your troubles to
they don't really care for you

come and tell me what you're thinking
cause just when the boat is sinking
a little light is blinking
and I will come and rescue you

lots of girls walk around in tears
but that's not for you
you've been looking all around for years
for someone to tell your troubles to

come and sit with me and talk awhile
let me see your pretty little smile
put your troubles in a little pile
and I will sort them out for you
I'll fall in love with you
I think I'll marry you

The Strokes - Lisboa Soundz - 22/07/2006

2006-07-30T20:53:00.000+01:00