Snow...

Last Sunday it snowed in my hometown! For those of you who are saying "So what, it's Winter, normally it snows!" True but the last time it snowed in Rio Maior was about 20 years ago and it only lasted a couple of hours. With this intensity it has been more than 50 years ago and if you take into account that to see some snow Portuguese have to go to our highest mountain (called Serra da Estrela) or up north near our frontier with Spain, you can start to understand why so many Portuguese acted as little kids and went out to the streets in their PJ's and play with the first flocks or phone nearly everyone they knew (something I'm sure our telecommunications companies thanked a lot as I imagine Sunday mornings must be slow and uninteresting for the point of view of profits ;)

So here goes some photos...

Hamas

Today I was surprised at breakfast that it seemed Hamas was going to gain the elections in Palestina, which is just ore of the most frightening news I have heard lately. I still remember that when the first Gulf War started I was scared that the 3 World War could start, and this fear still lived with me for a while.

Eventually I started to think that the world had learnt it's less and would not allow that easily that a conflict of that scale would occur. Yes, there were always going to be regional conflicts, always atrocities happening with the world too coward, cynic and selfish to intervene and has much as I hate this attitude, I became less scared of a 3 World War, mainly because most wars and atrocities were being started/committed by unscrupulous, greedy people who manipulate desperate people and brainwash them so they became radicals willing to die and kill innocent people in name of a God or cause (where the hatred for USA is so useful to gain power and money)...

But now we have reached the unthinkable: terrorists reaching power, democratically elected! That was the worst thing that could happen for a free Palestine and peace in that region, because terrorist acts can never be justifiable... I shiver at the idea of were radicalism has reached and at may be expecting for us in a near future...

Don't get up!

So here I'm after a very bad day. I had a flat tire for the second time in less than 1 year, but this time I wasn't able to change it, as mechanics think women have men's physical strength ;) This creates a huge problem because most men can't resist the opportunity to make fun and show off! Except if you are drop dead gorgeous, and then they do really lame and pathetic figures in hope of gaining much more than a simple thanks! For those who know me, know that I prefer to be stuck or to pay than to have to stand hearing a man saying ''It had to be a women" or "Women can't do anything"!

In the end it was a man who helped me and changed the tire, and old friend of the family, but I had to wait for 1 hour and a quarter in my car. And just to think that what happened was the fault of a man who just couldn't wait to enter the parking lot although he could see I was doing the maneuver and I was nearly ending it!

Ipod

Talking about Ipods, it seems that Apple is investigating a new Ipod that will be able to record AM/FM stations, if they will allow to set the time to start to record and stop it then I think I'll wait a little bit longer to buy a Ipod, because being able to do podcasting that easily of my favorite radio program so I can hear them at any time of the day is fantastic!

Blind / Deaf

On Sunday while I was driving I was also remembering the conversation I just had about getting blind, I was told that blind can still hear those who they love! I said yes and as long as I could learn Braille and be able to still read, because I couldn't imagine living without ever be able to read again.

But has I was hearing The Good Fellows I remembered an editorial that I had read a few weeks before, about musicians who where deaf or becoming dead and how now Ipods posed new threats to normal people has them mean much more hours of hearing music with headphones and has they reach a volume higher than recommended, there is the danger that people can become deaf. The editorial was warning it's readers to be careful has the idea of having a new album on your hands and only be able to appreciate its design is a frightening thought...

I can't agree more, the thought that was crossing my mind as I was hearing the Guerolito's songs was that becoming deaf would be worse for me than becoming blind. I would never be able to see the world, its beauty, the people I love most, and their smiles and has much as that would hurt, I still could feel... But not being able to hear the voices of those I love most, not being able to listen to music, seems to horrible because although you can still see the physical reactions of those you love most or feel the vibrations of music it is never the same, at least music would lose most of it's feeling, like the one we feel when we hear the sound of a electric guitar or a violin or one of those voices/lyrics that reaches deeply our soul!

Guerolito

Last Sunday I was hearing my favorite radio program: "The good fellows" the only ones who have said that Guero is a good album, that Beck isn't completely lost has some critics have been writing (basically those who first said Guero was Odelay 2 without even hearing the album and then where surprised that it wasn't so and just concluded that it meant he had lost himself, perhaps because he didn't do what they're expecting a commercial album, although Odelay has never been a commercial album).

In the end what may be the truth is that they can't understand why a musician who has the opportunity to make easy money doesn't sell himself and does exactly what he likes music with passion, with soul, not caring about what others say about his music . For me albums of true musicians (that is, those who don't sell themselves) are gifts for the world to express and share their own inner worlds. Beck has always been one of these musicians and that seems to bother some people...

This all to say I had read just a week before a bad review for Guerolito and The Good Fellows passed lots of songs of this album of remixes (saying they had been hearing this album the whole week) and they seemed rather interesting not bad has the review stated.

Changes...

Life has some weird twists, I can’t say much more but for now who ever wonders why I may be more absent than usual, it’s just that from next week onwards I’ll be doing two jobs ;) As soon as I get out of my job I’ll have to give a hand to my father everyday, so I kind of think that by every Friday I’ll be kaput ;) At least for a month

On the bright side I’ll have to be more times with a computer that has access to internet instead of only intranet which means no more excuses about having to switch on my laptop and going downstairs to the office and do so ;) So maybe in the end I won’t be as absent as it may seem…

Now I have to be off for my chauffer job of every Friday and fetch one of my sisters ;)

Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice

One of the biggest love stories I've ever read, unfortunately as love and life are never quite so...

Mr. Darcy has been changed from the BBC series to an actor with blue eyes, not those amazing brown eyes which made all women fall in love with the character... And Lizzie is no longer one who has a hidden beauty, a beauty that starts slowly to reveal itself to Mr. Darcy as he begins to fall in love with her, as love should be, those we love are always beautifull not because they are physically perfect but because their inner beauty outshines all and they became more beautifull the more you love them...

But only a blind man or woman can say that this actress has a hidden beauty, it's everything but hidden and that takes a lot of the magic Jane Austen created...

Even though I intend to see the movie, so I can take my conclusions based on other than the trailer of the movie ;)

Best of 2005 - Just a few ideas

Ok, a little bit late I admit, but these last months haven’t been easy and sometimes writing is put behind and forgotten...

My list doesn’t have an order, it’s kind of unfair to say this one was better than the other when the music stiles can’t even be compared most of the times!

So here goes my favorite CD’s of the year (although there has been a lot I haven’t heard still):

Devendra Banhart – Cripple Crow, happy, beautiful, soul touching, sad, just absolutely beautiful!

Beck: Guero – A very misunderstood disc in my opinion, yes it is too long, yes it could have come in two CD’s but we are in a time when the few who actually by CD’s, as soon as they unwrap them they rip them to their computer and then straight head to their mp3 players. That is were small tiny little countries as Portugal, were most people can’t afford a computer, nevermind a mp3 player, are in disadvantage, specially when most of our population doesn’t even know who Beck is! And after all, after having his album freely available in the internet, weeks before it’s release, Beck tried to give a gift to his fans. I enjoy a lot of Guero’s songs, it allows us another perspective in his genius, a look to his roots and his influences, specially the latino ones. In the end, people just said it was Odelay 2, without even listening to it, and it’s far from Odelay 2, it’s more of all Beck’s album number 2 and much more. But who cares what critics say? They spoke so badly of Sea Change and it was an amazing album!

White Stripes: Get Behind me satan – It’s White Stripes and oh boy that guitar ;)

Animal Collective : Feels (I biggest regret of 2005 in terms of concerts)

Ryan Adams: Love is Hell – Not a 2005 but the best gift I received in 2005




Concerts of the year (those that I actually went to):

Devendra Banhart at Aula Magna, Lisbon – My best concert of the year

LCD Soundsystem at Sudoeste, Portugal

Josh Rouse at Sudoeste, Portugal

Wraygunn where ever I saw them, but the last time was really amazing, because I have never been so close to a band ;)

Clã at Rio Maior, Portugal (a pity my hometown doesn’t know good music)

Black Car, Yellow Car – Not a concert, but a DJ set and I can say sincerely it was the best I went to this year (and it wasn’t only because it was the only DJ set I remember going to this year ;)


Franz Ferdinand at Lisbon Soundz – End of tour but I had been waiting 1 year for them as I wasn’t lucky enough to see them in 2004 (being in Copenhagen made it impossible)

Gomo at Clinic – Just a pity it was so short



Best Concert of 2005 that I was not there (at least from what I heard):

Beck at Ilha do Ermal, Portugal – To the organization thanks a lot for putting him on a Sunday night after a very famous hip-hop Portuguese group who has mainly fans of 14 years old or less (no wonder if you hear their music), how don’t have enough good taste to appreciate something really meaningful and great, and on top of all about 4 to 5 hours by car from Lisbon where I had to work the following day! Thanks to Antena3, the best radio in the world, that transmitted the concert live for everybody! It must have been a hell of a great concert as one of the radio guys said he didn’t appreciate Beck and that the concert would not be a great deal (that was before the concert). But when he saw, what I only heard, Beck trying to play songs from his new album and suddenly realizing that hardly anybody from his audience knew who he was, just turned the whole concert, playing his most well known songs, to warm up the crowd, having a hell of a presence on stage, making his audience surrender to him and his music… Yet another great concert by Beck! I only hope his next visit will be to Coliseu dos Recreios, Lisbon, so he can remember how much his Portuguese fans love him!



Best DVD of 2005:

Blues by Martin Scorcesse, specially the first episode until now – I’m actually seeing the documentaries on national TV on Thursdays nights (that’s why I look like a zombie every Friday)



Best Movies of 2005 (a disaster as I only remember seeing two films this year):

Finding Neverland (I think it was only released in Portugal in the begging of 2005)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Corpse Bride – I still haven’t seen it but I now it is the best animated movie of 2005 and after my choices above it’s easy to see Johnny Depp his my favorite actor and Tim Burton one of my favorite directors


Some have been left behind, some haven’t been heard or seen still, some because I was unable, some because dicks speak louder than passion for music, and some because cash and time are too little for so much ;)

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...

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...

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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…

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you, dear Daddy!
Happy birthday to you!

It's just a pity that for the first time in my life you are so far from us on this day! I know you are doing it because you love and care about us, so good luck and I love you a lot!

Long time...

Well once again no news for so long, however I have a good reason for it. My Daddy has gone to Angola for about a week and took my laptop. So here am I in a library in the middle of a garden in Santarém writing some lines.

Lately I’ve been to 2 concerts: Devendra Banhart and Sigur Ros. So I still have to drop some lines about these amazing concerts. For those who have missed them, you can’t imagine what you lost, but here goes a suggestion for tonight: Rodrigo Leão in Aula Magna. I would love to be one of the lucky ones, but I’ve got Spanish classes and besides that, 2 concerts in a month are already too much for my parents (you know the saving speech).

This Sunday I’m going to have a get together with friends from University so expect some photos to lighten up this blog.

Here goes some pics from my third favorite cat, if we don’t consider tigers cats (Ginja and Mitsy will be always above this one):

Thanks to my best childhood friend for the laugh!

Santa Maria da Feira - Devendra Banhart

Pensando cada dia, cada hora
Pensando en ti
Caminando, mi sesta llena de moras
Son para ti
Temprano por la tarde y por la noche
Sueño de ti

Lalalala

Comiendo pera
En santa maria de la feira
Que placer ir
La gente buena
Solo gozan nunca hay pena
Pa' que sufrir
Jugando en el mar, en la arena
Viviendo haci

Lalalala

Ventana blanca
Hay que venga la mañana
Hay que venga otra vez
Esperando
Asi es como yo paso mi tiempo
Esperando a Inaniel
Y rezando por su calor, por su aliento
Sobre mi piel

Te digo todo aqui va bien
Conmigo de no dormir
Amigo, te lo suplico, te lo pido
Que me ayudes a mi, a mi

Buscando
Con mi ancla en la marea
Nadando en ti
Yo voy andando
Oyeme, te estoy llamando
Te amo a ti

Por el valle me encontré un rio escondido
Me recuerdo, hacía calor pero tenia frio
Me iba a morir

Bianca
Ay Paloma, ay Angelina
Por fin te vi
Por fin te vi
Por fin te vi

The Other Side of the Coin - ©2005, Ekin Caglar

The Other Side of the Coin - ©2005, Ekin Caglar

I must warn you it's rather shocking... For how much longer will this have to go on, how much pain can half of humanity keep on enduring... Unfortunately I've already seen a toddler with no hope in her eyes, no smile on her lips after seeing her mother and father dying and only having in the whole world her gradma already in her bed also waiting to die... A 2 year old child with no hope in her eyes, an image that cuts one's heart into pieces...

The Complete List | TIME Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels

Better saying the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present... Some I have never had the chance to read, some have lingered deep inside of me and I hope I will still live long enough to read many more that will mean so much and that can actually change you and touch you deeply...

Hope doesn't cease to exist and it slowly destroys...

EVERYBODY'S GOTTA LEARN SOMETIME
Change your heart, look around you
Change your heart, it will astound you
I need your loving like the sunshine

And everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime

Change your heart, look around you
Change your heart, it will astound you
I need your loving like the sunshine

And everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime
Everybody's gotta learn sometime


Nothin’ Hurts
Nothing hurts you like the pain
From someone you love

There ain't nothing you can gain
To prepare you enough
Come on baby stop your crying


I Didn't Mean to Hurt You
I love you
Like I love the sunrise in the morning
I miss you
Like I miss the water when I'm burning
I didn't mean to hurt you, dear
The words just came out wrong
Now I'm broken down and lonely
And I'm so cold at night...

Ghost World

This is a movie I saw by chance Saturday night while I was updating my father’s database (ya, I missed some images of the movie as it’s impossible to write on your laptop and see a movie at the same time), but at least I heard all the movie and I’m pretty sure I saw a lot of it.

Sometimes you are lucky to see these fantastic movies that you have never heard about, that haven’t even reached Portugal’s independent circuit and this was one of those movies. So this fluke was one of those that will stay in my memory for a while. It’s really a pity most people don’t have the opportunity to see movies that unlike most in the mainstream, actually make you think and are amaze you at how much a character may touch so of you inner thoughts and feelings! This is one of those movies and I highly recommend it, even if most of you have passed already you difficult 18’s, some have decided to start to work and some study and are now starting to work, I really don’t know when does a person really begin to enter his/her young adult life, I suppose it all has to do with how soon you have to face some problems and how soon life disappoints you and your dreams of changing the world start to be slowly crushed…

Anyway it has a great blues song, I know a lot of people will classify it as vintage jazz, but I think it has a blue’s soul and after all most people confuse the two types, although I find them different and I really prefer blues and rock n’ roll.

This one is the best one in the movie:

Devil Got My Woman (Skip James)


Ah! It has a young Scarlet Johanssen and an actor that is gradually going up in my great actor’s list ;)

Sorry about the inactivity

I've been helping my father and I've been uptating a database for him, so I'm pretty busy on my spare time and I really want to finish it. Anyway maybe, I will get some time tomorrow... Specially as I need to send some emails, otherwise people will start thinking I'm negleting them...

Keeping in touch

This little wonder has brought some happiness to my mother, she was able to speak with one of her best and dearest friends in South Africa at a very low cost. But then seeing her eyes sparkling and her smile after more than an hour at a microfone speaking with her friend is worth whatever cost! However the best part is that calling Europe, including Portugal, and the USA to landlines is free and that is amazing for all the Portuguese all around the world who are homesick!

Hora de embarque 21h30 - 20/10/2005

In other words, time of lifting sails ;)

From what I've heard and read these guys seem pretty well centered in a pretty odd way ;) Introducing caos into order seems always a fantastic way of composing and playing music! Anyway the word is that their new album is a must, so if you are curious it's "Feels" and these guys

call themselves Animal Collective (http://www.paw-tracks.com/artists.htm)

Well the sailing bit is because they are going to play in Lisbon in a rather original place, at least, from the point of view of Portugal's reality: they are going to play in one of the ferries that cross Lisbon's river... Unfortunately, the problem of now living once again in my hometown is that going to Lisbon on a weekday and returning means about 15 or more euros just in gas and highway fares, that adding to the fact that my parents will already freak out when they get to know that I'm going to 2 concerts next month in Lisbon on a weekday...

I wished that at least all the sacrifice was well worth it, but I'm waisting loads of money on gas just on trips from my hometown to Santarém and then on top of all I've to eat in coffees every lunch to be a sports and as normally the kitchen where I'm working is being used for training and is so small with no space to eat... So my sacrifice is concerts, CD's and so many other things and all for a job I hate...

The funny thing of having lunch with co-workers is that they all say they hate their jobs, because they are doing tedious work or there is too much pressure to sell at any cost plus tedious work and I've had already a vice-manager of one of the bank branches I worked at saying that I should keep my job until I find something better because the Portuguese economy sucks and will suck in the next years and it will became worse...

So if anybody knows of a dream job in marketing, strategy, please do call me, otherwise I'll have to kill myself ;)