Do it Yourself New Year's Eve (espíritu bricomanía)

It's time to introduce Pan Dudek (Mr. Hoopoe) to you and, after having read his wise ideas, alternative plans for tonight will emerge and multiply. There's no need to depend on money and dinners or discos, full of people. "Build yourself a night, that allows you to feel free and away from conventions", says Dr. Dudek. "we should give ourselves the chance to feel free, every moment, and more on so-called-special-occasions", states Dudek.

1- A healthy option is that of doing playback of any old song (80es songs are the best ones, on this purpose) and dance. Dr. Dudek reccommends dancing wearing white socks and no shoes. Movements must be free.

2- Try to get rid of all negative energies, accumulated throughout 2005, by doing exercise. This option is compatible with that one of doing playback (but in that case choose songs such as "hot stuff" by Donna Summer or "I will survive" by Gloria Gaynor"...or any hymn by YMCA...they simply work better)

3- Reading a dictionary while listening to relaxing music. Any dictionary will work. Latin or Polish ones are two good options. Those having a dictionary of Catalan Language have another good option. Dictionary option helps to widen the mind and build interesting links observing ethimology. In some cases, we can come across hilarious and amazing words that might change something within our minds.

4- Sleep and dream. Another healthy option. Ah!...welcoming the new year full of energy and health.

5- You can also watch some old movie on TV/VHS/BETA (keep the memory of Betamax videocassettes alive!!!!)/DVD...or some old collection of movies or any strange stuff recorded from tv (such as bRiCoMaNíA, Vaya Semanita, Videoclips from the 80es, the adventures of Steve Irwin & family and crocodiles or the adventures of Stéphane Peyron around the world).

6- Pray for Betamax, chicken and other birds menaced by birdflu, all people and nations suffering, endangered species, the souls of those who passed away, Heidi, Marco, Candy Candy and other old anime tragedy heroes, all almost-forgotten songs, Maxwell Smart, radiocassettes, Vinyl LPs from the 60es and 70es, pray for the healing of all kind of wounds...and all susceptible-to-be-prayed-for-things. Patience required.

Taking these ideas, some other analogue magical-do-it-yourself formulae might be discovered/created. It's all up to you. Have a nice New Year's Eve..and may 2006 bring many positive things to you all. Möge die Macht mit dir sein!!!

1966

Inner revival... When i started loving music, that's many years ago, what i used to listen, was mainly music from the 60es and 70es. I've never forgotten such songs and singers...but they haven't been in a first place in the list of my musical preferences for quite a long time. And suddenly, i found myself listening to Mina. I just knew and liked a song by her "Un anno d'amore" (1964...as far as i know), which i tend to sing while taking a shower (a good shower-song, indeed!..however, i prefer "Nova cançó de s'amor perdut", by Joan Ramon Bonet, a song love since many years ago). Ah..but more songs by her came across my way...songs i ended up listening to over and over and really liking: "Mai così" (1966), "Se telefonando" (1966, in Studio Uno 66), "sono come tu mi vuoi" (1966). My musical trip also reached old Sanremo festivals...mmm...i found really nice songs in 1966 edition: "io ti darò di più" by Orietta Berti (...well, i've read that it was sung by other people too) (6th place), "nessuno di voi" by Richard Anthony, rather well-known, and "Adesso si" by Sergio Endrigo. But i've not heard the winner song ("Dio come ti amo") yet, by D. Modugno and G. Cinquetti....although i think i've heard a version by Mina. The sound of music in those years vanished and never came back...although several bands and singers who began their career then, kept making music and singing for decades. But the sound changed, although i believe many people miss the 60es sound of that pop music made then, of songs in those old Sanremo, canzonissima, even Benidorm and eurovision song contest. Ah!!...i'm talking about the SOUND, not the festivals themselves. Mentally, lately, i was in some other period of time...or in any period of time, since i combine inside and outside me things from different moments. One moment might not be enough for me...better to take positive things from different periods of time and harmonize them. Sumireneko out of nowhere and out of time.

and i won't cry for yesterday...

Passing strangers, lights flooding almost all streets, trains passing by. Changing states and emotions inside me. Inner travels and physical catharsis this morning...and yesterday as well, with my feet hurting, having walked for a long time wearing high-heels. And today a song poped up in my mind: "ordinary world" by Duran Duran. First there was a mixture of peace and happiness...then it turned into a reaffirmation of my identity. Still i was happy. But from time to time i felt some sadness. A Ballad. A requiem for something dying somewhere out of nowhere. 7 crows. Something might be whispered to the hole of some tree, like one of the main characters in "In the mood for love". Today i'm still a ballad, sung with a trembling or broken voice (Bonnie Tyler+Janis Joplin+Edith Piaf+Bévinda...a bootleg of songs by all them). Casuality brought me to this point. I regret nothing. Positive thoughts and feelings should find their way out of our minds. We ought to be brave like Superciocia (see previous posts from December 2005)..and face any complicated stuff within us...and then smile like Władysław Sikora playing the role of a victorious Superciocia.

CORVIDAE and UPUPIDAE

Today, again, i was trying to find the name in Tibetan for hoopoe. But again i was unsuccessful... which means that i'll have to ask a professor, who once said that in class of Tibetan language. However, i was lucky in the sense that i found something precious for me. First i found some website about crow augury, in other words, how to fortell future events from the behaviour of crows, taking into account different moments of the day. I read that such method is used in Tibet (Bya-rog-gi skad brtag-par bya-ba...i can't paste tibetan script here, so just Wylie) and has its origins in India. I'm keen on ornithology and i like crows, so that website, http://www.jcrows.com/crolang.html , was really interesting to me. There's also information on crows, for those with no interest on divination and such arts.

On some other website, http://7thcrow.com/crows.html , i found more things on legends, myths regarding crows. That time what i read was about counting crows, nothing to do with their behaviour. There were some verses talking about events related to different numbers of crows. Here i reproduce 2 groups of verses:
1) Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is:
One's sorrow, two's mirth,
Three's a wedding, four's a birth,
Five's a christening, six a dearth,
Seven's heaven, eight is hell,
And nine's the devil his old self.

2) Counting Rhyme (from The Folklore of Birds, by Laura C. Martin, 1993)
One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for a birth,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret not to be told.
Eight for heaven, nine for hell,
And ten for the devil's own sel'.

It's not easy to spot crows around here, unlike what i've been told about Singapore and Tokyo...but i think that i'll pay attention to their number. I did like the rhyme (i read somewhere else that it was a nursery rhyme). I hope you too (or a few of you) liked this. Maybe some of you have already heard about this kind of things. ah.....if i hadn't heard the word in tibetan for hoopoe and, afterwards, having forgotten it, i wouldn't have had the chance to come across crow divination and the rhymes above. I'd not have looked for such word by myself, spontaneously since i wouldn't either have thought spontaneously about hoopoes. I'm thankful to that professor...

almost-magical music

Several years ago i came across a few songs which remained vivid in my brain: "hiroshima mon amour" (the B-side version)(1977), "Dancing with tears in my eyes" and "reap the wild wind" by ULTRAVOX, and a song by PINK MILITARY, "after hiroshima" (maybe from 1979, but appears in their LP do animals believe in God,1980). Both belong to the late 70es but their style is not so easy to classify or determine. PINK MILITARY is said to be a post-punk band, but they were really close to electronic music which we could find right before the arrival and triumph of new wave. SInce i don't know where exactly to place these 2 bands, i call them bands-making-almost-magical-music. Recently i suddenly decided to go on with some search on more about ULTRAVOX and PINK MILITARY. Of course i did find tones of information about ULTRAVOX. and also about one of their members, who started a brilliant solo career in the 80es, JOHN FOXX (see picture above). And thanks to my searching i got to know other wonderful songs: "did you see her" by PINK MILITARY (i must say that PINK MILITARY only have one album; Do animals believe in God, released in 1980...which i hope to find one day in CD version). And other musical wonders are "the garden" , "Like a miracle", "Endlessly", "My wild love" all of them by FOXX. Well, and i discovered the videoclip for "Dancing with tears in my eyes" by ULTRAVOX....absolutely beautiful and with important ideas flowing beneath the story and images....it 's the only videoclip which moved me. A scientist was working on something dealing with nuclear energy and suddenly they noticed some kind of failure in the system, some fatal error. The man goes back home and tells his wife/whatever what's going on what is about to happen. They are wrapped by memories and enjoy the last moments of their life. It feels like....what should we do when we know everything, even us, is about to vanish? I really felt some emptiness at the end of the videoclip, in the last images. Nothing remains, but the melody of the song. Everything disappears at last, like Pink Military...(however, its singer, Jayne Casey, also singer of Big in Japan, after Pink Military, she formed Pink Industry).

ToDo PoR La pAtRiA (VaTiCaNa)!

y Ratzi se puso el tricornio!!!! uaaa uaaa! clamores en la Plaza de San Pedro. Que alegría para los Guardia Civiles que hasta allí habían ido. pero me pregunto qué estarían pensando el resto de gentes allí congregadas, que no creo que entendieran el acto en sí de probarse un tricornio...vamos, si ni siquiera el propio Ratzinger parecía entender la cosa más allá de lo folclórico que puede resultar el tricornio en sí en tanto que sombrero de charol con forma extraña....ay! las dificultades para acertar la posición correcta del tricornio. pero Ratzi se enfundó el tricornio....más chulo que un ocho verde pistacho (como dicen los Mojinos en una canción...no recuerdo cuál, por eso)...y eso que no le dieron un bigote postizo para conjuntarlo con el tricornio (o unas gafas oscuras tipo retro). Tan contento el con el tricornio puesto por unos segundos, que ya estoy pensando que eso de ponerse un tricornio da poderes....y más con la indumentaria papal de la Santidad. Y en las tierras españolas, Ratzi por aquí, Ratzi por allá en la anécdota del pasado de diciembre.

Tengo que decir que no vi el "momento" en la televisión el mismo día sino hoy por casualidad (no suelo ver mucha televisión)...pero recuerdo que un día en los informativos nocturnos (creo que eran los de tele 5) hablaron bastante largo y tendido sobre la evolución de los tricornios de la Guardia Civil, cosa que no entendí demasiado a qué venía a cuento. Seguro que fue el día 8....qué cosas. Va Ratzi y pone los tricornios de moda. Y los niños se piden para Reyes una figura de Ratzi con tricornio, para jugar con su action man, figuras de Star wars y demás criaturas de plástico.

Plastic People of the Universe

aaah....A couple of days ago i couldn't help having a drawing-need attack. My hand moved unconciously and started drawing, like some time ago. I've always loved drawing and i've never given it up (although it means sometimes drawing in books, which i could never lend to anybody, to reuse them...sorry). The picture above of the consequences of my having-to-draw that day. He's a Professor at University. uhm...i don't know whether i should give names here. And why drawing him? spontaneus drawing impulse (SDI). Since there’s not much to say about this SDI, I’ll build, this time, a multi-topic article, with no connections between topics.
Wanting to be like Beckham or so??? Beckham ist Quatsch mit Soße! (¡naranjas de la China!..nonsense in English, but it's not as funny, that's why i didn't write it first in English). Beckhamhood and all related fashiondelamuertehood is something temporary. Oh! tree leaves turning yellowish and falling sadly onto the ground of drowsy parks and forests, when the night has told stories about the coming hard winter. That's the death of beckhamhood.
By the way, Plastic People of the Universe (Milan Hlavsa,Josef Janíček, Vratislav Brabenec, Jiří Kabeš) was a band from the former Czechoslovakia. I once (quite a long time ago) heard about it in some TV report (i think it was in "sputnik", on canal 33) about music and political events. They talked about these people (they made interesting music, with mysterious sounds...some kind of rock, close to psychedelic rock, sometimes), Václav Hável and the Velvet Revolution. I liked the name of this music band.

SUPERCIOCIA!!! The Trilogy

First, i heard of Czesław Niemen and started liking his music, even though i’m unable to understand what he sings (but some words). Then, thanks to a version of one of the best-known songs by Cz. Niemen, “Dziwny jest ten świat”, by somebody named Grzegorz Halama, I discovered the interesting works of this Grzegorz Halama, who happened to be a Polish comedian. At first I didn’t pay much attention to his works, since I expected to find basically jokes in Polish I wouldn’t understand. But today...suddenly, something somewhere in my mind told me to investigate a little more. Aaaah!!! It was indeed a good idea!

And then Superciocia appears on scene!!!! It’s the star of a trilogy, like those with the bravest superheros, fighting against the most ferocious enemies: zadradziecki trawnik (treacherous grass), niewdzięczny kamień (ungrateful stone/rock) and śmiertelny plankton (mortal kind-of-grass...well, i didn’t find the word in my dictionary of Polish...but in the movie, plankton was some kind grass/plants near a path). The courageous Superciocia (lit. superaunt), fights with the only help of a powerful piece of reddish cloth. I read that there should me more chapters on Superciocia’s heroic actions....but who knows. I must say that there would be no Superciocia if Władysław Sikora wouldn't play the role of this Hero. If anybody else played the role of Superciocia, it wouldn't be the same. In other words, that wouldn't be the authentic Superciocia. Therefore, Superciocia's destiny is that of having only a temporary existence, and no future remakes, as many Hollywood movies do with old heroes.

Superciocia contra zadradziecki trawnik!
Superciocia contra niewdzięczny kamień!
Superciocia contra śmiertelny plankton!!!

Besides Superciocia, there were other interesting creatures, such as Pan Jabu (Mr. Jabu)...without being able to understand what he said in the video dedicated to him (check the video “deseczka” or “pan Jabu show” in the links below, where you can also find “Trylogia Superciocia”) I laughed lots.... I also recommend the documentary “Archetypowy ojciec”(archetypical father)... half sociological/anthropological...with that kind of rastafari father. It’s ok if you, as me, don’t understand Polish. Anyway...it's better than you have a look at some of those short films.

http://www.kabaret.art.pl/hifi/film/filmy.html

http://www.halama.pl/index.php?go=filmy

The kind of humour Halama and company make reminds me of the humour the spanish Cruz y Raya make, inventing strange and somehow surrealistic situations, but also several curious characters (such as Canduterio, a man wearing a torero hat, 70es style glasses, and dressing like somebody from a rural area). Any of them makes direct references to politics (well, Cruz y Raya sometimes, but never to the extent of many other comedians) and in any case they make a denigrant kind of humour based on attacking and making fun of somebody. Neither is scatology used as a resource.

ELEIKEKELEI y el gran Kitajima Saburo

¿Un grito de guerra? Quizás...pero no, es una especie de estribillo en una canción de Os Resentidos (aunque yo la descubría via Siniestro Total, otros de los grandes del género), que habla sobre Brezhnev(Леонид Брежнев. La foto, de Wikipedia, con esa especie de auréola luminosa, no tiene desperdicio). Quien la escuche, que quede advertido de lo pegadizo que es el eleikekelei. Estás cambiándote de ropa o en la ducha, e inconscientemente no puedes evitar entonar un eleikekelei. A saber si quiere decir algo en algún idioma de algún lugar remoto de estos mundos...que seguro que sí. Veo a chukchis por ahí por la otra punta del continente este, atravesando Siberia enterita, con términos parecidos a eleikekelei. Que conste que no tengo nada en contra de los chukchis. Bueno...chukchis, Rusia, antigua URSS, Brezhnev... tampoco está todo tan alejado.

Desde que descubrí las obras maestras de Os Resentidos y, sobre todo, de Siniestro total, me gustó un surrealismo subyacente (como no) en sus letras y ritmos. ¿¿¿Temas recurrentes para hacer la elaboración de las piezas más rápida y fácil??? Para qué! Si hay temas tan suculentos como: Brezhnev, discos de los Shadows y las Shangri-Las y otros utensilios musicales que aparecen en “bailaré sobre tu tumba” como objetos de un crímen hipotético, Bryan Ferry y la hipótesis sobre su aliento, Assumpta, Polonia y Karol Wojtiła, elefantes rosas, Vietnam (“fuera las manos chinas del Vietnam socialista”), la higiene personal y un largo etc., y sin caer en vulgaridades...ahi, los componentes de Siniestro Total muestran disimulandamente sus amplios conocimientos en áreas diversas y variopintas. Qué majos estos gallegos.

Y otro de los grandes es Kitajima Saburo, un personaje sin traducción posible a otras latitudes. No hay un equivalente español para este japonés...como tampoco hay un equivalente para el Enka, estilo musical en el que está ubicado felizmente desde hace décadas y décadas. Tan grande es su figura que hasta tiene un museo con su nombre...ponte a contar cantantes con museo propio... Bueno, y el merchandising que se puede ver gracias a esa web...si palabras. Que puntazo el poder comprar galletas (o similar) con la efigie del señor Kitajima (Sabu-chan para los fans más acérrimos y para sus allegados, supongo). Nada...840 yenes y uno/a se va tan contento para casa con sus Sabu-chan cookies...Ay! pero eso de comerse efigies de Kitajima, no sé yo. Que creo que a muchos les dará una pena enorme...como también grande la pena que puede dar que las galletas se te estropeen con el tiempo y el chocolate (o sucedáneo, llamémoslo pocholate), se deshaga y se desfigure la majestuosa efigie del artista sólo por no haberse comido las galletas en el momento adecuado. Yo no me comería un Sabu-chan de pocholate...Casi que mejor las camisetas, que, por cierto, son un poco feas, con el juego que podrían haber dado (con lo larga que es la carrera musical del bueno de Kitajima....). El merchandising textil no me acaba de convencer por estar alejado de la figura de Kitajima y su estilo. Pero lo mejor viene cuando una servidora descubre los colgantes/adornos para móvil (no sé si tienen ya un nombre más concreto, bueno, una especie de equivalente para strap tendría que ser) con una banda de tela con el nombre del cantante y un muñequito representando al maestro Kitajima. No veo yo a los seguidores más fieles de kitajima, con más de 50 años seguramente en la mayoría de los casos, con figuritas de Sabu-chan colgando de sus teléfonos móviles. Pero muchas cosas extrañas son posibles en Japón, pienso. Pero que si alguien les da la idea de la Mona de Pascua, (pastel con huevos de chocolate o figuritas/complejas construcciones de chocolate que se les compra a los niños por Semana Santa...Lunes de Pascua, creo –no soy una adepta de las mones ni nunca lo fui sino sólo de los pollos amarillos que se suelen poner como decoración-), van los japoneses, que habiéndoles fascinado la idea y el juego que da....ya está, mones de Kitajima Saburo y todo lo que se pueda imaginar. Y lo de la Pascua será ya algo superficial y, puesto que por San Valentín, las mujeres regalan chocolate a los hombres...¡¡¡anda que no quedarían bien regalando una mona de Kitajima Saburo!!!

Pero yo soy feliz con lo que me evoca “Hakodate no hito”; un mundo en blanco y negro,una película de los años 50, un drama, otros valores. Y también me quedo con el eleikekelei. Nada....a ver si alguien hace un bootleg de “cuando Brezhnev...” y “hakodate no hito”...o una versión dance...o chill out, que viene estando muy en boga. Creo que el resultado sería algo parecido a poner una canción al revés (uuuuh!). Quizás hasta hay mensajes ocultos y hasta que no se mezclan ambas piezas bien no se obtienen. Seguro que es algo catárquico y bueno para la felicidad de las almas. Y si no, pues siempre nos quedarán las galletas de pocholate.

back into the 60es: minimalism,colours, birds & physics

Unexpectedly, as most good things in life, recently (i always refer to things that happened recently...), i felt i was travelling back to the 60es, a time i never lived, but from which i've loved music for many years (Beatles, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, french singers from the 60es...usw.). First came songs by VASHTI BUNYAN, especially "Love song" (1966), which by now i've listened to i-don't-know-how-many-times, over and over. A simply beautiful song, with a wonderful melody and precious lyrics, simple and rich at the same time. Then i came across a quite well-known Polish musician (well, famous in Poland and in the former East-Germany), CZESŁAW NIEMEN.... Again i was stuck in 1966 by his song "dziwny jest ten świat" (the translation i found is "strange is this world"), the same name as the album that includes it, but the album is from 1967...What did i find in his songs? a good mixture-combination of psychedelic rock (reminiscences of Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Procol Harum...), jazz, a bit of folk. All in one. And, despite not being able to understand the lyrics but some words in Polish, my intuition and what i read about Niemen's music, tell me that the lyrics were as good as the melodies or even better. Niemen was indeed an interesting person, musically but also visually, with his colourful clothes, and later with his hat and round dark glasses, half between hippy and folk singers.

And yesterday, my friend Tomek (oder Thomas, Tomasz...wie du willst), sent me a beautiful poem by a Brazilian poetess (we usually exchange poems in portuguese, especially from Brazil), Cecília Meireles. The poem is "Os dias felizes" (Meireles, C., Obra poética, Rio de Janeiro, 1967). Poems from the mid of the 20th century have a different taste...like some poems by Tomaž Šalamun (Slovenian), Jaroslav Seifert or by Jacobo Fijman....Different things said in a different time and sometimes Same things said in a different time, and thus having a different meaning. Happy days aren't the same in poems from Romanticism or from the early 20th century...as in the mid 60es or nowadays. It's just like the sound of the music by The Raveonettes (Denmark)...60es sound (not in all their songs, though) made in the 21st century.

Os dias felizes estão entre árvores como

os pássaros: viajam nas nuvens,

correm nas águas,

desmancham-se na areia.

[...]

Cecília Meireles

And besides, having a look at an old book on Physics (García Santesmases, J., Física General, Madrid, 1968), i found 4 old stamps of 50 céntimos each (Peseta times!!!!!!!!!!!!), with an image of a writer, Concha Espina. What a thing to find!...Those stamps had been there for over 3 decades...inside an old book i rescued some summers ago from dust and oblivion (the book belonged to my father and somebody had placed most old books in old suitcases made of cardboard and wooden boxes, piled up together with boxes cointaining old tools and other old stuff). The stamps were close to chapter 38, about Optical instruments (it even talks about the human eye...hehe). The reason why i was having a look at a Physics book...well, the book was staring at me insistently, wanting me to pick him from the shelf. A book of Chemistry, dwelling next to the Physics one, sometimes does the same thing to me. Mysteries. I can't help feeling their presence.