Closing shop for holidays: see you in September

Well, this is somehow pointless, as I am not sure if this blog has an "audience", meaning a number of people who comes here regularly to see what I posted. But if that was the case*, I am leaving today for holidays, and I will be completely offline for the next two weeks, then will only have random access to the net until the end of August.

So, if somebody is coming, I wish you all a very nice summer and very nice holidays, if you plan to have holidays this summer.

In the meantime, I plan to enjoy family, music and books and to waste time like if there was no tomorrow!!

Carpe diem, people.




* In the case there is somehow an "audience", would you mind to post a little comment to this entry, only with your nick? Thanks! :D

Stuck in my head: Last goodbye, by Jeff Buckley

In 1995, I met a wonderful guy from Netherlands (who called himself "The Dutch guy"), working at the same place as me, in France. One night, he invited a few friends for dinner, and he played the album "Grace" from Jeff Buckley to us, while he was making the meal.

At the time I had never heard of Jeff Buckley, but that listening session impressed me big time. I quickly purchased the album and it has been one of my Classics of the 80s.

Recently, somehow by chance I came back to the album, and since that time the song Last goodbye is stuck in my head: everytime music starts playing in my head (and fortunately it does very often), there's a big chance in the last days it might be "Last goodbye" (or else a truly stunning version of "Empty room" played by Prince in Montreux on July 18th, but that's another story). So, given that Jeff Buckley material is not removed from youtube by people crazy about copyrights, here you have it: the wonder, one of those songs that define a time, ladies & gentlemen, LAST GOODBYE, played live:



You can also watch the original video for the song (which I can't embed as that option was disabled upon request) here.

Sarah Palin resignation speech: is she really that way, or is she acting?

Moving from Spanish bad politicians to US badder politicians, I found the Sarah Palin resignation speech video out there, and I can't avoid to wonder if she's really this way. I mean, seriously:

Can a person of this level prettend to become president of the first country in the world?

Seriously?

What are the requirements to be president of the USA?

Or is it true that, literally, anybody, can become president of the USA?

There were times were brilliant people were ruling the world, and now with Obama one could think that we are leading in the good direction again. But if this lady resigned in Alaska to focus on her forthcoming attempt to be president again... who knows, maybe Obama was a temporal flash.

How low can you go?

Some people thought we had been left quiet after Mr. Aznar ruled our country for eight years. We were wrong: it seems the delirious of grandeur of Mr. Aznar did not end with his government, or with the marriage of his daughter (organized as an State marriage), or with his attempts to influence Mr. Rajoy, his successor at the head of the Partido Popular in Spain.

No: instead of going to a humble second page and enjoy his mature years, somehow his PR are busy trying to push him to media from time to time. Today, a coworker pointed me to this reference in Corriere della Sera, where he's depicted as an almost-superhero. Ridiculous is not word enough to describe this kind of propaganda.

I realize that being a hyperleader for a longtime and disappearing after must be tricky business. But someone should suggest to these guys that it's time to leave the headlines.

Funny & briliant music mashups

Summer holidays are approaching, so I thought a a couple of funny, brilliant music mashups would be nice to watch:

First, one which made loads of rounds in my country: Beyonce dancing to the music of Paco Paco:



Then a music mashup of Nirvana vs Rick Astley:



Now, Cher singing Believe to the music of AC/DC:

What could be of Prince's sound today without Renato?

I have been listening this morning to some recent live recordings, and I suddenly thought: what could be of Prince's band today without Renato?

Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly aware that Prince can put an excellent band without Renato, that's not my point.

What I mean is that Prince is obviously aware too of the astonishing quality of Renat's musicianship, and probably this is the reason why he is relying more and more on Renato's abilities for live shows. If you add to this the jazzy sound announced by Renato in the German interview posted to LF.com, then I guess his role will become even more prominent in future efforts. And fact is that Renato's relevance in Prince's band has been very significant since 2002.

So I wonder, what would happen with the current sound of Prince if Renato was not around with his golden hands? It must be difficult bar to impossible to find someone this talented to take charge of keyboards.

But this is just speculation, I repeat what I said before: I hope & wish Renato will remain around for the next 50 years (at least!)

Personality in Spanish music: new album from Bebe, "Y."

Some years ago, I remember listening from time to time in radio a woman with a few hit singles, whose very powerful personality got me intrigued. Then I heard her first album, "Pafuera telarañas" and was truly shocked: after many years of mediocrity in commercial Spanish music, I was listening to someone with really own ideas on music. By some strange ways, she became one of the major stars in Spanish music (which still today, I can't truly understand, but that's another story). That first album became a favourite for my family, and we used to listen often to "Pafuera telarañas".

And now in 2009, the much awaited second album from Bebe, "Y.", has just been released, getting a huge success and going almost straight to the top of charts. I have not heard the album in full detail yet, but I have the feeling that she managed somehow to escape of the many tricks of the superstardom (forced after the megasuccess of the first album) and still deliver interesting, catchy and original songs, with the very significant help of Carlos Jean, one of those guys with the hand of gold to transform average recordings into brilliant pieces of audio engineering.

Hopefully we will see further evolution in the sound of Bebe: talents like her are not abounding, and less in Spain.

Rave reviews on Prince's performances at Montreux 2009

Well, once the rumours were eventually confirmed and we knew there would be two Prince shows at Montreux, they happened on July 18, and today the reviews are popping up everywhere. It seems there is agreement in that the shows were exceptional; the slight disappointment of some fans by the lack of hit songs in the tracklist of both shows is more than compensated by the quality of the performance; some fans already qualified the take of Empty room as legendary, and some of them even stated it was the best ever.

The rumours of three Prince gigs in Paris this week remain unconfirmed, although we know, by experience, that anything can happen in Princeland. But one thing seems clear: after the huge noise made by the Montreux performances, it seems probable that such hypothetic gigs in Paris would be sold out again in a matter of minutes.

A pity that the magnificence of Prince live shows is not found in other aspects of his career.

(Picture taken by F Dumeny).

Córdoba: the old bridge and the Mezquita, at night

Today I continue posting some pictures taken at night. This time, it's the turn of some beauties of Córdoba: the old Roman bridge, which was recently reworked (causing a huge controversy about its new look in the city) and the Mezquita, one of those buildings which never bores you, no matter how long you look at it.

We spent a lovely night with a few friends recently, and after dinner we had a truly nice walk around the Guadalquivir river. I had my Fujifilm F30, and the following pics were taken manually, with ISO 100.





After the walk, we went to a bar located at the top of a building, with amazing views over the river; it was a bit tricky to take good pics, however, but I managed to take this one, from the same bridge depicted above:

Severe lawyeritis

Some people are able to live their lives and try to solve the conflicts by dialogue, by speaking with others; only in extreme cases, they look for a lawyer in order to get help, when things can't be solved by dialogue.

Other people, by some weird reasons, escape reality and forget about dialogue. So, from their distant ivory tower, they think that reality has to fit their wishes, or else a lawsuit is required to change reality. For them, dialogue means nothing, and their preferred way of solving any conflict is sending a lawyer letter requiring, on supposed legal grounds, to change the behaviour of other people.

This would qualify as a good definition of "severe lawyeritis", a disease affecting some famous & rich people who think their money is enough to scare anybody and force them to follow the supreme wishes of the guy affected with the lawyeritis.

But reality is not like this. And reality does not care about what disease you have, or what kind of ivory tower do you live in.

So, when a particular musician sends lawyers letters even to close members of the band of his glory years, you can say that something is going deeply wrong with that guy. First you send lawyer letters to real copyright breakers, then you send lawyer letters to people who did not sign a confidentiality agreement, then you send lawyer letters to administrators of fansites (who are basically supporters and lovers of your music), then you send lawyer letters to former close friends...

I wonder where is the end: maybe to send lawyer letters to yourself, to say "wake up, guy, you are losing your mind"??

Fed up of HYSteria

I'm fully aware this is possibly not the best time to write this, but I am frankly annoyed by the hysteria around MJ's death.

Yesterday I was traveling and listening to the radio, where I thought I would escape the TV madness with the funeral broadcast. Man, was I wrong.

In the different radio shows I heard, ALL of them did live transmissions from LA, discussing in depth the funeral, who attended and who did not, the speculations & varying numbers attributed to the crowd who was there but could not enter the Staples Center, the colour of the stage, etc etc etc

The icing on the cake were the opinions from people who called to express their opinions about MJ. That was truly TOO much.

Among the many jewels, I learned yestarday that:

- MJ was the best artist ever.
- MJ was the best entertainer ever.
- All modern singers had learned to sing after listening to MJ.
- All his career had been a continued success.
- MJ was a pure man.
- MJ invented the videos for songs.

And on and on.

And I'm sorry but I am FED UP about this crazy hysteria. I knew that death will clean up all flaws in anybody, but honestly, this story goes way beyond the reasonable. And this must be the only case I agree with Elizabeth Taylor.

A new beauty: Alfa Milano

Images of the new Alfa Milano, the successor of the Alfa 147, had been recently released to the net. And, although some initial reactions suggest there is no unanimity about its beauty, I personally think this is a beautiful design, continuing the tradition of brilliant car designs that has been a trademark of Alfa Romeo, and which resurrected with the introduction of the Alfa 156 some years ago.

At this time, the Lancia Delta and the Alfa Milano would rank high in my shopping list, if I could buy a car in this category (which is not the case, as a family of six people needs other kind of car to travel).

Prince vs Michael Jackson

It's no surprise to anybody here that I have pretty harsh opinions on some aspects of Prince's career and personality.

But comparing MJ and Prince is (and has always been) apples and oranges.

MJ is in the middle of a personal & professional sanctification process BECAUSE of his death, not because of his accomplishments. MJ was a has-been during the last 10 years, at least, where all his headlines were related to weird happenings, and not musical events. When he announced the shows in London, many people were thinking "there is no way he can do that". Unfortunately we were right. If MJ would continue lliving his life and dying in his 60s or 70s, then his legend would have vanished in the middle of musical mediocrity and continued reports about weird stories, debts and more debts, re-issues and more re-issues, with decreasing sales. His death changed this upside down, and possibly the owners of his rights must be happy at this time. MJ did several astonishing albums in the 80s, became a major figure in the music biz, and was a fantastic dancer & singer. That's what he was in the 80s/early 90s. But in 2009, he was a pathetic figure that had lost control about his life. (And there is no offense intended in this comment, mind you: I think he had a sad life).

By sharp contrast, Prince was in the 80s, and keeps on being in the end of the 2000s. Forget about opinions and focus on facts: while not at the same rhythm as he had in the 80s, Prince keeps on releasing loads of music, and by comparison to pretty much any other music act, he's very, very prolific. His career had the peak in the late 80s (much like MJ had the peak in the early 80s), but you would ensure that, with the only exception of the "Slave" years, all Prince headlines were career-related, and very few gossip-related. Exactly the opposite with regards to MJ. Prince had a major commercial comeback in 2004, and then he showed over and over that he is at the very top if you are interested in live music: just look at Musicology, the Super Bowl, 21 nights in London, Coachella... nobody ignores, today, that Prince can blow your mind, anytime, playing live. Crazy millionaires pay crazy figures to bring him to play at private events. Uberprestigious jazz festivals bring him to play, both in 2007 and 2009. And experienced live players (ask Brian May) have no shame in praising Prince as a supernatural talent to play live music.

As I wrote once upon a time in HQ, you can have very strong critics towards Prince (and maybe you have read some of them from yours truly), but one thing is clear: by comparison to pretty much any peer of similar profile, Prince commitment to the making of music is at the very top. He's a hard-worker among hard-workers, and the passion and feeling he delivers evetytime on stage puts him in the category of truly living legends. As I have said many times, if you look at the world of truly top performers, you will see the Prince, Stones, U2, Springsteen, and not many others. If you put the "running on automatic mode" live acts out of that category, possibly you would have even less top contenders.

Now, if you look at their music outcome, Prince outperforms MJ by very, very far. You can like it or not, you can say his late output is good or awful, but you can not discuss that, judging strictly on released songs, Prince track record is quantum leaps above MJ, even if MJ outsold Prince by a large difference. And I personally consider that any Prince album, including all of the last ones, contain at least one masterpieces. Very few people with a 30 years long career can say the same. Furthermore: Prince has always been directly and personally responsible of his musical output. MJ's role is completely different: although some reports suggest his authorship in the songs from the glory years is more significant than initially believed, you can't deny that Quincy Jones had a large influence in the albums that made the MJ legend. To the point that one can wonder whether MJ's legend would be the same without Quincy, and the answer is "probably no". You will never find the Quincy Jones of Prince.

But that is only looking at their professional lives. If you consider their personal lives, including the way they managed their career, again they are apples and oranges. Prince is the paramount example of control freak since the very begining of his career, being the producer of his first album, and behaving the same until today, when we have read a few stories dealing with the Montreux performance which evidenced, once more, how Prince has been personally in control on what will happen next July 18th. If you compare that to MJ... well, let's say he has been surrounded by very good teams (in the top years) and of very bad teams (in the misery years), but his personality was far from a firm leader in control.

Now, maybe someone could read this and sum it up to "Jose says Prince is good and MJ was bad". Far from it. I am well aware of the good & bad sides of Prince, and far less informed about the good & bad sides of MJ; but I know they, as anybody else, have both sides. All I'm saying is that Prince, with all the highs and lows, has kept a PERMANENT commitment to make music, even in the most troubled times, and his profile as live player is second to none. You just need to ask anybody who has seen a Prince performance for the first time.

By contrast, MJ had a period of fireworks which established him as the "king of pop", but it turned out to be a very short kingdom, and it turned out to be an apparent kingdom only, since the actual responsibles of the kingdom were not the ones holding the crown.

(BTW obviously I don't want to speak about some dark aspects of the personalities of these two guys; that was not the point here, and besides I suspect that the information available on those aspects is far from accurate).

30th anniversary of Spanish Radio 3

These days, Radio 3, probably the most respected Spanish radio station devoted to modern culture (including music first and foremost) is celebrating its 30 anniversary. For my generation, this anniversary is meaningful, as the influence of Radio 3 on young people born in the 60s/70s was huge. Radio 3 is owned by the state, and for some weird reason, and contrary to public TV, it has a long tradition of independence, broadcasting all kinds of music (regardless of commercial trends) and different shows dealing with culture. It has always been, by definition, a radio for minorities, but in this very case, we were fortunate enough as the minority was very large.

I personally owe to Radio 3 many discoveries in the field of music; furthermore, I could say that my current tastes in music were pretty much educated almost in full by Radio 3 and the many talented people driving radio shows in the 80s. I remember listening everyday to Rock 3, driven by Rafael Abitbol, where I first heard countless bands (Cocteau Twins, Prefab Sprout, Smiths, ZTT stuff, etc etc etc). I started listening to this show in 1984/85. But I am particularly grateful because this show first introduced me to Prince music. After the huge noise made by Purple Rain, Abitbol included often music from the following albums, which were attracting to me (in the "interesting music but not mind-blowing", back at the time). Abitbol had a very good relationship to music labels and was often the first to broadcast hot stuff. One of this cases happened in 1987: at some point, he broadcasted "If I was your girlfriend". It was truly mind blowning on first listen and I was immediately hooked for life on Prince music. The rest is history, for those who know me.

But besides Rock 3, there were many outstanding shows: Diario Pop (driven by Jesús Ordovás & Jose María Rey, which kept a long, hard competitio with Rock 3 for scoops and exclusives), Diálogos 3 (driven by Ramón Trecet, where I also discovered many jewels, as Wim Mertens or The Bulgarian Voices), and many others. They have done a truly fantastic labour of love during all these 30 years and they deserve a big hats-off for their contribution to the Spanish culture, and particularly in the field of music.

So I wish them many more years of stunning broadcasts and good taste.