Hello, this will be a huge update, because I have the time, and I want to put some stuff into writing, because I have had a very good week.
First of all, I am finishing my second reading of the Richard Prices novel Clockers. Less than 70 pages to go, and hopefully I will end it befote starting my work shift of tomorrow. I am enjoying this book a lot, anda m planning t oread other stuff by him in the future.
One of my best friends in the whole world, Elga, and her boyfriend Miguel, are in Puerto Rico for a visit. Her boyfriend is a very good sax placer and a very good friend. He is here because he is promoting his latest cd and also because he has a gig at the local Heineken jazz Fest, which started today (althought he plays on Sunday, and I am attending, YEAH!!). As a matter of fact my father is there now. This years festival is dedicated, by the way, to the great brazilian singer, Gal Costa, who will perform on Saturday.
My friends name, Miguel, is a jazz musician who has been around for some time, even thought he is young. He has placed with great musicians including Ray Barreto and David Sanchez and his third release, which was last week, is named Ceremonial and is Zenons attempt at an hybrid between local folk music and contemporary jazz music. I like his music, even thought I am his friend, and if anyone is interested I would suggest that you start with his second release, Ceremonial.
My friend Elga, who I love very much, gave me a great birthday gift, a very cool looking and also very protective leather case for my Ipod (by the way, I am very much in love with my it, my fab gadget now, besides my pc, my fast connection and my dvds!). I am so happy that she is here because I missed her a lot this last few months.
Her mom, Vilma, Elga, Miguel and me went yesterday to a very good game basketball game of the local league. Our fav team, the Ponce Lions versus the Santurce Crabbers. The Lions are the defending champions and where playing against their nemesis, which they beat again in a very emocional ending. The other very cool thing was that we went to and from the game using the new subway, which is brand new and a very good addition to our metropolitan area, and the other cool thing is that the game was placed at our very pretty new stadium, the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot, which at night looks even prettier!!!!
I had duch great time then, because we had tons of laughs and we had not been able to had such a night because Elga and Miguel live in NYC and are not in Puerto Rico a lot these days, in fact, she is leaving next Thursday,. Which sucks, but that is how life is.
Alter the game we stayed at Vilmas home and spoke a lot and saw some bits from the Ali G show and laughed our ass off. For those are not aware of him, The Ali G show is a british comedy show, which can be seen on the HBO show, that makes fun of black rappers, racism in a whole lot of forms, the whole fashion industry, gayness, politicians and whole lot of other things. He is a great actor and a very good improviser, plus he has constructed three well rounded characters: Ali G, Borat and Bruno. Because the actor, Sasha Baron, is getting to be so well-known and his show is mostly a prank show, he must start to make some other characters or else try to ge tinto other countries where he migh be not as well known, in other to be sucessfull in his many fake interviews.
Another cool thing was that Miguel had on his pc a very funny sound bit of Jennifer Lopez doing some recordings of his latest album. In it she makes some very ugly out of tune singing and it is so obvious in it that as a singer she is very pitiful. It is a shame that some people find good qualities in her music, but I guess that to each, his or her own.
I brought to Elgas some books I wanted to lend to her, included three Antonio Fuguet novels (Tinta Roja, Por favor rebobinar and Mala onda), Carlos Ruiz Zafons La sombra del viento and Matthew Prices The Dante Club. I think she might enjoya t least the Fuguet ones and I hope she also likes the Zafon one, the other one I think might make Vilma happy.
Today we had a great time too. First we, me and Elga (Miguel was busy doing interviews) went to our favorite book store, La tertulia. This is the best bookstore of spanish-written books in the Island and it is set very near our Alma Mater, the UPR at Rio Piedras. Today we had a great experience. First we met another very dear friend, Marina, which is very close but I hardly see because of our schedules being so different and complicated. Her birthday is on the 22 of May, the before mine, but I had not seen her to give her a gift, but I got her one today, a very cool novel by a young good autor named Santiago Gamboa, the novel being Los Impostores, his latest novel. She got me as a birthday gift a Roberto Bolano novel I have not read yet (he is the autor who is featured in my profile pic, he recently died and that is very sad, he was very good).
We had a great conversation with one of the owners of the bookstore, about Jose Saramagos ouvre and also about the new popes writings. There where many very cool books in the stores but I had to settle on two, the latest by Jorge Volpi, whis is an essay about the 1994 Chiapas EZLN uprising and a book about the muslim political history.
I had the latest Fuguet novel on my hands plus some other stuff but they will have to wait.
Afterwards, we went with another one of our friends, Tania, to one of favorite restaurants in the metropolitan area, called Auroritas, and they do mexican food, very good food. We talked a lot, because we had a lot of catching up, and we had a great time there. Afterwards we did not do much, but it was a great time. It is very cool that we are going to meet again on Sunday at the concert because we can continue our conversation.
Another thing: I wanted to add about some more music I am enjoying these days, for starters, I am loving the Hedgwig and the angry inch soundtrack, I have some of those songs among my favorite tracks on my ipod. Also, the Reservoir dogs soundtrack is pretty cool, very similar to other Quentin Tarantino movies, but that is a good thing. I have among my fav tracks these days the Santa Esmeralda cover of Dont let me be misunderstood which appears in the Kill Bill vol. 1 soundtrack. Another artists I am loving this week are the The Faint songs and some other tunes by the Magnetic Fields.
Now that we have a subway, I am finding very appropiate to ride the train to listen to hip hop, trip hop and some electronic artists like Thievery Corporation, Kruder and Dorfmeister and Prefuse 73. I am liking very much these also a very gentle group, which I know I have said already they are, named MUM. They should be famous and adored, and I do not know why they arent. There should be major labels fighting between themselves for the privilege of signing them, because a bad thing about recording for a indy label is that they do not have the budget for being able to heavily promote musical acts. But they should be on the cover of magazines , because once you listen to any of their stuff once, there is no going back to crappy electronica, like Moby, for example.
I am not sure what I intend to read next, but I should finish the Ellroy novel, and I also realize that I have not read any graphic novel in a WHILE, and I love them, a lot. I browsed the new Volpi essay and found it hard to drop and very interesting, because I know only general stuff about the Chiapas uprising, althought I feel lot of empathy for the sentiment that drives their whole initiative. In the whole of Latin America and also at my school it was a very popular topic. I would also enjoy some kind of update of how things are right now, because there has been many changes in the mexican political arena since 1994.
New music I want to check out this week are The Life Aquatic soundtrack, two albums by Quasi, some albums by Xiu Xiu and other stuff. So much music and so little time, right?
Well, I guess this is my longest update ever, anyway, I will post a review of Sundays show hopefully either on Sunday or Monday night, bye.
First of all, I am finishing my second reading of the Richard Prices novel Clockers. Less than 70 pages to go, and hopefully I will end it befote starting my work shift of tomorrow. I am enjoying this book a lot, anda m planning t oread other stuff by him in the future.
One of my best friends in the whole world, Elga, and her boyfriend Miguel, are in Puerto Rico for a visit. Her boyfriend is a very good sax placer and a very good friend. He is here because he is promoting his latest cd and also because he has a gig at the local Heineken jazz Fest, which started today (althought he plays on Sunday, and I am attending, YEAH!!). As a matter of fact my father is there now. This years festival is dedicated, by the way, to the great brazilian singer, Gal Costa, who will perform on Saturday.
My friends name, Miguel, is a jazz musician who has been around for some time, even thought he is young. He has placed with great musicians including Ray Barreto and David Sanchez and his third release, which was last week, is named Ceremonial and is Zenons attempt at an hybrid between local folk music and contemporary jazz music. I like his music, even thought I am his friend, and if anyone is interested I would suggest that you start with his second release, Ceremonial.
My friend Elga, who I love very much, gave me a great birthday gift, a very cool looking and also very protective leather case for my Ipod (by the way, I am very much in love with my it, my fab gadget now, besides my pc, my fast connection and my dvds!). I am so happy that she is here because I missed her a lot this last few months.
Her mom, Vilma, Elga, Miguel and me went yesterday to a very good game basketball game of the local league. Our fav team, the Ponce Lions versus the Santurce Crabbers. The Lions are the defending champions and where playing against their nemesis, which they beat again in a very emocional ending. The other very cool thing was that we went to and from the game using the new subway, which is brand new and a very good addition to our metropolitan area, and the other cool thing is that the game was placed at our very pretty new stadium, the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot, which at night looks even prettier!!!!
I had duch great time then, because we had tons of laughs and we had not been able to had such a night because Elga and Miguel live in NYC and are not in Puerto Rico a lot these days, in fact, she is leaving next Thursday,. Which sucks, but that is how life is.
Alter the game we stayed at Vilmas home and spoke a lot and saw some bits from the Ali G show and laughed our ass off. For those are not aware of him, The Ali G show is a british comedy show, which can be seen on the HBO show, that makes fun of black rappers, racism in a whole lot of forms, the whole fashion industry, gayness, politicians and whole lot of other things. He is a great actor and a very good improviser, plus he has constructed three well rounded characters: Ali G, Borat and Bruno. Because the actor, Sasha Baron, is getting to be so well-known and his show is mostly a prank show, he must start to make some other characters or else try to ge tinto other countries where he migh be not as well known, in other to be sucessfull in his many fake interviews.
Another cool thing was that Miguel had on his pc a very funny sound bit of Jennifer Lopez doing some recordings of his latest album. In it she makes some very ugly out of tune singing and it is so obvious in it that as a singer she is very pitiful. It is a shame that some people find good qualities in her music, but I guess that to each, his or her own.
I brought to Elgas some books I wanted to lend to her, included three Antonio Fuguet novels (Tinta Roja, Por favor rebobinar and Mala onda), Carlos Ruiz Zafons La sombra del viento and Matthew Prices The Dante Club. I think she might enjoya t least the Fuguet ones and I hope she also likes the Zafon one, the other one I think might make Vilma happy.
Today we had a great time too. First we, me and Elga (Miguel was busy doing interviews) went to our favorite book store, La tertulia. This is the best bookstore of spanish-written books in the Island and it is set very near our Alma Mater, the UPR at Rio Piedras. Today we had a great experience. First we met another very dear friend, Marina, which is very close but I hardly see because of our schedules being so different and complicated. Her birthday is on the 22 of May, the before mine, but I had not seen her to give her a gift, but I got her one today, a very cool novel by a young good autor named Santiago Gamboa, the novel being Los Impostores, his latest novel. She got me as a birthday gift a Roberto Bolano novel I have not read yet (he is the autor who is featured in my profile pic, he recently died and that is very sad, he was very good).
We had a great conversation with one of the owners of the bookstore, about Jose Saramagos ouvre and also about the new popes writings. There where many very cool books in the stores but I had to settle on two, the latest by Jorge Volpi, whis is an essay about the 1994 Chiapas EZLN uprising and a book about the muslim political history.
I had the latest Fuguet novel on my hands plus some other stuff but they will have to wait.
Afterwards, we went with another one of our friends, Tania, to one of favorite restaurants in the metropolitan area, called Auroritas, and they do mexican food, very good food. We talked a lot, because we had a lot of catching up, and we had a great time there. Afterwards we did not do much, but it was a great time. It is very cool that we are going to meet again on Sunday at the concert because we can continue our conversation.
Another thing: I wanted to add about some more music I am enjoying these days, for starters, I am loving the Hedgwig and the angry inch soundtrack, I have some of those songs among my favorite tracks on my ipod. Also, the Reservoir dogs soundtrack is pretty cool, very similar to other Quentin Tarantino movies, but that is a good thing. I have among my fav tracks these days the Santa Esmeralda cover of Dont let me be misunderstood which appears in the Kill Bill vol. 1 soundtrack. Another artists I am loving this week are the The Faint songs and some other tunes by the Magnetic Fields.
Now that we have a subway, I am finding very appropiate to ride the train to listen to hip hop, trip hop and some electronic artists like Thievery Corporation, Kruder and Dorfmeister and Prefuse 73. I am liking very much these also a very gentle group, which I know I have said already they are, named MUM. They should be famous and adored, and I do not know why they arent. There should be major labels fighting between themselves for the privilege of signing them, because a bad thing about recording for a indy label is that they do not have the budget for being able to heavily promote musical acts. But they should be on the cover of magazines , because once you listen to any of their stuff once, there is no going back to crappy electronica, like Moby, for example.
I am not sure what I intend to read next, but I should finish the Ellroy novel, and I also realize that I have not read any graphic novel in a WHILE, and I love them, a lot. I browsed the new Volpi essay and found it hard to drop and very interesting, because I know only general stuff about the Chiapas uprising, althought I feel lot of empathy for the sentiment that drives their whole initiative. In the whole of Latin America and also at my school it was a very popular topic. I would also enjoy some kind of update of how things are right now, because there has been many changes in the mexican political arena since 1994.
New music I want to check out this week are The Life Aquatic soundtrack, two albums by Quasi, some albums by Xiu Xiu and other stuff. So much music and so little time, right?
Well, I guess this is my longest update ever, anyway, I will post a review of Sundays show hopefully either on Sunday or Monday night, bye.
-jamie
cuidate
F