Free live music and dance in Las Palmas, April 2019

Spring is here for real. A lot of free music outdoors — sometimes there are two or three worthwhile concerts the same day. Which one to choose?

• 11 April: Luis Suárez @ Teatro Guiniguada, Plaza F. Mesa de León, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  Luis Suárez gave an illuminating masterclass of electronic percussion. I wish his drumkit was positioned at the same level that audience though: in spite of me seating in the first row, I could hardly see what he was doing. Luckily, his laptop was projected to the big screen.

• 13 April: Althay Páez @ Parque Doramas
  I first saw Althay Páez almost seven years ago, performing at the Fuerteventura en Música festival. This time, he was accompanied by Jonay González Mesa (guitar), Johnny Olivares (percussion), Jairo Cabrera (brass and woodwind instruments) and Juanka González Trujillo (bass), with guest musician Julio Pereira (cavaquinho) and surprise appearance of Olga Cerpa.

• 15 April: Bach Brunch I @ Auditorio Alfredo Kraus, Avda. Príncipe de Asturias
  What, free music in Auditorio? Yes, as a part of the International Bach Festival Canarias there were two free concerts, at 12:30, half an hour each. Timur and I went to see both of them. The first one featured the Canarian pianist Evelia Rodríguez, who performed Bach’s English Suite No. 2 in A minor BWV 807 and Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 55, No. 2 by Chopin. She played an encore too, I just don’t know what it was.
• 17 April: Bach Brunch II @ Auditorio Alfredo Kraus
  Canadian (not Canarian!) violinist Kerson Leong performed Bach’s Partita No. 3 in E major BWV 1006 and Sonata No. 2 “Jacques Thibaud” by Eugene Ysaÿe, plus a mindblowing version of Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega for an encore.
• 21 April: The Josés with Errol Woiski @ Clipper La Puntilla, Calle Caleta
  I saw The Josés almost a year ago and, sloppy repertoire notwithstanding, quite liked how they played. This Easter Sunday, Errol Woiski (vocals and guitar) joined them for some no-nonsense good old blues, so Timur and I also enjoyed what they played.
• 25—26 April: Muestra de escuelas de danza española @ Teatro Guiniguada
  I only attended the first evening of this showcase, on 25 April. It was free but you still need to get a ticket beforehand. I came to the theatre by 5 o’clock and joined the long queue. As far as I could see and hear, it was dominated by mums of young dancers. The lady in front of me told me that “somos seis” (“there’s six of us”). People were leaving the box office waving wads of tickets. Some of them just could not leave — they were coming back to see their friends and relations and instruct them to get more.

  — Coño, chacha, tieneh muchah entradah. ¿Puedeh darme una?
  — Mira niña, todavía no sé si vendrán la abuela y mi cuñada.

  I think I was the only one who asked for just one ticket. The show started at 20:30. Next to me there sat a granny holding an amazingly well-behaved baby. The programme was presented by Javier del Real. There were four schools of dance participating, including the school of the very Javier del Real and school of Elena Sánchez, plus a group of former students of Coca Navarro, and a great variety of dances: not just sevillanas and flamenco, but also classical ballet (bits of  Don Quixote and Carmen Suite) and even one reggaeton number, with couple of really young dancers (I’d say, five- or six-year-olds).

  

• 27 April: Zenet @ Parque Doramas
  Until last Saturday, I was unaware of Toni Zenet (Málaga, 1967). The actor, singer and songwriter turned out to be so popular that, although I came well in advance, the venue (let’s call the seating area next to the stage that) was packed. And the audience knew the lyrics of his songs! Presenting his new album La Guapería, “the Andalusian crooner” was accompanied by Raúl Márquez (violin) and José Taboada (guitar).

• 28 April: AYWA @ Parque Doramas
  Featuring Adil Smaali (lead vocals, ngoni, qraqeb), Damien Fadat (flute, keyboards, vocals), Damien Hilaire (drums, vocals), Guilhem Chapeau Centurion (bass guitar, vocals) and Théophile Vialy (guitar, vocals), AYWA play irresistibly catchy fusion of raï, jazz, rock and reggae with Balkan and Celtic influences.

  

  AYWA caught in the act!

  

  More photos of AYWA @ Shutterstock

• 29 April: Muestra de Danza Contemporánea @ Teatro Guiniguada
  More than 100 dancers from Canarias and beyond took place in this showcase on the International Dance Day. Among them, academies of Natalia Medina, Erre estudios, Carmen Cabrera, La Groove (Fuerteventura), Escuela municipal de danza de Candelaria (Tenerife), and NT estudios de danza. A bit of a mixed bag: some inventive examples of modern dance, including break dance, contemporary ballet, musical theatre, or even cabaret, interspersed with rather insipid Zumba-like routines set to reggaeton or hip-hop with explicit lyrics — sometimes I really wish the choreographers in this country knew English better.

Le clitoris

a film by Lori Malépart-Traversy

At just over three minutes, Le clitoris is a gem of an animation that is both informative and fun. I’d say it should be a part of sex-ed curriculum from primary level up. Also, many grown-ups will benefit from watching it. The protagonist is so cute. How not to love it? Yet it have had some powerful enemies, such as Sigmund Freud, who wrote that

Elimination of clitoral sexuality is a necessary precondition for the development of femininity, since it is immature and masculine in its nature.

What a pathetic quack — alas, just one of many who tried to “discredit, dismiss and delete” the clitoris. Mostly men, who can’t tolerate women having an organ dedicated to pure pleasure. Of women.

Speaking of pleasure: naturally, you cannot please everybody. One of the comments (from a man, of course) goes: “A longer, more in-depth version would be awesome”. Seriously?

If your French is a bit rusty, or non-existent (like mine), fear not: it has English subtitles. There is a Spanish-dubbed version as well.

Namrud: Troublemaker

a film by Fernando Romero Forsthuber

How often do you watch Austrian films? I think I’ve never watched one. Until yesterday, that is, when I went to see Documental del Mes by Filmoteca Canaria in Teatro Guiniguada. And if I didn’t google it beforehand, I would never guess, because this documentary has precious little to do with Austria. I went as far as to check out the reviews. All of them were in German.

Forget the reviews, I thought, let’s see it for real. It’s only €1.

The film turned out to be way better than one would expect from the trailer. True, it might be a bit puzzling to the first-world audience. So, Jowan Safadi is a Palestinian singer-songwriter. Not only he does not look like a troublemaker: if there is any controversy about his songs, it is just normal amount of controversy that you’d expect from any true author. He simply does what a singers-songwriter is supposed to do. So what if some people get offended? Some people always get offended.

In one scene — it looked more like someone’s kitchen than a studio — Jowan patiently explains to the organiser of an Israeli music festival the reasons why he was ignoring or rejecting invitations from other such festivals; the guy, in his turn, spells out why Jowan really has to perform there. Both have valid points.

Throughout the film, Jowan bonds with his 16-year-old son, plays with his dog, goes to the beach with his son and the dog, visits his parents, goes to the parties full of young people — in other words, tries to live a normal life in abnormal country. Oh, he also sings, writes songs, and makes a fun video clip — in Hebrew! Instead of falling asleep, I ended up enjoying it a lot. That’s €1 well spent, I say.

Paris sera toujours Paris

by Màxim Huerta and Maria Herreros

I took this book from the library just to look at the illustrations and ended up reading it from back to back. There’s no particular order you have to follow though.

No matter how much you love Paris, to call anything after the song by Maurice Chevalier, a bit of a cliché itself, is a cliché squared. Moreover, the title is deceiving: the book is more about some of the more fascinating people who happened to live in Paris than the city itself, and not toujours either but mostly in the first half of the 20^th century. And what people! Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet, Brassaï, Foujita, Kiki de Montparnasse, Tamara de Lempicka, Mistinguett, Modigliani, Picasso, Man Ray, Gertrude Stein... Even Pascin and Lucy Vidil Krohg, of whose existence I was ignorant until just a month ago, make their appearance.

To get a taste of the book, have a look here.

My mum used to say

Сердцеведением и мудрым познаньем жизни отзовётся слово британца; лёгким щёголем блеснёт и разлетится недолговечное слово француза; затейливо придумает своё, не всякому доступное, умно-худощавое слово немец; но нет слова, которое было бы так замашисто, бойко, так вырвалось бы из-под самого сердца, так бы кипело и животрепетало, как метко сказанное русское слово.

Н. В. Гоголь

With a profound knowledge of the heart and a wise grasp of life will the word of the Briton echo; like an airy dandy will the impermanent word of the Frenchman flash and then burst into smithereens; finickily, intricately will the German contrive his intellectually gaunt word, which is not within the easy reach of everybody. But there is never a word which can be so sweeping, so boisterous, which would burst out so, from out of the very heart, which would seethe so and quiver and flutter so much like a living thing, as an aptly uttered Russian word!

Nikolai Gogol

I learned my Russian (I flatter myself that I know it rather well) from my mum. She wasn’t a language teacher: she taught PE, art and technical drawing at school. Although her mother tongue was Ukrainian, she spoke it rarely and did not attempt to teach us any. I remember just a few of Ukrainian sayings [1], and she would mark those as such, often introducing them with «как говорил/а ...» (“as ... said”) [2]. Her written Russian was impeccable (I don’t recall a single spelling or grammatical mistake in her letters, no corrections either, but clearly I am not objective here), while her spoken language was simple and sophisticated at the same time. And she always found a perfect time and place for that aptly uttered Russian word.

The sources of those words were too many, ranging from colloquialisms, folk songs and proverbs to Krylov, Pushkin, Gogol to modern authors, like Vysotsky and Zhvanetsky.

Sometimes she deliberately used a patently non-standard [3] or “illiterate” word, typically borrowed from her students (e.g. чумадан instead of чемодан).

Here is a list of some words and expressions of велимог [4] I heard from my mum a lot. It’s very incomplete but, as she used to say, хорошего понемножку.

• аж жуть: added when talking jokingly about something scary (after Vysotsky’s «страшно аж жуть»)
• аля-улю: said about somebody or something that has gone
• артачиться: упрямиться // to be stubborn; see also заартачиться
• бабка-ёжка: diminutive of баба-яга; Baba Yaga, used in a sense “old hag”, “old witch”, sometimes self-deprecatingly. See старая кляча
• балдео: балда // blockhead (after the hunter Baldeo from The Jungle Book) ♦ «вот балдео!»
• бздючка: 1) a stink bug; 2) a girl or a woman of small stature
• брегет: часы // a watch (after Breguet, as mentioned by Pushkin)
• вдрабадан: very drunk ♦ «напился вдрабадан»
• веришь: would you believe it
• ветер под носом: said to somebody who complains that the dish is too hot, meaning that they can use their own breath to cool it down
• взъерепениться: to bristle at somebody or something
• во всю ивановскую: for all one is worth
• водохлёб: somebody who drinks a lot of water or tea
• всё как по науке: то, что доктор прописал // what the doctor ordered
• всхрапнуть (← храпеть ← спать): to have a nap ♦ «всхрапнула часок»; see also поехать в Храпово
• выпендриваться: рисоваться // to show off
• гакость: гадость // somebody or something unpleasant, revolting
• глануть (← глотнуть): хлебнуть, попить // to drink (a small amount), to have a drop ♦ «чайку глану и пойду»
• дать кругаля: сделать ненужный крюк // to make an unnecessary detour
• дать пендаля: пнуть под зад // kick somebody’s ass
• дед Пихто: joking (non)answer to the question «кто?»
• деду Хому: joking (non)answer to the question «кому?»
• дзеці (Belarusian): children
• дитячий (Ukrainian): children’s
• до морковкина заговенья: до ослиной пасхи // for ever and ever; till the end of time
• дрэк: дрянь // rubbish
• дрэковский: дрянской // of poor quality
• дуралей: a silly creature, especially a larger than average dog
• дурацкий: bothersome or stupid ♦ «голова болит дурацкая», «песня дурацкая»
• дылда: (disapprovingly) a tall person
• жирдяй, жиртрест, жиртрест-промсосиска: (disapprovingly) fatso; see also пончик
• жмот: miser, tight-fisted person
• жмотиться: to be stingy ♦ «давай всё сюда, не жмоться»
• заартачиться: заупрямиться // to get obstinate ♦ «а я тоже заартачилась»; see also артачиться
• заделать: сделать, приготовить // to make, usually of food ♦ «заделала синенькие»
• заговаривать зубы: пускать пыль в глаза // to throw dust in someone’s eyes, to intentionally distract; see also пудрить мозги
• зажухать: to borrow and not return ♦ «у меня ученицы зажухали книгу»
• закидон: peculiarity, oddity ♦ «со своими закидонами»
• закругляться: заканчивать // to conclude, to bring an activity to the end ♦ «всё, закругляйся»
• зараза (interjection): damn it! see also холера
• зафитилить: забросить // to throw (somewhere) ♦ «нашим гол зафитилили»
• захламить: заполнить хламом // to fill (room, house etc.) with junk ♦ «всю хату захламил»
• и смех и грех: said about a tragicomic situation
• иди гуляй: гуляй, Вася // a way to dismiss somebody’s argument or suggestion; “get lost!”
• кабыздох: a small dog
• как пёс, как псы: way too much ♦ «коты надоели как псы»
• канючить: to moan, to complain ♦ «если бы мама моя не канючила, я бы ещё раньше в Москву уехала»
• капец: death, the end (a portmanteau of конец and капут)
• книга законов: originally, Энциклопедия домашнего хозяйства; later, any encyclopaedia or reference book
• крукадакать: кудахтать // to cackle, to cluck; to make meaningless noise
• лапсердак: телогрейка // padded jacket
• лахудра: непричёсанная, лохматая женщина // dishevelled, shaggy woman, as exemplified by Alla Pugacheva
• линуть: to pour (a small amount) ♦ «мне чайку лини, пожалуйста»
• малюська: a small creature ♦ «это что там за малюська крукадакает?»
• Мамай прошёл: total mess ♦ «в хате Мамай прошёл»
• мандраж: state of anxiety
• мандражировать: to be anxious, nervous
• мать Тереза: благодетельница // (jokingly) “Mother Teresa”, benefactress
• мировой: first-class, great; see also обалденный ♦ «девчата такие мировые»
• на кудыкину гору: joking (non)answer to the question «куда?»
• напортачить: to screw up
• нареза́ть: убегать // to run away; see also тика́ть, улепётывать
• не могу: said of somebody or something very cute or funny ♦ «такая барышня стала, не могу»
• обалденный: превосходный // excellent ♦ «закуска обалденная»
• обкорнать: подстричь // to cut (hair), to prune (tree)
• обратимся к первоисточникам: let’s check the primary sources; see also книга законов
• опростоволоситься: to make a blunder ♦ «знаешь, я тут так опростоволосилась»
• опосля: после, потом // after, later
• офонареть: to go nuts, to get (esp. unpleasantly) surprised ♦ «я аж офонарела»; see also чокнуться
• подмывать: to be tempted ♦ «меня так и подмывает»
• поехать в Храпово (← храпеть ← спать): to go to bed; see also всхрапнуть
• по-мальчишьи: in a boy’s fashion, meaning clumsily, not skilfully
• пончик: (approvingly) a plump person ♦ «настоящий пончик»; see also жирдяй
• пошукать: поискать // to look for
• приударять: to court ♦ «приударял за мной в своё время»
• прошвырнуться: прогуляться, пройтись // go for a stroll ♦ «пойдём прошвырнёмся»
• прям: like fun! yeah, right! see also иди гуляй
• псивый: of dirty-grey or brownish colour ♦ «пальто какое-то псивое»
• пудрить мозги: to dupe, to bullshit somebody; see also заговаривать зубы
• разделаться: to finish a task ♦ «так, с цыплаками разделалась»
• раздраконить: разодрать, разворотить // to tear up, to break ♦ «ну что, раздраконим пирог?»
• расфуфыриться: разодеться // to dress up, to posh oneself up
• расхламить: opposite of захламить; to tidy, to get rid of junk ♦ «стол чуть расхламим и хорэ»
• рубать: наворачивать // to eat (a lot)
• с приветом: crazy or weird person ♦ «он вообще с приветом»; see also чокнутый
• сбить с панталыку: to confuse somebody
• се́рдиться: серди́ться // to get angry ♦ «не се́рдись»
• Серёж, Серёж, какой берёшь: said when offering a choice (typically, of two objects hidden behind the back, or, if small, in the fists)
• сёрбать: to slurp
• синенькие: баклажаны // aubergines
• смотаться: go for a short trip ♦ «смотаюсь в Москву»
• сойдёт за третий сорт: will do
• старая кляча: old nag (often used self-deprecatingly)
• страхолюдина: any ugly creature
• спындрить: стырить, украсть // to nick, to steal
• супец: суп, похлёбка // soup ♦ «садись супцу похлебать»
• телепаться: болтаться // dangle
• телик: телевизор // TV set
• тика́ть: убегать // to run away; see also нареза́ть, улепётывать
• толкачики, толкачи: гадючий лук // plant from the genus Muscari
• трясучка: дрожь // shiver ♦ «меня бьёт трясучка»; any “new” dance she did not approve of ♦ «танцуют трясучку»
• тю!: an interjection expressing disappointment or disdain
• уделать: испачкать, сломать, сделать негодным // to stain, to break, to render useless ♦ «свои штаны окончательно уделала»
• улепётывать: убегать // to run away; see also нареза́ть, тика́ть
• умрёшь (← умрёшь со смеху): said about somebody or something very funny ♦ «потешный, умрёшь»; see also не могу
• фазенда [5]: 1) dacha; 2) verandah ♦ «выставила цветы на фазенду»
• финтифлюшка: 1) trinket; 2) frivolous woman
• фурычить: работать // (of an appliance) to function, to work ♦ «телик дурацкий не фурычит»
• хата: дом, квартира, комната // home, house, flat, room ♦ «снег не тащи в хату»
• холера (interjection): damn it! ♦ «вот холера!»; see also зараза
• холка: nape, back of the neck ♦ «вся холка взмокла»
• хомут да клещи: worthless junk; to add after somebody else says the word вещи
• хорошего понемножку: all good things in moderation
• хорэ: 1) same as хорош, enough, stop; 2) same as хорошо, good ♦ «всё будет хорэ»
• хрюкать (← храпеть ← спать): to sleep ♦ «пойду хрюкать»
• цвенькать (Ukrainian): 1) to chirp, to twitter; 2) to speak a foreign language
• целюкать: целовать // to kiss ♦ «всех целюкаю»
• чёрт-те что (и сбоку бантик): чёрт знает что // the devil knows what; a mess
• чи шо? (Ukrainian): or what?
• чокнутый: crazy or weird person; see also с приветом
• чокнуться: to go nuts ♦ «чокнуться можно»; see also офонареть
• цыплак: цыплёнок // chicken
• шматок: кусок // a piece, a bit (of food)
• шмурыгать: шаркать // to shuffle (one’s feet) ♦ «не шмурыгай ногами!»
• шумелки: not very serious poetry, especially her own
• шуровать: to rummage, to stir, to develop vigorous activity of any sort ♦ «мыши шуруют под полом»
• эт дело я люблю (a quote from «Голубой щенок»): I like it!

---

1. Here they are, all four of them.
   
   1. Їж, поки рот свіж.
   2. Коли як, коли як (коли збуваються, коли ні).
   3. На тобі, Боже, що мені негоже.
   4. Що ваші роблять? — Пообідали та й хліб жують!
2. She would always give the due credit for Russian sayings too.
3. For example, back-formed words, such as одуван ← одуванчик, пёхом ← пешком, толкачи ← толкачики.
4. Short for «великий, могучий, правдивый и свободный русский язык», “great, mighty, true and free Russian language” (after Turgenev).
5. The word фазенда (fazenda) became popular in the USSR after the Brazilian soap opera Escrava Isaura.

Shazam!

a film by David F. Sandberg

Yesterday, on Timur’s suggestion/recommendation, we went to see the latest instalment in the DCEU. For the first quarter an hour or so, I was bored. Then things started to get interesting. Also, very silly. I mean, if a supervillain’s team struggling to wreck havoc on a Christmas fun fair isn’t silly, then I don’t know what is. But it’s all good, solid, fun stuff.

I know, it’s a log movie, but please don’t leave before watching the animated end credits set to the Ramones’ cover of Tom Waits’ I Don’t Wanna Grow Up.

В январе, первого апреля

First published 12 April 2019 @ sólo algunas palabras

When I was little, I thought that instead of «День космонавтики» (Cosmonautics Day) one should say «День космонавтиков».

Allow me to explain. I had no clue what космонавтика (cosmonautics) is but did know the word космонавт (cosmonaut) from which, naturally enough, I could form a diminutive космонавтик, i.e. a little cosmonaut. Therefore, «День космонавтиков» (Day of little cosmonauts) makes a lot of sense and is grammatically correct, since the word космонавтиков is in genitive, while «День космонавтики» does not because космонавтики stay in nominative. See what I mean?

Oh, here he goes again, I hear you saying, with those Russian cases. And you’ll be absolutely right. You may recall that we need a number of cases to express the time of day. Today you will see that to talk about time in general (day, date etc.) we need all six (or seven) of them.

Дело было в январе, Первого апреля. Было жарко во дворе, Мы окоченели. Anonymous

As mentioned before, Russian names for days of the week are more interesting (or, at least, less trivial) than names of the months. I trust you already know them. Now, let’s try to say what day it is today.

Сегодня пятница, двенадцатое апреля две тысячи девятнадцатого года.

Today is Friday, the twelfth of April of the year two thousand nineteen.

Note that both the noun пятница and the numeral двенадцатое are in nominative, while the month апреля and year две тысячи девятнадцатого года are in genitive. This can be conveniently translated to English with the help of the preposition “of”.

There is another, equally correct, way to say the same:

Сегодня пятница, двенадцатого апреля две тысячи девятнадцатого года.

Here the numeral двенадцатого is in genitive [1].

Let’s organise some event on that date.

Мы встречаемся в пятницу, двенадцатого апреля две тысячи девятнадцатого года.

We meet on Friday, the twelfth of April of the year two thousand nineteen.

Here the date has to be in genitive: двенадцатого апреля, not двенадцатое апреля. But what about Friday? We use the preposition в + accusative: в пятницу, just like we do with hours, e.g. в три часа. In general, days (of the week, holidays, birthdays) require accusative, whether we need the prepositions (в or на) or not: в День космонавтики, на мой день рождения, каждую пятницу, в следующие выходные etc.

В какой день недели, в котором часу Ты выйдешь ко мне осторожно, Когда я тебя на руках унесу Туда, где найти невозможно. Владимир Высоцкий, «Лирическая»

If we talk about events happening during the week, we need на followed by prepositional case: на прошлой неделе, на следующей неделе, на Страстной неделе and so on. The на + prepositional is also used for particular times of the day: на заре “at dawn” and на закате “at sunset”, in literal as well as in figurative sense: на заре цивилизации “at the dawn of civilization”.

The preposition в takes prepositional case when we talk about events during the periods of time longer than a week: в апреле, в прошлом году [2], в первом квартале, в двадцатом веке, в каменном веке, в первом тысячелетии. However, if such periods have names that employ genitive, as in год Дракона “Year of the Dragon” or век пара “Age of Steam”, we have to apply the accusative again: в год Дракона, в годы войны, в век пара and so on.

В эпоху войн, в эпоху кризисов, Когда действительность страшна, У засекреченного физика Была красивая жена. Валерий Бурилов

Events on geologic time scale could be expressed in either accusative or prepositional: в юрский период or в юрском периоде, в мезозойскую эру or в мезозойской эре.

Accusative is needed when we talk about the entire time period, e.g. целый год, or when such period is mentioned in combination with an ordinal numeral, e.g. третий год.

Закричал он: — Что за шутки! Еду я вторые сутки, А приехал я назад, А приехал в Ленинград! С. Я. Маршак, «Вот какой рассеянный»

We also can utilise the accusative construction на ... год instead of more common в ... году:

Сколько я лет с раздушкой знался, На последний год расстался. «Дарю платок» (народная)

When we need to indicate duration of time (from... to...), we use either с + genitive / до + genitive construction, e.g. с понедельника до пятницы, or с + genitive / по + accusative, e.g. с понедельника по пятницу.

The dative is used in combination with preposition к in the sense “by”, e.g. к следующей пятнице, к лету, к Новому году. For recurring events, we apply the dative plural: по пятницам, по чётным дням, по выходным.

По утрам, надев трусы, Не забудьте про часы. Андрей Вознесенский, «Не забудь»

Finally, we resort to the instrumental case for events happening at particular time of day, e.g. ранним утром, or particular season, e.g. раннней весной, прошлой зимой.

Дело было вечером, Делать было нечего. Сергей Михалков, «А что у вас?»

Зелёною весной Под старою сосной С любимою Ванюша прощается. Леонид Дербенёв, «Кап-кап-кап»

We need the instrumental to congratulate with any event:

Поздравляю с праздником!

This formula is so common that the word поздравлять is normally dropped, so the congratulation is reduced to just с + instrumental: с днём рождения, с Рождеством, с Новым годом, с днём космонавтики etc.

Case	Usage	Example
Nominative	diary entries	пятница, двенадцатое апреля, час дня
Genitive	dates	двенадцатого апреля две тысячи девятнадцатого года
	M minutes to H hour	без пяти
	from... to...	с понедельника до пятницы
Dative	by...	к девяти часам, к следующей пятнице
	recurring events	по пятницам, по ночам
Accusative	events at particular time	в два часа, в половину четвёртого
	events on days	в пятницу
	until...	по пятницу
	events during the year	на следующий год
	events during periods that use genitive	в годы войны
	events on geologic time scale	в юрский период
	whole period	прошлую неделю, всё лето, круглый год
	ordinal numeral + period	четвертые сутки, первую неделю
Instrumental	events during the time of day	ранним утром
	events during the season	поздней осенью
Prepositional	sun-related events of the day	на заре, на закате
	events during the week	на прошлой неделе
	events during the longer periods of time	в апреле, в XIX веке
	events on geologic time scale	в юрском периоде
Locative	events during the hour	во втором часу
	events during the year	в 2019-ом году; на 50-ом году жизни
	events during the lifetime	на моём веку́

__________________________________________________

1. Only a century or so ago, say more or less until the October revolution, the dates were expressed somewhat differently. For example, 12.04.1919 would be «тысяча девятьсот девятнадцатого года апреля двенадцатого дня», literally “of the year one thousand nine hundred nineteen of April of the twelfth day”. Here everything is in genitive, which kind of makes sense — almost. The genitive case shows that something belongs to something else: the month belongs to the year and the day belongs to the month. It is like a Russian doll. Nevertheless, you’d expect the innermost doll, i.e. day, to be in nominative. But here we have дня, not день. Why? Could it be that the “day doll” actually has another doll inside, viz. that of the implied event?
2. More precisely, we employ в + locative with год (“year”) → в году́.

Braguino

a film by Clément Cogitore

After watching the last episode of Planet Earth II, Tamara said: “Please remind me never to go to Ethiopia”. I had similar thoughts after watching this documentary in Teatro Guiniguada, shown as a part of the new cycle, Tour D’A, by Filmoteca Canaria.

It takes a while to reach this point in the middle of taiga, hundreds of miles from the nearest village: first by boat, then by helicopter. There must be a good reason to go there, you’d think. Well... There live just two families, and they aren’t even on speaking terms. The cause of this cold war? Territory, as if there was not enough. Throughout the film, the members of one family (Braguins) explain how bad are the others (Kilins), friends with “bandits” from the unnamed “city” (I guess a village of any size must be a city compared to Braguino). We never have a chance to hear the Kilins’ point of view.

I found some scenes, for example, bear hunting, quite disturbing. Yet there is a beauty, a depressing, frightening beauty, but a beauty nonetheless, to this place. And then there are children. All the children (Nordic-looking blondes) were born there. The children of both families play on neutral ground. One day, I hope, they will leave their birthplace. One of them, the future Tarkovsky, will shoot their own Mirror where Braguino is bound to emerge as some kind of lost paradise, while the real one, for the good or the bad, will probably disappear from the face of Earth.

Pascin

by Joann Sfar
translated by Ana Millán

How come I never heard of Julius Mordecai Pincas, aka Jules Pascin (1885—1930), the “Prince of Montparnasse”, before? Nor of Chaim Soutine, for that matter. One day, going out of the library, I took a book from the shelf (of the new or recently retuned items), randomly opened it and saw this (except it was in Spanish):

Which is surprising on itself, given that almost every other page shows its protagonist accompanied by ladies in varying degrees of nudity, the painter’s favourite subject.

When I went to see Lulu femme nue in Monopol last week, I had the book with me. There was still about ten minutes until the start of the movie, so I just sat there browsing it. Three French-speaking ladies made their way to the row before me. One of them turned around and, with charming directness, addressed her companions: “Regardez, Pascin!” — luckily, they ignored that, it wouldn’t be very comfortable if all of them indeed started looking. From which I conclude that the comic must be famous in France.

I would have come across the name of Pascin if I ever read A Moveable Feast, which I didn’t. As it happened, I first learned about Pascin meeting Hemingway in Paris from Sfar’s comic (pp. 181—182), then I found a blog post describing this very encounter (from where I borrowed two pages reproduced below), and then I finally moved on to Hemingway’s own account. I find Sfar’s version funnier, not to mention shorter.

Another celebrity encounter, between Pascin and Claude McKay, takes place on pp. 163—165, and the dialogue, at least in the Spanish version (I’m sure it’s the same in the original French edition), goes on in English. (During this dialogue, Pascin teaches McKay to curse in Yiddish.) I bet the whole thing loses something in English translation.

The author takes care to note that the events decribed in the comic are fictitious and it is not the biography of real Julius Pincas. The book consists of the seven episodes originally published between 1997 and 1999 in the comic magazine Lapin. I understand that they appear in the book in order of publication and, as such, indeed do not present any continuous narrative. But who cares. I’d like to see the follow-up.

Lulu femme nue

a film by Sólveig Anspach

I learned of the VII Festival de Cine del Liceo Francés quite by chance, that is, by way of a friend sharing the info on Facebook. So yesterday I went to see a French movie. The entry costs €2 and they even give you a piece of chocolate (to select from dark, milk and white).

Somehow I misinterpreted the nue of the title as an indication that the protagonist will be baring her soul throughout the film. Thankfully, Lulu (Karin Viard) did nothing of the sort, but quite literally went for a skinny dip — perhaps one more thing that the “runaway housewife” did for the first time in her life. The evolution of Lulu from a low self-esteem “runaway housewife” to the woman who returns home to take what’s hers is nothing short of a miracle. Beautiful.

Free live music in Las Palmas, March 2019

Of course, March is the month of Carnival, but there was so much more to see and to hear in Las Palmas for free!

• 3 March: Olga Cerpa & Mestisay @ Gabinete Literario, Plaza de Cairasco, 1, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  This is the first time ever that I went to the Gabinete Literario which occupies the beautiful building of former Teatro Cairasco, bang in the centre of the island’s capital. Olga Cerpa & Mestisay played a daytime concert on Sunday and the hall was full. I found myself in the middle of a queue just outside of the entrance which didn’t move anywhere: “Ta lleno.” A group of people left the queue and went around the corner. In a few minutes, I spied them within, so I followed their example and embarked on search of an alternative entrance. It presented itself as a locked door. I rang the bell (twice). Finally, a lady opened it from inside, telling me once again that it is “a tope” but still, she let me in. I found a place behind the scene and enjoyed the concert thoroughly.
• 5 March: Carlinhos Brown @ Parque Santa Catalina
  Mr Brown and his fantastic band brought the house down — well, there was no house but the main stage of the Carnival, and everybody was dancing!

  

  Carlinhos Brown in Parque Santa Catalina

  

  More photos of Carlinhos Brown @ depositphotos

• 7 March: Berta Moreno @ Teatro Guiniguada, Plaza F. Mesa de León, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  At last! Berta Moreno’s session (once again, thanks to Mousikê La Laguna) was what a masterclass should be. “Are you musicians? What do you play? Who brought an instrument?” she asked. (I didn’t bring anything.) Fortunately, there were two saxophonists and one clarinetist who joined Berta on the stage for a jam.

• 16 March: Caracoles @ Parque Doramas
  From Tenerife with rumba and love, Caracoles were presenting their new album Flores. A colourful touch: in the middle of the show, a guy with a big bag went around the audience to distribute the “flowers” of bougainvillea. The singer encouraged everybody to grab handfuls (or armfuls) of them, and then on her signal, as she sang the first word of Flores (which, incidentally, is Flores), to throw them into the air. Featuring Nuria Hernández (lead vocals), Fabián Rosquete (percussion), Pedro García (bass guitar), Germán Cuesto (Spanish guitar), Luis Pérez (drums), David González (keyboards), Nuria Herrero (backing vocals), Aborá Cel (backing vocals), Rubén Quintana (trumpet), Alejandro Cabrera (trombone) and Ricardo Melchior (sax).

• 22 March: Concierto feminista “La igualdad marca el ritmo” @ The Paper Club, Calle Remedios, 10
  I went primarily to see Flor de Canela and they didn’t disappoint! But I am also glad I’ve got to know the other artists, because they play sort of music I don’t listen that much to, and even less so live. Cintia Lund sings very stylish 1980s-feel electro-pop (for want of a better term) and has awesome and also very stylish, stage presence. She was accompanied by Yanara Espinoza (Papaya) on drums and Ricardo on guitar. By the time the last act took the stage, The Paper Club was pretty full. Tremenda Jauría (Madrid), consisting of Mc Chucho, Mc Machete, Mc Larrata and Ganga Dj, is a live testament to the fact that reggaeton, contrary to the stereotype, can be progressive and feminist. The band cleverly mixes it with sounds of cumbia and punk rock. Still, not my favourite music style, and it is a real shame that, when you really want to hear the lyrics, you can’t, thanks to the venue’s dismal acoustics. The show went from more or less 10:30 pm to 2 am.
• 23 March: Esther Ovejero “Todo sobre Almodóvar” @ Parque Doramas
  What do Cucurrucucú paloma, Ne me quitte pas and I’m So Excited have in common? Why, they all appeared in films by Pedro Almodóvar! They were presented by Esther Ovejero in her spectacular programme “Todo sobre Almodóvar”, together with songs such as En el último trago, Luz de luna, Tonada de luna llena, Puro Teatro and, of course, Volver. The singer from Tenerife was accompanied by Roberto Amor (drums), Patricio José de León (guitar), José Carlos Perdomo (double bass) and David Quevedo (piano).

• 30 March: Happy Piano Day in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, various locations (12:00—19:00)
  The Piano Day, takes place on the 88^th day of the year (due to the standard number of keys on piano), was created by Nils Frahm in 2015. This year it was celebrated on the 29 March worldwide except Las Palmas de Gran Canaria where they did it one day later... or could it be that Canarian pianos have an extra key?
  
  The instruments — thankfully, under the tents — appeared in nine locations around the city. I went for a walk to the centre and saw three of them: one in Parque de San Telmo, another on the corner of c/Triana and c/San Pedro and one more on the corner of c/Triana and c/Travieso. On this last spot they installed two upright pianos back-to-back, and Jose Alberto Medina Quintana, one of the organisers of this event, was sitting there playing a duet with Juan Espino. A great idea, I think they should put the pianos around the place more often.

• 30—31 March: Monopol Music Festival, Plaza de Santa Ana (20:00—01:00)
  The MMF was going from 22 to 31 March, but Timur and I only went to check out the closing concert on the Plaza de Santa Ana. We caught the last song of Lajalada and the first two songs of the Amsterdam-based EUT — then Timur left. I stayed to hear the first song of Mucho and went home, leaving Delafé till another occasion. Of what I heard, it was all right if not great, but the sound left much to be desired: the low frequencies made my guts vibrate way beyond comfortability.
• 31 March: Julie Fowlis @ Parque Doramas
  What a great way to finish the month: the open-air concert of Julie Fowlis and her band! Mostly Scottish and Irish tunes but also The Beatles’ Blackbird (in Gaelic) and one song in Galician. Apart from singing, Julie was playing tin whistles and Shruti box; also, telling us stories behind the songs (I guess there were not that many Gaelic speakers in the audience). “Do you want some more?” — “Yes!!!” — “We don’t know any more!” But of course they played one more, and while they were playing, Julie said her goodbyes and left the scene... only to reappear a few minutes later with a bagpipe to provide the perfectly Scottish coda to the show.

  

  More photos of Julie Fowlis @ Shutterstock