Rubber Soul

by The Beatles

Some 55 years after its release, Timur gave me this album as a Christmas present. And we’ve just listened to it. Ah, memories, memories.

I remember very well the 1970 seven-inch EP by Весёлые Ребята with a Russian-language cover of Drive My Car entitled «Старенький автомобиль». The Russian lyrics by Leonid Berger (Леонид Бергер) has nothing to do with the original but hey, that’s creativity for you. (As mentioned before, the B-side had a cover of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da in English.) I used to hate this version; now I rewatched it and... dammit, I think it’s pretty cool.

«Девушка», the 1969 cover of Girl by Valery Obodzinsky, features even more embarrassing lyrics as well as untranslated chorus «Герл» (!!!). Curiously, the record did not credit Lennon/McCartney while referring to Girl as an “English folk song”. For years, I thought it really was.

I knew a lot of its songs from The Red Album, but it was not until mid-1980s that I heard Rubber Soul in its entirety for the first time.

This 2009 enhanced CD, just like the remastered Magical Mystery Tour, includes the mini-documentary viewable on PC. By now, old CD drive became a luxury that my laptop lacks. Never mind that, I’ll watch it... one day.

Big Red Whale

by Timur Kulikov

What can I say? It’s a whale, it’s red, and it’s big. How big? Depends how big you want it. Here you can order a giclée art print of it; the available sizes are 8 x 8″ (20.3 x 20.3 cm), 12 x 12″ (30.5 x 30.5 cm) and 24 x 24″ (61 x 61 cm). The canvas and acrylic prints are also available.

Михаил Жванецкий (1934—2020)

— Достоевский умер, — сказала гражданка, но как-то не очень уверенно.
— Протестую, — горячо воскликнул Бегемот. — Достоевский бессмертен!

Михаил Булгаков, «Мастер и Маргарита»

I myself am not so sure about Dostoevsky. Perhaps Behemoth was joking, as usual. Mikhail Mikhaylovich Zhvanetsky, who passed away this month, yes, he is immortal. For me, he always was.

— Нового Жванецкого слышали?

In pre-perestroika times, you normally could only hear “new Zhvanetsky” on tape, just like you would only hear “new” (or any) Vysotsky in Brezhnev times. I was lucky enough to see Zhvanetsky live in the 1980s. Him and his equally immortal briefcase. Back then, his performances — Mikhail Mikhaylovich simply standing in front of the audience and reading his monologues — were like rock concerts. Not exactly banned, not approved of either.

In that era, Zhvanetsky was one of very few Russian writers worth reading — or, and especially in his case, worth listening to. I remember somebody asked Yuli Kim on one of his concerts in 1980s who, in Kim’s opinion, is the greatest modern Russian writer. “Fazil Iskander, of course”, Kim said. “Fazil is our banner”... He hesitated for a second. “But what about Zhvanetsky? He is our banner too. Looks like we have two banners then.”

The times have changed, Zhvanetsky has got the official recognition, was decorated with titles, orders and so on and so forth. It did not make him loyal to the regime though. And his old monologues still ring true. So the times did not change.

Unlike Dostoyevsky, Zhvanetsky was a true wordsmith. У нас с собою было, сколько стоит похоронить, тщательне́е, включаешь — не работает, длинная, как... — modern Russian language is unthinkable without Zhvanetsky. Thank you, Mikhail Mikhaylovich.

Процесс — это жизнь, результат — это смерть.

Михаил Жванецкий, «Паровоз для машиниста»

I don’t believe in heaven. I don’t know if Zhvanetsky believed in heaven either. But sometimes I think it would be really cool if there existed a place, let’s call it Odessa′ or Odessa+, where three old friends, Zhvanetsky, Kartsev and Ilchenko could meet again, have a drink and laugh. M.M. would smuggle there his old briefcase, open it, take a sheaf of rumpled papers out and read aloud a bit of “new Zhvanetsky”. That would be heaven.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Just re-listened, the band’s debut album was also the first ELP album I ever heard, back in 1982. It was a part of my high-school classmate’s (or rather his older brother’s) bizarre vinyl collection which also included White Snake, several Kiss albums and some obscure Hungarian rock records. It remains my favourite ELP work ever, and Take a Pebble is my favourite track.

Happy 50^th, Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Take a Pebble Greg Lake

Just take a pebble and cast it to the sea Then watch the ripples that unfold into me My face spill so gently into your eyes Disturbing the waters of our lives Shreds of our memories are lying on your grass Wounded words of laughter are graveyards of the past Photographs are grey and torn, scattered in your fields Letters of your memories are not real Wear sadness on your shoulders like a worn-out overcoat In pockets creased and tattered hang the rags of your hopes The daybreak is your midnight, the colours have all died Disturbing the waters of our lives

Live music in Las Palmas, October 2020

In October, things perked up here. (Postponed from August) TEMUDAS fest, MASDANZA, concerts rescheduled from spring — some days we were really spoiled for choice. And the tickets were flying!

• 16 October: Flor de Canela @ Alameda de Colón, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

  By now, we’ve got used to cancellations: festivals, concerts, anything really. So imagine my surprise to discover that the second edition of the Rock & Books festival, organised by Biblioteca Insular de Gran Canaria was taking place bang in the heart of the city, from 15 to 25 of October! And for free entrance and even without customary pre-inscription — how cool is that?

  So I couldn’t miss the chance to see my favourite Canarian band, this time with the artist Miss Mensi (Laura Castilla) who was painting “live” while Flor de Canela were playing. The programme was familiar — I watched streaming of their concert in Edificio Miller on 26 September — but you cannot compare that with live music. I liked their new(er), harder, funkier sound even more.

  

• 22 October: «Tributo al maestro: Paco de Lucía» @ Teatro Guiniguada, Plaza F. Mesa de León

  Gautama del Campo (saxophones), Ezequiel Reina (guitar and vocal) and our very own Germán López (timple), with bailaora Rocío Pozo, paid their musical tribute to Paco de Lucía. Fantastic rendition of such themes as Canción de Amor, Zyryab, Gitanos Andaluces (bulerías), Río Ancho, Buana Buana King Kong and, of course, Entre dos aguas; plus Camaron’s La Leyenda del Tiempo — wish you were there.

  

• 24 October: Hirahi Afonso «Memento» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas

  The new Musicando season was opened by Hirahi Afonso (timple) presenting his debut album Memento, with the band featuring Pau Figueres (guitars), Arnau Figueres (percussion), Darío Barroso (guitars), Ismael Alcina (bass) and Rita Payés (voice, trombone), plus guest musicians Belén Álvarez Doreste aka LAJALADA (voice), Claudio Marrero (sax) and Iván Quintana (voice).

  

With more events coming in November, it’s a shame that I won’t see them. I’m off from Las Palmas for a couple of months to the gloomy mainland.

ارواح صغيرة

a film by Dina Naser

Children who fled Syria war growing up in a refugee camp.

What I was fearing to be yet another depressing documentary turned out one of the most optimistic films I saw this year. Kids like Marwa and her sister fill me with hope. Thank you, Filmoteca Canaria!

The Human Voice

a film by Pedro Almodóvar

Today I went to Monopol, to pay my respects to this iconic picturehouse. For it’s closing down, and probably for good. One can (and one does) blame the ongoing pandemic for death of culture but I think the problem runs deeper. The theatre never did particularly well, which is understandable given that it specialises in “non-commercial” cinema. Even so, it could have been managed better — as its potentially last day demonstrated.

I arrived well in advance, only to join an enormous slowly-moving queue. The box office was closed; instead, the tickets were sold by the popcorn girl. My plan was to see the 17:00 screening; when my turn came, it was already 17:08. So I bought the ticket for 18:00 and went for a stroll around Triana, fuming to myself indignantly. And was the theatre full, in the end? It didn’t look it. Come to think of it, I don’t remember Monopol ever being full.

But how symbolic it was to see today The Human Voice, the ultimate goodbye exquisitely delivered by Tilda Swinton — and Dash the dog. (I didn’t realise until today that Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was also inspired by Cocteau’s play.)

This is both the first English-language film and the first short by Almodóvar, and I hope it’s not the last one. How much better Dolor y gloria could have been if it lasted 30 minutes instead of two hours!

우리집

a film by Yoon Ga-eun

I was hoping that the last film of the Korean cinema cycle won’t be as depressing as the first four, and The House of Us did not disappoint.

Three young actresses, Kim Na-yeon, Kim Si-ah and Joo Ye-rim, star in this heartwarming movie which reminded me very much of Studio Ghibli films, especially Only Yesterday.

La persona incorrecta

by Sara Herranz

In her interview to La Vanguardia, the author says that the protagonist of this book is 60% real Sara Herranz and 40% fantasy. It must be a big change then compared to Todo lo que nunca te dije lo guardo aquí, which featured a 100% Sara, undiluted by fantasy.

Our heroine, whoever she is, hits her thirties and gives up on finding a love of her life “correct person”. Darker, wiser and probably more sincere — fantasy does not prevent you from being sincere and realistic — than her first book, La persona incorrecta is a bittersweet pleasure to read or simply leaf through. It does not lead us to happy ever after or, indeed, any kind of future, thank goodness for that. The evolution from bold black ink to more subtle pencil is telling... what?

♥ ♡ ♥

La gente solo cambia de amante, de talla de pantalón y de película favorita. Lo ecencial se mantiene.

♡ ♥ ♡

— ¿Qué tal es vivir allí? — Es igual que esto, solo que llueve continuamente. — Nos gustaba la lluvia. ¿Recuerdas aquella noche en tu casa...? — La gente idealiza la lluvia. — No es verdad. La lluvia está bien para mirar por la ventana con una taza de café caliente o para hacer el amor en una buhardilla. — Para todo lo demás la lluvia es un coñazo. Lo oxida todo.

♥ ♡ ♥

El setenta por cieto del mundo lo hace con la persona incorrecta.

♡ ♥ ♡

♥ ♡ ♥

— Deberías volver a escribir. Te ayudaría a estar ocupada. — Ya estoy ocupada. — Estar triste no cuenta como ocupación.

♡ ♥ ♡

Los Gritos del Pasado

by Léonie Bischoff and Olivier Bocquet
translated by Marta Armengol Royo
based on a novel by Camilla Läckberg

This graphic adaptation of the second Fjällbacka crime novel is a decent follow-up to La princesa de hielo. The mystery lovers will appreciate its twists and turns, while the fans of the first book may feel disappointed as the heavily pregnant Erica becomes a bit sidelined. It’s a shame really because I was expecting her to kick ass like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with which Los Gritos have certain parallels.

The events take place in Fjällbacka during the summer of 2003, although in reality the story begins some 24 years earlier...

As it happens way too often, the Spanish title has nothing to do with the original. The French book is called Le Prédicateur which is a literal translation of Swedish Predikanten, “The Preacher”.

한공주

a film by Lee Su-jin

It’s not the easiest of films to watch, and I’m telling this after seeing the first three films of the Korean cinema cycle. Maybe not exactly “based on” but certainly inspired by a “true story”, the movie develops slowly and non-linearly, oscillating between delicate and brutal. The topic is universal: it could have happened in Europe, America or Africa. And as much as I dislike the expression “must-see”, I think Han Gong-ju truly is a must-see, in the post-manada Spain and everywhere.

Why the Spanish version is called Princesa? In the house of her friend, Gong-ju (Chun Woo-hee) sees a photo of a dog who was called Princess. As I just found out, Gong-ju (공주) means “princess”.

택시운전사

a film by Jang Hoon

A Taxi Driver — not to be confused with that Taxi Driver, or a few more films of the same name — is, like The Battle of Jangsari, “based on true events”, viz. those of Gwangju Uprising in 1980.

The story of the reporter Jürgen Hinzpeter (Thomas Kretschmann) made me think of Another Day of Life. The real hero of the movie though, as you may have guessed from the title, is a titular taxi driver, Kim Man-seob (Song Kang-ho). A powerful film, slightly spoiled by the spectacular but palpably fictional car chase scene during the pair’s escape from Gwangju.

Русские песни

by Alexander Gradsky

Русские песни were recorded in 1976—1979 and released on LP in 1980. I can’t find more precise date, so why not 5 October.

I remember how it appeared in our house. One of my mum’s former students worked at the Aprelevka record factory and was procuring the vinyls before they hit the stores. As for Русские песни, I never saw it in the stores. Some of those vinyls came in faceless paper sleeves or just in plastic “inner” bags, but this one came in a proper cardboard sleeve, with the title and song names in both Russian and English. Wow.

Till then, I only knew Gradsky thanks to Как молоды мы были and his work in the animated film Голубой щенок. (Mind you, “only” this would be enough to secure him a place in the music pantheon.) I never imagined him to be a rock musician. The title, Russian songs, was not particularly promising. I was not a big fan of Russian folk songs because what we heard on the radio or TV back then were of the official (castrated) variety — Alexandrov Ensemble, Lyudmila Zykina, Pyatnitsky Choir. Surely Gradsky wouldn’t sing any of those, I thought. So, when nobody was home, I gave it a listen. And then another one. And another one.

This album was a revelation. Of course, now I can’t think of any other version of any of these songs, nor any other sequence. And it is recommended (by me) to make a pause between “side A” and “side B” even if you listen to the CD. They were recorded three years apart (side A in 1976, side B in 1979) and each has its own beginning and end.

One detail that I haven’t known until now is that it was Yuri Fokin (Skomorokhi, Tsvety, Mashina Vremeni) who played drums on 1976 sessions. As he emigrated to the USA in 1978, his name didn’t appear in the album credits — typical in the Soviet times, but this omission was not corrected on the 1995 CD either.

Русские песни / Russian Songs Сюита на темы народных песен / Folk song suite

Ничто в полюшке Дарю платок (страдания) Таня белая (хоровод-танок) Плач На Ивана Купала Не одна во поле дороженька Солдатская Вы жертвою пали

Александр Градский: вокал, гитара, клавишные, колокола, ударные Юрий Иванов: бас-гитара, гармоника Сергей Зенько: флейта, дудка, саксофон Юрий Фокин: барабаны (1, 2, 5) Владимир Васильков: барабаны (7) Alexander Gradsky: vocals, guitar, keyboards, bells, percussion Yuri Ivanov: bass guitar, accordion Sergey Zenko: flute, pipe, saxophone Yuri Fokin: drums (1, 2, 5) Vladimir Vasilkov: drums (7)

El juego de las golondrinas

by Zeina Abirached
translated by Lucía Bermúdez Carballo

Beirut, 1984. Zeina’s parents went to visit her grandma. And they are still not back. The neighbours come to stay with the kids.

This beautiful book — yes, war is ugly, but books about war can be beautiful — introduces the characters that also appear in Me acuerdo: Beirut.

More images of the English-language edition of this book.

Медена земја

a film by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov

It was curious to watch the South Korean drama Oasis back-to-back to the Macedonian multi-award-winning documentary Honeyland. If some scenes of the former are of almost documentary quality, the latter film, as a whole, appears to be staged or, at the very least, unnecessarily dramatised. Perhaps the authors should have stuck to their original plan to make a short film. The photography is gorgeous and the desolate landscape is often breathtaking, but there’s just not enough content for 90 minutes.

오아시스

a film by Lee Chang-dong

The society is not kind to disabled people. They are not just ignored but also are taken advantage of, often by their own family. I have to confess that after reading the synopsis of Oasis I was not sure that I wanted to know the details. In the end, I went to see it anyway.

This very strange and totally believable love story of two misfits, masterfully portrayed by Sol Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri, doesn’t make for a comfortable viewing, and is not supposed to. But a few scenes of tenderness and the final scene are of such transcendental quality that, in spite of everything, the film fills you with optimism. You won’t regret watching it.

千と千尋の神隠し

a film by Hayao Miyazaki

There are movies you grow up watching. And then there are movies your kids grow up watching. Spirited Away is from the latter category. Not exactly my favourite Miyazaki film: I myself wouldn’t choose it for a Sunday evening in. But yesterday Timur expressed a wish to re-watch it, and so we all did.

Somehow I enjoyed it more yesterday than the previous n times. The score is amazing even by Joe Hisaishi’s own standard, and the train scene is one of the most beautiful in Miyazaki’s filmography.

Persepolis

by Marjane Satrapi
translated by Carlos Mayor

This year, Persepolis turns 20. I loved the animation; finally, I’ve got to read the book — a brand new edition containing all four volumes, in a brand new Spanish translation by Carlos Mayor.

As one could expect, there are differences between the comic and the animation. Among the “new” (for me) scenes, my favourites are the one with “ping-pong balls” Wolfy, Lucie’s boyfriend #18 (the chapter La píldora), and life drawing class with a model wearing the black chador (Los calcetines). Oh, by the way, the pages are not numbered, so I can’t tell you the exact page. For this price, it could be nice if this gorgeous book came with a bookmark.

장사리: 잊혀진 영웅들

a film by Kwak Kyung-taek and Kim Tae-hoon

This 2019 film opens the cycle 100 años de Cine Coreano (“100 years of Korean cinema”) offered by Filmoteca Canaria.

As “based on a true story” war films go, The Battle of Jangsari is not a bad one. Sure enough it’s got a fair share of melodrama but probably no more than any Hollywood war movie does. If you don’t like it, it’s best to stick to documentaries.

Kim Myung-min’s performance is outstanding. Maggie as portrayed by Megan Fox is an utterly unconvincing goody-two-shoes; George Eads is rather good as a cynical American general.

Me acuerdo: Beirut

by Zeina Abirached
translated by Lucía Bermúdez Carballo

Nothing distinguishes memories from ordinary moments. Only later do they make themselves known, from their scars.

Chris Marker

During the war, Zeina’s father got into the habit of listening to music at high volume. For example, to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. Or to Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale by Berlioz. While Zeina preferred Ayam El Loulou by Sabah.

More images of the English-language edition of this book

Unwrapping KitKat. The nails of Florence Griffith Joyner. How to make a paper boat. Our memory is amazing. The earlier work of the author of El piano oriental is a charming memoir you’re bound to fall in love with.

Paranoid

by Black Sabbath

Paranoid, 50 years young today, is kind of genre-defining album. You can’t say you heard any heavy metal if you didn’t hear Paranoid. Right?

In my case, it was not even the first Sabbath’s album I heard. The wonderful and criminally underrated Technical Ecstasy was the first, in the early ’80s. It was not until 2000 that I actually sat down to listen to Paranoid in its entirety. So, happy 20^th to that.

In 1989, I didn’t go to Moscow Music Peace Festival featuring acts like Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Scorpions and, wait, I’m getting there, Ozzy Osbourne — with Geezer Butler! Missing it is one of my regrets, mostly because of that event’s zeitgeist, although probably the only band worth seeing there were Scorpions. You can see the footage in the 1989 documentary «Десант в гнездо гласности» where Ozzy sings Paranoid (rather badly, in my opinion).

Later the same year, I went to see Black Sabbath live at Olimpiyskiy stadium in Moscow. They played incredible 13 concerts there, on 19 through 28 November as a part of their Headless Cross world tour. By that time, only Tony Iommi was left of the original line-up. But the rest of the band was truly stellar: the vocalist Tony Martin, the great Neil Murray on bass, the great late Geoff Nicholls on keys and the greatest, late Cozy Powell on drums. Dismal acoustics notwithstanding, it was a blast. Amazingly, one of those shows is available on YouTube. And of course, they played Iron Man, War Pigs and Paranoid.

The kids first heard Iron Man in Futurama (Anthology of Interest I, to be precise) and then in 2008 film Iron Man. Needless to say, Paranoid made its way to Yuri’s MP3 player soon after that. Of zillions of Sabbath’s covers out there (I can’t honestly pretend that I heard even 1% of them), give me Hayseed Dixie’s version of War Pigs any time.

Mala estrella

by Barbara Baldi
translated by Gema Moraleda

Nottinghamshire, December 1850.

Does it look as bleak as it sounds?

You bet.

The great danger of the metric system

First published 15 September 2020 @ low-throughput

A few fact(oid)s about Dame Agatha Christie I haven’t been aware until now.

• Pharmacy and toxicology were among Christie’s many interests. During the the First World War, she took some time off her work as a nurse to study for the Apothecaries Hall Examination. She wrote in her autobiography:

  To be introduced suddenly to the periodic table, atomic weight, and the ramifications of coal-tar derivatives was apt to result in bewilderment. However, I found my feet, mastered the simpler facts, and after we had blown up our Cona coffee machine in the process of practising Marsh’s test for arsenic our progress was well on the way. <...>

  A chemist’s shop, the first time that you go behind the scenes, is a revelation. Being amateurs in our hospital work, we measured every bottle of medicine with the utmost accuracy. When the doctor prescribed twenty grains of bismuth carbonate to a dose, exactly twenty grains the patient got. Since we were amateurs, I think this was a good thing, but I imagine that any chemist who has done his five years, and got his minor pharmaceutical degree, knows his stuff in the same way as a good cook knows hers. He tosses in portions from the various stock bottles with the utmost confidence, without bothering to measure or weigh at all. He measures his poisons or dangerous drugs carefully, of course, but the harmless stuff goes in in the approximate dollops. Colouring and flavouring are added in much the same way. This sometimes results in the patients coming back and complaining that their medicine is a different colour from last time. <...>

  During the course of my pharmaceutical instruction on Sunday afternoons, I was faced with a problem. It was incumbent upon the entrants to the examination to deal with both the ordinary system and the metric system of measurements. My pharmacist gave me practice in making up preparations to the metric formula. Neither doctors nor chemists like the metrical system in operation. One of our doctors at the hospital never learned what ‘containing 0.1’ really meant, and would say, ‘Now let me see, is this solution one in a hundred or one in a thousand?’ The great danger of the metric system is that if you go wrong you go ten times wrong. <...>

  It was while I was working in the dispensary that I first conceived the idea of writing a detective story.

• It was not until 1920 that her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, saw the light of day. The corresponding episode of Poirot was released 30 years ago on occasion of Christie’s 100^th birthday. Now, to mark the centenary of Styles, the Royal Mint issued the new £2 coins featuring the author’s signature, a jigsaw puzzle and some instruments of murder.
  

• I visited Ayuntamiento de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on many a bureaucracy-related occasion without knowing that its (pretty ugly) headquarters occupy the place of the former Quiney’s Hotel Metropole where Agatha Christie stayed in 1927.

  Las Palmas is still my ideal of the place to go in the winter months. I believe nowadays it is a tourist resort and has lost its early charm. Then it was quiet and peaceful. Very few people came there except those who stayed for a month or two in winter and preferred it to Madeira. It had two perfect beaches. The temperature was perfect too: the average was about 70, which is, to my mind, what a summer temperature should be.

  Agatha Christie: An Autobiography
  

• The Mousetrap was not only the longest-running West End show but it had the longest initial run of any play in history. It premiered in 1952 and ran continuously until March 2020 until it was rudely interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Klezmer: 2. Feliz aniversario, Scylla

by Joann Sfar
translated by Manel Domínguez

So this was the first Klezmer book that I read, before La Conquista del Este. And I liked it more than the vol. 1. Why? The vol. 1 reads more like a prequel, with too many events squeezed together to explain the whos and whys of the band. Feliz aniversario, Scylla lasts just one night. The plot is both incredible and convincing. (Even the visit of the Angel of Death is convincing.) Ditto the inner story of cossack Raki and talking wolf, narrated by Tchokola — unlike the other Tchokola’s tales, where he is just taking a piss. And the scene of Hava and Yaacov in a bathtub together is as sensual as it is hilarious.

The author’s notes, once again, are very much worth reading, even though it means (once again!) struggling with that lettering. This time, Sfar talks about watercolour and what he learned from his heroes and brothers-in-arms: Christophe Blain, Emmanuel Guibert, Gipi and Quentin Blake.

Klezmer: 1. La Conquista del Este

by Joann Sfar
preface by Marc-Alain Ouaknin
translated by Manel Domínguez

I discovered this book thanks to Pascin, the earlier work by Sfar. Or, rather, first I discovered, and then read, Klezmer vol. 2, thanks to Pascin, and only after that found (and read) Klezmer vol. 1.

I loved the pen and watercolour drawings, very different from black-and-white ones in Pascin. Some of them reminded me of Quentin Blake’s illustrations; the others are darker, bolder affairs. But all unmistakably Sfar. As Rabbi Ouaknin says in the preface: “Sfar draws in Yiddish like others speak it”. I loved the the author’s sense of humour. I loved the quotes from Babel. The only thing I’m not quite happy with is lettering — some words were a bit of a challenge to decipher! Perhaps the challenge was intended.

So find and read it, in whatever language you can. And don’t forget the notes in the end. It seems that Joann Sfar, apart from being a comics artist, novelist, actor and film director, is also a musician. If you feel inspired and would like to try your hand at klezmer, Sfar recommends The Compleat Klezmer (Tara Publications) book by Henry Sapoznik and music from the accompanying CD.

Play list (from the author’s notes) Amsterdam Klezmer Band — any theme from their album Limonchiki, for example Di Naie Chuppe In Odess (Aaron Lebedeff) — from album Kasbek: Klezmer à la russe Belz — from album Yankele by Moshe Leiser, Ami Flammer and Gérard Barreaux Tumbalalaika and Sheyn Vi Di Levoneh — both from You Should Be So Lucky! by Maxwell Street Klezmer Band

Jesus Christ Superstar

by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

I only want to say that Jesus Christ Superstar was released fifty years ago this month. I couldn’t find more precise date than “September 1970”, so it might be fifty years ago today. Can’t say when exactly I heard it for the first time, but it also must have been the early ’70s and it was my cousin’s 9 cm/s magnetic tape reel. Suffice to say, I grew up on this particular version of the rock opera, needless to say, without understanding the lyrics. (Many years later, I discovered that understanding of the lyrics didn’t spoil my enjoyment of JCS at all, unlike what happened with a lot of Anglophone rock for me.) In 1980s, I had an opportunity to acquire the vinyl, and I even borrowed from my brother a princely sum, an equivalent of my monthly stipend... only to discover that the album on sale, still in original shrink-wrap, was The Original Motion Picture Sound Track Album. Which was not good enough: I was looking for the original and the best.

In the last days of USSR, I bought the double LP Иисус Христос Суперзвезда issued pirated by Andrei Tropillo’s label АнТроп, aka «Продюсерский Центр Рок-н-ролльных Приходов Единой Евангелическо-Лютеранской Церкви России». Well. The aforementioned reel, which was still around, sounded better. I had quite a number of АнТроп vinyls, invariably of low sound quality and with funny modifications, or loose approximations, of the original sleeve designs. Those were the days.

In 1995, on its 25^th anniversary, more or less, I finally got hold of a two-CD box in Leeds, England. I was surprised to learn that the copyright belonged to a body known as Leeds Music Ltd. (It doesn’t exist anymore, being swallowed first by MCA and eventually by Universal.) I still have this box (and CDs, of course).

Here are some trivia related to JCS that I was not-quite-aware of until now:

• Lloyd Webber and Rice wrote Try It And See, later recorded by Rita Pavone, for the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. The song was rejected. Curiously, Save Your Kisses for Me, with a suspiciously similar chorus, actually won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1976.
• Both Yvonne Elliman and Tony Ashton appear on Jon Lord’s Gemini Suite. Eric Clapton asked Elliman to sing backing vocals on his cover of I Shot the Sheriff and she appeared on a string of Clapton’ albums from 1974 to 1977. Also, the Bee Gees originally wrote How Deep Is Your Love for Elliman. How cool is that?
• Apparently, it was Tim Rice who, “armed with a long, flat piece of board with another smaller section hinged on it, flapped away providing the lashes and doing the counting” on The Thirty-Nine Lashes.
• It turns out that one of my favourite jazz musicians, Kenny Wheeler, played trumpet on this recording!
• According to Something Else! webzine, Ian Gillan “nailed all of his vocals in a mere three hours”... later, he turned down the offers for the stage and film versions of JSC “but not before asking for £250,000 and demanding that all of Deep Purple be paid as well — since filming was going to keep the group off the road”.

By the way, it was Aunty Sonia who first told me the name of the lead singer.

For the last half of the century, the opera has been an inspiration for countless musicians, from Livin’ Blues (look for their 1971 rendition of Overture on Bamboozle) to this year’s all-female JCS with Shoshana Bean as Judas, Morgan James as Jesus, and Cynthia Erivo as Mary (the She is Risen vol. I is out now). Here’s to the next fifty years!

(The death of) live music in Las Palmas, August 2020

Ah, people, people. Remember I asked you not to screw it up? Remember? But you won’t listen, would you. Look what you’ve done! That our “new normality” every day looks more and more like lockdown 2.0, you’ve only got yourself to blame. I blame you anyway.

• 5 August: «La noche cubana» de Totó Noriega @ Edificio Miller, Parque Santa Catalina, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

  This was the first time that I went to the Edificio Miller, a huge hangar newly refurbished and reinvented as a concert venue. Unfortunately, just days before the concert, the new rules concerning the obligatory use of face masks in all closed public spaces kicked in. I think it came as a surprise to the musicians as well: the previous weeks, the concerts in the same building allowed you to breathe normally as long as you keep the safe distance and don’t move from your seat. Not this time.

  Saying that, Tamara and I have thoroughly enjoyed «La noche cubana» by the band of Totó Noriega (congas, vocals) featuring Edulman Aragon Gonzalez and Sofiel del Pino (vocals), Yoriell Carmona (tres cubano), Yuniel Rascón Falcón (guitar), Osvaldo Hernández (timbales), Carlos Martín Brito (bass), Armiche Jonay Moreno Suárez (percussion), Daniel Amat (piano) and Arístides Sosa Benítez (trumpet). The show was as great as the last year’s one in Parque Doramas; I’d enjoy it even more if I didn’t need to wear mascarilla all the time.

• 15 August: La Local Jazz Band @ Plaza de Santa Ana
  Luckily, some open-air options still remained. Among them, the XXIX^th edition of the Canarian International Jazz Festival (31 July — 15 August 2020). 39 concerts on seven islands — not bad, not just “under the circumstances”, but not bad full stop. The biggest success of the festival, however, was that it went ahead at all.
  

  The concerts on Plaza de Santa Ana, normally free of charge, this year were not so, but €2 per person per evening is practically free, especially provided that the “evening” consisted of three sets. So I bought the tickets for Timur and myself. Well. Even less fortunately, the new(er) rules were published that very week obliging everybody to wear the blasted masks in all public spaces, closed or not. You can imagine how overjoyed I was.

  Anyway, we went to Santa Ana. The first set that night was La Local Jazz Band, a group formed in 2010 by Miguel Ramírez (director of the Canarian International Jazz Festival) and Miqui Delgado. The current line-up consists of Miqui Delgado (piano), Miriam Fleitas (vocals), Samantha de León (double bass), Ernesto Montenegro (trumpet), Miguel Ramírez (sax) and Suso Vega (drums).

  

  The programme was a delightful mix of mainstream jazz standards and more experimental originals. It finished after 10 pm and we stayed to hear the beginning of the next set, that of Antonio Lizana Quintet. Which was fine but... my butt went numb from all this sitting and it was getting rather chilly. And the thought of enduring three more hours of muzzle — so, Antonio Lizana and Steffen Morrison will have to wait till the next time... When? Who knows.

• August October 2020: TEMUDAS fest @ different locations, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

  

  When I thought it can’t get any worse, it just did. The 24^th edition of TEMUDAS festival was postponed from August to October.

  

What can I say? The cultural events that I’ve attended here during the last three months were well-organised and safe — way safer than your daily trip to supermarket. But, as usual, culture suffers first.

Rant over.