Live music in Las Palmas, July 2021

I was hoping to hear more live music this July but, with this and that, I couldn’t. The only outdoor concert was the Música en el Parque one on 25 July and, to my annoyance, they still insisted on everybody wearing face masks.

• 15 July: Benavent/di Geraldo/Pardo: Flamenco Leaks @ Teatro Guiniguada, Plaza F. Mesa de León, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  This was the only concert of the 30^th edition of Canarias Jazz & Más festival that we’ve attended. But what a concert! Featuring, of course, Carles Benavent (bass), Tino di Geraldo (drums, tabla) and Jorge Pardo (tenor sax, flute).

  

• 21 July: The Planets @ Edificio Miller, Parque Santa Catalina
  Banda Sinfónica Municipal de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, conducted by Daniel Abad Casanova, interpreted the famous suite by Gustav Holst. I wish the conductor (or somebody else, why not) said at least a few words. I couldn’t identify the mambo-style piece they played as an encore.

  

• 25 July: Elida Almeida @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos
  An electrifying performance by a Cape Verdean singer accompanied by Dodas (guitar), Kalu Ferreira (keyboards), Mayo (bass) and Kau Paris (drums).

So long, Las Palmas. I’m off to Santander, shall be back by the end of the year.

El orden del tiempo

by Carlo Rovelli
translated by Francisco J. Ramos Mena

I remember how excited I was, when I first read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, to learn about light cones. Then I forgot almost all about them, apart from that there is a place outside of a light cone called “elsewhere”. Now, reading this book, I had a happy reencounter with light cones. This time, what surprised me most was the illustration showing that the orientation of the cones could even be like this:

The Order of Time is a bit longer than Seven Brief Lessons but still quite short and almost as easy to read. I cannot say I’m convinced by everything Rovelli says, but that’s the reality — and, for me, the beauty — of science. The way he explains some of his ideas, like the one that the world is not a collection of things but of events, is sheer poetry.

La differenza fra cose e eventi è che le cose permangono nel tempo. Gli eventi hanno durata limitata. Un prototipo di una «cosa» è un sasso: possiamo chiederci dove sarà domani. Mentre un bacio è un «evento». Non ha senso chiedersi dove sia andato il bacio domani. Il mondo è fatto di reti di baci, non di sassi.

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La diferencia entre cosas y eventos es que las cosas permanecen en el tiempo. Los eventos, en cambio, tienen una duración limitada. Un prototipo de «cosa» es una piedra: podemos preguntarnos dónde estará mañana. Mientras que un beso es un «evento»: no tiene sentido preguntarse adónde habrá ido el beso mañana. El mundo está hecho de redes de besos, no de piedras.

(Translated by Francisco J. Ramos Mena)

⧗ ⧖ ⧗

The difference between things and events is that things persist in time; events have a limited duration. A stone is a prototypical “thing”: we can ask ourselves where it will be tomorrow. Conversely, a kiss is an “event”. It makes no sense to ask where the kiss will be tomorrow. The world is made up of networks of kisses, not of stones.

(Translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell)

⧖ ⧗ ⧖

The book is written to intrigue you. Or, at least, this seems to be its main purpose. I’d say The Order of Time is more concerned with history and philosophy of time rather than (hard) physics or math of time. For more in-depth (but still accessible) treatment of physical aspects of time, you’ll need to look, er, elsewhere. I recommend The Arrow of Time by Coveney and Highfield as well as the aforementioned Hawking’s classic.

For those who prefer listening, there is an audiobook read by the man who played Hawking in Hawking, the one Benedict Cumberbatch.

El Ángelus

by Josep Homs and Frank Giroud
translated by Manel Domínguez

This gorgeous book (“nueva edición ampliada”) combines the two parts previously published as separate volumes. I loved the illustrations; less so the plot. The original French title is Secrets: L’Angélus. What secrets? The complicated family history of Clovis is a secret only to Clovis himself; the rest of the town seem to be well informed. The miraculous appearance of an unaccounted for relative is as believable as a Bollywood movie. And then there is this annoying symmetry between the parts (volumes) where (a) Clovis leaves home as his wife Isabelle is convinced that he is cheating on her and (b) Isabelle asks Clovis to move back in, knowing that he is not cheating on her. (On both occasions, she is mistaken.) The painting of the title (the one by Millet, followed by a few more by Salvador Dalí) turns out to be, indeed, a far-fetched pretext for Clovis to see Evelyne — just as the latter suspected from the start.

Now Evelyne, a free-spirited art teacher, kind of modern-day Pippi Longstocking, is much more interesting. Why don’t we get to know her story?

Frances Ha

a film by Noah Baumbach

Frances: Do I look old to you?
Benji: No. Yes. How old?
Frances: Older than I am. Older than twenty-seven.
Benji: No. Twenty-seven is old, though.

Is it? Is it? The year I turned 27, I left my home country and moved to Italy. (Now I am twice that age, so I was leaving abroad, so to speak, for the most of my life. Whatever the words “home” and “abroad” mean.) Maybe it was not the happiest year of my life, but, when I think about it, surely the most strange, amazing, difficult, promising, frustrating and ultimately rewarding one. I didn’t feel old. Or wise. Well. Maybe a little wiser than when I was 26.

Frances: What do you do?
Andy: Eh?
Frances: What do you do? It’s such a stupid question, I thought I’d ask it.
Andy: Oh, no. I’m a lawyer. What do you do?
Frances:That’s such a stupid question! Just kidding. Um, it’s kind of hard to explain.
Andy: Because what you do is complicated?
Frances: Um, because I don’t really do it.

Greta Gerwig shines in this charming and unexpectedly subtle comedy. To quote its heroine, it’s kind of hard to explain what it is about and why it is a comedy. Watch it, and you’ll see.

Ah, to be 27 again.

Kusama: Infinity

a film by Heather Lenz

Another documentary thanks to Filmoteca Canaria, about amazing life and work of yet another world-famous — and now, thankfully, top-selling — artist I never heard about before: Yayoi Kusama. Highly recommended.

Fireball

by Deep Purple

According to Wikipedia, Fireball was released in the States 50 years ago today. So my 25^th Anniversary Edition is 25 already!

Then again, the US version had Strange Kind of Woman instead of Demon’s Eye as it was in on the UK edition. That’s not right. It means, the proper 50^th Anniversary of Fireball has to wait till September.

I discovered Fireball later than the other Mark II classics, and it is the only Purple album with whose lyrics I’d got acquained before I actually heard it. It so happened that one of my brother’s bandmates brought him the songbook that, in turn, somebody else lent him for several days. The book looked like this:

At the time (that is, the late 1970s) we had no access to photocopier, so we copied the book by hand, or rather, by two hands: my brother did the scores, I did the texts, which included the lyrics and also the band’s bio. My knowledge of English back then was below elementary. Of course, I remembered some words even though I was not sure how to pronounce them. The album itself remained elusive for a couple of years after that, until the day I listened to an unmarked magnetic tape reel of rather dodgy quality and by-now forgotten origin. I heard a country-style song which I liked and suddenly realised that I recognise some of these words. Farmer’s daughter? Judge’s daughter? Could it be...? I unearthed my handwritten book. Yes, here it was: Anyone’s Daughter. And the rest? I rewound the tape to the beginning and listened to the end. Bingo: complete Fireball, starting with, well, Fireball!

Purple’s last prog-rock effort, Fireball remains one of my favourite albums. The band is at the peak of their powers, the songs are diverse and well-crafted, the title track is speedier than Speed King, and even Ritchie Blackmore finally plays in tune.

The sound quality of the aforementioned 25^th Anniversary Edition CD is great. If you don’t care about bonus tracks, just stop after No One Came, because that’s where the the original album ends. For those who prefers the American LP version, Strange Kind of Woman is also here, followed by I’m Alone, another great song hitherto only available on The Deep Purple Singles A’s & B’s.

Patria

by Toni Fejzula
based on a novel by Fernando Aramburu

I haven’t read the best-selling novel by Fernando Aramburu, and so far did not have any intention to do it. Nor did I watch its TV adaptation. But when I saw this book in the library, I fell in love with the drawings and thought, I’ll give it a chance.

Ola de crímenes

a film by Gracia Querejeta

Almodóvaresque in the beginning, the second half firmly in Tarantino territory, this black comedy starring Maribel Verdú (Y tu mamá también, El laberinto del fauno) provided a welcome relief after two rather boring quarter-final games on the telly. Lazy Saturday.