Free live music and stuff in Las Palmas and around, February 2023

The month of love, they say. I wonder why. Yes we do celebrate Valentine’s Day, in our own modest way, because 14 February is the birthday of our elder teddy bear. Isn’t he lovely?

This alone is enough to make February a month of love, but the month of love? Every month should be a love month, methinks.

• 1 February: Thania Gil @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles, Calle Benito Pérez Galdós, 4, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  Opening the cycle «Amor de Febrero» — yes, lots of romantic stuff — were Thania Gil (vocal), Gema Barragán (bass), Jorge Granados (guitar) and Laura Márquez (percussion).
  
• 1 February — 17 March: «De Polo a Polo» @ Parque de San Telmo
  I already saw this exhibition in Santander, so it was like meeting an old friend.

  

• 4 February: El mercadillo y la muestra de artesanía y complementos @ La Aldea de San Nicolás
  We spent the weekend in and around La Aldea. On Saturday, there was a fiesta bang in the centre of the village (and, as it happened, just in front of the cottage that we were staying) with a market, chess tournament, live music by La muy Ilustre Playera y Tenderetera Tuna de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and tribute to Camilo by Kevin Carballo. What we enjoyed the most was a “museum route” though. Well, the museums consisted of one or two rooms each, so we made a year’s dose of museums in an hour or so.
  • Museo de la Medicina (Museo de Don Paco el Médico) — Museum of rural medicine
  • Museo de la Barbería — Barber museum
  • Almacén de Empaquetado de Tomates — Tomato packaging warehouse
  • Museo de la Alfarería (Centro de Loza Adolfina Cubas) Pottery museum
  • Museo de la Carpintería — Carpentry museum
  • Museo de la Zapatería — Shoemaking museum
  • Museo de la Escuelita. — Village school
  • El Aula de Música — Music room
• 8 February: Enamora2 @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles
  A quintet led by Misael Pérez (double bass) featuring Ángeles Pérez (vocals), Cristian Hernández (piano), Jorge Soroa (percussion) and Ricardo Yagüe (guitar).

  

• 11 February: «El sonido de las caracolas» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
  Musicando is back! Almost four years later since their first visit to Las Palmas, Caracoles — this time as all-female Caracolas — came with a brand new show. Featuring Nuria Hernández (vocals), Mariluz Alonso (keyboards, accordion), Karina Martín Luis (percussion, vocals), Lola Medina (bass guitar), Aileen López (Spanish guitar, vocals) and Aborá Cel (violin, vocals).

• 15 February: Susana Lang-Lenton @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles
  Susana Lang-Lenton (vocal, guitar) was accompanied by Carlos Meneses (double bass), Levi Moro Cejas (piano) and Suso Vega (drums). Mostly Spanish and Latin “romantic” standards, but also some originals and — suddenly! — for an encore, All You Need Is Love.

  

• 22 February: «Esencia de Boleros» @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles
  Beautiful jazzy versions of classic boleros performed by Natalia Palacios (vocals), Augusto Báez (piano), Fofi Lusson (double bass), Totó Noriega (percussion,vocals) and Arístides Sosa Benítez (trumpet, flugelhorn).

  

• 15 December 2022 — 26 February 2023: «Holy Sugar» @ CAAM – San Antonio Abad, Plaza San Antonio Abad
  A solo exhibition by the Gran Canarian artist Luna Bengoechea. The highlights (literally) include the candy glass sculpture Holy Sugar and Flavor, a set of ink drawings of plants (apple, Citrus, Laminaria japonica, peach, raspberry, strawberry and sugar cane) complete with UV-torches; when illuminated, the drawings of flavour molecules from these plants become visible.

It’s starting to warm up. I’m looking forward to March.

Black is Beltza II: Ainhoa

a film by Fermín Muguruza

If you like Basque punk and gratuitous cartoony violence, there is a slight chance that you might enjoy this crudely-made animation. Watch a trailer (something I never do before going to a cinema) and decide if you want to proceed. Otherwise, best to avoid.

This was the last screening of CINEZiN2. So. Last year I saw three (out of four) films of CINEZiN, one was great. This year, I saw all three of them and one was really good. Oh well, at least it was free. I hope next year the festival comes back with a better selection of stuff.

Ночной дозор

by Alexander Galich

As I’ve mentioned some time years 10 years ago, in 1977 I expanded my cultural horizons a lot. To a large degree, the said expansion was thanks to my cousin who, in early summer of that year, entrusted us — that is, my brother and me — with a leather briefcase full of magnetic tape reels. For safekeeping. He specifically asked us to refrain from listening a couple of reels which were stored in unmarked boxes. (They are for a very small circle of listeners, he explained.) So we spent a happy summer discovering new for us music, mostly prog-rock, of which later. Of course, it was only a matter of (rather short) time before the temptation won. We were careful enough to make sure our mum wasn’t anywhere near when we explored the forbidden tapes.

That’s how we got acquainted with the works of Galich. Even though back then I didn’t know much about the things Galich was talking about, his songs sounded true. Аве Мария, На сопках Манчжурии, Вальс, посвященный уставу караульной службы, Караганда... And this one: Ночной дозор. Painfully true. Goosebumpingly true. Dangerously true. (About a very small circle of listeners, we got it. And kept quiet about it.) Wait. They still give me goosebumps.

I couldn’t find when exactly Ночной дозор was written but a number of web sites point on the year 1963, or “between 1962 and 1964”. In any case, Ночной дозор sounds even more true now than 60 years ago. At least that’s what I thought when I read about unveiling a bronze bust of Stalin in Volgograd earlier this month.

The English translation by Gerald Stanton Smith thanks to this website.

Александр Галич Ночной дозор

Alexander Galich, translated by Gerald Stanton Smith The Night Watch

Когда в городе гаснут праздники, Когда грешники спят и праведники, Государственные запасники Покидают тихонько памятники. Сотни тысяч (и все — похожие) Вдоль по лунной идут дорожке, И случайные прохожие Кувыркаются в «неотложке». И бьют барабаны!.. На часах замирает маятник, Стрелки рвутся бежать обратно: Одинокий шагает памятник, Повторённый тысячекратно. То он в бронзе, а то он в мраморе, То он с трубкой, а то без трубки, И за ним, как барашки на море, Чешут гипсовые обрубки. И бьют барабаны!.. Я открою окно, я высунусь, Дрожь пронзит, будто сто по Цельсию! Вижу: бронзовый генералиссимус Шутовскую ведёт процессию. Он выходит на место лобное — Гений всех времен и народов! — И, как в старое время доброе, Принимает парад уродов. И бьют барабаны!.. Прёт стеной мимо дома нашего Хлам, забытый в углу уборщицей, — Вот сапог громыхает маршево, Вот обломанный ус топорщится. Им пока — скрипеть да поругиваться, Да следы оставлять линючие, Но уверена даже пуговица, Что сгодится ещё при случае! И будут бить барабаны!.. Утро родины нашей розовое, Позывные летят, попискивая. Восвояси уходит бронзовый, Но лежат, притаившись, гипсовые. Пусть до времени покалечены, Но и в прахе хранят обличие. Им бы, гипсовым, человечины — Они вновь обретут величие! И будут бить барабаны!..

When the town celebrations fade away, The unrighteous and righteous in bed asleep, Those the state has put by for a rainy day Step down quietly from their pedestals. In their hundreds of thousands, identical, Along moonlit paths they go pacing, And the odd belated pedestrians Dive for shelter in first-aid stations. And drums are a-drumming! Clock pendulums freeze, stand motionless, The hands on their faces pull backwards, A uniform statue with soldier’s step Marches out, repeated in thousands. Some of marble, and some of brass made, Some are holding that famous pipe, Alabaster ones, shattered fragments, Itch to follow, like white-flecked tide. And drums are a-drumming! I lean out from my window, shivering With a fever, one hundred Celsius, As the brazen generalissimo Heads a pageant of fools and jesters. He climbs up on the hallowed podium, “Of all peoples and ages the genius”, And salutes a parade of monsters, As he did in those days so dear to us. And drums are a-drumming! By the wall of the block my flat’s in, Among heaps of abandoned dust and trash, You can make out a goose-stepping jackboot, And a broken-off piece of moustache. For the moment, they creak, drop a curse or two, Now, they only leave fading traces, But the last little button’s certain to Come in useful again on occasion. And the drums will be drumming! Dawn’s pink fingers suffuse our motherland, Station callsigns ping down the radio waves, The bronze statue returns to its place of rest, Alabaster ones stay in their hideaways. Maybe crippled, just temporarily, But their fragments retain the makings, Alabaster only needs humankind, And again it will rise to greatness! And the drums will be drumming!

Voces que cuentan: Una antología

by Eva Amaral, Patricia Campos Doménech, Sandra Cardona Rodríguez, Ada Diez, Leticia Dolera, Sara Herranz, Lola García, Almudena Grandes, Agustina Guerrero, María Hesse, Diana López Varela, Estefanía Molina, Ana Oncina, Julia Otero, Akira Pantsu, Raquel Riba Rossy, Sandra Sabatés and Sara Soler Ester
cover illustration by Esther Gili
introduction by David Hernando

Contrary to what bookshops and even its own publisher, Planeta Cómic, say, this book is not a graphic novel but, well, an anthology. Mostly short stories, mostly autobiographical — but not all. Más mujer is a chapter of Morder la manzana by Leticia Dolera and Raquel Riba Rossy. Por una falda de plátanos is a collection of fragments from an essay by Almudena Grandes rather than a complete one. And Soledad is an illustrated song by Amaral. Of the complete stories, my favourite is Mzungu.

ルパン三世 THE FIRST

a film by Takashi Yamazaki

Timur borrowed this film from the library. So we watched it (in Japanese with Spanish subtitles; the other choices were Spanish or Catalan dub). It turned out to be much more fun than I expected. “The First” of the title refers to the first 3DCG installment in the Lupin the Third franchise.

More than inspired by the classic Castle of Cagliostro, this film also includes references to Indiana Jones as well as other Miyazaki’s tropes; Lupin impersonating the Führer looks very much like John Cleese’s Mr. Hilter.

Labordeta, un hombre sin más

a film by Paula Labordeta and Gaizka Urresti

By a happy coincidence, last Saturday the second number of CINEZiN2 programme won the Goya Award for best documentary. For this reason, I presume, the screening was moved from Museo Castillo de Mata to the bigger venue, that is, Teatro Guiniguada. The film was presented by its creators, Gaizka Urresti and Paula Labordeta de Grandes; the latter insisted on taking a selfie with the audience, mainly (as she explained) because she wanted to send it to her mum. So sweet.

I have to say that until now I had no slightest idea who José Antonio Labordeta was, apart from that he must have something to do with music. Well, he was many things: teacher, writer, poet, TV presenter and regionalist politician, with his now-legendary “a la mierda” discourse in Spanish Congress of Deputies twenty years ago (6 March 2003, to be precise). But first and foremost, he was a cantautor. To Aragon (and, arguably, the rest of Spain), Labordeta is what Serrat is to Catalonia (and the rest of Spain). In a lump-in-throat moment, as the final titles rolled, the audience stood up, applauding and singing Canto a la libertad.

The Awful Truth

a film by Leo McCarey

Why on earth would anybody want to watch the upper-class divorce comedy, especially during the Great Depression? Well, according to Wikipedia, director Leo McCarey “felt audiences would enjoy seeing a picture about rich people having troubles”. With that lame excuse, dozens of awful movies must have been spawned in Depression-stricken Hollywood. The 1937 film was not even the original — it was preceded by two Awful Truths already. Yet McCarey’s version, starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant (to say nothing of Skippy the dog) and to a great degree improvised on the set, turned out to be an accidental masterpiece.

I have to add that neither the English title (rather uncovincingly explained in the 1925 silent film) nor the Spanish La pícara puritana make any sense to me.

Les Grandes Musiques de Films / Музыка из кинофильмов

by Orchestre de Paul Mauriat

“Can you put on Paul Mauriat?”, my mum would ask. And when she said “Paul Mauriat”, she referred to one of two vinyls we had or to the audio recording of the television show in Ostankino we taped in 1978. The LP called «Музыка из кинофильмов» (“Music from the movies”) was her favourite though.

According to Russian Wikipedia, this album (the “original” 1973 compilation) was pirated by Melodiya and was distinguished by its poor sound quality. Maybe. Compared with that flexidisc I described a few days ago and its kind, «Музыка из кинофильмов» was very Hi, very Fi. Given that a lot of Mauriat’s music was used in Soviet TV programmes (В мире животных, Время, Кинопанорама) without any acknowledgement, it’s amazing how much information was there on this LP’s cover.

In the 1970s, we did not see any of these films. So what? OK, the names of inconvenient movies were “skillfully” lost in translation. So the theme from then-X-rated Last Tango in Paris was christened «Встреча» (Encounter), while La Chanson de Lara (Lara’s Theme) from Doctor Zhivago became simply «Мелодия» (Melody). This did not prevent us, or anybody else really, from enjoying the music.

What’s more, for me this LP contained the definitive arrangements of those film themes. I remember my disappointment upon first hearing the opening tango of Last Tango in Paris without that piano chord. Or The Godfather after growing up on the Mauriat version of Parle plus bas — another case of the original sounding a pale imitation of its cover. After all, it was this latter that the alien of Контакт encountered on the planet Earth.

Les Grandes Musiques de Films par l’Orchestre de Paul Mauriat

Оркестр Поля Мориа Музыка из кинофильмов

Side A Parle plus bas (Nino Rota) Le passager de la pluie (Francis Lai) Un homme et une femme (Francis Lai) La chanson de Lara (Maurice Jarre) Les Moulins de mon cœur (Michel Legrand) Le Dernier Tango à Paris (Gato Barbieri) Cent mille chansons (Michel Magne) Side B Une histoire d’amour (Francis Lai) Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Michel Legrand) Toute la pluie tombe sur moi (Burt Bacharach) Vivre pour vivre (Francis Lai) Les Volets clos (Paul Misraki) Venise va mourir (Stelvio Cipriani) Thème de Borsalino (Claude Bolling)

1 сторона Говорите тише (Н. Рота) Пассажир под дождём (Ф. Лэй) Мужчина и женщина (Ф. Лэй) Мелодия (М. Жарр) Мельницы моего сердца (М. Легран) Встреча (Г. Барбиери) Сто тысяч песен (М. Магн) 2 сторона История любви (Ф. Лэй) Шербурские зонтики (М. Легран) Все капли дождя мои (Б. Бахарах) Жить чтобы жить (Ф. Лэй) Закрытые ставни (П. Мизраки) Смятение (С. Чиприани) Песня Борсалино (К. Боллинг)

La isla

by Mayte Alvarado

Another comic set on an island. (OK it’s all nice but... would you live on an island? — Excuse me, by now I’ve been living on islands of various size for half of my life. So yes.) Even less dialogue than in Trazo de tiza. Even more magic.

Trazo de tiza

by Miguelanxo Prado
preface by Álvaro Pons

Mysterious island that is not on the map; mysterious woman waiting for mysterious somebody. Given the pace of the story (spoiler: not much happens really), by the end of the comic the mystery stays practically intact. What not to love?

A perfect example of me totally judging a book by its cover. I took this comic from the library knowing nothing of it or its author. Trazo de tiza was first published in 1992; what I picked from the shelf is the “definitive” 30^th anniversary edition. Well we all know by now how definitive the definitive editions are; expect even more definitive definitive editions in 2032 and 2042. But at the moment, the book I have next to me is absolutely gorgeous.

Who Do We Think We Are!

by Deep Purple

According to Wikipedia, Who Do We Think We Are was released in the States on 12 January 1973. In the liner notes to the 2000 remastered edition, Simon Robinson wrote:

In America, where live sets were always hated by major labels, Warners insisted on getting “Who Do We Think We Are” out first. Back in Europe everyone was happy for the live release to precede it and the new studio album was released in March 1973.

While Discogs says that the first UK issue (TPSA 7508) was in February 1973. In absence of more precise information — why not mid-February then. Happy arbitrary Birthday, WDWTWA!

As a curiosity, the title of the album on the original LP label as well as the cassettes includes the exclamation mark which is absent on the sleeve and on subsequent CD releases. Go figure. Personally, I like the “exclamation” version (as an answer to “Who do they think they are?”) more. If it was up to me, I’d put there another (inverted) one, as they do in Spanish: ¡Who Do We Think We Are!

I first heard the album in its entirety in the early 1980s. From the catchy opener Woman from Tokyo to the psychedelic-era-Beatles-inspired finale of Our Lady, I loved it all. Machine Head it wasn’t — it was so much more interesting. Especially Jon’s crazy keys on Rat Bat Blue and slow (at first) blues of Place In Line. So fresh. So different. But what about Mary Long? That song rang a certain bell. Where could I hear it before?

Some days or weeks or months later, rummaging through our “collection” — well, a big dusty heap — of flexidiscs, I found it. This patently weird compilation simply entitled «Вокально-инструментальные ансамбли», that is, “Vocal-Instrumental Ensembles”. No names of the bands VIAs, no songwriter credits, no nothing. Just a note «на английском языке» (“in English”, in case the listener has any doubt). Typical. The A for America side had And When I Die by Blood, Sweat & Tears and Someday by Chicago, the latter inexplicably translated as «Борьба», i.e. “Struggle”. (The class struggle maybe?) The B for Britain side: bingo! Mary Long and another song from WDWTWA, Super Trouper. How? Why? Who? Most likely we’ll never know. Godawful cover design, atrocious sound quality; all yours for 60 kopecks.

Вокально-инструментальные ансамбли Side A Blood, Sweat & Tears — And When I Die (Laura Nyro) / Когда умру Chicago — Someday (August 29, 1968) (James Pankow, Robert Lamm) / Борьба Side B Deep Purple — Mary Long / Мэри Лонг Deep Purple — Super Trouper / Великолепный музыкант

The bonus tracks to my 2000 remastered edition (Amazon still remembers that I bought it 20 years ago!) include a splendid outtake Painted Horse (which would end up on the album if Ritchie hadn’t hated it) and First Day Jam “with Ritchie on bass and Roger on the Autobahn”, as The Highway Star put it. Indeed, on the first day of recording sessions in Waldorf Nord, Germany (October 1972), Roger Glover, in his own words, “had taken a wrong turn <on the Autobahn> and was desperately looking for a way back”. 50 years later, perhaps the most underrated album of the classic Mark II line-up still rocks.

El español es un mundo

by Lola Pons Rodríguez

This illuminating book compiles some eighty^* texts written by Lola Pons Rodríguez between 2020 and 2022. Among other things, I learned that

• Alfonso X el Sabio (1221—1284) arrived to the Moon before Neil Armstrong;
• until 15 Century, there was no nosotros and vosotros in Castilian;
• 1492 was the year when, apart from other Spanish achievements, the first ever grammar of a modern European language, Gramática de la lengua castellana by Antonio de Nebrija, was published;
• in some parts of Canary Islands, Valencia and Colombia, they use hayn (as in hayn dulces que me sientan mal), a plural form of hay;
• sobrecastellano is yet another name of the Spanish language, invented by Miguel de Unamuno.

Best of all, the texts (or chapters, or stories, whatever you call them) are short and pleasure to read in any sequence you like. My favourites are: Bienvenidos al Museo de los Engaños; Borgesque^† 26 de agosto de 1992: un día de furia y libros; and Nazis y peronistas organizan una cita a ciegas, a touching love (and philology!) story of María Rosa Lida and Yakov Malkiel.

*	Well, I counted only 79.
†	I suppose the correct, or more correct, term should be Borgesesque composed of the proper name Borges and suffix -esque, i.e. “in the style of Jorge Luis Borges”. Except it’s quite a mouthful. I prefer Borgesque in a hope that nobody interprets it as “resembling the Borg”, those infamous “Resistance is futile!” cyborgs of Star Trek.

It Happened One Night

a film by Frank Capra

Charismatic and arrogant reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable) meets his match, in more than one sense, in spoiled, somewhat naïve but also bright and resourceful heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert). Perhaps not the best name — what exactly happened one night, and which one? — for a movie of this calibre, all and each of its Big Fives totally deserved. Not a dull moment here.

According to Wikipedia,

In 1935, after her Academy Award nomination, Colbert decided not to attend the ceremony since she felt she would not win and planned to take a cross-country railroad trip. After she was named the winner, <Columbia Pictures> studio chief Harry Cohn sent someone to “drag her off” the train, which had not departed, to take her to the ceremony.

I imagine the scene must have been very much in style of this classic comedy, especially if that someone was Gable.

This film opens El amor es un clásico, a new cycle by Filmoteca Canaria.

Songs for Drella

by Lou Reed and John Cale
a film by Edward Lachman

Songs for Drella (1990) was a fruit of the first (also, the second to last) reunion of Reed and Cale since 1968. “Drella” was a nickname of Andy Warhol to whom the album pays homage. A noble cause, no doubt, but the result didn’t quite work for me.

This film documents a live performance, without an audience though, of the whole album on 4 and 5 December of 1989. No less, but also no more than that. The personal interaction between the two is minimal — they sit like six meters apart for the whole show and never look at each other. From one song to another, the photography switches between colour and black and white, perhaps in a (vain) hope to add some visual diversity. The only song that touched me in some way was Forever Changed.

The screening in Castillo de Mata, followed by a conference with the journalist and music critic Ignacio Julià (which I didn’t stay for), has opened the CINEZiN2 festival.

Maija Isola — Master of Colour and Form

a film by Leena Kilpeläinen

Until watching this documentary, I didn’t know much about its protagonist, apart from the fact that she authored the famous Unikko pattern for Marimekko. I suspect very few people ever heard of her. The first sentence of the Wikipedia entry goes:

Maija Sofia Isola (15 March 1927 — 3 March 2001) was a Finnish designer of printed textiles, and the creator of over 500 patterns, including Unikko (“Poppy”).

But there was an amazing life before, after, and quite apart from Marimekko. Isola was an artist who wanted to travel, to follow her passions, to be free. Not to spend all her life designing flipping textile patterns.

There is precious little footage of Maija Isola. For the most part, what we hear in the film are the fragments of her diaries and letters, narrated by Päivi Järvinen, and what we see are archive photos, some of which have something to do with Maija. I’m sure the bulk of the material was provided by Maija’s daughter, Kristina, who also appears in the film. It all would be great... if it didn’t make me feel not a little bit uneasy. Which it did, as always happens when being read to someone’s personal diaries and letters. Would Maija approve of it? I think not.

What I enjoyed watching the most are the animated sequences based on Maija’s designs.