Free live music and stuff in Las Palmas, March 2023

This month began on a cold side...

• 8 March: «Ellas. Mujeres que cantan a mujeres» @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles, Calle Benito Pérez Galdós, 4, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  The trio of Magdalena Padilla (vocals), Andrea Baez (piano, guitar) and Gema Barragán (bass guitar, violin). The highlights included Andante, Andante, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend and Rozalén’s anthem La Puerta Violeta.

  

• 11 March: «Bahía» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
  The amazing Cuban cellist, composer and singer Ana Carla Maza presented her new album Bahía. With Marc Ayza (drums), Luis Guerra (Percussion) and Norman Peplow (piano).

• 15 March: Quinteto DViento @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles
  From Baroque music to ragtime, with Marta Bautista (double bass), Carolina Marrero (flute), Gladys Pérez Molina (flute), Paulina Niemczycka (flute) and Abraham Ramos Sanchez (guitar).

  

• 16 March: Maureen Choi @ Teatro Guiniguada, Plaza F. Mesa de León
  A masterclass of jazz violin, organised by Mousikê La Laguna.

• 22 March: Bjazz @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles
  Now as a quartet featuring Samantha de León (double bass), Silvia Jiménez Hernández (trumpet, vocals), Amelia Gutiérrez (drums) and Sun-Young Park (piano).

  

• 25 March: Happy Piano Day in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, various locations (11:30—22:00)
  The fifth edition of Happy Piano Day in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria had about 40 sessions in 10 locations around the city, plus a “mobile point” in a form of city bus (line 17, Auditorio—Teatro). Timur and I went to Parque San Telmo, mostly to see Jose Alberto Medina and Javier Infante. Also, we caught the last bits of performance of Mingo Roque and Luis Moreno; then I stayed after 5 pm to listen to Samuel Labrador.
• 25 March: «Una noche entre boleros» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
  Later the same day, I went to Parque Doramas to see this show featuring Mara Pérez, Ángeles Pérez and Dunia Pérez (vocals) and Argelia Quesada (narration), accompanied by Misael Pérez (double bass), Daniel Gil (trumpet), Cristian Hernández (piano), Jorge Soroa (percussion) and Ricardo Yagüe (guitar).

• 27 March: Takeo Takahashi Quartet «Jazz para Hokusai» @ Paraninfo de La Universidad de Las Palmas, Calle Juan de Quesada, 30
  This was the sakuranbo on top of the opening day of the International Week of Japan. The quartet played three compositions inspired by works of Katsushika Hokusai: Sparrows and Wisteria, Ejiri in Suruga Province and Feminine Wave. Featuring Cristóbal Montesdeoca (piano), Tana Santana (double bass), Takeo Takahashi (drums) and Jose Vera Bello (sax, flute).

  

• 29 March: Beatriz Alonso Trio @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles
  The last concert of the cycle «Marzo con M de mujer», with Beatriz Alonso (vocals), Javier Cerpa (guitar) and Carlos Meneses (double bass).

  

• 31 March: Festival de Artes Marciales & Ceremonia de Té @ Campus del Obelisco, Calle de Pérez del Toro, 1
  Closing the International Week of Japan, there was a demonstration of martial arts: judo (Antonio Pérez), karate (Sergio Sanjuán), jujitsu (Martín Suárez), aikido (Víctor Pulido), shorinji kempo (Paco Brito) and ninjitsu (Ricardo Atik), followed by a tea ceremony (María J. Quintana).

...and now it’s almost a heatwave. I hope it won’t get much hotter in April.

No Place Like Home

a film by Emilie K. Beck

No doubt some people will dismiss the premise of this documentary (just like that of Couleur de peau: miel) as a first-world problem. Born in Sri Lanka, Priyangika “Priya” Samanthie, as a baby, was adopted into a Norwegian family. She grew up in Norway. She is Norwegian. What else does she want?

“I had been growing up with those TV shows where adoptees meet their parents, they run toward each other, everything is fine and then they end the show”, says the director. Well Priya’s story is different. Yes she travels to her birthplace to find her biological mother, and no, not everything is fine.

At times the film has a bit of soap opera feel, what with a mystery of Priya’s real father, or a surprise reencounter with her never-known-before sister. So what? Life is stranger than soap opera. Even the stereotypical “culture clash” rings true. When Priya, visibly upset, tells her — surely loving — adoptive father about some, er, irregularities in her adoption process, his reaction is: “I’ll have to reflect upon it”.

“It is absurd to move a child from one continent to another and give them a Norwegian name”, says Priya. A valid counterpoint to the hilarious scene in Ninjababy where the heroine, in her “Fatima” mode, accuses the wannabe parents of racism for not willing to adopt from abroad.

Cinco mil kilómetros por segundo

by Manuele Fior
translated by Regina López Muñoz

What if?

What if (s)he stayed with her/his first love?

What if, indeed.

Then this story wouldn’t ever be written. There would be another story, maybe a happier one, which I doubt, and quite probably much more boring.

Instead, in his beautifully painted, masterfully narrated comic, Manuele Fior tells what happens when the lovers go their own ways. Best of luck to them.

Born Yesterday

a film by George Cukor

With Born Yesterday, Filmoteca Canaria closes the cycle El amor es un clásico. Billie Dawn, portrayed by Judy Holliday in her Oscar-winning performance, is probably the most lovable heroine of all five comedies of the cycle. Broderick Crawford is brilliant as a bully tycoon Harry Brock, said to be based on Columbia’s Harry Cohn, the very same who ordered to drag Claudette Colbert off the train. At times suffering from over-righteousness (democracy good, corruption bad, we’ve got it), it’s still a fine and heartwarming film. Thoroughly recommended.

This is the first and so far the only movie with Judy Holliday I’ve seen. I didn’t know until now that she co-wrote and recorded jazz songs with her partner Gerry Mulligan. The album, Holliday with Mulligan, was not released until 1980, fifteen years after the singer’s death.

Ball of Fire

a film by Howard Hawks

The heroine of Barbara Stanwyck (I liked her better here than in Double Indemnity) meets her Gary Cooper and the seven dwarves in this charming comedy, once again, co-written by Billy Wilder.

Drum Boogie by Gene Krupa and his orchestra featuring the great Roy Eldridge and voice of Martha Tilton.

この世界の片隅に

a film by Sunao Katabuchi

Tamara did some research before deciding to watch this film with us. I also was happy that it didn’t turn out to be another Grave of the Fireflies or When the Wind Blows. Even as the war shows its ugly face, the heroine manages to find beauty and joy in (this corner of) the world. Suzu’s “haute cuisine in the times of severe food rationing” masterclass is astounding.

La sombra roja

by Jean-Pierre Pécau and Jandro González
preface by David Fernández de Arriba

The writer Jorge Semprún, aka Federico Sánchez, finds himself on a mission: to tell the story of Tina Modotti (1896—1942), actor, model and photographer turned Comintern agent. The investigation takes Semprún to Mexico, where he is met by a beautiful and mysterious guide, one Lupe Vega...

Cuéntame tu sueño erótico

by Isa del Rosar

I got this little collection of light-hearted erotica — by a Canarian author! — from our library. And a good thing too: the book (first edition, August 2022; ISBN 978-84-18704-71-0) does not seem to be available anywhere, even from its publisher, CanariaseBook.

Of ten stories/dreams/fantasies, the funniest is Mis tres héroes, featuring a sexy Policeman, a sexy Fireman and, wait for it, a sexy Museum Receptionist. Ser yo, narrated by a trans boy, is probably the most touching. My absolute favourite, however, is Regalo de cumpleaños.

Cuéntame tu sueño erótico Regalo de cumpleaños La noche de la visita Me gusta Mis tres héroes Pizpireta Me emociono, disfruto, escribo Ser yo El viaje deseado Mi fantasía La película que no vi

From the blurb:

Isa del Rosar — Nació en Gran Canaria, una de las ocho preciosas islas del archipiélago canario. Muy cerca de la playa de Las Canteras, la cual adora y donde ha escrito, sentada en la arena y con el sonido del mar de fondo, la mayor parte de este libro. Le encanta escribir desde siempre: opiniones propias, reflexiones, cuentos, novelas románticas, diarios, una nana... Pero esto es lo primero y de corte erótico que publica. Sabe que muchos, muchas y, sobre todo, que ella conoce, se sorprenderán al leerlo, pero que sepan que todo o casi todo es fruto de su imaginación...

Como los nombres que le pone a sus personajes: Número Uno, Amor, Bombero, Cónyuge^*, Loca, Pizpireta, Alguien, Otra... Sin intención de ofender a nadie, desea que les agrade y que no sea el último.

From the back cover:

Este libro contiene diez historias con los recuerdos de nuestros protagonistas, de su niñez, de su juventud... Momentos de realidad, nostalgia o fantasía, elementos que a veces duermen y que debemos despertar.

Los ingredientes son 95% invención y 5% realidad e intuición: 30% erotismo, 30% romanticismo, 15% nostalgia, 10% fantasía, 10% humor, 5% azúcar y sal. 0% aditivos. 0% colorantes. 0% fecha de caducidad... Espero que te agrade.

*	To be honest, the use of the politically correct gender-neutral legalese cónyuge, “spouse” (El viaje deseado), irritated me a lot. You don’t call the person you love a “spouse”, neither awake nor in a dream, unless it’s a nightmare.

Ninotchka

a film by Ernst Lubitsch

Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas star in this 1939 comedy, screened as a part of El amor es un clásico cycle by Filmoteca Canaria. The most hilarious scenes involve the title character in her humourless Bolshevik machine mode; humanised by her stay in the “City of Love”, Ninotchka does not seem that funny or fascinating anymore. Thankfully, the trio Iranoff, Buljanoff and Kopalski provide comic relief throughout. Needless to say, the movie was banned in the Soviet Union.

The screenplay was co-written by Billy Wilder who, twentysomething years later, would recycle three Soviet Board of Trade agents in his One, Two, Three.

В кругу себя

by David Samoylov
compiled by Yuri Abyzov

I didn’t remember much of the book that I bought 30 years ago, still in Moscow (where I also left it). All these years, nevertheless, its random bits have been popping up from memory:

Надо, Зяма, ездить прямо, Как нас всех учила мама, Ты же, Зяма, ездил криво, Это очень некрасиво. Or: Может быть, девушку новую Я и смогу полюбить, Но твою кофту джерсёвую Мне никогда не забыть. Or: Воздух чист и темнеет, И тихо течет Райн. Вершины гор светлеют Im Abendsonnenschein.

Now, thanks to ImWerden, I was able to re-read and once again enjoy this book. Apparently, David Samuilovich himself didn’t take his humorous output seriously, and why should he? So it was up to his friend Yuri Abyzov^* to collect his aphorisms, epigrams, parodies, etc. and see them published — unfortunately, already after the author’s death.

В кругу себя is way too short to quote everything I like. So here are just a few more teasers.

☁ ☁ ☁ Если выпить запрещают Или пить недёшево, Это нам не предвещает Ничего хорошего. ☁ ☁ От Марселя-то от Пруста Ошалела наша Русь-то. Ходишь нынче без Пруста Словно жопа без хвоста. ☁ Эх, девки синеокие С родимой стороны, Пойдем в хрена высокие, В цветущие хрены.

☁ ☁

Важен путь, а не результат. О Наполеоне никто бы не знал, если бы он сразу уехал на остров Святой Елены.

☁ ☁ ☁

Тот, кто пьёт без закуски — мерзавец; тот кто закусывает и не пьёт — просто сволочь.

☁ ☁

Одну бутылку нельзя выпить два раза, как верно заметил Гераклит. Но и две бутылки нельзя выпить два раза. Некоторые советуют покупать три и делить на два раза. Но это уже совсем нелепо. Тогда уж лучше покупать четыре.

☁

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*	Yuri Ivanovich Abyzov (1921—2006), nicknamed “Patriarch”, was a Soviet and Latvian writer, translator, bibliographer, literary critic and historian of Russian culture in the Baltic states. Read/listen more about Abyzov at Radio Liberty (in Russian).

The Death of Stalin

a film by Armando Iannucci

Timur was talking about this film for a while. Finally, he’s got it from the library, so we watched it last weekend.

There’s no point in looking for historical (in)accuracies in satirical fiction. Compressing Stalin’s death (5 March 1953), the arrest (26 June 1953) and execution (23 December 1953) of Beria in just few days seems to me totally legitimate. So is Svetlana’s (Andrea Riseborough) very English indignation about the state of the herb garden at her father’s dacha. Or Maria Yudina (Olga Kurylenko, the only one who can pronounce Russian names) writing a deadly letter to Stalin. Looking at the bigger picture, portrayal of Gensek and Politburo as a ridiculous bunch of scheming mediocrities, rather than great (albeit evil) statesmen, is spot-on. That must have been especially irritating to wallowers in Soviet nostalgia^*. In the light of creeping rehabilitation of Stalin in Russia, it’s hardly surprising that the movie fell victim of an open letter signed by incensed “cultural figures” (how familiar!) and was promptly banned there.

Sir Simon Russell Beale is spookily convincing as Lavrenti Beria. I liked Steve Buscemi’s acting, I just don’t believe (in Stanislavski sense) that his clown of Khrushchev could ever outmaneuver Beria. Jason Isaacs shines as Ace “What a Guy!” Rimmer-like Marshal Zhukov.

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*

In the final years of the Soviet Union, it was at least permitted to poke fun at Stalin, Khrushchev and even Lenin. I wonder if films such as To Kill a Dragon (1988), Black Rose is an Emblem of Sorrow, Red Rose is an Emblem of Love (1989), It (1989) or Anecdotes (1990) would see the light of day in contemporary Russia.

A Marble Travelogue

a film by Sean Wang

At 97 minutes, this documentary is a bit long for its message. So are many others that I watched recently. At least the film creators spared us the off-commentary. And the film was not boring.

The Dark Side of the Moon / Обратная сторона Луны

an album by Pink Floyd
a film by Alexander Tatarsky

Is there anything to say about the now 50-year-old classic that hasn’t already been said? I seriously doubt it but, as I am in a nostalgic mode now, I’ll say, I mean write, something anyway.

It was not until 1977 that I heard The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety (as it happened with Revolver), once again thanks to that previously mentioned leather briefcase. (Which also hosted Deep Purple, Elvis, Grand Funk, Shocking Blue, Simon & Garfunkel, Slade, Wings, and much more.) And not just “heard”: listened to it dozens of times. The theme I liked the most was The Great Gig in the Sky. I couldn’t make a sense of its title though: my pocket English dictionary provided only one meaning of gig, viz. “a long light rowing boat”. What?

I remember my disappointment on seeing for the first time the LP cover, already in the ’80s. It looked cheap, as an inaccurately copied picture from the school physics textbook would.

Original LP cover. Dude, where is the seventh colour?	A better illustration of a triangular dispersive prism.

The closing words of wisdom came from the Abbey Road Studios’ doorman Gerry O’Driscoll:

There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact it’s all dark.

Curiously, in Russian the album is referred to as «Обратная сторона Луны», that is, “far side of the Moon”, which is a more correct term as far as astronomy is concerned. Then again, “dark side” lends itself to puns such as The Dark Side of the Moo, The Dark Side of the Moog, Dark Side of the Spoon etc. etc., not to mention The Force connotations. While The Far Side for me is forever associated with the comic by Gary Larson. Nothing wrong with that. Come to think about it, Larson would create better cover art for the album.

When I finally got my own copy, it was the 30^th Anniversary hybrid CD/SACD edition. I don’t have the equipment to play SACD but the CD layer sounds great — and different from the original 1973 mix. I’ve been happy with it for the last 20 years; in any case, splashing out €250 on the 50^th Anniversary deluxe box set is out of question.

Tributes and references — including self-references — are abound. Dub Side of the Moon remains my favourite: it’s both true to and different from the original. In Alan Parker’s film The Wall, the teacher humiliates a student by reading the latter’s poem to the class. The poem turns out to be “no less” than Money.

Teacher: What have we here, laddie? Mysterious scribblings? A secret code? No! Poems, no less! Poems, everybody! The laddie reckons himself a poet! “Money get back, I’m alright, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack. New car, caviar, four star daydream. Think I’ll buy me a football team.” Absolute rubbish, laddie. Get on with your work!

Thought I’d something more to say. Oh well.

Moving on: in 1983, Alexander Tatarsky made an animated short named «Обратная сторона Луны». It has nothing to do with Pink Floyd’s classic, apart from the title that is. All the voices, in pure gibberish, were furnished by Aleksey Ptitsyn. Watch out for that accordion rendition of Giya Kancheli’s Chito-Gvrito from Mimino (about 1:30).

In memory of Rick Wright (1943—2008) and Alexander Tatarsky (1950—2007).