Live music and stuff in Santander, August 2022

August flew by too fast! Here are the events I attended:

• 3 August: Yumi Ito @ Rvbicón, Calle del Sol, 4, Santander
  Yumi Ito (vocals, piano), Kuba Dworak (double bass) and Iago Fernández (drums), presenting their new album Stardust Crystals.

  

• 4 August: Mariola Membrives @ Centro Botín, Muelle de Albareda, Paseo de Pereda
  Mariola Membrives (vocals) and Javier Pedreira (electric guitar).

• 7 August: QARA @ Rvbicón
  In this one-man show, QARA was presenting his debut album, Planet Mattress.

  

• 7—28 August: Profundidad @ Ermita de San Ibón, Somo
  The exhibition of paintings by Pedro Calderón in a unique setting.
• 10 August: Jaime Velasco Band Canciones, poemas y otros viajes @ Rvbicón
  Jaime Velasco (guitar, vocals), María Villanueva (guitar, vocals), Nacho Miralles (drums, percussion) and Carlos Gutiérrez (bass guitar). Watch the full concert here.

  

• 19 August: Marinah @ Festival de las Naciones, Sardinero

  

• 21 August: Pájaros de niebla: cantando a José Hierro @ Rvbicón
  Álvaro Fombellida (guitar, vocals). Watch the full concert here.

  

• 29 August: Los Malinches @ Rock Beer The New, Calle Peñas Redondas, 15
  A potent mix of garage, psychedelia and Latin rock.

  

• 31 August: Organ Grinder Trío @ Rvbicón
  With Nico Andino (trumpet), Pier Bruera (drums) and David Cid (organ). A great show and a perfect way to conclude the last day of summer. Watch the full concert here.

Goodbye, summer.

Fourteen short films

For two nights in a row, I went to the Centro Botín to watch the 14 Spanish short films. Due to rain, the location was changed from the advertised “amphitheatre” (I didn’t even know that they had one, and still don’t know where it is) to the Auditorio. Which was nice. After the screenings, we were given a chance to cast a vote. Unfortunately, neither of the films I voted — Ellos and Work it class! — won the Audience Award. Loop, the animation by Pablo Polledri, won the jury’s second prize; IMHO, it should have been the first prize.

VIII Muestra de Cine y Creatividad

Centro Botín
24 and 25 August 2022, 21:30

Votamos by Santiago Requejo Ellos by Óscar Romero and Néstor López Xsmall by Alba Gutiérrez Magia negra by Almudena Vázquez Cosas que no van a morir nunca by Manuela Gutiérrez Arrieta Los días que (nunca) fueron by Kevin Iglesias and Pedro Rivero Cosas de chicos by Raquel Colera No estamos solos by Jorge Dolz Kellys by Javier Fesser Loop by Pablo Polledri Work it class! by Pol Diggler Babel by Alejandro San Martín Alcanzar el vórtice by Pedro Poveda 17 minutos con Nora by Imanol Ruiz de Lara

Two for the Seesaw

a film by Robert Wise
music by André Previn

How many relationships end with a mutual declaration of love?

None. Because relationships never really end.

I think that’s what Two for the Seesaw (unexplicably rendered in Spanish as Cualquier día en cualquier esquina) is all about. An underrated gem starring Robert Mitchum (Out of the Past) as Jerry and fantastic Shirley MacLaine (how come I’ve never seen any film with her before?) as Gittel.

The opening sequence, complete with Previn’s theme (and trumpet solo by Uan Rasey), is a vintage classic. I bet it looked and sounded a vintage classic already in 1962.

An American in Paris

a film by Vincente Minnelli
music by George Gershwin

Another 1951 classic, starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant — man, this guy really could play piano! —, Nina Foch and Georges Guétary. And, of course, Gershwin’s music. Who could ask for anything more? Personally, I could do with a little less tap dance.

Check this out:

According to Leslie Caron in a 2009 interview on Paul O’Grady’s interview show the film ran into controversy with the Hays Office over part of her dance sequence with a chair; the censor viewing the scene called it “sexually provocative”, which surprised Caron, who answered “What can you do with a chair?”

The African Queen

a film by John Huston

What not to love about The African Queen? Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn are wonderful throughout, while the Germans, of course, are villainous and not too bright. Special effects — all-over-the-place rear projection and especially the attack of the greyish blobs — are so bad, even by the 1951 standards, they are actually good.