Friday, April 26

Layla (Eric Clapton)
Today was a day of thinking serious thoughts about the future. Late at night my friend O and I went to a cafe and talked about these thoughts. As we were leaving this song came on. I predict it and the thoughtful mood will be with me for a few more days.

The music for this week

Have you ever had the experience where some intangible factors, in the feel and smell of the air, the particular lighting of the current season align together to exactly recreate the "feel" of a certain memory of a time in your mind, and you find yourself as if in a dream, feeling yourself as you were in that memory? And the other parts of this memory are conjured up, a feeling, a person or a song you haven't thought of in a long time.
This week, a wave of dry heat and a street roda at twilight, and for days the feel of the time exactly one year ago was thinly superimposed over my daily experience. This is the song,
Nestor Capoeira's presentation (the first minute of the video)
and a part of the performance we were preparing then, in which this song was the opening (unfortunately I don't have a video of the beginning of the show).
Batizado - Spring 2007, Professor Ido. The performers here are Grito, Apache and Nativo.

People CAN change.

David Rendall cleared up his point in his comment to the previous post.
People CAN change, it's undeniable. People can turn their life around by conscious decision. Smokers quit, once-obese ladies do figure competitions, workaholics escape the rat race. BUT these examples are few and far between.
I think many people have a habit or personality trait that they wish they could change, they feel if they succeeded their life would be hugely improved. They are aware of what they need to change, they appear to try to change it, but most of them never will. So the next question is, How do people change? What's different about the efforts or the journey of someone who has made a successful change, and someone who fails over and over again? And how can a person of the latter description finally leave behind them the accumulating "History of Failures"?
Here is a small summary and analysis of Personal Accounts of Successful Versus Failed Attempts at Life Change, just for a start. This tune is at the top of the charts in here, so more is forthcoming.

Reading Sunday, April 20

No music for today, but here are two articles I read:

The Health Benefits of Narrative - readable and to the point.

The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness By David Rendall
- Quote: "My experience (...) indicates that efforts to fix weaknesses are ineffective."
In other words he is saying, people can't change by conscious effort. It's not the main point of the article but it's a big question, a main theme in my mind. Can people change? How? Gradually vs. "making a switch"?

Saturday April 19, Seder day

No More I Love You's (Annie Lennox)
Estrogen is on the rise.

An answer to my prayers

Finally a way to find a song when you don't know the title, artist or even a scrap of lyrics. midomi.com finds songs by the tune you hum or sing (in gibberish) into the microphone.
I found this tune which I'm sure you will recognize. It's based on a theme from the opera Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin (no, I had never heard of him before). I couldn't find the version I know, but there are many many versions of this weird melody from jazz style to Anime theme song Garden of Everything (listen till 01:30).
Stranger in Paradise (I said I like weird).

Wednesday - Juno, lo-fi

Anyone Else But You (Moldy Peaches) from the movie Juno. I love it when the delivery is so guileless and simple, as you listen it feels like you are the one singing it. Here is another song that had this effect when I heard it on the radio once: Shake Sugaree (Elizabeth Cotten) - you can listen to a sample from this page.

Wednesday, March 16, afternoon

Mas Que Nada (Sergio Mendes & Black Eyed Peas) - the only piece by the Black Eyed Peas that bears listening to more than once...
I really think they are insufferable so instead of their original clip, here is one featuring their music to clips of Julie Andrews. It's such a perverted idea for a match I just had to post it.

Sea of Death

A couple weeks ago I was reading "Mar Morto" by Jorge Amado (in Hebrew translation), accompanied of course by the following soundtrack:
É doce morrer no mar (Dorival Caymmi sings).

Beatbox on Tuesday, April 15

Today was Beatbox Day in this head. When you're in the throes of rhythm the world around you sounds like a jam session that just trailed off when you entered the room: rustles, birdsong, traffic, footsteps, your own breathing and rhythm of motion - you almost get all the sounds grooving in unison but not quite.
The factory scene from "Dancer in the Dark" starring Bjork
An autist's language (by Amanda Baggs)
Compare.

OK, and here is some beatbox. (These videos are worth watching as well as listening to.)
Felix Zenger - a real pro, almost too clean and perfect to be real...
Michael Jackson (clip 1) (clip 2) - incredibly talented, all other things aside.
Will Smith - just funny...
Baiana (Barbatuques) from a previous post also starts with some cute beatbox.

At the end of the day I calmed down:
Teardrop (Massive Attack)

Monday, April 14

While my Guitar Gently Weeps (George Harrison)
The guitar solo kept me up at night...

More from the March 08 list

Here is Easy (Faith No More) and
Me & Bobby McGee (Janis Joplin).

Sunday, April 13 song

Negrume da Noite (Blackness of the Night) - Here sung by Virginia Rodriguez.
(I don't watch these videos by the way, only listen to them - just ignore the visuals.)

Barbatuques body percussion

Baiana - this one was on repeat for a week, around October 07.

My Song

My song:
What's Up (4 Non Blondes)

Ladainha

Eu sou feito de sangue e suor

Foi talhado de orgulho e magía

O meu pai foi criado na dôr

Minha mãe negra escrava Maria

Eu nasci num cantinho do inferno

Cujo nome chamava senzala

Eu durmo escutando gemido

Enquanto a chicote me embalha

O meu corpo marcado de acoite

Minha boca colada de sede

Eu rezo por antepassados

Deitando dentro de uma rede.

 

Vamos embora, Camarada,

Camara, vamos embora.

The March 08 Playlist

Easy (Faith No More)
- This one played for two weeks. (Attach full meaning.)

Aguas de Marco
- Thanks to Amitai.

Me & Bobby McGee (Janis Joplin)
- I was walking down the street and I saw written in the wall, by the entrance to someone's house: "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." It caught on (attach no meaning though).

The Ladainha that Itapua Beiramar sang in our roda. (See next post)


Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush)
- I like weird.


Twist in My Sobriety (Tanita Tikaram)

I always have a song playing in the background of my mind. I can be singing the same song for a week, or it might change during the day. Sometimes it's just a song I heard that got caught in my head (I even catch the school recess bell melody if I'm not careful). Often it reflects my mood, state of mind, the thoughts I'm preoccupied with. Hearing a song can make me recall exactly how it felt inside my head the last time it was playing in there.
I'm going to use this blog to track the playlist in my head.