Sorry about boring you all with so much Jazz, but Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas” from his album Saxophone Colossus always puts me in a good mood. There’s nothing like happy music.
Monthly Archives: April 2007
Too Much Jazz
I know I am talking too much about Jazz, but after listening to “Stolen Moments” again just now, I couldn’t get enough of Bill Evans‘ piano (he is from Plainsfield, NJ, right next door to where my mother is from). In any event, I thought I would also share with you some of my other favorite jazz pieces as well: Continue reading
Filed under Jazz
Stolen Moments
This afternoon I was randomly listening to music in my Radio Blog Club playlist without paying much attention, and out of the blue I heard a flute and thought: hey, that’s Eric Dolphy. Then, I listened carefully and remembered that it was “Stolen Moments” from Oliver Nelson’s most celebrated album The Blues and the Abstract Truth. Not only does it in fact feature Eric Dolphy on flute, Nelson also showcases one of the best casts of jazz musicians all together: Bill Evans (one of my favorite pianists), Roy Haynes on drums, Paul Chambers on bass, and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. They are all out of this world on this piece.
If you’ve ever read Janet Fitch’s White Oleander, you’ll recognize the song “Stolen Moments” which features in the story. Unfortunately, Fitch gets it wrong by attributing the pounding and liberating trumpet sound to Oliver Nelson. I don’t mean to be pedantic or nitpicky, but you got to give the credit to Freddie Hubbard. Nelson is the band leader and plays the sax.
Filed under Jazz
Video of the March 10th Safe Democracy International Conference
On March 10, 2007, I was very fortunate to attend the Safe Democracy International Conference (along with my Bro) as a panelist. Here is the video of the Conference’s conclusions. In watching the video, I am reminded of the fantastic group of experts with whom I shared the round table discussion on the challenges that Europe faces in terms of immigration. The conclusions from this round table can been seen from minutes 12-16 (and I can be seen scratching my nose around minute 15). My Bro partook in the round table on Africa seen from minutes 20-30.
The video here is in Spanish, but the general conclusions in written form can also be found in English on the Safe Democracy website. The specific conclusions for my round table on immigration were wonderfully drawn up by Esteban Ibarra and can be found in Spanish here.
Flower Power
Regardless of my spring time allergies that are slowing me down these days, you can see from my past two posts that I am very Pro-Flower.
Filed under Digressions
Enough is Enough
Enough is enough. I think I’ve had it. I don’t mind giving advice or helping people out with their personal problems, but what I can’t stand are people who are possessive. And here we are once again with my friend who was breaking up with her boyfriend. I have even given my long explanation about how only self-centeredness and vanity keep people from breaking up when they know they it’s over. So, why won’t her boyfriend get the picture?
It isn’t love that he is fighting to hang onto, it’s something else, and I’ve seen it a thousand times before. Continue reading
Filed under Digressions
Cumpleaños Feliz
A pesar de mi gran deseo de que cada uno de mis amigos se fuera a casa a leerse un libro tranquilamente, mis amigos (salvo el Gran Huja) me obligaron a salir. Lo que no supe fue que mi querida amiga, la bella Laurita, con la colaboración de Berga y Neska, había venido desde Úbeda (Patrimonio de la Humanidad) para hacerme una gran sorpresa.
Ya con el pase de los años he perdido esa ilusión juvenil de celebrar mi cumpleaños. Sin embargo, Continue reading
Filed under Friends / Family
From a Crooked Rib
This last few days, I finished reading two novels which could be described as feminist literature. The first one, Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles, I must admit, was a total enigma to me. In a sense, it reminded me of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. While I understand its central theme of women’s struggle for finding themselves in a world that imposes upon them a series of debilitation and irrational anxieties, I still haven’t quite figured the rest of it out.
Next, I read Nuriddin Farah’s first novel, From a Crooked Rib, written in 1968 (yet still very revelant today). This story tells of a Somali woman’s desperate struggle for freedom, a struggle that is based on her love for life. Ironically, she lives in a male dominated world that treats women as inferiors, subjects them to female genital mutilation (in particular infibulation), and while she flees her tribal lifestyle to avoid a forced marriage to an older man, she still believes that her only option for freedom lies within marriage. Even worse, the women in society also promote and perpetuate gender inequality.
God created woman from a crooked rib
and anyone who trieth to straighten it,
breaketh it
It never ceases to surprise me Continue reading
Filed under Digressions, Essays, Literature
Grave Error 