The Toro de Osborne started its life 50 years ago as advertising for the 'Veterano' brandy of the food company Grupo Osborne. Today it has totally transcended its status and role, and is one of the most recognised Spanish symbols today. When you see it, you know you are in Spain. An exhibition is being held in Madrid to celebrate.
The Economist goes to Dollywood (Dolly Parton's theme park in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee) and says you can learn a lot about real America there: "People do not fly to Dollywood; they drive there in big cars full of squabbling children. East-coast accents, let alone foreign ones, are rare. The park is thus an excellent window on what people in this part of the American heartland like". And they are patriotic, feel strongly about God, celebrate their own folk culture and music. But they are tolerant too.
Love the Bad Science section in the Guardian, where Ben Goldacre fights against spin and madness and champions good science and research. "In the media, you get one expert saying one thing, and another saying something else. Who do you believe? The devil is in the detail" and he looks at the details and looks for the truth. An good example is his thoughts about the figures used by anti-abortionists. Go reason!
A very very good article about the environmental and social impact of tar sandsexploitation in Canada. The black gold is proving a mixed blessing for the frontier town of Fort McMurray.
As my friend Sara publishes her recipe for Squirrel Stew on her blog, I thought it would be fitting to publish one of the pics I am most proud of, taken in NY.
The new Britney Spears album is out, and apparently it's good. The scary thing is that the Guardian goes as far as publishing a "In praise of..." section to her. "The new album is often brilliant. And what is most brilliant is its musical risk-taking (...) Pop is almost unique in having commercial successes who go on to use edgier sounds. In a small way, Britney Spears continues that long, chequered tradition." Who would have thought?
A big article on the Quebec band Arcade Fire in the Guardian too. Their second album is one of the biggest selling of the year. Here is one of the paper's explanation for their aversion to celebrity: "There is the shadow of the French Quebec pop scene, packed with artists unknown outside of its confines, but who apparently "sell as many records as Arcade Fire do worldwide, just in Quebec" [says the Arcade Fire singer]. "In Montreal, we're not celebrities at all, those people are celebrities," says Butler. Parry nods. "Occasionally, we've noticed that people are kind of surprised, like, wow, you've done really well, you're nearly as big as Jean LeClerc." HAHAHAHA
Some great fado singers will be at the South Bank Centre on Thursday. Let's hope there will be some tickets left on Wednesday when I get paid, otherwise, I won't be able to go.
Being away from France, I didnt follow very much the Cecilia-Nicolas Sarkozy break-up, so I am quite happy the Guardian has written a long piece about it!
Also on the Guardian's website, a podcast from the current Tate Modern exhibition of Louise Bourgeois' work. Everyone loved it, except me and my friend Nicolas. We totally failed to be moved by what we saw. We didn't even find it ugly or awful, we just found it unimpressive. Either we are not educated enough or are pointing the lack of clothes on the Emperor, though that would be too good. I have to say she still looks chirpy for her age (95). I have just read that she is the last Surrealist to be alive, so I might go back and look at the show from that angle, and maybe I will understand what she is trying to do.
Christopher Wheeldon's dance company Morphoses debuted in New York, and the great Aesha Ash was spotted by the New York Times: "Ms. Ash stood out for the resonance and power of her dancing in William Forsythe's “Slingerland Pas de Deux". You go girl! Here is a pic of her dancing with Trevor Nunn and William Trevitt (aka The Ballet Boyz) in a new ballet, "Mesmerics".
Some hoop-la in the US about a new War and Peace translation. I read a long version, and I loved it.
A portrait of Anderson Cooper, a CNN journalist who is very cute for his age (40) and likes reporting from war-torn countries and might be gay though he won't say.
In France, teachers are meant to read the famous lettre from Guy Moquet, an emblematic heroes of the French resistance and of the Communist Party, who was shot by the Germans at the age of the 17, on the 21st of October 1941. The lettre is his final, written to his parents and brother, just before his execution. Nicolas Sarkozy's first decision as president was to make the reading of this letter compulsory in every high school in the country. Some teachers are refusing to read it.
The New York City Ballet is coming to London next March, which is very exciting cause they are very good and haven't been here for 25 years.
The problem everyone is excited about this and the promoters know this, so tickets start at... £20! £20 for a restricted view in the Balcony, or a standing position! Argh! It goes up to £95 in the stalls. I hate rich bastards!! So it will have to be restricted view for me...
Went to the Tate Modern yesterday evening after receiving an invite by email for a flash mob event. Basically you turn up to the place with your ipod and at the said time (here 19h01) you start dancing like mad. There's no loud music, you just dance to whatever is playing on your ipod. It was really funny, and a bit strange!
Found some pics online. Michael and I can be seen! Clap your hands say yeah!
La Bayadere was brilliant yesterday evening at the Royal Opera House. The ballet tells the story of an Indian warrior in love with la Bayadere, a temple dancer, but he is set to be married with the Raj's daughter. Tension tension! Total orientalism and slightly camp (Marianela Nunez made a great threatening bitch out of the daughter's role!! Love her!) it was really good. Carlos Acosta is a mighty hunk and he makes it look so easy.
What a concert yesterday night for Angelique Kidjo at the Barbican! She was just a-ma-zing! The power, the energy, the aura she exudes... We were on our feet dancing away. She sang many tunes from her latest album Djin Djin, which I am bound to buy after such a performance! She runs around, she dances madly, she sings like no one else, she makes us laugh in between songs, her musicians are awesome, and her music is so uplifting! This is one of the best concert I've ever been to!
This was also partly due to a very good supporting act, the beautiful Mayra Andrade. Her music is close to that of Cesaria Evora (Mayra is from Cape Verde too) but I also found a hint of fado and bossa nova in it. Her voice reminds me of Astrud Gilberto and Amy Winehouse. Her stage presence equals Mariza's: she is very magnetic, and chats happily with the audience. She also sings in French sometimes, like Susheela Raman. As you have guessed by now, I think she is great and she joins my group of Queens of World Music! Gotta buy her album too!
Also, Angelique invited members of the audience to join her on stage for her last two songs! I jumped on this occasion and was first on stage! hehe We all danced around and I shaked my booty with her at one point. Brilliant! It was totally a "Love the people, Love the world" moment though, quite cliche really: all those people young and old of different races dancing together on some African tunes. I felt like I was in a Michael Jackson video or a Benetton advert. hehe
Here is a review from a professional reviewer from the Guardian, who obviously wouldn't have been there by himself otherwise, and who certainly is not a fan of African music: "She has a fine voice, but her songs were often brash and furious" That's the whole point! You gotta scream with her and get it out of your system, your joy, your pain, everything you have in you, out it goes!
Below Angelique Kidjo's version of the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter. Angelique Kidjo is angry that Africa is always portrayed in a bad light in our media, but when things are that bad, she supports the cause, here the plight of the Darfur refugees. This song makes me dance around though, but hey: Love, sister, it's just a kiss away!
In 1976, a few months after the death of Franco, the new head of the Spanish state, the King Juan Carlos II, named Adolfo Suarez president of the government. his task: bring democracy to Spain. Today, Adolfo Suarez is 75. El Pais celebrates his birthday by asking some of his colleagues to remember his best moment, in what is a good portrait and informational article about the Transition. Read on!
Went to see the show of new ballet company Morphoses, set up by Christopher Wheeldon, one of the most successful living choreographer, and it was really good. The reviews were pretty mixed (The Guardian loved it, the Financial Times not at all) I really enjoyed it, though you could tell the company is new and it is quite a financial gamble: the programme was rather short (4 ballets of 20,7,27 and 20 minutes respectively) with many Pas de Deux (ie less ballet dancers to pay!), costumes borrowed from other companies and little stage design. But the pieces were very good and the dancers amazing. Wheeldon gave credit to the choreographer he is inspired by (Balanchine and Forsythe) before presenting a new ballet, Fools' Paradise.
One of the member of the company is Aesha Ash, a great ballerina, tall, with shapes, really long legs, and black! And there aren't many, as this article from the NY Times reported a few months ago. She was great, in a William Forsythe's Pas de Deux. Can't wait to see more of her.
The reviews for the stage adaptation of All about my mother at the Old Vic are in the papers today.
The Times says "Samuel Adamson’s adaptation of Todo sobre Mi Madre can’t be and isn’t a wholly satisfactory substitute for the original film. Yet you soon overlook such minor irritants as the bustling scene shifters or the falling curtain that allows them to whizz about the furniture while gratuitous monologues occur at the front of the stage. And, yes, you’re absorbed in Tom Cairns’s production, which sticks to the basic story, adding little of importance except the intermittent appearance of the eager, watchful ghost of the young man whose death starts the proceedings."
The Guardian is less happy with it "The result is a sincere attempt to re-invent a great movie. But who would want a copy, however well done, when they can have the original?"
The Evening Standard says it is "an adaptation that improves upon the famous original" but reckons there are "fussy scene changes and film projections".
I actually loved the scene changes, as they leave you time to breathe and the music of Alberto Iglesias (from the movie) draws you even more into the world of the play. Acting-wise, it was great. I had trouble adapting to Mark Gatiss's Agrado. The accent was weird, but it really improved in the second act, and his last monologue was very very moving. The most famous sentence from the movie, "Una mujer es mas autentica cuanto mas se parece a lo que ha sonado de si misma", was told in Spanish.
The appearance of the ghost of the son after his death worked well for me too. As he reappears, the son becomes the writer he wanted to be, and I think in some cases he expresses the words of Almodovar, the writer. The girl who plays the nun (played by Penelope Cruz in the movie) is ok but her Spanish accent when she says "Mama" or "Papa" is very very bad. It actually sounds italian! (she stresses the first syllable instead of the second one) OK, it's a detail...
Lesley Manville and Diana Rigg are great. Incorporating Lorca's Blood Wedding at the end is a brilliant idea too. I was very moved, and was 'floating' for a while afterwards, and had to wait a little before I could discuss the show with my boyfriend. Bref, it's not the movie, but we knew that, it's a play. Does it work as a play? Absolutely.
In other areas, David Duchovny, the Mulder from X Files, the TV show I religiously watched as a kid, ha signed up for a second X Files movie along with Gillian Anderson, who played Scully, and Chris Carter, the creator of the show.
Read here about the Chinese cyber police people and their gentle reminder to Chinese people that they are being followed by having two little avatars appear on the screen every half an hour on specific websites.
This organisation arranges guided tours for maximum 6 people at a time with people who live in the neighbourhood you are visiting. It sounds really nice!
