NY City Ballet

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...

Oh well!

Flash mob / Mobile clubbing at Tate Modern

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!

Random

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.

Michelle Pfeiffer is back, and always so pretty.

I have to look for another job. Bye!

Oh Angelique!

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!

Adolfo Suarez is 75 / Morphoses review

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 are out!

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.

Cloudspotting

Chesil Beach, September 07

What da f!

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.

Paris

A little tip if you ever go to visit Paris...

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!

Cloudspotting

London, 24/08/07

The power of Wagner

Ha Wagner... ca fait peur!

But no, it shouldn't! I am not really a fan, but, a Wagner opera live, as I saw last Sunday at the Proms, can be amazing!

A short and insightful introduction to Gotterdammerung here!

Cloudspotting

It's back! Took a while...

London, August 07

Jacqueline Du Pre - Elgar Cello Concerto 1st movement

Am quite poor this month because I have to save! save! save! money for my holidays next months (in 4 weeks now!!) New York will be miiiiine!

An article on the young people of Japan who are a bit lost, have no money, and can't afford a place to live.

Being poor, I haven't been doing very much. Anyway, here is a piece of music I really enjoy.

Great bit from Almodovar's Matador

Hilarious, clever, difficult: genius!

Famous in Sweden

Sorry, been a bit lazy/busy these past 10 days. But I'll try to make up for it today!

First, I am famous in Sweden! Kind of! My neighbour, the artist Tuija Lindström, filmed me rehearsing some flamenco steps in my patio and turned it into a video installation, which is shown as part of her exhibition Roman Road at the Galleri Sprinkler/Nasby Cafe in the island of Öland, a very pretty place apparently. Here is pic of the vid at the gallery.

Tuija Lindström, Benjamin Lalague. (Yoohoo! I am a muse!)

Tuija is a great photographer too, here is a pic shown at the exhibition. She's also done some great work based on flowers and photoshop. Unfortunately, she is moving back to Sweden at the end of August. :-(

Tuija Lindström, Blue Eyes

3 big ETA arrests, something we can only be happy about. A long article about how they did it in El Pais, which says it is the biggest blow to the terrorist organisation since 2004

I haven't written about it, but the Ballet Boyz gala at the Royal Festival Hall was really really good. Wayne Eagling's Duet (to the music of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde) was beautiful. I also loved the freshness of Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan. If those names sound off-putting, I am sorry, it's not intended! The evening was also very funny, thanks to the video links of the Ballet Boyz backstage. Read some reviews. A pic of Belinda Hatley dancing Five Brahms Waltzes


Went to my first Proms of the year on Tuesday, to listen to Verdi's MacBeth, which I really enjoyed. The director has a bit of a mad vision (the witches are gypsy girls), it had a lot of humour, which made easier to follow. I tried to watch the Orson Wells movie and had to stop, it was just so heavy. Here, as an opera, with Verdi's music, it was much easier to digest!

C'est so Paris!

A great campaign to attract Londoners to Paris...

This poster is great! A fantasy almost coming true! hehe

Princess Die

I talk about drag artist Russella's show Princess Die ages ago when I went to see it.

Just found out a video extract from the show! I hope you like it. I think it's hilarious.

If you want to see the whole show (and I think you should!) it will be running at the Etcetera Theatre in Camen between the 6th and 9th of August!

The Etcetera Theatre
265 Camden High Street
NW1 7BU
Tel 020 7482 4857 www.ticketweb.com
10.30pm, 6th-9th of August
All tickets £7.50

Music and dance

Went to see La Vie en Rose yesterday. Great performance from Marion Cotillard! Mixed reviews: I was a bit moved, Michael not at all, and our friend Simone cried for the final 20 minutes. You?

Dancer Carlos Acosta is one of the best around. And he is hot. The Guardian wonders why he is not a bigger star. As some people say in the comments: maybe simply because he is a dancer, and dancers, male in particular, are just not that famous?

What is the future for music retailing? I wonder. The last CD I bought was a Miles Davis classic for £3... A good article on what is going on here in the UK.

And finally, Angelique Kidjo is coming to the Barbican in september! Am really really excited! Here is a vid of her live, singing Tumba, a song that always brings me up when I am feeling a bit low! So much energy. Might be the tune for my first dance at my wedding, but I need to check with Michael first...

ha la culture 2

So the Dali exhibition was really good. What a painter he is. So skillful, so detailed.
I enjoyed watching his collaboration with Walt disney studios, Destino. Haunting and not scary at all, as I was expecting.

A lot going on in the world these days... too much really. I feel a bit disconnected, but I am trying to finish off War and Peace this week, so no time for newspapers! hehe Found a very good restaurant near Victoria Park: The Empress of India. Highly recommend it. Their meat is always so well cooked!


Watched Claude Chabrol's Le Boucher on Sunday. What a movie! The characters are quite funny really... it is so 60s French you know... little village, the well respected 'directrice de l'ecole', smoking gauloises, 'no garlic with lamb! never!', the 'certificat d'etude', the 'dictee'... made me feel quite nostalgic! But really scared too.

ha la culture...

Day off tomorrow, with a tour of the Dali exhibition at the Tate Modern planned, and maybe a movie?

The Spice girls are back. I don't know if that is going to work, but then, were they ever gone? They are almost everyday in the papers here, and their songs are still heavily played. Will they fill stadiums? Apparently some people have trouble...