World Music: Astor Piazzolla

So with this Last.fm listening.... (see previous post)

The other night I put Astor Piazzolla's name in the box.

Piazzolla was known for his new approach to Tango: orchestral, dramatic, narrative.

Years ago - in the mid-1980s - The Old Man and I saw Astor Piazzolla,and his Quinteto Tango Nuevo, play at the Almeida Theatre in Islington.




It was the first time that I'd seen this music being played. And the bandoneon in particular. That's the accordion sound in tango. The bandoneon looks like a square, Uber-concertina. It pulls out forever. So much so, that the player stands with his foot on a stool or box and lays the instrument out across his knee as he pulls and bends it.

Bang! Bang! Percussion, piano chords, violin bow strikes, double bass slaps. Bang! Bang! And the bandoneon being pulled out in Tango time.

It was a wonderful concert. And my good fortune to see and hear Piazzolla play.

If you prefer a gentler, more old-timey feel - try the singing of Carlos Gardel.

Musical listening: Last.fm

I found Last.fm through "Blogging for Dummies" by Susannah Gardner. I know I should be way cooler than this. And find out about it some other more "street-cred" way. But hey - what can I say?
The Doll has a Bus pass, already.

So I visited and signed up. And started listening while I puttered around the Internet.

And "scrobbling" Last.fm is proving a good way to find more world music for me to listen to. Or other kinds of music for that matter. (Yeah- don't ask - "Scrobbling" is what they call it. And you download a "Scrobbler" especially for the task.)

So I log in and start with someone's music that I know and like and they fire up a "Radio Station" based on that artist and similar artists. The "Radio" keeps on playing tracks until you click it stopped. (You can skip stuff you're not liking.)

Or sometimes I put in a type of music - say: Blues, or even Electrotango, - and the principle's the same.

But I have to say that this didn't work with "Doo-Wop". They only listed a handful of artists and by my reckoning - these were NOT Doo-Wop. I mean.... come on.... Dusty Springfield? Doo-Wop? You guys don't know Doo-Wop is what I think.

Perhaps it's supposed to work by listeners tagging their tracks with music labels? If it does, I'd better revisit, pull up some Doo-Wop groups by name and tag them as such.

Dusty Springfield indeed.

EDIT: OK trying again and getting a better result for Doo-wop - but still a bit strange around the edges. "Mash-up" is "Doo-wop" now?
Say what?

Apple Blossom Time

Rural life: spring rites

I was woken up in the very early hours of the morning, by loud animal cries down there in the garden.

I got out of bed and pulled up the blind. The sky was a field of stars, dense and speckled. But the outside world of the garden was totally dark to me.

The noises continued and eventually I could hear a mismatch that implied two animals crying out. I still had no idea what they were. Eventually the noise died down and I could hear the sound of an animal moving through the grasses and hedge - coming up towards the house.
And then the sound of another animal, a softer almost whimpering sound, that moved away in the opposite direction.

No doubt this was not a fight - but a mating. Maybe fox.
The other night I had heard a vixen calling out, down there in the garden.

Anyway it was vivid and alarming.

But this morning I kept thinking of the political courtship and "love rites" that took place yesterday. The politicians involved make like it's a marriage. But essentially it's a power grab and the tussle to establish a bloodline. Whatever - there are an awful lot of smug grins today.

Rural Life: The political side: 2

Dear Local MP

I wish to congratulate you on remaining our elected MP. I happily voted for you. And for your Party. Not least because I've never found myself represented by a visible and hard working constituency MP before.

I've even seen you in the flesh. On that demonstration walk to protest closure of our village Post Office?


Which closed all the same, didn't it... and the shop that contained it.


So I wish to make it very clear that I am non-plussed and alarmed to find that I have helped elect a Party that is about to ally itself with the very Party that I did not want in power.

I was appalled at the quick declaration of Your Leader, that your Party would negotiate with The Smooth-Faced Jolly Party to give them government.
Of course, he had said this before election day (a pointer which I stupidly ignored), and he said it again on result day. Before your own good self had been confirmed winner of this seat, in fact. So quick was he to get in there.

What was his phrase? The party with the "moral right" to form a government?
This would be despite the "constitutional right" of The Prime Minister to try to form a government in circumstances where there is no clear majority Party?

Personally, my hackles rise and I start sniffing the wind when too many people start going on about the "moral right" as a standard for public governance and action. I regard "morals" as a personal issue. Now "ethics" .... that's another matter altogether. But government isn't all that interested in "ethics", is it? I mean, sadly, they do not appear to have been a sine qua non for political life. Have they?

More to the point. I feel as if my vote has been hi-jacked. I am not a Smooth-Faced Jolly Party supporter. If I were - I would have voted for them. I voted for your Party's policies not Smooth-Faced Jolly Party's ones.

I urge you and the other MPs of your Party to keep open dialogue with the current party of government; and to make every effort to work with the Parliamentary party that I thought to be closer to yours on issues such as electoral reform, Europe, and immigration; and which is ultimately - more experienced than the Smooth-Faced Jolly Party.

If this alliance does go ahead - I will, in future, vote with my heart, regardless of the qualities of the sitting MP (yourself) and sadly accepting the likelihood that my vote will never result in a representative of my choice. (Because you don't really think that the Smooth-Faced Jolly Party will give you electoral Reform do you?)

Just a minute. What's that sound?
Ah yes - the baying of hounds getting ready for the return of hunting.... the sound of badgers being wiped out ... the bells ringing for the compulsory attendance of church .... the closing of the frontiers ... the rustle of bank notes .... and the hidden washing of dirty laundry.
Plus ca change ....

Yours with concern,
Grey Doll

Rural life: the political side

So, it's election day.

The Old Man and me go off to the hall in the next village, clutching our voting cards. Quite busy really.
We go through the doors, and I see, in the lobby, a woman with a list, and a rosette not of our own voting colours.

She say: "Could I have your number please?"
I recognise her from the Group and start to smile....
The Old Man's hackles rise.
He growl and bite her head off:
"No. You can't. It's none of your business."
Smile aborted, I follow Shouting Old Man into the hall.

I say: "That's so-and-so. You've met her before. From the Group." (The Old Man's facial pattern recognition factor is nil.)
He reply: "She's not on a horse this time. How was I to know?"

I vote. And rejoin Old Man who has not left the hall yet, so I have to keep company with him past fellow Groupist.

Old Man apologise for not recognising her.
She say: "Quite alright. And you are right. You don't have to give me your number. It's just to check for our own party members...."
He start off again.
I shout "Goodbye" and march away.

I knew life in this Group was not going to work for me. The polite requests to bring the Old Man along to lunches and stuff. I say "No". They don't like taking "No" for answer. Now, one of them understand why I say "No".

Old Man is of course right about his rights. And very vocal in expressing them. It's very admirable. So it just be me that's a wimp, a creep AND a village outcast. Signed, sealed and delivered.

Animated discussions: cartoon time

Animation is magic. Most kids love magic. Most kids love cartoons. And adults who are still kids love cartoons. That's me.
Watching TV as a child. I remember - Popeye, The Flintstones, and Huckleberry Hound. Then there was "going to the pictures" - Walt Disney's Bambi, Sleeping Beauty, The Lady and the Tramp, and 101 Dalmatians.

But as well - there were all those daily cartoons and animations that went with TV commercials. It kept most animators in business. From the start, British commercial TV hosted cartoons by the shopping trolley load. From the 1950s on - bear skinned guards marched and sang about "Murray Mints" (too-good-to-hurry mints), parading shirts sang about Rael Brook poplin .... plastic Martians hooted with laughter over the idea of Instant Mashed Potato ("for Mash eat Smash"). Cartoons and animation everyday. That's how most of us got to know Aardman Animation, before Wallace & Gromit. When their vox pop "Creature Comforts" for the "Heat Electric" campaign hit our telly screens.

Even now I watch the "broken window - wind blowing hat - bewildered hat owner - helpful window repair man - hat back on head" sequence before Channel 4's Weather Forecast. (Done by Studio AKA for Lloyds TSB.) And I still laugh out loud. The Old Man thinks I'm very obsessive about this one.

There is a whole history of animation in the simple act of viewing commercial TV over the decades. Now though - maybe the magical separateness of the animated world is growing indistinct. With animation's fusion with CGI and with the media's daily reliance on digital cosmetics and trickery - do children and adults start mistaking "movie magic" for real life?
I mean, nobody mistook Yogi Bear for a real Grizzly.
Or did they?

Rural life

Back to earth. And it's spring.