Gaby and me at her place.  

Christmas Eve at my cousin's new house. Santa Claus appeared and thrown candy at us.

This is a show of El Signo, a venerable pioneer electronic local band. That night it was also Leo Satragno's birthday. (Leo's the one with the mic).  

Someday it had to happen...

I finally bought a Rolling Stones CD, 40 Licks.

I'm not a big fan of the Stones.

Some songs are cool, but the band kind of sucks. Jagger is a great showman, but a mediocre singer. He was able to get away with it (he was handsome, was the first one, it was the 60's and he and Richards could write a nice tune), but after him millions of morons had the brilliant idea of starting a rock band regardless of having no singing abilities whatsoever with the excuse that Jagger couldn't sing either. I wonder how this influenced the birth of punk music.

To tell the truth I already owned a Stones album and I really like it: it's Their Satanic Majesties Request. I always liked it because it's a kind of copy of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band so it doesn't sound like an Stones album at all. It features arrangements and some level of experimentation.

Most Stones fans hate Their Satanic Majesties Request. It probably makes too evident for them that this guys were one day a secondary band that tried to catch up with what the Beatles came with.

The quality of some of the tracks is horrible... We're talking about a "Digitally Remastered" double album... The band was not very good. Just compare these tunes with properly recorded pop tunes from that era (not only Beatles' songs, but with other bands like the Beach Boys, or even some country music...) The Stones sounded like a band that was rehersing.

And a big part of this is the vocals: they are simply bad. The Beatles and others had nice voices and wonderful and careful arrangements. The Stones just screamed.

Anyway, they're the Rolling Stones and if they sold millions and millions of copies of their albums there must be a reason. OK, Jagger is a sexy guy and they sell the rock thing like maybe no other band.

My favorite tunes (IN MORE OR LESS OF AN ORDER)

1) She's a Rainbow
2) Lady Jane (Not in this CD)
3) Ruby Tuesday
4) Play With Fire (Not in this CD)
5) Paint It Black
6) Mother's Little Helper

I guess it's a strange list... Not very riff/ lick-ridden... OK, it's just the mood I'm in...

[About the elections in Bolivia, where the "cocalero" candidate - the one supporting coca platations - won]

"How do evaluate the victory of the cocalero leader?"

"Well, here the big loser is Pepsi"

About video games...

Computer games don't affect kids. If Pac Man would have affected us we'd be all running around in dark rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music

Kristian Wilson, Nintendo.

Lennon pics I didn't know

Taken from the May Pang website.

(She was Lennon and Yoko Ono's assistant and moved with Lennon to LA in 1974, while Lennon recorded Walls And Bridges. They became romantically involved until Lennon went back to Yoko). Walls And Bridges featured a hit with Elton John, "Whatever Gets You Through The Night", a song full of congas that I never really liked much.

Lennon and Elton John with Elton's glasses.


Lennon and May Pang trying more glasses.

Which Tarot Card Are You?

You are the Chariot card. The Chariot has the energy to succeed. Their ambition and drive leads them into competition, and they often come out the victor. The fast-paced energy of the chariot is met with the ability to control and lead. The Charioteer's leadership is not authoritarian but rather an attempt to bring their team to victory. The Charioteer can be obedient to those who have proven themselves in a position of leadership. Physical prowess and activity are important to the meaning of this card. Travel is found here as a journey of personal growth. Moving from one point to another in attempt to find a better place may be taken both literally and as a metaphor for the inner self. Image from: Dorothy Simpson Krause. http://www.dotkrause.com/art/tarot/tarot.htm
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New Pet Shop Boys album has a name

From SideLine


Pet Shop Boys' new album is called "Fundamental" and has a provisional release date of April 17, 2006, on Parlophone Records, EMI. It will be preceded by a new single, "Minimal". The album has been produced by Trevor Horn and features 10 new Tennant/Lowe songs, a short introduction (also written by Tennant/Lowe) and "Numb", a song by Diane Warren, originally recorded for the "PopArt" compilation in 2003.

Neil and Chris started writing songs for the album in January and commenced recording with Trevor Horn in May. Chris Lowe commented: "We've really enjoyed making this album with Trevor and his team and are very happy indeed with the finished result." Neil Tennant added: "We think it's a great Pet Shop Boys album and also a great Trevor Horn record." In related info, the release of "Nightlife - Further listening" is set back by their record company but a release of the "Discovery" concert on DVD is planned. More news as we get it.

Separated at birth?

I find that José Pekerman (Coach, Argentina football/ soccer national team) looks a lot like Roger Waters (former Pink Floyd frontman).

Pekerman


Waters


I recently broke up with my girlfriend. Ignore this if you have a life ;)

Me encantó este chiste...

[Reportaje] ANDY FLETCHER - "Es una ópera de dolor"

"Es una ópera de dolor"

El miembro fundador de Depeche Mode habla del nuevo disco y los 25 años en la ruta. ¿Llegarán a Buenos Aires?

Txt. Mariano Del Aguila. mdelaguila@clarin.com

Terminó la turbulencia, las puñaladas por la espalda. Se acabó eso de tomar a los fans de la banda como rehenes. Cuatro años después de la salida de Exciter, Depeche Mode vuelve. Parecen remontarla desde el más allá en otra historia de redención del rock: las últimas noticias eran que sus músicos chapoteaban en la depresión (Andy Fletcher), las sobredosis (Dave Gahan) o, sencillamente, una pileta de lujo en California (Martin Gore, que de paso, flotaba en las mieles del divorcio reciente). Y, justo antes de atomizarse, lanzan Playing the Angel. Este álbum parece conectar su historia con el momento, hace ya 25 años, en el que querían meterle sangre (sudor y lágrimas) a las máquinas. La novedad es el regreso a las guitarras, los sintetizadores paleontológicos y Dave Gahan como letrista en varias canciones, cortando la hegemonía de Gore.

Andy Fletcher, el más alto de los DM, no está de buen humor al comenzar la charla ("estamos ensayando ahora mismo, es algo que te destroza los nervios"). Pero enseguida, se arenga al hablar del disco que todos señalan como lo mejor que hicieron en los últimos diez años.

—¿Cuál fue la mayor dificultad para hacer este disco?

—Al principio, vivíamos muy pegados. Ahora la dificultad es que tenemos vidas más complicadas. Familia e hijos. Lo que hicimos fue dividir el tiempo: grabamos un tercio del álbum en un estudio en Santa Barbara, otro en Nueva York y otro en Londres, donde yo vivo. No es difícil porque nos conocemos muy bien.

—Hace poco dijiste que quizás harían muchos más discos con Depeche pero, ¿te imaginás seguir otros 25 años?

—Mirá, hay bandas, como los Rolling Stones... Sus integrantes tienen ahora más de 60 años. Cuando yo tenga 63, espero ser abuelo. Ahora estamos contentos, empezamos la gira. Pero en este oficio nunca se sabe. En 1980 no podía imaginarme que, 25 años más tarde, estaría dando una entrevista a un periodista de la Argentina. A lo mejor, dentro de diez años, estaré trabajando en un supermercado.

—La pregunta del millón (de fans): ¿cuándo vienen a la Argentina?

—Recién empezamos la gira en los Estados Unidos. Luego iremos a Europa y tenemos planeado girar la mayor parte del 2006.

Esta semana, hubo doblete en el Madison Square Garden, en Nueva York. Y tienen confirmadas fechas hasta agosto. ¿Llegarán para los festivales de primavera? Andy ya probó cuando tocó en el Personal Fest '04 ¡como dj! "Es increíble cuando vas al otro lado del mundo y te encontrás con semejante devoción de tus fans, y sólo estás actuando como dj. Da un poco de miedo". Bueno, Andy: ¿vienen o no? "Hay muchas posibilidades de que giremos por Sudamérica. No vamos juntos por allá desde Songs of Faith and Devotion. Ya hace mucho tiempo".

En realidad fue el Exotic Tour el que los trajo a Vélez Sarsfield, en 1994. Pero sí fue el Devotional Tour la gira que casi liquida a Depeche Mode. Salieron de tour con un psicólogo y un dealer y en la mitad despidieron al psicólogo. Cuando se reunieron para grabar ese disco (después de romper todos los récords con Violator, 1990), habían pasado dos años desde el excesivo World Violation Tour. Dave Gahan, el que más golpeado quedó, se fue a vivir a Los Angeles y (se) curtió con la escena de Seattle, mientras sus tres compañeros (aún estaba Alan Wilder) seguían con su vida familiar en Londres.

Cuando se reencontraron, sus compañeros no lo podían creer: era una copia mala de un rocker californiano, con un nuevo hobbie letal: la heroína. Wilder se bajó, Gore se cortó solo y Gahan empezó a reconstruirse (y probó como solista con Paper Monsters). La banda, a punto de partirse en mil pedazos, resistió.

Cuando barajaban nombres para este disco, Martin Gore bromeaba con que el nombre del disco podía ser "pain and suffering in various tempos", porque en estos 25 años toda la carrera se había construido en ese eje. Algunos creen leer ahí la pipa de la paz entre Gore y Gahan.

—¿Y qué significa para vos esa frase?

—Nos gusta poner esas cositas. Las canciones van a una velocidad diferente. Todas hablan sobre el dolor y el sufrimiento individuales y personales en variados ritmos, como una ópera.

—Cuando no están de gira o en el estudio, ¿siguen en contacto?

—Con Martin somos muy amigos. Muchos de sus amigos son míos. Pero Dave tiene un grupo distinto de amigos. No hablo tanto con él como con Martin...

—¿Cómo es el concierto que podría traerlos a Buenos Aires?

—Tenemos un buen diseño de escenario, de Anton Corbijn (el fotógrafo holandés que cambió el estilo visual del grupo). Lo que mostramos es una visión multimedia fantástica. Bah, nunca lo vi porque estoy ahí arriba.

Carey, West, Legend Top Grammy Nominees

Carey, West, Legend Top Grammy Nominees
With eight nominations each, Mariah Carey, John Legend and Kanye West lead the field for the 48th annual Grammy Awards. 50 Cent, Beyonci, the Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am and Stevie Wonder have six nods each for the honors, which will be handed out Feb. 8 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and broadcast live on CBS.

From Billboard.com

25 years ago, Lennon signs an autograph to Marc David Chapman, who will shot him to death hours later.  

25 years ago ex Beatle John Lennon was shot to death in NYC.  

Duran Duran songlist from official page

From the official page, the songlist...

Set List - Argentina Personal Fest

SUNRISE
HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF
PLANET EARTH
UNION OF THE SNAKE
I DON'T WANT YOUR LOVE
COME UNDONE
TASTE THE SUMMER
THE REFLEX
CHAINS
ORDINARY WORLD
NOTORIOUS
GIRLS ON FILM
SAVE A PRAYER
NICE
RIO

ENCORE

A VIEW TO A KILL
INSTANT KARMA
WILD BOYS

[posted 12/4/2005 U.S.A.]


So it was "I don't want your love" not "All she wants" is and the third song from the last album was "Nice" and they don't name "I want to take you higher" but they played it anyway.

Duran Duran Live in Buenos Aires – They premiere Lennon song

Last night, December 3, 2005, Duran Duran played in Buenos Aires as part of the Personalfest, a festival sponsored by a mobile phones company. It was a large festival in two nights with a couple of dozen artists. The stars of the night before were Simple Minds, Macy Gray and Good Charlotte (these played at the main stage, there were other smaller stages and venues). The second night it was Erikah Badu, a local band called Babasónicos and Duran Duran's turn.

I went with a female friend called Marianita who insisted me to go, I wasn't decided because I had a hard week. This whole festival took place in Puerto Madero, a chic neighborhood in Buenos Aires next to the river that used to be part of the old port but they recycled the warehouses and now it's a touristic attraction. My friend works there (lucky her, it's a very beautiful place) so I only had to pick her up when she left work. She works in a restaurant (at an office) so she got us some free meal. Duran Duran was announced to play 23:30 so we shown up around 22:30 in order to skip all the other bands and catch them.

The weather was humid (it's always humid here). In fact, during the afternoon it has been raining a lot, but the rain stopped a few hours before the show. Maybe it was the rain, maybe something went wrong or maybe it was a Latin thing, but every act was two hours behind the schedule.

When we got to the main stage Erikah Badu was doing her act. It was a LONG act, the songs were slow and not catchy at all. The formation of her band was drums, percussion, bass, keyboards, flute, backing vocals and her, no guitars at all. Now, everyone was a great instrumentist, she has an amazing voice, but the show was LONG AND BORING. As a musician myself I realized this some time ago, that having technical ability as a musician doesn't mean that you can put up a show that people would like to hear. The songs seemed to be just a bunch of slow soul licks where she and her friends had fun screaming and singing. Then she announced she was leaving and played three or four VERY LONG songs more, while the public was asking for Duran Duran.

I found this to be very unprofessional. It is not the same playing for people who are your fans than playing at a festival to people who are there to see other bands. I think that that 90% of the people never had heard of her before. Maybe the problem was the fact that she was playing at the main stage, would have her played at a smaller stage no one would have cared. If I would have been her (or his manager) I would have played a shorter set. (This is one of the best pieces of advise I got, when in doubt, play a short set. This way your fans will leave wanting more, which is not a bad thing, and people that don't enjoy your music won't hate you). Also, good instrumentists without good songs are a bad formula. If your songs are not catchy stay home (specially if no one in the audience have your CD).

While she was playing I was standing with my friend next to a beautiful blonde girl, until some moron stepped between the girl and me. I started looking at the guy with a non friendly face, with a big frown, until I realized that he looked like Gustavo Cerati, Argentina's biggest pop star (former lead singer of best selling pop Latin band Soda Stereo). Some minutes after my friend confirmed that he was in fact the famous star. After three or four long songs he went away (probably because of my frown).

After a break of half an hour Babasónicos played. They played for 40 minutes, but since the songs were uptempo and catchy the show was cool. It was the first time I saw them live.

When they left the technicians and assistants started to prepare the show for Duran Duran. There was a technician that wore a hairdo from the 80's, he looked like Bon Jovi in 1986 with long blonde hair, a terrible thing. It seemed that someone locked him away twenty years ago and only let him go to set up things at shows. Since the set up took almost an hour people in the audience started to scream funny things at him ("Señora, se hace tarde" – Madam, it's getting late).

For those interested in keyboards, Nick Rhodes' setup was a Kurzweil, an Alesis Andromeda, two silver keyboards that I think that one is a Roland because he lated fooled with the A Beam or whatever it is called, a small Korg thing (an Electribe?) and a Mac laptop computer.

Finally Duran Duran came in. The five of them stepped in and stayed there standing in the front of the stage. The audience went crazy (their only visit to Argentina was in 1993, when they shot the video for "Breath After Breath"). Two things crossed my mind: One, that they looked strangely young and cool, and two, that only them could get away with wearing clothes like those and still be considered cool. Nick Rhodes wore a pink suit, Andy Taylor was in black with shades (moments later he would lit a cigarette and he would smoke throughout the whole show). John Taylor wore leather pants, a short with vertical blue and white stripes and a kind of blue blazer that made him look like an American civil war soldier, with some symbols and a skull in the back. Simon Le Bon was in black with a white shirt. He wore black jeans that seemed to cost around $15 and black sneakers with white design. His shirt was black too. He carried some sort of bird figure with brilliants incrustations in his belt. I can't remember what Roger Taylor was wearing, maybe in black too (the cymbals obstructed most of the view). A black tall girl appeared later and sung backing vocals, she wore a brown jacket with a brown miniskirt.

They started playing "(Reach Out For The) Sunrise" and people started to jump and dance frantically. Soon my friend (who is not very tall) asked me to go to a safer place (we were very close to the stage). Since it has been raining the place was horribly muddy. Then they played the usual hits, I remember "The Reflex", "The Union Of The Snake", "Come Undone", "Girls On Film", "Notorious", a changed version of "All she Wants Is", "Ordinary World"... They linked one of these songs to "I Wanna Take You Higher" but can't remember which one. From the new album they played "Can You Taste The Summer", "Chains" (they said it was about a guy who's home and waiting for death to come) and another one that I know is from the album but can't remember the title. After an hour or so a middle-aged saxophone player that seemed to have come straight from a Huey Lewis and The News show started playing with them.

By this moment a disturbing theory started to take shape in my mind: That the five of them looked so young and fresh because there's some sort of esoteric spell on the assistant hairdo: if the assistant even cuts his hair and gets an up to date hairdo the members of the band start looking 20 years older. Talk about Dorian Gray.

People started asking for "Wild Boys". Simon introduced the members of the band. He asked the people to salute John Taylor by saying "play the f***ing bass John, play the f***ing bass John". Then he picked out a girl from the audience to be introduced by her. The girl was very young, not an original Duranie, and hesitated so much that he whispered his name in the girls' ear. They played a last song, went out, went back for the encores and Simon told us that it was 25 years after John Lennon was shot and Amnesty International was asking bands to contribute with songs for a tribute album and they were asked to play "Instant Karma". He said that never played the song before a live audience so we should forgive the mistakes.

Now, until that moment all the fans were singing along with the bands, which is not very common in a Spanish speaking country, mostly when the lyrics are quite difficult and sometimes bizarre (try to follow the lyrics to "The Union Of The Snake"). When they played "Instant Karma" (not a very known Lennon song) I guess that it was only 5 of us in the audience who knew the lyrics to the song. While I sung along I had some kids looking at me to find out if I was pretending or did I really knew the lyrics to the song.

After that they played "Save a Prayer" and finally "Wild Boys". Simon asked the boys to sing "wild boys, wild boys" and the girls to sing "wild girls, wild girls". They made a very long version, with false endings and such. When the show was over the city was covered in fog, with limelights in the back... It really looked like an 80's video clip. It was 4:00 AM. For me, the show was a class of professionalism, I felt like I have taken "how to put up a cool show" 101.

This is the typical postcard from Buenos Aires, showing the Obelisco.

This is the Obelisco today, covered by a giant condom, commemorating the international day against aids.

On TV. 

On TV. 

On TV. 

On TV. 

Zen Q & A

A monk asks Master Pai-Chang,

"Who is the Buddha?"
Pai-Chang answers,

"Who are you ?"

To find what Osho said about this, here.