an understatement, of course... but this is so yuck! a tiny spy drone in the form of a fake hummingbird...
**
so, in honor of the chuparosas de verdad, and the anti-imperialists everywhere, here are some sweet lines from neruda’soda al picaflor:
oh mínimo relámpago viviente, cuando se sostiene en el aire tu estructura de polen, pluma o brasa, te pregunto, ¿qué cosa eres, en dónde te originas?
** and silvio’sversion of colibrí y la flor. he explains in the introduction that this is the song his mother would sing as a lullaby, and he believes this is the song from which all his other songs come...
Gracias Silvio, por tu música alentadora y revolucionaria. Gracias por ser el motivo de una reunión prendida de latinoamericanos izquierdistas. Gracias por los gritos y las lágrimas que compartimos aquella noche. Y sobre todo en este momento te doy gracias por esta linda canción, con la cual duermo mi bebé todas las noches. (Aquí se les ofrezco en su versión original junta con un cover que me gusta.)
While still in the afterglow of seeing Silvio Rodriguez in Oakland last Saturday, here are a few pictures, audio clips, and additional observations.
One of my favorite moments of the concert was at the beginning when Silvio asked, "Hay Cubanos aqui?" and there was a long roar from the crowd. In modest yet sincere Silvio fashion, he waved to all the Cubanos in the theater just as if he was waving to a good friend down the street.
Ayer fue mi cita con Silvio Rodríguez la cual he esperado desde la primera vez que escuche una de sus canciones hace como 10 años. La verdad, pensé que los dos nunca íbamos a llegar para nuestra cita, viendo que yo tenia que ir a verlo a otra parte del mundo o el conseguir permiso del mismo gobierno que tiene un embargo de odio y miedo contra su país. Pero, finalmente se nos hizo que las condiciones materiales y políticas se aliñaron en cierta manera que me encontré con Silvio Rodríguez este Sábado pasado, 12 de Junio en el Paramount de Oakland.
Silvio no me decepciono, ni a mí no a las 3,000 personas que fueron a verlo en el Paramount en Oakland para su primer concierto en el Área de la Bahía. El escenario era una visión de serenidad, con solo los instrumentos, las personas tocándolos, y sillas para sentarse y mesitas para su agua. No había mas que enfocarse en la voz se Silvio y los music@s acompañándolo.
Este show era para todos quienes habían sonado con ver a Silvio y para los que habían sentido el dolor de su ausencia por tantos años. Al lado de donde estaba sentada, una pareja en sus 60's se abrazaban con felicidad y con lagrimas en sus ojos por este momento. Habían niños con sus padres, abuelitas con sus nietos, y personas con sus parejas o amigos, todos emocionados por introducir a un ser amado a una parte de su alma y corazón.
Silvio Rodriguez: Sueño con Serpientes
La verdad, mi encuentro con Silvio, que compartí con miles de personas, fue inolvidable. La música de Silvio Rodríguez ha tocado a muchas generaciones, y este concierto planto las semillas para el amor de las generaciones que vienen.
i recently came across this version of ojalá and found it very lovely. this young vocalist, favi, lends a sort of halting urgency to her recording of this song that complements the music & letras so well. kind of reminds me of some of the live silvio recordings, beautiful and oblique, with an overwhelming sense of longing and lament.
**
probably the most collectively adored of all silvio rodríguez songs ojalá is a love song, written for his first love, several years after they parted. they had met when he was 18, and she introduced him to many new things, including the work of leftist peruvian writer césar vallejo. eventually she had to move away for her studies, and so they called it off. their relationship had a profound enduring affect on him, and he has called her the inspiration for several songs. this is how he describesojalá: ... se fue a su pueblo Camagüey, a estudiar ... y yo me quedé solo aquí en La Habana, totalmente desolado. Pasaron los años y el recuerdo de aquel amor tan bonito, tan productivo, tan útil (ojo, no confundir con utilitario), enriquecedor, de aporte a uno... pues, estaba obsesionado yo con esa idea. Y porque fue un amor frustrado, tronchado por las circunstancias, por la vida, no fue una cosa que se agotara, pues se me quedó un poco como un fantasma y por eso compuse esta canción en un momento quizás de delirio, de arrebato, de sentimiento un poco desmesurado: ojalá esto, ojalá lo otro...
...
she left to her town, to camagüey, to study ... and i was left here alone in havana, completely devastated. the years passed and the memory of that love, so beautiful, so productive and useful (careful, not to be confused with utilitarian), that enriches and makes one better... well, i became obsessed with that idea. and because it was a frustrated love, cut short because of the circumstances of life, it wasn't something that had exhausted itself, well what i was left with was a bit of a ghost and so i composed this song in a moment of very heightened sentiments, perhaps a fit of delirium: ojalá this, ojalá that... [the word ojala comes from inshallah and means god-willing or similar, that something wished for will occur]
**
f-a-v-i = fuego. agua. viento. ira por la tierra robada / fire. water. wind. rage for the stolen land
éso! gracias, compañerita. looking forward to hearing more...
you know (yes, i know you know), lots of "journalism" is such garbage. and local tv news is at the top of that list, right above most (increasingly de-skilled & concentrated / centralized) "local" city newspapers.
it is, however, good for a laugh once in awhile! gotta love youtube for this kind of thing...
oh my gosh did you catch the expression on the co-anchor's face on the second one? hilarious.
**
as for avoiding the vast array of media basura, may i suggest the following for generally high-quality writing (i mean, god, is it really so difficult?), relevant content, & useful analysis...
...te doy una canción como un disparo, como un libro, una palabra, una guerrilla... como doy el amor.
**
...i give you a song like a gunshot, like a book, a word, a guerrilla... like i give my love.
thank goodness forsilvio rodríguez! or maybe thank cuba. he's so young here. and cuba is so cuba...
la canción de la trova (cuba, 1968), filmed by santiago alvarez & noticieroicaic :
this is a performance from the 2ndo festival de la nueva canción latinoamericana, which was held in sandinista nicaragua in 1983. words on the stage read :la lucha es el mas alto de los cantos / the (armed) struggle is the greatest song...
pequeña serenata diurna (nicaragua, 1983) :
one of the things i love about silvio is that his songs are poems, and people appreciate them like that, incorporate them into their lives & occasions, and will recite/sing them all the way through beginning to end when given the opportunity.
today is the anniversary of the death of che guevara.
ernesto che guevara, radio rebelde. en la sierra maestra, circa 1958.
the day following the assassination of che in bolívia in 1967, silvio rodriguez composed this song, which must be among the most beautiful ever written...
la era está pariendo un corazón : silvio rodriguez
this is one of those songs that doesn't translate very well. here's the refrain, with an attempt to approximate a translation (apologies for its inadequacy).
la era está pariendo un corazón no puede más, se muere de dolor y hay que acudir corriendo pues se cae el porvenir
**
the era is giving birth to a heart she can't anymore, she's dying of pain and help must come running because the future is falling away
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