el año viejo

ay yo no olvido al año viejo
porque me ha dejado cosas muy buenas...
¡mira!
me dejo una chiva,
una burra negra,
una yegua blanca,
y una buena suegra...
ay me dejo una chivita,
una burra muy negrita,
una yegua muy blanquita
y una buena suegra...

**

oh, i don't forget the old year
because it's left me many good things...
look!
it left me a goat,
a black donkey,
a white mare,
a good mother-in-law...
oh, a little goat,
a very black little donkey,
a very white little mare,
and a good mother-in law...


tony camargo : el año viejo



ok, how cool is this video? i love the absentminded cinematography (um, uh-oh, that foliage is kind of getting in the way...). and how tony camargo spends lots of time wandering around with his back to the camera, like he forgot he's being filmed and then suddenly remembers. also, what are those golden pyramids? and who is that random guy that walks by at the beginning??

:) feliz año...

asesinos

update : demo last night in sf had at least 1000, maybe 2000 people. the sf chronicle posted a few fotos.

**

demonstration against the ongoing israeli massacre of palestinians in gaza

today, tuesday, 30 december @ 5pm
israeli consulate : 456 montgomery street, sf

from the guardian :

a relative carries the body of Dina Balousha during her funeral

The family house was small: three rooms, a tiny kitchen and bathroom, built of poor-quality concrete bricks with a corrugated asbestos roof, in block four of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. There are hundreds of similar homes crammed into the overcrowded streets, filled with some of the poorest and most vulnerable families in the Gaza Strip.

But it was this house, where Anwar and Samira Balousha lived with their nine children, that had the misfortune to be built next to what became late on Sunday night another target in Israel's devastating bombing campaign of Gaza.

An Israeli bomb struck the refugee camp's Imad Aqil mosque around midnight, destroying the building and collapsing several shops and a pharmacy nearby. The force of the blast was so massive it also brought down the Balousha family's house, which yesterday lay in ruins. The seven eldest girls were asleep together on mattresses in one bedroom and they bore the brunt of the explosion. Five were killed where they lay: Tahrir, 17, Ikram 15, Samer, 13, Dina, eight and Jawahar, four...

la misma porquería (ii)

update:

the airstrikes continue and a land invasion is being prepared. palestinian deaths and injuries are at 325 dead and over 1400 injured and increasing.

demonstrations in sf against israel's ongoing massacre of palestinians in gaza:

tonight, monday, 29 december @ 5pm
feinstein's office : montgomery & market

tomorrow, tuesday, 30 december @ 5pm
israeli consulate : 456 montgomery street




foto by getty, posted on al-jazeera

***

the murderous israeli state has begun a(nother) massive airstrike campaign against gaza. as of now, more than 210 are counted as dead and several hundred injured.



: foto by afp


some of the missiles crashed into civilian neighborhoods as the school day was ending and continued falling as desperate parents rushed into the streets seeking their children...

: from today's l.a. times


seems like a good time to post this song, which anyways is always timely.

intifada : ska-p



¡que viva la resistencia palestina! ¡abajo los asesinos zionistas!


today on electronic intifada...

palestine diaries : the rains of death in gaza

gaza massacres must spur us to action

stop the massacre in gaza : boycott israel now!

eartha kitt

eartha kitt

17 january 1927 – 25 december 2008

from today's democracy now:

And the singer and actress Eartha Kitt has died at the age of eighty-one. She was blacklisted in 1968 after she spoke out against the Vietnam War at a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson. When Johnson asked her about the Vietnam War, Kitt replied, “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. They don’t want to go to school because they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.” The First Lady reportedly burst into tears. For four years afterward, Kitt performed almost exclusively overseas and was investigated by the FBI and CIA.

here's eartha kitt's version of a turkish standard, üsküdar'a giderken.

eartha kitt : uska dara-- a turkish tale

fridita

me regalaron un libro de frida kahlo bien lindo. it's from the homenaje nacional : 1907-2007 exibit last year at bellas artes in mexico. he estado pensando en ella.





ah, i love this scene from the salma hayek frida film, the tango with tina modotti ;)




that's lila downs singing alcoba azul in the background.

la noche ira sin prisa de nostalgia
habrá de ser un tango nuestra herida
un acordeón sangriento nuestas almas
seremos esta noche todo el día...

Enrique Bunbury returns to the solo life with Hellville de Luxe

Released in September, the latest studio album from the ex-vocalista de los Héroes del Silencio marks, as some critics have written, Enrique Bunbury’s return to rock ‘n’ roll. It's true. The first thing La Cumbiambera noticed about Hellville de Luxe is that the album features lots and lots of guitars. Electric, acoustic, steel—you name it, they all feature prominently in Hellville. The global instrumentation of some previous Bunbury albums has been set aside here, although the pulse of Cuban rhythms can still be felt in tracks such as “Porque las cosas cambian” and “Inrremediablemente cotidiano.” Otherwise, what you’ll find in this album is a collection of songs whose sounds range from to the electrified urgency of “Brujías Para El Dolor” to the folksy saunter of the closing track “Aqui.”

The lyrics represent the best of Bunbury, with some tracks focusing on the timeless themes of amor y desamor, while other tracks take a broader view of life’s twists and turns. All of the songs are penned with a fresh dose of poesía-a-la-Bunbury:


“Docientos huesos y un collar de calaveras”

“Tus docientos huesos y un collar de calaveras
para que sepa volver y volverte a encontrar...
Cada palabra tuya cual imagen de bota
y la lluvia cayendo por el borde de mi sombrero
y empapandote todita en tu camiseta.
Un buen verso quizá sea el lado valiente de un cobarde…
Mis pensamientos paralizan mi voluntad
y tú regando mi jardín un día de lluvia torrencial
la mejor compañia para estados de animo peligrosos…
Y yo que he dormido a tu lado puedo afirmar
que hasta las pequeñas discusiones
fueron contigo algo estupendo…”

__

“Your two hundred bones and a necklace of skulls
so that I might know how to return and find you again...
Each of your words like the image of a boot
and the rain falling from the edge of my hat
and entirely moistening your shirt.
A good verse might be the brave side of a coward…
My thoughts paralyze my will
and you, watering my garden on the day of a torrential rain,
the best company for a dangerous mood…
And I who have slept at your side can affirm
that even the smallest arguments
were with you something stupendous…”

__

With the Héroes del Silencio renuion tour just a year behind him, Bunbury wasted no time in taking his new album to the road and, having completed the Spanish leg of the tour, will be heading this way for his U.S./Mexico tour beginning in February. He’ll make one California stop in L.A. (although La Cumbiambera dreams of one day being able to add a Bunbury concert date to our very own Bay Area concert calendar).

As far as packaging, Bunbury’s team has gone for a country western theme, complete with a sepia toned album cover and publicity materials in which he sports not a guitar but a rifle. La Cumbiambera finds this both strange (there is no old west in Spain) and annoying given the imperialist origins of such imagery.

Nevertheless, La Cumbiambera remains a diehard fan of Bunbury’s musical versatility and lyrical genius. As Bunbury puts it—“No importa que hagas rock o rumba de Barcelona. El futuro no es la música electronica o el mestizaje. El futuro es hacer una buena puta canción.”

With Hellville de Luxe, Bunbury has done just that.

asalto navideño

christmas time in the united states is so irritating for so many reasons. high on my list of seasonal allergies is the music. ugh, english-language christmas songs, i hate them almost all. and they come at you from all directions in public places, no escape. christmas music in spanish definitely varies, but is better.

the puerto ricans in particular have a very developed christmas music tradition and like many puerto rican things, for having such a small island, they do it real big. i'm not exactly sure what all it involves but there is something about an asalto navideño (¡¿?!) and more traditional jíbaro-style music than is generally appreciated at other times of year. sounds good.

la banda : héctor lavoe & willie colón (from asalto navideño, vol. 2)




amadito's favorite holiday song is the one about the burrito sabanero, which he calls de belén. he would play it 24 hours/day year-round if we allowed him to...



oh! i guess amado isn't the only one who likes this song. here is a version by juanes...



and this version comes with some pretty cool shepherd dance moves...




jeje, how was that for an asalto navideño? or maybe asalto burrito de belén ;)

argentina, a 7 años de la rebelión popular

we are approaching the 7th anniversary of argentina's popular uprising which, beginning in 2001, unleashed the fury of an entire population on the ruling class. as a christmas / new year's / reyes present the good people of argentina chased out of office 5 presidents in less than two weeks and smashed the windows of virtually all banks in the downtown areas of buenos aires and other cities.

here's a nice little tango about the economic crisis and popular revolt, interspersed with interviews with schoolchildren about those same events...

el tango de los 4 vampiros banqueros / the tango of the 4 vampire-bankers : las muñecas



and here's an announcement for a celebration of 7 years of popular rebellion to take place in parque centenario in buenos aires, sent along by héctor & gabriel. ¡saludos desde la área de la bahía, compañeros!



for a beautiful retelling of the events of 2001-2, please see fernando pino solanas' la dignidad de los nadies. ¡bravo, solanas! and for the perspective of argentine leftist economists, please see this 2004 document by economistas de izquierda reprinted in monthly review, and in argentina stop by el museo de la deuda externa / museum of the foreign debt at the school of economics at the university of buenos aires.

Amandititita takes it there...again

Checka Amandititita y Don Cheto call out the malinchistas y vendidos to the tune of "La Muy Muy" con sabor a banda. No te creas tanto (and for God's sake don't join the Minutemen) or else they just might call you out, too!

this guy is my hero!

finally someone threw their shoe at a sitting u.s. president! how cool is that? and not just once but twice! hurray for a journalist putting his close proximity to george bush to good use! of course in the world of u.s. imperialism, no good deed goes unpunished, so he's been beaten & is currently detained. sign a petition for the immediate release of muntather al-zeidi here.

this is a translation of the reporter's words as he aimed for bush's head, just narrowly missing it:

this is a farewell kiss, you dog...this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in iraq.

and here is a tribute that found it's way to youtube about an hour ago. you will notice that the 2nd half is appropriately set to calle 13's los de atrás vienen conmigo (the ones left behind are coming with me)* ...




conmigo vienen, vienen los de atrás (duro!!)...
sin mirar pa´tras vienen los de atrás
mirando pal´frente vienen los de atrás...
los de atrás vienen conmigo
vienen los de atrás, hey!

**

they're coming with me, the ones left behind...
without looking back they're coming
looking straight ahead they're coming...
they're coming with me
the ones from behind are coming, hey!

: calle 13

* more about this song another time for sure (includes shout-outs to argentina's villa 31 + venezuela's barrio 23 de enero, among others!)...

el rock nacional

oh my goodness, had quite a time trying to see a rock en español concert in argentina! first, divididos. the singer called in sick, show was postponed. then ska-p. after all these days of south american summertime heat, out of nowhere came all this rain, an electrical storm complete with flooding on that exact night. umm, no concerts in outdoor ampitheaters :(

so our last chance was to see attaque 77 in temperley, about 45 minutes outside buenos aires. we had to go to three different roquero ticket outlets before we found one with tickets for that show. on the day of the concert we were convinced that the forces of the universe really were conspiring against us because, while the singer was in good health and the skies were clear, there was a nationwide one-day paro of gas station workers (¡adelante, compañeros!), resulting in almost no available fuel for 24 hours. the car we were planning to take, of course, had an almost empty tank. mariana's tío negro to the rescue! he's very sweet, resourceful, and a mechanic. luckily, he was working on a friend's car with a full tank of gas. off we went!

so the show... was great!! the audience was filled with super-fanáticos de attaque. i think probably 75% of people who attended were wearing attaque t-shirts or had attaque tattoos. it was one of those very affectionate latin american audiences that sings along with every song. my favorite was this little boy who spent most of the evening perched on his parents' shoulders, arms outstretched, singing at the top of his lungs. something particularly delightful about a tiny roquero reciting...

¿ellos o nosotros?
¿quién es más criminal?
¡policía federal... la vergüenza nacional!

;) have to teach them young! in between songs, the audience would start up these futból-style chants to the band:

¡soy de attaque!
olé olé olé. olé olé olé alá,
olé olé olé cada día te quiero más
yooo soy de attaque,
es un sentimiento...¡no puedo parar!

jaja, sweet. and so much better than the tendency around here to fill up any silences with calls of "culero". for their part attaque 77 responded to all that love with lots of noisy affection of their own. i believe this is their que 21 años no es nada tour. but 21 years is actually quite something! musically they're maybe a little less punk, but they still play hard and their lyrics are politically relevant as ever. throw in some of those rock en español tormented love songs which i so adore, plus an encore with the guy from ska-p joining them on stage to sing a cover of i fought the law / yo combatí la ley and really what more could you ask for? thanks to attaque for an excellent recital! and victory to the gas station workers!

here's a video from that night that someone posted on youtube:



on a side note: one thing i noticed about the rock en español situation in argentina was it's availability via tv. similar to mexico (or lots of other places i imagine) there is actually still music on their music-television channels. here's a good one we came across while watching videos with the abuelitas... hurray for rock + cumbia villera!

fabulosos cadillacs : padre nuestro

Aterciopelados keeps it flowing with Río

I finally got around to downloading the new Aterciopelados album Rio. The album contains thirteen songs that feature familiar Atercios sounds (a mixture of rock, electronic, and folk beats) as well as the predictable Atercios themes of peace, love, and Mother Earth. But lest one forget what it takes for peace and love to flourish on the planet, the eighth track, entitled “Bandera,” offers a reminder that the world’s social and spiritual ills exist within a political context.

"Bandera" - Los Aterciopelados

Quién dice cuál es la bandera que sobre un pedazo de tierra ondea
Quién decide quien tiene el poder de limitar mi caminar, dime quién

Quién dijo que un trozo de tela encierra las puertas y las fronteras
Quién me limita este mi planeta si soy tercermundista y empaco mis maletas

Cómo te vas a aprovechar de que no tengo papeles, de que soy ilegal
Mi trabajo humilde y tenaz vale lo mismo que el tuyo o quizá mas

(Who says which flag will wave over a piece of earth
Who decides who has the power to limit my path, tell me who
Who said that a piece of cloth closes the doors and the borders
Who limits this, my planet, if I’m from the third world and I pack my bags
How are you going to take advantage of the fact that I don’t have papers, that I’m illegal
My humble and tenacious work is worth the same as yours or perhaps more...)

Instead of being just another anti-border song (can there ever be enough?), "Bandera" is characterized by los Atercios’ global perspective. It’s refreshing to hear an anti-border song in a woman’s voice and in Andrea Echeverri’s root-deep tones no-less. It’s also a grounding listen in the face of this disturbing bit of news.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here is the video from the album’s title song. The images of Echeverrí pregnant, the swimming baby, and the flow of city traffic give the impression that this song is not just about clean water but is a metaphor for larger-scale enfermedades both social and spiritual as well as structural. Rezos para el río indeed.

victor jara

te recuerdo, amanda,
la calle mojada
corriendo a la fábrica
donde trabajaba manuel.

la sonrisa ancha,
la lluvia en el pelo...

**

i remember, amanda
the street wet,
you running to the factory
where miguel worked.

the wide smile
the rain in your hair...


luís sent along this beautiful video, created for victor jara's te recuerdo amanda. jara was a favorite of the chilean working class in the 60s & 70s. he regularly performed at demonstrations and marches, and his songs came to be anthems for unidad popular, the coalition of left organizations & parties that brought socialist salvador allende to the chilean presidency in 1970. in 1973 allende was overthrown by a cia-sponsored coup orchestrated by fascist augusto pinochet, and a dirty war was unleashed on chilean workers, organizers, activists, students, left intellectuals, cultural workers, and others. victor jara was arrested with thousands of suspected dissidents the day after the coup, taken to the chile stadium, tortured, and executed three days later. he was defiant throughout, writing poems and singing songs of resistence until his last moments.

jara's mother's name was amanda, and his father's manuel. this is an approximate translation of his introduction to the song: this song is called te recuerdo amanda (i remember you, amanda), and it talks about the love between two workers... the same ones seen on the street, sometimes without realizing what exists in their souls... two workers, in any factory, in any city, in whichever place in our continent.


te recuerdo amanda : victor jara




gracias, luís, for sending this :)