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From:  "Neal Davidson" <nealdavidson33@artplayonline.com>
Subject:  Answer before Friday Bob
Date:  Mon, 26 Dec 2005 17:49:56 -0500
>You ringtones are available for you now
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>http://artplayonline.com/fiopt/
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>http://artplayonline.com/ NoMoreOfTheseEmails
>This is a photo of Linda Rodriguez and I taken by Cristian Mu�oz during the Charanga Habanera locura weekend here in Toronto back in October. I like to call it the First Annual Cubocentric Bloggers Meet-Up (Typepad Division). We arent that many yet but we definiteley rock.
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>Big abrazos to my other internet friends, guest posters and the above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty obsessives like Suki at re-son-8, Richard at muchoswing.com (our vlogger), Cristian at salsa2salsa, Michelle at timba.com and the anonymous and opinionated 305.  I dont know her yet but Gabriel Wilder has a great blog entitled Yemaya'sVerse. And these guys from timba.com always have the latest news on the Havana Scene.
>On_eEight_TTeeennn
>sixteen30
>tthirtyethhh ST
>Bou/lder_Colorado
>80301
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>While his New Democratic Party is running a distant third behind the Liberals and Conservatives, the Decima Research poll suggests Layton is considered the most decent, charismatic, ethical, caring and practical of the main party leaders on offer in the Jan. 23 election.
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>If present trends continue, it looks like the voters are so determined to either kick out the Liberals (understandably) or keep out the Conservatives (equally understandably) that they are gonna vote for one or the other and not the NDP. They aren't buying the notion that it doesn't matter who wins a minority government if the NDP has 40 seats in parliament to 'get shit done'.
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>Which is a real shame because Jack does have all the characteristics that the Decima pool identifies. He is the most most politically talented of the leaders, he has a sense of humour, he has paid his dues and he isn't cynical.
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>A lot of much needed skills will be wasted and there doesn't sound like there is much the NDP can do about it.
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>I hope I'm wrong.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/17/2005 at 12:40 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
>Good News For Music Lovers
>From the Financial Times
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>The race for the number one position in the Christmas charts will be determined for the first time by what iPod owners download via their computers, as the record industry predicts it will sell a million digital downloads in the next week.
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>Almost 24m tracks have been legally downloaded so far this year, five times the 4.7m sold in the same period of 2004, meaning that 70 per cent of all singles are now bought in digital form.
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>Wow. Legal downloading increased 500% in one year. That's amazing.
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>It means that legal downloading will become so normal that all music will become available this way. And quite soon too. So think of it this way - and this is not a fantasy. We'll be able to legally download the new Tirso and Michel Maza albums without waiting for 1) expensive mail orders, 2) a friend to comeback from Havana with a burned copy (a quemado) which we will beg off him.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/17/2005 at 07:50 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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>12/16/2005
>Fine Minds
>Yesterday I noted that the United States government will not allow the Cuban baseball team into the U.S. for the World Baseball Classic. The advantage of this being an increased  chance of their team winning the event, and for us, well, we get to see the fine minds at work of those that agree with the ban.
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>Miami Republican Rep. Lincoln D�az-Balart called the U.S. decision ''appropriate and correct.'' He had previously urged Major League Baseball to allow Cuban defectors already playing in professional teams to form a ''Cuba'' team for the event.
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>In a letter he sent to baseball commissioner Bud Selig last week, he likened inviting Cuba's team to asking apartheid-era South Africa to join a tournament.
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>I'm wondering what Nelson Mandela would have to say to about this, especially the comparison of Cuba to apartheid-era South Africa. I have a reasonably good idea of where the Cuban government stood in the struggle against apartheid, I'd be curious as to how much backing the ANC and other anti-apartheid groups received from Lincoln D�az-Balart and other Cuban-American politicos back then.
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>Anybody out there know?
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>Meanwhile, as well as rooting for Canada, I'm hoping that sanity prevails as Major League Baseball tries to get the ban reversed
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/16/2005 at 20:52 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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>12/15/2005
>Bill Wolfer Speaks
>Bill Wolfer of Mamborama, discussing bandleader El Tosco of NG La Banda in the Timba Geeks Forum (Emphasis added)
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>If Tosco was living in the streets as a drunken bum, I would still give him respect, because he deserves it, as an innovator and a musician. I didn't like everything that Miles Davis did in his career, he got a lot of shit for changing directions four or five times, but I admire any artist that doesn't just sit on their laurels, and tries to find new ways to express themself. El Papi and Si yo tuviera veinte are attempts to fuse timba with American funk. Maybe you like it, maybe you don't, but the best way to kill any genre is to refuse to accept change. Putting timba under a glass will kill it just as the revisionists like Wynton Marsalis killed jazz. It ain't 1997 anymore.
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>And he isn't playing Usher and Kool and the Gang for the Yumas, it's for the Cubans. Cubans love music from outside the island, just as we Yumas love Cuban music, because it's something different from the norm. Most of the piratas wandering around Habana are selling far more Luis Miguel and Shakira to Cubans than they are Issac, Pupy, etc. The tourists buy the Cuban artists, and the Cubans buy the Mexican baladas.
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>Right on dude. Bill Wolfer is a musician, and musicans (of any genre) know things that non-musicians just cant know. Which is why these words in the geeks forum are so valuable. I wish he woud blog more. But then again he is spending a lot of time in Havana completing his new record, and you cant blog from Havana.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/15/2005 at 23:24 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
>More Intelligent Foreign Policy
>I'm sure this bold move will bring 'freedom' to the island of Cuba and guarantee that the U.S. wins the tournament.
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>Cuba won't be allowed to send a team to next year's inaugural World Baseball Classic, the U.S. government told event organizers. The decision by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control was conveyed to Major League Baseball yesterday.
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>Time for a Suki rant.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/15/2005 at 19:00 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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>12/14/2005
>Armando Manzanero
>Being a drummer by background, it was always the rhythm oriented genres of Latin music that attracted me, like son, timba, candombe, afro-cuban, bomba, plena, samba ete etc. I never paid much attention to boleros. Never really appreciated the form.
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>That changed a little bit when I DJ'd a concert at Lula Lounge for Beatriz Marquez, the famous Cuban bolero singer and mother of Michel Maza. (La Musicalisima is how she is known) It was impossible to not be charmed to death by the woman, and the energy of the audience was just the same as for a Cuban salsa artist. Everyone hung off every word to every song, and sang along with mucho gusto. They just didn't dance.
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>One of the songs we learned for the HouseParty gig was by the Mexican singer Armando Manzanero who of course, I had never heard of. After talking with a few friends, I realized I must be the only guy interested in Latin American music who didn't know this artist.
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>here's a bio
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>Widely considered the premiere Mexican romantic composer of the postwar era, Armando Mazanero was born in the city of M�rida on December 7, 1935; after studying at the local music conservatory, he relocated to Mexico City in 1957 to pursue a career as a performer and songwriter, soon authoring the Angelica Mar�a hit "Paso a Pasito." In 1960 he issued his first solo smash, "Voy a Apagar la Luz," followed over the years to come by a string of hits including "Contigo Aprend�," "Te Extra�o," "Cuando Estoy Contigo," "Adoro," "No," "Esta Tarde Vi Llover" and "Tengo."
>~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
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>This is the song we did with Edith. Check out the syncopated piano figure, and the sweeping strings - it's a beautiful arrangement that adds a hint of melancholy to the romance. And the voice. Is there not a little Edith Piaf there?
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>Cuando Estoy Contigo.mp3
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/14/2005 at 21:04 | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
>Casino, Timba and Eastern Europe - Part 2
>I got quite a few responses to my earlier post. Some in the comments, some via email.
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>From Tatiana comes this note from a friend of hers. Responding to my post the friend writes....
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>There is something to this.
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>Here is my theory.  Whenever we live through a life of what in North American terms could be described as �times of great lack and difficulties� we are more in touch with our spirit which always knows how to dance and express music.
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>It is only in our North American culture of great �material possession� and �progress� that we find ourselves with a buffalo up our ass.
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>Another reaction
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>........You see east europeans are very warm people and like to congregate, to be close, touchy feely - something anglo people do not. We are also many of us humbled by having lived in communism - so we feel the Cubans on other levels - at least, Romanians do. And Romanians have the latin heat and temper in their blood from way back when, what with a latin language and romance/love at the forefront of our culture. So yeah, eastern Europeans, I think, have a huge attraction to the Cuban culture.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/14/2005 at 18:54 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
>House Party 2005
>Wow! Are my braincells ever depleted. Couldn't face going out today. That HouseParty gig last night was one of the most intense and moving music experiences I've had in many a moon.
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>Basically, in a nutshell, we (The Parachute Club) backed up about ten or eleven (I lost count) music artists in a show that featured music, dance, art and spoken word. Most of the performers were generated through auditions at shelters and other homeless advocacy groups, and for many, this was their first time on stage in a professional setting - so the energy and drama level was peaking. And these singers, Heinz, Faeghan, Branson, Bones, Elizabeth, Paul, LaTanya, Frankie, Edith (all of them - there wasn't one miss) really delivered in a way that is hard to describe in words.
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>After that Liam Titcomb (Liam and I share pride of place on the honour wall of the Old Orchard Day Care Centre - but that's another story) did  a rousing set, I got to play reggae with Digging Roots, the highly charismatic Native duo (man I love playing reggae), Snow rocked and charmed the house, and then we got to play a few of our own songs including a Rise Up finale with about 80 people on stage. Way fun.
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>And get this - for all of you who have tried to produce a multi-artist music show - the whole thing was dead on schedule!! Amazing.
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>Hats off to producer Lorraine Segato who is a truly crazed visionary woman, very smart-crazy. Personal thanks to John Long from Long & McQuade who donated a back-line for the event.
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>Oh, and whatever you do, don't vote Liberal. They'll just promise to build affordable housing for our cities and somehow, they will find a reason to not deliver. Vote NDP.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/14/2005 at 17:33 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
>On The Appeal of Cuban Dance
>This came from an email conversation that I was having with my friend Lidija on the eastern-europe-and-cuban-culture topic. I thought it was very descriptive.
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>One Friday night at Cervejaria (a club in Toronto), about 6 years ago, there was a Cuban man in his sixties or seventies, a lean black man who was only visiting, he didn't live in Toronto. Those were the very early days of salsa experiences for my sister Mimi and I. We were noticing the differences between the dance styles but couldn't figure out what made some people look so good and what was in their style that was so different and so appealing.
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>This older Cuban gentleman appeared on the dance floor and started to dance. He pulled his pants from time to time, shook his shoulders occasionally, did some moves with his arms and didn't seem to move around very much, he looked almost static. But, man, didn't he looked good! Of course, he had such a charming smile, such a mischievous expression, he looked so happy.
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>That was it! That's the style that knocked us out.  What an elegance, what a joy.  There was some rumba,some son in those moves and lots of happiness in a smile and so much life in the eyes and we got enchanted. That's when we started looking for son or rumba places  or Santeria rituals while in Cuba.
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>Still trying to figure it all out.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/14/2005 at 16:39 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
>This Weekend's Plan
>OK then, here it is.
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>Friday we can all go hang out at Cervejaria and to get our Bulgarian friend Lou to loosen up a bit and  ask the Roumanian girls to dance while me and my friends from Sarajevo, (Bosnia?) maybe Spain and Russia (if Tatiana shows) can gossip about whatever happened to Olga.
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>Saturday, I will actually be professionally engaged as the 'DJ' at Lula's spinning betweeen sets from Alex Godinez's big salsa band  Proyecto Charanguero.
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>No, Alex is not from Lithuania, his background is Peru and Guatamala.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/14/2005 at 14:36 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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>12/12/2005
>Casino, Timba and Eastern Europe.
>Here's a question that I have kicked around and not gotten an answer for. Maybe some casinero friends can help.
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>There is a preponderance of people from eastern Europe... Bosnia, Romania, Russia, Bulgaria and Croatia....in the Cuban dance and music circles of Toronto. Why is this?
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>Is it because Europeans have great (better?) taste in music and dance?
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>Is there a reverse, bi-polar, counter-intuitive political connection?
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>Or is this just one of those statistical anomalies that obsessive people like me think is amusing to talk about?
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>The comments awaits you.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/12/2005 at 23:56 | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
>New Terminology
>A 'Flog' is a blog that just sells you stuff.
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>Posted by Mr. B on 12/12/2005 at 21:03 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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>12/10/2005
>House Party: The Process
>God knows we bloggers rant on about the decline of big media etc etc etc...but this article by Scott Simmie in today's Toronto Star is a good example of what journalists can do when they do it well. Simmie came up to our studio for several hours, listened carefully to what was going on, asked pertinent questions, and through his interview with one of the artists (named Faeghan), captured the intent of this House Party event.
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>"This is like Disneyland for me," she between run-throughs of her catchy tune "The Truth."
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>McAvoy was sharing a professional rehearsal space with drummer Billy Bryans, guitarist Dave Grey (both core members of the {Parachute Club} and keyboardist Ashley Wey.
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>The trio wasn't simply grinding out chords; each musician was working hard to ensure the arrangement reflected McAvoy's vision.
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>Later, in the studio's kitchen, she reflected on what the project has already accomplished for her: "What I'm mostly touched by, more so than the talent of the people that I have the privilege of working with, is the humanity � the way they interact with me," says McAvoy. "I feel like I'm an equal, a musician. I don't feel like I'm a charity case. And they dig it!"
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>A talented young rapper named Bones with lots to say, Edith - an older Argentinian woman singing a famous bolero song, a super energetic soul singer named LaTanya.....these are just a few of
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