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I’M STILL HERE, BIRD and other 2025 cinematic delights

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Which films have you seen at the cinema this year? What should we be looking out for and what should we be avoiding? Do you have a favourite local cinema?

It’s been an excellent start to the year at Bio Reflexen here in Kärrtorp. For example, on Sunday evening we screened Andrea Arnold’s wonderfully quirky BIRD. And then on Tuesday, 120 people came to see Walter Salles’ I’M STILL HERE, which quite rightly won the BEST FOREIGN FILM OSCAR.

Now, a heartening local news story. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m on the board of Reflexen. It’s a great pleasure to be involved in a non-profit, local cinema which is so dearly loved by the locals but we’ve just had a few turbulent weeks.

We depend on a grant from the local authority to be able to pay the rent on the building. A fortnight ago, the local politicians decided to reduce our grant by 40,000 SEK so that they could give more money to other local clubs and associations. That’s four thousand quid in real money. We were shocked, as were our audience.

BUT…..since the news broke over 200 of them have paid 200 SEK to become FRIENDS » Continue Reading.

Brazilian music – not just samba and bossa nova

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When I think of Brazil, samba and bossa nova are the genres that come to mind. And they are very pleasant – the sort of music for a carnival or for a cocktail bar or an Ibiza chill out zone. But what if I want something rougher? Where do I go?

Well, it turns out Brazilian funk is a thing (funk carioca, favela funk) – quite different from seventies funk, and not quite like the post-punk avant funk I’ve been digging into recently. A lot of it features boastful men surrounded by curvaceous women twerking vigorously. But not all. Here’s Leo Justi (Heavy Baile) with an example of Passinho dancing.

I’ll post more in the comments – please join me with anything Brazilian that’s a bit rough and stubbly. There’s also Mangue Bit, Tecno brega, and many other genres that aren’t the big two.

10 of the best music radio stations around the world

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Hello my presumably locked-away friends in Britain! This article appeared yesterday in The Guardian. I am the blue-shirted white-haired fellow with the microphone to the right of the other white haired fellow with the microphone (left side in the photo) under the heading “Brazil”. That other is David Dye of World Café, well-known on the left side of the Atlantic for his programs broadcast on U.S. National Public Radio.

It was a nice surprise to appear like this…normally I toil away in obscurity, championing and attempting to divulge musicians and music that not a lot of people are interested in (in spite of the fact that the music is transcendent).

I’m ensconced in a little town in the middle of Bahia, in the sertão, backlands.

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/apr/17/10-best-music-radio-station-around-world

A Brazilian Music Stream

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I have a site devoted to the Brazilian city where I’ve been living for the past 25 years (Salvador da Bahia) and I’ve just added a music streamer for anybody who might be interested. The Brazilian music that the world in general tends to hear — if they hear anything of it at all — is a sliver of a subset of a miniscule fraction of what is really here. This of course is normal. There’s LOTS of music all over the world — some of it magnificent — that very few people hear because they have no access to it. What we hear tends to be what corporations pay to have us hear; and they pay to have us hear what they are attempting to make money selling. Euterpe though, is richer than Mammon.

I own a record shop here in Salvador devoted to samba, including Bahian proto-samba styles (samba was born in Bahia)…and yeah I know Brazil just lost to Belgium but if there’s one thing that characterizes people here it’s their resilience, and they’re out there partying right now like they just won.

https://www.bahia-online.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/joao_frentedecasa.jpg https://www.bahia-online.net

Hot from the chazzas of Ipanema

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Difficult not to be fascinated by a re-issue that’s got a story behind it.

Mojo just gave 5 stars to this 1958 Brazilian album, Tam… Tam Tam..! which was originally the soundtrack of a very successful theatre production which toured the world. DJ Giles Peterson was desperate to get his hands on a copy of the original vinyl as you can see by the Youtube clip. He’s the sort of avid collector who has doubtless spent many an hour in the chazzas of Rio.

Going on TV and saying you are desperate to get hold of an album is perhaps not such a brilliant tactic. Once the word got out that he was interested, the price went through the ceiling.

And now we can all listen to this landmark recording on Spotify.

But it took some hard work in the studio before it was ready for release.

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/1169982-jose-prates-miecio-askanasy-tam-tam-tam

Brazilian music conquered the world in the early 60s thanks largely to smash hit The Girl from Ipanema. Strangely I have little memory of my home town of Pinner being conquered. I was too busy trying to get hold hold of the latest release by singing piglets, Pinky and Perky.

Any other » Continue Reading.