Category: raves

& faves

Categories
cuba salsa

@Manolito, like Casa de la Musica all over again


nic and mel
Originally uploaded by mgharris

For a little while last night at the Coronet (Elephant and Castle, London), I felt as though we were back in Casa de la Musica, Havana.

Nic and Mel were even there…if you read this blog you might remember that we first saw them in Havana’s famous dance hall on Galiano Street, grooving away with sexy male dancers Bustamente and Yoandy, when I snuck my 14-year-old daughter in to see Maikel Blanco.

Manolito Simonet y Su Trabuco are one of Cuba’s top bands, one of the world’s top salsa bands and like all these outfits, unbelievably tight and accomplished, all 16 of them. The musicianship is quite astonishing. You get used to it but when you listen to a run of the mill live jazz act you suddenly realise just how fantastic these top salsa bands are.

Manolito have a few songs which are currently club favourites, like ‘Marcando la Distancia’ (a song about divorce), ‘Control’ (a reggaeton favourite) and the crowd-pleasing, chorus rousing ‘Locos por Mi Habana’. Apart from that they also mastered cha-cha-cha (latest hit, ‘Se Rompieron los Termometros’), sophisticated latin-jazz instrumentals and even a bolero! (all the above songs titles link to Youtube videos.)

These tickets have been selling at every salsa event we’ve been to for the past six weeks, so there were many familiar faces. A really wonderful feeling, to be part of this loosely connected but joyous community of Cuban salsa fans.

And here’s a photo of me at the concert with my best friend Becs:

Really must buy a good small camera for these things…BlackBerry is not up to the job…

Thanks again to MamboCity for organising this gig!

Categories
nostalgia raves

Georgina’s, just the way it used to be


Georgina’s
Originally uploaded by mgharris

You might think of Oxford as a pretty traditional place where things don’t change that much. But that’s not how it is at all. In the twenty-odd years that I’ve lived here almost every part of the city has been altered, improved, developed. Even the colleges have cleaner stone and a modern block, sometimes even sympathetically designed, like new wings of Magdalen and Linacre.

So if you’re in a nostalgic mood, where can you go for a hang-out that hasn’t changed in 20 years?

I can name two: Georgina’s Coffee shop and Brown’s Cafe, both in the covered market.

Georgina’s serves salads, flapjacks and bagels, the ceiling is plastered with movie posters and they play non-stop indie rock music loud enough that you have to talk at a level which makes the whole place swing with youthful energy. Youthful because then as now the cafe is a favourite haunt of students.

I snapped two such youngsters, Matt and Beth, sitting in what used to be one of my favourite tables.

23 years since I arrived here! That’s brilliant (cos I always dreamed of living here) as well as a bit sad (cos I could never bear to leave).

A pal of mine, the Aristotelophile Peter Simpson, once told me that I would only leave Oxford in a box…

Hell no! They can bury me here!

Emailed from my BlackBerry®

Categories
raves

It’s 8.30pm…are you queuing for Harry Potter?


It’s 8.30pm…are you queuing for Harry Potter?
Originally uploaded by mgharris

Chucked out of the house by our teenage daughter who wants to partay with her disreputable friends…we ventured into Oxford’s still clogged highways in search of a Friday night salsa. But stopped in town to grab food..honestly the traffic to Cumnor is SO bad.

Snapped the Harry Potter queue. Brave souls enduring the cold and rain! Waterstones had the biggest queue. Even though The Works opposite was offering it for the same price and had a MUCH shorter queue…everyone’s heading for the Waterstones. They could be warm and toasty at Borders opposite, which is open from now till the book goes on sale.

Don’t get me wrong, like. I’m keen too. But sometime after breakfast tomorrow will do me fine.

Emailed from my BlackBerry®

Categories
raves

Dropped by the office…


Dropped by the office…
Originally uploaded by mgharris

Decided to spend the day out of the house so that I don’t have to find excuses not to write. I even dropped by the office to see how the guys are doing. This is a photo of me with our senior technology consultant, Matt Banks, a guy so good-looking that when we had our company photos done, the photographer reckoned that he could get Matt work as a model. Matt is making a rude gesture with his fingers, in the general direction of the MD, Mark Salisbury.

I am going to look at a snazzy new, freebie content management system. Woo.

More photos on Flickr…

Emailed from my BlackBerry®

Categories
nostalgia raves

Der Echt Nutella

It’s okay, I wondered too. Der Nutella, die Nutella, das Nutella? I didn’t want to get it wrong after all. Luckily, the InterWeb provides answers to these questions and more.

http://www.wer-weiss-was.de/theme143/article1542260.html#1542260

According to a Nutella FAQ, it can be any one of the three articles.

So…Der Echt Nutella.

Nutella is actually made by an Italian family company, Ferrero, whose skills with hazelnut and chocolate know no bounds. They also make the Ambassador’s favourite sweets, those exclusive Ferrero Rocher.

But the Germans embraced Nutella with a passion back in the 1970s (or even earlier), which is where I first encountered the yummy treat, living there for 6 months as a four year old. When we left to live in Manchester, England, Nutella was the pain thing I missed, for years and years, until it started to be available in the UK, sometime in the late 1980s.

I remember going with school to Germany and coming back laden with 8 bottles of Nutella.

I wasn’t being greedy. You couldn’t get it in England then!

I remember staying with my German exchange penfriend, the lovely Erik, and being super impressed when one morning at breakfast the Nutella ran out. And his Mum simply went to the larder and pulled out another! Who stores more than one jar of Nutella at a time??? The Germans, that’s who. They love it.

I have always strongly suspected that Ferrero make a special formulation for the German market. Their Nutella is the echt Nutella as far as I am concerned. It is more chocolately and nougaty.

My good friend DB bought me a jar from the German deli in London, to help me with my writer’s block. I ate a few spoons before going to bed last night. God it’s good.

I couldn’t be sure this early, but I think I sensed a flicker in the old story brain. Maybe it was the combined effect of the Nutella and having seen Harry Potter 5. I’ll have to eat some more, to see if it really works…