Tag: youtube

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salsa videos youtube

Belatedly, Oscar D’Leon

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Around six weeks ago we went to see Oscar D’Leon at the Roundhouse in London. Aged 65, he’s one of the top salsa stars in the world. Which means that despite living in Oxford UK, hardly the home of salsa, I have now seen:

Oscar D’Leon (London)
Charanga Habanera (London)
Manolito y Su Trabuco (London)
Maikel Blanco (Havana)
Pupy y los que Son Son (Havana)
Septeto Santiaguero (Santiago de Cuba)
Los Van Van (London)
Buena Vista Social Club (London)
Afro-Cuban All-Stars (London)
Celia Cruz (London)
Jose Alberto (London)

If you’re not a salsa fan this won’t mean anything to you. But it’s roughly equivalent for an indie-rock/pop fan to have seen the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Blur, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, Green Day and whatnot.

Damn I feel lucky. Oscar D’Leon, what can I say? He’s an amazing performer, a formidable dancer and bass player; he sang and elegantly danced his way through a two-hour set without a break, almost without pausing between songs. He can improvise in the most amazing way (but so can all the best soneros I’ve seen).

And he can do reggaeton. Maybe not like a young hipster. But man, he gives it a go.

Here’s a video I recorded that evening – quickly risen to be my Youtube channel’s most popular video. It’s distant – we were far away, but you can sense the energy in the audience. The camera work is a bit shaky for the first 30 seconds because I literally couldn’t stand still, I was so excited.

I mean. OSCAR D’LEON!!!! Jess – espero que te gusta pero MUCHO!

Categories
Joshua Files readers translations videos

Geheimakte Joshua: Joshua Files in German!

Yay, I’m very excited indeed that a German language version of Invisible City will be published this autumn in Germany.

Firstly, I have always suspected that Germans might enjoy Joshua’s adventures slightly more than British. Not to say that I’m not getting lovely feedback from British readers!

But there’s no doubt that many Germans seem to share my fascination with exotic adventure stories, going all the way back to that famous adventure writer, Karl May. And when I’ve visited the ruins in Mexico I’ve hardly ever met any British people, but mainly Germans and French. (And other North Americans of course).

If you follow this blog you may have seen that the German translator of Joshua Files, Frank Boehmert, occasionally posts a comment. (Hi Frank!).

Well all today I’ve been working with a translation of the brief video interview I recorded in the offices of Scholastic. I’ve dubbed myself into German and recut the video…I’m sending this to the media company in Germany who are going to add graphics etc to produce a book trailer for the German book trade. (Hence the long bit of title page at the end).

Here it is. What do you think? I have another day to improve it, if it’s really too bad…

Categories
cuba raves videos

Asere que vola – Habana Abierta

At last Saturday night’s Clave Club I bumped into a long-time salsa aquaintance, Danielle who told me that she’d been reading my blog. It reminded me that it’s been a while since I blogged anything about salsa or Cuba or anything…and there’s a link to my blog from the Cubanisimo regular email newsletter. So maybe it’s time that I did.

My favourite new song from a Cuban band is the brilliant rock/african/funk/salsa fusion track Asere que vola?, by Spain-based Cubans, Habana Abierta.

It’s jazzy, rock and funk, but you sure can dance to it – salsa and reggaeton. ‘Asere que vola?’ translates roughly as ‘Mate, what’s going on?’, but as usual in the translation of colourful street slan, it loses all the sparkle.

The lyrics tell of the news a guy receives from his Cuban mates all over the world – as he asks them via chat, email etc – ‘Asere, que vola?’. It’s cheerful, joyful, ironic, full of wonder at the outside world (I heard that in Denmark it’s brutally cold!) that these lucky young Cubans find themselves in…because most Cubans can only dream of seeing the rest of the world. But as always with Cubans outside Cuba, there’s sorrow and homesickness for the island.

Categories
Joshua Files videos

“The Joshua Files – Invisible City”: book trailer

Here’s my first attempt at a mashup!

Using photos, videos, Animoto.com’s music/video engine, a song (‘Invisible City’ from the album ‘File in Rhythm’) by Minneapolis indie band Beight licensed from MagnaTune Records, all jumbled together using Sony Vegas Movie Studio, here is the book trailer for THE JOSHUA FILES – INVISIBLE CITY.

View it! Comment on it! Spread it!

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videos

Happy Christmas

Well, there’s just the present wrapping to do and we’re done!

Very tempted to go to midnight Mass. But not sure I can handle a third late night! We were all out yesterday at a friend’s house where we got together with mutual friends for drinks and munchies. At around eleven we had the idea to get our children (eight between us) to entertain us by playing their musical instruments. We tried this last year and they all grumpily refused. But this year they were happy to do it! We sat around for two hours, dazed and proud watching as the kids aged between 9 and 15 played piano, violin, recorder, trumpet, guitar and bongos – all from memory – the clever little poppets. It ended with a jam session on ‘Take Five’.

“This is what I dreamed it would be like to live in Oxford,” cried London-born Jane in delight.

That’s what I’m talking about. Make those music lessons pay!

Luckily they didn’t ask the grown-ups to perform.

Blog readers – I hope you all have a lovely Christmas break with your families and/or friends.

Here’s my favourite Christmas carol, sung by those fab choristers from King’s College.

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (by Elizabeth Poston)
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