verde3 : music + video aka "the insider": may 2007 insider

may 2007 insider

the killers live by ashurita

may then.

shows:
*** la Ribot live @ Mapa Teatro
performance de doce horas
sábado 12 de mayo mediodía
carrera 7 calle 23 esquina
gratis
orlando perez (verde3): sonido

listening to:
restaurant music in a restaurant
deep house and such
giorgio reni's mixfile
bachata + merengue
read words on microphones
suede
the stone roses
the sundays

thinking of:
juan luis guerra
dani dani dani
diani diani diani

so the socorro show went quite well. loads of punters, the dancing, the jumping, the glee. attendees included mejo and kim from barna (we'll hit primaverasound / all tomorrow's parties which will be lifechanging for sure), adri gonzalez from paris (future uuuuu videoclip coming from her)

so what's santo domingo about? not a good clue yet, but at least discovered a friendly cafe-resto from which this blog is being written to a margarita and thumping house. so yeah, you find a bar where one can get late nite food, thumping house with everyone sitting down and having a lovely time, generous margaritas, and a very nice bartender attitude, in santo domingo. it ain't no cancún. it's austere. but then that's the sweet detail. think of a pumping house place with a free computer and cheap cocktails and cheap spanish tapas. makes us bogotanos look like some real lame tight assed bastards, like real underdeveloped snobs. which we are ???

the open questions about the state of our indie scene. a wave came and went, our internal divisions only made it ever so fainter. now the inertia swallowed the wave. the media hardly noticed. which is also why i'm doing all this thinking and reading, wondering how to crack the egg, how to make this indie thing happen in bogotá.

this contrast reveals me our inadequacies in the bogotano music scene, of how we could be doing so much better in the way we work for our bands, for our sound, for our working conditions, and for our clients, our listeners. we could be generous. we could be not agressive with ourselves. there could be a gradient in what we look for when we party, la degustación, saborear un momento, we could be not self-important. we could also serve late nite food! and we could definitely have more stages where to play live music. in sum, we could be nicer and we could be less complicated and tight-arsed. se nos tiene que dar la gana. i will eternally point to how good medelink does things and how much we have to learn from our friends in warmer weather.

the santo domingo book fair is free and open to the public. coming elections here, also in france, stayed awake trying to find out what the hell did sego and sarko said on that tv debate...

they're kicking me out of the bar now. i'll carry on rambling, this caribbean weather's got my brain full of oxygen, constant thoughts of juan luis.

great u came to socorro.

*****
sunday may 6

a drawing by ashurita

santo domingo airport. sunburnt and refreshed. new ideas. neno's hating her country as sarko has won. i hated mine both times uribe did so there. ideas in my head. a sense of clarity, of mental organisation. i guess i needed a few days of a different setting to put it all into perspective (the loudspeaker calls mr. carlos johnson, mr. carlos gonzalez, making me jump every time... will they have to make me open my bag again like on the way here? (i'm carrying my 01v in the big suitcase)).

after entire nights in an air conditioned hotel room watching mtvla, tv5, tve, bbc, tnt, fox, and even some rai, one gets a feel of certain things that running around in bogotá prevents. somewhat strange as this trip felt like a sort of new year. there was a full moon on the caribbean sea on thursday night. memories of my childhood cartagena days back in 82-84, the punctual renewal of energies the caribbean will always bring to me... as i saw myself weaving those "new year resolutions" a clear thought: why am i thinking of new year resolutions in may?

"to stop banging my equipment around" (literally: this trip both laptops earned new bumps on their chassis, time to visit rondón for the fix, internally unscathed of course, outstanding pieces of equipment that these machines are; i was due to go there anyway to finish up the maintenance work on the 12 inch).

"to eat better."
"to sleep more hours."
"to exercise."
"to say more clearly what i think provided it is put in a constructive tone."
"to meditate."

foto de canal13

***** about the bookfair i attended this week, santo domingo, república dominicana.

i was there for five transforming days. i saw my former mentor mario mendoza, heard him talk. i also saw roberto burgos cantor (the next alvaro mutis), heard him talk. el poder mágico de la palabra. stirred to the bone by them, by their words. if one had to pick the two most important colombian novelists alive (apart from gabo and mutis) it would clearly be them.

mario mendoza attended for the launch of his latest novel "los hombres invisibles." my former teacher: intro to literature classes 1992. at the time i was bored studying electronic engineering. his classes were an escape and a gateway. i shall elaborate on him, but in the meantime his mention of how he left the academia in favour of dedicating himself to his books in 2002-ish. he quit his job upon reading a native american one-phrase poem:

"salta, que ya aparecerá el suelo."

simple as that. he read it, he stood up, and resigned on the spot. now he publishes novels and his "satanás" has been made into a flim. un master. such a big influence in my life. i told him this during lunch two days ago. he was moved.

we did a reading set to music, of roberto burgos' lastest novel "la ceiba de la memoria." rolf and heidi abderhalden, aka mapa teatro. old friends now, five and a half years together. these are readings with them both on shure beta 87's and me on ableton live. we also read gomez jattin. irreverent. i got to play the piano. hm: piano, lobster, sunshine, literature, people, juan luis!