music
A week or three ago I was poking around on the internet looking for George Bush's cover of U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. I was able?to find George Bush's cover song and in the process I also came across this song (click)?by the artist?Rethuglikan.?I just liked the first sentence.?
"Yo this is Rethuglikan CPA, checkin' in"?
That is so good, a CPA rapper. Oh so funny. The song is somewhat decent for a political song, I like the words.
You should also listen to George Bush's cover of U2's song "Sunday Bloody Sunday"?It is VERY good.
The Newport Jazz Quartet on Sunday night wasn?t very good but it was still a concert and I did have a bit of fun. In other concert news I have finally found two punk/metal/alternative concerts here in Salamanca. On Thursday night I am going to go see a Portugese alternative metal band from (guess...) Portugal. They are playing at a local underground venue here in Salamanca and I am freakin?excited to finally go see a show. On friday night there is another band playing here in Salamanca at a local bar.
It is getting easier and easier to find show to attend. At each show there is usually a flyer or something advertising for future shows. So far in the past 2 1/2 weeks I have attended about 10 shows and I have 5 more scheduled up to next wednesday. Tonight I am going to a Flamenco show, that should be fun.
In other news..
My sunburn is gone for the most part. I went for another run today but I only did about 4-5k I?m getting lazy. I had a ton of homework to do for tomorrow. In conversation class we are talking about the influence of models and fashion on youth and in my other class I have to present a short story about all the concerts I have been attending. It is quite fun writing stories in Spanish when you can barely create sentences, my stories usually go like this (except in Spanish)
I like music. The concert was great. The singer was very good. I go to many concerts.
and so on and so on.
Welp until next time.....
Last night Jenson went to the Ray Gelato concert (Jazz en la Calle), it was another great concert put on by the city of Salamanca. Honestly, I could live here this place is simply awesome I love it. There is another concert tonight and I believe it is another Swing band although I am not quite sure because I don?t have the schedule in front of me.
This morning Jenson, Irene and I went out to the big city market. If you have ever been to a flea market in California it was just like that except with a huge emphasis on clothing and less emphasis on electronics and other items. The market was ok, nothing to write home about though (oh wait I just did). After walking around the market for an hour or two I headed over to the local pool which was across the street. Jenson was to lame to go to the pool, he opted instead to watch the Tour de France on TV; lame.
The pool is awesome. The have two waterslides, two small water ramp thingies and a shallow pool with two fountains that is perfect for laying around in. I stayed at the pool from 1pm until 6:30pm or so before I left. I?m a bit burnt, oh well.
Tonight
Newport Jazz Quarter, Jazz en la Calle. 10:30. These things are so much fun.
I still have not had a chance to upload any picture but I will spend some time here at the internet cafe later this week and attempt to upload them. Although you may just have to wait until I get back to the states. Internet cafes are everywhere but getting my USB to work has been quite a pain in most places due to security restrictions on the computers.
Until my next entry... I have to get to my homework now.
On friday night Jenson and I headed out to go see "The Ladybug Transistor", i am not exaclty sure where they are from but they sing about Virgina alot so my assumption is Virgina. We weren?t sure what to expect but I assumed the best and expected a crowd. It took about 20 or 30 minutes to walk to the Domus Atrium 2002 where the show was being held and when we got there we didn?t see anyone. I figured that it was just really early but nope there just wasn?t a crowd at all.
The entire crowd consisted of about 70-100 teenagers and mid to late 20s somethingers. outside the gates another 20-30 people were hanging around. The cost of admission was only 3 euros but you could see the entire show from outside the gates and hear it just as well. Wanting to support this type of activity I bought a ticket even though I only went in for a few minutes. It was neat though, those that showed up knew the band and they were singing along with the songs.
The Ladybug transistor plays a soft independent style music with a definite roots in old country (not new country pop crap), beach boys and ventures. The lead guitarist looks exactly like the early beach boys or Venture. He had bleach blond hair the swayed over his eyes and played a red rickenbacher with a white stripe down the middle. Each riff he played you could hear the influence of the beach boys and ventures on it.
Even though they were decent I wasn?t that into the music and neither was the people we ran into. When we arrived at the theater we met up with the Dutch group. They are called the dutch group because the group seems to grow. It started out with Judith (my roommate) and a few of her friends (Danielle, Sander and Vincent) but it is now like 15 people. They are a fun bunch though and we run into them everywhere.
Ok so we were all a bit bored with the concert so we decided to walk back to town and go to the dance club med-evio. That started a big trend, we went to a bazillion more clubs all night long. Club hopping in Spain, quite fun. I?m not quite sure what time I got home but I do know that most clubs don?t close until 5:30am and now I know the reason for the Spanish siesta. I needed one today. :)
Oleg
Jenson would prefer me to not talk about his adventure here in Spain, which should say a lot. He is doing well isn?t that sick anymore and is going out almost every night. I, however, go out only once maybe twice a week that boy can just party to no ends. As for spanish senoritas for Jenson, he hasn?t kicked me out of the room yet so maybe he?s not doing that well in the clubs. I don?t know though I?ve ran into him at a few clubs (he hangs out with the Dutch group and I tend to hang out with a few people from Sweden and Brazil) and is always full out pimping. He dances like Snoopy Dog?s sidekick (minus the jewel encrusted suit).
Classes
Oh boy, two weeks down and I have learned quite a bit. I really, really want to stay here another month or so. You can learn so much in so little time by living in Spain and attending 5 hours of instruction a day, it?s just insane.
Tonight
Tonight I am trying to do two things. The first is a bull fight at 6:30 (in one and a half hours so I?ve gotta get going) and the other is a Ray Gelato concert. I have no idea who Ray Gelato is but the concert is free and check out the website. That guy is a straight out pimp. It is going to be another interesting night.
Alright I have a ton of homework to get done before the concert and tomorrow is going to be chock full of homework. I have to write a story about "mi fin de semana" it?s only a page long or so but umm.. I?m in the beginner class I can barely form a sentence, let alone a whole story. Additionally past tenses in Spanish are freakin?ridiculous I barely have present tenses down and now I have to figure out past tenses. My story is going to be quite interesting (and quite grammatically incorrect).
By the way, current music for the week: Fangoria and some Paulina Rubio. I had both of these album before I came to Spain and they play them all the time, Fangoria is quite good. (Neither group is from Spain but they are both Spanish, Fangoria is Mexican I believe)
Last friday the 16th(?) I was finally able to attend a concert. After doing some search around the town I was able to find a concert list and now I?m slowly making my way down the list seeing as many concerts as possible. The first concert was Stanley Jordan an American jazz artist. The concert was held on the street Patio Chico at the footsteps of the city?s cathedral. The concert was awesome.
Ok Ok, so I know someone is going to chime in and say "Hey what are you doing watching an American artist in Spain". Well let me tell you. The city of Salamanca is HUGE into American Jazz, HUGE! The city put on this concert and they sponsor many concerts and streets parties throughout the summer, this is what the people of Salamanca listen to. At the concert foreigners made up about 5-10% of the crowd and the rest lived in the town. Throughout the town the city also puts on Jazz en la Calle?Fiestas,?roughly every other day there is a jazz concert going on in the town. It may not be the stereotypical Spanish music but it?s what they listen to.
Stanley Jordan is awesome. He plays his guitar by tapping the strings and rarely strums them. He only strummed periodically so that he could get a different sounds or just to get the strings moving. The Notes are played with both hands (i.e the left hand plays one note and the right hand places a different note) so essentially he is placing the bass and treble portions of the song. When he came on stage he played three songs without a backup band and I spent the entire time through the first songs looking for the second guitar and then I realized that he was playing both parts. It was pretty amazing.
The best part, however, is when he played a covered of Led Zepplins Stairway to Heaven but with a heavy heavy Jazz enfluence. If you weren?t listening carefully you could not tell the difference. The crowd was really into it but then he went a bit crazy and switch over to some distortion, oh man the crowd immediately gasped in awe. Think of the movie "Back to the Future" when he Michael J. Fox turns up the distortion at the high school dance and the entire crowd has no idea what?s going. That is exactly what it was like. Luckily he turned off the distortion after having fun for about 2 minutes and finished the song with a clean guitar song, the crowd loved him again.
The next day, saturday. There were two concerts, another one at patio Chico and a second one two or three blocks down. The first concert was an African drum band and the other concert was, again, jazz. We checked them both out. I can?t really say much about either of them, they were good and exactly what you would expect them both to be like. They were fun.
I am still looking for some punk rock, rock, alternative or hip-hop shows here in Salamanca. I am getting close and I know that a scene must exist. I have seen fliers looking for singers and a few signs for a band that states that they are playing out and need a bass guitarist immediately. There is?a scene I just have to find the right bars/clubs.
Class are going great I?m starting to learn more. We are getting into future and past tenses and then it?ll be all about talking talking and more talking past then. I?ve got a long way to go...
Current Weather temp: 30 C
Check out the Weather temperature in Salamanca here
I?ll upload pictures as soon as I can, it?s hard finding an internet cafe with accessible USB ports.
"Some people say that bowling allies have big lanes"?
? I have been staring at my Stats book all day long because I haven't been able to concentrate on the material. I think my sickness is preventing it from happening. Eh, oh well. I'll just drink some more Chai.
? Speaking of Chai, I discovered something today. I actually like Chai and tea when?I am sick. I'm sure that once I am feeling better tea and chai will taste like the dirt it is made up of but until then the stuff is actually good. Oh and by the way I'm talking about Cocoa Chai (from Oregon Chai of course) and tea with so much honey in it that it's opaque (analagous to honey with a dash of tea for color).
? That's all I got for now. Oh, go listen to Camper Van Beethoven, it'll make you want to go bowling.
