translation: dos gardenias

I fell in love with the music and words of this song while watching the documentary Buena Vista Social Club". The film shows Ibrahim Ferrer singing the song in concert, with subtitles for DVD viewers. It's something about the minor key that the song is in, and the way in which the song is like a profession of love but a warning at the same time.. it's a kind of gentle ominous-ness, if you can imagine such a thing.

Dos gardenias
Buena Vista Social Club

Dos gardenias para ti
Con ellas quiero decir:
Te quiero, te adoro..
Mi vida.
Ponle toda tu atención
Porque son tu corazón y el mío.

Dos gardenias para ti
Que tendrán todo el calor de un beso
De esos besos que te dí
Y que jamás encontrarás
En el calor de otro querer.

A tu lado vivirán y se hablarán
Como cuando estás conmigo
Y hasta creerás que te diran:
Te quiero.

Pero si un atardecer
Las gardenias de mi amor se mueren
Es porque han adivinado
Que tu amor me ha traicionado
Porque existe otro querer.

Two gardenias for you
With them I want to say:
I want you, I adore you..
My love.
Show them all your attention
Because they are your heart and mine.

Two gardenias for you
That have all the warmth of a kiss
Of those kisses that you give
And that you never encounter
In the warmth of another desire.

They will live by your side and talk to you
Like when you are with me
And until you believe that they say to you:
I want you.

But if one evening
The gardenias of my love are dead
It's because they have guessed
That you have betrayed your love for me
Because there exists another desire.

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Now playing: Clare Bowditch/Feeding Set - The Thing About Grief

translation: murmullo

When I'm not procrastinating or doing what I should be doing (work, uni, golf), I'm either playing music, drawing, reading, watching Scrubs, or translating passages from Spanish to English.

I don't do this often, but I do derive a lot of fun from it, and hopefully one day I'll actually invest enough time into Spanish to be able to speak it conversationally, or at least write and understand the language.

This is a song from the Buena Vista Social Club's self-titled album - it's a really beautiful, gentle song (in this instance, sung by Ibrahim Ferrer et al) that makes me close my eyes and sway to the gentle "guun, guun" of one of the percussion instruments. It wasn't until I translated the lyrics that I discovered the beauty behind the words as well.

I know, I know - it's pretty easy to find pre-translated lyrics online.. but that's beside the point. DIY involves constant flicking through the dictionary and trying to recall words I've already come across in previous dictionary searches.

Time-consuming, but educational.

Murmullo
Buena Vista Social Club

Hay un suave murmullo
En el silencio de una noche azul
Son dos enamorados
Que, encantados, gozan del amor.
Y ríe la vida y qué dice así: Ahh, ahh..
Y ríe la luna y qué dice así: Mmm, mmm..

There is a gentle murmur
In the silence of the blue night
There are two lovers
That, delighted, enjoy their love.
And Life laughs, and speaks thus: Ahh, ahh..
And the Moon laughs, and speaks thus: Mmm, mmm..

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Now playing: Buena Vista Social Club - Candela

it's about time

After enjoying the freedom of writing a blog that nobody but I knew the address of, I've now decided to share it with my friends on Facebook. I've decided to stay away from the site meters that count how many people have and haven't been to the site - I don't give a shit about how popular or unpopular I am, and I'm not going to write to impress specific people, I'm going to write to express myself and my opinions, and to rediscover who I am and where I'm headed.

I don't think it's particularly interesting at the moment - most of the posts are for my Science & Religion gen. ed. subject. There's a few movie and music reviews around, and a few posts where I've just decided to vent my spleen about things that make me angry/upset, or I've gone all airy-fairy/arty-farty and written some spontaneous poetry.

In my opinion, poetry is the writer's version of art. The classics are spectacular, but some of the 'contemporary' crap that gets loads of kudos and is highly acclaimed.. it only reiterates the fact that arts are so subjective, being of a highly personal nature..

But I digress.

To whoever stumbles across this blog, I hope you enjoy it, but if you don't, that's okay, we probably don't or wouldn't connect well in real life. Like everybody else, I've got my own quirks I suppose! :)

If you're planning on reading this blog on a regular basis, I would suggest you start at the beginning - this space is only 2-3 months old.

Feel free to leave comments; don't be offended if I don't respond.

If you come across a music review and you want to hear the music I'm talking about, let me know - I love sharing music and introducing people to new sounds.

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Now playing: Stevie Wonder & Babyface - How Come, How Long

unhealthy habits

People.

Please stop smoking.

summer sounds

He reminds me of a balmy summer evening, where the gentle breeze makes you smile as it glides over your body. Or a night on a beach on a remote island, sitting around a campfire on the beach with some friends and enjoying each others' company. Or perhaps, a lazy holiday afternoon, looking up at the azure sky, framed by the palm fronds from the trees that are gently swinging your hammock.

I'm talking about Jehro and his self-titled album.

From recollection, Jehro is French (his real name is Jérôme), but if you listen to his music you'd think he was from the islands, with a Caribbean infusion in his melodies, and the rhythms that are laid-back, but upbeat enough to keep you dancing gently. You'll also feel folk and reggae when you hear his music; overall it's a nice mix.

I love unique voices, and Jehro's is no exception. Reminds me of a light coffee colour (not really sure why) - smooth, with a little roughness around the edges.

And it's not just the music; you have to listen to his lyrics, some of which are sung in Spanish, others of which are heavier than my musical description implies. For instance, in "I Want Love" he sings of a child soldier going through tough times. His words are far from the usual, and I also like that uniqueness about him.

Stand-out tracks:
#1. Everything "And I will learn to say / Goodbye a thousand different ways.."
This the opening track, and it really sets the mood for the album. I can picture it being used as an intro for a film, where you're seeing the characters in their environment for the first time, and a story quickly develops without any dialogue. I think it's because the minor chords of the song sound elusive and mysterious to me.

#3. Long Is The Way "Oh Lord, I made it through / I'm gonna lay down my load.."
This song is the reason why I fell in love with Jehro's music. The song begins with a beautiful guitar (?) intro that makes the notes sound as though they're dancing, sparkling on the water on a hot summer's day, and the light reggae-style beat supports the lyrics of lost love and a sad longing.

#4. Sweet "Sweet, sweet / The taste of my lover / Sweet, sweet / The smell of her skin.."
One of the lighter songs on the album, the violins initially pave the way for what really is a sweet-sounding set of vocal harmonies. The lyrics are of the nature-infused romantic kind - and by that I mean that Jehro sings of the little things that we do with lovers, that make life happy and perfect. I love the trumpet interlude in the middle of the song, reminds me of Cuban music! :)

#9. Shantytown Carnival "Tonight is free / Tonight the streets / Echo the sounds / Of the carnival.."
A catchy little song with a more upbeat sound, as the percussion keeps you moving to the rhythm while the guitar paints its colour all over the piece.. can't forget the piano either, providing a lovely background wash to the canvas of the song.

I first discovered Jehro in 2006 through an mp3blog, called aurgasm (the actual post is here).

To digress, I really, really adore this site and the music it offers - I've discovered some real gems from this site that I would have never heard otherwise; and all the other mp3blogs I've come across are usually fairly genre-specific, and/or not as aesthetically pleasing as aurgasm. Even the name looks good when you write it out - although I've had one or two weird looks when I've tried to plug the site in conversations, hehe.

I think Jehro was the first impulse buy I'd made when it came down to music albums and hearing mp3s from blogs. I mean, prior to Paul's post on his blog, I'd never heard of Jehro.

The tracks that were posted on the site were "Everything" and "Long is the Way". As soon as the music started playing, I was intrigued - and seconds after I'd heard both songs, I was totally hooked and very determined to buy the album. And I did not regret the purchase one single bit.

Magnetic and mysterious. Unwind with Jehro.

Additional reading:
http://jehro.free.fr/htmlen/bio.htm
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After writing this blog, I visited YouTube to watch the music video for Jehro's "Everything", and I've just discovered that his song "Master Blaster" (track 13 off the album, it's only a demo version though) is actually a cover of Stevie Wonder's original song! I had no idea!

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Now playing: Jehro - Master Blaster Demo Version

a quick reflection

It's week 9, and for me the midsemester break is now here. I've been meaning to write a reflection on the Science & Religion course for the last week or two now, but as usual I've been lazy and unmotivated to do much uni work.

The course has been a lot tougher than I expected - in fact, it was different to my expectations to begin with. I must not have really focused on the "science" part of the course when I enrolled, because I definitely wasn't expecting to learn about elements of quantum physics! But that was a good surprise - I've wanted to read about quantum physics for a while now, but never got around to it. Now I've had a bit of a taste test with this gen. ed., and it's pretty fascinating (albeit trippy) stuff!

I was also hoping to be learning more about the different religions in the world, rather than having discussions mainly based on a Judaeo-Christian belief system. Admittedly I can see how it would be quite difficult to maintain a coherent discussion on topics such as Creation and Evolution (etc) while trying to learn about different religious beliefs at the same time - it would probably make the course quite disjointed. That said, I didn't realise we'd be discussing topics like Creation and the Big Band or Evolution to begin with.

Keeping up with the weekly discussion has been difficult for me, mostly because I've been too tired to concentrate after work - the weekly resources and lectures, while exciting and interesting and sometimes fascinating, aren't exactly what I would call light reading, and I always need to be reading the materials in silence (i.e. without music playing in the background) otherwise the words just don't sink in. I'm not a particularly fast reader either, so I've been falling behind and not participating in the discussions as much as I should be. Now my main concern is that I hope I pass the course! I'd hate to fail a gen. ed. subject, and a subject that I chose to do because I wanted to do it, not because I had to do it.

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Now playing: Jehro - Long Is The Way

week 8 discussion posts #1-2

On the topic of Providence, Free Will & Suffering
Discussion posts below altered slightly for the purposes of this blog

In response to the discussion of God creating a world devoid of evil and suffering, I think I've interpreted the question differently to Ariella and Priyanka. I think it's possible that God could create a world without evil and suffering, because I also think its possible that as free agents, humans are the ones who create the evil and suffering amongst themselves.
Ariella/Priyanka/others who agree, I apologise if I've misinterpreted your own repsonses, but that's my 2 cents worth :)

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After reading Rachel's post on the discussion of how the good die young, I was reminded of how I used to think that "It always seems to be the good people who die early/prematurely..." and I couldn't understand it either. But the idea that came to me was, perhaps God takes the good people away from Earth because they don't deserve to suffer all the stress, the trauma, the evils and the dangers of living in human society. Like Michelle wrote, maybe we do live in a "relatively 'good' world" - after all, we could have been living out WW #101 rather than watching the news on the "War in Iraq", but I still think it's a world which is not as good as it could be.
But back to my main point - perhaps God handpicks the really good people and seriously takes them to a better place..

on providence & good will, amongst other things

So Larissa asks the question,

"Is it logically possible for God to create a world in which there is no evil or suffering, but where humans still have free will?"

To answer this question on a bit of a tangent, I think it's us, the humans themselves, who create the evil and suffering. This of course, assumes that we are created as free agents, and not somebody else's puppets.


Alexander wrote:
"There is the cliched argument that "What is light but absence of darkness?""

It's such a simple yet profound statement.

Reading on further through the discussion posts, I see the topic/question of "Why do bad things happen to good people?", and my fellow students' confusion and failure to understand just why it is that the nicest people seem to be the ones who suffer from terminal illnesses and the like.

I've thought about this before, primarily because of events that had affected me in some way. My kindergarten teacher, her name was Mrs Batty. However she was far from crazy, and did a wonderful job as the teacher of our class, Kindergarten Rainbow. I remember her peaceful smile, and she was all warmth and love. I don't recall seeing her after kindergarten; it's possible that she moved schools, who knows. I was too young at the time to pay attention to such things. By the time I was in Year 5 or 6, I discovered from my teachers that Mrs Batty had passed away due to cancer. It was a shock, and I felt sad.

And when I was in Year 4 or 5 (the years are a blur now), the mothers of one of my best friends passed away on the operating table, while having a brain tumor removed. That was also a shock, and saddening news. She was such a lovely person, really nice and kind, and she left behind 3 wonderful daughters and a loving husband. I felt terrible.

Taking my case to the realm of celebrities et al, Eva Cassidy & Princess Diana are the first who come to mind.

Eva Cassidy was an American singer blessed with an amazing voice. According to friends and family she was very shy, but very generous, and overall had a wonderful heart and soul. However she died at the young age of 33, battling cancer. Why did such a lovely and talented person have to leave so soon?
If you listen to some of her songs, even the ones that weren't ready for album release, you'll soon realise how incredible her vocal talent is. One can only imagine what potential was not realised due to her early passing.

Jeff Buckley is of a similar situation, although he disappeared in the Mississippi River one evening. His albums Grace and Live at the Sin-e are precious recordings of a genius at work. According to his mother, he was a good person too, kind and gentle.

"The good die young."

It's a cliche, but it's cliched because it's true.

And just about everybody would know about Princess Diana. I remember her most for her enormous contribution to humanitarian activities. Of course, there are many, many people around the world doing exactly the same thing, if not better, but my respect for her is from the perspective that she was royalty. She was very well-off; why would she have any reason to go out of her way to do something for people she doesn't know? But Princess Diana used her celebrity status to bring awareness into people's living rooms during the news. And I'm sure we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg on screen.

I respect celebrities who use their celebrity status to do good for the world - but only those who are genuine about their cause. Angelina Jolie was known for working in humanitarian activities long before the news articles on Bono, or Bob Geldof, or Madonna, etc. The most prominent (i.e. receive the most amount of TV coverage for what they do, based on my experience) celebrities who I think are genuinely dedicated to the cause, are Angelina Jolie and Bono.

The fact that being humanitarian has become "trendy" nowadays, is both a blessing and a curse in my opinion. It's great because that means more people are getting involved, donating money, aiding good causes. The bad thing is, what are their ulterior motives? Are they doing it because they think it's 'cool', or because they genuinely feel that everybody should have equal rights in the world, and poverty is unacceptable considering the affluence of many urbanised areas around the world?