Blue Moos

THE STRONG AND SILENT TYPES (NL)

2011-05-24T12:46:00.006+02:00

SOULFUL GYPSY SWING FROM HOLLAND

Two solid acoustic guitars, a raging accordion, and a rocking double bass. With Django Reinhardt’s swinging music as its starting point, the Strong and Silent Types play an exciting and soulful mix of gypsy swing, South‐American rumba and bossa, and French musette. And they’re even handsome, too! The band has experienced memorable
moments on stage in their native Netherlands as well as abroad, ranging from big
festivals to small events. It is no surprise that they enjoy the steady attention of a troupe of loyal admirers!

Gypsy jazz lovers from around the world meet each summer in the small French town of Samois sûr Seine to commemorate their musical hero, Django Reinhardt. For one week, camp sites surrounding the town are taken over by guitarists, violinists, bass and accordion players. Music sounds all day long!
For over ten years, the Strong and Silent Types have been part of this colorful annual gathering along the banks of the River Seine. In the early years the week tended to be spent drinking small French pints, whereas later on the focus shifted towards long days and nights of happy jamming. Each year, the camp ground’s bar is the location of the now historic debate regarding who it was that, in a moment of sheer clarity of mind,suggested to combine forces into the Strong and Silent Types. The answer remains a mystery, but no matter whom it was, it has proven to be a fabulous idea!

Lineup:

Solo guitar: John Ligthart
Accordion: Boris Nauta
Rhythm guitar: Martien Peerdeman
Double bass: Marcel Snijders

Poum Tchack eastern tour

2010-09-30T00:48:00.002+02:00

MAD SHEER KHAN

2010-09-28T14:10:00.002+02:00

Mad Sheer Khan was born Mahamad Hadi, in Algiers in 1955, of mixed Persian and Arabic origin. He studied in France, where he now lives. His experience of being steeped in three different cultures has enabled him to develop fruitful relations between these varied influences. His oriental roots are apparent everywhere in the rhythms, colors, scales and sources of inspiration of his music. His aim is to go beyond the worn-out image of the 'exotic East', and in order to achieve this he constantly seeks points of contact between a western-inspired oriental culture and its counterpart, an oriental-inspired western culture. Mad Sheer Khan strives to give his music a wide range by juxtaposing ideas from both classical and folk music, developing them in compositions in which classically urban and rural styles exist side by side.
Mad Sheer Khan formed his first group in 1975. In 1981, he formed a duo and adopted an image that was quite rare for the time: he spent the 1980s swathed in a turban, deliberately going against what was then the normal practice. His unconventional appearance did not deter the critics, who responded enthusiastically to his playingin 1982 the well-known English magazine New Musical Express listed him among the ten best guitarists in the world. During this period Mad was in fact living in London, where he worked with Velvet Underground's muse, Nico, on the albums Drama of Exile 1 &2, and was acclaimed for his virtuosity.
On his return to France, still under the influence of his London experiences. Mad Sheer Khan wrote pieces with a harder edge than any he had composed before and formed the group Harem, with which he performed a mixture of electronic and acoustic music. In 1994 he went solo again, returning to a more ethnic style of acoustic music.
He has appeared with many other musicians, including Nina Hagen, Michael Hutchence, Keziah Jones, Jean Louis Aubert and Sting.

FANFARA COMPLEXA (HU)

2008-12-03T01:56:00.002+01:00

Fanfara Complexa plays Moldovan folk dance music. They have had several tours, among them they also visited China and turkish part of Kurdistan. The traditional mix of flute, lute and drum is completed by the sound of the saxophone now more and more popular in Moldova.
Members of the band often travel to collect music from authentic resources. The relationship with authentic musicians remained the main inspirational source for the band. Band's leader Bede Péter is a saxophone player, graduated at the Department of Jazz at the Liszt Ferenc Musical Academy in 2007. He is an active folk musician: with his own band, Fanfara Complexa he plays traditional dance-music from Moldavia, while with the band Szigony he plays the folk music of the Gyimes region (Romania). He also played with Besh o Drom, while currently he is the member of Szilvia Bognár's ensemble, and also the Balogh Kálmán Gipsy Cimbalom Band. He had been involved into making the music of several dramas and he also participates in formations playing experimental, improvisatory music.
Line up:

Bede Péter - saxophone
Tuzko Csaba - alt sax, tarogato (hungarian turkish based woodwind instrument)
Roka Szabolcs - koboz (ancient lute),
Benke Felix - drums

Here's a short video of their performance at Etnika festival in september 2008 in Maribor, Slovenia / more at: www.etnika.si

David Orlowsky's Klezmorim

2008-06-14T09:42:00.002+02:00

The 25 years old clarinettist David Orlowsky and his Klezmorim trio show their virtuosity and versatility on their CD "Noema" linking elements of klezmer, classics and jazz to create a new musical style.
When he was 16 and had only been playing the clarinet for three years, he caught the attention of Giora Feidman in master classes and concerts. David Orlowsky in now a multiple prizewinner in the nationwide German young performers competition "Jugend musiziert" and is one of the most exciting clarinettist of his generation. Feidman gave Orlowsky his introductin to klezmer and the young clarinettist still feels a strong affinity with this way of making music. Klezmer remains the musical point of departure for "David Orlowsky's Klezmorim", the trio that Orlowsky founded in 1997
together with double bass player and composer Florian Dohrmann, now with Jens-Uwe Popp on guitar. The word "klezmorim" is the plural of "klezmer" and means "musicians".
The pieces on their debut CD are compositions by Orlowsky aand Dohrman who wrote most of the pieces in their repertoire. "Noema" was recorded with famous guest artists Avi Avital (mandolin), Per Arne Glorvigen (bandoneon) and Iveta Apkalna (organ).

Libra Radio on iPhone

2008-04-15T17:25:00.003+02:00

Not long ago i got this nice email from a regular Libra Radio listener Pier Marton ( at Washington University - Film and Media Studies Program / http://get.to/pier ). He says that he has been listening to our programming with his iPhone now!

and here's what he thinks of Libra radio:
"Nobody is consistently so rich and varied, with a special taste for the Eastern European Rom and other soulful folks".

thanks a lot, Pier!

Oleg Ponomarev

2007-04-25T07:38:00.000+02:00

I've got recently this great album of a superb violinist, bassist, pianist, guitarist, composer, arranger, producer, singer, teacher and wanderer Oleg Ponomarev.
His latest cd "The master of Russian gypsy violin" can be bought here.

After touring with the famous Russian/Gypsy Band LOYKO for 10 years, recording more than fifteen albums with various musicians, writing off two motorbikes and getting five stars at the Edinborough festival, Oleg has finally settled down in Ireland. He has been involved in many different music project. From 2003 he has been performing with French singer Caroline Moreau, he's also a member of a gypsy swing band The hot club of Dublin and gypsy & klezmer band Koshka.

This is a song played live with Koshka

Thank you for the music sent to Libra Radio!

Rangin

2007-02-19T21:12:00.000+01:00

I owe this review to this great duo of guitarists for some time now. I somehow got a bit lazy for writing in this blog, however this should be changed.
But let's get to the point:

Rangin are Michael Meyer and Omid Bahadori from Hannover, Germany. They met in 1998 and spent some time together in a jazz-funk band "L&B"; Michael as a drummer and Omid on electric guitars. To freshen up the band's programme they wrote together a piece for two acoustic guitars and named it Rangin. The feedback from the audiences was quite respective and the birth of a new duo was just around the corner. Shortly thereafter the jazzfunk band "L&B" broke up and Rangin was born. Only six months later they recorded their first album "Beyond acoustic expressions".
For this project and stage performances they invited some guest musicians. Since the year 2000 Rangin has performed as a duo regularly on TV program „Tachles-Talk am Runden Tisch“ in Hannover and played at the EXPO 2000 in the Africa Hall and in the Globalhouse, followed by a short concert tour in the states of Pfalz and Niedersachsen Germany. The concerts of the year 2000 were followed up by a new CD production and programme. This time „Rangin“ had an excelent CD production (Beyond Acoustic Expressions-1999) offer by Toto-Loto and received sponsoring for their second CD, "Jingle Jungle“, that came out at the beginning of 2001.

With the presentation of „Jingle Jungle“ they won the hearts of the citizens of Hannover and in that summer the group was to be heard and seen at several open air festivals: Sound Circus Open Air (Haendorf) or at the MASALA Worldbeat-Festival in Hannover.

In 2006 they published their third CD "Toma Guarana".
Their music is a colourful coctail of different styles (Latin, Flamenco, Oriental, Jazz-funk) and it is best known as a "Mediterranean crossower". Omid's mystic origins (Iran) brought into their music a special touch of the soul. Sometimes simple joy of living, sometimess sadness. Both is needed.
Thanks for the CD's, guys!

NICKOS KAPILIDIS & JAZZ UTOPIA

2006-07-19T07:55:00.000+02:00

A day with NICKOS KAPILIDIS & JAZZ UTOPIA at LIBRA RADIO:
Thursday, 3.08.2006
One hour show with NICKOS KAPILIDIS & JAZZ UTOPIA:
Thursday,3.08.2006 at 23:00 CET

Born in 1955 in Xanthi, Greece, Nickos Kapilidis got first involved with the music at the age of 8 years . His father owned a small shop with the records and during his visits the little boy gradually went into the greatest discovery of his life - the magical world of the music. For him it was the point of no return. He simply got poisoned with everything music can offer. During the following years he attended music lessons for Bouzouki, Accordeon, Trumpet,Flute, Piano and at the age of 13 he started playing drums with various pop rock bands. For several years he played with his father and his brothers in a "Family band" that cruised around and played traditional greek music. In 1985 he formed "Percussion Ensemble of Thessaloniki".
During his career he had played with various bands in Greece, Switzerland, Germany and France.
The last several years he had focused in the study of the Greek odd rhythms (5/8, 7/8, 9/8 etc.)writing a book about this subject and forming the following bands:
Serious Fun (1996), Ebnus Jazz Quintet(2000), The Jazz Utopia (2001).
The latest - Jazz Utopia - is a quartet with soprano sax, guitar, bass and drums.
Their album - Arothymian, which was published in 2005 and represents the point of our concern, is a smart blending of different melodic and rhythmic elements of Greek music and colourful harmonies enriched with jazz elements.
You can buy this cd here or here.
Thanks for the music, Nickos!

Poum Tchack - Gypsy swing factory

2006-04-17T00:17:00.002+02:00

A day with POUM TCHACK at LIBRA RADIO:
Thursday, 20.04.2006
One hour show with POUM TCHACK:
Thursday,20.04.2006 at 23:00 CET

I received this cd "Delirium Live" directly from the Poum Tchack (name for the pump-pompe sound of a swing guitar rhythm). The musicians are young, however they sound very experienced and what is of the greatest importance: they groove and swing like hell!
Since forming in the outskirts of Marseille in 1999 Poum Tchack's rich and varied blend of music has earned praise from as close to home as Lille and Geneva to as far afield as the Pacific island of New Caledonia and Essaouria in Morocco.
Poum Tchack's sound stems from gypsy and manouche but the six members of the band embrace a broad range of musical genres to create their own signature style. Vocals, violins, guitars, bandonion, percussions and more hint towards an"unplugged" theme but the spirit of rock'n'roll is never far away from Poum Tchack.
The group's first self-produced album was issued in 2002 and was sold in more than 6.000 copies. Their second,
"Delirium Live" (april 2005) reflects
Poum Tchack's evolution into a multi-dimensional unit that is tailor-made for live performances. Having supported acts including Jaques Higelin, Emir Kusturica, Mickey 3D, Birelli Lagrene, Titi Robin, The Ogres of Barback, CQMD, Latcho Drom and Manitas de Plata - Poum Tchack really has established a name for itself as one of the rising stars of the music scene. New projects are on the horizon for the group with the musical score for the Ladislas Starewitch movie and participation in the project "Streets"- a musical directed by Eva Doumbia - all in the pipeline.
Later on:
and here's the video of their live performance at Etnika world music festival in Maribor, Slovenia in september 06 / more at: www.etnika.si

KOLEKTIF - BALKANATOLIA

2006-03-09T13:04:00.000+01:00

A day with KOLEKTIF at LIBRA RADIO:
Wednesday, 15. 03.2006

One hour show with KOLEKTIF
Thursday, 15. 03.2006 at 23.00 (Central European Time)

Last year i organized a low (no) budget ethno-music festival here in Maribor, Slovenia called
"Etnika". Two weeks ago a good friend of mine told me about the turkish musician who was in our town at the moment for a very pleasant reason: he was visiting his girlfriend he is in love with.Then we met and talked about this and that and of course - the possibility of getting his Turkish band onto the stage of our festival. His name is Safak Velioglu and he plays on a very interesting instrument setar, which is a traditional persian four stringed lute. More about setar here.

Then Safak went to Sofia where he's been situated recently and a few days later i got this cd from his girlfriend. The music on this cd was a total surprise for me in terms of quality. There is a bunch of some of the finest musicians from Istanbul who joined the project of Kolektif, like Selim Sesler, the guy who participated at this famous film "Crossing the bridge" by Fatih Akin.
Here's the complete line up:
Richard Laniepce: Saksafon alto/tenor/ bariton, mey, dvoyanka, kaval, Aslı Doğan: Vokal, Birol Topaloğlu: Tulum, Vokal, Osman Aktaş: Kaval , Zhubin Kalhor: Kamaçe, Şafak Velioğlu: Setar, Metin İbrahim Uğur: Çello, Orhan Osman: Yunan Lavtası, Cümbüş, Cura, Baglamadaki Tamer Ahmet: Akordeon, Selim Sesler: Sol Klarnet, Mahmut Dahil: Sib Klarnet, Asma Davul, Recep Sırplıoğlu: Kaba Zurna, Geri Vokal, Kemal Oksal: Tuba, Ertan Sahin: Bariton, Geri Vokal, İzzet Kızıl: Tabla, Kanjira, Zarb, Uğur Göregen: Udu, Erbane, Bendir, Çetin Erlik: Tef, Darbuka, Zil, Şerif Kum: Asma Davul, Cubuklu Darbuka, Ediz Hafızoğlu: Davul, Funda Güllü: Geri Vokal, Sedat Özden: Geri Vokal, Koray Kesik: Islık
They don't have their own website and if you google Kolektif, you'll find only articles and reviews in Turkish language.
Safak promised me to send some more info about the band in english.
The music is fantastic! You can buy their cd here.

Hadass Pal-Yarden

2006-01-26T23:23:00.000+01:00

A day with HADDAS PAL-YARDEN at LIBRA RADIO:
Thursday, 02. 02.2006

One hour show with HADDAS PAL-YARDEN
Thursday, 02. 02.2006 at 23.00 (Central European Time)

Hadass Pal-Yarden is an Israeli Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) singer and a doctorate student of Ethnomusicology. During her master studies, she researched the subject of Nowadays Performances of Ladino songs' Corpus in Jerusalem.

Hadass spends the third year in Istanbul in the conservatoire of Istanbul Technical University, as a doctorate student, studying folklore and classical Turkish music and Turkish Music’s Makam.
Hadass had preformed all over Israel and cooperated with musicians and informants of Ladino music. She gave concerts in Thessalonika, Turkey and Israel with the leading Ethnic music players Yurdal Tokcan (Ud) and Göksel Baktagır (Kanun) and took part in Cihat Ashkin’s CD “Ege’nin Türküsü” (KALAN, 2000) as a soloist of the Turkish Zeybek “Ferahi”. Had Participated in Yinon Muallem’s Cd, “Changing Moments” (BEYZA, 2003), as soloist of the Israeli song “Shir La’Yakinton”. Nowadays she is completing her own album of Ladino songs from Turkey and the Mediterranean in “KALAN MUSIC” CD Company. Her CD, called “YAHUDIJE”, consist on urban ladino music from Jerusalem, Thessalonika, Istanbul and Izmir.
Yahudije, the name used for the Ladino (Judeo-spanish) language of the Jewish population in the Ottoman times, reflected a simple reality: most Jewish people in the Ottoman Empire were of Spanish origin and spoke Ladino.

This album is absolutely beautiful!
The repertoire for the cd is chosen among the songs from a huge collection that ethnomusicologist Hadass Pal-Yarden have been collecting for so many years now. We listen to the urban music from Istanbul, Izmir, Thessalonika and Jerusalem fertilized with rich and colourful arrangements. Musicians are very experienced and singing parts are done with a lot of passion. This necklace of precious musical pearls should find its place in a cd collection of every ethno music aficionado who has got some pride.

Hadass Pal Yarden at the 21st Annual Jewish Music Festival

Israeli singer Hadass Pal Yarden and Ensemble Yahudice:“Sounds of traditions, music of the future”.

Hadass Pal Yarden and Ensemble Yahudice: Ladino music from Istanbul to Jerusalem.

Sunday, March 19, 7:30 pm. Thrust Stage / Berkeley Repertory Theatre 2025 Addison St., Berkeley $26 / $22. Presented in association with the Consulate General of Israel, The Israel Center and Golden Horn Records.

Monday, March 20, 7:30 pm. Lehrhaus Workshop: Urban Ladino Music of Turkey Hadass Pal-Yarden, of Yahudice. $15/ $12, BRJCC 1414 Walnut Street, Berkeley.

Festival dates: March 11 – 26, 2006. At the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley. Info: www.brjcc.org/jewish_music_festival/, or call 510.848.0237

Thank you, Hadass!

New York Flamenco Festival 2006

2006-01-03T16:12:00.000+01:00

New York’s annual flamenco celebration, now in its sixth year, features over 100 dancers, vocalists and guitarists direct from Spain in a mesmerizing display ranging from flamenco puro to contemporary innovations. The festival is dedicated to the vitality of the flamenco arts of Andalucía, the birthplace of flamenco.
With:

Esperanza Fernández

Son de la Frontera

Vicente Amigo

Gala Flamenca:
Merche Esmeralda,
Manolo Marín,
Javier Barón, Soledad Barrio,
Rafael Campallo and
Adela Campallo

Nuevo Ballet Español

Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía

Compañia Antonio El Pipa

New York Flamenco Festival 2006

Svitanya

2005-11-14T18:34:00.000+01:00

Eastern European Women's Vocal Ensemble

A day with SVITANYA at LIBRA RADIO:
Thursday, 17. 11.2005

One hour show with SVITANYA
Thursday, 17. 11. 2005 at 23.00 (Central European Time)

Human vocal with its inevitable emotional component is the most perfect instrument one can imagine. Eastern European singing style has got a beautiful colouration, ornamentation, rhythm changes and song structures, such as unison, melody and drone, parallel harmony and polyphony. All this is extremely hard to put together into a form of perfection. When it is done, it becomes exceptionally seductive. That's why i see "Svitanya" as a rare jewel.

SVITANYA (svee-TAH-nya), which means “the light at sunrise” in Croatian and Ukrainian, is a women’s a cappella ensemble that specializes in music from Eastern Europe.

The songs they perform exude the spirit of traditional village music. Some songs are modern arrangements, some songs were learned from village source recordings, and all songs are sung in their original languages. Their repertoire is quite diverse ¾ ranging from strong and strident field-working songs to traditional dance tunes to lush and emotive arrangements ¾ and it all celebrates the timbres, rhythms, and harmonies indigenous to the region.

Most every song tells a story; some songs celebrate the mundane events of daily life, like cutting wheat in the fields or strolling in the street with musicians, and others depict life’s more poignant moments, such as losing a loved one to war or being married off while too young.

Svitanya is a nine-member, multi-generational ensemble that includes two mother-daughter pairs¾most fitting in a genre where songs have been passed through generations from mother to daughter.

"First light" includes 27 songs from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Croatia, Lithuania, Serbia, Macedonia, and Georgia. Most of the music is a cappella, with several tracks enhanced by the accompaniment of traditional instruments.
Some songs are modern arrangements, some are from village source recordings, and all songs are sung in their original languages.

SVITANYA is based in Philadelphia area adn has performed at music, dance and folk festivals, concerts, churches and other venues across the northeast.

Shantel // Bucovina

2005-11-08T18:35:00.001+01:00

A day with SHANTEL / BUCOVINA CLUB on LIBRA RADIO:
Thursday, 10. 11.2005

One hour show with SHANTEL / BUCOVINA
Thursday, 10. 11. 2005 at 23.00 (Central European Time)

A new sound is here and presumably it is going to spread around the globe.

In our last review we presented Balkan Beat Box, a magical and colourful caleidoscope of different styles of music that rocks either on the stage or in the car.
From Essay Recordings we got news that they've got another fish to fry. Plus 2cd's as well.

Shantel // Bucovina Club 1 and 2

When Frankfurt-based Freestyle and Electronica DJ Stefan Hantel (Shantel) started churning up his eclectic Mix Beats from Brazil and North Africa with Brass Madness, Roma ballads and Balkan dances, dance addicts just couldn’t get enough. A trip to Bucovina, where his mother’s family originate, was a real ear-opener: What he had previously heard on records as an exotic sound from a faraway place was suddenly physically tangible: wild brass ensembles, singers with soulful voices, melancholy bluesy ballads and instrumental melodies, the frenzied dances of Kolo, Hora and Cocek (a Balkan variation on belly-dancing).

The cosmopolitan cultural and ethnic diversity of prewar Bucovina has been an important source of inspiration for Shantel. Czernovitz, the old capital of Bucovina, city of great poets and thinkers such as Rose Ausländer, Paul Celan and Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger, and famous musicians such as the German-Jewish tenor Josef Schmidt, the Caruso of the East, at the heart of the Bucovina region, was the home of his ancestors. Though the years of Nazi occupation, and later Stalinism, have irrevocably destroyed what was once a unique multicultural atmosphere, there is still an enormous interest here in nurturing those roots. By chance, a copy of the Bucovina Club CD managed to find its way to Bucovina. Musicians there were astonished to discover that a musician and DJ living so far away would draw upon these traditions. Eventually, in November 2004, there was a memorable homecoming.
At the invitation of the Mayor of Czernovitz, during the heady Ukrainian autumn of the Orange Revolution, Shantel performed with the Jewish Orchestra of Czernovitz and musicians of the Mahala Rai Banda on former Austria Square to a crowd of ten thousand young people, some of whom had brought along their orange banners. The musicians had prepared intensely for this event and saw it as an opportunity of continuing where the old traditions had left off. Further invitations followed, prompted by the mutual wish to revive this rich cultural experience. Shantel is currently planning a more in-depth collaboration with musicians from Czernovitz.
There is another inspiration that links Shantel’s previous life as an Electronica producer with the Gypsies. The Gypsies, with their seminal contribution to the music of the Balkans, actually invented the art of sampling. On their journeys through many lands and cultures, they adopted a hookline here, a rhythm there, picking up fragments of melodies and choruses along the way, and putting them together to create something entirely their own. Towards the end of the twentieth century, sampling became the production method of a very different scene: Electronica and Dancemusic.

Two years after the acclaimed and award-winning Bucovina Club Album (which won the most prestigious French music critics’ prize), Shantel has been inspired by the enthusiasm of audiences and critics to set his sights on surpassing his fantastic debut album. This time, the holistic approach of this artist-musician-producer and DJ comes across even more clearly. 5 of the 16 tracks are original recordings and 5 are exclusive mixes. Only 6 of them have ever been released anywhere else -- for the most part on rare and hard-to-find albums.
Take a look at his live video or the Tv story of Shantel.

Balkan Beat Box

2005-10-17T12:55:00.000+02:00

A day with BALKAN BEAT BOX on LIBRA RADIO:
Thursday, 20. 10.2005

One hour show with BALKAN BEAT BOX
Thursday, 20. 10. 2005 at 23.00 (Central European Time)

Magical stage perfomance. You'll love them. It's inevitable. You'll love your newest personal discovery too. About yourself. About a gypsy soul inside your chest. Which describes you as a walking passion.
Israeli-born Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskrat are the minds behind this patched-together sonic masterpiece . The rooster cries, and the singers coo. The horns wail, and the rhythm section nails everything down. Balkan Beat Box" is like an Eastern Bloc party turned to 11 at 4:30 a.m. - only live and with musicians hailing from Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Bulgaria and Spain. Muskrat, who collaborated with Bloc-punks Gogol Bordello on "J.U.F.," ditches the gutter-punk stylings in favor of Arabic influences and Balkan percussive blasts - to surprisingly listenable results.

The pair's self-titled debut CD is a magnificent mash-up melding music from every conceivable corner of the globe and its history. French heavy-metal samples, Arabic lyrics, Bulgarian female vocals, electronic beats, kitchen utensils, even a language made up just for one song -- instead of gazing into the navels of other cultures, these melanges pull the whole weight of the world forward, always forward. The shows allegedly are lively productions with the band often performing in the middle of the audience.

Blending electronic music with hard-edged folk music from the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East, the exciting and internationally acclaimed collective Balkan Beat Box is out to prove that all the world is indeed a stage -- and that we are all gypsies.

Equally influenced by Boban Markovic, Rachid Taha, and Fanfare Ciocarlia as well as Manu Chao and Charlie Parker, Balkan Beat Box presents a wild mixture of styles and sounds.

You can buy their CD here and here (Europe).

2005-09-29T09:40:00.000+02:00

Today with Lily Kiara on Libra Radio

Lily Kiara, a dancer and songwriter

2005-09-26T18:26:00.000+02:00

A DAY WITH LILY KIARA ON LIBRA RADIO: Thursday, 29. 09.2005
ONE HOUR SHOW WITH LILY KIARA
Thursday, 29. 09. 2005 at 23.00 (Central European Time)

LILY KIARA acoustic singer/songwriter, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her songs are intimate and melancholic, rhythmic and intense. Her debut album No Alibi carries 10 of them.

Lily wrote her first songs in 1985, but for many years her music took ’second place’ to her primary work of creating and performing dance projects in Europe and the USA as a dancer/improviser. Her own dance pieces often evolve in collaboration with musicians, such as Michael Vatcher, Tony Buck, Anne La Berge, Marc Nukoop and Alex Waterman, who is featured guest musician on No Alibi.
Her dance and music find their mutual influences mostly in rhythm, in playing with timing and a clear sense of detail within the whole of a dance piece or song.

Her first cd No Alibi released at Bait Records, an independent label Lily shares with Nathalie Wesseling, Ruth Weijers and Nicolette Lie (all ex-Marshmellows).
The album got reviews in Fret, at www.popinstituut.nl, in Heaven en Music Maker, with a place for ‘When he Smiles’ in ‘Antjes Achttien’, Hollands most unreliable poplist. Her music has radioplay at radio 98.6 in Berlin and at local stations in Hamburg and Spain.

Lily Kiara has been making music for a while, which you can hear. Although on her cd, she seems to play the modest girl-with-guitar, she sounds a lot more mature than most Dutch female singer/songwriters.
Kiara’s voice, and also some of her songs, vaguely remind of Suzanne Vega. The compositions are mostly magnificent. Well-balanced in set-up and sometimes complemented with beautiful, though sober arrangements for, for example, strings. As in When He Smiles, the climax of the album…No Alibi is a fine cd. Now let’s hope that Lily Kiara will get the chance to present herself to a large audience.
She played in Amsterdams Vondelpark at the finale for singer-songwriter competition ‘Mooie Noten’ in 2002.
She performed her music at open mikes in Amsterdam, Seattle, New York, San Francisco and London.Most recently she played at the successful series house concerts “Live in the Livingroom” in Amsterdam.

Thank you Lily for sending your CD to Libra Radio!

Nadya and her 101 Candles Orchestra

2005-07-18T17:07:00.000+02:00

A DAY WITH NADYA AND HER 101 CANDLES ORCHESTRA ON LIBRA RADIO: Wednesday, 20. 07.2005
ONE HOUR SHOW WITH NADYA AND HER 101 CANDLES ORCHESTRA
Thursday, 21. 07. 2005 at 00.01 (Central European Time)

Nadya Golski was born in in Mount Hagen (Papua New Guinea) and raised there by her Australian parents with Polish descent. She speaks fluent Tok Pisin and has an unmistakenable Higlands accent.
Nadya started her musical career working with Papua New Guinean reggae bands which was later continued with her throaty gypsy style singing. Nadya is a singer with diverse taste and experience. Her debut album, "Haiwe Draiva", and second album "Moka the Gift", were in languages from the South Pacific Islands, mostly from Papua New Guinea where she spent a significant part of her childhood. Once she also worked with a famous theatre called Gardzienice Theatre Company based in a small village in eastern Poland. From there they travelled by horse and cart to gypsy settlements and remote villages to collect material for their shows which took place in an old candlelit church. People came from all over Europe to make pilgrimages to these performances, which were a feast of music, colour and light.

Nadya launched her first Eastern European inspired double album, 'Effugio', (partly recorded by the ABC studios), at the Sydney Opera House to packed audiences in 2002. The album has since been reissued as a single album simply entitled,"Nadya and Giga 101 Candles Orkestra".
Nadya's 101 Candles Orchestra was selected for Live on Stage by the ABC following their performance at Bellingen festival in October 2003. During 2004 she has performed at the Sydney Festival, Woodford Folk Festival 2003, the Sydney Opera House The Studio, The Basement, and the Sydney Festival 2004.
Nadya has recently finished recording two new albums - 'Crazy Moon' with Australia Council assistance, and 'Heaven and Other Places', a jazz and blues album on the" Wylde Street label".

A tour of the UK followed suit as the headline act of the Music Festivals of Northern England followed by several concerts at the Famous Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival . Followed by shows at jazz clubs in Paris. This tour was proudly supported by the Australia Council for the Arts

Young Nadya with Warupi warriors from Papua New Guinea

Nadya's abbilities for singing (and languages) are truly flamboyant. It seems like any song she picks up and releases it trough her throat - it sounds perfect. For instance: on the Crazy moon album she sings in Gypsy, Polish, French and Spanish which is not a very common combination for an Australian. When i heard "Dis-Moi", a song in French, i got really attracted with everything what is going on in this piece. A rare combination of a French romance and very smart set Balkan style music background. You'll notice all the talent and virtuosity of the musicians from the 101 Candles Orchestra.
One more thing. A few days ago i met an Australian girl here in Maribor, Slovenia and asked her if she ever heard of Nadya. "And 101 Candles Orchestra?" she replied immediately.
Thank you Nadya for sending music to Libra Radio!

Mark Van Overmeire

2005-07-11T18:21:00.000+02:00

I received this cd from Mark Van Overmeire, an excellent musician and composer from Belgium. We will present his music more closely in our DAY OF THE MUSICIAN on Thursday, the 14.th of July 2005 starting at 10.00 Central European Time. During the 24 hours period you'll be able to hear his music many, many times. There'll be also a special one hour show with Mark's music project on Friday, the 15.th of July at 00.01 CET.
Thank you Mark for sending your cd to Libra Radio!

Mark Van Overmeire (April 2, 1968) is a composer, classical guitar player and percussion performer from Belgium. He started studying music at the age of 15. At the age of 17 he entered the intriguing world of composition trying to master the fundamental rules of classical music.

At that time Mark got interested in the exciting rhythms of jazz and studied jazz harmony. He has worked with the numerous musicians allowing himself to grow as a performer. In March '97 he embarked to South America for 4 years, enriching himself with impressions of another world. The result was a musical journey of his stay in this heart warming continent recorded on the tape.
Mark formed his band in October 2001. He had written 6 compositions based on his 4 year stay in South America and was eager to record those feelings on tape. The resulting album "Impresiones", published on his own record label Kramúsica and released in the US on August 10, 2004, is a work full of emotion. It travels from world to jazz, from folk to classical, from ambient to soundtrack.

Van Overmeire and his band effortlessly combine jazz, world, folk and even classical music. In lesser hands, such disparate musical shifts would be a major distraction, but Impresiones treats these stylistic differences as if they somehow belong together.
"Impresiones" is a work of infinite compassion within the realms of the human experience. The atmospheric layering & ambiance of this work is strikingly unique in its vision & breadth. A sublime sonic blending of emotion & variance, cast in shades of dark & light with an audio-painter's stroke of inspiration & depth.
If you're looking for something completely different for your ears and soul, you should try this album. While listening to this music you'll feel pioneering and adventure, courage and freedom, enthusiasm and energy, and sometimes some deep sadness of a dreamer & wanderer. You also might find some influences of the Pat Metheny in the Mark's music, which is ok with me, since i love this style of music very much.
Mark has got also his own blog called Musical Travelogues.

Romano Drom's Founder Antal Kovács Dies in Hungary

2005-07-07T16:07:00.000+02:00

Hungary - Antal Kovács, the cofounder and lead vocalist of Hungarian Gypsy band Romano Drom is reported to have died suddenly on July 6th. A press release by the Ortigueira Celtic and world music festival in Spain mentions that Romano Drom's scheduled performance this Saturday, July 9th, will not take place due to the sudden death of the group's vocalist, Antal Kovács. World Music Central contacted the group's management, Asphalt Tango Productions, in Germany, who confirmed the news. No further details are available at this time and the band's website does not show any recent updates.

Antal Kovács (a.k.a. Gojma) was Romano Drom's vocalist. He was also a dancer and played spoons. He founded Romano Drom together with his son, guitarist ands singer Antal Kovács Jr. (a.k.a. Anti).

Romano Drom means "Gypsy road" in the Romani language. They follow the musical tradition of the Olah Gypsies from Valachia, traditionally horse traders and travelling salesmen. The group split from Ando Drom, another well known Hungarian Gypsy band. Their first album, Déta Dévla, was released in Hungary in 1999. Ando Foro (In the city) came out in November 2001 on the French Label Daqui and is distributed by Harmonia Mundi.

Live 8 free videos

2005-07-06T23:36:00.000+02:00

On July 2, the world's biggest musicians converged at global concerts aimed at ending world poverty. AOL Music captured every note, and it's the only place you can relive every performance on-demand!

Click an artist name to see all of the songs played, then watch each performance as many times as you like.

It doesn't work with Firefox. Link to free videos and link to photos.

Lightning galleries

2005-07-06T23:07:00.000+02:00

Here's a bunch of lightning photos by Jeff Smith. This image is a digital composite. Link

The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band

2005-06-27T18:25:00.000+02:00

A DAY WITH THE FREILACHMAKERS KLEZMER STRING BAND ON LIBRA RADIO: Wednesday, 29. 06.2005
ONE HOUR SHOW WITH THE FREILACHMAKERS
Thursday, 30. 06. 2005 at midnight (Central European Time)

Anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of the capricious, passionate klezmer and gypsy roots music will certainly enjoy The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Their two last albums (The Flower of Berezin, And I in the Uttermost West), bustling with uninhibited exuberance and infectious energy i just received from the band's leader Andy Rubin.
It is impossible to ignore the importance of music in Jewish life. One need only look to the Bible to see descriptions of large orchestras and the importance of the Levites as music makers. After the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 C.E. music making in the synagogue was banned by Rabbis and instrumental music survived only by virtue of the fact that merry-making and song were necessary at weddings.
The evocative sound of klezmer music is achieved through the use of the 1st, 4th and 5th modes of the harmonic minorscale. The most distinctively Jewish-sounding use is the 4th mode. This key can be signed by using the key signature of the relative major of the 4th mode tonic and sharping every second and naturalizing every fourth throughout the piece. The dominant instruments in klezmer music are the violin and clarinet. The expressive and emotional klezmer violin intentionally mimics a human voice - sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing .It is extremely hard to stay calm while being attacked by the cascading shrieks and gibbering of the klezmer style clarinet. It just simply opens your heart and forces you to love what you've been doing with your life at this particular moment. This is not rarely articulated as a scream coming out of your mouth!

Andy Rubin (5-string banjo, mandolin, guitar)
Andy founded The Freilachmakers with fiddle player David Kidron (no longer with the band) in 1995. Until that time specializing primarily in American and Celtic folk music, Andy began adapting the "clawhammer" style of 5-string banjoplaying to the klezmer genre. With its incisive and syncopated sound, clawhammer banjo immediately became an integral part of the Freilachmakers approach.

Klezmer music has always been an adapting and evolving process, highly related with the wandering spirit of Yewish communities who have relocated to new cultures. Now Klezmer is undergoing yet another transformation. The Freilachmakers substitute the banjo and mandolin for the clarinet, and add a guitar, cello and accordion. Mixing bluegrass with klezmer is nothing new. Indeed, this mix has been central to the renewed interest and cross-cultural buzz that klezmer has enjoyed over the past decade or so. One of klezmer's most prominent ambassadors, Andy Statman, is arguably equally revered for his poly-rhythmic banjo picking as for his saxophone niggun noodling.

The Freilachmakers - who in the liner notes credit Statman with having introduced them to some of their repertoire - take this mixture to another level, turning it into a concept in itself.
Hailing from the 1849 Gold Rush capitol of Sacramento, California, The Freilachmakers are a self-described "old-timey American string band" that happens to focus on klezmer, so the bluegrass flavors found in its sound are not contrived.
Since releasing The Flower of Berezin in 1998, The Freilachmakers have gone through some changes, returning to a more shtetl-based, "classical" klezmer sound; adding some Israeli and Sephardi influences; acquiring Annette Brodovsky, and deepening the line-up with bassist Lou Ann Weiss learning the cello.
You can buy their music here.

Thank you for the music sent to Libra Radio, Andy!

2005-06-21T15:56:00.000+02:00

Today on Libra Radio with Scott Robinson and his music

2005-06-20T16:39:00.000+02:00

Today with Neil Jacobs on Libra Radio

Scott Robinson's Gypsophilia and Mandala

2005-06-18T17:07:00.000+02:00

I received today two cd's from Scott Robinson's two projects: Gypsophilia and Mandala. We will present his music more closely in our DAY OF THE MUSICIAN on tuesday, 21.st of June 2005 starting at 10.00 Central European Time. During the 24 hours period you'll be able to hear the music from both cd's many, many times. There'll be also a special one hour show with Scott's music projects on wednesday, 23.rd of June at 01.00 CET.
Thank you Scott for supporting Libra Radio by sending the music!

Scott Robinson grew up in Syracuse, New York, where he studied with Brian Israel at Syracuse University. He returned to school after two years, receiving his M.Mus. from SUNY Binghamton and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Dominick Argento and Judith Zaimont.

Scott has received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. The City of Lancaster, Pennsylvania also awarded him an Individual Artist Grant, while the University of Minnesota awarded a grant for his work combining his choral music with Hindu temple dance.

He has published with Thomas House and Moon of Hope Publishing. Scott is a member of the Third Order, Society of St. Francis, a lay religious order in the Episcopal Church, and lives in Philadelphia.

Gypsophilia: "Free Inside"

The music of Gypsophilia is borrowed music, plucked from different cultures and traditions and woven into a unique tapestry. Inspired by both the deep religious history and the culinary delights of the Middle Eastern and Eastern European regions, Scott began collecting recordings and transcribing traditional pieces for the band years ago. In many pieces there is a section of improvisational soloing by one or more players at a time. Under the solos runs a repeated line the rest of the group continues to play, called an ostinato. This method of soloing is called taksim, and allows us to follow the flow of the music wherever it will take us, and guarantees that every performance is unlike the one before it.

Much of our repertoire comes from Greece and Turkey, but there are also Bosnian, Armenian, Romanian and Serbian pieces to be heard as well. The original works that Scott has composed draw from all of these traditions, often mingling English words with Hebrew rhythms and a Turkish chord structure. As a band we are dedicated to demonstrating through our music that while there are many diverse cultures and beliefs on this globe we all inhabit, music is truly a universal language that can soften tensions and break down barriers between people.
Gypsophilia performs on an amazing array of stringed, reed and percussion instruments. In their case the instruments are: concertina, clarinet, violin, dumbek and cello.
Here's the link to streaming video of Gypsophilia on the stage with belly dancer Kittarina.

You can buy Gypsophilia cd's here.

Mandala: "Compassion"

Drawing on a comprehensive musical education and a diverse background in multiple musical styles, the members of Mandala join to bring forth a joyous noise that at once is deeply personal and transcendently universal.

Melodic and rhythmic influences from vastly different cultural and musical traditions are interwoven to form a whole cloth of pure ecstatic praise.
You can purchase this album here.

NEIL JACOBS soul of a Gypsy

2005-06-17T15:51:00.000+02:00

I just received this "American Gypsy" CD from a superb 12 string guitar virtuoso Neil Jacobs himself. It fits perfectly into Libra radio music programme and i am proud to announce A DAY OF THE MUSICIAN with Neil Jacobs on Libra Radio starting on monday, 20.th of June 2005 at 10. am Central European time. There will be also a special one hour show with Neil's music at 1. am CET on 21. st of June. Thank you for sending the music to Libra Radio, Neil!
You can buy his music at CD Baby.

This is his story:

Neil Jacobs has had a colourful and unconventional musical career. Touring for mor than 25 years, he has performed in such diverse venues as the refugee camps of Sarajevo, the Kennedy Center for Performing arts and the Kremlin.
Of Irish & Macedonian descent, Neil was raised in Hinckley, Ohio. At a young age he developed an affinity for the guitar and taught himself to play. In the early 80's, Neil's group toured with Spyro Gyra, Alan Holdsworth and Jeff Lorber, appearing with perfomers like Herbie Mann, David Bromberg, Janis Ian, Flora Purim and Livingston Taylor.
His growing fascination with Eastern European folk music drew him back to Europe. As a backpacker equipped with two 12 string guitars on the train in the early stages of the bloody Balkan war, Neil travelled to perform in the countries of what was once known as Yugoslavia.
In 1994-95 Neil was selected as cultural representative to Spain, where he studied the gypsy music of Seville, and escorted by a gypsy guide, he experienced the real gypsy culture in the back-alley clubs.

In 1996 he returned to the war-ravaged Balkans on a bus tour, performing for refugee camps & orphanages troughout Hungary, Croatia and Bosnia. The journey trough the bombed-out countryside was heart-wrenching for the 25 musicians and dancers living in cramped quarters on the extended tour. The purpose of the trip was to lift the spirits of the refugees and orphans by playing the music of their native villages which were all in ruins. At the end of the journey loomed the devastated city of Sarajevo, where the troupe was to perform a concert. In an amazing display of ingenuity, a great stage was erected in a matter of hours, complete with a massive sound system and lights. the tour culminated in an emotional farewell concert with the highly respected American Balkan music and dance ensemble "Zivili". After Sarajevo Neil struck out on his own southward trough Bosnia, this time encountering a dangerously divided country. Returning to the States, he completed his third CD, "American Gypsy", which earned him an Album of the Year nomination by the American Independent Music Awards.

Neil Jacobs is truly a master of the 12-string guitar. With his own style of playing that the St Louis Riverfront Times describes as "mesmerizing" and the Austin Chronicle describes as "the rockin'est since early Leo Kottke". Neil covers a full spectrum of styles and dynamics, touching on music diverse and varied as Gypsy, World, Balkan Folk, Jazz, and Fingerstyle guitar, while maintaining his own refreshing energetic style of playing. A self-taught musician, Neil draws inspiration from his world travels and experiences. His most recent focus includes the Gypsy music of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, which is showcased in his third CD "American Gypsy", in which he draws from his first hand knowledge of Eastern European Gypsy, Balkan and World Folk music to create his riveting compositions.

Angelo Debarre

2005-06-13T18:55:00.000+02:00

Angelo Debarre, born in St-Denis, France, started playing guitar at the age of 8. In the manush (gipsy) community, tradition is transmitted orally in family parties and gatherings, where music always occupies a prominent place. Angelo recently confirmed this to Michel Bedin of Jazz Hot magazine1: “In any gathering of three to four hundred caravans there is no shortage of music”.The gipsy jazz musical tradition launched by Django Reinhardt is the heart of this culture and Angelo Debarre quickly became one of its jazz masters. He founded his first group “The Angelo Debarre Quintet” in 1984, and the following year, he began touring the world with gipsy musicians. This is music that he knows inside and out, and at concerts and festivals his enthousiasm and passion prove it. For Angelo Debarre, Django Reinhardt”s music never loses the dynamism and richness of the past : it is everlasting, a living music .

He has also mastered with equal ease the gipsy Music of Eastern Europe, a repertory that he became interested in through his contacts with Serge Camps at La Roue Fleurie, a favorite meeting place of the gypsies in Paris where he played regularly between 1985 and 1987. Another regular at La Roue Fleurie during this period was Jon Larsen 2, who was fascinated by the music he heard there decided to bring Angelo Debarre, Serge Camps and Frank Anastasio together in the recordings studio to produce “Gypsy Guitars”. A recording that would showcase the group’s dynamism and the incredible variety of the gipsy repertory. The album is still essential for every aficionado of the gipsy music of the Eastern European tradition and gipsy jazz.

Vlatko Stefanovski

2005-06-01T18:46:00.000+02:00

Vlatko Stefanovski was born in 1957 in Prilep, Macedonia in a theatrical family. He started playing guitar at the age of 13. In his late teens he formed the group LEB I SOL. It became one of the biggest names in the ex-YU music scene. The band played a particular style of fusion music, a blend of Macedonian traditional irregular rhythms and contemporary rock. LEB I SOL released 13 albums, and toured around the world.
Recently Stefanovski has developed a very successful solo career

He is well known for his incredible guitar technique. He creates rich soundscapes with imagination, fluency and ease. His trio have recently played ( from clubs for 1000 to stadiums for 15000 people) in Macedonia, in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Holland, Croatia, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, BiH, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria etc.
Stefanovski has contacts with many artists, musicians and guitarists all arround the world among which there are masters like Allan Holdsworth and John McLaughlin.
Vlatko Stefanovski lives in Skopje, Macedonia with his family.

Libra Radio dance in Psychiatric Hospital Prague

2005-05-27T15:56:00.000+02:00

A few days ago i received this email:

Helou Libra Radio!

We are pleased to listen to your music in non profit club living in psychiatric hospital Prague.
Thanks for a great time with your music!
Keep It Going !!!

Jiri

The place is called Peta Kolona (fifth column) and it looks like this:

Evita with flowers dancing while listening to Libra Radio...

Another beautiful girl enjoying in music

I feel like being very flattered. Thank you for informing me!

Cannabis linked to Biblical healing

2005-05-17T16:38:00.000+02:00

Jesus Christ and his apostles may have used a cannabis-based anointing oil to help cure people with crippling diseases, it has been claimed.

Researchers in the United States say the oil used in the early days of the Christian church contained a cannabis extract called kaneh-bosem.

They suggest the extract, which is absorbed into the body when placed on the skin, could have helped cure people with a variety of physical and mental problems.

The author of the article, published in the US drugs magazine High Times, says his findings are based on a study of scriptural texts.
Full article here.

Sand-sculpture photos

2005-05-16T09:36:00.000+02:00

These remarkable sand structures are apparently made of nothing more than sand and water and are really stupendous.
(Link1)
(Link2)

Miro Ilo (Ukraine)

2005-05-06T17:49:00.000+02:00

The group was founded under the impact of the best examples of Romani musical heritage. The love to a true Romani folklore was brought to young actors by Vladimir Serdyuchenko - the professional musician, who is a virtuoso in Bayan and Accordion. His two sons, Vitaly and Oleg and also a singer Tatyana Dzigovsky have formed an initial staff of "Miro Ilo". It has been awarded in 2001 by Grand Prix of an International Romani festival-contest "Amala-2001" (city Kiev, Ukraine).
There is one more program in the plans of "Miro Ilo". And its' dedicated to creative works of famous Russian Romani composers: Appolon Grigoriev, Alexey Vasiliev, Teodor Polonsky, Nikolay Jemchuhniy and others.

The decisive role in the formation and professional development of "Miro Ilo" belongs to its' manager and producer: Maestro Ivan Shepelev, National Actor of Ukraine, and member of an International Union Of Variety Artists in Paris. His producer's skills, musical style, considerate attitude to a Romani folklore has helped this group to make serious steps toward the professional stage. Maestro Shepelev has included the dance group in to a vocal-instrumental structure of "Miro Ilo" and has developed a Romani show to the level of a perfect performance.

Dancers Yekaterina Derevyanko, Anatoly Yuzepchuk and Anna Stoyanovich have added "Miro Ilo" by so bright component that it has allowed this collective to get an exceptional integrity and bright Romani coloring.

The folk ensemble "Miro Ilo" has successfully showed its' creativity in the "Romani Courtyard" Festival in Moscow in 2002, and became the prizewinner of this event.

In May 2002 in Prague (Czech Republic) there was an International Romani Festival "Khamoro"("Little sun"). This Ukrainian ensemble turned out to be a bright pearl of this folk feast due to its' professionalism and the originality of Ukrainian Romani (servo group) traditions. Thus "Miro Ilo" again happened to be a Grand Prix holder of that Festival !

Natasha Atlas

2005-05-06T07:36:00.000+02:00

Her father is a Sephardic Jew, her mother English, she was born in Brussels, raised in Morocco and now lives in New York.
Natacha Atlas released her first solo LP, Diaspora, in the summer of '95, and in time honoured fashion, the critics scrambled for superlatives. The LP saw Natacha combining the dubby, beat-driven global dance of her longtime associates Transglobal Underground, with the more traditional work of Arabic musicians like Tunisian singer- songwriter Walid Rouissi and Egyptian composer and Oud-master Essam Rashad.
The result was a colection of songs of love and yearning which genuinely fused West and East. Her second LP, Halim, sees Natacha exploring further her deeply felt affinity with Arabic musical heritage.

Natacha moved to England as a teenager, and since then has involved herself in a wide variety of musical projects. Dividing her time between the UK and Brussels, she sang in a variety of Arabic and Turkish nightclubs, and spent a brief stint in a Belgian salsa band called Mandanga. As she shuttled between Northampton and Brussels, however, she began to attract the attention of the Balearic beat crew iLoca! and Jah Wobble, then assembling his Invaders of the Heart.

In '91, both these projects bore fruit. Timbal by ¡Loca! started out as a track on Nation Records' Fuse Two compilation and became a massive club hit, while Wobble's Rising Above Bedlam - five tracks which Natasha co-wrote - attracted much critical acclaim and a Mercury award nomination.

The success of Timbal cemented Natacha's relationship with the ground-breaking Nation Label, who introduced her to Transglobal Underground, at that time enjoying Top 40 success with the anthemic Templehead. As chief collaborator, lead singer and belly dancer with TGU, Natacha has performed all over the world - playing Glastonbury, WOMAD, Reading, Phoenix and the Brixton Academy and many international festivals. At the same time, she has worked with an impressive variety of other musicians, including Apache Indian and Peter Gabriel, and has found the time to contribute to film soundtracks - including Stargate, with David Arnold.

Euro MayDay , 2.nd of May 2005 in Maribor, Slovenia

2005-05-02T00:14:00.000+02:00

This great photo was made on the streets of Maribor, Slovenia which is also a hometown of Libra Radio. A group of a few Slovene non-formal organizations organized so called Euro MayDay meeting and parade within the sphere of EuroMayDay performances which took place in 19 European cities. It was first such an event in Slovenia so far and this is the main reason for low attendance. There were only some 50 protesters at the parade and among them we could hear also French, Portugese, Italian, German and English speaking people.
The basic idea of this movement is a demand for more human globalization and fight against precarity. As you can see police also played very important role in this should-be-peaceful procession trough the streets of Maribor. It is a shame what we can see on this photo.

Precarity is the most widespread condition of labour and life in Europe today. It affects everyone, everyday, in every part of life: whether chosen or imposed, precarity is a generalised condition experienced by the majority of people.

Precarious people are now the corner-stone of the wealth production process.
Notwithstanding this, we are invisible and count for nothing in the traditional forms of social and political representation or in the European agenda.

As precarious of Europe -- flex, temp and contortionist workers, migrants, students, researchers, unmotivated wage slaves, pissed off and happy part-timers, insecure temps, willingly or unwillingly unemployed -- we are acting so as to grasp the moment/our time and struggle for new collective rights and our individual and collective possibility to choose our future.

This is why we are building a public space on a European level to catalyse new forms of social cooperation, and maximize the sharing of skills, experiences and resources: to construct and bring to life a new social imagination

SONGKRAN - The Thai New Year

2005-04-14T17:15:00.000+02:00

The Thai New Year starts on 13. April 2005.
It's known as the Songkran, the water-splashing festival.

In most provinces of Thailand the Sonkran Festival
will be celebrated from April 13. to April 15. 2005.

Songkran is a Thai traditional New Year which starts on April 13 every year and lasts for 3 days. Songkran festival on April 13 is Maha Songkran Day or the day to mark the end of the old year, April 14 is Wan Nao which is the day after and April 15 is Wan Thaloeng Sok which the New Year begins. At this time, people from the rural areas who are working in the city usually return home to celebrate the festival. Thus, when the time come, Bangkok temporarily turns into a deserted city.
Songkran is a Thai word which means "move" or "change place" as it is the day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac. It is also known as the "Water Festival" as people believe that water will wash away bad luck.
The Songkran tradition is recognized as a valuable custom for the Thai community, society and religions. The value for family is to provide the opportunity for family members to gather in order to express their respects to the elders by pouring scented water onto the hands of their parents and grandparents and to present them gifts including making merits to dedicate the result to their ancestors. The elders in return wish the youngsters good luck and prosperity.

In the afternoon, after performing a bathing rite for Buddha images and the monks, te celebrants both young and old, joyfully splash water oon each other. The most-talked about celebration takes place in the northern province of Chiang Mai where Songkran is celebrated from April 13 to 15. During this period, people from all parts of the country flock there to enjoy the water festival, to watch the Miss Songkran Contest and the beautiful parades.

Martin Lubenov Orkestar

2005-03-31T15:39:00.000+02:00

At the age of only 27 years, Martin Lubenov is already among the top Balkan-accordionists. Comparable to his famous colleague Peter Ralchev, Martin Lubenov very early found his own style. With breathtaking virtuosity and playful elegance he combines Balkan Roma music with shades of swing, modern jazz, tango nuevo, salsa and musette and, doing so, pays honour to it like Astor Piazzolla did to tango and Richard Galliano did to musette. In Vienna, his adopted hometown, he follows up this approach with his unorthodox Balkan quartet Orfej. With ideas for composition and arrangement prepared for a long time past, he returned to Sofia last autumn in order to form his “crack group”.
The Martin Lubenov Orkestar is recruited from the most famous Roma musicians in Bulgaria whose reputation partly well exceeds the Roma scene. Mainly thanks to bands from the north of Spain / the south of France like the Gypsy Kings the Roma songs’ unmistakable soul became world-famous. In the case of the Martin Lubenov Orkestar it never topples over to kitsch and complaisance – using weird arrangements full of experimental jazzlines, powerful brass sounds, marrying salsa to Balkan brass in an unpretentious way, with Lubenov’s frisky tango and gypsy-swing quotations as well as Nikolai Antov’s and Nenad Vasilic’s brilliant guitar- and bass-backings and soli.

Martin studied classical music and jazz in Sofia and Vienna. His roots in the vibrating ground of balkan wedding music kept him from becoming an “academic” musician. And fortunately his musical education helped him quite soon to outgrow popular music, to which a lot of Roma musicians on the Balkans are confined.
Five years ago Martin Lubenov moved to Vienna in order to study and soon became a link between the music of Yugoslav and Macedonian communities and the Central-European folk and world music scene. Fast his talent got around and numerous musicians and bands invited him to collaborate, like for example the Sandy Lopicic crkestar. In addition to this, he has been instrumentalist and arranger for the Jony Iliev Band in Bulgaria.

Floating Neutrino - First Scrap Raft to Cross the North Atlantic Ocean

2005-03-28T14:21:00.000+02:00

If you see a large, funky raft made of scrap plywood and recycled styrofoam floating on the water don't be alarmed, it's only the Floating Neutrinos, originally a family of street musicians. In 1998 Floating Neutrinos have managed to cross the Atlantic in a raft made from recycled materials recovered from dumpsters and docks in New York city. Their next project is an Orphanage Raft, "for street orphans from third world countries such as Brazil, African countries, and India. The children will be those who are living in and surviving on the streets, with literally no one looking out for them or taking responsibility for them. We will get to know them and their situation thoroughly before they ever come to the raft. We are not looking to pick up runaways or anyone who has responsible adults in their picture...Once onboard, if they choose to stay, they will be given a floating, travelling home, and an education."

The Son of Town Hall

In the case of all the Neutrino rafts, they used mainly recycled wood, logs, styrofoam and polyurethane foam. Other floatables thy've used include empty plastic jugs and bottles, cork, and basically anything that floats. A Floating Neutrino raft is "self steering"and "self-righting" floating object. See the Faq section. And, yes - you can Join the Crew, too.

The World's 10 Worst Dictators

2005-03-25T17:23:00.000+01:00

The past year was a good one for dictators -- unfortunately. None of the most serious offenders lost his job. Competition for the Top 10 Worst of the Worst was so heated that two dictators who made last year's list were nudged off -- Fidel Castro of Cuba and King Mswati III of Swaziland -- even though their actions were as harsh as the year before.

Sudan's Omar al-Bashir (shown here) jumped from #7 into first place.

Pavement Drawings

2005-03-25T17:10:00.000+01:00

Julian Beever has made pavement drawings for over ten years. He has worked in the U.K., Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, the USA and Australia.
3D Illusion

KITKA - Women's vocal ensemble

2005-03-24T17:45:00.000+01:00

Today i received two cd's from this group of good looking women equipped with extraordinary beautiful vocals. Libra Radio's policy for such cases is gratefulness and as we would love to do something in return for generosity, there is going to happen our DAY OF THE MUSICIAN, this time dedicated to KITKA Women's vocal ensemble. Starting today at 19.00 Central European time.

Kitka is a professional women’s vocal ensemble dedicated to producing concerts, recordings, and educational programs that develop new audiences for music rooted in Eastern European women’s vocal traditions.

Kitka
Now approaching its 25th Anniversary season, Kitka was founded in 1979 as an offshoot of the Westwind International Folk Ensemble. Kitka began as a grassroots group of amateur singers from diverse ethnic and musical backgrounds who met regularly to share their passion for the stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, intricate ornamentation, lush harmonies, and resonant strength of Eastern European women’s vocal music. Under the artistic direction of vocalist, composer, and conductor Bon Brown Singer from 1981 to 1996, Kitka blossomed into a refined professional ensemble earning international renown for its artistry, versatility, and mastery of the demanding techniques of Balkan and Slavic vocal styling.
Many of Kitka’s singers create original choral arrangements of folkloric material that they have gathered in the field. These works add a unique contemporary sensibility —distilled from centuries-old vocal traditions—to KITKA’s concert presentations. In addition, in the last four seasons, the group has presented premieres of new music by nineteen Eastern European, American, and international composers as part of the New Folksongs Commissioning Project.
In addition to live performances, KITKA’s voices reach a large broadcast audience through local and national radio appearances. The ensemble has been featured on a variety of nationally syndicated radio programs. A frequently occurring symbolic word in Balkan women’s folksong lyrics, "Kitka" means "bouquet" in Bulgarian and Macedonian.
From today also at Libra Radio.
Thank you for the music, KITKA!

Milton Glaser: 10 Things I Have Learned

2005-03-19T19:56:00.000+01:00

Designer Milton Glaser presented a speech titled "10 Things I have Learned" at the AIGA Voice Conference in 2002. The things he talked about apply to anyone, not just designers.

Number 2: IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
One night I was sitting in my car outside Columbia University where my wife Shirley was studying Anthropology. While I was waiting I was listening to the radio and heard an interviewer ask ‘Now that you have reached 75 have you any advice for our audience about how to prepare for your old age?’ An irritated voice said ‘Why is everyone asking me about old age these days?’ I recognised the voice as John Cage. I am sure that many of you know who he was – the composer and philosopher who influenced people like Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham as well as the music world in general. I knew him slightly and admired his contribution to our times. ‘You know, I do know how to prepare for old age’ he said. ‘Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. For me, it has always been the same every since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceeding well prepared for my old age’ he said.

Melanie Gould-Iditarod Dog Musher

2005-03-09T18:27:00.000+01:00

Dear Friends, Family, and Dog Lovers,

As my team and I prepare for our 5th Iditarod Race, I’ve been thinking about why I’m driven to mush 1200 miles through the Alaskan Wilderness once again. I find myself in constant pursuit of truth and understanding, trying to figure out how I fit into a changing world. It seems that as society progresses, we have gradually left behind the natural order of things. On a global level, we have trouble recognizing our simple commonality as human beings. The thing is, while we focus on our differences, our basic needs remain the same. Throughout time, the goals of basic survival and some kind of inner peace have been superseded by our attachment to power and material possessions. And so we forget the symbiotic relation between nature and man. That’s why I mush to Nome; I don’t want to forget…

iditarod

James Nachtwey Photos

2005-03-08T19:42:00.000+01:00

Very powerful photography from James Nachtwey. This shot was taken in South Africa, 1992 - Xhosa young men in rite of passage.

Great Bulat Okudzhava (1924 - 1997)

2005-03-01T21:15:00.000+01:00

Bulat Okudjava was born in 1924 in Moscow. Graduated the Tbilisi (Georgia) State University Philological Department in 1950. One of the founders of the Russian artist's song genre. Wrote his first well known song in 1946. Bulat Okudzhava died on June 12, 1997 in Paris. He renowned Russian poet-bard, has written four historical novels since the 1960s: Bednyi Avrosimov (1969), Pokhozhdeniia Shipova (1971), Puteshestvie diletantov (1977), and Svidanie s Bonapartom (1983). All four novels in their historical settings allegorically reflect the tense political climate of the Soviet Union, specifically in terms of the liberal intelligentsia. The first two novels, Bednyi Avrosimov and Pokhozhdeniia Shipova, are of particular interest when examined together. What makes the novels especially interesting, and the interpretation of a political allegory of the tense climate of the Soviet Union of the 1960s so fruitful, is this filtration of historic subjects through phantasmagoric imagery.

His father, a high Communist Party member from Georgia, was arrested during the Great Purge by Stalin and executed as a German spy. His mother spent 18 years in a Gulag (1937-1955), years that Bulat spent at his grandmother's house.

In 1941, at the age of 17, he volunteered for the Red Army as infantry. This background with war and the government persecution was a primary influence for his poetry and songs, especially at this early stage. Such poetry was illegal at the time, and Okudjava was at great risk of persecution.
Okudjava started the bard movement when he decided to start singing his poems while playing the guitar. Despite the fact that he only knew a few chords and was no composer, his songs were praised by his friends and were soon recorded. They spread across the country where other young people picked up guitars and started singing them.

He once said:"' Once I had the desire to accompany one of my satirical verses with music. I only knew three cords, now, 27 years later , I know seven cords, then I knew three. I sang, my friends liked it, and I liked it. Then I sang a second poem and a third... Tape recorders have just come out then. I sang to my friends, and recorded it , then someone else made a copy of that recording, it started going around... Every evening I would get a call from someone inviting me to a house I've never visited before, and that is how I went around Moscow for a year, singing. Gradually a scandal began. The compositors hated me. The singers detested me. The guitarists were terrified by me. And that is how it went on, until a very well known poet of ours announced: "Calm down, these are not songs. This is just another way of presenting poetry." And everyone has indeed calmed down. Everyone went about their own business... Eventually I matured, eventually I grew old... Why don't I just sing you a song - that first one... Just for keepsake...You'll remember it later..."Why did you bother Vanka Morozov? It wasn't his fault..."
In the later years journalists have asked Okudzhava, as if he were a prophet: "Say, what is the meaning of life? " But he simply did not talk about it."
You can hear a lot of his songs at our Libra Radio.
35 translated songs
lyrics in Russian
lyrics in text format with chords
Russian lyrics and English translations

Khamoro - World gypsy festival in Prague, Czech republic

2005-02-23T12:12:00.000+01:00

A festival of gypsy music called Khamoro in Prague was established in 1999, when producers Jelena and Dzemil Silajdzic came fro the former Yugoslavia to Prague. Because they were movie producers and co-operated with Emir Kusturica on movies abour Roma people, they had a good relationship with the Roma people and decided to organize a concert for the music group Khamoro. After that, because this concert was very successful, they decided to organise a festival named after the band Khamoro, which means sun.

Khamoro 2004, Gala concert

These musicians and groups parcitipated at the festival in 2004: Amparo Cortez (Spain/Belgium), Viktor Buzylov & Zlatni Cikani Ruska (Russia), Terne chave (Czech Rep.), Ziringaglia (Italy), Fanfara din Cozmesti (Romania),Bratsch (France), Romano drom (Hungary), Raya and her Gypsy Legacy (Norway), Kokavere Lavutara (Slovakia), Ferus King Mustafov (Macedonia).
In may 2005 there will be: Saban Bajramovic, Banjara (India), Bechari (Brasil) and many others from everywhere.
Viktor Buzylov & Zlatni cikani ruska
Here's the link to the official site of the Khamoro Festival. Link
And here's the videoclip of the Khamoro 2003

Djangology - great blog for the gypsy jazz guitarists

2005-02-16T16:31:00.000+01:00

I just found Djangology, a great blog of the Django (a nick name of the owner), who is a manouche guitarist and runs this blog. Hundreds of usable links for the Django style guitarists with a lot of stuff including instructions, tablatures, mp3s etc. I found out what is my christmas wish for the next year. This is how it looks like:

Favino #902

Isn't she beautiful? Real beauty, but Django wants $ 4.000 for the guitar.
When i get enough speed for soloing on such an instrument, then i will look for something like this. Yes, i will. Till then i'll be ok with my other three low budget guitars.
Here's the (Link
)

More on tsunami and animals senses

2005-02-12T14:43:00.000+01:00

A month ago Blue Moos published The sixth sense, a tsunami related story about animals who detected abnormal activity of the nature, reacted the next second and saved their lives. In update part there is also a story about Khao Lak Trumpets, describing chained elephants who were crying and trumpeting in their efforts to get free and run away. They finally broke chains, lifted some people with their trunks on their backs and fled to higher ground.
A columnist Peta India wrote very interesting article where she describes different species of animals and their "sensoring system" for problems.

"Living on their own in the wild, their home, animals develop and keep sharp their senses so that they can take care of themselves in case of predictable danger. They also learn to observe other animals' signals. So, a sea gull flying over the sea may sense a storm and come back to the mainland and the monkeys sitting on the trees will see this and take action. The monkeys' calls and their flight to safety will in turn tell the other animals of the jungle. In this way, animals have cleverly survived many natural disasters."

Here's the full story

A speech about environmentalism by the man who wrote Jurassic park

2005-02-10T15:43:00.000+01:00

Michael Crichton, started a degree in English at Harvard University, switched to anthropology and, after graduating, enrolled at Harvard Medical School. While studying, he wrote a number of thrillers including The Andromeda Strain, which became a bestseller and a Hollywood film. Crichton went on to become a full-time writer, and is credited as the creator of the techno-thriller. He has sold more than 100 million books, many of which have been made into films, including Jurassic Park and Disclosure. He has also directed six films, is the creator of the television show ER and has a dinosaur, Bienosaurus crichtoni, named after him. He is divorced and lives in Los Angeles.
He also wrote this excellent speech about environmentalism i really enjoyed. You can find it (here). And a link to his website (here).

The Wisdom of Warren Buffett

2005-02-05T15:37:00.000+01:00

I just found this "Stuf i think" blog owned by Darren Johnson, a 23 year old entrepreneur who wants to change the world. He recently spent 6 hours in Omaha talking with Warren Buffett. They didn't talk about the money things. They talked about life.
"As a big fan of "Top" lists, I've compiled the "Top 5" things (prioritized) I learned from Warren Buffett that day:"

1. Be Grateful
There are roughly 6 Billion people in the world. Imagine the worlds biggest lottery where every one of those 6 Billion people was required to draw a ticket. Printed on each ticket were the circumstances in which they would be required to live for the rest of their lives.

Printed on each ticket were the following items:
- Sex
- Race
- Place of Birth (Country, State, City, etc.)
- Type of Government
- Parents names, income levels & occupations
- IQ (a normal distribution, with a 66% chance of your IQ being 100 & a standard deviation of 20)
- Weight, height, eye color, hair color, etc.
- Personality traits, temperment, wit, sense of humor
- Health risks

2. Be Ethical & Fair
3. Be Trustworthy
4. Invest in Your Circle of Competence
5. Do What You Love

Very nice reading.

Ever heard of a "Burning man" ceremony?

2005-02-01T14:57:00.000+01:00

As Burning Man approaches its 20th year, Bay Area artists are staging a revolt that goes to the soul of the mega-event.

Tickets for a Burning man 2005 are currently $225, going fast, and available online or via mail order

30.000 participants in 2004

People band together to create the performances, fantastic art projects, and theme camps, sometimes larger than any one person could accomplish. A person hanging upside down spinning fire would not seem nearly as amazing without all the music, dancers, and jungle scenes. By creating your own awesome experience, you end up ensuring that other people have a good time too. Your creativity is a gift to others and vice versa. When everyone creates magic together, it becomes a giant positive feedback engine, and a gift for everyone.The Burning Man festival is a week-long art and culture celebration that takes place in the desert of Northwestern Nevada. The celebration of Burning Man's annual fire ceremony began in 1986, created by Larry Harvey and Jerry James. For the next four years, its annual fire party was held at Baker Beach in San Francisco. In 1990, the Park police interceded to prevent the culminating conflagration of the statue. This was a transitional moment for Burning Man as the event evolved with a new location, a change of date, and the beginning of a new meaning for the celebration. This viewpoint is an observation of the events surrounding Burning Man's presence in that year.

Like the best art, Burning Man looks different from each perspective. From a detached distance, you might just see a big art party in the desert. Step up to it and study the details and you'll notice dusty artists toiling over impossible creations, ravers feeling their musical bliss, humans making a gift economy work, and disparate tribes building unique camps into a cohesive – and fairly substantial – temporary city.

But at its most basic level, Burning Man is now a business, a limited liability corporation with an annual budget of about $7.5 million, derived from selling tickets that will next year cost between $175 and $250, depending on when you buy them. The budget pays for permits and other direct costs and for the salaries of dozens of employees, including the board of directors, known as the Borg.

Senses special: The art of seeing without sight

2005-02-01T14:32:00.000+01:00

IT IS an odd sight. A middle-aged man, fully reclined, drawing pictures of hammers and mugs and animal figurines on a special clipboard, which is balanced precariously on a pillow atop his ample stomach.
The painter is Esref Armagan. He is blind from his birth. And he is here in Boston to see if a peek inside his brain can explain how a man who has never seen can paint pictures that the sighted easily recognise - and even admire. He paints houses and mountains and lakes and faces and butterflies, but he's never seen any of these things. He depicts colour, shadow and perspective, but it is not clear how he could have witnessed these things either. How does he do it?
A work of a blind man.

Because if Armagan can represent images in the same way a sighted person can, it raises big questions not only about how our brains construct mental images, but also about the role those images play in seeing. Do we build up mental images using just our eyes or do other senses contribute too? How much can congenitally blind people really understand about space and the layout of objects within it? How much "seeing" does a blind person actually do?

Link

Sheepfilms

2005-01-30T14:03:00.000+01:00

Amazing short films and Gif animations by David Packer.

Jan Garbarek

2005-01-29T22:12:00.000+01:00

The distinguished Norwegian tenor saxophonist Jan Garbarek has been describes by George Russell as 'just about the most uniquely talented jazz musician Europe has produced since Django Reinhardt'. Garbarek is undoubtedly one of the most original individualists on saxophone to have emerged since the '70s.

Born in Mysen, Norway, 1947, Garbarek taught himself to play saxophone at age 14, inspired by hearing John Coltrane's Countdown on the radio. A year later, he was fronting the leading quartet in the non - traditional section of the '62 Norwegian Amateur Jazz Championship. In 1965 a significant encounter with George Russell at the Molde Jazz Festival resulted in Garbarek's fascination with Russell's 'Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization', with Garbarek becoming an important soloist in the composer's works.

Garbarek has subsequently presented a wide body of his own work from acoustic and electric trios, quartets, through duos with piano, classical guitar, wind harp, brass sextet and pipe organ to solos and trios with string orchestras. In the late '70s, he supplied a much-acclaimed series of solo improvisations for Edith Rogers's production of Ibsen's brand at Oslo's National Theater. He has also written music for her production of Peer Gynt at Sweden's Malmo State Theater, been commissioned by Amsterdam's Plain Musicke Ensemble, and composed for music choir and jazz quartet. The '84 It's OK To Listen To The Gray Voice is Garbarek's interpretation of the works of poet Tomas Transtromer.

Among the first artists to be recorded by Manfred Eicher for ECM, Garbarek's poignant saxophone can be heard on more than 30 albums for the label, either as a leader or in an unprecedented variety of settings. His individualistic contributions to Keith Jarrett's projects (notably Luminessence, Arbour Zena and the '74 small group's go - for - bust Belonging) helped bring Garbarek's plaintive, stark, almost alto - sounding tenor to a wider audience. An important factor in his individual sound is his love for the Nordic folk tradition, which manifests itself with his every breath (just listen to his contributions to the classic, beautiful Folk Songs album in the compelling company of bassist Charlie Haden and guitarist - pianist Egberto Gismonti).

Garbarek's highly distinctive tone - a desolate, stinging sound, floating in simplicity and haunting clarity - has proclaimed him as one of the most important saxophone stylists in contemporary jazz.
Link 1,Link 2 and Link 3

Tomatito

2005-01-29T21:55:00.000+01:00

Fernandez Torres "Tomatito", born in Almería in 1958, one of the best-known performers of the "toque gitano" today. His style is rhythmic and elegant, and characterized above all by his absolute mastery of the compás. A guitarist without "compás" may play his own music which may have some flamenco characteristics, but it will never be genuine. Over and above his technical ability, his inspiration and imagination, a guitarist is of no interest to the "aficionados" if he loses control of the "compás". Tomatito not only has an innate sense of rhythm but the compás is engraved on his subconscious with the result that he plays it without having to think twice. And, paradoxically, those "toques" where he is most at home - the "bulería", the flamenco "tangos" or the "bulería por soleá" - are precisely the most demanding for "tocaores" and "cantaores" alike. To see him, the "Pope of the bulería" as Juan "Habichuela" once dubbed him, play either in private or at a flamenco meeting, is undoubtedly an unforgettable moment in this music. How can one man have so much flamenco feeling in him, as though he sleeps, breathes and eats the "compás?" It is hardly surprising that his guitar has adapted so well to the people of Cádiz.

Right at the start of his career in the 1980s he formed what was to become the most famous of flamenco duos with Camarón, and then, taking the path prepared for him by Paco de Lucía, performed with accompanists such as Antonio and Juan Carmona (Ketama), Antonio Canales and El Duquenque. He is now surrounded with gypsy artists in his groups who thus represent the more ethnic aspect of group flamenco as initiated by Paco. Tomatito can therefore be seen as the bridge between Paco and Camarón's generation and what the media have incorrectly labelled "New flamenco", or "Young Spanish musicians", such as the jazz artists Alameda and Chano Dominguez.

Although Tomatito has clearly established his career as a solo guitarist and flamenco temple guardian, he remains very much a man, a gypsy of his time.

Spain has been witness to a great number of major events over the past few decades. It is hard to remember that this country, a committed member of the European Union, modernizing fast and with an open view on the world, was but a short while ago a country closed in on itself, a spiritual enclave of unprogressive catholicism. After so much introspection and the repression of free thinking as practiced under the Franco regime, today's flamenco players - like all of Spanish society today - are turning their attention to the music that is taking place beyond their frontiers, be it jazz, blues, rock, pop, rap, electronic, reggae, classic, salsa, bossa-nova, Argentine tango or fado. Music in Spain today, encouraged by an active recording industry and lively music societies is a veritable melting post of all cultures. Without turning his back on his gypsy identity - indeed, more determined than ever to make his own voice heard in the multicultural mosaic of contemporary Spain and Andalusia - Tomatito is swinging open the doors of the temple to admit other forms of music, including, for instance, the Argentine guitarist Luis Salinas and the pianist Michel Carmilo, at the same time giving expression to the lives of third and fourth generation gypsy artists, to their way of life and their feelings - people who feel and live life to the full!
Link 1, (2)and (3)

Emir Kusturica & No Smoking Orchestra

2005-01-27T17:12:00.000+01:00

The NO SMOKING band epitomize an unusual phenomenon that has found an entirely original way to express itself through a combination of all the musical genres known in the Balkans - a common heritage left behind by hordes of conquering armies following in one another's steps through the millennia.
Rock and roll still shows its influence in the way the band moves on stage and in their youthful emotional approach. But the core of the band's music takes its roots in the sedimented history of the Balkan region, seeping out through an explosive mix of jazz and Gypsy music - the energy unleashed by southern Serbian trumpets mixing admirably with the melancholy of lingering Asian melodies. Today, the NO SMOKING band is made up of musicians who are genuine virtuosos of the instruments they play, and it would be interesting to explain how they manage to work in sync, harmonizing their talents in a way that not even the football team of the former Yugoslavia was ever able to do. The most popular Yugoslav football players have always been hailed as champions, but when they played together on the national team they were not even able to make it through the first half-time of all-important matches.

With their chorus, the NO SMOKING band will tell an entirely different song from that of the Yugoslav national football team, for these are soloists who are at their best when they play as a group, generating a refreshingly original kind of music that is entirely their own.

Waiting for Star wars

2005-01-27T13:12:00.000+01:00

Jeff Tweiten lives on a periwinkle blue, fold-out futon on the sidewalk in front of the Cinerama Theatre.Waiting.
For Godot, you wonder? An organ transplant? The end of the world?
To the world, he is "the Star Wars guy," an obsessed Quixote whose windwills are a series of movies about a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.He is not homeless, but camping out for 139 days. Waiting to be the first person in line for the next Star Wars movie.

"I think 'Star Wars' is the quintessential modern myth," says Tweiten. "It's the hero story, the breaking away from home and family and proving yourself in the world."

Just who is this sidewalk Skywalker wearing sunglasses and a wool pea coat?

Tweiten is a 27-year-old graphic artist who grew up on Bainbridge Island and attended the Art Institute of Seattle. Before moving to the street, he dwelled in a Belltown apartment. To make ends meet, he also makes ceramic raku masks, plays poker and picks up occasional odd jobs.

He's been called a loser, a geek, a Peter Pan who refuses to grow up and get a life. A few days ago, someone called him a "bum" for the first time.

"I don't really care how people label me," Tweiten says. "If they are so narrow-minded and can only see that one aspect of me, I kind of pity them."

Pity him not. He's a smart, articulate guy who is perfectly comfortable with this life decision. He sees it as a unique experience and a last opportunity -- "Revenge of the Sith" is the final film in Lucas' space saga.

He's got also his own blog. Here it is.Link
"NO snow in seattle last night. It wasn't even that cold. Casey is just now done with a new update it should be up on the site in a day or two. Most likely two...I have a feeling that he is getting tanked tonight. As for me, I'm still out here in the cold playing on. To some, "just let it go" & to some I hope when you're at a bar tonight raise a glass for me & say "Play on jeff, play on."

Bloody Sunday, 30.01.1972

2005-01-26T21:53:00.000+01:00

On January 30, 1972, soldiers from the British Army's 1st Parachute Regiment opened fire on unarmed and peaceful civilian demonstrators in the Bogside, Derry, Ireland, near the Rossville flats, killing 13 and wounding a number of others. One wounded man later died from illness attributed to that shooting.
The march, which was called to protest internment, was "illegal" according to British government authorities. Internment without trial was introduced by the British government on August 9, 1971.
The British-government-appointed Widgery Tribunal found soldiers were not guilty of shooting dead the 13 civilians in cold blood.

Circumstances in which people were killed:

Eamon Melaugh's Photo gallery

Photos of the shot victims

Remembering Bloody Sunday

Ghost stories scaring tourists away

2005-01-26T19:11:00.000+01:00

The president of the Phuket Tourism Business Association yesterday asked the media not to run articles about ghosts or superstitious aspects of tsunami-affected areas as it has a negative impact on tourism.
Phattanaphong Ekwanich said that any mysterious happenings after the tsunami that killed thousands of people on December 26 were just figments of peoples’ imagination, as rites for all faiths have been held for the dead so they could rest in peace.
“It’s inappropriate for media operators such as Thai television to be presenting this aspect because it is not amusing and also has a serious impact on the tourist industry, affecting Asian people in particular as many of them believe in spirits,” said Phattanaphong.
Almost all media in Asia have concentrated on this subject, he said. He asked media outlets to drop the subject as it was negating efforts to revive the tourism industry.

The Wall of Remembrance

2005-01-26T18:58:00.000+01:00

A ceremony led by 25 Buddhist monks and representatives of other major faiths was held to mark the passing of a month since the tsunami struck, during which a Wall of Remembrance built at the site was blessed.

Friends and family members waiting for loved ones to be returned may leave photographs, flowers or other mementos of those lost in the disaster.

One local resident, who asked to be named only as “Khun A”, said that the Wall of Remembrance and using the site for the IRC was a good idea because it would encourage visitors to come there to remember their loved ones.

Kocani orchestra

2005-01-26T18:16:00.000+01:00

In the ex-Yugoslavian republic of Macedonia the Romany people are regarded as the uncontested kings of the music field, with a tradition that dates back to the 1400s, when the population left the Indian lands of Rajasthan to settle in the Balkans. For centuries Rom artists have animated festivities, marriages and other rites, and with their different styles continue to exercise a considerable influence on contemporary Balkan music.
In the Balkans region, brass band orchestras have a particularly Rom style. From western Serbia to Macedonia these orchestras demonstrate remarkable creativity in their transformation of the original, static style of traditional brass bands. These brass bands were created in the 19th century in imitation of the Turkish military bands which replaced the Mehterhane formations of Janissary Turks beginning in 1828. Apparently, as in Turkey, they dethroned the ancient traditional oboe (zurna, zurla, or mizmar) and double-membraned drum ensembles. Today these ensembles that had formerly been imported from Turkey and played by the Roms, are dying out, in part because of modernity, but also because of the growing Macedonian and Serbian nationalism.

In Kochani, a city in the Republic of Macedonia, the Rom brass band music is called Romska Orientalna Muzika. Naat Veliov's Kocani orchestra is made up of a trumpet (trompeta), a cornet (kornet), and a saxophone (saksafon), which alternates with a clarinette (klarinet), 3 baritones, a tuba, and accordion (armonika), and a large drum (tapan), which itself alternates with a darabuka. A popular figure in his country Veliov, thanks in part to his role in Emir Kusturica's film The Time of the Gypsies has managed to gather a considerable following abroad, quickly becoming the most well-known and appreciated Macedonian artist on the international scene. The Kocani Orchestra which he founded has over the years undergone many line-up changes, yet has managed to maintain unaltered the freshness and spirit of its early years, demonstrating itself on disc after disc to be one of the most innovative and original Balkan brass bands around. Their latest excellent recordings confirm Veliov and his cohorts passion for playing music, uniting mastery of their own traditional heritage with a number of influences from neighbouring cultures (Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey).

Internet Dating Stories

2005-01-26T18:09:00.000+01:00

A few short years ago, the common assumption was that anyone who'd turn to their computer for love had to be a geeky, pathetic loser who couldn't get a date. More recently, with the Internet changing everything from the way we shop to the way we find driving directions, cyberspace has become the hottest pick-up joint on the planet.

These stories prove not only that normal, stable everyday folks are using the internet to find romance, but that sometimes... there's still a lot of freaks out there.

Millions ready for China New Year

2005-01-26T13:26:00.000+01:00

lChina's peak Lunar New Year travel season, the world's biggest annual human migration, began on Tuesday and about 2 billion journeys are expected across China in the next 40 days, state media has said.
People across the country of 1.3 billion traditionally try to reunite with their families or, as the middle class swells, head for top foreign holiday resorts.
This year, Lunar New Year falls on Feb. 9, but the travel flood should peak on Jan. 28 and 29, when people begin their vacations, the Beijing News said.

NASA scientists taking a peek at Rain-Man's brain

2005-01-24T21:00:00.000+01:00

NASA scientists are scanning the brain of a Utah man who was an inspiration for the 1988 hit movie "Rain Man" in hopes that the technology used to study the effects of space travel on the brain will help explain the mental capabilities and inconsistencies of Kim Peek.

He's called a "mega-savant" because he is a genius in about 15 different areas, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates. He is also severely limited in other ways. Ask him where the silverware is kept and he likely won't know. He doesn't do simple things. He can't dress himself. He may not be able to figure out the light switch, his father Fran says. But Kim Peek's mental abilities in certain categories seem to be getting even stronger with age. That's one reason scientists in California are so interested in running tests.

Picasso and Warhol..... Neck and Neck

2005-01-23T14:35:00.000+01:00

How should we rank artists? Forget about quality. Forget about sales. Let's pretend we're in junior high and rank artists by popularity. Let's see how much attention they're getting and whether it's coming from the cool kids.

That's what (Artfacts.net), a privately owned, London-based guide to modern and contemporary art, has tried. In 1999 Artfacts.net began publishing information about art exhibitions in 40 countries culled from 2,500 museums, galleries, art fairs and dealers' associations. The database included more than 20,000 artists, 600 current shows and 18,000 past ones.

Picasso: Self-portrait (1972)

Difference between male and female brains

2005-01-23T14:29:00.000+01:00

UC Irvine researchers have found that men and women have very different brain designs. Women have more much white matter and men more gray matter related to intelligence. Still, there are no real differences in general intelligence between the two sexes. From the UCI press release about the study:

Gray matter represents information processing centers in the brain, and white matter represents the networking of – or connections between – these processing centers.
This, according to Rex Jung, a UNM neuropsychologist and co-author of the study, may help to explain why men tend to excel in tasks requiring more local processing (like mathematics), while women tend to excel at integrating and assimilating information from distributed gray-matter regions in the brain, such as required for language facility. These two very different neurological pathways and activity centers, however, result in equivalent overall performance on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as those found on intelligence tests.

Kings of Convenience

2005-01-22T14:09:00.000+01:00

Once upon a time there was a fearless Nordic duo, who waged war on the world armed with only two soft voices and two acoustic guitars. Their names were Eirik Glambek Boe and Erlend Oye, and like their Viking ancestors they crossed continents to bring their songs of love, heartache and life to the world beyond. Soon strange tales began to filter out of an odd pair, who’d met at an inter-schools geography contest as children (which Erlend won by drawing a map of the world freehand from memory) that had later reunited in song, in a gloomy rock band that did Joy Division covers called Skog (Norwegian for Tree). Destiny however had other plans, and soon it was goodnight Skog and the Kings Of Convenience were born.

Following a trio of 7” singles on the cult label Telle Records (based in their hometown of Bergen, set at the foot of the fjords on Norway’s west Atlantic coast), the Kings signed with Source Records, released an E.P. recorded live in a room – entitled ‘live in a room’, which captivated many with its heartwarming charm. Then they set about creating a genre defining debut album with producer Ken Nelson (Coldplay, Badly Drawn Boy).

Entitled ‘Quiet Is The New Loud’, and released in early 2001, it was quickly adopted as their motto and they became flag-bearing artists for what the British music press had dubbed the “New Acoustic Movement”, which they transcended and outlasted thanks to their originality, personalities and most importantly of all - talent. They were also the leaders of Norway’s musical revival, which had sat in the doldrums post A-ha for a number of years, opening the door for other Bergen based artists such as Royksopp (whose multi-platinum debut album ‘Melody AM’ featured the voice of Erlend on ‘Poor Leno’ and ‘Remind Me’), Ralph Myerz + Jack Herren Band¸ Magnet and Sondre Lerche. Libra Radio will play today for you the music from the album RIOT ON AN EMPTY STREET. Find out more at their (website), try also (here) for the tour data and videos.

Convert or die

2005-01-21T16:58:00.000+01:00

Rage and fury has gripped this tsunami-hit tiny Hindu village in India's southern Tamil Nadu after a group of Christian missionaries allegedly refused them aid for not agreeing to follow their religion.

Samanthapettai, near the temple town of Madurai, faced near devastation on the December 26 when massive tidal waves wiped it clean of homes and lives.

Most of the 200 people here are homeless or displaced , battling to rebuild lives and locating lost family members besides facing risks of epidemic,disease and trauma.

Jubilant at seeing the relief trucks loaded with food, clothes and the much-needed medicines the villagers, many of who have not had a square meal in days, were shocked when the nuns asked them to convert before distributing biscuits and water.

Pongomania

2005-01-21T16:12:00.000+01:00

Interesting little sculptures from clay!

Color ball man

Origami

2005-01-21T15:57:00.000+01:00

Here's some very nice origami:Crease Patterns

10-th anniversary of killing four Roma in Oberwart, Austria

2005-01-19T08:51:00.000+01:00

Between 1993 and 1996 several persons were injured by letter bombs; a pipe bomb placed at Oberwarth, province of Burgenland, killed four Roma. Accompanying letters were signed by some "Bajuvarische Befreiungsfront" and "Graf Ruediger von Starhemberg", leader of the fight against the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683.
You can get more info on Burgenland Roma ( here), and (here). This last one is in German. These three photos were taken on Saturday, the 15.th of January when they've chosen and promoted a new Roma queen. Besides Langa, a gypsy group from Slovenia, there was also a gypsy guy who imitated Elvis Presley. The best imitator i ever heard, truly!

2005-01-19T08:50:00.000+01:00

2005-01-19T08:49:00.000+01:00

Oberwart, Austria

Trend towards "romances between unequals" may be evolutionary

2005-01-16T01:28:00.000+01:00

A new study by psychology researchers at the University of Michigan, using college undergraduates, suggests that men going for long-term relationships would rather marry women in subordinate jobs than women who are supervisors.
As Dr. Stephanie Brown, the lead author of the study, summed it up for reporters: "Powerful women are at a disadvantage in the marriage market because men may prefer to marry less-accomplished women." Men think that women with important jobs are more likely to cheat on them.
"The hypothesis," Dr. Brown said, "is that there are evolutionary pressures on males to take steps to minimize the risk of raising offspring that are not their own." Women, by contrast, did not show a marked difference in their attraction to men who might work above or below them. And men did not show a preference when it came to one-night stands.
A second study, which was by researchers at four British universities and reported last week, suggested that smart men with demanding jobs would rather have old-fashioned wives, like their mums, than equals. The study found that a high I.Q. hampers a woman's chance to get married, while it is a plus for men. The prospect for marriage increased by 35 percent for guys for each 16-point increase in I.Q.; for women, there is a 40 percent drop for each 16-point rise.

Read full article here

All-silicon laser makes its debut

2005-01-13T10:13:00.000+01:00

This could be a huge boost for Intel if it can be utilized. It means the photonic computer we’ve been waiting for.

Scientists at Intel have made the first all-silicon laser. The breakthrough could lead to the development of silicon chips that can be used in both electronic and photonic applications. Existing photonic devices are made from expensive compound semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide or indium phosphide (H Rong et al. 2005 Nature to be published).

Silicon dominates the microelectronics industry but it is not used in photonic applications because it does not emit light efficiently. Last year, however, researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles discovered a way to exploit the Raman effect and achieve laser action in silicon, although their device needed an eight metre long optical fibre to work. The Raman effect, which uses vibrations in a material to create optical gain, is routinely used in the telecommunications industry to amplify optical signals.

Construct a historic tale

2005-01-12T14:05:00.000+01:00

Create your own stories with the Historic Tale Construction Kit.

2005-01-12T13:11:00.000+01:00

And this is the original photo El Greco "scary image" was made from with Face transformer. It was not my fault, Lisa :-) ..hmmm, or it was?)

Face Transformer

2005-01-11T22:22:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Perception Laboratory's Face Transformer.
You can use it to change the age, race or sex of a facial image, to transform it to the style of a famous artist, to make an exaggerated caricature or even make an ape of yourself!

I submitted my photo and this is how i look in El Greco style.

Speed up your PC

2005-01-11T18:23:00.000+01:00

During the past few days, and for no good reason (other than installing all those goodies I found under the Christmas tree), my computer started slowing down dramatically, taking up to several minutes to open a simple word file. With 1536 MB of RAM, I found that a little unfair.
A friend recommended several steps to speed up my system. The result is so convincing that I would like to share these resources with everybody.
First, download RegClean and clean your system registry of all the left-over bits and pieces from previous program disinstallations. You can also download RegCleaner - a good alternative for an in-depth system clean-up of all the programs you don't need any more. Here you can safely throw out all those start-up agents that slow down your system.
Then, go to the BlackViper website and follow the 12 Steps to speed up your Windows XP system. I tried most of them and haven't encountered any problems. And my computer is faster than ever...

NB. Sorry about that faulty link for RegCleaner - this is the original program I was talking about. No 30-day expiry, and the full feature software.

Clean Your Screen

2005-01-11T17:51:00.000+01:00

If your monitor is dirty, here's an easy way to
Clean Your Screen

Face Analyzer

2005-01-10T21:08:00.000+01:00

The only automated face reader in the world: Face Analyzer.
Somebody submitted the photo of this monkey and the result is very hilarious!

The software thinks that person from the image is: 47% Anglo Saxon, 43% East Indian and 11% eastern European. A white collar archetype with an average intelligence.
Here's a (Link) to the complete report.

The biological and social nature of sleep

2005-01-09T20:49:00.000+01:00

This piece is the most fascinating thing I've read on the subject! Go to the complete article if you have time.
Pretending that sleep-need does not exist is also institutionalized. I am not talking just about night-shifts and rotating shifts (those will kill you), night flights, being available for communication 24/7, stores open 24/7, etc - those are part of a modern society, will not go away, and we just need to learn how to adjust. I am talking about the building standards. With a huge proportion of the population working at night, why do windows have no blinds? Some old manors do, but new buildings do not. Never. Some have fake blinds, just for show, screwed into the outside walls on the sides of windows, yet cannot be closed. There are no built-in black curtains, or roll-down wooden blinds. It is difficult to find such curtains in stores if one wants to install one. What is going on? I have never seen, heard, read about, or experienced another country in the world in which sleep is not sacred, and blinds are not an essential part of a house.

I see some striking parallels between the way this society treats sleep and the way it treats sex. Both are sinful activities, associated with one of the Seven Deadly Sins (Sloth and Lust). Both are associated with the most powerful biological needs. Both are supposed to be a taboo topic. Both are supposed to be done in private, at night, with a pretense that it is never actually happening. Education in sleep hygiene and sex hygiene are both slighted, one way or another (the former passively, the latter actively opposed). Both are thought to interfere with one's productivity - ah, the good old Protestant work ethic! Why are Avarice and Greed not treated the same way? Raking in money by selling mega-burgers is just fine, and a decent topic of conversation, even a point of pride. Why are we still allowing Puritan Calvinist way of thinking, coupled with capitalist creed, to still guide the way we live our lives, or even think about life. Sleeping, whether with someone or alone, is a basic human need, thus a basic human right. Neither really detracts from the workplace productivity - au contraire: well rested and well satisfied people are happy, energetic, enthusiastic and productive. It is sleep repressed people, along with the dour sex repressed people, who are the problem, making everyone nervous. How much longer are we going to hide under the covers?

Tablatures for swing guitarists

2005-01-08T18:48:00.000+01:00

You're a guitarist, you love swing guitars and you would love to learn a solo from Django Reinhardt's "Minor swing" using just your ear. Well - you'll spend a lot of time to put every single tone to its place. You can either slow down the pace of the music with (Transcribe) software, or use tablatures. Sure, i speak to those who didn't go to the music school, like me.
There are many sites with tablatures and i found two of them, specialized for gypsy swing music. First one is for Powertab users, with a link to software needed to read tablatures. (Powertab page)
The other one is (Jazz et chansons Jazz) where you'll find also other kind of music tablatures. There are links to some different types of Powertab-like software sites.

Another site with many links to the masters of the swing guitar. (Swing guitar Links)

Michal Shapiro explores the music of the Roma

2005-01-08T16:18:00.000+01:00

A groundswell of attention for Gypsy music has built slowly over the last few years. Ethnomusicologists have always been fascinated by Roma, but the public has only recently caught the fever. Although we have subliminal markers in our culture ("gypsy cab," "gypsy moth," "Gypsy Rose Lee" and the ubiquitous "gypped") the Gypsy as a real and breathing person is only now emerging.

Last Audio Tape Factory in the US closes

2005-01-08T15:57:00.000+01:00

In 1945, after capturing several German "Magnetophon" tape recorders from Radio Luxembourg, the American Signal Corps recorded a speech by General Dwight Eisenhower to be played to the people of occupied Germany. Due to a shortage of recording tape the speech had to be recorded on a reel of used German tape. Unfortunately, due to a problem with the German tape recorder, the tape was not completely erased and the voice of Adolph Hitler was intermittently heard along with Eisenhower's voice. This caused a great deal of fear and confusion among the German people and obviously a great deal of embarrassment for the Allied Signal Corps.

General Eisenhower issued an immediate order that no more captured German tape was to be used and assigned Major John Herbert Orr to develop an American magnetic tape manufacturing facility.

Link to Music thing

Akiane

2005-01-08T13:08:00.000+01:00

An internationally recognized 10-year-old prodigy, considered the only known child binary genius, in both painting and poetry.At the age of 5, she did this drawing of her grandmother:

Report on global Anti-Semitism

2005-01-07T13:34:00.000+01:00

Here's the newest report on Anti-Semitism by US State Department.
Anti-Semitism has plagued the world for centuries.
Global anti-Semitism in recent years has had four main sources:
*
Traditional anti-Jewish prejudice that has pervaded Europe and some countries in other parts of the world for centuries. This includes ultra-nationalists and others who assert that the Jewish community controls governments, the media, international business, and the financial world.
*
Strong anti-Israel sentiment that crosses the line between objective criticism of Israeli policies and anti-Semitism.
*
Anti-Jewish sentiment expressed by some in Europe's growing Muslim population, based on longstanding antipathy toward both Israel and Jews, as well as Muslim opposition to developments in Israel and the occupied territories, and more recently in Iraq.
*
Criticism of both the United States and globalization that spills over to Israel, and to Jews in general who are identified with both.
The Vienna-based European Union Monitoring Center (EUMC), for 2002 and 2003, identified France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and The Netherlands as EU member countries with notable increases in incidents

So, what is the situation in Slovenia where i come from?

The Jewish community had 140 official members and approximately 300-400 people who informally self-identified as Jews.
In early October, there was one incident involving the desecration of a Jewish family grave.
Jewish community representatives reported widespread prejudice, ignorance, and false stereotypes being spread within society. Reportedly, negative images of Jews were common in private commentary and citizens generally did not consider Jews to be a native population, despite their uninterrupted presence in the country for many centuries. While prejudice existed beneath the surface, there were no reports of overt verbal or physical harassment.

The Government promoted anti-bias and tolerance education through its programs in primary and secondary schools, with the Holocaust as an obligatory topic in the contemporary history curriculum. However, teachers had a great deal of latitude in deciding how much time to devote to it. The country formally established May 9 as Holocaust Memorial Day. Schools commemorated the day by showing documentaries, assigning essay topics, and holding discussions on the Holocaust.

10 years old German Sophia Michl looking for her parents

2005-01-07T09:58:00.000+01:00

Hospital officials in Phuket are trying to find any information about Mr.Norbert and Mrs.Edeltraud Michl, the parents of ten year old German girl Sophia Michl. please Contact them by phone 076-249400 ext. 1336, 1339 or e- mail : info@phuket-inter-hospital.co.th

http://www.phuket-inter-hospital.co.th/girl1.jpg">

Swedish 2-Year-Old boy from Khao Lak Reunited With Uncle

2005-01-07T09:50:00.000+01:00

A 2-year-old boy who was found dazed and alone on a roadside in the wasteland of a tsunami-devastated Thai resort was reunited Tuesday with his uncle, who spotted the child's picture on the Internet.
The boy, identified by his uncle as Hannes Bergstroem, was found Sunday night on a road in Phang Nga province near the beach resort of Khao Lak, about 60 miles from the island of Phuket. He was taken to Phuket International Hospital where the staff posted pictures of the blond-haired boy with red spots all over his face from mosquito bites on its Web site on Monday. They also published his photo in a local newspaper.

120-year-old tortoise adopts baby hippo

2005-01-07T01:24:00.000+01:00

Some people in Kenya rescued a dehydrated baby hippo that had been separated from its herd. The released it into an enclosure in a sanctuary, and it ran over to a giant tortoise, and is now "inseparable" say officials.
"'When we released Owen into the enclosure, he lumbered to the tortoise which has a dark gray color similar to grown up hippos,' Sabine Baer, rehabilitation and ecosystems manager at the park, told Reuters." Link

Download Microsoft's AntiSpyware Beta

2005-01-06T22:22:00.000+01:00

Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed. This helps reduce negative effects caused by spyware including slow PC performance, annoying pop-up ads, unwanted changes to Internet settings, and unauthorized use of your private information. Continuous protection improves Internet browsing safety by guarding over 50 ways spyware can enter your PC.

A christmas parcel from Lake Mary, Florida

2005-01-06T21:29:00.000+01:00

Just came to my adress today from Rafael,a regular Libra Radio listener. I wont tell you his complete adress, i will just show you a satellite image of the street where he lives. I found this usable (TerraServer-uSA) tool today by coincidence. It's a pity that it works only within USA. Thank you,Rafael!

Another ancient tribe discovered to survive tsunami

2005-01-06T15:07:00.000+01:00

Two days after a tsunami thrashed the island where his ancestors have lived for tens of thousands of years, a lone tribesman stood naked on the beach and looked up at a hovering coast guard helicopter.

He then calmly took out his bow and shot an arrow toward the rescue chopper.

It was a signal the Sentinelese have sent out to the world for millennia: They want to be left alone.

Elsewhere, on the isolated, tsunami-ravaged Andaman and Nicobar islands, members of the ancient Jarawa tribe emerged from forests for the first time since the tsunami struck. Seven men, wearing only underwear and amulets, told government and police officials that all 250 of their tribe had fled to forested areas and had survived.

A boy from the Jarawa tribe, one of the five tribes in India's Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, which are believed to have knowledge of the movement of wind, sea and birds.

"They can smell the wind. They can gauge the depth of the sea with the sound of their oars. They have a sixth sense, which we don't possess," said Ashish Roy, a local environmentalist and lawyer who has urged the courts to protect the tribes by preventing their contact with the outside world.

Anthropologists speculate that ancient knowledge of wind movement and the flight of birds may have saved the lives of many tribesmen, who seem to have fled the shores well before the waves could hit the coast, where they would typically be fishing at this time of the year.

The tribes live the most ancient, nomadic lifestyle known to man, frozen in their Paleolithic past. Many produce fire by rubbing stones. They fish and hunt with bow and arrow, and live in community huts of leaves and straw. (via CBS news)

Street children of Ulan Bator, Mongolia

2005-01-06T14:41:00.000+01:00

NPPA Best of Photojournalism 2004

Winners of the NPPA's annual awards for excellence in photojournalism are now online, including this stunning series of images of street children living in the channels of the district heating system underground of Ulan Bator.

With the breakdown of communist rule in Mongolia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the first generation of street children was born. An effect of the abrupt transition to a market economy was unemployment, since numbers of state owned businesses were forced to shut down. For many families this meant the beginning of a social deroute of alcoholism, violence and abuse. The children of these families have largely been left to their own devices because of the lack of a proper social safety net. The police estimate that more than one thousand children live in the streets of Ulan Bator but nobody knows the real number . In the coldest months of the year when temperatures drop as low as 45 c degrees, many street children survive by staying in the channels of the district heating system underground . A group of about 10 children live in this district heating hole. Surderdene and Badamsuren, the two girls in the group are doing their make-up.

Django Reinhardt story and videos

2005-01-06T13:07:00.000+01:00

Here's a French site "About-django" with a great collection of gypsy swing videos of Django Reinhardt, Tschawolo, Les Yeux Noirs, Stochelo Rosenberg and other gypsy swing guitarists.

Born in 1910, Django Reinhardt grew up in a gypsy camp on the outskirts of Paris, and performed in local cafes with his father when he was a boy.

The story goes that Django nearly lost his life, when he was 18, in a terrible fire in the caravan where he was sleeping. . . A candle, knocked over in the night, set the room full of dried flowers on fire and scarred him for life. Two fingers on his left hand were paralyzed and his left leg was badly damaged.

In spite of this tragedy, Django kept on playing guitar. When he first heard recordings of the exciting new music being made in America by Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Django was inspired to experiment. He began blending jazz rhythms with traditional European gypsy music. (Link1)

Django Reinhardt was the first hugely influential jazz figure to emerge from Europe - and he remains the most influential European to this day, with possible competition from Joe Zawinul, George Shearing, John McLaughlin, his old cohort Stephane Grappelli and a bare handful of others. A free-spirited gypsy, Reinhardt wasn't the most reliable person in the world, frequently wandering off into the countryside on a whim. Yet Reinhardt came up with a unique way of propelling the humble acoustic guitar into the front line of a jazz combo in the days before amplification became widespread. He would spin joyous, arcing, marvelously inflected solos above the thrumming base of two rhythm guitars and a bass. (Link2)
Hey, and if you're a guitarist who would like to learn a solo or two, it is going to be extremely difficult without this piece of software called (Transcribe). This tool offers many features aimed at making the transcription job smoother and easier, including the ability to slow the music down without changing its pitch, and to analyse chords and show you what notes are present. A trial version for 30 days might be good enough to learn a few solos.

Religions rankings

2005-01-06T02:05:00.000+01:00

Find out where your favorite religion ranks: Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents. These are "approximate estimates."

Christianity is #1, followed by Islam and Hinduism. Rastafarianism is surprisingly in the Top 20, just slightly ahead of Scientology.

Two-year-old boy survives tidal waves, but his parents are missing

2005-01-05T21:53:00.000+01:00

This is a follow up to the story about the2- year old boy found in Khao Lak we published previously.A 2-year-old foreign boy found after tidal waves ravaged a resort in southern Thailand was recovering Monday night in a hospital _ alone. His parents are missing.

It's not clear what happened to the unidentified blond-haired boy, who has red marks all over his face and was found sitting on a road not far from the town of Khao Lak in Phang-nga province, where surging waves swept away hundreds of tourists and trapped people inside flooded buildings.

A few tourists saw the toddler sitting alone and took him to a nearby hospital, said Vilad Mumbansao, a staff member at Phuket International Hospital.
Hospital staff have tried to determine the nationality of the baby. The boy babbles and staff can't figure out what language he's speaking.

"He could be Swedish because he was enthusiastic when a man spoke Swedish to him," said Vilad.

Music plasma

2005-01-05T21:32:00.000+01:00

This is nice! A cool site that uses Amazon's web services to build a visual search engine for music based on collaborative filtering data. It shows bands as "orbs" or planets, each with their own "solar system" of related bands. (Play with it, it's pretty cool.)

Update: Here's another link where this thingy basically originates from -
Music-map.com Thanks, Lisa!

Beauty Rank

2005-01-05T21:10:00.000+01:00

A site about female beauty: Beauty Rank.

We are a team of explorers who are constantly evaluating the female face beauty. Our extensive research provides us with valuable information on how men rank their love partners. You can take advantage of our report and improve your chances to find your dream mate. If you achieve a top score we will recommend you to the best modeling agencies with your permission!

To participate, send a photo of your face, along with $19.95. You'll get a beauty rank report.

The site has a gallery of beauty ranks for normal people and celebrities.

For example, the Advanced Face Report for Angelina Jolie reveals these positive features: symmetrical face, slightly elongated face, slightly high forehead, long eyes, full lips, and delicate nose. Her face has only one negative feature: very short eye distance.

That's too bad about the short eye distance.