Den tid på året

a film by Paprika Steen

Yeah, it’s that time of year again: the annual family get-at-each-other’s-throats-together. Now, who brings what?

This hilarious and poignant tragicomedy brings a fitting finale to the Cine danés en femenino cycle. Bravo, Asociación de Cine Vértigo!

Free live music and stuff in Las Palmas, April 2024

This is what I’ve seen in April:

• 3 April: Grupo coral @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles, Calle Benito Pérez Galdós, 4
  The programme included: Wiegenlied and Das Heimliche Lied by Louis Spohr, performed by Andrea Quintana Mesa (soprano), Simón Martín (clarinet) and Cristina Díaz Álamo (piano); Yesterday and Can’t Help Falling in Love performed by Paula Herrera Hernández (mezzo-soprano), Nira Vera Almeida (harp) and Laura Urbín López (harp); and Bastien und Bastienne (Bastián y Bastiana) by Mozart, with Teresa Rodríguez Vázquez (Bastiana), Daniel Marrero González (Bastian), Francesco Pisapia (Colas), Marta López Falcón (flute) and Riccardo Vignaga (piano).

  

• 7 April: Happy Piano Day 2024 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, various locations (11:30—22:00)
  This year, the 6^th edition of Happy Piano Day was postponed because of rain, and I was afraid it would be cancelled again because, well, it was raining in the morning. But it stopped in the afternoon and in the evening I headed straight to the Parque San Telmo to watch Levi Keyb & Kisandra Pujol (19:00), Sergio Alonso & Magdalena Padilla (20:00) and two Charlie Chaplin films accompanied by Federico Lechner (21:00).

  

• 11 April: Luismi Segurado @ Teatro Guiniguada, Plaza F. Mesa de León
  A masterclass organised by Mousikê La Laguna.

• 13 April: «Étnico» @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos, Parque Doramas
  Another great Musicando concert with José Manuel Ramos (guitar, vocals) and Benito Cabrera (timple).

  

• 14 April: Zumba @ Parque de El Rincón
  As a part of the Tour Universo Mujer, Jessica Expósito gave two free classes of Zumba Fitness; I joined in for twenty minutes or so.
• 17 April: Grupos de cámara @ Palacete Rodríguez Quegles
  The complete programme of this evening of classical chamber musi is available here. My favourite part was Pagan Dances for Saxophone Quartet (Pagan Ballad and Pagan Fugue) by Steve Winstead performed by José Manuel Falcón, Gabriel Climent, Gabriel Santana and Alberto Medina.

  

• 25 April: Alba Rodríguez and Víctor Lemes @ Museo Castillo de Mata, Calle Domingo Guerra del Río, 147
  A double bill of Gran Canarian singers-songwriters in one evening, the fourth concert from the cycle «12 Noches de autor».
• 27 April: Maratón de Jazz @ Auditorio José Antonio Ramos
  The LPA International Jazz Day concert organised by Fabrica La Isleta.
  • 18:00: Maracujazz Trio featuring Ernesto Rossger (electric guitar), Jonay Mesa (acoustic guitar) and Nelson Saavedra (double bass), plus a guest vocalist Melania Piñeiro.
  • 19:00: Manu Sija, an Argentine multiinstrumentalist (electric bass, guitars, keyboards, drums, percussion, accordion, violin, vocals and loops) — a true discovery for me!
  • 20:00: Gary Willis Trio featuring Gary Willis (electric bass), Gergo Borlai (drums) and Zsolt Kaltenecker (keyboards). Unfortunately, this last set was interrupted by rain.

  

And two exhibitions:

• 14 March — 5 May: «Deshilar la Colección. Urdimbres de lo sagrado: tramas que des(a)nudan amarres» @ Casa de Colón, Calle Colón, 1
  An exhibition of works by Canarian artist Macarena Nieves Cáceres.

• 18 April — 17 May: «Poéticas del Deseo» @ Centro de Artes Plásticas (CAP), Calle Colón, 8
  The works by José Luis Luzardo revolve around sex, gender violence, religion and disease. Naturally, they generate controversy: the Abogados Cristianos, the foundation known for being prodigious litigators in “defense of religious feelings”, were not exactly happy with images of Virgin Mary, saints or Pope John Paul II within glass dildos and (so far unsuccessfully) demanded to suspend the exhibition.

And that was it for April.

Breaking Social

a film by Fredrik Gertten

Can we afford the rich? You don’t have to watch a 90-minute film to answer this question. Here’s another one: is there any hope left? I mean, for the humankind, in general? The last Swedish documentary I saw left me very much doubtful about it. It also left me angry. Is it a bad thing?

I can’t say that I’ve learned an awful lot from Breaking Social. But I enjoyed it all the same, thanks to the beautiful people appearing in it.

In English and (Chilean) Spanish — I wish those parts were also subtitled!

Adão, Eva e o fruto proibido & La uruguaya

Two South American films screened in Casa de Colón last week, with a surprise appearance of Ana García Blaya, the director of La uruguaya.

Adão, Eva e o fruto proibido

a film by R.B. Lima

A short starring Danny Barbosa, Lay Gonçalves, Manoa Vitorino, Margarida Santos and William Cabral.

La uruguaya

a film by Ana García Blaya

Lucas Pereyra is a moderately successful writer in his mid-forties, married, with a son, and right in the middle of a stereotypical mid-life crisis. He gets infatuated with a much younger woman, the titular “girl from Uruguay” named Guerra. A series of mildly comic mishaps ensue.

The main problem of this film for me is that I don’t find Lucas “mid is his middle name” either likeable or funny or intriguing — quite unlike his romantic interest. Now I didn’t read novel of the same name by Pedro Mairal on which the film is based. I don’t know whether Pereyra is supposed to be that mediocre. If the answer is yes, Sebastián Arzeno does a splendid job portraying him. Luckily, there is no judging or moralising of any sort in the film; still, I couldn’t care less about Pereyra. Which is a shame. Fiorella Bottaioli shines as Guerra: both down-to-earth and full of mystery.

My mum used to say — Part 4

A follow-up to the first, second and third parts.

• блин: any home-made cake or pie, especially the one she baked herself; see also коврижка
• вашим кошким задним местум хвостум эстум?: a question in pseudo-Latin that could be translated as “does your cat have a tail on its butt?”
• виризжать: визжать // to screech, to squeal; cf. свиристеть
• господа Морковкины: a way to address the rest of the company
• доконать: to destroy, to finish off, to kill, etc.; see also ухайдакать
• драндулет: старая расхлябанная повозка, машина, велосипед и т. д. // a clunker, decrepit vehicle
• ещё чего (не хватало): fat chance!
• котелок не варит: weak in the head
• локатор: ухо // ear (by similarity in shape with radar’s parabolic antenna) ♦ «прочисть локаторы»
• марафет: order, cleanliness
• марафетиться, намарафетиться: to make oneself up
• музыкальный суп / супец: гороховый суп // literally, “musical soup”; pea soup
• набивать себе цену: to push or bid up one’s price; typically said of somebody who refuses or hesitates to stay for dinner, take another helping, accept a gift and so on ♦ «бери ещё, не набивай себе цену»
• навести марафет, наводить марафет: put something or oneself in order
• не продохну́ть: can’t get a break, there’s no respite
• невпроворот: bags of (things to do) ♦ «у вас у самих небось дел невпроворот»
• ни в зуб ногой: utterly incompetent in a given field
• ОТС: short for одна тётка сказала, literally, “one aunt said”; said about unreliable source of gossip; see also по сводкам Гидрометцентра
• перед смертью не надышишься: literally, “you couldn’t breathe enough before death”; there’s no point in trying to finish something at the last moment
• посеять: to lose (some object) ♦ «где-то зонтик посеяла»
• прохлаждаться: to chill out ♦ «хорош прохлаждаться!»
• пукок: пупок // navel
• пупок: мускульный желудок // gizzard
• распускать нюни, распустить нюни: to snivel, to be a crybaby
• расхристанная, расхристанный: sloppily dressed; wearing unbuttoned clothes; see also лахудра, рассупониться
• ридикюль (from French réticule): a handbag deemed too small to be useful
• свиристеть: свистеть // to whistle, to chirrup; cf. виризжать
• сменить пластинку: literally, “to change the record”; to change the subject or tune
• смолотить: to wolf something down
• трапеза: (ironically) meal ♦ «ну что, господа Морковкины, закончили трапезу?»
• ухайдакать: убить, измучить, разбить, сломать // to kill, to exhaust, to break, to finish, etc.; see also доконать
• ухайдакаться: устать, замучиться, выбиться из сил // to get tired, exhausted, etc.
• чаёвничать: to indulge in tea-drinking; see also прохлаждаться
• ЧП: short for чрезвычайное происшествие // (jokingly) disaster, emergency ♦ «а у меня ЧП: блин перекосился»

Bushman

a film by David Schickele

Truth was not stranger than fiction, just a little faster. David Schickele

Is it a biopic? Docudrama? Docufiction? Mockumentary? That’s what I was thinking while watching this 1971 movie starring Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam and Elaine Featherstone for whom, as for most of actors here, Bushman was their only cinematic appearance. I don’t want to give any spoilers. Please don’t read reviews beforehand; go and see this “lost and found”, newly restored feature and discover for yourself.

Darling

a film by Birgitte Stærmose

Didn’t I write years ago what I think about classical ballet? Yes, I did, and yes, it was years ago, so it’s time to reiterate. To say ballet isn’t pretty is an understatement. It’s a sadomasochistic art form we can live without. I almost wrote “we all can live without” but the tragic truth is that some people can not — or act as if they can not — live without ballet.

Which apparently is the case of the titular Darling (Danica Curcic, Lang historie kort). Not content with destroying her own body, she is bent on inflicting the same suffering on the others, primarily on her substitute Polly (Astrid Grarup Elbo, who is a real ballet dancer) but also, at least potentially, on her future students. And so, the abused becomes the abuser herself. As Darling’s partner Frans (Gustaf Skarsgård) tells her, “your hip is your least problem”.

Incidentally, Frans the choreographer seems to be a reasonable guy who is not buying all this “no pain, no gain”, “a dancer must suffer”, “in my days,” — in my flipping days, says the woman in her early 30s, but wait for it — “I danced the whole act with a broken leg” bullshit.

Another incidentally: I didn’t realise until now what a weird story that of Giselle is.