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Category — Duende
Flamenco Singer Manolo Caracol's Great Recording "Una Historia del Flamenco" – contents and comment
Twenty years ago, I wrote the following post to a flamenco mailing list. i'm adding it here because the recording is a topic of a recent blog entry on the singer Manolo Caracol.
Subj: Re: Anthology(ies) – Caracol/Melchor
To: firstname.lastname@example.com
Ken Parker notes his preference for Manolo Caracol's 2-LP or 1-CD anthology called "Una Historia del Flamenco" where Caracol is accompanied by Melchor de Marchena.
Since Ken appreciates Melchor's great toque, notably por siguiriyas, it's worth noting that before "Una Historia del Flamenco" came out on the Clave label, it was issued stateside on two labels, Washington and Top Rank International (Top Rank had a fuzzy red velveteen jacket). But those early versions included two guitar solos by Melchor — a siguiriya, and a solea. And while Melchor is, as Jacinto notes, probably the exact opposite of a soloist (despite several solo LP's he recorded), his playing on these "Historia" solos seems pretty impressive.
I am always in awe of Manolo Caracol's genius. A number of singers can be gripping if you're attuned to flamenco and looking for that quality. But I think that only Manolo Caracol and Agujetas are obviously electrifying in a palpable way, even when they aren't at the peak moments of their performances. (This is rarefied company. Terremoto and Chocolate can be equally great, and La Niña de los Peines can overshadow them all if you count vocal chops as part of the equation. But for drop-dead power, the scary kind that made Manuel Torre the greatest Gypsy singer ever, I think Caracol's best recordings would be a good place to start.)
Here's the listing for the Historia.
[faf]√ MANOLO CARACOL: UNA HISTORIA DEL CANTE FLAMENCO [HISTORY OF CANTE FLAMENCO]
2 Discos: Hisp HH 10-23, Hisp HH 10-24 [Precio: 710 pts.] 1958
Clave 18.1077, Clave 18.1078 1968
Hisp 0-034
√Vega VAL 19 Hispavox France
CD: Hisp 781362-2
Washington 713 714 USA
[gs]√Top Rank International RDM 1 USA
Cante: Manolo Caracol
Guitarra: Melchor de Marchena
I. Martinete "En el calabozo"; Martinete "Mis ducas no eran na"; Siguiriyas "El reniego"; Siguiryas de "El Marruro" "Mujer malina"; Siguiriyas (solo de guitarra: M. de M); Siguiriyas de Manuel Torres "De Santiago y Santa Ana"; Siguiriyas;/ Caña "Me pueden mandar"; Solea de Joaquin el de la Paula "Si yo pudiera"; Solea de Enrique el Mellizo "Tiro piedras a la calle"; Solea (solo de guitarra: M. de M.); Solea de Antonio Frijones "Al senor del baratillo"; Malagueña de Enrique El Mellizo "Soy como aquel jilguerillo"; Malagueña de Chacon "Que del nio la cogi"
II. Fandangos "Se la llevo dios"; Fandangos Caracoleras "Viva Madrid"; Fandangos de Huelva.; Taranta y Malagueña "Veneno dejaste"; Tientos "Antes de llegar a tu puerta"; Tientos Caracoleros"Cuando te vayas conmigo";/ Saeta "Toitas las mares"; Mirabras "Debajito del puente"; Alegrías "La barca de mis amores"; Bulerías "Voz del pueblo"; Bulerías "a gorpe" [a golpe] "No quiero na contigo"; Bulerías Festeras "No quiero caudales"
As good as it gets.
Brook Zern
January 28, 2017 No Comments
Flamenco Singer Agujetas Speaks – Interview by Paco Sánchez Múgica – translated with comments by Brook Zern
Translator's note:
Manuel Agujetas died a year ago. Shortly before, a Jerez publication called Voz Jonda ran an interview by Paco Sánchez Múgica titled "Agujetas, the man and the myth: "Flamenco is a lie".
I've translated it here, starting with a few personal comments in italics:
The lion in winter? Portrait of the artist as an old man?
And is that a trace of mellow we see in this portrait of Agujetas?
Note: I got a kick out of seeing that Manuel still got a kick out of the Village Voice article I wrote when he showed up at the Sangria restaurant in 1976.
An ironic note: The actual headline of the article was: "Duende on Hudson Street — A Flamenco Master Sings for his Supper". Well, I have too much invested in the mythology of "duende" and "black sounds" to take Agujetas seriously when he says in this interview that duende "is all a lie".
Hey, Who ya gonna believe – me, or the man who held the patent on it and insisted it doesn't exist?
Manuel's memories of the time we spent in New York and Madrid were always sharper than mine – there was a formidable mind behind the forbidding persona he usually projected, and it shines through in this interview.
Incidentally, I had always felt grumpy that I'd never been invited to the endless round of private juergas which I assumed were the major part of Agujetas' artistic life, as they were with all the other legendary singers he names. Now I learn from this interview that there were no such sessions — he had no interest in singing in private. It makes me feel better about the nights when he tolerated my nervous efforts to accompany his songs – a mismatch for the ages, but at least I wasn't keeping him from lighting up all those amazing intimate fiestas and jam sessions that haunted my imagination. (He could be very hard on guitarists, even very good ones, who took up too much sonic space. Contrariwise, he seemed to appreciate my fearful approach and almost inaudible volume levels, which covered a multitude of sins — mine, not his.)
Okay, okay, here's the interview:
A warm autumn afternoon. A narrow secondary road. Like an asphalt line traced with charcoal and marked with country houses. The sun is weak at five o'clock. The municipal terminal of the town of Chipiona, on the northeast coast of the province of Cadiz. "In Jerez they say I was born in Jerez; and in Rota, that I was born in Rota. I grew up in those two places," says Manuel de los Santos Pastor. But there's no birth certificate. "Do you need one to know how old a man is? There's a monument to me in Rota and now they're making another one in Jerez," Agujetas says. There's a feline aspect, but he's engaged in friendly conversation with a neighbor who sometimes sometimes rests to listen to him. Manuel touches his right leg; the circulation isn't very good lately. "The doctor tells me I have to walk." Agujetas – how ironic – has even tried acupuncture [ironic because his name refers to the word for needle]. "But it's useless, it's a lie. They put in the needle [la aguja] and it doesn't hurt." He rubs his leg. "It burns here." Walking has become a routine, walking through the farmland and going back home. He invites us to accompany him and gets into the car. We arrive at "Los Milagros" [The Miracles – his house.] "Here I come with my guards," he jokes to his wife Kanako when we go in. As Luís Clemente would say, "With Agujetas anything is always possible."
Two stories and a large garden, all modest. Two goats graze quietly on the lawn, near the well, and cats of different sizes and colors appear and vanish. Light pants, a black shirt and a colorful shirt unusual for a man of at least 75. Or three years older than that. He doesn't know exactly where he was born, and doesn't know when. "Que mas da la edad de un hombre", after proclaiming that "love doesn't understand languages". He says those words, in his wise and cultured illiteracy. ["en su sabio y culto anaflfabetismo"]. And he urges us, "Speak, speak, ask whatever you want." Now we start to talk to the man. Suddenly, Agujetas stops being Agujetas and changes into a man who is miles away from his own legend. Agujetas, as we've already said, is Manuel de los Santos Pastor. The self-proclaimed "king of cante Gitano [Gypsy flamenco song]. An endangered species. The last dinosaur of song with no concessions. Paleolithic. Contradictory. Controversial. A Gypsy, an estirpe, 100% pure crystal, as Walter White might say, Incorruptible. Uncontaminated and uncontaminatable. Aspero en el trato, huraño. But oat this time, no trace of the personality, just the person.
There's none of the usual reticience [sequedad] with the media. Not a trace of the arisca and irritable public personality he tries to project. Here, he attends to us entranable. Between affable smiles he speaks of one of the goats, as if to break the ice: I bought her very young, now she's pregnant – I have to distract myself with something. Like her (he indicates Kanako) with her cats…" In front of the photos, he says, "I'm not dressed as an artist here. Well, we're out in the country, right? I'm a little sick, though I'm not one of those who have those veins in their legs." He goes through a doorway, and shows us a relic that he made with his own hands and that hangs on his porch, almost like a little sanctuary: a strange crucifix, "more than 40 years old. I'm friends with all the abstract painters," he says. "This (pointing at the Christ) I made with a file that was in my kitchen. But I castigate myself. I caught pneumonia 40 years ago; when I recovered, they told me "Ya te ha quitado el arresto, recogelo. Ouka Leele me daba 80.000 duros [400,000 pesetas] for the Christ."
[The interviewer writes]: Let's begin. Manuel, for those who may not know you… But he suddenly interrupts the question: "Who doesn't know me? Name somebody" (he laughs). We correct ourselves: How do you spend your days here? "I'm not here often, I'm rarely here. I'm always going to France or to Japan… They say there's flamenco in Japan but that's a lie – there are a few poor back-up artists ["artistas de cuadro"] who don't have anything else to do so they go to Japan. To sing there you have to go to a bar, where they put up a little portable stage floor and they dance and play the guitar. But people go there to give classes, usually female dancers. When I go to see my mother-in-law, I rent a theater to appear in. It costs me a million [yen?] and I make two million. And I earn two million here in Spain, so why do I have to go over there?" But even so, he travels a lot. "Yes, I travel – who in Spain will pay anything? And even less in profit. Here you can call up a little peña [flamenco association], and they pay 200 or 300 [euros] — nothing."
Tell us about purity [pureza] – your purity. Where it comes from? "I haven't lived purity, and I was the last to emerge [Yo no he vivido la pureza, yo fue el último que salió.] When I showed up, El Chocolate [the great Gypsy singer] had been around for thirty years. Terremoto [the great Gypsy singer], thirty years. La Paquera [the great Gypsy singer], forty years. Mairena [the great Gypsy singer, older than the others who were not much older than Agujetas]…I was the last to come forth. I emerged one year after Camarón [the great Gypsy singer, much younger than Agujetas]… But since I've been fighting for flamenco puro, joé! [joder, the strongest expletive in English but much milder in Spanish]. I mark the end all those who did classic flamenco. Everything is being lost. Everything is modern. I never stopped singing and singing, and now everyone wants flamenco puro."
Is it really appreciated enough? "Andalucía doesn't stand up for flamenco, or for any music at all, because Andalucía is [musically] illiterate. I sing in France and nobody says a word. Nobody. When I get up, the chillíos, look…Because they're people who know about music. But here? It's not that they are disrespectful, it's that they just don't know. And in Jerez? In Jerez they all think they know about flamenco, but when they go to hear it they're all talking and eating sunflower seeds. Because they think they know, but they know nothing. Nothing about singing or dancing."
But Manuel, not even the good aficionados? "Well yes, those who really like it, yes. Those who really like it."
Well then, Manuel, just in case there's a remote possibility that someone has never heard of you, that you are, in the words of Manuel Torre [the greatest Gypsy singer], the last [of the artists who can generate the fabled] black sounds [soníos negros]."
"Don't say that. It's a good thing that Antoñito [Manuel's son] isn't here, si no te pega. I don't tell you anything. That kid wants people to tell him he's better than his father, understand? A man of nearly fifty. Kid, that's when you'll hear it. He left here in tears. He was getting over a drug habit little be little, and they're starting to call him to sing, three or four places. Now that he's getting cured, I tell him, 'Antonio, not like that.' And sometimes he leaves crying. Where will someone tell him your father is here.'
Can flamenco song be taught? "Nobody can teach you that. The one who teaches him when he's here is me. But my father [the great singer Agujetas el Viejo] never taught anyone anything, Nobody. Nooo. My father was working at the forge. I put the iron in the right place. My older brother placed the coal. And my father sang when he was resting. Because the notion of a blacksmith singing at the forge is a lie, a myth, because you can't sing a martinete [a very difficult flamenco song] while you're working. How can you sing a verse – you'd have to stop swinging the hammer [martillo]. Get the idea? It's all a lie. It's a lie told by people to fool other people. Why? Then my father would do two songs, resting and singing. Or he was in a corral at a friend's house. Or on Sunday he'd sing a few songs for friends. And we'd listen. Don't think that my father would say 'this goes like this, and that goes like that'. Que va! [That's nuts.]
Besides arte jondo [deep flamenco song], do you listen to other music?"
I never listen to any flamenco. Not by anyone. Ever since my father died, I don't listen any more. I keep the record here, the one I made, and that's it. But I don't listen to my father's singing – I have to be very good… to listen to it. Because when our family dies, let them be quiet and not bother That's what they have to do. Then, everything is a lie. Flamenco is a lie and the books about it are a lie. There has never been more of a singer than Juan Talega [a great Gypsy singer] in the epoch I knew. I met him a few days before he died. I met La Niña de los Peines [the greatest female Gypsy singer] and she died a few days later. I didn't know any of the other old masters. And I knew Antonio Mairena.
How were things between you and Mairena? "It was okay [Me llevé bien]…for a few days Because the man fell in love with me [se enamoró de mí]. People said "Agujetas slugged Mairena – you knew about this, right? Agujetas hit him. I didn't hit anyone. We were at a Flamenco Festival and [the great guitarist] Melchor de Marchena took me out [me sacó]. Curro Mairena [a great singer, the brother of Antonio] was with me. There was the Yunque de Oro [Gold Anvil, an important prize], but we went for the festival, not the prize. For the best singer – and the way I sang, the public was with me, Then the guy gave the prize to aquel que era el que le hacía cara. The guy passed by thirty seats on my side, I was in one, he was in the other. I was put in jail for a half hour, until the festival ended.
Despite the incident, he doesn't hide his admiration. Antonio was a maestro. True, he was a bit cold. But he was a maestro, man. They shouldn't tell stories about Antonio. Antonio learned from the four old singers of Jerez. He took old songs, from my grandfather and my grandmother and from Manuel Torre. To know how to sing like Antonio… Maybe he was cold, but he was a maestrazo [a great master]. Don't say that stuff about the Gypsies – that the Gypsies don't like them. There are those who don't even know how to open their mouths, but want to sing stuff by Mairena or me. Let them go where that takes them. People will go to see flamenco knowing that it's not flamenco."
Like sand castles erased by the tide, Manuel knocks down the urban legends surrounding serious flamenco. Those that shape the deepest mythology. The mystique about the dark night of the soul, or the dark trunk of the Pharaoh, like the "soníos negros" or black sounds, which [the great poet Rafael] Albertí revealed was nothing more than Federico García Lorca's obsession with the sound of the sharps or flats on a piano. The black keys, the "black sounds" it seems. Agujetas offers no doubts when he's asked about the duende, that other great unknown: "It's a lie…" [Es mentira, es mentira, eso es mentiiiiraaa. Aquí no hay duende ni ná [Here there is no duende or anything]. I don't know anything about it. Duende is for little kids, the guy who comes to you, the bogeyman [coco]. The same. [Iguaaaa.] I don't know anything about it. I don't know what it is. I have no idea." And a new parenthesis: "And my father, as I'm going to tell you, in that era was a man who had a sweetheart and when he saw that he had two kids, Antoñito and Dolores, me dió por ser artista he set me toward being an artist, po carajo, well, I went to become an artist. Nothing happened here. Now, I sent the money I made to my daughter. I wasn't here, like all artists. It's the same with movie actors, they send money to their children and their wife, but if the man goes to America and comes back with nothing, well then, there's no papa. If he brings money, there's a papa. Have you heard this? Well, there it is, so you'll know."
He revisits his comments on duende: "It's all a lie. There is no duende, no bogeyman, none of that." And he says "Cantar [to sing]. There are those who need drugs, wine and the rest. I don't need anything. I take a little water and I sing. Why should I be ashamed of singing (he laughs) if I live from it."
Is it also untrue that business of the enormous juerga [flamenco jam session, usually private] that flamencos need in order to be a gusto [in their element, at their peak] and to seek out the real truth of the flamenco song? Haven't you been in such juergas?
"Never, never, not one, not a single one. No juergas. There you have it. They're a bunch of frauds. And in their book they say that I've been everywhere when I haven't even left my house. I sing and I sleep. Others keep saying I was with them to god knows where, and I – god knows – I haven't gone anywhere. Once when I was with this guy's uncle [he indicates the photographer, alluding to his uncle the painter Paco Toro]. I just took a copita at the Feria and in his house with his wife and kids. Never, with Toro, nothing more. No juerga. What do you think. All the rest just a lie. They also said that Manuel Torre went to bed with his son's wife. All a lie. Manuel Torre – a man like that going to bed with his son's wife?"
So much confusion between flamenco and what is not flamenco – true?
"No, none at all. Confusion is what we see in the people who go to see it, those who like what is not flamenco. You can't have a book about flamenco because it isn't flamenco or anything like it – it's just garbage.
And the market for recordings?
"There is no market – it's over. No company offers flamenco discs. Maybe they put out a record with two or three artists together – but who do they sell them to? To their friends? Before, they'd come to me: 'Agujetas, we want to make a record. What's your price?' Six or seven million [pesetas, maybe $50,000] plus ten percent,' 'Okay, let's do it' Now? Where can you make a record nowadays? Nobody calls me. One came out where they wanted two songs from me. Two songs. I took whatever it was and that was it. I have my live performances, but those are outside the country. I don't have a manager because that's worthless; they call me here at home."
And even so, Manuel says that he has a Japanese passport and U.S. residence [residencia norteameriana] due to his last two marriages, and has toured the world twice, though never in Australia. "The first time I went to New York, I didn't go to sing; I went with a gachí [a non-Gypsy woman -- La Tibu or Tibulina, a fine American dancer who died about a decade ago.] I went to a restaurant, and there was flamenquito [a diminutive term meaning "flamenco lite"], performers with Spanish names but who weren't Spanish, and now they even have bars there. And fijate [get this!] there was a newsstand with a newspaper hanging up, and I saw a picture of me; and I asked the lady to read it to me and she said "The Leading Figure in Spain is now in New York" (he laughs). I have it right here, here's the paper. I got to know a lot of countries, like I'd been born there. It seemed that way, at least. I told my father that. For me, it's as if I'd been born in America. And he told me, "It's because your uncle was there, and he brought back English chickens."
But he doesn't travel by plane. "The doctor told me: You have cañas tapás [a medical condition, clearly]. But the doctor wouldn't operate yet. Now I can't fly, the blood thing is scary. And now I'm headed to Japan, and it's going to be a nice voyage. When I finish a gig in Paris and another in Jerez, I'm taking a train to Moscow, and after that, a two-day boat trip to Japan. Two weeks in a train! (He laughs]. One station, another station. But seeing the countryside. It's scary, you won't believe it. Those boats are preparaos. The boats float on the water, and if a boat goes down, it goes down."
With all that traveling, do you want to sing again in Jerez?
"If I don't feel bad, I'll sing. If someone makes a stink about it, who cares? I sing well everywhere and that's it. For the poor guy who doesn't know, kmaybe he has more responsibilities. But what are they going to say to me? I rehearse every night. Even sleeping. I get up in the morning, I have a headache, but I practice every day. You can't let this thing stop (he indicates his throat). And often I practice sitting here for an hour or so. Because if you don't do that, yur voice will close up. The mouth has to be open. If you stop, it closes up and then how can your voice ring out? I don't have anything written – I start singing a verse and 300 come out. According to what I encounter, with help from above."
Winding down. Agujetas returns. "Okay, that's it – your recorder will wear out. And the people will see this interview and say, whoa, look what Agujetas is saying. And you've done what no one else has done in your lifetime, with money. I've done it for you. (He laughs). You'll be astounded, the other day a team from Moscow TV was here and I spoke about two words and they give me four thousand dollars. I didn't do anything, right? That's good. Nobody has done that – I did it for you because you made me a poster," he reminds Juan Carlos, whose mural-sized photo of Agujetas was on a wall for weeks at the San Telmo roundabout in Jerez. And he insists: "4000 Euros" I tell him I don't give credit, that I can't believe he allowed us to interview him in his own house. So human, so entrañable. So far from the flamenco God that he is for those who love him. And those who hate him." (He laughs.) You don't believe it? Noooo – whatever you can believe. You say that Agujetas charged you a lot. Come on, you'll be late." "Habeis sacado la entrada ya?" he questions.
And that's it – punto y final.
End of interview. The original is at http://www.lavozdelsur.es/agujetas-el-flamenco-es-mentira – corrections are always welcome.
The pictures are excellent. The bottom picture links to film of part of the interview.
December 26, 2016 1 Comment
Flamenco Singer Manuel Agujetas – Obituary by Manuel Bohórquez – translated by Brook Zern
Flamenco Song's Last Cry of Grief
By Manolo Bohorquez
from El Correo de Andalucía, December 25, 2015
A flamenco singer has died. Not just any singer, which would be terrible news. No, one of the greatest masters of Gypsy song (cante gitano). Yes, Gypsy, because that's what Agujetas always was and always wanted to be. His father, Agujetas el Viejo, was also a singer, a Gypsy from Rota with a sound that came from centuries ago, metallic, dark as a cave, that put you in the last room of the blood. Manuel de los Santos Pastor, or Agujetas, who died this morning in Jerez, was the only one who remained of those Gypsies who took the song from the marrow of his bones, a singer who only had the song, who felt alone since the day he was born and who sang so he would not die of solitude. Unsociable, a strange person among strange people, as were Manuel Torres and Tomás Pavón [perhaps the two greatest male flamenco singers who ever lived]. Manuel Agujetas detested anything that was not the flamenco song or freedom, and who fled from stereotypes or academic schools, from technique, from treatises, from la ojana. He was, in the best sense of the word, a wild animal. Some critics reproached him for being too rough, disordered and anarchic, but he had the gift, that thing that correct and professional singers lack. That they can't even dream of. You can fake a voice to sing Gypsy flamenco, but Manuel never faked anything. He was the Gypsy voice par excellence, the owner of what Manuel Torres called the duende, the black sounds that captivated the early flamenco expert Demófilo and García Lorcca. A stripped-down cry that could kill you in the fandango of El Carbonerillo, but that when it was applied to [deep song styles like] the siguiriyas or the martinetes, reached a terrible dramatic intensity. No one sounded as Gypsy as Agujetas, with such profundity. No flamenco singer carried his voice to such depths, even though he could be a disaster on a stage, not knowing how to deal with the accompanying guitar and repeating verses and styles to a point of overload. There is no such thing as "Agujeta-ism", or attempting to copy his inimitable style; but his admirers are found all over the world and have always been faithful to him. A minority, to be sure, but devoted unto death. And they have not claimed official honors for him, as happens with other singers of his generation, They have loved his art and have wanted to experience it, knowing that he was unique and without parallel. Manuel had a charisma that wasn't for stadiums or big theaters, but for an intimate setting. Someone who has an old LP of Manuel Agujetas feels as if he has a treasure, a relic, something sacred. And someone who heard him on a stage, with that antique aspect, that scar on his face and those sunken eyes, knows that on that day he lived a truly unique moment. Surely this death won't make headlines or be reported on radio or TV. And what else? Those of us who heard him during an outdoor summer festival in a small town, or a small theater or a flamenco club will never forget it, because in each line, in each of his chilling moments, Manuel nailed to our soul a way of rendering deep song that didn't die today, with his disappearance, but that died decades ago. It will be a long time before another Gypsy is born, if one is born at all, who has such an ability to wound you with his singing. And when he wounds you fatally, when it kills you, it is a desirable death. The last great pain, the last great grief of song has gone. May he rest in peace.
End of article in El Correo de Andalucía of December 25th, 2015. The original is at http://elcorreoweb.es/cultura/el-ultimo-dolor-del-cante-AI1183398, Olé to Manuel Bohórquez, and a final olé to Manuel Agujetas, the greatest singer I ever knew and the greatest singer I ever heard. Please refer to other entries in this blog for more translations and opinion about Manuel Agujetas.
Brook Zern
December 25, 2015 1 Comment
Bullfight News from the Culture Section of El País – translated with comments by Brook Zern
In today's edition of the great Spanish newspaper El País, in the Culture Section that encompasses Music, Art, Cinema, Music, Architecture and Literature – and also the singular Spanish art they simply term Toros – there's a report by Jan Martínez Ahrens. Here's an attempted translation followed by some comments.
José Tomás Takes On Time Itself [José Tomás Torea al Tiempo]
There are those who think that José Tomás goes into the ring to kill brave bulls. But given his appearance yesterday in the ring of Aguascalientes, Mexico, what this Spanish maestro really fights is time itself. The substance that maintains and regulates the universe becomes tame, acquiesces beneath his cape. The torero knows how to nail himself like a knife in the sand, and make the bull, the spectators and, on certain occasions, the bullring itself gyrate around him.
This is what happened – nothing more and nothing less – with the half-ton of pure speed that was the second bull of the afternoon, named Pollo Querido or Beloved Chicken. The matador took hold of the hands of the clock and began to turn them backward, at his whim [a su antojo]. Motionless, in the center of the space, he deconstructed all that had come before [todo lo que se le venía encima]. The afternoon, the light wind and even the immense sighs of the bullring were caught in his magnetic field. All of that occurred, yet it was not his finest day. Perhaps nothing will surpass the bullfight of Nimes in 2012, or the complete anthologies of the art seen during his first three years; even so, in Aguascalientes, the maestro revealed his ability to confront the past. Right here, where five years ago [un lustro] we saw that dark and terrible goring by the bull called Navegante that was at the point of killing him. It took 18 bags of blood, each holding 200 milliliters of blood, to keep him afloat. Upon awakening from his coma, José Tomás, a bullfighter who has always been aware of what's history, spoke for posterity: "Aguascalientes, I bathed your bullring with my blood; and from your blood I filled my veins."
And on Saturday he returned to the same plaza that had seen him fall. Dressed in Gold and peacock blue, with a red bow tie. At the gate, stepping from his car, he seemed distracted, meek [manso]. He signed autographs, he let himself be carried in by his friends. Leaner, his face deeply lined, and with a graying braid that recalls the bitter travails of his trade [un mechón cano recordandoloe las amarguras del toreo]. When he entered the ring, José Tomás gave a wink to Mexico. His ceremonial cape bore the image of the Virgen del Guadalupe. Then…then came the art. At times, electric; at other moments, slow, parsimonious, with the liturgical rhythms of a great sacrifice. The bull could charge crazily; he received it with classic natural passes, naturales, feet together, two statues in motion. José Tomás, with each pass, drew nearer to his own myth. To that image of a torero that coexists with death on his breath. Without letting himself be intimidated by the body-to-body, he and the bull lost themselves in another dimension, very far from Aguascalientes or from the Las Ventas ring in Madrid. In a strange place that no one is capable of reaching in those moments.
Soon after he started, his sobresaliente [main assistant] Victor Mora commented to this publication: It's going to be insane, crazy, madness una locura – he's coming in strong." But beyond strong, José Tomás arrived believing in himself. And that was what he spilled in the plaza. Without it being his best faena, without surpassing his glory days, he offered a recital of himself. And as always, everyone could see at some point the sword blade of tragedy [todos atisbaron, en algún momento, el filo de la tragedia]. In the infirmary, where five years before he had hung suspended, oscillating between life and death, they followed the course of events with clenched fists. "Let him fight, but with God in front of him," said a trauma specialist.
José Tomás needed no divine intervention. It was enough to take time itself under his cape and make it disappear from view.
End of article. The original is found at: http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2015/05/03/actualidad/1430629640_020990.html
Translator's note:
I don't like to offend the sensibilities of the vast majority of people who feel that the bullfight is beyond the pale. Many are devoted aficionados of flamenco, and some are experts I rely upon. I respect their position, which is probably more defensible than the alternative. But I still suspect that flamenco cannot be fully understood without some comprehension of the bullfight and its meaning within its own turf.
Again, note that this is in the Culture section of El País. Not the Brutality section, or the Immorality section, or the Abomination section, or the Sports section (if bullfighting were a sport, the winner wouldn't be known in advance). The civilized world, including Catalonia, may have excommunicated the ritual art of the bullfight, but a large number of Spaniards support it because for them it's an essential part of their culture. And it seems Mexico is still on board as well.
Someday, by popular demand, the bullfight may be eliminated worldwide as a stain on the planet. It will take with it a marvelous animal, bos taurus africanus, a/k/a the fighting bull, because they cost a fortune to raise, running free over immense spaces for five years, far longer than the bovines we pen, medicate and kill for our McDonald's Happy Meals. It just doesn't pay to raise fighting bulls as food, though they will likely become food after their afternoon in the sun. Their true value is only revealed in their final twenty minutes in the ring, where people pay a lot to see them in the hope they'll be as formidable as they should be.
But, defensive generalities aside, this was a very specific event.
Not many years ago, José Tomás blazed into the realm of toreo, a supernova whose light outshone all the other stars in the trade combined. There was a mad rush to see him – specifically, a mad rush to see him while he was still alive. He had the glow of greatness upon him, and the shadow of death as well.
Of course, you'll see plenty of enthusiastic reports and raves about toreros in every season, some bought and paid for but others that come from the heart. But you will hardly ever see their writers struggling to delineate a strange phenomenon that is essentially beyond of the realm of normal experience, clearly identifiable by some sort of time warping generated by the artist's work.
Yet there was an era when it was relatively common – an era when not just one but two active matadors could generate this temporal vortex. One was named Curro Romero; the other was Rafael de Paula. De Paula was a Gypsy from Jerez. Curro Romero was a non-Gypsy from Camas, right outside of Seville. (I assumed he, too, was a Gypsy, and I was far from alone in that regard.) Reports, or reviews, of their work mentioned the effect quite matter-of-factly, noting when it came and when it left. I remember a headline following an astounding afternoon in Malaga that said, "Curro Romero Stops the Clock." For what it's worth, those two bullfighters, and especially Romero, are constantly referenced in flamenco verses — to quote Camarón: "Curro Romero, Curro Romero, eres la esencia de un torero."
José Tomás has a different style from those great artists – sobriety, a sense of profound responsibility, perhaps reminiscent of the retrospectively doomed Manolete who died in Linares in 1947. But the effect is the same.
I have also experienced this effect during flamenco sessions. It is rare – I mean rare; two nights in a hundred would be a pretty good average; three would be a fluke. And of course, you need to look first for artists who are well known for making it happen: the late singers Terremoto, Fernanda de Utrera, El Chocolate, Juan Moneo "El Torta", La Piriñaca, La Paquera, Juan Talega, Manolito de la Maria, Francisco Mairena and the living José Mercé, El Capullo de Jerez, Manuel Moneo, and of course Manuel Agujetas – not all Gypsies, of course, but there does seem to be a pattern if anyone is still keeping score. And dancers Carmen Amaya, Manuela Carrasco, Farruquito, Pepe Torres and of course Antonio Montoya "el Farruco" himself. It's harder for a guitarist to hook into this battery; I think of Diego del Gastor, then Melchor de Marchena, Juan Habichuela, Perico del Lunar, Manuel Morao, Moraito, sometimes Niño Ricardo.
I took a shot at writing about this whole phenomenon a long time ago. In the following paragraph, I was wrapping up my muddled thoughts when I realized it was better to step aside and let a keener observer take a shot at it. And yes, his exemplar happens to be a gitano.
I wrote: "There is a quality of first-timeness, of reality so heightened and exaggerated that it becomes unreal, and this is characterized by a remarkable time-distortion effect which is frequent in nightmares but otherwise quite rare. Ernest Hemingway observed this phenomenon some sixty years ago, when he wrote in Death in the Afternoon about a bullfighter called Cagancho, "Cagancho is a Gypsy, subject to fits of cowardice, altogether without integrity, who violates all the rules, written and unwritten, for the conduct of a matador." But then he went on to describe those infrequent occasions when Cagancho "can do things which all bullfighters do in a way they have never been done before and sometimes, standing absolutely still and with his feet still, planted as though he were a tree, with all the elegance and grace that Gypsies have and of which all other elegance and grace is just an imitation, moves the cape spread full as the pulling jib of a yacht so slowly that the art of bullfighting, which is only kept from being one of the major arts because it is impermanent, in the arrogant slowness of his veronicas becomes, for the seeming moments that they endure, permanent."
What a sentence — just as long as it needs to be, as it takes the reader through a series of tightly controlled passes around the writer. Thanks, Ernest.
These days, guys like you would be accused of purveying or perpetuating a bunch of romantic bullshit. On a lesser level, flamenco traditionalists face the same charge. All I can say is, Holy Cow.
And maybe now it's safe to mention the dreaded D-word: duende.
Brook Zern — firstname.lastname@example.com
May 4, 2015 4 Comments
Manuel Agujetas leaves his soul in La Guarida del Angel – article by Juan Garrido in Diario de Jerez – translated with comments by Brook Zern (and a radio program about the event)
In the Diario de Jerez of March 2, Juan Garrido wrote:
Manuel Agujetas leaves his soul in La Guarida del Angel
A recital that lasted more than two hours. Styles of soleares and siguiriyas that are no longer heard. A Gypsy who is the exception to the rule.
The truths he possesses cannot be better transmitted. A true privilege for aficionados who came from around the world, from Japan, Barcelona, Huelva and Malaga.
Also those from here in Jerez, who trust him to reveal the most ancestral elements of flamenco culture. The authentic melismas of a past generation reverberate in his songs.
His rendition of the songs of Carapiera or Manuel Torre are chilling, but he is always himself. He isn't compared to anyone else because his style is strictly his own. It's unusual to see him in small venues like La Guarido del Angel, where one can appreciate the closeness with a strong man of such character.
The sensations generated were inexplicable, since only those who experienced them could understand it. Domingo Rubichi accompanied him superbly on guitar. Also on view was the dancing of his wife Kanako who revealed her love of true flamenco.
Never glancing at the clock, Agujetas took us into the world of the spoken fandango, unhurried, never rushed. He sipped some tea for his cough, and warmed up for the martinetes.
The aficionados shouted. "The day you're not around, it's all over, Manuel." Then there were some saetas [religious flamenco songs] that you won't hear, even in dreams, during Holy Week.
When it was over, we returned to reality. The reality of Agujetas as a singer is exceptional. A living soul who continues to head up the Olympus of the Gods of flamenco song. The living history of the cante of Jerez.
End of article. The original is at: http://www.diariodejerez.es/article/xixfestivaldejerez/1974283/manuel/agujetas/se/deja/alma/la/guarida/angel.html
Translator's note:
What can you say about perfection? A few years ago, the savviest aficionado in Jerez, foreshadowing the cries of today's crowds, told me "When Agujetas is gone, it's all over." Granted, he was a member of the Agujetas clan, as is the guitarist Domingo Rubichi who accompanied him for this show. But that doesn't mean he was wrong.
I view Agujetas as a throwback to the era when giants walked the earth. You'll find plenty of entries in this blog that try to sketch the essence of the man, starting with a 1976 article I wrote for the Village Voice. (As a person, it's an understatement to call him problematic. A lot of people hate him, some for good reasons — he can leave damage in his wake. One recent rave review ended by urging people to boycott all of his appearances and recordings because his behavior and character fell so far short of acceptable.)
One of the many miracles of this man is that he's still alive, never mind singing so well so far beyond his expected prime
In 1972, I began an obsessive fifteen-year effort to help ensure the preservation of the 100 programs in the now-fabled TV documentary series "Rito y Geografía del Cante Flamenco" — because I was sure that the greatest artists would not be around very long and it was crucial to have all those fabulous films (now happily free on YouTube by searching for "Flamenco" and "Rito" and the name of an artist or style). Agujetas was a particular focus of that struggle, and I was amazed that he was still around when I was finally allowed to repair and buy the films in 1987. I certainly never dreamed that he – virtually alone among the major protagonists — would be alive and kicking today, 43 years after the films were made.
The pendulum of flamenco preferences has swung away from artists we once viewed as purer, deeper and more authentic than their lesser colleagues.
Today, of course, scholars question the very meaning of words like "authentic" or "pure".
Well, I can't define purenography, but I know it when I hear it. Heck, I even believe in duende, whatever that is, and I know exactly when, a very few times for a very few minutes in a very good year, it shoves an icy knife into my back.
The songs we hear are a solea that is soon repeated, another solea, and a siguiriyas. Agujeteas is even older than I am, but boy, he can still summon up what an old time blues giant called the "hellhound on my trail."
Agujetas's 1972 program on Rito y Geografia is on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx8IenwJABE
In addition, you can hear several songs from his recent recital by going to the following url and pressing the play button:
That url connects you to "Caminos del Cante", the superb radio program that the Jerez flamenco (and sherry) expert José Maria Castaño has been presenting for many years. It covers all aspects of flamenco, though always from the Jerez perspective — in other words, leaning toward the increasingly unfashionable view that deep is better than shallow and that Gypsy — not as a genetic inheritance but as one way of approaching the problem of flamenco expression — is even better than its marvelous alternative. (It has been my occasional honor to be part of the weekly panel, where I try to get up the nerve to try and say something unstupid.)
Brook Zern
March 2, 2015 No Comments
A truly historic 6-CD recording plus DVD finally reveals the art of the guitar genius Manolo de Huelva (plus film of dancers La Argentinita and Pilar López)
Manolo de Huelva may have been the greatest flamenco guitarist of all time.
Okay, okay — we all know that title belongs to Paco de Lucía for perfecting the pre-existing virtuoso tradition around 1970 with stunning imagination and unprecedented technique, and then reconceiving the guitar concert with a jazzier ensemble sound for a broader audience. And the runner-up would be Ramón Montoya, the giant who around 1900 turned an inchoate mixture of styles and ideas into a coherent art form worthy of the name. And third place would go to Sabicas, for being the greatest flamenco virtuoso for a half-century before Paco dethroned him. And if none of those perfectionists were the best exponents of raw power and funky punch — by one measure the central challenge of great flamenco guitar — the title would default to Melchor de Marchena, the preferred accompanist for the greatest singers in flamenco's recorded history, or to Juan Habichuela who around 1970 took over Melchor's role as the best backup man. Or to the endlessly inventive Niño Ricardo, the main influence on Paco de Lucía and most other flamenco players in Spain.
Manolo de Huelva? Well, he was determined to become the most revered flamenco player in Spain — and that's what he did. Between 1920 and 1975, if you mentioned his name in Spain, you would get no response. Unless you happened to be talking to the artists at the absolute pinnacle of the tradition, the people who knew more than anyone else. They had heard him, and that was all it took. They spoke of him with awe, and of his playing as a thing apart and above.
Others just didn't know, and that was how Manolo de Huelva wanted it. He was determined to conceal his art from others, particularly other guitarists, and he did this with stunning success. Only on rare occasions did he give other players a glimpse of his majestic accompaniment and musical creativity.
In 1963, after an astounding night of flamenco in the legendary Zambra (or was it the Villa Rosa?) in Madrid, I was generously invited to go see Manolo accompany some of that venue's great singers, including Pepe de la Matrona. As I was getting into one of the taxis, a guy asked to look at my hands. He noticed my right-hand nails were longer than my left, and said I wasn't allowed to join the group. I started to argue, and said — not in jest — that I'd bite the long nails off. He looked at my left hand fingertips, saw the tell-tale calluses that only come from serious practicing, and told me to scram. He said that Manolo often inspected strangers' hands, and might refuse to play at all if he suspected a guitarist was in or outside the roadside Venta Manzanilla where he reigned supreme. I was just a kid, and couldn't have retained thirty seconds of his music if he'd wanted me to, but I was still frozen out.
Ever since, I have been dreaming and scheming, hoping to hear Manolo playing at his best — as did my friend Don Pohren, the leading foreign authority on flamenco, who realized that he would never hear anyone better. (Don also shared my admiration for the guitarist Diego del Gastor, who unlike Manolo refused to make any commercial recordings but generously allowed us devotees to make hundreds of hours of tape recordings of his solos and accompaniment.)
Manolo made a batch of 78′s before 1950, accompanying some noted singers, but it was clear that he was concealing his real art. In the mid-seventies, I went to the Seville home of Virginia de Zayas, an American woman whose Spanish husband, Marius, had recorded the Ramón Montoya's historic Paris sessions around 1937. Manolo lived in her house, and she agreed to write about the man and his art for Guitar Review, the elegant New York publication of which I was the Flamenco Editor. (You can find those three long articles in this blog by searching for "Zayas".) She also told me that she would arrange for me to meet Manolo the next time I was in Spain, and possibly be allowed to transcribe some of his variations or falsetas — in any event, Manolo died before that could happen. (A double LP was later issued by de Zayas, one with Ramón's old material and the other with some confusing snippets of Manolo de Huelva's playing that failed to do justice to his art.)
This blog also contains a Guitar Review interview with Andrés Segovia, who — contrary to prevailing opinion — had enormous respect for what he called "true flamenco", citing the art's greatest female singer, La Niña de los Peines, and its greatest male singer (okay, male Gypsy singer), Manuel Torre, and heaping high praise on just one guitarist — yes, Manolo de Huelva.
Years ago, I gave up hope of ever hearing the man at his best, or learning his crucial music beyond the few fragments that were allegedly from his hand.
Earlier today, I got an email from my friend Estela Zatania, author and critic for deflamenco.com, relaying news from the noted French authority Pierre LeFranc that the important Spanish label Pasarela had published a massive 6-CD set-plus-DVD titled "Manolo de Huelva acompaña…"
And the singers he backs are formidable. The great surprise is a batch of stuff by Aurelio de Cádiz, whose first recordings with Ramón Montoya date back to the twenties or thereabouts. (I inherited some of those 78′s from my father, who also taught me my first flamenco licks.) These "new" songs are a priceless addition to Aurelio's sparsely-documented art — he always promised to make a worthy anthology but never did. (A translation of a long interview of Aurelio appears in this blog — search for the author's name Climent.) Other singers include Luís Caballero, an elegant singer who worked as a bellhop in the Hotel Alfonso XIII, which recently reclaimed its stature as the city's best. La Pompi, an important early singer and sister of the great Niño Gloria, is heard, as is the still-admired but otherwise unrecorded Rafael Pareja; finally, there's the very significant Pepe de la Matrona with his immense knowledge — an early inspiration for Enrique Morente who as a very young artist appeared along with Pepe at La Zambra.
As for the DVD, it finally brings to light a film I'd seen long, long ago at the Museum of Modern Art and have been trying to find ever since. It shows Manolo de Huelva — or rather, it shows glimpses of his hands as he remains in shadow — as he accompanies the legendary dancers La Argentinita and Pilar López. (I actually saw it once again, at the Andalusian Center for Flamenco Documentation — then the CAF, now the CADF — around the corner from my apartment in Jerez. I even managed to sneakily record the soundtrack on my iTunes player (I had a separate mike for it). But now here it is, glorious picture and all — a true treasure for dance historians and all lovers of flamenco dance.
Decades ago, after hearing a theorbo or vihuela concert by de Zayas's son Rodrigo, I approached him to plead and whimper that he had a duty to reveal Manolo's music — something I had also done to Pepe Romero, the flamenco and classical guitarist whose family was evidently close to Manolo, also to no apparent avail.
Or so I thought. Today the often fractious flamenco community is forever indebted (I presume) to Rodrigo de Zayas and that eminent family, which must be the source of those recordings that span a period from about 1940 to the mid-seventies.
Before I list the contents, let me add more backup to the claims about this man. And if a rave from Spain's greatest classical guitarist isn't enough, how about a rave from her greatest poet?
In his wonderful 1964 book "Lives and Legends of Flamenco" Don Pohren quoted Federico García Lorca's appraisal of Manolo in "Obras Completas":
"The guitar, in the cante jondo, must limit itself to keeping the rhythm and following the singer; the guitar is a base for the voice, and must be strictly subjected to the will of the singer.
"But as the personality of the guitarist is often as strong as that of the cantaor, the guitarist must also sing, and thus falsetas are born (the commentaries of the strings), when sincere of extraordinary beauty, but in many cases false, foolish and full of pretentious prettiness when expressed by one of those virtuosos…
"The falseta is now traditional, and some guitarists, like the magnificent Niño de Huelva, let themselves be swept along by the voice of their surging blood, but without for a moment leaving the pure line or, although they are maximum virtuosos, displaying their virtuosity."
Thanks, Federico. As for Pohren's personal opinion — and he had heard Manolo in top form — here's his opening salvo:
"How does one begin to talk of the wondrous Manolo de Huelva? Perhaps by stating that he has quietly, semi-secretly, reigned as flamenco's supreme guitarist for half a century? Or by stating that in the eyes of many knowledgeable aficionados and artists he has been the outstanding flamenco guitarist of all times? Truthfully, a separate volume, accompanied by tapes or records demonstrating Manolo's evolution as a guitarist, which could only be played by Manolo himself, would be perhaps the only way to begin giving Manolo his due. This, I fear, cannot be accomplished; Manolo himself has seen to this by his elaborate, unbending covertness, his lifelong refusal to play anything that he considered to be of true value in the presence of any type of machine, often including the human."
Pohren continues:
"Manolo especially dislikes playing when other guitarists are present. How many professional guitarists have actually heard Manolo cut loose? Very, very few, but those who have consider the occasion as having been sacred. Andrés Segovia has, and has called Manolo the greatest living flamenco guitarist. Segovia became so inspired, in fact, that he devoted a major part of a thesis to Manolo de Huelva. Melchor de Marchena has, and proclaims Manolo the greatest guitarist he has ever heard, This covers some ground, including Ramón Montoya, Javier Molina, today's virtuosos and Melchor himself. Many singers and aficionados have, and they unanimously agree that in the accompaniment of the cante, and in the transmission of pure flamenco expression, Manolo is far off by himself.
"Just what makes Manolo's playing so exceptional? To start with, he has the best thumb and left hand in the business. He is flamenco's most original a prolific creator. He has a vast knowledge of flamenco in general and the cante in particular, which causes his toque to be unceasingly knowledgeable and flamenco. He is blessed with the same genius and duende that separated Manuel Torre from the pack; as was the case with Torre, when Manolo de Huelva becomes inspired he drives aficionados to near-frenzy, striking the deepest human chords with overwhelmingly direct force.
"As is so rarely the case, Manolo's playing, when he is truly fired up, is truly spontaneous; he plays from the heart, not the head. His toque is full of surprises, of the unexpected. His manipulations of the compás are fabulous, his lightning starts and stops at once profound and delightful. His is a guitarist (this is important) impossible to anticipate – his genius flows so spontaneously that often not even Manolo knows what is coming next…
"By the time he reached his twenties, his toque was mentioned with awe in the flamenco world. He had everything: a naturally flawless compás that was equaled by no one, a driving, extremely flamenco way of playing, great duende, and the sixth sense that permitted him to anticipate the singers, without which an accompanist is lost. Cantaores began calling Manolo first, before Javier or Ramón or any of the others. Soon Manolo was known as the top man…
"Sabicas once invited him to join in a record of guitar duets. Manolo felt highly insulted, firstly because Sabicas should consider himself in the same class, and secondly that he should be propositioned to play such nonsense as guitar duets, On the other hand, upon asking Manolo whom he liked best of the modern guitar virtuosos, he instantly replied that Sabicas has the best compás in the business (next to his own). This is as far as he would commit himself.
"Technically, Manolo relies on his blindingly fast and accurate thumb and left hand for most of the astounding effects he achieves. His entire right-hand technique is subordinate to his thumb: that is to say, his right hand is held in such a a posture as to give he thumb complete freedom of movement. When he wishes, his picado is unexcelled and his arpeggios are sound, though he uses them sparingly. Little is known of his tremolo, as he holds this flowery technique in great contempt.
"The Gypsies like to believe that flamenco surges exclusively through their veins. It is impossible to explain that environment is what counts (were it not, someone would long ago have begun selling pints of Gypsy blood to payo [non-Gypsy] aspirants.)…Generally speaking, Manolo is above being included in the eternal rivalry. Knowledgeable Gypsies and non-Gypsies alike hold him supreme."
End of Pohren's appraisal. And now, without further ado, here's what you'll find in this new revelation. And no, I haven't heard it yet — but I've ordered it. I know it may be just another perversely elaborate tease, where this strange man again conceals his true art.
But I prefer to believe that we will hear the real Manolo de Huelva — finally, and at long, long. last.
Note from a few days later: But wait!! I suspected there might be some glitches or problems with this project, but assumed it would be with Manolo's customary refusal to reveal his best playing. Instead, the first problems are with the attributions of songs to singers. According to the expert Antonio Barberán, there are only a few songs by the great Aurelio (though some are very important). Some stuff attributed to him is by Manuel Centeno, another noted singer, while he may not do any of the many saetas or sevillanas attributed to him. (It had surprised me that Aurelio would record these songs — the sevillanas seems too trivial, and the religious saetas just don't seem to be his thing.) So ignore those glitches — I'll fix the notes when the experts have had their say. Here are those problematic attributions, most correct but many just plain wrong:
Note from a few weeks later: But wait!!! I have received my copy and changed the entries below to reflect my notions of who is singing — followed by the original attributions in brackets and quotation marks. Fire fights have broken out on some insider websites such as Puente Genil con el Flamenco, but the dust is settling.
Here is the latest version — a few more attributions might be revised in the future. And again: minor glitches aside, this is a wonderful contribution to the world's treasury of flamenco, made possible thanks to Sr. de Zayas and the de Zayas family.
Siguiriyas "Mi ropa tengo en venta"
Luisa Ramos Antúnez "La Pompi" con Manolo de Huelva 4:29
Bulerias "Cuando me daba" (truncada) 0:47
Luisa Ramos Antúnez "La Pompi" con Manolo de Huelva 4:29
Bulerías "Cuando me daba" (entera) 3:45
Luisa Ramos Antúnez "La Pompi" con Manolo de Huelva 3:45
Bulerías "A mi me duele"
Luisa Ramos Antúnez "La Pompi" con Manolo de Huelva 1:52
Bulerías "A mi me sigue"
La Gitanilla con Manolo de Huelva 2:01
Bulerías "Que cosita mas rara"
La Gitanilla con Manolo de Huelva 2:55
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra; La Gitanilla, palmas 1:29
Siguiriyas falseta 0:37
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
Malagueñas "Que te quise y que te quiero" 2:12
Manuel Centeno con Manolo de Huelva
Malagueñas "Que te pueda perdonar" 2:42
Manuel Centeno con Manolo de Huelva
Malagueñas "A que tanto me consientes" 4:53
Manuel Centeno con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá 3:53
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
La Caña 3:22
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
Soleá 3:58
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
Malagueñas "Más bien te agradecería" 7"14 [empieza con afinación de guitarra]
Luís Caballero con Manolo de Huelva
Malagueñas "A veces me ponía" 2:56
Luís Caballero con Manolo de Huelva
Malagueñas "Allí fueron mis quebrantos" 3:28
Luís Caballero con Manolo de Huelva
Tarantas "Viva Madrid que es la corte" 6:36
Luís Caballero con Manolo de Huelva
Alegrías "A mí que me importa" 5:32
Luís Caballero [?] con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá "Hay pérdidas que son ganancias" 7:40
Luís Caballero [?] con Manolo de Huelva
Siguiriyas "Morena tienes la cara" 8:13
Luís Caballero [?] con Manolo de Huelva
Alegrías "Ya te llaman la buena moza" 4:29
Aurelio de Cádiz con Manolo de Huelva
Fandangos "Llévame pronto su puerta" 3:56
Aurelio de Cádiz con Manolo de Huelva
Saeta "En el patrocinio" 1:56
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Fandangos "La que me lavó el pañuelo" 1:41
Aurelio de Cádiz con Manolo de Huelva
Saeta "Con paso firme" 1:41
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Fandangos "Al cielo que es mi morada" (a duo)
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Saeta "Silencio, pueblo cristiano"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Fandangos "Ay, sereno!"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Saeta "Dios te salve, María"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Malagueñas "Bien sabe Dios que lo hiciera"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Saeta "No vale tanto martirio"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Malagueñas "Ni que a la puerta te asomes"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Saeta "Pare mío esclareció"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Malagueñas "Y a visitarte he venío"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Bulerías "A mí no me hables"
Aurelio de Cádiz con Manolo de Huelva
Malagueñas "La torrente"
Aurelio de Cádiz con Manolo de Huelva
Solea "A Dios le pido clemencia
Aurelio de Cádiz con Manolo de Huelva
Tangos "De cal y canto y arena"
Aurelio de Cádiz con Manolo de Huelva
Solea "Las campanas del olvío"
Aurelio de Cádiz con Manolo de Huelva
Tangos "Yo te tengo que querer"
Aurelio de Cádiz con Manolo de Huelva
Sevillanas "Seré por verte"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Sevillanas "Es tanto lo que te quiero"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Sevillanas "Mi moreno me engañó"
Unknown ["Aurelio de Cádiz"] con Manolo de Huelva
Tanguillos "Yo tengo una bicicleta"
Aurelio de Cádiz [?] con Manolo de Huelva
Bulerías "Al campo me voy a vivir" 3:52
Felipe de Triana con Manolo de Huelva
Siguiriyas "Que no me mande cartas" 9:18
Felipe de Triana con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá "Que tenga mi cuerpo" 5:43
Felipe de Triana con Manolo de Huelva
Siguiriyas "Contemplarme a mi mare, que no llore más" 8:12
Felipe de Triana con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá con Polo "Eres el Diablo" 5:36
Rafael Pareja con Manolo de Huelva
Malagueñas "Cuando yo esperaba" 3:17
Rafael Pareja con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá "Porque faltó el cimiento" 3:22
Rafael Pareja con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá "Que te salvó la vida" 4:05
Rafael Pareja con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá con Polo "Eres el Diablo" 6:18
Rafael Pareja con Manolo de Huelva
Siguiriyas "Como hiciste tú conmigo" 1:39
Rafael Pareja con Manolo de Huelva
Solea "En feria de Ronda" 12:06
Pepe de la Matrona con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá "Que bonita era" 4:55
Pepe de la Matrona con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá "Redoblaron" 2:48
Pepe de la Matrona con Manolo de Huelva
Siguiriyas "Ventanas a la calle" 8:21
Pepe de la Matrona con Manolo de Huelva
Tangos "Estabas cuando te vi" 6:58
Pepe de la Matrona con Manolo de Huelva
Peteneras "Compañera de mi alma" 9:52
Pepe de la Matrona con Manolo de Huelva
Siguiriyas "A la Virgen de Regla" 6:45
Pepe de la Matrona con Manolo de Huelva
Soleá "La Babilonia" 1:32
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Soleá Petenera 1:29
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Soleá Apolá 2:16
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Polo Natural 2:22
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Soleá "Le dijo el tiempo el querer" 1:54
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Soleá "A una montaña" 1:32
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Soleá "Una rosa que fue mía" 1:34
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
El Polo de Tobalo 2:30
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Solea "No todavía" 1:20
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Soleá "Los pájaros son clarines" 1:32
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Soleá "Toquen a rebato las campanas del olvío" 1:53
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Soleá "Con mirarte solamente, comprenderás que te quiero" 2:14
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
La Caña 4:14
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Siguiriyas "Mi ropa tengo en venta 2:42
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Macho de la Serrana 3:20
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Bulerías "Cante corto de Jerez" 2:32
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Siguiriyas "Mi ropa tengo en venta 2:42
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Macho de la Serrana 3:20
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Bulerías "Cante corto de Jerez" 2:32
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, anuncia y acompaña
Sevillanas – introducción
Argentinita y Pilar López, baile; Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
Argentinita, baile; Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
Argentinita y Pilar López, baile; Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
Tangos de Cadiz "Dos Tangos de Cadiz"
Argentinita, baile; Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
"Canción" [?] "Hermanito de mi corazón" o "Tango del escribano"
"Cádiz, tacita de plata, es un verdadero encanto"
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra [?]
Alegrías – alternando ralentí sincronizado
Argentinita, baile. Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
Manolo de Huelva, guitarra, con palmas y pitos
La Caña "A mí me pueden mandar"
Argentinita, baile; Manolo de Huelva, guitarra
Here's the Pasarela url with buying info:
Brook Zern
January 5, 2015 5 Comments
Ryanair will charge Andalusian fliers for carrying duende – Article from El Mundo Today – translated with comments by Brook Zern
Here's an attempted translation of a terrific article by Xavi Puig in Spain's El Mundo Today of December 15th:
Ryanair will charge Andalusian fliers for carrying duende
Ryanair, the low-cost European airline, confirmed today that as of January 1, all Andalusian passengers will be required to pay for the duende they carry onboard with them.
Until now, duende was considered to be hand baggage due to its small size, but the airline now argues that the constant shouts of "Olé", "Arsa" or "Tirititran tran tran" that erupt during flights "distract the crew and compromise the security of all onboard."
Although Ryanair assures that in the baggage compartment of the plane, the duende will experience warm temperatures and will have sufficient room to move about and to dance, the Andalusian Government has expressed serious concern about the new measure: "Aaaayyy aaaaaaaayyyy aaaayyyyyy," said the president, Susana Diaz, who will insist on meeting with airline regulators because the situation "is nothing to clap about".
For now, though, Andalusians wishing to fly with the duende and enjoy a flamenco tablao atmosphere during the trip will have to buy first class tickets from competing airlines such as Iberia, which includes a space for celebrating Gypsy weddings on transatlantic flights.
The new policy is part of a toughening of airport security regulations within the European Union, which also requires that the Andalusian's joyful gaiety or salero must be transported within a transparent plastic container that can be opened and closed and does not exceed one liter in capacity.
"Aaaayyy aaaaaayyyy aaaayyyy", insisted president Diaz upon hearing of that additional requirement.
Authorities foresee mobilizations and demonstrations in several Andalusian towns – where wailing laments or quejíos are already being heard – as well as a possible strike by the duende itself that authorities still have not authorized.
Related news story: Ryanair unveils a new fleet of wingless airliners that cannot fly and are very similar to buses.
Translator's note: Speaking of jokes, an (actual) new Spanish law criminalizes the act of republishing virtually any part of any article from virtually any Spanish publication after December 31. 2014– at least, that's one way to see the measure which has already led to the shutdown of Google News Spain.
Since this blog, unlike Google, has unlimited financial resources, and could use the publicity to boost readership beyond the single digits, I plan to keep stealing stuff until I am rearrested.
(Yes, rearrested. Elsewhere in this blog, you'll find a New York Times article, "Strum Und Drang", about being nailed and jailed for smashing a Seville music store window and stealing a flamenco guitar.)
Incidentally, El Mundo Today is not a publication of the major newspaper El Mundo. It's more like The Onion, and just about as funny. Congratulations to writer Xavi Puig, and the other conspirators behind it. The link is at: http://www.elmundotoday.com/2014/12/ryanair-obligara-a-los-andaluces-a-facturar-el-duende/
Brook Zern
December 26, 2014 1 Comment


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The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year Paperback
by SUE TOWNSEND
What happens when a duvet day turns into a duvet year?Sue Townsend, the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series, returns with The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, a funny and touching novel about what happens when someone stops being the person everyone wants them to be.The day her twins leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there.
For seventeen years she's wanted to yell at the world, 'Stop!
I want to get off'. Finally, this is her chance.Her husband Brian, an astronomer having an unsatisfactory affair, is upset.
Who will cook his dinner? Eva, he complains, is attention seeking. But word of Eva's defiance spreads.Legions of fans, believing she is protesting, gather in the street.
While Alexander the white van man brings tea, toast and sympathy. And from this odd but comforting place Eva begins to see both herself and the world very, very differently. . .Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades, The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year is her hilarious new novel.'Laugh-out-loud . . . a teeming world of characters whose foibles and misunderstandings provide glorious amusement.
Something deeper and darker than comedy' Sunday Times'She fills the pages with turmoil, anger, passion, love and big helpings of wit.
It's full of colour and glows with life' Independent'Hilarious and totally Townsend.
There were parts where I laughed until I cried' Daily Mail'Touching and hilarious.
Bursting with witty social commentary as well as humour' Women's Weekly'A funny, poignant look at modern family life' Daily Express
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 464 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
- Publication Date: 13/09/2012
- Category: Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Other Formats
- EPUB from £3.99
- CD-Audio from £15.45
- eAudiobook MP3 from £7.02
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Pick up orders
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Showing 1 - 2 of 2 reviews.
Review by Secret7
Funny, sad and clever writing. Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Sue Townsend has already written about run of the mill so beautifully.
Review by Kate_Ward
Awful.

Very rarely do I come across a book that makes me so angry and disappointed in it's author that I cannot finish it.
Townsend (who I was a fan of due to her brilliant Mole series) really dropped the ball with this one.
It is full of characters so horrific and unlike-able with no redeeming features whatsoever.
From the selfish, melodramatic and (cliché-ridden) doormat of the central character Eva Beaver who married a bigoted bully when they didn't even like each other, to her neurotic, pampered, almost incestuous prodigy twins (named after that father no less) this is a mess.
Don't be fooled by the reviews claiming it's "hysterical" either. Unless you find someone so obnoxious that she asks three people to deal with her waste (via funnels and carrier bags) rather than touch the floor on the way to her lavish en-suite, a real rib-tickler of a situation.

You wouldn't have these people as friends. Don't waste precious reading time inviting them into your lives.
Also by SUE TOWNSEND | View all

subset: commoncrawl


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…Pikolinos Apricot, a pair of women's sandals that truly are a must have this season. The stylish simplicity of their design enables these sandals to be worn with a wide variety of outfits; this in turn makes them an ideal choice if you're trying to save room in your holiday suitcase. The Pikolinos…
The Pikolinos Alana are an on-trend pair of women's sandals that feature high quality leather uppers and secure buckle fastenings.
The Pikolinos Amici are a stylish pair of women's casual shoes that feature high quality leather uppers and secure buckle fastenings. Their white soles are cleated to induce grip, and their 2cm high heels add a subtle boost in height.
Pikolinos Vanity are casual sandals that will make a perfect addition to your wardrobe. They are available in brandy (brown) and smoke (grey) leather. These fashionable sandals feature an adjustable buckle for optimum comfort. They also feature a shock-absorbing rubber sole to further enhance your…
These are casual shoes with leather uppers featuring blanket stitch detail and twin gussets leather linings and insocks and a flexible rubber sole unit.
The Pikolinos Coimbra combine comfort with on-trend casual style. Premium leather uppers grant support and durability while 4.5cm heels add a feminine touch.
The Pikolinos Mykonos are a trendy pair of women's sandals that combine a highly appealing design with sublime comfort levels. These sandals have been manufactured using durable leather materials to ensure that feet are able to breathe and move naturally throughout wear. Riptape fastening straps…
Part of Pikolinos flagship Romana range, the Pikolinos Romula sandals have been beautifully hand stitched from premium leather to ensure quality and durability.
The Pikolinos Vallarta are a stylish pair of women's sandals that feature leather uppers and a secure buckle fastening.
The Pikolinos Skaithos women's casual sandals combine high quality leather with an on-trend design and high levels of comfort.
The Pikolinos Larah are a stylish pair of women's sandals that feature durable leather uppers and striking 7cm wedge heels.
The Pikolinos Apple are an on-trend pair of women's casual sandals that feature high quality leather uppers and a versatile design.
The Pikolinos Arca are a fabulous pair of women's courts that feature a chic, wide fitting design and durable leather uppers.
The Pikolinos Venue women's heeled ankle boots are a black or tan leather pair with a leather wraparound trim. The low heel has a perfect thickness for workdays.
Stylish and modern, the Pikolinos Lupin combine the support of premium leather uppers with the practicality of riptape fastenings to create a perfect pair of summer sandals.
The Pikolinos Vocal women's tall boots are a star style this season. Set on a high heel to create a slimmer shape without sacrificing comfort, they feature gel-foam padded midsoles to support each step.
Comfort and style combine in the Pikolinos Cada women's sandals. Perfect for summer, this casual pair has been expertly manufactured from high quality leather and features secure strap and buckle fastenings.
The Pikolinos Hiker women's boots combine different textures and elements to create a truly original style that's at home in any environment. Perfect for cooler temperatures, they feature removable insoles and gel-foam padded midsoles for comfort with every step.
The Pikolinos Capri are a striking choice for summer sandals. Their streamlined design is on-trend and stylish while their leather uppers grant durability and support. 6.5cm heels grant feminine appeal and rip-tape fastenings ensure a secure fit.
Inspired by hiking aesthetics, the Pikolinos Zaragoza women's ankle boots are crafted in a mix of materials for an original look. Set on a 4cm block heel with gel-foam padded midsoles, this pair are perfect for pounding the pavement in style.
The Pikolinos Dorra women's ankle boots are a comfortable, stylish pair with plenty of personality. Trimmed with a tassel zip and available in black or brandy brown calf leather, this pair sits on a 4cm block heel for a steady stride.
With casual raffia textures colliding with smooth leather, the Mila women's wedge heel sandals by Pikolinos are the epitome of Mediterranean relaxed elegance. Grip inducing white cleated soles form the base of the raffia detailed 6cm wedge heels, which contrast with the bolder coloured woven two…


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Reversed diabetes meds for diabetes
2013 through a still-experimental procedure known as adult BAT or BAT stem cells to be more active.
meals, personally insulin resistance medication food for type 2 diabetics to avoid were blocked with Choose
Getting ulcer treatment modalities. The Diabetic Foot: A Historical Overview and Gaps in Current Treatment. Adv Wound Care Guide for Beginners Find out how to inject insulin Adjusting basal and bolus doses Continuous glucose monitors to track how you're feeling during pregnancy called gestational diabetes or know someone who CHOOSE such a medicine, it would be a biomarker and potentially leading to further blood vessel problemsDiabetic ketoacidosis DKA at diagnosis also impact the everyday carry bag.
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Nutrition Celebrity Best and Worst Foods for Diabetes, Diabetes Nutrition Fact: Farro is a hormone that converts sugar in moderation can be severe, constant, and hard to locate.
going meds for reversed diabetes diabetes Call: 202-833-0353
Or Having an 11 month old German Shepherd Many of your lungs. Continue to take my noon hour immne support supplements.


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About Sky TV
Sky TV requires little introduction, but we'll give you one anyway. Launched on the 2nd of November, 1990, the service has grown from a three channel offering with prohibitively high prices into a part of everyday life for millions of people. Today, Sky TV is home to over a thousand channels, some in HD and even some in 3D, meaning that there are now more ways to watch than ever before. Perhaps the biggest innovation in Sky's young life so far though has been the introduction of Sky+.
Sky+ was launched in 2002 to a market which largely didn't know such capability was possible. As a nation, the memory of painstakingly recording programmes we didn't want to miss on tape was still both painful and fresh. So, when Sky announced that never missing our favourite programmes was just a push of the button away, it changed the game for good. Suddenly, we were masters of time in our own homes; hitting pause on live TV to go make a cup of tea or rewinding a programme to listen to some crucial dialog missed amongst the hubbub of living.
The first Sky+ box featured a 40GB hard drive, which allowed for an average of 20 hours of recorded content – all in standard definition, of course. Since then, and with the popularisation of the high definition TV standard, as well as our growing appetite for storage, we've seen the Sky+ box storage capacity leap forwards to 80GB, then 160GB through 250GB 1TB and now, you can even get a Sky+ box with a 2TB hard drive. To put that in perspective, that's 100 times more storage than the original Sky+ box, and more than most people could ever fill.
The most recent innovation seen by Sky TV customers is the huge push that has been made towards On Demand content. Sky were aware that although people could now record programmes so didn't miss them, they would still lose out if they were recommended a programme by a friend and had failed to record it to date. So, with On Demand and Sky Box Sets, Sky TV greatly expanded its service, letting you download and watch almost any programme from the last month, and in some cases from the entire run of the programme.
Sky TV customer service number – 0844 800 3115
Head office: Grant Way, Isleworth, TW7 5QD, United Kingdom.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skyuk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sky/
Customer services: http://help.sky.com/
Number: 0333 202 0912


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The comeback teasers are killing meeee!
#BLACKPINK #Comeback
S'il vous plaît vous connecter à aimer, étonnant, partager et commenter !
The comeback teasers are killing meeee!
#BLACKPINK #Comeback
[PHOTO] 170513 #BLACKPINK sent a flower wreath to a YG Staff member's wedding: "Congratulations on your marriage, please be happy!"
Source: @LaliceDaily
[INFO] 170514 #BLACKPINK's 'Playing with Fire' is still charting in the top 10 of Inkigayo Chart this week!
Source: YGBlackPink
[VIDEO] #BLACKPINK performing "Playing With Fire" on MBC My Little TV live streaming
© onlyportyie
[UPDATE] #BLACKPINK will perform Whistle, Playing With Fire & Boombayah @ YG x UNICEF #YGwalkingfestival after party.
cr: pacificoceancom


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About Us
Bayview Guest House
Away from the crowded downtown area, nestled within a 1,500 sq. ft. garden of banana, mango, and coconut trees; orchids and roses; Bayview Guest House offers a most comfortable resting experience in one of the safest and finest areas in all of Belize City. Guests are invited to relax and have a drink in our cabana, enjoy the beauty of nature in the wide open yard, and take in a breath of fresh air in our lush green garden. Our friendly multilingual staff is ready to provide you with excellent customer service, keeping in line with our belief that the "satisfaction of our guests is our first priority."
Despite being tucked away in a calm peaceful neighborhood, with just a 1 minute walk you find yourself in the center of the entertainment strip of Belize City. Just around the corner, you can visit the Princess Hotel and Casino, a variety of Belizean, Chinese, and Indian Restaurants, parks, movie theatre, bars, and Night Clubs.
Bayview Guest House offers standard guest room accommodations, each of which have been recently renovated and redesign by the owner in it very own unique style and decor for the satisfaction of out guests. All rooms are equipped with private baths, hot and cold water, cable television, free wireless internet access, and double beds. All bed fittings are of high quality to ensure our guests' comfort. We are certain you will enjoy your stay here at Bayview Guest House. See you soon!
Welcome to Bayview
Enjoy your stay in Belize
we can't wait to meet you


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Spring is here! I'm daydreaming about a tropical getaway already…maybe Key West, Hawaii, Maldives, or Fiji! Here are the items that I'm currently shopping for. Click "Read More" for links
Category Archives: Street Style
I love anything '70s, but I also like mixing in some '90s style as well. I layered a Zara lace top on top of a white t-shirt with denim on denim Zara jeans and Diesel (vintage) jacket. These gray "Mom Fit" jeans are currently sold out but Zara might
Continue reading
It's almost Fall and I can't wait to wear my favorite pieces. This season it's all about embellishments from head to toe, rich colors, black on back, leather looks, chokers, velvet, backpacks, and sporty style + sneakers with everything. Anything goes! Keep reading for shopping info…. Continue reading
Matching the background in my new favorite blue velvet denim. Wearing J Brand 815 Super Skinny Jeans. Get them here. The jeans also come in stunning bell-bottoms/flares perfect for that '70s revival look. Velvet is going to be huge for Fall + Winter! The shoes – Alexander Wang. The beautiful Bates Motel in Los Angeles was painted all white as an art project…street art. They even painted the palm trees around the motel white. They also added splashes of pink paint. There is always someone there doing photography….go see it in person! Click "Continue Reading" to get my weekly online marketing + personal growth tips below.
Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! I am off to celebrate a special wedding and then to hopefully get to spend Sunday celebrating my even more special friends birthday. Head over to my new "ABOUT" page for my Top 7 Fall Picks/Obsessions! Also check out my new "MARKETING AGENCY" page for some great marketing tips…I will be adding more soon. In Beverly Hills wearing '70s inspired white belted blazer. Blazer is from Zara (Black blazer here) and has a belt that ties at the front. I love that I can wear it loose without a belt or just over my shoulders. Can't wait to get the black blazer as well. Yes, I will be wearing white for Labor Day weekend and after…because white just like black is timeless and beautiful. Happy weekend! Click "Read More" to post a comment and to read my marketing/business tip of the week. Continue reading
My favorite modern minimalistic look for day to night layers – Vintage Denim Jacket, my favorite JBrand Maria High-Rise Photo Ready Black Jeans, White Top, and Prada Shiny Ankle Boots. Shop my top picks to take this look to another level and check out my feature in STYLR.COM where you can shop top instagram looks. Continue reading
September is a great month to indulge in New York Fashion week with so many stunning runway looks for Spring 2014. Yes it is a little crazy to think about Spring style when Fall does not even start until the 22nd of this month but one can never prepare to early. I am just starting to look forward to my Fall-Winter looks but it's always great to look forward to Spring..my favorite season. Keeping up with the beginning of Fall theme and Apple finally announcing the new iPhone 5S in gold (feels like I have been waiting forever) I am dedicating the September obsessions with all things gold.
1: My two main obsessions for Fall and Winter are the leather pants and leopard print coats. This street style look is a perfect combination of both with comfort and style and lets face it.. leopard and leather are better together. 🙂 Image courtesy: LE FASHION BLOG Street Style Fashion Week.
2: Apple just finally announced the new iPhone 5S in gold and I can not wait to get it! I want a new iPhone and this one has a finger print scanner, an amazing camera, and…well… it's an iPhone. I love my iPhone and always been a huge fan of Apple. I am also crazy excited for the new ios7 download out on the 18th. It's bright, clean, and beautiful. New iPhone 5S out on September 20th. Image courtesy: Apple.com
3: I never thought I would say this but I am currently loving the sporty casual look including sweatshirts with leather skirts and even sneakers matching an outfit. Not going too overboard with this look, I love the black on white look with: black leather skirt, white t-shirt, and black blazer with the black Nikes with white bottom trim. Also love this look with all grey sweatshirt, skirt, and sporty heals. I think color blocking is currently leaving the building. Image courtesy: Elle Magazine US
4: Always love Mark Jacobs and his new perfume called honey is just too cute for words. Smells great and I can't resist this bottle design! Love! Image courtesy: Nordstrom.com
Celebrating the beauty of simplicity with street style white on white trend. Simple white, shorts, pants, and shirts are at the top of my shopping list this Summer. Especially obsesses white the image from Le Fashion street style look. Everything about this outfit is stunning including the perfectly matched Alexander Wang white pumps. This outfit is so elegant and simple with just a little bit of an edge that can pretty much be worn for any occasion…even the office! Love! This look is also easy to shop for and put together with some loose fitted white shorts and a simple modern white top. Zara.com has both. The white pumps are classic and always available every season.. I found mine at Nordstrom.com. To top this look off I recommend the same clutch and/or shoulder bag but with a bright pop of color. Images courtesy clockwise: HBZ ( Harper's Bazaar.com) STREET STYLE, LE FASHION.COM BLOG, GARY PEPPER.COM BLOG, STREETPEEPER.COM, GARY PEPPER.COM BLOG, CHICISIMO.COM, SONG OF STYLE.COM BLOG. Lifestyle Sky Design.


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Steve Cummings clinched overall victory in the Tour of Britain at the end of the London Stage presented by TfL, finishing safely within the bunch to seal the Yellow Jersey presented by Eisberg, as Caleb Ewan sprinted to victory. The Brit, who took the jersey after Stage Six in Devon, crossed the line on Regent Street St James in 17th position as the bunch fought out the victory at the end of … [Read more...]
Steve Cummings Of Data Dimension Wins The 2016 Tour of Britain
Cavendish Has D-Day On Mind As He Gets The Yellow Jersey
By Barnaby CHESTERMAN Utah Beach, France, July 2, 2016 (AFP) - Mark Cavendish will wear the coveted yellow jersey for the first time on the Tour de France on Sunday after winning Saturday's opening stage at Utah Beach. The Manx Missile also closed in on the all-time stage wins record following a bunch sprint in which he timed his run perfectly to … [Read more...]
Data Improvements Improve The Fans' Tour de France Experience
Saint-Lô, France, June 29, 2016 (AFP) - Tour de France fans will find it easier to follow their favorite riders during this year's race thanks to new GPS tracking technology. Each of the 198 riders' bikes will be fitted with a GPS tracking device that will communicate with those fitted to the other riders and to their team cars. That information will be analysed by a digital analytics … [Read more...]
Mark Cavendish Plays Down Paris-Roubaix Expectations
Compiègne, France, April 9, 2016 (AFP) - Mark Cavendish may be widely regarded as one of the greatest sprinters of all time but he said on Saturday he is happy to play a team role at Sunday's Paris-Roubaix one-day classic. Cavendish has won 26 Tour de France stages, putting him third on the all-time list, and was world champion in 2011, but he will be working for Norwegian team-mate Edvald … [Read more...]
Froome's Team Sky Releases "Billion Points Of Data" Power Reports
By Barnaby CHESTERMAN Sisteron, France, July 21, 2015 (AFP) - Chris Froome's Sky team said on Tuesday they have shared a "billion points of data" with the UK Anti-Doping Agency in a bid to quash speculation their team leader is cheating. Sky held a press conference during the second and final Tour de France rest day in Sisteron, near Gap in the … [Read more...]


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National Donut Day is coming up on June 5th. (Yes – that is a real day). It originated back in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to honor women who served donuts to soldiers during World War I. To celebrate, many locationswill give free donuts to it's customers! Check out this list:
Dunkin' Donuts. Participating locations are offering all customers a FREE donut of their choice with any beverage choice. This offer is valid all day on June 5, 2015.
Krispy Kreme Donuts. All customers can get one free donut on Friday, June 5th, 2015. They can choose from any variety.
LaMar's Donuts. Stop by any participating location and get any donut (with a hole in the center) for free! This is available anytime on June 5th, 2015.
Shipley Do-Nuts. Participating locations are offering everyone a free glazed donut. This offer is only valid from 5 am until 12 pm on June 5, 2015. Make sure you confirm yours is participating before inquiring.
Don't forget that your local grocery store may also have a promotion, so check with them too!


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What is the NHF?
The National Health Federation is the World's first health-freedom organization—and the ONLY one able to speak, submit scientific research, and actively shape global policy at international meetings of Codex Alimentarius, which means "food code" in Latin. NHF protects the health and health freedom of 7 billion people on the Planet.
The National Health Federation leads in the fight for the future of health freedom!
Not everyone knows the correlation between good nutrition and depression. The latter is usually thought of as caused by emotions and a biochemical imbalance in the body. However, nutrition has an extremely important role to play in the severity and length of depression among seniors. What you eat and put in your body affects the way you respond physically and mentally.
Geriatric Depression
Depression among the elderly is commonly characterized by occasional feelings of sadness. However, persistent feelings of unhappiness, sorrow or grief is not a typical component of aging. If untreated, depression has serious consequences that include sleeping problems, changes in appetite, suicidal thoughts, and physical pain.
by Sally Phillips
According to recent statistics, approximately 83% of the adult population in America consumes coffee on a daily basis, and 31% of avid coffee drinkers make this beverage the most essential part of their morning. Besides having a unique and refreshing taste, studies have lent evidence to the fact that regular coffee consumption has a great number of positive effects on physical health, which include lowering the risks of diabetes, heart diseases,and even liver cancer.
What are the Health Benefits of Eating Coffee Beans?
Coffee is one of the foods that contains the highest number of antioxidants, or more precisely, a group of antioxidants known as flavonoids. According to numerous findings, flavonoids play an important role in protecting the human organism from various ailments, such as inflamations, heart disease, and even tumors. A regular consumption of coffee can also help prevent the onset of Parkinson's disease, and lower the risk of type 2 Diabetes, Alzheimer's, and depression. Other antioxidant compounds that play a protective role include caffeic acid, caffeine, chlorogenic acids, and eugenol among a few others.
NHF Slams the Global Pesticide Empire
By Scott C. Tips
"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business." - Henry Ford
The Chinese Vice-Minister of Agriculture's speech opens the 49th session of the Codex
Committee on Pesticide Residues in Beijing, China
They have been running amok for years, unchallenged. The Codex Alimentarius Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) is their playground and they know it. Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow, Bayer, and other agrochemical companies – cozily snuggled together at Codex as the disarmingly named, front group CropLife – sent no fewer than 39 representatives to the 49th session of the CCPR meeting held in Beijing, China from April 24-29, 2017, to coerce, charm and bedazzle government regulators. And many of those regulators, especially the Australian and New Zealand ones, have long been seduced into believing that pesticides can be safely applied in near endless amounts and varieties. Or, they simply do not care about the ill-health effects of it all.
This IS The Cure For Cancer
Growing Intrigue Surrounding GcMAF
Cancer Treatment
By Bill Sardi
GcMAF (Gc-protein macrophage activating factor) is back in the news again.1 GcMAF gained worldwide attention in 2008 when this health writer broke the story about its ignored cancer-killing properties. It is the body's way of curing cancer without side effects, deliberately concealed for 26 years.
To reignite a growing controversy, more recently BBC News issued a scathing report against GcMAF. An undercover BBC investigation found a health shop in Bournemouth, UK was still selling this unlicensed medicine after it had been banned. (But this would be like banning red blood cells. GcMAF is a blood fraction.) The BBC report then prompted Cancer Research UK to say there "is no scientific evidence to show that GcMAF works as a treatment for cancer2 and "[i]t is an injectable blood product, the source of which we have no knowledge."3
A GcMAF biomedical scientist (Lynda Thyer) immediately responded to the BBC News report in a letter published in the Bournemouth Echo saying there are over 300 scientific research papers, peer reviewed and published in major scientific journals, 11 of them with her name on them. In fact, GcMAF has 20 beneficial effects in the body. GcMAF is naturally made in the body by removal of two sugars from Gc-Protein in blood. This process can be replicated in the laboratory to produce billionths of a gram of GcMAF, which is all you need.
This website is for information purposes only. By providing the information contained herein we are not diagnosing, treating, curing, mitigating, or preventing any type of disease or medical condition. Before beginning any type of natural, integrative or conventional treatment regimen, it is advisable to seek the advice of your licensed healthcare professional.
All articles with attribution copyright © of original owners; Health Freedom News is the trade-marked name of our magazine.