#music, ¡Ay Mamá Inés!

(Imágen:Todo Cuba)

Esta canción fue escrita por el pianista y compositor cubano Eliseo Grenet en 1927 y era parte de la zarzuela «Niña Rita o La Habana en 1930«. Obra escrita por Eliseo Grenet y Ernesto Lecuona y con libreto de Aurelio Riancho. Esta canción ya forma parte del acervo popular. Y es nuestra selección musical de la semana, ya que voy a tener que ausentarme unos días del blog, aunque os dejare cosillas listas para vuestro disfrute…

Ay mamá Inés

Ay mamá Inés

Todo los negros tomamo café

Ay mamá Inés

Ay mamá Inés

Todo los negros tomamo café

Pero Belén, Belén, Belén

adonde anda tú metía

que en to Jesús María

yo te buscá y no te encontrá

!Ay chico si!

Yo estaba en casa e madrina

que ayer me mandó buscá

en el solar de la esquina

que ella vive en el manglar

ja jay….

Ay mamá Inés

Ay mamá Inés

Todo los negros tomamo café

Ay mamá Inés

Ay mamá Inés

Todo los negros tomamo café

#art, Remedios Varo – Women Artists Series

This is one of my favourites women artists. She was born in Catalunya but mostly made a name for herself while in Mexico. They say she is a surrealist but I think she was more of a fantasy/literature oriented artist creating her own style… Anyways, here, in this video, you will get a good introduction and I urge you to look for more (especially exhibitions) about the art and the life of this artist.

(2023/Please do not forget to «like»)

CHEERS

#poem, Flowers? Flowers for Me? (Chapter 3)

(«Rosa de medianoche»/Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)

Flowers for me?
To me you’re bringing
these flowers?

Have you never walked at night,
through a dark forest of green,
where flowers never will bloom,
where they wither, fade and die,
and scatter their timid petals
under a dead, leafless tree?
Have you never waded past
the sandbar that marks the boundary
between the warm, green blue waters
and the depths that you can’t see,
where even the bravest sailors
will fear the waves of the sea?
And now here upon my chest
you place a flower for me?

C.2024, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 12 DEC 2024, Valencia, España

#art, «Drawing» (an Euro-Ku)

(JaZzArT by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)

Drawing with the sun on my shoulders…

Drawing with my feet on the desk and a beer in the freezer waiting for the sun to melt the icicles in the window so that a little ray of warmth can penetrate the room…

Drawing while I think time is passing much too soon…

(C.2024, Francisco Bravo Cabrera – 17 DEC 2024 – Valencia, España)

#opinion, Another School Shooting in the United States

(Photo: The New York Times)

A school shooting at any time of the year is a horrible tragedy, more so at this time, nearing the holidays when families are planning festive and happy events. Especially for their children. Then a 15 year old female shoots up her school. She killed a teacher and another student. She also was killed…

To say that this happens way too often is an understatement. To ask why it occurred is to deny that the underlying problem in the US is the proliferation of guns. Children, of course, are not allowed to use guns or own guns, but they are readily available. Many times these children gain access to their family’s guns and either kill themselves, accidentally, or someone else.

I do believe that children are growing up in a make-believe world where things are manipulated by their will. From early on they are given tablets, mobile phones or computers so that they can entertain themselves and not bother their parents. Life online is very realistic, but it is not reality…

I think that guns kill. I have been around guns all my life and while I lived in the US I owned several guns and carried one everywhere, legally. I was trained in the use of firearms and in safety procedures. In the police department all officers must qualify before being allowed to carry a firearm, and there are yearly qualifications as well. So, if law enforcement has to go through all those steps, training and qualifications to walk around armed, why shouldn’t civilians?

I don’t want to take guns away from people. I do believe it is their right. But for protection or hunting, not for killing others. Assault weapons should have never been allowed in the hands of untrained civilians. They are military weapons meant to kill. And guns kill! If you do not believe guns kill then ask soldiers to go to war with frisbees!

Time to end this craziness and these tragedies. May God bless and take the victims, all of them…

#art, #poetry, «Cuba» (an Euro-Ku)

(Drawings by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)

Seems like a question mark floating on a warm, blue sea that turns treacherous, as it leans forward to kiss,

and the question is,

what is your forever?

(C.2024, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 17 DEC 2024, Valencia, España)

#poem, «Flowers For Me? (Chapter 4)

(Original artwork by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)

FLOWERS? FLOWERS FOR ME?
(Chapter 4)

Flowers for me?
For me?
Beautiful lady,
But why?

I don’t understand.
I am not wise but I’d say
I’m quite content with my way
of knowing that I don’t know,
and saying what I don’t say.

But if you truly wish to decipher my insanity,
I will proffer you my vanity
hoping that you’ll plainly see
this unfortunate reality
that a cloud above my head,
one so dark but without rain,
has made in my heart a wound,
that bleeds but causes no pain.

And I’ll have to tell you sadly
that if love brought you to me,
to bring me these lovely flowers,
in their box they will remain
as they have been picked in vain,
I do not deserve these flowers,
for I’ve not dedicated,
not one hour of my day to think of who,
has sacrificed lovely flowers
thinking that I could love you.

CHEERS

#art, A Word on Jazz and Art

(JaZzArT/Francisco Bravo Cabrera/Derechos Reservados/All Rights Reserved)

Jazz was invented at the turn of the XX Century in New Orleans. It immediately spread, confusing itself at times with the blues, with ragtime, with Dixieland. Later it was merged into rock by such greats as Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report, and even…I dare say…early rockers like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. The group Traffic also was greatly influenced by jazz and the solos created by these artists show tremendous knowledge of harmony and improvisation, both essential elements of jazz.

But can jazz, in other words the music created by improvisation, the player as composer and swing (rhythm), be applied to other arts. Surely it can be applied to dance and choreography, but what about painting? I say yes! Absolutely! A painting has to define itself, no matter how well planned and sketched it has been by the artist. The canvas, the composition, has to create itself, and there must be room of improvisation and of course, the composition must swing, it must have dynamics and that is akin to rhythm…

Of course it also helps if the composition represents elements of music or musicians. My series of JaZzArT is created by illustrating fictional (or not) jazz groups that I have imagined (or seen). They try to capture the moment onstage when there is a pause in the music and the players breathe…

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(2021/Please do not forget to like)

CHEERS

Dos dels nostres grans valencians i per la nostra Comunitat valenciana…Dos de nuestros grandes valencianos y por nuestra Comunitat Valenciana…

(Camilo Sesto)

D’Alcoi, i cantant-nos en la nostra llengua…

De Alcoy, y cantándonos en nuestra lengua…

(Camilo Sesto)

I el que li va fer un bell himne a la nostra terra valenciana…

Y el que le hizo un bello himno a nuestra tierra valenciana…

«La meua terra té la seua veu que rugeix si se li tanca…»

«Mi tierra tiene su voz que ruge si se le encierra…»

Moltes gràcies…

(Nino Bravo – foto Valencia Secreta)

MOLTES GRÀCIES – MUCHAS GRACIAS

#poem, «Flowers For Me? (Chapter 4)

(Original artwork by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)

FLOWERS? FLOWERS FOR ME?
(Chapter 4)

Flowers for me?
For me?
Beautiful lady,
But why?

I don’t understand.
I am not wise but I’d say
I’m quite content with my way
of knowing that I don’t know,
and saying what I don’t say.

But if you truly wish to decipher my insanity,
I will proffer you my vanity
hoping that you’ll plainly see
this unfortunate reality
that a cloud above my head,
one so dark but without rain,
has made in my heart a wound,
that bleeds but causes no pain.

And I’ll have to tell you sadly
that if love brought you to me,
to bring me these lovely flowers,
in their box they will remain
as they have been picked in vain,
I do not deserve these flowers,
for I’ve not dedicated,
not one hour of my day to think of who,
has sacrificed lovely flowers
thinking that I could love you.

CHEERS