Last night was just...wow.
I went with my oldest and dearest friend and his parents to see a beautiful Portuguese Fado concert. It was in the new Kimmel Center in Philadelphia...and the theater was just lovely...all warm woods, with amazing acoustics and the most amazingly pipe organ.
The first performer was Lila Downs. She's best known as the Mexican singer in the Frida movie. Let me just tell you, this woman's voice is something to behold. It was more like an instrument. She was dressed in this beautiful colorful dress and she came onto the stage dancing playing a drum. She does alot of tradiotional Mexican music from the south, mainly Oaxaca. The only song she sang in English was a psuedo-jazz song dedicated to Woodie Guthrie, a song about Mexican migrant workers.
The headliner was Mariza. My favorite Fado singer. This is the first concert tour she's ever done in the US, but she's won awards throughout Europe for her previous performances. It was simple orchestration. Three guitars, a drummer for a few of the songs, and a cello, violin and viola for a few songs. She is a very thin, very striking woman. She's originally from Mozambique, so she is not a traditional Portuguese beauty. She stood the entire time, dancing to the songs, telling stories about her childhood, scholding the audience for not clapping loud enough (which was funny) When she sang the most heart wrenching Fado's she actually pounded on her chest and pulled at her dress, you could see the pain behind every note. And her voice...good god, her voice just sends shivers up my spine. The power behind it is so strong you could feel it. And, the final song of the night was preformed without any amplification. She sang without a microphone and her guitarists played without amplifiers. And her voice could still fill the room.
The whole night was just breath-taking. I can't even find words worthy to describe it...it was that good.
I dressed up for it. I was wearing a pumpkin colored button down top, slacks, and shoes. I felt like I was going on an interview. But it was nice...my friend kept on telling me how pretty I looked. I guess he hasn't seen me done up in some time. And I loved being surrounded by so many Portuguese people. I kind of miss hearing the language and seeing the faces. I grew up surrounded by it because of my friend and his family. In Philly, I never see anyone or hear it...it always makes me kind of sad and homesick.
Wow....just wow. I need to buy both of their albums today. How did I go this long without them?
Besides that..a mellow weekend. I didn't go home to see my mom because of the torrential downpours most of the weekend. I spent my time just hanging out and resting. I bought my fall-winter wardrobe, which consists of two pairs of jeans, a pair of courdoroys, a few long sleeve t-shirts and a bunch of button down shirts. I'm not at all fancy, but when you have a job where you can dress pretty much like a slob most of the time, you don't really need to have an over-flowing wardrobe.
I could have outfits upon outfits, but i know, at the end of the day, i'm always going to go with the t-shirt and jeans, no matter how many good intentions of dressing up I have.
I bought one pair of sneakers, and they have skulls on them. I might get high heels when I'm in NY next, but I have so few things to wear them with. Plus, the whole "tall as a drag queen" thing.
I'm hoping the rain chills out by Friday. I have the day off and would like to spend it doing something. I had plans to hit a haunted house on Thursday, go for a tour of Eastern state Pennitentiary on Friday and then see Body Worlds that evening. Body Worlds is the touring exhibition of real human cadavers stripped down to show muscles and organs in movement. So a body will be posed in a running motion, showing the way muscles, blood vessels and organs would all move in motion. I've wanted to see this exhibition for years, and I'm very excited for it to finally be here. Its seen alot of controversy along the way, but I don't see why. All of the subjects used donated their bodies to this artist. They all new what he was using them for. And what is so offensive about the human form? about the circulatory system? About the muscles and tissues?
People are silly, they get upset over the stupidest things!
Wow this is long. I'll stop here. I promise boys and girls, the rest of the week will be breif.
And if you read through all of this...god bless your little heart!
I went with my oldest and dearest friend and his parents to see a beautiful Portuguese Fado concert. It was in the new Kimmel Center in Philadelphia...and the theater was just lovely...all warm woods, with amazing acoustics and the most amazingly pipe organ.
The first performer was Lila Downs. She's best known as the Mexican singer in the Frida movie. Let me just tell you, this woman's voice is something to behold. It was more like an instrument. She was dressed in this beautiful colorful dress and she came onto the stage dancing playing a drum. She does alot of tradiotional Mexican music from the south, mainly Oaxaca. The only song she sang in English was a psuedo-jazz song dedicated to Woodie Guthrie, a song about Mexican migrant workers.
The headliner was Mariza. My favorite Fado singer. This is the first concert tour she's ever done in the US, but she's won awards throughout Europe for her previous performances. It was simple orchestration. Three guitars, a drummer for a few of the songs, and a cello, violin and viola for a few songs. She is a very thin, very striking woman. She's originally from Mozambique, so she is not a traditional Portuguese beauty. She stood the entire time, dancing to the songs, telling stories about her childhood, scholding the audience for not clapping loud enough (which was funny) When she sang the most heart wrenching Fado's she actually pounded on her chest and pulled at her dress, you could see the pain behind every note. And her voice...good god, her voice just sends shivers up my spine. The power behind it is so strong you could feel it. And, the final song of the night was preformed without any amplification. She sang without a microphone and her guitarists played without amplifiers. And her voice could still fill the room.
The whole night was just breath-taking. I can't even find words worthy to describe it...it was that good.
I dressed up for it. I was wearing a pumpkin colored button down top, slacks, and shoes. I felt like I was going on an interview. But it was nice...my friend kept on telling me how pretty I looked. I guess he hasn't seen me done up in some time. And I loved being surrounded by so many Portuguese people. I kind of miss hearing the language and seeing the faces. I grew up surrounded by it because of my friend and his family. In Philly, I never see anyone or hear it...it always makes me kind of sad and homesick.
Wow....just wow. I need to buy both of their albums today. How did I go this long without them?
Besides that..a mellow weekend. I didn't go home to see my mom because of the torrential downpours most of the weekend. I spent my time just hanging out and resting. I bought my fall-winter wardrobe, which consists of two pairs of jeans, a pair of courdoroys, a few long sleeve t-shirts and a bunch of button down shirts. I'm not at all fancy, but when you have a job where you can dress pretty much like a slob most of the time, you don't really need to have an over-flowing wardrobe.
I could have outfits upon outfits, but i know, at the end of the day, i'm always going to go with the t-shirt and jeans, no matter how many good intentions of dressing up I have.
I bought one pair of sneakers, and they have skulls on them. I might get high heels when I'm in NY next, but I have so few things to wear them with. Plus, the whole "tall as a drag queen" thing.
I'm hoping the rain chills out by Friday. I have the day off and would like to spend it doing something. I had plans to hit a haunted house on Thursday, go for a tour of Eastern state Pennitentiary on Friday and then see Body Worlds that evening. Body Worlds is the touring exhibition of real human cadavers stripped down to show muscles and organs in movement. So a body will be posed in a running motion, showing the way muscles, blood vessels and organs would all move in motion. I've wanted to see this exhibition for years, and I'm very excited for it to finally be here. Its seen alot of controversy along the way, but I don't see why. All of the subjects used donated their bodies to this artist. They all new what he was using them for. And what is so offensive about the human form? about the circulatory system? About the muscles and tissues?
People are silly, they get upset over the stupidest things!
Wow this is long. I'll stop here. I promise boys and girls, the rest of the week will be breif.
And if you read through all of this...god bless your little heart!
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
fine then.
i've had blow me like the wind stuck in my head for 2 days. not one of the songs you want to start singing at work without noticing whats coming out of your mouth.