Fiesta Las 100 Mejores by Various Artists

2009 (100 tracks, 5:22:53)

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A City financier accused of trying to kill an employee sent a work experience girl an obscene message in Latin, a tribunal hears…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: city furniture. The blog is also related to: most populated cities.

FREE DOWNLOAD – Tito Rodriguez – Mama Guela

Fania Records just released a compilation of the work of Tito Rodriguez called ‘A Man and His Music’. It’s a great listen and spans the many moves of “the other” Tito. Also be sure to check out the PBS documentary Latin Music U.S.A. for some amazing footage of Tito in action!

En los primeros años  40, en Nueva York, la música popular vivió una de sus más profundas revoluciones cuyos efectos permanecen vivos y muy vigentes hoy en día.

Algunos músicos afroamericanos -Parker, Gillespie….- se rebelaron contra el carácter comercial y predominantemente blanco del swing. Rompiendo todas las convenciones provocaron un gran escándalo cuando crearon el bebop, un  lenguaje de magnífica complejidad armónica.

En los inicios de la “revolución”, los beboppers se encontraron con una multitud de músicos cubanos que poco a poco y desde los años 30 habían comenzado a llegar a los EE.UU. El talento excepcional de  aquellos hombres provocó una de las más deliciosas fusiones musicales: el jazz afrocubano.

Conscientes de la convulsión que generaba aquella música y orgullosos de su marginalidad, compusieron numerosos temas con títulos plagados de humor y provocación. En este contexto, se explica la referencia musical a los efectos  positivos y euforizantes de la marihuana.

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Chano Pozo y Dizzy Gillespie compusieron “Manteca“ y los míticos Mario Bauzá y Machito, “Tanga” -que algunos  consideran la primera composición de Latin Jazz-  y “Sopa de Pichón“, formas de nombrar a la marihuana en el argot cubano.

Mario Bauzá

Machito

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No resulta extraño entonces que alguien, tomando una simple “sopita”, declare haber visto:

“(….) muerto de risa a un mosquito

a un burro estudiando….”

Sopa de Pichón (Versión de Beny Moré)

Tanga (“Live in New York“)

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Recomendado:       Machito and his Afro Cubans 1941

 Sevillanas De Oro (Bonus Tracks) by Various Artists

2009 (20 tracks, 1:03:06)

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 The Mambo Factory Vol 2 by The Mambo Factory Vol 2

2009 (20 tracks, 1:14:57)

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 Lo Mejor De La Copla Vol.7 by Various Artists

2009 (20 tracks, 1:00:40)

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 Lo Mejor De La Copla Vol.6 by Various Artists

2009 (20 tracks, 1:04:47)

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 Lo Mejor De La Copla Vol.1 (Bonus Track) by Various Artists

2009 (21 tracks, 1:07:55)

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It’s Monday once more, and as I stare out yet again at the blustery, rain-sodden English landscape, time to break out some more of those exotic sounds of yesteryear, but this time with an emphasis on big orchestral arrangements of the Latin/Mexican/South American numbers. Nevermind that, if you actually visited most of these places today, you’d be dodging bullets in drug-gang controlled warzones to a soundtrack of gangster rap – just give me The Mexican Hat Dance, The Peanut Vendor, Tequila, and all those old rumba, samba and bossa grooves, as performed by the orchestras of Roberto Delgado, Erwin Halletz, Bert Kaempfert, Ray Martin, Edmundo Ros, Mantovani and others…

Wow, just as I’m finishing up this post, the sunshine suddenly breaks through the clouds. That’s the power of music for you!

Nobody’s been using Latin much — at least not for a couple hundred years — so the British have taken possession of it.

Americans could never own Latin. For one thing, the Romans never even visited New York. And the Brits had already beaten them to it. By the time America was breaking free of England, Latin was already a wholly-owned subsidiary of English. This is ironic, because if the Romans had kept their empire intact a bit longer, English would have been an obscure Germanic dialect.

The Brits own Latin. They write all the textbooks. The definitive texts of Roman authors are the Oxford editions. In movies, Romans almost always speak with a British accent. Even Russell Crowe, who is Australian, followed this rule.

If America wants to take over any language, it should be Dutch. After all, New York used to be called Nieuw Amsterdam. It was the capital of Nieuw Nederland, which took up a good part of what is now New England. There are all sorts of Dutch names on maps of New York: Brooklyn, the Bronx, Coney Island, the Bowery, Yonkers. Like the Romans, the Dutch once ruled a mighty empire. And they make great chocolate, something the Romans never mastered, since they never got around to conquering Mexico.

Dutch is a beautiful language, quite similar to English, but without as many annoying spelling rules. It’s almost impossible to be unpleasant while speaking Dutch. Even insults sound just moderately rude in Nederlands.

Julius Caesar and his army did visit England —Britannia to them — and left all sorts of ruins to prove they had occupied the island (except for Scotland, because —well, why bother?) Because of their long acquaintance with the Romans, the British were in a position to snatch up Latin when the barbarians set it out on the bargains table.

As a result, once English grammarians got around to dissecting their own language, Latin seemed infinitely more logical. Many rules of English grammar spring from the realities of Latin. For example, the rule ‘never split an infinitive.’ In Latin, one can’t split an infinitive because it is one word. English infinitives are always two words: to go, to see, to want.  Following this rule replaces normal expressions such as ‘to boldly go where no man has gone before’ with odd phrasings — ‘boldly to go’ or ‘to go boldly.’  What do we do with “We expect the population to more than double”? Dax is not willing to boldly attempt a rewording of that sentence.

Another example is prepositions. As we all know, “A preposition is something you never end a sentence with.”  The Romans never did. They knew that ‘pre-’ means before, and saw no reason to put them anywhere else.

But English is structurally a Germanic language, with lots of phrasal verbs like ‘be afraid of’ and ‘be proud of.’ In Latin these are one word – timere, superbire – and take either a direct object (not a prepositional phrase) or some sort of ablative (means, cause, etc.) An English writer can reword sentences to avoid putting prepositions at the end, but sometimes it sounds worse than the original ‘incorrect’ sentence, especially if it’s a question. “Who are you talking about?” becomes “About whom are you talking?”

Dax is a Latinist; he tries to follow the rules, however silly it makes him sound. He avoids splitting infinitives and leaving prepositions hanging onto the end of a sentence, but normal people give him strange looks. For a while he even gave up contractions, but it made him sound like a robot. He still tries to pronounce double consonants, and pronounces the silent ‘t’ in ‘often’ and ‘subtle.’ People frequently ask him, “What country did you grow up in?”

His reply is always the same: “I think you mean, ‘Up in what country did you grow?’”

But back to New Amsterdam. The editors of Edaxicon would like to make the Dutch an offer: we want your language. You may keep using it, of course. We will simply borrow its grammar and spelling rules and apply them to English, begin promoting Dutch in our schools, and change place names back to the original Dutch.

The benefits to Americans? We can stop getting into arguments about prepositions and infinitives. We can stop feeling ashamed that we don’t know what a declension is. We will be much nicer people.

 Summer Bossa by Various Artists

2009 (14 tracks, 44:17)

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 Las 100 Mejores Baladas En Español by Various Artists

2009 (100 tracks, 5:46:19)

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 Piano Bar by Various Artists

2009 (10 tracks, 45:57)

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The Shroud of Turin has been in the news a bit recently, and I blogged about how it can be replicated using completely natural methods (something many Shroud-proponents say cannot be done – whoops).  Well, now the Shroudies are back, with one of them claiming that she has seen ancient writing on the actual Shroud which “proves” it was the funeral covering for Christ’s burial.

Researcher: Faint writing seen on Shroud of Turin

A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus. Experts say the historian may be reading too much into the markings, and they stand by carbon-dating that points to the shroud being a medieval forgery.

Barbara Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, says in a new book that she used computer-enhanced images of the shroud to decipher faintly written words in Greek, Latin and Aramaic scattered across the cloth.

She asserts that the words include the name “(J)esu(s) Nazarene” — or Jesus of Nazareth — in Greek. That, she said, proves the text could not be of medieval origin because no Christian at the time, even a forger, would have mentioned Jesus without referring to his divinity. Failing to do so would risk being branded a heretic.

Of course, the claim of “proof” here flies in the face of much other evidence which clearly shows the Shroud’s origins as a pious fraud in the 1300s A.D., way past the burial date of Christ.  This includes evidence from independent radiocarbon dating tests, as well as evidence from historical, iconographic, pathological, physical, and chemical sources that points to its inauthenticity. As one of the foremost skeptical Shroud researchers, Joe Nickell, has concluded: the shroud is a 14th century painting, not a 2000-year-old cloth with Christ’s image.  And, concerning these most recent claims of seeing writing in the Shroud, they are dubious for multiple reasons…

From the article:

On one hand, it is true that a medieval forger would label the object with Christ’s name, as were all relics produced at the time, said Antonio Lombatti, a church historian who has written about the shroud. The problem is that there are no inscriptions to be seen in the first place.

“People work on grainy photos and think they see things,” Lombatti told the AP. “It’s all the result of imagination and computer software. … If you look at a photo of the shroud, there’s a lot of contrast between light and dark, but there are no letters.”

Further criticizing Frale’s work, Lombatti said that artifacts bearing Greek and Aramaic texts were found in Jewish burials from the first century, but the use of Latin is unheard of.

He also rejected the idea that authorities would officially return the body of a crucified man to relatives after filling out some paperwork. Victims of that form of execution used by the Romans would usually be left on the cross or were disposed of in a dump to add to its deterrent.

Lombatti said “the message was that you won’t even have a tomb to cry over.”

Another shroud expert, Gian Marco Rinaldi, said that even scientists who believe in the relic’s authenticity have dismissed as unreliable the images on which Frale’s study was based.

“These computer enhancements increase contrast in an unrealistic way to bring out these signs,” he said. “You can find them all over the shroud, not just near the head, and then with a bit of imagination, you see letters.”

In other words, the “writing” that Frale claims to be seeing & translating in the Shroud is likely nothing more than a classic case of pareidolia. There are numerous well-documented cases of this phenomena – many of them related to religious symbols such as the Shroud – whereby through self-delusion and sometimes “computer enhancement” people convince themselves that they’re seeing something familiar which isn’t really there.

So, taking Occam’s Razor out and applying it to the full amount of evidence, it is most likely that – even in the presence of these latest claims – the Shroud of Turin is still not what a lot of Shroudies claim it is.  But then, that won’t stop the true believers from engaging in goalpost moving or special pleading, because one of the last things they think could be possible is that they could be wrong.

Monday’s class (23 November) will start at 9.20am.

If you have not handed in the homework assignment from last Thursday (it’s on 4th conjugation verbs), please submit it at the beginning of class on Monday, 30 November.

For Monday, 30 November, conjugate the verb dormio, dormire (sleep) and the present, imperfect, future.

Happy Thanksgiving, be careful on Black Friday……

 The Best Of Explosion Latina by Various Artists

2009 (19 tracks, 1:13:24)

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Produzido por Lary Klein e Orly Adelson, o AMA (American Music Awards) é um grande show de entrega de prêmios e homenagens aos grandes artistas do cenário musical.

Pelo 37º ano, o AMA irá premiar as categorias de Pop/Rock, Country, Rap/Hip-Hop, Soul/R&B, Alternative, Adult Contemporary, Latin e Contemporary Inspirational.

Será a terceira vez que o público, através da internet, escolherá os vencedores, porém as votações estão encerradas desde 13 de novembro.

Neste ano, veremos 19 apresentações ao vivo no “Nokia Theater” em Los Angeles. Artistas como: Jennifer Lopez, Adam Lambert, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Green Day, Daughtry, Shakira, Kelly Clarkson, Black Eyed Peas, Whitney Houston,  Mary J Blige, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z e Alicia Keys.

Preparem-se, pois Lady GaGa irá “causar”!

A premiação, que acontece hoje, às 22h no Brasil, ao vivo no canal TNT e aqui no Blog (veja abaixo), tem como grande indicada a cantora Taylor Swift, que concorre em 6 categorias. Michael Jackson, que será homenageado, aparece em 5 indicações.

Realmente está sendo inteiramente impossível colocar no blog um link online, mas segue um link direto:

http://pt-br.justin.tv/poplinebr#

Veja a lista de indicados:

POP/ROCK

Cantor
Eminem
Michael Jackson
T.I.

Cantora
Beyonce
Lady Gaga
Taylor Swift

Banda, Dupla ou Grupo
Black Eyed Peas
Kings of Leon
Nickelback

Álbum
Lady Gaga / Fame
Michael Jackson / Number Ones
Taylor Swift / Fearless

COUNTRY MUSIC

Cantor
Jason Aldean
Darius Rucker
Keith Urban

Cantora
Reba McEntire
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood

Favorite Band, Duo or Group
Rascal Flatts
Sugarland
Zac Brown Band

Favorite Album
Rascal Flatts/ Unstoppable
Taylor Swift / Fearless
Zac Brown Band / Foundation

RAP/HIP-HOP MUSIC

Cantor
Eminem
Jay-Z
T. I.

Álbun
Eminem / Relapse
Jay-Z / Blueprint 3
T.I. / Paper Trail

SOUL/RHYTHM & BLUES MUSIC

Cantor
Jamie Foxx
Michael Jackson
Maxwell

Cantora
Beyonce
Keyshia Cole
Keri Hilson

Favorite Band, Duo or Group
Black Eyed Peas
Day26
Mary Mary

Álbum
Beyonce / I Am…Sasha Fierce
Black Eyed Peas / The E.N.D.
Michael Jackson / Number Ones

Trilha Sonora

Álbum
Hannah Montana: The Movie
Hannah Montana 3
Twilight Soundtrack

ALTERNATIVE ROCK MUSIC

Banda
Green Day
Kings of Leon
Shinedown

Música Adulta

Favorite Artist
Daughtry
Jason Mraz
Taylor Swift

Música Latina

Favorite Artist
Aventura
Luis Fonsi
Wisin Y Yandel

Inspiração Contemporânea

Cantora
Jeremy Camp
Brandon Heath
Mary Mary

Artista do Ano

Alternativo – KINGS OF LEON
Country – TAYLOR SWIFT
Pop/Rock – LADY GAGA
Rap/Hip-Hop – EMINEM
Soul/R&B – MICHAEL JACKSON

Revelação

X Pop/Rock – Kings of Leon, Lady Gaga
X Country – Gloriana, Zac Brown Band
X Soul/R&B – Keri Hilson, Jermiah
X Rap/Hip-Hop – Drake, Kid Cudi

 Hermano Te Estoy Hablando by Jaime Roos

2009 (17 tracks, 1:12:02)

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Meatballs, that is. My husband loves, loves this dish. He smiles, even giggles as soon as I say it’s on the stove. Albóndigas are the Latin American version of the Italian meatball. This dish, like most dishes with a pan sauce or gravy, improves overnight. All the flavors get to hang out, know each other and get happy. That doesn’t mean you have to make it ahead, just make enough to have some leftovers and have everyone in your office drool over your lunch.

The albóndigas are moist and flavorful as they are helped by the addition of bacon and seasonings. Then they’re simmered in pan drippings and beer on the stove top, leaving you with a light sauce that you can pour over your rice.

Albóndigas
For the meatballs:
2 lbs ground chuck
1/2 cp diced bacon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp Jugo Maggi (or Worcestershire sauce)
1/2 cp onion, finely diced
1/3 cp red bell pepper, finely diced
1 tsp crushed garlic (3 cloves)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cp bread crumbs
1/4 cp ketchup

For the sauce:
1 medium onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
1/2 cp Italian parsley, chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
2 cps tomatoes, chopped
1/2 tsp crushed garlic (1-2 cloves)
1/2 tsp habanero sauce
2 cp beer (about a bottle, minus a few sips for the chef)
Sea salt and pepper

Preparing the meatballs ~ Combine the ground beef,  bacon, onions, garlic, bell peppers in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg, add ketchup, salt, black pepper, Maggi and mix thoroughly. This will allow the condiments to be mixed evenly when you add it to the meat. Once you have combined the  meat and seasonings, making sure it is all well incorporated, mix in the bread crumbs.  You are now ready shape the albóndigas. I like making them rather large-a little larger than  a golf ball-you can make them as large or as small as you’d like. However, keep in mind that the fat from the beef and bacon will cook down, so don’t make the meatballs too small.

This amount of beef will make about 15 meatballs. You want to use a pan with a tight-fitting lid, once you’ve shaped your albóndigas, heat up the pan. Add about 1 tsp of oil to the pan and spread it around the bottom using a paper towel or brush.  Gently place the balls in the pan, don’t crowd them. You need enough room between them to be able to turn them. When the meatballs are browned on all sides, remove them from the pan and set aside. You may need to brown them in 2 batches.

Some of the fat from the meat will have been rendered on the pan, add the onions and bell pepper and cook until the onions begin to get translucent. Add the tomatoes, garlic and parsley and stir; you may have some dripping at the bottom of the pan, don’t be afraid of these, they hold all the flavor from the meat. The moisture from the tomatoes will make it much easier to incorporate the drippings.

Add the habanero sauce and beer. You need to have enough sauce to cover the albondigas; adjust your seasonings if necessary. Bring the sauce to a boil, then add the meatballs, spoon some of the sauce over the top of them. Cover and reduce heat to medium and allow it to simmer for 35 minutes. Do give them a stir every once in a while, you want to make sure they albondigas are absorbing the flavors from the sauce.

Remove the lid and allow it to cook for another 10 minutes. The meatballs will be fully cooked by now, what you’re doing at this point is reducing and thickening the sauce.

Listo! They’re ready to serve over rice. I usually serve these with white or yellow rice. The last time I made them I served them with Arroz con Guandú; a very traditional dish in Panama. Follow the link for that recipe.

I hope you’ll enjoy this dish as much as we do, don’t forget to let me know how it turns out.

Cookingly yours,
Anamaris

It’s only natural for me to be the most comfortable cooking traditional Panamanian dishes. It makes sense for these dishes to have special meaning to me. That the mere thought of them takes me back home, to the house I grew up in on Calle L, to watching my mom busily stirring pots and pans. There are dishes that remind me of Sunday dinners with aunts, uncles, cousins.

Guandúes are also known as gandules, or pigeon peas and are commonplace in Puertorrican and Caribbean tables and generally combined with rice. In Panama it is usually made with coconut milk and rabito–salt cured pig’s tail. I don’t have the luxury of using freshly picked guandú, but I can find them in the frozen section or the Latin aisle of most of the grocery stores in my area. Goya is a well-known brand for Hispanic products, they have the frozen ones.  

Arroz con Guandú

2 cps rice
1 cp frozen guandú (pigeon peas)
2 cps coconut milk
1/2 cp salt pork or bacon
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Sea salt

In a pot with a tight-fitting lid, brown the salt pork/bacon rendering some of its fat. Add the guandúes (pigeon peas), coconut milk and a bit of salt. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat until it simmers. Cook it until the peas are tender, about 40 minutes. Strain the liquid and measure, add enough water to make 3-1/3 cps of liquid, set aside.

This recipe uses the frozen peas, however, if you are using the canned variety, just skip the step above. Instead, strain the peas and measure the liquid in the can, then add coconut milk and water to  measure 3-1/3 cups. Fry the salt pork or bacon just before adding the rinsed rice.

Add oil to the pan with the peas, rinse the rice and add it to the pot stirring all the ingredients. Add the liquid, check the salt, stir this well. Make sure you remove any drippings that may have been stuck to the bottom of the pan. Bring it to a slow boil; once the liquid boils do not stir it again. Keep the temperature on medium high.

Once the liquid is almost completely evaporated, bring the temperature to low and cover with the lid. Allow to steam undisturbed for 40 minutes. When you remove the lid, all the peas will be at the top, go ahead and stir them into the rice. You’re done!

Note: The flavor of the coconut milk will intensify with time. You can cook the peas a day ahead to allow the flavors to meld together.

So, how did your pot come out?

Cookingly yours, 
Anamaris