Music speaks all the languages

Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around The World from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

A minha paixão por os azulejos...

Je connaissais les azulejos en tant que forme d'art, mais je ne savais pas leur histoire portugaise. La première fois que j'en ai su plus sur les azulejos fut pendant ma lecture d'une guide portugaise. Mais, une fois arrivée en Portugal, j'ai découvert que les azulejos étaient partout. Cette peinture-tapisserie sur carreaux de faïence vernissée remonte au 15e siècle, quand ils étaient largement utilisés en Andalousie pour la décoration des palais. Le roi Manuel Ier les a introduits en Portugal après son voyage en Espagne, mais au début ils avaient seulement des désignes monochromes avec des motifs géométriques. Dans l'évolution de la technique il faut bien reconnaître aussi le mérite de l'Italien Franscesco Nicoloso, qui a introduit le principe de recouvrir la terre cuite d'une couche d'émail blanc sur laquelle se fixent les pigments. Au contraire de ce que nous dirait notre intuition, le nom en portugais ne viendrait pas de azul (bien qu'en majorité on les retrouve en bleu et blanc), mais plutôt de l'arabe al zulaycha, qui désigne un morceau de terre cuite et lisse.Mais j'ai déjà écrit assez d'explications, maintenant c'est le moment des photos - il y a longtemps que je voulais vous présenter cette art magnifique.

Coimbra é assim

Nei loro volti vedevo la gioia di essere lì, di cantare e di incantare il modesto pubblico con le loro poesie. Mi emozionava la voce tremante di una signora che portava questo cappello gigantesco, originariamente proveniente dal sud del Portogallo. Osservavo l'espressione viva di un paio di occhi che appartenevano a questo basso signore che, nella mia immaginazione, doveva fare l'attore. Ma soprattutto mi commuovevano gli sguardi premurosi di due signore che sembravano di accarezzare il viso delicato della più giovane del gruppo. In quegli sguardi ci stava tutta la loro speranza in una tradizione che sarebbe portata nel futuro attraverso quella ragazza, che ci metteva tutto l'animo nel suo canto. Come loro, anche lei condivideva la passione del canto; come loro, lei pure ci credeva in quei versi delle canzoni d'amore. Ma, rispetto a loro, a lei spettava ancora scoprire cosa raccontassero quelle parole, e tutto ciò si rispecchiava nel suo sguardo speranzoso e timido.

Please, don't ruin my Europe!

Some may think of Europe as the recently-created European Union: a dangerous instrument led by political and economical interests, which keeps getting more and more control over our lives. Europe might be connected by some people to the bureaucratic "old continent" where progress happens, but not as fast as across the ocean. It might have the oldest universities in the world, but research work is not sufficiently granted and mobility is still a privilege for most of its students. Europe is slow, Europe is old-fashioned, Europe is falsely democratic...
While all these might be partially true, I love my continent and I love being a European. I have explored many European countries and I think there is no place in the world (perhaps only the Amazonian forest) where diversity  is as tangible as it is on the "old continent". In the range of some hundred of kilometres, everything can change, starting with language and religion and ending with toilet bowls or customs of giving toasts. If you go to the South, you will find large families eating and chatting around the table for hours and hours. Heading to the North, you will face people having quick dinners and lazing in front of a beer afterwards, somewhere in a pub. While Western Europe has always been the engine of the continent, the Eastern part has had to cope with the consequences of the devilish plans secretly developed by Europe's biggest powers. Now, we, young people of Europe, have left the past behind and are heading towards a Europe were diversity is lived. Diversity is desired and worshiped and Eastern Europeans are eager to head to the Western Europe, while the latter are exploring the remaining relics of the East with the eyes of an enthusiastic tourist. The traditions of another country can now be discovered in only one weekend-holiday, while the most recent tendencies in travelling include full immersion holidays, where people can directly experience national customs. Music and food are part of this experience, and their local origins are important ingredients for a successful recipe.
Our lovely Europe is based on the tomatoes coming from the gardens of the countrymen and on the overwhelming diversity of the ways we drink coffee or beer. I am happy to live in Europe because I know I will never get bored with her. She is like a perfect companion who knows how to party but who gets serious when necessary. She knows how to cook but she can adapt to so many types of food. She prays in a variety of languages to different gods and yet is independent and highly competitive. She has sunny hair of sand and blue eyes, like the sea, in the summertime but she can hide her white skin and warm smile under an umbrella during the rainy winter days. Most of all, she doesn't want to be a typical girl just like her other competitors. She is special because she doesn't want to change her way of being because she has her own ideals. These ideals include a high-quality life where traditions, health or culture are still big points on the agenda. For all these reasons, I'm asking : Please, don't steal away my Europe!

Photography - an easy art?

I had just arrived at a folkloristic Portuguese "festa", in a lovely piazza with a lot of cafés and a nice caractheristic church. On that special occasion, a very representative music group started to sing on the sweet rhythm of the Portuguese guitar and it seemed exactly the same music with the same voices I used to listen to on my CDs. Only that this time it was live, right there in front of me, with women wearing colourful traditional costumes and men dressed in black, with big hats and long moustaches. Of course it was a memorable view; so I was truly enjoying it, trying to grasp some words and to understand what was it all about.
However, I was continously disturbed by the flashes coming from all directions. Paying a closer attention, I saw that almost everyone was taking so many photos of the event, without even listening the music. I actually saw a group of three people who arrived in that place, surprisingly faced the music group and then this man gave his bag to the woman in the group and started taking photos desperately.
It just seems all so weird. Photography has become more than a tangible proof or a sweet memory, it is something we all like to do. Everyone is trying his best shots and thinks that his angle is the best, only because it captures something that the others will never understand. Well, it is most certainly true, since everyone has a unique view over the world, but do we actually have to name this art? There is a huge difference between artistic photography and a quick shot of an event, but the line is not so definite since there are so many people with a common artistic passion: photography. When have we all become artists only by pushing a button?
I have to admit that I have also taken some photos of that folkloristic event, mostly to have a memory of that night, but also with artistic claims. After having taken a photography course at the university, quite a lot of people have appreciated my shots so I now keep it like a hidden passion. I realise though that I generally keep to myself a passion which is commonly popular among others, falsely thinking that my way of living this passion is unique only because it is not shared or spread like others' hobbies. I remember going crazy for Guns'n'Roses' song Don't cry in the tenth grade, but I've secretely kept this fact only because there was this girl who was desperately yelling for it everytime we heard it at a party. My selfish thought pushed me to believe that I liked the song in a much more profound way than she did. 
Nonetheless, I still hope that it won't happen the same way with photography. While it is one of the most accesible forms of art - quick results, easy and available for almost everyone - we have to make a difference between a simple shot, an incomprehensible picture (that oh, we fools, do not understand) and a photography which acutally has a meaning.