SOUNDTRACK: CAMANÉ-Tiny Desk Concert #441 (May 15, 2015).
Camané is a Portuguese Fado singer. The NPR blurb says that fado, “which means “fate” in Portuguese, emerged from the gritty barrios and docks of Lisbon in the early 19th century and has evolved in fascinating ways. Think of it as the Portuguese blues.”
The songs are sung in Portuguese and I don’t know a word of what’s he’s saying, but as the blurb continues: “[The songs] flow with an ineffable mix of longing, loss and melancholy, framed in resignation. It’s a kind of glad-to-be-unhappy feeling the Portuguese and Brazilians call saudade.”
The most interesting part of this to me was what I thought was a bouzouki but which I see is actually a Portuguese guitar–12 steel strings, played in very fast runs. While Camané’s voice is clearly the focus (and it is amazing), José Manuel Neto’s Portuguese Guitar is pretty darn awesome. And the accompaniment by Carlos Manuel Proença on guitar is lovely too.
[READ: January 7, 2015] Kampung Boy
This book was written (and drawn) in 1979. First Second books had it translated and published in 2006.
This is the story of a boy growing up Muslim in rural Malaysia in the 1950s. Evidently it was serialized in Malaysia back in 1979 (it does feel kind of episodic, but it holds together very well).
It is a charming story of a simple life in the village that is slowly being changed by progress.
It starts with Kampung Boy’s birth and the simple way he was born (midwifed by his grandmother for which she was paid $15) and how he slowly grew from a baby into a naked toddler running around the village. His aunt worked at the local rubber factory (his parents owned the rubber plantation) where they removed latex rubber from the rubber trees. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 