november 2017 finds is unexpectedly long. it’s been a long month, probably.
1.i’ve been watching alice glass from a distance for years. looking back, i’m surprised i didn’t pick up on the fact that her wild antics were an expression of pain. she was recently prompted by the whole #metoo movement to bring to light details about the sexual, physical and psychological abuse she suffered at the hand of her former cc band mate. he has since sued her over the rape claims.
i post the best track she put out after leaving cc. the video is directed by another favourite of mine, floria sigismondi.
2. i came across the marias by mistake. i have followed their youtube channel and i’ve been looping their tracks cuz i love them!
3. chuck norris vs. communism is a romanian film about a very romanian phonomenon. during communist times, any occidental content was banned. that lead to the formation of an underground network of video players, video tapes and private video screenings. the main character is the woman who dubbed hundreds or thousands of tapes, a voice that every romanian recognizes. and the actress playing the character is a former uni colleague of mine!
watch the film, especially if you’re romanian. i loved it!
4. we took a day trip to nearby denia. the main highlight was the catamaran ride.
5. i have seen the tiger lillies 7 or 8 times live. so when i heard they were coming to nearby murcia with their new show, edgar allan poe’s haunted palace, i knew what we had to do. we rented a car, drove around for 700 kilometers and went to 2 concerts.
the tiger lillies played in teatro circo in murcia and it was majical, as always. martin’s voice is spellbinding and the 3d mapping was great. a wonderful show!
6. checking out what could be done and seen in cartagena, i found out that jay-jay johanson was in town for exactly the same night as us. as part of the local cartagena jazz festival and as part of his bury the hatchet tour, he had a gig at the nuevo teatro circo in cartagena. we saw him back in 2009, in bucharest and we liked him live so we couldn’t have missed it now.
this time around, the setting was not the best suited for his type of show. but his voice drew us in and made us smile. he came out in the public at the end, it was a nice gesture.
back at the hotel, i posted a pic from the gig and he was the first one to like it! i dm-ed him, telling him how we came by chance, but that we loved the concert. he was nice and sent me kisses.
7. we were in alicante for a day and we loved it!
a separate post is pending.
8. on the way to murcia, we stopped in elche. some friends had told us about its palmeral and we were not sorry to visit it.
a separate post is pending.
9. we liked murcia, too. we missed a great cheese platter lunch as well as a huge religious procession, but it was still very impressive, even without those. we walked around the city, facetimed my mom from inside the unbelievable cathedral and had amazing lunch in a low key place in the sun.
a separate post is pending.
10. last, but not least, was cartagena. the city was somewhat underwhelming, but it’s true that we didn’t have enough time to check it out properly. on our way home we went to la manga, a narrow strip of seaside between a salty lake and the sea.
we also stopped to see the pink-hued salt lake in the parque natural torrevieja. and we had lunch in benidorm, a seaside reasort full of sky scrappers.
11. these are this month’s comics: skim, ta mere la pute, vive la maree, mathilde danser apres tout and my favourite le piano oriental.
12. i came across a section on the guardian’s website. it’s old, from 2009, but i liked a few of the articles: grayson perry, kd lang and vincent cassel.
13. charlotte gainsbourg‘s album was released so i listened to it. and i read the related articles. this one was very interesting.
14. magnus is disbanding. magnus is a side project of personal favourite tom barman.
this is my favourite magnus song, featuring tom smith from editors.
15. in the goodbye interview, tom barman recommends fellow belgians balthazar. i checked a track and saved it to listen to it again later.
later the same day, les inrockuptibles recommend warhaus. it turns out it’s the new project of the balthazar vocal. i liked this one right away. and, surprise, surprise!, i found out they had a gig in valencia at the end of the month. yes, i listened to all his stuff and went to see him live a few days ago. huge score.
not only did i buy the tee-shirt and the pillow case lol, i also asked nicely the club people for a poster. and they were prompt in unpinning it and giving it to me. yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, but i’m all about this guy now: he’s talented and subtle.
this is my current favourite.
16. last year, i went into an indie book store in montmartre and asked the girl to recommend me new stuff. this is how i bought the first two volumes of the vernon subutex trilogy. i haven’t read it but i have tried and failed to get the third volume in the mean time. it was only published recently so i have a mission.
in the meantime, i read apocalypse bebe, a 2010 book by the same author, virginie despentes. i loved it so much i’m going to start the vernon subutex book sooner than planned.
17. fever ray released a new album. read here to make sense of the launching video, to the moon and back. the interview is interesting but the music is not as appealing to me as the first album.
18. spike lee took his 1986 debut film she’s gotta have it and transformed it into a 2017 netflix series. super curious, i watched the 10 episodes and i liked it. it’s sex and the city set in brooklyn. beyond the storyline, the black point of view is actually the main character. also, several recurrent topics pop up: brooklyn’s gentrification, female body objectification, the male gaze, etc.
it’s fun and definitely still controversial enough to keep you watching. nola darling’s polyamorous lifestyle, juggling 3 men, a woman and her art work is barely more accepted nowadays than it was back in the 80s.
the trailer of the original seems really interesting. ill be definitely watching it soon.
if you’d like to hear more about the show, check this radio show with the 4 protagonists. i enjoyed it.
19. i have always wanted to know about cheese. you know those cool cheese shops, with shelves that look like a bookshelf of flavours to me? i love them! we found one in murcia but couldn’t go. so we made a reservation for the best cheese shop in valencia called la majada quesos.
we had a couple tasting platters and i chose a soup. a very surprising meal. i loved it!
how was your november?
photo credits: little aesthete, copyright holders
video credits: copyright holders
