Finally - Istanbul!
I wanted to visit Istanbul for many years, probably because it seems like I've been everywhere else except there - because of my job I travelled from st.Petersburg to South Africa, from Alaska to Australia and back but Istanbul somehow escaped me. Funny enough, growing up in Ex-Yugoslavia (back than) I learned about all the wars we had as historical wall that protected Europe from Islam and had apprehension about Turkey until people finally started to tell me that they had wonderful experiences there, so it made me curious - I've been to Kusadasi which was fine but that was just a small tourist port,Istanbul is something else.
Before Istanbul I visited Izmir that looks and feels very much like some nice elegant vacation spot on Greece - beautiful coastline,blue sea and high mountains on the horizon.
Somehow I never managed to move away from shops/restaurant district - probably because I work so much that I am basically exhausted and need just to sit in the sun and have nice coffee & lunch, maybe another time I will walk to historical centre. As for Istanbul I actually took taxy to centre (Sultan Ahmet area) and walked around Blue Mosque and famous Aja Sofia - did not bother to go inside because too many people were crowded around - also shops and restaurants around were delightful,I could spend at least a week there and still see new things. In my enthusiasm I planned different places for each time I visit Istanbul (Topkapi palace,Grand Bazaar and so on) but of course reality is different and look at me now,I am in Istanbul and needed to sleep & rest, "Starbucks" in front of the port might be furthest I will go this time.Hopefuly I will have time & energy trough next two months to see some more of this exciting city (I surprised myself thinking "I could live here" because it's a huge city and I always feel good in big cities).
The Album-that-has-launched-thousands-of-imitations presents very young but already dead serious and determined Joan Baez in a sparse voice & guitar frame, singing traditional folk songs that in 1960. came as a breath of fresh air to everybody tired of heavily orchestrated pop music of the time.
In a industry still crowded with arrangers, big bands and session players, Baez album was in its way revolutionary - deceptively simple folk songs could be played in any student room, had a romantic appeal of old-time stories (all those "maidens" gone wrong like in famous "House of the Rising Sun") and in spite of humble origins, this music sounded far more arty & literate than any of the hits of pop charts. Just listen to "John Riley", "Mary Hamilton" or "Henry Martin" and it's easy to understand why audience all over the world swooned to this strange album full of stories - even today, this music sounds haunting and hypnotic but it's not a communal experience, like all the best folk albums it's best appreciated when listened alone and it might even inspire you to pick up a guitar.
Baez of course was fantastic from the very first moment - she was probably born to do this.
Some might say she was too serious but her refusal to play the business game and pose as smiley cheesecake was a very strong attitude against commercialism that at that time polluted music. She would milk traditional songbook for a few more years,than turn her attention to contemporary songwriters notably one "unwashed phenomenon" who rose to fame because of her support. Half a century after its original release album still sounds magical - if her later albums sound squarely placed in their retrospective decades by than-current music arrangements, Baez debut it timeless because voice-and-guitar music could be played anytime,anywhere and still sound appealing.
Personal favorite: "East Virginia". Loved it from the first moment way back and still do. The closing song "El Preso Numero Nueve" hints at the future - Baez would not only re-record it for her spanish-language album but use it in her anti-war crusades. It might have been fight with windmills but it gave her dignity and purpose.
Together with Mina and Milva, Vanoni is remembered as one of the three italian goddesses of pop music in the 1960s and beyond - each of them different in their own way - knowing Vanoni only from her later recordings where she gently croons and sounds detached, it is a great surprise to hear her first LP that shows her in completely different light.
These are songs already previously recorded (and in some cases released as singles) several years earlier when Vanoni actually started in theatre - in Bertolt Brecht no less - many if them about "underworld" life and life of crime. At this time Vanoni was known as a "Underworld Singer" - there is a song "Sentii Come La Vosa La Sirena" where one can clearly hear police siren in the background. The biggest surprise is lady's voice which at this point was very plummy, rich, creamy and much deeper than later when she changed her singing style and focused on gentle crooning. One can easily imagine her singing these songs in the theatre. Also present is unmistakable sound of Ennio Morricone who is arranger here, he frames Vanoni's song about mafia with cinematic sounds that precedes his own "Once upon a time in the West" soundtrack. Because album is so different from everything else singer did later in her career, I find it completely fascinating - this is not simple pop music but slightly disturbing & ominous sound and therefore still fresh, in fact sounds far more interesting and contemporary than most of her later pop material. Songs sung with only a guitar ("Le Mantellate","La Zolfara") are highlight and my own personal favorite, while mainstream public probably went for more romantic and lush sound of ballads like "Senza Fine" and " Me in Tutto Mondo" where sophisticated orchestration pointed towards french chanson and Vanoni uses different, more restrained voice that would became her trademark. In a way, its almost like a photo album where one can hear how singer developed from theatrical artist to a ballad stylist. Fascinating. How I wish she stuck to this dangerous "underworld" music!
One of the joys of my travels is the fact that I can easy find local music, that I would not find elsewhere. Unfortunately CD shops are slowly disappearing but occasionally good luck serves me still so in Italy I stumbled upon 3Cd compilation of Claudio Villa - it was sold on news agent kiosk together with other packages on offer (movies,magazines, shampoos and tampons) which shows how people perceive music these days - back to Claudio Villa,he was one of the brightest and most important names in italian music of 1950s and 1960s, true representative of schooled Bel Canto singing. I opened this package and listened in amazement, what a voice! - it must be one of the prettiest man's voices ever - Villa was tenor with a beautiful sound who obviously loved singing and it shows in his music, one romantic ballad after another (peppered with occasional Neapolitan or classical piece), I can't believe that italians are offering this stunning compilation for nothing on a news agent kiosk! First two CDs are covering 1950s and 1960s when Claudio Villa was king of San Remo festival, Cd nr.3 covers 1970s when he was still powerful voiced but slightly nostalgic older veteran who sang and recorded pre-WW2 repertoire like "Chitarra Romana" and "Funiculì Funiculá" - in my opinion Claudio Villa is GOD.
Another local singer I really listen carefully these days is Ornella Vanoni. Together with Mina and Milva,Vanoni is remembered as one of the biggest female stars of 1960s, however her style is quite different from other ladies as she does not belt but gently croons and sounds a bit detached. I have discovered her very first LP album from 1961. that absolutely fascinates me because it shows her in completely different light - more like actress she was at the beginning of the career - music is theatrical and arrangements done by great Ennio Morricone so everything sounds like some mad cinema music with lots of special effects in the background and Vanoni herself is actually passionate and very involved here. This first album of her must be my favorite Vanoni album.
Shapiro's voice basically never changed from those early 1960s days - she is still deep voiced wonder of the nature with very expressive instrument that only got better with years and it's a revelation to hear that voice singing not simple children's ditties like "Walking back to happiness" but some serious jazz colored material like "Cry me a river" or Cole Porter/Nat Cole/Irving Berlin songbook.
This being 1983. arrangements are heavy on synthesizers (fashion of the time, remember?) that might sound thin to today's listeners but I guess it was right back than and it does brings ancient material little up-to-date , though one could also point that this kind of classy repertoire perhaps don't need updating gimmick, the music and lyrics are written in stone as immortal classics. It is interesting to see how much Shapiro has moved from her early pop days to this 1980s jazz incarnation - she could definitely earn more had she stayed in pop arena,so this is a labour of love. The whole album is nicely swinging, synth jazz collection with hand picked highlight after highlight ("You go to my head", "Serenade in blue") and if you ever wondered whatever happened to Helen Shapiro after that first, initial early 1960s burst of glory, here is the answer - she grew up and turned her attention to jazz, that chocolate voice as good as ever,if not even better.
Hugely entertaining book that follows centuries of phenomenon called "prima donna" (it was "virtuosa" and "cantatrice" in earlier times) from now-fogotten Mrs Tofts to present times - it definitely needs fresh update as we got newer voices in the meantime. Christiansen has a gift of turning potentially dry facts into interesting story and compares how one generations or style influenced the later artists. Along the way he has a thing or two to say about composers and conductors who had to put up with spoiled singers ("Nobody knows the Troubels I've seen" Rudolf Bing about Helen Traubel) and more often than not we got a picture of women who simply pushed everybody else around them to respect high standards. True, Christiansen has his own opinions about voices and I don't always agree with him but it's still the book is fascinating peek in a world that has its own rules. In the last chapter, he wisely recognizes the curious fact that people tend to appreciate stars of yesterday more than contemporary ones and that this is nothing new, every generation is showing this tendency to put up old names on pedestal and only the long gone stars are the real ones. I read this book several times from start to finish and always enjoyed it immensely.
Dear Helga Vlahović just left us, what a sad news.
Vlahović was a famous TV presenter, visiting our homes for decades - hers was a very elegant face and soothing voice, she was a true lady from a generation of TV presenters who held themselves with class and style, probably they had some serious training because all the famous TV people from that time actually appear cultivated and educated as opposite to today's TV presenters. When I was growing up, people like Helga Vlahović were always present in various TV shows and in fact for many of us she represented TV Zagreb - hers was the voice and face always impeccably professional on many TV shows and programs, but what I remember the best about her was one unexpected appearance during the war (so it must be around 1991-92) when she came at the end of TV program (after midnight) and gave us a speech about life and how suffering and happiness are both part of it. At that particular day we had just bad news, bombs and air raids so the whole country was spiraling into depression and there was Helga suddenly, unexpected, looking at us like some big mother with her gentle voice and familiar face, telling us that this will also pass and nothing is forever. What a nice lady.
Farewell Helga Vlahović and be happy, wherever you are. You are not forgotten.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a movie studio in possession of a fortune must be in want of Great Books."
This is just one of many brilliant,eccentric and elegant chapter introductions in collection of magazine articles published between 2005 and 2009 (mostly in "The New York Sun") and now nicely preserved under title "Warning shadows: home alone with classic cinema" by Gary Giddins . Giddins, who is an excellent music critic shows that he is not limited on just one territory: he writes about classic movies with the same fair and wit,often pointing at lesser known gems (1967 soviet "Anna Karenina") and offering his view on works by Kurosawa, Bergman, Tati and everything from "Blade Runner" to "Ben Hur", amusing his readers with riches of anecdotes along the way. I actually have his celebrated biography of Bing Crosby (that covers first part of Bing's career, hopefully there will be a sequel) so was no surprised that Crosby somehow found the way even in this book, as he left his mark in the movies as well. Giddins is a true wit, a man who knows how to engage a reader with a funny touch and often pointing at quality or lack of it in the classic movies - his opinions often suggest re-viewing and surely I am not the only one who noted few names down during the reading of this collection. Because it's basically collection of essays, it can be enjoyed slowly - myself,I was initially browsing trough some of my favorite pieces, going backwards and forwards, until eventually I read the whole darn thing from cover to cover once again with the biggest pleasure.
Touching not only the selected movies and giving intriguing informations about actors,directors and producers, Giddins also writes about the movie industry and the way audience perceive movie entertainment - he writes about nickelodeon days and muses what a long way we crossed from watching the movies trough the hole in a machine until present day when (again) movie watching is solitary business,often confined to a electronic notebook gadgets. In a way, this book is a love letter to countless cinema theaters that are now a thing of the past and in fact there is a heartfelt tribute to long-gone New York cinemas listed at the beginning of the book. Combining his knowledge of movies and music,Giddins is in my opinion in the same league as equally gifted Will Friedwald (author of "Jazz singing") and hopefully this work will inspire others to continue in the same league. Excellent reading that surely invites re-visits and it shows how wonderful and sincere the work can be when is done with love.
Since February 01,my ship is docked in so-called "dry dock".
In a technical jargon, "dry dock" is the time when ship is docked - without passengers - and all the water taken underneath so various work can be done properly,like painting, re-monting, carpets and furniture are changed, everything cleaned and basically people around the ship have hundreds things to do even though passengers are not around.
This is also time when more often than not, life is not comfortable since electricity, air condition and water are regularly switched off - thankfully this time everything was fine (more or less) since this is a new ship,built only in 2010 and going trough "dry dock" only because of insurance rules. My colleagues were all expecting some horrible survival but it turned out fine - I am working on cruise ships for more than eight years now,so of course for me this is nothing - in earlier times I had "dry dock" in both summer and winter and on both occasions lack of air condition/heating was nasty, however this time everything was fine - except usual side effect of having all the carpets covered with nylon: after walking on nylon,one always gets shock from static electricity when touching a door handle. So we walk around the ship and get electric shocks all the time!
I don't have a clue what other teams on the ship do - cleaners clean and housekeeping departments have full hands of things to do, my team used this time to do complete inventory starting from a scratch, we took lists and locked ourselves in different corners,started counting and checking every single item we have in shops, from pens, key chains and t-shirts to perfumes, handbags and jewelry. Everything. It is a kind of work one can't do with passengers around anyway, because passengers like nothing better than to disturb you in the middle of counting and to check what is it you have in that pile. So we counted and counted but it wasn't really difficult because days passed fast + working hours were far more pleasurable than what we usually do - compared with our regular 16-hours daily, this "dry dock" was relaxing experience. Best part of the day was dinner when we suddenly discovered red wine that was always there,but no one drank it earlier because we work,after all - so we started enjoying this long dinners with relaxed conversation and lots of red wine and it was true team-bonding.
Some of the guys in my team complained they don't know what to do with themselves in the evenings - its too cold to enjoy going outside, we even stayed several days in Venezia and nobody bothered to walk in a storm - I didn't have that problems because I enjoyed very much the unexpected pleasure of having a cabin for myself alone and relaxed, read, watched movies and slept a lot. Maybe its the lack of air or light,who knows, but the moment I return to my cabin after the dinner (and red wine) I am ready to sleep immediately - one evening I actually slept from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. next morning without a break. Obviously I needed it!
Also I used this time to watch TV show "True blood" which turned out to be far more interesting than I expected, I actually enjoyed it very much!
Having read books about Mary,Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I (and than about both of them by Jane Dunn) I was thrilled to finally put my hands on a book focused on a very important character who was standing in the shadow of these two famous historical characters and also played important role in the story: Bess of Hardwick, unwilling "hostess" to imprisoned scottish queen, who found herself as much imprisoned as her royal guest. The wealthiest woman in Tudor England right behind Elizabeth herself, Bess was forced (along with her husband) to always keep a watch over her unlucky visitor and her servants, which meant not only providing luxury for a huge group of people but also to always be close to scottish queen and stay in sort of house prison as her guards. If Bess and her husband always desired royal visit that would bring them patronage and favors, they did not count on such extended (15 years!) visit that would drain their finances and ultimately destroy their marriage.
Mary S. Lovell did excellent research into life of this formidable lady but the huge wealth of historical documents never stands on the way of the gripping story - instead of potentially boring list of informations, Lovell inspiredly portraits unusual person behind the facts: Bess started with nothing except her brain,charm and determination - she was no beauty,neither she had privileged background but somehow trough several marriages she accumulated wealth and connections,fighting the law and protecting interests of her ever-growing family with ferocity that was out of character for a meek and mild ladies of her time. Just for example,it was typical for widowed women to always have someone's "protection" and "guardians" when it came to estates and financial questions,well not Bess of Hardwick who took care of the business herself and nobody questioned her decisions as she invested left and right, balanced her unruly flock, political intrigues and court ups and downs.
Thought she might be chiefly remembered for her role in Mary,Queen of Scots story today, this book shows that this was just one of the many interesting chapters in the life of this interesting lady - there were lots of fascinating stories before and after scottish queen - amusing anecdote: when new Queen (Anne of Denmark) arrived in England,she was invited as a visitor to Bess palace but the Queen graciously declined,knowing her reputation as "hostess" to another Queen.
