A personal, curatorial & bilingual Blog about: Artistic Movements, my Art, Creativity, Innovation, Design, Leadership, Empowerment, Sustainability, Science, Jazz, Movies and other cool pursuits - Blog personal y curatorial bilingüe sobre: Movimentos Artísticos, mi Arte, Creatividad, Innovación, Diseño, Liderazgo, Empoderamiento, Sustentabilidad, Ciencia, Jazz, Películas y otros temas.
I believe that in times like the present, where the pressures of the pandemic, plus our general economic hardships, added to the lockdowns that still exist around the world, there is nothing better than making a bit of popcorn on a Friday night and watching an old… a very old movie.
It can be in black and white or color, although, I love black and white and mono sound movies. They bring your brain down to a level of simplicity in terms of “processing power”, that is hard to beat.
For a start, the monochrome picture is asking a lot less to decipher from your brain. A full blast color 7 channel surround movie will exacerbate your brain functions so as to deal with all that complex, multi-layered information. A B&W mono sound movie just floats in, and relaxes you, while still being entertaining. On top of that, the stories are from a reality that is not our own in this day and age, so as we watch, it will feel a lot more like one of those stories mom or dad used to read to us before we went to bed.
The end result, is utter satisfaction, relaxation, and the discovery that these stories turn out to have a lot more in common with our lives that we expected, albeit far from the technological wizardry, and imbued in certain innocence that seems so distant from of our contemporary daily lives.
So, I hope you enjoy these popcorn Fridays.
TODAY´S MOVIES
This time it is Film Noir plus and old B movie serial.
Today we watch “BLACK FRIDAY”, a noir horror movie with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. After that, we follow with the detective mystery “CALLING PHILO VANCE” with James Stephenson as the famous detective. Both movies are from 1940.
This is an excellent trio headed by gifted pianist Emmet Cohen, playing live at the Detroit Jazz Festival 2018
The Band:
Emmet Cohen (piano) – Russell Hall (bass) – Evan Sherman (drums)
And as an added bonus, a second live video below the Detroit Concert.
The second video, is just one song… but very much worth it. Recorded live without frills at his own home, this is Cohen´s trio (this time with Kyle Poole on drums) plus the voice of Cyrille Aimée singing La Vie En Rose.
I believe that in times like the present, where the pressures of the pandemic, plus our general economic hardships, added to the lockdowns that still exist around the world, there is nothing better than making a bit of popcorn on a Friday night and watching an old… a very old movie.
It can be in black and white or color, although, I love black and white and mono sound movies. They bring your brain down to a level of simplicity in terms of “processing power”, that is hard to beat.
For a start, the monochrome picture is asking a lot less to decipher from your brain. A full blast color 7 channel surround movie will exacerbate your brain functions so as to deal with all that complex, multi-layered information. A B&W mono sound movie just floats in, and relaxes you, while still being entertaining. On top of that, the stories are from a reality that is not our own in this day and age, so as we watch, it will feel a lot more like one of those stories mom or dad used to read to us before we went to bed.
The end result, is utter satisfaction, relaxation, and the discovery that these stories turn out to have a lot more in common with our lives that we expected, albeit far from the technological wizardry, and imbued in certain innocence that seems so distant from of our contemporary daily lives.
So, I hope you enjoy these -now and again- popcorn Fridays that we launch today.
TODAY´S MOVIE
This time it is a wonderful and lovely romantic comedy. “THE MORE THE MERRIER”, with Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and a favorite of mine, the great Charles Coburn. The movie is from 1943, right in the middle of WWII… yes, it is 82 years old and yet, many themes in the movie will feel right at home, as we find common ground in the issues we deal with today in this, our own world war against a little virus.
I remember buying Jazz records when I was a kid in Melbourne, going through the Monash University Record shop when I had no lectures, seeing if I could find something new. My whole life is a long quest about “finding something new”, I guess.
When I found something I had never heard before, I always used to look for the lineup to see who made up this band. If Steve Gadd was on drums, it would be a sign that these guys were probably very good. Chick Corea said of Mr. Gadd: “all the drummers want to play like Gadd because he reaches perfection”.
He has played with Simon and Garfunkel, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Joe Cocker, Grover Washington Jr., Chick Corea, Lee Ritenour, Frank Sinatra, Al Jarreau, Eric Clapton, Chet Baker, Michel Petrucciani, The Bee Gees, Michael McDonald and many others. In addition, he is the leader of his own band, with which he also won the 2019 Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
This was recorded at Jazz San Javier. I hope you enjoy one of the best drummers in the history of Jazz.
Everyone who has explored his or her creative gifts has found that inspiration cannot be kept tied to one single form of expression. The fact is that many painters sing or act, some actors cook or paint, even some dancers are singers or sculptors. The choices and variations are almost limitless.
As you all know, I am an artist. I mostly paint although I also design, and work in 3 dimensions and sometimes in no real dimensions at all when I go digital. Art is my preferred expressive outlet. I love what I do, I feel I am constantly growing and I love exploring my artistic leanings through color and form. I know that I also have other God given talents. As you all know, I write. I also sing, although my shyness has gotten the best of me. My baritone voice is today a rough expression of a natural gift and it will probably remain so for the foreseeable future; I have also studied acting and I love it. But yet again, I never managed to get that “break” that seems to be necessary to make something of it, and that has been that, at least for now.
For a lateral thinker like me, creativity can take on many guises. Cooking was one of the earlier ones, together with painting. My old school buddies still remember me in the kitchen “creating” grape sorbets and crazy cookies when we were just 10 or 12. Today, I probably cook as much as I paint, and I know my friends enjoy coming for a visit and see what I’m working on a canvas, and later enjoy whatever I came up with in the kitchen while we chat about life.
For those who are afraid of cooking, let me tell you, it is one of the most creative and freeing exercises you can find. It is quite simple to grasp, once you know some of the basic concepts (ALL of them so obviously logical and sensible that you will wonder why you didn’t learn them before). Food is something to be shared. Both at the preparation stage (with your family, your kids, your wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend or just with friends) and obviously as you all enjoy (and sometimes cringe…it can happen) at the end results.
One thing I have enjoyed for a long time has to do with mixing colors in my food preparation. It is nothing new. I guess my painting has a great deal of influence in my cooking and I find that the combination of colors makes the experience so much more enjoyable. There is an old saying about the fact that food is always absorbed firstly through the eyes, and it is as basic a concept as it is true. Your brain tells you that, at the very least, there is the potential to enjoy something well before your palate had a chance to taste it. Nutritionists will also tell you about the importance of eating all food “colors” as a reasonable guide to a balanced diet.
So, by “popular demand” from many dear friends, here goes one of my recipes to share with you. Hopefully, it will be the first of many. It is something fairly simple. These are very nice, tangy, and colorful (real) lemon cookies made with no eggs. I hope you try them and enjoy them, and also let me know what you think of them. Here at home they are already going (made some today so I could take some pictures to show you) and by tomorrow I don’t know if we’ll have some left, so I’m not going to invite you to try them here. But I will invite you to try them at home. They are definitely easy to do and I’m sure you will enjoy them.
Ignacio’s Colorful Lemon Cookies
Lemon cookies with glazed papaya, green pineapple and mango crumble.
Ingredients
Lemon Zest
Fruit crumble
2 cups mixed glazed papaya, mango and pineapple (chopped). Alternatively you may use other glazed fruits of your choice like cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc. (See picture at the end with an alternative cranberry topping…looks and tastes great too!)
50 gr. cold butter
50 gr. plain flour
50 gr. brown sugar
Lemon syrup
Juice of 2 lemons
3 tablespoons of sugar
Cookies: Place 2 cups of flower, baking powder, sugar, salt, butter, lemon zest and juice in a food processor. Blend well until soft and creamy in texture.
Place mixture on kitchen table or large bowl.
The ingredients inside the mixer
Texture of the mixed ingredients before incorporating the final cup of flour
Dough before incorporating the final cup of flour.
Finished dough
Crumble: In another bowl mix chopped glazed fruit, flour, cold butter and sugar with fingers until classic crumble is formed. Put aside.
Prepared fruit crumble.
Syrup: On a small saucepan place lemon juice and sugar and bring to the boil for 30 seconds. Take off heat and let it cool.
Cutting rolled dough
Roll lemon cookie dough without applying too much pressure and until ½ centimeter in thickness. Cut with cookie cutter of choice. Place on prepared baking sheet, spacing them 1 cm apart. Sprinkle fruit crumble on top of cookies.
Cookies ready to go into the oven with fruit crumble on top
Bake cookies until light golden brown around edges, about 20 minutes. Paint the cookies with lemon syrup and sprinkle with sugar. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool cookies completely.
Finished cookies in an alternative recipe with a cranberry and blueberry crumble topping.
Makes about 25 to 30 large cookies (5cm in diameter).
SARATOGA SPRINGS - CIRCA 1982: Photo of Roy Haynes performing in Saratoga Springs, New York. Circa 1982 (Photo by Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Roy Haynes Quartet – Live at Blue Note Jazz Club, Jazz Festival NYC (June 12, 2019) Roy Haines is a living legend of world jazz. Born March 13, 1925. Boston, Massachusetts.
He has played with Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughn, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, and this is not a complete list .
He is now 95 years of age and still going. Roy is still full of energy and love of music. Worth a look just to dream of being able to do the same. And please, do not miss him doing some rap!
Band: Jaleel Shaw: alto, soprano sax – Martin Bejerano: keyboards – David Wong: bass – Roy Haynes: drums
SET: 1. Bemsha Swing (Monk) 2. James (Metheny) 3. Green Chimneys (Monk) 4. Question And Answer (Metheny)
Jon Batiste is better known to people in the US as the bandleader and musical director on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. That is where most of us got to know him.
But his credentials are deep. He’s the co-artistic director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, and has been a collaborator with everyone from pop singer Tori Kelly to the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He’s graduate of both the New Orleans Center of the Creative Arts and the Juilliard School, and an alumni of both Wynton Marsalis’ and Roy Hargrove’s bands. And for the past decade, he’s developed his version of “jazz 2.0,” which includes what he calls “social music.”
Here, he spends his 33rd birthday playing an intimate, private concert with his band in the round while Jazz Night in America captured the show.
SET LIST: 0:19 – “If You’re Happy And You Know It” (Joe Raposo, arr. Jon Batiste) 4:21 – “PRINCE” 11:16 – “HIGHER” 19:40 – “Round Midnight” (Thelonious Monk, Bernard D. Hanighen, Charles Cootie Williams) 28:15 – “PWWR” 34:24 – “BLACCK” 40:58 – “SOULFUL” (Roy Hargrove) 48:18 –
MUSICIANS; Jonanthan Batiste (piano, vocals, bandleader) Giveton Gelin (trumpet) Jon Lampley (trumpet, tuba) Eddie Barbash (alto saxophone) Tivon Pennicott (tenor saxophone) Endea Owens (bass) Joe Saylor (drums) Negah Santos (percussion)
IGNACIO ALPERIN: THE ART OF THINKING OUT LOUD / EL ARTE DE PENSAR EN VOZ ALTA 