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This Sunday You Can Help Make The World A Better Place

The Free Burma Concert

music: Adam Solomon, CaneFire, Faith Nolan, Fern Lindzon, Russell Leon Band, Mel M'Rabet, Yoma Maung, DJ Billy Bryans and surprise guests

speakers: Jack Layton, Bob Rae and Minthura Wynn

Sunday, December 2
@ Lula Lounge
1585 Dundas Street West
Doors @ 7:00 pm, show @ 7:30 pm
Pay what you can -- all proceeds go to support democracy in Burma 416-588-0307 for reservations & guaranteed seating

This is Jeremy Ledbetter's project, and as usual with these kinds of events, the best thanks he could receive is a packed house.

Here's the full press release.

Flickr Image from Orhan using Creative Commons License

The Best 10 Dollars You Will Ever Spend

The Manolito Simonet y Su Trabuco Matinee on Thursdays at Cafe Cantante

The formula is simple. Open the doors at 4pm, charge a low enough ticket price (400 Cuban pesos for locals, $10 CUC for tourists) so that Cuban people can afford the show. Give everyone a couple of hours to get cranked up on beer, rum and reggaeton videos, then at around 6 pm unleash one of the world's best timba bands on the proceedings.

Pure entertainment heaven.

Men, put your wallet in your front pocket, everyone else, keep a wary eye out for the drink-spilling, stage-diving Cubanitas who tend to lose control over on Miami's side of the stage. (Miami being the third singer after El Indio and Amaray whose main job is chorus harmonies and incitement.)

The sound is not fabulous, the stage is a 2 foot riser barely big enough for a rock band, but that's part of the charm, this ritualistic meeting of an artist who is completely connected to his audience. It is also (btw) the only way to fully understand why Cuban timba bands play the way they do.

Here's Gabriels description (scroll down) of Cafe Cantante in her invaluable guide to music venues in Havana

Photo by Flickr user Yemaya's Verse using Creative Commons License

Ch-Ch-Changes

It was time. K piensas?

The Thorny Issue of Copyright

It looks like the Canadian government is about to introduce new copyright reform legislation. Michael Geist sounds a warning......

The government will seemingly choose locks over learning, property over privacy, enforcement over education, (law)suits over security, lobbyists over librarians, and U.S. policy over a "Canadian-made" solution.  Once the bill is introduced, look for the government to put it on the fast track with limited opportunity for Canadians to appear before committees considering the bill. With a Canadian DMCA imminent, what matters now are voices. It will be up to those opposed to this law to make theirs heard.

For the average music consumer with an iPod and 50 CD's, the topic of copyright reform is a certified eye-glazer. Which is unfortunate, because these new laws will affect how the consumer is allowed to access and pay for recorded music in the digital era.

And one thing about Canadians, whether it is a Neil Young concert, the local symphony orchestra or news of an impending new Van Van release, we are rabid music consumers.

Another Test Post

( I am trying to figure out something re Facebook)

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Tomorrow Night

Sergio Emir of the new CIUT Latino show Dos Mundos is presenting an evening of live entertainment called the CUMBIADELIC CIRCUS Thursday night at El Lula

it's basically a double bill with this band from Montreal called Psyoctropical Orchestra......

Flanked by shimmering palm trees and supplemented by a Carmen Miranda-style dancer complete with fruit-basket headgear, the slick and sassy septet Psychotropical Orchestra, decked out in duds that could have come from a Martian version of Las Vegas, let loose a frenzy of snaky cumbia rhythms and Cubano bongo-poppin’, loping reggae grooves and grungy guitar riffs, Afro brass blasts and dubbed-out howls and whoops.

....and the mighty Plan C.

DJ David Dacks (CIUT/Abstract Index) and Huelepega ("Glue Sniffer") Soundsystem will be spinning cumbia rebajada, vallenato, Afro-Peruvian, NuYorkian funk, Tropicalia, Latin psych,(???) African rumba and much more...

Estrella

This is in Amsterdam right?

A Letter

The U.S. government is threatening to eliminate all travel of U.S. artists to Cuba.  This is a letter to prevent this happening.

Hello to All Supporters of US-Cuba Cultural Exchanges

This is an urgent call to all supporters of cultural exchanges with Cuba. In the next few days, the Treasury Department may be eliminating the "public performance" category for authorized travel to Cuba. That means no U.S. artists will be allowed to perform in Cuba. This is a part of a continuing anti-engagement policy of the current Administration which also continues to deny visas to Cuban artists who wish to perform in the U.S.

We have prepared a letter directed to the Bush Administration requesting a re-opening of cultural relations with Cuba, which have been shut off by our government since 2003, and for steps towards the
normalization of relations between our two countries. The letter and impressive list of initial signatures is located at www.cubaresearch.info/cubaletter, including a form that you can use to sign the letter easily. The letter has been developed by members of the US-Cuba Cultural Exchange network.

The letter is in part a response to a call from Alicia Alonso, Director of the National Ballet of Cuba, to US artists and intellectuals. Alonso's letter is also visible at the site, but I'm attaching to this message as well.

We're going public with this on Tuesday, the day we're delivering the letter to George Bush. We hope you'll join us by signing this and by passing this on to your colleagues.

If there are any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for your support.

Bill Martinez
Martinez & Associates
2 Bayside Village Place, Suite 414
San Francisco, CA 94107
phone- (415) 974-6485
fax- (415) 358-4703
bill@billmartinez.com

Good luck.