Past, present, future

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a gift and that's why it's called present.

I'm quoting by heart from Kung Fu Panda. Thanks, Oogway.

An dro

An Dro is a french dance, from Morbihan. The name An dro means circle. The An dro is dance in a circle, as a chain or in couples.
Generally the dancers make an open circle, holding by little fingers. The palm of the right hand of each dancer is turned up, while the palm of the left hand is turned down. The structure of the step is:
1. left, close, left (right foot up);
2. right, close, right (left foot up), holding the place.
In this way, the circle moves slowly and constantly leftward. While doing the step leftward the dancers move their arms upward, making a sort of loop. While standing on the place the arms move downward in the same manner.





There are many version of this dance
Kas a barh is danced two by two



In the An Dro retourné o chench'tu, the dancers dance the first part (16 beats) as a basic An Dro normale, then 4 beats moving their arms up and down. In the second part the dancers go towards the centre of the circle, clap their hands, turn and go outwards, clap their hands again, turn and repeat three times.



Hanter Dro (half a circle): the step 1 is the same of the basic An dro, while rightward the dancers make just a step and close. The arms don’t move: each dancer ciascun ballerino appoggia lean the right forearm on the left forearm of his meighbour, making a chain.
Danse Trikot is a mix of An dro and Hanter dro. Dancers hold each other by the little fingers, also when the arms don’t move.

Spelt with pumpkin and gorgonzola cheese

In the last few months I've been so tired that I never wanted to cook. But last Sunday I gave a look to a recipe in a magazine and I decided it was time to start again my experiments. I have to say that this is a good way to take care of myself and of my family. So I want to share with you some of my ideas. The first I propose to you is ispired by something seen in a restaurant, with some differences.

For 2 people:
spelt 100 g
pumpkin 100 g (or a little more)
a little onion
olive oil
salt pepper
vegetable broth
gorgonzola cheese

Chop up the onion and let it brown in the oil. Add the pumpkin in little bits and some water. Cook for ten minutes. Add the spelt and cook it for a couple of minutes, then add the broth gradually. Add salt and pepper as you prefer. When te spelt is well done (it will take 20 minutes, more or less), put some slices of gorgonzola cheese in the plates and then put the spelt over it.
It's wonderful with beer.

- 2 to the holidays!!!

Don't you think there's a smell of holidays in the air? I can't believe I'll be in Ireland in two days. I have desired this trip since I was a teenager and now the dream is real.

I wonder if I'll have the opportunity to meet someone interesting, to have a little talk during next three weeks. I'm so curious. I'm so happy.

(PS: I took the image from alon3.splinder.com)

Back again

A lot of time has passed since my last post, so I think I have to do something.

Every time I wait so long to do something new I remember some words read years ago.

There was a young woman, speaking to a journalist. She suffered from AIDS. She said she didn't think to be a victim of an injustice, because she had had time enough for her life. She was convicted of that.
On the contrary I often think that my days should be longer (or that my energy should be more).
When I think to her words I always rememeber that I have to be wise in spending my time, because it is precious and it won't last forever.

Coming back with music for videogames

The worst thing you can do when you have a blog is giving up writing for a long time, and I did. Now I just want to come back and try again. I hope this time I’ll be more constant. So, let’s start with something new about music!

Yesterday my cousin D. brought to me two music sheets he found in the Web. They are from the soundtrack of Kingdom Hearts, a videogame. Well, I had never thought about the possibility of playing piano by taking suggestions and inspiration from a videogame too. So, with the help of a curious boy and of YouTube, I started my exploration of this new world.

If you want to do the same, I suggest you to start from this website: http://sebastianwolff.info/index.php, and I thank Sebastian for all the stuff he put on it.

Then you can look for music or videos in YouTube, something like that:

Playing the vegetables

Do you know that vegetables can be musical instruments? I knew that pumpkins are good as percussion instruments. But I can't imagine you can also play carrots, tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, leeks, cucumbers and parsley. And someone takes it very seriously. Flavia Foradini has met the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra and talked about their meeting on the magazine Ventiquattro. Eleven musicians go to the market and chose their material, then build the instruments the'll use in their concerts, fragile instruments that become a soup after the performance. I visited their website (http://www.gemueseorchester.org/) because I wanted to know what kind of music you can make in this way and I was wrongfooted: the result reminded me some works of John Cage I studied at school, something similar to a particular kind of electronic music. That's incredible.
But creativity in this field has no limits. Give a look at this video and at the related posts: http://www.noantri.com/vienna-vegetable-orchestra-video.html
I like very much http://www.noantri.com/ford-unorchestra-suona-strumenti-interamente-ricavati-da-pezzi-di-un-auto-video.html: every time I listened to this music on the radio I asked myself: what is it? That's the answer!
Oh dear, the world is full of genius! I love it.
PS: well, it's not about experimental music, but I think that this video is wonderful. http://www.noantri.com/telemetry-orchestra-under-the-cherry-tree-video.html
Special thanks to noantri.com for collecting these videos.

An unespected suggestion

I was turning over the pages of a fashion magazine, when I found an advertising of a bag. Something attracted me: on the bag there was a sentence. I asked myself if it could be a quotation, so I looked for it on the Web and I discovered that it was by Jim Morrison.

He said (I’m translating from italian):
Sometimes the winner is simply a dreamer who never gave in.

I thought in a while at all the times I have desired something, but I didn’t believe I could reach it. Maybe my unsuccesses are dued only to my mistrust. When I was a child I was a great dreamer. I dreamt to work for the Walt Disney, drawing cartoons. And it was not so impossible, because my school once organised a lesson with an illustrator who worked for them. But I didn’t take part to that lesson, because my mother convinced me it was no worth. I don’t know what I would be doing right now if that day I had gone to school, but I know I’ll never let someone to steal me another dream.

The Three Kings

My 2008 began with a surprise. I was walking down Barcelona with my husband and a couple of friends, when I read a poster announcing The most magic of nights, the night of the Cavalcada dels Reis. The night before Ephiphany the Three Kings reach Barcelona (but also other cities as Leon, Terragona...) bringing presents to children. So we waited for the cortege, in Laietana street, among the crowd.
When we planned our little holiday we didn't know this tradition, and I'm very happy if I think that we came from Milan, a city related with the Kings too. And it's nice to think that on January the 6th in Milan a similar procession take place, beginning from St. Eustorgio's Church to the Cathedral.