Lullabies

A list of tracks that I have found helpful in soothing and putting to sleep a baby, fascinated with music.

1.Mariana Ramos - Filha minha

2. Angelique Kidjo - Naima

3. John Lennon - Beautiful boy

4. Bebel Gilberto - Next to you

5. Beatles - Blackbird

6. Sade - Be that easy

7. Norah Jones - Come away with me

8. Елица и Стунджи - Пеещо сърце

9. Eels - Beautiful freak

Mama

What have pigs got to do with it?

Amidst current financial turmoil and rising stock exchange speculations, economic pressure, social unrest, high-fly difficult political maneuvering and big games at stake with an almost certain hidden agenda, the modern term PIGS was coined.
Now, far from being an expert in finance and having turned down the world of politics quite some time ago, I have a simple question -would the new abbreviation stand for all of the above misfortunes or rather to more literally denote the better part of Europe (PIGS= Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain or in a more generous version PIIGS to take Italy on board)?
I was stunned to notice that my favourite media, the BBC, the exemplary voice of respect, precision and thoroughness, has opted for launching its quest for on-the-ground readers' opinions under the following title:
Europe's PIGS countries: Send us your experiences
Just an unflattering acronym as the article suggests? More that that, I would say - sheer and undisguised contempt of the rich towards the poor or at least a careless choice of expression.
But summer come, we will be there, PIGS, where else?

Alice in Wonderland

Couldn't wait to see Lewis Carrol' s world through Tim Burton's eyes but when I got back home last Fri having seen the film, there was no sparkle in my eyes.
And I didn't even know how to explain the lack of enthousiasm given the exuberant visual parade the production offers. It was all there - boundless imagination to give birth to unthinkable creatures, blinding colours and costumes, irresistibly mad Johnny Depp, ruthless Helena Bohnam Carter and beautifully sad yet determined Mia Wasikowska. Then what?
Perhaps it was the story. I never felt the curious, mind-tickling urge the original text bears, no pun, no ambiguity, no sweet craving and not a trace of this exquisite Englishness I have always felt in the book. It was rather a simplified 'Good versus Evil' story and as such purely one-dimensional in spite of the generous hi-fi 3D package.
Well, I will go back to the book, I guess and continue to love Tim Burton for Eduard Scissorshands.

Jabuticaba

The Brazilian music triumphantly marched back into my life just a couple of years after it first took a prominent place in my heart.

Bebel Gilberto’s tunes have been on my lips most of the time since December and have made this unbearably long winter a tiny bit more tolerable. Ceu’s playful, girlish songs were equally impossible to resist. “Comadi” struck me immediately as the perfect sound illustration if a new version of “Dona Flor e seus dois maridos” is ever to be filmed. You can sense a great deal of Vadinho’s charm and Flor’s blossoming femininity in that song, can’t you?

And then yesterday it was once again Bebel’s turn with a song called “Jabuticaba”. When you hear this tender opening

“If I could name

A fruit for you

It would be jabuticaba’

you naturally get curious what sort of a romantic and inspiring plant that could possibly be.

And here is the answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabuticaba

It is a Brazilian grapes tree or as the song goes on:

“Blue, black and small

On the outside

And soft and sweet within”….

A new jewel from Brazil

Bebel Gilberto’s smile on the cover of her most recent album ”All in one” says it all- “I am a woman in love with life and with love”! The grace with which this statement is made and reaffirmed throughout all the tracks is remarkable and contagious – within days after I purchased my own copy I had to rush back to the store for more as her stories, woven in warm tunes, made me long to share the treasure with some inspirational women.

And I see my enthusiasm is shared by countless of people all around the globe who have only too gladly succumbed to Bebel’s charms as I did. And how could you not love it? How could you not fall for such an effortless flow of joy, beautiful power and femininity? It just makes you feel like putting on your most beautiful clothes and favourite jewellery and reach out with your heart to truly and wholly merge with the enormity of Life, as All is One…

Bebel says she recorded it as it was who she was right now and on the other side I love it as I also feel it as a reflection of me right now! Muito obrigada!