Here is Part 1 of a new series I will be presenting on Fridays on Omnia Caelum Blogs. I want to feature what Valencia is and how it feels to live here…I will do it the JaZzArt way, which means I will improvise along the way and see where the vibes and the energy of the city take me. Here is the first instalment…and yes, the music soundtrack will have much to do with the impressions of the city I wish to portray.

CHEERS!

No te olvidaremos…

Os dejo algunas de las mejores imágenes de este gran futbolista…

Gracias…

As you may already know…or maybe not…I am a big time fútbol fan! I am faithful to my team, Barcelona, Soy Culé, which means I am a huge fan of Fútbol Club Barcelona, or Barça, as we call it for short. Even though I am from Valencia, but there is no rivalry there, I love Valencia CF but I cannot help being a fan of Barça because I’ve always been…

But like I said, I love fútbol and one championship, in particular one match and one play I will never forget was that of Diego Armando Maradona playing for the Argentine National Team during the World Cup Mexico 1986. He scored…or assisted…in ten of the fourteen goals scored by Argentina! He dribbled…incredible feat…ninety times! But the best is in this short clip I will share. In the match against England…a country I am glad he defeated after the humiliation of Argentina in the Malvinas war in which England interfered imperialistically in the affairs of the American continent…Maradona did what no other had done. These two goals are amazing and especiallyWatch this because this was the famous “hand of God”.

All I can say is that he was a player with a heart and a passion for the sport that made watching him an adventure. He was the greatest player, but also quite controversial. A tremendous lover of the sport, an enthusiast par excellence and the best, no one can deny, but he came with a boatload of problems which plagued him to his dying day, but those things have nothing to do…directly…with football, so I will leave them for someone else to discuss if they want to, or you can look them up.

Presently…and for the last seventeen years…I am a great fan of Messi, another Argentinian great. I chose to put the photo of an older Maradona, (coaching the Argentine National Team), patting on the back a young Messi, because I know Mardona praised the skill, the drive, the power of Lionel Messi, and I applaud him for that.

Diego Armando was born in Lanús, Argentina, on the 30th of October 1960. He was world champion with the Argentina National Team in 1986, second place, sub-champion in 1990, and winner of the Copa Artemio Franchi of 1993. His last match wearing the uniform of the Argentine National Team was on the 25th of June 1994 playing against Nigeria in the United States World Cup (Brasil won). With Napoli, (Italian Serie A), he won the UEFA Cup and the only two scudettos that Napoli has and with whom he scored the «gol imposible» in 1985.

The goal he scored against the English team in World Cup 1986 was voted by FIFA as being the best in the history of the World Cup of the XXth Century and in fourth place is one of his goals against Belgium of that same World Cup Mexico championship.

Maradona’s death is a national tragedy for the country of Argentina and a great loss to all football fans around the world. I want to express my sincere condolences to the Argentinian nation and as well to all fans. Maradona will be missed. He is now a legend, a milestone and a leader of the sport.

Diego Armando died on the 25th day of November 2020 at a specially prepared home…in Buenos Aires…where he was to convalesce after surgery to repair a blood clot in the brain. The stated cause of death was cardiac/respiratory arrest…an autopsy is being performed today, 26 NOV 2020…to fully determine the cause.

To see some of the most iconic images of Maradona at work as a player for Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla and the Argentine National Team, please watch the companion piece I have prepared which offers a photo montage video with original music.

THANK YOU!

Ciao Pelusa, no te olvidaremos…

I was instantly attracted to this song. Well as a Kinks fan since the day I heard them play “You Really Got Me”, this song made a lot of sense, especially after “Lola”. And what profound truths it states, for if paranoia is not a destroyer, what on earth is! It makes you sense what is not felt, see what is not present and hear what has not made a sound. It does go something like that, right…

So, if you meet a girl named Lola and you take her back to your place, you can be sure you will wake up the next day suffering an incurable case of paranoia. After all, you must already know that there is CC TV on every street, cameras everywhere, hidden microphones and curious blokes with dark specs looking at you from behind their Daily Mail…

Well, the official name of the song is “Destroyer”, written by Ray Davies and released in 1981 and included in their album Give the People What They Want, The Kinks nineteenth studio album. Actually, the song was only released as a single in the US. In the UK, “Destroyer” was available only when the album was released there in January 1982.

It was a powerful song, in my opinion, with stolen riffs from their previous songs as well as words and characters. But it had a heavier sound, more metallic and louder than most of their earlier tunes. Although to me The Kinks were always the real “bad boys” with a more punk/heavy rock sound than even the early Rolling Stones, and I am talking back in the sixties when all of these British bands began to take rock and roll to another level…

So, here is the song. And your turn to tell me what you think…

CHEERS!

What used to be known as domestic violence has now been re-named gender violence or gender based violence. It may mean the same thing but domestic violence as a sub-group of those crimes committed against persons, I believe covers a much larger area. However, in any event, gender based violence is a threat to our stability, growth and development as a society, a world-wide society I mean to say.

Violence against women, perpetrated by men needs to be addressed, not only on the international day, but each and every day. In many countries, in many societies and communities violence against women is not even a criminal offence. And this must end. We do not live in the dark ages where men ruled and controlled. We live in much brighter times when we understand and accept total and complete equality. And there can be no other way.

In Europe…and developing countries…laws are enacted to protect women. Programmes are developed and put forth to educate those that feel, or think, that it is their inherent right to dominate women. And finally, sanctions, hard sanctions, meaning long stretches of incarceration, are also given to those who exert gender based violence. Perhaps that is the most effective method…

As an artist, I feel it my duty and responsibility to be, like the Ancient Greeks said, a “man of the polis”. In other words, a man of the city, of the community and a participant in all the aspects of life in a civilised circle of people. Therefore I open my blog and in particular, this post to comments and opinions, to advice and to wisdom coming from all of you, my online community. I also wish to encourage artists, both young and older, but especially young ones who might believe that artists should remove themselves from social issues or politics, that on the contrary, we are the ones that are supposed to talk about these issues and to fight for the rights of the oppressed, the victims and the ones suffering undue pain at the hands of abusers.

Here are the quotes of the series:

“It doesn’t matter how rich or poor a person is, what gender or social class, or how much fame or education she possesses. Verbal, mental, and physical abuse can happen to anyone. It doesn’t matter what a woman’s ethnicity is because the only distinguishing color of abuse is black-and-blue.” La Toya Jackson

“You survived the abuse, you’re going to survive the recovery.” Mariska Hargitay

“It’s in the past, and I don’t want to ‘get over it,’ because it’s a very serious thing that is still relevant; it’s still real. A lot of women, a lot of young girls, are still going through it. A lot of young boys, too. It’s not a subject to sweep under the rug, so I can’t just dismiss it like it wasn’t anything.” Rihanna

“My daughter knows what happens. My son knows as well. We talk about what is abuse. I think it’s important to talk to our daughters—and our sons—in order to educate them at an early age about what’s appropriate and what is absolutely not acceptable.” Reese Witherspoon

“As a child, I heard in my home doctors and ambulance men say, ‘Mrs. Stewart you must have done something to provoke him,’ ‘Mrs. Stewart, it takes two to make an argument.’ Wrong! WRONG! My mother did nothing to provoke that, and even if she had, violence is never ever a choice that a man should make. Ever!” Patrick Stewart

Estos son algunos de los dibujos que, usando papel de manila, color cremoso y de alto gramaje, obtuvieron otro aspecto y son los que, al añadirle cierta textura y ese toque sepia del papel, resultaron muy diferente a los otros que he hecho, tradicionalmente en blanco y negro.

Siempre el motivo es musical en todos sus aspectos, en particular aquí que tenéis la figura de una bailarina que parece que se ha reconciliado con las notas, a veces discordantes y hasta enarmónicas del Jazz moderno, que es lo que tocan las otras chicas del dibujo, para hacer un relevé, muy del ballet clásico…

El Jazz es ciertamente mi inspiración y conociendo que el Jazz puede ser muy mecánico, arrítmico y experimental, os brindo la chica del centro de la composición, que parece hecha de partes tomadas mas bien de una maquina que de un ser humano, y sobre su cabeza tiene formas geométricas, indicando que solo piensa en ángulos y en rectas, en el tiempo y la métrica, como muchas piezas de Jazz moderno, o el Free Jazz, un estilo experimental…

Pero también están las otras que representan un sonido Jazz diferente, digamos a John Coltrane…

Y las que nos miran directamente a los ojos, ¿nos estarán interrogando con esas miradas que parecen tan plácidas y pensativas? ¿Que opinas tu?

INSTAGRAM: @Francisco_Bravo_Cabrera

Gracias…

I’ll pass on days like the fourteenth of February,

anniversaries,

happy birthdays,

Thanksgivings and the first of May.

I’ll pass on football games on Sundays,

early rising Mondays,

Tuesdays lunch downtown,

black ties and long white gowns,

and sing alongs…

I’ll always pass on picnics on a summer’s day,

and what they say to be the rightful way,

for it was they who placed a crown of thorns upon a head so holy,

pig headed hypocrites that want to be

the rulers of you and me…

I pass on mothers with their crying children,

neglected and forgotten,

and left aside,

while they nurse the gin and tonics by their side…

I’ll always pass on lying politicians,

who promise us what they think we want,

and hide our riches in their banks,

who want to tell us how to live our lives,

but it’s all lies…

I’ll pass on commerce, marketing sublime,

social media made to spend our time

communicating without saying much,

forgetting surely how it feels to touch

a human being made of flesh and bone

and not computers made to fill our home

with plastic information, fake news and commercials

to boost the capital’s potential…

So, ask me once more and surely I’ll say,

I’ll stick with the sunrise

feeling far away,

I’ll bet on this earthly plane where we make our existence,

transitory, allegoric, quite euphoric and resistant,

that lying men have turned into a ball

but we don’t fall…

So what more can I bloody say than

I’ll pass on everything today!

C.2020, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 23 NOV 2020, Valencia, Spain

-No te olvides de mi-…

no fueron últimas palabras,

pero como si lo hubieran sido.

Grabadas han quedado entre las mil cosas que jamás olvido,

recuerdos que me persiguen siempre,

que me derriten.

¡Que sinsentido!

Pero desde entonces me muevo entre el humo de la melancolía,

sorteando entre los acordes de aquel requiem mozartiano,

que me llevan en las noches a esas vaguadas heladas,

tan heladas…

Pero logro, lentamente así subirme a las alturas calurosas,

sonrientes,

perfectas, alucinantes, amorosas,

para deshojar allí una amarilla rosa,

y alegrarme que no hayan margaritas.

Y así, este sueño tan audaz,

tan vergonzoso,

que se apaña cuan ladrón en mis memorias con tal gozo,

hace que se hagan inmortales

las palabras que desataron raudales:

-No te olvides de mi-

no…

¡Claro que nunca!

Primero me olvido de la naturaleza vana

que me desgarra cada dia,

antes de olvidarme de ti misma abuela mía,

nunca lo olvides tu,

nunca me olvides tu…

C.2020, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, 23 de noviembre de 2020, Valencia, España

Pues aquí lo tenéis, el vídeo de algunas de las obras de Miquel Barceló…

Os agradecería que os pasarais por mi página y me deis vuestra opinión, un like y que os suscribierais a nuestro canal de YouTube…

Gracias y un abrazo…

Adeu…