Monday, November 15, 2004

Sant Jordi i Els Drac


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Originally uploaded by jorodu.
Saint Jordi, in the Cloister of the beautiful Barcelona's Cathedral. A litle fountain, in which Sant Jordi(patron of Barcelona) is depicted stabbing a Dragon...(not enough light to get the fullness of the dragon at the horse's feet)....
but like Sant Jordi, I, yet have to kill and defeat my own dragons. I believe I carry several of them around, they have grown big and strong, I pray to have the strenght and courage that Sant Jordi once did....
we're all Knights fighting obscure dragons from the depths of our own souls. May the Gods, stay with me.
bless

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

growing up...upside down


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Originally uploaded by jorodu.

it was 36 years ago, who knows how or what and for what reasons,
at 12 I learned to play the drums, on my own, at 17 got my first drum lesson, at 19 went to Psychology school for 4 yrs, quitted , went to Music School, for 2 years, studied with Gerry Weil for a little under a year, went to Music College for 3 years in the States, got married, then for a year wasted money and time learning the technolgies of the web, got divorced, started a new life, new band, new gigs, new people, new love, somehow along the way I forgot that I had to grow inside as well, besides attemping to learn all the cool things of what we call music, I forgot I had to be a grown man, now I'm paying the consequences of such and odd upbringing ....such a little kid inside myself...it has to be nurtured, but it also have to grow.......

Life has placed me in a situation in which, music has become a central part of it, and a source of joy and anxiety. Driving me towards the uncomfortable situation in which cannot make a living as a musician, cannot function well in a different enviroment outside the musical arena. What to do?, how, when , where?....everything is a whirlwind of things, a big salad of messes, pros and cons. To the point that I don't know anymore....forget days, forget dates, appointments, times and duties.....

this is not happiness...

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Gaudi, the master


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Originally uploaded by jorodu.
Do I need to say anything?.....Antoni Gaudi i Cornet, what a mind!!!.

bad girl


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Originally uploaded by jorodu.
Bebis playing a bad girl, with a bunch of bad girls on Barcelona's alleys. Close to las Ramblas

face off


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Originally uploaded by jorodu.
here is the little dragon and me, almost there, too bad I don't have the picture of me all burned after he surrounded me with his fire breath.

my Cathedral


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Originally uploaded by jorodu.
One of the favourite part of Barcelona, is the Cathedral, built in the year 300(well it started then) this is a great view from the Cloister.

the gargoyle & I


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Originally uploaded by jorodu.
walking on the street, just leaving Placa Sant Agusti Vells, where Gato is, youfind the Arc de Triomf, a XIX beauty, here beautifull gargoyles are lined up in the walkway towards the Arch, this one, a Dragon(the symbol of Catalunya) and me, decide to have a confrontation

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

good bye, Democracy-Au Revoir

No, I'm not talking about the US, you might think. No, I'm talking about my homeland, Venezuela. The issue is way to extense to really go on and on, but there is plenty information here: Nueva Venezuela, and here Daniel's Blog, and here: The Devil's Excrement.

I wont dwell into this aweful and horrendous realm of what it's going on down there, I just pointing out and trying to vent a well rooted frustration.

Democracy, as a way o govern a country, my country of Birth, is gone. we're witnessing, what I believe will be 40 yrs of Totalitarism and represion, "a la Castro"......that unless, there is and unrest, and people wake up and fight..
"la pelea es peleando".....

que los Dioses amparen a Venezuela.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Jazz y otras entelequias


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Originally uploaded by jorodu.
Fact-people don'like jazz. Well they do, but their prescence in the market place makes it almost impossible for any jazz artist to make a decent living(that is unless you're Pat Metheny).

-reason why there are very few new jazz artists in comparison with pop or rock artists, which seems to be cloned by the minute.

I should have dedicated myself to pursue a career as a rock musician instead of venturing in jazz. Jazz is a unknown territory, always unpredictable.
Trying to convey the subtleties of emotions by simply choices of chords and tensions in the melodies, has proven to be more challenging that doing it with words. But again, all that have to be said in rock or pop it's been done, hence, at least to me, how empty and poised the lyrics feel.

-but in order to uplift my spirit, have to comtemplate Gaudi's work for a while.

cheers.