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19 November 2006 - I finally got around to purchasing "Gracias a la Vida" by Mercedes Sosa. Normally, I would link you to iTunes and the album but you have to have iTunes installed to get there. Regardless, it became the 4th album that I purchased from iTunes. The album has a lot of songs on it that are also on 30 años but it has a number "que nueva para me". She has such a pure voice that it is incredible. The other singer with a voice like that is Crystal Gayle. I list "Unicornio" and "We must be believe in magic" as two songs very close to the top of my list of favorites.
14 November 2006 - I have a number of new CDs but nothing stands out. The "El tren de los momentos" by Alejandro Sanz comes the closest. The most interesting is "Under The Desert Sky" by Andrea Bocelli. Bocelli does a live performance on Lake Las Vegas. I have yet to figure out if I like "Premonición" by David Brisbal.
22 October 2006 - I have tried to find a CD that is as pleasant to listen to as Rosanna's Magia album and have not found a replacement. This week I found "LU" by Lu and "Sesion Metropolitana" by Reik. Both of these CDs represent new artists. The Reik album also has a DVD that will let you watch them perform. I will listen to them and see what I think. I also came across a 2-CD nueva historia album by "Conjunto Primavera" and a greatest hits of "1994-2004" album by "La Ley".
28 September 2006 - It is the day after my birthday and I was gifted with finding the "La Cantina" album by Lila Downs. I am listening to "Cumbia de mole" and reminiscing about Oaxaca Mole. It is the only mole that I have eaten that reminds me that I shouldn't be eating this type of food. It sends me after the anti-acid or Malox around 2-3 hours after I have eaten it. My amigos from Oaxaca are frequently surprised that food they think is really hot doesn't break a sweat with me. The 2nd track, ""La Carrido de Tacha 'La Taibolera'", make you thump your foot. I can't understand why the local stores took so long to carry her latest CD. It is an interesting album. Her part in the movie Frida has changed her productions. For some people they must be really strange but her mixing of cultures is one of the reasons I have all of her albums. I tell people she looks a little over 5 feet but has 10 gallon lungs. The 10 gallon lungs comment was made because one time when she was singing, she held a note and I had breathed 3 or 4 times before she stopped.
25 September 2006 - The local music stores finally got a couple of new CDs that I thought were worth buying. The first was Ananda by the Mexican artist, Paulina Rubio. I have a hard time getting around her weak vocals but Ananda was more enjoyable than most of her recent work. I had stopped buying her CDs but this one was worth it.
The next CD I bought was "Quiereme Tal Como Soy" by the Mexican artist, Lucero. I didn't know what genre to tag the mp3's with when I converted them for my iPod. I just labeled them "Latin". Between Rubio's CD and Lucero's CD it is a toss up. I think the production of Ananda was superior but I like to listen to Lucero better. In the case of a "toss-up", I create a playlist on my iPod and then listen to both of them. The winner may replace Magia by Rosana in my car. It has been playing for a couple of weeks and I need something new to listen to.
6 September 2006 - I have encountered a new artist via Yahoo's Music Engine. Her name is Sara Valenzuela. People have compared her to Suzanne Vega who I also liked her early work. My taste in music changed and Vega disappeared from my world. When people think of Mexican singers, I find that many identify with groups such as "Los Tuncanes de Tijuana", the many "Conjuntos", or others. There are a large number of really pleasant singers that don't fit that mold. Valenzuela falls into that category. You can listen to her on Yahoo and buy her CD Valenzuela on Amazon but you may not find her locally. Yahoo and others also sell the album as a download but I prefer to be able to hold the CD in my hand.
4 September 2006 - I have another one of those costly freebies. Apple was offering a discovery track of "Old Crow Medicine Show" on iTunes. The link will take you to their web site. It is kind of hard to categorize the genre. The choices listed for them range from Country/Folk/Americana. I imported them as Country. The joke - laugh is because I liked "James River Blues" well enough that I bought O.C.M.S. and "Big Iron World". The links will take you to the albums on Amazon.com. The 2 albums came to a little under $30. So, the freebie wasn't free.
25 August 2006 - I finally bought Pistolera's Demo. The link will take you to "La Pistolera's" web site. The demo album is only 5 songs and costs $4.95 on iTunes. They are a little weak on some notes but that wasn't that distracting. I had never heard a "demo" CD and the fact that the vocal part doesn't stand out should not have been a surprise. That is the kind of tunning that a producer would enhance before a master CD was burned.
23 August 2006 - I went hunting for new CDs today. There are a number of artists that I like that I can't purchase locally. I saw Maná had a new album called "Amar es combatir" in the Sunday advertisements. It was for a good price but if you were early, you could get a free teeshirt. A new CD and a Maná's "Amar es combatir" teeshirt. I figured that I would get the good deal but the teeshirts would all be gone. I guess none of the Maná fans read the Circuit City advertisment because there were several left when I walked out of the store. I went back on the 29th and there were still 2 teeshirts left.
21 August 2006 - I was listening to my Ritmo Latino podcast and Pistolera showed up in the album cover image. I had never heard of the term of "underground radio" but that is how their demo is being distributed. The cover art looks like something straight out of Pancho Villa. From the audio bits on their website, I can only say that their music is interesting but the vocal part is not loud enough. The instruments are louder than the lead singer. The music was recorded live and I can only add that they need a new sound manager. If you want to be a friend, visit their website on Myspace.com. They are recording their first album and hopefully the new producer will change the emphasis but until then, their demo is not a bad album to listen to.
22 July 2006 - I finally got around to buying Magia by Rosana from iTunes. I also created a fan page called "Rosana's fan page". Magia is my first download album. Rosana has been a 5-* artist in my on demand services for sometime. They don't have her greatest hits but adding "Lunas Rotas" will cover most of the songs. I can download the 4 I want for about the price that I can purchase 2 of the CDs. I can also use iTunes to burn the CDs.
I also previewed Sacred by Los Lonely Boys with my on demand services. I did not particularly like their new album.
19 July 2006 - I watched my neighbor's dogs while they went on vacation and they found "El Que Busca Encuentra" by Elefante in a Tower record store in Boston, Ma.. It will be added to my ipod later but right now it is charging and I am listening to the ripped music using iTunes. "De la noche a de la mañana" is the first track and I have played it 2x. So far that song sounds pretty good.
9 July 2006 - While copa mudial was playing, I visited lcrmusic and luzrio. Her marketeers seem to be finally close to hiting on all 8-cylinders. There are some songs that she does well and some that sound no buena. I didn't encounter any of the bad ones on the web site. The web site is still fractured and has a confused appearance. The first time I encountered her music on the Internet, I really enjoyed listening to her. I just can't buy her CDs locally and I REALLY hate to order them over the Internet. I associate her music as norteño but I never think that I am an authority. The non-flash photo album have names that begin with CRW. That means they are using a Canon digital in "RAW" mode. Since I have a Canon digital Rebel and shoot in "raw" mode, I think she has someone that has a clue as to what they are doing.
28 June 2006 - I have finished converting all of my favorite Spanish albums and now I am working down to the 10-20 albums that I found to be less interesting. When I finish the Spanish albums, I have many country albums that I will convert. I don't listen to them any more but if I convert them now, I have choices.
21 June 2006 - I have had to upgrade all albums that I had only converted to wma's because an iPod doesn't play wma's. As I was converting SPARX, I realized how their albums are different than most of the música latina market. It suddenly struck me that most of their albums only contain 10 tracks. This is really irritating when most of my Spanish albums contain 15 or more tracks and can play for 60 minutes. It didn´t take much to make me realize that purchasing SPARX was not a good deal.
19 June 2006 - It is 3am and I have finished converting some of my more interesting music to mp3 to be added to the iPod. I had been converting most of my new albums to wma because it required less disk space. Then, Apple released Quick Time + iTunes and I finally had an mp3 conversion engine that didn't add bursts of noise to the output.
I found that I also liked "Insensible A ti" from Villarreal's album. "Quando tú te vas" kept running through my mind. At least, I didn´t wake up thinking about "penguins in my bed" like I did when I was playing Adentro de Arjona. Eventually, Villarreal´s album was replaced with "Arriba, Arriba" from Univision's "Copa Mundial" album. Univision does a really good job of creating PR songs for the World Cup. The 2002 video of Jennifer Peña singing "Vamos al mundial" introduced me to her music. This time there were no artist surprises because I already had the most recent releases of Pablo Montero, Ana Bárbara, Anais, and Mariana. I will get tired of it fairly quickly but right now, I could loop Arriba, Arriba and Vamos Al Mundial. I am not a real fan of fútbol but I have watched several Copa Mundial games. I like games involving finese and American Football or baseball do not fit this criteria. The closest thing to finese is when a runner is caught between bases and the first one to make a mistake loses.
7 May 2006 - I am still playing Villarreal's new album. The song that keeps playing in my mind is "Me gustas".
2 May 2006 - I have been listening to "No es Brujeria" de Ana Bárbara for 4 days now. I saw it in a display 5 days ago and quickly grabbed a copy. If the store had forgot to embargo it, I would not be able to buy it but the cash register accepted it. The timing on the release was bad from my end because I like "Orgullo de mujer" de Alicia Villarreal better. That is what I am playing in my car. I have my Nomad Touch set to play Ana Bárbara. I just like Alicia's voice just a touch better and she really sounds good in her latest album. On "Dos mares" there is a harmonica and I wonder if that is Joan Sebastián playing it. This made me curious and I started reading the insert and it was Sebastián playing it. One of the reasons I like his "En vivo en Guadalajara" is the harmonica.
25 April 2006 - I am testing Yahoo's Music Engine. I have a MusicMatch On Demand subscription and they offered a Y! Unlimite subscription for 30 days. I have been playing with it for 3 days and I like what I am seeing. There are things that are slightly irritating but not enough to make me stop using it. I can also let people see what I am playing. MusicMatch Player had a tendancy to hang and I have yet to see YME do the same thing. There are a few people such as "Los Aterciopelados" and "Joan Sebastián" that the songs I like are not available. However, they introduced me to Rosana and a couple of others, so, it is making suggestions like I am looking for.
21 April 2006 - I listened to Alicia Villarreal's new album "Orgullo de mujer" several times and then I took the copy I had made out to play in my car. I also added it to my "sp-0" play list in my Creative Nomad Touch. This means "sp-0" has 22 songs of her singing as "Grupo Límite" and 10 more as a solo performer. Odm was produced by Joan Sebastián. Tonight I got a telephone call that Kevin needed help with his English homework and while I was helping Kevin, Sandra got to listen to the album on my Nomad. She really likes track #8, "Insensible A Ti (Me Pone A Mil" This album has a consistant feel to it, which is something that "Cuando el corazón se cruza" didn't have. We probably have Sebastián to thank for that improvement.
17 April 2006 - I was in WalMart and passed the música latina section and saw the new CD by Alejandra Guzman. A couple of tracks sound like she has ruined her voice from all of the screaming and shouting she did in her outrageous rocker days. Regardless of your opinion of the music from her recent past, Ideleble is very easy to listen to and if I wasn´t playing Orgullo de mujer by Villarreal, I would be playing it in my car. The CD playing in my car could change frequently in the next couple of weeks. There are several singers that I like to listen to such as Ana Bárbara that have new albums coming out.
12 April 2006 - I have gone back to Joan Sebastian and his "En vivo desde Guadalajara" album. I have been playing it for about a week now.
28 March 2006 - I suddenly got bored playing Adentro in my automobile and tried to play my dup of the Coti CD. It has many gaps of silence, which translates into a bad copy of the original. I didn't look at the system message list which should have had CDROM read errors. It is really funny at times because you can rip the CD using loss less techniques and then make an audio CD but you can not copy the original. At times, I think the Music Industry Suits are totally twits and do not have a clue as to the capabilities that anyone with a modern computer has. Of course, there is Sony who introduced the CD world to rootkits. In the past, I had a couple of CDs that wouldn't play on my computer; however, I have a audio system to the side of my computer and and all I had to do to copy the bad tracks, was run an audio line from the output of the audio system to the line-input connector on my sound card. I think the bad tracks required all of 8 minutes to copy and then I could burn a CD that worked flawlessly.
I told mi amiga last night that I had finally listened to Coti. She wanted to know what I thought and I told her it was music I could fall asleep to and everyone laughed. It is "en vivo" and you do not see the studio tricks that a normal album could use. I have to add that I can only fall asleep to pleasant music.
I was sitting here trying to think and "Directo al corazón" by Luis Miguel started playing on my "music on demand" subscription. He sounds really young and it is not a fall asleep song. In fact, I had a hard time writing while it was playing. My list is supposed to people that are similar to Marco Antonio Solís. Miguel's song did not belong in that list.
25 March 2006 - I have been looking for an album by Coti for several weeks. My suggestions by iTunes was showing Coti "as also bought" on numerous occasions. I could have mail ordered one and received it a long time ago. I was hesitant to do that because my amiga de México did not really like Coti. Well, I stopped by the Hastings Book Store in Kennewick, Washington and they had the special edition of "Esta mañana y otros cuentos". I can see why she doesn´t like him. The songs are sort of interesting but the vocals are weak. He had some first class help in Julieta Venegas and Paulina Rubio. I liked Venegas in Aterciopelados but not solo. I have complained about weak vocals by Rubio for a long time. That didn't keep me from buying Rubio. It was just a comment on her vocal ability. For what it is worth, Adentro by Arjona is still playing in my car and Coti will not replace him.
14 March 2006 - Well just to keep things straight, it is still Adentro de Arjona playing in my car. I have gone back to my broad list of Spanish singers that I am listening to on my Touch3 when I walk but I haven't found anything to replace Adentro in the car. Ricardo Arjona is consider to be protest music but much of his recent music is more along the lines of pop. I have a list of tracks that I could listen to for many more months but it takes too much work to create the CD.
28 January 2006 - Arjona may have the last laugh because it is "Pingüinos en la cama" that I have been waking up to. It is really funny what songs stick in your mind. Before that, it was Mentirosa de Elefante that I kept running in my mind. As I write this, I am sitting here listening to Entre Amigos de Julio Preciado. The album cover has con mariachi but most of the music sounds close to baladas de música latina. I keep coming back to the artists of old because they became popular without the aids of modern electronics. If they sounded good on their CD/DVDs, they also sounded good in person. If they sound like they sang on pitch, they really sang on pitch.
I purchased two CDs of country artists that I enjoyed. I joked a long time ago that the most expensive performance that I ever attended was one by Alabama in Yakima, Washington. Alabama was the main performer but Jainie Fricke was the lead in artist. I liked her performance so well that when I got home, I went out and purchased all of her CDs. The music video that comes to mind is one called "She's Single Again". The new album is called "Golden Legends" and is Fricke's best hits. The other country album is "Black Cadillac" by Roseane Cash. Cash is either hit or miss with me. I am not sure where her latest album fits into my scheme of things.
10 December - 2005 - I purchased "México >> Madrid en directo y sin escalas" by Alejandro Fernández. I will play it in the car for a while. I purchased the version with the DVD of the concert. It was a powerful performance in front of fans that truly loved listening to him sing. Of course, watching the interaction with Amaia Montero from "La oreja de Van Gogh" didn't hurt a bit. The CD is 1:03 of a variety of music from Mexico for an audience in Madrid, Spain.
I also purchased Adentro de Arjona. I think the DVD of the Alejandro's concert in Madrid is much more interesting that the CD. I have to laugh at Adentro because one of the songs is "Pingüinos en la cama". The thought of Penguins in the bed cracks me up.
10 November 2005 - I hit another group before they won a grammy. I have been listening to Elefante for some time now. I can tell from the date on my computer where I store the converted audio that I bought their current album on 13 October. They have pushed everyone else out of being played in my car and they are the primary group on my Nomad Touch. I want to sing a long with "Durmiendo con la luna", "Mentirosa", and "Estoy Loco". They are easy to listen to and the words to their songs are very clear and distinct.
4 July 2005 - I have been following TNT's miniseries called "Into The West". The interaction of the tribes as the pioneers moved west has been the subject of numerous books and movies. Many have agenda's and they maintain their version is the only truth. Rarely was that true. To invert a comment by Winston Churchill, never have so few been misunderstood by so many. I had ancestors that were protected by the local tribe but my great grandmother was always talking about the "Indians". I think that when she was a child growing up in early Utah, she was frightened by some bad "Indians" and that affected her for life. I have always been a fan of anything that showed a "good" connection between the "First Americans" and the settlers. Consequently, following Jacob Wheeler and Thunder Heart Woman has been really interesting. If you view the web site, you will know that it shows numerous occasions of when the whites didn't treat the tribes fairly but it is about a merged family. This was a subject of great interest, so as soon as I found them, I bought the soundtrack and the book about "Into The West". Since this is where I write about my taste in music, you have to understand that I liked the soundtrack from "ITW". I may have bought the DVD of Frida because of Lila Downs but I bought CDs by Mary Youngblood because of the Movie and the soundtrack. The 12th track of the soundtrack album is called "Grandmother's Last Sunset" and is performed by Mary. It is very mellow flute music. To think about dying with such pleasant music as a background is different.
22 April 2005 - Andrea Echeverri kept popping up in my on-demand service's alternate choices. I finally listened to a couple of songs. They were interesting enough to try and find albums that Echeverri was in. First problem was that I couldn't remember how to spell Aterciopelados over night. Echeverri wasn't much easier. I finally looked up the names and went looking for albums. I found "The Best of Aterciopelados" and after a discussion of the group, I found the album "Andrea Echeverri". Now I have to listen to them long enough to form an opinion.
24 March 2005 - I am sitting here listening to Maria de Barros' "Dança Ma Mi" and shaking my head. I remember listening to an older CD by Marco Antonio Solís and hearing 3 or 4 different singers. I think the album was "Tu Amor o Tu Despacio". You assume a singer is going to get locked into *his* style and stay with it but that must be terribly boring. I am think of Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day" where he was in a perpetual loop. Maria has done the same thing with "Dance With Me". You have some very definite African harmony such as Rosinho or "Sol Di Manha". They start out African and move in to what I have come to think of as Cape Verde style. If this is Coladeira, the world is missing some very pleasant music to listen to. One of the best reviews that explains her style is the Washington Post. You may have to register.
You almost expect to see someone from "Ladysmith Black Mambazo" coaching the African harmony in the practice sessions. Then, you have a very French sounding one in "Caresse Moi". I was trying to sing a long with this one when I was walking in the shopping Mall. "Um Tem Um Amor" leaves me with a blank for a style. It has also caused me to stop working on the computer and just listen. In Pazinho Laxa, you will hear something that almost sounds like West Indies harmony and up pops a steel guitar from a Nashville sound group. The only thing missing is an English version of each song as Césaria Évora has done on her insert for "Voz D'Amor".
15 March 2005 - I bought the soundtrack to Frida recently. That is what I am listening to as I drive. On my Creative Nomad, I have Frida, La Sandunga, Border, Tree of Life, and One blood arranged in order at the end of my "Playing Now" list. I normally let the Nomad loop through all 20 albums in the playing list. I have some listening to Lila Downs to do before that will continue. Once "One Blood" finishes, it rolls over and begins playing Alicia Villareal's "Soy Lo Prohibido". It doesn't always do that before I get home.
8 March 2005 - I have been listening to "Tree of Life" or "Arbol de la vida" in my car. My order of choice is "Una Sangre", "Arbol de la vida", "La linea", and "La Sandunga". This will change because I have converted them to 96kbps windows media to play in the Nomad. I walk for 2-4 miles after I eat dinner at 3:30 pm. The Nomad makes it much more pleasant to walk alone. I am listening to all 4 and that will let me figure out what I really like the most.
3 March 2005 - I am currently listening to Lila Downs' album called "Una Sangre". I would have bet money that I would be listening to "El otro lado de mi" by Soraya but I like "Una Sangre" better and it is getting the play time on both my Creative Nomad and in the car. I purchased "Live at the Fillmore" by Los Lonely Boys and selected the next track on most of the album. I liked the dual-disc version of the self titled album but the live one just didn't appeal to me.
11 January 2005 - Alexandre Pires has a new album out. It is called "Alma brasilera". I don't know how new it is because I just found it. There are 2 web sites on him and they didn't indicate a release date. Of the two, the more uptodate is the official one and I haven't figured out how the one on terra.com relates. Click the links and they will take you there.
17 December 2004 - I was introduced to "La Oreja de Van Gogh" recently. I am curious about which ear they are talking about but not enough to really ask a question about it. They have a very interesting sound. I first heard them on Music Match's "On Demand" and liked them well enough to buy their "lo que te conté mientraas te hacias la dormida" album. I had previously listened to them on Wal Mart's on demand system but they sounded so terrible that I didn't purchase anything. Our local store was always rebooting and they removed it. I also figured out that if someone sounded good on it, they were REALLY good. It wasn't until they popped up on my Music Match system that they sounded interesting. The have an "en directo" album which also includes a DVD of a concert. This was the killer album that totally hooked me. Amaia has an interesting voice. I am not sure that I would like her solo but as a group they sound awesome. Once I saw the DVD of the concert, I can mentally see her jumping up and down when those songs play. You have to watch to understand.
1 October 2004 - I was sitting at my computer working on some updates from FreeBSD and had Music Match playing on "coral", my Windows XP Pro computer. The "on demand" choices today have bordered on awesome. The only one I didn't like was an album by "El Coyote Y Su Banda Tierra". I found Belinda who sounds like the early Paulina Rubio when I thought she could still sing. I was also introduced to "Ella Baila Solo" and "Jerry Rivera". I will have to see if I can purchase one of their albums locally. After awhile my playlist rolled over and started playing Alexandre Pires. Pires has to be one of the most pleasant singers to listen to that I have found.
30 September 2004 - I was in our local Hastings and the new Juanes album "mi sangre" was still on the cart. I pointed out to one of the people working in the CD section that Juanes was one of the hottest rock stars in the Spanish music world and his new album had been left on the cart for 2 days. I also pointed out that I purchased the album at WalMart because it was in a prominent place there. They promised that it would be in the display very soon now.
14 March 2004 - I have been listening to the soundtrack from "Once Upon a Time In Mexico". I keep getting drawn to the 1st track by Patricia Vonne called "Traeme Paz" and the 2nd track is called Pistolero. Vonne is the sister of Robert Rodriquez and has an interesting sounding voice. I checked around all of the local music stores and no one is carrying her music except for the movie sound tracks.
7 March 2004 - I received an email from the owner of Vin Argentin and he suggested that I add his site and links to two artists. As I write this, I am listening to Pablo Salcedo. The flute almost gives me goosebumps. The 2nd artist was Markama and it also has a unique sound. Markama is a Quechua word meaning "to the people". This all got me to thinking that I need to separate out my "música del andino" into its own section. So, I know have "Music from the Andes" and will fill in with artists that I know about and like to listen to.
1 December 2003 - I was thinking of who I was listening to at this time. Sal, who works at the Old Country Buffet, did it to me again. He told me to listen to "Conjunto Primavera". Everytime I do this it costs me money. I purchased "Conjunto Primavera" and others. There were some similar sounds that I didn't identify by a name. For example, I had heard of norteño and banda. I like norteño but banda is a little bit strong on the oompah sound. It all depends because Jenni Rivera is banda and so is her brother Lupillo. I like Jenni but don´t like Lupillo that much. The top of my list is something called tejano. I was surprised to find that Marco Antonio Solís was considered to be tejano. Since he is my top latino singer, tejano has to be my top sound. Previously, I only thought of Selena as tejano. The movie about Selena´s life was probably responsible for me buying the Latin Mix album that jumped me into listening to música latina.
There are a number of artistas that are very pleasant to listen to. For example, Alexandre Pires is one of them. I purchased his albums after listening to him sing on the Latin Grammy Award Show. Listening to Enrique Iglasias´ album Quisás was emotional for me. I understood about 80% of 4 songs on the 1st play. It was emotional because I may become comfortable with Spanish yet. His mamacita reminded me of a chica caliente called Sally from my past.
17 November 2003 - I have coral back. Topaz is doing my FreeBSD stuff once more.
10 November 2003 - I walked into our local Circuit City and there was a copy of Roberto Carlos' 30 Grandes Canciones album. When my computer that I call ruby died, it affected my arrangements. I needed a fast machine for the FreeBSD computer OS and I no longer had coral available to play MusicMatch on. It has to be used to maintain my local copy of the FreeBSD port system. Replacement parts are supposed to arrive on 17 Nov.
24 October 2003 - I use MusicMatch's Premium service to listen to artists. One that stood out was José Luis Perales. He has a really good voice and sings songs that are easy to listen to. I found an album locally by the name of "30 Exitos Insuperables". There are several other artists such as Roberto Carlos but I haven't found any large collection CDs by them locally. I also purchased "Dejame volar" by Patricia Monterola. All 3 CDs were added to the "Playing Now" list on my Nomad Zen2 Jukebox.
2 August 2003 - I have revisited some singers that I had purchased in the past but hadn't listened to that much. One that stands out is Olga Tañon. She has a very powerful voice. I didn´t realize how powerful until I started playing Sobrevivir. I especially like Caramelo, and Ojos negros. The "oum, oum, oum" in caramelo seems to resonate from the bottom of her lungs. I also got a kick out of Celia Cruz's song diagnostico on the album "Regalos de alma". The thought of a doctor or nurse trying to listen for a pulse and hearing Cuban musical instruments was intriging. She was obviously homesick
The top-3 list of albums that I am currently listening to on my Zen2's play now list are Sobrevivir, Soraya, and Jimena. Playing now has a large number of other singers and it is played in a repeat loop.
19 May 2003 - One of the servers at my favorite restaurant told me to try listening to Pimpinela. I bought their Serie 32 album and added it to my Creative Nomad Zen2 mp3 player. I was amazed because here were songs that sounded just like my favorite singers and some of them sounded like they were the basis for other careers. for example, one song sounded like Azucar moreno and another of them sounded like Mercedes Sosa. Sosa's songs from the dark days of Argentina and the dictatorship will last forever. Azucar moreno has a different and almost harsh sound to their singing. They are a fairly recent group.
13 May 2003 - Marco Antonio Solis has released "Tu amor o tu desprecio". It is interesting but I like "Mas de me alma" better. This was true for a while and my first choice changed. In his latest release, Marco sounds like 5 or 6 different singers. This makes it really easy to listen to on a repeat loop. I have to grin when I watch people listen to the CD in the stores because many don't like it and put it back. They just need to play it a few more times and I think they would like the lastest album as well as I do.
23 Apr 2003 - Soraya's new album called "Soraya" is being released on 6 May 2003. I made my Tuesday trek around the local stores and asked if her album was going to be stocked. It wasn't on the list for Circuit City. BestBuy has it listed on their web page but didn't make it into the store.
30 January 2003 - I embarassed myself tonight. There are songs on Mas de me alma by Marco Antonio Solis that I seem to try to sing along to. I just forgot I was in a restaurant. I only did a couple of words before I caught myself. Then, I had to look around to see if anyone had paid attention and heard me. If they did, they all ignored me. On the album Marco Antonio Solis, there is a song called "casas de carton" that has the same affect. It is a song from his "Los Bukis" days. I must remember to not play it when I go out to eat dinner.
31 December 2002 - I just read that Soraya, my favorite lady singer, is producing her next album. She is also keeping a studio diary. Some of it is in English but most of it is in español.
22 December 2002 - I was told to listen to Bronco and Marco Antonio Solis. I sort of liked Bronco. But then I purchased Solis' "En vivo" and didn't like it that much. It took me a while to figure out that I didn't like the talking. The songs were great. Then, I did a wake up thought because it suddenly occured to me to wonder about what did I expect from a recording of a live performance. Since then, I have purchased Marco Antonio Solis, Mas De Mi Alma, and Trozos De Mi Alma. He uses a lot of Spanish words that I understand and he sings slow enough that I figure I will be able to understand what he is saying as he sings with a little more exposure to Spanish.
9 August 2002 - I finally found an album by Los Lobos that I had been searching for. It was an accident. I was being squirrelly in a sports car, saw flashing blue lights behind me and exited on the next off ramp. They were not after me. They had stopped another car on the hill. There was a Fred Meyers store and in their "músic latina" section was the Los Lobos album "Del Este De Los Angeles". This was an album that had been recommended for years but it was one that I couldn't find locally. Needless to say, I left FM with Los Lobos.
23 July 2002 - I purchased my first Mp3.com CDs. I chose Cholo Valderrama's "Caramba primo!" and Ihara's "Me Late El Corazon". I don't have an mp3 device and had to buy a real CD.
19 July 2002 - I have mostly stopped listening to Dalia and Maria Isabel on Mp3.com. I like the sounds of Ihara and her songs are getting my play time. It has been a matter of voice and personal likes. For example, I like my country sounds with a slightly harsh sound, which Maria has; however, I like my Spanish songs with a more mellow voice. It had been awhile and I went back to see if Maria had replaced any of her images. I noticed that Maria had a new one of her in a Mariachi outfit. She looked very pretty. I had to grin and wonder how someone would deal with the local temperatures in an outfit like that. Last week, the local temperature got up to 112° F, which is 44.4° C. I think that performing in a heavy Mariachi outfit in a temperature that hot could be life threatening. One of the people that is a cook/chef where I eat asked me what the temperature was and I said I didn't know. He thought I didn't understand what he had said in Spanish and repeated it in English. He thought it was 105° F and I understood his question in Spanish but I didn't know what the temperature was at the time. It turned out that it was 109° F and AccuWeather was claiming a "Real Feel"® of 118° F (47.7° C). Regardless of what it was, we both thought it was "muy caliente" (very hot). Abel is studying English. He doesn't know that many words in English but as he is learning them, he pronounces them almost flawlessly. I started out in Utah and developed a kind of country music twang singing along to country music. His wife Christina is teaching him English and she is doing a very good job. He had lived near Volcán de fuego de Colima, which is one of the volcanos that has my interest right now. There are times when we talk and one of us will get a blank look on our face but it is funny because we know words (palabras) that let us understand with out being able to put a sentance together to express what we are trying to say.
18 June 2002 - I purchased Paulina Rubio's "Border Girl". Out of all of the current set of English crossover albums, I think I like to listen to hers the best. It is the one playing in my automobile right now ( 21 July). The lyrics on Thalía's album "Thalia" are not very interesting and the album sounds really poorly engineered. I don´t especially like the lyrics to Shakira´s "Laundry Service". Her music videos are a different matter. Her video on "Objection" turned me into a "fly catcher" with my mouth open because I was following the video too closely. I felt like the guy dancing with her cardboard cutout in the Pepsi commercial.
4 June 2002 - I purchased Laura Flores' album "Contigo o sin ti". It has a kind of sexy pose on the cover. I didn't have any idea how small she must be. When I was a kid, I used to stack bales of alphalfa like she is sitting on and I know how large they are. She looks like she weighs less than the bales. They would weigh on the order of 100-120 pounds, which means I could jerk her off of the ground and deposit her on a stack that was around 6 feet high. I do not think she would want me to try it now that I am in my 60's. I am not sure I like the album; however, it is obviously better engineered than Tahlía's latest album. It is 2 weeks until Paulina Rubio's "Border Girl" album is released.
21 May 2002 - I purchased Thalía's Thalia album. I haven't figured out if it has been messed with to make it sound terrible on your computer or what. Most of the lead-ins have a lot of pops and other scratchy noise sounds.
25 April 2002 - I needed a link to two artists on Mp3.com. They are Dalia and Maria Isabel. Dalia is a pretty smooth sounding singer. Maria Isabel is a little harsher sounding but she also sings some country sounding songs that I have listened to for 20+ years. Most of the harshness disappeared when I flattened Winamp's equalizer. I am listening on my Windows 2000 Server and I never thought a server should have the best audio hardware. I don't find her voice objectionable it is just a difference between the two singers voices. The way I look at it, I get both worlds with one singer. I got used to the Texas sound of music and I can hear it in Maria Isabel's music. Dalia has a song called "Dame Tu Corazon" and "En Serio" that I seem to cycle through on my way to the restaurant that I eat at. Dame Tu Corazon affects me like Shakira´s "Ojos Asi" did when I first heard it. I have a button on the steering wheel that will let me skip forward or backwards. I don´t have to look down to start it over again. I don't know if there can be something like a Nashville sound on Spanish music but that is what I would say Dalia sounds like.
When I think of Maria Isabel, I think of "Sante Fe" and "Tejas es mi madre". She sings Sante Fe in English but Soraya has a song called "Pueblito Viejo" that always makes we want to fly back to old-town in Sante Fe. The music used in one of her songs sounds like a variation of George Strait's "Amarillo By Morning", which I thought was a classic country song. He has a number of them and such an example would be "Marina Del Rey". That also reminded me about "J.R. Castillo & Unwound". I think he sounds a lot like Strait at times but has a better voice. Strait has years of entertaining and you can't top that. I had a friend that thought Dolly Parton couldn't sing. I had to agree for the most part but I could sit and listen to her sing for hours at a time.
My great grandmother´s (bisabuela) family moved to Texas in the early 1840s. Her younger brother died in the war with Mexico. She moved to Utah in 1850s. In the early 1980s, I used to work for a computer company that sold computer time in Dallas. They would fly me down to Dallas every other month to spend a week. You can really have a lot of fun in Dallas on an expense account. There is a tall hotel across the interstate from the Anatole and that is where they would arrange for my room. I could drive a mile and have awesome Tex/Mex food or a couple of miles up Turtle Creek and get a really good prime rib dinner. You could drive out to the beltway and have a porterhouse steak that was barbecued over mesquite and came in Texas sized portions such as 16 ounce or 48 ounce sizes. I just never got used to having Texas style beans with a steak. People either like Eastern sytle prime rib with the horseradish or they like it Western Style. The Eastern style horseradish is kind of sweet and tastes funny to a Westerner. I would rate a Dallas prime rib much higher than anything you can buy in Kansa City.
The food in Dallas changed the way I eat. For example, the salad bars all had sliced jalapeños and I got used to adding them on top of my salad. When I have a choice, I still eat my salads this way. When I barbecue, I use Mesquite for the wood. My taste has gotten a little bit hotter over the years. My dinner usually has Tapatío on the roast beef. I was introduced to Valentina by a friend from Michuacan. They are both a little mild and I bought a small bottle of Yucatan Sunshine that promises to be hotter. It wasn't hotter. I add Cholula to the salasa bowl at the local Mexican food restaurant. I want the flavor of Valentina but with a couple of drops of habanero fire added for spice. At any rate, when I listen to Maria Isabel, I think of all of the good times that I had in Texas. They are good memories.
I will also buy both artist's CDs. I just haven't figured out which ones I want to start with. April is a bad month because of income tax time and I have to make the first property tax payment for the house.
4 April 2002 - I was sitting here trying to create a list of songs to play off of mp3.com. I finally came up with a solution. There are probably more. I clicked on Inkamerica "Ojos Azules" and it started playing in Winamp. I used the "misc" button to save it as the list inkamerica.m3u. I then clicked on Qimera and it replaced Ojos Azules in Winamp's play list. Then, I clicked the add button on the bottom left and added inkamerica.m3u to Quimera. When I saved the new list back, I had a play list with both of Inkamerica songs in it. I went back to visit their site in July 2003 and their music will no longer play. That made me feel sad because they sounded really good.
3 April 2002 - More construction changes. I moved all of my music interests into their own folder. I also added a group referred to on their web page as Inkamerica.
9 Mar 2002 - I have been listening to "Radio Free Virgin", which is a network style radio station. I encountered 4 singers that I decided to see what the rest of their album sounded like. The singers were Alejandra Guzman, Gipsy Kings, Jaguares, and Nydia. The Gipsy Kings were the most interesting because of the middle-east sounding music. Their web site says they were called Gypsies because in the early days they settled in Egypt.
The Nydia CD has a blank track, which makes it sort of protected. Programs like Winamp refuse to play it. There are open-source programs that don't have any such problem. You may not be able to use cddb; however, you can create a play list that will be on your mp3s when you convert the CD. When you play them back, they will show the album, singer, and track information that you have supplied. I have almost 7 GB of mp3s and I could listen to them for the rest of my life. When they finally fix it so that I can not play a CD on my computer, I will twit the company and never purchase another audio CD from them. Hollywood Records will probably be the first to receive that notation.
I encountered a new style of música latina on 28 January 2002. It was called "música de la llanero". A friend who was born in Argentina and raised in Uruguay thought it sounded more like Peruvian or Bolivian. For what I know at this point, visit my web page on Cholo Valderrama. I still laugh at the cowboy roping the HUGE bull. I have never roped a bull that size but I have flown off of a horse like the cowboy did. I felt like Superboy, from the Superman comic strip, without the cool stand up landing. I simply went thud and after I could get up, had to spend some time brushing off the dirt.
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