Ricardo

Ricardo will eventually be famous. If not for his music, for his good looks - check him out on this month's Traveller magazine.

Check his music and other stuff at The Wandering Eye or on his mySpace profile.

volver pt 2

David and I went to see Volver on Sunday. It's definitely one of Almodóvar's best.

Of all the movie's main actresses Blanca Portillo is the least famous. However her supporting role as Agustina is one of the movie's shiniest highlights.

You mean all this time we could have been friends?

The NFT is doing a Bette Davis special and yesterday I went to see Whatever happened to Baby Jane?
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford who hated each other by then play the bad and good sister in a film that according to Wikipedia started 'a trend of movies featuring older women in peril, or on the brink of insanity'.

The movie tells the story of middle aged (Baby) Jane [Bette Davis] and Blanche Hudson [Joan Crawford], two sisters that had been famous during their youth but whose lives become sour after Blanche's car accident left her in a wheelchair and at Jane's care.

Directed by Robert Aldrich, he made sure the actresses were aware of the importance of the movie to their careers (they were nearing 60 by then) and it's reported that despite their mutual hate, they worked in a very professional but tense atmosphere and they surely show that on the movie - you sometimes think that Bette Davis would be taking a lot of pleasure when she is being rough to Joan Crawford.
When Bette Davis was nominated for an Oscar though, Crawford campaigned against her. Davis was also nominated for a Golden Globe award and for a BAFTA for the movie.

Click on the link to read the Wikipedia article on Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?
I also recommend searching for Bette Davis and Joan Crawford for an exhaustive life story.

Peaches' club scene

Peaches is a firm PETA supporter and is now backing a campaign against hunting baby harp seals.

Click here if you want to sign the petition.
Click here for Peaches Rocks - the official website.

She is playing at the London Forum on the 13th of October. She is also doing Lux in Lisbon, Arena in Madrid, and Barcelona's Apolo on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of September.

olecranon bursitis

Guess who (yet again) has a swollen elbow since this morning...

I have just been to Liverpool Street's Walk-In Centre (very recommendable) and I have been diagnosed with olecranon bursitis. And what is olecranon bursitis, I hear you ask. Nothing to worry, here's what it is.

Olecranon bursitis is inflammation and swelling behind the elbow. It often clears on its own. Treatment may be needed in some cases to reduce the inflammation and clear any build up of fluid.

What is the olecranon bursa?
The olecranon is the top part of the ulna bone. It is the bony part of the back of the elbow - the bit that you lean on. A bursa is a small sac that contains a small amount of fluid. The fluid is similar to the fluid in joints (synovial fluid). There are several bursae in the body including one just over the olecranon. Bursae help to make movement smooth between bones which 'stick out' and the overlying skin.

What is olecranon bursitis?
Bursitis means inflammation of a bursa. The bursa at the back of the elbow over the olecranon is the commonest bursa to become inflamed. Inflammation causes swelling and extra fluid to be made.

For more information on olecranon bursitis please check this link for the Patient UK website.

August - part 7: J-Lo (da Fonte da Telha)

August - part 6: Luisa

August - part 5: (Dulci)Neia

August - part 4: doom

The bad news is that the country is economically depressed.
Me being the optimistic being that I am, I start with the argument that this is in fact happening throughout Europe. Surely the minimum wage is not less than €400 a month across Europe people reply.

Indeed people are lucky to live in a country where there is Sun most of the year but then most people can't afford to do anything else.

Things will improve.

August - part 3: goodies

Feira da Ladra still rocks: I bought an Action Man (€2) and a 1981 agenda for women (€1) - still the best place in Lisbon for cheap superfluous shite.

The food is Portuguese thus amazing. Sardines are orgasmatronica as is any other grilled fish swimming in olive oil. Sounds a bit yuckie to some but snails are cooked in an incredible way that makes them a delicacy to be eaten in the summertime with a few imperiais - half pints of draught beer.

Also there are plenty of nice cafes facing the Tagus river and spending an afternoon on any of them is lush. And what to say of the best coffee in the world? Any crap cafe in Portugal will make you a proper espresso so I was having around 10 a day.

August - part 2: i feel old

My nieces are huge and scarily growing up too fast. My three Goddaughters are now 20, 15 and 8. My grandparents are reaching 80.

Going back makes me feel old.

August - part 1: kerfuffle

Of course it's really hot in Lisbon, it's Summer! Unless I go on holiday there: in that case it's cloudy and miserable.
Even so I managed to have a few beach moments: a couple of hours in the Sun which included a nice swim in the Atlantic and a nice after-beach petiscos aka tapas if I had been in Spain.

A few curious moments were my loud argument with a restaurant owner I tried to have lunch at and my elbow swelling.

Can you believe that after waiting 45 minutes for 4 sardines, the restaurant owner starts arguing with me and my mum because we had only ordered one dish for the both of us (we wanted to figure out how big were the dishes and when we ordered no one said this was a problem). When I asked for the livro de reclamações (complaints book) the guy wouldn't give it to us so I had to call the police. What a kerfuffle.
[In Portugal all public venues have this book so that people can leave a written report of the event which will be followed on by the authorities, or so one hopes]

On another weird morning I woke up in pain with my elbow the size of a watermelon (a tiny weeny small one) and rushed to Urgencies to find out it was an inflammation. Still is a bit swollen, now the size of a pea (a small one as well).

kuduro progressivo

Buraka Som Sistema are doing to African/Portuguese rhythms what M.I.A. did to Asian/London music. They're calling it progressive kuduro.

They're doing a show at Lux in Lisbon with Diplo on the 16th of September.

Check out their mySpace page for a sample of their work. I'm addicted to their music and very excited. I need to get my hands on their limited edition EP as soon as.

Pedro y Carmen

Last night I went to the NFT to see ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto! (What have I done to deserve this?!).

There is a Pedro Almodóvar/Carmen Maura series being shown there at the moment and being one of my favourite Almodóvar movies it was well worth it to go and see it in the big screen. [Unfortunately the copy was a bit worn out and the subtitles were indeed very poor - I could have translated it better]

This was in fact the first Almodóvar movie I ever saw and the first movie I ever taped from the telly when I bought my first VCR when I was about 15 years old. RTP2 - Portuguese public television - was doing an Almodóvar week (and of course I also taped The Law Of Desire). Both movies sure helped to mould my character.

¿Qué he hecho yo... is the most realistic of all Almodóvar movies and I remember thinking when I first saw it how that could have been set up in any suburb of Lisbon, and how similar must Spanish and Portuguese be. The suburbs were very alike, domestic violence and male dominance was common, lots of families lived with their grandmothers from this small hidden village, and kids would usually end up doing/selling drugs. My family wasn't like this, but I could have thought of several of our neighbours.

The NFT will be showing Entre Tinieblas (Dark Habits), Law of Desire (La Ley del Deseo), Pepi, Luci, Bom..., ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto! (What have I done to deserve this?!), Matador, and Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown).

Volver is also being shown as part of a special preview for members. The movie will start in the UK at the end of the month.