Gadjo Michto: beauty playing in the streets of Strasbourg

I easily get bewitched by women playing musical instruments. If the girl playing is also cute, good and French (!), then I am totally overwhelmed … ouch, Stasia! Stop beating me, I will pay you a course of violin

This was the case in the streets of Strasbourg last week-end. While lost (with Stasia) in the Christmas labyrinth of the city, we heard a gipsy-like music coming to us. To our surprise it was a 100% Alsace music band wonderfully playing cord instruments and accordion and singing in Slobanjo. The language, I was explained by a friend of the group, spoken in Slobanja, of course

Don’t miss the Gadjo Michto when you visit Strasbourg, and pay a visit to their website: www.myspace.com/gadjomichto

And don’t miss my wonderful night pictures of this concert HERE

My .MP3 and my friends: intriguing associations

Making some order in my MP3 folders I found myself thinking about past and present, friends and ghosts.Interestingly, music is not only associated to the time I listened to at first, but also to the time I more appreciated it. Here is a quite chaotic, probably not complete list:

Alanis Morisette, Eric Clapton, Sade, Dead can dance, Santana, Carmen Consoli: Jose’

Pink Floyd, Giorgio Gaber, Celentano, Morricone: Daniele

Chopin: Alessandra

Köln Karnival songs: Corinna

Madre Deus: Cristina M.

Unknown Austrian Songs: Lilly

ABBA, Tracy Chapman, Tchaikovsky, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jovanotti: Stasia

Vasco Rossi: Michele

Vinicius de Moraes, Toquino: Cristina N.

Paolo Conte: Christine

Genesis, Dvorak: Yec’han

Janis Joplin, The Doors, Rolling Stones, 4 non blondes, Rino Gaetano, Lucio Dalla, Laura Pausini, David Bowie: Checco

Fabrizio de Andre’: Luigi

Enya, U2, Tiziano Ferro, Pino Daniele: Grazia

Tori Amos: Anna

Franz Liszt, Falco, The Stranglers, Blondie, : Ioannis

Madonna, Sting: Chiara

Portishead: Nelly

The Queen: Stefano

Fiorella Mannoia: Laura

The Police: Martin

Amy Winehouse: Yvonne

… so, now that I put my huge MP3 collection on my Galaxy, I’ll HAVE to think more often about all of you, damn’

Why Puglia, what to do in Puglia and Salento for summer holidays, and especially how to do it!

So, you want to visit Puglia and Salento (south Italy’s “boot heel”) for summer holidays. Probably because you heard of its great seaside and sunny weather, its tasty food and wine and its amazing folklore (between 10th and 20th of August, especially).

However, you do not have the slightest idea how to plan your 2 weeks in Bella Italia. If you like music, dancing, eating, snorkelling, hiking and camping, you are reading the right post.

Just read further and click on these post pictures to open our flickr.com picture sets!

Rabadan 2011 – The colourful Carnival of Bellinzona (CH)

What comes to your mind when you think about Switzerland? Alps, snow, skiing, chocolate, cheese, tidy streets, ordered citizens and silence… you forgot: Carnival!

It is amazing how different Carnivals are celebrated in Switzerland. Being the south Catholic and the North Protestant, you can find yourself in very different situations, from the chariots of fire of Liestal to the crazy, colourful, noisy and alcoholic carnival of Bellinzona: the Rabadan!

This year I’ve been to Rabadan for a week-end, with my too much appreciated Arabian/Arafat/Mubarak (and other names I was given I cannot write) costume. Enjoy the pictures HERE and update your calendar for Rabadan 2012!

Hot lips and burning chariots of fire for the hottest Carnival of Liestal (Basel – CH)

What happens if huge chariots filled with burning woods are pulled along the narrow streets of a Middle Age town? What happens if the streets are packed with people?

Watch the pictures here to find it out

Forget about tidy and ordered old Swiss towns: it was goddamn’ hot and totally crazy fun! Don’t miss this spectacular fire show at the “Chienbäse”-Umzug in Liestal next year: and do not forget to cover your face when those hundreds of cubic meters of woods are burning just 2 meters far from your face

I wanna be a vinylman!

I am tired of music download and MP3s. I am tired of organizing files, folders and compilations. I start to appreciate CDs again: out of the cover, into the CD player, listening. I don’t miss boring tapes. But I feel quite some envy for those guys who still had the possibility to buy and collect and listen to vinyl records.

I know some of those guys: they like to watch the big paper cover, read it, open it … they simply adore it! I cannot do the same with my cold MP3 digital music

Avril Lavigne in Concert

I like Avril Lavigne very much: she published three albums very well played and written. I love a lot of her songs: Complicated, Don’t tell me, Girlfriend, The Best Damn Thing, When you’re gone, …