At 78, Carlos Do Carmo, The 'Sinatra Of Fado,' Makes His New York Debut
Carlos do Carmo performs in New York for the first time at Town Hall NYC on April 7, 2018 as part of Fado Festival New York.
Sachyn Mital/Courtesy of Town Hall NYC
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Sachyn Mital/Courtesy of Town Hall NYC
Carlos do Carmo is known as the Sinatra of fado, Portugal’s national music. In 2014, do Carmo became the first Portuguese artist to receive a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. This past weekend, the 78-year-old singer made his New York debut at Town Hall NYC as part of Fado Festival New York.
Often called the Portuguese blues, fado (literally, “fate”) is emotional music. “People think that fado is connected with sadness only. It’s not true,” do Carmo says. There is fado menor — sad fado in minor — joyful fado and really joyful fado, sung in a major key. A corrido is an example of really joyful fado. “The ‘corrido’ is something you even can dance and there’s got to be a smile when you sing it,” do Carmo says.
Carlos do Carmo grew up in Lisbon, Portugal and is the son of Lucília do Carmo, one of the great singers of the golden age of fado, which began in the late 1920s. His mother’s club in Lisbon became a gathering place for all of the older fado singers, says musicologist and author Rui Vieira Nery.
“He absorbed that tradition, but then he went on to re-process that heritage and he was always very curious about the interaction between fado and other genres,” Vieira Nery, the author of A History of Portuguese Fado, explains. Vieira Nery cites the singer’s keenness on Frank Sinatra and “the crooners.”
“Sinatra was the best fado singer I ever heard,” do Carmo says. “I mean it. You heard Sinatra. The same song in different records — never the same song. That’s fado.”
Do Carmo took Sinatra’s approach and applied it to his own records. Until do Carmo came along in the early 1960s, fado was usually performed by a singer and two guitarists. He brought in the orchestra.Vieira Nery says do Carmo also invited musicians who were outside the scene to compose music for fados.
“He managed to attract people from pop rock, from jazz, from art music and convinced them to actually try to get into the language of fado and write melodies for fado, just as much as he attracted some of the very best contemporary poets to write for him,” Vieira Nery says.
Ary dos Santos was one of those poets. In 1977, three years after the collapse of Portugal’s Estado Novo dictatorship, the two men collaborated on an album called Um Homem na Cidade — A Man in the City.
In the 1970s, Carlos do Carmo brought fado music out of its authoritarian past.
Courtesy of the Fado Museum in Lisbon
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Courtesy of the Fado Museum in Lisbon
“We lived in a dictatorship for almost 50 years. There were censorship. So if you sing under censorship, you can’t express yourself. And I lived that, I know what I’m talking about. It’s terrible, it humiliates you,” do Carmo says. “My good friend Ary dos Santos, that was a very, very good popular poet. We had an idea together: Let’s make an album about Lisbon in freedom.”
Before that album came out, fado had become old-fashioned, aligned with the regime even as do Carmo was pushing its boundaries. Um Homem na Cidade was a watershed. It was a call to artists, poets and musicians according to director of the Museu do Fado, Sara Pereira.
“Carlos was fundamental, so that [the people] could understand that fado … it can also be a song of intervention, can also be a song of protest,” she says.
Vieira Nery believes that do Carmo has helped ensure that the fado tradition will live on. And whether a fado is sad or happy, do Carmo says the music has to be deep; the lyrics have to be strong and go straight to the heart.
“For me, it’s life, love, it’s my entire life, fulfilling my dreams, the love of my hometown, the love of my country,” do Carmo says.
The Week in Movie News: What's Next for Steven Spielberg, Joaquin Phoenix Talks the Joker and More
Need a quick recap on the past week in movie news? Here are the highlights:
BIG NEWS
Ready Player One author’s next movie moves forward: As Ready Player One dominates the box office, the next book by author Ernest Cline, Armada, has been put on a fast track to production by Universal. Read more here.
GREAT NEWS
Steven Spielberg is finally going to make a Stephen King movie: Speaking of Ready Player One, director Steven Spielberg is certain he’ll make an adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Talisman. Read more about that here and about Spielberg’s other upcoming projects here.
SURPRISING NEWS
The Last Starfighter reboot is in development: Despite the fact that Universal is moving forward on the Last Starfighter-inspired Armada (see above), writers Gary Whitta and Jonathan R. Beutel are also working on an actual Last Starfighter movie. Read more here.
EXCLUSIVE BUZZ
Joaquin Phoenix talks his interest in playing the Joker: We talked to Joaquin Phoneix about his new movie, You Were Never Really Here, and his possible future role as DC villain the Joker. Read all about that here and our longer interview here.
COOL CULTURE
Sylvester Stallone shares Creed II production start: Creed II began filming in Philadelphia this week, and Sylvester Stallone posted a video to Instagram to kick things off from the set. Watch it below.
MUST-WATCH TRAILERS
Night School pits Kevin Hart against Tiffany Haddish: Rising star Tiffany Haddish is already stealing the spotlight from Kevin Hart in the trailer for his upcoming movie Night School, which also reunites Haddish with Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee. Watch it below.
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A Quiet Place seals the deal: As the acclaimed new horror movie A Quiet Place arrives in theaters, a final trailer arrived to make sure everyone is aware. Watch it below.
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Teen Titans Go! to the Movies sells superheroes to kids: The upcoming animated feature version of the Teen Titans Go! series dropped a new TV spot that makes it clear this movie is for kids. Watch it below.
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Today in Movie Culture: Dr. Evil Returns, How 'The Last Jedi' is Different From 'The Empire Strikes Back' and More
Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:
Character Comeback of the Day:
Mike Myers reprised his role as Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies for a bit on The Tonight Show:
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Movie Comparison of the Day:
Many have pointed out how Star Wars: The Last Jedi mimics The Empire Strikes Back, but Couch Tomato shows how different they truly are:
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Movie Science of the Day:
The way to find the Hogwarts Express involves magic, but Kyle Hill scientifically explains whether us muggles could also run through the platform wall at King’s Cross Station:
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Easter Eggs of the Day:
Pixar made their own video showing all the Easter eggs and other secrets in and about their first animated feature, Toy Story:
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Vintage Image of the Day:
Bette Davis, who was born on this day in 1908, with director Robert Aldrich and crew on the set of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in 1962:
Filmmaker in Focus:
For Fandor, Luis Azevedo highlights the sounds of the movies of Andrei Tarkovsky:
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Remixed Movie of the Day:
Speaking of movie sounds, Eclectic Method has made a dance mix out of the sound effects, music and dialogue of Guillermo del Toro’s Best Picture-winning The Shape of Water:
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Video Essay of the Day:
The latest video essay from Renegade Cut looks at Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz and how it explores the theory of utiltarianism:
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Supercut of the Day:
Hazy Daze Media highlights 50 psychedelic moments in cinema, including clips from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Mulholland Drive:
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Classic Trailer of the Day:
This weekend is the 25th anniversary of the release of Indecent Proposal. Watch the original trailer for the classic drama below.
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Hailu Mergia On World Cafe
- “Hari Meru Meru”
Every day I talk to artists about the winding and sometimes tricky roads they travel to make a career in music. But I’ve never heard a “how-I-got-here” story quite as remarkable as the one that belongs to today’s guest.
Hailu Mergia‘s journey began in the countryside in Ethiopia surrounded by sheep, goats and oxen. He was a shepherd when he was young. That’s before he became a member of one of Ethiopia’s most popular club bands in the 70s. After his band was invited to tour the United States in 1981, Hailu made the choice to stay rather than return to his home country, which was in the throes of the brutal and deadly Ethiopian Civil War at the time.
When he settled in Washington D.C., Hailu gave up playing music for a living, but he kept a keyboard in the back of the taxi cab he drove around the city and practiced between customers. Sometimes passengers would recognize the name and photo staring at them in the back seat of his cab.
A few years ago, a lover of African music from the U.S. named Brian Shimkovitz was in a small record shop in Ethiopia when he heard a piece of music and fell in love. He tracked down the creator — it was Hailu! And that discovery led to the rebirth of Hailu’s career, which includes a new album he’s just released called Lala Belu. Hailu performs live music in this session. Hear it all in the player.
Today in Movie Culture: Deadpool Goes Pink for Charity, 'Ready Player One' Video Game Easter Eggs and More
Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:
Charity Promotion of the Day:
Deadpool, whose super powers keep his own cancer at bay, wears a pink version of his suit in a new NSFW promotion for Deadpool 2 and Omaze as he campaigns for his “F**K Cancer” fundraiser:
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Easter Eggs of the Day:
For Wired, author Ernest Cline personally explains every video game referenced in Ready Player One:
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Supercut of the Day:
This video essay from Thomas Flight spotlights the prominence and significance of cars in cinema and how they’re never just simple vehicles for transportation (via Live for Film):
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Bad Movie Analysis of the Day:
Find out the “hidden meaning” of the Stephen King adaptation It from an alien in the future:
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Vintage Image of the Day:
Craig T. Nelson, who turns 74 today, discusses his role as Mr. Incredible with director Brad Bird during the voice recording for Pixar’s The Incredibles in 2003:
Actor in the Spotlight:
Fandor celebrates the physical resilience of Ryan Gosling in this supercut of the actor getting hit in the face in various movies:
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Filmmaker in Focus:
For Little White Lies, Luis Azevedo and the dogs of Isle of Dogs look at other Wes Anderson movies and focus on how dogs die in many of them:
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Behind the Scenes Parody of the Day:
Nerdist made a very authentic-looking (but not real) making-of featurette about the creation of the Thala-Siren creature for Star Wars: The Last Jedi:
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Cosplay of the Day:
Speaking of Star Wars, there’s some good cosplay in this trailer for the upcoming Star Wars fandom series Looking for Leia, and that’s a good enough excuse to share it here:
Six episodes. A galaxy of stories. We’re about to fem-splain #StarWars fandom. Be part of the saga on @seedandspark: https://t.co/JWEqHBz9BP ??? pic.twitter.com/fxVnldhHKx
— Looking for Leia (@LookingForLeia) April 3, 2018
Classic Trailer of the Day:
Today is the 50th anniversary of the release of the Blake Edwards comedy The Party. Watch the original trailer for the Peter Sellers classic below.
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My Friendship With Janka Nabay, Genius Of Bubu
Ahmed Janka Nabay in Times Square, 2017.
William Glasspiegel
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William Glasspiegel
It was 2007 and I was co-producing my first public radio show for the series Afropop Worldwide, focused on the music of Sierra Leone. A BBC reporter had loaned us a plastic bag full of tapes and CDs recently purchased on the street in Freetown. It was my job to listen through the music as research for the program we were to produce.
That was the first time I heard the music of Ahmed Janka Nabay, from a CD he released in the early 2000s in Sierra Leone called Eh Congo. I don’t recall the song that I heard, only the feeling of first hearing his music — like electricity. It wasn’t an introduction to a new song, but a new sound, and I was… perplexed.
Part of what stood out was how relevant his music seemed to the artistic currents flowing around me in New York City; the sub-bass and cheap keyboards fit right in to the indie music landscape of Brooklyn at the time, making it eerily, excitingly contemporary.
On “Good Governance Remix,” Janka sang of women’s rights and good governance, a political message that resonated in part because of the peculiar instrumentation around it – a bass line warbling like detuned keyboard flutes, catchy synthesizer melodies recalling an evening news soundtrack, drum machines that sounded like African techno. His music was off-kilter and on-beat at the same time, his singing sounded more like intonation, like chanting the Koran. Some songs sounded like they were in two different keys at once, weaving this beautiful dissonance. His tempos were bracing with a sense of constant acceleration.
Fascinated, I dug in and discovered that Janka, whom I assumed would be home in Sierra Leone, was actually living not far away, in Philadelphia. I called him, and we decided to meet in the Bronx, where there’s a significant Sierra Leonean immigrant community. It was a rainy evening when we first met. I was standing in front of a shoe store waiting for him to pull up, which he and his friend did, opening car doors that were blaring Janka’s music. I recognized the music and his face from the cover of Eh Congo. I got in, beginning a ride that changed my life and his.
Janka passed away this week in Sierra Leone — the result of a sudden, undiagnosed stomach illness. He had received poor medical care after living a life in poverty, and lacked access to proper medical services. He died much too young.
There was an instantaneous sense of shared joy between us, like long-lost friends brought together from half a world away by sound. Janka radiated a gleefulness, a joy that had propelled him through a life of immense struggle and poverty, right up to the moment he passed away this week at the age of 53. He never really seemed to age.
The author, left, with Nabay, carrying a set of Sierra Leonean bamboo bubu pipes in Brooklyn.
Drew Alt
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Drew Alt
Janka was having difficulties, he explained, selling his music in the U.S. — he feared no one would believe his incredible, improbable life story: He was a musical star in his home country during the mid-’90s heights of the Sierra Leone Civil War, captured by rebels, his music appropriated as their killing anthem.
Janka told me he released six albums in Sierra Leone. He said his music was called “bubu,” and that the sound was based on an ancient style played on bamboo pipes by rice farmers in the hinterlands of Sierra Leone.
I believed him, and his story became more complicated.
His music, he said, originated from his partial Temne heritage, that he spread a Temne music to all the tribes of Sierra Leone and that America was next on his list. I intuitively trusted him, and had to learn more. Not long after, I became Janka’s manager and dear friend, inspired to help him spread his sounds.
A bubu band plays during Nabay’s funeral, held April 4, 2018.
Michael Thomas
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Michael Thomas
I shared Janka’s album with a friend of a friend, Dean Bein, the co-founder and manager of True Panther Records. Dean loved it, and agreed to re-release Janka’s music on vinyl and digital, offering Janka his first foothold in the New York music scene. Not long after, the tastemaking magazine The Fader came to my apartment for an interview with Janka, who insisted on wearing his “cultural attire” – a raffia skirt and a headband with cowrie shells embroidered into it – for a rooftop photo shoot. There he was, dancing and singing songs from a history forgotten.
The second volume of Janka’s story was beginning then, the story of an emergent icon in the vibrant New York scene. His sounds bristled with political lyrics, electric instrumentation and an aura of mystery, a vision for African music in Brooklyn that was resolutely futuristic and edgy. As he continued, Janka was able to continue healing from the trauma of the civil war he fled, finding community and communion among artists across cultural boundaries.
He later signed to the New York record label, Luaka Bop, and released two new records that re-imagined bubu music for the world. Alongside his band – known as The Bubu Gang – Janka played the Getty Museum and major festivals across the U.S., and toured Europe. He collaborated with dozens of artists outside his band, as well, from Theophilus London to Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars.
Whereas the global market for African music tends to lean towards “adult contemporary,” Janka screamed on stage like he was in a punk band, writing songs that were critical of power, suffused with energy and immediacy.
After being denied citizenship in the U.S., after living here for over 10 years (obviously, a great disappointment for him) he was forced to return home to Freetown. There are tributes to Janka being recorded on Sierra Leonean radio and television, while a bubu band played his funeral, held today in Freetown.
His music survives.
An introduction to Janka Nabay’s work
— This website, hosted by a former Peace Corps worker, includes the only recordings of bubu I was able to find online when I first met Janka. It’s not exactly bubu, but it’s an associated style called “tegbe,” which is also a Temne style played on bamboo pipes. Search for tegbe recordings on this page and you’ll hear some of the sounds that first had me believing Janka’s story about an ancient African music that had never been historicized or recorded on albums.
— Proving the Bubu Myth is an Afropop Worldwide radio documentary that I produced in 2016, focused on Janka’s life and the history of bubu music in Sierra Leone.
The final project Janka and I worked on, above, was a short film for his song “Sabanoh,” which features the famous debil masquerades of Sierra Leone, which inspired Janka as a child.
One example of Nabay’s early 2000s sound that knocked me off my feet was “Eh Congo.” Like other Sierra Leonean pop songs dedicated to Queen Elizabeth in earlier epochs, Janka chose to praise another global political icon in this song, while urging the need for international aid during wartime in Sierra Leone. Hearing the name John Kennedy is also a point of curiosity and entry for someone in the U.S. listening to the song for the first time, finding the familiar in the unfamiliar.
“Eh Mane Ah” was a song from Janka’s first album with Luaka Bop. You can hear how his sound continued to develop while he was in America, with more robust instrumentation and production. The video features Janka dancing and joking around outside the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. We often thought of Janka’s music as contemporary art.
“Bubu Dub” is an example of Janka’s process of continually building on old songs from his Sierra Leonean repertoire. In the case of “Bubu Dub,” this beat was originally recorded in the ’90s in Freetown. For the release of his newest album on Luaka Bop, Janka recorded on top of that old beat with a new melody, demonstrating how the process of creating a song can stretch decades, if not life times.
“Combination” is a wonderful song capturing Janka Nabay’s spirit. I love the chorus, especially when Janka sings the word “high” in the chorus, which he sings with a paradoxically “low” bass intonation, reminiscent of the bubu flutes that inspired him. “Combination” was a song I used to hear Janka sing in my living room or in jam sessions with friends.
It expressed, lovingly, Janka’s experience and vision, forged from the struggle of a civil war, and then persisting to live a positive life: “We’ve got to jump, jump, jump high. We’ve got to live in combination.”
Wills Glasspiegel is a journalist, filmmaker, artist and scholar from Chicago and New York. He is currently writing about the cultural history of Chicago footwork for a PhD dissertation in African-American Studies and American Studies at Yale. He recently directed the short film I Am the Queen.
Today in Movie Culture: The Absurdity of Superman, the Making of the 'Isle of Dogs' Puppets and More
Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:
Character Parody of the Day:
The concept of Superman seems pretty ridiculous when you consider his creation, as this funny video from Studio C does (via Geek Tyrant):
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Craft Showcase of the Day:
Fox Searchlight shares a look at how the puppets were made for Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs:
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Movie Science of the Day:
Film Theory’s MatPat takes a scientific approach to figuring out the cost and profit of Pleasure Island in Disney’s Pinocchio:
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Truthful Marketing of the Day:
The success of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle doesn’t seem so surprising when it’s marketed correctly, as Honest Trailers does here:
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Movie Comparisons of the Day:
This video edited by Ignacio Montalvo beautifully connects many iconic movie scenes to other great similar shots and scenes:
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Vintage Image of the Day:
Doris Day, who turns 96 today, with director Alfred Hitchcock on the set of The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1955:
Actor in the Spotlight:
Christina Ricci’s career is put in focus by Fandor in this video chronicling her evolution from child star to the actress she is today:
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Movie Food of the Day:
The latest edition of Binging With Babish shows us how to make the creme brulee from Amelie:
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Video Essay of the Day:
The latest video essay from Rossatron looks at the simple action of the Brandon Lee martial arts movie Rapid Action:
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Classic Trailer of the Day:
Today is the 50th anniversary of the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Watch the original trailer for Stanley Kubrick’s classic sci-fi movie below.
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Today in Movie Culture: The Evolution of Rocky Balboa, Realism in Post-Apocalyptic Cinema and More
Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:
Franchise in Focus:
As Creed II begins production this week, here’s Luis Azevedo with personal video for Fandor on the evolution of Rocky Balboa through the Rocky–Creed franchise:
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Easter Eggs of the Day:
Mr. Sunday Movies humorously tries his best to highlight all the Easter eggs, references and cameos in Ready Player One:
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Fan Build of the Day:
Learn how to make your own cheap DIY graboid creature from Tremors with this Backyard FX video from Indy Mogul:
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Cosplay of the Day:
For a more impressive custom fan build, check out this showcase of a K-2SO puppet cosplay inspired by the droid from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story care of Tested:
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Vintage Image of the Day:
Sir Alec Guinness, who was born on this day in 1914, with co-star Sessue Hayakawa and director David Lean on the set of 1957’s The Bridge on the River Kwai:
Actor in the Spotlight:
For Vanity Fair, Jeff Goldblum breaks down his career and movie roles from Death Wish to Isle of Dogs:
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Movie Comparison of the Day:
This video essay from Like Stories of Old compares the dreamlike romances of Call Me By Your Name and Before Sunrise:
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Genre Showcase of the Day:
Supercut master Jacob T. Swinney mixes moments from post-apocalyptic movies with documentary footage in this video for Talkhouse about a dark but plausible future:
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Video Essay of the Day:
Rob Ager made a 67-minute video essay analyzing the character of Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. Here’s an excerpt that will make you check out the full version for sure:
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Classic Trailer of the Day:
This week is the 20th anniversary of the release of Lost in Space, based on the classic TV series. Watch the original trailer for the movie below.
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A Sampling Of Alt.Latino Gems
Alt.Latino has discovered some new musical gems and gives us a sampling.
KORVA COLEMAN, HOST:
Our friend Felix Contreras of NPR Music’s Alt.Latino visits us from time to time. And he usually tells us what he’s going to play. But every once in a while, he puts us hosts in the hot seat. And so he’s given me a bucket-load of songs where I get to choose my faves without telling me beforehand what they are. And Felix Contreras joins us now. Thank you for the music, Felix.
FELIX CONTRERAS, BYLINE: Good morning. You’re welcome. And this is so much fun.
COLEMAN: I’m happy to talk to you, Felix. How are you?
CONTRERAS: (Laughter) I’m doing well. This is going to be cool.
COLEMAN: I have to say this was really intriguing this week to hear all of this music that you had prepared and not really have any idea of what I was going to receive. So before we get into this, where did you find this music?
CONTRERAS: This is going to be on our next podcast/radio show – the 2018 spring new music extravaganza that we’ll have on the air this week. And I get it from all kinds of places – publicists, musicians, friends, the inter-webs. All kinds of stuff comes in from everywhere. And we select the music and put it on the air and share it.
COLEMAN: OK. Here’s my first pick. We must play absolutely everything with congas in it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TANGA BUENA”)
TANGA: (Singing in Spanish).
CONTRERAS: OK. This is Latin music from Vancouver, OK?
COLEMAN: What?
CONTRERAS: This is a band – yeah. This is a band called Tanga. They’re Vancouver-based. They have three albums out. And it’s a mashup of, like, different types of stuff – funky grooves, dancehall, a little bit of cumbia. This is their third album. It’s called “Reencarnacion” – reincarnation. And this is a song called “Tanga Buena.” And it really does reflect just who they are or what they’re about – a little mashup of hip-hop and all-of-the-above really funky cool music. And I knew you would like this one.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “TANGA BUENA”)
TANGA: (Singing in Spanish).
COLEMAN: All right. This next music pulled me in with its cheerfulness. And then I listen more closely. And it just about broke my heart – gorgeous music about life circumstances that may never change for somebody.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MURO”)
THE MEXICAN STANDOFF: (Singing) I was good at school. I never missed a day, played a lot of sports, got a lot of A’s, wanted to be a doctor someday. They say I can’t ’cause I’m illegal. Muro, muro – I was born south of the muro.
COLEMAN: Oh, Felix, this broke my heart. I love this.
CONTRERAS: OK. This is a song called “Muro” – the wall. And it’s by a group called Mexican Standoff. So the liveliness, the very energetic spirit you hear is Mexican son jarocho. And this group is called Mexican Standoff. And it’s a collective of son jarocho musicians in Southern California. And they get together to make songs that have a very direct political statement. And this is the most recent one, along with the video – very topical, very direct. And yeah, there are some circumstances in the song that reflect the reality of what’s going on right now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MURO”)
THE MEXICN STANDOFF: (Singing) Muro, muro – I grew up north of the muro.
COLEMAN: Felix, this next song is one that I adored. In fact, it could be the one song out of all of them that you gave to me that I found the most attractive.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I’M LATE”)
KERA AND THE LESBIANS: (Singing) Darling, don’t go. It’s (unintelligible) so close and yet so far somehow. One thing I know – you and me and the world break free.
COLEMAN: Whoa. Who is this woman?
KERA AND THE LESBIANS: This is a band called Kera & The Lesbians, OK? And the curious thing is that the Lesbians are all guys, OK?
COLEMAN: OK (laughter).
CONTRERAS: It’s a tongue-in-cheek thing. But Kera is definitely a queer performer. And her music is so expressive. You immediately latch onto it and find things for yourself in it. And you obviously found something in it. I really like this track a lot.
COLEMAN: I do, too. OK, Felix. I have one more pick. Let’s listen to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CUANDO VOY A MI TRABAJO PIENSO EN TI”)
ELEANOR DUBINSKY: (Singing in Spanish).
CONTRERAS: This is an artist named Eleanor Dubinsky. And this is a song called “Cuando Voy A Mi Trabajo” – when I go to work, when I go to my job. Eleanor Dubinsky is a New York City-based musician who has sort of absorbed all these different cultures and all these different languages. And she said she wrote this song as an homage to the number of immigrants working in New York City, people who go to work and can’t share the day-to-day lives with their families because their families are left behind.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CUANDO VOY A MI TRABAJO PIENSO EN TI”)
DUBINSKY: (Singing in French).
COLEMAN: Felix Contreras is the host of NPR Music’s Alt.Latino, a podcast and radio show about Latino arts and culture. And he’ll feature these songs and more on his next show coming this week. Felix, thank you so much.
CONTRERAS: Thank you, Korva.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CUANDO VOY A MI TRABAJO PIENSO EN TI”)
DUBINSKY: (Singing) I’m working so hard for every dollar, sending money home to my love. Immigration – there’s no consolation. I’m working so hard for every dollar, sending money home to my love…
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The Week in Movie News: 'Captain Marvel' Reveals Resurrected Characters, 'Tintin' Sequel Still On and More
Need a quick recap on the past week in movie news? Here are the highlights:
BIG NEWS
Captain Marvel will resurrect villains of MCU past: Marvel’s Captain Marvel began production this week with Brie Larson starring as the cosmic superheroine. The movie will be a prequel, so it shouldn’t be a surprise, but three new characters just revealed include longtime MCU regular Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Guardians of the Galaxy villains Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) and Korath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou), all of whom have died in past installments. Read more here.
GREAT NEWS
Sebastian Stan is headed for stardom: Speaking of MCU staples, Sebastian Stan is one of the most famous sidekicks and supporting players in the franchise, but it’s time for the man known as Bucky Barnes and the Winter Soldier to get a much deserved leading man gig with Beat the River. Read more here and check out our focus on Stan’s MCU character ahead of Avengers: Infinity War here.
SURPRISING NEWS
Peter Jackson is still making a Tintin sequel: Steven Spielberg gave an update on a sequel we figured wasn’t actually happening: apparently Peter Jackson is still set to helm a secondAdventures of Tintin movie, possibly for release early next decade. Read more here.
EXCLUSIVE BUZZ
Steven Spielberg on the future of virtual reality: We talked to Ready Player One director Steven Spielberg about the new movie and where he sees VR heading in real life. Read the whole interview here.
COOL CULTURE
Avengers Franchise Recap: With one month to go before the release of Avengers: Infinity War, recaps of the many previous Marvel Cinematic Universe installments have arrived online. Watch one of the best of these supercut refreshers below.
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MUST-WATCH TRAILERS
The House with a Clock in its Walls is a YA movie with a two-time Oscar winner in its cast: Eli Roth has directed a young adult horror fantasy film starring Cate Blanchett and Jack Black, and the first trailer makes it look just scary enough and also equally enchanting. Watch it below.
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Terminal teases a noir-tinged thriller: Speaking of Oscar-caliber actresses, recent nominee Margot Robbie leads the first trailer for the neo-noir assassin movie Terminal. Watch it below.
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First Reformed first trailer features Ethan Hawke as a grieving father: Ethan Hawke stars as a priest alongside Amanda Seyfried in the latest from Paul Schrader, First Reformed, which won an award at the Venice Film Festival last fall. Watch the first trailer here:
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