The Eurovision song that melted our hearts

Portuguese people fell in love with the song that will represent the country in Kiev. This song reminds us that we are a country of poets. Yes, this song melted our hearts.

The lyrics are very simple: a boy is asking his beloved to return to him, not to be afraid of loving or suffering but to try to learn to love again. He tells her that his heart can love for both. Amar pelos dois = love for both of us.

Salvador Sobral was very moved by the way people felt the song and learned to sing it. In one of his concerts, in Évora, he asked the people to sing it together again. :)

This is the magic of music. It opens our hearts and fills them with a tender universal love. 

Indian Givers - Standing Rock - In the River - Women's Warrior Song

A glimpse of the urban american soul

"... to stand on your two feet"

"Hyperprism" (Varèse, 1923)

Music had restricted rules, a structure. But Varèse could hear all the sounds of the world.
"Hyperprism" wasn't accepted as music then, but it was his first score to be published (see NewMusicXX notes on youtube, with very interesting information).

If for some odd reason you'd find yourselves in a time machine that suddenly stopped in a very ancient civilization, woudn't it be possible that these were the sounds that would shake you?

Menphis Beat, the right formula

Menphis Beat is more than a tv series, Menphis Beat is the right formula to let us take a look at a city, its people and its culture. In Menphis it's the music, the music is everywhere.
But also the characters that seem like real people with real issues, emotions, fears, empathy. The lines and the dialogues are funny, never boring.
I wonder if someone could use the same formula in a city like Detroit, a city that could benefit from: a nice perspective of its streets and best places (restaurants, bars, shops, markets, houses, parks); a good story with interesting characters; and a true love for its culture.
Today tv series are replacing movies and its public is faithful. So, it's a promising way of promoting cities that need a new breath. I'm not thinking of CSI, it would be just one more. I mean something like Menphis Beat, something about real people, culture, habits, behavior, stories, places.

"Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring', Visualized in a Computer Animation for its 100th Anniversary" (Open Culture)

When I heard Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring for the first time I was hypnotized. I was still a child watching TV in black and white, and it was a ballet.
I don't enjoy ballet any more but this music stays in my brain and in my heart. The Rite of Spring could be a perfect soundtrack for so many movies... movies about life, spring, nature, desire, beginning, passion, ravishment, vitality.  

I found this Computer Animation in Open Culture:

"... In 2013, the art of computer graphics greatly expands the quest for an ever more perfect way to represent music not just to the ear, but to the eye. Composer, pianist and software engineer Stephen Malinowski has long led the way with the various iterations of his Music Animation Machine."

"When I' m old" (Rumle)

I just found this song on Twitter, When I'm old, played by some Berklee students. It´s a sunny song that reminds us Spring.
I wish them all a good life with Spring in their hearts and the possibility of making good music for a long long time.
Music plays an important role in this world.

"Understated" (Edwyn Collins)

Edwyn Collins is a gifted artist: he makes music, he plays guitar, he sings and he draws:

But his best gift is his love for life and people. We don't see these qualities in a single person very often: talent, simplicity and good humour.
"Understated" is released today:

And Spring is here to stay. (You didn't expect this sudden expression of good humour from me, did you? But as you can see, good humour is contagious, that's the marvelous thing about it!)