Today an article about how we shower developing countries with our toxic waste. what a shame really!

Then here are two videos of protest songs I think particularly thought-provoking.
Mr President by Pink on Youtube
and above all "Let's impeach the president" by Neil Young
Enjoy and remember Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

the foretold demise of the fish

According to some scientists, in fifty years' time, fish will have disappeared as a result of overfishing, plain human greed and sheer stupidity. I can't bear that idea. There is nothing I enjoy more than snorkelling in the warm seas of the Caribbean, at one with nature and animals, swimming in their midst. What ineffable pleasure!The fish I meet there are different from the ones that are fished on an industrial scale, obviously. Yet isn't it a sustainable resource in the same way as renewable energies? To think that most of them die to feed other animals? It is a crazy world, isn't it?

Protest songs

Have you seen this fabulous document: the Dixie Chicks
http://creative.myspace.com/groups/_sj/shut_up/videos/clip1xx.html
It is hard to believe that this can happen in a democracy, or can it?

Ennio Morricone suite

Certaines de mes amies dans la salle ont été très décues par le son du concert: de la musique en boîte, trafiquée par le preneur de sons, n'ayant plus rien de naturel. Finalement cette impression correspond assez bien à la froideur ressentie en face de Morricone aussi. c'est du collage, pas de la musique vivante.

Thank You Ennio Morricone

I still can't believe it happened! Last Saturday, I sang at the concert that Ennio Morricone conducted at Auxerre, Yonne, France, his "Sergio Leone Suite", bits from "Torquemada", "Mission", "Casualties of War". Just the idea of being conducted by the composer himself was and is overwhelming.
A few bars from Mission hold the fort at the back of my mind, day or ..night. I feel obsessed : "poena, poena nostra" relentlessly comes up, like a scratched vinyl record. And I didn't sing that part! Alternately, Susanna Rigacci's splendidly mellow voice squats my brain.

Well Mr Morricone was awesome, very nice and quiet as a person, very professional of course. He kindly signed his name on my "Leone Suite" score. Yesterday morning I placed it right before one of Mozart's masses in my library...superb alphabetical surprise.
His way of conducting was unusual to me who am used to some sort of fusion with the choir masters I sing for -or with or to. Not that it was mechanical actually but I felt like a cog in a machine, like a device programmed to convey emotions to the audience, like a piano key, not like a human being under his -rare- gaze.There was no feeling flowing between him and me- me out of a hundred singers of course-, no spark of complicity, the obvious goal being the best rendering of what was written on the score I was holding in my hands.Is it because it is his own music that he is conducting? Would it be different if he were conducting Mozart or Bach?
Anyway, thank you Stefano, for the work you did with us at the 2 rehearsals, before leaving us into the hands of the Master.

Singing with the "Roma Sinfonietta" orchestra was a marvellously unforgettable experience. I was just behind the percussion instruments. It was so primal and exhilarating.Thank you all.

It was THE experience of a lifetime for a modest alto choir singer. I may have sung music of a higher spiritual level in the past, Monteverdi, Bach's Passions especially, but singing "Abolisson", "On earth as it is in heaven" conducted by the composer himself can't be matched.

I'll be forever grateful to those who made this possible, the organisers of the "Festival Musique et Cinéma" of Auxerre, France and their sponsors.
Thanks to Patrick Bacot, directeur de l'Ecole nationale de Musique d'Auxerre without whom nothing would have happened.

Fleur de vigne 2

Départ des barriques vers Paris sur les bois flottés comme au bon vieux temps: Cela a l'air précaire..

fleur de vigne

For you, Thomas, enjoying life in Santa Barbara...
A few photos of the "fleur de vigne" festival in Auxerre, May 21, 2006.

Heidy is home!

Heidy has arrived at her French home and the saga can be read at the site Sylvie has made for her.
She is even prettier than the photo I posted a few weeks ago.
She looks like a determined little girl.

Lucas will be an ideal big brother.

Creationism to be in GCSE papers !!!!!!!

Here is an excerpt from an article posted on the BBC website:
"Creationist theories about how the world was made are to be debated in GCSE science lessons in mainstream secondary schools in England.
The subject has been included in a new syllabus for biology produced by the OCR exam board, due out in September.
Critics say the matter should only be discussed in R.E. because there is a danger of elevating religious theories to the status of scientific ones.
The government insists creationism is not being taught as a subject.
The exam board says students need to understand the background to theories. "

In England!!!! I can't believe it.

bienvenue à Heidy

Mes neveux partent avec leur petit Lucas retrouver leur petite fille et moi, je ne serai pas très loin profitant du soleil de Curacao...
Bienvenue, Heidy, dans la grande famille Berrod.

oxymoron

Muslim humour, an oxymoron. And, no, it is not a swearword.