Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer - Ella Fitzgerald

I promise all my regular readers (both of you) that normal service and rants will re-appear in 2013, but as for now, a well-deserved rest - Time Out and Have a Great Christmas!!

Spotlight on Christmas - Rufus Wainwright

I wish it could be Christmas every day - Wizzard

Ja es pot? A partir de quin dia es poden penjar cançons de nadal als blocs? Per mi, les ficaria tot el mes, ja que en sóc un gran fan de tota la musica que s'ha inspirat en aquestes festes o l'hivern en general. M'agrada la musica ben pensada i ben feta, amb un ambient d'hivern, però sobretot m'agraden els classics "sing-alongs" com aquesta ...

Des de que escric aquest bloc he intentat sempre no repetir cançons, i de fet hi he aconseguit en un 99% dels apunts, però avu tinc ganes de tornar a penjar aquesta joia. Es un classic - té tot el que necessita una cançó de nadal; els instruments, el piano, el saxo, les campanes; coros de xiquets; una gran chorus tornada de repetir; una musica que creix en alegria, pero no deixar de tenir un petit toquet de melaconia; i sobretot una peça que ens porta bons records ....

Aqui el teniu, del master Roy Wood (membre també del The Move i ELO), el grup Wizzard amb I wish it could be Christmas every day.

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Are you ready children? I am! It's time to start putting on the Christmas songs, those cool winter inspired melodies, and those out and out crazy sing-alongs like this one! I love them all, and my Christmas music collection just keeps growing.

One of the (few) rules of this blog has been to avoid repeating songs, and in fact I've more or less managed it. But not today, as I really want to kick off with this one again. This is a classic - it's got it all; saxophones, bells, piano, good bass line, ace chorus, kids' choirs ... and good memories.

So, here he is , (ex-The Move and ex-ELO) Roy Wood and Wizzard singing ....

Avalon - Roxy Music #Catalonia #PartyNotOver

Passat una setmana, poca cosa puc afegir als analisi de tothom dels resultats de les eleccions, però intentaré explicar els numeros en l’apartat en anglès pel public no-català. Només diré aquí que queda més que clar que hi ha una majoria clarissima de diputats que voldrien fer el referendum, i una majoria clar, però no tan, de diputats a favor de l’independencia. I si comptem vots, també sembla clarissim que es miri com es miri un 60% dels votants podrien votar per l’independencia.

I aixì és com es mira des de fora – o sigui, “a que espereu?”. Clar, això és facil de dir només mirant els numeros, i si no has llegit Homenatge a Catalunya de George Orwell. Des de fora, crec, que és dificil entendre les peleas menors entre partits, i el temps que s’està perdent. Clar que hi ha altres temes importants que aclarir, però el tema de l’independencia és el Number One, i és la que o s’agafa ara o no l’agafarem en una generació. Oblidem-nos d’altres temes unos mesos (6), posem mans a l’obra i ja vereu com una majoria encara més gran veurà al final que l’unic futur per Catalunya és per aquest camí.

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Dust settled on the Catalan elections, but not on the post-electoral bickering and whining and arguing and back-stabbing. The Catalan Parliament is a very different from the UK one, with many parties often leading to coalition governments. This time the votes went as follows:

CiU – centre-right Catalanist party = 50 MPs (down from 62)

ERC – left wing Catalanist party = 21 (up from 10)

PSC – socialists, favour a federal Spain = 20 (28)

PP – right-wing conservative “unionists” = 19 (18)

ICV – left wing Catalan ecologists = 13 (10)

Ciutadans – undefinable gang of unionists, I think = 9 (3)

CUP – left-wing alternative Catalanists = 3 (0)

And SI, another Catalanist group, lost their 3 seats.

Given the 135 seats in Parliament, 68 give a majority. Hence it’s clear that CiU+ERC+ICV+CUP = 87 MPs in favour of holding a referendum. ICV aren’t too sure how they’d vote in this referendum, but there would still be 74 MPs clearly in favour of independence, plus som ICV and a couple of PSC too apparently. Votes-wise, a similar situation – about 2/3 of votes went to pro-referendum parties, with only a 1/3 going to those against. So, what are we waiting for? Well, you obviously don’t know the workings of the minds of Catalan politicians, and perhaps a read of Orwell’s Homage To Catalonia would help out first. To cut a long story short, no one trusts the other party, or wants to miss a gear in the race to gain power. Instead of putting aside differences (albeit important ones) in the search for the greater good, they spend all their time – usually – bickering over the details. All very nice, and pure, but not very pragmatic. Yes, there are other problems, especially economic ones, but surely minimum agreements could be reached while the referendum process could go full speed ahead? In my opinion, they should accelerate the push for independence, as it’s the only thing which will allow for real solutions for the economic problems, as well as cultural and language-related ones. Now is not the time for dithering!

Luckily, it looks like the two leaders of CiU and ERC may have reached the same conclusion, but it’s still touch and go ... watch this space for further developments!

Gloria #Three_Songs

Ja està aquí de nou, el concurs anual per "Millor cançó que es diu Gloria". Aqui els tres nominats ....
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That time of year again - the annual "Best song called Gloria" competition. This year's three nominees ...

U2, Laura Branigan, Mando Diao.