Bed-time-stories by B. Weber

The legendary heartbreaker trumpeter

Last week, I saw “Let´s get lost”, a documentary about Chet Baker produced by Bruce Weber.
In the noir film Bruce Webber shows us Chet´s life in a very poetic but still raw and realist way. The movie is a collection of memorable beautiful ladies, powerful statements, the gifted Chet Backer life and “all that jazz”.
You glance Chet and you fall for him. His James Dean´s hair and his weird-structured teeth are just as charismatic as his music. Girls and Boys couldn´t stop staring at him and even when he got old with his premature old skin and no teeth on his mouth he was still unforgettable. People still wanted the man and the artist.
I Highly recommend the three The documentary, Bruce Weber photography work & of course Chet Baker albuns.

Some contra wanna be

Some contra to the contra movement.

This morning manifesto is Ralph Lauren

Last December, 2k9, I was in the “sold-out crowd of preppies” at Terminal 5 watching Vampire Weekend. The music was very good but what I liked the most was to see for the first time a middle class manifesto on stage. Manifesto or Propaganda, as you wish. Twenty minutes before the show started, Christopher Tomson was in the same subway train I was, we both took the blue line to Columbus circle and we both were late. He had a washed blue skirt on his shoulders and I remembered he looked so normal. I didn´t recognized him until I saw him playing the drums, now with that shirt one. The all band was wearing that classic blue collar shirt while playing that jungle-in-order sort of music. Take their Columbia status and add their African influences and you can have this perfect contra success. They are like Hugo, everyone loves them. It not fair to say it is a band for the whitys, quite opposite It reminds me of the disco phenomenon, where without noticing black people, gay people, rich aristocracy or poor aspiring artists were all together on the dance floor.

Their debut album is very likable, but I had this post in mind to talk about their second album “contra”. Is it just me or the album is over the top? It makes me feel so summer, so vacation and so light that It´s becoming a sort of an addition. To honor them I am thinking about wearing Ralph Lauren polo shirts for now on and spread the trend in Porto. The girl in the picture is my sis, she´s supporting me on the cause: implement preppy clothes at public schools and aspiring alt places like shopping cinemas and teenager crowded beaches.

The XX

In October 2K9, I came across The XX. My dear friend Barbara was coming to visit me in New York and asked me if I wanted to join her at the Williamsburg Ballroom to see the so called The XX band. I said maybe. I never end up going but got the vinyl as a gift from her.
I played the record a million times at my apartment. Never out loud because of "the neighbourg" always very counsciously low. That forced intimacy made me love their songs even more. Back in town, in 2K10 I had the opportunity to buy a couple of last minute tickets from a friend of mine. I was dazed. After all this time I was finally gonna meet them in person. And curiosly in Casa da Musica, one of the coolest places in Porto.


I was expecting a good concert. I was not expecting it to be that good.


What is the formula? Rather that only luck (which is always there) I believe that their sucessfull songs have something to do with the teenager spirit. You almost touch their hopes and dreams as you see them playing. Watching those 3 kids dressed in black with metal clean accessories and with their smooth but sharp voices makes you understand that deep inside you were once like them...you know that you had all those dreams and you feel like you could again.
I was particularly interested in Oliver Sim. It is not that I felt like dating him, quite diferent, I felt I wanted to be him. I envied the way he looks and his mellow moves on stage but most of all I envied his inocent power to transmit his feelings. Romy is just his perfect match. Their voices meet halfway on an enchanted cave in this weirdo place where you can find clean untouched love.