Rembetika Music Clubs in Athens

They say the nightlife of Athens rivals with that of New York, London and Paris and maybe surpass those cities. But one thing is for certain: you won't find more restaurants, bars, and clubs in a smaller area than you will in Athens with the majority of the nightlife being in central areas like Psiri, Plaka, and Thission. And if you want to get a real taste of Greece, you have to look for a place with good traditional food and rembetika music.

Rembetika music is the music of the Greek underground. It originated in the hashish dens of Pireaus and Thessaloniki with the forced immigration of 2 million Greek refugees from Minor Asia. And then it evolved into Greek popular music.

Many places close in Athens when the weather gets warm but Stoa Athanaton in the Central Market of Athens is one of the best places to hear authentic rembetika. Also the Platia Iroon Taverna in Psiri has 3 guys who just hang out and jam at night. In the daytime go to Kapni Karea Cafe which is between Metropolis and Ermou Streets on a little alley near the small church of Kapni Karea. Here you will find good music in the afternoon.

One gem of a rembetika club that few people know about is in the neighborhood of Kypseli, right off Fokionos Negri, a pedestrian avenue that starts from Patission Street. The name of the club is Karabani and features Giannis Lempesis and his excellent group. Lempesis is an old style rembetika singer and bouzouki player, having a dozen or so music albums. He used to play with famous old stars like Poli Panou and Ioanna Georgakopoulou. The club is open on Fridays and Saturdays nights with the music beginning around 11pm. It’s easy to find the club if you walk up Fokionos Negri from Patission, just after the old market on the right.

Golf Experience

Golf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players, using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that do not require a standardized playing area. Instead, the game is played on golf "courses", each of which features a unique design, although courses typically consist of either nine or 18 holes. Golf is defined, in the rules of golf, as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules." Golf competition is generally played for the lowest number of strokes by an individual, known simply as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual holes during a complete round by an individual or team, known as match play.

A golf course consists of a series of holes, each with a teeing area that is set off by two markers showing the bounds of the legal tee area, fairway, rough and other hazards, and the putting green surrounded by the fringe with the pin and cup. Different levels of grass are varied to increase difficulty, or to allow for putting in the case of the green. While many holes are designed with a direct line-of-sight from the tee-off point to the green, some of the holes may bend, either to the left or to the right. This is called a "dogleg", in reference to a dog's knee. The hole is called a "dogleg left" if the hole angles leftwards and vice versa; sometimes, a hole's direction can bend twice and is called a "double dogleg". A typical golf course consists of 18 holes but nine hole courses are common and can be played twice through for 18 holes.

Early Scottish golf courses were primarily laid out on links land, soil covered sand dunes directly inland from beaches. This gave rise to the term golf links, particularly applied to seaside courses and those built on naturally sandy soil inland.

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Things you Should Never Say on a First Date

The way you communicate on a first date is very important; it lets your date know about you and vice versa, and it shows you if that essential spark is there. But there are some subjects that should never be touched on during those first tentative weeks, especially not on a first date. This post is, especially, for the guys dating UK. In other words, I am going to give some tips on how to land a good catch. More specifically, all I will give below are a bunch of things that shouldn’t be said on a first date. So, here they are:

-> I could tell you were hot by the way your mom looked.

-> You remind me of my mom.

-> You remind me of my ex.

-> That's when I thought, how young is 16 really?

-> Mind if we stop at CVS on the way? The condom in my wallet is pretty old.

-> So are you like, one of those feminists?

-> How about we skip dinner and go back to my place? And by my place I mean my dad's basement.

-> What do you think our kids would look like?

-> You know what? My ex was a real witch!

-> Have you heard of this game called World of Warcraft?

Nerves sometimes get the better of us all on a first date, and we say things we regret as soon as we leave the restaurant. Conversation on a date is key, but saying some of the above things will have you relegated to the ‘never see again’ pile.

Wine Tasting Tours

What do you think about a grape escape in Spain? Whether you are a beginner or a wine true connoisseur, you will discover a great pleasure if you choose touring in Spain’s wine producing regions.

An organized tasting tour opens winery doors that are normally closed to the public, introduces you to the winery owners and winemakers, and generally ensures that you see, smell and taste what you want. And if you are not sure what that is, you will find an advice no matter you are a beginner or the absolute collector.

You have also the option to choose for a tailor made itinerary. And here I am talking about visits to Rioja, Ribera de Duero, Navarra, Conca de Barberà, Penedès, Priorat and Terra Alta regions. Enjoy!

A History of Cuban Music

Since music and dance have always been a way of life in Cuba, all styles and their evolution would fill an entire book. For example, in the urban centers, contradanza, based on the French, salon style contredanse, evolved into the still popular danzon. Urban street music, influenced by African religious rituals, Christian religious carnivals and Caribbean carnival music similar to Brazil’s samba mixed together and gave birth to rumba and conga.

The music of the countryside, known collectively as musica campensina, gave rise to guajira, the lyrical, sweet musical form that extols the virtues of the land and Cuba’s beauty. The trova, another rural style of music from the eastern part of the island, dispersed news and gossip, often through satire. The Cuban bolero, evolving from the trova, is the epitome of the romantic love song. And finally, reflecting influences of all of these earlier musical styles is the heart of Cuban music, the son. As waves of immigrants migrated north to the U.S., Cuban music fused with other musical formats in the urban centers. In the mid-twentieth century, new, popular musical styles were born from this fusion giving us the mambo, cha cha and salsa. In order to have just a little taste of these marvelous music styles, you can search for artists like Celia Cruz, Arsenio Rodriguez, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo or Compay Segundo. Also, you can search on the movie torrents sites for the Afro Cuban Legends documentary.

Today, it’s difficult to say who invented some of the popular Cuban musical forms: for example, does salsa come from Cuba or from New York? But not this answer is important here. What really matters is the fact that Latin music continues to evolve and to reflect a global heartbeat.

Something Great to Listen to: Gracias from Omara Portuondo

Omara Portuondo is a Cuban singer and dancer whose career has spanned over half a century. She was one of the original members of the Cuarteto d'Aida, and returned to perform with The Buena Vista Social Club ensemble.

With Gracias album (released in December 2008), Omara Portuondo wanted to revisit the songs that she has found most moving and to work with the songwriters she most admires, such as Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés and Jorge Drexler. But these are not the only star guests on this recording, as if the list was not already impressive enough (other great names being Chucho Valdés, the African musician Richard Bona and the Brazilian maestro Chico Buarque). Some striking collaborations present on this project, must be mentioned, starting with O que será in duet with Chico Buarque and finishing with Ámame como soy with Pablo Milanés, a song with lyrics that could stand as a metaphor for the whole album.

If you didn’t had so far the chance to listen to her music, you can have a little taste by grabbing one of the tracks mentioned above using an MP3 Search Engine, although I recommend buying the CD since it’s a fine album to have in your collection. Let me know if you enjoyed it…

Going to the Theatre

Since I don’t want to miss any chance to escape from everyday life, I’m planning to go to the theatre at the end of this week. Going to the theatre is a very unique experience: I like to sit back in a comfortable atmosphere and enjoy stepping into a different world. Seeing the performances of the actors in the play, is completely different than watching them on cineman. Mainly beacause there is a magnetism which is very easy to notice. And what to say about the live music? The way it rises and swirls around the audience, progressively getting louder and faster as the show moves on, it always gets everybody in the mood.

Because I am looking for that special mood described above, I intend to go to the Beacon Theatre. Located in New York, Beacon Theatre is a fantastic Art Deco treasure, recognized as a national landmark. Since everyone knows that Beacon Theatre Tickets are some of the hardest tickets to get from many box offices, in order to access them I appealed to a professional online broker called A Cheap Seat. And the result was avoiding disappointment for my family members.

On this site you can access various tickets for Football, Baseball or Hockey games, like New York Rangers Tickets, and also for festivals or concerts, like Prudential Center Tickets. Using this service, I guaranteed myself the availability of desired tickets and the lowest possible prices from the market.

Other Forms of Golf

As you probably know, this sport knows several competition forms. Generally, it is played for the lowest number of strokes by an individual, known simply as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual holes during a complete round by an individual or team, known as match play. But these are just the basic forms. Below, I will present you other three forms of golf.

Skins. In a skins game, golfers compete on each hole, as a separate contest. Played for prize money on the professional level or as a means of a wager for amateurs, a skin, or the prize money assigned to each hole, carries over to subsequent holes if the hole is tied. If you come to the end of the round and there are still skins left over, play continues until the final skin has been decided.

Stableford. In stableford the player gains points for the score achieved on each hole of the round or tournament (1 point for a bogey, 2 points for a par, 3 points for a birdie, 4 points for an eagle). The points achieved for each hole of the round or tournament is added to produce the total points score, and the player with the highest score wins.

Foursome. A foursome is played between two teams of two players each, in which each team has only one ball and players alternate playing it. For example, if players A and B form a team, A tees off on the first hole, B will play the second shot, A the third, and so on until the hole is finished. On the second hole, B will tee off (regardless who played the last putt on the first hole), then A plays the second shot, and so on. Foursomes can be played as match play or stroke play.

Buena Vista Social Club

The Buena Vista Social Club was a members club in Havana, Cuba that held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s. In the 1990s, nearly 50 years after the club was closed, it inspired a recording made by Cuban musician Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist Ry Cooder with traditional Cuban musicians, some of whom were veterans who had performed at the club during the height of its popularity.

The recording, named Buena Vista Social Club after the Havana institution became an international success, and the ensemble was encouraged to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film, followed by a second concert in Carnegie Hall, New York City for a documentary that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders's film, also called Buena Vista Social Club, was released to critical acclaim, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature and winning numerous accolades including Best Documentary at the European Film Awards.

The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of international interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music in general. Some of the Cuban performers later released well-received solo albums and recorded collaborations with international stars from different musical genres. The "Buena Vista Social Club" name became an umbrella term to describe these performances and releases, and has been likened to a brand label that encapsulates Cuba's "musical golden age" between the 1930s and 1950s.

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Feeling the Rhythm of Cuba

Cuban music, having its main roots in Spain and West Africa, has been influenced over time by diverse genres from different countries like France, the United States or Puerto Rico. Reciprocally, Cuban music has been an important influence in other countries, contributing not only to the development of jazz and salsa, but also to Argentinean Tango or to Spanish Nuevo Flamenco.

Below, I will try to recommend you some interesting albums which will bear you from the late 70s to the present. For songs that evoke the soul of Cuba wracked by time, you will have to listen to Buena Vista Social Club album, a recording of veteran Cuban musicians. A contemporary rhythm you will hear on Malembe album of the band Cubanismo, which introduces the modern style in the traditional music. Not least, on A Lo Cubano album released by the group Orishas you will have the opportunity to listen the influence of hip hop music upon the salsa rhythms.

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Cruise Shipping in the Caribbean

What can you say about living in luxury in a floating building, in the middle of the ocean? Me, personally, even though I haven’t tried yet such a vacation on a cruise ship, I would gladly enjoy it. But the first journey has to be, for sure, across the Caribbean Sea.

It's very easy to find reasons for which people take more cruises to the Caribbean than anywhere else in the world: a warm climate, thousands of beaches, great shopping at duty free prices and incredibly clear seas teeming with marine life. All of these make this part of the world a perfect cruise vacation destination.

But the big question is if there's something else in this region stretching from Cuba to South America than the sun, sand and surf? With a lot of choices of cruise itineraries and lengths, with anything from a two-night getaway to an extended voyage sailing from ports from New York to Central America, it is a vast and diverse destination that practically is constituted by three separate areas, traditionally defined as Eastern Caribbean, Western Caribbean and Southern Caribbean.

A typical weeklong cruise allows the sampling of these varied cultures, history and peoples at four or five different ports. Each port call opens the door to a new slice of paradise, where you might discover traces of France or Britain or the Netherlands or Spain woven into the distinctive pace and style of the regions many individual nations. Although it is a year-round cruise destination, the strong appeal of the Caribbean for family cruise vacations makes school holiday periods among the busiest times of year. For those looking for the best values in a cruise to the Caribbean it is recommended to check sailing dates in January, late spring or September through early December.

Something great to listen to: Cesaria Evora

Cesaria Evora (born 27 August 1941 in Cape Verde) is, in my opinion, one of the most distinguished singers of world music around. With her amazing voice and rhythms, makes you feel as you were on one of those magnificent beaches of Cape Verde.

These days, I bought this audio CD signed by Evora: The Very Best of Cesaria Evora. This “best of” album, released in September 2002, represents simply a terrific introduction to a woman who not only masters each style she sings, but obviously loves every moment of it, and her enthusiasm for what she is singing is contagious. With songs like Angola, Carnaval De Sao Vicente or Bondade E Maldade, this compilation it’s a worthy buy and I recommend it as a wonderful way of getting to know great singing.