Carnaval en Tenerife

A major component of the carnival aqui en Tenerife es las Murgas. Murgas are a group of singers, lots of singers....we are talking at least 50, armed with kazoo´s, costumes, and painted faces, that take a popular song and change the lyrics to reflect with humour, the current local political or social scene. This year as the scandal regarding the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Miguel Zerolo and the Las Teresitas development continues, one of the most popular Murgas, Los Bambones, took the opportunity to express themselves proper. During the carnival the murgas compete in competition and the rumours floating state that it´s best to avoid the politics, hence there was a lot of pressure on the judges not to give Los Bambones the top award...the politicos couldn´t handle their fierce critics being rewarded for their insolence. Being part of a Murga outfit costs a lot of money....rental of the rehearsal space, costumes, paint/make-up for over fifty persons, transport etc. Winning the competition helps with the costs, so you see the problem....it´s becoming Murga-lite, but Los Bambones aren´t taking the easy route, no sir! In the clip below, Los Bambones refer to the lottery, which is how Zerolo says he came across quite a bit of money that was found in his bank account...."I won the lottery three times." Oh yeah Miguel, sure you did. What are the chances of winning a lottery once, never mind three fucking times. Oh, i get it, when he says he won the lottery, he wasn´t joking. I applaud Los Bambones for sticking to their guns, just not sure about the wigs though....


Last year when we went to Carnaval, i got really pissed off with seeing countless people dressed in Blackface, then coming up to me and dropping "Hey brother!" I left after snapping and hitting the 10th psuedo-bro in his mug. Many folks are ignorrrrant of what dressing in Blackface means to us that are insulted by it, no idea what so efffing ever.....then you´ve got jerks like those that taunted Lewis Hamilton at the Madrid practice track this past weekend. They definitely knew the connotations of getting ´blacked-up´ and riling the brother. Okay, so they didn´t like what went on between the British F1 McLaren team, Hamilton and the Spanish flag-bearer Alonso, but why drag it into a racial issue? Easy way out guys, lame. Really, some white people need to have their %ucking skin peeled off them while they are still alive and have it force-fed to them....no, better yet, their daughter or son should fall in love with the darkest of brothers or sisters from this planet and they get it on like rabbits, producing ´nuff grandchildren for the grandparents to feel completely fucking stupid.

Yesterday a friend asked "What does ´Nigger´ mean?" When that word came out of her mouth, it hit me like a rock, quite a surprise it was, i didn´t see it coming at all. So we engaged in a conversation, and cleared up the matter. Many white folks here, they don´t know it´s history, yet they hear it in music or in films and think it´s cool or okay, ´specially if they hear a black person using it. There are a few people at fault here, besides the obvious, what about the record companies that promote the shit, and run looking for excuses when they are brought to book. I stand accused.....i love Richard Pryor, and he had me and millions of my generation in tears when he did his thing, but now, like when i do my radio program, i clean the tracks that contain n.....r because when i hear other programs here, like the rap program on Radio3 (RNE) throwing it about, especially here in a country where English is not widely understood, it hurts too mucking fuch! One of the best known producer/DJ in these parts, Real El Canario, who is now based in Amsterdam, maybe a great dj....witness him spinning 100 hip hop tracks in fifteen minutes, however i don´t think he can claim ignorance with the ´Trankilo my Niger´ (Easy my Niger) tag on his myspace page....then again, maybe he´s not a good speller, or i totally missed the point and he was talking about the country...uh, i don´t think so.
Thanks to the field-negro for his writings which i find very on-point. Every home should have a field-negro.

Photo courtesy of the field-negro.
Oh shit, speaking of n····r, this just hit the net, the trailer for N####rTheMovie. It sets out to examine and analyze the origin and contradictions of the N-word. What constitutes one as a "n····r"; is it a racial slur; a term of endearment? The film examines the many cultural perspectives to understand teh meaning, contect and power of the term "n····r".

No radio program today for some stupid reason that i´ll not bother going into....but i had some new cumbia joints from DJ Negro, from Buenos Aires, who sent ´nuff tuneage; a rewind of Jay Electronica-the illest rapper-producer i´ve heard i´ve heard in ages; the fresh (so fresh, it´s still warm from the oven) remix by the Moody Boyz of Erykah Badu, some more El Guincho....who it turns out is playing the same day, same town (Madrid) as myself and Tropico28.....sorry Trop´, i may have to miss your set and head over for some of that ElectroTropicana business. Madrid town-folk can catch us as Sala Silikona on Saturday, and at The Kings Electro Bar in Alcázar de San Juan, Ciudad Real on the Friday night. The planned program can wait until next week. Happy Carnaval or whatever you do.