sábado, marzo 31, 2007

Pepino, game boy rock band

My brother Fran passes me a link of a new rock band. Nothing new there, but this time is not just another rock band...

Their name is Pepino and it is formed by just two members: Karawapo, from Spain, and Ai from Japan. Currently located in Japan, they have started to gain some ground in the scene very recently so their popularity is increasing. The interesting thing with them is that their songs are all composed using Game Boy's sound chip synthesizer. Ai sings on an already arranged gameboy tune previously composed by Karawapo. At the same time, Karawapo improvises over the beat.

If you feel curious and want to know how they sound just try some of their songs. They were supposed to have some original songs there but all can I found on their website were a few covers, some of them totally wacky like this cover of Mecano's Maquillaje. Do not expect any professional production, simple is beauty.

Talking about their sound, I would consider them more in the electro-pop wave. With all this fuss of Gameboys, eletro-pop sound and novelty bands the first thing that came to my mind when I listened to them was local band Superputa and their relatively well-known smash-hit Nintendo. Another piece of art you should not miss out!

On summary, I never stop surprising what kind of weird things you might find on the internet. It is really impressive! I feel happy this kind of things exists. My next goal: get a ticket for a Pepino concert. Hope to see you all there!

sábado, marzo 03, 2007

An unexpected turn

Come back home after 15 months of living abroad can be very tough. I never expected to find myself as I was a month ago, now I am getting along with everything here again...I guess one changes smoothly without even notice it, step by step, little by little. One day, all in a sudden, you find yourself back. You are not the same although everything around you remains mostly the same. You had expected to find everything as it used to be, but it is impossible, time marches on and on for you and for everything else, never to return.

Exchanging emails wit a HK friend a month ago I used a quote from Leonardo DaVinci to described how I felt, I think it summarizes very accurately my feelings at that time:

"Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been, and there you long to return"


And that was exactly what happened to me. The art of flying, in this case, were the people I met, the places I have been to, the things I tasted, the different approaches to life I saw, different ways of thinking, different attitudes, enthusiastic and fabulous people...

With mixed feelings, without even knowing I was taking a right or wrong decision, I decided to bet and go back to Uni. Even though there was something inside of me telling me something was not OK, I decided to ignore it expecting I would find myself better as time passed by.

I started to feel better indeed, although taking the bus everyday and mingling with university students was killing me.

After one week at Uni I was contacted by a SW company called Igalia. I had applied for the position couple of weeks before, when I was not sure of what to do and seeking for a job. I found the company attractive and appealing, so I decided to take the interview. On the day I was about to sign my contract at university, I received a call from Igalia. My interview had been successful.

I am a kind of person who tends to hesitate a lot and life is about taking decisions, quickly and in very short time, I know it. But what can I do if I like to check everything before twice...

Lastly, I would like to thank all the support and comprehension I had from my professors throughout this time. Although, much to my regret, I have caused them some trouble with all this, we kept always a very frank communication and I got their best wishes for the future. It was amazing, I appreciated it very much. I felt very lucky of having professors like this, professors who, above all, I consider them my friends. I hope this friendship will never break.