Winter in spain

Yes, winter is coming back, as I am too... after a long season of concerts, beach, friends, beers, family and music, a lot of music, time to start writing again has come. And yes, there's a lot to talk about, so much that it's really difficult to find a point to start with.

Or really not, over all the concerts I've had the luck to enjoy this months, one has wondered me above the rest, it was Gil Scott-Heron in Joy Slava, here in Madrid last May 5th. It was simply amazing how this guy get in touch with people with his words, poems and songs, touching every inch inside your soul and brain making you open eyes and think twice everything you see and feel...

But let's go to the beginning of it, as I use to do... It was the early 90's when a Liverpool band, called "The christians" because of the three brothers (Garry Christian, Roger Christian and Russel Christian), decided to release a cover of an old 1974 song written the poet Gil Scott-Heron and musician Brian Jackson called "The bottle".

That cover became one of the greatest hits of The Christians and definitly one of my favourite songs because of the soul and funk sound, some chilling and the definitly chill flutes souns. Along the years I have listened to it from time to time, enjoying it but without more investigation into it.

Early this year, when I started researching songs of my life for this blog and for one of the most important persons in my life, after some revival looking for a John Smooth song called "Promise Land" that I will talk about in another post, I looked for this "The Bottle" song. As soon as I listened to it I realized it wasn't a Christians' song but a song from this Gil Scott-Heron that I had never heard before. And it absolutly shocked me.

After listening to this, I felt like I really had lost years to listen to this guy and I started researching into him, of course my own way which is listening to his music. And each and every song or poem I had the chance to listen to got me more and more into it. There's nothing I could say that can define better his creativity and his soul and his compromise than his own songs and lyrics. Here are a couple of them that really shock me, just do your own search and enjoy it as much as I did, as I still do every day.

"From the indians that welcomed the pilgrims,

to the buffalo runs thorugh the plains,

like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds,

looking for the rain..."

"... just like the city, stagged on the coastline

living in a nation that just can't stand much more,

like the forest, buried beneath the high way

never had a chance to grow..."

"And I see the robins

perched in barren treetops

watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor,

but just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams,

never had a chance to grow"

"A junkie walking through the twilight, I'm on my way home...

I've been three days ago but no one seem to now I'm gone"

"Stand as far away from me as you can and ask me why

hang on to your rosary beads close your eyes and watch me die

you keep saying kick it quit it kick it quit it have you ever tried

to turn your sick soul inside out

so that the world, so that the world,

can watch you die..."

"We've all heard so many conflicting words about life wether wrong or right

how you gotta be working hard, and it ain't no easy job

to survive just keep it alive"

"We've all come to think of ourselves as links

in a chain so much to gain

we are the ones that tie our fathers to our sons

don't you know that's how we grow"

"what my life really means is that the songs that I sing

are just pieces of a dream that I am building

and we can make a stand and hey, I'm reaching out my hand

'couse I know damn well we can if we are willing"

I really hope you have enjoyed it and it has awaken something inside you that drives you to listen more to this man, and to pay attention to what he says. And...

Peace go with you Brothers and Sisters.

Rain, rain and more rain...

Well, today it was a bit of a deception. Personally talking I mean. The day was rainy since the very first minute, hard to walk as the 10 first kms were all climbing up hills.

My slow rythm didn't help to mak much walk and those kms were really long for everybody. The good ones walking about 2 kms/hour faster than me had to wait each couple kms for some minutes and by the lunch time we had made like 12 kms only.

Time to make a decision, after 12 kms watching only my feet and the pain in my legs, I decided to give up and make the last 10 kms by the support car. Could I have finished? I now, rested and after dinner, think I could but it's probably the most optimistical thought I can have. I promise to try to finish it complete tomorrow, but it's gonna be hard, the longest until now stage.

Now, the hardest man in the crowd impressions. Written by himself.... Be patient with him, he's almost 50 minutes past from his usual sleep time, after all this day...

It´s still a great walk with fantastic scenery even if there was much up and down to walk. Even the rain couldn´t stop that feeling....To be able to do this together with this nice company.....wonderful!!

Suffering, but not that much....

The title of this blogs, definitly makes a perfect single word summary for the day. At least that's how it was for me.

All those who didn't give any credit to my suffering capacity and physical condition to finish a 22 Kms walking stage were, for a second, almost right.

Really nice morning we woke up in Sarria, Lugo, and went to the train station to receive the rest of the family coming to start the walk. Tired faces after a long

night in a train full of pilgrims, some of them too drunk to sleep or let sleep. After stamping all our pilgrim credentials, all but mom's, we went to look for

credentials for mom. And the start the walk. After the first 5 kms, the upper muscles of my legs started to hurt so bad that I, after a couple hundred meters more

I couldn't walk a single step more. Then, time to call the support car and tell him where we were and wait for him. But when waiting I reminded of those I talked about

that didn't give credit to my chances of finishing and after warming up and extending my muscles a little bit, started to walk with pain.

A yellow arrow shows the way.

Like if they never had hurted, my muscles warmed up and I could walk, a little bit first, and the whole 22 kms came step by step to the end. I hace finished walking

like a robot, but very happy and proud of finishing after all the problems.

Here's everybody's impressions summarized in, more or less, one sentence...

- Mom: Everything very beautifull but mud, water, cold and everything...

- Göran: Just a lovely walk and beautiful country side, and lovely companies.

- Sarah: We have walked by Germans, Finnish, French, Italian...

- Anne: Horse, I want a horse.

- Marta: I have loved it a lot, It would have been better go riding a horse and not walking.

- Monica: A long and beautifull walk, shared with everybody. Miss some pagan simbols.

- David: Funny, a lot of climbs and downs, mud, water, asfalt, and a very good mood.

- Marcos: A lot of mud, very boring.

- Antonio (who didn't walk): They just complain as a sport.

- Isa: Was sleeping like a log when we wrote this.

A good beer at the end of the road makes you forget all the pains in the walk. Even a Galician beer is good enough.

The long road...

It's again long since my last post. It's possible that my about two or three readers have missed it, sure not as much as I have done. But now it's holidays time and a good chance to get back into my writings...

This year's easter holidays have a special taste. Not only because they are the first ones in a lot lot lot of months, but because they will sure be different of last year's holidays. First we are going to walk, make the last stages of the Road to Santiago, a way of pilgrimage to the city of Santiago in the north of spain.

It will be a walk of about 125Kms in five days. It's motly a religious pilgrimage, at least for most people, but as I am not a religious person I've taken it as a spiritual pilgrimage, the only hope is my mind wins over my big "matter" ;-) and I can finish it in one piece...

The other reason to be special holidays is that we are going to be a huge part of the family there. 11 of us, from my parents and brothers to my swedish cousins. Time to enjoy with the people one likes, time to share time, tired feet, muscular pain, stories, and, of course, music.

One song that comes to me talking and thinking about all this, as can't be other one, is Telegraph Road from my first and favourite band Dire Straits. Of course if talks about a road, talks about people moving on to build something, recalls a long walk were the important is the walk and not the arrival to the end point.

youtube's limit on video size had to make this, allways long song, split in two parts. Listen it to the end, and listen to it with your heart, and sure it will recall some memories.

"But beleive in my baby and I'll take you away,

from out of this darkness and into the day,

from this rivers of headlights, this rivers of rain

from the anger that lives on the streets with this names,

'couse I've run every red light on memory lane

I've seen desperation explode into flames

and I don't wanna see it again...

From all this signs saying 'sorry but we are closed'

all the way down the telegraph road"

Each one get it as he wants. I'll keep on every day during this long walk along the telegraph road, just be there and enjoy it.