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In the 60s and 70s romantic italian music had an easy time finding its way in the Spanish market. Jimmy Fontana, Sandro Giacobe... even groups not big in their own country like New Trolls. But the market of the 60s and 70s was based more on good music and "singles". So if a song like Gloria by Umberto Tozzi was irresistible, it would find its way in the charts without much difficulty. When the 80s arrived, things changed completely. Thats when the market totally shifted first towards the UK new wave bands and then towards the marketing priorities of the US offices of the major record companies. In this context, Franco Battiato and Laura Pausini have been the only two italian artists that were able to make a big mark on the market in Spain in a natural way based on their recordings and not so much on marketing. Eros on the other hand was not selling much until a heavy marketing campaign began for the first spanish single from his "In Certi Momenti" LP. Funny I cant...

..but then, we find out that someone at product development in Nokia needs a brain check!! I've gone thru many differnt mobile phone models. Its not like I'm one of these people that calls a lot. In fact my phone barely rings. But I like to take pictures and listen to music and one can do that with just one device these days. But each multimedia phone I would buy would have one problem or another. For example Nokia N73 I had bought, the camera was OK, but the mp3 player sounded low and cheap. Then I had the Ericson k850i that was very elegant, but the video quality was a joke. So, I switched to Nokia N95. So which one should I buy? The Original one with the removable memory card (classic version) or the black 8GB version? The few reviews I had read, recommended the 8GB version. After all Nokia promoted it as an improvement to the previous year classic version. Unfortunatelly the reviews I read did not mention anything about the SHUTTER!!!! In the image you see the lens part ...

This is the third of the wolf dogs in the neighbourhood. I tried to pet him after I took the pic, but he got scared, which scared me, then I dropped my mobile which made a big sound and made his owner concerned! This dog looks really funny when he is standing up. He has some problem in one eye. Its the hairdresser's dog.

It is July 16. This poster has been up in the center of town for about two weeks already. It is for two concerts in the venue Palacio de Deportes which is a rather large venue. Ten thousand people is the capacity of the place. The concerts are in December and the poster already came out of print with a note saying the first night is already sold-out. Really?? Its a concert in December almost 5 months away. So hard to believe for a band like el Barrio. One of those spanish bands who had 1 nice song and then all the rest of their songs sound exactly the same with the text or tempo slightly changed but the exact same melody.

Three individual sound SAMPLES (incomplete) of italian songs pt 2 60s beat with " i quelli " & " Gianni Pettenati" + a short 2 minute review of Lucio Dalla's Madrid concert July 5 2008. As for the Lucio Dalla show, he obviously made an effort to make his show have a local flavour by asking Ana Belen on stage. But somehow I feel the song list was innapropiate. I know in these tours they have certain songs rehearsed and pre-programmed and they cant just add songs to it, but maybe they could have added a few songs targetted for the Madrid show without pre-programming. For example, he didnt sing some of his more simple catchy tunes like L'ultima Luna or Tutta La Vitta which would have been easier for non italians to sing along to. Instead he sang some ballads in which instead of proper melodies they consist of long fastly-pronounced paragraphs in italian which unless you are a hardcore italian speaking fan of him, you will not be able to sing back! He als...

These are the pair of really sweet "lobo" or "wolf" dogs in my neighbourhood. They are very calm and they let me pad them and touch them. There is a third dog of that breed in the neighbourhood. He is much older. He moves really slowly which might mean he is really old. But he is so sweet. It is owned by a hairdresser that has a barber shop in the hood! I had gone out for a stroll hoping some fresh air would lift my mood. But not even such a cute site could cheer me up. It was one of those days I had to think about my future. Here I am in my late 30s and still without an apartment of my own. Still renting. A friend from the UK saw my apartment and couldn't believe the ton of money I was paying for the shithole I live in. "You pay THAT for THIIIS??". And then thats the cheapest thing there was. I'm lonely. My anxiety level was so high today. I tried calling whoever I knew. One responded they had to work till 11PM, the other one lives in the outski...

Click on the banner to see the pictures ( pics / photos / fotos ) I took in my trip of the Loire ( Loira ) valley ( valle ) in France ( Francia ). Castles ( Castillos ) included : click on the banner above to see the pictures Loire Valley