Radio Muzak

Lezak Shallat is a frustrated singer with limited but functional notions of music theory. She's also a mom who lives at the other end of the earth -- literally -- from her children. She's in Chile and they are in the  US. She worries about them being able to reach her in an emergency, so she came up with this easy system for converting cell phone numbers into catchy musical tunes. A must for anyone who never wants to draw a blank when they need to make a call.

Mom's Musical Trick for Remembering Cell Phone Numbers

Last year, I was asked by NPR's alt.latino to tape an interview with Chilean rap artist Anita Tijoux. The interview, for a Valentine's Day show about love songs, was never aired. But asked about songs to parental love, Anita -- who was very, very pregnant on this hot summer day -- shared this tender reflection on what she termed " 2 BPM LOVE BODY: the wonderment of having two heartbeats -- hers and the babies -- beating at two different rhythms within.
Read more of Anita Tijoux's thoughts on music and motherhood from Colorlines, at: http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/07/ana_tijoux_talks_music_and_motherhood.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter


Anita Tijoux "Two BPM of Love Body": The Musical Beat of Motherhood

Hey, it's your birthday today and Santiago is playing your song! Let's celebrate with a birthday medley of  music boxes, organ grinders, kletzmer bands,  jazz pianists, and  yours truly singing  "El Día de tu Cumpleaños,"  Violeta Parra's Chilean folk version of the universal hymn to another year gone by, and another to come!
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EL DIA DE TU CUMPLEAÑOS (English translation on its way...)
(por Violeta Parra)

M’hijita, llegaste al mundo en hora muy principal.
Ya redondeaste un año, yo te vengo a celebrar.
Que te sirvan la mistela y la tortilla candeal
El día de tu cumpleaños es cosa muy principal.

Como no tengo qué darte y yo te quisiera dar,
yo quiero que los rayitos del sol te han de despertar.
Y por la tarde el lucero que te venga a saludar,
El día de tu cumpleaños es cosa muy principal.

Que te sienten a la mesa al lado de tu mamá
Al otro lado que brillen todita la rescoldá
Que te sirvan la mistela y la tortilla candeal
y pongan a tu ventana la flor de la temporá.

El día de tu cumpleaños  habría que embanderar
desde Árica a Magallanes con banderas colorá.
Que viva tu nacimiento, botoncito de rosal
Con la voluntad del cielo
¡QUE VIVAS CIEN AÑOS MÁS!


A Happy Birthday song medley in Santiago sounds

Upa! Estás de cumpleaños y todo el mundo está cantando a ti. Desde las cajitas de música a los organilleros, los músicos Klezmer, mis parientes bolivianos, un pianista de jazz y una humilde interpretación mía de "El Día de tu Cumpleaños", versión sui generis del himno universal cumpleañero de la gran folclorista chilena Violeta Parra. Todo para celebrar el aniversario de tu llegada a este mundo. FELIZ CUMPLE!


En boca de todos: Feliz Cumpleaños te cantamos a ti

I don't know why the audience at last Tuesdays "Live at The Moth" storytelling slam is laughing at my true story about getting married to Antonio's brother Apicho. It's totally true. The judge in Sucre steadfastly refused to dismiss the archaic "only in Sucre" marriage bann that made it OK for me to marry Antonio on my tourist visa but not OK for Antonio, as a native Chuquisaqueño residing abroad, to marry me.  So Antonio's brother Apicho (QEPD) acted as his stand-in.  Apicho was Antonio's proxy, just like when people get married in jail. Even though, in this case, Antonio was standing right next to me. And if Apicho is not beside me in this photo cutting the wedding cake, it's because he was taking it.
An aside: our witness, the woman in the grey suit, was the girlfriend of Antonio's brother Rene. She later dropped Rene (who was a Maoist revolutionary, famous labor leader, former political prisoner and, fleetingly Secretary of Education under President Lidia Gueiler) and  became a rather well-known narco lawyer. Or so they say.

"Backfired" : My Wedding Story, Live from The Moth

 I didn't report this piece but I did make it happen... connecting PRI reporter Alex Gallafent to the wondrous Miguel Castillo, translating for him, and encouraging the very private don Miguel to share his very private musical world. With organs and old keyboards being a rather arcane interest, I was completely surprised when Alex liked the idea. When Miguel ushered Alex into the back room, Alex fell silent in awe, then  started asking a barrage of questions about manual stops and tubes and other strange things that only organ aficionados understand.  Later, I understood why: Alex confessed that he had spent his youth in robes and rehearsals as a boy chorister in one of the UK's great cathedrals.  For me, Miguel's back room is a temple to keyboards. But it's actually just a suped-up "media agua" (prefabricated shed mostly used for emergency housing). Miguel Castillo is one of my heroes. And I am posting this clip today in honor of the fact that he is launching a book today on another unsung Chilean hero: Jorge Peña Hen, the father of youth orchestras in Chile, assassinated by the zarpazos  of El Puma, the gruesome military killing spree through northern Chile in 1973. Gracias, Miguel. Jorge Peña, presente!

Learn more at: http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-03-07/keyboard-collector-santiago