The Phoenix > MUSIC Feature Stories > Indie rock en Español

Indie rock en Español
The Clandestino rock in Spanish party

By: ANA RIVAS

7/12/2006 12:31:36 PM

If Shakira singing with Mana in a reggaeton remix is your idea of the Latin-American music scene, check out the nomad Clandestino party ― this Friday at All Asia in Cambridge ― and listen carefully: Peruvian Christian Hinojosa, the organizer and DJ, plays the rock that young people are actually listening to in Spanish. “They call me the clandestine. I’m the lawbreaker,” sings Manu Chao on “Clandestino.” And it’s the spirit of that song that Hinojosa brings to the monthly party where Bostonians have a chance to experience the Latin American indie rock scene.

When Hinojosa first came to Boston three winters ago, he said he felt a “scandalous cold, first, and the mood for some rock in Spanish, second.” So he organized his first party for 250 people with a single Spanish band. Today, there are more than a dozen local crews playing rock in Spanish. The bands come from Colombia, like the Berklee student leader of Santiago Sin Tierra, or Puerto Rico, like Sendero, and the music is similarly diverse. Guillermo Sexo’s “dark Latin freakout action,” as they term it on their MySpace page, has little in common with the sweet pop lady’s voice of Pop Filter Music, or with the band playing this Friday, Dedos.

Rather than a rock concert, Clandestino is intended as a party. The night begins with a one-hour set from a local band. And when the concert ends, the dancing and the rock lesson begin. Hinojosa spins tunes by Gustavo Cerati, Miranda, Kevin Johansen, Andres Calamaro and El otro Yo ― rather than Maná or Juanes. “I think it’s too easy getting people to dance with those. I’d rather complicate things a bit more,” Hinojosa said. “I try, as much as I can, to pick independent bands that offer more elaborate products.”

Tip: if you miss the party, you can listen to the music online on the Clandestino radio at www.clandestino.us . The radio is another attempt from Hinojosa ― who confesses to being a big fan of the Salsa from the 80’s — to show that the Latin American music scene can’t be restricted to one genre. “Perhaps our music’s charm and its value lays precisely there: in that we are flexible, hybrids, mestizos and in that we are OK with it.”

Clandestino | July 14, 9:30 pm | All Asia Bar, 334 Mass Ave, Central Square, Cambridge | 617.497.1544 | $10

On the Web
Santiago Sin Tierra: myspace.com/santiagosinisterra
Guillermo Sexo: myspace.com/guillermosexo
Pop Filter Music: myspace.com/popfiltermusic
Dedos: myspace.com/DEDOSROCKBAND
Sendero: www.senderomusica.com

Indie rock en Español

If Shakira singing with Mana in a reggaeton remix is your idea of the Latin-American music scene, check out the nomad Clandestino party ― this Friday at All Asia in Cambridge ― and listen carefully: Peruvian Christian Hinojosa, the organizer and DJ, plays the rock that young people are actually listening to in Spanish. “They call me the clandestine. I’m the lawbreaker,” sings Manu Chao on “Clandestino.” And it’s the spirit of that song that Hinojosa brings to the monthly party where Bostonians have a chance to experience the Latin American indie rock scene.

When Hinojosa first came to Boston three winters ago, he said he felt a “scandalous cold, first, and the mood for some rock in Spanish, second.” So he organized his first party for 250 people with a single Spanish band. Today, there are more than a dozen local crews playing rock in Spanish. The bands come from Colombia, like the Berklee student leader of Santiago Sin Tierra, or Puerto Rico, like Sendero, and the music is similarly diverse. Guillermo Sexo’s “dark Latin freakout action,” as they term it on their MySpace page, has little in common with the sweet pop lady’s voice of Pop Filter Music, or with the band playing this Friday, Dedos.

Rather than a rock concert, Clandestino is intended as a party. The night begins with a one-hour set from a local band. And when the concert ends, the dancing and the rock lesson begin. Hinojosa spins tunes by Gustavo Cerati, Miranda, Kevin Johansen, Andres Calamaro and El otro Yo ― rather than Maná or Juanes. “I think it’s too easy getting people to dance with those. I’d rather complicate things a bit more,” Hinojosa said. “I try, as much as I can, to pick independent bands that offer more elaborate products.”

Tip: if you miss the party, you can listen to the music online on the Clandestino radio at www.clandestino.us . The radio is another attempt from Hinojosa ― who confesses to being a big fan of the Salsa from the 80’s — to show that the Latin American music scene can’t be restricted to one genre. “Perhaps our music’s charm and its value lays precisely there: in that we are flexible, hybrids, mestizos and in that we are OK with it.”

Clandestino | July 14, 9:30 pm | All Asia Bar, 334 Mass Ave, Central Square, Cambridge | 617.497.1544 | $10

On the Web
Santiago Sin Tierra: www.myspace.com/santiagosinisterra
Guillermo Sexo: www.myspace.com/guillermosexo
Pop Filter Music: www.myspace.com/popfiltermusic
Dedos: www.myspace.com/DEDOSROCKBAND
Sendero: www.senderomusica.com

The Phoenix > LIFESTYLE FEATURES > Jogo Bonito

Jogo bonito

An Argentinean take on Brazil vs. Australia

By: ANA RIVAS

6/22/2006 3:49:32 PM


These days, every time somebody finds out that I’m from Argentina, I get some variation on the same comment: “Argentina? Maradona! Great soccer, right?” You could say that, yes.

The U.S. has been slow to catch World Cup fever, that work-skipping, flag-waving, hoot-and-hollering obsession that spreads around the globe in an every-four-year epidemic. In the rest of the world, all that matters during the World Cup is the World Cup. Here, that’s not yet the case -- although it seems that maybe the States’ immunity to the fever is growing weaker. Because there are certainly pockets throughout Boston that the soccer spirit can be found.

Sure, some of the big sports stores and fancy shops on Newbury Street have joined the marketing season of the World Cup, and a number of bars in town promote that they’re screening all the games. But the spirit is particularly evident in the Brazilian neighborhoods. Just as every Walgreen in mid-February is all pink-and-red sweet hearts, the shops and restaurants around Allston and Union Square in Somerville festoon the storefronts and spaces with Brazilian team paraphernalia –- t-shirts, hats, posters, and stickers.

I decided to go hunting for some of that spirit, and a Brazilian friend suggested some possible spots -- only after he asked if I wasn’t trying to cast some kind of “spell” against Argentina’s main rival. For Sunday’s game between Brazil and Australia, I joined a crowd in bright yellow and green watching a giant screen at the Green Field restaurant in Allston.

Thousands of miles away from where the match was being played, the ambience was intense: around 200 pairs of eyes, entire families, and groups of friends stared at the screens. Voicing directions to the players with anxious shouts of “Agora! Agora!” (Now! Now!), they asked a player to shine, to make a marvelous pass, to score. It appeared the scene was set for a true “Brazilian Party,” but for some reason, for the first 40 minutes of the game, there was no party at all.

I asked Alex Santos, 34, a Brazilian who’s lived in Boston for the past five years, why they weren’t singing, screaming, cheering, or standing up and he said: “Wait until Brazil scores.” Brazil beat Croatia in the first match in a tight 1-0 victory that, according to most reviews, had lacked the magic that the world’s favorite and five-time champion team was expected to show. An instant after Santos said that, he proved himself right. When the almighty Ronaldinho played the ball forward and Ronaldo served Adriano with a perfectly weighted pass, everybody stood up. The first “Goal!” was celebrated -- as is often the case in soccer -- a couple of seconds before Adriano actually scored. After that, as Santos had anticipated, everything changed.

After that first goal, people shouted at every pass. Now, the expectations of “jogo bonito” (beautiful play) were expressed aloud, with the pride and sense of community that perhaps only soccer can create between Paulistas and Cariocas, between the high and lower classes, between perfect strangers, no matter where, if in Allston, Germany, or Brazil.

Carla Fontana, a PhD student at Harvard Medical School from Sao Pablo, said she had watched the game with her classmates last time, and that she didn’t like the English-speaking version of it. “It was so calm -- millions of experts’ comments and no feeling,” she said. “We really care,” she said. So on Sunday, she and her husband were the loudest fans at the Brazilian restaurant. Sitting in third row, wearing matching Brazilian t-shirts, they enjoyed the transmission from the Portuguese TV network Bandeirantes, but were critical with the team’s performance. “I hope they are just warming up,” Fontana said.

After the second goal, the critics were silenced and everybody celebrated. The ghosts were gone, and faces showed just happiness. Laughs and applause accompanied every exquisite play, every precise pass, and every graceful move on the field.

In the end, with a final score of 2-0, people jumped up from their seats like kids hearing good news. Congratulating each other, the crowd split, leaving with the satisfaction of having seen their team win. They know that the World Cup is also just seven games in a row.


Copyright © 2006 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group

Cambridge Chronicle > Business News > The gay-wedding business: Tweaking traditions

The gay-wedding business: Tweaking traditions
By Ana Rivas

The best men and the family wear lilac-and-white flowers corsages –or boutonnières like the two grooms. The couple exchanges a pair of multi-colored gold-and-platinum bands with diamonds. Wine and hors-d’oeuvres are served to guests in the garden. After the ceremony, a jazz band starts playing and soon everybody is dancing.

Devin Mulhern and Glenn Mallinson married in Massachusetts in September last year. They had “a full formal wedding with all the traditional elements, except the bride or any religion,” Mulhern put it recently. There was no groom-and-groom miniature on top of the tree-tier chocolate cake either.

Their ceremony and the more than 7300 same-sex weddings held in Massachusetts during the last two years created a civil-rights revolution, but, for the most part, they have reaffirmed longstanding marital celebration traditions. This should not be surprising, because lesbian and gay take part in the larger culture in which marriage represents both an institution and a quite structured public ceremony. As the second anniversary of the day Mass. Court overturned the ban against same-sex marriages approaches on May 17th, a look at how the industry has approached the novel challenge of mounting same-sex marriage reveals that wedding traditions transcend the bounds of sexual orientation.

It might not be the one-groom-one-bride scene in front of the altar, but Sue Hyde, of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force offices in Cambridge, says she understands why most same-sex couples care for traditions. “I am sympathetic to other people feeling that they’ve gone to all this other weddings, of family members, and friends, and workmates, and neighbors, and they would like to have that too.” Besides Hyde’s, 800 of other same-sex weddings were performed in Cambridge, according to Deputy City Clerk Donna P. Lopez.

Same-sex couples are now learning that common cultural language of the celebration of marriage. And the $50-billion-a-year wedding industry has customized its offer, as it promptly responded to the new demand. Last Sunday at the third “Rainbow wedding” expo in Cambridge, more than 50 companies sponsored a tuxedo fashion show with models from the Boston ironsides Rugby team, and the first issue of Rainbow Wedding Network Magazine was distributed, featuring wedding tips, political information, stories and a vendor directory.

Mulhern and Mallinson’s wedding was orchestrated by Jeff Freeman, planner from the company “Signature Created Events.” Freeman helped them to choose invitations, florist, photographer, white limo and caterer. As justice of the peace he not only performed the ceremony but wrote the vows with them.

Wedding planners became so important for gay weddings, according to Hyde, primarily for one reason –ignorance. “There is a lot about the traditions of having a wedding that we don’t know anything about, because we’ve never been in a position to participate in this cultural event,” she explained in her office in Cambridge. “So that’s one aspect of wedding planning that I think distinguishes us as a client group from others.” This is exactly why Lissette Garcia, partner of the wedding planning company “It’s About Time,” said they work exclusively with same-sex couples. “We could offer a service that was needed in our community, and since we are a part of it, who better to go to?” Knowing the needs of their gay clientele is the key, Garcia said.


The marketing for gay and lesbian weddings offers from invitations and gifts to handmade clay figures shaped after a picture of the brides. “Have the cake top created to your exact likeness,” advertises the “Animated Butch-Femme Couple” in Kathryn Hamm’s Gayweddings.com advisory site and online boutique. Hamm’s mother realized there was an under-served market when she was looking for invitations for her daughter’s wedding in 1999. “Revenue has increased with each passing year,” Hamm said. The gay wedding and honeymoon market is estimated to reach $1 billion over a three-year period, according to Community Marketing Inc., a San Francisco-based marketing firm.

At the same time, these firms are marketing more than just customized invitations and miniatures for the cake. “The gay community is very supportive of people who support the gay community,” said Daniel R. Spirer, owner of a jewelry store in Cambridge that has been selling commitment rings to gay couples for 20 years. The online jewelry store, “Love and Pride,” donates 10% of every purchase to the association Marriage Equality, designer Udi Behr said.

“We don’t want to work with any vendors who believe that gay marriage is wrong,” said Kelly Dunn, who is planning a June wedding. She opened a gift registry at Crate and Barrel. The national chain store is one among many others that has revised their forms for gender neutrality: instead of “bride” and “groom,” the terminology is “registrant” and “co-registrant.”

Among traditions Dunn and many other lesbian couples maintain, it is the white gown. She said she is going to wear a “very simple white dress,” and her partner will probably wear a suit. Same-sex couples’ interpretations of the wedding attire include also another more tempting option for designers: two bride gowns or two tuxedos. “It can be very convenient,” a clerk at the Cambridge-based store Classic Tuxedo said, after selling two complete tuxedos to a gay couple a morning last March.

While some options are customized or marketed towards gay and lesbian couples, others remain restricted to them. “We are both Catholic and we cannot have a Catholic ceremony, so we will have to change a few of our ceremony traditions,” Dunn Said. The Unitarian Universalist ceremony they’ll have is usually preferred among gay couples, next to secular and Reformist Jewish ceremonies. “The creative Jewish wedding” is one of the books that have been published lately to meet this need.

Still, the changes on the religious script of the celebration do not affect the core of the cultural traditions, Paula Treckel, a historian of the wedding ceremony in America and a professor at Allegheny College, Pasadena, CA, said. When the gay community asks for “a replication of the marriage partnership,” it is also willing to embrace the traditions involved in the public celebrations of marriage, she said. She said that gay weddings have had little affect upon how marriage is celebrated in our culture. Indeed, perhaps because of the myriad of changes Americans have experienced, the legacy of the traditional wedding ceremony lives on: “Our longing for tradition, security, ties with the past, as well as our hopes for the future, are embodied in this all-important public celebration,” Treckel explained.

One thing Dunn didn’t expect was her family expectations about traditions. “I thought that having a gay wedding would sort of prevent me from having my family getting really involved and saying ‘well of course you will do this tradition, and of course you will do that tradition,’ but that wasn’t true,” Dunn said. It turned out that one of her sisters was very upset that they didn’t want bridesmaids, and finally had to give in. “But she is not allowed to wear an ugly-bridesmaid dress.”

Cambridge Chronicle > Business News > Record store takes final spin

Home > Cambridge Chronicle > Business News

Record store takes final spin
By Ana Rivas / For The Chronicle
Thursday, February 9, 2006

Mojo Records' colorful lights and naked Bjork window poster are now covered with big black and white signs announcing that yet another Mass. Ave. record store is going out of business.
Skyrocketing rents and online sales have already closed half of the 20 record stores that once formed an imaginary line from Central to Porter squares. Pipeline Records and HMV Music Superstore are examples of the business that closed in the last five years.
"This actually was the last vestige of a cool Cambridge block," said Mike Feudale, the manager of Sandy's Music, a store specializing in musical instruments, a few steps away from Mojo's. Feudale fears the closing will affect his business. "We get a lot of sales from their clients and they get some from us," he said. "Now that Mojo is leaving, the cool block is shrinking."
Mojo's has been in business at 904 Mass. Ave. for five years; prior to that, it operated under a different name closer to Central Square. The store will close March 19.
Mojo's building is for sale. Potential new locations either asked twice the rent, or offered half the space, said Mojo's owner Mike White. And sales are down. Or, more precisely, they went online. White said he would not follow the trend. "I did that for a year, but it wasn't the same."
But beyond sales, the Internet presents another threat to the long-time cachet of these stores that were once meeting places for music fans, college kids and collectors. Along with the records, something else is going online: the space to cultivate a passion for music, and find advice and information.
While flipping through the half-priced CDs bin in Mojo's going-out-of-business sale, Philip Clendaniel tried to remember the name of a band. He saw them when they opened for the Rolling Stones in 1966. "It was a group called - let me think," he said.
But another customer anticipated the answer: "Tradewinds!"
Proudly, Clendaniel corroborated: "He knows!" It was his first time in Mojo's, but after meeting a stranger willing to start a conversation on a forgotten band from the 1960s, he said, "This is a great place."
The Internet works in the same way. A Harvard University study of consumer habits predicts that by 2010 one in four online music purchases will be driven by consumer-to-consumer "taste-sharing applications." Playlists and ranking tools built into online music stores and other music-related sites are replacing what music lovers used to look for in the stores: information.
"Customers have far less need to ever step into a record store today," said Derek Slater, co-author of the report released by Harvard's Berkman Center and consultants Gartner Inc. "Not only can they acquire the music online -whether used or new, illegally or legally, on CD or downloaded - they also have myriad sources of information to become exposed to new music."
Hernan Patrich, a 26-year-old music fan, agrees. "I read 80 reviews before buying a disc online," he said. "Having access to what other consumers think about the product is priceless."
But while automated recommendation engines appeal to many, some music fans might still prefer the personalized advice. Store clerks have often acted as a trusted expert with whom the music buyer can interact.
That is what many customers have found behind the counter of Cheapo Records, a Central Square fixture since 1948. Allen Day, the owner "has a deep knowledge of the '50s and '60s, specially black music," said Robert Thomas, the store's clerk.
Cheapo announces itself with a sign in the street level: "Yes! We have CDs!" Since 1997 it has been confined to a basement behind the subway entrance, between a Walgreens and a Starbucks. Since that year rent has tripled, Thomas said.
Thomas remembers a time when you could stop at a dozen of record stores in a line in the area. "In the past if you wanted to learn about music, you had to physically go to a place and talk to a person, do research yourself," Thomas said. "The thing is different now; you just can get everything very quickly [from the Internet]."
"It's not necessarily bad," he added. "But I think something gets lost in the translation."