My Blog

Lost In Translation

kronaz — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:20:59 +0000

Looks like Latin heartthrob Enrique Iglesias isn’t looking to play tennis with someone else. Enrique sparked some breakup rumors when he recently revealed to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that he and Anna Kournikova had been secretly married and were now divorced.

“We’re divorced. I am single now, but that’s okay,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t mind being alone.”

But sources close to his “wife” reveal that they are still together and Enrique was only joking. A rep for the couple revealed after five years, ”they are still together.“

In my opinion Enrique began this rumor himself to stir up some controversy. After all he does have an album coming out in June. We all know how controversies always help to sell more records.

A Solution To Enrique’s Tiny Problem

kronaz — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:16:50 +0000

“I can never find extra-small condoms, and I know it’s really embarrassing for people – you know, from experience” Enrique Iglesias once told Esquire Magazine.

Lifestyle Condoms has apparently stepped up to the plate and is offering Enrique $1 million dollars to prove that they have something that will actually fit him. Only under one condition, he has to put it on and model.

I still think the guy was joking when he made that comment. It was probably one of those things that were taken out of context and Lifestyle Condoms has decided to get some publicity from it. I must say its smart marketing on their behalf.

Enrique Iglesias’ Caught Up In Plane Scare

kronaz — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:10:44 +0000

Singer Enrique Iglesias got the scare of his life when his plane headed for London was suddenly forced to make an emergency landing at Luton Airport in Bedfordshire.

Enrique, 33, was on the plane when it began to experience some trouble, so the pilot made the snap decision to land immediately.

They were only on the tarmac briefly before heading back out to London. The singer’s representative told The Daily Mail UK, “The highly skilled pilots managed to make a safe landing.”

In light of the serious plane crash that Travis Barker and DJ AM barely escaped, we’re glad to hear that no one was hurt in this case.

Enrique Iglesias Sued for Running Over Girl’s Foot

kronaz — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:06:38 +0000

Singer Enrique Iglesias is being sued by the mother of an 11 year-old girl for emotional distress after she witnessed him allegedly run over her daughters foot.

Lizette Torres and her daughter Susan Bonilla are suing Enrique and his manager Fernando Giaccardi, claiming Fernando backed up his vehicle in an “unsafe manner” while on a private property.

Apparently the little girl rushed over to the car to get an autograph from Enrique and had her foot run over by accident. The incident happened back in 2007, but since times are tough, Lizette figured she’d finally cash in on her “emotional” experience.

She claims she suffered “emotional injury and emotional shock to her nervous system causing her damages.” She’s asking for $25,000 in damages.

The little girl walked away without injuries, so it sounds like the mother is just using his celebrity status as an excuse to milk some money out of him. What are your thoughts?

KOURNIKOVA & IGLESIAS PLAN FAMILY

kronaz — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:03:11 +0000

KOURNIKOVA & IGLESIAS PLAN FAMILY

ANNA KOURNIKOVA is planning to start a family with her boyfriend ENRIQUE IGLESIAS – once she has reached the pinnacle of her career.
The couple, dating since 2002, sparked rumours of a possible engagement earlier this year (09) when the tennis ace was snapped with a sparkler on her left hand.
Both stars played coy and refused to confirm the rumours – but the blonde beauty has revealed she’d love to settle down with her singer boyfriend and have kids.
She tells Britain’s Glamour magazine, “We try to keep out relationship as private as possible. I don’t read all that stuff about ‘Anna’s pregnant/married/broken up’.
“I would like to have kids, but years from now. I’m only 28 and there are still things I want to do first.”
And Kournikova has revealed the secrets to the longevity of her relationship with the Hero hitmaker – laughter and respect.
She adds, “We have a mutual respect. We’re both very independent but we try not to go too long without seeing each other. When he’s away I miss his humour. He’s a complete joker. He knows how to make fun of himself, which is very cool.”

MUSIC THEORY AS A TOPIC FOR FEMINIST STUDY

kronaz — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:48:15 +0000

What relation might music theory have to feminist thought?(1)

This question might be heard as proposing an interdisciplinary linkage, a cooperation between two initially self-sufficient discourses. But before trying to construct such a linkage, it is important to consider another issue. What does the contemporary field of professional music theory have to do with gender? This second question (or second way of hearing the first question), rather than depicting music theory and feminist criticism as separate enterprises that might interact, opens the possibility that music theory is already related to gender in some way. In that case feminist thought, rather than somehow linking up with music theory, might take the present-day practices of music theory as a topic of inquiry.

Most musical scholars presently assume that music theory is a technical discipline, confining its attention to issues of musical structure and syntax–”specifically musical” matters, as one says. Many people would find it natural to assume that “specifically musical” matters have nothing to do with gender. But theory and analysis have been, for the most part, a set of texts written by men, about music by men, and perhaps this has had some effect on the outcome.

So I’ve arrived at a third question: how might a male writer-specifically a present-day North American male music theorist–exhibit his gender in writing about music?

It is helpful to distinguish two ways that the writing of a male music theorist might display his gender. The positive claims of a theorist might reflect, in some fairly direct way the writer’s masculinity, or aspiration to masculinity. Or the omissions that delimit a theoretical or analytical approach, the things that are not said or not permitted to be said, might result from a writer’s desire to present a masculine image.

This distinction is important for the claims I want to make. To put it bluntly, I believe that the omissions that characterize much contemporary theoretical writing reflect a desire to avoid discourse that might seem unmanly.(2)

Differences. (Critical Theory of Music)

kronaz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:44:09 +0000

IN THIS AGE OF DIFFERENCE, a “postmodern” era which (on the surface) proclaims its difference from the Modern with all the naive historicizing fervor of any past avant-garde, this fin-de-siecle which hysterically celebrates the centrifugal as it sees increasing global dominion and concentration of capital and (not coincidentally) an increasingly Americanized world pop “culture,” dancing out its fatal anxiety in a purgative tarantella, Panic evacuating its every essence–in such surroundings, stepping carefully in counterpoint, do we dare make a difference? For every act of difference is power. Power flows like sap in the humble reeds that whisper in our ear, a thousand things. When we then act to make a difference, power draws the line: the line in the sand, the cut in the throat of the sacrifice, the boundary within which is one thing, and without which is an other. After we have acted to make a difference, Power turns its maned head in our direction. A work of art is an act of power. If we were to ask Difference what its essence was, it would be embarrassed. In fact, Difference could not bear it. If Difference thought it had a nature, it would get carried away in all directions. We can instead ask each difference simple questions, such as: Where does it draw the line? How, and why, does it draw the line? Does it draw more than one? Of what shape? Of what function? To what end? In what relations? Perhaps the answers to such questioning will form individual differences into regions, packs, swarms, congeries, ethnicities, or modes of differences, which in turn will inform thought about art. GERARDO’S EGG, MADONNA’S BIRD Gerardo’s Latino Rap act–as in the music video “Rico. Suave.”– draws a circle named Gerardo, and another circle around Gerardo’s genitals. The genital circle depends, interlinked, from Gerardo’s; but in two other senses, Gerardo’s circle contains the genital, and the genital circle contains Gerardo’s. There is very little difference between the two circles. Only in the first of these senses (the dependant genital) does Gerardo open at all, but only to himself: the interlinked circles of Gerardo and genitals are each other’s other, where neither is inside the other. But in the two other senses, Gerardo and his genitals are each other’s content, each both the inside and the outside: stasis. The image of a sphere, or hypersphere, a milkily opaque globe into which comes no intrusion from the world, and from which comes no minutest excrescence. The image of a Christmas-tree ornament, or an unfertilized egg, ornamental and monoecious. The kind of object it is safe to play with. It can have no consequences. It is an object designed for mass consumption, neither nourishing nor obviously poisonous. Gerardo’s Egg typifies an identity which is not an identity. Because it is its own outside, it is inaccessible and empty. There is little to differentiate it; it has no features. It is not an individual (though undivided) because it does not actively participate in an individuating web of relations. It is not a person, because it has neither a culture nor a will. How could it have a culture, without participation in a culture? How could it have a will, when there is no field of play in which a will could operate? It is a mere toy tossed in the surf of a cultural environment that can never penetrate it (or it would sink). It is a subject made object. But it is not a complex object. Though its existence reflects its constituting society, it is not Lacan’s specular other-with-a-small-o, not alien, not ego, because it is not even a (convincing) simulacrum of subjectivity. Madonna, corporate package that she is, offers another kind of I-deal. Each of Madonna’s music videos engages its own nexus of social and ideological issues. The series of music videos gives the impression of an artist, a person, working her way through themes offered her by her life experience: her father, her familial religion, racism, environmentalism, prisons, and always, of course, sexuality. There is a development from work to work. Each work internally is not inert, but active in a way that is sufficiently polysemous to bear interpretation, or active reception. The line Madonna draws is a “ligne de fuite,” a line of flight or vanishing-line, always escaping to another plane. The one semiotic constant is her femininity, or at least, her sexuality, which she wears like a mask–like a guest at a masquerade party who wears her own face. In her music videos, there is a counterpoint between the musical and the visual developments. The music, which itself is neither complex nor innovative, provides continuity for the fragmented, rapid-cut video montage which primarily conveys Madonna’s papier-mache shell of personae, the technique by which she achieves her “lignes de fuite.” Each screen shows a plane of consistency; each of Madonna’s lines of flight …

Enrique Iglesias: «In my life of more than one woman»

kronaz — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:52:26 +0000

In it he tells interview that else is pleasant to it besides the composition of songs, rounds and about women, a life and love.

- What about you like to speak besides music? What you interests?
- I like to fly. I fly on extralight (devices).

It is not dangerous?
- Is not present, they very reliable. On extralight all on a kind. It is possible to see a problem. It is visible that where, what bolt dangles. With planes, yes, there is a problem, they such technological that it is impossible to notice. I as concerned earlier to extralight, thought they very dangerous. But they not the such.

- You like to risk?
- Is not risk. All is safe enough. I very much liked to fly to Australia.

- Good memoirs remained with you from Australia?
- I adore Australia. I adore Sydney and I adore Melbourn. It was my first arrival. I have perfectly spent time. The nice people. In these cities it is a lot of holidays, excellent time for rest. In Melbourn there are good casinos. I like to play, but I not the dependent.

- You will return still there?
- Sometime, I will return to Australia. Actually, I should be there in June or July.

– You will advertise a disk?
- Yes. Also I will probably give a concert.

- Is your best disk?
- Whether I know the best it is my work, but it became the most difficult. A lot of time has left. Three years. I have made a heap of songs, about fifty. I wished to be assured of result. Probably, I was through чур scrupulous. I do not know. The album varied and varied in due course. Returned me back in studio to make still.

- The single is called «The Ping Pong Song».
- It is called «Do You Know», but we have made sound as I played table tennis.

- What for?
- I do not know, it seemed original. It here one of such pieces which at first when you hear, seem a quite good joke and then, from this turns out a song. I like to play to ping pong. I have grown, playing with the brother.

- Шn this album you sing in two languages which you own: in English and Spanish?
- Yes.

- In Spanish all sounds sexy.
- the Truth? I thought the Italian most sexual language. It seems to me that English, too, beautiful language for singing. Streams hardly easier.

- It not seems to you strange, what people under your music make love?
- That, the truth? No. No, it not seems strange. I think it fine. if they like to do it under music, means it it really it is pleasant.

- That you have put for employment by love?
- Lately I listen «The Police» much, soon tour can because at them and I listen to them. But for bed, great Marvin Gaye. One more good disk Enigma. Either Josh Groban. Or Village People.

- You made love under Village People?
- Yes, «Macho Man».

- You look «American Idol» (something of “Factory Zvzed” type in the USA)?
- Yes, I like Sanhaja. You know why? I think it the one who will lose. Saw it on Tuesday evening? I think it has done good work. It not seems to you, what it has done good work? This one of… It is unfair. It specially became such, but it is not bad. At it a beautiful voice. The truth so seems to me. Very much it is pleasant to me. Estimate if he wins!

- On a disk there is a song «Sweet Isabel». It about your mum?
- Is not present. On an album there are two songs which were written not by me. It is one of them. The first time when I have heard it, when to me it have sent, I have told to myself:« Here гавно, whether it was impossible to name on another that? ». That is, me does not disturb that people think, as if I have written it for it.

- At you good relations with she?
- Yes. At me wonderful mum.

- It has given what best council to you?
- Tell is not present to drugs. Here to you such jammed phrase (laughs).

- You have any superstitions?
- I knock on a tree. Silly certainly. Constantly it I do.

- You would change what part of the body if could?
- The pipe, a penis. It very much, very small. No, it is a joke! It was necessary to tell that I wish it to change because it very much, very big! (Neighs as abnormal) At me thin feet. I would like to have stronger feet because I like to play football.

- What nicknames at you were at school?
- A Trípode.

- Because of thin feet?
- Yes (again laughs, a hint for the size). No, there was no at me a nickname. I hope you it you will cut out.

- That does the person sexual?
- The talent does which sexual. In this city many beautiful people (probably means a city of the constant residing – Miami). You go to restaurant and there on everywhere beautiful waitresses who wish to become actresses, models, singers, everything. I think talent does sexual. Any talent, singing is not obligatory. Any talent. But I like teachers and secretaries. They sexual. Always they raised me.

- Means at you there were not such teachers as at me.
- I had one teacher – the present goddess and two more very beautiful. Secretaries my weakness.

- And tennis-players?
- Yes, tennis-players, of course, but secretaries it here most mine.

- What preferences at you on kitchen?
- Any. I do not prepare.

- As you eat?
- I go somewhere to eat, or I am prepared by the servant.

- Probably it is difficult to hold the form at such food.
- Is not present, it is possible to eat normally. In the USA badly that portions very big.

- That the best in love?
- When you are enamoured, feel invincible and that more anything else is not important. The world can will collapse on slices round you, and to you it is all the same good, while you near to this person. But certainly it only the first couple of weeks (laughs). Then there is important another: trust, the person, ability to live together. Relations – a piece difficult. I not the expert in it, I only once had serious relations, but all it is difficult. For any.

- Especially for you?
- Is not present, at all. Many think that to me it is more difficult because of my work, but are not present, I think it all difficultly. Relations – a piece difficult.

- But when such high status…
- Yes too most of shit.

- Still something you wish to tell about a disk?
- A disk good. Ух, whether I do not know it is good. It is pleasant to me.

They are unseparable since those times as have got acquainted in 2002. Relations of Enrike and Russian tennis-player Anna Kurnikova rivet attention of love magazines. But Enrike is pleasant to keep all secret.

- On this disk there is a song devoted to Anna?
- I would not like to speak, of whom exactly I thought, but certainly all who is in my life have affected.

- Well, it your lady.
- My lady? Which?

- Unique is not present?
- In wash lives not one woman: my sisters, mum.

- All the same we will return to Anna. For it you have written something?
- It is possible. You should guess.

- Whether and about that you have got married, I too should guess.
- No, we have not got married. For me not a problem to speak about it. I do not want speaks as my songs because it is a shame to me arise, but about marriage yes I can. About private life I can speak without problems. I do not know why people think that I married. And if I married, what for to me it to hide?

- You are going to marry?
- Is not present. Marriage is not necessary to us. It relieves of many problems. Relations – a piece difficult. I am simply assured that children change all. I do not think that is ready to it. Probably, when to me it will be executed 40 the moment (Iglesias’s family differs a long sexual life – the daddy, the grandfather will come. 90 years for them not age). In May to me it will be executed 31. I know at many in 31 already there are children, but Anna only 24. It does not excite me – married or single. A difference only in a piece of paper. But I do not reject it absolutely. Matter is not that I do not trust in marriage. I simply consider that now it it is not necessary to me.

Enrique Iglesias – Biography

kronaz — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:49:36 +0000

You would think that Enrique Iglesias has nothing left to prove. After all, the Madrid-born, Miami-raised singer has sold 40 million albums in little over a decade, becoming one of the most successful artists in the history of popular music. Then again, Enrique is not your average pop star. Consider this: the singer has spent the past three years crafting his latest album. Three years of non-stop traveling, writing, recording, pressing the ‘delete’ button, only to begin all over again until he’s 100% sure that his vision is perfectly realized. Now, it finally has. Entitled “Insomniac,” a humorous nod to Enrique’s sleepless nights and obsessive artistic persona, the record is clearly the most ambitious project of his phenomenal career. “When I started this process, I wasn’t really sure of the specific sound that I was looking for,” Enrique says over breakfast at a posh hotel in Beverly Hills. “What I did know was that I wanted to have a respectable repertoire of songs to begin with. On my previous records, I would always start with a dozen ideas. This time, I wrote between 40 and 50 new tunes.” Enrique also spent a long time pondering the specific qualities of the project’s sound. Should it be seeped in hip-hop and electronic beats– a prerequisite for commercial success in the new millennium? “I guess at first I did want to consciously make a record that had a cool sound to it,” he says candidly. “But then I said to myself: ‘fuck that. I don’t want to take myself too seriously.’ The truth is, I just want to write songs that I like. It’s as simple as that.” Thus began the three year journey with stops in Miami, Los Angeles and Sweden, as well as the contribution of renowned producers such as Sean Garret, Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Mark Taylor & Paul Barry, and Anders Bagge. “When I make a record, I work at night,” says Enrique. “So basically I’ve spent three years working at night and sleeping during the day. I’ve been hyperactive all my life. The word insomniac was the first that came to mind when I was trying to come up with a suitable title for the album.” Some of the record’s highlights include “Push,” a hip-hop flavored collaboration with rapper Lil’ Wayne, as well as “Ring My Bell,” a moody track that Enrique wrote in Los Angeles together with two of his favorite songwriting partners, Swedish composer Kristian Lundin (Savan Kotecha also collaborated on the track). “Do you know those moments in life when you stumble a little, and you accidentally discover something that changes you?,” asks Enrique in his typically casual, unpretentious demeanor. “That’s exactly what happened to me with ‘Ring My Bell.’ It wasn’t a dramatic change, but the feeling of that song changed my opinion of what the album should be all about.” “The recording of ‘Push’ was very similar that way,” he continues. “I had experimented with the stylistic innovations of hip-hop before, but I had never felt really comfortable with it. This time, it was a completely different experience. In fact, there’s not a song in the entire album where I’m trying to be someone that I’m not.” As Enrique continued on his personal search of songwriting discovery and recording experimentation, “Insomniac” underwent a metamorphosis. “If you listened to the album two years ago, it has nothing to do with what it is today,” he says. In its final incarnation, “Insomniac” contains twelve songs in English and three in Spanish. There is an additional 20 tracks that were recorded during those lengthy sessions, but ultimately abandoned when they didn’t meet Enrique’s strict standards for the album. “I could have made a second album if I wanted to,” he explains. “But I don’t think those songs will ever see the light of day.” He adds: “If they’re called b-sides, then they shouldn’t be on an album.” Born in 1975, Enrique led the life of a typical teen while growing up in Miami. He started writing and recording songs without telling his parents about it. In fact, he shopped his first demo posing as a Central American unknown named Enrique Martínez. Only after landing a record contract with regional Mexican label Fonovisa, did Enrique decide to use his real name. Recorded in Spanish, his self-titled debut sold more than a million copies in the first three months after it was released (to this day, it has sold over seven million). His second effort, 1997′s “Vivir,” broke into the U.S. Top 40 and was promoted with the first of many lavishly produced world tours. Within three years, Enrique became the biggest-selling Spanish-language singer in the world. He has enjoyed 16 #1 Billboard Latin hits, more than any other artist in history. Enrique was now ready to expand his audience beyond the Latin market. Released in 1999, “Enrique” was his first English album, and the first one recorded for Interscope. It included the mega-hits “Bailamos” (We Dance), “Rhythm Divine,” “Be With You,” and “Could I Have This Kiss Forever,” a duet with Whitney Houston. In the U.S., the platinum album was certified double, and Enrique was seen by millions during the 2000 Super Bowl halftime show. “Enrique” achieved gold or platinum status in 32 countries. The singer would eventually become the best selling international artist of all time in India. Then came “Escape,” which included the hits “Hero” and “Escapar,” and cemented Enrique’s superstar status in Europe by selling 10 million copies. Both the album and single of the same name were simultaneously the #1 album and single in the U.K. Entitled “Quizás,” Enrique’s fourth Spanish-language album established him as one of the few recording artists ever to score a U.S. multiplatinum English-language album (“Escape”) followed by a U.S. multiplatinum Spanish-language album (“Quizas”). Enrique’s success continued in 2003 with his aptly titled seventh album “7,” setting the stage for the artistic odyssey that culminates now with the release of “Insomniac.” “I’ve never suffered so much making an album,” says Enrique with a laugh. “It was a journey of soul searching and self discovery for me.” “I’m not gonna claim as we all artist do with a new album that this is my best album ever, or the one with the best production or the best songs,” he concludes. “One thing is for sure, though. I gave myself completely into the making of this one record — heart and soul.”

Etc. Biographies