Eddie Palmieri at UNC-Memorial Friday (2/18)

Read my Indy story, P'Adelante: Eddie Palmieri Continues to Reinvent his Pioneering Latin Jazz, here. The concert is Friday at UNC-Memorial at 8 pm.

A TRANSCRIPT containing more of this interview will be available here LATER TODAY. Check back later on Thursday.

I just had a chat last night with Conrad Herwig, Eddie Palmieri's trombonist, in the green room after he played a lip-blistering concert with Jim Ketch in Hill Hall. This was a free concert, lots of other events (some paid/ticketed, some not) taking place over the next two weeks at UNC, part of the Carolina Jazz Festival. Conrad is doing a residency and will also perform in Memorial with the UNC Jazz Band and Charanga Carolina on Saturday. I will post more info later!

Buika @ Stewart Theatre TONIGHT (11/6)

Having spent a week trying to describe Buika, I don't have a lot of energy left except to say: see this indescribable songstress on Tuesday (11/16), 8 pm at NC State's Stewart Theatre, you won't regret it.

Oh, and yours truly will give the Pre-Concert Talk from 7:00-7:30 pm in Talley, Room 3118 (3rd floor, same building as the Stewart Theatre). There will be audio and video. Come on down!

LINKS:

--event listing I wrote for Indy

--Lovely interview I did with Buika by phone, on Indy blog scan

--NPR "50 Great Voices" Story on Concha Buika

Salsa Saturday: Charanga Carolina & La Excelencia

Two big events make for a power-packed Salsa Saturday (10/16) in Durham:

Community Fiesta Latina, 6:30-9:30 pm at the Brumley Performing Arts Center, Durham Academy Lower School; and La Excelencia at Salsa4U's 10th Anniversary Party, Fred Astaire Dance Studio, at 10:30 pm.

Fiesta Latina features live performances starting at 7:30 pm with Colombian harpist Pavelid Castañeda; my Independent story on Pavelid in June links to performance videos and a closer look at his Camac Electroharp. Headliner UNC Charanga Carolina plays the last hour from 8:30-9:30 pm, and dancers will be encouraged to take to the open dancefloor. Foodtrucks will be onsite selling dinner options from 6:30 on.

Fiesta Latina is FREE and the public is invited. It will be the 5th year for this community celebration in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, which is not just an enrichment opportunity for DA students, but a serious bid for membership in the wider community.

BRING YOUR PROGRAM from Fiesta Latina to get a $5 door discount at LA EXCELENCIA. La Excelencia doors open at 9:30, and the first set won't start before 10:30 pm, so you will have plenty of time to make your way to official afterparty at Fred Astaire Studio.



Aggressive salsa dura, barrio-style, is what La Excelencia promises:

"Defiance and self-expression have become their hallmarks. In the beginning, salsa was a youth movement, energized by the rebelliousness of '70s pop culture; it's 2010, and La Excelencia wants a piece of that."

Read the whole story in my music feature on La Excelencia in this week's Independent.

Video Shoot @ Cuban Revolution

It was a live Orquesta GarDel performance at one of the Cobos' parties that inspired The Beast's salsa-hip-hop song, "Translation." So it was fitting that the Cobo Brothers party at Cuban Revolution set the scene for the video shoot last Thursday night.










Here's a snippet of video during the live shoot, with dancers James Cobo and Jennifer Laurenceau:




Links:

Full photo set on Flickr

TOURCAST: Hobex Live From Shakori Hills

It's a crisp April night, 'round midnight, and you're standing in a dewey field at Shakori Hills, waiting for Hobex to come on.

I make it a point to see Greg Humphreys' soulful swamprockers every chance I get. So I was particularly bummed that I missed their late show last Thursday night.

Lo, a video appears. The full concert on Tourcast:


Watch live video from TourCast on Justin.tv

Is someone making my dreams come true? Maybe I'll find a freezer full of peanut butter cup ice cream, my own mariachi band on the back porch, and Los Van Van concert tickets in my wallet.

DP Update on Tonight's Plena Events

With a slight revision, ALL of Duke Performances events are ON for this evening, Thursday (2/11).

Miguel Zénon's Esta Plena Septet is driving down from NYC today via automobile, due to the heavy snow. While they will not arrive for the 6 pm talk, they WILL PERFORM as scheduled at 8 pm in Reynolds Auditorium, in Duke's Bryan Center.

The pre-concert talk WILL ALSO TAKE PLACE with Ned Sublette, as scheduled at 6 pm, in the Bryan Center Meeting Room A.

Full press release from Duke Performances Marketing Director Ken Rumble:

Wanted to let you know about a pre-performance talk that Duke Performances is hosting with author and ethno-musicologist Ned Sublette on the history of plena music in Puerto Rico tonight at 6 pm in Meeting Room A on the top level of the Bryan Center on Duke's West Campus.

Due to severe winter weather in New York City, Miguel Zenon and Hector "Tito" Matos will be unable to join Mr. Sublette for the conversation -- however, tonight's concert will proceed as scheduled.

Ned Sublette is a musician, writer, and producer. He is the author of Cuba and Its' Music and The World That Made New Orleans.

I had the pleasure of seeing Ned Sublette at the Regulator in Durham last night. He performed from his not-yet-recorded album and read from his newly published memoir about New Orleans.


Vaquero Rumbero: Ned Sublette

For a foretaste of what Ned might cover tonight, about the history of plena, see the 2/10 issue of The Independent on newstands. I quoted him in my lead culture feature:

"Street Spirit: Jazz finally taps plena, one of Puerto Rico's overlooked rhythms"

abre kuta güiri mambo...plena...jazz

Ned Sublette will make a stop on his multimedia publicity tour in Durham next week. Wednesday (2/10) at 7 pm at the Regulator, he will read from his new book, The Year Before the Flood: A New Orleans Story and perform songs from his new album, Kiss Me Down South. Ned is also the founder of the Institute for Postmambo Studies. (And yes, he will be selling T-shirts.)

Ned Sublette may be my favorite living author and public intellectual. His knowledge of Afro-Atlantic culture is so deep and so connected, and the way he expresses it so fluid and untroubled. Rare. His books on the musics of Cuba and New Orleans, and the historical contexts that shaped them, are both rich, great reads.


The confluence of his visit next week with Miguel Zenón's Esta Plena Septet will result in another meeting of the minds. Ned will give a FREE pre-concert talk, with Miguel and his collaborator Hector "Tito" Matos, on Thursday (2/11) at 6 pm.

It will be old home week for Ned, who produced Tito's 1998 album on Qbadisc with Viento De Agua. That band's latest, a fusion self-release called Fruta Madura, demonstrates how gloriously open and expansive the plena matrix can be.

Tito Matos is a leading practioner of plena, and MacArthur "genius" grant fellow Miguel Zenón built his latest album around him. The double Grammy-nominated Esta Plena is a milestone encounter between plena, a native rhythm of Puerto Rican folklore, and jazz. Zenón's saxophone drips lyricism, and he's joined by a well-attuned quartet that includes Venezuelan pianist Luis Perdomo, Austrian bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Henry Cole, who subtly matches the patterns of pandereta and güiro. Tito brings vocals and hand-drumming on board the septet, with the aid of Obanilú Allende and Los Pleneros de la 21 founder Juan Gutierrez.

Lucky us.


Read: Principles of Postmamboism
Book Review: The Year Before the Flood: A Story of New Orleans
Duke Performances: Miguel Zenón Concert Info

Juicy Fruit: Saturday 12/12

Saturday's impending dance frenzy with GarDel and Charanga got picked up by the wires; I penned this short item in today's Independent Weekly:

12.12 PAPAYA @ UNC

"Papaya is the proverbial juicy fruit of Latin folklore, a rustic metaphor that eliminates the need for an FCC. It's also the name of the juiciest salsa double bill to come along this season: Orquesta GarDel meets Charanga Carolina, as the Triangle's top salsa band goes head to head with the UNC performing ensemble that spawned it. The Charanga adds greasy trombones to its classical violins, flute and Latin rhythm section, making it possible to mimic modern Cuban timba bands as well as early New York salsa. GarDel is the big bowwow, packed with UNC alums gone pro. Expect a jam session at this birthday party for Nelson Delgado, who sings with both bands. So juicy, it's inevitable. In the Kenan Music Building Rehearsal Room. $5-$10/ 9:45 p.m." —Sylvia Pfeiffenberger

Source: Indyweek.com, 12.9.09, "Hearing Aid: The guide to the week's concerts"

See my earlier blog post here, or check the Onda Carolina calendar, for more info.

Vive! World AIDS Day 12/1

I wanted to post this video in recognition of World AIDS Day, which was December 1.



Rumor has it that Juan Formell (seen handing a condom to the couple in the final scene) is giving press conferences about a US tour for Los Van Van in 2010.

With the recent visits of Omara Portuondo, who picked up her Latin Grammy in person, and Septeto Nacional Ignacio Piñeiro, which has been wowing East and West Coast audiences, this scenario now seems likely.

Link: Jon Pareles' review of Septeto Nacional in the NY Times

Tiempo Libre TV

Tiempo Libre was on Dancing with the Stars last night. The musical performance starts at minute 4:30 in:



Tiempo Libre is from Havana by way of Miami, and manager Elizabeth Sobol-Gomez (married to keyboard/leader Jorge Gomez) is a good old girl from Greensboro. Elizabeth has tremendous business savvy, and has charted a bold, unconventional marketing path for this young timba band, whose singer, Joachin "El Kid" Diaz, once sang back up for NG La Banda. They've achieved two Grammy nominations, and have steered toward classical music and mainstream audiences by collaborating with classical orchestras and musicians. I mean seriously, who would have thought it intuitive to pair a timba band with James Galway, and most recently, Joshua Bell?

I don't mean to suggest that the classical/Cuban close embrace is in any way illegitimate; on the contrary. Gomez' father was a classical pianist, so he literally heard Bach while still in the cradle (the German composer's themes are the subject of TL's latest album, Bach in Havana). All these guys had intense classical training at conservatories in Cuba, which is commonplace for the island's expat timba--and jazz--musicians.

One could go further and point out that the fusion of European and non-European modes is the very essence of la música cubana, and fusion is habit-forming. I can't think of a more prolific, syncretic popular music tradition than Cuba's, which according to Juan de Marcos has over 150 different genres. Add to that the Cuban habit of survival through innovation, and consider the fact that many commercial avenues in the US music industry are currently blocked to Cuban styles (in favor of other regional styles of salsa or other genres such as pop and reggaeton), and the move is downright brilliant. Rather than trying to coax American consumers of Latin music into accepting timba, they're storming the barricades of mainstream taste via the jazz and classical music establishments.

But, how does it sound? For hardcore timba fans, there is definitely something there, even if Bach in Havana isn't as full of wall-to-wall, sexy bombast as, say, their Shanachie debut Arroz con Mango. Yosvany Terry and Paquito D'Rivera, representing two generations of great Cuban jazzmen, build the bridge from Miami to New York, with its incumbent artistic seriousness. There is a great deal of pleasure to be had in Bach in Havana, although it is at least as much an intellectual listening experience as a dance spree.

In one my favorite marketing moves in history (perhaps aimed at winning over Cubanophiles who might be soft on the classical hybrid?), TL got their image on Cafe Bustelo espresso cans earlier this year. A few weeks ago, they were on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien playing their track with Joshua Bell from his new duets album, At Home With Friends. Now, Dancing with the Stars...I'm not a fan or follower of the show but I recognize its vast impact on the culture at large, and on the public perception of ballroom dancing.

I think it's fair to describe that kind of rise in mainstream exposure for a US-formed timba band as meteoric, and unprecedented. Whether the strategy will result in CD sales and "brand recogition" in the long term, I can't say, but my hat is off to an industrious and creative team behind a very energetic and authentic band. I've seen Tiempo Libre in NC numerous times and have never been disappointed.

In fact, the first live timba I ever heard in NC was Tiempo Libre, an unexpected find at the outdoor after party to a Poncho Sanchez show at Davidson College several years back. I walked across the campus quad, and walked faster as strains of "El Cuarto de Tula" in an energized timba arrangement reached my ears. What miracle is this? How did Los Van Van meet Buena Vista Social Club on the outskirts of Charlotte?

I don't know if anyone watching Dancing with the Stars had a similar epiphany last night, but anything that puts Cuban rhythms back into the daily diet of American television viewers (tip of the hat, Lucy and Desi) can't be a bad thing. Can't wait to see where Tiempo Libre turns up next.

CORRECTION: WUNC-TV and UNC-ED showtimes for "Latin Music USA"

UPDATE / CORRECTION: Yes, the show will air!
For digital cable package customers, UNC-ED airs Latin Music USA on 11/17 and 11/24 in two 2-hour segments.

WUNC-TV will air Latin Music USA on four Fridays in November beginning 11/6.

My apologies, UNC-TV! Your website is very hard to search, however, when I enter "Latin Music USA" on a general search I get no records. On the calendar search I had to pre-select the correct day (thanks, Georg) in order to locate these.

New Link Added: New York Times review of Latin Music USA episode 1


****original post below*****
I just realized that Durham Time-Warner Cable PBS station WUNC-TV is not showing Latin Music USA, a new 4-hour documentary series scheduled to start airing across the country Monday, Oct. 12. This new documentary promises to be a definitive landmark, produced by WGBH Boston and the BBC, and containing interviews with some of the most important living figures in Latin music.

Link: Latin Music USA website
See also "Latin Music USA" on Facebook

The omission is egregious when you consider that it's Hispanic Heritage Month. Preview screenings and concerts with musicians from the film have been going on in cities around the country leading up to this premiere.

I'm really disappointed that it does not appear to be on the WUNC-TV schedule at all, either now or at a later time. (They recently cleared a whole week of regular programming for the Ken Burns National Parks series.) Does anyone know if it is the same story in surrounding areas? Raleigh, Chapel Hill, etc., is it airing on PBS stations where you are?

Durham, we need an action plan. I'm going to call the station on Monday and ask that they air it. Here is WUNC-TV's contact page if you wish to do the same.

Movers and shakers, any thoughts?

Bailame, Amadeus

Wow. Tiempo Libre with Joshua Bell on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien last Friday (10/2). The tune is a reader's digest of Cuban rhythms, rumba/danzon/cha/bembe, and bass player Tony Fonte wore his best kilt!



[VIDEO]

It's here until NBC takes it down.

what's new? Onda on Facebook

I just joined Facebook, and invite people interested in getting Onda Carolina posting updates to join the Onda Carolina Facebook page.

Thanks for all your support!

RADIO ALERT: Prairie Home Compañero

A Prairie Home Companion will have a "Dancing on the Prairie" episode this week, featuring all kinds of dance music, including salsa, swing, tango, waltz, hula and polka.

Performers include The Hot Club of Cowtown, Ledward Ka'apana, Frigg and Twin Cities salsa band Salsa del Sol.

Airs twice, this Saturday and Sunday, on local NPR affiliate WUNC.

WHAT: A Prairie Home Companion's "Dancing on the Prairie" show with SALSA DEL SOL, more.
WHEN: SAT (9/19) 6-8 pm, SUN (9/20) 1-3 pm
WHERE: WUNC 91.5 FM Chapel Hill


postscript...

I didn't hear the whole show but caught Salsa del Sol doing "Señor Sereno," with lots of Puerto Rico references, and "Rompe Saraguey." Larry Harlow and Hector Lavoe, classic Fania. Don't know who is in the band.

hip hop primer on puerto rico

Enrique Rivera did this smart report on Calle 13 on NPR, focussing on Puerto Rican social realities and the San Juan barrio of La Perla.

Some of you may remember my post on Calle 13's collaboration with Ruben Blades on a song about La Perla, here.

taco heard round the world

Durham taco culture is booming:

New York Times, "36 Hours in Research Triangle Park"
(See Item 6)

La Vaquita was also featured in Gourmet magazine a year or so ago. The mole is to die for; I've heard raves about the pollo de crema and the flan. I hope all that publicity means they will never close. Little known fact: you can call your order in.


Photo credit: Lisa Brockmeier

I still mourn the de facto end of El Paraiso, on Alston Ave., which used to be run by that lady and her daughters who appear to have moved on. In the kitchen, she always had a giant bowl of masa dough from which she crafted all her various delicacies by hand. I've never had an empañada that was so light and crisp, so absent of dull, residual grease despite being fried. Heaven.

Last I was there, an interloper was selling only tacos, and those made with store-bought tortillas. Pirata! Someone has told me since that the wonderful, random murals on the bunker-like concrete structure have been painted over; no more floating Corona bottles on an electric lime-green background. I guess it's really over.

So, what's missing from your "36 Hours" list?

Mambo Compañeros' Media High Jump

Good news: the small media campfire set here about the Sotomayor mambo is blowing back a few sparks toward Norway.

Mambo Compañeros saxophonist Kåre Kolve managed to get both our names in lights today in the Norwegian national daily Dagbladet.no!

I think one of my wildest dreams just came true. Not only that, I learned the word for "high jumper" in Norsk (= høydehopperen).

Shout out to all my mambo-loving, Dagbladet-reading brothers and sisters! Velkommen til Onda Carolina, and keep supporting Latin music in your Scandinavian wonderland...un cariño especial a los caribeños allí.

What's next? Will Judge Sonia Sotomayor herself check in with an opinion? You never know...

Link:

All things Sotomayor on Onda Carolina

Latinos in Film: Tuesdays and Thursdays in May on TCM

Tonight will be day 2 of Turner Classic Movies' monthlong series on Latino Images in Film, every Tuesday and Thursday evening in May.

There are so many films of interest, highlighting both positive and negative stereotypes of Latinos in Hollywood, that I can only refer you to the schedule. Some personal favorites I'm excited to see again:

The blacklisted union drama Salt of the Earth (5/12) starring real New Mexico mineworkers as themselves;

Ricardo Montalban and Shelley Winters in an immigrant love story that examines class, racism and the American Dream, My Man and I (5/14);

The Mambo Kings (5/21) featuring Tito Puente in a ballroom scene, Machito's son Mario Grillo, and timbalero Ralph Irizarry in a speaking role.

UPDATED: Another "Musicians in Film" Alert:

This Tuesday (5/14) they'll show The Milagro Beanfield War featuring Ruben Blades and Freddy Fender.

Carmen Miranda stars with William Bendix and Don Ameche in Greenwich Village on Thursday, 5/21. That seems to be musical night, as its followed by West Side Story, La Bamba, and Mambo Kings.

J-Lo shows up with Jimmy Smits on 5/28 in My Family.

No musical connection, just one of my favorites: Mexican actress Katy Jurado appears in Trial on 5/19.

Live Salsa with GARDEL this Saturday (4/11)

It's a good band: Orquesta GarDel.

That photo looks nice on the poster; it came from the cover story I wrote about them in June 2008.

Here are the details on Saturday's "Spring Black and White Party" at George's Garage. The party starts at 11 pm promptly (not before, although the bar will be open as the dining area clears). The first live music set starts at 11:30 pm. There will be a mambo performance by James Cobo at 12:30 pm. Then, the band's second live set begins at 1:30 am, and the party won't close down until 3. That's an extra hour than usual, and Cobos run a well-organized ship, so you can expect to get your money's worth of dancing and live music.

I've been sworn not to say too much about what GarDel has woodshedding in secrecy these last few months, but they are getting ready to unveil some new charts including original compositions that will be surprising. They already have a huge and heavy book of standards including Barretto, Palmieri, Ruben Blades, Gilberto Santa Rosa and La Sonora Ponceña.

Admission will be $20 at the door; some limited discounts are available, while they last, if purchased online, and to be eligible for discounts you must abide by the 'black and/or white' attire theme. (I would love to see a basket of spring colors, myself, but that's just me.)

Get out the house. A bailar.


UPDATE added Sunday (4/12):


Very accomplished local mambo professional James Cobo debuts his new solo routine, as his parents (above, center) look on.

While it was impossible to capture a portrait of James in motion with non-flash photography, I did capture the impressions of onlookers, dressed in the party's elegant "black and white" theme:


GarDel blasted and sounded GREAT. Will elaborate on how and why later.

In this photo from their first set, Paso dance instructors Stephanie and Eduardo Winston eclipse stage lights in a view from the dancefloor:


Here's Jose Sanchez (congas), Brevan Hampden (timbales) and Ramon Ortiz (bongo/bell) in this hardworking rhythm section, backed by metales Wayne Leechford, Tim Smith and Andy Kleindienst:


See more party photos at my Flickr page, if you click on any photo.

FULL FRAME: "Sons of Cuba" boxing film premiere

Durham's downtown film fest opens today:

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival website

More to follow...

UPDATE added Sunday (3/5): SONS OF CUBA World Premiere

I went to the sold-out, world premiere Friday night of Sons of Cuba, a British-made film about the boys' boxing academy in Havana. Director Andrew Lang and editor Simon Rose said they had only just finished the film 3 days earlier. Lang completed film school training in Cuba in 2005 and had unprecedented access to the boarding academy, which accepts boys as young as 9 and trains them to become Olympic boxers.

I really liked the film, any movie that brings the sights and sounds of Cuba and its people closer is a joy. Music's role in the film was mostly in the soundtrack, which drew heavily on Cuban rap; the credits went by fast but I remember seeing one Eliseo Grenet tune, and some unfamiliar band names I take to be next gen hip hop. This was a good fit for the theme.

One boy, Santos, is nicknamed "The Singer," because he's always composing rap-like lyrics and songs on the spot. He was rather unhappy at boxing camp, and I kept thinking, they should transfer this kid to the conservatory farm system! I admit that one of my motives to see the film is that I imagine it must be somewhat similar to the life experienced by young musicians in Cuba, who are also taken from home at a young age. I think I am probably not too wrong in this.

The degree of love and bonding among the boys, and also between them and their nevertheless demanding coach, was an impressive fact. So was the close relationship most of these boys shared with their mothers. It was striking to me that the coach even impressed upon the boys, "your mother is the most important person in your life." That's far from the aggressive, "don't be a sissy," encoding of masculinity and rejection of all things feminine so typical in many or most societies when they are training men for a sport like boxing. Knowing Cuban culture from another angle, it was not hard for me to imagine these boys a little older, when they start having girlfriends, and thinking that any boy who loves his mother so much will surely end having a healthy respect for and attachment to women. That's not to say there is no "macho" element in Cuban culture (so I hear), but there's a certain approach to love, sensuality and pleasure, at least encoded in the music, that I find quite egalitarian. Let's just take as one example Mayito's song with Los Van Van, "Llevala a tu vacilon," where a guy is encouraged to take his girlfriend out to the parties with him, rather than leaving her at home. Let your girl have her fun, or you won't have a girl for very long.

It was hard to watch very young children undergo such grueling physical training. I couldn't help wondering if the obsession with weight, in particular, was not detrimental at that age, both physically and psychological. How do they allow for these kids to grow up, while maintaining a rigid weight class of say 32 kg? The hero, Christian, really had a gaunt, overexercised appearance. He sure as hell could fight though. Christian was an interesting character, because he's the son of a former Cuban Olympic and World Champion.

There was so much heart and emotion in this movie and so many tears: tears in victory, tears in defeat, tears when family stress intruded on school, tears when certain kids didn't make the team cut. I have never seen so many men (and boys) cry in two hours in my life! These men really love and comfort each other, even the rival coaches of the Havana and Matanzas academies, who do some hilarious trash talking in the beginning, but dissolve in a tearful embrace at the end. The Matanzas kid boxers had a reputation of being big, tough, yucca-eating farmers' sons who can punch you into next week, which made me think about the Matanzas stevedores who invented rumba, and Ignacio Piñeiro walking out to Matanzas for some good Afro-Congolese food and dancing in the song "Echale Salsita."

After the film, I stood up at one of the mics and asked the filmmakers if they had considered the film, among other things, as a portrait of Cuban masculinity; to my shock, really, Lang said this never occurred to him. Never occurred to him! Interesting. And he says he went to an all-male boarding school.

I think this has something to do with the fact that, like most outsiders making a movie about the Cuban system, they bring their own values to it somehow. That's not inappropiate. But Lang highlighted the historicity of the film being shot during the transition from Fidel to Raul. However, this event seemed like a bit of an anticlimax to me, both as experienced in real life, and as a dramatic element in the film. I guess he wouldn't be doing his job as a filmmaker not to position the film in its context and political moment in this way, but it really had no impact on the inherent drama of the film, which was all about the boys and their rival boxing teams. And, their dreams.

One point that the film made clearly was that all these people, children and adults, are coping with life in this system, the way anyone anywhere is forced to do. In particular, all these boys face a lot of pressure from their families to do well, so that they might have a chance to pull their families out of poverty. It's really not that different from the U.S., where low-wealth minorities are positioned to view sports and entertainment as aspirational paths.

It's a remarkable film, well worth seeing. If you love Cuba and her children, you'll probably be crying too by the end; I was. Beautiful moving images, too. These kids are unforgettable. Oh, and I can't wait for the followup films in 5 years, 10 years, etc. Like the Balseros docs, that would really be fascinating. Are you listening, Lang & friends? Well done, and keep us posted.