Archive for January, 2008

Posted on January 29, 2008 - by MG

Asere que vola – Habana Abierta

At last Saturday night’s Clave Club I bumped into a long-time salsa aquaintance, Danielle who told me that she’d been reading my blog. It reminded me that it’s been a while since I blogged anything about salsa or Cuba or anything…and there’s a link to my blog from the Cubanisimo regular email newsletter. So maybe it’s time that I did.

My favourite new song from a Cuban band is the brilliant rock/african/funk/salsa fusion track Asere que vola?, by Spain-based Cubans, Habana Abierta.

It’s jazzy, rock and funk, but you sure can dance to it – salsa and reggaeton. ‘Asere que vola?’ translates roughly as ‘Mate, what’s going on?’, but as usual in the translation of colourful street slan, it loses all the sparkle.

The lyrics tell of the news a guy receives from his Cuban mates all over the world – as he asks them via chat, email etc – ‘Asere, que vola?’. It’s cheerful, joyful, ironic, full of wonder at the outside world (I heard that in Denmark it’s brutally cold!) that these lucky young Cubans find themselves in…because most Cubans can only dream of seeing the rest of the world. But as always with Cubans outside Cuba, there’s sorrow and homesickness for the island.

Posted on January 26, 2008 - by MG

Rallying the pals…

So I’ve been shamelessly urging my friends to go buy a copy (or more!) of “The Joshua Files – Invisible City”. Of course! Can’t expect the publishers do do all the leg work…and friends and family have to be the first enthusiasts.

I was particularly touched by my good friend Debbie Simpson and her daughter Ellie (pictured above), who bought a little stack which I signed for them in our local Costa. Debbie told me how she’d watched the whole process – starting with me saying I was going to write a novel when I broke my leg, all the way through to publishers making offers for the title, with increasing amazement.

“I was worried for you at first, because when you broke your leg and decided you were going to try to get a book deal, I was scared that you’d be disappointed…”

Now she tells me!

“…and then I started to see how determined you were…and then last year when you showed me the stuff the publishers gave you when they made their offers…I was so excited, I could feel my heart racing…I thought this is really the start of something…!”

Well I had my doubts on the way too, like all first-time writers. You can never know that you’re going to get your book published. You can only know how far you’re prepared to go to get the deal.

I have to say I was pretty determined; I would have gone on for at least another year – full time. Here’s a secret – I was prepared to write four manuscripts before I gave up.

I really admire people who’ll work even harder than that. They do exist!

Posted on January 22, 2008 - by MG

“The Joshua Files – Invisible City”: on the shelves!

“The Joshua Files – Invisible City” spotted in Oxford city centre WHSmith’s. Face out, eye-level and a nice stack of them, hurray!

A casual stroll through Oxford today resulted in a first-sighting of ‘Invisible City’ in the shops, almost 2 weeks before the official publication. I only went into Waterstones, WHSmith’s in Oxford and The Book House in Summertown but they all had at least one copy – and Smith’s had loads!

Very exciting. And strange, strange feeling of disconnection.

It’s also in stock on Amazon.co.uk.

Go on then, buy it! (please) Read it and post 5-star mega reviews on Amazon (pretty please)!

But remember what our mothers taught us: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

Posted on January 19, 2008 - by MG

Now that is book…

According to that repository of urban hipness, The Spectator, New York street lingo for ‘cool’ is now ‘book’. It comes from predictive text of the T9 type, which often offers ‘book’ when you type in 2665 (which also spells ‘cool’).

No, I didn’t believe it either, because, hello, Speccie telling me something about street life as opposed which boutique hotel in Estonia I should be staying at or whether to buy dresses of the Diane Von Furstenberg or ISSA variety, or telling me how to manage the diplomatic fallout caused by an as-yet-unwritten thank you letter for a lunch six months ago…?

But I checked it out on Google and it seems to be true.

Steve Jobs reckons that nobody reads books anymore, or so I heard. But if the word ‘book’ itself is, yanno, book, then that itself is pretty book… innit?

Posted on January 18, 2008 - by MG

“The Joshua Files – Invisible City”: book trailer

Here’s my first attempt at a mashup!

Using photos, videos, Animoto.com’s music/video engine, a song (‘Invisible City’ from the album ‘File in Rhythm’) by Minneapolis indie band Beight licensed from MagnaTune Records, all jumbled together using Sony Vegas Movie Studio, here is the book trailer for THE JOSHUA FILES – INVISIBLE CITY.

View it! Comment on it! Spread it!