When prankers don’t prank

Posted on 20 September, 2013 by Mayitzin

Youtube is an amazing (relatively) new tool in Internet. Besides kittens and music videos, the website will throw countless viral videos every day.

Pranking is one of the most famous concepts for a channel in Youtube, and there are already famous people doing it for some time. Their channels have hundreds of thousands or even millions of subscribers, which shows how succcessful they are.

But recently these famous channels have done something different. They know that their videos are seen by millions around the planet, so they decided to offer something different than just pranks: Philantropy. Just a simple act that can inspire.

I think is a great idea. These guys are known worldwide because of their pranks and millions watch every step they do. Well, now some will be inspired by a single 5 minute video.

Simply by coming with these ideas once in a while, it reminds us that we can also go out of our routine and inspire, if not millions, at least to the ones around us. This really restores faith in humanity, because shows that anyone can help at any time. Continue reading →

Songs of the day: Mambos

Posted on 3 September, 2013 by Mayitzin

Haters gonna hate. As told before, Dudamel is one of those guys that either you love him or hate him. I personally love him.

He is not the orthodox musician that comes and works with precision every time. He likes to give life and to give colors to the music. Huh, I really don’t know how to explain it, I just got out of words suddenly.

Here you have a great performance and sample pieces of Mambo, a very well-known music genre of Cuba. Many composers have taken this genre and put it into big masterpieces.

Dudamel and the Youth Orchestra Simon Bolivar perform many Mambos from Perez Prado and “Mambo” from Leonard Bernstein.

Who says orchestras are not to dance?

Song of the day: In the summertime – Mungo Jerry

Posted on 2 September, 2013 by Mayitzin

Summer is escaping from Germany and the cold breezes are felt in the evenings. And to celebrate that I leave you with this hit of the cheerful Mungo Jerry: In the summertime.

First time I heard it I think I was 12 or so. It was one of the song that inspired me to make an Incursion into music. You can easily notice why. All right! Summertime, see you soon!

VHS mode in Youtube

Posted on 15 April, 2013 by Mayitzin

Not sure if a late Easter egg, a passing joke or a permanent feature (would be fun), but Google gives us again the opportunity to play around with the common things on the internet.

This time comes all through Youtube. A new feature was added to the player of Youtube: the “Tape Mode”. You click it and your image will seem like an old VHS-cassette-like video. Quite nostalgic, I would say. I just discovered it watching some Ellen videos (I admit it, goddamit, that woman’s jokes are funny for me), and discovered this one with Steve Carell (better if you watch it in Youtube‘s website):

The legend says that they do it because of the 57th Anniversary of the commercial realease of the first VHS cassette. Well, quite a random number for me, but anyways. Not all videos have this feature. Apparently you just have to randomly find them too. Buuuu!!

Oh yeah, click “Pause” and it will keep the old effect of the cassette. These hipsters are everywhere with the electronic vintage effects. First their instagram, now this. I don’t think is gonna last, but I’d activate it for fun only.

Find a nice video and give it a try!

Naquito Abroad: The Oktoberfest Challenge

Posted on 28 March, 2013 by Mayitzin

Finally my first video of “Naquito Abroad” is out. And after days of editing, I finally got some material out. The language of that series of videos is most of the time Spanish. But, as in my other videos, you can find the subtitles in English. Actually, a big portion of the video is also in English (when I was rambling in the tents of Oktoberfest).

This is the product of a day in the biggest Beer festival in the world. I show you here the history and organization of the Oktoberfest, so you can have a look into the event as everyone else.

For a deeper and more detailed information of it, you can read it (although in Spanish) in my other post “Bienvenido al Oktoberfest“.

So, come this year, but in the meantime, Proooooost!

Song of the day: Fallaste corazón – Pedro Infante

Posted on 4 January, 2013 by Mayitzin

The mexican culture has still some bits of “Machismo” in it, but is actually double faced. The Machos are people unable to be in contact with their feelings and try to set a screen, so when they are faced with their feelings, they react in very bad ways.

In the mexican society, the Machos are allowed to cry for 2 things only: family and women. And the way to do so is always singing and drinking. You can see it in almost every classic film of Mexico’s Golden Era, where a broken-hearted man sings to his beloved woman in sadness.

I found it always funny, and instead of making me sad or something, always made me smile. Beginning the year I felt a bit homesick and started to sing lots of Mexican songs, being Chavela Vargas, Vicente Fernandez, Antonio Aguilar, and many others a constant reminder of my culture.

Cuco Sánchez composed “Fallaste Corazón” (You failed, heart) many years ago, and several artists have made great covers of this song. Personally I think Chavela Vargas gave the best performance with her amazing voice and feeling. Damn! You can even feel her pain while she sings! Moving!

Anyways, we Mexicans have some weird ways to overcome tragedies, but it actually works 🙂 “Fallaste corazón” is dedicated to the heart of a Macho, yeah, the heart. And the Macho is mocking at his own heart. Yeah, bit weird, right? But this is one of the thousands of expressions you can find in Mexican songs.

Here you have one of the most entertaining performances from Pedro Infante “The idol of Mexico”. He sings the song as it should, with sadness, taunt, anger and passion. Subtitles are included in the video:

Ay ay ay!

Puto – Molotov

Posted on 29 July, 2012 by Mayitzin

You must probably know by now, Molotov is doing a European tour and they are going to play in my beloved Munich. Remembering last year’s concert and the funny interview I did with Paco Ayala, I would like to share in the following days the most-known Molotov songs and translate them. Why? Because this material should be shared worldwide. Molotov is an amazing band that still has the power and the energy to protest like years before, but of course with a more mature and rough sound. Some might like it, some others might not… but everyone talks about it, everyone knows them and remembers them once the people hear about… M to the O to the L to the O to the T to the O to the V!

“Puto” is one of the famous songs ever from the band, and all the generations from the X and after truly know it word by word, not only in Mexico, but in all spanish-speaking countries. You don’t believe me? Ask a Spanish speaking who Molotov is, and which song too. Yeah, Puto from Molotov. And why is it so famous? Well, it was released in 1997, in a very conservative Mexican society, in the middle of a tiring and mind-fucked tight society.

The history of Rock in Mexico could be also labeled as before and after Molotov (more precisely before and after Puto), when a boom in Rock in Spanish led to an explicit way of rock, full of “bad words”, but actually words that needed to be said.

Well well, too much chit-chat. Puto is one of the first releases of the first album (maybe the very first, I can not remember) and is simple but powerful, provocative and full of energy, THE song, the one that everyone yells and jumps with. But don’t get confused, people, this song has nothing to do against Homosexuality or the gay community. As a true believer of the Human Rights (and most of all of the common sense) I think the only sickness or deviation is Homophobia. As said before, I had the chance to talk to the guys of the band while touring last year in Europe, besides I know their backgrounds and I can tell you 100% that this song is dedicated to all those coward assholes that keep fucking with the Mexican people.

So, the meaning of “Faggot” here is clearly meant as in the “coward” sense, nothing else. If you don’t believe me, you can check the lyrics down defining “who is a Puto”, or ask any Mexican on the streets if they would dedicate this song to a gay or to a Mexican politician.

And yes, at the left is the original version, and at the right is a fully English version for you to understand. I will do a literal translation and some footnotes can be found after the translation to understand the “Mexicanisms” in the songs of Molotov, that could be a lot. For complaints regard the translation and comments about your mom just let it know below.

¡Cámaras! Continue reading →

Song of the day: El Sing-A-ling – Poncho Sanchez

Posted on 3 May, 2012 by Mayitzin

One of the most interesting and enjoyable styles for me is the Latin Jazz. Makes me remind home every time and I never miss the opportunity to enjoy the sound in it. Although a bit different, Jazz and Latin Music are actually very compatible and many musicians demonstrate so.

Today I’ve been listening to Jazz and its variations and didn’t want to keep it for myself. Here, you have one of the bedt percussionist and most talented entertainers in the Latin Jazz style: Poncho Sanchez and his band. He’s very well known because of his big talent as conguero.

Born in Laredo, Texas and some times considered as Mexican because of his heritage, he successes at giving the hot latin feeling to Jazz melodies. El Sching-A-Ling, one of his classic songs is made precisely for that: give sabrosura to the music. After this video also check I showed them, El sabrosón, his excellent Dizzy Gillespie’s cover to A Night in Tunisia, an many more. Just let him convince you with those delicious sounds, and if you like it please share it to the world, I think he deserves that.

¡Saborrrr!

The infinite monkey cage

Posted on 2 May, 2012 by Mayitzin

Science and Comedy have been always connected everywhere because for radical and revolutionary ideas, it is needed a bit of humor and consideration. Both are groundbreaking and quite entertaining if you are in the proper mood.

However only few have had the balls to mix them, play around with them and success with it. One of them is the case of The infinite monkey cage, a comedy series produced by the BBC, where physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince discuss about the relevant topics in Science, such as the origin of life, Probability, Sound, Chemistry, etc.

Before the only science and rational debates mixed with comedy that worth watch were the ones of Bill Maher in his show, where in a round table he discusses different topics of the daily American lifestyle with many personalities. And it was good, politics, religion, science and other disciplines were part of this round table. However, the truly scientific point of view was some times missing due to… well… Bill Maher, although a really good and critical personality, has no scientific background.

This time TIMC offers us Profr. Brian Cox, a guy with an awesome personality and a complete understanding of “the stuff called Science”, and Robin Ince, the acid debater that pulls the attention of the public.

You can check them in the Apple Store if you wanna download their Podcasts, I highly recommend them to those who wanna embrace Knowledge and Reason in a funny way. Otherwise, you can also visit their channel in the BBC podcast website.

Long life TIMC!

Metal for cyber-babes

Posted on 12 April, 2012 by Mayitzin

It sounds maybe stupid but well, I was growing up in the 90’s when the hairy metal became massive and commercial (with bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, etc.) but actually it started way before and I dare to say that it was already commercial in the middle 80’s when I was born.

Anyways, Metal has been seen as a style played only by the toughest and most violent guys in the Earth. From this we can extracted way more styles that we can all appreciate as a good Metal, such as Speed, Gore, Thrash, Hair, Glam, Black, Industrial, Doom, Nü, Grunge, Neo-Classical and even a fucking Christian Metal. But still, there is a common in all this bands: Testosterone.

However, Metal has been spreading slow but strongly into many societies and levels. Where are the girls? Well, there are girls but no so known yet, unfortunately. Female metal singers have been showing up lately and are now an important part of gigantic bands like Arch Enemy, Therion, Detente. In the same line we can find even bands formed by girls only, like the Iron Maidens, Kittie, Tijuana Sweetheart, and many others.

But this post is not for the girls with albums and defined musical careers, this post is for the girls that play what they want and become the heart breakers of thousands in the net. This post is for the metal girls that rock our screens and speakers, the rock chicks, the heavy metal babes… Continue reading →