Thursday, September 25, 2014

PIRATES PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

T.R.A.C.S at Timothy Plaza on River Island

Dead Man's Chest

"Dead Man's Chest" (also known as Fifteen Men On The Dead Man's Chest or Derelict) is a fictional sea song, originally from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island (1883). It was expanded in a poem, titled Derelict by Young E. Allison, published in the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1891. It has since been used in many later works of art in various forms.
Background
Stevenson found the name "Dead Man's Chest" among a list of Virgin Island names in a book by Charles Kingsley, possibly in reference to the Dead Chest Island in the British Virgin Islands. As Stevenson once said, "Treasure Island came out of Kingsley's At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies (1871); where I got the 'Dead Man's Chest' - that was the seed." That is, Stevenson saw the three words "Dead Man's Chest" in Kingsley's book among a list of names, germinating in Stevenson's mind it was the "seed", which then grew into the novel.

In Treasure Island Stevenson only wrote the chorus, leaving the remainder of the song unwritten, and to the reader's imagination: 
“ Fifteen men on the dead man's chest--
...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
 Drink and the devil had done for the rest--
 ...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”

The song has been widely used in the arts for over a century. In 1901 music was added to the lyrics of "Derelict" for a Broadway rendition of Treasure Island. In the 1954 film "Return to Treasure Island", starring Robert Newton, the song was sung in the opening credits, and instrumentally as the thematic background to the action. In the 1959 television series "The Adventures of Long John Silver"--again starring Robert Newton--it was, although only in instrumental version, the series' theme song played both at the beginning and the end of each episode. In 1967, writers for the Walt Disney film company found inspiration in "Derelict" for the sea-song "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)", which was played in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme ride at Disneyland. Astrid Lindgren expanded Stevenson's couplet differently in the script for the 1969 Pippi Longstocking TV series; the two resulting verses were sung to a West Indian sea shanty. In the 1978 film Revenge of the Pink Panther, Chief Inspector Clouseau, disguised as a "salty Swedish seadog", sings a mangled version of the song. 
Alan Moore made a play on the song in the 1986 graphic novel Watchmen; the chapter is called "One man on fifteen dead men's chests." In 1993, the contemporary "pirate" vocal group, The Jolly Rogers, recorded Mark Stahl's arrangement of Young E. Allison's lyrics, re-released in 1997 on their CD titled "Pirate Gold". A rendition was recorded by the steampunk band Abney Park as "The Derelict".

In German, the song is sometimes known as "17 Mann auf des toten Manns Kiste", so it mentions 2 more men, or sometimes as "13 Mann", mentioning 2 fewer, most prominently in Michael Ende's Jim Knopf stories. Likewise, in the Hungarian translation of Treasure Island, the phrase is "seven (men) on a dead man's chest"; apparently these numbers provided the closest effect to the original regarding rhyme and syllables in English.

PIRACY

Piracy is typically an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator (e.g. one passenger stealing from others on the same vessel). The term has been used throughout history to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents.

Piracy or pirating is the name of a specific crime under customary international law and also the name of a number of crimes under the municipal law of a number of States. It is distinguished from privateering, which is authorized by national authorities and therefore a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors. Privateering is considered commerce raiding, and was outlawed by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) for signatories to those treaties.

Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates.
In the 21st century, the international community is facing many problems in bringing pirates to justice.

Etymology
The English "pirate" is derived from the Latin term pirata and that from Greek "πειρατής" (peiratēs), "brigand", in turn from "πειράομαι" (peiráomai), "I attempt", from "πεῖρα" (peîra), "attempt, experience". The word is also cognate to peril. Also, particularly in the 1700s and 1800s, spelling was haphazard, and words such as "Pyrate" or "an act of Pyracy" are examples of some of the accepted ways of spelling in past years.

History
Pirates have been around since people began transporting goods through sea. The earliest known pirates were the Sea People, who pillaged and plundered the Mediterranean Sea in the 13th century B.C. The ancient Illyrians had spent years pillaging Roman and Greek vessels in the Adriatic Sea. The piracy in the old times was mostly prominent in the Mediterranean, although there were the Vikings in the Northern seas. Mediterranean pirates were hunted down by powerful empires, such as Greek, Roman, and Persian; while the Vikings flourished and conquered new lands.

Piracy in the Caribbean
The Caribbean was the most prominent area for piracy. The vast loads of Aztec gold traveling from the New World and Spain was the perfect target for aspiring swashbucklers. Colonies were settled in the islands and on the mainland, triggering trading routes and transportation by sea. Many people became pirates shortly after the end of the Spanish Succession War. Buccaneers began arriving in the mid-late 17th century. The buccaneers were people that smoked meat over a structure called a buccan, thus earning their name. The buccaneers lived on the island of Hispaniola, selling their smoked goods to passing ships. After the Spanish slaughtered their pig cattle, the buccaneers, not knowing any other job to do and seeing the fleets of gold being transported in open waters, turned to piracy. Pirates were rising in fame and some were forever immortalized as the most fearsome pirates that have ever sailed. From the Bahamas to Trinidad to the Florida Keys, no merchant ship was safe from pirates.

Jolly Roger
Jolly Roger is the traditional English name for the flags flown to identify a pirate ship about to attack in during the early 18th century (i.e. the later part of the "Golden Age of Piracy").

The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly Roger today, the skull and crossbones symbol on a black flag, was used during the 1710s by a number of pirate captains including "Black Sam" Bellamy, Edward England, and John Taylor and it went on to become the most commonly used pirate flag during the 1720s.
 
Name
The origins of the name was the French term for the English flag "Jolie Rouge" meaning Pretty Red

Use of the term Jolly Roger in reference to pirate flags goes back to at least Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates, published in Britain in 1724.

Johnson specifically cites two pirates as having named their flag "Jolly Roger": Bartholomew Roberts in June, 1721 and Francis Spriggs in December 1723. While Spriggs and Roberts used the same name for their flags, their flag designs were quite different, suggesting that already "Jolly Roger" was a generic term for black pirate flags rather than a name for any single specific design. Neither Spriggs' nor Roberts' Jolly Roger consisted of a skull and crossbones.

Richard Hawkins, who was captured by pirates in 1724, reported that the pirates had a black flag bearing the figure of a skeleton stabbing a heart with a spear, which they named "Jolly Roger".

The origin of the name is unclear. Jolly Roger had been a generic term for a jovial, carefree man since at least the 17th century and the existing term seems to have been applied to the skeleton or grinning skull in these flag by the early 18th century. In 1703, a pirate named John Quelch was reported to have been flying the "Old Roger" off Brazil, "Old Roger" being a nickname for the devil. 
Source WikipediA

AFRICAN PARTY at T.R.A.C.S

Saturday with DJ Racker.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Josephine Baker Show

Friday TOTH had Josephine Baker in the house. It was a magical show.

Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress who came to be known in various circles as the "Black Pearl," "Bronze Venus" and even the "Creole Goddess". Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine later became a citizen of France in 1937. She was fluent in both English and French.
Josephine Baker was an American singer, dancer and night club performer who achieved fame in Paris in the 1920s. She was also known for being a civil rights advocate and for fighting racism. What is less known is that she was also a lesbian or bisexual woman.

Josephine Baker was a sex symbol of her time and she had many notable lovers, both male and female. She had lovers in Europe and in the United States and she dated both Black and White men and women. Many of her biographies fail to mention her female lovers.

Baker’s Banana Dance is probably one of the most famous dances during that era.
Whether it’s the bananas or the way she moves with them, this dance has gone down in history and is something every dancer should know about.

Josephine Baker had a style all to her own.  Her unique aesthetic and bold choreography are still studied today as paradigms of 20s and 30s vernacular jazz movements.  Not only is she an important figure in the Swing world, but her political significance trumps many of her contemporaries. She was the first African American female to star in motion pictures and to perform at a racially integrated American Concert Hall. She aided the French resistance in WWII which won her the prestigious military award of the Croix de Guerre and she is especially noted for her contributions to the American Civil Rights movement in the 1970s.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

AFRICAN PARTY at T.R.A.C.S.

Racker is back at T.R.A.C.S.
T.R.A.C.S at Timothy Plaza on River Island

AFRICAN PARTY

Saturday we have an African Party. It is not for the first time we have this theme
http://christo-second-live.blogspot.nl/2013/12/africa-night-party-at-tracs_15.html?zx=83343cb05e3a9a4c. What make this party so special is that it is the first time that DJ Racker will deejay after his stroke, some months ago.

AFRICA SONG
Africa is a hit single by rock band Toto, and is one of the band's most recognizable songs. It was included on their 1982 album Toto IV, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1983 and number three on the UK Singles Chart the same month. The song was written by the band's keyboardist/vocalist David Paich and drummer Jeff Porcaro.

Africa continues to be played at all of Toto's live concerts. It was also sung by Paich at the 2009 Millennium Development Goals Awards Ceremony.

Background
The initial idea for the song came from David Paich. Jeff Porcaro explains the idea behind the song: "... a white boy is trying to write a song on Africa, but since he's never been there, he can only tell what he's seen on TV or remembers in the past."

David Paich said: "At the beginning of the '80s I watched a late night documentary on TV about all the terrible death and suffering of the people in Africa. It both moved and appalled me and the pictures just wouldn't leave my head. I tried to imagine how I'd feel about if I was there and what I'd do."

Musically the song took quite some time to assemble, as Paich and Porcaro explain:
"On 'Africa' you hear a combination of marimba with GS 1. The kalimba is all done with the GS 1; it's six tracks of GS 1 playing different rhythms. I wrote the song on CS-80, so that plays the main part of the entire tune."

Music video
The music video was directed by Steve Barron. In the video, a researcher in a library (portrayed by band member David Paich) tries to match a scrap of a picture to the book from which it was torn out. As he continues his search, a black female librarian working at a desk takes occasional notice of him, while a native in the surrounding jungle begins to close in on the library. When the researcher finds a book entitled Africa, the native throws a spear, toppling stacks of books. Africa falls open to the page from which the scrap was torn, but a lantern lands on it and sets it on fire, after which the librarian's eyeglasses are shown falling to the floor. The scenes are intercut with shots of a spinning globe and the band performing atop a stack of hardcover books.
This video also features Mike Porcaro on bass, replacing David Hungate who had already left Toto before the video was made.

TOTO
Toto is an American rock band formed in 1977 in Van Nuys in Greater Los Angeles, California. The band's current lineup consists of Joseph Williams (lead vocals), David Paich (keyboards, vocals), Steve Porcaro (keyboards), Steve Lukather (guitars, vocals), and Keith Carlock (drums). Original bass player David Hungate is currently scheduled to tour with Toto as a guest musician, as Mike Porcaro is too ill to tour. Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard rock, R&B and jazz.

David Paich and Jeff Porcaro had played together as session musicians on several albums and decided to form a band. David Hungate, Steve Lukather, Steve Porcaro and Bobby Kimball were recruited before their first album release. The band enjoyed great commercial success in the late 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the band's eponymous debut released in 1978. With the release of the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Toto IV (1982), Toto became one of the best-selling music groups of their era. They are best known for the Top 5 hits "Hold the Line", "Rosanna", and "Africa". Several changes to the lineup have been made over the years. In 2008, Lukather announced his departure from the band, and the remaining band members later went their separate ways. In the summer of 2010, Toto reformed and went on a short European tour, with a new lineup, to benefit Mike Porcaro, who had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and is no longer an active member of the band.

 A editing job done by Trey Compton; I am a huge fan of Toto. This editing job was not meant to be a mockery of this song but a glorification and a clarification of the pure genius that is: "Africa."


↓ Cover of a Slovenian jazz group

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

LAST WEEKEND

FRIDAY
Friday Tim and I went to the Theatre On The Hill.
On the invite was written:
Good day all TotH Fans, Some of you want early announcements to plan when they can be on line to join our shows and cabarets.
Next Friday (12th) Twerton presents us his new show 'Strictly from Dixie' we start at 1 PM.  At the attached poster you can see what kind of songs we perform for you. 
Two picture of the show.

SATURDAY
CHOCOLATE PARTY at T.R.A.C.S
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is perhaps Roald Dahl’s best-known story. Saturday 13th it is also Roald Dahl's birthday. Only the best chocolate will be served. There is L$2000 to win for best in theme.
I think Willy Wonka was favorite at our party but all the guest did a great job to come in theme
Willy Wonka is a character in Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, its sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and the film adaptations of these books that followed. The book and the film adaptations both vividly depict an odd Wonka, a phoenix-like man arising from his creative and eccentric genius. He bewilders the other characters with his antics, but Charlie enjoys Wonka's behavior. In the 2005 film adaptation, Willy Wonka's behavior is viewed more as a sympathetic character flaw. Wonka's reasons for giving away his fabulous factory are never revealed in the books, but in the 1971 film adaptation, Wonka tells Charlie he "can't live forever", so he wanted to find a sweet child he could trust his candy making secrets to.
Here are my snapshots!
DJ ZEE
SUNDAY
Group Notice From: Sweetgrass Sim Group by Ganymede Gynoid
Sweetgrass celebrated the start of the new university year with a great party where alumni, students and staff danced together on DJ Rik's excellent set. I suppose many of them slept the whole next day, suffering from a hangover... but it was worth it! The contest is won by Christo, Matthias, Brice, Joeh and Akira, congrats boys!
You can see all pictures at "http://sweetgrassparties.weebly.com/index.html ". Press Play at the left top to start. Picture are made by Gany