Gaia Community: Alison Mackie's Blog

THAT WHICH IS GYPSY

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:23:22 GMT

That which is Gypsy
is found in the surge of the blood
and in the grooves of the hands.

Lo gitano
va en la masa de la sangre
y en las rayas de las manos.

Solea/Traditional

Tags: gypsy blood, the gypsy chronicles

Don Pohren's take: System of Commercializing the Artist

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Tue, 26 May 2009 14:45:53 GMT

La Chunga is a distressing example...She was magnificent. She knew no footwork, and consequently danced barefoot. Her costumes were simple gypsy skirts and blouses. She did not dance by arrangements, but improvised as her moods demanded. Her outstanding assets, and those most difficult to find in a dancer, were the beauty and grace of her arms and hands, the suppleness of her movements, the authenticity of her facial expressions, her naivete, her complete abandonment to her duende and above all her naturalness. There were pressures on her and her manager at the time, propagated by envious artists, and businessmen mistakenly attempting to increase her commerciality...I did not have an opportunity to see her again until 1960...Through contact with commercial flamenco she had lost much of her authenticity...worst of all, she was no longer natural. Her movements and facial expressions were studied...she did tricks with her dress, hair and body, and exploited her sex appeal, mostly in a cheap, superficial manner...She did an excessive amount of footwork...She was no longer sure of herself...From one of the most moving dancers I have seen, the "System" may possibly succeed in making her just another night club attraction.

Tags: La Chunga, The gypsy chronicles, don pohren

Lola's Luck: My Life Among the California Gypsies by Carol Miller

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:16:07 GMT

Gypsies in America are hidden. With estimates between fifty thousand and more than a million, the Gypsy population is as mysterious as their ways, and misinformation keeps them outside the mainstream. With unprecedented vividness, Lola's Luck peers behind the curtain to find the authentic story of an extraordinary woman, "expert advisor on love, business and marriage." Her colorful story reveals how Gypsies live and how they struggle to maintain traditional ways in a modern world.

As a young graduate student in anthropology, Carol Miller predicted a future of scholarly publications. When she began to study the Machvaia (mach wee'ah) Gypsies in Seattle and along the west coast of America, she never expected to be drawn deeply into the culture and befriended by a Queen. Immersed in this riotous world, the American's heart stood no chance against the passion of a married Gypsy man. Soon, their frenzied and potentially ruinous affair overwhelmed them both. Initially wanting to study ritual and kinship, the scientist ended up studying the heart.

In the end, it is Lola's life, "The story of the world!" that dominates the book. Hand on hip, heart as big as the widest space, a Gypsy, yes, and a Queen.

Click to read inside the book at AMAZON http://www.amazon.com/Lolas-Luck-Among-California-Gypsies/dp/193484800X

Tags: Carol Miller, Lola's Luck, California Gypsies, The Gypsy Chronicles, alison mackie

Manuel and Titi : The stories her hips have told!

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:21:09 GMT

These are not the sexy hips of Shakira but the earthy folksy and absolutely WONDERFUL hips of an older Flamenca! Watch...all the way through...and be prepared to fall in love with this classic film footage!

Manuel el Titi

Tags:

Favorite passages from Jan Yoors "The Gypsies"

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:48:37 GMT

Jan Yoors The Gypsies

"The Gypsies" by Jan Yoors tells the story of the author who, at the age of 12, ran away from his privileged and cultured Belgian family to join a Kumpagnia of traveling Gypsies....My copy of this wonderful book is falling apart for all my love. When I read it, I am aware that I hold in my hands an entire world. Many passages are highlighted and in the margins, stars and exclamation points..The pages are no longer affixed to the binding and some of them fall out when turned...I think I will order a new copy after posting this blog:

Little Mozol sat in the corner of the compartment facing forward and
nearest the corridor. Her eyes were closed, her head leaning back, and
she breathed gently. Her hands, demurely folded, rested in her lap and
she looked touchingly young and pure. There was a slight fullness in
the way the ample faded lilac skirt and the low cut yellow blouse were
draped around the well rounded but still slender shape of her young
body, which I had never noticed before. Somehow it was the first time I
had ever paid any attention to her at all, even though we lived side by
side in the same kumpania. In her colorful if ragged and faded dress
she struck me incongrously as a tender Gypsy Madonna, as seen in a
dream.

She sat squeezed in by a generous-looking, middle aged woman, who could
have been a small shopkeeper's wife. She kept staring with pity at
Mozol and alternately delivered heated, disapproving comments to Tshaya
who sat squarely opposite, patient and unconcerned. With insistent
Romany courtesy Tshaya gave her seat to Bidshika and joined us outside
in the corridor to smoke an elegant , gold tipped Turkish cigarette she
had begged from one of our fellow passengers. Once in a while I looked
in our compartment, finding it hard to resist staring at sweet little
Mozol. Both she and Bidshika sat back with their eyes closed, obviously
to avoid conversation with the Gaje. They had not moved in more than
half an hour.

Then, with her eyes still shut, Mozol gently but persistently started
scratching herself. At first with great modesty and restraint she
rubbed her knee through the many ample skirts; then after a pause she
scratched the back of her slender neck; then again, reaching inside the
loose fitting blouse, she scratched her bare right shoulder. When the
middle aged woman sitting next to her moved away, apprehensive about
the scratching, I began to understand. After a period of more subdued
scratching, the woman, by now purple faced and angry, finally got up,
cast a last look at the little Gypsy girl, and left her seat, taking
her luggage with her. She didn't return.

We all sat merrily together . The suggestive scratching had ceased and
there were no Gaje left among us. Not suspecting the ruse, they had
fled before the implications of vermin.

---------------

The members of the bride's family kissed her, and they wept together as they symbolically unbraided her hair. They put a white satin shiftlike dress over the red one she was wearing on this day - the one exception to the rule that red was never worn by an honest Gypsy woman. A group of playful young relatives of both the groom and the bride had gathered in the open space between the wagons hiding the two protagonists in thir midst. They were going to enact a scene of abduction. For, even though the parents had agreed upon the marriage and paid the bridal price and the uynion had been celebrated with a festive meal, the bride still had to surrender ot her new husband.
     The bride's champions, all unmarried youths, linking arms, stood as a protective wall before her. In the descending darkness there were some good humored exuberant skirmishes, until the groom's side either forced its way through the barrier or tricked the others to make it possible for the groom to kidnap his bride. Paprika screamed and wept and violently thrashed her head from side to side. Unalarmed, Yayal took her away and they disappeared in the night. Fifika also fought with violence. She whimpered and tore her hair. But by temperament she was less wild than her new sister-in-law.
A short distance away near Butsulo's wagon a similar scene was presumably taking place, but he harsh piercing lament we heard from that direction hardly sounded like Tsuritsa acting out the tragicomedy ordained by the tradition of the Lowara...When we approached the spot, we witnessed a wild free-for-all that nobody could have anticipated.In the half-dark a handful of young men were trying to disentangle three youths fighting in a blind frenzy.
     We were told that Tsinoro's son had halffheartedly pretended to abduct the bride, who appeared more willing to go than was proper for a virgin. She had sighed to convey alarm, but those present claimed it was almost a sigh of pleasure. Upon which her younger brother, Fonso, took offense, deeply resenting the dishonor brought by her on their family. He had seized a horsewhip - some said he had carried it with him all along - and thrashed her. The groom and his brother had vainly tried to protect her, but nonetheless she had been marked on the face and hands. She sobbed hysterically.
     The Rom went back to the inn and drank the rest of the night.
     The following morning, after the display of the bridal bed linen, the mother-in-law assisted the bride in knotting her kerchief after the fashion of the married women. She would never again be without it. Malicious gossip would have it that so and so had taken a pigeon along on her bridal night; for it was necessary that there should be blood for all to see as proof of virginity.
     As there had been no wooing, so there would be no honeymoon. After their marriage the groom's life went on much as before, except that he mingled more with the married men and less with the boys. He remained within his family and with the kumpania in which he had grown up. Whereas in this way the men were all related by kinship ties, a bride left her group to join her husband's, with the result that the married women were all strangers to the group into which they had been brought by marriage. The new bride was taken in charge by her mother-in-law and by her sisters-in-law who had gone through the same experience before her. Some girls said, with uncharacteristic pessimism, that Tsuritsa's marriage only meant "a new set of harness sores."

-----------------------------------

His few personal belongings had been burned. The Gypsies did not believe in keeping anything that had in any way been connected with a deceased person.
At the time the coffin had been ordered from the village carpenter, the Rom had taken the measure for it with a length of "Romany String" This was a narrow piece of cloth, roughly one to one and a half inches wide, ripped lengthwise froma piece of flowery cotton and left unhemmed. The Rom had insisted on taking the measure in their own traditional way, over the protest of the carpenter who had brought his own tape measure in centimeters. Afterward the long, homemade ribbon was cut into short pieces three to six inches long. Each was tied individually in a simple knot. These were possessed of great magical potency and were given to close relatives of the deceased. These bits of magical ribbon were called mulengi dori, or dead man's string. ....
--------------

Little Mozol sat in the corner of the compartment facing forward and nearest the corridor. Her eyes were closed, her head leaning back, and she breathed gently. Her hands, demurely folded, rested in her lap and she looked touchingly young and pure. There was a slight fullness in the way the ample faded lilac skirt and the low cut yellow blouse were draped around the well rounded but still slender shape of her young body, which I had never noticed before. Somehow it was the first time I had ever paid any attention to her at all, even though we lived side by side in the same kumpania. In her colorful if ragged and faded dress she struck me incongrously as a tender Gypsy Madonna, as seen in a dream.
She sat squeezed in by a generous-looking, middle aged woman, who could have been a small shopkeeper's wife. She kept staring with pity at Mozol and alternately delivered heated, disapproving comments to Tshaya who sat squarely opposite, patient and unconcerned. With insistent Romany courtesy Tshaya gave her seat to Bidshika and joined us outside in the corridor to smoke an elegant , gold tipped Turkish cigarette she had begged from one of our fellow passengers. Once in a while I looked in our compartment, finding it hard to resist staring at sweet little Mozol. Both she and Bidshika sat back with their eyes closed, obviously to avoid conversation with the Gaje. They had not moved in more than half an hour.

Then, with her eyes still shut, Mozol gently but persistently started scratching herself. At first with great modesty and restraint she rubbed her knee through the many ample skirts; then after a pause she scratched the back of her slender neck; then again, reaching inside the loose fitting blouse, she scratched her bare right shoulder. When the middle aged woman sitting next to her moved away, apprehensive about the scratching, I began to understand. After a period of more subdued scratching, the woman, by now purple faced and angry, finally got up, cast a last look at the little Gypsy girl, and left her seat, taking her luggage with her. She didn't return.
We all sat merrily together . The suggestive scratching had ceased and there were no Gaje left among us. Not suspecting the ruse, they had fled before the implications of vermin.
Jan Yoors
The Gypsies

Jan Yoors The Gypsies

Tags: Jan Yoors, The Gypsies, excerpt

Our Lady of Macarena

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:15:24 GMT

Gitana Madonna Painting

In Spain, so very Catholic, there is a great and powerful love for Our Lady. During Holy Week in Seville homeage is payed to La Macarena, Our Hope. She is known to all as the most beautiful Virgin of Seville and of Spain. I painted Gitana Madaonna above.

Virgin of Macarena,
the moon's reflection
shines on your dark little face.
There is no face like your face
nor sorrow like your sorrow.

Virgen de la Macarena
reflejo de luna clara
da en tu carita morena.
No hay cara como tu cara
ni pena como tu pena.

Saeta/Traditionally sung to the Virgin Mary and Crucified Christ during Holy Week in Sevilla

semana santa sevilla

Tags: our lady of macarena, the gypsy chronicles, gypsy, gitana, gitana madonna, flamenco, spain

GYPSY CINEMA! ENJOY!

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:53:32 GMT

http://alisonmackie.com/Gypsy_Cinema.aspx

Welcome to Gypsy Cinema. I made it for you who love the Gypsy Music and Film!

A great selection of Gypsy film to enjoy!

Tony Gatlif's Vengo, Latcho Drom, Gadjo Dilo, Transylvania...Also Ljiljana Buttler, Estrella Morente, Carmen Amaya and more...Enjoy my

GYPSY CINEMA

If you like Gypsy music and Cinema you will certainly want to bookmark this special page to your favorites! New Films coming soon!

Tags: Latcho Drom, Gadjo Dilo, Transylvania, Ljiljana Buttler, Estrella Morente, Carmen Amaya, The Gypsy Chronicles, Alison Mackie

Train Stop in Hungary:

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:11:31 GMT

Some passing thoughts about Gypsy music.
Because Gypsies are without a country to call their own, they are well versed in transforming the music of their host country and making it their own.
When one is transforming an element, one is at the same time creating a secondary energy. In transforming music, the Gypsy musician is imprinting the trademark of Gypsy soul into the sounds...creating Gypsy energy.
The ability to create sensation in the listener's heart is key to Gypsy music.
Of course, All music is essentially about creating sensation. But Gypsy music, more so. Otherwise, there is no point.
And so, the measure of a Gypsy musician's ability is gauged by one's ability to make the listener weep, laugh, to shout outloud with arms waving high. Technical ability is important, but with out the ability to create sensation, meaningless.

From Gatlif's Latcho Drom...A Train Stop in Hungary...
If you want music, pay the musician!
How well the little boy knows the truth of this old saying.

Latcho Drom (A Train Stop in Hungary)

Tags: tony gatlif, the gypsy chronicles. gypsy music

Miss Roma International Pagaents

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:50:40 GMT

The first Miss Roma International was held in Sofia, Monday, Jan. 15, 2007 and was protested in Macedonia by the Serbian Roma Women Network and the International Roma Women's Network. Letters of protest against Miss Roma International can be read online *here and another one here

The protest, although successful raising awareness, did not hinder a second Miss Roma International contest and 12 girls from Croatia, Monte Negro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Albania and Macedonia a new Roma beauty Queen was chosen.- The 2008 pagaent is well documented here.

Tags: Beauty Pagaents, Roma, Gypsy

Tabloid Press, Stereotypes & Gypsies

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:20:49 GMT

Gypsy : The New Black? (Inside Out London, BBC1) - 2008

While living in the UK I could not but notice the despicable
way of the tabloid press - they fanned the flames of hatred
and prejudice against the Gypsy people.
This video provides a more balanced view overall.

Tags: Gypsies, Tabloid Press, Stereotypes

Seguiriya / Seguirilla

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:13:04 GMT

Lorca wrote: The Gypsy Seguiriya starts with a terrible shout -
a shout that divides the scenery in two equal hemispheres...
next the voice stops to let in an impressive silence.
The sequiriya burns the throat and the tongue of those
who sing it, and is used as a tonic to express fury.

Here in Tony Gatlif's classic film Latcho Drom,
La Caita performs a seguiriya - expressing powerful feelings...

Latcho Drom, La Ca?ta, "El p?jaro negro"

You Tube Notes: La Caíta, standing on a hillside overlooking new housing,
a place where she will probably never live.
She sings a heartbreaking song, The Blackbird,
that will resonate with the poor, the disenfranchised,
the persecuted, or anyone who has
been on the outside looking in. ¡Qué tristeza!

Tags: Lorca, Seguirilla, Gatlif, La Caita, the gypsy chronicles

Madonna es Gypsy!

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:57:43 GMT

Madonna Kolpakov Ensemble&E

Every twenty five or fifty years Gypsy music becomes 'fashionable' again...

And when Madonna takes an interest in Gypsy music
it would seem to follow that many more in America will also.
I posted this picture in a blog on Myspace and the response
from younger American women to Madonna's Gypsy style reminded me
(in a different way but similar) to the way American women a generation
older took to Stevie Nicks who although did not perform with Gypsy musicians
like Madonna, sang a song about Gypsies, wore some Gypsy clothes,
and somehow in the process came to represent "Gypsy" for a great many in
America.

...Does it matter that neither woman is in posession of Gypsy DNA?
Not at all. It would seem that the symbolism is powerful enough on its own
, for some. There was a telling and great excitement surroun
ding this image...which I found on Vadim Kolpakov's very interesting and content rich website.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Muro Shavo the original gipsy song..

MURO SHAVO....

I was playing the famous Gypsy song, Muro Shavo, on the stereo one day.
Loud!
The windows were open wide and so the sounds met with the ears of my neighbor, who worked in his garden.
Well!
Next thing I knew there was a loud rapping upon my door.
I opened it. It was my neighbor, spade in hand.
"What is that music you are playing?!" He demanded.
"Oh, is it too loud? I will turn it down for you happily," said I.
He shook his head, "No don't turn it down! What is it?"
And he smiiiiled.
I had never before seen this man smile. Ever!
"Its Gypsy music! You like?"
"I love!" He cried. "I've never before heard anything like it!"
You have to understand that his son had died in auto accident a few years before, and since that time, he had been walking around like a dead man.
But, when he heard the muscular and cheerful strains of Muro Shavo, the sounds traveled a straight path to his heart, piercing it, and creating within him a pleasurable rattling of joy, reminding him of the great beauty of life!
The power of Muro Shavo made part the clouds and a great light filled his spirit. He was alive! Muro Shavo!

Tags: madonna, Gypsy, eugene hutz, gogol bordello, vadim kolpakov

Roma Recyclers

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:51:13 GMT

Pretty Dyana - A Gypsy recycling saga

Tags: Roma Refugees outside of Belgrade, Recycling Citroen, Pretty Dyana, REcycle

Gypsy Therapy

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:09:03 GMT

Gypsy music travels straight to the heart of your matter.
Like siberian ginseng for the soul Gypsy music is.
Oppa!!!.

Homenaje a Carmen Amaya

Ko to tamo peva

Gypsy Songs

Latcho Drom Espa?a Flamenco 1

Shukar Collective - Malademna

Tags: Carmen Amaya Like here there was no other

Book Trailer: The Gypsy Chronicles

http://alimojo.gaia.com — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:21:00 GMT

Book Excerpt: The Gypsy Chronicles, by Alison Mackie

Tags: