Duran Duran in my life

I have to admit it: I´ve been loving English music form most of my life. I still remember when I visited some of my mum´s cousins (I was seven or eight, like my daughter). They had a room all covered with 70´s posters  and loads of LPs put away in special boxes. In that room my brother and I listened for the first time to groups like Queen, Supertramp, Yes, Marillion, Chicago, Rolling Stones... My cousins talked about the songs and sometimes they made us hear a bass, a guitar solo, a hoarse-harsh voice... That place was magic for me: at the same time, my ear got used to the English, pop music became my favourite.

When I was growing up, I had my own criteria. The "Movida Madrileña" began in the 80s. Miguel Ríos had a successful tour and even the Canarian group "Palmera" had some singles that were heard all the time. I remember that I wanted to go to concerts, as if I was an adult. I was lucky that my mum had the correct judgemente and she didn´t let me go (I was 12)... It wasn´t the right time.

When I had to go to High School I heard a song that I loved: "The reflex". I found out which group played it and that´s how I knew Duran Duran. I bought the single right away: I still keep it. In the cover you can see a photo of those five Birmingham guys with a very 80s look, in agreement with their tag: new romantics. I felt in love with them and their music in a minute. They began to be part of my life... and my family´s as well, dizzy of hearing the songs once and once again... Ups, I think that my daughter has inherited that vice: I shouldn´t be so mad at her. Anyway, I think I´m responsible for the creation of such a similar creature to me in that sense.

In High School I met a girl of my age that also liked the music of this just discovered by me: This made us feel closer. One day I met her cousin, two years younger: from that time she has played my best friend´s role. Each one of us chose the favourite one in the band: my colleague chose John Taylor; my friend, Nick Rhodes and I Simon Le Bon (Hey, you can dream: it´s free and it doesn´t harm anyone, isn´t it?). This time of my life can be described as the most fanatic one... We couldn´t be blamed for: we were 12-16 year-old girls. I still remember to cover those boring, blue folders with photos of actors, singers but, above all, Duran Duran member... And I also laminated them! They were works of art... I think I have any of them lost at my parent´s home still... or in a box at the entrance of my small flat that I need to classify yet...

The first LP that I got was "Seven and the ragged tiger". Then,  "Duran Duran" y "Río" followed, discovering years later some songs that were a success in anglosaxon speaking countries. I also keep at my parent´s home the live LP "Arena"... Ah, and the single "A view to a kill", a song made for James Bond´s movie of the same name.

The time passes, this fanatism went away and a sane admiration for them and their music arrived. It was the time when Roger Taylor (drums) had to leave the band for medical reasons and took care of his new created family. Andy Taylor (guitar) had some differences with the rest of the band, so the fab five became a trio. That´s when of "Notorious", an LP with more mature music and  "Big Thing", at the end of the 80s. Before there were two bands that were created from the five original members: "The Power Station", with Andy and John Taylor and "Arcadia", with Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor (before his retirement). I personally liked the Arcadia approach: I suppose because of my romantic side made an influence in me to have this point of view.

Time flew and I was doing my University Career. Duran Duran wasn´t heard on the radio and wasn´t seen on Spanish TV, so I suppose that this project either was abandoned or they didn´t released a successful album. I didn´t forget them and I still kept my LPs No me olvidé de ellos y seguía conservando mis LPs like a treasures, hearing them once in a while.

Suddenly, some of their songs were heard: "Ordinary World" and "Come undone". Music and lirics were similar to them but much more matured. I was impressed that their music touched me so deeply after a long time of silence.

When I finished my University Career, I decided to go to Germany for a year and then to England. I lived in Warwickshire, a county very close to Birmingham, the city were the band was founded. When I went to the city, I wondered if they used to walk the same streets as I and how the saw it. In my almost four years living in their same country, I hardly knew about them. It was the time of the launching of  "The Wedding Album", "Meddazaland" and "Thank you", where the song  "Perfect day", Lou Reed´s original song. If they were on TV or some of their songs where heard on the radio and never had the opportunity to see or hear them. I studied my second University Career, having just one year left to graduate: nevertheless, I´ve got a diploma... Not bad for someone that hasn´t English as the mother language.

The year 2000 took me back to  Tenerife, where my daughter was born and my newly created family when my baby was less than six months-old. It also coincided with changes in work, so those years were very important in my life. My life changed when my daughter was born. Meanwhile, Duran Duran decided to reunited and the original members launched the album  "Astronaut". For me, all their songs are very good. I can hear them at home, in the car and even hum them while I walk Venus and I am the happiest woman on earth...

After the fab five ephemeral reunion, Duran Duran and Andy Taylor can´t overcome their differences and split up. After that, the album  "Red Carpet Massacre" was released, which included the song "Falling down", co-written with  Justin Timberlake (another group´s fan) or "Skin divers", co-written with Timbaland. It´s an album that needs more exploration by me.

A month ago they published their latest album. The only song that I´ve been able to hear "All you need is now" complete, the one with the same title as the album. It sounds like "Rio", in 1982 (according to the critics and myself). They still have the fresh sound than the 80´s, even when they are "oldies", as my partner calls them.

I just knew about them thanks to the new technologies: starting by Facebook, going on to Twitter,  ITunes, Youtube... They belong to the few bands that have constant news´ updates: They have always been avant-garde in this sense and take advantage of what Internet offers them. I think they have to thank new technologies for making their fans follow their adventure... And it also seems that new technologies were thought so they can exploit them... I would do whatever to have this innovations when I was 14 - 15 years-old!

I have to thank a lot to these "oldies":

- Learn English, written and spoken... I did it liking it.

- Their music gave moments of joy, of dancing and singing.

- I´ve met wonderful people through them.

- I haven´t given up in my worst moments: They haven´t and were an example to me.

- I have a positive message for any precise moment.

- ... And so many other things!

The other day I inspired myself this article while I was hearing them o my MP4 walking Venus: I looked at the sky and I said to myself that Duran Duran has influenced me in many aspects of my life but, above all, they have always cheered me up in my good and bad moments. I´ve always heard and understood the lyrics and inspired me to make me feel better. There´s a part of the song "(reach up for the) Sunrise" that made me feel good about the actual situation I´m living:

Only change will bring you out of the darkness

In this moment everything is born again

I hope to get out of the darkness through chance, when everything reborns... And I hope this year will be the one that I will go to see them playing with my best friend!

(First published on http://maritza-gonzalez.blogspot.com on January 7th 2011)

Superguanajas

Before I start, I have to explain the meaning of this adopted Canarian word: "guanajo/a". It comes from the arahuaco language and it´s used in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. It designates contemptuously a silly and/or stupid  person*... Pronounce it like this: "supawanahas"...

This Sunday I finally felt down: it´s not easy to assimilate that you are going to be without a job and you have to look for another one in no time. You feel guilty because you think you are responsible of many matters at the same time and you want the people that surrounds you to be happy... and you believe (with no scientific explanation at all) that you take all the merits. Normally this weight on my shoulders is not a problem but it seems that my body needed to say "Enough is enough!" and I had to cry to relieve tension. Yes, I am a woman after all: when I finished crying, even when I didn´t have a solution to my problem, I felt relieved. I know that men do not understand this reasoning, which has no reason at all, but I reccommend you to do what my partner did: he just held me in his arms. We do not need anymore (Damn! I should have made you pay for this piece of advice!)

Yesterday afternoon I laid down on the couch watching realities. In one of them you can be witness of the birth of a baby and what surrounds it. One of the cases I saw was about a couple that already had a two year-old baby and they were expecting their second kid. The father on one side was worrier about his best friend´s stag night than the birth of the baby; the mother on the other side, histeric, weighing up everything, with unhealthy remorse, because she felt she wasn´t doing things as well as she would like to. Her guilt made me feel sorry for her. Finally, we have the typical end: the mother tied up with both babies (thank God her mum was not as histeric as she was and she helped her out); The father went to the stag night one day after his second and last baby was born but only had a beer and came back early home. In the end, the father toed the line and colaborated with her: he took care of the two year-old baby so she could go to the gymn to get fit. When the programme finished, I was exhausted.

I decided to take Venus for a walk, trying to stop thinking about all I have to do to be a superwoman: the house, my daughter´s school, pay my debts, work, look for a job, recycle myself, learn new things, do exercise, make myself up, be a good cook, be a good citizen, good manager, good friend, good lover, good daughter, good mother, good pack leader... I took my new MP4 and I heard my all-time favourite band´s music (Duran Duran), went out and cleared my head a bit. I could do it and I was happy for a moment: I needed nothing else.

I saw a friend of mine during my walk. Last week she was sick and she didn´t think about going back to work yet, even when she is self-employed and this is one of the best seasons for her job (all of us spend what we don´t have on Christmas time). When I sat down with her she explained me she has suffered from ansiety´s attacks because all she had to get out in her daily life: house, husband, daughter, job... Many women don´t know how to explode by crying and she´s one of them. Luckily I can. She needed to have acupuncture done on her.

At the end, we agreed that today´s women have a strong pressure to be a superwoman: a woman that is successful in all aspects of her life... When we were saying goodbye, she declared this statement: "We are not Superwomen but Superguanajas!". I guess I don´t have to explain the meaning of this word right now.

There are women that think the best situation is to stay at home and wait for the men to bring the money. The complications are not many and you don´t have the responsibility of all the spendings on top of your head... The only thing you have to worry about is to take care of the rest of the family, to be a good cook, mum, wife, friend, lover, household manager, stunning, take care of yourself, have the house tidy and clean... It´s not too much, isn´t it?

If you ask me, I don´t want to renounce to my work career. I come from a family full of fighter, brave and hard-working women. I couldn´t be at home, when I can develop other aspects of my personality in a job. I bought the  idea of a more fulfilled woman is the one that also works outside home... The truth is that she is more tied up also!

I didn´t have a New Year´s good intention but this is going to be one of them: I will stop being a "Superguanaja" trying to be a Superwoman and be a simple mortal, with her defects and obsession. To achieve this good intention I have to let other help me more, I have to learn not to wait for everything to be as I expected, not to be perfectionist with myself, be thankful with what life has given me so far and leaving away those remorse feelings... This only good intention is going to take me a long time, so I´m not promised myself anything else...

*http://www.deperu.com/diccionario/?pal=guanajo

(First published on http://maritza-gonzalez.blogspot.com/ on December 28th 2010)