A list of music related movies and documentaries I watched and liked. Random picks, just to start somewhere. More to come as I remember them.
Documentaries Genres and Subcultures
Celebration of Parang: Nice documentary on Parang, the christmas music of Trinidad.(koffi.club)
Gwoka : l'âme de la Guadeloupe: (koffi.club)
A taste of chocolate: on Washington GoGo music (koffi.club)
Documentaries Artists
Brass on fire (2002): on the Romanian gypsy brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia (imdb)
Calypso Rose the lioness of the jungle (koffi.club)
Finding Fela (koffi.club)
Kassav, Une épopée antillaise. On the Caribbean supergroup Kassav (FR) (koffi.club)
Searching for Sugar Man (2012): searching for the legendary rock musician Rodriguez from Detroit, who happened to be famous in South Africa (imdb)
Straight outa Compton (2015): on the rap group NWA. (imdb)
Documentaries Misc / Culture
No bois man nah fraid: on Trinidadian kalinda stick fighting (koffi.club)
Swing Kids (1993): Swing-loving youths during Nazi Germany (imdb)
The other side of Carnival: on Trinidad Carnival (koffi.club)
The Yardies (1994): Jamaican trade in crack and cocaine from Kingston to Miami (koffi.club)
Carnival in Trinidad (1973) (koffi.club)
Movies
Blues Brothers (1980): Probably best movie ever made. (imdb)
Dancehall Queen (1997): Jamaican cult movie on a single mom and street vendor becoming dancehall queen. (imdb)
Green Room (2015): punk band stuck somewhere in the woods, threadened by nazi skinheads. (imdb)
Lords of Chaos (2018): Great movie on the Norwegian Black Metal scene and it’s violent outbreak. (imdb)
Pink Floyd - The wall (1982): dark movie on the live of rockstar. (imdb)
Ray (2004): The story of the life and career of the blind musician Ray Charles. (imdb)
Shottas (2002): Jamaican ganger movie feat. many dancehall artists (imdb)
The Harder They Come (1972): Jamaican cult movie on a young reggae singer (imdb)
This is England (2006): A gang of young skinheads in the summer of 1983 (imdb)
Whiplash (2014): “A promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.” (imdb)
Big tune by Skinny Fabulous, Machel Montano and Iwer George - Conch Shell. Hommage to the most outstanding music instrument in Caribbean Carnival, the conch shell. Video shot in the Gasparee Caves, Trinidad.
Nice documentation on Parang, the christmas music of Trinidad. Parang came to Trinidad from Venezuela with a work migration where the workers brought Venezuelan Parranda music and their instruments like the Cuatro.
Nowadays you find contemporary flavors in English side by side with traditional Spanish songs. And if you ask me, there’s nothing like a Parang party in Trinidad when the syncopated beat of a tok-tok mix with Spanish verses and the egg nogg in your cup.
The CropOver festival in Barbados is done, over and out for 2018.
As the years before my music label Faluma releases the compilation from Reddhead Studio in Bridgetown (Barbados), packed with countless Soca and Calypso tunes. Including the Pic-O-De-Crop winning tunes “Sexual Harassment” and “Stars & Stripes” by Mr. Blood. Also on the compilation is the Soca smasher “Stomp” feat. Mr Bood and iWeb, as performed on Party Monarch competition.
Recently I had the opportunity to interview the reggae artist and musician ILUV aka Matthew Parris at our Faluma office in Berlin. His latest single “You don’t know it” was released earlier this year on Faluma. A new single is in the making.
Faluma, our music label dedicated to the music of the Caribbean Carnivals, releases another Soca compilation: “In Alphabetical Order” is packed with music from this year’s CropOver in Barbados.
Available on all major music stores and streaming services.
How many cars are in NY? How many hairs are on your head? How many pizza are eaten by 20 year olds in Berlin? How many..
All these questions have in common that you have to estimate a large number with very little data. In science this is called a Fermi Problem. Using Fermi Problems is very popular in job interviews in the Tech scene. Nevertheless, they’re fun to train you analytical and estimation skills. Check out this list of some Fermi quizzes.
Yes, we all know that we should use long passwords and change them frequently. This is exactly what I’m doing.. except for one account I used in work environment for many years but kinda forgot about it. And so it happened: Somebody hacked the account or found the password in a leak and send a spam link to my contact list. Not much damage, but still..
Learning: beside the usual tips this is also recommended:
Delete unused accounts. They still can do damage in your name, even if you ignore them.
Turn on Two-Factor Authentication! It's simple stupid.
Get a Yubikey or similar which supports U2F/OTP/HOTP and more.
Just released on my music label Faluma: a new #AfroHouse slammer with artists from three countries. Lady May (from Namibia) longside Dr Sid (Nigeria) and Pex Africah (South Africa).
New DJ-Mix available: another special dedicated to AfroHouse music, mainly from South Africa and Angola.
Also available here: http://www.hulkshare.com/mflx/marflix-riddimstropicale38-afrohouse
Various Artist - Abracadabra - The Magic of Crop Over
Annual Carnival / Cropover sampler by Barbados’ own Anderson Armstrong aka Blood. As always expect a lineup with the top artistes from Barbados: besides Blood it features Mickey and Soka Kartel, Peter Ram, Smokey Burke, Verseewild, D2 and many more.
Release: 2015/12/04 (Cat.No. fd250) - itunes - spotify
Scrappy - X
London’s own Scrappy representing a vivid European Soca scene releases his 10th album (all available via Faluma) for the 2016 Carnival season.Release: 2016/01/08 (Cat.No. fd251)
Lady May - African Bad Boy (Single)
New release by the Namibian superstar Lady May after her bike accident.
Release: 2016/01/15 (Cat.No fa016)
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