Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

tucson.com Jobs. Cars. Real Estate Apartments. Shopping Classifieds . Obituaries Dating AZNIGHTBUZZ RADIO CALIENTE On Screen Spotlight Good Eats Get Out The List Search blogs HOME CALENDAR WEBLOGS ARTICLES LOCAL MUSIC NIGHTLIFE RADIO VIDEO EVENTS MERCH ABOUT US Adrienne Lake is an LA music biz refugee often described as a "fiery redhead" who has found solace among the tumbleweeds and dive bars in the dusty burg of Tucson. Come fly with her as the monkey on Download a PDF of this week's Caliente cover Sin Machine THE VISITOR TUCSONFILM.COM SHORTFEST 2007 Subbacultcha. her back becomes rabid, surly and overled. 2007-03-15 Adrienne Lake SXSW, Deep in the heart of Texas, Part 1 - Old School: Gilberto Gil, Pete Townshend, Donovan Déjà vu- the first day of SXSW was gray and misty, just like last year. Nevertheless, it was a relief to see Austin's cloudy skies after having fought our way through a torrential hailstorm that felt like we were in a tiny tank being pummeled by rounds of artillery. After checking in, I attended a panel titled, "Crash Course #5: Press and Publicity" and we took our seats as Tucson's Craig Schumacher (of Wavelab Studios) was wrapping up his panel, "Crash Course #4: Recording." The publicity panel's three speakers spoke briefly about the basics of music publicity and took questions. The most intriguing tidbits were stories about the Ronettes' Ronnie Spector, who hasn't been working in her own best interest when she speaks unfavorably about husband Phil Spector (yes, the one on trial for murder). We also heard about the gross mistruths that had been printed about her from respected magazines/papers (such as she is currently "playing medleys of her hits at Indian casinos"). We then ducked in on the last 15 minutes of legendary Brazilian musician and politician Gilberto Gil and immediately wished we had been there from the beginning. He was a passionate, wise and larger-than-life speaker whose topics ranged from political, historical (the importance of black heritage in Brazil and the abolition of slavery), and philosophical (he said, "You don't lose your light by lighting your neighbors candle"). He spoke at length about intellectual property rights and how people are deprived with the way they are currently handled. Catching the tail end of his talk seemed like getting half a taste before the spoon was taken away. You can't win them all, but we did with the next panel, which was SXSW keynote speaker, Pete - Townshend. Townshend, the immortal guitar player for the who, was probably one of the most engaging and dynamic speakers I have ever seen. His words were well thought out, yet he came across as incredibly down to earth and in touch with his roots. His talk, which seemed to fly by, was crammed with inspirational sound bites and clever witticisms. He spilled some dirt about his time with the Who and compared their attitude and approach to music to bands today. Townshend also expanded on the history and politics that gave birth to his iconic band and contrasted that with the anger he sees in bands of the younger generation. There were stories about the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed, and an amusing description of the chemistry he has Zack having to look at Townshend's "saggy ass" from the drum kit. Fear not, notes were taken on the aforementioned sound bites and they will come at a later time, because time constraints require that we fast forward to the performance of the quirky, '60s pop mystic Donovan. Tucsonan publicist Carl Hanni and I couldn't believe we were reading right when we saw the name "Donovan" on the list of early Wednesday night shows. But we hoofed it over to a beautiful old downtown church and scrambled to find seats on the hard, wooden pews in the balcony Sure enough, the elfin Donovan appeared from stage left, bright green acoustic guitar in hand and smiling, launched right into an enrapturing set of his greatest hits peppered with some newbies. His voice was stronger for some songs than others, as was his guitar playing, but all in all, it was a spellbinding performance for multiple reasons. First of all, he couldn't have performed in a more appropriate venue or for a more appreciative audience, who clapped and sang along willingly at request. His in-between song banter was odd, entertaining, sometimes mystical in nature and often downright kooky. But it was sincere, as evidenced by the huge, sweet grin on Donovan's face. Sometimes he was funny on purpose (like when he said he told a reporter, "I'm not selling out, I'm selling in." when the topic of licensing his songs for Need a vehicle Wat meets the demanas of your ite? cars.com Find the right car for you