Jorge Drexler, San Francisco, and California Love

This Wednesday I went to go see one of my favorite cantautores (singer/songwriter) of all time – Uruguayan Jorge Drexler, in San Francisco.

Drexler is an MD (throat and mouth specialist) turned cantautor. He is of Jewish descent – his family moved from Germany to Uruguay to escape the Holocaust. He is well known for his song “Al otro lado del río” from Motorcycle Diaries. He received an Oscar nomination for this song, but because Drexler wasn’t “famous” enough, Carlos Santana and Antonio Banderas were asked to sing his song at the Oscars. The song was performed quite differently (and terribly) from how Drexler performs it. Drexler was displeased and so were many others. So when he won the award, he sang the first verse of the song a capella. It was the first written in a language other than English to win an Academy Award.

“Clavo mi remo en el agua, llevo tu remo en el mio. Creo que he visto una luz, al otro lado del rio…sobre todo creo que, no todo esta perdido, tanta lagrima, tanta lagrima yo, soy un vaso vacio, oigo una voz que me llama, casi un suspiro…rema, rema, rema…rema, rema, rema.”

My best shot at a proper translation: “I stab/peg/stick my row into the water, I carry your row with mine. I think I’ve seen a light on the other side of the river…overall I think that not everything is lost, so many tears, so many tears, I’m an empty glass, I hear a voice calling me, almost a whisper. Row, row, row.

First, I must confess that Mr. Drexler IS in fact one of THE most charming men on the planet, sin duda. Such a smooth, soft voice, and seemingly very sweet and kind man.

Second, J Drexler’s music has been a big part of my life for a while now. When I was 20 years old I took off and left the country for my first time. I went to Perú, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. When I left I had a tiny little phone with me that I could use to text folks at home – the Nokia Express Music. I had a couple albums on the phone – one of them was my favorite J Drexler album –Eco. Listening to this album brings me back to a place of intense personal growth. Being 20, getting out of the U.S. (out of California, out of SANTA CRUZ), seeing so many new things, people. After crossing the border from Peru into Ecuador, I arrived in a town called Loja. From here I separated from my friends that I had been with for about 5 days and headed to Quito by myself. I remember that bus ride so well – listening to this music and getting somewhere, far away, by myself. I also took that phone to the Philippines. I have another specific memory of listening to J Drexler when I was zooming down a river on a small motorboat headed back to where I was based after working with a hunter-gatherer population in Luzon – the Agta. I had been traveling in the Pacific ocean for ~2 hours, about to enter the mouth of a river that I would travel for ~3 hours. I had a rooster on my lap for a couple hours of the ride…which I would later eat for dinner.

Going to big shows is always kind of socially difficult – especially when you are by yourself. Everyone is fighting to be in the front. Fortunately, I was about 3 heads back. Towards the end of the show, I moved a bunch of short Spanish ladies to be in front me and they had a GREAT time.

Some highlights of the show were:

• An improvised song about how NY was SOOO cold, and SF is so warm and nice. HAHA. He sang about walking on Haight St all day and buying 2nd hand clothes.
• One of his new songs, Noctiluca (“glow worm”), is dedicated to his son. Having been raised by a single father is a big part of my identity, so the lyrics of this song always get me, and hearing it live was just a dream.

Noctiluca:

La noche estaba cerrada.

Y las heridas abiertas.

Y yo que iba a ser tu padre buscaba sin encontrarme,

En una playa desierta.

Tenía la edad aquella en que la certeza caduca,

Y de pronto al mirar el mar vi que el mar brillaba con un brillar de noctilucas.

Algo de aquel asombro debió anunciarme que llegarías,

Pues yo desde mis escombros al igual que el mar sentí que fosforecía.

Supe sin entenderlo de tu alegría anticipada,

Un dia entenderás que habla de ti esta canción encandilada.

Brilla noctiluca,

Un punto en el mar oscuro,

Dónde la luz se acurruca.

He played a total of ~15 songs, and all 3 of my favorites J: Polvo de Estrella (based on the poem “el cántico cósmico by Ernesto Cardenal), Mi Guitarra y Vos, and Las Transeuntes.

Polvo de Estrella:

Vale

Una vida lo que un sol

Una vida lo que un sol

Vale

Se aprende en la cuna,

se aprende en la cama,

se aprende en la puerta de un hospital.

Se aprende de golpe,

se aprende de a poco y a veces se aprende recién al final

Toda la gloria es nada

Toda vida es sagrada

Una estrellita de nada

en la periferia

de una galaxia menor.

Una, entre tantos millones

y un grano de polvo girando a su alrededor

No dejaremos huella,

sólo polvo de estrellas.

Vale

Una vida lo que un sol

Una vida lo que un sol

Vale

Se aprende en la escuela,

se olvida en la guerra,

un hijo te vuelve a enseñar.

Está en el espejo,

está en las trincheras, parece que nadie parece notar

Toda victoria es nada

Toda vida es sagrada

Un enjambre de moléculas

puestas de acuerdo

de forma provisional.

Un animal prodigioso

con la delirante obsesión de querer perdurar

No dejaremos huella,

sólo polvo de estrellas.

Las Transeuntes:
Coro---

Y entonces me pregunto

¿Qué es lo que viste en mi?

¿Qué es lo que te hizo abrir así?

Tus miedos, tus piernas, tu calendario,

Las siete puertas sagradas de tu santuario,

La extraña luz de tu cámara oscura,

El infranqueable cerrojo de tu armadura?

I am still feeling so high from the show. It was so amazing to see him live, finally. I feel so thankful to have had the opportunity to do so here in California – I thought I would have to travel far away to be able to see him.

On a similar note, it is certainly a BEAUTIFUL day to be in the city. I took Muni from the Richmond district to Downtown and handled Visa stuff at the Philippine consulate…It’s sunny, folks are happy, and while walking through the Tenderloin I got mostly benign attention (awesome): “nice legs”, “nice legs”, “I’m Earl, can I take you out to breakfast?”, “hey pretty lady”. HA. Good job Tenderloin characters.

It is 65 degrees, California rules, and I feel great about being alive.