AFRIKA

Published on June 17, 2010 in the newspaper DEIA


The World Cup has just started off, the most important sport event in the world. This year held in South Africa, a country full of contrasts and working hard to make his way to the so-called first world. Interestingly, I received an email from a friend who told me that there is a photographic exhibition in Bilbao, called Desvelos, which is exposed outdoors throughout the wide venue walk of Abandoibarra, between the Guggenheim and the Euskalduna. It shows the snapshots of the Cameroon photographer Angèle Etoundi Essamba and was organized by The Africa House, an association that works to promote relations between Africa and the Spanish State. I've seen several of the photographs of the collection and was surprised by its strength, the contrast and elegance. It is a portrait of African women dressed with the controversial issue of the veil, a very stereotypical view in our society. Angèle has sought to go beyond, offering an elegant and sensual vision of it. And thinking about it, something similar happens to me with Africa. We all have a very specific image of the black continent. Safaris, tribes, hunger, disease, poverty, migration and great poverty, but Africa also has many other aspects that are worth knowing. The fauna and flora, the abundance of raw materials and minerals and the enormous variety of human cultural representations that makes this corner a living oasis, working much the same way about how our planet had to operate long ago. Many times we have that image with what they tell us about them but it is essential not to be satisfied with what they tell us. Let's find answers! Africa is the mirror that reflects our past, a disturbing present and hopefully a more promising future. A corner that still, in which they can say whatever they want; you can savor the full essence of life, even in small sips.

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Berriaren bizia

Published in DEIA on June 10, 2010

Ten years ago, right this time, I presented my first website; kepajunkera.com, and I remember the powerful feeling that I felt at seeing it in the cyberspace. Even at that time it was fascinating to me to be able to “pin up” in the virtual world of the Net, a site in which contents were my own. Since then it has rained a lot and even more in the unstoppable and even maddening world of computing and telecommunications. The contents have changed and even on how to approach them and their subsequent treatment. Now and days, what is appearing on stage, among many others, the blogs, social networks all the time revolutionizing the landscape of the Internet, always in constant evolution. Finally the physical gives way, increasingly, to a virtual and the information support conquest different spaces than the real world. Today, the access to it, to music, to images ... reached almost an endless of huge proportions and we wanted with this new version of kepajunkera.com, which was presented this week, making it in the heart of everything published about my music, to be a place to meet and in consultation, both for the follower as the professional who needs constant updates. At the end this type of work are the result of the efforts of many people, that might not appear in the front row, but without whose efforts and dedication none of this would be possible. I want to thank each of you who have participated in this project, Bea, Iñaki and in particularly to Sole Calzada, whose talent and hard dedicated work without asking anything in exchange fills each page and each picture with it. Mila esker denori! (Millions of thanks, to all) And again, this very special feeling, knowing that in a small corner of the immense virtual universe, exist a place where my music, my projects and I can also say that even part of my life, for anyone who wants to share. I’ll be waiting! This goes to the three of you!!


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EASTWOOD

Published in DEIA on June 3, 2010





Few people achieve in their work a new way of doing things. Usually they follow the trail of those who have successfully preceded us, to continue the journey. Like every kid, I loved to play cowboys and Indians, embodied by actors that have marked an era, the Westerns heroes imposing their law, galloping with the blow of a gun and rifle. Among them there was one that always caught my attention. His strength, far from depending on what weapons he had, all was resided in his eyes, in his way in acting and in that false coldness. Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born in San Francisco, California and has just celebrated his 80th birthday, being in top form. He did not have a comfortable beginning and before he began acting in films, he had to work as a lumberjack, bricklayer, pianist, forest firefighter, etc. We all know his films, awards and success he has achieved in his life. But besides the economic and fame treasured by Clint Eastwood, he is a great example of a man seeking to improve and be consistent with himself. Throughout his career being an actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and musician he has gone from being a star of action, to give action to the human feelings and thus showing us the real hero he is, being of flesh and bone, everything done with an amazing genius. As he often says "in life you can not lose time, we must fight for what you love. If you find it, success is guaranteed." There are certain people who, having begun their career in a particular way, overcoming fears and probably driven by new concerns, gives a twist to their career and begins to explore other unknown territories. Clint Eastwood is one of those examples, in which to discover, does not matter the age or circumstances or difficulties. Life is divided into two kinds of people, those who watch and those who do. I bet on the second. You just have to, above all, believe in yourself.

kepajunkera.com

IKUSTEZINA

May 27, 2010

The music or sound occurs because a body vibrates and it is transmitted into the environment. There have been many who have tried to clarify the reasons for why the music and the sounds exercise such power inside of each and everyone of us. How can something so present in our lives be so unknown? For many years, my life has been and is linked to everything that has to do with music and anything that is related to the world of the seven notes and their various combinations awakens my curiosity to an almost endless thirst for knowledge. In ancient times, the music was used to communicate with the gods, and in Greece it was closely linked to the mathematics, specially, thanks to Pythagoras assigns the seven musical notes and talks about the number 7 as the perfect number, calling his attention that the music, as the gods, creates emotion and being invisible, that is, something that cannot be seen but produces visible effects. Today it is known that the music is able to heal both mentally and physically, that each note has its own vibration and that vibration may change a heart rate, creating in us an altered state of consciousness and it can even get us mad. The music is to feel it, embrace it and make it our own so it can become part of us in an exciting adventure into our inner selves. Clearly it is a language, a method of communication but at the same time it is science and art and as such we should take it into consideration when creating a better and advanced society. We can not pass up the opportunity to continue on seeking its knowledge and, above all, its understanding. We must go further on and discover all the richness that lies within that accompanies us daily in our lives in which we take as a common everyday thing. We must evaluate it much more, because it is an important part of ourselves and what surround us.


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JAIALDIA

May 20, 2010

Our backgrounds, our roots, a sense of belonging are an importance in the human being. We all feel the urgent need to belong to something, to feel that we share a common origin and in a similar way to feel and live it. But when the individual, for whatever reason, has to travel far and continue his existence in a different place from where he was born this feeling invades his soul stronger, even forcing him to carry out a series of actions to offset somehow his “hunger” for his roots, his essence. Throughout the past week I’ve been in Boise, Idaho recording, performing and enjoying the party in which it has become for me my stay there. The truth is I’ve been totally amazed at the dedication, love and the attitude of the people there. It’s a shame I can not stay at “Jaialdia”, a festival that the Basque community in Boise celebrates every five years and this year it will be from July 26 till the 1st of August, in which 2005 the festival attracted over 30,000 people. There are various performances of music, Basque dances, rural sports, etc… bringing together thousands of people seeking their roots in a place to meet. A real Basque party, thousands of miles away from the cultural epicenter of it. This is the magic of the people far away from their homeland experiencing our same backgrounds in a passionate way. Their feelings, that maybe because of the distance or the absence produced a healthy envy in me making me live a very special feeling, as unique as the American men and women of Basque descent live it. Here no one asks if he can dance the Basque dances, if you know our history, or if you speak the language and even whether you have Basque descent. All that is required is an absolute respect, the major of passions and the maximum excitement about sharing with others the only thing that makes them different, their love for the Basque. To live like this, to the fullest, is what I always look for and without any doubt in Boise…
“I lived it!”


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INGUMA (Magical Goblin)

May 13, 2010

Being the first in anything is something I’ve have never lost a good night sleep, in fact, being able to achieve something before anyone else doesn’t particularly attract me. What really is important that, in any area of life, is not to do thinks quickly or even get there before anyone, instead in how and what has been done to get to it. There are always many roads to follow to reach the same destiny and we are who choose on or another depending on the needs and efforts that we are willing to give. The extraordinary guitarist and living legend of flamenco, Paco de Lucia, has been invested Doctor Honorius Cause at the age of 63 by the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston (USA). Emulating musicians such as Sting, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin or my friend Pat Metheny, the author of “Entre dos aguas” or “La Barrosa” has become the fist Spanish citizen to receive such recognition. But in my opinion, what does stand out is that someone like Paco de Lucia, who has devoted his life to the art of flamenco and the guitar, has achieved something so important. Until recent years, the flamenco musical style was not only minority but also stigmatized, but the example of the “maestro” his efforts and those of many others, this very particular musical style has achieved a more consistent level of recognition in its essences, as in the words of Paco “I have spent many years fighting for things like this to happen.” They say all things are impossible while you think they are and I would add that anything is possible if you dream and believe in yourself. Zorionak! “Maestro” , with or without a doctorate you were, is and will remain, an unique artist with a real flamenco “magic” in your soul, which exudes humility, had work and effort because nobody can reach the peak only armed with talent. In the best case, it’s inherent in our being and it is the work and our effort that transforms this talent into genius and that, my friend you know well.

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ARDIEN NAGUSI

May 6, 2010


Throughout this time in the States which as become something like my headquarters, I have come to meet so many interesting people, for many different reason. For the Basques, America has become a very special place. There were many who one day decided to leave everything and embarked on the adventure of looking for a better future for them, far away, on this continent which then became a habor of dreams, promises and opportunities. Today I will talk about an “authentic person” like many others, showing us that human beings are capable of anything when he proposes it. Ramon Echeveste, born in Doneztebe, Navarre who currently lives in Firebaugh California, dedicated to sheep raising. But the story that interests us begins when Ramon at the age of 20 decided to leave his home to try his luck in the United States with nothing but what he had on, 2 coins in his pocket and a heart full of dreams and illusions. He arrived in Fresno from the hand of the Western Range Association created by Basques in charge of bringing people of Euskal Herria to America in order to find them work among them in the different businesses. He began working as a shepherd for different farmers until one day he realized that he actually ran the company on his own but without the benefits of it so then bravely he takes the chance and creates his own sheep company. Those years were tough, exciting and every intense, working from sunrise to sunset, battling coyotes, adverse weather conditions and the worst of all, the loneliness. Within time he founded a family, with his thousands of sheep and today he is a recognized successful sheep raiser in the area. In this own way, Ramon has also created something from the nothing. The necessity sharpens the wit, they say “beharra” (Basque word meaning necessity) Ramon says, and the truth is that from my experience I would say it is. Echeveste is a self-made man, like many others, tanned in a thousand battles that exemplify the extraordinary ability of the human being to overcome the difficulties, something we all have inside, right?

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