Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Street of the Love of Days











Amor de Días means "love of days" in Spanish. One day last year I was walking through Madrid's fashionable Central Madrid district looking for a restaurant, and I spied a street sign that made me smile with lighthearted wonder at the strange poetic ways of foreigners. It said "Calle del Amor de Dios", which my pidgin Spanish translated as "the Street of the Love of Days". (Of course anyone with half a brain will tell you that I'd got my dios and dias mixed up, and what it actually said was "the Street of the Love of God", which is after all a very common street name in Spanish towns.) However the original and misunderstood name stuck and I thought, what a beautiful name, what a beautiful and mysterious street.

Amor de Días has since become the name of a musical project I'm working on with Lupe from Pipas, which has so far come up all Spanish guitar, with a bit of Satie, and Beach Boys. I don't have any sounds to put up here cos nothing is finished, but we are making a record. And playing a very very rare show with our friends the Ladybug Transistor on Monday 28th April at the Luminaire in Kilburn.

I doubt even God would be able to transform Kilburn High Road on Monday night to a street of the love of days, but we will try our best.

9 comments:

Spencer said...

Wonderful post. I'm really looking forward to hearing this record when it's done.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely story - the last part of the post makes me think of hearing Alfred Brendel at the Sage in Gateshead last week. He played Liszt's Au Lac de Wallenstdadt last of all and we honestly felt like we were being carried over the lake rather than the Millennium Bridge on the Tyne as we walked back to the hotel. Let us know when the Street of the Love of Days comes up to Scotland.

andrea said...

lovely post.
however, the street is called "amor de dios" as far as i can read, which means god's love :)

Anonymous said...

the struggle continues!

dennis said...

Cool everyman story. How about, "Street of the love of moss"? Closer to home, and more often in view... But we've all heard "love's not on the ground"..or is it?
Great gig you mention, with the Ladybug Transistor..can only imagine. Any blending of the bands happen on stage? And best wishes with your new endeavor.

Anonymous said...

Alasdair:

Go on an Asian tour and stop by Singapore; Alasdair.

Manolo said...

amor de dios means love of god
dios / god
dias / days

Manolo said...

I see you got it tho..

Alasdair said...

yrp, i got there in the end companero