by the El Reportero’s staff
Los Ramblers de Nicaragua
One of the oldest surviving Nicaraguan musical groups, Los Ramblers de Nicaragua, have been playing for more than 40 years, but it wasn’t until now that they were able to catch-up with technology. They just inaugurated their own website.
After 15 years of musical career in Nicaragua, the group Los Ramblers, which is mainly composed of the Ibarra brothers and their siblings, moved to San Francisco in 1983 to start a new life, which include a successful Printing shop where most of the family labor during the week, while they practice their music during the day on Saturdays, and play at events and concerts on evening weekends.
They represent much of the traditional Nicaraguan music in the San Francisco Bay Area, but their repertoire includes Latin rock, salsa and cumbia.
The Power to Change, La Peña is commissioning a new mural
After years of exposure to the elements, the original mural, which for decades became a familiar sight in the Berkeley-Oakland border, is in an un-repairable state.
La Peña Cultural Center is raising $17,000 to commission a young group of muralists who in consultation with the original ones will paint what they have called a new skin for La Peña.” Song of Unity, Cancion de la Unidad, the first 3D-collectively-painted mural in the Bay Area, will be carefully dismantled and stored. Some ideas are already taking shape to have Song of Unity become an important part of La Peña’s history. The new mural will be unveiled on September 2012.
Picasso Pottery sells for $12 M, four times the expected price
The 543 pieces of Picasso’s Madoura Collection of pottery were sold for a total 8 million pounds ($12.4 million) – four times more than estimated – in a two-day auction at Christie’s of London.
The works up for sale were in universally perfect condition, many of them intact since the day they were made, and all found takers.
The ceramics came from the same town where Picasso learned the technique and designed this collection between 1947 and 1971 – the southeastern French town of Vallauris, a pilgrimage site for artisans and ceramists of that period.
The collection auctioned off included a wide variety of plates, bowls, vases and jugs, whose principal motifs were the owl and the goat, two of the Spanish artist’s favorite pets during his stay in Vallauris.
The big star of the sale was the “grande vase aux danseurs,” dated 1950 and knocked down for 735,650 pounds ($1.1 million), 10 times more than expected and setting a world record for a Picasso ceramic.
Up to now the Madoura Collection belonged to Alain Ramie, a friend of the artist and son of the owners of the Madoura Pottery, Georges and Suzanne Ramie, who introduced Picasso to this art form.
“Picasso was a master of all media with which he worked, and ceramics was no exception,” Alan Ramie said.
While designing these works at the Vallauris workshop, Picasso was visited by such celebrities as Brigitte Bardot, Gary Cooper, Jean Cocteau and Richard Attenborough.
