On the front of Don Alfredo Tunche’s intricately carved marimbas, careworn and chipped away by countless hours of practice and performance are the words “Siempre Juntos.” In his native Guatemala, this means “always together.” For Tunche, a deliveryman broken down by extortionists who have him on the run, forcing him to keep his family far away in hiding, his cumbersomely large yet prized marimbas are his only companion. He wheels them around with great difficulty everywhere he goes, lest damaged by scorned ex-band mates or worse yet; it’s stolen for some quick cash.
Review: Lou Reed and Metallica - Lulu (TheVine)
In the most unlikeliest pairing since Phil Collins and Bone Thugs N’ Harmony (or, perhaps, Orson Welles and Manowar?), Velvet Underground stalwart Lou Reed teams up with the biggest riff factory known to mankind, Metallica. Metalheads and old rockers alike waited with baited breath for the first samples to appear online and both were roundly disgusted at what they heard (it takes a lot to disgust a metalhead, especially these days). Now that the monstrosity is here, requiring two discs to soundly contain all of Reed’s bewildering homespun ramblings and Metallica’s laborious, repetitive riffs — both of which announce themselves from the outset in opener 'Brandenburg Gate' — one quickly discovers stapling together rock legends does not a great record guarantee.
Article: Currents of History (The Big Issue)
It is easy to underestimate older people – as Tom Valcanis realised when he learned about his grandmother’s life and noticed her electrical skills.
One frosty morning when I was six, I was sitting in my grandmother’s lounge room transfixed by Agro’s Cartoon Connection. As usual, I was toasting myself against her glowing gas heater. Back then, I knew my grandmother as my Macedonian “Baba” but, apart from that, I didn’t know much about her at all. For all I knew, her life was full of cooking, cleaning and telling jokes to keep us young ones occupied when there was nothing good on TV.
Baba always wore a simple, faded floral apron and cheap, unassuming clothes no matter where she went. This day was no different.
Read the rest in issue #392 of The Big Issue, available from street vendors around the nation.