No Subject

"Hadad's U.S. appearances include the "Festival Latino" and an
alternative show at "Thirty Centuries of Splendor" in Los Angeles;
and at the Institute of Contemporary Art in the "Bleeding Heart"
exhibition in Boston. Recently, Hadad recorded an album of Mexican
pop music with post-modern commentary."

She was Critic's Choice in the Chicago Reader. This is what Albert
Williams had to say:

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"When Pat Buchanan rants about building a big fence along the 
Mexican border, it's people like Astrid Hadad he wants to keep 
out.  In her cabaret concert _Heavy Nopal_, which means "Heavy
Cactus," the Mexican Lebanese singer-actress offers a prickly,
postmodern reworking of traditional folk ballad archetypes of
women as sultry spitfires and martyred madonnas.  Paying homage
to the 1940s ranchera singer (and drug-OD victim) Lucha Reyes,
Hadad puts her aching alto to emotionally evocative and
stingingly sardonic use on such songs (performed in Spanish
and interrupted with English commentary) as "Mala" ("Evil 
because you don't love me...Evil like censorship...like a
photo on your driver's license...") and "Kill, for God Forgives"
("If you see the students demonstrating for peace / You should
kill quickly...God forgives those who confess"). 

Outrageous in a satin Virgin of Guadalupe skirt and a dominatrix's 
bulls-eye bra, Hadad grounds her feminist satire in solid musicianship--
her own powerful singing and the punchy playing of her backup bank, 
Los Tarzanes (the name is a put-down applied to Mexican aristocrats 
who ape America's upper class by wearing tuxedos or "monkey suits")."
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Yes, she was as interesting as that makes her sound. I'd never heard of
her, but reading that prompted me to go to the show.  She was *LOTS* of
fun! She changed costumes multiple times (ranging from a black dress
with Incan ruins sewn on, to a bikini top & mesh skirt with bells 
attached via big safety pins and all *kinds* of outfits in between) and
she also used numerous props. In one song she had a headband with devil
horns attached and angel wings with a halo; in another she had one of
those "gun holsters" (Bandolero?) that sling around the shoulder
and chest (stereotypical of Mexican bandits in old films) full of guns,
including a water machine gun that she used to spray the audience! In
one song she took huge swigs from a Tequila bottle and stumbled around
the stage, though it became obvious in subsequent songs that the bottle 
just contained water, or else she wouldn't have been able to maintain.
In one song, about a dockyard prostitute, she wore a "Statue of Liberty"
mask. 

On and on and on!  She was *wonderful*!!

The only "problem" (my problem, not hers) was that she spoke very 
little English and most of her talking between songs was in Spanish. 
The program had most of the songs translated into English, but not
her spoken word bits. Unfortunate, because she was very political. 
She spoke about George Bush (hates him!) and Free Market Trade, 
Somalia, Nicaragua, Iraq, Bosnia-Hertzagovia, Hispanics in politics 
and who knows what all. (I know some of that because there was a nice 
guy from the Mexican Fine Arts Center/Museum sitting next to us and
he'd translate for us and for Astrid. We were sitting right up front 
and every now and then she would walk up to the front of the stage, 
say something and then hand him the microphone to translate for the 
English-only speakers in the audience. Still, we knew that we were 
missing out on *SO* much of what she said. For instance, before one 
song, (in which she had a foot-long, red-flashing "heart" pinned to 
the front of her dress) she talked for at least 3-4 minutes in 
rapid-fire Spanish and had the Spanish-speakers laughing throughout. 
Her only English translation was "Put one of your organs into Chili 
and you will know what this song is about." A cracked cabaret lovelost
song followed. For the first time in my life, I *really* regretted not 
taking any Spanish in school!

Still, even with the language differences, she got the point of all the
songs across *very* well, and I had a GREAT time!

I don't have a tour schedule, but I did hear that she's heading for 
New York this next week. 

Vickie

"Kill, for god forgives.../You should be certain to kill/Bush never lies...
Kill without feeling.../For the United Nations will clear the path"
                                                            Astrid Hadad