About Juan Manuel Gozalo’s death and the gaps that deceased people leave to us.

On Sunday, still with the Madrid vs. Barcelona hangover, I heard the news of the Juan Manuel Gozalo’s death, aged 65, victim of cancer. He was one of the radio icons of Spanish sports scene, a historic broadcasting sports journalist that worked on his usual media until the last minute. This sports reporter was, nothing more and nothing less, than 30 years linked to Radio Nacional de España (1970-2007), the Spanish public radio. Among other things, his eternal voice was in charge of the sports news Radiogaceta de los deportes. He directed 10 Football World Cups, 14 Vuelta a España, and no more and no less than 10 Olympic Games. He also participated in television: he directed the emblematic football TV program Estudio Estadio between 1980 and 1985 and since 1997 La prórroga de fútbol es fútbol, in Telemadrid. He only left RNE when the early retirees occurred in 2007, with the RTVE’s Redundancy Plan. From here, he agreed to be a councilman of Santander, his hometown, by the PP, and continued working with the newspapers El Mundo and Marca.

I grew up listening to the voice of this journalist, always characteristically torn but never completely broken; when my father put his program on the radio, even I managed to learn to tune while me being a brat. If I stop to think it carefully, I realize I have many memories of my life tied to the line of his program and his voice. He was a serious journalist, rigorous, well away from the ridiculous fanaticism flooding the Spanish sports journalism; he was stubborn with his opinions, but always respectful with others, and always pleasant in treatment with others program’s participants.

I have to say that I gradually ceased to listen to Juan Manuel Gozalo’s radio station. I got hooked on the Carlos Llamas’s nightly news program in Cadena SER and went slowly spreading to other programs in the station. Regarding sports, my passion to FC Barcelona took me to be interested in Catalunya Radio, so I gradually ceased to listen to Gozalo. Well, despite having ceased to listen to him, I have always bore in mind the memories that he left to me.

The same happened with Carlos Llamas: one day suddenly turned his nightly political gatherings, as he did every night, and the next day someone announced his death from cancer as well. I surprised myself crying bitterly, I cut all the obituaries and articles in his memory of all the next day’s newspapers and I saved them; I also heard thrilled to bits the memorial programs in that his companions spent the next days.

It's amazing how one person can become identified, or to become attached, with another one whose barely knows his voice and some gestures, political or sports opinions, perhaps a few anecdotes... I think the most important thing for me is that I learned a lot by listening to Carlos Llamas and his Hora 25, or how much I entertained with Juan Manuel Gozalo’s sports funny stories and arguments. Both of them with their warm and unmistakable voices, both of them with a strong personality; features that made them very attractive to the general public.

But I continue being surprised by the mourn desire that I really feel when I think that characters that have made me company and have been part of my life for a long time, suddenly they are gone. Perhaps what saddens me is the realization that life always has this sort of things inevitable and painful, but in a short time, we have to overcome them and move on without giving them greater importance. People who somehow form part of our lives is going to disappear as we move down the long road, leaving unrepeatable memories and a void that can not be filled. Gozalo… may he rest in peace.

Today, not Messi(ah), but Oboe!

Today I thought of what could be the subject on which I could talk. I find it hard not to talk about Messi after the brutal performance which took the Barça's little young star against Arsenal a couple of days ago, but I have to keep it back. I am holding out at least until Saturday's Classic (if we win it will be inevitable, sorry). Thus, I will be able to talking about some different matter, and I will demonstrate to everyone that I'm not such a blithering idiot. That's it; I'm sooo deep-minded... heheheh

I have thought of talking about my favourite musical instrument: the oboe. To start with, it seems that the music, playing musical instruments, music bands… it is a tradition and a hobby for us, Valencians. For example, my 20.000 inhabitants’ town has got a 160 staff music band and a Middle Degree Conservatory. And a lot of these musicians are teachers in superior degree conservatories or even first line musicians and soloists in some of the most important orchestras in Spain. Practically all of my school classmates and friends can play a musical instrument. That’s it; it’s a hobby and more than a hobby, a way of life.

In my case, I always considered it as a hobby. I played the oboe since I was a child, for a lot of years, so I feel much attached to him. Yes, him, not it (uhm, sounded it like Gollum? My preciousssssss!). This is very usual: when we grow up playing a musical instrument, finally it becomes very attached to us, like a part of our own body or an extension of it. That sounds a little bit strange, I suppose, but it's the truth. As the time passes, we learn to play better, and even to perform more sophisticated scores as much on our own as in music bands, orchestras or in a chamber music group. To play better means not only or merely be able to read the scores: we have to interpret, to feel the sense of the music we are trying to play and then, transmit it through our string instrument, wind instrument or whatever. If we do not try to express feelings through music, even classical music could sound monotonous, plain and empty. Thus, I think that through our instrument musicians can express our deepest feelings and develop an exceptional sensibility. I think that's one of the reasons why I love playing music so much and why I miss too much that feeling, since I left Conservatory and overall playing, a couple of years ago.

I'm realizing that I have digressed a little bit of the matter I thought talking about, (and I'm getting sad by talking about this, too) so let's continue with some interesting elements about this musical instrument: Anyone knows it? Probably most of people think that it's a sort of clarinet or something like that. So... he has not to do with a clarinet or even a flute!! Well, they are woodwind instruments, but that's all. In spite of a single or none reed, the oboe has got a double reed and a conical bore.

It’s told that the oboe (in fact, baroque oboe) first appeared in the French court in the mid-17th century. In English, previously to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English around 1770 from the Italian/Catalan oboè, a translation in that languages' orthography of the 17th century pronunciation of the French word hautbois, a compound word made of haut ("high, loud") and bois ("wood, woodwind"). Nowadays, oboes are made with mahogany wood. A musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist. Modern oboe is the black one below this line.
Careful manipulation of the double-reeded mouthpiece and air pressure allow the player to express timbre and dynamics. The oboe is pitched in concert C (Do) and has a mezzo-soprano or even soprano range. In comparison to other modern woodwind instruments, the oboe has a clear, penetrating and stable voice (nasal voice, in fact), and it's told -with malice- that this instrument sounds like a duck. It's a sound that can certainly remind to a duck, but one thing is certain: the better we play, the less he sounds like a duck. The timbre of the oboe is derived from the oboe's conical bore (as opposed to the generally cylindrical bore of flutes, piccolos and clarinets). As a result, oboes are readily audible over other instruments in large ensembles. For all of these things it’s why oboists are used for tuning the whole orchestra with an A (usually a 440Hz La).

The pitch of the oboe is affected by the way in which the handmaded reed is made: variations in cane and other construction materials, the age of the reed, and differences in scrape and length will all affect the pitch of the instrument. Weather conditions such as temperature and humidity will also affect the reed, and tightening or expanding the mahogany wood too, and accordingly changing the pitch. As you can see, this is a very delicate and fragile instrument, and maybe that’s why he’s so special.

There are a lot of bothering factors, but usually, we oboists take care of our beloved instruments keeping them in dry but not too warm places, often taking them to a workshop to readjust the keys and joints (because of the change of seasons, in example) or adjusting in/out our embouchure when playing to compensate for these factors. And believe me, it’s not so difficult to do, and surprisingly you can get used to these things -and you will- and just enjoy the magic of the music. I recommend it to everyone: If not with oboe, with any other musical instrument, whatever you like… to feel the music flowing through you, involving you, it’s a beautiful experience :)

78-84: Paris, heeeere we come!

After I had seen yesterday's football match between F.C. Barcelona and London Arsenal, with a bittersweet final result (2-2), after a match nearly entirely dominated by Barcelona's players. That pissed me off, so I went to bed in a very bad mood. By the way, I have left seeing football news at the Sports Media. It is something quite a lot stupid, and I know, it would be better if i take it easy, but I'm already tired of seeing the same weird news saying once and again thinks like "we left them escape alive"... I already know that, and I don't want to see repeatedly how my favourite football team failed at the worst moment of the match. By now, tonight I have seen another kind of match, a Euroleague basketball match between F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid. Yes, I love basketball and handball too! And I'm very lucky, because my team has got football section, handball section, basketball section and much more... and all of them are quite amazing.

A couple hours ago, I was thinking about writing something similar to a sports article, but I realized that I have no idea about how to set a sports report, so I looked for some of them in St. Google. And, since we are at it, we'll try to do it as well as possible!

Barcelona team has won the Euroleague Quarter Finals against Real Madrid. They played the best three out of five games (It took Barcelona 4 games to won the series). I guess that game two losses was little more than a speed bump, eh? Anyone who supposed that FC Barcelona was vulnerable after getting taken down by Real Madrid last week can again forget doubts about Xavi Pascual’s team after last two nights’ dominating performance against their ACB league rivals.

The plain truth is that despite Madrid’s game two victory –in fact, paradoxically maybe because of the win– it becomes increasingly clear (as the 2009-10 approaches to its conclusion) that the gap between these two teams is quite significant indeed. While Madrid had to go all out and expend all available resources in beating a team that shot 33 percent from the floor in their worst time, Barça has handled Madrid decisively in five games of six between the teams this season.

Tonight, Barcelona started worse than on the previous match, Madrid arrived to a 17-13 run in the first quarter, but they took the lead for a short time. The time continued running out in a much equalized game and by the time it was 41-45, but Barcelona was on cruise control. The 3rd and 4t quartes continued much equalized too, but Madrid never could catch Barcelona. Finally, Barcelona won, with a better player’s rotation and a better interior-exterior game balance. Real Madrid never gave the sensation that they could win the match. The final score of 78-84 was hardly indicative of the one-sidedness of this match. But see for yourself; short and long versions of the highlights will show you: scarcely featuring Madrid’s Sergi Llull and Felipe Reyes, and just about every Barça player, including Erazem Lorbek, Ricky Rubio (amazing tonight), Pete Mickeal, Gianluca Basile, Fran Vázquez and especially Juan Carlos Navarro.

Nobody could stop us until now, so... we are going to the from 7th to 9th May's Final Four in Paris!