Making of…»Bailame» music video

When I broke my arm I had a lot of spare time to think and write (with one hand obviously). In the last six months I had been writing and writing but when I went to record what I had in paper…I realized that I had a bunch of deep and sad songs (honestly I was kind of feeling that way).

So one day in the studio we decided it was time to cheer ourselves up and Jimmy came up with the «Bailame» beat. Together we sat down and in one hour we had the promo song ready. That is the amazing thing about music; you never know when the inspirational muse visits you.

We filmed the video in different days; we had the studio day, the chroma day, the details footage day and the black background day. The behind the scenes video I am about to share is just from one of those days. I hope to share the music video really soon with you guys because I am dying for you to see it! Until then…here it is:

November: you have been kind to me

This month has brought so many good things that I am starting to forget all the crappy ones that happened this year. I guess this is a very good way of ending 2016 and waiting for 2017 with open arms and a big smile.

I have to confess that this time of the year I get a little nostalgic and I scan my year to see what I have accomplished and where did I fail. I try to always point out the positive but the negative is there to remind us that we are human, that not everything turns out the way we want and sometime that is a lovely thing.

Lately I have been bouncing from one physiotherapist to another and finally found a place near home that is good and helps me with my arm (yes, my elbow has seen better days). Just to keep you guys updated…we have finished recording most of our songs and now are working on filming the video of our single called «Bailame» (Yaaaaaaaas).

Thank you November, you have been really kind to me.

 

Valencia: day trip

The first time we visited Valencia was not what we had expected so we left with a sour taste and not willing to come back never again. Then our good friend Ivan told us last week he would be going so we decided to give it a second try. (Spoiler alert: in the end…we had a blast!)

First thing first: café con leche in the nearest coffee shop and then some touristic walks around Valencia’s city center.

We stumbled across the Mercat Central or Mercado Central (you guys know how much I love a farmer’s market) and we tried some Jamon Iberico and Manchego cheese. 

Time for some modern architecture: The City of Arts and Science was breath-taking.

Since we had a car (not like last time) we visited two beaches and considering it was late Summer, it was rare to have all the beach for us. We stayed two hours in each one and had a very relaxing time. I got to take my arm brace off and sun bathed a little being very careful not to fall since my arm is not  100%  ok…yet. (Can you spot my very thin arm? Well I guess it will take a lot of crossfit to gain my muscle back) 😦

Food blogger interview: Mavi de Armas

I was looking forward for this blog post since I saw the amazing recipes and pictures of my good friend Mavi de Armas (isn’t she absolutely gorgeous?!) and her blog «Avant Garde Pty». We met a very long time ago in Venezuela and we clicked right away; she was funny and witty and we always had fun when we saw each other (yaaaas).

So there I was one day scrolling down her Instagram feed loving her amazing and stylish blog pics and I thought it would be a fun idea for her to join us in an interview here at The Golden Limoncello and let us know a bit more about her amazing blog.

1) What motivated you to start your blog?

My love for food…The story is that I had tons of food pictures in my phone, so one day I thought… why not share? Avant Garde was born because I wanted to find the most beautiful products and create beautiful compositions so I discovered that not only I am a cook, I’m a food stylist.

2) How did you pick your blog’s name Avant Garde Pty?  

Well «avant-garde» is a term that is used mostly for art…and for me, food is art, it is beauty, The most simple way of describing food styling is by saying that it is the combination between art and gastronomy. Avant Garde is a compilation of food styling, food experiences, tricks, travels and more.

3) What do you enjoy most about blogging?

I need to be truly sincere, it’s an obsession! I want to share everything with my followers, it’s a lifestyle! I always think about what I’m going to photograph, what recipe to cook, and it’s very exciting eating at restaurants and sharing my experiences.

4) If you had to pick, which would be your favorite recipe post of your blog? My famous Fudgy- sweet salty brownies! They are insane!  My husband and friends just love them!

5) Sweet or salty?

Both!  In the same preparation! I think that is my favorite flavor, I love the combination of caramel and sea salt! It’s a vice.

6) Who is your biggest inspiration? 

In the kitchen, my husband is my main inspiration! He is a great chef, I’m very proud of him and I just love the way he cooks!

7) All your photos look amazing! What is the most important thing for you when you are taking photos for the blog? 

I want to make food more beautiful that it is. I love to prepare the food  for the eye, for the camera. Food has to speak for itself.

8) Let’s pretend I come over for dinner, what would you cook? 

Well first that would be awesome! I love to make dinner parties in my home, if you come over for dinner I’ll start with some Cozze Bianco (one of my favorite dishes),  Tagliatelle with truffle butter and lobster and for dessert Crêpes à la crème.

9) Can you give us a trick that never fails in the kitchen? 

After cooking the green vegetables , place them in a bowl with water and ice. It activates the greenery.

10) Last but not least, can you share a quick, easy recipe that you love? 

Of course! You have to try this delicious shake…

All photos credit to © Maria Victoria de Armas

 

 

Poison Ivy: Anger

So the story is this: there I was in a meeting hearing what the other person was saying trying to focus when all of a sudden I feel a disco ball with neon lights behind my right eye. I thought for a second I was dazzled my the ray of sun coming through the window but no, it was an ocular migraine. I don’t get those often, they tend to be triggered by specific things and tend to hit when you least expect them. I obviously had to stop the meeting because I couldn’t see straight and was feeling very dizzy.

So what triggered this? Stress.

The problem is not stress perse but my attitude towards it. In the past few weeks I was angry at people for past discussions, started to feel resentful against them and there was a lot of negative energy around me. This happened because I never said anything when I had to. So the anger really was more towards myself than towards the others.

I am angry but I have to transform that anger into something else or I might just stay in bed half blind with neon lights that go on and off in my eye. The anger is in me because I let it in. The other person is not harmed or alarmed by «my» anger. They simply don’t care. So instead of being angry I am letting it go. I am learning from each situation I put myself into and try to understand «why is this happening over and over again?» and «what is that I have to learn from this situation so it doesn’t repeat itself?».

My body is warning me with ocular migraines. What is your body telling you? Pain is your body setting an alarm to warn you that something is wrong.

Listen to it very carefully…

I have shared this in past posts but I think it is worthy to share it again: «holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die».

Small novel preview: Panther’s Club

Order of appearance of sentences, words and chapters may vary and change in the final draft. All written in the following chapter is registered and protected by international copyright by © Natascia Da Prato * SGAE Member

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Dr. Vladimir loved Thursday afternoons when the clock hit 6:00 sharp. That was the exact time when his last patient left. He liked to stay at his office a little longer and watch the sunset from his big windows, twenty stores above. He took out his cigar, cut the tip off, and smelled it with great pleasure. His mind wandered through the wilderness of his memories twenty years ago in the woods.

He saw a beautiful woman with a yellow dress running behind a brown-haired boy. They laughed as he watched. He loved sitting there in the middle of the trees right in front his Summer-house. ‘Daddy, don’t smoke!’ his ten-year-old boy yelled from the river ‘come swim with us!’

Birds echoed with his wife’s laugher and Vladimir knew how lucky he was to be right there, right then. ‘You go swim rybka. Daddy will come after he finishes his cigar’. When Dr. Vladimir woke up hours later in the woods, he didn’t remember falling asleep. Dead silence surrounded him: no birds singing, no wind blowing and no more laugher.

Now he sat there in his office surrounded by the same smell that reminded him of that exact moment. “I am so sorry rybka. I am so sorry” he said aloud.

Suddenly the door opened startling him “Oh dear. You are talking alone now doc?” Jacqueline slammed the door behind her and sat down in the chair in front of him letting her skirt go higher than it should have. Her perfect manicured hands played with a bundle of bright red hair. “So, what’s up? You don’t return my calls anymore? And what the hell are you doing smoking a cigar in a closed office?” She started moving her hands dramatically so the smoke would disappear.

“What on earth are you doing here?” he put the cigar out “Are you out of your mind? Did anyone see you come in here? “ he snapped.

“Oh relax, Vlad. I am not that stupid. I know you sit here in your pity party alone on Thursdays.” She stood up. “So, why are you not returning my calls?” she stood up and approached him seductively.

“You call me when you shouldn’t. Have some better damn timing Jacqueline.” He couldn’t stop staring at her long legs, his breath getting heavy.

“This was not the deal Vlad.” She sat on the table putting her sky-high stilettos on his lap. Dr. Vladimir remained silent. “We have been working for this a very long time doc.”

Dr. Vladimir stood up letting Jacqueline’s feet fall to the ground abruptly. “I need more time.”

“More time? I’ll give you more time. But my real concern is what happens then?” Jacqueline was getting irritated “You think after all of this is done, the three of us will live happily ever after?” she laughed “What do you suggest doc?”

“I suggest Jacqueline you get the hell out of my office and go do your part of the deal.” He opened the door for her to exit “Then we will take care of what happens next.”

Jacqueline stood up and fixed her skirt. She smiled and approached the door. Before exiting she got close to Dr. Vladimir’s face almost touching his lips “Don’t even think for a second that if I go down you will benefit from of all this. This was all your idea and if I go down, you will go down with me”.

Dr. Vladimir slammed the door and kissed Jacqueline passionately, almost as trying to make all of this go away. She pulled her skirt up as quickly and he pulled his pant down. Dr. Vladimir took Jacqueline on his lap and bumped her against the wall making a diploma fall on the floor shattering it’s glass in a million pieces. While he held her he thought how his soul had gotten as unfixable as the glass on the ground.

© Natascia Da Prato

 

SRF Switzerland Eurovision Final

February was wonderful.

That being said, I have to confess that this month brought so many good memories that I am reminiscing of the days that went by so fast and left behind a trail of new and wonderful experiences.

I went to Zürich, then Kreuzinger for the SRF Switzerland Eurovision Final 2016. Our song was not the winner on the show but I can’t be more grateful that we made it to the top 6. Stanley’s performance of «Feel the love» and Adele’s «Hello» was marvelous. We had a blast with the Zürich Gospel Choir that accompanied Stanley on stage. I definitely would love to go back someday and repeat the experience. I got to meet Conchita Würst and got to see her perform live on the show: no words to how amazing she is.

I want to add that I promised myself that whatever happens I would enjoy every part of the trip and I did. This experience brought me closer to why I do what I do: the amazing feeling of sharing music with the world. I always followed the ESC when I was a little girl and I never thought in a million years I would be part of it.

I am extremely grateful with our producer William Luque for including me in this project; he believe we could and we did. Stanley did an excellent job performing our song and also the cover song of Adele’s «Hello» produced by Swiss producer Pele Loriano. The Zurich Gospel choir helped so much in the contest and I want to specially thank them for trusting us: you guys were amazing. Big thank you to Peter Werder for his amazing help and also for his friendship.

Stanley performing «Feel the love» in the final:

Stanley performing «Hello»

Happy Birthday to my favorite person

I remember how small she was when she was born: she used to hold my finger with her whole hand.

I remember how she looked at me the first time I took her in my arms; fragile and sweet .

I am blessed not only to have a beautiful sister but also to have a best friend.

She’s got my back and I am here to catch her every time she falls.

I am so proud of this little girl who has turned into a classy, gorgeous and intelligent lady.

Happy birthday Stefi, may you have a wonderful day filled with love and joy!

I love you! ❤

And we made it to the final round!

I am absolutely and extremely happy to announce that we made it to the semi-final of SRF Switzerland Eurovision song contest! WE DID IT!  Thanks to all of you who voted we made it to Zürich to the live shows and (drum roll………..) we also made it to the final that is going to be held on February 13th, 2016! Can I hear a whooooooooooa!

I want to thank William Luque for including me in this project and believing in my song writing. He is an amazing producer and I can’t be prouder to also have him as my friend. I also want to thank Jimmy for making such a cool video in such a short period of time, Stanley Miller for having that strong and powerful voice and also to the Zürich Gospel Choir for accompanying us, making the performance even cooler!

I had such an incredible time in Zürich; the city is beautiful and I had the chance of meeting wonderful people like Peter and Tony from the Zürich Gospel Choir. They were so nice with us and so kind that it made my trip even better. Also the rest of the choir for making us feel like home: Fabio, Chrissa 1 and Chrissa 2 and Sarah. Juan Lopez and Joseph for being part of the journey and all the crew of SRF behind the contest for treating us so well.

I didn’t bring along my camera so here are all the pics from my phone. 

 

 

 

Eurovision 2016 «Feel the love»

Been kind of… well…off the radar lately, but I promise you I’ve been down to business and having a lovely time in the hectic agenda.

I am absolutely proud to announce to you guys that thanks to my lovely producer William Luque, I am part of something really exciting: he made the music and I wrote the lyrics to the song «Feel the love» by Stanley Miller (Chipper) and we are participating to represent Switzerland in Eurovision 2016!

It would mean a lot to me if you guys can vote for us so we can go though the next round. Here I share with you the official video made by Jimmy Selecta so you can hear the music and (if you like it) you can vote for us!

We have until November 16th, 2015 to vote. Then hopefully 17 songs will be selected and go through the next round in Zurich.

http://esc.srf.ch/de/stanley-miller-chipper

Thank you so much! 🙂

 

June photodiary: Greece

Aw…my lovely Greece.

This trip was definitely an exciting one! I got to spend my birthday with my family and got to work with amazing people. We laughed, we bickered and we laughed again.

I polished my skills as a translator for Jimmy when people talked to him in Greek. He learned new words like «fovero» that means «amazing» and «akrivos» that means «exactly».

The weather was kinda cold and we suffered a little when we jumped into the freezing water, but hey…cold water is good for your skin (and also for having a minor heart attack once you touch the water).

 

«El Rastro» flea market

I wanted to go to «El Rastro» since we arrived back in september. It’s been almost 8 months since I moved to Spain and just ten days ago, I visited «El Rastro» (Madrid’s biggest flea market) with my sister and Jimmy.

It’s enormous! So many colors and so many things!

We arrived at 10:00 am and it was packed. I recommend to go really early in the morning if you don’t want to be swimming in the crowd of people around you.