Help US, Russkiis!

Very amusing post by the Carpetblogger on Russian NGOs saving the US of A. God speed them in their difficult work.

I appreciate her suggestions for meaningful support from Russia to the US. To her fine list, I would also welcome Russia's advice on how to turn teen faux lesbians into internationally acclaimed mega pop stars adored by all (or me, at least). The US needs more of that, I think. Hey, while there at it, I hope they send some help to the UK as well!

The post made me wonder what ever happened to Angela Davis. Now I know and also know that a new degree in the History of Consciousness is in store for me. I did hear Davis speak in Eugene, OR in 1994. I remember it was MLK day and there were no tickets so I made a sign - "I need one ticket" - and waited until some communist sympathizer felt pity for me. It didn't take long. We loved 1994.

Holy Covers!

I have been a bit taken by this recently. I have been scrolling through my itunes looking for them. So far I have about 30 and I am looking for more.

My favorites thus far are Björk and PJ Harvey covering Satisfaction and Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt and Personal Jesus, which really made the originals far better in my book. I would love to meet the person who listened to this and dreamed up this. Has Morrissey ever commented on that?

Anyone got a favorite? Please share.

G-l-o-r-i-a

Um, here is another version. I like this one too.

I'm the crawling king snake

Booze and music - is should be a regular Wednesday evening.

Tonight, I have renewed my love of Benn loxo du taccu, which shows me I have only scratched the surface of African music. Tonight's find was Ignace De Souza, a great west african early afrobeater.

I learned the history of Sterns Music in London, a force in bringing African music to London since 1983.

Now I have moved on to all the tracks I didn't have from The Doors from their box set. God, I had missed a lot.


The song G-l-o-r-i-a makes me feel better, always. That's a Van Morrison cover?!? I had never heard The Doors version until tonight!

Plans for June 19-23?

The Gnawas have both a therapeutic and a propitiatory function. They are often summoned in cases of mental disturbance, even when the patient is being treated at a psychiatric clinic; they are also called in to treat scorpion stings.

Paul Bowles

Cheatin' Steelers

My girlfriend of over three years has patiently tolerated one of my less-than-useful habits - "watching" Pittsburgh Steeler scores on the Internet every Sunday in the fall. Pathetic, I know, but I do it. We even celebrated together at 3:00 a.m. here in London two years ago when they won the Super Bowl for the first time since 1980. As a nine-year-old who liked football cards, I was taken with Jack Lambert and the working-class dream team of the 1970s. Those were the days! (But Roethlisberger 5 TDs last night were pretty darn cool...)

Imagine my surprise as she was remembering her childhood "first songs" on Sunday and googled a previously unknown band to me - The Kendalls, a father and daughter country duo who sang a song called the "Pittsburgh Steelers" about cheating between shifts. To those who know her, you might like the image of the cheating father-daughter duo and the lyrics...

I found myself in Pittsburgh, working in a steel mill
And I was a southern girl whose husband didn't see
Well, he pulled the night shift
And I worked the day shift
And it came too easy for us to play the game

They could call us the Pittsburgh Steelers
Stealing happiness and cheating anytime we can
We both know the score but we run back for more
And tonight the Pittsburgh Steelers play again

Morning will ever find us with a night of love behind us
On a back street in Pittsburgh time after time
Just touch and go lovers running a pattern
And every time we meet we leave it all wrong tonight

They could call us the Pittsburgh Steelers
Stealing happiness and cheating anytime we can
We both know the score but we run back for more
And tonight the Pittsburgh Steelers play again

Not exactly a team fight song, but it does show creativity, I guess.

Battle for My Toybox

I am confused.

These Samson and Goliath spirt warriors look a lot like dolls from 300, yet they are created by a Christian toy maker who clearly didn't realize that it's been done before by a gentleman named Normal Bob. Bob, however, seems to have been crucified for his actions, while the Samson's creator was picked up by Walmart and Target. Is this fair?

Longing for Russia(n Parts of Brooklyn)!

I couldn't have said it (or shown it) better than badger and weasal, the newest bloggers on the block.

BoNO Must Die

I have never enjoyed a band for its name...until now!

Our youthful daze...

We certainly were not that good, but did manage to win two games back in 1989. I was handsome, if I do say so myself.

Goat for four...

...to share.
Mongolia is not a vegetarian's dream, to put it mildly. This was dinner, served with four knives. No salad. Nothing green, in fact.

Eggs again!

My Glasto Highlights!

1) My god, The Who was amazing!!! I know all the talk on Radio 1 is about cool hip bands like Arcade Fire and CSS, who were amazing, but watching The Who in the pissing rain with a mind-blowing video of the young rockers had to be my top moment! Call me old fashioned...


2) The surprise and totally unexpected visit of Amadou and Mariam, who woke me up from a late afternoon nap in my tent on The Park stage, which was followed by the surprise and totally unexpected visit of Baaba Maal, who did a great performance with Toumani Diabate! West Africans are takin' over!



3) Sing, yes, but I had no idea she could dance! I am dying to see her in a venue without being trapped between the masses and having my feet stuck in the mud.


4) Silent disco? Sounds odd and it is odd. But it was fun. I took the best videos of the crowds screaming to Nirvana. Lady V with back up here...

Singing along to world music

Once upon a time when I was a teacher in Russia, I had a spry young student, Anton, come to me with the aim of finally gaining insight into some of his favorite "world music". In this case, it was that pillar of world music innovation, Ace of Base. Simple enough, but as I got into it, I worried that when I translated the words, he might lose his enthusiasm for world music. He might realize that the lyrics were not as hip as he once imagined.

I never thought of it much at the time, but while scrolling down my iTunes today, I realized I can't really sing a long too much of my music. Isn't part of the joy knowing the words and the poetry?

Would I still love Ali Farka Toure, Gigi and that gnawa legend, Mahmoud Guinia, if I could hear their lyrics? Were I to visit Mali, Ethiopia or Morocco and have the words translated, would the lyrics still be as hip as I imagined?

I got a new life
You would hardly recognize me
I'm so glad
How can a person like me care for you
Why do I bother
When you're not the one for me
Is enough enough
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes
I saw the sign
Life is demanding without understanding
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes
I saw the sign
No ones gonna drag you up
To get into the light where you belong

Some of you may disagree with me, but have to say that I think, yes, I would. First of all, while I agree that singing along is fun, my iTunes has some incredible music even if there are no lyrics at all. Plus, I tested all my music today and I have good taste, really. Granted, not all the Rokia Traore songs are easy to distinguish from one another, but they are still great.

And to be quite honest, while the lyrics of Ace of Base are crap, I still actually enjoyed some it is just 'cause it was familiar and catchy. I have seen the sign and in opened up my eyes, I saw the sign. No one's gonna drag you up.

Exactly.

I "heart" Glasto (and BBC and Myspace)

I hear by declare this day, 1 June, 2007, the Official BBC and Myspace Appreciation Day. The BBC announced the Glastonbury lineup which includes links to all the main acts' myspace profiles, CD reviews and other juicy bits. This is glorious information.


I am giddy with excitement.

Second-Hand Lives

After years of putting it off, I just read this and I don't really care to read her any more. I must be a altruistic second-hander. Shame on me.

I didn't ever get over that the "love story" was initiated by rape and found the hero to be a robot ideology posing in human form. He intrigued me at first and by the end, his long monologues just left me bored. I learned in this book that I attach value to characters being fallible and I prefer my political ideology in the non-ficition section of the book store. As with her non-fiction, which I dabbled in 10 years ago, I get the sense that Ayn Rand thinks everyone gets an equal shot in this meritocratic world. That seems pretty historically illiterate.

Thanks, Nuru!

My favorite part of last night's show was when he reminded us that his grandfather fought in the second world war and even though no Englishman or Frenchman said thank you, he wanted to say "thank you" to his grandfather since winning the war allowed us all to gather in a democracy for last night's show.


Photo Credit: Me

Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective

I have been grooving to Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective all afternoon. (Thanks, Songlines #43!) They are touring all over this summer so no excuses to miss. Very cool video here with some background to the CD and garifuna music. I never would have guessed Belize.

If you watch the video, you will see Paul Nabor. A very enjoyable tribute to his dying sister can be found on the link above. I hope someone sings like that when I die.

Brother, I am ill
Dear Brother, I am ill
I have tossed and turned in my bed
With this ailment in the presence of my family
I have spoken with my children
Dear Brother, when I pass away
They must have a band at my funeral
It is my little ones I'm worried about
It is my children I'm worried about.

Andy Garifuna is playing at Cargo June 19.

Complete New Yorker on Morocco

I don't really see this a plug for The Complete New Yorker as much as a note of praise for what I consider to be a fantastic idea - having all the New Yorkers ever printed! My Dad gave me the Complete New Yorker a few years ago and I haven't really used it since I read too much on my computer as it is. But when I was preparing my trip to Morocco, I got the grand idea to search for all things Morocco-related since the publication started in 1925. I printed out articles that looked interesting and didn't think much of it. The articles were the best travel guide I could have had with stories from war correspondents traveling in Fez, Casablanca and Tangier in the 1940's to an excellent three-part story about a child bride by Jane Kramer in 1970. That was made even more rich by a follow on "personal history" she wrote in 1996 on feminism and how her time in the poor sections of Meknes affected her as a feminist thinker. There was a 1984 interview with King Hassan II and the last story I printed was on Paul Bowles and the 50-year anniversary of The Sheltering Sky. Love this quote:

Many people fling the book aside half read, and no wonder. Submitting to "The Sheltering Sky" is like having a heart transplant without anesthesia: you have to be willing to contemplate, for a moment, how it feels to have no heart at all.

Travel guides are great for finding hotels, but there was something rare about the simple explanations about "exotic" Morocco written to New Yorker readers over half a century ago.

From Our Far-Flung Correspondents: The Hot Wind From the Desert, and article from March 15, 1952 on the play between Communism, the Istiqal (Independence) Party and other French and American interests shaping the future of Morocco:

As is the fashion nowadays, everybody is talking, sketchily but noisily, of democracy--probably in this instance hoping to get American support.

Some things seem to remain the same!

Björk Live from Last Night!

A very special gift from NPR - Björk live in NYC last night. Already online and the trombones are really nice in this set. Make sure you get to Hyperballad at the end of the set. Well, well worth it and give yourself time to enjoy the encore. Wow!

How many days till our date in Glasto?

Konono No. 1 is great too! You can hear their opening act on at the same link above.


Photo credit: Inez and Vinoodh Matin

Merci, Salif Keita!

Another mind-blowing experience with the The Mansa of Mali last Thursday...



I think Albeo liked the show.


It is cruel that he only played for 90 minutes!

Just found that his myspace profile has lyrics to some of his songs!

Nuru Kane

I can't tell you how much I dig Nuru Kane. I just found an amazing postcast with Nuru describing everything from his religious inspirations to great in-studio recordings of songs on his first CD.

I actually hope I have a business trip to Russia canceled so I can see him at Cargo in London on May 23.

Hmmm, argon oil!

What they fail to mention about Argon oil is that the seeds/stones are collected from goat shit. And they really do climb trees!

Le Moroc and new love!

Back from almost two weeks in Morocco and had an inkling that the music would be good...little did I know I would have a new love!

Nuru Kane (playing in London on May 23!) had introduced me to Gnawa, but know I know where it came from, Le Moroc! And one source was a man from Essaouira named Mahmoud Guinia. Can't find any of his stuff online, but is a serious coincidence that it seems Guinia is in the picture I posted a few weeks ago! Which means I must go to the Festival Gnaoua et Musiques du Monde as this seems to be the place to hear it!

Our new friend, Nabil, gave us some instruction on the finer art of the guembri and I am quickly becoming an expert in the krakebs. M loved it. I almost bought a guembri, but thought I might want to learn just a wee bit of guitar before such an investment. But I was that moved and clearly with good reason...if wikipedia is to be believed, Jimi Hendrix himself stayed on with Guinia to play and learn from him.

Best website of 2006!

My new favorite website...please, tell me how I make myself like this.

You were in Prague and you didn't visit London. Mercy.

Last.fm

Late adopter or early? Who cares! Last.fm if very, very cool. Find me - pavellawrence - and make me your friend. I never thought I would like to be monitored by big brother, but this seems very appropriate. I want to connect myself to the system all the time. I am sure that is naive, but both the blue and red pills seem great to me!

Morocco bound!

Any random passers by have wise advice on my next week's holiday destination?

If you have one thing to do this weekend!

I strongly advise you to go see Becoming Jane. I think the poor Americans have to wait until the summer to see this. Sorry, but what goes around comes around, Hollywood! Also, for those in countries where they still produce prirated DVDs, I remind you that you wouldn't steal a DVD from a store, would you!? Think of all the poor people who produce the films and I think you will reconsider your purchase of an illegal and immorally copied version!

Going to Russia?

Advertisement for my friend's business!
It is brutal navigating Mother Russia. Anyone going should contact my old and good friend Ruslan who has created a concierge company called Moscow City Experts. I never would have survived my two years in southern Russia without Ruslan and he's the hippest and coolest Tatar I know!

Alice, Off the Page

Something good to read.

Hard African Sunday...

This is a crushing story about a former child soldier from Sierra Leone that is in the NYT magazine today. I noticed it after watching The Last King of Scotland so its been one of those afternoons. Whitaker as Amin is very intense and, as one review put it, this is a horror movie. I am shaken. The closing clip's reminder of the estimated 300,000 dead during Amin's rule seems more unsettlingly understandable reading about Ishmael Beah's story of killing and cocaine from the age of 12-15.

I appreciated the end of David Denby's review in the New Yorker...

after this movie and “The Constant Gardener,” one would like to whisper ever so gently into the ears of all Western filmmakers that Africa, in its tragic condition, is perhaps not the most appropriate place to stage the moral redemption of dopey Europeans.

Banya, please!

Funny story on banya's in New York. Birch branches have amazingly calming properties. How cool is it that instead of just getting boring flowers, one can get the Banya Basket! Um, yes, that is a bottle of vodka in the basket.