Manuel de Falla's "Nana"

I suppose this is what it's all about. Music as universal communication. In this case, a lullaby with a simple but emotionally potent arrangement. A global recital staple, both sung





and "sung."



I find it indescribably haunting, expressing the intense tenderness (sadness?) that comes with caring for a small child.

Here's my favorite version, by the Brazilian soprano, Elsie Houston. (My profound gratitude to the person who shared this with me--this was apparently never released and has only been available on test pressings). This is the kind of performance that attracted people like Harry Partch to her--no recital hall projection here, but soft, intimate, a real lullaby, and if you know the Elsie Houston biography, devastating.

End of Geocities means End of my Shonen Knife page

Wow, the end of an era in so many ways. For a limited time only, a link to my Geocities Shonen Knife page, laid out in tables and associated with a defunct email address. I will let it fade away... [And yes, I am aware that the headline sounds like something out of The Onion.]

America's Sonic Weapon redux

Here we go again. Jazz Diplomacy, this time aimed at the Middle East. Appears we'll be using a lot of "soft power" tactics in the next four years.

Here's a link to this widely distributed AP story from the CBS News site.

Here's a video version from Reuters (I could only find the Arabic version).

Constantine Dima jazz
Uploaded by Zouaghi25. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Actually, Dimajazz looks like a good time.
Here's a clip of Minnesota blues man, Bernard Allison (one of the beneficiaries of the State Department program).

Dear Fu-Fu

Interesting thing about the most recent Deerhoof album, Offend Maggie: Satomi sings a lot of it in Japanese. We saw this a little bit on Green Cosmos (originally intended for a Japanese audience) but this is the first time it's been fully integrated into the act. Maybe it's just for this album--Offend Maggie's reincarnation theme is all about blurred and shifting identities and the Japanese-English movement helps to produce that effect. But I find it also draws attention to cross-language puns (the so-called soramimi). I hadn't noticed, for example, the band's name itself is a near homonym in Japanese pronunciation for "Dear Fu-fu"--Dear Husband and Wife. Now that Greg and Satomi are married this actually takes on some significance. Also interesting--they've been touring with Experimental Dental School (another US/Japan Dear Fu-fu).

Why is this funny?

Jumping to the top of the popurls list is this clip from SNL, featuring a "Japanese" version of the Office. I'm serious. Why is this funny? Anyone the least bit familiar with Japanese TV knows that the workplace, complete with buffoonish boss, is in fact a stock comedic context. So the whole set-up of the gag, that it would be "funny" for The Office to be set in Japan, is wrong. Is it funny that everyone is speaking intelligible (and very bad) Japanese? Would it be as funny if everyone were speaking French poorly? Or is this all an Albert Brooks-like exercise in making the audience squeam? I honestly don't get it. [And don't get me started on the "wacky" Japanese commercial parody.]

Radiolab on Songs that Cross Borders

I thought I should mention a couple of segments from Radiolab's most recent podcast. One on the popularity of American country music in Thailand and Zimbabwe (one key, it seems, is the simulation of "crying" by both voice and instrument (steel guitar). The other on the sad story of Afghan pop legend, Ahmad Zahir (the "Afghan Elvis"). The first speaks to the universality of some musics' effect on us. The second to the intertextual/intercultural nature of pop music.

SUPER ZIZEK

I don't even know what this is. But the reference is no accident. Slavoj is IT.
[UPDATE: What it is is pretty damn good.]