Metha -(Yom Al Ahad)- ميثاء - يوم الاحد

The United Arab Emirates is not generally where you go when looking for traditional Arab culture--that's Yemen.  Nor is it where you usually go when looking for Arab popular culture--that's Lebanon. UAE is best known for its pampered princes, oil wealth and a resident population less than half of which is native-born--no connection there. Typical music in UAE consists of a dozen or more blokes singing what sounds like battle hymns of the republic, and the presence of women is almost nil, resigned to window dressing in the few music videos that feature an actual narrative. That doesn't mean there is nothing, though, and this lady embodies it well...

Wanda - "Schickt mir die Post" (official)

Austria is easily lost in the European shuffle, what with only 8.5 million souls, but once upon a time it was one of the main players, and not long ago it was.  One of my early revelations as an international traveler was that, "We listen to the same music as you: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and all the rest."  Huh?  Can that be true?  But why?  Is rock-and-roll a condition of the English language?  Hmmm...  But that's not so true any more.  As the American music scene stagnates, Europeans are taking up the slack. Maybe they just needed some time, yeah, that's it, time...

zapaska - nie ma ryby

Ukraine has lots of good music, which you probably already know, if you're a fan of hard-rocking party-hearty Gogol Bordello or the mostly-femme-freak-folk project Dakha Brakha aka ДахаБраха that have both struck world music gold in the last decade or so. Interestingly the former is nowhere to be found on random searches of Ukraine music, though the latter is all over, as well as an apparent spin-off project Dakh Daughters (no, they're not really so ethnic themselves, but literally riffing on it). But I like Zapaska. She's fresh.  The title of the song means "there are no fish."

Bajofondo - El Mareo

Argentina is so lost in its own legend, that it's hard to find music there that isn't tango, or in some way related to it. So about the best that you can do is 'neo-tango' or some other such fusion genre that attempts to go beyond the typical sex-and-sultriness that qualifies as a musical genre when combined with the same three chords in the same minor keys over and over and over. That means Bajo Fondo or Gotan Project, and from there it's a toss-up. I get to talk about Gustavo Santaolalla or Lunfardo 'slanguage'. Both are ex-pat groups, the former in LA, the latter in Paris. Gustavo Santaolalla is a renowned award-winning LA producer and film composer in his own right, and on this song paired with Argentine rock legend Gustavo Cerati. Did I mention that Argentina also has rock music? BTW if you listen to much tango, you'll need to pick up some Lunfardo, in addition to Spanish, which specializes in 'vesre', reversing syllables to ensure exclusive intelligibility only with the inner circle, usually criminals. Thus 'tango' becomes 'gotan'. Get it? Clever, huh? Hmmm...

Mbilo Mbilo-Eddy Kenzo[Official]

Uganda is one of the brighter spots in the sometimes-tortured continent of Africa, and this guy seems something like the Pharrell Williams of it, a pleasant surprise in a modern world where frequently the best music is old music, go figure...

Arrow 1990 - Hot Hot Hot

If you're looking for some signature tune from a country as small as Antigua and Barbuda, you might just have to borrow a number from a nearby island that's even smaller, like UK colony Montserrat. But if you're thinking that this is just some cheap kitschy knock-off of David "Buster Poindexter/New York Doll" Johansen's 1987 US hit, then think again, because it's just the opposite: this is the original, the real deal, with some nice guit licks in the background, too...

Alfredo Zitarrosa - Adagio en mi país

Sometimes to find a county's best work you have to travel in time,
not space. Such is the case with Uruguay, IMHO. Alfredo Zitarrosa is
something of a Uruguayan national treasure, with loyal fans all over
Latin America, but I'd never know that if I hadn't stumbled across him
after a fortuitous riffle through dozens of modern Uruguayan 'remixes'
and pseudo-hiphop and generic pop best described as EDM boom-boom-boom
with random lyrics slathered on for effect. Zitarrosa is a champion of
the common man, and his themes reflect that...

Os Gambuzinos Kaluma

Wow! Who knew that Angola (Angola!) had some of the trippiest music in the world c.1972? Os Gambuzinos or Os Mutantes? This was still Overseas Portugal at the time, of course, so maybe this was where European hippies went to get all freaky--or not. It stands in stark contrast to what is now a pretty grim music scene, variations on sex and rap and all that crap, full-on female ass-end crotch shots, macho male posturing, and soft-core porn posing as pop music. Oh well, at least it livens up the slum scenes, keeping the kids happy. Still, all in all, I prefer the 70's. Eu sou desta geracao!

'Floating Weeds' by Yasujiro Ozu, the Shakespeare of Film...

I feel that it's very important to review a film in a timely fashion upon its release, so as to add whatever two cents might be necessary or desirable to influence the narrative. So, considering that 'Floating Weeds' was released in 1959, I figured it was about time to rush out this review so as not to nudge up too close to my self-imposed hundred-year deadline. No problem: time to spare...

'Bird in the hand', 'two's company', 'pride goeth before a fall', 'like father like son', 'apple didn't fall far', 'honesty is the best—you get the idea. Call them cliché if you want. Or call them the classic themes of literature—and film: truth, goodness beauty, love, jealousy, pride, revenge, so on and so forth. No one called them cliches when Shakespeare articulated them brilliantly, and all he had were words.  Now imagine Shakespeare in chiaroscuro...

Feruza Jumaniyozova - Alla

With Uzbek music, the first challenge is to get the Russian out, in order to find what is really Uzbek. That's not so easy as it might seem at first, since Uzbek girls are cute, too (and almost everyone has Russian surnames)! But, in fact, the Russian language is not used much in the local music, though Russian-style pop music is a very popular genre, replete with longing looks, fabulous coifs and sad good-byes. But is it Uzbek? Then there are the old-fashioned 'classics', with their minor keys, clarinets and dirges. It's all good. When I was there, I listened to the radio by day, and hung out at weddings by night.  But I like Feruza the best I think, she from Khorezmia, with ample Arab influence, video here with slices of Uzbek life. Compare to MGMT's 'Kids'...