Madagascan and and Latvian? Who would’ve expected that? It’s the combo I didn’t know I needed.
I’ve been a fan of Madagascan music since the ’90s. I’ll be digging into that on the blog at some point. Latvian music, I’ve barely dipped my toe in those icy waters.
Here’s one Madagascan song, just to give you an idea why I love it. How could you not? I’m especially captivated by the tubular zither known as the Valiha.
Linda Volahasiniaina plays Valiha
Coincidentally (or not, I have superstition about “signposts”), a wonderfully pagan member of our Unitarian church chose a Latvian song for the congregation. It kinda fit with her talk to go along with her talk on Ostara.
I loved gardening as a kid, but I have a bad back and I don’t know how to grow anything around here.
The soil might as well be on the moon and the weather is crazy. But I do know how to compost.
I learned it from Dad, although he was much better at it. He would have those compost piles smokin’. I’m in the city, but some country boy ways never leave. You don’t put that stuff down the sink, you put it in the ground.
Now it occurs to me I’ve created a pet. A shaggy, too-dirty-to-come-inside pet. When it’s healthy it smells the forest floor. When it isn’t, it smells like the garbage disposal. I feed it the food it needs and it starts smelling happy again.
It stays in the back yard and doesn’t do much of anything. Except it does. Slowly.
It’s like a really boring dog that Nigel doesn’t hate. A dog made out of lawn clippings and kitchen scraps.
It’s not a demanding pet, and it’s easier to keep alive than a jar of sea monkeys. Or the toads like the ones I used to keep in a terrarium once. (Poor toads. You deserved better.)
Whenever I can I feed and water it. Nigel pees on it.
It shows its gratitude by getting smaller.
It may not be as exciting as a dog or cat, or the rare sea monkeys that actually hatch, but I raised it and I have a responsibility to care for it. (Sorry toads from when I was a kid.)
Digging through YouTube looking for compost songs and most of them were just too ridiculous. So is this, but I can’t resist. Apparently Lorraine Bowen is a minor celebrity in Britain. She’s been on Britain’s Got Talent and other shows. Go through her channel. She is very good at ridiculous!
A few years ago I wondered if there was a chance I could convert myself from math ignoramus to math genius overnight. In my, let’s face it, old age.
I got the idea after seeing a documentary about Jason Padgett, a man who was basically the guy in the Pink Floyd song kicking around on a piece of ground. Then he became a genius after some guys kicked the shit out of him outside a bar.
After hearing him talk about how differently it made him see the world, I got jealous. I got partway into an algebra course on Khan Academy, before I realized I was using up my precious reserve of old man life force.
Only way it was ever gonna happen was to get kicked in the head, and most of the people who get kicked in the head that hard don’t become any kind of genius. Plus I’m allergic to getting kicked in the head.
Still I have this thing where I see things by people who do know what the hell they’re talking about and I want to understand it. No one told me in 9th grade algebra that I could use that shit on computers one day. They didn’t even have them in our school till the year after I graduated.
I wrote all my news articles on a manual Royal typewriter my first couple of years in the business. I’ll just have to settle for watching videos by people smarter than me and talking out of my ass. I’m WAY more talented at that skill.
Being the old codger that I am, I have “get off my lawn” moments. I can’t deal with autotune, for one thing – keeps me from getting into music I might otherwise like.
I just had a conversation with a friend about how growing up on the internet has turned Gen Z into aliens. We don’t get their memes, their references. I tried a couple of songs his teenagers like and it was nails on a chalkboard. To be fair, Dad felt the same way about AC/DC.
Still I believe there is talent in every generation, even that one. I usually find a young artist or band that impresses me. When I do, that gives me hope. The latest of those is Ren, a young musician who just went viral with his song “Hi Ren.”
To be honest, I didn’t quite get it. What even is it? Song? Spoken word poetry? Acoustic hip hop with an English spin? I wasn’t sure if I liked it or hated it.
But there’s something to it. It’s original. Inspired. I think the world has been craving something like that. As he states in the song above, Ren has been sick a lot in his young life (from effects of long misdiagnosed Lyme Disease). He’s been able to channel his suffering into something creative and amazing.
And wouldn’t you know it? As soon as “Hi Ren” went viral, Ren got sick again and will take several months to recover.
In the meantime give his other music a listen and don’t forget him. I’ve subscribe to his YouTube channel and will be going through his other songs.
I’m definitely going down a Polish culture rabbit hole. I found the most amazing singer, Kasia Mos. What a set of pipes!
The song above is from a project called Moniuszco 200. According to the venue: “New takes of compositions by Stanislaw Moniuszko performed by AUKSO Chamber Orchestra for voice, piano, synthesizer, moog, electric violin, bass and drums.”
The concert was captured in a gorgeous live album by the same name. Here it is on Spotify:
I didn’t know about Moniuszco, although I am very much into classical music. He’s a famous composer in Poland, “The Father of the Polish opera” (Belarussians claim him too). Here’s a detailed biography.
So I am so tripping right now. I just found out about muonium. It’s lighter than regular matter and has nothing to do with cows. Why do I care? I don’t know. I’m a little high. And a lot nerdy.
I barely learned about muons a few months ago. Another one of those atom smasher stories. That was hard enough for me to wrap my head around.
Usually, “they just discovered a particle” quantum physics news goes in one ear and out the other. I can’t keep up with all the subatomic particles they keep finding in labs. It’s voodoo to me at this point.
I pay attention to science news, but they keep finding things out. When I was in school, atoms looked like the solar system. People on the news were going nuts over something called a God particle a while back, but I didn’t bother to dig into it. I usually don’t care as long as it’s not gonna blow me up. I might get curious about it later.
Muons grabbed my attention, because they already have a commercial use. Like electrons only bigger? Still trippy, but particles you can shoot at stuff is something I get. They have lasers now.
Now I find out there’s a kind of matter called muonium, like a little bitty atom. With an anti-muon (anti-matter!) and an electron. So it’s an “atom” that’s lighter than hydrogen. It’s another one of those things in the atom smasher that lasts a fraction of a second, but it’s long enough to make compounds like muonium chloride and Sodium Muonide (!). It’s too much for my brain.
They discovered it in 1960. Never came up in school. That kinda pisses me off. Anyway, it’s all of my life late, but now I know another physics thing. Now when are they going to figure our how to make something out of it?
That last blog post about Polish music made me feel good. I love when people keep the old music and dances alive. You’d think I wouldn’t relate, being a mostly mainstream American. I used to think old music is for old people.
But looking back, I could sing along to “In Heaven There Is No Beer” and just like everyone else in my hometown. Parents at the football game acted like it was the National Anthem. And it was fun as hell.
It seemed crazy to me when we first moved from the Texas Hill Country to the coastal bend (close enough to catch a hurricane, too far to go to the beach).
Most folks listened to rock and country, just like everywhere, but German, Polish and Czech settlers had left their mark.
Area dance halls were hopping on the weekends. They played country or Tejano, but polka was still alive. You could hear it on the radio.
I never went to dance halls, but I got second-hand reports from friends. It sounded like a ton of fun. My religion (Baptist) thought dance halls were for sinner on their way to hell, like Catholics and Lutherans.
Along with the dancing — and Catholics and Lutherans — came alcohol. Lots of it. And it wasn’t a big deal to these folks. If they said they didn’t drink and you saw them with a beer, they’d go, “What? This is beer.” It didn’t even count.
I once saw a couple put beer in their baby’s bottle at a festival. My little Baptist heart was shocked, but it was a custom, probably going back to Germany or Poland. Baby goes to sleep. Parents dance all night.
It was a culture shock at first. We’d never been in a place where Baptists were outnumbered by Catholics. In more “Southern” parts of the state, alcohol was a sin. You had to be sneaky.
(Rule of thumb: Always take at least two Baptists fishing. If you just take one he’ll drink all your beer.)
It wasn’t a sin to these families. They could drink at dinner or at parties and the kids could run around and play, maybe take a sip of daddy’s beer. Totally wholesome. After a while you got used to it (did I ever).
I had to sneak around so some church lady wouldn’t rat on me, but I definitely got a taste for beer (I was a Budweiser guy. Shiner was nearby, but Shiner beer wasn’t hip back then. It was for old people.) Being a Baptist didn’t stop me at all. Though I was right there in church looking innocent on Sundays.
Never did learn to dance. (Why don’t Baptists have sex standing up? So people won’t think they’re dancing.) I used being a Baptist as an excuse, but I was really just shy and had no game. Baptists don’t care about dancing any more.
I still don’t dance. I’d just as soon not. But I enjoy watching others do it. It’s a great reminder that we’re human beings and not just consumers.
This is some weird weed. I think I just got polka.
I was just watching a Youtube video of this Polish folk group playing traditional music and the tune was really nice (I think it’s a waltz, but it’s in the ballpark). So the world folk music bug bit me as it often does.
Per Google Translate from Polish: “Piotr BIŃKOWSKI’s band entertains festival GUESTS!“
I’ve been into world music since the ’90s. I know some people hate the term “world music,” but I have to file it somewhere in my brain.
I looked through Zbigniew Mądry’s YouTube channel, which according to Google Translate says “On the trail of the disappearing traditional culture of the village.” Right up my alley.
The first set of videos was kind of a mindfuck, because I realized I’d been wrong about polka music for years. I used to think it was corny, something for old people. They used to play it on the radio in my hometown and all I wanted was some decent rock ‘n’ roll.
But now I know why polka is cool — because the fans know the words. There’s something exciting about singing along with all your friends and knowing the songs. It’s primal. It connects you to humanity. Those are the best parts of any concert. It’s why Queen at Wimbley Stadium was so good.
Here are a couple of cool ones from Zbigniew Mądry’s channel:
I’d say more about them if I knew Polish, but I love the way people know the songs. Culture you can’t buy or sell.
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