HONOURABLE MENTION pt 2 (Updated)

The most requested song in Morocco when people see I have a guitar. Why? It's 'igh quality but also because this song is in all of the English books. So I heard this in training, when preparing for the talent show,in Nkob and Tazarine and Taroudant and again and again.



Piano piano amore - ironic because few singers match as mutch passion and verve as this guy.



''The nights they are dreary, an' these Southern eyes are teary as I wonder how the old folks are back home...''

Ask a Moroccan person who the best American singer is and you'd be surprised to hear how many answer : Dolly Parton. This one's my favorite, with my memories of the Smokies. One Dolly Parton fan in PC, Ali (an American) discovered her counterpart in a 12 year old who told her that very same thing!

The next few came courtesy of Anthony, who spent much of Summer Camp El Jadida 2010 with me in front of his laptop, helping fill me in on the metal groups that I hadn't heard about.




And lastly, Dinosaur Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dLIPTOUH51I

Top Hits of 2010 - on my iPod

It wasn't so long ago, huh? I stayed up late and watched the French celebrity-packed (supposedly? Got me!) telecast. A nice message on my phone, a little early because of the time difference, and so began a crazy year.

SO, HERE'S to a 2011 filled with great new music, and old friends to share it with!


The start of the year... the Haiti earthquake. And, the music? That's live! Tennessee pride, baby...






La luz al final del camino... Light at the end of the road. Lots of her songs made my top 10 -- Loca, Waka waka (third most viewed YouTube video ever, and less than a year old-- they freakin' teach this song to kids in the schools in Morocco now...) plus Mon Amour, way back when I thought she was done for the year with all of the She-Wolf success... Now, I know you've seen those videos a ton. Somebody's seen Waka Waka 280,000,000 times, and I know/hope it wasn't just me that racked up that huge tally. So here's two songs by her you might not have heard. Sale el sol (above) and my favorite one from the English album, Mon Amour.






Two from Mexican ladies:





Heard both of these women on Alt.Latino from NPR (but not yet on my iPod) And couldn't be more different! This lady's voice is spot-on for a h*rd-on (I just coined that and already filed a patent, so if you ever use it you got to send me a dirham in the mail-- sorry Mama if you read that, but I dont think you made it this far into my top hits list).

Find more music like this here: http://www.npr.org/series/alt-latino/











The language I speak badly on a daily basis, but in itself a damn good tune. Same one, studio version:






This one is going to be in my movie someday.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tp6sJuUUn4g#t=3s

The lady I heard the most:

Heaviest rotation on my playlist, two times more than any other song, easily. It's what I feel my life is/should/might be like. And certainly parts of the year, I felt like a young member of the jet-set, even on my salary of 200$/month.







HONOURABLE MENTION:



Two of my favorites, both great people, doing what they do well. But it's a little flat, and a little weird, and the English words are so ethereal, fluffy compared to the Spanish part. Like each singer wrote their part separately and showed up the day before to see if it worked. But this kind of duet is to be lauded!


And the song I've had in my head every since my Moroccan cousin and brother -- I've got to stop saying 'host' cousin and 'host' brother, it's useful but it's limiting after seeing them each day for the past 400 days -- asked me to transcribe the lyrics. And I had to hear it a dozen times to get it just right.



AND: GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN, JAMAS






And just for fun



Been playing a lot of 80s ballads on guitar the past little bit - Hartmut's German visitor, Barbara, and Larbie, Moroccan English teacher in Tazarine have given me my fill of Whitesnake, Extreme, Scorpions and Knockin' on heaven's door.

And lastly an old favorite from the year I started driving - so you know I've got strong associations with this.

Just bought two Sade tickets...

Her most famous one:

Playlist for December

I played this one at my guitar lesson and brought tears to my student Fatima's eyes. I hardly ever listen to the real version, but its one that's just so light and delicate, where they get everything right. Whenever I play it, I always strum the chords too much -- better is just strum each one once and let your voice do its magic. But here at the cyber on these speakers I can really hear the walking bass line, and like that a lot.

I like what this person wrote on the YouTube wall for this clip :

Paul was the heart

John was the mind

George was the soul

Ringo the joy

And maybe George wrote very few songs for them, the ones he did are my favorite.

Change of tempo - Vintage Metallica -- four years after Lennon died?-- This is the first song I played in front of my whole grade in middle school with my two friends. One of the heaviest, most intense and straightforward melodies and riffs in rock music. One that the fans dont talk about much but that's always been included in their live show.



If you've got the answer, just leave me alone.



This one's for Mae! I maybe will see Sade this summer on her European tour, first one in 17 years. Soon as I get paid next week and have some extra dirhams to throw around!

As much as I love rock, I'm really an RandB man. Lover not a fighter. Or both?
Or maybe this last song is a good in-between of the two...? (Those in the know, I'm trying to incorporate this into LITTLE WING, when Ecko is feeding on bugs and playing his guitar for the first time)



There.

2010

When the last group of Youth volunteers went back home, there was a poignant and too-honest article printed in that issue of our magazine Peace Works. This was the ''real'' Description of Service that each volunteer completes and that is kept on file for the rest of our lives in Peace Corps HQ. I've already got one there, before too long I'll have another and this weird time in my life will be condensed into two pages.

The sanitzed version of this vol's D.O.S. likely bears little resemblance to the actuality of spending nearly 800 days in this country. What he wrote in this one went something like:

In my two years of loyal PC service, I've :

--gotten ghiardia 4 times
--seen every episode of the Office twice
--seen all 10 seasons of Seinfeld, some of them multiple times
--Watched Friends on repeat during the month of Ramadan
--read all four Twilight books again before watching the newest movie
--learned to wash clothes by hand / almost never did this, though (since its cheaper to spend one dollar on a new pair of jeans at souk)
--Etc. etc.

Try as I might otherwise, mine is shaping up to be similar. With no computer anymore--good riddance!--I've not been able to consume whole seasons of anything. Even when I did, I watched one movie a month. Books, though, are different: when everyone goes to sleep at 9, and you stay awake another 4 hours, well, you're not going to be teaching English to anybody.

If you're curious, you can see the books I partook here (http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2550185-benji?shelf=2010), plus another dozen I've not finished and another dozen that I read during training.

But these are things I could have done anywhere! Over the next week or two, I'll try to think of the things More Moroccan that Ive done here that cant be replicated anywhere else. So watch out for it!

-------
A nice conversation from yesterday:
A: i have relinquished all control of scheduling with my host family

i only hope to get things done on time

10:00 PM B: on time? what does that even mean here...?

7 minutes

10:07 PM A: exactly

10:09 PM B: B-) soon you'll say, ''alaska inshallah*'' just like the best of them

2005 Ben near Merzouga (Detail)

*Ah, it can wait till tomorrow, no hurry. God Willing.

New photos

The sun is finally back out - inside and out.
These are all out of order but Blogspot kind of sucks.
Find more of Zituna's here: http://picasaweb.google.com/oliviadibiase
and her blog : http://livinmorocco.tumblr.com/

The new Zagora crew! And a Ourzazate person.

And an old-face (but one still a face only 1 year 4 months old - hardly a wrinkle!)

They visited me in my town, to welcome them aboard.

The best part of Peace Corps, maybe? Sharing what we learned, culinary-like.
(or put differently, the way that make-up-please-forgive-me loving can be the most powerful/earth-shattering, you get 7 Americans that have been fed little American food in so long...)

**Please don't mention the fact of having two different socks on... I'm grateful to have any at all, and you should be too! :)






Just to show you again -- we had guacamole, corn and beans burritos in home made tortillas; plus a 2 kilogram bag of cookies, plus a dozen mille-feuilles, a big bottle of soda, and some asian style lightly cooked green beans ''oh, i forgot this is how good that veggies taste when they are still crunchy..)

While we ate we had a special visitor

And before you know it, alone again. No worries.

A good day for Africa

Internazionale Milano - or, somebody named Internacional, I couldnt tell you who exactly because I cant find it online-- lost the semi-finals yesterday in Abu Dhabi when they played against Mozambique, a historic win for this African team, being the first African team ever to advance to the finals in the Champions League. A resounding win for them, 2-0.

Somehow, I cant seem to find this anywhere online, Im starting to wonder if it really happened..?
Even though I saw the last 40 minutes of the match and the funny way the goal player bounces on his butt. But in the meantime, I found these African artists highlighted on NPR's All Songs Considered and so I'll share that with you! The last one is most like the music I have around here. And my favorite African song at the moment is after that. There's another really good Mozambique song from the '30s but I've not been able to find it, one used in a Werner Herzog movie that I adored.

Reblogged from here:
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/13/131242872/5-new-african-bands-that-blew-up-in-2010

December 13, 2010

This past year has been good for new music from the more established names in African music, including new releases from King Sunny Ade, Salif Keita, AfroCubism (with Toumani Diabate, Djelimady Tounakara and Bassekou Kouyate) and many more. But great new artists have emerged, as well, with auspicious recording debuts and first tours of North America and Europe.

Below are five of the best. I've been lucky to have two of these artists perform for my KEXP radio show, Nneka (click to hear the session) and Burkina Electric (click to hear the session), as well as have the producer of a third (Manu Chao of SMOD) stop by, as well. The five artists below show the incredible range of new African music, with African traditions brought together with hip-hop, soul, electronica, blues and rock. The music shows the continuing fruitful conversation between Africa and America, with often startling and original results.

African Artists To Watch

SMOD, 'SMOD'

• Song: Fitri Waleya

An exciting new hip-hop trio from Bamako, Mali, SMOD is led by Sam Bagoyoko -- the guitar-playing son of the celebrated Malian couple Amadou & Mariam -- who's joined by rappers Ousco and Donsky. They were discovered by producer (and world-music star) Manu Chao when he was producing the groundbreaking "Dimanche a Bamako" for Bagoyoko's parents a few years back. Chao returned to Bamako last year to record this young group's self-titled debut, which combines clever and hard-hitting political rap with appealing African guitar lines. The result is an engaging new sound of Mali, with a strong dose of Chao in the mix. SMOD has been touring Europe in 2010, and its album is set to be released early next year by the alt-Latin label Nacional, which is also home to Manu Chao.

Source: YouTube

Nneka, 'Concrete Jungle'

• Song: Suffri

Neo-soul poet Nneka is a next-generation international African star: Her father was from Eastern Nigeria, and mother from Germany, so she grew up in two worlds, and her music draws on influences ranging from Fela Kuti and Bob Marley to Mos Def and Lauryn Hill. Her band is also international, featuring excellent musicians from Brazil, Cameroon and the U.S. Her American debut album features highlights from her two European releases; its songs had already made her a star in Germany, France and the U.K.

Source: YouTube

Burkina Electric, 'Paspanga'

• Song: Ligdi

With its original mix of electronics and African sounds, Burkina Electric is led by Austrian-born Lucas Ligeti, a talented drummer and composer -- and son of the well-known classical and film composer Gyorgy Ligeti. The younger Ligeti has brought together several singers and dancers from Burkina Faso, led by singer Mai Lingani, along with African guitarist Wende Blass and German electronic artist/mixer Pyrolator. The result is a truly original sound; it's unlike any other African music. Mostly based in New York City, the band performed a memorable concert this summer in the rain at Central Park Summerstage, and is now working on a follow-up to this excellent debut.

Source: YouTube

Razia, 'Zebu Nation'

• Song: Omama

A new voice from the troubled island nation of Madagascar, Razia Said emerged in 2010 with an exciting debut, as well as her first festival and concert appearances in the U.S. Now living in New York City, she's written songs about the environmental challenges facing her homeland, with a sound firmly based in the distinctive rhythms and melodies of Madagascar. She brought together several great Malagasy musicians for her debut, including guitarist Dozzy (from Njava) and accordion wizard Regis Gizavo. It's an auspicious debut from a rich musical tradition.

Source: YouTube

Tamikrest, 'Adagh'

• Song: Aicha

The emergence of the Tuareg band Tinariwen from the desert of northern Mali has brought a number of acts out of obscurity. One of the best of these young groups is Tamikrest, which brings a rock 'n' roll aesthetic to the Tamasheck songs of the Tuareg; the band's debut shows off a willingness to rock. American guitarist and producer Chris Eckman (of Walkabouts) met Tamikrest at a festival in the desert, then returned to Mali to record its members at the Bogolan Studios in Bamako last year. If you like Tinariwen, or if you listen to electric blues, you're bound to love this band.

Source: YouTube

*

Ex-Peace Corps Morocco director (and high-level ambassador)

Everyone knows this guy. Too bad he's gone. Little known is that Richard Holbrooke was part of our family, a past PC Director of our program in Morocco .

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/12/14/richard.holbrooke.richard.roth/index.html?hpt=C2

and this :

http://www.examiner.com/international-affairs-in-kansas-city/richard-holbrooke-the-death-of-a-peacemaker

''He also served as the director of the Peace Corps in Morocco in the early 1970’s as well as the assistant secretary of state ''

Why is it you continue to grow, only to feel like you still havent learned anything? A realization about this came today: its because you bounce from side to side, action and reaction, and only rarely get synthesis. A very windy road, and you gradually get wiser. PC is like that, but its also raining and you keep running your car into the ditch! It's very literally the mountain road in the Andes in Bolivia.

I've become much more aware of what it means to be a Tennesseean. I learned what it means to have a nationality, and more importantly what that does not mean. In the epigraph to my favorite book RAYUELA, it says : There's nothing worse than to represent a country. I like being in Morocco, often I love it, and the trick to that sentence is that, instead, I'd much rather just have to represent myself. Especially when I'm sitting, like tonite, in the open air cafe alongside the street, and there's a more religious man-wearing the skull cap- with his chair pointed slant from his table, 90* to mine.

A friend of mine is trying to convert to Judaism. If you're aware, last week I was in Rabat and celebrated Hannukah with a Jewish-American family. They were giving her pointers : They don't want you to convert. They'll let you, but only after they send you through the grinder. They're going to haze you!

Similar to a religious convert, the more secular experience has many parallels to that. Just being here, you'll be beaten up in the same way. They dont (always) intend for you to suffer in order to earn your place in the new culture, but to adopt and manuever through their daily activities and life can be very a lacerating. Or, if they don't strike enough to make you bleed, at least they hit you hard enough to turn you purple all over. And the more time this occurs, the harder the punches can be.

The past two months were the hardest for me. Three weeks away helped a great deal. The fact is that the convert is always more rule-conscious than the locals are. And simultaneously, you are less conscious of where the flexible points buried in the rules, something that the locals utilize but that are hidden to you.

Then, you wear the rules less lightly. It becomes not second nature, but maybe a third or fourth nature. You still have the accent, but people dont have to ask you to repeat yourself. You do somethings automatically. This can be good; it can also cause havoc if you are too relaxed.

The chart PC gives us shows us these points. Acclimitization followed by new abrasions, followed by greater adjustment. Throughout the service you get these ups and downs. They say the mid point is the worst down you will get, at least until you go home and try to reassimilate (that's far worse, since your expectations are so loaded).



There's a story in TIME that I'll post here, saying how a study done related to testosterone levels and the body posture. Take up more space, and you can double the level of testosterone in your blood. Sit on the floor with your arms around your legs, and your testosterone level goes down. In a way, then, that's like what I've seen through these hard months. For 100 days here I had severe agoraphobia. The more I stayed in my room, the more I wanted to stay in my room, the weaker I felt and like that in a circle. Like in th Time article, and like they say in Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 Step Programs, Fake It Until You Make It. So, coming out again and again, firstly, made it less of a sensation in the street, less crowding me, plus being outside and being OK outside reduced those mental stresses.


Now I feel much more accepted by the community. The people have been much more humanized. The less generalizations, the better, and that's not cultural but personal as well.

One major change : Different views on alcohol vs. marijuana

A major lesson, though purely anecdotal: in Sefrou, Will S. told me that he feels their society has a much better vice than ours. So, in case you don't know, Islam forbids alcohol. Kif, or hash, or marijuana, is not good but its allowed. Just like many Christians believe its OK to drink but not smoke. So, Morocco is apparently the world's leading producer of marijuana. Likewise, they have the reputation as the crazy cousins of the Arab world, exporting their sex workers to other countrys -- or else, the men come here to go to the brothels they don't have back home (another point of difference, the people here are not allowed to masturbate, and so they are expected to go to visit prostitutes as soon as they're in high school-).

Their belief about what drugs are OK is exactly the opposite of ours. A cafe here, directly next to the police station, has people smoking marijuana there every day. The police came only when they heard people were drinking alcohol. Accordingly, they watch American movies where people sit at a table and wine comes, and this is to them as it would be to us, to hear of a dad passing marijuana around the table to his kids.

I'm all about sobriety, not for Puritanical reasons but for control. When Will said they have the preferable widespread vice, I've come to agree with him. In low doses alcohol is much better, ok, but that second, third, or fifth drink add up quickly, pushing you into a whole different level of danger that seemingly is not possible with marjuana. I asked Americans here that smoke and they say, ''Alcohol makes you do things you'd never do. Drive a car off a bridge, shoot somebody that looked at your wife in a funny way. Marijuana, it makes you stupid, sure, but your decision-making ability is not affected so strongly that you will sleep with a person unless you already wanted to. You'd never pick up the gun, or never think to slit your wrists or beat your wife.''

With this in mind, being around people here all day, I only feel uncomfortable when a person stumbles into the cyber after drinking the super-strong date wine. I couldnt tell you if a person was high or not, though I know my host dad smokes for three hours every night, 10 till 1230. It makes him paranoid, sure, but the only times he's backed me into the wall were after he drank his beers, yelling tashleheet loudly at me.

I suppose its not that I think marijuana is necessarily better now than the way I used to think of it, its just I've come to appreciate this society is a lot more peaceful overall because the stronger, more unpredictable and chaotic of the two is the one they try to suppress, rather than the other way around (which is what we do).

Well, something to think about. 'Nite!

ps - Last thought, having read the TEL QUEL article about prostitution and the Morocco Loco view of other Arab nations, I feel some kinship with the people. We also as Americans export our vices, in politics and in media, and rarely do people get a glimpse of what makes us great. That we are as popular as we are is hard to believe -- like the convert, I feel the excesses of where I come from more strongly than they do, because Im more rule-conscious... a tourist girl I saw yesterday, for example, came wearing shorts. Such empathy I had with this person and at the same time, how strongly I felt the Moroccan man now living in my brain shouting their opinions at me. Then you add, well, those wine glasses so often seen in our movies and our advertisements, and then how we export our pornography across the world -- San Bernadino valley, voila our American girls' prowess on display. And to hear anyone in this country wax poetic about how great America is, and Im astounded. I agree with them, and now more than ever*, but it's still an uneasy and surreal thing to try to imagine how they arrived at their enthusiasm.


*Im proud of the US because, together with the fact that its all pretty orderly, we're confident enough to be able to allow people to pursue questionable things that aren't mainstream.