Around the world in a column
Jul. 9th, 2009 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusMomus
Playground column, July 2009
Travels of a Chameleon
My beloved readers! How are you doing? What have you been up to? It's been too long -- almost three months! -- since last we met.
I'm not quite sure how it happened, this gap in communications. It's partly because I went traveling. I spent a month in New York with only an iPod Touch to keep in touch. I imagined I'd have something to tell you about the music scene in New York, something I could tap out on the iPod's tiny keyboard. But in the end I was so busy doing other things that I hardly saw any live music.
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The only new band I discovered this time in New York was Twi The Humble Feather, a trio who play acoustic guitars and sing in ways that remind me of the Animal Collective (though they're a bit tired of that comparison). In the video lounge at the back of Monkeytown in Brooklyn I saw the Twi trio play a refreshing, relaxing set accompanied by the quirky projected animations of Nobuko Hori, one half of the Matsuri-kei girlband Groopies.
When I got back to Berlin, a funny thing happened. Kyoka, the other half of Groopies, brought the touring guitarist from the metal band Korn round to my house. It turned into a real-world re-enactment of my last column, in which I attempted to scandalize my own internal "good taste Taliban" by listening to music I wouldn't normally tolerate.
Shane Gibson sat on my sofa and politely watched the Mower videos I cued up for him, before taking control of my bluetooth mouse and showing me songs by (ahem!) "progressive metal" bands Sikth and Meshuggah. I made polite noises, but my inner Taliban hated them.
Metal music out of context doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. I heard a nice example when I attended Dexter Sinister's "documents opera" True Mirror Microfiche at the ICA in London in late June. Hunched at overhead projectors or standing stiffly at podiums, actors and art world personalities performed press releases and read pages of text, interrupted occasionally by a guitarist and drummer who played very short, very loud phrases from a Napalm Death song. The dryly cerebral texts were beautifully counterbalanced by the aggressive spurts of grindcore; the dream collaboration of Apollo and Dionysus.
But the music that's touched me most over the last couple of months hasn't been Western, and hasn't been rock. I heard street musicians in the Athens district of Kerameikos playing the most beautiful Balkan mountain music on accordion and clarinet. I held a pajama party at my flat in which we played only Greek Orthodox church music and the music of the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey, and it was the most fun party I've ever had; we whirled till our skirts spun high!
Most of all, I was impressed by an American called Jonny Olsen, who's become a big star in Laos and Thailand singing his own version of the local folk music. As the No Age blog explains, Jonny was a skate kid in California who started working in a Thai vegan café and, through it, fell in love with Thai culture.
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Jonny Olsen moved to Thailand, mastered the language and several traditional instruments, and began making records. He's now a pop star there and in neighbouring Laos -- an incredible cultural chameleon, and an example to us all. With love and dedication, anything is possible!
Translated from the original Spanish by a robot chameleon. Tip of the hat to the Pulled Up blog for putting me onto Jonny Olsen.
Playground column, July 2009
Travels of a Chameleon
My beloved readers! How are you doing? What have you been up to? It's been too long -- almost three months! -- since last we met.
I'm not quite sure how it happened, this gap in communications. It's partly because I went traveling. I spent a month in New York with only an iPod Touch to keep in touch. I imagined I'd have something to tell you about the music scene in New York, something I could tap out on the iPod's tiny keyboard. But in the end I was so busy doing other things that I hardly saw any live music.
[Error: unknown template video]
The only new band I discovered this time in New York was Twi The Humble Feather, a trio who play acoustic guitars and sing in ways that remind me of the Animal Collective (though they're a bit tired of that comparison). In the video lounge at the back of Monkeytown in Brooklyn I saw the Twi trio play a refreshing, relaxing set accompanied by the quirky projected animations of Nobuko Hori, one half of the Matsuri-kei girlband Groopies.
When I got back to Berlin, a funny thing happened. Kyoka, the other half of Groopies, brought the touring guitarist from the metal band Korn round to my house. It turned into a real-world re-enactment of my last column, in which I attempted to scandalize my own internal "good taste Taliban" by listening to music I wouldn't normally tolerate.
Shane Gibson sat on my sofa and politely watched the Mower videos I cued up for him, before taking control of my bluetooth mouse and showing me songs by (ahem!) "progressive metal" bands Sikth and Meshuggah. I made polite noises, but my inner Taliban hated them.
Metal music out of context doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. I heard a nice example when I attended Dexter Sinister's "documents opera" True Mirror Microfiche at the ICA in London in late June. Hunched at overhead projectors or standing stiffly at podiums, actors and art world personalities performed press releases and read pages of text, interrupted occasionally by a guitarist and drummer who played very short, very loud phrases from a Napalm Death song. The dryly cerebral texts were beautifully counterbalanced by the aggressive spurts of grindcore; the dream collaboration of Apollo and Dionysus.
But the music that's touched me most over the last couple of months hasn't been Western, and hasn't been rock. I heard street musicians in the Athens district of Kerameikos playing the most beautiful Balkan mountain music on accordion and clarinet. I held a pajama party at my flat in which we played only Greek Orthodox church music and the music of the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey, and it was the most fun party I've ever had; we whirled till our skirts spun high!
Most of all, I was impressed by an American called Jonny Olsen, who's become a big star in Laos and Thailand singing his own version of the local folk music. As the No Age blog explains, Jonny was a skate kid in California who started working in a Thai vegan café and, through it, fell in love with Thai culture.
[Error: unknown template video]
Jonny Olsen moved to Thailand, mastered the language and several traditional instruments, and began making records. He's now a pop star there and in neighbouring Laos -- an incredible cultural chameleon, and an example to us all. With love and dedication, anything is possible!
Translated from the original Spanish by a robot chameleon. Tip of the hat to the Pulled Up blog for putting me onto Jonny Olsen.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-08 11:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-08 11:38 pm (UTC)[Error: unknown template video]
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 12:17 am (UTC)NY bands
Date: 2009-07-09 01:51 am (UTC)-David
trumpery.tumblr(dot)com
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 03:23 am (UTC)likes/dislikes
Date: 2009-07-09 04:15 am (UTC)I really rarely listen to them but they are really fun. And like all good bands, they get better, and try different things with each new album.
but yeah funny mr.Korn had the, lets refer to it as gall, to put you through his little 'lets show mr.momus the cool metal bands that are out there' time... wtf, people are too predictable.
twi this humble feather, is also good, but ah, hmmm, I cant dis them, but not the most exciting thing on this planet.
Jonny Olsen... I"m using a computer right now that doesnt have sound... that is I cant cue up his sound right now, so... no idea, but the general story about him falling in love w thai blah blah blah... is sooo cool. Really just cool. He decides thats what he wanted to do, and did it. Awesome. Plus, you know... Thai girls are VERY HOT! thats cool too.
the picture w you and mr. Korn HAHAHAHA that is funny. try that one again now that you have a shaved head... you'll be jumping up and down, pulling him off of the dj console and playing him your most insane cool music... Yeah! lets see how much mr.Korn likes it when the tables are turned!!!!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 04:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 04:43 am (UTC)cultural CLOWN
Date: 2009-07-09 04:54 am (UTC)" I worked in a Thai restaurant and I am enamored by
your womenyer kullll-chur. "This THIS!! is the endgame of fetishizing Asian women. You are exposed for the culture-appropriating little sniveling swine that you are.
I hope this dude gets beat down by a gang of real Thai pop stars. Fall in love with that! Get your butt back in the kitchen!
Re: cultural CLOWN
Date: 2009-07-09 05:51 am (UTC)just saying...
Re: cultural CLOWN
Date: 2009-07-09 06:02 am (UTC)but I just wanted to add here...
that there will be no ENDGAME for this fetishizing Asian women... that you speak of... it will just keep going... growing and growing in your head, and everywhere... until... no. there is no until... it will just keep becoming more... this is just the start... asian women will slowly... (in a slight of hand trick 'they' often pull) will suddenly, out of what appears to be a fetishized coffin... will suddenly take over the world... and thats that. just you wait. you will by law, need to prove that you have, and activly are, fetizhizing asian women... in the future.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 06:58 am (UTC)But I think there's also something of a Zelig about him. I think he's probably a very bright Jewish-American nerd who's able (or perhaps it's a compulsive disorder and he can't help it) to replicate whatever cultural environment he finds himself in -- a "human chameleon".
Re: cultural CLOWN
Date: 2009-07-09 07:35 am (UTC)I have to say I find this odd. What are "real Thai pop stars"? Do they have to show their birth certificates, passports and blood groups? A little cranial measurement thrown in for good measure? Or how about some paperwork to show they've "paid their dues" on the Thai club scene?
The big message I get from Olsen isn't really about Thai women at all. It's that an American patiently and skillfully learned, adopted and disseminated someone else's culture rather than merely evangelising for his own. I think it's very praiseworthy, but he's being treated in some quarters like a cultural version of the American Taliban (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_Lindh).
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 08:04 am (UTC)You're asking Momus this?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 08:17 am (UTC)hmm
Date: 2009-07-09 08:51 am (UTC)He has a song called "Gued Pit Bon" (Born in the wrong place).
Laotian and Thai woman love him.. but I find him a bit corny. A good Khaen player though!
blimey!
Date: 2009-07-09 09:16 am (UTC)that is, utterly, utterly, a post-post-modern gathering
would he be welcome back chez toi again?
Dale
Re: blimey!
Date: 2009-07-09 09:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 09:30 am (UTC)not to forget mr. bungle, boris and kayo dot!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 09:35 am (UTC)is there a recording of the dexter sinister session at ica?
Takeo Ischi - a Japanese Jonny/Jero
Date: 2009-07-09 10:05 am (UTC)Here he is, performing a song called "Ich fang den Tag mit einem Jodler an" (I start the day with a yodeler) ... and then goes on singing: "es ist so schön, daß ich hier leben kann" (it's so nice that I can life here)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 10:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 10:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 10:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-09 11:40 am (UTC)perhaps this video will better elucidate his appeal: