Stories about Music from February, 2007
Senegal: Youssou N'Dour Cinematic Debut
California-based Congolese blogger Alain Mabanckou has nothing but praise for Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour's big screen debut in Amazing Grace (Fr):”to see the few clips featuring Youssou N'dour, I think we'll need to to follow him closely. His future is bright if he chooses to concentrate exclusively in this direction...
Martinique & Guadeloupe's Music Opened French César Awards
Martinique-based Internetrapide.com was happy to see the music of Martinique and Guadeloupe featured on the French equivalent of American Oscars(Fr): “The mistress of ceremony of the 2007 edition of the César Awards kicked off the show … by singing a boisterous zouk song, true invitation to celebration and travel.” He...
Colombia: Radio Cápsula
blogsColombia recommends the fantastic internet radio program Radio Cápsula with its focus on Colombian and Latin American electronic music. Archives of the Creative Commons-licensed show can be downloaded as podcasts.
Turkey is Typing….Food and Music
I'm reaching in a different direction this week. Let's talk Turkish food and music. Zen in the Kitchen talks about the simple pleasures in eating bread with fresh olive oil. Tastes of Mavi Boncuk gives us a background to the history of the Turkish national drink Raki, and Almost Turkish...
Russia: Moscow Night Clubs
Two-Zero reviews Moscow's club scene – here and here: “There we were, 3 Westerners with Berlin style club wear against a huge club full of young and mostly beautiful rich Russians with any designerwear you could think off.”
Taiwan: Flying Saucer Houses
Photographed by CantikFoto In Green Bay, Taipei County, there are some abandoned houses. Due to their appearance, they have been named ‘flying saucer houses’ by many people in that area. According to Echo-Maan, who lived in that area decades ago, the houses were built around 30 years ago by Tian...
Cambodia: PopStar Shot At
Sopheak writes about a Cambodian pop star Pov Panha who was shot in broad daylight on Feb 23.
Jamaica: “Satan is Real”
Unreconstructed racists the Louvin Brothers, composers of the country classic “Satan is Real”, “would have been horrified to know that just near the equator hundreds of negroes were loving their music,” writes Marlon James, in a post touching upon reggae's roots in country-and-western music.
Serbia: Kosovo “Deadlock”
Balkan Baby writes on the Kosovo “deadlock.”
Lusosphere: Reporting Carnival
Olha a cabra!! (parte 2) – Socoh.net After four days of official Carnival revelry — and seven weeks of regular preparations and rehearsals since the year started — Brazilians will finally start thinking about getting back to work. The interested reader will be pleased to see how blogs are full...
South Africa: music from South Africa
Vusi Mahlasela has released a new album, Naledi Ya Tsela, SoundRoots World Music reports: The new album, called Naledi Ya Tsela in Africa but translated for the March 6 US release to Guiding Star, features a raft of guest artists, including Derek Trucks and longtime Vusi supporter Dave Matthews.
Guyana: Carib Soca Monarch
MediaCritic has two posts (one, two) about the Carib Soca Monarch competition in Guyana, and a few photos (one, two, three, four) as well.
Ukraine: Truskavets and Lviv
Olechko writes and posts pictures of the Western Ukrainian town of Truskavets, as well as Lviv and its Opera House.
Touring Libyan Blogs
Equality among sexes in Libya? Yes, because now you have to pay attention to Libyan female pickpockets! This is what Khadijateri discovered yesterday when she went into a shop to buy some clothes. But Khadijateri was lucky indeed as she realized what was happening and used common sense. “Now, I...
China: MTV
An interview with a Hong Kong MTV director, Kahing Chan, who works in China MTV now. The interview touches about issues such as MTV style, censorship, future trend.
Syrian Blogsphere in a Week
We start off with a very special goodbye from Brian Anthony… Brian has lived, taught, and blogged from Damascus for more than two years, he returned to the US a couple of months ago… We all want to wish him the best of luck. This was his last goodbye post...
Haiti: Carnaval preview
Karlito previews this year's carnaval celebrations in Haiti, predicting that singer Sweet Micky, “will rock Champs de Mars”. He also reports that the new web site http://www.haiticarnaval.org/ will carry a live feed and frequently updated photos for “the diaspora’s viewing pleasure.”
Caribbean: Another music download site
de cooler: soca news announces the arrival of Faluma Digital, a new Caribbean music download site.
Valentine Special: Is Love in the Air in the Middle East?
If a picture says a thousand words, this is the image Cece, who is based between Bahrain and Kuwait, has posted to sum up how she feels about Valentine's Day. Although she isn't alone in shunning the tradition, which is fairly new to the region, for others it is a...
Africa: Toko Blaze Live Video
Arkayog posts (Fr) a video of a performance by Ivoiro-Cameroonian French reggae artist Toko Blaze who — if you aren't yet confused — was born in Niger.