And best of all, there are several scenes of Narcicyst seated at the interrogation table, rapping, with dancing Abu-Ghraybish hooded prisoners, as his backup singers. Too much!
1. I just came across this article, "Edible Undies in the Muslim World," at Salon.com, originally published in Der Spiegel. The title is misleading, it's all about Syria's lingerie industry, which exports elsewhere in the Arab world."This allows the husband to nibble the underwear off of his wife's body," explains Hayek. The garment, which costs the equivalent of about $3.90, is available in a selection of flavors, including pineapple, apple, honey, chocolate and mango. "I probably sell 15 of them a day," said Hayek.
It refers to the book, The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design. I met Malu Halasa, one of the co-authors, at a conference in Holland in 2007, and posted about the book here."Our work is all about igniting the desires of a husband for his wife, so he doesn't go looking elsewhere. It's a good thing and there's nothing wrong it."
"There's no shame in religion," he adds...
2. I keep wanting to get back to the topic of the fez (tarbush) and its coolness. (Earlier posts here and here.) Here's a photo from the back cover of rapper King Sun's 1990 release, Righteous But Ruthless, which I have posted on previously, but without a photo. King Sun is wearing the black kufiya, and it's probably his producer King Shameek who is wearing the fez. King Sun belonged to the Nation of Gods and Earths (Five Percenters), as did so many leading rappers of the period. Although King Sun, like other 5% rappers, did not rap about the Middle East, the kufiya and the fez are examples of the 'romantic alignment' with Islam and the Arab world that was, and is, so common in Afrocentric circles. The album is well worth a listen, recalling the great work of Poor Righteous Teachers, who collaborate with King Sun on one track.
The dudes are Swedish producers Rob'n'Raz, who got equal billing with Leila K on this, her first release.
Just in case you were in any doubt whether or not the kufiya still maintained some political meaning, check out these images. They are from a report on al-Jazeera English about the April 6 pro-democracy movement and the role of bloggers in this struggle. It features an interview with my friend Gamal Eid, an Egyptian lawyer who is involved in the legal defence of the pro-democracy bloggers, and who serves as the Executive Director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information. The photos are from about 2:35 into the report, and they show a rally in favor of the April 6 movement, which called for a strike on that day. Notice how central to the event is the black-and-white kufiya, which is worn by activists who are chanting, and is held aloft as a kind of token of resistance, nationalism and democracy. And that's what it's about in Palestine, too.
Unfortunately, the movement was not able to generate much action on April 6, as reported by The Arabist.
2. Last month Human Rights Watch released a report stating that Israel's military had used phosphorus in an indiscriminate manner during its three week assault on Gaza, result in deaths and injuries to Palestinian civilians, and constituting a war crime. Did you know that the phosphorus weapons Israel used are supplied by the US, and that the white phosphorus shells are produced, in their entirety, in my state, at the Pine Bluff Arsenal?
3. You need to read Jace Clayton's review of two recent rai compilations. And you need to purchase both of them. I've posted about one of the tracks Clayton writes about, "Un gaou oran," here, on my mepop blog. (The video is a must see.) One of the compilations, 1970s Algerian Proto-rai Underground, from Sublime Frequencies, is only available currently as a download, but I believe it is coming out very soon on CD.
4. Also essential is Clayton's recent article about the Master Musicians of Jajouka. (By the way, Clayton records and performs as dj/rupture, and he runs the essential music blog mudd up!, where I am constantly snagging amazing mp3s.) Or rather, it's about the rival groups, the Master Musicians of Jajouka and the Master Musicians of Joujouka, the emergence of the feud, the kif-laden legends surrounding the group(s), a critical assessment of Talvin Singh's production of a Jajouka album in 2000, and more. Very smart stuff. (For more, see Philip Schuyler's witty and erudite article, "Joujouka/Jajouka/Zahjoukah: Moroccan Music and Euro-American Imagination.") Despite all the myths that Jajouka/Joujouka is freighted with, the Jajouka group puts on quite a lively concert. And there is a new recording that proves it. Check out Live Vol. 1 by The Master Musicians of Jajouka with Bashir Attar.
6. Then there is the sensational basketball player Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, a high school star from Springfield Massachusetts, who plays wearing Islamic dress, including hijab. She just beat the state scoring record, for men or women, topping 3000 points during her career. I'm very excited that she will be playing at the University of Memphis next year, and hope that a game with the University of Arkansas is in the schedule. The Boston Globe produced an excellent article about Bilqis back in February. More recently she was covered by Sports Illustrated. Unfortunately but symptomatically, the author, Selena Roberts, manages to link Bilqis' struggle for acceptance as a devout Muslima basketball player in the US to the issue of Shahar Peer, the Israeli tennis star who was denied a visa to play at the WTA tournament in Dubai in February. Roberts makes the denial out to be a "religious" issue, when it was in fact political, and had to do with the groundswell of protest against Israel's aggression in Gaza (December 2008/January 2009).
Our strategies and tactics will include asking progressive celebrities to wear it and to speak up for justice in Palestine. We also intend to promote the Palestinian-made kufiyeh as much as possible using all forms of publicity. And, last but not least, we will support the Hirbawi factory to the best of our ability and also encourage better quality production.
I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who is helping to promote the concert.
This is really wild, a leather kufiya, from Belgian designer Natalia Brilli, available from the new online shopping site Studiohomme, devoted to men's fashion. Only €546.00. What is interesting about this item, other than the materials and the price, is that it is marketed as a Keffiyeh. (More views of the item, and enlargements, here.)Officially launched on February 19th, 2009 this bilingual (English-French) e-commerce site targets the stylish man who is looking for luxury goods and fashion forward designers such as Flouzen, Unity, Comme des Garçons and recently added Alexis Mabille.
Created by Sebastien Roubaud and Arnaud Vanraet, the site also offers some editorial content via its “Journal” feature and the “designer interview” along with styling advice for its clients, how they actually implement the latter part is not quite clear at the moment.
Rema, who I met after the MESA panel where I presented my paper on kufiyas, told me about a Sex and the City kufiya episode. Finally, and thanks to Nadine, I have got hold of the DVD. It's from Season Four, Episode 17 ("A 'Vogue' Idea"). It's the episode where Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) attempts to write an article for Vogue (the "Mecca" for fashion writers, she calls it), but runs up against the bitchy editor, Enid, played by Candace Bergen. You remember it. It's always a treat to see Candace B. on the screen.
Carrie and her pals are having the usual foursome lunch together, after the meeting at Vogue, and Carrie shows up wearing this kufiya top.
This was way ahead of the curve. As you would expect from SATC. This would have been first broadcast on February 3, 2002, according to my calculations. Less than four months after 9/11, in case you didn't notice. Way before the kufiya fashion explosion that started in 2005 or so.
I shot these photos off my computer screen.
I've been meaning to write more about Arabesque, the truly amazing arts festival held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC last month, but, well, life has intervened. Maybe I'll finally get to it. In the meantime, please watch the live concert of Nawal, the truly remarkable vocalist from the Comoros Islands. (Click on the photo, here.) Unfortunately, you can't enlarge the video, but the music is really spectacular. In case you didn't know it, the Comoros Islands, located in the Indian Ocean, between Madagascar and Mozambique, is a member of the Arab League. I don't hear that much "Arab" influence here. The tarab music that is so popular in Tanzania and Zanzibar is much more "Arab" in its sound. Nonetheless, you must give it a listen. As a part of the Arabesque series, it expands our notion of what "Arab" culture and arts might be. The sound quality is quite good, so you can watch a bit and then just listen.
I learned about this book over ten years ago from Tony Mitchell, and have found it invaluable. I urge anyone interested in BrAsian politics and culture, fans of Fun'Da'Mental, Asian Dub Foundation, Talvin Singh, and the like, to read this book. Apparently it is no longer in print, alas! But you can now download it via darkmatter, the blog of Sanjay Sharma, one of the editors. Do it now! Read! Study! Internalize all the ideas! Go here.
I got this a few days from Ramallah Underground on Facebook. I'm reproducing it with their permission. I've been a big fan of the group for several years, I play them often on my Interzone Radio show, and I almost got to meet one of the group in Ramallah last summer. My time in Palestine was too short.
I've noticed that MTV keeps fooling with the un/availability of the trailer for "Taking the Stage" (Kufiyaspotting #44). So here are a couple of shots of Shaakira, who is the most prominent kufiya wearer in the trailer, in kufiya. They're taken from other footage, including this one.
Just when I think that the kufiya is now longer a very important fashion item, I spot this, a couple weeks ago or so, in the New York Times Style Magazine, Men's Fashion Spring 2009. Steve McQueen is the director of the acclaimed recent film Hunger, about imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. McQueen is also an accomplished artist.
A very astute essay from Michael Muhammad Knight, courtesy Goatmilk, which is running a monthlong series, “Facing Race: Muslims and Islam." Based on this essay, we'd all do well to keep track of this series.
I just now learned about this through Facebook. Very exciting. Hawgblawg readers, please attend, and send reports! Note that the shows are often in conjunction with screenings of Slingshot Hip-Hop, and that several shows have other guests on the bill, including the likes of Suheir Hamad, Abeer, Invincible, Dead Prez and Muhammad al-Farra of Gaza rap group PR.
