hawgblawg

Tahrir Traditions

2012-01-25T12:59:00.002-06:00

On the 1st anniversary of January 25, the day that the uprising against Mubarak was launched, I posted a piece on Sayyid Darwish and the Egyptian revolution(s), at the Merip blog. See it here.

Robin Wright on Arab/Islamic Hip-Hop

2012-01-11T20:57:00.001-06:00

Merip has a brand new blog, launched today. I intend to contribute posts on a regular basis--but I will not be abandoning hawgblawg by any means. My first was a meditation on how Robin Wright celebrates Arab/Islamic hip-hop in her book, Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World. Read it here.

And please check out the blog regularly. As of today, there are also posts by Chris Toensing and Laleh Khalili. Content will continue to flow.

Elliott Colla on "The Poetry of Revolt" in the New Egypt

2012-01-09T11:08:00.000-06:00

This was broadcast back on February 15, 2011, just 4 days after the toppling of Mubarak. Although so much has happened since then, this is still a very valuable document, since it is based on a deep historical knowledge of the literature and social movements that fed into the Egyptian revolt. Please listen.

Tahrir/Cabinet Kufiyas

2011-12-30T23:38:00.000-06:00

Here are some Egypt kufiyas, that date from the events around Tahrir and the Cabinet offices, around the weekend of December 16-18, when Egyptian military and security forces killed 17 protesters and wounded over 500. I have lost track of where I originally found all these photos, but I've given the photographers, or at least the agency, where available.

Ahmed Ali/AP

I believe this kid was one of the youngsters arrested. If I can find more info about him I will post it later. I worry about what happened to him.

Associated Press

This is one of the better-known photos of the events around the Cabinet sit-in, a photo of one of the several women who were badly brutalized by the military police, who appear to love to wield their long batons in a sadistic manner.

Asmaa Waguih/Reuters

I love this photo. One of the protesters, with his improvised head protector, takes a moment to read the Qur'an.

Dia/Associated Press

One of the many wounded revolutionaries, helped by a kufiya-clad comrade.

Ali al-Malky

These are protesters saving documents from the library of L'institut d'Egypte, which burned to the ground. The source is al-Masry al-Youm, where you can read about this calamitous event.

Rana Khazbak

This is a photo Sheikh Emad Eddin Effat, secretary general of Dar al-Iftaa, the body that issues Islamic fatwas (edicts), and one of the most famous martyrs of the protests, killed by a bullet to the chest on December 16. According to al-Masry al-Youm, Effat was considered one of Al-Azhar's moderate and progressive sheikhs. Effat's final fatwa forbade voting for parliamentary candidates affiliated with the Mubarak regime and former members of the dissolved National Democratic Party, who are known colloquially as the feloul. Effat based his ruling on the fact that regime remnants aspire to subvert Egypt’s post-revolutionary future through bribery and patronage.

American Eagle Kufiyas on Times Square

2011-12-26T22:03:00.001-06:00

Thanks to Nazli for alerting me to this, and sending me these photos, taken off the huge screens at Times Square, just a few days ago. I assume the screens are from the "77kids NYC Style Lab" that occupies the entire lower level of the American Eagle Outfitters' Times Square flagship at 1551 Broadway, which opened on July 20.

Yep, kufiyas go kid fashion. Kufiyas at the center of US commercial/popular culture. Is American Eagle trying to feed off of the incredible energy of the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring? Is American Eagle trying to co-opt and market street fashion affiliated with the top news stories of the year? You betcha. And will this stop activists around the world from wearing their kufiyas? Hardly.

Here is the ad for the 77kids line, that is up right now on the American Eagle 77kids website. Funnily enough, although the kufiya is featured in the ads, I can't find it for sale as an accessory, either for boys or for girls. Hmmm.

another Tahrir kufiya, and election analysis

2011-12-25T08:32:00.000-06:00

Monique Jaques/Corbis

Happy holidays. I've been collecting items to post, including lots of kufiyas from recent events in Egypt, but have fallen behind. I hope to finish up before the 1st of the year, before I have to make a new set of New Years' resolutions. Meanwhile, here's one, the photo that accompanies a very fine analysis of the Egyptian elections, by Yasmine El Rashidi, from the New York Review of Books. The title, "Egypt on the Edge," suggests a lot of danger ahead, but El Rashidi's tone is not, in fact, overly alarmist. But it is sobering. A few good suggestions as to why the Salafist Al-Nour party has done so well to date. One: a miscalculation by the Muslim Brotherhood, which has often shifted its position from supporting the revolution to wanting to clear out Tahrir Square for the sake of winning elections. El Rashidi suggests that this lost the Brothers some support in popular quarters. The Salafists, by contrast, were seen as straight shooters. Another miscalculation was by the "liberals," and particularly by telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris and founder of the Free Egyptians Party, who tweeted a cartoon with a Minnie Mouse in face veil and a Micky Mouse in full beard, suggesting the dangers posed by an Islamist victory. This caused an uproar and a huge loss of customers and profit. And possibly a loss of votes for the FEP, the most important "liberal" party.

There's a lot more here, please read the entire piece.

Time Magazine's Person of the Year: The Protester (many in kufiyas)

2011-12-19T00:55:00.001-06:00

You no doubt know that Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2011 is "The Protester." The protester who, for Time, set it all off, is of course Tunisia's Mohamed Bouazizi. Read about it here. And check out the photo essay, of protesters from around the world (and especially, of course, from the Arab world), by Peter Hapak. Three of the thirty-six items in the portfolio (some of which juxtapose two persons) feature protesters in kufiya. I reproduce them below:

El Teneen, a prominent Egyptian graffiti artist, wears a homemade gas mask.

Syrian activists Abdul Hamid Sulaiman, Rami Jarrah and Mohamed Abazid all fled the country. "I was tortured for three days, and that’s when I became more active and started using a pseudonym," Jarrah says. Right, his damaged iPhone.

An Egyptian protester, left, holds a spent shell casing found after clashes in Tahrir Square.
Right, protester Ahmed Aggour, a.k.a. Psypherize, an Egyptian activist, artist and blogger.

Sander Reijgers' Nike Kufiya Jackets

2011-12-18T23:18:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Omar for telling me about these. Sander Reijgers is a Dutch artist/designer. He came up with a series of Nike jackets (I don't think they really have anything to do with Nike, officially) which use the kufiya. He calls this designer series the "Cultural Contrast of Symbolism." I find the project rather uninspiring and behind the times, given that so many designers have been doing so many things with kufiyas for the last 5 or 6 years or so, without any kind of "artistic" or "theoretical" pretension, but rather, simply for profit. I've documented many of these uses of the kufiya on this blog. I'm underwhelmed. But for the record, check it out. This blog shows you all the photos of the project. The source is here.

Kufiya & Wardrobe Malfunction: Sofia Vergara

2011-12-15T23:03:00.000-06:00

I guess it was inevitable that a kufiya would show up in such a context. Sofía Vergara is a Colombian model and actress, and currently, a star in the ABC series Modern Family.

Today, it was reported widely (in venues that deal in such items) that she went out yesterday in see-through leggings. And of course, someone caught it on camera. The reports that I read completely missed the fact that she was wearing a kufiya. Huffington Post (which one would imagine would know better) called it a "grey cape." I suppose they were concentrating entirely on the leggings.

You can find even more photos here, courtesy TMZ.

I had previously thought that kufiya had ceased to be high fashion, as of 2009. Have the Arab Spring and the Occupy movements brought it back?

Volkswagen Polo, Viral Ad with Kufiya-clad Suicide Bomber

2011-12-14T23:06:00.002-06:00

Someone sent me notice of this ad three or four years ago. I just ran across the note.

It's a "viral" that seems to have been made to offend a lot of people and, perhaps, to embarrass a big corporation. A stereotypical Arab, wearing a camouflage jacket and a kufiya around his neck, gets into a Volkswagen Polo. He drives up to a sidewalk café, where a young woman sits holding her baby. The "Arab" pushes a button and blows up the bomb that is strapped around his midsection. There is a fireball inside the car, but it remains inside the vehicle, which remains intact, and there is no damage to anyone or anything outside it. The commercial ends with the statement that the Volkswagen Polo is "small but tough."

According to Snopes.com, it's not clear who is responsible for the ad.

Interesting, isn't it, that when this ad was created (2003?), the association between the kufiya and the suicide bomber was so fixed. It's come unglued since then, eh?

Shadya Mansour, The Kufiya is Arab - الكوفية عربية

2011-12-13T23:56:00.002-06:00

Many people have told me about this rap by Shadia Mansour, and the video, plus the more amateur ones that came out before this one. Thanks to all of you.

A new version of the vid came out in summer 2011, and here it is:

It's a powerful rap, a very well-made vid, and Shadia's delivery and her rhymes are compelling. The theme is: "they" are trying to take the kufiya, to make it into "fashion," in many colors, just like they have tried to steal our culture and our land and our dignity. But the kufiya remains Arab, and we hold on to it tenaciously. Please go here for the full lyrics, in Arabic and in English translation, courtesy, Revolutionary Arab Rap.

I am in general sympathy and solidarity with the message. But if you have been following this blog, you might guess that I have a somewhat different take on the international uses of the kufiya than Shadia.

First, the song and video to some degree undercut the message that the kufiya is Arab in some kind of essential way. Shadia raps,

هيك لبسنا الكوفية هويتنا الأساسية الكوفية كوفية عربية
This is how we wore the kufiya (our fundamental identity), the kufiya, the Arab kufiya.

But doesn't the fact that one is rapping, i.e., using a global cultural form, to express the notion of a fundamental or essential identity, problematize the notion of an essential Arab cultural identity? And what about the fact that M-1 of the progressive US rap group Ded Prez is shown at Shadia's side throughout much of the vid, wearing a kufiya? Does his presence support the claim that the kufiya is simply "Arab"? Or does it suggest that wearing the kufiya is a sign of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, something that anyone, and not just Arabs, can wear to make such a statement?

Second, there is the problem of the "they" who have made the kufiya into "fashion" and who have "changed" its colors from red-and-white and black-and-white. As readers of this blog will know, I've looked at this issue quite carefully, and I have found no evidence to show that Israelis or Zionists are responsible for the fashionization and multi-colorization of the kufiya. I believe it is fair to criticize the turning of the kufiya into fashion (although I think the issue is not black or white), but it is not a Zionist plot. Yes, there were a couple cases where Israeli designers tried to take advantage of the fashion trend, but this is a very minor part of the story. There are many more instances of Zionists making a fuss about the proliferation of kufiyas via the world of fashion (for example, the flap over the Urban Outfitters kufiya and the kerfuffle over Rachel Ray) than of Zionists successfully turning the kufiya into "their" national dress.

My position is: once Palestinians encouraged non-Palestinians to wear the kufiya in solidarity (which people started doing as early as 1970 or 1971), the kufiya ceased simply to be "Arab" or "Palestinian."

Moreover, many people wear kufiyas of all sorts of colors to express their solidarity with Palestinians.

And Syrian businessmen have been producing kufiyas, in many colors, and quite beautiful ones, for some time. You can even purchase them at the Arab-American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Moreover, the kufiya has been embraced by many as a kind of global symbol of resistance, at Tahrir, in Libya, in the occupy movement, and so on. I've documented this extensively.

Finally, to call the kufiya "Arab" is somewhat chauvinist with regards to the Kurds, who have used it for decades as a symbol of identity and resistance. They call it the puşis. Here's one example. I've not done much on the Kurdish uses, but hope to in future.

I'm not sure what sort of song you would do to get at the issues I raise (but hey, I'm just a blogger, not a songwriter), but I do think that Shadia falls a bit short in terms of articulating the complexities of the kufiya's uses, and I believe she falls back on nationalist rhetoric in a somewhat unreflective way. But I still like the song.

And I like the way she refashions that celebrated line from Mahmoud Darwish's poem, "Identity Card": "Record! I'm an Arab," and how she claims that the kufiya is her "identity card" (hawiya).

سجّل انا شادية منصور والحطة هويتي
Record it! I am Shadia Mansour and the kufiya is my identity.

Problem is, lots of us own those identity cards, and we wear them proudly.

DJ Haha, DJ Figo, Alaa 50 Cent and Sadat in Concert: Sha'abi Techno

2011-12-12T23:39:00.000-06:00

More sha'abi techno from DJ Haha and DJ Figo, with rappers Alaa 50 Cent and Sadat, in concert. The sound levels make it almost unlistenable, but it gives you an idea of how good these dj's and rappers are, and of how cool the shaabi techno scene is. Thanks to Elliott for this.

"Haha" in Egyptian colloquial, by the way, means either "funny" or "disgust."

Fadwa Suleiman: Syrian revolutionary, in hipster kufiya

2011-12-12T23:06:00.003-06:00

Check out this report from Al-Jazeera English on Syrian actress, star of TV, theater and cinema, Fedwa Suleiman, who has taken the side of the pro-democracy movement. She has been leading demonstrations in the city of Homs, the epicenter of the revolt. Of particular note is the fact that she is an Alawite, the heterodox Shi'ite sect, a minority in Syria, which forms the base of support for the Asad-led Ba'athi regime. Video clips of Suleiman, chanting on the microphone in Homs, typically show her wearing a purple kufiya. Purple kufiyas: no longer to be maligned as the insignia of the hipster or the empty-headed fauxhemian.

Here is a link to the full speech she delivered on November 11, together with an English translation. The Al-Jazeera report provides an excerpt. And here's a link to a BBC report on Suleiman's (or Sulayman) participation in the Homs demonstrations in early November. And a screen save, showing her with a black-and-white kufiya worn as a headscarf.

And here is a post from Razan Ghazzawi [see below], commenting approvingly of Fadwa Suleiman's speech of November 11, and noting how very dangerous it is for such a prominent Alawite to take a public anti-regime position.

Finally, here's another shot of Suleiman, leading chants in Homs, in the Khaldiya quarter, on December 9. Wearing a purple kufiya.

Screen grab from the above video:

Added December 14: I should note that Razan Ghazzawi, a Syrian-American, who blogged in support of Fadwa Suleiman last month and who I cite above, was arrested earlier this month and faces a 15-year prison sentence. Read about it here.

Thanksgiving: Beware the Sharia Turkey, Says Pam Geller

2011-12-06T22:11:00.000-06:00

Noted Islamophobe Pam Geller, who blogs at AtlasShrugs.com, recently asserted that Butterball turkeys are now certified halal, confirming the rapidly creeping Islamization of the USA.

The hysteria is Pam Geller's. The kufiya-clad turkey is courtesy TPM, which reported on this gem.

Gene Wilder as Rudy Valentine in "The World's Greatest Lover" (1997)

2011-11-28T23:18:00.001-06:00

Popular Orientalism

Kufiya, Bahrain

2011-11-28T23:14:00.000-06:00

I can't find the exact source of this. This is from the last week, photo by Matthew Cassel. A demonstrator hiding from the security forces.

Egypt Revolution 2.0 Music

2011-11-28T22:51:00.001-06:00

Madu and Wa'il 'Amr (of Taxi Band) sing ("'Aalu magnoun", "They all said he's crazy") for the latest round of Egypt's revolution. I love that these guys are smiling so sweetly, at a time (last week) when a full-scale war was raging, around Tahrir. I love the kufiya (predictable). And I love the lyrics to the song. One great line among many: "'aalou magnoun illi yahlim, masr tib'a ahsan, min ghayr ma yiruh 'a tahrir" (they all said, he's crazy who dreams that Egypt can be better without going to Tahrir).

The song is a take-off on this ad, featuring major stars, for the Egyptian mobile phone company Itisalat. It starts off with the actress Yosra (who I adore, but who turned out to be one of Egypt's stars who sided with the Mubarak regime.) Mohamed Mounir, who has supported the revolution consistently, is shown bumping fists with Yosra at the end.

Here's a spoof they did of the ad before the revolution.

And another version, done during the revolution. "Everyone thought we were crazy, but here we are, millions in Tahrir."

Thanks to Nermeen for all this info.

I think Robin is correct, that the Itisalat ad is borrowed from this song by Fred Astaire, called, "They All Laughed." "They all laughed when Christopher Columbus said the world was round." Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald: many have covered it. Wonderful to see it get to Egypt Revolution 2.0.

and yes, even yet more Tahrir kufiyas

2011-11-27T23:13:00.000-06:00

I got behind in my posting, due to Thanksgiving, and the misery of watching the University of Arkansas football team get "manhandled" by LSU. I'm now going to try to catch up.

Bernat Armangue/Associated Press

This is from the New York Times, Saturday, November 26. It shows a protester, injured in clashes with security forces, being carried away for medical care.

This photo, by Ali Garboussi, is from Al-Akhbar English. I love the way this gentleman has used the kufiya, and other scarves, to create a turban. This is from Tahrir, Friday, November 25.

This photo is also by Ali Garboussi, from Al-Akhbar English. Praying at Tahrir, Friday, November 25.

This photo, and the one below, are from an amazing photo album showing various ways that the fighters on Mohamed Mahmoud Street were protecting themselves. The photographer(s) is/are not credited.

From Maggie Osama's Photo Blog of Day 6 of the battle for Mohamed Mahmoud.

Mohammed Abu Zaid/Associated Press

This is a vendor on Tahrir, Thursday, November 24, selling gas masks to protesters. From the Brazilian newspaper, Folha.

Goran Tomasevic, Reuters

And from a photo album courtesy The Atlantic, showing a member of the security forces firing a shotgun at protesters, on either November 22 or 23. What's he doing in a kufiya?

AFP/Getty Images

Protester using kufiya to protect himself from teargas fumes. Tuesday, November 22.
From BBC Mundo.

Bahraini human rights activist Maryam Alkhawaja was on Tahrir Square in solidarity with the Egyptian democracy struggle on Saturday, November 26, and she tweeted this photo.

more kufiyas on Tahrir

2011-11-26T19:14:00.000-06:00

I found this amazing photo via twitter on Thursday. It was posted by Rehab El-Bakry (@Rehab_Elbakry). She writes: "Don't know who this guy is but he was at front lines. Who says heroes need a cap?"

The original source appears to be Albaraa -- but I can't figure out, at this moment, what that is.

Gifts for the hols

2011-11-26T19:01:00.003-06:00

I recommend these two items, from the very New York-based fine outfit ArteEast, doing its best to bring Middle Eastern culture to the metropole.

The Umm Kulthum brooch, for $130 cheap. Order it here.

Or the Art Papercups, which feature images of Um Kulthum (shown above), and, according to the website, Taheyya Kariokka. Essential for all your upcoming holiday festivities. Only $20. Order here.

Maryrs Street (Renamed by Tahrir)

2011-11-26T12:58:00.001-06:00

Maryrs Street (Renamed by Tahrir), a photo by Zadokite on Flickr.

music on Tahrir: well, maybe

2011-11-24T11:52:00.000-06:00

12:50 November 24, 12:50 Eastern.

music on Tahrir: not (but some rappers foresaw Egyptian revolution 2.0)

2011-11-24T11:19:00.000-06:00

Ashraf Khalil, in a fine commentary in Foreign Policy ("The Second Republic of Tahrir") writes: "unlike January, this isn't a festival; it's a fight. That old revolutionary spirit may be burning bright in Tahrir again, but nobody there would think of holding a concert right now."

I've heard or seen nothing that would contradict this. No youtube vids of anyone singing or anyone broadcasting songs. But let me know if I'm wrong.

On the other hand, the blog Revolutionary Arab Rap informs us that at least two Egyptian rappers saw what was coming.

To wit, Ramy Donjewan, in "Message to Tantawi" (I posted about him previously):

The blood of my brothers is so expensive, so precious, O Tantawi.
And we will NOT be threatened.
And what happened before can happen again
if our demands are not implemented.

And Ahmed Rock, in a video released on November 16, just 3 days before round two started, called "No to military rule" (Yasqut hukm al-'askar):

They seem to have forgotten who we are! They think that we're still scared!
We saw death in front of us and we stood there smiling!
We'll remind them, if they forget, that we're the generation of revolutionaries!
No matter how much the oppression against us increases, we'll break down all jail cells!

(Chapeau to Revolutionary Arab Rap. Keep the translations coming!)

and more kufiya's on Tahrir

2011-11-23T22:34:00.001-06:00

It turns out the three American exchange students at AUC who were arrested at Tahrir on Tuesday were wearing kufiyas, and gas masks, when apprehended. They were accused of throwing molotovs at the security forces. Here's the report on them from Egyptian State Television. And a report from CBS.

And here's another good shot from yesterday, by Mohamed Hossam Eddin, via Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Tahrir Kufiyas, November 21

2011-11-21T22:30:00.000-06:00

Latest count that I've seen, 33 dead Egyptian civilians at Tahrir Square since the start of the fighting, on Saturday November 19. The revolutionaries refuse to retreat. Kufiyas are there too.

This photo is from Sarah Carr, posted today on Facebook. Here's her blog.

Photo by JP Moore (Reuters), found here.

Photo by Tara Todras-Whitehill (AP), grabbed from here. This is from the 20th of November. The scene was much the same today, lots of people had to rest from the seemingly inexhaustible supply of tear gas that Egypt's security forces possess and are using very freely.

Cairo, Tahrir, Nov. 20

2011-11-20T23:30:00.003-06:00

IMG_9120.jpg, a photo by Mosa'aberising on Flickr.

This guy has made his appearance at Occupy Wall Street too! Here. And here.

Sheikh Imam, The Ballad of Beans and Meat (lyrics, Ahmad Fu'ad Nigm, 1970s)

2011-11-20T22:53:00.003-06:00

Sheikh Imam (1918-1995) was a leftist Egyptian singer, whose songs galvanized the progressive movement in Egypt, especially in the late 60s and the 70s, and particularly during the reign of President Anwar Sadat. He formed a duo with the great colloquial poet Ahmad Fu'ad Nigm (also written Ahmad Fouad Negm), who composed his lyrics. Sheikh Imam's songs (and Nigm's lyrics) were great favorites among the crowds at Tahrir during the insurrectionary days of January and February of this year. One of the songs that Ramy Essam was well-known for singing was "The Donkey and the Foal," with lyrics by Nigm. (I blogged about it here.)

One of his famous songs is "The ballad of beans [ful] and meat" (sometimes translated as, on the subject of beans and meat). It is in response to Sadat's economic policies, which involved an "opening" to the West and an attack on government supports for the poor, which had been a mainstay of Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser's policies. Today we would call Sadat's policies neo-liberalism. Sadat's officials urged the poor and working working classes to tighten their belts. Apparently at one time this involved arguing that they didn't need to eat so much meat, and that the staple diet of the poor, ful (fava beans) was perfectly adequate. (It reminds one of the efforts by the Reagan administration to classify ketchup as a vegetable -- to economize on school lunches -- and recent efforts by the Republicans in Congress to similarly classify pizza as a vegetable.) Sheikh Imam and Nigm saw this for what it was, and pushed back.

This video, usefully, comes with an English translation. A couple weeks ago I attended a talk on Arabic colloquial poetry by Prof. Clive Holes of Oxford, and one of the three poems he discussed was this one, by Ahmad Fu'ad Nigm. So below the vid, I've included his translation. (I hope he doesn't mind.)

Some big-wig in the government
Declared the other day
(Some "Dr. Muhsin" backed him up
In what he had to say.)
That scientists have proved it true,
Broad beans will do you good -
"Eat beans," they say, "and yet more beans,
For your health's sake you should!
Egyptian beans, especially,
Are bursting with protein,
No beans can touch these beans of ours,
There's fat in them, and lean!
Eat beans and beans! You'll feel as if
You've scoffed a joint of meat!
Beans make you sound in wind and limb
They'll fatten you a treat!
They're kind of, sort of, "vege-meat"
(Kebabs are so passé!)
So eat your beans, dear citizens,
Get high on beans today!"

"And add to that," said Dr. M
The medical concerns -
It's proven meat's a poison that
Brings on dyspeptic turns.
And even worse, research has shown
Meat eating causes crime,
Creates light-fingered layabouts
Who don't clock-in on time!
So summing up, Id have to say:
Meat eaters, one and all,
You're heading for a sticky end
In Satan's fiery thrall!"

But wait a mo', dear Dr. M
You well-fed hypocrite,
Your statements made 'officially'
Are just official shit!
They say the world needs brains like yours --
Well, give us your best shot -
If some madman like me blurts out
"Eat meat and die!" - then what?
You lot can eat your beans and live,
That's fair, don't you agree?
Don't try to pull the wool my friend.
Shove off and let us be!

More Tahrir Kufiyas

2011-11-20T22:31:00.000-06:00

Today was the second day of fighting between the pro-democracy forces and the Egyptian security forces, supporting the hated SCAF. Here is a great summary of what has been happening, from Jack Shenker of The Guardian.

And here are a couple photos, courtesy a photo gallery published today in The Guardian.

Khaled Elfiqi/EPA

Here, demonstrators are fleeing from the attack of the security forces. They retreated, but later, they were back, occupying the scare. Notice all the kufiyas.

AhmedAli/AP

Here are the security forces, the CSF, on the attack. Notice the guy on the right side of the photo, who has accessorized his uniform with a kufiya. Did he grab it off of a protester, I wonder?

Long live the extraordinarily brave people of Egypt. Down with the SCAF.

Kufiyas: from Tahrir to the NY Times Style Mag to Occupy to Sheets Energy Strips w/ Stoudemire

2011-11-19T23:29:00.000-06:00

Two friends kufiyaspotted for me today, and I found some of my own. Here's the round-up.

1. Amidst all the turmoil today on Tahrir Square, as the security forces attacked a few hundred camper-occupiers of the square, and in response, tens of thousands poured into the square to rescue it, to protest against the junta and its efforts to hijack the revolution and prevent the forward movement of democracy, and as battles erupted between the democracy forces and the thugs of the regime...

An enterprising salesman showed up in the evening to market his wares. It's autumn in Cairo, scarves are needed in the evenings, and especially, kufiyas, one of the insignias of the revolt, ever since January 25. (Here's the source.)

And there were plenty of photos from today of demonstrators in their kufiyas. Such as this one, courtesy The Guardian.

Khalil Hamra/AP

2. Then there is this, on p. 17, of the Sunday New York Times', The Winter 2011 Travel Issue of the Times Style Magazine. (A thousand thanks to Carolina for this.)

Interesting, no? Three designers (from Israel, Palestine, and the USSR), called threeAsfour, offering up designs from each of their respective traditions. Gabi Asfour (left, Palestinian) wears the Israeli design (based on the tiles of the floor of the Tel Aviv mayor's house), Adi Gil (center, Israeli) wears the Palestinian kufiya design, and Ange Donhauser (right, Russian, I guess) wears the Russian design. Although if you look closely you'll notice some kufiya patterns in the Israeli and that the Russian is wearing kufiya leggings. The line is called inSALLAm inSHALOm (pun on salaam and shalom and inshallah), and all the stuff is very, very, very expensive. (You can get a better view if you go to the link.)

Here is the website for threeAsfour, well worth checking out, and here is the very interesting video of their runway show, presenting the inSALLAm inSHALOm line at New York Fashion Week, September 2011. (They thank Sean Lennon at the end, so I suppose he had something to do with the soundtrack.)

threeASFOUR SS 2012 INSALAAM INSHALOM from threeASFOUR on Vimeo.

Check out the screencaps from the video:

This use of the kufiya in fashion has to be about the most interesting one that I've seen. It's telling that a Palestinian designer was involved. (And this, after I'd thought that the kufiya as high fashion phase had been over for at least a couple years. Is this the Tahrir effect?)

Notice that this uses the hand of Fatima, the khamsa (a symbol significant both for Muslims and Jews), and note the body suit and its kufiya pattern.

Note the blue evil eye symbols used cleverly here. And that under the sheer white dress the model is wearing, I guess, kufiya-patterned tights.

Kufiya patterned tights and hands of Fatima.

Red kufiya patterned dress over a kufiya patterned body suit on left. On right, more discrete black-and-white kufiya motif.

Here's a view from the back of that kufiya-patterned body suit.

Finally, the threeAsfour designers, after the show.

Finally, here's a piece from New York magazine on the emergence of threeAsfour from As Four (they lost the Tajik fourth awhile back). You learn that Angie once got into a fistfight with Cat Power (Chan Marshall). Nothing revealing about Gabi Asfour's Palestinian background, of course.

3. I've posted before about #Occupy kufiyas. Here's one from a demo I was at on November 17, to mark the 2 month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, and in DC, to focus on the lack of funding for infrastructure, by marching from McPherson Square (site of Occupy DC) to Key Bridge, which links Georgetown to Roslyn, VA, and which needs fixing up. There were several kufiya wearers out that day (including me). This is my best photo of one.

4. Finally, Andie sent me this one. It's a new add for Sheets Energy Strips. On the left is NY Nicks B-ball star Amar'e Stoudemire, on the right (in yellow kufiya), Celia, a graphic designer. I haven't found the actual ad, just this. If someone can help me source this better, please let me know.

Kufiya virus spreads....

Another 'Glee' Kufiya

2011-11-19T00:09:00.001-06:00

Glee is turning out to be the most kufiya-laden mainstream TV show ever. First, Mercedes wore a kufiya, in season one, as my readers will recall. And now, in the current season, Kurt (in the episode, "Mash-Off," first broadcast November 15, 2011).

He goes into the office of Coach Sylvester, to complain about the negative campaign ads she is running on TV against his dad, in a congressional campaign. Coach Sylvester gives him some advice about running his own campaign, for student body president. At one point, while dispensing with her wisdom, she even makes a reference to the scarf he is wearing, when she tells Kurt, "Have a seat, Yasir." (!)

It is some kinda weird kufiya gear that he is wearing, because it's not only the khaki scarf, but he seems to be wearing it over some kind of black-and-white kufiya shirt, as you can see from this photo, in this view from behind. (Fox doesn't have the episode up on the web, so I found the episode up elsewhere, with subtitles in Czech.)

Thanks to Noa for lettin' me know about this.

More help for the last kufiya factory in Palestine

2011-11-16T22:47:00.000-06:00

Here's a piece from the BBC, on the last kufiya factory in Palestine, and how social media, to wit, a Facebook page called The Last Keffiyeh, has been set up to help garner orders from overseas. If you are on FB, please join. The publicity about the factory, plus the fact that efforts such as this have been established, seem to have given the Hirbawi factory in Hebron a new life. Go here to order yours. And wear it to your local occupy event.

Don't just read the article, but also watch the video, a good account by the BBC reporter who goes to the factory and also interviews Khalilis (Hebronites) to find out what they think. One thing I learned, besides the fact that orders from the US and Europe are helping to keep the factory going, is that the competition is not just from China, but also from Jordan and Syria.

John Lennon kufiya dress in Tel Aviv + Nakba

2011-11-15T21:57:00.001-06:00

A friend who was in Israel in summer '09 sent me this, and I'm finally getting around to posting it. Look closely: John Lennon, rendered with a kind of green kufiya on his head. At least that's what I "imagine."

He also sent me this one, also shot in Tel Aviv, which says, well, everything.

#ows kufiyas #39.4

2011-11-14T08:32:00.000-06:00

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

This photo is up on the New York Times homepage right now (9:15 a.m., EST, November 14). It illustrates an article about the problem of "noise," both from Occupy Wall Street drumming sessions, and World Trade Center construction, of NYC residents living near Zuccotti Park. Note the blue kufiya. Yeah.

Iconic Occupy Wall Street w/ 'V for Vendetta' Mask

2011-11-13T23:35:00.001-06:00

You've probably seen this before, it has been reproduced multiple times. I can't even find the original source. If someone knows, I'd like to give credit, if possible.

Pink's stripper-burka at the 2010 Grammys

2011-11-13T23:20:00.001-06:00

You will pardon me my posts are sometimes not "timely." I am going back through old notes that I've stashed in various places, and finding things that I meant to post much earlier.

Here's what Terry Sawyer, in Popmatters.com, wrote about Pink's appearance at the 2010 Grammys: "While I admired her athleticism, Pink’s performance was a yawning Cirque du Flashdance...I know all the fashion attention of the Grammys will rightfully center around Lady Gaga’s sci-fi burlesque, but Pink deserves accolades for debuting the stripper-burka with its pleasure trail neckline rendering of traditional Islamic dress, even if it ends up earning her a Salman Rushdie-style fatwa. Performances like this represent the quiet neutering of awe."

Frankly, I'm not convinced that Pink's outfit truly evokes a burka, or female Islamic dress of any sort. (Sawyer needed to consult something like the Huffpost guide to "veiling," the subject of my previous post.) But it's interesting that he thinks it does. You decide.

Huffington Post's Guide to Middle East Head Coverings (Women's)

2011-11-13T22:58:00.000-06:00

From burqas to burqinis to hijabs to niqabs, and more. By Anne Patterson. How interesting is it that this was published on January 25, 2011, the day of the beginning of the Egyptian uprising?

Review of "What Was the Hipster?"

2011-11-12T01:20:00.001-06:00

Ben Davis reviewed the interesting N+1 volume, What Was the Hipster?, for the Huffington Post back in April. I purchased the book and read it and have meant to post something about it, but...life intervened, as they say. And I didn't bring the book along with me to DC (where I'm living for the year), so I can't do it now. It will have to wait. In the meantime, check out Davis' review, critical, but fair. And he defends hipsters.

I found this bit quite interesting, especially in light of more recent events, to wit, Occupy Wall Street:

I graduated from college in 2001 with a degree in Humanities and Cultural Studies. With no idea what the hell to do with that, I went to work in a bookstore. All my co-workers had degrees in English or Philosophy, and we all had scorn for the dumb best-seller tastes of our customers -- in exact proportion to our keen awareness of the uselessness of our own cultivated tastes, the worth of which apparently topped out at $12.50 an hour. What do you do in that situation except be ironic? The U.S. economy in the last decade threw many more college grads into this same type of purgatory -- still relatively privileged, but going nowhere. My best guess is that it is this group, with its wounded pride and self-consciousness at its own superfluousness, that forms the basis for the Quentin Tarantino-esque aesthetic vogue for useless cultural trivia. (Tarantino, in fact, is himself a former video store drone.)

In the same period, the slowing of upward mobility has also meant that young people are living in more varied and precarious living situations for longer periods of time before settling down (or rather, before attaining "the means to compete and exploit the benefits of the metropolis on traditional grounds of income and class dominance," as Greif [the book's editor] prefers).

Here's a conjecture, which I think demands some on-site research: a lot of the so-called hipsters, formerly masters of irony and helplessness, have gotten involved in the Occupy movement. Above, Davis provides, I think, the experiential and economic grounds for why significant numbers of young(er) people have been so inspired and motivated and mobilized by this movement. Meanwhile, check out Davis' piece on Occupy and the Situationists.

One final note about the book, What Was the Hipster? It is a collection of articles and observations and therefore is not united by a single view. There is not a consistent mocking tone. I found it useful and interesting and a good read. But, as I said above, I didn't find time, yet, to do a thoughtful analysis.

Kamel Daoud, Raina Raikoum & Merzak Allouache: Harraga/s

2011-11-12T00:27:00.002-06:00

Kamel Daoud is a celebrated columnist for Le Quotidien d'Oran, a daily paper from Oran (Arabic, Wahran), Algeria. His column is called "Raina Raikoum," which translates literally as Our Opinion, Your Opinion, but it also of course resonates with the famous genre of music that originates in Oran, rai, as well as with the naem of the well-known rai group Raïna Raï, founded in Paris in 1980.

In April, Berfrois published English translations of several of his columns. I particularly liked his column about harragas, (from حراقة), the name for North Africans who migrate to Europe illegally, by boat. Harraga (in Algerian colloquial) means, literally, those who burn, and it refers to the symbolic act committed by many of these migrants, who burn their papers before they depart, so that it will be difficult for the receiving countries in Europe to repatriate them. It is a quite remarkable act, as it means, in a quite literal way, the destruction of one's "identity" before departure. It is also remarkable, given how essential one's papers are in everyday life in Algeria.

Here's the translation (by Suzanne Ruta), from Le Quotidien d’Oran, October, 2010:

Our harraga don’t leave the country because they are poor or jobless or can’t find a storefront to rent, even if that’s what they say. They leave because here, in this country, their lives are pointless, there’s no room to dream, and worst of all, there’s no fun, no laughter, no kissing, and no color. Men grow old before their time. It’s simple really. If you want an expert on emigration to understand the harraga, take him, empty his pockets, take away his cell phone, his address book, his salary, give him a pair of plastic sandals and two cents, an empty village and ask him does he get the point and by the end of two months he’ll say Yes. Because although rumor has it that Algeria is made up of cities, observation tells us it is made up primarily of villages and that in these villages – you have to see it to understand it – the boredom is unrelenting, unbelievable, unbearable, and inhuman. You have to be there to see the visceral nothingness, a boredom with no exit, an idleness that chills even the reproductive instinct… There’s nothing to look forward to but the post office at the end of the month and the mosque the rest of the time and the dull routine of burials and water trucks and brief, restless, unhappy marriages and the ailments of old age. Nothing youthful, nothing Technicolor, no joy, no enthusiasm. And this is the most simple, obvious and overlooked explanation for the harraga: the lack of leisure, not only in the childish sense of entertainment, but in the broadest, anthropological, anciently human meaning of the term.

In the villages, whose total square footage exceeds that of Algeria itself, no one has any fun… There are no swimming pools, no guitar music, no parties, and no winning soccer matches that are not controlled by hostile police. The mayors are glum and voracious, the mosques offer an inadequate response to the call of life, the roads are potholed, power outages are frequent, suicidal violence is latent. It’s only in the internet cafes that you sometimes see faces aglow with reflected light and get an inkling of another world that exists elsewhere. Otherwise there’s only sadness, ennui, the void. The same void that drove the younger generation to grow their beards and take up arms, today sends them to sea…ready to leave a country where even the president never smiles and is always angry about something.

I attended a conference last week at Georgetown University (Porous Nations? Migrants, Transnationals and Illegals in the Cinemas of Maghreb, Quebec and France) and heard a very interesting talk by Hakim Abder-razzak (University of Minnesota), entitled '"To Sea” or “Not To Sea”: North African Clandestine Crossings in the Mediterranean.' He stated that in contemporary Maghrebi cinema, the beach no longer functions as a space of leisure but instead, as a place that Maghrebis go to in order to look at and to imagine a different future, in another place, across the sea. He stated that, according to a recent study, 72% of Moroccans dream of expatriating. (So much for the happy kingdom.)

In addition, Abder-razzak discussed three films that deal with clandestine migration. Visa, a 30 minute Tunisian film, can be viewed (only!) on youtube. (Here's a link to part one; the other two parts can be easily found.) L'enfant endormi (2004, Morocco) deals with the women, and the fetuses, left behind.

Harragas (2009) is from the acclaimed Algerian director (Omar Gatlato, Bab El Oued City), Merzak Allouache. I have not yet watched it, but I am very keen to. As of this writing, you can view it here, online. With English subtitles, amazingly enough. Or you could purchase it through amazon.fr. From Abder-razzak's description, it sounded well worth a look. According to Abder-razzak, however, the film is somewhat inauthentic, in that, due to the funding sources, there is a lot more French dialogue than there would be in normal, everyday life.

Banning Eyre on Cairene Street Music: DJ Chipsy and DJ Haha and "Sha'abi Techno"

2011-11-10T23:24:00.001-06:00

Banning Eyre of NPR and Afropop worldwide was in Cairo this past summer, and did a nice piece for NPR (October 4) on music coming from Egypt's streets. Listen to it, or read it, here.

He calls attention to a couple of great dj's from Cairo's popular quarters. First, check out this guy, DJ Islam Chipsy. (In Egyptian colloquial, "chipsy" is slang for chips, i.e., potato chips.) This is amazing stuff, and as Chipsy tells Eyre, this is DJ'ing with a real Egyptian rhythm. One of the many remarkable things about this live clip is that this is recorded at some party or event in what is clearly one of Egypt's popular quarters. Next time I'm in Egypt, I want to go to that party.

This clip of Chipsy shows him playing at El Azhar Park. The recording is not as good as that of the first, but Chipsy really gets the crowd going. Notice the woman (who appears to be somewhat elderly) in higaab who is dancing! Here Chipsy's keyboard playing at times reminds me of the sound of a calliope. And I'm more impressed by the two drummers accompanying him (Khaled Mando and Islam To'to'), probably in part because you can see them better here than in the first video.

Here's another vid from the same concert. And there are lots more, that you can find if you search using the Arabic, اسلام شيبسى.

Eyre also mentions another artist, DJ Amr Haha, from Ain Shams, who I had heard previously. I think his stuff is really incredible, very loud, intense, autotuned, hypnotically repetitive sha'abi Egyptronica.

There is a lot of his stuff on youtube. Check out this track, identified simply as عمروحاحا 2010. Note how many hits it has. As of this viewing, 186,600. Some people are paying attention.

Here's another Ha Ha track, from August 2010, identified just as عمرو حاحا الجديد.
664,737 hits for this one. There are lots of Haha vids out there, just search for عمرو حاحا.

Here's a link to an article by Ola El-Saket, "The Shaabi music breakthrough," from Al-Masry Al-Youm (October 22), which discusses the emergence of this brand of Egyptian sha'abi music (she calls it "shaabi techno") in the early 2000s. These artists emerged, El-Seket says, as cheaper alternatives to hiring singers and dancing to perform at weddings in popular quarters. Eventually the artists started to hold street festivals as well, aimed primarily at young men in the popular quarters. There is a dispute between Amr Haha and Sallam City's DJ Figo (who I posted about last month, identifying him as DJ Vigo) over which of them invented the "shaabi techno" genre.

El-Saket also writes that "Shaabi music is very similar to rap and hip hop in terms of its inception, and the songs are not free from populist views on social issues. Haha for instance tackles how security forces intimidate people in one of his songs, titled “Your ID, Punk!”...

Figo also played his famous track about the revolution, which mixes Omar Suleiman’s famous 11 February speech with a techno beat."

(Hopefully I can find these tracks in future.)

Other names mentioned as part of this sha'abi techno trend are Alaa Fifty, Al-Sadat Rap, Wezza and Benzina. Hopefully I can find some youtube vids of these artists in future. In the meantime: you look!

Revolutionary Arab Rap: The Blog

2011-11-10T22:15:00.000-06:00

A new blog has been started, which focuses on Arab rap and its relation to the "Arab Spring." While I have been critical of journalists who have over-stated the importance of Arab rap in the insurrectionary events of the last month, that does not all mean that I think rap is unimportant, uninteresting, and, in many cases, excellent. A very important and useful new blog has been started, which I recommend highly, called Revolutionary Arab Rap. It has two features: (1) an series of in-depth analyses of important artists and tracks. As of this date, one very good one has been published, on Tunisia's El Général, of "Rayes Lebled" fame. Here's the link. Keep checking back, there is more to come. (2) An archive of videos with transcriptions of the lyrics in Arabic and translations in Arabic. This is a very, very useful resource, and I really wish more people with good knowledge of the language were doing more translations of Arabic song lyrics.

Bravo, Mr./Ms. Revolutionary Arab Rap blogger!

R.I.P. DJ Mehdi: dj/rupture's tribute

2011-11-09T23:31:00.000-06:00

This is a couple months late, but in a sense, it's never too late to pay tribute to DJ Mehdi, who died on September 13. DJ Mehdi, a French music producer, of French-Tunisian background, worked with, among others, Cassius, Asian Dub Foundation and Akhenaton. DJ/rupture did a terrific tribute to DJ Mehdi shortly after his death (on his blog mudd up!), focusing in particular on one of the best tracks he produced for French rap group 113, "Tonton du Bled" (from their album Les Princes de la Ville, 1999). As rupture says, "it was DJ Mehdi’s beat that brought everything together, that made the whole articulation danceable and audible to us outside of the Afro- Arab- Francophone rap world."

Yeah, it's a terrific beat.

Check it out. It's Rim'K (of Algerian background) who does all the rapping on this track.

I found the lyrics, and a translation into English, here. And I reproduce below, with a bit of editing.

Tonton du Bled

(refrain)
Je voulais rester à la cité, mon père m'a dit: "le le la"
Dans ce cas-là, je ramène tous mes amis? "le le la"
Alors dans une semaine je rentre à Vitry? "le le la"
J'irai finir mes jours là-bas? "oua oua oua"

504 break chargé, allez monter, les neveux
Juste un instant que je mette sur le toit la grosse malle bleue
Nombreux comme une équipe de foot, voitures à ras du sol
On est les derniers locataires qui décollent
Le plein de gazoil et de gazouz pour pas flancher
Billel, va pisser le temps que je fasse mon petit marché
Direction le port, deux jours pied sur le plancher
Jusqu'à Marseille avec la voiture un peu penchée
Plus de 24 heures de bateau, je sais c'est pas un cadeau
Mais qu'est-ce que je vais kiffer sur la place Guido
A Béjaïa City du haut de ma montagne
Avant de rentrer feudarr, je fais un petit tour par Oran
Vu qu'à Paris, j'ai devalisé tout Tati
Je vais rassasier tout le village, même les plus petits
Du tissu et des bijoux pour les jeunes mariés
Et des jouets en pagaille pour les nouveaux-nés

(refrain)

Je suis sur la plage à Boulemat avec mon zink et son derbouka
Dans la main un verre de Selecto imitation Coca
Une couche de Zit-Zitoun sur le corps et sur les bras
Avec mon pote sur un fond de Zahouania
On parle de tout et de rien, des Nike Air aux visas
De la traversée du desert au bon couscous de Yema
Et mon cousin me dit: "Karim t'kiifeut eul zeut la?"
Il était tellement bon que j'ai jeté mon cirage en ras
Avec deux, trois blédards on tape la discussion
Mahmoud ne peut pas s'empêcher de dire que je suis dans la chanson
L'un d'eux me dit: "Moi je t'ai pas vu à la tilivision"
Et l'autre me demande: "Sarra teurlof Mickael Jackson ?"
Ils parlent trop vite et en argot de blédard
Je sais ce qu'ils feraient pour une poignée de dinars, counard
Le soleil se couche et tout l'monde rentre chez soi
C'est l'heure du repas et de la teille, pour d'autres la chicha
J'ai passé un bon mois dans ce qu'on appelle le Tiers-Monde
Et si j'avais assez d'oseille, je ramènerais tout le monde
Mais je peux pas fermer les yeux sur ce qu'y se passe vraiment
Je dédie ce morceau aux disparus, aux enfants et aux mamans
Et je suis rentré à la cité en Rrbia
Content de revoir mes potos et ma chebba
Pendant deux semaines, j'ai mangé que de la chorba
J'irai finir mes jours là-bas inch'Allah

(refrain x2)

Uncle from the homeland

[Chorus]
I wanted to stay in the ghetto, but my father said me - No no no
In this case, let me take all my friends - No no no
So in a week, I'm going back to Vitry - No no no [Vitry-sur-Seine: a French "suburb"]
I'll go end my days there - Yeah yeah yeah

Heavy 504 estate car, come on nephews, get in [504: 4-door Peugeot]
Wait a minute while I put the big blue trunk on the rooftop
As large as a soccer team, the car is at ground level
We're the last tenants leaving
Filling up with diesel oil and lemonade, so as not to give out
Bilel, go piss while I do a little shoppin'
Direction: the harbor, two days seated
All the way to Marseille in a rickety car
24 hours in the boat, I know it's not easy
But I'm gonna have a freaking good time on Guido place
In Bejaia city, from the top of my mountain [Bejaia: port city in Kabylia, Algeria]
Before going back home, I take a little turn in Oran
Since I cleaned out the Tati shop in Pars
I'm gonna make the whole village happy, even the kids
Some clothes and jewelry for the newlyweds
Heaps of toys for the newborns

[Chorus]

I'm on Boulemat beach with my cousin and his derbouka
A glass of Selecto in my hand, imitation Coke
A drop of olive oil on my body, on my arms
With my friend, listening to Zahouania
We talk about nothing and everything, from Nike air trainers to Visa
From the desert's crossing to Yema's good couscous
Then my cousin says "Karim, do you deal drugs?"
It tasted so good that I gave him the shoe polish I had left [cirage (shoe polish) must mean something else here!]
With a bunch of homies we're discussing
Mahmoud can't stop himself from telling them that I'm into music
One of them tells me "I've never seen you on TV"
Another asks me "Is it true you know Michael Jackson ?"
They talk too fast and use some out-of-date slang
I know what they could do for a fistful of dinars, asshole
For a fistful of dinars, asshole, I'd "kiss" your sister
The sun sets and everybody goes home
It's dinner time, beer time and for others, bong time
I spent a good month in what they call the third-world
And if I had enough money, I'd leave taking everyone with me
But I can't close my eyes to what's really going on
I dedicate this track to the people we miss, children and mothers
Then I went back to my ghetto
Happy to see my friends and my girlfriend
For two weeks, all I ate was soup
I'll go end my life there, inshallah

[Chorus, 2x]

Kufiya affectation, courtesy shirt woot vs. New York magazine's OWS kufiya

2011-11-07T23:02:00.001-06:00

Shirt.woot launches a new original t-shirt design every midnight(central). This shirt design came in third in the Hipster Animals derby.

Along with a posted commentary (October 10), which included these lines:

"Personally, I’m sick of all these button-down mainstreamers giving me static about my scarf. “It’s September,” they say. “It’s basically still summer,” they say. “You can’t possibly be cold,” they say...“What’s wrong in your brain that makes a cheesy, affected fashion accessory seem more important to you than your physical comfort?”

Affected? Pshuh! “Dude,” I always want to say (before deciding to just sneer at them with silent disdain instead), “35% of the surface area of my body is neck. A scarf is essential for maintaining my core body temperature, OK?”

That’s right. Scarf life, y’all. Recognize.

On days when I wear a keffiyeh, though, that’s totally affectation, I’ll give you that."

More tongue-in-cheek hipster bashing. But then there's this. Is this "affected," shirt woot?!

Even New York magazine's cover story (October 24), which the image above thematizes, is much more positive than shirt woot, which tries to be cool. Although it does so in a kind of abashed, rather apologetic, but hopefully post-irony tone: "The Kids Are Actually Sort of Alright." Dude, seriously, let this sixties-era geezer tell you: these kids are way better than alright. Viva #ows.

I really, really, like that the person on the cover wears two, mixed-together scarves: an American flag scarf (we are reclaiming our country!) and a kufiya (we are inspired by the Arab spring and maybe, just a bit, by Palestine).

Tiariq Teguia's "Rome plutôt que vous"

2011-11-07T22:35:00.000-06:00

I saw this film at Georgetown last week and I want to put in a very strong plug for it. It's not been released for the English-speaking market, so it's only available with French subtitles. It's a kind of road movie, with a very New Wave feel, telling the story of Zina and Kamal trying to find a guy who is going to supply Kamal with a fake passport, so he can migrate to Europe.

One of the the elements of the film that I was interested was in how rai music plays an important function, at key points in the film. The film rarely has a music soundtrack, it's quite bleak, sonically, just as is the urban and suburban environment, much of the time. Only once do we hear some rai music, while Zina and Kamal and Kamal's friend Merzak are caught overnight in a suburb of unfinished housing, and they take refuge with someone who works in a pizzeria kitchen. At one point, the worker puts some rai music on the cassette player, and they all engage in raucous dancing. It's a moment of very intense, and surprising, emotion in a film that is otherwise characterized for the most part by lassitude and waiting and frustrated searching. You can see a moment of the dancing, but without the music, at about 1:27 on the trailer below.

At another point, Kamal and Merzak (if I remember correctly) are talking and one of them recites a line or two of poetry. One says, that's Cheb Hasni. The other says, or maybe Rimbaud. Cheb Hasni is the much-beloved star of the rai sub-genre known as "love rai," who was assassinated in 1994 by the Armed Islamic Groups. (Probably. Although some say he was killed due to a dispute over money, by someone in the mafia-like syndicate of rai producers.)

At the end of the film, Kamal gets shot, as he and Zina drive away. We have no idea who did it or why and the violence comes out of the blue. Typical of life in Algeria, especially since the start of the civil war in 1992 and the unleashing of the shadowy forces of the pouvoir, the Algerian state, against the Islamist rebels. Kamal says to Zina (presumably he is badly wounded, although we can't see the wound), he hears Cheb Hasni. She calls him an idiot. The film ends.

There is much more to this film than the rai references, but given my interests, nay, obsession with rai, that's what I've discussed here. Again, I highly, highly recommend this film.

Miscellaneous Orientalia: The Heads, "Relaxing With..."

2011-11-07T22:06:00.000-06:00

The Heads are a "stoner band" from Bristol, active during the 1990s. This is the cover of their 1995 album, Relaxing With...

Redolent with that sixties, hippy, Orientalist fantasy thing. Need I say more? (But I do like the music on this album.)

Ok, here's another Pat Benatar kufiya

2011-11-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

Because you wanted it:

Someone passed this on to me awhile back, but I can't remember who.

It turns out that this photo was used as the cover for the Japanese version of Pat's single, "Temporary Heroes," from her 1984 album Tropico. Here's the song, for the curious. No connection at all between its lyrics and the scarf Pat is wearing. Not that one would expect any.

Clearly, here, she is saluting the Palestinian cause, right? The US 12" single looks quite different.

I posted another photo of Benatar in kufiya previously, here. Here is a better version of the one I published earlier.

Hishaam Aidi on US attempts to use hip hop as a foreign policy tool and US media's over-estimation of the role of hip hop in the Arab Spring

2011-11-06T22:31:00.004-06:00

Please see this piece from Al Jazeera English by Hishaam Aidi, Columbia University, on hip-hop in US diplomacy. One of the points Aidi makes, which is also one of my peeves of late, is that 'the role of music should not be exaggerated: Hip hop did not cause the Arab revolts any more than Twitter or Facebook did. the countries in the region with the most vibrant hip hop scenes, Morocco and Algeria, have not seen revolts. Western journalists' focus on hip hop - like their fixation on Facebook and Twitter - seems partly because, in their eyes, a taste for hip hop among young Muslims is a sign of moderation, modernity, even "an embrace of the US."'

Thank you, Hishaam!

Here is a typical report, by Karl Bostic of NBC News, entitled "How Rap Fueled the Revolution." (It's not dated, but was broadcast in early September 2011, I believe.)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It claims, "Rap music has become the soundtrack of the revolution, and the symbol of resistance." I'm pretty unconvinced by a lot of what Bostic asserts. He presents two rather unimpressive Libyan rappers, who rhyme in English, and claims that Libyan rebels were going into battle inspired by local rap. The so-called "rapper" from Hama, Syria, who did the popular song "Come On Bashar, Leave," was not really a hip-hop artist, contrary to what Bostic states, but rather chanted, in traditional style, to a debke beat. (See Anthony Shadid's report on this song, and how the person who performed it, Ibrahim Qashoush, had his throat cut shortly thereafter, here.) Bostic does at least show that the person he says is Syria's most popular rapper, Murder Eyez, supports the Bashar regime, and that rap's appeal in Yemen is limited. It is true that rappers like Egypt's Deeb were active during the uprising centered at Tahrir in January and February, but I believe that he was of lesser importance in these events than artists working in other musical genres. I believe the only place where hip hop truly played a significant role was in Tunisia, and in particular, the rapper El General and his song "Rais el-Bled."

Hishaam also raises all kinds of important questions about hip hop cultural diplomacy. For a more in-depth look at the issues of race, hip hop, Islam, and foreign policy, please see Hishaam's recent article in Middle East Report (Fall 2012), "The Grand (Hip-Hop) Chessboard: Race, Rap and Raison d'Etat."

Cheb Mami watches "Ya Del Marsam" with Natacha Atlas and Aki Nawaz

2011-11-05T23:26:00.001-05:00

I'm working pretty hard and fairly steadily on the rai chapter of the book I've been trying to finish for ages, Radio Interzone.

Part of what I'm doing in the book is dealing with many of the myths about rai that have been spread, for about 25 years, about the music and the artists. A little over a year ago, I responded to a piece by Banning Eyre on NPR, which asserted that rai music was "banned" from Algerian state radio. I explained that it wasn't so much a ban as the encouragement of more "refined" and classicist culture, which the very idiomatic rai was not. I also wrote:

"The standard story told about rai is that the music didn't make it onto state radio until 1985, but it appears that the restrictions against rai were not iron-clad. For instance, Cheb Mami became known nationally in 1982 due to the fact that he performed on a very popular television show, Alhan wa chabab ("Melodies and youth"), a program devoted to discovering new talent. He also performed in a national song competition, singing "El Marsam." When it was announced that Cheb Mami had come in second, the crowd booed, believing that he should have come in first (Daoudi and Miliani 1996: 102)."

I've been working up this argument for the chapter. I had learned that "El Marsam" or "Yad El Marsam" as it is more commonly known, was originally written and performed by Cheikh Muhammad, a well-known artist from Oran working in the bedoui genre. Since there is a lot of material being posted all the time on youtube, from the rai tradition, I thought I'd see if there was a youtube of this song, by Cheikh Muhammad. I didn't find one, but I did find this very interesting vid. It shows Cheb Mami, wearing a t-shirt, sitting next to Natacha Atlas, with whom he is conversing in French, and a roomful of people, including Aki Nawaz (sitting on a couch, wearing a red kufiya, of course), watching a television screen that shows a very young Cheb Mami performing "Yad El Marsam."

The TV footage is probably from 1982. According to Daouidi (2000: 20), it was when Mami performed this song on television that he became well-known in Algeria. Note that Cheb Mami is backed by an "Oriental" orchestra, whose members are all wearing suits. (And isn't his vocal just gorgeous?) No electric guitar or electronic keyboards, no trappings of the "pop-rai" that was becoming so popular in Algeria at the time. (Here is Cheb Mami in a more characteristic mode.) Mami manages to get onto television because he is performing rai music from one of its respectable branches, the bedoui genre. Although bedoui was rural in origin and was not as prestigious as urban, Andalusian music, it could be made to fit within the national patrimony as "folklore." It did not have the risqué reputation of another of rai music's important roots, the music performed by the cheikhat, whose subject matter was more bawdy and whose image was tainted because the cheikhat frequently performed for mixed-gender audiences. It's the fact that Cheb Mami performs a song from the bedoui tradition that permits him, prior to the shift in state policy in 1985, when the regime (or at least its liberal elements) decide to take rai under its wing, to make it onto state media. The song he performed on the radio show Alhan wa chabab (referred to above), was "Wahran, Wahran," a much-beloved number written and originally recorded in 1950 by Ahmed Wahby, celebrated practitioner of ouahrani music, an urban genre of music developed in the '30 and '40s in Oran, and much influenced by the neo-classical music of Egypt, as performed by the likes of Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, Umm Kalthoum, and Farid al-Atrash. Here is Ahmed Wahby's version (I can't find a version by Cheb Mami):

Again, this entry of Cheb Mami onto the national media was via a performance of a song from one of the "respectable" roots of rai, the ouahrani genre. Wahby moreover, joined the Algerian National Liberation Front, going into exile in Tunisia in 1957, and was a highly respected national figure.

I posted this video on youtube a few days ago, and "tagged" Aki Nawaz (of Nation Records and Fun'Da'Mental fame), who is a "FB friend." He wrote that he didn't remember the occasion, but that back in the day (I assume the early to mid '90s) he and Fun'Da'Mental used to share the stage on occasion with the "chebs" of rai.

The very sad thing about this video, of course, is what has happened to Cheb Mami. Or rather, what he has done, and the inevitable consequences.

Cheb Khaled has also recorded his own versions of "Yad El Marsem" and "Wahran Wahran." And the ouahrani artist Blaoui Houari has also done a well-known version of "Yad El Marsam."

Kufiyaspotting #9*6^_)3: Jean Grae

2011-11-05T21:40:00.001-05:00

Thanks to John for this one. RCRDLBL_ says this about Jean Grae:

Jean Grae has been one of the most distinct and skilled voices in underground hip-hop for nearly 15 years. Her pitch-shifting, rhythmic, dip-diving flow and lyrics, heavy on allusive internal rhymes, was on display years before Nicki Minaj was picking up on it. On Grae's DJ Drama-hosted mixtape, Cookies Or Comas [get it here], you can hear this rollercoaster flow over and over again. The Boogie Blind-produced "Casebasket" is a sterling example [download here], with Grae's attitude-filled raps chipping into a chopped-up, funky drum loop, keeping it lean and mean.

What RCRDLBL_ doesn't tell you, and what I learned from this post about Jean Grae from Public Enemy Africa (also the source of the photo), is that Jean Grae is the daughter of famed South African jazz pianist Abdallah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand). She was born Tsidi Ibrahim in Capetown, South Africa, to Ibrahim and his wife Sathima Bea Benjamin, a jazz singer. The family went into exile in 1977, and moved to New York City. Holy Smokes, Batman!

She grew up in a household full of music, obviously. "At 13, she became the youngest dancer ever to earn a spot with the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, the second company of the famed modern dance company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre." She has appeared on recordings by, among others, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Immortal Technique, and The Roots. And has seven albums out under her own name. Why she is not a star, not widely recognized, I do not know.

Lupe Fiasco & Erykah Badu at Hip Hop Awards '11: #occupy, Palestinian flag, kufiya, burkah...

2011-11-02T23:14:00.002-05:00

Rapper Lupe Fiasco performed his song, "Words I Never Said," at the Hip Hop Awards 2011 on October 10. The performance was provocative in all kinds of ways that we like here at hawgblawg.

First, Erykah Badu backed him up on vocals (singing), dressed like this:

Yes, full-on burqa. And green fingernail polish. And a hat that makes her look, kinda like an Orthodox Jew? In any case, the most remarkable thing is the burqa. This does not mean that Badu (who in the past has laced her lyrics with the doctrine of the Nations of Gods and Earths, and who in the past used to dress in the style of an Earth, a modestly dressed female Five Percenter) has become a devout Muslimah. Rather, one guesses, she is expressing solidarity with the devout burqa wearer. Or trying, by putting the burqa on, to make it appear less strange, alien and exotic. I doubt it's a matter of burqa chic.

And then there is the matter of the banner that Lupe Fiasco has attached to his mike stand, a combination kufiya and Palestinian flag, with the word, Palestine stitched into it.

Avid readers of this blawg will know that Lupe was seen waving a Palestinian flag in concert on September 16, when he expressed his support for Palestine's admission to the UN. They will also recall that Lupe is a Muslim who doesn't hide it and that he has been spotted in a kufiya several times in the past. The real avid readers might also recall these lines from the song he performed at the Hip Hop Awards, "Words I Never Said":

Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I’m a part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people...

I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets...

Now you can say it aint our fault if we never heard it
But if we know better than we probably deserve it
Jihad is not a holy war, where's that in the worship?
Murdering is not Islam!

And you are not observant
And you are not a Muslim
Israel don’t take my side cause look how far you’ve pushed them

And then there is the matter of the shirt that Lupe was wearing:

What can I say? We really like this. Occupy everything.

Erykah took her hat and face covering off at the end of the song:

The purpose was not to "disrobe." (Unlike Erykah did famously here.) The purpose was to show her face so that Mos Def could introduce her -- otherwise, I guess, no one in the audience would have known who that "weird" person in burqa was. Here, she looks like someone in less "severe" Islamic dress, in hijab rather than burqa.

I only wish I really loved the song, "Words I Never Said." I think the rap/rock combo is hard to pull off, and for me, it isn't successful in this case. I do, however, admire the performance and the lyrics, a lot. Especially all the provocation and the expressions of solidarity. And I do like a lot of Lupe's material. But not this song, so much.

Mos Def to change his name to Yasiin in 2012

2011-11-02T21:44:00.000-05:00

Mos Def (born Dante Smith), one of the most visible and well-known of today's rappers (but not one of the most productive, in terms of sheer quantity of recorded output), will change his name to Yasiin, starting in 2012. He converted to Islam (he is a Sunni, i.e. orthodox as opposed to Nation of Islam or Nation of Gods and Earths) as a teenager. He has stated, regarding the name change, that "[I don't want] to deal [any more] with having any moniker or separation between the self that I see and know myself as." I read this as meaning, he wants to be more open about his Muslim faith and identity.

I have written in the past that Mos Def has been spotted in a kufiya, but I've not found a photo, ever. My source was a piece in Kabobfest -- but there is no photo. We do have this evidence, from his song "War" (on the album The New Danger, 2004), that Mos Def did/does have some appreciation for the condition of the Palestinians:

But for now I'm a soldier abidin' my time
Writin' my rhyme behind enemy lines
Palestine, Kosovo, Kashmir
No different than the avenues right here

(Funny, Kashmir is usually spelled Cashmere, if you hunt for the transcription of these lyrics on line. C'mon, folks, learn some geography and history from our man Mos Def, soon to be Yasiin.)

I like the look he has in the photo above (courtesy GQ): it's kinda snappy NOI (the bowtie) and devout Sunni (the kufi) at the same time.

Were Kufiyas Used to Incite Fear of Attica Uprising, September 1971?

2011-11-02T00:26:00.001-05:00

I meant to post something on the Attica massacre on the 40th anniversary of the event. I was living in New York City, and participated in a demonstration on the day that it happened, Monday, September 13. The demo got rather wild, we were marching in the street without a permit, people were very mad, and there was a bit of "trashing." There was also a big demonstration on the weekend, probably Saturday, September 18, that I attended as well. During that week, with 3 other friends, I also participated in a "tagging" of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Our tag: Pig Rockefeller, Attica Murderer. The New York Times published a photo of our tag a few days later. I have a note to myself to find a copy on microfilm and reproduce it. All this by way of saying that the Attica events were something that I and thousands of other US progressives felt very intensely about.

I was pleased to see that the New York Times published an excellent article on Attica, by Sam Roberts, on its 40th anniversary. I was also, again, incensed by what had happened, and felt that our description of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller as a pig murderer, was absolutely spot on. The complaints of the prisoners, who demanded better living conditions, were very justified. 29 inmates and 10 prison-guard hostages were shot in the course of the assault ordered by Rockefeller, all killed by New York State troopers. Prisoners were tortured and harassed without mercy after the prison was retaken. Roberts reports, based on recently published logs of phone conversations, that Rockefeller told President Richard Nixon that it was a "beautiful operation." Nixon, with his typical bluster, told Rockefeller “The courage you showed and the judgment in not granting amnesty, it was right, and I don’t care what the hell the papers or anybody else says."

Perhaps these photos, widely printed in newspapers at the time, played a part in the attempt to orchestrate mainstream sentiment against the inmates at Attica, mostly African-American, who had taken hostages.

This iconic photo featured pictures of those seen as representing the main actors, published in a round-up on the events in Attica on Sunday, September 19, 1971, in The New York Times.

It's cropped from this photo, also a widespread image at the time.

As was this one.

It's telling, don't you think, that, out of the 1,000 or so prisoners at Attica who participated in the uprising (the institution housed about 2,200 at the time), African-Americans in what looked like Arab headdresses were made so iconic?

We can speculate about what this was about. Progressive African-Americans had long felt a sense of solidarity with the Palestinians, particularly during the late sixties and early seventies, at the high point of guerilla activity by the Palestinian resistance movement. On the other hand, given that it was very hot in Attica, and that prisoners were in the yard in full sun during the days, it would have made sense to fashion head coverings to protect against the sun. (I remember that reports at the time said that, towards the end, the prisoners were short of water and very thirsty, and hence very tense.)

Another piece of the story may have to do with the fact that prison officials believed, or at least claimed to believe, that Muslim prisoners were responsible for organizing the uprising and for threats to the prisoners. There were, of course, considerable numbers of Nation of Islam adherents at Attica Prison, as well as members of the Moorish Science Temple, and the Nation of Gods and Earths (Five Percenters), as in all prisons with substantial African-American populations at the time. Members of each of these groups were active in the uprising. Non-recognition of their religious rights was an important motivation for their participation in the prison movement. Muslim prisoners were not permitted to hold religious services at Attica, and "any assembly in the prison yard of more than three Muslims was punishable by solitary confinement." One of the negotiators brought in, at the request of the prisoners, was Nation of Islam representative Louis Farrakhan. Of the five man committee negotiating on behalf of the prisoners, one (Carl X. Blyden) was a member of the Nation of Islam and two (Carl Jones-El and Donald Noble) were members of the Moorish Science Temple. When the prison was retaken, the Muslim prisoners (but accounts that I've seen don't distinguish between the NOI, Moorish Scientists and Five Percenters) were singled out for special retaliation on the part of the guards. It turned out that, in fact, the Muslim inmates (again, which "Muslims" is not clear) played a major role in protecting the hostages from other inmates.

Are the iconic Attica prisoners in the photos wearing what look like makeshift kufiyas Muslims (of the Five Percent, Moorish Science or Nation of Islam persuasion)? Who knows. Did these photos play a role in inciting mainstream fears of the dangers that "radical" Black Muslims posed in the Attica upsising? Likely.

More on Tilda Swinton and her Palestine scarf in Vogue

2011-11-01T22:06:00.002-05:00

I posted on this a few days ago. Since then I came across a nice piece on the subject by Emily Lawrence in Electronic Intifada, who meditates on whether Tilda's act is just a bit of provocative fashion, or real solidarity. This has been a long-standing issue in my kufiya posts on hawgblawg. She concludes: 'how better to convey a political message to a fashion-conscious audience than through the medium of clothing? Swinton is voicing her support for the Palestinian cause without ever having to speak. Such is the power of fashion.'

What I found most interesting is that the scarf in question was designed by Bella Freud for The Hoping Foundation (Freud is its co-founder), which raises money in the UK to fund projects to aid Palestinian refugee children. As I noted in an earlier post, is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund; an outspoken critic of Israel and; the elder sister of Esther Freud, author of the autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (made into a fairly decent movie, starring Kate Winslet).

Freud and Hoping Foundation co-chair Karma Nabulsi are ever devising high-profile events to raise funds for Palestinian children, such as this event, where Italian fashion house Missoni designed a limited-edition shoulder bag to sell for Hoping projects.

@bellafreud (twitpic)

Alas, it seems the scarf is no longer for sale at Hoping.

Autotuned Egyptronica Sha'abi

2011-10-31T23:30:00.002-05:00

I have no idea if that name is really appropriate. And I don't quite know what to make of these vids, and the music, that I've been running across, coming out of Egypt.

Check out this one.

The author of this piece is known as DJ Vigo. The title also indicates that this is a video from a wedding celebration. It certainly looks like farah, a wedding party, in a popular quarter of Cairo or some other Egyptian urban center. And it is the kind of dancing that you might see at a wedding party in a popular quarter (mantiqa sha'biya), with young women dancing together. What is a bit disconcerting is that the camera is fetishizing the body and movement of a young woman belly dancing, in a way that is perfectly appropriate in all-women company, but rather provocative when it is filmed and taken out of that context. As for the way the young woman is dressed, in higab (head-covering), t-shirt and rather tight jeans -- I've seen such outfits over a period of twenty years in Egypt. Even the t-shirt, which says "Let's Bring It On," is not completely surprising. I don't have time or the chops, really, to work through the lyrics right now, but there are references to smoking and hashish...The music (vocals and beats and instrumentation) are rather rudimentary, but they allow the singer to declaim whatever he wants. (Just as the much more famous Sha'bola does.) You will find a number of videos in this vein from DJ Vigo فىجو, some with as many as 20,000+ views.

Then there is this:

Advertised as a song from the Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir School for Girls, it features girls singing, lots of autotune, the occasional interjection of a mail voice, hot beats, and a video that consists entirely of teenaged girls (who seem to be both Egyptian and non-Egyptian). As of this writing, the song has over 270,000 hits, which is quite substantial. The comments, as far as I can tell, are entirely in Arabic. The music is much more interesting than the first, but more or less in the same vein. Other youtube subscribers have taken the same song (provenance: unknown to me as of now) and put other images of young girls to the music. This one has over 666,000 views to day; this one (with bawdier photos), over 182,000 hits.

Clearly this is a mass phenomenon, very sha'bi, in the sense that it no doubt is the object of scorn from the part of the educated and the mandarins, and very popular, with young people, especially in the popular quarters, the homes of the working classes, the lower middle classes, and the workers and entrepreneurs in the informal sector. This is, of course, just an educated guess. I hope this serves as a provocation to someone to find out more and tell us.

They're everywhere...

2011-10-31T22:50:00.003-05:00

My checker at Safeway (Wisconsin Ave.), October 28, 2011, a photo by tsweden on Flickr.

Ramy Essam, voice of the Egyptian uprising, is the 2011 Freemuse Award winner

2011-10-30T22:51:00.004-05:00

Congratulations to Ramy Essam, winner of the 2011 Freemuse Award. Ramy, of course, was the author of the famous, unforgettable Tahrir song, "Erhal" (Leave).

And many other songs. Not only did Ramy sing for the revolution, he fought for the revolution. He was wounded fighting off the baltagiya, the regime thugs, on the night of February 4-5.

And he was arrested and tortured by soldiers, who dragged him and other Tahrir occupiers off the square, on March 9. The story was reported widely, most memorably (in my opinion) in this account by Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio, who visited Ramy in his home. I loved this part of the report:

We ask if, when he got hurt, his mother said, "I told you so."

They [Ramy and his brother Shady] laugh and say yes. Even in pain, Ramy Essam smiles.

Ramy continues to be active in support of the struggle, and especially, against the SCAF, the junta that continues to rule Egypt, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Presumably it was due to this that the Dean of Cairo University's Medical School shut down a concert, in mid-performance, that Ramy was performing there on October 26. Read about it here.

FREEMUSE, The World Forum on Music and censorship, is an independent international organization, whose secretariat is based in Copenhagen, which advocates freedom of expression for musicians and composers worldwide. Pete Seeger was the Freemuse Award winner in 2009.

Mabrouk, ya Ramey. Why don't you learn this song from Pete Seeger and sing it in solidarity with #OccupyWallStreet when you go to ~~Copenhagen~~ Stockholm to receive your award on November 21?

ADDED October 31:

Ramy will receive his award at the Right! Freedom of Music & Speech conference in Stockholm on November 21. One of the speakers at the conference will be the artist Peaches! (Can you imagine the right-wing and conservative Islamist press having fun with this one?!) Thanks to 'anonymous' whose comment prompted this correction.

kufiya higab in video for No Military Trials for Civilians (in Egypt)

2011-10-30T22:20:00.001-05:00

I really love this kufiya higab. The kufiya has been an important sartorial symbol for the Egyptian struggle for democracy. I used to say, Egyptian revolution, but it is clear that it is, as of this date, a revolution in process, an incomplete revolution. One of the major issues confronting Egypt's democracy advocates is the ongoing military trials imposed upon civilians, and the Egyptian revolutionaries continue to mobilize against this great injustice. This video, from the Egyptian campaign called No to Military Trials for Civilians, contains some very compelling testimony from trial victims and their relatives. Please watch! Here is an English link to the organization, and here is the Arabic link.

#occupy kufiyas

2011-10-29T22:41:00.002-05:00

I predicted (to my FB friends) that, as the weather cooled off in the US, we would see more kufiyas in the #occupy movement. Of course I was correct (yeah, it was like shooting fish in a barrel, this prediction). So here is a small sampling.

Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post

This one is from today's events in Occupy Denver, where the police cleared out campers and the crowd, throwing all supplies and tents and food into a garbage truck, arresting 7 demonstrators. I'm sure tomorrow's event will be even bigger.

This is from Occupy Kansas City, posted by my friend and high school classmate Don Maxwell on Facebook today. (Thanks, Don.)

This is from the mother of the #occupies, Occupy Wall Street. It was posted on the Occupy Wall St. Facebook page yesterday, with this note:

SAVE THE DATE: November 17th. This will be big. VERY BiG. On November 17th, we call on all allies and supporters across the nation to put a stop to business as usual and reclaim this country for the 99%. Details to come

Today, at Occupy Wall St., was Existence is Resistance Keffiyeh Day. Here is a video about it -- not really very good quality, but it gives you some idea of what was going on.

The fact that this event happened drove to distraction at least one prominent Islamophobe, Pam Geller, a leading figure in raising the level of racist hysteria against the so-called Ground Zero Mosque and the author of the notorious Atlas Shrugs blog. She claims that the Kufiyeh Day is proof solid that the OWS movement is controlled, or being overrun by, anti-Semites and Nazis and Obama-ite Muslims and proponents of imposing shariah law on the US. She asks, when is it going to be kippah day at OWS. Well, I don't know how many kippahs there were (of course there were some), but between 700 and 1000 Jews participated in an open-air Kol Nidre service on the eve of Yom Kippur, at Occupy Wall Street, on October 7.

Finally, here's a screen shot of an Occupy London demonstrator, from the October 24 edition of Democracy Now! (Thanks, Pritam!)

Keep wearing those kufiyas, folks. It's getting chilly out there. And friends, send me photos, please!

Tilda Swinton in UK Vogue (November)

2011-10-28T22:38:00.001-05:00

This photo has been passed around heavily by my Palestine-oriented FB friends. It was announced that this photo appeared in the November issue of Vogue. I immediately ran down to my local Barnes & Noble and thumbed through every single page of the November issue. I didn't see it. I deduce that it appears (alas!) in UK Vogue and not in the USA edition. I hope someone will send it to me as a gift. It's pretty amazing, no? For those of you who are not Palestine fanatics, the scarf is in the the colors of the Palestine flag.

(Meanwhile, you have to see Tilda in the film Gloria (2008). Absolutely phenomenal.)

World Book Kufiya

2011-10-28T22:22:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Alyssa for sending me this. Unbelievable. And how do you read this: the kufiya subversively penetrating the mainstream? World Book coopting subversion? Or does that kufiya just look damned good? All of the above? Yeah, stunning. (Click on the photo for the full effect.)

Levi's kufiya fashion, from last winter

2011-10-26T22:40:00.003-05:00

Levi's kufiya fashion, from last winter, a photo by tsweden on Flickr.

I'm trying to catch up on kufiya fashion logging. I'm way behind. I was sent this photo back in February, by Nirvana. I wish I had bought the shirt for someone.

New York Times math: a growth of 275% is 'more than doubled'

2011-10-26T22:19:00.002-05:00

Check out this headline from today's New York Times, reporting on the fact that the top 1% of the US population has seen their income grow by 275% between 1979 and 2007, according to a study by the CBO.

And then check out this one, from today's Huffington Post, reporting on the exact same study.

Which do you think is correct? A growth of 275% is more "nearly tripled" than it is "doubled," no? Is the Times trying to tamp down our anger? (The income of poorest fifth of the population rose only 18% during the same period, while the rise of the three-fifths of people in the middle of the income scale was just under 40 %.) Is the Times unconsciously biased in favor of the 1%, who own the paper?

kufiyaspotting: on Charlie Ahearn's 'Wild Style The Sampler'

2011-10-26T11:26:00.003-05:00

kufiyaspotting, a photo by tsweden on Flickr.

gotta get this book! (but not at Amazon, at my local bookstore).

How the New York Times spins the news (misleadingly) on #occupyoakland

2011-10-26T09:06:00.003-05:00

Check out this. Here's a screengrab of what is on the New York Times home page right now (10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, October 26, 2011):

If you click on the link right now, you will get to a page that says this:

The blog headline is much more accurate, in fact almost the exact opposite, of what it says on the Times' home page. (I.e., the home page depicts the protesters as the aggressors, the actual report suggests that the police were the aggressors.)

If you read the article, you will note that the headline could in fact be much improved. It should read, "Oakland police fire teargas, rubber bullets, beanbags, and flash grenades at largely peaceful protesters."

This is one for the ombudsman, no? And for journalism students.

#occupy

Grimes (Claire Boucher) Kufiya

2011-10-25T23:04:00.002-05:00

How about that for a kufiya? I came across this one thanks to an article by Simon Reynolds (New York Times, October 7) about new women artists with a penchant for synthesizers who are making feminized electronica (that's more or less how Reynolds puts it). They sounded interesting, so I checked some of them out. I found this photo at the website for Arbutus Records, which is Grimes' (the stage name for Claire Bouchard, of Montreal) label. Go here and you can download two Grimes albums (Halfaxa and Geidi Primes). I tried to pay but the site wouldn't let me, so I grabbed them for free. They are definitely worth a listen. I am quite gobsmacked by how Boucher uses the kufiya. She definitely has a unique look.

Arab Traces: Grace Slick in Jefferson Airplane's "The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil"

2011-10-24T22:29:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite Jefferson Airplane songs, off of After Bathing at Baxters (1967). There's a lot of melisma in this song from Marty Balin and especially from Grace Slick. It's not the kind of melisma that has become so banal and over-used courtesy of Mariah Carey and American Idol. Check out what Slick does with her voice from around 2:43 to 2:45 on this song. Listening to Arab singers must have been an influence. Umm Kalthum? Bob Dylan did.

It's not just the pot, or the LSD.

The quality of the sound on this vid is pretty lousy, perhaps deliberately so. So go out and buy a decent copy already. Finally, isn't Jack Cassidy's bass solo, starting at 2:08, just to die for?

Other, random, Arab traces in the Airplane. From "White Rabbit," this lyric: "Tell them a hookah smoking caterpillar/Has given you the call."

Kufiya'd Keira Knightley in 'Domino' (2005)

2011-10-23T22:03:00.003-05:00

I'm surprised that none of my more avid movie-watching friends spotted this before me. Kiera Knightley plays Domino, a hard-assed bounty hunter in Domino (2005), alongside Mickey O'Rourke (who turns in a creditable performance as Ed) and Edgar Ramirez (as Choco). I found the film pretty enjoyable, although the effects, courtesy director Tony Scott, are sometimes too over-the-top for my tastes, and the plot makes little sense. (But neither for that matter did that of The Big Lebowski.)

Knightley as Domino appears garbed in the purple kufiya pictured here several times. I intend/hope in future to get hold of the DVD and take some photos of all the scenes (which occur at about 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour and 1:15, for those who need to know) when I have the chance. These shots were what I could pull off the web. Domino (the film is based very loosely on the real-life story of Domino Harvey, daughter of actor Laurence Harvey) as played by Knightley is a tough, reckless, gorgeous young woman who can handle guns and nunchucks (shown above) expertly and can tangle with the best of them. No doubt the kufiya, along with the leather jacket that she also wears frequently, is here to contribute to her tough-bitch image.

In terms of the history of kufiya craze in the West during the aughts, the appearance of the kufiya in Domino precedes, by just a bit, the full blown kufiya explosion of 2006-2007 (quite a bit of which was documented here, on hawgblawg).

As for the film, it received a lot of bad reviews. But the New York Times' Manohla Dargis rather liked it.

hijabistas

2011-09-26T11:19:00.001-05:00

Entrepreneurial Muslim women, making modest dress mainstream in Europe.

Her customers include non-Muslims too. "You don't have to be Muslim to prefer conservative dress," she said.

Lupe Fiasco waves Palestine flag in concert, and endorses Palestine's admission to the UN

2011-09-24T09:48:00.003-05:00

This happened when Lupe Fiasco played at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland on September 16.

The vid below gives the wider context. It seems that a fan, waving the Palestinian flag, jumped up on stage during the performance of Lupe's "Beautiful Laser." As an impromptu gesture, Lupe took the flag and talked about the fact that the Palestinian leadership was going to the UN on September 23 to request UN membership. Lupe expressed his endorsement for the move, and then asked the fan if he could keep the flag. The crowd cheered Lupe's pro-Palestine sentiments, and booed when he mentioned the US intention of a veto.

Lupe Fiasco was spotted wearing kufiyas during the so-called "kufiya craze," and I (of course), blogged about it here, saying that unlike many kufiya-clad celebrities, Lupe was probably quite well informed about Palestine, and given that he is an (out) Muslim. His Palestine endorsement in Maryland last week certainly supports the point.

To quote the flag-waving fan: Long Live Palestine.

P.S. (added a few minutes later)

Will put me onto this, from Lupe Fiasco's song, "Words I Never Said":

Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I’m a part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people

And some more lines:

I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets...

And these, showing that Lupe will throw his criticisms fearlessly:

Now you can say it aint our fault if we never heard it
But if we know better than we probably deserve it
Jihad is not a holy war, where's that in the worship?
Murdering is not Islam!

And you are not observant
And you are not a Muslim
Israel don’t take my side cause look how far you’ve pushed them

Kufiya'd protester in Lebanon: Down with Bashar

2011-08-16T10:21:00.000-05:00

Via The Middle East Channel, August 16, 2011, this photo:

with this caption: A woman wearing a mask and an Arab Keffiyeh head dress uses her mobile photo to record a protest in the Lebanese capital Beirut in support of the five month uprising in neighboring Syria, on August 15, 2011, as Syrian troops clamp down on flash point towns and cities (ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images).

I'm not sure whether this is supposed to be an Arafat mask. My guess is that the woman is wearing a mask not so much to identify with Arafat as to disguise herself, since demonstrators in Lebanon who have come out in support of the democracy movement have, on occasion, been attacked by local agents of Syrian intelligence, to wit, the local branch of the Ba'ath Party that is affiliated with Syria and by members of the SSNP (Syrian Social Nationalist Party, ex-PPS).

British Urban Music and the Riots

2011-08-13T08:11:00.000-05:00

This is probably the most interesting commentary on the riots in England that I've seen, primarily because you hear the voices of the artists who, collectively, are being blamed for the 'disturbances.' ("Rap responds to the riots: 'They have to take us seriously'" by Dan Hancox, The Guardian, August 12, 2011.)

The artists are so incisive, so smart, and their music is so brilliant. Professor Green, Lethal Bizzle, and Wiley. Mostly "grime" artists, not "rap." Please read, and please watch the vids. Here's a particularly terrific one, Lethal Bizzle's "Babylon's Burning the Ghetto," from 2007. Prophetic, no?

If all those pundits and talking heads in England who are blaming "rap" for the riots really knew something, or anything, about the history of rap, they would know this: after the LA Rodney King riots of 1992, rappers were widely blamed. In fact, if one had been following the rap of artists like Ice Cube, NWA or Ice-T, one could have predicted that LA was headed for a blow-up, and one could have understood the sources of the rage that boiled over in the wake of the acquittal of the officers charged with beating King. Ditto: grime, UK hip-hop and road rap, as this article makes clear.

Report on Hirbawi's Kufiya Factory

2011-08-08T08:46:00.000-05:00

December 2010, from the blog, A Nabulsi Story.

Tahrir in Tel Aviv (traces, at least): Irhal!

2011-08-06T19:35:00.000-05:00

"Irhal" or "Leave!" was the slogan of the Egyptian revolution. And he (Mubarak) did leave. Let's hope for an early exit of Bibi too. The photo is from the progressive Israeli blog +972. The banner says "Irhal" in Arabic, and in Hebrew, "Egypt is here!" It was taken at today's demo in Tel Aviv, which numbered an estimated 200,000, in favor of social justice, and in particular, focusing on the housing crisis.

According to +972, among those who addressed the rally in Tel Aviv was Palestinian author Uda Basharat, who stated: ”It’s about time this protest will be become the protest for all those exploited, Jews and Arabs.”

Connections between Israel's housing movement and the so-called Arab Spring have been, on occasion, raised explicitly. Joel Beinin reports in an absolutely essential piece on the connections between today's social struggles in Israel and the Arab Spring (published by Middle East Report Online) that: 'During the first week of the protest one Rothschild Boulevard demonstrator interviewed on Israeli radio’s Channel 2 told a reporter, “We have to do what they did in Egypt. Yalla, tahrir, jihad.” The fact that a middle-class Israeli suggested, even if it was only rhetorical excess, that this Israeli movement had anything to learn from an Arab political phenomenon is astonishing and unprecedented, to say nothing of the use of the hyper-provocative word jihad.' Beinin also underlines the important obstacles to the explicit making of such connections.

Note too this excellent report from The Real News, which shows large numbers of protesting Israelis last week chanting, "Mubarak, Asad, Bibi Netanyahu!"

The best slogan to come out of Tel Aviv would be one, however, where "irhal" referred not to the departure of Bibi from politics but the departure of Israeli troops from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

El Tanbura Live, "Old Port Said"

2011-08-04T22:52:00.000-05:00

One of the most fabulous things I did while in Cairo in late March was go to see the group El Tanbura perform on March 24, at El Tanbura Hall in Abdeen. El Tanbura perform Egyptian "folk" music from the city of Port Said. Port Said's music is famous for being driven by an instrument known as the simsimiyya, the lyre. (I've posted on El Tanbura previously here.) El Tanbura was actively involved in the protests at Tahrir from January 25-February 11 (see this video), as were other groups affiliated with the El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music, established by Zakaria Ahmed, who performs with El Tanbura.

I was told that a song or two of El Tanbura's revolutionary repertoire were quite popular among the crowd at Tahrir. This is one of them. I've been unable to identify an Arabic title for the song. In English it's "Old Port Said." It's a nationalist song, about the Suez Crisis of 1956, when Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, and was attacked by Israel, France and Great Britain. CNN recently published a report on Egypt's revolutionary music on the occasion of the performance of Egyptian musicians (including El Tanbura and Ramy Essam) at the Barbican in London. It discusses El Tanbura and has a link to a recording of "Old Port Said." You can also read more about El Tanbura here.

(I filmed El Tanbura with Zakaria Ahmed's permission. Zakaria is the one who introduces the song.)

Anthony Shadid on "Yalla Irhal Ya Bashar": Syria's Revolutionary Anthem

2011-07-23T11:31:00.000-05:00

Check out his video report here, and his article in the New York Times, yesterday, here.

The vid, with performance by Ibrahim Qashush (whose throat was cut soon thereafter) is here, with subtitles.

Note that the subtitles do not capture this: at about 2:30 the chanter says "ru7 sale7 7aref il S" which means go fix your pronunciation of the letter S, referring to Bashar's lisp! (Thanks to Yusef for this.)

No SCAF Rap: Message to Tantawi, by Ramy Donjewan

2011-07-16T18:53:00.001-05:00

I've been complaining of late that the role of hip-hop in the "Arab" Spring has been somewhat exaggerated. I plan, or I should say, hope, to do a post on this later, once I've thought it through more. But I really like this rap, from Ramy Donjewan, that was posted today on youtube.

It's called "Message to Tantawi," and it is just that, a message to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, the Minister of Defense, and the chair of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces or SCAF, which has ruled Egypt since the departure of Hosni Mubarak on February 11. The message to Tantawi is in his capacity as the head of SCAF. The democracy movement in Egypt has become increasingly frustrated with the SCAF, and in particular, of late, its failure to prosecute effectively those responsible for the 800+ deaths at the hands of the security forces during the revolution. Donjewan articulates this, and other demands, and frustrations of the revolutionary movement.

I like this song's flow, its lyrics, the calculated urgency of the Donjewan. Its slow, measured beats, convey a sense of dread, and the simple, repetitive guitar playing adds to the effects. I especially like the chorus, which can be translated as: What we did at first we'll do again Tantawi if our demands aren't implemented. (It's very poetic and effective in Arabic.)

(Once again, I urge someone who can do it quicker and more effectively than me to translate the lyrics of this song.)

You can download the song for free here.

Donjewan put out a song right before the start of the revolution, called "Against the Government," that was quite fantastic as well. Check it out here.

The title of this post: No SCAF Rap, is lifted from the 3Arabawy blog, where I first learned about this song.

(Footnote: the wikipedia entry on Tantawi says he's of Nubian origin, but the sources for this claim are gone. Is this true?)

UPDATE (later the same day): Robin translated a bit more: "Oh Tantawi, my brother's blood is very dear, and we are not making threats... where is the right of the poor, the one who died?"

Ultras in kufiya (Cairo, Tahrir)

2011-07-16T14:15:00.000-05:00

One of the great stories from the Egyptian revolution is how the "ultras" (fanatical football/soccer fans) of Cairo's two main clubs, Ahli and Zamalek, played a key role in defending, and in fact saving, the Revolution, on the night of February 2nd. When I was in Cairo, a good friend (and a reliable source) told me about how, on that night, when the thugs (baltagiyya) of the regime attacked, the word was sent out from ultras on the square, and 2000 more ultras showed up to organize those on Tahrir, many of them middle class youths not so accustomed to street fighting, as well as to fight for the revolution themselves. As my friend explained, the "ultras" detest the police, who have been as tough on them as on any Egyptians causing "trouble," or not. They've experienced the beatings, the torture, the abuse that so many young Egyptians have routinely faced at the hands of Egyptian security. And, what is more, the ultras have lots experience fighting the police and the security. The other key force that came to the rescue of the revolution on the night of February 2 were the Muslim Brothers. Their leadership was also called from the square when the regime thugs launched their attacks, and so the Brothers sent out about 2000 of their own "self-defence squads," i.e., their toughs, their enforcers. A coalition of ultras and Ikwhan therefore saved the revolution that night, along with the less-experienced but willing-to-fight thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators who were already there. (A great source on the intersection of politics and Middle East soccer is James Dorsey's invaluable blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer. He has posted several times about the role of the ultras in the Egyptian revolution.)

This Friday, July 15, the Brotherhood boycotted the protests at Tahrir. But the ultras were there, as this photo, and account, from 3Arabawy, shows. And I quote:

Ahmed Bahar and Tarek “Masaken” of Zamalek’s Ultras White Knights in Tahrir Square on Friday night.

I had an interesting chat with Tarek, a young UWK member who’s also a staunch pro-Palestine supporter. He told me he’s been attending demos in solidarity with Palestine since he was a prep school student. Both Bahar and Tarek in addition to thousands of other UWK members took part in the January uprising, and their role, as well of that of the Ultras Ahlawy, were sometimes central in confrontations with the Central Security Forces troops on the Friday of Anger, and against the thugs during the “Battle of the Camel” on 2 February.

It's great to learn that some of the ultras are not just struggling for democracy in Egypt, but are also supporters of the struggle of the Palestinians. And please note the Che t-shirt.

kufiyas: Cairo airport and Riyadh shopping mall

2011-07-16T13:44:00.000-05:00

This is from Cairo airport, July 2011 (thanks, NT). You might think this represents an Arab woman in "traditional" fashion, but women don't usually wear kufiyas as headscarves. Swarovski is an Austrian company that produces lead crystal and other related luxury products, so this mannequin doesn't seem to have anything to do with the kiosk behind it.

Then there are these, from Mamlaka Shopping Mall, in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, January 2010 (thanks, EC). Very deluxe kufiyas, that have nothing to do with Palestine solidarity or any progressive politics whatsoever, and everything to do with elite Saudi identity. (The red kufiya, with white dishdash, is traditional Saudi dress.) Kenzo, Lamborghini, Borsalino, Versace: very swank. Please get me a Versace next time you're in Jedda, won't you?

kufiyaspotting: "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (2008)

2011-07-11T12:18:00.000-05:00

Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings) are on the track of a band called Where's Fluffy. They get to a NYC club, where everyone is waiting for the late-night appearance of Where's Fluffy. This band (Are You Randy) comes on instead. Everyone is disappointed, boos, and leaves. Except for one loser, who takes his shirt off and dances around like a loon. The fact that the deejay of the band (played by Sammy Marc Rubin) was wearing a cool kufiya didn't dissuade anyone from leaving.

David Harvey, "Greece Should Default"

2011-07-06T08:59:00.000-05:00

Essential viewing.

More at The Real News

Coke & Pepsi and the Egyptian Revolution (+, yes, kufiyaspotting)

2011-06-27T21:23:00.002-05:00

Like all companies trying to make money in the new Egypt after Mubarak, Coke & Pepsi are trying to ride the revolution. (Thanks to Robin for calling them to my attention.)

Check out this ad from Coca-Cola, with the theme, "Make Tomorrow Better." We see the middle class youth of Egypt (the presumed revolutionary subjects) ushering in a new dawn. Note that the focus is entirely on Cairo's downtown, which has both been a site that the upwardly mobile in neo-liberal Egypt have been fleeing for the upscale satellite suburbs, and which is also the focus of plans for gentrification. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, note the penultimate shot, which shows Tahrir Square, with a crowd (meant, of course, to evoke a demonstration, right before the last shot of a young person drinking a bottle of Coke.

Then check out this Pepsi advert. Again, the middle class youth of Egypt are the subject. They are shown to be adding color (literally) and life to Cairo's downtown (which has, in fact, been renovated in recent years). They possess the trappings of advanced modernity (flat screen televisions, laptops) and also evoke the youth of the revolution. This young woman carries the iconic cellphone (the "twitter revolution") and, yes, yes, you guessed it, she wears the requisite iconic accessory of the revolution, the kufiya.

And towards the end of the video, youth begin to gather at a street intersection in what looks like it could be a demonstration, and from a balcony looking over the intersection, a young man gives an enthusiastic revolutionary salute, with a can of Pepsi in his hand.

The overall theme is "express yourself." Among the lyrics of the song are the lines, "you are the new, you are the unique," and "tomorrow is waiting for you." And here's the vid:

Don't be too surprised, or dismayed. Both Coke and Pepsi attempted to ride the waves of the sixties counterculture and oppositional movements in the US.

Here's a "psychedelic" ad from Pepsi, from 1969.

And one from Coke, featuring Lady Soul Aretha Franklin, from 1968, when she had only recently crossed over, as a sign of Black Pride.

Big capital will, of course, inevitably, try to profit from the revolutionary fever...

Update (one hour later): Just a bit after I posted the above, I came across an article from Al-Masry Al-Youm on the same subject (although less critical), entitled "Soft-drink giants ride wave of post-uprising optimism." “It’s about empowering youth to come up with ideas and do something about them,” said Karim Khouri, managing director at Impact BBDO, the agency that designed ads for Pepsi.

Songs of the Syrian Revolt

2011-06-26T14:35:00.004-05:00

It's thanks to Iman that I know about these two songs.

The first is by Syrian singer Samih Choukeir. I knew nothing of him before hearing this song. What I now know is based on this wikipedia entry, in Arabic. He is an established artist in Syria (or at least he was--who knows, after this song!), active since 1982, composing for the theater and t.v. serials as well as performing his own compositions. He studied art in the Ukraine (like so many other Syrians, who got advanced degrees from Eastern Bloc universities prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union) and is married to a Ukrainian woman. He does not belong to any political party in Syria but appears to be on the Syrian "left." (Here's his official bio in English.)

The song, "Ya Hayf (Oh Oppression)," is dedicated to the martyrs of Dera'a, March 15. Dera'a is where the Syrian revolt started. (It's also where T.E. Lawrence was tortured, if you remember the film Lawrence of Arabia.)

This one features someone leading a call-and-response song at a pro-democracy demonstration in the city of Hama, uploaded on June 23. It's entitled, "Bidkum Bashar (You want Bashar)." The singer chants various lines of government propaganda, and then chants Bidkum Bashara, and the crowd responds loudly, "La wallah" (No, by God!). It's quite wonderful.

(Again, I hope someone will translate these into English, and other languages, at some point.)

The Turban Makes a Glorious Comeback (last fall!)

2011-06-25T18:12:00.004-05:00

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

I clipped this article from the New York Times last fall, but it got misplaced in some pile or other, and I've just recovered it. I think it's still of interest.

It focuses on the claim of June Ambrose (pictured above) who, it says, wore a turban every day during New York Fashion Week. And it traces the current trend to a Prada show in 2006, which wasn't picked up, but then began to catch on by 2009. Kate Moss wore one at the Met gala in May 2009. And it started showing up on the street, on young women.

The new fashion connected them to "sophistication linked with Hollywood glamour of the 1920s and ’30s, when women like Garbo, Gloria Swanson and Joan Crawford wore them. “From way back, turbans signified a woman who was very educated and worldly,” said Caroline Rennolds Milbank, the fashion historian."

The article goes on to say that, 'Because turbans have historically been associated with Arab dress, it is tempting to connect them with the conflict in the Middle East. “They make a strong political statement, like wearing harem pants,” Ms. [June] Ambrose said. “We take an element of other cultures and internalize it”'

For his part, the curator of the Costume Institute at the Met, Harold Koda, 'isn’t convinced that they have anything to do with politics: “It’s not a part of a Kumbaya fashion movement. I think it’s more of Poiret’s view of Orientalism than women watching the news and referencing what’s going on in Afghanistan. It’s an exoticism, a sense of the other that is visually compelling.”'

Fashion historian Caroline Rennolds Milbank meanwhile 'noted that in the past, Western culture looked at the Middle East for its exotic form of dress, which was seen as sexually liberating. “If you look back at the portrayal of women in films like ‘1,001 Nights,’ ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ or even the television show ‘I Dream of Jeannie,’ the West depicted those women very sexually with sheer fabrics and an exposed midriff,” she said. “Going back to the turban is a return to the allure and sexiness of a foreign culture.”'

My opinion is not that it's a question of either/or. Probably the trend has something to do with Middle East politics--in some displaced fashion. And no doubt it's also rooted in the history of popular Orientalism in the US. Check out the slideshow that goes along with the article for more turbans. I particularly liked the photo of Nina Simone wearing one.

(credit: Associated Press)

I've posted a few times on turbans, as well as related Orientalist fashions. Re Maria Montez and Lana Turner, here. Rudy Ray Moore and more here. Beyoncé here. Kim Wilson. Chuck Willis. The Fabulous Ottomans and Sam the Sham. Prince and Prada. Ongoing obsession.

Gaza (dancehall version)

2011-06-25T15:52:00.006-05:00

(Niketa Thomas, New York Times, June 19, 2011)

There's no evidence that Vybz Kartel gives two whits about Palestine's Gaza. Gaza is the name of Vybz's dancehall posse, as well as the name of the section of the Waterford housing scheme in Portmore, Jamaica, where Vybz Kartel grew up. He is also known as Gaza Emperor. Gully is the name of the actual gully which bisected Cassava Piece in St Andrew, where Vybz's rival Mavado grew up, and it's the name of his posse. Gaza/Gully feuding is constant in Jamaica. Read more here. (Thanks to Wayne Marshall for the reference. Don't blame Wayne for the fanciful account of the 'real' Gaza.)

(There is also a 'Tel Aviv' area in central Kingston.)

Vybz has released two albums called Pon Di Gaza. Please check out his Mavado dis song, "Pon Di Gaza":

Chic of Araby

2011-06-25T15:03:00.005-05:00

Italian designer Walter Albini created this in 1976 (photo from the New York Times, Oct. 12, 2010). Read more about him here. You'd think that, today, the more germane term would be hijab chic.

The phrase, Chic of Araby, isn't original. In fact, the Times used it for a men's fashion spread in Spring 2010. Below is a representative photo. Very Lawrence of Arabia retro. More here. (Maybe the Times got the name from the John Abercrombie 2009 track.)

Is White the New Black?

2011-06-25T12:58:00.001-05:00

"Beyond the Pale" -- Kelefa Sanneh in The New Yorker, April 12, 2010.

Kurdish Kufiyas/Puşis

2011-06-17T20:11:00.006-05:00

(Photo by Jodi Hilton for The New York Times. Caption: "Kurdish youth commemorated the 1977 May Day massacre last month during a march to Taksim Square in Istanbul")

This photo appeared in a recent article in the New York Times about the Kurdish struggle in Turkey for cultural autonomy, and particularly in the field of music.

I found the article quite enlightening, but I was, of course, particularly struck by the photo, which features Kurds wearing very stylish kufiyas. These are known in Kurdish as puşis. The puşi is traditional wear for men in Kurdistan, and is often taken as an insignia of Kurdish identity. In my investigation of kufiyas, I've not yet devoted much time to the Kurdish angle.

An article in the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet states that kufiyas/puşis have also become trendy in Istanbul, and that the origin of the trend is via the West. One vendor claims that it was due to the fact that Angelina Jolie was spotted wearing one. (I've not seen a photo of this. But I will look.) The kufiyas, in multiple colors, are made in Syria, the article claims.

But apparently, based on the evidence in this photo, it's not simply about trendiness. These Kurds are trendy, yes, but they are also political activists.

To be continued.

not your 'typical' electronics musicians

2011-06-15T18:02:00.002-05:00

photo: Abdel-Rahman Hussein

Meet Yara Mekawie and Ola Saad, performing "abstract minimalist electronica" at the 100 Live Electronic Music Festival in Cairo last Thursday (as reported by Abdel-Rahman Hussein in Al-Masry Al-Youm).

Surprised by their "Islamic dress"? Yes, contemporary Egypt continues to surprise.

The 100 Live Electronic Music Festival is put on by 100 Copies Music, the Cairo label devoted to experimental music, and the label associated with the music of Ahmed Basiouny, who I have posted about several times, a martyr of the revolution.

I've not been able to learn much more about these two artists, who perform as RGB, other than what is written in Al-Masry Al-Youm. What I find of note is this:

1. RGB's music is very conceptual. Their performance was not, they say "about making music." “It’s about the sound and trying to convey colors through it,” Saad told Al-Masry Al-Youm. Mekawie concurred, adding, “When you hear what we do, the intent is for you to see light.”

2. They cite Ahmed Basiouny as their inspiration.

3. According to Hussein, "their work evokes Brian Eno and Robert Fripp’s “sonic landscapes” pioneered in the 1970s, but is more minimalist, less textured."

4. Most interesting, perhaps, is that the duo claim that the fact that they are women, and the only women in the festival, is "irrelevant." "The important thing is what we do."

The fact that they wear "Islamic dress": not even mentioned. At all.

Sennheiser headphones kufiya

2011-06-14T17:15:00.004-05:00

Thanks to both @southsouth (who blogs here) and @wayneandwax (he blogs here) for informing me about the kufiya in the packaging for Sennheiser headphones. (Sennheiser is a German company.) I've used @southsouth's photo, which is to be found here. Wayneandwax's is here.

Hip, eh? Powerful bass goes perfectly with a kufiya, no?

And thanks to all my kufiyaspotting friends and comrades.

Oh so hip Wal-Mart

2011-06-03T21:54:00.007-05:00

Another Wal-Mart Shareholders' Meeting has descended upon my hometown, Fayetteville. And more pop stars have joined the Wal-Mart Hall of Shame, lending their voices to shill for one of the world's premier anti-labor corporations. This year brought us: Will Smith, Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keyes, Darius Rucker, and Bob Seger. Previous years have brought such luminaries as J-Lo, Beyoncé, Kool and the Gang, Journey, Shakira, Taylor Swift...the list goes on and on.

Okay, let's forget about workers' rights, for the sake of argument. The Walmart Visitors' Center in Bentonville, on the site of Sam Walton's original Five and Dime store in that city, sits right across the street from a statue to Confederate soldier James Berry, erected on the town square in 1908 by the Daughters of the Confederacy. You can see how close that monument to the heroes of the War of Treasonous Secession is to the monument to corporate America from the photo above, which I shot on a visit to Bentonville a couple weeks ago.

Seriously, Will & Fergie & Alicia, couldn't you at least ask why Wal-Mart, with all its corporate power, doesn't insist that the statue to those who fought for their Confederate home and fatherland be taken down? Do you really need the money that badly?

And seriously, why does no one ever seem to complain about the fact that our beloved pop stars cavort so shamelessly for corporate power?

And then there's the issue of Crystal Bridges, the museum of American art that will open in Bentonville this November. It was initiated with funds from Alice Walton (daughter of Sam, founder of Wal-Mart, and the 8th richest American -- 3 of her siblings are alson in the top 10), and just received another huge endowment from the Walton Family Foundation. It will be a fabulous museum, and the architecture and the site promise, according to all reports, to be amazing. (Expect a report in the New Yorker soon.) And at the same time it will serve the function of art-washing: to clean up the Wal-Mart image through the Walton family's "disinterested" support of culture and the arts.

Lady Gaga gets the Bollywood treatment

2011-06-01T14:58:00.004-05:00

Read about it (and watch the vid) in/on the Wall Street Journal here.

India is an appealing target for entertainers, as it has 700 million people under the age of 30.

And watch the Salim and Sulaiman Desi remix of "Judas" here:

Kufiya and some Islamic refs in Digable Planets' "Where I'm From"

2011-05-21T22:53:00.007-05:00

"Where I'm From" is off of Digable Planet's first album, Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space), released in 1993. The best known single from the album is "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)," a Grammy winner for best rap performance by a duo or group, and a crossover hit. Due to the album's jazzy feel and its apparently pop and light feel, the group was hailed by white hipsters and, as a consequence, got a reputation for being the opposite of hard and "street." A look at the video for "Where I'm From," which is all "street" scenes, and an investigation of the lyrics reveal that this impression was quite mistaken, and that there was a great deal of continuity between Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space) and their second, much more overtly political album, Blowout Comb.

What I want to point out here are a few "Islamic" references. The kufiya worn by one of the Digable's posse in the video is one. As is the shot of some members of the Nation of Islam (NOI), including a woman in distinctive NOI dress (on left) and the man in bowtie, who looks like a member of NOI's paramilitary organization, Fruit of Islam. (Ladybug, a.k.a. Ladybug Mecca, is at the right.)

One line from Butterfly, whose influences seem not to drawn from any Islamic sources, goes "We be reading Marx where I'm from."

Meanwhile, one of Doodlebug's lines goes, "That's most asked by 85, where I'm from." This is a reference to the beliefs of the Nation of Gods and Earths (Five Percenters), that the world is divided into the 5%, those with knowledge of self, the poor righteous teachers, the "gods," the 10%, the bloodsuckers of the poor, who teach lies for the sake of personal gain, and the 85%, the masses, the people who are ignorant of the truth -- but to whom the 5% attempt to bring true knowledge.

Doodlebug (Craig Irving) hung out with Five Percenters while a student at Howard University. I don't know whether he considers himself to be a full-fledged "God," but he now goes by the name Cee Knowledge -- a very Five Percenter sounding name -- and tours with a group called Cee Knowledge & the Cosmic Funk Orchestra. The Digables' second album, Blowout Comb, is full of Five Percenter wisdom and references.

As for Butterfly (Ishmael Butler), his terrific, experimental-rap musical project Shabazz Palaces references the name of the ancient tribe that, according to NOI doctrine, settled in Mecca and then was led by a scientist, named Shabazz, into Africa. It was also the surname adopted by Malcolm X.

Shabazz Palaces' first performance in Seattle (where Butler is from) earlier this month certainly played up the Afro-Islamic imagery. Check out how Butler/Butterfly, who goes by the moniker Palaceer Lazaro, was decked out.

This was the poster for the show.

And check out the cover of Shabazz Palaces' 2009 album, Of Light.

My last example of Shabazz Palaces' crypto-Islamic references is from the group's 2009 video, "Bellhaven Meridian," directed by Kahlil Joseph, shot in Watts, which is a kind of tribute to Charles Burnett's film Killer of Sheep.

In this video the Arabic word

ينقذنا

appears at 0:36. It means "he saves us." I have no idea how it fits into the theme of the video.

Shabazz Palaces has recently been signed by Sub Pop, the first rap group the Seattle label has ever signed, and has an album called Black Up, due out in June.

One last thing. Cee Knowledge recorded a version of "Space Is the Place" with the Sun Ra Arkestra. Check it out. (Five Percent knowledge is afro-futuristic too.)

Cleo Cola: Popular Orientalism

2011-05-19T23:35:00.002-05:00

Cleo Cola, a photo by tsweden on Flickr.

I found this item at the Walmart Visitors Center (the Walmart museum) in Bentonville. It's part of a display of soft drinks that used to be sold in Bentonville over the last several decades. Cleo Cola, the "Queen of sparkling drinks," bottled in St. Louis, was introduced in 1935 by the Whistle Company.

Note the resemblance of the outfit worn by Cleo to the popular Orientalism developed by the likes of Maude Allen and other Salomé dancers. I posted about this briefly here.

Popular Orientalism: Tuli Kupferberg in "Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec God?"

2011-05-13T22:27:00.007-05:00

Here's another example of "popular" Orientalism, put to avant-garde and subversive purposes. It's not quite as subversive and avant-garde as Jack Smith's work, but it is still of interest.

I learned of this 1972 film, directed by Michael Hersh and Jack Christie, from a Facebook post by the Moorish Orthodox Church of America. It's called Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec God?, and all I really know about it is from this opening segment, featuring Tuli Kupferberg (of The Fugs) as God. God who speaks English with a strong Eastern European Jewish accent. God who smokes hash from the houka.

God who lives in Hashish Seventh Heaven, surrounded by a harem of barebreasted hippy bellydancers. Who loves Al Jolsen's "Swanee." Who sings The Trashmen's surf-punk avant-le-lettre "Surfing Bird."

Kupferberg is hilarious in this clip. I'm ambivalent about the claymation stereotypical-black figure in tarbush who introduces the film (see above). The barebreasted 'houris' of the harem are typical of the sixties counter-cultural sexual revolution, which seemed in large part to be about hippy women taking off their bras and tops so that hippy men could ogle them. But I've only seen this clip, so there may be more too all this. A DVD should be out later this year. The film has played in New York recently in tributes to Kupferberg, who passed away in July 2010. J. Hoberman wrote an interesting if short review of the film in The Village Voice, calling it "strenuously druggy, anarchic, and blasphemous," and writing that Kupferberg's God is "an unkempt, hairy schmoozer, consorting with his female subjects in a vaguely Baghdadian crash pad".

I continue to be interested in how significant a role Orientalist images of the Arab world and the Middle East played in avant-garde, counter-cultural, and hippy pop cultural manifestations of "the sixties." Besides several posts in hawblawg on Jack Smith, I've also written posts on the film Performance (here and here) and a few asides. More to come. I don't want to claim that such deployments of "Orientalism" are necessarily progressive, but I am against a certain kind of dogmatic and all-too-common deployment of Said's critique of Orientalism, that describes any Western consumption of "The Orient" as "flexible positional superiority," and therefore, exploitative.

P.S. If you don't know The Fugs, please check out their brilliantly hilarious zen nihilist song, "Nothing." "Social anthropology, uckalcucka, nothing."

Vigon, '60s 'soul man' of France: a Moroccan, real name Abdelghafour Mouhsine

2011-05-13T12:51:00.008-05:00

I just learned about Vigon thanks to Jeff, who posted an AFP article on Facebook. I used Google Translate, and then modified the translation. (My French is very far from perfect, so if yours is better, please correct any mistakes. The original is here.)

Vigon, Moroccan "soul man," emerges from obscurity 40 years later

AFP, Oct. 9, 2008

PARIS (AFP) - He was a vegetable vendor in Morocco before discovering soul at U.S. bases and then becoming a minor star in Paris in the '60s: thanks to a reissue, Vigon, the singer with an amazing voice, is experiencing a second youth [revival], 40 years later.

"What is happening now is what should have happened 40 years ago," marvels the affable sexagenarian, delighted that a new audience discovering his music.

The Barclay (Universal) label reissued in early September an album of his songs, "The End of Vigon," in its vinyl series "Back to Black" and its CD vintage series "Vinyl Replica."

Critics were quickly excited about his covers of great soul / rhythm 'n'blues songs of Bob & Earl, Ray Charles and Bo Diddley, discovering, amazed, that in the "sixties" France had a singer to rival African-American masters of the genre.

Critics highly praised the velvety voice of Vigon and the song arrangements, the strings and the hot sweet brass worthy of Motown or Stax, yet "made in France."

"Even when it came out 40 years ago, there was not this much enthusiasm!" smiled the Moroccan, in dark glasses, elegant clothes, and the mock [?] air of elegant black-American singer Sam Cooke.

Vigon took that nickname from his childhood, when he mispronounced the word "wagon" in school.

He was born Abdelghafour Mouhsine in Rabat in 1945. At first working as a greengrocer with his father, he fell madly in love with R & B at the U.S. military bases in Kenitra and Sidi Slimane and he learned the standards phonetically, since he does not speak English.

"I was going to the grunts' [troufions] dances every Saturday, and there, they bought the records that came from America on the week of their release," he recalls. "Twist and Shout" by the Isley Brothers, it was sung in Morocco before the Beatles covered it!"

In 1964, he was on vacation in Paris and went to the Golf Drouot, the Mecca of rock music. He went on stage, bluffing the public and then joined the Lemons, along with another young man named Michel Jonasz on keyboards.

The group scoured the [music] scenes, Golf Drouot or Bus Palladium, made [assied] its reputation and opened the first [concerts] [in France] of Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Little Richard, the Who and the Rolling Stones.

"In late September, I went to see Stevie Wonder at Bercy: when I think of that time we spent in night clubs and how crazy it was!" exclaims Vigon, who will sing Saturday and Sunday a Cidisc (Convention of record collectors) in Paris and then on Oct. 15 at the Petit Journal Montparnasse.

One of his singles, "It's all over", was released in 1968 on the American label Atlantic. [check out "It's all over" here, on youtube] The previous year he released his only song in French, "Un petit ange noir" [on youtube here].

He returned to Morocco in the mid 70's for two weeks. "I stayed 23 years!" he enjoys explaining that he was a singer in a hotel in Agadir.

In 2000, back in France, where 60's retro fashion was once again popular. Vigon the showman performed regularly at private parties, and his fans included other artists from Morocco, the comedians Gad Elmaleh and Jamel Debbouze, at whose wedding he sang.

"I'm sometimes asked if America did not tempt me. But I never imagined, coming from Morocco, so it's not bad!" he assures. "Kid, I slept on a sheepskin. Now, in hotels, they say: 'Do you like the room?' It makes me laugh!"

The entry on Vigon on the French wikipedia tells us that Vigon's recordings were a critical, but not a commercial, success. And that he and his group, opened for Otis Redding, Bo Diddley and Stevie Wonder, at their first performances in Paris, at the Olympia, in September 1966. The video of "It's all over" (link above) features a number of photos of Vigon with the acts he opened for, including this one, with Mick Jagger.

Please check out this scopatone of Vigon performing "Harlem Shuffle," originally recorded by Bob and Earl in 1963. It's a pretty divine cover, and the dancers are pure sixties go-go.

And here are the jackets for some of Vigon's releases. The EP with "Harlem Shuffle" and "Un Petit Ange Noir."

This single has a cover of The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." The hair is to die for.

The cover of Vigon's only single released in the US, on Atlantic. Quite remarkable, given that Aretha Franklin also recorded on Atlantic at the time. Not to mention Solomon Burke, Clarence Carter, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Percy Sledge, Joe Tex...

Here's a photo of Vigon with his soul review, at the Olympia. Looking very James Brown.

Here's Vigon (looking like Jimi Hendrix) with French pop star Claude François, known for, among other things, penning "Comme d'habitude," the original version of "My Way." What I wonder is, what language did these two speak when they met. Claude François, like Dalida, was born in Egypt, in Ismailiya. His mother was Italian, his father, who worked as a shipping traffic controller on the Suez Canal, was French. In 1951 the family moved to Port Tawfik. The family moved to Monaco when Egypt nationalized the canal in 1956. If I remember correctly from David McMurray's article "La France Arabe" (in A. Hargreaves and M. McKinney, eds., Post-Colonial Cultures in France), Claude used to speak Arabic when he got together with Dalida's brother Orlando, who also served as her manager. But perhaps the gap between Vigo's Moroccan dialect and Claude's Egyptian was too great.

This is what Vigon looks like today.

Many of the photos are from this informative blogpost.

While writing this up, I came across another article, from Jukebox, which I will summarize soon. In the meantime, it's here.

Kufiya (+dishdasha) Watch: Snoop Dogg in Abu Dhabi

2011-05-11T11:43:00.002-05:00

Or as U-Cef has put it, Shaikh Dogg. Wearing the prototypical dress of the Gulf Arab, the white dishdasha and the kufiya. (My knowledge of Snoop is not as deep as it should be, so if someone can identify this song, I would appreciate it.) Here's the video, filmed at Yas Arena, Abu Dhabi, UAE, May 6, 2011. (The screen grab is from this vid.)

Folk music of Isamailiyya: the El Waziry Group

2011-05-11T10:39:00.001-05:00

One of the best things I did while in Cairo in late March was to go to see the El Tanbura group perform at El Tanbura Hall in Abdeen. El Tanbura play the music of Port Said, which is well-known for the fact that its central instrument is the simsimiyya, a lyre of very ancient origin. (There are paintings of the instrument on the tombs of the Pharaohs.)

Here's a photo of El Tanbura Hall, from the outside.

And here's a shot of some of the members of the group, from their concert on March 24. The photo shows two simsimiyyas. I filmed the concert, and hope, eventually, to post some of the concert footage on youtube.

El Tanbura Hall is a project of the El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music. You can read about El Mastaba here. It was founded by Zakaria Ibrahim, who I met, and who performs with El Tanbura. El Mastaba sponsors a posse of groups who perform regularly at El Tanbura, including Rango, who are absolutely terrific and who you can read about here. El Mastaba has also issued a number of CD's, which are excellent, and are for sale at El Tanbura Hall.

El Mastaba participated actively in the Egyptian Revolution. Three groups associated with El Mastaba performed in Tahrir Square when it was occupied by pro-democracy forces: the Hinna band from Suez, from the El Tanbura band (Port Said), and the El Waziry band from Ismailiyya. Please watch a video of the El Mastaba groups at Tahrir here.

I recently read the posting below on Facebook, announcing a concert by the El Waziry group. I reproduce it below, because it provides an invaluable account of the history of the "popular art of Ismailiyya," which flourished from the 50s til 1967, and which El Mastaba is doing its best to revive and to promote. I don't know who wrote the text below (it's translated from Arabic), but I hope the author will not mind my attempt to recirculate it. It announces a performance by the El Waziry group at El Tanbura Hall, that will happen tomorrow, Thursday May 12. Wish I could be there. In the meantime, I do have a CD from El Waziry himself: El Wazery & Suhbagiyya, Wallah Zaman (El Mastabah Center for Egyptian Folk Music, 2006).

El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music presents

El Waziry Group

The three cities of the Canal (Port Said, Ismailiyya and Suez) share similar traditions of music and song, though each has its special features.

Three tributaries combined to bring these arts to Ismailiyya, which is located half-way along the Canal. The first of these was the Sudanese, who have lived in the oldest quarters of the city–the “Slave Stockades” (‘arayshiyyit il-‘abid)—since it was built in the last third of the nineteenth century. The second was the interaction of local musicians with others from Port Said or Suez, as well as with the shipping passing through the Canal, which, at the end of the 1930’s, brought the instrument known as the simsimiyya (a type of lyre). And the third was the influence of the other shores of Lake Manzalla, at one end of which Isma’iliyya lies, and especially that of the fisher families living in ‘Izbit el-Bahtini, who brought with them fishing songs and the songs of the damma (“street gathering”- a genre with its roots in Sufi music).

On the streets of the city, these tributaries mingled to produce what may be called “the popular art of Ismailiyya,” which flourished from the beginning of the 1950’s up to the war of June 1967.

After the war, the inhabitants of the city were forced to migrate to areas further inside Egypt, far from the battle line. In their diaspora, in the cities and villages and displacement camps, the people of Ismailiyya survived, and shared their singing with the displaced from Port Said and Suez, to the accompaniment of the simsimiyya, which, with its songs expressive of their common concerns, played an important role in creating a bond among them.

With the end of the war and the return of the displaced to their cities, things were different, in Ismailiyya as in the rest of Egypt. When the “open door” economic policy was adopted, social values changed and, at the beginning of the 1970’s, the trend towards commercialism started to take over the old artistic tradition. Competition for the rich pickings of the wedding market intensified, leading to the withdrawal from this field of the authentic musicians, as some died and others retired.

Only one, the musician Muhammad El-Waziri, refused to retire into obscurity and continued to cherish his own simsimiyya, though he had no idea what to do with it on his own. Things changed when El-Waziri met the writer, and embarked on a relationship with the Tanbura troupe experiment in Port Said, which attempted to collect the music and songs of Port Said by bringing together the old musicians, who, like their fellows in Ismailiyya, had gone into retirement.

The legend "Muhammad El-Waziery" the king of simsimiyya at Canal zone had passed away in 2008 in the age of 73 years old, cuddling the simsimiyya instrument and leave the heritage of Ismailia city in the hand of his troupe which he was the leader of it (Souhgbagya group) and we changed its name to "El Waziery group" in recognition of his history and saving the heritage of Ismailia city.

Now there was hope that what had happened in Port Said might happen in Ismailiyya, as, together, we were able in the same year to begin the foundation of the El Waziery troupe, by bringing together the old popular musicians of Ismailiyya to prevent the loss of this heritage.

To date the El Waziri Group have performed a number of times, in Ismailiyya itself and in Port Said, Suez and Cairo, gaining new friends all the time.

Even more Ahmed Basiony (Bassiouny)

2011-05-05T23:16:00.003-05:00

Ahmed Bassiouny, Tahrir Square, Feb. 28

Here is a fabulous website dedicated to Ahmed Basiony (Bassiouny), an incredible teacher, visual artist and sound artist. Lots of photos of his art and of his teaching and sound art workshops. Examples of his music. Articles about him. I recommend exploring in depth. I need to explore more myself. The more I learn about him, the more I am saddened, and the more I am impressed. One of 800+ martyrs of the Egyptian revolution, he fell to sniper bullets on February 28th, at Tahrir Square. May his spirit endure in Egypt's future.

Eskenderella, "Rag'een"

2011-05-05T23:04:00.003-05:00

For the moment, this is just a place maker, and a tribute. I really like the Alexandrian music group Eskenderella. (And think about it, what a clever name!)

This is their song, Rag'een (returning), their tribute to the Egyptian revolution, and their first video. It is far better than most of the songs of and for the revolution that I have come across. It is certainly far superior to and has way more integrity than any of the martyr pop critically discussed by Dan Gilman. (See my earlier post here.)

Hopefully, in future, I will learn more. In the meantime, here's the one bio I've been able to find on the web. They are known for doing material by Sayyid Darwish, Shaykh Imam, and Ziad Rahbani, as well as original numbers.

Cumbia kufiya: DJ Juan Data (+ Bin Laden)

2011-05-02T21:46:00.005-05:00

Yes, I know that today is the day that Osama Bin Laden's death/targeted killing was announced. But my thoughts are a swirl of emotion and feeling and inchoate analysis. And life must go on. So here is another in my ongoing posts on kufiyas. (But as I turn to cumbia + kufiyas, it turns out that there is a Bin Laden connection.)

DJ Juan Data is a very interesting dj who hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and who has resided in San Francisco since 2001. (Oooo, significant year for OBL.) His work is in the contemporary cumbia vein, mixing cumbia with funk and hip-hop and soul and...

I like this image, from his 2009 Linyerismo mix (which you can download here). DJ Juan Data typically performs in the distinctive wrestler mask.

And, sometimes, in kufiya.

Here are some cool cumbia '45s to download, courtesy Juan Data. And here's some more info about him.

I learned about Bin Laden cumbias from a 2008 post on mudd up! It mentions a song, identified only as "2nd de la Cumbia Bin Laden," and says it is "an anti-war New York cumbia tune about the gringo response to the World Trade Center attack, from 2002." It's a straight cumbia number, and I've been able to identify the artist: Internacional Gitano. Since then, I've found several "Bin Laden" cumbias. I find them interesting, but don't have much if any idea about what they're about or what their significance is. In most cases the OBL reference seems to mark the fact that the song is a cumbia-bhangra mash-up, as in the case of "Cumbia de Osama":

or "La guitarra de Bin Laden":

Whereas "Guitarras Talibanas" has a South Asian vocal but isn't so bhangra.

Wish I could tell you more about these Bin Laden cumbias. And hopefully someone will, in future. In the meantime, let them remain swathed in mystery.

Rap of the Syrian Revolution

2011-04-30T18:36:00.003-05:00

First rate analysis by Nahrain Al-Mousawi of the only Syrian protest rap ("Communiqué No. 1") I know of that has appeared in the wake of the Arab Spring's spread to Syria. I suggest reading the entire article. Below I excerpt the lyrics that Nahrain translates:

The vid opens with the statement: “The revolution is faceless”

Statement [Communiqué[ No. 1
The Syrian people won’t be degraded
Statement No. 1
We won’t remain like this
Statement No. 1
From Houran* came the good news
Statement No. 1
The Syrian people are revolting …

You exterminated Hama as if it were nothing
Today our rights are in our hands and we will not forgive...

We live in silence/ It’s been years
how long do we have to stay like this—dead...

You sold the Golan for cheap
You sabotaged the cause and defiled it
History shows that no oppressor ever lasted
We will realize our dream of freedom even if it costs blood
The government is destined to fall
The king either flees or is buried

The vid ends with these lines from Syria's famous poet Nizar al-Qabbani:

How do we write with locks on our mouths
Marking each second for the butchers to arrive
I carried my poetry on my back and it has exhausted me
What will happen to the poetry when it collapses.

*Der'aa, where the revolt started, is in the Houran.

Now, watch the vid: