RIP Annette Funicello, ska artist

She recorded "Jamaican Ska" on her 1964 album, Annette at Bikini Beach.

Here she is on TV, doing it with Bob Hope (!).

She reprised it in the 1987 film, Back to the Beach, with Fishbone (!).



I prefer the first, the more innocent, version.

Another "Soundtrack for the Next Misadventure": Abjeez

I came across this video, "Eddeaa," by the Iranian group Abjeez, while reading the blog Rough In Here, Rougher Out There. I can't understand Persian, and don't know enough about Iran to really understand the video, but I find it uproariously funny. The scenario seems to evoke early twentieth century, pre-Pahlavi, Qajar Iran. I think. Check it out for yourself.

"Abjee" is Persian slang for sister, and the band is two sisters, Safoura and Melody Safavi, plus backing musicians, and are based in Sweden. More information here.

Also check out Abjeez's very clever video, "DemoKracy," complete with English subtitles. It's a clever, humorous critique of the US neo-con use of the smokescreen of "democratization" to justify military intervention in Iraq and potentially (though now, mercifully, much less likely) Iran. Abjeez describe the video as being a response to "AIPAC is pushing us to war with Iran for Israel." In this regard, I have much more faith in Obama's willingness to talk, as opposed to bomb, Iraq, than in either McCain or Clinton.