hawgblawg

In the latest season (#3) of the Netflix series Narcos , "CIA Bill," the CIA station chief in Colombia, shows up on occasion to...

And a few reminders of why Egyptians love Dalida (born in Shubra, Cairo, in 1933, so much): Dalida in the Egyptian film, Siga...

Terrific ten track mix of Sudanese music from back in the day, with Abdelkarim Al-Kabli, Al Bilabil, Sayed Khalifa and Khogali Osman, who ...

I've been reading Margaret Farrell's excellent dissertation ("Aspects of Adaptation in the Egyptian Singing Film", CUNY 2...

My review of Syrian Prayers: Sacred Music from Bilad Al Sham was just published by RootsWorld . You can read it here . Here's...

US tire company Cooper Tires using a kufiya to sell tires! Is the kufiya that mainstream now? Maybe so... (Thanks to D. McDonald for thi...

Undercover Israeli occupation forces arresting Palestinian protester on July 27, 2017 near Beit El checkpoint -- #kufiyaspotting

here's a better shot of the document. source is here . What is this document? According to the British Library blog: "A...

When Gaston Ghrenassia left Algeria for France in 1961, he hoped to continue his musical career by playing the ma'louf repertoire of hi...

Many are trumpeting the fact that Oscar winner Mahershala Ali ( Moonlight ) is a Muslim, but not noting that he is Ahmadi. For background o...

In 2005 a chapter I wrote entitled " Against Hybridity: The case of Enrico Macias/Gaston Ghrenassia" appeared in a book I...

Very good documentary on a lila, or ritual of possession, of the Gnawa. This is filmed in Essaouira (where I spent part of summer 1999), and...

courtesy the Democratic Socialists of America. a protest sign for our times.  (in hyper-secular France, would any left organization propo...

This is an old friend of mine, attending the women's march (against Trumpism, for freedom) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, January 21, 2017. ...

The great Moroccan Israeli singer Neta Alkayam covers a song from Jacob Abitbol -- father of the much better known Moroccan Jewish singer Ha...

I'm in the middle of trying to finish off an article about pop-rai, and hunting for photos of Cheb Khaled and his first band, Les Cinq É...

Logan , to open in March - 20th Century Fox     I had actually seen the trailer for Logan in the movie theaters last week, but this sc...

thanks to Marc for pitching this to me Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, January 01, 1970 I think it's Philip Bail...

Early August 1966. I was 16, on "home leave" from Beirut with my family, staying with friends in Los Gatos, where we had lived ...

In the very fine documentary Nuh el-Hamam (Wailing of the Doves), 2004, directed by Amir Ramsis, 2006), we learn that the Port Said singer ...