SOUNDTRACK: SEVDALIZA-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #130 January 5, 2021).
Sevdaliza is the first Tiny desk Home Concert to be published in 2021. Let’s hope she signals a great new year.
Sevdaliza is Iranian born although this concert is filmed in a culturally significant bookstore and publishing house in Amsterdam called MENDO.
Her collection of music is a wonderful mix of the organic and the electronic all centered around her gorgeous voice.
The set opens with “an old reel-to-reel tape machine spinning some Brazilian bossa nova.” Then it stops and she starts singing “Human,” a song which
casts away the notion of artists — particularly female artists — as products.
It’s a moody Portishead-like track.
It opens with synths and drums as she sings achingly. Her voice sounds a bit like Beth Gibbons as well. Then in the middle of the song, the electronics drop off and she recites
I am flesh, bones / I am skin, soul / I am human /Nothing more than human.
I am sweat, flaws / I am veins, scars / I am human / Nothing more than human.
While she speaks, the strings of Jonas Pap (cello) and Mihai Puscoiu (violin) play an eerie backdrop. When the strings stop a very cool electronic section takes over. Leon den Engelsen manipulates sounds, making voices sound mechanical and machines sounds human–it’s really cool watching him do this. Meanwhile, drummer Anthony Amirkhan adds some complex electronic and analog drums.
Then den Engelsen resumes the bossanova tape as Sendaliza announces:
“Good afternoon humans, my name is Sevdaliza, you’re very welcome on flight 808; our destination is Shabrang.”
I feel like “Dormant: sounds even more Portishead-like. Her voice carries Gibbons’ ache as she sings “I need a different type pf caring, a different type of sharing.” The percussion is minimal but interesting. Meanwhile the electronics are buzzing around while the strings ground the song in melody.
As the song fades out she sings notes and words which I believe the keys are manipulating in real time.
“All Rivers at Once” opens with a pre-recorded guitar melody. The song is just full of samples and interesting melodies and then the middle falls into place with a lovely violin solo. It ends with a deep resonating cello note
“Gole Bi Goldoon” is sung in Iranian (I assume). It sounds much more like an old folk song–strings and piano.
I really enjoyed this set and want to check out more of her album.
[READ: January 9, 2021] Do the Macorona
I’m not exactly sure why we have been getting so many books from South Africa at work lately, but it’s fantastic.
This book is a collection of editorial cartoons from South Africa’s Daily Maverick newspaper. Zapiro (Jonathan Shapiro) has been making editorial cartoons and caricatures since the early 1990s and has 25 books of cartoons published.
Although I have been reading some novels from South Africa, I really don’t know very much about the country. I have learned, however, that reading about a year’s worth of editorial cartoons is a pretty great way to learn about a country. I don’t understand all of the jokes in here, but I do feel like I have a vague grasp on the country now. However, it’s when Zapiro turns his pen abroad–especially against trump, that I can see how good of a satirist he is.
It feels especially timely to include this post now as we prepare to get the corrupt traitor out of office for good. He has, in fact, made a cartoon out of the insurrection.
The book opens with criticism of the Gupta Family. The Guptas are a wealthy Indian family who seem to have undue influence on South African politics. With accusations of “State Capture” being levelled at then and former president Jacob Zuma.
Another target is the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a political party headed by Julius Malema and Floyd Sivambu. They have been accused of corruption and racism. One instance is how the EFF refused to acknowledge South Africa’s win in the rugby world cup (a HUGE deal) because many of its players are white.
Former DA Helen Zille (GodZille in these cartoons) came out of retirement to get the DA position again I’m unclear what she has done, but she is drawn as Godzilla and then as Miley Cyrus on a wrecking ball.
ESKOM, the South African Electricity company comes under huge scrutiny for its mishandling of funds and intentional power failures known as “load shedding” because of “wet coal.”
President Zuma was supposed to appear before the Zondo commision, but kept making up medical excuses. One cartoon has medical certificate giving him these diagnoses
Acute Exusemia; Truthophobia; Bullshitosis; Bosas Virus; Guptoid Infection; Corruptivitis; Crony’s Disease; Nepotisma.
Dudu Myeni was also called under the Zondo commission. She claimed to be too poor to be able to attend, despite her designer clothes and bags and millions in laundered cash. In one cartoon she holds up four cards: Race Card, Gender Card, Victim Card and Poverty Card, an attorney says “there’s one card you haven’t played yet” while holding up a credit card.
There’s one that could easily apply to every Republican senator even though it is about South Africa. Under a heading “The Search for Cyril’s Backbone” (Cyril Ramaphosa is the current president) an aide says “it’s been so long he can’t remember when he had it last.”
But as I say, it’s the trump cartoons that will make any thoughtful American reader feel impressed.
There’s trump literally defecating into the Capitol building while holding a paper of impeachment (the first impeachment).
Followed by the GOP Acquittal Parade which had elephants marching and scooping up trump’s giant turds as he marches in front of them.
There’s one of trump standing in front of Mt Rushmore saying “me on Mt Rushmore, good idea.” The guy who carves it has the whole mountain crumble with the label US Democracy.
In other American comments, we see harvey Weinstein walking into a prison cell where Bill Cosby is seated. Cosby says #YouToo? The best part is that both of them look like limp penises.
About midway through the book the coronavirus has appeared (March 2020). The firs case in South Africa has a cartoon that tells people to avoid fake news about the virus. Then comes he titular song.
Keep your social distance around about a metre / Don’t shake hands –use the elbow or the feet-a / Avoid big crowds you should rather be alone-a / Hey Macarona.
Sneeze into your elbow it’s essential hygiene-a / If you’re symptomatic maybe self quarantine-a / It’s all gone global from Beijing to Barcelona / Hey Macarona.
Clean hands often with hand sanitizer / Listen to official medical advisors / Ignore fake news when it pings on your phone-a / Hey Macarona.
Conspiracies forget em and religious polemic / it’s not god fury, it’s a global pandemic / Don’t trust trump he’s a f***ing moron-a / Hey macarona.
The “Desperate need for U.S. Lockdown” strip shows a zipper on trump’s mouth.
There’s also one where Fauci is going to inject trump with disinfectant and bleach: “We knew you’d be honoured to participate in testing your theories.”
Zapiro goes after South African leaders too, of course. For their confusing lockdown policies–there were confusing rules about why you were allowed to go out during lockdown–if you broke the laws the police were often overly-aggressive.
Except for churches, which the religious leader managed to keep open. Zapiro has a preacher say, “It’s stull to risky to gather with your friends …except when about fifty of you share a imaginary friend, in which case feel free.”
He has a cartoon about a very specific incident–Tresemme had an ad in which they showed examples of “frizzy and dull” and “dry and damaged” hair using two black women as the examples and then “normal hair” and “fine and flat hair” were blonde white women. This was especially offensive because in South African’s history:
Under white-minority rule, the state used the so-called “pencil test” to decide who was black or mixed-race – depending on how easily the pencil moved through the hair.
Zapiro is an amazing satirist and fantastic cartoonist. I hope to see more from him (and have just followed him on Instagram)
You can see more of his cartoons at https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/zapiro and at www.zapiro.com.
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