SOUNDTRACK: KHAIRA ARBY-Tiny Desk Concert #94 (November 29, 2010).
A year ago I would have said I know nothing about music from Mali, but the shows at NPR have given me a greater appreciation of it. And, while I wouldn’t say I’d have been able to pick this out as music from Mali, I definitely recognized the style of the what I’m going to call fiddly guitar that seems to be prominent in Mali music.
You can really hear how good guitarist Drahmane Toure is with the way he keeps up the constant soloing and fiddly bits. It brings a cool distinctive sound to the otherwise steady rhythm from the bass and percussion (which looks like a beautifully carved salad bowl covered in duct tape).
The rest of the band includes an acoustic guitar, a bass backing singers and some other instrument that i can’t figure out.
Of course, this show is meant to celebrate singer Khaira Arby, the queen of desert rock. And she is fine. I don’t really have much to say about her. She sings perfectly for this music, and sounds almost more like a prayerful singer than a professional one.
[READ: December 27, 2013] Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School
Clark said that this book was the best Wimpy Kid yet (a claim he has made before, so this must be really great). My story about this book is that I knew the cover was black and I know basically what the back cover looks like, so when we saw Age of Ultron this summer, imagine my surprise to see that the boy was reading this book (which didn’t come out until last week). Movies are magic.
Anyhow, this book begins in September with some hilarious snark about “the good old days.” I love Greg’s reaction, “I think they’re just jealous because MY generation has all this fancy technology and stuff they didn’t have growing up.” And now Greg’s mom’s big kick is to get everyone to unplug. To unplug and reconnect with the community. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 