SNWMF
Went to the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival last weekend which is a bit of a misnomer since it is neither in the Sierra Nevadas (although it used to be) and it is really a reggae festival and a roots reggae festival at that. Yes, they did have an African night at which Baaba Maal headlined. Then there is a small "village" stage with some lesser-known and/or unknown local groups. The few "fusion" groups and/or local Mendicino bands, with all due respect, do not a World Music festival make.
Don't get me wrong -- there was a lot of great music. I especially liked Culture, Fantan Mojah, and Cocoa Tea. Yet, the vast majority of live music, all of the DJ music--both tent and filler between acts, and the vibe of event and the attendees was all about reggae reggae reggae. (I do want to give respect to the DJ, Rankin' Roger, who I had't seen in a while and put on some nice mixes.) There were plenty of Bobo, 12 Tribes, and Nyabinghi in attendance as well (if I've lost you, read about the Mansions of the Rastafari).
Old SpinCycle gets ansy after three days of any one genre -- musical variety is the spice of my life. I need my Soca, some hard-core Salsa, some Samba, some Soukous--the overload of dub & culture left me aching to change it up.
Nevertheless, I had a great time, hanging out with new friends and old -- the Jahworks.org crew (Laura, Monica, Justine, Maimon), Rhythmwize (John and Emily from L.A.), and my old friend Corbett H. Bowers of Club Dread and Reggae Review fame.
Took my Burning man pyschedelic hula hoop with me which was a huge hit (sample video http://www.psihoops.com/video/mpg_med_a_df.mpg no, it's not me, and I'm not that good! Thanks to Patrick Deluz of PSIHoops) as was my sound-activated EL wire (red, gold, and green of course!) from www.CoolNeon.com -- I really need to be on commission with all my toys! And yes, the infamous Adidas Red & Yellow shoes (see my earlier posts)
We had a great house that we rented about 15 miles from the festival -- a remote sea of tranquility from the volume, heat, and body odor of the festival. I settled into the couch on Sunday night after it was all (supposedly) over, sipping a beer and winding down when around 1am, Monica shows up with three members of the featured Jamaican band Live Wyya (which backed the top acts at the show, and is a top band in their own right.)
So, I start DJing for the band--basically throwing on the SpinCycle mix. I played my usual mix of stuff from all over -- I figured they didn't want to hear more reggae and/or they know that music better than I do anyway. So, when I threw on a salsa tune, two of the band members (Neil and Colgate) got completely excited and started jumping around saying how they want to learn salsa.
Next thing I know, I am teaching a salsa class to Neil, Colgate, Monica, and Justine. The women faded after about 30 minutes, but the guys were so excited about the lessons (and were really picking it up) that we stayed up until 5am (with Tristan--keyboard player--sleeping on the couch). Then, Colgate wanted Samba lessons, but the sun was coming up, and I was ready to sleep.
There is nothing so gratifying as opening up a new world to someone through teaching, particularly something like dancing that they have struggled with, and when they get it, it will be a source of joy for the rest of their lives.
Brazil v. Ghana
Got home on Monday, and the next morning I went over to the apartment of a Ghanaian friend to watch Brazil v. Ghana in the round of 16 World Cup match. I'm not against Brazil -- in fact, I know many people genuinely love the Brazilian team for the sheer beauty of their style of play.
Nevertheless, if you watched that game, most will admit that Brazil did not play their best Joga Bonito (in fact many Brazilians were quite upset with their team's play). Ghana played a helluva game -- far better than reflected in the score (even this American knows offsides when he sees it ;-)
Still, the Brazilians are a great team, have great strikers, and deserved their win. Now, as for the Ghanaian crowd I was hanging with, they were none too pleased with any of it. There were some words being shouted at the television which I did not understand literally, but the tone with which they were spoken made their meaning understood no matter what one's mother tongue happens to be.
Ironically, there was a halftime report about racism in football, and some of the Ghanaians felt that they were on the receiving end of such treatment as an African team. "But, the Brazilians have Black and mixed players," I decried. "Yes, but FIFA does not want Brazil to lose--they are too important to the sport. Africans are always treated the worst." Personally, I don't buy the league-controls-the-outcome theory -- be it FIFA or NBA or whatever (except of course for the WWF).
The irony of ironies was that, after Ghana lost, a couple of them told me they were now pulling for Brazil. "Why?!" I asked. "Because we don't want a European team to win!"
It struck me that that could be considered a "racist" approach to sports, but then again, I was rooting for all the African teams + Trinidad & Tobago. (Why is it OK for me as a White man to root for all the Black teams, or is it? Perhaps, I'm a self-hater?!) Still, if a White guy were to say, I don't want to see an African team win, how would it be perceived? Is it the same as an African saying he doesn't want to see a European team win? Some would say yes, others would say it's different and be able to justify it based on a history of oppression, etc. What do you think?
Football Videos
Anyway, I have discovered the real secret to Brazil's success. Click the link to see a video showing it:
http://media.putfile.com/Brasil-9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW43iQa9n24&search=italian%20training%20
Dance Videos
I've been saying for a long time that I would like to make videos of the various dance styles I've learned over the years, but now, I don't need to--they're out there, so I will just pass you the links. Some of these are wild!
Straight up Soukous/Ndombolo, you may want to watch this until the end, the woman start to bust some great moves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06ifhQJTI-0Another Soukous video, this one with some shots from a big concert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szgSXR_V7YQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjF5Z05dhBU
Of course we must have a little Soca wining:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOpr_8wtctI
phttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ykIhZuugBo - this one is from a concert so the music is very distorted
A nice Arabic + African mix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quWio-AytQw --
And last but not least, a sample of Kwaito from South Africa by Mandozahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RmDuAMImNY
Good luck to you all, whatever team you happen to be cheering.
Peace,
Jim (SpinCycle)
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3 comments:
Ooooookay, Jimmy. If you're going to report our runnings at
...SNWMF or the fabulous Glass House, GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT! Mistress Monica was told by young Colgate to excuse herself from "Maestro SpinCycle's Guaranteed to Knock Em Dead Dance Lessons" because she was sticky, dusty, and smelly like the Rainbow Kids at the venue. If someone had blown their Kush seeds at me, the seeds would surely have germinated in my fertile skin.
I promptly made my way to my lux bathroom, took a hot shower, scraped my top soil off my epidermus (sp.), and shampooed the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever ticks, gnats, Brown Recluse spiders, and miscellaneous micro tumbleweed from my hair. When I returned, all the Jamaicans were snoring in assorted positions in the living room and my bed. Jimbo was nowhere to be found.
So there. Blah!
Yeah, people have been commenting for years that SNWMF is really pretty much a reggae festival and Reggae on the River is much more of a World Music festival...so much for names.
The rather strange thing about the SNWMF is they appear to go out of their way not to have any soca artists on the billing, ever, and I've been attending every year since 1996. I guess they feel there is too much slackness in soca.
In contrast, Reggae on the River has, for almost ever year, a soca or calypso artist on the billing.
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