Cats dance to Amanda Palmer

For starters: If you like The Dresden Dolls, you need to purchase their singer's solo album Who Killed Amanda Palmer NOW. It is incredible and I simply cannot get enough of it. Anyway, at last weekend's cat show, I was able to buy a cat toy - this was the first time I'd ever seen cat toys for sale in Kyrgyzstan. I thought the kittens would go crazy over it, but it turns out that it's the adult cats Bagira and Lucy who enjoy it the most. So take a gander at them playing with Amanda Palmer singing in the background:

Rock, thefts and racism

I didn’t write much about the rock festival that Katy and I went to last Saturday, as I was more concerned about my stolen wallet. (I’m still rather concerned about the loss of the drivers license, as according to the GA DMV website, you need to know your license number in order to replace it, and I don’t.) Anyway, as I mentioned in the post about the wallet, the sound quality at the rock festival was definitely sub-par. Even groups which we had heard before, which we knew normally sounded good (such as our friends in the band Cadillac), sounded terrible at this event. As such, I won’t bother wasting my time uploading any videos. I will, however, post some shots of Cadillac performing:

While at the festival, we ran into Lyuba, a girl of 17 who is one of Katy’s former students. I told her how I’d just had my wallet stolen, and her reaction was, “But you’re OK, right?” She then gestured to a vertical scar bisecting her lower lip and told me the following story:

One night as she was walking home, she was surrounded by a group of Kyrgyz men. (I should probably mention that Lyuba is ethnically Russian and doesn’t speak any Kyrgyz.) They began shouting at her in Kyrgyz, then one of them pulled out a knife. At this point she gave them her wallet, saying (in Russian) “Take my money, but please don’t hurt me.” They took her money, then one of them punched her in the face, splitting open her lip and knocking her to the ground. They kicked her repeatedly as she lay on the ground. Later, Lyuba was told by several ethnic Kyrgyz to whom she related this tale that “her people” often attack/injure/kill Kyrgyz people in Russia, so she probably deserved it.

The thing is, there definitely are racially motivated attacks against non ethnic-Russians in Russia, but that hardly justifies retribution against 17 year old girls in Kyrgyzstan! Additionally, I find it fascinating that both in Russia and here in Kyrgyzstan, my students have insisted that racism is a problem endemic to America (I was told just last night that in America all whites hate all blacks and vice versa!) and that there is no racism in either Russia or Kyrgyzstan...

On a lighter note, I bought a new wallet:

The Kyrgyz Pavaratti?

This is from last weekend, but I've only just now gotten around to uploading all the video clips necessary for this post. Last Sunday was the 25th anniversary performance of Сталбек Алмасбеков (Stalbek Almasbekov), the premier opera singer of Kyrgyzstan. He's also the father of one of my former students. This student now studies with Matthew, and decided to invite both of us to his father's performance. We received free tickets and prime seats in the fifth row, center. Too bad I'm rather a philistine and not all that big into opera. Anyway, while I'm ertainly no judge of operatic quality, he seemed to be an exceptional singer. I took numerous photos (below), although since it *was* opera after all, I took some videos as well, and have uploaded three short clips to YouTube. The show consisted of two abridged operas, Сельская честь (Village Honor) and Паяцы (Pagliacci).

Stalbek Almasbekov sings Village Honor

Stalbek Almasbekov sings Village Honor


Stalbek Almasbekov sings Village Honor


Stalbek Almasbekov sings Pagliacci


Stalbek Almasbekov sings Pagliacci

PseudoSolstice 2007 Part 2: YouTubeTastic

After Rob and his Very Normal Friend left and Alex went to bed, and the rest of us got out of our bizarre garb (see previous post), Chris entertained me, Melissa and Gwen by singing his various folk songs. Chris has been writing folk songs for years, and below are several. The first three are political and the last two are pagan solstice songs. Enjoy!

This one's on the politics of Bushomomics.

This one's on Iraq

This one's on immigration.

This is a pagan song; he's still working on it.

You might notice he has some horrific background singers in this one :-)

And because I just can't stop myself: K-Punk

More K-pop: The Korean Numa Numa Song

For you K-Pop lovers out there...

...I snagged this off Diana's site, since as I'm no longer addicted to Korea's OnStyle network I'd've had no clue as to it's existence otherwise. It's an ad for Samsung's Anycall phones, filmed in a dystopian future where technology combines with music to save the masses from an oppressive brave new world-ish existence. [more info] I was never all that into K-Pop, but I've found this rather addictive. I think I miss Korea :-)

And in case you're interested in more Korean-related weirdness, check out this episode of The Simpsons. You'll have to watch the first few minutes before you realize why I've linked you there though - but you'll see!

But I *do* have a crush on Obama!

Colbert vs. Rain

Apparently this is a bit of old news, but it only came to my attention today (thanks Gwen!). Anyway, presenting Stephen Colbert vs. Korean pop star Rain ("Bi" in Korean).

And yes, he actually IS singing in Korean :-)


This is the singer/video he's spoofing.

Also, you should click here to watch
Colbert's response to Korean disapproval of his spoof.

"넌 내게 반했어" ("You became enamored of me") by No Brain

We sang (er, tried to sing) this song in Korean class today.
Awesome!

This is the one we learned last week :-)
It's 어머나 ("Ooops") by 장윤정(JangYunJung)

Morena de mi Latte (and other visions from YouTube)

Am I the only waygook who has noticed this? Recently Maxim coffee (the Taster's Choice of Korea) has run a series of ads set to the song Cancion del Mariachi (also known as Morena de mi Corazon), featured in the opening sequence to the movie Desperado. This means that in addition to the plethora of annoying Korean commericals that are always getting stuck in my head (rushee and cashee, anyone?), I now have the soundtrack to Desperado playing in there as well. I found myself humming Cancion del Mariachi today in my class of second graders... who all then started singing the coffee commercial! Anyhow, thanks to the wonder that is YouTube, I can bring you this commercial:

Enjoy!

And here's the original clip from Desperado, if you're interested:

And just to random things up a bit,
here's something from six years ago that some of you may recognize:
(be patient - the first few seconds are black screen)

Also, this might be the best thing Bush has ever done:

Two songs I just can't get enough of right now.

I turned off the auto-start.
Just hit play if you want to listen.
Seriously. Hit play NOW.