Music rant. And some reccomendations.

just got home from the Prodigals show, which was, as always, awesome. I've seen them now....five times? The bassist is amazing. I think the web site said he was trained at Julliard, and it shows. I've never seen any bassist moving so quickly over the strings. And as Sarah pointed out, accordions are *not* supposed to be sexy. Neither are they supposed to be punk. but you know? It works. We bought CDs, two of them, which was a good idea. And after they were done, on came a punkish version of the Foggy Dew, which I heard during the festival in which I first saw the Prodigals. It wasn't them, but after looking it up online, I think it was the Young Dubliners, who were definately there then. So I'm downloading it. Along with Carry Me Up to Carlow, which is, if I'm not mistaken, the song written about Fiach McCure O'Byrne (and I know I misspelled that), who was one of my ancestors. My father used to sing it a lot. And in a little bit I'll know if it's the one, and if it is I'm burning a copy for him. It Is! It Is! Wheeeee! I haven't heard this in sooooo long! hooray! Glee! Huzzah! Never heard it like this, though, so fast and so many instruments and some of them electric. You know, I havne't heard it since I was like ten or eleven, and I could n't remember the name of it for several years. This so very rocks! And there are some of you who should hear this band as well, and the Prodigals, if you haven't already. P tends to be much more fun in concert, obviously.... They got a new drummer and a new guitarist since we saw them last, and I really like the guitarist. He's a Dubliner, and it shows, as far as telling a good story to introduce the songs. It seems to be a long standing tradition with any band that does Irish folkish stuff. The las song was a rewritten Wild Rover of which I actually approve. That says something, as I *hate* that song. "No nay never no more, will I play when I'm sober, no never no more." And Follow Me Up to Carlow is almost done, and I can hear the whole thing rather than just half.... Which is, perhaps not so oddly, more important to me that the Foggy Dew for which I was first looking. Two minutes left on it now....

death and destruction

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15136-2003Apr12.html

This is, somehow, one of the more painful things I've read about the war. I've gotten almost used to the sight of bloody and broken bodies lying around, descriptions of death and pain and misery, it has almost stopped hurting. But you know, I'm also going into art history, if all continues as I think it might, and even if I don't, I'm still deeply enamored of it. Especially of ancient Middle Eastern culture nad art. For years now I've wanted to go to Baghdad and the outlying areas and sift through teh sands to see what history they would reveal. Museums are some of the places I hold most sacred, in much the same way that my grandmother's attic and barn were. They hold the past, little pieces of it that are close enough to touch, so close you can breathe the scent of them. It's, I don't know, like ancestor worship/honor. These are the things they made and held to be important, so even when we have no memory of our own history, we have them to remind us. They almost feel like shrines to me. I knew the museums in Baghdad would be destroyed, of course. How could they not be? When you try to destroy a people, don't you take tehir history and culture from them? To destroy the enemy, you break the most valuable things.... We did it in Dresden, why not here? Of course, no one knew about Dresden until many years later, being classified, if I remember right (I could be wrong. I seem to remeber reading this in Slaughterhouse Five in teh tenth grade, many years ago.) I know it wasn't us that looted, though I did see a headline about an American bomb hitting a museum, which may or may not have been the same one. And I know it bears no similarities, aside from very glancing ones. But you know, this is a culture that's being destroyed, not strategic military targets. I realize that things are getting connected in my head that have no right to be, but this is quite simply how I'm seeing things at this moment. Give me a few minutes and I'm sure I can be rational but I really don't feel like it now. It's not just the Iraquis that are losing their pasts. We all are. Be it by propaganda, or education, or the destruction of cultures throughout history, we have lost so much. The Tigris and Euphrates were seen as the root of civilization, so shouldn't there be something to be learned from that? The myths/history are so very rich there. It should be something to teach, not bomb. Or perhaps I'm just naieve.

(no subject)

Correction. The bomb that hit it was in the first Gulf War, not this one. I read it wrong.