Interests meme - instigated by elenia28
Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so others can play along.
elenia28 asked me about these seven:
ofra haza
She had the most beautiful voice of any singer who ever lived. Every note of hers transfigures existence for me. She sang in Hebrew, Arabic, English (sometimes all in the same song), and a little French. Before she came out with Fifty Gates of Wisdom and Shaday in the mid-1980s, she was known only in Israel as a singer of pop songs that were not very distinguishable from other pop songs. But then she reached back into her heritage of Yemeni Jewish sacred songs, and punched them up with some contemporary arrangements, and became an international phenomenon. I like how she sang in favor of peace. She was as popular with Arabs as with Jews, her music united them. That says a lot. My favorite album of hers is still Shaday, the first one I heard. The title track is so beautiful and haunting it always sends chills up my spine.
azam ali
She's another singer who combines different cultures in her voice. She was born in Iran but raised in India. She grew up hearing temple bells and Vedic chants in a language she couldn't understand, but whose sound fascinated her. When she founded her first group Vas in the 1990s, she wrote lyrics in her own made-up nonlanguage, syllables that sounded nice but transcended meaning. She was trying to recapture the experience of hearing music from the Hindu temples of her childhood. She also developed a love for medieval European music and recorded an album of it titled Portals of Grace. She continued to develop her musical skills by studying traditional Persian classical vocal technique, which is very intricate and demanding. She is now applying this in her new band, Niyaz, which is based on classical Persian, Urdu, and Turkish Sufi music, updated with postmodern electronic treatments that remind me of Brian Eno's pioneering work with other musicians in the '70s. She also speaks out for peace with her music, and tries to let Americans see that Iranians are people too. She's very shy but she still goes on stage and speaks out.
sheila chandra
She was one of the original pioneers of the World Beat movement in the 1980s starting with her band Monsoon in England when she was 16. Monsoon fused Indian music with rock, sort of continuing what George Harrison had started in the '60s. They had a hit single, but then her record company tried to make her keep turning out pop hits. She rebelled because she wanted to experiment and explore where music that bridged cultures could lead to. Still in her teens she made a series of increasingly inventive and intricate recordings that fused classical Indian music with modern influences. Then she made a series of a capella albums exploring what she could do with her voice alone. She explored Celtic and British folk music, and would start a song with an Irish melody, and seamlessly transform it into a Hindustani melody, or vice versa-- singing from some ancestral Indo-European space that both traditions trace back to. Her output has trailed off in recent years. Her most recent album released in 2001 is her most experimental ever, pushing her compositions far into the avant-garde. Unfortunately she got a problem with her vocal cords and had to stop singing. I'm in awe of her a capella album The Zen Kiss, which includes two powerful feminist tracks, "La Sagesse (Women I'm Calling You)" and "Woman and Child."
reclaiming
The Reclaiming tradition of Witchcraft got its start in San Francisco in the late 1970s, and has now become international. It first came to public notice with the publication of The Spiral Dance by Starhawk. Reclaiming's principles are feminist, nonhierarchical, queer-positive, and very green. Political and environmental action have always been at their core. I first met Starhawk on a committee planning a peace march back in September 2001. Then at subsequent peace actions, especially the one in DC on International Women's Day 2003, I found that the Reclaiming Witches in the streets had the best energy of anyone and I was drawn to them, and began hanging out with them more, until I began taking part in the local Reclaiming group, SpiralHeart. They are also wonderful at creating safe space for personal growth and transformation, which has benefited me greatly. All genders and sexualities are welcome, women tend to be very prominent and powerful in it more often than not, though men are just as much a part of it. The men I met in Reclaiming are pretty enlightened beings compared to ordinary men, they're ones I can feel comfortable with. My friend Diana who I met at a Reclaiming Witchcamp a couple years ago noticed the same thing, and we both give the Reclaiming tradition credit for allowing us to be able to deal with men. As they always say in Reclaiming, "You are your own authority." It's a welcome antidote to authoritarian religions. I feel perfectly at home in Reclaiming for all these reasons.
dumbek
One of my favorite drums, I first learned Middle Eastern rhythms on the dumbek. I started out as the drummer for a belly dance class, then I started belly dancing myself. The goblet shape of the dumbek gives a nice contrast in pitch and timbre between the deep dûm tone in the center of the drumhead and the treble tek and ka tones played near the rim. This allows for lively and expressive rhythms that are perfect for setting a dancer's hips in motion. Shortly before I started taking belly dance lessons, I hooked up with a group of belly dancers in the 2004 March for Women's Lives in DC, and played dumbek for them all through the streets. That was one memorable day.
marija gimbutas
An archaeologist from Lithuania who revolutionized the field, and generated considerable controversy, Marija Gimbutas was the first to identify the thousands of Goddess figures from the upper Paleolithic and Neolithic in Europe. She found evidence for a society where women and men were equal, and women were revered for giving life, long before the arrival of warlike patriarchal cultures in history. Her work on the "language of the Goddess" studied the repeated symbols found in prehistoric art, and derived a tentative set of meanings from the patterns in which these symbols were used. Her work carried very powerful inspiration for women and a deep sense of our ancestry reaching back through the ages to a time of powerful wise women. Before Gimbutas, the male-dominated field of archaeology had focused on the doings of men and ignored women's contribution to human prehistory. Gimbutas restored the gender balance of humanity's past, and in so doing transformed feminism tremendously.
islamic feminism
Muslim women have had it with a) religious and cultural traditions keeping them subordinate and unequal, and b) Western attitudes that they're these poor weak creatures who need the West to smash Islam to liberate them. Muslim women are strong, smart, and capable, and they kick butt. Do not underestimate them! Amina Wadud is leading prayers in defiance of centuries of tradition that says only men can be imams. Women Islamic scholars have been holding conferences to reformulate Islamic law without the misogyny. It's thrilling to be alive right now as millions of women who were denied a voice for centuries have now found their voices and are speaking out for themselves.
elenia28 asked me about these seven:
ofra haza
She had the most beautiful voice of any singer who ever lived. Every note of hers transfigures existence for me. She sang in Hebrew, Arabic, English (sometimes all in the same song), and a little French. Before she came out with Fifty Gates of Wisdom and Shaday in the mid-1980s, she was known only in Israel as a singer of pop songs that were not very distinguishable from other pop songs. But then she reached back into her heritage of Yemeni Jewish sacred songs, and punched them up with some contemporary arrangements, and became an international phenomenon. I like how she sang in favor of peace. She was as popular with Arabs as with Jews, her music united them. That says a lot. My favorite album of hers is still Shaday, the first one I heard. The title track is so beautiful and haunting it always sends chills up my spine.
azam ali
She's another singer who combines different cultures in her voice. She was born in Iran but raised in India. She grew up hearing temple bells and Vedic chants in a language she couldn't understand, but whose sound fascinated her. When she founded her first group Vas in the 1990s, she wrote lyrics in her own made-up nonlanguage, syllables that sounded nice but transcended meaning. She was trying to recapture the experience of hearing music from the Hindu temples of her childhood. She also developed a love for medieval European music and recorded an album of it titled Portals of Grace. She continued to develop her musical skills by studying traditional Persian classical vocal technique, which is very intricate and demanding. She is now applying this in her new band, Niyaz, which is based on classical Persian, Urdu, and Turkish Sufi music, updated with postmodern electronic treatments that remind me of Brian Eno's pioneering work with other musicians in the '70s. She also speaks out for peace with her music, and tries to let Americans see that Iranians are people too. She's very shy but she still goes on stage and speaks out.
sheila chandra
She was one of the original pioneers of the World Beat movement in the 1980s starting with her band Monsoon in England when she was 16. Monsoon fused Indian music with rock, sort of continuing what George Harrison had started in the '60s. They had a hit single, but then her record company tried to make her keep turning out pop hits. She rebelled because she wanted to experiment and explore where music that bridged cultures could lead to. Still in her teens she made a series of increasingly inventive and intricate recordings that fused classical Indian music with modern influences. Then she made a series of a capella albums exploring what she could do with her voice alone. She explored Celtic and British folk music, and would start a song with an Irish melody, and seamlessly transform it into a Hindustani melody, or vice versa-- singing from some ancestral Indo-European space that both traditions trace back to. Her output has trailed off in recent years. Her most recent album released in 2001 is her most experimental ever, pushing her compositions far into the avant-garde. Unfortunately she got a problem with her vocal cords and had to stop singing. I'm in awe of her a capella album The Zen Kiss, which includes two powerful feminist tracks, "La Sagesse (Women I'm Calling You)" and "Woman and Child."
reclaiming
The Reclaiming tradition of Witchcraft got its start in San Francisco in the late 1970s, and has now become international. It first came to public notice with the publication of The Spiral Dance by Starhawk. Reclaiming's principles are feminist, nonhierarchical, queer-positive, and very green. Political and environmental action have always been at their core. I first met Starhawk on a committee planning a peace march back in September 2001. Then at subsequent peace actions, especially the one in DC on International Women's Day 2003, I found that the Reclaiming Witches in the streets had the best energy of anyone and I was drawn to them, and began hanging out with them more, until I began taking part in the local Reclaiming group, SpiralHeart. They are also wonderful at creating safe space for personal growth and transformation, which has benefited me greatly. All genders and sexualities are welcome, women tend to be very prominent and powerful in it more often than not, though men are just as much a part of it. The men I met in Reclaiming are pretty enlightened beings compared to ordinary men, they're ones I can feel comfortable with. My friend Diana who I met at a Reclaiming Witchcamp a couple years ago noticed the same thing, and we both give the Reclaiming tradition credit for allowing us to be able to deal with men. As they always say in Reclaiming, "You are your own authority." It's a welcome antidote to authoritarian religions. I feel perfectly at home in Reclaiming for all these reasons.
dumbek
One of my favorite drums, I first learned Middle Eastern rhythms on the dumbek. I started out as the drummer for a belly dance class, then I started belly dancing myself. The goblet shape of the dumbek gives a nice contrast in pitch and timbre between the deep dûm tone in the center of the drumhead and the treble tek and ka tones played near the rim. This allows for lively and expressive rhythms that are perfect for setting a dancer's hips in motion. Shortly before I started taking belly dance lessons, I hooked up with a group of belly dancers in the 2004 March for Women's Lives in DC, and played dumbek for them all through the streets. That was one memorable day.
marija gimbutas
An archaeologist from Lithuania who revolutionized the field, and generated considerable controversy, Marija Gimbutas was the first to identify the thousands of Goddess figures from the upper Paleolithic and Neolithic in Europe. She found evidence for a society where women and men were equal, and women were revered for giving life, long before the arrival of warlike patriarchal cultures in history. Her work on the "language of the Goddess" studied the repeated symbols found in prehistoric art, and derived a tentative set of meanings from the patterns in which these symbols were used. Her work carried very powerful inspiration for women and a deep sense of our ancestry reaching back through the ages to a time of powerful wise women. Before Gimbutas, the male-dominated field of archaeology had focused on the doings of men and ignored women's contribution to human prehistory. Gimbutas restored the gender balance of humanity's past, and in so doing transformed feminism tremendously.
islamic feminism
Muslim women have had it with a) religious and cultural traditions keeping them subordinate and unequal, and b) Western attitudes that they're these poor weak creatures who need the West to smash Islam to liberate them. Muslim women are strong, smart, and capable, and they kick butt. Do not underestimate them! Amina Wadud is leading prayers in defiance of centuries of tradition that says only men can be imams. Women Islamic scholars have been holding conferences to reformulate Islamic law without the misogyny. It's thrilling to be alive right now as millions of women who were denied a voice for centuries have now found their voices and are speaking out for themselves.