Serenity

Economists Get Rhythm, Part 2

From the people that brought you the epic first round battle between John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, comes part two of a legendary standoff between these two giants of economic theory:




While it's not really clear how Say ought to be a coach of Hayek, I guess they could be lumped on the libertarian side of things. And I'm pretty sure Mises and Hayek had a few disagreements somewhere along the line, but then again, to prove that I would have to dig a little more than I have done in a while... for now I'd rather just enjoy this hilarious, pertinent and entertaining video. It's so good!

Esperanza Spalding...

won the grammy for best new artist! She beat out Justin Bieber and some other pop stars. This is pretty exciting! But, would she have won the award if she weren't so damn gorgeous?

Probably not, but who cares? She is soulful; plays a mean bass and sings so sweetly. With that combination she is bringing a genre of music to the general public that is so sadly ignored: jazz, baby.

Wavin' Ads

I am completely caught up in the World Cup Fever. One unavoidable fact when this happens is that advertisements are bombarded at you. One in particular that caught my attention immediatly was this K'Naan "Wavin' Flag" music video.

I first saw K'Naan on a tiny stange at UBC in Vancouver, Canada. He was honest, fluid and a fantastic performer. I have been fortunate enough to have seen K'Naan in concert three times in Western Canada and he has never let the crown down. Well, until Coke bought this K'Naan's song.

I heard this song several months ago and thought is was a nice tune, but it didn't catch me like his live shows did. Now its just making me sick. So to embrace the sickness, and to forward the repetition I face on a daily basis I have four five videos to look at today.

The first is the arabic mix with Nancy Ajran. Notice how the back up dancers are not exactly modest looking. Do you ever see arab youth dressed in the way?


I love the one arm punch.


The next one is the spanish version, compare these backup dancers to the arab ones:



The Chinese version:



Here's how I first heard it:



Here's the US pop version:




Whew, survived it? Damn that gets annoying! What would you say K'naan got paid to have Coke rewrite his song?

Here is the full list of versions (some are probably not official):
The Arab World: "Wavin' Flag/Shagga' Bi Alamak Da" by K'naan and Nancy Ajram
Brazil: "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan and Skank
China: "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan Jacky Cheung and Jane Zhang
France: "Wavin' Flag " by K'naan and Féfé
Greece: "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan and Professional Sinnerz feat. Komis X
Indonesia: "Wavin' Flag/Semangat Berkibar" by K'naan and Ipang
Japan: "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan and Ai
Nigeria: "Wavin' Flag (Naija Remix)" by K'naan and Banky W. & M.I.
Spain: "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan and David Bisbal
Thailand: "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan and Tattoo Colour
Vietnam: "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan and Phuong Vy

Economists Get Rhythm

Whoring, and Shakira sings the World Cup song

This is a disgrace to all the fantastic South African musicians. There are at least five groups that could easily come up with a better and more popular song than that one.

If that song and video did not do enough to perpetuate African stereotypes we have this, the Roberto Cavalli designed outfit for the opening show:

 Could we conceive of an African skirt that is not made of grass!? Could we? All she needs is a bone through her nose.

It is as annoying to see so many Africans lending a hand to the media creating this pantomime. A perfect example is all the West African football stars in commercials acting like they are going home to Africa to play football. It could not be further from the truth. First of all South Africa is nothing like West Africa. Not in language, nor style, nor climate, nor ethnicity nor... ok wait, their skin color may be the same at times. Also, quite unfortunately, an overwhelming number of South Africans hate other Africans. Its like a Chinese person saying they are going home, home to Indonesia!

It reminds me of when I was a young lad staying at a cheap all-inclusive resort at the coast of Kenya. I was fortunate enough to witness the hotel entertainment for one evening. It consisted of several Kenyan men and women dancing on stage with green plastic grass skirts and fake animal skin to some kind of obnoxious, over-produced Kenyan music. Even at that tender young age, and after a few too many rums, I knew there was a reason why I especially did not enjoy that particularly uninspired piece: for the entire audience, it justified their ignorance and ill-founded prejudice.  


It is increasingly clear that this World Cup, contrary to the lyrics of that song, is not for Africa the burlesque, nor South Africa, nor the majority of South Africans.



(That being said, I am still excited for the World Cup!)

Song of the week - The Boss

Because the Godfather knows how to cool us down on this hot Thursday in the desert. Get down!

Song of the Week - Funky Like a Train

Because here in the UAE our Thursday is the last day of the week, I present to you the first installment of the song of the week. This week we have the classic track by The Equals called Funky Like a Train from 1976. The rhythm is so tight, so syncopated, it is hypnotizing. Get into it!