Posts tagged: music
I’ll admit it, I’m a junk food addict. But at least I’m an adventurous addict (although my predilection is towards the salty). In my 7 (almost 8?) months here, I’ve done some casual investigation of the local snack food situation. With the exception of Baghdad Chips (kettle chips, but slightly oiler, with a 50/50 chance of being stale), most of these come in from Iran or Turkey. As does most everything else in Kurdistan. I’m also becoming convinced that some variation on Sour Cream and Onion is near-universal.
Peanut Cheetos- Palatable, but only barely.
Ketchup Cheetos- Disgusting. Same goes for ketchup potato snacks.
Lime Potato Chips- Surprisingly good, vaguely reminiscent of salt and vinegar.
Grape Potato Chips- Haven’t been that brave yet.
Kebab Flavored Everything- Well, not quite everything, but Cheeto-equivalents, tortilla chips, and processed cheese for sure. Not quite disgusting enough for me to turn it away.
Paprika chips/potato sticks- Fantastic.
Other oddities: Disney characters, Digimon, and Manchester United grace a surprising number of chip bags (odds are very good none of these parties know this is happening). Recently, you’ve been able to find decent tortilla chips round Sulai. Still flavored Dorito-style, but some are quite tasty (Lime and Jalapeno, I’m looking at you).
In other news, I was trying to make a hip hop beat using a Kurdish hip hop sample last night, and ended up with an ambient epic. Timestretching does crazy things.
I’m in a good spot now, musically speaking. My new years resolution was to make music every day, and I’ve stuck to it better than I expected to. My dad, step-mom, and I are hosting weekly jam sessions, which kicks my game up a notch or two. These jams have made me take another look at songs I hadn’t had much of a feel for (if you’d told me 6 months ago that I could wax poetic about the harmonic structure of an Elvis ballad, I’d have been skeptical), and introduced me to a good bit of new music.
One of my favorites of these new-to-me songs is this track up top. There’s a lot to like here: some gorgeous harmonies, a just-funky-enough chord progression, the frontman’s beard, the way the fiddler milks the mic just right. That said, my favorite thing about this song is the line “at least I know she’s lying still.” It’s layered. On the one hand, it means that the song’s narrator succeeded with his .44, but that’s a little to easy. Maybe his murderous intent was thwarted, but he ended up in jail anyway, and takes some cosmic satisfaction in his fidelity, his honor compared to her continued deception, although that feels like I’m pushing it. The interpretation that has the most (admittedly slightly Freudian, or perhaps Santorum-esque) meat to it is that this dude is glad she’s prostrate and immobile, that she’s not bouncing around in bed. It’s a beautiful bit of characterization
Anyone else want to read into this song with me?
