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Category: ‘non-western’ musics, aka ‘world music’

Quirky moments (#8 in series: Madagascan lizard atop Madagascan “lizard”, with musical bonus)

 

Presumably, the living lizard had no sense of the pictured circumstance’s synchronicity, let alone any awareness that a human passer-by might find it quirky or amusing.

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“From behind” (#2 in single-image series: switched-on monk)

 

 

This post’s subtitle owes an apology to Wendy Carlos.

(Wendy, who was originally named Walter, is most famous for her 1968 LP “Switched-on Bach”).

This post includes a musical bonus; like the featured image, it involves Tibetan Buddhism…but not J.S. Bach.

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Okonjima sunset (with “astounding” musical bonus)

This post’s musical bonus really is astounding, I think.

November 4 2022, at Okonjima, was one of the most rewarding days of our lives.

The immediately-preceding post’s leopard encounter was its most electrifying moment, but we also saw another leopard, giraffes galore, cheetahs, many other animals, and some beautiful country.

Circa 7 pm, we adjourned to a hilltop, to enjoy “sundowners”…and/or the actual sundown.

I took the featured photo at 7.06 pm.

The other images, below, are in chronological order.

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Rare, shimmering…with musical bonus (#12 in Namibia single-image series)

 

 

Khowarib Gorge is one of very few Namibian places through which water flows, visibly, “permanently”.

This post’s (Tunisian) musical bonus was doubtless inspired by larger waves, dancing somewhere else entirely, but Anouar Brahem’s Dance With Waves dances well with a desert river’s rippling.

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Heavy metal pachyderm “remembers” last living male…

Unsurprisingly, a deal of Perth’s abundant street art celebrates Western Australia’s own extraordinary flora and fauna.

Thanks to sculptors and muralists, you can see kangaroos in the CBD’s main thoroughfare, endangered cockatoos vividly adorn more than a few walls and fences, and oversized orchids, kangaroo paws and banksias “bloom” on others.

Near to the South Perth foreshore’s colossal frill-necked lizard and numbat, proudly stands a singular, much more elaborate metal sculpture.

It was made in the WA wheatbelt, but depicts – anatomically correctly – an “iconic” African animal.

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Remembering Bheki Mseleku (1955-2008)

 

 

…or discovering him.

Arguably one of South Africa’s two pre-eminent improvising pianists, Bheki Mseleku was also an arresting saxophonist and vocalist.

His music deserves to be much more widely known.

Anyone who deeply admires Abdullah Ibrahim, McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane is highly likely to appreciate Bheki Mseleku.

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Perfect storm, at last (#82 in “a shining moment” series)

In 37 years of visits to Albany (on Western Australia’s south coast) we had failed to achieve a key ambition: to experience a major storm there.

A few days ago, nature finally obliged; the image shows Lowlands Beach at 3. 54 pm on Sunday 20 September 2020.

Joseph Tawadros provided this post’s suitably tempestuous music.

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Happiness, joy, contentment…(#73 In “a shining moment series”)

 

It is a great pleasure to encounter a non-gloating, happy person – one who appears comfortable in their own skin, who requires “no particular reason” to be happy, who radiates contentment, is fully alive, and not “on guard”.

Such encounters do not require a common language, nor any words to be spoken.

Typically, no commercial transaction is involved, no contest, no “big event”…

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