Senora ? your bootay? take your pick .. and just do it …
This week we started our academic year … lots of starry-eyed and / or sleepy scholars … getting into the new school year rhythm … it usually hits us all pretty hard … as we adjust our daily doings / energies … and weekends become all the more precious for R + R …
We got lucky this weekend … our friend, Santosh, celebrated 50 …with his beautiful family and a clutch of friends from near and far … a “surprise” birthday shindig at a typical, simple working farm / stand in Sonoma … a fabulous foil …
DGIIN supplied the live vibes in a lively quartet configuration … non-stop danceable French / Spanish / English “ gypsy “ fusions .. mulch for a dance floor, hay bale al fresco seating, tamales, and fresh grilled veggies seasoned with black sea salt … Poco a Poco Winery in the house, and Boont Ale on tap .. plenty of fruited elixirs for adults and the abundant, bouncy, beautiful children. We danced and laughed and ate .. adults and children …a great way to meet and greet new friends….
Serendipitously, in our mailbox that same day was the soundtrack to “My Name is Khan”, so we listened to it the way up and back from the Bay Rim …. aside from the gorgeous incarnations/conversations present at the party, our in-car listening might have been the most overtly “East Indian” cultural component of our afternoon … ah! the joys of our North American metro-cosmopolitan melting pot…. below the surface, “gitano” music has clearly traceable roots in the migration of East Indian peoples through the Middle East to Spain, France and beyond. Voila, a full meta-musical circle of sorts to a Santosh’s Sonoma celebration?
As the evening air quickly chilled us at sunset, and families headed homeward,
we pointed ourselves back towards Ashkenaz , a Berkeley community center icon over decades… to jump inna mix with Pato Banton and the Now Generation … and Pato instantly had the room swaying, and skanking, and singing-along .. Rastas and Rockers, and Yoman, a inventive Balinese free-styler on the floor, and player in Gamelan Sekar Jaya … till our crew’s legs ached …positive musics and positive vibez all around … glad to learn Pato has relocated to LA from London .. what a STAR …beaming, and inviting his admiring fans to chant lyrics and co-star, right up on stage, side by side .. NO RINGERS ! a staple feature of his live performances … music is magic… can bear powerful messages, and inject your soul …
Where have you shaken your booty lately ? … = : ) ~
ViPS : in the flow with messages and musics from Sam Cook, Songhai, Stevie Wonder, and Salif Keita, Stern + Perlman+ all kinda musics … our recent worldOne mixology has stirred in : Zakir Hussein, Herbie Hancok’s IMAGINE project, Justin Moore ( Bawdy Country) Fila Brasilia, Joan Soriano, Juan Luis Guerra, Cielo, The Roots, and some fabulous revisits to works of Toni Childs …we have been corresponding with Canadian composer Francois Couture, whose imaginings simply knock us out .. we commend you to his “Tape Speed” .. while we await Francois’s forthcoming projects … and we ponder “ The Peace Project” visit to SF, and the prospect of co-creating worldOne festival in LA and ??? … they may say we are dreamers …
