Threads of Identity: 2012

Issue #009, 2022                                                                              ISSN: 2581- 9410  

1. The Unbearable Cuteness of Commercialization
2. Tofurky and Contemporary Crafts
3. EMPOWERMENT in 5 Minutes
4. The License to Learn

 

1- The Unbearable Cuteness of Commercialization

Some time ago, I sent my friend the film, The Laya Project, which is about music of the seaside cultures affected by the Tsunami of 2004.  The film, with tracks mostly remixed by one of India’s best known composers, is beautiful and as my friend is a musician, I thought he would enjoy the music of these varied lands. Here is what he wrote when he received the film: hi Judy, Thanks so much for the lovely Laya Project package.  I watched the DVD today, and I scanned through some parts, so I may have missed something, but I have to tell you, as lovely and award winning and everything as it is, nonetheless, to my taste  or sense of the rightness of things,  the music is like playing beethoven with an electric bass, a backbeat, and maybe jazz scatt singing or something or fusing beethoven with lawrence welk.  So, even while I find myself moving to the beat and some of the playing and singing is beautiful, I simply am horrified by the destruction of culture….. It brings to mind what you are working on….the preserving of traditions in the face of the onslaught of western culture.   I will think abou...