LOL

But she wouldnt be MIA if she stuck to one thing.

“she’s a reverse ambassador of mash-up globalization, bringing it back to its multiple sources, and the brown skins, big butts and ramshackle backdrops express a politics far more creative, democratic and satisfying than the tired and tendentious tigers of her first go-round.”

Im not sure I understand this reverse ambassador thing so much but this whole style you see in these pics is pretty much a continuation of the style she already had on Arular. I hope theres not as much Tiger imagery this time around but didnt you catch the very end of the Bird Flu vid?

While i dont agree to Vijay’s thoughts on MIA’s would be appropriation of Caribbean music/art, I do agree, as an east asian that we asians in general are all in this “oh, look the west’s rippin us off again” phase when if anyone’s kept score to date, the east rippin the west is at a much higher tally. But doesnt it just come down to good art/bad art?

One night during finals, not too long ago, I spent a lot of time trying to understand what inspires Shondrae “Mr Bangladesh” Crawford… here it is:

“You know how you make up a word and use it for whatever? We used Bangladesh like that, for anything. It got the bang in it. It’s a foreign country and people always say my beats are crazy and different so they’re foreign to the ear. Bangladesh is foreign to the ear and Bangladesh bangs the best, so I started putting it before all the beats,” Mr. Bangladesh explains.

That’s what’s up.

what i didn’t mention is that everyone in the car got there (their social station) by accident of birth, except for my cousin. It’s hard playing Mr. Ambiguous Ethnicity and Native Singhala Speaker with a last name like he had (changed.)

but corniness isn’t exactly a bad thing. Isn’t that part of the appeal of baila? Especially the old stuff my relatives play at gatherings where lyrics are often cribbed from western standards?

forgive me for the blanket statement but I often wondered about Lankans choices in music after that visit, assaulted on all sides by Canadian teen-agers, Canadian country-sex crooners and one perpetually angry fool from Detroit.

some of my older cousins listened to pink floyd nonstop but I’m not sure if that qualifies as hip.