talvin singh | "ok" | ok | 1998
this song is what happens when you mix indian percussion, northern european electronica, and japanese cheerleaders together in a london nightclub. despite that description, give it a chance. to get the full effect, turn it up really loud in your car with the sunroof open and a cool breeze blowing down from the snowy mountains. at least listen to it on something other than those puny laptop speakers, something with bass.
i associate this tune with springtime. i got this cd during the spring of 2001. I was teaching history at uvsc, anne was pregnant with jack, we were planning a move to d.c. where I was going to shift careers into diplomacy and national security through a masters degree in peace studies at georgetown.
my biggest concerns for our nation then were the unfairness of nafta, the immense clout of the imf and wto over national sovereignty across the globe, and media conglomeration. this was before 9/11, before my government began kidnapping and torturing people, before my military began invading countries on the pretext of pre-emptive warfare. i liked the bad old days of trying to decipher my government's footprints in the murky world of business more than our current era of witnessing my government's blatant violations of human rights and disregard for our own constitutional law (not to mention the good international norms that americans have sponsored in the global community for several generations).
oh well. this was supposed to be about music. this song takes me back to that time, before all of this. back then, i was a little more hopeful about my career path as well. that is something i can control, though (as opposed to american foreign policy). stay tuned on that front; change is in the air and it's more than just the springtime...
the photo is one i took of the bavarian alps from neuschwanstein in april 2000. the way the wasatch range looks today took me right back.
