Ghunzib Poet Reads Original Poetry
Glass Artisan: Antalya, Turkey
Walking the ancient lanes of Antalya, Turkey, colors and aromas assail your senses. The streets are busy with merchants, tourists, and of course artists. Şengül Korkmaz, the artisan pictured here, deftly crafts glass rods into figurines and jewelry. Her pleasant demeanor and ready smile reflect her pleasure in her work. We did not converse much, but she gave a clear sense of pride in her art and her place. Thanks to her for adding depth to our visit to this wonderful city.
Courtyard Wedding Party #1
This is a common occurrence in the Caucasus: on a quiet Saturday afternoon, cars bedecked with flowers and ribbons suddenly wheel into an apartment courtyard. Well-dressed people pile out. Music erupts from accordions, drums, and clappers, echoing off of cement bloc buildings. People spontaneously break into dance, money and candy fly through the air, and sleepy neighbors look on with smiles. Soon the bride appears, having been fetched from her home, to be taken to the wedding, the celebration, and her new life as a wife. Once she gets in the nicest car beside her betrothed, the cars blare their horns in cacophonous celebration and tear out onto the main road.
Here is a snapshot of just one of these rambunctious moments.
MUSICAL ANALYSIS:
Organology: zurna. A Middle-Eastern double-reed conical bore aerophone with finger holes; a type of shawm (Hornbostel-Sachs classification no. 422.112) [1]
Melody: Melismatic
Mode: Phrygian
Rhythmic features: Hemiola
[1] Rice, Timothy, James Porter, and Chris Goertzen, eds. "[Z]." Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Volume 8 - Europe. Routledge (Publisher), 2000. 1094-095.
Roti: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Minority cultures are often hidden in plain sight. Here a Muslim Thai woman serves up Indian-style roti—which is delicious—on the streets of Chiang Mai. Thai Muslims make up anywhere between 1-5% of the total population of an almost entirely Buddhist country.
Chai in the Mountains: Meusisha, Dagestan
Few foreigners would have reason to find the village of Meusisha. It is tucked into the midlands of the Dakhadayevsky region of central Dagestan. There’s about a four mile stretch of tire-shredding dirt and rock road to reach it. And it’s beautiful. The quiet gardens and orchards spread out along the convex wall at a valley’s end. They look down on terraced farmland below and mountains in the distance. The hospitality was warm and the food delicious! And quite distinct.