The Awesome Mbira

Picture A

    African music ... first off ... awesome! I love the complex drum beats so much ... but I recently learned about, and got to play with, an African instrument that I've never seen, or even heard before (to my knowledge). It's called the mbira (mmm-bee-rah) and it sounds so cool!

Picture B

    It has a xylophone-like sound, but not quite. One strikes the metal or bamboo keys and it sound somewhat like the xylophone, but it also makes this neat rattling sound. Picture A doesn't have the colorful metal pieces around the top of the metal bars like the Picture B does, but it has metal bottle caps attached to the metal board behind them to make the rattling sound common in mbira music. Below is a soundtrack of the mbira. Notice the buzzing sound of the mbira. Buzzing is a sound that is often found in African music.

Le Parkour -- Crazy Stuff!

In movies, people are always jumping from building to building, or from moving vehicles to escape the police, or the "bad guys" and we often think ... "is this realistic?" Well, I'm here to tell you that it is!

Welcome to the sport Le Parkour:

Here is a brief description: the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment. It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible. Skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves are employed.


In otherwords ... parkour is basically ridiculous moves, jumping from building to building, running up walls, and all sorts of crazy stunts. This is somewhat like the equivalent of American skateboarding without a board.


After watching a parkour video, I've determined that this skill would be best used in running from the police. How could they possibly keep up!?


Check it out ... seriously!

The Magical Sitar

All right, so I have officially decided that I must learn how to play the sitar.

Introducing, the sitar:

If you have ever seen "Moulin Rouge," perhaps you know of the talking magical sitar that can only speak the truth.

The sitar is a plucked string instrument commonly used in India. Generally the sitar is used in playing a raga, or style of Indian classical music, which is associated with either the time of day or season. Ragas can be anywhere from 10 minutes to hours long.

The sitar has also been used in popular western music. For example, a few Beatles songs such as "Love You to," and "Norwegian Wood," have the unique sounding sitar in them.

I really enjoy the sound of the sitar and how it is played without metrical rhythm; not to mention it just looks awesome. In this youtube "video," that isn't really a video at all, you can hear a raga played on the sitar.

Anyone watch "Three Sheets?"

What better way to begin a blog than kicking it off with a drinking post?

For any of those who are unfamiliar with the Discover channel television show "Three Sheets," it is hosted by Zane Lamprey who travels around the world sampling drinking customs (mostly), and food that is unique to the culture and region he is traveling. He also engages in any drinking customs that may be prevalent in the culture, and learns a bit about the country's history.

In one episode, Lamprey travels to Wales and learns about some interesting customs of the Welsh.

The term, "pub" comes from "public house," which is where people would gather to settle disputes, and to socialize. In fact, the first pub that Lamprey visited was actually used as a courthouse where people were hanged. Lamprey also learns about the superstitious, "Devil's cup." The theory behind this being that by keeping a cup available to the Devil, it would keep him at bay.

Next, Lamprey travels to Mumbles, Wales. Mumbles gets it's name from the Welsh word referring to a woman's chest, or "boobs," quite simply. Upon looking at Mumbles from afar, it is not hard to imagine how it got that name. In Mumbles, Lamprey embarks on the "Mumbles mile pub crawl," a local beer drinking challenge. The goal is to stop at ten specific pubs along a mile long walk and have a drink in each pub. It is helpful to mention that in the United Kingdom, a pint is 20 oz, as opposed to 16 oz in the states.

After a night of drinking, Lamprey goes to breakfast for a "hangover cure" breakfast of cockles and lava bread, the traditional Welsh breakfast. Cockles is shellfish, and lava bread is a mixture of seaweed and oatmeal. Though Lamprey enjoys the breakfast, he mentions that it was not an efficient cure for a hangover.