Morocco Time

First, the title and look of this blog are going to have to change in the near future - I have a lot of other things I want to write about in addition to Morocco, so I’ll need a new title and look. Any suggestions for the title?

Second, I’m sad to report that Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge passed away on Tuesday. Don’t know who she is? Here.

First, I’d like to state that the president of Columbia is an absolute twat. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. His remarks prior to Ahmadinejad’s speech included:

“Mr President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.”

“”When you come to a place like this, this makes you quite simply ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.”

It was ten minutes of that shit, by the leader of the university that invited him. Yes, I get that people don’t agree with a lot of what the Iranian president believes (and I share some of that feeling), but there is no excuse for regressing to personal attacks and/or treating an invited guest so poorly. I think Bollinger’s been secretly watching a little too much WWF.

In happier news, I surprised Hamou with tickets to the Genesis show on Saturday. It pretty much blew his mind, since he’s always liked Phil Collins, and he’s never seen a concert before. I asked him what he thought of Nationwide Arena (where the concert was held), and he yelled out “They could fit all of Tizgui in here, people, houses, everything!” Yes, his little home village of Tizgui, about 2000 people. Earlier, when I asked him how much he’d like to see the concert, and if he really liked the group, his response was “Who doesn’t like Phil Collins?’ Well, OK, not much I can say to that! I suppose that would be like asking a Moroccan if he liked “Hotel California” or “No Woman No Cry.” Or “Father and Son.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those songs in Morocco, and in all kinds of places.

Some friends of ours told us about this yesterday - very sad.

OK, I know I’m going to be horrendously busy with school, but this sounds awesome -

“Friday’s line-up will be headlined by Bryan Ferry and Felix Buxton of Basement Jaxx, whilst Saturday will see the likes of Gilles Peterson and The Egg perform under the African stars.

Rob de Bank, Ben Sowton and Dimitri from Paris will be amongst those also adding their weight to proceedings.

A sizable slice of the event’s profits will go to L’Association de Bienfaisance de Marrakech, a charity that supplies free housing, food, clothing and medical care to the orphans and homeless children of Marrakech.”

More info here.

I know some of you are rolling your eyes, thinking about the recent influx of Europeans coming on the low class airlines - but this event costs at least 100 Euros just to get in, so maybe the demographics will be a tad better.

Not really 20 years, I don’t think they let kids under 12 go to Van Halen concerts…OK, anyway, this Fall, inshallah, God help me please, Van Halen will be touring with David Lee Roth. Hey, I grew up in Ohio. Love ‘em. Particularly this one, which they always played as a “slow song” at our high school dances - not exactly the right beat for that, but we didn’t care. Oh, this one has Sammy Hagar on vocals, BTW.

For something a little bit later in my weird musical taste, here you are:

Yes, I am old.