In an attempt to drown it out with something good and pleasing, and go back to sleep, I pulled out the MP3 player, flipped to the "India" folder, queued up "Indian Sarangi Recitals" by Ustad Sabri Khan -- and realized that, much as K. said in private e-mail, had I remained cocooned in the Midland I remember there is much I would have missed. It's very likely I would not have had this recording, much less the extensive collection of ragas in the same folder.
Midland may have a bagpipe band now but the opportunities for exposure to "exotic" instruments then were limited. Sure, I have a 70s-era LP of Ravi Shankar ("East Meets West") so I was not unaware of the sitar, but it was hearing live performances in Seattle some years back that sparked my interest. I quickly discovered the masters such as Ustad Vilayat Khan; confirmed as such by my Indian colleagues, who note that the next generation is sadly not producing new masters. But Ravi Shankar and his daughter Ananda are far too "pop" for my liking.
But that's only part of my eclectic "international" collection. After I heard some Persian music my wife gave me a CD set of same. I took to it immediately. Our Iranian friends are amazed that I not only know of but like the masters, including Mohammed Reza Shajarian and Kayhan Kalhor. And other albums such as the Kurdish-Iranian ensemble The Kamkars' "Nightingale with a Broken Wing." (Kathy had to explain that one: "The nightingale only sings in flight; with a broken wing she can neither fly nor sing." How can you find a name more evocatively Persian than that?!)
And new areas and instruments keep opening up: the dan, koto, kora... so much wonderful music I might never have known. I just wonder whether today's Midland is musically more diverse than it seemed back then.
And no, after all that I did not get back to sleep.
So, Midland has quite a large contigent of East Indian people now...but that seems to be true wherever there are good schools and prof/technical opportunities, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteMy son is native Indian, adopted at 2 yrs (now 30). He lived in Midland for a few years and grew quite bored. So somethings have NOT changed. I often wondered how my friends whose parents were Dow Internt'l dealt with Midland. Some told me they couldn't wait to leave and some, like you, were so happy to not be traveling so often and hoped to stay.
To say that World music is missing in Midland currently is not possible: the internet has changed that for all. But when I return, I still get that feeling of showcasing things, rather than actually making it a part of life. Midland protects its imagine to this day.
I think the Episcopal Church was a perfect fit for that town. Lots and lots of groups and discussions and then more of the same before any change could happen. :-)
btw, you are opening up an awful lot of old file cabinets these days...no wonder you are not sleeping. It will calm down when you add newer files to the "Midland" data base.
ReplyDeleteThe same has happened in Redmond in my time here. Many Indians, along with some good Indian restaurants. :-) And it's not all Microsoft.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about those file cabinets. But they are old; it's time to dust things off, look at them, and put them back away properly ordered.