Phnom Pop
Khmer Rock will melt your brain. My friend Min is really obsessed with this music, and she sent me a few incredibly bizarre tracks about cyclos and hooting and hollering at ladies on the street in an absurdist yet definitely, uh, insane way. She’s in Phnom Penh right now, but she promises to send me some links.
Many eons ago, I was an ethnic studies dabbler, and I was always impressed by “ethnics” who were, like, “Yes, I am a Chicana militant, but I think I’m going to study the Suomi people and their relationship with reindeers.” That’s cool, man! Min technically has no connection to Cambodia, but she’s pretty obsessed. I think I haven’t been obsessed with a country per se since college. I am something of a Singapore enthusiast, but I’m sheepish about it.
I’ve been pretty Japan-obsessed for a while, and am now Finland-curious, but not sure whether it will last. I was New Zealand-obsessed way before it became cool, though.
— hugo · Aug 21, 03:56 PM · #
Reihan,
Have you heard the new Firewater album? It’s absolutely, insanely good. The singer, Todd A, toured South Asia after his marraige broke up and picked up musicians and influences along the way. Album of the year.
— citizen (world) · Aug 21, 09:58 PM · #
As someone with neoconservative (in the broader, non-crazy sense of the word) sympathies, I hoped you might nurse a Kurdistan obsession.
Am I horribly off base on that?
— Jonathan Dworkin · Aug 26, 01:59 AM · #