culture | Stowaway Travel Writing & Editorial Services

What is this? Is this a return to a project I appeared to have abandoned months ago? Why yes it is! (For newer readers, check out this post about the A Country a Month project and then hop back here.)

When I last left this project, dearest fellow travelers, I was working my way through books and articles on Indonesia, having read up a bit on Australia and New Zealand. I’ve returned to the materials on Indonesia, and I’m currently reading two books aimed at the same audience: the overseas business executive. It’s so strange to read books written for someone who is living in a foreign country because they’re arranging corporate bank accounts or building factories or whatever. I protest against the decisions these people make all the time, and I will never live the wealthy kind of life they do. But that seems to be the market for books on how to assimilate into foreign cultures, so we’ll work with what we’ve got.

The first one is Culture Smart! Indonesia by Graham Saunders. This is written by a Brit and that may be partly why it reads like an exercise in colonial noblesse oblige. Everyone has servants, try your best to put up with the strange native ways, etc. It is also much slimmer than the other guide, and only aims to convey basic information without explication or nuance. It seems to expect the reader to be staying in Indonesia for only a short time, or to ensconce herself in the expatriate community and stay there, and so there isn’t much about forming lasting relationships or gaining a deeper understanding of the country.

Culture Shock! Indonesia by Cathie Draine and Barbara Hall, on the other hand, seems to be premised on the idea that the expatriate has moved to Indonesia permanently, and thus there is much emphasis on integrating into the culture, learning the language, and understanding how things are done beyond a surface level understanding. Obviously I prefer this approach, although there are still some wincingly condescending moments, like when they talk about the “superstitions” of some of the villagers, or how “servants know their place and are happy with it.” But overall, they make an effort to introduce Westerners to Indonesian culture with respect and affection; they expect the reader to love their adopted country as much as they do. Also, they have line drawings that are straight out of my Rise Up Singing songbook, which is adorable and shows the book’s age (written in ’86, updated a decade later).

So what have I learned for my expatriating ways?

1) Don’t talk loudly or gesture wildly when speaking. This comes across as hostile and I will be avoided like the plague. If you’ve ever heard my speaking voice, you will know that this one might be a bit difficult for me.

2) Status is crucial and manners essential. Status is mostly conferred by age, so I will probably not have much with most of the adults I meet, but if I follow my host’s lead, bring gifts when I visit someone’s home, and avoid criticizing anything directly, I should be okay.

3) A few things I already knew were reinforced: don’t touch children’s heads, don’t eat or pass food with my left hand, dress modestly, and do not expect traffic to follow any of the expected rules.

I have a couple more history/literature books to browse for Indonesia, and then it’s onward to Singapore!

Dearest fellow travelers, what say we get a head start on all those end-of-year lists. Music critics, the genuine article, are currently hunched over their laptops in tiny coffee shops all over Brooklyn, carefully crafting their annual odes to the best tunes coming out of the British and American scenes. I am not one of those critics, but I am hunched over my laptop in my Chicago bedroom, throwing together an inaugural celebration of some of my favorite music from this year.

Let me tell you how cool I am: I’m so cool I don’t care what’s cool. I live in an oppressively hipster neighborhood, and I’ve attended the Pitchfork Music Festival for the last three years running, but that doesn’t mean I love Beyonce ironically. In fact, it bothers me when kids too cool for school profess to love something ironically. I love that woman’s music wholeheartedly, and I bet you do too.

I grew up completely saturated in music — my grandfather composed hymns, my parents hold up the church choir, my sister writes songs that play to standing ovations. We probably had one of the first CD players in the country (don’t worry, purists, Dad’s still got his turntable) and I spent much of the summer of eighth grade categorizing the over 1,000 CDs in my father’s collection. I can read music, play piano, and sing harmony (as well as a soprano can force herself to sing harmony). (I can even make choral singer jokes!) I love music for how it moves me and how it makes me move. I don’t love everything that comes along (ask anyone who’s ever tried to play me a Foreigner song); one of the best parts about being a music lover is figuring out what combinations of beats, tunes, and often words get you excited and what combinations don’t. I don’t trust people who say they like everything, or who lay claim to eclectic tastes. Almost every time, that’s code for not listening to enough music to figure out what they care about. Being a discerning listener is the first step to being culturally conversant, and BONUS, it’s fun!

Sessily (she of the fantastic guest post) recommended this book and book review to me: Matthew Cheney’s review of Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, and if you are looking for my Christmas present, here it is. From what I can tell, Wilson’s book is all about how we make our cultural tastes and how we can move away from negatively exclusionary to positively discerning, from a hierarchy of art to an appreciation of arts, and that’s increasingly becoming my aim in my own life and my conversations with others.

Which is all to say: I titled this Best Music of 2009, but really, it’s my Favorite Music of the Year. What follows is not comprehensive by any means, but it is enthusiastic. Nothing is in any particular order, and I didn’t try to have a certain number of albums or songs for any category, as that seems limiting and arbitrary. Enjoy, and definitely leave your own favorite music/links in the comments!

FAVORITE ALBUMS

These are the albums I’ve been listening to over and over again, with no sign of getting bored.

Passion Pit – Manners
dance, dance, DANCE!

Sparklehorse and Danger Mouse — Dark Night of the Soul
It’s about time these two got together, and the guest list is quite impressive.

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
Probably the best candidate for this year’s “it really works well as an ALBUM, not just a collection of songs, y’know albums used to mean something” piece from the critics of the land.

Black Moth Super Rainbow — Eating Us
Triiiiiiiiippy. And less expensive than actual drug trips. (So I hear. Not that I’d know, Mom.)

Bat for Lashes — Two Suns
I never really listened to much Tori Amos, but this sounds like what Tori Amos sounds like in my head, only less awesomely political and more awesomely sweeping.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Beware
I have yet to hear anything by this man that I dislike, and this album is no exception. It’s a relaxed, generally happy album, with lots of twangy guitar.

Antony and the Johnsons — The Crying Light
Gorgeous.

Yo La Tengo — Popular Songs
They have yet to go wrong, and you gotta love the audacity of that title.

Speck Mountain — Some Sweet Relief
A local band my friend played in for awhile, Speck Mountain sounds like Mazzy Star for the new century.

Phoenix — Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
All those hipster assholes are hailing this as the album of the year and probably the decade, and while I quibble with those who call it straight-up rock (it’s a bit polished and electronic for that), I can’t argue with the appeal of those guitars and hummable melodies.

FAVORITE TRACKS

Hmm, so many fuzzy, feedback-y, atmospheric albums, and then a whole bunch of danceable tunes right here.

Yeasayer – “Ambling Alp”
Give us a new album already!

Kid Sister—“Right Hand Hi”
I never heard it the first time ‘round, and the album only just came out, so it’s an ’09 tune to me.

The National — “So Far Around the Bend”
New album next year, which is pretty exciting. Also, I am dating the band as a whole, which is pretty exciting.

Bell X1 — “The Great Defector”
I heard it on the radio and thought it was a Talking Heads tune.

BBU — “Chi Don’t Dance”
Don’t stop, can’t stop, won’t stop the beat.

Jay-Z featuring Kid Cudi – “Already Home”
I much prefer this to the New York song (and no, it’s not because of New York!); it’s that gently driving beat and the muted horns, I think

Cascada – “Evacuate the Dancefloor”
Let the music take me underground, indeed.

FAVORITE HALF-ALBUMS

I love about half the songs on this album pretty fiercely (examples included), but can’t get into the album as a whole. That might change on repeated listens.

St. Vincent — Actor (“Actor Out of Work,” “Save Me From What I Want”)
The Dirty Projectors — Bitte Orca (“Stillness is the Move,” “No Intention”)
Neko Case — Middle Cyclone (“Prison Girls,” her cover of “Don’t Forget Me”)
Girlyman — Everything’s Easy (title track, “Storms Were Mine,” “Tell Me There’s a Reason”)
Andrew Bird — Noble Beast (“Fitz and Dizzyspells,” “Natural Disaster”)

POSSIBLE FUTURE FAVORITES

I haven’t listened to these enough to make an informed decision, but I’m really liking them so far.

The Clientele — Bonfires on the Heath
Girls — Album (“Hellhole Ratrace” is so great!)
The Twilight Sad — Forget the Night Ahead

MUSIC I SHOULD HAVE LOVED LAST YEAR BUT JUST DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT
Santogold – Santogold and especially the mix album she does with Diplo – Top Ranking

If you’re an imeem user, you can listen to my playlist here: http://www.imeem.com/people/81Xsn-2/playlist/4QPTbGOm/best-music-of-2009-music-playlist/

It’s free and simple to sign up, and I have yet to receive any spam from them, if that helps in your decision. I wanted to embed a playlist, but it turns out imeem isn’t supported on WordPress, and I don’t have everything on Lala yet to get a playlist there. Sorry to delay the post just to not deliver on my promise, but these technologies can be tricky. I’m pretty proud of the imeem playlist, so please enjoy!