Conservative. Idaho. Software engineer. Historian. Trying to prevent Idiocracy from becoming a documentary.
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"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." -- Rom. 8:28
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Saturday, January 18, 2014
Irishmen In The Oddest Places
My wife pointed me to this Irish band performing "Star of the County Down" - but the band calls themselves Orthodox Celts. You see, they are Serbs, even the very Irish-looking lass Ana Djokic playing the violin.
Oddly enough, there is a somewhat impressive interest in Celtic music in eastern Europe. (I was first introduced to such interest when the Russian group "Djembe" came stateside and performed in North Carolina.)
I initially thought it odd that songs in a different language (English songs for Russian speakers) But then John Trexler explained to me that in the USA we are very focused on Hollywood culture. For the most part we are inundated with "local" entertainment and we rarely see any foreign entertainment unless we actively hunt it out. (This was in the 90's, when dial up was cutting edge.) John explained that when he traveled, other countries did not have the Hollywood juggernaut, thus they had more music and movies from other countries.
It made me realize that while having a common language is one of the things that helped make the USA become a world power (having multiple languages can create a barrier) it also has seemed to reduce our interest in cultures that we can't easily/quickly understand.
Oddly enough, there is a somewhat impressive interest in Celtic music in eastern Europe. (I was first introduced to such interest when the Russian group "Djembe" came stateside and performed in North Carolina.)
ReplyDeleteI initially thought it odd that songs in a different language (English songs for Russian speakers) But then John Trexler explained to me that in the USA we are very focused on Hollywood culture. For the most part we are inundated with "local" entertainment and we rarely see any foreign entertainment unless we actively hunt it out. (This was in the 90's, when dial up was cutting edge.) John explained that when he traveled, other countries did not have the Hollywood juggernaut, thus they had more music and movies from other countries.
It made me realize that while having a common language is one of the things that helped make the USA become a world power (having multiple languages can create a barrier) it also has seemed to reduce our interest in cultures that we can't easily/quickly understand.