Finishing Music Week: German Rap

Guys, I never did my East German rap post, which is a MUST.  How can I not do it?  I must.

So, you'll have to rewind to Polish Rap to get a sense of where I'm going with this.  You really do.  (Not a ploy to increase page views)

So why do I find rap to be so compelling in the East vs West dialectic?  While rap has its roots in the racial segregation in America, it has worldwide ramifications.  I will certainly not argue that the aesthetic (baggy t-shirts, chains, certain labels, baseball hats, even gestures) changes throughout the rap scene because it's obviously present.  Besides the surface look, rap is an attitude and a message.  While rap has branched out beyond its political message of subversion, it's still a very strong theme today.  I would say especially abroad, but I don't know the international world of rap well enough to make such a bold assertion.  Certainly, the theme carries weight in the ECE region.  East Germany especially clings to this theme in popular rap and it all carries back to the early years of reunification.

Book Review: Polish Poetry

prairielightsbooks.com

Lately I've been having a real hankering for poetry.  I highlighted Dimkovska's book of poetry, but it's time for more accessible poetry.

The book I read was a collection called, "Spoiling Cannibals' Fun: Polish Poetry of the Last Two Decades of Communist Rule", edited and translated by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh.  It was a great read.  Poland has quite a tradition of poetry and their generally obstinate nature towards Communism helped anti-state poetry flourish during the red era.  The foreword predicted that readers would have a new favorite poet by the end of the book.  All I have to say is that I may have 5 new favorites. 

Delays

Sorry, but my schedule has been skiwompus (that is my favorite made-up word, though I often modify it to be skidilywompus) and I haven't gotten to the posts this week!  ACK!  There's been a breach. 

In order to keep my sanity, I'm going to postpone Historical Moments until next week. 
This week I'll do some book reviews because I completely stopped doing those.  So look for book reviews all this week and we'll get back on schedule with Historical Moments!

Latvija: More Baltic Fashion

Latvia is the last country on the fashion radar this week.  There will be reprisals on fashion week, do not fear, but today marks the last day of CEE fashion, for this week at least.

Estonian Fashion

We are finally getting to the Baltics. They've been entirely neglected and I can't ignore them, no matter how tiny they may be.  I came across this list and shamelessly went through and searched designers on it.  I often make notes on how I research for my posts, and I'm writing a post to address this very topic.  It's a whole matter in and of itself and for those interested in the region (who may not know the scads of languages necessary for such tasks), it's good to see how I come up with the information.  It's not as easy as it looks even with Google the great machine, I swear.