By Kathleen Dodge Doherty  January 8th, 2010 2:34 pm  |  Comments (2)

On December 31, 2009, revelers in São Luis, the reggae capital of Brazil (highlighted in our current issue) were treated to the steamy beats of hometown heroes Tribo de Jah under a full moon. Flanked by towering radiola speakers on three sides, the band has been playing New Year’s Eve in São Luis on and off for nearly 25 years. Indeed, Tribo de Jah’s unlikely success captures the ‘power to the people’ spirit of roots reggae at its core. 

Formed in 1985 after the fall of the military dictatorship, five of the six members met while working at the School for the Blind, where they were also busy crafting their own instruments and playing in local clubs. (Four members are completely blind and one has only partial vision.) The quintet began their career covering the highly danceable lambada tunes that were popular at the time. Concurrently, Fauzi Beydoun was making waves as the first DJ to host a reggae program on the air. While the sound was initially frowned upon as “ghetto culture,” the social, political and spiritual messages of the music took root. Beydoun soon joined forces with the band and lent vocals to their sound. Together they began crafting a Brazilian take on Jamaican rhythms. In 1995, this small band from the country’s poorest state found themselves performing at the most important venue of their genre, the Reggae Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica.

Today the band is still bringing reggae’s message of peace, love, and jah (God) to the masses. In 2008, they released two new CDs: the English language Love to the World, Peace to the People  and The Babylon Inside, largely in Portuguese for their Brazilian fans. They have plans for a third companion CD featuring dub versions of the songs.

Watch Tribo de Jah perform the song Garota Dreadlock (dreadlocked girl) from their 2008 album Rafazendo.

For more on the São Luis scene, check out “The Reggae Capital of Brazil” on page 20 of Afar’s December 2009/January 2010 issue.

By Jeremy Saum  December 23rd, 2009 9:12 am  |  Comments (3)

Dear Santa, I would like a subscription to Afar. And an edible hat.

In the second issue of Afar, on newsstands now, writer Christopher Hall takes readers on a delicious romp through Spain, sampling tapas wherever he goes. His dining companion in Madrid was Alicia Ríos, a woman who has a passionate, creative, wacky relationship with food. She makes hats out of meat, bakes entire cities, and constructs Flemish galleons from fruit. If you’re looking for inspiration or if you’ve just seen one too many holiday fruitcakes, check out Alicia’s Web site, alicia-rios.com. I recommend the Edible Representations page. 

Thanks to all of you who have helped Afar get off to such a great start this year. Happy holidays!

By Nicole Solis  December 14th, 2009 8:23 am  |  Comments (2)

Lost in translation.

In our December/January 2010 issue, Tim Moynihan reviews three iPhone phrasebook apps that can help you talk like a local in the places you visit. But what if you want to learn more than just the basics? There’s an almost intimidating quantity of books, CDs, podcasts, websites, and, yes, smartphone apps that can try to teach you a language. Here are a few resources to start with, as you look for the right method.

• The Telegraph’s round-up of various French instruction CDs. Cassandra Jardine organizes her favorite instructional CDs into helpful categories like Best Quick-Fix and Most Comphrehensive, so you can choose the method that fits your interest and, let’s be honest, degree of procrastination. Many of these companies offer the same method in a variety of languages, so choose the approach that suits you best, then see if your language is available.
• iTunes podcasts. In addition to the apps we reviewed, the iTunes store has a wide variety of free instructional podcasts in many different languages and for many different levels. In the iTunes store, go to Podcasts, Education, and then Language Course. Two good ones to try are Daily FrenchPod (or French for Beginners, if you don’t already speak French) or PukkaGerman. (Note: These links will take you to the iTunes store.)
  Read through the reviews to see if the podcast is right for your learning style and language level.
  
• BBC Languages. The Beeb’s extensive online language section has 12-week beginning language online courses, audio and video instruction, phrases of the day, articles on cultural traditions in various countries, and other resources. If you want to put your newfound language skills to use, follow the links to foreign-language television and online video.

Photo by eatatmarks, CC 2.0.

By Jennica Peterson  November 16th, 2009 6:00 am  |  Comments (0)

Learn how locals make silk on the Meet the People Tour in northern Thailand.

In the Good Trips department of Afar’s December 2009/January 2010 issue, you’ll find seven trips that use arts and crafts to help you get inside cultures around the world. Here’s another:

Traidcraft “Meet the People” Tours, 44/(0) 191-265-1110

U.K.-based Traidcraft is a fair-trade organization dedicated to reducing poverty in developing countries. Its “Meet the People” tour to northern Thailand takes you into the homes of fair-trade craft producers in villages inhabited by the Thai Leu, Hmong, and Mien hill tribes.

What you’ll do: Spend time with silver jewelers, bamboo-basket makers, and silk weavers, who will show you how they make their crafts; meet with fair-trade craft companies to discuss business models; talk with farmers near the border of Laos about their way of life.

Highlights: Ride atop an elephant through the jungle. Snack on som tam (spicy papaya salad) at the night market in Surin. Take an early-morning stroll through a tea plantation.

Price: 13-day trip from $2,495, includes lodging and most meals.

Photo courtesy of Traidcraft.

By Derk Richardson  November 2nd, 2009 9:57 am  |  Comments (3)

When it comes to contemporary music around the world, the new Museyon Guide, Music + Travel: Touring the Globe Through Sounds and Scenes, is on the same page with Afar magazine’s Sounds department.

In Afar’s premier issue, Zachary Mexico broke down the history and latest developments in Beijing’s avant-rock scene; in the December-January issue, on newsstands Nov. 10, Dan Strachota does the same for the digital cumbia movement in Buenos Aires.

Music + Travel touches down in 12 locations. Among them are Paris (”New Rap City”), Australia (”Art Rock Confidential”), Addis Ababa (”Swing Shifts”), Mumbai (”Passage to Indipop”), Berlin (”Techno Color”), and, yes, Beijing (”Experimental Methods”) and Buenos Aires (”The Digital Domain”).

Music scenes in Chicago, Southern California, Dublin, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Istanbul get similar close-up treatment.

Not only do Museyon Guides, which include three volumes of Film + Travel and the new Art + Travel, take the Afarish approach of tapping local experts to take readers on “a far-reaching, accessible, and inventive journey into the things they love,” but, like Sounds, they get inside the local culture through a mix of text, photos, time lines, maps, and annotated discographies.

Bringing the synchronicity full circle, at Museyon’s New York City launch celebration for Music + Travel, the special guests will include Beijing avant-rock stars Zhang Shouwang (Carsick Cars and White) and Xiao He. The party takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wed., Nov. 4, at Von, 3 Bleecker St. Admission is by RSVP only, but you can find the open invitation on Museyon’s blog. Of course you can become a Museyon Facebook fan and follow Museyon on Twitter.

Related posts:

• Listen to the sounds of Beijing rock
• Imogen Heap spins the globe and scores a hit
• Singing in the Sahara with Tinariwen