Happy Feet

I love the way Middle Eastern men dance. It's true. I went to a pop concert last night - Mohammed Mounir- and I have to say that what I enjoyed the most was watching people dance. Seeing guys from age 16 or so on up to dads singing the lyrics passionately to each other and to the stage with their arms held out and hands snapping or moving from side to side and their hips popping and swaying to the part-tropical, part-Middle Eastern sounding music was amazing. There were men sitting on the shoulders of other men. There was one guy in front of me who would grab the back of his friend and the two of them would sing to each other with all the emotion that they would sing to the girl of their dreams. Everyone, moms, dads, kids, knew the lyrics to every song and greeted each new selection as a teenybopper would greet Britney Spears singing her latest single. I was also really happy because I was wearing four layers of clothes because of the cold! It was amazing! I took turns at feeling emboldened and dancing how I wanted to and then becoming shy and worried about guys looking on at me, but for the most part I was happy to note they were far too involved with Mohammed Mounir to care about the girl next to them who definately couldn't dance the way their Egyptian ladies could.

I can't believe that I'm coming home in two months! It's very hard to believe. Last week I found something that made me excited about being back, though. I like to frequent blogs that post mp3s of soul music that never achieved popular success but are worthy of praise, and last week I found a new blog dedicated to Georgia Soul! This is pretty exciting. Unfortunately the files are in Real Player format, which I don't prefer, but if you have real player you can listen and learn more about what was happening in Georgia 40- 50 years ago. Maybe my Georgia family has heard of some of them. That would be pretty neat. Being the dork that I am, I have already invited him to come and DJ in the spring when I become (in sha allah) the host of WUOG's Who Put the Bomp? dedicated to the best in unknown or lesser-known pop, rock, be-bop and soul of the 50s and 60s. I've been waiting for it, and, if nothing else, if I can provide videos of an 8 ish year old Helen pretending to sing Aretha Franklin I should at least be a candidate : )

His link is http://georgiasoul.blogspot.com
Mommy countdown: A week!