Global Voices House Party

There are many ways to get know another culture. My favorite? The house party.

Even the seemingly most conservative of cultures transform into festive affairs of dance, drink, and drums when a house party is declared. There is something irresistibly human about throwing back a couple shots of fire water, turning up the stereo volume, and transforming the living room into a dance floor. After a couple hours, it tends to look like this:

I told you: irresistible.

With this in mind, at the last Global Voices Summit in Budapest I asked each of the participants to bring a bottle of fire water from their home country as well as a couple classic party songs. The idea was to burn 70 or so MP3 CD’s and hand them out so that we all had some festive global tunes to take back home with us.

Instead … we got kicked out about 15 minutes after the first bottle of Japanese plum wine was opened. (It creeps up on you.) Sami heard the voice of Karl Marx, Collins taught me how to dance to the soundtrack of Grease, and we all learned how to do the Benny Lava.

But I still have the MP3 files on my computer and I’ve been meaning to make a podcast for months now. Solana finally convinced me to throw it together. I hope you like it.

[podcast]http://el-oso.net/mp3/Global%20Voices%20House%20Party.mp3[/podcast]

Download MP3 version

Download AAC version (with embedded photos and links for iPods/iPhones)

Tracklist:

Ana Elli 3layki Meshta’ by Joseph Sakr
????? by ??? and China Blue
La Fete au Maroc by Jil Jilala
Loi by Koffi Olomide
Nezlen 3a el-Bestan by Kulna Sawa
Dale Dale Dale by Meta Guacha
Vuli Ndlela by Brenda Fassie
Vasos Vacíos by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
Kalluri Vaanil (AKA “Benny Lava”) by Prabhu Deva Sundaram
Lameck by Alan Namoko and Chimvu Jazz

With appearances by Georgia Popplewell, Kiruba Shankar, Lova Rakotomalala, Ndesanjo Macha, Eddie Ávila, Juliana Rotich, Hamid Tehrani, Ethan Zuckerman, and Solana Larsen.

16 Comments

neha on February 10, 2009 at 1:32 am

Omg! How utterly fantastic! Now our debauchery is there for the internets to see!

Lenguaraz on February 10, 2009 at 5:09 am

Wonderful memories… very inspiring!

medea on February 10, 2009 at 5:12 am

Wow. Good times. Thanks for this!!! Although now I have an earworm Benny Lava style. I´ll be jamming in the bus to work.

sillybahrainigirl on February 10, 2009 at 7:45 am

Thank you!

Lova on February 10, 2009 at 9:09 am

Excellent ! (Dancing at my desk while co-workers ponder whether to call 911..)

Jillian C. York on February 10, 2009 at 9:19 am

Oh god, I can’t wait to sing like that with Neha again. So much fun. What a crazy night!

Jillian C. York on February 10, 2009 at 9:22 am

Oh also – so pleased that one of my selections made the final cut!

Anas Qtiesh on February 10, 2009 at 9:32 am

WOW that’s great.. and embarrassing to some.. now that the Japanese plum wine has worn off..
downloading the track right now..

PS: I can’t believe that every one of the commenters is using Firefox, GVers rock!! (and by rock I mean geeky like me)

cheers

Solanasaurus on February 10, 2009 at 9:41 am

Thanks David! This is so lovely, I even forgive you for having scrubbed (censored?) the play list of my reggaeton selections 😉 Oh the memories.

jeremyclarke on February 10, 2009 at 10:18 am

Awesome David, thanks for putting this together 🙂

TonNet on February 10, 2009 at 5:35 pm

I am listening the melodies while I keep my typing. Thanks for sharing so valuable moments for those who couldn’t make it to Budapest. Great!!

Victor on February 10, 2009 at 10:29 pm

Great selection and memories! Thanks for the collection. You have reminded me lots about that week in those rooms!

oso on February 10, 2009 at 11:41 pm

Wow, I feel like such a sucker for not using Firefox. But, hey, my browser is based on open source too. 🙂

Victor,

Was the track Lameck by Alan Namoko and Chimvu Jazz from you? I really love that last track, but had trouble finding information about it. Do you know anything more about them?

catirestrepo on February 11, 2009 at 7:15 pm

Wonderful! How forget it? 🙂

blueandtanit on February 12, 2009 at 4:18 pm

That it seems that it was a great party, I am glad a lot that your you have enjoyed those moments in very beautiful people’s company, for example, catirestrepo 🙂
many hugs!

Camille on February 23, 2009 at 5:42 am

Wow, someone throw my email on the mailing list for the next party. Looks like good times!

Cheers from Slovenia (just discovered you and the blog via yr profile on Goodreads)

neha on February 10, 2009 at 1:32 am

Omg! How utterly fantastic! Now our debauchery is there for the internets to see!
Lenguaraz on February 10, 2009 at 5:09 am

Wonderful memories… very inspiring!
medea on February 10, 2009 at 5:12 am

Wow. Good times. Thanks for this!!! Although now I have an earworm Benny Lava style. I´ll be jamming in the bus to work.
sillybahrainigirl on February 10, 2009 at 7:45 am

Thank you!
Lova on February 10, 2009 at 9:09 am

Excellent ! (Dancing at my desk while co-workers ponder whether to call 911..)
Jillian C. York on February 10, 2009 at 9:19 am

Oh god, I can’t wait to sing like that with Neha again. So much fun. What a crazy night!
Jillian C. York on February 10, 2009 at 9:22 am

Oh also – so pleased that one of my selections made the final cut!
Anas Qtiesh on February 10, 2009 at 9:32 am

WOW that’s great.. and embarrassing to some.. now that the Japanese plum wine has worn off..
downloading the track right now..

PS: I can’t believe that every one of the commenters is using Firefox, GVers rock!! (and by rock I mean geeky like me)

cheers
Solanasaurus on February 10, 2009 at 9:41 am

Thanks David! This is so lovely, I even forgive you for having scrubbed (censored?) the play list of my reggaeton selections 😉 Oh the memories.
jeremyclarke on February 10, 2009 at 10:18 am

Awesome David, thanks for putting this together 🙂
TonNet on February 10, 2009 at 5:35 pm

I am listening the melodies while I keep my typing. Thanks for sharing so valuable moments for those who couldn’t make it to Budapest. Great!!
Victor on February 10, 2009 at 10:29 pm

Great selection and memories! Thanks for the collection. You have reminded me lots about that week in those rooms!
oso on February 10, 2009 at 11:41 pm

Wow, I feel like such a sucker for not using Firefox. But, hey, my browser is based on open source too. 🙂

Victor,

Was the track Lameck by Alan Namoko and Chimvu Jazz from you? I really love that last track, but had trouble finding information about it. Do you know anything more about them?
catirestrepo on February 11, 2009 at 7:15 pm

Wonderful! How forget it? 🙂
blueandtanit on February 12, 2009 at 4:18 pm

That it seems that it was a great party, I am glad a lot that your you have enjoyed those moments in very beautiful people’s company, for example, catirestrepo 🙂
many hugs!
Camille on February 23, 2009 at 5:42 am

Wow, someone throw my email on the mailing list for the next party. Looks like good times!

Cheers from Slovenia (just discovered you and the blog via yr profile on Goodreads)