The Sheikh’s Batmobile

File this one along side the (plausible) idea that Bollywood has done  
more to stop terrorism than the war on terror has.
The article linked is an interesting, but long read.  Could be a good  
book.

regards,
-Lance

----------------
If You're Only Going to Read One Absurdly Long Magazine Piece Today....
Matt Welch | February 11, 2011

....make it this Walrus magazine opus by Richard Poplak, entitled  
"Heavy Metal and Revolution in Egypt." It's an extended excerpt from  
Poplak's 2010 book The Sheikh's Batmobile: In Pursuit of American Pop  
Culture in the Muslim World, and it focuses on Egypt's harassed but  
indefatigable "Metalien" subculture. My favorite scene in a piece full  
of 'em:

Later, on the patio, I sat across from Sameh Sabry. He called himself  
Slacker, and he is the scene's unofficial archivist. We were worn out,  
wrung dry, stupid with dehydration. Still, Slacker arranged himself  
with élan on the plastic patio chair. He spoke like a philosopher  
steeped in both Socrates and Scorpions. [...]

"My question to you is: Would you stop listening to the music you  
loved if someone was going to throw you in jail for it? If the answer  
is yes, then you don't love the music enough. I have been charged for  
Satanism; I have been called a devil worshipper. Many times. My name  
has been in print — with my age, my school — I was waiting for them to  
come for me. I did not change. I did not hide. You want a piece of me  
— come get it." [...]

Slacker leaned back in his chair and moaned at the sky. "I love the  
American spirit — because it encourages you to be a hero. They make  
you feel big even when you are doing something small. And the reason  
why I love America is that I see the differences and I like the  
differences." [...]

"It is crazy to live in this Middle East. The humiliation from Israel.  
The humiliation from America, even though I love the spirit. The  
humiliation from crazy governments. The crazy people. The crazy  
traffic, the noise, the pollution.

"We are the damned, man. Sometimes I don't know how long I can last. I  
fight for my life, buddy. I should give this up. But I can't."

We sat in silence, listening to the El Bodega shake from the rage of  
the music within, fluorescent lights flickering under a dirty Cairo  
night sky.

"It is the same here in Egypt as it is everywhere, is it not," asked  
Slacker. "A gathering of friends who love a small piece of culture  
beyond anything else. Here are young Egyptians and Saudis trying to  
find their identity. Through this, we assert some kind of difference  
from the crowd. This is the way of the Western childhood since the  
fifties, no? It can't be a bad thing. After all, where would all this  
aggression otherwise go?"

Whole thing here.

Read about "Rap and Metal in Planet Islam" in our December 2010 issue,  
then treat yourself to a luxurious re-read (as I did last night!) of  
Charles Paul Freund's foundational 2002 piece "In Praise of Vulgarity."

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