(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kitchen Table Kibitzing 10/24/2023: Silk Road [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-24 Shibata Zeshin: Crows Flying at Sunset (1888) Good evening, Kibitzers! It’s nearly the end of October, and I’ve been enjoying pleasantly seasonable weather for a little while. By the end of the week, though, it’s supposed to be getting up into the 70s during the day, which is much too warm for Halloween in the northeast. I will guess I’m not the only boomer from that general area to carry a childhood memory of the annual big argument with Mom over whether it is necessary or reasonable to wear a coat over a costume for trick-or-treating (which, I am sure you will agree, would torpedo the ENTIRE POINT of wearing the costume to begin with). It is NOT about whether nobody cares and they’ll give you candy anyway! It’s about ART, dammit! A couple of years ago, I wrote about a 3,000-year-old pair of pants that had prompted a team of German archaeologists to obsess until they had figured out exactly how the pants (the world’s oldest known, by a lot) were made. Most of the content on the archaeologists’ YouTube channel, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, is in German or an Asian or middle-eastern language, but every now and then, they put out something interesting in English, generally about studying ancient garments. Their video that got me focused on silk today is this new one, Lady in Silk, a documentary (half the length of the pants one) about the 2,000-year-old remains of a young woman found at a site in Xinjiang in northwestern China, at what was once the central Asian desert oasis town Niya on the Silk Road. Her elaborate silk and wool outfit was so well preserved in the dry conditions, a team was moved to recreate all the beautiful garments. Narration is in English; German dialog from the scientists has English subtitles. [18:47] Since we’re on the subject of the Silk Road, author John Green (the humanities brother; Hank handles the sciences) has a Crash Course episode about what it was; it’s informative, snarky, and with politics we can get behind. [10:30] This Insider Business video explains how the incredibly labor-intensive process of producing silk, starting with raising the worms, was almost replaced in Vietnam by cheaper industrial synthetics, until a village collective turned things around. [10:01] Another Insider Business episode describes how weavers in Varanasi, India have created elaborate and gorgeous Banarasi silk saris on hand-and-foot-operated looms since the 16th century. [8:03] In case you were wondering how to put on one of these amazing 6-yard saris, there is a YouTube channel to help you out. I have in the past been shown the simplest possible way (I think) to wrap a sari, and it made me go “Wait, wait, what??” This method is substantially more complicated than that was. It’s an art in its own right. [3:30] I thought some selections from the Silkroad Ensemble would be the musical way to go here. I’m just going to paste the opening paragraph from its Wikipedia entry here by way of introduction; Yo-Yo Ma is just one illustration of what you get when you give an Ivy League education to a good person rather than a cartoon villain. Silkroad, formerly the Silk Road Project, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization, initiated by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions, promoting multicultural artistic exchange, and studying the ebb and flow of ideas. The project was first inspired by the cultural traditions of the historical Eurasian Silk Road trade routes and now encompasses a number of artistic, cultural and educational programs focused on connecting people and ideas from around the world. It has been described as an "arts and educational organization that connects musicians, composers, artists and audiences around the world" and "an initiative to promote multicultural artistic collaboration." In July 2020, Rhiannon Giddens took over from Yo-Yo Ma as Artistic Director. The ensemble performs Peter Gabriel’s Biko at Tanglewood in 2022. (All the artists currently with the company are depicted here, in case you want to know who is who.) [5:47] Arabian Waltz, by Rabih Abou-Khalil, is performed in 2010 at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. [10:31] A 2016 performance video accompanying the release of their album Sing Me Home features guest vocalist Abigail Washburn singing both Chinese and English lyrics for Going Home, a song based on the second movement of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, "From the New World". [5:34] The big finale: before she was formally associated with the ensemble, Rhiannon Giddens sings St. James Infirmary Blues with them at the 2016 TED Conference in Vancouver BC. [8:43] We haven’t had political parody songs at the end for a while, but there were a couple of good ones for today. Founders Sing cause the late Jim Croce to revise the lyrics of his song You Don’t Mess Around With Jim [1972 original here]. 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