Another in an occasional series of musical interludes. Here are two dance mixes I’ve done of Middle Eastern beats and hypnotic, ethnotronic dance grooves. https://hearthis.at/bigg/muddle-east2/ https://hearthis.at/bigg/muddleeast/
A little change from the usual. Given that my modest skill set includes many years of DJing, I thought I’d let music rather than words do the talking for once . So, here you are, 1hr 20 mins of dance music both from or rooted in Africa. Just click on the link below https://hearthis.at/bigg/afromix/ Here’s the set list with track start times for anyone who’s interested Montparnasse Musique feat. Kasai All-stars – Painter 3m55s Sol Power All-stars – Zibodub 6m30s…
My new book Toilets of the Wild Frontier is out now. A celebration of
Dear Reader After much deliberation I’ve decided to start including more overtly political writing on the blog as well as travel subjects. I had considered doing it on a separate site but both subjects are central to my interests so why disguise that? Given the minimal interaction I get from people, I doubt many of you are paying enough attention to get upset about it anyway. The limitations of travel with Covid has given me a lot more free time…
That nice man Henrik at Every Country in the World website has kindly included a profile of me, where you can learn about some of my favourite places and experiences and some not so favourite things. Check out the other travelers on the site as there’s a wealth of travel experience between them that you’ll be hard pressed to find elsewhere www.everycountryintheworld.com/grahamaskey/
How Coronavirus and Brexit have shaped my travels and plans for the year ahead
Apart from North Africa the continent is rarely seen as a destination for lovers of history, that needs to change. Like me you’re probably enduring the interminable state of lockdown, wondering when it will ever end, perpetually scrolling through social media in search of more crumbs of distraction. Well, help is at hand travel fans. The BBC have kindly posted to YouTube a fifteen part documentary on the history of Africa that will comfortably use up over eleven hours of…
What’s so important about black, women travelers you might ask? For starters, recent years have seen a lot more of them, either bloggers, journalists, YouTubers or Instagrammers. Irrespective of their identity there’s plenty who are simply good at what they do, covering the whole range of travel styles, from back packing to luxury. Many are westerners but Africans are also adding their own insights into the subject. There’s simply no reason to imagine that what they’ve got to say is…
Friends and the fragility of life for the long term traveller The life of the long term traveller isn’t all cocktails by the pool, surrounded by beautiful people. In fact, on my budget it’s never about that and besides, the last thing the beautiful people want is some shabbily dressed, ugly old git like me hanging around cramping their style. Not that I’m trying to say it’s a shit life but after six years mostly on the road, the prospect…
Cultural appropriation – taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission. Let me tell you a story… Sitting at a cafe in Medellin, Colombia, I was eating the classic Italian dish of Lasagna, accompanied by salad and a croissant, typically French but actually Austrian in origin, although in all likelihood copied from an Egyptian pastry dating back to ancient times. A French cultural organisation was promoting a day of free music so I…
