Music Videos

[Art] John Francis Dooley – Ulysses

/ Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

As I am currently teaching The Odyssey to my students this semester, I thought this piece of artwork would be worth sharing.

If you have ever heard the song Ulysses by the Australian world music and darkwave band Dead Can Dance, you hear John Francis Dooley being named as the protagonist of the song. There is no information about who Dooley is, and the band have been rather quiet about the meaning of the song, but a person using this name posting this painting, perhaps a digital one, based on the lyrics of the song. If there is a John Francis Dooley out there (and he sounds like he would be a perfect character for James Joyce’s book of the same name), I’d love to know more about him.

[Music] Abdel Karim Ensemble – Joyas de la Música Culta Árabe

/ Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

As I spent Chinese New Year’s Eve in the company of a friend and watched in amazement as to how empty my part of town was, I decided to call it a night and spent a bit of time enjoying some music.  This was the first result of a healthy list of music I indulged in.  This was my first exposure to the Abdel Karim Ensemble.  I’m looking forward to finding more albums, as they play great traditional music from Syria, Egypt, Morocco and pre-Reconquista Spain.  Magnificent listening.