That's it. No links. Just the highlight of my weekend.

I went to a music festival that I go to whenever I get the chance. I most likely mentioned it before. It's basically ethnic music from all over the world (I'm not sure what we call "ethnic music" these days: folk, roots, world music?)

Saturday evening, around 1:00 AM (which I guess would be technically Monday morning), I was watching a band of Turkish musicians led by Mercan Dede. The music is basically electronicized traditional music (you know, you attach the sub-sub-sub woofer to a bodhran and add some digital effects and you can make it sound like the world is experiencing a rhythmic apocalypse; but I digress.) So out comes a SINGLE dervish to the middle of the stage. He starts whirling. He whirls for something like five minutes straight, without pause. It was beautiful, creepy, hypnotizing, stunning.

Everybody was talking about it the next day.

There is a lesson here, somewhere. I'm not wise enough to give it.

But you can watch YouTube videos all day long of tourists watching whirling dervishes and never even come close to the power of watching one in person in a non-tourist context. So I offer no links.

What I offer is this: there are things out there that we are too small to appreciate. We've packaged, canned, and exploited art and ritual until it's ready for an episode of the Simpsons. We miss its power. We miss the entire point altogether.

Yet here at the Café I constantly read the words "art" and "artist". Really? Some kid doing Sybils with the latest deck advertised through Steve's PMs is an artist?

Maybe. But he or she aint no whirling dervish, either.

Cool. I am just drinking some Turkish tea as it happens, which my nephew brought me yesterday on his return from a trip to Turkey.

Totally agree about the packaged, canned, and exploited. Most things are so much better experiencing for yourself than watching on any tube. Although watching on the tube can peak your curiosity enough to search some of these things out to experience first hand!