The year's best

Well, 2007 is over, and there was an enormous amount of good music this year. Sure, I was in Brazil for a lot of it, but I managed to keep up pretty well. Thus I'd say I listened to more new music this year than any other year, actually. So without further ado...

My top 20 albums of the year:

in no particular order...

Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
Future of the Left - Curses
Moving Mountains - Pneuma
Maserati - Inventions for the New Season
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Deerhunter - Cryptograms
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Frog Eyes - Tears of the Valedictorian
Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound
Battles - Mirrored
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
65daysofstatic - The Destruction of Small Ideas
Liars - Liars
Grinderman - Grinderman
Akimbo - Navigating the Bronze
Jesu - Conqueror
Dinosaur Jr - Beyond
No Age - Weirdo Rippers
Do Make Say Think - You, You’re A History In Rust
Stars Of The Lid - And Their Refinement Of The Decline


Disappointments:

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - Living With the Living. Not bad by any means, but it's the first Ted Leo album to have bad songs on it, and the production is rather bad. That said, it's still probably in the next ten best albums after that list.

Pelican - City of Echoes. Ugh, the less said the better.
The Stooges - The Weirdness. I had such high hopes for the reunion! They even had Watt on board.

Explosions in the Sky - All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone. More of the same, just more stale.

Best album of 2006 I didn't hear till this year:

Caetano Veloso - Cê


Best album of 2008 I've already heard:

This Will Destroy You - This Will Destroy You


That's about it. See you in the new year.

Been a while...

Well, I've been out of touch for quite some time, haven't I? I'll try to make up for it with a good post, but no promises. Also, my English has been suffering recently since I`ve not been using it much, so bear with me. Only a few pictures since this connection is slow.

The big thing that's happened since my last entry has been travel. I was first of all on excursion for a bit over two weeks. The first destination thereof was Recife – which is in fact where I am now, but we'll get there in good time – which is one of the older cities of Brazil, with a history stretching back to the early Portuguese colonial days. It's got a beautiful old town with some incredible colonial buildings, which looks at times like Amsterdam more than anything to me (the presence of canals doesn't hurt there, either), and a thriving social-movement community. The majority of the week was spent visiting with said social movements, and in fact the structure was very interesting in that it was organised by a women's group (Grupo Mulher Maravilha) with whom a former student did her ISP and thus with whom SIT has a connection. Of course, the list of visits had many affiliates of theirs and activities with them, but that was fine, seeing as they are an excellent group with some great connections, as well.

Their own activities range from staging vigils in solidarity with victims of domestic violence (one of which we attended, which was both powerful and refreshing – seeing a Brazilian usage of a familiar form of social action was nice, and the issue is universal yet specific enough to be compelling) to holding seminars with women from poor neighbourhoods on making arts and crafts from regularly discarded items (as evidenced by the many plastic bottle sculptures, mosaics, and so on I've encountered), and they have a whole host of affiliates. Of these, the most exciting for me was EMAUS, of course, considering I'm now doing research with them. EMAUS's program here in Recife is really interesting, and I'll discuss it more a bit later. We saw a good amount of other signs of solidarity in action, the most interesting of which was a street fair of solidarity economics – arts, crafts, projects, and so on. We also saw evidence of the legacy of Helder Camara, the liberation-theologian archbishop who did a huge amount to bolster social movements during and after the dictatorship, including the humble museum and documentation centre that occupies his former residence. Basically, our visit to Recife was an affirmation of the immense effort social movements are putting forth in the Northeast currently.

Our second stop was a city much adored by tourists, activists, and Brazilians of the likes of Jorge Amado: Salvador. The original capital of Brazil has as rich a sense of culture and history as any European capital, and is home to likely the most vibrant African diaspora culture around. Having been the capital, it enjoyed quite a bit of prosperity, and as a centre of African population it has suffered rather a lot of in justice. One way or another, it is a fascinating and beautiful city, with a striking sense of history and topography to rival any European capital. This is in large part due to the fact that it lies on what is basically a cliff – there is a low city and a high city, with practically a sheer drop between the two in most places, with a rather impressive elevator being the most tourist-friendly way to get between the two (and for only 5 centavos, at that).

Beyond that, though, the impact of the African diaspora is much more palpable in Salvador than in the other two cities I spent time in. This starts in the most basic things: food in Bahia is significantly spicier and more aromatic than typical Nordestino rice-beans-and-meat fare, with a heavy touch of palm oil. But the influence extends beyond simple things, in large part due to it having been promoted as a way to attract tourism (in the sense of providing exoticism and mystery, which has worked). The culture aspect of our program really kicked in in Salvador, with a healthy emphasis on social justice at the same time. We started with a series of race-oriented sessions at the Steve Biko Institute, an educational program aimed at humanistically and conscientiously helping black students to surmount the obstacles laid in front of them by a racist society – as despite the relative openness of Bahian public life to African culture, Salvador remains a terribly racist (and worse, subtly so) society when it comes to real social power. The race issue and its mask of racial democracy was the key topic, with respects also given to how it relates to issues such as women's issues and homosexuality.

We also had several real cultural events as well: for me, the most exciting was our visit to OLODUM, a music school for impoverished and disempowered youth and quite an amazing program – in fact, the school provided the Brazilian component to Paul Simon's Rhythm of the Saints, which comes with its own whole new pot of cultural-appropriation and exploitation issues, but that's another topic. We had a sort of silly participatory workshop on samba-reggae drumming, which was incredible fun, and brought back serious memories of Ghana (and made me a bit sad I'm not actually doing music for my ISP). Granted, what was learned varied broadly due to the nature of the teaching and people's different inclinations toward drumming, but we had fun. The same can be said for our samba class – some people demonstrated an obvious talent for and grasp of what was going on. I was not one of them; I spent most of the time working out the drum patterns and so on. But regardless, fun was had.

When it comes down to it, though, we had one opportunity in Salvador which was absolutely fantastic and significantly more special than anything else we did. We had a rare opportunity to go to the Terreiro Bogum Malé Rundô, a Candomblé community of great importance and history, and generally a quite closed place. We had an incredible two-part lecture there on the history and significance of Candomblé and its role in the development of black society in Brazil, in the context of general black history in Brazil. Beyond the feeling of having an experience few can claim to have had, beyond the excellence of the lecture itself, the feeling of really getting insight into a highly misunderstood tradition (which many Brazilians, especially Evangelicals, still consider devil-worship) which is of vital importance to the genesis of Brazilian society was absolutely incredible.

All in all, I really wish I could have spent more time in Salvador – it was beautiful, fascinating, and full of things I would love to learn more about – but we had little time, and I had already decided to do my ISP in Recife. Oh well, it's just another reason to come back.

I have plenty more to say (particularly about my ISP!), but that sums up the excursion nicely, and it's a reasonable place to stop for now, I think. Expect another post fairly soon (by my standards at least).

This Land Is Their Land

Well, I've been away, ill, and lazy. Here's a big, picture heavy make-up post.

Last weekend – because the excursion only lasted from friday till monday – was something that will definitely be one of the more memorable components of the program in the long run, and a great experience in itself. Going to visit the MST was really something worth doing, and our follow-up was fascinating as well.

The first thing I noticed on our way on friday was the stark contrast between being within Fortaleza and without. For all the poverty present in places in Fortaleza, there is a veneer of development and order within all of it. As soon as we left the municipality, and even before we got into what would be described as the interior by locals, things looked different. In Caucacia, the small city that's just outside of Fortaleza, the roads were wretched, ridden with potholes, devoid of any attempt at vegetation, and often littered with garbage. It only got more intense as we left the cities and moved into the interior, and specifically the sertão, the hot, semi-arid region that makes up most of Ceará's backlands.

The sertão is lined with dry bushes and palm trees, but still feels desolate and withered due to its extreme dryness this time of year (as it only rains from february to may at most), and civilisation as we would think of it is rather lacking there. Houses are made of mud or, at best, clay bricks. Roads off of the major highways are lucky if they're paved. Water, where it occurs, is dirty and fiercely hoarded. Signs of the way the interior has been neglected to force people into the cities where they participate more in the games of wealth-extraction and aggregation is excruciatingly apparent. I couldn't help but recall my host brother's words: “I don't understand the MST here – the land is so dry and infertile, why would they want it?” Yet the land still has a rugged beauty, a charm that made being out there fascinating.

We rolled into the city of Canindé late in the morning; it was somewhat odd, since our visit came during the festival of St. Francis, to whom Canindé is a massively important pilgrimage site – but I'll discuss that in detail a bit later, since we had more activity in Canindé later. On friday, Canindé was a waypoint. We stopped in the monastery-run training centre we would be staying in there later on to meet an important figure in the MST leadership around Canindé, and get a preparatory lecture from him before we went to the settlement. The lecture was focused on the municipality of Canindé, working with a structure of zooming in from the macro aspects of our previous lectures that I found very apt. we talked about the pertinent issues in the region, including the control of water, the violent practices of the two families that are by far the biggest landowners in Canindé's area, and so on, so that we had a base of knowledge before heading to the settlement. After eating lunch, we continued on to the settlement itself. It involved a two-hour drive down an unpaved, rocky, steep road, which went to show just how harsh the conditions are out there – if someone gets injured, they have to be taken down that road on a motorcycle to Canindé, and bringing in supplies requires the same kind of arduousness.

Once we actually got to the settlement, we were greeted by a number of community members, including a small mob of children, as MST is very oriented toward settling full families. We had a little downtime when we got there, while things were being organised, and we began this by setting up hammocks in the building we had been given to use, which we later learned was previously the lodging for the fazenda's guards, who terrorized the workers there – and now serves mainly as an education centre. The settlement itself in this case was not immediately identifiable as an MST settlement: it looked like a normal fazenda, with farmhouses, animal corrals, and a reservoir being the main features. Because of the way the land was obtained (to be discussed), there are no signs of occupation or struggle – really, it could be taken for just another farm by an unwitting ubserver. Fortunately we weren't.

During this time, I semi-wittingly started a bit of a saga. I had brought a football (of the proper European kind, not the American nonsense) for a gift, but I'd brought it uninflated, and hadn't brought a pump or told the staff I might need one. Thus it stayed uninflated for a while. But when mentioning it I'd shown it for a bit, and the kids got excited. They first went to look for a pump in the immediate surroundings. Then they inquired in the closest houses. Eventually they got a pump, but it lacked a needle valve. One of the kids then asked his dad, who arranged to bring one when he returned for our upcoming meeting. Eventually, after a lot of community effort, we got the ball inflated, and played for a while in a wide open field alongside a whole lot of guinea fowl. That wasn't the end, though – I'll return to the topic soon enough.

After a bit of relaxation and pump-hunting, we got together for an introduction and some information on the circumstances surrounding the settlement. After some introductions and exchanges of thanks, we heard some key facts about the settlement. The history of the settlement, in brief, is that it was formerly an exceedingly brutal fazenda where a small number of families were practically enslaved – forced to work nearly constantly six days a week for the right to live on the land. At this time, the land was producing very little, and so the families got in touch with MST and with their help petitioned INCRA, the government's agrarian reform agency, to investigate it. This is how MST acquires most of their land: the law says that if land is being used to less than 50% of its productive ability, it must be used for the public good, which usually means giving it to local families. Through petitions and occupations, MST forces INCRA's hand and has them investigate specific plots of land, as there is an enormous amount of unproductive land in Brazil. At the time of the petition, 10000 MST workers were marching from Goiana to Brasilia, so the pressure was on INCRA. Thus the fazenda was handed over within a year, as opposed to the four years it can occasionally take. Now, 35 families live at Essetamene Cancima Nova, arranged as a communal MST operation.

We also touched on some issues that affect the settlement. Chief among these is land depletion – the land in the sertão has a quite low capacity, and often when fazendas are expropriated they are very depleted and hard for families to sustain themselves on. This is particularly problematic considering that fazenda owners are paid for land and improvements thereof expropriated, which can give them an incentive to have INCRA expropriate it. Combined with the constant instability of water, this leads to some troubling situations where the survival of settlers is concerned.

The night rounded off with what the settlers referred to as a mistico, basically a cultural evening. It started with a number of skits, readings, and songs related to the struggle, mostly performed by the settlement's children, and eventually turned into a couple guys playing guitar and triangle. Fun was had. The night itself turned out to be pretty interesting: the building we were using was quite open, and the sertão gets cold and windy at night – it's a desert, after all. Underestimating this, several us made the mistake of hanging our hammocks outside. Besides them acting like sails and flapping loudly even when we were sleeping in them, it was freezing. Sleep was not very doable. Eventually, some of us gave up and crawled into our bus, which worked out alright, really. A lesson was learned that night.

In the morning, one we'd all recovered, we went on a bit of a tour. We saw the way the fazenda is laid out, the animal facilities, the reservoir (which serves as the main way water – though not potable water – is available during most of the year), the barn – which was formerly a centre of worker abuse on the land – and some additional houses. Most importantly, we saw cistern constructions in various stages of progress, a critical issue on the settlements. Cisterns are the primary way families can gather drinking water in the rainy season, but they are expensive and their size is limited. Thus, getting grants from the government for them and using water efficiently are hugely important on the settlement.

After some coconut-tree hijinks, we headed back to the central buildings. We had a bit of downtime, which I personally used to play some football with the kids – who were by this time completely enthralled by the ball and starting to ask me about it. We had a get-together with music, readings, thanks, and so on after lunch, at which we exchanged both thanks and gifts, and that was it. We left soon after, but not before group pictures and not before I could formally give the ball to the kids of Cancima Nova, no doubt amusing them for quite a while to come. The visit, incredibly short as it was, felt truly rewarding.

But we weren't done with MST yet. We'd seen a taken-over fazenda with a good deal of infrastructure in place; we were off to see the encampments more typically associated with MST. Whereas a settlement is a crucial institution for building communities that can sustain themselves, the encampments are where the heart of MST's struggle takes place. By camping just outside a fazenda in unbelievably rough conditions, MST pressures both the owner and INCRA to get it expropriated. They also prepare a group of families to take the land as soon as it becomes theirs. In this way, the core battle of MST is fought. Many occupations are accosted by violence from the fazendeiras and the military police. Many have casualties from exposure and lack of clean water. Many are frustrated by fazendeiras putting up the appearance of using land for cattle ranching. But many more succeed and push land reform further in rural Brazil. We saw a successful one, close to Canindé. Its situation is a bit different: it was established after the fazendeira himself called in INCRA to judge his land unproductive. The MST camped in order to prepare and to accelerate the process, which ended up finishing in six months – pretty much record time. There are issues, though: the biggest is that the fazendeira negotiated a strip of choice land, including the one house on the fazenda, for himself. Nonetheless, the incredible turnover to MST was heartening. Seeing the encampment, though, was intense: it consisted mainly of plastic-and-palm-leaf structures with no drainage or ventilation, and thinking about how families sometimes have to live in them for two years under constant threat from fazendeira thugs made me really appreciate the depth of the struggle. We didn't spend much time on the encampment, but it was enough to have some serious implications.

After that, we had a similarly interesting time in Canindé, but this is already a bit of a literary dreadnought so I intend to make that a new entry. Anyway, MST was a phenomenal experience. Given the amount of discussion, abstraction, and working with movement leadership involved in grand struggles we do, it was eye-opening to go to MST locations and seeing the palpable, small-scale victories they have achieved in their struggle to affect real people's daily lives. It was also extremely heartening. Seeing the difference that can be made made a huge difference.

Moving the body, moving the grassroots

Well, I haven't been to the MST yet (that's tomorrow morning), but a couple really interesting things have happened in this week, so why not write about them before I go?

First off, I got to go with my portuguese class to an Umbanda ceremony on tuesday night. Umbanda is of course the more blended of the two prominent Afro-Brazilian religions, mixing elements of Christianity, West Afrfican orixa worship, and indigenous beliefs. It was a fascinating affair, even if I didn't quite understand what exactly was happening. Actually, that was an overall theme – there always seemed to be at least four or five things going on on the floor of the temple, which was pretty clearly a converted house with a big shrine containing images ranging from Jesus on the cross to an indigenous Brazilian deity I wasn't familiar with. What's more, the ceremony seemed fairly unplanned – whenever one dance, song, or bit of worship ended, someone would chime in the beginning of another, all while the drummer pounded away at the single kpanlogo-like drum that held everything together. At a certain point, people started putting on hats and headdresses to represent different aspects of Brazilianism, from cowboy hats for the vaqeiros of Rio Grande Do Sul to tall plumed indigenous headdresses. And all the while, most of the assembly was drinking something and/or smoking cigars. It was quite the spectacle.

The other event was somewhat less lighthearted, but no less fascinating and perhaps more hope-inducing. In preparation for our MST visit, we went to see the MST's activities in Fortaleza. This is however a key time for the MST: they are on the verge of making a big breakthrough in negotiations with the government; they have a packet of demands on the table. To put pressure on Lula to accept them, they've taken a pretty major action: in all the state capitals of Brazil, they're occupying the INCRA (the government organ for land reform) buildings – just taking over, having 1500 or so people living there until the government acquiesces. Well, thanks to organisational connections, we managed to get inside the building. It was packed – the grounds were covered in mats and hammocks, people were eating everywhere, there were a ton of babies, the works. What's more, the building has been occupied since sunday, so it's pretty organised and will be sustained if needed – occupying places is the main way the MST lays claim to land, so they know it well. We had a lecture in there on agrarian reform, but really the main thing was seeing direct action at work, and it was very, very impressive.

Anyway, that's all for now. Until I return from the MST...

Funland at the Beach

Yeah, I've been slacking off, I know I know.

Anyway, I guess my big news is ISP-related. I now have a very concrete question (though I'm not sure it's quite at the problem phase yet – I need to refine it slightly more). From my topic of EMAÚS, I've moved to the network of social groups in Recife which EMAÚS is among the most major of, which has a pretty fascinating structure. The key point for me is that these organisations are put together around philosophical frameworks, rather than a simple “this is what we do”. Instead, they take an organic approach to organisational development, using applied philosophy as a primary element of their strategy. This is very interesting to me, since I've been to move beyond the practically useless irresolvable arguments of epistemology and determinism and so on which fill most philosophy classes and this helps me both apply philosophy in a constructive way and think of useful strategies for what I feel is important. This way, when I get back, I'll hopefully have learned enough about how to work on social change to do more than just be an angry young man, but we'll see about that. Regardless, I'm very happy with my topic, and it seems like our professor for this current FSS segment, Eduardo Oliveira, is likely to be my supervisor, which is great news. Eduardo is this incredible educator, philosopher, capoerista, anthropologist, radical, and more. He's one of the three people (along with Gilano, who I mentioned before, and Zé, who I'm still writing about) we've met so far that I just feel like I'd like to either be or be an adherent to. So yeah, I'm happy with the way my ISP is shaping up.

The biggest other thing that's happened recently is significantly less academic. This weekend, fellow program participant Mike and I went to his parents' (my aunt and uncle) house at Taíba, a beach town about 70 km outside of Fortaleza. We arrived there at night, which certainly changed my first impression. We passed by the town and into the outskirts with without me seeing much, so the first thing I really saw was an unpaved road through an almost completely empty field of sandy soil, with incredibly high winds and a few donkeys and dogs roaming the streets we passed through. It seemed pretty off the beaten track. The house was nice enough, and walking down to the water (maybe five minutes) with Mike, Cleyton, and his girlfriend Priscilla was quite beautiful.

We didn't swim that night – not in the ocean, at least, since it's a little rough and we didn't want to risk anything at night. Instead we hung around the house and took a very short swim in the freshwater pool at the house, which is mainly used for washing off salt and sand. The swim was short because the windchill was unbeleivable. It honestly felt at least 10 degrees colder there than in the city, even though the actual temperature is about the same. So in order not to freeze, we only swam for a few minutes – but long enough for me to hang my swimsuit up since it was wet. However, I hung it on a hook outside, and when I woke up (from my very comfortable hammock) it was gone – and I didn't manage to find it. That's how intense the wind was. Regardless, I borrowed some athletic shorts from Cleyton, and went swimming for real. It was very nice – the Atlantic is very warm there, and has smallish waves that are a lot of fun. After a while on the beach, we decided to walk a while to Taíba proper. What I saw surprised me. Rather than the remote, impoverished fishing town I imagined from the wasteland around the house, it was almost a picture of stereotypical tropical, cultureless tourism. Palm trees, fancy beachside cafes and little hotels, inflated prices, Italians and Portuguese everywhere – it was a bit surreal. I don't know if it's that Brazilian beach towns are the prototype for that kind of tourism or it was totally transformed, but it really felt like a centre of cultural subordination, and it gave me the creeps. Sure, it was pretty and we walked around a while, but I was just as glad to head back to the wasteland myself.

The afternoon was pretty chill – eat lunch, hang around, swim a little, get a drink in a local place, head back. It was a good ending to an enjoyable, but ultimately quite strange, day and change.

Coming up, I'm going to be visiting the MST (landless peasants' movement) for a few days. It'll be fascinating, but I'll lack net access. Oh well, you'll just have to wait longer.

Just getting up to speed...

Well, yesterday turned out to be way too long, so here's the update, finally – now with pictures! (but only a couple since my upload speed is horrendous)

Things have gotten into full swing in the last week and a half, needless to say. On the one hand, I'm doing a lot, so there's a lot to say. On the other, I don't have much time to write. I'll try and strike a balance, since I'm sure people will want to hear all about everything. For now, I'm going to summarise what's been going on.

I've now had the chance to familiarise myself a bit with Fortaleza. The city is pretty interesting: fairly concentrated, but spread out into neighbourhoods, and heavily split between the richer areas (including the heavily tourist-frequented bits) and the more poor spots. While the beaches are very pretty, none of the ones within the city proper are swimmable, so I haven't actually been swimming yet (no time!). There's also just a bustle of activity – lots of small shops and street vendors, people going every which way... it's pretty intense to be here, but I'm enjoying it. Except for the buses, though – not only are they packed all the time, but they're unstable roller-coaster rides. At least I'm probably getting muscle development from hanging on all the time.

My family is great. I've been spending a lot of time with Cleyton, my 24-year-old administration-student brother, who's an all around good guy and a lot of fun. I've also spent a good amount of time with Cynthia, my 20-year-old sister, too; the three of us, plus both my siblings' significant others, plus my fellow student Mike (who's my cousin here) went to a forro club (forro is the popular dance here in Ceará – Samba's not the thing here) this weekend, and it was great fun. I have only good things to say about my family. Oh, and here's their picture.

I've been having Portuguese lessons since last week (it's up to about 15 hours now), and I'm liking them as well as learning a lot. Our teacher is pretty fun, and she often sends us out to places to talk to people and report back, which is much more interesting than sitting in a classroom. I think I've learned quite a lot by now, and I've been using it pretty heavily with my family and many others. Just last night, we (the higher Portuguese class) visited a local university where our teacher teaches English, and had a long discussion in Portuguese with her class. It was interesting, to say the least – and I'm pretty glad I avoided identifying as American, as some others got yelled at for their perceived complicity with Bush, which I just didn't need.

We've been having courses in our Culture and Development Seminar too, and they've been pretty decent. Right now, they're mostly in Portuguese with Bill translating, which slows the flow a bit and makes interaction hard, but it's necessary. None of them have been massively enlightening yet, but they've been good for getting a feel for issues in Brazil and Brazilian perspectives on global social justice issues. We had a good spirited globalisation debate yesterday, too, which was enjoyable as always.

I'm also working hard on getting a topic together for my research here. I've changed gears a bit, and instead of shoehorning music in like I always do (I may likely do something music-related for my other term paper), I've found something very concrete I want to do. Specifically, there's a movement here called EMAUS (which actually exists in many places, and was started in France) which focusses on sustainability through reconsumption. Specifically, they accept donations of all sorts of used and/or broken things, fix them up, and sell them off for relatively low prices. The money goes to running the organisation, and whatever isn't needed for that goes to a wide variety of social projects. I really like their premise, and I'm probably going to work with them in Recife, where they have a strong presence and a wealth of social initiatives developing from their core values.

There's lots more happening, and I certainly have more to say, but that's enough for now. Last friday merits its own post due to being long and excellent, and I'll probably put that up tomorrow. Til then.

Review: Vip InMusic Festival 2007

(this has been written for a while, actually. Real update tomorrow, I think. Enjoy this in the time being)

I must admit, when I first saw the advertisement for the VIP InMusic Festival, I was a bit incredulous. Zagreb gets quite good shows once in a while, but we rarely get much serious star power from outside the region. This festival was either an exception to the norm or the end of that trend, depending on who you believe. While it wasn't quite the Croatian answer to Lowlands, it did draw a number of very important names in punk/indie, and ended up having quite an impressive lineup. The obvious highlights were advertised well in advance: Sonic Youth, The Stooges, the New York Dolls, !!!, Asian Dub Foundation and The Hold Steady. That alone would be a solid lineup, and the promise of several more outside bands and a host of locals made it sound like a great deal. I was not disappointed.

Day 1, I arrived fairly early, but not quite at the very beginning of the festival. As a result, I ended up hearing a significant chunk of The Bluejays' set as I walked around the lake to the actual venue. These Norwegians sounded pretty decent: fairly energetic indie rock with garage undertones, from what I could hear. By the time I actually got into the site, they had finished, and No S3ings (“No Strings”) had played most of their set. They finished up a last couple songs while I was there, which again sounded good from what I heard – upbeat Croatian punk rock, no more no less. Regardless, after them it was time for me to see my first full set of the night, which was Varaždin's Messerschmitt. They were yet another garage rock band, this time with heavy blues tonality, sounding like a combination of a slower New Bomb Turks and very early Rolling Stones (they even covered “2000 Light Years from Home” to drill that in). They put on an excellent and enjoyable set, though they pulled the gaffe of covering a band they were effectively opening for (playing the Stooges' “Down on the Street” isn't wise when you'll obviously be blown away by the Stooges themselves later), and served as just another reminder of Croatia's fun and thriving local music scene.

When Messerschmitt had burned themselves out, I went over to another stage to catch the tail end of The Beat Fleet's set. TBF drew a sizable crowd for how early they were on, which wasn't surprising considering they're one of the most beloved groups in contemporary Croatian music. Their hip-hop, which is far closer to singing than most western hip-hop and utilises mainly dub reggae beats, is really quite fun to listen to even for someone as nonplussed about hip-hop as me, and their set reflected that – not to mention the great dynamic between their crew of a fat guy, a skinny guy, and a guy with a hat. Since they had started just after Messerschmitt, I only heard about three songs, but I still enjoyed it. I then made my way over to where Superhiks were just starting, with no expectations. I ended up not being very impressed, as they really sounded like a Macedonian version of the Generic Third Wave Ska Band. The only interesting thing they did was a cover of “Ace of Spades” with the main riff played by the horn section, but that novelty aside I was rather bored, especially since I didn't have energy to dance. I ended up leaving and checking out Roisin Murphy, formerly of Moloko, who I'd honestly never heard of before. I wasn't impressed by her slightly world music-inflected dance music either, so I decided to instead pass the time till the next act at the DJ tent, which at the time was under the control of Ras Tweed and Bass Culture, spinning choice dub cuts. While their actual DJ work was relatively minimal, their choices of tracks made the soundsystem top notch, and I enjoyed my 45 minutes there greatly.

The time to move on came when Obojeni Program came on. Serbia's current second-best band (after the inimitable Darkwood Dub) played right at sunset, just as things began to get crowded. More than anyone else at the fest, they showed the prowess of Balkan music, playing a fantastic set while pulling of their own distinct style. Their basic sound, which combines simple, Ramones-style punk with post-punk flair from sources ranging from the Fall to Mission of Burma to Hüsker Dü and infuses it with a very Balkan sense of melody, comes off incredibly well in a live setting, and their stage energy is exceedingly impressive. They have a somewhat odd presentation – their frontman carried what was apparently a book of lyrics the entire time – but that serves only to heighten their stage presence. Their set drew a significant crowd, and they showed that Croatians and Serbs can share music with the best of them. Their set was easily the best of any band from the region all weekend.

I took a look at the other stage once Obojeni were done to see what I thought of the recently-reformed Happy Mondays, and I was less than impressed. I wasn't familiar with their old output, so there was no sense of nostalgia for me, and they just sounded like a tired 80s pop band who hadn't quite realised they weren't relevant. I left quite quickly. There was a break at this point with no sets, leading into the headliners – and some of the worst organisation I've seen. The New York Dolls were scheduled to go on at 9:45, but didn't come on till 10. David Johansen looked and sounded more like Joey Ramone than ever, but Sonic Youth were put on a mere 20 minutes later for no fathomable reason other than “headliners should be on around 10.” Having seen both before, the novelty factor of the admittedly fossilised Dolls wore off quickly, and after hearing “Looking For A Kiss” and “We're All In Love” I went to get a good spot for one of my favourite bands of all time. I stand by my choice, but I feel like a very large number of people would have liked to see full sets from both acts, and I'd say that scheduling fiasco was an esxtremely bad move, which cheated both the audience and the band. Regardless, I got a fantastic spot for SY – third row in, dead centre – and anticipated an unbelievable set.

I got even more than I'd hoped for, amazingly. Even having seen Sonic Youth before and expecting even more this time, my expectations were blown away. There were a lot of factors involved, but really the key feature was that it was simply a better set. SY seemed more “on” this time, between their sound being better, their improvisation more impressive, and having better stage antics (the highlight of which was their behaviour toward the giant beach balls thrown into the crowd by event staff [how cliché!] at the end of their first song: Thurston Moore had us pass them to him, then he and Lee Ranaldo batted them back and forth with their guitars until they popped. It sounds silly in words, but it was amazing in practice.). What's more – and probably most importantly – their setlist was better this time. Since it's been over a year since Rather Ripped came out, they've cut back on the songs from it, leaving only the best tracks and making room for crowd-pleasers from throughout their career. They played songs from nearly all their crucial releases, with the main exceptions being EVOL and Washing Machine. Highlights included inevitable opener “Teenage Riot”, “'Cross The Breeze”, “Schizophrenia”, main-set closer “Pink Steam”, “Kool Thing” (disappointingly without anyone playing the part of Chuck D), and final encore “Shaking Hell”, pleasantly introduced as a ballad. The large number of well-known songs they played fed into the other big aspect of what made the show so damned good: the crowd. Croatian crowds are always great, especially compared with ones in Holland, but this one was particularly great. Not only was there more applause than I've ever heard from the number of people assembled (probably about 1500), not only were people singing along to every single song, but people were just astonishingly excited, like they really appreciated the privilege of seeing Sonic Youth at their best. And they certainly were at their best. I would personally rank that as the single best performance I've ever had the privilege of seeing.

After that stunning spectacle, it was all but impossible to be interested in any more music, but I gave it a shot anyway. Sadly, while I appreciated Banco De Gaia's spacey electronica, I didn't have the energy for it, and all it did for me was make me want a joint. I ended up leaving for the night soon after SY finished, listening to Valetudo as I walked and liking their roma-blues style. All in all, even if the highlights really amounted to Messerschmitt and Obojeni Program opening for Sonic Youth, day 1 was a great success.

I arrived slightly later on day 2 than on the previous one, but I saw just as much really. Day 2, generally speaking, had more known names than day 1 – besides the Stooges, !!!, Asian Dub Foundation, Gilles Peterson, and the Hold Steady were all playing, as well as a number of major local bands. I arrived at the start of one of those locals' sets: Dubrovnik's own Majke started their set of good old rock 'n' roll just as I reached the stage. Majke truly sound anachronistic, with their heavy, bluesy rock sounding like it came straight out of 1972. The fact that their frontman was trying his best to look like Axl Rose did nothing to dull that perception, but fortunately their music is good enough not to be a problem. Needless to say, Zagreb loves them, and their set went over well. They were, by default, the best local band I saw all day – but that's because all the rest I made it to were internationals.

The first of those internationals, and perhaps the band that exceeded my expectations the most over the course of the two days, was The Hold Steady. Even though I love the Replacements and so on, The Hold Steady's work has never done all that much for me on record. Fortunately their live show was leagues more exciting. First of all, the sound: their records really don't capture the strength of the guitars, in particular, that's so central to the band. Songs like “Massive Nights” and “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” sounded a lot more powerful live, rather than the oddly muted tone I get out of the record. Plus, watching them play was hoot. But most significant was their audience interaction. All the slightly-cheesy “whoahs” and handclap moments on record turn into massive audience-participation events live, and the crowd loved it. Craig Finn put it very nicely at the end of the set: we're all the Hold Steady. Speaking of Finn, he was the most endearing frontman I've ever witnessed. More than anyone else I've encountered, he gives the impression of being a regular guy, “full of joy” as he puts it, who could just as well be in the audience as on stage. It's partly the incredibly friendly banter, partially the overexcitedness manifesting itself in arm-flailing and word-mouthing, and mainly just a real charisma. The rest of the band help that too, tossing beer bottles around, drinking shots of Jim Beam together, and generally showing camaraderie. And of them, Franz Nicolay came the closest to upstaging Finn, with his brilliant moustache, deadpan humor, and harmonica antics. The fact that he was dressed as if he were playing with his other band (the inimitable World/Inferno Friendship Society) didn't hurt. All in all, the Hold Steady's set was exceedingly solid, and above all exceeded my expectations. It was a major highlight.

The next act was one that's something of a fixture in the Zagreb show circuit, but a welcome one: Asian Dub Foundation are probably the most enjoyable hip-hop show I've seen. Part of the appeal is their excellent blend of live and sampled music – it comes off as super-energetic, but yet not hugely overdependent on the DJ; their enormous drummer with even more enormous drum is particularly entertaining. Their racial makeup is another major part of their style, in that they they represent a wide gamut of immigrants to England: Indian, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, Polynesian, Chinese and so on. This plays into their lyrical themes, of course – they tend to rap about social inequality, racial unity, political hegemony, and general solidarity. Of course, their music sort of speaks for itself: they have an irresistible energy that makes even someone as lukewarm on hip-hop as I am jump up and dance. Of course, this raises the question of whether all the Croatians dancing to ADF actually cared about their message, but at a certain point one has to just stop analysing and dance.

The headlining acts of day 2 had the same unfortunate scheduling as day 1: !!! started at 9:45. I came over to see them, and found what little I saw to be fun, but when it came down to it, I left after a song so I wouldn't be stranded in the back for the clear biggest name of the fest: The Stooges. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive after having heard the incredibly weak new album, not wanting one of my favourite classic bands to ruin their legacy. Fortunately, what happened was about as far from that as it could get. Basically as soon as Iggy, Watt and the Ashetons ran onto the stage, I knew I'd be in for a hell of a time. And when Iggy yelled “we are the FUCKING Stooges!” before launching right into “Loose”, I knew I was right. Iggy, for all his apparent boredom on The Weirdness, was as wild as I imagined. Almost immediately, he was writhing on top of the amps, throwing himself across the stage, yelling his lungs out, and of course dropping his pants. As the group blasted through 80% of the songs on Stooges and Fun House, they showed that they were hardly overshadowed – Mike Watt's bass and Ron Asheton's guitar were incredibly powerful, and Scott Asheton's drums were simply crushing. The crowd was, too: the front was a seething mass of people shoving, moshing, and crowdsurfing. It was a bit painful and a bit distracting, but it still made the experience all the more intense. The set list was damned good, too: although the lack of Raw Power tracks was a bit of a (understandable, with the different lineup and so on) downer, they played all the great tracks from their first two albums, and only two songs (“My Idea of Fun”, “Electric Chair”) from the new album, along with a solo Iggy track (“Skull Ring”). Basically, the Stooges were an incredible experience due to the “I can't believe I'm seeing them!” aspect, but also because they put on a hell of a show. Say what you will about The Weirdness, Iggy and company can still rip it up.

I was pretty beat up after they finished, but I still went to the night stage to see Kultur Shock. They're a pretty interesting band: two Bosnians, two Americans, a Bulgarian, and a Japanese, all based in Seattle. The best comparison musically would definitely be Gogol Bordello: energetic punk rooted in Balkan melodies. However, their music is a lot less goofy than Gogol, with more robust guitar parts and better vocals. They put on a hugely energetic show, but I couldn't stay very long, what with hardly being able to stand and all. Regardless, they were a fun closer to a great festival.

All in all the fest was a huge success. The big foreign names put on great shows, the locals gave them a run for their money, and a whole lot of people showed up. Other than the incredibly foolish organisation choice of overlapping headliners, the fest was a massively good experience. Hopefully this will entrench the VIP inMusic festival as an event, and next year will be as good or better, though that would be quite a feat.