Chautauqua

(December 24th, 2013)

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The last mix of the year and things went different.  I decided just before my trip to Hawai'i I need some adventure music.  I had safari in my head at first, but Hawai'i is not a safari, it's a bit of desert, tropical rain forest, alpine, and lava fields.  The title comes from Robert M. Pirsig's ZAMM when he described a journey he was embarking on with his son and two friends.  The journey was about revisiting the environment of his past in order to relearn who he once was.  How the story unfolds is both entertaining as well as informative.  The chautauqua of early 20th Century America were exactly that, nomadic, informative, and entertaining.  Now I'm not sure where this mixtape stands in regard to that theme, but it is filled with terribly beautiful music from all around the world with a huge soft spot for West African folk music and Afropop.  When I close my eyes I think of this soundtrack as the soundtrack to any roadtrip, adventure, journey through a landscape that breaks into moments of the sublime.  The selection of music is so far out there in comparison to my usually mixes that I am omitting the artist list here, you'll have to just trust me on this one.  If anything it will warm you up during the cold months of winter.