The inimitable, incorrigible Peter Jordan:
We had the first Burmese presidential visit to the USA in over 45 years this week. I'm not sure he deserved the welcome, but I do know that engagement usually works a lot faster than embargo.
We had the first Burmese presidential visit to the USA in over 45 years this week. I'm not sure he deserved the welcome, but I do know that engagement usually works a lot faster than embargo.
Musically we've got a flute-like Burmese instrument. I don't have a good ear or any particular knowledge, but I suspect traditional Burmese instruments (like Thai instruments) are tuned with seven steps to an octave instead of eight (or something like that). This makes it impossible to play Burmese music on normally tuned Western instruments and vice versa. The sum total of my ethnomusicology knowledge comes from a single lecture I attended in the early 90's because of a girlfriend, so I may be full of...
Who knows, I mostly made that up from stuff I might remember or maybe just dreamed, but Burma has a way of doing that to people. I have read Burmese Days by Orwell at least twice.
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