I was searching for information on Nabi Misdaq, the author of Afghanistan: Political Frailty and Foreign Interference when I came across his rather interesting son. Misdaq is a British-trained anthropologist from Paktia province who was the head of BBC Pashto for about 20 years. I found that out with a quick google search, but I also came across someone called “Y. Misdaq AKA Yoshi.” I thought “huh?”
I turns out that Dr. Misdaq’s son is an Afghan-British musician and multimedia artist (according to wikipedia). A review of his 2004 album had this to say:
“Yoshi comes from a world where Sergio Leone, the RZA, anti-establishment politics, Middle Eastern strife, ambient Hip Hop, Akira Kurosawa and potent skunk exist in harmony…Managing to sound both ominous and chilled at the same time, this is obviously a deeply personal record about skewed perspectives, about looking at the UK from it’s marginal areas and wondering whether you’re a part of it.”
Pic of Y. Misdaq AKA Yoshi:
Misdaq, J.R. has published a book title Pieces of a Paki which you can see him talk about in a video here. The cover is plain white with a badly drawn figure in the middle. A voice off to the side says “You’re a Paki!” The figure says “No, I’m not!” The reply is “Yes, you are!”
You can listen to “Yusuf” Misdaq’s music on his myspace page.
Elsewhere you can visit his personal website and an arts website he runs called Nefisa.
I like that Yoshi’s book is £6.00 and Dr. Misdaq’s book is $160. Damn the academic press business.
April 21, 2008 at 3:12 am
I am exploring his website now.
It’s just me and you, huh? Where’s Safrang?
April 22, 2008 at 11:43 am
I’m sure he’s very busy with very serious stuff. The cool people always show up to the party the latest 😉
April 25, 2008 at 8:15 am
So you and I are the geeks by the potato chips?
Sigh.
April 26, 2008 at 4:42 am
hey guys… i’m… yes, a bit late to the party.. unfashionably late i’m afraid. afghanistanica’s partly right. it’s not so much that i’m busy with stuff -i would still make the time to post if not on safrang/here then at least on hamesha and flickr- but quite often on the move and without internet access. since we had the initial conversations on starting this blog, i’ve been to three countries and two provinces in afg. otherwise i’m the biggest potato chips lover if i can get to it first -promise me there will be a big bag of lays and some orange juice and decent music and i will show up at half past seven. on the good side of things, i have collected some stuff on the road -back of envelope and napkin stuff, that i hope to share here soon. alas, though -although i was in dushanbe last week, afghanistanica’s post on tfc came too late for me to do a tasting and a review..
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