Worldcrunch
EICHSTATT —Camillo the cat nearly missed his TV appearance. The one-year-old feline belongs to the Auer family in the this Bavarian town of 14,000, but he is anything but a house cat. No, Camillo spends his days and nights attending parties around town, visiting art galleries, and catching a cat nap in a comfortable chair […]
Clychau Dibon is a one-of-a-kind album. The first collaboration between Welsh classical harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita, the album brings to life an extraordinary combination. The two instruments have actually a lot in common. Originally from the same musical family, they play central roles both in Wales and Senegal, where oral […]
Driving through southern Algeria in the early 1970s was quite an adventure — and I’m not sure the state of roads has gotten any better since. Which means that the “Cape Town” direction on that sign in Ouargla was mostly for fun.
It took more than five years to build Prague’s gigantic Stalin Monument, which was eventually unveiled in 1955. And only seven years later: BOOM, the Soviets dynamited what they thought was an outrageous display of Stalin’s cult of personality. We were lucky enough to see it in all its might when we went to then […]
GAZA — A dramatic video has emerged that captures — in a very different way — the horror of Gaza parents facing the death of their children in the ongoing assault by the Israeli military. In this video, (SEE BELOW) posted late Wednesday by al-Quds news in Jerusalem, a Gazan mother finds her young son, […]
A Russian settlement in remote Norway has impressive roads, schools and monuments. But not a soul lives in this ice-preserved community, after its residents mysteriously left one day in 1998.
TEHRAN — “Indecent dressing,” or “bad hijabi” in Persian, isn’t worse than before in Iran, according to a deputy-governor of the Tehran province. Shahabeddin Chavoshi, who is responsible in the capital province for social and political affairs, chided critics who accuse the government of Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani of neglecting public morals. “Studies show […]
Nepalese prayer wheels come in all shapes and sizes. This one wouldn’t quite fit in my luggage, so I brought a smaller one back home.
AMSTERDAM — Two-thirds of the 298 passengers on downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 were Dutch, and their countrymen are seeking ways to vent their anger. Some have found an outlet in the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Masha. The 29-year-old is married to Dutchman Jorit Faassen, 34, who works for Gazprombank and Stroytransgaz in […]
Paul VI was the last pope to use the sedia gestatoria regularly, like here for Easter celebrations on St. Peter’s Square. This ceremonial chair which was carried on the shoulders of a few chosen men — usually belonging to old Roman families — was abandonned by his successor John Paul I, before being altogether replaced […]
Can you spot the odd one out?
Photo: Mathi et Mathi. No one quite masters the art of whining and complaining like the French, which means the world’s ultimate râleurs and blasés find the deepest kind of pleasure in cursing. Some French musicians have now taken it to the next level, singing songs essentially based around the use of the word “merde”, […]
PACHMARHI — Anil Yadav has lived in the hilltop town of Pachmarhi for the past 16 years, but over the past three he says that the monkey population has expanded beyond control. So much so that humans are now being forced to live in cages. In India, monkeys are sacred and worshipped by Hindus as […]
IQALUIT — A wealthy Saudi couple will soon begin building a mosque in one of the least hospitable corners of the globe: near the North Pole, in Iqaluit, Canada. The mosque, which will be the northernmost mosque in the world, will face extreme Arctic weather conditions, including lows of -40 degrees Celsius. The town of […]
Photo: Arangoalejandra New Jersey-based singer SZA released a new song called “Divinity” last week. The seven-and-a-half minute track, made up of minimalist elements of R&B, features a collaboration with the soul and funk singer Jill Scott. SZA is part of the new wave of artists coming to light in what has been labelled as “alt […]
This hole in Repulse Bay hotel in Hong Kong is not merely the result of an architect’s whim. In accordance with the “invisible forces” of feng shui, many high-rises and hotels feature such “windows,” to let air flow naturally through the city. In this case, we were told by locals that the hole also allowed […]
Photo: Brethoniques France’s annual Vieilles Charrues festival is on in the northwestern region of Brittany. The country’s largest music festival, which ends Sunday and is set to host around 200,000, will feature top international headliners such as the Arctic Monkeys and the Black Keys. But the Bretons are famously proud of their region (even sometimes […]
In France, from the early 1980s until rather recently, you basically couldn’t turn on your TV without stumbling onto an episode of the American series Dallas. And though I have never actually watched the show, when I went to Beaumont, Texas, it all looked vaguely familiar.
A woman from Treviso in northern Italy, who left her neighbor in charge of her five cats while she went away for a few days, returned home to a rather grim surprise, as reported by Italian news site Quotidiano. One of the cats — which had required daily medication — died while the owner was […]
How better to recover from the spookiness of a Transylvanian burial than with a Transylvanian wedding? It was incredibly hot on this July day in Romania, and I remember one of these wedding-goers offered me a sip from what I assumed was a bottle of water. I took a big gulp, and quickly found out […]
We saw what most agree are the three most impressive waterfalls in the world: Victoria Falls, between Zambia and Zimbabwe; Niagara Falls, between the U.S. and Canada; and Iguazu Falls, between Argentina and Brazil. If I had to choose one, it would definitely be what you’re looking at here. Niagara is awesome, but doesn’t have […]
China’s annual “Dog Meat Feast” in the southern city of Yulin has sparked disputes between dog eaters and dog lovers, some cases even turning physical. Read the full story here. Photo: Whoisgalt
Two guitars, a bass and a set of drums. Brazilian post-rock band HAB might follow the standard rock line-up, but their percussive, minimalist and repetitive music sounds nothing like the usual pop/rock quartet you might hear on the radio. Their eponymous debut album, released earlier this year, features very little effects and only one track […]
In case you missed this last week and forgot (or can’t afford) to book any music festivals this summer, you needn’t worry. The online music platform Music Vault has uploaded five decades of remastered live concerts in more than 13,000 videos on its YouTube channel. Between ten-second extracts, songs and whole concerts in high-definition, is […]
Market places usually make for good, lively pictures. But here in Batalha in central Portugal, some of these young vendors were clearly bored out of their minds.
RIYADH — With more than 257,000 unmarried women in the country, and strict religious codes, traditional matchmaking is a lucrative business in Saudi Arabia. Yet with the rise of social media and online marriage websites, the industry is coming under pressure to stay financially viable, which has led to several recent reports of scandals that […]
Ten years had passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, yet there was still something end-of-an-era-esque in the imposing GUM, the State Department Store near Moscow’s Red Square. The banner reads “Summer Discounts, Up To 50% Off.”
If it weren’t for his name discreetly written on the cover of his new album, you’d think Bror Gunnar Jansson’s Moan Snake Moan might be the lost recordings of a 1920’s American delta bluesman. But no, it’s 2014, Jansson is Swedish, and he’s playing gigs around Europe. With his raw, dark and diabolical blues, the […]
To get to the stunning view over the Forbidden City from the top of Jingshan Park’s Coal Hill, you have two options: climb the 400 or so steps, or hire these porters and their sedan chair. However tempting that was, my wife (in the background) and I chose the former.
Ever dreamed of quoting a French protest song in the middle of a heated, high-brow debate? The University of Manchester — in a city that has always been forward-thinking, especially when on the music front — now offers a course called “Protest Music in France”. Every week, students will focus on three French artists: songwriter […]
A prominent Iranian politician has characterized Israeli operations against Gaza as the third phase of Israel’s current plot to destabilize the Middle East region. Mohsen Rezai, a former Revolutionary Guards commander and current member of a state arbitrating body, said the first two phases of Israel’s strategy were the civil wars provoked in Syria and […]
I used to be a philosophy teacher, with a penchant for Spinoza — meaning my mind tends to be of the logical and down-to-earth kind. But sometimes you’ve just got to wonder: Last year, looking out the window of my living-room, I saw these tire tracks left after a light snowfall. I grabbed my camera […]
Cover songs can sometimes sound surprisingly better than the original — or at any rate, become significantly more popular. Take Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah”, Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower” for example — but there are dozens of other such intelligent covers that have made it to the shelves of musical classics. Over the past few […]
We went to Finland multiple times. Once we even brought a Finnish dictionary with us to try and understand a few words of the very peculiar suomi language … Many headaches ensued!
Photo: Redcarpetboy Italian rapper Amir Issaa’s new song “Ius Music” dives straight into the country’s heated debate over immigration. And without missing a beat, conservative Italian politicians have accused the 35-year-old of inciting hatred. The Lega Nord party has called for the resignation of Khalid Chaouki, a member of the Italian Democratic Party of Moroccan […]
Most of these locals were selling firewood on the famous market of Chichicastenango. Since it was already pretty hot on this Spring day, we were more interested in what another of the K’iche” vendors, of Mayan descent, was offering: deliciosos helados de crema, ie. “delicious ice cream,” as is written on the cart.
“Hit It!” is Worldcrunch’s music blog, your global source of anything music-related: news and novelties, albums and songs, videos, charts, events, you name it. While we’ll leave most of the mainstream London and L.A.-generated news to the various Rolling Stones and NMEs, our focus will be what’s happening everywhere else. The name of this blog […]
Why are American “vulture” funds taking such a hard line on Argentina’s debt? It may have something to do with the political influence finance wield in the United States.
To be honest, with such strange feet, I’m not surprised Buddha preferred to lie down … To give you a rough idea of the size of this reclining Buddha in the Wat Pho temple, there’s a man at the bottom left corner of the slide.
Doggy business stinking up sidewalks is a very real problem in towns and cities around the world. Different attempts to clean up include raising fines, public leaflets or even a project in Buenos Aires to give green collars to the dogs whose owners scoop their poop. So inevitably it would have to come to this: […]