Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders | PBS

Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders PBS

Sunday  night we were watching PBS and saw this show on the new identity of propoganda music, the first section of which is on Putin's theme song and it's overwhelming popularity in Russia. I can see why. I can't get it out of my head.  I've been bouncing around, singing that I need "a man like Putin" since late Sunday.

A later section focused on a violin virtuoso from Kazakstan who enlisted Aaron Baron Cohen, brother of Sasha Baron Cohen, and the composer of the music for  Borat, to write a symphony for the people of Kazakhstan.  The piece was performed in Kazakhstan's premiere orchestra hall.  The host of the show then goes around and asks  people what they thought of the composition and if, now that they've heard this song, they could be able to forgive Borat.  One poor kid who was about nineteen was with his mother when they asked him.  "Forgive Borat?" He pauses thoughtfully for a moment, and then, with a slight smile and a gentle nod he says,  "Of course we can forgive Borat".

You should have seen the look on his mother's face.  She was waving her arms and jumping around like a madman, shouting, "HOLY SHIT!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE CAN FORGIVE BORAT?!?!?!"  Except she did it in Kazakhstanian, which means that she just stood still with the same faint smile plastered on her face and  seared him with her eyes.

Oh those Kazakstanian mothers.