Middle East Peace

I currently have two musical obsessions. One is the Arab rocker Rachid Taha and his album Tekitoi; the other is the Israeli musician whose band has the somewhat unlikely and all too adorable name "Boten Matok BaKirkas," little peanut at the circus (I think). These are artists with personality and a sense of humor: Taha does an Arabic cover of "Rock the Casbah" (yeah, think about it) and Boten Matok BaKirkas, whom M. I. describes as having spent too much time kicking around India after getting out of the army, does a reggae-style version of an old Hebrew prayer. I love them both. So, the two of them, and all their quirkiness, have become the substance of my first ever playlist. I call it Middle East Peace.


Rachid Taha who is, without a doubt, too sexy.