The B.A.A.D. club and the people of Ulaanistan

B.A.A.D. Balkanarama and Atwater-Donnelly. We used the "a" in "and" in our acronym because otherwise the acronym would read "B.A.D." Okay, we've already decided that if Balkanarama sang half their songs in English we would probably not see them or anything. But since they're in these Balkan languages, we do. And some folk songs have a bit of a sick humor to them. Enough said. Anyway, B.A.A.D. is sort of our fan club. We don't have a president or anything, but we do kind of talk about stuff and all that. We used to have a rule that we'd record a bit of talking after each concert by any of these two groups, or any fragment (the Atwater part of A-D counts alone because she performs solo). But that didn't quite work out. Things got busy, and empty tapes have many other purposes, one which was extremely urgent! Note that this composed of concerts we had been to, because otherwise we would fill a tape a lot. Like this month, February, would have about 5 entries for Atwater-Donnelly alone! And it's a short month...

The people of Ulaanistan are different. They live in a compilation of lots of different things from Native American tribes to peoples of the ancient world to the Mongols. Ulaanistan is a pretend country in central Asia with a colorful cultural history. They're really funny. Like they make "fertilizer" from grass--just pick it and toss it up to rid it of impurities. Guess it works as compost. They have a big exportation of this. Really good grass. In the summer, a lot of the people live in brightly colored tents with tunnels between 'em--yeah, those are actually our play tents (which would not have fit in a suitcase. Pity, pity, pity). They draw water from a garden hose. They dress like the ancient Greeks and live like the people of the Indus Valley during the winter. Their drawings are decidedly Mayan in style.

Of course, that was back in ancient civilization days. Some people live like this, still, but they dress in things like shorts and T-shirts alone, not swathing this stuff with blankets like they used to. In the winter, they often live in places with central heat.

It's just a game my sister and I made up to combine our favorite things of ancient cultures and to have fun with them--what they might've been like. Some things we imagine, like not running inside for a bathroom break and other "necessities" like that. For I love ancient cultures, and studying about them, but I never have liked just reading books. Though I love to read, I want to live it to some extent.

And that's ancient Ulaanistan. Immigrants came in from Ireland and Bosnia, and they created an interesting culture by intermingling and not being cruel lords. And that's where Miraana comes in.

Miraana is a girl in my imagination who lived at the time when there was a war which sent many of the people who preserved folk culture into hiding or killed them because they were simply traveling musicians. She had a lute from one of these who was her special friend and got killed. So she got lessons from the royal family (another story in and of itself) and got their help and support in collecting songs like Bela Bartok or some of many others. She interviewed and recorded people and notated things down for those unfortunate folks who can read music or tablature but cannot learn things by ear for the life of them.

You can see how crazy my imagination gets.
Saro