SONG OF THE DAY: Iblis Amghar

Mdou Moctar infamously became internet famous when he starred in the movie “Rain the Colour of Blue with a Little Red in it” which was a Tuareg re-envisioning of Purple Rain. Normally, one would be wary of Prince comparisons or positioning a dude next to culturally certified legend like that, but Mdou Moctar delivers. Nothing has been in higher rotation for ya boy dirtgod the past year.

It got me to thinking though, what would I do for personal vehicle as remake of classic movie? Perhaps a a redo of Cockfighter called Haikufighter where I refuse to speak again until I’ve trained in the mountains to truly conquer all haiku opponents and win a tiny little award. It’d be perfect metaphysical vehicle for me too, as I have a highly problematic history (because human, and also born trash), and not sure the post-pata-modern woke internet world could even handle trying to unpack Cockfighter the movie. Of course cockfighting is barbaric and horrible and inhumane. But it’s also a strange subculture, and they got a lot of sick t-shirts at the Latinx flea market featuring that as motif.

For clarity, I spent years raising chickens, and I’d never train them to fight. It’s a shitty thing, especially when made extra inhumane in those ways only humans are actually good at, where you strap on steel gaffes because roosters just naturally fighting like they always do wasn’t entertaining enough. But in those times I had more than one roosters (which happens a lot when you have chickens), it was strangely fascinating to watch them ruffle out their feathers and fly at each other, leg gaffes first. Unfortunately, too many roosters usually leads to them battering all your hens as well, so too many roosters means somebody has to go. I used to leave them by the river sometimes, which might sound horrible but is that worse than giving them away for free on Craigslist so you kick your problem down the road to some other unsuspecting person? I hoped that maybe the elven tribe down by the James River at Seven Islands would adopt the roosters too, but I don’t know. Been thinking about the elves with all the rain and potential flooding. I hope they’re okay. I hope the roosters I left there have bred with idling freight trains and are okay and their giant industrial steelcock offspring are okay. I hope Mdou Moctar is okay, wherever he is. And I hope I am okay. Am I?