Video Out

K4-See Mambo

For the billions on this planet life is hard. This is acutely evident in the struggle by street musicians to survive by performing for passengers in public transport, documented in the series of tapes known as Konser Kereta Kelas Kambing (K-4), translated from the Indonesian as “Concerts on the 'Goat Class' Train”. Most of these music videos interact with players riding the elderly Economy-Class trains plying the Jakarta-Bogor route, and See Mambo is an excellent example of the musical skill and theatrical bravado of this tribe. When the White Man with a Movie Camera (actually a 3-CCD Panasonic camcorder) walks up to them out of the blue, crying “It's dark, it's sad - give us some music!” they react beautifully (in spite of never having seen this bald-headed asshole before), playing, singing and joking as they move through the hot and dirty trains. Dedicated to the photography guru of the videomaker, Lt. Col. Byron A. Black, USAF (Ret.) who prophetically advised me “Son, why don't you try out your 'snake-eye' lens?”