This Is Book’s Music

Sad news from the world of reggae, soca, and calypso. Byron Lee passed away on Tuesday after a long bout with cancer. He was 73.

Lee was one of many Chinese/Jamaicans who made ska and reggae his own, but was one of the few Chinese musicians who gained acceptance as an artist. As the music developed and changed, Lee also developed and changed his style, leading to the development of genres and styles that may not have been entirely created by him, but he was there at its origin.

This photo here of Lee looks a bit like my grandfather too.

When I found out about Bradley Beesley’s Okie Noodling a few years ago, I was interested because I had heard The Flaming Lips did the soundtrack for it.  What I discovered was a fantastic documentary about a rural type of fishing in Oklahoma where people catch fish with their hands.  I’m not a fisherman but I have an uncle who is a diehard and has always been.  He had taken me to my first fishing trip as a kid out in Wai’anae (on the island of O’ahu) and I was able to catch a few with nothing but a bamboo stick and string.  He always fished Hawaiian style, whether it was by throwing a net or other techniques.  But no one in Hawai’i had ever caught fish that way, so it was great to see people in Oklahoma do something I was unaware of, and it’s a community and culture that is foreign to many people.

Beesley returned almost ten years later to catch up with some of the people who were in the original, and with a slightly bigger budget, Okie Noodling II offers the sport from a few different perspectives, including with a man from Missouri who has to deal with the illegalities of hand fishing in his state.  He has been trying for years to make it legal, was able to have a trial season only for the state to pull the plug.  Like many, he said it feels good to him and he will never stop.  The fishermen in Oklahoma feel the same way, and while it is legal there, they all say it is in the blood and they’ll never stop.

These guys don’t just catch 5 to 10 pounders, we’re talking fish that are 30, 40, 50+ pounds pulled out by feeling for the fish, waiting for a bite, and yanking it out.  Some do it alone, some have family and friends, and one of the great things about this installment of the film is that they talk with families and show how those traditions have been passed along from generation and generation.  While different traditions have quietly faded away in the city, out in the country it is very much a symbol of pride and honor.  They also show that noodling is not just a man’s sport, but regardless of who and what you are, they say if you don’t like getting hurt, don’t fish.  A huge catfish can feed a family for days if not for a few months, and it makes you feel like you want to participate.

As with the first, Okie Noodling II was professionally shot and edited, and doesn’t feel like a simply follow up but rather an extention of the first film.  It is unusual to see these guys make the effort on something we city folk often taken for granted, but this is the way Native Americans did it and the Okie’s are proud to keep these rural traditions alive.  The best line in the movie was from a man who said that in the last ten years, Americans have been looking back to find a bit of “authenticity”, to seek things that we may have mistakenly forgotten, whether it’s the blues or other roots music, or living in a much more simple manner.  Hand fishing doesn’t require equipment or heaps of money to do, you take the risk, stick your hand in and hope for the best.  You can’t get any better than that.

(Okie Noodling II is available directly from OkieNoodling.com)