Alan Enwiyah

Via Juan Cole, I find Riverbend's tribute to Jill Carroll's murdered translator, Alan Enwiyah:

"He was an electrical engineer- but his passion was music. His dream was to be a music producer. He was always full of scorn for the usual boy bands - N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, etc. - but he was always trying to promote an Iraqi boy band he claimed he'd discovered, 'Unknown to No One'. 'They're great- wallah they have potential.' He'd say. E. would answer, 'Alan, they're terrible.' And Alan, with his usual Iraqi pride would lecture about how they were great, simply because they were Iraqi.

"He was a Christian from Basrah and he had a lovely wife who adored him- F. We would tease him about how once he was married and had a family, he'd lose interest in music. It didn't happen. Conversations with Alan continued to revolve around Pink Floyd, Jimmy Hendrix, but they began to include F. his wife, M. his daughter and his little boy. My heart aches for his family- his wife and children...

"You could walk into the shop and find no one behind the counter- everyone was in the other room, playing one version or another of FIFA soccer on the Play Station. He collected those old records, or 'vinyls'. The older they were, the better. While he promoted new musical technology, he always said that nothing could beat the sound of a vintage vinyl."