The Last Straw

So after weeks and weeks of random people begging me to start posting on my blog again, I finally had it yesterday. Someone knocked on my door and when I answered it there was a crowd of bedraggled looking children who told me they wouldn't eat until I posted to my blog! Can you believe it?! The children want me to write! So I decided, I've gotta blog for the children. Do it for the kids man! :)

But seriously, I really got lazy and busy so the blog went to the side while I took care of some things. Let me just say that buying a house is really all-consuming. Not only do you have paperwork, you've got all the HGTV to watch! In the last couple of months I've felt guilty for not writing...not for denying the handful of people who read this stuff, but for not spending time to think about my life and document my thoughts and interesting things around me.

So this past weekend we went to agreat hip-hop show at The Warfield. If you've never checked out the artists on the Quannum record label, now's the time. I got DJ Shadow's Entroducing CD a while back, but that was about it. A few months ago, a friend told me about this rapper named Lyrics Born, but I hadn't heard of his stuff. Well, after checking out this show, I'll be listening to a lot more from all of the artists. They're mainly from the Bay Area (UC Davis, in particular) and the whole label is touring together. The Warfield show was their last on this tour. As you can tell from the samples on their website, it's a wide range of hip-hop, but underground beats to more funky stuff. After just 10 minutes at the venue, I was sold on these guys. Overall, I'd say this was almost as good as the Mos Def/Talib Kweli show we went to last year. Of course DJ Shadow ripped ish up. He not only spun beats the whole show, he had this trippy DVD turntable which let him scratch video in sync with the rest of the beats. We were stunned.

Anyways, check 'em out if you get a chance. If you've been looking for something different, anything from this label should please you.

Why I voted for Dean

California had its primary yesterday and I actually made it to my local polling place to vote! I had originally thought I would vote for Edwards simply because he seems like a better salesman than Kerry. But after giving it further thought, I came to the conclusion, like many others, than Edwards & Kerry really are the same person. They may appear on the same stage during debates, but it's gotta be some CIA trickery going on, because I can't tell them apart. And anyways, before I made it to polling location, Edwards had announced he would be dropping out of the race. So why vote for a guy who I don't really care for and who's decided to quit before the night's even over?

So I leaned back on my idealist sensibilities and thought about how I could send a message. Ya, I know it's a very general statement and it's damn near impossible to "send a message" if you don't organize with others who want to send a similar message. Looking at the remaining candidates, I actually like Sharpton. He's a great orator and can bring people to his side when he gets a chance to speak to them. But, honestly, I can't see him in the Oval Office. If that did happen, let's just say that Saturday Night Live would have a historic run at presidential comedy and zoom to the top of the ratings. Kucinich? Nah...

So I thought again about who seemed to be leading a movement? Not just a campaign, but a movement? Even Howard Dean had dropped out of the race a couple of weeks ago, and his campaign collapsed dramatically during January, I still saw the twinkly of the movement and the energy he had created. While I don't agree with many of his specific political positions, I agree wholeheartedly with his underlying message of involving "the people" in the political process. This is an idea which I've been working on with some friends in Young India, but have had trouble crystallizing. The problem we've faced is how to make such an idealist idea of "getting people involved in the political process" into a realistic movement with a leader who inspires people. Gandhi did. MLK did. Dean seemed to be doing it for a while. Although his campaign collapsed under him, I think his run at the presidency was about more than just the office. It was about finding a way to involve the average person and get him thinking about the personal & community consequences of broad national political decisions.

While Dean had a tough time getting the "average" person to believe in his idea (afterall, it was mainly "activists" who got involved in his campaign), I believe that if such a movement can continue along with noticeable change, the "average" person will become more involved in the political process which affects their daily lives.

I don't believe for a second that Dean would be a good president. But I do believe that he could help lead a movement not to reform politics, but to get people activily thinking about how their elected representatives make choices on their behalf and how those choices can greatly affect all of us.

My vote for Dean will hopefully be noticed by the Democratic Party come convention time. The message here isn't that Dean is a viable candidate. The message is that we want more active thinking and more pro-active action in our politics. We don't want reactionary politics that simply addresses our fears or our "enemies". I don't think the Democratic Party is ready for that just yet (Kerry says he's glad for Dean's contributions and energy, but I don't really believe him), but by all us participating in this process, we can make it "political suicide" for the Party to ignore the message for too much longer.

Integrating Ethnic Minorities

If you've heard about the recent French vote to ban Muslim headscarves (& other religious adornments) in schools, then this article in The Economist will be an interesting read. The manner in which a nation incorporates "outside" cultures into more dominant cultures says a lot about the openness of that culture. I've mentioned a bit about French attitudes about Christmas (no outward displays of their apparently strong beliefs). This Ecnomist article sort of confirms that. Basically, everything ends up being lily-white (double-entendre meant). In France there seems to be no desire to see different cultures in public space. In the UK, however, society has many outward displays of different cultures. Of course, this may have lead to some un-desirable things, like race riots and the like. I have to learn more about the UK's legal approach to minority rights, but from what I know, it makes a lot more sense than France's. When it comes down to it, not allowing one to wear her culture on her shoulders (or head) can only lead to other sorts of subjugation. The linked article goes into some discussion about providing fodder for extremist mindsets. While that may take some time, I think it's clear this will happen. Isolation isn't the way to go here. While this French bill proposes to outlaw all religious adornments in schools, it's clear this is aimed at Islam.

Assimilation into the wider culture is one thing. Bleaching of one's culture is wholly different and will lead to many unintended consequences.

Desi Thugs

DesiBlog has referred to an interesting BBC radio documentary about Desi Thugs. Amongst friends, we've always joked about the idea of Desi thugs, but this is a serious take on the idea, how it fits into the Indian family lifestyle, the relationship between Desi men and women, and how it has contributed to the development of musicians in the British-Asian community. Nihal (of the Bobby & Nihal show) conducts interviews with artists such as Sona Family, Punjabi Hit Squad, and HardKaur are intermixed with hip-hop samples. Here's a direct link to the BBC documentary. It's 30 minutes long and well worth the time. I can't say that all of these rappers have the greatest lyrics, but it's a start. By the way, this just confirms that the BBC is making great inroads into serious examination of the British Asian community and perhaps helping desis in the US better understand how we fit into the general community.

Oh, and if you still haven't listened to Bobby & Nihal, check 'em out this week! They're on late Friday nights London time so it's a good Friday afternoon listen for folks based in the US.

Another interesting find via DesiBlog is EthnoTechno. Have a look.

Scandal!

So I posted before about Willie Williams and his football recruiting escapades. He has since declared his intentions to join the University of Miami. Well, the story doesn't quite end there. Not only is Williams now being charged with committing some crimes while visiting the University of Florida. In addition to that, he apparently has a rap sheet a mile long. This all for a 19-year old high school sports phenom. This has apparently become quite a national thing, with even the New York Times writing about the situation. Anyways, always interesting to see how these things turn out.

"...politics and the markets seem inextricable"

Keeping with the more serious topics, I've just read a pretty interesting series of posts written by the head of the Eurasia Group on Slate.com. I've mentioned before that Slate has these week-long journals written by a variety of people. It's a novel way to incorporate "blog" type writing into a wider magazine's framework. Some are interesting, others are not. In this case, this topic is something a friend and I continually chat about: the intersections of politics & economic markets. In this case, Ian Bremmer, talks about the theory of examining economic fallout from political events, the setup of his think tank, as well as many current events. If you have some time, do read this set of five journal entries. If nothing else, these entries confirm for me the difficulties in assessing how economics, politics, and social structures affect each other. Good reading.

The Economist

I've written before about some great media outlets. Even with the current trouble the BBC is in, I still think it's one of the world's stellar new organizations. One glaringly mistake I made before was in not mentioning The Economist. Rare is the news org which aims for the meat of stories rather than the fluff. Rarer still is the org which has a grasp on issues and they affect the entire globe.

At example is a recent opinion article about the US dollar's devalution. I read much about the woes Europe is facing because of the huge devaluation with respect to the Euro. I've also read about why the Bush admin has perhaps encouraged the dollar to fall, making US goods cheaper to buy internationally. This is the first time I've seen any connections between these ideas, Asia's response to it, and most importantly, the effects on the global economy (especially related to the US's international debt.

Of course, this article is an opinion and not clear news, but it's just a single example of how amazingly well the staff at The Economist can put seemingly disparate pieces together into a whole which is much greater than the parts. It sounds geeky, but in reading this op/ed piece, my eyes literally bulged out and my jaw dropped (eg "WTF?!"). Not because I can't believe this is happening, but because the connections made in the op/ed piece make you think "Why has nobody else made these connections?!?!"

Even so, an Op/Ed piece is not news. The great part about the Economist is that the staff take pains to provide just these types of connections in their news coverage. And another step they take is to consider multiple angles and opposing forces (politics, social realities, etc) globally. This all contributes to a fact-based and logcally reasoned conclusion that considers much more than plain-vanilla economics.

Some of the Economist website is for paid subscribers, but much of it is free. I encourage you all to take a gander. If not online, then at the newsstand. I've found the magazine to be an invaluable resource to help understand the world at large and many of the forces which play into shaping the world in which we live today.

Flip It

If you've been reading my posts you know that I've been listening to a lot of BBC Asian Network and getting into more desi-style sounds. I'm not a huge fan of bhangra, but there are quite a few interesting iterations of the bhangra formula (the best being the drum n' bass twist on bhangra). I've also found that quite a few American artists have been getting Indian remixes of their own songs done (a la Truth Hurts, but many more unique than that). These are remixes commissioned by the artists themselves so they tend to be much better than random deejays taking a track and slapping a new beat onto it (a la Puffy). Some of these commissioned songs are still pretty lame since the new beat just doesn't seem to go with the lyrics, tempo, or artist's style. But some are really very good. Some have new Hindi or Punjabi lyrics, other just have the new music.

One example of a great mix job is for Nelly Furtado's new single, Powerless, done by a DJ named Josh. I've been really impressed with Josh's work on this for a few reasons. First of all, I should mention that I like Nelly Furtado. She's got style all her own and can groove. So anyways, the original track is not all that amazing. The lyrics are interesting, but overall, the song feels a little slow and muddled. That's fine I suppose, but honestly, it bores me. Josh, however, proceeded to flip this song and smack it upside the head. It's really catchy and most importantly, the beat he layed down goes very, very well with the song. Maybe it's just because I appreciate a desi beat when it's more than just a basic tabla or dhol, but this guy could go far if he continues to do remixes like this. Most amazing? He didn't speed up the song at all and the new beat, when overlayed on top of the original, is exactly the same tempo.

Ok, so now you're wondering what the versions actually sound like? Well, I finally got around to taking this blog multimedia, baby! Since the track is difficult to get a hold of, I've put together a little sample of the original song and two parts of the remix to give y'all an idea of what a great job Josh did with it.

Give it a spin here (low quality, WMV file on purpose).

Anyways, since I've finally gotten around to this music sampling thing, I'll try and provide more....Drop me an email (assuming you have it since I'm not gonna leave here) if you want this song, but you're having trouble finding it.

And hey...leave a few lines to let me know how I'm doing with this blog!

From the street?

While out in The City on Friday night we ran into an interesting street marketing campaign. Marketing campaign on a Friday night clubbing excursion, you say? Well, if you haven't heard of it yet, Scion (a new car brand created by Toyota) is running a campaign which targets young urbanites (for lack of a better term). When this campaign first start I wasn't feeling it at all. I mean who's gonna go for a bland car that seriously lacks any horsepower? The campaign came on the heels of the Nissan Altima & vaious Mitsubishi campaigns aiming to please the same crowd. There are some interesting options for the Scion cars like light kits and sub-woofers that are usually the fare of after-market, souped up cars. Bascially, these car companies have tried to appeal to urbanites by connecting their cars to the "real-ness" of "the street". Hmm...

In any case, I've found some interesting ideas with the Scion campaign (the Altima & Mitsu campains may have a good track or two on their TV ads, but there's nothing else unusual about them). Not that I've been roped in and want to buy one of these ugly cars, but I've found the ideas more off-the-wall than most car campaigns and I can really see where they're coming from and the methodical approach they're taking to find appeal. The idea of appealing to club-kids would have never been on the radar to car makers just five years ago, and here Toyota (via Scion) is directly courting young urbanites. If the website doesn't angle towards this market (check out the articles on Kanye West and other "street" artists), then the club-night promotions leave you without a doubt. Rather than just handing out flyers and such, CDs and mints were being passed around in hopes of creating lasting interest. Makes sense. You always need mints, especially if you're gonna be drinking and/or smoking. But, while CD compilations can be interesting, most are too bland and boring to making it through more than one play in the car. Apparently, previous volumes of Scion's marketing CDs were just compilations like this. But now Scion has taken a novel approach to the CD compilation marketing thing.

Instead of just hiring a producer to pick a dozen tracks and slap them on a CD, Scion held DJ competitions and awarded a DJ crew the reins on their own Scion CD volume. Out of the 263 competitors, the Backyard Bangers came out on top and have since put together a smokin mix CD of a wide variety of underground hip-hop. I'm not the type to listen to the same CD several times in a day, but I've already run this thing through the spin cycle a few times and I'm liking it more and more each time. Give the tracks a listen online. And if you find any Scion folks running around club spots on a Friday night, pick up the CDs they're handing out. The cars may be wierd and unappealing, but the CDs are definitely worth it. Does this make Scion more Street? Doubt it.

But hey, I wrote about them didn't I?

Must Read

I email article links to friends, on occassion, when I think it would be something of to interest them. I rarely, if ever, send out mass emails without explanation of why a particular article is worthy of reading. Here is a case where mass distribution is a MUST. If you do not read this, you will be missing out on the best newspaper series EVER! I'd recommend getting a soda or cup of coffee before reading all of the articles, but you'd spit it all out laughing. Don't eat or drink anything while reading. I'd prefer that my readers NOT choke while reading. Unintentional Comedy Scale: Off the Charts.

Rather than say more, I'll just quote Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy:

Finally, I'd like to introduce you to the greatest newspaper series of all time. And yes, I know what I just wrote. This is the greatest newspaper series of all time. Except, of course, the idea was swiped from ESPN.com's own (and better) "Blue Chip Diaries" from last year.

Anyway, the Miami Herald has been following around All-State high school linebacker Willie Williams -- he's checking out various colleges and reporting back on his recruiting trips. I couldn't possibly describe what's happening here. I'm just going to give you the link, and you need to read all three of these features. And please read them in sequence. I don't ask for much.

Here are the articles. As instructed, read them in order. I'll add all future articles in this series right here.

• Trip No. 1: Florida State.


• Trip No. 2: Auburn.


• Trip No. 3: Miami.


• Trip No. 4: U Florida. (added 2/2/04)


• Williams joins the University of Miami. (added 2/5/04)

Enough!

I was going to post a final, touchy-feely wrap-up on Europe, but you know what? I'm sick of writing about it. I'm sure you're sick of reading out it. So there. Done!

The Backstory

So my friends have been bugging me about telling what really happened during our Europe trip...that's not to say I've been lying in all my previous Europe musings. Let's just say that I've been selective in my story telling. So now, due to popular uprising, you can find the seedier aspects of our trip. Of course, everything won't make it here, but this is just an idea of the trouble we talked ourselves into. You can imagine the rest, since there is quite a bit left unsaid:

• Porn - Ahhh yes, everybody's favorite subject. Obviously, you don't talk about porn, watching it or reading it, in open public. Unless, of course, you think that nobody around you will understand what you're talking about. Safe to say, that enough people know English to you shouldn't talk about porn even in non-English speaking countries. We were scolded at least once while talking taboo in public. Of course, we were scolded by a mother of two children who appeared to be at least 17 or 18. C'mon, what high school kid doesn't know what's up? The best part of it all? The kids seemed like they were on a miserable family trip and our conversation about porn stashes were perking up their ears. Probably the most fun they'd had since leaving the US. We were all quite tempted to ask the mother of these innocent children if she thought her children had never heard of porn.
  


• Porn, the remix - Being the immature fools that we are, we were quite amazed that they show full nudity on European TV. Of course, I'd been there before so I knew it would come on TV, but get six people together with some wine and bacardi, and watching the stuff on a 13 inch TV is loads of fun. Try it, you'll like it! Safe to say, we laughed, we cried. Until the cartoon porn. That really freaked us out. I'll just say that eliminating the laws of reality takes porn to another dimension. We all learned something new. Perhaps people can give it a try once humans have stations on Mars and such. For right now, I think too many bones would be broken.
  


• Music to your ears - Following up on the English-speaking thing. Everybody seems to know English! Who knew?! Take this as a warning. Don't talk ish about anyone or anything out loud. Do it huddled up with each and silently laughing - like the immature children that you are. Of course, being the immature children that we are, we dared speak out loud. We didn't get scoldings most of the time, but we said quite a few things which would have turned many people's red with fury and embarrassment. Suffice it to say that, even though we spoke French when needed, we loudly contributed to the stereotype of useless American fcuks.
  


• Theivery - Okay, so we didn't participate in stealing anything, but we sure scared the hell out of a gas thief in Paris on our last day there. The guy snuck over to the gas pump using our SUV to hide himself from the gas attendant. He proceeded to fill up his portable gas can and then slowly walked off. As soon as he was far enough, he ran. We, being the upstanding citizens that we are, honked loudly after him trying to shame him into submission. Dude kept walking intentionally ignoring us. We kept slowly following behind him in our SUV. Of course, we didn't bother telling the gas attendant about the theivery, but we did scare the ish out of said thug. Fun was had by all.
  

That being said, if you're looking for any other details, just yell and I'll fill you in.

More Drinking in Europe

Of all things, I forgot to mention the most ubiquitous drinking we participated in while in Europe: Mineral Water

Beware.

Don't touch the stuff!

Get drunk off wine & beer all day if you have to, but stay away from the mineral water.

I expected this problem with mineral water (eg, Evian) since I had the same problem the last time I visited Europe. At first, it's not so bad especially if it's ice cold, but after a a couple of days, mineral water just leaves a wierd taste in your mouth. After a week you just gulp the stuff so as not to taste it. After two weeks you just go thirsty. The one thing I wanted to do when returning to the states didn't involve a shower or a bed, it involved a bottle of Aquafina. Nuff said.

Drinking in Europe

So at some point I'll really get to the end of the story about Europe. These posts have been going on longer than the actual trip!

First of all: Guinness.

Second of all: Guinness Ice Cold. I Said, what's cooler than being cool?? Ice Cold!!

Now, onto the other less earth-shattering stuff:
Mulled Wine - First time I had the stuff was in Bath (beautiful city by the way). While doing a walking tour of the city by night, we really just need to sit down and warm up. So we headed into a cool little wine & coffee bar. Alcohol in general is great when it's cold since it really warms you up. Warm, spiced alcohol in the form of mulled wine? Even better. The bar was a great spot also since a two-piece band was playing. We were impolite enough to barge in just as they were starting their set, but it was well worth it. They started out sounding like REM, and near the end of their set, proceeded to play "The One I Love" by REM. Of course, they sounded more like REM when they weren't playing REM songs. Go figure.

French Wine - Stuff is cheap. Everywhere we went we couldn't believe that we could drink wine for less than water or coke. Plus, everything we tried was enjoyable. We really don't know too much about wine so it's nice to pick a random bottle and find that it's actually good.

Shandy - While this is rather revolutionary, it's not quite earth-shattering. Apparently, a British thing, it's definitely worth a try. Shandy is not a brand of beer, it's a style of beer, like a Black & Tan. Basically, take any light ale, pour in some lemonade or 7-up and you've got yourself a shandy. Very light and refreshing. If you don't like beer, stay away from the wine coolers, cider, zima, etc and give this a try. It's a good way to work yourself up to Guinness. Yes, long road, but you gotta start somewhere. Also great when you're stuck in the "I wanna drink, but I don't really wanna drink" rut.

Belgian Beer - While the stuff is good, I enjoyed the shandys much more.

French cocktails - This should really be titled Buddha Bar cocktails since that was the only place we had actual cocktails. The drinks were generally good (mainly because they were loaded with sugar and/or fruit juice). My only problem? What's with the straws? Here, cocktails come with a stirrer, if that. The Buddha Bar drinks were sporting straws bigger than the glasses themselves. Plus they were bent into wierd shapes. As Seinfeld would say...what...is...up...with...that?? While the Buddha Bar and the music played at the place was cool, the decorations on the drinks just didn't fly with the ultra hip vibe the place had.

Rum straight from the bottle - Yes, we're reverting to our college days. What do you do when you're near the end of your trip and you've got 1/2 a bottle of rum, but no coke to mix it with? Obviously, you can't throw it away. Drink it straight! Quite enjoyable and completely refreshing. Try it, you'll like it. Don't mind the burning sensation in your esophagus.

Groovin at Work

So in looking for inspiration at work, I've been trying to find just the right music to get me grooving while actually getting ish done. I have a large MP3 collection, but it's easy to get tired of that stuff right quick. In the past, I've found some Shoutcast radio stations which are great here and here and here (links require WinAmp). If you've never heard of Shoutcast or are wondering how to get these stations, just download WinAmp and then find the stations you like at their website. Alternately, you can just click on the links above and get to grooving right away. Basically, these stations have huge playlists and are on all day long.

But, of course, I'm always looking for something new so when my friend directed me to the BBC's Asian Network I quickly got to grooving on the bhangra sounds of Adil Ray (which I talked about before). I've just started listening to another show on BBC's Radio 1 put on by some guys named Bobby Friction & Nihal. If you're more into the breakbeats with Asian fusion (ie, Asian Massive), then this is the station for you. A weekly show highlighting some great grooves. And since the BBC is kind enough to archive the shows, you can listen any time you like!

Don't worry, I've got my (nearly) last post about Europe coming soon...and I'll be focusing on the drinking! In the meantime, get yer asses shaking to the groove.