Wednesday, August 16, 2006
The new band on radio blog. You may have never heard of them. Neither had I . But not long ago I ran into them at a smoky bar on a chilly night out in the port city of Fremantle. A couple of fairly ordinary guys, looking slightly too old to be pop stars took the stage and broke out into song....
"Now should you expect to see something that you hadn't seen in somebody you've known since you were sixteen,
If love is a bolt from the blue then what is a bolt but a glorified screw,
And that doesn't hold nothing together.
Far from these nonsense bars and their nowhere music,
it's making me sick and I know it's making you sick,
there's nothing there it's like eating air,
it's like drinking gin with nothing else in and that doesn't hold me together...
And for one crowded hour you were the only one in the room,
I sailed around all those bumps in the night to your beacon in the gloom,
I thought I had found my golden September in the middle of that purple june,
But one crowded hour would lead to my wreck and ruin."
And I knew it was something special.. there was this electricity in the cold air... there was poetry and beauty and humidifying sensuality...
So here is their rather strangely titled album.... "Moo you bloody choir"... but the music is just fantastic... there is something different about this band... they are not pop... they are not rock... they are not fake... they sound like they are from a different time...a time I like a great deal... a lot of heavy influences from "the time".... from Dylan to Sigur Ros to Dickens... watch for it.... you'll see it...
They are honest, original and intellectual. Songs are great, most stand out from each other, most of them you can listen to repeatedly..... I play one crowded hour atleast 5 times a day...
Try this little aussie venture. I think you'll like it.
> 4 comments
9:19 AM
Sunday, August 13, 2006
I always wondered where one drew the line. Between Indian and NRI. I always figured it was the day I threw out my last "Gopal" underwear and convereted in entirety to Jockey (ot its cheap chinese equivalent).
But I was wrong. It was actually today. When I spent $11.50 to watch a Karan Johar movie in Perth.
For the first time ever I saw a movie hall in Perth filled to capacity. First time I have seen anything in Perth filled to capacity (barring car parks). Indians stacked in unshapely rows from the carpets to the rafters. Simultaneously munching away on copious amounts of popcorn and ice cream. What a sight. And the sound. People talking contantly. Answering cell phones. Several people turned around suddenly to hold a conversation with the Indian they were sharing their armrest with, only to realise they didn't speak each others language. So they would revert back to english. But suddenly without the accent! Caught off guard by people off their own race they suddenly felt no urge to pronounce a's as I's.
The movie was nothing to write home about. So I won't. The usual fare of of love and cheating and random acts of disco dancing. For some reason all set in New York. I have no idea why New York was important to the whole plot. And ofcourse there was no insight whatsoever into NRI lives. No background or explanantion as to what each person does, which allows them to afford such Donald-Trump-exorbitant lifestyles. But... I shouldn't complain. We are like that only. Was I supposed to expect something different? Guess not... maybe the NRI in me did... shame on him...
Anyway. I have had this irritation in my left eye for the last couple of days. Somethings nesting there for sure. From time to time it acts up and my left eye starts watering profusely. The right eye tends to give it some company. On top of that, I have a little anatomical quirk, which makes tears well up in my eyes when I yawn. Normally it's no big deal. But today, the combination of both made quite a scene today after the movie. As we were all leaving people stopped and turned to stare at me.
They all probably thought I was rather moved by Shah Rukh Khan's, Dr. House impersonation...
> 4 comments
9:27 AM
Monday, August 07, 2006
Today was a funny day....
Has been outrageously windy for some reason. St. Georges Terrace is the city's central road. Perth's Dalhousie. Massive glass and steel structures on both sides create some sort of bizarre localised weather system. Pretty windy on normal days. Today it was a miniature hurricane of sorts. Like the wind of the east tha blew away all the mean nannies in Mary Poppins. The pretty office goers. Oh so mighty in their long coats and black skirts. Almost had their clothes torn off them. All their Porsches and mobile phones could not save them from being denuded and enbarassed repeaedly by a force of nature... while worthless PhD students on extended lunch breaks looked on.
It was fun driving around at 8pm as the storm hit its peak. The usually deserted streets of Perth were emptier stil. At times I was the only car on the road. Driving way over the limit than I would normally dare. Knowing that cops had better sense and were probably home and cameras (if any) had long been knocked over. It was a fantastic feeling. Driving around at recklessly, feeling the car rock sidewards with a gust of wind, dodging debris, running over branches. For a minute you could pretend you were living "twister.
And Indian came to Perth today. Was told he was a pure vegetarian. A modest, meek, straight arrow, poster boy of the VHP type. Took for his first rite of passage. Shopping. First thing he asks "where can I get some bacon?" Hmm... Then I dissuade him from buying Brussel Sprouts and Lasagna Sheets. Finally, after long searching, he asks "is alcohol cheap here."
Looking for alcohol in the supermarket.
Something tells me he will do just fine.
> 0 comments
9:09 AM
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Ok.... of all my recent run-ins with bloggers.... bini's is probably the weirdest...
I saw her in elgin forum one day... walking past several times... but she was with friends... and she didn't give me a second glance (as can be expected)... and I was too miffed to say hi.... in fear of the whole "weirdos who read my blog come up to me at random places and say hi" thing... and besides I was distracted telling the greenpeace activists that they are just terrorists...so there...
But then she saw me, walking with my sis on park street... as she was having lunch in one of the restaurants... with sunando.... and sunando even pointed me out... "that guy's erebus"... and my sis actually even turned to say hi... and actually had a fleeting moment of recognition through the glass... (like the odd single frames of ghoul pictures in "the exorcist" which you don't always think you saw but it stays with you)... but we bustled on...
hmmm...
Calcutta really is a teensy weensy place... or Bini really goes out a lot...
> 0 comments
9:13 AM
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
bloggers in love
three bloggers and one not
> 2 comments
8:20 AM
Monday, July 31, 2006
Meeting bloggers in real life is always a little weird...
You never quite know what to expect... you think you'll recognise them... you think you know them so well coz you read their blog everyday... but the fact is.... you dont really know them at all.. do you?
So when you see them... you sometimes stare them in the face.. and dont recognise them..
you run into them in malls... or catch a glimpse of them driving by in some grey maruti.... and some part of your mind tells you that you know them... but you can't make the connection in time.... even if you did.. what are you supposed to say? "i know you from your blog. nice to meet you."
come on... I know a lot of ppl who have said they don't like it when random unattractive strangers come up and say that. So forget it.
Anyway... met a number of bloggers this time. Mostly by design. A couple by accident... erythrocyte and Bini (met as in... saw from distance)... and srin claims I failed to recognise her.
met Trina, Black Cat and Ponchie in one fell swoop...
then met arunava, scorpionragz and aquilus altius in another....
ofcourse met shion and aveek... but I have met them before... so no biggie.. shion's changed.... he has grown hair... and some weird bionic protrusion out of one ear....
Arunava I realised I already knew.... jacobean.... made the mistake of saying "ah... you were that nerdy kid in school".... probably took it to heart.... ragini somehow looked different than I had expected... thinnner I guess...
Ponchie looked shorter than I had always imagined her to be... trina... she's the same.... black cat is a tiny waif of a thing... with these amazingly well crafted traditional features... once again... different from what I had imagined...not sure how....
and ofcourse... there was diviani... whose pics I have not really seen... she never really puts them up anywhere... which lead me to believe she was some plain little girl with tons of personality and talent... as that is often the case with ppl who dont put up pictures... but quite the contrary... apart from a charming personality and talent... she is strikingly beautiful... so much for assumptions...
And there is always bodhi
couple of people I DID want meet... but somehow didn't happen... "sen"sational, musicalmosquito and gairik....
ah well...
maybe next time... in a year.. or two
a blurred blogger> 11 comments
7:37 AM
Thursday, July 27, 2006
so... the trip
Trips back to calcutta are always weird. It's like passing from one life into another in a way. Because Perth is my home. It's my life. But in a way calcutta is my life too. And it's most definitely my home. It's a weird feeling. Not the way most expatriate students feel I reckon. Because when you are just a student in a different place that other place is not REALLY your home. Calcutta is still your home. But for me it's different.
I can't quite explain it. I guess it's the time also. But it just feels bizarre. The first night, the next morning. I just walk around my house touching things, opening drawers to see if things are still there. I walk into a room and somehow still instinctively flick the correct switches, still straight away find a book I have been looking for.
It's like batman entering the bat cave.
The acclimatisation is also funny. As soon as I land the sweat hits me. The sticky, itchy humidity. My travelling shirt (a disgusting brown thing with pockets in the front for secure storage of passport and full sleeves for protection from unpredicatable air conditioning) sticks to my skin, drenched instantly. The throat dries up... I cough up tar. I realise I am using more english words than bengali. That too with a slightly funny accent.
But all that changes. Pretty soon it doesn't feel so hot. Auto rides seem natural. I start using bengali words again.
I am home.
In many ways this was a spectacular trip. Met with tons of people. Quite a few people I had never met before. Bloggers and such. Living away from the family circus for a change was spectacular. I need to do this more often.
Crap... I am going to miss calcutta
> 3 comments
8:52 PM
