12/24/06

It’s been 13 days now and I still feel sick.  Throat still hurts.  Saw a naturopath and she said I’m doing great compared to most of the people she’s seen who got the bug.  She said its often turning into bronchitis.  I’ve been able to keep the symptoms pretty manageable despite being so woozy and lethargic that I only worked a few hours last week.  Hope you all are staying healthy.

I did have to DJ sick in Eugene.  I didn’t realize until after the gig that school was out which means about 20,000 less peopls in the area.  It was a very rainy night, and except for the tribal dancers and their supporters it was  a very empty club in which we performed.  Seeing as how I was sick, and it was a four hour drive in pouring rain, it seemed a character building exercise more than anything.  Thank you to DJ Layla for having us down to open her night, and we hope future nights build more of a crowd.  At least I got to hear Anjali drop some killer Balkan stuff in her set.  And dredge up the classic “Preeto De Ghar.”  Blast from the past!

Stay healthy, y’all!!

IK

Hey,

I’ve been sick for what feels like forever. I normally have one episode of sickness a winter season. This is my second sick phase in the last two months. It’s already dragged on for over a week and I feel sicker rather than healthier. I have even been taking really good care of myself. To little avail apparently. Tonight Anjali and I are driving down to Eugene to perform at the opening night of DJ Layla’s new Something Special night at a club called Taboo. There was nothing like that when I went to college down there in the early ’90s. There was no dance club at all. One club, John Henry’s, had an occasional dance night, which was fairly empty the one time I went. There was the gay club Perry’s, but I don’t remember any dancing there the one time I went.  There may have been some super mainstream club somewhere in the valley, and because there was never a chance in hell that I was going to go, I have since forgotten about it.

We’ll see what the crowd is like. The worst aspect of Eugene are the thousands and thousands of fraternity and sorority types. Not sure how much this is their hangout. When I lived down around the frat houses I was quite used to being screamed at from the houses and screamed at from their cars. Lots of mindless male aggression. When I would walk even a few blocks from my house to a friend’s I would be screamed at the entire time. It was quite intense. The first Persian gulf war was happening at the time and that hyper-masculine thirst for violence and conflict seemed in full effect in that segment of Eugene’s population.  I can only assume it was because I had long hair at the time. Hardly seems like a good reason to be verbally abused in public at high volumes.

I’ve been paranoid about having to perform sick ever since Anjali and I did our New Year’s Eve gig at the Medicine Hat in 2000.  It’s a fear I always have which never materializes.  Well, it has finally happened.  Add to that a four-hour round trip journey and a full work day tomorrow after getting home after 4am.  Uggh.  I’m afraid I’ll be getting worse before I get better.  I hope not.  I don’t want to miss out on the season of eating while I’m forced to sip lemon juice in a corner.  Uggh again.  I hope all of you are doing much better than I am.  Take care.

IK

For those who don’t keep up with Bollywood stars I’d like to introduce to you the golden couple of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan (son of the legendary Amitabh Bachchan.). In Bollywood gossip columns the couple has been coined “Abhiwarya.” Well I thought of something better. Aishwarya’s most common nickname is “Ash” and I thought the couple should be renamed “Ashek” pronounced “ass shake.” Just a thought.

IK

Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol issues are among my favorite comics ever printed.  Some of the greatest issues from that run are now available in trade paperback format.   Finally.  The volume is entitled “Musclebound” in honor of the great Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery.

12/03/06

I am well aware of how every corner of the world has its own contemporary genres and fusions.  The trick is discovering them without having the money to do extensive international travel.  Diplo’s myspace profile just helped me find another one.  He had a band called  Buraka Som Sistema  in his top 8.  Looking into them I then discovered the following genre.

Kuduro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kuduro (or Kuduru) is a type of music from Angola. It is mostly influenced by Sungura, Afro Zouk (known as Kizomba natively), Semba and Ragga music genres. It is characterized as uptempo, energetic, and danceable.

The name itself is a word with a specific meaning to location in the Kimbundu language, which is native to the northern portion of Angola. It has a double meaning in that it also translates to “hard ass” or “stiff bottom” in Portuguese, which is the official language of Angola. Not surprisingly, Kuduro is also a type of dance where, typically (like Ragga, some forms of hiphop, and other afro-based musics) the female dancer protrudes her derriere and swings it sensuously to the rhythm of the hard-hitting Kuduro beat.

Kuduro is very popular across the former Portuguese colonies in Africa, as well as in the outskirts of Lisbon, Portugal (namely Amadora), due to the large number of Angolan immigrants. White Portuguese often say Kuduro has racist lyrics against white people, but this is mostly a myth caused by the use of creole words that are often missunderstood.

The most well known in Kuduro is Angolan Helder , Rei do Kuduro (King of Kuduro ). He is radicated in Lisbon .

The Angolan musician Tony Amado is said to have helped create the genre, upon meeting U.S. based Ragga DJs.

Some other known names in Kuduro are: DJ Manya, DJ SL, DJ Davids, Helder Rei do Kuduro, Dog Murras, Tony Amado, DJ Nike, DJ João Reis, DJ Beleza, DJ Joca Moreno, DJ Malvado, DJ Amorim, DJ Paulo Jorge, DJ Baby T, Sebem, Puto Prata, Noite e Dia, among others.

12/03/06

Just wanted to drop a note for those who were curious about what happened to the Portland Wobbly (re-formation) 10th anniversary party. Did Lil’ Pete and The Incredible Kid tear down the house? Well, Anjali and I were very late to get up that day and after we took care of errands we didn’t get to the party until after 12:30am. The party was full of people who had already tucked many hours of inebriation into their belts. I saw friends with new eyes, as in they had new eyes, crossing in drunkenness. Anjali swears a bunch of people on the porch were making fun of “bad Panjabi folk music” but I think it was in her head. Especially because one of the porch-sitters was a big fan of ours. There was a chorus of “Here comes Bhangra” which was very annoying for Anjali. “What, am I walking Bhangra?” she asked me.  Would people say “Here comes Rap,” if it was a Hip-hop DJ?  I went on after Carny Jerkwater who was playing a very interesting mix including some grime and some Panjabi fusion that I thought was from the new Rishi Rich and Anjali thought was from the new Jinx. Either way, somebody’s keeping up on their shit, and we were impressed. We had missed Lil’ Pete whose set reportedly featured some political dub. Anjali was not doing too well so she left the DJ duties up to me. I crashed around awkwardly on the DJ equipment for some time before we called it a night. I had all this revolutionary Hip-hop I wanted to play and then spent my whole set not being able to find most of it. I wasn’t sure if I was overlooking it, or had accidentally left it at home. I have to shout-out Sharon the Red Baron (My favorite KWVA DJ back when I was on the station.) for making an appearance. Thanks to Todd for making it all possible.
IK

11/26/06

Thank you to everyone for coming out to our four year anniversary at the Fez Ballroom. We only made it four years because of your dedication to packing the dance floor the last Saturday of every month. We’ll keep showing up and playing as long as you want to keep showing up and dancing. You guys even finished all of the ten kilogram Tres Leches cake! That has never happened before. And early!! I couldn’t believe it when I got done with a DJ shift and I went over to the cake table and saw that it was empty. Anjali and I would also like to send out a big “Thank you” to John, Sumeet, Rakesh and Ravi for the special Bhangra dance performance.  You guys were great.  Your energy was infectious and the crowd really appreciated your dancing.

For those of you who didn’t make it longer than 2am I’ll tell you how I managed to clear the club.

Because of the incredible amount of old and new Indian music in the world, there are always hundreds of songs that could get played for every one we actually get a chance to play. Even if we just stuck to music from the Indian diaspora that has come out in the last couple months, we would not be able to do more than scratch the surface of what gets released. Then if we try to throw in stuff from the last ten years, and some songs from the prior four decades, it is like picking a few shiny grains of sand to present from an endless beach. Lately I’ve been thinking about how much classic sixties and seventies Bollywood music doesn’t get played at Andaz outside of our first hour and some classics dropped in the last hour. Except for a few Amitabh Bachchan songs all our filmi requests tend to be for songs from the last five years. I decided at 2am that I wanted to play some classic seventies Bollywood songs to see what the response would be. “Laila O Laila” from Qurbani went over really well, with impassioned singing from the crowd I could hear over the song all the way back in the DJ booth. I then dropped “Dum Maro Dum” from “Hare Krishna Hare Ram.” Very lukewarm response, and I know we have fans who are into that song. So then I go into “Pyar Zindagi Hai” from “Muqaddar Ka Sikandaar” and watch as 80% of the club clears out. So, what does a DJ think when he plays an absolute classic and watches as an entire club clears out? Does he quickly switch to something predictable that will have everyone turn around and mob the dance floor? Fuck that. If you have no respect for the classics then get the fuck out of my room. I know all the contemporary tripe that people want to hear (both the Hindi and the English songs) and I’ll often play it if I’m looking for a particular crowd response, but I wasn’t in the mood. Now, did EVERYONE leave? No, some people stayed and continued to dance and there was a dance floor all the way up until my last song. The point is that a large majority of the crowd left when I went in a seventies direction. Maybe the crowd was just too young on this particular night. Sad. The joke is that those are the well-known, popular songs from that era. Anjali and I have so many amazing Bollywood albums from the seventies and eighties with CRAZY little-known funk and disco songs. Aside from the beat-diggers I fear there aren’t that many people who would be into this incredible music.

Thanks for dancing.

IK

Say it isn’t so.

I’ve never seen more than a single episode of Buffy (at a friend’s insistence) and have never exposed myself to any other of Joss Whedon’s creations. I had long ignored his Astonishing X-Men run until I was recently flipping through a trade paperback collection  and found myself drawn in by John Cassaday’s artwork. I love his stuff, first  being exposed to it in Planetary (now somehow over yet feeling unfinished) and he got me to pick up the series. Both creators are creating something very readable between them despite Joss’s failings. John’s art makes it all go down easy even with some corny characters and not-entirely-fleshed-out concepts
IK

11/21/06

Last Friday’s Oregonian A&E ran an article raving about the new Indian restaurant in Hillsboro called Chennai Masala. For years Anjali and I have always had to answer questions about where to eat the best Indian food in Portland. Other than the Chaat House cart downtown or the Chole Bhatura at the Kalga, we’ve always recommended the West Suburbs for Portland’s best authentic Indian food. So it wasn’t a surprise to see a rave review for a new Indian restaurant in Hillsboro. Anjali and I had flyering to do out that way so after a very late rising we headed out for a 7pm breakfast. We’re always hungry for good new Indian restaurants and having not eaten at all we were very ready to devour a South Indian feast. Chennai Masala is in a strip mall. Very basic setting. Forty seats total between a window counter and a bare floor of small tables. Every seat was full and we had to wait. We were facing a long steam table/cashier station across from the tables. It took a while to get seated. It seemed as if one friendly and harried waitress dealt with the bulk of caring for all the tables. When we were seated we then had to wait a long time for water and a longer time to have our order taken. We were really ready to eat at this point and the smells were only focusing our desire. After another long wait where we saw people ordering after us but eating before us, our Mysore Masala Dosa and Onion and Chili Uttapam arrived simultaneously even though we were told the Uttapam would take a much longer time. Both were serviceable but far from exciting. The article had warned that they might be out of things and I noticed that there was an empty trough on the metal tray where the mint chutney should have been. It was missed. After finishing these dishes we were waiting and waiting for our order of  Palak Paneer (The menu also has a handful of standard North Indian dishes.). We asked about it and the waitress went back to the kitchen. Comes out apologizing that they are now out of Palak Paneer. Other customers that came and ordered after us got some but our order was forgotten and is now unfillable. “Fine, can we just get two chais, please?” “I’m sorry but we’re out of chai.” On that note our dissatisfaction was complete. Very unpleasant experience, very mediocre food, with a too doughy non-spicy Uttapam, and no chai?!? If you want good South Indian food we would recommend Abhiruchi or Mayuri. Good North Indian: hit Swagath at Orenco Station or India Palace (Although its been a while since we’ve been there.).

IK