6/25/06
Hey, guess what, I’m tired. My flight out of La Guardia was
delayed by an hour and I would have missed my connecting flight in
Denver if that flight hadn’t been delayed two hours as well. Got
home after Friday had turned into early Saturday thanks to a kind
and generous Mr. Blackmarks and then stayed up until
dawn(6am) listening to the dozens of new Bhangra and filmi CDs I
acquired in New York. I feel such a compulsion to absorb
everything before a gig so I don’t miss a shot at playing the
latest hot shit for people. The joke is that so often it is nigh impossible to absorb that much at the last minute that you will actually be able to confidently employ in a show shortly therafter. I could have played three hours of Himesh Reshammiya alone last night but when you are juggling dozens of new songs in your head freshly previewed its hard to have a firm enough idea about each song to know when and how to play it. One of my big frustrations is drowning in so much music that I question whether I am presenting the very best music I could each time or whether I am often falling prey to coercion and habit.
Anjali’s flight wasn’t until late Saturday so I knew I would have
to DJ the first part of Andaz without her (and possibly more if
her flight was delayed, which it was). In our three and a half years of DJing that party we have always switched off every hour. All of a sudden I was faced with DJing more than three hours in a row. Now I am no stranger to 6, 8 and 10 hour sets, but the hour rhythm is so established at the party for me I had to get into a totally different groove. I felt really rough for most of it. Three hours of sleep and a day of travel with no opportunity for a nap had me at less than peak performance. Thank you to the wedding party for sharing your day with us.
IK
PS New York thoughts : Delhi Palace. I’ve always liked this place much better than
Jackson Diner or Taj India (sp?) its neighbors on the Jackson
Heights strip. This trip confirmed my opinion about how good it is. Kick-ass Pao Bhaji and Kadai Paneer that took me back to India. If only they could chill the kheer because the sitting-out-for-hours-at-room-temperature thing was sketching me out.