Right now, I’m halfway through Kankana Basu’s Cappuccino Dusk. The introduction read ‘Nostalgia for the inherent shabbiness of Calcutta, for busty Bengali women in crumpled saris, for the sight of trams and for roadside tea that one sipped from little earthen pots smelling of rain and wet soil and which one smashed daintily after one finished one’s tea’ and I was enchanted and sold. I’m loving the book so much, I don’t want to finish it. Reading books by Indian authors is my new favourite thing. They’re filled with a kind of colourful imagery that leaves me completely spellbound. Plus I’ve only really read Jhumpa Lahiri and Arundhati Roy before so it’s nice to discover some new writing.
On my reading wishlist are currently Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, Arrack in the Afternoon by Mathew Menacherry, Ravan and Eddie by Kiran Nagarkar, Dork by Sidin Vadukut and Vinegar Sunday also by Kankana Basu. If you have any recommendations, I’d love to hear them.
Happened upon a photography exhibition by a visually impaired artist named Aaliyah Kamal at Zenzi this weekend and found her stuff just stunning. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything about the photographer or work online, which is a real pity but I’m going to keep my eyes open. The exhibition ends tomorrow.
I freaking love Chromeo as it is and I was listening to their new shit when I happened upon their bio and I just had to share it. Best profile ever.
Chromeo is P-Thugg and Dave 1: best friends since their adolescence, virtuoso musicians, walking hip hop encyclopedias, and the only successful Arab/Jew partnership since the dawn of human culture. After spending the three years since the release of their debut album, She’s In Control, jet setting, globetrotting, and embarking on an overall sensual conquest of planet Earth, Chromeo headed back to their Montreal lab to put together album number deux.
The result, Fancy Footwork, is quite simply the most smoothed-out, hook-heavy, unabashed lovers’ funk since…Chromeo’s last album, actually. What makes this footwork so fancy, you ask? Step the fuck off and open your heart to the finest distillation of Minneapolis groove this side of Mazarati. Dave and Pee are back in the ‘07 to heal the fractured soul of dance music. Teenage lovers, 20 something blogpoders, 30 something burn-out ex-raver “graphic designers” and 40 something sistas can all finally party under one roof…and that roof has a name, AND that roof is on fire, and the only ones who can put out that funk-fire also happen to be the guys the roof is named after: CHROMEO.
Does analog synth wizard P-Thugg still rock nightgown-sized DipSet t-shirts, talk through a keyboard, and have the thousand-yard stare of a well-practiced gangster? You bet he fucking does. Does vocalist and guitarist Dave 1 still dress like a French Lit professor from 1965? Can he still ask you to twerk without coming off like an imposter? You better believe he can.
Chromeo is slick. Chromeo is dripping with reverb. Chromeo is Moog riffs, luxurious harmonies, macho guitar solos and real-deal songcraft. From the dancefloor-ready singles “Fancy Footwork” and “Tenderoni,” to the autobiographical Jew-boy ballad “Momma’s Boy,” to the epic sax-laden album closer “100%,” Fancy Footwork rolls you through a sleek, melodic world where all you need to worry about is whether you’ve got your sunglasses on and the right moves to keep up. Remember the debate when Chromeo first came on the scene? The endless back and forth about whether those boys were joking or not? Well, Fancy Footwork will put any vestigial haters to sleep forever. There ain’t nothing “ironical” about this music. It’s Hall & Oates riding on 22’s, busting shots in the air with Quincy Jones driving. That shit ain’t funny.
So there you have it: Chromeo, the band reborn…the sex, the beats, the dream, the suits, the gloves, the laughs, the tears, the past and the future. All rolled up into one big blunt, smoked up through Pee’s talkbox tube and exhaled into your brain. Enjoy.
There’s something about driving places with people you love. I guess I’m lucky I’m always in the passenger seat, for I can daydream lots. These are some of my favourite roadtrip tunes of the moment.
Gui Boratto – No Turning Back
Mobb Deep ft. Lil Kim – Quiet Storm
Doomwork ft. Valentine – Groovin’
Oh and Where Was I by Jalebee Cartel. Goddamn I love that song. Oh and everything Arctic Monkeys and Balkan Beat Box and Porcupine Tree. But you already have that stuff.
So I have some sort of heinous blood disorder right now which is putting a ban on basically anything fun. But human conditioning insists my craving levels are at an all time high. I feel like pani puri so bad. If I had to rank my favourite Indian street foods, it would hands down be number one! If I had it my way, I’d be putting vodka in my pani puri this weekend. (Holi hai!) But instead, I’ll be eating fruit and reading Cappuccino Dusk and We Are Like This Only in bed. Loving Indian authors! My friend Lionel took a video of me ordering some the other day. Please note that you will never get these 13 seconds of your life back.
I’ve been shooting a few portfolios lately. Natural light, no war paint, the stuff casting agents ask for these days. This is Shruti. She was hanging out at the Axe Effect IPL promos we styled a couple of weekends ago and we decided to make an afternoon of it in the marquee we were sitting in. No makeup, no meters, nothing. She’s a pretty one.
Drove down to Nashik with my friends on Saturday on what was probably the funniest roadtrip of my life – my friend Anuj makes me laugh more than anyone ever with lines like ‘it feels like another dimension in the front seat with the A/C on’, ‘OMG. Guru Krupa. It’s like veg to another level’. You had to be there. Peals. Getting there took us four hours, I was at Sula for four hours, and the drive back was four hours but it was worth it. Things we do for the music eh.
And because we got there at (magical magical) sunset, I didn’t get to run through the lines of vines and stomp on any grapes like I had romantically conjured up in my head so a return trip is in order. I got to see Jalebee Cartel live for the first time though and accompanied by saxophonist Ryan Sadri from Something Relevant, they were even better! I lost it! Danced like a madwoman. A ton of my friends were there! My friend Sushant had his first exhibition – a jazz photography collection entitled Rhythm, Greens and Blues. I drank rosé and more rosé and some chenin blanc! Although I have to admit drinking wine from throwaway tumblers is yuk and totally not the same! Please buy stemware Sula!
When I first met Akshat in Goa over New Years, I had no shoes (from partying too much), when I left he had no shirt (from partying too much). So naturally I thought he was a total dreamboat straightaway and then I discovered that he’s a brilliant photographer as well. Lots of street art, architecture, amusing and pretty things from basically everywhere, I’m betting I’d be completely jealous of his passport. Hmph.
Missed their gig this weekend in Pune and I’m so sad I did because these boys are incredible. Rishab and Prayag make up Lost Stories, a progressive/electro/trance duo from Bombay who play killer, uplifting, dark, sexy tunes. I’ve had their myspace page open since I met them. Click click click and just go through their playlist. They’ve been picked up by some big guns also. Tiesto? Hello? I love their name too. But the story behind it, not so much. Haha. Love!
