This Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (original) takes mainly the lyrics, I think the sounds are outside. I like it cause it takes a rather aggressive moment in a kids movie and makes it into a hard track.

And now spastic German DJ Flula Borg (of this fame) has taken the art form to its logical extreme by remixing not the movie Jeff Who Lives At Home, but the movie promo tour.

All very entertaining and creative stuff. Just goes to show that copyright and innovation aren’t necessarily correlated. Unless you mean inversely.

Of the acts I saw, all got the crowd clapping, moving or bobbing their heads. These are different rhythms, not the usual rock backbeat or electronic drumbeat, but still compelling. I liked it. From the Kaffers doing baila of sorts to a Bangladeshi dancer cavorting around the stage, it was great to watch and hear.

The headliners of sort were the Raghu Dixit Project, who were more of a band band, sorta. They guy has an amazing voice and the bass and drums are just enveloping. I only caught their Wellawatte show, but they were great, and very funny. They were telling a hall full of Wellawatte aunties about putting the hash of lust in their pipe and smoking it. The music in the video above is from that performance.

Please note that this camera is pretty crap for video and iMovie is pretty crap for editing. So is what it is. It was a good Festival and I look forward to next year, wherever on the island it is. You can see some photos here.

The engaging drummer from Chhayanaut Baouls

Vasanthan Koothu

Vasanthan Koothu

This group, Vasanthan Koothu, from the Jaffna peninsula play what sounds (to me) like traditional temple instruments accompanied by rhythmic stick tapping. It’s quite entertaining to watch, especially as the drummers vary tempos. There’s something about good traditional music that hits the twitch level of any local audience, including me. People were clapping and moving along.

Chhayanaut Baouls

The Bangladeshi band Chhayanaut Baouls was really entertaining. Their drummer was as much a dancer as anything else, wearing anklets and positively strutting around stage. The singer also got into it, they were able to really engage with and entertain the crowd, which began to respond even more.

Drunken Uncle

At every Sri Lankan party, and I’ve said this before, there is one (usually drunken) uncle that has to dance – inappropriately, vigorously, and publicly. It can be a rave, it can be a wedding, it can be a music festival, there will be that one uncle, right in front of the stage. Here he is:

And there he goes:

Kaffer Manja

These are Sri Lanka’s hometown favorites. Kaffers are the descendants of Africans living in Sri Lanka. Please see more on their culture in this video by Kannan here. I know them because I’ve seen them perform, and they’re amazing to watch. It is like being at a really amazing village party, the music and dance are that honest and immediate. They’re wearing party dresses and sarongs and just sing and dance their hearts out. Always a pleasure.

The music is deeply moving, the base elements of baila. At this point the crowd couldn’t not dance.

At this point my friend from America had to puke (bad food somewhere) and the kid was getting annoying so we bounced. I sadly missed the Raghu Dixit performance but I heard (via Twitter) that it was great.

As a note, I recommend the Expressway for all Galle transport. They’re running private buses now and you can knock up anytime near the hours 7 to 7PM and catch one. Took the regular bus back along the Galle Road and it SUCKED. Smells like a drunk tank, makes you wait, stops pointlessly for tea, and – worst of all – blasts really bad music really loud, all night. After the GLM, this experience was a buzzsaw to the brain. But check out the GLM, it’s on tonight, and it’s great.

The Raghu Dixit Project, who’s playing Saturday night in Galle.

I actually have little idea what the GLM is about. Music I suppose. Tomorrow’s program has music by artists from Mullaitivu, Mirissa, Bangladesh, Mannar and more. At night there’s the Raghu Dixit Project from India and Sabreen from Palestine. And local rock band Centigradz (Programme). The thing runs from 10-1 PM and 5-10h15 PM. So you have time to swim and eat some rice and curry at Mama’s.

The Expressway is still largely empty, but I’ve been taking it like once a week, on the bus. Now I’ve found a 2h30 train to Kandy, so a lot more of the country is within reach. Soon it’ll be the City of Lanka, like in Ravana’s day. Ravan willing.

This song is OK, but the video is pretty boss. It is a weird, dusty, Middle Eastern car video. There are old Beamers and beat up Alfa Romeos doing donuts and side wheelies across some pre-urban Afghan landscape. It’s pretty ill.

This is an old photo, sorry, but the venue was below here. It was dark and lit up and stuff.

First let me set the bar for a good night. Did I lose my shoes, see a fight, have to fend of drunken pervs from female friends or end up in protracted discussions/negotiations with the cops? No, no, no and no. No fights no bullshit no drama. On a lesser note, did I have to deal with surly bartenders, obnoxious ‘VIPs’ demanding bottle service or general douchebaggery? Also no. So the night cleared that bar and proceeded to being actually enjoyable and not a seeming fight against the social elements.

As a city, Colombo is coming back, and in a hurry. Last year Electric Peacock was, quite honestly, a bit of a mess and the scene wasn’t ready for it. This time it was perfectly organized (and it didn’t rain). It was a bit hard and confusing getting to the venue, but once there it was safe, friendly and fun. Honestly, my experience with international acts has been more akin to shame at how messed up stuff gets, but this time nothing went wrong. There were no fights, ego trips, oblivious sound guys or political drama.

Chicane, Basement Jaxx (Felix) and local DJs just played their sets, wandered around the crowd and people had a good time. There was a somewhat pointless VIP area, but that quickly broke down and people just mixed and hung out. The acts were hits from my college days, so I saw a lot of people my generation. Chicane played old tracks, but Basement Jaxx started with bassy reggae stuff and only closed with their single, ‘Where’s Your Head At’.

My favorite part was actually the Silent Disco, something we’d all kinda scoffed at. If you see a Silent Disco, it’s a bunch of people dancing without perceptible music. They’re all wearing headphones. The organizers had two DJs, a box full of wireless headphones and you could generally trip out to either rock or electronic, but sometimes polka or something intensely odd. It was quite fun.

Oh, and they also played Kolaveri Di.

Colombo Night Races Map.

Drove around Galle Face and they’ve sandbagged and tired the curves for the races. That should be interesting. I’m going to Peacock to see Chicane and Basement Jaxx, though I’ve been listening to Avicii. They’re having it at the Galle Buck Lighthouse (beyond Ceylon Continental) which is an awesome venue. I hear they’re 3D mapping the World Trade Center or other such madness. It’s certainly ambitious, and I’m all for retaking the city center.

Both events are young people getting permits and stuff through the President’s sons, which is actually fine by me. Fun is what the city needs, and God knows we’ve waited for it.

Krishantha reading poetry at a Big Ears. He’s great and should be there.

I haven’t written anything creative for ages but I’ll think something up. Do come and check it out. There’s a decent amount of creative talent in Colombo and too few outlets. If you have something please come and read, or listen and participate in whatever small way you can. In the past we did Open Mics which were more performance oriented, but I think this will be more of a circular sort of jam.

As I mentioned earlier:

Sasha Perera is a Sri Lankan who’s settled in Germany, started an art-house band, and is returning this month (the 25th) for a concert. My friend Jan has been hyping her up for years, playing her bass-heavy dubstep, experimetronic records and getting me to listen. I’ve seen some of the videos and it should definitely be a great live performance. (Jahcoozi Concert)

Check it out, it’s worth a listen and a see. Tix are Rs. 1000 at the door.

It’s beautiful and fun. The drum beat alone is enough to carry anything, but it’s got a haunting refrain and really sweet lyrics. And random hot girls in the studio, but not lolling around looking retarded and fake. It’s all really real. Here’s a lyric:

“White skin-a girl-a girl-a, Girl-a heart-a black-a”

My favorite

“Yo boys i am sing song, soup song, flop song”

also

“RRRhythm correct”

People mix Tamil (and any language) all the time, but this singer (Dhanush) mixes them un-self consciously. This is called Tanglish according to the Times Of India.

I also love Indian actors. I really can’t tell them from civilians based on look, it’s all charisma. When I saw this I thought it was a producer or something, but I liked him. Turns out Dhanush is a pretty jacked up star.

It’s really great. More music should be like this, honest, live, and fun. One question though. What does kolaveri mean?

Hypothesis: Use of the word fuck in popular music has increased. Results: There is a significant increase in the use of fuck

This is the citation, number 64.

Suffice it to say, fuck is everywhere.⁵⁹ As author Roy Blount, Jr. puts it: “the f-word is a fact of life. It thrives.”⁶⁰ One recent Internet search revealed that fuck “is a more commonly used word than mom, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.”⁶¹ It is present in
movies,⁶² television programs,⁶³ and popular music.⁶⁴

…

⁶⁴ See Indrajit Samarajiva, Fuck Linguistics: Use of Fuck on the Billboard Charts 1982-2002 (Dec. 8, 2003) (unpublished manuscript), http://indi.ca/papers/fuckLinguistics.pdf (finding a significant increase in the use of fuck over the past twenty years in Billboard Top Ten Albums).

And that’s it. One word, but still cool. I think he cited me in his book as well.

I really enjoyed writing that paper, though academically it was quite sloppy. Once I have a good idea I get bored of it rather fast. The data was very cool. I went through every Top 10 song from 1982 to 2002 and counted each instance of the word ‘fuck’. I went by lyric sheets.

Rising Profanity In American Music

Over the last 20 years Artists started saying fuck more. The graph above shows a marked increase in instances of fuck in popular music beginning in 1993. Since Dr. Dre dropped The Chronic in 1993, at least 100 million Americans have bought an album containing 50+ instances of fuck. These are the results of my study of 200 Top Ten albums from 1982 to 2002…

This data shows a significant increase in use of the word fuck in Pop Music over the lasts 20 years. A poly- nomial best-fit line matches the data with an R of 0.765, which is highly significant. A linear line (Pearson Coefficient) fits the data with an R of 0.706. An R value over 0.5 is generally considered significant. Artists are saying fuck more, and millions of people are and listening to it…

[A] sort of eventual tapering off seems likely for the Pop Music data because Limp Bizkit and Eminem have already begin to approach the physical limits of the number of times one can say fuck in a song.

When Dre Dropped The Chronic

The rise in profanity is largely attributable to Dr. Dre.

Who is saying fuck?

Who — Rappers, mostly Gangsta Rappers, most notably Dr. Dre. All Artists with more than 50 instances of fuck are listed in the Results section. The Top 5 Artists releasing albums full of the word fuck are Dr. Dre, Eminem, Limp Bizkit, Snoop Dogg, and the Notorious B.I.G.

The following section hypothesizes that these Gangsta Rappers espouse the same values as the gang members of Labov’s 1968 New York City study—namely violence, stealing, cursing, drinking, drugs and sex.

So, that’s my contribution to academia. Dr. Charles Boberg was a great professor, fighting off boring Chomskyites with their dreadful emphasis on syntax and grammar. The paper was really sloppily written, but the data was collected with some labor and the results were clear. Boberg was all about the data and I think he gave me a decent grade.

I lost this paper and had to dig it up. I’ve restored it to its original location and added the paper (Fuck Linguistics) and data to Google Docs

The Galle Buck Lighthouse, venue for the Electric Peacock Festival.

This is the classic Basement Jaxx song, ‘Where’s Your Head At’. This is a crappy fan upload, but it has 5.6 million views on YouTube.

This is one of my favorite Chicane songs, Saltwater. It has 3.2 million views.

Last years Electric Peacock Festival was a bit of a fail in terms of pricing and rain-proofing, but I assume they’ve got it figured out somehow. The venue is Galle Buck Lighthouse. I’ve been there but never knew that was the name, it’s the lighthouse at the very end of Galle Face Green, opposite side to the Galle Face Hotel. The military has had musical shows there and now looks like they’re fully opening it out.

What’s weird is that another music festival – Sunset – has also started this year and they’re bringing down another great DJ (Avicii) on the same day. I started listening to Avicii this year and his remixes are great. Ye gods. For once Colombo is spoilt for choice.

I guess I prefer the Electric Peacock, but I know Leah and these two bands, well, personally. The Electric Peacock Facebook event page is here, and their website is here, for more deets.

This is the season when people come down to Sri Lanka, both tourists and expats. There’s a Jay Sean concert on the 19th, shudder, and I think two music festivals (Sunset and Electric Peacock) on the same day in November. I think the Sunset chaps are bringing down Avicii, a DJ I actually like.

It’s not a bad month, and after some hiccups, Sri Lanka is finally get back on the international and India music circuit, with artists stopping by in the course of world tours.

The Jahcoozi concert is November 25th at La Voile Blanche, Mount Lavinia. Check out the Facebook event for deets.

Plot

Ra.One is a play on Ravan, Ravan, the embodiment of evil in the Ramayana (Sri Lankan, thank you very much). He’s actually the bad guy. The good guy is G-One (Good One, also Jeevan, which apparently means life). While that is quite smart, the movie is advertising agency deep, that’s about all there is to it. It also samples from Iron Man (the chest power supply, HART), Batman (the Joker’s prisoner’s dilemma), and of course the Matrix (sunglasses, trenchcoat, neck cracking). Also a bit of Terminator. This is all good. I’ve seen Bollywood movies that are completely derivative, but by sampling so omnivorously Ra.One ends up being more Paul’s Boutique than Karaoke. That, is sampling can be an art, a la hip hop.

The overarching plot is of a video game becoming real, though the havoc is largely contained to one family. The bad guy, Ra.One, is essentially mad because the kid left the game early. He just wants a replay.

As a peculiar note, dopplegangers are a particular Bollywood trope, that is, doubles. I saw one movie where the plot moved to Brazil and Bipasha Basu’s character remained in India. To keep her on screen, they simply wrote her back in as a twin that happened to live in Brazil. You had the same thing also in Don (two Shah-Rukhs) and honestly a lot of films.

What some critics have complained about but I liked is that superheros don’t appear till just before intermission. This is good. In Iron Man, they spent a lot of time building the character up so that you care about them. This gives the action meaning, which makes it emotionally exciting. In Transformer 3, for example, there was pretty constant action, but at no point did I really care if the characters lived or died. Actually, I kinda wanted them to die.

Music

I was amazed at the music. Bollywood music is rarely bad, but this was something else. All of the main songs were written by… Akon. Yes. Considered Ravan by a few Sri Lankans, he’s an international pop star. His music mainly annoys me, but I think he’s a great songwriter. In Ra.One he sings the first real Indian booty shake song – Criminal – but that’s not the highlight. I was amazed at Chammak Challo, where he sings in Hindi and, I think, Tamil. I cannot hate on this (making of).

Action

For me, ever since Dhoom (was it Dhoom 2?) Bollywood action has been on par with Hollywood. Hollywood often goes too far, into meaningless and incomprehensible explosions, like Transformers. There’s also been a push to make violence more real and more bloody, which turns me off. In Ra.One, the action is pantomimed (it is, after all, a video game), which makes it much easier to follow. The action is also not superfluous, it’s all plot and emotion driven, which is what I think matters. It’s like the original Star Wars vs. the hollow prequels. It’s also perfectly and humorously executed, especially the running on the train scene. Amitabh Bhachan has commented on the technology here, he apparently did some voicing for the film.

All the visual effects are basically flawless. They are copying ideas pioneered in Terminator and Matrix, among others, but with a humor and story-telling that’s uniquely Bollywood. What I also appreciate is that the violence isn’t gratuitous. In Iron Man they staged car battles in active traffic, here it’s in a vacant lot. I only remember two characters that visibly died (both Chinese, incidentally). Ra.One’s violence remains largely video game.

Cameos

Aside from Akon, Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra and, wonder of wonders, Rajinikanth also appear. The latter looked extremely made-up and I couldn’t quite be sure that it was him. I think the legend was quite sick at the time and barely made it. He’s still got the swagger.

But

So what’s missing? Well, basically that deeper plot. There are moments that are absolutely incoherent.

[spoiler]

Someone dies in the office and Ra.One copies his body. The cast has a funeral, books tickets for India, and only then does someone go back to the office to discover the guy dead.

[/spoiler]

It is, in a sense, like a video game because the conclusion is foregone and there isn’t any real tension. There’s also no particularly clever twist at the end.

While the movie is great entertainment, it teaches you nothing especially new or challenging, it’s just fun. The emotional crux of the film would be the kid, but he barely develops throughout the film. The usual arc is you get a bad kid whose learns to trust again or something, but here you had an essentially normal kid who remains essentially normal. That is to say, the characters themselves don’t really change. I tear up a lot at cheesy movies these days, but no such response here. Still, it’s a classic story of good defeating evil.

Happy Diwali everyone.

50 Cent graffiti in Los Angeles, photo by Anarchosyn

I’ve been reading Game Of Thrones (now Clash Of Kings) and those lords and kings were straight gangster. They fought each other for power, spent money like the dickens, and razed villages over personal disputes. It is vitally important to understand that Gangsta/Mafia Politicians are not some aberration on business as usual. They are business as usual, and most historical heroes from Beowulf to Alexander would be classified as violent thugs. This kind dies because they literally die but also because the patronage model doesn’t scale to large populations and eventually institutions emerge, driven by moral force, but also demographic and economic power shifts.

Uh, anyways. Here’s 50 Cent. 50 Cent is a rapper who was shot multiple times, including in the head.

As you can see, his reaction to being shot is, ‘I walk around gun on waist, chip on my shoulder, Till I bust a clip in your face, pussy, this beef ain’t over.’ Law enforcement and normal human society is on the complete periphery of this world, and the sheer amounts of money and ‘friends’ reinforce the closed loop.

For a more self-aware version, see Tupac’s ‘Only God Can Judge Me Now’

Of course, if you want actual awareness, see Outkast’s ‘Babylon’.

In this Andre 3000 says, “While we ranting and raving bout gats, nigga they made them gats, they got some shit that’ll blow out our backs, from where they stay at.” The foot soldiers in these drug wars get massacred while the lords make out like lords and minstrels get to sit at the table for singing about it.

Gangsta rap is a music that came out of the American ghettos, but it’s also relevant to Sri Lanka. Perhaps why most Sri Lankan rappers copy the violent/sexist motifs (badly). What they leave out is the blues underneath, but I digress. Sri Lanka, Colombo especially, is really ghetto in parts. There’s a serious heroin-driven drug culture, especially around the shanties and project houses that make up the majority of this city. Those drugs are peddled with political support, sometimes even by cops. Personally I think drugs should be completely legalized and even heroin given out within treatment centers. Otherwise you get this spreading cancer that comes with denial.

However, until then (and until this political culture evolves), Sri Lanka has actual gangstas as politicians and wannabe gangstas as rappers. One wishes the politicians would just rap. They’d at least be keeping it real.

I was watching a Tamil movie in the vegetable shop today. The girl smiles and lets the guy touch her face and then the scene explodes (transitions, really) into outfits and song. Somewhere deep inside of us, there is a desire to dance as communication. They use it for corporate stuff, but I think this element of surprise and newsworthiness could also be used for political protest. In Chile students have done Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance, en masse, as a protest for higher education reforms.

Anyways, interesting work by Airtel. Shows that advertising can be something more than print or TV spots, it can be something beyond a particular medium and simply cool.

Thus, I was surprised when I (randomly) visited Guitar Center and it immediately told me that they ship to Sri Lanka. First off, it’s quite smart to pick up my Sri Lankan IP and give me relevant information, and it’s thoughtful. I’m not actually buying anything from there, well, I guess I might look around.

I’m actually quite touched that they’ve implemented such a personal algorithm. So, thank you for giving a shit about the Sri Lankan consumer. I actually ran through and checked out a $110 guitar. The shipping cost is $112, so not great, but that’s still competitive with a normal Yamaha round here. I’m not buying either right now, but still, nice that they care.

Why is Oh My Goat different from the usual party? Basically, quality. As far as I know, DJ Shiyam effectively started the electronic/rave scene in Sri Lanka. When it started the parties were essentially people that all knew each other, then it grew to fairly big events organized rather badly, frequented by dodgy men who were into drinking and letching more than the music. I’m not connecting that to Shiyam, it’s just that the scene got big and ugly fast.

Events like Oh My Goat and (I assume) Freshly Squeezed are different because they’re organized smarter and better (by Bang Bang). Hence, the marketing material is creative, funny and well done. When you walk in, the security guys aren’t dicks. Inside, there’s cool and thoughtful blacklight art and video displays. They don’t serve booze, but rather fruit juice. People can bring their own alcohol, but not having people getting wasted makes a huge difference.

The music is also different, and better. I’m not a major electro/minimal techno whatever fan. This is what I listen to. That said, DJ Shiyam is still an amazing and surprising DJ (check out his soundcloud). He plays danceable electronic music and has an uncanny feel for a crowd and its momentum.

Asvajit is an old friend who started playing guitar in a band with now author Shehan Karunatilake. He switched to electronica and has come quite far as a DJ, though it’s honestly a bit minimal for me. The crowd loves it and he has mastered the art of producing a party. Tareeq is an excellent and (rare for Sri Lanka) original DJ. He played some great funk and soul tracks, which I found really refreshing. As openers, they had some guitar/electronic mixes from Rudy and Shanil (which I enjoyed, interesting hearing rock riffs at this type of party) and Randev (which I missed). I know Geve and he plays interesting stuff, but the mixing stuttered. I was in and out and didn’t hear the rest of the headliners. I heard that Sunara’s debut was good.

So, those are my impressions of last weeks beach party. We go out like once a month and it was worth the babysitting and the trip. Am I into the scene that much anymore? Nope. Is it nice that the scene is getting better? For sure.

I get the point, broadly. Really well done viral video and a nice song. Called ‘Shame On You’. With Rukshan Perera, Sohan Weerasinghe, and Rajitha Rupasinghe, if the tags are correct. This is my rudimentary transcription. But listen to it, you’ll miss the scatting. Also, the great metaphorical use of slide transitions.

When the West claimed there were WMD
And bombed in the name of democracy,
Where were you?
Where were you?

When they openly tortured prisoners of war
Violated all human rights law,
Where were you?
And, where were you?

Their death toll is in millions,
And they’re all innocent civilians,
Only now you are talking of human rights
Ban Ki-moon, you must be kidding, right?

For 30 long years when we lived in fear
And suicide bombs danced in the air
Where were you?
And, where were you?

When our children were forcefully dragged into the war,
Who didn’t know what they were fighting for
Where were you?
And, where were you?

We finally ended a brutal war,
Now working on peace we’ve been waiting for
But now you are talking of human rights
Ban Ki-moon, you must be kidding, right?

Shame, shame on you
Playing double standards and bullying us
Writing unfair reports to divide us

Shame on you,
You, and shame on you

Do do,,, not transcribing this

Yes we have learned lessons from the past
We have gone beyond the race and caste
Don’t you see
We want lasting peace

We’re resettling families in North and East
Embracing our brothers for lasting peace
Don’t you see
We want lasting peace

Yes we need support from the world at large,
To soothe our souls and forgive our past
To mend our minds and the wounded hearts
Uplift our nation, don’t break us apart

Shame, shame on you
Playing double standards and bullying us
Writing unfair reports to divide us

Shame on you,
You, and shame on you

classy exit..

I’m not a big fan of the ‘but the west is worse’ argument in regards to universal rights, but I think they move beyond that into a discussion of how Sri Lankans are trying to move forward in a positive way. They’re saying that negative reinforcement from the outside world doesn’t help, and I tend to agree. I certainly like how they put it. It’s jazzy.

Hat tip to Raisa Wickremetunge for the link

Covert Boom et al, listening to Trophy Wife

The whole thing is an arthouse nightmare, a performance piece on everything that’s wrong with Colombo. The bad sound, the weird weather and – worst of all – the bad vibes. Now Ifham’s girlfriend is in my face, trying to stare me down. It might be more convincing if her colored contacts enabled human eye contact. She’s telling me to leave. I’m like, ‘I’m waiting for the next band, and I don’t have to leave’. I tell her it’s just my opinion, and she tells me to leave. Which is exactly what’s wrong with this country. If people think different we ask them to leave. Or threaten to assault them. Or do.

That’s the real Duke Spirit around here. A bunch of local jokes who think they’re local royalty and mess up the party for everyone.

The Duke Of Letch

Covert Boom plays an amazing set at the Electric Peacock Festival and for an hour I can forget that ‘Summer Of 69′ exists. Then Roger Sanchez breaks into some mediocre commercial house and I go to pee. I come back and there’s a major scene. My girl wouldn’t dance with some guy and he told her to leave. For not dancing with him? She said he pointed to his walkie talkie and said he was an organizer. How pathetic. He tries to talk to me and I’m don’t want to give him the time of day, which would be more convincing if I hadn’t fallen over a chair. I know the actual organizer and I know enough people to punish him, but I actually bear him more confusion than malice. I mean, does this guy normally threaten girls into dancing with him? Does that work? Who needs to do that? What perverse vestige of the rape culture is this?

If my girl wants to dance on a table that’s her business. If she wants to dance with a guy, that’s not cool with me, but still her business. If she says no it means no, but some Sri Lankan men think that they can get away with anything. On the extreme these men are rapists, in the middle they’re perverts, but this Amil (or something) character just verged on the pathetic. He was pointing to his walkie talkie and saying he’s an organizer, like the dance floor is his personal harem. Except it’s not. My girl is stronger than him, she’s tougher than him and she’s doing the right thing, she’s just having a good time and not messing with anybody. I’m going home with the girl and he’s going home with the walkie talkie. That’s the Duke Of Letch.

The Duke Of Talent

Park Street Mews had a schedule for Sunday, which I understand. Because the Duke Spirit and Trophy Wife got rained out at the festival they’ve offered to play for free. Hundreds of people have showed up to see the Duke, which this local Duke should understand, if he wasn’t more of a local douche. The people were there for the international bands, and that would have made his party a success. However, he totally kills it. Like, totally and obliviously kills the party, so much so that everyone literally leaves.

After Trophy Wife’s set, where everyone is finally finally rocking, Ifham puts on a school choir singing versions of ‘Poker Face’, which the mediocre sound guy can’t even mix properly. This kids are actually sweet, if not really what people came for. Then he puts on a local cover band, a band which has already played earlier in the day, while the Duke Spirit is sitting around like WTF? This is a band that’s played on Letterman and they’re sitting there listening to a swarthy gentleman belt out ‘Eye Of The Tiger’.

The crowd simply flees. It’s fucking horrifying, the Electric Peacock organizer is almost in tears, begging Ifham to let the Duke Spirit play. I look to the end of the road and people are getting into cars, calling cabs. Any party promoter would realize that his job is to promote the party, not his band, but Ifham seems willfully obtuse. In what is perhaps not the most constructive phrasing, I tell him the band is dogshit. He flips the fuck out. I’m vaguely connected enough that he can’t actually fuck with me, but he tries to posture and wag his finger. I do not fucking care. Harsh language is never especially productive, but I never threatened violence to anyone and I was just saying my opinion. He is threatening violence, not actually doing anything and, to me, just looks like a belligerent ass. And the band actually is dogshit. They’re playing ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’ now and it’s ear-bleedingly bad. Covert Boom is dancing in tragic irony, dancing to the end of the party.

Ifham is in my face now, telling me we need to support local talent. I’m like, OK, but this is merely locals playing cover songs. Local yes, talent no. He’s all in my face with the wagging finger, saying he’s going to beat me up and I just find it childish. I tell him I have no beef with him, that I want no violence, but the girl is having none of it. If he pushes it she will fuck him up and I actually feel sorry for him. The drummer from Trophy Wife is sitting there in bemused shock. Ifham knows I work at The Sunday Leader and he’s saying he can make sure my Editor won’t publish anything. I’m like, er, OK. Is this what you’re proud of? Violence, covering stuff up, and sucking at your job? I mean, please. That’s the Duke Of Talent.

The Douche Spirit

That’s the duke spirit in Colombo. Everybody feels like a local god when they’re with the boys, they do what they want, they do what they want. It’s like we cannot fucking deal with quality. We just want the same controllable mediocrity. Too often going out isn’t about the music or dancing, it’s just about power. At its worst, it’s about violence and sexual abuse. That’s the Duke of Talent and the Duke of Letch, but it’s not the Duke Spirit.

The Real Duke Spirit

The real Duke Spirit, the band, is at the top of the road. I feel like fucking crying. They’re the ‘biggest’ people here, but the bands have been the most humble. The guys from Covert Boom are keenly intelligent and culturally aware in person and the only culture they push on stage is fun. The girl from the Duke Spirit couldn’t play but she didn’t retreat to a dressing room, she was always on the dance floor, supporting the festival in her shimmery pants. The lead singer of Trophy Wife was just breathless at the end of the set and happy to be this far east. The real organizers, Leah Marikkar and her sister, are just nice girls who love music and wanted to give something back. The guys that acted like dukes were really fucking paupers and the ones that acted humble were, well, not kings, but compassionate human beings. Which is about all I think a human being can aspire to be.

Now the Duke Spirit is at the top of the road, getting into a car. I feel ashamed, but they just smile, open the trunk and give us a CD. So now we can finally listen to the music. I’ve spent like 48 hours waiting for the Duke Spirit to play and it ends up being a CD from their hand. I don’t know what to say. I want to say something that will show them that all the chaos makes sense. That this is a part of Sri Lanka, that this is actually the part that we miss when we go. But how to explain?

I just tell them to please take it as an experience, to take it as art. The Electric Peacock Festival was an epic fail as a music festival, but it was one hell of a performance piece. Those few days were everything that’s wrong with Sri Lanka but, in between, little gasps of everything that’s right. The food, the music, the people. The hospitality, the rhythm, the lovely chaos and the human beings who do say thank you, who do appreciate visitors, who do treat other people with respect and who don’t willfully fuck things up for everybody else.

If there’s anything the bands could take away I hope they take that. We’re not all local dukes, we’re not all douchebags, and we’re not all fucking crazy. Those are my people and I won’t repudiate them, but some of us are just dudes and we really did want to hear you play. So, uh, thank you, come again?

As for the bands, this is what I had to say in the Leader

The Duke Spirit: This is a band band. On the recording you can hear depth, guitar fuzz, human drums, plucked bass, and how it all comes together. Led by a leggy blonde backed by hairy men in tight pants they are a rock band above all else. The sound is pure instrumentation, more peacock than electric. (myspace.com/thedukespirit)

Trophy Wife: This is one on the more emo (emotional) end of the rock spectrum. Here, the same instruments (guitar, bass drums) are more ethereal and — though they would shudder at the comparison, Coldplay-eque. This type of music is danceable, but without the fuzz and rough edges of bands like The Duke Spirit.

Covert Boom: Putting the guitars down, Covert Boom begins the line-up of DJs. This London based electronic act combines everything from hip-hop to electronic in a rough but still beat driven mix. Some tracks on their MySpace mix rapper Jay-Z with drums and bass, among other things.

Funk Royale Soundsystem: Also DJs, this act, however, is more organic than covert boom. Despite using samples, the sound they seem to emulate is 1970s era funk, bass-driven, lyrically loose and eminently danceable.

Roger Sanchez came on at the last minute, but is probably the biggest act of all.

The difference is, that while Michael Jackson may have had an outsized ego, his performance was able to fit it. MJ never looked like he was showing off, he just danced. Kanye, however, can’t dance, so in the video he just sorta thrusts and jerks on top of a piano. There’s an ego trying to get out, but it can’t exactly, at least not through his body. Thus, the video is filled with all sorts of weirdity – white servants waiting on blacks, an alien space bird (literally and figuratively), comets, clouds, deer. As an arthouse flick it’s actually quite compelling, beautifully art directed, magnificently scored and – except for the parts where Kanye or the bird speak – imbued with possible meanings.

That said, it’s missing something, mainly personality. Kanye is a bit too stiff jawed to carry off the male lead himself. He never seems entirely comfortable in his skin, neither detached nor attached to/from the scene. The model playing the bird comes off as dumb, especially when she speaks. Not entirely mysterious. Selita Ebanks doesn’t really seem to have the acting ability for this, she just ends up looking like a model between snaps, a sadly normal human being in extravagant get up. Give her more than a few frames and the mystique disappears.

So, is Runaway and mystery wrapped in an enigma, or nothing wrapped in a whole bunch of illusion? I lean towards the latter, but it’s definitely worth a watch.

From what I remember, this one included Chicane, Moby, a lot of stuff I didn’t know, and a lot of stuff I did mixed in a way that it still stimulates some new brain cells. I recommend. Check out his sets on Podomatic. He’s on Kiss 89.8 from 6 to 10 am. They stream online, so that I guess I could also do.