This seems to be an Airtel sponsored flash mob in Colombo, outside Colombo Fort Railway Station. A bunch of young people get together and just start dancing. I have seen young people protesting there, but never dancing. It’s pretty cool. This is a blog post so I’ll try to fill it out a little.
Iraj has an interesting Bob Marley sampled song called Policiya (Police). It’s an ironic ode to a Sri Lankan police force which doesn’t exist – one which helps old ladies cross the street, rehabilitates rather than beats thieves, refuses bribes, even pays bus fare. The police suck, but they have gotten markedly better since the end of the war. Still, not quite what this video imagines, yet.
Most Internet businesses don’t care about Sri Lanka. Most places don’t ship here, and they don’t tell you till the end of the process (or deep in their documentation). Amazon ships books, but not most other stuff. Apple doesn’t ship anything. It’s not physical, but services like Netflix or Rhapsody don’t even digitally send music here. It’s quite annoying. Thus, I was surprised when I (randomly) visited Guitar Center and it immediately told me that they ship to Sri Lanka.
Oh My Goat was a good beach party. I am old and increasingly grumpy and generally can’t tolerate this shizz, but they actually put on a good safe, electronic dance party. Why was it different? The theme was non retarded (not Pirates Cabin or disco with mermaids or whatever), the marketing was good (spelled correctly plus), the music was different (electric guitar, DJ Shiyam), and the venue was safe (no booze sold, respectful security). So, good job Asvi and Subha and Andre and whoever else organized it.
This is a musical response to the recent Channel 4 Killing Fields video and Darusman UN Report. Literally, it’s political commentary set to Jazz. Genius. 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.
The US and EU don’t actually have much leverage with Arab dictators. Mariah Carey and Lionel Richie do. Richie was able to spring a friend from Dubai jail and Mariah Carey was paid a million dollars to sing for the Gaddafi family. Her appeal was also movied in You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, like in the somewhat prescient clip above. There wasn’t a middle east conflict at all, it was the greedy landlord. Anyways, if anyone could pick up the phone and move Arab dictators now, it would be 80s pop stars. Lionel should call Muammar now and be like, ‘Hello, is it me you’re looking for?’
There’s a three-legged dog at the top of the road, lying there with his balls out in the band-killing drizzle. I respect the three-legged functioning and I pet the filthy beast. Later, I’m telling the promoter that his band is dogshit and he’s flipping out and threatening to beat me up. I’m more worried that my girl is going to hit him. What’s sad is that the Duke Spirit is here, a band that opened for REM, and this promoter Ifham wants to replace them with a school choir and a cover band. And that band is clearing the crowd. They break into a version of Barbie Girl and people literally flee the hall clutching their ears. It is, in aesthetic terms, dogshit, but Ifham is, in between threatening to rape me, lecturing about local talent. What local talent? Aqua?
I say, the Electric Peacock Festival is today. They’re organizing a very cool live music event in Mount Lavinia with actual international DJ Roger Sanchez and bands like the Duke Spirit and Trophy Wife. Plus Sri Lanka/British BBC DJ Nihal. It should be extra cool, though it is also rather expensive at Rs. 6,500. These are actual international acts though, and not saccharine like Sean Paul or pickled like Englebert Humperdink (the usual acts we get). I’ve written about the show at The Sunday Leader, all that’s changed is that it’s no longer in Negombo it’s in Mount Lavinia, so essentially in Colombo. It should be pretty cool and it starts tonight at 6:30 PM, going on till the morning. There’s more info on their website.
Every rapper’s first album is their best, and Kanye West is perhaps no exception. His later stuff is good, great even, but, to me, he’ll never be that human I want in my ear again. The first album had him an his mother loading his belongings into a moving van. By this album, his mother is dead of botched plastic surgery and Kanye is going shallower and shallower into himself. His latest release is the 35 minute video ‘Runaway’ which is great to watch, great to present to a mass audience, and yet missing the soul that filled Kanye’s first album. It’s embedded above. I must say, it’s well worth a watch, in HD if you can. It’s no Thriller, but it is at least interesting.
My friend Nigel has been DJing a show on Kiss FM for weeks now but I have no idea how to use an FM radio. Instead he sent me a link to his podcast, which I’m enjoying very much. Music in Sri Lanka is bad for me because it’s either the same retro songs, or the same 90s songs, or the same house songs, or the same baila songs. And same, sadly, is often bad. I think the music doesn’t move on because people don’t want it to. At one wedding Nigel was DJing decent stuff and people came up and asked him to play something the old people could dance to. Which is pretty standard. But anyways, these podcasts I can listen to while I’m working and I dig it.
