I went to the Salvage fundraiser at the Saskia Fernando Gallery. The art was quite good, I liked the Bill Clinton mash-up, but too broke for art now. I did donate a significant percentage of my net worth, which was like 500 bucks. The art is cool, but what they’re doing it for is cooler. Salvage works with the Community Concern Society running a halfway house for women, a school and an HIV drop-in center.

There’s an exhibition today by Salvage Sri Lanka – at the Saskia Fernando Gallery. They create jewelry and art from discarded or recycled material, which I like. Chicks dig jewelry and they dig ethics, so win win.

Winkel is a Dutch word for shop, which in Sri Lanka has come to mean Bike Shop. This is my local Winkel, which is essentially the corner of Saranankarra and the temple road. This guy fixes anything and charges essentially nothing. I’ve never had him mention anything near a reasonable price. Unlike (many) auto mechanics, winkel owners don’t use ignorance to their advantage. They also don’t have roofs half the time so, you know.

If you’re up at 7 AM, Milad and Aloka G from Refresh Colombo will be on MTV Sports (the morning show). I’ll be co-hosting, assuming I wake up. Refresh is an international ‘brand’ of IT professional meetup that’s spread to Colombo. I was there for the first one, and these chaps (and Nazly and Milinda T) have kept it going every month (the last Thursday) for like two years now. So props to them.

This Week In Startups is a show about startups, presumably weekly. They’re going to be in Colombo (either physically or metaphysically, not quite sure) and are looking for five startups to pitch on their show. I’ve previously written about startup culture (or the lack thereof), but it’s obviously developing. So who’s going to pitch?

At Colombo Fashion Week, seven year olds with iPhones have been stealing all my shots. I finally just gave up and gave the camera to Smriti Daniel of the Sunday Times. She took some amazing photos. In focus and with faces. Blowing. My. Mind.

I’m amazed that Colombo Fashion Week has been going for almost 10 years now. According to the announcer, when they started in 2003 there were three Sri Lankan brands. This year there are 22. CFW is a cultural event that makes no attempt to disguise its elitism, unlike the Lit Fest or Art Biennale. Perhaps because this is because the fashion industry and these collections directly create thousands of jobs.

My friend Imaad has taken up the Open Mic mantle with Poetry Pilau. It’s a sorta, er, open mic where people can come and read poetry or prose or whatever. I’ve been a douche about publicizing (or attending), so I’ll try to do both now. There is a poetry pilau on March 10th, being next Saturday. Inshallah, I will be there, and I will try to write something. Check it out. This is from 2-6PM, at the Hansa Coffee on Fife Road.

Rumor is that Sri Lanka’s Pizza Hut is not serving halal food. They’ve clarified that their food is halal (not pork, prepared in a certain way), but that the certification has lapsed. This is still a major problem for the brand.

I was in a trishaw and this girl threw a flyer at me, giving me a surprisingly good shot in the nipple. For Exide batteries or whatever. The thing must cost like Rs. 10 at least, but if they just gave me a bank note with their name written on it I’d be happier. Of course, my idea of a wedding invitation is a thousand rupee note with the time and place scribbled on it, but marketing could be a bit more practical.