Off, all the possibilities in the world, it is interesting to run into old friends in Bangalore. Literally, I met a friend from high school and we talked about who got old and who turned out to be gay and people and places I haven’t thought about for over 10 years. I’m wondering whether to go to my reunion now. Meanwhile, I’m crashing with a French/American friend from university.
House Of Fashion sells these Reservoir Dogs action figures, in the kids section. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s an extremely violent Quentin Tarantino movie. I bought Mr. Pink, which is Steve Buscemi. He comes with a coffee cup, cigarettes, lighter and briefcase. I think the character had some issues with guns, so he’s the only one without. It’s a lovely toy really, looks just like Steve Buscemi, except with a six pack. I don’t know. My friend stripped him and said she was going to take him to bed. So anyways, he was in town so we decided to show Mr. Buscemi around.
My friend Mohan Ariyaratne died yesterday, after a long struggle with cancer. He was in pain for a while but he’s passed now. His mind was sharp till the end and he was still teasing me about my pink iPod, telling stories about yachting around the world and hanging out with Jimi Hendrix. I was going to see him today but now it’s too late. I miss him a lot.
My dear friend Hania has a captivating voice. She’s singing this Friday at Underground (Taj Samudra club, née Onyx née MKOP). She’s playing with Ranil from Hollow Point Halo and Pabalu Wijegoonawardane. Personally, I know that her and Ranil are damn good musicians, and Pabalu I assume. The videos I’ve included here are not rehearsed or anything, the crowd just badgered her to sing. But you can hear. Friday they’ll be playing more downtempo and chillout-type stuff. Cafe Del Mar, Zero 7, Massive Attack, Radiohead, etc. It starts at 9:30, then the thing continues with house music till dawn (including Shiyam, Tim, and Yazz, who are great DJs). Should be a decent nice of music. I personally am a big fan of both the unplugged and wired sets.
Mike Masilamani (Masii) wrote this incredibly fertile set of poetry that Tracy Holsinger has been doing as a play for years now. The performance is quite refined though the cast and some words have changed. I’ve embedded video, though the international Internet seems to be doggy pants today. Word is that Kottu, etc isn’t accessible on SLT/Mobitel at all. But I digress. Through My Earphones is an interesting set of poetry in that it’s not about 1983, araliya flowers or the traditional boilerplate of Sri Lankan poetry. Instead it’s about the modern experience, complete with brands, vague stands and sex. The readings I’ve embedded here are about cops, checkpoints, mating, and fancy pants.
It’s the end of season, which mean family, and friends, and kids. I think about it more and more and this is a big reason why I’m here. Almost the entirety of my extended family is here, which is important. The host body occasionally treats me like a foreign entity, but my family doesn’t. And it is nice, having family, if you’re lucky with them. And friends here quickly turn into family and you end up with a whole coterie of uncles and aunties and achchis and seeyas and mallis and nangis. And cats and dogs and servants and stories and gossip and lunches and dinners, etc. And weddings and funerals, and tea and biscuits. Which is December and January in Sri Lanka.
Feels like a good year, so far. My friend had a baby today, his first. I dropped off my camera in the morning and saw a picture when the thing popped in the evening. Have yet to meet this character in person, what with the rules of the hospital. I feel like the world is broken, but we have time to fix it before this generation remembers anything. A bit of a magic trick. Perhaps we’ll learn how to control the weather. I was playing with another batch after work and it gives me hope that everything will be OK. If only because the obliviousness of youth is a kinda hard reset on society. There’s a saying that new ideas only emerge because the people with old ideas simply die. And, in that sense, the new is inexorable.
This is some visual from the wedding of Timothy Senaviratne and Melanie Barco. It was a beautiful wedding on the rocks at Unawatuna. Everyone wore white, an outfit you can purchase for Rs. 1000 on the Beach Access Road. Hania Mariam Luthufi sang and Tracy Holsinger officiated. They were serving Jehan’s Arrack Malum out of a bucket into half coconuts. It was great, and exactly what I think a wedding should be. I know Timothy well and he’s a hardcore guy with a heart of gold. Wish him and Mili the best, and thank them for getting us out of Colombo and reminding me what’s great about this place. That is, the place, and the people. There’s some HD video above, and photos below.
I’m doing this backwards cause it’s, uh, LIFO. These are the trippy photos, from the end of the trip. My friends Timmy and Mili got married. It was a beautiful wedding and entirely befitting the couple. The dress code was white and you could buy an outfit for Rs 1,000 on the Beach Access Road. They got married on the rocks overlooking the beach and then everyone danced all night to house music. Again, these are the trippier photos. Not that I was tripping, but it was trippy. There are more photos which might be construed to represent an a less astral wedding which I shall upload in due time.
There’s this haunted house down Skelton Road. When we’re bored we occassionally break in there and scare ourselves. These shots are taken therein with a 15-30 second shutter. It was 1:30 in the morning and we could barely see ahead of ourselves, but the photos look like daylight. Some very strange, still daylight, but this LX3 lets in a lot of light. In the photo above, for example, you can see the blades and color of the grass, which I couldn’t see with my naked eye.You can’t really take photos of people with a shutter that long (cause we move), but there’s one here where everyone just stood still and it came out. Keep in mind that this is pitch dark, and yet you can read the number on a license plate yards away.
