Strictly Blues festival
Mumbai gets its first blues festival. Stage 1 presents The Strictly Blues festival, an annual festival of pure, unadulterated blues featuring Dana Gillespie & The London Blues Band and the Dino Baptista Trio from the UK, Julien Brunetaud and The JB Boogie Band from France and America Zach Prather.
Joss, Kalaghoda Rampart Row, 7pm, February 19, 2005.
-Time Out Mumbai
While there is an increased number of concerts and live music events happening across the city, this one in recent past tops my list.
An early affair, the music started by 7:45pm and went on till close to midnight. There was no seating (read people swinging and dancing), gorgeous starters doing the rounds, and a full bar. Mumbai’s hunger for nights like this was evident in the packed hall. People were stomping to the music till those a floor below feared the ceiling would come down. We want more events like this.
Is anyone listing?
How decisive are you?
How long do you take to make a decision?
What is the likelihood of you sticking by that decision?
I wonder.
Filed under: China, Fashion, Hong Kong, Transport, culture, popular culture
I love Hong Kong. The energy the city thrives on blew me apart. Everything works. Underground metro, walkway with escalators, trams, cars, ferries, mini busses and busses. It’s efficient, clean and really busy. Inhabitants speak of tales of fatigue and high-income growth.
Best travel time: First fortnight of the lunar New Year (only applies to singles). Meet all the married people you can and wish them ‘Gong xi fa cai’. You will be blessed with fat red pockets of money!
Strange local customs: Mink coats and thigh high boots in winter. Min temperature 15 degree Celsius.
So yesterday I had the fortune of hearing some American VCs talk about just how great India is, and why they want to give us money to make it greater. The talk was interesting, or about as interesting as talks like these get. Here is what I made of it
Web 2.0 is great
Your barriers for competition are your readers
Build value, not revenue. One follows the other
Invest in people: it will pay off
Oh and yeah, India is expected to be the third largest consumer of the Internet.
There are numerous posts on Rang De Basanti doing the web sphere. This is not a synopsis/review of the movie. In my opinion the movie was mediocre at best.
I met someone from the production team of UTV and was stunned by what he had to say. The movie has been the highest grossing film in Bollywood history. It is competing with Hollywood Oscar nominators in its collection figures (INR 228 million in the first four days). The movie has stormed markets like Australia and UK. They have received emails from people all over the world recounting stories of how the movie changed them, they want to get involved in national movements and make the world a better place.
Melodramatic. But so was the movie. A bunch of overgrown 20 somethings leading a movement of anarchy: this getting validated by the conservative millions of the Indian population. I am sure Ronnie didn’t expect this, nor did Rakesh Omprakash Mehra.
Leads us to the million-dollar question. What makes people tic?
A good friend had an interesting story to recount. One day, frustrated, he went to his colleague in charge of HR ranting about some co-worker he simply could not work with. The co-worker although very competent professionally was a personality mismatch, and as a team they were disaster.
The HR head said (something along the lines of this)
‘Dude, I am hoping when you move out of this company, there is one thing you would have learnt if nothing else. There are many types of people in this world. Each having unique characteristics. The challenge is not looking for the ones that match your requirements, but dealing with the ones that don’t. I can easily fire this guy, but you will be left with a new guy, with a host of problems you have not yet identified.’
Very wise.
Planning an evening out on the town with friends invariably leads to countless arguments about where to go. My friends are a diverse lot, so forming a consensus is always hard.
One group loves going to upscale, mainstream venues like Insomnia. They like meeting the same people every weekend, and get down to ‘Kajra Re’ even if its played seven times a night. The point is simple: “They are tired after work and are looking to unwind, so want to go to a place where they know the people and the music is familiar.” Fair enough.
The other group has different, greater expectations from an evening out. No bar or club in Mumbai satisfies them fully, because the music they love consists of non-commercial music – something unavailable in Mumbai’s nightlife venues. This group loves to explore, want to feel new things, meet new people, and feel constricted by following the same routine every weekend.
Who is right? Or is anyone right? I love “Kajra Re”, but I love new sounds too. I like meeting my old mates but also love meeting new people while partying.
Walter Benjamin (a sociological and cultural critic), in The Arcades Project argues that the masses cannot be moved to a higher art. They can only understand or appreciate the one closest to them. The trouble lies in finding Art that strikes a balance: high, but not too high.
For simple commercial reasons, nightclubs in Mumbai cater to what he calls-the working class (Group A) who by virtue of their numbers crowd out the second, the bourgeoisie (Group B) who are only a niche. Nightclubs employ DJs who cater to the masses, by creating standard music, lifting ideas and sounds from an existing library and repackaging in familiar garb. DJs seem wary of experimenting and creating new, bold sounds.
As exciting as the second path is, Benjamin’s argument is simple: The artist needs to make his/her audience travel the path of “high art”. The artist needs to walk with them at every step.
The current reality in Mumbai has led to stagnation of society, and the second is a dream, which does not look likely to come true.
During the initial phases of research for the company I am trying to float, I did an indepth study on user generated site/blogs online on India/Mumbai. There were a few (far between) that caught my eye.
Intent Blog: Covers everything from spirituality to bollywood.
Youth Curry: The posts are a bit long.. but I like what I read
Desi Pundit: Fabulous. Its an aggregator of all the Indian blogs out there
Laloo Rabri: Indian webspace has kooks too! India’s most famous politician as a dating master
India Uncut: Discuss Economics here. Valuable insights into this ‘emerging economy’
There are many more out there. Some with promise and some downright crap. These were my favourites. Please do share yours.
I was talking to a friend who runs a seed-marketing firm. Her company got into a joint venture with a RnD firm. Both invested the same amount of money, one’s role was to develop and manufacture seeds; the other’s to sell. The RnD firm (based out of Hydrabad) is now playing Chinese whispers. My friend doesn’t know what’s happened with the money invested, where the manufacturing plant is being built, and if they will really get the seeds produced.
We do business with people not agreements, but how do we hold people accountable?
Why is it, that having lived in Mumbai all my life I don’t have a favourite bar? Not into crowded dance floors, and junk music, I am constantly on the look out for a place that gets the formula right.
Finally there was hope and his name was Henry Tham; a fine dining restaurant, recently converted into a part bar/lounge in Colaba. Friday night’s they showcase a live act ‘Bombay House’.
I went there a couple of Friday’s ago. A live saxophone, drum and synthesiser complimented great tracks (I know what it was not… Trance, RnB, Hip Hop, Bollywood, Pop, Retro) from the DJ booth; it was magical!
I spread the word, waiting in tepid anticipation to get lucky the next Friday. It was lost. I walked into a crowded room with no place to stand. The music was average at best and the live acts gone. My eyes watered, I am not sure if it was the second hand smoke or the thought of what was. Henry Tham has become a scene. RIP.
