Last week, the never ending drumbeat of biz travel took me to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The show was, to put it mildy, a zoo – even by Vegas standards. If you aren’t a fan of the teeming throngs of humanity (over 150K in this case), then CES probably isn’t your schtick. First, take the surrealness that’s Vegas any other time of the year. Then, crank it up by putting a substantial portion of the export sales of East Asia on the line. Sprinkle in “kick off the year” business frenzy and you end up with the pomp and circumstance that’s CES.
While the show itself borders on obscene with the high end electronics, walls o’ plasmas, booth babes, audio equipment, cars, cellphones, computers and so on…. the real craziness happens after convention hours. There, Fortune 100 companies revert to playground one-upsmanship but on a multi-million dollar scale with dinner banquets, parties, concerts and the sorts of gala’s you can only have in Las Vegas. Like many things related to biz travel, it sounds like it might be sorta fun — and it is, at first — but the whole thing becomes a little numbing after a while.
As I’ve mentioned in previous blogposts, my company is heavily involved in the nascent “mobile broadcast” space — put simply, it’s where television and mobile phones intersect. And the CES-highlight for our space was Verizon’s announcment that their MobileTV service will launch in late 1Q / 2007.
To celebrate this & a few other announcements, Verizon rented out the world famous Nobu restaurant at the Hard Rock. Their party was first class all the way with Nobu’s reknowned sushi chefs taking guests’ orders in realtime and hand filling them on the spot — ensuring no more than a few precious seconds from when the roll is expertly patted closed to landing in your convention starved mouth.
So, in the midst of all this mass market, Vegas-kitsch tinged, first-class-ness, imagine how cool it was to discover they had hired DJ Rekha to lay down the beat in the main tent…
… but I didn’t know this going in. I attended the party with some other industry colleagues and, while sipping cocktails and exchanging banter, I noticed that the heretofore unseen DJ had shifted the background tunes from Akon to Bhangra. And then another, more film-y song. I pointed out to a (non-desi) colleague that this collection of proverbial old, rich white dudes were being bathed in Indian music — and the beats blended so well that most ’em scarcely realized it. He told me that he’d gone by the DJ booth and noticed that the DJ was in fact, desi. And when I made my way to the booth and saw her name tag… it was the one and only DJ Rekha who has been covered on SM before (see here, here, and here, for ex) for her Basement Bhangra parties in in NYC.
I introduced myself and we chatted for a bit. I requested a song from Dhoom 2 – she didn’t have it but did end up playing Say Na Say Na from Bluffmaster and Dus Bahaane.. Despite Indo-Pop not being quite her bag, she had the sort of stuff I was looking for. She confirmed that Verizon (or more specifically the event planner Verizon hired) really did pay to fly her out from NYC to Las Vegas for their corporate gig and they had encouraged her to toss in some desi tunes into an otherwise generic corporate play list.
For DJ Rekha, it was also an opportunity to drum up advance interest in a new CD she’ll release later this year. (I scanned in the advance flyer below). For me, it was a welcome touch of flavor in an otherwise sensory-numbing week and a very cool measure of Desi cultural progress within an otherwise very conservative situation.
Whatever Vinod. We are tired of you abusing the SM corporate card for your “business travel.” We all know what convention you were really attending in Vegas last week (NSFW).
just a related fyi on another cool desi: mebbe the lingus can do the follow on piece: DJ Amita of Besharam fame spins once a week at a toronto club. i heard her at mendimasalamasti – oh.. btw – Dr Amita moonlights at UofT through 9-5.
me. i’m not cool. i’m just a cold desi. 🙁
hairy_d… besharam has the best desi music!! i was waiting for it to come up here…
oh man, I bet Rekha has some really pithy thoughts on that scene! Thanks for this post Vinod.
Er, you know, if you ever feel too numb to go on, this brown sister is totally willing to help you out with the sushi eating and the gizmo gawking. All brown people look alike anyway – they’ll never know it’s not you.
Word. DJ Rekha roolz. 🙂
Cool, another artist to look up. Thanks! =]
Hairy_D: Where does Amita spin on a weekly basis? I thought she only did Besharam which is a monthly.
Btw DJ Amita can also can be heard playing her desi tunes on Masla Mix on CKLN 88.1 (online stream also available) from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Opps…forgot to add, that’s 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. on Saturdays you can listen to the radio show.
thanks boi – here’s the link to ckln in case anyone wnats to listen in.
i am wrong – i thought it was weekly – but my mistake – the web site says first friday of every month at Fly -on gloucester (wee bit north of yonge and wellesley).
not really an excuse but there were a couple of bullnecked goons jumping around in a circle and going hoi hoi hoi out on exhibition place when her schedule was being announced – i was focused on keeping a distance from the posse – and another eye on a cute guju with a nice backless choli. it was a challenging problem requiring deep attention.
I’ve been meaning to go to Besharam in order to post about my experience. However, I tried over a month ago to venture and ended up getting harrassed and trying to mediate fist fights between random strangers before I gave up and went elsewhere. Totally not what I expected, I wanted to see Bolly-drag and all I got was goons in Club Monaco. Thank you 905ers…I’m just saying. I’ll try again soon and this time ALL OF Y’ALL are coming with me, m’kay?
ask …
… and ye shall receive.
-ducking-
In an effort to support the desi music scene in Toronto, I was able to force some friends into checking out Besharam towards the end of a Saturday night out. What a disaster. What I thought was going to be a slightly upscale, mature party ended being nothing more than a glorified high-school soiree gone severely, SEVERELY wrong. The music was alright, nothing too unbecoming. However, the crowd of rowdy hooligens was a complete turn-off. Even worse, the dancefloor was so crowded that some vile beast endeavoured to pinch my armpit…that’s right pinch.my.armpit…’rewind selektah’…pinch my armpit, in order to get through the croweded dancefloor. Ah yes, I am a firm believer in not letting one rotten carrot ruin the “halwa”. However, the armpit carressing combined with numerous other minor incidents throughout the night was enough to ensure that I would not be returning. I hope that everyone who decides to go has a more positive experience than I did.
I have heard of another desi-reated party that seems to be of a less rowdy nature and probably a more varied musical selection, Dishoom!. Anyone had a chance to check it out?
well it’s fun music – but yea, my impression was the same. attracts the aggressive crowd. i would be hesitant going in to a club where they didnt have metal detectors. maybe boi can illuminate.
i think the lingus covered dishoom on her blog/flog.
but besharam must have something going for them – they seem to have foto access to the bollywood-kind. for the ladies, here’s john abraham
dj rekha is an awful dj. i have met her on two occaisions. She is really really full of her self and extremely rude. I go to basement a lot, and her djing skills and song selections are subpar at best. there is nothing special about what she does, she just was the first one to do it. if someone else started a bhangra party somewhere else in nyc, and actually played good music, they would be the new toast of the town. get off her jock!
noo york, you are just a complete jealous loser. DJ Rekha rocks. She is so witty cool. She is also a warm and wonderful person, who cares not only about the brilliant music she plays, but also about the welfare and well-being of desis the world over. In her honor, I have asked everyone from henceforth to say DJ before my name, and I urge all mutineers to do the same. Only when we all use DJ before our names can we be united in coolness with DJ Rekha.