Author Archives: manish

Edison may get an Asian-American mayor

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Jun Choi, the Asian-American mayoral candidate for Edison, NJ who was dissed by the Jersey Guys, upset the incumbent mayor 55%-45% in the Democratic primary (thanks, Saurav). That virtually guarantees the 34-year-old’s victory in November:

It is the first time in Edison history that the mayoral candidate backed by the Democratic Party was defeated in a primary… [Home News Tribune]

… [The incumbent] said he could think of two reasons why he didn’t win: The flap over the 101.5 FM “Jersey Guys” show when one of the hosts made a derogatory comment about Choi and Asian Americans, and a feeling that voters simply wanted a change after nearly 12 years with him as mayor. [Newsday]

I’d like to say it’s pretty clear what happened, that Edison resoundingly voted against anti-Asian racism. But it seems the Jersey Guys’ complaint that Choi was targeting minority voters was accurate, not that there’s anything wrong with that:

Choi’s primary victory is seen as a sign that Asian-Americans have arrived as a political force in the state’s fifth largest municipality, where nearly one in three voters is of Asian descent. “It shows the graduation of the Asian-American community to a level of sophistication, where they can impact an election,” said Edison Council President Parag Patel, the first Indian-American elected in the township…

But Asian officials and others say what pushed Choi over the top in Tuesday’s election was his campaign’s decision to target the burgeoning Asian-American population with literature printed in Asian languages and ads in ethnic media… a strategy Patel said helped him get elected, too… The New York-based [AALDEF]… found nearly 10 percent of the respondents were first-time voters. “This is a very high number, particularly in a primary election…” [Star-Ledger]

And the Jersey Guys, jockeying with Paris Hilton for the Chutzpah Stakes, took credit for the win. Unbelievable:

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Explosive writing

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The Times of London

 reveals that Salman Rushdie narrowly escaped a bomb attack in 1989, only five months after Iran issued its Valentine’s Day fatwa (thanks, Abhi). A Lebanese militant building an RDX bomb in a hollowed-out book made a bid for the Darwin Awards just a couple of miles from Rushdie’s London home:

The radicalised Lebanese citizen, born in the Guinean capital, Conakry, had joined a local Hezbollah… cell while in his teens… Mazeh… [took] a train to London on July 22, 1989. He checked in to Room 303 at the Beverley House Hotel, a five-storey building in Sussex Gardens, Paddington.

On the afternoon of August 3, a large explosion killed him in his room, destroying two floors of the building. Anti-terrorist squad detectives later said that he had died while trying to prime a bomb hidden in a book with RDX explosives. A previously unknown Lebanese group… claimed in a letter to a Beirut newspaper that Mazeh, whom they referred to as Gharib, died preparing an attack ” on the apostate Rushdie”. [Times of London]

In 1998, protesters in Tehran praised the would-be assassin:

After the rally, the militants unveiled a huge wall portrait of Mustafa Mazeh, who was killed by a bomb explosion in London in 1989, which Iranians believe was intended for Mr Rushdie. [BBC]

Die Gazette reports [in German] that an Iranian village gifted Mazeh’s parents with a house on the Caspian Sea, 1.2 acres of land and ten carpets. In Tehran, Mazeh got a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier-style shrine:

“Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh… Martyred in London, August 3, 1989. The first martyr to die on a mission to kill Salman Rushdie.” [Times of London]

This actual plot against Rushdie’s life is slightly more disturbing than Lollywood’s assassination fantasy. I preferred it when poison-pen literary reviews took the form of Michiko Kakutani.

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Everyone recycles (updated)

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Apache Indian resurfaces as a dreadlocked auto mechanic in a remix of Desmond Dekker’s 1969 Jamaican hit ‘The Israelites‘ (thanks, Ashish). His heroines, like the cutie in ‘Pyaar Pyaar,’ used to be fly Punjabans; this one’s a standard-issue, Wonderbra-chested blonde. It’s a smooth tune, but he looks all grown up now. Watch the video.

The Black Eyed Peas just sampled Asha Bhosle (thanks, Harish and Umang). The first 15 seconds of the lead single off their new album, ‘Don’t Phunk With My Heart,’ are a sped-up version of ‘Yeh Mera Dil Yaar Ka Deewana.’ Listen to the original and the new version. Watch the video.

The song from Don is pure masala western. Bhosle also starred in a remix of that song a couple of years ago. The video, with a woman taking revolver-revenge upon her cheatin’ man, was ubiquitous on MTV India.

Here’s a review of the Peas’ new album, Monkey Business:

Other guests of note are… Sting on “Union” (sonically inspired by the former Police-man’s “Englishman in New York”), while funk legend James Brown contributes to a scorching soul track dubbed “They Don’t Want Music.”

Update: Manoj and iTwofs point out that the rest of the melody is lifted from Apradh’s ‘Aye Naujawan Hai Sub Kuchh Yahan’ (1972), also by Bhosle. Listen to the original.

Maybe we need a HollyCat. Although the Peas should credit the composers, it’s hard for the Indian creative industries to take the moral high ground here.

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Reappeared

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In April, Abhi posted about two high school girls in New York whom the FBI and Homeland Security jailed on suspicion of being aspiring suicide bombers. The girls were held under Orwellian secrecy, but the case seemed dubious from the start:

“Nobody here believes they are wanna-be suicide bombers,” the [FBI] official added… “We’re not spun up about this case,” said a Homeland Security Department source. [NY Daily News]

After six weeks virtually incommunicado in detention, one girl was released, and the other is being deported to Bangladesh:

… after holding the girls for six weeks in a Pennsylvania detention center, the government has quietly released one and is allowing the other to leave the country with her family… Many questions remain unanswered in a case that has been marked from the start by secrecy, including closed hearings, sealed FBI declarations, and orders barring attorneys from disclosing government information. [NYT, reprinted in Kansas City Star]

So that’s what happens under the USA FASCIST Act if you’re a 16-year-old Muslim girl who writes a school essay about Islam. Like Guantánamo Bay, you can be jailed without charges for life, and nobody will confirm that you exist. The same behavior by King George III sparked the American Revolution; the same behavior by Cuba, North Korea and Iran lands them on our various axes of evil.

Now what happens if you’re a bug-eyed, swastika-festooned, non-Muslim murderer with a criminal assault record, and you show up at the U.S. border with a bloody chainsaw, slashing weapons and body armor?

You get served coffee and let into the U.S.

Have a nice day!

Gregory Allan Despres was supposed to be going to jail the morning folks spotted him hitchhiking to the U.S. border with a bloody chainsaw. His trousers were spattered with blood. Inside his backpack he had a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife and brass knuckles. He was also packing pepper spray and wearing a bullet-proof vest… Mr. Despres… has a 10-inch swastika tattooed on his lower back… Mr. Young said the U.S. customs agents appeared to be joking around… “When I come back in (to the room) they were giving him a coffee,” he said. “He got processed faster than I did.” [Ottawa Citizen]

U.S. customs agents… let him into the United States… The following day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres’ hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on Fulton’s kitchen floor. His head was in a pillowcase under a kitchen table. His common-law wife was discovered stabbed to death in a bedroom… On the same day Despres crossed the border, he was due in a Canadian court to be sentenced on charges he assaulted and threatened to kill Fulton’s son-in-law, Frederick Mowat, last August. [CNN]

Previous posts: 1, 2

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Baked Dånish cøøkies

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What do you do if you’re an aspiring European desi pop star with a catchy yet disposable sound derivative of Jay Sean? You find a producer from Cøpenhagen and put out a stoned vision of a video. The Bombay Rockers are neither rockers nor from Bombay. Discuss.

24 year old Indian Navtej Singh Rehal is the central musician behind Bombay Rockers. Navtej is born in Denmark (Copenhagen), but has his roots in India. He grew up at Nørrebro and has gone through the whole public system – from nursery to gymnasium in Denmark, except for two years, where he went to school in India… Together with the two Danish producers, Janus Bosen Barnewitz and Thomas Sardord, Navtej is the core of Bombay Rockers. [Culturebase]

The Hindu shows why you don’t turn to a paper called The Hindu for music reviews:

The twosome have innovatively mixed an evergreen Punjabi folk song called “Ari Ari” in two versions… one only wishes that they had done away with the slang in the lyrics. [The Hindu]

Their first single, ‘Ari Ari,’ was the rage in Danish dance clubs, & their latest single, ‘Rock tha Party,’ was a hit in Europe & the CD has spent 10 weeks at #1 in India. [Beautiful Atrocities]

Except for the bass, their version of the old bhangra song ‘Ari Ari’ hews pretty closely to the original, there’s no Jay-Z breaking in. If unsweetened, traditional bhangra can make in Europe, could it make it in the U.S.?

Punjabi Boy reviews the ‘Rock tha Party’ video for you, though I’m guessing the state in which something’s rotten is actually Denmark:

The Punjabi dude and the Swedish hero pick up a couple of blonde chicks in Stockholm and have a groovy one night stand with them…. But the Swedish chicks are vexed because they got played. So they call this assasination hit squad of giant teddy bears…

Pretty people being chased by ridiculous assassins? Bad guys subtitled with silly monikers? Wonder if Punjabi MC’s ever done something like this.

Watch the supremely silly video. Sajit’s previous post here.

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Baby saved by a jury of peers

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A peeing baby is costly in Kerala (thanks, Turbanhead):

The parents of a baby who urinated on his mother inside an Indian temple have won an appeal to overturn a stiff fine imposed by temple officials. Anil Kumar was told to pay 1,001 rupees… to fund cleansing ceremonies when his baby son urinated during prayers at the temple at Trichur in Kerala state…

“I respect the views of the temple priests. But this penalty business is very pre-historic,” KC Venugopal, Kerala state minister responsible for temple affairs, told the BBC. “If they want to conduct a cleansing ceremony, let the money be taken from the temple funds. It should not be taken from worshippers…”

“I am always so nervous to carry my two-year-old son to a temple… What if he throws up or urinates?”

… according to tradition, it is considered unclean if babies urinate or vomit inside temple premises. A purification ceremony must be held to restore the sanctity of the temple…

I have two adorable baby nephews. We also ‘consider it unclean’ when they spit up or pee. Our own ‘cleansing ceremony’ involves paper towels and soap and costs Rs. 0. It has more to do with the sanctity of the hardwood floors than the sanctity of the temple though.

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Sachal Vasandani sings jazz tonight (NYC)

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Speaking of desis in jazz, check out jazz vocalist Sachal Vasandani tonight in Manhattan:

“Sachal Vasandani’s singing reveals emotion and intellect,” says Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. “Versed in the blues, standards, and modern jazz… his sound is consistent and unique…”

After being named Collegiate Jazz Vocalist of the Year by Downbeat Magazine in 1999, Vasandani moved to New York and, after a year of working on Wall Street, quit his job to begin his career as a singer… Vasandani’s debut solo album is due out later this year.

Monday, 6/6/05, Zinc Bar (90 W. Houston / LaGuardia Pl.), 7:15-8:45pm (he’s on ~7:30pm), $5; Sachal Vasandani, vocals; Jeb Patton, piano; David Wong, bass; Quincy Davis, drums Continue reading →

A not-so-novel writing method

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Writer Ranbir Sidhu just finished a novel while locked in an architect-designed habitat for 30 days, 22 Å“ hours each day. The publicity stunt by Queens artist collective Flux Factory resembles another mentally focusing experience known as ‘poverty.’

The novelists lived in the gallery, in individual habitats built for them by architects and designers who, like the writers, entered a competition. Evenings, they ate together, meals served by local chefs. In addition, they could leave their pads for 90 minutes a day to shower, do laundry or walk on the building’s roof… There were nice writerly touches, like the two empty Scotch whiskey bottles perched on a shelf and a stack of books – including Strunk and White as well as Kafka – lined up near Mr. Bailie’s computer… “I liked the boundaries here… I knew what was expected of me. I was supposed to stay in my room a month and write a book.” [NYT]

Here’s an excerpt from the rough draft of the novel he wrote while on the hamster wheel:

“Here, check this out.” Cyrus clicked on a couple of pull down menus. “This sorts into gender. It compares violence against male body parts to violence against female body parts and plots them both against hits. Do you see?… It’s the violence against women that’s really getting us our customers…

“One thing we found that’s strange is this. Violence against dicks. Our readers don’t like that. You cut off balls, interest falls through the floor. You cut off the dick, and man, you lose the whole fucking stadium. There is silence out there.

“Our characters get to keep their dicks,” Cyrus said. “Unless they’re black or brown.”

Here’s Anna on National Novel Writing Month. For speed writing, few compare to the prolific Robert Louis Stevenson, who supposedly wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in under a week while binging on cocaine. (I assume he believed in method writing.)

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The bees’ knees, a memoir (updated)

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Japan throws its national muscle behind making vibrating toilets and Hello Kitty phones the size of a Tic-Tac. Venezuela and India dedicate themselves to making globally competitive beauty queens. Hodiernally, what do desi Americans do?

We make 12-year-olds in braces with salutatory spelling skills, says the NYT:

For many American contestants, the most uncommon words at last week’s national spelling bee were not appoggiatura and onychophagy, but the names of the top four finishers… All were of Indian ancestry. In recent years, descendants of Indian immigrants – less than 1 percent of the population – have dominated this contest, snatching first place in five of the past seven years, and making up more than 30 of the 273 contestants this year…

Crunching the numbers, desis are 16x overrepresented in the national spelling bee.

Excellence in a number of fields has always had a cultural tinge – consider the prevalence of Dominicans in baseball, Jews in violin playing, Kenyans in long-distance running. In 1985, when a 13-year-old son of Indian immigrants, Balu Natarajan, beat out his competitors by spelling “milieu,” it had an electrifying impact on his countrymen, much as Juan Marichal’s conquest of baseball had for Dominicans…

It’s not quite the same as Sabeer Bhatia’s adoring fans, but ok. I can personally confirm that desi parents dig rote drills for toddlers:

Indians are comfortable with the rote-learning methods of their homeland, the kind needed to master lists of obscure words that easily stump spell-checker programs. They do not regard champion spellers as nerds.

It’s not that Indian parents don’t see spellers as nerds. It’s that they don’t even know the meaning of the word. (Vinod is in the habit of saying, ‘Malayalees are the nerds of India. Of India!’) In a country with an insane level of competition for a vanishingly small number of good college slots and government jobs, being studious wasn’t an epithet, it was a necessity.

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True romance

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A 37-year-old desi woman from Ronkonkoma, Long Island admitted phoning in a fake bomb threat on a PIA flight because her boyfriend’s sister was being deported on that plane:

[Samina] Faisal… was charged… with telephoning in a false report of two bombs on Pakistan International Airline flight 718 bound for Pakistan on Feb. 13. Federal agents said the 911 call was made from a pay phone located on the second level of Terminal 4 at Kennedy Airport. As a result of the call, airline officials had the plane, which was already en route [to Lahore], return to the airport. Officers using K-9 units then conducted a search, but didn’t find any bombs on the craft, the complaint stated…

During her interview, Faisal told investigators that her boyfriend, who understands Urdu, overheard two unidentified men speaking in the language at the airline terminal discussing that there were two bombs on the aircraft, according to the complaint. Faisal said she sought out airline and security personnel to report the information but couldn’t find any, investigators said.

However, the complaint said the airline terminal had nearly 100 uniformed employees of the Transportation Security Administration on duty, as well as nearly 50 Customs and Border Protection inspectors on duty when Faisal claimed to have made the call.

Faisal is a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan. It’s apparently not the first time she’s cried wolf:

State court records show that Faisal, also known by the surnames Lodhi and Rasheed, has two pending cases involving charges of criminal impersonation and filing false incident reports. She also has a pending motor vehicle case involving a charge of unlicensed driving and what was described in court records as “criminal personation.”
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