Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

Kalpen Modi At Your Service

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Kal Penn and Obama.jpgKal Penn e-mailed me this week. That’s right. THE Kal Penn. When I went to check my personal gmail account two days ago there was an e-mail from “Kalpen S. Modi” sitting in my inbox. I gotta admit. I got slightly Desi girl giddy.

Dear Friend [he called me friend!],

Last month, President Obama unveiled United We Serve, an extended call to service challenging all Americans to help lay a new foundation for growth in this country by engaging in sustained, meaningful community service.

To encourage participation in service this summer and beyond, the Serve.gov website features a volunteer matching platform called All For Good that allows people to search for volunteer opportunities based on location and interests … The Administration is seeking to further engage the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and amplify outreach efforts in the cause of volunteerism.

Kalpen Modi, Associate Director, White House Office of Public Engagement

I shortened the letter a bit, and as you may have guessed, it was a mass e-mail Kalpen sent. Not a personal one to me. All the same, the e-mail basically told me two things. 1. Kalpen Modi is now officially working in the White House. 2. Kalpen Modi might actually be doing some real work for the AAPI community. How could I tell? On Thursday’s conference call presenting the campaign to community leaders, Modi hosted it. Quite professionally. And nary a pot reference. Continue reading →

Denver, Show Me Your Jalwa!

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Yes, Denver has jalwa. Hey, we’ve even got the original Dhak Dhak girl in our midst! (And yes, I know some of you are Bollywood haters. Go wreak havoc on another post, ok?) When I moved to Colorado a few years ago, I was amazed to discover that I could watch many Bollywood films on opening night. There’s tea and samosas at the concession, and hoots from the girls whenever Salman takes off his shirt. They hoot. I cringe. If he had better moves, he would refrain from such tasteless exhibitionism.

And that’s where Renu Kansal comes to the rescue.

Bollywood West.jpg

Old-timers may recognize her from her previous avatar, but over the last three years, Renu has enrolled over 630 students at her studio, Bollywood West, and now serves as the semi-official Bollywood ambassador of Colorado. Continue reading →

Dude, Where’s My Naan?

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Here in Philly, we’re obsessed with our food carts. Don’t let anyone fool you. The best Philly cheesesteak is found on any corner of any Philadelphia street where the humble food cart proprietor (who’s usually an immigrant) makes a feast fit for the gods. Almost everyone here has a favorite food cart, be it Greek, Indian or Italian. Food cart offerings constitute a supplemental staple of almost every Philadephian’s diet. (Okay, fine. Perhaps mostly mine.I’m what you’d call a food cart veteran.)

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Jay Sean’s “Down”

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Via Ultrabrown, below is Jay Sean’s new video, “Down.” Jay Sean recently signed to Cash Money Records, a major hip hop/R&B record label in the U.S. The new song was, pretty recently, up to #18 on the Itunes overall chart (and #9 on the Itunes pop chart).

(Warning: do not watch this if you are allergic to Autotune, Lil Wayne, or both at once.)

The question is not, “do you like this?” (Judging from how picky people are, I have a feeling many readers won’t.) The question is, rather, is this track Jay Sean’s “ticket”?

Personally, I prefer Raghav when it comes to Brit-Asian pop singers:

Incidentally, here is Phillygrrl’s account of a recent Jay Sean show in Philadelphia. (I didn’t go; past my bedtime) Continue reading →

Cute or Fashion Crime?

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Ok you all know how I felt about this:

Today, a picture of her newborn Ikhyd popped up on her Twitter account. The kid, minus the outfit, is mad cute. But… I am totally against killing albino ladybugs just so that the baby of a wealthy singer can be dressed like this. Can we get PETA up in here or something? Acts of Fashion Fug against a child should at least be a misdemeanor. I’m just saying. And why does this look like a mug shot?

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Up the Taqx Near You!

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The Kominas Summer 2009 Tour Promo.jpg The Taqwacore punks are back. And this time, they’ll be coming to a punk rock venue near you.

South Asian Punks THE KOMINAS (Boston) and SARMUST (DC) are embarking west on a three week tour to bring decimation along the I-80 and I-10. Also joining them will be Propaganda Anonymous, whose undefeated free styles occupy a gray area between rap, and punk rock. They plan to raze venues through New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Utah, Nevada, California, Texas, Mississippi, up through to Virginia, Philly, and finally to New York and New England. These will be the first performances west of Chicago.[diy]

The national tour starts July 22nd in New York City, and they will weave themselves (in a hybrid vehicle, mind you) through the rest of the country through August 15th. A different show in a different city every night – the Taqx boys are going hard and with a heart on for the environment too. What exactly can you expect at this show? Watch below.

The above is a short film that follows the writer Michael Muhammad Knight (whom Amardeep’s written about) and the Taqwacores bands from their 2007 East Coast Tour to Pakistan and back to the U.S. for some early 2009 shows. It gives you a flavor for what to expect on The Kominas Summer 2009 Tour.

Formerly of Diacritical, Omar Waqar (seen in above video) currently runs Such Records. His new project Sarmust will also be joining the tour.

Sarmust is a twisted splicing of anarchist sufism and indie-punk, masterminded by award winning sitar player Omar Waqar. A longtime stalwart of the DC hardcore scene, his music has become the bridge between discord and simple harmony.[diy]

Continue reading →

Keep Your Hands to Yourself

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Ms. Bitch.jpg
Do you feel that? That icky sensation in the pit of your stomach where you think you feel funny about the image you are looking at but not quite sure how you feel about feeling that funny sensation?

The cover of the upcoming summer issue features a middle class white American woman holding several items that represent work and family life in a multi-armed Hindu deity’s pose. I get the juggling metaphor, and the sour look on her face informs that she’s not too pleased with her conflicting situation. What I’m conflicted and not pleased about is the frequency with which American media and pop culture icons are co-opting South Asian religion to suit their aesthetic fancy.[bitch]
This cover reminds me of the Sotomayor cover that the National Review did (and that Abhi covered here). I’m conflicted in both these covers. On the one hand, neither cover excessively pokes fun at the religion but uses the iconography to express some deeper message they are trying to convey. I believe deeply that art should be given the freedom to express. But on the other hand, can we really call the Ms. Magazine cover ‘art’? It is the advertising front page of a magazine for commerce. And truthfully, I am discomforted by the fact that Ms. Magazine caters to a middle class liberal white women clientele. Question is, would I have felt different if they had depicted a brown woman in the same image, or if it had been a different magazine? Probably.
It’s completely inappropriate to utilize Hindu iconography in this context, mocks the religion, and diffuses the imagery of its “true” meaning. When a cultural or religious symbol is used for marketing purposes by cultural or religious outsiders that fail to convey respect for and understanding of the intricacies of that culture or religion, it is offensive.[bitch]

What we wind up with is more Orientalist perspectives circulating through movies, magazines and stores, more South Asians having to answer for an entire group of individuals about everything from food to yoga, and more ignoring national, gendered, class and sexual differences within the community…I also find it completely unacceptable for a feminist publication to blatantly marginalize women of color as a result of their appropriation of culture. It is a reminder of the divided nature of the feminist movement, and the continued tendency of white feminists to participate in the exoticization or “Othering” of women of color. [Feministing]
What does your gut tell you when you see this image? Continue reading →

Food For Thought: Riz MC’s “Sour Times”

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Via Pickled Politics, a music video for a Brit-Asian rapper named Riz MC (Riz Ahmed):

And here is the little blurb about the video on YouTube:

New Riz Music Video for ‘Sour Times’, created by a montage of clips of other people mouthing the lyrics. Collaborators include rappers Plan B, Scroobius Pip, actors Jim Sturgess, Tom Hardy, and musician Nitin Sawhney.

(Wait, who are all those people? I’d never heard of any of them besides Nitin Sawhney!)

I don’t say that I agree 100% with the message in the song; I’m posting it as food for thought, rather than as an endorsement. But I do think he makes good points regarding the new tendency to brand terrorist attacks by date (7/7, 26/11, etc); there’s also a provocative push-back on the news-media’s obsession with catching Al-Qaeda “supervillains.” It is basically just an action-movie fantasy to think that they really matter.

The part where I’m not sure I’m with Riz MC in “Sour Times” is the arguably sympathetic psychologizing of what drives people to commit terrorist acts. When you say “people do this because they’re marginalized by the system,” it’s a kind of justification (even if you take pains to point out, as Riz MC does, that it’s still wrong). Some people who’ve committed, or attempted to commit, acts of terrorism in western countries fit the profile of the angry immigrant screwed over by the system, but others do not.

Still, it’s a complex song — with a lot of different ideas. It probably deserves some attention. Continue reading →

The snack is sacred but the idiocy divine

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It seems that Burger King decided that Carl’s Jr had a good thing going using (Padma) Lakshmi to advertise hamburgers, so they ran an ad in Spain using Padma Lakshmi to advertise … Ham Burgers with the tag line “The Snack is Sacred.”

I don’t know about you, but even as a non-Hindu I found this pretty offensive. Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth and learning, and they’re using her image in an ignorant way to promote a pretty cheap foodstuff. I mean, if you’re going to be offensive and use a Hindu Goddess to sell a meat product, why not go all the way and get your forbidden foodstuffs right? Hindus are most offended by beef and Muslims are most offended by pork. It’s like they couldn’t even be bothered to tell their non-Christian religions apart, even though Spain was ruled by Muslims for hundreds of years.

Of course, when news got out, a holy ruckus was raised, and BK issued a rare apology:

“We are apologising because it wasn’t our intent to offend anyone,” said spokeswoman Denise T Wilson. “Burger King Corporation values and respects all of its guests as well as the communities we serve. This in-store advertisement was running to support only local promotion for three restaurants in Spain and was not intended to offend anyone. “Out of respect for the Hindu community, the limited-time advertisement has been removed from the restaurants,” she added. [link]

At BK, we offend you our way.

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