Is The SSF Gonna Rock You?

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Mephistopheles1981, eagle-eyed observer of the Sri Lankan diaspora, writes in with a tip on L.A.-based rock band The Slow Signal Fade.  The quartet features Sri Lankan-born Marguerite Olivelle as its lead singer, and a bunch of other people that I don’t care about because they’re not Sri Lankan.  (Just kidding, Ron Ulicny, Chris Walters, and Christy Greenwood!  You guys seem nice, too.)  According to a cached Google page from their website-in-progress, the band “formed in fall of 2002 through an array of failed alliances, random acquaintances, circumstance and numerous ads in the LA based classified paper The Recycler.”  They went on to record a five-song E.P. called the “Kindling E.P.,” setting some sort of land-speed record in the process:

Their first demo turned into their first album, “Kindling E.P.,” and was recorded in only eight hours.

“We had to pay studio time and didn’t have enough time to listen to the CD before we released it,” Walters said. 

I don’t know that I would necessarily want to advertise that aspect of my debut album, but fair enough.  This year they released a second E.P. called Through the Opaque Air.  So what does The Slow Signal Fade sound like?  Lots of stuff, apparently:

Armed with a vast collection of esoteric and sometimes conflicting influences, they have crafted a unique sound….a delicate blend of power and intimacy that sits comfortably and transcends genre.

Their musical influences vary from the likes of classic rock bands including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Doors….through early post-punk and pop like The Cure, New Order, The Police, and U2…..to the modern sonics of Mogwai, Tool, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Fugazi. The SSF’s evocative style, colorful melodies, and engaging percussions provide the foundation for the beautiful, timeless and ethereal vocals that draw inspiration from singing legends ranging from Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington, to Chrissie Hynde, Sinead O’Connor and Cat Power. This band provides a musical journey that leaves an indelible mark on the listener, a refreshing balance of musicianship and candor. [Link]

And what do people who aren’t in the band think they sound like?  From Popmatters:

It’s Disintegration-era The Cure as done by The Cranberries, all epic slow tempos and one-note guitar lines fronted by Marguerite Olivelle’s lovely, pitch-perfect, urgent vocals. It’s a combination that shouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable as it is, but the wall of sound on display is exotic, acid-washed, and somehow really accessible. [Link]

A quick listen to a few of their songs, especially “Push Pull Push,” leads me to think the Cranberries comparison is particularly apt.  However, as the great LeVar Burton once said, “You don’t have to take my word for it!” since free MP3s are available at their website.

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Science Fridays?

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I was thinking of starting up “Science Fridays” here on SM.  Let’s face it, there are a lot of science geeks and engineers that read SM on a daily basis who aren’t being catered to.  I think our long term growth strategy should include reaching out to this key demographic.  Why Friday?  Two reasons.  First, the two most prestigious peer-reviewed journals Science and Nature are reported on in the media on Fridays (though they usually come out on Thursday).  More importantly however I usually have more time to blog on Fridays (the rest of the week I am busy doing science-geek things).   This being SM I will of course look for the desi connection in science stories.  So without further pomp here we go.  This week’s theme will be Cryptozoology.  The first story I bring you is a tip from SM reader Marvin Thomas who writes to us about something that washed up on a beach in Tamil Nadu recently because it was supposedly dislodged by the Tsunami from months ago.  First watch the following clip [via Giantology]:

If you remember, Vinod blogged about ancient ruins that were uncovered as a result of the Tsunami.  This creature was supposedly buried close by.  But according to the “reporter” Rupa Sridharam in this “news clip” the bones of this creature just washed up/was unburied now.  Luckily SM has a paleontologist on staff to definitively tell you that this is a hoax.  Even if you can’t see the fake special effects it’s obvious that whoever filmed this doesn’t know the first thing about science.  First off they sent in archeologists to do a paleontologist’s job.  I HATE it when people mess stuff like this up.  Remember Top Gun?  Kelly McGillis’s character was described as a “civilian astrophysics instructor.”  Why the hell would someone that specialized in stars and globular structures be sent in to teach test pilots?  That’s just stupid.

Currently Snopes.com has this case (hoax or not) categorized as “undetermined.”

It’s probably safe to say that the clip itself is not a genuine news report, as no other news outlets have reported on this amazing find. We don’t yet know the source of the video — it could be something taken from a television or film drama, a viral promo for some type of upcoming entertainment offering (such as a video game), or just something created for the sake of perpetrating an amusing hoax.

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The most fundamental of human rights

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Often times when we post about immigrant rights on SM I see a conflict develop between those that believe that even certain basic rights should only be granted to, or expected by citizens, and those who believe this policy is too harsh.  As one commenter pointed out, the U.S. Constitution does not consider immigration status when dealing with certain freedoms.  The reason I bring this up is that governments around the world have been using the “citizenship loophole” to deny large populations of people the right to have rights.  The Christian Science Monitor explains by citing the example of Geneva Camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh:

Borders have made all the difference in the life of 25-year-old Noor Islam. He was born in Bangladesh, but an invisible line has virtually confined him to Geneva Camp, a squalid enclave in the capital, Dhaka.
Shifting borders dictated this fate. In 1971, when East Pakistan gained independence as Bangladesh, Islam’s family and some 300,000 other Urdu-speakers found themselves without a nationality in the new Bengali state.

“In Geneva Camp, we don’t have much access to education and jobs,” Islam says, adding that citizenship would dramatically transform their lives.

The so-called Stranded Pakistanis are one of the largest and oldest communities of stateless people, a group estimated to number 11 million across the globe. Their predicament deserves more attention, say experts, since national identity is the most fundamental of human rights – indeed, the very right to have rights.

“They are the ultimate forgotten people,” says James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York. The problem persists, he says, in part because nation-states still enjoy broad discretion under international law to grant or deny citizenship as they see fit.

It’s really easy to exploit citizenship status actually.  Even our own President uses it to a degree.  If you change a person’s status from citizen to something else, say an “enemy combatant,” they no longer have the right to have rights.  They become a stateless person.  Governments all around the world are getting in on the action to make their “problems” go away (and have been for decades).

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All Hail Toral

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We introduced Toral to mutineers with a gentle reminder to her that “all glory is fleeting” and my oh my how true it was. On Thursday, October 13, her Apprentice star was extinguished in dramatic fashion after a run of just 4 episodes. While probably not an ideal role model, we can answer Desi media critics and say that this week at least 1 TV show was truly led by a desi characterThis week at least 1 TV show was truly led by a desi character.

The episode’s story arc traced Toral’s fall starting with her perilous escape from last week’s boardroom – something Trump pointed out was her high point in words almost fitting a Greek Oracle – “Enjoy the view, Toral“.

The subsequent verdict from the flock of Cassandras was immediate and fierce –

“Not bringing Toral into the boardroom isn’t loyalty, it’s stupidity”

And in Waiting to Exhale fashion, a caucus was called where her teammates admonished her to step up the plate and run like she hadn’t run before. The die was cast as her teammate’s demands were diametrically opposed to Toral’s master plan –

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The prosecution’s case falls apart

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In June I posted about Operation Meth Merchant in Georgia that netted nearly 50 people, most of them Indian convenience store owners, on suspicion of selling components that make methamphetamines, knowing what they’d be used for. 

But first, a quick lesson in meth production: The key ingredient in the process is ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, which also happen to be the key ingredients in cold and allergy medicines such as Sudafed, Tylenol Cold capsules and Max Brand Pseudo 60s.

Those are legal products, legally bought and sold in stores all over the country. Selling them becomes a federal crime only if the seller knows that they’re going to be used in meth production. To minimize that problem, stores at the time had been urged by law enforcement to limit the amount of ephedrine-based medicines sold to each individual. [Link]

In August, Ennis reported on some of the prosecution’s mix-ups.  Now, Rediff reports how elements of the case have begun to dramatically unravel for the prosecution, and asks the question, “why did it take so long?”:

US District Attorney David E Nahmias requested the courts last fortnight to dismiss charges that Siddharth Patel had sold over the counter components used in the manufacture of the drug methamphetamine.

And well he should — Patel was over a thousand miles away when he supposedly committed the crime, and had photographic evidence to prove it.

In a case that has assumed racial overtones, Nahmias told the court Patel had been identified, erroneously, as the man who sold the components July 23, 2004 in Georgia, USA — when it was conclusively proved that at the time, and on the date, in question, he was in New York…

Earlier, similar charges against Malvika Patel of Cleveland, Tennessee, and her husband Chirag Patel were withdrawn after McCracken Poston appeared as their attorney. Poston is also Siddharth Patel’s attorney in the case…

“Malvika Patel was picking up her young son from day care in Cleveland, Tennessee, at the exact moment this informant claimed she was behind the counter of a store in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia,” Poston told rediff India Abroad. “Similarly, Chirag Patel was with his family in India at the time the informant claimed he was at the same store in December 2004.”

Similarly, Siddharth Patel was working at a Subway outlet in Hicksville, New York, at the time the informant placed him in Whitfield County, Georgia, selling the components at Deep Springs Superette, a convenience store in the Varnell community of Whitfield County. [Link]

Uhhh, woops, I guess.  Why did it take so damn long to establish that the person arrested had been misidentified.  In stinks of incompetence and probably something worse. Continue reading →

No torus for you

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A video clip of Toral Mehta’s firing on The Apprentice has been posted. She’s not just the new Omarosa, she’s the new Narinder Kaur, the definitive chavette from the UK’s Big Brother:

Narinder has been married for seven years but the 28-year-old Geordie says she was “looking for a snog” when she went into the Big Brother House… [she] erupted in a torrent of abuse about her housemates [in] a four-letter tirade… [and] had a string of bust-ups with fellow contestants… [Link]

There was a lot of racism in the part of Newcastle where we lived and it didn’t help being the only brown face in my school. I got bullied a lot. On the way to school I’d read ‘Narinder Paki’ scribbled on the bus stop and when I got there, I’d get picked on and the teachers would do nothing. Most people didn’t even know my name – ‘that Paki girl’ was enough…

I was showing British people that modern Indian girls could get drunk and have a laugh and still say their prayers… I remember drunkenly telling my husband I was going to be famous. He was like, alright, all I want to do is get your kit off… So why do I keep sticking my tits and neck out and go to so many premieres, you ask. Why the hell shouldn’t I?… [Link]

Mehta spazzed out in the boardroom, was punted to the curb and gave her teammates the back of the hand on cab-cam. Squirrel-hair called her ‘divisive,’ a nicer way of putting it.

Watch the video. Here’s the official site for the self-proclaimed ‘unforgettable business genius.’ Previous posts: one, two.

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I Can’t Drive 55…

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…but I can write it. So can all of you, apparently.

Dear, excessively creative readers writers, since we commenced our sweet Friday festival of nanofiction fun, it feels like someone put a chip and new exhaust system in that vehicle called time. Those around me will attest that I can often be found muttering, “Where do the hours go?” several times a day; thanks to this delightful ritual, I’m even more incredulous. It’s Friday? AGAIN? Didn’t I just write this post? Yowza. It’s like Groundblog’s day.

In any case, indulge me in my disbelief, that it is already time to write an uber-short story and leave it or a link to it in the comments section below.

If you’re just tuning in, you might want to read this and then this, so you learn what I’m going on about, as well as how you can join in the chant. That second link established yet another tradition I’m sticking to– I like the idea of selecting the three short-shorts that made me swoon. Without further blathering, here they be:

When Jai Singh said, “I guess I may as well kick this off….” he wasn’t playing, y’all. The following gem left me daydreaming with a wistful smile on my face, as I concomitantly recalled my fond days in History 196A AND a certain battle scene from LOTR. Suh-wooooooon.

60,000 Rajputs waited in the crisp dawn, armour glinting in the sunlight, horses battle-ready. The track down the mountainside twisted ahead, the green flags of the approaching legion already visible.
With a thundering evocation to the Almighty, they raised their curved swords skywards in unison. The black smoke from the pyres billowed above the fortress.

Jay’s 55 was adroit; it captivated all of us, as we attempted to solve the ingenious riddle he posed:

Ice broke under the ankle. In a hospital room they conspired friendship. Set to work, she fumbled at the remote clumsily. In the boardroom she spat venom as they cornered her – then unbelievably granted reprieve. From the loft she saw the little woman walking towards the cab. She knew that it should have been her.

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Ann Arbor doctor is missing (updated)

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Ann Arbor doctor Shankar Palaniappan went to Toledo, Ohio over the weekend to meet with some old friends.  He met up with them at around 9p.m.  The club’s closed-circuit video shows him leaving alone around 1a.m.  He hasn’t been seen since.  ABC 13 of Toledo reports (thanks for the tip Kumar):

Right now police don’t have many clues. They say the disappearance of the 26-year-old looks suspicious. Family and friends say it’s totally out of character for Shankar Palaniappan to ignore phone calls and not show up for work. That’s why today they an issued an emotional plea for help.

What started out as a night of fun at a Toledo hot spot has turned into a family’s desperate search for a young doctor. Shankar Palaniappan came to Toledo Saturday night to meet some old college friends. Police say the young doctor and his friends arrived at Gumbo’s/Sin Nightclub at the docks around 9 p.m. But at the end of the night, friends went in search of Palaniappan and they couldn’t find him. Police are calling the case suspicious.

Palaniappan’s family flew from Indiana to Toledo this morning desperate for any information about their son. Family members say Shankar Palaniappan is a medical intern at St. Joe’s Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. They say he’s always in contact with them and they haven’t heard from him since Saturday night.

This story immediately reminded me of the very similar circumstances that surrounded the disappearance of Arvin Sharma in Washington D.C. back in April.  He too went to a club with his friends and was nowhere to be seen at the end of the night, his body recovered days later.  As far as I know, no suspect was ever arrested for his murder (if it was a murder).  Let’s pray for a more positive ending in this case.  Palaniappan’s parents made an emotional plea on television asking for help from anyone who may know where their son is.

Shankar Palaniappan… “My son is a very hard-working, sincere, dedicated young man,” said Ramanathan Palaniappan. With tears in his eyes, he went on, “I hope he’s okay, and if he’s out there, please give us a call.” It’s every parent’s worst fear, and Shankar’s mother and father are extremely concerned something has happened to their only son.

“We’ve been trying to reach him on his cell phone, and there’s no answer,” said Ramanathan. “He usually checks in with his family, he usually checks in with work, and at 1:04 in the morning, Saturday night, or Sunday morning, no one has heard from him since. We consider that very serious,” said Sgt. Tim Noble with Toledo Police. [Link]

Anyone that has information in this missing person case should call: 419-255-1111.

Update: Sad news. Palaniappan’s body has been found. Continue reading →

Trespassing at Your Own Public University?

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When the basic AP article about the swearing in of the new Joint Chiefs of Staff has a lede that casually tosses off  May 2005 Doonesbury Storyline: "I can practically guarantee you'll be fighting terrorism from behind a desk!"“recruitment shortfalls” in the same breath as Iraq and disasters, you can be assured it’s one of the military’s biggest concerns. Ace mil-blog Intel-Dump frequently highlights the number crunch being faced by the army, and Armchair Generalist analyzed the recent lowering of the educational bar.  I sympathize with the recruiters greatly–we need a military, regardless of whatever goose-chase this or that administration might lead them on. It’s not really their fault that teenagers who don’t need a ticket out of town may question the extent to which the military is really about defending American freedom. That is, it’s not their fault until they start physically harassing a student-veteran for quietly protesting and then get him arrested on his own campus:

More than 100 George Mason University students and faculty members gathered on campus yesterday for a teach-in, six days after an undergraduate was arrested in a confrontation with military recruiters there.

Tariq Khan, 27, said he was standing near the recruiters’ table in the multipurpose Johnson Center at lunchtime last Thursday, holding fliers and wearing signs, including one on his chest that read “Recruiters Lie, Don’t Be Deceived.” One of the recruiters, plus another man who said he was a Marine, began yelling at him, he said, adding that the Marine ripped off his sign. Khan said that after a campus police officer asked for identification, which he didn’t have with him, he was arrested, taken to the Fairfax County police department and charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct.

Khan, a Pakistani American who grew up in Sterling and served four years in the U.S. Air Force, said the recruiters, and later the campus police, made disparaging comments to him about Middle Easterners.

Daniel Walsch, a university spokesman, said that Khan “was considered to be distributing literature,” which requires a permit, and that he was asked to leave the building.(Link)

The ACLU of Virginia wryly notes that the arrest occurred “at a public university named after the person who may be most responsible for the Bill of Rights.” Whether or not recruiters lie, George Mason U. is being patently untrue to its namesake’s ideals if it fails to urge the Fairfax D.A. to drop charges against Mr. Khan. (Link.)

The ACLU is defending Khan, who has a court date of Nov 14. (Link). Last week he gave a speech at the rally:

First of all I want to say that what happened to me last Thursday is not an isolated incident. . At at least three different colleges in the last week alone – the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts, and here at George Mason University – students engaged in non-violent counter-recruitment were met with police repression. . .And here at GMU I was harassed and assaulted by police and right-wing vigilante wannabe’s simply for standing in the JC with an 8×11 sign taped to my chest that said “Recruiters lie. Don’t be deceived.” Then I was charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. While the police and vigilantes were brutalizing me, other right-wing students were cheering them on and shouting “Kick his ass!” . .Officer Reynolds, the goon who arrested me told me that he had to handcuff me because of 9/11. He said, “I didn’t know who you were, and what with 9/11 and all, there’s no telling what you’d do.” So because he didn’t know me, he had to assume that I’m a terrorist. Another officer at the GMU police station shouted at me, “You people are the most violent people in the world! You’re passive aggressive!” What does that mean? Who are “you people”? 

Besides the fundamental issue of preventing a student from engaging in free speech on a public campus, which I thought was settled over 40 years ago, there is the issue Khan brought up, a crystalized example of why we need first amendment rights to debate public policy and government actions in the first place–do recruiters lie?

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‘Divas and Dusham! Dusham!’

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The folks behind Desilicious (the erotic anthology, not the pride party) are at it again with a call for submissions for Divas and Dusham! Dusham! Mmm, onomatopoetic irregularity.

The anthology will collect both scholarly and literary works inspired by Bollywood, and the deadline is Jan. 31. Methinks a certain per’fessor could submit.

The Politics: How have characters, narratives, or cinematic techniques sustained or subverted hegemonies? How do we identify and engage progressive and reactionary strains in Bombay cinema? What is the relationship between filmmaking and national/transnational politics? Why are Bollywood actresses all fair? Why do the movies tell stories especially of young people? Why are they mostly upper-caste (and Punjabi based)? …

Literary Adaptations: Submissions could include subversive alternate endings to famous Bollywood films… stories in which the central character is modeled after a distinctly filmi character; or screenplays (story-length or excerpts) attempting contemporary Hollywood remakes of Bollywood classics… [Link]

My favorite category:

Explorations of Villainy: Bombay Cinema is the only cinema that grants major film awards for “Best Performance in a Villainous Role…” Bollywood villains who can drop a line as menacing as, “is ko liquid oxygen mem duba do. Liquid ise jine nahin dega aur oxygen ise marne nahin dega” (Drop him in liquid oxygen… the liquid will not let him live and the oxygen will not let him die) make Darth Vader look like a kitty. [Link]

I, for one, welcome our new erotic villainy overlords.

Submit to submissions@masalatrois.com or: Masala Trois Collective, 71 McCaul Street, #113, Toronto, ON M5T 2X1, Canada Continue reading →