M.I.A. looked directly into my eyes!

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MIA.jpg

Last night I went to the Knitting Factory in Hollywood to check out M.I.A. (who we have profiled here before). Admittedly, I was not familiar with the lovely Maya Arulpragasam’s music BUT I am a fan of live music as well as beautiful women. I was a little bummed before the concert because all my friends had bailed on me and I would be going all alone. I resolved to turn tragedy to triumph by getting Maya to take pity on me and allowing me to be a groupie after the show. On my way to the venue I got a call from my friend Sanjay who was one of those forced to bail on the evening. I told him it was okay and then informed him of my new plan to win her sympathy. Then he told me something that would plant a seed of doubt into my subconscious and eventually ruin my night. Sanjay told me that if I got to meet Maya I should ask her why her website has a link to an organization (TRO) associated with the LTTE terrorist organization. Was Maya a Tamil Tiger sympathizer? “Boy, don’t you know that would completely ruin my game?” What? Could I be like, “Hey Maya…um…I think you are so very pretty and talented and I’d like to get to know you better…umm…do you support terrorism?”

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Desi iTunes

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Instead of having your desi tunes illegally copied @ the local grocery store, you can now get an online store to do it for you –

San Francisco, Feb 4 : A California company has launched what it calls the first online music download store dedicated to music from India and the Indian sub-continent. CrimsonBay offers music from premiere Indian labels such as Saregama India Ltd, Ishq Records, Yatra Communications and others. The online marketplace, which is similar to Apple’s hugely successfully music download business iTunes, carries over 40,000 songs. A company press release said currently it was offering Hindi content including memorable songs from films such as “Umrao Jaan”, “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge”, “Aradhana” and artists such as Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Bally Sagoo and Rishi Rich. It plans to update its catalogue regularly.

As before, I suppose there’s a chance that music purchased from CrimsonBay will end up compensating the original artists, but call me a skeptic. Continue reading →

Twee, innit?

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Chila from Wolverhampton and Mr. Kiss My Chuddies got hitched in a small, private ceremony on Jan. 21 (thanks, Punjabi Boy). Coverage here, here and here.

[Goodness Gracious Me] started as a one-off stage show called Peter Sellers Is Dead… designed to indicate that the days of white actors blacking up to play Asians were over. [BBC]

The newlyweds are currently working on the movie version of another of Miss Syal’s novels, Life Isn’t All Ha Ha, Hee Hee. [ThisIsLondon]

A Mushie memoir

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Ever mindful of his legacy, the current dictator of Pakistan is ordering a soppy political memoir ghost-written about how he looked deep into the eyes of Dubya and saw a man he could do business with:

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan is writing a political memoir, focusing on the war on terrorism and his relationship with the Bush administration as a key ally. The memoir is to be published by Simon & Schuster and will probably appear in bookstores next fall…

No word on whether it’ll bear any resemblance to Shame, Salman Rushdie’s jagged satire of Pakistani politics with a paper-thin fictional veneer to protect the guilty. Here’s what it will cover:

“He’s going to cover the war on terror from Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s up to the hunt for Osama bin Laden…”

Mr. Musharraf, writer’s block doesn’t last three and a half years. How about penning the ending to that story?

Indian Train Crashes into Tractor; Kills 52

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A passenger train near the N. Indian town of Kanhan crashed into a tractor that was trying to cross the tracks. The accident killed 52 & injured 10 others.

Now, in just about any other country, it would be safe to assume that those casualties were folks on the train. But, in India, they’re instead passengers on the tractor –

NAGPUR, India — A passenger train smashed into a trailer carrying wedding guests Thursday in western India, killing at least 52 people and injuring 10 others, a railway official and witnesses said. The dead included 30 women and 10 children. …Sudarshan Shende, who works at a nearby school, said at least three vehicles full of wedding guests had climbed the slope that led to the crossing, when the last vehicle, the tractor pulling the trailer, drove up and stopped. “They stopped for a while, and I could hear them arguing. Some wanted to cross; others wanted to wait. Then the driver decided to cross,” Shende told The Associated Press. “The tractor crossed, but the train rammed into the trailer.” He said no one was injured on the train, which did not derail despite the impact.

Sheesh. Continue reading →

Giving ’em the finger

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fingers.jpgIn a brilliant maneuver, Congressman Bobby Jindal of Louisiana sent an email to his colleagues in Congress before yesterday’s State of the Union Address, telling them that they should come see him for a dip before the speech [via a tip from Manish and SM reader Atul Patel].

In a letter to be circulated Wednesday among fellow lawmakers, Jindal, R-Louisiana, said he would have ink available for anyone attending the speech who wanted to make a gesture of support for Iraqis and “people throughout the world who seek freedom.”

Say what you want about him (I know I often do) but clever is clever. Some Dems seemed bitter:

Supporters stuck their forefingers in the air — not unlike college football fans declaring “We’re number one” — as the president spoke.

But most Democrats did not dip into the inkwell. Indeed, some thought it was the president’s prose that was purple.

“His rhetoric seldom reflects reality,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.

With a flesh-toned rather than purple finger to point out his disagreement with the speech, Doggett said that “the real problem is that Bush’s policies keep sticking our people in a barrel of red ink.”

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‘The Kumars’ video clips

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Video clips for The Kumars at No. 42 have now been posted. I liked the sketch format of Goodness Gracious Me better, but the interviews generate an interesting tension: being in character means you don’t have to lob softballs like Leno. Sanjeev Bhaskar’s running gag is to wear the most outlandish outfit possible. And Meera Syal’s granny character is just wicked:

To Helena Bonham Carter: In this country you are seen as the epitome of elegance and good manners. But I personally was very, very happy to see you in Fight Club playing a right old slut. Did you enjoy it?

To a female fashion consultant: Can I just say thank you on behalf of my grandson. That’s the first physical contact he’s had with a woman since he went to the doctor.

To an interior designer: If you want to do an Indian theme party properly, you have to put plastic over your sofas, lots of Tupperware in your fridge and preferably concrete over your entire garden.

I loved the Tom Jones and Helena Bonham Carter interviews. Check out the clips.

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Little deuce coup

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The Nepali king, who came to power when his nephew offed his family with an Uzi, has placed the prime minister under house arrest, shut down the phone system and Internet routers and put soldiers in TV stations to censor the news. Flights to Kathmandu were forced to turn back in midair during the coup.

“The king is taking the country back to the Dark Ages,” Shovakar Parajuli, leader of the opposition Congress Party, told the Associated Press news agency. [BBC]

Yawn… your coup is so 19th century, dahling. Why not do it in style? Poison your opponent, pretend it was a gas leak or jab him with a sharp umbrella.

Thou shalt not kill

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Forget Babri Masjid — temple officials are shooting each other in a struggle over wealthy temple trusts in Ayodhya:

The rivalry spilled over after a meeting on January 31, when the two rival chief priests came to blows, prompting their associates to draw out double-barrel guns and fire… Earlier, in 2001, Nrityagopal had survived a bomb attack in the ongoing dispute over the trust… Gripped by a sense of insecurity, officials of temple trusts are rushing for gun licences… At least 350 Ayodhya residents, most of them temple-trust heads, have acquired licensed arms. The town has over 1,500 such trusts… Most key temple trusts have also installed their private army of securitymen…

Murder is but the least of their talents:

The temple town was further sullied when police in Lucknow said they were looking for another mahant [temple official], Shyam Shukla alias Shyam Maharaj, in the abduction of a Kanpur industrialist and two of his associates… “The mahant needed money. He asked us to abduct Ravinder Kedia. We kept him in Bahraich till we obtained ransom…”

Deeyah Has a “Plan of Her Own”

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Deeyah, the Norway born Asian female, who the Sunday Times (UK) has labelled as “the next big thing,” released her debut single “Plan of My Own,” this past week, to rave reviews. “Plan” can best be described as a blend of sultry r&b with a bit of desi mixed in for good measure. The track has been getting tremendous play on Desi radio station, mainly in the UK, for at least 6 months, and hopefully, the mainstream will catch on, as they have with Raghav and Jay Sean.

Deeyah recently completed a tour this past June & July, and has spent the past year working with producer, Darin Prindle, who has worked with the likes of Destiny’s Child, TLC, Madonna, Jermaine Dupri, Boyz II Men and Usher. This past August, Deeyah split her time between L.A. and Atlanta in the USA shooting the video for “Plan” award-winning director, John Lindauer whose past clients include Lauryn Hill, Mary J Blige, and Christina Aguilera.

So keep your eyes open. For more on Deeyah, click here, to hear the single (mp3), click here, and here for the video (Quicktime). Continue reading →