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:: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 ::
Saturday June 7 - Süd Electronic With Move D, Lerosa (Live debut), Lakuti and me
Got me another gig coming up at the next Süd. I'm most pleased to be playing beside long-time musical hero Move D and Lerosa, who's recent releases have been some of the most consistent and varied around. In addition to being exciting on account of the talent, it's being held in Sud's best venue, last used when Move D rolled through town and tore shit up last year AND there will also be a Funktion 1 rig installed, which should pretty neatly round things out.
Here's the full poop:
Süd Electronic Presents Uzuri Recordings With Move D & Lerosa (live ) - 7th June 2007 Powered By A Funktion 1 Soundsytem @ A Secret Top Floor Loft Style Venue In East London Move D - 3 Hour Dj Set ( Uzuri ,Source , Compost , Dial , Modern Love , Workshop , Philpot ) Lerosa - Live ( Uzuri ,Real Soon, Enclave , A Touch Of Class , Millions Of Moments , D1)
Dj Support
Lakuti (Uzuri , Süd )
Tristan Watkins Aka Phonopsia (www.phonopsia.com) Date : 7th June 2007
Times : 10 pm - Late
Venue : A Secret Top Floor Loft Style Venue in East London
Venue details to be revealed nearer the date .
Limited Capacity so advance ticket purchase advisable .
Tickets Priced at £10 + BF More on the door !
Advance tickets From
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/30535
www.sudelectronic.com
www.myspace.com/uzurirecordings
Infos:
info@sudelectronic.com
07853371939
Thanx so much for those who came out to support us and Rick Wade on the 4th of April .
The 7th of June sees us back in action and most importantly in our favourite venue .
This Top Floor Loft Style venue comes with a crazy 60’s style lift ; in the E2 area . This is where we honed and nurtured what we do now & we’ve always had a special time there . my favourite time being around 5 am when the sun comes seeping through the window , with a handful of people still shuffling on the dancefloor with big smiles on their faces .Classic ! Smile The One ingredient that has been lacking in these proceedings though , has been a great soundsytem …
Well ,that’s about to change .We will be bringing in , arguably the most in demand soundsytem . A Funktion 1 soundsystem will take it’s place of pride at this sweet venue . Music and guests wise ; we will be celebrating & presenting the talent on Uzuri Recordings and beyond .
Uzuri came to life last November with a rather tasty ep by Lerosa , which was followed by a heavyweight ep by the legend that is Move D .It seemed appropiate to invite both Move D & Lerosa to come represent what Uzuri is all about .
Move D David Moufang aka Move D needs no introduction to any one with an interest in electronic music .One of the true pioneers and gems in the european electronic scene .Can this man do no wrong ??? It’s seems not .With excellent releases also , on Compost , Workshops ,Philpot , Modern Love ; A recent killer 12? on Dial Records alongside Benjamin Brunn and shortly an album on Dial with benjamin Brunn . His ep on the youthful Uzuri has been the biggest release so far. Now in it’s 3rd repress .Known for his impressive collaborations too , .Not only is he an outstanding producer ,lucky for us , he is also an excellent dj .On this occassion , expect the best in Deep House and Techno & what ever else that may take his fancy . For More on Move D :
http://www.myspace.com/moufang
Lerosa Leopoldo Rosa aka Lerosa has been causing somewhat of a stink with his excellent output .With his first release on Dublin’s D1 label , quickly followed by excellent releases on Real Soon & Enclave Recordings , then followed an ep on ATC quickly followed by his ep for Uzuri .Then features on Germany’s Debug Magazine , as well as Groove Mag soon followed and most recently , an article on London’s Faith’s Strobelight Honey Magazine .Not one to rest on his laurels , there are already ep’s scheduled for release on Uzuri as well as the Styrax affiliated label ; Millions of Moments ; which has seen big records from Redshape , Aaron Carl e.t.c. as well as an ep on Real Soon .
The 7th of June will see Lerosa unveiling his Live Set to the public , for the first time ever . For More on Lerosa :
http://myspace.com/lerosa Move D and Lerosa will be supported by Tristan Watkins aka Phonopsia & Lakuti . We will be on a summer break after this one so do not miss ! Hope you can make it !
Labels: Music
:: Tristan 23:34 [+] ::
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:: Friday, March 28, 2008 ::
Friday April 4 - Sud Electronic With Rick Wade, K Soul, Portable, Lakuti and me
Sorry about the SPAM, but I'm a relatively late edition to the line-up and just getting around to letting people know. I realise there's the Plex clash, but if you've not already booked up for that, I'll be playing alongside some rather exciting guests, who ain't been round these parts much - not least of whom is Rick Wade AKA Big Daddy Rick, Detroit's pimp extraordinaire. He'll be ably complemented by K Soul, who hails from Italy yet puts out some mighty fine stuff that you might easily mistake for home grown Detroit business. The whole night should be fairly deep and housey, and should be fun! Hope to see some of you there! Labels: Music
:: Tristan 02:26 [+] ::
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:: Sunday, March 09, 2008 ::
This year's big ride
Quoting my friend Jamie, who did the first leg of the Tour de France with me last year.
On 22 June we will be riding in the Circuit of the Cotswolds, a 102 mile cycle through the Cotswolds, with 2,500 metres of climbing. It will be a really challenging ride! We're raising money for The Alzheimer's Society, the leading UK care and research charity for people with dementia, their families and carers.
Thank you for visiting our fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor us online.
Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor us: Alzheimer's Society will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.
So please sponsor us now!
Many thanks for your support. No pressure. I'm rubbish about actually signing up for these things, but if this is the way you do your chairidee, then have at it! If you're interested, here's the contributions page. If you wanna know what we're in for this time around, have a gander. It makes the 143 miles last year look tame.
 Labels: Bike
:: Tristan 10:16 [+] ::
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:: Friday, January 25, 2008 ::
Unwound
This was the fourth mix I did last month but I figured I'd give my bandwidth and your ears a rest while figuring out if it's good enough to post. There's rather a few messes, but I'm getting too old to be re-doing two hour mixes. I've listened to it about 10 times and haven't pulled my ears off yet, so make of it what you will. Used Traktor Scratch for five or six of the tracks - the rest is wax. Procure.
Tunes
Kazi - Pressure [B9000 Records]
Claude Young - Multiplicity of Zeros and Ones [SSR]
Studio - Life's A Beach! [Information]
Sam Prekop - C + F [Thrill Jockey]
Autechre - Flutter [Warp]
Born Under a Rhyming Planet - Analog:Heaven (On Beat Off Beat Style) [Plus 8]
Joash - Salome [Compost]
Move D - Felix [Workshop]
Hauke Freer - We Must Face Our Fears [Real Soon]
Christian Vogel - Rogue PROTOCHI [Tresor]
Unit Moebius - Chicken Pop [Disko B]
Joachim Speith - Clock (Jacek Sienkiewicz Remix) [Opossum]
Kim English - Nite Life (Basement Jaxx Nitebeats) [Polydor]
Greg Greene - Untitled [Aquarius]
Santonio - Homilies [Cyren]
DJ Genesis - Its U [Transmat]
Dave Angel - Airborne [Blunted Vinyl]
The Happy Clappies - O.D.M. [DAP]
Lester Fitzpatrick - Rush Hour [Relief]
Mike Dearborn - Atmosphere 16 [Tresor]
Violet Micro - ...I Know [Tresor]
The Tuss - Synthacon 9 [Rephlex]
Depeche Mode - Mephisto [Sire]
Parametric - ES-30 [SSR]
Plant 43 - Gas Frame Canal [AI]
D5 - Lab Work [Delsin]
Shiver - Oiled Love [Shiver]
Lerosa - Regret [D1]
Russ Gabriel - Jochim's Hour [Input Neuron Musique] Labels: Music
:: Tristan 19:55 [+] ::
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:: Thursday, December 20, 2007 ::
33 1/3 +3
My first Traktor Scratch mix. Mostly stuff that's been gathering dust in my CD collection, which is the main reason I've got one of these digital file playing thingys at my disposal now. Still struggling a bit with not being able to look at a record to determine when the track is going to end, but whatever... Grab it here.
Tracklist
Marc Leclair - 64e Jour [Mutek]
Rhythm & Sound - Mash Down Babylon [Burial Mix]
Coil - Nasa-Arab [Threshold House]
Björk - Come To Me (Black Dog Mix) [One Little Indian]
Róisín Murphy - Love in the Making [Echo]
Skinny Puppy - Burnt With Water [Nettwerk]
Nitzer Ebb - Let Beautty Loose [Geffen]
Connection Machine - Perception Fuse [Down Low Music]
Plastikman - Koma [Nova Mute]
Mappa Mundi - Sexafari [USA Import Music]
Sun Electric - Up the Drain [R&S]
Max Duley - Dented [Unreleased]
Donor - Isolation [Miniscule]
Joey Beltram - Drome [Warp]
The Hypnotist - Pioneers of the Warped Acid [Instinct]
Silent Phase - Electric Relaxation [R & S Records]
Drax - Radiation [Trope Recordings]
Max 404 - Slut [Eevo Lute Muzique]
Speedy J - Symmetry [Warp]
Labels: Music
:: Tristan 18:57 [+] ::
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:: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 ::
New Carts II
Another imaginatively titled mix from a Sunday with new cartirdges. A bit broader than the last one. Very sorry about the hideous mix into Jus-Ed and Kevin James. Get it here. Tracklist Mouse On Mars - Hallo [Rough Trade]
Burial - Night Bus [Hyperdub]
Flying Lotus - Pet Monster Shotglass [Plug Research]
Dimlite - The Way Blood Travels [Sonar Kollektiv]
RJD2 - Clean Living [Definitive Jux]
Newworldaquarium - The Force [NWAQ]
Karma - Beach Towel (I:Cube Cosmix Marathon Remix) [Compost]
Daniel Meteo - Beautiful (Making Music w/u) [Kalk Pets]
Rod Modell - Lama Temple (Unreleased Version) [Styrax]
Nick Solé - World Dubbing [Mojuba]
Jus-Ed & Kevin James - Baltimore Love [Underground Quality]
K Soul & Ra.H - Untitled [Morphine]
The Oliverwho Factory - The 1 [Madd Chaise Inc]
Redshape - Steam [Delsin]
Pendle Coven - Habitual Stress [Modern Love]
Jacek Sienkiewicz - Living in Oblivion [Smallville]
Jack S. - Forgot to Tell You [Recognition]
Dettmann|Klock - Scenario [Ostgut Tonträger]
Parallel 9 - Technic [Artless] Labels: Music
:: Tristan 00:32 [+] ::
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:: Saturday, December 08, 2007 ::
Gescom C2
Not exactly safe for work.
Screengrab of a waveform from the latest Gescom 12".Labels: Music
:: Tristan 20:16 [+] ::
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:: Sunday, December 02, 2007 ::
New Carts
Got some Shure Whitelabel cartridges yesterday which sound so good I had to have a mix. The usual smattering of styles. Hope y'all enjoy it. Download
Tracklist
Dimlite - Jose's Views [Aim]
Flying Lotus - Spicy Sammich [Warp]
Aardvarck - Nose [Rush Hour]
Reggie Dokes - The Skin I'm In [Third Ear]
Atheus - InChain FX [Millions of Moments]
Substance & Vainquer - Libration [Scion Versions]
CV313 - Space [Echospace]
ERP - Vox Automation [Frustrated Funk]
Gescom - A2 [Skam]
Melvin Oliphant - X-Solara (Epic Version) [M>O>S]
M Pittmann - There's Somebody Out There [Unirhythm]
Roland Appel - Dark Soldier [Sonar Kollektiv]
DJ Joe T. Vanelli featuring Csilla - Play with the Voice (MAW In Your Face Mix) [Nervous]
Miguel Graça Presents Soulnotmind - Pineapple [Bombay]
Red Nail feat. Noni - Never Mind [Blue Cucaracha]Labels: Music
:: Tristan 18:32 [+] ::
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:: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 ::
Books and films
Books
Spook Country, William Gibson's latest. I hadn't realised it would be a loose follow-up to Pattern Recognition and in the same vein. I imagine it may form a trilogy. It's got another ubercool female lead character and a few familiar faces. Took a bit longer than usual to get up to speed but is flying now. Didn't enjoyed it quite as much as its predecessor, although whole idea behind the plot is very clever. Definitely worth a go for Gibson fans, particularly those who like their Sci-Fi stuff stronger on the Sci than the Fi (I guess). My preference for Pattern Recognition was pretty much down to the characters. I'm excited for a third though. I can't see how he won't do one after this.
Next up: two books by the former deputy governor of the Iraqi province of Maysan, Rory Stewart. The first focuses on his time with tribes in Afghanistan when he walked most of the way from Iran to Nepal. The second is about his time running tings in Iraq soon after the occupation began. He's a recurrent guest on Channel 4 news that always seems to have keen insights into both occupied countries based on his extensive time on the ground in each.
The Places in Between was wicked. It taught me so much about the differences within Afghanistan, and to some extent coloured my experiences of India, with regard to the bounds of tolerance within cultural differences. For instance, it really helped unclutter my thoughts about being critical of cultures who may have different views towards women, violence, etc. Basically I've come to the conclusion that cruelty is unacceptable, full stop. It also helped solidify my feeling that fanaticism is what's going wrong in the middle east more than anything else, and that our presence where we're unwanted is the major fuel for that fire. But this stuff is fairly extraneous to the book. It's an amazing journey that will certainly elucidate most people's understanding of Afghanistan, as he journeyed where very few westerners have ever traveled - to some parts that are completely misunderstood within Afghanistan.
The second of these, Occupational Hazards: My Time Governing in Iraq, changed my perspective on Iraq fairly significantly. Like most good scholarship, you come out of it knowing much less than you thought you did. I think I preferred the first book in terms of the insanity of the adventure he undertook, and both were probably equally educational about Afghanistan and Iraq. The epilogue to the second one goes some way towards tying the two together by contrasting our relative successes and failures in each and how predictions about those results could have easily have been reversed:
| Quote: | | But it was impossible to assign probabilities to those outcomes. Asked in 2000 to predict which invasion would go worse, that of Iraq or Afghanistan, 'experts' would have struggled to answer. Most of what is presented as prediction is hindsight. If Afghanistan had gone worse, the experts would probably now say, 'Of course, it has difficult mountainous landscape, a history of resistance to the Russians and the British and is fanatically religious: does no one read any history?' If Iraq had worked they would say, 'Of course, Iraq if flat, modern, middle-class, secular and exhausted by thirty years of Saddam.' |
Anyhow... I reckon it's the best writing I've read about either place, and much richer for his time living and/or working with people in both places.
It's also a great work for putting colonialism in a lasting context. I'm looking at Eurasia as a reversion to pre-Anglo/Russian/Ottoman-colonialism at the moment. Surely missing a few empires off there, but it certainly makes sense for most of what I've been paying attention to lately.
Films
| Bez Konca AKA No End: Kieslowski from '85. The soundtrack is very similar to Blue and the theme itself is not so different in that it's about a woman mourning her recently dead husband. It's rather slow in parts, but still definitely worth a go for Kieslowski buffs. |
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Przypadek AKA Blind Chance: More Kieslowski, this time from 1981, but only released in Poland in 1987 per censorship. Without question this is where Run, Lola, Run (and more precisely Sliding Doors I suppose) comes from - offering three different takes on missing a train. It's quite a politicized commentary on socialist Poland's press restrictions, religion and police, but not very heavy-handed with any of that as most of the film is focused on more personal matters. The direction in the first few minutes is wicked. It feels vaguely like you're watching a trailer - a disjointed rush through the history that serves as the background for the rest of the three variants.
The Darjeeling Limited - another brilliant Wes Anderson film. I've got nothing bad to say about it. I laughed so hard at the crescendo I nearly shit myself.
Silk Stockings - a 1957 musical version of Ninotchka, which I've been meaning to watch for about ten years. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian (probably the best director of American film musicals) and starring Cyd Charisse (arguably the best dancer in American film musicals) in a proper leading role opposite Fred Astaire. It's basically a cold war burlesque comedy musical, which encapsulates the lineage of the art form and contrasts it to some of its more serious roots. Not terribly kind to Soviet Russia. Some hilarious moments, such as when Astaire first tries to seduce Charisse and she replies with "the arrangement of your features is not entirely repulsive to me."  Peter Lorre has some rather silly Russian dancing moments as well. Really enjoyed it. Astaire's last real film musical role.
And some films that made their ways to my eyes via Indian HBO:
Dante's Peak - better than Volcano I imagine. Quite enjoyed it until the end as it goes. It just kinda stops.
Barbershop - certainly could've been worse. I'm diggin' O'Shea Jackson in struggling-to-make-good-despite-the-man mode. Cedric the Entertainer was brilliant as the ornery old black dude.
The Break-Up - better than I could've expected. Jon Favreau is getting well fat.Labels: Book, Film
:: Tristan 21:31 [+] ::
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:: Monday, November 26, 2007 ::
Trying to sum up what I think I learned about India
I guess after living in Europe for five years I've become a bit more comfortable with nationalism, or (more precisely) being a nationalist (not as in superiority, but making generalizations about national characteristics). My time in India has probably amplified and softened this tendency. I realize how much less that I know, but by having seen more of the world I can see how certain characteristics are more indigenous here or there. Obviously this only has so much use before the general stops making its way back to the particular, proviso, disclaimer, etc.
I should start by explaining just how much diversity I saw within India. This is probably not the first thing that pops in to most people's minds when they think about the place. It's largely because it didn't exist in a size/shape like it has today until British rule united diverse cultures there - yet it is credited as being one of the oldest civilizations on earth. My short answer for this apparent paradox is that while there may have been various dynasties and conquests, the cultures themselves (largely guided by religious influences) have maintained throughout the political changes (which makes partition all that much harder to understand having been there). I can say that I'm an unashamed Ghandiist in that regard. No question.
I've been trying to wait to see if any other thoughts about the place would crystallize after some distance, but most haven't, so this (maybe a bit surprising at times) laundry list of stuff I can't fit together probably best illustrates the chaos that India is.
Outside of my time in the training centres, the **** hotel and a few random encounters in Shimla, I never felt particularly welcome there. This wasn't entirely bothersome, but I guess one should be prepared for this sort of thing when visiting the place, and it isn't really the sort of thing that people go out of their way to tell you. Having said that, the people who ran the Sand Dunes hotel in Diskit were some of the most welcoming people I've ever met and really this was true of most everywhere I went in Ladakh. While I didn't spend much time in Delhi by comparison, I was there long enough to figure out that it is probably the least welcoming place I've been since I was last in eastern Arizona. Yeehaw.
Along these same lines, trust seems to be in short supply - as a persistent sort of fibbing, or ease of telling you what the other person thinks you want to hear, which is often wrong and may mostly be a factor of not listening well, or possibly a cultural or linguistic barrier. Nevertheless it manifests itself as untrustworthiness and by the time I left I was completely out of patience with most people I encountered, as almost all of those encounters (particularly in and around Delhi) took the form of someone trying to take advantage of me. While this was only for minor change, the persistent dishonesty wiped my patience out.
For instance, the friendliest person I met in Delhi (practically the only friendly person I met in Delhi) was this nice Sikh autorickshaw driver named Chinder who drove me to the Lotus Temple. As we were leaving it seemed we were getting along really well until he made an unscheduled stop at Kashmir Cashmere, which was this amazing rug shop, but I already told him I didn't have money and that I had no interest in shopping - yet we were 20km from the centre of Delhi and I had to go in with him. Even if this was relatively low pressure, it still really rubbed me the wrong way. He then said we were going to make two more stops because the shop keepers would give him petrol even if I didn't buy anything, in response to which I had to insist that we went directly to our next (final) stop and offered to double his rate for doing so. I had already planned on giving him a fairly massive tip on this order, and thought it would be a really nice gesture, so when he put me out so much that I felt like I had to bribe him to get what I was rightly due, I was pissed off! This is the type of encounter that happened repeatedly when I was entirely dependent on strangers. I now know that I'm fundamentally not cut out for that style of travel.
Additionally, it would seem some parts of India have a few things to learn about service. It probably seems rich for a first world traveler to go 'slumming it' in India and then complain about the 'slums', but these are things I didn't expect I'd be taking for granted. For instance, those people in Diskit who I went out of my way to remark about above, were also the people who provided the lowest service expectation (for lack of a better term): no heat, no phone, no television, sporadic electricity, no running water, no towels, etc. Granted, this is one of the most remote places on earth and they did give me buckets of water for bathing and went out of their way to boil water for me because there was no bottled water for miles. But the boiled water was brought in this horrible jug with gunk everywhere, and the lack of towels meant that I had to mop up the full jug of undrinkable boiling water with one of my two blankets, which left me with scarcely enough heat in bed despite having brought my own sleeping bag (it was really cold at night).
A similar irritation was the staff at the hotels in Shimla and Delhi who would walk straight in to the room immediately after knocking or try to peer in if the door was only partly opened. The pinnacle of this utter disregard for privacy was reached when a security guard on the metro in Delhi stared in to my open wallet as I was paying for a day pass and told me the ticket was 50Rs more than what it actually cost.
While my tour of Ladakh was generally run impeccably and my guide was very friendly, there were four things that happened which really tried my patience:
- On my fourth day (the second day after my acclimation to the altitude when it felt as though the trip might finally gather some momentum), the itinerary was changed because they didn't get the pass in advance. We needed to apply for special passes to visit most of the areas we went (due to military restrictions) but they knew about my visit for over a month beforehand, and then failed to get the pass because it was a holiday on the day before we were leaving for Pangong. This all would have been fine, but as it turned out a guy I met said he tried to go there the day before and the mountain pass had been closed because of the snow, so it was possible I may have missed the chance to get there due to their poor planning. After we rescheduled things and I had reconciled myself with hoping for good weather later in the week, I asked if they had everything like snow chains ready. The driver said he would have to borrow them but he would try to find some. How you can make a living off of driving around the Himalayas and not own snow chains is beyond me... So this then became the second perceived barrier to me getting what I paid for and as this was the fourth day with only one proper journey under our belts, I was in a fairly poor mood to start the day
- That afternoon the guide and driver made the first of what would be many stops for food or tea without asking me. The first time this happened was at our final stop of the day at the Dalai Llama's house in Leh. We had been up at a stupidly early hour in order to get breakfast before the long trip to Pangong that didn't happen, and filled the day with more trips to local monasteries. At this point I felt like I was getting a bit fatigued with the balance of Buddhism to Himalayas that I was getting out of the trip. Anyway... I had brought a packed lunch from the hotel, as we had expected to be driving hundreds of miles, so we were sorted for food, and I really just wanted to make this final stop at the Dalai Llama's crib a quick one. But as we rolled up we were invited in to a monk's flat on the premises, where we were given tea and cakes, but the monk and the guide/driver scarcely acknowledged me for 20 minutes while we hung out in his room, drinking milky tea I didn't want and listening to chatter in a language I couldn't understand a word of. Fairly rude in any culture, I thought...
- Looking back at it now, the previous incident was quite similar to my guide's later habit of talking at me in Ladakhi, which he thought was terribly funny. He didn't do it very often, and it vaguely fit with his sense of humour, but it wound up being really annoying. He'd just turn around from the front seat of the car and ask me questions or talk at me in Ladakhi. The he'd laughing when I found it frustrating. If I did that to someone who didn't speak English here (and I spoke their language) I think I'd be accused of being fairly cruel!
- But the thing that pissed me off the most was when we got back to the hotel on the last day of the trip and he asked me if I was going to tip the hotel staff and he told me I had to tip the driver. I was obviously going to do both anyway. It's just insulting.
After all of that moaning about the guide I must reiterate that on the whole, he and the driver were great, and we generally had quite a fun time given that we were cooped up in a car most of the time. It's just that a few really annoying things can really leave a lasting impression.
Oh, and a tip for those in Ladakh in October: bathing in a bucket of warm water for a week is fine, as long as you don't have to do it in an unheated bathroom when the temperature is below freezing, which will likely be every day of that week.
Anyway... one thing I was utterly unable to penetrate was the Indian caste system, which basically doesn't compute for me. From what I was able to glean, it may have been a root cause behind the completely naked woman I saw standing in the middle of a highway on the way to Agra, or of the man who had been stripped naked on the road-side and appeared to be getting abused (in some manner that was difficult to make out from a car moving in the opposite direction, but may have had something to do with the naked man hiding something in his nether regions). What struck me (aside from his nudity) was that the two men inflicting the damage seemed to be acting out of such dominion. Or so I read into it. Like I said, I really understand very little of it, but this sort of thing is merely the violent climax of an arrogance that permeates so many of the social interactions that you witness daily. If I were to summarize my understanding of it, I would call it a sanctioned and expected arrogance.
I noted with some enthusiasm that devout Buddhists, Sikhs and Hindus are all quite musical, and persistently so. It surprised me that given this musical inclination, and a still fairly sizable Muslim community in India, that I never knowingly saw any Sufi.
Obviously I've mentioned the noise before, but it's difficult to convey just how persistent it is. You get weddings that last for days, monks and priests who start chanting loudly (often amplified) as early as 5am, constant wild dog and monkey barks/fights and of course, the car horns.
While I'm talking about animals again, I never was able to reconcile the tolerance of animal noise, excrement and violence within a society that seems to have little interest in loving animals - to the point of turning a blind eye from those who routinely punch, kick or throw rocks at them.
If all of this makes it seem as though I hated my time in India, then I've given entirely the wrong impression, and I'll refer you back to all the pictures that I've already posted. It's just that it was the picturesque things that I enjoyed most about the place, so those pictures necessarily and favourably prejudice any lasting thoughts or feelings I carry with me, and the annoyances that sit beside that beauty are integral to understanding my experience of the place.
So I'll offer an allegory which might sum that up. I had a surreal conversation with one of the very few occupants who were staying in my hotel in Leh, during one of the many power cuts we experienced there. It consisted of him pontificating at great length about how much he appreciated the unique majesty of the Himalayas, the peace of the area, the pleasantness of the people and his joy at getting a break from "the rat race", only to turn to the boy who worked at the hotel in mid-breath and quite forcefully ask him what the hell was wrong with the backup generator.Labels: Travel
:: Tristan 23:22 [+] ::
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