Happy Halloween folks! What/Who are you dressing up as today? I’m going as a “Krazy Klown”, barring any makeup malfunctions. The comic really cracked me up! If you like it too, don’t forget to check out cartoonist Sean Bieri’s other work.
As I stood in Mercury Lounge, New York for potentially my final concert experience in the city for a while, I realized just how passionate I am about the independent and experimental music subculture. Over the past two and a half years, going to indie rock concerts has become habitual and the prospect of losing out on that completely when I move to Mumbai (more on that soon) is depressing.
I recently carried out a survey on mainstream Indian pop culture influences, which suggested that there is an emerging independent rock scene (primarily Hindi for now) led by Farhan Akhtar for making films like Lakshya, Dil Chahta Hai and Rock On!!. Local rock bands are also gaining prominence through performances at Blue Frog and Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai. Last week a friend introduced me to SHAAIR + FUNC, describing them as “an uber-electronic Bjork meets new Britney”. For me, they represent New India—globalized and reconnecting with their roots in new and exciting ways to provide diverse forms of expression.
Though her roots can be traced back to Kashmir, Monica Dogra (of SHAAIR + FUNC) was raised in Maryland on a steady diet of Ani DiFranco CDs. She went on to attend New York University, dabbling in musical theater along the way. Her parents divorced when she was 11, greatly influencing her journey towards the arts.”In a lot of ways the divorce was very freeing, because I was forced into a situation where as it was, I was already different,” she says. “I feel like had my parents stayed together, I would have had this pressure on me to be this perfect Indian girl.” (via Nirali Magazine)
Even though Bollywood and its music dominates mainstream popular culture in India, I strongly believe there is an opportunity to create a sustainable independent music movement in the country. With that intention I’d like to launch SAFFRON NOTE, a grassroots operation that not only promotes Indian independent music but also American and European independent bands in India. And I don’t mean The Killers independent but rather dive bar, abrasive lyrics, cheap beer independent.
If this interests you and you’d like to help in any way please leave a comment on this post and I’ll keep you posted as the idea evolves. In the meanwhile I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts and suggestions as I’ve been away from India for a while.
Can this be successful? Will enough people be interested? What will it take? Setting up a bar in Mumbai dedicated to live shows and/or a music festival à la Woodstock? Would brands be excited by it? Would a company like Jet Airways see benfits in sponsoring artists to fly for free or alternately, would state departments provide subsisdies to promote tourism? Would foreign artsits be excited to travel to India if combined with tourism and promoted as a spiritual journey (similar to The Beatles’)?
A classic comic that taps into the current recessionary sentiment by cartoonist Scott Johnson whose work I’ve posted before.
Album Art for Plant and Animal's Parc Avenue
I’m glad I managed to snag last minute tickets to see Plants and Animals & Born Ruffians—both Canadian indie bands—at Mercury Lounge last night. I hadn’t heard Plants and Animals before but was immediately impressed by their range and the way they artfully blended a vast array of influences—a bit of the Kooks, The Beatles, Neil Young, Devandra Banhart, Arcade Fire, Yeasayers. They could even go from orchestral, to a dance-driven Afro-beat, to a haunting guitar instrumental.
The Born Ruffians have a very unique sound; it’s frenetic, folksy, and edgy but at the center of their melodies is a special “brand of lovelorn poetry sung by frontman Luke Lalonde sung with equal parts distress and persuasion”—perfectly captured by the iTunes review.
Here’s a sampling of the music:
Plants and Animals - Good Friend
Plants and Animals - Guru
Born Ruffians - I Need A Life
Born Ruffians - Hummingbird
http://www.wddg.com/projects/superman_seinfeld/
This series depicts Seinfeld and Superman hanging out like ordinary folks, at the local diner, setting up a home theater system, or taking a road trip together. It usually ends up with Superman getting them in a fix and embarrassingly for him, Seinfeld needs to call for help for which American Express is usually the answer. It’s not too obtrusive since the dialog is witty and references are made to previously established character traits and events, keeping you interested in the storyline.
http://www.meetthebeckers.com/
The website greets us with the line “Dysfunctional isn’t a word. It’s a last name,” and that’s exactly what you experience through the perspective of Jason Becker as the Becker family prepares for Thanksgiving. All his relatives with their awkward kinks own either a Mercedes, BMW, or Lexus while Jason, the “Family Holiday Survivor”, drives an Audi. Luckily those distinctions are subtle and the series is character driven, making it a fun watch.
Tapping into the Presidential race buzz, Unilever has created its own animated campaign series that pits the 0g fat and 0 calorie per serving Spraychel (nominee of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter’s Spray Party) against the rich in saturated fat and cholesterol Maxell Butterman of the Butter Party.
In fact Spraychel was integrated into a recent episode of MSN’s Republicrats, an online parody on the current Presidential race. The show features comedy writer Sean Masterson—a hapless third party candidate running for president against Sen. John McCain and Sen Barack Obama—dreaming of Spraychel running for president of his refrigerator.
http://www.schhh.eu/shortfilms/
Partnering with Publicis Mojo of New Zealand, Coca-Cola aimed to revitalize its Schweppes drink in the EU by positioning it as an “adult” product. Publicis enlisted 5 directors to create short films; each one targeted at a mature audience, containing smartly devised product placement and a mandatory “Schhh moment” around which the campaign is based.
Schweppes aired intriguing snippets of these films on air that encouraged watchers to see the full versions online. Make sure to watch “SIGNS”, an incredibly quirky, uplifting, and serendipitous take on making connections with people around us.
Do these campaigns work for you? Can you think of other compelling forms of branded content? I need your help to grow this list so please feel free to share links of other examples you come across.
GoAnimate has an intuitive and easy to use editing tool that allows you to create animations with preloaded content from the site as well as your own uploads. I was able to throw together this masterful cartoon in just 10 minutes so give it a shot and see how outrageous you can get. Feel free to leave a link to your animation in the comments.
(hat tip: @krisnair)
Photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman has put together a fascinating Wisdom project to facilitate passing knowledge onto the next generation by collecting insights from luminaries such as Desmond Tutu, Graham Nash, Jane Goodall, Wole Soyinka, Robert Redford, Nelson Mandela, Ravi Shankar and many others who have made a mark on the world.
Here are some more perspectives on wisdom from famous philosophers and literary figures:
“Wisdom begins in wonder.” —Socrates
“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” —George Bernard Shaw
“It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.” —Henry David Thoreau
“The perfection of wisdom, and the end of true philosophy is to proportion our wants to our possessions, our ambitions to our capacities, we will then be a happy and a virtuous people.” —Mark Twain
“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” —Mohandas K. Gandhi
For me, wisdom is the ability to use intuition, humanity and steadfastness to seek creative solutions and also to confront deep-set fears with a belief in oneself to prevail.
Please share your take on the Wisdom project and what it means to you.
EDIT: I watched this video a week after I first saw it and was struck by a new revelation—to me, WISDOM IS THE ABILITY TO FIND INNER PEACE.
That’s it! How one describes inner peace though is up for contention.
Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Their aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. This year’s topic is Poverty.
Growing up and living most of my life in India, I’ve always had a close view of how disparate the distribution of wealth is in the world. The most disconcerting aspect is that most people are there due to circumstance and that it could very easily be me. Yes, I agree I’ve worked hard to reach where I am but much of the world’s poor may go through a lifetime without getting an opportunity to work or display their talents and at most times oppressed due to their lack of resources.
Take for example this recent article about the shocking treatment of the poor in India.
India is changing so fast that it is starting to look like someplace else. Skyscrapers are sprouting. Towns are ballooning. The young date, drink, smoke freely. But many of the people who are making the new India new - from the stockbrokers to the bedecked socialites - are responsible for preserving a certain gloomy element of the Indian past: a tendency to treat the hired help like chattel, to taunt and humiliate and condescend to them, to behave as though some humans were born to serve and others to be served.
Again, not so surprising for me—I’ve seen it happen often and find it deplorable. One can only wonder how long the poor will remain patient and quiet—in India there are numerous stories about mini revolts sparking off in retaliation. We don’t need more strife and internal fighting, even if we can’t make monetary contributions, we should embrace the moral right to respect human life.
One observation that’s amazed me in my travels around the world is that children, no matter how poor their family, still manage to go about their daily chores with a smile and frolic with their siblings and other street kids. It’s that very innocence, that pure pleasure of life itself, that we tend to lose once we’re entrenched in the greedy quest for wealth. I’m not advocating that we donate all our life savings to charity and become ascetics but rather detach ourselves occasionally from our daily pursuits and understand the need for a more equitable distribution of wealth for the world to prosper. Our strength is in our people and right now millions of them are dying in abject poverty.
Dealing with poverty can be depressing but with this video I’ve tried to capture some of the happier emotions that can inspire ourselves to seek out that same unperturbed joy by limiting our needs and contributing our excess towards uplifting the marginalized. The recent financial crisis has taught us many lessons but the most severe being that many countries have been living way beyond their means and for the most part, at the expense of the less privileged. Lifestyles will have to drastically change to fix this mess and I hope we can all evaluate our lives and make a commitment today to make a positive impact on our environment and the people around us. I hope you enjoy the video… please pass it on, and keep smiling!
The song in the video is Bob Sinclar’s “Give A Lil’ Love”, a DJ who “aspires to bring people together by making music with hope and energy, music that can be shared across the world.” Check out “Love Generation” which also has a similar theme. Here are the lyrics for the song in the video:
now you and I
can get together
let us start a revolution
change this world
to what it should be
and forget all this confusionwe could live together
for the sake of love
what are we fighting for
oooh now
we could start heeling todayif we can just learn to give
give a lil’ love
you and I can change the world
live a lil’ love
make it better if we try
show a lil’ love
let your love rain
let it rain down on menow if we wait and do nothing
then what about their future
how can we look in to there eyes
and say we love our children
we can make it better
feel the love inside
forget foolish pride.
Here’s an action list that can help you get involved. Another great site that I use is Kiva, which helps you make loans to small business owners in third world nations. It involves concepts that I find very inspirational: fortune at the bottom of the pyramid and micro-finance. I would welcome a discussion of similar new business ideas, ones that we can collaborate on and implement collectively.
Nice little bar trick, ehh?!
