One More Rishikesh Picture

The Mother of All Updates

It’s been a while since I’ve written and there’s been a whole lot happening.

I’ll start by playing a little catchup. My weekend in Rishikesh was one of the best of my entire life. Two profoundly spiritual experiences happened within 24 hours of each other. The first: I skinny-dipped in the Ganga River. I’ve now taken one more step out of the endless cycle of Samsara. Nirvana, here I come. The second: I visited the Beatles ashram and sat in John Lennon’s meditation room. I’m not particularly religious but sitting in that room is the closest I’ve ever felt to a higher being. I visited the ashram a second time the next day with a few other people. During both visits I recorded songs in Lennon’s room. The first one was just a solo take of “I’m So Tired”, one of my favorite songs off the White Album and one that was likely written at the ashram, perhaps even devised in that very room. The next was a take of “In My Life” with friends joining in on vocals. Although not off the White Album, I felt it was one of the most appropriate ones for the moment as it is truly a place that I’ll remember all of my life.

Beatles experiences aside, Rishikesh was a wonderful town. I happened to be there on one of the busiest weekends of the decade. Hardiwar, a nearby town, hosts a day where millions upon millions of spiritual-seekers take a holy bath in the Ganga. That day was the Monday the 15^th. So, because Hardiwar cannot support the 50 million visitors on that weekend, many of them have to stay in Rishikesh. I saw thousands of Sadhus, people on spiritual journeys, walking about the town in their saffron robes and long beards. Perhaps my view of Rishikesh is a bit skewed as normally it is a much quieter location.

After waterfall hikes, spontaneous jam sessions with Australians (that for some reason became well-attended with about 20 passerbys), I left Rishikesh and headed back to Delhi for a night, only to wake up the next day to travel to Varanasi, also known as Benares, for a week of tabla lessons.

Varanasi itself as a city was, well, undesirable. It was dirty, smelly, and seemed to condense all of the unsavory aspects of Delhi. However, learning tabla day in and day out from a true master was wonderful. I had 4 hours of lessons everyday and practiced in the off time, allowing little time for actual exploration of the city. No matter. There wasn’t much beautiful to see. Although, I did get to see Sarnath, the location where the Buddah gave his first teachings to his five ascetic disciples. It was a very peaceful place and I really felt collected as I walked around the grounds which contain a large stupa and foundational remains of buildings. Funny enough, the location was discovered in 1918. 1918! How do you lose a stupa in the overgrowth of the Indian jungle? Still, a wonderful place.

Now, I am back in Delhi and have just over a week until my Independent Study Period begins. The ISP period is what I’ve been waiting for since I’ve come here. I’m given one month and 36,000 R (a bit more than the average middle-class workers monthly salary) to complete a research project of my choosing. For my project I’ll be comparing Hindustani classical and Western popular music using Edward Said’s “Orientalism” essay as a lens to examine cross-over of influence between these two styles. “Orientalizing” is essentially making an “other” of something or “exoticsizing” it like a circus side-show. So many Western artists have used Indian instruments in their own music but have not given respect to the music where the instruments came from. I’ll examine musicians who “did it right” and used Indian music or instruments without painting it with the shiny veneer of “a taste of the exotic East” and look at those who “did it wrong”. Then, of course, I’ll have to look at who has been using Western music as an influence in Indian classical and popular music.

Finally, after an academic analysis between these two styles, I’m going to try my hand at recording some of my own fusion music. Using Western freak-folk (Devendra Banhart as a primary influence) and ambient music (mainly drawing from Atlas Sound) and Hindustani classical music, I’m going to fuse these two styles into what will hopefully be a new, wonderfully weird sound-scape: “psychadelhi”.

I’ll be purchasing some recording equipment here as well as a plethora of instruments with the stipend money. And depending on how portable I am, I’m toying with the idea of recording the entire album from within the walls of the Beatles ashram in Rishikesh, although this is a pipe dream and may not pan out. But, your pipe dreams should be crazy. Cause dreams, if they’re any good, are always a little crazy.

I'm still alive...

...for those of you who were wondering. Yes, I'm still kicking over here. Haven't had a moment to really sit down and hash out everything thats been happening. Be sure, though, a large and newsy/sizey update is long overdue and is on the way. Hold steady

Pictures from Rishikesh

One of the best weekends of my life. Fuller updates to follow. Just some pictures for now.

Rush Hour in Rishikesh

Me on Holi

Tantric Temple Carvings

Tantric Temple. Musicians then Some Bestiality

Newsy News

We just got back from a week long excursion to Madyah Pradesh, a state in the center of India. First stop was visiting some Tantric temples. Much sexy time. It’s mostly a knee-jerk reaction from the Hindus to the Islam conservatism that was beginning to proliferate India at the time. They certainly don’t skimp on the naughtiness. Some of these temples have some pretty bawdy sculptures. Check out the video below.
After that, we ventured off to a tiger reserve to try our luck out on safari to see the beast in the wild. One jeep didn’t see any but I caught a glimpse of a baby tiger’s head poking out from behind a rock taking a little cat nap. Adorbs. My camera didn’t have a good enough zoom to capture the moment but trust me, it was oozing cuteness. After two days at the tiger reserve, we hopped on a sleeper train to head back to New Delhi. Indian overnight trains are really not the most relaxing environment but I managed to catch a few hours of sleep on the hard mattresses that attached to the walls with chains. Kinda felt like a mobile jail bed.
The rest of the week has been pretty packed. Hindi Midterm on Wednesday? Culture Midterm Thursday? Yup. Not to mention the final proposal for our Independent Study Project. Way to go SIT for organizing workload. Whatever. Doesn’t matter cause this weekend I’m going to Rishikesh to visit the Beatles ashram and soak up the vibes in Lennon’s meditation room. Then we get back on Monday and head out to Varanasi where I have four days of nothing but tablas lessons. Epic. More news to follow once I’m back next week!

Indie Rock (thanks for the pun Alex)

On Saturday night I got to sit in with an Indian rock band. A few friends and I were just grabbing some food on the top floor of a mall when we heard a band playing on the terrace outside. After sitting at a table with our food and listening to the band run through classic rock covers I approached the stage in between songs. I asked if I could play a song the keyboard player if I could play a song with them and he said, “Oh you wanna jam with us man? Yeah okay. What song?” We agreed on “Use Me” by Bill Withers and got down to business. I played keys and sang and the keyboard player switched to his AX-Synth keytar.
It was a sublime moment and defined everything that I love about music. The other members of the band spoke a little English, enough for me to communicate the chord changes (though there are only two ha ha). But as soon as we got into the groove of the song, there were no more words needed. There was complete understanding between the four of us. Nothing gets lost in translation when you’re playing soul music. I was totally losing it on stage with those guys. I hadn’t played live in weeks and it just felt so. Fucking. Good.
We ended the song and I shook hands with the guys and hustled off stage so they could get on with their set. I talked to the guys after they finished up to thank them again for letting some random white dude play with them. So many others in their shoes would’ve just told me to get lost. But, thus far, it stands as the most fun I’ve had jamming with Indian musicians. Video to be posted soon!