It's like that old enigma about cops - What do Indian men with mustaches (which seem to be most of them) call other Indian men without mustaches? Woke up having no clue what time it was - Watching pop videos ala Sharks and Jets on steroids - Fosse gave birth to a demon he never dreamed of - The girl/boy ritual dance video is alive and thriving/throbbing in the Sub Continent - Some tabla players have moved in upstairs which really enhances my mandolin practice! I should probably stop by after a couple days and see if they wanna jam - Their beat science is in perfect synch with the spinning fan above my head which kinda makes it sound phased like a Leslie - Have to keep practicing to keep up with Ganesh and Krishna - two phenomenal speed demons hammering out the calculations of Sub Continent Soul...
But here they come crawling down the wall oblivious to the smudges of their brothers, sisters, and cousins that never made it to the bed to feast on my flesh - The sheets are getting smeared with streaks that were once their tiny bodies - But they don't seem to mind being dispatched on to new incarnations. The fan above is emitting an electronic meow. I lift my pillow and find four more of those buggers. As Dylan used to sing "name me a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for them." Glad I took that malaria medicine - Hope it WORKS! I'm such a frickin' bonehead - totally oblivious! Let's see if this mosquito repellant that comes in a bright orange bottle sitting on the night stand, that I brought all the way from NYC actually does any good - DUH! I can't tell yet - Well at least I'm stickier now.
WOW This is the motherlode of Indian TV - the Gemini Music Channel B&W with some dude done up in chandel-earrings and Little Richard mustache and pompadour singing some lust/love song to an incredible Hindi goddess all dressed up like Saraswati - Looks like an old Twilight Zone or Outer Limits - She's got 4 arms, nose ring, golden crown and he's down on his knees beggin' oooh mama honey baby please - let me shake your tree - just like Rahsaan Roland Kirk used to say - "I ain't no rabbit but I just gotta have it!"
By the way they are bulldozing the homes of the Hari Krishnas in Kazakstan - a sorry sight to see, the devotees standing out in the snow and cold
Got up before dawn after punching it out all night with the bed bugs, wandering the streets of this continuous village known as Chennai taking snapshots which I will download as soon as I can figure it out - Over to Ganesh's house for morning jam/lesson - Today is very auspicious as the ruby is coming! 25 Year old Krishna is getting married in Feb. to a very pretty girl he's only known for one month - What a mystery! He's really great - never gets frustrated playing the scales of the raga over and over again for me as my fingers stumble up the fretboard - He picked up my tune Teen Empress in about one minute but has to go as the two families are going to meet and discuss the ruby and other matters - Krishna seems a bit nervous - We were supposed to go out for lunch and he was going to take me around but he's got his hands full - So I'm on my own - Called U. Rajesh - check out his website if you don't know his music - a wild electric mandolin player ascending to the Hendrix heights of Carnatic bliss - He is very sweet and generous about my Neandrathal "Banshee" mandolin style - We are planning to meet tomorrow along with his legendary brother Srinivas - a child prodigy on the electric mandolin who has played with John McLaughlin's Shakti -
Eating a lot of bananas (they're always safe as you can peel them) and downing bottles of mango juice - The weather is sublime - 80 degrees with a nice cool palm breeze but the streets are insane - another air and water pollution alert day - in the low 90 percent of the red zone - A woman has been laying in the same spot now for three days just outside this tunnel I must walk through (to get my daily carbon intake) if I wanna get to the other part of town where this great restaurant is "High Class Vegetarian" - that'd me! I don't know if she's dead and I'm afraid to check... - The line at the cash machine is unreal - Beats the Soho post office by literally a mile and you're hounded/plagued by beggars of various stages of decrepitude selling Q tips or threatening you with the evil eye - Ah ha ha! They got nuthin' on some punk rockers I know - One woman spit on her hand and tried to wipe it on my shoe - I told her she had the wrong foot - My bad toe is on the right. Ate at the Hotel Saravanna - a dosai delish and frickin' incredible coffee, then retreated back to my room from the unbelievable swirling madness of the masses - Times Square at New Year's - No Problem! My friend Ben said he was taking Valium to help ease the vertigo he experienced in these situations - I can see his point
No water - grrrr - Okay as it is I have to sponge bath it from a basin of water that smells heavily of iron deposits - But no water... Luckily - and I suggest if you're ever in this spot - I filled up a big bucket just in case somethin like this happened -So a little Mysore Sandalwood soap and a long nap under the sqeaking fan - Which oddly sounds like my cat Princess Pang - a message from the states perhaps?
Eating with my hand - RIGHT that is! Oddly at first it was bothering me - But then I thought how cool this would have been as a kid and the inner imp spoke to me and now I'm cool with it slingin veggie biryani into me gob - Would have driven my poor mother insane!
Talk to you later - JDK
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