So I got back from Bradford late last night (in a car with singing Sonia and a very jetlagged State of Bengal), where I was working at the mela all weekend. Had a midnight dinner on Saturday with Bombay Jesse and our favorite fundamentalist, who gleefully related that he'd been detained at the Bradford/Leeds airport earlier that day, for wearing his ever-present Palestinian headscarf and a t-shirt with Mullah Omar on it. Classy, as usual. ;) And much as I adore the guy, his recent statements to the press about the necessity of the religious hatred bill strike me as a bit disingenuous. He can stand up on stage and declare to huge crowds that my home country is evil and responsible for terrorism (or have me come over to his house, where two of his kids are wearing t-shirts announcing the same in English and Arabic) (at least they got suitably embarassed and silent when he laughed and told them I was American and asked what they thought) but he would then outlaw me for saying the same thing about some of his Muslim brethren? Whatever, dude. Thank goodness speech is free around here.

Speaking of public opinion, Saturday night the "Talvin Singh trio" closed the mela. After a day of Bollywood and bhangra on the main stage, Talvin arrives half an hour late and plays a classical song with a sitar player and saxophonist. The audience of rude bwoys boos him heartily and throws bottles at him. After the song, Talvin stands up and screams "I've never said this on stage before, but FUCK YOU!!!" He angrily sits down and turns on some programmed beats and plays a song that isn't half-bad, but the teens still boo and blow their horns, albeit in a more subdued manner with the arrival of loads of police. After the second song, it's 8:30 and time for the mela to close, so he vanishes quickly and the emcee doesn't say one word about the crowd's behavior! And apparently people complained to Bradford's councillor about Talvin's cussing! It's a city of inbred little trolls as far as I can tell. The younger kids who came to our booth and brazenly rinsed us of every possible free thing on the table while their parents watched all need a good slap. Anyway, I think I've got his outburst on my camera, I'll try to post a clip soon. ;)