The last few weeks have been hectic... SSB was phat, warehouse party 4 was a big un and now we're gearing up for the second Shiva Soundsystem gig at Rhythm Factory. The first was in 2002 with Jackin House maestro's The Laundry and featured Shiva Soundsystem live in a new line up, as well as the first appearence of the name "Eastern Drum n Breaks" used to describe our sound.

Three years on and Shiva Soundsystem live is making a special one off appearence featuring: Renu Hossain (Percussion & Tabla), Elio D'Anna (Guitar), his mate (on drums) and guest bassist Ranvir from Sonik Gurus (we're desperately trying to re-create that Glastonbury jam magic...)

Also playing will be me, Nu-Trix, Soldgie (Drum & Bass/Breaks), Matin, Soni & Darryl (Shiva House Federation), Stephano (Broken House), Akshai (Blips n Beats) and guest Bhangra/Mash-up/Breakbeat/Punk Maestro Swami.

Here's to the birth of The Boy

Polaroid nostalgia

I know it's late but I still need to give tribute:

Bob Moog RIP

Carnival as always killed it. From some sick drum&base to Dhol Boyz to even a calypso mix of Disco Divane + some seriously sexy house that demanded some speaker climbing antics with Wing commander Buddy Kish .

Amrikan National Public Radio interview with MIDIval Punditz.

So last night we had a massive party that finished at 8am (Woo Hoo! Big Party). A car then came at 9am to pick me, Dee, Sangna and Suki up to go to Vibe Bar where the Asian Network were broadcasting their breakfast show live.

And I spoke and I have no idea what I said. Oh and Andy C is playing Herbal tonight.

I love Sundays...

A story for my "dot-not-feather"ed friends:

I had a job interview earlier this week and the directors were looking at my CV and said "oh, you've got a lot of cultural stuff on here." Is that a code for brown? They were asking me about smoking stuff so I said I'd done things for Asian Quitline and they started laughing, as if the idea of a separate quit service was funny. I explained, well, it's a language service, you can call them up if your English isn't very good. Then one guy said "You should have a commercial of someone stubbing out a cigarette on their forehead...you know, some of those people put ash there." I just smiled and said "I thought it was Catholics that did that." ;)

The Mahatma's back... and his brought some friends..
Friday 30th Septmber @ The Pool

More funny brown people come to Ch4 this fri Bownwell High

Sunday was wicked. Went to London mela first- from the acts i caught-much love to yamboy, the poetic genius! But my highlight was swami who showcased proper live and raw musical talent and blatantly stood out from the other acts i saw. Day was then topped off by a fantastic ssb.

Supersonic Buddha was bloody briliant. Much love to the crew, the DJ's and the crowd. Roll on next Saturday...

SUPERSONIC BUDDHA :: THIS SUNDAY :: LINE UP

UNFORTUNATELY WE HAVE JUST ALSO LOST MR AKI NAWAZ WHO IS STILL TOILING ON THE NEW FUNDAMENTAL ALBUM AND REHERSING WITH THE MIGHTY ZULU NATION THIS SUNDAY.

HE SENDS HIS LOVE AND APOLOGIES.

1830 - 2030 NERM
2030 - 2130 COCO VARMA (EARTHTRIBE)
2130 - 2230 DJ NASHA & CHEMI-KAAL
2230 - 2330 SAM ZAHMAN (STATE OF BENGAL)

Oh man, I just accidentally found a gift for the warehouse's self-proclaimed Bengali Fish Bitch...

And, upon further intentional searching, one for Kish, one for Simon, one for Nerm...

WAREHOUSE PARTY 4 :: SHIVA SOUNDSYSTEM HQ :: SATURDAY 20TH AUGUST :: DJ NASHA CONFIRMED

My crazy friend from New Orleans (met her when she was living in San Francisco, now she's in Rhode Island) is going to be doing some shooting for us in Massachusetts, which is where an American invented the rickshaw in 1848. (take THAT, Mr. Everything Comes from India!) ;) Anyway, so I was teasingly bigging up her brown connection (she did a short comedy film about a kid who becomes a cannibal, with two half-Indians playing the character at different ages) to Poorva and the director, and she wrote back this, which I'd forgotten:

"My mother is an artist and when I was a child she used to travel back and forth from New Orleans to New Delhi in the '80s. In elementary school I had a pen pal from Jaipur for a while and would wrap myself in my souvenir sari and play ninja in the swamp. I thought I was very cool."

I vote for sari-clad ninjas on Sunday. Nerm? Koo? Speaking of Brown Indpendence Day, what do you make of this? Metropolitan police consider flag ban on Independence days. Dammit, I shoulda worn an Amrikan flag like a Wonder Woman cape on July 4.

It seems I haven’t watched television in ages-I’ve had no time!…but these seem rather promising…

Meet the Magoons is the story of a group of mates (Hardeep Singh Kohli, Sanjeev Kohli, Nitin Ganatra and Paul Sharma) for whom ketchup, chaos, country slices, tandooris, turbans and transvestites are all in a day's work.

Then there is ‘lost’ which has started tonight…and to be honest has won me over purely because of its adverts.

now available while stocks last....a spiderman rakhi...no kidding!

but if you check this out ... http://www.indiaplaza.com/catalog/catalogdetail/giftdetail.asp?itemid=312801&majorcat=services&subcat=gifts&place=US

check out what people who brought this item, also brought...the connection between these items are so obvious!!??....and aren't those poses just to die for!

OK everybody -- go watch this trailer. (RealPlayer, 85 sec, 2.3 mb) In case you need any encouragement, it features the Shiva Soundsystem remix of Desi Rock. It's for a documentary currently being shot by P-Jo and her special friend in Bombay. I've only got a bit of their footage, so the trailer focuses on one particular aspect of the planned doc. I won't tell you what it's about because I want to hear people's responses upon watching it cold. Bonus points for identifying the narrator and any recognizable faces. :)

Seems like every brown person I know is getting the cold shoulder on public transport recently. I doubt I'll ever run for the tube again. Better late than dead.
Open letter from Rabinder Singh QC, barrister at Matrix Chambers and a visiting professor of law at the LSE: I am a lawyer, not a bomber

The Brits may have Fauja Singh, but in terms of hip Asian grandpas, America's got Kumar Pallana, character actor and now star of a music video by a Texan indie-rock band.

On the weekend of 6th and 7th of August it is the innocent festival.
- Fruitstock, a weekend of music, smoothies and maybe even love, in London's Regent's Park.
It's free for nice people, and we'll be raising money for charity on the day. All in all, it should be a perfect time to lie back and enjoy the summer. In the meantime, keep watching this site http://www.fruitstock.co.uk/ for updates.

...ah yes did i mention nitin's doin a set there too!

Time for some shameless videowallah self-promotion because I'm feeling really cheesy. A few weeks ago I filmed at the Croydon mela for desivision.tv, an American website, because they were really curious about what brown people are up to in the UK. I'll be shooting the Independence Day gig for them too, so be ready. Anyway, they've got the 10-min video up (it's currently under "specials" at the bottom), so you should go register with the website and watch it. Yeah yeah, I know y'all are too hip and cool for mainstream things like melas, but check it out since at the very least, Bobby and Nihal are always entertaining. ;) It's basically an introduction to melas and British Asian musicians for Americans. I'm bummed that they edited out Trickbaby and letterboxed it, but oh well. If you want to download the original file by itself, it's sitting here.

Raksha Bandhan (which celebrates the special bond between sister and brother). is on the 19th August and Oxfam have come up with a white band with Hindi text – “brothers and sisters unite” get yours here

More rain in Mumbai has made things worse for our friends and family. We hope that everyone there is okay.

On a different tip, Janaka from Dhamaal won't be able to make it to the UK for this months Supersonic Buddha. Unfortunately we have no Sri Lankan representative on the decks but I'm sure the crowd will make up for it.