Mehtaphysics ॐ

As I mentioned in the last post, I saw Neon Indian a few weeks ago. I had seen them over the summer at Bonnaroo, and they were great both times. Their live show has a much more intense vibe than their chill, relaxed album. I'm sure that Brooklyn Bowl being an amazing venue also played a role.

Because I was really close, here's a cool video. As you can see, they're very psychedelic. The guitarist had an actual LCD screen on his stratocaster:

As a bonus, here's an awesome BRAHMS remix of my favorite Neon Indian song, "Psychic Chasms." Listen:

A couple weeks ago, I went to a Todd P.-organized concert deep in Brooklyn. It ended up being shut down by the cops, which was a surreal experience in itself, but I had a chance to get introduced to the Smith Westerns. They're from Chicago, really young, and have a knack for catchy melodies.

 

I saw The Drums and Surfer Blood at Webster Hall during the CMJ Music Festival, and their opener happened to be some guys from Arizona/California called The Young Friends. I didn't make much of them at the time--they probably aren't much older than me. But I got their album (you can stream it here) and it's great. I actually ran into them outside this Trouble & Bass showcase I went to! That was pretty absurd.

 

Lastly, the openers for Neon Indian at Brooklyn Bowl were these guys called Prince Rama. Apparently they grew up in a Hare Krishna tribe and now make drone electro worship music? Very trippy but interesting. Some of these prayers and melodies I actually remember my grandmother singing to me when I was a child, which makes it doubly weird for me.

I have some interesting videos to share with you:

First, a man in India that is truly the master of his craft. That craft is perfectly throwing parotas like a disc.

 

Next, the future of live electronic music. I downloaded Glasser's album a few months ago, and it's a sublime little experiment in sparse electro-pop. My jaw dropped when I saw how she performs it live:

 

Here's the classic piece 4'33 by John Cage being perfomed by an orchestra. It's famous as an avant-garde composition because it consists purely of silence. The sound of the environment surrounds the listeners, and each one perceives it differently.

 

David Lynch on product placement. Hilarious.

 

These guys from Perth are the coolest psychedelic vintage band imaginable. They played an amazing show last night. Kevin Parker multi-tracked his vocals, got the coolest delay/reverb sounds out of his guitar, and jammed on "Half Full Glass of Wine" to finish it off. And the crazy spinning green light was hooked up to his amp, resulting in some weird sound-wave visuals. Awesome videos:

A couple Fridays ago was the #Offline Festival hosted by Pitchfork at Brooklyn Bowl (awesome venue). I had two tickets but couldn't go because my parents were in town. I also didn't realize it was 21+, and I decided to take that angle when trying to get a refund for that $20 I never picked up from will call. The festival wasn't sold out or anything, and I started the e-mail thread before the concert, so I felt I might as well just go all out for the refund by e-mailing the ticket provider (which is what the Brooklyn Bowl guy advised me to do.) Anyways, here's the interesting thread that followed. I was quite forceful. Commentary in italics.

From: ajayumehta@gmail.com

To: customersupport@ticketfly.com

Subject: #Offline Festival Ticket Refund

Hi,

 

Hello Ajay,

My name is Jamal Mahone and I am the Customer Support Supervisor for Ticketfly. I was made aware of your exchange with Carla Deasy, the Customer Support representative who handled your case. I wanted to let you know that we sincerely regret the brevity of the response. Although I assure you that we did our best to make the case for the refund, the actual response was not the level of customer service that we pride ourselves on here at Ticketfly. In your particular situation, we do have a firm all sales are final policy. The fact is that the show was 21 and over as most shows at the Brooklyn Bowl are. This was listed on the purchase page as a result an exception could not be made. As near as I can tell you were a first time customer and to have this be your first and only experience with Ticketfly is truly unfortunate. My hope is that in the future when you have the opportunity to purchase tickets through Ticketfly, it will not be met with reluctance and it will be a positive experience.

-- 
Jamal Mahone
Ticketfly Customer Support Supervisor

 

The following post -- partially inspired by a bit Sarah Silverman did when I saw her at the Brooklyn Book Festival a few weeks ago -- contains direct transcripts of text conversations with my mom. Nothing has been altered.

Sona is an associate professor at the University of Washington and a psychiatrist at the Veteran's Affairs hospital in Seattle. She's on the left in this picture:

Bonus coda from my Grandmother at the end. Hopefully this isn't too dry to work in text format. 

*****

Mom: How is your day?

Me: my day is good! sorry I haven't returned your calls yet

Mom: No worries . Are you doing     Ok? Was your weekend busy?

Me: I am doing great and my weekend was exciting!

Mom: Wonderful. We'll connect later as I am at work and seeing patients

*****

Mom: How are you feeling?

Me: good... you?

Mom: good? I just found out I got a 5000 dollar raise.

*****

Mom: How is your day?

Me: good! how is yours?

Mom: Good? When is the concert?

Me: I think it's in a few hours

Mom: Ok cool have fun and be safe

Me: I will! how are things going at home?

Mom: Things are fine. Work has been very busy. I have been getting recertified for ect and done 15 treatments with rewarding results.

Me: awesome what is ect?

Mom: Electroconvulsive therapy (electroshock) treatment under anesthesia

Me: oh wow... isn't that the thing that poets and artists in the 50's were against? they tried to use it to cure homosexuality and stuff? 

Mom: There is a lot of media misperception about it... but I have seen how it saves lives. I'll tell you all about it.

*****

Mom: sfghfxhxggfgtxfxchbhthshdjfhxvxhsdbxchchgbbbvvxjhdxgvhfhhdttfhgshxcgntrsd. Bxsfdv cv b fv

Mom: Sorry. Bye.

*****

Mom: How is your day?

Me: great! went to the us open

Mom: Wow it must have been exciting

Me: it was! how are things at home?

Mom: Good. Ari started school today. He is very excited to have a male teacher. He seems very sincere and approachable. How are things in the dorm. It is cold here. I had to wear my winter coat to work this am.

*****

Mom: We are staying for lunch. Shall I have someone pick you up

Me: no it's not a big deal. I'm going to take a nap.

Mom: Ok. Let me know because we can pick you up or after lunch we will be going back home.

Mom: There is a microwave to heat up some food.

Mom: Did the gang find you?

Mom: Did you buy food for lunch or can I bring some?

Me: wokr up late so i'm not too hungry

Mom: The cleaning lady is coming at 930 but I asked her not to do your room

Mom: Do you want me to make a hair cut appointment?

Mom: Did you see the gang?

Me: yeah

*****

Mom: How was the dentist visit?

Me: it went well! he said my teeth are great!

Mom: Great. What are you doing?

Me: just at home. he said I probably don't need to go every six months as there's nothing wrong with my teeth

Mom: Ok. If that is what he said then it's ok. Do you feel that your teeth are cleaner.

*****

Mom: Can I pick you up soon?

Me. why's that? it's a grad party at Drew's house.

Mom: I can come to socialize with the parents?

Me: you can but you don't need to!

Mom: Ok let me know the address and we can plan to be there later.

Me: sure the address is --------- [new hampshire]

Mom: Can we come by 6:10 or so and socialize a bit. We really want to.

Me: sure. who is coming?

Mom: All of us.

Mom: Just kidding.

Mom: Between you and me is it ok if Vipul comes with me?

*****

Grandma: Hi how r      you?

Me: I am good! you've learned how to text?

Grandma: You r my 1st   VICTIM  .LOVE  you

Me: love you too!

So Allen Ginsberg, literary hero to several generations, will be portrayed by James Franco (here's a crazy profile worth reading) in the surrealistic forthcoming adaption of Howl, my favorite poem. Here he is:

In honor of Ginsberg's most iconic work becoming a trippy indie film, here's the imitation long-form poem I had to write last year for class. It was very fun to write. I still like it! There are some twisted, interesting messages in there, but don't take it too seriously. Like Howl I tried to go down into depraved depths and then come back with an infinite optimism. Check it out:

Lollapalooza 2010 was fantastic. Highlights: Dirty Projectors singing "When the World Comes to an End" in their encore, Erykah Badu's ridiculously good funk/soul band, and The Strokes' first U.S. performance in five years (I've wanted to see them live since Room on Fire came out in 2003).

I'm not going to write something up because I'd either belabor it to a pulp or go for a clean, dumb synthesis. So I'll just post a few phone images I liked. Bonus list/video after the pictures!

Lots of bonuses ahead. Click on my friend:

Here are sweet clips of The Strokes and Dirty Projectors doing their thing:

And just for kicks, here's my current reading/movie list. Thanks to Half-Price Books for being the best store ever.

• Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger -- makes me love the Royal Tenenbaums even more
• Y Tu Mama Tambien -- sex-crazed mexicans + Kerouac-style road trip
• Synecdoche, New York -- so intricate it's confused. Also heartbreaking. Watched because Charlie Kaufman wrote Eternal Sunshine.
• Jackie Brown -- Quentin's overlooked gem. Best music of all his films.
• Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer -- completely destroyed me emotionally on the plane ride. But also very funny.
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz -- also hilarious and very sad. Both Foer and Diaz will be at NYU next year so hopefully I'll meet them!

Tell your mother, tell your father, send a telegram.

I'm a hip-hop amateur (or novice or rookie) -- when kids were blasting "Jesus Walks" I was listening to The Strokes and stuff. But lately (partly provoked by seeing Nas & Jay Z at Bonnaroo), I've been flipping through the hallowed halls of rap: Reasonable Doubt, Illmatic, etc.

So far my favorite is Tribe. The upright-bass lines and the jazz horns were initially what set them apart, but Q-Tip and Phife also just have really soothing voices. Rhymes just roll off their tongues through Midnight Marauders. The repeating three-bar phrase in "Electric Relaxation" is nontraditional and trance-like. They make it seem really easy, which I like a lot more than the boasting-rap of Kanye, Weezy et al.  

Here's "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)" & "Luck of Lucien":

Recounting my weekend at the block party in short:

• Friday was sold out, so I was there early but gave up all hope of seeing Yeasayer and went home. But later... a friend gave us a used ticket and we snuck in right as MGMT was going on - who would expect the traditional ticket swap to work so well? Alternative newspapers should rethink organizing music festivals. After seeing them I played around in Cal Anderson.
• There were no tickets to be had for Saturday either... so we stood at Shell and listened to a bit of Atmosphere. Then a savior came along and we followed him by running up a strange staircase in a Matrix-y office building, leaped up to a small roof, and climbed a few fire escape ladders on the sides of buildings to get up to an ridiculously awesome surface. One of the scariest things ever. Luckily getting down was easier. Played around in Cal Anderson again and made an enormous circle.

  
• Day three: I had tickets! Or at least a legitimate way to get in by volunteering for the Washington Bus and registering young people to vote. I did that for a few hours and then met friends and watched Real Estate & Blue Scholars. Was going to go on stage right before Dead Weather to throw out t-shirts and was stopped by no other than Jack White & his people. Still love him. Tough love. 

So I went all three days and never bought a ticket! That was nice. It made for a very interesting weekend, and the volunteering was sweet; I might try to be a fellow with them next summer. Thanks to Stephen B for that one.