Picture The Past

On Saturday, Dad brought a couple of photos from my late grandfather’s, now lonely standing, house. These have been sitting in a pile in my grandma’s room, out of sight and out of mind. Dad’s shabby effort at a winter clean-up revealed some of our family’s old snapshots and I though that I’d very much like to share it with you.

I don't blog about my folks much these days. To a certain degree, because they read it, and for the most part, because I don't know where to start. My family has been through rough times of late. For a home that, a long time ago, was as interdependent as ours it is overwhelming to see it spacing out so wildly. And all this distancing won't end until each person takes responsibility for their own actions.

I've toiled my way through some very thorny insights which have left in me in essence as being the peace keeper, the intercession strategist, the one who’s supposed to understand everyone else. It troubles me deeply but that's where we rest. Possibly in time things will correct themselves. If they don't...well, I can learn to live with that.

This brings me back to the resurfacing of the mysterious photos. My grandma kept these by her for almost fifty years. After my grandpa died and my dad found them, I claimed them as my own. I didn't want to take the old album apart to scan in the photos, so pardon the less than super pictures.

Parents & siblings, circa 1987.
Perhaps looking at the pictures now is a reminder of how things used to be when everyone didn’t have to try so hard to be together. Maybe the people in these pictures will take a long glance at them now, commit to memory the way things used to be, recall what it was like to beam, and do justice to the man who hasn’t stop smiling ever since he found these carefully hidden pictures and kept us all together, for the longest time, in spite of ourselves.

Love you dad! Happy Birthday!
Switchfoot’s The Beautiful Letdown is among my favorite albums. I think it's a recipe of the music and the recollections. It was life altering for me. I picked it up in college, during my graduation, and it was with me through many changes. Their most awaited seventh studio album ‘Hello Hurricane’ and the lead single off it ‘Mess of me’ were released this year. While I was in doubt about ‘Hello Hurricane’ making it big on the music scene, I was curious. But damn, is it an experience. The thing about the track ‘Mess of me’ is that it exposes things about the band I never expected were there. Jon Foreman's vocals are perfect and who knew he had recorded so many solid solo tracks? The guitar work is insane. It sounds rougher, less polished, in this song. The rhythm section is solid, as usual. Listening to ‘Mess of me’ is like having the sand blown off an island exposing buried treasure chests. It makes a near perfect song that exposes the inner workings of a great album and a great band in the making.

Greetings, kids, this is Eve, assuming control of the EC Consulting Room for Irrational Bloggers for as long as your problem persists; which I’m hoping lasts forever. When I, as a writer started this space I told myself in no uncertain terms to generate at least one sizeable post a day. That's a nice thought, but when you've been at it for some time as I have, receiving and writing from inspiration is hard to come by. The weekend and week, however, provided me with an answer to the predicament, as it does in so many things. Voilà! Instant content.

I'm feeling out of sorts this week. I've been jam-packed with ideas and have been accumulating them all week. So here they are...collected, on the face of it random posts that drop a tiny spot of illumination on the absurdity that I call ‘being’.

I celebrated Halloween by watching the John Cusack movie titled ‘1408’, and due to my heavy dose of antibiotics, I passed out on my bed till late Saturday morning.
The weekend began at Van Huesen with Ruan where there was a sort of impromptu shopping binge, with bloody expensive things being bought, and some people offering to carry our bags a couple of times. I performed my one and only trick which was washing down 10 grand in a couple of minutes, and then listening to my mom, much later, who steadily tore my ears apart with a long talk about ‘savings’.

Last night I made it for a quiet evening at Ruan’s home along with Runa and Tony. We ate Arabic food, chugged down beer, spoke until the wee hours of the morning, found ourselves roaming the apartment complex at nearly 1 in the morning, then hopping into the children’s park with Tony, who then proceeded to join me on one of the kiddie rides, and is therefore sort of my hero.

On Sunday, I met blogger Anupama in person, at one of my favourite places.

Anupama was one of the first blogs I started following when I joined the world of blogging. Apart from being pretty good at what she does, Anupama has one of the best smiles I have ever seen on a human being. Not to mention, she is absolutely gorgeous and she is kind of girl who anyone would just love at first meeting. So, here’s a shout out to her, for the wonderful conversation on a lovely Sunday afternoon. For sitting through the three hours of our meeting, and for hating most of the same stuff I do to a degree I thought only I could summon. Buddy, you’re all right.
Have y’all ever heard of Sufjan Stevens? I bet most of you haven't. He's one of my new favorite vocalists and one of the most appallingly unheard of artists in the world. Stevens was part of the folk revival in Indie pop yet never fell strictly into this genre. His sixth solo album - The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois - showed up while I was going through the music I had. When I saw it, I uploaded this track 'Henney Buggy Band' immediately and without deliberation. It's dazzling. Stevens has an insanely cool, touching voice and his songs are stunning and warm. If you've never heard of this guy, give him a shot. I can almost assure you'll like what you hear.

Caught The Ick

I came home sick Friday evening. I never do that. Although, truth be told, my physical condition and the prospects of making it through the day were both uncertain when I woke up on Saturday. I planned the things I would do this weekend – finally meet a blogger friend, make it to my ex boyfriend’s birthday party and try my best to relax just a tad in the meanwhile.

Saturday night, my body finally broke down and I ended up spending two excruciating days in bed. I had massive chest congestion and a soaring fever. I've been popping medication like Anna Nicole Smith all week. And today I finally feel better. Except for some strange explanation, I can't hear out of my right ear. I'm sorta hopeful that goes away in a little while.

Other than that, nothing earth-shattering occurred. Just a thread of slightly crappy moments which, held collectively, made a pretty unlikable past few days. And I felt like shit. The puzzling illness that's going around smacked me. I realized it when I was speaking and couldn't hear myself. So, that blows.

Yet, it's not awful.

I've got to head back to bed now and get all the rest I can in order to make it into work tomorrow and I'm not exactly looking forward to it. But what helps is the knowledge that I'm not in it alone, that my folks are around to take care of me and also, its payday tomorrow as well as the start to a very nice weekend.

On a side note, make sure to sit down when you first listen to “Waking in the dark” by Polish Indie rock band ‘Hatifnats’. Like a prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box, this track offers up its own little surprise. While most Hatifnats’ music tends to be quite dark – and this track doesn’t break that pattern – there are pieces of vividness interposed with passionate liveliness. Maybe the band will finally get the attention it deserves. Maybe not. But if you like excellent, radical, bold music, ‘Waking in the dark’ should most certainly be on you list of new releases to pick up. This track was my first introduction to their music and I was wowed by them. They are certainly worth checking out!
(Taken at a friend's place. A traditional Naga basket adorned with monkey skulls)

If it’s at all relevant to the place in which you live, don't forget to turn the clocks back on the 31st! And happy Halloween in advance. Remember, you're supposed to fright the crap out of yourselves with terrifying movies. I don't want to be the only one not able to sleep that night!

Have you ever had one of those moments in which you're sure your life will end? You know the kind when there's-no-possible-way-that-I-didn't-breathe-my-last kind of moment. I have one that I was, for some reason, thinking about yesterday.

When I was at the capital one day, we were stuck in traffic at one side of the mountain. And if you’ve ever seen these roads in Kohima, you’ll know that they are too narrow for two cars to travel beside each other. So while I was sitting in my sis’ Gypsy waiting for the cars to move my twin announces that there are rocks falling. We thought it was a joke until I saw a few more boulders rumbling down the side of the hill. Luckily, our driver didn’t wait to make sure if it was true and quite skillfully overtook the car in front of us, damaging it only slightly. Needless to say the boulders didn’t do much damage. We managed to bail before it would have made contact. A few scratches to the vehicle was much better than the alternative.

The landslide almost killed me. But it didn't, and I guess that's the important thing. And the fact that every so often - on the odd occasion - you stumble upon the absolute perfect getaway. I mean, just right that you have to punch yourself to make sure that what's happening is genuine, that it isn't some kind of cruel reverie that makes reality pale in comparison. This was just such a trip. Two weeks. Yes, I was off - as in not working - for a whopping two weeks. And now I'm back at work. I'm sad. But I guess the holiday couldn't go on eternally. For one thing, I'd be poor and I have the feeling I wouldn't like living off my parents’ money. I don't think they’d understand my need to update the wardrobe every other week.
Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Amos Lee’s, third and most recent full length album “Last Days at the Lodge” contains a track titled "What's Been Going On". You can check out the track below this post. He has a lot of hype to live up to; especially after being named one of Rolling Stone's “Top 10 Artists to Watch”. This track does the talking for him.

This whole getting back to work after a vacation is exhausting! Let's see. Where did I leave off...?

This time it was to the villages Kisama and Tupema for some ethnic Angami food (a tribe that lives in large numbers at the capital, Kohima) and the Mr. Big show at Dimapur. The food? Good. The show? Excellent.

We saw them after nearly 6 hours of waiting at the venue and, while loud, it was amazing. Yes, I'm very well aware that most of B’lore had already witnessed the band on 10th but still - amazing. After a long tiring night and turning down an invitation to make to the band’s after party, my friends and I headed back home and passed out.

There was more shopping, more walking and a couple of visits to one of my favorite places in the capital - Dream Cafe. For those of you scratching your heads – it’s a café… at the top of the hill. You can actually get yourself one of those special seats in the café, which overlook the entire valley. It’s a fantastic place - they advertise new bands, old bands, mostly local.

The food was fabulous. But can I tell you how much I ate? Um, no. There aren't sufficient words in the English language to convey how much I devoured. It was painful to get up and walk. But I managed.
Mornings started nice and early (6 a.m) with red tea, heavy brunch and then it’s out on the town at 12. Kohima was chilly and a bit rainy but it always cleared up. We caught an exhibition at the museum. We meandered through the shopping areas that sold knock-off designer items and the busy roads, attempting to make it to the topmost part of the mountain but we got sidetracked. The houses, the people, the little waterfalls...they were all gorgeous. Then the drive back, which helped the sore legs and stops to check out the local fast food joint that created pizzas to perfection.

So, we've walked more miles than god but my work here is not done. I’ve got tons write about and show. More, of course, later...
I'll admit, I haven't listened to much this week. But the past two weeks have seen the release of a near-flawless albums – Battle Studies by John Mayer. Seriously. Flawless. Unless you're a raging gangsta rap fan, I can almost guarantee you'll dig the track 'Who Says'. Give it a listen. You'll like it. This might just be his most mature, well-developed album yet in the catchy department.
Mayer also mentions that this song sounds best between “8pm-3am on Friday and Saturday nights”.

But before hitting play, I have a job for you:
- If you've got a blog, pimp it in the comments, lurkers and non-lurkers alike.
- If you know of a site everyone should be reading - your own or someone else's - open up the comments box and let me and the people who visit this page know about it.

Thank you all for checking in while I was out of town. If I haven't responded to your email, my apologies. I'll have some quality time with my Gmail account tomorrow and the coming weekend! Until then, goodnight from B’lore City.