seven things (in response to yeloson)
Feb. 8th, 2012 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sajia_kabir 1. Recent music you love.
I've been digging the Q magazine CD of covers of U2's Achtung Baby. I'm even hoping to do a Bollywood bellydance remake of that album if I ever get the time. To be honest the music I listen to can be divided into five or six categories: 1. U2 live; 2. Tori Amos live; 3. Memories of my lost youth in the 90s - REM, Kate Bush, etc; 4. Desi folk, classical and pop; Middle Eastern and ME influenced folk, classical and pop; 5. Any contemporary artist who really impresses me - Janelle Monae especially; 6. My friends in the Vancouver indie music scene - Olenka Kraus (now based in Ontario), my bandmates' other project Half Chinese (yes, they are indeed that, but I think the name's a nod to Half Japanese); Falcao and Monashee; Bible Belts; The Maladies; too many others to name them all.
2. Recent dance I'm into
I'm still heavily into bellydance; I do really like contemporary, the fluidity and grace of it; I think ironically it would be easier audience wise to stage a Sufi contemporary piece than a Sufi bellydance piece. But I love the percussiveness of bellydance, which quite isn't there in western contemporary, and of course there's the finger cymbals. I think the fact that bellydance can be fused with so many things, which a lot of purists complain about, is actually a major strength of the dance.
(I've had a falling out with social justice fandom over the ethnopolitics of bellydance, which are NOT identical to yoga and certainly not kathak - kathak is a more or less canonical dance, whereas bellydance comes from many origins - see Mahmoud Reda's nationalistic folkloric dance. What makes it complicated is that there is a stigma attached to bellydance in the ME, whereas there is perhaps some progressive desi embarrassment at yoga and in the past some lower class stigma attached to kathak, but nothing approaching the low status of bellydance in the ME)
3. Favorite eats in Vancouver
I've mentioned Hawker's Diner on Main Street before, where for six dollars you can get really good Singapore-Malay fast food. Recently in my neighbourhood in Coquitlam there opened an amazing Punjabi style desi diner - the best plain white rice I've ever tasted, golden flaky naan bread, excellent curries.
4. I don't watch movies anymore! I think the last time I watched something narrative other than Youtube was an improv show last year.
5. Favorite website
Persephone.com. I like that they're moderates without being assholes about it.
6.Things I'm looking forward to
My projects keep falling through, but I'm hoping to have my Dario Fo monologue staged by the end of the month. I signed up for Code Year, which should be interesting. I'm hoping to finish a full year of contemporary, jazz and other classes at the studio; I would like to sign up for this advanced bellydance class in New Westminster but I'm not sure if it'll happen. I'm hoping to play more shows and record an album; I'd like to improve my finger cymbal and piano skills.
7. Most interesting thing you've learned recently
People will manipulate your desire to renounce the poison of vengeance (which is, indeed, painful and frustrating and dehumanizing) and use that to make you renounce your demands for justice. Vengeance is punching an asshole repeatedly. Justice is holding that asshole accountable. Certain people don't seem to see the difference.
I've been digging the Q magazine CD of covers of U2's Achtung Baby. I'm even hoping to do a Bollywood bellydance remake of that album if I ever get the time. To be honest the music I listen to can be divided into five or six categories: 1. U2 live; 2. Tori Amos live; 3. Memories of my lost youth in the 90s - REM, Kate Bush, etc; 4. Desi folk, classical and pop; Middle Eastern and ME influenced folk, classical and pop; 5. Any contemporary artist who really impresses me - Janelle Monae especially; 6. My friends in the Vancouver indie music scene - Olenka Kraus (now based in Ontario), my bandmates' other project Half Chinese (yes, they are indeed that, but I think the name's a nod to Half Japanese); Falcao and Monashee; Bible Belts; The Maladies; too many others to name them all.
2. Recent dance I'm into
I'm still heavily into bellydance; I do really like contemporary, the fluidity and grace of it; I think ironically it would be easier audience wise to stage a Sufi contemporary piece than a Sufi bellydance piece. But I love the percussiveness of bellydance, which quite isn't there in western contemporary, and of course there's the finger cymbals. I think the fact that bellydance can be fused with so many things, which a lot of purists complain about, is actually a major strength of the dance.
(I've had a falling out with social justice fandom over the ethnopolitics of bellydance, which are NOT identical to yoga and certainly not kathak - kathak is a more or less canonical dance, whereas bellydance comes from many origins - see Mahmoud Reda's nationalistic folkloric dance. What makes it complicated is that there is a stigma attached to bellydance in the ME, whereas there is perhaps some progressive desi embarrassment at yoga and in the past some lower class stigma attached to kathak, but nothing approaching the low status of bellydance in the ME)
3. Favorite eats in Vancouver
I've mentioned Hawker's Diner on Main Street before, where for six dollars you can get really good Singapore-Malay fast food. Recently in my neighbourhood in Coquitlam there opened an amazing Punjabi style desi diner - the best plain white rice I've ever tasted, golden flaky naan bread, excellent curries.
4. I don't watch movies anymore! I think the last time I watched something narrative other than Youtube was an improv show last year.
5. Favorite website
Persephone.com. I like that they're moderates without being assholes about it.
6.Things I'm looking forward to
My projects keep falling through, but I'm hoping to have my Dario Fo monologue staged by the end of the month. I signed up for Code Year, which should be interesting. I'm hoping to finish a full year of contemporary, jazz and other classes at the studio; I would like to sign up for this advanced bellydance class in New Westminster but I'm not sure if it'll happen. I'm hoping to play more shows and record an album; I'd like to improve my finger cymbal and piano skills.
7. Most interesting thing you've learned recently
People will manipulate your desire to renounce the poison of vengeance (which is, indeed, painful and frustrating and dehumanizing) and use that to make you renounce your demands for justice. Vengeance is punching an asshole repeatedly. Justice is holding that asshole accountable. Certain people don't seem to see the difference.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 01:53 pm (UTC)I'm so curious about this. If you have the time/inclination, please elaborate.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-09 05:10 pm (UTC)I do see a lot of light skin privilege in bellydance, which pisses me off. But I refuse to get into ethnopolicing, because first of all American Cabaret style was influenced by a lot of Mediterranean diasporic cultures - Jamila Salimpour is of Sicilian descent. I also know that bellydance attracts a lot of women of mixed heritage, such as Anasma who is of Tunisian/Vietnamese descent. Not to mention the Latino dancers like Amar Gamal and Saida. Suhaila Salimpour, Jamila's daughter and the innovator behind tribal fusion, has a lot of complicated ethnic issues - her father was an Iranian musician and was abusive towards Jamila, so Suhaila has that issue of living between many worlds. Masha Archer was a major asshole, but Suhaila isn't just some white lady changing the dance as she pleases, she's had to negotiate various lines of identity - without the support of the ME diaspora, unlike desi dancers who can usually count on being the pride of the desi diaspora.