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Archive for the ‘Madhuri Vijay’ Category

Madhuri Vijay–“You Are My Dear Friend” (New Yorker, August 17, 2020)

Posted in Adoption, Buscabulla, Coronavirus, India, Madhuri Vijay, New Yorker, Parenting, Puerto Rico, Quarantine, Short Story, Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts, Tiny Desk Concert, Violence on August 20, 2020| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BUSCABULLA-Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #66 (August 18, 2020).

I know of Buscabulla from some glowing reviews of their debut album.  Their story is an interesting one as well.

Buscabulla is made up of husband and wife Luis Alfredo Del Valle and Raquel Berrios, two Puerto Rico-born musicians who were based in New York until 2017. When their birthplace was devastated by Hurricanes Maria and Irma that year, they decided to leave New York and go back to where they were born. It was an emotional journey, one that inspired the songs of Regresa and which they chronicled for an upcoming mini-documentary.

Despite that setup, their music is soft and gentle–ethereal and beautiful.  Raquel Berrios’ voice is delicately echoed and sexy without being over the top.

Their setting for this Tiny Desk (Home) (Beach) Concert is the trunk of their van.  Luis del Valle has created a studio within the car that perfectly reflects the band’s sound.  So two of them are

sitting inside their car at the beach in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico performing their Tiny Desk (home) concert. It’s as if the bubble of being inside the car will protect them from any chances of encountering the virus on the beach. But it’s also a reflection of how the band’s atmospheric sonic textures get inside your head when we listen with headphones. Buscabulla set up shop in New York years ago, but returned to their home to help support the island’s redevelopment — thus their entry from the beach.

It looks almost like a Zoom meeting background, with the gentle waves lapping against the shore, although in the beginning of the video you can see some people walking on the beach.

The set starts with “Mio” which has a cool slinky bass line from Luis Del Valle and an inset video of JD Matías playing timbales and cowbell.  And although LD Valentín is laying down some nice backing keys (also in an inset), it’s Berrios who plays the trippy keyboard solo.

“Nydia” has a funkier bass line and layered spacey keys from Valentín. Berrios’ voice floats above all of it.

The duo have to maneuver a bit in that cramped space to play the final song.  Luis puts his bass outside of the car (!) and switches to keys.  Berrios also plays keys and this lovely set ends as beautifully as it began.

I’m not sure what kind of car this is, but it’s a pretty decent ad for trunk space–maybe Buscabulla could make some cash.  It’s also a pretty nice ad for the gorgeous beaches of Puerto Rico.

[READ: August 20, 2020] “You Are  My Dear Friend”

I thought this story was going to be about a British couple living in India, because it opens with a British couple living in India.  They are hosting a party and their daughters’ au-pair, Geeta, brings their two little girls to meet everyone.

One of the party goers is a middle-aged Indian man sitting by himself.  He looks old and tired.

A few days later Geeta is at the markets and she runs into this man.  She has trouble placing him at first then she realizes that this man, Srikanth, was the man from the party.  He talks with her and she resists engaging with him at first.  Then she rethinks, and turns to talk to the man.

They met a few more times and then decided to get married. (more…)

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Madhuri Vijay–“Lorry Raja” (Narrative, Winter 2012)

Posted in Culture Shock, Dead Can Dance, Madhuri Vijay, Marriage Trouble, Narrative, Olympics, Red Buddha, Short Story, Work on February 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RED BUDDHA-Raindance (2007).

My Aunt Marg gave me this disc for Christmas a few years ago.  She said that she knew it from a spa that she went to.  And I can totally tell. I don’t know anything else about the artist, and it’s even hard to find stuff about him online.

The disc has an Indian (Eastern) vibe (which surprises me given the name of the artist and the African-looking person on the cover).  It also has a real world music feel.

Sarod

Overall, I like the music quite a lot.  It’s certainly new agey, but not treacly new age or anything.  It showcases some cool world music without resorting to clichés.  However, I admit to not caring much for the spoken lyrics of the opening track,  “Sometimes.”  His voice is deep and distracting, especially over such mellow music.  Despite the very Indian feel of “Sometimes,” the rest of the disc explores other sounds as well.  “Kokou” has a 70s kind of organ and bongos (with more appropriately world musicy chanted vocals).  “Raindance” has a cool flute over some bongo beats (all very soothing…with crickets).

Veena

I really like “Girl from Orissa” with its cool Eastern instrumentation.  There’s a sarod, a veena and a sitar on the disc.  (Orissa is located on the eastern side of India).  “Khali Gandaki” also features this cool instrumentation. (The Khali Gandaki valley is in Nepal).

“Mswati” opens with some percussion. But this track differs because of the interesting riff that plays throughout the song (whether guitar or keyboard, I can’t tell).  “Touba” has a nice bassline, which really stands out on a disc with minimal bass. It also has some neat wah-wahed guitars.  And “Preaching of Buddha” has a kind of Dead Can Dance feel to the vocals (they’re my go-to band for world music).

Sitar

“Katarajama” (a pilgrimage site for Sri Lankans and South Indians) has a great riff to it, and it’s even better when the other instruments play along.  “Patan Part 1” also has a cool sitar riff.  Although if Part 1 is 8 minutes, how long is  the whole song?

The final song, “Sufi Kalaam” has a somewhat more sinister or perhaps just movie soundtracky sound (low bass chords underpin the beginning of the track).  There are chanted vocals and lead vocals in another language.  I rather like the song, but it doesn’t really fit on the disc.

The whole disc is definitely a background/new agey kind of deal.  I can hear it all (except the first and last songs) working well for a relaxing evening of massage.  Just don’t listen to it while driving!

[READ: February, 17 2012] “Lorry Raja”

“Lorry Raja” won Narrative magazine’s “30 Below” contest for 2011.  After the wonderful stories that came in second and third place I expected something pretty amazing to win.  And I was maybe a little disappointed by this story because of it.  And I think I have to blame a cultural disconnect for that.

This story is set in Karnataka, India, a poor state in the south of the country.  People there are so poor that they live in tents and work in the mines–smashing up rocks to get at the iron ore inside.  The children can’t afford to go to school, there’s no electricity and everyone is covered in a red dust from all of the dirt in the mines.

Madhuri Vijay is able to create a compelling story out of this harsh environment.   The story concerns one family as they struggle to survive under these conditions.  The father (I had a really hard time keeping the names straight, so I’m not going to include them here) had an accident and cannot work to his full capacity, so he is stuck working less lucrative jobs. The mother works smashing up iron ore.  The middle son, 12, works and plays around the mine (collecting a few rupees each day).  They put some money aside for his eventual education.  The older brother has just gotten a job as a lorry driver for the mines–he takes the ore out to the port cities.  He is only 14, and, being 14, he takes especial care of his lorry–cleaning it from all the red dust and driving it in a very proud manner.  So much so, that everyone starts calling him Lorry Raja.  There’s also a baby brother who doesn’t play much of a part except (in the way I read it) to show off how hopeless things are (the boy is playing in the dirt and when it is time to feed him, his mother just takes her breast out in front of everyone).

The story is narrated by the middle son.  And we watch as he grows jealous of his brother–the Lorry Raja.  We see the narrator break up rocks, spy on his mother, spy on his father (who is lowered by a rope in to a deep mine (!)).  And we see him talk to the owner of the mine (who has a car, a generator and drinks Pepsi).  And finally we see him spend some time with his brother’s ex-girlfriend (they broke up more or less once he started driving his lorry).

When the girl casually remarks that the narrator should get his lorry license and then he could drive her to China, that sets a new part of his life in motion.  (They are thinking about China because the “Lympic Games” (“Whatever they are” he says) are being played there this year). (more…)

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