Breaks, Disco, and Rock n’ Roll

Abstraction-friendly rapper and producer Madlib has released a new album titled “Beat Konducta Vol. 3-4: In India,” released last month on the Stones Throw recording label and reviewed today in Dusted magazine. “In India” uses vocals, dialogue and music from Indian cinema, deconstructed and reworked into a pastiche that sharply differs from previous marriages of hip-hop and Bollywood. It’s unclear which track on the album matches the video below, but it’s still amusing and refreshing to see that there’s a little Tollywood, Kollywood and Mollywood in the mix.

More: “Beat Konducta Vol. 3-4″ on Amazon

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Shaheen’s Tune In Top Ten

Update on “Shaheen a STAR Candidate”—Shaheen Sheik’s song “Wildflower World” beat out over 400 contestants this past week to make it into the top ten round of a contest held by mainstream Los Angeles radio station 98.7 STAR. Listeners can show their support for Sheik and her song by participating in the final round of online voting now through September 26. The final vote will decide the Star Lounge featured song and artist who will also get to perform live on the radio.

Previous Star Lounge artists include Dave Matthews, Alanis Morrisette, Coldplay and Norah Jones. The top ten round this year includes the following artists in addition to Shaheen Sheik: Ken Oak Band, Adrina Thorpe, Jordyn Taylor, Joseph Vincent, Lady Danville, Jeff Stauning, Waiting 4 Wyatt, Larissa Lam and Michael Celedon.

More: The video for “Wildflower World” is up now on Shaheen’s site.

Now featuring more ghungroo: Video for “Here and Now”

Update: The pop folk acoustic trio Lady Danville—Michael Garner, Dan Chang, and Matt Frankel—won the competition with their single “Tired Magician.”

Pillow Talk

(Style Court)

The September issue of Domino magazine profiles Montreal-based textile designer Anupama Swaminadhan, whose years-ago stint overseeing the production of couture fabrics in India informs her current work. Swaminadhan’s new line of pillows, stoles and other home accessories are created through kalamkari, an ancient Indian printing technique. The dyes used in the line are all-natural and come from vegetable and mineral dyes. For inspiration, Swaminadhan draws on India’s “[t]raditional temple art depicting mythological scenes and narratives.”

Domino also features Swaminadhan’s line in its back-of-the-book “Domino Deals” section.

More: Anupama Swaminadhan’s official site.

You Can Be My Brown Kate Moss…

The inaugural issue.

Condé Nast’s Vogue launches in India tomorrow under the helm of Priya Tanna. Of the launch, Tanna told Reuters recently, “We will raise the bar because we are the ultimate style-bible. More and more confident, successful women are moving from the ‘we’ culture to the ‘me’ culture.”

The inaugural issue is Bollywood-themed featuring a write-up by Sukhetu Mehta about the film industry. The issue also includes an article about an up-and-coming socialite on the scene, style advice from Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra and Preity Zinta and a reportedly gorgeous photo spread shot by Patrick Demarchelier of Gemma Ward frolicking on the set of Saawariya. (Though, when I heard the news of this shoot I have to admit to feeling a bit annoyed: I would have loved to see a desi model photographed by such a legend.) The cover itself features Bipasha Basu, Gemma Ward, Priyanka Chopra, Monikangana, Preity Zinta and Laxmi Menon.

Anyone waiting for the launch with bated breath? Are you excited to read it? I will try to find it in New York. Until then, report back!

More: Read an interview with Vogue India’s Editor-In-Chief, Priya Tanna on Forbes.com.

Nose Stud = No Job

Lalji, wearing teeny tiny nose stud.

Heathrow aiport caterers Eurest UK fired Amrit Lalji, 40, of Stanmore, north-west London, who worked in an airport VIP arrivals lounge, for failing to remove her nose jewelry (BBC). She wore the stud for more than a year before a manager told her to remove it.

Eurest’s official statement includes the following information on the hazards of mixing nath and naan: “Jewellery can harbour bacteria, create a hazard when working with machinery and find its way into the food people eat.” Lalji’s temple, union, and the mayor of London have spoken out against the employer’s decision to dismiss her.

The Stanmore Swaminarayan temple and the Hindu Council UK find the firing unjust and the temple has given “a letter to Amrit, quoting Hindu religious scriptures in order to prove that wearing a nose stud is part of Hindu faith.” Lalji, who came to the UK from Kenya, says “My family is originally from Kutch, Gujarat. As a Hindu, I have imbibed the tradition of wearing the shringar of a married woman from my mother.” (The Pioneer)

Union official Tahir Bhatti states that “this is not a fair way to proceed and must be reversed and dress codes introduced which deal with all religious matters.” (“GMB Member At Heathrow Sacked For Refusing To Remove Religious Nose Pin”) London Mayor Ken Livingstone has described the dismissal as an attack on her right to freely express her religion and on her right as a woman to dress as she wishes. He argued that “the suggestion that wearing a tiny nose stud is a threat to public health and safety is frankly ridiculous. Will this company now be sacking all women with pierced ears?” (The Press Association)

More: “The nose-stud wars: Political correctness or corporate practice?”

Update: After an internal hearing, Lalji’s employer decided that “the rules relating to facial piercings were mandatory only in catering operations.” She did not engage in catering and has been reinstated. (BBC).

(Not So Much) Naveen in Brave One

Andrews and Foster filmed The Brave One in New York. (celebsource.org)

While browsing movie listings over the weekend, I noticed that the cast of The Brave One, the latest Jodie Foster star vehicle, includes Naveen Andrews. As a Lost fan impatiently awaiting the next season scheduled for sometime never in 2008, this piqued my interest. Andrews plays Foster’s “sensitive, guitar-strumming male nurse” fiancé named David Kirmani. Or he does until he dies at the hands of thugs, an event that happens early in the film as the catalyst thrusting Foster’s character, radio host Erica Baines, into vigilante mode.

While Terrence Howard‘s role as a romantic interest and detective on the trail of the vigilante sounds like it would ameliorate the suspiciously UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT quality of Andrews’ early demise, that may be small consolation for us fans of Lost‘s Sayid looking to see more of Andrews on the big screen. Maybe we should rent Bride and Prejudice or My Own Country instead (actually, Netflix is nugatory on that last title, so maybe not). As for my ultimate choice of movie for last weekend? Rebel Without a Cause. No Naveen (just Dean) but rewarding nonetheless.

Shaheen a STAR Candidate

Shaheen Sheik’s “Wildflower World,” a soothing pop single with folk undertones and introspective lyrics, has a shot at being selected for a lounge CD from southern California’s modern adult contemporary radio station STAR 98.7. If selected the newly wed Sheik would perform live on mainstream radio and her track would be included on the CD. Voting runs 9/13 — 9/19. You can watch the video and show your support for Shaheen’s single by voting online. This multi-faceted artist gave some insight into her songwriting process in an interview with Mahiram.com.

“You know, I study the Sarod (north Indian classical instrument) and within Hindustani music there is such an emphasis on how time of day affects the raga you should play. I believe that 100%. The time of day, climate, surroundings are so key to the tempo of the song, the key, whether it’s major or minor and the topic of the lyrics.”

Previously: “A Tune of Her Own”; “How Sweet the Sound”; Jungli & Shaheen

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New Media & NY Fashion Week

Naeem Khan Spring 2008

New York’s Fashion week wraps up this Wednesday and if you weren’t personally invited, blogs might be your best bet for coverage of what’s happening and who’s showing up under the tents in Bryant Park. According to Women’s Wear Daily new media still only accounts for 10% of the overall issued media credentials at New York’s Fashion Week. But there’s no doubting that it’s a whole lot easier for the average fashion-watching web surfer to click into the blogosphere than it is to get into a designer’s show.

WWD‘s list of blogging bigwigs (Sartorialist, GoFugYourself) and relative newcomers (Fashionista–“style like you mean it,” Fashionologie–“the musings of a twentysomething American girl who wishes she could have a Freaky Friday incident and switch bodies with Phoebe Philo”) includes writers with fashion industry experience and those offering a perspective for women of color, size or limited budget (The Fashion Bomb–“all urban fashion…all the time,” Too Fat for Fashion—“fashion beyond sample sizes,” The Budget Fashionista–“an Ivy League-educated epidemiologist who had a love of fashion and lack of cash”). See the full article for more blogs that got on the list this year.

Homeland Security Targets Turbans

Getting through the metal detector is not enough for travelers wearing turbans.

Having Sikhs remove their turbans in public at airports is “like asking a woman to take off her blouse in public,” said J.P. Singh, president of the Sikh Center of the San Francisco Bay Area in El Sobrante. “It’s that bad.” (“Sikh men feel targeted at airports,” San Jose Mercury News)

But a new Homeland Security policy, implemented August 4, allows airport screeners to conduct pat-downs of religious headgear at the screener’s discretion. Previously, travelers wearing turbans were searched only if they failed to clear metal detectors or other preliminary checks.

Kuldip Singh, managing director of United Sikhs, was one of three men pulled aside by a screener on August 12 at the San Francisco International Airport. The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund has heard “dozens of complaints, people being asked to remove their turbans in public and denied the use of a mirror or space to re-tie them” in the last three weeks, according to the group’s director and East Bay resident Kavneet Singh. Read the rest of this entry »

Jimmy! Aaja!

Hot blonde bob-shell.

The video of M.I.A.’s Jimmy was leaked by the director and has landed on YouTube. The song itself samples the song Jimmy from the 1983 movie Disco Dancer. The video boasts shots of a golden M.I.A. as a multi-armed goddess spliced with a dancing blonde M.I.A. (with a hot haircut, may I add.) in a metallic vaguely Pucci-esque dress against a white backdrop.

Watch both versions after the jump and then tell me, dear readers… Do you like the original version or M.I.A.’s? Leave me a comment! Read the rest of this entry »