the Style High Club performing at 2005 This is Not Art festival in Newcastle, Australia. I thought these guys were great. really nice sounds. perfect for an afternoon in the sun wandering through markets and relaxing after the festival. a nice aussie hip hop band with members from Adelaide & Melbourne
here's a slideshow video of a trip to Bethells Beach, not far from Auckland, New Zealand. 19/02/2006.
it's my favourite Auckland beach - dark, volcanic sand that sparkles in the sun. it's one of those raw untouched beaches where the sand dunes are still untouched, though erosion has started on them. like the beaches in QLD when we used to go as kids.
today we went to Red Fort in Delhi, India. 03/09/2006. it's a huge fort next to Old Delhi. there's a museum also with a few artefacts from Mughal days - some weapons, cloth and clothes as well as photos, paintings and and old copy of the Koran.
earlier we went to the spectacular Akshardham temple - no photos are allowed there though. it's a newly built temple with amazing carvings which tell ancient stories told around the grounds as well as intricate designs inside the temples. there's even a boat ride and cinema show and at night a light and sound show though I didn't see this. another time hopefully.
a slideshow video of a cycle rickshaw ride through old delhi & chandni chowk, showing the busy streets, markets, people and life. the place has a special character of it's own.
we went along to the Qutab Hotel last week to see Jalebee Cartel play. it was a really nice venue. low tables with soft cushioned chairs scattered in front of where the band played. the room filled up pretty quickly - once the band was playing I turned around and the place was packed! the band were excellent. at first I thought the vocals needed a better mix, but it improved quickly. I'd heard a couple of the songs on their myspace page and thought they were great, but the live performance was great - you could tell they were enjoying themselves. they introduced a range of instruments and had different style songs. some electronic and some more acoustic, some with vocals and others without. the lead male vocalist reminds me a touch between underworld/infusion/the beloved. I really like his voice. one song was in the more traditional form. the female vocalist was great also - such beautiful tone.
the song in the video / slideshow was downloaded from the Jalebee Cartel website - it's called "One Night with Baba Maal' by Jalebee Cartel. the website url is http://www.jalebee.in/ or their myspace page is http://www.myspace.com/jalebeecartel
take a listen to Beautiful Rising on their myspace page. it's such a nice track. they played it at the gig, along with a remixed version as the encore song.
the original video & photos are very dark - it was the first time I've done night / indoor shots with my new camera & unfortunately I didn't take my other camera which has better night vision. so, some of the shots in this version have been adjusted so the people can be seen more clearly. my screen is broken so I hope the colours adjusted ok!! I'm seeing everything in VGA mode atm so colours / light could be out
I went along to the Sarai Independent Fellows 2006 workshops last weekend (26-27/08) @ Sarai, CSDS, New Delhi. I missed the first two days sessions, but here is a slideshow video of some of the saturday & sunday sessions. it was really interesting - both the presentations and the discussions afterwards. some sessions were in Hindi so I couldn't follow as easily. there were a wide range of projects though - art, music, urban issues. hopefully they'll link to some of the full papers on the sarai.net website. it was a great way to get another insight into life and goings on in India and related places.
on saturday I went along to the Raqs Media Collective exhibition called "There has Been a Change of Plan" at Gallery Nature Morte in Delhi, India. I'm currently working here on a project. I've been following Raqs' work and Sarai for quite a few years but this is the first time I've seen their work in person. it was a retrospective of work from 2002-2006. Raqs MC have exhibited/collaborated with many international exhibitions and festivals/biennales (including recently the sydney biennale I believe?) but this was the first solo exhibition in Delhi, even though they were formed in 1992 & have been exhibiting since then also.
the collective also work on various research projects and release an annual reader (Sarai Reader) - this can be viewed on their website as well as in book form (though I've only seen them here in print form so was lucky to pick them up locally!) the readers have a different topic each year which academics and researchers write submissions for to discuss and document various issues. they also run a research fellows project where students write on topics such as urban development, village life in India, media, technology, social and health issues etc.
anway, I took some photos and made a slideshow video if you would like to take a look. (some of the pics are a little blurry I'm afraid, but they give you an idea)
another video of the India Habitat Centre here in Delhi which is a convention centre / collection of buildings where there are many galleries & conference rooms/workshops on Indian art and habitats / urban & rural development & life projects/info is at http://blip.tv/file/62578
we've seen a few of the touristy spots in Delhi and I've taken heaps of photos, way too many to see at my flickr site so I've started making little slideshow videos. this is part 1 of the day we went to see the Baha'ai Lotus Temple and Humayan's Tomb.
the lotus temple looks very similar to the Sydney Opera House except the wings curve inwards like a lotus flower rather than outwards like the opera house. you have to take your shoes off and walk up a long path to reach it. there's thousands of visitors each day - it's one of the busiest places on Earth apparently. you can't take video or photos inside the temple. the acoustics in the room are amazing though! I've taken some audio recordings which I'll post one day. such beautiful echoes. people whisper and whistle and the sounds carry throughout the space wafting up to the upper rafters. the architectural design of the support beams inside is amazing also. plus it's really clean and much cooler than outside so is a great way to get away from the craziness and loudness of the rest of Delhi.
Humayan's Tomb is another tourist attraction. it is the tomb of one of the leaders and his wives. it was built about 100 years prior to the Taj Mahal so they call it a practice building for the Taj. though how they knew that 100 years later a king would be so successful and want to show his wealth & power by building a huge monument to his dead wife I'm not sure, but it's a nice story the tourists (like us) are told! perhaps I need to read a history / architecture book to find the full story. it's pretty much in rubble now. it's amazing how little the heritage is looked after here compared to other places. apparently up until about 30 years ago, people lived in the village compound still so it wasn't taken care of as it should have been until more recent years. I suppose a large space like this with protected walls was a good address to have at the time..
traditionally the children fly kites leading up to independance day (15/08) but I've been seeing them in Delhi since April. nice to watch in the afternoons if you're out and about. the kids get up on the roof of their apartment block and fly small hanky sized kites whilst dodging the power lines. I haven't been able to get a good shot but this one will remind me of them in the meantime.
when I first arrived at work here in Delhi the building we are working in was still pretty much a building site. ruubble everywhere. toilets not working except for one communal toilet in the other older building about 10 minutes walk away. workmen everywhere. people staring at us all the time. later we moved to a new hotel and the room I was given is next to another building site - this time a new corporate building next to the hotel. similar to the work site, the workpeople live onsite. I took some photos of the lazy sunday afternoon in saket whilst looking out the window at the building site, so here's the video / slideshow. the music is 'mad world' (from donny darko movie) - I thought it matched the mood I was in whilst watching out the window ...
