Monday, March 25, 2013

seafood auction...



early morning in fort kochi, a few weeks back, the fisherman are in with the fresh catch and between chai and six legged crabs (that's how many legs most crab got?), the catch is in and the bidding is on...

in between, this is the best upload i could do at the speed of this up north tween china and pakistan internet connect i got going here in leh...

love and health to all...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

art, kerala & communism...









a couple weeks back or so, i went down to kerala to see the kochi/muziris biennale, india's first and remarkably awesome art biennale.  a biennale, venice or the guggenheim or any for that matter, i had never attended and for both myself and shraddha, who i met down there, it was going to be a new experience.  the biennale was really truly inspiring. much of it was in ft. kochi, an old fishing village, a boat ride away from the main city of kochi (formerly cochin).  housed in old, heritage, industrial spice storage buildings from days of yore, there were brilliant installations, many inspired by the setting and many brought in from other locations.  indian artists were at the forefront, yet international, powerful pieces from global artists were also present, videos from ai weiwei, wangechi mutu, alfredo jaar, to name a few.

there were two pieces that really moved me. amar kanwar's "The Sovereign Forest" was an extremely powerful dialogue about farming, globalization, life and death (it is not pictured here).  The other rather magnificent and massively moving piece that got me right here, in my throat, above, beside, below, behind and beyond my adam's apple was the piece, "Citizen's Band" by the australian artist, Angelica Mesiti.  This little video clip that she has on vimeo doesn't really do it justice but it gives a small snippet of a semblance of the sensation of it's beauty.  I could have sat on the straw mats in the middle of that installation for hours. It was really dope.

Kerala is a great state.  I've been there twice now, first back on '06 and now in '13.  It's beautiful, but more than that, seeped in strong traditions of literacy, art, trading, religion (the oldest jewish settlement in india is in ft. kochi), and politics, including a strong attachment to communism and socialism that is visible throughout.  i hope this biennale gets put on in two years and if it does, it is most definitely worth a trip around the world to spend a few days or more basking beside the arabian sea, talking politics and art and exploring a place in this world that is truly spectacular.

from che to sunburns after a day at the beach, brief kodak moments that don't do the place, the company, the art, the beach or the weather justice. more stories from here and further to comes...

love and health to all...

Sunday, March 17, 2013

the luck now of all rounders


after fĂștbol, perhaps the second most accessible and economical sport on this planet...

on a saturday morning motorbike tour of lucknow, with a u.p. registered tour guide.

march 2013.

love and health to all...

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

but dat's just 9...


...hep-goats!

february 2013.

kochi, kerala

love & health to all...

Monday, March 04, 2013

happy birthday shmuel...



happy birthday sammy, wherever you are, i'm sure you're spending the day celebrating with mom, grandfather herbert, grandmother mary, grandma eleanor and grandpa joe, not to mention neville, yann, marvin, ellen and perhaps erwin is rocking his old school rainbow colored paper trick, endless colors somehow appearing from deep inside his throat to the wide gaze of all the youngsters around.

i'd imagine that the birthday posse is enjoying lunchtime che bou djuene on the shores of the atlantic ocean in st. louis, senegal, then i'd guess you all might spend the afternoon walking the malecon in habana and then perhaps sleeping under the stars up in the late winter himalayas, beside the gangotri glacier, the cold not affecting the eternal birthday celebrations and then perhaps the crew would hop some rafts and head down the ganges into the bay of bengal past malaysia, through the cook strait just for fun and then up to california, north past alaska through the bering sea and heading east with canada just below you all and then figuring out a way to reach the headwaters of the hudson river, cruising a late new york state winter and ending up beside an uptown hudson, a field that neville reserved moons ago, mom's homemade chocolate cake with all of your names (and mine and dave's and pops too), singing happy birthday with smiles and giggles, happy that we are all together in manhattan to toast your birthday, you'd be 29 years young today.

sammy, i want you to know that dad and dave and me too, well we all miss you more than tons and more than you could ever imagine. i know that it would be great if you were around for dave and i, to make us laugh and balance our sometimes similar and often different perspectives from time to time. and of course poppa, just to be there to laugh with him and to give him a rug burn on the top of his skull in the heat of some foolish disagreement. what he would do to have you smash his head into the ground until he had a scab or two, that would make his day.

sammy, of course you remember where these photos were taken, in the year 2000, 13 years ago, a year after mom passed on to a greater existence, an eternal walkabout... you, me, pop and d, roaming northern india, freezing cause i hadn't told you how cold the nights would be and you all thought india, shit, it's gonna be hot as hell. of course, everyday was new to me then and each rickshaw ride was an adventure, even though at that time we were all frigid that december.

one late afternoon in agra we headed to the taj mahal, beside the yamuna, the sun was setting and i only knew of film and reels. we took a bunch of photographs and even had one of those photo wallahs catch us as a fams. pops must have been 63 or so. d was 14 i reckon, you were 16 i'd presume and i was about to be 20.

it was a great trip and those were certainly the days. i wish you were still here, i bet you could do a much better job than me of convincing those two that the four of us could do it all over again or at least remind me that sometimes i push a little too much : )

those were the days of old... ones that can't be revisited.

sammy, i love you wherever you are.

a big happy birthday to you and give hugs and kisses to everyone that mom included on her famous chocolate birthday cake.

love and health to all...