Mi Bodeguita del Medio

While my blog is named after a restaurant in Havana I hope to someday visit, here you will find musings, rants, political incorrectness, thoughts on Indian Nationalism, and some straight-forward opinions.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Flamenco is Back!

I'm starting flamenco classes soon which I had kind of left aside since late last year. Yippie :)

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Shedding Old Skin

In tight-spaced Barcelona flats, sometimes everything you own can't find suitable space. I recently embarked on a closet-cleanout mission. I was hoping to get rid of a lot of stuff, but was disappointed with myself when the final result of the raid was only about 8 pairs of clothes that came out as "good to be donated." At first I thought that I could give away my Dave Matthews t-shirts without thinking twice about it. And I even took them out and kept them aside, to be taken to the recycle bin. They were sitting outside in the corridor of my flat, in the most "discarded" location possible...when it suddenly hit me! I was about to throw away some of my most cherished memories. Those who knew me in college can vouch for the Dave Matthews fan I used to be.

The concerts weren't just about going and seeing a group perform.... they were a ceremony that you attended with like-minded souls, all too obsessed with the music, just like you. The t-shirts you would wear to the concert, the tailgating for hours in the parking lot listing to DMB music before, the meeting other obsessed DMB fans like you, the talks about a certain line in a certain song that just blew our minds...My partner in crime was Nathan Williams. For college students it was a BIG deal to buy a concert ticket that cost $60. Then, if the group wasn't playing in your hometown, people like us would try and go to nearby shows. I remember twice having driven up to Virginia and once to Alabama to see the band. One time was so special because DMB were playing in their hometown of Charlottsville after many many years. I drove 11 hours (alone!!!!) to and from the concert location in two days: 22 hours, because Nate, my dear friend had lost his drivers' license. How I wanted to strangle him then :) At the end of the day though, we were invincible DMB fans and nothing else mattered but the music.

Its kind of strange that the group stopped mattering to me. A look at those t-shirts which were bought at concerts, marking dates and locations of their summer tours (2000,2001, 2002)... it was finally too much. Therefore, like it or not, since I don't wear t-shirts anymore, someday my kids will : )

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Bollywood in Barcelona


I'm going through another Bollywood crazed phase. Yesterday I watched "Bollywood, the Show" at the Tivoli Theatre in Barcelona. It was a spectacular colourful musical extravaganza, and surely quite novel for the Spanish eyes. The theatre with a capacity for 1,643 people, was packed and two and a half hours into the show, all the Catalans were clapping and dancing to the tunes of "Shawa, Shawa" and "It's the Time to Disco." It was really a scene! In fact all the Bollywood groups in Barcelona were in competition a few weeks before as my ex-flatmate who danced at the Masala Club told me. Of the 12-odd Bollywood groups in Barcelona, the winning group accompanied the artists in the finale on stage.

I realised yesterday how much I miss being around Indian stuff. How much I miss my masala dosas. And how much I miss wearing my lehengas and salwaar kameezes. So ofcourse today I've spent a good amount of time downloading Bollywood music and I've made a finding: Bollyrobics. Check it out here.