Christmas/Hannukah, gig pictures from Xmas Eve, etc.

What's up everyone? Nothing too crazy going on here, just thought I'd post some pictures and stuff.


Aaron, my friend Lindsay's boyfriend, is here in Bangalore staying with me for a while. He's traveling around India for 180 days exploring the subcontinent. It's really quite amazing that he's making this trip by himself! At least when I got here I had other Americans around to help me through, he's really just learned everything on the fly. Goes to show that it's possible for an American to survive around here. In the last week I've heard of 2 MORE friends from home that will happen to be in my area. Man, I never thought I'd see any friends while in India, but it would seem that there are too many coming through Bangalore to possibly spend time with each of them, especially with my travel schedule in the next few weeks. (Goa 19th-3rd; Bombay 5th - 9th).

Christmas was great, just a little different than I'm used to. I played a gig with a jazz band on Christmas Eve, which was a lot of fun. The crowd was really into it even though the music wasn't THAT great, but what can you expect from a bunch of guys playing for free who haven't rehearsed. We just played covers everyone in the band knew. My picture finally made it to Page 3, the social scene feature in the Bangalore Times. I'll scan the article and put it up if I can.

This trumpet player was really awesome! Even though he belonged in a mariachi band...

Carlton, the singer, would start singing a different song without warning

I thought this was a very "introspective musician" picture

Christmas day was pretty relaxed. We spent the majority of the day chilling around and then made potatoe latkes and apple sauce for dinner. Mom would've been proud.

I leave for Goa on Thursday to spend New Years there, and MAN am I pumped! Work has been so freaking stressful over the last week or so that I just need to lay on the beach during the day and party more than is healthy at night. Can't wait to post the pictures for everyone.

In other news, the beloved Matt Newcomb has moved back to the United States for good. No longer will he and I be able to revel in our weekend escapades. It's pretty sad, but we were able to throw him a pretty kickin goodbye party. Laura's parents had reserved two rooms in the Leela Palace but their flight from London was cancelled, so we took over the rooms and spent the night downstairs in the nightclub, Athena. here are some pictures:

Matt disappearing from our lives, the look on Scott's face tells the whole story

Partying in Athena

Emotional/Drunk last night with Matt...and the person touching me
Contemplating Matt's absence on the Leela balcony while awaiting room service

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Happy New Years!

You can call us Aaron Burr from the way we're droppin Hamiltons...

This is the funniest thing I've ever seen. I've probably watched this video a thousands times today and I can't seem to stop...

Now quiet in the theater or it's gonna get tragic, cuz we're about to be taken to a dreamworld of magic!!!

My budding IndiRock career in Bangalore

Nate has camera

First off, after more than 4 months of frustration I finally recieved the package that had my digital camera. I'll be able to post some pictures of my apartment, office and stuff like that once I get the chance. Things have been pretty crazy lately...

I’ve mentioned before in my blog that Bangalore has had a ban on live music in bars/clubs that has crippled my ability to perform live, which is probably the single most gratifying experience I’ve ever had. Until very recently, this has definitely been the single largest missing piece to my life in India…until now!

A few weeks ago I was jamming with my usual group. Mediocre, but excited to play, the group really had very little potential to do anything more than play in Ani’s attic. Maybe with a lot of work we could perform somewhere, but I was mostly playing to somewhat keep up my chops. Listen, I’ve come to grips with the fact that I’m going to be a less talented musician when I get back to the US, but that doesn’t mean that I’m gonna give it up.

We had a new drummer for this session, a guy named George who was actually really good. I was really impressed with his ability to change styles and insert ideas into the music, something a lot of drummers can’t do. After we were done playing we went out for a few beers. I got to talking with George and he invited me to jam with his other band, Lounge Pirhana. I agreed and we played that very next Sunday.

Lounge Pirhana

I don’t know if I’ve been away from the US for too long, but this was really one of the better jams I’d had in a while. We played hard for more than two hours, so you can imagine my lip was killin me by the end. It was good, though, cuz George called me the next day and asked me to come play on a few tunes at their gig at Opus (Opus is the bar where I sing karaoke sometimes). They have a pretty nice stage and a decent set-up for a live band, so I was excited.

So I played a few tunes with the band and it was one of the most refreshing artistic releases of my life. After more than 5 months of playing either in a tiny room with 2 or 3 people or in my apartment with my iPod I was finally able to perform. I wouldn’t say that I played so well, but it felt good. I officially have the bug again and I’ve been itching to play ever since.

I was given the opportunity the next week. I jammed with a few friends in a band called, this is no joke, Maximum Pudding. After being in a band called Captain Teabag, nothing really phases me, so this was fine. We played at a huge battle of the bands where more than 50 bands competed.

Now Maximum Pudding has never really rehearsed. We jammed once for like 45 minutes, so our only option was to make something up on stage. I used to do this with Captain Teabag, but those were some of the best musicians I’ve ever heard, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

We were given 20 minutes on stage, so you could play for 20 minutes, or you could play for 15 and talk for 5….oooorrr you could waste the first 8 minutes fixing the crappy keyboard, make up a mediocre song for 8 minutes and leave the stage with 4 minutes remaining cuz there’s just nothing else you can do on the same F major riff. It was definitely one of the most embarrassing moments of my musical career.

Well much to my surprise, Maximum Pudding was given a “Special Mention” on the final night. Only the top 5 bands played in the finals, but we were apparently somewhere in the top 8….out of 54 bands!!! I can’t really explain how this happened, but my phone has been blowing up with requests to play with bands ever since. I don’t even have time to play all the gigs I’m being offered. I had to ditch a gig at Opus just last night because I wanted to go out to dinner with Laura’s parents and say goodbye to Matt, who has left for the US…for good. (Which is a whole other story in itself. It’s strange to see one of the group leave already, but after almost 10 months in India he’s headed back to Detroit.)

Nate is happy

So things have really turned around on the music front, and I’ll keep everyone updated on my budding music career in Bangalore!

The Onion, basketball success and Bill Gates

I've been a fan of The Onion for several years now and it never amazes me that they are able to maintain the level of hilarity. To be honest, when The Onion from Madison, Wisconsin to New York City I thought that it would lose some of its independent bite, and although I think that might be partially true, I still find myself laughing about at least one article a week. It really shows how much humor you can find in current events. When you think about it, The Onion is really a print version of The Daily Show, and both are definitely two of my favorite news media.

In any case, I was searching for funny articles on TheOnion.com and I found this one about India.

I especially like the "Manhattan-or-maybe-London Project"...

India's Top Physicists Develop Plan To Get The Hell Out Of India

Also, I forgot to mention in my last post that the IndiaIT basketball company won the 2005 Genie Inter-Corporate Basketball Tournament! Exciting, eh? I gotta tell ya, it's nice playing basketball in India. In the US I'm nothing special, but here I can really run the court. It's very nice feeling like you're way more talented than you are. Isn't that really what we all want? To feel like better people than we actually are?

On a work-related note, Bill Gates is currently visiting India and tonight on New Delhi Television (a very big network in India) they will be televising a discussion between the chairman of IndiaIT and Bill Gates that is happening in Delhi. You can't imagine how big it is when Bill Gates comes to India. So much of this nation is focused on information technology, you can understand how Bill Gates is seen as a somewhat of a deity. We're using this event as a marketing tool, and a media event is happening today at the Taj Palace in Delhi where Gates will be taking part in interviews as well as this discussion on Indian entrepreneurs. Well I wrote the questions for the Q&A section of the program. If I can find a video clip or a transcript I'll be sure to post it.

Later.

Nate in the news!!!!

A month or two ago we had a journalist and photographer from the San Jose Mercury News visit Bangalore to do a story on the Indian tech boom as well as Americans and Indians working abroad. It was a very interesting week. We basically lived with these journalists (John and Meri) as they shadowed us on our commute, during our lunch hours at work and at our apartment to see everything from vegging out to playing poker.

In any case, the first of the articles talking about the Americans in Bangalore just came out in the Mercury News. I believe there will be more coverage in the coming week or two, so I'll be sure to post anything that I find to the blog for all of you to enjoy.

Here's the article:

In the front row of the global economy, Young Americans seek career jolt, cachet in India

John and Meri have also created a multimedia presentation featuring many of the pictures that were taken here. Many of these pictures come from a night of poker around Scott and Juan's apartment as well as several pictures of my American crew waiting for the bus and crossing the street.

DISCLAIMER: This presentation makes us sound whiny and miserable here in Bangalore. Let me assure you that this is not the case. The pictures often look very depressing and make us seem very isolated when in reality that is completly false. The voiceovers are done by Juan and Laura, and although they are truthful, they are juxtaposed to pictures that bring the quotes out of context. Don't worry, we're not living in the concentration camp that this video depicts.

AFTER THE INTRO, CLICK ON THE "AMERICANS FIND A NEW CACHET" PORTION

An American in Bangalore - Multimedia Presentation

It's all pretty cool. I helped put a lot of this together for the journalists as part of my role in Media Relations. Talk to you guys soon!