So with the
people above the gym waiting to sing, I ran back to my room to grab
mics and stuff. On the way back to my stay I heard a bunch of people
cheering and loud drums so i took a left into one of the skinny street
lanes and came up on wedding ceremony in progress, the band was nuts,
all drums with a keyboard plugged into megaphone on wheels. So I got my
stuff and returned and recorded a bunch of groups including this wicked
old dude in the picture below who wrote the songs and acted out all the
words. Coming to India i thought there was gonna be a majority of
Buddist, but in Dharvari it’s pretty obvious that Christianity rules,
there’s Jesus paintings and Stickers everywhere. And half the
traditional songs i recorded are about Jesus. Anyways, after recording
we had lunch which was so great, but what topped it off was my man
Muhammad djing the lunch, blasting Vengaboys and Marakhi Dance hits way
too loud. I guess from watching other DJ’s, Muhammad picked up about
turning the knob’s to fix the EQ etc but he takes it to a new level, if
there’s a knob on the mixer he turns it. After lunch he took to see the
village’s sound system which is super massive. Koliwada gets down. Also
today you can see in the streets that the decorations for Holi are
starting to be put up.
After a
couple days being in India, Dharavi has officially beat down all my
electronic equiptment. The cell phone i brought is totally broken, my
computer doesn’t burn cd’s anymore, my travel power converter is blown
and right as i was backing everything the power supply my external hard
drive audibly blew too. So now i can’t access my external drive at all,
I hope the drive isn’t screwed other wise i lost about 100 something
pictures and some recordings. But either way things are still great.
Today
Knokhi came up with the idea that we should set up somewhere in the
street and record some singers. So we set up a table on the stage at
the cricket field and thus was born “Koliwada Idol”. We had some great
singers even a spell casting transvestite unic laid it down, but i had
to give the prize to this little kid that sang 4-5 songs with snot
rolling down his upper lip the whole time. After that I realized i need
to get more cables and such so we went to the Electronics District on
Grant Road. So much sweet bootleg gear and like 5 stores dedicated
exclusively Remote controls??? After that we got invited to record a
large group during the night. We wrapped up at 1am, all got served ice
cream then they threw some baskets in the middle of the street, lit
them on fire and we danced around them till they went out then called
it a night.
***Word to Joesph for use of some of his pics to help me fill in the blanks.
For the Urban Typhoon
going on there are all of artists and urbanologists doing alot in the
slum here. This is one of the hundred or more pictures that a local
koli drew as on of the projects. All of the stuff going on over the
week is going to put up later on Dharavi.org.
I’ll post when its up and going. I’m really trying to get my hands on
this baby massage video it’s crazy. I’ll post a link when i do.
When i
first got to Koliwada I was trying to explain that i wanted to write
some new songs with the locals and work together and make some tracks.
They didn’t really understand what i meant, I think it’s because they
mostly listen to Akon, Sean Paul, HIndi film scores or they just sing
local songs that have been there for generations. So after 4 days I
realised that i’d have to just do it to give them the idea. So we setup
a speaker on the roof of the gym and i played a bunch of beats and
instruments to my friends then we started getting somewhere. It was
awesome I ended up spending the day recording up there. Also I arranged
a Mad Decent Party on the roof for the locals and the people here for
the Urban typhoon tomorrow.
So later we
did more night recordings and this time in another hood and we seen
what all the turf talk was all about. Koliwada is so dense the
neighboring hood is just maybe 40 feet off the main path. You could
feel there was something going on during the recording between our
squad and the dudes who’s turf we were recording on, Mad beef.
Do you know
how on Inspector Gadget how he’s just some idiot going around not
really knowing what’s going on and he always solves the crime and stays
out of trouble because his daughter and her dog are in behind the
scenes saving him? Well that is exactly me in India, their my guardian
angels in the slum here.
Tomorrow is the big day where everyone who worked in the workshop
has to present their idea for the future of the Koliwada. Since its a
sorta stressful time I thought why not throw a short party to give
everyone a break from all their hard work. So today it’s the rooftop
party! So we set up a system, bought a bunch of 2 litres of Thumbs Up
and samosas literally by the kilo.
Anyways, with the party set for 7:30-10:00 and with no booze i was
thinking i’d be like a meet and greet but OMG… It was nuts the rooftop
was packed with locals and workshop people and man , Indian dudes
dance, and like pros, by like 8:00pm the sun had dropped and all the
locals were fiending for Hindi Remixes and Holi Songs. But if i did
drop the wrong song i’d hear everyone shouting “No!!!!!” and i’d be
surrounded by 20 Koli’s saying “change it, change it” it was hilarious!
Most of their songs they have there own dance to, like the DJ Kombada
(DJ Cock) track i posted, where they skip in a circle and uses their
hands as the beak and tailfeather. They also did some mad square dance
like one and one where they all ran around in a circle like they are
going down a dancefloor sized drain. The cool thing was that compared
to the hindi trance stuff i was playing when i did play my usual stuff
i’d have to speed them up like plus 12percent to match the energy.
The best part of the whole night was how everyone, like everyone of
every color danced their ass off. I had a couple people from workshop
say they haven’t danced in years and they danced the whole night. So
anyways at 10:30 we shut it down, we all ate samosas and called it a
day. Damn, you can’t capture that on camera or film (literally my
camcorder showed up pitch black) it probably the craziest party i ever
played and it was drugless and alcoholess.
So today is the night of dancing everyone in the village has been
talking about. I thought cool okay, yeah lets dance and celebrate, i do
that all the time. But as soon as I left my hotel in the morning it had
already started. In the streets all i would see were these huge trucks
loaded with people with flags bumping tunes driving down the street.
I was on the hunt for flea markets as i had some time for myself so
i hopped in a cab with this dude that reminded me of a cab driver from
TaleSpin or Rescue rangers or something.
Anyways we drove for like an hour not getting anywhere because
streets were shut down for festivals and all these barges full of
people and bass bins were filling up the traffic. So i got out of the
cab because it was way faster to walk, I think the markets were closed
or something, so i just walked around, i still haven’t bought a thing
for my mom or anyone yet, so thats sorta lame. Anyways I spent the day
coming up on parades of people worshiping speakers on trucks.
I’d love to contrast these parades with the ones i’d go to growing
up for Canada Day in my home town. So all day i didn’t find any markets
that i was looking for but I spot 7 indians on a bike, can you beat
that?
Later we all got together for the Holi Eve celebration. We walked to
the Holi Maidan which ending up being quite a feat because the streets
were rammed with people and dancing in their neighbourhoods and when
they’d spot us they’d all grab us and kidnap us to the eye of there
dancefloor and offer us drinks and food and would let us go . It was
the craziest thing there was like a new sound system set up every 30-40
feet. So we finally made it to the Holi Maidan and it was rammed with
people as well and there was a big tree in the middle. They brought us
behind the stage and told us to go up the ladder, We had vip seats to
like this Indiana Jones Ceremony. Every crew in the city got to have
their band playing the Holi Song as they walked around the tree. The
bands in Koliwada are badass, they consist of 6-7 drummers, trumpet
player and one casio player who’s hooked up to a battery and megaphone
thats strapped to a bicycle.
“Casio” playing is so popular that in the city there was even a sign that read “Singing, Dancing and Casio Lessons”.
So as the show went on there were fireworks which blew like 30 feet
over our heads and then they lit the tree on fire. Women started
walking around the fire with pots on their heads, adding another every
lap then after like 10 or so pots they tossed them to the fire.
After that we go to get in the line up with our village squad and go
to walk in the line the the fire which was real sweet, i’m not sure how
many people from outside of Koliwada have been able to do that. Too
much typing next post is party time….
