What an exciting month. I'm working on Wicked Karma's Bollysutra dance party for the month and going with an Urban Punjabi theme. I'm working on Naach Meri Jaan, I'm reading all kinds of articles about feminism and seeing all kinds of misogyny rearing its ugly head on the Internet. I'm thinking of my family, skipping Easter and Drunkster, and so many other things, where to begin.
As much as I wanted to follow my previous social experiment up with something more concrete, it has to take a back burner, or maybe never happen. I feel like I just hopped onto a roller coaster and have just started my ascent to a very high apogee, and have little view to the rest of the track, but in a fun way! This is the part where you know your stomach is about to leap up into your mouth and you scream both with excitement and a little bit of fear, hoping that the engineers who built said roller coaster have done their jobs well and the security and maintenance team have checked everything out.
I'm producing Naach Meri Jaan (in English, Dance my Darling) which is a reality tv show. I'm doing it for Seattle. It basically is a dance talent competition with five categories; Kids solo, kids group, adult solo, adult group, and duet. I have been meticulously working on every aspect of the logistics of this and its a lot of work! They say learning to delegate is a good skill of a manager but some skills you just have and can't pass on to others. I'm also observing how my friends, volunteers, and staff work with me and am appreciating them so much.
So much of NMJ is exciting from meeting new people who I'm marketing to, pushing my creativity to new heights behind marketing and production. I was feeling very nostalgic when I went on to tour the theater we are holding the semifinal competition in. I had worked in high school one year in the drama department because I wanted to perform. My audition didn't go so well for the Sound of Music, but I got asked to help work on tech with my old friend Mike Henry (who later became a teacher at our same high school). I remember learning what a 'gel' was and having to replace them, and programming lights in the tech booth as well as playing computer games up there while people rehearsed. It all came back as I walked through Meydenbauer Center's theater. Who knew that would play a part in my life later?
I must also confess shows like these requireme sponsorships, and they are very painful things to convince people to do. It's hard asking our family and friends to borrow money, its even more difficult to ask people who are usually complete strangers for money. I'm convinced when I ask that it is indeed in their best interest and can be very persuasive as to why that is. I think society's outlook on currency just makes this an irritating process. I can only hope for myself that I tread with the utmost respect, dignity, and care for such delicate matters.
There are so many other aspects of producing this show that go into scheduling, producing promos and marketing material, videos, raw footage, uploading, forms, fields, coordination, phone calls, my month is so packed and its only just begun. Seattle's semifinals are April 26. What a fantastic journey.
Meanwhile some highlights in the media have been all the buzz about Deepika Padukone's "My Choice" video that was released by Vogue. It's for women's empowerment and feminism. However something unfortunate happened. There's a line that says something like "its my choice to decide if I want to have sex before marriage, outside of marriage, or no sex at all..." which I can logically see she is making the point that she should be able to choose what she wants to do, without losing respect, without being judged, and be treated as a man's equal.
Somehow people suddenly jump to conclusions that, "oh my god, she's saying we should all cheat on our husbands, what a stupid person!" It's as if the group of people reacting to this video in that way have completely missed out on the fact its about making choices instead of being dictated by society what to do. The irony is hilarious, but terribly sad at the same time. Indian society is also a bit behind on its ideals compared to the west so surely the same reactionaries have not thought of consensual swinging, polyamory, and the like where there are more situations than just "cheating" where sex can happen outside of marriage. Sometimes it feels like my faith in humanity dwindles... until I see some new cat video that is getting passed around on Facebook. Is this what life is right now? I have no idea how to conceptualize what it might be in a few more generations, and it has me really wondering if I have kids exactly how to raise them.
Working on a monthly dance party is normally hard work, but somehow feels like white noise compared to the extra work I've been doing, in addition to my day job. Even in that arena I am taking on new work to push my skills to their limits and grow. I still am at a loss for words to define exactly what 'urban punjabi' is except that it defines itself. It's not Bhangra. It's not Bollywood, its not Hip Hop, but really its a brilliant fusion that I think often slips under the radar. There are sounds happening in this domain that will be genre defining after a few years as it grows in popularity. I'm still a padawan learner in this, too, but what a great musical journey. I'm really excited to see how the party turns out.
I'm also a little tense. My dad is in the hospital for congestive heart failure. There has been liquid in his heart and scans are showing blood clots and some other not cool things. A few years ago he had neck surgery with a big steel rod put in place to relieve spinal pressure on his spinal cord. He had some complications and nearly died and after reading his blog about what nearly dying is like, it has been like every day is a bucket list day for me. Its teaching me to care for myself more (sometimes I get too busy to remember to eat, going hiking today reminded me I really need to see a doctor about my ankle that I sprained last year, etc) and I can only hope that breakneck pace to life is a good ethic for me and my boyfriend. He weathers it all very patiently. I don't know how he does it but he's become a pillar of support in my life I can't live without. Roller coaster.
As much as I wanted to follow my previous social experiment up with something more concrete, it has to take a back burner, or maybe never happen. I feel like I just hopped onto a roller coaster and have just started my ascent to a very high apogee, and have little view to the rest of the track, but in a fun way! This is the part where you know your stomach is about to leap up into your mouth and you scream both with excitement and a little bit of fear, hoping that the engineers who built said roller coaster have done their jobs well and the security and maintenance team have checked everything out.
I'm producing Naach Meri Jaan (in English, Dance my Darling) which is a reality tv show. I'm doing it for Seattle. It basically is a dance talent competition with five categories; Kids solo, kids group, adult solo, adult group, and duet. I have been meticulously working on every aspect of the logistics of this and its a lot of work! They say learning to delegate is a good skill of a manager but some skills you just have and can't pass on to others. I'm also observing how my friends, volunteers, and staff work with me and am appreciating them so much.
So much of NMJ is exciting from meeting new people who I'm marketing to, pushing my creativity to new heights behind marketing and production. I was feeling very nostalgic when I went on to tour the theater we are holding the semifinal competition in. I had worked in high school one year in the drama department because I wanted to perform. My audition didn't go so well for the Sound of Music, but I got asked to help work on tech with my old friend Mike Henry (who later became a teacher at our same high school). I remember learning what a 'gel' was and having to replace them, and programming lights in the tech booth as well as playing computer games up there while people rehearsed. It all came back as I walked through Meydenbauer Center's theater. Who knew that would play a part in my life later?
I must also confess shows like these requireme sponsorships, and they are very painful things to convince people to do. It's hard asking our family and friends to borrow money, its even more difficult to ask people who are usually complete strangers for money. I'm convinced when I ask that it is indeed in their best interest and can be very persuasive as to why that is. I think society's outlook on currency just makes this an irritating process. I can only hope for myself that I tread with the utmost respect, dignity, and care for such delicate matters.
There are so many other aspects of producing this show that go into scheduling, producing promos and marketing material, videos, raw footage, uploading, forms, fields, coordination, phone calls, my month is so packed and its only just begun. Seattle's semifinals are April 26. What a fantastic journey.
Meanwhile some highlights in the media have been all the buzz about Deepika Padukone's "My Choice" video that was released by Vogue. It's for women's empowerment and feminism. However something unfortunate happened. There's a line that says something like "its my choice to decide if I want to have sex before marriage, outside of marriage, or no sex at all..." which I can logically see she is making the point that she should be able to choose what she wants to do, without losing respect, without being judged, and be treated as a man's equal.
Somehow people suddenly jump to conclusions that, "oh my god, she's saying we should all cheat on our husbands, what a stupid person!" It's as if the group of people reacting to this video in that way have completely missed out on the fact its about making choices instead of being dictated by society what to do. The irony is hilarious, but terribly sad at the same time. Indian society is also a bit behind on its ideals compared to the west so surely the same reactionaries have not thought of consensual swinging, polyamory, and the like where there are more situations than just "cheating" where sex can happen outside of marriage. Sometimes it feels like my faith in humanity dwindles... until I see some new cat video that is getting passed around on Facebook. Is this what life is right now? I have no idea how to conceptualize what it might be in a few more generations, and it has me really wondering if I have kids exactly how to raise them.
Working on a monthly dance party is normally hard work, but somehow feels like white noise compared to the extra work I've been doing, in addition to my day job. Even in that arena I am taking on new work to push my skills to their limits and grow. I still am at a loss for words to define exactly what 'urban punjabi' is except that it defines itself. It's not Bhangra. It's not Bollywood, its not Hip Hop, but really its a brilliant fusion that I think often slips under the radar. There are sounds happening in this domain that will be genre defining after a few years as it grows in popularity. I'm still a padawan learner in this, too, but what a great musical journey. I'm really excited to see how the party turns out.
I'm also a little tense. My dad is in the hospital for congestive heart failure. There has been liquid in his heart and scans are showing blood clots and some other not cool things. A few years ago he had neck surgery with a big steel rod put in place to relieve spinal pressure on his spinal cord. He had some complications and nearly died and after reading his blog about what nearly dying is like, it has been like every day is a bucket list day for me. Its teaching me to care for myself more (sometimes I get too busy to remember to eat, going hiking today reminded me I really need to see a doctor about my ankle that I sprained last year, etc) and I can only hope that breakneck pace to life is a good ethic for me and my boyfriend. He weathers it all very patiently. I don't know how he does it but he's become a pillar of support in my life I can't live without. Roller coaster.
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