Roman Edirisinghe

I was checking out Mutant Frog Travelogue and found a post about some fascinating Chinese delicacies: scorpion, starfish and seahorse snacks. Reading it made me simultaneously cringe and ponder, “What would that taste like?” I’ll have to find out for myself. This is one of those things I would be willing to do when I launch my “pay me to travel and blog” phase of this blog. Need some more pictures for proof? I found more references here | here | here | here | here

Further perusal of the web brought many other discoveries. Interested in some exotic alcohol? I’m not talking about the tequila worm. Edible.com features some provocative items for sale, including snake vodka, scorpion vodka, and BBQ worm crisps. My stomach growls with hungry excitement.

Do you enjoy coffee and tea? I certainly do. And I would enjoy it more if it was shat out the anus of some exotic kitty, that’s for sure. Check out civet coffee, weasel coffee (vomited by weasels), and monkey-picked tea.

Last night, after I played cowbell with the Static Chicken, some guy came up to me and started ranting to me about Christopher Walken. I raised my right eyebrow, as I had no idea what he was talking about. He then jogged my memory. Apparently, I reminded him of the infamous Saturday Night Live episode featuring Christopher Walken, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, Will Ferrell, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz doing a skit of a Blue Öyster Cult recording session. Apparently I land among the stars, at least in this guys eyes. Thanks, dude, whatever your name is.

Watch the cowbell skit (WMV)
Listen to MP3s of the sketch

I also found plenty of other articles here | here

I was going to go to bed early last night, 10 pm or so, but in a burst of inspiration I decided to go to the Jazz Estate to see the Erotic Adventures of the Static Chicken band. Featuring Jesse Sheehan (sax, tablas), Chris Vos (guitars, vocals), Jeremy Kuzniar (drums), and Matt Turner (bass, yodel), the Static Chicken is by far my favorite tuesday night staple, especially if I’m in the mood for unpredictable, controlled chaos, with a hint of blues, gritty jazz, and deep funk. Yeow! Mama!

I was really not in the mood to be out, but I forced myself, and I’m glad I did. It made all the difference. I got there during their set-break, and once they started playing, Jeremy invited me up to play cowbell, muttering something about doing something Afrobeat influenced. I couldn’t say no. It was quite a pleasure and once I got into the groove I felt myself exploding with renewed vigor. Jeremy is such a blast to play with. He’s extremely intuitive, and not only has great feel, but an awesome personality. The jam lasted a good 10-15 minutes or more; I lost track of time. When it was over, I stepped down and started to dance. Suze and Amy were already tearing up the floor with their modern dance influenced gyrations, and I followed suit. Eventually, we started doing this contact improv thing similar to the other night. We wound up all over the floor, which was really fun (understatement of the evening).

I went to order a drink, and talked to Evan Christian for a while, and filled him in about my departure from One Drum. He was extremely sympathetic, and totally understood being burned out and needing to take time out from music for sanity’s sake. Observing the band, we agreed that Chris Vos rocked the house. Within minutes, Jesse Sheehan started channelling alien lifeforms through his saxophone. He seems to step away from his body at such points, and the music starts playing him. It’s unbelievable. I don’t think he realizes that it’s happening. Or maybe he does. Regardless, Jesse is a mean muddafucka of a sax player.

At this point, Ethan Keller was sitting in. I returned to the floor, and this time danced not only with Suze & Amy, but with Hadley as well. The band eventually stopped playing, but not before I had managed to slither, slide, and gesticulate wildly. It felt really good. I sat down, and talked to Eiton Eitan about how much fun it was playing one bass simultaneously at the party Saturday night. Honestly, I haven’t felt like that in years – I felt like I was in high school again, jamming with my good friends, the atmosphere was light, there was no heaviness, no overbearing egos or anything. It was just 2 people playing. Damn good. Thanks, Eiton Eitan.

Ahh, and Josie Jozi. She was there at the Estate, dancing and being herself. I still find her delicious. From the short conversation we had, she seems really insightful, sincere, confident, and won’t let her herself or her friends drive drunk. Very, very cool. And she remembers me playing in Mitchell Hall?!?! Astounding! Unthinkable! Hmmm….

I informed both Eiton Eitan & Josie Jozi that I had written about them in this very blog. I scrawled out the URL on some paper gleaned from a cigarette box. Hopefully they will visit and notice I wrote about them again!

As I lay on my bed writing this, I’m happy. I’m happy that I forced myself out of my house. I’ll be somewhat tired tomorrow, but life is simply too short to dwell on the trivial.

By the way, I fall asleep to the sound of the ocean at night. I found some great ocean wave sounds, and play them on my iPod all night long. It’s extremely relaxing rest.

“There’s nothing worse than bad uni.” – Mark Hersh

Life. This winter has been extremely hard on me. Fuckin’ hell, it just snowed a couple days ago! In mid-March! I don’t know, maybe it has to do with being 31. Is anyone else out there 31? And having a hard winter?

Some of you may have noticed that I don’t blog about work. It’s true. I choose not to, not only because I’ve noticed several companies firing employees for blogging, but also because I like my job. I have nothing to complain about, and even if I did, I wouldn’t put it here. So at least my job is going well.

My favorite emotional dead end seems to be romantic relationships. It’s so easy for me to get depressed when I don’t get the response I desire. And then I get caught up in cyclic thinking, wondering if I will ever feel connected to someone ever, ever again. Oh, the drama overwhelmeth.

So a couple months ago, I quit One Drum. Tonight, I met someone named Josie Jozi (totally cute with tattoos [yum]), and when I introduced myself as “Roman,” her inquisitive reply was, “Roman from One Drum.” I told her that I just wanted to be a number, an anonymous number, and that I didn’t want to be a number from another number called One Drum. Perhaps I scared her off with my rant. I wanted to tell her that I’d noticed her before and that I found her extremely delicious, but found neither the courage not the words.

I miss Sri Lanka. I miss the warmth of the people, the warmth of the sun. I miss stinky city traffic and crazy three-wheeled taxi rides. I miss drunken music sessions on the beach (I wasn’t drunk, everyone else was). I miss Ruki (who is now in Australia). I miss Roshan, Niroshi, Mayah, Dulip, Susila, Dilini, Ruwani (who is getting married in May!), Annesley, Ranjit (who is in Switzerland), Dikka, Primal, Susantha, Hacha… I miss everyone there. I wonder what the tsunami did to their lives. I know many are okay, but I want to see it with my own eyes.

I was at a house-warming party tonight (where I met Josie Jozi). The hosts (Ethan Keller, Matt Turner & Amber) had a good number of guests over. I wasn’t especially sociable, but managed to converse with a number of people, including Jason Seed & Stephanie Ramp, Jesse Sheehan & Lauren, Dave Wake, Rueven Cocos, Eiton Eitan Silver, Emily & Josie Jozi, Susie Carlson & Jeremy Kuzniar… There were some entertaining musical adventures, including Eiton Eitan & I playing one bass guitar together, Dave Wake playing drums, Jesse (steel drums) & Jesse (sax) jamming crazy shit together. It was cool. Before I left, Amy Seigel & I did some improvised contact dance, which was totally awesome, and in essence fulfilled my need for touch. It was better than sex. But sex would be nice too. LOL.

Earlier yet, I met up with Heidi, John and Marc at the Comet. We talked about stuff: relationships, cameras, life, etc. Heidi remarked on how she noticed my mood shift from outgoing to introspective, and I was awed and overwhelmed that I know people who know me so well. Hides, [your] eyes are a blue million miles (from a Captain Beefheart song, if anyone is curious).

I can’t bloody wait for spring. This prolonged wait is exceedingly difficult.

I also wish people would inform me right away if they have no romantic interest in me, rather than giving me what may be clues that they are leading me on. If you don’t dig me, let me know; I’m a big boy and I can take it. But I can’t take this knocking on a door with no response, knowing that somewhere behind that door is that smiling, laughing Carrie.

I’m starting to wonder if I should become a Buddist monk, or a Jedi Knight. My emotions are dark, and I feel like I’m walking a fine tightrope between shadow and light. Very little piques my interest, save this blog and working my day job. I sometimes miss music. I really miss music. I haven’t yet gotten to the point where I want to really do something about it. Jason & I were talking about some ideas tonight. It would be cool. Let’s see if they come to fruition. I had fun vibing musically with Eiton Eitan. Also, Dave Wake is an eternal musical revelation…

For now, I will content myself with the day-to-day. My brother’s and Heidi’s birthdays are coming up. Celebration will be good. I will not take unanswered phone calls personally. I will strive to be happy. 10-4. Roger, Roger. Over & out.

Pretty snow all around… in March, even!

I’m amused. I was just requested by one of my former bandmates to remove all references to my blog from their pages. It must be too controversial (One Drum is kid friendly, so I’m certainly not surprised). As their webmaster, I must comply. It was referenced only on my One Drum bio page (view modified version), which I’ve listed in uncensored glory below:

A first generation Sri Lankan-Russian immigrant raised in Germany, Sri Lanka, and the United States, Roman Edirisinghe keeps himself busy with web consultation/design and music. Originally a guitarist, Roman expanded his repertoire to include the didgeridoo, percussion and drums, not to mention digital/synthesized music.

Roman has recently changed directions by opting out of the One Drum core group. He still serves One Drum as webmaster and as a musician for hire.

Find out more about Roman at romanedirisinghe.com, which features Roman’s blog, complete with an RSS feed for syndicated content.
WARNING: by clicking on the link above, you will be leaving the One Drum site. Roman’s site is not “G” rated. You have been duly warned, and One Drum will not be held liable or responsible for any content on Roman’s site.

What is a blog?
What is an RSS feed?

“Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.” – Tiffany Morgan, quoted from an Arizona Junction Newsletter called “Eyes,” by Raye Rizziar. The author of the quote, however, is unknown.

I was reading Music Thing today when I stumbled across a great article on a Congolese group called Konono N°1. For the past 25 years, these musical innovators have been using low-tech ingenuity on traditional and found instruments to create a irresistable grooves. Using hand-carved wooden microphones and electrified likembé (thumb piano) plugged into amplifiers and custom-built mixers, Konono N°1 finds it’s roots in Bazombo trance music. The resulting sonic mélange has inadvertently linked them to experimental music and electronic music.

I’m really excited to pick up their CD, ‘Congotronics’, from Amazon.

via Music thing
via Inaudible Cities | more
via The Suburbs Are Killing Us

Check out this Konono N°1 page in French, featuring a great video clip of them in action.

I tried to find out more about the Bazombo and their music, and the only reference I could find is on zyama.com, an African art museum.

“I’m really getting weird.” – Kevin Nielsen