Roman Edirisinghe

I’ve finally posted some videos that I took at a flamenco bar called La Carbonería, in Sevilla, over six months ago. This event took place after all the official performances had finished: a guy walked into the bar carrying a guitar; I’m guessing he was a gypsy, even though he lacked the stereotypical long hair. The musicians left over from earlier performances all joined him in a smaller alcove, and the resulting late-night session is what I managed to catch on my camera. What is undocumented is that after many of the other musicians left, he (the dark complexioned guy on the right with the brown jacket and short hair) looked at me and insistently demanded me to sing a song. I replied that I didn’t know flamenco, that I was a foreigner, but he didn’t buy it. Eventually I relented, asked him for his guitar and proceeded to sing and play a song. It wasn’t flamenco by any stretch (it was an East Indian tune called Ghoom Charakhana), but my delivery made him eat his foot. I wasn’t sure what he was after in challenging an amateur (at flamenco) to perform, but I hope he learned the error of his ways. In the end I didn’t return to the establishment for some time, hoping to avoid a similar scenario. Subsequent to this event was when I started my official flamenco lessons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sq9nvCc4Wg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxm5t1ZQUdc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijtTVGEzAME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGyCvdn-zeQ

Here is another video of a friend from Sevilla dancing flamenco.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA-Ww3G_aIw

Date: March 12, 2008
Location: Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo
Dance: Melinda Hedgecorth
Vocals: Javier Rivera/ David “El Gamba”
Guitar: Jordi Flores

Integrating screenshots of Google Maps and using Flickr notes, Memory Maps are visual representations of one’s memories, an annotated satellite view of places steeped in personal meaning.

I found out about Memory Maps on Lifehacker, and decided it was worth a try. After all, I’ve had an interesting childhood, moving around to different countries, and so forth.

Check out my Memory Maps photoset on Flickr. The Memory Maps group is worth perusing as well.

I will see you soon, my old friend.

I’m back in Milwaukee now, well rested, and I now have the energy to complete my tale.

After we checked out of the hotel, we made our way to the college. On the way there, we stopped by at Atomic Coffee to get some caffeine. While I was waiting for the cappuchino and mocha, my eye was drawn to a large green apple. I grabbed it, and was holding it in my hand when the coffee was brought to the counter. I paid for the coffee and left.

En route to the college, I discovered I had the apple in my pocket. Which was strange, because I didn’t remember paying for it. Which essentially meant that I had inadvertently pinched the apple right under the cashier’s nose! I didn’t have time to return the apple. I was going to have to chew on the karmic debt later.

We arrived at Concordia and met an extremely diverse group of students, who seemed excited to have us perform. Unfortunately, the scenario was extremely disorganized. No one seemed to have any idea of what was going on. The sound crew seemed taxed by our requests. And all the students there were eager to start their talent show, which made us realize how secondary our presence was going to be. On a brighter note, I discovered there were a lot of Sri Lankan students at Concordia, which was quite startling to me. I was unloading my gear when I heard “Nah bhang…machang…etc,” and I thought I was in a different country.

Overall, the show was a success, but it was not without some inherent hitches. The best songs were Invocations and Malaika. Everything else was passable, but certainly not the best One Drum fare. I always find it a challenge to play without a drum set player. It’s hard to keep consistent tempos without a good timekeeper. The audience seemed to enjoy the show, but wanted us stop far short of our contracted two hours. Which was fine. In the end we drove for 21+ hours to perform for a little longer than an hour.

Don’t get me wrong…the students were great, and seemed really nice. They could benefit from some organizational skills, or some coaching from experienced advisors. Either way, they were unprepared for our band, even though we had forwarded full spec sheets, stage plots, requirements, etc. We live and learn.

One Drum packed up our stuff and were right about to leave when Dave Wake discovered he was missing his wallet. Time passed. He finally found it in his bag…

We were about to drive off when we discovered the back door was open. Much congenial laughter was shared over that episode. We ended up leaving Moorhead at midnight, Friday night.

The return trip was extremely foggy, and I was driving. In the end, I decided it was best to simply ride the center line, which left me a good buffer of road in case the road curved. I had three Red Bulls during my shift, which ended at 5:00 am. I was wiped out. I don’t recall much of what transpired thereafter. I tried to sleep, with mixed success.

Hours later, we arrived in Madison and dropped of David and Ian Stocker. And a little later, we arrived back home in Milwaukee, exhausted, but with heavy pockets.

We’re finally here. One Drum is in Moorhead, Minnesota. I can barely type anything, I’m so tired.

We checked into the hotel, got some breakfast, and our plan is to sleep for a few hours, then go set up for the show. While the drive was grueling, it was not as bad as I thought it would be, and it was made so much more enjoyable by the company. We covered a lot of ground in the last 12 hours: terrestrial and celestial…

I’m about to leave for Fargo, North Dakota with One Drum. We’re going to drive for about 10 hours, sleep, set up and perform at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota (across the river from Fargo), pack up, drive another 10 hours, and crash. The plan is to be back on Saturday, because some of us have shows on Saturday.

I’m already quite exhausted, due to insomnia last night. I hope to catch some winks in the van. Additionally, I’ve configured my blog to accept posts from my mobile phone (moblogging), and interested readers can catch up with the band on the road. Although…if I don’t get a T-Mobile signal up there, we may have problems…

Master Accordionist, originally uploaded by romanedirisinghe.

Last night, we got together with a bunch of Nicole’s friends at an Italian restaurant called “Il Dolce Vita,” or the sweet life. Situated in the historically Italian naighborhood of Boston’s North End, the restaurant dishes out an excellent culinary experience coupled with fine wines, live music, and exceptionally generous service, albeit at a lofty price. Glancing at the bill at the end of the night, I was quite thankful there were 10 of us to split it. Had I been dining alone, it would have amounted to a hefty car loan payment! Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself thouroughly. When the old crooning accordion player came to our table during his rounds, I scatted improvised vocal lines with him. He was so into singing that I would occasionally get sprayed with a fine mist of saliva. It was quite a blast. Really, it was. I felt like I was suddenly on the “in.” The food? Well, my scallops were excellent and slightly sweet, but I was disappointed by the shrimp, which were tougher than I expected from an expensive restaurant in a coastal city like Boston. Overall? I had a rippin’ good time, and the food was good. Bring extra money.

Vera Meyer playing Glass Harmonica, originally uploaded by romanedirisinghe.

Once in Harvard Square, we stumbled upon the most fascinating street musician, Vera Meyer. She played an odd instrument called the Glass Harmonica, and was quite obsessed with Jay Leno and appearing on the Tonight Show. Vera ran through a gamut of songs with an audience member turning the crank on her instrument, and I was mightily impressed by the eerie sound. She informed us the instrument was rumored to make the musician go insane, but that she felt fine. I shrugged to myself as we walked away; sanity is in the eyes of the beholder.

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.