February 2010 - Page 2 of 3 - Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ) - Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ)

One Small Love – Vasu Dixit and Varun Murali draw the line

bar, Cubbon Park, german bakery, photographer, theatre, Varun Murali, words and pictures, world music day, writer | February 11, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

Swarathma, Indias hottest new band (they swept the JD Rock Awards), is also a multicultural ensemble with members who hail from across the country.

Vasu Dixit and Varun Murali invoke Sant Kabir in one of their songs to explain that nothing has changed in the last five hundred years when it comes to womens empowerment. On the one hand we tout the power of freedom and yet, on the other, the same people misuse freedom for their own interests.

Join them and other artists, musicians and concerned citizens at ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’ on Feb 14 in Bangalore to celebrate the spirit of freedom. If you are not in Bangalore, join us on Facebook.

Draw the line. Spread the love.
One Small Love – Rajeev Ravindranathan draws the line

advertising, alliance, Cubbon Park, CWG Delhi 2010, election, photographer, roots rock, thermal, Varun Murali, video launch | February 11, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

Even an actor has real feelings. Advertising honcho Rajeev Ravindranathan, most recently seen as a not-so-good guy in the Bollywood hit Three Idiots, has a point to make when he takes on the notion of culture being sequestered in cities.

“I’m not a Mangalorean but I love their food, and I’m not a Bangalorean but I live here,” he says. What is this about cities, anyway? Whose fault was it that India was organized into states on the basis of language? And why do we get so parochial over who is allowed to inhabit and work in our cities?

Questions that point to one simple answer: One Small Line. That’s all you need to draw to live in harmony in a tired world.

Join Rajeev and others like him at ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore‘, a concert that stresses the notion of one love, one world.

Draw the line. Spread the love.
One Small Love – Kartik and Praveen draw the line

hoedown, hustings, Kyra, Ravi Kulur, Video | February 10, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

Two Happy guys were the first to draw the line. But it took One Big Scowl at all the unhappy goings on in the world to turn One Small Love into One Big Smile.

Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das of Happy Creative Services, the Bangalore-based thinkshop that dreamed up the One Small Love music video this time last year, tell us how it all started and what jump-started them into doing something different, positive and creative to draw the line.

You don’t have to be happy to be a Happy guy but it helps, as at least one of the two founders demonstrates.

Join these uber happy folks at One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore, a concert to celebrate expression, happiness and other wonderful emotions with music, food and free speech.

Come to Opus in the Creek, Whitefield Road, Bangalore on February 14. Entry is free.

Draw the line. Spread the love.
One Small Love – Martin D'Souza draws the line

attitude, bar, cultural policing, gig, moral police, music journalism, new delhi, new issue, november 1999, photographer, Pondicherry | February 10, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

Moral policing threatens not just artists, musicians and performers but audiences as well, as it robs them of their right to be informed and entertained in accordance with their choice.

That’s the view expressed by Martin D’Souza, an artist and advertising professional who has called Bangalore home for 24 years.

Join Martin and other concerned Bangaloreans as they come together for ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’, a celebration of the spirit of freedom and tolerance with music, food and free speech. Musicians Konarak Reddy, Allwyn Fernandes, Gaurav Vaz, Ravi Kulur, Gerard Machado, Karan Joseph and Swarathma will join Thermal And A Quarter at the concert on Feb 14, 2010 at Opus in the Creek, Whitefield Road, Bangalore.

Draw the line. Spread the love.

Attend the concert on February 14. Entry is free.
One Small Love – Konarak and Kirtana draw the line

Axl Rose, malayalam rock, male, Paper Pulitzer, Prakash Belawadi | February 10, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

Musician Konarak Reddy and actor-filmmaker Kirtana Kumar interpret the relationship between freedom and politics, and politics and art.

Freedom to choose, asserts Konarak, is our most important asset — as long as we exercise it within the provisions of the law. Politics, argues Kirtana, is not a dirty word as it is often made out to be, but a state of mind. And art and politics cannot be separated.

Join them at One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore, a celebration of the spirit of freedom and tolerance with music, food and free speech on February 14, 2010 at Opus in the Creek, Whitefield Road, Bangalore.

Draw the line. Spread the love.

Join One Small Love on Facebook
Download the One Small Love profile image for Facebook

Eleven Rack Window, franchise, free download, gig reviews, Prakash Belawadi, satire | February 9, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

Right-click and save the image and use it in your Facebook profile

We’ve been getting a lot of requests for the Facebook profile image, so here it is. If you’re all thumbs (like us) at web tech, just follow the instructions to download and use it.

Firefox: Right-click and ‘Save image as’ to your computer

Internet Explorer: Right-click and ‘Save Picture As’ to your computer

Chrome: Right-click and ‘Save image as’ to your computer

Using the profile image on Facebook: Click on the edit icon of your current Facebook image (the ‘pencil’ icon). From the ‘Edit your Profile Picture’ menu, select ‘Upload a Picture” as shown in the screenshot below and follow the rest of the instructions.

How to change your profile image to One Small Love on Facebook

The Facebook page for One Small Love has over 335 fans within 24 hours of its launch. Thanks for the love!
Draw a smile, get the song

Eleven Rack Window, official anthem, Prakash Belawadi, time out delhi | February 9, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

Get off those torrents for a bit and download the One Small Love MP3 track straight from the Thermal And A Quarter website.

But first, we need you to do something for us.

Thanks to Happy for the idea and the cool folks at Kieon for making this work!
The 'Happy' story behind One Small Love

hoedown, moral police, moral policing, photographer, prasanna ramaswamy, Video, video clip | February 9, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

Behind the smiley is Happy. Now, that may not make much sense in English but read the story and it might.

Most TAAQ insiders and many outsiders know that Happy Creative Services, the hot little Bangalore thinkshop run by Praveen Das and Kartik Iyer (yes, he of The Higher Iyer Show), was instrumental in putting that big horrid insect (mercifully quite dead) on the cover of This Is It. While we had our suspicions that it was a visual that they hurriedly adapted from a sunk pitch for Mortein, all was forgiven when we actually saw the men at work taking macro shots, hunched over a roach that had been very lovingly put to eternal sleep.

This time last year was really busy for us. Java Jazz was on the horizon and we were busy trying to take the next plane out without having to pay our own way. The Mangalore pub incident evoked a strong response from various quarters – the Pink Chaddi Campaign being the most celebrated of them. When NDTV’s Barkha Dutt hurriedly convened a ‘We The People’ in Bangalore on Feb 14, we were invited to be onlookers as a lot of Bangalore’s hottest (under the collar) and coolest (by glam sunglass quotient) gathered to thrash out the issue. It was here that we performed the first bars of One Small Love publicly for the first time.

Happy tried our patience when we were more preoccupied with getting our airline tickets and accommodation at Jakarta sorted out with the festival organisers. In the middle of all that, they shot a video, got it edited and sent it up into the free (if somewhat firewalled) world.

One Small Love was born. On Happy’s blog, the lads wrote:

TAAQ appeared on a talk show on NDTV where they hummed a few lines from the song (The show was hosted by Barkha Dutt, and was in connection with the Mangalore incident). TAAQ set off to Jakarta after seeing the first cut. After 10 years of penning down some brilliant songs, here they were – running out of words to express their joy. Their way of approval was a big, happy smile…

For Happy, it was the first music video produced in-house. The excitement was palpable. The whole team celebrated with the customary Old Monk (One small gulp is all it takes in a tired world)…

Read the entire account here along with a nice photo-story.
One Small Love – Divya Joseph draws the line

bar, bass player, BITS Pilani Goa, Cubbon Park, drums, jaago re, moral police, nick mason, photographer, photography, taaq.in, thermal, Varun Murali | February 9, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

It’s not just about Mangalore or Bangalore, it could be any place in the world where liberty is under threat.

Divya Joseph, advertising professional, singer and ardent Bangalorean, reminds us that the freedom to choose is a fundamental right for men and women alike.

Join Divya and other concerned citizens at ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’, a celebration with music, food and free speech at Opus in the Creek, Whitefield Road, Bangalore on February 14, 2010.

Show your support by becoming a fan of One Small Love on Facebook.

Draw the line. Spread the love.
One Small Love: Gaurav Vaz draws the line

gina forever, photographer, youth | February 8, 2010 | Permalink | Comments Off

What does it take to draw the line?

Gaurav Vaz, bass guitar player for the Raghu Dixit Project and a Bangalorean whose heart beats for Mangalore, tells us.

Gaurav and other artists will join Thermal And A Quarter on Sunday, February 14, 2010 at Opus in the Creek, Brookefields, Bangalore for ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’, a celebration with music, food and free speech.

And, just to see if you’ve paid attention and watched the video all the way to the end, answer this:

[poll id="3"]