In this issue:

Grammy Nim Ajji*

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh
I’ll get him hot, show him what I’ve got
Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh,
I’ll get him hot, show him what I’ve got

Is that another musical epiphany like the one that made Rajeev pen the lyrics for Sold? Nope, says TAAQ’s drummer. Those are the lyrics for Poker Face, Lady Gaga’s Grammy nomination for Song of the Year. Songwriters: Germanotta, Stefani, Khayat, Nadir.

Impressive, eh? “I think Germanotta wrote ‘oh’, Stefani wrote ‘ohhhh’, Khayat wrote ‘ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh’ and Nadir just stood there looking HAWTT!” he says.

*For the un-Bangalored: Nim Ajji, a mildly ribald term of endearment, is Kannada for ‘your granny’

Hot earth, cold feet

A magazine cover went: ‘Can we save this fragile Earth?’ Heck, it’s us who are fragile. Once we’ve all been expurgated in a cloud of greenhouse gas, good old Gaia will take a well-deserved few million years off and be ready to welcome other, maybe less ‘intelligent’ but more ‘aware’ species.

But then again, if there is one turning point in the history of mankind that screwed everything up, it’s the creation of the drum machine.

Jailhouse Crock

We learn that the shamed and now imprisoned boss of Satyam has asked for a few simple pleasures to make his incarceration worth the time. Buttermilk? Yes, said the guards. Guntur Chicken? Hmmm, ok. Gongura pickle? Ok, but only on Sundays. You can already see where this is leading, so why wouldn’t the prison authorities?
By the time he got to asking the management for what he really, really wanted (nope, not a Spice Girl), the authorities had enough. So when Raju wanted a laptop, they shook their heads. “There is a mouse in his prison cell, let him make do with that,” the warden was reported as saying (off the record, of course).

Tiger, Tiger burning out?

It is every cat’s prerogative to bring home something that disgusts the hell out of his folks. When you’re a big cat, that something has to be bigger and badder and smellier than most. But then again, not every cat has the privilege of driving (yeah, we know it’s a responsibility, not a privilege) a Cadillac Escalade. You should know, if you are Tiger Woods.

MORE?

TIMES OF NEED from Thermal And A Quarter – Vol 1 # 4 Nov-Dec 09

DOWNLOAD TIMES OF NEED-NOV-DEC 09-VOL 1 #4 [PDF]

The post TIMES OF NEED – The Grammies, Climate Change and more appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

Landed in Jakarta 3rd afternoon. Heard it was rainy in these parts, but perhaps they were taking it a bit too far – it was actually raining inside our Air Asia Boeing from KL to Jakarta (last leg). Greeted at airport by the very friendly Mike from Java Jazz, holding a big ‘TAAQ’ sign. Helped through paperwork; all the baggage shows up – it’s a great day already!

taaq with prasanna @ java jazz 09

The Sultan Hotel used to be the Hilton (that rhymes – if you’re Mark Knopfler) and it’s swankus maximus, so all’s well again! The JJF folks are amazing, really friendly, really efficient, and really hard working. Have lunch at the Peacock Café here, and we are immediately hit with the realization that we’re not getting back without carrying a few extra pounds. If there was ever a buffet to die for, This Is It.

Spend the rest of the day bumping into (name dropping coming up!) Dave Weckl, Mike Stern etc, while 40,000 odd folks queue up to get tickets for the festival. Yes, 40,000.

TAAQ jams with Prasanna

4th morn, meet Prasanna on his way in – we’re supposed to jam tonight at our first pre-festival warm-up gig here, at the Airman Planet Lounge. Do a small ‘Glaswegian’ practice (if you followed our UK tour, you know what that means) in Prasanna’s room – fix up to play new track Grab Me and the staple Brigade St. Nice vibe! Nice PRS axe too.

Brigade Street goes to Indonesia

Gig starts 10:30 pm, no soundcheck; launch into Sunset Man, Look at Me, etc. Good vibes from the crowd so far… Prasanna comes in on the last two tracks and puts his distinctive stamp on them, all right. Finish up with a fully jammed out Brigade St and our first gig at Java Jazz is done… two more to go, sowatchthisspaceetc!

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