Next Level Bangladesh - Hip Hop in Dhaka!

Not something I expected to be writing about, but Grace and I went to a hip hop show about a month ago. It was a joint effort of the US Embassy, the UNC Department of Music (small world!), and I imagine a lot of other people to whom I'm now giving short shrift. There are some better write-ups here and here, as well as a Facebook page, but the basic gist is that several American hip hop artists travel the world and collaborate with local artists to put on shows together, in addition to hosting workshops and other things.

Getting to the show was a bit of a hassle, but that's a pretty tired refrain at this point. Actually arriving was a bit more exciting. There was a massive line outside. Grace, ever careful to avoid wielding her diplomatic privilege, politely queued up at the end. I, who wield Grace's diplomatic privilege at every opportunity (maybe I'm just more practiced at wielding privilege seeing as how my descriptors read like those of the quintessential patriarchal bogeyman), suggested that maybe we could jump in front of the line, seeing as we were the only non-Bangladeshis in it. This turned out to be the right call, as we were quickly swept inside and ushered to the front three rows (reserved for fine, fancy folks such as ourselves). I will grudgingly admit there are some perks to diplomatic travel.

The stage set-up was pretty cool. DJ booth in the middle with some graffiti installations on either side, all backed by a projection screen displaying scenes from Dhaka.

After various introductions the show got started in earnest. I'll mostly try to include videos, since pictures hardly give the full effect for something like this. There was a lot of fusion of traditional Bengali music, song, and dance with more modern hip hop styles. The video below captures one of these transitions.

Shortly afterwards these guys segued into break-dancing, which included some classic moves.

There was also a good amount of straight-up rapping, though this snippet doesn't really do it justice (more later!).

Beat-boxing was pretty prominent, too. Hopefully I'm not getting this wrong, but I believe the guy playing guitar is singing Bangladesh's national anthem while accompanied by a beat-boxer.

Another act featured a dancer and beat-boxer duo, with some pretty impressive choreography. Unfortunately the video I captured was pretty bad, so you'll have to content yourself with a single still.

Speaking of things that I failed to capture well in video format, there was a bit of a DJ battle. At the risk of sounding like a crotchety old man (usually I strive for crotchety young man), it was a bit disappointing that no one was turn-tabling on site. Just hitting play on their laptops. But, hey, if it works for Girl Talk...

Regardless, it was made more interesting by dance accompaniment, and a lot of the beats were really good (though the crowd didn't always agree with me on who should win).

One of the American artists in the group was none other than Asheru. Now, to be honest, I actually didn't really know who he was. Even when he launched into "Judo Flip" (aka The Boondocks theme song), I thought he might just be covering it. Only after a few seconds of him demonstrating his mastery of it did I realize it was actually him. Pretty cool! Here's a bit of his performance.

One of the last performances featured two dancers, again mixing up hip hop sensibilities with traditional Bengali ones.

The show ended with the entire (sizable) cast being brought out on stage, to great applause. Fun times!

Fixing our car

So... our car was in less than optimal condition when we got it. Functional air conditioning being fairly important in a country as hot and humid as Bangladesh and all. After a lot of dithering about, I finally took it in to get fixed. It needed a replacement compressor. Just like my car in the US less than six months ago. Yay! Luckily, labor is quite a bit cheaper in Bangladesh.

Finding a good mechanic is an interesting process here. Well, it's an interesting process everywhere, but at least in e.g. the US you have aggregated ratings like Yelp (whatever you may think of it), Angie's List, and the like. Not so in Bangladesh - everything is through old-school word of mouth. The most positive recommendation I got was for a Mr Rahman, described as follows: "His name is Rahman. He speaks English, is a very talkative body builder and has never cheated or disappointed me in the 8 years I used him. Please say hello from me."

I was intrigued, so called Rahman. He did indeed speak English (great!). He also insisted that if he were to work on my car, I would need to come myself. As a rule, he doesn't trust drivers enough to want to liaise through them. He claimed honor was very important to him. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I took this to be a good sign.

We ended up driving over around 9 AM. Going to the mechanic (or at least this mechanic) is a pretty different affair in Bangladesh. My visit mostly consisted of be sitting on a couch next to Rahman who was talking my ear off on a variety of topics, occasionally pausing to shout something in Bengali to out of his employees. We were also served tea a couple times, one of them being when Rahman's father stopped by the shop. At another point, his brother (currently an actor on an apparently pretty popular local television show) stopped by with his daughters (who were adorable).

I couldn't quite get a handle on Rahman's life story. He's evidently pretty wealthy now, but said he grew up poor. As far as I could understand, his family had a decent amount of land that, as Dhaka became insanely crowded, eventually became incredibly valuable. I think this is a not too uncommon story. Those lucky enough to have held off selling for quite some time ended up making a killing.

Rahman and I discussed many things (well, I nodded with varying degrees of vigor). Topics included honor, what Rahman valued in life (his mom, his work), how valuable his diamond ring was (this was confusing, because Bangladeshis have special words for large numbers - e.g lakh for 100 000 and crore for 100 lakh), guns (Rahman doesn't own one because he doesn't want to run the risk of getting mad and using it unwisely), Obama (this was interesting), alcohol, women and wives, etc. A lot more entertaining than most mechanic visits. Plus, he complimented my shoes (shout out to Quoddy).

Anyway, our car has working air conditioning now. They hand-washed and buffed the car. Cheap labor has its advantages. Rahman has called a few times to make sure everything is still working okay (how's that for service?).

River Cruise!

Okay, I realized it had been a long time since my last post. I didn't quite realize it had been over a month. Yikes. And the events covered here were from even earlier. Oh well.

We (not so) recently went on a river cruise with several other people from the Embassy community. I think they only have a few boats, but I understand they're all in the style of traditional Bengali river boats. Not sure if they're restored or replicas.

The river we traveled on was a little bit outside Dhaka. Not that that narrows it down much; there's a lot of water here. As expected, the car commute took quite some time, but it was worth it to get outside the grime and noise of the city.

The cruise itself was very relaxing. The boat (being in traditional Bengali style after all) was a bit cramped for someone who is not of a traditional Bengali size, but still quite comfortable, with half of it dedicated to picnic bench style seating and the other half covered in futon-esque cushions and pillows.

I don't have that much broad commentary to provide. Instead, I'll just comment in the gallery below. Enjoy!

Back to Dhaka

Arriving back home in Dhaka brought us down to earth pretty quickly. While there was very little traffic getting back, opening our apartment door revealed the sight of a puddle that ran from our kitchen through our living room into our guest bedroom, master bedroom, and master bathroom. Joy. Apparently a leaking pipe that had been "fixed" hadn't really. Luckily, nothing too important was seriously damaged. Embassy staff came the next morning to clean up all the water (though the floor's still a bit stained). The leak itself wasn't properly fixed until around a week later. The cabinets in our kitchen should be replaced some time this week (about three weeks later).

Anyway, not something fun to come back to (or deal with), but luckily the Embassy staff are pretty responsive. Plus, we're not liable for the damages!