“I don't know how long that's going to last. But I can't escape it; this is what I am. And I'm going to be with this forever.”

That is jazz pianist Vijay Iyer in today's New York Times article, India Resounding New York.

Time Out New York, Newsweek and now this about South Asians coming into their own in careers other than medicine, law or computer science. Refreshing, to say the least. These new vocations – in the Arts – are not easy choices to make and they certainly aren't by far the safest ones, considering the state of the economy and the fickle nature of the art world. Yet, it had to happen. While the article speaks of only South Asian music, I suspect other genres of art will also see a resurgence. Only a matter of time when we see sculptors, dancers, photographers making their way into the spotlight, if only for 15 minutes.

Speaking of desi culture pervading the Western landscape, my wife and I have tickets for Bombay Dreams. I'll be sure to post my thoughts here on that spectacle.

South Asian Visual Arts Collective or SAVAC, is hosting an experimental art installation called Arrange My Marriage.

Via Saheli

“The Gala featured a wonderful slideshow of SAJA members' photography set to music by Seshu Badrinath's Pipal Productions–keep an eye on his site for it to be posted. It made me hungry to travel.”

Well, I am not entirely sure if the entire show will reside on my professional wedding photography site or here on Tiffinbox, or on the SAJA Photoforum site. Perhaps the latter as the images were ostensibly submitted to be shown at the SAJA convention and ultimately published on a SAJA sanctioned website.

It isn't so much as to WHERE but HOW the slideshow will be published. Right now I am grappling with bandwidth and storage space issues. If I were to show the entire show as a Quicktime movie, it comes in at a whopping 400 megabytes. At that size, I will quickly exhaust my monthly (or perhaps annual quota). So, that's not going to work.

I am looking to convert the slideshow (which was made using iViewMediaPro) into a lighter, Flash based slideshow. If you have any suggestions, do chime in. I am all ears.

Via Shana Dressler

The Indo-American Arts Council, Inc. is calling for artists to submit work for it's September show – “Passport To Contemporary Indian Art”. The show will be held September 16-30, 2004 at the State Bank of India Gallery, 39 Broadway, 8th Floor, NYC.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Contemporary Indian artists in the diaspora are encouraged to submit their portfolios of painting, sculpture, photography, digital art, installation art.

Requirements:

· artists bio & statement

· slides  and/or prints of work

· description of each work, size, and medium

· self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of material (if requested by artist)

· permission to print accepted work in exhibition catalogue 

Deadline: July 10 , 2004

Criteria:                     

· artist must deliver and pick up artwork to and from the gallery

. artist must have external insurance. ( The gallery is insured but artwork is not insured enroute to and from the gallery)

. artist must try and be present for the exhibition

. artist must have approximately 12 images ready for the show

Information:

. There will be a printed catalogue for this exhibition

. Submissions will be chosen by an Independent curator

. Sundaram Tagore, Sundaram Tagore Gallery  will curate the accepted artwork for exhibition

. Due to space restrictions, there will be a limited number of artworks exhibited 

. Artwork  not chosen for this show will be kept for exhibition at a later date

Please note: all submissions must be received in hard copy.  No email submissions will be considered. 

Please send all  submissions  to:
Aroon Shivdasani, Executive Director,
Indo-American Arts Council Inc
118 East 25th Street, 3rd Floor, New York  10010
Phone: 212 529 2347 Fax: 212 477 4106
Email: iaac@iaac.us  Web: www.iaac.us

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS JULY 10, 2004.  PLEASE SEND IN YOUR PORTFOLIOS ASAP.  ARTISTS WILL BE INFORMED OF THE FINAL DECISION BY AUGUST 10 , 2004.

At the Joyce SoHo (in NYC) this week (June 25/26) Preeti Vasudevan and Thresh, a Brooklyn-based dance theatre company she founded will perform “Strings Unattached.”

“Strings Unattached, inspired by ancient texts, involves three contemporary pieces linked not by theme, but by musical instruments, violin and cello.”

For more information, go to Thresh's home page.

I sat with an august group of bloggers last Friday at the SAJA convention in NYC. Jen Chung of Gothamist sat to my immediate left. Others who made the lineup were Prashant Kothari of Finding My Voice, Anil Dash of Six Apart, Mark Dery of NYU, Nimesh Patel of Mahoot Media (and Badmash fame).

While I conceived the panel on blogging for the convention, Mimi Hanaoka of InTheFray.com moderated it with great dexterity, pinching us from time to time to think about how blogging figures in the grassroots mobilization of society (if it does at all), as a part of the democratic process.

There are so many aspects of blogging that I am just discovering. Issues on privacy, advertising and the general lack of access for the majority of people to the kind of technology that makes blogging possible was discussed. It made for an interesting experience.

Rupa Datta, a recent Columbia University J-school grad in the audience sat upfront with her PC laptop propped up on her lap … blogging! The wi-fi signal at Lerner Hall made it possible for her to post her thoughts on her own blog as the panel on blogging unfolded.

“ArtWallah is an annual festival of South Asian arts. Held in early summer of each year, the four-day Los Angeles-based event presents artists from around the world, showcasing their expressions of the South Asian diasporic experience through film, literature, spoken word, music, dance, theater, and visual arts. The festival is made possible by the combined efforts of the Indo-American Cultural Center (IACC) and the South Asian Artists' Collective, the dedication of numerous volunteers, and the generosity of supporting donors and sponsors. ArtWallah's mission is to serve as a platform of expression and a channel of communication between South Asian artists and their communities.”

The dates are July 8th through 11th at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre and Art Park in Hollywood, California. I have always wanted to submit my work but the deadlines have escaped me. This year was no different. While the organization is not accepting any more submissions, I'll try and do my best so that next year I won't be asleep at the wheel.

Here they are – Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie – at the SAJA convention last Friday.

What was asked of them or said by them is a bit of a blur as I was working on the annual SAJA Photoforum exhibit all day. Add to that my friend Arindam's insistence on drinking a Sam Adams. Head abuzz, I slid through gawkers to make this image of life's most improbable of couples. But who am I to judge love's infinite loops?

More on the SAJA convention real soon. Look here in less than a week for a slide show of the best photography exhibited at the convention.

The next several days I will be attending the SAJA convention in NYC. Will do my best posting about the events at the conference.

Today, in a couple of hours actually, we will be meeting up at Columbia University for the first day-long photography workshop. It will be led by David H. Wells, a photojournalist and a teacher. We are headed to Jackson Heights for the day. I'll make a link to some of the best images produced today soon available here.

SAJA'er and Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria will address us tonight at the Asia Society. Salman Rushdie and his wife Padma Lakshmi will grace us with their presence tomorrow at a reception. Other heavy-hitters in the business of journalism will be present as well.

Should be fun (and naturally all bloggable!)

Via Sree Sreenivasan

Spider-Man in India. Not sure about the dhoti, but the concept to have a super-hero fighting evil in India sounds good to me. The press release (see link below) seems to be well-timed for the June 30 release of the Spider-Man sequel.

SPIDER-MAN INDIA!

SPIDER-MAN EXTENDS FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD TO STREETS OF BOMBAY!

Bangalore, India (June, 2004), Marvel Enterprises, Inc. & Gotham Entertainment Group, Indian publishing licensee of Marvel Comics and the leading publisher of international comic magazines in South Asia, announces the launch of Spider-Man India.

Spider-Man India interweaves the local customs, culture and mystery of modern India, with an eye to making Spider-Man?s mythology more relevant to this particular audience. Readers of this series will not see the familiar Peter Parker of Queens under the classic Spider-Man mask, but rather a new hero, a young, Indian boy named Pavitr Prabhakar. As Spider-Man, Pavitr leaps around rickshaws and scooters in Indian streets, while swinging from monuments such as the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal.

Mumbai's (Bombay's) first web-swinging Super Hero will be joined by a reinterpretation of the classic Spider-Man villain, the Green Goblin — reinvented as a Rakshasa, an Indian mythological demon.

“We feel this is one of the most exciting and unique projects in comic history,” said Gotham Entertainment Group CEO Sharad Devarajan. “Unlike traditional translations of American comics, Spider-Man India will become the first-ever ‘transcreation,' where we reinvent the origin of a Western property like Spider-Man so that he is an Indian boy in Mumbai and dealing with local problems and challenges?

Marvel Enterprises President of Publishing, Gui Karyo offered, “Marvel has continuously done its best to push the boundaries of traditional comic books and to look for new venues for our characters. Gotham is helping us to expand the Marvel brand with a truly global vision.”

The first four issues of the new comic series will be published and released by Gotham Entertainment Group in India. Marvel Comics will provide publishing details for the States at a later date.

For additional images on the new Indian Spider-Man go to:http://www.gothamcomics.com/spiderman_india/

Contact:

FOR GOTHAM ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, LLC

USA: Sharad Devarajan; (732) 335-1094; sharad@gothamcomics.com
INDIA: Suresh Seetharaman; +91 9844077707; press@gothamcomics.com

FOR MARVEL ENTERPRISES, INC.
Andrew Lis; (212) 576-4022; alis@marvel.com