bombay dreams! well, kind of

Since freshman year, my "brown" friends (a.k.a. desis, the Brown Alliance) have been pushing me to make a trip to my homeland for some much needed soul searching and perhaps a samosa or two. After quite the ordeal of getting my ticket and visa in place, I'm finally packed and heading out to Pakistan this afternoon for Faisal's sister's engagement party, in addition to some other planned activities that will take us through Sunday night. We'll be staying in Lahore, which is said to mirror Delhi quite a bit. I've packed a sari for the actual engagement, which I will be sure to report on upon my return. The weather is comparable to Dubai, with highs in the mid-80s, although the nights seem to be dropping into the 50s there, which is a little cooler than the current conditions here. Above all things, I am in good hands and will be safe. What's humored me the most about this adventure is that when I tell people where I'm going, they make it a point to remind me that Bin Laden is headquartered in Lahore - Honestly, if he is, all the better since we've been looking for him for 7 years with no luck. I'll be sure to give a shout to the USA if I bump into him.

pictures to follow. In the meantime, here's a clip from one of my favorite broadway shows.

This can't be good for you..

That's oil painted on their bodies! These boys are called Pintados, or Painted Ones. Apparently, since the 17th century, villagers of San Nicolas de los Ranchos have been painting themselves in oil for this annual, Lenten festival to scare away evil spirits in the foothills of Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano.

my friends are so cool

Tiffany Treni and Vincent Schifano are the newest and hottest couple to hit myspace. Tiffany's buttery, melodic voice is reminiscent of Etta James and her on-stage presence is nothing short of magic. She is one of the lucky 6 to have spent a full year rocking the white porch swing at 55 North Franklin in the lovely town of Delaware, Ohio. Best friends since college, we've pushed her to audition for American Idol or simply park herself in the center of Times Square and start singing. Yes, she's that good. For the last few years, she and Vincent have put their heads together and cooked up some great acoustic tunes - they remind me a bit of The Magic Numbers and their song "Pieces of You" you could even say sounds a bit like Radiohead. My personal favorite is "55 North Franklin" since it's about the year we spent together, giving a little shout out to each lovely lady that lived in the house. I'm really excited that they've instituted a myspace account since it will at least give them an opportunity to post new work and network throughout the music community. Have a listen and tell your friends.

the latest

Winter in Dubai

It's been a while since I last posted an album. Due to the overwhelmingly fast pace of work and play over the last month, I've been reluctant to post about some of the cool things that have happened since the beginning of the year. I'll give it a go: Pitched and won a proposal with the Sheikh of Sharjah, which subsequently led me to Arabic coffee for a couple hours in Emirates Towers with Neil Bush (George W's brother). No worries, my veins still run blue with democratic blood, but I would be lying if I told you I didn't enjoy meeting him (note: this is presumably because no mention was made of politics or corrupt business enterprises in the Middle East); attended the Dubai Desert Classic and bumped elbows with pro-golfers including Tiger and Sergio Garcia, as well as Prince Khaled of Saudi Arabia; sipped on 18 yr single malt scotch from the top of the Burj Al Arab hotel – the place is pretty tacky inside, but worth visiting at least once; jumped 10,000 ft from a plane in Umm al Quwain; spent a couple afternoons quad biking in the Arabian desert near the Hatta mountains; befriended an amazing group of Lebanese friends from Beirut; discovered a great place or two to go running along the beach; found the most amazing shawarma stand in the world; bought a plane ticket to Pakistan for the end of this month (I was invited to attend Faisal's sister's engagement); joined an ultimate frisbee team on Tuesday nights; started planning a business trip to Egypt in March; discovered a great spot to watch live rugby outside with a pint of Stella; discovered a faster way to get to the beach; got through and on air with my favorite morning talk radio show; visited Abu Dhabi; finally started to feel like I can call this place home.

one hell of a vanity plate

In the UAE, there are many things that define a person's place in society. Materialism is an addiction in that sense and it stretches from the clothes on your back to the plate on the back of your car. Driving a Toyota Yaris, for example, gets me no respect on the road and I often find myself pedal to the metal, fighting for the right of way that I clearly deserve. People cut me off, arbitrarily honk for no good reason, and force me into the right lane because they believe my humble vehicle merits no place on the left, which I sincerely disagree with but accept nonetheless.

You can only imagine how good life can get behind a Lamborghini or Range Rover. That's not the half of it though. Your license plate number gets you even further, but there's a price to pay. Sheikh Mo drives license plate #1 because he is the most highly respected figure in Dubai. When you see anyone with a license plate relatively close to his (ex: 2, 25, 100, 200), you move over. These guys own the road and they aren't messing around when it comes to the number on the back of their car.These plates come at a hefty price though. Two days ago, Saeed Abdel Ghaffar Khouri bought the license plate No. 1 in Abu Dhabi for $14 million. Check out the whole story here. Just a disclaimer, this man and I are the exact same age. I can't begin to think about what I would rather spend $14 million on...

foggy arab town

The weather here today reminds me of those first warm days after the damp chill that used to frost the OWU campus. Those were always my favorite since every woman on campus knowingly shaved her legs the night before in preparation for a summery ensemble. Every man stocked up on red cups and natty light in preparation for outdoor Beirut tournaments and perhaps a round or two of Frolf. Students never took those moments for granted since they knew the heat would roll in eventually, melting away the rest of the semester before summer break. Here no one seems to think twice about the day. People never talk about the weather or really look up at the sky in awe like we do back home. I will say that the gray and white skies of Rochester are not something to be missed after living in the desert, but they do make for excellent nap days.

This morning I woke up to a thick cloud at my doorstep that stretched all the way to Garhoud. I don’t know how there weren’t any accidents on the way in to work. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to squint through a thick blanket of mist however, and I felt like learning how and why we get fog in the Arabian desert so that mornings like these are not so creepy.

Here’s what I could find. And if you know anything about fog, please, humor me.

Radiation fog is formed by the cooling of land after sunset by thermal radiation in calm conditions with clear sky. The cool ground produces condensation in the nearby air by heat conduction. In perfect calm the fog layer can be less than a meter deep but turbulence can promote a thicker layer. Radiation fogs occur at night, and usually do not last long after sunrise. Radiation fog is common in autumn, and early winter. Examples of this phenomenon include the Tule fog. For clarity, Radiation fog is not radioactive. http://www.nwas.org/ej/pdf/2007-FTT1.pdf

Here’s another story I found about fog in the desert, but it’s more applicable to the Omani coast than the northern Arabian peninsula.

aporos

Every once in a while it's nice to look to friends for inspiration. I occasionally check up on my friend Sean for savory brain leakage. His tongue in cheek posts keep me smiling every time I stop by, and he's far more interesting to look to for news and occasional music updates than my usual dailies. Check him out here.

little dragon

Great new group I found on KCRW.

Here's another tune that's a little more mellow, but still really well done.

While I'm on the topic of awesome music, I just discovered that Sho Chos has 80s night on Sundays! I went after work with a couple friends and we found ourselves chanting tunes like Living on a Prayer and Africa alongside a bunch of Lebanese and English ex-pats. Quite the scene. The place is a bit cramped but overlooks the water. With the weather warming up at night, it makes for a fun spot to shake and groove when the sun goes down.

cold front

the coldest night of the year was presumably yesterday evening. here's what february has shaped up to look like. and yes, those are all beautiful, golden, cloudless suns below.

it's not all shisha and palm trees...

This is the reason I am scared to death of even drinking cough syrup before getting behind the wheel here!

"UK Tourist Arrested in Dubai Airport for Melatonin, Imprisoned Without Charges"

disconnected

"Parts of the Gulf Arab region were plunged into a virtual internet blackout on Wednesday when two undersea cables were cut near Alexandria, on Egypt’s north coast."

The whole "dog at my homework" tactic seemed to come into play last week after 2 major cables were cut in the Mediterranean Sea that led to internet loss across the Middle East, particularly throughout Dubai. At first I assumed it was our ghetto office router that always seems to run slowly, but it soon came to my attention that my clients and friends were having trouble getting things through via the www. Apparently there are now THREE cables down and people are starting to develop all sorts of conspiracy theories considering that Israel and Iraq seem to be doing fine but Iran is completely without internet access:

"The only 2 countries that were unaffected were Israel and Iraq, the only two close Anglo-American allies in the region, both remaining completely unaffected by the cable cuts, leading to theories for the causes of the cuts, which have so far been given as having been caused by ships dragging their anchors across the cables. The fact that two rare incidents have happened in the same week, and both with cables owned by the same company, on either sides of Israel and the importance of the Internet to telecommunications and business, lends suspicion to the events"

If "network warfare" becomes an actual medium of attack between sovereign states, political theory is going to take a whole new shape! We'll need to get George Lucas to start developing some foreign policy tactics.