The art of James White...

James White is a fellow Canadian on the east coast whose portfolio is unique and captivating. I've often found myself dumbfounded with some of his pieces. Not much else to say other than go to Signalnoise and check out his work, not to mention the wonderful inspiration he lists in his blog. Every designer needs some inspiration...

Look no further...
signalnoise.com

001_Hot, Buttered Soul...

Hosting my first radio show today was such a great feeling. Once the door closes and it's just you, a microphone and some music... the world stands still and what ensues is another dimension. In that dimension it is so comfortable. I drop my voice down into my 'radio-voice' and let the soul melt with swimmingly fantastic elan.

You can listen here if you missed it, or you can always tune into 90.5 on your FM dial, cfcr.ca allows you to listen to it live and there is some channel on the Max Interactive that you can switch it to... hmmm.. I think it's 820.

A while back I began making some rare groove compilations. I would take all the artists and list them on the front. Then I'd take the titles of the song and put them in some kind of reason and rhymery.

The artists that guest hosted with me today were:

Ronny Jordan and D.J. Krush | Gladys Knight and The Pips | Etta James | D'Angelo | The Temptations | Lafayette Afro Rock Band | J.J. Jackson | Common | Shirley Ellis | The Commodores | Graham Central Station | Rick James | The Poets of Rhythm

The titles are in the flow somewhere and if you listen along then you can play along - the name of the game is Name That Tune! ;)

That one day...

The jackal, the magician and the fool all told me
that if you ever get your hands on love,
don't you never ever let it go.

So go and tell mama what she wants to hear.
Me and those dreamy eyes of mine can see,
that I'm losing you into the darkest light.

But it's alright. I've got a dream.
I know I have to go through the real nitty gritty,
get on that assembly line to get back to align.

That's the only way to make the jam
between you and I. That'd make it we.

So there is my little contribution to poetry, music and life. Now that I know how to make old school mixtapes and pop them up on the web... I have a funny feeling that I will resurrect the 'mixtape' compilation with the utmost love and soul...

Accepting dowries...

The Ladies... up'd by theusual

There was a time that I was so far removed from my family that I had never even met some. That all changed with a titillating twist of tides. I now know of my family and continue to grow closer. That's why it's been so great amongst family as we join Ahsan and Paula in their announcement to the world and their commitment to each other.

I've only been to a few desi (brown folk :) weddings before and I have to say they are never what I would imagine. Even the people who look like they detest fun like a sickness recovered from their illness and were dancing and singing about like they were six years old. It was fantastic! And here is a link to the photos that the photographers took during the festivities. [PHOTOS]

Zainab my adorable niece up'd by theusual

My family is big. And it was nice to see how big it was in at least North America. Growing up I had the opportunity to visit Mississauga a couple of times to visit my chacha Iftikhar and chachi Gul and my two cousins Gulraze and Gulrukh. Then some nephews whom one of which is getting married this weekend, Ahsan (Sonu) and Najam (Namnam). In the brackets are their names as how I knew of them in my younger years. It's funny how a lot of people coin the nicknames in place of their parent given, universe chosen names. I remember this one mate I had in school, Mubashar. He introduced me to him as, "Hi, my name is Mubashar, but you can call me Joel." I thought it was the funniest thing... Now that that digression has been resolved, back to the family. All of that cast with their respective parents graced us for very little time in the grand scheme of things. So I never really had a strong sense of familial belonging or responsibility even.

I have to admit going from a few close family members that I did have interactions with, to a hundred within a very short amount of time really did a number on me. It was overwhelming to try and keep up, so I do what I always do... recluse. So I have been in yet another cocoon only to be woken by a marriage and a new baby to knit me in further. So I am blessed to witness family getting together and having fun together with a little more frequency... feels like I'm a kid again ;)

Early morning snow...

I asked my nephew when he knew that the girl he was marrying was the girl he was marrying. He told me a story about a cold snowy morning when Paula was off to Smithers for the holiday season after exams were complete. It was, if memory serves me correctly, those hours of the morning that my clock conveniently removed from it and my existence. He didn't have a car so was utilizing basic transportation to get himself to that very airport that the girl he eventually would marry was departing from. That was his moment. What the hell am I doing going to the airport this early in the morning when it's snowing - I'm paraphrasing what I inferred... that was his 'ah-ha' moment.

We all get that ah-ha moment with certain things in life. That bolt that won't come off your engine block and you manage to find some McGuyver way of working around it with a tool that you ah-ha when it comes across your path. Or how about those obtuse math problems that drive you up the wall and then finally... ah-ha... calculus just became easier. Witnessing this in the midst of how chaotic my life seemed, I had my ah-ha moment.

Something that for the past two months had been eating away at my insides finally came to surface and I was facing my own self sabotage. It's the strangest thing that self sabotage. Some how, deep down inside of us, we don't want to move forward or receive the boons that life offers us on a daily basis and would much rather seek out the comforts of mediocrity. I'm not mediocre and I'm not saying that I'm better than anyone else. I'm just saying that I raise my bar and ever time it gets knocked down I put it back up. Every time I meet the bar I'll raise it two inches higher.

Getting together with some family for a festive occasion such as Ahsan and Paula's joining in sharing their lives together was just the perspective I needed. Life is about ah ha moments. It's in the ah ha where the knowledge transcends and with genie like haze transforms into wisdom.

There would be no ah ha in life if we didn't venture into the unknown and just take a chance...

Ah, ha...
;)