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| Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 | | 4:04 am |
1 of Basim's favorite poems
Mr. Pate's Barbershop By Major Jackson I remember the room in which he held a blade to my neck & scraped the dark hairs foresting a jawline: stacks of Ebonys & Jets, clippings of black boxers -- Joe Frazier, Jimmy Young, Jack Johnson -- the color television bolted to a ceiling like the one I watched all night in a waiting room at St. Joseph's while my cousin recovered from gunshots. I remember the old Coke machine, a water fountain by the door, how I drank the summer of '88 over & over from a paper cone cup & still could not quench my thirst, for this was the year funeral homes boomed, the year Mr. Pate swept his own shop for he had lost his best little helper Squeaky to cross fire. He suffered like most barbers suffered, quietly, his clippers humming so loud he forgot Ali's lightning left jab, his love for angles, for carpentry, for baseball. He forgot everything & would never be the same. I remember the way the blade gleamed fierce in the fading light of dusk & a reflection of myself panned inside the razor's edge wondering if I could lay down my pen, close up my ledgers & my journals, if I could undo my tie & take up barbering where months on end a child's head would darken at my feet & bring with it the uncertainty of tomorrow, or like Mr. Pate gathering clumps of fallen hair, at the end of a day, in short, delicate whisks as though they were the fine findings of gold dust he'd deposit in a jar & place on a shelf, only to return Saturdays, collecting, as an antique dealer collects, growing tired, but never forgetting someone has to cherish these tiny little heads. | | Friday, February 4th, 2011 | | 6:46 pm |
Texas
People here are so funny, there's a threat of maybe an inch of snow and the city gets shut down. I heard they were thinking of shutting a highway down. Maybe Texan snowflakes are swol? This trip has been important, I think it's proven to me how different cities can be. Houston is so sprawling, and they call the south west SWAT, like the valley in Pakistan. There's something about the artists in Texas, I think a lot of the myths from the Frontier and the West of America went on to inform the culture. It's why there's so many stories of the reformed outlaw, the lone gunslinger, the mysterious guy with the harmonica who can shoot with deadly accuracy. In someways you can still see the reformed outlaw character in hiphop or country music. It's Waylon Jennings, or even to some extent Jay Z. If you think about it, Tupac and Johnny Cash were both really repentent and solidly religious. I was watching Once Upon a time in the West yesterday, and it struck me that fuck, this place was a pind not too long ago. This whole area was a pind, with a singular railroad system, where most of the crime had to do with usurping land on the railroad lines. That's part of the plot of this western, even Blazing Saddles parodied it. I found the real rock ridge 2 tours ago, it's a gated community near Lake Tahoe (which will hearby be refered to as the 9th ring of Dante's Inferno). But anyhow, land grabbing. We don't really remember all the land that must've been usurped and stolen. I'd like to pour out some liquor in its memory. | | Saturday, December 18th, 2010 | | 2:42 pm |
Even his eyebrows were shaved
I will title this either even his eyebrows were shaved, or strange and marvelous copy. This gem is from the Lahore city desk at Daily Times Even his eyebrows were Shaved By (Omitted) LAHORE: To become a prominent among others remains a dilemma for both man and women and for this purpose they don't leave any stone unturned to maintain their personality. Usually the female remains in inferiority complex that are gaining wait or don't have a matching shoes and jewelry according to their dressing and makeup but in this advance era the male are not legging behind with females in looking handsome and jolly. It's a natural phenomena that female mind strictly if someone express astonish on her age which she disclosed under a malicious smile but in case of male every one laugh even on a thirty years old man if he has become bald. The charm in his life becomes an ends when he become hairless in early thirty and some time he remains in tension that may be he could get marry with a fairy with this bald. But now, the development in science and technology make it very easy to become smart by exercising in gyms or using herbal medicine. The newly established hair transplant hospitals in Pakistan also resolve the problems of the blades to remain in tension. Interesting thing is that after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, a PPP legislator from Faisalabad Raja Riaz Ahmad has had a hair transplant and now a day he was trying for losing his weight at least up to fifteen pounds in an attempt to trim down. Although Mr Riaz spend an amount of Rs 1,35000 for his hair transplant and are too much happy that after one and half month he would look like a fresh graduate and move in the society arrogantly. May be after seeing the smartness and beauty of Mr Raja the other assembly members like law minister Muhammad Basharrat Raja, Minister for Information Technology Muhammad Aleem Khan, Rai Ejaz Ahmad, Hussnain Jehanian Gerdezi, Chaudhry Asghar Ali Gujar and Brig (R) Muhammad Hassan and other may be think for hair transplant but Raja Riaz should remain careful. Nothing could be say about his matrimonial life as may be he on the request of his beloved wife has had a hair transplant but he should remember the case happened with deputy opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Rana Sanaullah Khan. On March 08, 2003, Mr Khan suddenly disappeared from his house and when he was returned he was shaved. Even his eyebrows were also shaved. So Mr Raja should avoid giving any statement at the floor of the house, which hurt some one and in retaliation the affectee become him bald again. The other thing, if the male can spend a huge amount of their beautification when how we can deprive the women for their right to look charming. No could understand it that why Sheikh Alauddin of PML during his budget speech floated the idea that the women should stop the use of gold ornament and prefer the austerity as the things used by the women are much costly and some time the man pay 1000 per cent profit to a shopkeeper on the article of women use. Although his idea wass not bad but it would be injustice with the women that they would deprive from gold which wass their weakness. But Mr Din should remember that at any time of difficulty it were the women who donate their gold ornaments for the charity. Chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan know it well that how much gold ornaments he collect from even college students and house hold wives in donation for the construction of Shaukat Khanum Hospital. Likewise whenever the calamity hit the country it were the women who first came into the field to donate her gold ornament because she know that she don't have any this despite a gold chain and a ring. Likewise when ever a family becomes in crisis it were the women to give their gold ornaments to the male members for sale to meet the expenditure and run a new business. Ends/ | | Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 | | 12:31 am |
| | Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 | | 8:44 am |
| | Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 | | 7:35 pm |
AFROPUNK EDITION
Tonight we're headed up to Montreal for the Taqwacore premier at the 38th Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema. Kinda psyched, we're playing the party tomorrow at midnight in Maple city. Also got an interview with George Romero on Saturday. Here's my third podcast for Basim's Goth Hour, this one is the Afro-Punk edition. Hope y'all like it: http://blip.tv/file/2691651 | | Monday, August 24th, 2009 | | 6:01 pm |
| | Saturday, August 1st, 2009 | | 6:13 pm |
KHALIFORNIA SHOWS
Yo! Its been a while, probably haven't sent a message out to you in ... for/ever. But we're playing tonight. Your favorite desi post-colonial punks. And we're on tour from Boston. More dates here, and on our myspace. OAKLAND Aug 1st, The Stork's Club! TONIGHT 2330 Telegraph Ave Oakland, CA 94612-2421 SO CALI DATES: August 4th, Tuesday - Preview Show Tuesday Night Cafe @7:30 pm http://www.tnkat.org/Aratani Courtyard/Union Center for the Arts 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles, California 90012 Free show! All ages!! WATCH LIVE STREAMED ONLINE at www.tnkat.org ! August 5th, Wednesday Silver Factory Studios @ 10pm http://www.myspace.com/larichkids915 Mateo st. Downtown Los Angeles CA 90021 21 + August 6th, Thursday El Centro Cultural de Mexico @ 9:30pm http://www.el-centro.org/310 W 5th Street, Santa Ana, CA 92701 All Ages! | | Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 | | 12:49 am |
| | Saturday, June 13th, 2009 | | 12:11 pm |
NEW 9000 miles
Hey lj buddies. Please check this out! http://www.myspace.com/thekominasNEW 9000 miles. lyrics “Do I strive for a hustle, when time slinks and snails it’s way by” ran my thoughts in Chicago, remember how we slept in parking spaces that night, searching for Noble Drew, our brain synapses fried. Dear heart, pound less, this rib aint caged to confine, How can I swim 9,000 miles I’m 9,000 miles away from home Lying in a ditch, I hung my eyes off the crescent I rubbed the bristles on my chin, where do I begin? Mere moments away from doomsday, I see the tipping of the scale, you knew how I would fare, So why did you test me, when all you really wanted, was to singe me There’s almost no line, between fear and love, sometimes I’m made of fire, sometimes i’m made of mud But I, But I hold my own on my own here, still barely holding on | | Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | | 7:27 pm |
| | Monday, May 25th, 2009 | | 2:20 am |
Log
I wrote a really long entry on the Taqwacores Webzine, which is what I'd probably upload for now. There's a rendition of a classic kirtan, that was recorded in Scotland about the Sufi martyr Bhai Mati Das, who was killed by the moghul emperor Aurenzeb. And thoughts on death and poetry. The entry is called "Better than a thousand years as a jackass". Please read it, bookmark the site, and comment. | | Friday, May 22nd, 2009 | | 5:09 pm |
A great review on YellowBuzz
Wendy, the writer behind Yellow Buzz - a punk/noise and diaspora blog, reviewed Wild nights and it's probably the best writing on the album I've come across. It was cool, she came up from the South, interviewed us, went to Maine to record with her noise/punk band, and came back down for our basement show in Lowell. She's fantastic. She actually wrote about the music! This is a first. And she sat down with all of us and spoke as an equal. It's about time someone sat down and reported things accurately, and meaningfully. | | Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 | | 11:29 am |
Basement Show on the 15th in Lowell
We'll be playing some new sh!t, so make it up. From the mouth of Nick (of Sinbusters): "So the show starts at 8:00 at my apartment at 16 plymouth street. So far the bands playing are: Ladderlegs Ralph Eats Dynamite Sinbusters Los Bungalitos The Kominas! & the Big Sway (probably). Hetfield and Hetfield might also play. Tell your minions to keep inside the house and park discreetly in the parking lot as to not make our house look like a crazy party target for the cops who patrol our street." | | Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 | | 4:00 pm |
To POC's in T-dot
Our girl, Sena is looking for a geetarist and bassist. "I want to re-start my band, Secret Trial Five www.myspace.com/secrettrialfive in Toronto.. I have found a drummer, and we need someone who plays guitar to actually get started.. We are also looking for someone who plays bass. PLEASE HELP ME GET THE WORD OUT!!! My band: We are a Taqwacore (muslim punk) band, started in 2006 in Vancouver. We play politically conscious punk, and focus on topics such as islamophobia, racism, sexism, imperialism, war, etc. You don't need to be an expert, it's a punk band. I'd prefer muslims and/or POCs, but you know, whatever.. Also, let me know if you know anyone you think I should get in touch with about this, any listservs I should be posting this on, any connections you have, if you're going to a punk show in the near future and need company, etc. etc. K thanks! Sena senahussain@gmail.com" | | Saturday, March 28th, 2009 | | 2:12 am |
| | Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | | 3:46 pm |
| | Monday, March 2nd, 2009 | | 5:31 pm |
Track hunting
Does anyone have a copy of "Big trouble in little asia" by Hustlers HC (from UK). Old track, haven't heard it in a bit. Fire it over to basim dot usmani at gmail dot com . I'm leaving in a few days for NYC via Doha. The gig looks exciting, almost makes me overlook my expenses. Maybe we'll "move some units". Just a few more sleepless nights and I'm out. | | Sunday, November 9th, 2008 | | 12:09 pm |
| | Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 | | 6:55 am |
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