RISING ANNO SATANAS XLVI
Archive for November, 2011
The village of Hampi in the state of Karnataka is within the ruins of the Vijayanagara empire. This slideshow is packed with photos of great boulders, historical monuments, the ruins of a kingdom that ceased to exist centuries ago, and temples and other religious structures which survived the carnage of the Mughal dynasty. Behold the marvellous architecture of an ancient civilization!
Restaurant Review: Mango Tree (Hampi)
Beware of Paulo Travels: A Warning for Tourists Traveling from Hampi to Gokarna
By Karan Patel (Simple Complex Continuity)
Jimi Hendrix was asked after his \m/ performance at Woodstock, 1969, by some unknown reporter:
“How does it feel to be the best guitarist in the world?”
Jim Hendrix replied “Umm, I don’t know… Ask Rory Gallagher”
I was sort of stunned. Wait, did Hendrix just cite an influence or is he actually saying Rory Gallagher is the best guitarist in the world? I know, this is a subjective matter and if I say it or you say it, it does not mean much, but what the hell…Hendrix is saying it!
So I checked out one album and all that is available on Youtube, Grooveshark etc and this man is just pure guitar madness, and I have been tripping on it since the last two months. I haven’t heard such powerful blues and rock mixed into one alloy ever before. I agree this artist is not for everyone. He is more for guitar lovers, but he also has a lot of harmonica in his material, if you are into that.
Also, since this listen, I am trying to get deeper into what influenced him, which is African-American blues of 1940s-60s… I have been listening to that stuff too and it’s great and I really intend to write more on those folks once I get a better idea of it all and bring them to surface, because that’s what has influenced all the music we listen to today, and it definitely deserves a great amount of recognition.
Rory Gallagher is absolute must listen for any guitar freak. The squeals, the tone, the chords, the shredding, the bass, the drums and the harmonica is so well done that it is almost unbelievable this man was not above the likes of Paul Gilbert, etc.
I will leave you with this reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Gallagher
Please do check it out.
There is enough material on you tube to start with… I like it all equally to specifically point a song
He also has a lot of great acoustic numbers.
As you walk along the Tungabhadra away from Hampi Bazaar, there’s a hand-painted signboard that tells which direction to go in for this popular restaurant. After the banana plantation, there is another signboard that tells you you’ve reached Mango Tree, and you see an enclosure that has geese, if the birds aren’t swimming in the river, that is. Remove your footwear and walk inside what is probably the only place in Hampi where you’ll get okay-ish food. Mango Tree doesn’t do justice to the cuisines it offers (Indian, Israeli, Continental), and they’re also are way too laidback (mango lassi and mango milkshake sometimes mean the same to them), but you’ll be impressed with the view. Under an old, sprawling mango tree, on a slab of granite, a chatai (straw mat) is laid out for you sit on and eat pure vegetarian food and drink non-alcoholic beverages looking at the river Tungabhadra, but you should also keep your eyes open for insects that fall from the tree and land in your drink or on your food. Mango Tree is the place in Hampi to laze around and sit back with a book at when you’re done marveling at the ruins of a civilization centuries old, and when there aren’t families creating a racket or the owners having an internal dispute, you can hear the water gushing around the huge stones.
Beware of Paulo Travels: A Warning for Tourists Traveling from Hampi to Gokarna
A clean and welcoming place to stay at on this side of the river, Lakshmi Heritage Tourist Home has rooms available at very reasonable rates. You’ll need a room with an ac if you’re coming in the summertime, because the sun can get harsh. 
And you will need a cool place to rush back to if after you’re done looking at the great ruins and temples of Hampi. The owners of Lakshmi Heritage Tourist Home are friendly, and won’t overcharge you if you talk to them nicely. They stock packaged water, soft drinks and snacks outside on ground floor, and you can pull a bottle of anything you want from the fridge and pay for it with your room bill when you’re checking out. The rooms above will get you a view of the river Tungabhadra. We don’t have a photo to show you the interiors of the room, but we totally recommend this place for a relaxed stay in Hampi.
Beware of Paulo Travels: A Warning for Tourists Traveling from Hampi to Gokarna
Of the countless restaurants that serve South Indian food in Bangalore, Pavithra Refreshment is one the few that haven’t sold out. By ‘sellout’ restaurants, I mean eateries that include pav bhaji and Indo-Chinese dishes to attract more people. Pavithra Refreshment, joined to Sangam Paradise Lodge, has a tea/coffee stall attached to it on the outside, where you can drink filter coffee or badam milk.
You have to use coupons that can be bought at the counter and eat some of the simplest and best South Indian food at this small place. There are no chairs or tables or waiters; you have to buy coupons, hand them over at the self-service counter, take your food to one of the sides where there’s space for you to place your meal, and eat standing there.
The food is kickass: the masala dosa you can eat just like that; you don’t need the chutney or sambhar or even the masala inside – the dosa is thick and tasty and crunchy. The medu vadas (they’re called uddina vadas here) and idlis are the softest you will find, and there are a few other South Indian snacks you might never have heard of.
This eatery is very hygienic and the food they offer is pure vegetarian.There are similar restaurants near Pavithra Refreshment and all across Bengaluru, but if you’re near Majestic Bus Stand, you should pay a visit to this place. It’s at Nanjappa Complex, right next to Sangam Paradise Lodge. ‘Pavithra’ means ‘pure’/’sacred’ in Sanskrit, and they couldn’t have given a better name to this tiny South Indian restaurant that refuses to bow to trends.
More in Bangalore: Narthaki (Gandhi Nagar) | On The Edge (MG Road)
We stayed at Sangam Paradise Lodge because we had a few hours to kill and didn’t want to walk around with our luggage. Being too tired to look for another place and cash-raped after commuting by Bangalore’s autorickshaws and cabs (they refuse to go by the meter), we spent a night there. The rooms are not very clean, but decent. The bathroom is not very good, but the accommodation is cheap, so you can’t ask for a lot. There’s no view from the window unless you count looking at the next building a ‘view’, but there’s a small television set that has quite a few channels. Sangam Paradise Lodge is one of the cheapest places you will find in Bangalore near Majestic Bus Stand, and there are several other such lodges around where you can take a room and throw your luggage and then go around the city. There are also many restaurants and bars around in case you don’t want to eat anything too fancy. Sangam Paradise Lodge is at Nanjappa Complex, 1st Cross, Annamma Temple Extension, near Majestic Bus Stand in Bengaluru.
Namaste Guest House (Om Beach, Gokarna) | Narthaki Restaurant (Bangalore)
Among the many Bangalore restaurants that specialize in Andhra cuisine, Narthaki takes great pride in serving cheap meals. The Andhra food here (and everywhere else) is pathetic. Everything has coconut in it. Vegetable dishes have a coconut base. Chicken, mutton and fish swim in coconut gravy. The coconut flavour is unbearable and it’s everywhere… it’s enough to make sure you never go near food cooked in coconut oil.
But this is where we can have a fantastic meal. Banana leaves folded in half on the tables. We’re supposed to unfold the banana leaf in front of us, ignore the menu and ask for a meal. The ‘meal’ is a chapatti, dal, rasam, a dish of two or three vegetables, another vegetable that’s more like a pickle, a slightly regular vegetable preparation, rice, a strange kind of papad and dahi.
The kind young lad who brought us the meal walks around with a pickle, the special vegetable dish of the day and ghee, serving portions of the first two so big that you never have to call him again, and pouring so much ghee on your rice that you might not wake up the next day. It’s simple, but fantastic. And it’s free of the coconut crap.
You don’t have to go to Narthaki in Gandhi Nagar, Bengaluru; you have to find a restaurant near where you are that serves cheap meals you can eat this way. As much as it’s about the simple food, it’s about having to eat it all from a banana leaf with your hands.
Twenty one seconds into Modern Machines and you realize that Goddess Gagged are all about big, slick guitar noise. Following in the same vein as most modern metal/ hardcore bands (Circles, Dance Gavin Dance, The Devil Wears Prada… you should be getting my point by now), Resurfaces stands to be labeled as India’s very own – and very possibly, first – contribution to that bandwagon. It’s not an album that promises to become a cornerstone of Indian metal, at least not for me, because Resurfaces doesn’t have a recognizably homegrown feel to it, which is what I look for when I listen to an Indian metal band; that overwhelming taste of local brew which hits you on a Scribe or Exhumation or Bhayanak Maut album. Personal inflexibilities aside however, Resurfaces is a good fucking album; well written, well produced, and poised to cement the beliefs of many in Goddess Gagged as an extremely competent bunch of musicians.
Goddess Gagged are a self-proclaimed ‘progressive post-hardcore’ band. Here’s what Devesh Dayal mailed me a few months ago for a feature I wrote on them in Hindustan Times Café (yeah, I used to work there):
‘Progressive post-hardcore is the easiest way to describe us, but still isn’t entirely accurate. Basically, the progressive elements are there (weird time signatures, key changes, etc.) but it’s also got a modern rock/hardcore vibe… if you know what I mean.’
Like hell I know what he means. The modern hardcore edge sticks out all over this album. Resurfaces sounds like a conjunction between Cave In’s raw, dirty rendition of hardcore and the lustrous sounds of new age prog. It succeeds, more or less. Or at least it’s as sincere an attempt as Goddess Gagged could’ve made, so fuck it if they’re pushing for a more ‘international’ sound than the local heroes I look up to. The guitar parts are catchy as fuck. They work brilliantly over the unforced rhythm section, with Basrur’s vocals being the perfect add on. Tons of production value too, with a whole bunch of ambient layers and shit that keep you digging between the notes.
Trackwise, Visionary is the hot ticket. The album version is exponentially more narcotic on your ears than the freebie demo, and unlike its forebear, Inspire, the songwriting is gorgeous. So are the lyrics. Thematically speaking, the lyrics don’t offer much variety between the tracks, and Visionary seems to be just another love song, but it’s a great love song at that. Something I’d listen to after a lazy, contemplative fuck, maybe. And that’s a good thing, for both the song and the sex. Ok.
Conversely, Resurfaces suffers on the same fronts as an album by, say, A Day To Remember or Circa Survive. Catchy at times, plain uninspired at others.
With just seven tracks, Resurfaces might come off as a bit short, but it still touches a good forty minutes, ends with an impulsive, heartrending climax, and the seemingly undersized album doesn’t leave you feeling dissatisfied. Besides which, I don’t think GG are quite ready to compose sixty, seventy minute epics just yet. For now, I think they’ve made their statement. We’re listening. And we’re waiting for more.
Resurfaces releases 19th November. Keep your wallets open.
Rating: 3/5
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Lounge Review: On The Edge
On the 13th floor of Barton Center on MG Road, you can sit back and enjoy looking at the Bangalore skyline from a terrace with Mediterranean and South Asian food. On The Edge looks right even for business lunches and has pretty decent food and attentive service. The highlight though, is the setting – the only other places that offer a view of this kind are its neighbouring restaurants. On The Edge serves pork and beef along with the expected vegetarian fare and chicken and lamb dishes, and you should ignore the lager beers on the menu and ask which other beers they have if you’re feeling lucky.
Mehta Kya Kehta? 