now to kristofor's weekend at Berklee:
(for those who are unaware - Berklee college of music is like the addah for all aspiring musicians...the best place you can get to....if you can get to that is...get the picture??)
SATURDAY -
i had to go to a place called china town to catch a bus (its called china town cause its full of Chinese people..a little like why England is called Patel town)...anyways china town is like a 20 minute train ride from karls place. the bus ride from there was 4 hours to boson (the home of berklee).......not being very fond of traveling seeing how i usually end up sick in the stomach and throwing up everything from last nights dinner...i spent the train ride praying and popping pills that promised to help my tummy stay settled. also i was nervous as i was going to be making this trip alone. my second greatest fear after clowns that mime.
karl, adele and me reached china town and went to buy the tickets...as soon as we got the ticket, the lady at the ticket counter was yelling and gesturing wildly...thanks to my degree in sign language i figured she was telling me to rush as the bus was leaving...forgetting my nauciousness for a few minutes i dashed and jumped onto the bus...luckily it wasn't packed...i got a seat by the window and looked up into the sky....it was gloomy....just like my hope of completing this journey in one piece.
to cut a long journey short...there was rain and more rain and then the sky cleared and then it rained some more......usually it rains for like 20 odd minutes in NY and that's it....but today it kept coming down...in between drifting in and out of sleep i kept hoping the rain rain would go away.
after 5 and a half hours of traveling i finally landed in Boston. and guess what, the rain stopped :)
i call my friend vishal whom i supposed to meet (vishal is this kick ass drummer from Calcutta whom i knew cause - his bro was in the same band as karl) anyways, vishal is like a super prodigy 23 year old, 6"5 foot tall, really nice, funny and good looking guy who can cook, studying drums at berklee. and he can also play piano and bass!!!
like i was saying vishal was busy at some rehearsal for a gig he was playing that night so he directs me to the berklee building he would meet me at...having time to kill, i roam around the place and try and look musical by flashing the drum sticks i was carrying to everyone i possibly could.....vishal calls soon and comes up with one bag of cymbals around a shoulder and a bag with his snare around the other....he is taller than i remember.....he takes me to the place he performing at ...as we pass by people they all hold out their hands to "slide" with vishals (their version of 'give talli')....hes known as the NOTORIOUS B.I.D (Big Indian Drummer).
as we walk he keeps telling me he is ok as a drummer and the show he is playing is for a friend who sings pop and R&B.....modest fellow....we go in and he meets the rest of the band...introducing me to everyone....apparently there are three bands playing this event. his is first...and they sound check....the girl who heads the band is this tiny little thing but when she sings its awesome....i think she is going to be big...she written all her songs. they were beautiful....i am trying to get mp3 of the show.....before the actual gig starts vishal takes me to eat some yummy stuff as a welcome meal..then its show time.
after a good 45 minutes of tripping out, the management says they need to stop as the other band needs to start. the crowd boos, but the management is like our Bombay management...only dollars can sway them.
i accompany vishal to his apartment which is a 5 minute walk away...my first glimpse of it....its a 3BHK he shares with two other ppl....i help him pack his kit as he needs to take it to a studio in berklee for some recording...he is very nervous about it. i learn musicians in berklee team up with those studying engineering there and both record together as the studio is free....so the engineer gets a recording for his portfolio and the musicians get a recording for theirs.
we cart his kit and enter the studio...its one nice big space and we are first to arrive....the engineer arrives soon after and we start to set up...soon the rest of the musicians start to trickle in. there is one hyper Japanese girl playing piano...a jittery American guy on trumpet.....a thin cool Japanese guy on upright bass.....a short European dude with a Jedi ponytail on guitar, another young Japanese chick on keyboards and to round it off the guy who composed the piece on saxophone who is also Japanese...just to be polite to the rest of us, the entire Japanese crew were talking in English....that was funny :D
the musicians gathered there were the creme of musicians from berklee and funnily enough the average age of the room (excluding me) was 22!!!
everyone was in the same room and recording together...they were separated by sound barriers...which were cool.....the guy handling the sound was doing a phenomenal job.
they kept splitting the piece into parts and recording it..it was one complex thing with so many different time signatures..but sounded soooo awesome and every time even one of them made a small mistake they had to do the section all over again.
they finally finished the recording at 2 am...i was sleepy and so was vishal...we decided to get ready for bed by eating some pizza first...the place we went to was pretty crowded, though the people there should have been asleep as they kept dropping pizza slices...i saw 3 different slices dropped while i was there.
we went back to vishals place and i met is roommates...one was a girl named Melanie who was pretty fun..the other was a guy who was some genius piano player named victor...so vishal and him start playing halo on the xbox (that's a video game not a music piece) for another hour or so while i impress them with my wit (i couldn't impress them with my spelling)
finally we go to sleep.
SUNDAY:
i wake up with the sound of the door rattling to see 6"5 giant with his drums on the trolley (we had left it at a locker in berklee after yesterday nights recording)...i help him set up in his room.
we go to a nearby place and get some Mexican stuff....then we meet up with a percussionist friend of vishals named perry who is totally infatuated with India and rajma :)
i thought him all the tricks of picking up Indian chicks (like saying "oye kudi...you and me tandoori??")....i think he be pretty popular with the ladies.
all three of us go for a nice walk to a nearby park with both of them telling me stories of the place and what it is famous for. the park is pretty nice...it got a pretty neat lake with ducks and geese and swans swimming free...they got some boat rides (shaped like swans) which ppl can go on for a price and go around the lake....we find a spot in the shade right at the edge of the pond and talk about things from India, to Texas to how since perry knows the guy who handled George bush's campaign when he was elected president, therefore by second degree i know president bush as well...its complex...but these guys are used to odd numbers in music.
soon the sky goes gloomy...and we decide its time to move..there is a nice light drizzle as we head to berklee with vishal planning to give me a tour de berklee.....perry decides to leave us as he has some other stuff to do...i look at all the different departments in berklee and keep going "ooh" and "ahh" at appropriate moments.
we decided to head back to vishals place after we see all there is to see. just as we around a block away from his house we suddenly hear the rain pour.....but cant see anything.....just then in the distance we see the rain falling and slowly like a wall move towards us....so picture this..there is no rain where we stand...but in the distance its pouring and slowly moving towards us...well we thought it was slow, but in seconds we had to run for cover.
we wait a while and the rain subsides...we do a quick amble to vishals place where he gives me my drum lesson....in other words he broke me down and made me rethink my gmail id.....but i kept at it and kinda figured the stuff he was teaching me...a lesson that i will be trying to master for quite some time.....yes it was complicated!!
then he takes me to berklee where he writes a few drum instructional dvds for me and shows me a few new drummers on you tube.
we head back home where he informs we that he had marinated chicken for dinner, and was going to roast it.....i was kinda shocked cause i didn't know he could cook....and roast chicken.....and marinated roast chicken....WOW!!!
so he dumps the chicken in the oven and takes me to a nearby store to buy macaroni...so he gives me macaroni and roast chicken and assorted vegetables for dinner (really well presented on a plate in terms of color and everything) and tasted absolutely fantastic...in fact if i was a dog...i would want him to be my owner.
and we do all this while watching the Dave Chapelle show.
at around 11 pm he gets a call from perry saying two other berklee dudes from their old gang were passing through town. so we all meet up at an Irish pub....a few of them get totally sloshed or at least pretend to be.....we talk about fishing and weed and other such stuff. i felt privileged to be in such amazingly brilliant company :D
on the way back home one small guy from the gang, decided to jump perry from behind...perry soon had him on the ground rubbing his face into the mud......a little while later both perry and the small guy are high fiving each other....berklee people what can i say.....i love them :D
we head back to vishals and i crash.....i wake up early (this time i really mean early) at 6:45 am....and head to the bus station to catch the 8:00 am bus.
i do the sleep and pill routine again and soon am back in china town....i head back to karls house and crash instantly.
i wake up later and karl and adele make some num num.
didn't do anything on Tuesday as was still too tired and recovering from the bus ride and lack of sleep in Boston.
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