Friday, May 22, 2009

The Bangladeshi Mariah

I woke up at 4 am today. I have no idea why. It's almost like I am jetlagged, but I am still home, and I haven't left for Dhaka. So, what woke me up? I have no idea. Fun fun fun.

I tried falling back asleep but it didn't work, so I figured I would youtube for a little bit. That's when I remembered that one of the Dhaka people I have been emailing back and forth with sent me some Bangladeshi music, and I figured I'd embed my favorite song of the bunch.

The girl is almost like a Bdeshi Mariah Carey. Almost. She's a thick girl, kinda like Mariah, and the first thing I thought of when I heard the song was: hmm that sounds like Mariah. I don't know why. Mariah... she could hit a high note back in the day. Not any more though, which is kind of a shame.

Of all the Bdeshi music videos I watched today, I think this one is my favorite of the bunch. Not that the song is super awesome or anything, but it's just that I don't dig the rest of the music she sent me. Maybe the Bdeshi local music is more of an acquired taste; maybe Bdeshi music is not for everyone. Or maybe I just haven't been exposed to the good stuff yet which, in my opinion, is a much better explanation.




Speaking of music that isn't for everyone, the new Passion Pit album is out already. I have been listening to their song Sleepyhead for like months now. I am saving the new album, Manners, for the Dubai leg of my flight to Dhaka, and really, there isn't a better distraction when you are on a 13-hour flight than an album you've been dying to hear for months.

Here's the video for Sleepyhead.



I've been playing around with the layout and the setup of the blog. Today, I figured I would try video embedding and see if it works. Another thing I've trying lately is this cool little app called statcounter. Statcounter tells you how many people - and when it says people, it means real people and not google bots, yahoo spiders or any other creepy crawlies - have visited your blog. Well, it turns out that quite a few people in Bangladesh (and a rare few in the US, from places all over the map, like California, North Carolina and Florida) have been reading my blog. Most of you have come back to read all the updates, which is a good thing. The more of a following you have on the blogosphere, the more you feel encouraged to update on a regular basis, so I am definitely psyched.

Well, if there's anything you, my readers, would want me to blog about, or if you have any suggestions on how I could improve my blog, please let me know. Donny had some great advice in a comment he left in my last blog post. Elaine, Kristin, Ihtisham and Ishy were very helpful in answering some of the questions I had asked in previous posts about Dhaka. A BIG thank you to you all.

I plan on uploading some videos on my blog when I'm in Dhaka. From what I understand, upload speed might be a bit of problem there, but I'll try regardless.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the music, and have a delightful weekend.

2 comments:

  1. Man, if you want Bangladeshi music, I got it all. Heavy metal, alternative, pop, rap, hip hop. Let me know and I can send you some. There's a lot of good stuff and my friends even back here in the US love it. Plus I got tons of Bollywood stuff too.

    Tishma has some good songs. I bet you've seen the youtube video for her rap about Dhaka..."oi mega city Dhaka" hahaha I love it. Makes me laugh every time.

    Yeah, upload speeds in Bangladesh are a pain. It took me 5 hours to post each blog post because of all the images (and editing of my journal.)

    Can you read Bengali? Even if you don't know any Bengali words, it helps to be able to read signs that have English words but written in Bengali script. Like "hotel", "restaurant", or "Muslim only"

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  2. Hey, I'd love to get my hands on any good local music, but the download speeds here in Dhaka are pretty bad, so maybe if you could point me to some names, I could buy them from a music store. I noticed they were pretty darn cheap, like a buck or so for a CD.

    I am gonna try and upload something to see just how slow the upload speeds are. I have a feeling it's gonna be like reliving those AOL days.

    Usually, I pick up languages pretty fast no matter where I go, so that's not gonna be a problem, I think, but the humidity is another story. You mentioned bus rides within Dhaka in quite a few of your posts, but I am not sure if I am gonna willingly get into a bus in this weather. So far, I've stuck to CNGs and yellow cabs for longer rides, and any and all three-wheelers for the shorter trips. I don't think I'll be able to drive on the streets here, at least not for a good six months. Haha. Fun times.

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