The Sitar and Abstract Art

RECENTLY I spoke to Anoushka Shankar, daughter of sitar legend Ravi Shankar, about her influences across the artistic genres. Some of her answers did not surprise me -- she mentioned her father, saying,   "Having taught me from my very first day playing the sitar, he's shaped my technique, style and sound." Others, like abstract painter Mark Rothko, were less obvious: She talked about the connection between color and spirit.


Anoushka is part of a The Disney Hall concert in honor of her father's 90th birthday; previously scheduled for next week, it has been postponed to September. 

HERE is my piece on the younger Shankar -- half-sister to Norah Jones, by the way -- in today's LA Times.

Comics From India

THIS is the kind of high/low, east/west, pop/myth collision i love: a new exhibit at the LACMA called "heroes and villains: the battle for good in india's comics." though the title evokes the beach boys, the show is more about devi, vishnu and other hindu gods and the way they return, through the magic of pop culture, in indian comic books.

here is my story from this sunday's LATimes. i spoke to the show's lead curator, julie romain (who used to assist the LACMA's brilliant and notorious paul holdengraber with his memorable series) and the indian scholar debashish banerji.

both of them framed the context against india's disaspora, globalism and tranformation by western pop. i'll return for a more considered look at this show, which includes a tour through the museum's subsantial south/southeast asian art collection.

Photo Credit: LACMA

Salman Rushdie vs. Los Angeles

WHEN i agreed to hang out with novelist salman rushdie in and around hollywood for a few hours, i would not have been surprised to find myself embroiled in a discussion about george harrison's facility for the sitar, or to be shown the very drugstore where an acid-tripping aldous huxley encountered "the doors of perception." but i did not expect to get into a hilarious story about "starsky and hutch."

that's part of what i like about reading rushdie as well -- you never quite know where his work is going to swerve, but most of the time his excursions reinforce rather than undercut his literary personality. here is that piece, by the way, which is about the most fun i've had on a literary story. and i am very glad neither of us got shot, which looked for a minute like it was about to happen.

a few days ago i visited a new exhibit at the los angeles county museum of art dedicated to comics from india -- more on that in a future post. but the show made me think of rushdie and his wild mixing of ancient and pop-contemporary, especially in books like "midnight's children" (a book i read in a kind of fever it was so good) and his last novel "the enchantress of florence."

these days, i hear from his publicist, rushdie is completing a new novel and the script to a "midnight's children" film. since his books -- as he discusses in our interview -- were so profoundly effected by movies, especially bollywood and "the wizard of oz" -- this project could appealingly close the circle.