Que sueño!

How dreamy is this Argentine apartment? I can ALMOST feel the warm breeze from bk.

I Heart Modern Art

see more new math here.

Grandmother, fear not

I have decided that I will get married after all. I saw Love and Other Drugs last week, or at least, I went to the theater and sat in a seat facing the screen. But as I wiped the dribble off my chin at the end of the film all I could remember was that Jake Gyllenhaal and I had eloped to a cabin in the woods where the only furnishings were a fireplace and a big bathtub and all we did all day was...
oh details details, I wont bore you.

Tuesday's Tune

Oh Regina, how very very lovely you are!

Cooped In

Peeps. This morning, at appx. 7:45 am, I slipped on my fleece lined mittens and braved the cold to walk a block and a half to the Park Slope Food Coop for my first shift as a new member! If you don't know, the Park Slope Food Coop is pretty famous for an establishment of its kind: a member run grocery store providing local, seasonal, and organic items, in addition to a great selection of beer and household goods, for mostly wholesale prices. The Coop has mixed reviews from it's members, ranging from straight up proselytizing, to deep hatred. After my first frosty experience there with a very unpleasant snub-nosed man in the office, I was worried I had gotten in over my head, like Alana Joblin Ain, who made the Coop sound like Nazi Germany in her 2009 NY Times article. This morning however, I had quite a different experience. I was welcomed by the upbeat and jovial Alexis, my team coordinator, who paired me with the lovely shelving expert Shira (put things on the shelves, and make it pretty). Everyone I encountered this morning was not only pleasant, but downright freaking nice! I found my 2 hour and 45 minute shift very therapeutic. Though I was happy to make conversation with the other workers, I found it relaxing to zone out as I organized row after row of tea, and let my mind wander as I piled the forest of avocados into a sloping mound. I'm sure my relationship to the Coop, as well as my attitude towards my monthly work shift will change over time, but for now I'm not the least bit upset about being all Cooped up.

Superhero Sunday

Happy Sunday folks!

Gallim Dance Company Final w Interview from Andreas von Scheele on Vimeo.

I had to wake up early this morning to help work a very elaborate birthday party for twin 3-year- olds at the awesome dance studio where I teach. The theme was "Superheroes & Dance" so me and the other three teachers corralled the kids into super hero freeze dance, super hero circle dance, and even a super hero obstacle course! Organizing and teaching little kids always makes me smile, but being around so many Manhattan parents wears on me, and makes me thankful for having grown up in the 'burbs. As the teachers and the party staff were cleaning up after the superman-cake explosion, I was bonding with one of the staff members, Caroline, over this very topic. We got to talking, and as it turns out Caroline dances with one of my very favorite dance companies, Gallim Dance. I admitted that I sometimes watch the company's videos online for inspiration. I love all their work, but this commercial they shot for KSwiss really highlights their versatility, individuality and gorgeous athleticism.

Nut Up or Shut Up.

a new and very useful phrase by Sam. Thank you.

For usage, check out this clip.

Dreaming of Dancing Outside in Summer

Matthew Westerby Company from Litchfield Performing Arts on Vimeo.

This sultry number is from the last performance with The Matthew Westerby Company in Waterbury Connecticut. Doesn't it just make you dream about Latin America on a hot summer night? On a freezing, dreary day like today, I may just allow myself to dream that little dream! Performed by Dylan Baker, Amanda Matea, Matthew Westerby, and myself(in purple!).

IT'S HERE.

Find more artists like Hollywood Records at Myspace Music

mind crushingly awesome.

Dogs V. Cats

A very affectionate and adorable cat has taken up residence at my mother's house. If you know me, you know that I am NOT a cat person, I have always been seriously allergic and just not altogether smitten with the cold-hearted nature of many of the cats I've come across. Minou (that's French for "kitty-cat") however, has won my heart. The only problem is, as much as Minou loves to play and be fed and petted- she won't come inside the goddamn house. It's starting to freeze here on the Beast coast, and I'm afraid lil Minou will not survive the winter outside. Her stubbornness only confirms what this article I saw in the UK Telegraph says: that dogs are smarter than cats (sowwy Sawah!). Oxford scientists confirmed that the more social an animal instinctively is, the more brain growth that animal will exhibit. Dogs, who are descendants of the extremely clannish wolves, show more social/ family oriented behavior, which makes them smarter. If anyone has tips on how I can get my small brained, but very sweet lil Minou inside the house for winter, please share!

Happy Friday

I'd sure like to try some of this chartreuse soft serve found on the fun blog Oh Joy!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A Man's Motivations

My brother, Nick Bakshi, is a writer- a really good one in fact. Sometimes he'll send me drafts of whatever he's working on and then we'll bounce ideas off of each other. After reading the last draft of a novel he just started, I called him and said,"Brohemian, I need to understand your motivation, I need to know what's behind all this in order to talk about it further." A few days later he sent me this- the key to understanding why men do the things they do, make the art they make, and apparently even why Facebook was created...it's all about the bi*ches.

I want the world...

or at least this awesome chandelier of it.

Found on black eiffel

LE LOVE

 le love.

The Books

Last night, Bock and I saw the ingenious sound/video group, The Books, at Carnegie Hall. The duo, plus guest Gene Back, play gorgeous intricate string arrangements over found sound samples, accompanied by pitch perfect spliced video segments. The result was an endearing display of human truisms. A little boy on a talkboy tape recorder threatening his little sister, found video clips of people golfing mixed with sound and video from '80s inspirational self help videos... their art is inspired by people in all of their ridiculous, hilarious, and beautiful splendor.

Ps. Check out this crazy spoonbox contraption that Nick Zammutto (guitars & vocals) made. It's for sale and I want one!

Miraculous Neon Trees!

Avatar may have been set in the future, but people, glowing trees are real on planet Earth and may one day replace streetlights everywhere! Apparently when Taiwanese researchers put gold nanoparticles into Bacopa Caroliniana plants, the chlorophyll in the plants produced neon light! The combo also caused photosynthesis to happen more rapidly aka more carbon was consumed from the atmosphere and air was purified faster. Wowie zowie.

Read more on Gizmodo!
Photo by Romana Klee.
Thanks to Rex for sharing!

Fink

Tammy came over for dinner two nights ago and I told her to DJ while I made us some kale and pasta with chicken sausage (one of my favorite meals of all time). I asked for something soothing and chill. She played me Fink, which I loved. His whole album, Distance and Time was perfecto for relaxing with a friend and un verre de vin rouge.

Slow Fall

I've been feeling pretty sappy the past few days. Autumn almost always makes me really nostalgic and reflective, which can be positive in a lot of ways, but it's also bittersweet. A year out of college I still mark the new year by the school calendar, so I suppose that has something to do with it. When I think back on the past year, I realize absolutely EVERYTHING in my life has changed. The one steady thing, my rock, has been dancing, and I've been lucky enough to able to work with two really amazing companies this year, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, as well as the Matthew Westerby Company. Next week I'm going on tour with the Matthew Westerby Company and we've all been spending a lot of time in the studio preparing. When I went in yesterday, I was feeling kind of blue, but after a few minutes talking with Matthew and the dancers and I felt instantly lighter. No matter how tired I am, no matter what I'm going through-- going into the studio and rehearsing with these companies never fails to bring me so much joy and fulfillment. In gratitude to my job and all of the wonderful people I get to work with, I am posting this video of Matthew's gorgeous and heartbreaking duet "Slow Fall".

BK Safari

Last fall, my instinct to create a nest was so strong that I actually brought beautiful branches in from outside, ordered these sheets and hung a pretty mid century painting of an owl on the wall. This fall, I started to feel a bit cluttered and decided it was time for a change. I wanted cleaner lines and black and white accents to contrast with my saffron/ burnt orange wall. I ditched the branches and within a few hours, had transformed my room into a mini modern safari lodge. I just found these fantastic animal busts at anthropologie, made of repurposed cement and old pages from French books- I can't wait to get one to complete my wild little room!

DEREZZED!

Seeing Daft Punk live at Keyspan park in 2007 was hands down the best concert experience I've ever had and one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed in my life. NO I'M SERIOUS. Ask anyone who has seen them live, the french robot duo understand how to move the masses, both literally and figuratively. Obviously I am stoked and seriously geeking out about the soundtrack that DP has recorded for TRON Legacy, coming soon to theaters (argh!!!I can hardly contain myself.) Here's the latest trailer with their newest track, Derezzed. YEZZZZZ.

Snaps from Kerala

My dad and I traveled from Delhi to Kerala for a little change of scenery. I'd never been, and it was so different from North india I hardly believed I was in the same country. The pace is slower, as southern regions of many countries are. It's cleaner, greener, and the people are friendly and warm. See more on my flickr.

Thanksgiving

When my brother was in Africa in June traveling for several weeks, he wrote my family some very beautiful emails describing his everyday discoveries and observations. When I say "my family" I am talking about: my mom, dad, my brother Nick, my cousins Sandeep, Jyotin (and now Devika and Gokul since they've moved to the East coast) and Glam and Grandpa. When Nick started writing to us, we sort of collectively started replying to all. We were all in different places in the world and it felt really nice to hear updates from everyone- even the most mundane things. Jyotin wrote to us about the grind of working at a hedge fund in Connecticut, my mom wrote about decorating her house in Montclair, dad sent us pictures from hiking in Germany on a beautiful day after work.

I think we all really enjoyed these updates, and the practice stuck- we have more or less continued the family emails, whether it's a long letter from one of us describing our travels, or a snapshot with no text, or a link to an interesting article. Today my dad sent us all this video with the text "My gift to you this morning". I found the sentiment and the video very thoughtful, and my Grandpa quickly responded with the following statement, "This reminds me that almost all we can do as individuals is live our lives with dignity and ethically as best we understand ethics. Bad things are happening all around us and it often seems like we have no control (and maybe we don't). Anyway, I love you all,and look forward to seeing you all at thanksgiving".

I felt very grateful for these snippets of reflection from my family, and today, I am actively taking a minute, or two, to really feel thanks for them.

It looks so simple!

The cloud came in

Read more here.One of my favorite stories about traveling in India is from my trip with Sarah and Olivia in 2005. We were in Raniket, a hill-station in the Himalayas, where my Uncle Bunty and Aunt Bindu have a beautiful house made of stone. In the daytime, you look out over the mountains and are instantly awed by the view. Then, the sun comes out and you realize that what you were seeing before were mere foothills, and that the crisp white peaks towering much, much, higher--the ones you thought were clouds in the fog, are the real mountains. One night, when Sarah, Olivia, my cousin Devika and I were getting ready for bed, a white ghost floated into the room through the window. We stared at it in awe, feeling chilled by its presence. After a few moments of stillness and utter disorientation, Devika shouted "it's a cloud!". Of course! It's only a cloud that just floated into our bedroom, how could we have been so silly. Wait a CLOUD JUST FLOATED INTO OUR BEDROOM?!?!?! It was almost as unbelievable as the ghost idea! As the cloud floated across the room out and out through the opposite windows, I had the feeling I had just seen something I might never see again. However, apparently now inside-clouds are on public display, ever since architect Testuo Kondo got a team of scientists to MAKE A CLOUD inside his building!

Hazelton

My brohemian Sandeep shared this new track from Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and I am feeling it in my heartpiece!

Seriously?

WTF?!?! I cried! I laughed! All these conflicting feelings! But mostly I was just SERIOUSLY amused. Happy Monday! And thanks to Hans for sharing.

Not All Who Wander are Lost: Delhi, India

Namaste from Delhi, where I am here taking care of my grandparents (Dadiji and Dadima), whose home in the mountains was almost completely knocked down last week by a landslide. They are fine, though Dadaji's asthma is sometimes debilitating in the rain, and most likely their mountain home (where they live during the Delhi summer) will make it through the end of this year's late and disastrous monsoon. That being said, my Indian grandmother has much much more pressing concerns, such as my imminent spinsterhood. It's true kids. In her humble opinion, 23 is pushing the limit of marriageability, and the simple facts that I have a career as a dancer (immodest!), have held hands with (lets not even get into dating) more than one man (gasp!), and I don't live with my parents (licentious!) paints a pretty bleak picture of my future in her mind. Sometimes I get a gust of strength and courage and prepare long speeches about the empowerment of women and how times have changed, how I may not even WANT to get married (god forbid) and all the reasons why her fears are just downright ridiculous. But then I imagine the perplexed and hurt look in her eyes, her dreams for me shattered, and I just shrug and say "you're right Dadima" and smile reassuringly. In honor of my Dadima, I am posting these lovely videos from what looks like a dream wedding: simple, beautiful, personal, and creative(also I am in love with the Beach House song from the second vid). It's clearly missing Panjabi classics like the groom on a horse and the dhol drummers procession, which I wouldn't miss out on for the world- but other than that, IF and when I ever decide to get married, I think something like this would be worthy of all of Dadima's nights spent worrying.

Max, Margaux, & The Marvelows from Shark Pig on Vimeo.

Max & Margaux from Shark Pig on Vimeo.

Not All Who Wander Are Lost: San Francisco

SF is gorgeous, but DAYUM is it hilly! After all that hiking, plus walking uphill both ways everywhere (is that even possible? you ask? oh yes mes amies. oh yes.) my a*s was really whipped into shape! Back in the nice flat grid of NYC, I was finally able to recover from vertigo and work on some photos. Despite the sore glutes and dizzy spells, it was a glorious labor day reunion of three best friends from high school. Olivia Micou Cerf, Sarah David Heydemann, et moi, the three musketeers of MHS, were brought together as a trifecta for the first time since our absolutely INSANE post high school graduation adventure through Southeast Asia (our "Hello-world- we're- going- to do -stupid- things- in- you!" trip, as Olivia calls it). Though brief, this trip to SF was, as expected, filled with wonderful surprises including but by no means limited to: three attempts to watch the magical animated film MADAGASCAR, my first in-n-out burger, and lets not forget about the NUDIST HOT SPRINGS. A wha?!?! Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed for the latter.

Norwegian Wood

If you asked most of my friends and family who or what has inspired me the most creatively, they would probably be able to tell you that it is the work of author Haruki Murakami. They would know that because I created an evening length dance-theater piece my senior year at Barnard inspired by his work (with the very talented producer Julia Bloch), but also because I recommend and gift his books to the people I love. Murakami writes in spirals, and he creates parallel universes in which people are like us, except that they are more connected to things from which we are often detached: dreams, ghosts, spirits, states of being. I couldn't be more excited about the upcoming screen adaptation of his novel Norwegian Wood, it looks like it's going to be magical!

Thanks to Rex for sharing this :)

Also, this song is so pretty.

and the lyric so bittersweet! It. Hewts. Ow.


found on Black Eiffel.

Bed Bath and Beyond

When I grow up, I do not intend to live in a practical home. Instead, my house will be a whimsical nest. I'll have big spherical copper wire birdcage hanging from the ceiling, swings instead of chairs, a book corner with a library ladder, a beautiful little garden designed by my brilliant mother, and last but certainly not least, I will have a bathtub in my bedroom. There. I said it. Getting back into rehearsals and dancing everyday has reminded me (and not subtly) how much my body craves a hot bath at the end of each long day. Having trouble picturing such a thing? I'm talking about the bathtub in the bedroom, pervs! Well, here are some ideas:

Art out of Light

In the fall of 2008 Eric and I went to the Guggenheim to see the Louise Bourgeois exhibit there. Whether it was the rain, or my aching knees, or just another bout of hanger- on our way out I was impatient and was not particularly interested in the Jenny Holzer exhibit For the Guggenheim, being projected on the museum's exterior walls. It's funny how two years later, on a Monday afternoon, I was struck by what an absolutely beautiful and terrifying concept it is to make art out of light. I looked through her massive portfolio, which spans across continents as well as content: from famous poetry to her own prose, from truisms to dadaist musings. How I could have walked away from these beautiful words being hurled onto the walls of my city escapes me. I hope that by the next time I come across her work I will have mastered the art of "be here now" enough to be able to appreciate it in the moment.