Random title I know. Ok, so this has been bothering me since last week, when Kris and I hooked up for dinner with one of her cousins. Cool guy, he’s known me for close to 12 years or so. We’re not super-close mind you, but we dig hanging out together and we’re family now. He was describing some Middle Eastern reastaurant on Haight Street. Hookahs, belly dancing…the whole 9 yards. Couldn’t remember the name and said, “Well it’s the only Indian place down there.” That’s when it hit me. It seemed natural to him to interchange Middle Eastern and Indian.

Sure I’ll admit I was offended a bit. Much respect to Middle Eastern people, but they would be offended a little if someone said they were Indian. It’s like if I decided to insist my cousin was Japanese when infact he is Chinese. After I corrected him in this manner, I could say from his look that he was confused. I destroyed some of his assumptions.

I was disturbed on 2 levels. First, we Indians are South Asian. India is not in the Middle East. We’ve got a whole freaking “sub-continent”. Second, for the last 12 years, he’s probably believed that I personally, was Middle Eastern. Didn’t even know that I am a Hindu. That my mother tongue is Bengali. That culturally Indian and Arabic culture have very little overlap. The little details that you’d think family would know. I guess I’m still a little bitter about it. Oh well, I’ll get over it. He’s a great guy and there’s no love lost. We’ll get it straightened out.

Well, now that I’ve come off of my bitter post entry (see the post immediately after this…) I’ve decided to go on having a good evening. In general the week was good. Hectic but still good. Work is going well and as soon as we launch the new site I’ll post the link out here.
3 weeks ago I redesigned and launched the website of my pal Tom Denmark. This guy is an amazing illustrator. You can see Tom’s work at Studio Denmark

Been really busy. Hopefully I can start posting more often. The new job kicks ass. I still get to work from home, and from appearances it doesn’t seem like my life has changed all that much.  Ok, so happy Chinese New Year!  New Year’s Eve dinner with the inlaws was cool. I hadn’t seen them in awhile. So far this year has been great – I hope it’s a sign of things to come. Thursday night the wife and I went to Yoshi’s (Sushi & Jazz) at Jack London Square in Oakland. We went to see Mose Allison, my favorite jazzman. My friend Walt introduced me to Mose’s music 11 years ago. He described him as “Blues went to college.” Infact, he earned a PhD in sarcasm, irony, clever rhymes and virtuosity on the piano. Seeing him live was thrilling. After 54 years on the road, the man’s voice is beautiful and fingers haven’t slowed down one bit. I hope he comes back later this year.

Did I say burning skulls? I just finished a poster for The Skegs, a local surf band. Check it out!