I already posted this to Elizabeth’s wall, but I think it has broad appeal for this group given our, er, history. You might want to play it large so you can really see what’s going on.
Nineties-style Bollywood. You saw it here first, unless you read my friend Jue’s blog, which you probably don’t unless you blogroll stalk me.
Boy do I love Bollywood. Also, I just finished transcribing my interviews. I don’t I’ve ever typed so many ungrammatical sentences in my entire life. Ironically, it often turns out that I’m the one that sounds like English is my second language.
Filed under: tibetan stuff | Tags: bloomington, food, HHDL, mcleod, nostalgia, snow lion
Today I finally got my gumption up and went to the Snow Lion, Bloomington’s own Tibetan restaurant. I’ve been meaning to go for the entire summer, and hence putting it off just as long, probably because I knew deep in my heart of hearts that it would not be as good as the fine establishment in McLeod Ganj by the same name. The Snow Lion in McLeod Ganj is a hotel on Jogibara Rd. with a great restaurant that has cheap and abundant Tibetan staples (tenthuk, momos, et al.), a wait-staff consisting of a Tibetan dude with a lazy eye and a Indian kid, and a kitchen full of local Indians. The Snow Lion in Bloomington is a restaurant established by (I think) HH the DL’s nephew that serves an eclectic mix of various Asian cuisines, with a few token Tibetan dishes (no tenthuk, and no steamed momos), a wait-staff consisting of an over-eager white kid in a Less Than Jake t-shirt (who pronounced my order of “thukpa ngopa” more like “thukpa en-go-pa”) and a kitchen full of people people chatting away in English. Snow Lion McLeod Ganj is patronized by a fifty-fifty mix of whiteys and Tibetans; Snow Lion Bloomington is patronized mostly by the IU Philosophy department, at least according to my professor.
I know it’s not fair to compare these two, since they are literally about as far apart as two restaurants can be. But I really miss greasy, wonderful Tibetan food and am generally feeling very nostalgic about McLeod Ganj (a feeling that is in no way related to that paper that’s due in like a week hahahaha), and a nice bowl of tenthuk is too much to ask, is it? I suppose I’ll have to wait until I’ve saved up enough to fly back to India and pay a visit to ol’ lazy-eye and the rest of the real Snow Lion crew.
Dalena uploaded some of her photos to flickr. That probably means you can do it, too! So get crackin’. And when you’re done make sure to add them to the group so they’re all in one place.
Also, some sad if not terribly fresh news: the 10 CENTS A SHOW label on my nalgene has been worn down to be almost entirely black. If I squint real hard I can still make out the glorious letters formerly emblazoned there.
Quoth Dave, “There aren’t many hippies here but there are TONS of hipsters. I think they’re in the same phylum, or something?”
After rushing to wikipedia to remind myself of what “phylum” meant, I’m here to confirm Dave’s hypothesis. Hippies and Hipsters are absolutely of the same phylum. I would go so far to say that they are included in the same genus, “probablydoesnthavemuchmoneyius” However, these two “alternative lifestyles” account for two vastly different species. The question is…which one wins the tale of the tape?
Body Odor
Advantage: Hipsters. It should be noted that a certain kind of hipster (the “dumb emo kid”) showers very regularly. However, the vast majority of today’s “indie hipster” crowd showers about as infrequently as, well, hippies. So why do hipsters win this one? Because they don’t proceed to drench themselves in incense, patchouli, and sage, a group of smells that go about as well with B.O. as Axe. Furthermore, hipsters usually have a lot of clothes to mask their sent, instead of just the 2 tie-dyed woodstock t-shirts their Uncle Joe gave them.
Music Taste
Advantage: Hippies. This may come as a surprise to those of you familiar with my vocal distaste for jam bands, but at least they know what they like and are incredibly dedicated. For hippies, little things like eating are less important than getting that Grateful Dead bootleg 12-disc set. Ever seen a hippie forced to choose between buying a new stash of weed or the new Phish live disc? It ain’t pretty, I’ll tell you that much. Hipsters, on the other hand, are as fickle as it gets, dropping bands from their Facebook music interests the minute Pitchfork gives them a 8.5 or lower.
To be continued soon as hippies and hipsters square off on the political battleground…
oh and…Record of the week: Electric Bunnies – Fantastic Metal Eye (catchy, noisy punk from Florida). Comic of the week: Gentleman Jim, a damn fine indie book from Drawn & Quarterly.
