New piece about the blast that rocked Lahore today
Read my new piece about the blast in Lahore today It’s hard to muster up fresh thoughts on another bomb blast in Pakistan. When I got to Lahore, it got this BS “chilled out” reputation, but by the time I left it three years later there were blasts and attacks on a monthly basis. Here’s … Read more
Photos from under the floorboards – album review
Wendy Hsu at YellowBuzz reviewed The Kominas wildnights in guantanamo bay CD and uploaded photos from our basement gig in Lowell. Disclaimers about the review: Arjun and Karna are not Hindu. We are all punks. Her photos of the gig Her review of Wild Nights in Guantanamo Bay
Better than a thousand years as a jack ass
Love and martyrdom are the main themes of poetry in Punjabi, and from the looks of it, most of South Asia. While in Europe the political institutions killed poets to obscure their work, in South Asia the poet immortalizes the one killed. A surefire way to insure your message lives on is to die for … Read more
Standing in the shadow of taqx – Detroit Taqx City
In Detroit, I spent a night with Asim, someone Arjun, MC Riz and I met in an elevator two ISNAs ago. Asim, like everyone else I meet, is a soul brother, he plays in Oblisk – a band that reminds me of dusty dirt roads and clear skies, equal parts village life and Spacemen 3. … Read more
Knight & Majeed talk Taqwacore
Mike Knight and Omar Majeed interviewed on QTV
Masjid “Annoying-core”
Written by Shahjehan Khan I had a little reminder yesterday about just how easily annoyed, sensitive, and downright insecure I am about my “public muslimness”. Let me set the scene. It’s 40 days after the death of a close friend of mine. We’re having a service (chehlum). I have been asked to give the adhaan … Read more
The Kominas at Sinfest
Yeah it’s a basement show tonight in Lowell with a lot of new bands made up of old friends. It’s cool, both I and our drummer Karna came back from overseas a few weeks back. I’ve seen a lot of my old punker friends mellow out from the scene. An Auntie asked me, “beta, have … Read more
King Khan Invades Boston
written by Shahjehan Khan “Why don’t you want any Wasabi?” Arjun and I were sharing some sushi (which would later prove to be a questionable decision for him) across the street from the Paradise Rock Club on Comm Ave. I proceeded to tell him about a high school dare which involved me, an ice cream scoop size … Read more
Gardens for the Lush by Omar Waqar
Omar Waqar, musician, teacher, slave and student has recently had his book of poetry pressed, titled “Gardens for the Lush”. A slender book put out by lulu press, it begins with a couplet by the author in Urdu, Jab nafs ki zanjeer ko toRa hi nahien hai tab samjhien ghulamaan ka auqa to wohien hai … Read more
CBC Interview with Mike Knight about The Taqwacores
This is a radio interview Michael Muhammad Knight, author of The Taqwacores, gave to the CBC about his book on March 29th, 2009. An in depth discussion about his motivations for writing the book and his personal thoughts and feelings about Islam
