Best New Music: RollnSmoke Reviews: A GOLDEN AGE

Top Ten Best New Music ... all released within the past 60 days

1. "Somebody I Used to Know" - Gotye
2. "I'm on One" - DJ Khaled, Lil Wayne, Drake, R. Ross
3. "Motivation" - Kelly Rowland
4. "Well OK, Honey" - Jenny O.
5. "The Adventure of Rain Dance Maggie" - RHCP
6. "I Stand Alone" - Theophilus London
7. "Sey and I KNow It" - LMFAO
8. "Oh Why" - Balam Acab
9. "That's My Bitch" - Kanye West, Jay-Z
10. "Lights" Remix - Bassnectar, Ellie Goulding
11. "Wait in the Dark" - Memory Tapes
12. "At Home" - Crystal Fighters
13. "Feel So Close" - Calvin Harris
14. "Amor Fati" - Washed Out
15. "All I Ever Wanted" - Toxic Airborne Event

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

RollnSmoke Reviews: A GOLDEN AGE

A GOLDEN AGE by Tahmima Anam (Harper Perennial, 2009). This brilliant and highly-acclaimed debut novel evokes the exotic landscape and gritty realities of the war for Bangladeshi Independence from (West) Pakistan in 1971. Exploring the strained divisions across generations and disintegrating family loyalties – Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi – probing the split between Hindus vs. Muslims, the separation between resistance fighter vs. passive citizen, all amidst poverty and cyclones, creates a fascinating political and historical context against which a very central, human story unfolds. The narrative stretches from mundane daily life in occupied Dhaka to the sweltering refugee camps of Calcutta and features the life of a devoted widow who must fight for her children – an adoring son and a militant daughter – and finds herself fulfilling the role of accidental hero. 9/10