Best New Music: RollnSmoke Reviews: THE WHITE TIGER

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

Sunday, April 5, 2009

RollnSmoke Reviews: THE WHITE TIGER

THE WHITE TIGER by Aravind Adiga (Free Press, 2008). A provocative debut novel short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, this is the sardonic, epistolary narrative of a “1/2-baked” Indian from “The Darkness” – the poor countryside of Northern India – who finds his way to big-city-living. Balram is a rising “White Tiger” who keeps a sense of humor in spite of the disease, filth and prohibitive caste system that constantly weigh against him. His struggle to become a driver-servant for an affluent family in Delhi is set against the background of Ghandi-politics and sickening corruption that swirls throughout India. Balram resists his ingrained sense of servitude and refuses to live his life in the Great Indian Rooster Coop and ultimately moves from hunted criminal to pillar of Bangalore Society, treading a fine line between loyalty and betrayal. (9/10).