2 FEBRUARY 25, 2004 India Gets a Case of the Blues Falling prey to the sound of Harry Manx By Josh Hammersteadt If you weren’t at Books and Company on February 10th, then you should have been. If ou were, then you saw Harry Manx steal the heart of the crowd with his amazing blend of Blues and Indian music. Manx is truly unique; he combines lap-slide uitar with the mohan veena, a 20-string guitar reated in India. In the immortal words of Manx, “Vishwa Mohan Bhatt thought the guitar ounded lonely on its own, so he added fourteen trings.” As a nerd who appreciates a good gui- ar, I have to tell you that this is one beautiful nstrument, and watching it played live is enough o completely rivet your attention By adding lide guitars and banjos to the mix, Manx creates sound that is truly his own. Manx began to hone his musical skills in the mid-seventies, performing in cafes and bars in Europe for ten years. After this, Manx regularly oured Japan, and had lived for several months in ndia by the mid-eighties. During his stay in Japan, Manx stumbled upon recording of legendary Indian slide guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (remember him? He nvented the mohan veena!), a true master of the nstrument. Manx was enthralled by Bhatt’s work; in fact, he was so moved that he contacted Bhatt and made arrangements to become his pupil in India. The two travelled together in India, with Manx playing the tambura, a four- stringed instrument that provides a droning sound. Bhatt would not allow him to play the mohan veena live, because he was still a student. Years later, however, having successfully mas- tered this complex instrument, Manx now makes the mohan veena an integral part of his act. The Harry Manx live show is not to be missed. With the tone of a good friend come to chat, he regaled the audience with stories between songs - such as the time he got an award, and his wife said, “Well, do you get a trophy?” (Incidentally, after pulling in a few favours, he did.) But regardless of his friendly stage performance, his affable, charming banter, and his “only play requests if someone asks for them” policy, it was by far the incredible music that made the show. His seamless combination of traditional blues and traditional Indian music wowed the crowd, from slide guitar to banjo Indian bluegrass (it’s frighteningly good, I swear) to my personal favourite, the mohan veena, an instrument that few are good at. Harry Manx takes this rare instrument, and plays some of the fullest blues I have ever heard. One of my favourite moments was hearing him cover Van Morrison’s Mad Love, which I honestly didn’t even recognise until Photo by Shari MacDonald (www.harrymanx.com) Harry Manx seamless integrates blues and traditional Indian music. It’s really cool. about halfway through. After three curtain calls, it was over, and I left Books and Company a fan of Harry Manx. But is this the last I will see of him? Will I ever get to see this astounding musician again? Why yes! It appears he plays in my hometown (McBride, BC) on the 17th. So Pll be there. And - who knows? - so might you! Movie Review: Concordia student solves the winter shivers Butterfly Effect By Bill Hull The thought of seeing Ashton Kutcher in a role with any more depth han “Dude, Where’s My Car?” still makes me shudder. Given the flexibil- ty that he’s shown throughout his areer, playing roles such as an idiot, a hung-over idiot, an idiot in Europe, nd, in the TV role that jump-started his career, an idiot-friend, I wasn’t xpecting to even be bothered with his latest installment in Kutcher’s hining career. The concept, however, ooked interesting enough, so I decid- d to give it a shot. I was quite pleas- ntly surprised. While it lacked some of the directo- ial style that other psychological movies tend to carry with them, the ilm presented us with a good script that managed to suck us into t during the slower points in the beginning and proceed to blow us way as the pace increased through to he end. The plotline rides entirely on small- cale ‘what ifs’ that end up drastically hanging the path.of one’s life - as well s the lives of those around them - which many people have asked them- selves at some point in time (though the what-if points in the movie are, in most cases, considerably more drastic). The acting wasn’t bad at all - which is surprising if one remembers the con- versation that opened the aforemen- tioned Kutcher classic, between Ashton Kutcher and Sean William Scott that. went something along the lines of, “Where’s my car, dude?” “Dude, where’s your car?” “Where’s my car, dude?” “Dude, where’s your car?” “Where’s my car dude?” “Dude... where’s your car?” There are two major downsides to this movie. First of all, though the directing wasn’t horrible, it didn’t stand out at all. Beyond the effects that anyone who’s scen the commer- cial are familiar with (the words shak- ing on a page of paper), there is noth- ing visually memorable about it. Secondly is the fact that it holds little- to-no repeat value; once you’vé seen it, you've seen it, and knowing the ending spoils the mystery of the beginning. This would be a good movie to rent or watch in theatres, but definitely not to buy. Grade B By Lauren Chang MacLean The Link, Concordia University MONTREAL (CUP) -- Heather McMaster was literally freezing her butt off when she came up with an Imagine a woolly- looking scarf fust short enough to hug your frozen tush, and just long enough to wrap around your hips ingerious design for what can be best described as... a butt-warmer. Dubbed “HEAThers,” these butt- warmers offer not only warmth in the form of an over-the-pants thermal miniskirt, but have been turning heads all over Montreal as a unique, hip (and functional) fashion statement. Imagine a woolly-looking scarf just short enough to hug your frozen tush, and just long enough to wrap around your hips. A row of hidden hooks fas- tens the winterized sarong in place, and voila! A funky alternative to long johns. McMaster can’t go anywhere in Montreal without someone stopping her to ask about her innovative winter accessory. “People always ask me about them when I wear them, so I decided to start knitting them and selling them,” says McMaster, 21, a third-year student in Concordia’s Applied Science Human Relations program, “The main thing is that they keep you really warm.” McMaster, a Toronto native who attended the University of British Columbia before moving to Montreal, considers knitting a hobby rather than work. She spends much of her down- time embarking on other creative pro- jects, including a one-shoulder tank top she designed and produced from a vintage t-shirt for this past New Year’s Eve, and a mini-dress fashioned from an old football jersey. Although knit- ting has been a hobby of hers for years, HEAThers is the first item McMaster has actively marketed. The creative process began gradual- ly last year when McMaster decided to knit something to protect the exposed skin between her low-rise jeans and belly-baring sweaters from the frigid winter wind. What started as a scarf for the stom- ach evolved into mini-skirts and tube- dresses. Experimentation with zippers resulted in an ill-fitting garment, so she and her sister, Concordia photog- raphy student Sarah McMaster, brain- stormed and came up with the hooks idea. The result is an adjustable, stretchy, body-hugging outer layer perfect for slinging around the waist, chest and of course, bum. “It just became a fashion piece,” McMaster explains. “A warm fashion piece. And now I wear one every day.” Each wrap is handmade, knit from a chunky acrylic-polyester blend yarn that could easily pass for wool. McMaster uses both two-tone and single-tone shades of blue, cream, green, purple, brown and maroon. Each HEATher is unique and can be custom-made to fit any size or style requirements, and are machine-wash- able and dryer-safe. “The great thing is that they are completely adjustable for any size, and they’re customizable too. You can decide on the colour, length and width,” McMaster says. Each skirt takes her about seven hours to knit, the tube-dresses about thirty. She can also churn out a pair of arm warmers—knit arm-cuffs that extend from mid-forearm to wrist, for wearing with T-shirts or tank-tops in the wintertime—in a few hours. “She spends a lot of time knitting,” says her roommate, Alex Ottens, 23. “Whenever we're watching TV or just chilling, she’s knitting. She knits a lot!” McMaster has already sold several to her family and friends and hopes the more she wears them, the more interest she will generate, and eventu- ally more and more people will start buying them. “T might take them to stores on St- Laurent or St-Denis,” she says, “but I don’t want them to mark them up. The usual retail mark-up is too much. They would probably sell them for $100.” For now, she’s selling her wares at a small profit: A skirt is $40 and a pair of arm-warmers is $20. Custom tube- dresses, skirts or special requests are easily accommodated and the price varies depending on the number of hours of knitting required and the amount of yarn needed. To order your own HEATher, McMaster can be reached at mac_master@hotmail.com.