Bamboo Banga

BAMBOO BANGA, M.I.A.

(November 2007)

Stage managing at NCTC: I was stage managing the PSA-licious play "The Other Side of the Closet" at the New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco, feeling pretty crap about myself. I had returned to San Francisco from LA, defeated, jobless, poor, and really not wanting to write. Eventually, I started feeling the bug again, but still unable/unwilling to write, so I did the next (best?) thing - I started stage managing. I started off at the Magic Theater as a production assistant, which meant me chauffeuring Marlo Thomas and Mark Rydell to and from their hotels, and somehow that led to me being a pretty in-demand stage manager. It was odd, and really I don't have the temperament for it, but I was oddly good at it.

"The Other Side of the Closet" was a traveling play - we went to different schools throughout the Bay Area with this really cheesy play about how horrible homophobia is (which it is, but then again, so is subjecting disaffected teenagers to really bad theatre), but one of the cool things about it besides meeting some cool people (?) was the soundtrack that Sara, the director, had chosen. In an attempt to make this play relevant to teenagers, she chose some really cutting-edge music for it, which I, as the stage manager, dealt with. One of the songs used was M.I.A.'s "Boyz," which is a truly odd but catchy song. The more I heard it (at least four times a week), the more I liked it, hence me downloading it. And, is my wont, I downloaded as many M.I.A. songs as I could.

"Bamboo Banga" is perhaps my favorite of the M.I.A. canon. The opening track to her second album "Kala," "Bamboo Banga" is like this crazy house song mixed in with this neo-hip hop vibe. I could definitely imagine dancing to it at a house party, and based on a video I saw of M.I.A. performing it at a concert, the fans love it. She was decked out in this pre-Lady GaGa space armor outfit, shaking her British ass all around the stage while the audience went bananas. It was a pretty cool image - in theory, I could have been there, since it was taken at an impromptu concert she held in San Francisco a few months prior. I didn't go because I couldn't find anyone to go with me - it was at Popscene at 33 Ritch, and the only person I knew of at the time who would have gone with me was Zarah, but she was busy that night. Unbeknown to me, my friend Michael was there and told me all about it a few weeks later. Alas.

I've always wondered why she never released it as a single - I think it's more radio-friendly than "Boyz," which was the lead single, or the follow-up, "Jimmy." I saw a cool video on YouTube of Fanny Pak, this dance group I was into from America's Best Dance Crew, performing this awesome routine to it.

Later on that summer, Daniel and my dad were at a Giants game, and I went to pick them up. I had burned "Bamboo Banga" on a mix-CD and was blasting it from Casey when I stopped on Berry Street to pick them up. Because my dad has this thing where no one can drive if he's around, I got out and sat in the passenger seat while he drove, and once we were on our way, he heard the song and was like "What the hell is this?" I laughed at his incredulity and told him that it was a song I really liked. He told me to turn it off because it was hurting his head, and I proceeded to ask him and Daniel how the game was.