1996: A Year of Firsts
Although my writing on this site mostly covers the digital releases I’ve been doing since 2022, technically my releases go back to 1996 when I completed and released my first instrumental composition: a classical guitar piece that was at first untitled, then went through various names, and then finally ended up being titled “January 1996 in the Botanical Gardens of Oxford.” I wanted the piece to be a living document that contains the memory of my trip to Oxford University in England. In the 1990s, I released it in the sense that I had cassette tapes of it made (given as free gifts at the time rather than selling them) and I performed it publicly — the old-fashioned analog ways of doing things before the new millennium brought us this lovely little Matrix we all inhabit together now.
Its composition was at least partially shaped and inspired by…
I Propose New Terms for the USA-China Rivalry: The Silk Curtain and the Silk War
Against a backdrop of studying WWII and the years surrounding it (including some Cold War items), I’ve been following the current 2020s USA-China relationship closely. I’ve been dissatisfied with the current language available to capture this very strange relationship.
This sparked a thought experiment: what would Churchill call the relationship? The US-Sino relationship in 2026 bears striking similarities to the first Cold War in some ways, yes, but it is fundamentally different. He would have noted that immediately. He would’ve reached for something concrete that captured the striking fundamental paradox that makes this situation unique in history: China and the USA are simultaneously each other's largest trading partners and each other's primary strategic threat.
In that same spirit — and as a humble nod to Churchill’s gift and eye for powerful language — I propose the following terms: the Silk Curtain and the Silk War.
These terms work from top to bottom in ways that would have attracted Churchill’s mind, I suspect. Let me explain why.
It’s a Sitar, Not Just a Lute: Thoughts on the History of the Sitar, The Lute, and A Song Called ‘Psalm 63’ From the Y2K Era
In this article, I recollect my collaboration with sitarist Sunitha Chandy in college (UC Santa Barbara) during the Y2K era for the recording of the song "Psalm 63," which has been remixed, remastered, and released 24+ years later today -- October 14th, 2025 -- on all music streaming platforms and YouTube. This article also looks into the history of the sitar and the lute family as well as India's Mughal Era.
Catching Up On What I’ve Been Up To: Fall 2024 Releases, a Year-Long Hiatus, And Now The Release of Very Old Songs From the Vault for Fall 2025
This article catches the reader up on what I’ve been doing musically and provides a brief summary of my musical projects from fall 2024 to the present and also explains my year-long hiatus from any new writing or recording.
