Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

On my way to my friend’s Kickstarter fundraising campaign yesterday, I passed by the East Village Radio (EVR) station which is a small storefront studio on 1st Ave and 1st Street.
I said good-bye to this great local Internet radio station and to the DJ inside the studio who was playing electronic music.
It’s really a shame that this radio station had to close down due to financial difficulties, such as rising rents, equipment costs and the licensing fees for broadcasting music.

The station broadcasted music 24/7. Playing mainly eclectic-indie music, from indie rock to punk to post punk, club music, hip-hop. A growing listenership here in NY and also abroad and guests Like Lou Reed , Drake. Jimmy Cliff couldn’t stop the closing. Again: what a shame!

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

New York…New York…NYC…a killer city! Six years in this city and I still don’t have one friend. But it doesn’t mean that I’m a loner. No, I still have my sax, my music, SoSala,
my a few fans, DooBeeDooBeeDoo, my music colleagues and my dear wife around me. The homeless in my neighborhood make me aware that I’m a lucky one.
The great thing about this city though is that it allows people like me to challenge it…to reinvent or renovate it. Give her a new face. All this said maybe NY is my real friend?!

Oops…so I have a friend. If I go a little deeper in my observation my other friends are NY’s underdogs.

As the ex-samurai, I still need to fight for good causes which I can find in every corner of New York. If I come with a well thought plan, my chances look good to gather supporters around me easily. In fact the jazz legend Ornette (Coleman) made me aware that I’m a freedom man. He told me nobody can discriminate me! And nobody can tell me that I’m no New Yorker, even with my accent. (However all New Yorker have their own strong accents. You can’t hear any standard English. It’s impossible to learn correct English!)

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