Latest news with #Bay146
The Hindu
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Intimate live music with an impressive indie line up, now at The Nook in Chennai
Anyone who enjoys listening to live English music in Chennai has had the same old nagging complaint for years. A 2012 article in The Rolling Stones of retired electro-rock band Adam & The Fish Eyed Poets says, 'The thing is there is only one venue in Chennai [Star Rock]. It's very hard for standalone pubs to function here, so the music scene is quite dead.' Musicians have tried tirelessly to foster a 'new band performing at the local pub' culture but have only had a handful of venues like Palomar's Spotted Deer and Savera's Bay 146, that have opened their doors to performers. Let's not even begin speaking of the acoustics. An interesting phenomenon has however emerged to fill the gap recently. Aficionados running cafes and owning private alcoves have begun metamorphosing their spaces to become patrons of the arts. The Alwarpet cafe Vinyl and Brew and the travelling Sofar gigs have become alternate spaces to enjoy listening to new bands and a variety of interesting music. More importantly, both these spaces seem to be demanding undivided attention and participation from an invested audience. This has led to shows being wildly entertaining. One can also see musicians performing in their element, nearly communicating with their instruments. The latest to join this list of intimate music spaces delivering certifiably great performances is The Nook. Located above Kawai Piano on Anna Salai, this new venue, fashioned out of an old office space, was started by four musicians in June. Azan Sherif, Vishnu Reddy, Kashyap Jaishankar and Sahib Singh, met as students of Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in Pondicherry in 2013. After having played with different bands for many years and discovering their own niches, the team of four decided that it was time to create a space of their own to listen to other exciting artistes. The first official gig of The Nook on July 16 sold out days after they posted the announcement. Their Neo-Soul Night with their in-house band 'Room Service' encompassing the four musicians, and other performers including Ananya Gope, Rahul Vanamali, Pranav RV, Wesley Crispus and Gooth, delivered smooth and unusual covers of today's most interesting artistes. The set list included a jazz version of the pumpy Return of the Mack by British R&B singer Mark Morrison. Besides this, there were covers of phenomena like Erykah Badu and Childish Gambino. It is safe to say that the 50-member audience did not stop grooving. Think NPR's Tiny Desk Concert but slightly bigger. 'Chennai lacks a space made by musicians for musicians. We have played the usual circuit including the bars. The other spectrum is Museum Theatre. Independent musicians may not have the ability to rent and fill up a 1,000-seater hall. That's when spaces like The Nook come in. We have no PA systems or mixers. You really get to see what a musician is doing,' says Sahib, co-founder of The Nook and band leader of Jatayu. Sahib says that something magical arises when a musician is truly comfortable in a performance space. Here, one can touch, feel and visualise the sound. It is why they are planning to open the space up for several interesting performances every month. Their next concert, scheduled to be on August 17, will be by the Tamil Jazz Collective. Led by vocalist and composer Harini Iyer, the performance will be a retelling of Tamil music set to jazz notes. 'All of us from the band listen to different kinds of music — jazz, rhythm and blues, neo-soul, hiphop. We are looking to discuss any experimental music and seeing how the space can fit the vibe. We also want to open the space up for events and to record our own music-related content,' Sahib says. To follow details of performances at The Nook, follow @the_nook_chennai.
Time of India
04-08-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Can Chennai's New Butt Recycling Initiative Actually Reduce Cigarette Pollution?
The cigarette butt is igniting a recycling revolution Soon, quite a few restobars in the city are set to have strategically placed butt receptacles. Before you let your imagination run wild, we're talking about recycle bins exclusively for collecting cigarette stubs. Barracuda Brew has gotten started, and others like Bay 146 at Savera Hotel and Social at Express Avenue Mall will follow suit, says Ann Anra of Wasted 360 Solutions, which is running a 'Butt It Out' campaign across the city. 'We set it up during the lockdown. Around 70% of our clientele consists of smokers, and we found that we collect more than 1,000 butts a day. We can't stop people from smoking but at least we can ensure the butts don't reach the landfill,' says Prithvi Christy, managing partner of Barracuda Brew. You Can Also Check: Chennai AQI | Weather in Chennai | Bank Holidays in Chennai | Public Holidays in Chennai So, what can you do with so many butts? Well, with 4,000 of them, you can make a teddy bear. Which is precisely what Naman Gupta's company Code Effort has been doing for the last few years. Or planters, perhaps? Or bricks? In Delhi, Project Leher from Enactus SRCC, co-founded by Hardik Aggarwal, has been detoxifying butts with gamma radiation and recycling them into terracotta artefacts as well as researching how they can be mixed into cement. Even as the cigarette butt is igniting quite the recycling revolution, these intrepid stub-collectors say it's a long road ahead to rid the planet of what is the most common form of plastic pollution — every year, globally, more than 4.5 trillion butts are flicked into the environment. In its research paper published in 2020, the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research mentions that degradation studies carried out on cigarette butts have shown only 37.8% degradation in two years in soil under ambient conditions, which means they will persist in the soil for a longer duration. 'The butt contains a fibre made of cellulose acetate, which is a plastic that takes more than 10 years to decompose,' says Gupta, whose company has been collecting, treating and recycling the fibre into beanbags, pillows, mattresses, chair-pads, and key chains for the last three years, while turning the butt's brown and white covering into recycled paper and mosquito repellents. 'Millennials and even corporates want to buy products that have a positive impact on the environment. ' Every month, his company collects 40 tonnes of cigarette butts sent from collectors — individuals and NGOs — across the country, and pays between ₹500 per kg and ₹800 per kg. In Chennai, Wasted 360 has been urging people to either drop or deliver butts off at its office in T Nagar for the last few years. 'We're collecting enough butts to make mattress stuffing to donate to shelter homes in the city. We have about 3,000 people recycling with us, some of whom send us butts in curd and milk packets,' says Ann. Interior designer Laya Krishnaraj is among Wasted's stubrecyclers. 'I keep a tin at home for friends to stub their butts,' she says. But for her, the stub collection has had another positive effect. 'I got disgusted with the number of butts I would see in the tin. Now, I've almost completely quit smoking. The tin is reserved for friends who smoke, but even they've cut down after seeing how quickly the tin fills up.' But environmental activist Nirit Datta says that in India, there are only a handful of cigarette butt recyclers, and work with less than 1% of the stubs being dumped. 'The most important solution is creating awareness about smoking and among smokers to dispose butts properly. We need specialised cigarette bins at hotspots to ensure segregation at source,' says Datta, who organises collection marathons called ButtRush across cities. Butt stats A cigarette butt takes 10-12 years to decompose Butts are made of: Over 7,000 toxic chemicals. Its major constituent cellulose acetate, along with the paper and rayon, pollute. Butt recycling: The ash in the waste is used to make grey bricks; The paper coating is treated with a bacterial and fungal composition and turned into compost; The cellulose acetate filter is treated and used to stuff beanbags, soft toys, etc; The paper is used to make recycled paper and mosquito repellents How you can collect butts: In Delhi, Noida, and Gurgaon, Code Effort sells butt receptacles called VBins or Value Bins as well as places them in strategic locations across the city. They offer an annual butt collection subscription service; In Chennai, you can drop the butts off or have them delivered to the Wasted 360 office in T Nagar. Artist Neeraj Mitra got into making art from cigarette butts a year ago and has so far designed sculptures as well as public art installations using them. His latest is the table artefact that is made to look like a cigarette, but handpainted with messages and artwork. 'I'm hoping the cigarette sculpture serves to remind people to quit smoking,' says Mitra, who is also organising an art camp themed on creating work using stubs. Mumbai-based designer Sachi Tungare dissolved cigarette butts in acetone and then cast them into desk organisers, penholders, vases, and lampshades. Each artefact was made using around 300 cigarette stubs.
