The past few days have been rather damp and dreary, making me
ravenous for rich, saturated color – electric, fluorescent hues that make
my brain tingle. I’m getting pretty bored with the staple neutral palette
that seems to be the fashion uniform these days, though don’t get me
wrong – I love me some black, grey, taupe and ballerina pink – but come on!
Where are my neon silks? I crave sequins of every shade, and heaps of
insane prints that don’t exist (yet). I need to hook up with a textile designer, pronto!
My solution for the dun doldrums is to stare at hundreds of photographs
from Holi celebrations in India, and the Phagwah parades in New York.
Years ago, my friend Dougie Seel gave me a bunch of bags of gulal,
the colored powder that gets tossed joyously all over everybody.
I didn’t know what it was for at the time, so I made a sand mandala design
with it on the sidewalk outside of Z’otz (R.I.P.) Man, do I regret not throwing
it around with wild abandon now! Though, a lot of the gulal is apparently
quite toxic. Still, one day I’d love to be in India for Holi – guzzling bhang
and becoming a sodden rainbow monster for a day. Wouldn’t you?
Here’s some of my favorite recent Holi images, from The Big Picture
and Saturnic’s amazing photoblog. Holi Hai!

(Photograph by K. K. Arora)
People wade through a cloud of colored powder while celebrating the Hindu festival
of Holi at Nand Gaon in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

(Photograph by Jayanta Shaw)
A girl with a colored face reacts as she is drenched during Holi celebrations in Kolkata.

(Photograph by Utpal Baruah)
Men smeared with facepaint and colored powder pose for a picture
during Holi in the northeastern Indian city of Guwahati.
(I love the man in the middle’s gaze. His face is straight from an ancient tapestry.)

(Photograph by Babu)
Girls smeared with colored powder are splashed with colored water
as they celebrate Holi in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

(Photograph by K. K. Arora)
Artists dressed as Hindu Lord Krishna (left) and his consort Radha are showered
with rose petals during Holi celebrations in the northern Indian city of Mathura.
(Isn’t this the best? Lord Krishna’s bored to tears, and Radha’s totally annoyed
by the proliferation of petals. Hilarious! I want to be showered in rose petals!)

(Photograph by Krishnendu Halder)
A child rests inside tomato pulp as part of the celebration of Holi in Hyderabad.
(I also now want to take a tomato pulp bath now, because this kid looks so blissed out!)


Found on Boing Boing: Springtime in Bollywood (Holi He!)
More:
✷ A gray day for Phagwah in NYC – really wonderful, go see!
✷ Even Gala Darling got splashed with color!
✷ Dogseat’s New York Phagwah set on Flickr
✷ I suggest you play this song, and dance around right now! – Festival of Colors – The Creatures