Lonely Planet: Six Degrees

Presenter Toby Amies braves the biggest New York snowstorms in a century to hook up with the Wau-Wau Sisters, New York’s colourful Vaudeville vixens, for a drive through Lower Manhattan. Toby meets fashion designer Zaldy Goco in the Chelsea Hotel and gets a backstage look at New York’s fashion scene when he’s cajoled into helping the catwalk models in and out of their clothes at the city’s glamourous Fall Fashion Week. Spray can maestro Nato initiates Toby into New York street culture with a graffiti safari of Queens, an impromptu recording session with the Scheisty Heights hip hop crew and some breakdancing with his B-boys. Toby gets an insight into how a New York artist engages the public when he meets Kenny Solomon who solicits New Yorkers to be photographed in a hideous Afro wig and asks members of the public to draw him. Toby checks out the memorials to September 11 victims and visit Kenny’s Williamsburg studio. Mischief-maker Brock Enright enlists Toby in his bizarre adventure business, which satisfies New Yorkers desire for new experiences by offering to kidnap them from their own homes. To understand why New Yorkers would pay for such a privilege, Toby joins Brock and his crew as they kidnap a client from his bed at 4 o’clock in the morning. Toby goes to Marjorie Eliot’s Harlem apartment to relish the goodwill and neighbourhood spirit of a parlour jazz concert.

Presenter Toby Amies meets Gaspard Delanoe, the charismatic leader of one of Paris’s most audacious artistic squats and witnesses exactly what contemporary struggling artists can achieve when they all work together to breathe life into a disused Paris bank. Inspired by Gaspard’s surreal bicycle, Toby decides to make a junk-art bike of his own. At Europe’s largest flea market Toby meets casting agent Speedy Yellow, who sources models for fashion shoots from ordinary people she meets on the street. Toby gets an insight into Paris trash-chic and a forgotten dance culture when Speedy decides Toby fits the bill for an upcoming fashion shoot in a traditional Parisian guingette ballroom. Society dandy Emmanuel de Brantes dissects Parisian social mores and teaches Toby the meaning of Paris chic and the serious art of fine dining, before a little gentleman’s grooming at the city’s finest barber and an invitation to a high society soiree at the Paris Film Festival. Toby visits the Friday night Pari Roller, where thousands of skaters take over the city’s streets, and has a memorable Buggy Rollin’ encounter with a strange man who negotiates the pavements of Paris like a human luge. Sound sculpture Jacques Rémus shows Toby there’s more to Parisian music than meets the eye when he makes music from washing machines and industrial cast-offs. Trendspotter Jöelle Dirringer gives Toby a backstage look at the Paris perfume industry when she takes him to the Givaudan perfume laboratory to meet the ‘noses’ who develop the world’s favourite toilet cleaners and exquisite new fragrances. Toby learns a new French art involving ice cubes, irons and chainsaws from Joelle’s boyfriend Michele Amann, the world ice-carving champion.

Presenter Toby Amies hooks up with Havana fixer Flacco who shows Toby how to Habaneros worship and relax by gaining entrée to a rehearsal for an Afro-Cuban Santeria rite and a seat in the bleachers at a rollicking Havana rodeo. Street photographer Leslie Sinclair shows Toby how to see Havana through Cuban eyes by inviting him to a cutting edge art show and taking Toby on a photographic assignment in the city’s cramped and sweaty camel buses. Surreal artist Damian Aquiles invites Toby to witness how Cubans celebrate the coming-of-age of their daughters by inviting him to his hometown to experience a Cuban quinze. Toby wangles his way into the studio of hip-hop producer Pablo Herrera to get an insight into why Cubans have had enough of the Buena Vista Social Club and are now fusing traditional Latin rhythms with American hip hop beats. Toby meets Free Hole Negro rapper Lester Martinez at a dusty backyard rehearsal and discovers that Cuban music is all rhythm and soul. Enjoying the Havana high life at a tobacco festival fashion show, Toby falls head over heels for catwalk model and soap opera star Yoandra Suarez. Toby goes to a showcase concert of Havana’s hip-hop finest to witness the new Cuban sound, and has a disastrous encounter with Yoandra on the set of her latest film.

Presenter Asha Gill’s feet hardly touch the ground in Buenos Aires, before she’s literally swept off them by tango artist Guillermo Alio. First he teaches her how to tango, then he invites her to become his “brush”, as they dip their feet in oil paints and dance on canvas, creating abstract tango art. Asha hits the streets with Argentinean romeo Romulo Tirri visiting the famous Recoleta Cemetery—the resting place of Evita—and the feria de matadores night market showcasing Argentinian folk arts and acrobatic gaucho horseman. Asha meets synthetic artist Nicola Constantino sketching Recoleta’s tombstones and is bowled over by her surreal handbag decorated with human anuses! Nicola takes Asha to her studio and uses a mold of her navel to decorate a purse, and invites Asha to a contemporary Argentinian artist’s dinner where the sculptural “chain of quail” and the “vegetarian pig” are a big hit with the guests. Asha goes to an aero dancing class, where bungy harnesses allow her to fly halfway up the walls. Urban dancer Martin Sabater introduces Asha to Andy Peralta, who initiates her into Palermo’s traditional Murga street dancing troupe. Asha witnesses the Argentinian soul laid bare at the weekly march of the ‘mothers of the disappeared’, who wear the names of their dead sons on scarves around their heads. Asha hooks up with local TV star Fierita for a night of pubbing and clubbing, and witnesses a minor miracle at a football match when Fierita’s beloved but struggling Banfield team beat the Argentine champions. Asha celebrates by dancing on stage to Argentine punk band Los Espulsados who still think The Ramones are relevant and ends her BA adventure by dressing up in full costume and dancing the Murga through the streets of Palermo.

Determined to fulfill her dream of being in a Bollywood movie, presenter Asha Gill gets the lowdown on Bollywood’s raunchy moves from acclaimed choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant. Studio heir Riyad Wadia gives Asha the dummies guide to all things Bollywood at one of the last remaining hand-painted movie poster workshops in the city, and dazzles her with the bright lights of the city’s club-hopping scene. Asha meets street photographer David de Souza chronicling the itinerants that work on Mumbai’s streets and grasps the chance to understand who these people are before they disappear by helping in a studio shoot of a traditional flagellant. Man about town Thomas Cherian shows Asha a back room collection of ancient Indian erotica in Chor Bazaar and teaches her how to best savour the flavour of Mumbai food, street-style. Asha is invited to a hijira house by the flamboyant cross-dressing eunuch Lakshmi to get a privileged insight into India’s ‘third sex’, and gets access to a Hindu wedding when she joins a flock of hijiras dancing to bless the happy couple’s union. Asha gets an inkling of Mumbai’s place in the global economy when she joins Afshan at an international call centre, where the workers are undergoing surreal voice training to mimic American accents. And finally Asha gets her big break, joining Vaibhavi on set at Film City to dance in a dramatic Bollywood number with the biggest star in Indian cinema history – Amitabh Bachchan.

Charismatic musician and sound engineer Reshmonu takes presenter Asha Gill on a sonic tour of Kuala Lumpur to capture the city’s ambient sounds and turn them into song. The bilal’s call, the national anthem, Tamil rappers and a monsoon thunderstorm are just the start, and when a nervous Asha adds her own vocal harmonies to the mix, Resh creates a KL urban soundtrack as a memento of her visit. Rock climber Yuen Li gets Asha to face her fear of heights on the vertical limestone cliffs of KL’s Batu Caves and calms her down in a hotspring in a monsoonal downpour. Night creature and comedienne Joanne Kam Poh Poh gives Asha the lowdown on the city after dark, from ancient Aboriginal music to rocking Bangsar clubs. Wedding planner Stephen Foong prepares Asha for an old friend’s Malay wedding and invites her to a tea ceremony, to see how couples tie the knot Chinese-style. Asha gets a taste of the high life at Alyssa’s country estate, learns the ABC of polo and is serenaded goodbye with exquisite acapella harmonies. Alyssa’s friend Ida cajoles Asha into appearing in her sitcom All About Love. Asha gets a behind the scenes look at Malaysian television when she plays jilted Venezuela beauty queen Esperanza de la Cruz. KL’s number one spookster Francis Nantha, reveals the city’s spiritual side with a few well chosen ghost stories in a Chinese cemetery at midnight.