The Kora

One of the most melodious string instruments I've ever heard - the Kora, a 21-string harp-lute used extensively in West Africa. Kora players have traditionally come from griot families (also from the Mandinka nationalities) who are traditional historians, genealogists and storytellers who pass their skills on to their descendants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kora_(instrument)

Hear the Kora live at a recent concert of Shoonya, where French-speaking African students in the city performed along with Djembe Ashok's band - fantastic!

A beautiful 8-minute video where Toumani Diabate presents the kora, demonstrates various styles and how the instrument is made, and plays pieces from his latest album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrEPm04v9Mk&feature=related

Elyne Road, a favorite piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SVAPvnR0og&feature=related

October

Blue skies,
And dragonflies,
October.



* Photo from Google Images

Wake Up!

The nice thing about sharing music is that you sometimes get great music in return - listen to another wake-up song!

The Drums - Let's go Surfing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dBv4i0dXUc&feature=channel

Installing an Operating System :) :) :) :)

Another Dave Barry classic!

"So there are many different operating systems available, each with different capabilities, advantages, and drawbacks. Which one is right for your specific needs? The answer is: Whichever one is already on your computer. Believe me, you do not want to try to install a better operating system yourself. I have done this several times, and it is terrifying. Your computer is taken over by an Evil Demon Installation Program, very much the way young Linda Blair was taken over in the movie The Exorcist. First your screen goes blank, and then suddenly your computer starts asking you a series of questions that you could never answer in a million years, like:

"The Installation Program has determined that a conflict exists between your IRQ Port Parameter Module and your Cache Initialization Valve. Shall the Installation Program reallocate the Motherboard Transfer Polarity Replication Allotment, or shall it adjust the Disk Controller Impedance Threshold? Bear in mind that if you answer this question incorrectly, all of your data will be lost and innocent people could die."

And:

"Before it will proceed any further with the installation, the Installation Program wishes you to name the capital of Cameroon."

And:

"How many men are in your unit? What is your objective? What is your radio frequency? What is the password? ANSWER! THE INSTALLATION PROGRAM HAS WAYS TO MAKE YOU TALK!"

This can go on for many hours, and at any moment your computer may start laughing in a diabolical manner and spinning its monitor around 360 degrees and projectile-vomiting green stuff."

I remember a couple of years ago when my son, Rob, in an act of great bravery, attempted to install the "OS/2" operating system, which came in the form of about 8000 diskettes accompanied by a manual the size of a Toyota Camry. The computer was working fine when Rob started; after several hours of installation, it was a totally dysfunctional, muttering, potentially violent thing, and we had to take it outside and shoot it."

Page 82-83, 'In Cyberspace' by Dave Barry

Spoken Word Poem: The Information Man

Buddy Wakefield performs a spoken word poem, The Information Man. (Received this from a friend)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qv1VImmcYA

"Spoken word is used as a musical or entertainment term, referring to works or performances that consist solely or mostly of one person speaking as if naturally.

Musically, this is distinct from rapping, as rapping incorporates rhythm and sometimes melody, whereas spoken word is more akin to narration or speaking as the person would in conversation, as shown in the song "Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)" by Baz Lurhmann.

In entertainment, spoken word performances generally consist of storytelling or sometimes poetry, something exemplified by people like Hedwig Gorski, the originator of performance poetry, Mark "Chopper" Read and Henry Rollins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoken_word

Start wearing Purple!

I didn't really wake up even after a brisk morning walk, have been very tired - but this woke me up!! If you need some energy, here it is -


Start wearing Purple!
by Gogol Bordello, Eugene Hütz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_81l4DXlwM


"Eugene Hütz is a Ukrainian-born singer and composer, most notable as the frontman of the critically-acclaimed New York Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello. Hütz is also a DJ and actor."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_H%C3%BCtz

Perfume

"I stepped into the bookshop and breathed in that perfume of paper and magic that strangely no one had ever thought of bottling."

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Angel's Game)

Four fresh new French books. A gift from afar.

No feeling is final

From a Lonely Planet guide on Laos, left by some other backpacker, one rainy afternoon in Luang Prabang:

"...The Theravada doctrine (of Buddishm) stresses the three principle aspects of existence: dukha (suffering, unsatisfactoriness, disease) anicca (impermanence, transcience of all things) and anatta (non-substantiality or non-essentiality of reality - no permanent 'soul').

Comprehension of anicca reveals that no experience, no state of mind, no physical object lasts. Trying to hold onto experience, states of mind, and objects that are constantly changing, creates dukkha.

Anatta is the understanding that there is no part of the changing world we can point to and say "This is me" or "This is God" or "This is the soul".

(Photo by a friend)

Shankar

Yesterday, 'Shankar', Anant Nag's book on his late younger brother, the very versatile Shankar Nag, was released, in Kannada. This particular extract was translated by Deepa Ganesh and published in The Hindu Friday Review today. What a man, and how tragic, his untimely death. For those who are not familiar with him, he was the director of 'Malgudi Days'. An extract from the article:


"Take it as it comes was Shankar's motto. It always seemed like he was telling life, "Whatever you say...". Shankar's ways were not that of a great disciplinarian. Shankar never rigidly insisted that things had to be done in a particular fashion. Scarcity never disturbed him, neither did he gloat over abundance. Poverty made me feel inferior and diffident, but it was not so with Shankar. When we lived in Mumbai, I would never invite anyone home, but Shankar would bring everyone in and have great fun. As days went by, I felt less embarrassed by our modest circumstances.

During the movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan and also the Emergency days, our little house used to be teeming with people. All that we did in those days was to distribute relief to those who were in jail, or to their families, make pamphlets and secretly reach it to people, collect money and distribute it. "


http://www.shankarnag.in/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankar_Nag

Strugatsky: Reason

Excerpt from 'Roadside Picnic' by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the book on which Andrei Tarkovsky's haunting film 'The Stalker' is loosely based on.

Tarkovsky really takes the story to another plane altogether. He builds in layers of philosophical meaning on a story about an extraterrestrial visitation. I got the book from here - http://www.flipkart.com/.

............................................................................

"...All right, I'll tell you. But I must warn you that your question, Richard, comes under the heading of xenology. Xenology: an unnatural mix of science fiction and formal logic. It's based on the false premise that human psychology is applicable to extraterrestrial intelligent beings."

"Why is that false?" Noonan asked.

"Because biologists have already been burned trying to use human psychology on animals. Earth animals, at that."

Forgive me, but that's an entirely different matter. We're talking about the psychology of rational beings."

"Yes. And everything would be fine if we only knew what reason was."

"Don't we know?" Noonan was surprised.

"Believe it or not, we don't. Usually a trivial definition is used: reason is that part of man's activity that distinguishes him from the animals. You know, an attempt to distinguish the owner from the dog who understands everything but just can't speak."

"....Or how about this hypothetical definition. Reason is a complex type of instinct that has not yet been formed completely. This implies that instinctual behaviour is always purposeful and natural. A million years from now our instinct will have matured and we will stop making the mistakes that are probably integral to reason.

And then, if something should change in the universe, we will all become extinct - precisely because we will have forgotten how to make mistakes, that is, to try various approaches not stipulated by an inflexible program of permitted alternatives."

Page 100.

Pliancy and the Freshness of Being

"…And most importantly let them believe in themselves

Let them be helpless like children.
Because weakness is a great thing
And strength is nothing.
When a man is just born,
He is weak and flexible
When he dies, he is hard and insensitive.
When a tree is growing,
It is tender and pliant
But when it is dry and hard, it dies.

Hardness and strength are death's companions.
Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being
Because what has hardened will never win…"

The Stalker's prayer at the well, before he takes the two men into the Zone.

from the film 'The Stalker'
Andrei Tarkovsky

Poets of the Fall

Poets of the Fall (POTF) are an independent rock band from Helsinki, Finland that was formed by Marko Saaresto (lead vocals, songwriter), Olli Tukiainen (lead guitar) and Markus "Captain" Kaarlonen (keyboards, production) in 2003. On tour they're being supported by Jani Snellman (bass guitar), Jaska Mäkinen (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) and Jari Salminen (drums, percussion).

The band's fourth album, named Twilight Theater, was released on 17 March 2010. The first single from the album, Dreaming Wide Awake, was released in Finland on February 3.

Late Goodbye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atKv1JyQgV8&feature=related

Carnival of Rust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRVrQsdWDds&feature=related

Lift

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB1QkirsCpA

Pine Forest

This reminded me so much of that Russian film set in Siberia, I cannot remember the name, but the forest was so alive, so dense, and watching you quietly.......

Pine Forest
by Gabriela Mistral

Let us go now into the forest.
Trees will pass by your face,
and I will stop and offer you to them,
but they cannot bend down.

The night watches over its creatures,
except for the pine trees that never change:
the old wounded springs that spring
blessed gum, eternal afternoons.

If they could, the trees would lift you
and carry you from valley to valley,
and you would pass from arm to arm,
a child running
from father to father.

I remember you as you were

I remember you as you were in the last autumn.
You were the grey beret and the still heart.
In your eyes the flames of the twilight fought on.
And the leaves fell in the water of your soul.

Clasping my arms like a climbing plant
the leaves garnered your voice, that was slow and at peace.
Bonfire of awe in which my thirst was burning.
Sweet blue hyacinth twisted over my soul.

I feel your eyes traveling, and the autumn is far off:
Grey beret, voice of a bird, heart like a house
Towards which my deep longings migrated
And my kisses fell, happy as embers.

Sky from a ship. Field from the hills:
Your memory is made of light, of smoke, of a still pond!
Beyond your eyes, farther on, the evenings were blazing.
Dry autumn leaves revolved in your soul.

Pablo Neruda

Taken from here - http://rukhiya.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-remember-you-as-you-were.html

Just look at September, look at October!

"...From the Buddhist point of view, reality itself has no meaning since it is not a sign, pointing to something beyond itself. To arrive at reality - at "suchness" - is to go beyond karma, beyond consequential action, and to enter a life which is completely aimless. 

Yet to Zen and Taoism alike, this is the very life of the universe, which is complete at every moment and does not need to justify itself by aiming at something beyond.

In the words of a Zenrin poem: 

"If you don't believe, just look at September, look at October! 

The yellow leaves falling, falling, to fill both mountain and river!" 

To see this is to be like the two friends of whom another Zenrin poem says: "Meeting, they laugh and laugh- The forest grove, the many fallen leaves!" 

To the Taoist mentality, the aimless empty life does not suggest anything depressing. On the contrary, it suggests the freedom of clouds and mountain streams, wandering nowhere, of flowers in impenetrable canyons, beautiful for no one to see, and of the ocean surf forever washing the sand, to no end."

Page 146, 'The Way of Zen', by Alan Watts