Poker, Anyone?

It should be easy to drag philosophy into almost anything under the sun. In the short story "The Portrait of a Gentleman", which has an extraordinary narrative style, W. Somerset Maugham discusses Poker as a "gentleman’s game”. Profound statements are delivered as if being quoted from a book on Poker (Complete Poker Player) the protagonist picked up from a used book store in Korea.
Some "excerpts" given in the story:

“Lost money is never recovered. After losing you may win, but losing does not bring the winning.”
“..that habit of mind which continually leads us to undervalue the mental force of other men, while we continually overvalue their good luck”
“A gentleman is always willing to pay a fair price for recreation and entertainment”

This story reminded me of one my favorite songs by Sting- Shape of my heart from the album Ten Summoner's tales, which goes like this:

He deals the cards as a meditation
And those he plays never suspect
He doesn't play for the money he wins
He doesn't play for respect
He deals the cards to find the answer
The sacred geometry of chance
The hidden law of probable outcome
The numbers lead a dance

The Portrait of a Gentleman is from the short story collections of Somerset Maugham: Rain and other stories. The opening piece Rain is another terrific story about a Christian missionary, which has also been made into a movie.

Springsteen's magic

2007 saw three of my favourite rock veterans release studio albums - Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young. I havent heard Young's Chrome Dreams II yet, but Knopfler's Kill to get crimson surely shows signs of aging. Seems like Knopfler is making music much for himself than his fans. Most of the tracks on Crimson are mellow and folksy, something we didnt see in Sailing to Philadelphia or Shangrila.

Here, Springsteen's Magic comes in as a whiff of fresh air. The Boss rides through his familiar territory on his powerful and loyal E-Street horses.

"I want a thousand guitars
I want pounding drums..."

Sings Springsteen on the opening track Radio Nowhere [free download link], which pretty much sets the tone for the album. The E-Street guitars roars, drums crashboombang and the keyboards pull out loud riffs, making E-Street band one of the loudest, high-energy, lovable bands of all time. I havent heard all of Springsteen studio albums completely, but I have a feeling that Magic is one Springsteen album where lead guitars are so prominent. I even wondered whether Last to die would break out into a Led-Zeppelinish guitar solo in between!

My favourite tracks on Magic, as of now, are Gypsy Biker, Magic, Last to die.

Sign O' the Times

While record companies and musicians are doing their best to fight piracy, Prince is giving away his latest album "Planet Earth" for free with the Sunday edition of the newspaper The Mail in Britain.

Interesting thing to note in this NYT article is that though his career is three decades old, Prince is not yet a nostalgic act (Like Neil Young or Paul Simon today). His music is still the sound of the new generation.

Other musicians may think that their best chance at a livelihood is locking away their music — impossible as that is in the digital era — and demanding that fans buy everything they want to hear. But Prince is confident that his listeners will support him, if not through CD sales then at shows or through other deals.

Talk about DRM!

Jesus loves you, but Bono is his favourite

Couldnt help but chuckle, when I read that the Canadian PM rejected Bono's invitation to meet him to discuss aid for Africa at the G8 summit in Germany recently, saying that he likes Bono but meeting celebrities isn’t his thing. :)

Now, check out this hilarious post on the Guardian Culture Vulture blog:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2006/04/06/god_loves_u2.html
I recommend that you read the comments of the above post, the sweetest things (not all of them) I have read in a long, long time!

PS: From Wikipedia- Bono, with other 3 guys, has made some remarkable rock records.

Desirable Gadget

Tivoli Audio will be launching their NetWorksGo internet radio, late 2007. It can be connected to a broadband or wireless Internet. I dont have to boot my computer and open the browser to listen to my favourite BBC Radio 2. Just turn on the radio and switch to presets.

So, how many stations can I listen to? "..literally thousands of free radio stations around the world."

How do I add a station (tune into a newstation)?

A user needs only to send an email to Tivoli requesting a new station and if approved it will be added to the list. The radio owner then can update the radio’s firmware with a manual button press which will update the list with any newly-added stations. (via Critical Distance Weblog)

Getting this would make my Worldspace reciever redundant, though.

The joy of re-reading a classic

Re-reading Gerald Durrell's My family and another animals was the best thing I did in the last two rain-soaked, lazy days. The book moves forward slowly, with Durrell's spectacular prose detailing the looks and behaviour of insects, reptlies, mammals with wit and humor.

The sky-blue cover with illustrations of an owl, frog, scorpion, dog, lizard, pelican and tortoise was good enough for me to pick up the 50th anniversary edition of this book, last sunday.

Watchin' a game, havin' a Bud...

The big Lebowski: It's funny. I can look back on a life of achievement, on challenges met, competitors bested, obstacles overcome. I've accomplished more than most men, and without the use of my legs. What. . . what makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?
Dude: I don't know, sir.
The big Lebowski: Is it. . . is it, being prepared to do the right thing? Whatever the price? Isn't that what makes a man?
Dude: Sure. That and watchin' a game on TV, havin' a Kingfisher.
The big Lebowski: (after a pause) True.. True..

The sporting season is here, block your calendars and stock up your refrigerators:
Wimbledon: 25th - 8th July
Le Tour de France - Jul 7th to 29th
US Open 28th - 9th September

Just one thing, Dude. D'ya have to use so many cuss words?

How do people, like, not curse? How is it possible? There are all these gaps in speech where you just have to put a 'fuck'. I tell you who the most admirable people in the world are: newscasters. If that was me, I'd be like, 'And the motherfuckers flew the fucking plane right into the Twin Towers'. How could you not, if you are a human being?

(From Nick Hornby's A Long way down)

French Lessons

Alcohol with breakfast is dangerously pleasant. My first experience of it had been some years before as a guest of the Mayor of Bouzy, a village in the Champagne region. There had been two different wines to accompany the food, and politeness obliged me to sample them both. They were cool and invigorating, slipping down easily despite the earliness of the hour, and I was in a happy haze by 9:00am. Lunch-and more wine, naturally- had been served just in time to prevent a return to sobriety, and I ended the day in disgrace after falling asleep at dinner. Since then, I’ve done my best to stick to coffee in the morning.

An extract from Peter Mayle's evocative food writing French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew.

I just realized that food writings can be equallly fulfilling as a full course meal. Its interesting to note that food writers (I hate to call them critics) rave about certian things, like truffle, in the same breath a music critic raves about Astral Weeks.

Peter Mayle is also author of A good year.