Reaching Fahrenheit 451

A month back, I borrowed the latest book by Anita Nair, Goodnight and God Bless, from a local library. Earlier, I had read her columns in The Sunday Express and I own a copy of her last work of fiction (Mistress), which I liked. I glanced through this small book, priced at Rs. 399, before borrowing it, and realized that the material is nothing superior to the free stuff that I get from the blogosphere. To make matters worse, on reading the book I realized that most of the pieces were from her earlier Sunday Express columns which I had already read! Strange that this was not mentioned in the preface, blurbs or in any publicity material; but only at the end of the book as fine print! I was glad that I didn’t buy the book for 399 bucks, but spent just Rs. 40 (10%) as lending fee.

Most of the Indian Writing in English published here is overpriced, except for certain authors like Chetan Bhagat. I haven’t read Bhagat yet, but despite being a best seller, his books are nominally priced (The 3 mistakes of my life at Rs. 95). I like him for that.

The latest entrant to the overpriced Indian Writing in English scene is Nandan Nilekani, with his ideas for the new century: Imagining India, priced at Rs. 699! I am not commenting on the quality of the book, of which I have just read an excerpt, and I don’t expect the book to be mediocre- from whatever I know (and have read) of the author as a businessman and a person. I feel that it is overpriced, even though it is a thick book. As rightly commented by a reader on Nandan’s blog: “..when you price a book such that it’s inaccessible to many, you are not letting the ideas reach the people”. Mr. Nilekani, apparently, has bagged the fattest advance for a nonfiction work in India. With India eagerly awaiting the release (on Nov 24th) this one would easily become the all-time nonfiction best seller in India. Moreover, it is quite obvious that Thomas Friedman would be showcasing this book to a wider global audience who might not be really interested in India or Nilekani.

Indian is a country where Public libraries haven’t evolved as in the West. Reading a new book still means paying a 10% of the book price at a privately run library (if at all they get a copy of the book you want to read) or actually buying the book (assuming you don’t buy the pirated copies of limited collection of best sellers available).

Ironically, in the last edition of The Sunday Times of India (Nov 16), which carried an excerpt from Nilekani’s Rs. 699 book, the opinion page carried the column by Gurucharan Das about reading and the state of libraries in India:

Just as a great city must have a big public park along with lots of small neighbourhood parks, so it must have one big public library and many neighbourhood libraries. Ideally, public libraries should be free, paid by taxes, and managed by the municipality. But this is a distant dream in India where the state has failed to deliver even more basic services like schools and hospitals.

Between 1900 and 1917, [Andrew] Carnegie founded 3,000 neighbourhood public libraries [In the United States], insisting that the local municipality had to guarantee tax support for running and maintaining them.

Perhaps, one day we, too, will spawn our Carnegie.

Till that day, I wish, at least the financially sound Indian writers don’t overprice their books by demanding unjustifiable advances from the publishers.

Guy Montag, you there?

Making Music

Donald and Walter of Steely Dan might have been the coolest, laid back guys of rock 'n roll in the 70's. From '74 they decided to work from home; they gave up live shows and worked entirely from the studios, churning out platinum albums. I got initiated by a Dan Head at a local pub and bought a best of CD, couple of years back, but never really got into it. Recently, I got hooked to the album Aja and I just can’t stop playing it!

Even if you are not a Dan Head and have some interest in music, this documentary on the making of Aja is a must watch. In case it is not available where you live, you can download the torrent here.

In the last fifteen minutes of the documentary, Donald and Walter jam with some of the Aja session musicians, playing Peg and Josie. I haven’t seen a band playing under so much pressure, as if you miss one-tenth of a beat and you mess up the song, and enjoying every moment of it!

The Killing of Georgie - Part 2

BBC News: George Michael arrest over drugs

A talent that was killed by homosexuality, 15 years ago.

See what happens George, you see what happens....


Rod Stewart's tribute here (youtube).

"The Dark Knight" Reviews

The Dark Knight is certainly a good movie. No arguments on that.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Batman Begins, I didn’t get the same feeling after watching The Dark Knight- something was lacking somewhere, nothing to relish (Heath Ledger is brilliant, but the pre-release hype killed it!), no goose bumps (except for, maybe, the Bat Pod scene) and overall, yeah, just that it is not a bad movie. I had arguments with my friends on this, but I couldn’t prove my point.

I was browsing through some film reviews today, came across this review by The Indian Express film critic Bharadwaj Rangan and I got the word I was looking for to support my point: laboured.

The storytelling is deliberate and laboured, and there’s so much pulling away for the larger picture, with such a densely plotted maze of procedural details, that the simple emotional beats get lost. When Batman faces the death of a loved one, we don’t feel that loss.

Rangan shares some interesting thoughts on the movie:

You cannot will a great movie into being. It just happens – if you’re lucky, and if about a few thousand variables click satisfyingly (and somewhat improbably) into place. The undoing of The Dark Knight appears to be that its greatness was pre-ordained (and heartily embraced by millions) to such an unprecedented extent that the film had to merely show up, and it would already be a masterpiece.

I didn’t grow up reading Batman comics; the only super hero comic I read was Phantom. It was in my college days that my friend told me about the greatness of Batman in the super hero world -like others, Batman has no super powers, but indeed he is a super hero! Batman Begins turned Batman into a human hero, which we all watched with awe. In The Dark Knight, Nolan takes that one step further. Rangan has an interesting take on this:

[..]in Batman Begins, where he transformed Batman into Bond, an ordinary hero (as opposed to a “super” hero) who needed the help of Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) just as Bond needed Q. This was an unprecedented level of inquiry into the origins of the powers of a superhero, who, in the comic-book universe, is typically self-made. In The Dark Knight, Nolan pushes Batman further into Bond territory, fashioning mirror events such as the loss of a loved one, or the fight sequence involving a shoe with a knife.
It feels funny to say this, because The Dark Knight is certainly not a bad movie. It is consistently interesting, well intentioned and well crafted, with a lot of expertly executed action eye candy – but the numerous story threads aren’t tied together in a fully satisfying way. The Dark Knight shapes up into a solidly good movie – and while that’s hardly an insignificant achievement, that’s all it is.

Update:
A thought was running in my mind while I was driving back home from work yesterday. To put it bluntly: The Dark Knight is like a Steely Dan song.
A Steely Dan song is a perfect piece of art, a flawless and meticulous production. There would be outstanding and extensive sax or guitar solos which can be considered as a song by itself (like Ledger’s performance). At some point these solos are woven back in to the song, at times painstakingly, and gradually we get into perspective. All Steely Dan albums are studio engineering marvels** and they get the best session musicians to play for them. Also, I am sure that The Dark knight wouldn’t be considered dated even after 20 years, just like a Dan song you heard, which was made in the late 70s sounds as fresh as it was recorded last year.
You know what to expect from a Dan album and you get exactly that, it just has to show up to be hailed as a classic – like Two Against Nature. And a solid album that it is.
But here is the point – would you ever hum a Steely Dan song in the bathroom?

**from Wiki: ..with one notable example being that Becker and Fagen used at least 42 different studio musicians and took over a year to record the tracks that resulted in 1980's Gaucho — an album that contains only seven songs - Did I say "laboured"?

It takes two (You got the money and I got the honey!)

We have heard many duets by successful male and female singers that have topped the charts. For instance – Bryan Adam’s When you’re gone (Duet with Mel C) or Neil Young’s Star of Bethlehem (Duet with Emmylou Harris). Both these songs probably would have worked well even if they weren’t a duet. Both these songs have female vocals humming the same lines faintly in sync with the prominent male vocal. For me, a duet would make sense when the singers sing separate lines (stanzas) of the song to complement each other and probably join in singing the chorus. Like Picture by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow.

The duet album All the Road Running by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris is a perfect example of the latter type. Knopfler and Harris sings separate lines in most of the songs, like a dialogue. The guitar sounds in the album are vintage Knopfler, but it is the graceful vocals of these two adorable singers that we eventually crave for. Halfway through the record (Rollin’), all we want them is to just sing all day!


Though it wouldn’t entirely fit into the second category of duets I mentioned earlier, Raising Sand, the album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, is a noteworthy release of 2007. While Knopfler is within his comfort zone on All the Road Running Plant doesn’t do his typical hysterical Zeppelin outbursts in Raising Sand. Instead he is sober and doing melodies here with Krauss, augmented by the superb arrangements by T Bone Burnett (listen to the cover of Townes Van Zandt’s Nothin’).

These two albums are two of my favorite artist (male-female) collaboration albums. They have lived up to the expectations; the singers here are not trying to be classy playing their part, but just having some fun together – like the Wilburys did.

PS: Maybe, Van Morrison’s duet album with Linda Gail Lewis, You win Again, could have easily made it to this list, but I haven’t given it much of a listen as I was not exposed to the music (and style) they are covering on this album.

Just another list: Dance tracks

I always found it easy to dance to a up-tempo rock song than to a so called "dance track".
Here is the list of our favourite dance-rock songs:

1. Jockey full of Bourbon - Tom Waits
2. Mama don't - JJ Cale
3. Blinded by the light - Bruce Springsteen (Live in Dublin/Pete Seeger ses'sions)
4. Wild Night - Van Morrison
5. Sleep around the clock - Belle and Sebastian
6. Yellow moon - Neville Brothers
7. Carry on - JJ Cale
8. Peg - Steely Dan (a bold one:)
9. Postcards from Paraguay - Mark Knopfler
10.

We will have to try this out to get the order right, and one slot is vacant. Recommendations are welcome!

Rock Journalism

Some stop discovering new music with age. I got a boost recently discovering Will Oldham aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy. I have been listening to his album I See a Darkness for the last 3 months and no other artist has stunned me like this in the last, say, five years! I was wondering how to describe his music and I came across this pitchfork review (of Billy's 2008 album):

Musically, these meticulously crafted songs give the impression of front-porch spontaneity, their purposefulness made to sound like serendipity.

I don’t know what that means, but I think that perfectly conveys what I think of his music:)

Allen Worship

Tim Burton's Ed Wood reminded me of Woody Allen.
Johnny Depp portrays the enthusiastic Edward Wood Jr. (apparently voted the worst director in the history of cinema) who is madly in love with film making and does it with amazing speed - he made a movie in 5 days! However his movies were horrible while Allen's movies are at the other end of the spectrum. But the passion and the speed may be the same.

Here is a quote from AV Club Woody Allen interview:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona has not yet come out, and I'm already finished shooting and editing a film with Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, and Patricia Clarkson, and I'm now working on another film.

Roger Ebert writes in his review of Allen's latest:

A few days before seeing "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," I viewed his "Hannah and Her Sisters" again. More than 20 years apart, both with dialogue at perfect pitch. Allen has directed more than 40 movies in about as many years and written all of them himself. Why isn't he more honored? Do we take him for granted?

Shiny Happy People

Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. That’s our impression of a rock-star life and it is impossible to think of them leading a normal family life.

I was listening to NPR Fresh Air, last August, and the guest on the show was Pegi Young, Neil Young’s wife. She had just released her self-titled debut album. She was part of Neil’s band (backing vocals) on some of his records and tours. But it took a very long time for her to come out with a solo album. She had been busy raising their kids (Ben, born to Pegi and Young, and Zeke from Neil’s first relationship were diagnosed of cerebral palsy) and running their Bridge School which helps children with severe speech and physical impairments.

They’ve been married for almost 29 years now and as Pegi says in the interview, they met in a bar. Recently, when I was listening to the song Like a Hurricane in my car, I knew what Neil was singing about:

Once I thought I saw you in a crowded hazy bar,
Dancing on the light from star to star.
Far across the moonbeam I know that’s who you are,
I saw your brown eyes turning once to fire.
(Like a Hurricane, N. Young)

I have been listening to the Pegi Young album for a couple of weeks now. Though it may not be a significant record in the rock history, it is a significant one for the Youngs, and definitely for me. I love the album: Pegi’s voice, the light hearted love songs, the humor and the presence of Neil. It’s on the 4th track Hold on that we feel the first major presence of Neil and intentional or not, I don’t know, Pegi sings: Hold on, I'm not me without you here.

It’s a party for Neil Young fans on the song Love like water, where Neil plays a groovy sitar riff throughout the song. Even with Neil’s presence, this is essentially a Pegi Young album, consistent, and she has written most of the songs.

Praise be the bars where the lonely meet
And for awhile can feel the heat
Praise to the liquor that warms our heads
Gives us the courage To get things said
(Heterosexual Masses, P. Young)

As we know, Neil also has declared his love for Pegi on some of his albums - lyrics such as these ones from Harvest Moon says it all:

Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon.
(Harvest Moon, 1992, N. Young)

You know it aint easy, you got to hold on
She was an unknown legend in her time
Now she’s dressin’ two kids, lookin’ for a magic kiss
She gets the far-away look in her eyes.
(Unknown Legend, 1992, N. Young)

I might have gone overboard here celebrating the Youngs’ family life, but it is heartening to see that they have fought through and contributed their learning (on dealing with cerebral palsy) to the society by envisioning and managing the Bridge School.

The Voice of America

Willis Conover 1920-1996

You may call Willis Conver a Jazz legend, though he was just the host of the Jazz Hour program on Voice of America. I heard Conover on radio (Voice of America on shortwave) when I was probably too young to listen to Jazz. Perhaps he is the only radio show host who is as respected as the legends of the music genre itself.

The clipping is from the VOA newsletter which I recieved in '96. Click on the image to read.

Read the Conover tribute by the The Hindu jazz critic Jazzebel here.

Also posted on my Radio blog.