Fiddling While Rome Burns

This is a picture from Tue Aug. 30, the day after
Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Sure, the guitar was
a gift from Country musician Mark Wills and it was
graciously accepted by GWB. I just wish he would
have approached this photo op differently since
America's greatest natural disaster had struck
24 hours earlier.
AP/ABC News

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?

If you've never been there, you've missed some of the best

live music on the planet

Louis Armstrong once sang :

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans

And miss it each night and day

I know I'm not wrong, this feeling's getting stronger

The longer, I stay away

Miss them moss-covered vines, the tall sugar pines

Where mocking birds used to sing

And I'd like to see that lazy Mississippi hurrying into spring

Interesting article from a native dated Feb. 2005

" People in New Orleans look like they've had a hard life. But when you stop

to ask someone for directions, you might get a little more than you asked for

- a story, a smile. Just think of it as a survival strategy.

I'd like to close with a few tips so you don't misunderstand us when you visit

New Orleans:

	Never turn down an alcoholic beverage. You'll just have to drink something stiffer. And if you refuse to drink at all, everyone will think you're an alcoholic.
	One night in a bar, you start making eyes with a nice young lady, and she starts making some back. Suddenly, you notice some guy staring at you. Don't worry, it's probably just her boyfriend or her brother.
	Don't be surprised if everyone seems to call you "darling" or "honey". It's just our way of trying to be nice, and it doesn't mean anything... unless, of course, the person who says it is interested in you.
	If somebody asks you, "You want your po-boy dressed?", just say "yes ma'am" or "yes sir", because you don't want to miss any of the toppings on that sandwich with French bread. Within a radius of about 30 miles around the city, this question does not mean that someone is trying to sell you an impoverished naked young male.
	All of those musicians displaying their talents on the street are not dressed like they only shop at secondhand stores so you will think they're poor and give them more money. They really are poor.
	And don't forget: we are all friendly, hospitable people who are always willing to lend a helping hand and never get upset for no reason. Those 300 murders a year? That's just some crazy people..."

Link

In German

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Slideshows

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/photos

Indian Politics and Porn

India rebels 'making porn films'

By Subir Bhaumik BBC News, Calcutta

"Rebels in India's north-eastern state of Tripura are making

pornographic films to raise money for their separatist campaign,

officials say...

The information has come from surrendered guerrillas of the

National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), according to police.

....The former guerrillas of the NLFT have told police their leaders

not only sexually abused scores of tribal girls recruited into the

rebel army but also used them - and some male guerrillas -

to produce scores of porn films, officials say."

BBC News article

Not so fast, guys !

As part of their series on people with unusual jobs,

this BBC news article exploits the word 'exploited'

by presenting this headline :

'If anyone is exploited it is the men'

Not so fast, guys !

This is not about sympathy for the devils in you.

Michelle Thorne, a top British Porn star says,

"I have never felt exploited. If anything it's giving you

power over men. The only people exploited, if anyone

is, are the men who go out and spend their money

on porn," says the 26-year-old from Bristol.

Link to BBC news article

Home truths from Indians abroad

CANADA DIARY | Gurmukh Singh

August 26, 2005

Whenever you get talking to Indians settled abroad --

be it a cabbie in Vancouver or a real estate agent in

Toronto or a security guard in Calgary or a passenger

on a plane, they always inquire about how things have

changed in India since they left its shores. Of course,

they do learn about the goings-on in their native land f

rom newspapers, magazines and 24-hour TV programmes.

But still there is that curiosity to get some first-hand information.

More so when you tell them that you are a roving journo.

Hindustan Times Article

Virtual Poona Daze Photos

This is the first of a series on Flickr entitled Virtual Poona Daze.

I will be posting pics randomly from the series here on a regular

basis. The pics represent my years in Pune/Poona before my

immigration to the USA in 1976. The reason they are mostly B/W

pics is not because of an artistic decision but because Color

processing prices were outrageous in those days before the

advent of the One-Hour Photo system.

 

 

Kronos Quartet goes Bollywood

Kronos Quartet went for an Indian theme on their latest album

You've Stolen My Heart: Songs From R.D. Burman's Bollywood.

 

Chamber group known for experimentation records Indian album

By PARITOSH BANSAL
Reuters

 

David Harrington of the Grammy-winning string ensemble Kronos Quartet

says his group jumped at the chance to work with legendary Indian singer

Asha Bhosle and take its eclectic chamber music to Bollywood.

In choosing songs for the group's latest album, all of them composed

by Bhosle's late husband, R.D. Burman, Harrington said he selected

those that appealed to his ear as a musician, with no understanding

of their Hindi and Bengali lyrics.

It wasn't until days before Kronos began recording last summer that

Harrington realized the group had put together a collection of plaintive

love songs.

The result was You've Stolen My Heart: Songs From R.D. Burman's

Bollywood , to be released today by the New York-based independent

label Nonesuch Records.

Full Story via The Houston Chronicle

The Mahabaleshwar Throne

Once upon a time in India I was part of a Rock band known as

'Heat Wave' and in the summer of 1970 we found ourselves

in the historic hill resort of Mahabaleshwar (pics) in

Maharashtra state. We had contracted

with the Savoy,

a Grade B local Hotel, to entertain the patrons every

evening for which we were provided with cash, board and lodging.

The lodging arrangement was an ancient house (a throwback to the

days of the British rule in India) with ample space for the five of us,

complete with some antique pieces of furniture. The most intriguing

piece there was a wooden toilet 'throne' with a sliding compartment for

removing a basin that collected one's body waste. Of course it was not

used by us since the domestic staff refused to clean it out. However,

we all took turns relaxing in this impromptu wooden armchair and I

must admit some of us even attempted to pee in it. Hey ~ we were

young college kids, and musicians coming of age in the 'hippie'

era. We were forced to resort to our own minds for entertainment

in those days before the advent of TV in India.

 

Thirty-five years later, I discover this state-of-the art medieval-looking

'Throne' suitable for anyone with a sense of humour and a fat wallet.

Just wish I had taken a photo of that ancient piece of s&5!**@!!

 

Official Product Details via The Greenhead.com
"A throwback to the medieval era of knights, castles and fairy tale romance,

this throne toilet with French Merovingian style (8th century) is highlighted

by hand painted earthenware accessories (Musset poem, ashtray...)

Its high-profile seat back with a gothic-arch top and full armrests give the

toilet a majestic appearance. Inscribed on the seat back is a poem by

the French poet, Alfred de Musset.

The musical chime "Le Bon Roi Dagobert", with a voice reciting the Musset

poem, starts when you raise the lid and a bell is coupled with the flush,

making a visit to the bathroom an unforgettable experience." 

http://www.thegreenhead.com/cool-stuff/2005/07/herbeau-dagobert-wooden-toilet-throne.php

 

I love this Tourist Guide to Mahabaleshwar.

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Flock to Flickr

Well folks, I'm not a Shutterbug but I'm back to trying to find

an online home for all the photos I've accumulated in my lifetime.

I think Flickr fits the bill at the moment.

 

Feel free to copy, download and distribute as you see fit.

Feel the Love. Spread the Joy. Share the Peace.

 

Keyboarders

Still a thrill, piano is being given away

The baby grand was played by Fats Domino and other legends

at Austin club

By LISA FALKENBERG
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

 

AUSTIN - Ray Charles touched these keys.

 

Jerry Lee Lewis stood, in his sneakers, on this cherry Coke-colored wood.

 

And Fats Domino belly-bumped all 700-plus pounds of this baby grand across

the stage the night it debuted at the Armadillo World Headquarters in 1971.

 

Nearly 35 years later, the 1915 Mason & Hamlin, played by almost every piano

player who passed through Austin's seminal hippie nightclub during its brief

existence in the 1970s, is being given away in a charitable drive benefiting

Austin's Family Elder Care.

Story

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Synthesizer innovator Robert Moog dies

 

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. — Robert A. Moog, whose self-named

synthesizers turned electric currents into sound and

opened the musical wave that became

electronica, has died. He was 71.

 

"The arrival of the synthesizer came as just as the Beatles

and other musicians started seeking ways to fuse

psychedelic-drug experiences with their art.

The Beatles used a Moog synthesizer on their 1969 album,

"Abbey Road";

A Moog was used to create an eerie sound on the soundtrack

to the 1971 film "A Clockwork Orange".

AP article via The Houston Chronicle

 

Keyboardist Walter (later Wendy, he/she underwent a sex-change procedure in

the late 1960s and became Wendy Carlos, though her albums of that era were

released under the name of Walter Carlos.) Carlos demonstrated the range of Moog's

synthesizer by recording the hit album "Switched-On Bach" in 1968 using only

the new instrument instead of an orchestra."

 

Walter 'Wendy' Carlos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 'Piano Man' discharged from care

I must admit I was taken in at first by this mystery

The so-called Piano Man found wandering in April has been released

from hospital after his condition improved.

'The man was first taken to Medway Maritime Hospital where he drew a picture

of a grand piano and was then taken to the hospital chapel.

 

It was reported that health and social workers said they were "stunned" when he

proceeded to give them a virtuoso performance.

 

However, newspaper reports now suggest he was only able to play one

note continuously.

 

Theories put forward and later discounted included that the man was a French

street musician and a Czech concert pianist.'

BBC News Story

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