Here in Dublin, when men and women stand outside a pub, for a smoke and pint, that too when it is too cold out in the open. You wonder what's wrong with these people! But since 'no smoking' is religiously followed in all pubs, pub makes an amazing place for non-smokers who don't have to take the smoke when inside the pub.
But, what happens when the non-smokers have to pass through the platform :-(
More worrying factor is that the smokers do not realise that they are puffing the smoke directly on pedestrians who are using the platform :-(
Wonder why in India the rules are straight opposite i.e people are mostly banned from smoking outside in the open(public), but allowed inside enclosures :-(
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Norah Jones
I knew she was a bit short, but when she came on stage in a lazy sweatshirt and jeans, you might wonder if she is just out of school. The concert was to start at 19 00 hours and I made a foolish mistake of taking that 1900 hours seriously. I was there in the hall 18 55 hours and I knew something was wrong when the entire hall was empty except for maybe 20 odd people (max) sitting in their chairs. I got curious and enquired if the concert is at 1900 and I was told by the usher in a polite tone that the concert will start around 9 or 9 30 pm and there will be another cover artist who will perform from 8 pm to 9 pm.
The chair was small uneasy when I wondered how am I going to kill time for another couple of hours, but things coasted when I took out my mp3 player and started listening to the usual dosage of LedZep. The flipside of the ticket had lots of instructions and one of them included come early and the organizers reserve the right to reject admission for latecomers. Damn, I took those words a bit too seriously and I was there on time like a school kid. Another instruction was 'do not carry any cameras and audience will not be admitted with objectionable materials'. I decided not to take my camera. Guess what, once Norah came on stage cameras of different models came out of people's hands and lots of lightning like flashes came in :-(
Quite disappointing, but was glad there was no other disappointments.
When the concert started at 8 pm, Norah sang some duets (those typical country/jazz/school rhythms) along with the cover singer and disappeared soon leaving the male cover singer to sing for another 30-45 minutes. I think Norah might have reached the venue just then and without reaching the make-up room she would have appeared on stage (so that she is not too late :-) ) and later get out of stage via backdoor for a makeup and reappear for the actual concert later around 9 pm.
And she came, this time she looked like a doll with the bright red gown. She was interacting constantly with the audience and it was more like Wimbledon-style i.e someone from the backbench gets her attention after the backbencher shouts 'norah, i love you.. ' or '..you are beautiful..' and she replies 'yeah.. i know..' with giggles all around.
She started with her hit 'Come away with me.. ' song and I was glad since it was one of those very few songs that I know which belonged to Norah. I guess she has an amazing fondess to country music style singing or maybe school rhythms, somehow songs of these genre kept coming after the initial song. I thought she was losing the audience with these slow songs, then came the interval. After the break, she starts performing funnier tracks and used drums a lot more effectively. Once the drums tempo came-in, the crowd started clapping and the concert became more livelier than ever.
The lighting was spectacular i.e not much fanfare but yet so lively. Norah comes across more of a country singer rather than a jazz singer at times. I guess the best part of the show was when she announced 'that this is the last song of the day' and performed 'sunshine .. sunshine.. ' and she and her entire troupe kind of performed a bow and she was on her way out. But, most of the audience did not move, I guess most of the audience knew the trick that she will always be back to perform one or two songs extra after she threatens to leave by claiming that this is the last song. And she came in again with the entire band and performed two more songs.
Some trivia on Norah, she was born to Pandit Ravi Shankar and Sue Jones(a NY musician). Her birth name is Geethali.Ravi Shankar and Sue got divorced early in her life. Her relationship with her father is stormy. Her father had played in Woodstock 1969 music festival and performed alongside 'the beatles' in 60s. I guess the genius in Norah was always there with this kind of background.
The chair was small uneasy when I wondered how am I going to kill time for another couple of hours, but things coasted when I took out my mp3 player and started listening to the usual dosage of LedZep. The flipside of the ticket had lots of instructions and one of them included come early and the organizers reserve the right to reject admission for latecomers. Damn, I took those words a bit too seriously and I was there on time like a school kid. Another instruction was 'do not carry any cameras and audience will not be admitted with objectionable materials'. I decided not to take my camera. Guess what, once Norah came on stage cameras of different models came out of people's hands and lots of lightning like flashes came in :-(
Quite disappointing, but was glad there was no other disappointments.
When the concert started at 8 pm, Norah sang some duets (those typical country/jazz/school rhythms) along with the cover singer and disappeared soon leaving the male cover singer to sing for another 30-45 minutes. I think Norah might have reached the venue just then and without reaching the make-up room she would have appeared on stage (so that she is not too late :-) ) and later get out of stage via backdoor for a makeup and reappear for the actual concert later around 9 pm.
And she came, this time she looked like a doll with the bright red gown. She was interacting constantly with the audience and it was more like Wimbledon-style i.e someone from the backbench gets her attention after the backbencher shouts 'norah, i love you.. ' or '..you are beautiful..' and she replies 'yeah.. i know..' with giggles all around.
She started with her hit 'Come away with me.. ' song and I was glad since it was one of those very few songs that I know which belonged to Norah. I guess she has an amazing fondess to country music style singing or maybe school rhythms, somehow songs of these genre kept coming after the initial song. I thought she was losing the audience with these slow songs, then came the interval. After the break, she starts performing funnier tracks and used drums a lot more effectively. Once the drums tempo came-in, the crowd started clapping and the concert became more livelier than ever.
The lighting was spectacular i.e not much fanfare but yet so lively. Norah comes across more of a country singer rather than a jazz singer at times. I guess the best part of the show was when she announced 'that this is the last song of the day' and performed 'sunshine .. sunshine.. ' and she and her entire troupe kind of performed a bow and she was on her way out. But, most of the audience did not move, I guess most of the audience knew the trick that she will always be back to perform one or two songs extra after she threatens to leave by claiming that this is the last song. And she came in again with the entire band and performed two more songs.
Some trivia on Norah, she was born to Pandit Ravi Shankar and Sue Jones(a NY musician). Her birth name is Geethali.Ravi Shankar and Sue got divorced early in her life. Her relationship with her father is stormy. Her father had played in Woodstock 1969 music festival and performed alongside 'the beatles' in 60s. I guess the genius in Norah was always there with this kind of background.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Rain
While browsing through tv channels I hit upon this song and I kind of knew this song has got something really kicking
Crowded House - 'Take the weather with you'
Their style appears to be similar to duran duran i.e strong rhythmic sound all through the movie typical of 80s music style. The lyrics appeared to be very simple too, though the video could have been much more interesting. Nevertheless, the steady beat and the genuineness of the song makes it so easy to relate to.
When people cringe about the dark clouds all around and the lousy rain spoiling all their weekend or weekday plans of going out, you feel sorry for them. Read some article a while back that suicides rates are much higher in western europe cause of its lousy grey rainy weather. The importance some give to weather forecast really beats you. One person on a TV interview replies 'It always rains here', when asked 'why she wants to leave England'. Thought these are heights anyway.
No wonder, this Crowded House song 'Take the weather with you' adores the blue sky.
Remember one exciting episode on NGC a while back, which tracked back as to how 'Cherrapunji' got the title as the wettest place on earth. Seems like one Scotsman was put on government duty to Cherrapunji more like a punishment posting by the English somewhere in 19th century. And the Scotsman got tired of the frequent rains in Cherrapunji, which was worse than Scotland where it rains 250 days of the year. In Cherrapunji, the rain is ferocious though and this Scotsman thought of committing suicide, but later to hit back on the boredom he started doing experiments on the rain water and came to the conclusion that 'Cherrapunji' is the wettest place on earth.
Leaving the trivia on Cherrapunji aside, I think rain clouds are a beauty to gaze at, thanks to the speed at which rain-clouds move around. And it is so beautiful when the rain does not pour down but just trickles and also when there is only rainclouds over you, but no rain. Those are the days, which I used to adore so much. Also, the exciting part when the school closes down expecting heavy rain, but by providence there is no rain and you play cricket all day.
Can remember a dialogue in 'Taxi Driver', where Robert DeNiro wishes that it rains in NY, so that all the dirt/sins are washed away from a sinned city like NY. Remember another interesting sequence related to rains in the movie 'City of Joy', Om Puri a hand-rickshaw guy charges more from the greedy Sethjis who take a ride in his rickshaw during monsoon time.
The best part about rain is that it gives a fresh start to various life-forms in the land. In particular, it is a delight to see how fluorescent green a grass gets during rainy days or just after rainy days.
Crowded House - 'Take the weather with you'
Their style appears to be similar to duran duran i.e strong rhythmic sound all through the movie typical of 80s music style. The lyrics appeared to be very simple too, though the video could have been much more interesting. Nevertheless, the steady beat and the genuineness of the song makes it so easy to relate to.
When people cringe about the dark clouds all around and the lousy rain spoiling all their weekend or weekday plans of going out, you feel sorry for them. Read some article a while back that suicides rates are much higher in western europe cause of its lousy grey rainy weather. The importance some give to weather forecast really beats you. One person on a TV interview replies 'It always rains here', when asked 'why she wants to leave England'. Thought these are heights anyway.
No wonder, this Crowded House song 'Take the weather with you' adores the blue sky.
Remember one exciting episode on NGC a while back, which tracked back as to how 'Cherrapunji' got the title as the wettest place on earth. Seems like one Scotsman was put on government duty to Cherrapunji more like a punishment posting by the English somewhere in 19th century. And the Scotsman got tired of the frequent rains in Cherrapunji, which was worse than Scotland where it rains 250 days of the year. In Cherrapunji, the rain is ferocious though and this Scotsman thought of committing suicide, but later to hit back on the boredom he started doing experiments on the rain water and came to the conclusion that 'Cherrapunji' is the wettest place on earth.
Leaving the trivia on Cherrapunji aside, I think rain clouds are a beauty to gaze at, thanks to the speed at which rain-clouds move around. And it is so beautiful when the rain does not pour down but just trickles and also when there is only rainclouds over you, but no rain. Those are the days, which I used to adore so much. Also, the exciting part when the school closes down expecting heavy rain, but by providence there is no rain and you play cricket all day.
Can remember a dialogue in 'Taxi Driver', where Robert DeNiro wishes that it rains in NY, so that all the dirt/sins are washed away from a sinned city like NY. Remember another interesting sequence related to rains in the movie 'City of Joy', Om Puri a hand-rickshaw guy charges more from the greedy Sethjis who take a ride in his rickshaw during monsoon time.
The best part about rain is that it gives a fresh start to various life-forms in the land. In particular, it is a delight to see how fluorescent green a grass gets during rainy days or just after rainy days.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
The Animals - House of the Rising Sun
Truly remarkable song. When I saw the Scorcese movie 'Casino', I could pleasantly remember the amazing song which was running in the background when bodies got piled up after being brutally slaughtered near Las Vegas in the movie's climax. The song had a distinct "western" tinge (those typical Ennio Morricone or Clint Eastwood kind).
Video here
The song has a mesmerizing effect when you listen to it.
Video here
The song has a mesmerizing effect when you listen to it.
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