Thinking of the way we consume music these days made me think of Ketchup, oddly enough that doesn’t even make it to the list of strangest things I’ve said. Music today is the condiment of everyday life, walking to work add music, doing chores add music, taking a shower add music, working out add music, nodding off to sleep add music. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing, it does make everything better. But to me it begs the question, are we really doing justice to the medium?

If you think of ketchup and the tomato sauce in a pasta, they’re effectively the same thing, except the experience of having the two couldn’t be more different. Ketchup is an afterthought, its the robin to the french fry batman, while in the pasta, the tomato sauce is the centre piece, it’s Superman saving an otherwise bland spaghetti Metropolis.

All these thoughts we triggered from a rather simple event, my earphones broke. They were cheap earphones which I got as a “temporary replacement” to my absolutely delightful Klipsch S4i’s that died. It was at that moment I realised that my “temporary replacement” had lasted a whole year . . . a whole year listening to music as a condiment.

So I write this post with a plan to put an end to it. I’ve splurged on a rather nice pair of headphones and have decided to spend time to listen to an album every weekend. Find a comfy spot on the couch and listen to a full album end to end and do nothing else in that time. I’ll call it my #albumthisweek project, and plan to cover stuff I’ve never heard before, stuff I’ve heard a million times, old stuff, new stuff, anything. 

PS: I realise this sounds like a late new years resolution, I’m just hoping that it lasts more than most resolutions do.

Read Users' Comments ( 2 )

A friend asked why all good things have to come to an end, the answer that my head threw at me surprised me, “because if it didn’t, there wouldn’t be any good things at all”. No matter how life is there are always levels to it which define what’s good and what’s bad, cause at the end of the day its all relative. And if life was always good, you just expect good to be something better.

In solemn moments we all wonder why things aren’t better or happier, in such moments I try to curtail my mind from that tailspin using a simple thought:

If something in life that made me happy a year ago isn’t making me happy today, maybe I should be thankful, cause life’s been so good that I expect more from it now. And if that really is the case, well, it’s something to be thankful for.

Read Users' Comments ( 0 )

It’s a very rare situation in which a song moves me almost to the point of tears, but out of pure coincidence I found such a song recently. Inherently songs are meant to do exactly that but rarely do songs do it so vigorously that they breakdown the mental barrier that says “Its just a song,” and it becomes . . . more. Sometime the right words come together with the right melody and sometimes the right visuals join in to take things a little further.

I came across a curious song called ‘The Bed Song’ by Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra, it’s a simple song, but often the really great ones are always just that, simple. The whole concept of the song is just a piece of songwriting genius, life pieced together from the perspective of a simple bed. From a sleeping bag, to a sheet, to a lavish mattress and finally the final resting place.

As someone who has attempted his hand at poetry (rather badly) I know the amount of difficulty involved giving the right words to an idea in a way that makes the final product simple, elegant and beautiful. But this song just does just that. It’s these kinds of songs where the final product seems so simple and obvious that you  stop and wish that you came up with them.

If you really want to feel this song watch the video it conveys the meaning of the song literally, but beautifully. If you don’t get the words as you listen, listen to it again but except this time read what she’s saying as she’s singing it (here’s a link to the lyrics). Trust me you owe it to yourself to see, hear and read this song. It’s amazing.

Read Users' Comments ( 0 )

Sometimes I wonder whether we as a race have undermined music over the years. Music used to be something you relished on its own ages ago, just a person performing in front of an audience and nothing else. Yet when was the last time you listened to music and did only that? Its always accompanied by something, jogging, reading, sleeping, working etc.

All that thought brought me to the act of reading, strangely enough. Reading has remained something you do exclusively, mostly because it requires your complete involvement. You have to look at it to read, concentrate to understand and imagine the words and what they interpret. Sure there is a cursory way to do it, like say the way you browse through a magazine, but true reading is still something you spend time doing.

I’ve written in the past about Resonance on this very blog, and it was under one such occurrence recently that these thoughts struck me. It made me think that we are missing out on a lot of things that music has to offer simply because we don’t LISTEN any more. To put it in a different way we don’t read, we browse.

There are groups who still do listen for music sake, take the classical music concerts for instance. There are no theatrics, its a groups of people looking at a handful of people sit and perform, no weird lasers, no pyrotechnics, nothing. But thats a small percentage of music listeners and an even smaller genre of music overall.

In moments of Resonance, the most innate things about a song strike me. Things that would otherwise go unnoticed, like the faint riff of a guitar in a piano heavy song, like the background vocals and harmony, bass lines etc. Made me think that there are so many layers to music, that in a cursory browse get over looked, all you notice is the striking aspect, the booming vocal or the guitar solo, but you miss the environment, all the other little things going on.

I had written previously that I don’t know what causes this Resonance that I talk of, and I still don’t. But all these thoughts made me think that perhaps I can come close to the feeling if I spend time and just listen to music and do nothing else. Just me my earphones or my giant speakers  and a chair. If any of what I said struck a chord with you, maybe you should too.

Read Users' Comments ( 0 )

It’s funny how if anything in life is a certainty it is that at any point the one person you’re always going to be around is yourself, yet that seems to be the one person that most people can’t get along with. I took a rather, apparently bold, decision to go on a vacation, a road trip of sorts by myself. Now the reaction to that has been two fold, on one hand, there are the few who thing it’s awesome, then there is the majority who think I’m mad. The primary reason for my madness being the fact that I fail to see that I’ll get bored.

Yet as I sit here enveloped in a forest, with nothing but an ornithologists favorite symphony playing in the background and tiny little yellow butterflies to keep me company, I can call myself a lot of things but bored isn’t one of them.

 

Now most of you are probably already half way through to tagging me as a loner, but let me be the first person to admit, company is a good thing. We all need to counter our own thoughts and re-assure our decisions. But at times its good to let the voices in your own mind come to its own decisions. I mean independence means a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me true independence is when you’re comfortable with your own company.

The other thing a lot of people don’t realize is, a solo trip isn’t a trip to a deserted island, you’re never really alone. For instance on this trip, I met an aging yet sprightly forest official who asked me if I could drop him on the way, and all through the drive he went on and on about old jungle stories. Of course since my Kannada is not that great I understood only half of it, but he got a kick out of telling them and I was more than willing to play my part of quiet listener. I also met two rather exuberant north Indian couples who were more than willing to give me company, though for the most part I only played the role of silent observer. Then of course there are the people curious enough to go “ But why alone” expecting a popcorn worthy story out of it, but to which I have to simply reply it’s an experience worth having. So with all that to be frank the amount of time you have to yourself is quite little, but immensely precious.

There are but a few things in this world that you can truly call your own, and your thoughts are perhaps the most sacred. Give them a chance to stew and refine in your mind before giving them away with speech. If you still think that’s mad, well someone once said there is a joy to madness that only a mad man knows. So try your own company sometime, he/she might be more fascinating than you know. After all they are your only true BFF.

Read Users' Comments ( 1 )

In the past I have written endlessly about the demise of music in recent time. Where music is less about people with talent singing to instruments and more about random people feeding their voice into a computer. I thought the glory days of simple straightforward music was done.

Minor anomalies did occur, for instance Cee-Lo Green’s runaway hit “F*** You”. Now I know the name puts of a lot of people, so I suggest listening to the radio edit version called “Forget you”. Expletives aside the song is simply fantastic, it has this old world charm and genuine-ness about it which made me instantly like it. It’s like seeing an old classic car beautifully restored, it just makes you feel good.

The success of that song was a bit surprising to me cause it sounded nothing like the usual hits that do the rounds. So i thought it was a mere coincidence. But then I heard a rather simple sounding fantastic song on the radio by Adele, also please note when I say simple I mean only in terms of the amount of equipment used.

I also heard that the album had achieved a record in the UK for being the highest selling female artist album ever, beating a rather old record held by none other than Madonna herself. That actually made me a bit apprehensive because I figured if that many people liked it, it could mean that not all songs are that raw.

So then I got the album and listened to it and am very glad to report that I was wrong, Adele’s new album 21 is as raw as it can get. On many of the songs all that is present is her fantastic voice and a piano or a guitar. And when I say fantastic voice I MEAN fantastic, she has such a powerful and versatile voice that can sound vulnerable and strong at the same time. That entire album is a must for any fan of good music and more specifically a great voice.

Though is it a fantastic album? perhaps not, but more than anything its a reassuring one. It tells me that perhaps there is still a place in this world for real music after all. Thank you Adele you are a gift.

My recommendations from the album: Turning Tables, Rolling in the Deep, Lovesong

Read Users' Comments ( 0 )

I hate new years resolutions, they annoy the hell out of me. The most annoying fact about them is that that I forget how annoying they are when December comes, and end up falling into that trap again.

It begins all bright and cheery, you think its a new year I’m going to do this and that and be a new person blahdy blah. January begins with that enthusiasm and you go through with it all, feeling good and happy about yourself. Then February comes and you skip a day, two days, a week, hell February is a small month (well smaller anyway) lets skip that, March I will get back. Cue the annoying WRONG! buzzer here. And we March straight into exactly what we were like last year, all puns intended.

You know what the problem with New Years Resolutions are, the fact that there’s no incentive. I mean anyone who works knows we do new years resolutions at work all the time, except they are called a more formal, “Year end objectives”. We usually finish most of those, get more money and everyones happy.

The problem with New Years Resolutions are that they have no incentives, and I’m sure there are a million of of you going ( ok maybe not a million) but the way you feel at the end of the year blah blah. To which I have to say, “Who the hell cares??”, human beings (well most anyway) are selfish beings, we will trade later happiness for immediate smaller happiness any day. Plus happiness, unlike money isn’t a envisionable entity ( I honestly blanked out on a better way to say that), you can’t count or say how happy you’ll be, and hence no motivations. And hence new years resolutions last only a month while the thrill of the new years stays alive.

You know what we need, we need a really rich dude to start a fund/foundation that gives people money for keeping new years resolutions for the whole year. I mean think about it, more people are happy, healthy, well read, have quit smoking etc etc , I mean thats usually what new years resolutions comprise of right? On top of that people get money, the rich dude is doing his bit for society, its a win win. Hmm this idea should be patented; on that note I’ve done my bit for my resolution of writing more,I’ll be at home waiting for my cheque.

Read Users' Comments ( 2 )

Continuing on in the series of reliving the past, here's another one of my earlier scribbles, one of my favorites actually. Sadly still as relevant today as it was earlier, but then again when are we not confused.

Confusion reigns within,
Not righteous neither sin.
So many ways not all right,
Not all wrong provide no respite.
Each one with its dents its pains;
These are rantings of a mindless brain.

Choice is a word I can do without,
No clue whats wrong or right and no way out.
Answers to questions seem non existent,
Appear so simple, might seem redundant.
Through all this I still seem sane;
These are rantings of a mindless brain.

Mind is a thing that separates us,
But what it is, is a question that plagues us.
Imaginary entity masked with conscience,
But exists or what keeps us righteous.
That brings me back to confusion again,
So these remain the rantings of a mindless brain.

Read Users' Comments ( 0 )

So here’s the first of the bunch, one of my earlier poems, and one that I think the most people have read. This is one of the few that I have given to more than a couple of people to read.

And before the question comes up let me answer it - No I am not the Unsung Hero, the poem came out of a single image of a man rowing into a sunset, the rest kind of wrote itself.

 

Oh! Unsung hero where do you go?
Why mournfully into the sunset do you row?
Why look of anger of confusion do I see?
What answers far away do u seek?
Care not do you of your people no more?
Leave will you while their hearts still sore?

Care? care is a word I once knew,
Without that word now I can do.
Your wrongs I've made right, kept you from what might.
I have been your beacon, I have been your light.
So much so I have done,
Why am I still the unsung?

Questions all wrong cloud your head;
Answers to those are in no book, in no sunset.
Of the title which you hold only some are worthy,
Look unto only one word do you, the other dont you see?
A word that overshadows the rest,
A word that you brandish on your chest.

Wise words you speak oh unknown counsel,
Lead to light do you from where I dwell.
Who are you who brings the light?
Protect me from my own demise.
Who is it that knows whats done?
Who is it that sings the songs of the unsung?

I am the light, I am the truth.
I am your conscience, I am you.
So say with me the words you wish,
So this guilt I carry I can rid.

Hear this all living under the sun,
I'll be your hero I'll be your unsung.

Hear this all living under the sun,
I'll be your hero I'll be your unsung.

Read Users' Comments ( 0 )

Poetry, I’ve always loved it, it seems to add a sense of artistry to the otherwise ordinary. It always has a way of blending together words and expressions to bring together a thought, or way of seeing things, that otherwise would not have occurred to me.

There was a time, long ago, that sitting in the back of class, staring at a blank piece of paper, I could write something that had some semblance of rhyme with reason to it. Not all good mind you, but it was something. And it always brought about that joy of creation that comes with creating something vaguely artistic (even if the final result might not be). That feeling of I made this and if I didn’t it wouldn’t have existed.

Over the years I’ve sort of fallen out of the habit and I’ve always attributed that to everyone’s favorite scapegoat, Time. But when I really thought about it, I figured out that that’s not really true, there is a lot of time that I sit around doing nothing of any real significance that could really be put to better use. But unfortunately that so called time is never really practically available, it always exists only in theory in our mind.

But then again poetry isn’t something that is really that easy to get back to, well not to me atleast. For me I need to be in that groove of sorts where you recognize a series of thoughts or feelings as something that can be penned down as a poem. It’s like your mind needs to remember what it’s like to think like that again. Either that, or you need to be hit with something profound, which was the case with my most recent endeavor into poetry, my ode to Gokarna.

But I miss those times and I figured now is as good a time as any to get back to it while these thoughts are still afresh in my head. So as a result I have decided to publish some of my older works occasionally, for everyone who reads my blog to see. There aren’t that many just a handful but its something. The hope is that perhaps revisiting some of the older poems can get me back in to the flow of writing poetry again. So for all those who commented on my Gokarna post asking for the older stuff, here you go, hope you don’t regret what you wished for.

Read Users' Comments ( 1 )