Thursday, November 16, 2006

The Best Music I've heard

A while ago a good friend and I swapped quite alot of music. I introduced him to many of my records from Mali, Algeria, Iraq, Lebannon and Syria not to mention the little collection of south Indian classical music I've accumulated. My friend gave me more of the finer selections of my own musical tradition, which I've neglected somewhat over the years but which I still find very dear to my heart.

Today, I came home from the same friend's place armed with his copy of "Desperate Man Blues: Discovering the roots of American Music" a documentary about a man's search for the roots of blues and folklore recordings through the south of America. In the right mood to watch it, I thought I'd warm up with some old timey music first and got the "O Brother, where art thou?" soundtrack spinning but inadvertantly played Doc Watson's version of "Keep on the Sunny Side", and from there I decided to give his voice more of a listen.

It's no understatement to say this is exactly the kind of music I admire, adore and love the most. I can't believe the power of expression in Doc Watson's voice and instrumentalisations. One song which instantly stuck to me was Moody River....powerful stuff, I had to share the lyrics.


Last saturday eveningI came to the old oaktree
It stands beside the river
Where you would a-meet me
On the ground your glove I found
With a note adressed to me
And it read
"Dear love, I've done you wrong,
Now I must set you free"
Moody river, more deadly
Than the vainest knife
Moody river, your muddy waters
Took my baby's life
Looked into your muddy water
And what did I see
I saw a lonely lonely man
Just lookin' back at me
Tears in his eyes
And a prayer on his lips
And with the glove of his lost love
There at his finger tips
Moody river, more deadly
Than the vainest knife
Moody river, your muddy waters
Took my baby's life
Moody river, your muddy waters
Took my baby's life
The Following is from the Merlefest website (A festival dedicated to the memory of Doc's late son Merle).
When asked how he would like to be remembered by the countless people from all walks of life whom he has enriched with measures of music and wisdom of astonishing clarity, he responded by saying
"I would rather be remembered as a likable person than for any phase of my picking. Don't misunderstand me; I really appreciate people's love of what I do with the guitar. That's an achievement as far as I'm concerned, and I'm proud of it. But I'd rather people remember me as a decent human being than as a flashy guitar player. That's the way I feel about it."

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Accommodation needed

This is an email my housemate got from someone asking about a room for rent in our place.... the name has been removed to hide the person's ridiculous identity. This could possibly be like one of those Nigerian hoax letters Chris seems to love, as we got 2 identical emails within 15 minutes of each other....but enough clap trap, on with the show


<('-'<) (^'-'^) (>'-')> <('-'<) (^'-'^) (>'-')> <('-'<) (^'-'^) (>'-')> <('-'<)

Sent: Tuesday, 14 November 2006 5:56 AM
Subject: ACCOMODATION NEEDED

Hello!I saw your add about renting a place out and decided to write you. I want totell you a little about myself.

My name is xxxxxx. I am from india.Iwill not write you much about myself right now, I want just to give you anidea of who I am. I have a higher education and I am rather intelligent. Ithink I have everything,I have really many interests:music, reading, books,computers, movies, good conversations, sports and many other things whichmake the life wonderful, less i forget i am also a chirstian and i attendCHIRST EMBASSY, guess your wonderging am a chirstian yes i am and you canlook it up on the website christembassy.org .

I can't say that I have manytrue friends but a lot of acquaintances. Friend is a person who can alwayshelp me, who can support you, on whom you can rely and whom you cancompletely believe and trust. And I am lucky to have some really goodfriends. I am very sociable that is why there are many people I have goodrelations with. I am rather independent and I work hard to have what I need.Also my mum is an indian woman from india while my dad is also from india.I hope that this does not disturb you. However, if you want to give this achance, I'd be glad to tell you more about myself.I dont smoke and dontdrink but love to have a quiet place were i can relax myself and study andbeen searching for a place online until a friend of mine sent me this sitethat i should send am email to you and i had to.I am a foreign exchange student coming down to QUT to study and get mybachelor certificate in environmental chemistry and get some acquintancewith computer statistics cause down here its really expensive trying tostudy such things here and also not alot of places have suchfacilities...Also i have heard alot about here, the lovely weather and theprecious gargens and parks and the way of life, just want to experiencesomething new thats why i choose to send an email to inquire ifaccomodation will be availbale for a period of 4- 6 months cause thats theduration of my course...Also i am not lazy and do alot of outdoor activitieslike playing basketball, cricket, hockey and football also, i am quiet andlove to be friendly with alot of people...I will appreciate it alot if youget back to me so that i can know if it is availbale ok.....

Just a littlenews i heard that i said i should share, pluto has been removed from being aplanet but will now be called a dwarf planet can you believe that... wellwhen i heard about it on CNN i was shocked cause its been deep down in methat we have 9 planets and now making it 8, am sure it will be very hard forthe new generations of kids coming up and whom they have told that we have 9planets and now saying its 8.. just want to see the face of one of suchpeople lol...So sorry for being a pain in the ass just trying to be friendlythoughwe havent know each other that well. Ok guess is time for me to getgoing now and please kindly get back to me if your accomodation will beavailble for the peroid i requested and let me know how much the rent is permonth ok.. so that i know what to do alrite, will be expecting a reply fromyou soon.. Thanks alot and hope to hear from you soon.....and dont forgettry and check out the church website alrite.

xxxxx

Thursday, November 09, 2006

On Blogging

So I was thinking last night....I don't really know how to blog. I'm not a naturally open person so I tend to think that I don't have interesting things to post about...the truth is that I don't really register most things and so never think about posting them.... I'm making a consciouss effort now though.

So let's hope that with this and the new template for blogger that this blog will begin to improve!