Exchange students - check your host family well!!

Got this story off kottke.org

About this Polish exchange student who came to North Carolina, USA for his 'year abroad' study program. His host happened to be a fundamentalist Christian family who tried for 6 months to take the devil out of his soul!! Poor Kid..

excerpt -

"When I got out of the plane in Greensboro in the US state of North Carolina, I would never have expected my host family to welcome me at the airport, wielding a Bible, and saying, 'Child, our Lord sent you half-way around the world to bring you to us.' At that moment I just wanted to turn round and run back to the plane.

Complete story here...

Bond is back...

Just watched the new Bond flick.. Casino Royale. And it is GOOD!!!!!!!

That's all I'm saying. No more. :)

Enjoy

wait wait.. have to say one line.. It's not a spoiler.

So Bond is not very happy about something (don't ask me what thing) and he goes to the bar for his martini.. and the poor bartender asks him if he wants it shaken or stirred?? And the reply - "Do I look like I give a damn?"

:D

And and and.. the title sequence.. even though it's missing the bond women sihouettes.. it is still so so good!! Man.

I'm gonna go watch that movie again.

dylan dylan dylan

The first Dylan concert I attended was on November 11, 2000. And now six years later, almost to the day, I had the pleasure of seeing him live again, here in Amherst. WOW. The concert was everything that I had hoped and prayed for and more. It's all too common for people to be disappointed at Bob Dylan's live performance, and so I was very nervous about this one. But it was excellent. We could've gotten more.. He could have played the guitar instead of the keyboards. He could've sung so many other songs.. but well, we can't expect him to sing EVERYTHING now, do we??

Anyway, 6 years ago, before the proliferation of personal blogs, I had written a long description of the concert for the benefit of my friends and family back home. In keeping with the tradition, here's one for this concert. I should've written it sooner when it was fresh in my mind.

Anyway, a quick quick review and then pictures and videos huh?

The opening band first - Twas The Raconteurs, a side project by Jack White of the White Stripes. They were good.. a little heavy for a Dylan opener I'd say.. but noisy powerful and good nonetheless. The highlight of their show was a long long loud powerful cover of "Bang Bang".

And now for Dylan...

....

...

Ahhhh.. Screw it.. I read this great review of the show from an "R. Godlis" at expectingrain.com. And there's no way I can top that review. He/She has said everything that I wanted to say and more and more and more... These veteran Dylan followers.. who tag along to every possible Dylan concert.. they know a lot. They're grizzled and grey listenin to Dylan and they've tailed him and loved him and hated him but know him better than anyone else.. I'm not going to presume to know Dylan. I'm just gonna doff my hat off to these fans.. and post their review! :)

Review by R. Godlis


Just waking up from last night's 3 hour drive back to NYC from
Amherst, looking bleary-eyed over breakfast at my scribbled notes
from a show full of surprises.

I'll try to keep the intro material brief. Took my 13 year old
daughter along to her first BD show. Tix in the NYC area were
ridiculously expensive for last row balcony seats, so we went off to
Amherst with reasonably priced 4th row floor seats via ebay. Well
Approximately 4th row, not Positively Fourth Row. Security was so slim in
this college arena, that there were rows of fans standing in front of
the first row of seats. Making our 4th row like the eighth. So it was
more like a general admission standing show with folding chairs in place
to reserve your spot. I saw a few campus police officers trying to move
people along - but believe me,the riot squad was not restless tonight. No
complaints though. I actually like to see Dylan at these places. No
suits, no skeptics, just enthusiastic college kids and middle-aged fans,
with the occassional stoners thrown in for comic relief. An arena that's somewhat intimate where even the last rows can see pretty well.

Dylan seems very relaxed in these places. And tonight he was full of
energy and surprises - right from the start.

Looking at last week's setlists I expected him to open with Maggie's
Farm, Absolutely Sweet Marie, or Cats in the Well. But Boom - just like
that he opens with a fantastic, clear sounding Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat-
with cool organ & a welcome harmonica break.

I looked at my daughter and said - we're in for a good night. But
little did I know. Next up - The Man in Me - was easilly
recognizable from the musical intro. In fact all the songs, even in their
new versions were clearly recognizable. This song is where we got the theme of the night - sung in a very strong voice - "the man in me will hide sometimes to keep from being seen, that's because he doesn't want-
to- turn-into-some-machine..." He did this verse twice! Finished it with
another harp break. Catch your breath. Now Tweedledee, with some very
Augie Meyers like organ trills, followed by the first quiet MT song of
the night - "When the Deal Goes Down" augmented with a carnival-like
organ. And then boom again - we got that great new version of Cold Irons
Bound - how's that? - the one that's been circulating from the Boston
show - which just builds upon itself. Feeling like I can't help it if
I'm lucky...

Sidenote - Dylan seemed to spend a lot of time after each song
walking over to his little table of stuff stage right - Harmonica - Beads
- His Academy Award - Setlists?Songs he wanted to play? - and then
wandering over to the band with something to say. Changes is what it
looked like to me. Did I say the organ sound was turned up nice and
loud?

Next came the 62-62-64 stuff done electric - a very nice Hattie
Carroll (more organ frills), I Don't Believe You (Mendicino like
organ playing - another harp solo - and more organ noodling). Then
into John Brown, not unexpected but still a bit of a surprise
coming on the heels of Hattie Carroll. I spent a lot time telling my daughter - he hardly ever does this one.

But then, big surprise again - Watching the River Flow - a late start on
the vocals as the band waited for him to finish a few more bars of his
organ intro. Some dylanesque drawn out RiiiiiVER FLOWwww vocals and then
the man turned into an Organ Maniac in the break - finishng up by
matching notes with the pedal steel behind him. Did I say there was
absolutely no upsinging tonight - except for the MT stuff where it is
actually part of the original versions? Thank you.

Next - some organ playing in the dark and, another surprise, Sugar
Baby. Very inspired is what I scribbled down. Lots of pedal steel in this
one. Not exactly the "dark" version of a few years ago, but nice to hear
- everyone picked up on the "these bootleggers" verse and the "amount of
trouble women bring" verse. Next - a good loud Highway 61. Followed by
Spirit on the Water - everyone was waiting for the "whompin good time
verse, of course. In fact this crowd was having a whompin good time all
night. They were very vocal. No party poopers in Amherst.

It was at this point that my daughter asked me how many songs he had done
so far - and with my scribbled notes in the dark arena I couldn't really
do a count - but up next came "Summer Days", and we both knew from
looking at the past setlists that we were on song # 13 of 16 - last song
of the regular set.

I figured Bob was on automatic pilot now. He was going to come back and
do Thunder on the Mountain/LARS/AATW and be out of there...

When after the break, he starts playing a slow number! What????

And just like that we're into an amazing "Lenny Bruce". Just dead on. The
high point of an evening full of high points. Why is this night different
than all other nights? Only Bob knows. This is why we go to these shows.
Even my kid knew she was seeing something different. And on top of that
she got a very good "Like A Rolling Stone" - which was just fine as the
closer - just like 1966 in 2006.

We set our direction home for the late night 3 hour drive back to New
York City - thinking I do believe we've had enough.

Review posted from http://my.execpc.com/~billp61/111506r.html#1, via expectingrain.com

From "Spirit On The Water":

You think I'm over the hill
You think I'm past my prime
Let me see what you got
We can have a whoppin' good time

And this was the line that said it all.. and the audience said.. nay, you're not over the hill. let's go ahead and have that good time.

Here are some pictures:


The Raconteurs...













AND...

Here is a really poor put together video of a clip of Thunder On The Mountain. Sorry for the crappy quality. Just wanted to show Dylan dancing at the keyboards. :D

Bob Dylan in Amherst, Nov 2006

Bob Dylan
November 15, 2006
Mullins Center
University of Massachusetts Amherst

I'm just getting out of the concert. WOW. WOW. :)

Here's the setlist. More descriptions later.

1 - Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat
2 - The Man In Me
3 - Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum
4 - When The Deal Goes Down
5 - Cold Iron Bound
6 - The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
7 - I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met)
8 - John Brown
9 - Watching The River Flow
10 - Sugar Baby
11 - Highway 61 Revisited
12 - Spirit On The Water
13 - Summer Days

Encore

14 - Lenny Bruce
15 - Thunder On The Mountain
16 - Like a Rolling Stone

Paquito D'Rivera & the Assad Duo

Paquito D'Rivera and the Assad Duo
DANCES FROM THE NEW WORLD
Fine Arts Center
University of Massachusetts Amherst

November 9, 2006

I was really lucky to meet people who informed me of this jazz master coming to perform here. Thank God I went and attended the concert. Such a treat.

Cuban-born Jazz Master Paquito D'Rivera is widely considered the number one Latin American saxophonist and clarinetist of our time. He plays a mix of jazz, rock, classical, and traditional Cuban music and has four Grammy Awards to his name. A prety big shot in the Jazz, especially the Latin Jazz world.

He was accompanied in this program by the Assad Duo - Brothers Sergio and Odair from brazil - renowned international for their guitar virtuoso.

The concert was presented in a very different, non traditional format with two guitarists and a clarinetist. However, all the music was chosen perfectly for all three, duos, or solo artistry. I wasn't familiar with much of the music that was played other than Aquarelo do Brasil... But they had some beautiful compositions by D'Rivera, Piazzoll, Ginastera etc. El Choclo by Angel Villoldo, to illustrate Tango. In the same vein, Milonga per tre by Piazzolla. Alfonsina y el Mar, the haunting classic by Ariel Ramirez.

I also had the pleasure of watching the concert in the company of a couple of graduate students from the music department, a basoonist and a clarinetist. This led me to the further information that Paquito would be holding a "masters class" in the music department early the following morning. My friend would be performing solo on the clarinet and then paquito would hold forth on the performance and etc etc.

That, I figured, would be worth rolling outta bed for, so I did. And was treated to some awesome clarinet playing, a sweet composition by an argentinian guy (I forgot whom :( ) after which Paquito spoke about the music, the instrument, the process and so on. Most of it was meant obviously for advanced students in music, and expecially clarinet players, but it was good to hear a master talk about his subject. Then a music student jazz band played a unique arrangement of "Love For Sale" with a piano, double bass and three saxophists. Very Cool.

And then Paquito jammed an impromptu clarinet improv with the bass and the pianist. Very Very impressive. That alone was worth it all.

I have a newfound respect for latin Jazz now, which I had never bumped up towards the top of my listening list. Now I'm all about Latin baby!! Yeah! :)

wat to do we are like dat only

This video is awesome.. beautiful.. brilliant. A definite keeper..

12 days of christmas...

for Indians.. :D



By Boymongoose

Scientific knowledge put to good use!

This is one of the best stories I've read in seedmagazine.com in a long long time.

About this Cognitive Neuroscience researcher from Boston who uses his knowledge of the human brain and learning, memory and decision making, in the gameshow "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire".

Fascinating win. :)

Here's the link. Click click click.

The Man With No Face

I read this obituary for East German Spymaster Markus Wolf... "...believed to have been the inspiration for John Le Carre's Soviet spymaster "Karla" in the thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."

What a different world then...
but again, is it all that different?
Where have all the spies gone? The old-school original spies...

Wherever you all may be travelling. Salute.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6132684.stm

Madeliene Peyroux

Madeliene Peyroux in Concert
November 2nd, 2006
Calvin Theatre
Northampton, MA

She has a magical voice, that's for sure. And she did not let us down in a live concert. I thoroughly enjoyed the singing.. her voice... the musicians.

However, I kinda had a different expectation of her as a person, or rather, as a performer. In a venue like the Calvin (which may not be Carnegie Hall but it is respected nonetheless).. wouldn't one expect a Jazz Vocalist, a Chanteuse, to be more... elegant? dressy? reserved? befitting the tradition of classic jazz chanteuses? Well, that may just be my preconception and expectation and hence the disappointment. But I really expected her to be dressed in evening wear.. an elegant gown say.. hair well made up.. Solitary, almost tragic in her aloofness.. breathing out her songs.
But she was dressd most casually I'd say.. even more casual than a folk singer (whose casualness is achieved after much deliberation). And her on stage manner was definitely not polished like one would expect.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that there was this huge disconnect between the artiste and her art! Something didn't click.

BUT.. don't get me wrong. I totally enjoyed it... although for some numbers I had to literally close my eyes to get into the atmosphere.

I do not remember the set list exactly... but she started off with a smoky blue blue blue rendition of "Blue Alert"... and didn't look back after that. Some of my favourites she sang (not in order): I'm Alright, Careless Love, Dance Me To The End Of Love, La Javanaise, Half The Perfect World, Summer Wind, You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, Don't Wait Too Long, Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night...

And she performed an excellent version of I Think It's Going to Rain Today (Judy Collins (???))...

Lonely, lonely.
Tin can at my feet,
I think I'll kick it down the street.
That's the way to treat a friend.

She came back for an encore of J'ai Deux Amours and Dance Me to the End of Love.

here are some pics.. And until I get an Image Stabilization camera or a DSLR, this is the quality you'll have to bear with! :)





Her opening act was the solo musician Jill Sobule.. who was talented.. witty and goofy and immediately struck up a rapport with the audience. Alex, whom I attended the concert with, knew much of her songs.. I don't think I'd heard any.. But check her out.. www.jillsobule.com.

Halloween 2006

Steph hosted the (pre)-Halloween party on the saturday before the actual day.

I was the zombiefied rasta-man...



:D

Click here for some select pictures from the party...