Last Exam..Blizzard..Rock Concert
The time that I was waiting for finally arrived. The date reads 17th and I did finish my last exam. If I been less insane I could have made this my last exam ever. In some sense. That's another story.
There was a blizzard this morning and I it was fun to walk around in that before the exam started. It took some time for my fingers to "thaw" before I could start writing. The walking around also resulted in soggy socks, a peeve on which I have ranted before.
First things first after the exam. Harlan Hatcher library. This means that I now have an updated list of books to be read. That column on the left has yellowed with age this Fall. I have to first I must finish the fall backlog of books. The book club in the CO-OP(where I live) has decided to read "Animal Farm" this winter break. My choices were a "Bend in the River" and "Money" , none of which I have read so which I will read anyway.
*****
The afternoon was spent at a rock concert. Actually watching a rock concert the TV room. Thanks to somebody's good sense they have hooked up a Kenwood surround sound system to the DVD player. I was watching the Monterey Pop festival Complete. The volume was turned to a conspicuously loud level. Why? Because it's a rock concert dammit! No one complained, but a couple of people peeped in where Janis was doing "Ball and Chain". Not surprising at all. Janis-Ball and Chain-at the Monterey Festival 1967. It's crazy. Watch it!(LOUD)
I watched the movie twice. The second time with the film-maker and producer commenting about the various aspects of the film and performances. It's kinda of hard to believe that none of these guys and most people there, had ever seen or heard of the Jimi Hendrix, The Who and really did not know what to expect.
Ravi Shankar
Putting Ravi Shankar at the end of the film (not the original concert) was a masterful idea. As he explains,
"...I put Ravi at the end because I felt that that's where I think I wanted to leave people. A sense of arrival at a different place. They all thought that they would come here and get liberated by drugs and what actually liberated them was something totally unexpected."
D.A. Pennebaker

Ravi Shankar performed Raga Bhimpulasi along with Allarakkha Khan. The audience was moved by the Jugalbandhi. I feel its quite a shame that the percussionist always is the junior artiste. Throught they refer to A.R. as '..the tabla player.". Perhaps if A.R. had also managed to get some famous drummer as his pupil then he would be just as famous as Ravi Shankar.