Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

Last week I saw Caetano Veloso in concert at the Hill. The Brazilian Bob Dylan had unfortunately decided to go electric this time. The show was nice, but the energy was low since most of the crowd, like me, had showed up expecting the more soulful Brazilian acoustic melodies. While the electric stuff was great, when Veloso played his acoustic stuff unaccompanied you could feel that the music was at another level.

Yesterday's show by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ) at Rackham was packed. There would be no singing and the auditorium is perfect for such acoustic performances. The guitar is a sort of bastard child among instruments when it comes to classical music. It is often considered not to be pure enough to make it on the symphonic concert stage. You notice that many classical guitarists have this chip on their shoulder, Andres Torres Segovia included. The LAGQ has done a great job rearranging a lot of classical music that is mainly for strings for the four guitars and it's a job well done. Yesterday's Brandenburg Concert No.6 by Bach was a perfect example.

But, they also have tremendous range in their repertoire as they played samba/bossa-nova music from Brazil, Celtic-inspired compositions and Spanish flamenco from Manuel Falla and music by a Russian composer who never went to Spain - Rimsy-Korsakov. The Korsakov piece was in lieu of the Hungarian Rhapsody by Liszt which they played a few years ago in Ann Arbor. What's really beautiful is to see, for a change, four guitars not dueling with each other on the stage but playing together to create one voice.

It is a vicious cycle, not many composers really write for the guitar and hence there isn't much 'classical' specifically for the guitar. It is therefore quite commendable that the LAGQ, while not composers themselves, have managed to inspire a couple of composers to write music for them.

Since UMS has decided to focus on guitarist this season there will be a lot of guitar gods passing through in the next few months, including Leo Kottke and the Assad brothers.

OSU 14, Mich 3; me - below zero

Today was 'The Game'. The most famous rivalry in football stretching back 102 years - Michigan versus Ohio State. If there was a list of the most boring states in the country, Ohio would rank in the top five, along with New Jersey. That is one of the reasons Michigan fans give for hating Ohio and the Ohio State team in particular. Ohio is the real middle America, and no surprise that this state has given America seven presidents and decides presidential elections. The American Midwest in known for a lot things and among them is the fanatic appeal of football. A totally perverse game according to me. Not only do they play with an egg-shaped ball, and hardly ever kick the ball, but also the fact that a great football day is when the weather is most foul.

Today, Saturday was most foul. Almost freezing. Grey, windy, and raining. This was my last chance to see a Mich-OSU game in the Big House and I felt, despite my little interest, I must pay my respects, at least once, to the holiest Michigan traditions. They say you can't graduate till you know the Fight song (I am working on both!). I had friend who came all the way from California to watch. He has my sympathies. It was tremendous let-down for what was promised to be a great showdown. Not only was the game low-scoring, but also was super boring with nothing much happening for close to four hours. Unlike soccer, the game is mostly abrupt, with each play lasting less than few tens of seconds.

In any case, I doubt that 112,000 people really show up for the football. Football Saturdays are just another good excuse to get drunk before noon and talk trash about opposing teams. It is one of the beauties of America to create an entire supporting subculture on almost anything that is done by more than a dozen people. A lot of things about football Saturday are not not about football at all. The tailgate, the BBQ, etc. This culture is what I enjoy the most - the feeling of being walking towards the stadium and being sucked into another world. I like to hear the guy outside the IMSB building who raps extempore on way to the stadium. The smell of the hot-dogs on the grill. The martial march of the sea of yellow shirts. The drunk undergrads with the ridiculous face-paint, the trash-talkers and over-priced pizza slices.

In the stands, the guy behind me decided to streak onto the field. He got down to his undies and was trying to persuade others around him to get naked. Given the general boredom it might have happened, perhaps on a warm sunny day. Soon he decided that the twin problems of getting arrested and getting hypothermia with no supporting nudists was not worth it.

For all the pre-game hype, freezing to see Michigan held to a total yardage, less than length of the field, wasn't worth it. I could have been toasting in the comfort of home. But, then you have no stories to tell.

Agony is the Mother of Invention

This might sound familiar to all those, like me, who have to travel monkey-class on planes. There is waiting and more waiting. Waiting to get in the plane, waiting to get out of the plane, waiting to get your measly half-cup of orange juice. The worst undoubtedly is waiting for access to the toilet.
For the ten rows of business class, 6*2=12 people there were two toilets. The other two, at the back of the plane was shared by 30*6=180. One can make a fair assumption that the micturation needs of both classes are same, unless they are serving something very different up there (I have never had the opportunity to find out). Given this skewed ratio, the lines are much longer in monkey class.
Can this process be made more effective? These are areas, according to me, where market economics are not applied enough. Now even airline peanuts are not free. If every extra convenience is charged - like extra baggage, or meals on planes - they should also introduce an option to pay $10 extra to have a FAST PASS to the bathroom which gives you the right to skip over every other person in line who does not hold a similar FAST PASS. The airlines will not only make money this way, but will also save some as the really risk-averse and cheap will not drink anything and take the chance on dehydration than suffer the agony of waiting in line.

Till that is implemented a work around is to go is right after they have served drinks, when the lines are short or non-existent. If you wait for about half an hour, then you might have to really exercise some more self-control and wait even longer.

Caffeine Break

Today is Day Four of my caffeine break.
To convince myself that my soul can be redeemed and realizing that having close to a pot or more of coffee everyday isn't going to do me much good, I'm on a caffeine break this week. Taking its literal meaning, I won't (or will try not to) have coffee or any caffeinated drink all of this week. So far, the flesh has done the bidding of the spirit. Nothing like conducting an experiment on yourself.

One things about quitting is that there are always people handy to give you advice. One of the things suggested was to drink hot water from the mug instead of the usual joe. It worked, sort of. On Day Three I buckled in to drink hot tea (decaf, of course). That's keeping me going and I'm convincing myself that it doesn't count as cheating. (It's a lot better than the hot water for sure!)

All I have to worry about is Friday. Funnily enough, I don't drink coffee at home. It's a conditioned reflex of sorts that I need it when I am at work or going to work.
In the meantime, every coffee-shop looks enticing and I am tempted to snatch a cup from someone.

Drugs, man! they make you do these things.

2.3 Planets Needed!

On taking this Ecological Footprint Quiz I found that I am doing much better than the average American in keeping my environmental footprint small. I bike to work or take the bus; sparingly use my one fuel-efficient car; and try to walk to most places. Despite all that, we would still need 2.3 planets if every person on the planet lived like me. Shame!

American average: 24 acres
My Score: 10 acres
Actual biological acres available: 4.5 acres

*
Looking for a media bias? Check the coverage on Gore's victory. The Economist wasn't too pleased about Mr. Gore winning the prize. Well, the Economist will be the Economist, but I was surprised to read their background blurb on the article.

Global temperatures and sea levels seem to be rising, but whether this is mankind's or nature's fault is unclear.

Hah! The facts are unclear, then why feel so bad about the 2.3 planets? The New York Times in its infinite wisdom found this op-ed piece by Paul Krugman fit to print. From the Gore Derangement Syndrome:

So if science says that we have a big problem that can’t be solved with tax cuts or bombs — well, the science must be rejected, and the scientists must be slimed.

Coexist

Saw a variation of this sticker, which wasn't half as decent. At least on this one they have science (with science's poster child) on there.

From their website:
Every letter has a symbol that represents a system of thought: The crescent and star for Islam; the pentagram for Wicca; the relativity formula for science; the star of David for Judaism; the Karma Wheel dotting the i for Buddhism; the Tao symbol for Taoism; the cross for Chrisitianity.

Wondering if I should support the notion or not.

GO gREen!

Now that Gore has won the Peace prize for his fight against global warming (not, as I read in a couple of places, 'for global warming'), this project might gain more adherents.



I have signed up, but is this one more of a quiet and failed attempt, lacking in courage as Thomas Friedman alleges? Our generation, he writes, is too quiet and too online. More inside, deep inside virtual worlds, than outside.

When I grow up ...

Every small company or startup wants to be a Google when they grow up. From one startup's description,

[ ]'s mission is no less than to be the next Google. They want to be the next great software company right here in Ann Arbor ...

Looks like Microsoft is not cool anymore. Since 1997 a number of former role models have fallen from their pedestals, in the minds of new startups at least. The idea that the above description seems to suggest is that Google is synonymous with rapid growth, innovation, coolness, and high valuations. Which company does not want that? It was a rather pathetic way to lure undergraduates into thinking that they had a chance to work for the 'next Google'. I wish these companies all the best in trying to get there. While Google will be around ten years later, I still wonder if it will still be that company that every currently unemployed nerd has a wet dream just imagining he works there.

For now, a great business opportunity is to cash a la mode Levi Strauss is to make T-shirts and sell them to these startups. The tagline: "I work for The Next Google".

He hath spoken

Even tight-lipped gods have to come down from Olympus occasionally. After debating the idea for a number of years, Clapton finally wrote down 'his version of the memories' in his recently released autobiography - 'Clapton'. In a concert that I attended a few years ago, Clapton barely said more than a few words. He is one of those who lets the guitar do the talking.

The NYT Times Review (better read online than on paper) praised the book and notes Clapton's tone of detachment as he writes about his deepest and darkest times. For Clapton fans, the review hasn't much to offer as it focuses more on the personal themes, like the oft-repeated story of rock and roll's most famous love triangle - Clapton, Pattie Boyd, and George Harrison. The review hasn't much detail on his music or its creation, and I hope that the book itself has more to offer in that department. It will be a great disappointment if the book chronicles merely the people and events in his life. Sometimes, a well-written biography is better than an authentic autobiography, if there is such a thing.

Who's who on YouTube

The Nobel Prize is, in its own words, now a 'brand' on the YouTube bandwagon. A good move in anticipation of all the announcements next week.

The Problem with Emails

"I read your emails"
- on a T-shirt

The written word,
especially the hastily written email,
Can always be misconstrued
(including the word 'read')

What follows are more keystrokes
And irate digital bits.
Try a phone call maybe?
EOM

Shelter from the Storm

I've heard newborn babies wailin' like a mournin' dove
And old men with broken teeth stranded without love.
Do I understand your question, man, is it hopeless and forlorn?
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

- Bob Dylan

I was without internet access for most of the time that I have been in France. I am used being online constantly and have to urge this battle against the impulse to respond to every new email instantly. While rambling around Paris was rather exhausting, I must say that I was quite up to the task of spending a few more minutes online. For the first time, I had not left anything behind and yet I had this feeling that I had left something behind. I had, it was - free, constant and relentless access to the internet.

It wasn't that people would give me up for dead if I did not respond, but puzzling question of 'How would I find information that I needed and did not have?' Four, five days later and it strangely after a few days it does not matter as much. I had this idea that I would sit in some cafe in Paris and post my dispatch for the day.

Another One Will Bite the Dust

It was no wonder of wonders that as part of the conference schwag I was given a laptop bag. Not another laptop bag! Can organizers be so lacking in imagination that all they can think of is giving out another laptop case? Surely, they have enough of their own gathering dust on a shelf.

A Taste of a Feast

More importantly, personally of course, is the fact that I have been in Paris since last Saturday. As recuperation from the day's mad rambles I have been reading Hemingway's A Moveable Feast - his memoir of Paris in the 20s, or more correctly, of his account of 1920s Paris as a young and struggling writer.

Before getting to France, I felt I needed to 'prepare' for the trip. (It is France after all.) 'Prepare', in my book, is defined as - to read as much as possible on the subject. I was intrigued by the fact that a memoir about an age in Paris long gone is still referenced in almost every general book or guide on Paris.

The books begins with a quote from a letter that Hemingway wrote to a friend:

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.

That was arresting enough. Yet, I could not read it before I left since I had to do the stuff that pays the rent and which defrays the cost of getting to France. In retrospect it was infinitely better not to have read it before.

I am trying to figure out why this book appeals and enthralls me so much. Much of it appeal lies perhaps in the fact that the book is a sort of a mirror. Like Hemingway, I find myself in Paris, in my 20s, recently married, with wife, and with a rather thin wallet (done thinner by the weak greenback). When Hemingway writes that on a hungry stomach he appreciated the paintings in Luxembourg museum better, I not only understand it but also know it. Then there are times when the taste and sheer delight of my meal and the wine of the afternoon come alive as I read an account of his meal years ago.

The book is a wonderful dessert at the end of a marvelous feast that is Paris. It is one of the few books that one is lucky to have read at the right age, place and time.
What I have right now is simply a taste of Paris. On Paris, later. For now, I realise it's really important to first savor the taste.

Join the Have Nots

I see them on busstops, under trees on campus, at info-desks, on street-corner cafes. From Seattle to Singapore, people between six and sixty are doing 'it' at all times of the day. 'It' has achieved the impossible. People have even given up TV for 'it'! That's something.

'It' is a recent 700+page book which has managed to numb millions to any sort of sensation; many have taken a temporary leave of absence from their responsibilities as children, graduate students, parents, babysitters and citizens. While they are under the grip of a fantastic spell, I am gripped by self-doubt. A lot of self-doubt. For a person who fancies himself as reading omnivore I wonder - 'Have I managed to miss out on the greatest book cult of my generation?' For all her billions, J.K. Rowling has nothing to thank me for; I haven't read any of the books or seen any of the movies.

If you put half a dozen people together, somehow, somebody manages to steer the conversation to the sixth and last book. I try to hide behind the nearest flower-pot to avoid embarassment. "Man, you are STILL reading Faulkner? That's not even 60s dude, that's 40s."

Millions of people queuing up for the book at midnight like crack-addicts waiting for their next fix can't be wrong, can they? Am I simply a literary snob? or just out of touch with popular culture? What is a great book? One that seeks out universal truths? or one that has universal appeal?>

While Harry Potter could be the answer to world peace, the world is clearly divided into the haves and the have-nots. I clearly belong to the mass of people who have not read the hexology (Aside: I was disappointed it wasn't called a sexology!) The time is nigh to start a support group for the have-nots. Want to join? Don't be ashamed. Whether you are a self-doubter, a pop-culture hater, or just an unrepentant snob - help is at hand.