The Clearing

Watch Rescue Me on FX: The show, which is about the lives of a NY based firefighting unit, is now into its second season and still continues to stay interesting. The major selling point of the show is its irreverent and irresponsible attitude--alcoholism, drug-use, womanizing, resorting to violence/stonewalling instead of communication (which is so deliciously contrary to the typical pop-psychological answer to resolving conflict, improving relationships, etc.), sleeping with your nephew's irresistible schoolteacher to get her to stop `seeing' the nephew (what a deal!), is all very explicit stuff that one expects to see in films, but not on TV (excluding HBO). There is a purity of purpose to the show--the makers of the show are very clear that the goal of the show is to provide thrills, entertain, and their choice of plotlines and the behavioral traits they choose to highlight in their characters reflects that aim--it is not to delve on the stuff of human existence, which might be very realistic, but has low entertainment value. So Rescue Me, in my opinion, is a show that manages to realize this philosophy better than most other shows. The bottomline is that, whatever I might imagine my reasons for watching the show are, I really do enjoy watching it, I hope I have been able to convey that here.

Labels: Reviews

Aaroh, the Indian classical music group I am a part of, had its first public music performance on the 29th of June at the Schlow public library courtesy of Global Connections. It was a 50 minute concert that started with a 15 minute recital of Bageshri by Sanghamitra followed by a 15 minute recital of Puriya Dhanasri by me. Mitra, who was accompanied by Murali on the Tabla, sang Kaun Karat Tori Vinati Piyarva, while I was accompanied by Piyush on the Tabla, and sang Payaliya Jhankaar. After the classical pieces each of us sang a light piece with the tabla players exchanged. Sanghamitra sang a Bengali song Dhiton dhiton Bole while I sang a bhajan in Bhairav by Surdas: Khelat Shyam Gwalan Sang. This was followed by a lec-dem by Murali and Piyush on the tablas, they would recite the bol and then play them on the tabla. The conclusion was Dama dam mast kalandar performed by Mitra accompanied mainly by Piyush, Murali and I contributed too-he played the tabla upside down like a ghatam while I provided backup vocals on the refrain--all in an effort to make the concert end on a loud and energetic crescendo.

I think we all did a great job--four weeks of practice really paid off. The four of us came together about a year back and have been meeting fortnightly for informal sessions since. The idea to perform in the World Sounds at Noon was floated by Murali. We were all, I think, a little reluctant--we were not convinced that we had reached a level where we could give a public performance--but did eventually come around. Both Mitra and I have a few ragas each we are really comfortable with. In my case, Puriya Dhansri is a raag I can rely on even when I'm too tired to sing anything else, so it was the inevitable choice. After so much practice we were all quite sick of singing/playing the same pieces over and over again, so it came as a bit of a surprise that we didn't experience that ennui during the performance--I guess performing before a crowd gave the routine a novelty which had been missing the last few times we had rehearsed. I really enjoyed singing the Puriya Dhanasri--the goal, as far as I'm concerned, is to be able to feel the music and I really did. Being an amateur performer the best I can say about the performance is that I was able to do the best I can, and I feel I did--now only if I could feel this sense of complete command with Physics. Ma was able to make the trip down from Princeton for the concert, and her praise after the concert seemed genuine enough to increase the general feel-good factor.

I screwed up a little bit on the Bhairav song, I spent a beat too long a couple of times but was able to adjust as I was keeping track of the rupak by counting on the fingers. It is a bit of a handicap, I must say, to have to count on the fingers to keep track of the beat, but in my defense I have started practicing with a tabla only since we guys formed aaroh. The funny thing is that we didn't even have a name for the group till Merill, the lady who was organizing the event, asked us for one. Really happy about the name, even though, apparently, there is a more famous Pakistani group by the same name--a discovery we made a little late in the day.

The aftermath: we were at the local (NJ) Udipi restaurant the other night, and I was describing loudly the performance to Shivani and her friends when all of a sudden I found my mother talking to an attractive lady at an adjoining table (who was sitting with her equally attractive daughter-in-law). Apparently, the subject of my speech, despite the obnoxious-blowing-your-own-trumpet way it was delivered in, had interested her. Turns out that they are a Pakistani family from Karachi who like to patronize artists (obviously of all levels)--and I ended up with her phone number and an invitation to contact her if the group would ever like to perform in NJ. Now that's one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me--it's like getting invited to a conference to give a talk (sorry, limited imagination). Sigh, the future suddenly seems filled with possibilities... Pragmatism, however, suggests that I return to Earth very soon and figure out why I am not in complete command of my code on strange stars.

Labels: autobiographical