The Clearing

Usually, we of State College, consider ourselves lucky if we manage to witness just one performance of Indian classical music a year. So imagine how utterly giddy we must be feeling now that we've had two classical performances within a week of each other (although, admittedly, the first one, Anoushka Shankar and co., wasn't exactly a purely classical one--it was, while on the subject, a somewhat unremarkable attempt at fusion). The second performance which happened over the weekend was by Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia.

The local desi graduate student organization did indeed do really well to bring one of the best known HCM artists to SC. The crowd was, expectedly, mostly Indian, and anticipating a larger turnout most people arrived well before time--so much for stereotypes (Indian Standard Time etc.). Though the concert itself did not start on time, mainly due to two speeches, the first introducing the chief guest who is arguably the most famous physicist in Penn State, Dr. Abhay Ashtekar, and the second by Dr. A introducing the artist. The speeches could definitely have been shorter but they were well researched so people didn't mind them so much.

Panditji was accompanied by Pt. Vijay Ghate on the tabla. He opened with Madhuwanti starting with swar-vistar, followed by jor, and finally a bandish in rupak. Unfortunately, Madhuwanti is a raag I'm not too familiar with so I can't really decide how good a job panditji did with that raag specifically. I did get the impression though that, despite the fact that he was obviously enjoying himself and making efforts to keep the audience entertained, age might finally be catching up with him. Firstly, the sound of his blowing was often comparable to the sound of the flute which took some getting used to. I doubt that this was entirely due to the fact that the microphone was placed higher than the mouthpiece of the flute. Another telltale sign, in my opinion, was that when he was playing the flute at a fast tempo the clarity of the individual notes was not enough for an artist if his caliber. I think I also heard him accidentally miss a note or two (all air no note) when he was doing the taans (or whatever they are referred to as in the instrumental setting) though I could be mistaken.

Not only was it the first time I was seeing Pt C in concert but it was also my first time hearing Pt. Ghate live. Pt. G is definitely a very accomplished artist and the clarity of his bols made it a joy listening to him playing the tabla. There was a lot of sawaal-jawab that took place during the Madhuwanti piece which was probably the most crowd-pleasing aspect of the concert. What I did not enjoy all that much about Pt. Ghate is that he's a showman to the extent that getting a reaction from the crowd seems more important than the playing itself to him. A subjective opinion (like any other opinion) as there were some in the audience who really liked him for this very trait and didn't find it vulgar like me.

Pt. C decided to take requests for the second raag. There was a request for Marwa which he turned down on account of it not being the right time for that raag. Then some idiot in the second row requested Yaman. Suddenly Pt. C was gushing at the choice of the raag as apparently it was a right time for Yaman, and that is what he decided to play. I was disappointed by the choice because Yaman is a very common raag with somewhat limited possibilities, I would have appreciated something less common. He played Piya Ki Nazariya, it was well done and quite enjoyable. Another round of requests, this time round people wanted him to play Vande Mataram. He ignored that request and played a Bengali folk tune instead. Again, an unknown tune, mildly enjoyable.

Here we go again, another round of requests for the final piece, now some idiots wanted him to sing the national anthem, imagine that! So when somebody else said Vande Maataram again Pt. C reluctantly agreed, an easy call if his other option was to sing the anthem. His rendition of Vande Maataram was short and cute. On the whole I came away a little disappointed, I think I would have been much happier if his choice of raags had been somewhat different.

Update: Looks like I spaced out towards the end, it has been brought to my attention by discerning readers of my blog that the last piece played by Pt. C was Vaishno Janato and not Vande Mataram. Can I make the excuse that I'm doing a PhD in Physics??

Labels: Reviews

Despite major reservations, a bunch of us did finally give in to the hype, and decided to watch the best advertised movie in recent times--Snakes on a Plane. In case you haven't heard, it is unadulterated crap. The highpoint for me was waiting for Samuel L. to say m*&^%$#f&^%$# which he did--sorry if I'm killing the suspense here--just twice in the whole movie, with the first one coming when the movie was almost 80% over (almost killing me with anticipation... sitting outside a plane). It was fun nonetheless, like watching a Govinda movie, and admiring and celebrating the incomparable cheesiness of it all. Here's a no-nonsense review (scroll to the very end to read the review for this film).

On Saturday, decided to watch Little Miss Sunshine with friends claiming that it had got good reviews in the NYtimes (which is definitely high praise, after all, when was the last time Stephen Holden actually liked a movie?). This one started off looking like a typically vague and pointless arty movie with strong existential themes (i.e. not my kind of movie): the opening shot is about a woman taking in deep breaths before entering a hospital room to meet her depressed brother who slit his wrists in an unsuccessful bid to end his life. The brother is forced to move into the sister's house and has to share a room with her son who reads Nietzsche and has not spoken a word in the last 9 months in one of those teenage-rebel-without-a-cause deals. Fortunately, the mood of the movie becomes lighter from there on--we are introduced to the father who is trying to make a career out of teaching optimism, a grandfather whose cussing ways would put Samuel J in his Pulp Fiction avatar to shame, and finally the daughter who is a sweet 8 year old whose sole ambition is to win the Little Miss Sunshine which is a beauty pageant for young kids in distant California. The plot of the movie revolves around the family's very eventful and entertaining 600 mile trip to that pageant.

The movie is highly recommended--it's thoughtful and sensitive, along with being one of funniest movies I have recently seen.

Labels: Reviews

It's incredible how little I have to write about, so I'll just ramble along a bit. Writing this blog, considering the number of people who view it, is in any case a lot like having a conversation with myself. I do, however, apologize to any readers who might be choosing to keep their identities secret (why, mate?).

I saw My SuperExGirlfriend the other day. It was a last minute, somewhat reluctant, decision to see it, instead of Lady in the Water--ultimately capitulating to the pressure put by the highly unfavorable NYtimes' review of Shymalan's latest, atleast two of us in the group had read. The low expectations worked in our favor, and we ended up really enjoying ourselves. The movie is a bit of a spoof of Superman. Whereas, the comic devices/situations are not all that original (except, perhaps, the shark being thrown into an window of an apartment in a high-rise building?), what really works in the favor of the film is the editing which is very crisp--the director, apparently, does not like to linger, which translates into not making the bad parts of the movie worse. So do watch it if there is not much else to choose from--that is indeed a good recipe for having low expectations from a film, watching a film not for its sake but as an excuse for an outing or a break from research (sorry, too specific there, replace by word that applies better to your case).

Labels: Reviews

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

A closer look, I decided, was warranted at Gangubai Hangal's place in the world of Hindustani classical music after reading this article which I came across via this blog. If the `my memory is like a Swiss cheese' factor, as a friend of mine likes to say, is not at work here, the first and only time I have heard Gangubai Hangal sing live was as a part of the SPIC-MACAY convention in Bhopal in `98, and I came away rather unimpressed. In fact, what I heard in that performance left me cold, and wondering about the reason for her stalwart reputation--to put it very crudely she sounds firstly, like a man, and secondly, a man whose voice is too subdued, stunted, and unspectacular for singing.

Obviously, to do her justice she should be judged by her whole body of work and not just what she sounds like now, so I proceeded to get better acquainted with her older works (also, I should admit that I was troubled about being in conflict with the general opinion about her talent). So, inspired by the aforementioned article, I went to the musicindiaonline website (where else?), which I'm happy to report does have some younger Gangubai music. The pieces are fairly short but whatever little I heard was enough to convince me (and hence this post) that she was definitely an accomplished singer before her voice underwent a very strange, and obviously unfavorable, transformation. I especially liked the bhairav piece.

Labels: Reviews

I just finished reading this very atypical Ken Follet novel called `Pillars of the Earth'. The central `character' is actually a church whose history the book traces out. It's of the historical fiction genre; it's the first time I've read something like this (Aside: No I haven't read `Da Vinci's Code', and don't plan to read it either from the mediocre descriptions I have heard about it from friends although I realize they are completely at odds with what the media has to say about it. I do plan to see the movie however). The setting is medieval England in the 12th century. I enjoyed reading it for its plot which I found engaging, for what seemed to me a very authentic description of life in those times, and for the incidental history lesson I received about the war of succession after the death of Henry I.

I came across a very favorable description of the book on a booklist on some website (I forget which), and since my reading has been somewhat down lately I decided to take up this monster of a novel---it's about a thousand pages. It was pretty interesting reading the preface of the novel where Follet writes about the misgivings his editor/agent had about his taking up something so different from the usual thriller type stuff he wrote. Follet goes on to assure his editor that his intention is not to give a pedantic history lesson, it's to write an entertaining story in a historically accurate setting. That's something I think the author was able to achieve, the story is indeed quite captivating, it's no joke to sustain the interest of the reader over a thousand pages. Reading the novel is almost like watching a Hollywood epic: there's death, love, rape, revenge scenarios, ego hassle issues, carnage, travel --- I guess a thousand pages gives you a large enough canvas to explore various themes. It also, inevitably, reads somewhat like a fairytale since it's about beautiful women with bodies of perfect proportions, knights, earls, and kings (some of whom actually live up to the chivalry ideal). The setting also seems fairly authentic, Follet obviously did his homework, the book is very thoroughly researched.

The characters are not 2-dimensional, but I sometimes had trouble with the black-or-white morality of the characters. This issue became especially problematic for me after around the 700 pages mark when the moral themes started to feel too repetitive and boring. The other issue is the language and style of the author which easily reveal his thriller-writing background. The book is very accessible which is also its shortcoming---I like books which require a little bit of effort, I want to be able to appreciate well written English, see unusual words in action...


All in all, considering I raced through the novel in 3 days flat I would have to say that the book is worth a read.

Labels: Reviews