New Cover in Progress
I have spent a little time trying to cover "Bed of Roses" by Bon Jovi.... I found their acoustic version at the "Sessions at AOL" really inspiring. If you have the time, check out the Bon Jovi video below.
I haven't been able to work the guitar as well as I'd like to .... you can check out the WIP through the "My Recorded Songs" link on the right bin.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Songwriting genius
Jon Bon Jovi supposedly wrote "bed of roses" for his wife while recovering from a hangover while on tour.
"Sitting here, wasted and wounded, near this old piano
Trying hard to capture the moment, this morning I don't know"
.....
"Now as you close your eyes, know I'll be thinking about you
While my mistress she calls me, to stand in her spotlight again
Tonight, I won't be alone, though that dont mean I'm not lonely"
....
" I want to lay you down in a bed of roses
For tonight, I sleep on a bed of nails"
Trust me, I've tried to write words to music and its really really difficult. I'm amazed that it seems so effortless in the memorable songs. Bon Jovi just says that he's "trying hard to capture the moment" and it sounds just perfect.
I guess thats what makes great songs great .... they are truly inspired in ways we do not understand. It doesn't matter if the artist is recovering from a hangover or driving a car or even taking a walk ... that's probably what makes the subject of creativity so intriguing ... whats inspires these people ... when, how ... how? I remember reading that the earliest meaning of the word "genius" was a person who was an intermediary through whom the Gods could communicate with others on earth.
Great art must be transcendental. Things like "writers block" simply bear testimony to the fact that there is no "process" that one can follow to create successfully.
Jon Bon Jovi supposedly wrote "bed of roses" for his wife while recovering from a hangover while on tour.
"Sitting here, wasted and wounded, near this old piano
Trying hard to capture the moment, this morning I don't know"
.....
"Now as you close your eyes, know I'll be thinking about you
While my mistress she calls me, to stand in her spotlight again
Tonight, I won't be alone, though that dont mean I'm not lonely"
....
" I want to lay you down in a bed of roses
For tonight, I sleep on a bed of nails"
Trust me, I've tried to write words to music and its really really difficult. I'm amazed that it seems so effortless in the memorable songs. Bon Jovi just says that he's "trying hard to capture the moment" and it sounds just perfect.
I guess thats what makes great songs great .... they are truly inspired in ways we do not understand. It doesn't matter if the artist is recovering from a hangover or driving a car or even taking a walk ... that's probably what makes the subject of creativity so intriguing ... whats inspires these people ... when, how ... how? I remember reading that the earliest meaning of the word "genius" was a person who was an intermediary through whom the Gods could communicate with others on earth.
Great art must be transcendental. Things like "writers block" simply bear testimony to the fact that there is no "process" that one can follow to create successfully.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Second original - This was inspired by a college trip I took during my engineering days. Returning from a visit to someplace on our bikes, our group of guys and girls stopped by a stream gushing down a small rock face. The incessant flow of water over still rocks is captivating, and it is only my lack of skill with a brush that is unable to communicate what I saw.
This is my first painting - I am always inspired by the sight of a sunset or a sunrise over water. This is my interpretation of a burning Sun meeting water in the perfect harmony of the universe, revealing aspects of duality and non-duality. Sunrise, sunset, being two sides of a coin, this painting represents the drama of the Universe that we can explain but cannot completely fathom.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Of Bookers, and everything after
Completed reading "The Inheritance Of Loss" by Kiran Desai yesterday. The last Indian Booker "The God of Small Things" was one of those books I simply could not finish reading. It was just too miserable. A fastidious exercise in in shredding misery to its finest detail and watching it rot.
Kiran Desai is much the same. The story of a group of people living out their lives, in full awareness of the hypocrisies they harbour and nurture, and hold on to even as everything collapses. Hypocrisies resulting from immigration, from poverty, from India, from diversity, etc. I have to say this is a book that will definitely make you more sad than happy. For the most part, the plot is weak and the pages are filled with some description or the other. If you glanced past 3 pages, you wouldn't have missed a thing.
And finally, Kiran Desai misses, or rather forgoes the opportunity to make this a great story by settling for a safe, hopeful ending rather than a bold one. In fact, the bolder ending would have been more in character with the sadness that abounds the book. Instead, Kiran takes a different, rather anticlimactic route.
The book has its positives though. The author is skilled at description and observation. Observations about nuances of hypocrisy and all that must not be. Given her own background, she does a great job of unveiling the phsyche of Indian immigrants all over the globe. Although the story itself is set in the 1950s, one cannot but observe how much things have remained the same for people in India and for Indians abroad. Infact, the one segment of people, Indians abroad, for whom this book is written, will wince the most while reading it.
If you are someone who has the stomach for this much pain, then please go ahead and read this book.
If you are not, then I would recommend that you stay away from this and listen to my recorded music instead :-).
Completed reading "The Inheritance Of Loss" by Kiran Desai yesterday. The last Indian Booker "The God of Small Things" was one of those books I simply could not finish reading. It was just too miserable. A fastidious exercise in in shredding misery to its finest detail and watching it rot.
Kiran Desai is much the same. The story of a group of people living out their lives, in full awareness of the hypocrisies they harbour and nurture, and hold on to even as everything collapses. Hypocrisies resulting from immigration, from poverty, from India, from diversity, etc. I have to say this is a book that will definitely make you more sad than happy. For the most part, the plot is weak and the pages are filled with some description or the other. If you glanced past 3 pages, you wouldn't have missed a thing.
And finally, Kiran Desai misses, or rather forgoes the opportunity to make this a great story by settling for a safe, hopeful ending rather than a bold one. In fact, the bolder ending would have been more in character with the sadness that abounds the book. Instead, Kiran takes a different, rather anticlimactic route.
The book has its positives though. The author is skilled at description and observation. Observations about nuances of hypocrisy and all that must not be. Given her own background, she does a great job of unveiling the phsyche of Indian immigrants all over the globe. Although the story itself is set in the 1950s, one cannot but observe how much things have remained the same for people in India and for Indians abroad. Infact, the one segment of people, Indians abroad, for whom this book is written, will wince the most while reading it.
If you are someone who has the stomach for this much pain, then please go ahead and read this book.
If you are not, then I would recommend that you stay away from this and listen to my recorded music instead :-).
Thursday, November 09, 2006
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