From: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org (basia-digest) To: basia-digest@smoe.org Subject: basia-digest V3 #190 Reply-To: basia@smoe.org Sender: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "basia-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. basia-digest Saturday, September 5 1998 Volume 03 : Number 190 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: basia-digest V3 #189 ["Lizy" ] Re: THE COPERNICAN CHRONICLES: How far will you go... [Phil Hall ] RE: THE COPERNICAN CHRONICLES: How far will you go... ["Ashoke S. Talukda] any basia concerts ["Laura Norton Agarwal" ] RE: THE COPERNICAN CHRONICLES: How far will you go... [Phil Hall Subject: Re: basia-digest V3 #189 Ashoke wrote: >A quick point to note when you start putting together something for the >notebook (Larry-of-the-LipBOY-fame pointed this out to me and I admit that >I had not given it much thought). Basia and Danny ARE a team. So, we >shouldn't let him feel left out! In other words, please remember to >include him in your salutations. After all, he IS the one that makes songs >like "Drunk on Love" sound the way they do. Excellent point, Ashoke & Larry. Will keep that in mind... Lizy ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 07:46:15 +0000 From: Phil Hall Subject: Re: THE COPERNICAN CHRONICLES: How far will you go... Ashoke, Given the topic below, I would think you might consider a more appropriate tune to correlate your feelings would be 'Come To Heaven', which immediately follows 'Masquerade'. I know that when I first bought the album I thought the latter might be a cover of Leon Russell's 'This Masquerade' (made famous by George Benson). But no. I have always wanted to visit India - particularly Calcutta. I read 'A Suitable Boy' by Vikram Seth a few years ago. A great story (about the Partition, post colonial 1950's). When you mention all the people killing each other, are you talking Hindus and Sikhs, or just general killing? Are you into cricket? Are Basia CD's available in India? I know there is a vast music industry over there. Phil At 06:32 PM 9/2/98 -0500, Ashoke Talukdar wrote: > >Some years ago, I visited a very unique temple city in the South of >India. The temple in question was built in honor of the goddess >Meenakshi - the goddess of wealth. Being a somewhat unconventional >tourist, I decided to do something - well - unconventional, at least by >the standards of a typical visitor to the temple. Instead of taking >a train to the city of Madurai (which is home to the temple), I >convinced my family to make the trip on a freight helicopter! It was >1993 and I was on my second visit to India since I had come to the US. > >Most folks are completely enthralled by the murals on the gigantic >concrete cape that sits on top of the sanctuary. This pyramidal >topping is covered with thousands of little handcarved statuettes of >mythological characters. It is an even more breathtaking sight from >the air. But what left me speechless was the organization of the city >around it. There were almost perfectly rectangular, alternating layers >of houses and streets, that seemed to have grown right out of the >courtyard of the temple itself. The concept was not surprising. Six >hundred years ago, the temple was THE reason for birth of the city. >But the implementation was, nevertheless, fascinating. It is also a >realization that most visitors don't allow themselves to experience. > >Hindu temples in India had always been little pockets of splendor, >particular those devoted to the goddess of wealth. Many of these >temples in the Northern parts had been repeated plundered and looted >over the first half of the millenium, by the Muslim invaders from the >East. The southern temples, being less accessible, had been spared of >the the brutal wake of their spoils and, till today, maintain some of >their pristine charm and architectural marvel which transcends all >religion. And although, the temples are no longer the singular centers >of wealth and affluence, they remain the most priceless jewels of 5 >millenia worth of culture and thought. It is here that the most cogent >of all human thoughts is allowed to remain, after being filtered by the >ruthlessly discriminating glance of time. > >In the light of all the people that are being senselessly killed >everywhere, in the wake of people who pretend to be that which they are not, >it brought to mind our current preponderance with money and >wealth and other material oddities that, although conceptually trivial, >nevertheless seem to take a firmer grip over our lives than we would >like to admit. Perhaps this is why places of art are plundered and >people have learnt to kill. So also it behooves us to ask "How far >WILL we go?" > >There is perhaps some twisted joy that one can derive from the city of >Madurai. The most cherished of our wealth, ironically, is also the >most intangible. No machination can ever remove its traces and no >power can stop its fervor. And even if we cannot save the trees for >our children, they will still be able to find this essential wealth of >human spirit under the worst of nuclear winters. Perhaps that portrait >will never be quite so bleak but that's all the more reason to be >gleeful. > >I suppose, everyone one of us, is ultimately the master of some form of >disguise or the other. Be it one where we convince others of our >ungainly predicaments or ourselves of our inauthentic securities, the >result is ultimately the same - we find ourselves flying on the wings >of reflection, staring down onto the deeds of the ages, complete slaves >to the powerful message that lies therein. And once again, it's time >to Masquerade. > >Peace, >Ashoke. >____________________________________________________________________ >Ashoke S. Talukdar | I'm writing you this letter from >talukdar@morph.ebme.cwru.edu | some old hotel. I can feel the >Home : 216-381-5872 | distance between us, from the >Imaging Lab : 216-368-8812 | Spanish Steps to the Liberty Bell. >MetroHealth : 216-778-8987 | I know the angels have seen us. >Pager : 216-670-5872 | They've seen us baby... >Cellular : 216-317-7079 | >Fax : 216-368-4969 | Marc Cohn > > > ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 08:56:51 -0500 From: Larry Lipman Subject: Submit Book Material Via Snail-Mail IM oh so HO, by the time we debate and resolve all the finer technical points of translating, transmitting and printing material for the book, it could be sent snail-mail! I propose the most personal and meaningful way to submit material is to print it and snail-mail it to Ashoke. Then, he has your postage, your media exactly as you want it displayed (without any possibility of unintentional alteration), AND the personal touch of *your* original with *your* original signature. Unless I've missed something, we're not in that big a hurry here - the book could make a great Xmas/Chanuka/[fill in the blank] gift! LL (who will be sending his material Escarot Mail) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Larry Lipman - --------------------------------------------------------------- Division Coordinator; Recording Studio Manager - --------------------------------------------------------------- The University of Memphis Commercial Music Program Campus Box 526546 - 232 CFA Building Memphis, TN 38152-6546 (901) 678-2559 [w/voice mail] FAX: (901) 678-5118 E-Mail: Llipman@memphis.edu ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 10:38:17 -0400 From: "Ashoke S. Talukdar" Subject: RE: THE COPERNICAN CHRONICLES: How far will you go... > Phil Hall writes: > > Given the topic below, I would think you might consider a more appropriate > tune to correlate your feelings would be 'Come To Heaven' > > ... > > When you mention all the people killing each other, are you talking Hindus > and Sikhs, or just general killing? > > I have always wanted to visit India - particularly Calcutta. Usually, when I make these posts, the contents are things that pop up in my mind and I write about them. They are very rarely preconceived and thought out. Your comment above actually made me wonder why "Masquerade" would make me think of the Meenakshi Temple and genocide. After some thought, I would have to say that I disagree with the "Come To Heaven" bit. I was refering to killing in general. I think communal conflicts do kill people but the greater tragedy is in the genocide that's happening today. Think of how many poeple have died in the last MONTH from all this senseless political and pseudo-religious turmoil. I can cite an indirect example; Taslima Nasreen is an author who is somewhat well known among Penguin Classics readers. She hails from Bangladesh and is quoted as having said that her dream is a world free of religion. She is in exile from her country (another example of a government steeped in religious fundamentalism) and there is a bounty on her head BECAUSE she made that statement and her other works that reflect poorly the state of a political realm that turns a blind eye to this type of genocide. So indeed this IS a masquerade. The pictures of a culture that are painted by institutions such as PBS and the tourism industry are but a facade of what is really going inside; they hide the issues that one should ALSO be made aware of. The land and its people are beautiful, no doubt, but they also embody a history of religious intolerance, domination and senseless bloodshed. If you ever get a chance, check out the British Grananda TV series "Jewel in the Crown". > > Are you into cricket? > Not as much as I used to be. Anyway, soccer is my game of choice! (Meg, hush!) > > Are Basia CD's available in India? > Couldn't tell you. Never knew who she was when I lived there. But I am sure that when those CDs were new, they would have been available. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 16:49:12 -0700 From: "Laura Norton Agarwal" Subject: any basia concerts planned for the u.s. soon? especially california? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 21:35:34 +0000 From: Phil Hall Subject: RE: THE COPERNICAN CHRONICLES: How far will you go... At 10:38 AM 9/4/98 -0400, you wrote: >>If you ever get a chance, check out the British Grananda TV series "Jewel in >the Crown". > Saw it when it first appeared on US public TV about 8 years ago. Very different from Seth's story - there are no Brits (or at least only one or two) in his version. And, at 1300 pages, it rivals Tolstoy in depth/breadth. If you want to get an understanding of the war between the cultures, try reading 'A Right to an Answer' by Anthony Burgess. Burgess was a middle-aged ex-colonial school teacher who was diagnosed with terminal cancer who at that point decided to write- and lived another 40 years. Think - what would life be without A Clockwork Orange? Well anyway I think one of Basia's strongest points has been her ability to draw a diverse audience. It has to be her ethnicity. However - I am struck by this: Does Basia have a Black audience? I'm talking African-whatever. We know the Japanese love her. We know she is loved in Brasil, Mexico, England, America, Germany, France, India (sort of). During her VH-1 interview she remarked on her Detroit show - that it made her self-concious to perform Aretha songs in Aretha's hometown, fearing family members might be in the audience. Well, has it ever been established that any of Aretha's kin are even aware of the Polish Siren, who listened to the entire array of Black American music in her youth and chose to mimic what she heard as she developed her career? I recall when she released 'Until You Come Back To Me' it coincidentally conflicted with Micki Howard's rel;ease of the same tune. There was some comment, but I don't think anyone could or would have accused Basia of trying to cut off any other artist. Is this a good question, or what? Unfortunately, I could probably answer it myself: No. My two experiences with Basia concerts .... I recall seeing mabey two or three African-Americans, and chances are they were there ONLY because of the interest in Basia expressed by their non-Black mates. But this was BOSTON, where there is forced busing even as we speak. What about other metropolitan venues (Washington, DC, Detroit, NYC, etc) and even London (I don't think Warsaw would fall into the demographic). Phil ------------------------------ End of basia-digest V3 #190 ***************************