The Indian-Politician Trifecta of Death Is On

First it was K.R. Narayanan, now Madhu Dandavate. Both rarae aves, these were politicians who cared about the nation. RIP.

Who will be the third one?

Sidenote: Not even a wiki stub on Prof. Dandavate?

The One In Which Nothing Happens

This story has such Zen-ness about it. Almost as if it is saying, you keep your big, loud stories about explosions and hurricanes and economic miracles to yourself, we have some real urgent issues at hand. Like correct change.

Seriously, bus conductors without change are like bicycles without religion.

"Won't Get Fooled Again"

Great song to drag one's ass back to work after lunch.

It is also a great song to hear Keith Moon's artistry.

Observe how he skips one beat after another till he's so far behind the rest of the band that to catch up with them during the chorus, he has no choice but to grind out this super-condensed, furious roll-pattern. It is classic Keith Moon, a style that is used on several Who songs and it is one that sounds very "satisfying" (to me.) I suspect it is because unlike a drummer playing in a 2-guitar band, he doesn't play mere rhythm. Instead, he plays it like a "lead" instrument, as if he is playing a melody. So much so that anytime I hear a Who song now, I find myself mesmerized by Moon's rhythmic mathematics. There is always a dangerous moment in some of the Who's songs that suggest a loss of control (even if it occurs for a tiny fraction of a second.) Somehow, Moon the Loon ties it all together.

Why am I, a guitar lover, talking about drummers?

**Temperature/Pulse check**

Great Brainfart Moments in History

Passing on a perfectly good copy of Sam Cooke's "Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963" costing just 3 bucks. THREE dollars. Shame on me. (BTW, rock critic Peter Guralnick has a new bio on Sam Cooke. Link goes to Salon.com, whose Site Pass thing never seems to work for me.)

I hope finding a Fritz Lang DVD - "Woman in the Moon" - for 3 bucks! - makes up for my ghastly blunder. Yes, I promise to view it again and again and again to make up for my unforgivable error. It will be a steep price to pay, but it has to be done to balance my karma.

"Mighty Rearranger"

Robert Plant's highly-rated "Mighty Rearranger" is not just the best album Zeppelin never recorded after IV and Houses of the Holy, it is a terrific new album. Judge it by any standards and the album delivers, song after song.

How refreshing it is to hear a musician avoid the very genre and sound he practically created, and yet not be confused for anyone else. Plant's band (Strange Sensation) doesn't completely discard the Gibson-into-Marshall sound of Zeppelin, but re-imagines it. This is the new soundscape of bendirs, tehardants, sample loops, Moog bass-lines and of course, cock-rock wall-of-sound guitars. So what we are seeing now is that the new (and young) guitar-based bands are once again digging the late-60s proto-rock/garage sound from England and a 56 year-old rock God is exploring musical frontiers way, way outside Europe.

In case you have any doubts, just one bar of "Brother Ray" will tell you this album comes from the same mind that wrote that super-bizarre tribute* to Roy Harper on III. (And one heart-pounding drum phrase in the album will remind you of the Incomparable One. But that's not the point here.)

*described by one British critic as "suitably impenetrable"

The Indian Literary Trifecta of Death Is Complete

Celebrity Death Trifecta was obviously in play when writer Nirmal Verma died and Amrita Pritam followed. And now V. K. Madhavan Kutty's joined them at the Great Writing Desk in the Sky.

Damn you, Trifecta, damn you!!!

Bad Headline Wednesday

From the Tasteless-But-Probably-Unintended -Pun Department: "Bangaloreans all set to have a blast"

From the WTF Department: "Shah Rukh turns 40, plans to quit smoking"

From the "It's-Diwali-So-No-News-For-You" Department: "NO UPDATES"