Disenthrall (30th May 2010)

I'd like for you to watch this video and then immediately, the video after that. It's a total of 38 minutes that you won't get back but you'll be happier for it, I'm certain.

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I've been thinking lately about where I'm headed and how I got here. I've been thinking about the people around me and their opinions, the stigma surrounding our choices and the fact that at 21, I probably don't know any better.

Through this conflict, I've tried hard to hold a few things close. Simple maxims like do what you love and believe in yourself and other classics have always made sense to the world so I don't see how different it needs to be in practice. Which is a milder phrase for 'in life'.

There are two types of people in this world. Those who divide the world into two types and those who do not.

He talks about disenthrallment. It's a big, beautiful, four-syllabled word to describe the process of liberation. In this context, with respect to every day concepts.

Try and examine the things that you take for granted. It's difficult, because you take them for granted. But if you make an effort, if you put some thought into your values and your understanding of the world and why you think things are the way they are, you may be able to free yourself from the bondage of established ideas. This sure helps to re-appreciate the human capacity and aptitude to do virtually anything.

The word 'but' is really starting to annoy me. I use it all the time, I admit. But what it stands for, what it represents is something I am beginning to disagree with. I showed those videos to my beautiful mother. She's a teacher. She laughed and smiled and nodded her head in unconditional concurrence and once we were done, uttered the sinful and oh-so-familiar 'but'.

Why? I happen to think his argument is sound and more accurately, complete.

"But..."

I'm sure you've heard it before and amidst the times you've gone "yeah, yeah I guess you're right" there has definitely been at least one solitary instance of that three lettered word striking a nerve, triggering a spot and causing a sense of discomfort and loathe-some displeasure everybody hates to be acquainted with.

You know, these are things we talk about and read about and watch in movies all the time. We agree with them, we are inspired by them, we read the Lance Armstrong books and then... and then... we go on with our lives. We endure our daily routine and wait for the weekend, as he put it. If there's someone you know who is sincerely or even remotely making an effort to deny this ungainly existence, I say either encourage him or step off. There is no middle ground.

I'm sure he appreciates the motivation with which you express your concern or disdain for his choices. But the more you force him to dwell on his circumstances, the higher the chance of him buckling under the pressure you and everyone else in the world regrets to create.

We are in a hurry to settle down. Imagine that.

A hurry to settle down.

Sir Ken Robinson is right, you know. This linearity is obsolete. We are no longer in the era of industrialism. Standardization has served its course. Destroy the conveyor belt. Art has room to breathe now. So do chartered accountants. Whatever floats your boat, man. We are in the age of agriculture, where everything and everyone is personal and truly enough, we're getting back to basics.

He says we need to prepare our children for the future. Thanks to our busy lives, the future is closer than we think.

He says we need to prepare for the World of the Organic.

And guess what?

It's T-60 seconds to take off.

Indiecision (22nd May 2010)

If everyone is Indie, is anyone Indie? Assess the significance of the idea of independence within popular music.

Abstract: Are labels and names and classifications slowly losing their significance to give room to free flowing multidimensional and interdisciplinary art that only uses those labels for their own promotion and publicity? The trick is stigma. We are now convinced that it is cool to be unusual, off the beaten path and exclusive. Less known is alluring. Calling something indie is like tagging it 'hep' and that unfortunate consequence is a result of this revisiting of the 1960s we seem to be going through. Awareness and getting "in touch with ourselves" seems to be the theme of the decade that has gone by, right from Chicken Soup For The Soul to that movie Crash.

I read somewhere about how the artist experience seems to be making a come back. In the 60s and 70s, the music was personal. People knew about the artists and their lives were a big part of the world. The late 70s disco and all through the 80s up until the late 90s showed us how it was about the music more than the people that made it. We were thinking about AIDS and the Berlin wall and liberalization and MC Hammer's can't touch this. We didn't care about MC Hammer. Or Salt n Peppa even though we DID want to talk about sex. We had mullets and watched Lethal Weapon and got career oriented. Computers and Chris Gardner.

Since 2000, we are now very interested in the music we buy. When I say buy, I mean invest our attention in. It's 2010 now and twitter acts as a way for our celebrities to give us a glimpse of who they really are. Following someone on twitter and seeing what they write about (read: John Mayer) makes you feel like it's your facebook home page and Mr. Mayer is just another friend talking about his last trip to the doctor and everything is getting personal again. If we like and understand the artist, his music is definitely something we're going to put on our iPods and in our cars. And then there's another side to it. Like the Gorillaz. Hiding behind those animated characters makes us curious.

But then the music better be darn good if you're going to pull that off.

Anyway, my point is... I think you might want to explore indie as a cultural shift more than a genre. Is there really a distinction between indie and popular music?

Or maybe indie is a means to describe music made by artists who really are about the music more than the sales and the propaganda. Which translates loosely to everyone who doesn't work with Timbaland. I mean, the ones that do are still out to have fun but maybe the indie scene is more about the art-form than Sunset Boulevard.

Sometimes the two mix... but not as often as when indie music crosses into popular territory.

Salvation - Citizen Cope (21st May 2010)

If there's one song that has never failed to get me to cringe my eyebrows, nod my head from side to side and use my unfortunately un-melodic voice to sing almost as though all the pain and anguish in the world has finally been understood and accepted by one solitary soul, it's this.

"Since I was the age to speak, Haven't you been listening? Salvation. I'm calling. Salvation"

It is heavy, it is poignant, it is moving. It is everything music is supposed to be. Each chord and each painstaking syllable used by Clarence Greenwood's beautifully unique voice manages to stir and shake everything inside me.

"I'm downstairs on the Motorola. You know, I got 3 golden bullets and I'm shooting for your soul. Salvation. I'm calling. Salvation"

You don't need to understand it. You just know it's there.

Like the blonde-headed kid with a left handed guitar.

"His first shot grazed my eye

I lost half of my sight and my first born's life

Yeah, the second shot knocked off my guitar moon

And it made my guitar kind of play out of tune

But I just kept strumming like I had nothing to lose

He turned the third on himself

'Cause the bastard knew.

Salvation. I'm calling. Salvation"

Put the gun down. Put the gun down. Put the gun down. Put the gun down.

Dog Days Are Over (15th May 2010)

I love how my dog pretends to ignore it when I take his bowl into the kitchen to fix him his lunch.

He just sits and looks at me from the corner of his eye (and then immediately looks away if he can tell that I am watching him) as if to suggest that he is oblivious to what's going on. Then, as I mash up his food into the required consistency, he looks at me big-eyed and waits for me to bring his bowl back to its home.

I think he does it because he thinks each meal is even more exciting if it's a surprise. He's all about the happy, this dog. If he had it his way, nobody would ever go away and every door would always be open. But all he really wants is for someone to be around and occasionally give life to his worn out toys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWOyfLBYtuU&feature=fvst

Where Has My Coffee Been? (15th May 2010)

It's happening again. Time has lost its essence. The days are merging.

I was afraid of this. One minute you're sitting back watching reruns of popular sitcoms and the next minute... you're face down on the mattress while those popular sitcoms continue to play out their despicably fabulous existence. But wait, it isn't Tuesday any more. It's... WEDNESDAY.

How did I spend the last 24 hours?

WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?

No need to panic. Ok. Regroup.

Day 7 of Isolation.

The past week has been a blur. The past hour is no different. I watch television with my glasses off so that when I fall asleep, the chances of me breaking them are exponentially reduced.

Things of significance: Iron Man 2, Party at Lonavala, Subway Visits. And sleep. But that's for my subconscious to decide.

Fast forward to Day 14.

I was unusually on edge today. But that was this morning.

A few more days of this imposed solitude and then back to regular-willingly-brought-upon solitude. I feel excessively comfortable lying on the cold floor with my eyes open.

The drive back from Bombay was an introspective one. (Couldn't be helped; my passengers were asleep!) "No need to get excited" the way Jimi Hendrix sings it, played over and over in my head. I need to write. So many ideas, so little time is usually the justification I give myself. But who am I kidding. I am fighting with my mind about whether sloth is actually a marketable quality.

I am the Steve Jobs of sloth. I need to get to know the things I know. I need to get coffee.