Christmas CD
November 30, 2008 | Filed Under Music | 6 Comments
This one is for the sibs…
Okay - I get the three songs from each of the past five decades. But theme is a bit vague. Can we do songs with cities in the title? Or people’s name? All love songs or all songs about drugs? Songs that start with the letter “G”? You could probably pick three Stones songs from each of the five decades. Does that count?
Since I wasn’t there for the conversation, what are the parameters of a theme?
Thanksgiving
November 26, 2008 | Filed Under Main | 6 Comments
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Ahhh, the memories… a full day of drinking with cold turkey and stuffing somewhere near midnight…
Good times, good times…
I however will be working tomorrow, so everyone have a slice of pie for me (especially mince!)
Also remember to listen to some holiday classic music, such as “Alice’s Restaurant” - the only known Thanksgiving song.
Added to iPod
November 24, 2008 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
Just a slew of CDs I found at home that should have already been in the library. Closing in on 12,000….
Van Duren – “Are You Serious?” From 1977, this was one of the ugliest album covers in rock history but this Memphis singer/songwriter wrote great pop tunes. Couldn’t believe I found this on CD.
Crystal Method – “Tweekend” When is their next record coming out?
Urge Overkill – “Saturation” What Happened To This Band? Big album. Great singles (Sister Havana). A song in the hottest movie of the day (Pulp Fiction). Then a burst of flame and they were gone…
Various artists of the two-disc Rebirth of Cool - Seven. Next to the Café del Mar series, these CDs have the best mix of techno/jazz/chill music available.
The Jayhawks – “Hollywood Town Hall” Their only good record.
Olivia Tremor Control – “Dusk At Cubist Castle” Fun – think of a whole album of the Beatles psychedelic pop.
Ani DeFranco – “Living In Clip” Her double live record.
Fugazi – “13 Songs”
Guy Manoukian – “Live In Cairo” The band I saw live… Live! A damn good time….
Picture
November 20, 2008 | Filed Under Main | 6 Comments
The one I couldn’t take.
I am in Abu Dhabi again for a couple of days, staying at one of the older hotels – Le Meridian. It’s a Starwood hotel and I say it’s older not because of the tiles on the walls but because it only has five floors, which is unusual for a hotel in this neck of the world. My hotel is in walking distance to the Abu Dhabi Mall, Trader Vics and another hotel – the lovely Beach Rotanna. This hotel was hosting the Abu Dhabi Jazz Festival – and of course I went.
I arrived for the second act and went to grab a drink. But the music was only okay, so my eyes wandered to the beach. As I sat down in the sand – with the huge hotel behind me – I looked out at the not-so-distant skyline. Where ever you looked across the water loomed the state bird – the crane – and all the multi-story skyscrapers it was giving birth to. They were well lit as the second shift began to gear down and handover to the third. Everything around me seemed to be manmade, all concrete and steel, hewn for out of the sand and desert. Just as I started to get cynical about my surroundings, a school of kellies (bigger than kellies actually) started to splash around by my feet. They moved back and forth and leaped into the air and chased each other until they swam off to play in a new spot.
The music for the evening was mostly smooth jazz in nature. That is until the headlining act – Guy Manoukian and his band – who were SMOKIN’! Manoukian is an excellent pianist and composer and they played music from all over this region with verve and style. (I will be looking for CDs.) I say at a table across from a Palestinian man and we talked about the band (who he had seen before) and music in general. At one point, he told me that he loved America – just not our current President (no surprise). He said he wished us well with our new president because “the American people deserve better”.
So, when you look at the big picture - Wall Street, the election, the rest of the world – are we collapsing or expanding? Is the world we know failing or evolving?
I’d like to believe the latter. Ask any animal – evolution is painful.
Cirque Du Soleil
November 17, 2008 | Filed Under Main, Music | 2 Comments
As circumstance would have it, someone at work asked if I would be interested in watching some Cirque du Soleil DVDs a few weeks back. And he handed me a bag of them.
Now, I have always been interested in Cirque… because I have never liked the idea of them. Firstly – I’m not a big circus-guy (though I have known circus-people). Whenever I would go, I was there for the animal acts. The rest I could take or leave depending on how spectacular the acts were. Second - Cirque became HUGE! They almost have as many franchises around the world as Starbucks. Could that really be a good thing? Of course, their production of Love in Las Vegas was just amazing – the performances adding so much to the music, which was already so dear to my heart. But maybe that was a one off…?
So I have spent the past weekend watching Cirque DVDs. I began with Midnight Sun, a one night only event from 2004 where Cirque celebrated the Montreal Jazz Festival and took over a few city blocks. It was quite a spectacle and the music was fantastic! The acts we good, too. Later I went on line to find that the performance was sort of a greatest hits of Cirque and that true fans HATE Midnight Sun. Something about it not being intimate or passionate enough. Well, in front of 200,000 on the streets of Montreal – what do you want? Next was Quidam (I think from 2000). I really enjoyed this. Very postmodern in style – sort of a surrealist painting coming alive – but rooted in a story and characters from the real world (mostly). Grogeous to look at and listen to. The acts were very impressive and… moving. Then I watched Alegria, whose beautiful title tune had closed the Midnight Sun performance. Again, the music and songs where wonderful. But you began to see that under the costumes and impressionistic sets and heavy makeup, you were just watching acrobats, tumblers, jugglers, a contortionist, a strong man and clowns. Very traditional stuff done with a greater sense of style. That is to take nothing away from the acts. The girl with the hoops and the gymnastic work was quite enjoyable and that one clown is the snow was heartbreaking. I also watched Varekai… which is where they lost me. This show focused mainly on the weird creatures that inhabited some fantasy land. The line between gymnastics and stylized dance were totally blurred. It was all very low key and no real “wow” acts and… I got bored.
The music being always perfect, I downloaded the Cirque du Soliel “Best Of” CD from iTunes. But I would still go see one of their other shows- particularly the ones in Vegas. And there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes. It was also quite surprising to see that they are touring the Deep South for the next six months. Even Mississippi and Alabama. Considering the cacophony of countries that make up their troupe, that has to be a good thing.
Tremors
November 16, 2008 | Filed Under Main | No Comments
The whispers have started. Rumors are being seriously discussed. Brief nervous glances all over the office. Deep, shared silences at lunch. This past weekend, the courts closed the Kuwait Stock Exchange for two days to slow losses. We heard that a competitor cut half their staff in Dubai. Banks out in Dubai will no longer lend to employees of real estate developers – which is the only way an employee can pay a year’s rent in advance. They are afraid of layoffs (self-fulfilling prophecy).
The jitters have reached the big dreams of the UAE. Think about it – What do you think the oil barons were doing with a lot of their free cash? Playing Wall Street. Think these buildings are going up as a cash transaction? Nope – lots of loans. Heavy leveraging based on oil prices. And where are those….?
Time for everybody to wake up…
Small stuff
November 13, 2008 | Filed Under Main | No Comments
Hey! Where is all that cash the Gov’ment was going to drop on the economy? Could it be they were bluffing – hoping the “idea” of $700 Billion would just make Wall Street “feel” better? I hope not. If things keep dropping, more people will get laid off. If more people get laid off, the economy will REALLY tank. And if that happens… I may never get out of Kuwait.
Though the weather here has been better. It rained a couple of times in the early morning. Now – it’s not so dusty and the temp is only 75 degrees in the afternoon (cooler at night). There is air finally. Like Spring…
The new apartment has cable, so I get movies – especially Turner Classic which has had some great ones recently. They also for some strange reason have the Ellen show on seven days a week… on the Comedy channel! It’s just not that funny… HOWEVER there is also an HBO channel and I have been able to watch John From Cincinnati again! And I missed the first two episodes – again. I need the DVDs.
Finally – I went to a function last night. I was forwarded an invitation to go to the membership meeting for the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). This is a group that functions through the American Embassy as sort of an outreach to the Americans in country. The Ambassador was even in attendance and spoke to us. And, of course, the meeting was about security. Big security and little security. The security of your security to provide security to the security’s security. SECURITY, Damn It! And – believe it or not – this is the ONLY outreach program the American Embassy has. A few weeks back, the British Embassy hosted a Kuwaiti “Battle of the Bands” – open to anyone. I will not hold my breath for this at our Embassy. However, I did meet some people and I signed up. Mainly to get emails to tell me what’s going on and to go to other functions to meet people. Also – it might be interesting to watch whatever transition might take place in the next few months.
Added to iPod - World Music
November 10, 2008 | Filed Under Music | No Comments
On my oh-so-brief visit home, I picked up my last issue of Global Rhythm and my first issue of Songlines and their respective CDs.
The theme for Global Rhythm was China, in honor of the Olympics. I never had any gripe with GR’s music selection, but the setup of the mag itself could be frustrating. For one – there was no song/artist listing except for the CD itself. Usually there was a page in the magazine or – lately – a pull out card that listed the songs and gave a blurb about the artist. This issue had neither. This points up another problem. Here the whole magazine has articles about China and Chinese artists, but the CD only had three cuts (including Yo-Yo Ma and vocalist Sa DingDing). So you learn nothing about most of the artists you hear and hear nothing by the artists you just read about.
Songlines looks like it will be a great addition to my collection. Every artist on the CD had a writeup of some kind in the magazine. The music was excellent and wide ranging, from Calexico to the Swedish folk group Frifot to the funk/salsa of Groupo Fantasma to the Italian female vocal group Faraualla. [Note: All this music is MUCH more accessible than it sounds.] They also have Wim Wenders pick five of the tunes on the disc (his movies have the most amazing soundtracks!). The magazine itself is chock-full of articles, reviews and concert info from around the world. I’m sure I’ll be downloading some of these groups. Songlines will fill my world music niche nicely.
Play The Numbers
November 7, 2008 | Filed Under Main, Politics | 4 Comments
I’m very happy about the election. I’ve been voting for 28 years and this is only my second win. I blame the candidates our side put up (some were truly piss poor).
But for eight years, my side of the argument has been told to sit down and shut up because right wing, conservatives were the majority. President Dimwit – we were told – had a mandate from the people.
Really? Let’s just take a look at the actual for the last three elections:
2000
Popular Vote – Bush =50,456,002; Gore=50,999,897
% of vote-Bush= 47.9% ; Gore= 48.4%
Electoral- Bush= 271; Gore= 266
2004
Popular Vote- Bush=62,040,610; Kerry=59,028,444
% of vote – Bush= 50.7%; Kerry= 48.3%
Electoral- Bush= 286; Kerry= 252
2008
Popular vote- Obama=66,917,482; McCain=58,362,971
% of vote-Obama= 53%; McCain= 46%
Electoral- Obama=364; McCain= 173
So – who’s got a mandate? Heck, Kerry beat McCain! And Bush NEVER won as many votes.
I don’t believe in gloating, but….
Rain
November 5, 2008 | Filed Under Main | 4 Comments
It was lovely listening to the splash of raindrops on the windows in the early morning. And the air is clear and cool. It hasn’t rained in Kuwait since April.
Could it be…. Obama? 
Election Day
November 4, 2008 | Filed Under Main, Politics | 4 Comments
Flying back to Kuwait after my whirlwind weekend. I was out before the polls opened and I will touch ground around midnight tonight US time. By the time I get off the plane, we should have a new President. Thank god I won’t have to listen to the steady stream of predictions that should start around 9AM.
Let’s get out and vote and hope for the best.