Thursday, November 10, 2005

Running to keep up!

Yes, I know I have been very very bad! I have neglected my poor blog and its three readers most shamefully and I need to make amends. So here goes with a suitably chatty (yes, no?) post...

As usual, I have been working hard (ahem! I have to say this or Dada will tell Ma and then I will have to ignore all those furious text messages from home). Last weekend though was rather nice. I went out Friday night to attend a program of songs by Barbara Cook and she was amazing. She has a very pure, clear voice and although I may get brickbats from both sides for this, she reminded me a bit of Lata Mangeshkar when she is not shrill. Definitely not the husky-throated jazz chanteuse I was hoping for, but musically satisfying nevertheless. The program was a part of the SF jazz festival, although it was less jazz than showtunes. My friend and I helped to add some observations to the rather slender left tail of the age distribution in the huge Davies Symphony Hall.

Saturday was spent wandering around the Green Festival in San Francisco. It was quite entertaining with maracas-wielding and accoustic guitar strumming white kids with dreadlocks producing surprisingly sweet music on an impromptu stage, and lots of samples of tasty food. There was $1 coffee with unlimited refills they said, except the cup was a little too eager to er degrade. I bought a tshirt made of - get this- bamboo fibre. There was also a rather interesting talk on a business curriculum that emphasizes sustainability. Their affiliations appear to be valid though, so hopefully my good friend Thalassa will not have to run the usual checks!! Although I am being snarky (just a tad bit) about the festival, it was not just the "patchoulli and hemp" crowd from university town just four blocks away from me, but full of ordinary determined people trying to make a difference. All cynicism apart, it was a wellspent day. We ended up with dosas at Udupi Palace in Berkeley for dinner, which was as usual about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. I do wish they'd add some punch to that sambhar :(

Finally saw an excellent film today - Good Night and Good Luck. Based on true events, shot in black and white and interspersed with the original tv footage, this is one gripping movie. A lot of the lines, based as they are in the McCarthy era, hit astonishingly close to home today. We keep fighting the same wars over and over again it seems. That "we" was a tiny bit presumptuous, eh? Ok, lets just say then, that societies forget too soon and fight the same wars over and over again, hmm?

3 Comments:

Blogger thalassa_mikra said...

Sounds like such a fun weekend! Tasty food at festivals/fairs is such a rarity, usually it's crappy hot dogs. And don't worry about my termite-giri, a business curriculum for sustainability is a great idea, especially in California with so many organic businesses.

Emil and I so so want to see Good Night and Good Luck. Thanks for the reco. And ya, what's the deal with these wimpy sambhars?

November 11, 2005 7:26 PM  
Blogger Priya said...

Dosa and Sambhar??? Talk about being a Southie loyalist;)
I know u have been "working" really hard and socialising harder, but u r also ignoring me. Just thot I'd remind u that;) Am off to Cal again on Friday, parle online hosh ekdin.

November 14, 2005 11:15 PM  
Blogger Urmea said...

Hey T_M, yeah that was a fun weekend. Definitely go see GN&GL - I guess I love these docu-drama types, the last movie I'd seen before that was Capote, which was also excellent! I had no idea that Harper Lee (of To Kill a Mockingbird fame) worked with Truman Capote as research assistant for In Cold Blood. She was even mentioned in the dedication, and I'd never ever noticed that till now, DUH!

Priya!! How can I ignore you? Tui i bol?? Just not possible! Abar Kolkata keno jachchish? There is no justice in this world. You hate going to Cal and you end up going every couple of months, UFF!

November 15, 2005 11:23 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home