Suri,
Let's hope the people who are in charge of allocating budgets in India read this post and do the needful for our universities and research institutes
The second point reminds me of a story about tastes from one of my professors, a little tangential but still....
" Today, walk into a grocery store and look at all the Coke/Pepsi promos on their 12-can boxes (Coke advertises some free gift or other to promote the sale of these 12 packs at various times in the year). Once I saw a promo offering the entire World Book encyclopedia on a single DVD, free with a 12-pack box of Coke. So I thought to myself... here's the whole of human knowledge, art, science, history and civilisation, given to me FREE!....But I still have to pay for the cola."
Point being, popular "taste" , whether in music or drinks, is not always an indicator of quality. :sad: I don't know whether it is animal instincts or just a desire to blend with everyone that makes 'pop' culture mainstream. But then I am not a sociologist.
entirely true-
but there probably is a twist - Coca-cola is made according to a secret recipe. It is accepted that in the early years, an added drug/substance was a part of the recipe - this contributed to it's phenomenal popularity.
in later years, when forensics became sophisticated, the recipe makers probably (contemplating prison sentences) pulled out the secret drug.
this would have led to comments such as " hey Joyce, coke used to do it for me, but now i have no enthusiasm for Robert's (lover) visits"
fall in sales for sure - and then the need to give free "gyan" to sell coke!
I have heard Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan only in the Sangam album. I know he also used to sing traditional sufi songs. Any good album worth listening to, as an introduction?
Nusrath Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brook - "NIGHT SONG"
immersive, and should appeal to Asit as well, because i keep on humming these tunes and i float like a leaf on the river headed for the ocean!
i will send you a copy if you wish.
a small write-up -
"The second collaborative effort between Michael Brook and master qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was recorded in nomadic fashion around the campus (including lounges and offices, in addition to the proper studios) of Peter Gabriels Real World facility near Bath. The nature of collaboration between Michael and Nusrat begun with Musst Musst continued to evolve. At the projects inception, Nusrat contacted poets in his native Pakistan to provide lyrical inspiration; in addition to the hand-pumped harmonium keyboard, a staple of qawwali music, he became enamored of the sounds available from a Korg synthesizer (Nusrat is heard playing the latter near the end of Night Song). For his part, Michael found himself gathering the raw materials of performances by Nusrat and his concert party and other guest musicians present at Real World, fitting parts together via tape editing to fashion the final shape of these tracks.
Regrettably, owing to their respective schedules, Nusrat and Michael only ever performed once together in public, at a festival in Bari, Italy. After his extended residency at Real World, Michael moved to Palo Alto in Californias Silicon Valley, to participate in developing new musical interfaces at Interval Research. He attributes much of Night Songs lasting impact to its being heralded at the time of release by the taste-making djs at public radio station KCRW in Los Angeles, the city where Michael would next relocate."
