Angst In My Pangst

Two trips to Koti and here’s the loot.

Audio cds.
Bruce Springsteen – The River. 2-cd set – Rs 70.
Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad. Rs 70.
Titanic OST – James Horner. Rs 70.
Electric Light Orchestra – The Definitive collection – Rs 60.
Pope John Paul II – Abba Pater – Rs 40.
Joe Satriani – Engines of Creation – Rs 70.
AR Rahman – Roja/Roja Instrumental – Rs 35.
Jahaan Tum Le Chalo OST – Rs 40.
Misty Rhythms – Aye Laila – Rs 40.
Colonial Cousins – Unplugged – Rs 40.
KK – Pal – Rs 40.
Tips Superhits vol 14 – Rs 35.

Hmm. Plus three movies – two Tom Hanks starrers The Green Mile and Joe and the Volcano. Hammer Films’ HOrror of Dracula, starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Each vcd for 100 Rs.

The Hindi cds were mostly nostalgia-grabs. KK’s Pal contains some of those mindless gems ( Yaaron, Aap Ki Dua, Pal – stuff I used to record onto tapes and give to friends in college to make up after spats. By mistake I had once also recorded the Corrs’ I never Really Loved You Anyway as a part of making-up. ) Misty Rhythms’ tracks, for those who are Andhra-familiar, have become part of late-90’s movie classics – Pawan Kalyan’s Thammudu and Venky’s Premante Iddera being two that stand out.

I bought Colonial Cousins’ Unplugged album with no high hopes, especially expecting to hear Tu Hi Re being massacred by Hari. Surprise! The cd was not bad at all. The recording was atrocious at times, and the English sounded forced( Lezz sounded very self-conscious when he was announcing the songs ), but it was fun. Good for Colonial Cousins, I don’t care if the applause was canned – it takes a very polished team to maintain the kind of musical flavour these guys had throughout the album ( and it was live, no overdubs), and CC does it well. And they do a wonderful retake of Tu Hi Rey, at that. THANK GOD I hadn’t bought Roja before, the Hindi cd, I mean. This is an old edition, with that cute picture of ARR holding his Synth in one hand – and that picture is BIG on the cover, believe me! Baba Sehgal’s vocals sound good for once, and Yeh Haseen Vadiyan, as always, makes me go “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…” and lie back on my bed and think of times when I was younger.

Jahaan Tum Le Chalo was the surprise of the day. A Plus music album, even the cassette is hard to come by. This one had music by Vishal Bharadwaj and lyrics by Gulzar. What irks me a little is that there is a song by Gary Lawyer in the album, and I don’t know if the lyrics to that are written by Gulzar or not. I mean, it would be a neat thing, having the only album for which Gulzar penned English lyrics. Maybe someday, I would stumble onto the cd of Saaz, or Zor. Or maybe, maybe, even the Big B version of the Bandit Queen OST.

I don’t know how and why Tips Superhits vol 14 came into the pile. Maybe it was because of the subconscious urge to listen to Vishal’s Mitwaa Re from Shaam-Ghanshaam. Or did I really want to hear Main To Raste Se Jaa Rahaa Tha, that immortal ditty from Coolie No. 1?

The Sony cds I picked up were a bargain, of course. Abba Pater is interesting, the Pope’s voice with a lot of music in the background, it even has the original of the original of the Kambakht Ishq bass track, the one that pops up in Afro-Celt Sound System’s Eireann and the Delirium Tomb Raider track. The ELO album is hardly definitive, does not have Roll Over Beethoven or Mr Radio. That’s ok, I guess, the rest of the songs are good enough. The cover looks lousy.

The Springsteen albums are mindblowing.

Titanic was yet another nostalgia trip. Even this makes me go “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah” and lie on the bed.

The Satriani album was more techno than guitar. Who’s complaining?

Some nomenclature.

White-heat reading is the kind of reading one does when the book is, literally, unputdownable. Harry Potter – all the books, were that for me. Some Stephen King books. Sidney Sheldon when I liked the fella ( way back in the early 90’s, man, time does fly! ) Andrew Vachss does that to me too.

Red-heat reads are those which have a lot of steam. But I guess you can afford to put them down for sometime and go and have lunch and a bath and generally carry out other bodily functions. Maybe even keep the book aside and go out for a walk. But of course, you want to get back to it, you are doing all the rest of the stuff so that you retain traits of a social animal. Stephen King, the stuff he writes nowadays, is red-heat reading.

Green-heat reading is the kind of literature that entraps you alright, but it doesn’t drag you right in. I mean, life goes on. You read it when you have the time. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, because the book is to be finished, but you do it in your own sweet time. There are other things to be done, other books to be read. It’s not uncommon to read five ( or more ) green-heat books at a time, with the stack in a continual state of flux.

Black-heat reading. Ok, there’s this book. You paid for it. It’s the coolest book around. Or highly recommended. You want to read it only so that you can see the last page say “Finis”, or “The End” or “Ha-ha-ha-you-read-this-book-and-you’re-a-jerk”. Unfortunately, that last page isn’t going to come too soon, pardner. And here’s a free bit of dog-poo, this book isn’t for you.

Right.

Two red-heat reads over the weekend. Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher, which I am pretty sure the movie must have raped nice and proper, with symphonic music when Duddits smiles and a nice long Hollywoodish bonding scene with the kids. Sabriel by Garth Nix. Nice Undead children’s (????) story, full of death and human sacrifice and Charter Magic and Free Magic and necromancers and bells. The death-thingie is portrayed quite nicely here, as an icy river which increases in depth and turbulence with every Gate, the last and ninth gate leading to Oblivion. Proper red-heat, this. I think I will an eye out for Lirael and Abhorsen, the next two in the Trilogy.

Oh yeah! One white-heat read. I finally got Peter Blegvad’s Book of Leviathan. Thanks a lot, Bunts. Yeah, the book is crazy, just the way you described ( and I wanted ) it. Finished it last night itself.