For Those Who Were Not There...

Front page of Calcutta's The Telegraph Metro supplement on 30 July 2007.

This is for those who were not there... or maybe were there and read some other newspaper. And you can see some of their photos here.

Here's another review of the show which was published in the HT City edition of Hindustan Times 31 July 2007. (I added this on 1 August 2007).

I'm hoping that the audio CD recording of the 28th July concert of Bertie and Pink Noise will be available by this month end. Those who still don't have a copy of the Bertie Mel & Fuzz show of 12th April contact me for the DVD. What you see below is an excellent cover designed by Rahul Ganguly for the DVD. Thanks, Rahul!

Midnight Thoughts

Clouds race into dark night's oblivion behind me. Overhead, they are wisps of fluff breaking off a huge mass ahead of me, a formless entity that threatens to bring storm and rain, even fire and brimstone.

She brushes her long, long, black hair at the window, looking into a mirror that I can't see placed right next to it. Her white nightgown covers her modestly, but in the street lamp's glow filling the window behind her, the shape of her naked body beneath the cotton is all too evident. I find the stirring in my loins has taken a holiday. Even the young, impudent, pert breast that is outlined in the strange play of light and shade as she stands at her window, perfectly aware of my presence on the terrace next to the building she lives in, does nothing for me.

Other than of course writing these thoughts at midnight. Or 6 minutes to it. As I watch her. The thrill, I think, is in the voyeuristic pleasure rather than its outcome.

Most men are obsessed with their libido at all ages. And I mean all ages. Even when one is a child unknowing of penile erections and its associated consequences, one still considers one's libido in a most immature, though fascinated way. If one was to explain in detail, one might stray into the forbidden territory of child pornography, so one shall abstain. Even if they are my own nonage experiences.

Libido and death. Procreation and destruction. Today I heard of another close to my age who has died, someone I had known briefly but well, and stayed in touch with his news through common friends over the years. Tonight I sit on a breezy terrace in a monsoon soaked city and pen lines on my libido, or the lack of it. Temporary, I also hope. Today too, someone talked of those who talked of sex and those who didn't. The ones who didn't, he said, were getting it. This he said with reference to our age, us half-centurions and nearabouts. Do we talk of sex as much as we do it, or do we just talk anyway?

Well past midnight I'm drinking Goa's feni sent with love by a friend through another who had visited. It's an acquired taste I'm told. Well, I seem to have had no problems acquiring it!

Why am I writing all this? Its not that its a diary of any importance. I have a computer, I am literate, I probably have too much time on my hands, and my mind is a ceaseless traveller. Random thoughts inspired by a combination of feni and Himachal's green gold can form into presumptuous literature in the dark under these circumstances.

Today we discussed the concept of “the creative explorer” - jargon if there ever was one. Yet beneath jargon there is truth. A conscious, and therefore curious acceptance of an acknowledged reality couched in the language of those who misuse it. Somehow the discussion of such esoterica is work for me these days. A far cry from my earlier days of hardcore marketing: meeting targets, achieving revenue collections, creating product/brand acceptance and consciousness, and being a pissed off piss-off to all and sundry. All at the same time.

Creative explorer is a term that encompasses the client we are working with, their brand, their brand's target clientèle, the way our client should work with the brand, the way we should, and the way we all – client, agency, client's customers - want the positioning of what the brand represents in our collective and individual consciousness. Not all of it can ever be in tune but it's possible to find common ground. At least we hope so if we want to earn some money.

All of this is so mundane, so trite, and yet given such priority because revenues are all important. Ho hum! Fee, fie, fo, fum, money do go and money must come. Or else all is undone. Rum pum pum! Truth, and the bitterness of it all. Could be a song, yes?

Bertie and Pink Noise: Postponed

This is just a small notice to inform all who may have been interested, that Bertie & Pink Noise will be performing as below:

Saturday 28th July 2007 - 8.30 pm onwards

@The Princeton Club, Anwar Shah Road, Calcutta

See you there!

By the way, DVDs of the Bertie Mel & Fuzz concert of 12th April will also be available for sale then.

Bertie & Pink Noise

Bertie da Silva again. With Pink Noise.

Live in Calcutta at The Princeton Club.
n the 21st of July at 8.30 pm. (one month to the day after World Music Day.)

Lots of new music, a new sound, and some good times are promised.
(They'll take care of the good music, you take care of the other good stuff!)

Pink Noise is Gyan Singh on bass, Amyt Dutt on guitar, Jivraj 'Jiver' Singh on drums and Jayashree on vocals. Those with musical connections to Calcutta - performer or listener - will have heard of PN and its avatar (or is it the other way around?) Skinny Alley. You would have even heard them in concert. PN is an alternative jazz band. That's the closest I'll go to defining their music, at the risk of upsetting them. Skinny Alley is an alternative rock band with a slightly different line-up.


This time though, both PN and Bertie together are working on some of Bertie's new songs and some of his already heard ones from the BM&F concert at the Princeton in April. I was at one of their rehearsals recently and I can tell you they're sounding good! Ok, don't take my word for it. Just come for the show on the 21st and hear them for yourself. In the meanwhile have a look at some of the pics I took that evening at their practice session.


Reminder: 21st July 2007 8.30 pm. The Princeton Club in Calcutta. Bertie with Pink Noise.

*****
PS:
DVDs of the BM&F concert of 12th April will be available for sale on that day at The Princeton. And you can mail me at pslghose@gmail.com to book your copies of the DVD.

*****
PPS:
Anjan Dutt - musician, film maker, actor out of Calcutta made a movie called Bow Barracks Forever. In it he acknowledges not just the debt many of us Calcuttans owe the Anglo-Indian community, he also explores this debt musically. He and his makeshift band - Bow Street Blues - have been doing live concerts of the music from the movie as well as other songs which were hits of that era. I loved the concert at Someplace Else and I also took some pics while enjoying myself. So you should go here for a glimpse of that concert.

The live performance of music by such alternative, niche bands and musicians is always a wonderful experience. It's because they put their heart and soul into it that you find yourself having a better time than you thought you would. (Something that commercially oriented, mass-market musicians are incapable of). And then when you want a CD of their music it's usually unavailable. The marketing of such music has always been of concern not just to the artists themselves, but also to their promoters (who are never the record companies) and to their fans. This has historically led to bands who hate the corporatisation of music to allow fans to tape/record their live performances illegitimately. The Grateful Dead were prime examples, as are others like Dave Mathews, Phish, String Cheese Incident and so on.

Here's a nice article about how someone like Prince, or the Artist Formerly Known As Prince, is also keen to beat the system. My respect for this musician is never-ending! Apart from the fact that I really love his music.