Sharkforum

James Brown dies on Christmas! Oh, I Feel... Not So Good - The mosquitoes, air pollution and heat have all been on the rise lately - My right arm must have thirty bites alone - I look like a junky...

- The food has been great - While the street dogs might depress you - the cats on the other hand don't look too shabby - One stopped traffic yesterday crossing an absolutley jammed street but no one dared to run it over - Bad bad karma -Taking the day off today after practicing 5 hours before playing with Rajesh and then barely able to move me brain let alone me fingers when we jammed - Had a couple of spots where we connected - Sometimes he seemed vaguely amused and would check his cell phone.

But I might just be paranoid as they were speaking, joking in an Indian dialect while I tried to get me mojo working - fingers stumbling up and down the fretboard like a drunk descending a ladder, tripping over every rung/fret - Checked out Rajesh's doble neck five string mandolin - wild! Tuned Root/Fifth all the way across ten strings - He is a monster albiet a sweet monster but a monster none-the-less with fantastic technique - He assured me the world is filled with monsters - his brother Srinivas for instance... Jamming with virtuosos on their home turf is tricky stuff - Ganesh thought it went pretty well and I did get the invite back to give it another shot on the 29th - Then we will be joined by an Indian keyboard player who teaches at Columbia University - Even though it was a great experience I went back to the hotel with my tail between my legs - I felt like Woody Allen going into the ring with Muhammed Ali - scrawny and awkward - Like playing tennis with Agasi - you just hope to return the ball without breaking your wrist! So I felt a bit down afterwards but its Christmas after all so even when one gets the most fantastic present they still have to hop the express train downtown to Moodsville -

Besides the Godfather has checked out! Makes me think back to when I was about 12 years old - a goofy white boy in the suburbs dancing around the kitchen singing "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud!" when my mother walked in and said, "John darling, I have something to tell you..."

Olbermann, Stewart and Colbert would all dig these top strange news stories of India in 06 - People in Amerikkka would definately dig these:

#1 - A boy was riding his bicycle when he came across a King Cobra which frightened him - Over the next few days he crossed paths with the snake several times and was scared the snake would kill him - So the people of his village caught the snake and along with a couple snake charmers and a dozen people armed with sticks for the boys protection - brought them together to settle their dispute - It may have been from a past life the commentator said - Well the snake did not try to bite the boy, although that was one remarkable scary looking reptile! After a couple minutes of sitting together and some fine soundtrack work by the snake charmers, they went their seperate ways and there has been peace in the village ever since!

#2 Back in the late 60's I remember a band called Sweetwater - Their name I believe was inspired by the myth of Zam Zam, the bottomless well of divine water located in the deserts of Mesopotatmia I believe - In this case - some body of water, somewhere near Mumbai (Bombay for you old schoolers) - perhaps the Arabian Sea? I didn't get the details as I caught this very early in the morning before coffee- Or maybe it was a river - either way it suddenly turned sweet and the hordes - thousands and thousands made it down to the shore to bathe, drink by the gallonful, splash, rejoice and joyfully cavort in the heavenly nectar - then soon one day again it just reverted back to its normal state which I would fathom is toxic and putrid -

#3 A man left his wife after falling in love with a tree - He wrapped its trunk with one of his wife's sarees, even hung jewels from its branches and built a little fort in its sturdy loving arms and now lives in the tree, claiming it gives him more love and "support" than she ever did in all their years of marriage -

Flipping channels on the tube I find the Krishna channel where devotees intoxicated with their love of the flute playing blue god with the bedroom eyes sing songs of pure love and surrender while next door is a softcore bathing suit fashion show where longy-leggedy models strut their stuff in some flimsy schmata, revealing nearly everything they got - So the eternal dance of the sacred and (for those who deem it so) profane continues...

My guide at the Shiva temple shook my hand and says "Merry Christmas" - "Thanks," says I - "But dig Jesus as I do, Christmas is not my holdiay. What do you think I am?" I asked him - "A human being," he replied.

More thoughts on the shaking head gesture - at one point during my lessons Krishna starts shaking his head - "Yes! Saibash! he says - (which means good, or excellent...) He is shaking his head "No" to us western types while saying "Yes!" "Krishna, I said, "You are totally messing up my mind!" Remember those old Campbell soup commercials? Maybe its like that - When you're at a concert and everyone is shaking their head it doesn't mean the music isn't making its more like "Mmm, Mmm Good!"