Sly James

Sometimes certain things happen that have a weird sense of concentrated reality, things that you know you are going to remember for the rest of your life. Simple things, almost trivial but extremely poignant.

My 3 year old boy, James, is a very peculiar kid. You look in his eyes and you see that he is up to something. You can tell that he is “switched on”.

Yesterday he and his older brother Andrew each grabbed a small bag of chips. James was manipulating the small bag of chips and was crushing it then smashing it and then slamming it down. All the while me and his mother were being typical parents and saying to him that he shouldn’t do that because the chips inside will crumble and will no longer be edible.

To no avail.

In the meantime, Andrew was peacefully holding his bag of chips and watching TV absent mindedly. He was unaware of the commotion his younger brother was causing.

Stealthily, James switches the bags. He took the intact bag of chips from his brother and gave him the tattered one. All the while Andrew was watching TV.

None of us noticed the switch until James yelled:” This one is not good” pointing to the bag with his brother’s hand, and adding:” This one is good” pointing to the one he is holding.

And then he burst out laughing, recognizing that he just created a funny situation. He laughed so hard that tears started coming down from his eyes. Within a second we were all laughing like hell. And we kept on laughing for a good while.

Hours later, after the kids have long been asleep, I kept on remembering this incident and I would laugh all over again. A strange sense of well being overwhelmed me and I was in such a joyful mood appreciating this moment and knowing that I would savor it forever.

The Penguin Cafe Orchestra

The penguin café orchestra

Never before have I been so obsessed with music or the person behind this music as I am now with the wonderful music of the Penguin Café Orchestra, and it founder Simon Jeffes.

I love music and I listen to a wide variety of music from the classical and the opera to the funky and the trance. Most music is entertaining but few music pieces moves your soul.

In classical music, I have obsessed invariably with Ludwig Van’s symphonies. All of them move my soul, especially the fourth movement in the ninth. And I listen to it every day for the past 25 years and my eyes fill with tears every single time.

There is a huge difference between Mozart and Ludwig Van.

Yes Mozart is great and his legacy is enduring and his music is timeless, but there is a difference.

Mozart is nice, it is entertaining and timeless, no doubt. But if you are having a haircut and there is Ludwig Van in the background your soul will be agitated and the haircut will be a different experience than if there was Mozart in the background and everything feels so pleasant. That is the difference.

Recently I have become obsessed with the music of the Penguin Café Orchestra.

This has been going on for almost 2 years now, ever since I saw this film Napoleon Dynamite. Very good film. It had a track at the climax of the movie, when everything sorts itself out for all the people concerned, called “Music for a found harmonium”. I loved it and I waited for the credits to find out who composed it and this is where I stumbled on the band, The Penguin Café Orchestra.

The name itself fascinated me, so I immediately bought 2 CD’s online. From that moment on began my fascination with this band, its music and its founder.

Good job for the editors of the film who put the soundtrack there in the first place. It is such a gratifying experience for me when I see a job well done like that, to the extent that I wished there was a way to call them up and say he guys that was excellent.

The story of the band, and of Simon Jeffe’s, is also so original and affects your view of the band. Just like Ludwig Van’s deafness affects your opinion about his music.

How can someone conceive so much creativity in music and be able to break the mold and move our soul with so much originality and depth and relevance. How can he die at the end of a brain tumor? The tragedy of irony.

Foux Du Fa Fa

Raw talent.

This is what I would describe the marvelous band from New Zealand. Flight of the Conchords.

Their wit, their music, their overall talent, the dialogue. It is simply awesome.

I discovered them by chance while flipping through the TV a few months back.

In general I am a huge fan of comedy shows, stand ups and specials, but I always skip the musical comedy segments because they do not appeal to me.

By pure chance this band from New Zealand caught my attention and I was awestruck.

The way they glorify the mundane is deeply interesting and hilariously funny. I thought that Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld mastered the art of the inane, but here comes a band from New Zealand that managed to put a twist on it, take it to another level and musically entertain as well.

Great stuff

I love it when I make discoveries like that. Not for the entertainment factor alone, which is ample, but for recognizing excellence in talent and in attention to details and in the craftsmanship.

I do recommend it to many of my friends but few of them find it funny.

But I do, and I keep watching it again and again.

So, Jemaine and Bret, if you are reading this, great stuff, well done and keep it up.

 

the amazing lebanese people

Now, in the 21st century, in 2009, Lebanon has no electricity and no water. It has one highway and every person has a car.

The enthusiasm demonstrated these days while the country gears up for the June 7 elections, by all means pivotal, is unbelievably active and loud and frequent to the extent that it makes wonder about the notoriously industrious and resourceful Lebanese people, and about where their priorities lie.

For the past year or so, every single day, rallies in all regions and cities and villages in Lebanon take place where a political leader comes and inflames the public with a fiery speech about why they should elect him and not the opposition because the opposition leaders are traitors and embezzlers and agents and and and .

People attending those rallies hail and cheer and shout in obvious and blatant brain washed stupor. And they are all the same. It is always about the person. Man worship. Among all the religions and sects, as if we don't have enough already in Lebanon, we still look idolize humans as well to increase the list of revered persons on our list. it is more choice for all.

what is behind this cheering and the immense readiness to be followers? Why do people go out of their way to attend a political rally under the searing heat? what are they expecting? nothing is the answer and nothing is what they get. It is pure idolization and man worship. It is pure absent mindedness.

The country is floating on water, we have more rivers, lakes and streams than anybody cared to quantify, yet our houses have no running water and our trees and forests burn every year and to this day no one figured out what to do about it.

We can organize a huge political rally in very short notice, say one day before, and a million people will come. But a chronic water problem which has been plaguing the country for over 50 years does not produce one shy mini demonstration.

It is not important, we think, because we are buying our water from tankers, so why bother.

For the last 50 years we suffer from the lack of steady electric current, not one demonstration broke out in the last 50 years demanding to know who is responsible for this or to improve the situation. Also not important, we have generators. It is noisy and causes pollution, yes, but it is private and unique. Not public like a demonstration to combat the problem. And besides, what are we going to wear if we go to a demonstration? who will see us there, what if they were wearing the same clothes.

The irony. The pain of daily desecration. The shame.

So, what will happen after the elections? People in power will re-shuffle, but they would still be in power, and we will still have no electricity and no water.

Mayo

I just read on the side of one Mayonnaise pack the following hilariously stupid thing. Just to show you how marketing people can really be stupid sometimes.

On the side of the pack of a Knorr Mayonnaise there is like a meter indicator. A “fun” meter no less.

At he top where the pack is full the meter reads :”Let the fun begin”

And as the meter goes down with the consumption of the pack, it starts to say things like “running out of fun”, until as it approaches the end and the meter indicates that the pack is almost empty it reads “time to purchase a new pack”

One question.

Who has fun squirting Mayonnaise around. Isn’t that more disgusting than funny?

What were those marketing guys thinking.

If anything, Mayonnaise is associated with guilt of non healthy calorie rich and cholesterol friendly food. Where is the fun in that?

Don’t even get me started on diet Myonnaise.

first the name

The name, dog barking at the moon, is in my opinion the ultimate graphic symbol of absurdity. And the more I mature and grow older the more absurdity I discover all around me.

This imagery I owe to an author called tom robbins whose books made a tremendous impact on my life. The book was "Half asleep in frog pajamas"