Hi folks,

Bangkok has become my interlude between chapters.  Yesterday I was in Brisbane,
tomorrow I'll be in Tokyo, and now I'm in Bangkok, city (for me) of Thai
massages, great food and a visit to my travel agent to pick up the next air
ticket.

Back to early June...  After more than 2 years away in Japan and India, I flew
back to Brisbane with some trepidation.  I had no idea what to expect - some of
the gigs I'd had booked had cancelled and I wasn't feeling too optimistic.  My
first impressions after such a long absence were the wide open spaces and the
wide loud people.  My first gig (in Byron Bay) had a very small audience, more
gigs were cancelled and I was feeling distinct "non-culture shock" (shock from
lack of culture).  But it was very nice to be back with my old friends and to
enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, great fresh food and those wide open spaces.

Despite all that, I managed to keep myself busy jamming with all my old musical
friends and I really enjoyed making cross-cultural music again.  In Japan and
of course in India I've been playing Indian classical music almost exclusively,
so it was a fresh change to be playing with Persian, Turkish, Tibetan, jazz and
Flamenco musicians again.  I've really become fascinated with trying to adapt
tabla to those different styles of music.  Suddenly there are no rules except
our own musical sense, which can be both challenging and liberating.

The solution to "non-culture shock" came when I decided to organise a series of
EthnoSuperLounge home concerts.  The house I managed to move into in Brisbane
was perfect for home concerts, with large spaces inside and a big deck
outside.  The four home concerts were : Bhakti (Indian jazz bhajans and Persian
music), Indian Ocean Session (South Indian female vocals with Zimbabwean
mbira), Jazzy Tibet (Tibetan vocals/music with electric guitar and sax) and
finally Turkish Flamenco (Turkish vocals/music with flamenco guitar) - all
featuring myself on tabla of course.  We didn't use any sound system so the
audience were really part of the music.  Their silence added power to the
music, and occasionally members of the audience joined in (generally invited
musicians, of course).  There was also plenty of question and answer about the
music being performed.  My favourite comment was "I've never enjoyed music as
much as that."  (Kudos to musicians - Cieavash Arean, Yani, Vijaya and Menaka
Visvanathan (and Sen), Mbira Soul Music, Tenzin Choegyal, Matt Hill, River
Petein, Feridun Avar and Andrew Veivers, plus the guest performers, audiences
and housemates!)

Apart from the EthnoSuperLounge home concerts I performed in a few Indian
classical functions at BEMAC (Brisbane Ethnic Music and Arts Centre) and Yoga
in Daily Life.  I was especially honoured to have the chance to perform tabla
solo (accompanied by my guru-behen Liz) at BEMAC in honour of our late Guru-
ji.  It was part of a series of Indian classical concerts there involving
members of the Brisbane Indian community, and the positive response to my tabla
solo was really encouraging.  I'm so happy to get the chance to show Guru-ji's
style of tabla and to try to carry out his wish that tabla be recognised as a
solo instrument.   I also got another great chance when I was asked to perform
with Afghani sitar player Khalil Gudaz and tabla player Bobby Singh, two of
Australia's top Indian classical musicians.

I'll be back in Australia from late November to early January.  The positive
response to home concerts means I'll definitely try to do more of them and
we'll hopefully get some really good recordings for a new EthnoSuperLounge CD.

In the meantime I'll be in Japan for 3 months.  I have a number of Indian
classical concerts, starting with a 7 show tour of northern Honshu with sitar
player Michiro Kimura.  After that I'll be staying mostly in Tokyo with my new
love Orie, and trying to play as much music as possible.  I've been really
inspired by making world music fusion in Australia with EthnoSuperLounge so I'm
going to try my best to meet more world music artists in Japan, and hopefully
start a Japan EthnoSuperLounge.

[For further info on the musicians and organisations above, please find the
relevant links at www.ethnosuperlounge.com/links.htm]

Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Hi folks,

If you are receiving my messages with a big "Watch Ashanti" advertisement, here
is how to remove it from future emails:

1) Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ethnosuperlounge-international/
2) Click "Sign in to Yahoo" and then sign in (you might need to register with
Yahoo)
3) Click "Edit My Membership"
4) Scroll down to "Message Format" and select "Do not convert to HTML" and then
click "Save Changes"

Future emails will have a small link to an ad, instead of a big annoying
graphic...

Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Hi folks,

Once again Bangkok Airport, once again typing away to all you lovely people!
My first "tour" of Japan (as opposed to a working residency) is now complete
and my first "tour" of Australia (Brisbane/Byron) about to begin, after 2 years
away from my country of birth.  In this report I'll give you a brief rundown on
what I got up to in Japan and what's expected in Australia, including my
contact details there...

BUT FIRST - a bit of Website news.  I have updated the following pages :
  GURU-JI - www.ethnosuperlounge.com/guru-ji.htm
    - Now includes MANY INTERESTING OLD PHOTOS of concerts with famous artists
such as his guru-jis, Pt. Kanthe Maharaj (tabla) and Pt. Ram Nath Mishra
(pakhawaj) and also with U. Allauddin Khan, his students Pt. Ravi Shankar, U.
Ali Akbar Khan and Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, U. Mushtaq Ali Khan and tabla players
Pt. Kishan Maharaj and Pt. Mahapurush Mishra; also includes some new text and a
Japanese version courtesy of my guru-bhai Hiro Okazaki.
  SHEN - www.ethnosuperlounge.com/shen.htm
    - A bit more info on myself, a bit more up to date...
  CONTACT US - www.ethnosuperlounge.com/contact%20us.htm
    - Includes my current mobile phone numbers in both Australia and Japan
  LINKS - www.ethnosuperlounge.com/links.htm
    - Constantly being updated - check it out if you want something to do on the
Net...
  EVENTS - www.ethnosuperlounge.com/events.htm
    - Hopefully updated with current concert schedule within the next few days.


JAPAN REPORT (skip to OVERALL for a one-paragraph summary)

It was so lovely being back in Japan, especially after the ridiculous heat of
India in April.  My first day back was a perfect 25 degrees and I enjoyed
riding along Kyoto's Kamo River on my mountain bike letting my reborn long
curly locks fly in the wind and feeling so free!  Kyoto is a lovely place,
especially in the good-weather months of spring and autumn, and over the time I
spent there I enjoyed several peaceful walks in the forested mountains just 15
minutes' bike-ride from the city centre.

On my first weekend I performed in Osaka with Tadao Ishihama, a sensational
young sitar player who started at the age of 15 (he's now 24) and Taro
Terahara, a simply wonderful bansuri player from Tokyo.  I hadn't met Taro
before and really enjoyed his music.  He must have enjoyed my tabla too because
he immediately offered me a concert in Tokyo when I come back in September.
Goodonya Taro-san!

Shortly after that concert I took a 10-day trip to Tokyo and the surrounding
areas to meet friends, practice with musicians, get better known and take part
in the Earthlingz Golden Week Gathering at The Greenhouse, a few hours outside
Tokyo.  The Greenhouse is owned by a Chris Case, an American ethno-ambient DJ
who's been living in Japan since the late 60's.  It's a wonderful space for
relaxing, eating good food and creating or listening to interesting sounds.
For the 5 days I was there I was the main live performer along with a bunch of
different DJs, and on the final night I had a great jam session with Kenji
Sakasegawa, Japan's most experienced tabla players.  During my stay in Tokyo I
stayed in 5 different places in 5 nights, with more offers of hospitality
untaken - thanks to all my friends in Tokyo!!!

Back to Kansai and there was one very busy Fri-Mon weekend in particular, with
3 gigs and a party.  First was with Setsuo "Jimi" Miyashita, a student of
santoor-master Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma.  (For those not in the know, a santoor is
a bit like a hammered dulcimer.)  The concert was held in Ei-un-in, a beautiful
Kyoto temple with a lovely garden.  The atmosphere was just magic and the music
matched it.  Jimi-san's music has a very "healing" quality.  Following the
concert, the temple monk treated us all to a large selection from his wine-
cellar, including a 1972 French wine in my honour (I was born in 1972); the
drinking went until 4am.  I had 2 more concerts that weekend (with Tadao in
Osaka and again with Jimi-san in Gifu) and I don't think the hangover went away
until a week later.  Luckily, once I start playing music nothing else matters,
including hangovers it seems.

On my final weekend I had two concerts in Kyoto, both in old traditional-style
Kyoto houses, or "Machias".  The first was a late addition, playing with a
young sitar player, didj player and mbira player.  As well as accompanying
sitar and a didj-tabla-mbira journey, I played a half-hour tabla solo dedicated
to Guru-ji.  The audience were mostly 60- and 70-year-old ladies and I was very
happy to find that they were totally enthralled by the tabla.  It's times like
that which make being a musician the most worthwhile - bringing something
totally new and exciting into somebody's life in a really positive way.  The
following day I had a very sweet concert with Carlos Guerra, Japan's most
experienced bansuri player (originally from Spain).  Thanks to everyone who
helped me with concerts in Japan!

OVERALL, I'm pretty happy with what I achieved in my 6 weeks in Japan.  I met a
few new musicians, caught up with old friends, improved my reputation as a
tabla player, played some lovely concerts including a very satisfying tabla
solo, gave a few tabla lessons, sold a couple of tabla, and didn't make a
financial loss, plus I got to enjoy Japan's food, drinks, nature and general
ambience!


COMING UP - AUSTRALIA

That last weekend in Japan with the didj-tabla-mbira jam was a nice appetiser
for what's to come in Australia, with a lot more world music fusion projects on
the cards, as well as several Indian classical concerts including tabla solos.

Probably the most exciting thing coming up is "Bhakti".  If you've heard the
EthnoSuperLounge CD you will have heard 3 songs by Bhakti, which is basically
myself with jazz/bhajan "devotional diva" Yani, along with guest artists.  This
year we're being joined by Persian singer and multi-instrumentalist Cieavash
Arean which is really exciting.  I love the combination of tabla with different
voices and unfortunately, while the standard of Indian classical music in Japan
is really high, I don't get many chances to work with vocalists there.
Australia, it seems, is the place for singers.  We're hoping Bhakti will become
the "next big thing" in Australian world music.

I'll be in Australia from June 3 to August 16.  While I'm there my mobile phone
number will be +61-415-106-428, home phone +61-7-3846-0115, address 19 Hove St,
Highgate Hill QLD 4101, AUSTRALIA.

For my concert schedule in Australia, please visit the Events page of the ESL
website : http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com/events.htm (hopefully up to date
within the next few days)


LINKS TO ARTISTS MENTIONED ABOVE:

Hiro Okazaki - http://www.sound.jp/upaathi/index.html
Tadao Ishihama - http://joint-b.dvrex.net/ishihama/
Taro Terahara - http://www.pure.ne.jp/~fueya/
Earthlingz (The Greenhouse) - http://www.earthlingz.net
Kenji Sakasegawa - http://souhadou.way-nifty.com/soundivisual/
Setsuo "Jimi" Miyashita - http://www.ne.jp/asahi/okumino/sarasoju/


Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Hi folks,

Here is my new keitai (mobile phone) number in Japan :
  090-9868-1213 (from inside Japan)
  +91-90-9868-1213 (from outside Japan)

It is a prepaid mobile phone, so calls within Japan cost 20yen/20sec!  So I
won't be making many calls during the week, but I can receive calls for free,
of course.  Also on weekends and holidays calls are only 5yen/min - that's when
I'll be calling people...

My keitai email address is:
  shen@... (my 4th shen@... email address!)

Once again, because it's a prepaid mobile phone, I can only receive short mail,
ie up to 128 characters.

おでんわまっています。。。
Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Hi folks,

I'm sitting in Bangkok Airport waiting for my flight to Osaka and at last I
have the time and motivation to report to you all on my experiences since last
time - back on Christmas Day last year!  It's also a good time to set things
down in words as it's the end of one chapter and the beginning of a whole new
one, travelling the world with just my tabla and a few assorted possessions.  I
could write a book about the last 4 months but today I'll try to keep to an
outline...  Looking over what I've written I find I've written a lot about Guru-
ji and his blessings, so if you find it's too much and you just want
interesting anecdotes, please skip ahead.

BUT FIRST - If you're interested in my upcoming concert schedule in Japan and
Australia, please visit my Events page on the ESL website :
  http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com/events.htm (in English)
  http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com/ja/events.htm (in Japanese when possible)

GURU-JI'S LAST DAYS
After my last email I spent a week or so more in Kathmandu, waiting for my new
Indian visa and enjoying the local cuisine and watching Steve Waugh
(Australia's much-loved cricket captain)'s last cricket match, against the
touring Indians.  Then it was back to Varanasi to prepare for Saraswati Puja,
the yearly concert in offering to Saraswati, goddess of learning and music.
This year it turned out I was to play tabla solo so I practised very well -
about 6-7 hours a day - to be ready to give a one hour performance.

I came back from Kathmandu to find Guru-ji in bed with the flu, but still
insisting that I come for lessons each day.  On the day of Saraswati Puja, he
took a big turn for the worse and the concert was cancelled.  After my
preparation and anticipation for my performance it was a big shock.  Over the
next 2 weeks he went first to one hospital, then another, until he passed away
on Feb 8, as I reported at the time.

It was a terribly painful time for his family and students including myself,
tending to Guru-ji who was generally in a world of pain.  I spent several hours
by his side each day, hoping for any contact at all, even if it was just to
gaze into his eyes and hold his hand.

On the morning of his death I was woken with the news and went to take part in
the cremation ceremony, carrying his body through the streets of Varanasi to
the cremation ground at Manikarnika Ghat.  Along with the ceremonies of the
following 13 days, it was a very raw and yet very healing process.

On that evening, I was walking by the side of the Ganges at sunset.  February
is the most beautiful time in Varanasi - the weather is just fantastic.  In one
quiet area of the ghats I passed a traveller sitting by the river, playing a
whimsical song on the accordion.  Varanasi remains eternal and life goes on.
It was a completely magical moment which is perhaps best described in Japanese -
  setsunai.

AASHIRBAAD - GURU-JI'S BLESSINGS
When I tried to play tabla that first day, all I could do was go through the
simplest of exercises with a complete feeling of emptiness and a flood of
tears.  However as the days went by I felt more and more that Guru-ji was with
me, even closer than before, giving me his blessings as he always has.  In the
months since then I've felt Guru-ji's blessings so many times and so powerfully
that I know it to be a real phenomenon.  I've been so lucky to have met such a
great man, to have learned so much from him and to have him believe in me as a
tabla player.  Even until the end, when he couldn't speak any more, he would
always tell me (or try to tell me) to "GO! - Play fine, make a big name and
fame!"  Having learned from him and received his belief and blessings I know I
have something special in my tabla playing, from him.  And now, like all his
students, I know I have to make something even more special ("Practise!") with
that and share it with the world, and that his blessings will be helping me.

GREAT MUSICIANS
Once the 13 days of mourning were complete I began practising with many great
musicians in Varanasi, and even giving a few concerts.  Actually the first
concert came right on the evening of the 13th day! - playing tabla solo in a
local tabla teacher's house.  In the following couple of weeks I was lucky
enough to practise with Miyashita "Jimi" Setsuo (a great santoor player from
Japan who was in town for 3 days) and many excellent local musicians including
Govinda Goswami (sitar), Debashish Sannyal (sitar), Debashish Dey (vocal),
Mangala Tiwari (vocal) and Sukhdev Mishra (violin).  I learned a lot from them
and I'm very thankful to them for their time.  By all accounts, my tabla
accompaniment was well-received and enjoyed by all, and I started to realise
that something special was happening.  I was really busy, often playing with 2
or 3 people each day and even receiving invitations from people to come and
play which I was too busy to accept!  This from a humble foreign student of
tabla...

DELHI
In mid-March I headed to Delhi for a week, as several friends from Japan were
to be there at the same time.  I met and practised with Shuji Yamamoto (sarod
student of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan) and his wife Sylvia (Kathak dance), Carlos
Guerra (bansuri), Aki Ueda and Sanjib Sircar (both sitar students of Ustad
Shujaat Hussein Khan).  I was also able to spend time with my senior guru-bhai
(guru-brothers) Govinda Chakraborty and Udai Mazumdar.  One of the great things
about the terrible experience of losing Guru-ji was that his students came
together.  I was able to get to know these lovely people and receive a lot of
help from them.  (I also got some lovely hospitality and great advice from 2
very senior guru-bhaiya in Kolkata in the last few days.)

The highlight of my trip to Delhi was meeting Pandit Ravi Shankar-ji, who was a
good friend of Guru-ji since they were classmates in their school days, and his
daughter Anoushkar, thanks to my guru-bhai Udai Mazumdar (www.udaimazumdar.com)
who studies tabla accompaniment with Pandit-ji.  We went to Pandit-ji's house
and enjoyed a concert of a South Indian violin duo, chatted a little and had
dinner together.  Of course I was, shall we say, an unexpected minor guest so I
didn't get to speak too much with Pandit-ji, but I certainly enjoyed the
experience, giving my pranam and receiving his blessings.  I was also able to
chat a little with Anoushkar about our shared friends in Kyoto.

NAVARATRI
On returning from Delhi I embarked on the nine-night Navaratri ritual in honour
of goddess Durga-maa - nine nights of non-stop tabla practice from 9pm to 6am
each night (except, to be honest, for the night of the India-Pakistan cricket
final when I started at 11pm).  I won't write too much about it as I wrote
about it when I completed it 3 years ago
(http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/ethnosuperlounge-brisbane/message/53)
except to say that this time it felt a lot more like hard work.  But I
certainly felt Durga shakti since completing the ritual and Durga-maa has
already given me at least one gift...

SANKAT MOCHAN
Around this time, Varanasi started to become unbearably hot - at least 40 every
day!  Why did I, along with many other foreigners, stay in Varanasi?  Sankat
Mochan of course!  Sankat Mochan is the big Hanuman temple in Varanasi, and
each April they hold a 5 night music festival - again it's an all-night affair,
starting at around 7.30am and going until dawn.  The highlights for me were
Pandit Jasraj (vocal - some of the best bhajans I've ever heard.  What a
voice!), Anindo Chatterjee (tabla solo and accompaniment), Kartik Kumar (sitar -
  one of Pt. Ravi Shankar's best students), Kishan Maharaj (tabla solo - still
playing strong at 80 years old - Guru-ji's younger guru-bhai), and best of all
Debu Chaudhuri (sitar), as well as Vijay Ghate's sensational tabla
accompaniment with Satish Vyas (santoor) - gee that man loves to play tabla!
It was a inspirational series of concerts which has given me a lot of energy
for my own upcoming concerts in Japan and Australia.

HOT AND HUMID
I've spent the last few days in hot and sticky Kolkata and Bangkok - Bangkok
being far more preferable due to the fantastic food and wider availability of
A/C.  In Bangkok, I discovered the habit of having "first dinner" and "second
dinner".  Next time I come I think I'll stay a few more days just to try more
Thai cuisine!

Tomorrow morning - Kyoto!  Mata ne!
Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Hi folks,

TAKE CARE WITH MESSAGES WITH ATTACHMENTS!!!

I'm very sorry to say my email address has been picked up by some email worm
which is going around these days.  It's hit me quite hard in that I'm receiving
about 5-20 junk emails each day and my email address has been listed in some
online spammer lists.  Now I'm starting to receive these email worm messages
from my friends, which is how I come to realise that perhaps my email address
is being used by this email worm.

The dangerous messages all carry the virus in an attachment, so you can look at
the email safely as long as you don't open the attachment.  The email worm's
message text is usually something very short, like "Please look at the attached
file." etc.  DON'T LOOK AT THE ATTACHMENTS!  The dangerous attachments are
generally of the types .EXE, .PIF, .SCR, .ZIP, .WAV etc

For the record, I almost never send messages with attachments - I always send
pure text messages, and if I really have to send a message with an attachment I
will include a longish explanation in the plain message text.

To anyone who's already opened such a file from me, I'm very sorry.  But please
know that it's the email worm which has picked up my email address (and now
yours) which is the source of the problem.

Unfortunately I don't know how to block these emails, and if anyone does know,
could you please tell me?

Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

My respected and beloved Guru-ji of tabla, Pandit Kaviraj Asutosh "Asu Babu"
Bhattacharya passed away last night at 2am after a month long illness, at the
age of 86.  Thus ends the life of a truly great man, famous as both an
extraordinary tabla player and teacher and reputed Ayurvedic doctor.

Guru-ji was born in Varanasi, India in March 1917 and studied tabla under the
great Ustad Kanthe Maharaj.  As a young man he was already a rising star,
playing his first conference at the age of 21 with the legendary Ustad
Allauddin Khan, in Allahabad.  Shortly thereafter he was to follow in the
footsteps of his father and grandfather in studying Ayurvedic medicine in
Delhi.  At the same time as taking lectures, studying and gaining practical
experience in his medicine guru's clinic, he was maintaining his tabla
practice, giving lessons on Sundays and performing concerts and radio recitals
with the likes of Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and Vilayat Khan.

After completing his degree and returning to Varanasi, he set up his medical
practice and continued to give tabla performances, learn from his guru-ji and
practise around 6 hours a day, receiving many awards for his musicianship.
During this period he played with most of the "greats" of 20th century Indian
classical music, including Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan, Pt
D.V. Paluskar, Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, etc etc.  In 1952 he performed in "that
concert" - Ustad Allauddin Khan, his son Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Nikhil
Banerjee accompanied on tabla by Ustad Kanthe Maharaj and his senior disciple,
our Guru-ji, gave a 3 1/2 hour performance together in the early morning during
an All-India Music Conference in Calcutta.  Despite such incredible
achievements, he always thought of medicine as his profession and music as his
hobby, so he never took money for concerts except for expenses like travel,
food and lodging.

One of his beliefs was that music should be a divine experience. This sort of
music can only come from years of intensive practice and devotion, from
thinking of music as an offering to God and allowing inspiration to come from
spontaneity, which can only happen when one is completely free with one's
instrument due to "too much practice and devotion".  In many ways he was a
true "musical saint".

May God bless him on his journey.

(Adapted from "Guru-ji" - http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com/guru-ji.htm)

Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Hi folks,

In the last few weeks, I've done a lot of work updating the EthnoSuperLounge
website.  If you have time, or are looking for some new sights on the 'net,
please visit :
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Updates include:
  : MANY more links - lots of Indian & world music sites
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com/links.htm
     - lots of musicians in Japan
     - email addresses of ESL artists who don't have a website, so you can
contact any musician - http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com/people.htm

  : The start of a Japanese site - http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com/ja
     - if you can help with translating ANY of the site into Japanese, please
let me know...

  : Nicer appearance and smaller files so they should load more quickly

Happy surfing!

Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Namaste, Konnichiwa, Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!!

I hope you're having a great New Year season and doing whatever you wish to be
doing.

I've had quite an interesting couple of months, having been on holiday from
tabla lessons in Varanasi travelling around India with Saya-chan.  The
highlights & lowlights of our journey include dengue fever, theft of my
passport & other valuables, shaking the Dalai Lama's hand, lazing on the beach
in Goa and mountain biking around 500 year old ruins and much older enormous
boulders in Hampi and culminate with me spending Christmas in funky old
Kathmandu...


BREEZY BENARAS
October was quite a breezy month with the arrival of my girlfriend Sayaka from
Japan.  Munna House was full of a nice bunch of people from Japan, Finland,
Thailand, Denmark/New York, Canada & Spain and there were many delicious and
enjoyable shared dinners, some good music sessions and lots of chatting and
chai.  In early November we were able to see some famous musicians and dancers
performing in the Ganga Mahotsav on a big stage with the Ganges River (Ganga)
as a spectacular backdrop.


DELHI DRAMAS I
After this very pleasant period it was time for Saya-chan & I to take a holiday
from music lessons and see some of India.  But we were to encounter some bad
luck on the train to Delhi.  Sayaka started to complain of headaches and heavy
fever, which continued in Delhi.  After a few days, a doctor diagnosed dengue
fever (transmitted by mosquitos) and recommended a few days in hospital.  It
was a very modern private hospital, all paid for by Saya-chan's insurance
company.  After a few days she recovered well and has been in good health since.

At the SAME time, on that unlucky train to Delhi, my shoulder bag was stolen,
including my passport, Visa card, all ID from Australia and Japan, MiniDisc
walkman, digital camera, a few books and so on.  With Sayaka in heavy fever
alongside me I didn't really feel too sorry for myself and tried to get the
paperwork out of the way quickly so that I could take care of her.  The first
stage was to get a new passport, which involved Rs4700 and a 2 week wait.


DHARAMSALA DHARMA
So once Saya-chan felt well enough we caught the overnight bus to Dharamsala,
the "capital-in-exile" of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people.  It was pretty
cold but wonderfully sunny so we had fantastic Himalayan mountain views and
some great hiking.  We also had the chance to shake the Dalai Lama's hand,
along with a few hundred other questing souls...


DELHI DRAMAS II
Back to smelly Delhi.  Stage Two of the stolen-passport-recovery process was to
get a new visa stamp in my new passport.  The timing of our return to Delhi
with a Muslim national holiday, a Sikh national holiday and a weekend meant
that it was going to take a week to get the necessary paperwork together to get
this new visa.  So we skipped town to Goa.


GORGEOUS GOA
Until now, I'd never been game enough to take the 2 day journey to South
India.  I'd never felt I had enough time.  But I won't hold back in future
visits to India - the 33 hour train trip from Delhi to Goa wasn't so bad after
all.  Lots of reading, card games, snacks and sleeping, and then we were in
paradise.  Ten days in Goa spent swimming, eating fresh seafood, drinking cheap
beer and otherwise relaxing to the max were so welcome after our recent
trials!  While it was quite busy it was still quiet and peaceful, and reminded
me of the Thai islands (except without Thai food!).

Seeing as I'd taken the time to come all this way south, we caught another
overnight ("sleeper") bus to Hampi, which is the site of the capital of the
14th-16th century Vijayanagar empire.  It's a very interesting and peaceful
place, set in a landscape of piles of enormous boulders interspersed with 600
year old stone ruins.


DELHI DRAMAS III
Then it was time.  I had to head north because of my Delhi dramas, followed by
an exit from India into Nepal to get a new 6 month visa.  Sayaka, on the other
hand, still has 3 months on her visa and so had the opportunity to stay in the
wonderful weather and beaches of South India, especially to pursue her studies
of Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) in Kerala.  So I caught 2 trains and
arrived in Delhi 2 days later.  This time everything was resolved smoothly and
by the end of the day I had a stamp in my new passport permitting me to stay in
India until Christmas Day.

That night I met up with Japanese sarod player Shuuji Yamamoto and his Italian
(Kathak dancer) wife Sylvia.  We had a great music session.  Two days later in
Varanasi I met 3 more Japanese Indian musicians and around this time I also
received an email from another in Kolkata asking when I'll visit there.  India
is such a great meeting place for us global gypsies!


NIPPY NEPAL
After a few days in Varanasi, I took the harrowing 2 day bus journey (9
hours/day) to Kathmandu.  Along with 43 hours train journey from Hampi to Delhi
and 14 hours more from Delhi to Varanasi, that made 75 hours of intercity
travel in the last week!

Kathmandu is a very cool city - one of my favourites.  It has a great
combination of old & new - old wooden temples & other buildings, narrow lanes
and roads, shops filled with magical-looking Nepali & Tibetan artifacts yet all
the modern conveniences of any big Asian city.

Unfortunately for me, this is my first Christmas away from any friends or
family so I'm feeling a little lonely here in Kathmandu.  To top it off, it's
quite nippy (cold) here and I've come down with a cold in the last few days.
And not only that, but my plans to settle in and watch the exciting Australia-
India 3rd test cricket match this week seem to have been scotched, because the
sports channel here comes from Hong Kong rather than India!  Oh well, that's
life...  No attachments...  Stay happy...


PLANS
Once I get a new visa for India, my plans remain much as before.  I'll be
staying in Varanasi until April, which should be a most excellent period of
musical development.  On January 26 there is the Saraswati Puja concert in my
Guru-ji's house, in honour of the Hindu goddess of music & learning.  This
period is the peak time for foreigners in Varanasi, so I'll be meeting lots of
musicians from Japan and elsewhere (India is the global gypsy meeting place!)
and seeing lots of concerts, culminating in the 5 night Sankat Mochan music
festival in April.  After that I'll be playing music in Japan in May and then
Australia for June and possibly July/August too, then back to India for another
session of tabla lessons!

I'm really looking forward to 2004 and I hope you are too!

Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Hi folks,

Something I should have put in that last email...

My postal address is

Shen Flindell
c/o Uma Pati Pandey
B14/60 Narad Ghat
Varanasi 221001 U.P.
INDIA

Please send me lots of letters, postcards, gifts, CDs, food, love, etc!

Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Hi folks,

At last I find myself at a computer with an empty inbox and the mood to write a
message to the world...  I've now been in India for almost 3 months and it's
been a very hot, sticky and often wet 3 months - the monsoon.

At first I had to go through a period of major readjustment, after having been
living the high-life in Japan (clean streets, punctual trains, air-con), and
coming to the simple life of India (rubbish heaps, cows, rickshaws, fans &
daily power-cuts).  In Japan, I was working a 40 hour week, enjoying lots of
great food (including regular doses of seafood and chicken) and drink and a
luxurious lifestyle.  I weighed about 82kg.  Now in India, I often practise 5-7
hours a day, eat 95% simple vegetarian food and never drink.  I now weigh about
73kg.

So during the first few weeks my mood was pretty up-and-down.  It was a lonely,
simple, hot life - wake, yoga, shower, breakfast (fantastic mangoes!),
practise, lunch, practise, lesson, practise, dinner, practise, sleep...  And
those daily power-cuts during the hottest part of the day were really
draining.  But it was great to see my Guru-ji again - 86 years old and still
going strong, treating patients with Ayurvedic medicine every morning and
teaching tabla every afternoon.  He really is an amazing man, always full of
inspiring stories and advice.  At that time (July), the inspiring advice
was "Practice is for difficult conditions, not sitting on a comfortable cushion
with fan and good mood..."  Recently he told a great story which began, "In
January 1952, I was become a hero of tabla in Calcutta..."  A story in which he
performed for a total of about 11 hours in one night at 3 locations with
artists including D.V. Paluskar (great vocalist) and Nikhil Banerjee (great
sitarist) and another few hours the next night!  (Visit
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com/guru-ji.htm and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ethnosuperlounge-brisbane/message/38 for more
info about Guru-ji.)

In my tabla studies we first did a major review of teentaal (the most common
taal - 16 beats) and worked on my weak points - relas (the very fast style of
playing) and bayan (the left-hand, bass drum).  Recently I've been studying
Char Taal ki Sawari (11 beats), a very interesting taal which I may only be
able to play in tabla solo as very few musicians can actually play it!

Anyway, as the monsoon progressed, the Ganga river rose and rose and actually
reached a 15-year high a few weeks ago, in the process flooding quite a few
houses.  It's since dropped but it's very high for the time of year.  It's now
Durga Puja, a nine-night festival in honour of goddess Durga, the Demon-
Slayer.  There are statues of Durga all around the city, one of which is about
5 stories high!  It's very busy at night with families walking around to visit
all the "pandals".  This Monday night, the roads will be full of processions of
statues and portable music-systems as everyone makes there way to the river to
toss the statues into Ganga-Maa.  It will be interesting to see how it's
negotiated with the river so high this year, with no ghats to load the boats
from.  (See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ethnosuperlounge-brisbane/message/53
for my story of intense tabla practice during Durga Puja back in 2001.)

My other big news is that a few days ago my lovely girlfriend Sayaka arrived in
India for her first time, ending my 3 months of solitude.  I went to Delhi to
meet her at the airport and accompany her back to Varanasi.  It's so nice to be
with her again, and our apartment in Munna House is now complete.  She brought
lots of delicious Japanese, Thai and Italian ingredients so we'll be eating the
best food in Varanasi.  It's also great to see India again through the eyes of
a newcomer, and relive the surprises and shocks that India offers.

My current plans are to stay in Varanasi in October and early November, up to
Dev Deepavali (in which the city is strewn with beautiful little ghee lamps),
then travel with Saya-chan until December.  At that point I'll have to go to
Nepal to get a new Indian visa, then return to Varanasi for Saraswati Puja (a
very special event in Guru-ji's house), do lots more lessons and practice until
April (Sankat Mochan Sangeet Mela - 5 nights of top-class music) and then head
to Japan and Australia for a couple of months, hopefully to play lots of
concerts and teach some tabla too.  At the moment I'm not sure whether to go to
Japan in May and Australia in June or vice-versa (Oz first in May and then
Japan).  If you have any advice on this question, please let me know.

And the last little bit of news is that after a 2 month hiatus, my website is
now back online.  Visit http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com - I want to update it
more often if possible, so if you have any feedback or recommendations please
email me.  I especially want to expand the Links page so please send me any
interesting links, particularly for world music artists and organisations.

Until next time,
Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

shen@...
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

Hi folks,

Sending this a second time 'cos it didn't seem to go through the first time...

This is just a short note to say that I'm now using a new email
address, linked to my website (which is now back up again although
awaiting updates) -

  shen@...

Please update your lists and addressbooks (and please visit
www.ethnosuperlounge.com)

After a difficult first two weeks adjusting to the heat and lifestyle
of Varanasi, I'm now enjoying myself and my tabla practice, feeling
steady improvements and looking forward to the future.

More later...

Love to all
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

www.ethnosuperlounge.com
shen@...

Join the EthnoSuperLounge email list -> email:
  ethnosuperlounge-brisbane-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
  ethnosuperlounge-japan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
  ethnosuperlounge-international-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

EthnoSuperLounge - Music is Bliss, Dance is Ecstasy

Hi folks,

This is it - this is the moment I've been waiting for and working for for the
last 2 years and maybe much longer.  Tomorrow I fly to India for an indefinite
stay to study tabla and get deep and mystical with it.  I'm ready for this
moment!  (So are my tabla, which broke yesterday...)

To fill you in since my last big posting, I'm now a retired Nova English teacher
and full-time musician/music student.  In the last month, I've taught my last
bundle of Nova 40 minute lessons, plus had a few good gigs in Kyoto and Osaka
with some great sitar players.  The last gig was in beautiful Kurodani Ei-un-in
temple, with a fantastic garden as the backdrop.  I played with Christophe Rossi
(from France) and also did a short set with 2 of my students plus my new
guru-bhai Hiromichi Okazaki.  As my farewell gig it was really nice to see a lot
of the folks from work - teachers and students - there to at last see why I've
been so obsessed with India and with tapping on my chair during lessons all
year.

I've had a great time in Japan - especially having played with so many excellent
musicians and developed my own music as a result, plus of course meeting and
establishing a wonderful relationship with the lovely Sayaka.

In the last week I've been lazing on Koh Chang in the Bay of Thailand.  What a
beautiful place - bamboo huts by a small palm-lined beach.  I spent all day
swimming, reading, sleeping, practising and eating.  Lots of eating.  :-)  It IS
rainy season in Thailand but luckily only the last couple of days were
especially rainy.  Otherwise I've had a beautiful interlude in Thailand.  The
only down-point was watching my tabla skin slowly tear as I practised in my hut
during the rain yesterday.  The moist conditions combined with a skin defect
I've been watching for a few months to result in one broken tabla.  I'm thankful
it broke now, not last month before my last gigs!  Soon it will be just like
new...

And now tomorrow I fly off for smelly stinky hot India.  No more life-of-luxury
in lovely Japan!  No more sushi and Kirin.  And no more suit-and-tie... 
Sayonara Kamo Gawa, namaste Ganga.  From now on it's hard-core practice and cold
showers.  Curry and chai.  And Guru-ji telling me "don't spread fingers" and
"loose!" and "te-te more prominent!"

Blessings to all,
Love
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

PS - Other small news for Australia-jins: I bumped into Epizo Bangoura a couple
of weeks ago.  He was giving djembe workshops just down the road from my place. 
Natsukashii (how nostalgic...)!



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Hi folks,

I'm counting down to India and a week in Thailand on the way.  After working
hard for
the last year or so I'm ready for a spell on the beach eating Thai food and
relaxing
before I start my big stay in India.

SO - Do any of you lovely folks have any good advice for a tabla-playing budget
traveller in Thailand, especially regarding a week in Koh Samui?

BTW If possible, please CC replies to my mobile phone at 09066009111@...
-
it'll give me something to read on the train each day...
BUT please note that my phone can't receive HTML, so please send plain text only
and if you can't do that reply to this address.

Thanks in advance and live well...
Love
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

PS You may enjoy this little satire on SARS... (Hey, isn't that a flamenco/tango
band in
Brisbane?)


   The World Health Organisation today issued a new warning against
non-essential travel to the entire Western hemisphere following
renewed concerns about the spread of Severe Loss of Perspective Syndrome
(SLOPS). Officials are warning travellers not to visit the UK, the
US, almost all of Western Europe, and Canada, following further outbreaks
of the disease, which has led to mass panic among the media, thousands
of ecstatic children being kept out of school by their credulous and
moronic parents, and increased profits for DIY stores as the idiot
public rush to bulk-buy face masks and boiler suits.

  A WHO spokesman said, "You'd be much better off going to
somewhere like Thailand or China, because all you've got to worry about there is
SARS,and let's face it, you're about as likely to die from that as
you are to get kicked to death by a gang of zombie nuns."The SARS
virus has now claimed a staggering 500 lives in only six months, which makes it
considerably more deadly than, say, malaria, which only kills around
3000 people every single day. Malaria, however, mainly effects only
darkies what speak foreign, whereas SARS has made at least one
English person feel a bit iffy for a couple of days, and is therefore
considered much more serious.

The spread of SLOPS has now reached pandemic proportions, with many
high-level politicians seemingly affected by the disease. The rapid
spread of SLOPS has been linked to the end of the war in Iraq and the
need for Western leaders to give the public something to worry about.
Otherwise, they might start asking uncomfortable questions about
domestic issues, and that simply would not do.


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Hi foiks,

Once again it's been a while and I've got a few interesting stories and
plans to tell you about...

It's now spring in Kyoto and that means Sakura - Cherry Blossom time.  I've
just moved house (due mainly to a protracted personality clash with a
housemate) into a one-room apartment in north Kyoto, just across the road
from the Kamo river and numerous cherry trees, so the time's right for a
Hanami (flower viewing)/housewarming party.  It's good to have my own
space (or to be more accurate to be sometimes sharing with my lovely
girlfriend Sayaka) and as a bonus it's much cheaper than my old place.
The only downsides are - the road is quite busy (but I'll get used to that
soon enough, I hope), and there's no shower, so I have to visit the local
sento (public bath house).  Sentos are pretty nice though - lots of spas and
saunas and cold tubs etc.

BTW My new address is -
1-2 Eirakusou 1-gou
Izumoji Kagura-chou
Kita-ku, Kyoto-shi 603-8136
JAPAN

I haven't written in such a long time that I've still got some winter stories to
tell - the highlight of my Japanese winter has got to be visiting Kurama, in
the mountains north of Kyoto.  It was a partly fine, partly snowy day, and we
spent the day walking through the mountains in occasional light snowfalls,
visiting temples and shrines and then finishing up in the outdoor onsen
(hot spring), gazing at the forested mountains while sitting naked in natural
hot water and watching snow flakes fall through the rising mist.  Fantastic!!!

There wasn't too much snow through winter, until March!  At that time there
were a few heavy (for Kyoto) snowfalls.  All in all winter wasn't as bad as I'd
expected.  The coldest day was about 0 degrees but other than that it was
quite refreshing.

MUSIC NEWS -
Last week I had my first chance to see some local kids making African
music (as against local kids banging on djembes and blowing into
didjeridus).  The band was called Hamanah and are based in Osaka.
There were 3 djembe players, 3 doundoun players and a dancer/shaker
player.  They played with a Guinean guy called Mamoudou Diabate, who
lives in Tokyo and plays bolon and djembe and sings.  The band were
really great - I really felt natsukashii (nostalgic) for listening to Elliott
and co
play their rhythms back in Australia.  They played a lot of the same
rhythms, like Kassa, Fume Fume, etc.  Surprisingly Mamoudou didn't play
the lead djembe role at all - two of the Japanese guys took that on really
well with fantastic and happy energy.  The band leader really reminded me
of a Japanese Elliott (for all you Brisbane people) - lots of fun and very
entertaining and sincere about his music too.  The band all wore West
African costumes, including hats, and they did quite a bit of singing too,
which was great.

As for me, in the last few months I've had some great musical opportunities,
mainly having chances to play with some of Japan's best sitar players,
Kenji Inoue and Yasuhiro Minamizawa.  I've only practised with
Minamizawa-san so far, but boy can he play beautifully.  The Kenji Inoue
story is a bit more interesting...

He called me up one day to ask me to play a session with him.  That was a
great surprise, because as I said he's one of the top players in Japan and
we'd only met once about 6 months before.  Anyway, it turned out we were
playing in a cafe with a bass player (who also tinkled away on the kalimba
a bit) and a belly dancer.  We played one raga as a duo, then the musical
trio played a range of pieces ranging from jazz/ethnic-influenced Kenji
Inoue originals to "Montego Bay" and "My Favourite Things".  The night
culminated in the belly dance performance which started with a rendition of
Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Lova" and went improvisationally from there.
All in all, one of the most eclectic nights I've been involved in for quite
some time, and that's saying something!

It was the first opportunity for me to play fully improvised, non-Indian
classical music since I left Australia and I realised I've really been missing
playing that kind of music.  SO I'm now hoping and planning to visit
Australia some time next year to catch up with all my old friends and
hopefully even play enough gigs to pay for the airfare.  Around the same
time I'm planning to to the same in Japan, although in Japan I'd say all the
gigs will be pure classical.

I'm now in the countdown to India.  In 3 more months I'll have enough cash
to stay in India for several years, and I'll head there in time for Guru
Purnima (Guru's full moon).  I intend to stay in Varanasi for 2 or 3 weeks for
that, and then escape the heat to the mountains and do some intense solo
practise and Hindi study in a lonely shack somewhere.

I've been quite happy with my development lately, although of course as
I'm working full-time I can't practise anywhere near enough.  But I've been
feeling good about the practice I do get done and I feel like I'm ready to
make big steps when I get to India.  I'm ready to get deep and mystical with
it, do some intense practice and learn lots.

If all goes well, my dream is that I can be based in India for the next 10
years and make enough cash on music tours to Japan and Australia to
sustain living in India.  Failing that, I guess I'll be back in Japan teaching
English some time in 2005.

Well, once again I've written a short novel of an email...
Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


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Hi folks,

Well I'm safely back in Kyoto after 23 days of travelling and doing
the Varanasi thing.  It was a great trip although the return journey
was a bit difficult at times.

In Varanasi, I had 18 days of lessons during which I studied
Dhamar, an old 14 beat taal which I'll now have to find someone
else to play with.  I learnt some very useful things which I can apply
in all taals and developed my technique and confidence a little.  I
also got to practise with some great musicians - Govinda Goswami
on sitar and the singer Devashish Dey.  They were both very
complimentary which was great for my confidence.  I realised that I'd
developed quite a lot living in Kyoto, playing with such excellent
musicians here and concentrating on Indian classical music.  It was
also good to see some of my old friends from around the world and
of course to see my beloved Guru-ji, who seemed to be the same as
ever.  He will be 86 in March!

My return journey however, was a bit stressful.  Due to the record
cold snap in North India, there have been very heavy fogs which
have thrown the train system into disarray.  My train was due to
leave at 5am and arrive in Kolkata at 5pm, which would allow me to
stay the night with a Japanese sitar-player friend there and then go
to the airport in good time to catch my 10am flight.  However, after
getting up before 4am and heading to the train station, I learnt that
the train was 4 hours late.  No problem, I thought.  Then a couple of
hours later it was going to be 8 hours late, at which point I decided
to head back into town and get some more sleep and good food.
After lunch, I rang the station and found that the train was going to
be 11 hours late.  Now I was starting to get worried - if it was further
delayed overnight, there was a chance I'd miss my plane, in which
case I'd miss my connecting flight from Bangkok and not make it
back for work (today).  I visited a travel agent who advised me to try
to change my flight dates, but the next 2 days were booked out so I
paid him his 100 rupee commission and headed to the station
intending to catch the next train to Kolkata and pray to arrive on
time.  In the end, my train left at 5.20pm (more than 12 hours late)
and arrived at 8am the next morning (15 hours late!).  I made it to
the airport and managed to check in and go through all the
procedures in time to wait about 20 minutes before boarding.
Phew!  I then had 8 hours in Bangkok and another overnight trip via
Seoul to Osaka.  After 3 nights of very little sleep I was exhausted
and despite 12 hours of sleep last night I was pretty tired at work
today.  Now I'm getting back into my old 5 days a week routine...
The plan now is to save for the next 5 months and then head to
India for about 2 years, during which time I should develop pretty
well.

Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


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Hi folks,

にほんじんのともだち\
、えいごのメルごめん\
ください！
ちょっとわかったら、\
わたしはうれしいなり\
ます。

Wow! I'm in Varanasi, although only for 18 days before I head back to Kyoto and
more 5 day working weeks.  After Japan it's actually quite strange being in
India.  I'm noticing all the dirt and chaos more than ever before.  However,
after the first couple of days, now that I'm into tabla lessons and practice I'm
feeling back in my zone.

Brief travel report...
My trip here took 2 days from Kyoto to Varanasi via Seoul (4 hours in the
airport using email and reading), Bangkok (1 night and morning eating great
food, picking up my ticket to India and having a 1 hour Thai massage) and
Kolkata (hanging out at Howrah train station and then catching a 13 hour train
trip to Varanasi.

The most notable part of the journey was probably the Air India flight from
Bangkok to Kolkata.  It was delayed only 20 minutes but at the last minute
before boarding the crew decided to do a manual bag and body search on all
passengers.  At the same time, for some reason I was upgraded to business class,
although I'm not sure if there was any difference between business and economy
class, except maybe for the newspapers.  The flight engineer sat next to me for
most of the flight.  I had a big surprise on the flight when a Japanese girl
came up to me and said "Excuse me, are you Shen?"  It was an old student from my
school - Emiko!  Bikkuri shita!  (Surprised!)  She was coming to do a 10 day
homestay in Kolkata.

Life in Varanasi is much like last time.  There are fewer tourists, due to the
international political situation, but still lots of Japanese and Israeli folks.
I've met quite a few friends from last time, and the Japanese folks are very
surprised to hear me speaking in Japanese.  I'm actually practising my Japanese
more here than in Japan!

My daily routine is becoming established - mornings and early afternoons for
practice, late afternoon for lessons, evenings for practising with other
musicians, and a bit of sitting around drinking chai and chatting in between. 
In 2 more weeks I'll be rushing back to Kyoto and no doubt wondering if it
really happened.  But I have to say that being here has really bolstered my
appreciation for living in Japan.  I can happily spend the next several years in
Varanasi, with its' inspirational music and chilled atmosphere, and Kyoto, with
its' refined splendour and comfortable lifestyle.  There's lots of scope for me
to develop my music in both places.

Happy New Year to all and may 2003 bring you both what you wish for and some
surprises too.

Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum




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Forwarded from the Earthlingz mailing list.  Enjoy...

Subject: Hu's on first?

HU'S ON FIRST
Starring George Bush, Condoleeza Rice

(We take you now to the Oval Office.)


George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report here about the new leader of China.
George: Great. Lay it on me.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's who's name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of the new leader of
China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir? Yassir Arafat is in China? I thought he was in the
Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the new leader of
China.
Get me the Secretary General of the U.N. on the phone.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a glass of milk.
And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: Milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: And call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: (Now getting peaved) "Condi, if you are toying with me,
then, by
God, I'll screw you."
Condi:  "No, No, sir.  Yu is not a terrorist like Hu.  We
should talk
to Yu."
George:  "You already are."
Condi:  "I mean, we really like Yu."
George:  "Thanks.  I like you too."
Condi:  "We stopped using that spy plane years ago."
George: What plane?
Condi:  The U-2 sir.
George: Well, just get me the guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi.
George: All right! With cream and two sugars. Now get on the phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.)
Condi: Rice?.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls, too.


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Hi folks,

It's been quite a while since I wrote, but here I am again.  I've been quite
busy,
as you do in Japan, working 5 days a week, playing music and hanging out
with my lovely girlfriend on weekends, and every time I get on the internet I
spend all my time emptying my Inbox and never really have the time to write
new stuff...

Anyway, it's now autumn in Kyoto, getting quite chilly for a Brisbane boy - say
6min to 14max on a typical day.  But the autumn leaves, for which Japan and
Kyoto are quite famous, are truly lovely.  The trees are turning every colour
from yellow, gold, orange, bright pink to deep red.  Temples, where trees with
the most beautiful leaves are in profusion, are particularly scenic. You can
check out some photos at:
http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/kp/english/photos/momiji/themomiji1.html

Life in Kyoto continues much as before.  Work is much the same, except that
I'm now teaching Kids classes.  I have 2 classes a week of 5 students each -
one class of 4-6 year olds and one of 7-9 year olds - plus a few one-on-one
classes with 10-12 year olds (almost always girls for some reason).

The music scene has been great.  I've been too busy to meet or rehearse with
too many people, so as a result I've only been playing Indian classical music,
which doesn't need any rehearsal time, just solo practice and then get
together and play.  I haven't been doing too many gigs either, but I've had
some good jams in people's homes.  Two of the gigs I have done were with
touring didjeridu players from Australia - first Si and then Ganga Giri - which
were both a pleasure and a blast.

BUT there have been some great gigs to see.  First, one of the big highlights of
the Indian music year in Japan, the yearly Gifu Sangeet Mela.  It's held in a
village in north Gifu and features most of Japan's best Indian classical
musicians and dancers from 6pm to 6am - Indian style!  The standard of
musicianship (and dance) here is very high.  There are several performers
who've been learning and practising for 20+ years.  Most of the performers
were Japanese, except for a Spanish bansuri player and an Indian tabla
player, who actually wasn't as good as the main Japanese tabla player.

There have also been some great touring musicians.  Recently I saw a Nepali
sitar-tabla duo who were fantastic.  They also played with a 15 year old
Japanese girl who's been studying with them in Kathmandu.  Her future is
bright in Indian music.  Around the same time I saw members of Les Ballets
Maliens - the national drum/dance group of Mali.  Unfortunately there were
only 3 of them, assisted by a couple of Japanese djembe/doundoun players
from Tokyo, but it was still a fun show.  I felt very nostalgic for all the
great
African music that goes on in Brisbane with brother Elliott and co.  As they say
in Japan - NATSUKASHII!  (Nostalgic feeling!)

Now I'm looking forward to my holidays.  Every year, NOVA closes from
around Dec 28-Jan 4, and I'm taking most of my paid holidays around then to
visit my Guru-ji in Varanasi.  After my last day of work on Dec 25 (it sure will
seem strange to put on a suit and work on Christmas Day!), I'll fly off to
Bangkok for a night, then to Calcutta to catch an overnight train to Benares,
spend 18 days there and then make the 2 1/2 day return journey to Kyoto, get
my suit on again the next day, and get back into 5 day working weeks again
until I finish up in June/July.  I'm really looking forward to seeing Varanasi,
my
Guru-ji, my friends there (including sister Liz from Brisvegas) and getting some
lessons and inspiration.

That's all the news for now.  Next time I'll probably write from India.

OH BTW - I've made a couple of updates to the Links page on my website - if
you're looking for some interesting sites please visit
www.ethnosuperlounge.com/links.htm

Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


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Hi folks,

I'm sorry to say that it turns out the the apparently well-intentioned
petition I forwarded the other day has no actual connection to the UN,
and in fact the UN email address mentioned in that email has been
closed due to being overloaded by this petition.

Please don't forward it.

Peace
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


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I don't usually forward these petitions any more, but I think this one is
worthwhile,

Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


Mourn the Victims.
Stand for Peace.
Islam is not the Enemy.
War is NOT the Answer.

Today we are at a point of imbalance in the world and are moving
toward what  may be the beginning of a THIRD WORLD WAR. If you are
against this possibility,  the UN is gathering signatures in an effort to
avoid a tragic world event.

Please COPY (rather than Forward) this e-mail in a new message, sign
at the end of the list, and send it to all the people whom you know.

If you receive this list with more than 500 names signed, please send
a copy of the message to:
unicwash@...

Even if you decide not to sign, please consider forwarding the
petition on instead of eliminating it.

1) Suzanne Dathe, Grenoble, France
2) Laurence COMPARAT, Grenoble, France
3) Philippe MOTTE, Grenoble, France
4) Jok FERRAND, Mont St. Martin, France
5) Emmanuelle PIGNOL, St Martin d'Heres,FRANCE
6) Marie GAUTHIER, Grenoble, FRANCE
7) Laurent VESCALO, Grenoble, FRANCE
8) Mathieu MOY, St Egreve, FRANCE 9) Bernard BLANCHET,
Mont St Martin,FRANCE 10) Tassadite FAVRIE, Grenoble, FRANCE 11)
Loic
GODARD, St Ismier, FRANCE
12) Benedicte PASCAL, Grenoble, FRANCE 13) Khedaidja BENATIA,
Grenoble,
FRANCE 14) Marie-Therese
LLORET, Grenoble,FRANCE 15) Benoit THEAU, Poitiers, FRANCE 16)
Bruno
CONSTANTIN, Poitiers,
FRANCE 17) Christian COGNARD, Poitiers, FRANCE 18) Robert
GARDETTE,
Paris,
FRANCE 19) Claude
CHEVILLARD, Montpellier, FRANCE 20) gilles FREISS, Montpellier,
FRANCE 21)
Patrick AUGEREAU,
Montpellier, FRANCE 22) Jean IMBERT, Marseille, FRANCE 23)
Jean-Claude
MURAT, Toulouse, France
24) Anna BASSOLS, Barcelona, Catalonia 25) Mireia DUNACH,
Barcelona,
Catalonia 26) Michel
VILLAZ, Grenoble, France 27) Pages Frederique, Dijon, France 28)
Rodolphe
FISCHMEISTER,Chatenay-Malabry,
France
? ? >29) Francois BOUTEAU, Paris, France
>30) Patrick PETER, Paris, France 31) Lorenza RADICI, Paris,
France 32)
>Monika Siegenthaler,
Bern, Switzerland 33) Mark Philp, Glasgow, Scotland 34) Tomas
Andersson,
Stockholm, Sweden 35)
Jonas Eriksson, Stockholm, Sweden 36) Karin Eriksson, Stockholm,
Sweden 37)
Ake Ljung,
Stockholm, Sweden 38) Carina Sedlmayer, Stockholm, Sweden 39)
Rebecca
Uddman, Stockholm, Sweden
40) Lena Skog, Stockholm, Sweden 41) Micael Folke, Stockholm,
Sweden
42)
Britt-Marie Folke,
Stockholm, Sweden 43) Birgitta Schuberth, Stockholm, Sweden 44)
Lena
Dahl,
Stockholm, Sweden 45)
Ebba Karlsson, Stockholm, Sweden 46) Jessica Carlsson, Vaxjo,
Sweden
47)
Sara Blomquist, Vaxjo,
Sweden 48) Magdalena Fosseus, Vaxjo, Sweden 49) Charlotta
Langner,
Goteborg,
Sweden 50) Andrea
Egedal, Goteborg, Sweden 51) Lena Persson, Stockholm, Sweden 52)
Magnus
Linder, Umea ,Sweden 53)
Petra Olofsson, Umea, Sweden 54) Caroline Evenbom, Vaxjo, Sweden
55)
Asa
Peterson, Grimes,
Sweden 56) Jessica Bjork, Grimes, Sweden 57) Linda Ahlbom
Goteborg,
Sweden
58) Jenny Forsman,
Boras, Sweden 59) Nina Gunnarson, Kinna, Sweden 60) Andrew
Harrison,
New
Zealand 61) Bryre
Murphy, New Zealand 62) Claire Lugton, New Zealand 63) Sarah
Thornton, New
Zealand 64) Rachel
Eade, New Zealand 65) Magnus Hjert, London, UK 67) Madeleine
Stamvik,
Hurley, UK 68) Susanne
Nowlan, Vermont, USA 69) Lotta Svenby, Malmoe, Sweden 70) Adina
Giselsson,
Malmoe, Sweden 71)
Anders Kullman, Stockholm, Sweden 72) Rebecka Swane, Stockholm,
Sweden 73)
Jens Venge,
Stockholm, Sweden 74) Catharina Ekdahl, Stockholm, Sweden 75)
Nina
Fylkegard, Stockholm, Sweden
76) Therese Stedman, Malmoe, Sweden 77) Jannica Lund, Stockholm,
Sweden 78)
Douglas Bratt 79)
Mats Lofstrom, Stockholm, Sweden 80) Li Lindstrom, Sweden 81)
Ursula
Mueller, Sweden 82)
Marianne Komstadius, Stockholm, Sweden 83) Peter Thyselius,
Stockholm,
Sweden 84) Gonzalo
Oviedo, Quito, Ecuador 85) Amalia Romeo, Gland, Switzerland 86)
Margarita
Restrepo, Gland,
Switzerland 87) Eliane Ruster, Crans p.C., Switzerland 88) Jennifer
Bischoff-Elder, Hong Kong
89) Azita Lashgari, Beirut, Lebanon 90) Khashayar Ostovany, New
York,
USA
91) Lisa L Miller,
Reno NV 92) Danielle Avazian, Los Angeles, CA 93) Sara Risher,Los
Angeles,Ca. 94) Melanie
London, New York, NY 95) Susan Brownstein , Los Angeles, CA 96)
Steven
Raspa, San Francisco, CA
97) Margot Duane, Ross, CA 98) Natasha Darnall, Los Angeles, CA 99)
Candace
Brower, Evanston, IL
100) James Kjelland, Evanston, IL 101) Michael Jampole, Beach Park,
IL, USA
102) Diane Willis,
Wilmette, IL, USA 103) Sharri Russell, Roanoke, VA, USA 104) Faye
Cooley,
Roanoke, VA, USA 105)
Celeste Thompson, Round Rock, TX, USA 106) Sherry Stang,
Pflugerville, TX,
USA 107) Amy J.
Singer, Pflugerville, TX USA 108) Milissa Bowen, Austin, TX USA 109)
Michelle Jozwiak, Brenham,
TX USA 110) Mary Orsted, College Station, TX USA 111) Janet
Gardner,
Dallas,
TX USA 112) Marilyn
Hollingsworth, Dallas, TX USA 113) Nancy Shamblin, Garland. TX USA
114) K.
M. Mullen, Houston,
TX - USA 115) Noreen Tolman, Houston, Texas - USA 116) Laurie
Sobolewski,
Warren, MI 117) Kellie
Sisson Snider, Irving Texas 118) Carol Currie, Garland, Garland Texas
119)
John Snyder, Garland,
TX USA 120) Elaine Hannan, South Africa 121) Jayne Howes, South
Africa 122)
Diane Barnes, Akron,
Ohio 123) Melanie Dass Moodley, Durban, SouthAfrica 124) Imma
Merino,
Barcelona, Catalonia 125)
Toni Vinas, Barcelona, Catalonia 126) Marc Alfaro, Barcelona,
Catalonia 127)
Manel Saperas,
Barcelona, Catalonia 128) Jordi Ribas Izquierdo, Catalonia 129)
Naiana
Lacorte Rodes, Catalonia
130) Joan Vitoria i Codina, Barcelona,Catalonia 131) Jordi Paris i
Romia,
Barcelona,Catalonia
131) Marta Truno i Salvado, Barcelona,Catalonia 132) Jordi Lagares
Roset,
Barcelona,Catalonia
133) Josep Puig Vidal, Barcelona,Catalonia 134) Marta Juanola i
Codina,
Barcelona,Catalonia 135)
Manel de la Fuente i
Colino,Barcelona,Catalonia
? ? >136) Gemma Belluda i Ventura,
Barcelona,Catalonia
? ? >137) Victor Belluda i Ventur, Barcelona,Catalonia
>138) MaAntonia Balletbo, barcelona, Spain 139) Mireia Masdevall
Llorens,
>Barcelona,Spain 140)
Clara Planas, Barcelona, Spain 141) Fernando Labastida Gual,
Barcelona,Spain
142) Cristina
Vacarisas, Barcelona, Spain 143) Enric Llarch i Poyo,
Barcelona,CATALONIA
144) Rosa Escoriza
Valencia, Barcelona,Catalonia 145) Silvia Jimenez, Barcelona,
Catalonia 146)
Maria Clarella,
Barcelona, Catalonia 147) Angels Guimera, Barcelona, Catalonia 148)
M.Carmen
Ruiz Fernandez,
Barcelona,Catalonia
? ? >149) Rufi Cerdan Heredia, Barcelona,Catalonia
>150) M. Teresa Vilajeliu Roig, Barcelona,Catalonia 151) Rafel
LLussa,
>Girona, Catalonia,Spain
152) Mariangels Gallego Ribo, Gelida,Catalonia 153) Jordi Cortadella,
Gelida, Catalonia 154)
Pere Botella, Barcelona, Catalonia(Spain) 155) Josefina Auladell
Baulenas,
Catalunya(Spain) 156)
Empar Escoin Carceller, Catalunya(Spain) 157) Elisa Pla Soler,
Catalunya
(Spain) 158) Paz
Morillo Bosch, catalunya (Spain) 159) Cristina Bosch Moreno, Madrid
(Spain)
160) Marta
Puertolas, Barcelona (Spain) 161) Elisa del Pino (Madrid) Spain 162)
Joaquin
Rivera (Madrid)
Spain 163) Carmen Barral (Madrid) Spain 164) Carmen del Pino
(Madrid)
Spain
165) Asuncion del
Pino (Madrid) Spain 166) Asuncion Cuesta (Madrid) Spain) 167) Ana
Polo
Mediavilla (Burgos) Spain
168) Mercedes Romero Laredo (Burgos)Espana 169) Oliva Mertinez
Fernandez
(Burgos)Espana 170)
Silvia Leal Aparicio (Burgos) Espana 171) Claudia Elizabeth Larrauri
(Bahia
  >
Blanca),Argentina
>172) Federico G. Pietrokovsky (C.F.)Argentina 173) Naschel Prina
(Capital
>Federal)Argentina
174) Daniela Gozzi (Capital Federal)Argentina 175) Paula Elisa
Kvedaras
(CapitalFederal)Argentina
? ? >176) Antonio Izquierdo (Valencia) Espana
>177) Ana Belen Perez Solsona (Valencia)Espana 178) Paula Folques
Diago
>(Valencia) Espana 179)
Nestor Alis Pozo (Valencia) Espana 180) Rafael Alis Pozo (valencia)
Spain
181) Isabel Maria
Martinez (Valencia)Espana 182) Cristina Bernad Guerrero
(Valencia)Espana
183) Iria Barcia
Sanchez 184) Elena Barrios Barcia. Uppsala. Suecia 185) Illana Ortiz
Martin.
Munchen.Alemania
186) Santiago Rodriguez Rasero.
M=B8nchen.Alemania
? ? >187) David Ag=CBs D=CCaz. Pamplona.
Espa=D2a
? ? >188) Juan Luis Ibarretxe. Galdakao. E.H.
>189) Rub=CCn D=CCez Ealo. Galdakao. E.H. 190) Marcial
Rodr~iguez
Garc=CCa.
>Ermua. 191) Imanol
Echave Calvo. San Sebastian.Spain 192) Beg=B7 Ortiz de >
ZarateLazcano.Vitoria-Gasteiz.Spain
>193) David Sanchez
Agirregomezkorta.Gasteiz.Euskadi.
? ? >194) Alberto Ruiz > >De Alda.Gasteiz.Euzkadi
>195) Juan Carlos Garcia >
Obregon.Vitoria-Gasteiz.Espa=D2a
>196) Jon Aiarza Lotina. Santander.Spain 197)teresa del Hoyo Rojo.
>Santander. 198) Celia Nespral
Gaztelumendi.Santander.
Espa=D2a
? ? >199) Pedro Mart=CCn Villamor,
Valladolid.Espa=D2a
? ? >200) Victoria Arratia Mart=CCn,
Valladolid,Espa=D2a
? ? >201) Javi Tajadura Mart=CCn, >
Portugalete,Euskadi.Spain
>202)Lourdes Palacios Martin, Bilbao, Spain 203) JesTs Avila de
Grado,
>Madrid, Espa=D2a 204) Eva
Mar=CCa Cano L=DBpez. Madrid. Spain 205) Emilio Ruiz Olivar,
Londres,
UK
206) Maru Ortega
Garc=CCa del
Moral,CALAHORRA, ESPA
? ? >207) Juan Carlos Ayala, Calvo, Logro=CCo, Spain
>208) Roc=C8o Mu=D2oz Pino, Logro=D2o,
Espa=D2a
? ? >209) Ximena Pino Burgos, Santiago, Chile
>210) Roberto Saldivia Quezada, Santiago,Chile 211) Paola Gonzalez
>Valderrama, Santiago,Chile
212) Cesar Morales Pe=B7 y Lillo, Santiago 213) Denisse Labarca
Abdala ,
Santiago,Chile 214)
Mar=CCa Paz Gonz~alez Garay 215) Daniela Millar Kaiser,
Santiago,Chile 216)
Alvaro Wigand
Perales, Valdivia,Chile 217) Gladys Bustos Carrasco, Quilicura,Chile
218)
Patricio Criado
Rivera, Quilicura,Chile 219) Carolina Aguilar Monsalve,
Valdivia,Chile 220)
Carmen Silva
Utrilla, Madrid, Espa=D2a 221) Martha Yolanda Rodriguez
Aviles,Queretaro,Mexico
? ? >222) LAURA RODRIGUEZ >
AVILES,COZUMEL,QUINTANAROO,MEXICO
>223)KATIA HAHN , MERIDA, YUCAT=A1N 224) [Sofia Gallego]
Mexicali,
B.C.
>Mexico 225)BEATRIZ CASTA
226) VICTOR KERBER PALMA,Monterrey, Mexico 227) Roc=C8o S=
B7nchez
Losada,
Mexico D.F. 228)
Lorenza Estand=C8a Gonz=B7lez Luna,
Mexico>
? ? D.F.
>229) Gabriel Gallardo D'Aiuto,Mexico D.F. 230) Jos=C8 Antonio
Salinas,
>Monterrey, N.L.,
Mex.
? ? >231) Laura Cantu, Mty N.L., Mex
>232) Jossie Garcia, Mty N.L Mex 233) Martha V=B7zquez Gonz=
B7lez,
Mty,
>N.L.;
M=C8x.
? ? >234) Olga Moreno, Monterrey, NL, Mex
>235) Mariana Camargo, Pto. Vallarta, Jal; Mex. 236) Alfonso
Villa, Toluca,
>Mexico 237) Arturo
Rodriguez Reyes, Toluca, Edo
Mexico,>
? ? MEXICO
>238) Fernanda Villela, Mexico D.F., MEXICO 239) Pilar Jim=C8nez,
Caracas,
>VENEZUELA 240) Erika
Rovelo, Mexico D.F., MEXICO 241) ALEJANDRO LECANDA, CIUDAD
DE
MEXICO, MEXICO
? ? >242) Gabriela Diaz de Sandi, Cd. Mexico, Mexico
>243) Jorge Bustamante Orgaz, Ciudad de Mexico,>
Mexico.
>244) Jos=C8 Bernardo Rodr=CCguez Montes,
Ciudad de>
? ? Mexico,> >Mexico
>245) Luisa Angela Ari=D2o Pelez. Ciudad de
Mexico,>
? ? Mexico.
>246) Ramses Ricardo Rios Zaragoza, CD de
Mexico
? ? >247) Rosa Mar=CCa Lamparero. Ciudad de Mexico.
>248) Margarita Palomares . Ciudad de Mexico.
MEXICO
? ? >249) Carlos Anaya. MEXICO
>250) Enrique Garc~ia Menes 251) Loren Walker. United States of
America 252)
>Teresa Mathern,
Oregon, USA 253) Linda K. Johnson, Oregon, USA 254) Jennifer Allen,
New York
City, USA 255)
Carla Rudiger, New York City, USA 256) Colleen THomas, New York
City,
USA
257) Ted Johnson, New
York City, USA 258) Youn Hui Jeon, Seoul, Korea 259) Wendy Perron,
New York
City, USA 260) Risa
Jaroslow, New York City, USA 261) Pam Wise, Los Angeles, USA 262)
Michael
Joyce, New York, USA
263) Bernadine Colish, New York, USA 264) Kent Lebsock,
Albuquerque,
NM, USA
265) Charmaine
White Face, Lakota Nation 266) Pauline Brooks, Cornwall, England
267)
Peter
Brooks, Cornwall,
England 268) Jan Bogaert, Maldegem, Belgium 269) Marc Brailly,
Blankenberge,
Belgium 270) Sara
De Backere, Blankenberge, Belgium 271) YTska Brailly, Blankenberge,
Belgium
272) Nemo Braily,
Blankenberge, Belgium 273) Viviane Ceulemans, Heist o/d Berg,
Belgium
274)
Nina de Bruyne,
Brugge, Belgium 275) Sjefke Dooms, Breda, Netherlands 276) Frans
Fransaer,
Moorsel, Belgium 277)
Agnes Abramsen, Brussels, Belgium 278) Dany De Man, Meulebeke,
Belgium 279)
Patrick Beirnaert,
Ronse, Belgium 280) Caroline Grauls, Ronse, Belgium 281) Jacques
Bisschop,
Leke, Belgium 282)
Marianne Blom, Rozenburg, Netherlands 283) Jan Geeraerts, Duffel,
Belgium
284) Helen Buys,
Oudenaarde, Belgium 285) Marc Corvers, Zwevegem, Belgium 286)
Ann
Labeeuw,
Zwevegem, Belgium
287) Frans De Smedt, Hame-Moerzeke, Belgium 288) Aline-Irini
Georgiou,
Vorselaar, Belgium 289)
Chris Peeters, Turnhout, Belgium 290) Tom Van Snick, Zottegem,
Belgium 291)
Marc Van Wunsel,
Wespelare, Belgium 292) Carlos Goedertier, Bottelare-Merelbeke,
Belgium
? ? >293) Mieke Lammens, Grazen, Belgium
>294) Guido Festraets, Grazen, Belgium 295) Kathleen Quirijnen,
Vosselaar,
>Belgium 296) Peter
Van Peer, Vosselaar, Belgium 297) Carine Vermeulen, Gent, Belgium
298) Peter
Verwimp, Tremelo,
Belgium 299) Filip Vissers, Herentals, Belgium 300) Carine Van
Wolputte,
Herentals, Belgium 301)
Vanessa Lecomte, Bruxelles, Belgique 302) Fabienne Havelange,
Thuillies,
Belgium 303) Claudine
Aubert, Estaimpuis, Belgium 304) Leon Degueldre, Thuin, Belgium 305)
Pascal
Javaloy=CBs,
Sarralbe, France 306) Martine Roulet, Tours, France 307) Carol A.
Bentley,
Wales, U.K. 308) Jean
Daines, Norwich, England 309) Julie Gillott, Norfolk, England (U.K.)
310)
Christine Hewitt,
Burnley, Lancs., England 311) Val Linsey, Swnasea, England (UK) 312)
Rita
Brauner, London,
England 313) Ray Foord, Woodford Green, England (UK) 314) Sheryl I.
Birch,
Buxton, England 315)
Anne Grecian, Berwick upon Tweed, England 316) Les G. Jones, Kent,
England
317) Julie Lynex,
Coventry, W.Midands, England 318) Margaret Nicholl, Enfield, England
319)
Ian Moore, Norfolk,
England 320) Ron Reardon, Spalding, Lincs. England 321) Muriel
Reardon,
Spalding, Lincs. England
322) Susan E. Naylor, Cornwall, England 323) Alec H. Moon, Gwent,
Wales (UK)
324) Shirley Wayne,
Wantage, Oxon., England
(UK)
? ? >325) Denis Underwood, Bracknell, Berks., England
(UK)
? ? >326) Lotta Haglund, Vaxholm, Sweden
>327) Essi Iso-Oja, Helsinki, Finland 328) Sabine Pohl,
Baden-Baden, Germany
>329) Richard
Ziegler, Eurasburg Loisachtal,
Germany
? ? >330) Poul Kry Poulsen, Ringsted, Denmark
>331) Suzanne Hon=C8e, Brussels, Belgium 332) Ann Herten,
Sterrebeek,
>Belgium 333) Els Herten,
Brussels, Belgium 334) antoinette claypoole, Ashland, Oregon
("usa") 335)
Linda Griffith,
Huntingdon Valley, Pa USA 336) David L. Winston, Philadelphia, PA
USA
337)
Joan Franklin,
Philadelphia, PA USA 338) Marianne Malitz, Connecticut, USA 339)
Kathy
O'Rear Oklahoma USA 340)
Jodie Evans, Venice, CA USA 341) Georgia Kelly, Sonoma, CA USA
342)
Larry
Robinson, Sebastopol,
CA, USA 343) Maury M. Cooper, San Francisco, CA 344) R. Glendon
Brunk,
Arizona, USA 345) D.
Douglas Dancer, Oregon, US 346) Randall E. Streets, Hood River,
Oregon, USA
347) Chandra
Radiance, Hood River, Oregon 348) Mary Harmon, White Salmon, WA,
USA
349)
Jean Fay Harmon,
Neskowin, OR USA 350) Julie Reynolds-Otrugman, Lincoln City, OR
USA
? ? >351) Sener Otrugman, Lincoln City, OR USA
>352) Mary Lyn Villaume, Cairo, Egypt 353) Christian Arandel,
Cairo, Egypt
>354) Dania Rifai,
Beirut, Lebanon=20 355) Nada Awar, Beirut, Lebanon 356) Mouna
Schaheen,
Olney, MD USA 357)
Nabiha Ayoub, Olney, MD USA 358) Habeeb Zein, Olney, MD USA
359)
Norah
Greenstein, New York, NY,
USA 360) Audrey Shahin, Ashtabula, OH, USA 361) Vishali Shahin
Oakland Ca)
USA 362) Elena Wood,
Syracuse, NY USA 363) Steven Wood, Syracuse, NY USA 364) Barry
Kapke,
Petaluma, CA, USA 365) Ann
Mari Spector, Petaluma, CA, USA 366) Jim Berns, Sebastopol, CA, USA
367)
Beth Gallock,
Sebastopol, CA USA 368) Maikaaloa Clarke, CA USA 369) DeAnna
L'am,
Sebastopol, Ca, USA 370)
Julian Shaw, Sebastopol, CA, USA 371) Katya Miller, Santa Fe, NM,
USA
372)
Vijali Hamilton,
Castle Valley, Utah, USA 373) Andrew Beath, Malibu,CA, USA 374)
Rebecca
Dmytryk, CA, US 375)
Jeffrey Ellis, CA USA 376) Norman Gan, Sherman Oaks, CA, USA 377)
Tom
Greening, Sherman Oaks,
CA, USA 378) Marianne Bentzen, Charlottenlund, Denmark 379) Judyth
O.
Weaver, Mill Valley, Ca,
USA 380) David W. Arehart, Lawrence, KS, USA 381) Kay Foley,
Columbia, MO,
USA 382) Jan Lysaght,
Columbia, MO, USA 383) Mine Ezashi, Columbia, MO, USA 384)
Toshihiko
Ezashi,
Columbia, MO, USA
385)Nobuko Kainuma, CA, USA 386)Karen Leonard, Ireland 387)
Kevin
Murphy,
Ireland 388) Stephanie
Kohl, Ireland/Germany 389) Marcel Kostyal, NRW, Germany 390)
Florent
Didier
,Troyes , France
391) Diepart, Sandrine, Brussels, Belgium 392) Marianne Putteman,
Gent,
Belgium 393) Xavier
Bastiaense, Ghent, Belgium 394) Hans Gelaude, Ghent, Belgium 395)
Mamoudou
Guiss 396) Inne
Geypen, Brussels, Belgium 397) Guy Cordeel, Beveren, Belgium 398)
Veerle
Decante, Beveren,
Belgium 399) Lucienne Goormans, Beveren, Belgium 400) Marc Van
Molle,
Londerzeel, Belgium 401)
Martine Gheysen, Machelen, Belgium 402) Marie-Anne Straetmans,
Belgium 403)
W. Patrick De Wilde,
Huldenberg, Belgium 404) Jos Depuydt, Belgium 404) Maryse Koll,
Belgium
405) Anne De Smet,
Belgium 406) Mark Hongenaert, Leuven, Belgium 407) Bart Feyaerts,
Schriek,
Belgium 408) Ann Van
Meldert, Houthalen, Belgium 409) Kristien Coussement, Kessel-lo,
Belgium
410) Griet Van Impe,
Holsbeek, Belgium 411) Filip De Bodt, Herzele, Belgium 412) Marnix
Schollaert,Herzele,Belgium
413) Tilly Jacobs, ronse, Belgium 414) Eric Devisscher, Hasselt,
Belgi 415)
Linda Bollen,
Hasselt, Belgium 416) Guy Steegmans, Antwerpen, Belgium
417) Lucie Spranghers, Gent, Belgium
418) Geert Colpaert, Gent, Belgium
419) Nard Besseling, Spijkenisse, The Netherlands
? ? >420) Michael Pechmann, Dingelst?dt, Th?ringen,
Germany
421) Tinka Litwinschuh, Jena, Th?ringen, Germany
422) Lena Sierakowska,Deventer, The Netherlands
423)Nicholas Fredman,SYDNEY,Australia
424)Andrew Black, Currumbin, Australia
425) Nikolas de Masi, Adelaide, Australia
426) Fiona Todd, Adelaide, Australia
427) Clare Ellis, Melbourne, Australia.
428) Jon McNaught, Melbourne, Australia.
429) Georgia van Rooijen, Melbourne, Australia
430) Candice Hanrahan, Melbourne, Australia.
431) Mary Stewart, Melbourne, Australia.
432) David Ogilvie, Melbourne, Australia.
433) Sarah Ogilvie, Melbourne, Australia.
434) Alice Bailey, Melbourne, Australia.
435) Barry Laing, Melbourne, Australia
436) Tamara Saulwick, Melbourne, Australia
437] Natalie Cursio, Melbourne Australia
438) Elizabeth Keen, Melbourne, Australia
439) Barry Hill, Melbourne Australia
440) Barb Knudsen, Maleny, Australia
441) David Sandercoe, Brisbane, Australia
442) Shen Flindell, Kyoto, Japan

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Hi folks,

Just a short note to say that I've now got a new address, so all you hundreds of
people that want to write me a letter can send it to me (that's you Kylie...) -

Shen Flindell
c/o David Kubiak
75 Higashi Takeyamachi
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8393
JAPAN

It's a beautiful big old Kyoto house in an excellent location, close to the
central entertainment district of Kyoto, a short bike ride from the lush
forested mountains and just around the corner from the train station to work,
one of Kyoto's most progressive live/electronic music establishments and Kamo
Gawa, the main river through Kyoto.  It's got a beautiful Zen garden, paintings
by famous Indian artists, a music room with piano, lots of old wooden
dark-stained furniture, a study full of interesting books and soon an ADSL
high-speed internet connection and heaps of magical atmosphere.  It's been
rented by the Kubiaks, a prominent Gaijin family in Kyoto, for the last 15
years; they've been active in the anti-corporate and environment movements and
also Indo-Japanese cultural exchange.  So you can imagine I'm quite happy to be
here.

Other interesting recent news is that last night I played with Wild Marmalade
(Si - didj & Matt Goodwin - drums - friends and excellent musicians from Byron
Bay) in their Osaka show of their Japan tour.  (Check wildmarmalade.com for info
on them.)  It was a blast!  Thanks to them for inviting me to play! :-)

Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


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r: MIME-tools 5.41 (Entity 5.404)
Received: from [210.134.103.25] by ws1-1.us4.outblaze.com with http for
     shen@...; Mon, 12 Aug 2002 23:53:25 +0900
From: "Shen Flindell" <shen@...>
To:
ethnosuperlounge-brisbane@yahoogroups.com,ethnosuperlounge-international@yahoogr\
oups.com
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 23:53:25 +0900
Subject: My new address
X-Originating-Ip: 210.134.103.25
X-Originating-Server: ws1-1.us4.outblaze.com

Hi folks,

Just a short note to say that I've now got a new address, so all you hundreds of
people that want to write me a letter can send it to me (that's you Kylie...) -

Shen Flindell
c/o David Kubiak
75 Higashi Takeyamachi
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8393
JAPAN

It's a beautiful big old Kyoto house in an excellent location, close to the
central entertainment district of Kyoto, a short bike ride from the lush
forested mountains and just around the corner from the train station to work,
one of Kyoto's most progressive live/electronic music establishments and Kamo
Gawa, the main river through Kyoto.  It's got a beautiful Zen garden, paintings
by famous Indian artists, a music room with piano, lots of old wooden
dark-stained furniture, a study full of interesting books and soon an ADSL
high-speed internet connection and heaps of magical atmosphere.  It's been
rented by the Kubiaks, a prominent Gaijin family in Kyoto, for the last 15
years; they've been active in the anti-corporate and environment movements and
also Indo-Japanese cultural exchange.  So you can imagine I'm quite happy to be
here.

Other interesting recent news is that last night I played with Wild Marmalade
(Si - didj & Matt Goodwin - drums - friends and excellent musicians from Byron
Bay) in their Osaka show of their Japan tour.  (Check wildmarmalade.com for info
on them.)  It was a blast!  Thanks to them for inviting me to play! :-)

Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


--
____________________

Hi folks,

I need to get the address of Munna House in Varanasi.  Do any of you Munna House
regulars have it?  Please send it to me.

Love
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

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Hi there folks,

I honestly will be brief this time.  I've just returned from a 5 day holiday in
Tokyo and I think I should write a little while it's still fresh.

I went to Tokyo to visit my old friend Ward (from University of Queensland days)
and also a sitar player I just met recently in Kyoto who lives there.  I had
hoped to meet up with other people but connections didn't work out and as it was
I had enough stimulation.

Tokyo is really a city.  I mean I thought I'd seen cities before but that place
is all city.  In some ways it reminded me of Kathmandu's Thamel in terms of
density of shops, but the best comparison I could make was to a huge nest of
ants.  People moving here, there & everywhere in huge streams of humanity.  One
night I went out with brother Ward and we were separated coming out of a train. 
There was obviously no hope of finding him and I found a message on my phone (I
couldn't hear it ringing) from him to say he would wait a couple of minutes at
the next train-station (we had to catch another line to get home).  Anyway after
sitting a few minutes at Hachiko in Shibuya, a famous meeting place where the
people-watching is first-class entertainment, I made my way to the other
train-station.  What happens late at night when there are only 5 more trains and
thousands of people want to catch them?  The trains get COMPLETELY packed. 
People squeeze themselves in, the doors shut on them and station guards walk
down the train stuffing limbs in so the doors can shut and the train can creak
along.

Back to Hachiko, Shibuya... I generally found Tokyo to be a completely
overwhelming and not so pleasant experience (after the peaceful mountain views
of Kyoto), but sitting in Hachiko was a real blast.  Hachiko is a dog (Sorry, I
don't know the story) whose statue sits in a square next to Shibuya JR station,
and a very popular place to meet.  The place is like a big communal lounge room,
complete with 3 huge TV screens on the surrounding skyscrapers.  I saw more fake
blondes, high heels and short skirts than in a tacky US soap, and more
dreadlocks than I'd seen for quite a while.  Great fun.  In my first half-hour
while waiting for Ward-bhai, 2 art students asked me to be in their
college-assignment video.  As Ward said, "It's not every day girls ask you to be
in their movie."

It was also most excellent to see my friends there but I have to say that
overall I feel really lucky to live in peaceful old Kyoto.  While I'm usually
too busy to get to the mountains and forest, it's nice to know that if I wanted
to I COULD get up there, and I can see them there with their organic vibes
washing down onto me.  Having said that, my sitar playing friend said he had
thought the same thing before he moved there, but once you get into the rhythm
of Tokyo it gets a hold on you.

Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


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Hi there folks,

I've been procrastinating about writing but I feel it's time...

I'm pretty much settled into Kyoto/English teaching/part-time musician life now,
so I'm going to write very briefly about my impressions and experiences after 2
months here...

NOVA - NOVAcation, NOVAlue, Network Of Voluntary Alcoholics
I'm teaching 40 hours a week, 8x40 minute lessons a day with a 10 minute
notes/prep time in between, which at first was quite stressful but is now just
routine and from experienced teachers looks potentially boring.  For now I'm
having fun and trying to make the most of it for me and my students, who are a
great bunch of people.  There are high school kids, college students, part-time
workers, office workers, bus drivers, housewives, salarymen, retired folks and
everyone else who can't really be categorised.  They speak English at all levels
from complete beginners ("Hello, How are you?  I'm fine, Nice to meet you.") to
very advanced speakers, with whom we do skimming & scanning exercises, tricky
turns of phrase and idioms, and have "focussed discussions" and so on.
The acronyms above refer to : NOVAcation - I'll get 10 days paid holiday/year
after 6 months service and no paid sick days;
  : NOVAlue - it's quite expensive for the students and it's very much
factory/routine education (but we do the best we can with what the company
provides);
  : Network Of Voluntary Alcoholics - after 5 days of being really cheerful and
putting it out there you feel like a drink!

MUSIC - Hooray!
Yes my weekends have been pretty great.  I've been playing lots of Indian
classical music, although I'm missing the cross-cultural stuff we were getting
up to in Brisbane; hopefully that will come with time.  My first musical comrade
here was Christophe Rossi, a French sitar player of 8 years experience who was
also a Munna House, Varanasi, resident (long-time readers of this list will know
that I stayed in the same place in Varanasi last year).  We've done one concert
together so far and I usually play with him every week, which is very
refreshing.  He has a very peaceful style.  I've also met 2 other sitar players
from Osaka - Tanaka Minehiko, who's been playing for 20 years and likes to play
in every taal (rhythm) other than good old 16 beat teentaal, and Junichi Osako,
who's also a Varanasi boy and plays quite fast and intensely for his 6 years'
experience.  Last week I also had the pleasure of playing with Carlos Guerre, a
Spanish Kyoto resident Bansuri (bamboo flute) player of 20 years experience -
wow what a musician!  Really beautiful music!  He was very complimentary to me
which was quite an ego massage coming from such a talented and experienced
musician.

I've also attended a couple of Indian classical music concerts in a local
Buddhist temple - a really beautiful setting for this type of music, with its'
Zen garden and ornate altar.  The most recent concert was amazing - Carlos
Guerre along with a couple of Varanasi musicians on pakhawaj and sarangi. 
Really inspiring!

On the other hand I've also been checking out a bit of the local experimental
music scene and one of the really big things here, it seems, is loops & effects.
One guy I've seen a couple of times is Ryusei, a 6 string fretless bass player
who builds up layers of sound into a diverse range of soundscapes and
jazzy/funky grooves.  I've also met an American electronic musician with whom I
may produce some stuff - he's also been on a recording mission to India so we
have some ideas in common.

KYOTO
All up Kyoto is a pretty nice place to live.  It's surrounded by forested
mountains so unlike nearby Osaka (1 hour away by train) you don't feel swallowed
up in an urban nightmare.  In my first week I took a walk in the mountains and
it was really beautiful - I was surprised to find such a beautiful natural place
so near to my home.  BUT I've been too busy since then to repeat the experience.

What else - trains that run every 7 minutes and are always on time, hordes of
office workers, cool college students and "freetas" (part-time workers with free
time) wearing great clothes, school girls in short skirts and makeup that would
never be allowed in Australia, lots of Japanese food and a real shortage of Thai
and Vietnamese food...  Things don't seem as expensive as I expected although
that's because I'm earning enough to live easily - and in fact Japanese food
like miso, umeboshi plums, seaweed, tofu, etc is all cheaper than in Australia. 
I'm still eating heaps of fruit for breakfast!  The weather is getting very hot
and humid, just like a Brisbane summer.  The thing is when I got here in April
the weather was just like Brisbane winter!  So Brisbane's year of weather
happens in 2 months here!

I've been studying Japanese hard and I'm quite proud of what I've achieved - I'm
now exchanging emails in Hiragana with the help of a dictionary and having short
conversations here and there.  I reckon I'll be somewhat fluent by the time I
leave next year, and I can get back into Hindi again with some good language
learning/teaching experience to help me out when I get there.  I'm hoping that
within 10 years I'll be fully fluent in both languages. :-)

Enough for now,
Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


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ON MUSIC

>The universe is more like music than matter.
-Donald Andrews

>Music is life's only true magic, treat it with all the respect that
it
deserves.
-Bruce Swedien

>When you read music, there is a part of your creativity that shuts
down. It's like learning to paint with coloring books. It's like
coloring within the lines - you don't take off. When you think about
it
what music notes or a coloring book does is stifles creativity.
-David Lynch

>It is the culture-condition mind rather than the ears that do the
listening today.
>No music is totally "pure" and the vitality of a tradition can be
measured by its ability to integrate new contributions.
>If western musicians had to rely on their ears instead of their eyes
to
create music, where would it be today and in what form?
>Within music lies all the wonders and keys to the miracles of life ?
natural and spiritual. Music can facilitate the process of change and
growth.
-Ted Andrews

>Real music is not for wealth, not for honors or even the joys of the
mind�but is a path for realization and salvation.
-Ali Akbar Khan

>True knowledge of sound carries with it great power. It allows one to
travel without moving.
-Joska Soos

>Never before in the Western world have so many new instruments been
devised and constructed as today. Only a few copies of each prototype
are made are made in most cases, and in many instances there is only
the
original. Musicians make such instruments for themselves--and watch
over
them like a precious secret. Just asthe masters of Asia have done for
centuries--however, it is important to stress that the young people
who
behave similarly in the West are not imitating Asian customs. The
initiative was entirely theirs. In that respect too the instruments
they
build and play are also becoming part of the current of world music.
-Joachim-Ernst Berendt

>That which cannot be expressed otherwise can only be told through
music. A thought, which seems commonplace in its analysis, acquires a
deeper sense in music.
-Tagore

>Music without words means leaving behind the mind. And leaving behind
the mind is meditation. Meditation returns you to the source. And the
source of all is sound.
-Kabir

>Music has eloquence of expression, greater than any other art.
>The art of music is infinite yet complete in itself.
-Tansen

>Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom or philosophy.
-Beethoven

>Mathematicians are able to break down into measure and figure what
musicians do intuitively.
>The art of music is endowed with a supernatural origin and a divine
purpose, more so than any other art.
-Liebniz

>Folk music is the "original melody" of man; it is the "musical
mirror"
of the world.
-Nietzsche

>The fact that the "world is sound" isn't just a widespread myth or
legend. It is confirmed in the established findings of fundamental
harmonic research and many other disciplines. We have found the
world's
tonal character confirmed in DNA genes and electron spins, in the
solar
wind and geomagnetism, in the weather and in the "song" of flowers and
plants.
>Ever since the time of his incarnation, man has progressively lost
his
original spiritual perception. This has worked to divorce music and
language from the natural harmonies and rhythms, which were and remain
the primordial condition of all things.
-Jocelyn Godwin

>The characteristic healing power of music has been increasingly
crippled in recent times, so that many have lost the desire even to
listen to music, owing to the sheer, strident noise of the era of
extreme materialism.
-Jocelyn Godwin

>It was probably the introduction of tempered tuning in the 18th
century
that resulted in ever-greater atrophy of awareness of overtones in
Western music. That was inevitable because tempered tuning amounts to
negation of natural tuning, which is postulated in every single note
by
way of the accompanying overtone series. It is almost as if a piece
played in tempered tuning--and thus virtually all Western
music--insists
on correcting nature. Not a single note in such a piece is heard in
its
natural relationships--apart from the octave itself. Man's belief that
he can do things better reigns.
-Joachim-Ernst Berendt

>In Eastern music, rich in overtones, the "system" creates the tones,
whereas in Western music it is the notes that establish the system.
-Joachim-Ernst Berendt

>Music is the archetype of the cosmic order, and as such the most
genuine of a world restored, but this holds true only so long as it
has
not fallen victim to a chaotic way of thinking.
-Jocelyn Godwin

>The more richly and consciously a music is endowed with overtones,
the
more timeless it is. The most timeless music on the planet comes from
the great Indian classical tradition, which also disposes over the
most
differentiated awareness of harmonics.
>O music, In your depths we deposit our hearts and souls. Thou hast
taught us to see with our ears and hear with our hearts.
-Kahil Gibran

>Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the
agitations
of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents
God has given us.
-Martin Luther

>Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
>Speech is man's most confused and egocentric expression, his most
orderly and magnanimous utterance is music.
-Ned Rorem

>It is music's lofty mission to shed light on the depths of the human
heart.
-Robert Schumann

>Music is the shorthand of emotion. Emotions, which let themselves be
described in words with such difficulty,are directly conveyed to man
in
music, and in that is its power and significance.
-Leo Tolstoy

>Which of these two powers, love or music, can elevate man to the
sublimest heights? Why separate them? They are the two wings of the
soul.
-Hector Berlioz

>Wouldst thou know if a people be well governed, or if its laws be
good
or bad, examine the music it practices.
-Confucius

>As the music is, so are the people of the country.
-Turkish proverb

>Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the
mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness and life to
everything. Fine music is the essence of order and leads to all that
is
just and good, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless
dazzling,
passionate and eternal form.
-Plato

>Music is the soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.
-Ludwig von Beethoven

>Music should go right through you, leave some of itself inside you
and
take some of you with it when it leaves.
>See deep enough and you see musically, the heart of nature being
everywhere music, if you can only reach it.
-Thomas Carlyle

>Music can exist only if it reflects the inner life of humanity, not
the
outer life of its technology.
-Alec Wilder

>All true and deeply felt music, whether secular or sacred, has its
home
on the heights where art and religion dwell.
-Albert Schweitzer

>The rotation of the universe and the motion of the planets could
neither begin nor continue without music...for everything is ordered
by
God according to the laws of harmony.
-Plutarch

>There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in
the
spacing of the spheres.
-Pythagoras

>Music and religion are as intimately related as poetry and love. The
deepest emotions require for their civilized expression the most
emotional of the arts.
-Will Durant

>What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.
-Gustav Mahler

>After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the
inexpressible, is music.
-Aldous Huxley

>Music is the outward and audible signification of inward and
spiritual
realities.
>Music is said to be the speech of angels, in fact, nothing among the
utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near
to
the infinite.
-Thomas Carlyle


ON COMPOSING

Ceaseless work, analysis, reflection, writing much, endless
self-correction, that is my secret.
-J.S. Bach

Music is glorious in its own right; why should it accept the slavery
of
words? Music begins where words end. The inexplicable is the domain of
music. It can say what words cannot, and so the less the words disturb
the song, the better.
-Tagore

>It is the duty of the composer to serve his fellow man, to beautify
human life and point the way to a radiant future. Such is the
immutable
code of the artist as I see it.
-Sergei Prokofiev

>A poet always has too many words in his vocabulary, a painter too
many
colors on his palette, a musician too many notes on his keyboard.
-Jean Cocteau

>We hide ourselves in our music to reveal ourselves.
-Jim Morrison

>The sacredness of church music, the joyfulness and soulfulness of
folksongs are the two pivots around which revolve true music.
>A nation creates music--the composer only arranges it.
-Bela Bartok

>I regard all popular music as irrelevant in the sense that people in
200 years won't be listening to what is being written and played
today.
I think they will be listening to Beethoven. That's one of the
reasons I
don't take myself seriously.
-Elton John

>It is proportion that beautifies everything, the whole universe
consists of it, and music is measured by it.
-Orlando Gibbons

>Originality is the art of concealing your source.
>You must have the composition in your head, not your head in the
composition.
>The unconscious is the womb of all musical creation; all masterpieces
are born there.
>The value of a composer's work resides in the music itself, and not
in
how frequently it is played, how many honors its composer has won, or
how much critical acclaim has been received.
>A creative artist works on his next composition because he is not
satisfied with his previous one. When he loses a critical attitude
towards his own work, he ceases to be an artist.
>The composer joins heaven and earth with threads of sound.
>Do things, act. Make a list of the music you love, then learn it by
heart. And when you are writing music of your own, write it as you
hear
it inside and never strain to avoid the obvious.
-Nadia Boulanger



ON PERFORMING

>The secret of effortless control is balance - continuous adjustment
of
continuous change. Like learning to ride a bike, using less and less
means to control greater and greater power.
-Stephen Nachmanovitch

>The real authenticity we recognize is when the person is totally
involved. If the art is created with the whole person, then the work
will come out whole.
-Stephen Nachmanovitch

>The three ingredients for good music are pitch, passion and pocket.
-Ed Seay

>It is the finesse of the nuances and details that determines the
quality of an interpretation.
Western musicians believe that the fundamental note is almost all that
counts, so it occupies virtually all their attention. They are of the
opinion that it "makes" the music. Eastern musicians have other
experiences with their instruments. For them the "real" music derives
from the overtones rather than the primary notes. The primary notes
are
only a tool, an extension of the instrument employed in this craft. In
the view of Eastern musicians, anyone who remains at the level of the
primary note, does not get beyond the admittently important technical
aspects of music making.
-Joachim-Ernst Berendt

>The artist's mission in life is not to selfishly accumulate a lot of
money by cheap trickery, but to use, in the finest manner of which he
is
capable, the rare gifts God has entrusted to him.
-John Garth

>In musicmaking time and again mention is made of: listening,
perceiving, taking one's time, being attentive, observing the inner
aspects of what's happening, allowing things to unfold without
interfering, and being conscious--in other words, factors that are
also
important in meditation.
-Joachim-Ernst Berendt

>High concentration brings unawareness and thus spontaneity.
>Freedom in music is the liberty to become ever more perfectly what
essentially you are.
>Maintain your focus, live in your ears, and bring all energies to
hearing.
-Traditional East Indian Teaching

>Freedom for an artist is to be responsible to integrity, to honor, to
the God-given destiny of his own soul. What does it profit a man to
gain
wealth and fame and intellectual ballyhoo, if he looses his own soul?
-Merrill Root

>Limitation creates form.
-Krishnamurti

>Only the flint of man's soul can strike fire in music.
-Ludwig von Beethoven

>The piece of music is worked out by the composer, but it is the
performance which we enjoy. Thus the active and emotional principle in
music occurs in the art of reproduction, which draws the eclectic
spark
from God and directs it towards the listener.
>Don't play the notes. Play the meaning of the notes.
-Pablo Casals

>Music is the one thing in which there is no use trying to deceive
others or make false pretenses.
-Confucius

>I think the main thing a musician would like to do is to give a
picture
to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in
the universe.
-John Coltrane

>Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you
don't
live it, it won't come out of your horn.
-Charlie Parker

>Risk is a crucial element of communication through music. Just as
truly
creative musicians must be willing to be open, to examine their inner
life, to throw aside familiar comforts and plunge into the unknown, so
they must take risks during performance.
>If there is to be communication with the listener, the musician's
doors
leading inward must stay open. Through this opening, the listener is
invited into the reality of the musician. This involves risk for the
performer. The inner world of the musician, the creative fount, is
personal and sacred.
>In a performance setting, there can be no monologues. Every note,
every
breath, each moment sends messages between musician and listener. To
ignore this two-way flow of feeling and meaning is to relinquish
artistry for ego-gratification.
>Competition is for horses, not artists.
-Bela Bartok

>We can never exhaust the multiplicity of nuances and subtleties,
which
make the charm of music. How can we expect to produce a vital
performance if we don't recreate the work everytime? Every year the
leaves of the trees reappear with the spring but they are different
every time.
-Pablo Casals

>A musician just has to learn for himself, just by playing and
listening. There is no one who can write down the feeling you have to
have. That's from inside yourself. The music has to let you be, you've
got to stay free inside it.
>An abundance of technique should not be a means to an end but a way
to
allow the heart to expand freely.
>Notation, the writing out of compositions, is primarily an ingenious
expedient for catching an inspiration, with the purpose of exploiting
it
later. But notation is to improvisation as the portrait to the living
model. It is up to the interpreter to resolve the rigidity of the
signs
into the emotion. The heart of a melody can never be put down on
paper.
-Pablo Casals

>The written note is like a straightjacket, whereas music, like life
itself, is constant movement, continuous spontaneity, free from any
restrictions.
>The musician must bring to the performance the utter confidence in
the
ability of the spirit to reach out to the souls of the audience. This
faith may be the most important quality the musician can contribute to
the
performance. Without it, even the most technically adroit will fail to
fulfill the role of music as divine communicator. The ego, that
self-hoping for acclaim, must be relinquished at this time. While it
has
been a motivating force in propelling one toward certain musical
goals,
at the moment of performance, the ego must be set aside so that the
spirit may be heard.
>Your playing must have conviction. It should show the measure of your
belief in what you know to be true, to the point where you would stake
your life on it. The inner fire must always show through. Play from
the
inside out; your sound should stem from the conviction of your soul.
This is what makes vital music.
-Philip Toshio Sudo


ON IMPROVISATION

>Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
-Miles Davis

>Improvising is the most natural and widespread form of music making.
Up
until the last century, it was integral even to our literate musical
tradition in the West.
-Stephen Nachmanovitch

>Trying to realize the essence of creating music by using dots on a
page
is no more possible than realizing the essence of painting by using
coloring books.
>Many western musicians are fabulously skilled at playing black dots
on
a printed page, but mystified by how the dots got there in the first
place and apprehensive of playing without dots. Music theory does not
help here; it teaches rules of the grammar, but not what to say. The
real story of improvisation is spontaneous expression, and is
therefore
a spiritual and a psychological story rather than a story about the
technique.
-Stephen Nachmanovitch

>Improvisation, it is a mystery. You can write a book about it, but by
the end no one still knows what it is. When I improvise and I'm in
good
form, I'm like somebody half sleeping. I even forget that there are
people in front of me. Great improvisers are like priests, they are
thinking only of their God.
-Stephane Grappelli

>The fruits of improvising may flower spontaneously, but it arises
from
soil that we have prepared, fertilized, and tended in the faith that
it
will ripen in nature's own time.
-Stephen Nachmanovitch

>The primary function of improvisation is to be expressive and
emotional; to improvise, one must be in a certain state, and at the
same
time, improvisation, by inducing surprise and novelty, provides the
interpreter with a special emotion that is perceived as the effect of
a
transcendental inspiration.
-Dariush Safvat

>Composing is the "ego-trip par excellence". The musical activity most
diametrically opposed to composing is improvising. We know that there
are some cultures where the composer dominates--above all in Western
music and others where the improviser rules, as almost everywhere else
in the world. However, both improvisers and composers exist in almost
all cultures, and there are borderline cases where it is often not
possible to determine whether something has been composed or is being
improvised. In most cases it turns out that what was originally
improvised has been repeated so often over the course of time that it
has taken on the character of something composed even though it is not
written down.
-Joachim-Ernst Berendt

>The joy in improvising while singing and playing is evident in almost
all phases of music history. It is always a
powerful force in the creation of new forms and every historical study
that confines itself to the practical and theoretical sources that
have
come down to us in writing or in print, without taking into account
the
improvisational element in living musical practice, must of necessity
present an incomplete, indeed a distorted picture. For there is
scarcely
a single field in music that has remained unaffected by improvisation,
scarcely a single musical technique or form of composition that did
not
originate in improvisatory practice or was not essentially influenced
by
it. The whole history of the development of music is accompanied by
manifestations of the drive to improvise.
-E.T. Ferand

>The first challenge of an improvising artist is to unify the diverse
response of an audience so that it becomes a part of the creation.
This
co-creation exists in a timeless area of subconscious communication
where theimproviser becomes the articulate voice of the group. The
compassion of this inspired moment of unity is the reason for
improvised
music.
-Dave Brubeck

>Improvisation is the only artform in which the same note can be
played
night after night but differently each time. It is the hidden things,
the subconscious that lets you know you feel this, you play this.
-Ornette Coleman

>It is a truism, that many of the recorded improvised masterpieces are
of a technical complexity, which would be quite beyond the ability of
their creators to play them, where they faced with the notes written
out
as a composition.
-Benny Green

>Improvisation is not the expression of accident but rather of the
accumulated yearnings, dreams and wisdom of our very soul.
-Yehudi Menuhin

ON PRACTICING

When we explode the artificial categories of exercise and real music,
each tone we play is at once an exploration of technique and a full
expression of spirit.
-Stephen Nachmanovitch

>Don't mistake activity for achievement. Business does not equal
productiveness.
>Let the time you spend with art flow through three natural phases:
invocation... work...gratitude.
-Stephen Nachmanovitch

>Acquiring a technique in the world of music is a much misunderstood
term. If there is a technique at all, it is the drawing out and
integrating of all parts of the person. One needs imagination with
clarity, drive with sensitivity.
-Herbert Whone

>To do anything artistically you have to acquire technique, but create
through your technique and not with it.
Stephen Nachmanovitch

>Patience is the key to learning music. It requires time to take root
in
the soul before it can blossom. There is no rushing nature.
-Nancy Lesh

>What counts is not the number of hours you put in, but how much you
put
in the hours.
>We think of practice as an activity done in a special context to
prepare for performance or the "real thing." But if we split practice
from the real thing, neither of them will be very real.
-Stephen Nachmanovitch

>Some people succeed because they are destined to, but most people
succeed because they are determined to.
>Concentrate on your task.
-Gandhi

>If we do not strive for inner perfection, we will remain what we are
now, talking animals. The perfect man, the complete man, lies within
each of us.
>Singing instrumental music is most important because, while you play
an
instrument, you are singing through the instrument...actually, you are
singing inside.
-Ali Akbar Khan

>Intensify your path, immerse yourself in sound.
-Joska Soos

>The difference between good and great is consistency.
-ESPN

>The start of every true advance must be accompanied by a readiness
for
sacrifice and involvement. In addition, one must also have the
capacity
fully and willingly to acknowledge something greater than oneself.
-Marius Schneider

>Though it is good to start your study of an instrument with a
classically trained musician, because of their attention to detail and
desire for purity of sound, at a certain point you need to move away,
because their obsession with "perfection" is life threatening to the
music.
>Whoever learns by listening, mainly playing his own music, and doing
without notation (or at most making reluctant and incomplete use of
its
possibilities), leaves music where it belongs: In time where listening
is the prime sense. Whoever learns a piece of music by reading it,
principally playing the music of others and
perfecting notation to an ever greater extent, transports music into
an
ultimately alien dimension: Into space whose cardinal sense is seeing.
-Joachim-Ernst Berendt

Sarasate, the great Spanish violinist of the last century, was once
called a genius by a famous critic. In reply to this, Sarasate shook
his
head and snorted: "Genius! For thirty-seven years I have practiced 14
hours a day, and now they call me a genius."

>Perfect your art in the wee hours of the morning, when all is still.
-Nicolas Roerich

>Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens.
If
children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play
it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a
beautiful heart.
-Shinichi Suzuki

>The question is whether a noble song is produced by nature or by
knowledge. I neither believe in mere labor being of avail without a
rich
vein of talent, nor in natural ability which is not educated.
-Horace (65 - 8 B.C.)

>Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for
music.

-Sergei Rachmaninoff

>Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because
rhythm and harmony find their way into the secret places of the soul.
-Plato

>Practice in minute detail until every note is imbued with internal
life
and has taken its place in the overall design.
-Pablo Casals

>By concentrating on precision, one arrives at technique, but by
concentrating on technique one does not arrive at precision.
>Many people say that too much study kills spontaneity in music, but
although study may kill a small talent, it is a must to develop a big
one.
-George Gershwin

>Repetition is the mother of talent.
>Technique is the ability to lay open the basic sense of a great work
of
art, to make it clear.
>The music teacher came twice a week to bridge the awful gap between
Dorothy and Chopin.
-George Ade




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Hi friends,

After a month's downtime, the EthnoSuperLounge website is back up!
:-)

Please visit it at
http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com

If you have a website, I request you most humbly to add a link to the ESL site
on your page.  If relevant, I will certainly do the same in return.

Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


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Hi there everyone,

As announced in a previous email, my new mobile email address is
09066009111@...

I'm keen to hear news from friends around the place and it's a great way to keep
busy on the train to and from work.

As I said previously, the main problem is that you have to send me plain text,
otherwise all I'll be able to read will be the subject line.

There is a collection of straightforward instructions
on sending plain text at the following URL:
www.expita.com/nomime.html

Here are some more specific links for common email
clients (within that doc):

Hotmail:
www.expita.com/nomime.html#hotmail

Yahoo:
www.expita.com/nomime.html#yahoo

Outlook Express:
www.expita.com/nomime.html#outlook5

Outlook:
www.expita.com/nomime.html#out98w
www.expita.com/nomime.html#out2000
www.expita.com/nomime.html#out2002

Eudora:
www.expita.com/nomime.html#eudora5

Thanks to Barry Earsman for putting me onto that.  I hope that helps any of you
with plans to have regular correspondence with me.

Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

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Hi there folks,

First I'd like to say thankyou to everyone who's written and said "Good luck" in
the last couple of weeks.  Unfortunately I've had heaps of trouble finding an
internet cafe and now after 2 weeks I've found 58 messages in my inbox!  So this
is a big thanks to everyone.

I will try to return again later this week and actually write something about my
experiences so far, but briefly...

Work is going well - suit, 40 hour work week and 1 hour commute and all.  It's
pretty fun, 90% of the students are really nice and I can expect a big pay
packet each month to help me on my way to India.

Kyoto is beautiful.  I feel so lucky that I was sent here, rather than Tokyo or
Osaka or some other big mega-city or small country town.  The city is surrounded
by forested mountains, there are temples all over, and the people are really
nice.  There's also a pretty good Indian music scene that I'm gradually working
my way into.  So far I've played a couple of times with Christophe Rossi, a
French sitar player of 8 years' experience who is also a Munna House regular in
Varanasi.  We plan to play every week.

As I said, it's not so easy for me to access this email address very often.  I
hope to check it once a week, with a 1 hour time limit at this free place I've
found.  BUT if you keen and friendly correspondents would like to keep in
regular contact I have a mobile email address on my phone!  It's
09066009111@...
The main consideration is that you MUST send PLAIN TEXT ONLY, ie NO HTML or any
fonts.  Otherwise all I'll be able to read will be the subject line.  This
problem apparently happens quite often with hotmail, etc, so you'll have to work
it out if you want me to reply.  Also I'm quite busy except for my time on the
trains each morning and evening, and anything I write will be tapped into a
mobile phone, so don't expect long replies!

Other news is that the ESL website is STILL DOWN - bloody CheapHostOnline
bastards - but they claim to be setting it right so hopefully soon it'll be back
up again.

That's all for now,
Love to all,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum

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Hi folks,

This is just a short message to say I'm safely arrived in Kyoto.  I'm staying in
Nagaokakyo, 4 stations south of Kyoto on the way to Osaka, which is not so bad -
quiet and suburban, nice mountain views.  There's a large park with a temple
nearby, and I'm quite close to a couple of different train lines, so it's easy
to get into Kyoto and so on.

On Monday I'll be off to Osaka for orientation - first day in the new suit - and
I'll be finding out where I'll be working and getting a mobile phone.

It's been quite easygoing up until now, as I've had free time to look around,
try and work out what to eat and how to find it, visiting a couple of friends I
met in India and getting to know a few of their friends, so I'm already into the
Japanese hippy scene! :-)

Until next time,
Shen
Aum Mani Padme Hum


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