Tim Reynolds at Chop Suey

Posted on March 9, 2007 by santosht
 Last weekend, 9th Feb ’07, Tim Reynolds played at Chop Suey in Seattle. For those of you who dont know Tim, he is an awesome guitar player, tours solo but he also often plays with Dave Matthews. He has an acoustic band with Dave called "Dave Matthews and friends".
 
Tim is a one-man-band. He started his concert with an acoustic guitar and used three guitars all together during his show. One of the other two was a 12 string acoustic and the other an electric. His music is melodious, intense and fast. He used his pedals beautifully and yes, his right hand was amazingly fast. I still remember how i could hardly see his right hand when he was playing some of those fast riffs. He sings all his songs and has a really different style of singing. Aparently, he met with a car accident and lost his voice. It seems he could sing the female parts from the disco era before the accident. I actually liked his singing style as well. He sounds quite like old Jazz vocalist to me.
 
After the show i got a chance to meet Tim. Tim is a short guy and is so humble and down to earth. He was extremely soft spoken and appeared to be shy and man of few words kinds. He talked to us about how he grew up in Alaska, global warming and told us that he was happy that we liked his music. 🙂
 
Tim has not signed up with any major record label. He was the one who encouraged Dave Matthews to form his own band. He does not prefer to play with DMB cos he thinks that his music speaks for him and he will not have the freedom to play music the way he wants to. Its amazing to know that somebody like Tim exists. Who in the world will turn down an offer to play with Dave Matthews Band today?
 
Last year when Tim played in Seattle, i missed his show although i had the tickets – i was stuck at work. But i am sure, next year when he tours here, i’ll be the first one to buy the tickets.
 
One last thing – i got lucky this time at the concert. I was actually sitting on the stage for the concert. When the show started, i was in the 2/3 row from the stage. I was taking pictures and thats when this cute girl offered me her place and i eventually ended up sitting on the stage so that i did not block the view of this lady in the wheelchair. I dont think i have gotten a chance to be on the stage, well this time i just got lucky. Here’s a link to some pics i took.
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TGIF?

Posted on March 9, 2007 by santosht
Its a Friday evening, 7.15 pm and i am still at work. I feel like leaving but there is tons of work left. Until a few weeks ago, the weekends were pretty ok. I used to work on Sundays if needed but never on Friday evenings or Saturdays. These days, i have been having long Fridays and no Saturday/Sunday holidays. Its coming to a point where its becoming very annoying. I’ll have to work next weekend as well. I just feel like breaking free, going home and chilling out. Arent we supposed to have life?
 
 
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Driving through the snow

Posted on March 1, 2007 by santosht
It’s a long day at work and I have been in meeting since i started my day. At 9:30 pm Mahesh pings me to tell me that there is huge snowfall in Bothell, the place where he lives. The snowfall was moving South – towards where i live. I leave office at about 10:30 and the roads are in perfect conditions. I park my car in my parking spot…. but then i feel like going on a drive.
 
It was raining when i started – not too heavy – Seattle style. I choose to listen to my most fav songs – the songs that i have rated 5*’s. I was driving randomly and i did not realize that i was heading North. I was listening to Graceland (by Paul Simon). I just love that song and i was so involved in the song – humming the tune that i wasnt paying much attention to the scenary (of the i drive on every day) and i suddenly realized that the scene was changing. It was snowing in North and as i was making my way North, i could actually see the intensity of the white color increase. It was quite an experience. And suddenly in 5 seconds – it appeared as if i was in another town. The roads were covered with snow, the roofs had about three inches of snow. There was snow clinging onto the trees making them appear to trees with white leaves. It was so cool!! I drove a few more miles on 140th Ave and then decided to head back home. All this while i was listening to all those beautiful songs i like the most. The drive did the trick for me. I was so refreshed by the end of it, i had the energy to go play a game of racketball. 🙂
 
All’s well that ends well they say. Very true. I feel like my day was so much fun. Did i go to work today? I can hardly remember 😉
 
 
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Guitar techniques

Posted on February 27, 2007 by santosht
I spent some 6 to 8 hrs last weekend at Barnes and Noble. I had been to 3 of their stores – Crossroads, Issaquah and UW. B&N is an unusual place for me to hang out at but this time around i was looking for a nice guitar book.
 
I did like a few books but couldn’t convince myself that they were worth 25-30 bucks. I really wasnt sure if i’ll use the book. I made myself this promise that if i learn a few songs on my own in the next two months, i’ll buy me the chord book of CCR and the Melbay one on scales. I cannot count how many times i have thought of starting practising seriously. When it comes to practise – i usually hang out with friends or work.
 
I am on a couple of forums of budding guitarists and everyone says just one thing – practise. Well – thats what i am going to do. Next couple of months i am going to stay focused. Well i dont want to be an ace guitarist, a pro but i want to be able to play (and sing maybe) a few songs. To start of with – i shall practise this.
 
This is just a note to myself and i am going to check back in 2 months to see if i deserve a copy of those two books. Lets see…
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Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough

Posted on February 23, 2007 by santosht
Well no, i am not sad or a broken heart right now. I just remembered this song and felt like putting this on my space here.
 
Few songs i’ve heard have just not made any sense to me. "Stop the world" is one of those songs. The first time i heard "Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough", i just could not make any sense out of it. Yeah, maybe i am dumb. But then one day it just made sense to me, infact it made a lot of sense to me. If this song does not make sense to you, just ignore it but if it does, i am sure you’ll love it. And yeah, i really like "Stop the world" today – after it started to make sense to me.
 
Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough
Words and music by PATTY SMYTH and GLEN BURTNIK
 
I don’t wanna lose you,
I don’t wanna use you
just to have sombody by my side
And I don’t wanna hate you
I don’t wanna take you
But I don’t wanna be the one to cry
That don’t really matter to anyone, anymore
But like a fool I keep losing my place
And I keep seeing you walk through that door
 
But there’s a danger in loving somebody too much
And its sad when you know it’s your heart you can’t trust
There’s a reason why people don’t stay where they are
Baby sometimes love just ain’t enough
 
Now I could never change you
I don’t wanna blame you
Baby you don’t have to take the fall
Yes I may have hurt you
But I did not desert you
Maybe I just want to have it all
It makes a sound like thunder
It makes me feel like rain
And like a fool who will never see the truth
I keep thinking something’s gonna change
 
But there’s a danger in loving somebody too much
And its sad when you know it’s your heart you can’t trust
There’s a reason why people don’t stay where they are
Baby sometimes love just ain’t enough
 
And there’s no way home
when it’s late at night and you’re all alone
Are there things that you wanted to say
Do you feel me beside you in your bed
there beside you where I used to lay
 
And there’s a Danger in Loving somebody too much
And it’s sad when you know it’s your heart they can’t touch
There’s a reason why people don’t stay who they are
Cause baby sometimes love just ain’t enough
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Wonderful world

Posted on February 22, 2007 by santosht
Ask me "What’s new" and I’ll reply "Well, not much".  That’s would have been my answer a year ago and will probably be a year down the line. Yet, when i think about last year, this day 2006, mmm, I think my life was different.
 
We usually take the everyday things we do for granted. Walking by the waterfront, cricket on the streets, coffee at Starbucks, cribbing about life during college days, chat over the phone, watching movies with your friends. All of that is so much fun. But life takes its own course and these things that you take for granted, suddenly fade away. You pass out of college, you move to a new city, you change your job… you grow up.
 
Today – I cannot go to "Sports bar" with Khadji and Nikhilesh even if I felt like. I cannot go for a concert with Vikas, Viren and Haddi. Cannot play cricket with Pappu, Parag, Varzu, Chintu, and the gang. Cannot go to the pubs with Sudhir and Yoga at the night. It wouldn’t be possible to go on random walks with Girish. Paddy, Riyaz and Manish have all returned to Pune and Ritesh is in San Jose.
 
Today, I go to Starbucks with Rajan so often, play ping pong with Mahesh almost every day, tease Hyewon, random drives with the gang, go to concerts (mostly alone). These simple things are a BIG part of me today and very conveniently I have started to take these things for granted. But I am sure when I cannot do these things anymore – I’ll miss them bad. I think that in the fast pace of our lives, we sometimes forget to cherish what we have got.
 
A day that’s gone by is never going to come back, and I think I am going to try and make the most of it. The people around me might not be there tmrw, so make the most of the time you have with them.
 
Last year i was excited about a birthday, today, I know I cannot wish "Happy Birthday" even if I felt like. Best Wishes anyways!!
 
I see friends shaking hands
Sayin "How do you do?"
They’re really saying… "I love you."
 
Wow… what a wonderful world!!
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Damien Rice concert tickets

Posted on February 16, 2007 by santosht
Each time there is a concert that i really want to go to, i start tracking the tickets well in advance before they go on sale. I register on the bands website, on ticketmaster.com, follow the presale event, make ticketmaster send me an SMS an hour before the tickets go on sale, put a reminder on outlook, remind myself 10 times a day, basically – i do everything i can think of.
 
Damien Rice is going to play in Seattle in Benaroya Hall (remember "Live at Benaroya Hall" by Pearl Jam) on the Apr 25. Being a die hard fan of his, i was tracking his tickets since the show was announced. They had a pre-sale event, and i found out that they werent selling the Floor Level seats duing the pre-sale. I thought – i might as well wait for the tickets to go on sale and try to get the best tickets i can. I was getting very decent seats during the presale but i told myself to take that "risk".
 
The tickets went out on sale today. I was on TicketMaster.com 10 minutes before the the tickets went on sale. I was looking for floor seats – center area. Guess what, i got ticket number 1A from the center area. Wow. I thought today was my day. But it wasnt over yet. I had to put in my account details and stuff. As i proceeded to check out, the damn site crashed on me. The page read "We are sorry for the inconvenience". Crap. All my planning was in vein.
 
1 minute later when i searched for the tickets again, i could get row F (read 6th row from the stage) but it wasnt good enough for me. I am feeling cheated for no fault of mine. I really wish those tickets were mine.
 
Mmm, enough about all that. Well, i am going to see Damien Rice – thats good enough i guess. Imaging listening to Cannonball, Blowers Daughter, Volcano live!! Wow, i am excited. I bet its going to be awesome. I hope Lisa playes with him. I hope they allow cameras…
 
 
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Managing my music collection

Posted on February 6, 2007 by santosht
I have a huge collection of music. I have more than 400 albums that i have collected. It was becoming difficult for me to manage my music. At times there were more than 50 CD’s in my car. I just couldnt listen to the song i wanted to when i wanted to listen to it. So i thought of buying a music player. iPod was the answer. Why iPod? One – cos it can store more (i bot the 80 GB one), 2 – its tried and tested, 3 – cos Zune was not out when i bot my iPod.
 
So i thought buying an iPod will solve my problem and i wont have to buy anything else. But i was mistaken. Today i have 45 GB of music stored on my iPod already. I was initially storing this on my machine but soon my machine started running out of space. Given the volume of music and the time it took me to rip all the music, I realized that i should take backup of my music. Solution was to buy an external hard drive. So i bot a 120 GB portable external hard-disc by Western Digital and guess what? The hard disc crashed within a week. Man, that was bad. Western Digital told me to get a replacement for it. I had no choice. Luckily for me, i had not deleted the original copy of music and i did not have to rip my music again.
 
The crashed hard disc scared me and i thought i should keep two copies of music just to be sure. I bot a 300 GB Seagate hard disc – the one that had the best reviews on Amazon. Phew.
 
In Bill Gates Vista launch speech, me mentioned that people need computers to manage their music and photographs – a few years ago, i would have been like – "really? is it so? must be for some few." But today, i have already spent some $600 just to maintain my music. And i am sure that i must not be the only one.
 
Well – i still think there is lots to be done to make things easy to manage though. When transferring music from my desktop to the new portable hard disc – i lost the artwork for a lot of albums. That sucks. I dont know why it was so complicated for iPod/iTunes to preserve them. Well, but its gone now and i guess it will be a few weeks before i can see the album artwork for all the songs on my iPod again.
 
BTW – is there any white paper on "Manage your music" out yet? Send me the link if u find one. 🙂
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They dance alone…

Posted on January 18, 2007 by santosht
I am a BIG fan of Sting. I like his music right from his Police days. I really this one song by him called "They dance alone (Cueca Solo)". Sting wrote this song after he saw a brief news story about women dancing in the streets of Chile with pictures of their husbands, fathers, brothers or sons pinned to their clothes. They were dancing the cueca dance (the traditional dance of Chile) – all by themselves. They danced alone as their dear ones were killed by the military dictatorship in Chile in those days.
 
The music is awesome and the words are just brilliant. Each time i listen to it, it paints the picture that i think Sting saw on TV. I can feel the pain in his words. Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton have played the guitars on that song and the song ends with a very happy sounding sax solo by Branford Marsalis.  I recommend you listen to the song with the lyrics next time – if you havent done that before.
 
 
Why are these women here dancing on their own?
Why is there this sadness in their eyes?
Why are the soldiers here
Their faces fixed like stone?
I can’t see what it is they despise

They’re dancing with the missing
They’re dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They’re dancing with their fathers
They’re dancing with their sons
They’re dancing with their husbands
They dance alone
They dance alone

It’s the only form of protest they’re allowed
I’ve seen their silent faces scream so loud
If they were to speak these words
they’d go missing too
Another woman on the torture table
what else can they do

They’re dancing with the missing
They’re dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They’re dancing with their fathers
They’re dancing with their sons
They’re dancing with their husbands
They dance alone
They dance alone

One day we’ll dance on their graves
One day we’ll sing our freedom
One day we’ll laugh in our joy
And we’ll dance

One day we’ll dance on their graves
One day we’ll sing our freedom
One day we’ll laugh in our joy
And we’ll dance

Ellas danzan con los desaparecidos
Ellas danzan con los muertos
Ellas danzan con amores invisibles
Ellas danzan con silenciosa angustia
Danzan con sus padres
Danzan con sus hijos
Danzan con sus esposos
Ellas danzan solas
Danzan solas

Hey Mr. Pinochet
You’ve sown a bitter crop
It’s foreign money that supports you
One day the money’s going to stop

No wages for your torturers
No budget for your guns
Can you think of your own mother
Dancin’ with her invisible son?

They’re dancing with the missing
They’re dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They’re dancing with their fathers
They’re dancing with their sons
They’re dancing with their husbands
They dance alone
They dance alone

 
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Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

Posted on October 24, 2006 by santosht
If someone asks me to imagine what a live Bob Dylan show will be like, I imagine Dylan playing an acoustic guitar. I imagine that he will have a small band – a bass player and a drummer – not too many musicians. I imagine him singing songs that are catchy, sweet and soft on your ears.
 
Well – i heard him on his "Modern Times" tour at the KeyArena, Seattle, and to say the least i was surprised with what i got. Dylan was accompanied by some fine musicians. Stu Kimball was on guitars, Tony Garnier "man who has played with Dylan more than anyone else" on bass guitars, George Receli on durms, Don Herron on pedal steel and Denny Freeman (used to tour with Taj Mahal) on guitars. Yes Dylan – to my surprise – was playing keyboards and not guitars.
 
Dylan started the concert with Maggies farm. I have read elsewhere that he plays that song almost every time but mind you – if you hear him play that, you will get goosebumps. The music was intense. Extremely intense. Dylans voice was deep. I’ll particurly remember Highway 61. That song exploded into your ears. The band was on a roll and his vocals were screaming into your ears. Yes – he was the same guy who i have heard a hundred million times on my stereo. He was enjoying himself out there and it will be an understatement to say that we were having a GREAT time. "Like a rolling stone" and "All along the watchtower" were two other songs that just rocked. "Tangled up in blue" was a gem and so was "Thunder on the mountain". I think you have to give full credit to his backing band as well. They were truly awesome. Bunch of really talented musicians you put up a really tight performance.
 
Earlier, Dylan had entered the stage running. I was impressed by his enthusiasm. I guess all these greats, legends are like old wine. They only get better with time. I wish i could have seen Garcia and the Grateful Dead live on stage. I guess i will have to make do with a DVD. 😦
 
Dylan – you rock!
 
 
 
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