Podcasts about Ravi Shankar

Naturalist and author Priyanka Kumar credit Molly Wagoner Conversations with Birds – Book Cover On today's show, naturalist and author Priyanka Kumar is back to talk about her 2023 award winning book entitled, “Conversations with Birds”.  We discuss finding her (one of many) true calling(s) to become a naturalist, the intrepid bird-watching trips and hanging out with Ravi Shankar.  Conversations with Birds is a lovely collection of essays. The post Conversations with Birds – Priyanka Kumar appeared first on KPFA.

What if the multi-million dollar AI initiative you're championing is being silently sabotaged, not by a competitor, but by your own data infrastructure?Agility requires more than just fast decision-making; it requires a data foundation that can deliver insights at the speed of business, without the traditional delays of moving and duplicating information. This ability to access and act on real-time, comprehensive data is what separates brands that lead from those that follow.Today, we're going to talk about the silent killer of AI projects. While everyone focuses on the glamour of AI models and algorithms, the reality is that most enterprise initiatives stall or fail at the data layer. We'll be discussing why even modern data warehouses can create new roadblocks, and how a different approach to data management can make your enterprise data truly AI-ready.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Ravi Shankar, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Denodo. About Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Denodo. He is responsible for Denodo's global marketing efforts, including product marketing, demand generation, field marketing, communications, social marketing, customer advocacy, partner marketing, branding, and solutions marketing.,Yes,This will be completed shortly Ravi Shankar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravishankardevaraj/ Resources Denodo: https://www.denodo.com/en/document/analyst-report/denodo-lakehouse-roi This episode is brought to you by Denodo. Powered by logical data management, the Denodo Platform accelerates data integration, management, and delivery for all your business's data needs. Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.Our guest is literature lecturer Dr Hetta Howes on major literary hoaxes around the world.We hear about Howard Hughes' fake autobiography, the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá in Colombia and how the Indian musician Ravi Shankar taught George Harrison the sitar.Plus, the Indian woman who led her country's first delegation to the United Nations, the Premier League's first female photographer and how Toy Story revolutionised animation.Contributors: Clifford Irving - American author who faked an autobiography of Howard Hughes. Dr Hetta Howes - a senior lecturer in English Literature at City St George's, at the University of London. Jorge Enrique Castelblanco - Colombian engineer behind the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá. Ravi Shankar - Indian sitar maestro. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit - led India's first delegation to the United Nations in 1946. Magi Haroun - the Premier League's first female photographer. Doug Sweetland - animator on Toy Story.(Photo: Clifford Irving leaving the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, followed by news crews in 1972. Credit: Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)

Following the Beatles' final concert tour, George Harrison travelled to India in 1967 to learn sitar under the renowned musician Ravi Shankar. Fleeing Beatlemania he travelled in disguise to Mumbai and then to Srinagar in Kashmir. Listening to BBC archive and using excerpts from a Martin Scorsese documentary, we hear one of the world's most famous guitarists challenge himself to learn a new instrument. The moment influenced George's spirituality and his burgeoning solo musical career, as well as the Beatles'. It also propelled Ravi Shankar further into the limelight. The musicians remained lifelong friends. Ravi says they last saw each other on 28 November 2001, the day before George died. Produced and presented by Surya Elango.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina's Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall' speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler's List; and Jacques Derrida, France's ‘rock star' philosopher.You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world's oldest languages.(Photo: George Harrison and Ravi Shankar in 1975. Credit: by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

How has the classical music industry approached representation and how has the new music community forged new paths to embrace diverse musics? On tonight's episode of Obbligato on APEX Express, Isabel Li is joined by violinist Shalini Vijayan, who discusses her vibrant career and reflects upon the ways contemporary classical music can build community.  Violinist Shalini Vijayan, deemed “a vibrant violinist” by Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times is an established performer and collaborator on both coasts. Always an advocate for modern music, Shalini was a founding member and Principal Second Violin of Kristjan Jarvi's Absolute Ensemble, having recorded several albums with them including 2001 Grammy nominee, Absolution. Shalini was also a founding member of the Lyris Quartet, one of Los Angeles' most beloved chamber ensembles. With Lyris, she has performed regularly at Walt Disney Concert Hall on the Green Umbrella series, for Jacaranda Music and helped to found the Hear Now Music Festival in Venice, California, a festival dedicated to the music of living composers in Los Angeles.  Shalini performed for over a decade with Southwest Chamber Music and can be heard on their Grammy nominated Complete Chamber Works of Carlos Chávez, Vol. 3. She has been a featured soloist with the Los Angeles Master Chorale in Chinary Ung's Spiral XII and Tan Dun's Water Passion, including performances at the Ravinia Festival. As a chamber musician, Shalini has collaborated with such luminaries as Billy Childs, Chinary Ung, Gabriela Ortiz, and Wadada Leo Smith on whose Ten Freedom Summers she was a soloist. Shalini joined acclaimed LA ensemble, Brightwork New Music in 2019 and also serves as the curator for Brightwork's Tuesdays@Monkspace series, a home for contemporary music and performance in Los Angeles. As a teacher, she has been on the faculty of the Nirmita Composers Workshop in both Siem Reap and Bangkok and coaches composition students through the Impulse New Music Festival.  Shalini received her B.M. and M.M. degrees from Manhattan School of Music as a student of Lucie Robert and Ariana Bronne. As a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, Shalini served as concertmaster for Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams, Reinbert de Leeuw and Oliver Knussen. She was also concertmaster for the world premiere performances and recording of Steven Mackey's Tuck and Roll for RCA records in 2000. Shalini was a member of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra for ten seasons and also served as Principal Second Violin of Opera Pacific. She lives in Los Angeles with her son, husband and two dogs and spends her free time cooking Indian food and exploring the culinary landscape of Southern California.  Check out more of her work at:  https://brightworknewmusic.com/tuesdays-at-monk-space/  https://www.lyrisquartet.com/    Transcript  Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the APEX Express.    00:01:03 Isabel Li  You're listening to Obbligato, which is a segment about the Asian American Pacific Islander community, specifically in classical music.  00:01:11 Isabel Li  I'm your host, Isabel Li, and today joining me is Shalini Vijayan, who is a violinist, established performer, and always an advocate for modern music.  00:01:21 Isabel Li  Shalini is also a founding member of the Lyris Quartet, one of Los Angeles most beloved chamber ensembles. With Lyris, she has performed regularly at Walt Disney Concert Hall on the Green Umbrella series for Jacaranda Music, and helped to found the Here and Now Music Festival in Venice, California, a festival dedicated to the music of living composers in Los Angeles. She joined acclaimed LA ensemble Brightwork New Music in 2019, and also serves as the curator for Brightwork's Tuesdays at Monk Space series. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her son, husband and two dogs, and spends her free time cooking Indian food and exploring the culinary landscape of Southern California.  00:02:04 Isabel Li  Well, Shalini, thank you so much for joining me in this conversation today.  00:02:09 Shalini Vijayan  I'm so happy to be with you.  00:02:11 Isabel Li  Awesome. I'd like to just get to know you and your story. How do you identify and what communities do you consider yourself a part of?  00:02:18 Shalini Vijayan  I use the pronouns she, her, and I. Um, I identify as South Asian. I grew up in an Indian family. My parents immigrated to the US in the sixties to teach at medical school. And I grew up with a great deal of Indian culture. And I've spent a lot of time going back and forth to India from the time that I was very young. You know, it's interesting because I feel like in LA, where I live and work specifically, there is so much overlap between all of our different musical communities. You know, I went to school in New York, and I feel like there I was much more, I'm very connected to the new music community in New York and felt really kind of entrenched in that at the time I was there. And after coming to LA, I realized that, um, there are a lot of musicians doing so many different things. That's one of the things I love about Los Angeles, actually. And, you know, I'm definitely very, very rooted in the new music community in LA. And that was where I made my first sort of connections when I first moved to Los Angeles. But I also, you know, worked in an orchestra when I first came to LA. I played in the Pacific Symphony for almost ten seasons, and so I became a part of that community as well. And you know, as the years went on, I also became much more involved in the studio music community of LA studio musicians playing on movie scores, playing on television shows, records, what have you, Awards shows, all sorts of things. And these are all very distinct communities in LA in music. But I see a ton of overlap between all of them. There are so many incredibly versatile musicians in Los Angeles that people are able to really very easily move from one of these groups to the other and, you know, with a great deal of success. And I feel like it gives us so much variety in our lives as musicians in LA, you don't feel like you're ever just in one lane. You can really occupy all these different kinds of spaces.  00:04:23 Isabel Li  Right, yeah. So you're classically trained, from what I know, and you describe yourself as an advocate for modern music. So why modern music?  00:04:33 Shalini Vijayan  That's a great question. I have have had to answer this question quite a bit over the years, especially to non-musicians. And it's always an interesting story for me. You know, as a violinist in particular, you know, we have such a storied history of repertoire and pedagogy, and there is such an incredible, um, library of music that we have access to from the very standard classical repertoire. And there is a great deal to be learned about the instrument and about music from playing all that repertoire. I think at some point when I was in high school, I started to become interested in more modern music. And actually I grew up in Davis in Northern California.   My parents both taught at the university there, at the medical school and in Sacramento. Nearby there was a festival of modern American music that I think still goes on to this day at Cal State University, Sacramento. And it was really a great festival. And at that time, you know, they would bring professional artists, they'd have composers, they'd have commissions, all sorts of things. But at the time that I was like in high school, they also had a junior division to the festival, and I was asked to play a couple pieces in the Festival of, um, Modern Works, and I can't remember at this time what the pieces were, but it left such a huge impression on me. And I think what I really took away from that experience as a kid is that in my studies as a violinist, I was always being asked to sort of live up to this history and this legacy of violin music and violin playing in Western classical music. And it's a very high bar. And it's, um, you know, of course, there's so much great stuff there. But there was something so freeing about playing this music that had either never been played or not been recorded. So there was nothing to reference in terms of listening to a recording, um, and listening to how you, you know, quote, should be playing it that it made me feel, uh, you know, all this, this freedom to really interpret the music, how I felt, rather than feeling like I had to live up to a standard that had been set for me, you know, decades or centuries before. And I think that really something really clicked for me with that, that I wanted to have that kind of freedom when I, when I was playing. And so from there on out, um, you know, when I went to college and I really sought out opportunities in new music as much as I could.  00:07:00 Isabel Li  So you were first exposed to new music when you were in high school. Did that influence your decision to become a musician at all? Or were you already set on becoming a musician and that was just part of what shaped your works over the years.  00:07:15 Shalini Vijayan  I think by that time, I had already decided that I wanted to be a musician. I mean, as you know, so many of us as musicians and I think particularly string players, we decide so young because we start our instruments at such a young age and we start studying so early. Um, that I think by that time I, I had decided I wanted to do music, but this sort of opened another door for me that made me realize that it wasn't just one path in music necessarily. I think it's very easy as a, as a kid and as a violinist to think you admire these great soloists that you see and, you know, people like Perlman and, you know, Isaac Stern, who were the stars of the time when I was growing up. But, you know, you get to be in high school and you realize that hasn't happened yet. It's probably not going to happen. And so, you know, what's then then what's your path forward? How do you find a life in music if you're not going to be one of these stars? And I think, you know, new music really opened up that opportunity for me. And yeah, made me look at things a little differently for sure.  00:08:18 Isabel Li  And currently you're in the contemporary classical music ensemble, Brightwork newmusic, and you curate the ensemble's concert series, Tuesdays @ Monk Space. So how do you go about curating concerts with music by contemporary or living composers? What do you look for?  00:08:33 Shalini Vijayan  Well, right now I'm really focused on trying to represent our new music community in LA at Monk Space, which is such, you know, we have such a diverse community of musicians, not just in the makeup of who the people are making the music or writing the music, but also in just the styles of music. And so I think I try to really represent a very diverse set of aesthetics in our season. Um, you know, everything from, you know, last season we had, uh, Niloufar Shiri, who is a traditional Persian kamancheh player, but she also she can play very in a very traditional way, but she also plays with a jazz pianist. And, you know, it does all this very improvisatory stuff. And, you know, then we would have other programs where everything is very much written out and very through, composed and you know, it's been a very wide variety. And, you know, when I try to build the season, I try to make sure that it's really balanced in terms of, you know, the different types of things you'll be hearing because not every audience member is going to want to engage with every type of music. Um, or, you know, if we if we really stuck to one style and it was just in that language for the whole season, then I feel like we would, you know, alienate potential audience members. But with this, I feel like if we can bring people in for one concert and they're really into it, then hopefully they'll come to something else that is new and different for them and be exposed to something that they may really get into after that. So yeah, I think diversity and variety is really where I try to start from.  00:10:09 Isabel Li  How does that engage the community? Have you observed audience reception to this type of new music when there are composers from all different types of backgrounds?  00:10:20 Shalini Vijayan  Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think that each composer and each artist brings their own community into the space, which and so that's another. I feel like another strong reason why I try to make things very different from concert to concert. And, you know, we have some younger players who come in and bring in, you know, everyone from college students to, you know, their friends and family. And then, you know, really established composers. Like this season we have Bill Roper, who is kind of a legend in the music community in LA. Mult instrumentalist and composer who has been around for decades. And, you know, I think people will come out just because they want to see him and he's such a draw. And, um, you know, I, I also would love to be able to incorporate more world music into the series. Like I said, we did do Niloufar concert, which I felt like I really hoped would like engage with the Persian community in LA as well. And a couple seasons ago we had Rajna Swaminathan, who is, I just think, an incredible artist. Um, she plays mridangam, which is a South Indian percussion instrument, but she also writes for Western instruments, uh, and herself. And we had her and a pianist and then Ganavya, who's a vocalist who's amazing. And, you know, Ganavya had her own following. So we had and Rajna has her own following. So we had a whole full audience that night of people who I had never seen in the space before. And that was for me. That's a success because we're bringing in new friends and new engagement. And, um, I was really excited about that. When I'm able to make those kinds of connections with new people, then that feels like a success to me.  00:12:05 Isabel Li  Certainly.  00:12:06 Isabel Li  Let's hear one of Shalini's performances. This is an excerpt from the 10th of William Kraft's “Encounters”, a duologue for violin and marimba, performed here by Shalini Vijayan with Southwest Chamber Music.  00:12:20 [MUSIC – Encounters X: Duologue for Violin & Marimba]  00:17:18 Isabel Li  An excerpt from William Kraft's Encounters, the 10th of which is called Duologue for Violin and Marimba, that was performed by Shalini Vijayan, the violinist, with Southwest Chamber Music.  00:17:31 Isabel Li  And Shalini is here with me in conversation today. We've been discussing contemporary music and her involvement in the new music scene, specifically in Los Angeles.  00:17:40 Isabel Li  Music is all about community, drawing people together. So going back to how you describe yourself as an advocate for modern music, what are other ways that you have advocated for modern music besides curating the concert series?  00:17:53 Shalini Vijayan  Well, over the years, um, you know, I feel like in all the ensembles I've been in, there's been a real focus on commissioning composers and on performing works that have not been, uh, either performed or recorded before. And I feel like the only way to really get the music out there is to, obviously, is to play it and hopefully to be able to record it. We've worked especially with the lyrics quartet. We've worked with so many young composers in LA either just strictly, you know, contemporary classical composers or even film composers who, um, have works that they'd like to have recorded. And, you know, it's been great to see a lot of those people go on to really amazing things and to be a part of their journey, uh, and to help support them. And, uh, the other thing that the quartet has been heavily involved in and now Bright Work Ensemble has been involved in as well, is the Here Now music festival, which has been going on in LA for well over a decade now. We were involved in the first, um, seasons of that festival. We've been one of the resident ensembles since the very beginning, and that festival is dedicated to the music of LA and Southern California composers. And, um, we have a call for scores every year that we, the four of us in the quartet, are part of the panel that reviews all the scores, along with a lot of our other colleagues, um, who are involved with the festival, and Hugh Levick, who is the artistic director of the festival and has we've worked side by side with him on this for a very long time. And that's also been a fantastic avenue for, um, meeting new composers, hearing new works, having them performed. And the thing I always say about that festival every time it comes around, usually in the spring we have at least three concerts. It's this incredible coming together of the new music community in Southern California, where all these great composers and all these amazing players come together and play these series of concerts, because there's such a vast number of pieces that end up getting programmed. They can't rely on just like one group or one or two groups to play them. So it really pulls in a lot of players from all over town. And I don't know, it always just feels like a really fun time, a fun weekend for all of us to see each other and connect. And, um, and again, just build our community to be even stronger.  00:20:20 Isabel Li  That's really cool. How do you ignite interest in new music? Because this is a genre that I think is slightly underrepresented or just underrepresented in general in both the classical music community and the music industry as a whole.  00:20:35 Shalini Vijayan  That's a great question, and I think it's a really important question for our whole industry and community. How do you engage people in new music and get them into a concert? Um, you know, I think one of the biggest hurdles for classical music in general, I will say, um, when I talk to people about why they don't want to come to a concert or why they don't want to, you know, let's say, go see the LA Phil or, you know, wherever, whatever city they're in, the major cultural music institution. I think there is a misconception generally that, oh, it's, you know, I have to be dressed a certain way or I it's going to be really stuffy. And, um, I, you know, I don't know what to wear or I don't know how I'm supposed to dress or how I'm supposed to act when I'm in the concert. Am I going to clap at the wrong time? You know, is it going to be really long? And, you know, and I and I get it, you know, I mean, I understand why that would be uncomfortable for a lot of people.   And it's not, um, it's something that necessarily everyone has grown up with or that it's been a part of their life. So I think it's really up to us, as you know, when we're on the side of programming concerts or putting together festivals or whatever, um, that we make things more accessible in terms of, um, concert length and interaction with audience. And, um, you know, I think it's I know I've been told so many times and I really think it's important that I think audiences love it when performers talk to them, when they talk about the music and, and set things up for a listener. I think that puts a kind of context on things that makes it so much easier for perhaps a new audience member, someone who's never come to a concert before to feel at ease and feel like, okay, I know what I'm getting into.   One of our, actually our former executive director at Brightwork, Sarah Wass, who was fantastic, and I was very happy to work with when I was just starting out programming, Monk Space had the idea of putting on the program the running time of the pieces, and I think even that is just something that, like, can prepare people for what they're getting into when they're about to listen to something new. And in terms of the music itself, I think that if someone, especially a younger person, doesn't feel like they have any connection to Beethoven or Brahms or Mozart, they might actually feel more connected to someone who is their age or a little older.   Someone who has had similar life experiences to them, or grown up in the same era as them, rather than someone who grew up, you know, in the seventeen hundreds. You know, there can be more of a real connection there, and that that person is writing this music and reflection of their life and their experiences. And, um, you know, again, I think that kind of context is important for a listener. And yeah. And then just lastly, I would say also, I feel like our space at Monk space is very inviting. It's very low key. It's, um, you know, it's casual, it's comfortable. Role. Um, we have, you know, snacks and a bar and, you know, everyone is very relaxed at intermission and has a good time. And I mean, for me, every time we host one of those concerts, I feel like I'm hosting a little party, you know? That's what it feels like for me. And that's what I want it to feel like for the audience as well.  00:23:52 Isabel Li  That brings up a really good point in that new music can make classical music or a new classical music, contemporary music, more accessible to different audiences. And certainly I've definitely heard the complaint from people over the years about classical music being a little too uptight. Would you say that these are two different genres?  00:24:11 Shalini Vijayan  I think that there is overlap, and I think, you know, for an ensemble like ours, like Brightwork, we have chosen to make our focus new music. So that's our thing. That's what we do. Um, and, uh, all of our concerts and our programming reflect that. Very rarely do we do anything that's not considered a contemporary piece. Um, but, you know, if you do look at some of our major institutions, like I think the LA Phil and I think the San Francisco Symphony, um, earlier, you know, like in the nineties under MTT, really started to pave the way for incorporating contemporary music into a standard classical format. And, you know, I think that's been very important. And I think it's really changed the way that orchestras have programmed across the country. And there has been such a nurturing of contemporary music in larger spaces. Now that I think that kind of overlap has started to happen much more frequently. I think that in more conservative settings, sometimes there's pushback against that. And even even, you know, in some of the places that I play, you know, sometimes with with the lyrics quartet, um, we are asked to just purely program standard classical repertoire, and we will occasionally throw in a little short piece, you know, just to try and put something in there, you know, something that's very accessible. Um, and, uh, you know that we know the audience will like so that we can help them, you know, kind of get over that fear of connecting to a newer piece. And I, I think in some ways, that's where the path forward lies, is that we have to integrate those things, you know, in order to keep kind of the old traditions of classical music alive. I think we have to keep the newer tradition alive as well, and find a way to put them in the same space.  00:26:00 Isabel Li  I certainly agree with that.  00:26:01 Isabel Li  Let's hear more of Shalini's work in new music. This is a performance of the first movement of Atlas Pumas by Gabriela Ortiz. Violinist Shalini Vijayan is joined by percussionist Lynn Vartan.  00:26:18 [MUSIC – Atlas Pumas, mvt 1 by Gabriela Ortiz]  00:29:21 Isabel Li  The first movement of Gabriela Ortiz's Atlas Pumas played here by violinist Shalini Vijian, and Lynn Vartan plays the marimba.  00:29:30 Isabel Li  And Shalini is actually joining us here for a conversation about new music, performances, identity, and representation.  00:29:38 Isabel Li  Many Asian American Pacific Islander artists in music have varying relationships between their art and their identity. I was wondering, to what extent do you feel that perhaps your South Asian identity intersects or influences the work that you do with music?  00:29:54 Shalini Vijayan  Growing up, um, you know, I grew up in a in a university town in Northern California and, you know, a lot of highly educated and, you know, kids of professors and, you know, but still not the most terribly diverse place. And then going into classical music. And this was, you know, in the early nineties when I went to college, um, it still was not a particularly it was very much not a diverse place at all. And, um, there certainly were a lot of Asian students at, um, Manhattan School of Music where I did my my studies.   But I would say it was a solid decade before I was ever in any sort of classical music situation where there was another South Asian musician. I very, very rarely met any South Asian musicians, and it wasn't until I went to the New World Symphony in the early late nineties, early two thousand, and I was a musician there. I was a fellow in that program there for three years that I walked into the first rehearsal, and there were three other South Asian, I think, of Indian descent musicians in the orchestra, and I was absolutely blown away because I literally had not, um, other than here and there at some festivals, I had not met any other South Asian classical musicians.   So it was really like that was the hallmark moment for me. It was a really big deal. And coming with my family, coming from India, you know, there is such a strong tradition of Indian classical music, of Carnatic music and Hindustani music. And, um, it's such a long, long tradition. And, you know, the people who have studied it and lived with it are, you know, they study it their whole lives to be proficient in it. And it's such an incredible, incredible art form and something that I admire so much. And I did as a kid. Take a few lessons here and there. I took some Carnatic singing lessons, um, and a little bit of tabla lessons when I was very young. Um, but I think somewhere in middle school or high school, I kind of realized that it was, for me at least, I wasn't, um, able to put enough time into both because both of them, you know, playing the violin in a Western classical style and then studying Indian classical music require a tremendous amount of effort and a tremendous amount of study. And I at that point chose to go with Western classical music, because that's what I'd been doing since I was five years old. But there has always kind of been this longing for me to be more connected to Indian classical music. Um, I'll go back again to Rajna. When I presented Rajna Swaminathan on Monk Space a couple of years ago, it was a really meaningful thing for me, because that's kind of what I'd always wanted to see was a joining together of that tradition, the Indian tradition with the Western tradition. And, um, I'm so happy that I'm starting to see that more and more with a lot of the artists that are coming up now. But at the time when I was young, it just it felt almost insurmountable that to to find a way to bring the two together. And, um, I remember very clearly as a kid listening to this, um, there was an album that Philip Glass did with Ravi Shankar, and I thought that was so cool at the time. And I used to listen to it over and over again because I just again, I was so amazed that these things could come together and in a, in a kind of successful way. Um, but yeah, there is, you know, there there's a part of me that would still love to go back and explore that more that, that side of it. Um, and but I will say also, I'm very happy now to see a lot more South Asian faces when I, you know, go to concerts on stage and in the audience. And, you know, a lot of composers that I've worked with now, um, of South Asian descent, it's been, you know, I've worked with Reena Esmail and Anuj Bhutani and Rajna and, um, there's so many more, and I'm so glad to see how they're all incorporating their connection to their culture to, to this, you know, Western kind of format of classical music. And they're all doing it in different ways. And it's it's really amazing.  00:34:22 Isabel Li  That's fantastic.  00:34:24 Isabel Li  I was wondering if you could maybe describe what this merging or combination of different styles entails. Do you think this makes it more accessible to audiences of two different cultures?  00:34:36 Shalini Vijayan  For me, one example, before I started running the series at Tuesdays at Monk Space, Aron Kallay, who is our Bright Work artistic director, had asked me to come and do a solo show on Monk Space, which I did in November of 2019.  00:34:52 Shalini Vijayan  And at the time, I wanted to commission a piece that did exactly that, that, that, um, involved some sort of Indian classical instrument or kind of the language of Indian classical music. And so I actually did reach out to Reena Esmail, and she wrote me a very cool piece called blaze that was for tabla and violin. Um, and I really had so much fun doing that. And Reena, Reena really has a very fluid way of writing for the violin, which she actually was a violinist, too. So she's she's really good at doing that. But being able to write for any melodic instrument or for the voice, which she does quite a bit as well, and incorporating sort of the tonality of Indian classical music, which obviously has its own scales and, um, has its own harmonic, harmonic world that is different from the Western world, um, but finds a way to translate that into the written note notation that we require as, uh, Western classical musicians. And, you know, I think that's the biggest gap to bridge, is that in Indian classical music, nothing is notated. Everything is handed down in an oral tradition, um, over the generations. And for us, everything is notated. And in Indian classical music, you know, there's much more improvisation. And now, of course, with modern classical music, there now is a lot more improvisation involved. But in our old standard tradition, obviously there isn't. And in the way that we're trained, mostly we're not trained to be improvisers. And um, so it's it was great. She has a great way of writing so that it kind of sounds like things are being tossed off and sounding sounds like they're being improvised, but they are actually fully notated, um, which I really appreciated.  00:36:50 Isabel Li  Yeah.  00:36:51 Isabel Li  So your career has spanned orchestras, recording ensembles, chamber music. Having had so much experience in these types of performance, what does representation in classical music mean to you?  00:37:04 Shalini Vijayan  Well, representation is is very important because we're talking about a tradition that was built on white men from centuries ago, European white men. And and it's again, it's an incredible tradition and there's so much great repertoire. But I'm going to circle back to what you were saying or what you asked me about connecting to audiences and, you know, connecting to audiences with new music. It's I think people like to see themselves reflected in the art that they choose. They choose to consume. And, you know, whether that's movies or television or music, I think that's how you connect with your audience is by being a bit of a mirror.  I think the only way that we can really continue to connect with a diverse audience is by having that type of diverse representation on our stages and on our recordings. And again, also not just the people, but the types of music, too. You know, musical tastes run wide, genres run wide as well. And it's I think It's good for all of us to be exposed to a lot of different kinds of music, to figure out what we connect with the most. And, um, yeah, the only way we can do that is by really, you know, opening our arms to a, a much wider variety of styles of music. And so I, you know, I mentioned improvisation, improvisation earlier. And I think that is something that's now starting to happen so much more in modern classical music. And, you know, I think there's something about the energy that a player has when they're improvising that is maybe not something that an audience member could quantify verbally, but there's a looseness and a freedom there that I think, you know, for a lot of audience members, they probably really can connect to. And, you know, that's a lot of why people go and listen to jazz is because there's so much freedom and there's so much improvisation.   I've been very lucky to be able to work with, um, Wadada Leo Smith, who's a trumpet player and composer. I've worked with him for probably almost ten years now. And um, through Wadada, actually, I have learned to become much more comfortable with improvising on stage and not within a jazz language of any kind or any kind of harmonic structure necessarily, but within the language of his music, which is very unique and very open and very free and, um, but also has a really strong core in its connection to history. And, um, you know, he's written a lot of amazing works about the civil rights movement and about a lot of, you know, important moments in history for our country. And, um, that's been a real learning experience for me to connect with him in that, in that way and learn from him and learn to be more comfortable with improvisation. Because I think growing up, improvisation for me always meant jazz, and that was not a language I was comfortable in. And um, or even, you know, jazz or rock music or folk music or whatever, you know, it was just not something that came naturally to me as a kid to, I mean, I listened to all of it. I listened to everything when I was a kid, but I never played in any of those styles. And I think the older you get, the scarier it gets to start branching out in those ways. But, um, I think, uh, that's been a an incredible, like, new branch of my life in the last decade has been working with Wadada.  [MUSIC – “Dred Scott, 1857,” from Ten Freedom Summers, by Wadada Leo Smith]  00:42:23 Isabel Li  An excerpt of Wadada Leo Smith's music to give you a sense of the jazz influences in these types of contemporary new music pieces that also touch on pieces of history. This was an excerpt from his album, Ten Freedom Summers, which also consists of compositions based on pieces of American history. For example, what we just heard was from a piece called Dred Scott, 1857.  00:42:49 Isabel Li  Now that I realize that we've been having a conversation about new music, I realize that, hmm, when does new music really start? So if you take a look at maybe music history, when does new music really become new music?  00:43:07 Shalini Vijayan  I guess it depends on who you ask, probably. Um, it's it's pretty recent. You know, it has to be really legitimately pretty new. And, um, again, you know, if you ask an audience member, um, and I think of some of my friends or family who are maybe who are not musicians who come to concerts, and I'm always so interested in talking to them and hearing their opinions about things. Um, you know, they will listen to Bartok and say, oh, that sounds like new music to me. But, you know, Bartok, Bartok passed away a long time ago, and it's, you know, and for me, that's more like canon now. You know, that's like now for me, part of the the standard repertoire. But there was a time when Bartok was new music. And I think for, you know, maybe the listeners who are more comfortable with the very diatonic, you know, world of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, then something like Bartok really does sound so modern for me. Boy, maybe around the time that minimalism started, you know, John Adams and Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, all of that for me feels like maybe that's the older like the The edge of new music now even though that was that would be the eighties, probably seventies 80s, you know, but that we're talking about like, you know, fifty years ago. So yeah, I mean, it's not that new, but those are all still living composers. So maybe, maybe that's part of what it is for me is that it's the composers of our era, the composers who are alive, who we can communicate with and ask questions of. And, um, you know, at the very least, if you can't talk to John Adams, you can talk to somebody who has worked directly with him and get their impressions of how something should be played, um, as opposed to composers who have been gone for hundreds of years. And you can't have that level of communication with them. I think that, for me is what new music, new music is about. It's about working with living composers and, um, having that type of interaction.  00:45:15 Isabel Li  Yeah. So would the word or the phrase contemporary classical music, be a little oxymoronic in a sense?  00:45:26 Shalini Vijayan  No, I don't think so. I think it's still part of the same tradition. Um, yeah. I really do think it is, because I think there is a lineage there. Um, for a lot of composers, not all of them, um, that I mean, I think particularly if you're writing for, let's say, an orchestra or a string quartet or sort of one of these very standard classical ensembles. Um, even if you're writing in a very new language and you're writing in a very different way, I think there is still a through line to the canon of classical music. I guess for me, new music and classical music are not mutually exclusive. I think they can be the same. So I don't I don't think they're totally different. I think that there is a lot of a lot of overlap.  00:46:16 Isabel Li  For sure, considering how new music fits into the classical music or the classical music industry as a whole. Have you noticed any sorts of shifts in the classical music industry in the past several decades in regards to diversity, equity, inclusion? And have you just noticed any changes?  00:46:35 Shalini Vijayan  I have noticed some changes. I mean, I think that most organizations in this country are making an effort to be more inclusive in their programming now. And, um, you know, another another South Asian composer who I just think is fantastic is Nina Shekhar. And, um, she has had pieces played by the New York Phil for the last couple seasons. I mean, you know, so on on major, major stages, I feel like now I'm seeing more representation and that is definitely Encouraging and, um, you know, uh, same for Anuj and Rajna and Reena. They've all, you know, had their works done by major ensembles. And, um, I think I think there is definitely movement in that direction, for sure. I think it could always be more.   I think also for women and women composers, women performers, I think that has also always been a struggle to find enough representation of women composers and you know, especially if like as I mentioned before, when you're in a situation where an organization asks you to program a concert, like, let's say, for our quartet and wants much more standard repertoire than it does limit you, you know, how because there isn't much from the older canon. You know, there is. You know, there's Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann and, um, you know, I think in the last five to ten years they've both been played a lot more, which is great. But, you know, I think, uh, there's so many amazing female composers right now that I think are starting to get much more recognition. And I think that just needs to be more, more and more, um, but, uh, you know, that is why, again, like on those programs, sometimes we try to just sneak one modern piece in because it's important for those voices to be heard as well. But yes, I do see some forward movement in that direction with, um, classical programming. And, you know, you just have to hope that the intent is always genuine in those situations. And I think, um, you know, I think that's the most important thing. And giving a platform to those voices is really important.  00:48:59 Isabel Li  How would you go about arts advocacy during this current time when, well, the arts are being defunded and devalued by our current administration and how everything is going on right now?  00:49:10 Shalini Vijayan  Yeah, it's really, really difficult right now. And, um, you know, I think a lot of arts organizations are losing a lot of government funding. Obviously, I know of a couple projects that lost their NEA funding because of DEI, and which is so disheartening. And, um, I think, you know, there's going to be a lot of leaning on private donors to try and, uh, make up that difference or, you know, private foundations to make up the difference in funding, hopefully. And, um, uh, you know, it's yeah, it's scary. It's  a scary time. And I think, you know, even for private funding and, um, private donors, it's, you know, everyone is feeling stressed and feeling concerned about our future right now, just as a country. and there's so much uncertainty. And, um, but I think people who really rely on the arts for all the things that it can provide, you know, an escape and pleasure and, you know, stimulation of a different kind. And especially in a time like this, when you want to be able to get away from maybe what's going on around you, you know, I'm hoping we can find a way to really come together and, um, kind of, you know, rally around each other and find a way to support each other. But, um, I think it is going to be hard for the next few years if we can't find ways to replace that funding that so many people have lost. And I certainly don't think that anyone wants to back away from the progress that's been made with inclusion and representation, you know, just to get funding. So I know we have to be very creative with our path ahead and find a way to, to keep doing what we're doing in this current environment.  00:51:07 Isabel Li  Yeah, on a brighter note, I read about your work with Lyris Quartet earlier this year when you presented a concert with Melodia Mariposa called Altadena Strong with the Lyris Quartet, raising funds for those who have been affected by the LA fires. Can you talk a bit about the power of music? And we're going to end on a stronger note here about the power of music in bringing communities together and accelerating community healing.  00:51:31 Shalini Vijayan  Well, I have to say that concert was really a special one for us. You know, um, so many musicians were affected by the fires in LA. And, you know, I, I've lived in LA for over twenty years now, almost twenty five years and, um, certainly seen my share of wildfires and disasters, but this one hit so much more close to home than any of the other ones have. And, you know, I know at least twenty five people who lost their homes in between the Palisades and Altadena and Altadena in particular.   When I moved to LA, it was a place where a lot of musicians were moving to because you could it was cheaper and you could get a lot of space, and it's beautiful. And, you know, they really built a beautiful community there among all the musicians out there. And it's just heartbreaking, um, to see how many of them have lost everything. And I have to say, Irina Voloshina, who is the woman who runs Melodia Mariposa, and just an amazing violinist and an amazing, wonderful, warm, generous person. You know, she started that series in her driveway during COVID as a way to just keep music going during the pandemic, and it really turned into something so great. And she's, you know, got a whole organization with her now and puts on multiple concerts a year. And when she asked us if we would play that concert for the community in Altadena is, you know, there's no question that we were going to do it. I mean, we absolutely jumped at the chance to support her and support the organization and that community. And people really came out for that concert and were so excited to be there and were so warm and, um, you know, and and she talked to the crowd and really connected with everybody on a very personal level, because she also lost her home in Altadena and, um, you know, it was it was a really meaningful show for all of us. And again, those are the moments where you realize that you can use this art to really connect with people that you may have never met before and show your your love for them, you know, through music, as corny as that may sound, but it's true.  00:53:54 Isabel Li  Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you so much, Shalini, for sharing your visions, your knowledge with new music and community building with us today. Thank you so much for being on Obbligato.  00:54:07 Shalini Vijayan  Thank you so much for having me, Isabel. It was really a pleasure.  00:54:10 Isabel Li  What a wonderful conversation that was with LA-based violinist Shalini Vijayan. If you go to kpfa.org, you can check out more of her work. I put the links to two of her ensembles, Brightwork New Music and Lyris Quartet up on kpfa.org. And thank you for listening to our conversation here on Obbligato on Apex Express.  00:54:32 Isabel Li  We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world. Your voices are important.  00:54:42 Isabel Li  APEX Express is produced by Miko Lee, Jalena Keane-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaidya, Swati Rayasam, and Cheryl Truong. Tonight's show was produced by Isabel Li. Thanks to the team at KPFA for their support. Have a great night.  [OUTRO MUSIC]  The post APEX Express – 11.13.25 – Obbligato with Violinist Shalini Vijayan appeared first on KPFA.

In a season of Stillness, but I'm still here. ❤️‍

What if your stepfather was one of the most misunderstood yet spiritually profound composers of the 20th century—and your mother spent years writing his story? In this episode, Bill Holst shares the extraordinary journey behind Alan Hovhaness: Unveiling One of the Great Composers of the 20th Century, a memoir built from the poetic writings of his late mother and enriched with his own personal reflections. Alan Hovhaness was known for his deeply mystical, culturally diverse compositions, drawing from Armenian roots, Eastern music traditions, and nature itself. Bill shares how Hovhaness faced rejection early in his career—even from names like Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland—yet stayed true to his vision, ultimately creating over 500 pieces of music that defied genres and resonated with artists like Carlos Santana and Ravi Shankar. We dive into the soulful relationship between Bill's mother and Hovhaness, the spiritual lens through which he viewed life and art, and the thousands of unpublished and rediscovered works that are still being archived today. From midnight storytelling sessions to mysterious reincarnated cats, this conversation uncovers the composer's otherworldly spirit and the love that defined his final decades. Discover how Bill Holst is carrying forward the legacies of both his mother and Alan Hovhaness—one page, and one note, at a time. #AlanHovhaness #BillHolst #ComposerLegacy #MysticalMusic #BooksThatMakeYou #Memoir

Join Kate Strachnyi in conversation with Christopher Gardner, author of The Rise of Logical Data Management, Ravi Shankar, SVP & CMO of Denodo, and Alberto Pan, CTO of Denodo. We'll explore what logical data management really means, how it compares to warehouses and lakehouses, and why it's becoming essential for AI-driven enterprises. Expect practical insights, industry use cases, and a look at how leaders can simplify data complexity without endless duplication.

In this episode of 'Seeing Them Live,' Charles and Doug explore the intersection of True Crime and Rock and Roll with guest Jim Berkenstadt, also known as the Rock and Roll Detective. Berkenstadt has a worldwide reputation for uncovering the hidden histories and mysteries within popular music. His exhaustive investigative works span from serving as a historical consultant on several high-profile documentaries to publishing award-winning books that delve into the enigmatic corners of rock history. Berkenstadt recounts his initial foray into rock investigation during eighth grade when he explored the 'Paul is Dead' conspiracy surrounding Paul McCartney. This early experience sparked his lifelong passion for becoming a rock detective, leading to a prolific career that has seen him solving many mysteries in the music world involving elements of True Crime. Jim shares stories about attending memorable concerts, including a terrifying but exhilarating Wings concert in 1976 where pyrotechnics blew him and his friend off their chairs. He also recalls sneaking into a sold-out George Harrison concert and the emotional tribute concert for George Harrison organized by Eric Clapton.Berkenstadt discusses his book 'Mysteries in the Music: Case Closed,' which tackles complex topics such as the FBI's extensive and somewhat absurd investigation into alleged obscene lyrics in the song 'Louie Louie,' the CIA's possible involvement in Bob Marley's death, and the Beach Boys' interactions with Charles Manson.Additionally, Berkenstadt's book 'The Beatle Who Vanished' narrates the incredible yet true story of Jimmy Nichol, a drummer who substituted for Ringo Starr during a Beatles tour, only to mysteriously disappear from the public eye. The discussion also covers Berkenstadt's involvement in music documentaries like 'George Harrison: Living in the Material World' and his upcoming work on Nirvana's Nevermind album. Through a combination of rock legends, government intrigue, True Crime, and lost histories, Jim Berkenstadt brings to life the dramatic and captivating interplay of True Crime and rock and roll.BANDS: Billy Preston, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Foo Fighters, Garbage, Green Day, Jeff Lynne, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Muddy Waters, Nirvana, Ravi Shankar, Ringo Starr, Smashing Pumpkins, The Beatles, The Euphorics, The Quarry Men, The Rainbows, The Rolling Stones, The Spotnicks, The Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty, Traffic, Wings.VENUES: Chicago Stadium, Edgewater Hotel, Royal Albert Hall, Soldier Field, Sunset Marquee, The Checkerboard Lounge. PATREON:https://www.patreon.com/SeeingThemLivePlease help us defer the cost of producing this podcast by making a donation on Patreon.WEBSITE:https://seeingthemlive.com/Visit the Seeing Them Live website for bonus materials including the show blog, resource links for concert buffs, photos, materials related to our episodes, and our Ticket Stub Museum.INSTAGRAM:https://www.instagram.com/seeingthemlive/FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550090670708

In a season of Stillness, but I'm still here. ❤️‍

In a season of Stillness, but I'm still here. ❤️‍

Dana and Tom with 5x Club Member, Peterson W. Hill (Co-Host of the War Starts at Midnight podcast), discuss the Indian cinema classic, Pather Panchali (1955) celebrating its 70th anniversary: written and directed by Satyajit Ray, cinematography by Subrata Mitra, music by Ravi Shankar, starring Kanu Banerjee, Karuna Banerjee, Subir Banerjee, Runki Banerjee, Uma Dasgupta, and Chunibala Devi.Plot Summary: Pather Panchali (meaning Song of the Little Road) is a 1955 film by Satyajit Ray. It tells the story of Apu, a young boy in a poor village in Bengal. His father, Harihar, is a priest who dreams of a better life, while his mother, Sarbajaya, struggles to care for the family. Apu is very close to his older sister, Durga, who finds happiness in small things even though they are very poor.The film shows daily village life—both its beauty and hardships—through the children's eyes. As the family faces loss and change, Apu begins a journey that reflects the joys and sorrows of growing up.Guest:Peterson W. Hill - Co-Host of the War Starts at Midnight podcast@petersonwhill on IG, Letterboxd, and TwitterPrevious Guest on Gone Girl (2014), Parasite (2019), Fight Club (1999), Ben-Hur (1959), Up in the Air (2009), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), La Dolce Vita (1960), The Social Network (2010) RevisitChapters:00:00 Introduction and Welcome Back Peterson05:04 First Impressions for Dana and Tom11:30 Peterson's Relationship to Pather Panchali14:21 Background for Pather Panchali16:33 What is Pather Panchali About?20:32 Does Pather Panchali Deserve to Be Mentioned Among the Greatest Films?32:11 Plot Summary for Pather Panchali33:55 Did You Know?36:18 First Break36:59 What's Happening with Peterson W. Hill?37:43 Best Performance(s)52:15 Best Scene(s)01:02:36 Second Break01:03:17 In Memoriam01:11:16 Best/Funniest Lines01:12:52 The Stanley Rubric - Legacy01:18:35 The Stanley Rubric - Impact/Significance01:24:14 The Stanley Rubric - Novelty01:30:45 The Stanley Rubric -...

Kalendorinio atitikimo proga, tai, kad būtent penktadienį, rugpjūčio 15 dieną 1969 metais prasidėjo Woodstock'o muzikos ir meno mugė, pabandysime atkurti, ką susirinkusieji išgirdo būtent tą pirmąjį vakarą, skirtą iš esmės dainų autoriams ir atlikėjams. Scenoje pasirodė Richie Havens, Swami Satchidananda, Sweetwater, Bert Sommer, Tim Hardin, Ravi Shankar, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez.Ved. Lukas Devita

If you want to watch this interview on YouTube you can do that here ! Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 700 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more No news segment today but I do have a great convo with Fugelsang! Get John's new book ! He's been murdered on CSI, interviewed 2 Beatles on separate continents in the same week, and famously once got Mitt Romney's advisor to call Governor Romney an 'etch a sketch' on CNN. Actor, comedian & broadcaster John Fugelsang hosts 'Tell Me Everything" weekdays on SiriusXM Insight #121. He recently performed in 'The Bill of Rights Concert" alongside Lewis Black & Dick Gregory which aired on AXS.   He's also appeared at Montreal's ‘Just for Laughs' Festival, HBO's U.S Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, hosted America's Funniest Home Videos for ABC and Bill Maher called him ‘one of my favorite comedians'. Film/TV credits include 'Price Check' opposite Parker Posey, "Becker," "Providence," "Coyote Ugly,"  the religious standup performance film "The Coexist Comedy Tour" (which won Best Documentary at the NYC Vision Fest film festival).  He appears in the upcoming features "The Girl On The Train," "Maggie Black," and he plays two roles in the romantic comedy ‘The Whole Truth' starring Elisabeth Rohm and Eric Roberts. He's interviewed Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Brian Wilson, Yoko Ono, Willie Nelson, Tony Bennett, Alan Rickman, Joey Ramone, Carlos Santana, James Taylor, Bo Diddley, Stevie Nicks, Robbie Robertson, Ravi Shankar, Beyonce Knowles, Olivia Harrison, Garth Brooks, William Hurt, Helen Hunt, Ashanti, John Fogerty, William Shatner, Sen. Trent Lott, Sen. Tom Daschle, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ed Asner, Nile Rogers, Michael Moore, JK Simmons, Valerie Plame, Ethan Hawke, Brian Dennehy, Mavis Staples, Joel Grey, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Lily Tomlin,  Dave Matthews, Terrence McNally, Stanley Tucci, Michael Shannon, Noel Gallagher,  Jeff Daniels, Rita Moreno, & Carl Reiner.  His interview with George Harrison included JF persuading George to play several songs on acoustic guitar.  This proved to be George's final televised appearance and was broadcast as "The Last Performance." His new film "Dream On," a road trip in search of the American Dream, was named "Best Documentary" at the NY Independent Film Festival.   Directed by 2 time Oscar nominee Roger Weisberg, the film examines the current state of the American Dream while retracing the journey Alexis de Tocqueville made while writing 'Democracy in America.'   The film features 200 interviews in 55 cities in 17 states, including Mike Huckabee, Barney Frank & Paul Krugman and premieres on PBS Election Day Eve. The Stand Up Community Chat is always active with other Stand Up Subscribers on the Discord Platform. Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout! The Stand Up Community Chat is always active with other Stand Up Subscribers on the Discord Platform.   Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout!  Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on YouTube  Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page All things Jon Carroll  Follow and Support Pete Coe Buy Ava's Art  Hire DJ Monzyk to build your website or help you with Marketing

In a season of Stillness, but I'm still here. ❤️‍

In 1966 Jonathan Miller's BBC Television adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic children's story caused something of a moral panic, even before it was broadcast. Amidst much foot-stamping, harrumphing and letters to the Editor the point was very much missed - yes, it was to be screened after nine o'clock in the evening and was not aimed at children but not because it contained questionable material (or, as some believed, 'X-rated filth'!). The writer and performer Bob Fischer first saw Miller's Alice In Wonderland about twenty-odd years ago and was immediately drawn in. It was a snapshot of the time it was made despite the period trappings, an example of early psychedelia with offbeat performances, thought-provoking visuals (inspired by Victorian photography), and an overall dreamlike undercurrent set to music by Ravi Shankar. All of it conveyed the torpor of an endless summer.Miller eschewed actors in animal costumes and was blessed with a stellar cast including Peter Sellers, Wilfrid Brambell, Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Leo McKern and even Malcolm Muggeridge, not to mention the girl at the centre of the film, Alice herself, played by Anne-Marie Mallik. Bob & Tyler immerse themselves in the film and discuss its background, the controversy, the casting, story, score and much else besides. Bob throws in the odd Alan Bennett impression and wonders if 1966 AIW could in some ways have inspired both The Prisoner and The Rutles, and even draws some parallels with Revolver, released around the time the film was in production. Bob is @bobfischer.bsky.social‬ and as well as writing for the Fortean Times, Electronic Sound and Doctor Who Magazine is one of the people behind Mulgrave Audio and Summer Winos and tours with Scarred For Life.

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you'll hear the answer to the question about Togo's media ban. There's listener news, a surprise guest to tell you all about the ePOP video competition, “The Listener's Corner”, and Erwan Rome's “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll hear the winners' names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week. The ePOP video competition is open! The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people. The ePOP contest is your space to ensure these voices are heard.  How do you do it? With a three-minute ePOP video. It should be pure testimony, captured by your lens: the spoken word reigns supreme. No tricks, no music, no text on the screen. Just the raw authenticity of an encounter, in horizontal format (16:9). An ePOP film is a razor-sharp look at humanity that challenges, moves, and enlightens. From June 12 to September 12, 2025, ePOP invites you to reach out, open your eyes, and create that unique bridge between a person and the world. Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate! Click here for all the information you need.  We expect to be overwhelmed with entries from the English speakers! Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all! Facebook: Be sure to send your photos to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner! More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write “RFI English” in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos. Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you! Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI” has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bilingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard. Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level” and you'll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level. Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service, told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you'll get it.” She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it! Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts! In addition to the news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more. There's Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, The International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis.  Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our journalists. You never know what we'll surprise you with! To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you'll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone. To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show.  Teachers take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below.  Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload! This week's quiz: On 21 June, I asked you a question about our article “Togo suspends French broadcasters RFI, France 24 for three months”. We were informed on June 16th. Togo has accused us of biased and inaccurate reporting. The shutdown followed protests in the country's capital, Lomé, in early June. You were to send in the answers to these two questions: What is the name of Togo's president, and what is the reason for the protests? The answers are: The name of Togo's president is Faure Gnassingbé. The reason for the protests is due to, to quote the RFI English article:  “… increasing pressure from critics over recent changes in the constitution that could effectively keep Gnassingbé in power indefinitely. Critics have called the changes a constitutional coup.” Faure Gnassingbé was elected in 2005. He's the son of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who was president for 38 years. At the time of his death, Gnassingbé Eyadéma was the longest-serving leader in modern African history. In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “Have you ever made a mistake that ended up saving you?” It was suggested by Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India. Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr The winners are: Sultan Mahmud Sarker, the president of the Shetu RFI Fan Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Sultan is also the winner of this week's bonus question. Congratulations, Sultan, on your double win. Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ferhat Bezazel, the president of the RFI Butterflies Club Ain Kechara in West Skikda, Algeria, and RFI Listeners Club members Rubi Saikia from Assam, India, as well as Nasyr Muhammad from Katsina State, Nigeria. Last but not least, there's RFI English listener Kalyani Basak from Kerala State, India. Congratulations, winners! Here's the music you heard on this week's programme: “Raga Charu Keshi” played by Ravi Shankar; traditional music from Togo performed by the Flutistes Kotokoli; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children's Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and the Quartet in F major by Maurice Ravel, performed by the  Alban Berg Quartet.   Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr This week's question ... you must listen to the show to participate. After you've listened to the show, watch the video and re-read Dhananjay Khadilikar's article “Swiss exoplanet pioneer reflects on Earth's place in the cosmos”, which will help you with the answer. You have until 22 September to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 27 September podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number. Send your answers to: english.service@rfi.fr or Susan Owensby RFI – The Sound Kitchen 80, rue Camille Desmoulins 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux France Click here to learn how to win a special Sound Kitchen prize. Click here to find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club.   

Classics Corner takes over the podcast for a special episode devoted to the Apu trilogy, the three celebrated Indian movies directed by Satyajit Ray: Pather Panchali, Aparajito and The World of Apu. Joining us from Asia is Prof. Shai Chester for a spirited debate on experience vs purpose and a competitive draft of best characters from across the ACU (Apu Cinematic Universe) .Outre is Ravi Shankar's "Improvisations On The Theme Music From Pather Panchali" (1999)

The vital role of the humanities in shaping empathetic communication skills and critical-minded healthcare professionals is explored today with our guest, P. Ravi Shankar, MBBS, MD. Dr. Shankar, MBBS, MD, currently serves as faculty and program coordinator at the IMU Centre for Education in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) Institutes Scholar and a prolific researcher. Read more: http://facultyfactory.org/ravi-shankar 

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A brilliant track from Joshua Idehen. A track from the new WheelUP album featuring Steven Bamidele. BexBlu reworks Wiley. A track from the Quantic DJ Kicks album. A track by Zero T from his Getting Diggy With It series. Matica with an Edit of Sapna. Downtempo sounds from ganayva, Ebi Soda and Ravi Shankar. Rap from Jakk Dexx, Mysdiggi, The Pharcyde (Dubplate Special) and Beatless with Quasimoto. Plus plenty more music treats.

In a season of Stillness—but I'm still here. ❤️‍

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! Subterranea Rarities, en su afán de buscada de rarezas, trabaja duro para lograr sorprendernos cada mes. Carles Pinós nos hablará de tres discos tan insólitos como añejos, las únicas publicaciones de Ocarinah, Supply, Demand and Curve y Touch; Carlos Romeo nos hablará de un trabajo de Ravi Shankar con Philip Glass, de Weather Report en la Habana y de Weather Report con Manhattan Transfer en el Playboy Jazz Festival; y David Pintos de dos magníficos discos de Phideaux. Descárgalo antes de que se colapse internet. Edición: David Pintos. www.subterranea.eu www.davidpintos.com Escucha este episodio completo y accede a todo el contenido exclusivo de Subterranea Podcast. Descubre antes que nadie los nuevos episodios, y participa en la comunidad exclusiva de oyentes en https://go.ivoox.com/sq/17710

Because she is the daughter of Ravi Shankar, perhaps the most famous Indian classical musician of the past century, Anoushka Shankar is associated with that style of music. But though she plays the sitar, and does indeed play Indian ragas in the style of her illustrious dad, she has also drawn on jazz, flamenco, various world and electronic music traditions, and more. Her new record, We Return To Love, is the conclusion of a trilogy of EPs. The masterful sitarist, film composer, and impassioned activist Anoushka Shankar presents the third chapter in her current trilogy of mini-albums, which explores her fascination with Goa Trance. She and her band perform live at National Sawdust, as part of the Grammy Museum's series, "A New York Evening With".Set list: Stolen Moments, New Dawn, Hiraeth, We Burn So Brightly, Amrita, Daybreak

President Trump criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russia's latest attack on Ukraine. NPR Ukraine correspondent Joanna Kakissis shares the latest from Kyiv. And, Trump announced that he would have a private dinner with the top 220 holders of his meme coin. The Wall Street Journal's Josh Dawsey explains more. Then, musician Anoushka Shankar talks about her new mini album "Chapter III: We Return to Light," her legacy, and her connection to her late father, sitar legend Ravi Shankar.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

When Anoushka Shankar was in Goa two years ago, she wrote down four words: “Three chapters, three geographies.” That note has been the inspiration for a trilogy of mini-albums. With the release of the latest and final album, “Chapter III: We Return To Light,” the acclaimed sitar player sits down with Tom Power to tell us what was driving her creatively, how she wants to change perceptions of her instrument, and how she navigates her career in the shadow cast by her famous father, Ravi Shankar.

Born Svetha Yallapragada Rao in California to Telugu parents, Raja Kumari (Sanskrit for “Daughter of the King”) blends her Indian heritage with hip-hop to create her signature “BollyHood” sound. Trained in Kuchipudi, Kathak, and Bharatanatyam from age 5, she debuted at 7 before Ravi Shankar and later pivoted to hip-hop, inspired by Fugees. A Grammy-nominated songwriter, she penned hits for Fall Out Boy (“Centuries”) and Iggy Azalea (“Change Your Life”) before launching her solo career with EPs like The Come Up (2018) and HBIC (2022). Her music fuses classical Indian riffs, Hindi-English lyrics, and themes of empowerment, collaborating with icons like A.R. Rahman, Divine, and Gwen Stefani. Founding Godmother Records (2022) for creative freedom, she champions female artists while balancing global fame. A cultural ambassador, her tracks feature in films (Jawan, Pagglait) and she judges MTV’s Hustle. Honored with BMI Pop Awards, ELLE Awards, and MTV EMA nods, she funds healthcare and education via the Vegesna Foundation and UNICEF. Raja Kumari’s journey—from classical prodigy to hip-hop powerhouse—cements her as a bridge between Bollywood and Hollywood, inspiring a generation to embrace dual identities.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For more, visit www.BishalSarkar.com or WhatsApp our team: https://wa.me/918880361526In this inspiring episode of the "I Love Public Speaking" podcast, Bishal Sarkar shares the powerful story of how Pandit Ravi Shankar received a standing ovation, illustrating the incredible impact of his music and the importance of connecting with an audience.Join Bishal Sarkar as he reflects on the power of authenticity, passion, and connection in creating unforgettable moments and earning the respect and admiration of others.Learn how you can apply the same principles that led to Pandit Ravi Shankar's standing ovation in your own presentations, performances, and public speaking engagements.Tune in to the "I Love Public Speaking" podcast with Bishal Sarkar to discover how to create moments of connection and lasting impact in every interaction.

New Zealand musician DAVID PARSONS had a unique and fascinating musical career. In fact, you probably couldn't make it up if you tried. Back in the early 1960s, he was a jazz drummer, longing for a more melodic instrument. Years before The Beatles brought the sitar to pop music, Parsons heard a recital in New Zealand by RAVI SHANKAR. That was it. Inspired to make the sitar his new instrument, he spent three years trying to get one imported into NZ, then 8 years teaching himself to play it. At that point he was ready to get serious!…and he made several trips to India to study with one of the few female sitar masters, KRISHNA CHAKRAVARTY. In the late 1970s, fascinated by the sound of drones and long tones, Parsons discovered the connection between Indian music and synthesizers, and began creating electronic-Indian music fusions. In the late 1980s, he went digital, incorporating samples of ethnic instruments and ambient sounds from his travels in Asia, including the chanting and ceremonial instruments of Tibetan monks. His record company hired him to document ethnic music, a project that took him to exotic places like Iran, Armenia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bali, and Malaysia. Like many of these cultures, his own music is rooted in India—with the melodic construction of the raga, the rhythmic cycles of the tala, and the extended, contemplative space of the alap. He created dozens of amazing albums, and doesn't read a note of music. David Parsons passed away in February 2025 at 80. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, part 1 of a 2 part DAVID PARSONS RETROSPECTIVE called "LONG TONES." [ view playlist ] [ view Flickr image gallery ] [ play 30 second MP3 promo ]

And (t)His Love doesn't belong to Christians or any religion. It is everywhere, It is everyone. ❤️‍

Stand Up is a daily podcast that I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 700 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more GET TICKETS TO PODJAM II In Vegas March 27-30 Confirmed Guests! Professor Eric Segall, Dr Aaron Carroll, Maura Quint, Tim Wise, JL Cauvin, Ophira Eisenberg, Christian Finnegan and More! Born in the Great State of New Jersey, Dean Obeidallah's comedy comes in large part from his unique background of being the son of a Palestinian father and a Sicilian mother. Dean, an award winning comedian who was at one time a practicing attorney, co-starred on Comedy Central's “The Axis of Evil” Comedy TV special. He is the co-creator of Comedy Central.com's critically acclaimed Internet series “The Watch List” featuring a cast of all Middle Eastern-American comedians performing stand up and sketch comedy. Dean has appeared twice on ABC's “The View,” on the nationally syndicated TV series “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” and was one of five comedians profiled in the recent one hour TV Special entitled: “Stand Up: Muslim-American Comics Come of Age” which aired in the US on PBS and internationally on BBC World and Al Jazeera.   Dean co-directed and co-produced the award winning documentary “The Muslims Are Coming!” featuring a tour of American-Muslim comedians performing free comedy shows across the heartland of America in the hopes of using comedy to foster understanding and dispel misconceptions about Muslims. The film also features special guest interviews with various well known people including: “The Daily Show's” Jon Stewart and Assif Mandvi, Russell Simmons, Soledad O'Brien and Ali Velshi, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, comedians Lewis Black, David Cross, Lizz Winstead and Colin Quinn as well as Congressman Keith Ellison, and many more. The film is now available on Netfilx, iTunes and Amazon.   Dean co-created the comedy show “Stand up for Peace” along with Jewish comic Scott Blakeman which they perform at colleges across the country in support of peace in the Middle East and as a way of fostering understanding between Arab, Muslim and Jewish-Americans.   He is writes for MSNBC, CNN and The Daily Beast as well as other publications.   Dean is also the co-creator and co-producer of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival .He is also proud to serve as the Executive Director of The Amman Stand up Comedy Festival – the first stand up comedy festival ever held in the Middle East Dean is proud to have received the first annual “Bill Hicks Spirit Award” for “thought provoking comedy” (named after the late comedian Bill Hicks) from the NY Underground Comedy Festival and the Hicks' Family. See John on the Sexy Liberal show this Saturday https://sexyliberal.com/ He's been murdered on CSI, interviewed 2 Beatles on separate continents in the same week, and famously once got Mitt Romney's advisor to call Governor Romney an 'etch a sketch' on CNN. Actor, comedian & broadcaster John Fugelsang hosts 'Tell Me Everything" weekdays on SiriusXM Insight #121. He recently performed in 'The Bill of Rights Concert" alongside Lewis Black & Dick Gregory which aired on AXS.   He's also appeared at Montreal's ‘Just for Laughs' Festival, HBO's U.S Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, hosted America's Funniest Home Videos for ABC and Bill Maher called him ‘one of my favorite comedians'.   Film/TV credits include 'Price Check' opposite Parker Posey, "Becker," "Providence," "Coyote Ugly,"  the religious standup performance film "The Coexist Comedy Tour" (which won Best Documentary at the NYC Vision Fest film festival).  He appears in the upcoming features "The Girl On The Train," "Maggie Black," and he plays two roles in the romantic comedy ‘The Whole Truth' starring Elisabeth Rohm and Eric Roberts.   He's interviewed Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Brian Wilson, Yoko Ono, Willie Nelson, Tony Bennett, Alan Rickman, Joey Ramone, Carlos Santana, James Taylor, Bo Diddley, Stevie Nicks, Robbie Robertson, Ravi Shankar, Beyonce Knowles, Olivia Harrison, Garth Brooks, William Hurt, Helen Hunt, Ashanti, John Fogerty, William Shatner, Sen. Trent Lott, Sen. Tom Daschle, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ed Asner, Nile Rogers, Michael Moore, JK Simmons, Valerie Plame, Ethan Hawke, Brian Dennehy, Mavis Staples, Joel Grey, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Lily Tomlin,  Dave Matthews, Terrence McNally, Stanley Tucci, Michael Shannon, Noel Gallagher,  Jeff Daniels, Rita Moreno, & Carl Reiner.  His interview with George Harrison included JF persuading George to play several songs on acoustic guitar.  This proved to be George's final televised appearance and was broadcast as "The Last Performance."   His new film "Dream On," a road trip in search of the American Dream, was named "Best Documentary" at the NY Independent Film Festival.   Directed by 2 time Oscar nominee Roger Weisberg, the film examines the current state of the American Dream while retracing the journey Alexis de Tocqueville made while writing 'Democracy in America.'   The film features 200 interviews in 55 cities in 17 states, including Mike Huckabee, Barney Frank & Paul Krugman and premieres on PBS Election Day Eve. The Stand Up Community Chat is always active with other Stand Up Subscribers on the Discord Platform. Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout! The Stand Up Community Chat is always active with other Stand Up Subscribers on the Discord Platform.   Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout!  Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on YouTube  Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page All things Jon Carroll  Follow and Support Pete Coe Buy Ava's Art  Hire DJ Monzyk to build your website or help you with Marketing

ROSARY RETURNS TOMORROW 4:44am ET! Set your alarms and pray with us! "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." - John 15:4-9This is when the miracles start--when you remember there's only Him. That's when the solutions show up,when the healings show up,when you know there's no one here to be healed,no bones to be broken,no bank account to be empty,no internet,no phone,no world.And you remain as This.Silence.Stillness.The Fullness of Nothingness. Even for just a moment, and then from that Womb,everything comes.Whatever it is,whatever has got you worried, stop thinking about it.You're perpetuating it.Stop thinking about it.When you're tempted to think about it,turn to Him and say, 'What do you think about it?'And He'll give you how He FEELS about it...Pause and Feel. Pause and Love.:) You're feeling how He feels about it right now.This Love is how He feels, always. There's nothing to worry about. Your covered.It's covered."But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." - 1 Peter 2:9 ESVI love you, nik--Find playbacks of our Live Stream Rosary HERE on Youtube!--Blessed Rosaries will be back soon!--Our new book, 'Wake Up to Love' is HERE! Get your copy. Share a copy. Be the Love you wake up to.--Support GoOD Mornings on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/goodmorningQUOTES__________________________________________Surrender Novena Day 7 "I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to me and to your not thinking of yourselves. I sow treasure troves of graces when you are in the deepest poverty. No person of reason, no thinker, has ever perform miracles, not even among the saints. He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God. So don't think about it anymore, because your mind is acute and for you it is very hard to see evil and to trust in me and to not think of yourself. Do this for all your needs, do this all of you and you will see great continual silent miracles. I will take care of things, I promise this to you. O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times)Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you I always want to belong completely to Jesus.Amen" - Father Ruotolo *************************************"Become conscious of Being Conscious. Eventually, the false I will vanish, leaving only the unbroken awareness of the real, immanent I, Self Consciousness itself." -Ramana Maharshi"Don't Think Less of Yourself, But Think of Yourself Less"- Sacinandana Swami "It is not a question of whether there is a God, apart from you, but more whether there is a 'you' apart from God."- Arthur Osborne"The ego prayed to God and listened for a response.There was no response but silence. The ego thought,"God doesn't exist."In desperation, the ego prayed again and listened to the silence. And it was revealed - the ego doesn't exist." -Pat Nolan"It has long been taken for granted that the individual exists and that God does not exist. Eventually, you realize that the individual is not real and that there is nothing but God." - Ramana Maharshi"Your identification of being somebody doesn't let you truly relax and it limits your domain." - Sri Sri Ravi ShankarI trust you and I know you have placed me here but I am still finding it hard.It's hard adjusting, it's hard to know what to do next, and it's hard to feel outside of my comfort zone every single day. I ask, Lord, that you would provide what I need. I pray you would be my comfort when I feel alone and it's painful. I pray that you would help me look for and find the blessings and joy you are providing instead of being consumed with all that is so difficult about this. Lord, please guide me to the people, places, and positions that you have prepared for me and help me to trust in your goodness as I wait.In Jesus' name,Amen" -@proverbs31ministries"Hold on. Stay Strong. Trust God." - @Bible_verses_kj on IG"Grace has the ability to change anything at any time." - Ravi Shankar

She's an economist, an institution-builder, an ecosystem-nurturer and one of our finest thinkers. Shruti Rajagopalan joins Amit Varma in episode 410 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her life & times -- and her remarkable work. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Shruti Rajagopalan on Twitter, Substack, Instagram, her podcast, Ideas of India and her own website. 2. Emergent Ventures India. 3. The 1991 Project. 4. Life Lessons That Are Priceless -- Episodes 400 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Shruti Rajagopalan, in reverse chronological order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. 6. The Day Ryan Started Masturbating -- Amit Varma's newsletter post explaining Shruti Rajagopalan's swimming pool analogy for social science research. 7. A Deep Dive Into Education -- Episode 54 of Everything is Everything. 8. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 9. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 10. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything. 11. Where Has All the Education Gone? -- Lant Pritchett. 12. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Theory of Moral Sentiments — Adam Smith. 14. The Wealth of Nations — Adam Smith. 15. Commanding Heights -- Daniel Yergin. 16. Capitalism and Freedom -- Milton Friedman. 17. Free to Choose -- Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 18. Economics in One Lesson -- Henry Hazlitt. 19. The Road to Serfdom -- Friedrich Hayek. 20. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 21. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 22. Individualism and Economic Order -- Friedrich Hayek. 23. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything.  24. Richard E Wagner at Mercatus and Amazon. 25. Larry White and the First Principles of Money -- Episode 397 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 27. Marginal Revolution. 28. Paul Graham's essays. 29. Commands and controls: Planning for indian industrial development, 1951–1990 -- Rakesh Mohan and Vandana Aggarwal. 30. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 31. India: Planning for Industrialization -- Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai. 32. Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration -- Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith. 33. Cows on India Uncut. 34. Abdul Karim Khan on Spotify and YouTube. 35. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything. 36. Objects From Our Past -- Episode 77 of Everything is Everything. 37. Sriya Iyer on the Economics of Religion -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 38. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 39. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Pratap Bhanu Mehta: 1, 2. 40. Rohit Lamba Reimagines India's Economic Policy Emphasis -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 41. Rohit Lamba Will Never Be Bezubaan — Episode 378 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. The Constitutional Law and Philosophy blog. 43. Cost and Choice -- James Buchanan. 44. Philip Wicksteed. 45. Pratap Bhanu Mehta on The Theory of Moral Sentiments -- The Ideas of India Podcast. 46. Conversation and Society — Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 47. The Common Sense of Political Economy -- Philip Wicksteed. 48. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy — Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 49. Sudhir Sarnobat Works to Understand the World — Episode 350 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. Manmohan Singh: India's Finest Talent Scout -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 51. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 52. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 54. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 55. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. Breaking Through — Isher Judge Ahluwalia. 57. Breaking Out — Padma Desai. 58. Perestroika in Perspective -- Padma Desai. 59. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible — Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Pics from the Seen-Unseen party. 61. Pramod Varma on India's Digital Empowerment -- Episode 50 of Brave New World. 59. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha Is the Impartial Spectator — Episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen. 60. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 61. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 62. The Overton Window. 63. When Ideas Have Sex -- Matt Ridley. 64. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling. 65. Arnold Kling and the Four Languages of Politics -- Episode 394 of The Seen and the Unseen. 66. The Double ‘Thank You' Moment — John Stossel. 67. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 68. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz). 69. What Does It Mean to Be Libertarian? — Episode 64 of The Seen and the Unseen. 70. The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom -- David Boaz. 71. Publish and Perish — Agnes Callard. 72. Classical Liberal Institute. 73. Shruti Rajagopalan's YouTube talk on constitutional amendments. 74. What I, as a development economist, have been actively “for” -- Lant Pritchett. 75. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? — Vijayendra Rao. 76. Premature Imitation and India's Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alexander Tabarrok. 77. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 78. Invisible Infrastructure -- Episode 82 of Everything is Everything. 79. The Sundara Kanda. 80. Devdutt Pattanaik and the Stories That Shape Us -- Episode 404 of The Seen and the Unseen. 81. Y Combinator. 82. Space Fields. 83. Apoorwa Masuk, Onkar Singh Batra, Naman Pushp, Angad Daryani, Deepak VS and Srijon Sarkar. 84. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 85. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away -- The Beatles. 86. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 87. Data For India -- Rukmini S's startup. 88. Whole Numbers And Half Truths — Rukmini S. 89. The Moving Curve — Rukmini S's Covid podcast, also on all podcast apps. 90. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 91. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 92. Prosperiti. 93. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 94. The Dilemma of an Indian Liberal -- Gurcharan Das. 95. Zakir: 1951-2024 -- Shruti Rajagopalan. 96. Dazzling Blue -- Paul Simon, featuring Karaikudi R Mani. 97. John Coltrane, Shakti, Zakir Hussain, Ali Akbar Khan, Pannalal Ghosh, Nikhil Banerjee, Vilayat Khan, Bismillah Khan, Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Esperanza Spalding, MS Subbulakshmi, Lalgudi Jayaraman, TN Krishnan, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Ranjani-Gayatri and TM Krishna on Spotify. 98. James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Israel Kirzner, Mario Rizzo, Vernon Smith, Thomas Schelling and Ronald Coase. 99. The Calculus of Consent -- James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock. 100. Tim Harford and Martin Wolf. 101. The Shawshank Redemption -- Frank Darabont. 102. The Marriage of Figaro in The Shawshank Redemption. 103. An Equal Music -- Vikram Seth. 104. Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 - Zubin Mehta and the Belgrade Philharmonic. 105. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's violin concertos. 106. Animal Farm -- George Orwell. 107. Down and Out in Paris and London -- George Orwell. 108. Gulliver's Travels -- Jonathan Swift. 109. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass -- Lewis Carroll. 110. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 111. The Gulag Archipelago -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 112. Khosla Ka Ghosla -- Dibakar Banerjee. 113. Mr India -- Shekhar Kapur. 114. Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi -- Satyen Bose. 114. Finding Nemo -- Andrew Stanton. 115. Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny. 116. Michael Madana Kama Rajan -- Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. 117. The Music Box, with Laurel and Hardy. 118. The Disciple -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 119. Court -- Chaitanya Tamhane. 120. Dwarkesh Patel on YouTube. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Learn' by Simahina.

MONOLOGUE Jagmeet Singh: The Man Who Ripped Up His Principles—But Never His Seat NEWSMAKER Canada's female Donald Trump ready to take on president https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/warmington-canadas-female-donald-trump-ready-to-take-on-president  We're Getting an Election We Don't Need, But Not Getting the One We Do! Ford calls for early election and hopes for Massive Mandate to Take on Trade War  Joe Warmington, Columnist with The Toronto Sun OPEN LINES THE CULT OF CLIMATE CHANGE Sea levels could rise by up to 6.2 FEET by 2100, warn scientists - so, is your hometown at risk? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14328807/Global-sea-levels-rise-6-2-FEET-2100-plunging-entire-cities-underwater.html  Global warming to prevent 3.4 million deaths from cold ... but at a deadly cost https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/27/how-global-warming-save-three-million-lives-northern-europe/  Tony Heller - Geologist, Weather Historian and Founder https://realclimatescience.com MONOLOGUE "Dying for Care: How Canada's Socialized Healthcare System is Killing Its Own People" NEWSMAKER Did Trump Have the Greatest First Week in American Presidential History https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-everything-trump-did-his-first-week-back   Stacy Washington, host of the nationally syndicated SiriusXM Radio show Stacy on the Right, and author of the book Eternally Cancel Proof: A Guide for Courageous Christians Navigating the Political Battlefront, is an Emmy Nominated TV personality and documentarian. OPEN LINES THIS DAY IN ROCK HISTORY  In 1969, Fleetwood Mac scored their sole UK No.1 hit with the instrumental “Albatross,” from the Peter Green-era of the band.  In 1972, Concert for Bangladesh went to No.1 in the UK. The live triple album, which captured the first major benefit concert, featured performances by Bob Dylan, Ravi Shankar, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, members of Badfinger, and George Harrison, who organized the event.  In 1983, Australian new wave heroes Men At Work had simultaneous No.1s in the UK and US on both the singles and album charts with “Down Under” and Business As Usual, respectively. The last artist to achieve this feat was Rod Stewart in 1971. Jeremiah Tittle, Co-Host of The 500 with Josh Adam Myers podcast, CEO/Founder of Next Chapter Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sígueme en mis redes sociales:TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marthahigaredaofficial?_t=8ruolVn0npf&_r=1Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marthahigareda/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oficialmarthahigaredaTwitter: https://twitter.com/marthahigareda ¿Te has preguntado alguna vez cuál es tu verdadero propósito en la vida? En este episodio especial de Infinitos, tengo el honor de conversar con Gurudev Ravi Shankar, uno de los maestros espirituales más influyentes de nuestro tiempo. ✨ Durante nuestra charla, exploramos cómo conectar con nuestra esencia, comprender el significado más profundo de nuestra existencia y desbloquear el potencial que llevamos dentro. Gurudev comparte prácticas simples pero poderosas para calmar la mente, cultivar la paz interior y descubrir nuestro camino único en este mundo.

Ravi Shankar is an Indian guru and spiritual leader. He is also referred to as Sri Sri or Gurudev. From around the mid 1970s, he worked as an apprentice under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation. In 1981, he founded the Art of Living foundation. Gurudev on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/@Gurudev Howie Mandel Does Stuff available on every podcast platform Visit the Official Howie Mandel Website for more: https://www.howiemandel.com/ Howie Mandel Does Stuff Merchandise available on Amazon.com here https://www.amazon.com/shop/howiemandeldoesstuff Join the "Official Howie Mandel Does Stuff" Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HowieMandelPodcast/ Thank you to our sponsor, Masterclass! Go to masterclass.com/HOWIE for up to 50% off on their current offer. Each new membership comes risk free with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so what are you waiting for! Hunter Pure Air quietly captures and eliminates dust, allergens, odors, and germs. With a range of options like the powerful HP800, the versatile HPF520, and the compact HP450UV, you'll find the perfect purifier for your needs. You won't even notice it's working until you breathe in that first breath of pure, clean air. For a limited time, use code ‘HOWIE20' for 20% off at hunterpureair.com Ryde: What is it? A pocket-sized recyclable aluminum bottle with big potential. What's it for? 3 types: Energize, Focus and Relax. Energize for when you need an extra boost to get through a never-ending day, Focus for your never ending to do list and Relax to support a calm mind. Order Ryde on Amazon and take your best shot at today Think about this: You sit on your sofa every day... but you've NEVER washed it. Good news America. With Anabei, your entire sofa can go in the washing machine. Shop the only Machine Washable Sofa starting at $639 + get free shipping & free returns when you buy here: anabei.com/howie Say Hello to our house band Sunny and the Black Pack! Follow them here! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BlackMediaPresents TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@blackmediapresents Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/01uFmntCHwOW438t7enYOO?si=0Oc-_QJdQ0CrMkWii42BWA&nd=1&dlsi=a9792af062844b4f Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SunnyAndTheBlackPack/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackmediapresents/ Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/blackmediapresents Twitter: twitter.com/blackmedia Gurudev Reveals All the Secrets | Howie Mandel Does Stuff #222 https://youtu.be/Ir5pJVkmjPs @howiemandel @jackelynshultz @gurudev

Sígueme en mis redes sociales:TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marthahigaredaofficial?_t=8ruolVn0npf&_r=1Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marthahigareda?igsh=MTA2ajhkNnh5Ynk3eA==Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oficialmarthahigaredaTwitter: https://twitter.com/marthahigareda ¿Te has preguntado alguna vez cuál es tu verdadero propósito en la vida? En este episodio especial de Infinitos, tengo el honor de conversar con Gurudev Ravi Shankar, uno de los maestros espirituales más influyentes de nuestro tiempo. ✨ Durante nuestra charla, exploramos cómo conectar con nuestra esencia, comprender el significado más profundo de nuestra existencia y desbloquear el potencial que llevamos dentro. Gurudev comparte prácticas simples pero poderosas para calmar la mente, cultivar la paz interior y descubrir nuestro camino único en este mundo.

Colorado-bred, LA-based keyboardist Lao Tizer embodies what it means to be a 21st-century musician inhabiting the jazz sphere ¾ that being one who embraces musical diversity and has no fear of crossing boundaries. But Tizer also happens to come by this naturally. As the self-described “child of East Coast Jewish hippies,” he was exposed to and was influenced by his parents' extensive musical tastes from a young age: “My dad had a huge music collection. He loved classical music and had all this world music ¾ Ravi Shankar, R. Carlos Nakai, music of the Sufis ¾ plus my parents were boomers, so that brought in all the Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke, Elvis, Janis Joplin, and Motown. The Temptations were my favorite band as a kid. So, I basically grew up with everything but jazz, which I didn't really discover until I was about 16.” It was a couple of seemingly random selections from the Columbia House mail-order club that turned him toward a new and lasting musical direction. ”It was buy one, get twelve free, right? So I ordered Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux. Then one Sunday morning, it all just kind of hit me. To a lot of people trained in the classical tradition, jazz sounds like it breaks all kinds of rules, but I just heard there was a whole other world to explore there.” From there, Tizer hit the ground running, applying his classical piano skills to jazz and releasing his first self-produced solo keyboard albums while still in high school. After graduating from Boulder High, Tizer moved to LA and studied with legendary piano guru Terry Trotter for about two years, forgoing formal music education. “Instead of going to music school, I just got my butt kicked on the bandstand. I was always working with musicians who were older and more experienced. School's great but there's no better way to grow than playing with people who are going to push you to grow. I was so green, man. Learning to play in a band concept ¾ playing in good time with a rhythm section–was one of the most challenging things, coming from being a solo pianist.” But his approach and talents served him well. At 19, he formed and led the first band under his own name, taking indirect inspiration from another iconic jazz entity. “When I got into listening to The Pat Metheny Group in the late ‘90s, they had that “formula” that definitely spoke to me ¾ great, through-composed music with a lot of room for improvisation. That's the formula that I love” In the ensuing years and through various incarnations, The Lao Tizer Band has flown by that directional compass while infusing the bespoke influences and experiences that inform Tizer's musical worldview. Subsequently, the band attracted many top players to its ranks ¾ GRAMMY-winning saxophonist Eric Marienthal (Chick Corea), Emmy-winning guitarist Chieli Minucci (Special EFX), Senegalese bassist Cheikh N'Doye (Baaba Maal), violinist extraordinaire Karen Briggs (Stanley Clarke), GRAMMY-winning drum phenom Gene Coye (Hiromi) and legendary GRAMMY-winning percussionist Munyungo Jackson (Stevie Wonder) ¾ and became a steady presence at LA hotspots like The Baked Potato as well as entertaining audiences at premier jazz festivals around the world. Milestones among these were The Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, Cape Town Jazz Festival, Java Jazz Festival, and Atlanta Jazz Festival. The six albums he has released as a leader have seen Tizer steadily grow while constantly defining (and redefining) who he is as a keyboardist, composer, and bandleader. “I think the most important thing as an artist and composer is to have your own identity and your own sound. Everybody comes to where they are in music through whatever path they have followed and I think staying true to what brought you to where you are now helps to create your own true voice. I think I have always had that.” But not content to rest, Tizer recently decided to take another bold turn with his music. In 2018, The Lao Tizer Band released Songs From The Swinghouse, a project that included fresh, sophisticated takes on a number of vocal-oriented covers from seminal artists such as U2, Led Zeppelin, and Cat Stevens along with a collection of seven original instrumentals penned by Tizer. The album was released to critical acclaim and notched the Top 10 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz album chart. “We were always only instrumental until that record. The concept was to reinvent covers like ‘Ramble On,' ‘Pride in the Name of Love,' and ‘Sad Lisa.' I had never arranged or recorded any vocal material with my group before, so to take those tunes and make them our own was really fun.” Now, with his forthcoming album, Amplify, Tizer ups the ante by bringing original vocal-oriented songs into his mix of smart instrumentals ¾ as well as a few potent new additions to the band. “A big part of the concept for Amplify is to cross over. It's not really a “jazz” record but it definitely has jazz elements, no question. The band still features the core lineup we've had for a while now with Eric, Chieli, Karen, Munyungo, Gene, and Cheikh, but now there are a few new faces involved in the group. Namely saxophone and flute wunderkind Danny Janklow (MONKestra) and Rolling Stone 2022 ”Bassist of the Year” nominee Anthony Crawford (Erykah Badu), who shares low-end duties with Cheikh. We augmented our already large band with a horn section and background singers on a few songs as well. The album is nine songs ¾ five vocal, four instrumental ¾ all original, no covers.” But perhaps Tizer's most intriguing choice of secret weapon for Amplify is bringing American Idol star Elliott Yamin to handle the vocal material. “Elliott's first album had that platinum hit single “Wait For You.” He's very much a throwback to a blue-eyed soul kind of vibe and it was amazing to be able to bring him into the band. This project was a little outside his stylistic wheelhouse because it is a bit more adventurous harmonically. I think he was a little intimidated by the music early on but he's such a remarkably gifted singer and he's just singing his butt off. He's turned out to be unbelievable in this project and the band. He's super gung-ho about it too, which is great. I couldn't have asked for a better fit!” With these continuing steps over boundaries into new stylistic territory, one might wonder if Tizer has any trepidation about alienating the core base of jazz listeners he's built up over time. Quite the contrary, it seems. “I love that longstanding boundaries in music are getting broken down. Artists like Snarky Puppy, Robert Glasper, and Kamasi Washington have proven this theory that I've long held: If you have music that's melodic and grooves, you can win over a very broad array of listeners.” Indeed, Tizer testifies to having seen the evidence firsthand. “There's been a really cool renaissance and rebirth with all these genre-defying artists and I've seen a shift in the crowd at our shows too. There's a lot of 20 and 30-somethings coming out, and that's so cool. That's what the future audience is going to be. If we want to have long careers like our predecessors, we need to have our peers and younger listeners connect to this music and follow it.” With eyes set on the future and a willingness to keep exploring, Tizer's simplest ethos perhaps sums it up best: “I say forget the boundaries. Just make good music and try to connect with as many listeners as you can.

As Yahya Khan's crackdown in East Pakistan sparks a refugee crisis and a guerilla insurgency, the neighboring nation of India, led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, must decide how to respond. Meanwhile, President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger pursue secret talks with Communist China. In Madison Square Garden, musicians George Harrison and Ravi Shankar organize a massive charity concert for the people of Bangladesh.  SOURCES: Bass, Gary K. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide. 2013. Bennet-Jones, Own. The Bhutto Dynasty. 2020. Carney, Scott. Miklian, Jason. The Vortex: A True Story of History's Deadliest Storm, an  Unspeakable War, and Liberation. 2022. Chang, Jung. Halliday, Jon. Mao: The Unknown Story. 2005. Frank, Katherine. Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. 2001. Gewen, Barry. The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and his World. 2020. Hiro, Dilip. The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan. 2015. Hitchens, Christopher. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. 2001. Hoodbhoy, Pervez. Pakistan: Origins, Identity and Future. 2023. Jalal, Ayesha. The Struggle for Pakistan. 2014. James, Lawrence. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. 1997. Jayakar, Pupul. Indira Gandhi: A Biography. 1975. Khosa, Faisal. The Making of Martyrs in India, Pakistan & Bangladesh. 2021. K.S. Nair. December In Dacca. 2022. Keay, John. India: A History. 2000. Mookherjee, Nayanika. The Spectral Wound. 2015. Raghavan, Srinath. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh. 2013. Rose, Leo. Sisson, Richard. War and Secession. Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh. 1990. Saikia, Yasmin. Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh. 2011. Schendel, Willem van. A History of Bangladesh. 2009. Schwartz, Thomas Alan. Henry Kissinger and American Power. 2020. Sengupta, Nitish. Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal. 2011. Tudda, Chris. A Cold War Turning Point: Nixon and China, 1969-1972. 2012. Walsh, Declan. The Nine Lives of Pakistan. 2020. Zakaria, Anam. 1971: A People's History from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. 2019. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 700 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more Born in the Great State of New Jersey, Dean Obeidallah's comedy comes in large part from his unique background of being the son of a Palestinian father and a Sicilian mother. Dean, an award winning comedian who was at one time a practicing attorney, co-starred on Comedy Central's “The Axis of Evil” Comedy TV special. He is the co-creator of Comedy Central.com's critically acclaimed Internet series “The Watch List” featuring a cast of all Middle Eastern-American comedians performing stand up and sketch comedy. Dean has appeared twice on ABC's “The View,” on the nationally syndicated TV series “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” and was one of five comedians profiled in the recent one hour TV Special entitled: “Stand Up: Muslim-American Comics Come of Age” which aired in the US on PBS and internationally on BBC World and Al Jazeera. Dean co-directed and co-produced the award winning documentary “The Muslims Are Coming!” featuring a tour of American-Muslim comedians performing free comedy shows across the heartland of America in the hopes of using comedy to foster understanding and dispel misconceptions about Muslims. The film also features special guest interviews with various well known people including: “The Daily Show's” Jon Stewart and Assif Mandvi, Russell Simmons, Soledad O'Brien and Ali Velshi, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, comedians Lewis Black, David Cross, Lizz Winstead and Colin Quinn as well as Congressman Keith Ellison, and many more. The film is now available on Netfilx, iTunes and Amazon.   Dean co-created the comedy show “Stand up for Peace” along with Jewish comic Scott Blakeman which they perform at colleges across the country in support of peace in the Middle East and as a way of fostering understanding between Arab, Muslim and Jewish-Americans.   He is writes for MSNBC, CNN and The Daily Beast as well as other publications.   Dean is also the co-creator and co-producer of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival .He is also proud to serve as the Executive Director of The Amman Stand up Comedy Festival – the first stand up comedy festival ever held in the Middle East Dean is proud to have received the first annual “Bill Hicks Spirit Award” for “thought provoking comedy” (named after the late comedian Bill Hicks) from the NY Underground Comedy Festival and the Hicks' Family.   Stand Up is a daily podcast that I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 700 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more See John on the Sexy Liberal show this Saturday https://sexyliberal.com/ He's been murdered on CSI, interviewed 2 Beatles on separate continents in the same week, and famously once got Mitt Romney's advisor to call Governor Romney an 'etch a sketch' on CNN. Actor, comedian & broadcaster John Fugelsang hosts 'Tell Me Everything" weekdays on SiriusXM Insight #121. He recently performed in 'The Bill of Rights Concert" alongside Lewis Black & Dick Gregory which aired on AXS.   He's also appeared at Montreal's ‘Just for Laughs' Festival, HBO's U.S Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, hosted America's Funniest Home Videos for ABC and Bill Maher called him ‘one of my favorite comedians'.   Film/TV credits include 'Price Check' opposite Parker Posey, "Becker," "Providence," "Coyote Ugly,"  the religious standup performance film "The Coexist Comedy Tour" (which won Best Documentary at the NYC Vision Fest film festival).  He appears in the upcoming features "The Girl On The Train," "Maggie Black," and he plays two roles in the romantic comedy ‘The Whole Truth' starring Elisabeth Rohm and Eric Roberts.   He's interviewed Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Brian Wilson, Yoko Ono, Willie Nelson, Tony Bennett, Alan Rickman, Joey Ramone, Carlos Santana, James Taylor, Bo Diddley, Stevie Nicks, Robbie Robertson, Ravi Shankar, Beyonce Knowles, Olivia Harrison, Garth Brooks, William Hurt, Helen Hunt, Ashanti, John Fogerty, William Shatner, Sen. Trent Lott, Sen. Tom Daschle, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ed Asner, Nile Rogers, Michael Moore, JK Simmons, Valerie Plame, Ethan Hawke, Brian Dennehy, Mavis Staples, Joel Grey, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Lily Tomlin,  Dave Matthews, Terrence McNally, Stanley Tucci, Michael Shannon, Noel Gallagher,  Jeff Daniels, Rita Moreno, & Carl Reiner.  His interview with George Harrison included JF persuading George to play several songs on acoustic guitar.  This proved to be George's final televised appearance and was broadcast as "The Last Performance."   His new film "Dream On," a road trip in search of the American Dream, was named "Best Documentary" at the NY Independent Film Festival.   Directed by 2 time Oscar nominee Roger Weisberg, the film examines the current state of the American Dream while retracing the journey Alexis de Tocqueville made while writing 'Democracy in America.'   The film features 200 interviews in 55 cities in 17 states, including Mike Huckabee, Barney Frank & Paul Krugman and premieres on PBS Election Day Eve. The Stand Up Community Chat is always active with other Stand Up Subscribers on the Discord Platform. Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout! The Stand Up Community Chat is always active with other Stand Up Subscribers on the Discord Platform.   Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout!  Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on YouTube  Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page All things Jon Carroll  Follow and Support Pete Coe Buy Ava's Art  Hire DJ Monzyk to build your website or help you with Marketing

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." - John 15:4-9 This is when the miracles start-- when you remember there's only Him. That's when the solutions show up, when the healings show up, when you know there's no one here to be healed, no bones to be broken, no bank account to be empty, no internet, no phone, no world. And you remain as This. Silence. Stillness. The Fullness of Nothingness. Even for just a moment,  and then from that Womb, everything comes. Whatever it is, whatever has got you worried, stop thinking about it. You're perpetuating it. Stop thinking about it. When you're tempted to think about it, turn to Him and say, 'What do you think about it?' And He'll give you how He FEELS about it... Pause and Feel. Pause and Love. :) You're feeling how He feels about it right now. This Love is how He feels, always. There's nothing to worry about. Your covered. It's covered. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." - 1 Peter 2:9 ESV I love you, nik nikki@curlynikki.com Please support the show: ▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings __________________________________________ I will be on hiatus for a week while I record the Audiobook for 'Wake Up to Love'! In the meantime, I'll be re-running the first Surrender Novena beginning on Monday. Please share it with a friend, pray it with them, change a life, change yours... more! ____________________________________ My new book, 'Wake Up to Love' is a lifetime in the making (and now a Top New Release, thanks to you!). Divinely inspired. Love led. And WILL bring forth the ‘more' in you. ❤️‍

Sheela and Ravi Shankar, co-founders of Yoga Nidhi, talk with J about TKV Desikachar and the transformative power of yoga. They discuss the history of their relationship and how Ravi discovered TKV Desikachar, Sheela's religious upbringing, how she got to meet Desikachar and the different contexts she observed his teaching, chanting as meditation or prayer, whether God is fundamental to yoga, defining Ishvara Pranidana, OM, Satva dominance in the mind, characteristics of a yogi, and the greater purpose behind practice.   To subscribe and support the show… GET PREMIUM.   Check out J's other podcast… J. BROWN YOGA THOUGHTS.    

"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." - John 15:4-9 This is when the miracles start-- when you remember there's only Him.  That's when the solutions show up, when the healings show up, when you know there's no one here to be healed, no bones to be broken, no bank account to be empty, no internet, no phone, no world. And you remain as This. Silence. Stillness. The Fullness of Nothingness.  Even for just a moment,  and then from that Womb, everything comes. Whatever it is, whatever has got you worried,  stop thinking about it. You're perpetuating it. Stop thinking about it. When you're tempted to think about it, turn to Him and say, 'What do you think about it?' And He'll give you how He FEELS about it... Pause and Feel.  Pause and Love. :)  You're feeling how He feels about it right now. This Love is how He feels, always.  There's nothing to worry about.  Your covered. It's covered. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." - 1 Peter 2:9 ESV I love you,  nik nikki@curlynikki.com Please support the show: ▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings __________________________________________ Surrender Novena Day 7  "I perform miracles in proportion to your full surrender to me and to your not thinking of yourselves. I sow treasure troves of graces when you are in the deepest poverty. No person of reason, no thinker, has ever perform miracles, not even among the saints. He does divine works whosoever surrenders to God. So don't think about it anymore, because your mind is acute and for you it is very hard to see evil and to trust in me and to not think of yourself. Do this for all your needs, do this all of you and you will see great continual silent miracles. I will take care of things, I promise this to you.  O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything! (10 times) Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you I always want to belong completely to Jesus. Amen" - Father Ruotolo  ************************************* "Become conscious of Being Conscious. Eventually, the false I will vanish, leaving only the unbroken awareness of the real, immanent I, Self Consciousness itself." -Ramana Maharshi "Don't Think Less of Yourself, But Think of Yourself Less"- Sacinandana Swami  "It is not a question of whether there is a God, apart from you, but more whether there is a 'you' apart from God."- Arthur Osborne "The ego prayed to God and listened for a response. There was no response but silence. The ego thought, "God doesn't exist." In desperation, the ego prayed again and listened to the silence. And it was revealed - the ego doesn't exist." -Pat Nolan "It has long been taken for granted that the individual exists and that God does not exist. Eventually, you realize that the individual is not real and that there is nothing but God." - Ramana Maharshi "Your identification of being somebody doesn't let you truly relax and it limits your domain." - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar I trust you and I know you have placed me here but I am still finding it hard. It's hard adjusting, it's hard to know what to do next, and it's hard to feel outside of my comfort zone every single day. I ask, Lord, that you would provide what I need. I pray you would be my comfort when I feel alone and it's painful. I pray that you would help me look for and find the blessings and joy you are providing instead of being consumed with all that is so difficult about this. Lord, please guide me to the people, places, and positions that you have prepared for me and help me to trust in your goodness as I wait. In Jesus' name, Amen" -@proverbs31ministries "Hold on. Stay Strong. Trust God." - @Bible_verses_kj on IG "Grace has the ability to change anything at any time." - Ravi Shankar

He's an economist who cares more about people than numbers -- and he thinks his field needs more sociology and anthropology in it. Vijayendra (Biju) Rao joins Amit Varma in episode 392 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about what makes him angry and what brings him peace. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Vijayendra (Biju) Rao on Twitter, Google Scholar, The World Bank and his own website. 2. Biju Rao's blog at the World Bank. 3. Localizing Development: Does Participation Work? -- Ghazala Mansuri and Vijayendra Rao. 4. Oral Democracy: Deliberation in Indian Village Assemblies -- Paromita Sanyal and Vijayendra Rao. 5. Can Economics Become More Reflexive? -- Vijayendra Rao. 6. Vamsha Vriksha -- Girish Karnad. 7. ‘I want absolute commitment to our gharana': A tribute to Rajshekhar Mansur and his music -- Vijayendra Rao. 8. The Life and Work of Ashwini Deshpande — Episode 298 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. Two Hundred and Fifty-Thousand Democracies: A Review of Village Government in India -- Siddharth George, Vijaendra Rao and MR Sharan. 10. Last Among Equals : Power Caste And Politics In Bihar's Villages -- MR Sharan. 11. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. National Development Delivers: And How! And How? — Lant Pritchett. 13. The Perils of Partial Attribution: Let's All Play for Team Development — Lant Pritchett. 14. The Rising Price of Husbands: A Hedonic Analysis of Dowry Increases in Rural India -- Vijayendra Rao. 15. The Life and Times of Jerry Pinto — Episode 314 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. Shephali Bhatt Is Searching for the Incredible -- Episode 391 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. Jiddu Krishnamurti on Wikipedia, Britannica and Amazon. 18. Biju Rao listens to Jiddu Krishnamurthy. 19. Ben Hur -- William Wyler. 20. Trade, Institutions and Ethnic Tolerance: Evidence from South Asia -- Saumitra Jha. 21. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 22. Remnants of a Separation — Aanchal Malhotra. 23. Deliberative Democracy -- Jon Elster. 24. A Life in Indian Politics — Episode 149 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Jayaprakash Narayan). 25. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 27. Urban Governance in India — Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 28. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 29. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 30. Accelerating India's Development — Karthik Muralidharan. 31. The Added Value of Local Democracy -- Abhishek Arora, Siddharth George, Vijayendra Rao and MR Sharan. 32. Some memories of VKRV Rao -- Vijayendra Rao. 33. The Foundation Series — Isaac Asimov. 34. Lawrence of Arabia -- David Lean. 35. Gandhi -- Richard Attenborough. 36. The Story of My Experiments with Truth -- Mohandas Gandhi. 37. Bhagavad Gita on Wikipedia and Amazon. 38. KT Achaya on Amazon. 39. The Emergency: A Personal History — Coomi Kapoor. 40. My Varied Life in Management: A Short Memoir -- SL Rao. 41. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Ram Guha Writes a Letter to a Friend -- Episode 371 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. Terror as a Bargaining Instrument : A Case Study of Dowry Violence in Rural India -- Francis Bloch and Vijayendra Rao. 44. Domestic Violence and Intra-Household Resource Allocation in Rural India: An Exercise in Participatory Econometrics -- Vijayendra Rao. 45. Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative. 46. Narrative Economics -- Robert J Shiller. 47. Culture and Public Action -- Edited by Vijayendra Rao and Michael Walton. 48. The Capacity to Aspire -- Arjun Appadurai. 49. Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming -- Agnes Callard. 50. Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind -- Tom Holland. 51. PV Sukhatme in EPW. 52. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything if Everything. 53. Deliberative Inequality:  A Text-As-Data Study of India's Village Assemblies -- Ramya Parthasarathy, Vijayendra Rao and Nethra Palaniswamy. 54. A Method to Scale Up Interpretive Qualitative Analysis with An Application to Aspirations among Refugees and Hosts in Bangladesh -- Julian Ashwin, Vijayendra Rao, Monica Biradavolu, Aditya Chhabra, Afsana Khan, Arshia Haque and Nandini Krishnan. 55. Using Large-Language Models for Qualitative Analysis Can Introduce Serious Bias -- Julian Ashwin, Aditya Chhabra and Vijayendra Rao. 56. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 57. Audacious Hope: An Archive of How Democracy is Being Saved in India -- Indrajit Roy. 58. Poverty and the Quest for Life -- Bhrigupati Singh. 59. Recasting Culture to Undo Gender: A Sociological Analysis of Jeevika in Rural Bihar, India -- Paromita Sanyal, Vijayendra Rao and Shruti Majumdar. 60. We Are Poor but So Many -- Ela Bhatt. 61. Premature Imitation and India's Flailing State — Shruti Rajagopalan & Alexander Tabarrok. 62. James Wolfensohn in Wikipedia and The World Bank. 63. Arati Kumar-Rao Took a One-Way Ticket -- Episode 383 of The Seen and the Unseen. 64. Marginlands: Indian Landscapes on the Brink — Arati Kumar-Rao. 65. Amitav Ghosh on Amazon. 66. Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life -- Nicholas Phillipson. 67. Elinor Ostrom on Amazon, Britannica, Wikipedia and EconLib. 68. Jane Mansbridge on Amazon, Wikipedia, and Google Scholar. 69. Albert O Hirschman on Amazon and Wikipedia. 70. Mughal-e-Azam -- K Asif. 71. Samskara -- Pattabhirama Reddy. 72. The Wire -- David Simon. 73. Deadwood -- David Milch. 74. Biju Rao on Democracy, Deliberation, and Development -- the Ideas of India podcast with Shruti Rajagopalan. Biju Rao's Specially curated music recommendations: 1. The Senior Dagar Brothers (Moinuddin & Aminuddin Dagar) performing (Komal Rishab) Asavari and Kamboji. 2. Raghunath Panigrahi performing Ashtapadi from the Geeta Govinda and Lalita Lavanga. 3. Amir Khan performing Lalit and Jog. 4. Vilayat Khan performing Sanjh Saravali and Hameer. 5. Ravi Shankar performing Jaijaiwanti and Tilak Shyam (full concert) and Durga. 6. Faiyaz Khan performing Raga Darbari and Raga Des. 7. N Rajam performing a full concert with Gorakh Kalyan, Sawani Barwa, Hamir, Malkauns. 8. Kumar Gandharva performing Tulsidas – Ek Darshan and Surdas – Ek Darshan. 9. Bhimsen Joshi performing Ragas Chhaya and Chhaya Malhar & Jo Bhaje Hari Ko Sada – Bhajan in Raga Bhairavi (original recording from 1960). The Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana: 1. Mallikarjun Mansur in a guided Listening Session by Irfan Zuberi, and performing Basanti Kedar and Tilak Kamod. 2. Kesarbai Kerkar performing Lalit and Bhairavi. 3. Moghubai Kurdikar performing Kedar and Suddha Nat. 4. Kishori Amonkar performing Bhimpalas and Bhoop(ali). 5. Some performances by Rajshekhar Mansur are linked in Biju Rao's piece on him. Karnatic Music: 1. TM Krishna performing Krishna Nee Begane Baaro, Yamuna Kalyani (Yaman Kalyan) and Nalinakanthi (closest Hindustani equivalent is Tilak Kamod). 2. MD Ramanathan performing Bhavayami – Raga Malika and Samaja Vara Gamana – Ragam Hindolam (Malkauns). 3. Aruna Sairam performing a full concert. 4. Madurai Mani Iyer performing Taaye Yoshade. 5. MS Subbulakshmi performing a full Concert from 1966 and Bhaja Govindam (Ragamalika). 6. TR Mahalingam performing Swara Raga Sudha – Shankarabharanam. Jugalbandis: 1. Ali Akbar Khan and Vilayat Khan performing Marwa. 2. Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar performing Jaijaiwanti. 3. N Rajam with her brother TN Krishnan performing Raga Hamsadhwani. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘The Iconoclast' by Simahina.

Welcome to this bonus episode with Kundan Baidwan and Sameer Gupta. Kundan and Sameer talk all about the Rootstock Arts' event Color Your Mind Festival, which is happening in Yerba Buena Garden this Saturday, July 27, 2024 from noon to 5 p.m.   (This episode was created in collaboration with Erin and Ange from Bitch Talk Podcast.)   We start with Kundan. Long-time listeners will recognize or remember Kundan from ... Season 1, Episode 40, Two Storied Nights, and Hungry Ghosts. She's been a friend of the show since that fateful day in 2018 when I waltzed into Zam Zam with Bitch Talk on their Bourdain Crawl. But, podcast-wise, it's never been about Kundan.   We learn that she was born in San Jose and raised in Fremont. She went to college in San Diego, and after she graduated, was off to Paris and then New York. She returned to The Bay around 2004. She says that SF was always close to her Bay Area roots. She's an artist (an amazing artist, I must say) who pays the bills by bartending at Zam Zam.   Sameer Gupta was also born in San Jose. When he was around one year old, his family began moving roughly every couple of years. His dad was in tech and took jobs all over the world. While his family was in Japan, Sameer picked up playing music. He says he "caught the bug" there and started playing drums.   When his family came back to the US, he stuck with drumming. It wasn't what his parents expected of him, but they encouraged him nonetheless. He went to college for music, where he was immersed in Western and Classical styles. He was gravitating more toward jazz, though. He played jazz through his time in and after college, and then he found Indian Classical music.   Sameer moved to New York City and stayed for about 15 years, long enough to form a music collective. A little more than a year ago, he returned to the Bay Area.   Then we hear how Kundan and Sameer met. It's a story that goes back to their respective childhoods. Their dads worked together before either of them was born. Their families lived in the same neighborhood and knew each other well. The two ended up in high school together. Beyond their families' histories, Sameer and Kundan both ran in creative circles around this time, and naturally gravitated toward each other.   Both Kundan and Sameer are the only creative people in their families, and we get to hear how that informs the art that each of them creates. They recognize the abundance of creativity in their culture, but distinguish themselves as individuals who set out to make art their life's mission. And Sameer speaks to the example that folks like him and Kundan can set for the next generations, who see more possibilities than they might otherwise.   Having grown up the entire time in the Bay Area, Kundan says she more or less always felt the influence of Indian culture. And Sameer talks more about what it can mean for their families to see them making a life out of art.   Then the conversation shifts to this weekend's inaugural Color Your Mind Festival. Sameer and Kundan intentionally invited young artists to be part of the event. There will be art, music, crafts, books, and more. Sameer says their intention is for the festival to be "adventurous," not what people might think of as a traditional Indian event. They want it to be approachable for as many folks as possible.   The festival's music will include North Indian Classical (think Ravi Shankar), South Indian Classical, and Sameer's group, the Jupiter Project. There will also be dancing between music sets.   Follow Rootstock Arts on Instagram.   We recorded this episode in collaboration with Bitch Talk Podcast at Medicine for Nightmares in the Mission in June 2024.

Stand Up is a daily podcast that I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 700 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more See John on the Sexy Liberal show this Saturday https://sexyliberal.com/ He's been murdered on CSI, interviewed 2 Beatles on separate continents in the same week, and famously once got Mitt Romney's advisor to call Governor Romney an 'etch a sketch' on CNN. Actor, comedian & broadcaster John Fugelsang hosts 'Tell Me Everything" weekdays on SiriusXM Insight #121. He recently performed in 'The Bill of Rights Concert" alongside Lewis Black & Dick Gregory which aired on AXS.   He's also appeared at Montreal's ‘Just for Laughs' Festival, HBO's U.S Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, hosted America's Funniest Home Videos for ABC and Bill Maher called him ‘one of my favorite comedians'.   Film/TV credits include 'Price Check' opposite Parker Posey, "Becker," "Providence," "Coyote Ugly,"  the religious standup performance film "The Coexist Comedy Tour" (which won Best Documentary at the NYC Vision Fest film festival).  He appears in the upcoming features "The Girl On The Train," "Maggie Black," and he plays two roles in the romantic comedy ‘The Whole Truth' starring Elisabeth Rohm and Eric Roberts.   He's interviewed Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend, Brian Wilson, Yoko Ono, Willie Nelson, Tony Bennett, Alan Rickman, Joey Ramone, Carlos Santana, James Taylor, Bo Diddley, Stevie Nicks, Robbie Robertson, Ravi Shankar, Beyonce Knowles, Olivia Harrison, Garth Brooks, William Hurt, Helen Hunt, Ashanti, John Fogerty, William Shatner, Sen. Trent Lott, Sen. Tom Daschle, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ed Asner, Nile Rogers, Michael Moore, JK Simmons, Valerie Plame, Ethan Hawke, Brian Dennehy, Mavis Staples, Joel Grey, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Lily Tomlin,  Dave Matthews, Terrence McNally, Stanley Tucci, Michael Shannon, Noel Gallagher,  Jeff Daniels, Rita Moreno, & Carl Reiner.  His interview with George Harrison included JF persuading George to play several songs on acoustic guitar.  This proved to be George's final televised appearance and was broadcast as "The Last Performance."   His new film "Dream On," a road trip in search of the American Dream, was named "Best Documentary" at the NY Independent Film Festival.   Directed by 2 time Oscar nominee Roger Weisberg, the film examines the current state of the American Dream while retracing the journey Alexis de Tocqueville made while writing 'Democracy in America.'   The film features 200 interviews in 55 cities in 17 states, including Mike Huckabee, Barney Frank & Paul Krugman and premieres on PBS Election Day Eve. The Stand Up Community Chat is always active with other Stand Up Subscribers on the Discord Platform. Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout! The Stand Up Community Chat is always active with other Stand Up Subscribers on the Discord Platform.   Join us Thursday's at 8EST for our Weekly Happy Hour Hangout!  Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on YouTube  Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page All things Jon Carroll  Follow and Support Pete Coe Buy Ava's Art  Hire DJ Monzyk to build your website or help you with Marketing

Affirm: "This is my moment of permanent change. I'm choosing Love I'm choosing who I came here to be." You came here to feel GoOD,  to remember God, to remind the world, by example, that God is real., that God is here, that God is Love. You came here to be Love. And when you're identified as Love, you've written a new chapter for that life, a chapter that can only be written Now. Smile. Everything is new. I Love you, Nik nikki@curlynikki.com ▶▶ Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings ________________________________ Today's Quotes: "Every moment you spend on this planet, remember you're that you're here for a unique purpose and cause. far greater than to just eat, sleep and talk." -Ravi Shankar "Meditation is something that changes your destiny. If you go deep within and repose in the self, things start to change." -Ravi Shankar

Only the fullness of the Christ is here.  And every time you close your eyes, you're saying, like Jesus did,  "Come out,  rise up...", and everything that was dead in your life, will.  I Love you,  nik  Support the show! ▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings _________________________________ "Some people think when you say, "God within" that you are referring to "the Mind and how to use it", but that isn't it either." - Joel Goldsmith  "Peace. Peace. "My Peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth." "My peace. The Peace of Christ. And, now, I am going to tell you a secret: More healings have taken place through absolute silence than ever have taken place through all of the arguments a metaphysician could think up in the whole history of the world. If you want, really and truly, to know what healing is, all right! When you are called upon for help, sit down and get at peace. Think no thought. Just sit there and wait, wait. Be patient and wait for the Peace of the Christ to descend upon you. And, in that point or place in consciousness where one would be ready for the Spiritual Answer - the Spiritual Consciousness - to unfold, we, here, are in a different position than we were when we were functioning with treatments. You see, we have come to such a place in consciousness, due to all we have been through these many years, that we are ready for the next "Higher Step." Even if mental argument were necessary to us in the earlier days of our work, even if affirmation and denial were necessary then, they are not so now. We can leave those forms alone. Learn to sit down, relax. Whether the case is sin, disease, death or unemployment - and, whether or not it is serious - sit down and relax. Do not try to "handle" it. Do not try to "work" on it. Do not try to "treat" it. Rather, try to sit back. And, in silence, create a kind of vacuum for God - the Christ- to rush in. Sit down and relinquish your thought that the human mind is a healer. Christ is the Healer. I, The Substance of the whole work we are doing, is this: God Is." - Joel Goldsmith  "Sometimes God lets you hit rock bottom so that you realize that God is the rock at the bottom." - @living.chrisitnan  "One who is not amazed by the magnificence of this creation, his eves are not yet opened. Once your eyes are opened, they close and this is meditation. (Laughter) Tell me, what is not a mystery in this creation? Birth is a mystery; death is a mystery. And life is certainly a greater mystery, isn't it?" - Ravi Shankar 

Salt Cathedral - "Terminal Woes" from the 2024 self-released album Before It's Gone With today's Song of the Day, New York-based Colombian duo Salt Cathedral share a sneak peek at their forthcoming full-length Before It's Gone, to be self-released on March 22nd. In a press statement, the band share: “”Terminal Woes” are the woes that will bring us (humanity) to our demise – in this song, climate change. How do I bring a child into a world that is getting, by all predictions, physically worse? How is capitalism/corporate interest & greed steering the wheel (or not steering the wheel?). We live in bubbles where we forget nature and animals exist too. Powerful people making decisions have their wallet, not the planet in mind. The only solution is reaching a point where the planet and the wallet align, where the most profitable business plan is to be sustainable. Sonically, it's a march of sorts, a chorus that bursts into stacks of voices to show collectivism and a lot of inspiration from Ravi Shankar's music.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For those who haven't heard the announcement I just posted , songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the first part of a multi-episode look at the Byrds in 1966-69 and the birth of country rock. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode on "My World Fell Down" by Sagittarius. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources No Mixcloud at this time as there are too many Byrds songs in this chunk, but I will try to put together a multi-part Mixcloud when all the episodes for this song are up. My main source for the Byrds is Timeless Flight Revisited by Johnny Rogan, I also used Chris Hillman's autobiography, the 331/3 books on The Notorious Byrd Brothers and The Gilded Palace of Sin, For future parts of this multi-episode story I used Barney Hoskyns' Hotel California and John Einarson's Desperadoes as general background on Californian country-rock, Calling Me Hone, Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock by Bob Kealing for information on Parsons, and Requiem For The Timeless Vol 2 by Johnny Rogan for information about the post-Byrds careers of many members. Information on Gary Usher comes from The California Sound by Stephen McParland. And this three-CD set is a reasonable way of getting most of the Byrds' important recordings. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript When we left the Byrds at the end of the episode on "Eight Miles High", they had just released that single, which combined folk-rock with their new influences from John Coltrane and Ravi Shankar, and which was a group composition but mostly written by the group's lead singer, Gene Clark. And also, as we mentioned right at the end of the episode, Clark had left the group. There had been many, many factors leading to Clark's departure. Clark was writing *far* more material than the other band members, of whom only Roger McGuinn had been a writer when the group started, and as a result was making far more money than them, especially with songs like "She Don't Care About Time", which had been the B-side to their number one single "Turn! Turn! Turn!" [Excerpt: The Byrds, "She Don't Care About Time"] Clark's extra income was making the rest of the group jealous, and they also didn't think his songs were particularly good, though many of his songs on the early Byrds albums are now considered classics. Jim Dickson, the group's co-manager, said "Gene would write fifteen to twenty songs a week and you had to find a good one whenever it came along because there were lots of them that you couldn't make head or tail of.  They didn't mean anything. We all knew that. Gene would write a good one at a rate of just about one per girlfriend." Chris Hillman meanwhile later said more simply "Gene didn't really add that much." That is, frankly, hard to square with the facts. There are ten original songs on the group's first two albums, plus one original non-album B-side. Of those eleven songs, Clark wrote seven on his own and co-wrote two with McGuinn. But as the other band members were starting to realise that they had the possibility of extra royalties -- and at least to some extent were starting to get artistic ambitions as far as writing goes -- they were starting to disparage Clark's work as a result, calling it immature. Clark had, of course, been the principal writer for "Eight Miles High", the group's most experimental record to date: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Eight Miles High"] But there he'd shared co-writing credit with David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, in part because that was the only way he could be sure they would agree to release it as a single. There were also internal rivalries within the band unrelated to songwriting -- as we've touched on, Crosby had already essentially bullied Clark off the guitar and into just playing tambourine (and McGuinn would be dismissive even of Clark's tambourine abilities). Crosby's inability to get on with any other member of any band he was in would later become legendary, but at this point Clark was the major victim of his bullying. According to Dickson "David understood when Gene left that ninety-five percent of why Gene left could be brought back to him." The other five percent, though, came from Clark's fear of flying. Clark had apparently witnessed a plane crash in his youth and been traumatised by it, and he had a general terror of flying and planes -- something McGuinn would mock him for a little, as McGuinn was an aviation buff. Eventually, Clark had a near-breakdown boarding a plane from California to New York for a promotional appearance with Murray the K, and ended up getting off the plane. McGuinn and Michael Clarke almost did the same, but in the end they decided to stay on, and the other four Byrds did the press conference without Gene. When asked where Gene was, they said he'd "broken a wing". He was also increasingly having mental health and substance abuse problems, which were exacerbated by his fear, and in the end he decided he just couldn't be a Byrd any more. Oddly, of all the band members, it was David Crosby who was most concerned about Clark's departure, and who did the most to try to persuade him to stay, but he still didn't do much, and the group decided to carry on as a four-piece and not even make a proper announcement of Clark's departure -- they just started putting out photos with four people instead of five. The main change as far as the group were concerned was that Hillman was now covering Clark's old vocal parts, and so Crosby moved to Clark's old centre mic while Hillman moved from his position at the back of the stage with Michael Clarke to take over Crosby's mic. The group now had three singer-instrumentalists in front, two of whom, Crosby and McGuinn, now thought of themselves as songwriters. So despite the loss of their singer/songwriter/frontman, they moved on to their new single, the guaranteed hit follow-up to "Eight Miles High": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "5D (Fifth Dimension)"] "5D" was written by McGuinn, inspired by a book of cartoons called 1-2-3-4 More More More More by Don Landis, which I haven't been able to track down a copy of, but which seems to have been an attempt to explain the mathematical concept of higher dimensions in cartoon form. McGuinn was inspired by this and by Einstein's theory of relativity -- or at least by his understanding of relativity, which does not seem to have been the most informed take on the topic. McGuinn has said in the past that the single should really have come with a copy of Landis' booklet, so people could understand it. Sadly, without the benefit of the booklet we only have the lyrics plus McGuinn's interviews to go on to try to figure out what he means. As far as I'm able to understand, McGuinn believed -- completely erroneously -- that Einstein had proved that along with the four dimensions of spacetime there is also a fifth dimension which McGuinn refers to as a "mesh", and that "the reason for the speed of light being what it is is because of that mesh." McGuinn then went on to identify this mesh with his own conception of God, influenced by his belief in Subud, and with a Bergsonian idea of a life force. He would talk about how most people are stuck in a materialist scientific paradigm which only admits to  the existence of three dimensions, and how there are people out there advocating for a five-dimensional view of the world. To go along with this mystic view of the universe, McGuinn wanted some music inspired by the greatest composer of sacred music, and he asked Van Dyke Parks, who was brought in to add keyboards on the session, to play something influenced by Bach -- and Parks obliged, having been thinking along the same lines himself: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "5D (Fifth Dimension)"] Unfortunately for the group, McGuinn's lyrical intention wasn't clear enough and the song was assumed to be about drugs, and was banned by many radio stations. That plus the track's basically uncommercial nature meant that it reached no higher than number forty-four in the charts. Jim Dickson, the group's co-manager, pointed to a simpler factor in the record's failure, saying that if the organ outro to the track had instead been the intro, to set a mood for the track rather than starting with a cold vocal open, it would have had more success. The single was followed by an album, called Fifth Dimension, which was not particularly successful. Of the album's eleven songs, two were traditional folk songs, one was an instrumental -- a jam called "Captain Soul" which was a version of Lee Dorsey's "Get Out My Life Woman" credited to the four remaining Byrds, though Gene Clark is very audible on it playing harmonica -- and one more was a jam whose only lyrics were "gonna ride a Lear jet, baby", repeated over and over. There was also "Eight Miles High" and the group's inept and slightly-too-late take on "Hey Joe". It also included a third single, a country track titled "Mr. Spaceman": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mr. Spaceman"] McGuinn and, particularly, Hillman, had some country music background, and both were starting to think about incorporating country sounds into the group's style, as after Clark's departure from the group they were moving away from the style that had characterised their first two albums. But the interest in "Mr. Spaceman" was less about the musical style than about the lyrics. McGuinn had written the song in the hopes of contacting extraterrestrial life -- sending them a message in his lyrics so that any aliens listening to Earth radio would come and visit, though he was later disappointed to realise that the inverse-square law means that the signals would be too faint to make out after a relatively short distance: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mr. Spaceman"] "Mr. Spaceman" did better on the charts than its predecessor, scraping the lower reaches of the top forty, but it hardly set the world alight, and neither did the album -- a typical review was the one by Jon Landau, which said in part "This album then cannot be considered up to the standards set by the Byrds' first two and basically demonstrates that they should be thinking in terms of replacing Gene Clark, instead of just carrying on without him." Fifth Dimension would be the only album that Allen Stanton would produce for the Byrds, and his replacement had actually just produced an album that was a Byrds record by any other name: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "So You Say You've Lost Your Baby"] We've looked at Gary Usher before, but not for some time, and not in much detail. Usher was one of several people who were involved in the scene loosely centred on the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, though he never had much time for Jan Berry and he had got his own start in the music business slightly before the Beach Boys. As a songwriter, his first big successes had come with his collaborations with Brian Wilson -- he had co-written "409" for the Beach Boys, and had also collaborated with Wilson on some of his earliest more introspective songs, like "The Lonely Sea" and "In My Room", for which Usher had written the lyrics: [Excerpt: The Beach Boys, "In My Room"] Usher had built a career as a producer and writer for hire, often in collaboration with Roger Christian, who also wrote with Brian Wilson and Jan Berry. Usher, usually with Christian, and very occasionally Wilson wrote the songs for several of American International Pictures' Beach Party films: [Excerpt: Donna Loren, "Muscle Bustle"] And Usher and Christian had also had bit parts in some of the films, like Bikini Beach, and Usher had produced records for Annette Funicello, the star of the films, often with the Honeys (a group consisting of Brian Wilson's future wife Marilyn plus her sister and cousin) on backing vocals. He had also produced records for the Surfaris, as well as a whole host of studio-only groups like the Four Speeds, the Super Stocks, and Mr. Gasser and the Weirdoes, most of whom were Usher and the same small group of vocalist friends along with various selections of Wrecking Crew musicians making quick themed albums. One of these studio groups, the Hondells, went on to be a real group of sorts, after Usher and the Beach Boys worked together on a film, The Girls on the Beach. Usher liked a song that Wilson and Mike Love had written for the Beach Boys to perform in the film, "Little Honda", and after discovering that the Beach Boys weren't going to release their version as a single, he put together a group to record a soundalike version: [Excerpt: The Hondells, "Little Honda"] "Little Honda" made the top ten, and Usher produced two albums for the Hondells, who had one other minor hit with a cover version of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Younger Girl". Oddly, Usher's friend Terry Melcher, who would shortly produce the Byrds' first few hits, had also latched on to "Little Honda", and produced his own version of the track, sung by Pat Boone of all people, with future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Pat Boone, "Little Honda"] But when Usher had got his version out first, Boone's was relegated to a B-side. When the Byrds had hit, and folk-rock had started to take over from surf rock, Usher had gone with the flow and produced records like the Surfaris' album It Ain't Me Babe, with Usher and his usual gang of backing vocalists augmenting the Surfaris as they covered hits by Dylan, the Turtles, the Beach Boys and the Byrds: [Excerpt: The Surfaris, "All I Really Want to Do"] Usher was also responsible for the Surfaris being the first group to release a version of "Hey Joe" on a major label, as we heard in the episode on that song: [Excerpt: The Surfaris, "Hey Joe"] After moving between Capitol, Mercury, and Decca Records, Usher had left Decca after a round of corporate restructuring and been recommended for a job at Columbia by his friend Melcher, who at that point was producing Paul Revere and the Raiders and the Rip Chords and had just finished his time as the Byrds' producer. Usher's first work at Columbia was actually to prepare new stereo mixes of some Byrds tracks that had up to that point only been issued in mono, but his first interaction with the Byrds themselves came via Gene Clark: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "So You Say You've Lost Your Baby"] On leaving the Byrds, Clark had briefly tried to make a success of himself as a songwriter-for-hire in much the same mould as Usher, attempting to write and produce a single for two Byrds fans using the group name The Cookie Fairies, while spending much of his time romancing Michelle Phillips, as we talked about in the episode on "San Francisco". When the Cookie Fairies single didn't get picked up by a label, Clark had put together a group with Bill Rinehart from the Leaves, Chip Douglas of the Modern Folk Quartet, and Joel Larson of the Grass Roots. Just called Gene Clark & The Group, they'd played around the clubs in LA and cut about half an album's worth of demos produced by Jim Dickson and Ed Tickner, the Byrds' management team, before Clark had fired first Douglas and then the rest of the group. Clark's association with Douglas did go on to benefit him though -- Douglas went on, as we've seen in other episodes, to produce hits for the Turtles and the Monkees, and he later remembered an old song by Clark and McGuinn that the Byrds had demoed but never released, "You Showed Me", and produced a top ten hit version of it for the Turtles: [Excerpt: The Turtles, "You Showed Me"] Clark had instead started working with two country singers, Vern and Rex Gosdin, who had previously been with Chris Hillman in the country band The Hillmen. When that band had split up, the Gosdin Brothers had started to perform together as a duo, and in 1967 they would have a major country hit with "Hangin' On": [Excerpt: The Gosdin Brothers, "Hangin' On"] At this point though, they were just Gene Clark's backing vocalists, on an album that had been started with producer Larry Marks, who left Columbia half way through the sessions, at which point Usher took over. The album, titled Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers, featured a mix of musicians from different backgrounds. There were Larson and Rinehart from Gene Clark and the Group, there were country musicians -- a guitarist named Clarence White and the banjo player Doug Dillard. Hillman and Michael Clarke, the Byrds' rhythm section, played on much of the album as a way of keeping a united front, Glen Campbell, Jerry Cole, Leon Russell and Jim Gordon of the Wrecking Crew contributed, and Van Dyke Parks played most of the keyboards. The lead-off single for Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers, "Echoes", is one of the tracks produced by Marks, but in truth the real producer of that track is Leon Russell, who wrote the orchestral arrangement that turned Clark's rough demo into a baroque pop masterpiece: [Excerpt: Gene Clark, "Echoes"] Despite Clark having quit the band, relations between him and the rest were still good enough that in September 1966 he temporarily rejoined the band after Crosby lost his voice, though he was gone again as soon as Crosby was well. But that didn't stop the next Byrds album, which Usher went on to produce straight after finishing work on Clark's record, coming out almost simultaneously with Clark's and, according to Clark, killing its commercial potential. Upon starting to work with the group, Usher quickly came to the conclusion that Chris Hillman was in many ways the most important member of the band. According to Usher "There was also quite a divisive element within the band at that stage which often prevented them working well together. Sometimes everything would go smoothly, but other times it was a hard road. McGuinn and Hillman were often more together on musical ideas. This left Crosby to fend for himself, which I might add he did very well." Usher also said "I quickly came to understand that Hillman was a good stabilising force within the Byrds (when he wanted to be). It was around the time that I began working with them that Chris also became more involved in the songwriting. I think part of that was the fact that he realised how much more money was involved if you actually wrote the songs yourself. And he was a good songwriter." The first single to be released from the new sessions was one that was largely Hillman's work. Hillman and Crosby had been invited by the great South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela to play on some demos for another South African jazzer, singer Letta Mbulu. Details are sparse, but one presumes this was for what became her 1967 album Letta Mbulu Sings, produced by David Axelrod: [Excerpt: Letta Mbulu, "Zola (MRA)"] According to Hillman, that session was an epiphany for him, and he went home and started writing his own songs for the first time. He took one of the riffs he came up with to McGuinn, who came up with a bridge inspired by a song by yet another South African musician, Miriam Makeba, who at the time was married to Masekela, and the two wrote a lyric inspired by what they saw as the cynical manipulation of the music industry in creating manufactured bands like the Monkees -- though they have both been very eager to say that they were criticising the industry, not the Monkees themselves, with whom they were friendly. As Hillman says in his autobiography, "Some people interpreted it as a jab at The Monkees. In reality, we had immense respect for all of them as singers and musicians. We weren't skewering the members of the Monkees, but we were taking a shot at the cynical nature of the entertainment business that will try to manufacture a group like The Monkees as a marketing strategy. For us, it was all about the music, and we were commenting on the pitfalls of the industry rather than on any of our fellow musicians." [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?"] The track continued the experimentation with sound effects that they had started with the Lear jet song on the previous album. That had featured recordings of a Lear jet, and "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?" featured recordings of audience screams. Those screams were, according to most sources, recorded by Derek Taylor at a Byrds gig in Bournemouth in 1965, but given reports of the tepid response the group got on that tour, that doesn't seem to make sense. Other sources say they're recordings of a *Beatles* audience in Bournemouth in *1963*, the shows that had been shown in the first US broadcast of Beatles footage, and the author of a book on links between the Beatles and Bournemouth says on his blog "In the course of researching Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth I spoke to two people who saw The Byrds at the Gaumont that August and neither recalled any screaming at all, let alone the wall of noise that can be heard on So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star." So it seems likely that screaming isn't for the Byrds, but of course Taylor had also worked for the Beatles. According to Usher "The crowd sound effects were from a live concert that Derek Taylor had taped with a little tape recorder in London. It was some outrageous crowd, something like 20,000 to 30,000 people. He brought the tape in, ran it off onto a big tape, re- EQ'd it, echoed it, cleaned it up and looped it." So my guess is that the audience screams in the Byrds song about the Monkees are for the Beatles, but we'll probably never know for sure: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?"] The track also featured an appearance by Hugh Masekela, the jazz trumpeter whose invitation to take part in a session had inspired the song: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?"] While Hillman was starting to lean more towards folk and country music -- he had always been the member of the band least interested in rock music -- and McGuinn was most interested in exploring electronic sounds, Crosby was still pushing the band more in the direction of the jazz experimentation they'd tried on "Eight Miles High", and one of the tracks they started working on soon after "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?" was inspired by another jazz trumpet great. Miles Davis had been partly responsible for getting the Byrds signed to Columbia, as we talked about in the episode on "Mr. Tambourine Man", and so the group wanted to pay him tribute, and they started working on a version of his classic instrumental "Milestones": [Excerpt: Miles Davis, "Milestones"] Sadly, while the group worked on their version for several days -- spurred on primarily by Crosby -- they eventually chose to drop the track, and it has never seen release or even been bootlegged, though there is a tiny clip of it that was used in a contemporaneous documentary, with a commentator talking over it: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Milestones (TV)"] It was apparently Crosby who decided to stop work on the track, just as working on it was also apparently his idea. Indeed, while the biggest change on the album that would become Younger Than Yesterday was that for the first time Chris Hillman was writing songs and taking lead vocals, Crosby was also writing more than before. Hillman wrote four of the songs on the album, plus his co-write with McGuinn on "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star?", but Crosby also supplied two new solo compositions, plus a cowrite with McGuinn, and Crosby and McGuinn's "Why?", the B-side to "Eight Miles High", was also dug up and rerecorded for the album. Indeed, Gary Usher would later say "The album was probably 60% Crosby. McGuinn was not that involved, nor was Chris; at least as far as performing was concerned." McGuinn's only composition on the album other than the co-writes with Crosby and Hillman was another song about contacting aliens, "CTA-102", a song about a quasar which at the time some people were speculating might have been evidence of alien life. That song sounds to my ears like it's had some influence from Joe Meek's similar records, though I've never seen McGuinn mention Meek as an influence: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "CTA-102"] Crosby's growing dominance in the studio was starting to rankle with the other members. In particular two tracks were the cause of conflict. One was Crosby's song "Mind Gardens", an example of his increasing experimentation, a freeform song that ignores conventional song structure, and which he insisted on including on the album despite the rest of the group's objections: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Mind Gardens"] The other was the track that directly followed "Mind Gardens" on the album. "My Back Pages" was a song from Dylan's album Another Side of Bob Dylan, a song many have seen as Dylan announcing his break with the folk-song and protest movements he'd been associated with up to that point, and his intention to move on in a new direction: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "My Back Pages"] Jim Dickson, the Byrds' co-manager, was no longer on speaking terms with the band and wasn't involved in their day-to-day recording as he had been, but he'd encountered McGuinn on the street and rolled down his car window and suggested that the group do the song. Crosby was aghast. They'd already recorded several songs from Another Side of Bob Dylan, and Fifth Dimension had been their first album not to include any Dylan covers. Doing a jangly cover of a Dylan song with a McGuinn lead vocal was something they'd moved on from, and he didn't want to go back to 1964 at the end of 1966. He was overruled, and the group recorded their version, a track that signified something very different for the Byrds than the original had for Dylan: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "My Back Pages"] It was released as the second single from the album, and made number thirty. It was the last Byrds single to make the top forty. While he was working with the Byrds, Usher continued his work in the pop field, though as chart pop moved on so did Usher, who was now making records in a psychedelic sunshine pop style with acts like the Peanut Butter Conspiracy: [Excerpt: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, "It's a Happening Thing"] and he produced Chad and Jeremy's massive concept album Of Cabbages and Kings, which included a five-song "Progress Suite" illustrating history from the start of creation until the end of the world: [Excerpt: Chad and Jeremy, "Editorial"] But one of the oddest projects he was involved in was indirectly inspired by Roger McGuinn. According to Usher "McGuinn and I had a lot in common. Roger would always say that he was "out of his head," which he thought was good, because he felt you had to go out of your head before you could really find your head! That sums up McGuinn perfectly! He was also one of the first people to introduce me to metaphysics, and from that point on I started reading everything I could get my hands on. His viewpoints on metaphysics were interesting, and, at the time, useful. He was also into Marshall McLuhan; very much into the effects of electronics and the electronic transformation. He was into certain metaphysical concepts before I was, but I was able to turn him onto some abstract concepts as well" These metaphysical discussions led to Usher producing an album titled The Astrology Album, with discussions of the meaning of different star signs over musical backing: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, "Leo"] And with interviews with various of the artists he was working with talking about astrology. He apparently interviewed Art Garfunkel -- Usher was doing some uncredited production work on Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends album at the time -- but Garfunkel declined permission for the interview to be used. But he did get both Chad and Jeremy to talk, along with John Merrill of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy -- and David Crosby: [Excerpt: Gary Usher, "Leo"] One of the tracks from that album, "Libra", became the B-side of a single by a group of studio musicians Usher put together, with Glen Campbell on lead vocals and featuring Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys prominently on backing vocals. "My World Fell Down" was credited to Sagittarius, again a sign of Usher's current interest in astrology, and featured some experimental sound effects that are very similar to the things that McGuinn had been doing on recent Byrds albums: [Excerpt: Sagittarius, "My World Fell Down"] While Usher was continuing with his studio experimentation, the Byrds were back playing live -- and they were not going down well at all. They did a UK tour where they refused to play most of their old hits and went down as poorly as on their previous tour, and they were no longer the kings of LA. In large part this was down to David Crosby, whose ego was by this point known to *everybody*, and who was becoming hugely unpopular on the LA scene even as he was starting to dominate the band. Crosby was now the de facto lead vocalist on stage, with McGuinn being relegated to one or two songs per set, and he was the one who would insist that they not play their older hit singles live. He was dominating the stage, leading to sarcastic comments from the normally placid Hillman like "Ladies and gentlemen, the David Crosby show!", and he was known to do things like start playing a song then stop part way through a verse to spend five minutes tuning up before restarting. After a residency at the Whisky A-Go-Go where the group were blown off the stage by their support act, the Doors, their publicist Derek Taylor quit, and he was soon followed by the group's co-managers Jim Dickson and Eddie Tickner, who were replaced by Crosby's friend Larry Spector, who had no experience in rock management but did represent Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, two young film stars Crosby was hanging round with. The group were particularly annoyed by Crosby when they played the Monterey Pop Festival. Crosby took most lead vocals in that set, and the group didn't go down well, though instrumentally the worst performer was Michael Clarke, who unlike the rest of the band had never become particularly proficient on his instrument: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "So You Want to be a Rock 'n' Roll Star (live at Monterey)"] But Crosby also insisted on making announcements from the stage advocating LSD use and describing conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination: [Excerpt: David Crosby on the Warren Commission, from the end of "Hey Joe" Monterey] But even though Crosby was trying to be the Byrds' leader on stage, he was also starting to think that they maybe didn't deserve to have him as their leader. He'd recently been spending a lot of time hanging out with Stephen Stills of the Buffalo Springfield, and McGuinn talks about one occasion where Crosby and Stills were jamming together, Stills played a blues lick and said to McGuinn "Can you play that?" and when McGuinn, who was not a blues musician, said he couldn't, Stills looked at him with contempt. McGuinn was sure that Stills was trying to poach Crosby, and Crosby apparently wanted to be poached. The group had rehearsed intensely for Monterey, aware that they'd been performing poorly and not wanting to show themselves up in front of the new San Francisco bands, but Crosby had told them during rehearsals that they weren't good enough to play with him. McGuinn's suspicions about Stills wanting to poach Crosby seemed to be confirmed during Monterey when Crosby joined Buffalo Springfield on stage, filling in for Neil Young during the period when Young had temporarily quit the group, and performing a song he'd helped Stills write about Grace Slick: [Excerpt: Buffalo Springfield, "Rock 'n' Roll Woman (live at Monterey)"] Crosby was getting tired not only of the Byrds but of the LA scene in general. He saw the new San Francisco bands as being infinitely cooler than the Hollywood plastic scene that was LA -- even though Crosby was possibly the single most Hollywood person on that scene, being the son of an Oscar-winning cinematographer and someone who hung out with film stars. At Monterey, the group had debuted their next single, the first one with an A-side written by Crosby, "Lady Friend": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Lady Friend"] Crosby had thought of that as a masterpiece, but when it was released as a single, it flopped badly, and the rest of the group weren't even keen on the track being included on the next album. To add insult to injury as far as Crosby was concerned, at the same time as the single was released, a new album came out -- the Byrds' Greatest Hits, full of all those singles he was refusing to play live, and it made the top ten, becoming far and away the group's most successful album. But despite all this, the biggest conflict between band members when they came to start sessions for their next album wasn't over Crosby, but over Michael Clarke. Clarke had never been a particularly good drummer, and while that had been OK at the start of the Byrds' career, when none of them had been very proficient on their instruments, he was barely any better at a time when both McGuinn and Hillman were being regarded as unique stylists, while Crosby was writing metrically and harmonically interesting material. Many Byrds fans appreciate Clarke's drumming nonetheless, saying he was an inventive and distinctive player in much the same way as the similarly unskilled Micky Dolenz, but on any measure of technical ability he was far behind his bandmates. Clarke didn't like the new material and wasn't capable of playing it the way his bandmates wanted. He was popular with the rest of the band as a person, but simply wasn't playing well, and it led to a massive row in the first session: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Universal Mind Decoder (alternate backing track)"] At one point they joke that they'll bring in Hal Blaine instead -- a reference to the recording of "Mr. Tambourine Man", when Clarke and Hillman had been replaced by Blaine and Larry Knechtel -- and Clarke says "Do it. I don't mind, I really don't." And so that ended up happening. Clarke was still a member of the band -- and he would end up playing on half the album's tracks -- but for the next few sessions the group brought in session drummers Hal Blaine and Jim Gordon to play the parts they actually wanted. But that wasn't going to stop the bigger problem in the group, and that problem was David Crosby's relationship with the rest of the band. Crosby was still at this point thinking of himself as having a future in the group, even as he was increasingly convinced that the group themselves were bad, and embarrassed by their live sound. He even, in a show of unity, decided to ask McGuinn and Hillman to collaborate on a couple of songs with him so they would share the royalties equally. But there were two flash-points in the studio. The first was Crosby's song "Triad", a song about what we would now call polyamory, partly inspired by Robert Heinlein's counterculture science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. The song was meant to portray a progressive, utopian, view of free love, but has dated very badly -- the idea that the *only* reason a woman might be unhappy with her partner sleeping with another woman is because of her mother's disapproval possibly reveals more about the mindset of hippie idealists than was intended. The group recorded Crosby's song, but refused to allow it to be released, and Crosby instead gave it to his friends Jefferson Airplane, whose version, by having Grace Slick sing it, at least reverses the dynamics of the relationship: [Excerpt: Jefferson Airplane, "Triad"] The other was a song that Gary Usher had brought to the group and suggested they record, a Goffin and King song released the previous year by Dusty Springfield: [Excerpt: Dusty Springfield, "Goin' Back"] Crosby was incandescent. The group wanted to do this Brill Building pap?! Hell, Gary Usher had originally thought that *Chad and Jeremy* should do it, before deciding to get the Byrds to do it instead. Did they really want to be doing Chad and Jeremy cast-offs when they could be doing his brilliant science-fiction inspired songs about alternative relationship structures? *Really*? They did, and after a first session, where Crosby reluctantly joined in, when they came to recut the track Crosby flat-out refused to take part, leading to a furious row with McGuinn. Since they were already replacing Michael Clarke with session drummers, that meant the only Byrds on "Goin' Back", the group's next single, were McGuinn and Hillman: [Excerpt: The Byrds, "Goin' Back"] That came out in late October 1967, and shortly before it came out, McGuinn and Hillman had driven to Crosby's home. They told him they'd had enough. He was out of the band. They were buying him out of his contract. Despite everything, Crosby was astonished. They were a *group*. They fought, but only the way brothers fight. But McGuinn and Hillman were adamant. Crosby ended up begging them, saying "We could make great music together." Their response was just "And we can make great music without you." We'll find out whether they could or not in two weeks' time.