Utopia? No, no.. it’s poo-topia!

Okay, I know, that doesn’t sound like a very inviting title for  blogpost! But after 2 days at a music festival, a clean toilet can become one of the most inviting and attractive object around.

This August, I went to the V-festival, held near Chelmsford, UK. Since this was my first festival in UK, everything around was a new experience to me. From watching Rihanna and Eminem on stage, to the world of thousands of tents, to portable toilets. These portable toilets became disgusting within one and a half days and many of them had characteristic rolls of half-wet toilet paper flowing out. Yet, queues were unending, courtesy the free-flowing (note: free-flowing here means abundant and not actually free) supply of beer. In that world of smelly porta-loos and general lack of hygiene, I was almost taken aback when I came across this..

Yes, they were actually charging  £2 to use their (supposedly) clean loo, and some (probably not enough) people were actually using it! Wonders of the world! Note their cheekily-names website called ‘naturalevent.co.uk’!

Monday Morning Spice: Spanish Guitarist

Here’s the latest in this new section for a dreary Monday morning…. something to inspire you to travel and explore!

Last month when I was in Barcelona, I visited Park Guell, a tranquil space full of greenery and interesting architecture, designed by Antoni Gaudi – the genius of moderniste architecture. The park has some amazing view of the city of Barcelona, and also a museum which was Gaudi’s residence during the time he constructed the park and and La Sagrada Familia.

While I was roaming around the park, I came across a busker playing Spanish guitar – which sounds slightly different from a normal acoustic guitar – a sound I’ve been fascinated with. I was entranced by his music. However, I don’t know too many music pieces on Spanish guitar. As I was enjoying his music, I was thinking about the one song I definitely knew (and had tried to learn to play it on keyboard). And as if reading my thoughts, the guy started playing the song – Spanish Romanza! Enjoy! 🙂

If you liked it, you can find some more Spanish guitar music here.. http://www.youtube.com/user/johnclarkemusic

I am off today for another round of Schengen visa application. Wish me luck! 🙂

Have a great week ahead!

Notes from a Dylan-Knopfler concert

* Excited by a chance to see two big legends of music.  Excited more because of the excitement and envy expressed by others who are unable to attend, for I don’t know the music of these legends very well, to be honest.

* Average age of people milling around in Nottingham seems to much higher – is it all because of the concert? or is it our mind playing tricks? Is the stag and hen-do capital of the country (at least in my eyes) suddenly converted to the people from hippy generations of 60s and 70s (again in my eyes) ?

* Concert starts exactly on time at 7.30. These ‘oldies’ are at least punctual. Respect.

* Only for someone like Dylan can someone like Knopfler be the opening act.

* Knopfler has a good set of accompanying instruments and artists – everything from usual guitars, drums to wooden flute, whistle, old-style bass (which looks like a cello – what is it called?), cello, violin and accordion. I am beginning to like the music.

* I am informed by my more-musically-astute friend that Knopfler’s playing mostly new songs, which should be expected, because he would want to promote new album/songs (which would be the reason he would be touring anyway). This is also obvious from the reaction of the crowd as well, which is minimal. These new songs seem to have a lot of folk/country influence. One even sounds similar to Madonna’s ‘Hey Mr DJ..’ song – but a more civilized and ‘cleaned-up’ version of that.

* Knopfler ends his concert with Dire Straits songs ‘Brother in Arms’ and ‘So far away’. We feel a bit disappointed not getting to hear ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Sultans of Swing’. Those were the two Dire Straits songs I actually knew about.

* Mini-break, we calculate the rough attendance and money they must be making through the concert. The £66 (lowest one) ticket seems pretty expensive.

* Dylan makes a good entrance greeted by an enthusiastic crowd with respect in their eyes – a crowd which feels glad just to be able to see a legend.

* His band looks fairly young, but from a distance, it’s difficult to tell. They’re all wearing hats. It might not even be real Bob Dylan.

* The music is good. But Dylan’s voice is hoarse. Very very hoarse.

* One young fellow looks high/drunk/in the ‘mood’ – he’s the only one dancing (wildly) in a stadium of 10,000 people who are sitting listening to the music.

* I can’t understand a single word he’s singing. It seems to consist of just groans and grunts. And the same note. I almost think (at the risk of being very disrespectful) the music would sound better without him singing. I am sorry Mr Dylan, but that’s what I felt.

* Dylan announces the names of his band members. Can’t understand a single name. And then the band performs ‘Like a Rolling Stone’.

* Almost abruptly, the concert ends. I guess, in his previous announcement, he must have mentioned it was going to be the last song. Everyone rises to their feet and keeps clapping for a while. And it all abruptly ends again.

I liked the music, but feel strangely unsatisfied.

These are my notes immediately after coming back from a concert by Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan at the Nottingham Capital FM Arena tonight, where I went with my friend and colleague Mayank.