Pure Moods III - A brief CD review

I have actually owned this CD for several years now. When I played it for the first time then, I didn't notice any catchy tracks, especially in light of what I had gotten used to in the first two installations of the Pure Moods series. Recently, on a drive back from a hike in NH, I put this CD on. I played the CD twice and listened to all the songs. Here are my thoughts on which tracks caught my fancy and which fell short.

Some tracks, like Synaesthetic from the Blue Man Group, I skipped right away during the first play. Other tracks like Games Without Frontiers from Peter Gabriel, I listened to fully the first time but skipped thereafter. Yet other tracks like Deliver Me from Sarah Brightman, Only If by Enya and Gravity of Love by Enigma were listened to fully during both iterations and have not been listened to since (but may be listened to tentatively at some point in the future).

Here are the five tracks that I continue to listen to in Pure Moods III (the other tracks are skipped):

#5 Land of Anaka - Brian Eno and Geoffrey Oryema

It was Geoff's deep voice and what seemed like a slow guitar that initially drew me to this song. Now I have taken a very strong liking to it.


#4 Cristofori's Dream - David Lanz

A beautiful, mellow instrumental. This piece should be listened to in a very, very quiet room. Otherwise, you won't do it justice.


#3 Porcelain - Moby

I had been listening to this song on YouTube for a while now without realizing that I had had it in a CD for a long time. I had found it after looking up information on Moby, whose theme from the Bourne movies originally piqued my interest and eventually led me to discovering this song.


#2 On Sacred Ground - Yanni

I had a feeling that this piece, with its grandeur, might be from Yanni (I lost the album cover a long time ago and had to look up the track listing on Amazon). And I was right. However, there seems to be no piano/keyboard (a Yanni signature) in the instruments used. At first I felt that the flute that picks up after the first two minutes of this piece was a bit invasive but now I am used to that. This piece brings to mind visions of being alone in the insides of a very old cathedral or chapel in an ancient town...although the guy who posted the below video had other visions.


#1 Life in Mono - Mono

Y'know, I was worried that this track might have been by some female named Ashley or Kayden something or other. But, thank goodness, it turned out to be by a singer with the lovely name of Siobhan de Maré. This was also the theme song in the movie Great Expectations (1998). Love it!

As Tests go...

I know that I said I never watched Cricket Tests. It was true up until a month ago. But with the Australians recently touring India for the Border-Gavaskar trophy, which consists of four Tests, I seem to have taken a sudden liking to Tests. Somehow the thought that a Test equates to a battle is a charming thought. Unlike the Twenty20 or ODI formats in Cricket, a Test is played for a period of five days. That's right! Five days! Each team gets to play two innings, each attempting to better its scores, or simply keeping the other down, with every batting turn. At the end of a day of play, the teams get to assess a variety of factors:

• How did the pitch behave today? Was there enough turn on the ball? Was there enough swing for the pace bowlers?
• Who played well and who didn't? Is a player's exising injury starting to bother him and should that be taken into consideration going forward?
• How much of the weather was a factor today? How much of the weather will be a factor during the remaining days? If the weather makes a turn for the worse (maybe heavy crosswinds are predicted), will the behavior of the pitch change?
• If that particular batsman turns out to be in great form tomorrow, how should the fielding placings be to counter his favorite selection of shots?
• And so on...

So now you see why such a Cricket match is called a Test! Trust me. People call Cricket a slow, boring game. But that is because they don't understand it or don't care to. In the Border-Gavaskar trophy, there are four Tests involved. This is a series. Whichever team wins the most Tests takes the series. The series is played every few years in India. And it is always played between India and Australia. The Aussies are the number 1 ranked Test team in the world. India are in 3rd place (South Africa are in 2nd place).

So far in the 2008 series, 2 Tests have been played in this series. The first Test was drawn and India won the 2nd Test by a huge margin. The 3rd Test will be on a ground where the India team has not lost the last 7 Tests it played there. And the Aussies apparently, after their heavy defeat last week, are raring to go! Anyway, the 3rd Test begins tonight at 12 PM EST (9 AM local time) in Delhi. An additional problem the teams have to encounter at the beginning of this 3rd Test is low visibility because of smog from all the firecrackers that were used up for the recently concluded Diwali, a national festival! I am going to bed now to get a few hours of sleep because I have to be up at midnight!!

State of the Fall

I have no idea what I was trying to convey with the title of this post but who cares? Anyway, here are some photos I took this past Saturday when I was up by Crescent Lake with Russ. Even though I just snapped away, I still had the presence of mind to use a ND grad filter to underexpose the sky. Click the pictures for a larger version.


The wisps of cloud immediately caught my attention.


Note the cranberry patch in the right, foreground.


And a closeup of the cranberry patch. Tart!


A couple of the locals at Crescent lake looking for work...


Russ had some nice stonework next to his cottage.


Would you believe that this picture was taken right next to the town dump?! By the way, the dump was new...


Note the milkweed. This was a terrific, sunny meadow!


We briefly investigated a beaver dam.


A random road that led to a farm where the look of things suggested a hesitant maple syrup operation.


Another random road that I was somewhat taken with.

On Sunday (the following day), I did a nice, energetic hike up to Mt. Osceola with Kim but unfortunately my camera battery was aziz. So I couldn't take any pictures. But I can always go back...

Joe the businessman

Wait a minute! If you make $250 grand a year in personal income, does that make you a plumber or a businessman? That being said, I am still in favor of a proportional tax for everyone with functioning organs and limbs.

Goodmorning!

So did anyone get Veeepped?

Last night, when Palin said, "Hey, can I call you Joe?", I smiled. But then when she referred to a hockey game, I grimaced, "Uh-oh, here we go again".

When I think of Alaska, I think of pristine wilderness...not theatre & the arts, a complex financial services industry or annual public transportation budgets. I strongly feel that it is easy to appeal to Alaskans or those folks from northern New Hampshire with Palin's brand of energy. Yes, she has got things done from the perspective of mayoral politics. But how would Palin do as a Mayor or Governor in a "fast" state like California (where even the mighty Schwarzenegger machine has failed)? My take: she might not even have gotten elected to office anywhere outside of Alaska. You want to deal with the EU? "Darn rights" aren't going to help with the likes of a Dalia Grybauskaite.

Palin's hockey mom saga also highlights a serious issue: is it necessary to have 3 or 4 kids to demonstrate traditional family values?

I am not going to comment on Biden as, like some people, I tuned in to confirm my impression of Palin. All I will say is that Biden seemed very capable with a much better handle on "issues" than Palin. I will like Palin as long as she remains within a certain context: small town politics and the hockey field. But who knows...

Champions League 2008

The inaugural Champions League 2008 kicks off December 3 in India. 8 teams -- including the two finalists from the inaugural Indian Premier League tournament from earlier this year: Chennai Super Kings (whom I support) and Rajasthan Royals -- will compete for the prize money of $6 million. The final match will be on December 10.

A week of intense Twenty20 Cricket would be a great way for me to kick start the winter here in the US before I transition into the ski season!


Ah!