Sangeet

Sangeet is Hindi for "music," and is the name of a show on WPRB, which I was listening to this morning. "Music of the Indian subcontinent," classical and folk, Bollywood dance numbers, world beat and hip-hop. What caught my ear when I first turned on the radio was a very simple flute melody, with sitar behind it. Reminded me, with the snow on the ground and the cold clear air, of Kashmir, Nepal, someplace high in the Himalayas, with a touch of incense in the thin air... Next song of course was some filmi pop, kind of broke the spell.

Reading: Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me, plus others. Sangeet also happens to remind me of George and Irma Rajamuttu, the grenadine-soaked conspirators living next door to protagonist Gnossos Pappadapolis, and their record collection. Small world.

I was on my way to Coffee Works this morning when I heard the music, but last night I met Doug & Lori, and Kris & Eric at an upscale Italian place on College Hill called Juliana's. Good food, some decent BYO wine that they brought (fine by me anyway, I can never tell good wine from bad), good talk which became depressing for a while: several recent sexual assault and child molestation/porn cases came up, a bit of a buzzkill.

Crazy... so when I got to Coffee Works there were two high school girls working, and a bunch of their friends there, all BS'ing with this big fat old guy, shabby, suspenders and a gray-white Santa Clause beard, that I've seen down there a few times lately. I opened the paper, saw the stories we were talkng about last night, plus another, and another... The fat guy started looking pretty creepy and ominous, until one of the girls said to him "we should get this [brand of cream cheese or something] at home, Dad." Um, OK, and the mom of one of the workers was sitting next to me at the counter, calm down...

Listening: Right now I just downloaded a Duende MP3, one of my favorites: a live version of their song "Overboard." I've got the CD, guess I'm just stocking up in case something goes wrong. I'm also downloading "West Virginia," a song thak kind of reminds me of the way I feel about Easton, or at least the Easton of my dreams. (I dream a lot about Easton. No plot, just drifting throught the streets and houses, almost like an alternate universe, brickwork and downtown, night and alleys...)

After Coffee works I went to the gym, met Dawn there. Excellent workout, I feel pretty strong on the weights especially my legs. Dawn's heading up to Maine for some snowmobiling, and I won't see her again until almost March; when she gets back I think I'll start switching from strength back to endurance workouts.

Tomorrow is hopefully a road ride (reasonable conditions and I'll break out the Iguana) otherwise I might go DH skiing at Blue Mountain. When the song finishes downloading I'll listen to it, then hop in the shower & go out for some dinner. Yo later.