MINGLING WITH ART
3/13/11
3/11/11
2/3/11
Kathmandu येँ महानगरपालिका कान्तिपुर काठमांडौ (Kaa-th-maan-dau)
Kathmandu (Nepali: काठमांडौ, pronounced: [kɑːʈʰ.mɑːɳ.ɖuː]; Nepal Bhasa: येँ महानगरपालिका) is the capital and largest metropolitan city of Nepal. The city is the urban core of the Kathmandu Valley in the Himalayas, which also contains two sister cities namely Patan or Lalitpur, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to its southeast (an ancient city of fine arts and crafts) and Bhaktapur, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) to its east (city of devotees). It is also acronymed as 'KTM' and named 'tri-city'.[4]
The city stands at an elevation of approximately 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) in the bowl-shaped valley in central Nepal surrounded by four major mountains, namely: Shivapuri, Phulchowki, Nagarjun and Chandragiri. It is inhabited by 671,846 (2001) people. The Kathmandu valley with its three districts including Kathmandu District accounts for a population density of only 97 per km2 whereas Kathmandu metropolitan city has a density of 13,225 per km2. It is by far the largest urban agglomerate in Nepal, accounting for 20% of the urban population in an area of 5,067 hectares (12,520 acres) (50.67 square kilometres (19.56 sq mi)).[5][6][7][8] y Kathmandu is not only the capital of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal but also the headquarters of the Central Region (Madhyamanchal) among the five development regions constituted by the 14 administrative zones of Nepal located at the central part of the country. The Central region has three zones namely, Bagmati, Narayani and Janakpur. Kathmandu is located in the Bagmati Zone.[9]
Kathmandu, as the gateway to Nepal Tourism, is the nerve center of the country’s economy. With the most advanced infrastructure among urban areas in Nepal, Kathmandu's economy is tourism centric accounting for 3.8% of the GDP in 1995-96 (had declined since then due to political unrest but has picked up again).
The city’s rich history is nearly 2000 years old, as inferred from an inscription in the valley. Its religious affiliations are dominantly Hindu followed byBuddhism. People of other religious beliefs also live in Kathmandu
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THE GREEN EYE OF THE LITTLE YELLOW GOD
by
J. Milton Hayes
There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
There's a little marble cross below the town;
There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.
He was known as "Mad Carew" by the subs at Khatmandu,
He was hotter than they felt inclined to tell;
But for all his foolish pranks, he was worshipped in the ranks,
And the Colonel's daughter smiled on him as well.
He had loved her all along, with a passion of the strong,
The fact that she loved him was plain to all.
She was nearly twenty-one and arrangements had begun
To celebrate her birthday with a ball.He wrote to ask what present she would like from Mad Carew;
They met next day as he dismissed a squad;
And jestingly she told him then that nothing else would do
But the green eye of the little Yellow God.On the night before the dance, Mad Carew seemed in a trance,
And they chaffed him as they puffed at their cigars:
But for once he failed to smile, and he sat alone awhile,
Then went out into the night beneath the stars.He returned before the dawn, with his shirt and tunic torn,
And a gash across his temple dripping red;
He was patched up right away, and he slept through all the day,
And the Colonel's daughter watched beside his bed.He woke at last and asked if they could send his tunic through;
She brought it, and he thanked her with a nod;
He bade her search the pocket saying "That's from Mad Carew,"
And she found the little green eye of the god.She upbraided poor Carew in the way that women do,
Though both her eyes were strangely hot and wet;
But she wouldn't take the stone and Mad Carew was left alone
With the jewel that he'd chanced his life to get.When the ball was at its height, on that still and tropic night,
She thought of him and hurried to his room;
As she crossed the barrack square she could hear the dreamy air
Of a waltz tune softly stealing thro' the gloom.His door was open wide, with silver moonlight shining through;
The place was wet and slipp'ry where she trod;
An ugly knife lay buried in the heart of Mad Carew,
'Twas the "Vengeance of the Little Yellow God."There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
There's a little marble cross below the town;
There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.
12/23/10
And Again My Soul’s Dreaming All About You -ALEKSA SANTIC
Aleksa Šantić
| Aleksa Šantić | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 27, 1868 Mostar, Austria–Hungary |
| Died | February 2, 1924 (aged 55) Mostar, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | Serbian |
For the village named after the poet, see Aleksa Šantić (Sombor).
(May 27, 1868 – February 2, 1924) was a Bosnian Serb poet.Aleksa Šantić
(Serbian Cyrillic: Алекса Шантић)
He was born and lived most his life in
then part of Austria-Hungary, where he also died.
The oeuvre of Aleksa Šantić, widely accessible yet acutely personal,
is a blend of fine-tuned emotional sensibility
and clear-eyed historical awareness,
steeped in the specifics of local culture
Drawing themes and imagery from his hometown Mostar,
the atmospheric capital of MediterraneanHerzegovina,
and its surroundings,
his poetry is marked in equal part by the late
-Ottoman urban culture in the region its
social distinctions,
subdued passions and melancholy,
as well as the South-Slavic
all over what was later to become Yugoslavia.
As a Serb who embraced the form
and the sentiment of the traditional Bosnian love ballad
he was a pioneer in attempting to bridge the national
and cultural divides,
and in his lamentation of the erosion of population through emigration,
that was the result of Austrianoccupation.
This combination of locally rooted,
transcultural sensibility
and a dedicated pan-Slavicvision
has earned him a special place in the pantheon of South Slavic poetry.
He was strongly influenced by Jovan Jovanović Zmaj, Vojislav Ilić and
The topics and images of his poems ranged from strong emotions
for social injustices of his time to nostalgic love.
His poems about Mostar and the river Neretva
Šantić wrote a number of love songs in the style of the Bosnian
love songs, sevdalinkas.
His most well known sevdalinka is Emina (female Bosniak name),
to which music was composed and it is often sung at restaurants
(kafanas).
Aleksa Šantić, a village in Serbia is named after this poet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And Again My Soul’s Dreaming All About You
And again my soul is dreaming all about you,
And my heart is breaking and longing for you,
And your infidelity is going away,
Like when a dark cloud leaves the sky alone.
And again you’re pure to me, brilliant, serene,
The vision of you warms me with a bliss,
So I’d again throw myself into your bosom
And watch your eyes smile sweetly.
The same way a slender fir that got struck with lightning
Still looks up at the sky waiting for more living,
And don’t think: the sky is carrying clouds
That will bring new thunders…
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I opet mi duša sve o tebi sanja,
I kida se srce i za tobom gine,
A nevjera tvoja daleko se sklanja,
Kao tamni oblak kad sa neba mine.
I opet si meni čista, sjajna, vedra,
Iz prizraka tvoga blaženstva me griju,
Pa bih opet tebi panuo na njedra
I gledô ti oči što se slatko smiju.
Tako vita jela koju munja zgodi
Još u nebo gleda i života čeka,
I ne misli: nebo da oblake vodi
Iz kojih ce nova zagrmiti jeka…
12/7/10
Ray Charles
Ray Charles
A multitalented blind black musician, Ray Charles pioneered soul music, which became enormously popular among both black and white audiences beginning in the late '50s. In secularizing certain aspects of gospel music (chord changes, song structures, call and response techniques, and vocal screams, wails, and moans) and adding blues based lyrics, he virtually invented a new genre of music.
Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind
Born in 1930, Ray Charles (nee Ray Charles Robinson) in Albany, Georgia grew up in Greenville, Florida. At age six he started to lose his sight from glaucoma after traumatically watching watching his brother drown in the washtub his mother used for take-in laundry. At the age of seven, from 1937 to 1945 he attended the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind, where he learned
piano, and later clarinet and alto saxophone, compose for big bands, as well as learning to read and write music in Braile. Orphaned at fifteen, Charles struck out on his own performing in bands around Florida. In 1948 at the age of seventeen Charles took his $600 savings and moved to Seattle. There he formed the Maxim trio, a group grounded in the style of Nat "King" Cole and Charles Brown. The Maxim Trio had a major R&B hit in 1949 with "Confession Blues" on the Downbeat (later Swing Time) label. It was during this time that he first began using Heroin. Charles toured with blues artist Lowell Fulson in the early '50s, having R&B hits with "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" and "Kiss Me Baby" on the small Los Angeles based Swingtime Label.
In 1952 Atlantic Records purchased Charles's recording contract from Swingtime for $2500. Charles give up the Nat "King" Cole stylization and began adapting gospel music techniques to blues lyrics. He soon had a hit with "It Should Have Been Me." In 1954
he arranged and played piano on Guitar Slim's top R&B hit "The Things I Used to Do" for Specialty Records and formed his own band. In 1955 Charles had a hit in both the R&B and pop fields with his own composition "I've Got a Woman." Using top flight studio musicians Charles had hits consistently on the R&B charts through the late '50s with "A Fool for You," "Drown In My Own Tears," :Hallelujah I Love Her So," and "Lonely Avenue," The recording debut of his female backup group the Raelettes. He also became popular with jazz fans, recording two highly acclaimed records and performing a set at the 1958 Newport Jazz festival in 1959. Charles established himself as a popular recording artist and a pioneer of soul music with the release of his own top R&B/pop hit
composition "What I Say."
Sensing that Atlantic was still basically an R&B organization, Charles moved to ABC-Paramount Records in late 1959. Through 1961, he had top pop hits with "Georgia On My Mind," "Hit the Road Jack," "Ruby," and "Unchain My Heart."He also recorded Genius + Soul = Jazz for Impulse (ABC's jazz subsidiary label), yielding a near smash pop/ top R&B hit with the instrumental "One Mint Julip," This album and one recorded with Betty Carter for ABC-Paramount brought him increasing popularity with jazz fans, black and white.
In 1962 Charles formed Ray Charles Enterprises, comprised of Tangerine Records, Tangerine Music, and Racer Music Company, opening studios and offices in Los Angeles in 1963. By then he was using forty piece orchestras and full vocal choruses for his recordings. With his full commercial sound, his Modern Sounds in Country and Western became phenomenally popular producing crossover smashes with "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Born to Lose," and "You Don't Know Me." Within a year
volume two was released and had crossover hits "You Are My Sunshine," "Your Cheating Heart," and "Take These Chains From My Heart." On ABC Charles had major pop hits with "Busted," "That Lucky Old Sun," "Crying Time," and "Together Again."During the 60s Charles became involved in films, appearing in the 1962 film Swinging Along, and the 1966 British film Ballad in Blue,and recording the soundtracks for The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and In the Heat of the Night (1967). By this time he was performing on the nightclub circuit, touring with his own package revue from 1969 into the '70s'
.
In 1973 Charles left ABC Records, retaining the rights to his ABC material and transferring his Tangerine operation to the new label Crossover. During 1976 he recorded Porgy and Bess with Cleo Laine for RCA Records. In 1977 he returned to Atlantic, moving to Columbia in the '80s and Warner Brothers in the '90s. In 1978 Dial Press published his autobiography and in 1980 appeared in The Blues Brothers movie and scored a minor country hit for his duet with Clint Eastwood, "Beers to You, from the film Any Which Way You Can. Charles had a major country hit with "Born To Love Me" in 1982 and later recorded duets with country stars on Friendship. The album yielded five country hits, including "We Didn't See a Thing" (with George Jones), "Seven Spanish Angels"( with Willie Nelson) and "Two Cats Like Us" (with Hank Williams JR,). Charles also played a major role in the recording of USA for Africa's "We Are the World" single in 1985.
1n 1989 Charles had his first major pop hit in over twenty years with with "I'll Be Good to 
You," featuring himself and Chaka Khan. In the '90s Charles appeared in commercials for Pepsi and was the subject of a PBS documentary.
You," featuring himself and Chaka Khan. In the '90s Charles appeared in commercials for Pepsi and was the subject of a PBS documentary.
Charles was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1982.Charles was also inducted into the Rock and Roll's Hall of Fame in its inaugural year1986.
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