Crossplanet

Slumdog millionnaire... such a good movie. Made be happy, happy to get back to Victoria station, Mumbai, to the Taj mahal, to the qtmosphere of India. As usual the music from A.R. Rahman is really good, recently oscarized. It feels good to see this kind of low-budget movie be praised by the public and the film industry. Ok, it's not an indian movie, but it's got a real taste of India.

I'm in a nostalgic mood lately, and since my grandma Suzanne passed away in november 2 years ago, since Leonard Cohen gave a few concerts in Paris a few days agos, I remembered Suzanne is also my second name, I remembered that beautiful song. I used to play that song on the guitar when a teenager...

The Vatican has officially forgiven John Lennon for having declared that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ (the story is slightly different but that was the interpretation). It took only 40 years to get there! Talk about love!

 The theme of the month could be this song, Danzen aan see, from Blof, a dutch musician. I've heard this song some years ago, at a moment when my spirit wasn't so high up... In this version Cristina Blanco adds her beautiful voice and some lyrics in Portuguese. I remember that years ago a Dutch friend had translated the dutch lyrics for me, I don't recall the whole thing but I remember that it was beautiful. Surely a bit nostalgic, thinking of dancing by the sea, but beautiful just the same.

I've heard this piece of music a while ago, the soundtrack of a movie trailer, and it took me time to discover what it was, Mysteries by Beth Gibbons. It sounds a bit sad and nostalgic, but actually I don't think it is. To me it's just a beautiful way to express some "blue instants".

God knows how I adore life
When the wind turns on the shores lies another day
I cannot ask for more

When the time bell blows my heart
And I have scored a better day
Well nobody made this war of mine

And the moments that I enjoy
A place of love and mystery
I'll be there anytime

Oh mysteries of love
Where war is no more
I'll be there anytime

When the time bell blows my heart
And I have scored a better day
Well nobody made this war of mine

And the moments that I enjoy
A place of love and mystery
I'll be there anytime

Mysteries of love
Where war is no more
I'll be there anytime

In october I had discovered this music and listened to it again and again. The group is Hilight Tribe and the piece is called Free Tibet. Back then I was back from Dharamsala and it had touched me very deep inside. I recalled the mountains, the fierce deodar trees of the Himalayas, the hundreds of Om Mani Padmi Hum mantra recited while walking the kora around the temple. Recent events have put back on the actuality.

Check the Free Tibet site.

Yes I know it's not Friday yet, but since a friend have sent me this video this morning (could he be in love?), I thought it could be a nice song to sheer up this gloomy February... Enjoy!

Since a few weeks already I've been haunted by this music, heard in a special moment of a workshop on holotropic breathing. I've found it again a few days ago on a friend's answering machine!  

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
And the dreams that you dreamed of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Blue birds fly
And the dreams that you dreamed of
Dreams really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney top
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Blue birds fly
And the dream that you dare to
Why, oh why can't I?

Well I see trees of green and red roses too
I watch them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Well I see skies of blue,
and I see clouds of white
and the brightness of day
I like the dark
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the face of people passing by
I see friends shaking hands
Singing "how do you do"
They're really saying, I... I love you

I hear babies cry and I watch them grow
They'll learn much more
Than we'll know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world

Someday I'll wish upon a star
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where trouble melts like lemon drops
High above the chimney top
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
And the dream that you dare to
Why, oh why can't I?

1985. A new music on the radio, Marcia baila. A new group, the Rita Mitsouko. Two people, Catherine Ringer, the freak, and Fred Chichin, the dandy, started to shake the sleeping rock music in France.

20 years of innovation, of good lyrics, of good music.

Yesterday Fred Chichin, the guitar player, died of a "striking cancer", said the newspaper, whatever that may be. Play it again!

For a change, the leading music of the month is not a Indian or Bollywood music, but a techno music I've heard last week in a workshop. I've been obsessed by this music all week, and finally here it is. It's called Free Tibet, and is somehow a different version of the Om Mani Padmi Hum mantra.