Accessing Universal Intelligence.
Human Ingenuity and Creativity. Our Cultural Heritage.
Favourite things. Music and Movies. Nature. Items that interest me on any topic.
It is the 2nd
book by Daniel Rechnitzer, author of
“The ALL KNOWING Diary”.
Why is this a Masterpiece?
Is Daniel a literary
genius?
Perhaps, but more importantly this book puts the power of the
Universe back in your hands!
“Ui - Universal Intelligence The
Power of The Universe Is In Your Hands” Please share the link below with as many people as possible
via email, Facebook and Twitter, they will love it as much as you
will! FREE DOWNLOAD, go to www.Ui12.tvandsee ‘Event Details’. Ui12:12 Modules 12 Weeks 12 Areas of Life 12
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Now! Enjoy the read – it’s gripping, to say the
least!
Sustainability Coach and EnviroscapeLA Founder Mike Garcia talks about
his recent attendance to Daniel Rechnitzer's recent semainar series on
"The All Knowing Diary". Daniel'd breakthrough book is revolutionary
and a vision for all!
More
posts on Daniel Rechnitzer, The All Knowing Diary and Universal
intelligence can be found by using the search engine - top left.There
are quite a lot!
The Rock Opera "Ned Kelly" was written by Reg
Livermore and PatrickFlynn.
This album was recorded in 1974, according to the record label. However, according to Jon English's site it says he sang this role in 1976 - see below.
It features Jon English as Ned Kelly, Trevor White as Aaron Sherritt, Reg
Livermore as Sergeant Hare, Janice Slater as Ma Kelly, Arthur Dignam as
Constable Fitzpatrick and Tony Rose as Constable McIntyre.
Included also on the recording
were John Paul Young, or John Young as he was known then, and Peter Chambers as
other Kelly gang members. As you can see there was much of the cast of the 1972 Australian production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" which I have covered in another post.
On this track: Jon English, Trevor White, John
Paul Young, Peter Chambers and Arthur Dignam.
This is the first track on the album. I really
like it as it has a nice upbeat tempo.
As the story progresses the music becomes more
sombre.
If you set your You Tube player to a larger mode
there is plenty of information about it from the album cover.
As far as I can tell this version, with this
cast, was not actually performed on stage but I could be wrong.
Call it destiny or fate, but the recurring pattern to
emerge in Livermore’s life is one where things could have turned out very
differently. For instance, had Livermore’s musical Ned Kelly premiered
anywhere other than in Adelaide, the show may have had more than one chance. The
out-of- town tryout system long-established in the United States has never
worked in Australia.
Almost inevitably, when opening night comes, so does crunch
time
My focus here is primarily the musical, not the retelling of the Ned Kelly story.
I see it as a part of our musical cultural history.
The first ever feature film made in Australia
was about Ned
Kelly.
Then many years later there was one with Mick Jagger, and
another much, much later with Heath
Ledger.
The Ned Kelly version with Mick Jagger introduced me to the music of Waylon Jennings. That was a big plus!
For those who are too young to know Waylon Jennings was part of Buddy Holly's backing group, the Crickets.
After their last concert together with Richie Valens (Donna,La Bamba) and The Big Bopper (Chantilly Lace) they had to go to another gig. The only way out was by bus or chartered plane.
Sadly the chartered plane didn't have much space so they tossed a coin for the seats.
Waylon lost the toss! A bad coin-toss saved his life. Until his death he never got over this incident!.
A shame they didn’t use the talents of Jon
English and Mario Millo for the soundtrack of “The Last Outlaw”, as I think the
soundtrack for “Against The Wind” is way superior to this.
Having said that it doesn't diminish the impact of the series.
There is much more on Ned
Kelly on the internet, and of course one must not forget to mention the Sidney
Nolan paintings.
Ned Kelly was most definitely a legendary and iconic figure in
Australia’s history so it is not too surprising that his story has inspired many people in all fields of the arts
Update #1:
Just found out that... “The Show originated as a
1974 concept recording and was subsequently adapted as a stage production, which
opened on 4 February 1978 at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney.
TINY Beveridge, a quiet
rural township of barely 100 people about 40km north of Melbourne, doesn’t seem
the kind of place that could produce a criminal, but it was a childhood home to
Australia’s most notorious outlaw, Ned Kelly.
And now, it could be home to
you.
The legendary bushranger’s
childhood home, a historic 1859 cottage built by his father John “Red” Kelly,
is up for sale. The property at 44 Kelly Street,
being marketed by Andrew Bellino and Rocco Di Battista of Ray White Craigieburn,
retains many of its original features, including a bluestone chimney, the
original iron grates and wood-grained ledged and braced doors. Much of the
building, unsurprisingly a little worse for wear, was built using materials
found in local bushland. The original cottage has been
listed on the Victorian Heritage Register because of its unusual architecture,
thought to be because of the Irish heritage of its builder. The cottage has an earthen floor,
with drainage running between rooms that reach the peak of the corrugated iron
roof. But the 1.45ha property also
comes with a newer house, a modern, four-bedroom home built in 2002. “This property not only includes
a well-kept family home that is ready to move into, it’s also an opportunity to
secure a piece of Australia’s history,” Andrew Bellino says. “The heritage listing in place
means that the former Kelly home has never been and will never be changed. The
building as it stands today is exactly as it was when Ned Kelly lived there as a
child.” Kelly was born in Beveridge, but
was thought to have moved to the house when he was four or five and lived there
for half a decade. The town itself is full of
historical gems. The former Catholic church where Kelly attended school for a
number of years, built from the same local bluestone in a gothic style, is
perhaps the most impressive building. Bellino says it is difficult to
put a price on the property. “There aren’t a lot of sales in
the area and certainly none that are comparable to this property,’’ he
says. “Throughout the marketing
campaign we’ll listen to what the market is saying and that will guide the price
expectations on the property.” The National Trust of Australia
will be entering the bidding war. As of Thursday the trust had
scraped together $100,000 but is seeking help from the public to drum up the
estimated $650,000 it believes will be needed to buy the house. National Trust of Australia
(Victoria) CEO Martin Purslow said they were committed to safeguarding and
preserving the historic site for the future. ‘The Ned Kelly story has a
resonance with Australians and international visitors worldwide and Ned Kelly
himself is one of our most significant Australian cultural heritage folk
heroes,’ Mr Purslow said. The property is scheduled to be
auctioned at 2pm on September 20. Below: The real Ned Kelly. Picture credit: The Australian
Thanks to GR for almost all of the pictures.
Jon English and Janice Slater during production. Many thanks to Garry for this picture.
I have posted items about George Harrison before as he was my favourite Beatle. Now the death of Ravi Shankar - a man who inspired him and many others, and who taught him to play the sitar.
RAVI Shankar, the sitar
virtuoso who became a hippie musical icon of the 1960s after hobnobbing with the
Beatles and who introduced traditional Indian ragas to Western audiences over an
eight-decade career, has died. He was 92.
A statement on the musician's
website said he died in San Diego, near his Southern California home. His
foundation issued a statement saying that he had suffered upper respiratory and
heart problems and had undergone heart-valve replacement surgery last
week.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh also confirmed his death and called Shankar a "national
treasure".
Labelled "the godfather of world
music" by George Harrison, Shankar helped millions of classical, jazz and rock
lovers discover the centuries-old traditions of Indian music.
His last musical performance was with his other
daughter, sitarist Anoushka Shankar Wright, on November 4 in Long Beach,
California. His foundation said it was to celebrate his 10th decade of creating
music.
The multiple Grammy winner learnt
that he had again been nominated for the award the night before his surgery.
Shankar is up for Best World Music Album with The Living Room Sessions Part 1,
up against his daughter Anoushka with Traveller.
As early as the 1950s, Shankar
began collaborating with and teaching some of the greats of Western music,
including violinist Yehudi Menuhin and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. He played
well-received shows in concert halls in Europe and the United States, but faced
a constant struggle to bridge the musical gap between the West and the
East.
Describing an early Shankar tour
in 1957, Time magazine said "US audiences were receptive but occasionally
puzzled".
His close relationship with
Harrison, the Beatles lead guitarist, shot Shankar to global stardom in the
1960s.
Harrison had grown fascinated
with the sitar, a long necked, string instrument that uses a bulbous gourd for
its resonating chamber and resembles a giant lute. He played the instrument,
with a Western tuning, on the song "Norwegian Wood,"(see clip above), but soon sought out
Shankar, already a musical icon in India, to teach him to play it
properly.
The pair spent weeks together,
starting the lessons at Harrison's house in England and then moving to a
houseboat in Kashmir and later to California.
Gaining confidence with the
complex instrument, Harrison recorded the Indian-inspired song "Within You
Without You" on the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," helping
spark the raga-rock phase of 60s music and drawing increasing attention to
Shankar and his work.
Shankar's popularity exploded,
and he soon found himself playing on bills with some of the top rock musicians
of the era. He played a four-hour set at the Monterey Pop Festival and the
opening day of Woodstock.
Though the audience for his music
had hugely expanded, Shankar, a serious, disciplined traditionalist who had
played Carnegie Hall, chafed against the drug use and rebelliousness of the
hippie culture.
"I was shocked to see people
dressing so flamboyantly. They were all stoned. To me, it was a new world,"
Shankar told Rolling Stone of the Monterey festival.
While he enjoyed Otis Redding and
the Mamas and the Papas at the festival, he was horrified when Jimi Hendrix lit
his guitar on fire.
"That was too much for me. In our
culture, we have such respect for musical instruments, they are like part of
God," he said.
In 1971, moved by the plight of
millions of refugees fleeing into India to escape the war in Bangladesh, Shankar
reached out to Harrison to see what they could do to help.
In what Shankar later described
as "one of the most moving and intense musical experiences of the century," the
pair organised two benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden that included Eric
Clapton, Bob Dylan and Ringo Starr.
The concert, which spawned an
album and a film, raised millions of dollars for UNICEF and inspired other rock
benefits, including the 1985 Live Aid concert to raise funds for famine relief
in Ethiopia and the 2010 Hope For Haiti Now telethon.
Ravindra Shankar Chowdhury was
born April 7, 1920, in the Indian city of Varanasi. At the age of 10, he moved to
Paris to join the world famous dance troupe of his brother Uday. Over the next
eight years, Shankar travelled with the troupe across Europe, America and Asia,
and later credited his early immersion in foreign cultures with making him such
an effective ambassador for Indian music.
During one tour, renowned
musician Baba Allaudin Khan joined the troupe, took Shankar under his wing and
eventually became his teacher through 7 1/2 years of isolated, rigorous study of
the sitar.
"Khan told me you have to leave
everything else and do one thing properly," Shankar told The Associated
Press.
In the 1950s, Shankar began
gaining fame throughout India. He held the influential position of music
director for All India Radio in New Delhi and wrote the scores for several
popular films. He began writing compositions for orchestras, blending clarinets
and other foreign instruments into traditional Indian music.
And he became a de facto tutor
for Westerners fascinated by India's musical traditions.
He gave lessons to Coltrane, who
named his son Ravi in Shankar's honour, and became close friends with Menuhin,
recording the acclaimed "West Meets East" album with him. He also collaborated
with flutist Jean Pierre Rampal, composer Philip Glass and conductors Andre
Previn and Zubin Mehta.
"Any player on any instrument
with any ears would be deeply moved by Ravi Shankar. If you love music, it would
be impossible not to be," singer David Crosby, whose band The Byrds was inspired
by Shankar's music, said in the book "The Dawn of Indian Music in the West:
Bhairavi".
Shankar's personal life, however,
was more complex.
His 1941 marriage to Baba
Allaudin Khan's daughter, Annapurna Devi, ended in divorce. Though he had a
decades-long relationship with dancer Kamala Shastri that ended in 1981, he had
relationships with several other women in the 1970s.
In 1979, he fathered Norah Jones
with New York concert promoter Sue Jones, and in 1981, Sukanya Rajan, who played
the tanpura at his concerts, gave birth to his daughter Anoushka. He grew estranged from Sue Jones
in the 80s and didn't see Norah for a decade, though they later re-established
contact.
He married Rajan in 1989 and
trained young Anoushka as his heir on the sitar. In recent years, father and
daughter toured the world together.
When Jones shot to stardom and
won five Grammy awards in 2003, Anoushka Shankar was nominated for a Grammy of
her own.
Shankar, himself, has won three
Grammy awards and was nominated for an Oscar for his musical score for the movie
"Gandhi".
Despite his fame, numerous albums
and decades of world tours, Shankar's music remained a riddle to many Western
ears.
Shankar was amused after he and
colleague Ustad Ali Akbar Khan were greeted with admiring applause when they
opened the Concert for Bangladesh by twanging their sitar and sarod for a minute
and a half.
"If you like our tuning so much,
I hope you will enjoy the playing more," he told the confused crowd, and then
launched into his set.
Some pictures and the story with many thanks to The
Australian
