pocket lint

It's been a while. I know. And really the only reason I'm posting anything now (strictly for Jamie, since she and, well, me are this blog's only followers) is due to the crackheaded state-of-been-writing-about-convoluted-film-theory-for-two-day-straight-being I am in.

That said let's move right along.




The Darjeeling Limited is not Wes Anderson's best work, and it's not perfect, but it's fucking good (Jason Schwartzman is barefoot on a moped. 'Nuff said.). And the music is fucking gold. If a movie could be judged by soundtrack alone, Darjeeling would take that train right on down to the cult-classic station.

At least for me, and the 5 other people who couldn't stop listening to it.

First of all, it's perfect traveling music. When I was in Nepal, flying in a Cesna-like 20-person, Indiana-Jones-wouldn't-know-how-to-fly-but-would-crash-land-immediately-before-the explosion-type airplane through the tallest mountain range in the world to a landing strip a single football field in length with a sheer cliff on one end and a mountain wall at the other, I had my headphones in and listened to The Kinks sing "This Time Tomorrow," tapping their tambourines, as I waved out the window to the high-altitude trees swaying on the mountain peak next door.

The Kinks songs on the album are heartfelt and express a longing for comradery in a lonely world where we all make mistakes and want a friend to make them with. Just the line "Strangers on this road we are on - But we are not two, we are one" simply says, "We're in this together, whatever it might be."

Some of the best of the album (and as I've said, it's ALL GOOD) is the Indian classical music by Ustad Vilayat Khan. I don't know what all the instruments are, I think there's probably some sitar involved, but whatever it is, it's magnificent. The songs are cheerful and traveling (a theme, obviously) and never dull. Here's another example of his work:
http://popup.lala.com/popup/937030206147800510

(Ha! Sitar)

Khan was born in Ghauripur in British India back in 1929. He passed away in March 2004 of lung cancer. The style of music is called "Raga" which in Sanskrit means "mood" or "color." The music takes on a particular feeling and expresses it.