Gallery of Books/Win signed Blue Alert!

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:29 pm

Thank you, Tom! I read a book called the House of Sand and Fog. One of the main characters was from Iran, and spoke 'Farsi'. Mystery solved.

Linda.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:49 pm

Thanks for that info, Tom. I wonder which it actually was that Rumi spoke... perhaps, several?

Thanks for the description. "Ancient" is a favourite for me, too. I have the setting that belonged to my maternal grandmother. It was from Egypt ~ and clearly very very old. Old, goldish-bronzish metal and irregular 'prongs' all the way around the what-appeared-to-be old, carved ivory depicting an old, bearded man holding a staff, and standing next to a tall column. He looked to be in a temple. It was magical. It was partially broken away when I got it, but with time, it eventually broke?/crumbled?/disappeared, to where now all that's left is the setting itself.

I love the music of that entire region. When they close out segments on NPR that relate to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, etc., they do it with snippets of those songs. I always wish they would just keep playing.

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:59 pm

On the music from those areas, I remember when the wars and famines and pestilence were rained down upon them and I think it was Afghan music, and the music of Romania that really 'drew'' me in. The Romanian would by more 'gypsy', I guess, with the various instruments. Leonard's earlier music had those hints, as you know. The Mediterranean 'sound'. Whatever that is - that's what a critic called his earlier acoustic instrumentation. Mediterranean. Better than techno pop, anyway.

The Jew's harp and the whistling in the background is a perfect touch, along with oud and all the other stringed instruments he's used over the years.

Linda.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:04 pm

I agree with all you've said in that posting, Linda.

I have some PHE~ NOM~ E~NAL gypsy music... puts you dead center in the circle of dancing, singing, playing gypsies

.
PURE ecstasy !!! If you have any interest in it, let me know and I'll make you a copy.

~ Lizzy

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:06 pm

Lizzy,

I just read your description of a ring your grand-mother had? I have a Chinese box, that I've always used as a 'jewellery' box. I could see that it was inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and what I now think are jade and coral, along with some ivory decoration.

I carried that box around from move to move, now I see the top of the box is coming away from the seam. It is NOT a modern box. This thing is probably hundreds of years old, but it wasn't evident to me. Again, there was an old man, with a long beard, leaning on his staff of (what I can only guess is ivory). That figure seems to transcend boundaries. The old man leaning on his staff.

Aha! When I get that old, I hope I'll have a 'staff' upon which i can lean!

Linda.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:08 pm

That's amazing, your description of the character on your box. I wish you could scan and send me a copy of it. Does your new computer have that capability? I'd be interested to see just how much they do compare. I wonder if one could oil ~ olive oil, maybe? ~ what's left of what you have, to preserve it. I wish I'd known to do something!

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:12 pm

Oh, there's your 'gypsy music'. Ha!

This is probably very weird, but you know the live version of 'Who By Fire' on Field Commander Cohen??? I could DANCE to that number all night! The strings really get a person moving! I had a friend who used to play the Ukranian Bandura, or Bondura. I'm sure Tom is aware of it. It looks like a big viola. Very high pitched sound, but in the right hands, breathless.

If you're giving away the music of the Romanian Gypsies. I have coins, yes, coins for which I will trade you....

... the Tarot I stay away from.

Seriously, yes, I love that sort of music and it's near impossible to find!

Linda.

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:15 pm

The best I could do with that box is take a pic of it. With the resolution on our new computers, the detail would probably stand out. It's odd how so many treasures were 'lost' or 'covered over' to disguise their owners' identity perhaps. I don't know, but that old man on his staff seems to be a recurring theme.

Some people just don't know what they've got 'til it's gone...

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:20 pm

what's left of what you have, to preserve it. I wish I'd known to do something!

If you ever have a desire to rebuild jewellery, I would suggest you 'maintain' it, if you can. The rebuilding of jewellery is VERY expensive. No matter the metal content, just doing a very intricate job, is very (did I already say EXPENSIVE)? Oh. I did. It just didn't look BIG enough.

Trust me, it's no laughing matter. If you have items that are getting 'older' restore them now, or you'll lose them forever.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 6:57 pm

If "coins" is another word for "cash" ~ forget it. The pleasure of your reaction to this music will be 'trade' enough! If "coins" means the literal creatures of days gone by or other countries, particularly those relevant here ~ then, yes, that would be wonderful, as I love old/other-countries' coins

. Are you ever in for a treat

!

If Rumi's poetry, with some of the same, olde musical accompaniment, interests you, I can include you with my making copies of tapes, when I do it for Diane and Steven ~ when I get my being-repaired player back

!

See what you can do with old man and the staff depiction. I'm not surprized that it's a common theme, but am really interested to see just how close they are/were

. Yes ~ "Maintain while you can!" and "Hindsight is 20/20" ~ go together rather well, don't they

?

Yes ~ I could dance all night to that music from Field Commander Cohen, as well. With someone or alone ~ who cares?
The dance is the dance.

The zikir is a Sufi dance ritual, typically reserved for males [per my, perhaps erroneous, understanding] ~ it's VERY intense, very deep. I would love to travel to Morocco or anywhere else that it is done, preferably outside, in the open, night air ~ and be mesmerized in the watching. Mesmerizing is also the word for the music you'll be receiving.

~ Lizzy

linda_lakeside · Post by **linda_lakeside** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:03 pm

And the only way to dance, either alone of with another, is barefoot..

Thanks Lizzy,
Linda.

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:06 pm

is barefoot..

Oh, yes ~ and to live ~ wherever possible.

You're welcome < * I'm so excited ~ you'll see why when you get it ~ Awesome in the finest sense of the word * > ~ I'll tell you the woman who gave it to me....when I send it, just in case she doesn't want it said here.

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:38 pm

Dancing Barefoot

she is benediction
she is addicted to thee
she is the root connection
she is connecting with he

here I go and I don't know why
I fell so ceaselessly
could it be he's taking over me...

I'm dancing barefoot
heading for a spin
some strange music draws me in
makes me come on like some heroin/e

she is sublimation
she is the essence of thee
she is concentrating on
he, who is chosen by she

here I go and I don't know why
I spin so ceaselessly,
could it be he's taking over me...

she is re-creation
she, intoxicated by thee
she has the slow sensation that
he is levitating with she ...

here I go and I don't know why,
I spin so ceaselessly,
'til I lose my sense of gravity...

(oh god I fell for you ...)

the plot of our life sweats in the dark like a face
the mystery of childbirth, of childhood itself
grave visitations
what is it that calls to us?
why must we pray screaming?
why must not death be redefined?
we shut our eyes we stretch out our arms
and whirl on a pane of glass
an afixiation a fix on anything the line of life the limb of a tree
the hands of he and the promise that s/he is blessed among women.

(oh god I fell for you ...)

Patti Smith of course.

Gypsy music - is it very funny because I live in this part of Europe where its' common thing. We have big Roma community here,a nd Hungary is just above Croatia. So, when Lizzytysh sent me those two albums of Gypsy music recorded by Raffi Hakopian in LA, it was very strange - the thing which seemed so "Other" in LA I guess, was pretty common here - almost all songs were usual Hungarian dances or Gypsy dances which I hear every day on street by Gypsy players, on violin or harmonica (? My dictionary says "bellows", "accordion" - it is some kind of people's instrument, played mostly in fold or gypsy style in Balkans).

Two greatest Gypsy-Balkans singers are from former Yugoslavia, and in fatc, they both recorded all their major records for former Jugoton, now Croatia Records, in Zagreb. Esma Redzepova, and great Saban Bajramovic. I have his CD if you're interested. It's some kind of chanson - he sings very sad songs about parting and lost loves and death and wandering, with small band, sad Gypsy violin... His greatest hits compilation is titled Gjelem Gjelem, what means "I'm travelling I'm travelling" in Roma language. "Gjelem!" is the most common word exclaimed by all Croatian Gypsy players during their performances

tomsakic · Post by **tomsakic** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:52 pm

I can't find in which language did Rumi write. I guess Persian (Farsi), but it's nowhere directly said. Croatian Lexicon of Wolrd Witers says Persian, and Wikipedia says:

Celâladin Mehmet Rumi or Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi [1] (Persian:مولانا جلال الدين محمد بلخى , Arabic: جلال الدين محمد رومي) (September 30, 1207 – December 17, 1273 CE) (also known as Mawlvi Mawlana, meaning our guide or our lord in Arabic and Persian, or Mevlana meaning our guide in Turkish) was a Sufi , Persian poet , jurist, theologian and teacher of Sufism , who was born in Balkh (then a city of the Greater Khorasan province of Persia (Iran), now part of Afghanistan) and died in Konya (in present-day Turkey). His birth place and native tongue points towards a Persian heritage. He also wrote his poetry in Persian, and is read widely in Iran and Afghanistan where the language is spoken. Yet, he is adored to such a degree that citizens of the modern Turkey, Pakistan, and India sometimes consider him one of their own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

Why "also in Persian" and which was his native tongue? Arabian? I think it's Persian, rest of page reffers to Persian literature, Persian poetry etc.

Post by **jarkko** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:45 am

Anjani was our Lady Fortune and randomly picked up the winners of our Winter Contest. Andrea Dolfino gets the Blue Alert album, signed, and Antoni Molist and Matjaz Gregoric will get a Cohen DVD!

Many thanks to all who participated and sent contributions to our Book Gallery!

Jarkko