Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A new tune?

hi!!! eeee first post!!!! not sure what to write, so I'll leave you with a quote from Rushdie's Ground Beneath Her Feet. In case you're not a U2 fan, you should know, its also an incredibly sexy song.

'Why do we care about singers? Wherin lies the power of songs? Maybe it derives from the sheer strangeness of there being singing in the world. The notes, the scale, the chord; melodies, harmonies, arragements; symphonies, ragas, chinese operas, jazz, the blues: that such things should exist, that we shoulve have discovered the magical intervals and distances that yeild the poor cluster of notes, all within the span of a human hand, from which we can build our cathedrals of sound, is as alchemical a mystery as mathemtics, or wine, or love. Maybe the birds taught us. Maybe not. Maybe we are just creatues in search of exaltation. We dont have much of it. Our lives are not what we deserve; they are, let us agree, in many painful ways deficient. Song turns them into something else. Song shows us a world that is worthy of our yearning, it shows us our selves as they might be, if we were worthy of the world.Five mysteries hold he keys to the unseen: the act of love, and the birth of a baby, and the contemplation of great art, and being in the presence of death or disaster, and hearing the human voice liften in song. these are the occasions when the bolts of the universe fly open and we are given a glimpse of what is hidden; an eff of the ineffable.'

1 comment:

  1. hi ali!! thanks for this beaitufil quote. its true, art and music are what make us sublime. do you think the lyrics are most important or is it the tune? or the rhythm? amani was dancing up a storm with you last night. it seems music affects our soul from the day we're born! why do you think some members of our community want to ban music? i admire anusheh, she's taken such a strong stance against people like that. she's also got the most beautiful voice in the world. i want to be her!! are you going to the concert on thursday at kozmo? when are you joining writers block?

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