Do It Go

This song came out somewhere in a state of amnesia for me, and when I finally did hear it, it had been something even old fans already loved for a couple years.  I’m like a lot of their original fans, I followed them from Murmur up to Life’s Rich Pageant, and even though Green got me through some hard moments, it was only a few moments.  It may be that the angst I felt when I was 23 had already started to diminish by the time I turned 23 1/2, but there’s something about this group that wakes up an old feeling somewhere.  A couple of songs later, and I’m nursing some forgotten pain like a new toothache, and the world is suddenly very bright.

R.E.M. was something my girlfriend and I would listen to while having one of those long, life-changing talks where you discover there’s another interesting person in the world besides yourself.  We’d talk about how we wanted to find our way to a cheap hotel in Los Angeles where we could hole up and practice our art.  Maybe we could call Michael Stipe by then, maybe we’d be friends, and he’d want to work with us on a new project.  We had ideas about an installation about poisoning in history, and he would be a kind of Mortimer Brewster figure with a shaved head and a lot of darkness.

Those things are still coming somewhere in the future, but for now, I had the chance to listen to Electrolite on my way to L.A. one summer night, and the result was kind of stunning.  This was a new R.E.M. all right, with new ideas and new textures.  The deep and often unintelligible critique of the American Dream was very solid in this, and it still had that weird way they have of making you want to cry a little bit while you’re eating.  The most sensational time I had, however, was another trip, riding my friend’s motorcycle down Mullholland Drive, looking at the Hollywood Bowl, and this song came up on the car stereo next to me at a stoplight.  It would have been so much more poetic had the driver been my old girlfriend, but much more like R.E.M. that it was a middle aged man in a Hawaiian shirt, who looked a lot like me.

Tags: cheap hotel in Los Angeles, Electrolite, R.E.M.
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Miles Davis is widely recognized as one of if not the all time best and most influential blues player. He was born in Alton, Illinois in May of 1926. His father was a dentist and the family enjoyed a nice level of success and affluence. They moved to East St. Louis when Davis was one year old and the family also owned a ranch in Arkansas. Davis learned to ride horses while he was staying at that ranch. His mother wanted him to play the piano and she herself was a skilled blues pianist though she did not play for him when he was young. He began his actual musical training when he was 13 and his father gave him a trumpet. He also arranged for the young Miles to begin taking lessons Elwood Buchanan who was a local musician.
After Davis began his lessons he and the trumpet seemed to embrace each other and neither one would ever be the same again without the other. He would later half joke that his father only gave him the trumpet to play in order to irritate his mother who had strongly wished her son to play the piano and did not like the sound of the trumpet. His early training with Buchanan is partly responsible for his unique style Buchanan stressed to Davis the importance of playing well without vibrato, which was popular at the time. It is reported that Buchanan would slap Davis’ knuckles every time he lapsed into a vibrato and this helped him to create his signature clear and clean sound.

Davis moved to New York to study at the famous Julliard School and began playing professionally while he was still there. He complained about the curriculum of the school though later he would rely on and make great use of the theoretical foundation he gained there. In 1959 he released his album titled Kind of Blue and this would become considered by many to be the quintessential blues album. It has influenced many jazz musicians and in 2008 it received its fourth platinum certification. The swiftrank rating means the album has sold four million copies. Davis played with many of the jazz greats including Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane and Bill Evans.

Tags: Kind of Blue, Miles Davis, swiftrank
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Phuket is the perfect vacation setting, as an island in the southwestern part of Thailand, offering an amazing array of beaches that are sure to put sparks of life into any tired soul.  It’s one of the most famous spots in the world for exotic island life, and offers a pace that is very refreshing for anyone who’s been putting in too many hours and trying to keep up.  Relaxation is the rule of the day, and when you’re staying in Phuket, beach resorts can double the pleasure here.  Taking the best of the island’s carefree rhythms and bringing them into the lodgings, our beach resorts offer a splendid combination of sophisticated taste and old world charm.  There is a fantastic sense of calm here that’s available to everyone.

You’ll enjoy how the moments pass by, and you’ll like how your own rhythms start to slow and adjust the rhythm of Phuket.   It has a very strong heartbeat, no doubt about it, but it’s also on a very different sense of time.  This is one of the most exciting things about the island, actually, and you’ll see why when you start to come back to your senses and see the lovely things that Phuket has to offer.  Thailand has some exciting music these days, and they’re starting to enter into the international arena with their evocative sounds.  There is also a growing electronic circuit here, and at the center of this new evolution is DJ Eddy.

He’s been relatively unknown until the past couple of years, when he won the competition for the best Phuket DJ, and there’s some very bright stars in his horizons.  His combination of live performance and electronic manipulations make him a club favorite, and an exciting force to watch in person.  He’s been teaming up lately with another local, D(r)eadmongey to make a new sound sensation called Sarkistik Boyz, playing electro and house tech. This will certainly quench your thirst for some local electronic music that will keep you dancing well into the Phuket nights.

Tags: beach resorts, DJ Eddy, Phuket, Sarkistik Boyz
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When it comes to four-star hotels, Chennai is a haven for hospitality in accommodations.  The guests here feel as though they are treated like royalty, being welcomed to a place where there is cutting-edge design and an expansive sense of graciousness.  There is a delightful blend of the old and the new here, with state of the art technology and exquisite old-world splendor.  The hotels are meant to provide rejuvenation of the body and soul, and travelers here might believe that they’ve entered a kind of heaven on earth.

Chennai is a jewel in India, being neither too big nor too small.  It is, in fact, one of the largest cities in India, and its vibrant urban core is splendidly complimented by the gorgeous coastline. It is also the home to Kollywood, the world’s leader in the Tamil film industry.  For music and dance in India, however, it is the cultural center.  Visitors here can see excellent performances all year round, where live performances of the best of Indian dance and music come through here regularly.  There are fabulous festivals, too, and there is a special kind of rhythm in the air, that always permeates the tropical air of Chennai.  One can see groups such as Sthree Thaal Tharang, a women’s percussion ensemble.

Formed in 1992, Sthree Thaal Tharang is made up of seven women, with Sukkanya Ramgopal as the leader.  a renowned ghatam artist.  She creates original composition, along with playing traditional music, and the result is truly spectacular.  Their shows can be seen all over India, where their incredible energy and impeccable skill at playing is just amazing.  The work is sheer brilliance, with technical excellence accompanied by the occasional sensation that things are going completely out of control and into another realm.  It is otherworldly, both on recordings and to hear live.  It is no wonder that Sthree Thaal Thanang is getting good notices, and Chennai is lucky to have them when they play here.

Tags: Chennai, four star hotels, Sthree Thaal Thanang
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It’s one of the world’s hotspots for the most gorgeous beaches, and it seems only natural that for hotels, Formentera can also offer richness beyond the imagination.  The hotels are known for the generous island hospitality from the staff, the sumptuous amenities, and the sense that one might be staying in one of the most beautiful places on earth.  It could very well be that, as Formentera has long enjoyed a reputation of being one of the best-kept secrets of world travelers in the vault.  Its distance from the mainland of Spain makes it far enough to provide an excellent resting spot, but close enough to maintain a healthy level of international culture.

Some of the world’s biggest celebrities find Formentera to be a wonderland, where they can truly get away from it all and still enjoy the beach.  As supermodel Kate Moss’ preference might suggest, Formentera has a lovely atmosphere of solitude, and the beaches are extremely clean.  The cultural life of the island also has a lot to offer, catering to international guests who know how to party.  This is certainly helping the careers of the young deejays from Moba Sound, who are finding their way into the cultural fabric of the place.  Started by two locals, Gioele Brizio and Dany B., the idea behind Moba Sound is cultural interchange, something that’s definitely natural to the island culture.

Performing and producing all over the Balearic Islands, there is the most activity between Ibiza and Formentera.  Here, Moba Sound collaborate with other artists, work to find acts that they would like to produce, and working as deejays themselves.  They’re creating a very good reputation for themselves, making electronic beats that have new generations of locals and travelers dancing to infectious rhythms throughout the night.  There is always something to do on the island, even with a very small population, and dancing to the world rhythms of Moba Sound will help solidify the connection between the body and the world.

Tags: Deejay, Formentera, hotels, Moba Sound
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