Water Music

When showering this morning I thought I could hear music maybe in the pipes , maybe in the water. It's like when you think you can hear something in another house, or a passing car or someone with headphones on. You cannot quite grasp what it is and when you switch the shower off it stops, so it's obviously in the water. This happens quite often with me, and I suppose it's brought to the fore because of the Clive Barker books I'm reading which always have that world just out of your sight or ken, be it music , lights or images.

Because this was music probably caused by water I thought of Handel's "Water Music" which is a rather essential classical piece which I enjoy , although last night I was watching  a wedding on "Brassic" (which is an excellent Joseph Gilgun creation with a cracking soundtrack)  and the music was Pachelbel's "Canon" which has been used as a basis for so many songs (the Farm's "All Together Now" for instance) but one of my most striking moments was when I saw Blair Dunlop (Ashley Hutching's son) tap it on his guitar (the Trace Bundy arrangement) at an Albion Band concert many years back.

I couldn't find a Blair Dunlop but I did find Trace Bundy's TED performance, the sort of guitarist who makes you feel you may as well give up. Amazing stuff, and brilliant arrangement of a beautiful tune.

Too Lazy To Learn

I think we are all guilty of this to varying degrees. Often it's because the learning process is time consuming , expensive and even difficult. Sometimes it's because it's time consuming. While I can doodle about on most musical instruments I can't actually play apart from basic rhythm accompaniments and maybe the odd simple solo. However something like Trace Bundy's take on Pachelbel's "Canon" just leaves me awestruck. Learning takes practice, time and dedication.

There are other instances where people cannot master computer basics, yet can drive a car. I point out that , generally , learning to drive a car is a lot more complex, difficult and dangerous than using a computer, but lots of drivers eschew computers as the black arts.

Sometimes it's the fact that people refuse to use short cuts and simple methods because the have used a particulal method of doing things and would rather take fifteen minutes doing it their tried and trused way rather than the two minute simple method that has exactly the same  result. It's like they would rather gather woould and make a torch that they burn to provide illumination but you would rather switch on the electric light.

The same could be said of cooking, although millions watch cooking programs for many of those cookery consists of sticking a ready meal in a microwave or ordering a takeaway. I sometimes have a mental battle over this, I can cook an Aloo Chole in about two hours and it costs me about a pound plus heating (it does for two servings)  or I can can order a portion from Rajnagar (my local Indian Restaurant) for six pounds. I value my time at a lot more than six pounds an hour so I ofetn go for the takeaway option , although that is a decision arrived at by weighing up all th eoptions and making the best decision rather than laziness.

One of things I have noticed is that cooking vegan / vegetarian is usually much simpler than cooking with meat or fish, so my next experiment is a chickpea and apricot curry. I think that should be quite good.

Jamie Oliver has a book called "Just Five Ingredients" so that gives people an option to get into cooking for theselves very easily, but again, for some people reading is too much of a chore,

There are probably a million other examples but I thingk that's enough to be going on with and I will leave you with Trace Bundy's TED Talk showing what you can achieve with practice.