Living in 2024

A brief look at the media I've consumed this year

Firstly, I have immense gratitude towards all of you that have subscribed to my modest substack. I write these posts for myself. That you find it worthwhile to read is immensely humbling. Thank you for subscribing and following me.

I know that I have to complete the series on the ‘80s, including part two of ‘81. Trust me, I will get to it.

Meanwhile, I am overwhelmed by the content in the world of music, art, sculpture, fashion, history, archeology, science, and other subjects in various media (Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, books, streaming series) that I wish I had ten lives that I could live in parallel to absorb it all. That being said, here is a snippet of content that I’ve consumed this year that I hope you find joy from.

Quincy Jones died this year and his creations have informed a better part of my life. Consider that the song ‘In other words’ was composed by Kaye Ballard in 1954, and had many covers in various styles. 

Quincy Jones who passed away recently, composed a tune for it which was sung by Frank Sinatra and has become the standard. A copy of the song was played on a Sony TC-50 portable cassette player on two Apollo missions featuring Neil Arsmstrong and John Glenn pictured below.

This was the original

And Quincy Jones composed this for Sinatra. The style of the man leaves me breathless especially since my two sons love this song as well.

Quincy Jones also composed the music for ‘Mackenna’s gold’, a film that was a massive hit in India. Jose Feliciano’s title song was in the lips of every Indian of my generation. This video has been uploaded by an Indian, and you can see the comments by Indians in youtube.

Quincy Jones also composed the music for the 1969 movie ‘The Italian Job’ starring Michael Caine. (The same movie was remade with Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron in the early 2000s).

Yes Jones was most famous for Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. For ‘Beat it’, he featured three members of the band ‘Toto’ with Jeff Porcoro playing drums, Steve Porcoro playing synthesizers, and Steve Lukhater playing guitar. He also asked Eddie Van Halen to compose the lead for it. What a composition.

Steve Porcaro also composed ‘Human Nature’ a prominent song in Thriller.

I recall watching Miles Davis and Chaka Khan covering Human Nature in a PBS show about Montreux in the early ‘90s.

Steve Porcoro also played the synth in a famous Quincy Jones arranged song composed by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. When he recorded it, he put a sign on the door of the studio which asked the singers to, “Check your ego at the door.’ 

Stevie Wonder greeted the musicians as they entered, and said that if the recording was not completed in one take, he and Ray Charles, two blind men, would drive everybody home. The song was ‘We are the world.’ If you haven’t seen the Netflix documentary on the making of the song, see it right now. Your respect for Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson will go up many notches.

Assorted

A lot happened this year in the world of artistry. Here are my go-to’s for this year. The 2024 edition of the North Sea Jazz festival in Rotterdam featuring artistes such as James Taylor (oh, those standards of his, always great). Check out the archives featuring Burt Bacharach, Norah Jones, Diana Krall et al.

Stewart Copeland was ‘prolific’ in podcasts this year with extended interviews with Drumeo and Rick Beato. I was educated by this interview. The Police defied genre’ -w were they Reggae, punk, rock, jazz, or pop? Or all?

and this one

I listened to a lot of Rita Payes, Andrea Motis, and Joan Chamorro this year.

I also found videos of the Graham Bond organization, a creme’ de la creme’ band featuring John McLaughlin, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce.

I found much solace in poetry this year, particularly those written by Oksana Maksymchuk of Ukraine. https://www.oksanamaksymchuk.com/poems

and Irish poet Katie Donovan’s ‘May Swim’

Also from Ireland, Michael McCann’s ‘Devotion’.

Old videos of Naheed Akhtar were uploaded by a Pakistani fan. I found this one fascinating.

and this one.

From my native state Karnataka, came this video from the maestro Kuldeep Pai. This is a masterpiece that represents Lord Krishna’s Kalinga dance. It can be performed as a Bharatnatyam piece. This year, I got in touch with Bharatnatyam due to a friend’s encouragement and learnt so much about the art form.

A couple of videos by Bharatnatyam maestro Priyadarshini Govind were highly educative.

I learnt about courage, in (attributed to) Hemingway’s definition of it as ‘grace under pressure’ from this Russian hunter. The balls on this guy…Phew…

When one reads American history, it is largely about the land east of the Mississippi. This year, I endeavored to read about the history of the American west. I read books by Wallace Stegner, Edward Abbey, S. C. Gwynne et al. So brutal, so heartbreaking, and such mixed emotions. Every American should read ‘Beyond the 100th meridian.’ Wallace Stegner is a truly great writer.

and so was Edward Abbey. ‘Desert Solitaire’ changed me this year. So much so that I drove my son through high desert as part of of a summer road trip.

Much fun was had with random videos on youtube. Truly, the musicianship across cultures is out of the world.

3Blue1Brown is one of my favorite Math Channels and the video this year was epic, as the kids say.

Lastly, it was 50 years ago to this year that David Niven dead-panned this masterpiece during the Academy awards.

Have a wonderful December. I will post more during the coming days/weeks. Cheers!