Life 03 (Jun 09 - Jul 09)

[winston]

What Success Really Means by Alexander Green

I was shocked and saddened to learn that one of my favorite singers died last month.

No, not Michael Jackson. Jazz singer Kenny Rankin.

Never heard of him? Maybe that's because there's been no saturation coverage or candlelight vigils for him.

Kenny never won a Grammy. He didn't sell millions of albums. In fact, two of his best - "Because of You" and "Hiding In Myself" - are no longer in print.

He didn't have an outlandish personal life. Although he struggled with drugs and alcohol at one point in his career, he was a soft-spoken, salt-of-the-earth type.

He didn't pack stadiums and arenas. He played mostly small clubs and bars, rarely filling those.

But whenever Kenny came to town, I would call friends and invite them to come out and hear him.

"I don't know," they'd often say. "Who is this guy?"

"Just trust me," I'd reply.

As much as I looked forward to Kenny's performances, what I really enjoyed was watching friends' jaws hit the floor as soon as he opened his mouth to sing.

I remember one woman who was completely flabbergasted. "What is this guy doing playing a bar with 20 people in it?"

"Worse," I said, "I invited 15 of them."

Sometimes Kenny would just sit in the middle of us with his guitar and take requests. He was happy to play whatever we wanted to hear.

When he took a break between sets at larger clubs, he rarely disappeared backstage. He'd just amble to the back, sit down and chat.

As far as I could tell, the man didn't have a pretentious bone in his body. Not that he didn't have the talent and more than a few high profile fans...

Johnny Carson was bowled over by Kenny. He booked him on the Tonight Show more than 20 times, even writing the liner notes for his debut album.

Paul McCartney was another fan. "No one can sing 'Blackbird' like Kenny Rankin," he said. McCartney even asked him to perform it when he and John Lennon were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Saxophone great Stan Getz admired him, too. He described Kenny's pristine tenor as "a horn with a heart."

Kenny was a fine guitarist, incidentally. (He played on Bob Dylan's landmark 1965 album "Bringing It All Back Home.") He wrote beautiful compositions performed by Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, Georgie Fame, Carmen McRae and many others.

But he was best known for his interpretations of others' songs.

He rarely changed the lyrics. But, like most jazz artists, he would often radically rework a song. Those who felt he strayed too far from the melody missed the point entirely.

"My interpretation of the song is purely emotional," he once said. "We've all experienced disappointment and heartache, and that's what I draw on... I'm really hurting for the people in the song. When I sing I'm feeling, not thinking."

Despite his tremendous talents, Kenny spent most of his career in relative obscurity, garnering attention primarily from jazz aficionados and fellow musicians.

But while Kenny never won the widespread acclaim or financial rewards of more commercial artists, he experienced one important success: He spent his life exercising his talents, doing exactly what he wanted to do.

"I just feel privileged that I've been allowed to continue in my craft," he said. "When someone tells you a song changed their life, or inspired them to look at things in a slightly different way, well, you can't ask for a better reward than that."

Although he was diagnosed just three months ago, Kenny died of complications related to lung cancer on June 7.

His music, of course, lives on through his recordings and the memories of those who heard him.

Now I invite you to join that circle...

Although most of his songs were considerably more upbeat, few show off the remarkable quality and tone of his voice better than his interpretation of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

This, in my view, is what it means to have a "gift." Kenny Rankin never had a singing lesson.

[winston]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy1TtInVH9s

This is the link to Kenny Rankin above.

[winston]

A pilgrimage together

If we could take a journey, make a pilgrimage together without any intent or purpose, without seeking anything, perhaps on returning we might find that our hearts had unknowingly been changed.

I think it worth trying. Any intent or purpose, any motive or goal implies effort—a conscious or unconscious endeavour to arrive, to achieve. I would like to suggest that we take a journey together in which none of these elements exist.

If we can take such a journey, and if we are alert enough to observe what lies along the way, perhaps when we return, as all pilgrims must, we shall find that there has been a change of heart; and I think this would be much more significant than inundating the mind with ideas, because ideas do not fundamentally change human beings at all.

Beliefs, ideas, influences may cause the mind superficially to adjust itself to a pattern, but if we can take the journey together without any purpose, and simply observe as we go along the extraordinary width and depth and beauty of life, then out of this observation may come a love that is not merely social, environmental, a love in which there is not the giver and the taker, but which is a state of being, free of all demand.

So, in taking this journey together, perhaps we shall be awakened to something far more significant than the boredom and frustration, the emptiness and despair of our daily lives.

The Collected Works vol XI, p 243

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Life has the nobler goal of self-illumination, of lighting the lamp of love inside oneself and sharing that lamp with all around us.

Desire and Anger are the enemies that will not allow that flame to be burning bright. Desire is the lust for physical pleasure, for power, fame, wealth and scholarship. Anger is the result of foiled lust.

If you long for peace of mind, you must take the spiritual practice that will confer peace on you. If you choose the wrong path, you cannot complain that you are lost.

Salt and camphor look alike, but you have to exercise your intelligence to discriminate between them. Brass makes more noise than gold, but you should not be deceived by that and choose brass instead of gold.

- Divine Discourse, Nov 23, 1976.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Like two friends…

We are like two friends sitting in the park on a lovely day, talking about life, talking about our problems, investigating the very nature of our existence, and asking ourselves seriously why life has become such a great problem; why, though intellectually we are very sophisticated, yet our daily life is such a grind, without any meaning…Why has life, everyday existence, become such a torture?

We may go to church, follow some leader, political or religious, but the daily life is always a turmoil; though there are certain periods which are occasionally joyful, happy, there is always a cloud of darkness about our life.

And you and the speaker are talking over together in a friendly manner, perhaps with affection, with care, with concern, whether it is at all possible to live our daily life without a single problem.

The Network of Thought, p. 99

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[kennynah]

life is unpredictable... like the markets....
my brother-in-law was called to heaven yesterday.... he contracted cancer last Oct n struggled with the associated discomfort...and eventually the cancers cells took over ... he doesn't smoke or drink all his life.... he was only 59...

so... live everyday with gusto.... for we will never know when it will be our last day...

[Cheng]

Condolences to your bro-in-law.

[Cheng]

This is very meaningful, a good brother showed it to me.

[winston]

On Integrity:-

If you think you are being religious, but can't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and everything you do is useless. Religion must be pure and spotless.

James 1:26-27

[winston]

A perfect Sunday afternoon...

I'm listening to some old songs. And drinking a cold Corona. The lake view is beautiful. The air smell so fresh. And i'm writing to u thru Wi-Fi ..

Am reminding myself to enjoy this moment. All my 5 senses are being utilized happily ..

Tomorrow will be different. I will be listening to Bloomberg and trying to decide whether to bet with or against the market..