Strike a Chord of DISCORD!!

This was a much publicized event in the newspapers and Priyanthi called and said that she had tickets. Gypsies, Noeline Honter, Mariazelle Goonetilleke, Luke Henricus, Natasha and a host of other well known names were up on the boards. When I heard that the Gypsies were going to be playing OF COURSE I wanted tickets.

Our start off boded ill if one believes in such things. Just as we were getting off near the college premises it POURED buckets of rain…. Yup, no gentle shower …. but a full flood of rain. The Heavens opened up and emptied a deluge of waters (in protest perhaps?). Maybe that should have warned us what this ‘gospel music session’ was going to be like. Anyway we scurried into the college premises getting soaked with the added help of motorists going to the same venue racing past drenching us with sheets of muddy water. The entrance of the auditorium was bustling with people trying to get in …. and help!! Did I see right ??? Trying to get out??? BEFORE the concert?? Yikes!

Anyways, the ‘organizers’ seemed a totally disorganized bunch to start off with. So it was no wonder that the paying guests seemed bewildered and stood like a sodden flock of sheep at the entrance hindering all and sundry.

A lady took our four tickets, painstakingly separated them, and proceeded to gently and excruciatingly slowly tear off a portion of each individual ticket while people surged past us threatening to unbalance our precarious perch midway up the steps to the auditorium.

We then walked inside just in time to be confronted by a highly painted buxom lady in tight black pants and a black sleeveless top who rudely informed us that they were barricading the balcony entry which was inside the auditorium and ordered us back out into the pouring rain to another entrance. Ah huh!! NOW we know why people were going out! If I had not paid good money for my tickets I would not have stopped until I reached home! Such was the goodwill and ‘bonhomie’ that prevailed in the chaos.

Anyways we found our way upto the balcony and settled down. Ten minutes later we see a stream of people climbing up to the balcony from INSIDE the auditorium. Humph?? The silly painted cow was busily doing nothing strutting along with a paper carrier bag slung on her forearm. I wonder who had a brainwave and decided to treat people like human beings instead of a barely tolerated form lowlife.

The concert scheduled for 7.00p.m. in a typical Sri Lankan way started a good 20 – 25 minutes late. The curtain rose. The backdrop looked good. The band looked good. The four lady singers who stood revealed by the rising curtain certainly looked good - Noeline and Natasha amongst them…. And then they opened their mouths to ‘sing’ HORRENDOUS!!!! The acoustics were horrible. They sounded like cats being strangled. Awful gurgling sounds erupted at deafening volume with no clear vocals distinguishable. We couldn’t tell what song they sang for goodness sakes!!!

What a pity! Superb singers like Mariazelle Goonetilleke and others of her ilk though still standing out from the rest, were not as good as usual. We couldn’t enjoy the music. The Gypsies came and did their thing in their imitable style and had the crowd clapping with enthusiasm. They are so talented. Unfortunately they left the stage after just two brief hymns ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ and ‘Why Me Lord’.

The ‘Revelations’ were also fabulous because they got the band to stop playing……. or rather …… making a dreadful cacophony …. and they harmonized. They practically brought the house down!

Still the organizers didn’t seem to get it … or chose not to ….. or perhaps (on a kindlier note from me) couldn’t do anything about it…. The sound system I mean. Methinks they could have adjusted it or toned down the sound a bit. But Nope. No such luck! Shenelle, Druvi, Pooba and Cosmic Rays were some of the others who sang along.

Of course we had fun too because the whole thing was being videoed and projected onto two large screens on either side of the stage. And every time a singer came onstage, there was this thin cameraman who would practically stand on the singer’s toes ….. (no I’m not kidding ……. he would hold the camera about four inches away from the singers face). He would twist himself into the most weird contortions to capture the singer’s side profile, pimples, wrinkles and best of all he would sink to the ground and get a ‘bottom up view’. I don’t think he was an overly talented camera person (though he WAS very amusing) because what was projected onto the screens from his camera didn’t flatter most people, especially those who had ample figures!

Natasha proceeded to sing two songs. She looked absolutely gorgeous …. but really… can she sing? Or was it the dreadful acoustics to be blamed again?

The final straw for us came when onto the stage walked Billy and his team Izra. They proceeded to make a mockery of music in my opinion. They pranced around the stage like mad drug addicts screaming into the mikes. A chubby girl in tight jeans and slippers yup.. slippers….. kept doing this obscene movement with her legs which was kinda off-putting, though perhaps guys enjoyed that.

Then one of the guys pulled off the band that held Bobby’s long hair together and he (Bobby I mean) proceeded to run amok on the stage making obscene hip movements while the other guy on electric guitar gyrated wildly in unison. They shook their hair all over the place (mostly onto the amusing (and now enraptured cameraman’s camera) gyrating madly. They forgot their audience. They forgot where they were. I think they only remembered the camera and the limelight.

They were loud, obscene, out of control, badly dressed and they made to my ears what sounded like devil music. I was obviously not the only one with that opinion because from our birds eye view on the balcony we saw a lot of people getting up and making their way out of the hall. The worst was that they played on and on and on and on.

When Luke Henricus who came on after them finished his stipulated (I think) two songs and we saw Bobby arming himself with a guitar AGAIN, we decided to give our throbbing heads a break and leave!

And I thought this was a gospel music concert. Seems like I was mistaken. Unbelievable!

Altogether, in my opinion, ‘Strike a Chord’ was badly organized, distasteful, put together mainly to collect money for the charity with no thought or planning going into what makes a good music show. It was an utter waste of our time and money.

Chocolates!!

Someone was talking to me about chocolate just a few minutes ago and sent me into a moment of imagining all those delicious chocolates out there tempting me, especially now that the Lent Season is here. Luckily there were a few Ferrero Rocher chocolates lying around office to appease my longing, yet visions of Cadbury’s Turkish delight chocolate dance tantalizingly before my eyes. Sigh! Even the dinner mints and the chocolate coated hazelnuts my favorites, haunt me.

I must get another chocolate fix soon!!!

Baby Anthena Makes her Entrance to the World

Jay’s brother and sister-in-law were blessed with a baby girl yesterday and of course there was all the heady excitement of a new baby coming into the world. Jay too was not unaffected regardless of his stoic ‘decision’?? not to have kids himself when he got married. Somehow I get the feeling he is gonna change his mind when he does. He was enthralled with the new baby commenting on the fact that the little face goes red when she cries and how happy his mom and the baby’s mom are. He was nervous, he declared, of holding the baby. He drew a picture of his mom and sis-in-law gazing enraptured at the baby lying in her little cot, and the Methinks he is gonna make one doting uncle!!

They have decided to name the little one Anthena which sounds a very exotic. I hope she will lead a charmed life as beautiful as her name.