Vivek’s Blog

Incredible, just incredible. You’d think that a break-up lasting almost 10 years would’ve had negative affects on the band, but tonight, The Verve sounded fucking awesome. They played a rocking set and had me yelling and bobbing up and down all night. My ears are ringing, my throat is sore, and my feet are tired. But it was worth it.

The set focused more on Urban Hymns which is my favorite Verve album. I’ll admit that I haven’t heard much of their stuff other than UH and A Northern Soul. However, these two are among the finest albums of the 90s and UH clearly represents a band at its peak. Richard Ashcroft has managed to preserve his voice really well, while Nick McCabe, Simon Jones, and Peter Salisbury are still adept at their respective instruments. We got on line early enough and managed to snag spots right up front - against the railing and under Ashcroft’s nose. The sound was terrific where we were standing.

Ashcroft was fairly animated on stage, dancing in his own strange way, eating a banana, drinking beer, smoking, etc. My friends who went yesterday as well say most of the set was the same but one of the songs they swapped in, “Velvet Morning”, is one I love. Quite aptly, they started with “A New Decade” and I am more than happy with the setlist, although I wouldn’t have minded some “A Northern Soul”, “Catching a Butterfly”, or “This Time.” We were also treated to two completely new songs that will make it on to the next album, to be released some time this year. Plus, the jam at the end of “Come On” was phenomenal. Insane. Mind-blowing. You get the drift.

I’m really glad that The Verve have reunited. Sure, I’ve only been a fan for the last two years, but getting to see a band perform live that you never expected to reunite, is just fantastic. Now I just wish that The Stone Roses would get together. Bury the hatchet, John Squire and Ian Brown!

One final word - the DJ who opened for The Verve was atrocious. Maybe the band forced us to sit through his crap just to make us realize how much ass they kick.

SETLIST: (More or less right order)

A New Decade
Sonnet
This Is Music
Space and Time
Life’s An Ocean
Already There
Weeping Willow
Sit and Wonder
The Rolling People
Man Called Sun
The Drugs Don’t Work
Velvet Morning
Lucky Man
Come On

-Encore-

Bittersweet Symphony
Love Is Noise

So much work to do and not enough time to do it all in.  I have a presentation tomorrow, an essay due on Thursday, a homework set and as essay due on Friday, and one more problem set coming my way soon.  I was being lazy and unproductive for the last two weeks, but this current week is being a total bitch.  So I apologize for another meaningless post with a song lyric as its title.  But I have to rehearse this presentation and get enough sleep for the madness to follow.

At least I get to see The Verve!

Not a lot to say today. Busy with schoolwork after last week’s lull. I’m really digging Boxer, the 2007 album by The National. I recommend it to anyone open to trying out new artists. Once you get used to the lead singer’s voice, you will discover that the songs are great. The layering of instruments reminds me of Porcupine Tree and the keyboards are used well. The lyrics are fantastic but you can certainly enjoy the music without paying attention to the lyrics. Come for the music, stay for the lyrics!

I’m posting a live performance of my current favorite, “Slow Show” from Boxer. I think the album version is better, but this liver version recreates the song really well. Also, the lead singer is quite restrained in this video - when I saw the band on campus last week, he was way more crazy.

Let me make it clear right out of the gate that I hate the ICC. It’s supposed to be cricket’s governing body, but all I see is ineptitude and politicking. Think about it - the next two ICC presidents have already been chosen. Malcolm Speed, as much as you might hate him, was thrown out for refusing to side with a point of view that was against his fundamental beliefs. The situation in Zimbabwe has been deplorable for several years now. Players across the world are motivated by the pots of money being dangled in front of them. Add to that the utterly incompetent BCCI and its single-minded approach to milk cricket for ridiculous sums of money, and you have what I like to call a clusterfuck.

There’s no point in listing the numerous debacles that the ICC has been involved in over the years - they have been well-documented. What’s frustrating is the ICC’s inability to learn from past mistakes and enforce the laws of the game in a fair manner. Furthermore, they keep cramming the international calendar with more and more events, thus diluting the importance of the ODI World Cup. We now have the Champions Trophy, the Twenty20 World Cup, and a proposed T20 Champions League for top domestic T20 teams from around the world. On top of these events, the ICC expects every international team to play a certain number of Tests and ODIs every year. Eventually, the players are just not going to be able to cope and will start breaking down, retiring, or only playing one form of the game.

With the latest saga surrounding Speed, it’s become clear that there is deep-rooted factionalism within the ICC. The BCCI perhaps wields too much power due to its enormous wealth. Instead of actually improving playing conditions for the domestic competition or assisting poorer boards, the BCCI just looks for new ways to make more money. Nothing exemplifies the greed within the BCCI better than the fact that politicians such as Sharad Pawar are in charge of running it. Here’s a man who first broke away from the Congress to form the NCP, only to come crawling right back to Sonia Gandhi by forming an alliance for the sake of power in Maharashtra. This man has no integrity and is entrusted with running the world’s richest sporting body. Fantastic.

During the Harbhajan incident in Australia, I was happy that the BCCI was doing something about it, even if it involved arm-twisting the ICC. My support was not for the player - Bhajji is hardly the ideal role-model - but for justice. There was insufficient evidence to prove he was guilty and Procter believed the Aussies’ word over that of the Indians. After having gotten off the hook, Harbhajan goes and slaps Sreesanth after Mumbai lost their third consecutive IPL game. Great way to mask your inability to lead the team to a win. I think he just lost all the sympathy he gained from the Indian fans during the Australia series. Furthermore, he is going to create discomfort in the national team dressing room, if chosen for any more international tournaments.

As a cricket fan, I’m concerned with the current state of affairs. There is an increasing amount of resources being dedicated to add glamor to the game by means of T20 games. While it’s great that the ICC wants to take the game to countries like the US and increase popularity, a better course of action will be to first improve things in countries that already play the game. You need a strong platform before you start building up. Unfortunately, that platform is looking increasingly shaky and threatens to take down the whole building with it.  The game needs strong leadership that is free from political wrangles, greed, and factionalism.  But where is it going to come from?  Certainly not from those currently in charge.  Former players with influence and who care about the game, please take over the ICC.  I will tolerate bad TV commentary for the sake of the game.

Today I went to a special screening of the documentary, “The 11th Hour” that talks about global warming and related economic aspects as well as solutions to overcome not only our dependence on fossil fuels, but also problems with population explosion and our impact on the earth.  It was a good film and quite informative since it featured interviews with several scientists and experts working in this field.  I was perhaps a wee bit disappointed that the movie did not feature more data to back up the claims of the experts.  Still, I thought it was a good overview of the problem and what needs to be done to solve it.  A good Q&A session followed the movie.

I got stuck having to set up and maintain a booth for Engineers Without Borders when the others who were supposed to be with me couldn’t make it to the event on time.  But I’ll let that one slip.  What did piss me off was Sci-Fi’s decision to only air a preview of the new Battlestar Galactica episode online.  The website said it was going to be a preview but they never mentioned how long it was going to be.  Further, the stream started off like a normal BSG episode and continued until the second commercial break.  Then BAM! the episode ended.  Frak you scifi.com, frak you hard.  Did Intel not not want to sponsor the rest of the episode?