Ish Rashad

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OK, let me plant a flag up front so you know my stance: 70, male, single, from Southern India, but that's almost pre-history now, been in Oz for near 50 years. Right. The rock & hard place: - Indian food is my DNA. Region-free. Love all the world's cuisines but this is life-blood, addiction. - Life-situation dictates low-incentive to get into kitchen and spend huge tracts of time cooking. So watching Indian food being made is a pleasurable pastime.. and sometimes... inspirational. So why do I love this series? The balance. Yes, it is a standard format itinerant-foodie show. Parveen gets around in India & the UK, hitting home kitchens and eating places great and small. But it's her own cooking recipes and demos that I love. No "you-have-to-prepare-this-over-a-hot-stove-for-5-hours-or-it-is-not-authentic-Indian". She makes her recipes with wonderful practicality, easy to follow, great variety - and easy to replicate. = Back home authenticity. What's not to love? Quite unexpectedly, her series put me back in my kitchen with an Indian cooking zest that had waned. Her low-key and charming style is not the stuff of the aggro/loud/extrovert/totally-self-assured-control-freak TV chef and makes the shows VERY watchable. Would be happy to watch another series, I hope they consider it. Lot's of stars and a big (coriander & mint?) bouquet to this young lady. I'm a fan.

OK, so I come into this with a bias.. or two, actually: I am an animal person. And I think Tommy is one of the greatest rock albums of all time. (Huh?.. I hear you say.. What am I on about?.. more later) But I have an eclectic adoration of music. Pantheistic, no boundaries. I'm browsing across the vast meadows of Spotify.. and I halt. Just passed something called "Animal Requiem?" ... strange... Rachel Fuller? Never heard of her. Press play. Thirty-six transfixing minutes, later, I go looking for who this loving, genius person is, who touches my heart so. This work is beautiful. That's the bottom line. Stand-alone, no emotional baggage and it is gorgeous, well crafted and rich. Not easy today, when the streets are crowded with aspiring music creators who have paid a pennyworth of dues. (/grimace) And then in seeking out the back story, I see she is married to Pete Townshend. I'm glad I live across the world. In London, I'd stalk this couple with outpourings of gratitude. So. Listen and buy and listen and listen. And listen. Oh - and this review is dedicated to Kiara who was three and Smokey who was nineteen.... and I better stop now.

I love the balance in this album. Maybe I heard it the first time when I was at an emotional crossroad and it slipped through to level 2... I don't know, but I do know that I revisit it often .... sometimes with a sizeable interval in between ... and I wind up listening with my The National mantle on my shoulders. Which is to say, to the nuances of the heart that lie in between the notes, the words, the chords. My favourite DCFC album, hands down.

Whenever I get into one of those late-night "My Top 10 movie" conversations, there are a lot of my movie greats that I forget. And remember later and groan, etc. Not this one. Ordinary People has sat at the top of the pile ever since my then wife and I saw it. And I have *never* forgotten it. The direction, the acting... the words....were perfect ... and the silences were even more perfect. A great great film.