Category Archives: Immortality Medicine

Elon Musk thinks were living in the Matrix. If you assume any rate of improvement at all, games will eventually be indistinguishable from reality, he told Joe Rogan in 2018, before somehow concluding: Were most likely in a simulation. In an interview with NBC, Neil deGrasse Tyson said theres better than 50-50 odds that Musk is right. I wish I could summon a strong argument against it, but I can find none.

This belief, known as simulation theory, is increasingly common in elite circles. These are the same intellectuals who plead the Fifth when asked to define the word woman. The brain-trust responsible for training our political, military, economic, scientific, and cultural elites think were living in a huge video game where men get pregnant and women have penises (get over it, cishets).

Meanwhile, the rest of us are asking, When did smart people get so stupid?

Actually, this is nothing new. Modern historians have tried to convince us that the last four hundred years saw pure Reason overthrow the tyranny of myth and superstition, but in fact the most benighted habits we associate with the distant past are all the result of progress.

We say the Reformation freed Europes conscience from bishops and kings, yet the divine right of kings evolved in England beginning in the reign of Henry VIII and only spread to France about a century later. Meanwhile, witch burning (or hanging) was extremely rare in medieval Europe. The majority of witches were executed in Lutheran Germany and Puritan Massachusetts.

We say the Renaissance banished squalid theologies in favor of science and philosophy, yet virtually all the great men of that age, like Francis Bacon and Paracelsus, dabbled in ritual magic, astrology, and alchemy. After all, mans power over nature seemed limitless. Why shouldnt he be able to change the weather or read the stars?

As Dominic Green observes in his new book The Religious Revolution, the late 1800s saw a renewed interest in the occult, for all the same reasons. Given all the recent advances in human knowledge, from Darwinstheory of evolution to Marxs scientific socialism, traditional Christianity was clearly untenable. Meanwhile, imperial adventures in Asia and Africa were exposing the West to bold new ways of thinking.

Enter the Theosophical Society. Its foundress, Helena Blavatsky, blended Western science with Eastern religion to create a scientific spiritualism. During her seances, ancient Hindu priests and Renaissance Neoplatonists would appear to her and dictate her books. Ideals and faith have been lost almost everywhere, Madame Blavatsky observed. People in our century demand a scientific bulwark, scientific proofs of the spirits immortality. Ancient esoteric science will give it to them.

From 1875 until the middle of the 20th century, everyone who was anyone read Blavatsky. Really, the modern world is a Theosophical conspiracy. The movements for womens suffrage, animal rights, trade unions, vegetarianism, homeopathic medicine, and cremation were all dominated by Theosophists. Adherents rose to the highest levels of politics (Henry Wallace), the military (Abner Doubleday), literature (Arthur Conan Doyle), music (Gustav Mahler), psychology (William James), and science (Thomas Edison). Even Gandhi was a Theosophist. He famously kept a picture of Blavatskys successor, Annie Besant, next to his portrait of Jesus.

For the global elite, this was all perfectly normaluntil it wasnt. When Theosophy fell out of vogue, it went right down the memory-hole.

This is the real history of the last four centuries. Its a cycle of bizarre fads. First some real advance in human knowledgesome major discovery or rediscovery, it might be chemistry, or India, or computersthen the most powerful members of society decide that this knowledge actually explains the entire cosmos. Suddenly, computers are literallyeverything. Finally, the fad becomes gauche, as all fads do. Historians kindly wipe the records, to help the elites save face. Then a new fad begins, and the whole cycle starts over again.

As G.K. Chesterton (almost) said, When a man stops believing in God he doesnt then believe in nothing, he believes anythingbut, ah! I can already see eyes beginning to roll.

Chesterton belongs to a group of writers I call the Greater Inkling movement. Its members are well-known Christians like George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Theyre known for their gentleness, their wit, and their huge powers of imagination. Each enjoys a large popular following, sometimes because of their Christianity but just as often despite it.

And yet Inklingism has its critics, especially among elite Christians and conservatives. I dont use the word elite derisively here, or anywhere else. I mean educated, cultivated, well-informed, and well-to-do, the sort who read magazines like The American Conservative.

They say the Inklings are for hobbit-fanciers and tweed fetishists. Tolkien and MacDonald are all right for children. So is Lewis, of course. Kids love his Narnia books. Mere Christianity has helped some people come to Jesus, which is a good thing. Same with Chestertons Orthodoxy. And his Father Brown is up there with Sherlock Holmes and Poirot. (Well, Poirot, anyway.) Still, fairy tales and detective stories wont save Western civilization.

Theyre just a little too cozy, too detached from the modern world. How could they ever speak to an age formed by Marx, Freud, Bernays, Sartre, Foucault, Steinem? What do they have to say about transgenderism, or globalism, or critical race theory? A few clever anagrams; a smattering of novels. Their philosophy, like their fiction, is escapist.

Inklingism would hold that theres nothing unique, or even especially interesting, about the age we now live in, nothing special about the heretics and heathens were contending with. The genius of the Inklings was their refusal to indulge the modern pretense. They refused to act as if the advent of the modern world changed everything, because it didnt. In fact, one of the main problems with modernity is that its so self-consciously modern. The beauty of being a Christian, as my old friend Thomas Howard once said, is that one is free from ever having to temporize.

The Inklings refused to temporize, which is why they continue to win more converts than any evangelist alive today. They refused to either accommodate modernity or (whats equally dangerous) to define themselves against it. They remained absolutely fixed, not on fashionable errors, but on permanent truths.

And what truths are those? Its what we might call Christian realism, which boils down to three main principles.

Put simply, realism refers to followers of Plato and Aristotle. Theyre a minority in ancient Rome, though their numbers include great thinkers like Cicero. Realism only becomes the dominant Western philosophy during the Christian era, thanks to the efforts of figures like Justin Martyr, Augustine, Boethius, and Anselm. Realists fight among themselves a bit during the Middle Ages, with some (like Aquinas) favoring Aristotle and others (like Bonaventure) favoring Plato. But later Christian realists like Erasmus, Pascal, and Newman rarely keep up the old divisions.

Realism was originally used in reference to the problem of universals. Im using it a little more broadly here, because Christians have lately found themselves defending commonsense things against pointless doubts. We believe the external world is quite realunlike Descartes, with his radical doubts. We believe that a rose is really beautifulunlike Hume, who thought beauty is simply a matter of taste. We believe that some practices, like pedophilia, are truly evilunlike Foucault, who thought of them as mere taboos. We believe that God is realunlike Marx, who called Him a delusion, or Freud, who said He was a complex. And we believe Hes very much aliveunlike Nietzsche, whos quite dead.

We may be wrong. But if we are, then so were the vast majority of human beings throughout history. Common sense may be wrong, but isnt it funny that, especially in modern times, Christians are the great champions of common sense? Before the year 2010, it would have been obvious to 100 percent of human beings that men cannot get pregnant. And yet the only real pushback against transgenderism today comes from Christians.

Chesterton and Lewis were the great representatives of Christian realism in the 20th century. They have no equal in English or any other language. They are easily as intelligent as any German historicist or French existentialistas shown by their absolute refusal to credit either historicism or existentialism. Their writing seems simplistic, in part because it contrasts so sharply with the fatuous obscurantism that dominated philosophy of that era, but also because most of the heavy lifting had been done centuries before. They refused to reinvent the wheel.

So why is Christian realism so unpopular? Why does our intelligentsia keep popping out these ridiculous new errors, rather than accepting the plain truth of Christian realism? Lets ask Chesterton. Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, he said. It has been found difficult and not tried. (Well, he didnt quite say it. But its the kind of thing he wouldve said.) Youve probably come across this quote on the internet, and you probably thought it was trite. Actually, though, hes right.

None of the reasons that historians give for the decline of Christianity hold water. The Scientific Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the World Warsnone of these have made Christianity less plausible. Anselms ontological arguments and Aquinass logical arguments havent been refuted. Hardly anyone has even tried. Theres been some sort of unspoken pact, a silent conspiracy, to ignore all Western letters from the death of Epictetus to the birth of Descartes.

As a matter of fact, the conspiracy used to be rather outspoken. During the Renaissance, the word dunce was coined as a play on the name of John Duns Scotus. Needless to say, Scotus wasnt a dunce. Hes the only medieval philosopher who might be considered Aquinass equal. Hes certainly the only one better versed in Greek philosophy. But he was extremely dense, had no ear for good prose, andworst of allfelt the Thomists had put a little too much stock in human reason.

For this reason, Scotus enjoyed a reappraisal in the last century thanks to philosophers like Heidegger who challenged modern philosophys deep rationalism. But during the Renaissance, that rationalism was just coming into its own. So, of course, Scotus had to go. Rather than refute Scotusprobably because they couldntthe great Renaissance humanists just mocked and forgot him.

Yes, Chesterton was right. Weve succumbed to a fallacy: the belief that, if a thing has been defeated, it has been disproved. And even then he goes too far. Christianity hasnt been defeatedChristianity itself hasnt even been attacked. No one has the guts.

Man is fickle, especially in religion. I find a mere change of scene always has a tendency to decrease my faith at first, Lewis admits. God is less credible when I pray in a hotel bedroom than when I am in College. Every sincere Christian knows exactly what he means.

Thats why the Inklings were so fond of fairy tales and fantasies. Men have always used grand narrativesmyths, legends, and epicsto communicate fundamental truths. Look at the Bible, or the Bhagavad Gita, or the Iliad, or the Aeneid, or Beowulf, or LeMorte dArthur. They combine morals and moods, working on both sides of our brain at the same time.

The usual complaint about these kinds of stories is that theyre childish. Theyre too black-and-white. They lack moral nuance. But thats the whole point: theres no such thing as moral nuance. Theres moral confusion, of course. Theres moral cowardice. But in the final analysis theres no real gray area between right and wrong. If a woman flirts with a married man at the bar, he only has one option: walk away. It doesnt matter if the woman is beautiful, or if his marriage is loveless, or if his wife is a cheater. And if on his way home he finds a woman being attacked in a dark alley, he only has one option: get involved. It doesnt matter how many attackers there are or how the woman is dressed. As a man, he has a duty to defend the defenseless.

Of course, these other factors (the cheating wife, the number of attackers) make it a little more understandable if he does the wrong thing. But explanations arent the same as excuses. Right is still right and wrong is still wrong.

Modern men have trouble grasping these very simple truths thanks, in no small part, to highbrow novelists like Hemingway and Lawrence. Thats why we need childrens fables, like the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia. The legend is generally made by the majority of people in the village, who are sane, wrote Chesterton. The book is generally written by the one man in the village who is mad.

To this day, the great majority of Americans claim to believe in God. And yet we take no interest in Him. Im sure its always been that way. A society can be religious even if its members arent especially pious. But piety was still held up as an ideal. It wasnt treated as a slightly embarrassing hobby like stamp-collecting.

If we were talking about an atheistic country, it would be another matter. Yet only 4 percent of Americans call themselves atheists. The rest of us should understand, at least vaguely, that our happiness has something to do with God. We should at least think about religion the way fat people think about exercise: Its probably good for us, and people swear they enjoy it (after a while), but I just cant be bothered. Again, this is an explanation but not an excuse.

Whats really tragic, though, is that our sloth doesnt lead to joy. It doesnt even lead to comfort. It leads to misery. Surrender to all our desires obviously leads to impotence, disease, jealousies, lies, concealment, and everything that is the reverse of health, good humor, and frankness, Lewis observes. It has nothing to do with Christian or unchristian: For any happiness, even in this world, quite a lot of restraint is going to be necessary.

And as Cardinal Newman (the Grandfather of Inklingism) pointed out, whats true of the lower goods is also true of the higher goods. The very notion of being religious implies self-denial, he said, because by nature we do not love religion. Here we come back to Chestertons point, that were too lazy to be Christian.

Still, the point remains. Any believerhowever vague his beliefsmust agree, at least in theory, that there can be no happiness without God. Here, too, Lewis put it best:

God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

Really, though, I think the reason so many of us reject the Inklings is because theyre not political enough. They dont have much to say about national conservatism, or Catholic integralism, or any of the other isms popping up on the right like mushrooms.

But this, too, was intentional. Lewis, for his part, refused to read newspapers. He said it was how he kept unspotted from the world. (Thats a reference to the Epistle of St. James: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.)

Chesterton was even more forthright. We tend to make politics too important, he declared. We tend to forget how huge a part of a mans life is the same under a Sultan and a Senate, under a Nero or St. Louis. The real danger to the modern news junkieespecially if he calls himself a Christianis that hes apt to forget whats really wrong with the world. Ill give you a hint: its not Trump or Biden. Its not Russia or NATO. Its not evangelical Christians or secular atheists. No: What is wrong with the world is the devil, Chesterton wrote, and what is right with it is God.

We dont like people who talk this way. The beauty of politics is that Im always the hero. (At least, Im never the villain.) Its always the socialists/fascists/libtards/Trumpkins who need to be sorted out, not me. In religion, its just the opposite. Christianity is always banging on about sina fact as practical as potatoes, as G.K. called it. And if the problem is sinners, then the problem is me. Again, we turn to Chesterton: The answer to the question, What is Wrong? is, or should be, I am wrong.

Once you start to digest that fact, you also begin to see that even our political problems arent really political. Take abortion. Pro-lifers say that if Americans would only follow the science, they would see that life begins at conception. But everyone knows that an unborn baby is alive, at least in the way a dog or a fly or a shrub is alive. They just dont believe that his life is worth as much as an adults.

Actually, the Christian idea that we attain full personhood at the moment of conception is a minority view in history. Most cultures have thought of weak things (including babies) as disposable. That only changes when the God of Israel reveals to His people that man is the imago Dei. Every life is therefore equally and infinitely precious. For you created my inmost being, wrote King David; you knit me together in my mothers womb.

At bottom, the reason abortion is so prevalent is because we dont value human beings as we ought to. But this cant be fixed through magazine articles or op-eds. It takes a conversion of the heart.

Or take same-sex marriage. I think most of us would agree that Obergefell v. Hodges marked the end of social conservatives sway in the GOP. But even before 2015, it was clearly a spent force, and the traditional marriage it defended was a farce. There was only ever one real argument against gay marriage, and it was the one they refused to make. It went like this:

Gay rights activists claim that two men can love each other just as much as a man and a woman. And they may be right! But thats irrelevant, because marriage isnt about love. The reason marriage exists as a civil institution is because, once upon a time, the West was Christian. We believed that sex was only appropriate in the context of a lifelong union between a man and a woman. This is the Christian virtue of chastity. The Christian princes of Europe enshrined that ideal in law by declaring that sexual activity was prohibited except between couples that had received the Churchs sacrament of holy matrimony.

The law was rarely enforced. Yet, as we know, virtue is necessary for human flourishing. Vice can destroy a mans life; it can also bring whole civilizations to ruin. The State therefore has a vested interest in promoting chastity. Civil society can only exist insofar as men restrain their libidos and abstain from licentiousness. Thats why, until man is made perfect, hell always need traditional marriage.

That argument is as good today as it was in 13th-century France. But in order to make it, conservatives would also have to take a stand against divorce, pornography, and possibly even contraception. That would be hugely unpopular, even with most Christians, which is why they didnt do it. Instead, they muttered something about men marrying dogs and then breathed a sigh of relief when the Supreme Court rendered the whole thing moot.

The point is that the Christian princes were right. Chastity is worth promoting, because unchastity is a threat, not only to ourselves and our neighbors, but to the entire social order. But that means we cant just blame the destruction of the family on the Democrats, or the LGBT lobby, or even the Sexual Revolution. A little bit of the blame lies with everyone whos taken advantage of our new permissive society. Its also my fault. And its probably yours, too.

Some call this escapist. Really, I think it is the political men who are the escapists. Just one more podcast, one more op-ed, one more conferenceOne more meme, one more Facebook post, one more Twitter brawlOne more electionThen everything will be put right.

Sorry, but it doesnt work that way. You have to put it right, and start by putting yourself right. Thats the message of the Inklings. Its not escapism: its Christian realism. It doesnt ask us to stick our head in the sand, but in the clouds. After all, as Lewis says,

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth thrown in: aim at earth and you will get neither.

Around the year A.D. 33, Roman authorities executed a Jewish preacher. Three centuries later, the Emperor officially declared Him to be the Incarnate God. Today, about one of every four human beings worship that preacher. Yet we say religion is impractical, and then buy a Tesla. That must be the devils greatest trick.

Michael Warren Davis is the author of The Reactionary Mind (Regnery, 2021) and The Times Are Wretched (Sophia Institute Press, 2024). Subscribe to his newsletter, The Common Man, on Substack.

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Christian Realism v. the Simulation World - The American Conservative

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Tom Antkow: The only thing to fear | Opinion | thedailytimes.com - Maryville Daily Times

So far, this has been a really good century for nerds, with lots of jobs, higher pay and an abundance of promotions. Then theres the admiration we get, however reluctant it may seem, in almost every TV show and a multitude of movies. With the exception of medieval dramas, theres a resident nerd in every show.

The last century was pretty good, too.

Clearly, the Age of Nerds has arrived.

This was evident at a recent gathering at my alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Gray, if not white, hair prevails for the class of 1962. Our 60th reunion was part of Technology Day at the end of May.

I wasnt there with my classmates. I was in Annapolis awaiting a new suit of sails for my boat. But I had already obtained the newest data. It tells me that this truly is the Age of Nerds. Better still, the reward is way better than mere money. Or ephemeral prestige.

Its longevity! The blessing of a longer life.

Just as an earlier measure showed that my classmates were failing to die as rapidly as their age cohorts were back in 2016, the current measure continues the trend. While a typical member of the class of 1962 is about 82 years old, the survivorship of our class more closely resembles a group of men who are about 72.

Here are the basics. According to Institute figures, of 840 graduates in the class of 62, 234 have died. An additional 18 are missing. But if we take the most basic figure, the 234 who have died of 840 graduates, we learned that an amazing 72% of those 22-year-olds have survived. Adding the missing, who might be assumed dead, doesnt change the percentage greatly.

In comparison, the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention life tables inform us that of every 100,000 non-Hispanic white males born, 98,765 could be expected to survive to age 22 but only 45,723 could expect to live to 82. Thats only 46%.

If youre wondering why I used the life table for non-Hispanic white males, rather than a table for all males or a joint male and female table, the reason is simple. In 1962, women were a trace element at MIT. And almost all the men were white.

Please note that living longer should not be confused with immortality. Vast wealth and philanthropic contributions to medical research notwithstanding, my classmate David Koch, the co-owner of Koch Industries, was one of the 234 who didnt make it. The distinction for the MIT class of 1962 is that we are departing more slowly than most humans.

Fortunately, you dont have to go to MIT to enjoy this blessing. If you persevere and get a good education and earn a higher-than-average income, youre likely to live a longer life. I believe it will work nicely for our grandchildren who have, or will, graduate from Texas A&M and UT.

Why am I so confident?

Simple. Every bit of research since the original Whitehall studies on longevity indicates that people with college degrees and high incomes are likely to live a longer and healthier life than those with less education and less income.

That reality turns into really good news when you compare the class of 1962 with current and coming graduating classes at MIT (and elsewhere). Sixty years ago, very few women went to MIT.

The Institute (or the Gray Pile on the Charles, as some called it) was all yang and no yin.

Our version of Facebook was a copy of the coveted annual printed directory, with pictures, of the new women at Radcliffe, then the college for women at Harvard, several miles away.

Today, nearly half of all MIT undergraduates are women. And women now account for more than 50% of undergraduates at all colleges. So the past 60 years have seen a seismic shift. At last, the full pool of human talent is being developed.

Its not just white guys anymore. Its both sexes, some non-binaries and significant percentages of Asian, Hispanic, Black and mixed-race students.

In a news year thats desperately short on hope, I just love this. Its good will toward all.

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Nerds have longevity and the numbers to prove it - The Dallas Morning News

Youve seen the movie or at leard youve heard of The Curious Case ofBenjamin Buttons, right?

In this movie (loosely based on a short story), Benjamin Button is born old. He literally looks like a little old man.

He then begins to age in reverse. As he gets older, he appears younger.

Its a pretty awesome situation, but as you can probably guess, there are consequences to aging in reverse.

But, thats a story for another time.

Today we are here to talk about mice. Yes, those furry little rodents that scare the beetlejuice out of you when they appear in your house.

Researchers have stumbled upon a way to reverse the aging process in mice.

Excuse me? What kind of sorcery is this?

There is no magic involved unless you consider science to be magic.

In molecular biologist David Sinclairslabat Harvard Medical School, old mice are growing young again.

The process is complicated, but here is the gist of the situation.

Researchers use some special protein that can turn the cell of an adult into a stem cell.

So, what exactly is a stem cell, you ask?

Youve heard the term before, but maybe youre stumped as to what a stem cell actually is.

According to the Mayo Clinic, stem cells are cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated.

Huh?

They are basically the cells in their raw form.

Under the right conditions in the body or a laboratory, stem cells divide to form more cells called daughter cells.

So, Sinclair in all his scientific wisdom and his team have altered aging cells in mice.

These new cells have turned the mice into earlier versions of themselves.

Im sorry. This sounds like we are in Fantasyland, AMIRITE?

Sinclairs team made the first stem cell breakthrough in late 2020 when they published Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision.

Thats a confusing, scientific way to say that they basically defied the laws of nature, and made the mice appear young again.

Old mice with poor eyesight and damaged retinas could suddenly see again, with vision that at times rivaled their offsprings.

I mean, can I have some of these stem cells put into my eyes?!?

While modern medicine addresses sickness, it doesnt address the underlying cause, which for most diseases, is aging itself. We know that when we reverse the age of an organ like the brain in a mouse, the diseases of aging then go away. Memory comes back; there is no more dementia.

So, the results of the study in mice have lasted for months.

If it works on mice, theres no reason it shouldnt work on humans.

(Im not sure I want to be the guinea pig who tries it out)

BUT, these stem cells dont turn into younger versions, and then stay that way forever.

Like, you cant turn into an immortal vampire or anything no matter how bad you want to.

Its as permanent as aging is. Its a reset, and then we see the mice age out again, so then we just repeat the process.

We believe we have found the master control switch, a way to rewind the clock. The body will then wake up, remember how to behave, remember how to regenerate and will be young again, even if youre already old and have an illness.

We do know that eventually the cells age again, and the mice go back to being elderly rodents.

But, for a brief moment in time, they appear and act younger.

Studies on whether the genetic intervention that revitalized mice will do the same for people are in early stages. It will be years before human trials are finished, analyzed and, if safe and successful, scaled to the mass needed for a federal stamp of approval.

Lets get this testing done and complete. Once we know its safe for humans and FDA approved I will be first in line to get my stem cells!!

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The 'Benjamin Button' Effect Might Soon Be A Real Thing. Scientists Can Now Reverse The Aging Process In Mice. - Totally The Bomb

INGLEWOOD - FEBRUARY 19: Prince performs live at the Fabulous Forum on February 19, 1985 in ... [+] Inglewood, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

This year's Super Bowl halftime show, featuring Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent, was phenomenal, one of the best of all time.

If, however, it wasn't the best halftime show it is because of one that can't be topped Prince's legendary performance in the rain in Miami, February 4, 2007. In every list of the greatest shows that is rightfully ranked first.

Prince was a live legend, arguably the greatest performer of his generation. That magic is captured on a new release, Prince & The Revolution: Live, recorded at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, March 30 1985 on the Purple Rain tour. The show is being released on CD, vinyl and Blu-Ray tomorrow (June 3) after previously only being available on DVD.

The Syracuse concert was one of the seminal concerts in cementing the Prince legend. What is remarkable is it came just four years after Prince was famously booed off the stage at the Los Angeles Coliseum while opening for the Rolling Stones.

According to Revolution drummer Bobby Z., that debacle was actually an important stepping stone on the way to Prince becoming such an iconic performer. I spoke with Z, as well as Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman about the new recording of the Syracuse show, the Purple Rain tour and why Prince was so unique live "James Brown on steroids," Z says.

Steve Baltin: Can you look back on it now and figure out what it was about that night in Syracuse that was so special that night?

Bobby Z: You see things on the schedule, Purple Rain was a work in progress because it kept building and building and building, and the fight was of course, to continue on, that's what this Syracuse show was about. So most shows you look at the itinerary and Lorde's totally right, you don't know. What was the old expression. "If it's Tuesday, it must be Belgium." [And] it definitely has a disoriented feeling with Prince, a super disoriented feeling because you're just captivated in his world in a way when you're rehearsing, you're on the road with him. And so it creates this environment. But Syracuse became compromise as they added it because of the size of the building and the ability to do this satellite hookup. So they've talked about it for weeks leading up to it. "We're not gonna tour Europe, we're gonna do this satellite thing." And that added a little pressure, but when we went to Syracuse, at first I thought "What's in Syracuse?" But once we did a sound check, I realized that the venue was one of a perfect medium size, the 20 to 30,000, as opposed to the super, almost 80,000, which was really daunting. But with Prince you're making history and he was fired up, this is what we're doing. And it definitely took extra pressure on a show that was already tremendous pressure. It was doing the Olympic routine, trying to get a ten, trying to be perfect.

Wendy Melvoin: We had been on the road for a while by that time, and so we were pretty well-rehearsed and at this point we were like a well-oiled machine, I like to say. And this night was gonna be different because of it being broadcast all over the place, it was one of the first pay-per-view shows. So there was excitement on that level, so that added to what we had already known in our performance was good. It made it just better with the excitement level we had. Plus there was a little bit more pressure, obviously, 'cause we didn't wanna make any mistakes. We couldn't go back and redo a take. So it was just like anything, live TV, make it the best you can. And Wasn't it Prince who said to us, "Go out there and play like it was your last time?"

Lisa Coleman: Yeah, he often said that. [laughter] But definitely that night he was super focused. And it was really special because that was it, we were gonna stop touring with Purple Rain and go on to the next thing. So this was a chance to really solidify what we had been doing. And he just wanted to be perfect, and then of course, so did we, to please ourselves and to please him and really make something that could make history. It was always about, "Let's go out there and make history," and we would say that, but we didn't really know that that would end up happening. [chuckle]

Baltin: How far into the tour was that show?

Z: It was close to the very end. The Orange Bowl of Miami was in April. So, this was March 30th. Look, when we started the Purple Rain tour around the world, that day was already in the can mixed, mastered, ready to go. He was bored halfway through because of the confinements of the tour, at that show, as you could tell, runs like a play, it's a serious play. And let's pause here and give credit to Roy Bennett, the lighting and stage designer that came with us from Dirty Mind on, and designed this massive structure with elevators and tunnels and incredible lighting. Roy we considered to be the seventh member of the band, he was just really captivating Princes' vision for all this. It definitely had a feeling of creativity, but at the same time for him, it became confining. And so he wanted to move on and could have definitely gone on to done Europe and Japan, but then we wouldn't have this beautiful product we're talking about now, which is this immortal concert that we're all very proud of.

Baltin: When was the last time that you went back and watched this show?

Z: There was a night when Warner Brothers in the last couple years after he passed, gave us some beautiful plaques for Purple Rain. And then they had a screening of this and for all of us it's a little mesmerizing because first of all, you're so young. Second of all, it's the amount of work and time that put into that night after night leading up to it is daunting. It's like watching a highlight, the ball is caught, the touchdowns are made, so it's pleasant, but it's still the excruciating of the minute by minute of the game. If you know what I mean.

Melvoin: It's funny you should say that 'cause I was just talking to Lisa when we first saw it after many, many years, which wasn't too long ago. I think the first thing that the two of us said to each other was, "Wow, we were really good."

Coleman: Yeah, and we played everything so fast, we were excited, [laughter].

Baltin: Are you typically comfortable looking back?

Z: I like looking back so you can capture the nuances and bring those into the present. 'Cause there was so much each bar, each measure with Prince had so much music in it. There was so much space between one and four for Prince. The one end three that so much happened on the three for Prince, which is a weird count. So you get these little pieces of information and you, "Oh yeah that" and you don't want to bring that forward because it's all so important. I look at it, Mozart wrote these notes and he had a band I'm sure when he died, some kind of orchestra. And after Mozart died, people say, "Please play the maestro's arrangements." And so you're trying to be as authentic as you can to go back and do what Prince and The Revolution did on March 30th, 1985, as much as you can to bring that self-satisfaction of hitting that. Oh yeah, I got that, we did that. And of course modernizing stuff, but it's fun to grab the parchment if you will.

Baltin: I've become friendly with Brandi Carlile. And we were talking about her doing Joni Mitchell, Blue, all the way through. And she said the impetus for her was for people who want to hear these songs live. So I imagine it's been a lot of fun to see people who love these songs getting to see them live for the first time.

Z: And especially because in the '80s Prince and everything was done as secret and the mysteriousness of it all was part of his aura. So now you've got social media and meet and greets. And these people, we saved lives with this music and it's really incredible to see the reaction. "Purple Rain" has become, as Prince called it, medicine. He knew the power of that song, that it somehow brought everyone together. It brings people that are into polka and metal [chuckle] and river dance. Anybody that likes any music at all. "Purple Rain" seems to get them in the heart. And that's a beautiful thing. And you don't realize that in 1985, but now it's so important to people to hear, "Let's Go Crazy," done in an authentic way, and to hear "Computer Blue," "The Beautiful Ones," and "I Would Die 4 U," "Baby, I'm A Star," "Purple Rain." These songs are etched in the society. I say that the term "party like it's... " is just taken for granted now. But it's iconic, almost part of our dictionary. It's almost part of our culture. And it just seems incredible to me that this kid I knew that we grew up with that the dreams were sitting in just a car dreaming and now all of a sudden "party like it's... " is his statement here to stay. That'll be forever.

Baltin: At what point did you start to understand who Prince was becoming in the context of the music world?

Z: I started '76, I was in the original band and helped him as personnel changes, which are difficult. People don't realize you get the benefit of time. Now you look back at all, he became a star, but Purple Rain was the sixth album of a sixth album deal. And it was a long period of time and he's pushed and pulled against the major label system, we know that in the beginning as well as he did in the end, but I think it was on 1999 I just had a sense where he was understanding it. The Rolling Stones tour was a debacle of course everyone knows that. You never prepare yourself as a musician for violence, you see it, that's the old boot off the stage, get the hook, throw the tomatoes, it was all on TV or movies, you just never imagined but when it really happens. No matter what he did or what he was wearing or what he was singing, you just never imagine people to kind of turn violent and turn this into some kind of like a Romans thumbs down kind of thing. But, Lisa's comment was he had to win over the people that just did that. In order to achieve what Purple Rain ultimately did, he had to win over the hardcore rock audience, the pop audience, all these straight AOR album, rock audiences, all of this stuff had to come along and he, with his precision songwriting was able to go after this, in "1999," he would say, "Okay, I get it. Well, here's 'Little Red Corvette' for the rockers." And he has a tongue and cheek comment in '1999' where he says, "Party, that's right," and he's taking, what's ever left of disco. And then live it just turns into something else altogether. So he strategically was able to write his way out of trouble many times. And that was the magic that I think I just realized, "Wow, these songs are not stopping." And on the contrary, they're just flowing and for a while there, he just could do no wrong. So things were changed you got Brown Mark, this fresh face kid who's one of the greatest bass players of all time. The guy is just a monster and then Wendy comes in another fresh face kid, hungry and unbelievably talented guitar player. She was so creative and that gave us the unit that we are still today there's just something about when people are committed, things change. And Prince now had this band that was committed and we were gonna do it with him and we were gonna go to the top and we were gonna do whatever it took night after night after night. And that's what he needed and it's not that easy to get, but that's what he got and I'm really proud that I helped him do it.

Melvoin: We had an idea. The audiences were maniacal, they were crazy. So we knew it was more than just your regular rock concert. We knew that it was above and beyond most shows that were touring at the time. But then again, we're talking about big '80s shows as well. So there was a lot of competition on the road at the time. There was a lot of big '80s stuff going on. But there was somehow something different about bringing that movie to life on stage, without the dialogue, of course, but bringing that movie to life by the performances was really something, was probably the goal. And that night, I know that Prince was really, really aware of wanting to bring that movie to life with that show for people around the world.

Baltin: Do you look back on that Coliseum show as a sort of turning point where the band realized the things that had to change from getting booed off the stage to owning the Carrier Dome and becoming a live legend?

Z: Yeah, the guy's a figure skater up there. There's just nobody that was as fluid and is in command of the band like Prince, it's James Brown on steroids. We're playing rehearsed material, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of rehearsal, and then there's a layer of spontaneity that he adds with hand signals, audibles, physical cues, audible cues, it's the NFL. The guy had stuff going on that was unseen. He would do the stop on the one things off to the right where you couldn't see them, Mark would have to relay to me the stops, there was relays it was just crazy. The guy's shows were what I like to call on a high-wire with no net. This guy was up there between the sky scrapers and he's dancing on the wire and you could tell, and that's why people talk about it to this day because he pushed this band to the edge every single night. And I'm glad Syracuse is pretty flawless. It's pretty flawless, and it's captured and it's really fun. I must say that I have revisited this version with some of the remixes and stuff, it's great to hear a different perspective, hear different sounds, the way it separated, isolated, mixed in a 22 fashion Bernie Grumman mastering, it really is great for the fans to get this restored video and audio.

Baltin: You had Purple Rain, Born in the USA, Thriller, and at that point that was really kind of everything else. I know that Springsteen and Prince had a great mutual respect. In fact, Bruce covered "Purple Rain" right after he died. Were there other musicians that you really looked to that kind of inspired you on a nightly basis?

Melvoin: The only person that comes to mind would be Joni Mitchell. She was the one that was the biggest supporter of what Prince was doing in a world that wasn't in Prince's world, and someone that he loved so much. She was our everything. We were true disciples of hers at the time. So to have her support during those momentous concerts was really inspiring for us, to have people like that love what we were doing. As far as other musicians were concerned, there was just a mutual love fest with everybody, but we were isolated. We were on a really intense schedule and it was about being the best and leaving everybody else in the dust, that was kind of what the goal was, and I don't mean to sound that way. That sounded a little bit pompous but there was a bit of competition.

Coleman: I think we were a bit pompous, but we were very isolated because of the schedule, I think. That really lent itself to just living in your own world. And this Purple Rain, especially, it was a project that even from its inception, just seemed to always surprise us of how it was developing even from the inception of this song being three simple chords and turning into this beautiful piece. And then the film, we expected at first it'll be like a cult film, it'll be an alternative to mainstream and then it turned into a hit film, and then it was released and had a big release. And then the tour got bigger and bigger [laughter], Yeah, so it was this, slow crescendo the whole time. And so we were just involved in that. And I don't think we looked anywhere but to Prince for most of that encouragement, really. But he was so motivated.

Baltin: During Purple Rain you're dealing with a scrutiny and an attention that you've never experienced before, and that very few people can understand, but Joni Mitchell was one of those people who could.

Coleman: Yeah, absolutely. She had purists all around her and wagging their fingers at her and shaking their heads and we kind of went through the same thing, being are we Black, are we White, are we funk, are we rock, are we whatever, and we liked all of it.

Baltin: So was there particular advice that she gave you guys that you recall or was it more of just a vibe on how to deal with all of that?

Melvoin: It was just a vibe. Her comfort level was permission for us to be comfortable with ourselves as well. She was very comfortable with us and that was validating. If someone's uncomfortable around you, you know they don't wanna be there. They don't really get what you're doing. [chuckle]

Baltin: When you go back and hear that Syracuse show now are there particular moments that really stand out to you?

Melvoin: No. What struck me listening to it was this is like chapters in a book. You can't just take it from the middle. You gotta take it from the first chapter to the last chapter and it's a great book. That's what was so great about that show. So I loved every part of it. If I was to think of something right now, I loved how he sang "The Beautiful Ones" every night, I thought that was stunning. And having to recreate "Darling Nikki" every night, that takes a lot out of a person, and he was amazing. He never, ever, ever did less than 100 person ever. It was incredible.

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Q&A: The Revolution On What Made Prince A Live Legend And That Seminal Purple Rain Syracuse Show - Forbes

After North Korea activated its emergency prevention system amidthe coronavirus outbreak, Kim Jong Un declared that the vaccination was an immortal potion of love gifted by him.

The North Korean leader made the bizarre claim reportedly through a loudspeaker. The country began vaccinatingsoldiers after reporting an outbreak earlier this month.

Also Read:North Korea lifts Covid lockdown amid stable virus situation

Reports claim North Korea has reported 3.2 million coronavirus cases as Kim ordered the army to be deployed after COVID-19 cases began to mount. The state media claimed coronavirus cases had dipped with mortality rates falling.

Last week North Korea had reported 100,000 new cases of "fever" with 69 deaths with fatality rate at 0.002 per cent. North Korea had earlier rejected vaccines from the World Health Organisation(WHO) and refused to seek help from neighbouring South Korea.

Watch:Biden offers message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un

US President Joe Biden had also offered vaccines to Kim's regime but the US government said it had not received any response.

Amid the outbreak, North Korean officials activated the country's hospital services while claiming that various types of medicines were sent to different parts of the country.

According to reports, North Korea had sent planes to China to pick up medical supplies to combat the virus after the Xi regime offered assistance to its neighbour

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported North Korea had sent IL-76 transport cargo planes to China to pick up medical supplies.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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`Immortal potion of love`: Kim Jong Un`s message on vaccines to North Koreans - WION

Humans have been extracting the healing properties of plants for thousands of years. Although herbal remedies are often discounted as unscientific, more than one-third of modern drugs are derived either directly or indirectly from natural products, such as plants, microorganisms and animals.

Now, researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in the US state of California have found that a chemical extracted from the bark of the Galbulimima belgraveana tree has psychotropic effects that could help treat depression and anxiety.

The tree is found only in remote rainforests of Papua New Guinea and northern Australia and has long been used by indigenous people as a healing remedy against pain and fever.

This goes to show that Western medicine has not cornered the market on new therapeutics; there are traditional medicines out there still waiting to be studied, senior author Ryan Shenvi, PhD, a professor of chemistry at Scripps Research, told reporters in mid -May.

The most well-known example of a medical drug extracted from a plant species is opium, which has been used to treat pain for over 4,000 years. Opiates like morphine and codeine are extracted from the opium poppy and have a powerful effect on the central nervous system.

Afghan farmers collect raw opium in a poppy field

But which other ancient plant-based medicines have demonstrable medical benefits, and what is the science behind them?

The velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) has been used in ancient Indian Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine for over 3,000 years. Ancient texts tell us how healers used bean extracts to reduce tremors in patients to treat the condition we now consider Parkinsons disease.

Studies now show that the velvet bean contains a compound called levodopa, a drug used to treat Parkinsons disease today.

Levodopa helps to stop tremors by increasing dopamine signals in areas of the brain that control movement.

The modern history of levodopa began in the early 20th century when the compound was synthesized by the Polish biochemist Casimir Funk. Decades later, in the 1960s, scientists found that levodopa could be used as an effective treatment to stop tremors in patients with Parkinsons disease. The drug revolutionized the treatment of the disease and is still the gold standard for its treatment today.

Clinical trials using current research standards have found that hawthorn (Crataegus spp) reduces blood pressure and may be useful to treat cardiovascular disease. Hawthorn berries contain compounds such as bioflavonoids and proanthocyanidins that appear to have significant antioxidant activity.

The medical properties of hawthorn were first noted by Greek physician Dioscorides in the 1st century and by Tang-Ben-Cao in ancient Chinese medicine in the 7th century.

Hawthorn extracts are not yet suitable for medical use in the wider public studies are ongoing, and more rigorous research is needed to assess the long-term safety of using the extracts to treat diseases.

Yew trees have a special place in medicine in European mythology. Most parts of the tree are very poisonous, causing associations with both death and immortality. The Third Witch in Macbeth mentions slips of yew slivered in the moons eclipse (Macbeth Act 4, Scene 1).

But its a species of yew tree in North America, the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia), that possesses the most beneficial medical properties.

Scientists in the 1960s found that the trees bark contains compounds called taxels. One of these taxels, called Paclitaxel, has been developed into an effective cancer treatment drug. Paclitaxel can stop cancer cells from dividing, blocking further growth of the disease.

Willow bark is another traditional medicine with a long history. The bark was adopted 4,000 years ago in ancient Sumer and Egypt to treat pain and has been a staple of medicine ever since.

Willow bark contains a compound called salicin, which would later form the basis of the discovery of aspirin the worlds most widely taken drug.

Aspirin has several different medical benefits, including pain relief, reduction of fever and prevention of stroke. Its first widespread use was during the 1918 flu pandemic to treat high temperatures.

Edited by: Clare Roth

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Herbal medicines that actually work | Science | In-depth reporting on science and technology | DW | The - The Paradise News

B3 Kaguya Houraisan, Code: Nayotake, and the Love Temple of Benevolence and Conscience, is one of the Four Temples and leader of the group trying to fight back the Kaiju and save the Lunar Capital. Her sense of humor and brightly shining positive attitude permeates the group, raising morale and inspiring hope against the seemingly endless waves of Kaiju. But shes not just some cheerleader; her ability, to manipulate eternity and the instantaneous, is extremely powerful when used with the right amount of knowledge in a given situation, which Kaguya also tends to usually have, being a long-living immortal who has drank the Hourai Elixir. And like her fellow Temples, she is undoubtedly an EX Tier Friend.

For farming and raw damage, Kaguya is able to prove herself as an Ultra Festival Friend since she is able to solo farm a good amount of stages. Her Yang-only Last Word, Hourai Medicine Tank, is powerful in its own right as it has an abundance of Killers (most notably Youkai and Fairy) that will guarantee critical hits to a wide range of enemies. Since attack buffs and defense debuffs are effectively multiplicative, the combination of 4 Yang ATK UP (1T) from her Pre-ATK effect plus 2 Yang ATK UP (3T) and solo target 2 Yang DEF DOWN debuff (2T) from her Last Word at 1.00P boost further enhances her damage potential. It does not end there though, as a combination of her skills and ability creates more avenues for damage potential growth through agility scaling.

Solo Story Card Farms: 3-3-3, 3-11-1, Hifuu Code E9

For difficult content, she is able to sustain and prolong the survivability of the party while providing decent Agility support. Her defensive niche is all about evasion tanking for her party. As the manipulator of eternity and the instantaneous, she provides the party with at least 8 levels of effective Evasion on the 1st turn, which can then be extended for a long time using her skills and spell cards. This allows her to work in conjunction with Focus-based Friends for prolonged party survivability. However, note that this niches effectiveness is usually seen for contents like Elemental EX and Tower.

Kaguya will not miss out in the barrier breaking field as she provides good elemental access and an acceptable amount of anomaly breaks. Starting off with elemental breaks, her Spread Shot, Love and Laser, allows you to access the Moon element at 0P, with a total of 3 when it reaches max boost. She also has 3 Fire elements in this shot which are all accessible in just one boost. Her 2nd Spell Card, New Impossible Request: Mysterium, also provides Moon at 0P but it is more accessible as you only need 2.00P to use all 3 of it. Additionally, she has a total of 3 Star elements which are accessible starting from 1.00P. Lastly, her Last Word, Hourai Medicine Tank, primarily gives access to 3 Star elements and then 3 Moon elements as you boost further. There is also her Focus Shot, Charity Grenades and Spell Card 1, Divine Treasure: Jeweled Branch of Hourai -Dreamlike Paradise-, that gives access to the Moon element at 0P and provides a multitude of elements as you boost further. However, do note that a multitude of elements in an attack is hard to utilize especially when the enemies have only a few elements that they are weak towards. Her anomaly breaks consist of Melting (breaks Freeze barriers) and Toxic (breaks Poison barriers) which is prevalent when you use her Last Word at 2.00P.

When it comes to her passive, she has two that have a 100% chance of success rate. Her first passive, Anti-Kaiju Defense, provides 35% DMG DOWN from Youkai enemies allowing her to survive longer. Her 3rd passive, End of Imperishable Night, gives 0.25P per turn allowing her to have an easier time to access most of her elemental breaks.

Overall, Kaguya is a one of a kind Ultra Festival Friend to have if you are in need of what she offers. While she may not have common party utility such as attack buffs, she makes up for it by allowing your Friends to survive better through the use of evasion-related effects while also doing her best to deal high damage from her Last Word.

The Slicing scaling and secondary effects for Kaguyas attacks are as follows:

Love and Laser

1 AGI UP (3T): 50%/75%/0%/0%/100%/0%Absorb: 25%/0%/0%/0%/0%/0%

Charity Grenades

Slicing: 30%/40%/0%/50%/50%/0%1 AGI UP (3T): 50%/75%/0%/0%/100%/0%

Divine Treasure: Jeweled Branch of Hourai -Dreamlike Paradise-

Slicing: 0%/30%/40%/0%/50%/50%Blind barrier to self (1T): 100%/0%/0%/0%/0%/0%Paralyze barrier to self (1T): 100%/0%/0%/0%/0%/0%

New Impossible Request: Mysterium

Slicing: 70%/90%/0%/90%/0%/100%2 EVA UP (3T): 0%/0%/0%/0%/0%/100%Blind barrier to self (1T): 0%/0%/100%/0%/100%/0%

Hourai Medicine Tank

Slicing: 160%/140%/140%/150%/0%/160%2 YANG ATK UP (3T): 0%/0%/100%/0%/0%/0%Target 2 YANG DEF DOWN (2T): 0%/100%/0%/0%/0%/0%

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Kaguya Houraisan (Love Temple of Benevolence and Conscience) - GamePress

By MAWAHIB ABDALLATIF

A Sudanese protester was shot dead in the capital Khartoum Friday as he and thousands others in various parts of the country marked the third anniversary of the famous 2019 sit-in protests in which people called for civilian rule.

On Friday, Sudan's Central Medical Committee announced the death of a protester in south Khartoum.

The spirit of a twenty-year-old martyr rose after he was shot in the chest by live bullets fired by the coup forces as they suppressed the processions of station 7 in Sahafa area, the committee said in a statement.

This brings the total number of martyrs of our people counted by the Commission since the coup of October 25th to 99 martyrs who remain prominent flags of the glorious December revolution and immortal in history forever.

In June 2019 soldiers violently dispersed protesters who had staged a sit-in at the General Command headquarters and were calling for civilian rule, leading to death and injury of dozens of people.

Early on Friday, security officers were deployed in Khartoum in anticipation of demonstrations announced by the resistance committees, coinciding with the third anniversary of the dispersal of the sit-in.

The army and other security forces were deployed in the centre of Khartoum and around the strategic sites, and the General Command was surrounded by a tight security fence, with the surrounding streets closed off.

Authorities also closed Nile bridges linking the three cities to Khartoum, except for the Halfaya and Soba bridges, and announced that the measures came within the framework of ensuring the security and safety of citizens.

The third anniversary of the dispersal of the sit-in comes shortly after Sudan saw an escalation of protests over the Sovereign Councils decision to remove the civilian component from the transitional authority.

The resistance committees in the state of Khartoum, the youth groups that mobilise the protests, said that they held Fridays demonstrations to seek accountability and justice, and to call for the handing over to judicial authorities of perpetrators of violence in the 2019 sit-in.

In March, lawyers and activists submitted a memorandum to the International Criminal Court to consider the case of the sit-in dispersal a crime against humanity.

Despite the passage of three years, the independent investigation committee formed by the transitional government headed by lawyer Nabil Adeeb are yet to submit its report on the incident. No charges have been brought against suspects.

In a statement on Friday, the troika, which includes America, Britain and Norway, said it stands in solidarity with the survivors and victims of the sit-in dispersal and joins Sudanese in calling for the investigation committee to release a report on the incident.

They urged the military authorities to ensure victims and their families get justice.

The forces currently leading the street protests include the Resistance Committees and the Sudanese Professionals Association.

Link:
One killed as Sudanese march for justice for victims of 2019 sit-in protest - The East African

Then they found an escape. As a band, they would close in as a circle and create an invisible sheath around themselves. In this protective sheath, this armour, they would play for one another, for each other, take cues and give them. Essentially, do what they wanted to. The diners were too busy, the occasional sing us a happy birthday song notwithstanding.

Off and on, KK and I would meet. Once he dropped home, carrying a new enthusiasm in his heart and a cassette in his hand. This is my latest songissko suno, he told my wife and me. At that point, we couldnt even afford a half-decent music system. So, we went for a drive in our Maruti 800 and heard the song. And we have never stopped hearing it: 'Tadap Tadap'. The intensity hit us with a force, the poignancy with pain. Till date, I see this song as his best. The high notes he reached in this song, we had not encountered in our band.

Once when I was in Mumbai for some work, KK came to my hotel on Marine Drive and we walked the streets through the night. With waves of the Arabian Sea splashing behind us, we stood at the end of Marine Drive and he said, you know I came here and stood exactly here on this spot and looked at these lights and wondered if Bombay would give me space. It didBombay became Mumbai and our KK became Indias KK. His transition from a village called Horizon (our band) to an institution called KK was complete.

We relived our days of youth, our separate journeys but intertwined lives, wives, children, careers, hopes, dreamsand music. We ran through our music, old music, new music, new sounds, future music, the unsung songs, the unplayed notes. Remember this song? Remember that competition? Remember how they cheated us out of the first prize? I was struck with admiration for him. Here was KKour KKwho had transited into the big league. His success felt like our success.

At a corporate gig in Delhis Taj (one of the hotels he played for earlier), my daughter and I attended his concert, watched him from the front row. Even at age six, my daughter could feel the energy. When we sat in his room, looking at the citys lights from a height, we discussed his performance, his future gigs. In all this, he remembered to get a chocolate mousse for my daughter, who in turn, was mesmerised by the whole experience. It was her first show. She still remembers it.

Moving from the intimacy of a band tied together through friendshipsregular practice, the highs of applause and awards, the lows of a broken string or losing the guitar cord in mid-song when Franz jumped too highto the world of professional singing is not easy to navigate. As a band, when we played, the six individual players became one unit. Almost like a new consciousness playing through us that was more than the six of us. Its a tribal anchoring, each knowing what the other wants. But when you shift to professional singing, the musicians are different, as are the studios, as is the incentive, as is the demand and there are no friendships to lean on. That KK was able to bridge this is a feat.

Many have done this before him, many will do it in future. But it takes a special being to first make this jump, then become successful, and yet remain grounded in humility.

And in every rendering of every song he gave his allhis voice, his heart and his soul. Like Kishore Kumar before him, KK the singer would become KK the song.

The poignancy and pain in 'Tadap Tadap', to me his finest song, is KK. Equally, the deep devotion in 'Tu Hai Aasman Mein' is also KK. The joy of friendships in Yaron is KK and the ascent to the mountains in 'Mehki Hawa' are also KK.

His leaving us so suddenly has left a KK-sized hole in each of the five remaining hearts of our disbanded band. And if conversations with thousands of people on digital platforms are to be believed, this hole is there in their hearts as well. Even people who didnt know him told me that they felt as if a member of their family has died.

Souls dont die. In KKs case, even his voice will live on. The songs into which he breathed life will keep him immortal. Everyone has to go, my friend KK. You took an early flight. Ill follow at some point. See you on the other side.

Originally posted here:
KK & I Thought 40 Was Old. 35 Yrs Later, I Think He Was Too Young To Go At 53 - The Quint