Tosh's Journal: September 16 (Korla Pandit)

TOSH’S JOURNAL

September 16

I was obsessing over Korla Pandit, both the man and his music when walking towards the Central Library in Los Angeles. I looked up at the Standard Hotel to hopefully get a glance of someone up there. Usually, when I’m on the street level, I don’t see a thing. But I saw a sole man, looking at the view of downtown from the roof. I immediately thought if he was going to jump. When I went into the library and began working on my memoir, I read on Facebook that a man jumped from the pool/roof area of the Standard Hotel just now. I felt terrible because I thought maybe that guy up there picked up on my thoughts about jumping. But to be honest, I often think about that. While walking around downtown, due to the tall buildings, one is always aware that someone can topple over the roof or their window, and hit you while you’re strolling along the boulevard. When I read the responses to that post, regarding the unfortunate soul who jumped, most didn’t comment on his suicide, but more to the fact that it is unsafe to walk around the downtown area. One person mentioned that a bowling ball almost hit him while he walked past a ten-story building. Whoever had that bowling ball, used it to keep their window open, for air, I guess.

Nevertheless, I went back to my writing and thinking about Korla Pandit. I find him fascinating, because one, I love the sound of the organ. Pandit was an incredible musician, and myself being attracted to visually stimulating people, found him magnificent. He used to have a show called “Korla Pandit’s Adventures in Music” that was broadcasted every weekday on the Los Angeles TV station KTLA. He never spoke but looked dreamily into the camera while performing his music. Each episode was 15 minutes long. He looked like he came from somewhere exotic, such as India. He had a white turbine and usually wore a tuxedo. One story I heard was that he was born in New Delhi to a Brahmin priest and a French opera singer who traveled from England to India. Eventually, the family made it to the United States.

At the time he was doing his weekday TV series, he also did the music for the radio drama series “Chandu the Magician.” The main character Frank Chandler (“Chandu”) had the ability to teleport, astral project, mesmerize, as well as project illusions. He learned the secrets of the occult from the Yogis in India. In many ways, Korla looked like Chandu the Magician. Chandler, after learning the secrets of the occult was told by his Yogi teacher to “Go forth in the youth and strength and conquer the evil that threatens Mankind.”

As one knows, evil is everywhere. Kierkegaard has commented that “Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backward, that evil spreads.” If one can lose oneself into an exotic world, then I feel that there is hope to at the very least, force evil back into the Pandora’s box. By instinct, I feel Korla brings Eastern wisdom into the Western world, or at least he did so when he did his 15-minute television show. Not saying a word, and looking into the camera, and playing his organ, he speaks with significant volume. Even with my slight knowledge of Korla Pandit and Chandu the Magician, I couldn’t save the man on the top of the Standard Hotel. To do good, one needs to be a professional. -Tosh Berman

May 7, 2014

May 7, 2014

The one thing that really rubs me the wrong way is that I don’t live in a palace. I loathe small apartments or houses.   What really makes me sick to my stomach are those who take pride in their little shacks and fix-em-ups.  My ideal address to live would be the Palace of Versailles.  To enter the main entrance and hear Beethoven’s beautiful Ninth Symphony as you walk in, and having a servant greeting you at the door, well, that is heaven.

I don’t live in such an environment due to finances that are no longer in my control.  Basically I worked my whole life in retail.  I generally don’t understand why someone who works 40 hours a week, cannot have their dream palace.  Of course, running a home like Versailles would be awfully expensive, but still, to be in a position to wander from hallway to room to hallway, like forever, is a dream that is in my head.

Since I don’t sleep that well, more likely I would take walks in the garden of Versailles.  The only thing I would add to the garden is statures of saints, or at least saints that are part of my life.  Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls, Johannes Brahms, film director Ishirō Honda, author Angela Carter, and my favorite western movie sidekick, Gabby Hayes.

As I write, the tears in my eyes are clouded over my sight, yet in my heart I can see that I deserve a better place.  Right now I’m writing a memoir and the only location where I feel comfortable to write such a book is at the Los Angeles Downtown Library on fifth and Flower.  It is not exactly like the Versailles, but for me, I have never been in a large decorative building before.  I try to imagine that I live here by myself, and often have fantasies what it must be like to roam through the rooms here at 3 A.M.

Homes like the Downtown Library and Versailles totally turn-off the world outside, which on a daily basis is a world that is not to my liking.  I’m also fascinated that none of the bathrooms in the library have mirrors.  It is like one cannot reflect on one’s appearance, but instead, you reflect oneself on the architecture and books that are located in the library.  The mirrored halls of Versailles were made to follow up on oneself as you walk down the hallway.  But here, I only have my imagination at work, and therefore the perfect location to work on my masterpiece.