Rudolf Schenker lead guitarist and co-founder of German rock group The Scorpions talking about life, happiness and success.
As Santiago was told by the old man in The Alchemist: Follow your dreams.
If you do not follow your dreams, you will spend the rest of your life regretting it, until you eventually forget what you dreams were.
If you are are a writer you write what you have to say, a musician what you wish to play. If you try to please a publisher, a record label, follow what the market dictates, you will not be a success.
Grayson Perry in his Reith Lectures last year, made the point, do not follow fashion, style or the market, be true to yourself,a nd you are more likely to be a success.
A cantora Madonna, acredite, declarou ser "O Alquimista", do brasileiro Paulo Coelho, um dos seus livros prediletos
Rock Your Life - Rudolf Schenker
local authors at World Book Night at Guildford Library
Tonight is World Book Night, a million books are to be given away.
Twenty-five titles including: The Alchemist, Pride and Prejudice, The Player of Games, A Tale of Two Cities, Rebecca, Small Island, The Book Thief.
Sharing is what we do with books, it is part of our book reading culture: We lend them to our friends, we donate them to charity shops.
Margaret Atwood:
Books without readers are like musical scores without players. And unless people are introduced to the joys of reading, reading books will disappear. World Book Night allows passionate readers to share the books they adore. And it’s a gift … gifts make powerful statements.
There are though a few killjoys: What all those books being given away, look at all the lost sales.
The same criticism has been levied at bookcrossing, a great idea, shame about the crap website.
Neil Gaiman:
Anything that gets people reading, anything that gets people back into the habit of reading, anything that reminds people how much pleasure they can take in a book is a good thing.
I don’t see this as millions of lost sales for bookshops; I see it as, potentially and with luck, hundreds of thousands more customers for bookshops.
We hear the whining from the global music industry: People sharing music is destroying our business.
If people no longer visit bookshops, the bookshops have only themselves to blame, that and the greedy publishers offering heavily discounted books to chain stores to try and turn around a quick buck.
World Book Night is not just a national event. Guildford Library tonight is open until midnight to celebrate local authors. Authors who will be at Guildford Library include Irene Black. Sadly the whole point of World Book Night appears to have been missed, that of giving books away.
World Book Night is not just a national event. This year the UK has been joined by USA, Ireland and Germany. In Germany copies of Rock Your Life will be given away.
In total, across all participating countries, 2.5 million books will be given away.
Writers write to be read, musicians play to be heard.
Unless we share, how do we find new books, new music?
I am pleased to see three of the participating authors are personal friends.
Eleven days later, the Scorpions performed Winds of Change at the Royal Albert Hall, a special anniversary concert to mark the 80th birthday of Mikhail Gorbachev, who was there as guest of honour.
Two weeks ago we were both guests of Paulo Coelho at a St Joseph’s Day party in medieval castle. In the early hours of the morning we had a special treat of Rudolf Schenker and Paulo Coelho performing together Rock Like a Hurricane.
Synchronicity: Unbeknown to me at the time, the tweet by Rudolf Schenker coincided with me posting a film of Paulo Coelho travelling on the Trans-Siberian railway.
Who would have thought, a couple of years ago I did not even know who Paulo Coelho was, and there I was like Santiago in The Alchemist setting off on a great adventure.
19 March is Saint Joseph Day. On that day Paulo Coelho celebrates his Saint’s Day with a select group of friends.
One day I was sat by the river in Guildford. There was an attractive Lithuanian girl totally engrossed in a book. What had her so engrossed I wondered? Well there was only one way to find out, I asked her.
I learnt she was reading The Zahir by the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho. A few years later, having in the between times read all of his books, I found myself at the recently renovated Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul as a guest of Paulo Coelho at his St Joseph Day party.
Paulo Coelho was born dead, strangled by his umbilical cord. His mother made a promise to Saint Joseph, the name of the hospital where Paulo Coelho was born.
Today, Paulo Coelho keeps that promise. He celebrates St Joseph’s Day and gives thanks by invitıng his friends to a party. Last year ıt was at Melk Abbey ın Austria, this year it was at the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul.
Earlier in the day Paulo Coelho gave a press conference at the Pera Palace Hotel.
The party started with cocktails. Then when everyone was seated for dinner, Paulo Coelho after having explained why he held a party for his friends every year on St Joseph’s Day, ınvıted everyone to hold hands and join him in prayer. He said a prayer ın Portuguese then others said a prayer in several other languages – English, Spanish, French, Greek, German, Japanese – it was quite a moving experience.
The food was excellent, as was the music provided by Turkish rock group BaBa ZuLa, who also had dancers. Sufi meets rock!
Turkish meze platter
***
‘Su böreği’
wıth spınach
***
Walnut crusted milk marinated lamb loin,
on smoked eggplant puree with root
vegetables and thyme sauce
***
Ottoman dessert plate,
with clotted cream
***
Tea or coffee
The highlight of the evening was BaBa ZuLa beıng joined on stage by Paulo Coelho and Rudolf Schenker the legendary lead singer and guitarist from the German rock group the Scorpions performing the classic Still loving you.
The evening ended with Paulo Coelho patiently signing books until the early hours of the morning. During the book signing Ken Crane told a story of a stone.
If nothing else, Paulo knows how to throw a good party. And he can write.
A very special thanks to Paulo for the invite to his party. The highlight of my trip to Istanbul.
It is not every day that you get to meet Paulo Coelho, Rudolf Schenker the lead singer of Scorpions, and the Abbot of Melk Abbey, all in one day!
The only annoyance for me was that on my way up I left in the taxi some of the books I had brought to be signed by Paulo for friends.
On my taxi ride down from the hotel I got a stunning view of the Mosques lit up.
Pera Palace Hotel has been recently renovated. It was built for passengers on the Orient Express. Many famous guests including Ernest Hemmingway, Greta Garbo, Agatha Christie, who wrote Murder on the Orient Express whilst staying at the Pera Palace Hotel. In the entrance foyer is an old sedan chair. Chairs such as this were used to carry guests from the station, across the river and up the hill to the Pera Palace Hotel. The electric lift inside the hotel was the second only installed in Europe. The first was the Eiffel Tower. Pera Palace is listed in 1000 Places to See Before You Die, with a copy opened at the relevant pages in a display cabinet in the hotel foyer.
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