A Schizoid Dreamz

And what prize does naiveté get?

2008-10-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

A newspaper office usually means the journalists get a lot of letters and emails from readers, which can be either adulatory or downright derogatory too. But once in a while, you have naïve, honest readers writing in, who can just brighten a bad day, with their unintentional humour.

Last week, the features team in our paper had a good laugh too. I take care of a couple of columns in the tabloid Bengaluru Chronicle and one of these columns, ‘ISITE’ had this snail mail from a lady, sent by courier. I like opening mails, be it electronic or snail, for this column as they come out with great surprises.

When I tore open the envelope, I was quite baffled to see a cut out of one of the previous columns. My initial reaction was, “Oh God! Did I make any error that a reader has marked it out and sent it to me.” But later, as I peered into the paper cutting, I see that it was this picture sent by one of readers in Nanjangud, where there was one small infant amidst many toys. A really cute picture that it made, I gave it a caption that read Spot the real one?

What was I to infer that some innocent readers would actually take time off their busy day to circle the real baby and send it to us? Needless to say, the entire team shared a light moment where we lauded the effort of our reader, and even said, “Maybe, we should send her the Rs 300 that is kept for the photograph contributors. After all, she has spend some money, time and effort in couriering this photograph to us.”

Well, these moments are priceless, and the reactions precious, I really hope we get many more such, which can make mundane Mondays fun and cheerful. Keep the letters coming readers, we read all of them and savour them for every bit of their worth!

Golden moments, priceless memories

2008-10-05T23:20:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest boons in a nation as big as India is that every state has many stories to tell. And it is based on the same concept that the Department of Tourism, Karnataka, started their own Palace on Wheels, the Golden Chariot. Ruins, greenery, heritage sites and forgotten tales, these are just some of the things that lure one to embark on this special train that pampers one beyond imagination.

The Golden Chariot is a dream train, with interiors based on the Mysore and Hampi style architecture. The rooms are simple yet luxurious, leaving no room for complaints. And the two separate kitchens for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food is quite a thoughtful concept. And for those that want to just stay back and rejoice the luxury in the train, a spa, DVD parlour and Internet facilities.

But the itinerary sounds so vast and exhaustive that not many will opt out of it. The first day starts off with an optional Bengaluru trip. A scrumptious fare at Jamavar, Leela Palace, followed by a trip around Bengaluru, catching a glimpse of Tipu's Summer Palace, the Bull Temple and the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens.

The day ends with all the guests boarding the train from the special platform on Yeshwanthapur Railway Station. This is where the journey begins, as the first glimpse of the train leaves everyone no less than awestruck. Following a welcome drink, the real journey begins.

The second day is a trip to Kabini forest. A boat ride, a wildlife documentary and a jungle safari, with chances of seeing leopards, gaurs, deer and tigers, if lucky – these are the things one does, and leaving the bumpy ride on the jeep through the safari, this makes quite a nice day.

Day three starts off early, with a trip to Srirangapattanam, which hosts Tipu Sultan's fort, Daria Daulat. Following this, it's more royalty in store, with a tour of the world famous Mysore Palace. The best part of the day is the fact that some rooms locked for the usual visitors, like the ammunition room or the room housing the stuffed animals which were killed by the Maharajas are open to the Golden Chariot visitor. And the day is rounded off with a beautiful set of performances ranging from Bharatanatyam to Dollu Kunita in Mysore.

If day three is characterized by fort and palace visits, the next day is filled with temple visits. The beautifully sculpted Belur and Halebid temples make the first half of this day, where guides enlighten the tourists (mostly NRIs and foreign nationals) about Indian myths like Ramayan and Mahabharat. The afternoon is spent trekking up to see the giant monolith of Lord Gomateshwara at Shravanabelagola.

Day five is a fun-filled day, with trekking through the ruins of the Vijayanagar Empire at Hampi. Visiting temples, forts and other significant landmarks coupled up with trinket shopping at the Hampi Bazaar, where the nomads (lambanis) sell their exotic ware that include clothing, jewellery and accessories.

My favourite day of the trip has to be the pen-ultimate day, which is visiting the temples at Badami, Aihole and Pattadakallu. These 4th to 7th century temple architecture is probably some of the best you will find in the world. The pleasant orange coloured rocks that go into these rocks make these temples a wondrous sight. And the rock temples at Badami can well take an entire day, as you can trek into the dozens of cave temples across the hills.

From Badami, the final lap of the journey, to Goa, is the most picturesque one. The best sight through this leg is going past the Dudhsagar Falls, just at the border of Goa and Karnataka, where the water fall cascades even over the railway track.

In Goa, you get to visit a typical Portuguese home in Panjim, where cocktails made from fenny and the warm Goan pleasantries make you feel at home, and yes, I even wondered settling down in that same house. A little fenny, some cashewnuts and bottle or two of port wine and tons of memories, this is how this memorable trip ends.

rock showz

2008-10-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it is the biggest festival time for Vaishnavites right now... With the Brahmotsavam happening at Tirupati. To certain extent, this could be like the Woodstock of these people. While I was watching the live telecast of the pujas on television, I just couldn't help notice how similar these big celebrations are to the biggest rock gigs. This was a discussion I was having with mum, as we sat together watching this while eating breakfast.
To begin with, both of these are rock shows. While at a concert, the auditory senses get to a heightened high, with visuals to match it, while in these Godly events, the visual senses are the main 'high'light and you have prayers, bells and chants to back it.
Secondly, at both these events, you have people who attain a certain high thanks to what they see/hear. This leads them to jump, dance and let loose as they achieve a sense of being unparalleled. If you don't believe so, try and see a repeat telecast of the Brahmotsavam and you will see a 60 year old priest jump and bang his head, with his long hair untied, just like Slash or James Hetfield at a concert.
Analogies are many more, the drum beats used in these big functions, are 8-beat and sometimes 16-beat, good enough to back up vocals of even System of a Down or even Cannibal Corpse.
Reading too much into too little? Well, maybe yes... But rock reminds me, anyone knows where to get tickets for the Def Lep gig?

Waking up

2008-10-04T01:30:00.000-07:00

Intrepid
Introspective
At the same time
Insanely insecure
I wonder why life can thus be
Where in between I forget 'me'
Have I moved on?
Am I stuck in a cycle?
I understand not,
Nor do I want to ask
I just look back
Smile
Frown
And carry on...
A few emotions lighter,
But definitely a heart heavier

Feel good cinema: get real!

2006-09-12T03:37:00.000-07:00

Director: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Lewis Alsamari, Christian Clemenson, Trish Gates
Rating: ****

If Crash was the one movie that celebrated the triumph of the human spirit in every person, be it good or bad, last year, Paul Greengrass does the opposite and with conviction in his United 93. This is the first Hollywood film to dwell upon the 9/11 blasts releasing just ahead of Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center.

Why Greengrass excels is because nor has he chosen the high profile case of the WTC crash, nor does he have a set of high profile actors. The story of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field, is told five years after the incident based on facts from the 9/11 Commission Report.

The ensemble cast does a good job playing their characters to the t. The story begins with the four terrorists’ incantations to Allah and ends with one of them again praying to Allah before they crash land. In between lies the crux of the story, where it takes us into air-traffic control centers in New York, Boston and Cleveland, and into the confused hullabaloo of the Northeast Air Defense, as military commanders struggle with late information. We see in almost real time the sluggish communications and impeccable inefficacy of a system that failed to prevent one of the biggest tragedies. The film ends with the text messages remind the already-disturbed audience of what happened that day.

The film in itself is very symbolic of the action it wishes to convey. The script has very few dialogues initially, but as the difference hijackings and crashes take place, it gains momentum and the dialogues increase. The climax is a brilliant mix of sound effects as well as verbal diarhhoea. This is one must-keep screenplay for any young writer. What could have been avoided? The excessive stress on the Islamic incantations by the terrorists, which gets dramatically over-played at places. The violence: which at times gets a little disturbing.

Q.E.D.

2006-06-11T01:44:00.000-07:00

Aphorisms and
Defense mechanisms
Used to survive the daylight
As we strive
To get past the crowd
In the hope of being camouflaged
By the shadow that accompanies us
Signifying the night – the darkness;
The path from which we’ve arrived.
Passing through the eternal stream
With the clicking mortal minutes
Providing the ironic reality
The day seems close to an end
The stream still looks long...

Zilch!

2006-06-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

Alone
Solitude
Silence
Depression
Introspection
Contemplation
Indecision
I stand
With nothing to offer
Nothing to do
But just carry on
In this vicious circle of nothingness.

light

2006-04-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

jaded i stood
faded in the darkness
waded then did i
serenaded by emotions
traded with an antidepressant
.... and then i saw light

renaissance!

2006-04-07T20:04:00.000-07:00

so i'm back to blaaging after a while! eh call it laziness, call it snobbery, call it whatever... basically... a computer available at ease, makes blogging all the more in peace :D!

so mumbai was a blast... the usual happened... party sharty... meeting junta... drinking like alcohol is going outta fashion, bhaang doses and what not! mumbai definitely was fun while it lasted! and what more... got three leads as well in the paper... and did crime stories lol! ewww hate those government hospitals and police chowkis... never am i ever EVER! going to do some crime again! NEVER! but heh! twas a fun experience alright... bleh... who cares though... i prefer the pseud-lives better :) a la bhandarkar's page 3! oh yeah! for seeing my articles... www.mid-day.com and searching for 'sunayana suresh' helps :)

okay now i am back in bang-bang-bang-bang-bangalore and louving it toe-tully!

work front is fun... catchin up with pals, on reads and the works... nothin could get better :)

anyway... again for some vague reason... its that time of blogging when i start pasting lyrics... dont ask why! i just want to... one o' me fave songs... the lyrics... even better! oh yea the song is sheryl crow's 'my favourite mistake' :)

so here it goes...

I woke up and called this morning
The tone of your voice was a warning
That you don't care for me anymore

I made up the bed we sleep in
I looked at the clock when you creep in
It's six AM and I'm alone

Did you know when you go it's the perfect ending
To the bad day I was just beginning
When you go all I know is you're my favorite mistake

Your friends act sorry for me
They watch you pretend to adore me
But I'm no fool to this game

Now here comes your secret loverS
he'll be unlike any other
Until your guilt goes up in flames.

Did you know when you go it's the perfect ending
To the bad day I'd gotten used to spending
When you go all I know is you're my favorite mistake
You're my favorite mistake

Well maybe nothing lasts forever
Even when you stay together
I don't need forever after, but it's your laughter won't let me go
So I'm holding on this way

Did you know could you tell you were the only one
That I ever loved?
Now everything's so wrong
Did you see me walking by, did it ever make you cry?
Now you're my favorite mistake
Yeah you're my favorite mistake
You're my favorite mistake

strangers ... not at all...

2006-02-23T01:39:00.000-08:00

A new place, new people, new city, everything new... and what's more phust budday away from home ever! Well that and my 'i'm growin old' sulkin' had me wondering how this day'd be...

Well... the fact that I'm smiling and typin this, is an indication of what its been alright...

12 pm sharp well not exactly, but a few mins later... the whole setta junta from Bangalore... I mean my colleagues from Mid Day... junta I know just a few days from surprised me with cake, singing and the likes... me made a rather tactless and bland budday speech, but hey! was a looottta fun! :) took pix and all...

Then around 12:45 old man Salil, who shares his budday with me and is 10 yrs older than me, called me to Kala Ghoda, which is 15 mins away from where I lives... I is thrilled... Get there with Kavya, who very mummy-like says I'll join you mainly cuz its this late... hehe :) had a fun time... stayed for 45 mins... junta sang and all here again...

Then phone calls et al ... needless to mention...

Just now back after a 1 hr table session with me future boss.

And the day is just half over...

Here's a happy start to a year ...

and yes... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I'm gettin older :'(

live from mumbai

2006-02-21T02:38:00.000-08:00

10 days already! Mumbai, new job and new place all seem to be fun...

Much unlike the previous one, this place is soooo different! And damn! I sure do miss Wipro... ! How much I louved the place, I only find out now... The organized corporate envionment versus the you're your own master kinda set up here. Damn, I only realize what a corporate sucker I've become! Unbelievable, the way life can change... I mean, I just don't understand how I took so much time to adjust to a routine like this! (hehe!)

Annnyways I aint cribbing... Exciting the new life promises to be... And (hehe!) little did I expect I could fit in so well into business journalism ... well aint settled yet... but sure shall get there :)

Ah, the blog shall be cut short as woik beckons... More on Mumbai madness... hopefully sooner than later!

PS - All you worried junta smsing / calling me... I wont, I repeat, WONT, eat chicken and eggs ;)

to one of the best persons!

2006-02-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

Here's remembering those good ol days!

Anu, you're here forever with us :)

A person who was so artistic, knowledgeable, talented, brilliant, intelligent and yet the most funnest sweetest humorous person! Here's to a wonderful human being! And to all those good memories we've had! :)

hmmm!

2006-02-05T03:45:00.000-08:00

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
I love her for her smile--her look--her way
Of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of ease on such a day--
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee,--and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheek dry,--
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.

Well what do I say about this poem but way to go woman...

Elizabeth Barret Browning, well she is just a woman much ahead of her times as cliche as it sounds...

She is the woman who dared to venture into the patriarchal area of the Elizabethan/Petrarchan sonnets and did put inher terms of being loved and did she put them well! She is truly an epitome of the eloquent woman...

This woman has said it and has said it in such a way that lyric writers even today talk about loving women in these terms...

Oh just goin' thru old texts of my literature syllabus when i saw my presentation on this poem... hence the blog :)

PS: this is my 100th post! Ironically, the first one was about death and this about love!

To good memories...

2006-01-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

A Professor of mine, in my first day of college, in my sociology class, told us, ‘The only constant thing in life is change.’ Ironies apart, this probably is the simplest truth we’d find in life. Change, inevitable and unavoidable, is something we grow up learning to accept and get accustomed to!

Life brings me at one such fork, where I need to explore one such path unexplored. With fond memories, a smile in my heart and, most importantly, a truckload of friends (literally!), I will be moving on for a tryst with the more primitive media form, i.e. print, and will be bidding adieu (cliché!) to Wipro...

A year and a half almost and the mean corporate world has been a real good pal to me! Had some of the most cherishable memories and made some of the best pals! I've definitely learnt to see things differently, much like how a kindergarten treats an toddler! I've had junta holding me by the hand and guiding me thru-out! Sigh! It sure is going to be a drastic change, not having these people around, not travelling on those treacherous paths of Sarjapur Road, the long waits near BTM water tank and Silk Board courtesy Bangalore's traffic... And most importantly that homely office in that godforsaken village Doddakanelli!

Well... as the cliche goes... life has to move on and me as well...

Here's a toast to all those good memories! :)

Quite a treasure!!

2006-01-16T21:07:00.000-08:00

AWESAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMM!!!

Maaaaaaan! Is this good or is this good!!!!

And I aint Talkin' bout Dickens!

2006-01-15T22:44:00.000-08:00

Uriah Heep's by-the-books progressive heavy metal made the British band one of the most popular hard rock groups of the early '70s. Formed by vocalist David Byron and guitarist Mick Box in the late '60s, the group went through an astonishing number of members over the next two decades — nearly 30 different musicians passed through the band over the years. Byron and Box were members of the mid-'60s rock band called The Stalkers; once that band broke up, the duo formed another group called Spice. Spice would eventually turn into Uriah Heep in the late '60s, once Ken Hensley (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and bassist Paul Newton joined the pair. Former Spice drummer Alex Napier was the band's drummer for a brief time; he was quickly replaced by Nigel Olsson.

Uriah Heep released their debut album Very 'eavy, Very 'umble (called Uriah Heep in the U.S.) in 1970. After its release, Keith Baker became the group's drummer; he recorded Salisbury, the group's second album, before deciding he couldn't keep up with the band's extensive touring and was replaced by Ian Clarke. Featuring a 16-minute title track recorded with a 26-piece orchestra, Salisbury showcased the band's more progressive tendencies. Later that year, Ian Clarke was replaced by Lee Kerslake and Mark Clarke replaced Newton; Mark Clarke quickly left the band and Gary Thain became the group's bassist. This lineup of Uriah Heep was its most stable and popular; beginning with 1972's Demons and Wizards, they released five albums between 1972 and 1975.

After 1975, the band's popularity began to slip. Byron left the band in 1977 and was replaced by John Lawton, yet the group's fortunes kept declining right into the early '80s. However, Uriah Heep soldiers on, continuing to release albums in the '90s. The album roster includes Different World (1994), Sea of Light (1995), Sonic Origami (1998) and Spellbinder (1999). Future Echoes of the Past was issued in spring 2001.

1970 Uriah Heep
1970 Very 'eavy...Very 'umble
1971 Look at Yourself
1971 Salisbury
1972 Demons & Wizards
1972 Magician's Birthday [Mercury]
1973 Uriah Heep Live
1973 Sweet Freedom [Roadrunner]
1974 Wonderworld
1975 Return to Fantasy
1976 High and Mighty
1977 Firefly
1977 Innocent Victim
1978 Fallen Angel
1980 Wonderful
1980 Conquest
1982 Abominog
1983 Head First
1985 Equator
1988 Live in Moscow World Of Hurt
1989 Raging Silence
1994 Different World
1995 Sea of Light
1996 Live January 1973
1997 King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents In Concert [live]
1998 Sonic Origami
1999 Spellbinder
2001 Future Echoes of the Past
2001 High and Mighty [Bonus Tracks]
2001 Wonderworld [Bonus Tracks]
2001 Return to Fantasy [Bonus Tracks]
2001 Electrically Driven
2001 Innocent Victim [UK Bonus Tracks]
2001 Firefly [UK Bonus Tracks]
2001 Live in Europe 1979 [UK Bonus Tracks]
2001 Abominog [UK Bonus Tracks]
2001 Fallen Angel [UK Bonus Tracks]
2001 Live in Moscow [UK Bonus Tracks]
2001 Live
Live in Europe 1979
Sweet Freedom [Castle]
Magician's Birthday [Castle]
Live at Shepperton 74

sniff

2006-01-12T00:09:00.000-08:00

A faint little cry
A small droplet of tear
Hiding behind a mask
Labelled yesterday
Looking at the future
With innocent fear

Noone to help
Nowhere to go
No place to hide
None secure!
Nothing absolutely nothing

A frown on the face
A curve upside down
A frown that doesn't just go
A whimper from within
And tear drops falling out and in

Is this any life
Is this any death
Is this for real
Is this surreal
Is this just her

Lost is the keyword
Lost in the crowd
Lost behind face
Lost within oneself
Lost all that was once possessed

Where does she look
Will someone tell her?

... to a new year!

2006-01-05T01:36:00.000-08:00

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?

Well with this quote from one of my eternal faves TRAINSPOTTING I choose to begin my posts this year!

Well why you ask... eh... like the quote says... Who needs reasons ;)

Errr did I tell too much? LOL

blog closed for this year...

2005-12-30T02:08:00.000-08:00

till then wishing you all the best and more for the year ahead!

see you next year...

hopefully :)

after bleep bleep bleep songs

2005-12-29T03:05:00.000-08:00

well yeah...
suddenly my blog after this might have to have PG 21 rating ;)

well yeah coming to the original point... had this convo with a pal on after the bleep bleep bleep feelings and songs that could probably work towards enhancing those happy moments... okay for the ignoranuses i mean the *** word ;)....

here is a list

- I've got the power (a la bruce almighty ishtyle)
- Wish you were here
- (dont kill me) My dil goes hmmm (from the hindi flick Salaam Namaste)
- Coming back to life
- Unchained melody
- Come away with me
- I want to hold your hand :):):)

bah!

2005-12-28T02:05:00.000-08:00

Bah!

New Years...

Over Hyped!

Over Rated...

okay too much posted

One for humanity!

2005-12-27T01:06:00.000-08:00

Click here and find your human side :)

year 2005

2005-12-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

hit
miss
hit
hit and run
miss
miss
hit
hit
strike!
home run...!!!

you dont get it? eh... don't bother :) i got it and that's all that matters

hehe

Walking down memory lane … literally!

2005-12-21T00:59:00.000-08:00

Intimidating and scary, yet inviting and enticing, this small semi-circle stretch of tarred road hold a special place in the hearts of most girls of Bangalore, while it brings an excited cheer in the hearts among the Bangalore boys. The Mount Carmel College drive way is definitely a historic place amidst any college go-er in Bangalore.

Spanning not more than a few hundred meters, this drive way is symbolic of all that you’d find in Mount Carmel College. Split into two halves, the drive way has the front drive and the back drive. Both these halves present diametrically opposite pictures of the college. While the front drive holds view the studious crammers, busy completing record books and discussing math formulae, with girls from the science stream, the back drive is a picture apart! This has girls with a completely laid back attitude, without caring a wee bit of the people around them; you’ve the girls of the arts and commerce streams discussing everything possible under the sun.

This more boisterous bunch on the back drive is that which drives every Bangalore boy crazy and intimidated, for when a member of the opposite sex enters the college, you hear some vehement ‘Adam teasing’.

Classrooms apart, the Carmelite spends most time of her college days here, making this stretch pretty nostalgic when one talks about this to any alumnus from the college.

A distinct attraction apart from the obvious beauties on this drive way is the dogs you find, being pampered by the students. These dogs in turn act all chivalrous and frighten the daylights of any male visitor in the campus. (This’d definitely make everyone rethink on calling the dog a man’s best friend.)

Nostalgia, fun, zestfulness, excitement, last minute-cramming and more, this drive way truly symbolizes all that makes a college!

Wacky! Found this in an orkt community!

2005-12-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

"Inside every man...

resides a wicked plan!

behind that congenial smile...

lies a mind very vile!

Every girl,her age's worth!

Is warned of the subtle evil-the men of the earth!

Search every inch of the world,scale the cosmos...

For every man you find, you find as many of them, these despos!"

WARNING: I did not write this poem ... but yep, louve it no doubt! Which woman wouldn't ;)

hehe! trippy!

2005-12-04T19:38:00.000-08:00

When i kill myself i'll...

Find
out your most ideal means of suicide by clicking here

Well hey there Mr./Ms. Happy Pants, aren't we a big ray of sunshine today... If you didn't catch on I was being sarcastic. Seeing as you got this result I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase "Fuck you, you arrogant prick". With your choice of lifestyle blowing your brains out is by far the most fitting means of doing yourself in. Quick, aggressive, and messy.. Just like how you are in bed.

Elementary Dr. Watson, i always knew me is anti social!

2005-12-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

So, where are my accompliances... Bring on vandalism I say!

You scored as Antisocial Personality Disorder. Congratulations!
You have ASPD! You know that blatantly disregarding social norms and
the rights of others isn't just illegal;
it's FUN. Jail time? Eh, look at Gary Gilmore...
was he really that bad of a guy?

Antisocial Personality Disorder

92%

Unipolar Depression

67%

Borderline Personality Disorder

42%

Schizophrenia

33%

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

17%

Eating Disorders

Which mental disorder do you have?
created with QuizFarm.com

To relationship!

2005-11-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

I can’t let you burn me up nor can I resist. No mere human can not stand in a fire and not be consumed.
- A S Byatt in Possession

Wow! I mean those lines absolutely define human emotion, when it comes to relationship.

Of late, relationship be it of marriage, dating or anything else of the likes, is what most people around me have been talking of. Kinda nice, spooky, scary, interesting, boring, yada yada! I mean relationships go through all kinds of phases, and likewise is the case of different people around me.

Well, this one is to you, the human emotion rather necessity of being wanted and of wanting. Without you I don't think, if not for all, I at least, wouldn't have survived till today! :)

a hilarious forward in quite a while :)

2005-11-24T02:48:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post Style section runs a contest every year where they want readers to combine two "real" words into a third word and then provide a definition for that new word.

These were some of the winners this year.

Stick with it, some of these are hilarious...

___________________________________________________

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. (hahaha! i lou this one)

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Hipatitis B! (n): Terminal coolness.

8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

9. Karmageddon (n): It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action. (nicee!)

12. Dopeler Effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:
16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an a**h***

Some schizoid rambling...

2005-11-14T03:16:00.000-08:00

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change."

"Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

Interesting, nothing new, cliche, simple, eye-opener, so true!, idealistic, irrational, i know!, but still!, if only!, bullshit...

This is me reflecting on this forward I got, which is nothing new, but still worth a second read, a little reflection and then some airy dismissal LOL!

I dont know if age has taught me complacency or is this natural... but I think it is but natural and hell! I aint no Mahatma Gandhi or Karl Marx, let alone a Gautam Buddha or Jesus Christ...

I am just a normal human being, who lives thinking grass is greener on the other side...
But then, that is not ALL of me, I do think this can be achieved, as I do appreciate (if not adore their lives) the men I wrote about above...

So what am I trying to say here, I have no clue... I ramble on, just like that, irrationally yet rationally, thoughtfully yet in haste, but I guess the effort wasn't a waste...

Hell this IS the phjilosophy of today, of the popular culture worshipping yuppie, for whom Bill Watterson and Calvin along with Don Corleone and Tyler Durden are the Gods, the philosophers, the saints and the prophets!

Well if you are still reading on, I guess you also do identify with me at some point if not more! Swell! So here's cheers to that...

Oh, wait, let me go fill my signature Channel [W] metallic thermos cum mug with some coffee and come...

bliss... dontcha agree?!

2005-11-07T22:49:00.000-08:00

Less workload
Off office at 4:00 pm
Hit Mojo at 4:30 pm
Play music of my choice for two hours :) just me, beer and music!
Walk out at 8:00 pm
Meet a good *read GOOD* friend
Talk, yakkity yak non ishtop
12 midnight sit with Doors Floyd et al with that special friend :)
Little nothings, special somethings, exciting everythings...
A little bit of that, a little bit of this, a little bit of him and a little bit of me (hehe!)
See the sunrise in that happy mood...
Good English breakfast with happy Bob Marley music

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Isn't that life?

lmao! laughing yoga!

2005-11-04T17:44:00.000-08:00

http://media.putfile.com/Laughing-yoga

hahaha! courtesy arok/neesa

a little late, but anyhoo...

2005-11-01T23:46:00.000-08:00

As the new day dawns,
With rays of joy anew,
May this festive season:
Be the best for you!

As the new hour clocks,
With moments of happiness,
May this festive season:
Bring afore Gods themselves to bless!

As every new wish nears,
With blessings galore adorning you,
May this festive season:
Bring your heart fond memories to renew…

As the new joy surmounts,
Life will never seem happier,
May this festive season:
Bring the dear ones closer

HAPPY DIWALI !!

23rd Tag!

2005-10-30T20:41:00.000-08:00

hehehe... this required soul searching(?!) thru the blog lol...

One that will be my brown beauty

Before you wonder what

Delve into your blog archive
Find your 23rd post (or closest to)
Find the fifth sentence (or closest to)
Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions
Tag five people to do the same

Five people i tag are:
Lyn, Ajay, Seven, Yesh and Arun...

Ahahah!

2005-10-30T02:22:00.000-08:00

So wrong but lol u still cant help laughing! ...

The Great Indian October Fest

2005-10-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

:: Welcome to The Great Indian October Fest ::

Beer, music, flea-market, food, games galore and fun unlimited! It's party time Bangalore!!

Truly Bangalore city rocks as it was but the natural choice, the booze haven, that would host this biggg fete first time in India!!

Cheers to the beery beery rocking times ahead!!

*glug glug glug glug glug*

showing off...

2005-10-26T02:35:00.000-07:00

Queer talk...

2005-10-24T03:15:00.000-07:00

Queering Bollywood

Queering Bollywood is a series of conversations - each conversation with a person, whether the guy at the video parlour, or friends, or anyone interested, led to more ideas and suggestions about movies to watch. Often recollected vaguely from the subconscious - yes, there was a controversy, a moment of seeming stillness in a film, an intaken breath. Speculation about same sex activity in cinema or its reflection on celluloid is not however confined to today, but seems like there have always been moments of anxiety, whether a film like Utsav, or Rajnigandha from the 70s-80s, or popular films like Zanjeer, or controversies like the Saif Ali Khan attack controversy.

Shohini Ghosh in her article on queer pleasures, talks about the privileging of romantic love in Hindi popular cinema as opposed to any other emotion, and also the romanticisation of friendship - we will die for each other, we will never forget each other, best exemplified by the Sholay song - Yeh Dosti. This is also reflected in Raja Rao's article on homoeroticism in cinema especially reflected in the songs. The article also gives an interesting insight into rendezvous' in cinema halls amongst men watching Amitabh Bacchan films.

Another film that Shohini Ghosh talks about is Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (the song - Didi tera dewar deewana), the so called "family film" that contains a moment of queer pleasure which is carefully hidden and coded, but nonetheless is there. This also points to an interesting facet that it is the super blockbusters of Indian cinema, like Sholay, Hum aapke hain kaun, Kal ho na ho that seem to contain these moments of queer pleasure. This genre that envelops many others - which gives action for action fans, romance for romance fans, songs for all the music lovers, drama for the family film, also has somehow included within its repertoire, moments of homoeroticism.

However the art films or offbeat films do have a very important role to play as well. The ones that bravely take a stand like Fire, Bombay Boys, Mango Souffle or even ones like Bollywood Hollywood, Bend it like Beckham that contain minor gay characters, confront issues directly, but also cater to a limited audience of middle class English speaking people but this audience is not necessarily a non-homophobic one. Here the focus, because of limitations of space rather than anything else, is for that moment encoded in the film, and about conversations such as this one about the gay stuff in Kal ho na ho on a web based bulletin board. The obvious films circulate within the community of those aware, including films like Happy Together, Wild Reeds, Wedding Banquet, Antonia's line and many more.

A similar exercise of coming out of the closet was done for Hollywood in the form of a book by Vito Russo and the film - Celluloid Closet, and numerous articles. Richard Dyer's article on the responsibilities of a gay film critic and several of the interviews in the film, reveal a trajectory of slow but steady coming out - a movement from ridicule to villainous to .... a main character who is multi-faceted, but unfortunately dying as in Philadelphia. Richard Dyer's comment on stereotyping is in fact also reflected in certain Hindi movies like Raja Hindustani and Excuse me where the sidekick of the woman masquerading as the maharani too is obviously kothi. The slight playing of stereotypes is also evident in Kuch na kaho. In his article he also talks about how stereotypes infact become useful in recognizing certain characters as queer. What marks the documentary as a journey through the history of Hollywood is that it is interspersed with personal comments about reactions to movies and the meager space that some - abysmally few do provide.

What is different from Hollywood, and is most evidenced by the documentary film Celluloid Closet (available for borrowing from Pedestrian Pictures in Bangalore) is the lesser possibility of homoerotic pleasure for women. Madhav Prasad talks about the enveloping of the women centric genre into the social genre in the context of Indian popular cinema, which is probably why there isn't a form of women-centric cinema as there is in Hollywood (Thelma and Louise style).

In Indian cinema the physicality between women is much less obvious, even in a self-conscious copy of male buddy films like Paisa Vasool, the images don't offer much queer pleasure or desire, but they do offer a sort of montage of lives of two women together, sharing a bed, cooking, walking on the beach like couples and hatching an evil plan that they eventually do succeed with, which is very unusual. Hindi popular cinema has often almost reveled in negating women's desires. Whether this is Sangam that entirely ignores the women's desire, or Jism that allows a sensual Bipasha Basu to rule the roost till near the end, and then kills her off. Paisa Vasool also has moments of affirmation of friendship and love between the two women and juxtaposition against heterosexual desire (couples on the beach). The clip about the Morocco in Celluloid Closet, reveals the possibility of expression of lesbian desire, not yet explored even in a coded manner as popular male buddy films like even Sholay do. Fire did break some of the rules, but also came in for critique for its depiction of the relationship between two women as some kind of lesser choice, because of the failure of both their marriages. Similarly the upcoming movie Girlfriend's (www.girlfriendthemovie.com) storyline also is about a possessive best friend who comes between a couple, and rather than reciprocated desire it is about one slip by the character played by Amrita Arora.

However rather than critique, this exercise is meant to be creative, innovative - seriously frivolous. As Susan Sontag says in Notes on Camp - "The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious. More precisely, Camp involves a new, more complex relation to "the serious." One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious." Queering Bollywood is a project that mixes the sense of frivolous about the serious and the serious about the frivolous. Its serious about subversive, queer readings of popular Hindi cinema which many consider extremely frivolous. Its frivolous about the deadly serious nature of ownership of cinema, freely copying and mixing from various sources.

One of the things done is a remix of a popular film Kal ho na ho. KHNH is categorized as a film which has a gay subtext (like Saathi, Anand, Main khiladi tu anaari) - the very notion of two men who are competing for the same woman supposedly, becoming friends so easily and remaining close, especially physically throughout the movie, is a very thin disguise for a gay love story. The remix attempts, on an average PC with pirated software and a pirated copy of the film, to unearth this story of 2 gay men and a woman in between. Several stories are actually possible, versions of which were even made. One of them is bisexual and the other is gay, the woman is the third angle. Both of them are gay, the girl falls for one, or the version that both are gay, but one is forced to get married because of his parents to an unsuspecting girl.
Infact many collections of lesbian and gay literature like Scripts, Facing the Mirror contain stories and poems that refer to Bollywood. Films like Gulabi Aaina, Tedhi Lakeer thrive on the imagery and songs of cinema.

Kal ho na ho takes unlikely men with conflicting interests (for the same woman) and puts them together. Unlike this most other films take very good friends, even brothers and it is between them that there are moments. In the song Yeh Dosti from Sholay, both the characters flip a coin to see who will get the girl, and the coin stands on its edge. This gives neither of them the girl but ostensibly leaves them with each other. Sholay also has the interesting conversation between Amitabh and Mausi, because of how he tries to prevent his friend's wedding. A film that seems to follow from Sholay is Saathi, apparently made keeping a gay audience in made. Saathi uses some of the same imagery of two guys on a bike and the movie revolves around the intense relationship between the two men. The songs are about their friendship elevated to love, and also in the fight scene between the two men the woman in Mohsin Khan's life is obviously made the villain who came between them. The song Yaarana has them dancing together like usually men and women in Hindi films dance with each other at that point of time (P.T. style facing the camera).

Another film Main khiladi tu anaari that also led to the controversy of the attack by Saif Ali Khan because he was called gay, has several delicious scenes, especially one where the two men get up close and personal only to be interrupted by a woman, who in the film is going to be the love interest of one of them. How believable is that? Waugh in his article wonders who - the dance choreographer, the director came up with the shot of the pelvic thrust by one man, and the response by the other in the background of the frame in this song.

The scene in Silsila has been mentioned by Shohini Ghosh as well, where two men are bathing together. The undercurrent between the two in the beginning of the film is completely lost and layered over by subsequent stories of death, Rekha, adultery etc.etc. Two other brothers who are again "suspect" are in Parinda, where they role-play as man and woman, and also significantly disappear inside a closet. And in Naam again the song seems to say what can't be said in dialogues, about love and loss between people of the same sex.

There has been an anxiety about the representation of the private in Indian cinema for a rather long time it seems, as is evident from the informal prohibition on kissing that Madhav Prasad talks about in detail. The idea that this prohibition on kissing on screen was not a law but something that the cinema industry took on voluntarily does in some senses say a lot - but about what? That kissing is not part of Indian culture as the argument raised by the people in the industry at that time, but that argument discounts the existence of sexual vulgarity. The inference could be that this prohibition on kissing actually targets the representation of the private, and the private in Indian cinema is invented in and through the relationship of the family to the State. If the private itself is so contested, then how could desire and pleasure find expression, unless affirming the role of the modern nation State in society.

Several statements in public seem to keep gay bollywood in the papers in some way or another, whether it is Shobha De on television talking about the gay gaze in Indian cinema making the hero and several gay directors and actors in the industry, or Karan Johar's oft-repeated ravings about Shahrukh Khan, or the new movie Girlfriend - there seems to be a buzz. Remixes, the bad child of the media industry, too play with identities. Chod do Aanchal by Bombay Vikings ends with the girl dipping the guy at the end of their dance, signifying changing times. Another song Gori hai kalayian is about two girls competing for a guy, who eventually decide to stop fighting with each other and dump the guy. The last moment, often left out by the music channels who play snippets of the song, has the two women looking at each other, while the guy walks away. The most obvious in the pop genre is Falguni Phatak, whose music videos repeatedly involve a guy who looks extraordinarily like her, and in this video she seems to have gone past that, but there are still some sensual scenes between women that account for the major portion of the video.

Often cinema is viewed as the product solely shown in cinemas, but media is an extremely disaggregated form. Even posters, stickers and other such paraphernalia has some erotic circulation, some of which must be queer as is evidenced by Thomas Waugh's article that talks about posters and images also. Audiences in specific spaces also make a lot of difference. Gayatri Gopinath talks about the queer reception of films such as Hum aapke hain kaun by a queer diasporic audience. The same family film and even the same scene wouldn't raise a single doubt in any cinema in Ahmedabad catering to a completely Gujarati family audience. She draws a connection between the scene where two women disappear under a sheet, and the quilt in Ismat Chugtai's Quilt. Hence it is important to look at queer readings distributed over different forms that cinema takes (posters, pirated VCDs, images, screensavers, webpages, gossip sites, magazines etc.), different spaces that cinema inhabits (cinema, video parlours, homes, collective screenings etc.) and also the content of cinema which is then read in different ways because of the form and the space that it encounters.

courtesy: ALF and opencultures

Men!

2005-10-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

hahaha was talking with this gal pal of mine when I came up with this! Wanted to blog it to see how women and men react alike ;)

here goes the quip:

"Men... They think we let them drive our lives when all they do is chauffeur us women's whims and fancies blindly, meekly!..."

so frigging true!

2005-10-15T01:44:00.000-07:00

The Eternal Tree ~ Tove Ditlevsen

There are two men in the world, who
Are crossing my path I see,
And one is the man I love,
The other is in love with me.

And one exists in the nightly dreams
Of my sombre soul evermore,
The other stands at the door of my heart
But I will not open the door.

And once one gave me a vernal breath
Of happiness squandered - alack!
The other gave me his whole, long life
And got never an hour back.

And one lives hot in the song of my blood
Where love is pure, unbound -
The other is one with the humdrum day
Where all our dreams are drowned.

Between these two every woman stands,
In love, beloved, and white -
And once every hundred years it happens
That both in one unite.

PJ Time

2005-10-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

was talking with a pal when this came out...

What do you get when you cross an old English maxim, Hindi translation and Quentin Tarantino?

Curiosity killi billi hehe!

LOL! don't kill me!!

© Sunayana Suresh 2005

chuckle!

2005-10-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

Hobbes: What are you doing?

Calvin: Being cool.

Hobbes: You look more like you're bored.

Calvin: The world bores you when you're cool.

Doesn't that sum my life! LOL!

2005-10-02T06:48:00.000-07:00

Reduced to a photo
Loose words of wisdom
Sympathy overflowing
But all for a few moments
Life moves on they claim
Bah! Isn't that cold?
Isnt that inhuman??
Or am I just juvenile
And can't accept life
Or the end of it...
Is it really the end of it?
What next I question
Almost childlike it feels
But wasn't I his child?
Wasn't this feeling natural?
Lost amidst religious duties
Hidden among familial ties
There slowly sinks a memory
There slowly fades a memory
Is this fair? Is it? Is it?
Please don't be so cruel world
This I say, is definitely
Not matter of fact...
Grandpa I miss you...
Grandpa I'll always love you...

tagged again!

2005-09-16T01:31:00.000-07:00

Got tagged by Jox. This one was more than just a toughie!! What I had to do... Write a short story, all within 55 words!

heres my try

She sighed.
Slowly she walked towards the door, unlocked it and entered.
She let out a faint helpless cry, no one was there to hear it. She walked to the bed, and laid her disturbed mind to rest.
Twas morning, she woke up, mechanically got ready, and set out to face yet another day – ALONE.

Post the story i tag
Baybee (yo get your blog back to life!)

Rajesh (hehe want to see what you cook up...)

Akshay

so... i am the whore...

2005-09-10T01:13:00.000-07:00

Found this in SK's Live Journal...
Hehehe thoroughly agree and identify with it...
Bet you would too ;)

Any job you do, you're either a whore or a pimp.
If you're a pimp, you make lots of money.
If you're a whore, you enjoy the job.

hahahaha! from jox's blog... just wanted to do this...

2005-09-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

http://logicalschizoid.blogspot.com is 32% evil, 68% good

useless stats... which seem to make me feel proud bout my language (!)

Points of interest
Amount of consonants 12117 12117=7x1731
Amount of different words 1449 1449=7x207
Amount of different words beginning with vowel 283 2+8+3=13
Amount of different words beginning with consonant 1166 1+1+6+6=14=7x2
Amount of words 4368 4368=7x624 4+3+6+8=21=7x3 4368=13x336
Amount of words beginning with vowel 1157 1+1+5+7=14=7x2 1157=13x89
Amount of words beginning with consonant 3211 3+2+1+1=7 3211=13x13x19

Lets talk about... cribbing

2005-09-02T04:14:00.000-07:00

I did not want to go with them.
Alas, I had no choice.
This was made quite clear to me
In threat'ning tones of voice.

I protested mightily
And scrambled 'cross the floor.
But though I grabbed the furniture,
They dragged me out the door.

In the car, I screamed and moaned.
I cried my red eyes dry.
The window down, I yelled for help
To people we passed by.

Mom and Dad can make the rules
And certain things forbid,
But I can make them wish that they
Had never had a kid.

Calvin sure has said what I feel, what you feel, heck what everyone feels!

Human's inherently like to crib and there's no two ways on that! From the moment we learn to talk, we cry, we whine, we crib, we complain ... what we have being not good enough and what we don't have... well I don't need to explain that, do I?!

Why do we crib? Is there a need? Why can't we just be happy with what we've got?

Recently, at this place I frequent, this one pal of mine, lets call her J, she said, "You know Nea, I think poor parents should not have kids as the kids, when thye're growing up, see their rich friends and feel sad on the things they don't have." For that I replied, "I think there could be a possibility of selfishness in the parents part as well, where they would want to beget kids in hope of the kids giving them the better life."

Naah! Refelecting back I think itjust isn't a valid point, or is it?

Well I'll let the kids and parents reflect on that on their own, without thrusting my views...

But, seriously, what is the point? Why do we need to crib?

PS - Sorry for my cribbing on cribbing in this post :)

My life My Movie!

2005-08-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

Hehehe Sameer got me doing this pretty good TP kinda test on who's gonna do my film ... seems my life is gonna be a slapstick comedy where i might end up dating a bill cosby or maybe even robbie williams dad! *gulp* a senile desperate humour substituting frustoo!!
he's luckier getting sofia coppola to direct his *sniff*
HAHAHAHAAA!

Richard Linklater
Your film will be 57% romantic, 60% comedy, 38% complex plot, and a $ 33 million budget.

Filmography: Slackers, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, School of Rock, The Bad News Bears (2005), Dazed and Confused. Very romantic, very funny, very complex, and under-budget. Be prepared to have your whole life take place in Austin, Texas and to have a lot of great dialogue with pithy observations. Hehe ... Dazed and Confused ... yeah, MAN!

another one of those early morn posts

2005-08-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

(STATUTORY WARNING - This article contains extremely extremist insanely insidious rabidly radical diabolically demented naturally nonsensical positively preposterous yet true tomfoolery! It's upto your discretion to read it)

Off late, me and many of my women pals have had conversations on that three letter world. All of us have been talking bigtime on the word, the relevance of the existence of that word, the disparities caused by that word and the consequences of having that around. Mmhmm any guesses yet, well let me not be an annoying fucktard and just go ahead by telling you that the word is indeed MEN!

Yes, MEN! Those so called simple beings as compared to us "complicated" ones. How untrue is all I say! As politically incorrect as I may sound, I'd definitely say (most) men are tougher to understand than the very stereotypical assumption of complicated women. Men I would go on further say (at the risk of being stoned) are more moody than a menopausal woman.

Men today I'd say are definitely far away from the classical notion of being only macho and chivalrous, with that sturdy thick skinned stone like outlook. With ideas like metrosexuality creeping into the open space, men today come with a lot of strings attached. Extremely sensitive, overtly parasitic, commitment-oriented, emotionally distraught, compulsively obsessive manic depressive beings, these men are!

Where is that creature that was that goofy shoulder punching moron that used to be? Where did that partner in all those innocent little crimes disappear? Where is that little nuisance that used to challenge on small dares claiming supremacy? Where is that Calvin-ish other-worldly clown? Okay, that is quite a lot of questions I presume, but could anyone give me an answer.

Yet men, probably God's greatest challenge after a dyslexic crossword puzzle, are such an integral part of our lives, where we have to resign to that cliche "men - can't live with them, can't live without them." All I could do is to wish for eternal childhood! Growing up... you don't want me to get started on that do you?!

Sweet children alright!

2005-08-18T21:44:00.000-07:00

At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and pop-metal, Guns N' Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into the charts. They were not nice boys; nice boys don't play rock & roll. They were ugly, misogynist, and violent; they were also funny, vulnerable, and occasionally sensitive, as their breakthrough hit, "Sweet Child o' Mine," showed. While Slash and Izzy Stradlin ferociously spit out dueling guitar riffs worthy of Aerosmith or the Stones, Axl Rose screeched out his tales of sex, drugs, and apathy in the big city. Meanwhile, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler were a limber rhythm section who kept the music loose and powerful.

Guns N' Roses' music was basic and gritty, with a solid hard, bluesy base; they were dark, sleazy, dirty, and honest — everything that good hard rock and heavy metal should be. There was something refreshing about a band who could provoke everything from devotion to hatred, especially since both sides were equally right. There hadn't been a hard rock band this raw or talented in years, and they were given added weight by Axl Rose's primal rage, the sound of confused, frustrated white trash vying for his piece of the pie. As the '80s became the '90s, there simply wasn't a more interesting band around, but owing to intra-band friction and the emergence of alternative rock, Rose's supporting cast gradually disintegrated, as he spent several years in seclusion.

Guns N' Roses released their first EP in 1986, which led to a contract with Geffen; the following year, the band released their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. They started to build a following with their numerous live shows, but the album didn't start selling until almost a year later, when MTV started playing "Sweet Child o' Mine." Soon, both the album and single shot to number one, and Guns N' Roses became one of the biggest bands in the world. Their debut single, "Welcome to the Jungle," was re-released and shot into the Top Ten, and "Paradise City" followed in its footsteps. By the end of 1988, they released G N' R Lies, which paired four new, acoustic-based songs (including the Top Five hit "Patience") with their first EP. G N' R Lies' inflammatory closer, "One in a Million," sparked intense controversy, as Axl Rose slipped into misogyny, bigotry, and pure violence; essentially, he somehow managed to distill every form of prejudice and hatred into one five-minute tune.

Guns N' Roses began work on the long-awaited follow-up to Appetite for Destruction at the end of 1990. In October of that year, the band fired Adler, claiming that his drug dependency caused him to play poorly; he was replaced by Matt Sorum from the Cult. During recording, the band added Dizzy Reed on keyboards. By the time the sessions were finished, the new album had become two new albums. After being delayed for nearly a year, the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II were released in September 1991. Messy but fascinating, the albums showcased a more ambitious band; while there were still a fair number of full-throttle guitar rockers, there were stabs at Elton John-style balladry, acoustic blues, horn sections, female backup singers, ten-minute art rock epics with several different sections, and a good number of introspective, soul-searching lyrics. In short, they were now making art; amazingly, they were successful at it. The albums sold very well initially, but while they had seemed destined to set the pace for the decade to come, that turned out not to be the case at all.

Nirvana's Nevermind hit number one in early 1992, suddenly making Guns N' Roses — with all of their pretensions, impressionistic videos, models, and rock star excesses — seem very uncool. Rose handled the change by becoming a dictator, or at least a petty tyrant; his in-concert temper tantrums became legendary, even going so far as to incite a riot in Toronto. Stradlin left by the end of 1991, and with his departure the band lost their best songwriter; he was replaced by ex-Kill for Thrills guitarist Gilby Clarke. The band didn't fully grasp the shift in hard rock until 1993, when they released an album of punk covers, The Spaghetti Incident?; it received some good reviews, but the band failed to capture the reckless spirit of not only the original versions, but their own Appetite for Destruction.

By the middle of 1994, there were rumors flying that the band was about to break up, since Rose wanted to pursue a new, more industrial direction and Slash wanted to stick with their blues-inflected hard rock. The band remained in limbo for several more years, and Slash resurfaced in 1995 with the side project Slash's Snakepit and an LP, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere. Rose remained out of the spotlight, becoming a virtual recluse and doing nothing but tinkering in the studio; he also recruited various musicians — including Dave Navarro, Tommy Stinson, and ex-Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck — for informal jam sessions.
By 1996 Slash was officially out of Guns N' Roses, leaving Rose the lone remaining survivor from the group's heyday; rumors continued to swirl, and still no new material was forthcoming, though Rose did re-record Appetite for Destruction with a new lineup for rehearsal purposes. The first new original G N' R song in eight years, the industrial metal sludge of "Oh My God" finally appeared on the soundtrack to the 1999 Arnold Schwarzenegger film End of Days. Soon after, Geffen issued the two-disc Live Era 1987-1993. 2000 brought the addition of guitarists Robin Finck (of Nine Inch Nails) and Buckethead.

2001 was greeted with Guns N' Roses' first live dates in nearly seven years, as the band (who consisted of Rose plus guitarists Finck, Buckethead, bassist Stinson, former Primus drummer Brian Mantia, and longtime G N' R keyboardist Dizzy Reed) played a show on New Years Eve 2000 in Las Vegas, playing as well at the mammoth Rock in Rio festival the following month. — Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato

Discography

1986 Live! Like a Suicide
1987 Appetite for Destruction [Edited]1
987 Appetite for Destruction
1988 The Lies, the Sex, the Violence
1989 G N' R Lies
1991 Use Your Illusion I
1991 Use Your Illusion II
1992 Use Your Illusion I [Bonus CD]
1993 The Spaghetti Incident?

Of rural welfare and simplistic living

2005-08-16T05:17:00.000-07:00

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, or popularly Mahatma Gandhi, is known to the world as a renowned pacifist and a very effective politician. But, little does the world know what a remarkable economist he was, probably one of the most sensible economist of the 20th century.

In this world, where people look for alternatives and substitutes in the ways of the functioning of the economic systems, form the flaw-filled socialist and capitalist systems, Gandhian economic theory is a very welcome and suitable substitute. While Gandhi did not apply rigorous economic theory to give structure to his thought, he formulated very clearly the basic principles. Gandhi's basic advice was "don't rush into technologically oriented development; first make sure what impact it will have on employment and through this on the well-being of the poor people." This principle completely stands as a juxtaposition of the usual assumption of capitalist economics, namely that the primary aim is to maximize the efficiency of the production of goods, almost regardless of whether the goods produced are basic necessities for the poor or luxury goods for the rich.

The basic principle of Stalinist and the socialist economics was to maximize the production of capital goods, such as heavy machinery, so that future generations could enjoy a plenitude of consumer goods. Both capitalist and socialist economies were based on technology-intensive rather than labor-intensive production. Gandhian economics reverses this preference. (Incidentally, if looked into in a totalitarian manner, technology also tends to increase environmental damage.)

The basic aim of Gandhian economics is to provide full employment for the poor, and also for all potential members of the work force, so that these workers can provide for their own necessities by their own efforts, in dignity, without depending on charity. Gandhi was not opposed to technology, but advocated a proper mix (depending on prevailing conditions) of technology-intensive and labor-intensive production. According to him, the economist's task should be to determine what the proper mix is; econometric calculations based on existing facts can help determine this. In short, the amount of available resources for investment must keep pace with the population increase of employable workers. This is the basic principle, on which the economist must base his/her other recommendations, e.g. how much external trade the country should engage in.

Capitalist economics does not care about the fate of the unemployed. This is because they cannot buy the luxury goods being produced anyway. If there are not enough people buying the luxury goods, which could happen if too many are poor, like for example the case of developing countries which blindly follow the economic systems of the developed western countries, leaders of capitalist businesses mask their luxury goods with the help of expensive and wasteful advertising campaigns as goods of basic necessity and hence try and mislead the people. Many, especially in experienced young people, fall for this, and get themselves deeply into debt. This also applies to countries, which acquire debts so horrendous that they can never hope to repay them, and bankrupt themselves just keeping up with interest payments.

In the case of the socialist economy, there seems to be an underplaying of the production of the consumer goods, because there exists a very deep emphasis on the large-scale production of goods, rather than looking at the exact necessity of the consumers. Thus comes in mismanagement and inefficiency in the production of the goods in large-scale. This is very much visible in the public sector units of developing economies like India, where there seems to be a lapse between the estimate and the actual during the production.

While capitalism leads to very skewed distribution of goods and services (some get too much and most get too little), and real-existing socialism tends to under-produce consumer goods because of the inefficiency of large-scale planning and the postponement of consumer goods production, Gandhian economics would strive for income and wealth equalization by providing productive meaningful work for every one, even if the full use of the latest industrial technology is provisionally postponed. This leads one to rationally question when taking the entire population in mind, ‘after all, what is the benefit of being on the cutting edge of technology if it increases human misery?’

Under Gandhian economics, fewer luxury goods would be produced, because the emphasis here would lie primarily on producing enough basic necessities for everyone rather than looking ahead futuristically or looking at enhancement of the goods that one already has. This would simplify life styles, which could be of benefit in causing people to focus on the real values that produce happiness, such as family solidarity, devotion to the arts and sciences, and spiritual pursuits. Gandhi defined "happiness" as the ratio between want satisfaction and the number of wants. We only increase this ratio (and therefore lessen our happiness) by increasing want satisfaction (as we are doing under capitalism).

This kind of simplistic living was what Gandhi propounded in his simple theory of economics, which though being simple, proposes to bring in much more social mobility and justice than the most complex ones, say Gandhian economists who have been studying it closely.

They opine that if this kind of a theorizing is put into implementation to a predominantly rural economy like India, there definitely will be visible a greater rate of progress in the economy.

kirkit fever!

2005-08-15T02:04:00.000-07:00

with the ashes takin' center stage... i couldn't but help look into some old writings of mine that used to be bigtime musings!
diggin' them out ... i publish them here :) (pray don't laugh!!)

Women and cricket! (my erstwhile colum lol! this was the first write up)

Why the difference

Through my life, being from a country like India where cricket is celebrated as a religion, and from a home where cricket is an in-built passion, I’ve been a cricket aficionado, if I could call myself that. With watching all the important matches that have been played in my lifetime till now, and keeping myself updated with most of the facts that i could gather, I’ve kept up my bit of being loyal to this interest of mine. Being a quizzer through my school and college life, I’ve taken part in various sports quizzes where it came first to my notice of how I used to get a raised eyebrow when it used to come to me winning and speaking, because of my being a ‘girl’.
This led to me questioning whether it really is very ‘un-girlly’ if I could call it so, because of my interest in sports and games more than the commonly regarded hobbies for girls. But, I do not know whether it was I, or just a casual growing-up attitude that made me not look at this as a big deal.

Whatever this case was, I did not give it its trifles worth and just carried on with this interest of mine in life. It was later this interest in the sports which introduced me to the cricket room in yahoo chat, which brought me close to many individuals, including girls who did share a similar passion like mine to the sport. So this room became a getaway of sorts to me where I could speak with people who liked cricket and also getting to know more about their other interests as well.

Here I met people, who led me on to different sites online that gave more info on the sport, which was ‘neat’, as I say casually. And here again I countered a raised eye-brow many a times among the guys especially, who would give a second thought especially that of a condescending look as if I had invaded their private sphere of sorts. A sceptical, yet sincere question would always be that of what exactly are you doing in this room, are you interested in friendship because I know a girl cant like cricket. Which is according to me, valid because of the stereotyping of the so-called appropriateness of choosing interests and hobbies according to your gender. Also another common fallacy taken is that of the girls showing interest in cricket only because of them finding a particular cricketer hot. I do not deny that there is fondness or attraction by the part of women to good-looking cricketers. But hey, that’s human, and we can’t deny our human senses can we. (Haha!)

When in one of the trivia’s set up by my friend ‘exclusively for girls’ I scored 8 on 8, he exclaimed that you are different, usually girls don’t do well. I question, is this inborn premise that girls are supposed to be genetically dumb in their knowledge and interests towards cricket and other sports valid? How much of this suppositioning can be questioned as arrogance? Is this arrogance valid as our social trends are supposed to be in this way where we women are to show no interests in sports and even if we do have interests, they should not be stated openly? Why is this so-called difference in interests supposed to be blindly followed even today as we have entered a new millenium?

Simple complications :)

2005-08-13T01:37:00.000-07:00

bah! identifyin to lyrics, even the most soppy ones, we all do! time and again...
once again bah! one of those times

Used to be so easy to give my heart away.
But I found out the hard way,
there's a price you have to pay.
I found out that love was no friend of mine.
I should have known time after time.
So long, it was so long ago,
but I've still got the blues for you.

Used to be so easy to fall in love again.
But I found out the hard way,
it's a road that leads to pain.
I found that love was more than just a game.
You're playin' to win, but you lose just the same.
So long, it was so long ago,
but I've still got the blues for you.

So many years since I've seen your face.
Here in my heart, there's an empty space
where you used to be.
So long, it was so long ago,
but I've still got the blues for you.

Though the days come and go,
there is one thing I know.
I've still got the blues for you.

of kumbh mela in an auto rickshaw

2005-08-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

mmm last night... probably the most hilarious incident i've had since quite a while beckoned me!

ammo and me meet up at bangalore central where we pick up groceries et al for ammo's place and reach baybee's aapis right in time for his deadline of 7:30, when he was to come down and join us to ammo's place...

out on residency rd, we end up getting 'rejected' by every rickshaw driver...

finally this good samaritan accepts to take us to ammo's place in cox town, but for 10 bucks extra on the meter... exhausted us, especially post the rejections, accept readily! mmm little did we know that this was the beginnin' of a whole lotta revelations

this old gentleman suddenly takes us all by surprise when he questions ammo and baybee, if i am their daughter! haha! well knowing cox town was a long way away, we decided to play on... and they said yes! this is where he began his talks of worldly experience...

firstly, he says we are a very happy family and should stay this way, but the kid is 'happier' and needs to have 4 spoons of honey as well as hot water every morn! to this i with a sullen face replied to auto driver grandpa, how can i dream of having all that when mommy and dada just indulge in callin each other honey all thru the day...

exit advice master enter now worldly wise amitabh bachchan wannabe auto driver grandpa

he says "bill gates, osama bin laden and sultan of brunei, all of them have a lotta money and come to us and say we'll give you all the money provided we give them 3 things. what are they?"

stumped all three of us don't answer and insist he answers, partly cuz his talkin was a whole lotta entertainment. after a lot a banter, where he says i answered a lot right and momma and dada fought over my intelligence being from either ones, we insisted he give us the answers. so mr. smart alec says they are time, experience and parents.

finally we get off the rickshaw, ammo all embarrassed, baybee bemused and me completely bawling with laughter (right usage?)

an interestingly hilarious experience, but it did make me ponder at the poor man's innocence. he actually meant a lot of sense, and the three things that he wanted, though seem all selfless and intelligent choices, are words from a naive mind. naive and untouched form the rat race, this driver seemed so childlike!

all in all another one of those "think-hard-about-life-before-life-leaves-you-with-nothing-to-think-about' moments...

making sense...

2005-08-03T03:55:00.000-07:00

Like every organizational head sends out inspirational write-ups and encouraging insights, the head of the organization I work for also decided to send across a mailer with similar stuff. At the face value, it seemed verry pseudo to receive such a mailer, but the moment i started reading, it made so much sense, and I definitely found it very helpful.

His words of wisdom and experience, like any man of his stature and status, came with a lot of weight, which wasn't that hard to digest eventually.

I do not know if I am breaking copyrights etc, but I thought i should share his words with the junta who frequent my blog :)

So here goes

...The first thing I have learnt is that we must always begin with our strengths. From the earliest years of our schooling, everyone focuses on what is wrong with us. While it is important for us to know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what is good in us. That is because it is only our strengths that can give us the energy to correct our weaknesses.

The second lesson I have learnt is that a rupee earned is of far more value than five found. I have found that nothing gives as much satisfaction as earning our rewards. In fact, what is gifted or inherited follows the old rule of come easy, go easy. I guess we only know the value of what we have if we have struggled to earn it.

The third lesson I have learnt is no one bats a hundred every time. Life has many challenges. We win some and lose some. We must enjoy winning but not let success go to our head. If we do, we are already on our way to failure. We also need to treat any failure we meet along the way as an equally natural phenomenon. We need to accept our own share in the problem, learn from it and move on. The important thing is, when we lose, we must not lose the lesson.

The fourth lesson I have learnt is the importance of humility. Sometimes, when we get so much in life, we really start wondering whether we deserve all of it. This is the value of gratitude.

The fifth lesson I learnt is that we must always strive for excellence. One way of achieving excellence is by looking at those better than ourselves. We must never let ego prevent us from learning what others do differently. But excellence cannot be imposed from the outside. It must become an obsession, involving not only our mind but also our heart and soul. Excellence is not an act but a habit. Ultimately, our only competition is our self.

The sixth lesson I have learnt is never give up in the face of adversity. I am sure you would know more about this than anyone else. Persistence is what is required to keep going. Once you have made up your mind that you will work towards your target, your vision, the adversity just crumbles.

The seventh lesson I have learnt is that while we must be open to change, we cannot compromise on our values. Mahatma Gandhiji often said that you must open the windows of your mind, but do not be swept off your feet by the breeze. We must define what our core values are and what we stand for.

The eighth lesson I have learnt is that we must always play to win. Playing to win is not the same as playing dirty. Playing to win is stretching ourselves and others to the hilt. It is about discovering our own potential and using it to the fullest.

...

Do let me know your reactions :)

hit me baybee one more tiyum!

2005-07-28T01:37:00.000-07:00

audacious the post name is, isn't it...
mmm well the meat in it is nothing so scandalous alas! the main purpose of this blog is to announce my having added a hit counter this morn to my blog hehe!
well the reason you wanna know eh? yesterday i'd been to this arbit meet of bloggers in bangalore and out there one of the hajaar topics discussed was, the popularity of blogs based on the numbers in the hit counter... well this got me curious to know how many times do junta visit my blog...
well... like i said earlier... i say again... HIT ME BAYBEE ONE MORE TIYUM!

blogalore from bangalore!

2005-07-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

5 new posts since yesterday in my blog :) wow isn't that some feat...
Here cometh Sunu marathon blogger!!
hehe anyway... well being confined to the house for 3 days can drive people insane ... I am proof of that!

Okay here's an update on the personal front... (yeah yeah boredom has made me do a post like one of those diary writerly bloggers)

watched Filth with Jose
watched Heap of Broken Images with Jose, Baybee and Tarun (my review on this comin out soon!)
watched Ferris Buellers Day Off (courtesy Sid)
read HP&HBP (courtesy Seven)
listened to loaaadsa Phish, some Elvis and the Cinema Paradiso OST (courtesy Apu enroute Baybee)
slept like no mans (err woman's) business... (courtesy medicines hehe)

Okay ... also been on a bigtime self-criticism phase... loadsa retrospection and introspection... sigh... the workings of an idle mind

Been reading a lotta junta's blogs! It's fun... man people write so well... :D brings me a big complex hehe! This let me to ponder about blogs... how blogs nowadays have become so commonplace... yet has boosted the writers in hajaar junta ... there have come into the forefront varied writing styles, topics and approaches... its funnier how there now is a regular audience the junta write to even! many who they dont even know! is this a reason why people end up writing more? the idea that the face that reads them is a face that they don't know... making it easier for them to vent/rant/ramble?

well whatever the reason... junta blog on... so that 'vetti' junta like moi on idle days can get dope to read :)

ahahaha... dunno been trippin on this song!

2005-07-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

"Let's Talk About Sex"
a song by Salt n Pepa

(Punch it, Hurb
Yo, I don't think we should talk about this
Come on, why not?
People might misunderstand what we're tryin' to say, you know?
No, but that's a part of life)

Come on

[CHORUS]

Let's talk about sex, baby
Let's talk about you and me
Let's talk about all the good things
And the bad things that may be
Let's talk about sex
Let's talk about sex
Let's talk about sex
Let's talk about sex

Let's talk about sex for now to the people at home or in the crowd
It keeps coming up anyhow
Don't decoy, avoid, or make void the topic
Cuz that ain't gonna stop it
Now we talk about sex on the radio and video shows
Many will know anything goes
Let's tell it how it is, and how it could be
How it was, and of course, how it should be
Those who think it's dirty have a choice
Pick up the needle, press pause, or turn the radio off
Will that stop us, Pep? I doubt it
All right then, come on, Spin

[CHORUS]

Hot to trot, make any man's eyes pop
She use what she got to get whatever she don't got
Fellas drool like fools, but then again they're only human
The chick was a hit because her body was boomin'
Gold, pearls, rubies, crazy diamonds
Nothin' she ever wore was ever common
Her dates heads of state, men of taste
Lawyers, doctors, no one was too great for her to get with
Or even mess with, the Prez she says was next on her list
And believe me, you, it's as good as true
There ain't a man alive that she couldn't get next to
She had it all in the bag so she should have been glad
But she was mad and sad and feelin' bad
Thinkin' about the things that she never had
No love, just sex, followed next with a check and a note
That last night was dope

Let's talk about sex, baby (sing it)
Let's talk about you and me (sing it, sing it)
Let's talk about all the good things
And the bad things that may be
Let's talk about sex (come on)
Let's talk about sex (do it)
Let's talk about sex (uh-huh)
Let's talk about sex

Ladies, all the ladies, louder now, help me out
Come on, all the ladies - let's talk about sex, all right
[repeat]

(Yo, Pep, I don't think they're gonna play this on the radio
And why not? Everybody has sex
I mean, everybody should be makin' love
Come on, how many guys you know make love?)

[CHORUS]

I am!

2005-07-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

Got this nice lil test while browsing blogs I found this in Rajesh's blog ... Seems I am a li'l bitta all! hahahaha!

What is my world view this tries to infer...
I guess it aint wrong

Existentialist. Existentialism emphasizes human capability. There is no greater power interfering with life and thus it is up to us to make things happen. Sometimes considered a negative and depressing world view, your optimism towards human accomplishment is immense. Mankind is condemned to be free and must accept the responsibility.

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com

History and genres of rock

2005-07-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

The first rock and roll was an offshoot of the blues genres by artists like Fats Domino and Elvis. The next generation in the sound were garage rock and surf rock which became very popular in the USA. At the same time harder rock music driven by blues became extremely popular in the United Kingdom. British blues, mod, merseybeat, and skiffle, were the next step in rock evolution. In the mid 60s the British Invasion including groups like the Beatles started a movement which swept the world.

Out of the British invasion came psychedelic rock which slowly evolved into classically influenced progressive rock bands. Mod groups including The Who and The Yardbirds soon transformed their sound into the more energetic and raw hard rock. In the early 70’s this unique sound became even more raw and gritty. This soon turned into glam rock and an underground phenomenon called power pop.

In the mid 70’s Heavy Metal and Punk rock bands and the less popular genre krautrock simultaneously took shape. Not long after southern rock began to become a large influence. The next few years saw an explosion in the rock genres in general giving rise to the varied genres listed below along with other less known genres. As you will be able to tell many genres are very hard to define and others overlap with each other making clear lines between genres impossible to draw.

ROCK GENRES

Rock and Roll - Rock and roll like all genres has almost as many definitions as it has fans. Rock and Roll generally refers to rock music recorded around the 1950s including mostly southern artists like Bill Haley and Elvis Presley. Rock generally is used to refer to any popular rock music recorded since the early 60's.

Garage Rock - In the 1960's the British Invasion created a wave of new musicians in the USA and throughout the world striving to be the next Beatles or Rolling Stones. This large number of bands flooded many local rock music scenes playing to local audiences and eventually recording in small local studios.

Surf Rock - Surf music is a combination of rock and roll and rockabilly music combined with the surfer lifestyle and ethic of the Southern California Coast and fused into a new genre of music. It is a style charged by a hard rock influenced instrumental sounds, particularly the guitar, and rockabilly grooves.

Mod - Mod or Modern music developed in London, England in the late 1950s to mid 1960s. As much a lifestyle as a musical style mods sported short bobbed haircuts and distinctive clothes. Mod's were inspired by American r&b, soul, Jamaican ska, and bluebeat combined with hard rock influences like the The Who and Small Faces.

British Invasion - American rock and roll had an tremendous impact on the entire world and especially in Britain. British kids were inspired by the r&b and rock movements which began to form the beginnings of the British Invasion in the underground of London in the late 50s. Before long bands from England were dominating the rock and roll scene throughout the world and soon found its way back to America where the influences had originated.

Psychedelic Rock - Psychedelic rock evolved in the 60s as an offshoot of the rock and roll movement combining elements of rock, reggae, and other diverse elements. Involving the use of mind altering drugs like cannabis, mescaline, psilocybin, and especially LSD, psychedelic rock broke with traditional rock and laid the roots for psychedelic metal and experimental rock genres.

Progressive Rock - Progressive rock is a very general and intertwined genre of music which got its start in the late 60s, and continues to this day. Progressive rock is often lumped together with other similar genres like art rock, symphonic rock, and progressive heavy metal. The artists try to take the roots of rock and apply them to a more classically influenced structure. The music is often very elaborate and generally requires very exceptional musicians with a great deal of talent. It is not unusual for prog rock pieces to be very lengthy in some cases they are over an hour in length.

Hard Rock - Hard rock is a form of rock & roll that finds its roots in the early 1960s garage rock and draws from jazz, blues, rock and roll, and other influences like folk in the case of famed hard rock artist Led Zeppelin who's main writer and composer Jimmy Page was a famous studio musician and expert guitar player who was interested in Celtic and folk influences. These diverse influences can be clearly heard in one of the most influential albums of this style Led Zeppelin 4. Budgie, AC/DC, The Stooges, MC5, Prong, Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple are also classic examples of early hard rock.

Glam Rock - Glam rock became popular in the 70s in what was mostly a British movement with a few notable exceptions. Using lavish and effeminate clothes and heavily made up male performers glam acts rejected the progressive rock movement embracing the lavish lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Power Pop - Power pop is a mixture of hard rock with pop music to product a style of music which was extremely popular in the early days of rock music. The term was coined by Pete Townshend of The Who in the mid-1960s the first true power pop did not appear till the early 70s. One of the first was the Raspberries who combined influences like the Who, the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles to make pop music with a harder edge.

Heavy Metal - Heavy metal music was born around to1964-1970 from bands like the Kinks, the Who, Alice Cooper's The Spiders, Cream, Golden Earring, Led Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, Blue Cheer, Atomic Rooster, Cactus, Grand Funk Railroad, Deep Purple, Free, Uriah Heep, Mountain, Bloodrock, Black Widow, and Black Sabbath between 1966 and 1970, Iron Butterfly Heavy album and Steppenwolf's song Born to Be Wild which contained the phrase heavy metal thunder share credit for the name heavy metal.

Punk rock - Punk rock got its name from the slang word punk meaning rotten and worthless. It was originally used to describe simple guitar based rock of bands like The Seeds, and later on Detroit bands like The Stooges and MC5. The anti-establishment ethic of punk hit a fevered pitch in 1976 through 1980, started partially as a backlash to the hippie movement of the late 60's.

Krautrock - Krautrock was a offshoot of the rock movement during the late 60s and 70s involving German acts such as Can, Tangerine Dream, Faust, and Neu. Largely instrumental krautrock combined rock elements with electronic instruments which laid the framework for the later industrial rock and new wave movements.

Southern Rock - Southern rock goes back to the origins of the rock and roll movement to innovators like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard who all came from the South. Drawing heavily from the blues, rock and roll redefined music causing an revolution that would sweep the world continuing up to the present time. The British Invasion and then psychedelic rock movement in San Francisco took rock music out of the south and to places like London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

Indie rock - Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music which is often used to refer to bands that are on small independent or "indie" record labels or who aren't on labels at all. In the 1980s, these bands were referred to as "alternative rock", since they were quite different that the mainstream rock that dominated the radio at that time. It was also interchangeable with the term college rock which was named after the main source of the music at the time was the college radio.

Experimental rock - Experimental rock has long been a catchall phrase used to describe rock music that does not fit into any other genre. Other genres that overlap somewhat are post rock, industrial, emo, and progressive rock. The form typically breaks conventions and rules and redefining what is considered music. Proponents of the form love the freedom to explore endless sonic possibilities and the unpredictability and excitement that the genre presents.

College Rock - In the early eighties hard rock dominated the FM radio stations in the rock format and the genre of alternative music was all but unknown by mainstream listeners. Alternative music was limited to a few scattered college radio stations and small self contained local scenes and groups. In the mid 80s as it became more popular It began to take over college radio throughout the country and slowly made its way into the attention of a large group of college kids and other listeners who tuned into the local radio stations to keep up with the acts.

Gothic Rock - Gothic rock started as a offshoot of the punk movement led by groups like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, and Joy Division who created a new more introverted style of punk which focused on personal issues and ideas while paying tribute to the influence of early punk bands like The Sex Pistols, The Buzzcocks, The Clash, and Generation X.

Gothic Metal - Gothic metal is a crossover genre between traditional gothic music, thrash and doom metal, and heavy metal. Common themes are religion, mythology, horror, pain, hopeless love and death. Traditionally the genre is closely related to the vampirism and nihilism movements but only on the surface. The dress is similar to the traditional gothic movement featuring dark clothes and makeup and religious symbols but as always there are notable exceptions. Goths are not as many believe linked to violence but are actually pacifists by and large.

Speed Metal - Speed metal is a small subset of the heavy metal movement and even rabid hardcore fans can't always agree on which bands fit in this category. It is very similar to thrash metal but combines more progressive rock elements with lyrical elements of apocalyptic fears and collective oppression. One thing that most agree on is that the genre is defined by blistering guitar speed, progressive rock arrangements, twisted song structures, extremely difficult guitar solos and anti social lyrics.

Thrash Metal - Thrash is characterized by brief uncomplicated sonic assaults charged by the influences of hardcore punk and heavy metal. Formed of lightning fast guitar riffs and antisocial lyrics reminiscent of punk rocks early years Thrash and its direct descendant grindcore are very socially conscious however unlike many punk and heavy metal bands. Songs of a minute or less were not uncommon and screamed vocal styling and compositional techniques would create all the tools necessary for bands in the doom metal genre soon to come.

Psychedelic Metal - Psychedelic metal is a type of heavy metal music which arose in the early 1990s. Post metal bands began to combine psychedelic rock and grunge and other influences and combining it into an underground movement some labeled stoner rock. Bands like Kyuss, Masters of Reality, and Monster Magnet were among the most popular practitioners.

Alternative Metal - Alternative Metal is an offshoot of Heavy Metal which is characterized by a combination of hip hop, hardcore punk, and heavy metal combined with other genres. Alternative metal's early bands were Jane's Addiction, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, and Living Colour among others and incorporated blues, jazz, funk, and hardcore in varying degrees. Faith No More, Sonic Youth, Fishbone, and Seattle's pre grunge bands Melvins, Mudhoney, Tad and Mother Love Bone were early pioneers in the genre.

Neoclassical Metal - Neoclassical metal draws on classical music fused with heavy metal to create darker more challenging compositions which redefined the genre of heavy metal being reincorporated in the movement. Incorporating ideas like classical composition, arpeggios, and counterpoint combining them with dark menacing guitars and nontraditional instruments.

Progressive Metal - Progressive metal or prog metal as some call it is a combination of progressive rock and heavy metal which came into popularity during the late 80's with cutting edge bands like Queensryche and Dream Theatre. Progressive metal has a small but very loyal and devoted group of fans that have allowed it to survive when more mainstream genres have died out.

Death Metal - Death metal was spawned in the US and Canada during the 80s with bands like Death, Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Entombed, Winter, and Cannibal Corpse. Death metal is known for extreme speed and incredibly violent lyrics combining elements of heavy metal, thrash metal, and speed metal. The vocals are little more than inaudible growls usually exposing very dark subjects. Known for very abrupt tempo and count changes and blistering tempos.

Doom Metal - Doom metal is a variation of heavy metal music which is slow and dark and filled with tension. Black Sabbath's early albums were a great source of inspiration for the genre . Bands like Trouble and Candlemass combined these influences with more modern ones to clearly define the genre in the late 80's. Originally from Chicago, Trouble formed in 79 but did not become popular until 84.

Grindcore - Grindcore is a combination of thrash metal, speed metal, hardcore punk ,and death metal. The genre is typified by atonal chromatic guitar riffs borrowed from thrash and speed metal and the guttural growling vocals of death metal combined with the hardcore punk attitude. Its name comes from the grinding of simple chromatic guitar riffs and melodies and the attitude of hardcore punk.

New Wave - Record executives had missed the marketing bandwagon with the punk rock movement (due to the fact most punk albums were released independently). Determined not to let that happen again they began signing and promoting post punk bands or New Wave acts as they were beginning to be called very aggressively in the early 80's. Drawing heavily from glam rock and the industrial music genres the music was defined very broadly including everyone from acts like Devo and Madness to the Police.

Grunge - In the mid 80's a small movement was brewing in an unlikely place, Seattle, Washington. This movement was not actually lead by Nirvana as many have said when they released "Nevermind" in September of 91 but actually went back to other Seattle bands like Melvins and Mudhoney. It was due in large part to Nirvana and Pearl Jam that the movement came to the forefront of mainstream success, a move which combined with the tragedy of Kurt Cobain's death conspired to kill the movement.

Post Rock - The term post-rock is really just a general description of bands which don't fit a standard rock format. The term post rock first appeared in print in 1993 when a writer was describing the first studio album by Bark Psychosis called Hex. The album combines thick textures, acoustic instruments, moody overtones, and other classic staples of the genre.

Alternative rock - Alternative music was a phrase invented in early 80s describing bands which broke from the barrage of pop and hair metal and formed a new direction of more focused and honest rock. It includes many subcategories including but not limited to Grunge, Hard Rock, Indie Rock, Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock, College Rock, Gothic Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk Rock, Power Pop, Hardcore Punk, New Wave,

Nu Metal - The latest incarnation of heavy metal is usually associated with bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Amen, the Deftones, and Papa Roach Its creation is often linked to music producer Ross Robinson who is called the guru of nu-metal. The performing style is still a heavily amplified theatre of blood, guts and gore, including costumed artists and pyrotechnic blasts fused with angry detuned guitars.

Industrial rock - The term Industrial music is a very generic term for many subgroups or genres of music like ambient, noise, techno, house, lo-fi, and several others. The most obvious stereotype that comes to mind is a distorted, percussive, lo-fi electronic samples weaved into the fabric of a traditional pop song or dance remixes. The first band who are considered to be a part of this genre are Throbbing Gristle who formed Industrial Records in the 1970's.

Emo - Emo may be one of the hardest genres to define. Even those who love the music may disagree on what it actually is. The answer most people agree on is that Emo is very similar to Hardcore Punk except with more emotional lyrics often expressing sadness, love and even anger, hence the term emo.

how many say aye to this?

2005-07-18T22:51:00.000-07:00

was chatting up with Irshad on this flick Fast Times at Ridgemont High when i ended up searchin up imdb for quotes so that i could laught at the flick again!

here goes a fave one...

[the "five-point plan"]
Mike Damone: First of all Rat, you never let on how much you like a girl. "Oh, Debbie. Hi." Two, you always call the shots. "Kiss me. You won't regret it." Now three, act like wherever you are, that's the place to be. "Isn't this great?" Four, when ordering food, you find out what she wants, then order for the both of you. It's a classy move. "Now, the lady will have the linguini and white clam sauce, and a Coke with no ice." And five, now this is the most important, Rat. When it comes down to making out, whenever possible, put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV.

another good one...

Mike Damone: You are a wuss: part wimp, and part pussy.

lets get phishin!

2005-07-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

Artist: Phish

Born: 1983

Styles: Rock/Pop, Alternative/Indie, Neo-Psychedelia, American Trad Rock, Jam Bands, Fusion,Jazz-Rock

During the early '90s, Phish emerged as the heirs to the Grateful Dead's throne. Although their music is somewhat similar to the Dead's -- it's an eclectic, free-form rock & roll encompassing folk, jazz, country, bluegrass, and pop -- the group adheres more to jazz-derived improvisation than folk tradition, and they have a looser, goofier attitude. After all, their drummer regularly plays a vacuum during their concerts. Phish's main claim as the inheritors to the Dead's legacy is their approach to their musical career. The band didn't concentrate on albums, they dedicated themselves to live improvisation. Within a few years of their 1988 debut, Phish had become an institution in certain sections of America, particularly college campuses. And their in-concert popularity didn't necessarily translate to huge record sales; their biggest-selling albums usually halted at gold status. Still, Phish were the de facto leaders of the neo-hippie jam band movement until deciding to go on hiatus in 2000.

Guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman, and guitarist Jeff Holdsworth formed the band in late 1983 while attending the University of Vermont. After meeting and jamming in their dormitory, the trio posted flyers across campus, recruiting a bassist. Mike Gordon answered the advertisement and he was soon added to the original lineup. The group began practicing regularly and soon assembled a demo tape. In the fall of 1984, Phish began performing off-campus concerts. At this stage in their career, the band was augmented by percussionist Marc Daubert and, occasionally, a vocalist called the Dude of Life. Soon, the group was playing concerts on nearby campuses, including Goddard College's Springfest in 1985. Page McConnell organized the Springfest at Goddard and he became a fan of the band. Later in the year, McConnell convinced the group to add him as a keyboardist. Shortly after McConnell joined Phish, Holdsworth left the group. In the fall of 1986, Anastasio and Fishman transferred to Goddard College.

Early in 1988, Phish recorded Junta, which they sold at their shows as a cassette-only release. In 1989, the group played their first tour outside of New England, traveling through the Southeast. Phish also recorded their second album, Lawn Boy, in 1989, although the album wasn't released until the fall of 1990; the record was released on the independent label Absolute A-Go-Go, a subsidiary of Rough Trade. Throughout early 1991, Phish toured America; during the summer, they recorded their third album, as well as a set of sessions with their old friend, the Dude of Life.

Late in August, Rough Trade collapsed, taking Absolute A-Go-Go with it. Phish was left without a record contract, but they were soon signed by Elektra, which released A Picture of Nectar in February of 1992. After its release, the group embarked on an extensive national tour. In the summer of 1992, Phish played a handful of shows on the first H.O.R.D.E. tour. Also that summer, Elektra reissued Lawn Boy and Junta. Rift, the band's fourth album and the first they recorded with a producer, appeared in February of 1993. During Phish's 1993 tour, the group sold tickets that were specifically designed for fans taping the concert, a major gesture of goodwill. Hoist, the band's fifth album, was released in 1994; one of its songs, "Down With Disease," became the band's first video and received some airplay on MTV. Hoist sold better than the group's previous albums, which was an indication of how large the group's fan base had gotten. In the fall of 1994, Crimes of the Mind, the album Phish recorded with the Dude of Life in 1991, was released on Elektra Records.

In the summer of 1995, the band released the double-live album A Live One, which attempted to definitively capture the Phish concert experience. In early 1996, Trey Anastasio released a free-form jazz side project called Surrender to the Air. In the fall of 1996, Phish released their sixth album, Billy Breathes, which was produced by Steve Lillywhite and garnered the group's best reviews thus far. Slip, Stitch & Pass, their second live LP, followed in 1997, and the following year, the group resurfaced with the studio effort Story of the Ghost. The six-disc Hampton Comes Alive, capturing four full live sets over the course of two nights, appeared in late 1999; and went gold, a testament to their rabid following. The band's popularity only grew during the last half of the '90s, and their ceaseless touring had helped make them indisputably one of the top concert draws in the nation. In the spring of 2000, Phish delivered the pastoral studio effort Farmhouse, which was hailed as one of their finest and tightest to date; they also landed some mainstream exposure thanks to the single "Heavy Things."

However, exhausted by touring and separation from their families, Phish decided to take an extended break, announcing a temporary breakup in October 2000. A month later, Elektra reissued The Siket Disc, which was previously available only through mail order; it featured improvisational tracks from the band's 1997 Story of the Ghost sessions. Each member branched out into different direction with mostly successful results during this period. Anastasio released a series of demos before hooking up with Primus bassist Les Claypool and former Police drummer Stewart Copeland for their bizarre Oysterhead project. Despite all the touring he put into these projects, he also released an eponymous solo album during the spring of 2002. Jonathan Fishman worked with his side project Pork Tornado and the touring jazz combo Jazz Mandolin Project. Page McConnell released the first few recordings from his other band, Vida Blue, as well as contributed keyboards to Tenacious D's first record. Mike Gordon did some work with friend and former employer Col. Bruce Hampton and dabbled in film work both in front of and behind the camera. And both Gordon and McConnell worked on Gov't Mule's The Deep End, Vol. 1. As far as the band, Phish was more a part of American culture than ever when they made an appearance on The Simpsons before releasing a massive set of live albums and a DVD in the spring of 2002. By the end of the year, the group bowed to pressure and came back with the announcement that they would begin to play live again starting at the end of December. They played shows through the following year and a half, then decided to officially call it quits in the summer of 2004 after the release of Undermind and the following support tour.

strum those lyres! lets get lyrical!

2005-07-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

ONE SIDED LOVE AFFAIR

If you want to be loved
Baby, you've got to love me, too
If you want to be loved
Baby, you've got to love me, too
Oh yeah, 'cause I ain't for no one-sided love affair

If you wanna be kissed
Well, you've gotta kiss me, too
Oh yeah, if you wanna be kissed
Well, you gotta kiss me, too
'Cause I ain't for no one-sided love affair

Well, fair exchange bears no robbery
And the whole world will know that it's true
Understanding solves all problems, baby
That's why I'm telling you

If you wanna be hugged
Well, you gotta hug me, too
Oh yeah, if you wanna be hugged
Well, you've gotta hug me, too
Yeah, 'cause I ain't for no one-sided love affair

If you know you can't take it
Baby, why try to give it
If you know you can't take it
Then baby, why try to give it
'Cause I ain't for no one-sided love affair

Well, fair exchange bears no robbery
And the whole world will know that it's true
Understanding solves all problems, baby
That's why I'm telling you

If you wanna be hugged
Well, you gotta hug me, too
Oh yeah, if you wanna be hugged
Baby, you gotta hug me, too
'Cause I ain't for no one-sided love affair

'Cause I ain't for no one-sided love affair
'Cause I ain't for no one-sided love affair

this one is for you mojo!

2005-07-14T05:06:00.000-07:00

Well, show me the way
To the next whiskey bar
Oh, don't ask why
Oh, don't ask why
Show me the way
To the next whiskey bar
Oh, don't ask why
Oh, don't ask why
For if we don't find
The next whiskey bar
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you,
I tell you
I tell you we must die
Oh, moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have whiskey,
Oh, you now why
Oh, moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have whiskey,
Oh, you now why
Well, show me the way
To the next little girl
Oh, don't ask why
Oh, don't ask why
Show me the way
To the next little girl
Oh, don't ask why
Oh, don't ask why
For if we don't find
The next little girl
I tell you we must die
I tell you we must die
I tell you,
I tell you
I tell you we must die
Oh, moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old mama
And must have whiskey,
Oh, you now why

soppy

2005-07-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

Death has taken him from me
Blame on all on destiny
No tears
No cries
Left with a bouquet of memories
Resignation makes me say he’s happier there
With God he will remain with me
But this is just acceptance
Of a sorrow, a grief
A void I know since thence
Yet these lame reasons – I think. I use.
For life has brought me
From yesterday to today.

mmm dunno why but i mish you so much... more than ever before! cant believe it is 2 yrs 3 months and a few days gone!
whyyy! why do you have to be so goddamn unfair to me life?
words fail me like never before! and reason you seem alien
where is the solace when i need it...
i cant identify with people around
i cant seem to think straight
i seem to be faltering at every stage
is it wrong for me to move on
is it wrong pray tell me so
why cant i join you up there instead
with so much running throug in my head
i need you to be here to guide me
i want you to be there to lead me
i ask of to come back and forgive me
i feel so low that i just cant be!
pain seems enticing
should i hurt myself
oh i cant make anything of life
and death seems even more ambiguous
tragedy and comedy yoked together
life you're so bloody fucked up
yesterday like the song says
all my troubles seemed so far away
today all i see is
a tomorrow which is nothin to look forward to
will you come and help me
will you come and take me
will you come and save me
will you i plead will you

all i hear in my head is is small voice that shouts gettin louder by the minute... SAVEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ME!

Book Tagged!

2005-06-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

Tags galore!!
I was book tagged by Jox and Rajesh.
Nice lil tag! Here I go!

Number of books owned
Oh just a few 100s :)

Last book bought:
No One Here Gets Out Alive by Danny Sugerman and Jerry Hopkins. A must read for Morrison fans! Reading it second time already! :)

Last book read:
Same one above... and before that was an extreme opposite... Reread Bridges of Madison County hehehe!

10 books that mean a lot to me:
originally said 5... but i couldnt stop!
IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER!!
Fountainhead (my bible)
All / Any Guevara books
Metamorphosis by Kafka
To the lighthouse by Woolf
Waiting for Godot by Beckett (mmmm)
Dr Faustus by Marlowe (Whoa!)
Matilda by Dahl! (wonders it does to imagination!!)
Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy (you go Arjie!!)
Highsmith's Ripley novels (caresses my dark side)
The latest! Morrison's biography... Jim you rawk!

Books I read as a kid:
Malory Towers
Enid Blyton
Dahl!
Asterix
Tintin
Archies (giggle)
Abridged novels
Indian comics... Tinkle et al
Russian Folktales
Ukranian Folktales
Hajaar foreign folktales
Indian myths
P G Wodehouse
Agatha Christie
Hans Christian Anderson
Brothers Grimm
Lewis Carroll
R K Narayan
Dickens! (espech Oliver Twist)
Jules Verne
R L Stevenson
mannnnyyyy more! lol

Passing the baton to other voracious reader friends of mine -

Jam
Shy
Seven
Arun

The "Know Me" Tag

2005-06-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

The "Know Me" Tag
Been tagged by Jam and Rajesh
Lemme not ramble more and get with the business!

Three Names You Go By:
Sunu (been called this since time immemorial! family, close pals et al)
Sonds/Sondu (School pals... dunno why lol... but has continued!)
Sue/Sidey Sue (By lazy junta who cant call me Sunayana! hahaha naww... some junta and yea all aapis junta call me Sidey Sue)

Three screen names:
pessimistic_mean_sista (aahaha!)
jujubee_matter_maams!
indianhunk_slamdunk

Three Physical Things You Like About Yourself:
hey! ask the guys I've dated to tell this!!

Three physical things I don't like about myself:
mmm ask the women who like bein' bitchy ;)

Three parts of my heritage:
Bangalore!
Mumbai born there et al...
mmm third... how bout the internet ;)

Three things that scare me:
Commitment!!
Life!
Yesterday :)

Three things I want in a relationship:
Money
more money
most money!
aaahahaha!! like Good Charlotte sang "Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money"

Three statements about you which are not all true or all false:
I like men...
I am happy ;)
I am a proactive sloth :D *chuckle*

Three physical things about the opposite sex that appeals to me:
The hands! nice big ones!!
ermmm that last line... *giggle*
Height!

Three things I want to do badly right now:
Go to a tropical island party haven!
Turn back time :)
Meet Jim Morrison!!

Three places I want to go on a vacation:
Ibiza and Spain!
North East India
Egypt

Three kids names i like:
Achint
Zaara
Amber

Three things to do before I die:
Publish a book atleast
Sing! hahaha in a sleazy karaoke bar
Live!

Three essentials in my day to day:
Music
Books
[cough choke censored]

Three things I am wearing right now:
how about we skip this!

Three people who have been tagged by me now are:
Lyn
Jox
Baybee

haha!

2005-06-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

taking inspiration the he and she post in lyn... here's one...

he: i like your nose a lot
she: whatevvvvverrrrr
he: it is very soft
she: *laughs loudly*
he: you have to feel it to know it
she: ....

*details cut out by blogspots extra sensitive censor board*

Megalomania meets Schozophrenia

2005-06-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

Megalomania meets Schizophrenia

As the day comes to an end
As the night shows it it's first face
I awake to this call
Become one with darkness
Camouflage with the black
Sweet adieu light
Over you I choose the night
I stand tall
But in the dark noone sees
Ironies surface over my choice
But life itself being an irony
I embrace you darkness
I usurp the place of the moon
Hogging the darkness as my personal shelter
How long I stay here
I myself stand confused about
But I stand with you; oh guiding night!
As you are my guiding light.

My Inglees!

2005-05-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

Courtesy Narendra's blog... I found out about this test! ... neat one I must add :)

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% Yankee

35% General American English

15% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

hmmmm will i...

2005-05-08T23:40:00.000-07:00

2 days done 106 more to go...
restraint... art thou on my side?

When life gives you salt... ask for tequila and lemon!

2005-05-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

Post a talk on tequila trivia last night with Praveen at Styx... here i am posting tequila trivia!!

First the history: Tequila was first distilled in the 1500-1600's in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Guadalajara is the capital of Jalisco and the city of Tequila was established in about 1656. This is where the agave plant grows best.

The agave is not a cactus as rumored, but belongs to the lily family and has long spiny leaves (pincas). The specific plant that is used to make tequila is the Weber blue agave. It takes 8-12 years for the agave to reach maturity. During harvest, the leaves are cut off leaving the heart of the plant or pina which looks like a large pineapple when the jimadors are done. The harvested pina may weigh 200 pounds or more and is chopped into smaller pieces for cooking at the distillery.

Tequila was first imported into the United States in 1873 when the first load was transported to El Paso, Texas. In 1973 tequila sales in the US topped one million cases.

There are two basic types of tequila, 100% blue agave (cien por ciento de agave) tequila and mixto. The 100% blue agave tequilas are distilled entirely from the fermented juice of the agave. All 100% agave tequilas have to be distilled and bottled in Mexico. If the bottle does not say 100% blue agave, the tequila is mixto and may have been distilled from as little as 60% agave juice with other sugars.

Grades of tequila:
- Blanco: 100% agave tequila that is unaged and untreated with additives.
- Reposado: 100% agave, "rested" tequila that has been stored in oak between two months and one year.
- Anejo: 100% agave, aged tequila that has been stored in oak at least one year.
- Mixto blanco: mixto tequila that is unaged.
- Mixto reposado: mixto tequila that has been stored in oak between two months and one year.
- Mixto anejo: aged mixto tequila that has been stored in oak at least one year.
- Joven abocado: mixto tequila that has been treated with additives to achieve an effect similar to aging.

As the tequila is aged in wooden barrels, usually oak, it becomes smoother, with a woody taste and golden color. Aging may disguise the agave flavor and few tequilas are aged longer than three to four years.

Each distillery in Mexico is assigned a NOM number that shows which company made or bottled the tequila.

Tequila Glossary:

Agave - A large, cactus-like plant similar in look to a giant aloe; the sugary juice of the Blue Agave is the source of tequila.
Agave Azul - (Blue Agave) The specific variety of agave from which tequila is made.
Aguamiel - The unfermented juice extracted from the roasted agave.
Añejo - Tequila aged in oak barrels for twelve months or more; golden amber with a soft, smooth, complex flavor.
Autoclave - A large pressure cooker used to cook the agave piñas.
Bacanora - A distilled drink made in Sonora from maguey, but not from Blue Agave.
Barrica - Barrel.
Blanco - Also known as silver; a clear, unaged tequila with a fresh, fruity flavor.
Cabeza - The first portion of distillate (heads), highest in alcohol and aldehydes, which is usually discarded.
Coa de jima - A specialized tool used by the Jimador for harvesting agave.
Colas - The final portion of distillate containing the lowest alcohol and soapy flavors, usually recycled into another distillation.
Cooperage - The skilled craft of making barrels and casks.
Corazón - The "heart" of distillation containing the best flavors and aromas for tequila.
Fabrica - A tequila distillery.
Gran Reposado - 100% Blue Agave tequila made in small batches and rested in wood barrels for twice as long as most reposados.
Hijuelo - A "baby" agave plant, which is replanted and develops into a mature agave plant.
Horno - The traditional oven used to cook agave piñas.
Jimador - The laborer who harvests agave.
Joven abocado - An unaged tequila with sugars added for a golden, tawny color and slightly sweeter flavor.
Los Altos - One of the major growing regions for Blue Agave - a mountainous area with rich red soil.
Madre - A mature or "Mother" agave plant from which hijuelos have been harvested.
Maguey - A Spanish term encompassing all varieties of agave.
Mezcal - A distilled drink made primarily in Oaxaca from various types of agave.
Mixto - Tequila produced using a mixture of agave sugars and other plant sugars.
Mosto Muerto - The aguamiel after fermentation is completed.
NOM - Norma Oficial Mexicana. The official number assigned by the government to each tequila distillery, identifying which company made or bottled tequila.
Ordinario - The first run distillate when making tequila.
Piña - The pineapple-shaped heart of the agave plant.
Piloncillo - Unrefined sugar made from dried sugarcane juice, used in production of mixto tequila.
Pipon - Tank, usually made of wood, used for storing tequila.
Pulque - Fermented Mexican drink, made from agave sap, that resembles a milky liquid.
Reposado - Tequila "rested" in wood thanks or barrels for at least two months. Mellow in flavor, pale straw in color.
Tahona - The ancient traditional stone wheel used to crush and extract juice from cooked agave.
Tequila - Both the region and the town that gave the spirit of tequila its name.

16 Reasons to Serve Tequila at Work

It's an incentive to show up.
It leads to more honest communications.
It reduces complaints about low pay.
Employees tell management what they think, not what they want to hear.
It encourages car pooling.
Increase job satisfaction because if you have a bad job, you don't care.
It eliminates vacations because people would rather come to work.
It makes fellow employees look better.
It makes the cafeteria food taste better.
Bosses are more likely to hand out raises when they are wasted.
Salary negotiations are a lot more profitable.
Employees work later since there's no longer a need to relax at the bar.
It makes everyone more open with their ideas.
Eliminates the need for employees to get drunk on their lunch break.
Employees no longer need coffee to sober up.
Sitting "Bare ass" on the copy machine will no longer be seen as gross.

Lemon - Salt funda

Mexicans have long known that a little sodium chloride on the tongue can help to mollify the fiery flavor that characterizes much of their food. They use salt when downing chile peppers, for example. By the same token, citrus juices of various kinds have long been used to kill the aftertaste of the more potent forms of alcohol. For example, poor black folks in the U.S. used to cut their port wine with lemon juice.

A single shot of tequila is often served with salt and a slice of lemon or lime. This is referred to as "training wheels". The drinker moistens the back of their hand below the index finger (usually by licking) and pours on the salt. Then the salt is licked off the hand, tequila is drank and the fruit slice is quickly bitten. It is common for groups of drinkers to do this simultaneously. The salt lessens the "burn" of the tequila and the sour fruit balances and enhances the flavor.

Homer! Thou art God!! Role model personified!!!

2005-04-29T00:18:00.000-07:00

Homer Humor on Beer, Food and TV

The strong must protect the Sweet.

Oh no! What have I done? I smashed open my little boy's piggy bank, and for what? A few measly cents, not even enough to buy one beer. Wait a minute, lemme count and make sure... not even close.

Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover.

Homer no function beer well without.

When will I learn? The answer to life's problems aren't at the bottom of a bottle, they're on TV!

Son, when you participate in sporting events, it's not whether you win or lose: it's how drunk you get.

Homer on Family

I'm going to the back seat of my car, with the woman I love, and I won't be back for ten minutes!

[Meeting Aliens] Please don't eat me! I have a wife and kids. Eat them!

What do we need a psychiatrist for? We know our kid is nuts.

Marge, you're as beautiful as Princess Leia and as smart as Yoda.

Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gamblor, and it's time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!

When I look at the smiles on all the children's faces, I just know they're about to jab me with something.

Homer on Religion

I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman.

I'm having the best day of my life, and I owe it all to not going to Church!

Lisa, if the Bible has taught us nothing else, and it hasn't, it's that girls should stick to girls sports, such as hot oil wrestling and foxy boxing and such and such.

I'm not a bad guy! I work hard, and I love my kids. So why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I'm going to Hell?

Homer on Life and his 'Wisdom'

Getting out of jury duty is easy. The trick is to say you're prejudiced against all races.

It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.

Lisa, Vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins, and eskimos.

I want to share something with you: The three little sentences that will get you through life.
Number 1: Cover for me. Number 2: Oh, good idea, Boss! Number 3: It was like that when I got here.

Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that.

Remember that postcard Grandpa sent us from Florida of that Alligator biting that woman's bottom? That's right, we all thought it was hilarious. But, it turns out we were wrong. That alligator was sexually harrassing that woman.

Old people don't need companionship. They need to be isolated and studied so it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use.

How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?

I've always wondered if there was a god. And now I know there is -- and it's me.

Homer on Work

Kill my boss? Do I dare live out the American dream?

If something goes wrong at the plant, blame the guy who can't speak English.

I'm never going to be disabled. I'm sick of being so healthy.

Classic D'Oh! Homerisms

Operator! Give me the number for 911!

Oh, so they have internet on computers now!

I like my beer cold, my TV loud and my homosexuals flaming.

[Looking at a globe map...country being Uruguay] Hee hee! Look at this country!'You are gay.'

Bart, with $10,000, we'd be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like...love!

Woman! You Rawk... You Friggin Rawk!!

2005-04-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
- Ayn Rand

Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday...The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production.
-Ayn Rand

I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.
-Ayn Rand, Anthem, 1946

It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.
-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction you give it.
-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.
-Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 1966

The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence.
-Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, 1964

If there is any one proof of a man's incompetence, it is the stagnant mentality of a worker who, doing some small routine job in a vast undertaking, does not care to look beyond the lever of a machine, does not choose to know how the machine got there or what makes his job possible, and proclaims that the management of the undertaking is parasitical and unneccessary.
-Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is.
- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

To say 'I love you' one must know first how to say the 'I'.
-Ayn Rand

Great men can't be ruled.
-Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.
-Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death.
-Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
-Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

in tune with HP Mania... man i just cant wait for the next :D:D

2005-04-25T04:19:00.000-07:00

Just before his eleventh birthday, Harry Potter is invited to join Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry because Harry is not a muggle (what the wizards call non-magical people) he is a wizard! What's more, he's the most famous wizard in the world because he survived an attacked from the most feared wizard of then all, Lord Voldemort, and he has been left with a scar above his eye.

Before he starts at Hogwarts, Harry has to shop for robes, cauldrons, spell books and wands in Diagon Alley - a secret road located at the back of The Leaky Cauldron pub. Part way down Diagon Alley, near its intersection with Knockturn Alley (where shops devoted to the dark arts are located), is Gringotts Wizarding Bank, where witches and wizards keep their money and other valuables. Wizard money is complicated for us muggles to understand; the gold ones are Galleons, there are 17 silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine bronze Knuts to a Sickle. The children all love spending their money on Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (sweets that include earwax flavor one if you're not careful!), and chocolate frogs.

To get to Hogwarts, pupils have to locate platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station (really based on Euston Station as Rowling got the two stations muddled), where they can board the Hogwart's Express train. Queen Boadicea is believed to be buried underneath Platform 10.

The four Hogwarts houses (each named after a founder of the School) are (Godric) Gryffindor, (Helga) Hufflepuff, (Rowena) Ravenclaw and (Salazar) Slytherin. The Sorting Hat (Leslie Phillips in the two movies, which are directed by Chris Columbus) picks a house for each new arrival.

Harry's house is Gryffindor, led by Professor Minerva McGonagall, who teaches Transfiguration and is haunted by Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington a.k.a."Nearly Headless Nick". Harry's school enemy, Draco Malfoy, belongs to Slytherin led by Severus Snape. The School motto is Nunquam Draco Dormiens Titillandus, "never tickle a sleeping dragon" and the Headmaster is Albus Dumbledore, whose name comes from the Latin for white and the Old English for bumblebee.

Harry's parents Lily and James were killed when he was a baby by Lord Voldemort (French for "flight of death" but usually known as "he-who-must-not-be-named" or "you-know-who") so Hagrid left him to grow up at 4 Privet Drive with the Dursleys: Lily's muggle sister Petunia, her husband Vernon and their fat spoilt son Dudley. Harry and his friends battle the evil Lord Voldemort (real name Tom Marvolo Riddle, an anagram for I am Lord Voldemort) throughout the books.

Harry's friends are miss know-it-all Hermione Granger, who, being the daughter of two muggles is a "mudblood" and ginger Ron Weasley. Draco Malfoy's henchmen are Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

The favorite sport of wizards is Quidditch, a fast and furious game played by two teams on broomsticks - Harry's first broomstick was a Nimbus 2000. A Quidditch team has three Chasers who have to get the red Quaffle into hoops to score points, a Keeper who guards the hoops, two Beaters who deflect black Bludgers (balls that try to knock opponents off their broomsticks) and a Seeker (Harry if the team is Gryffindor) who chases the Golden Snitch and on catching it, scores 150 points and wins the game. The referee at Hogwarts is Flying Lessons teacher Madame Hooch.

Other teachers are Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher (so far, a different teacher each year). Herbology is taught by Pomona Sprout and Professor Flitwick teaches Harry how to use his phoenix feather wand purchased from Ollivander's wands in Diagon Alley, the proprietor of which is played by John Hurt. The mean but magically impotent caretaker, Argus Filch, is accompanied by pet cat Mrs. Norris whereas the friendlier groundskeeper, Rubeus Hagrid, has many inappropriate pets from dragons to dogs.

Harry and his friends also have pets at Hogwarts. Harry has an owl called Hedwig, Ron has a rat called Scabbers (who turns out to be Peter Pettigrew, who betrayed Harry's parents to Lord Voldemort, then faked his own death and framed Sirius Black for thirteen murders). Hermione has a ginger cat called Crookshanks, and the Weasley family share an owl called Errol, who brings them their post, including Howlers - screaming scolding letters.

The monsters featured in the books, all borrowed from established mythology, include dragons (Hagrid keeps a Norwegian Ridgeback called Norbert), a Cerberus-like three-head guard dog called Fluffy, mandrakes (which screech when uprooted), a phoenix, a hippogriff, a troll, cornish blue pixies, the Malfoy's servile house elf called Dobby, a unicorn and a werewolf (Defence of the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin).

The five books written so far by JK (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling are the Philosopher's Stone (created by Nicholas Flamel, a real-life alchemist), the Chamber of Secrets (opened by Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley), the Prisoner of Azkaban (named Sirius Black), the Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix (where one of the members of the order of the Phoenix, Sirius Black, dies in the end).

Jimi Jimii Jimiii...

2005-04-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

continuing with the theme of guitar gods...

In his brief four-year reign as a superstar, Jimi Hendrix expanded the vocabulary of the electric rock guitar more than anyone before or since. Hendrix was a master at coaxing all manner of unforeseen sonics from his instrument, often with innovative amplification experiments that produced astral-quality feedback and roaring distortion. His frequent hurricane blasts of noise, and dazzling showmanship — he could and would play behind his back and with his teeth, and set his guitar on fire — has sometimes obscured his considerable gifts as a songwriter, singer, and master of a gamut of blues, R&B, and rock styles.

When Hendrix became an international superstar in 1967, it seemed as if he'd dropped out of a Martian spaceship, but in fact he'd served his apprenticeship the long, mundane way in numerous R&B acts on the chitlin circuit. During the early and mid-'60s, he worked with such R&B/soul greats as Little Richard, the Isley Brothers, and King Curtis as a backup guitarist. Occasionally he recorded as a session man (the Isley Brothers' 1964 single "Testify" is the only one of these early tracks that offers even a glimpse of his future genius). But the stars didn't appreciate his show-stealing showmanship, and Hendrix was straightjacketed by sideman roles that didn't allow him to develop as a soloist. The logical step was for Hendrix to go out on his own, which he did in New York in the mid-'60s, playing with various musicians in local clubs, and joining White blues-rock singer John Hammond, Jr.'s band for a while.

It was in a New York club that Hendrix was spotted by Animals bassist Chas Chandler. The first lineup of the Animals was about to split, and Chandler, looking to move into management, convinced Hendrix to move to London and record as a solo act in England. There a group was built around Jimi, also featuring Mitch Mitchell on drums and Noel Redding on bass, that was dubbed the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The trio became stars with astonishing speed in the U.K., where "Hey Joe," "Purple Haze," and "The Wind Cries Mary" all made the Top 10 in the first half of 1967. These tracks were also featured on their debut album, Are You Experienced?, a psychedelic meisterwerk that became a huge hit in the U.S. after Hendrix created a sensation at the Monterey Pop Festival in June of 1967.

Are You Experienced? was an astonishing debut, particularly from a young R&B veteran who had rarely sung, and apparently never written his own material, before the Experience formed. What caught most people's attention at first was his virtuosic guitar playing, which employed an arsenal of devices, including wah-wah pedals, buzzing feedback solos, crunching distorted riffs, and lightning, liquid runs up and down the scales. But Hendrix was also a first-rate songwriter, melding cosmic imagery with some surprisingly pop-savvy hooks and tender sentiments. He was also an excellent blues interpreter and passionate, engaging singer (although his gruff, throaty vocal pipes were not nearly as great assets as his instrumental skills). Are You Experienced? was psychedelia at its most eclectic, synthesizing mod pop, soul, R&B, Dylan, and the electric guitar innovations of British pioneers like Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, and Eric Clapton.

Amazingly, Hendrix would only record three fully conceived studio albums in his lifetime. Axis: Bold as Love and the double-LP Electric Ladyland were more diffuse and experimental than Are You Experienced? On Electric Ladyland in particular, Hendrix pioneered the use of the studio itself as a recording instrument, manipulating electronics and devising overdub techniques (with the help of engineer Eddie Kramer in particular) to plot uncharted sonic territory. Not that these albums were perfect, as impressive as they were; the instrumental breaks could meander, and Hendrix's songwriting was occasionally half-baked, never matching the consistency of Are You Experienced? (although he exercised greater creative control over the later albums).

The final two years of Hendrix's life were turbulent ones musically, financially, and personally. He was embroiled in enough complicated management and record company disputes (some dating from ill-advised contracts he'd signed before the Experience formed) to keep the lawyers busy for years. He disbanded the Experience in 1969, forming the Band of Gypsies with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox to pursue funkier directions. He closed Woodstock with a sprawling, shaky set, redeemed by his famous machine-gun interpretation of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The rhythm section of Mitchell and Redding were underrated keys to Jimi's best work, and the Band of Gypsies ultimately couldn't measure up to the same standard, although Hendrix did record an erratic live album with them. In early 1970, the Experience re-formed again — and disbanded again shortly afterwards. At the same time, Hendrix felt torn in many directions by various fellow musicians, record-company expectations, and management pressures, all of whom had their own ideas of what Hendrix should be doing. Coming up on two years after Electric Ladyland, a new studio album had yet to appear, although Hendrix was recording constantly during the period.

While outside parties did contribute to bogging down Hendrix's studio work, it also seems likely that Jimi himself was partly responsible for the stalemate, unable to form a permanent lineup of musicians, unable to decide what musical direction to pursue, unable to bring himself to complete another album despite jamming endlessly. A few months into 1970, Mitchell — Hendrix's most valuable musical collaborator — came back into the fold, replacing Miles in the drum chair, although Cox stayed in place. It was this trio that toured the world during Hendrix's final months.

It's extremely difficult to separate the facts of Hendrix's life from rumors and speculation. Everyone who knew him well, or claimed to know him well, has different versions of his state of mind in 1970. Critics have variously mused that he was going to go into jazz, that he was going to get deeper into the blues, that he was going to continue doing what he was doing, or that he was too confused to know what he was doing at all. The same confusion holds true for his death: contradictory versions of his final days have been given by his closest acquaintances of the time. He'd been working intermittently on a new album, tentatively titled First Ray of the New Rising Sun, when he died in London on September 18, 1970, from drug-related complications.

Hendrix recorded a massive amount of unreleased studio material during his lifetime. Much of this (as well as entire live concerts) was issued posthumously; several of the live concerts were excellent, but the studio tapes have been the focus of enormous controversy for over 20 years. These initially came out in haphazard drabs and drubs (the first, The Cry of Love, was easily the most outstanding of the lot). In the mid-'70s, producer Alan Douglas took control of these projects, posthumously overdubbing many of Hendrix's tapes with additional parts by studio musicians. In the eyes of many Hendrix fans, this was sacrilege, destroying the integrity of the work of a musician known to exercise meticulous care over the final production of his studio recordings. Even as late as 1995, Douglas was having ex-Knack drummer Bruce Gary record new parts for the typically misbegotten compilation Voodoo Soup. After a lengthy legal dispute, the rights to Hendrix's estate, including all of his recordings, returned to Al Hendrix, the guitarist's father, in July of 1995.

Discography

1967 Are You Experienced? [US]
1967 Are You Experienced? [UK]
1967 Axis: Bold as Love
1968 Electric Ladyland
1968 Electric Hendrix [Withdrawn]
1970 Band of Gypsys [live]
1971 The Cry of Love

hmmm part 983475682494964

2005-04-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

a lotta junta... by that i am not exaggerating... yeah junta have asked me why i stopped with my rantings and whinings on my blog and got trivia-l instead... well the fact is guys i havent stopped with it...
just i want to start putting fundaes and dope on music n movies and other stuff on my blog which'd make it a one stop click for all gyaan even for me :):)
i will not stop with my writing dontcha worry!!
life heres been chill... organizin workshops on dance music and theater at work... been like madness and fun ... they went on great and response and feedback was sooper chill

hmm i sound like those bloggers that make their blogs their diaries and their lives public... so me will stop :)

ajay sent me this kwij... damn neat twas
check my results

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read.
Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few.

What kind of blogger are you?

neat eh ;)
and yes guys i wont stop with my musings :D:D

Yngwie Malmsteen!!!

2005-04-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

After a bit of dope on Sat-man me now talks about another guitar god - Malmsteen!! I'm dedicating my blog for a while to guitaring geniuses!
Rock on you maestros :)

Yngwie Malmsteen is arguably the most technically accomplished hard rock guitarist to emerge during the '80s. Combining a dazzling technique honed over years of obsessive practice with a love for such classical composers as Bach, Beethoven, and Paganini, Malmsteen's distinctively Baroque, gothic compositional style and lightning-fast arpeggiated solos rewrote the book on heavy metal guitar.

His largely instrumental debut album, Rising Force, immediately upped the ante for aspiring hard rock guitarists and provided the major catalyst for the '80s guitar phenomenon known as "shredding," in which the music's main focus was on impossibly fast, demanding licks rather than songwriting. Malmsteen released a series of albums over the course of the '80s that, aside from slight differences in approach and execution, were strongly similar to Rising Force, and critics charged him with showing little artistic progression. He was also reviled as an egotist whose emphasis on blazing technique ultimately made for boring, mechanical, masturbatory music with no room for subtlety or emotion. Malmsteen responded by insisting that since he was already playing music he loved, he had no desire to develop any further, and that his love did come through in his playing. He also vehemently insisted that it was his imitators, not him, who reduced songwriting and composition to merely generic vehicles to show off the guitar player's amazing technique.

Toward the end of the decade, Malmsteen fell out of favor with metal audiences, and even some of his musician fan base seemed to tire of him and the incredible amount of practice it would take for them to emulate him. Following a series of personal setbacks, tragedies, and even injuries, Malmsteen eventually resurfaced on small, independent labels and then recorded at a prolific, rapid pace, continuing to play the music he loved in his patented neo-classical style.
Yngwie (pronounced "ING-vay") Malmsteen was born Lars Johann Yngwie Lannerback in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1963, later adopting his mother's maiden name following his parents' divorce. He was an unruly child, and his mother tried without initial success to interest him in music as an outlet. However, when seven-year-old Yngwie saw a television special on the death of Jimi Hendrix featuring live performance footage of Hendrix setting his guitar on fire, he became obsessed with the guitar, learning to play the music of both Hendrix and favorites Deep Purple. Through Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's use of diatonic minor scales over simple blues riffs, Malmsteen was led toward classical music, and his sister exposed him to composers like Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and Mozart. He spent hours practicing obsessively until his fingers bled, and by age ten, his mother allowed him to stay home from school to develop his musical talents, particularly since he was considered a behavioral nightmare.

Also at age ten, Malmsteen became enamored of the music of 19th century violinist/composer Niccolo Paganini, as well as Paganini's flamboyant style and wild-man image; this would provide the blueprint for Malmsteen's synthesis of classical music and rock. By the time he was 18, Malmsteen was playing around Sweden with various bands attempting to find an audience for his technically staggering instrumental explorations, but most listeners preferred more accessible pop music; frustrated, Malmsteen sent demo tapes to record companies overseas. When Mike Varney, president of Shrapnel Records — a label synonymous with the term "shredder" — heard Malmsteen's tape, he invited the guitarist to come to the United States and join the band Steeler in 1981.Steeler recorded one album with Malmsteen on guitar, but dissatisfied with the band's rather generic style, Malmsteen moved on to the group Alcatrazz, whose Deep Purple and Rainbow influences better suited the guitarist's style. Still not quite satisfied, Malmsteen formed his own band, Rising Force, with longtime friend and keyboardist Jens Johansson. The new band's first album, also called Rising Force, was released in 1984; it was a largely instrumental affair spotlighting Malmsteen's incendiary guitar work and Johansson's nearly equally developed technique. The album was an immediate sensation in guitar circles, winning countless reader's polls in guitar magazines, reaching number 60 on Billboard's album chart (no mean feat for an instrumental album), and receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Malmsteen's subsequent albums, Marching Out and Trilogy, also sold quite well and consolidated his reputation and influence as a composer as well as a soloist.

However, on June 22, 1987, a speeding Malmsteen crashed his Jaguar into a tree; in breaking the steering wheel with his head, he received a blood clot in his brain which nearly killed him and extensively damaged the nerves leading to his picking hand. In the course of recovery, he learned that his mother had died and that his manager had swindled him out of his earnings. Undaunted, Malmsteen regained the use of his hand and recorded Odyssey, his most accessible, radio-friendly collection to date; the single "Heaven Tonight" widened his audience beyond a devoted core of guitar fans and helped push the album into Billboard's Top 40. Following a world tour including the then-Soviet Union, the Rising Force unit disbanded, and Malmsteen formed a new band in his native Sweden for 1990's Eclipse. The album was a success in Europe and Japan, but stiffed in the U.S. without much promotion.An angry Malmsteen left PolyGram and, prior to the release of 1992's Fire and Ice, he was married to and divorced from a Swedish pop singer. Fire and Ice debuted at number one on the Japanese charts, and Malmsteen toured the world again. However, disaster struck frequently over the next two years. Hurricane Andrew destroyed Malmsteen's Miami property; his manager of four years died of a heart attack; Elektra dropped him from their roster; a freak accident left the guitarist with a broken hand, in addition to frequent bouts of tendinitis caused by his lightning technique; and in August 1993, Malmsteen's future mother-in-law, opposed to his engagement to her daughter, had him falsely arrested for holding the woman hostage with a gun. The charges were quickly dropped, and Malmsteen secured a deal with the Japanese label Pony Canyon after his hand had healed completely. He returned to recording with a vengeance, releasing The Seventh Sign in 1994, as well as two mini-albums (Power and Glory and I Can't Wait), and then Magnum Opus in 1995 and the all-covers album Inspiration in 1996. While his popularity has largely faded in the U.S. due to a backlash against the excesses of '80s shredders, Malmsteen still finds audiences in Europe and is more popular in Japan and Asia than ever.

Discography -

1984 Rising Force
1985 Marching Out
1986 Trilogy
1988 Odyssey
1989 Live in Leningrad: Trial by Fire
1990 Eclipse1991 Eclipse [Japan 2 CD]
1992 Fire & Ice
1994 Seventh Sign
1994 Power and Glory
1994 I Can't Wait
1995 Magnum Opus
1996 Inspiration
1998 Facing the Animal
1998 Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E Flat Minor Op. 1
1998 Facing the Animal [Japan]
1998 Live in Brazil 1998 [Bonus VHS]
1998 Live in Brazil
1998-1999 Inspiration [Bonus CD]
1999 Alchemy Pony1999 Rising Force [Import]
2000 Best Album [Limited Edition]
2000 Fire & Ice [Import Bonus Tracks]
2000 Young Person's Guide to the Classics, Vol. 1
2000 Young Person's Guide to the Classics, Vol. 2
2000 Double Live
2000 War to End All Wars Pony
2001 Live at Budokan

gyaan on satch!

2005-04-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

hmm i've decided my blog from now on is gonna be dedicated to trivia!
music movies et al...
since jot sat is comin to india! let me start with dope on him!! the guru of music

Along with teaching some of the top rock guitar players of the '80s and '90s, Joe Satriani is one of the most technically accomplished and widely respected guitarists to emerge in recent times. Born on July 15, 1956, in Westbury, NY, and raised in the nearby town of Carle Place, Satriani — inspired by guitar legend Jimi Hendrix — picked up the guitar at the age of 14 (although he was initially more interested in the drums). Quickly learning the instrument, Satriani began teaching guitar to others and found a kindred spirit in one of his students, Steve Vai. By the late '70s, however, Satriani had relocated to Berkeley, CA. With his sights set on his own musical career, "Satch" kept teaching others, including such future rock notables as Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Larry LaLonde (Primus), David Bryson (Counting Crows), and jazz fusion player Charlie Hunter.
In the early '80s, Satriani got a gig playing guitar with power popster Greg Kihn, doing some session work and touring with the group (an archival release recorded around this time, King Biscuit Flower Hour, was later issued in 1996), and issuing his own solo self-titled EP in 1984, financing and releasing the project entirely on his own. But when Vai hit the big time as the guitarist of David Lee Roth's solo band in 1986, he offered praise for his good friend and former teacher in several major guitar publications, leading to widespread interest in Satriani's playing. The timing couldn't have been more perfect for Satch, as he'd just issued his first full-length solo album, Not of this Earth, which automatically made ripples in the rock guitar community. But the best was still to come, in the form of his sophomore release, 1987's Surfing With the Alien. Almost overnight, Satriani was widely regarded as one of rock's top guitarists, as the album earned gold certification and the guitarist would finish at the top of guitar magazine polls for years afterwards. He was even handpicked by Mick Jagger to accompany the famous singer on a tour of Australia and Japan around this time. A stopgap EP, Dreaming #11, combed both studio and live tracks and was issued a year later, and in 1989, Satriani issued his third solo full-length, Flying in a Blue Dream. Another sizeable hit, the album also marked Satch's debut as a vocalist on several tracks. His career received another big push the same year when his song, "One Big Rush," was included on the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe's hit movie, Say Anything. The '90s began with Satriani creating his own line of guitars for the Ibanez company (the JS Joe Satriani model), but it wasn't until 1992 that he would issue his next solo release, The Extremist. The double-disc set Time Machine followed a year later (a combination of new tracks, live material, and the long out-of-print Joe Satriani EP from 1984), and in 1994, Satch filled in on tour for the departed Ritchie Blackmore for heavy metal pioneers Deep Purple. Although he was asked to become a full-time member, Satriani turned down the offer to return to his solo career. Satriani issued two more solo albums during the '90s — 1995's self-titled release and 1998's Crystal Planet, and also started the G3 guitar showcase tour with Steve Vai in 1996, becoming an annual event and issuing a live document of the tour's initial run, G3: Live in Concert, a year later. 2000 saw Satriani issue his most musically daring release yet, the electronic-based Engines of Creation, and a year later, the live disc Live in San Francisco. In addition to his own albums, Satriani has guested on several other artists' albums over the years, including Blue Oyster Cult's Imaginos, Alice Cooper's Hey Stoopid, Stuart Hamm's Radio Free Albemuth, Pat Martino's All Sides Now, and Spinal Tap's Break Like the Wind.

Discography

1986 Not of This Earth
1987 Surfing with the Alien
1988 Dreaming #11
1989 Flying in a Blue Dream
1992 The Extremist
1993 Time Machine
1995 Joe Satriani
1997 G3: Live in Concert
1998 Crystal Planet [US]
2000 Engines of Creation
2000 Crystal Planet [Import Bonus Tracks]
2001 Live in San Francisco

lyrics

2005-04-02T00:15:00.000-08:00

the most meaningful songs are those that have lyrics that haunt you on and on and on and on and on...
lyrics, especially those in desi numbers... whoa! they can sure put songs on to a different league
it takes quite a genius to come up with lyrics which make one feel with the song, and simultaneously, with the added incentive of these lyrics which already have inspired the composer wayy beyond the normal levels... makes them come out with timeless compositions...
well these views nothing new about them i know
just i heard a song now which a pal of mine was listenin to that made me think about lyrics...
they can make the listener get so involved that you could even emotionally get influenced by the same altering your actions and reactions for that day/week...
ok coming to the song that compelled me to think this way... it is this all time fave composition a non filmi one called 'aaj jaane ki zid na karo' so moving so heartfelt!
here are the lyrics...

Aaj jaane ki zid na karo
Yunhi pehloo mein baithe raho
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo
Haay mar jaayenge, hum to lut jaayenge
Aisi baatein kiya na karo
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo
Haay mar jaayenge, hum to lut jaayenge
Aisi baatein kiya na karo
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo

Tum hi socho zara, kyun na roke tumhe
Jaan jaati hai jab uth ke jaate ho tum
Tumko apni qasam jaan-e-jaan
Baat itni meri maan lo
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo
Yunhi pehloo mein baithe raho
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo
Haay mar jaayenge, hum to lut jaayenge
Aisi baatein kiya na karo
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo

Waqt ki qaid mein zindagi hai magar
Chand ghadiyan yehi hain jo aazad hain
Inko khokar mere jaan-e-jaan
Umr bhar na taraste raho
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo
Haay mar jaayenge, hum to lut jaayenge
Aisi baatein kiya na karo
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo

Kitna maasoom rangeen hai yeh sama
Husn aur ishq ki aaj mein raaj hai
Kal ki kisko khabar jaan-e-jaan
Rok lo aaj ki raat ko
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo
Yunhi pehloo mein baithe raho
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo
Haay mar jaayenge, hum to lut jaayenge
Aisi baatein kiya na karo
Aaj jaane ki zid na karo

whoa! some lyrics those... you HAVE to listen to the tune :)

BITCHY!

2005-03-29T06:32:00.000-08:00

The Hindu : Metro Plus Bangalore / Events : Four books and some asides

recently i attended a book release of one of my teacher
this article is bout the same

in this article you find

"But I thought other people's stories was gossip!" was one aside to this from a member of the audience, which set off some muffled giggles. Those who sat (or stood) close to the student group in the audience said they were kept mightily entertained by several such asides, which were particularly sharp when one of the teachers spoke.

lol thats in ref to me and a bunch of my juniors aaahahaha

megalomania?

2005-03-23T03:05:00.000-08:00

i
me
myself
alone
i stand
i am
i will
i have
i shall
i
the truth
the sole reaper
the solitary weeper
i
i do
i did
i
just i

kicks...

2005-03-22T08:10:00.000-08:00

krraghu111111 has joined the conference.
kesavan_m19: Vaa da Rag...enna long time no see?
krraghu111111: hi hi hi hi
krraghu111111: vanakam
venkatpv83: hi rag
deepsun_1: hi ragu
krraghu111111: hello pv
sunu83: hi raghu
krraghu111111: hi sun
krraghu111111: sunanya dane?
sunu83:
venkatpv83: sunanya????????
venkatpv83:
sunu83: dont spoil my name
krraghu111111: savi cof aramichutu escape aitala?
sunu83:
krraghu111111: srry srry
krraghu111111: ur name?
kesavan_m19: Sun...Tams have probs in pronouncing your name
sunu83: aandaalamma visaalakshi kaamakshi
krraghu111111: enna pa
kesavan_m19: Rag...alaiyadha
krraghu111111: what?
kesavan_m19: visaalakshi, kaamakshi not iyengar names k
raghu111111: hey im lil confused
kesavan_m19: Does someone always have to be comfused?
krraghu111111: seri whos sunu83 then
sunu83: sunil
krraghu111111: tala irunda confuse agama enna saivanga
krraghu111111: k
sunu83: 21 m rec trichy
krraghu111111: sunil frm?
kesavan_m19: Naa yaara da confuse pannen?
sunu83: doing civil engg
krraghu111111: oh gr8
sunu83: you?
krraghu111111: final yr ECE
krraghu111111: vec chennai
sunu83: oh ok
kesavan_m19: Project over a da?
sunu83: no da
krraghu111111: k7 unnoda akka tangachigala lam enga kanum
sunu83: nobody took me
sunu83: i flunked 4th sem
sunu83:
krraghu111111: aiyo pavam
kesavan_m19: Ennoda akka thangachigal?
krraghu111111: oh tappa solliteno
kesavan_m19: Sunil its ok man...failures are the stepping stones to future successes
krraghu111111: i ment sun,savi,shy
sunu83: yaaru daa adhu raghu inge yaaru figs e illai first time here very boring
kesavan_m19: Unnoda akka thangachigal enakkum akka thangachigala?
kesavan_m19: Sunil...patience and perseverance pays
krraghu111111: ammam tala anna savi shy lam ennoda sisters ille
sunu83: it does a? avalo experienceaa??
krraghu111111: enga pv a kanum?
venkatpv83: dei oru fig kooda PMing da
kesavan_m19: Aamam Sunil...wait and watch
krraghu111111: paavi pv
venkatpv83: rag
krraghu111111: us ponalum pona ore kadala 7ya
kesavan_m19: Yaaru da?
sunu83: adhu dhaan nee sollaren ... 1 hour i wait here no figs showing (puns intended)
venkatpv83: dei sunu naaye, adangu da
venkatpv83:
kesavan_m19: Wait pannu Sunil...avasara padadha
krraghu111111: tala na kalabikaren
sunu83: dei pv baada alaiyaadh da
krraghu111111: shy vanda invite pabbu
venkatpv83: ok da bye rag
krraghu111111: pannu
venkatpv83: ada paradesi
krraghu111111: ille savi vanda
kesavan_m19: bye da Rag
krraghu111111:
sunu83: rag bye
kesavan_m19: And no more invites
venkatpv83: podango
krraghu111111: tala pls da
venkatpv83: rag, no da
deepsun_1: hi sunil nice meeting u
deepsun_1: rag dont know u?
sunu83: hi deep
krraghu111111: pv enna parthan kitendu totindruta?
venkatpv83: u have stepped into our territory
sunu83: no deep
krraghu111111: bye
deepsun_1: oh.. i c
krraghu111111 has left the conference.
sunu83:
venkatpv83:
kesavan_m19:
venkatpv83:
sunu83: raghu = jollu # 1

Black Mamba herself!

2005-03-21T04:14:00.000-08:00

You are The Bride! Revenge is your middle name, if
people betray you, you don't stand by and let
them win, good for you!

man was i kicked or what when i took this test and got this result...

p.s. - thank you ajay for the link hehehe i am maha thrilled!!

what makes a perfect monday?

2005-03-21T03:42:00.000-08:00

what makes a perfect monday?

a book to read
lots of time to kill
no deadlines to adhere
no office to go to
no work to do
just music playing on
close friends around
what more could one want?

some good telly shows
maybe some good movie
a few telephonic convos
and loadsa junk to eat
a frothfilled pint or two
and maybe a rolled one too
some philosophical lethargy
what more could one want?

an idyllic getaway maybe
reading poetry and verses
on a nice sandy shore
the nice music of the waves
and some seafood to nibble on
weed wine would be very fine
some nice chocolates too
maybe that special someone
what more could one want?

some nice heavy metal
in a pub with enthu people
headbanging to glory
with some chicken tikka
marilyn manson maybe
or some led zepplin
some metallica for sure
oh metal metal metal
what more could one want?

a nice warm blanket
still lying in bed
a warm cuppa chocolate
with floyd in the head
watching cartoons
good ol' tom n jerry!
laughing away to glory
what more could one want?

what more could one want?
what more could one want?
what more could one want?

well i could go on writing on what more one could want...
but sorry hunny as of now i'm bloody sick of this font!

of shooting 13 times

2005-03-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

so i promised myself
i am off stuff
i am off it all
i need to stop
i need to regulate
before i do fall

quite fine i was
yes i say fine
i did stay off all
like the plan of mine
i kept away, far
and did ... stand tall

a sudden thought
'ah who am i kiddin!'
whats there to lose
... serious... i'd say
whats the need
for the this recluse

finally yes finally
'twas that friday night
i did ... venture ahead
o fools what did you think
i had something to prove?
haha just 'twas emotions withheld

back i am i exlcaim
back i am i also claim
now should i dance n jump?
am i to celebrate
am i to speculate
but for sure this IS my trump!

ellipses

2005-03-17T04:22:00.000-08:00

sometimes words defy emotions
sometimes emotions defy words
words can also define emotion
same goes vice versa
emotions words
silence voids
confrontation
hibernation
isolation
socialization
almost mechanisation
yet human gesticulation
situations arise
situations arise
help me oh lord
when these i realise :)

back... or am i?

2005-03-15T06:14:00.000-08:00

hmm quiet... that's been the status of my blog in the previous few days
why? i have no answer myself... probably have been bored to write as i do that at work as well...
hmm... thats not reason enough i know... especially editing writing of boring techies who cant tell the difference between 'lose' and 'loose'!
well that apart its been pretty 'upbeat' here my life hehe
ok those who didn't get that, which would mean all but sowmya and remote chances of her reading my blog... upbeat is the name of the performing arts special we at work are having ... been busy coordinating with junta for workshops for those... hmm met interesting folks to say the least! some cute 'uns, some otherwise, some boring 'uns, some interestin, some lets say complete turn offs hahaha... funny they're all still group together under the macro classification of 'homo sapiens' hehe
oooh this reminds me of a joey joke! *with a serious contemplative face* "so tell me were the homo sapiens really HOMOS for them to go extinct' hahaha

so its been ages since i wrote poetry so hmm let me try my ever failing hand at it!

you
so distinct from me
you
so different from i
you
the stranger in the dark
you
the one that cluthes my palm
you
that seem so distant from me
you
yet so near to me
you
that i love so much
you
the one with the caring touch
you
the light guiding my path
you
the one to calm my wrath
you
the ultimate solace of my insecurity
you
my cover in times of adversity
you
i need i want i crave
you
i cry out aloud
WHERE ARE YOU?

sorry for the soppy post :) but lifes like that

Arundhati Roy: Public Power in the Age of Empire

2005-02-26T02:42:00.000-08:00

Arundhati Roy: Public Power in the Age of Empire

i HAD to have this in my blog :)
Roy Rockz!!

vikram vikram he's our man!

2005-02-25T22:08:00.000-08:00

Mack Daddy

Oh oh oh oh oh, oh oh...
Oh oh oh oh oh...I am Mack Daddy, looking for lady
One that can cook and clean for little ol' me
Has long black hair, eats curry
One that will be my brown beauty
Baby girl, you are brown like the chocolate
Would you like to settle down and maybe be my soulmate
I am very sorry-sorry, what's your name, where you from
Does my breath stink, miss, do you have a piece of gum
Do you cook, do you clean, you fart after eating beans
What's that smell, gee golly can you please pardon me
Girl when you smile and your eyelashes flutter
Your teeth are so yellow, can't believe it's not butter
If I braid your back-hair, shorty will you braid mine
I'll give you corn-rows even if no time
Excuse me miss, do you have any money
I'd like to call my mommy tell her that
I found my honey
Yes I might want to be your man, please don't be snotty
Let's get together shorty, drive around in my taxi
Don't you like my accent hotty, look at my steel body, ooh-ee-dee
Don't you like the way I shake my booty
I am Mack Daddy, looking for lady
One that can cook and clean for little ol' me
Has long black hair, eats curry
One that will be my brown beauty
Baby girl, you know my situation
My love is backed up like I got constipation
Stop being stubborn, just kick it with me
Who d'you know that's smoother than MC V
We can cruise around town in my yellow taxi
You know how I roam, I am always classy
CEO of 7-11, I'll make you feel like you're in slurpy heaven
Stop holding back and just gimme a try
You know you can't resist my scented fish-fry
If I could rearrange the alphabet I'd put you and I together
My little pet
Yes I might want to be your man, please don't be snotty
Let's get together shorty, drive around in my taxi
Don't you like my accent hotty, look at my steel body, ooh-ee
Don't you like the way I shake my booty
Shake my bootyI am Mack Daddy, looking for lady
One that can cook and clean for little ol' me
Has long black hair, eats curry
One that will be my brown beauty

want the mp3 lol i could give it to ya! man mc vikram rockz!

LOL

2005-02-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

bsb?!

hahahaha i found this oldddd thingie i'd done during indias tour to australia! lmao! couldn't but resist sharing this! i died laughin at myself

We are on fire
Our one desire
Is to hammer the Aussies
When we play games our natural way

But we are two worlds apart
Living down Under is Aussies Hearth
When we all say
When we play games our natural way

CHORUS

Tell me why
Critics are nothing but a headache
Tell me why
Their opinions are a mistake
Tell me why
I never wanna hear you say
Indians don’t know how to play

Am I your fire
Against your wild desire
Yes I know it's too late
Brett Lee I want it that way

Now I can see that you’ve fallen apart
From the way your game used to be, yeah
No matter the distance or your pace
I want you to know that
Deep down inside of me

I am on fire
Its runs I desire
I am, I am, I am, I am
Don’t wanna hear you say

Ain't nothin' but a headache
Ain't nothin' but a mistake
Whenever I hear you say
And I mean never ever hear you say
Indians don’t know how to play.

mmhmmmmm

2005-02-25T19:34:00.000-08:00

NOT THERE

The closet door was open,
With scattered clothes here and there.
The drawers lays down,
With accessories just flowing out.
The bed lay full,
With all the toys thrown here and there.
The floor was a mess,
With a comic here and a puzzle there.

But the little girl looked desperately,
With not a skipped corner.
But alas!
The search went with out any luck.
Nowhere she could find,
The lost happiness, the joy and the energy,
That she so dearly missed.

MISSING SILVER LININGS

I’d like to tell you a story,
Not of any hero’s pomp or glory.
Instead of this little girl,
Whose future… didn’t really unfurl.

She was living next door,
To a guy you shall soon learn about more,
Who always used to shy away,
From be it school, friends or play.

He always wondered what was wrong,
For her silence all day long,
The more he tried to investigate,
The more she hid behind a shut gate.

And every night as he slept,
He could hear her as she wept;
He longed to hold and comfort her:
But who was he but a stranger?

The girl soon forgot what was smiling
I wonder if this is also a living.
The guy next door, still was helpless,
To find out the cause for this mess.

Days and weeks, soon became months,
She didn’t smile, not even once.
More she grew into her cocoon,
And alas! The inevitable did happen soon.

In the well they found her body lying,
Around, were friends and associates crying.
All wondering about one single clause,
‘What could have been the ultimate cause?’

The friendly neighbour was also puzzled,
Her death left him all the more muddled.
He went looking for her mother,
And found she had all but a father.

The father was not at all repentant,
But instead a slimy slithering serpent.
He was just desperate to hide,
From everyone, his evil and venomous side.

This is just one single instance,
Many’ve happened since thence.
When an innocent child did lose,
It’s life from this evil- Child Sexual Abuse.

of turning 22

2005-02-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

The game of life is hard to play
I'm gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I'll someday lay
So this is all I have to say

Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

hmmm not something u'd hear someone is listening to, especially on their eve of their budday! but hmm... when i'm branded a pessimistic person who borders morbidity and am soon being renamed 'all gore' hmm it doesnt sound surprisin comin from me does it :)

well what does a birthday anyway imply... another step closer to that ultimate day... or another year well lived... hmmm that you can imply according to your thinkin... half full glass half empty glass your take

but lately why am i turning into this pholisophical geek beats me... and can you believe it! this past weekend was one without partying and any of my usual weekendish activities *shocked* and even better me stayed home! whoa! isnt that something... this led me to even venturing a step further to like swear off everything indefinitely... what? you're raisin that cynical eyebrow again?! no i am not kidding :) a positive note it is? i dont know... but yes it does leave me a tad happier :)

what is the use of mary jane anyway... she doesnt get me high any more... is this some kinda nirvana in this forte? i really dont know but yes why take her when shes useless... contemplations were on to moving to higher friends to partner my misery... but i've been thru quite a few and believe it or not... i got terrified with some of them :) well it leaves me completely spooked... something like what i can only associate to watchin requiem for a dream that night all high

how long will i stay this way... how long i side with dismay... how long will in this grey i lay... well as that favorite cliche of all goes... only time can tell and hehehe just to break this serious note till then sanity can go to hell :)

arrrrgh!

2005-02-18T15:24:00.000-08:00

men... let me specify... some of em!
such a problem aren't they? thick headed and daft... takes time for them to realise stuff...
sometimes i wonder why do we need the two genders and them being so different... but those are just naive thoughts all childlike, and these two different genders are quintessential to their counterparts' living
i dont understand why i am writing this blog even, but i shall continue to write nevertheless
these random disjointed thoughts though connected in all sum up to one question; why do i have to know the reason behind it all?!
ok i guess i have digressed completely from what i had thought of writing on... but i guessat 5 am... writing normal english with good comprehensible grammar and syntax is pardoned, irrespective of the flow of the thoughts
but i fail to understand what is the philosophy behind this naive questioning and the so-called childlike innocence...
well i agree i am inquisitive but am the least bit childlike... and i think that term is utterly overused and abused... and to top it all childlike innocence to me is unpardonably annoying!
hmm politics and philosophy do play a part in all... why that statement... i'd say as i have learnt from some of my pals its just 'arbit'... well pardon me now will you oh noble reader for my using of a non-existent word like arbit ... but again why should i ask your pardon... its just random ramblings here...
hmm have i used the work pardon a lot? i know i have eh...
but well i guess this much is just the end of pard-one of my writing... oh so you expect a part 2 of these arbit thoughts... well too bad buddy... guess it wont happen ever. why? cuz i say so!
well i just cant help to wonder if i read this all aloud i'd be easily branded delirious! but again i am delirious, like my blog says i am schizoid!
well talking of schizoid reminds me of this lecturer of mine and her teaching of virginia woolf! she actually made me fall in love with the woman's writing and thinking! woolf said we are all different people peopled into one person, and each of our identity exists independently with one persona of ours cumulatively representing us all! did that make sense? well hope it did... cuz its a beautiful explanation to our varied behaviour at various situations
ok i am bored of typing :) almost 5:30 am...
i shall be back that goes without saying! till then, thank you for reading this!

wokay nothin new but yes still new

2005-02-11T01:51:00.000-08:00

hmmm we had a short story writing comp at work... and yeh not many entries turned up for it... extension of deadlines happened without saying! but in the meanwhile ... just to get another number up in the entry and for an amusing tea break ... i did a complete unoriginal original story hehehe
the idea was in my mind alright but the thought was rekindled after watching page 3...
so with the reusing of my own poetry that i did write earlier... i came up with a story which did churn out prettty interesting yet predictable...
here goes it :):)

Creeps – a naked encounter with reality…

An eerie feeling crept in as the fogged images cleared only to be replaced by something more definite. Realization dawned on what lay ahead as I took the road leading to perdition…
Yes I get prosaic, and when I do, a prozac can’t help out, as Monday morn blues leave me with no excuse.

I reach office. I still have the weekend hangover. All I can think of is, my weedie blues can beat my Monday morn blues anyday. I start chuckling over this, and suddenly I get poetic. I needed something to amuse myself. So random musings and thoughts I start penning down.

a cup of coffee
a book to read
a sudden spark
give my thought a lead
i begin writing
with an excited tone
to get cut off thought
by a ringing phone
oh! is this boredom
or something more
i really dont know
but my minds gone obscure
i write and writeto my greatest delight
i rhyme and rhyme
with all my might
a sudden whiff of aromas
from the canteen side
make my thoughts go vary
and my writing goes for a ride
joyous and merry
i head canteen-wards
oh look oh look oh look
i'm actually coining new english words!
i get back to see
what more can i pen
confused i cant recall
my thought process went haywire when
so i decide this is enough
i should put a full stop
as scratching the head for the lost idea
should not make me go over the top!

I stand there admiring my poetic genius self, and cannot help but imagine why I landed up in a mundane job like this where there’s a threat to my mad intellect.
I read and I cry inside, why does life have to be so cruel? Why do the politics of gender have to be so harsh? Why couldn’t I do what I want?
I WANT TO RUN WILDLY IN THE DESERTS SINGING SONGS ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF EMPTINESS – I shout out loudly in my mind.
TRING TRING! The phone rings… I pick it with dreaded hesitation. Not again! I get reprimanded for walking in late by 2 minutes… why do they have to pick on me? Is it my fault I was born this way? This is the 21st century and they have a problem with my sexuality. Yes I am a eunuch! You heard that right! What? You are now going to hesitate and take that handshake of yours back?
Go ahead… I am used to it. I have no problem with the same. If you choose to ignore my credits of topping my mass communication course and being an all India champion quizzer, and ignore me for my physical appearance, you can very well do it.

There my goes my day… the same ol’ way…

I switch on my favorite mp3 and hum along the lines.

Red
Drip
Drop
Drip
Drop
Drip
Drip
Drip
Stained the floor lies
With blood off the wrist
The delicate veins lie cut
The knife found it’s ultimate match
Powerful as much as it may be
The delicate veins proved to be a shade better
By submitting to the jagged edge of the knife
The duel was won by the vein.
History and myths have shown
The weak yet courageousHave always conquered the over-whelming
David triumpheth over Goliath again
Red
Drip
Drop
Drip
Drip
Drop
Drop
Drip
The floor now seems covered
Covered by victory
Covered by ecstasy
Covered by triumphant megalomania
Has man conquered death?
Or was it destiny that wrote this chapter?
Confusion lies hazy in the background
But human spirit prevails nonetheless
Freedom attained amongst irony.
Quite symbolic of life itself
Irony that free from the womb you come alive
To be trapped in the life and then die
To release the self to eternal freedom and bliss
Drop
Drip
Drip
Drip
Drip
Drip
Red
Red
Dead.

I get more depressed … I find myself opening my private folder and looking at my poetry.

There comes this voice calling me
Is it from down below
Or is it someone from above
I fail to find out each time
But one things for sure
It is not from a place known or seen
Not from this world it seems.
Beckoning me to a place
A world that’s far from all I know
All I can imagine.
It does not assure me happiness
Nor does it show signs of pain
But this enticing place sure does reach out within
Speaking to a part of me I never knew existed.
Come closer it calls
To what seems a place more welcoming than home
This scares me, terrifies me,
Yet at the same time
Stimulates within me an excitement,
An eagerness that only exclaims,
“Death! Here I come!”

I am a coward… I know… I can only write … I can’t act… and sit there editing yet another story of a cheesy socialite gaining publicity thru being ‘socially aware’

LZ!

2005-02-03T04:19:00.000-08:00

been trippin on Led Zep lately... heres some gyaan on the band :)

Led Zeppelin was the definitive heavy metal band. It wasn't just their crushingly loud interpretation of the blues — it was how they incorporated mythology, mysticism, and a variety of other genres (most notably world music and British folk) — into their sound. Led Zeppelin had mystique. They rarely gave interviews, since the music press detested the band. Consequently, the only connection the audience had with the band was through the records and the concerts. More than any other band, Led Zeppelin established the concept of album-oriented rock, refusing to release popular songs from their albums as singles. In doing so, they established the dominant format for heavy metal, as well as the genre's actual sound.

Led Zeppelin formed out of the ashes of the Yardbirds. Jimmy Page had joined the band in its final days, playing a pivotal role on their final album, 1967's Little Games, which also featured string arrangements from John Paul Jones. During 1967, the Yardbirds were fairly inactive. While the Yardbirds decided their future, Page returned to session work in 1967. In the spring of 1968, he played on Jones' arrangement of Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man." During the sessions, Jones requested to be part of any future project Page would develop. Page would have to assemble a band sooner than he had planned. In the summer of 1968, the Yardbirds' Keith Relf and James McCarty left the band, leaving Page and bassist Chris Dreja with the rights to the name, as well as the obligation of fulfilling an upcoming fall tour. Page set out to find a replacement vocalist and drummer. Initially, he wanted to enlist singer Terry Reid and Procol Harum's drummer B.J. Wilson, but neither musician was able to join the group. Reid suggested that Page contact Robert Plant, who was singing with a band called Hobbstweedle.

After hearing him sing, Page asked Plant to join the band in August of 1968, the same month Chris Dreja dropped out of the new project. Following Dreja's departure, John Paul Jones joined the group as its bassist. Plant recommended that Page hire John Bonham, the drummer for Plant's old band, the Band of Joy. Bonham had to be persuaded to join the group, as he was being courted by other artists who offered the drummer considerably more money. By September, Bonham agreed to join the band. Performing under the name the New Yardbirds, the band fulfilled the Yardbirds' previously booked engagements in late September 1968. The following month, they recorded their debut album in just under 30 hours. Also in October, the group switched their name to Led Zeppelin. The band secured a contract with Atlantic Records in the United States before the end of the year.

Early in 1969, Led Zeppelin set out on their first American tour, which helped set the stage for the January release of their eponymous debut album. Two months after its release, Led Zeppelin had climbed into the U.S. Top Ten. Throughout 1969, the band toured relentlessly, playing dates in America and England. While they were on the road, they recorded their second album, Led Zeppelin II, which was released in October of 1969. Like its predecessor, Led Zeppelin II was an immediate hit, topping the American charts two months after its release and spending seven weeks at number one. The album helped establish Led Zeppelin as an international concert attraction, and for the next year, the group continued to tour relentlessly. Led Zeppelin's sound began to deepen with Led Zeppelin III. Released in October of 1970, the album featured an overt British folk influence.

The group's infatuation with folk and mythology would reach a fruition on the group's untitled fourth album, which was released in November of 1971. Led Zeppelin IV was the band's most musically diverse effort to date, featuring everything from the crunching rock of "Black Dog" to the folk of "The Battle of Evermore," as well as "Stairway to Heaven," which found the bridge between the two genres. "Stairway to Heaven" was an immediate radio hit, eventually becoming the most played song in the history of album-oriented radio; the song was never released as a single. Despite the fact that the album never reached number one in America, Led Zeppelin IV was their biggest album ever, selling well over 16 million copies over the next two and a half decades.

Led Zeppelin did tour to support both Led Zeppelin III and Led Zeppelin IV, but they played fewer shows than they did on their previous tours. Instead, they concentrated on only playing larger venues. After completing their 1972 tour, the band retreated from the spotlight and recorded their fifth album. Released in the spring of 1973, Houses of the Holy continued the band's musical experimentation, featuring touches of funk and reggae among their trademark rock and folk. Houses of the Holy debuted at number one in both America and Britain, setting the stage for a record-breaking American tour. Throughout their 1973 tour, Led Zeppelin broke box-office records — most of which were previously held by the Beatles — across America. The group's concert at Madison Square Garden in July was filmed for use in the feature film The Song Remains the Same, which was released three years later.

After their 1973 tour, Led Zeppelin spent a quiet year during 1974, releasing no new material and performing no concerts. They did, however, establish their own record label, Swan Song, which released all of Led Zeppelin's subsequent albums, as well as records by Dave Edmunds, Bad Company, the Pretty Things, and several others. Physical Graffiti, a double album released in February of 1975, was the band's first release on Swan Song. The album was an immediate success, topping the charts in both America and England. Led Zeppelin planned to launch a large American tour in the late summer of 1975 when Robert Plant and his wife suffered a serious car crash while vacationing in Greece. Plans for the tour were cancelled and Plant spent the rest of the year recuperating from the accident.

Led Zeppelin returned to action in the spring of 1976 with Presence. Although the album debuted at number one in both America and England, the reviews for the album were lukewarm, as was the reception to the live concert film The Song Remains the Same, which appeared in the fall of 1976. The band finally returned to tour America in the Spring of 1977. A couple of months into the tour, Plant's six-year-old son Karac died of a stomach infection. Led Zeppelin immediately cancelled the tour and offered no word whether or not it would be rescheduled, causing widespread speculation about the band's future. For a while, it did appear that Led Zeppelin was finished. Robert Plant spent the latter half of 1977 and the better part of 1978 in seclusion. The group didn't begin work on a new album until late in the summer of 1978, when they began recording at ABBA's Polar studios in Sweden. A year later, the band played a short European tour, performing in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Austria. In August of 1979, Led Zeppelin played two large concerts at Knebworth; the shows would be their last English performances.

In Through the Out Door, the band's much-delayed eighth studio album, was finally released in September of 1979. The album entered the charts at number one in both America and England. In May of 1980, Led Zeppelin embarked on their final European tour. In September, Led Zeppelin began rehearsing at Jimmy Page's house in preparation for an American tour. On September 25, John Bonham was found dead in his bed — following an all-day drinking binge, he had passed out and choked on his own vomit. In December of 1980, Led Zeppelin announced they were disbanding, since they could not continue without Bonham.

Following the breakup, the remaining members all began solo careers. John Paul Jones returned to producing and arranging, finally releasing his solo debut Zooma in 1999. After recording the soundtrack for Death Wish II, Jimmy Page compiled the Zeppelin outtakes collection, Coda, which was released at the end of 1982. That same year, Robert Plant began a solo career with the Pictures at Eleven album. In 1984, Plant and Page briefly reunited in the all-star oldies band the Honeydrippers. After recording one EP with the Honeydrippers, Plant returned to his solo career and Page formed the Firm with former Bad Company singer Paul Rogers. In 1985, Led Zeppelin reunited to play Live Aid, sparking off a flurry of reunion rumors; the reunion never materialized. In 1988, the band re-formed to play Atlantic's 25th Anniversary Concert. During 1989, Page remastered the band's catalog for release on the 1990 box set, Led Zeppelin. The four-disc set became the biggest selling multi-disc box set of all time, which was followed up 3 years later by another boxset, the mammoth 10 disc set 'The Complete Studio Recordings.'
In 1994, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reunited to record a segment for MTV Unplugged, which was released as Unledded in the fall of 1994. Although the album went platinum, the sales were disappointing considering the anticipation of a Zeppelin reunion. The following year, Page and Plant embarked on a successful international tour, which eventually led to an all new studio recording in '98 — the Steve Albini-produced 'Walking into Clarksdale.' Surprisingly, the album was met with a cool reception by the record buying public, as Page and Plant ended their union shortly thereafter, once again going their separate ways (Page would go on to tour with the Black Crowes, while Plant would resume his solo career). Further Zeppelin compilation releases saw the light of day in the late-90s, including 97's stellar double disc 'BBC Sessions,' plus Zep's first true 'best of' collections — 99's 'Early Days: The Best of Vol. 1' and 2000s 'Latter Days: The Best of Vol. 2.'. — Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato

1969 Led Zeppelin
1969 Led Zeppelin II
1970 Led Zeppelin III
1971 Led Zeppelin IV
1973 Houses of the Holy
1975 Physical Graffiti
1976 The Song Remains the Same [live]
1976 Presence
1979 In Through the Out Door

Lit Reviews

2005-02-02T19:24:00.000-08:00

Ulysses (Fiction)
By James Joyce

Touted as one of the 5 best books in the twentieth century and one of the best books of all times, James Joyce’s Ulysses is one book always regarded with awe by any book critic. The novel, which at first is a seemingly difficult book to read, is one book which when read is always liked by everybody. Written in the complex stream of consciousness style (i.e. a style where the writer chooses to write in a pattern similar to the human thought process, using free associations and no orderly thoughts), this book has had rave reviews by every critic.

Joyce's masterpiece describes the events of a single day, June 16, 1904 (the day Joyce met his wife-to-be), in the life of two primary characters, Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus (with a significant offstage role played by Bloom's wife Molly, who only takes center stage in the final chapter), in Dublin.

Stylistically brilliant, the book plays with the English language like no book ever has before. There are a whole lot of narrative styles, and an umpteen number of literary associations. Usually it is highly recommended that one does have a glossary with the references in mind when reading this timeless literary classic.

Heart of Darkness (Fiction)
Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad is a novella of the turn of the 20th Century (1902) and has been one of the biggest topics of discussion ever since. Set in the peak of imperialism, this book has gone ahead to illustrate the dark facets of imperialists through the exploration of the human mind.

Heart of Darkness centers around Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, reputed to be an idealistic man of great abilities. Marlow takes a job as a riverboat captain with the Company. As he travels inside Africa and up the Congo, Marlow encounters widespread inefficiency and brutality in the Company’s stations. The native inhabitants of the region have been forced into the Company’s service, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment at the hands of the Company’s agents. Marlow finally meets Kurtz, he sees Mistah Kurtz, megalomaniac, imperialist, power-hungry and savage, a total contrast to the idealist Kurtz visualized by Marlow. This contrasted image of a dying man screaming ‘The Horror! The Horror!’, when compared to the build-up of a Kurtz who was noble and idealistic, is a stark naked encounter with the extreme side of imperialism where the horrors of this system lie directly in front of our eyes.

Heart of Darkness has been considered for most of this century not only as a literary classic, but as a powerful indictment of the evils of imperialism. It reflects the savage repressions carried out in the Congo by the Belgians in one of the largest acts of genocide committed up to that time.

Five Point Someone (Fiction)
Chetan Bhagat

IIT! Don’t those three syllables bring in a sense of distancing – an aura of studiousness, slogging, detachment from the normal world and most importantly, a detachment from life – which makes us automatically brand these ‘people’ as ‘one of them’.

Five Point Someone written by Chetan Bhagat (an ex-IITian and ex-IIM-A – whoa! a double ‘one of thems’) is one of Rupa’s latest fiction publication. This novel, set in IIT-Delhi, traces the story of three friends. Another story aiming to inspire people with the success stories of 3 young adults who made it big you infer; that is where Chetan Bhagat surprisingly and pleasantly impresses his critics.

Hari, Ryan and Alok meet on their first day at IIT during a ragging session in Kumaon hostel. From this day begin their escapades, more aptly misadventures. From dating the Head of the Department’s daughter to tripping on Pink Floyd over vodka and joints, from watching every sci-fi at Priya Cinema to suspension, these friends go through all this and more in their ‘eventful’ years in IIT. The catch is these three friends are ‘five point someones’ (students who have GPAs of 5 point something, the lowest rung of students in IIT). Will these friends succeed with their ‘Operation Pendulums’ and ‘C2Ds’? This is what this book seeks to answer.

With simple English and a generous helping of expletives and colloquialisms, integral lessons outside curriculum in IIT, Chetan Bhagat definitely deserves two thumbs up for his maiden novel. Extremely realistic characterizations – be it the 3 friends, the confused miss goody-two-shoes meets I-want-to-be-a-rebel girlfriend Neha, the dynamic Professor Veera or the Hitler-incarnate Professor Cherian – make this book a start to finish affair. Glimpses in this book make readers relate to their student lives at some point or the other.

A must read for every IITian as well as the non-IITians, this book has won national acclaim fast. It also is soon to be a major film directed by Ritesh Sinha. The USP of the book definitely is the more unconventional depiction of IIT.

Pick up a copy today if you want to go on a trip down memory lane and just laugh at the misadventures of these three friends where somewhere within them lies a part of every one of us!

Death of a Salesman (Fiction – Drama)
By Arthur Miller

One must find out the true oneself in order to lead a successful life. This philosophy can aptly summarize the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, speculatively called by many as one of the most popular plays of the twentieth century.

Any man can have as great a fall and be as great a tragedy as a king or some other famous person. Just because people are common does not mean that their falls are to them less steep. This is what this play, written in the period of existentialism and modernism, tries to tell its audience.

The story is about Willy Loman, representative of any average American middle-class man, who is a salesman by profession. With a wife and two kids, a house and a car, he has all the bare necessities that an average American man dreams for. But this does not lead to complete contentment, as Willy would have ideally wished for. Underneath this surface of superficial familial functioning, lies dysfunction and disillusion. Willy, 63 year old, suddenly goes down a trip through his lifetime, in search of that single moment of truth which has made his life take the wrong turn in life, and shape up this way.

Literary critic, Christopher Bigsby aptly says if Willy’s is an American dream, it is also a dream shared by all those who are aware of the gap between what they might have been and what they are.

The Catcher in the Rye (Fiction)
By J. D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye, a book describing a nervous breakdown, gained notoriety and media attention when police found the book in his possession upon apprehending the psychologically disturbed Chapman. John Lennon's assassin, Mark Chapman, asked the former Beatle to sign a copy of the book earlier in the morning of the day that he murdered Lennon. But this is not the reason this book is regarded as one of the top bestsellers of the twentieth century.

The story, which is in the tone of a monologue, told by our protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is set in New York. It is about his journey away from reality, when he gets thrown out again from a school for poor performance academically. Depressed and disillusioned, our protagonist decides to take a vacation away from the people he knows. The book describes Holden's thoughts and activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown, where he faces bouts of unexplained depression, impulsive spending and generally odd, erratic behavior, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.

The book is definitely an essential must read for anyone who is interested in knowing about the workings of the human psyche. Written in an exceptionally simple manner, Salinger definitely has penned a masterpiece.

English, August (Fiction)
Upamanyu Chatterjee

English, August has become a cult name in the field of Indian Writing in English. One of Upamanyu Chatterjee’s first works, this novel is meant as a quest through life, its nothingness, meaning and purpose.

Set in the town of Madna, a typical small town where just like any dysfunctional Indian government office, there exists the town’s administrative office. And over there for his training enters Agastya (August) Sen, an ambitious and idealist youngster, unaware of the systems and of the world beyond the metros. Here begin his escapades with the system, its upholders (?) and rural India (where he has nothing much to do except smoke marijuana endlessly and fantasize about women, because of the lack of them and be content with himself).

Chatterjee has done to an extent with Madna what R. K. Narayan has done with Malgudi; made the town fictitious town come alive in almost every Indian readers mind. Structure-wise he has began the trend of using the now famous ‘Hinglish’ in the Indian fiction scene, which is seen right from the very expletive first line which to a large extent sets the tone of the novel and shows the reader what to expect of it.

Written in a humorous tone, this novel succeeds exceedingly well in doing a spoof of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers and their lives as the emperors of these small towns like Madna. Witty would be the understatement when it comes to the caricatures built of the characters in the novel by Chatterjee. Thus, that he is successful is no doubt.

Marijuana, masturbation, mundane daydreams, and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, this is the life of Agastya Sen, known better as August. Pick up your copy of this book today if you want to know whether August survives finally in Madna with such a lifestyle or does he decide against staying in the Indian Administrative Services.

...I wanna be noticed too!!

2005-02-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Page 3 - *** and a 1/2*

Madhur Bhandarkar...
He sure is one of those filmmakers that comes to our mind when we talk new-age Indian alternate cinema. And for a movie nerd like moi who always says - mere to teen ma hai, ek maa, ek durgaa maa aur teesra cinema... he would count among those local deities, who is rising to fame a la matajis or babas (no offence to any religious fanatics... oops was i harsh?!)
Page 3 is one of his latest offerings...
Reminiscent of his debut venture Chandni Bar, this film is deals with the life of Madhvi Sharma, an idealist journalist (deja vu?) and her tryst with reality. (bah! i sound so constrained hehe)
With a very predictable plot, but a free flowing screenplay... the story does seem to strike that 'i can see myself in their shoes' note with the viewers. Nothing is left untouched, from child abuse to casting couches, from swapping of partners to homosexuality... every contemporary as well as conventional issue is handled, and with delicate finesse.
Konkana Sen steals the show without doubt, in her role as Madhvi Sharma... smart, idealist, naive, intelligent... she's a real character alright... and none better than Konkana could delivered this all! There are good performances by the rest of the cast, that goes without saying, but you wonder at times whether the talent and calibre of an acting genius like Atul Kulkarni, especially after his top notch performance in Bhandarkar's own Chandni Bar, should be wasted on a trivial front seat pleasing role like this... you heart does stop to feel with him. But on the other hand, Rehan Engineer proves his acting prowess once again in the 'different' roles. After winning more than just accolades in his debut film Everybody Says I'm Fine... he delivers a winning performance in the role of a helpless homosexual, who is manipulative as well. That was what was best of Bhandarkar, all his characters were nearly rounded and had shades of grey, unlike the cliched black and white prototypes.
A must watch I'd say... don't miss out on this sincere effort :)

woe be me

2005-01-27T19:22:00.000-08:00

anger, thou art such a complex emotion
when expressed you lead to complications
when unexpressed all ends up dense
infuriating invigorating irritating inciting
yet among most people you generate liking
deep down i wonder
deep down i wonder
is your existence some kind of big blunder?
what are you that makes you you?
why are you that you do what you do?
angered i speculate
angered i articulate
no answer yet no none at all
oh mighty emotion! that has led to many a fall
in the end you still stand tall
... what are you ...
pray do tell me
with childlike innocence i stand here hence
i know i wont know
i do know that yes
but what else can i do
when my mind is such a mess

Louve!!

2004-12-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

It seemed from what people say
That this would be an experience
That'd never come till now in my way.
But now that I'm there
It doesn't feel that different.
Like a 16 year old
I heave a sigh,
'I'm in love!'
And I feel a little elated
A little excited.
This feeling of madness towards a person
(Definitely not Obsession
Because that's a mere disease)
Which makes my life seem brighter
Though still doesn't take away from it
What I really am.
This brings in a newer aspect
Into my already schizoid personality.
These new days seem to be a stimulating change
Bringing a new countenance, an expression indescribable.
Is this love that all spoke and sang about?
If it is, then yes I'm in love!

Love hurts cried a sad lover.
Love is beautiful exclaimed a teen!
Love is life stated a dreamer…
Love is confusing, love is varied,
Love is a term that's most often used.
It's a word that's most often used
A word that is a life in itself.
It can be a reason
For many a person's living
In many varied ways.
A life of love as reality
Or love as a basis to their dreams
It can make a person's life
In some way or the other.
This emotion, this expression
This word is inevitable.
Beggaring description
This word exists
And the stimulating truth is
It'd never cease to exist!