More sundry dope

Mr Steve Ballmer, among other things, had a taste of what its like to be the target of a egg missile in Budapest - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtBQ4UCXQeo. All in a day's work!!
Song of the day: In my dreams by REO Speedwagon. REO S has produced some lovely ballads and this one is one of the best. They dont have too many popular songs but the ones that are popular, are amazing!

Is this the summer season or the sad season?

My efforts at getting a good break have come to nothing, it appears. That was especially sad because I usually tend to treat those lows as big personal failures. Be that as it may, life goes on. But dont let that news worry you, here are a few news worthy things that you might be interested in.

a) YSL left for heavenly above last week. I am a few galaxies away from fashion and I must admit I dont understand the fuss that some of this clothing creates but well, I am sure they are very precious and represent the best of artistic genius. Might interest you to know that YSL was placed at the helm of Christian Dior at the age of just 21. Amazing.

b) My downloads have taken a bit of a detour towards Devotional and English Classical. So lots of Bach, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Beethowen and their ilk making their way into my collection as are artistes like Krishna Das, Mandolin Srinivas, M Balamuralikrishna & Anup Jalota.

Song of the day: Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi - Kylie Minogue.
One of the first Stock Aitken Waterman hits that I ever heard and got me completely hooked. My musical tastes have travelled far from those days but this song, despite its chocolate sound and schoolboy lyrics, is something that I really like. Kylie, ofcourse, has come a long way from being that shy neighbor-ish girl to become this sexy sytle icon that she now is. That image has only got better with her hitting 40 and her widely publicized fight against breast cancer.

Things that kept me busy or are keeping me busy

Extending the objective of this blog to serve as an online diary of my daily chores, here's a run down on the stuff thats keeping me tied up these days.
a) An MRI reveals that I have a Slipped Disc. Therefore, staying at home.
b) Playing or trying to play "Sparkling Stella" on my Givson.
c) Waiting to hear from some really elusive and hard-to-please companies that refuse to tell me if they are hiring me.
d) Working from home
e) Downloading more stuff from P2P sites

• Among some of the quirkier stuff that I have read on the Net lately, there is this woman who wants a boob job like no other. All salivating souls, please google her name - Sheyla Hershey
• Tania Zaetta insists she did not sleep around with the Australian Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Read more by clicking this link - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23750747-5000117,00.html

Speaking of that tour of Tania, one gentleman who accompanied her to the turban land is called Angry Anderson, who long long ago sang this song called Suddenly. Not a great song but is special to me because this sound takes me back to the days when I started listening to English Pop - and this song was ruling the Australian charts in early 90's.
Song of the day: Suddenly by Angry Anderson.

Quiet Anticipation

Some situations in life are unlike any other. The silent anticipation and hope that you live by seems to transcend every other emotion. So while you are sitting there listening to your favorite music or hanging out with good folks, the thought of what could be is very overpowering.

Anticipation, in this context, is not about laying a woman or whispering those words into your beloved's ear. I am above and beyond that. I am talking professional stuff. You will know what I mean if you revisit these pages. For now, as I said, it is all about that wait.

Song of the day: Get me Novocaine - Green Day. Green Day is one of my favorite bands and this song is one of my all time cool listens. Sheer magic of the guitar solo in the beginning and ofcourse, the mesmerizing Mr Billy Joe. That is such a great combination. Till later then, Cheers!!

Random day, random post

a) Kids are cute and when do something really sweet like singing "Hey Jude" with twice as much passion as the Beatles, you cant beat it. Here is a peek and if you dont find this charming, chances are you are either a serial killer or a just-out-on-parole psychopath.
http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=82169&videoChannel=3
b) For some unknown reason, I want to eat Fondue. I am not too much of a globe trotter. In fact, that phrase has no meaning for me. But on the select occasions when I have stepped out and had something different to eat, some memories have stuck and some have fallen by the wayside.
Fondue is a great community dish and tastes great, especially if you like cheese and bread. Well, they are the two most common things that go into the dish and you can read up more, as usual on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fondue
c) Morning greeted me with rain but somehow, that Ah! factor was missing. Good enough a reason for me to realize that I am somehow taking on life more seriously than I should. Whats life anyway without soaking in the joy of watching a mild shower, appreciating the flowers on the trees or listening to a calm ocean. Need that appreciation back and really soon!

Song of the day: Clarity by John Mayer.
John Mayer is one of the more casual and neighborhood kind of guys who has a voice to die for and is considered one of the better guitar players around today. No wonder, Ms Aniston has got a thing going with him lately. This song is a good example of his skills - vocal and guitar.

Quote

All Human actions have one or more of these seven causes - Chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion and desire. - Aristotle

Song of the day: Timeless by Armin Van Buuren. I am not too much of a trance / club floor enthusiast but this track is one of the few ones that really takes me in.

Weekend again!

Sometimes I wonder if I should offer opinions and comments in the first person or just a narration as an outsider. Whichever way I choose to do it, I hope it makes sense and it stays readable. Ok here goes.
a) Yesterday, I took Sonny Boy I to one heck of a movie called Speed Racer. Nice visuals and graphics but overall, pretty disappointing movie that comes from the Disney stable.
b) Unrelated event but mentionable - Shania Twain has divorced Robert "Mutt" Lange. Hmmm.. the woman who sings out so regularly about love, understanding and relationships doesnt seem to have practiced her preaching.
c) Recommendation Time - VerveEarth is an interesting website you might want to look at. The site plots the content of the internet on an interactive map of the world.
d) Lastly and most interestingly, ahem, Drugs. A recent news report on one of the leading news channels talks about stuff called I Dose that administers sound using Binaural Technology - this uses sounds to synchronize your brainwaves and supposedly replicate the effects of everything from alcohol upwards and can also simulate states of dreaminess. Period. Not saying anymore.

Song of the Day: The only living boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel.

FusionMan

If whacky be the way to live, this man is probably living it the best way one can.
FusionMan (Yves Rossy) who is a former fighter pilot soared over the Swiss Alps at 160mph using, get this, a home made jet propelled hang glider. Read the rest of the story here.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1165671.ece

Song of the day: Writing to reach you - Travis. Travis is a Glasgow based band whose musical terrains and sounds will be familiar to anyone who has heard bands like Keane and Coldplay. While all their songs are not superlative, the song above perhaps is best representative of what their characteristic sound is like. More than generous use of the guitar and a soulful voice but average lyrics. You will also find this song mish mashed with two other classics - Wonderwall by Oasis and Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day in the song that is now come to be known as Boulevard of Broken Songs.

Interviews and more interviews

Appearing for job interviews after gaining 10+ years of work experience is a bit like travelling on state owned buses after getting used to the luxury of your family car. (I would have liked to say SUV, but just being honest here).

There is this short lived romance about doing what you used to do but that romance and charm quickly turns into spite and venom. And when that interviewing is subject to the fancies of the recruiting company, the anger is twice its usual amount. So, I walked into this company (name withheld for private reasons) recently that has the culture of getting your prospective reportees to interview you. I played game the first time but when that happened the second time too, I almost lost my cool. But somehow, restored decorum to the conversation.

Song of the day: "Hey there Delilah" by Plain White T's. Sounds great with minimal instruments and makes you want to have a girlfriend called Delilah you could sing this song to. Lyrics are a little dreamy and outlandish but thats what love is.

Weekend

Everyone knows what an idle mind does. And when that idle mind is accompanied by the workings of an overactive 3 year old, even more devilish things result. So, my son twisted my arm into delivering on the commitment of showing him a movie.

9/10th of movie going population of this wonderful city descends on two centers of activity - PVR and Imax. There was only a chance in hell that I was going to make it. I did eventually manage to find a ticket but that was for the first row in both of these multiplexes. Not a great idea.

The alternative was to check out one of the neighborhood theaters - one without frills and one which STILL sells tickets for INR35. How cool is that??!

So, ok, getting back to the Devil. One such forms in which devil has unleashed himself/herself (chances are devil is female, but we will get to that later) in recent times is a Bollywood movie. The only thing remotely stylish about the movie is its name - Jimmy. Everything else is what could perhaps be billed as the India's answer to the the German Gas Chambers. This movie has everything lousy about its contents - Extremely mediocre looking actors, absolutely no acting display by anyone, NIL special effects, forgettable music. Seems to me like Mithun had some axe to grind with his son, ahem, Mimoh and he did the worst thing he could. Launch him in what cant even be called a C grade flick. Even those come with some aha moments - some skin, gore, comedy overkill etc. This movie got one star out of five on TOI. Seems like TOI did this for a favor. One star?! Thats being very very generous.

Will check back later for more news.

Song for the day: Everything by Lifehouse. One of the most soulful love songs you will hear and simple, meaningful words.

Pain and the rest of it.

There is this intense pain in my left elbow thats creating a bit of a mess.
Anyway, more on that sometime later. Here's are two stories that I read the other day.
a) Meet the maker - In a weird and sad story, a pastor who took off to the skies with a zillion helium balloons, went missing and is now feared dead. Read it more here - http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/04/21/priest.balloons.ap/
b) An age old case of Stockholm Syndrome, Patty Hearst's story is probably unknown to many of us. Read and rejoice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Hearst
"Punctuality is the virtue of the bored." - Evelyn Waugh
Song of the day - Man of the World - Fleetwood Mac
One of the saddest songs that I have heard, this song was written and performed by Peter Green after his schizophrenic attack brought about by his LSD trysts. Whoever said, dope does not hurt you physically, this is a shining example of how it can bring a creative individual to his knees.

Blog awake again?!

If there was ever a Greek God who would wake up for a day and sleep for ten and do it all the way again (not a distant possibility considering how freaky Greek Gods usually are), my blog will come closest to that God's heart.

Anyway, the plan is like this.

The blog will continue to be my personal diary but I will instead use this diary to post some of the more interesting and thought provoking news that I keep encountering each passing day. I shall refrain from making this my tear soaked pillow. That sucks.

Three news stories, actually two - that are gripping me up.

a) The story of Elisabeth Frisl from the Austrian town of Amstetten. The second story of its kind from what I think is one of the more beautiful and prosperous of the European nations. The first one, if you remember, was of Natascha Kampush, who was incarcerated by her kidnapper for 8 years. And now this story about Josef Fritzl who imprisoned his daughter and had 7 children from his incestuous relationship that extended for 24 long years. Above ground, he played the upstanding family man, while in the basement he imprisoned and raped his daughter. How sad can things get and how cruel and psychopathic can some people be.
b) The other story is about this short 15 Minute video called Fitna thats doing the rounds. Fitna is a short film shot by Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician. The movie talks about the Quranic motivation for terrorism, Violence and the domination that Islam wants to seek in this world. For trivia buffs, Fitna means "disagreement and division among people", or a "test of faith in times of trial" in Arabic. Thanks Wikipedia, as always. This movie was first released on the Net on 27Mar08 and removed the next day by Liveleak who feared threat to their staff. However, this reappeard on 06Apr08 and the contents are, as is usually the case with content concerning Islam, Quran and their discourses, rather inflammatory.

Song of the Day - Speeding Cars by Imogen Heap. Lovely voice, you will like this song.