Inspirational Music

Sigh.

Avial

Heard of the Mallu rock band Avial? Their album came out recently, it's available on Musicyogi. Highly recommended.

This is probably their best song, the one that got them noticed:

Me too

Man, U2 3D sounds fantastic!

Crossroads Guitar Festival

Damn! Would have tried to get tickets if I had known about this earlier. Just look at the lineup - Clapton, Jeff Beck, Sheryl Crow, Buddy Guy, BB King, Los Lobos, John Mayer, John McLaughlin, Willie Nelson, Steve Winwood..man! Hosted by Bill Murray to boot. Sold out in ten minutes, apparently.

Accomplishment of the day

After a lot of strenuous googling, found out the name of the song that features in a key sequence in Death Proof. The song, boys and girls, is Hold Tight by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. I managed to get the mp3 too, from here.

Sangamam

The heavens opened up again when he launched into the last song, a medley of Azadi and Vande Mataram. It started raining like never before: cats, dogs, cows and bulls. We got completely drenched, soaked to our underwear. None of us moved, though. Nor did 20,000 others. Face uplifted, arms outstretched, we stood in the pouring rain and sang along with him, "Ma Tujhe Salaam!".

This is one experience I won't forget in a hurry. The poor audio, the rains, the sparse crowd and the late start be damned. Thank you, Mr Rahman.


- Fanaah
- Telephone mani pol
- Oh Humdum Suniyo Re
- Mangal Mangal
- Mehndi Hai
- Hum Hain Ek Pal Yahan
- Kabhi neem neem
- Roja Jaaneman
- Vennilave Vennilave
- Chinnamma Chilakamma
- An unreleased song from 'Water'
- His UN anthem for poverty eradication (unreleased)
- Chaiyya Chaiyya
- Hamma Hamma
- Muqabla Muqabla
- Mustafa Mustafa
- Ghanan Ghanan
- Love's never easy
- Theme song of Bombay (instrumental)
- Sivamani's usual solo stuff
- Enna Solla Pokira
- A Kannada version of Kannalane
- Pagdi Sambhal
- Chupke Se
- Chale Chalo
- Title song of Baba
- Taal se Taal
- Sa Ri Ga Me
- Azadi / Vande Maataram

..I might have missed a few.

Opening notes

I was listening to Jadoo Teri Nazar on Radio City the other day, while driving to work. Got me thinking about opening notes - this song had one of the best "openings" I've ever heard (for lack of a better word) . A few others I could think of:

- Pehla Nasha
- Meri Sapnon Ki Rani
- Sweet Child of Mine

I'm not counting the likes of Chaiyya Chaiyya and Money for Nothing - the opening notes are famous because of the song, they don't stand by themselves really. IMO, anyway.

Meme, for <lj user="mrsgollum">

1. Total amount of music files on my computer(s)

268 files, about 1.17GB.

2. The last CD I bought was

Bose: The Forgotten Hero

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?

Some dhinchak-dhinchak song on Radio City, on the way to work.

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you. (Of Late)

Of late, it's been:

1. Azadi from Bose
2. Yeh Jo Des Hai from Swades
3. Agar Main Kahoon from Lakshya
4. Chingamasam from Meesha Madhavan
5. Johnny Johnny Yes Papa from Nursery Rhymes

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to? (3 persons) and why?

I think I'll spare 3 persons the agony.

Dear God, I have watched Purple play Smoke on ...

Dear God,

I have watched Purple play Smoke on the Water and Knopfler Walk of Life. I can now rest in peace.

PS: Watching you belt out Layla would be too much of an ask, I guess. Or would it? Hmm?

love
Madhav

Knopfler

Isn't there anyone who has a Rs 2500 ticket? Eh? Do I do the walk of life alone, or what?

And now for the music...

Downloaded a few good albums over the past few days:

• The Last Waltz - The Band (4 disc set)


• Almost Famous - OST


• Donnie Darko - OST


• Honkin' On Bobo - Aerosmith


• 70s Rock - Compilation

The music quiz at Crossword

It was a dark and stormy night. My partner got caught in the storm and turned up an hour after the prelims got over. I had to take it alone like a man; though I dragged in towards the end, just for a horror.

The quiz was extremely easy, hoary chesnuts all. I think I got about 14 points out of 25, the cut-off was 16.5. I'd like to believe if had been with me as originally planned, we would have topped it. Oh, well.

The sad part was the brownies we fed Rachu from the Coffee Day outlet. They must have had an overdose of egg in them, because she puked her dinner out at midnight. She went on vomiting till 3am, when she got tired of it all and went to sleep.

Yeah, she is okay now. A little weary, but ok.

AE & I

Damn. I can't get Jana Gana Mana out of my head now. And I don't mean the anthem.

Woo Hoo !

Rehman and Tolkien ! Way to go, ARR !!

Music update

Bought quite a few cds over the past few days. There's this nice little shop in Jayanagar called Calypso which has a very good collection. Better than what I saw at Music World or Planet M.

Movies
The 39 Steps (a steal at Rs 99), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf), A Streetcar Named Desire (yes ! Stellaaaaaa !!) and When Harry Met Sally (I'll have what she is having)

Music
Strange Condition, Bent (both modern rock compilations - Travis, Matchbox 20, Sugar Ray and the like), Edward the Great (I've never heard of this album from Iron Maiden - its a greatest hits compilation, with Eddie dressed up like a king, on the cover), Everyday (Dave Mathews Band), another compilation called Heroes (featuring folks like Dylan, van Morrison, et al), Takshak and an ARR Tamil hits cd from Lahiri for Rs 42 (!).

There was an Indian Ocean cd called Jhini which I heard raving about. I didn't pick it up as I wasn't sure I'd like the music. Maybe I'll sample a few mp3s first.

Gods, Dogs and Automobiles

Finished American Gods yesterday. Got the book from who got it from - thanks, guys ! I thought it started off pretty well but meandered towards the end. Maybe my expectations were way too high. Nice idea, though. Should try reading a few more Gaiman books.

Is there any RJ more irritating than Sunayana Lal of Radio City ? She's too sweet and bubbly for the likes of me. I'd like a bit of caffeine in my coffee, not just lumps of sugar, thank you very much.

Have been playing Led Zepp's Black Dog endlessly in my head. An amazing song - dappan kuthu ! When will I get a radio station that plays rock 24 hours a day ? There's only so much of remix I can take without puking. Maybe its a conspiracy - the music companies pay the radio stations to play indipop, thereby forcing guys like me to go out and buy music we can listen to in the car without going crazy.

Funny, there's no one whom I need to pick up from the railway station tomorrow. My car might head there automatically, though.

Sound bites

1. A manager at work: "When the shit hits the fan, I'm the only one left without a club"

2. The name of a new song that I heard on the radio yesterday : "Tere sang, ek simple si coffee bhi kick deti hai" (with 'tere' pronounced 'tezhe'..a trend I've noticed in most of the new hindi songs these days. Maybe thats how its pronounced really)

3. The title track of a new Malayalam movie:
"Baaaletta, baletta,
baletta, baletta,
baletta, baletta, baletta".

And in case you missed the lyrics, the second line goes:
" Baaaletta, baletta,
baletta, baletta,
baletta, baletta, baletta".

This is actually filched from a song in an IV Sasi movie of the 80s, 'Ee Naadu'. That song went:
"Go go Meenakshi, pass it on to Savithri
There is a gap up, shoot the ball !
Po po Mary John, rebound aane - sookshicho...." *

Blatant plagiarism, what !

*Any resemblance to Rasputin by Boney M is purely inspirational

Of promotions, houses, boys, office space and baby girls

Sindha got promoted ! There she was, moping around at home post-delivery, wondering if her job would still be there when she returned to the college. Her principal calls up yesterday evening and congratulates her on the delivery, and extends it by saying "I've recommended you for the post of lecturer" ! Now she hasn't yet seen anything in writing and is not very clear on what this 'recommending her' means, but it does look likely that she has been promoted. This is good. This means a bunch of things, the biggest of which is that we don't need to think of returning to Kerala any time soon. All right !

I've given the legal papers of the site to Biju Small, a lawyer friend of mine. The Small is to differentiate him from another Biju, Biju Large. Now Biju Large gets his name not because of his size, but from a term commonly used in relation to measures of alcohol. But I digress

I also plan to show my dad the site and if possible, take an architect friend of his along. If all the above people certify that the property is good, we will go ahead. Should be able to decide in a week or thereabouts.

ARR's Boys is good. It has a very youthful, peppy feel to it. Catchy tunes, cheesy lyrics as always. Then again, I'm getting old.

Two new additions to my divx collection - Raiders of the Lost Ark and Office Space. I haven't seen Office Space yet, but had a peek at the first 10 minutes and liked it. I can see why its supposed to be a modern cult classic (if that phrase exists).

Rachana looks set to be a mimicry artist. She makes all kinds of sounds both asleep and awake. Grunts, sighs, tuneful moans and what have you. She has an interested look on her face when I play music, especially ARR (or so I would like to believe). She also seems to mistake me for the WC; she waits the whole day for me to get home and take her in my arms, especially after I've had a bath and changed into clean clothes. Maybe its my singing to her which does it.

Odds and Ends

Longish update, hence the various lj-cuts.


Bought a few cds the other day, but don't tell Sindha - Meesa Madhavan, Nammal, The Ragpicker's Dream and a compilation of 18 modern rock hits. The last one is pretty good, though I thought all the artistes sound very similar. I was impressed with bands like Linkin Park, GooGoo Dolls, Nickleback, etc.

Has anyone got the new Metallica album, by the way ? I saw an ad that mentioned Planet M (or was it MusicWorld) was giving away caps with each cd. I'd like to see a good review before I buy it.

All my listening gets done in the car these days, what with the baby and people around the house all the time. Sindha's sis and family are at home right now. The house has been having a steady stream of visitors for quite some time. My ma-in-law will return to Tvm on the 13th, the day my parents reach here. Achan will be in the Ashram mostly, but Amma plans to stay home till the end of July.

I'd like to move into a new apartment somewhere in Whitefield by the end of the month. Prestige Langleigh is what I have my eye on, but I heard that the rent for a 3 bedroom apt there is close to Rs 20,000, which is ridiculous. Out in the boondocks and 20k for a flat ? My budget is more in the 10-12k range. If anyone hears of a good flat in that area, please let me know. Much obliged.

I had tagged along with Kamalachitta and co when they visited a relative of Kunjachan. This chap has a son who has done pretty much the same thing as I - hooked up his pc to the music system and the tv. He had a nice collection of divx movies, mainly new ones though. I noticed two Monty Pythons (Life of Brian and the Holy Grail), seeing which I immediately asked for copies. He also had this movie called Pi which has been on my must-watch list. However I didn't get time to copy that.

The office folks continue their merry spree of downloading the latest movies. They do come up with a few good ones from time to time. I'm picking up Raiders of the Lost Ark and Bowling for Columbine from the Bombay office. Office Space was another movie that I copied over from a machine on the network here. Oh, Bandwidth !

The baby is keeping quite well. We have decided to name her Rachana as planned, despite strong resistance from the l-j community. I went to the Registration Office at Kamaraj Road to get her birth registered. I have this morbid fear of government offices. You have seedy looking characters loitering around the place, who approach you with an ingratiating smile and a promise to get the job done at a small fee. You don't know the language, you don't know which window/clerk to approach, you don't know which forms to sign. You give up and give the set of papers to the agent and pay him an exorbitant amount to get the job done. You exit with the certificate in your hand, happy to get what you wanted but guilty and embarassed over paying a bribe.

Thankfully this place wasn't anything like I imagined. I had a bit of trouble finding the location but once I went inside, it was smooth sailing. The gentleman at the desk wasn't overly friendly, but was professional and explained what exactly needs to be done. I filled up the form (in Kannada, but luckily I had a spare copy filled in earlier) and coughed up Rs 65 for the paperwork. I need to go there on Saturday to collect the birth certificate. Smooth and easy, no shady characters, no bribes. Nice.

And in case anyone's interested, here's what you need for registering a birth:
1. A certificate from the hospital
2. A couple of forms filled in, you can get this from the registration office or the SBO (Sub Health Office, or some such)
3. You should know the exact SBO to go to. The Karnataka govt has a nice website which gives details on where you need to go.
4. Rs 65
5. The name of the baby, if you want the certificate to include the name


And now for the weekend...!

The week that was

Phew, that was one tiring week ! Govind arrived on Monday, Sindha's cousin Vivin and his father turned up on Thursday evening. Kichan reached here on Saturday morn and Achan today. The last few days were spent ferrying people from one place to another. Covered CV Raman Nagar, Jayanagar, JP Nagar, Malleswaram, MG Road, Airport, Cantt Station...both Sindha and I are exhausted. Slightly scary - if a small crowd can drive us nuts, I can't imagine what would happen if the entire khandaan came over. And they might too, what with the baby due in another month...

But hey, its fun to have guests at home, too !

Wandered into Music World the other day and bought Woodstock - The Director's Cut, Mad Max, Citizen Kane and Sarfarosh (Kichan's choice). My movie collection grows. Now if only I had the time to watch all of them...Also picked up Best of MTV Unplugged 2, which turned out to be not as good as the first. Wanted to buy Mark Knopfler's The Ragpickers Story but decided to sample a few of the songs first. Need to download them from somewhere.


Have almost decided to exit the Reliance scheme. Two main reasons:

1. The coverage at MVJ Medical College where Sindha works, is pathetic. They say it could be because that part of town is under Hoskote circle. They also say she can easily enable coverage at Hoskote by dialing *444. And oh, it costs Rs 10/day to do this.
2. STD calls to Kerala will cost Rs 4/minute, out of which only 40ps comes out of our monthly payout. We will get an extra bill for Rs 3.60/min each month.

Exiting the scheme before 90 days would result in a loss of Rs 3000, which is a non-refundable deposit. If I exit after 90 days (next week), I need to pay Rs 3000 + Rs 40/month for the number of months remaining till the 3 year period.

What the hell. Airtel is the best option, IMO. Fellow LJ-ers, please don't go in for the Reliance scheme unless you are sure you won't travel outside the circle and you don't use STD (to landlines) much.