What is common to the following songs?

1. Desolation Row – My Chemical Romance
2. Unforgettable – Nat King Cole
3. The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan
4. The Sound Of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel
5. Me & Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin
6. I’m Your Boogie Man – KC & The Sunshine Band
7. You’re My Thrill – Billie Holiday
8. Pruit Igoe & Prophecies – The Philip Glass Ensemble
9. Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
10. All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
11. Ride of the Valkyries – Budapest Symphony Orchestra
12. Pirate Jenny – Nina Simon

Ans: They are all tracks from Watchmen. The last is featured in the end credits of the Tales From the Black Freighter DVD. Excellent collection, don't you think?

Cinescape 2008

A fantastic montage of the best of 2008. I haven't watched half the movies featured, but I really want to, after viewing this.

Five of the best from my 2008

Movies: The Dark Knight, Wall-E, No Country For Old Men, Juno, Rock On!

Books: Norwegian Wood, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, No Country For Old Men, In Spite of the Gods, The Road

Music: Khwaje Mere Khwaja, Kabhi Kabhi Aditi, Viva La Vida, Millionaire, Pappu Can't Dance

Happy New Year!

2008 & 2009

It's been a mixed year, like most others. Ups and downs, professional and personal. A year of very little interaction on LJ, though. I didn't post much, you guys didn't either. Blame it on Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and what have you. Blame it on laziness. Old age. Ennui.

Or perhaps blame it on the fact that society itself is moving towards instant gratification, capsule reviews, micro updates. No one wants to spend more than five minutes on anything anymore. And even if you do, why do you watch a movie? Because everyone's talking about it, because you won't be cool if you don't talk about it too. Why read a book? Because it's won the Booker and everyone's talking about it. Because the movie had millions of teenage girls queuing up, shrieking. Why have an opinion? You don't need to. Not when you can copy paste others viewpoints to your twitter.

I am getting old. 37 in a few months, for crying out loud! I never believed I would be this old, to be honest. Nor did I think I would lose this much hair.

And you guys have aged too. and , did you ever think you'd be a dad one day? , did you know you'd write for Rolling Stone magazine? , did you see yourself being rated India's #1 Twitter user?

What I'd like for 2009 though is to write more and read more. Read what you guys really think about these days. Put aside that damn Twitter or Facebook status update for a few minutes. Write about language, ! About Delhi, about Mumbai, . About comics, about music, . About technology, about the sheer magic of being a geek, . About life itself, all of you. Don't be comfortably numb. Please.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Upcoming movies: Posters and Pics

And of course, our very own...






Most of the images are from the excellent FirstShowing.Net site.

A New Age

Another reason why I love Roger Ebert. Go read it, please. And the original post which kicked off the whole ruckus.

And oh, while you are at it, please read Poe's Law too.

:)

Gold!

Abhinav Bindra wins the gold in the 10m air rifle event. India's first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics! Woo-hoo!