Flying in a blue dream...

Tricks

So our boy in the US has added to his bag of tricks is it!!

A really nice pic on Ragure's blog here

Current Music: Scum of the earth - get your dead on

posted by Nitish @ 7:06 AM Comments: 2

Sky high, with a heartache of stone...

Just noticed that the header of my blog also mentions something called Books. Yup my reading appetite currently seems to be a little low, mostly due to the fact that I haven't liked most of what I have read of late and no I dont give a shit about Harry Potter. Also, I have noticed that generally my reading tends to follow a pattern of crests and troughs, wherein a great read will enthuse me enough to go after many more authors only to be reminded all kinds of trash that goes around in the name of books. Kinda like people these books are you know. Find a good one and they reaffirm your faith in mankind, whereas a bad one makes you wanna bolt away from them.

The last good book i read was The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh. As always, his evocative prose and his "presentation" of the Sunderbans absolutely blew me away. Am currently reading "The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasonry, and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus", a book that was recommended to me by my current quizzing partner, Pratyush. Deals with a lot of investigations into Freemasonry and Knights Templar. Been okay so fay. Kinda like reading a National Geographic article. Only much longer. I know what you must be thinking. Freemasons, Knights Templar, Jesus ----> DA VINCI CODE!! And all i can say to that is NOOOOOOOOOOOO I havent read that damn book as yet. Will do so after all the hype dies down.
Hmm, that reminds me, at some point in life i was having this rather animated conversation with a friend of mine about how much a person's opinion about a book betrays his or her character. Maybe thats why I haven't written too much about the books that i have been reading on this blog. But then so does musical taste also.....

Current Music: Pilgrimz - Farby Barfly

posted by Nitish @ 1:01 PM Comments: 0

Listen, damn it, we will win.....

Got this great opportunity to go para sailing in the last few days. My office team had one of its morale outings wherein we are taken to do something fun (which if you are in Hyderabad, either revolves around Prasad's or means just gorging on food). However, some guys took it upon themselves to change the state of affairs and decided that we would go and do para sailing over hussainsagar. The idea literally shocked me out of my own little reverie (..my previous few posts have given you a good idea as to what the state of affairs have been over the past few days). I was, after days, actually feeling a little excited about going out. Seemed like a little sunshine had finally given me its warmth.

Alas, it was not to be :( Turns out that the equipment that these people have can support only people who are less than 70 kgs. And the last time I fell into that category was well....to put it mildly...a long time ago. So I sat there in the corner looking at some of my collegues who actually managed to make it through the weight limit, staring at them, like a child looking at his lost balloons flying into the sky. Damn!! These parasailing-organising-schmucks will go to the dogs i tell you.

After that got to see Sarkar. That movie is worth every penny i tell you, a nice contemporary version of Godfather. To me, that has perhaps puts this movie even higher in my faves list, well over Coppola's Godfather, cuz I like the fact that i can so associate with it. Its not Coppola's GF which is set in a world that i can hardly recognize. Its set in a urban dystopia, that is so instrinisic to our life as urban indians. RGV's new found love for extreme closeups is quite appreciated (...well dont know what the Gandhi class dudes have to say about that though!)...it reminds me of some of these weird japanese hentai cartoons, which nearly always focuses on the characters eyes to bring about the emotion. Lets see if its something that we would come to expect of Varma, or whether its a passing fad.

It was my roommate's( or flatmate's...is that even a word??) birthday over the weekend which presented me an opportunity to finally try out my precious bottle of EverClear that i had purchased from the US of A. Man that drink is STRONG!! And it hits you like a rocket...its like pouring burning petrol down your throat...couldnt manage more than a 60 this time....will continue my experiments with the "brew" in the future.

Current Music: Tool - Eulogy

posted by Nitish @ 8:27 AM Comments: 2

It aint easy to be me..

Today i feel like i have the weight of the world on my shoulders. and my knees are just about ready to buckle..

It wasnt meant to be so damn hard to get through this life. sometimes i feel that i have let go of so much for all that is so little.

when will it all end...

current music: the pain and the blaring horns

posted by Nitish @ 11:57 AM Comments: 2

Cold and freezing...

There was a once a storyteller who was famed for his storytelling abilities. People travelled from far and beyond to listen to his stories because he had a wonderful way with words. His imagination knew no bounds, he could conjure up fascinating stories about ruthless aliens,ghoulish demons, hideous monsters, kind fairies and heroic humans at the drop of a hat. His stories had touches of all kinds of human emotions - drama,passion, tragedy, love, valour.


Then he grew up and became a software engineer.



*The End*



Current Music: mastodon - blood and thunder

posted by Nitish @ 8:57 AM Comments: 0

Now there's nothing left for me to do...

Here's what I have been wasting my office bandwidth on..

Daysend - Born is the enemy ( video)

Aussie melodic DM(??) band. Sounds more like conventional nu-metal to me with some good solos....especially the haunting background chords. Awesome song this.

Bonus: Found the video of Testament - Return To Serenity at launchcast. Man do i love the net or what.
Testament - Return to Serenity (video)

Current mood: Focused
Current music: Daysend - Born is the enemy

posted by Nitish @ 4:31 AM Comments: 0

Stand o'er and deliver or the devil he may take ya!

Confession time! Those kids at the ESPN Sports Quiz have been freaking me out! Compared to them I was a dweeb when I was their age. They are just too good, most of the kids that is, and if they continue this way, India will have a whole generation of stud sports quizzers to watch out for.
But it's so disheartening to see how ESPN has so effectively managed to mainpulate the sporting taste of an entire generation in India. Here are a bunch of kids, who are passionately devoted to a bunch of sports and its probably because they are not getting an opportunity to watch other sports cuz the biggest sports channels in the country are not showing them. And the worst part is that, these kids at ESPN school quiz are endorsing this cause and creating a certain "coolness" factor about knowing the intricacies of EPL. Hell, I have seen it happen in college with people doing it with certain bands that they liked..i.e creating the certain "cool"aura about it. And here we have a whole generation which is mugging up EPL, cuz they see a bunch of super achiever kids doing the same thing.It's quite pathetic if you ask me, when we have a bunch of kids who can identify somebody like Lomana Lualua, but start making faces when they are asked to identify the pic of Hicham El Guerrouj. You can see it so effectively happen on the sports that are being broadcast on ESPN Star itself. How many kids know indepth Basketball fundae, which is broadcast at odd hours( much to the chagrin of yours truly)...probably 5. How many kids known indepth EPL fundae....you could probably fill a football field with those numbers. And the point is that in this ESPN Sports quiz by not asking questions on the other popular but not-so-frequently-broadcasted sporting events, these guys are very effectively undermining the value of these other sports in the eyes of an entire generation and ensuring that they have a whole generation of kids who will grow up and watch only ESPN cuz they have grown up watching a bunch of sports that only ESPN shows. Another instance of Corporate greed manipulating human thought patterns if you ask me.
Call it good or bad, but it was so different when i was growing up. DD did telecast F1 Grand Prix races on Sundays with much better commentary than what we see on Star today. Hell, I can claim to be the very few who saw Michael Schumacher's debut race. But they also telecast TWI's The World of Sport where we got to see the exploits of Carlos Sainz ( the World Rally Car champ), Wayne Rainey( the MotoGP champ) and Alberto Tomba ( the skiing super stud). It was the only thing that told you about AC Milan's title truimphs, Sergei Bubka's nth world record. But sadly, how many kids watch that today. Not too many i presume.
Though to give credit to the guys at ESPN, the quiz is well researched and the questions are darn good! Its doing wonders in popularising quizzing among the schoolkids. But......... you get what i mean right?

Current Music: The Cult- Fire Woman

posted by Nitish @ 1:55 AM Comments: 2

Music Videos...

List of top music videos that I saw once or twice on television and fell in love with. Why this inane list....cuz its my freakin blog ok? Here it goes in no particular order:

1. Testament - Return to Serenity

Saw this video when i was probably in my tweens and didnt know head or tail about Testament. Here was this really fascinating black and white video with Indian looking guys ( Chuck Billy looks very much like an Indian) with REALLY long hair. Left my 13-year old mind mighty confused, but I remember the video very distinctly and have been kneeling in front of my television with my hands folded in prayer for this video to appear again, but alas all i get is 50 cents and his butt-clenched troupe.

2. Strings - Sar Kiye yeh pahaad

Before all the hype and hoopla, before people liked Pakistani bands just because they were Pakistani, before MTV started vomiting out remix videos, there was a time when all was pure and holy, when GNR's "Use You Illusion 1" was number 1 on the MTV US Countdown for 9 straight weeks, when you would actually catch Ozzy video premiers on MTV, when they were still murmuring about a new band called "Nirvana" in the suburbs of Seattle. At that time a 4 pieced outfit singing a refreshingly melodic Hindi song made an amateurish video featuring some birds, a lake and them staring up at the cameras and doing a ridiculous dance that looked very similat to an African jhinga-la-la type dance.
But what caught my fancy, was this really melodic song and all I ever hoped for was this video to come or for me to be able to get the song on tape so that atleast i could listen to it. The first was never realised, however i did manage to get the song on tape when it was re-released on their "Door" album. But nothing beats this song by Strings!!

3. Pearl Jam - Ocean

Another killer black and white video. Has Eddie and the boys surfing and just jumping around. The waves look breathtakingly beautiful and the song has Eddie going through all the octaves in the chorus. Heaven!!

4. Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike

Caught this video once again in the early 90s. ( Now you know why i love the 90s!) Didnt realise the significance of the band....simply loved the song. All i noticed then was these 2 really good singers...one with a shril high pitched voice and other with a different baritone singing something about stealing bread. The video had a typical 90s feel to it...a sombre set which was later set on fire in the video. Awesome stuff!

Thats all I can come up with at the moment.

PS. Anthrax has done this brilliant cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Must lay my hands on it somehow

Current Music: Razed in Black - Hells Bells (Covered in Black)

posted by Nitish @ 9:56 AM Comments: 2