I am alive....
Been reading lots of late. A friend of mine introduced me to the "Star Wars" books and I was pleasantly intrigued by what i saw. Here were books that traced many of the characters from their pre- and post- Episode 1-6 days and a discussion with this fellow Star Wars fan-friend of mine led to a discovery that there actually exists a whole series of books ( a trilogy- well what else did u expect in the Star Wars world!! :) ) about Han Solo's pre Episode days. I begged,pleaded and cajoled my friend to give me these books and were they worth it or what! These books describe Han's life right from his childhood till the day that he meets Ben and Luke on Tatooine and complete the story behind all those vague references in Episode 4-6. For eg, why was jabba behind Han, whats the thing between Bobba Fett and Lando and yes it also details things like how Han won the Millenium Falcon and also how Chewie and Han met. To tell you the truth, when i first picked up the books, i was a little sceptical cuz all such efforts are nothing but means of minting money off obessesed fans. However, the first book left me pleasantly surprised as it really dwelled deep into Han's psyche and was quite well written. The whole trilogy turned out to be un-put-downable. It detailed an important part of the lovable rogue's life really well. Han Solo is one of my favourite on screen characters and i just loved the impish way in which Harrison Ford had portrayed him on screen. These books are a must for any self respecting Star Wars fan out there.
Keeping in mind the holiday mood, my musical tastes too seem to have graduated in that direction. Have been listening to a lot of club tracks and have been pleasantly surprised that there are quite a few new interesting tracks that escaped my attention and are really really good. And the DJs in the places around are actually putting them through some heavy rotation which is a pleasant change from the days when all you could expect in the name of Bollywood at most clubs is Kishore/Asha numbers remixed with some jarring results most of the times. Dont get me wrong they were nice, but they got a little too repetetive, if you know what i mean.
Here is my list of the some songs that any self respecting Indian club should play at the yearend:
1.
Right Here, Right now - OST Bluffmaster( watta video!!! - Priyanka looks like a million bucks and music has a really nice vibe to it and doesn't sound "too" wannabe)
2.
Zinda Hoon Main (Fun da mental mix) - OST Zinda ( this is my pick for the soundtrack of the season, i love the sound of the songs on this album, the mixes have a really professional house/trance edge and sound like as if they have been done by Tiesto or Paul Van Dyk and not by Harry Anand from Chandigarh. And from what i heard some of the mixes have actually been done by Nikhil Chinappa!! Will write more about this film and its music in a later post)
3.
Kaala Chashma - Amar Arshi ( an old UK hit which has finally percolated to the indian shores. Features samples from LLCoolJ's epic "Phenomenon" which i couldn't locate on Kazaa or Torrents for ages. )
4.
Woh Lamhay - Zeher ( Cmon how can you NOT play this one)
5.
As the Rush Comes - Motorcycle( My club song of the year...BY MILES!!)
Current Music : Zinda Hoon Main(Fun Da Mental Mix) - OST Zinda
A Message from the creators
Dear Patrons,
This is just to inform you that the previous 2 vainglorious posts from the creator were not part of the original schedule.
We shall resume with our regular programming shortly.
Thanks.
Current Music: The Killers - Mr Brightside
Woo Hoo 2!
Look whose been featured on a film for the Channel 9 India website:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=143591Yes that would be me!
We have a small demo on all that i worked on last year :)
Am i on the way to attain celebrity status? :-D
Current Music: Chimaira - Lazarus
Woo Hoo!
See what a few hours on a Sunday night, cranking up the ol' grey cells earned me :)
http://poseidon2005.blogsome.com/2005/12/13/labyrinth-results-announced/Yup, the person in the second placed team is me :). Not bad right? All those crosswords done during the Computer Architecture classes finally came in handy!
Ohh, BTW, did I post about the DVD player that i won in a quiz hosted by Harsha Bhogle at the beginning of the month? Well, it was a quiz based on sports and Hyderabad and I, somehow, by the skin of my teeth, managed to squeeze into the second place.
Well, this was the second quiz that i had attended which was hosted by Harsha Bhogle( the first one being the NIIT JAM quiz....more on that some other time) and like last time also, this guy just blew me away with his amazing anecdotes from the remotest corners of the cricket field. The guy is really, really witty, making some of the most sarcastic comments, which his job on TV doesnt really allow him to express that much. He had a view on almost everything under the sun ranging from Sourav Ganguly to Jagmohan Dalmiya to KPS Gill to George W Bush. Seriously, it was quite a welcome change from attending one of those Biz Quizzes where Derek/Siddharth/PigBrain go on cracking their oh-so-jarringly-below the belt jokes or one of the random quizzes done by a frustrated QM who puts fundaes that sometime give me nothing more than a headache. The questions for this quiz were provided by Quizeratti consisting of old KC hands like Bhargava, Srinivas and Satyaki and were really really workoutable, thus allowing me , an observant non-Hyderabadi to do well. Again so much better than sitting in a poorly ventilated hall having somebody lecture me on the sexual relations between Kim Philby and Graham Greene which has been allegorically represented by Lucian Freud in some godforsaken painting.
Quite a productive month i must admit! :)
Current Music: - KillSwitch Engage - My Last Serenade
Heat and some box sets!
Its been a busy week with an even nicer weekend. I finally saw a great movie after ages, and that was Michael Mann's amazing crime thriller "Heat" which starred Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and was publicised as the first movie that had both of them sharing the screen for the first time( GF2 had both of them, but never together!) . To tell you the truth, their on screen time together is limited, with some of it limited to some serious violence without dialogues at all. But the movie is simply superb with its tight storyline and some amazing acting. It had 2 great actors at the top of their crafts and it takes the movie to a different level. I had seen the movie earlier too in 1995 when it was just released, but I was obviously too young to remember too much of it. But seeing it now, made me realised that there was so much more to the movie than the simple tale of the hunter( Al) and the hunted( DeNiro). It also subtly shows the complicated lives that these 2 powerful professionals have to lead and eventually their confrontation although helps them achieve something professionally, their personal lives have degenerated to a point of no return because of it. And probably, that is what causes subtle empathy between these 2 seemingly polemic individuals. There are some powerhouse actors in support ( Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Amy Brenneman, Hank Azaria) but the movie well and truly belongs to the 2 thoroughbreds. Plus, the action in the movie is really well orchestrated, and not in the Hong Kong, John Woo kinda way, which is quite a relief since i have had an overload of the same. The scene in which DeNiro, Kilmer and Sizemore manufacture a getaway after their ill-fated bank heist is really well done. But my favourite scene in the movie has to be the scene where Al Pacino discovers that his wife is cheating on him. Typical Al Pacino stuff!
Well next on my must watch list is "Aparahan", about which i have been hearing a ton of good things. I have a great amount of respect for Prakash Jha ( well "Rahul" notwithstanding) and i cant wait to see Nana Patekar and Ajay Devgan on screen together.
Well the other highlights of the weekend was basketball! Well after my knee injury and subsequent operations in 2002 I had never thought that i would be able to resume playing basketball like in the early days. However, when the new court opened up in the office i was drawn to it like a moth to a flame, and nowadays it has become a regular pastime that i really enjoy for a change. Plus over the weekends, we have been playing some early morning games with a bunch of really good players from some other companies and it has been really good fun. Cant wait for the weekend to come for some more action!
Well, it had been sometime since i bought some new music so i decided to make amends for it over the weekend and visited some music shops in the city. And boy did i get a good haul or what. I was lucky enough to pick up some really,really good stuff which included:
1.
John Coltrane and The Classic Quartet: Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings [BOX SET] - a set of 8 cds that includes everything that Coltrane ever recorded for the Impulse! studio. It was a buy that was way over my budget, but what the hell you get to see such things in a store only once in a life time and I wasnt gonna let it go.
2.
Fear Factory: Digital Connectivity [DVD]- which features all their promo videos and live footage as well interviews with the whole band. Awesome buy this! Plus it all features 8 unreleased songs and a complete story of the band written by the lead singer. hehehe~!!
3.
The Cure - Greatest Hits[BOX SET] - features The Cure's Greatest Hits on a cd, as well as all the videos on a DVD! Plus it also has another CD with acoustic versions of quite a few of their songs. I have been tripping on "Lullaby" and "Pictures of You" ever since. One of the most underrated bands ever!
Well a metal,jazz and pop box set over one weekend! Simply delicious!!!
Current Music: Fear Factory - Archetype
