Desi In Toronto

As a father of a 5 year old, this picture just pains me.

Loud

Very, very loud.

And bright.

I was prepared for the concert (after reading a few blog posts) but nothing, I repeat, nothing could have prepared me for the wall of sound that almost swept me off my feet. I mean which concert have been to where you are handed ear plugs? The band literally bludgeoned their audience into submission. The guy in front of me left after a couple of songs; the person I was with was overwhelmed with the sound and crowd; I saw a couple of audiences hiding behind the pillars holding on to their ears or covering their eyes.

It was very, very loud.

And bright.

I had to leave early because of the afore mentioned friend, but I caught enough of the show to know that it was very good. There was really no need for mics as you could barely hear the words (all I heard was soft whispering from Bilinda and Kevin).  In fact just as Come In Alone started, Kevin stopped playing and asked his crew why he couldn’t hear himself. And you could hear everyone in the crowd saying,”neither can we”.

It was very, very loud.

And bright.

I really liked the psychedelic light show which went very well with the whole sound. And just like the sound, the light show was jarring on the eyes. I tried taking a few pictures but it was a futile effort. Either it was too dark or too bright. When the strobes were flashing, most of us could not help but cover our eyes.

It was very, very loud.

And bright.

I used the ear plugs for a couple of songs as the songs sounded quite incoherent. But ear plugs would not really give the listener the complete “picture”. When I put the ear plugs on, I could not really hear the guitar noise very well. And that’s the whole point of going to a MBV concert…..listen to the noise. But they did come in handy because, my poor ears could only take so much of the wall of sound.

Another thing about last night was the opening acts. The first one was Flowers Of Hell. And they were really good. It was only this morning I read that Tindersticks (a band I really like) has played some part in Flowers. Needless to say that since morning I am trying to find a site that will let me download Flowers albums. The other was J (?) Haze (I think – I was not really paying attention). But her songs were quite good. She was supported by another guitarist who would start the song with a smiple chord and end it with a burst of noise. Again, I was really impressed.

I probably will update this post when I remember some other aspect of the show. In the meantime, enjoy this :

Heard the Barry Taylor’s “Barry Interesting Survey” on edge.ca this week and the question was :

“Who is a better song writer? Jack White or Kurt Cobain?”

Of course, he asked this question smack in the middle of edge.ca’s honouring Nirvana’s release of Never Mind which kind of rankled a lot of listeners.

Here is my humble opinion on the matter.

I think Jack White is a better song writer than Kurt Cobain. I mean, only Jack White can take a Mariachi Band and make it sound so fucking cool.

But here is one thing that Jack White cannot do. He can NEVER, EVER become a spokesperson for a generation simply because his songs and his whole personality is “populist” in nature. There is nothing wrong with that image, in fact I like Jack White’s flamboyant style of singing and performances. But Cobain’s music and his lifestyle is what legends are made of. His music struck a cord in everyone (including my mom, who loved Smells Like Teen Spirit – probably because it grew on her when I listened to the song 20 times a day!!). His rejection of the media only fueled that rebel image which appealed to all the young “rejects/Gen-x” of 1992 when the economy was reeling from the Gulf War I and the recession.

Both Jack White and Kurt Cobain excel in their respective areas. Only, Cobain’s music was able to transcend beyond the sound into the lives of millions of youth. Jack’s music will remain only in our CD players.

Changing the topic but not the subject, I am going to see My Bloody Valentine tonight in Toronto!!!! Have been waiting eagerly for that show for the last month. Will be posting about the show tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Every now and then I come across a post I have written in a parallel universe. Here is one of them.

Stephen Harper, plump and soft as a double roll of Cottonelle. A man who has spent his entire adult life, after leaving school with a degree in economics, either as a spoiled politician or as a spoiled ideologue in the loving embrace of a right wing think tank. Stephen Harper. A man who is unlikely to ever develop a callus on his hands unless it comes from clutching pennies. This twee, over-fed poofter has the little salted nuts to look into the lens of the camera and portray himself as one of the “ordinary, working people”. And that would be opposed to the “ivory tower” justice experts. Well lets just tell the truth Steve, you haven’t much in common with the justice experts because you’re trying to make your career by skirting the law. But you sure do know the ivory tower, it’s your every aspiration. You fancy yourself the philosopher king, the grand leader of men.

And what is your solution to crime? The prison industrial complex north. Life for 14 year olds, longer terms, stiffer penalties. After all, look how well crime has been reduced down south using the very model you hope to import. But then preventing crime isn’t really the issue, is it? It really comes down to plain old meanness. You don’t give a tinkers damn about preventing crime, or resolving the social issues that cause crime. Nope. You just want to play the big tough guy and punish folks you look down upon. That’s why we hear this bullshit line about the Liberals coddling prisoners from you and your twittering cohorts.

You really have to read the whole post. I insist.

Lynching is alive and kicking in India. 

A day after the tragic death of Graziano Trasmissioni Chief Executive Officer LK Chaudhary inside the factory and at the hand of his own employees, 136 sacked employees have been arrested.

The incident has stunned the corporate world and raised a disturbing question: could the tragedy have been averted if the police had reached on time?

Chaudhary, say his friends, was a mild mannered man. The 48-year-old CEO of Graziano Trasmissioni led a 1000-strong work force. The violence on Monday inside the plant not only claimed Chaudhury’s life, it also sent 26 of his employees to the hospital including 10 who are in the ICU.

Mob mentality is a really dangerous thing especially so in India where passions can be raised quickly. And boneheaded statements from politicians like this really do not help.

Describing the killing of L.K. Chaudhury, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an Italy-based company Graziano Transmissioni in Greater Noida as a fallout of the “simmering discontent among the workers,” the government on Tuesday said, this should serve as a warning for managements.

“It is my appeal to the managements that the workers should be dealt with compassion,” Minister of Labour and Employment (Independent charge) Oscar Fernendes told journalists here.

There are disparities in the wages of permanent employees, contract and temporary workers. The workers should not be pushed so hard that they resort to whatever that had happened in Greater Noida, he said.

Only an uneducated fool or a pandering politician could say something so monumentally stupid. Never mind that the company carried out a legit action by firing workers it does not need. I am sure that workers must have been peeved, after all they are the ones who lost their lively hood, but does that really justify beating and killing the management?

This is one aspect I really hate about us Indians. We get inflammed, incensed very easily with deadly consequences. Am wrong in picking on Indians? Probably. But history says something else. 

1, 2, 3, 4.

I know I have posted this before but each time I hear it, it just proves how transcendent music really is…….

Read and weep.

Doctors’ body backs down on religion policy

The regulating body for Ontario physicians has backed off a controversial proposal that would have forced doctors to put aside their religious views when dealing with patients.

Protests from the Ontario Medical Association and numerous religious groups appear to have tempered the thinking of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

For example, it could have applied to doctors who not only refuse to prescribe birth control pills, or do fertility treatments for same-sex couples, but also to those who refuse to offer referrals to doctors who do those things.

“Referring is just a way of sloughing off your responsibility,” Rabbi Reuven Bulka of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa, said last week. “If you’re opposed to these things, referring is the same as taking part in the evil.”

The new policy, which is scheduled to be voted on today, now serves as more of a warning about what doctors may face from the Human Rights Commission.

And, of course, because this was from National Post, there was no comment from anyone to the effect that the rights of the common man are trodden on when a doctor follows his/her “religious” belief.

If you think your god is going to punish you for saving a life or helping the needy then you really need to rethink this belief thingy of yours.

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Liberal MP Wayne Easter called for the Agriculture Minister’s resignation Wednesday after he heard about comments made by the minister making light of deaths attributed to the listeriosis crisis, including a PEI fatality he hoped was Mr. Easter.

The remarks were made in a conference call on Aug. 30 at the height of the listeriosis crisis, between Gerry Ritz and members of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Mr. Ritz joked during the call that the crisis was causing the government a death of a thousand cuts “or should I say the death of a thousand cold cuts.”

When informed that one fatality had taken place in Prince Edward Island, Mr. Ritz is reported to have said, “please tell me it’s Wayne Easter.” Mr. Easter is the Liberal agriculture critic.

All right children!!!! Spell it with me – C.L.E.A.N. campaign.

UPDATE : And what does this comment mean?

“In a time of economic uncertainty, I do think the country needs a strong government that’s able to govern,” Mr. Harper told journalists in Toronto. “My concern is that obviously, going forward, that we have a government that’s going to be sabotaged by a bunch of parties who don’t want our economy to be successful.”

What!!?!!! Again Harper proves that he is following the Rovian handbook of campaigning.

In the past few months all opposition parties have time and time again walked in-step with the conservatives. Be it arm twisting or a “dare” by the conservatives but we seen that Liberals, NDP and the BLOC have voted with the Harper government on one issue or the other. And it was the CONSERVATIVES who brought down their own government and not the opposition parties.

What the hell is this guy talking about? Here’s a clear picture of how effective Harper has been :

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives always has such interesting ideas about what we can do other than the status quo. Their document has some interesting facts. After several attempts to get excel to create a pretty graph, I’m going to give you the table and let you take a look. I’d love it if someone had a good graphing program which they could direct me to.

The low scores are mostly conservative governments, and they remain the low scores even when you factor the time in.

Harper really needs to stop wearing these sweaters. They are probably cutting his blood supply to the brain.

Well, I refer to not Dilbert, perse, But the creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams. Here is his latest post on cnn.

This summer I found myself wishing someone would give voters useful and unbiased information about which candidate has the best plans for the economy.

Then I realized that I am someone, which is both inconvenient and expensive. So for once I asked not what my country could do for me.

At considerable personal expense, I commissioned a survey of over 500 economists, drawn from a subset of the members of the American Economic Association, a nonpolitical group, some of whose members had agreed in advance to be surveyed on economic questions.

The results do not represent the economic association’s position. The survey was managed by The OSR Group, a respected national public opinion and marketing research company.

I should pause here and confess my personal biases, since the messenger is part of the story. On social issues, I lean Libertarian, minus the crazy stuff.

Moneywise, I can’t support a candidate who promises to tax the bejeezus out of my bracket, give the windfall to a bunch of clowns with a 14 percent approval rating (Congress), and hope they spend it wisely.

Unfortunately, the alternative to the guy who promises to pillage my wallet is a lukewarm cadaver. I’m in trouble either way.

I just hope whoever gets elected notices that the economists in my survey don’t think that raising my taxes is a priority

I was a big fan of Dilbert in the heydays of The Dilbert Principle but the strip fell out of my favour when I noticed :

a) the strip was becoming heavily commercialised

b) the jokes were repeating themselves

c) Scott Adams is a believer of Intelligent Design

After going through his blogs (here and here), I cannot find his post where he claimed that ID asks “pertinent” questions. Only a completely moronic person could make such a claim. Anyway, here’s PZ Meyers breaking down Adams’ argument the way he does best.

and now I can add

d) Scott Adams, the multi-millionaire is whinning about how he is going to be taxed by Obama (true) and by McCain (not true).

I just don’t understand how someone could be earning millions upon millions of dollars and moaning about having to pay a little more in tax. This is not the thinking of a confident, self made man. This is the thinking of a ego-maniac.

What a tool.

In the last few years I have been very impressed with the movies coming out of Bollywood. My favourites this year have been :

» Johnny Gaddar

» Dharam

» Page 3

» Bheja Fry

» Chuk De India

» Eklavya

» Mithya

and so on. I know some of these movies have been from 2007 and 2006 but what the hell. I saw them this year.

But the one thing I think all these movies lacked was “listenable” music. I mean, don’t get me wrong. The music in some of these movies has been outstanding but none of them had the kind that I would listen to while I was at work or on my commute (which is a kind bellwether of how much I like music from a band i.e. if I play it in the car or not). The music in all these movies without exception has been the kind to put on at parties or in the background at home while I am tinkering about the house so that I don’t have to pay attention to it.

But lately I have been listening to music from the movie Rock On. I have no idea what the movie will be like and frankly I don’t care. But the music from that movie…….wow!!!

Finally, finally some good Hindi/Urdu rock. Something I can listen to while working or while driving around. So far I have been really impressed with the music. Not with the lyrics, though. I mean, could the lyrics on some songs be more juvenile? The best songs have the worst lyrics. Oh well.

There have been commendable attempts at making rock music from India and Pakistan but I have always thought that what lacked was production. The music either sounded like it was being made in a corner tea stall or in a big open air stadium where you had to push the ear phones into your ears to hear a drum beat.

Another problem I had with the rock music from South Asia has been lack of raw power of music. The desi rock music has always been “melodious” which just makes me want to smack my head to the wall. But as evidenced by “Zehreelay” from the album, the music packs a punch.

Even the harmonious numbers have this “looping” that blends really, really well with the music. “Ye Tumhari Meri Baatein” is a prime example of this, kind of reminds me of Yo La Tengo, who use feedback loops and construct songs around the loops.

All in all, I really like this album. Even my 5 year old daughter loves this album although she likes to stick to the opening song “Socha Hai” which kind of leads to our which-song-to-play fights.

UPDATE (16th Sep 2008) : I have been informed that I have been a little overzealous in comparing music from Rock On to Yo La Tengo. I totally agree with that statement. Hindi/Urdu rock is a few light years away from Yo La Tengo. My apologies!!

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LONDON – A Pink Floyd spokesman says founding member Richard Wright has died. He was 65.

Wright died today after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. His family did not want to give more details about his death. The spokesman is Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist.

Richard Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason at college and joined their early band Sigma 6.

Sigma 6 eventually became Pink Floyd and Wright wrote and sang some of the band’s key songs. He wrote “The Great Gig In The Sky” and “Us And Them” from Pink Floyd’s 1973 “The Dark Side Of The Moon.”

Well, time marches on and the geniuses of yesteryear continue to fall. Richard, you will be missed. RIP.

UPDATE : Just wanted to add as form of trivia that Richard was fired from Pink Floyd by The Final Cut and rehired as a session drummer for The Wall before he was bought back into the band for A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. He was the only Floyder to have made money out of The Wall.

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The campaign had another surreal moment when the prime minister was asked by a reporter in Winnipeg what type of vegetable he would be.

Mr. Harper responded that he would rather be a fruit than a vegetable.

“Let me say this, I would choose, if I had to instead, to be a fruit: just what I am, sweet and colourful,” Mr. Harper said.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

That is the funniest thing I ever heard!!! For his sake I hope he is not stuck with that comment although I am pretty sure that comedians will have a field day with this one. I think it would be like Dion “Do you think it’s easy to set priorities?” comment.

Aah!! What would F1 be without some controversy. I am convinced that the boring days of Ferrari dominance earlier in the decade were due to lack of controversies off or on track. I mean the “best” controversy was when Barrichello refused to let Schumacher pass him until the last corner in Austria 2001.

And now we have the latest scrap.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was stripped of a dramatic victory in the Belgian Grand Prix after stewards handed him a 25-second post-race penalty.

The Englishman was demoted to third place behind Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.

He was accused of gaining an advantage by cutting the Spa circuit’s Bus Stop chicane in a late-race battle with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

McLaren announced that they intend to appeal against the stewards’ decision.

Now, I am a big fan of Ferrari. I have loved this team since 1998 and have been following it intensely ever since. Whenever an opponent’s car is leading Ferrari, I am usually slumped on my chair crying into my beer/coffee but as soon as the McLaren or BMW or XYZ car crashes, I cheer and throw my beer/coffee into the air forgetting that I am in the TV room.

And having watched this race, I am convinced that the stewards (who generally have a penchant for backing Ferrari all the time) were completely wrong. Thank god that this controversy was not started by Ferrari (who have a penchant for crying “mommieeeeeee” and running to stewards at the slightest of infringements by other teams) and was instigated by the officials themselves.

Check this clip and let’s discuss it :

As you can see from the (shaky) clip, that Kimi was defending his line the whole way in the turn and aggressively pushed Hamilton, who was aggressively trying to push Kimi away from the track. And in that tussle, Hamilton gave up and went off track and actually cut across the turf and come in front of the Ferrari after the turn. This is illegal and is not allowed. The rule (I think) is that if you do something like that, you have to concede to your opponent immediately……and that is what Hamilton did. He conceeded to Kimi and overtook him in the next turn!!

Why the hell should this entire sequence of events be termed – an advantage for Hamilton?

Why is the FIA trying to shoot itself in the foot? This was a non-issue all the way. It’s almost like the FIA wants to generate some PR – bad, good – who cares. Here we have a great tussle between two top drivers who display their prowess on track to accolades but what does the FIA do? It alters the results thereby showing that the whole race was a farce.

BTW, Kimi did not even finish. He slammed into a wall in the next lap because he is not as good as Hamilton in the rain. And that’s why Hamilton was the winner and should be the winner despite his “advantage”.

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On the eve of an election call, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he’s anticipating a “very nasty” campaign from the opposition parties, in an exclusive interview with CTV News.

 

In an exclusive interview with Harper to be broadcast Sunday on CTV’s Question Period, he said he expects the opposition parties to try to demonize him.

“To be really honest, I anticipate a very nasty, kind of personal-attack campaign,” he told Lloyd Robertson, CTV’s chief news anchor and senior news editor, at Harrington Lake.

“That’s just what I’m anticipating; that’s what the opposition’s done in the past. I think that whether Canadians agree with what we’re doing or not, I don’t think they’re going to believe the kind of personal attacks and scare tactics that we’ve seen in the past.”

And here is the clean “campaigning” from the dip shit himself. 

Less than 24 hours into the Oct. 14 federal election campaign, senior Conservatives came out swinging before dawn today at Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, painting him as someone whose policies will devastate Canadian families and “make everything more expensive.”

At a 6 a.m. ET news conference — so the party can try to set the news agenda as early in the day as possible — high-profile Tories Jason Kenney and Lawrence Cannon attacked Mr. Dion for what they called his “triple threat” to Canadians.

The Conservatives say the Liberal Leader wants to raise the GST, claw back a $1,200 child-care benefit and impose a carbon tax.

Mr. Kenney said Mr. Dion’s “half-baked risky schemes” are devastating to families on their own. But, taken together, it’s “three strikes and you’re out.”

This is the reason why I hate, detest and loathe the uber conservatives. Hypocrite little shits.

Update : For more BS from Stephen Crapper.

Asked whether he saw his chief rival as a family man, he said: “I don’t know Stephane Dion all that well. I presume that he’s been married a long time, has children. I presume he’s a family man also.”

Dion has a wife and daughter.

“I Presume him to be a family man”???? That’s the best soft side you got, Stephen? You have got to be kidding me about this.

Why was it so difficult to say that “yes, despite our political differences, Stephen Dion is a family man”. This is the reason why conservatives are so full of bull shit. In an unguarded moment, with no script lying in front of him, the prime minister of Canada  ”presumes” his rival to be a family man. 

Excuse me, I need to go an hurl.

There is this :

Here is a primer for those of you who still don’t understand how global warming works:

• The dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil.

• We drilled for oil, and used most of it to spray on ducks, and the rest we turned into carbon dioxide.

• Carbon dioxide is a hot gas, and it’s making the Sun hotter, which is making the Earth hotter, which makes polar bears sweat, and that’s a bad thing.

• To make the Earth cooler and make polar bears happy, Canadians will pay money to Stephane Dion, who will give all of it back.

• The exchange of money will cool the Earth (ok, this part is a bit vague).

• Farmers are worried that they won’t get enough back after all of it is given back (clearly they are confused, because everyone is supposed to get all their money back, a process that results in global cooling in a way that is not entirely understood by non-Liberals).

• Liberals who are worried that farmers won’t vote for them are complaining loudly, which is generating even more hot air (which warms the Sun and makes polar bears sweat even more, and that’s a bad thing).

• Stephane Dion is going to change the plan by making the carbon tax even stronger, making farmers happy so that they stop bothering Liberals.

• This results in less hot air and comfortable polar bears.

• The happiness of farmers who might vote Liberal will cool the Earth (ok, this part is a bit vague too).

and then there is this :

The ice shelves in Canada’s High Arctic have lost a colossal area this year, scientists report.

The floating tongues of ice attached to Ellesmere Island, which have lasted for thousands of years, have seen almost a quarter of their cover break away.

One of them, the 50 sq km (20 sq miles) Markham shelf, has completely broken off to become floating sea-ice.

Researchers say warm air temperatures and reduced sea-ice conditions in the region have assisted the break-up.

“These substantial calving events underscore the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic,” said Trent University’s Dr Derek Mueller.

“These changes are irreversible under the present climate.”

And this is the modus operandii of the moronic-right here in Canada. Make fun of an issue that would be crucial to our children and their children. “Hell, if it does not affect me, then it is not my fucking problem”. That’s how these morons think.

I find it distasteful to call these people fellow citizens of the world. I mean does it matter at the end of the day if global warming is a science. Does it?

Frankly, I don’t care. I do not care if global warming is a science or not.

We make it our right to pollute the air, sea and land; We make it our right to gouge at earth and we make it our right to dump on mother nature all the time which doesn’t make any sense because we are only hurting ourselves in the process. So why not do the right thing and actually implement policies that do irreparable harm to earth whether they affect global warming or not? I am willing to pay my share.

But, no. This somehow does not sit well with the wingnuts. Any idea where you as a person need to make a sacrifice for the good of the planet and the generations to come, is thrown out the window before you even consider it.

Case in point, the Green Shift. I think if this was a plan from Harper’s government, the moronic right would have endorsed it whole heartedly.

BTW, “Angry White Thing”, the dinosaurs didn’t die because they got too fat and they definetly are not the only source for oil. If you want to attempt humour while dissing an opnion, first get a funny bone and then try it.

Is it just me or is this completely awful?

Barely 26, Abhinav has been in the limelight, winning at many international events.

At the age of 15, Abhinav Bindra was the youngest participant at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and two years later he was the youngest shooter at the 2000 Olympic Games. He won six gold medals at various international meets in 2001.

In the Air rifle event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester, he won Gold in the Pairs event and Silver in the individual event. At the 2004 Olympic Games, he broke the Olympic record but failed to win a medal. Recipient of the Arjuna award in 2001 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award for the year 2001-2002, Abhinav Bindra isn’t just an ace shooter but also possesses a good business acumen.

………………………..

Silent killer, as described by his father, he is the one who spotted his son’s talent when Abhinav was 5 years old. “He kept a water balloon on our maid’s head and began shooting, knowing little that a slight mistake could have proved fatal. But his aim was so perfect that I couldn’t think about anything else but make him a pro,” says AS Bindra.

I find it absolutely despicable that no one has ever pointed out that this is totally and utterly fucked up. Maybe Bindra will be man enough and give part of his “multi-million” dollar prize money to the poor maid who must have been quivering with fear praying to her god to help improve Bindra’s aim which ultimately got him a medal at the olympics.

I hope against hope that Bindra senior was exaggerating and made this whole story up.