Am I back?
Time to get the blog rolling!
Still working in the bank I was contracted with last May. The job is interesting with quite a lot of challenges but the paperwork in this global bank is horrendous! There are definitely a lot problems when a bank at the global level is trying to “standardise”! The ratio to get something done here is 5:1 i.e. 5 times the paper work for 1 amount of work!
People are really nice and work culture quite different from the ones I have been used to in Canada. E.g. in my first job in Canada at an insurance company, I got the opportunity to learn from experienced people at that company. I not only gained access to a great network of professionals but also made great friends. (I also made and lost a best friend from that company). The bank I work at has a hybrid work culture. It is a chaotic mix of Canadian, Far-East Asian and South Asian cultures. I don’t want give the
impression that it’s bad or I dislike it. I quite like it but it’s different from what I expected. The best way to describe working at the bank is that it’s organised chaos!
Life at home has changed dramatically as well. The wife finished her course in NYC and is back in Canada which caused a lot of problems initially. Things are calm in the home front now :) and we are basically looking forward to the summer now. I think being locked up in the house during winter also caused a lot of friction!
Rhea, my daughter, continues to be the light in my life. She has become quite opinionated over the last few months and everything thing we ask her to do is an argument in the making! She is quite shy with other people initially but she warms up in a few minutes which I think is a good thing. Her activities (martial arts, Kumon, piano and swimming) keep me quite busy but as long as she is learning I have no complaints.
My running is going well too (or at least I think it is!). I am training for a full marathon on the 15th of May 2011. I will be running the good life marathon (I had already signed up for the good life and then realised that Mississauga marathon is on the same day! Aaaargh!). I am trying to put in as my KMs per week but obligations at home and work keep getting in the way. And when the wife is not supportive of your running, then the training becomes really hard!
I hope I will be able to maintain a regular update on this blog. I will aim lower and try and update once a week with mini updates every now and then.
Top 10 Albums Of 2010
Here is my list of top 10 albums of 2010 :
10. The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
This is basically the album My Bloody Valentine would have created after Loveless. Soaring music, beautiful lyrics and a sense that the band wants to tell the sad, sad tales that they have encountered throughout their lives. If you were a fan of MBV, you have got to get this as it would be a wonderful extension to that era.
09. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
Another minimalistic album which I downloaded based on the recommendation from Will’s Band Of The Week and fell in love with by the time I was half way through. This has been my “running” album of choice and whenever I have recommended it to fellow runners they have been full of high praises for it. The thing I really like about the album is the vocals and the guitar work and the most surprising thing about the album was the drums. I was fully expecting a drum machine but I swear that they have a live drummer. This simple change lit up the album! Loved it!
08. Menomena – Mines
I have a full post of this album so I will direct you there
07. Quest For Fire – Lights From Paradise
This band, in my books, is the best band from Toronto this year.The sonic landscapes and the lazy vocals are perfectly in tune with each other and take the listener off to a higher experience. In this album they seem to have specialised in building the tension in the songs and never ever releasing it. Especially the opening track ‘’The Greatest Hits By God’’ which basically lays the foundation for the album. Looking forward to their live performance.
06. Wintersleep – New Inheritors
The track Black Camera is the one song that really draws you to this album. I mean a group coming out with a song as rousing and catchy as Black Camera has got to offer more, and they did not disappoint. The album is frankly a very straightforward rock album but maybe that’s why I really like it so much. Songs have the right amount of grunge and right amount of pop to pass off as awesome! Loved the album.
05. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
Their follow up to an outstanding album was amazing! In fact, I would venture to say that it was better than the first one (Midnight Organ Fight) even though it sounds “over-produced”. The first one was raw and full of emotions of falling out of love. This one did not have a central theme and if it did, I completely missed it. However, the songs are just amazing. I think the buzz that they have going on each song (and the dark, dark lyrics)
really made it one of my favourite albums of 2010.
04. Diamond Rings – Special Affections
First came across his music (yes, it’s just one man band) on CBC radio 3 podcast. I just loved the guitar work and the “minimalistic” sound of the song and went and bought the album. I was expecting the album to be an ok album because I have had a few miss hits lately and was pleasantly surprised. What really sets the mood is John O’ Reagan’s vocals. He has this nonchalant way of singing which I really love and his impossible-to-ignore hooks in each and every song in the album. Can’t wait to see him live!
03. Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
Finally! After 5 long years and they have come up with an excellent album. Seems like Kevin and Brandon finally were able to sort their differences out and get the band together (along with their old cahoots who are now as, if not more, famous than BSS – Feist, Emily Haines and Amy Millan) for a an excellent ramshackle album which delights, pauses one to think and then gives wings to the heart with scintillating music.
I saw this band live last week. And since the show was in Toronto, everyone was present including Feist, Emily and Amy. At one point I counted 16 people playing on stage! There was chaos but an organised chaos which delighted the 2500 or so people present at the Sound Academy. More on the show at a later post.
02. Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart
They are back! I love this Vancouver band and have been following all their different versions (Pink Mountaintops and Lightning Dust) for the last few years and they have progressively gotten better. Their latest album takes us back to their rock and roll roots with a bombastic sound that just gets my heart pumping! Awesome album.
01. Grinderman – Grinderman 2
What an awesome sound! What amazing performers! And what heart wrenching and disgusting lyrics. Everything these guys have done in the last few years has top notch and inspiring. I mean anyone who comes up with “What has that husband of yours ever given to you?/ Oprah Winfrey on a plasma screen” deserves the lyricist of the year award! However, it’s their music that really attracts me. Pounding, ear splitting noise that ensures adrenaline keeps rushing through your veins all the time. Outstanding album and my number 1 album of the year.
Honourable Mentions
1. Jeremy Fisher – Flood (Upcoming folk artist in Canada. Wonderful soothing tunes.)
2. KaiserCartel – Secret Transit (Folk with a tinge of Indie sounds. The vocalist has the best pipes I have ever encountered.)
3. The Pack A.D. – We Kill Computers (I have to add the obligatory ‘like The Black Keys’ this duo is vocalist guitarist and vocalist drummer but that’s where the comparison ends. The way this band pounds and sings, it would put Black Keys to shame.)
4. Small Sins – Pot Calls Kettle Black
5. Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring
6. The Soft Pack – The Soft Pack
7. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs (Still trying to “get“ the album)
8. The Black Keys – Brothers
Wikileaks And The Consequences
For those living under a rock, Wikileaks began releasing diplomat cables from governments around the world. Wikileaks has promised release of 250,000 cables (they have released around 700 so far) and politicians have begun operation CYA (Cover Your Ass) in full earnest everywhere. Wikileaks and it’s founder, Assange, have been trashed quite a bit in the mainstream media here in the west and prominent politicians and talk show hosts have asked for Assange’s blood. Interpol issued a “Red Notice” based on rape charges being pursued by the Swedes.
First of all does Assange control the Wikileaks foundation? No one knows. Some say he is just a figure head while some say he is the founding member. Either way the problem is that the politicians are only looking at the
person and not trying to understand what Wikileaks stands for!
Wikileaks has done what all newspaper journalists used to do since the advent of journalism. Pry open government secrets and lay it out in the open for everyone to see. The only difference is that Wikileaks has pried open government secrets in an unprecedented amount instead of a leak hereor a leak there as it used to be a few years ago. So why exactly is this a problem? I have no answer for it. This is just posturing by politicians who need a reason to posture. This leak harms no one but embarrasses the hell out of all the major governments around the world. And I love it.
Which is why when Amazon.com kicked wikileaks off Amazon Web Services at the behest of J. Lieberman. So I did what a good citizen should do, abandon Amazon. I have cancelled my account from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com and I hope you do the same. These phuqers need to be kicked where it hurts, the bottom line. Here is the text I sent :
Please close/delete my account with amazon.ca and amazon.com.
The reason is your irrational decision to kick away wikileaks from AWS. So much for "freedom of expression". I will not buy from Amazon anymore and will make sure that I advertise your pitiful politicking to everyone I know. Good bye.
Please confirm you have deleted my account and all my credit card information.
Movies Review!!
Got an opportunity to watch a couple of movies last week and here are moi reviews :
The Social Network
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Finally, watched the movie about Mark Zuckerberg (MZ) the official founder of Facebook – The Social Network. The movie has been reviewed to death by all the podcasts I follow so I had a fair idea what was coming. But I did not realise that I would be of the opinion that this is the most ho-hum movie EVAH!
The story, for those living under a rock, is about the creation process of facebook. It is about a genius who uses other peoples’ ideas to create facebook. The acting was really good considering the paper thin story. Thank god for Aaron Sorkin. Without him this movie would have been a train wreck. However, the use, or rather the misuse of female characters was a glaring f*ck-up by Sorkin. Why was it difficult to show that MZ actually has been a relationship with a girl since he met her in his sophomore year? Because, that’s not what Hollywood wants. And the movie is littered with these kinds of twist to the truth and that really put me off.
The basis of the movie is these depositions taking place between MZ and the people who “came up” with the idea of facebook. I put those quotes because I am not entirely convinced if the idea of facebook was from MZ’s richer co-students. However, I have read that he may have taken the idea from a school he used to attend. Or maybe he got the idea from the people I referenced to earlier but by doing that does it mean MZ took a simple idea and expanded it further and shut out the original contributors? Possibly. But that does not make him a thief. A prick, but not a thief. Anyway, the these co-students were paid off handsomely (BTW, they claim that the pay off actually cheated them out of the agreed amount and they have sued again!)
The other deposition in the movie was with Eduardo Saverin (ES) the original business partner and initial financier of facebook. The movie shows that ES was pushed out of the picture once Sean Parker (SP), played absolutely brilliantly by Justin Timberlake, showed up with connections to money. Although, the SP character is shown to be a lout, he did go on to do what was expected from ES (who instead of focusing on the company, decided to focus on his career). Of course, the movie had to show that ES was thrown under the bus and it probably is true. But if I am running a business which is on the verge of exploding and I have financiers lining up but one the founding members (who has to be involved in key business decisions) is absent, I would probably do the same thing MZ did. Anyway, ES did settle for a huge chunk of facebook and is now worth $1 billion. And that is without having done absolutely nothing. The American Dream!
So, why did I think the movie was ho-hum? Mostly because I knew it did not represent the truth. But also, I really admire MZ. The site he created and the way he managed it was absolutely brilliant. Although I detest facebook’s privacy policy, the site is still a huge part of my life. And the fact that Aaron Sorkin (another person I really admire) ) used his skills to create a movie laced with half truths and lies forces me to give this movie 5 out of 10.
Harry Potter : Deathly Hallows Part 1
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One of the few times, I have made an effort to see the movie as soon as it came out. I probably should not have bothered and waited for the DVD.
As a fan of the books, I wanted to see if the movie could do justice. Since translating a book into a movie is an arduous task, I had kept my expectations low but, boy, was I disappointed. I should have realised with Hollywood involved, they would screw up the screenplay. The focus of the book was on the underlying story and the sheer dejection of Harry Potter and his friends as they flounder about looking for horcruxes. But the focus of the movie was on action and explosions and snakes eating up bodies. The idea of the deathly hallows was presented but it was just rushed through and that aspect of the story just never developed. On whole, really disappointed. Oh well, I can only hope that part 2 helps in redeeming the franchise.
My rating : 6.5 out of 10
Politics Explained
South Asian politics explained in two sentences (http://girishshahane.blogspot.com/2010/11/matter-of-conviction.html) :
One problem with India’s political and legal systems is that no top leader is ever convicted.
One problem with Pakistan’s political and legal systems is that all top leaders are convicted.
Harper’s Latest CON Job
Here’s why I hate the Harper’s government (link coming up soon) :
The Conservatives have used their clout in the Senate stacked by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to kill an NDP climate change bill that was passed by a majority of the House of Commons.
It is the first time that the unelected Conservative senators have used
their near-majority to kill a bill passed by elected politicians. The
absence of more than 15 Liberals from the Senate allowed the bill to be
defeated by a margin of 43 to 32.
Wow! So much for “Transparency” and “Accountability”.
I think the only reason he is getting away with this kind of shit is
because there is no leader to oppose him. I mean the Liberals have Iggy.
Canada’s version of Sen. Kerry. I mean his speeches are so devoid of
charisma that they are used to put babies to sleep. And Jack Layton of the
NDP? He is basically your “do as I say and not as I do” kinda guy.
Canadians need to remove Harper’s administration from power but I cannot
see anyone better taking his place.
Sad, sad day for Canada.
Grinderman – Concert Review
Well, I did it! I watched the first concert ever, all by myself! I had been purchasing tickets throughout the summer (always a pair of tickets hoping to convince someone to go with me) but I would always back out. This time I bought just one ticket and I made it to the show.
Grinderman is one of those bands that proves that noise rock is not the purview of the young only. I know Nick Cave is around 60 and the other band members looked more than 40 so I am guessing the average age is around 50. But they could put all the young guns to shame, easily.
The band started off with their opening track on their second album “Mickey Mouse And The Goodbye Man” and right away Warren Ellis (the lead guitarist, violinist, percussionist etc.) stood out as musician extraordinaire and stole the show. His use of feedback was amazing!! He was prancing around the stage as if in a trance and looked like he was having a mighty good time! If I were to be a musician in my alternate life, I would like to be as good as Warren.
That does not mean that the other musicians were sloppy in any way or form. Nick Cave has a commanding presence on stage with his haunting voice (surprisingly his voice sounded almost like on the album) and his interplay with the audience keeps them on their feet. The drummer and the bassist were tight and solid providing the perfect backbone to the two wild performers.
I should force myself to arrive late to these concerts. I mean the concert was advertised to start at 8pm. I reached at around 8:45 thinking that they would start soon. However, they did not start until 10:15pm!!!! WTF!!! They had an opening act (which was never advertised and by the groans around me, it was obvious none knew there was to be an opening act) who was on (it was a single person playing a weird air instrument) for about 40 minutes or so. I was ready to leave by 10pm but I kept telling myself “it’s Grinderman. It’s Grinderman. It’s Grinderman.”
Overall, I would give this show 8 out of 10. Excellent!
God Damn It…..
…..I am pushing the reset button on this blog….again. A post a month because I have so many “angry” things to say and not many “pretty nice things”.
Fuck it.
I am going back to politics, anti-religion and anti-anti-intellectual rants. Ok world, get ready for some rants to either piss you off or to make you want to kick my teeth in.
Either way, I don’t care.
A Misc. Post
- Oh Gene, you should know better than to challenge the internets. You will always lose to anonymous!
It appears that Gene Simmons may now be in a personal war with Anonymous, the group responsible for several recent “Operation Payback” DDoS attacks against firms, corporations, and individuals engaging in anti-piracy activism.
Simmons, the lead singer for Kiss, had his websites GeneSimmons.com and SimmonsRecords.com rendered inaccessible by Anonymous after encouraging other artist’s to take a stand against piracy. “Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars. Don’t let anybody cross that line,” Simmons encouraged his peers.
But rather than shutting him up, the “Operation Payback” DDoS attack on his websites only made Simmons more angry and outspoken. The following post appeared earlier this week on GeneSimmons.com:
“Some of you may have heard a few popcorn farts re: our sites being threatened by hackers.
Our legal team and the FBI have been on the case and we have found a few, shall we say “adventurous” young people, who feel they are above the law.
And, as stated in my MIPCOM speech, we will sue their pants off.
First, they will be punished.
Second, they might find their little butts in jail, right next to someone who’s been there for years and is looking for a new girlfriend.
We will soon be printing their names and pictures.
We will find you.
You cannot hide.
Stay tuned”
None of those threats seemed to bother Anonymous, however, and the group promptly launched another DDoS attack on both of Simmons’s websites and rendered them inaccessible once again.
LOL!! What a prick!
- Some sign suggestions from Rally To Restore Sanity. Wish I was going :(
According to India legal news reports in August 2010, the government of India is ready to make corporate donations to political parties more transparent. It is a known fact that political parties in India receive huge amounts as donations from corporate houses. However, funding political parties out of a company’s profit have been often subjected to criticism. This issue comes under greater scrutiny during the time of elections because prominent political parties in India overspend and violate the spending limits set by the Election Commission of India. Also, very little is done by these parties to improve or optimize the political funds they get from corporate houses.
In country with corruption deeply ingrained in our DNA, I doubt this would make even an iota of an impact!
- Thought/request for the day : I am deeply in social network sites – facebook, twitter, digg, stumble, wordpress, slashdot, dailymile. Why oh why can’t these be connected to each other so that I don’t feel like I am ignoring or missing out on one of the sites? Does anyone know of a platform that I can use to monitor all of these sites?
- Another reason why Obama has fallen from grace, in my eyes :
Two men were tortured for more than a year inside the CIA’s secret prisons program. One committed suicide at Guantánamo Bay. Another was driven “psychotic” from interrogations.
These are the witnesses whose contradictory, fragmentary and internally inconsistent statements provide the bulk of the evidence against Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman, a detainee the Obama administration has designated for indefinite detention.
- Wow…..This is freakishly cool!
- These are amazing.
Click here to see more
Some Bloggers Just Make Me Mad
Here is an outrageous post from blogger from Malaysia. Here is a snippet of the post to understand the context of my response.
As I said : there is little care or concern for the human being in Indian society. Despite India being an old civilization, being a land of sages and stuff, they really don’t care too much about human beings.
I could not have agreed with you more about the CWG until you started to make inane statements like “little concern for human beings in Indian society” AND “Tens of millions of Indians still sleep out in the streets at night. No one cares for them” OR how Indians have a space program but no flushable toilets AND the icing on the cake, comparing how better off Chinese are in China as compared to Indians in India.
These statements demonstrate what a class A moron you are. Painting an entire population of India as pathetic and unintelligent and snobbish after meeting a few Indians in conferences. Wow! What a leap of conclusion!!
Are you telling me there are no poor in Malaysia and China? Please!
Malaysia has been shoving the poor under the carpet for years. And China? “Oh no, how can Chinese be poor, they have the fastest growing economy”. If that’s your attitude, please get your prescription medication refilled as soon as possible. Read this article and open your rose coloured eyes.
Are you telling me that the politicians of Malaysia and China actually put the welfare of the citizens of those countries before their own power? That’s a phuqing laugh. Chinese people enjoy limitless freedom with respect to politics, press, reproductive rights and…..oh man, must have dosed off and started to dream! And Malaysia? Malaysian politicians do not believe in coruption, or a firm hold to power. Do you want to ask Anwar Ibrahim what he thinks of the Malaysian politicians?
Are you telling me that a country should put a halt on all progress with respect to science, space exploration, nuclear exploration and put all it’s effort on poor? This is a very difficult question to answer. In my view India’s efforts in this matter have been negligible and that is what worries me the most. No matter how well India does as a whole, some it’s citizens are in a fierce cycle of poverty that cannot be broken. Does that mean that India should neglect all areas and focus on solely on poverty. That my friend is called, a small vision. What good would it be for the poor in India if the country has no solid infrastructure, no industry, no scope for growth after poverty issue has been addressed? I have no illusions that poverty is one of India’s main problem in this centuary.
The main problem I have with your post is your portrayal of a typical Indian as being inhumane. How you arrived at that conclusion is beyond me. I agree with you completely that Indians by and large are apathetic people. But I would say that that is a global issue. Not only Indians, human beings by and large are apathetic, and yes, that includes Malaysians and Chinese.
So cut the BS with name calling. It is very easy to blame but difficult to look in the mirror and recoganise your own faults.
More Misc Links and Random Comments
- Try as I might, I can never get away from a cup of joe from Timmies. It’s just too darn delicious!! And with the convenience of having a store at every corner, you litterly, cannot escape from the clutches of Timmies. Here is a great article on the company. The article has done a fair job of displaying Tim Horton’s progression through the years and has not held back the punches. Here is what the franchisees face :
Tim Hortons has its franchisees locked down, too. There are the little things, like surprise “Always Fresh” audits that grade franchisees on how long customers wait at the drive-thru, the amount of time a pot of coffee is allowed to sit around, and whether there are weeds in the parking lot or graffiti in the bathroom. And there are the big things, like an ironclad franchisee agreement that maximizes profits flowing to head office in Oakville, Ontario. Store owners pay royalties of between 3.5% and 4.5% of gross sales, plus another 8.5% to cover rent. That’s on top of an average $450,000 franchise fee to get started. The company brings in yet another steady stream of income as the exclusive supplier to its franchisees: coffee, cold cuts, soup, bagels, doughnuts, pastries and buns. All of which come at a markup that some franchisees claim borders on gouging—but more on that later.
Not exactly the model I would support except my brain does not listen to me :(. And I don’t understand why the author has titled the piece “How Tim Horton’s Will Take Over The World”. I mean, is the world US and Canada only? There is mention of franchisees in China and India but has anyone seen Tim Horton’s in these or other countries?
- Very interesting read here : “Confessions of your worst WTF moments“. My own personal WTF moment :
10 years ago I was in charge of making sure that new rates were applied to an accounting table before a batch process was to run the same night. I applied the rates…..to the wrong table!! The problem was not noticed until 10 days later and the entire production was scrapped and had to be entered again for the last two weeks!! Needless to say I was not very popular amongst the customer service department and was able to get away with it because I was only a month old in the company!
- Book I am currently reading : The Way The Crow Flies. Really amazing story about an innocence lost. At a few points the imagery was so powerful that I actually considered stopping. I am glad I did not!
- What is with the weather in Toronto these days? I mean it’s 31 C (39 C with humidity) in the end of Sep!!!! Not that I am complaining. I remember last year. Good god that was an awful summer. Anyway, just walked past a shooting taking place on Queen St. and Spadina where there was ice lying all around and the extras were in heavy winter clothing!! I felt so sorry for them. And I did not see any stars :(
Misc. Links & Videos
Last week an Indiana teen committed suicide thanks to merciless anti-gay bullying at his school. It stings that it’s from my home state, but it hurts more that this isn’t shocking. Gay teens are four times more likely to commit suicide, especially if they don’t live in urban areas. Which is why Dan Savage thought of this wonderful project:
I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.
- Schrodinger’s Cat : Dead And Alive
Black Mountain – Wilderness Heart
Been a big fan of Black Mountain (and their other incarnation The Pink Mountaintops) since last year. Their two albums “Black Mountain” and “In The Future” were amongst the best I have heard from Canada in a long time! These two albums epitomise all that I love about today’s rock and heavy metal bands. Black Mountain’s music is deeply embedded in Led Zepp, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple and they mix the exact amount of modern day eccentrics to make the mix a pleasure to listen.
However, on my first listen of their new album Wilderness Heart, I was utterly disappointed. The album is littered with chords from metal bands of 70s and no other obvious departures from that sound. Their previous two albums had diamonds that were immediately recognisable as astounding songs. But this album needs at least three listens before you start to realise that the album is quite astonishing.
The songs come across so powerfully primarily because of Stephen and Amber’s vocals. The interplay between them in almost every song is so amazing, so enlightening that you cannot help but thank the stars above that this group has these two vocalists. Even the song like ‘Let Spirits Ride’ that seems to be a left over from Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell, shines through because of the vocals. And then there are prog rockers like ‘Rollercoaster’. It’s songs like this that sets Black Mountain apart from other bands that try and ape the 70′s heavy metal sound. There are some funky bluesey songs too that are thrown in the mix that come off quite well. ‘Buried By Blues’ and ‘The Way To Go’ are really charming and songs to play on a sunny sunday afternoon while one is painting the garage door (now you know what I am going to do this weekend!).
Overall an excellent album from this Canadian outfit. I had a chance to see them last month but had no one to go with so I abandoned the idea. I really need to start getting used to the idea of going alone!
Menomena – Mines
I purchase most of my music from emusic.com and have, over the years, become a big fan of the site. I usually first get info on a band from blogs or podcasts and then go to emusic to download.
Every now and then I come up short on new bands and none of my favourite bands on the emusic list have released any new albums. In that case I usually browse the emusic recommended listings. And that’s how I found Menomena.
I won’t go into the history of the band because I have no clue about them, and no clue what they are about so please google them.
I will talk about the album Mines that was released in July 2010.
The first song is fairly representative of the rest of the album. A slow brooding song about being let down by someone the singer loves. The music really sets the mood. It starts of with what sounds like a guitar and drums but then slowly more and more instruments come into play singular musical pieces or blend in with the song.
And it just continues from there on. Spastic but sounding melodic. Sparse sounding yet paints a landscape of hurt and longing. Brash yet full of maturity. And the number of instruments on this album belies the fact that there are only three people in the band and apparently, they recreate this sound without back up on stage! That would make them by far a great act to see live!!
Also, I read up a little about the band and from all accounts the band members are an acrimonious lot and it is my firm belief that friction within a band always translates to outstanding music (please don’t quote me on it as it’s just a theory).
Their sound did sound quite familiar to start with. The first song immediately reminded me of The Black Heart Procession Band. Sparse soundscape and powerful, haunting lyrics are what made me think of this other band. But by song 3, Killemall, it was fairly obvious that Menomena is a cut above (I have not listened to any album by the Black Hearts since Amore Del Tropico. So it’s possible I am just speaking out of my ass!).
Yet, I am convinced that this album will not be a major blockbuster. Alas, that is the fate of sterling, high quality and passionate bands of today’s music world. If it’s too complex and relies heavily on repeated careful listening, that cuts their audience by at least 50%. Oh well, I hope you will at least give it a try.
Would You Remain Peaceful If It Were Your Daughter?
Old news but still Vital To Get It Out There.
I am a peaceful guy who follows the law of the land to the letter and avoid trouble whenever I see it coming. Which is why I have always maintained that the Israel-Palestine discord can be mended with sane minds and people who pursue peace no matter the price.
But if something like this were to happen to my daughter, I would pick up a gun against the “lawful occupiers of Palestine” in a second!
An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday. The soldier, who has only been identified as “Captain R”, was charged with relatively minor offences for the killing of Iman al-Hams who was shot 17 times as she ventured near an Israeli army post near Rafah refugee camp in Gaza a year ago.
The manner of Iman’s killing, and the revelation of a tape recording in which the captain is warned that she was just a child who was “scared to death”, made the shooting one of the most controversial since the Palestinian intifada erupted five years ago even though hundreds of other children have also died.
The army’s official account said that Iman was shot for crossing into a security zone carrying her schoolbag which soldiers feared might contain a bomb. It is still not known why the girl ventured into the area but witnesses described her as at least 100 yards from the military post which was in any case well protected. A recording of radio exchanges between Capt R and his troops obtained by Israeli television revealed that from the beginning soldiers identified Iman as a child.
In the recording, a soldier in a watchtower radioed a colleague in the army post’s operations room and describes Iman as “a little girl” who was “scared to death”. After soldiers first opened fire, she dropped her schoolbag which was then hit by several bullets establishing that it did not contain explosive.
At that point she was no longer carrying the bag and, the tape revealed, was heading away from the army post when she was shot. Although the military speculated that Iman might have been trying to “lure” the soldiers out of their base so they could be attacked by accomplices, Capt R made the decision to lead some of his troops into the open. Shortly afterwards he can be heard on the recording saying that he has shot the girl and, believing her dead, then “confirmed the kill”. “I and another soldier … are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill … Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her … I also confirmed the kill. Over,” he said.
Palestinian witnesses said they saw the captain shoot Iman twice in the head, walk away, turn back and fire a stream of bullets into her body. On the tape, Capt R then “clarifies” to the soldiers under his command why he killed Iman: “This is commander. Anything that’s mobile, that moves in the [security] zone, even if it’s a three-year-old, needs to be killed.”
Even a three year old would have been killed! I ask you, how exactly are these brave soldiers any different from Hamas? News like this just makes my blood boil.
Running Updated : Where I list me excuses on my lack of focus on my training
So how is my running going in the previous months. Pathetic.
I had thought this would be the year where I would take a big leap as far as distances were concerned. I had thought I would be able to attain my goal of running a marathon. Alas, it is not going to happen.
The problem is my training or rather my lack of focus on the training.
A few months ago I met John Stanton (at the Mississauga marathon expo) and we had a few minutes’ worth of chat but it was enough to get me super fired up about running a marathon in the coming months. And in the intervening month or so, I was able to institute a program that I stuck to quite diligently. And then I got a job.
The job ensured I would be able to put food on the table and pay my electricity and water bills, but my training took a back seat. Can’t run in the evenings at all because my wife works till 7:30pm and does not get back home till 8pm. Can only try and run early mornings but since I need to get on the GO train by 7:15am, that means I have to make sure I go to sleep early to get up early. And that is not feasible all the time since I do my studying and social networking and movies and music and blogging etc. at night time (since all these are totally off limits at work, I need to do all this at night time).
So, in this state of preparedness, I ran the Midsummer Night Run on the 21st, Aug. I ran the 30K leg thinking that I would probably be able to complete the run in 3 to 3:15 hours. And I thought I could use this to test my legs for the full marathon. Boy was I over confident!!
By 22K, I was cursing out loud enough for my fellow runners to overhear me. And each one of them bucked me up and I thank them all. I just was not prepared at all. And the run itself really bought me down. I mean, it was not until 9:07pm that I finished my run and I hate running late in the evening. I just did not account for that fact when I signed up for the run. And the weather was just downright awful. Intermittent rain, windy and a little chilly.
So all these factors have added up together to convince me not to run the full in Sep as I had originally planned. I will be running a half and try and get a PB in the run. Other than that, I will try and focus on a full marathon next year.
Woe is me!
Trip To India Postponed Again
Well, my trip to India has been postponed, yet again. I was really looking forward to the trip in Dec but a combination of work and life in general forced me to postpone it from Dec 2010 to Jan 2011 and then from Jan 2011 to April 2011. I will not go into the reasons but let’s just say life sucks when your plans don’t stick.
Anyway, I realised a few weeks ago that when I think about it, I really don’t know my folks at all. I mean, what were their aspirations growing up, what were their best friends like, what were they like as teens, their heartbreaks and their joys. Nothing. Nada.
So I have come up with some questions. I will be recording their replies and then I am going to up those files on my social network (after editing, of course!)
To that end I need your help. What questions should I ask? I know some specific ones but the general questions that might provide me with thought provoking answers. Here is a list I have in mind. Please add to it. It would make my life so much easier.
- 1) What is the happiest memory you have till date?
2) What is the saddest?
3) What did you want to be when you were 15?
4) What did you fear the most?
More Misc Links
The quest to find my blogging bone continues. In the meantime here are some misc links :
- Aliens vs Human Intelligence DNA Evolution Science Alien Contact Lifeforms Galaxy Universe SETI 2012
- Here is an excellent ad. This is how all ads should be done :)
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH7Te9Q8KBk]
- Pictures at an Exhibition – Stunning music with an amazing ending!
- Well what do you know. Billy Idol still has it :)
Misc Links
This is probably the only way I can keep the blog updated so please indulge me while I post some random links :
- How do you assess your life? The eternal question that men and women have striven from the beginning of time. And here is one the best answers I have found. A little too heavy on the religious side but outstanding nonetheless. http://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life/ar/pr?
- I am trying to train myself for operas and here is a piece I found on Sound Mind. Something about the music in operas just seems so captivating probably because it seems to be the ultimate expression for sorrow and joy.
- The best description of Apple kerfuffle……
More posts to follow soon.
Canadian Patriotism
Not sure how to define patriotism. Sure I could look it up in the dictionary/wikipedia but I looking for a definition more attuned to my senses.
Growing up in India we were fed a steady diet of patriotism which I would, at this point in my life, term xenophobia. I am of course referring to the toxic mix of the equation that every Indian knows by heart : Pakistan = Evil.
No matter what the circumstances, no matter what the issue, it was the patriotic duty of every Indian to passionately hate every Pakistani. Be it a debate on war, politics, cricket or mangoes, every kid and every adult knew that India is better than Pakistan. And I followed this version of patriotism fervently. Even now at the mature age of 39, I have an inner monologue going on with the Pakistani hating version of myself. Thankfully that idiotic part of myself has calmed down a bit especially after tasting some heavenly mangoes from Pakistan.
By late 80s, this passion to hate Pakistan had died down a bit amongst the citizens of India. Not sure why, but the politicians saw that their rabble rousing against Pakistan was not really getting them the power they wanted and so patriotism somehow morphed into an ugly sub-version called Nationalism especially Hindu Nationalism. This religious version of patriotism was simmering for sometime and had a great following in Maharashtra. The leaders of this movement were able to export it to the national stage (through poor management by the Congress party, I might add) during the Barbari Masjid episode. And suddenly, to be a true patriot, you had to align yourself to defination put forth by Hindu nationalist leaders which was always one sided and quite violent. I was stupid but not a moron. I firmly resisted this version of patriotism that was sweeping amongst my friends and family. And this left me a little disillusioned. I wanted to be identified an Indian but not as one that required me to align myself to a “certain” kind of Indian. And so life went on blissfully where I just kept silent whenever the subject of patriotism came up because I found out that my voice would easily be drowned out by patriotic zealots.
And now I am in Canada which I have adopted as my country. Here things are radically different than they are in my country of birth. Democracy is practised with a transparency that does not exist in India. There are numerous flaws in this version of democracy as well but atleast there are great ideas floating out there and there is rational discussions on those proposed changes. There is however an under current of intense loyalty towards the flag that is becoming more vocal with each passing year. This group insists that to be a loyal Canadian, you have to SHOW OFF your love for the country (a decidedly US version of patriotism). And the only way to do that is to wave the flag, take part in the activities during Canada day that every Canada loving individual is doing i.e. drinking beer and attend fireworks displays and making sure that you have a Canadian flag pin on your shirt. This kind of patriotism eludes me. I mean I love Canada but to put it on my sleeve so that everyone knows I love this land is beyond me.
Another problem, I have an affinity for Canada as much as I have for India. India was my past and Canada my future. Why in the world do some true blood Canadians insist on me forgetting about India because it’s a country ”I have forsaken”. I don’t understand why some people refuse to understand that a person can love two or more countries at the same time. Utter nonsense.
Here’s my version of what it means to be a loyal Canadian.
> As a Canadian I am committed to the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedom.
> As a Canadian I am committed to ensuring that I contribute to the Canadian economy.
> As a Canadian I am committed to helping fellow human beings (Canadians and non-Canadians).
> As a Canadian I am committed to opposing, peacefully, elected politicians and officials in power.
> As a Canadian I am committed to paying homage to fellow Canadians who have died making this a country worth dying for.
> As a Canadian I am committed to opposing the forces that want to disrupt our way of life.
> As a Canadian I am committed to caring for my brethren in Canada AND the world.
If this in anyway steps on other Canadians’ version of patriotism, then, thank god I live in a country where I can tell them, very politely, to fuck off.
