Oftentimes, we move in life like a consumer looking for the next fix, when we suddenly receive a jolt, not exactly a wake up call but something that makes you stop and wonder or (dare I say) even ruminate a bit… I would like to believe I had a similar experience last night… Manu and I met up the evening and we got around to discussing the influences of contemporary social and political tapestry on the western music of today… It started when Manu mentioned that, over the last 3-4 years, Rolling Stone magazine had acquired a decidedly leftist and highly liberal bent of mind, evidenced by the content of most of the articles they put out, just check out http://www.rollingstone.com/politics and you’ll see probably understand I am saying…
I observed that music is shaped by the way in which it is used and can thereby be a neutral form of dissemination for ideologies… I reflected on this for a moment and noted to myself that various genres of music had evolved over the last 30 years or so but this underlying theme still continues to be a strong driver for the lyrical content of many songs even today… Interestingly, the majority of political popular music has an anti-establishment or left-wing perspective; right-wing musicians have tended to be condemned by mainstream audiences due to the racist stance of many of these performers…
In 1831, E. A. Poe when setting the stage for the “Fall of the House of Usher” wrote, “Music without an idea is simply music. Without music or an intriguing idea, color becomes pallor, man becomes carcass, home becomes catacomb, and the dead are but for a moment motionless”… I kept thinking of the central line there, “Music without an idea…”, political or otherwise...
Let’s look at the one great tragedy of the 20th century and a reference to the band that sang about them… Pink Floyd, one of the earliest musical influences on my life, and their album from 1983, “The Final Cut” a.k.a. “A Requiem For The Post War Dream” comes to mind… Waters published a poetic perspective of British politics dating back to the second World War and Gilmour and the other lads set the underlying musical arrangement… Those of us who’ve seen "The Wall" may also remember Pink’s slow descent into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone, his growing sense of fascination with and absolute distance from the father he’d never seen, as well as the vivid segues of WW2, especially the ME109 bearing down on the British... The lyrics for the Final Cut include a biting commentary on British politics during the office of Margaret Thatcher as well as chilling perspectives on some of the unseen events of World War II… Go buy this album and listen to it in case you do not have it already… It will enhance and enrich your musical boundaries (and I am also hoping that someone at http://www.pinkfloyd.co.uk/ or Columbia Records will read this and pay me something for covertly assisting in album sales, HAHAHAHAHA)…
“It can't be much fun for them beneath the rising sun with all their kids committing suicide
What have we done Maggie what have we done?
What have we done to England?
Should we shout, should we scream, “What happened to the post war dream?”
Oh Maggie what have we done?”
I distinctly remember listening to this in a semi comatose state in a friend’s apartment in Madras in 1990-91 (my final year of college), abetted by the inebriation inducing agent, ethyl alcohol and being almost slowly guided into a condition of angst against the “system”… Well, Rage Against The Machine’s definitely on my list here…
Next up on my list of music inspired by politics would be the multifarious references to the Vietnam War and the scores of sheet music that’s been written and sung about expediency and the politics thereof… My personal pick from all of that would be Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”… Gaye essentially sang about what had happened to the American dream of the past — as it related to urban decay, environmental woes, military turbulence, police brutality, unemployment, and poverty… These feelings were bubbling slowly within (was this the misplaced cauldron of “Bitches Brew”?) during a time when he felt increasingly caged by Motown's behind-the-times hit machine… Gaye’s belief that he was being restrained from expressing himself through his music ultimately led to “What’s Going On”, originally conceived as a statement coming through the tinted glasses of the Vietnam vet, the backdrop being that Gaye's brother had just returned from a three-year stint in 1967… The song itself was not the question of a soldier returning home to a strange place… I read somewhere in a write-up about this one that “the missing question mark in the title certainly was not a typo”… Gaye’s album reflects deeply on the climate of the early '70s, rife with civil unrest, drug abuse, abandoned children and the specter of riots in the near past, a nearly sublime expression of an artist's hope, anger, and concern recorded for posterity…
The Woodstock and the 70s era have more than seen their fair share of artists who’ve all written music influenced by the contemporaneous life and political fabric, with or without the aid of alcohol (a.k.a ethanol), marijuana (a Spanish Mary Jane, of the genus classified by herbologists as “Lotus Eaterus”), acid (not the vitriolic oil or azotic kind), tabs (not the key on the PeeCee), 'shrooms (the non-Shitake type)… Someone’s been smoking the drapes for sure… My favorite “political” songs from these eras included Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner”, Jackson Browne’s “Lawyers in Love” and “Lives in the Balance”, Ritchie Havens’ “Handsome Johnny”, Billy Joel’s “Goodnight Saigon”, Edwin Starr’s “War”, Rush’s “Trees”, Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’” and Neil Young’s “Ohio”, among others…
Anyways, inspired by our discussions of the evening, I went back home and picked out Rage Against The Machine… More so because I had not heard them in a long while and I am still quite fascinated by their early self titled album… Their influences range from “Malcolm X to Led Zeppelin, from Che Guevara to Martin Luther King Jr., from Public Enemy to the Clash”… And folks, they are totally leftist, just try reading some of their lyrics… The music is punk inspired rock and politically influenced hip hop… I voted out the soundtrack for one number, “Wake Up” particularly since its arrangement and the lyrics stood out…
“Come on, although ya try to discredit, Ya still never read it
The needle, I'll thread it, Radically poetic
Standin' with the fury that they had in '66; And like E-Double I'm mad
Still knee-deep in the system's shit; Hoover, he was a body remover
I'll give ya a dose; But it can never come close
To the rage built up inside of me; Fist in the air, in the land of hypocrisy…
Movements come and movements go; Leaders speak, movements cease
When their heads are flown' Cause all these punks got bullets in their heads
Departments of police, the judges, the feds; Networks at work, keepin' people calm
You know they went after King; When he spoke out on Vietnam
He turned the power to the have-nots; And then came the shot…
WAKE UP, WAKE UP... "
Afterthought: Like oil in water, politics being less denser just floats on top... and given their differing dipole strengths, there's no hope of it ever dissolving in music either!!!
Peace
S
Friday, October 15, 2004
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
A New York State Of Mind
“Some folks like to get away
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach
Or to Hollywood
But I'm taking a Greyhound
On the Hudson River Line
I'm in a New York state of mind”
Well, well well… It all started with Ravi’s arrival in Rochester last Saturday. I picked the bloke off the 10.42AM Delta flight from Atlanta. He looked a right piece of work, lack of sleep and a lot worse off the red eye – coast to coast flying can be quite a drag, I am told, hehehehe!!!
Anyways, so much for the grand plan of going to the Niagara Falls or Buffalo or spending a quiet weekend surfing the streets and pubs of Rochester!!! In the parking lot (the other place usually being the loo), an audacious idea was born – why not party in NYC Saturday eve? After all, it would be a shame to let this opportunity go. So a quick call to the resident New Yorker, Monsieur Shanky of Banerjee fame was made, informing him of our imminent arrival. We made a quick stop home for me to grab a fresh pair of undies, jeans and a clean tee and the usual hygiene accessories and then hit the I90 eastbound.
We reached NYC without major incident in about 5 ½ hours and stopped off at Shanky’s house first. Later that evening found us first at the fashionable digs of the Aubette, a high end night club on East 27 Street, sipping single malt and spilling some of it (that would only be me, of course, Ravi and Shanky being quite refined in their behavior) and chatting up the bartender, a chappie called Luis (we nicknamed him “the XXI”, after a Franco/Hispanic emperor of sorts!!!). The thing that struck me was the huge piece of granite, a slab almost 6 feet wide and 4 feet high placed as a centerpiece on the main wall behind the bar, and more interestingly, what was carved on it.
“Cur Non Ut Plenus Vitae Conviva Recedis, Aequo Animoque Capis Securam, Stulte Quietem”, a quote from De Rerum Natura.
The quote loosely translated meant, “Why not like a banqueter fed full of life, withdraw in contentment and rest in peace, you fool.” Well, I can proudly say I actually came close with my own translation, “When you are happily drunk, its best to shut the f**k up.” And this was before I heard the actual meaning.
We then decided to have our dinner and quickly exited to the Houston Restaurant on Park Ave. What can I say, incredible food. I had the wild salmon with roasted yellow and red peppers accompanied by a fair measure of The Macallan. Simply divine!!! Post dinner, we indulged in some incredible dessert – a recommendation of our gracious hostess, Theresa – Apple Walnut Cobbler. That took the stuffing out of us completely for a while. Mmmmmm, apple cobbler!!!
Fully fed and insufficiently watered, we decided to head down to the local Reddy’s equivalent, Milano’s, unarguably rated as one of NYC’s top 5 dive bars. For those, who came in late, the crowd is a strange mix of Long Island types, college-age kids and the occasional mid town professional. Just imagine Reddy’s without any food and add a juke box to complete the picture – that’s Milano’s – awesome place. As usual, the bar was reasonably full and the drinks of good measure, enough to send me slightly up the winding path.
We left Milano's close to midnight to head deeper into Greenwich to pick up another bite to eat at the Indian Kebab Factory only to realize the place was closed for renovation or some other reason, I cannot suddenly seem to remember. As an alternative to twiddling our thumbs, we decided to hit Mc Dougals Ale House and polish off a pint of Guiness or two.
We headed home closer to 2 in the morning, partially inebriated and fully happy. Ravi’s actually promised to come back here for New Year’s Eve, oh well that’s a tale to be written about in 2005.
Cheers
S
PS: I just realized my West Coast friend actually traveled coast-to-coast (approximately 2,550 miles) to have a drink with Shanky and me. Folks, the next time he makes a fuss in India about driving down from his crib to MG Road or thereabouts (in terms of relative distance, less than 5 miles – you get the picture), to meet with you people, I believe he has earned a well placed foot in his arse!!!
Take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach
Or to Hollywood
But I'm taking a Greyhound
On the Hudson River Line
I'm in a New York state of mind”
Well, well well… It all started with Ravi’s arrival in Rochester last Saturday. I picked the bloke off the 10.42AM Delta flight from Atlanta. He looked a right piece of work, lack of sleep and a lot worse off the red eye – coast to coast flying can be quite a drag, I am told, hehehehe!!!
Anyways, so much for the grand plan of going to the Niagara Falls or Buffalo or spending a quiet weekend surfing the streets and pubs of Rochester!!! In the parking lot (the other place usually being the loo), an audacious idea was born – why not party in NYC Saturday eve? After all, it would be a shame to let this opportunity go. So a quick call to the resident New Yorker, Monsieur Shanky of Banerjee fame was made, informing him of our imminent arrival. We made a quick stop home for me to grab a fresh pair of undies, jeans and a clean tee and the usual hygiene accessories and then hit the I90 eastbound.
We reached NYC without major incident in about 5 ½ hours and stopped off at Shanky’s house first. Later that evening found us first at the fashionable digs of the Aubette, a high end night club on East 27 Street, sipping single malt and spilling some of it (that would only be me, of course, Ravi and Shanky being quite refined in their behavior) and chatting up the bartender, a chappie called Luis (we nicknamed him “the XXI”, after a Franco/Hispanic emperor of sorts!!!). The thing that struck me was the huge piece of granite, a slab almost 6 feet wide and 4 feet high placed as a centerpiece on the main wall behind the bar, and more interestingly, what was carved on it.
“Cur Non Ut Plenus Vitae Conviva Recedis, Aequo Animoque Capis Securam, Stulte Quietem”, a quote from De Rerum Natura.
The quote loosely translated meant, “Why not like a banqueter fed full of life, withdraw in contentment and rest in peace, you fool.” Well, I can proudly say I actually came close with my own translation, “When you are happily drunk, its best to shut the f**k up.” And this was before I heard the actual meaning.
We then decided to have our dinner and quickly exited to the Houston Restaurant on Park Ave. What can I say, incredible food. I had the wild salmon with roasted yellow and red peppers accompanied by a fair measure of The Macallan. Simply divine!!! Post dinner, we indulged in some incredible dessert – a recommendation of our gracious hostess, Theresa – Apple Walnut Cobbler. That took the stuffing out of us completely for a while. Mmmmmm, apple cobbler!!!
Fully fed and insufficiently watered, we decided to head down to the local Reddy’s equivalent, Milano’s, unarguably rated as one of NYC’s top 5 dive bars. For those, who came in late, the crowd is a strange mix of Long Island types, college-age kids and the occasional mid town professional. Just imagine Reddy’s without any food and add a juke box to complete the picture – that’s Milano’s – awesome place. As usual, the bar was reasonably full and the drinks of good measure, enough to send me slightly up the winding path.
We left Milano's close to midnight to head deeper into Greenwich to pick up another bite to eat at the Indian Kebab Factory only to realize the place was closed for renovation or some other reason, I cannot suddenly seem to remember. As an alternative to twiddling our thumbs, we decided to hit Mc Dougals Ale House and polish off a pint of Guiness or two.
We headed home closer to 2 in the morning, partially inebriated and fully happy. Ravi’s actually promised to come back here for New Year’s Eve, oh well that’s a tale to be written about in 2005.
Cheers
S
PS: I just realized my West Coast friend actually traveled coast-to-coast (approximately 2,550 miles) to have a drink with Shanky and me. Folks, the next time he makes a fuss in India about driving down from his crib to MG Road or thereabouts (in terms of relative distance, less than 5 miles – you get the picture), to meet with you people, I believe he has earned a well placed foot in his arse!!!
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Is There A Rush In The House???
Sunday, August 15, 2004 10.45 PM ET
"Living in the limelight, the universal dream
For those who wish to seem.
Those who wish to be must put aside the alienation,
Get on with the fascination, the real relation, the underlying theme
All the world's indeed a stage and we are merely players:
Performers and portrayers,
Each another's audience outside the gilded cage"
And that’s how they closed the best concert I've been to - period. Limelight, that wonderfully famous track from their 1981 album, "Moving Pictures".
Errrr…, my mind has enough trouble moving forward, let alone in reverse… I thought I'd write in the style of QT's Pulp Fiction screenplay but didn't realize it needs a drunken muse on your shoulder and oodles of imagination and given that I can't seem to find the first right here and now and I lack the latter in spades , let me begin at the beginning as they say…
We'd decided to belt up at this concert ages ago, tickets booked as early as March of this year, courtesy Dave Haka (thanks dude, we owe you one) and excitement in the air as we began the countdown. Saturday evening saw Satish, Manu and me watching the Chronicles and Rush in Rio concerts. Brief interlude where Anu and Satish heralded my 34th year of existence on this pebble a.k.a earth with a song, a cake and a candle that I blew on. And back to the concerts, where we were prepping ourselves on the lyrics, liner notes, riffs, yada yada yada. Come Sunday evening, we was all gut tight in anticipation, the drive to Darien Lake PAC seemed to go on forever (though the point of a journey was not to arrive??). The fair grounds were packed with cars and people, all headed ostensibly to the concert and believe you me, nobody was disappointed (a crowd of over 40,000 people I was told.)
As Geddy Lee remarked at the start, "Thank you for celebrating our 30th birthday with us tonight." Oh well, happy birthday to me too!!! And folks, he can still hit the high notes without missing a beat leastways…
Rush opened their anniversary act with Finding My Way ("I've been gone so long, I've lost count of the years; Well, I sang some sad songs, oh yes, and cried some bad tears; I'm runnin', finding my way back home") and a medley/collage that traced their 30 year history, before moving onto tracks from their midlife albums including Time Stand Still, Subdivisions, Animate, Red Barchetta, YYZ and Roll The Bones interspersed with tracks from their more recent albums – Earthshine and Pay the Price. The first set was closed out with the Trees and a song written and performed originally by The Who, called The Seeker.
Almost forgot to mention, Rush have released a new compilation called Feedback, featuring their cover versions of songs written by bands that inspired them. We had seats 50 feet from stage and were directly dead center, so couldn't ask for more. Also made some friends there who could not believe "You folks from India have heard Rush? Aaaaaaawesum!!"
Come intermission, I went and picked myself a pair of commemorative 30th anniversary tees - tie dye rules - as well as a poster. What the heck, my “touristy-villager-in-the-big-city” instincts surfaced again.
The second set started off with a video featurette of the Rio Dragon theme set to One Little Victory and they then went onto play favorites, Tom Sawyer, Dreamline, Mystic Rhythms and Red Sector A, before branching off into a virtuoso solo by Neil Peart - what can I say, that dude is GOD!!! - his kit was just incredible and the way he sent it that evening was a tribute to skins everywhere. He just kept playing and rolling and playing and rolling like there's no tomorrow. This was followed by an "almost acoustic" performance by Geddy and Alex, after which they played the Yardbirds classic, Heart Full Of Soul, that just made me burst with happiness, what a rendition folks, it was simply AWESOME!!! Watching these three have such a blast together made my experience so much more enjoyable and I would like to believe the entire crowd just picked up on that raw feed.
Not content with closing so soon, they went onto play Temples of Syrinx interspersed with what I thought was a floydian segue inspired by Zappa (?) before closing with The Finale. I think the high point of this entire tour would have to be the showcase of tracks from their first through recent albums, capturing Rush's brilliant progression through the years, aided and abetted by the good songwriting and excellent compositions.
I passed out a couple of times owing to excesses of (editor's note: censored for content)- the crowd went wild listening to each track including Summertime Blues (originally written and performed by The Who) and Crossroads (Eric Clapton), before they finally closed out with Limelight.
This was truly a birthday to remember. THANK YOU NEIL, GEDDY AND ALEX!!! You guys really rock!!!
Peace
S
"Living in the limelight, the universal dream
For those who wish to seem.
Those who wish to be must put aside the alienation,
Get on with the fascination, the real relation, the underlying theme
All the world's indeed a stage and we are merely players:
Performers and portrayers,
Each another's audience outside the gilded cage"
And that’s how they closed the best concert I've been to - period. Limelight, that wonderfully famous track from their 1981 album, "Moving Pictures".
Errrr…, my mind has enough trouble moving forward, let alone in reverse… I thought I'd write in the style of QT's Pulp Fiction screenplay but didn't realize it needs a drunken muse on your shoulder and oodles of imagination and given that I can't seem to find the first right here and now and I lack the latter in spades , let me begin at the beginning as they say…
We'd decided to belt up at this concert ages ago, tickets booked as early as March of this year, courtesy Dave Haka (thanks dude, we owe you one) and excitement in the air as we began the countdown. Saturday evening saw Satish, Manu and me watching the Chronicles and Rush in Rio concerts. Brief interlude where Anu and Satish heralded my 34th year of existence on this pebble a.k.a earth with a song, a cake and a candle that I blew on. And back to the concerts, where we were prepping ourselves on the lyrics, liner notes, riffs, yada yada yada. Come Sunday evening, we was all gut tight in anticipation, the drive to Darien Lake PAC seemed to go on forever (though the point of a journey was not to arrive??). The fair grounds were packed with cars and people, all headed ostensibly to the concert and believe you me, nobody was disappointed (a crowd of over 40,000 people I was told.)
As Geddy Lee remarked at the start, "Thank you for celebrating our 30th birthday with us tonight." Oh well, happy birthday to me too!!! And folks, he can still hit the high notes without missing a beat leastways…
Rush opened their anniversary act with Finding My Way ("I've been gone so long, I've lost count of the years; Well, I sang some sad songs, oh yes, and cried some bad tears; I'm runnin', finding my way back home") and a medley/collage that traced their 30 year history, before moving onto tracks from their midlife albums including Time Stand Still, Subdivisions, Animate, Red Barchetta, YYZ and Roll The Bones interspersed with tracks from their more recent albums – Earthshine and Pay the Price. The first set was closed out with the Trees and a song written and performed originally by The Who, called The Seeker.
Almost forgot to mention, Rush have released a new compilation called Feedback, featuring their cover versions of songs written by bands that inspired them. We had seats 50 feet from stage and were directly dead center, so couldn't ask for more. Also made some friends there who could not believe "You folks from India have heard Rush? Aaaaaaawesum!!"
Come intermission, I went and picked myself a pair of commemorative 30th anniversary tees - tie dye rules - as well as a poster. What the heck, my “touristy-villager-in-the-big-city” instincts surfaced again.
The second set started off with a video featurette of the Rio Dragon theme set to One Little Victory and they then went onto play favorites, Tom Sawyer, Dreamline, Mystic Rhythms and Red Sector A, before branching off into a virtuoso solo by Neil Peart - what can I say, that dude is GOD!!! - his kit was just incredible and the way he sent it that evening was a tribute to skins everywhere. He just kept playing and rolling and playing and rolling like there's no tomorrow. This was followed by an "almost acoustic" performance by Geddy and Alex, after which they played the Yardbirds classic, Heart Full Of Soul, that just made me burst with happiness, what a rendition folks, it was simply AWESOME!!! Watching these three have such a blast together made my experience so much more enjoyable and I would like to believe the entire crowd just picked up on that raw feed.
Not content with closing so soon, they went onto play Temples of Syrinx interspersed with what I thought was a floydian segue inspired by Zappa (?) before closing with The Finale. I think the high point of this entire tour would have to be the showcase of tracks from their first through recent albums, capturing Rush's brilliant progression through the years, aided and abetted by the good songwriting and excellent compositions.
I passed out a couple of times owing to excesses of (editor's note: censored for content)
This was truly a birthday to remember. THANK YOU NEIL, GEDDY AND ALEX!!! You guys really rock!!!
Peace
S
Monday, July 19, 2004
Can't You Trip Like I Do
I've got the acumen of a seasoned pro
I've got the lack of say of a billion souls
I've got a world on my back but I don't seem to care
I've got the comprehension of a world unaware
Can't you trip like I do. . .
I've got the lack of say of a billion souls
I've got a world on my back but I don't seem to care
I've got the comprehension of a world unaware
Can't you trip like I do. . .
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
So Long And Thanks For All The Fish aka I Kept It Short and Simple
I ws rcntly tld by a frnd (?!?) tht I wrt mndlssly lng blgs 'n tht a blg shld b kpt shrt, so jst t' hmr hm, ths 1 sntnce s in tht vn... (ok, that was slightly painful, even for me!!)
All ye dudes and dudettes, it was super fun meeting and phreaking with you on my India trip this time around... and hopefully we can do this sometime soon next year too, if not earlier...
Lavanya/Deepak, Jyoti/Sushanth - wonderful time outside Bangalore city limits... thanks so much for having me over at your homes, I had a blast...
Furthermore, will quickgun339 nom-de-geuring as NannaHesaruInspectorGarudaIsMyName please simply own up... For the life of me, I canna figure out who you are... Nimme real life hesaru is so not Inspector Garuda... and hopefully, you're not one of those actors from some Kannadiga sitcom, I may have met at Reddys (aka c&b watering hole) or BGs (aka alternative discotheque) or similar fancy locales...
Finally, I also once read somewhere that a dedication is the best way to curry favor, so here we goes...
To Nair for all the Curries and to Anu and Vijay Homie for all the Favors*...
[Choke Choke, Sniff]...
Words fail me thereafter...
Cheers
S
*P.S - Or Wuz Dat Flavas?
All ye dudes and dudettes, it was super fun meeting and phreaking with you on my India trip this time around... and hopefully we can do this sometime soon next year too, if not earlier...
Lavanya/Deepak, Jyoti/Sushanth - wonderful time outside Bangalore city limits... thanks so much for having me over at your homes, I had a blast...
Furthermore, will quickgun339 nom-de-geuring as NannaHesaruInspectorGarudaIsMyName please simply own up... For the life of me, I canna figure out who you are... Nimme real life hesaru is so not Inspector Garuda... and hopefully, you're not one of those actors from some Kannadiga sitcom, I may have met at Reddys (aka c&b watering hole) or BGs (aka alternative discotheque) or similar fancy locales...
Finally, I also once read somewhere that a dedication is the best way to curry favor, so here we goes...
To Nair for all the Curries and to Anu and Vijay Homie for all the Favors*...
[Choke Choke, Sniff]...
Words fail me thereafter...
Cheers
S
*P.S - Or Wuz Dat Flavas?
Friday, July 09, 2004
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
How To Write A Chinese Poem
The usual Chinese poem, I am told, is four lines and the composition runs thus so...
The first line contains the initial phrase, the second line is the continuation of that phrase. The third line turns from this subject and begins an entirely new one. The fourth line brings the first three lines together...
My two Renmimbi Yuan (or is it two bits, nah, we'll stick with the Yuan) on this poetic style:
Been working a decade in book keeping and finances
Somehow managed to delineate GAAP* and CRAP**
Earthquakes destroy all in their wake
But I ain't no shattered accountant, yet!!!
For the uninformed reader
*GAAP - Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
**CRAP - Cleverly Rigged Accounting Ploys
And with apologies to D Adams, I may just win a galactic award for worst poetry yet (finishing behind the Vogons and that lady in Sussex, of course)...
The first line contains the initial phrase, the second line is the continuation of that phrase. The third line turns from this subject and begins an entirely new one. The fourth line brings the first three lines together...
My two Renmimbi Yuan (or is it two bits, nah, we'll stick with the Yuan) on this poetic style:
Been working a decade in book keeping and finances
Somehow managed to delineate GAAP* and CRAP**
Earthquakes destroy all in their wake
But I ain't no shattered accountant, yet!!!
For the uninformed reader
*GAAP - Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
**CRAP - Cleverly Rigged Accounting Ploys
And with apologies to D Adams, I may just win a galactic award for worst poetry yet (finishing behind the Vogons and that lady in Sussex, of course)...
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Journey Into God's Own Country aka A Brief Kerala Road Trip
Hmmmm...
Been planning to attend Jyoti and Sushanth's wedding right off the bat for almost three weeks now but last minute meetings at work and a whole host of other factors (including my insufferable laziness to change my ticket bookings) saw me on the road to Kottayam, through Bangalore... The cast of characters this time had potentially included Sandeep "The Hunter" Menon, Nikesh "Where Am I Today" Pereira, Monseiur Rajesh Le Nair and me... Sandy did one numbers Shikhari Shambu vanishing act and had to excuse himself from the travails of travelling into God's Own Country whilst Nikesh had to work the weekend, so that left the remaining two little Indians... The agenda was very simple - attend Jyoti-Sushanth wedding and also sample the culinary delights of Kerala - Karimeen and Kallu or was it vice versa, I suddenly can't seem to remember... Anyways we dinna bother with any of those insufferable technicalities... After all, you don’t need an excuse to have a good time do you???
Nair and I, accompanied by his brother headed out from Bangalore to Kottayam, through Palakkad... Beautiful, gorgeous, idyllic, picturesque, scenic and all the other usual yada yada yada adjectivals to be applied here… what made the drive even better was the good roads, the NH7 all the way from Bangalore through Hosur, Krishagiri, Salem and Coimbatore and then the leap into Kerala state through the NH47... That took my breath away completely... The scrub and bush land of Tamizhl Nadu replaced by lush and verdant greenery... Paddy fields, banana and coconut plantations, semi-tropical jungle growth, the monsoons had done their turn and everything looked greener after the turn of the state border... We reached Nair's family home in Pallakad and stopped for lunch there... Good ersheri with rice topped off with payasam... Post a small siesta, Nair and I headed off down south towards Kottayam, passing Thrissur, Angamally and a few other back-of-the-bush towns... The best part was the drive on the ridge of the Western Ghats, quite steep and winding, with the attendant "watch out - dangerous curve ahead" every 200 meters or so... We were driving peacefully in most places and enjoying the view around us, the point of the journey being not to arrive... And reached Kottayam post 9 pm and met the other junta at some place "downtown" that served plenty of sea food, and liquor at ridiculously low prices, I suspect they must have been brewing some of that stuff inhouse - illegal stills, shhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Anyways we made merry till the almost wee hours of the next morning, when we remembered we had a wedding to attend... That got us all shook up, having been told tales since our childhood by the family equivalent of Aesop or the Brothers Grimm on how quick and short the marital ceremonies of the Nairs are compared to the other procrastinating castes and creeds in India... Almost legendary enough to warrant a reverse quote "Don’t Look Left Or Right, or You May Miss The Actual Wedding"... Ya, well we made it to the wedding on time, which finished on time, though some wise arse did have to make a mention that "Sushant's wedding took longer than most Mallu weddings I have attended"... I then realised the poor sod used to keep a stop watch and timer beside him on such occasions... Definitely has a part time career during any track and field olympics or similar event...
After a hearty kalyana sappad (read as Calories - ~100,000, here's to Talwalkars India!!!), we headed back from Kottayam... On the way back, we managed to stop at one of Nair's haunts from yesteryears - Kalyan Hotel for an excellent repast of Karimeen, Kalamakai and Kallu... Super Stuff, Super Stuff...
Fully sated, we headed back on the road wishing we did not have to leave... Well, there's always next weekend...
Peace
S
Been planning to attend Jyoti and Sushanth's wedding right off the bat for almost three weeks now but last minute meetings at work and a whole host of other factors (including my insufferable laziness to change my ticket bookings) saw me on the road to Kottayam, through Bangalore... The cast of characters this time had potentially included Sandeep "The Hunter" Menon, Nikesh "Where Am I Today" Pereira, Monseiur Rajesh Le Nair and me... Sandy did one numbers Shikhari Shambu vanishing act and had to excuse himself from the travails of travelling into God's Own Country whilst Nikesh had to work the weekend, so that left the remaining two little Indians... The agenda was very simple - attend Jyoti-Sushanth wedding and also sample the culinary delights of Kerala - Karimeen and Kallu or was it vice versa, I suddenly can't seem to remember... Anyways we dinna bother with any of those insufferable technicalities... After all, you don’t need an excuse to have a good time do you???
Nair and I, accompanied by his brother headed out from Bangalore to Kottayam, through Palakkad... Beautiful, gorgeous, idyllic, picturesque, scenic and all the other usual yada yada yada adjectivals to be applied here… what made the drive even better was the good roads, the NH7 all the way from Bangalore through Hosur, Krishagiri, Salem and Coimbatore and then the leap into Kerala state through the NH47... That took my breath away completely... The scrub and bush land of Tamizhl Nadu replaced by lush and verdant greenery... Paddy fields, banana and coconut plantations, semi-tropical jungle growth, the monsoons had done their turn and everything looked greener after the turn of the state border... We reached Nair's family home in Pallakad and stopped for lunch there... Good ersheri with rice topped off with payasam... Post a small siesta, Nair and I headed off down south towards Kottayam, passing Thrissur, Angamally and a few other back-of-the-bush towns... The best part was the drive on the ridge of the Western Ghats, quite steep and winding, with the attendant "watch out - dangerous curve ahead" every 200 meters or so... We were driving peacefully in most places and enjoying the view around us, the point of the journey being not to arrive... And reached Kottayam post 9 pm and met the other junta at some place "downtown" that served plenty of sea food, and liquor at ridiculously low prices, I suspect they must have been brewing some of that stuff inhouse - illegal stills, shhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Anyways we made merry till the almost wee hours of the next morning, when we remembered we had a wedding to attend... That got us all shook up, having been told tales since our childhood by the family equivalent of Aesop or the Brothers Grimm on how quick and short the marital ceremonies of the Nairs are compared to the other procrastinating castes and creeds in India... Almost legendary enough to warrant a reverse quote "Don’t Look Left Or Right, or You May Miss The Actual Wedding"... Ya, well we made it to the wedding on time, which finished on time, though some wise arse did have to make a mention that "Sushant's wedding took longer than most Mallu weddings I have attended"... I then realised the poor sod used to keep a stop watch and timer beside him on such occasions... Definitely has a part time career during any track and field olympics or similar event...
After a hearty kalyana sappad (read as Calories - ~100,000, here's to Talwalkars India!!!), we headed back from Kottayam... On the way back, we managed to stop at one of Nair's haunts from yesteryears - Kalyan Hotel for an excellent repast of Karimeen, Kalamakai and Kallu... Super Stuff, Super Stuff...
Fully sated, we headed back on the road wishing we did not have to leave... Well, there's always next weekend...
Peace
S
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask
hmmm, thought i'd garner some cheap attention with that one!!!
was listening to zappa sunday, while reading poe and for some strange reason was reminded of punky's whips, latex solar beef and pygmy twylyte... and was also aurally reminded by fransesco zappa (fl. 1743 - 1763?) that yuppies too go to hell... and chantilly, orion, dr. nichols, epicurus, stereotomy, the street stones, the fruiterer... that's how the entire chain runs in the rue morgue, if i'm not mistaken...
see you all soon at the upcoming garage acts, ii and iii, ii being the prelude and iii being the actual afternoon, and loads of prizes for guessing who the gas masks are...and please add corrupting impressionable youth to my endless list of offenses as general mayhem and poor manners amongst others, are permitted at most dos including these ones... yea, well... you are what you is, as the grand wazoo remarked... anyways, watch your mails for more d-tales...
cheers
s
P.S. Wherever I Should Have Used Capital Letters And Didn’t, It’s Because I'm On A Budget And Usually Conserve Them...
was listening to zappa sunday, while reading poe and for some strange reason was reminded of punky's whips, latex solar beef and pygmy twylyte... and was also aurally reminded by fransesco zappa (fl. 1743 - 1763?) that yuppies too go to hell... and chantilly, orion, dr. nichols, epicurus, stereotomy, the street stones, the fruiterer... that's how the entire chain runs in the rue morgue, if i'm not mistaken...
see you all soon at the upcoming garage acts, ii and iii, ii being the prelude and iii being the actual afternoon, and loads of prizes for guessing who the gas masks are...and please add corrupting impressionable youth to my endless list of offenses as general mayhem and poor manners amongst others, are permitted at most dos including these ones... yea, well... you are what you is, as the grand wazoo remarked... anyways, watch your mails for more d-tales...
cheers
s
P.S. Wherever I Should Have Used Capital Letters And Didn’t, It’s Because I'm On A Budget And Usually Conserve Them...
Friday, April 23, 2004
Kill Bill Deux
Well, the wait’s finally over and it seemed worth it after all!!!
Post Volume 1, arguably, the longest opening act in the history of cinema, Volume 2 served up Acts Deux and Trois in one convenient sitting…
I enjoyed the good cinematography, though it was excruciatingly slow during the first half and lacked the lustful bloodthirsty action of volume 1… there are a couple of super scenes though – Uma’s duel with Daryl Hannah, it was so much better than watching that other chick flick, you know the one where they mud wrestle and skydive… but a word of advice, if you are of a faint heart, you may want to close your eyes and ears during the duel … and the lonely grave of Paula Schulz, where Uma comes back from the dead, literal Poe-style horror!!!
Volumes 1 and 2 both go to prove that you don’t need a good storyline to make a great movie, you just need good writing and a great screenplay – the loaded references to pop-culture as well as the cunningly crafted take-off on the 70’s martial art flicks… for a brief moment, I was almost expecting Jet Li to pop out of the stonework… the opening scenes were shot pretty much in black and white, giving viewers the flashback feeling and to also provide some explanation of why volume 1 happened in the first place… the cinematography strangely reminiscent of Akira Kurasawa's panning… I did miss the fantastic hentai set from Volume 1, thought I'd get to see more of that... ah, well...
The second half had the potential to be a fitting finale to volume 1 though Tarantino introduced an emotional twist towards the end that pretty much didn’t behoove this sort of a flick, come on folks, I was expecting action and gore all the way and I mean the really blood splattered kind… That lops points off in my charts…
And lest i forget, a good enough backing sound track … each song, handpicked to background the mood and the melodrama…I was blown listening to a cover version of Santana’s “She’s Not There” sung to a very R&B-ish tune, the outtakes based on the scores from Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns and the RZA, as well as Shivaree singing "Goodnight Moon'
Afterthought – David Carradine’s character, Bill reminds me of a lisping Sylvester, out after Tweety… no other noticeable trait, i thought i thaw a puddy tat
All told, if you liked the first one or are searching for the answers as to why she roared and she rampaged, try the second helping, who knows, you may even walk away realizing there really are no good people in QT’s decadent universe… I personally give it a 7.5 on 10…
Cheers…
S
Post Volume 1, arguably, the longest opening act in the history of cinema, Volume 2 served up Acts Deux and Trois in one convenient sitting…
I enjoyed the good cinematography, though it was excruciatingly slow during the first half and lacked the lustful bloodthirsty action of volume 1… there are a couple of super scenes though – Uma’s duel with Daryl Hannah, it was so much better than watching that other chick flick, you know the one where they mud wrestle and skydive… but a word of advice, if you are of a faint heart, you may want to close your eyes and ears during the duel … and the lonely grave of Paula Schulz, where Uma comes back from the dead, literal Poe-style horror!!!
Volumes 1 and 2 both go to prove that you don’t need a good storyline to make a great movie, you just need good writing and a great screenplay – the loaded references to pop-culture as well as the cunningly crafted take-off on the 70’s martial art flicks… for a brief moment, I was almost expecting Jet Li to pop out of the stonework… the opening scenes were shot pretty much in black and white, giving viewers the flashback feeling and to also provide some explanation of why volume 1 happened in the first place… the cinematography strangely reminiscent of Akira Kurasawa's panning… I did miss the fantastic hentai set from Volume 1, thought I'd get to see more of that... ah, well...
The second half had the potential to be a fitting finale to volume 1 though Tarantino introduced an emotional twist towards the end that pretty much didn’t behoove this sort of a flick, come on folks, I was expecting action and gore all the way and I mean the really blood splattered kind… That lops points off in my charts…
And lest i forget, a good enough backing sound track … each song, handpicked to background the mood and the melodrama…I was blown listening to a cover version of Santana’s “She’s Not There” sung to a very R&B-ish tune, the outtakes based on the scores from Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns and the RZA, as well as Shivaree singing "Goodnight Moon'
Afterthought – David Carradine’s character, Bill reminds me of a lisping Sylvester, out after Tweety… no other noticeable trait, i thought i thaw a puddy tat
All told, if you liked the first one or are searching for the answers as to why she roared and she rampaged, try the second helping, who knows, you may even walk away realizing there really are no good people in QT’s decadent universe… I personally give it a 7.5 on 10…
Cheers…
S
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
An Evening With Dream Theater
“It's been a long time comin’; it's goin' to be a long time gone
And it appears to be a long, appears to be a long; appears to be a long time
Yes, a long, long, long, long time before the dawn”
No worries, that wasn’t me at Woodstock 1969, listening to CSN, more like me less than a week ago upto my ears jammed with Dream Theater… and here it comes at last… I just had to get off my butt and write this up before there was some sort of an involuntary memory lapse on this one – the DT “Train of Thought” concert tour in NYC’s Madison Square Garden. I was watching them live for the first time, the last I had seen them in concert was on the DVD of the Scenes from a Memory tour way back in 2001. The usual gang of suspects – Satish, Shanky and me and accompanied by Megs who was traveling through NYC at that time – landed up at the garden on time for the show and what a set it was.
The lads started of with a video collage that traced their history of 18 odd years all the way through their Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence album; fortunately we managed to watch most parts of it as we were seated in a place where we could not see the center screens.
And then hell broke loose for the next three and a half hours – opening act of “As I Am” from their most recent ToT album, followed by “This Dying Soul”, also from ToT before they just did an about face and reached back into days of future passed (with apologies to the Moody Blues). Mike Portnoy’s drum kit was huge, we managed to snatch glimpses of it through the set, the most impressive piece being the triple bass and bell set he had constructed for the show.
The play was essentially spread through 2 sets totaling over three hours and featured all of their 8 studio albums, with ToT taking limelight. There were performances of very rarely heard live ones through the set and I was almost sent into intensive care, a’la that retro chick from the Outkast video of Hey Ya, when they played an EP of “Beyond This Life” from 1999’s Scenes From a Memory album.
There was an superb instrumental jam featuring Rudess and Petrucci conducted through video by Frank Zappa, hey what the… don’t hold your noses, no BS here, they were actually showing a montage of Zappa from the Baby Snakes DVD conducting the jam and I believe we all went berserk, more because the jam was eerily reminiscent of Zappa’s compositions/music!!!
Myung remained his usual reserved self and didn’t hog the camera eye but what the FCUK, what a phenomenal display of “fret”ful dexterity – he just PHREAKED out on the Chapman Stick, just 2 handed finger tapping, the sound at the garden comprised 2 rows of speaker arrays, I think that’s the latest and the greatest in industrial audio technology these days and packing quite the punch, almost blew our ears off.
First set tracks included “Trial of Tears” and “Hollow Years”, from the Falling Into Infinity album, both crowd faves/raves as well as The Great Debate, one of the songs that they wrote up on genome research, though I personally preferred the sheet music to the lyrical content.
Second set saw them start with Metropolis Part I, from the 1992 killer album, Images and Words and moving onto the lengthy “A Mind Beside Itself”. The great treat was the video featurette from the “Dead Poets Society” for the Change of Seasons track, oh freak, that sent me over the edge. Listen, you hear it? Carpe, hear it? Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys; make your lives extraordinary… I think that was the track where I must have screamed myself voiceless…
And Guess Who or more appropriately what, Portnoy, not be “undun” invites a couple of guys, one from the mosh pit and one from the arena equivalent of the “back benchers” to play on set with him… more an exercise in crowd agitation, if you ask me, but whew!!! I think he went into a jam with Rudess that lasted close to 10-15 minutes and had most of us in the audience turning tricks. Final closure was to Pull Me Under, again from the IAW album.
Afterthought – these blokes are slowly turning into the progressive rock version of Garcia and the Grateful Dead with incredible jams, shuffling set lists across evenings and concerts and performing EP improv versions on their smaller songs.
Post that mindfk experience, all we could do was head out to the Village at 1 am, to the Bitter End, a pub that serves ridiculously overpriced single malt – we drank to the accompaniment of the house band, Dog Eatz Dawg, I think it was, playing an extremely good cover of Neil Young’s “Keep On Rocking In The Free World”… Fitting Finale!!!!
Peace out y’all
S
And it appears to be a long, appears to be a long; appears to be a long time
Yes, a long, long, long, long time before the dawn”
No worries, that wasn’t me at Woodstock 1969, listening to CSN, more like me less than a week ago upto my ears jammed with Dream Theater… and here it comes at last… I just had to get off my butt and write this up before there was some sort of an involuntary memory lapse on this one – the DT “Train of Thought” concert tour in NYC’s Madison Square Garden. I was watching them live for the first time, the last I had seen them in concert was on the DVD of the Scenes from a Memory tour way back in 2001. The usual gang of suspects – Satish, Shanky and me and accompanied by Megs who was traveling through NYC at that time – landed up at the garden on time for the show and what a set it was.
The lads started of with a video collage that traced their history of 18 odd years all the way through their Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence album; fortunately we managed to watch most parts of it as we were seated in a place where we could not see the center screens.
And then hell broke loose for the next three and a half hours – opening act of “As I Am” from their most recent ToT album, followed by “This Dying Soul”, also from ToT before they just did an about face and reached back into days of future passed (with apologies to the Moody Blues). Mike Portnoy’s drum kit was huge, we managed to snatch glimpses of it through the set, the most impressive piece being the triple bass and bell set he had constructed for the show.
The play was essentially spread through 2 sets totaling over three hours and featured all of their 8 studio albums, with ToT taking limelight. There were performances of very rarely heard live ones through the set and I was almost sent into intensive care, a’la that retro chick from the Outkast video of Hey Ya, when they played an EP of “Beyond This Life” from 1999’s Scenes From a Memory album.
There was an superb instrumental jam featuring Rudess and Petrucci conducted through video by Frank Zappa, hey what the… don’t hold your noses, no BS here, they were actually showing a montage of Zappa from the Baby Snakes DVD conducting the jam and I believe we all went berserk, more because the jam was eerily reminiscent of Zappa’s compositions/music!!!
Myung remained his usual reserved self and didn’t hog the camera eye but what the FCUK, what a phenomenal display of “fret”ful dexterity – he just PHREAKED out on the Chapman Stick, just 2 handed finger tapping, the sound at the garden comprised 2 rows of speaker arrays, I think that’s the latest and the greatest in industrial audio technology these days and packing quite the punch, almost blew our ears off.
First set tracks included “Trial of Tears” and “Hollow Years”, from the Falling Into Infinity album, both crowd faves/raves as well as The Great Debate, one of the songs that they wrote up on genome research, though I personally preferred the sheet music to the lyrical content.
Second set saw them start with Metropolis Part I, from the 1992 killer album, Images and Words and moving onto the lengthy “A Mind Beside Itself”. The great treat was the video featurette from the “Dead Poets Society” for the Change of Seasons track, oh freak, that sent me over the edge. Listen, you hear it? Carpe, hear it? Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys; make your lives extraordinary… I think that was the track where I must have screamed myself voiceless…
And Guess Who or more appropriately what, Portnoy, not be “undun” invites a couple of guys, one from the mosh pit and one from the arena equivalent of the “back benchers” to play on set with him… more an exercise in crowd agitation, if you ask me, but whew!!! I think he went into a jam with Rudess that lasted close to 10-15 minutes and had most of us in the audience turning tricks. Final closure was to Pull Me Under, again from the IAW album.
Afterthought – these blokes are slowly turning into the progressive rock version of Garcia and the Grateful Dead with incredible jams, shuffling set lists across evenings and concerts and performing EP improv versions on their smaller songs.
Post that mindfk experience, all we could do was head out to the Village at 1 am, to the Bitter End, a pub that serves ridiculously overpriced single malt – we drank to the accompaniment of the house band, Dog Eatz Dawg, I think it was, playing an extremely good cover of Neil Young’s “Keep On Rocking In The Free World”… Fitting Finale!!!!
Peace out y’all
S
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