Song of the Day, Jan 31st 2006

Couldn't resist putting this on the blog (even though I emailed it to most of the junta). It is a very soulful rendition of the Indian National anthem by AR Rahman and some of the best musicians in the country. I loved it. Hope everyone enjoys it!
Smita

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7399792002477900458

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 29, 2006

This post has a couple of songs -- one by kishore da and one my MS. Both the songs incredibly well rendered by the respective singers and I guess most of us have heard these two songs before.

Song: Mere Naina Saawan Bhadon (listen)
Singer: Kishore Kumar
Composer: R D Burman
Movie: Mehbooba

Song: Kurai Ondrum Illai (listen)
Singer: M S Subbulakshmi
Composer: Rajaji

Reason for the post: I had a hunch that the two were in the same ragam and did some research on them. Turns out that 'Mere Naina ...' is based on the Raga Sivaranjani (is this right?) . And 'Kurai Ondrum ...' is a ragamalika with the first part (pallavi, anupallavi and the first charanam) in Sivaranjani. (fundaes)

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 28, 2006

This post illustrates the genius of Ilayaraja ...

First listen to this song:
Song: Vaidehi Raman (listen)
Singer: S Janaki
Composer: Ilayaraja
Movie: Pagal Nilavu

This is a song in raga Kalyani (which i hear is Ilayaraja's favourite raga). But then .. the song has a lot of other ragas in it ... and there seems to be a deep conneciton between all the ragas used in the song. The fundaes are clearly explained in this post (on some other blog) that I found. So next read this

Fundaes on the song

Now listen to the song again ... and enjoy ...

>>read more...

Bayesian filters to predict Sundance winners(From Slashdot)

Excerpts from the article:
"The most entertaining part of Unspam's analysis is the deconstruction of the film descriptions in the festival's program written by selection committee members. Prince and his crew came up with two lists: words that "make you golden" or are "the kiss of death."

Golden: academic, accomplished, bedroom, complex, dialogue, dream, death, focus, girl, human, high, journey, love, mother, narrative, romance, relationship, superbly, sex, ultimately.

Kiss of death: Africa, America, American, beautiful, black, best, emotional, fascinating, great, inspired, lake, new, riveting, Sundance, sexy, story, subtitles, truth, vision, world.

"A lot of adjectives, like 'riveting' ... that's a bad indication," Prince said. "Whereas words that are tangible tend to be pretty good things."

>>read more...

'Politicians (and other human beings) are emotional fools'

Both Parties Ignore the Facts (Slashdot) (Original Article)

"The test subjects on both sides of the political aisle reached totally biased conclusions by ignoring information that could not rationally be discounted, Westen and his colleagues say....
The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making."

And, on a totally unrelated note, apparently (from the same website) adult brain cells do keep growing.

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 25, 2006

Song: Neeye Neeye (listen)
Singer: Kay Kay
Composer: Srikant Deva
Movie: M Kumaran s/o Mahalaxmi

>>read more...

Winter

White as Snow, the saying goes
I see today, as the Beebe flows
Never a picture painted before
Turned my quill to carve an ode
Evergreens disguised in winter's hue
Replete my heart with verve anew.

>>read more...

iitian political party

This seems straight out of Yuva ! Check this out !

Times of India link

>>read more...

" ... you taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulte the system ... "

This page contains a collection of very good Calvin and Hobbes strips ...

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 22, 2006

Song: Yeh Hai Meri Kahani (listen) (lyrics)
Artist: Strings
Movie: Zinda

The song has very deep lyrics ...

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 21, 2006

Song: Dreams (napster) (lyrics)
Artist: Cranberries
Album: Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Cant We? (also OST "You've Got Mail")

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 20, 2006

Song: Kanda Naal Mudhalai (listen)
Artist: Pooja, Subhiksha
Composer: Yvan Shankar Raja
Movie: Kanda Naal Mudhal

A classical song. (fundaes?)

P.S.: Pappu - the humble MAC owner - requires the advertisement of the fact "This Post Was Made From His MAC and hence Should Sound Better"
P.P.S: ... and you thought writing a mail from a Blackberry was impressive !!!!
P.P.P.S: YRR OK .....

>>read more...

Google: Big-time privacy breach waiting to happen?

(Slashdot) U.S. Government Wants Google Search Records (Original Article)
Immediately reminded me about 1d blowing his top the other day about the collection of biometric information.

I would have said Google won't give in, but this worries me (from the article):
"The government indicated that other, unspecified search engines have agreed to release the information, but not Google."

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 19, 2006

Song: I'm no Superman (listen/watch) (lyrics)
Artist: Lazlo Bane
Album: All the Time in the World

This song is the theme song for the TV sitcom 'Scrubs' (yes the one with Zach Braff). It has very interesting lyrics ...

(You may need IE to view the video ... )

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 18, 2006

Song: nalam vAzha ennAlum en vAzhthukkal (listen) (lyrics)
Singer: S P B
Composer: Ilayaraja
Movie: Marupadiyum

Quite a well known song. One of those simple songs with very good lyrics and immaculately well sung. Should try and translate the lyrics at some point of time. The first line of the song means ... "I wish you live happily for ever"

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 17, 2006

Song: Oru Naal Podhuma (listen)
Singer: Balamuralikrishna M
Composer: K V Mahadevan
Lyrics : Kannadasan
Movie: Thiruvilaiyadal

This is a semi-classical song from a very old Tamil movie, "Thiruvilayadal", one of A P Nagarajan's mythological masterpieces. The main song is in the ragam Mandu, I think. But dont miss the ragamalika (a sequence of lines, each sung in a different ragam) at the end. The lyrics are so beautifully written that the name of the ragam falls within each line and yet the meaning fits well with the overall theme of the song.

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 16, 2006

Its time the Ganguly's and the Lata's knew ....

"... time is fast, time is cruel,
with it everyday you duel
you be good, you be great,
surely catch up with you it will
you be smart, you look bold,
make sure you dont look like kill ..." (words of wisdom)

Song: Khoon Chala (listen) (lyrics)
Singer: Mohil Chauhan
Composer: A R Rahman
Movie: Rang De Basanti

There are other potentially good tracks in this album (Paatshala, Title Track, etc). But I will not recommend them till I see the movie (i have a feeling they will be very good in the movie).

Mohil Chauhan's voice, by the way, is quite familiar. He is the lead singer of Silk Route (remember Dooba Dooba ...).

And yes ... Lata sings a song (Luka Chuppi, with A R Rahman) in this album ...

>>read more...

Microsoft map of India (now just Bangalore)

You must have read about this on the news. Here's the actual map, in case you haven't been able/bothered to find it yet. And the project page. (Among other things, it says, "even though the underlying technology can scale very well, our current site is fairly small – implemented on 3 servers -- and can easily get swamped if too many people try to use the system."). Now it has details only of Bangalore. But whatever it has seems to be well-detailed -- down to the last 'cross-road' and 'main-road'. But don't know how accurate.

And the map seems to show some labels in Tamil by default -- click on English/Kannada (why not ;) above to change to other language if needed. (Before Muthu starts smirking about the Tam feature, lemme point out that Chennai is not pointed out on the map, so maybe they are compensating)

Way to go! But I was expecting Google to be the first to do this -- look out for Google to hit back with something better in the near future!

And yes, I know what time it is :)

-Vivek

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 14, 2006

Song: Ennai Pandhada (listen)
Singer: Srinivas, Madhumita
Composer: Harris Jeyaraj
Movie: Ullam Ketkume

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 13, 2006

Song: Ragam Thanam Pallavi (Sarangi and Mandolin Jugalbandhi) (listen)
Artists: U. Shrinivas, Ustad Sultan Khan

Ragam: Dharmavathy (i dont know whether this is right)

Can someone put fundaes on the piece ?

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 12, 2006

Song: Mayilirage (listen)(video)
Singer: Naresh Iyer, Madhushree
Composer: A R Rahman
Movie: Ah ... Aah

A pretty good song -- has a catchy tune, but very poor enunciation of the lyrics by the singer. Has a vague retro touch to it.

This song has the worst music video I have ever seen.

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 11, 2006

Continuing with the picks of 2005 ...

Song: Nizhalinai Nijamum (listen)
Singer: Vijay Yesudas, Yuvan Shankar Raja
Composer: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Movie: Raam

I did not see this movie but heard good things about the concept of the movie. Supposedly about an autistic dude who is suspected for his mother's murder. The song itself has deep lyrics and has been very well sung by first timer Vijay Yesudas.

>>read more...

Song of the Day, Jan 10, 2006

I am back! This one is my nomination for the best tamil song of 2005 ... why? a very stylish yet melodious rendition by Karthik & a very stylishly choreographed music video ... a must listen if you have not heard it yet

Song: Oru Maalai (listen) (lyrics)(video)
Singer: Karthik
Composer: Harris Jeyaraj
Album: Ghajini

>>read more...