Cribbers' Junction: March 2006

Friday, March 31, 2006

Columbian documentary and short film festival

This is a repost from international-l:

This friday March 31st, saturady April 1st and 2nd "1st Colombian
Documentary & Short-Film Festival at Cornell University",
organice by Luis Enrique Caicedo, with the support of CUSLAR and LASP.

http://colombiandocufilm.tripod.com/programacion.html

March Friday 31
6:30PM-11:00PM Mac Graw Hall 165

April Sat. 1, 2006 10:00AM - 11:00PM
Goldwin Smith HEC Auditorium

April Sun 2. 2006 10:00AM- 6:00PM
Goldwin Smith HEC Auditorium

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Ugadi special :)

I hadn't called home for a few days and it completely skipped my web-crawling radar!

Ugadi is one my favorite festivals. Apart from the all-delicious and mouth-watering pachchadi, Ugadi conjures up so many images and smells.. Our Mango tree must have started flowering abundantly and all over, spreading it's characteristic fragrance.. We carefully pluck the bright green leaves, making sure that we don't jerk the delicate flowers and tie them on the entrance door.. Jack fruit and chickoo trees come a close second in this tropical fruit race. And we officially start our summer-wear on this day too.. Loose cotton-jubbas for kids, well-starched cotton saris for women :)

Those of us who can read Telugu, read our rasi-phalas from the new panchangam, pre-cogging our yearly fortunes. They have a small summary table telling you on a relative scale how much you will earn (aadayam) and how much you will spend (vyayam), how many people you'll befriend and how many you won't :)

It's also a time for Doordarshan to show-case our literary traditions in impromptu poetry..

The hot summers of India couldn't ask for a more warm welcome from us :)

Happy Ugadi

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

(English) Song of the Day, Mar 28, 2006

Song: Octavarium (napster)
Album: Octavarium
Artist: Dream Theatre

Recently was at a Dream Theatre concert (which was really good). For those who have not heard of Dream Theatre -- they call themselves as theatrical heavy metal. One of their best compositions is "A Change of Seasons", considered by many as the best orchestration by a heavy metal band.

Coming back to this song, the opening part of this song (sounds like the opening of "Shine on .." Floyd) features an instrument called the Continuum Fingerboard. It has a 2-D surface on which running the finger in either direction gives a different note (on an almost continuous scale). There is also a third dimension -- pressure exerted on the surface. I thought the instrument was really cool.

Friday, March 24, 2006

(Hindi) Song of the Day, March 24 2006

Song: Mere dil mein aaj kya hai
Movie: Daag (1973)
Singer: The one and only- Kishore Kumar
Composer: Laxmikant Pyarelal

For some reason, this is one of my favourite old romantic songs...has a nostalgic feel to it.
Btw, it would have been my parents' 34th wedding anniversary today- this song is dedicated to them!!!

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/17/s/movie_name.623/

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

On life, universe and physicist hackers...

Interesting article ... [via indiauncut]

" ... our universe was created not by a divine being, but by a physicist hacker ... "

" ... But who created the physicist hacker? ... "

(Hindi) Song of the Day, Mar 21, 2006

These days Mahesh Bhatt movies have got their music right -- fresh and new singers giving their best (mann ki lagan, woh lamhe, etc). Yet another 'new' singer features in the latest Bhatt movie -- James aka 'Guru', a rockstar from Bangladesh. The music is scored by Prittam (of Dhoom fame) ...

"He is like the Hendrix of Bangladesh. Though he has never sung in Hindi I will still take a chance on this because of his unique style."

Song: Bheegi Bheegi (listen)
Singer: James
Composer: Prittam
Movie: Gangster

The movie itself sounds quite interesting -- seems to be based on the love story of Abu Salem and Monica Bedi -- featuring Shiney Ahuja (or the Hazaaron .. fame), Kangna Ranaut and Emran Hashmi.

Yet another very good song from this movie ...

Song: Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai (listen)
Singer: K K
Composer: Prittam

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Very interesting take on the Arab-Jew conflict

Here's a link to the video of the interview, and the transcript.
Notice the speaker's origin (Arab), and the channel this interview was shown on (Al-jazeera) , and the message is all the more striking. What she says is very in line with some of our own earlier discussions.
Apparently she is now facing threats (as can be expected).

(Carnatic) Song of the Day, Mar 18, 2006

Song: Enna Thavam (listen)
Singer: S P Ramh
Ragam: Kapi
Thalam: Adi
Composer: Papanasam Sivan

Friday, March 17, 2006

(Tamil) Song of the Day, Mar 17, 2006

Song: Eno Kangal (listen)
Singer: Sadhna Sargam, Yuvan Shankar Raja
Composer: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Movie: Kalvannin Kadhali

At first Yuvan's singing sounded a bit jarring, but then the tune is so catchy that I am totally hooked onto the song! (The song is picturized on SJ Suryah and i dont think he deserves better singing anyway).

Thursday, March 16, 2006

(English) Song of the Day, Mar 16, 2006

Song: Black Horse and the Cherry Tree (listen/see)
Artist: K T Tunstall

A very good song.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

(English) Song of the Day, Mar 15, 2006

Song: Saving Me (listen/see)
Artist: Nickelback
Album: All the Right Reasons

Posted the song mainly for the video ... it is very interesting to say the least.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

(Hindi) Song of the Day, Mar 14, 2006

Song: Naina Neer Bahai (listen)
Singer: Sadhana Sargam (i think)
Music: A R Rahman
Movie: Water

All tracks in this album are great ! Bangri Marori and Piya Ho are other very good tracks.

Monday, March 13, 2006

(Tamil) Song of the Day, Mar 13, 2006

I thought I had heard all the songs from the new Ajith flick, Godfather (and written them off), when my friend told me to listen to this one.

Song: Innisai (also the remix verison) (listen)
Singer: Naresh Iyer, Mahathi and Saindhavi
Movie: Godfather
Composer: A R Rahman

This is a gem of a song. The song grows on you. The orchestrations are beautiful and the song is rendered very fluently. There is a remix version too which is quite good, giving Rahman some more chances to improvise. Though I did not find the non classical improvisations in the remix that great, the percussion improvisations in the opening sequence and at 3:05 into the song are very good. Again Naresh Iyer does a great job with the vocals.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

GoogleFasting !! Are you ?

Googlefasting[via] seems to be the latest thing catching on ...

(Tamil) Song of the Day, Mar 12, 2006

Movie: Vettaiyadu Vilayadu (listen)
Composer: Harris Jeyaraj

So the audio for newest Kamal movie 'Vettaiyadu Vilayadu' is out! Was a lot of hype surrounding it -- esp because harris jeyaraj and gowtham menon combined to give one of the slickest flick in tamil cinema - Kaakha Kaakha. Vettaiyadu ... is sort of a sequel to Kaakha Kaakha. Anbuselvan (Surya) from Kaakha .. was the dashing young cop takling goons in madras; while Raghavan (Kamal) is a middle aged cop hunting a serial killer leading him to NYC.

The music for 'Vettaiyadu ...' does not seem to be in the same league as that of Kaakha Kaakha, or Anniyan or even Ghajini. But some Harris songs sound really good in the movie (and they usually dont catch your attention immediately but grow on you)... so lets wait for the movie ... The songs are a bit on the slower side compared to Kaakha ... -- possibly keeping with the fact that the cop is now middle aged.

Song: Karka Karka ...

My pick from the album. This track is really cool. (Not for people who dont like hip-hop). I feel karthik might have fit the song better. The movie might be quite slick ...

Song: Uyirile

This one is a nice slow track -- sounds like a typical kamal love song (reminded of "Porkalam .." from Thenali). Well sung by Mahalaxmi Iyer and Srinivas

Song: Manjal Veiyil

I was not fascinated by this song .. but might go on to become a major hit.

Song: Paartha Mudhal ...

Harris Jeyaraj => Bombay Jeyashree ... Sort of sounds like Suttrum Vizhi .. from Ghajini, but not as good.

Timepass...

Very funny and interesting (assuming it's true that is)
http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit/
http://www.zug.com/pranks/visa/index03.html

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Spring Navrathri 2006

Posted by Picasa

Song of the day, Mar 11

Song: Chandana Charchita (listen)
Singer: P. Susheela
Lyrics: Jayadeva
Music: Vishwanathan-Ramamurthy

This composition is an Ashtapadi from Jayadeva's Geeta-Govinda. Last night we saw an odissi performance set to an Ashtapadi from the same and that reminded me of this great piece from Tenali Ramakrishna.

Here's a link on Geeta-Govinda.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Song of the Day, Mar 09, 2006

Song: Boi'i (Come With Me) (napster) (translation)
Artist: Idan Raichel Project

Yes the song is in Hebrew (and I do not understand a word ... well i do because of the translation).

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Song of the Day, Mar 07, 2006

Top two headlines in Google News are --
2 blasts rock Varanasi ...
Fears over Iranian research ...

But why ??

Song: Ishwar Allah (listen)
Singer: Anuradha Sriram, Sujata Mohan
Composer: A R Rahman
Movie: 1942 Earth

See the comments for a full translation of the song. Every word in the song is meaningful; it is a pity translation does kill some meaning.

India ...

This is an abcnews clip on india ...

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Song of the Day, Mar 04, 2006

Song : Bhor Ai Gaya Andhiyara (listen)
Singer: Chattopadhyaya H, Kishore Kumar, Lakshmi Shankar, Manna Dey, Nirmala Devi
Movie: Bawarchi

A request from smita ...

Friday, March 03, 2006

Where do you want to drive today?

Microsoft has taken mapping to a new level: http://preview.local.live.com/ has personal views of driving around Seattle and LA. This is supposedly a preview; they might be extending it to other places.
Not sure what value it serves, but sure is interesting.

Btw, Microsoft Virtual Earth is pretty good. It comfortably beats Google maps when it comes to (aerial) mapping Ithaca. Here's the Microsoft view of my place, and here's Google's.
(Choose the satellite/aerial options to get the views). Don't know about an overall comparison though.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Customer Care

Found a couple of interesting posts on customer *care* ...

This is a hilarious video about a "call centre".

This is a funny post on customer care in 2020!!

Song of the Day, Mar 2, 2006

A fun song .. most of you must have heard this one before ...

Song: Beverly Hills (listen/see)(napster)
Artist: Weezer
Album: Make Believe