Yellow Submarine

For a long time, I didn't like The Beatles. They weren't real rockers, I'd say. The first 'Boy Band', was the epithet that I handed out to them. All that changed when I first heard "Norwegian Wood". Then other stuff started making sense, and I picked up other old bands like CCR. Rolling Stones still sucks, by the way. Wannabes...

And I used to publicly decry The Beatles, and (may I say it in the same breath?) even Bob Dylan. And at some time, quite recently, new age bands like Linkinpark.

The point of all this being?

No one's ready to debate with with me about exactly what it is that they like about the stuff that is trance (Rap, R&B etc. people still allude to singing).

I'm not saying that I'd listen to it with a dispassionate mind. I'm heavily opinionated. But, I'm also old. Older at any rate.

I happen to have a set of criteria for music. Essentially the same old classical stuff. Meter, notes, chords, lyrics, mood, and of course, lastly the tune. Debating the tune of a song is as insulting as talking about the syntax of a language, grammatical correctness of written communication, the smoothness of a spirit, the truthfulness in a relationship, the taste (not flavour) of food... it is a forgone conclusion.

Beats per minute? I know of human percussionists who can do more BPMs than the ear can tell apart.

I remember a short story by a popular author, a sci-fi thingi, that talked about a Utopian society. It was a society where all aggression was weeded out. Some poor fellow finds some Dylan songs (in print), and causes a revolution. And it's believable. I believe Trance can't do that.

It can't make people think.

That's the difference between good rock songs and great rock songs. Great rock songs make you think.

And this is the dissertation that I can't seem to make when I'm with my friends who listen to trance. I can't get them to make comparisons between the two, along the kind of arguments that I've posed just now.

Now, I shall go ahead and undo the entire dissertation by saying that there is such a thing as free will.

There is such a thing as free will. And people are free to chose, at least in this country, last time I heard, what kind of music they want to listen to.

It still makes a nice drunken conversation, if you are willing to entertain me. Like all other drunken discussions, it is guaranteed last and have no result in sight.

And in case you're wondering about the title of this post, what I've dared to talk about makes it amply clear...

Maybe my opinions should've been darker?

P.S. The lyrics are here.

New Theme

Finally time for spring cleaning. Yeah yeah, I know it's still winter on most of the land surface on earth.

Like it? You might also want to check out the new daily cartoons listed in the "Noteworthy Links" section. Both are really good :).

Why Blog?

So a friend of mine named Sumit recently posted an entry on his blog by the same title.

So rather than express, in detail, his question all over again, I thought I might make an entry of my own on the topic.

Why do I blog? My very own two seconds of fame? To be immortalised for posterity in the somewhat lame hope that someday, in some future civilization, it might actually be considered good reading material? Or maybe to give an opening to myself to rant about stuff that would just make other people uncomfortable if I tried to tell them about it. There's also the possibility that it gives me an ego boost, "Look Ma, I'm publishing."

I think the main reason that I blog is because I'm bored. It is exciting to find that someones made a comment on my blog, I'll be the first to agree with that. However, I don't necessarily regard myself as a serious blogger, mainly because, if I was, I wouldn't be frequently be stuck with "Bloggers' block".

That said, I am attracted to the devious pleasure of writng somethingthat anyone anywhere can read. Do you think that you'd blog if a blog was private? Might as well keep a journal or a diary, right? A blog is a bit like an Orkut scrapbook. The main pleasure is in keeping it public, saying that I have a voice and that I want to be heard by everyone who cares. There are people I know who don't keep their orkut scraps, and delete them, because it violates their sense of privacy. Stick to email people!

The third reason I'd give is pride :). It really gives me a kick tosee the statcounter counter rolling.

So there you have it Sumit. What's your excuse?

P.S. Yeah, the party was fun. We should do it again soon. Ginger Court tomorrow? It is Thursday night :), and the fish fingers are back.

And then there was light

I was just feeling drowsy. Almost there. Sleep would be round the corner.

I'd been reading a particularly interesting book by Carl Sagan called"Broca's Brain".

Feeling sleepy.

Tiring day.

And just then the tiny critters stopped flowing.

For some vague unfathomable reason Mr. Sandman's tiny specs of dust also disappeared.

What do I do now? I'll blog. Haven't done that in a long time.

And just as I was reaching this particular sentence of my story, rightabout the place where I said "time", something miraculous happened.

:) Can't fault the dude's timing, can you?

Painful week

Until this week, I hadn't been piaying every one of the days that I
was staying in Hyderabad. I was playing only on one or two well
separated days.

This week, I've gone and done something that, in retrospect, seems
quite stupid. I've played on all three available days. The result is
that my legs are quite dead :(.

I think I'll take a break tomorrow. Then again, it's just one more
day. And there's the weekend to rest on.

Right now, all I want to do is hit the sack. I didn't know that
losing weight was going to be so painful.

G'night folks.

Life is good

I've started a new way of life. I play everyday, I sleep off by
midnight, wake up early, go to office early, eat breakfast, and kinda
finish most of my crucial work by noon.

Let's hope I can keep this up. I'll then be back in shape in o time :).

I'm back... For real...

It's been a long day... but still... WELCOME BACK :)

So I'm back. And I promise to remain so for some time at least. I have had quite a twist in my life now. I've moved to Hyderabad from Pune, and am now employed with Microsoft IDC. A very interesting change I might say.

I'll keep you updated from now on.

:) Let's bring on the former glory.