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Stop SOPA / PIPA - Save The Internet!!

2012-01-18T10:23:00.001-08:00

And its time You did something about it!

If you hadn't heard of SOPA before, you probably have by now: Some of the internet's most influential sites—Reddit and Wikipedia among them— have gone dark to protest the much-maligned anti-piracy bill. But other than being a very bad thing, what is SOPA/PIPA? And what will it mean for you if it passes?

SOPA/PIPA is an anti-piracy bill working its way through Congress...

House Judiciary Committee Chair and Texas Republican Lamar Smith, along with 12 co-sponsors, introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act on October 26th of last year. Debate on H.R. 3261, as it's formally known, has consisted of one hearing on November 16th and a "mark-up period" on December 15th, which was designed to make the bill more agreeable to both parties. Its counterpart in the Senate is the Protect IP Act (S. 968). Also known by its cuter-but-still-deadly name: PIPA. There will likely be a vote on PIPA next Wednesday; SOPA discussions had been placed on hold but will resume in February of this year.

...that would grant content creators extraordinary power over the internet...

The beating heart of SOPA is the ability of intellectual property owners (read: movie studios and record labels) to effectively pull the plug on foreign sites against whom they have a copyright claim. If Warner Bros., for example, says that a site in Italy is torrenting a copy of The Dark Knight, the studio could demand that Google remove that site from its search results, that PayPal no longer accept payments to or from that site, that ad services pull all ads and finances from it, and—most dangerously—that the site's ISP prevent people from even going there.

...which would go almost comedically unchecked...

Perhaps the most galling thing about SOPA in its original construction is that it let IP owners take these actions without a single court appearance or judicial sign-off. All it required was a single letter claiming a "good faith belief" that the target site has infringed on its content. Once Google or PayPal or whoever received the quarantine notice, they would have five days to either abide or to challenge the claim in court. Rights holders still have the power to request that kind of blockade, but in the most recent version of the bill the five day window has softened, and companies now would need the court's permission.

The language in SOPA implies that it's aimed squarely at foreign offenders; that's why it focuses on cutting off sources of funding and traffic (generally US-based) rather than directly attacking a targeted site (which is outside of US legal jurisdiction) directly. But that's just part of it.

...to the point of potentially creating an "Internet Blacklist"...

Here's the other thing: Payment processors or content providers like Visa or YouTube don't even need a letter shut off a site's resources. The bill's "vigilante" provision gives broad immunity to any provider who proactively shutters sites it considers to be infringers. Which means the MPAA just needs to publicize one list of infringing sites to get those sites blacklisted from the internet.

Potential for abuse is rampant. As Public Knowledge points out, Google could easily take it upon itself to delist every viral video site on the internet with a "good faith belief" that they're hosting copyrighted material. Leaving YouTube as the only major video portal. Comcast (an ISP) owns NBC (a content provider). Think they might have an interest in shuttering some rival domains? Under SOPA, they can do it without even asking for permission.

...while exacting a huge cost from nearly every site you use daily...

SOPA also includes an "anti-circumvention" clause, which holds that telling people how to work around SOPA is nearly as bad as violating its main provisions. In other words: if your status update links to The Pirate Bay, Facebook would be legally obligated to remove it. Ditto tweets, YouTube videos, Tumblr or WordPress posts, or sites indexed by Google. And if Google, Twitter, Wordpress, Facebook, etc. let it stand? They face a government "enjoinment." They could and would be shut down.

The resources it would take to self-police are monumental for established companies, and unattainable for start-ups. SOPA would censor every online social outlet you have, and prevent new ones from emerging.

...and potentially disappearing your entire digital life...

The party line on SOPA is that it only affects seedy off-shore torrent sites. That's false. As the big legal brains at Bricoleur point out, the potential collateral damage is huge. And it's you. Because while Facebook and Twitter have the financial wherewithal to stave off anti-circumvention shut down notices, the smaller sites you use to store your photos, your videos, and your thoughts may not. If the government decides any part of that site infringes on copyright and proves it in court? Poof. Your digital life is gone, and you can't get it back.

...while still managing to be both unnecessary and ineffective...

What's saddest about SOPA is that it's pointless on two fronts. In the US, the MPAA, and RIAA already have the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to request that infringing material be taken down. We've all seen enough "video removed" messages to know that it works just fine.

As for the foreign operators, you might as well be throwing darts at a tse-tse fly. The poster child of overseas torrenting, Pirate Bay, has made it perfectly clear that they're not frightened in the least. And why should they be? Its proprietors have successfully evaded any technological attempt to shut them down so far. Its advertising partners aren't US-based, so they can't be choked out. But more important than Pirate Bay itself is the idea of Pirate Bay, and the hundreds or thousands of sites like it, as populous and resilient as mushrooms in a marsh. Forget the question of should SOPA succeed. It's incredibly unlikely that it could. At least at its stated goals.

...but stands a shockingly good chance of passing...

SOPA is, objectively, an unfeasible trainwreck of a bill, one that willfully misunderstands the nature of the internet and portends huge financial and cultural losses. The White House has come out strongly against it. As have hundreds of venture capitalists and dozens of the men and women who helped build the internet in the first place. In spite of all this, companies have already spent a lot of money pushing SOPA, and it remains popular in the House of Representatives.

That mark-up period on December 15th, the one that was supposed to transform the bill into something more manageable? Useless. Twenty sanity-fueled amendments were flat-out rejected. And while the bill's most controversial provision—mandatory DNS filtering—was thankfully taken off the table recently, in practice internet providers would almost certainly still use DNS as a tool to shut an accused site down.

...unless we do something about it.

The momentum behind the anti-SOPA movement has been slow to build, but we're finally at a saturation point. Wikipedia, BoingBoing, WordPress, TwitPic: they have all gone dark on January 18th. The list of companies supporting SOPA is long but shrinking, thanks in no small part to the emails and phone calls they've received in the last few months.

So keep calling. Keep emailing. Sign petitions! Most of all, keep making it known that the internet was built on the same principles of freedom that this country was. It should be afforded to the same rights.

This article written by Brian Barrett appeared originally on Gizmodo! It has been reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License! Thanks to Gawker Media!!

Waking Life (2001)

2012-01-06T11:25:00.001-08:00

Richard Linklater's Brilliant Animated MindTripper!!

Waking Life (2001) is a dazzling mess. There are probably more ideas generated in those 100 minutes than in all other movies currently playing around town combined, even if its over 10 years old. Richard Linklater's film is presented as one long hallucination by its nameless central character, an observer of conversations about existentialism, rebirth, free will, bereavement, warfare, technology, faith and, most of all, the nature of dreams themselves.

Like virtually any work that dares to ask big, unanswerable questions, Waking Life can be pretentious and even exhausting but you also get euphoria from its unquenchable curiosity about the world, like a skyfall.

As in Slacker (1991), Linklater's first film, there is virtually no conformist story, making it easy to lose yourself along the way. The imprecise rotoscoped animation only enhances the feeling of displacement but that's specifically the point. In other words, getting lost with Linklater is a lot more enlightening than being spoon-fed, hand-led and patronized by a lot of garden-variety filmmakers more concerned with filling the theater than filling your brain.

Brimming with references to Jean-Paul Sartre, D.H. Lawrence and countless others, Waking Life is at times encumbered by its assault of ideas; still, it stands in direct hostility to an entertainment culture where being "about nothing" is a insignia of respect.

Sure, it'd be nice if people in this movie occasionally just talked about baseball or the weather to balance things out. There's also no denying that some of the images in Waking Life are breathtaking but at length, many might feel that this is an agonizing exercise in hedonistic, snotty filmmaking, that will ignite arguments over its apparent intrinsic worth and, no doubt, be touted by some as a masterpiece.

Nonetheless, Waking Life sticks with you in a insightful way, its ideas buzzing through your mind like fireflies. And I was beginning to think the sheer possibility was but a dream.

Free Streaming/Movie Download - Video Link: VeeHD

The Original Nirvana!

2011-12-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

Still Smells Like Teen Spirit After All These Years!

These are busy days – insanely busy days but I have had Nirvana for company all through last week. Dunno why but Kurt Cobain has been a savior of sorts for me – first during my school, then my confused college days and now in my work life.

And the impact of one particularly magnetic song can never be undervalued. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" blasted out of the TV screen in 1991 and literally changed the entire world of music. As my friends and I listened to that song, none of us could really explain exactly why it moved us like it did. The lyrics were hard to recognize. The music was grandiloquent and powerful, but it really wasn't all that world-shattering to anyone already familiar with the Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Jane's Addiction, Pearl Jam and others like them.

Still, we were drawn to that song. We took that song, and its struggle to describe the indescribable, and made it mean something more. We wrote into that song all of our own feelings that we just couldn't put into words. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" perfectly captured an angry artist questioning his life and circumstances. It was a song that wanted to ask the big questions but knew that doing so was pointless. The song defined a generation and a decade like few songs before it. Even now, after so many years since its release, I have a hard time explaining exactly what it meant to me.

Like so many other people my age, I eventually became a huge fan of Nirvana. I collected their import singles, tracked down hard-to-find indie releases, traded tapes of shows, and read everything about the band that I could get my hands on. I never saw them in concert though. Maybe I was not lucky enough. I also doubt if I could have endured seeing a crowd full of drunk frat boys singing along with "Come As you Are" or "Sliver."

It's easy to be jaded about the whole thing now, as I look back on how ridiculous things became. Flannel became fashionable, "Grunge" entered popular vocabulary, every half-assed band from Seattle got a record deal, heroin made a comeback, and everything on the radio and MTV or VH1 started sounding a heckuva lot like Nirvana. The copycats all got the basic sound right, they just couldn't add any real emotion or impact. Nirvana was the genuine article, and their music mattered so much more than anyone else's at the time. And that’s what still matters!

Youtube Video Link here!

Fly Away Home (1996)

2011-12-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

An Outstanding Family Classic from the 90s

Hollywood may be a moral wasteland, the epicenter of cultural corruption, a modern-day Gomorrah driven by vanity and venality—but what the heck, it sure cranks out some nice movies (as it did in the 90s – 1996 to be specific).

Fly Away Home (1996) not only reminded that good movies still happen, but, following as it did on the heels of so many fine children's films, it makes me wonder if the early 1990s weren't the richest period ever for family movies.

In 1995, we saw the charming talking-pig movie Babe and the funny, innovative Toy Story. In 1994, there was the magical Secret of Roan Inish from John Sayles, and Gillian Armstrong's remake of Little Women with Winona Ryder—the finest version ever of the Louisa May Alcott warhorse and one of the best films of that year. Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden and A Little Princess were given visually sumptuous adaptations, the first in 1993 and the other in 1995.

Disney, of course, still releases a major animated film each summer; although it’s recent efforts strike me as more tasteless. And these are just the cream of the crop. Add to those all the satisfying bread-and-butter and also fantastic kiddy films that come out every year, like Kungfu Panda, Smurfs, Rango, Cars, Hugo, Up or the more recent Adventures of Tintin, and we're talking profusion here. For this reason, I don't buy the argument that Hollywood has deserted family or moral values.

If you haven't seen Fly Away Home yet, I heartily recommend it. This tale of a Canadian girl who raises a flock of orphan geese is the kind of family film that functions on an adult level, so don't pass it up just because you don't have kids. At the risk of trashing my hard-earned standing as a killjoy, I have to say that I found the whole experience to be cheering and even inspiring.

The film is directed with complete self-assurance by Carroll Ballard, who, by my count, has directed only 6 previous efforts in the past 30 years. I skipped his Nutcracker (1986), but I enjoyed his other works: The Black Stallion (1979), Never Cry Wolf (1984), Wind (1991) and the superb african adventure Duma (2005).

Each is memorable for its natural scenery perhaps the decisive factor Ballard uses to choose his sporadic projects. One thinks of the magnificent coastline vistas in The Black Stallion, the breathtaking Arctic wilderness in Never Cry Wolf, the seascapes and desert country in Wind. For Fly Away Home, Ballard reteamed with Caleb Deschanel, his Black Stallion cinematographer, and their collaboration has made this film another rich visual experience. From macro photography of hatching eggs to funny ground-level tracking shots of goslings to dramatic aerial views of autumn landscapes in Ontario, this film offers constant visual diversity and some gorgeous imagery.

Composer Mark Isham, whose synthesizer-heavy soundtrack enhanced the otherworldly strangeness of the northern wilderness in Never Cry Wolf, contributes a traditional and enjoyable score to Fly Away Home. Fine performances come from Anna Paquin in the lead and Jeff Daniels as her father. And a special tip of the hat to the special effects team, who, through state-of-the-art composting and digital animation, create the illusion that we're flying alongside a flock of geese.

I find it fulfilling to see a film in which quality special effects are smoothly integrated to support a good story, as opposed to an adrenalized concoctions like Transformers (2007) or Twister (1996) where the effects become the film's raison d’être. This movie simply would not have worked if filmed before the 1990s or now in 2000s, because the crucial flying scenes would not have been convincing. In a time when we can expect to be swamped with films built around the new digital technology, Fly Away Home proved that you could put the digital tools to the right use without superseding the movie’s soul. Highly recommended.

Free Streaming/Movie Download - Video Link: VeeHD

Lone Star (1996)

2011-11-29T11:06:00.000-08:00

A Engaging, Multilayered Murder Mystery from John Sayles

John Sayles has worked as a screenwriter and script doctor in mainstream Hollywood, but when he creates his own films, he works independently, retaining total control over the writing, directing, and editing. Of the films of his I've seen, I've most enjoyed Matewan (1987), Passion Fish (1992) and Limbo (1999), but they've all been worth a look, because Sayles is that rare commodity: a major independent filmmaker who makes cinema by observing real life, not recycling other movies.

His City of Hope (1991) interwove several plot lines to create a portrait of corruption in big-city politics. Lone Star takes a similar approach, but the result is a more human and accessible film, one that holds our interest better with both a mystery and a love story.

In a modern-day Texas border town, the remains of a former sheriff are found in the desert. The current sheriff, Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper), sets out to investigate this 40-year-old murder, interviewing people from all over town, who in turn flash back to the past and introduce us to a previous generation of characters. The murder mystery serves as the MacGuffin, to use Hitchcock's word - the gimmick that propels the plot, like "Rosebud" in Citizen Kane.

Sayles himself has compared this film to a Raymond Chandler novel, in that the journey of the detective is what's interesting, not who did the crime. As the murder may have involved Sam Deeds's father, Sam's investigation becomes a personal quest. He moves among a myriad of characters--white, black, and Hispanic, past and present--sorting out a complex story and uncovering the realities behind the local myths, even when the truth becomes personally painful.

With just a few quick strokes of his ever-quotable dialogue, Sayles establishes one believable character after another. For the flashbacks, he goes against sepia-toned convention and uses a nifty transition device that emphasizes the immediacy and relevance of the past. As the people and their stories accumulate and dovetail, a mosaic of the small multicultural town emerges. That Sayles can interweave so many characters and story lines and still end up with a movie that hangs together demonstrates some tour-de-force filmmaking.

There's also some thematic unity holding the strands together. In interviews, Sayles has referred to the importance of "borders" in this film. The sheriff's quest takes him across every conceivable border, from the literal Texas/Mexico line to the town's unmarked borders of race and social class, to the symbolic boundaries between the sexes, between parents and children, between past and present, between myth and reality. The journey makes for a rich and fascinating film that rewards a second viewing. Also starring Matthew McConaughey, Elizabeth Peña and Kris Kristofferson.

Free Streaming/Movie Download - Video Link: VeeHD

Jerry Maguire (1996) - Show me the Money!

2011-11-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

Undoubtedly Tom Cruise's and Cuba Gooding Jr's Best Film Ever!

Continuing my coverage of great movies from 1996, here is my take on the universally loved crowdpleaser - Jerry Maguire by the eclectic Cameron Crowe.

Cameron Crowe, who began his career as a writer for Rolling Stone, made a brilliant screen writing first appearance with the teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), one of the best of its ilk. Later he wrote and directed Say Anything (1989), a delightful romantic comedy about high school graduates, which I enjoyed enough to add to my permanent film collection. Singles (1992), about twenty-somethings in Seattle, was less impressive but still worth a viewing. With the Oscar nominated Jerry Maguire, which he wrote, directed and co-produced Crowe advanced to a thirty-something hero and created his most charming film to date. (I am also rooting to see his forthcoming "We Bought a Zoo" starring Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson and Thomas Haden Church). I haven't seen all the major movies from 1996 yet, but I'm guessing this was perhaps that year's best romantic comedy and a $270 million commercial hit worldwide.

As everyone knows, Tom Cruise plays the title character, a fast-talking sports agent whose life breaks down. He builds a new one for himself, on a fresh set of values, with the aid of Dorothy, an adoring single mother, and Rod, a flashy football player and loyal client. Now, if I were a skeptic, I'd point out that for a story about a slick agent trying to reinvent himself through candor and empathy, Jerry Maguire is an terribly slick film. I mean, any time I see a child actor as drop-dead adorable as little Jonathan Lipnicki, I know I'm being suckered. But in the face of so many amusing lines, funny sight gags, endearing performances, and expertly manufactured heart-tugging moments, how can I resist a movie like this? This is one of those times when I just drop my shields and let Hollywood make the magic. Besides, who can ignore the fantastic soundtrack featuring Tom Petty, Nirvana, AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and more.

The often used pitch "show me the money" isn't the only quotable dialogue from Crowe's superb script, and he has assembled a cast that does full justice to his screenplay. This is the most I've liked Cruise since Risky Business, and he gets great support from everyone, especially the Oscar deserving Cuba Gooding, Jr., as his client Rod, and Bonnie Hunt as Dorothy's wisecracking but helpful sister. Cruise, with his fame, glamour, and overblown sticker price, may have garnered the glory, but for me this film's secret weapon was relative newcomer at that time Renee Zellweger. Her performance as Dorothy, the romantic underdog who wins Jerry's affections, is so beautiful it hurts.

Speaking of things that hurt - there's a short-lived Tom Cruise butt shot in the movie. I thought I'd mention that, as I've learned it's important to a lot of you. I sat next to some women at a watering hole the other night, and all they talked about were male butt shots. Obviously, these are vital cinematic essentials.

Free Streaming/Movie Download - BluRay Video Link: VeeHD

Rewind! Replay! Repeat!

2011-11-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

Dissecting 3 Fav Rock Songs from 1993

Of late, I have been digging into my gargantuan collection of music and movies from the early 80s and 90s. Converting and archiving them onto my new pool of external hard disks and my cherished favorites onto DVDs and CDs (an extra precaution!)

I wish I could compile all my audio/video assortments into some sort of an exclusive WebSnacker anthology – an omnibus of say “Rock hits of 1990”, “The Best of John Carpenter”, “The Best of Pearl Jam”, “Teen Comedies of the 80s” etcetera. Well, but I never have the time..

Anyway, I was listening to this old dusty audio tape (on whose plastic case, I seem to have scribbled “the Rocketeer set - just don’t remember, what it originally meant?) and 3 first-rate rock songs stood out. I stopped, rewound the tape and gave myself an earful. Nostalgic aural bliss!!!

Has anything like this ever happened to you? I mean, songs that make them stand out in the middle of a TV commercial, or grabs your attention on the car radio while you're driving back home, or makes you listen to your MP3 player that much harder until you drain its battery.

So, what makes a good song? I suppose there's no definite answer because music affects everybody differently. It's about emotional depth, and the songs that sum up your life the instant you hear them. So the songs that make up the soundtrack of one person's soul might mean absolutely nothing to somebody else – your treasure, their trash! But the principles involved are the same from person to person, so I'd like to talk a bit about these three rock songs that have been near the core of my “rewind” music experience the last week or so.

1. "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by the Crash Test Dummies (1993)

This No.1 Modern Rock hit single from the Canadian folk rock band has an unrepresentatively simple tune that is well put together and still seems wholly absolute. But when you actually listen to the silly lyrics, it becomes a song about the things that just don't fit. It's not just that the verses don't rhyme but they aren't really connected to each other in any reasonable way.

Each verse presents a particularly sharp, distinct image of an oddball. From the boy who got in the accident, to the girl with birthmarks all over her body, to the boy who goes to church, you get peculiar minute details that make each character stand out in the mind. And I always find myself asking what it is about these details - what do they say about their characters? Why does the boy's hair change from black to white? Why does the girl's rebuttal to change in the changing room seem so touching? The song only lets the listener in on certain niceties of the characters, but they are the kind of hazy details that leave more questions unanswered, even as the images loiter in your subconscious. YouTube Video Link

2. "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows (1993)

This is a great hit track from the American alternative pop rock band whose songwriter and lead vocalist Adam Duritz obviously had an eye for impressive details.

Though many critics feel it’s a take on Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man", I interpret it differently. From the opening line, "I was down at the New Amsterdam / staring at this yellow-haired girl," you feel as if you can see the 'narrator' of the song, hanging around in nightclubs, bars and clubs with his companion Mr. Jones. They "stare at the beautiful women" and wish that they had the nerve to approach them. And all the while, the character who is telling us all this, who seems unable to bond with one woman, wishes that he could surpass himself and become so famous that "when I look at the television, I...see me staring right back at me." When he's an image that everybody knows and loves, he dreams, he'll never be lonely again. In the meantime, he keeps looking at women and wondering if one will ever come along that will be right for him.

I guess that if I went into much detail about my personal resonances with this song, this blog post would spawn into maudlin self-pity, but the grand thing about this track is that, in my view, you never get sickened with how apologetic the character feels for himself. He always remains fascinating, probably because we can all identify how each of us, at one time or another, has watched TV or movies, or listened to the radio, and thought to ourselves, "God, I wish I was there."

After all, we live in a world where what's "real," what is often measured to be most significant, is what the media makes omnipresent. For example, never mind whether or not we actually have any real emotional union to the famous celebrity of our choice; we constantly see them, so they are forever on our mind, even when we don’t want to think about them. And sometimes, when making a real emotional connection with a different person just doesn't seem to work, it's easy to think about being connected to everything and everybody and imagine that it actually might mean something, even if it would really diminish you to nobody. YouTube Video Link

3. "Disarm" by Smashing Pumpkins (1993)

Perhaps Smashing Pumpkins’ most popular song, "Disarm," from their hit second album ‘Siamese Dream’ has a unique auditory experience, which involuntarily suggests a sense of poignant rush, of some primitive sentiment which Billy Corgan, the lead vocalist is letting loose - from the low strings to the timpani drum to the sly church bells, the track sounds insistent and forceful.

Merge that with the beautiful lyrics, which seem to portray a tormented young soul on the edge of life and you understand where "Disarm" is aiming for, and something in you suddenly just clicks. The chorus line, "the killer in me is the killer in you," seems suggestive of Jim Thompson's novel “The Killer Inside Me”, but even more than that, it suggests the vein of fatalism verging on nihilism that runs throughout most of Thompson's work, and so much of our in style “dog eat dog” culture.

The character "used to be a little boy," and then things went horribly wrong and now "what's a boy supposed to do?" It's a lingering image that runs through, among other places, even old Elvis songs like "In the Ghetto" and "Kentucky Rain,” Catcher in the Rye, Rebel Without A Cause, hardboiled detectives, Pink Floyd's The Wall, even in the Hong Kong action worlds of John Woo and Yun-Fat Chow

Lets be honest, the void calls to each of us, and yet we all are concurrently attracted to and repulsed by it, and when we are unable to admit this to ourselves, we selfishly revel in watching other folks, especially the fictional, dealing with this crisis. And if, in identifying with these texts, we momentarily blow our staid lives out of proportion. Well isn't that what great music is all about - taking the everyday and making it awe-inspiring, even if its just for a few precious minutes! YouTube Video Link

Best Halloween Songs of All Time

2011-11-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

15 Superb Halloween Inspired Tracks (or Something like that)!!

With Halloween practically over by now, I know this post is at least a full one week late but that should not stop mortal souls like you from downloading this grand, splendid, impressive (well, I cant think of more superlatives) selection of superb Halloween inspired tracks featuring assorted genres.

Included in this truly ‘one of its kind’ (one more superlative) compilation are cool cover renditions of Halloween classics by Blue Oyster Cult, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Eurythmics, Ray Parker Jr, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and the inimitable Michael Jackson. Watch out for BeatFreakz remix of Rockwell’s super hit “Somebody's Watching Me”, Matt Pond PA’s tuneful “Halloween” and Massive Attack’s eerie “Inertia Creeps”.

Time to relive the Halloween magic!!

15 tracks in playlist, average track length: 4:41

Playlist length: 1 hour 10 minutes 22 seconds

1. Apollo 440 - Don't Fear The Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult Cover) (5:28)

2. Aqua - Halloween (3:51)

3. Crystal Therapy - Welcome to My Nightmare (Alice Cooper Cover) (3:03)

4. Diesel - I Put A Spell On You (Screamin' Jay Hawkins Cover) (4:09)

5. Hoobastank - Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr Cover) (3:02)

6. Ian Brown (The Stone Roses) - Thriller (Michael Jackson Cover) (3:28)

7. Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics Cover) (4:53)

8. Massive Attack - Inertia Creeps (5:54)

9. Matt Pond PA - Halloween (5:02)

10. Michael Jackson - Is It Scary (5:35)

11. Rockwell Featuring Michael Jackson + BeatFreakz - Somebody's Watching Me (3:22)

12. Shadowland - Scared of the Dark (6:07)

13. Trans-Sylvanian Orchestra - Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield Exorcist Theme Mix) (5:15)

14. Washington - Halloween (3:50)

15. Yahel - Fear Of The Dark (Iron Maiden Cover - DNA Remix) (7:23)

Free Mp3 Download - 94.06 MB Single Zipped Folder – Megaupload Link

THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL FAN MIXTAPE. IF YOU LIKE THESE ARTISTS, PLEASE BUY THEIR ORIGINAL MUSIC. You can buy original CDS/DVDs & Mp3s at Emusic, Amazon, Itunes, other online stores or your nearest music retailer.

A Small Piece Of My Cinematic Mind!

2011-10-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

A Little Vitriol For My Detractors

My last post on “From Dusk Till Dawn” received a lot of nasty flak. One intimidating fan who was obviously livid with my review threatened me on email, flooded my Facebook blog page with hostile commentary and then reported it for illegal content! What the heck!

Anyway, to get down to the movie review business, my celluloid critiques are my personal babbles and private insights about the movies I see – I don’t get paid to do it nor do I have a hidden agenda when I rubbish a seemingly great piece of film making!

For those angry, stupid fans – here’s a little piece of advice: Some of you may discover that you've overlooked a great film and maybe, (just maybe), you might just read about it in my blog. You may then perhaps rush out, rent it, stream it or download it and possibly have a fulfilling movie-watching experience, and I'll have the satisfaction of given a little direction to your sad, aimless everyday lives.

Those of you who have already seen everything on my list (an impossibility) can still follow along and see how your bijou opinions compare to mine. You might also find it enlightening to print out my review and make notes in the margins. Next to each review, you could write an A for "I strongly agree" a B for "I partially agree" or a C for "This dumb fuck can’t write shit”.

When you get to the end of the column, total up your score. If you have more A's than anything else, it means you are a amazingly intelligent, perceptive student of the cinematic arts, and I would be glad to have you over anytime to view something from my super secret collection of the world’s most awesomest movies ever made.

If you wrote a lot of B's, you probably believe that Tom Green, Chuck Norris and Carmen Electra are underrated/undervalued actors but still you are not entirely beyond help. Keep reading my column and you should do fine but if you wrote mostly C's, you most likely love all the movies of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the terrible duo behind unfunny spoof flops like the Disaster Movie, Date Movie, Meet The Spartans and other mindless miseries. In that case, you are living proof of humanity’s mental decline and what's known to medical science as a "dim-witted idiot," and I will be sure to alert you if ever I write a critical retrospective of “The Biggest Movie of All Time 3D” – the duo’s upcoming send-up on Avatar to be released in 2012!

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

2011-10-25T04:59:00.000-07:00

Pulpy Hyper Violent Vampire Splatter, Tarantino/Rodriguez Style

The hidden plus point of a drained laptop on a long haul flight is that you get to do something different beyond your usual mundane office work. On a recent trip, I had the pleasure of watching “From Dusk Till Dawn”, the 1996 vampire actioner from that maverick 2 man team of filmmakers called Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. Tarantino wrote it while his mexicano pal Rodriguez directed. Now that was a teaming of future titans.

In case, you didn’t know, Rodriguez was the wonder boy who made the tongue-in-cheek independent spaghetti western ‘El Mariachi' (1992) in Mexico for $7000 and then used it as a calling card to land a contract in Hollywood. And what was his first movie after joining the majors? 'Desperado'(1995) - a campy, outlandish rehash of El Mariachi. It starred babe-magnet Spaniard Antonio Banderas as a two-pistol gunfighter who, when he isn't shooting up drug thugs, spends most of the movie glaring idiotically through the long stringy hair that hangs in his face. At least, there was a beautiful Salma Hayek for company! Next, I saw him in Richard Donner's 'Assassins'(1995), opposite Stallone, where he played a two-pistol hitman with long stringy hair (again) hanging in his face. Well, he gets my vote as the least-welcome new sex star in the movies. (Fifty million women CAN be wrong.) Never was there an actor so desperately in need of a comb.

So anyway, Rodriguez then links up with Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood's man of the hour post his transnational success of Pulp Fiction, and this momentous mating of Desperado gives the world...From Dusk Till Dawn.

Beginning in the familiar Tarantino territory of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction - the universe of comically exaggerated film noir - the plot concerns two bank-robbing brothers murdering and kidnapping their way across the border into Mexico. Then, the Mexican truck stop they think represents a safe haven turns out to be a retreat for blood thirsty vampires (with a seductive Salma Hayek as Satánico Pandemonium). And suddenly we're in midst of a tongue-in-cheek bloody splatter film like Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead or Peter Jackson's Braindead - as its unlikable cast of characters sets about dismembering a rampaging horde of wild vampires. And then it flaccidly ends.

While it does have its moments – some genuinely funny and some brilliantly gory, it bugs me to think that two hot young filmmakers, who, for the moment, had complete freedom to make whatever the heck kind of movie they want, could squander the talents of George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, and Fred Williamson on this no-brainer. To me, it felt like a couple of 10-year-old boys thought it up one night in their tree house over a bag of Lays chips and Oreos.

I will however, say one thing very good about Robert Rodriguez. His film Desperado introduced me to Salma Hayek. And I fell for her! And I still very much do!

Free Streaming/Movie Download - Avi Video Link: VeeHD

Independence Day (1996)

2011-10-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

1996's Helluva Summer Blockbuster!

Last night, I watched (probably for the 10nth time or so) 1996’s biggest summer hit – Independence Day. Apparently, it’s the 31st highest grosser of all time in Hollywood history with total mammoth box-office figures in the tune of $816969000 or more. So this movie was destined to end up among the most lucrative films of all time, in company with the likes of Spielberg's E.T. and Jurassic Park.

I remember rushing to see this in theaters in the first week of its release, and as someone who grew up on a staple of science-fiction and horror flicks as a kid, I found it to be good, old-fashioned fun (in spite of its shortcomings). Besides, there's something charming and pre-Watergate in the mentality of a film that portrays a U.S. president as an inspiring strong leader that the country could rally behind in a grave crisis.

One especially satisfying aspect of this film was the brilliant casting: A great lead in Will Smith and trustworthy supporting actors in the vein of Bill Pullman, Robert Loggia, Vivica Fox and Jeff Goldblum who provide the right support.

I'm guessing the producers wanted to put as much of the budget as possible into the special effects and let the spectacle be the film's big draw, so they chose not to divert $30 million or so just to get Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise above the title. In those days when star salaries spiraled out of control (they still do) and stars gained way too much power, it was great to see someone relatively new like Roland Emmerich to buck the system and score a big hit using nothing but a good idea and a script, the way Spielberg did with E.T.

Independence Day is a real crowd pleaser. And there-in lies my only serious reservation. It was carefully contrived to be a crowd pleaser, full of stock characters, clichéd scenarios, cheap comic relief (think of Randy Quaid's boozy crop-duster), despicable ‘out of this planet’ villains and jingoistic speeches.

As I watched, I couldn't help but imagine what a tougher filmmaker like James Cameron would have brought to it. Avatar was a colossal disappointment for me but in his best work, Cameron goes to great lengths to establish characters with some depth and a realistic milieu for them – think Abyss; as a consequence, when they suffer, you really feel for them. When I saw Independence Day in the theater, my deepest concern during the film's second half was not whether Will Smith and Co would save the world from the marauding alien invasion but whether I should blow more money on a refill of my popcorn and coke.

Free Streaming/Movie Download - Avi Video Link: VeeHD

Phenomenon (1996)

2011-10-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

Sugary, Syrupy Romantic Tearjerker!

Phenomenon is an mood upsetting fantasy that exemplifies much of what I adore and what I detest about Hollywood cinema. This movie gets so many things right that it could have been a magnificent little romantic drama, but instead it opts for cheap melodrama and unwanted sci-fi overtones (Maybe Travolta wanted to showcase his Scientology connections!)

First off, it places us in an tempting background - California farm country (Northern California to be specific)- with carefully selected images of rolling hills, morning sun on a barn, the sway of treetops above a farmhouse, the call of coyotes at night…those kind of scenic imagery. Then, we meet George, an friendly auto mechanic and farmer who lives alone, but who has a good friend named Nate who also lives alone with his ham radio and his Diana Ross albums. George has another good friend in the affable country doctor, named Doc of course, who wants to teach George to play chess. More than anything, George wants to get to know an detached woman named Lace who has moved to town with her two children to start a new life following a bad marriage.

Such a sweet and poignant movie seemed poised to emerge from this premise, this superb setting, these pleasant characters. I wanted to see George slowly break down Lace's resistance with his charisma, his graciousness, his handy familiarity with trucks, and the support of his friends.

This movie could have worked on that simple and honest level. But, alas, this is Hollywood we're talking about - the great Lego Fun Factory, where real life is something to make people forget about for two hours rather than embrace, and where John Travolta gets several millions for a movie so by God it better be fabulous. So soon we're off on a silly scheme about George having a celestial karmic experience that expands his mind, makes him brilliant and thirsty for knowledge, gives him amazing telekinetic powers, makes him a pariah in the town, and in an especially inept set-up, brings the FBI down on him. Such a plot is, if you'll pardon my French, merde de taureau (bullshit for those who don’t know French!)

Not that this film is a complete waste of time. As many will agree, on its own terms, it's certainly enjoyable. On the plus side, it has a dependable director - John Turtletaub (National Treasure,The Sorcerer's Apprentice); an appealing cast: John Travolta as George, Kyra Sedgwick as Lace, the always reliable Forest Whitaker as Nate, and Robert Duvall especially as Doc, lending the potency and natural charm of his screen presence to a small role.

The locations are naturally beautiful, nicely chosen and evocative, and the orchestral support comes from Thomas Newman, one of the best film-music composers working right now (son of Hollywood great Alfred Newman). He excels at poignant Americana, as he demonstrated in Fried Green Tomatoes and Little Women, among his many others. Unfortunately, and this is so typical of Hollywood, too, Newman's score is bumped aside repeatedly to make room for the less subtle but commercially more viable pop tunes like Eric Clapton's "Change the World", Sheryl Crow's "Everyday is a Winding Road", Peter Gabriel's "I Have The Touch" and many more.

The film has many effectual moments. There is this one fleeting scene I was struck by: George and Lace are alone, and she asks him what he's feeling. He feels happy and in love, and he tells her to remember back to when she rocked her children to sleep as babies, and she closes her eyes and we see the feeling pass through her and joy spread over her face. A touching flash of solo acting from Kyra Sedgwick, a quick brushstroke of Thomas Newman music, and the filmmakers give us a quiet moment of great beauty.

How I would have loved it if this movie had relied on moments like that - if it had taken the road less travelled and earned my tears with a story I could relate to instead of jerking them with flight of schmaltzy fantasy. That would be a movie I could return to. If only they would forgo the daydream once in a while. Real life is so much more sad, heartbreaking and beautiful.

Free Streaming/Movie Download - Avi Video Link: VeeHD

Smells Like No Teen Spirit

2011-10-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

Its still Cool to be Depressed!

I just had a harrowing talk with an overambitious ‘depressed’ kid – the 3rd unhappy soul in a row this week (as part of my mentoring gig). I dont mean to be unsympathetic but they’re all young, go to good schools and colleges, come from good families, are well fed, have the latest gadgets, bikes, cars…well, they've got no ‘real’ worries, actually, most of them have no problems at all, but it is supposedly "cool" to act all depressed and sad. What’s up with all these teenagers being depressed? Teen Angst? I don't think so.

Maybe Depression is still a global trend or perhaps people (not just adolescent teens) are drawn to this trend because there really is reason to be depressed in today's world. Generation gaps are indeed widening, we are stuck with fixing a lot of problems the spoiled baby-boomers put off. Divorce is at record highs. The youth tend to be socialists, or at least more liberal... but the world is capitalist, and more conservative than that. The News doesn't exactly have anything nice to tell us about the world (not that we'd watch if they did).

But let’s face it - in the 60's people got off their asses and voiced their opinions. They did something about it. They were active. Now we sit around and look miserable. At least 90% don’t care. Have we lost hope in fixing the problems that are inevitably going to be here?

By not being depressed, I don't mean "just have fun". You can do many other things. Being not depressed doesn't mean you're happy go lucky all the time and unaffected by any catastrophe. It just means that you aren't constantly miserable and self absorbed in your own misery. It means you can look pass whatever miniscule or gargantuan difficulties you have and still find something that's worth living for.

In 25-30 years or so, the kids I know will be all grown up, probably stuck in dead end jobs, in huge debts, with no time to actually have fun. And they'll ACTUALLY be depressed. And perhaps, then they'll look back at their youth, remember my advice and say "god, I wish I didn't act depressed all the time back then, cause I could've had a lot of fun instead. Only if they realize!!

Note: This blogpost was originally titled "Misery Incorporated"!

Agree to Disagree

2011-10-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

Living in a Sarcastic World!

I meet a whole dozen of people every week and half of ‘em are just plain sarcastic. Sarcasm it seems is a way to avoid serious discussion and conflict. It humors difficult topics and troubled relationships. I wonder if we are living in a culture oversaturated with scorn. Can’t we even converse with true sincerity anymore? What happened to directness and candor?

Sarcasm, cynicism, whatever you call it - is often highly irrational. It is inherently full of erroneous beliefs, yet the masses tend to be highly influenced by it. We have the penchant to feel that disdain is convincing. Apparently even in ancient Greece, the Sophists were popular teachers of oratory, charging people to learn how to speak convincingly. But what appears persuasive is really just dishonesty, as Socrates often tried to point out. And yes, ancient Greece was also a form of democracy something like our own corrupt democracies.

Look at our Media now. Television, radio, etc. must constantly promote their vile products to its audiences and one of the easiest ways to get people to unreservedly agree with something is to get them to laugh or cry along with them. Thus, we seem to have the most over used device in modern culture - Sarcasm. Television is basically now a fast moving vehicle for mockery and irony. Just hear the news anchors? It is TV’s specialty to place things together so that what you see and what you hear does not jive.

And of course, this has its appalling effects - conversations are now increasingly concentrated with unneeded smart ass comments, people automatically dismiss anything halfway sincere as clichéd. Instead, you must hire someone who's adept at marketing to shield the original sincere idea with a wise-ass sarcastic joke in order for people to think it's not hackneyed.

May be I am over reacting; I'm not so sure if things are different now than they used to be. Obviously, this is primarily based on my own observations, not some global expert survey. Or perhaps, what we see in our culture is a real push for individuality.

Individualism is always the in style trend, and what has come from this is a false impression of what it means to be "open-minded". Often, since we prize individualism, we moralize that people should be tolerant of other people’s differences. Obviously individualism wouldn't do very well unless there was tolerance. But tolerance, at the same time, as been over-exaggerated and many people have caught onto the phrase "you just believe what you want to believe, and I will believe what I want to. We will agree to disagree." Eventually, we all just ignore each others points of view, or simply pretend to ignore.

Just thoughts.

Mr Brooks (2007) Soundtrack - Ramin Djawadi

2011-10-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

A Mesmeric Soundtrack Worthy of Any OST Collection

My favorite Kevin Costner film has to be undoubtedly 2007’s Mr. Brooks – a suave suspenseful thriller in an unusual Jekyll and Hyde setting that cleverly reinvents the serial killer genre.

Though blessed with an exceptionally creative script and top notch supporting show by the likes of Demi Moore, William Hurt, Lindsay Crouse and Dane Cook (in a superior negative role); what makes Mr. Brooks truly stand out is its enthralling hypnotic score by Ramin Djawadi, the award winning German composer of Prison Break (2005-09) and Ironman (2008), most recently heard on Colin Farrell’s horror comedy reboot Fright Night (2011) and Sam Worthington’s 2010 fantasy remake – Clash Of the Titans.

Mr. Brooks’ electronic textured score is a restrained kinetic tour de force with an eerie atmospheric undertone that blends perfectly with the movie's dark subject matter and intricate screenplay. A best seller, this soundtrack received rave reviews fetching Ramin Djawadi a ‘Discovery of the Year’ nomination at the World Soundtrack Awards in 2007.

Watch out for “Hallway Burial”. “Thumbprint Killer”, “Graveyard Standoff”, the mesmerizing “Mr. Brooks” and the magnetic surprise vocal track “Vicious Traditions” by the indie alternative NZ/UK band – The Veils. Mr. Brooks’ is an immensely satisfying soundtrack worth many listens. Download now and take the pleasure in!

16 tracks in playlist, average track length: 2:57

Playlist length: 47 minutes 19 seconds

1. Ramin Djawadi - One Last Question (0:43)

2. The Veils - Vicious Traditions (4:46)

3. Ramin Djawadi - Regrets Of An Artist (2:08)

4. Ramin Djawadi - The Thumbprint Killer (4:44)

5. Ramin Djawadi - Addiction (2:43)

6. Ramin Djawadi - Hallway Burial (2:03)

7. Ramin Djawadi - Detective Atwood (2:24)

8. Ramin Djawadi - Unwelcome Partner (3:16)

9. Ramin Djawadi - Suicide Note (3:05)

10. Ramin Djawadi - Decision (5:01)

11. Ramin Djawadi - Her Story (2:24)

12. Ramin Djawadi - Are We Alone (1:38)

13. Ramin Djawadi - Realization (1:42)

14. Ramin Djawadi - A Clue (3:35)

15. Ramin Djawadi - Mr. Brooks (3:31)

16. Ramin Djawadi - Graveyard Standoff (3:36)

Free Mp3 Download - 62.26 MB Single Zipped Folder –Megaupload Link

THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL DOWNLOAD. IF YOU LIKE RAMIN DJAWADI, PLEASE BUY HIS ORIGINAL MUSIC. You can buy original CDS/DVDs & Mp3s on his website, amazon, itunes, other online stores or your nearest music retailer.

If you have not seen Mr. Brooks yet - here's a free VEEHD movie download/streaming link!

Showgirls (1995)

2011-09-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

Paul Verhoeven's Bad Piece of Cult Cinema

My T.V is gonna smell like hairspray for a week. That, other things and my saliva. So we know Paul Verhoeven's 1995 cult classic Showgirls (the winner of a record 8 Golden Raspberry awards out of a whopping 14 nominations including worst picture, worst director, worst screenplay, worst debut and many more) works on at least one level, with at least one person. Bull-dumb lust, however, is pretty easy to stir up; the question is whether the movie works in any other way. The answer is, undeniably, no.

The NC 17 rated Showgirls clocks in at 131 tooth-extracting minutes, time mostly spent watching as our agitated heroine Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley), for no apparent reason, shoves people and tells them to go fuck themselves. By the time I was an hour into it, I'd been overcome with a rabid urge to reach inside my television and give the paroxysmal Nomi a time-out.

What Showgirls wants to be is another Horatio Alger story gone wrong, where the small- town girl seeks her kismet in a dazzling showcase of the American dream (yes, that would be Las Vegas), only to find that the American dream is hogwash, that she can trust no one, and that before she can find triumph, she must sell her soul.

This is naturally a problem straight out of the gate, since the Horatio Alger myth was pretty well discredited a half-century ago. The Vegas of movies that came out during that time along with Show Girls such as the heartbreaking Nicholas Cage's Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Swingers (1996); or even Tim Burton's hilarious Mars Attacks! (1996) is already a wasteland before the opening credits roll. People come to Vegas to either die, kill themselves with drugs ala Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), profiteer, or score cheap unprotected sex. As a result Showgirls works for two hours to get us to the Vegas these other, better films use as a place of exit.

Our first taste of Nomi's exasperating rage comes before the movie is two minutes underway, when she catches a ride with Jeff (Dewey Weber), the creepy stranger in a dirty pickup most movie females get stuck with when they hitchhike. His predictable advance is really rather harmless, almost unimposing but the volatile Nomi responds by pulling a switchblade on him. Now who's battering whom, exactly?

This continues as Nomi abuses everyone around her, first at the Cheetah, a strip bar, then at the Stardust, the hotel-cum-dinner-club where she gets a popular job as a chorus girl. Several folks the Stardust headline - Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon), for one, as well as James Smith (Glenn Plummer), an sober but also corrupt amateur choreographer testify to Nomi's natural dancing talent after watching her thrust her pelvis or kick people in the balls. Nomi takes the compliments none too gracefully by shoving, kicking, or spitting at her fans before calling them bitches, whores, or assholes.

When her frenzied behavior is eventually explained – that she comes from an abusive family and is trying to leave behind a life of drug addiction and prostitution - it's a little too late to be heartrending since you've spent the last hour and a half hoping the movie will somehow punish her. Unfortunately, the Horatio Alger dynamic hinges on your caring about Nomi in some way but because this is so hard, everything else the movie tries to do falls flat.

Those expecting gratuitous nudity or considering a straightforward sex romp into B-movie crapdom or a guilty T&A inspired soft core carnal treat could do better than watching Showgirls, no matter its cult status. Since seeing it last night, I've already shoved two of my office colleagues for no reason I could figure out, and I divine being in a pissed frame of mind for the rest of the day.

To put it another way: Anyone who sees Showgirls can go fuck themselves! Asshole! Now why did I say that?

Free Streaming/Movie Download - Avi Video Link: VeeHD

Zen and Then

2011-09-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

Zen and the Art of Enlightenment

I have been revisiting Zen philosophy lately. The key theme in Zen is that to become the enlightened being, one must know their true self, one’s true character. During my College Days, reading Zen was a frustrating and elusive experience until I realized that my true nature was not to become enlightened. I was not the Zen type you see.

Besides, there is one thing I never liked in reading in Zen beliefs is how often the teachers hit their students. It was very telling in an old tale where the monk asked his master some obscure question and was hit in reply. The master said "If I do not hit you for that question the other masters will laugh at me."

Hitting is part of being a Zen teacher. Being hit is part of being a Zen student. Yet hitting in and of itself does not lead to enlightenment, nor does it not lead to enlightenment. It merely is what Zen teachers do. Part of their true nature, rather their expected role. Pity the poor Zen master.

But there are some nice ideas that you can acquire from Zen. In Buddhist thought, there is this mention of being and becoming - of the action and the object, the thought and the thinker. It all seems to come down to two natures - things and actions which is summed in the two words - being and becoming. Things exist or they are coming into existence, though to be coming into existence is to exist. The action is not the thing and the thing is not the action. Everything is. Also everything does. (Action does not always imply movement.) Confused? Get a Zen primer.

Anyhow the main message of Zen, and most or all religions for that matter, is to grasp your true nature by self- realization. That wouldn't be a bad motto to have sitting on a desk or on the wall to see regularly.

Sometimes I say "know thyself" and sit there with no thoughts and then go, "now what?" But if thinking is imperative (and thinking is part of my true character) then it is always possible to come up with things that are not part of my personality and even some ideas of things that are. The ruse is that these ideas can be effortless and observable, they do not have to be philosophical.

When trying to realize your true nature it is easy to look at the affectations picked up over the years, character traits, and say that is part of my true temperament. While such persona will point to some aspect of our nature (there must be a reason why we have adopted them) they are often shallow. Left long enough, they become part of who we think we are.

Yet it is these basic qualities - are the underlying core that defines who we really are. Our perceptions of ourselves, our social situations and our accomplishments create judgments we bring upon ourselves. But what is it that we really are? Being and Becoming? Food for thought, eh?

A.R. Rahman and World Music

2011-09-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

Why World Music Needs More Recognition

On my recent trip to Jakarta, I met a fellow white traveler who had a sack load of CDs with him. In these days of Mp3s and Ipods, I wondered what he was doing with a back pack full of music CDs. Apparently; he was a fusion artist/producer of sorts but with his fancy watch, expensive gadgets and flashy demeanor, I suspect more of the latter. He was one his way to a recording gig with a Gamelan troupe whose name he didn’t remember! Now Gamelan is Indonesia’s most popular form of local music – an ethnic homegrown percussion based ensemble interlaced with flutes, rebab (spike fiddles), other musical instruments and occasional vocals too. We spoke for the entire duration of the flight but one thing was certain – he was no ‘real’ fusion expert but he was talking world music.

That’s the absurdity with world music. It would be naive to think that anybody sitting in the comfort of their Western home or office enjoying a standard of living absolutely unthinkable for more than half the world's population - could possibly be able to perceive the rest of the world's music properly, let alone understand it, realize it, and enjoy it in its relevant perspective, in its lingo or in its specific forms of expression.

I am not criticizing the good intentions of thousands of people in the western hemisphere - artists, producers and fans alike (and my fellow traveler included) who wish to open their minds to other cultures and experiences. However, we are a long way from some people's idea of world music.

The western attitude, marked for centuries by matchless political, military and cultural barbarism and arrogance towards other cultures, cannot pretend that equal values and interests exist with regard to the planet's countless individual regional cultures simply because one aspect has suddenly been opened up.

I have met world music freaks kitted out with all the latest hi-fi music gadgetry, surrounded by hundreds of CDs, DVDs and Memory drives who listen to African music one minute, Celtic music the next, and then Bollywood style Hindi Indian music and when you talk to them about their musical tastes, you realize that they (at least most of them) don't understand the first thing about the music, that they haven't got a clue about the cultural, geographical or the human background. What is more, lots of greedy producers and desperate record labels are churning out a kind of homogeneous world music by throwing together fragments of different musical cultures and blending them with all the available technology of today's studios.

Multiple Oscar, Grammy and Bafta winner - A.R. Rahman is an archetypal example. Post the extraordinary success of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, his varied music produce has been widely heard worldwide but many hardly know anything about him or where he comes from. Many don’t even know that Tamil – his mother tongue or Tamil Cinema (which originally made him popular) do exist! That’s the irony. Perhaps, his inclusion in the Mick Jagger – Dave Stewart’s rock group – Super Heavy is also more for his exotic Indian appeal and his super successful Midas touch than to really bring in a true blue Indian influence.

I don’t mean to be contemptuous but if we are going to be able to truly appreciate the wide variety of music which exists in the world, we should try to forge a deeper understanding of what it is. Listening to live world music can be good start.

Any Music, especially world music should be seen as an inner and outer journey, in which any attempt to approach the various musical genres of the world also has to involve an positive reception of the musicians themselves and the geography and culture he or she belongs to. We are still a long way from achieving that, and it is still far too early—if at all—to talk about music – world music particularly.

9/11 and The Kingdom

2011-09-16T05:03:00.000-07:00

Understanding America's Dirty Oil Connection, Hollywood Style!

It was exactly 10 years ago, this week, when America was devastated by the daring 9/11 attacks that killed over 3000 people. But two costly wars later and Osama Bin Laden now dead, many folks - Americans especially still fail to understand the real reasons for the attacks or bother to decipher the intricate dynamics of America's murky involvement in the Middle East since the 1930s.

On the 10nth anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks, here's a stunning intro from Peter Berg's The Kingdom (2007) - a high octane actioner starring Jennifer Garner, Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper that succinctly explains it all - why the US is dependent on Middle East Oil, how Oil has transformed the Arabian political landscape, the growth of Osama, Anti-americanism, 9/11 and more. Its not 100% accurate but the intro sequence does a great job - all under 210 Secs.

Understanding America's Dirty Oil Business in 3.50 Minutes
The Kingdom 2007 Opening Credits

Writing about Giant Robot

2011-09-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

Secrets of My Clandestine Writing Career

Every so often people ask me why I blog. I am after all a shameless fantasist utterly subsumed by conspiracy theories. Why I write would be appropriate, I guess. Honestly, I just wanted to glue that in my rejoinder because I accomplish both. Ok, back when I began writing rather genuinely – that is some time during my seventh or eighth grade - I guess I wrote simply because I just could.

I suppose I was adept at it, and it actually gave me something better to do besides lazy friends, endless afternoon TV and clumsy science projects. Then, in the ninth/tenth grade, I went into text overdrive. I began writing serious stuff - verbal graffiti, stupid poems and unplumbed essays on anything I could get my eyes on – comic heroes, pirates, UFOs, race bikes, how to guides on making your own fire rockets and plastic kites; narratives on historical figures who caught my fancy - Alexander, Genghis Khan, Asoka and not to forget weekend cartoons and TV series reruns - Spiderman, He Man, Knight Rider, Remington Steele, Star Trek and Giant Robot, that great Japanese cult retro TV show about the heroic Johnny Sokko and his fearsome flying Giant Robot. (originally known as Daisaku Kusama and Jaianto Robo in Japanese)

These influences had two enormous effects on me. First of all, I started writing pompous, ersatz trash that I never showed to anyone. Secondly, it got me hooked to writing as an actual creative outlet. Very soon, I was whipping out pages and pages of self indulgent, arrogant chatter but of barely any worth. However, it at least made me realize that I could write after all!

After Christmas holidays, everything (almost) changed with a concerned but rock-hard reality check at school from my old English teacher. It was my essay on O Henry’s Gift of the Magi - she liked it (or so it seemed) but she critiqued my writing style so deeply that it made me grasp the finer nuances of the English language.

For some strange reason, this episode had a profound life changing impact and so began my rapid metamorphosis – a welcome change from my trite and self-opinionated writings to something more of substance. Many years have gone by since then so let us not turn autobiographical – I will just state that my writing has indeed matured to a pickled perfection from those days and I am unfortunately getting now into serious fulltime adulthood!

Anyway, lets get back to the basics on why I blog/write/put pen to paper. You could say I do it with selfish motives - to add purpose to my muddled existence, to give my restless mind some cerebral work outs and lastly (for all its clichéd notions) - to express my true out of sight thoughts and emotions. Let’s face it – everyone has a diversion – for some, it’s the arts, travel or photography; for some, its music, cinema or books; for many, its collecting stamps and coins or cooking, pets, volunteering…I could go on. For me, it’s a blend of everything above and writing.

So, we could end this with three indispensable reasons - I write for the reason that I can, I write for the reason that I want to and I write for the reason that I really must. Now you know!

20 Rules To Save Yourself From Serial Killers, Monsters, Aliens and other Assorted Bad Things!

2011-09-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Last night, I watched 3 Horror movies back 2 back – Paris Hilton’s tepid House Of Wax (2005), the Norwegian Dead Snow (2009) featuring resurrected Nazi Zombies and the rather well made, Giallo inspired Italian slasher Deliria (1987). But the one common strand in all the three – were mostly stupid people doing utterly unintelligent things and consequently getting killed, maimed, abused and mutilated or being subjected to even more gruesome ordeals.

So far as I can tell, there are some basic common sense rules which all people (not just pubescent teens) ought to observe, pretty much all the time, in cinema or in every day reality – that can save their lives from demons, ogres, maniacs, psychopaths, serial killers, aliens, monsters and their many assorted kinds

So, here are the Top 20 Rules (you need to remember) to save yourself.

1. Always keep kitchen knives sharpened but out of easy reach of little green things from Mars, monsters and homicidal psychopaths.

2. As a general rule, it is an insanely bad (and very stupid) idea to complete any puzzle named Hellraiser and not expect to open a portal to Hell.

3. Be prepared. Always carry a sacred talisman – like a rosary, a crucifix, a wooden stake or a loaded pistol with silver bullets. There's always someone you can offend or defend yourself from with one or all of these.

4. Dont accept clandestine dates from strangers with unusually pointed teeth and glowing blue eyes, no matter how twilight hot they look or how cool their outfit is.

5. Never wear sexy clothes or lingerie on a night out in the woods unless you wish to awaken sex starved fiends waiting for a soul mate.

6. Don't wear unusable shoes or stilettos to go walking in the woods, especially if the forest is near a mental asylum.

7. Even if you feel sympathetic, don't give a free ride to a hitcher on a deserted highway. It might be your last ride of your life.

8. Flashlights need batteries, guns need bullets, brains need to be used, at least when your survival is at stake.

9. Don’t stay in old abandoned houses or morbid motels which have "a fascinating past" or which are run by guys named Norman, Jason or Freddy!

10. If the creepy, ghostly voice tells you to “go” or "get out!”, pls heed its advice.

11. If the door is locked and sealed with bizarre, mysterious and magical symbols, you probably shouldn't open it, no matter how much treasure you think is on the other side.

12. If the heavy-breather on the phone has a funereal voice, chances are good that he's calling from one. And don't accept collect calls from the dead either: you might be accepting fatal consequences.

13. If the weird noise coming from the window turns out to be your pet black cat, the next one won't.

14. If you have just killed the giant alien monster, do not stick around to check if it’s truly dead: it isn't (unless you plan to do this "checking" with a full can of petrol and a fire match.)

15. Inviting spirits, ghosts in a seance or the Devil on Halloween is serious business best left to Satanists and demonic professionals. Whatever you do, don't ever try this at home.

16. No matter how kinky it sounds, don’t make love in a haunted house. It might be the last orgasm you will ever have!

17. On calendar dates linked with murderous anniversaries like Friday the 13nth - avoid booze, drugs, frat parties and thrill rides. Oh, and don't go swimming, either.

18. Remember, lifeless bodies, statues and objects which suddenly come to life are not scientific phenomenons. Run!

19. Transylvania and Area 51 are real places. Stay away.

20. And please, never buy any doll that has the name Chucky!

Whither Horror Cinema

2011-09-01T04:05:00.000-07:00

Why Horror Cinema is No More Scary!

I just finished watching the latest installment of Wes Craven’s slasher franchise – Scream 4 (2011). It was OK but not scary. That's not to say I don't like a like a slasher flick occasionally, but I really am not frightened by screaming, stupid teens in distress, needless bloodletting or pointless gore. Sometimes nauseated, maybe, raised to sarcastic snickering, certainly, but frightened? Nada!

If you ask me, they simply don’t make real scary movies anymore (or don’t know how to make one). Well, Peter Friedkin's Exorcist (1973) and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead (1981) petrified me the first time I saw it. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) based on novel by Stephen King creeped me out and so did Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977) and Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). That’s what's scary: playing with our fears; hints and memories of things that reduced you to a delirious mass of panic in the past; the things that live in the darkness of your soul and the shunned and shuttered compartments of your mind, nasty things lurking in the dark…

Most recently or should I say after a very long time, Insidious (2010) (only the first half though) gave me nightmares, or rather, it just revived the ones I'd had as a kid. In fact, of all the many horror movies released in the last few years, only a very small number have had an impact on me. Martyrs, Descent, Eden Lake, Rec, High Tension, Hills Have Eyes (remake), Inside, Wolf Creek, 28 Days Later, Them ..are some of ‘em that deserve a mention.

Anyway, coming back to the Slasher variety, I really cannot see why anyone likes them or is ever scared by them. Not a crazy killer with a bloody knife and a bad attitude. Hell, I say shoot the psycho and have done. In fact, shoot him twice, thrice.. with a machine gun.

Besides, the lame storyline is always pretty much the same, every time. I particularly also hate the fact that they seem to dress them up as little morality tales and stick them in: anyone under the age of 30 who has sex or even thinks about it - is going to be the next Seekh kebab on the bad guy's menu. Talk about un-safe sex.... Spare me.

P.S: If you are a Slasher aficionado, here are some great original “slasher” movies that you may have missed - April Fools Day, Burning, Black Christmas, Curtains, Cut, Maniac, Maniac Cop, Mortuary, My Bloody Valentine, Pieces, Prom Night, Prowler, Toolbox Murders...

The Curious Case of Dr. Humpp (1969)

2011-08-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

Cult 60's Schlocker for the Sexually Curious

The Curious Dr. Humpp was one of the first signs that the carnal upheaval of the psychedelic 60s was getting out of hand in South American filmdom: Better known by its original name, La Venganza Del Sexo is an Argentine (black and white) cult flick that kicks off with a mosaic of virile people making out, smoking grass, performing stripteases, groping each other, getting naked, panting and licking one another and drinking themselves into nothingness.

However, since as is the way with films of this kind - these drooling hedonists cannot relish bodily pleasures without paying a heavy price, all of them suffer a violent retribution. This punishment takes the form of a grotesquely (albeit funny) monster with gray hands and a blinking light on his forehead, who etherizes these luckless sensualists, piles them into the back of a gunmetal station wagon transports them back to the estate of the mad Dr. Humpp, where they are subjected to experiments of a, um, (you guessed it) sexual nature.

An agile young reporter leaps onto Dr. Humpp’s trail (aided by surprisingly carefree eyewitness accounts of a saucer-eyed, forehead lighted creature at the numerous abduction scenes), but a gang of guys in Buck Rogers suits wearing pantyhose on their heads detain him and make him have sex with a couple of stunning models. Meanwhile Dr. Humpp, in the manner of a James Bond villain, tells the reporter everything.

Here’s Dr. Humpp’s problem: another doctor subjected him to similar experiments years before in Italy, and now Dr. Humpp has developed a vampiric addiction and to stay alive must slurp the blood of experimental subjects who have been supercharged with turbo lust. The original doctor is now a respiring brain in a jar, so he’s not doing that great, either. Besides, Dr. Humpp is also working on a way to boost the human race’s collective brain capacity by souping up everybody’s latent libido.

If it was 2011, Doc Humpp might have got a robust grant from the Viagra Foundation but the reporter hero decides, for some reason, that what Dr. Humpp’s doing isn’t such a great idea. And he spends the rest of the movie trying to shut Dr. Humpp’s operation down, and even though he’s the good guy, you will not be rooting for him at all.

I usually try to retain my impartiality and prudence, but in this case I am on my knees, blubbering, begging you to pilfer, commit traffic violations, leap from rooftop to rooftop of tall buildings, swing from jungle vines, do what you have to but see this movie. It is beyond belief (really).

A exasperating mix of genres from horror to sci-fi to pure morality play, The Curious Dr. Humpp absolutely does not give a fuck about conformist film narration and yet spins a untamed yarn with the abnormal lucidity of a paranoid vision or a death-bed vision. What sort of wild world is this where deformed ogres wearing metal boots stumble into strip clubs without eliciting more than a flummoxed nod from the clientele? Where the act of sex becomes laced with dim-eyed horror, and yet captive experimental subjects are actually given pretty nice rooms with telephones and framed pictures on the walls? Where mad scientists create inhibition-addling aphrodisiacs using items found at an everyday pharmacy? And where all this is made to seem prosaic, as though Emilio Vieyra (the movie’s director) was merely chronicling what was happening routinely in the cities of Argentina in 1967?

I don’t know why, but this movie ís truly enthralling. And for those who are after less cerebral pleasures, the erotic scenes are often aggressively arousing. But even if the dirty stuff is all you’re in it for you still won’t be able to help thinking about this one a little bit. When you watch two lesbians make out with bated breath while the monster plays a pulsating song on a guitar-like instrument, all forcefully punctuated with hazy, surreal shots of half-dead people wandering through a garden, you may wonder if Vieyra and not mad Doctor Humpp, is the one touched with a crazy kind of brilliance.

Free Streaming/Download Avi Link: VeeHD

Cents and Gremlins

2011-08-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my colleague today at the Nice airport on my way back from Monte Carlo about cents and pennies; seems to me like coins of small denominations are all like furry little virile rabbits: if you've got a couple of 'em in your garden and you let 'em rub around a bit, pretty soon, you've got a bunch of 'em – like in your pocket or bag.

Kinda like Star Trek’s Tribbles.... Have a couple of tribbles and let 'em rub around a bit near food and... before you know it, you've got a crazy big pack of troublesome tribbles. Hey! Didn’t you read the sign - don't feed the tribble!

And don't feed the Gremlins after Midnight either. Let's face it, if you don't know what Gremlins are, you shouldn't feed them. Don't ever feed the Gremlins.

Anyway, this kinda sounds like the track "Don't pay the Ferryman". Chris deBurgh, who also wrote "Lady in Red" Romantic drivel... dribble....Tribble-dribble! which is apparently more tribbles.

If you feed a Gremlin, you get more Gremlins, which leads me to believe that Gremlins and Tribbles are just sweet, hairy balls of dump. I mean, food goes in... they come out.

Yes, indeed, it's just basic shit. Rather like this silly post. Somewhat worthless.... rather like a penny. Which, if you've got a couple of 'em and you let 'em rub around a bit…

(For people who are clueless of what this is about, watch Gremlins, Critters or episodes of Star Trek!!)

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

2011-08-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

This Time Staying Awake Won't Save You!

Wes Craven's New Nightmare is originally the 7th part of the successful Nightmare on Elm Street cult horror series which recently saw a reboot last year. They probably changed the title to New Nightmare because they might have been unsure how many they had made. This one's got a remarkable twist, though: most of the actors play themselves including Heather Langenkamp and Robert Englund. The metafilm screenplay also takes on some hazy but ambitious themes about storytelling and its connection with eternal evil.

Turns out Freddy Kruger is a symbol representing an undying evil spirit so terrifying as to defy description (though if you were to describe him, you'd say he looked a lot like Freddy Kruger). This fiend is awakened in some other dimension whenever someone tells a ghost story. Bringing the story to a close -- having the woodsman hack grandma out of the big, bad wolf's belly, for instance - is the only thing preventing the devil from invading everyday reality.

Enter Nightmare on Elm Street, which has resisted bringing itself to a close via an endless string of sequels and so has enabled the demon to approach the portal to our dimension. Once this hypothesis is established, which takes some time, the movie races ahead with enough splatter chills and slasher thrills.

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is a sort of quasi-snuff film. It uses self-reference to imply that something terrible happened to the people who helped make it, but doesn't insist that you take the implication seriously the way a few low-budget horror movies of the 70s and 80s did. This makes the movie's self-references much more than a mere gimmick. And you’ll admit, New Nightmare takes on some big ideas and doesn't always succeed but it’s still a fun scary ride to take.

Free Streaming/Download Avi Link: StageVu or VeeHD

Dim Sum On Wheels

2011-08-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

A Dim Sum Stall at the Food Street in Kuala Lumpur!

You get the most delicous Dim Sums at the ever busy food street in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My staple for 3 nights besides other (much bizarre) foods. More pics to follow soon.

Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer (1979)

2011-07-31T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Original Ultra Violent 70's Slasher

The late 70’s especially 1979 saw an explosion in insanely violent movies, judging from the release of the classic “Dawn of the Dead” and the utterly deranged “Cannibal Holocaust” that year. Another entry in this category was “Driller Killer”, Abel Ferrara’s (Bad Lieutenant, Ms. .45) first major film effort and another in a long procession of late 70s horror and exploitation films to argue that everyone at Manhattan was losing their mind. In fact, Driller Killer was banned in the UK for the unadulterated scale of violence in it and was officially re-released only in 1999.

The premise is fairly straight forward though. A seedy artist (played with aplomb by Ferrara himself), who’s gone several weeks without a shower, has holed up in a Manhattan apartment with two equally seedy, dope addicted lesbian lovers. He’s trying to complete a large masterpiece painting of a buffalo and sell it to an art gallery so that he can pay the rent. He discovers the wonders of the "Porto Pak," a strange device selling for $19.95 that allows you to run any AC-powered appliance no matter where you are. This is handy. Since the horrors of Manhattan’s seamy side have led him to start hallucinating and flying into psychotic fits of rage, he decides to pick up a Porto Pak and start killing derelicts with a power drill. Hence, the name Driller Killer.

This one made me feel out of sorts for the rest of the day. Any fool can make a movie that’s just frankly obscene, but it takes an edge of intellect to make a film that crosses the line into the unspeakably repulsive. “Driller Killer” is such a film, and Abel Ferrara is just the man to make it.

I feel like I have got a pretty good stomach for these sorts of things, but two scenes made me flinch - a street person throwing up on himself and a highly nasty bit of business involving a skinned rabbit. There are also long sequences, recording the rehearsal of a talentless no wave band called "The Roosters," which are almost as hard to take. The vomit, the dead rabbit and the garage band are all real, by the way - used in favor of more edible pea green soup, latex and actual musical talent in a convenient intersection of budget economy and cinéma_vérité.

And yet the movie has got just enough intelligence to get you through the unwatchable parts: there’s a overt menace in the apparently purposeless, atmospheric shots of the painter drinking in Manhattan’s horrid squalor, there’s a fascinating bit after his psychotic break in which he appears to split into two people simultaneously, and the ending is quite nice, eerie and stylized.

If there's a point to be taken from this perplexing but not totally insipid film, it concerns a sort of artistic Judgment Day. The painter decries the Roosters’ ability to forge a group of followers despite their appalling and plagiaristic music. Frantic for money, the painter later agrees to do a portrait for the Roosters that will end up on the cover of their next album and this is when he splits in two - the lead singer is prancing around his apartment playing abysmal guitar and the painter is trying to work on the portrait despite the lead singer’s constant, pretentious entreaties that he "communicate" - "what part of me are you putting there?" he demands, pointing at the canvas.

The film’s culminating moment comes when the gallery owner mocks and rejects the painter’s magnum opus, proclaiming it "worthless" and calling it proof that "the worst thing that could happen to a painter has happened to you; you’ve become merely a technician." Economic and class anxiety saturates the film - the painter loathes the homeless but is only a step away from homelessness himself but aesthetic anxiety, a perceived death of art, culture and music, is what really makes this movie tick.

Free Streaming/Download Avi Link : StageVu or VeeHD (Uncut Version)

Saturday Matinee - The Game (1997)

2011-07-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

David Fincher’s Outstanding Neo-Noir thriller

"The Game" is proof and more evidence that Michael Douglas always picks his films with a curious agenda in mind. Like Basic Instinct, The Game is preoccupied with situations in which nothing can be confirmed, in which what is true depends on who you're talking to.

Douglas is an investment banker who's bored with his job until his brother (an amazingly young looking Sean Penn) turns him on to CRS, a recreational company that "brings the vacation to you". In need of a break, Douglas signs up without learning much about CRS, only to discover they've got more resources than he could have ever suspected - they break into his protected home, take over an entire hospital and they seem to have their cronies everywhere. The question throughout that's impossible to verify (at least until the very end) is, are all the obvious attempts on Douglas's life hoaxes, part of the "game," or are they real attempts to shut down his bank account and get him out of the way?

The Game has a dignified history in American film - it reminds me a lot to Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974) starring Gene Hackman, Harrison Ford and Robert Duvall right down to the weird scene with the overflowing toilet. Like The Conversation, The Game's hero has trouble gaining allies or convincing anybody of the conspiracy being mounted against him, because the sadistic conspirators present evidence to him but withdraw it the instant anyone else comes into sight.

Like The Conversation (or innumerable other movies), The Game's protagonist has trouble even explaining what it is, exactly, that's happening, who his enemies are or what they want from him, and this lack of insight makes his story all the less convincing. But The Game puts an captivating, slightly skeptical twist on this age-old theme of paranoia. If you haven’t seen it yet, I can't tell you what it is but the film's wrapping up is truly astounding and worthy of the exceptional buildup that leads to it. It's a twist ending that works, and I hadn't seen one of those in a long time. Watch out for Armin Mueller-Stahl and Deborah Kara Unger!!

Free Streaming/Download Avi Link : VeeHD

Fuzzy Occam's Razor

2011-07-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

To Shave or Not to Shave!

Occam's razor must have been the real cut-throat type.... surely it never shaved a leg. This whole leg-shaving thing for women (and men) should really be uncomplicated, you do or you don't, but it's not.

I came across a snooty woman at a fashion show rehearsal a few days back (ok, she was about 20 which, in my opinion makes her still a "girl" and her attitude went along with it) who had the all-fired audacity to get on a naïve new fellow student about shaving her legs. Not that she ought to, but which I felt was a little over the top.

Bite me, itchy. She had terrific legs, at least from the knee down perhaps she’s still working on that thigh thing and she’ll be damned if she’s going to obscure the delicate sculpture of her ankles with fuzz so some people can feel secure in their own bullshit.

It seems, it is politically correct, at the moment, for women to free themselves from the male-dominated view of feminine beauty by refusing to shave their legs or underarms, eschew makeup and wear clothes that make them look like a sack of rags. I read in some stupid feministic magazine recently in which several (actually inane) women were being lauded to the skies for "breaking the mold" and thinking “out of the box”. One had quit her steady job to start her own business (in this recession), another had sold her house and bought a motorcycle (must be one hell of a motorcycle is all I can say), one had "given up shaving" her legs. Huh? Is this on a par with boldly taking on the male-establishment in business or pursuing a dream of momentum and independence? Heck, this just sounds like either an excuse for being lazy, or a way of apologizing for not playing the game.

I admit, that I'm as lazy as the next nut and I may decide that I don't want to be bothered with something like hairy legs for a while, but, I think a women’s legs look great fuzz-less and, being the self-aggrandizing, insecure, neurotic type that many of us are, any female of our species would want people to admire them. After all, if you've got something that makes you superior, exploit it, say I (and that's as un-PC as you can get).

Now, I'm hardly a fashion-victim, about as politically-correct as a white sheet at a university meeting and distinctly not interested in whether or not anything I do or say is socially relevant, but I think that deliberately playing coy about what you are and what you want is kind of twisted and selfish (sick, fetish or kinky we can get to later) and to cover it up with a brainless motive like being politically correct and start bowing to someone else's politically-sacred cows is stupid!

Bessy Beach CleanUp July 24

2011-07-20T03:27:00.000-07:00

Green Coalition's Take Care Take Charge Day in Chennai

If you live in Chennai, please join in with your family, friends and colleagues for the GREEN COALITION 'BESSY BEACH CLEANUP' JULY 24, 2011. This is an official "Times of India Garnier - Take Care Take Charge" Environment Day Activity in Chennai to be held on July 24th, 2011, Sunday between 6 AM - 9 AM @ Elliots Beach, Besant Nagar, Chennai - 600090. Meeting Point: Opp Barista Cafe on the Beach Road.

Gloves and Bags would be provided by the organizers but partcipants are encouraged to bring in their own gloves, bags, sunscreen (if you are the worried kind) and loads of energy for a fun "lets clean the beach" green activity at Chennai's favorite Elliots Beach.

Remember, it takes anywhere between 100 days to 50 years on an average for sea debris and beach trash to degrade but only around 60 to 90 minutes to clean a beach. So, be there, show the world you can take charge and be part of a national environmental campaign.

This Eco-Event is supported by Logica, Royal Sundaram General Insurance and Ideasonic Studios. And a special thanks to the Take Care Take Charge team at Times of India. FREE CAP for all Volunteers and Participants.

For more information, please visit the Green Coalition website or the Facebook event page.

Death Sport (1978)

2011-07-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

Roger Corman's bad sequel to Death Race 2000

The voice-over that opens this terrible follow-up to the cult hit Death Race 2000 (starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone) informs us that we are now in a future set 1000 years after the Neutron Wars, where what passes for civilization holes up in hip, psychedelic domed cities.

Surrounding these cities is the "range," a kind of urbane wasteland. When the narrator finally shuts up we see a loin-clothed David Carradine jumping around and muttering things like "sand in the wind, keep moving" to himself until he's pummeled unconscious by a bunch of extras wearing motorcycle helmets.

Carradine is Kaz Oshay, a notorious "range guide," and the guys in the helmets are the henchmen of Lord Zirpola (David McLean), a terminally ill, repressive ruler who wants to capture Oshay because he is a brave and popular opponent of Zirpola's regime. While in the clink Oshay trades "I love you's (which, in this more sensible society, is expressed as "our union is limited") with Deneer (Playboy Playmate Claudia Jennings), who looks as though she might have wandered off the set of "Charlie's Angels." Oshay and Deneer escape from the clink and go off in search of Deneer's daughter - who was abducted by mutants - while dodging, and getting in frequent skirmishes with, Zirpola's right-hand man Ankar Moor (Richard Lynch).

B-movie king Roger Corman produced this movie and bears his characteristic “I-could-care-less” signatures: a soundtrack (featuring guitar riff’s by Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia) produced entirely on a single cheap synthesizer, props that look like they just happened to be lying around the set, performances by actors who don't seem to be quite sure whether the camera is rolling.

Still, there are a few things to like. Whenever one of the henchman's motorcycles goes through a tunnel, for instance, it makes a noise indistinguishable to a tie-fighter's in Star Wars - seeing as Death Sport came out only a year after Star Wars, and seeing as how the earlier movie made a bit of a splash, one has to admire Corman's rather impudent bit of thievery. There's also a bold (and doomed) attempt to pass off a splice in a scene in which everything is on fire. It appears the fire stubbornly ignored the stage direction to hold still between takes.

Finally, this movie rips through extras wholesale. At one point Oshay is fighting in the "Death Sport", a Rollerballesque spectator combat sport using destructocycles in which only one contestant can emerge alive. Extras pour out of a tunnel and Oshay knocks them down like tennis balls from a service machine. Sometimes they explode spontaneously, in the absence of any immediate threat. It's suggestive of the satirical scene in Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste in which the good guys simply cannot be shot, no matter how many bullets rain down on them or how far from cover they might be. If Corman had intended to lampoon the expendability of the extra in your average action film, it would have been merely funny. Because he expects us to take it seriously, it's uproarious. If you are a fan of 70’s style futuristic B or C grade action movies, you’ll probably love it!

Free Streaming/Download Avi Link : VeeHD

Playing the Good Samaritan!

2011-07-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

Help Somebody Today!

Do you believe in good Samaritans and Angels? I do. I recently rammed my car on to a lamp post during a rainwashed trip in the suburbs and an unknown angel who happened to own a house on the street corner, helped me out. He took me in and even made me a hot cuppa of fresh coffee until the tow truck came in a full 2 hours late. I wasn’t injured really but he made sure I was alright!

I haven't had occasion to need a Good Samaritan many times, but I distinctly remember playing the good angel near heaven once. Ok, I mean aboard an airborne 747.

Well, I was seated next to a big man whose knees were right up against the seat ahead of him. He didn't complain until that seat's occupant insisted on leaning her seat back 'til she was practically in my seatmate's lap! The man explained his predicament politely, but that lady would not return her seat to an upright position. Instead, she acted like his request was totally out of line.

Nor being able to see the poor man’s plight, I traded seats with him and my comparatively smaller frame fit right in under the rude lady's seat. That big man turned out to be the vice president of a big bank in San Diego, and he gave me his card in case he could do me a good turn. Though I never called on him ever, I still have his business card somewhere, and the good memory of how it feels to be kind to a total stranger.

I have been repaid for that small act numerous times. People are often nice to me, but I imagine that that mean lady has had repayment of a different sort for her nastiness. After 5 years, I'm still surprised at the needless inconsiderate behavior she displayed.

You will probably have the opportunity to be an angel for someone, maybe even today. Don't be too hasty to let it slip by, go ahead, be the Good Samaritan!

20 Sly Rules to Live Your Life!

2011-06-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

My 20 Rules (in alphabetical order)

1. All rules are meant to be bent, stretched, twisted, mangled and broken.

2. Always expect the worst, hope for the best and be prepared for the rest.

3. Always have ten or twenty good different reasons for everything.

4. Daydreams are like lottery tickets, you rarely win them.

5. If it doesn't need saying, don't ever worry about it.

6. If it needs saying, don’t ponder, just say it.

7. If you have to make excuses, remember what you are doing is wrong.

8. If you like to do it, don’t care, just do it.

9. Luck is what you want it to be and it’s rare

10. Never cry when you can laugh, it’s much easier.

11. Never ever run when you can just walk.

12. Never give them, those wicked souls the pleasure of your distress.

13. Only fools believe the Government.

14. Only textbooks, comic heroes and heaven are ideal.

15. Time is relative. Watch it!

16. To err is human, to admit it is very, very divine.

17. Treat your enemies as though they know all your darkest secrets.

18. Watch your back. Always.

19. White lies rot into black lies within 2 hours or 2 days so beware.

20. Yes, Descartes, we do really exist.

My Secret Day Off!

2011-06-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

I want an extra day in the week. But not one for everybody, just for me, something like a 30 something version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I want a secret day off which only exists for me, a super secret hidden day in which I can get some work done without being interrupted or having to deal with anything. Or a day which I could sleep in and laze about without suddenly finding myself back at my office, yet barely caught up in my sleep.

And while I'm talking about impossible dreams, I want to be able to go to that elusive gym and work out to the point where it really feels like work without having something ache for 36 hours afterward. Of course, getting off my derriere a little more frequently might be a pretty good cure for that.

Ugh... I have to get back to work. Someday, maybe I'll be able to finish all of this and keep my blogs a little more frequent.

Anybody reading this want to pay me truck loads of money to just be so wittingly smart, sexy and clever? 'Cause this capitalist 'make more money' mantra sucks.

Out of my Mind!

2011-06-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'll Be Back in 5 Minutes

Things have taken a mystifying and out of the ordinary turn for me, lately. So, I'm going to be taking a little time away from here, I think. For a few minutes, hours, days whatever. Well, at the very least. Who knows, though? Could change my so-called mind in any of a dozen ways in an instant.

Life is a really strange place, no matter where you live it: in the "real" world or in a virtual one. And even more so when you live your life in your head, for the most part. My life goes on in my mind and, often, this "real" world of blood and sweat and universal laws seems to be only a place to survive, not a place to live. That's upside down and backwards, really, but that's the way my head works.

So, I'm going to go sit in my mental penthouse for a while and try to sort out the junk. Just think of me in my scruffy blue jeans, eating chicken sandwiches and making piles of what to keep and what to throw away. I'll come downstairs, occasionally, to pick up the mail, pay the bills and maybe answer the phone too, so, if you want to talk to me, drop me e-mail. I'm going to go, for now but I will be back! Be seeing you.

Taking a Break!

2011-06-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

With Friends for Company!

Sometimes I just get asinine for no apparent reason I can pin down. Usually alternative rock or spellbinding electron trance,and at times, the company of old friends in a good mood... whatever it is, it's helluva fun but these days all too very rare.

Too often creatives like me live in tiny utopian boxes, and we all get so used to staring at the shiny walls of our own inventions and self-imposed confines of our offices that we completely forget that this isn't the real big picture. Though we won’t readily admit, we all pull down and bury ourselves in hard monotonous 9 to 9 work – copywriting, designing, wireframing, strategizing, brainstorming, all the catchy keywords that you associate with a creative hotshop.

So when we take that break, I jump up! Hey, it's kind of cool out here with the mad folks - a temporary relief from all the bad vibes of a bad day. Not as a steady diet, maybe, but for an evening of fun, it's... well, good fun. Get me lit enough, add a few friends, the right music and I'll stand on the bar deck and sing Def Leppard or dance insane steps at the disco floor. Heck, I don't even have to be drunk on alcohol to do it. Drunk on gaiety will do.

So this weekend while discussing the recession and laughing my head off with an old ‘transnational’ pal over dinner in the city’s current hottest pub, I noticed that the single geek at the bar table next over was trying hard not to stare at us. Poor fella: crouching over his laptop, fiddling his cellphone and visibly bothered that the pretty girls at the adjacent lounge were all laughing and talking about politics, sex, music, art and beer while he sat glum faced in solitary isolation. Obviously, the poor guy needed a break, a few more beers himself and definitely, someone for company!Pity him!

P.S: By the way, since this time, my friend mentioned here has vanished without a trace. If anyone knows what has became of Sid Thomas from Sydney, I’d really appreciate knowing.

Advice Unwanted

2011-06-19T03:02:00.000-07:00

How Strangers Can Ruin Your Day!

Who are these people? I'm working my butt off on some project and some stranger comes along and watches me, then tells me all about exactly how I'm doing it wrong (or at least not the most competent way), how I ought to do it, what I ought to be using and how much I've already screwed the project up by doing things incorrectly so far. Where do these idiots come from and why do they think I give a damn? What makes them believe I give them and their unwanted opinions any kind of credence at all?

And yet, I will stand there hypnotized, nodding astutely and saying "that's what I thought". Vomit. What am I thinking? What I want to do is smack them upside the head WWE style and say "Shut up! If you're so damned experienced and skilled, you do it, 'cause I've got stuff I'd much rather do." Certainly, I have other things I'd rather complete than listen to them spew out... like whatever blasted project I'm knee-deep in when they inexorably come trodding in!

Now, I don't mind my friend coming along and making "misery loves company" jokes as I labour along, since I've seen him head-down over some wretched project many a time. He's earned the right to razz me a bit and I've razzed right back a time or two. That's fine. But these... people… just arrogant prickly rats?

My teacher at School used to lecture me about "the right tool for the job" when I was a kid. Most of the time, the right tool for my job has been a word processor or a pen and a notebook. What do I know about tools? Well, I do know which end to hold onto and that the tool should be doing the work, not me. So, I plod along when scraping paint and sanding wood and things of that nature, letting the tools do the work and listening to other bitch about how slow I am.

And, of course, the free-advice folks seem to be most attracted to the slow-moving workers, as if doing your work at a firm and agreeable pace means that you're in over your head and that you need their unwelcoming and supposedly unbiased help without delay.

Actually, I don't. I prefer to make my own mistakes and learn from them, not make someone else's mistakes and then be annoyed. Bugger off you irritating chatterers. If I screw up, you can laugh all you like, but please don't say "I told you so," because I'd prefer it if you didn't tell me in the first place. Want to help me out? Keep your mouth shut. simple!

Donnie Darko 2001 (+ Directors Cut)

2011-06-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Richard Kelly’s Inventive Exercise in Surreal Teen Angst

I just finished reading Richard Kelly’s “The Donnie Darko Book”, a fascinating addition to the inventive 2001 time travel cult hit - Donnie Darko. The magnetism of Donnie Darko which originally saw a very limited theatrical release but a subsequent fantastic run on DVD and Cable, lies not really in its focal stars – Jake Glyllenhaal, real life sister Maggie Glyllenhaal or Jena Malone (who plays Rocket in Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch) nor in its hypnotic subtle special effects, serviceably effectual as they may be. Although, we have to admit Patrick Swayze's turn as a slimy motivational speaker is wickedly genius, easily his best performance since Point Break, the Kathryn Bigelow directed Keanu Reeves smash hit)

No, Donnie Darko simply works because it's completely original even with its sci-fi undertones. Its portrayal of late-1980s suburban American disquiet and crippling teenage perplexity is so authentic that a talking six-foot tall metal-faced rabbit named Frank is rendered only slightly less than completely plausible.

Donnie Darko succeeds because of first-time writer/director Richard Kelly’s (who went to make the equally surreal Southland Tales) complex script, which - at once candidly determined, mournfully delicate and strikingly intelligent - is also wise enough to make Donnie's parents caring and insightful, knowing that need not preclude the troubled kid from hating them. It works because Jake Gyllenhaal (in one of his best performance since October Sky and Bubble Boy) brings a restrained, tormented charm to the primary character of Donnie. And not to mention and this is the aspect that will haunt you afterwards - the stellar music of Michael Andrews and the befitting 80’s new wave soundtrack including "Mad World", the haunting No.1 Gary Jules piano-driven cover hit of the Tears for Fears single.

By portraying so honestly the time in which it’s set, Donnie Darko captures a dreamlike world of feeling and detail that transcends time, which is what the movie is all about in the first place. Or is it?

Present below are Video links to the original version and the extended Director's Cut which was released in 2004.

Free Streaming/Download Avi Links :

Donnie Darko (2001) Original Version : VeeHD or StageVu

Donnie Darko (2004) Directors Cut : VeeHD or StageVu

Gary Jules : Mad World (Tears For Fears Cover) : Youtube Video

An Apocalyptic Wedding Invite

2011-06-04T02:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Ellen Forney for the inspiration, designed this wedding card for a friend of mine. What better way to celebrate our mutual love for Zombies and Graphic Novels!!

10 Great (and Bad) School Songs

2011-05-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

10 School Inspired Songs from the Websnacker Archives

In a move obviously perpetrated by ignorant politicians, obsessive academics and greedy education companies, kids these days are having a really short vacation and are going back to school much, much earlier. In fact most of them are back at School already.

Whatever happened to free time for children, of not having to go back to brainwash camp and why did needlessly anxious parents and other such minions of school evil allow these sinister changes? It's not like this extra time in the school trenches is making the kids any smarter, so why not let the little brats have some more summer vacation?

Anyway, instead of harping on the nation wide super sale of Apple iPhone4 or Justin Beiber T-shirts (De rigueur for the fashion forward trend-following teen-sheep), lets dust off the old tape recorder and review some of the world's great and not so great songs (read bad songs) about school (from my archives) to the test. Don't worry if your favorite school-themed song isn't on here, it probably sucks anyway. Why? Because I'm the teacher now and I said so.

1. Beach Boys: Be True to Your School

Uggh. No disrespect to Brian Wilson and his Manson-friendly brothers, because they definitely churned out some important and lovely psychedelic harmonic pop, but this glee-club disaster of a song sucks. The devotion to your alma-mater lyrics sound like something the super dad on "7th Heaven" would write, and the "Rah, Rah, Rah, Sis-Boom-Bah" background vocals are about as square as music can get without somehow involving both Kenny G. and a church youth group. Youtube

2. Chuck Berry: School Days

An exemplar specimen, not just of the school songs genre, but of Rock n' Roll in its entirety. This song, with its wonderful guitar work echoing Berry's witty lyrics, paints a truly amazing, portrait of teenage life during the dawn of Rock n' Roll. A true joy, we only wish all of our current staple of songs on air were as clever, catchy and poignant as this 1957 classic. Youtube

3. Dead Prez: They Schools

Wow. Hip hop Duo M-1 and Stic man really break it down on this one, spewing not only fury and rage but also some serious knowledge and insight into just how screwed up America's school systems are, especially for Afro Americans. The only thing keeping this track from being a straight up winner is the somewhat weak R&B style hook which manages to detract from the overall power and impact of the verses. Youtube

4. MC5: High School

Those were the days when Wayne Kramer and his boys seemed to be coasting on proto-punk "Kick Out the Jams" White Panther reputation and hence, this lackluster celebration of youth gone wild. Certainly not their best work. There's potential here, but these guys need to buckle down and apply themselves if they really want to spark a revolution. Youtube

5. Nirvana: School

Sure it's not quite as catchy or dazzling as “Smells like Teen Spirit”, but this is good solid genre work. Cobain's pained wail and the repeated refrains of "No Recess" and "You're in High School Again" skillfully, if simply, articulate the utter torturous anguish that, for most of us, was (or is) High School. Youtube

6. Replacements: Fuck School

Very early Replacements at their shoddy, patchy, punk/drunk rock best. Its 90 secs of pure midwestern youth insurgence and it earns a considerable credibility bonus by virtue of the fact that bass-player Tommy Stinson was all of just 15 years old at the time and probably had to skip his 10th grade Social Studies to make the recording session. Youtube

7. Van Halen: Hot For Teacher

This song rocks. An under rated Van Halen gem. A perfect riff and some great rocket-ship soloing from Eddie combined with David Lee Roth's perfectly lascivious hard rock vocals form a classic tune. It's too bad David Lee Roth called it quits afterwards only to be replaced by what many fans call an insipid and second-rate imitator in Sammy Hagar (which I completely disagree though). Youtube

8. Pixies: Weird at My School

This Doolittle era rarity is an attention-grabbing Country and Western flavored tune about a kid that lives at his Catholic school and wants to have sex with the nuns. Not bad at all but from alternative chart regulars like the Pixies, we would expect a little better. Youtube

9. Ramones: Rock n' Roll High School

A lot more fun in theory than practice, this is probably one of the Ramones' lamer songs. It's just a little too '50s kitsch for tastes. Still it is the Ramones, a perpetual Teacher's favorite, so it squeezes in just above the mark of mediocrity. Youtube

10. Sam Cooke: Wonderful World

On first listen, this song sounds almost as square as, if a lot more expressive as, "Be True To Your School," but a deeper listen reveals it’s many saving graces. Cooke's voice is so smooth it's spiritual, his lyrics are self-deprecatingly endearing, and most importantly… he's trying to get laid. You can't fault a guy for that. Sam may not claim to be an A Student, but he was one of the pioneers of Soul music and with this majestic performance he earns top marks. As a side note, at the height of his popularity, Cooke was shot dead when was 33 years old under rather mysterious circumstances. Bet they don't teach that at school. Youtube

Notable Mentions (with Youtube Links)

Alice Cooper - “School's Out”

Boomtown Rats - “I Don't Like Mondays"

Bryan Adams - “Summer of 69”

Crash test Dummies – “Mmm Mmm Mmm"

Jackson 5 - “ABC”

Pet Shop Boys - “It's a Sin"

Pink Floyd - “Another Brick in the Wall”

Billy Idol – Cyberpunk (1993)

2011-05-23T01:10:00.000-07:00

Remembering the Original Cyberpunk

3 times Grammy nominated William Michael Albert Broad, better known as Billy Idol was the original MTV pioneer and quintessential punk rocker who mined platinum for years with numerous hit albums including the hugely popular Rebel Yell (1983) (featuring the international hit “Eyes Without a Face”) which catapulted him to superstar status, 1986’s Whiplash Smile and 1990’s Charmed Life. Although immensely popular and successful, his latter music sounded increasingly outmoded, relying far too often on his typical scorn and the Billy Idol trademark howl than on any new musical direction.

Then the accomplished punk rebel discovered the futuristic worlds of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson, one of the greatest Science fiction writers of our times who helped define the cyber world genre. Gibson’s vision of an ultramodern future where information is the most valuable commodity and where console cowboys physically jack into their computers to cruise through cyberspace captured Idol’s imagination. He bought a computer, learned how to use it DIY and starting hanging out in cyberspace.

Soon, Idol made what, in many minds was the predictable evolution from a regular punk to a cyber punk, with his 1998’s experimental concept album aptly called 'Cyberpunk', an electronic tour de force of intense techno beats and cyber-lyrics that has one foot in Rock and the other in the brave new cyberdelic world of the early 90s.

Inspired by his trek into the computerized world of electrons, cybertrons and fiber optic cables along with his overzealous fascination with sci-fi culture, Cyberpunk touched upon many of diverse themes the cyber subculture of those early days of the Internet (usenet) embraced.

Lyrically presenting a revolutionary world controlled by corporate overlords and populated by cybernetic cowboys, ardent religious fanatics and a zombie working class held in virtual slavery, Cyberpunk worked well as one of the first musical interpretations of cyberpunk culture and idealism, acting as a bookend and a shining example to new artists exploring unchartered musical frontiers. In fact, Cyberpunk was the first album by a mainstream artist to feature an email id !!!, a special edition multimedia floppy disk (as CR-ROMS were expensive then), a supplementary Shock to the System VHS cassette or actively embrace the Internet in its development and promotion.

While many fans and critics disagreed, the new-fangled change suited him well, breathing new life to his style (Billy Idol was James Cameron's first choice for the T2 Cyborg in Terminator 2) and a raw electronic energy to his music. And although a critical and commercial failure some calling it 'one of the worst albums of all time'; musically at least, Cyberpunk offered some of the best that Idol had produced since the days of "White Wedding" or "Dancing With Myself," recapturing the original strength, appetite and ferocity that originally fired Idol into stardom and led to his previous successes.

Lyrically entrancing and tunefully diverse with a strong electronic flavor, “Cyberpunk” is rhythmic, provocative and often times disturbingly dissonant, much like the discordant society being described, the world that we have now become.

I have not added the entire album of 20 tracks here but only the notable hits and some of my personal favorites including "Shock to the System", "Heroin", "Adam in Chains", "Power Junkie", "Love Labours On" and "Mother Dawn", a fast paced duet with Durga McBroom (of Blue Pearl)

12 tracks in playlist, average track length: 5:11

Playlist length: 1 hour 2 minutes 12 seconds

1. Billy Idol - Wasteland (No Religion 11) (3:54)

2. Billy Idol - Shock To The System (3:37)

3. Billy Idol - Tomorrow People (5:05)

4. Billy Idol - Adam In Chains (6:20)

5. Billy Idol - Neuromancer (4:36)

6. Billy Idol - Power Junkie (4:46)

7. Billy Idol - Love Labours On (3:53)

8. Billy Idol - Heroin (Velvet Underground Cover) (6:56)

9. Billy Idol - Shangrila (7:24)

10. Billy Idol - Concrete Kingdom (4:51)

11. Billy Idol - Venus (5:47)

12. Billy Idol - Mother Dawn (featuring Durga McBroom) (5:03)

Free Mp3s - 95.61 MB Single Zipped Folder - Megaupload Download link

THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL FAN MIXTAPE. IF YOU LIKE BILLY IDOL, PLEASE BUY ORIGINAL BILLY IDOL MUSIC.

You can buy original CDS/DVDs & Mp3s of Billy Idol at his official site, his myspace page and also at other sites like emusic, amazon, itunes, other online stores or your nearest music and movie retailer.

The Bell Jar - Victoria Lucas (Sylvia Plath)

2011-05-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

An Intimate Peep into a Deeply Troubled but Intelligent Mind

The Bell Jar, popular American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel which she wrote under the pen name “Victoria Lucas” is an astonishingly dramatic account of her life through the mendacity of the fashion industry, the hollowness of living in a little insipid town, the bewilderment and paranoia of a young girl attempting suicide and finally a perennial struggle to fight her depression and reform her madness. Plath decided that her "warped view of the world around... seems the one right way of looking at things."

Surprisingly, Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) had the fortunate ability to do almost anything she wanted with her life. She achieved excellence in her schoolwork, earned many awards and numerous scholarships for her writing and was publishing poems at the young age of just eight.

During her sophomore year at Smith College, Plath won a short story contest for Mademoiselle Magazine. And in August of 1951, she spent a month in New York guest editing the famous magazine. There she was enveloped in a fashionably ideal lifestyle and was consumed with the fashion industry and its trendy folks. Upon return to a small lifeless suburb of Boston, she became more and more withdrawn and her views became more and more warped. Even though she got married to fellow poet Ted Hughes, her personal life continued to disintegrate and Plath began to become trapped, in what many say was her own personal bell jar.

Maybe, Plath just didn’t know quite what to do with herself. She saw her life as a tree full of ripe fruit, each fruit representing an intense and rewarding future. In her own words, she saw herself "sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs to choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet." This dismay and consternation eventually caused her complete descent into insanity, a few suicide attempts, shock therapy and even stays at mental hospitals. When this reached a peak, Plath committed suicide which her friend and critic Al Alvarez claimed was an unanswered cry for help.

A sad feeling thats evident in her novel. Plath writes in almost child-like language, with colorful imagery and deeply thought-provoking symbolism. The Bell Jar is vivid poetry more than prose - from the colors in her neighbor’s hand-woven rug that are trampled to gray by her husband and children to the spiteful fury of bedridden hospital patients whose flower arrangements Plath combines to fit her own tastes, it’s an intimate peep into a deeply troubled but intelligent mind. Midway through, Plath's childish, obsessed thoughts, strange words and bizarre actions are easily understood and the disturbed mind of one of "society’s outcasts" becomes all too familiar...perhaps, one realizes why psychologists did coin the word “ Sylvia Plath” effect.

A Letter to Myself

2011-05-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

Writing Your Own Diary

One of the greatest things I've done for myself in the past few months was to start keeping my very own private journal, because for the first time since I was a child I'm writing something strictly for me, and I'm doing it because I want to do it and not because someone asked me to do it. I started a fresh MSWORD file on New Year's Day simply titled ‘New.doc’ and a running count on it shows I've put an impressive 352000 words in 130 Days. Such log keeping would tell you that it ain't worth reading; to anyone but myself that's undoubtedly true. But to me, it's been time and effort well-spent.

Therefore, I feel it is indeed worthwhile to do something that you've always wanted to do for the sheer hell of it, strictly for your own kicks, knowing no one but yourself will ever see it. Only you know what such a something should be; only you will ever see the end product, but there's something to be said for getting at least a taste of the fun of writing back on one's palate.

A close pal of mine tells me one of the little subliminal motivational techniques at her marketing firm is a bespoke nameplate for everyone's cubicle with some crappy quote or other about the benefits of competition. She has taped over her quote and replaced it with one from Lao Tzu, the mystical Chinese philosopher: "The sage dreams of great things, and in seeking nothing, accomplishes them." And she is leading her area in sales made; I've joked they may bring her back to teach a revolutionary Taoist approach to sales! Maybe this is a time to focus more on the dreaming and less on the actual accomplishing. And I hope I do keep writing!

The Thin Red Line (1998)

2011-05-10T05:48:00.000-07:00

An Outstanding War Movie Like No Other

Terrence Malick's 20-year break from filmmaking was vindicated by the adaptation of the James Jones novel in 1998’s Academy nominated war film - The Thin Red Line. Featuring a gifted assembly of fine fresh faces (then) and a handful of starring cameos, this critically acclaimed, cinematic version of the Guadalcanal invasion during World War II embodies the belief of remarkable human experience, among a vacillating military cadre. Malick's painstaking production allows Jones' complex vision of concurrent personal sagas to come to life while a brutal war rages somewhere in the gorgeous Pacific background.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead) A fight of morals emerges between cynic-in-training, Sgt. Welch (Sean Penn), and the routinely AWOL Private Witt (Jim Caviezel), which draws a thin red line of wartime accountability down the middle of Charlie Company. Private Witt and Captain ‘Bugger’ Staros (Elias Koteas) imagine a world of order and alternatives that do not exist in battle. However, commanding officers, Lt. Col. Gordon Tall (Nick Nolte), Sgt. Keck (Woody Harrelson) and Sgt. Welch have adopted a different code for survival on the pacific island. Tall is able to quantify the loss of life as it relates to the value of his mission, while Staros refuses to condemn his men to a bleak fate. A past between Welch and Witt is hinted at, but never fully revealed, while Chaplin's character must fight his own insecurities after receiving a ‘Dear John’ letter from his wife.

The personal joys and sorrows of each character are defined as a set of independent variables associated only by their shared time and place. Early casualties in Keck and others diminish an eager gung-ho attitude that Tall had hoped to cultivate in his troops. Staros is, eventually, relieved of duty by Tall, yet recommended for numerous decorations. Malick paints a picture of understanding that filters down past the surface of war and soaks to the root of what drives man to conflict. An abstruse finale suggests a personal victory for Private Witt, whose death at the hands of a Japanese platoon appears to gesture their proximity to his own company. As fresh American troops replace the survivors of the initial offense, Watt's actions equate to the valor he could never achieve through desertion.

Stunning action photography captures the grim consequences of warfare up close, while fiery explosions barely three feet from the camera fling hapless victims into full-screen airborne contortions. However, the superbly executed war scenes are used sparingly, complimenting the spotlight Malick has placed on the larger thematic goal. Characters are filmed in close up or framed to ensure visual attention during the limited number of dialogue sequences, a style that (combined with the award winning background score by Hans Zimmer & John Powell) beautifully emphasizes the utter loneliness of their existence.

Malick also incorporates an undercurrent of natural imagery to contrast the presence of these military ‘outsiders’. Snakes strike at soldiers as they plod across the battlefield, native islanders continue to sing and a newly hatched bird struggles to take its first steps, only to be welcomed by the crackle of gunfire on the adjacent hillside. Unlike other war movies, Malick employs a surplus of emphatic allegories to focus on the futility of war, and he succeeds. A great film.

Watch out for John Cusack, Nick Stahl, Jared Leto, Adrien Brody, George Clooney, Ben Chaplin, John Travolta and many others in this star studded ensemble and check out the earlier 1964 version as well.

DVDRIP Single File - Free Streaming/Download link - Stagevu or VEEHD link.

A Poem - Dark Skies

2011-05-08T12:32:00.000-07:00

On Violence, from the Websnacker Archives

As I stare out the window, hoping a new day to dawn,

I wonder how destructive, we’ve really become.

The daily violence has colored the grime,

the view of the sky seems darker this time.

Day in and day out, I see the same scene,

it only gets worse, when our world could be pristine.

The buzz of the gun, the red of the sky,

the taste of the dirty air, the burn in my eye,

the pain in my chest, and my throat feeling rough,

when will we say, enough is enough?

Do we accept violence as a matter of change,

and days like today are things that seem no more strange

What is the price we’re willing to pay,

and will we just stop, to stop having days like today?

I wonder if ever the world will stay clear,

if there will be peace and happiness near?

I worry that we may have stretched our world too thin,

This is a battle that no one can ever win.

We need as a people, to be more aware

to really pitch in peace and to do our fair share.

The life we kill is our society as a whole,

the world is damaged; it’s now bloody out of control.

I ponder these things as I sit here and stare,

stuck on the highway, and going nowhere...

10 Fabulous Songs For Mother's Day

2011-05-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

Old but Gold Songs that Celebrate Our Mothers

Mother's Day is here and the list below is something I ghost wrote many years ago for a popular music website of those days but still very relevant.

So, Mother's Day is nothing more than an industry-fabricated commercial holiday meant to throw retailers a bone between Christmas, New Year and Back-to-School who cares? but its difficult to ignore our own great mothers on this most special of days.

That may still bother some, but our eternal love for our own sainted mothers overcomes any objections we might have (objections we would have if, that is, we didn't love our dedicated moms as overwhelmingly much as we do.)

Accordingly, I present a list of the top 10 Mother songs (or should I call my personal favorites) that celebrate our Mothers. Less loving and loyal children might be tempted to make light of this most sacred of days by including such obscene tunes as "Turn This Mutha Out", "She's a Bad Mama Jamma", "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother," or even just plain mean-spirited songs like "Mother's Little Helper" or Pink Floyd's "Mother" (with its lyrics including such trash as "Mother's gonna make all your nightmares come true/Mother's gonna put all her fears into you," obviously the product of an disrespectful, unthankful child,) but not me.

This list is composed strictly of (old but gold) songs specifically about loving and appreciating your mother. Heck, they deserve it.

Beatles - "Julia"

One of John Lennon's most earnest and tender songs of love was written not for Yoko (or any other lover) but for his dear mother

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9UnoPl00GY

Cub - "Mom and Dad"

These energetic female indie-punks' message to their parents is simple: "You did a good job."

Desmond Dekker - "Honor Your Mother and Your Father"

This legendary Jamaican singer's first hit proves that even the rudest of boys still knows to love, honor and obey his mother.

Goodie Mob - "Guess Who"

They especially love their mama's down in the Dirty South, so it's only fitting that this Soul Food classic finds the Goodie Mob in top form.

Johnny Cash - "Send a Picture of Mother"

Facing a lifetime in prison without likelihood of a parole, the unfortunate soul narrating this tear-jerking tune asks but one thing of his soon-to-be-free cellmate: "Send a picture of mother if you can."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-USdn4z_sY

Merle Haggard - "Mama Tried"

An elegy to a mother's devotion against all odds, this country classic exonerates mom from any responsibility for her wayward son's misdeeds, leaving only he - who turned 21 in prison doing life without parole - to blame.

Intruders - "I'll Always Love My Momma"

The title of this Philly Soul classic from the pioneers of Philadelphia Soul - dedicated to the boys' "favorite girl" - says it all.

Osborne Brothers - "A Vision of Mother"

Bobby and Sonny Osborne use their close harmonies and obvious blood-ties to deliver a moving tribute to their dear departed mother.

Temptations - "Oh Mother of Mine"

Papa may have been a rolling stone, but mama was a rock. This humble, sincere song finds the Temptations' Paul Williams predictably wounded by love and begging his mother to forgive him for not following her sage advice in the first place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwnFANCG1MI

Tupac - "Dear Mama"

This sensitive thug-love classic contains such heartfelt sentiments as "even though I sell rocks, it feels good putting money in your mailbox."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rpDmqRrnaI

Happy Mothers Day :)

Thief (1981) Soundtrack - Tangerine Dream

2011-03-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

Tangerine Dream at its Vintage Best + OST/Movie Links

Apologies for the long hiatus. It’s all been work, more work and even more work – not that I am getting any richer, just that making money is getting more arduous these days but that’s an entirely different story so let’s focus on the more pleasant things in life.

So what better way to break my blogging jinx than listening to an incredible soundtrack of an equally brilliant film? I am referring to Michael Mann’s Cannes’ (Golden Palm nominated) mainstream debut – the 1981’s noirish crime thriller “Thief”. An intense look at a world few have ever known -- where lives are in an almost constant state of jeopardy, a dark world in which James Caan plays an ex-con who's desperately trying to pull his jumbled life back together. And who should know about those perilous shady worlds better than Miami Vice/Silence of the Lambs creator Mann? Co-starring Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson besides James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Dennis Farina and William Peterson (in their film debut)

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and based on the bestselling novel “The Home Invaders” by real-life jewel thief – John Seybold who wrote it under the pseudonym "Frank Hohimer", this movie (initially called Violent Streets) features splendid performances from all its leading stars particularly Caan and Prosky, breathtaking night cinematography, an intricate attention to detail (both typical Mann trademarks) and an impressive hit soundtrack by the German electronic trio of Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke and Johannes Schmoelling, more popularly known as Tangerine Dream.

For some strange reasons (believe it or not), Thief’s soundtrack was nominated for 1982’s Razzie Award for the Worst Musical Score but that should not deter you from listening to it. It’s a rare, hard to find filmscore featuring Tangerine Dream at its vintage best - with twanging guitars, buzzed up synthesizers, thumping percussion and a whole medley of other electronic sound gear that all beautifully meld with the movie’s storyline.

Released in 2 different versions - one originally featuring Tangerine Dream alone and the other featuring additional compositions by Craig Safan, both these soundtracks are considered rarities now. Present below are download links to both the versions that I have segregated for your listening pleasure. It isn’t 100% accurate though but I hope I have done justice to the original listings. And if you have never seen this outstanding movie yet, I have also added DVDrip video download/streaming links. Enjoy!

Thief OST - Original Version
8 tracks in playlist, average track length: 4:46
Playlist length: 38 minutes 8 seconds

1. Tangerine Dream - 01 Beach Theme (San Diego Beach Love Scene) (3:44)
2. Tangerine Dream - 02 Dr. Destructo (3:17)
3. Tangerine Dream - 03 Diamond Diary (Tailed/The Break-In) (9:58)
4. Tangerine Dream - 04 Burning Bar (Sam's Forge) (3:10)
5. Tangerine Dream - 05 Scrap Yard (Chicago Courtroom) (4:38)
6. Tangerine Dream - 06 Trap Feeling (2:57)
7. Tangerine Dream - 07 Igneous (Metascore) (4:48)
8. Craig Safan/Tangerine Dream - 08 Confrontation (5:36)

Thief OST - Alternate Version/Extras
12 tracks in playlist, average track length: 5:51
Playlist length: 1 hour 10 minutes 20 seconds

1. Tangerine Dream - Main Titles/The Heist (10:47)
2. Tangerine Dream - Frank Is Set Up (4:30)
3. Tangerine Dream - Chicago Courtroom (5:18)
4. Tangerine Dream - Tailed / The Break-In (4:46)
5. Tangerine Dream - Beach Theme [Alternate 1] (6:11)
6. Tangerine Dream - Beach Theme [Alternate 2] (6:47)
7. Tangerine Dream - Destruction (4:12)
8. Craig Safan/Tangerine Dream - Confrontation (4:12)
9. Tangerine Dream - Diamonds & Dust (9:06)
10. Tangerine Dream - Diamonds & Dust (Berlin Encore 81) (6:12)
11. Tangerine Dream - Diamond Diary (Live Warsaw 97) (3:01)
12. Tangerine Dream - Labeo (5:18)

Free MP3 Download – Zipped Folders

1. Original Version - 56.06 MB – Megaupload link
2. Alternate Version - 98.68 MB - Megaupload link

THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL DOWNLOAD. IF YOU LIKE TANGERINE DREAM, PLEASE BUY THEIR ORIGINAL MUSIC & PROMOTE THEM

You can buy original CDS/DVDs and Mp3s of Tangerine Dream at their website or emusic, amazon, itunes, other online stores or your nearest music and movie retailer

Movie DVDRIP Download/Streaming Weblinks - Megaupload, Stagevu or VeeHD

Branding, Identity or Logo! What Is It Really?

2011-03-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

Isn't It Time We Decoded Branding Correctly?

It is a great, huge disgrace that the word 'Branding' has been so overused in recent years. More and more agencies (small and big alike) and clients tout the ‘Branding’ word about as though it were going out of fashion… which of course, some people would like it to do.

But the fact is that many of these so-called proponents of Branding simply don't understand what a brand is, or how Branding works. Branding has come to mean very little to a lot of people, largely because it is so regularly misunderstood, and is used so vaguely and liberally. The word 'Brand' is often used interchangeably (and incorrectly) with words like 'identity' and 'logo', and clients who simply need a visual identity are tempted to request a Branding programme because, quite simply, it's been the buzzword of choice for the past couple of years.

A brand is like a unique individual personality. It is the sum of a great many parts, and is made up of an elusive set of characteristics and traits, all of which combine to provoke an emotional response from anybody who comes into contact with it. A person's personality is made up of their attitudes, their values and their beliefs. And the way we perceive someone's personality is influenced not simply by what they say, but by how they say it, what they wear, what they look like, how they behave and more.

The subtleties of perceiving someone's personality are just as evident when it comes to perceiving an organization or their products and services. People have personality traits, organisations have brand values. But they are the same things. Think about Pepsi, Apple or Porsche and the chances are you'll have a fairly similar view of each of them to the guy next to you. This is no accident. These brands have been carefully and skillfully managed to be consistent – wherever you come across them.

A brand can be a valuable business asset, increasing loyalty and revenue from customers, increasing share value and reducing staff turnover, whilst at the same time paving the way for future business growth and roll-out of related but separate sub-brands. Get it right, and your business can flourish. Get it wrong, or mistakenly think you are creating a brand when you are simply designing a logo, and you will be back at the drawing board much sooner than you wanted.

When Ford bought Jaguar, its physical assets were estimated at only 16% of the total value, and when Vodafone, the world’s largest telecommunications company bought Orange its physical assets were estimated at just 10%. The purchase values were therefore largely the result of an intangible set of assets which an accountant might describe as 'goodwill'... and which we would simply call the brands. Vodafone has since bought over many brands including most recently Hutch in India for similar reason while Tata Motors took over Jaguar from an ailing Ford in 2 June 2008 for around £1.7 billion.

As soon as Branding sorts out its identity crisis and is recognized to be more about personality and culture than a simple logo and typeface, the world will be a better place - not just for brand-driven agencies like Ideasonic, but for clients and business the world over. Like it or loathe it, 'Branding' as a concept is here to stay, so isn't it about time we started using the term quite correctly?

Jargon Idiolecture

2011-02-18T10:31:00.000-08:00

Why is that Lawyers and Accountants speak a strange language?

Had a bad day with my lawyer today and it was my auditor yesterday. No, nothing wrong with them – its just I cant understand the weird language they speak.

It seems that most professionals (like lawyers, accountants, doctors, engineers..) are to blame for developing a complex vocabulary entirely or themselves. Partly, I suppose, to give themselves an resourceful way of talking to each other and partly to sound intelligent but then they forget that the rest of the world hasn't really seen their odd glossary of terms… yet we have their inexplicable jargon imposed on us.

To their timeless credit, lawyers and accountants especially have developed an industry based almost entirely on their own language that only their fellow brethren can comprehend - with lengthy unpunctuated sentences, bizarre unenglish terms and over formal lingo. Needless to say, this means we have to pay them (or law/finance book publishers) simply to decipher what exactly each of them is saying!

Well, the point here is that it's incredibly refreshing to see some brands that are brave enough to realize that simple communication has a much broader appeal, and is genuinely more practical. You should never have to read anything more than once. And speaking in an strange, multifarious or formal tone of voice will not guarantee you project yourself as more gifted or erudite than your competitors.

The evidence is out there and it still feels new, but it's basic common sense – talk as people talk. Explain complex issues as you would to your pal at the pub, and it'll make far more sense than if you try to jargonise and embellish what you're saying with fancy terms.

Anyway, gotta scoot now. Gotta run some ideas up my laptop before my client’s personal assistant locks diaries with me. Hope this didn’t sound too jargonish to you!

Flirting Classes From St.Valentine!

2011-02-12T10:43:00.000-08:00

Celebrating Valentine's Day in the New World!

Valentine's Day is just a day away but I want St. Valentine to come back. The world needs some serious love help if the recent claim proves correct that half of all men, especially the American kind have forgotten how to flirt. After all, the thing about the global village is that whatever happens in the "developed" world eventually reaches the "developing" world, in which if you hadn't noticed it - we in India happen to be.

Geographical borders no longer prevent anything - from Viagra, iPhone, iPad to a noxious bacterium - from leaping across seas, mountains and continents and taking root in climates where they might not otherwise flourish. Trends, fashions and fancies also reach us in due course, and when they do we're often not quite ready for them.

Take feminism for example. North Americans first awoke to this dogma in the early '60s. It grew organically from the frustrations of the post-war housewife, trapped in her suburban home with only a few new-fangled household gadgets and a horde of children to keep her company. The urge to break free from these confines took time to dawn on these women-as well as on the men who used to blow a kiss to them from the driveway before backing out the family station-wagon and heading for another day at the factory or office.

As the ideology of women's liberation gradually spread out, inspired by the writings and minds of leading women academics, writers and social activists of those days, it eventually reached the kitchens of millions of American housewives.

Today, Americans talk of a post-feminist society and men know all too well the cost of ignoring gender equality. One topical example is the fact the former President of the United States had to vigorously fight for his political life because of a sexual indiscretion that, during the pre-feminist era, would hardly have registered on the political Geiger counter.

When feminism finally arrived in India during the 1980s through a few middle class Indian academics, Indian women had spoken about it before then but it seemed, at first, like an alien concept. And in many ways it was and still is to many Indians, both women and men besides the political right wing Hindu and Muslim outfits.

Indians had not, and have not, lived through the various birth stages of this new way of thinking, and we received it here like a FedEx package that had gone astray with all the assembly instructions intact. We sort of know what to do with the contents; it's just that we're still not quite sure how to put the damn thing together. I know many Indians would disagree but it’s an undeniable fact.

So it was with keen interest that I learned some University researchers in the US have shown that 50 percent of all American men no longer know how to flirt with women. Flirting, the study claims, is a dying art because men are wary that it might lead to accusations of sexual harassment. Apparently social scientists have noted a same trend in other parts of western hemisphere.

One wonders how long it will be before this phenomenon fully engulfs our country - if it ever will. Indians unlike their American and European counterparts seem much less inclined to succumb to new social conventions when it comes to women.

We still live in a traditional, macho society and most of our men have a sky high self-esteem (whether they deserve it or not) that is still quite full-bodied and intact. Ask women, especially single Indian women who try to go out socially in a club or bar, how often men hit on them. It's virtually impossible for a woman to sit alone at a pub in our country without some macho ego in a slick suit or a pair of tight jeans offering to buy her a drink and take her home.

The thing about flirting - and this is what Indian men just don't seem to understand - is that it's not meant to be a method of extracting sex from a woman alone. Flirting is about letting a woman know that you're attracted to her, not just for sexual reasons, but because you find her interesting.

Women will always be suspicious of flirts as long as the primary motive is selfish. Until men everywhere understand that sex is not the only thing women have to offer, women will just make if difficult for men and if they have to scare you in the process, so they will definitely. So come back St. Valentine and make us all celebrate a happy Valentines Day.

February's Essential Reading - Blast from the Past

2011-02-03T10:48:00.000-08:00

9 Awesome Books to Read from the 90s I guess!

Strip Tease - CARL HIAASEN

This may have been a really awful movie to remember, except for Demi Moore's title act for which she was apparently paid $12.5 million but the book by Carl Hiaasen on which it was based, is one helluva fun. With a snappy story line of corrupt politicians, vain TV reporters, grumble cops and a heroine to good to be true, Striptease is a virtual teaser, especially its hard-edged satire on American politicians. Incidentally, Striptease the movie was a colossal box office and critical failure and also won the Golden Raspberry Award for the 1996's Worst Picture of the Year.

Fullalove - GORDON BURN

A tender sentimental title, an innocent photograph of a cuddly toy puppy and you would think it to be a rosy children's novel. But just after a few pages of reading and it's clear Burn's no hold's barred tale of a blacked-out tabloid hero who covers serial killings and child snatchings is the last thing you would want your kids to snuggle up next to their beds. Burn, who was also an award-winning columnist for Esquire and Rolling Stone, conjures up a veritable blood bath with Norman Miller, the hero criss-crossing crash sites, visiting hospitals and mass murderers. By the time, you reach the end, you are a drained-out, sensitized zombie yourself, Read "Happy like Murderers" too, also by Burn if you like this one.

Vurt - JEFF NOON

Too beautiful for bikers, too harsh for hippies wrote the New Statesman when Noon's debut hit the Sci-Fi markets in 1994. And it sure hit hard. Vurt was not only voted the science fiction novel of the year but also won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke award. No achievement this, when you compare the fact that Noon was competing against the usual Sci-Fi biggies like Gibson and Asimov. Vurt is a Sci-Fi surprise, no gang-bang Star war adventure but a move down to earth setting in near future Manchester and a plot that creeps up to a superb climax. If you haven't read it until now, go grab it even if you don't like menacing Aliens and organic galaxies.

Bombay Talkie - AMEENA MEER

When we think of life in India, two clichés come to mind. The first of chicken tikka, snake charmers, bullock carts and women in colorful saris, the second is the bleeding image of a growing densely populated country trying to come in terms with BPOs, atom bombs, Aids and corruption. Ameena Meer's bold debut blows the lid of these stereotypes with a insiders look of wannabe twenty some thing Indians struggling to make it big in a brave new world where east meets west with interesting consequences. Meer's debut packs enough ethnic zing, sexual tension and local flavors to make “Bombay Talkie" a fabulous read.

Fishboy - MARK RICHARD

For a start, Mark Richard's best selling Fishboy sounds a tad boring especially its tedious long beginning that stretches the limits. Your patience is soon rewarded as it slowly turns into a dazzling roller coaster with enough imaginative twists and turns that keeps you spellbound to the finish. With bizarre characters like the lead fish boy, fish wives, seafarers, nuclear submarines and beautiful mermaids for company, Richard builds a intoxicating fantasy that is surreal, dark and good fun to read. P.S: Here's a small nugget you may love to know - Mark Richard was screenwriter for 2008's American war drama film "Stop Loss" directed by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don't Cry) which starred Ryan Phillippe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Sleepeasy - TM WRIGHT

The premise is simple. Hero Harry Briggs is searching for his pregnant wife who is suddenly missing but is rumored to be happy and living in Silver lake. The surprise however, is that Harry Briggs is a dead man and Silver lake is a state of mind. With such a noirish ghostliness attached to it, Wright has enough fun as Harry frantically searches for his wife with just a revolver trench coat in a world that obeys no laws except the supernatural and nothing is perfect. A waking dream of a novel, Sleepeasy may not be your ideal horror read, but it sure is a delight. From the award winning author of the internationally best selling " A Manhattan Ghost Story" which is soon to be made into a movie.

Kolynsky Heights - LIONEL DAVIDSON

With shades of Clive Cussler's "Vixen 03 ", critically acclaimed Davidson's Kolynsky Heights is one of those old fashioned, spy themed, fine action adventures that you don't read these days. With an serpentine plot that stretches from a secret lab in ice cold Siberia to Oxford and a hero as suave as James Bond, the no-nonsense narrative motors along nicely at overdrive speed and regular bursts of neat action. Keeps you pre-occupied till its shattering and satisfying climax. If you like this, I would recommend the award winning and equally popular "A Long Way to Shiloh" and "The Chelsea Murders"

Slowness - MILAN KUNDERA

The author of the best selling "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", Milan Kundera has been one of the most fascinating writers of our century and with Slowness, he proved he was indeed one of the very best. His critics may not really agree but Slowness, is actually a fast paced philosophical tale of loss and human tragedy. Heavy stuff about two centuries linked together by the theme of seduction, about nobles and sex put across with a delightful lightness and grace, which only Kundera can muster. It's an altogether different question about the title, which of course, is ironic.

Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow - PETER HOEG

A delightful and superb novel that made Hoeg, a house hold name in literary circles. And why not indeed. A moody murder thriller, steeped in an cold Nordic interior, Hoeg builds the tempo sublimely and pulls it off efficiently with his elegant prose and wonderfull characterizations. For some, it may be a bit modish, privy to contemporary crime fiction and a predictable plot may too obviously haunt its pages, but this is a splendid novel that sets the mind dreaming and these days, too few books do that. In 1997, this book was also made into a pleasant little movie - "Smilla's Sense of Snow" starring Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne, Robert Loggia, Jim Broadbent, Richard Harris and Tom Wilkinson.

Photographing Fairies (1997) - Not Your Usual Fairy Movie!

2011-01-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

An Eerie Little Fairy Tale on the 'Cottingley Fairies'

A Compelling fantasy drama loosely inspired by the famous “Cottingley Fairies” incident of 1917 which even attracted the attention of the Great Arthur Conan Doyle, this beautifully photographed movie is actually based more on Steve Szilagyi’s best selling book of the same name.

Set in post-war Britain of the 1920's when believing in fairies nearly reached mass hysteria and respectability following the discovery of the “Cottingley Fairies”; it revolves around young photographer Toby Castle (Die Another Day's Toby Stephens) who returns to England heartbroken after losing his new bride down a crevasse on the first day of their honeymoon in the Alps.

He returns home cynical and dismissive, despite living in the same society where new ideas about the after-life and spirituality are seeping into the mainstream. His views soon change though when he meets the mysterious Beatrice Templeton (Frances Barber) who shows him a photograph of her daughters playing with fairies.

Toby is soon convinced that they are indeed real after seeing them for himself and he sees a way in which he can be re-united with his lost love. This view isn't supported by Beatrice's religious husband (played with aplomb by Ben Kingsley), a manic fundamentalist preacher whose less than tolerant attitude ultimately leads to violence.

Winner of the 1998 Méliès d'Or award, Nick Willing’s “Photographing Fairies” is a rather serene film touching on many themes: grief, love, despair and afterlife while also exploring Edwardian society’s interest in supernatural possibilities outside the established realm of those days. Accompanied by a wonderful score, this is a little known British gem that you may never catch on TV.

Incidentally, this is one of the 2 movies that were made based on the “Cottingley Fairies”, the other being 1998’s “Fairy Tale: A True Story” – a more factual narrative starring Peter O'Toole and Harvey Keitel.

Single File - Free Streaming/Download link - Stagevu or Veehd link.

Thinking about Lateral Thinking

2011-01-21T04:29:00.000-08:00

We're all capable of Lateral Thinking – of thinking sideways, yet still having the natural ability to understand, or to make the mental leap between what is being said and what is being implied.

Yesterday, I watched an old episode of “Only Fools and Horses”, a popular British TV sitcom that ran between 1981 to 1991 and even upto the early 2000’s. What I'm getting at is the genius of scriptwriters like John Sullivan, who anticipates an audience's response before conjuring up something brilliant. With “Only Fools and Horses”, he decided that forever and a day the character 'Trigger' would get his best mate's name wrong, without exception. What an indisputably splendid bit of audience understanding to include such a detail.

So why do we love this kind of lateral thinking? Probably because we welcome humor more if we've got a bit of work to do to 'get the gag'. It's more rewarding.

The point is, Creatives (blokes like me who in the creative industry) bang on about being lateral thinkers... but ask them to explain what lateral thinking is.

For me the best analogy is a joke – 'a man walks into a bar... BANG, it was a lead bar' – Okay, so it's a crap joke, but let's face it, in a split second you probably envisaged that man, saw his face, his clothes, where he was, and you had in mind a particular guy with an open door. Yet you were thrown sideways by the punch line, and the bar in question conjured up a completely different picture in your mind – a solid piece of lead piping, with the same guy's face now wedged up against it.

The fact that, to a greater or lesser degree, we can all consciously make this sort of leap sideways allows us to take what can only be described as the 'scenic route' to a concept. Getting there is 75% of the reward. And the ability to take an even more oblique route is perhaps the difference between a great idea and a bloody extraordinary idea.

To be too obtuse in one's communications is, of course, counter-productive. The more oblique the route, the more likely it is you're going to get lost. Equally, to generate a formula (or road map) for this kind of thinking is clearly impossible. So to make sure we come up with bloody fantastic ideas more often than not, the answer is simply to have an alternative approach, to think in a way that explores all the routes around and between concepts.

And anyway, this kind of lateral approach is much more fun than always going in a fixed direction. So, are you thinking now?

P.S: If Lateral Thinking interests you, read Edward de Bono's "New Think: The Use of Lateral Thinking", "Parallel Thinking: From Socratic thinking to de Bono Thinking" and "Six Thinking Hats: An Essential Approach to Business Management". All the 3 books are a great read and proof why de Bono is perhaps considered one of the greatest thinkers of all time!

15 Best Female Rock Songs for the New Year

2011-01-17T02:16:00.000-08:00

Pop Rock Hits from 15 Best Female Vocalists (That I Can Think of Now)

My first Music post for the New Year and what better way to celebrate than a smashing collection of 15 awesome songs from 15 best female vocalists that I can think of (now)- including personal favorites like Sarah McLachlan, Lene Marlin, Beth Orton and Michelle Branch. 2 Things to do now - click the download button, enjoy!

1. Adrienne Pierce - Downside Of Love (3:20)

2. Aimee Mann - Thirity One Today (4:52)

3. Beth Orton - Thinking About Tomorrow (6:40)

4. Jane Wiedlin - Blue Kiss (3:28)

5. Lene Marlin - Another Day (4:07)

6. Lucy Woodward - What's Good For Me (3:59)

7. Melissa Etheridge - Come To My Window (3:57)

8. Michelle Branch - Goodbye To You (4:11)

9. Mieka Pauley - (Prologue) All The Same Mistakes (4:19)

10. Minnie Driver - Down (4:36)

11. Sarah Bettens - Stay (3:17)

12. Sarah Mc Lachlan - Sweet Surrender (3:59)

13. Serena Ryder - All For Love (3:58)

14. Sheryl Crow - Love Is All There Is (4:01)

15. Adele - Chasing Pavements (3:31)

Free MP3 Download – Zipped Folder - 78.43 MB – Megaupload link

THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL FAN MIXTAPE. IF YOU LIKE THESE ARTISTS, PLEASE BUY THEIR ORIGINAL MUSIC & PROMOTE THEM

You can buy original CDS/DVDs & Mp3s of the above artists at emusic, amazon, itunes, other online stores or your nearest music and movie retailer.

Fighting the Recession!

2011-01-09T18:58:00.000-08:00

How You Can Stop The Downturn

Today I had one of my smallest US clients default on the payment. And he had the American recession and his house mortgage to blame. With a brand new year just beginning, it felt really terrible.

Recession just like Residential Prices, I am reliably informed by a friend who works for one of the United States’ largest realty advisory – depend on four crucial factors: general employment, household incomes, interest rates and consumer confidence.

Okay, so there’s nothing too startling here or that you didn’t already knew. But let’s take a look at the detail.

Clearly, the first three of these key factors can be quantified, even predicted. But the problem my pal and his colleagues have is that consumer confidence is intangible, it’s indefinable, unquantifiable and in total too slippery for its own good. Property ‘experts’ like him are always having the rug pulled from under their feet by that fickle-minded beast, shopper confidence. Sure, the realty market is still on the up in most areas of the country, but it’s slowing down or stabilizing.

It’s not just the real estate market that relies on consumer confidence, of course. The whole economy relies on confidence.

If one thing’s for sure, confidence is not simple to forecast. We rely on it, yet we can never be sure of where it’s heading. And we have only a very fuzzy understanding of what influences it, what makes it go up or go down. Something we think should be seen as hugely positive news might not have the desired effect on the population, and something else that’s apparently catastrophic might not be given much credence by the economy.

So here’s a practical thought for all of you.

Why do we all fall into the trap of running down the economy just because someone else tells us they've heard there is a downturn, that there are no more jobs or that the economy’s slowing down? Even if there is indeed a recession, why do we allow ourselves to be swayed by unnecessary despair? Nothing more than an insecure feeling that perhaps we should all avoid spending our money right now? Nothing more than a failure to take a little risk now and then!

For God’s sake, we all need to snap out of it! It’s precisely because people like you (and me) are choosing the ‘safe’ route and not spending our money that the whole economy is threatened with slowdown! If you don’t spend your money, the person who would have got it won’t spend his either, and so it goes on, down the food chain of the entire economy.

So…the solution has to be that the chap at the top of the food chain needs to spend his money, and that way it will trickle down to the guy at the bottom, with everyone becoming more and more confident as the flow of cash continues.

So come on all you big transnationals, all you large companies who ought to know better, get your cheque books out and get the economy going again.

And let’s stop talking so damningly about the economy, no matter which country you live in. It’s happening right now, in hotel lounges, bars and pubs, newspapers, magazines, blogs, up and down at all nations (or at least most of them) across the world. And it’s something we've all got to stop.

Or else, if the economy really does slow down to the point of shrinking, we've only got ourselves to blame, myself included. So, let’s change the lingo “The economy’s booming”. Pass it on!!!

Dead Man On Campus (1998) - How to Pass by Catastrophe

2011-01-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

An Academic Black Teen Comedy!

Two first-year college students have to resort to desperate actions to get through their degree course. An unfathomable loophole in the University rules might help them get through. Josh is discovering that the first year of college can be tough. It doesn't matter if you're a straight A high school student, college is a different ball game all together.

The tough part about college isn't the academic work, but rather the road to excess and over-indulgence, and actually having too much fun.

When his grades fall rapidly and the end of the semester looms, Josh has to come up with a plan to salvage his grade average and his scholarship.His roommate is in the same quandary, and together they find out an antiquated rule (pass by catastrophe) in the college charter, which, plainly put, says that any student dying while studying at the college automatically receives a straight A average grade.

So, how to die and get the grade and still live anyway? Simple, get someone else to die in you place. Bizarre subject matter for a dumb comedy, maybe, but with some amusing moments in a black sense, “Dead Man On Campus” sets off to tackle the college movie in a different and weirdly instructive manner.

Tom Everett Scott, recognizable from his hit role in the Tom Hanks directed flick "That Thing You Do", plays Josh, who gets to the celebrated Daleman College on a scholarship, only to find that more fascinating activities flourish outside the lecture rooms. In a panic, he resorts to frantic measures to preserve his exceptional academic standing.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar, known in the US for his television role as Zack Morris in "Saved By The Bell", is Cooper. Cooper is a blue-blood, rich guy, with a weakness for the lavish and luxurious life. Initially a mismatch for Josh's average background, he becomes a cohort in Josh's criminal plan.

The two advertise for a room-mate, intending to somehow get this roommate to die - the rest is obvious. Or is it? Watch it and you'll know.

Single File - Free Streaming/Download link - VeeHD or Megaupload Download link.

Insomnia NYE Party @ the Park Pod Hotel, Chennai

2010-12-26T10:51:00.000-08:00

Chennai's Most Anticipated NYE Party!

Its probably been the busiest December in recent years for me - huge workloads of client work, a busy personal 'to do' list and a fantastic NYE party - Insomnia I am organizing along with my schoolmate buddy of 20 years! So, instead of a blogpost, this is more of an advert of the event. And if you are reading this and if you happen to be in Chennai, write to me at websnacker@gmail.com citing this post for an exclusive deal to celebrate the New Year!

Insomnia 2011 - The NYE Party at the Park Pod, Chennai, Dec 31, 2010

At Chennai's newest ultra chic hotspot - The Park Pod 5 Star, CondeNast rated Boutique Design Hotel. Your passport to an all-inclusive star-studded VIP nite of up tempo music, trendy fashions, sumptuous international food, free flow premium spirits, hi-fi lite & sound and much, much more!

Featuring exclusive live performances & DJ Sets by

- BlackJack! - India’s No.1 Rock/Retro DJ for the first time in Chennai and his groovy, eclectic set of pure, aural pleasure from the 80’s, 90’s and beyond!

- DJ Cyrus spinning his wild n wicked mashups of melodic Electronica from around the world!

- DJ Nath and his ghetto blastin rhythmic blend of Electro House, Techno and Desi tunes!

- MC Joe, the Masta Peace Rapper/Beat Boxer from Malaysia!

!!!MIDNIGHT RAMPAGE!!! A T.H.E.O.R.Y Presentation!

An urbane, haute couture fashion show by THEORY showcasing designs of Prashant Verma, Siddhartha Tytler, Rahul & Gunjan and Lecoanet & Hemant; synchronized by Chennai’s ace fashion choreographer – Karun Raman and directed by our very own Malcolm.

LAVISH BUFFET SPREAD & UNLIMITED PREMIUM SPIRITS ON THE HOUSE :)

An extravagant, international lavish buffet made by the expert chefs of the Park Pod and boundless, free flow premium IMFL drinks to raise the spirits and welcome the New year in great taste and style.

Plus loads of other entertainment, contests and lucky draws to ring in the New Year at the most bumping NYE party Chennai has ever seen.

For a totally awesome night CALL NOW at 9092920000, (044)64564444 or 42641424 to book your tickets and collect your VIP boarding pass or email me.

Part of the proceeds go to Green Coalition Network. Event produced by Cloud 9 Entertainment Pvt Ltd, powered by Ideasonic Studios and supported by D Dzign Studio.

Gates Open at 8.30 PM – Dress to Impress – Conditions Apply!

Moist – Mind Altering Chillout Electronica from Sweden

2010-12-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

10 Free Tracks From Sweden's Leading Electronic Artist

How about some addictive, chill out electronica for the week ahead before Christmas. That’s the picture I can think of after listening to Moist the last few days! Not to be confused with the Canadian Rock band of the same name, Moist is from Sweden and the creation of one man army Producer, Songwriter & Musician - David Elfström Lilja.

David expertly coaxes dreamy, chill out melodies with a skittering of lush female vocals, shades of kraftwerkish new age ambience and pensive downbeat harmonies – all beautifully blended amidst an air of enigma. Imagine, mind expanding lounge electronica on your speakers! Now, thanks to David, I present below some of my personal 10 favorites for your aural consumption which are already very popular across numerous European radio stations. So, go ahead, lie down, switch off your lights and immerse yourself in electronic moist bliss!

1. Moist - Far Beyond The Endless (Mert Boru Remix) (4:08)
2. Moist - How Long (Omnimotion Remix) (3:28)
3. Moist - How Long (feat. Maria Marcus) (3:58)
4. Moist - I Am (UGLH Remix) (5:18)
5. Moist - Just Say You're Sorry (feat. Sophie Rimheden) (4:52)
6. Moist - Just Say You're Sorry (Stefan Aronsson Remix) (6:04)
7. Moist - Not Alone (Addeboy Vs Cliff Remix) (5:14)
8. Moist - Not Alone (Inspiritualization Remix) (4:42)
9. Moist - Not Alone (feat. Maria Marcus) (3:15)
10. Moist - Wild Structures (with I Awake) (5:36)

Free MP3 Download – Zipped Folder - 94.28MB – Megaupload link

THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL FAN MIXTAPE.

If you like Moist, please visit the Moist website @ or like the Moist Facebook Fanpage . You can also follow Moist and the force behind Moist – David Elfstrom Lilja on Twitter.

The Top 5 Movies of Michelangelo Antonioni

2010-12-15T10:29:00.000-08:00

My favorites from the Italian Modernist

I had the indulgence of seeing Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up” on HD last week. Again that is. This was probably my 7th or 8th time but watching this masterpiece from the Italian modernist filmmaker in high definition glory just blew me away. After all, according to cinema critic Richard Corliss, this was the movie that defied conventions and “helped liberate Hollywood from its puritanical prurience”!

So, now that you know my love for this celebrated filmmaker, I present below some of his very best movies or rather my personal Top 5 for your reading pleasure. As always, I have added all video links that I could find so that you can also view these great movies.

L'Avventura/ aka The Adventure (1960/Mystery) - Its slow, stately pacing caused absolute chaos at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, but this remains one of Antonioni's finest with Empire magazine ranking it one of 'The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema'. Part one of the ‘Incommunicability’ Trilogy and the film that launched the career of Monica Vitti, this movie is a beautifully constructed tale of futility, idleness and deception revealed through the search for a missing woman. Antonioni uses little dialogue; what is said, therefore, we pay attention to. Likewise, the director's trademark blank compositions are very much in evidence. Also starring Gabriele Ferzetti and Lea Massari.

Free Video Download/Stream Link - Italian with Eng Subtitles – Stagevu

L'Eclisse/ aka The Eclipse (1962/Drama/Romance) - The final part of the 'Incommunicability' Trilogy, preceded by La notte; Antonioni's masterpiece stars Monica Vitti and Alain Delon as a couple in a modern, desperate relationship as seen through the eyes of the auteur of alienation. Though his view of the eclipse of emotion is ultimately bleak, there are touches of humor along the way. The justifiably famous ending poetically sums up the film through a montage of rich images. Though nominated for the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival, this won the Jury Special Prize.

Free Video Download/Stream Link - Italian with Eng Subtitles – Stagevu Part 1, Part 2

Blow Up (1966/Mystery/Thriller) - A mod, metaphysical London, a mocking, mad world and a murder mystery provide the ideal setup in this Oscar nominated numinous whodunit that also made Antonioni, an international star and inspired Brain De Palma’s Blow Out (1981). David Hemmings, a swinging English photographer (in the likes of David Bailey) more concerned with art than reality, discovers a sinister truth when his camera unknowingly witnesses a murder. Antonioni's most accessible film and also his first English-language film is a profound meditation on the nature of representation. Based on the 1959 short story by Julio Cortazar’s “The Devil’s Drool”. With Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles. A genuine masterpiece, don’t miss this.

Free Video Download/Stream Link – Stagevu

Zabriskie Point (1970/Drama)- Antonioni's impression of late 60's American youth counterculture was a colossal flop during its initial release – critics finding it crammed with condescending cliché and dated attitudes. An irritating but totally intriguing mess with Sam Sheppard listed as a contributor to the non existent screenplay in which Mark Frechette is insufferable as a college boy who hides out in the desert with a sexy Chick after shooting down a pig. In spite of all its various shortcomings, I found it full of beautiful images, especially the desert scenery, a few occasionally affecting insights and a dazzling soundtrack featuring the Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead and the supreme Pink Floyd amongst others.

Free Video Download/Stream Link – Stagevu

The Passenger / Professione : Reporter (1975/Drama/Mystery/Thriller) - Jack Nicholson provides the ultimate in cool alienation in one of Antonioni fine depiction of male angst. Nicholson plays a journalist who decides to take on a dead man's identity in an anonymous desert setting, then plunges deeper and deeper into your classic existential malaise in this 1975 Cannes “Plame d’Or” nominated gem. Maria Schneider (Last Tango in Paris) provides some temporary relief. Jack is absolutely prime; the moody photography is memorable. An excellent choice for Nicholson, art film fans and film students alike. The Passenger’s penultimate long take 8 minute shot (in those days when there was no steadicam) is alone worth the price of admission. Watch out for Steven Berkoff. If you like this, you should also see the similarly scripted Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control(2009).

Free Video Download/Stream Link – Stagevu

Exclusive Interview with Wolf's Lair - Winners of 2010 Chennai Live's Band Hunt

2010-12-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

Meet Wolf's Lair - Chennai's Favorite Band of 2010

The Chennai rock scene has lately seen a very vibrant resurgence with many new bands from the city hogging the national and international limelight. Heading this pack is the Wolf’s Lair, a young 6 piece that's opened for the Swedish heavy metal specialists – HammerFall during their India tour, played at the Rock Street Journal inspired Kingfisher Rocks and won the first edition of the hugely coveted Chennai Live 104.8 FM 2010 Band Hunt.

Comprising of Vivin Kuruvilla (Keyboards), Arun Daniel (Bass), Pharez Mervyn (Guitars), Anshuman Mishra (Guitars), Manu Krishnan (Drums) and Mark Thomas (Vocals), this effervescent sextet play an eclectic mix of Symphonic Metal blended with darkly sumptuous, epic swathes of melodic heavy metal. But don't just take my word for it. Wolf's Lair is here to tell their side of the story.

As part of my “Band Talk” revival series (as present in my previous music blog), I am proud to present to you this Exclusive Interview with Wolf’s Lair, Chennai’s current metal heartthrobs. Read on!

Why do you call yourself the “Wolf’s Lair”? What's the origin of this name?
Mark - Hmm, well. I’m a big big history buff and while we were deciding a band name, I saw this program on Hitler and his headquarters which was called the Wolf’s Lair hidden in the Polish Mountains.. we are not pro Nazi or anything, just the fact that how it was described as the most powerful place on earth at the time, towards economy, war, organization, industry, etc. considering the orders that came out of the place was pure power and the what changed the present world we live in, and our music is all power! \\m//

How has been the Chennai Live 104.8 FM's Band Hunt experience been? Did you guys ever think you would actually win it?
Vivin – Hell yeah!! I was really pumped about the whole thing, and knew if we worked hard and played a really tight list, we would nail it. And we did.

When did the idea to start the band originate? What inspired you to make music together?
Mark – The band was formed mid August, so were pretty new, but old friends, we were all members of our previous band Blood and Iron. What inspired us is the mutual interest in music and putting on a show.

What genre do you classify the style of music you play? Was this planned from the start or did it evolve halfway through?
Mark – Symphonic Power Metal is what I think it is now. Hahahah, its started of with classic heavy metal, went a little glam, then went progressive, were kinda lost.. but Symphonic Power Metal is what it is.

Who are your favorite bands and major musical influences? How do you rate the Chennai rock music scene?
Arun – Wow! Every member has a certain influence which is what the band is unique about, and the contributions help in making a wide variety of music within the genre. As the band, our Inspirations range from Maiden, Manowar, Judas Priest right down to Annihilator, Avantasia, Primal Fear, Dream Theater, Cynic, Meshuggah and the list goes on.

What image do you think your music conveys? Has it evolved since you first began playing music together?
Vivin - The image is power and still music to be enjoyed, it has evolved in many ways.. It’s a more dynamic approach from all aspects. We don’t stick to one style. We are open to experiment(ing).

How being identified as a Chennai based band been a boon or a major impediment to your success?
Anshuman – Its been both - a boon and an obstacle, boon coz of the talent and the musicians and the passion for it, and obstacle coz heavy metal sells better up north and it’s where all the focus goes.

Who writes your songs? Do you improvise your lyrics during your live shows?
Mark – We all do, and hell yeah it’s improvised live; I’m always up for a little crowd interaction.

What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you have a set time each week in which you practice or are rehearsals more spontaneous?
Pharez - Well, its getting spontaneous now, and that's a bad thing that were working on. We are actually looking for a nice place where we could get good sound as a 6 piece band and where we don’t have to spend much.

Do you have a record label?
Manu – nope! But hopefully, after we make the first album! \\m//

Where have you performed so far? What are your favorite and least favorite venues? Do you have any upcoming shows?
Mark – There are definitely no least favorite venues, no so far at least. We’ve always had a good time everywhere we played and to who we’ve played
Vivin – Our favorite shows would be opening for Hammerfall at Saarang and Kingfisher Rocks in Kerala.
Manu – Those gigs were with the old band, since we just formed, we’ve played very few gigs, but we are playing on the Dec 11th at the Geoffrey’s pub as part of the Unseen Underground Pubfest.

Which songs do you perform most frequently or do you have a set play list? Do you ever play any covers?
Pharez – Rite now, were playing only originals coz we wanna let people hear more of the new stuff before we make the album, covers are a problem coz everybody wants to play one from their favorite band, so till we find a common cover, were gonna skip that.

What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
Arun - Timing. That’s the biggest. We are getting older by the minute and in India with the society and everyday life around us, we gotta get jobs and most times affects us from going out station far away just to play and makes us think twice before taking off from work. I guess that’s just life. We still stick by our guns to overcome it, the love for the band and music is what we put first.

What's your ultimate direction for your band besides seeking fame and fortune?
Mark – Where do we begin, everything a little boy dreams of when starting a band, the whole rock star life, comes with the package. Let’s face it; forming a band in college is for the fame and chicks and that stays. An ultimate apiration would be to play at the Wacken Heavy Metal fest in Germany and people around the world singing our songs. \\m//

What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands, especially those in India?
Vivin – Go ahead!! You have to, and in India, it takes balls, a lot of people might discourage in the beginning but just stick to it.

Mark – If you really wanna start a band, just do it and if you don’t, a band will find you!

Is there anyone you'd like to acknowledge for offering financial or emotional support?
Pharez – Parents, Friends, Girlfriends, fans everybody for their support and mostly understanding, it’s hard to put up with a bunch of loud metal heads!
Vivin – Mahesh who’s a common friend has helped us for almost 6 years now and helped in ways more than we can count, financially too.

Do you guys have any other hobbies besides, obviously, making music?
Mark - lots!! All alcoholics, hahahha! Well everybody is a tutor of music in some kind for other younger artists, all ardent RISK players!! Like making meaningless long drives and just be kids when we have the chance. Exquisite wine tasters, (which is just more drinking) lol..

What's been your most embarrassing experience?
Vivin - Individually we got a lot a lot, as a band well nothing! We are true gentlemen!!! hahahha. From constantly missing flights and trains coz of reasons that cannot be explained, literally, coz we don’t remember them happening till embarrassing videos surface, and lets just stop with that.

If you guys were to describe yourself in simple words, what would you say?
Manu - We are Metal Heads!! Pure and simple, and we’re here to make music.

How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? Do you have a website with sample songs or a demo CD?
Anshuman – We are working on a website and we are gonna cut an album soon, but till then, you guys can view our videos and hear our songs and reach us on these links - Facebook or Reverbnation.

Any last words?
Mark – Yeah, Don’t let the critics bring you down, Just go out and do what your heart tells you too and work your ass off till you get it. And promote us like mad! Hahahah.. Cheers! \\m//

Singing in the Rain - 20 Great Rain Songs!

2010-12-06T00:52:00.000-08:00

Free Hit Mp3s to Relish the Bountiful Rains

It’s been raining, rather incessantly for the past 3 days. Maybe, the man above has finally heard my complaints - blessing me (and a thousand others) with a million gallons of water plus a day off on a Monday! So, what better way to spend a bonus weekday holiday than listening to great rain songs, sipping hot mushroom soup and savoring the cold wet weather with the family!

Featuring fantastic hit tracks from the likes of Sarah Brightman, Paramore to Queensrÿche, The Cult, personal favorites like A-ha, Garbage, Cold besides Billboard hits from Zoe, Milli Vanilli and more, I hope you all share my enthusiasm for the rains, like my rain love and enjoy the free rain music!

1. A-Ha - Crying In The Rain (4:21)
2. All That Jazz - Open Rain (5:09)
3. Benjamin Diamond - The Rain (4:37)
4. Cargo Cult - Rain (3:27)
5. Club 8 - Spring Came, Rain Fell (2:36)
6. Cold - Rain Song (3:37)
7. Garbage - Only Happy When It Rains (3:56)
8. Hunz - Ocean From Rain (5:23)
9. Kate Ryan - The Rain (3:18)
10. Milli Vanilli - Blame It On The Rain (4:19)
11. Paramore - When It Rains (3:35)
12. Queensrÿche - Another Rainy Night (Without You) (4:29)
13. Sarah Brightman - Let It Rain (4:17)
14. Sneaker Pimps - Walk The Rain (4:56)
15. Something Stranger - And The Rain (3:15)
16. The 77's - Rain Kept Falling In Love (4:57)
17. The Alarm - Rain In The Summertime (5:11)
18. The Cult - Rain (3:58)
19. VAST - Where It Never Rains (3:30)
20. Zoe - Sunshine On A Rainy Day (3:57)

Free Mp3 Download – 97.93 MB Single Zipped Folder – Megaupload link

THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL FAN MIXTAPE. IF YOU LIKE THESE ARTISTS, PLEASE BUY THEIR ORIGINAL MUSIC & PROMOTE THEM

You can buy original CDS/DVDs & Mp3s of the above artists at emusic, amazon, itunes, other online stores or your nearest music and movie retailer.

Office Space (1999) - A Truly Brilliant Office Comedy

2010-12-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Cartoonist Mike Judge's hilarious “Dilbert”ish Workplace Satire

When Matt Groening's "The Simpsons" reached the height of its popularity, it began to receive major competition from an other (equally famous) new cartoon series aimed at the Generation X market: that creation was the wickedly delightful "Beavis and Butthead". The man responsible for the phenomenon of the grunge-addled, self-indulgent, adolescent duo was Mike Judge (Idiocracy, Extract, Spy Kids).

Judge got his start drawing insert cartoons for TV shows like the "Saturday Night Live", much like Groening did for "The Tracey Ullman Show". Thereafter, "Beavis and Butthead" developed into a popular international cult series, spawning a animated full length feature "Beavis and Butthead Do America" (which incidentally was Judge’s first full length movie) and influencing the more recent crude but hugely admired cartoon explosion headed by "South Park".

Later, Mike Judge, by now a sophisticated satirist who used low humor to make high art, went to try his hand at live-action film with the side-splitting corporate comedy, "Office Space" based on his own Milton cartoon series. Though not a big hit during its time of release, this movie has slowly garnered a cult reputation primarily through word of mouth praise.

"Office Space" rips into the authoritarian motifs that recur in the works of such literary greats as George Orwell and Franz Kafka: authors who paint a dreary picture of urban, working life, devoid of optimism and personal liberty. But where Kafka and Orwell focus on the nightmarish, dystopian elements, Judge focuses on the sly humor that arises out of the irrationality of the modern work place – in this case, the frenetic office of Initech, a software company where all the lead characters work.

"Office Space" centres on Peter Gibbons, excellently played by Ron Livingston (Swingers, Adaptation, Cooler), a systems analyst in a prison of a dead job, who has to bear with ludicrous instructions from his managers on a daily basis, and finds little comfort in complaining to his fellow, equally annoyed, office mates.

Crack-pot Milton Waddams (Stephen Root) is a mistrustful personage who is constantly moved from one work cubicle to another, eventually barricading himself off to any form of communication. And devoted slacker Michael Bolton (Mad TV’s David Herman) has to suffer the daily annoyance of telling someone new with whom he is speaking over the phone that he is simply not "that Michael Bolton!"

Outside of work, Peter finds solace in the arms of girlfriend Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), an over worked waitress who has her own share of work-place insanities: she is forced to wear up to 45 badges on her uniform.

An assortment of similar characters (Ajay Naidu's Samir is a stand out) complete the movie and give finishing touches to a simple story that’s essentially set inside a office but I wont spoil the plot for you further.

All I can say is that Judge directs his actors like he would draw his sinful cartoons, emphasizing their reactions to create an absolutely over-the-top effect that works very well amid the ingeniously constructed workplace farce. And with the current recession, it makes a fantastic and entertainingly funny ‘office’ statement!

FREE Download - DVDRip - Megaupload Link

Gothic Rock Greatest Hits - A Websnacker Exclusive!

2010-11-21T10:28:00.000-08:00

The Very Best of Gothic Rock Hits - Goth Rock, Dark Wave & Gothic Metal Mp3s

I had planned this Gothic Hits compilation to coincide with Halloween (Oct 31) but thanks to my terrible time management skills, it has taken me 3 weeks to finally bring it to fruition. In fact, this is my first music post in the last 45 days so I will make it special.

For many “Gothic Rock” is an acquired taste with a bad reputation! At heart, "Goth Rock" refers to the musical style invented by second-generation British Punk bands like the hugely popular The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the post-punk Joy Division (the predecessors of New Order) – gloomy, melancholic music that embraced darkness and excessively gloomy imagery but the Gothic style is actually quite broad and has serious cultural antecedents in the work of writers like Mary Shelley and Horace Walpole. The pop "Gothic" style has deeply influenced our culture and is today represented in the music of a wide variety of bands, from Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry’s Dead Can Dance to the more popular Marilyn Manson. At its worst, Gothic music is pathetically hackneyed, a collection of clichéd lines about lost vampires, blood and arcane creatures of the night. At its best, Gothic rock and its subgenres can be frighteningly morbid, darkly romantic and melodiously tuneful all at the same time.

And here’s your chance to sample this great often neglected genre. Featuring some of the very best Gothic tunes – from plain vanilla gothic rock and gothic metal to dark wave, electronica tinged gothic synth pop plus a little symphonic dark metal too, you’ll hear them all. And I have intentionally kept it as accessible as possible!

Included are some of my personal favorites too - “Cry Little Sister” by the talented English singer-songwriter - Gerard McMann (from the “Lost Boys” Soundtrack), “Kaiser Star” by the Danish indie dark rock act - Ruined By Martin (or RbM) and “Heaven’s A Lie” by Lacuna Coil, the famed Milanese Italian gothic metal band of Andrea Ferro and Cristina Scabbia.

Other acts featured here include Mono Inc and Wolfsheim, both from Hamburg; Within Temptation, the Dutch metal/alternative rock band; Switchblade Symphony, the San Francisco ensemble; Sisters of Mercy, the English gothic rock band and Sirenia, the well-liked symphonic gothic metal band from Norway. I have a penchant for Finnish music so have added 3 acts – HIM, the Helsinki rock band of Ville Valo; Amorphis, a Nordic melodic metal band and Nightwish, the symphonic dark metal band famous for “Nemo” from the soundtrack of the underground horror thriller “Cave” and perhaps Finland’s most successful band export.

14 tracks in playlist, average track length: 4:50
Playlist length: 1 hour 7 minutes 53 seconds

1. Amorphis - Silent Waters (4:50)
2. Gerard McMann - Cry Little Sister (Lost Boys Soundtrack) (4:47)
3. Him - Join Me In Death (3:36)
4. Hungry Lucy - Bound In Blood (5:19)
5. Lacuna Coil - Heaven's A Lie (4:46)
6. Mono Inc. - This Is The Day (5:18)
7. Nightwish - Nemo (Cave Soundtrack) (4:19)
8. Noctorum - My Museum (4:59)
9. Ruined By Martin (RbM) - Kaiser Star (4:07)
10. Sirenia - Save Me From Myself (4:14)
11. Sisters Of Mercy - Temple Of Love (8:07)
12. Switchblade Symphony - Dissolve (remix) (5:44)
13. Within Temptation - Jillian (4:48)
14. Wolfsheim - I Won't Believe (2:59)

Free Mp3 Download - 85.66 MB Single Zipped Folder – Megaupload link

THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL FAN MIXTAPE. IF YOU LIKE THESE ARTISTS, PLEASE BUY THEIR ORIGINAL MUSIC & PROMOTE THEM. You can buy original CDS/DVDs & Mp3s of the above artists at www.emusic.com, www.amazon.com, www.itunes.com, other online stores or your nearest music and movie retailer.

14 Legendary Facts of the Great Keralite Lungi!

2010-11-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

Everything That You Didn't Know About the Lungi

A funny satirical post on Malayali Men and their love for the venerable Lungi. This was originally forwarded to me and makes a hilarious read!! I have tweaked it a bit though and have added a little flavor of my own. Do note that the typos are intentional and No Offense Meant at anyone.

1. Just as the national fruit of Kerala is the Coconut, her national dress is the "Lungi'. Pronounced as 'Lu' as in loo and 'ngi ' as in 'mongey', a lungi can be identified by its floral or window-curtain pattern. Lungi is as simble and 'down to earth' like the Malayali wearing it. Infact, a Lungi is the beginning and the end of evolution in its category. 'Mundu' is the white variation of lungi and is worn on special ogasions like hartal or bandh days, weddings and Onam.

2. Wearing something on the top half of your body is optional when you are wearing a lungi. Lungi is a strategic dress. It's like a one-size-fits-all bottoms for Keralites.

3. The techique of wearing a lungi/mundu is passed on from generation to generation through word of mouth like the British Constitution.

4. If you think it is an eazy task wearing it, just try it once! It requires resilient techniques like breath control and stomach and waist yoga.

5. A Lungi/Mundu when perfectly worn won't come off even in a quake of 8 on the Richter scale. So, leading defense companies are exploring Lungis as a strategic legwear for soldiers!

6. A Lungi is not attached to the waist using duct tape, staple, rope or velcro.It's a bit of mallu magic whose formula is a closely guarded secret like the Coca Cola and Pepsi chemicals.

7. A lungi can be worn 'Full Mast' or 'Half Mast' like a national flag. A 'Full Mast' Lungi is when you are showing respect to an elderly or the dead and a "Half Mast" indicates disrespect, aggression or plain Keralite macho!

8. Wearing it at full mast has lots of disadvantages but a major disadvantage is when a rabid dog or a elephant in "musth" runs after you.

9. When you are wearing a Lungi/Mundu at full mast, the advantage is mainly for the female onlookers who are spared the ordeal of swooning at the sight of hairy legs.

10. Wearing a Lungi 'Half Mast' is when you wear it exposing yourself like those Malayali sex movie starlets. A Malayali can play cricket, football or simbly run when the lungi is worn at half mast. A Malayali can even climb a cocunut tree wearing lungi in half mast. "It's not good manners, especially for ladies from decent families, to look up at a malayali climbing a coconut tree"- Confucius (or is it Abdul Kalam?)

11. Most Malayalis do the traditional dance 'Kudiyattam'. Kudi means drinking alcohol and yattam, spelled as aattam, means random movement of the male body. Note that 'y' is silent. When you are drinking, you drink, there is no 'y'. Any alcohol related "festival" can be enjoyed to the maximum when you are topless with lungi and a towel tied around the head. "Half mast lungi makes it easy to dance and shake legs" says Candelaria Amaranto, a Salsa teacher from Spain after watching 'kudiyaattam' .

12. The 'Lungi Wearing Malayali Union' [LUWMU, pronounced LOVE MU], an NGO which works towards the 'upliftment' of the Lungi, strongly disapprove of the GenNext tendency of wearing Bermudas under the lungi. They claim Bermudas under the lungi is a conspiracy by the CIA to belittle a Keralite and Indian invention. Besides, it's also a disgrace to see a person wearing a bermuda with corporate logos like of under his lungi. What they don't know is how much these corporates are limiting their freedom of movement and expression.

13. A Mallu wears lungi round the year, all weather, all season. Lungi provides good ventilation and brings down the heat between legs. Perhaps, that's because a Mallu is scared of global warming more than anyone else in the world. After all, a lungi/mundu can be worn any time of the day/night. It can double as blanket at night or can be used as a swing, swimwear, sleeping bag, parachute, facemask while entering/exiting toddy shops, shopping basket and water filter while fishing in ponds and rivers.

14. It also has recreational uses like in 'Lungi/mundu pulling', a pastime in households having more than one male member. Lungi pulling competitions are held outside toddyshops all over Kerala during Onam and Vishu. When these lungis are decommissioned from service, they become table cloths, TV covers or put to some other use in a Keralite household. Thus the humble lungi is a cradle to grave appendage.

Long live the Lungi! For more info on the Lungi, check out the wiki page.

Movie Review - Cats & Dogs (2001)

2010-11-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

A Cats Vs Dog Pet Movie Like No Other!

Cats rule! Dogs rule! No matter where your loyalties for the furry critters lie, you will enjoy this hugely enjoyable power struggle of the pets directed by Lawrence Guterman.

Lou is a secret agent wannabe. Unfortunately he is just an inexperienced Beagle puppy and new pet of the Brody household. Fortunately for him, the bipedal head of the household is a scientist (Jeff Goldblum) and a frenzied breakaway faction from the feline fraternity wants his formula. Professor Brody is close to a breakthrough in defeating the allergic reactions millions of humans have to dogs. This will upset the balance of pet power and mean more dogs would be chosen as pets over cats. Since every dog has his day, Lou is recruited to be an agent for the canine contingent.

The evil flat-faced Mr. Tinkles, a long haired Persian cat with Hitler-like qualities, is intent on world domination and the maniacal moggy won’t let man’s affinity for pooches stop him. He intends to corrupt the formula and make all humans allergic to dogs.

It’s up to Lou and the team of well-equipped four-footed agents to try to prevent the cats from taking over the world. He has the backup of a wide range of experienced canine agents, all intent on keeping the formula from falling into furry paws. Echoes of James Bond and all his gadgetry resound as hi-tech battles rage in suburbia.

Sharp-edged satire, which might offend some, but is still very funny, claws its way into a rally scene between Mr. Tinkles and his ally. World Domination pamphlets and a parliamentary session (incredibly accurate and not dissimilar to many human parliaments) complete with canine reporter Wolf Blitzer are just a couple of the chuckle-inducing scenes.

The film includes a great rip-off of a classic scene in "The Matrix", when Mr. Tinkles sends ninja cats to break into Professor Brody’s lab! And the fur really flies in a hilarious scene when the cool canines have to prevent The Russian (posing as a small defenseless kitten) with his deadly fur balls, from stealing the formula.

The special effects are excellent — apparently the producers filmed hundreds of dogs and cats, able to perform a variety of actions in front of cameras and then, interspersed the footage with close-up shots of realistic pooch and pussy models, specially created for certain scenes or facial expressions.

Forgetting the old adage, "never work with animals", Tobey Maguire, Alec Baldwin, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jon Lovitz, Charlton Heston and Susan Sarandon have at least put their mouth where the money is and lent their voices to this fun film. A great watch for the entire family!

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The Manchurian Candidate, 1962

2010-11-03T12:43:00.000-07:00

Undoubtedly, One of the Most Suspenseful Political Thrillers of All Time

It is claimed that Frank Sinatra kept ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ - 1962's most outstanding movie and one of his most memorable – out of circulation (until around 1989) simply because of the film’s disturbing political fantasies.

I have fond memories of this John Frankenheimer's dazzling adaptation of the Richard Condon novel which I saw again (probably for the 19th time) last night in DVD glory. I saw it first, sometime in the late eighties/early nineties when I was in school. In those days, my familiarity with Hollywood cinema was fairly limited – mostly sci-fi, horror and action films – mostly Spielberg, Lucas, Stallone, Schwarzenegger and a little bit of world cinema.

The name ‘Manchurian Candidate’ was such a misnomer to me. With no imagery, poster or a tape cover at my neighborhood video store, I rented it hoping it was a martial arts fest probably starring Jackie Chan or at least one of those many Chinese (English dubbed) kung fu/karate flicks. Even my videovala was convinced it indeed was a nice actioner. Boy, I was so wrong. That afternoon, I ended up fast-forwarding the entire movie waiting for Jackie Chan or his elusive Manchurian cousins to come on screen and destroy some baddies!

It was not until I entered high school that I actually savored the full grandeur of the novel and the movie and since then I have watched it so many, many times.

Now, 47 years after the assassination of JFK and 38 years after the Watergate scandal, in an age when all sorts of political machinations are possible and even expected, this Oscar nominated film is still just as gripping. Anyway, it's more likely that royalties bookkeeping had more to do with Sinatra's decision in in delaying its video release than tact or political compulsions.

While the 2004 remake of the same name starring Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight and a terrific Meryl Streep was equally good, it’s the 1962 original (ranked amongst the 250 best movies of all time) that still lives up to its cult reputation. Starring Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, Laurence Harvey, Henry Silva, James Gregory (as a Mc-Carthyesque clown) and most spectacularly, Angela Lansbury as the most frightening mom in American film history, ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ is a combination of visual pyrotechnics, nail-biting suspense, political paranoia and black humor that was years ahead of its time. 48 years after its release, its still is a great watch and that’s an achievement.

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An Evening With Dr.Spock

2010-10-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

I recently had the delight of attending an invitation only VIP lecture given by a (apparently) celebrated hypnotherapist or hypnotist to be precise. For obvious reasons, I will not disclose his name so there is no heartburn for my host. This guy (lets call him Dr. Spock cos he did look like Leonard Nimoy) claimed he was a certified hypnotherapist by training and a experienced psychic by choice - who combined both to aid his (rather very rich) clients get a fulfilling and rewarding life.

Let me say at the outset that I’ve often wondered whether many hypnotists doing stage shows are always honest. Although they often claim their subjects have been chosen totally at random, I’ve had my doubts and I know I’m not the only one. Several of my friends and I have in the past volunteered to be subjects for some of these shows and none of us has ever been hypnotized.

Well, as I learnt that evening, I could easily have been wrong. Hypnotizing someone doesn’t have to take long. Some people it seems that also make better candidates than others. Dr. Spock said that a person can be willing to undergo the process on one level, but not on another. (It’s obviously quite complex, but from what I understand, those who're cynical or possibly resisting the process can take a bit longer to hypnotize than those who aren't, for instance).

He pointed out that there are a lot of fallacies about hypnosis. One of the main ones is the commonly-held belief (probably propagated to some extent by the media) that one is "put under" by the hypnotist and is basically rendered a slave like robot, obeying any command the hypnotist in control issues. He said it was highly unlikely a hypnotized individual would do anything totally against what they believe, such as, for example, murdering someone.

What happens, Dr. Spock explained, is that hypnotized individuals move into an altered state of consciousness. They will often remain very alert during the process and can still be asked to perform a number of complicated tasks. But because they aren't feeling as inhibited as is usually the case, they may do things they'd normally consider embarrassing. He also said there are over 50 altered states or levels of consciousness one can move into – some lighter and others progressively deeper.

Dr. Spock also touched on the subject of subliminal advertising and subversive forms of control which can be used to manipulate people. He said most countries had banned such advertising because it is known to be an extremely effective, but dishonest method of selling products. He referred to the oft-mentioned scenario of a moviegoer suddenly feeling the need to buy a particular soft drink after viewing a subliminal advert. The person would then go out and buy this soft drink without realizing that his/her decision to purchase it had been prompted by the advert.

In a similar vein, Dr. Spock also warned us to avoid falling asleep in front of TVs. He said our brains still "tune in" to the audio when "asleep" and disturbing material can apparently adversely affect us for many years. He maintains it is often stored in the subconscious mind and may be responsible for certain phobias we might have but are not able to explain in lucid terms. For this reason, he said that if parents want to raise well-balanced children, they should make a resolute effort to ensure that a peaceful ambiance prevails around their bed time, particularly as they’re falling asleep, because they’re extremely open to influence and suggestion during this period.

One of the first demonstrations Dr. Spock performed involved showing us how we often underestimate our own strength. He hypnotized a rather tall chap who volunteered to be his "guinea pig". Dr. Spock didn't do anything dramatic or utter anything that was out of the ordinary, such as the usual sort of banter about "when I count to three you will be flying in the sky" etc etc.

I’m actually not quite sure what he did, because it was so quick. Once the young guy had been hypnotized, two of his assistants placed his head and feet on two chairs. The rest of his body hung unsupported above the ground. Dr. Spock then sat on the subject's waist and almost bounced on it, exerting a fair amount of force!! From what I can recall, he'd been told he wouldn’t bend and he didn’t. However, when he was "brought back", so to speak, he collapsed under the hypnotist's weight when the process was repeated!

The rest of the evening mainly took the form of a question and answer session. As it turned out, most of the questions that followed involved him making more use of his mystic clairvoyant faculties. Perhaps Dr. Spock is a bit unusual in a way – he believes in such things as past lives, astral travel and so on and his methods might thus seem a bit eccentric to some. However, despite a few bizarre answers he gave that evening, no one argued with what he’d said and generally seemed quite satisfied (as most Indians are usually in the presence of a foreigner, especially a white guy!)

Sometimes he appeared to pick up on traumatic childhood experiences and would mention in brief what he thought had happened and what effect these had had on the individuals concerned. Remember Past Life Regression.One woman burst into tears as what he'd said obviously struck a chord with her. He then said he could "see" the pain (presumably in her aura) and that she would begin healing. He said emotional pain was often stored in various parts of the body and might ultimately lead to disease if it wasn’t properly dealt with!!

Another claim he made which I found quite interesting related to the diagnosis of medical conditions. One example he mentioned involved determining if someone had cavities in their teeth. He said that after hypnotizing an individual, he would suggest to them that they had toothache. If all the teeth were fine, the person in question would apparently claim to experience toothache in all their teeth; if they actually did have cavities, they would only experience pain in the problematic ones. In such cases, the hypnotized person is able to show him which ones are aching. He will later suggest they see a dentist. He says in the past this information has always been found to be correct. He maintains that our bodies are extremely intelligent and that we should listen to them more often, because they frequently hold the solution to many of our problems.

Dr. Spock also touched on a subject on which many academics and sceptics might take him to task. He spoke about people's souls and said these were often many hundreds of thousands of years old. He alluded to a "soul agreement" – that we chose to be born, basically, and had certain issues we needed to deal with during particular "lives". Apparently, nothing that happens to us during our human existence is a mistake!

Towards the end of the evening, Dr. Spock performed another demonstration, this time on the whole audience. He asked that we place our hands with fingers interlocked, above our heads. We then had to imagine looking up at them through our heads while he uttered various commands. Actually some people would then be hypnotized and not be able to lower their hands when instructed to. He also told some people their eyelids would feel very heavy and that they would not be able to open them for a while, even if they tried to. Although I did everything he said, this didn’t happen to me. Besides, only a few people in the audience seemed to go into hypnosis.

But something else which he did say would happen, I definitely did experience. He said that he was altering the energy in the room and that some of us might feel tingling in our feet. I did, in fact, experience this – the sensation was exactly as he described it, almost like a feeling of pins and needles in my feet. We were also taken through what I would describe as a guided meditation. He suggested we would sleep very well when we got home that evening. As it turned out, I slept right through the night and felt great the next day.

I found the subject matter discussed that evening fascinating and I’d definitely like to book a private consultation with Dr. Spock soon, hopefully when I have some large cash to spare! I must confess, though, that I have since wondered - is my desire to see him my own or is it possible that the thought was secretly implanted in my mind?

An interesting point to brood over, isn't it?