True. I wrote all this fighting turbulence on 747s or slouched in ass-numbing airport seats, so if I sound incoherent and generally boring, please do not attribute it to above reasons.
Have Mercy TOI!
As exemplified by more than a dozen blogs, TOI’s downward spiral into the pits of journalism hell continues. Here is another example.
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Prefer Rahman Unfettered
Listening to Main Vari Vari from Mangal Pandey, I could not help but think how different the song would sound without that prominent bass (fretless I think) accompaniment, which incidentally is beautiful and employed as only Rahman can. Without the bass, it becomes a more ordinary, though still catchy tune. But then, a catchy tune doesn’t set you apart, does it? So Rahman stamps his authority and adds color to the song with the bass and all those lush string pads that remain the foundation for most of his songs.
But all this in a period film?
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Thotti Jaya observation
Anniyan did not find Harris Jayaraj at his creative best, as one would normally expect for a Shankar movie (maybe many don’t care anymore considering the actual movie challenged their sanity). One aspect missing from some of the songs, I thought, were solid intros, an art form that Rahman & Raja are masters of. And now we have another Harris Jayaraj album called Thotti Jaya, featuring Chimpu & his swooshing finger(s). My laziness quotient has exponentially increased over the past coupla months, so a detailed blade analysis (to use a Bosey term) of the album might not happen.
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Layering Esthero (updated)
I was trying to come up with a Tamizh song to use with an extended sample I created from an Esthero song called ‘Flipher Overture’. And like always I was lost for lyrics. I might have topped myself in inanity with this song called ‘Sakhiye’. The clincher could be the line nimidam nimidam nodigalai pala varudam aanadhu, which is also how 5th standard Maths classes begin every academic year in TamilNadu.
If anyone thinks the tune is worthy of better lyrics, then please give it a shot. If not, there is always the Delete key.
Link:
mp3 of Sakhiye Sakhiye
update: added some music at the end of the song.
The Enterprising Salesman
A friend, on a visit from Indiana, calls me from his rental car. He wants to know where the nearest Enterprise Rent-A-Car location is, so he can drop off the car. It’s a Sunday, so not many locations are open.
Google gives me a number and I make the first call.
“Yeah, I’m calling to find out if you guys are open so my friend can drop off the car he rented from another Enterprise location.”
“That’s alright, he can keep it over the weekend. Weekends are free. Tell him to return it Monday”
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Evaluate, Evaluate
I’m helping a friend make a demo tape of sorts. Not that I run a shop to help burgeoning artistes, but I happen to be the only one in the area who has the bare-bones equipment to record & reproduce her vocals. Plus, she makes a killer Paav-Bhaaji, which probably tempted me enough to lie about my skills.
We have since ripped a Asha Bhonsle Karaoke CD, and recorded her vocals on top of coupla instrumental tracks (along with that annoying guide track that sounds like Kumar Sanu with a massive cold). I spent some time “mixing & mastering” the tracks. The quotes are there to indicate that I have no idea what I’m talking about. Or maybe I should say, I spent time letting the software do “stuff” to the tracks, while I randomly clicked on ‘Filters’ & ‘Effects’ that I thought sounded cool.
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Pai Ansari, Pai
A true-blood Tamilian male (or even a MBCM* like myself) would take offense at a comedy routine by Aziz Ansari where he calls our language “obscure”. But only for a second. Ansari goes on to say that if he ever decided to employ Tamil to hit on SriLankan rapper M.I.A, his pick-up line of choice could be the Tamil interpretation of a never fail classic – You have nice breasts . But Ansari’s Tamil, being of the Udit Narayanan variety, takes a hit in translation and fizzles out into an innocent Tarzan-fascinated-by-Jane’s-anatomy observation. He points to his chest area and says..
Unakku, Inge, Romba Nalla Irukkudhu (For you, right here, it’s awesome)
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Anbe Aaruyire – Hasty Opinion
At the Rahman concert in LA, I saw him working with two columns of stacked synthesizers, one hand on each pile, picking out the chords to his superhit songs. Or atleast that’s what I thought. I now realize that atleast one hand had been composing for Anbe Aaruyire in the middle of that show. And after having watched the trailer for the movie, I’m surprised he even bothered. For what it’s worth, he seems to have given SJ Surya what this impending disaster of a movie deserves.
Also, I’m glad he made this decision.
Link:
A-Aa Trailer (via Tfmpage.com)
On Shreya’s trail
Bollywood is lucky that M.M.Kreem pays them a visit once in a while. And lucky for me, he never lets go of Shreya Goshal. After Paheli, he is back with Kasak. And in Saansein Madham Hai, he has Shreya belting out a winner. The arrangement is vaguely Rahmanesque, but having listened to a lot of M.M.Kreem, I realize that the song has his composing style written all over it (or maybe it’s just that he has reused one of his Telugu songs that I might have heard before).
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Subtitled Poetry 2
Thazham flower has got wet!
It’s time to wear in the hair!
Wet breathe which has become hot
Has made a burnt on the shoulder!
There is hundreds of talks with the sight!
Words have become unconscious!
Enough, God of Lust!
Both the souls are breathing hardly!
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Spare us Mishra!
A group of people got together last week for a meeting somewhere in Delhi (I think) and at the end of it Sudhir Mishra proclaimed something to this effect…
Shahrukh in Swades was not a bad performance. There were other performances also which were good. But here is an actor (Saif Ali Khan) who is approaching a role in a different way.
Anyone with a conscience in that room would have wept blood. Well, if not at that statement, then at least during the next announcement.
Pbasers Extraordinaire
PBase hosts some great talent. Here are some of my favorites:
This man’s work is the best “amateur” portrait photography I’ve ever seen. Unless of course, someone can respond to this post with a challenge-link.
Kim Randolph is another contributor at Pbase. “Been there, Seen that” could be your natural response, but with a Canon Powershot G3? Now, that’s impressive.
It’s hurricane season here in Florida, which means shutters down for home-owners and shutters open for hurricane hunters like Scott Dommin.
Acronym Blunders
DDLJ, HAHK, QSQT – Bollywood acronyms that instilled newfound confidence amongst its passionate followers in the nether lands of TamilNadu. No longer did they have to embarrass themselves when asked the name of the Shahrukh Khan movie they had just paid Rs.30 to watch. First day. First show.
DDLJ, machi. Innum Paakale. Sooper padam da. (DDLJ, dude. Still haven’t seen it? Sooper movie.)
ThIS I like!
“Another Ilaiyaraja symphony? Another monumental masterpiece that mankind will never get to experience?”, sneered the cynics. Their jest was not misplaced. After all, how could a symphony performed by the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra not find a way to be released to the masses? I was equally perplexed, and never usually discussed it with the handful of Ilaiyaraja fans I know. It was not something we liked to talk about. Hype kills, and it was never better demonstrated as with Raja’s unreleased “Symphony #1”.
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